There are a lot of unimportant messages, and there are more than 50 of them, many of which are inconsistent, which should be caused by imperfect information.

Among these messages, Zhu Hongsan saw one article, Hou Fangyu went out of the city, and his whereabouts were unknown. This is the news from Nanjing, and the time is before the Spring Festival.

Zhu Hongsan sighed, it seems that the Donglin Party finally can't help but make a move, and send Hou Fangyu to contact Zuo Liangyu in Huguang, the general trend of the world still can't be changed, and it should come back.

Zhu Hongsan looked at the other news that was not worth noting, handed over his reply to Zhang Jiayu, ordered him to go down to handle it, and also told Zhang Jiayu to prepare more weapons outside Jiangyin and Jiading to prepare for emergencies.

Zhang Jiayu also didn't understand when he heard this order, could it be that the king of Chu wanted to start an incident? That should be launched in the city of Nanjing, why transport weapons to Jiangyin, a hundred miles away from Nanjing? There is also the king of Chu ordered to prepare more cold weapons, Zhang Jiayu knows that now muskets and cannons are piled up in warehouses, why do you need to use cold weapons if you have good things?

Zhang Jiayu saw that Zhu Hongsan did not explain, so he didn't ask much, and went down to arrange for people to prepare for this military aircraft department.

Zhu Hongsan calculated the time, it is almost February now, and there are still three months before the fall of the Hongguang court in May, so he should start to prepare. He has already transferred some elite soldiers back from Qiongzhou and Vietnam, and is ready to be sent to Nanzhili in a few months.

Zhu Hongsan had long been ready to deal a heavy blow to the Manchus in Jiangyin and Jiading, and now his overall strength was not as good as that of the Manchus, but it was okay to make some trouble for them. As for Yangzhou, Zhu Hongsan thought about it, Yangzhou would not perish if the small court in Nanjing was not broken, and the righteous name he needed was still on the side of Nanjing, so Yangzhou must not be saved, and Shi Kefa must die.

On February 20 of the first year of Hongguang, the unlucky ghost Zhao Hu finally finished his recruit training and took a boat with Xu Guansan's battalion to Hongji and the garrison army to change guards.

The battalion that changed guards did not return to Yong'an Prefecture, but went directly to Dongguan on the ship.

After Xu Guansan and the battalion commander handed over, he watched them get on the boat and leave. The deputy battalion commander on the side asked, "Third brother, what are they doing back to Dongguan?" ”

"I heard the head of the regiment say that they should make a big move when they go back, and it should be a matter in the north?"

"Could it be that the King of Chu has intentions?"

"Don't talk nonsense, we are soldiers, just listen to the order, as for the rest of the Chu King Chitose to consider, anyway, the prince will not let our old brothers suffer."

The deputy battalion commander nodded, and now the whole army blindly worships Zhu Hongsan, the king of Chu, and it is completely possible to die for Zhu Hongsan*.

Xu Guansan looked at the recruits in the barracks and said, "They are all recruits, they have just been trained for two months, and they need to strengthen their training. Hongji's place is not as good as Yong'an Prefecture, and there are natives everywhere here, so we must strengthen vigilance. ”

The deputy battalion commander nodded and went down to drill these recruits.

Zhu Hongsan has been tossing and turning in Hongji for almost half a year, and at first the Zheng family in North Vietnam thought that these Ming people were just occupying a piece of land to get some coal. But I didn't expect that these Ming people's stalls were getting bigger and bigger, and I heard that a county government office had been established, which obviously meant to wait for a long time.

The Vietnamese have always had a resistance mentality towards the Ming in the north. But also, when the Central Plains Dynasty was strong, it did not let go of Vietnam, starting from the Qin Dynasty, whenever the Central Plains Dynasty was strong, it would definitely send a large army to Vietnam to conquer it.

At this time, Vietnam was in the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, and the north was ruled by the Truong clan, and the population of the territory was three or four times that of the Nguyen clan in the south. The population of the north is about five or six million, and the standing army is more than 100,000, while the south has a population of only more than 1 million, and the standing army is 30,000 or 40,000.

Looking at the overall strength, the north should take the initiative, but the reality is that the north is on the defensive, and in the first year of Chongzhen, there was a big battle in Thanh Hoa, which is more than 100 miles away from Hongji. The South took advantage of this victory to plunder a large number of northern populations and take the opportunity to attack the surrounding Cambodia and other countries (why Vietnam wants to fight Cambodia as soon as it is strong, I don't understand). Finally, the unification of North and South Vietnam was completed during the Kangxi period.

Of course, the war between the north and the south is also good for Zhu Hongsan, and a large number of people have fled the war and come to Hongji, which is still safe, to join Zhu Hongsan's coal mining army and become a member of Zhu Hongsan's sweatshop.

Although Zhu Hongsan squeezed the surplus value of the Vietnamese workers, the wages he gave were all real salt. It is not the common black-brown coarse salt, but the fine refined salt produced in the Leizhou salt factory, which is directly used as currency in Vietnam.

Zhu Hongsan saw that the cheap industrial salt he generated could be exchanged for so many materials in Vietnam, and immediately ordered the Leizhou Salt Works and Yongan Prefecture Salt Works to produce them with all their might, exchanging cheap refined salt for Vietnamese rice.

Under Zhu Hongsan's refined salt offensive, the price of official salt of the Zheng clan in North Vietnam plummeted, but it could not be compared with the refined salt trafficked by the Ming people when it fell below the cost line. Originally, the barren North Vietnam had to rely on salt to prepare for the war expenses, but this time the war failed, coupled with the sharp drop in the price of salt, the head of the Zheng family in North Vietnam, Jingdu Wang Zheng Ying, was already angry.

After several months of reconnaissance, North Vietnam found that there were not many Han Chinese in Hongji, and there were probably seven or eight hundred Ming troops. There are more than 1,000 people in Hongji City, and the rest are Vietnamese.

After finding out, Zheng Ying decided to take a risk, eliminate these Ming Dynasty troops, and grab some silver for military expenses by the way. Zheng Ying also knew that the Ming Dynasty was now thin, and when he heard that the capital of the north had been lost, he should not be able to send troops to attack him.

After making up his mind, Zheng Ying sent his son Zheng Rong to lead 10,000 men to attack the Ming army. 10,000 people is not much, this is already all the mobile troops that the Zheng clan in North Vietnam can send, so this battle is bound to win.

Zheng Rong led an army of 10,000 troops to set out at Thang Long Province on the 10th day of February, and traveled through the lofty mountains of North Vietnam for half a month, finally arriving at Hung Kai on February 27.

Zheng Rong is also familiar with the Confucian classics, and he really admires the Confucian demeanor of Zhou Yu of the Three Kingdoms, so he also took a feather fan and dressed Zhou Yu in white clothes.

The general below asked, "Prince, shall we take a rest on the periphery and attack the city tomorrow?" ”

"No, our army came quickly, and it was the momentum of thunder, and Hongji could go down in one fell swoop. Issued an order to immediately begin the siege. ”

The general can't help it, and the prince doesn't dare to disobey orders if he has an order. He could only go down and urge the soldiers to start preparing for the attack.

The forests of five miles outside Hongji Port were cut down by the new army to clear the firing range for the artillery. So when the North Vietnamese soldiers came out of the forest, the soldiers standing guard saw it and immediately rang the gong to call the alarm.

Xu Guansan heard the alarm and hurriedly climbed the watchtower and looked at the North Vietnamese soldiers who came out outside. These people are very different from the previous natives, although they are also short in stature, but they are neatly dressed, and they look like regular soldiers. Coupled with the increasing number of people coming out of the forest, Xu Guansan knew that it was the regular army of North Vietnam who had arrived.

This is the county order Ma Chengzu also came to the watchtower, he is a literati, and he has seen so many troops. His face turned a little pale with fright, and he asked, "Battalion Commander Xu, can so many people hope to repel them?" ”

Xu Guansan, like their King of Chu, hated these stinky old men very much, but he couldn't help it, and he ordered himself to be controlled by him. Xu Guansan arched his hand and said, "My lord, it's no problem to defeat them." Please allow me to go out of the city to meet the enemy. ”

To put it nicely, it is to go out of the city to meet the enemy, and Hongji Port now has only a row of wooden fences, and there is no formal city wall at all. Ma Chengzu also knew what the situation was, and said: "Okay, then please ask the battalion commander Xu, in case it doesn't work, the official will serve the court with death." ”

Xu Guansan scolded secretly in his heart, thinking of death before he could fight. But at this time, Xu Guansan hurriedly got off the watchtower to gather the team and prepare to meet the enemy.

The team assembled very quickly, although they were all new recruits, but the month's training was still fruitful, and all of them were assembled after the five horns sounded.

Xu Guansan led a battalion of men and horses out of the city to stand in a line, and set up a classic formation, with eighteen artillery pieces in front and soldiers in the back.

The North Vietnamese men and horses on the opposite side had not yet formed a line at this time, and were huddled together in a mess five miles away.

The deputy battalion commander on the side said: "These Annan monkeys, we don't have cavalry, or we will win directly if we don't rush over." ”

"Don't take the enemy lightly, these monkeys may or may have special weapons."

At this time, the opposite team finally formed a roughly square line, with the archers behind and the spearmen in front. This is the back of the forest, more than a dozen monsters came out, it was a special class of troops in Vietnam, elephant soldiers.

Zhu Hongsan's new army is all new recruits, and after seeing this kind of monster with long nose and fangs, the team began to be a little unstable. However, the junior officers had all taken Zhu Hongsan's class, in which Zhu Hongsan had said that the Vietnamese had a kind of elephant soldier and drew the appearance of an elephant on the blackboard. So the officers weren't too afraid.

At this time, it was clear that the importance of grassroots officers was unstable, and if it was replaced by the Ming army, it would collapse. But because of the bullet pressure of the junior officers, these recruits have quieted down.

Xu Guansan waited for half an hour before the North Vietnamese on the opposite side organized a team and began to rush over.

Xu Guansan put 18 artillery pieces in front to give the recruits courage, and when he saw the soldiers on the opposite side entering the firing range, he ordered all the live ammunition to start firing.

When the Ming artillery began to shoot, Zheng Rong of the North Vietnamese on the opposite side was startled, he didn't expect the opponent's artillery to have such a long range, in his understanding, the artillery was a range of 200 steps, and the rate of fire was very slow.

At this time, the first batch of eighteen solid bullets had been fired into the North Vietnamese ranks, and at once eighteen bloody alleys were made, and each solid bullet killed seventeen or eighteen people, because the North Vietnamese ranks were too dense.

One of the hapless elephants in the back was hit by the first batch of solid bullets, one of the elephant's legs was broken, and the elephant screamed on the ground. The elephant is actually very sensitive, and the other elephants began to retreat when they heard the elephant's scream, but they began to move forward again under the pressure of the elephant slaves.

At this time, the second batch of eighteen shells came again, and dozens more people were killed at once.

The general on Zheng Rong's side found that it was not good, the artillery of the Ming people was too fast, and he said: "Your Royal Highness the Prince, you should order the army to charge now, the artillery of the Ming people is too powerful, but there are few of them, we will definitely win if we rush up and fight in close combat." ”

Zheng Rong is not an idiot, he also found out that something was wrong, and agreed with the general's method, saying: "All charge, rush into the city, and kill all the Han people." ”