Just when Zhu Hongsan was playing with his mother-in-law and daughter-in-law in Hangzhou, Hong Chengchou, who was far away in Nanjing, was worried.

Hong Chengchou's current official position is "Taibao and Prince Taishi, passing through the seven provinces of Jiangnan, Zhejiang, Fujian, Huguang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and Guangxi, and the governor of military affairs and managing food and salary, he can act cheaply!" The power and status are much greater than in history, even the Prince of Yu Duoduo is nominally controlled by him, which can be seen how much Dolgon trusts Hong Chengchou.

Under Hong Chengchou's old and spicy political skills, in addition to Guangdong and Guangxi, half of Huguang in the entire Jiangnan is in the hands of Nanming, and most of the other places have been pacified, and Nanzhili, as the economic center, has also begun to start blood transfusion for the north.

But all this ended with the anyway of Jiangxi Jin Shengheng, the fourth year of Shunzhi, the second year of Yongli in the Southern Ming Dynasty, and the first year of Shenwu (Nima, it's troublesome to have so many years!) Jin Shengheng, the general soldier of Jiangxi, couldn't stand the suppression of Manchu officials, and took Wang Deren to rebel. At first, Hong Chengchou didn't take it to heart, he just thought that this was a local phenomenon and couldn't shake the overall situation, but the next rebellion of Li Chengdong's department in Fujian was a bit unexpected to Hong Chengchou.

Just when Hong Chengchou wanted to mobilize people to exterminate these two, the regime of the king of Chu in the Southern Ming Dynasty, which had been entrenched in Guangdong for a long time, began to take this opportunity to reach out. Hong Chengchou didn't know much about Zhu Hongsan, the king of Chu, but he thought that he was no different from other prison lords. Therefore, when Hong Chengchou heard that Prince Yu Duoduo led 80,000 Manchu and Mongolian elite soldiers to the south, he thought that this King of Chu would not be able to resist for long. But the scheming Hong Chengchou knew that there was no luck in the war, and although he looked down on the tens of thousands of troops of the King of Chu, he still transferred all the elite soldiers under his command to Duoduo.

Originally, Hong Chengchou thought that Jin Shenghuan in Jiangxi would be exterminated soon, and the military reports he received were all good news. At the beginning, Duoduo spent a day occupying Jiujiang, and then led his troops south to Nanchang, surrounded Nanchang and began to attack the city, which is expected to be solved in Jiangxi in a month. But then things changed abruptly, and the 120,000 Manmeng elite soldiers of Duoduo were wiped out in two days.

Hong Chengchou couldn't believe his eyes when he first received the news, Hong Chengchou asked the messenger, "Is this true?" Prince Yu's 120,000 army was wiped out? ”

The messenger had not participated in the Battle of Nanchang either, and he had heard from the soldiers who had fled from Jiujiang in Anqing.

"Lord Hui, the villain doesn't know the details, I just heard that the pseudo-open firearms are very powerful, and Prince Yu is under the firearms!"

"Do you know exactly which Ming army is?"

"Lord Hui, it's the army of the puppet Ming Chu King of Guangdong!"

"How many are there?"

"There are not many people, less than 50,000 people!"

Hong Chengchou couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he heard that Duoduo, who had wiped out 120,000 people with only 50,000 people. He knew a lot about the combat effectiveness of the soldiers under Duoduo, not to mention that there were 30,000 taels of white flag elites among the 120,000 people, which were the elite of the Manchurian Eight Banners. What Hong Chengchou didn't know was that the messenger's news was not accurate, and the messenger's news was also told by the soldiers who had retreated from Jiujiang, and the soldiers who really participated in the Nanchang Battle were either water ghosts in Poyang Lake, or they were still messing around Nanchang like lonely ghosts, and it was 30,000 people led by Wang Deren who recovered Jiujiang, not 50,000. The Manchu defenders of Jiujiang were frightened by the combat effectiveness of the Southern Ming army and retreated to Anqing without fighting Wang Deren, so they did not really see the new army in Guangdong. Hong Chengchou was misled by false information, and his cognition was not so high, so he began to misjudge the military situation.

The house leak happened to be a rainy day, just when Hong Chengchou was worried about the war in Jiangxi, the news came from Jiaxing on the third day of the first day of October, and the puppet Ming Li Zhibu, who had been entrenched in Zhoushan, suddenly dispatched the whole army and landed in Haiyan, and at the same time there was a fleet rushing to Hangzhou.

After getting this news, Hong Chengchou knew that the big thing was not good, Li Zhi stayed in Zhoushan for three years, and only harassed the coastal areas of Zhejiang without attacking the inland, and now this abnormal behavior must be in response to the actions of the Ming army in Jiangxi.

Nanzhili and Jiangxi are different, Nanzhili is Beijing's blood bank here, if Nanzhili loses the grain, it will be cut off, so that there is no need for the pseudo-Ming Northern Expedition, and the Beijing people who have no food will rise up to rebel, so this road Ming army must be eliminated, and Hangzhou City must be defended. But it backfired, and before Hong Chengchou could give an order to Zhang Cunren, the governor of Zhejiang, the news of the loss of Hangzhou reached Nanjing.

Seeing this military situation, Hong Chengchou was very helpless, and he had no choice but to convene the senior officials who remained in Nanjing again to discuss the matter.

Because Duoduo led the troops to exterminate Jin Shenghuan, the generals and officials here in Nanjing were emptied, and now only the governor of Jiangnan can be summoned (after the Manchu Qing Dynasty occupied Nanzhili, Nanzhili was changed to Jiangnan Province, and Shunzhi was divided into Jiangsu and Anhui provinces in the eighteenth year, I really don't want to explain everything here, but some people like to read books and like to jump and read, and they scold people if they don't understand, there is really no way!) Zhou Boda, garrisoned in the Eight Banners Angbang Zhangjing Zara Feng'a, Jiangning prefect Liu Chunting, Jiangnan general Chen Jin, Caojiang Governor Zhang Guocai, Manchu Qing Dynasty is really no one familiar with water warfare, after the death of the former Caojiang Governor Zhao Zhilong, the former Ming Ancheng Bo Zhang Guocai became an unlucky candidate for this unlucky position.

Watching a few officials enter the house and sit down, Hong Chengchou, who was the chief official, said: "Your Excellency already knows in yesterday's military report that the army of the puppet Ming King of Chu has landed in Zhejiang, this is today's military report, Hangzhou City has been guarded for a day, and now the King of Chu has entered Hangzhou!" ”

Hearing this news, the officials were taken aback, this is not a good thing, Hangzhou is only more than 500 miles away from Nanjing, and it can be reached in three days by horse, but the army's marching speed is slow, and it will arrive in half a month.

As the chief leader of the Eight Banners of Jiangning's garrison, Ang Bangzhang Jing Zara Feng'a knew that once the city of Nanjing was broken, they were the first to be unlucky, and now when he heard the governor say this, he hurriedly asked in a strange Chinese voice: "Governor, what can I do?" No, ask the regent of Beijing for help! ”

Hong Chengchou shook his head and said: "It's too late, now that Shanxi Jiang Jiu is rebelling, the regent is leading a large army to quell the rebellion, and there is no time to look south!" What's more, even if the regent sends reinforcements, it will be too late, the Ming army is now occupying Hangzhou, and it is probably rushing to Jiangning at this time, after all, the political significance of this place is too heavy for that king of Chu! ”

Liu Chunting, the prefect of Jiangning, was a native of Liaodong, and he was originally just a showman, but because of Fan Wencheng, who was attached to the party, he was sent to Nanjing as the prefect. He originally thought that this was a beautiful mistake, but he didn't expect that he would meet the Ming army within a month of coming. Liu Chunting was originally a ghost who was afraid of death, but now when he heard such a dangerous thing, he hurriedly said: "Ladies and gentlemen, I am a soft-spoken official, and I don't know whether to say something or not!" ”

Of course, it is good for someone to express their opinions, Hong Chengchou motioned for him to come and listen.

"Ladies and gentlemen, because of Prince Yu's southern expedition, the entire army south of the Yangtze River has basically been withdrawn, and now the puppet Ming is coming to the door again, why don't we retreat to Yangzhou?"

Hong Chengchou heard that Liu Chunting was about to run away, which was actually a good suggestion. Now there are still 10,000 horses in Nanjing, and the 4,000 cavalry stationed in the Eight Banners is not the opponent of the Ming army, so it is better to retreat to Yangzhou, Jiangbei to hold on and wait for reinforcements.

When Zhang Guocai heard that Liu Chunting was going to run away, he was very anxious. The others are nothing, either Manchurians or Han military banners, and their families are all in the north, but he Zhang Guocai is different. His whole family of more than 100 people is in Nanjing, these Manchurians patted their butts and left, leaving themselves to face the wrath of the King of Chu?

"Lord Governor, my subordinates have something to say!"

Zhang Guocai has been cautious since he served as the governor of Caojiang, and he didn't have anything to say at the small meeting of the conference, so I don't know what opinions he has today!

"It's rare that Lord Zhang has an opinion, let's hear it!"

Zhang Guocai didn't care about the sarcasm in Hong Chengchou's words, stood up and said: "My lord, now that Jiangxi is lost, I have cleared Jiangning, and there is no half of the stronghold in the south of the Yangtze River except Jiangning, and millions of soldiers and civilians in Beijing have to rely on the Cao Yun of Nan Zhili, if the Cao Yun is broken, it will have too much impact on Beijing!" "Zhang Guocai is worthy of being a good cadre who has been influenced by the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, and he originally had the calculation of thinking about himself, but a mouth is completely a great reason for the benefit of the country and the people.

Chen Jin, as a general of Jiangning, is also Zhang Guocai's direct superior, so he can't help but support his subordinates at this time.

"Lord Governor, what Lord Zhao said is extremely true, Jiang Ning is too important, it is really unreasonable to give it to the pseudo-Ming without fighting, and the regent can't explain it!" Chen Jin is a man with a blue flag in the Han army, and his words are much heavier than Zhang Guocai.

Hong Chengchou lowered his head and pondered for a long time, and said: "What Lord Chen said is very right, but the puppet Ming army is in Hangzhou, only half a month away from Jiangning, and we only have 14,000 men and horses, how can we fight this battle?" ”

Zhou Boda, the governor of Jiangnan who was sitting under Hong Chengchou, had not spoken, and now he heard Hong Chengchou ask: "My lord, it's not that I can't fight, we still have 20,000 cavalry in Yangzhou, and 10,000 infantry in Chuzhou, these two places can go to Jiangning in three days, it is better to transfer them to defend the city!" ”

"Ma Degong's 20,000 cavalry is guarding Yangzhou, what if the transfer fails? When the time comes, we won't even have a way out! ”

"My lord, do you think Jiangning can still hold Yangzhou after losing the 20,000 people who relied on the merits of the horse? Now it's better to concentrate on a decisive battle with the army of the puppet Ming Chu King, maybe there will be some way to survive! ”

Hong Chengchou reacted when he heard Zhou Boda say this, yes! The pseudo-Ming Water Division is strong, and Jiangning can't run away even if he loses Yangzhou, so it's better to fight to the death with that King of Chu here in Jiangning!

Thinking of this, Hong Chengchou no longer hesitated, and immediately issued an order, ordering Yangzhou Ma Degong, Chuzhou Xu Yong, and Anqing Liu Wuyuan to immediately lead the troops to Nanjing to assemble, and at the same time ordered to shrink the force, so that all the guards in several prefectures and counties around Nanjing were concentrated in Nanjing, ready to have a life-and-death decisive battle with Zhu Hongsan!