Taicang Prefecture at dusk.

Li Yuanyin galloped over and whipped the rebels down.

"Get dressed and report to your officer."

The soldiers did not dare to slack off, and no one dared to complain after being beaten, so they ran away.

Li Yuanyin scolded a few words and threw a piece of broken silver on the ground, "Our army has sealed the knife, take the silver and go home, don't come out again." ”

The woman picked up the silver with a trembling hand, and looked at Li Yuanyin's eyes full of pleading.

Li Yuanyin sighed lightly in his heart, turned around and left.

Li Chengdong was waiting for him.

"Father, why did you call me in a hurry?"

Li Chengdong handed the order arrow in his hand to Li Yuanyin, "The new Admiral Wu has a big official genealogy, and he sent us a command arrow." ”

The order is to chase the arrows, and the military situation is urgent.

Li Yuanyin: "What does Wu Shengzhao want us to do?" ”

A smile appeared on the corner of Li Chengdong's mouth, "It's not a bad thing, he asked us to attack Songjiang Mansion." ”

Li Chengdong defeated Jiading, was not satisfied with the results of the plunder, and went to Taicang Prefecture again. But Taicang has been washed by Zhang Tianfu, and the gains are limited. Matsue is a better target.

"What does Father think we should fight?"

Li Chengdong walked back and forth twice with a knife, "The old way." Don't reveal your whereabouts to your subordinates, we'll leave immediately. ”

"Don't you do an inquiry first?"

Li Chengdong snorted, "Just those rabble, what else are you looking for?" ”

"I'm going to beat the drums and gather the generals."

Pulled out overnight.

On August 3, Li Chengdong went to Qingpu, and on the same day, Li Chengdong used a grain ship to carry troops, covered with reed mats, and falsely claimed to be Huang Fei's soldiers, and raided Songjiang Mansion.

……

After the beautiful scenery of Yuntai Mountain was tossed by the Ming army, it was already unrecognizable. The defeated soldiers dug wild vegetables and cut down trees on the island, and Huaguo Mountain, which was originally a fairyland on earth, is now like being gnawed by some kind of animal.

Count the loot.

Gao Jinzhong's Chinese army had more than 56,000 taels of silver and 195 taels of gold. There must be more money on the island, and there must be more money on those soldiers, but there is no need to loot it. Since these soldiers were able to run Yuntai Mountain, they were still a little unwilling to surrender to the Tartars.

What especially makes Mrs. Xing and Zhang Pengyi happy is that there are 740 war horses on Yuntai Mountain, although the fat loss is very bad, as long as they are carefully recuperated for a while, these war horses can be restored.

In addition to the rout, Yuntai Mountain also had more than 1,000 civilians led by two Ming Dynasty imperial historians. According to the pre-war agreement, the defeated army was divided and reorganized by the allies, and the civilians and silver were obtained in order.

Returning to Chongming from Yuntai Mountain had to wait for the north wind, and the Ming troops of all departments used this time to rectify and digest the soldiers. Zhang Pengyi's progress was the fastest, and after the defeat was collected, his strength recovered to more than 3,000 people, and his strength increased, so he thought about going to the front line.

In late July, when the north wind rose, Zhang Pengyi bid farewell to the order and the generals, and led his troops to the south.

For Shou Order, it's just Yuntai Mountain, and the harvest of this trip is very limited, and he wants to make another profit.

Find all the generals and put out the map of the coastal area of Nanzhili in an orderly manner.

"Madame, generals. Zhun Ta lost half of his armor, which should be his main mobile combat force. The rest of the troops, Zhun Ta was to attack Tanaka Cheng in Tongzhou in the south and defend Caoyun along the Grand Canal, and I judged that the Tartars' defensive strength in the secondary prefectures and counties should be relatively lacking. ”

It's obvious. The Zhun Ta Department was supposed to include 5,000 Zhenyu armor soldiers, Xia Chengde's 5,000 Yizhou Green Battalion, Ke Yongsheng's 4,000 Shandong Green Battalion, Caoyun and Hedao's two governors' Biao Green Battalion, and Liu Zeqing's 30,000 surrendered troops.

Among them, most of the soldiers in Liu Zhen were not looked down upon, and they did not have so much money to support, and most of them were dismissed after surrendering.

Ke Yongsheng was transferred to Jiangxi and attacked southern Gan with Jin Shenghuan. Caoyun Governor Biao was also hit hard this time, and if he didn't escape in one go, he should now be guarding in Haizhou.

For Beijing, what it is most concerned about is definitely the grain transported to the north this year. The most important task of the tower should be to ensure the safety of the Grand Canal line. So after Yuntai Mountain lost the most important mobile unit, how much strength does Zhun Tower have to defend the Huaidong coast? At most, a few battalions of Liu Zhen surrendered troops.

Mrs. Xing reacted quickly, "Does the lord mean that we are going to conquer Haizhou?" ”

The rest of Gao Jie's troops are also very short of money now, and Mrs. Xing has been in charge of the accounts of Gao Jie's 40,000 troops in the town for a long time, so she is very sensitive to this aspect.

Shou Xuan shook his head, "Haizhou has been sacked by Gao Jinzhong several times, I'm afraid the oil and water are not big, and after the battle of Yuntai Mountain, Wang Wenkui, who fled back, may try his best to draw troops to defend Haizhou." ”

Huang Wuchang said: "Then where are we going?" ”

Order: "We went south from Haizhou, did not attack the city, first only collected the coastal villages and ships, and then landed in Yancheng, and slightly entered the inland to sweep the towns."

Huaidong has always been the main source of sea salt, in order to communicate with the coastal salt farms, many canals have been dug along the coast of Huaidong in the past dynasties, commonly known as the Yunyan River. Huainan salt transport takes the Tongyang Canal as the backbone, that is, Yangzhou to Tongzhou, and goes to sea at Haimen. Mrs. Xing's withdrawal from Yangzhou and Tian Yang's northern expedition from Chongming both relied on this system of transporting salt rivers.

Naturally, the big ships could not enter the small Yanhe River, but some small warships were dispatched, and Huang Wuchang carried Mrs. Xing and several other Ming troops, spread their nets and sweep them, and they came and went more freely.

Mrs. Xing asked, "Do you want to fight Yancheng?" ”

Order: "Don't be in Yancheng for more than two days, if you can fight down, you can fight, if you can't beat it, forget it." ”

The generals have no opinion, this is a behavior with little risk and acceptable returns.

A few days later, the fleet went to sea from Yuntai Mountain, and with the seizure, the fleet had more than 100 ships this time, with a total of 9,000 troops and civilians.

There are too many dark sands in the coastal waters of Huai'an Mansion and Yangzhou Mansion, and the sharp-bottomed warships can't pass through, so they can only use sand boats. The Ming army arranged its troops, and each department dispatched 5,000 people, divided into 100 large and small sand boats, starting from the coast of Haizhou, all the way to the salt fishermen. Shou Xiang led the warship and more than 20 pointed bottom sea ships to sail in the open sea. Between the offshore fleet and the offshore fleet, several sand vessels relay signal flags. If visibility is insufficient, the two sides will also send sand boats to communicate directly.

The offshore fleet cruised in the waters near Yancheng for two days, waiting for Mrs. Xing to withdraw. The messenger who reported said that the people of Yancheng were very well guarded, and Mrs. Xing and others did not attack the city, but only swept four passes.

Cross Yancheng and enter Yangzhou Mansion. Xinghua and Rugao counties are near the sea, and there are many salt farms. There are a total of 30 salt farms in Lianghuai, and the annual tax is 3 million, which is almost the same as the grain transported from the north. 5 salt farms in Huaibei use the salt drying method, and 25 salt farms in Huainan all use boiled salt, and there are about 40,000 salt dings in the register.

Yanding stove households were the heaviest class of labor in the Ming Dynasty, except for a few rich stoves, most of them were poor. Compared with the peasants, the stove households were much more tightly organized, and in the war, the number of exiles was relatively small. The Ming army swept all the way, and when they reached the north corner of the Yangtze River, the Ming army captured more than 10,000 young men and women, including salt households, farmers and displaced people.

Returning to Chongming Island, Shou Xian immediately began to form a return fleet. Together, Shou Xiang and Shen Tingyang made up more than 280 sea vessels, and Daishan Island, Qushan Island, and Sijiao Mountain were all emptied, and a total of more than 60,000 people went south to Taiwan. According to the distribution, half of the immigrants from the Taitung Rift Valley Plain and Taipei were each immigrant.

This was the largest wave of migrant convoys accepted by Taiwan, and a total of five warships were selected in an orderly manner, including the USS Melville, the USS Louvre, the USS Xijiao, the Zhenjiang and the USS Jianjiang, which were handed over to Harris to lead. Most of the army and Xiao Yuan's battalion were evacuated and escorted by ship.

Also participating in the escort was a newly built Ming army by Shen Tingyang. Shen Tingyang was assigned more than 1,000 stragglers in Yuntai Mountain, and he combined these soldiers with the 200 newly recruited in Chongming to make up 1,500 and handed them over to Shen Tongming, the former Baiyanghe general.

Shen Tongming is a Huai'an guard, a martial artist in the 44th year of Wanli, and his courage is known in Lianghuai. After the loss of Yangzhou, Shen Tongming returned to his hometown to live. When Tian Yang, Shen Tingyang and Zhang Pengyi retreated south, Shen Tongming entrusted all his wives to Tian Yang, and he was already determined to die at that time. Later, Jianyu pursued Shen Tongming very strictly, but he used a hard bow to fight his way out of the encirclement.

Along with Shen Tongming, Xiong Wenchang, Zhang Guowu, Weng Wanyu, Cai Chongguo, Sun Bingfa, Xia Youguang, Zhang Yinglong, Wang Zhibin, Sun Hong, Shi Weihua, Zhai Tiankui, Zhan Dadao, Xu Taihuan, starting from Shen, are all the remnants of Shi Kefa, and there are a bunch of martial arts warriors. Some of them broke out of the siege of Yangzhou City, and some of them were fighting on the outskirts of Yangzhou at that time. After the fall of Jiangbei, they were extremely disappointed in their hearts, did not join other Ming troops, and almost all of them became monks.

Shen Tongming was Shen Tingyang's old acquaintance when he was running a grain shipping in Huai'an. At the suggestion of Shen Tongming, Shen Tingyang held a large-scale sacrificial event for Shi Kefa in Chongming. In a few months, this group of elite officers of the Ming army was summoned. This group of fierce men quickly dismantled and digested the more than 1,000 defeated soldiers assigned to Shen Tingyang.

Winter is the best season for Taiwan to send troops, and the task given to this unit is to conquer Pingpu in the Taitung Rift Valley Plain and the adjacent Gaoshan in the shortest possible time.

After the migrant fleet left, Shou orderly moved to the Galleon Whampoa, and redistributed the forces still at the mouth of the Yangtze River.

The core of the surface forces were 4 galleries, 4 bluffs, and 14 bird boats that were kept in reserve. In addition, there were a hundred smaller ships, half of which barely managed to go to sea, and half of them could only run the Yangtze River.

Originally, there should have been more boats, including 2 bluff boats, some of which sank in accidents, some were damaged after frequent use, and some ran away.

In order to control these boat owners, they used a little bit of force and transferred their families to Taiwan first. There are also more than 10,000 new immigrants from several states and counties in the south of the Yangtze River on Chongming Island, and Shou Xu and Shen Tingyang used the remaining boats to slowly transfer to several islands. These ships are relatively small and cannot be fast.

In the army, there are only more than 100 guards left. He transferred the Qianbing back to Chongming, and Qushan Island was handed over to Jin Shiying. Yuntai Mountain came back, and these two parts were also expanded, each with more than 300 people.

Qushan Island covers an area of nearly 60 square kilometers, which is much larger than Sijiao Mountain. The 12-pounder gun of the Sijiaoshan Fort was dismantled and shipped back to Taipei. 4-pounder, 6-pounder and howitzer were given to Kim Shi-young. He moved half of the guns to Qushan Island. The condition for sending the cannon in an orderly manner was that Jin Shiying could only be used on the island and could not be loaded on ships.

After rectifying the internal affairs, the orderly focus was on the changes in the external situation.

In the command cabin of the Whampoa, Song Huixiang poured a cup of tea for Shou Xu, "Is the situation bad?" ”

"Well," Shou Xuan sighed, "this Li Chengdong is too capable of fighting." ”

Hearing Li Chengdong's name, Hui Xiang was a little discolored, "I heard that he slaughtered Jiading City, and tens of thousands of people were killed. ”

"Not only that," Shou Xuan said, "Li Chengdong also slaughtered Taicang and Songjiang. ”

In the face of the uprisings in Jiangnan one after another, Jianzhou transferred Wu Shengzhao to serve as the governor of Jiangnan, and the pace of the entire suppressive military action accelerated. Wu Shengzhao confronted Zhang Shiyi in the area of Fushan Port, and secretly ordered Li Chengdong and Zhang Tianfu to enter Songjiang Mansion.

Looking back, the entire operational deployment of Jianzhou is very thorough. First, in the name of withdrawing troops back to Beijing, Li led the Tai troops. Li Shutai swaggered out of the city of Suzhou with nearly 100 ships loaded with gold, silver and women, and headed north along the canal, disembarking at night on the way and secretly sailing in.

This was followed by Li Chengdong's overnight attack, which captured Qingpu and Songjiang at the same time. Shen Youlong didn't expect Li Chengdong to march so fast, running hundreds of miles in one night. Songjiang was caught off guard and encountered a surprise attack, and thousands of rebels were scattered, with little resistance. Shen Youlong was killed, Li was killed in battle, and Chen Zizhuang fled. Thousands were killed in the city, and all the women were taken captive.

Hui Xiang asked, "What is the general going to do?" ”

Shou Xian thought for a while, "Of course it's to save people." ”

Call the orderly in, "Help me go and invite Mrs. Xing and Shen Tingyang." ”

After the orderlies left, Shou Xuan remembered something, "You tell Ge Ruifang that I have contacted Sun Lin, and he is now in Quzhou." ”

Most of Hui Xiang's friends went to Taipei with the ship, but only Ge Ruifang insisted on staying, and she wanted to find Sun Lin.

……

Shen Tingyang has been running back and forth in Songjiang in Chongming recently, and two days before Songjiang was lost, he had just shipped a batch of silver back to Chongming in Songjiang City, all of which were raised funds. Shen Youlong and others are known as wealthy and have transferred a large amount of property. Songjiang Prefecture was a big city, and the war was chaotic, and many people fled to Chongming Island and went to Taipei with the fleet that had just departed. Otherwise, Li Chengdong would have killed more people.

"Mr. Shen, how many silver taels did you raise in Jiangnan?"

"Less than 100,000 taels."

The silver that Shou Xuan got in Nanjing, and the money that Shen Tingyang invested in, are all spent now. Buying people, buying supplies, and paying military salaries is a huge expense.

"I also got more than 50,000 taels in Yuntai Mountain, leave 50,000 for backup, and we will prepare 100,000 taels."

Shen Tingyang didn't ask why, just nodded lightly.

"Mrs. Xing, are any of your subordinates familiar with Li Chengdong?"

Mrs. Xing sighed slightly, she knew about Li Chengdong's recent atrocities in Jiangnan, "Yes, what's the matter with the lord of the country?" ”

"Madam, please send someone to find Li Chengdong, and say that I am willing to spend money to buy the captive woman from him."

Mrs. Xing was silent for a while, "You can't go directly to Li Chengdong for this matter." ”

Order: "What does the lady suggest?" ”

"To do this, you have to find Li Yuanyin first and persuade Li Chengdong through him. Li Yuanyin is Li Chengdong's righteous son and is the most trusted. ”

Shou ordered and bowed, "Then please Madame." ”

There is a serious imbalance in the gender ratio of immigrants in Taiwan, which is not conducive to long-term stability.