The Yangtze River Naval Division joined forces with friendly forces at Fushan Port in Changshu and broke away from the siege of Jianyu. Fushan Port is an important port in the Yangtze River, and Liu Kongzhao, the first to evacuate the front line, is now stationed in Fushan Port, in addition to some of the ships of Zhang Shiyi, the chief soldier of Huaihe Town.

Under the guidance of friendly forces, the Yangtze River Naval Division sailed to Chongming County, the base of the Ming army downstream, and docked.

Shou ordered to break away from the Ming army brigade and went to Chongming Nansha to join the garrison left behind on Chongming Island. The small civil fortification in Nansha ensured the safety of the migrants and played a huge role in the relocation of the Yangtze River migrants.

River boats could not go to sea directly, they had to disembark in Chongming to wait for transshipment, and in today's southerly wind period, it is difficult for sea ships to sail directly to Taipei, so Wu Zhixiang led some sea ships to transfer refugees between Chongming and Sijiao Mountain.

Lao Wu's work was done very well, and when the order arrived, the first batch of refugees had all been transferred to Sijiao Mountain. After completing the task, Wu Zhixiang and Leng Ying worked together to transfer some of the fleeing soldiers and civilians from Jiangbei Haimen, including the rest of Gao Jie's wife, Mrs. Xing. Considering the bad impact of the Battle of Yangzhou, which made it difficult for the last remnants of Gao Jie's army to gain a foothold among the many Ming armies, Wu Zhixiang first resettled them on Dahuanglong Island, which was adjacent to Sijiao Mountain.

The situation on Chongming Island is quite complicated right now. Today's Chongming Island has also become a large military camp, the Ming army on the island is under the banner of King Yiyang, with Huaifu and Cao Governor Tian Yang as the supervisor, Shen Tingyang as the capital of the imperial history, and Xiajiang soldiers and Daojing Benche and other three people as the leader to continue to resist the Qing Dynasty.

Originally, the main force on the island was Liu Zeqing's troops, including Zhang Pengyi, the chief soldier of the Shanhaiguan Naval Division, Zhang Shiyi, the chief soldier of Huaihe Town, and Li Shilian, the general of the Fubiao Chinese Army, who withdrew from the Huaidong front, plus the Zhao'an pirate Gu Rong's troops, and the Ming army had more than 10,000 family members.

There are many Ming troops on the island, and the situation is more complicated. As far as the order is concerned, whether it is the remnants of Gao Jie or the tens of thousands of refugees who have been obtained, it is not appropriate to stay in the middle of this group of Ming troops. Shou Xiang was very pleased with Lao Wu's sensitivity, and he handed over the newly arrived immigration transfer work to Lao Wu as well.

With Chongming as the stopover and Sijiao Mountain as the base camp, it is the core of the entire transshipment migration navigation plan. Now that the war situation is chaotic, the southerly wind period and the complex shipping channel of the Yangtze River estuary make this mode of transportation continue for some time.

The army and navy who had been left behind to go on the expedition rested in Chongming, and took the battleship Huangpu to Chongming County, where he was going to meet an old friend whom he had never met.

This time there was time to inspect the entire Chongming Island in detail. During the Ming Dynasty, the Yangtze River shaped Chongming Island and the north and south river banks, causing the sandbar where Chongming and Jiangbei Haimen County are located to collapse many times, forcing Haimen County to move three times and Chongming County four times. In 1644, Changsha, Xiangsha, Wujiasha, Nansha, Sunjiasha and other originally independent sandbanks were connected. The islands are long and narrow in shape, with low altitudes, and the high tides often cut off the ground connection between the islands.

The development process of Chongming Island is a scene of the people of Jiangsu and Zhejiang fighting against the sea and the Yangtze River to adapt to the changes in the shape of the island. Up to now, the entire Chongming Island has 14,000 hectares of cultivated land, a population of 25,000 households, and 160,000 people. In order to resist the cold wave and north wind, the people of Chongming County built a 50-mile-long seawall in the north of the island. The seawall blocked the inflow of seawater, turning the former saline land into fertile soil.

……

Standing on the seawall in the north of the island, Shou Xian looked around, a green cotton field, and the growth was very gratifying. Songjiang cotton cloth is the best in the world, and the people of Chongming grow cotton and can enjoy rich benefits from the developed cotton weaving industry. However, in 1645, this was not a base for revival. Even during the Chengping period, Chongming needed to purchase about 100,000 stone of grain every year to make up for the gap in grain planting on the island.

Shou Xuan walked down the seawall side by side with Shen Tingyang. Chongming Island is Shen Tingyang's hometown, and although they have cooperated many times, this is the first meeting between Shou and Shen Tingyang.

The soldier set up a pergola, and two plates of watermelons were placed on the table. It's the height of summer, and watermelon is not much of a food that can take away some of the heat at this time.

……

"Mr. Ji Ming, please rest assured, your fleet will be fine in Taipei."

A few months ago, Taipei hired Shen Tingyang's fleet to help transport refugees, and now that the ship has not returned, the order needs to be explained.

“…… We all run on the sea, and the boat is our job. Mr. Ji Ming, maybe you should disperse part of the fleet to a safer place. ”

Shen Tingyang picked up a slice of watermelon, ate a few bites, and said slowly, "In order to expel the Tartars, I put all my net worth into it. If you can't have more sails and boats, how dare you steal a piece of peace. ”

Nanjing was lost, and the remnants of the Ming Dynasty were already greatly weakened. Judging from the map, Nanming also has Zhejiang, Fujian, half of Jiangxi, Huguang, Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangdong, and the situation does not seem to be desperate. But this is only a superficial phenomenon, Nanming could not solve the army's salary, and their finances have been in collapse. With Shen Tingyang's ability, Shou Xiang believes that he will soon be able to discover the crux of the problem.

As soon as Shen Tingyang returned from the front line, Shou Xian first asked about the situation in Huaidong.

Shen Tingyang sighed, "The lack of food makes the occupied areas even worse." Dozens of family members of Xia Chengde, the general soldier of Yizhou, who were captured, committed suicide by hanging themselves from their beams because of hunger. If the soldiers are like this, the people will be even more miserable. ”

Hundreds of thousands of Jianzhou people moved into Beijing, further exacerbating the food crisis. Originally, the economic oppression of the south by the Ming Dynasty was very serious, and Beijing needed 4 million stone of grain, of which Suzhou and Songjiang alone provided 930,000 stone. As soon as Jianyu entered the customs, he did not get grain from the south of the Yangtze River, so he could only oppress the northern states and counties, especially Shandong.

Take Haizhou as an example, now the rice is 5 yuan silver. It is simply not possible for ordinary people to bear such food prices. Shou Zhi felt that this was simply killing.

The price of Siamese rice is generally one stone of rice and two coins of silver, and the price of grain in many parts of China is now dozens of times that of Nanyang. There must be a lot of refugees in high food prices, and now is the southerly season, the monsoon is not suitable, and the orderly shipping schedule is very tight, and it is impossible to send the fleet north for a long time. Keeping the order secretly thought that maybe in two months, when the monsoon changes seasons, it will be worth going to the mouth of the Huai River to get some northern immigrants.

Shou Xu asked, "Mr. Ji Ming, how did Liu Zeqing lose?" “

Shen Tingyang was silent for a while, and told Shou Xuan everything he knew about the military situation.

Jianyu crossed the river, Nanjing was lost, and Liu Zeqing did not surrender. Due to the dense water network between Huaidong and Huaixi, Huaidong has always been an independent battlefield in history. During the period of confrontation between the north and the south, Huaidong has always defended against the enemy from the southeast of the mountain. During the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the old canal was silted, and the plan of the Wei Canal during the Sui Dynasty to open the Warring States Period went to Henan, until the Jinpu Railway was opened, the northern soldiers usually rarely chose Shandong when they went south, and Huaidong was a relatively secondary direction on the battlefield.

Jinan is a key location, Jianyu has always had a big nobleman sitting here, last year was the blue flag lord Su Prince Haoge, this year replaced by Raoyu County King Abatai. The specific commander of the front line is the Zhengbai Banner Gushan Ezhen Zhun Tower, the total number of troops invested in Jianzhou on this road is not much, only the part of the Eight Banners led by the Zhun Tower and the Yizhou General Soldier Xia Chengde 5,000 people, Qingzhou General Soldier Ke Yongsheng 3,000 people, a total of about 13,000 people. Among them, Xia Chengde was the deputy general of Songshan, and surrendered in the Battle of Songjin. After the Songjin War, Jianyu quickly built 109 Han army leaders, and some of the surrendered Ming troops were incorporated into the Han army flag, and Xia Chengde was one of them.

Just one day before Duoduo entered Nanjing, on May 14, Liu Zeqing sent troops across the Huai River to attack Suqian. Zhao Jingong, the defender of Jianzhou, resisted desperately with hundreds of weak soldiers, and the Ming army attacked for four or five days without defeat. The main force of Zhunta came to reinforce it, and the Ming army had to retreat.

On 25 May, 10 days after the fall of Nanjing, Liu Zeqing concentrated the two divisions of Ma Huabao and Zhang Shiyi, 17,000 men and 26 Hongyi cannons, at the mouth of the Qinghe River, which was a major traffic point, that is, the mouth where the Huai River, the Yellow River and the canal converge, to fight a decisive battle with Zhun Tower. The battle began with an artillery battle, in which the Ming army was again defeated, and then Jian Yu shifted the muzzle of the gun to attack the Ming warship on the river. The Ming army was almost powerless to fight back, and the army collapsed in chaos with heavy casualties. Zhun Ta pursued all the way and captured tens of thousands of Ming troops. Liu Zeqing was powerless to resist, handed over Huai'an City to Bai Yongfu, the general of the army, and led tens of thousands of people including Gao Jinzhong, Zhang Pengyi, and Zhang Shiyi to go to sea along the Huaihe estuary, and Shen Tingyang's sea ships walked with them all the way.

"It's cannon again." Shou Xiang sighed, and the Ming army introduced cannons and long artillery into China. But in terms of artillery and artillery manufacturing, the Ming Dynasty has been surpassed by Jianyu. The Hongyi cannon is now the core combat power of Jianyu, and the Ming army is at a great disadvantage compared to it.

Shen Tingyang recalled the scene at that time, "We encountered a storm after we went to sea......"

The Ming army was very unlucky, and suffered heavy losses in the event of a hurricane, and the entire fleet was blown apart.

Shen Tingyang was friendly with Tian Yang and Zhang Pengyi, and the ships were not far apart when they retreated south, and with the help of the skilled sailors of the Shen family, Zhang Pengyi and others were able to survive the storm, and finally saved nearly 10,000 officers and soldiers and their families. It was at Shen Tingyang's suggestion that the Ming army temporarily stationed in Chongming as a respite.

During the southerly period, although it is possible to sail against the monsoon by taking advantage of the crosswinds caused by the offshore and onshore winds from the mainland, this requires a high level of skill and well-prepared vessels. Headwinds are always less convenient than downwinds, and if there is no Shen Tingyang, Zhang Pengyi's losses will definitely be greater.

……

"Gao Jinzhong?" Shou Xu asked about a name that Shen Tingyang had just mentioned, a familiar name, "Why didn't you see him in Chongming." ”

There is no Gao Jinzhong in Chongming's military number.

Shen Tingyang said: "Most of Gao Jinzhong's subordinates are from Liaodong, and the officers and soldiers are reluctant to go south, and they also lack skilled sailors who can sail in the wind, so they went north to Yuntai Mountain after the hurricane. ”

Shou Xuan thought to himself, it seems that he must go to the north.

"Mr. Ji Ming, Gao Jinzhong refuses to go south, they have other plans."

Shen Tingyang was silent, Shou Xian said more tactfully, and his other plan was to hesitate whether to surrender.

After refilling the tea for Shen Tingyang, Shou ordered and asked, "Where is Liu Zeqing now?" ”

Shen Tingyang shook his head, "I don't know." After the flotilla was blown away by the gale, we lost contact, and if Dong Pingbo was still alive, he should be somewhere on the coast of Huaidong. ”

"Do you think he has enough food on board?"

"When we retreated, we emptied the grain depot in Huai'an, and the ship's grain was enough to feed the officers and soldiers for several months, and the same was true for Dongpingbo's ship."

"There are a few ships in my fleet that run very fast and have good wind performance." Shou Xuan nodded and said, "I'll send a ship to find Liu Zeqing." ”

If Liu Zeqing surrenders, he will surrender at the exhaustion of his strength, and he is different from Liu Liangzuo and others. Nanjing was lost, and Liu Zeqing was able to continue to resist, which was already relatively rare in the Ming army. Fighting is nothing more than a matter of ability, but whether or not to fight is a matter of stance.

There is a large amount of sediment accumulation near the mouth of the Huai River, and the warships with deep draft cannot get close, so the order plans to send Enzo's Zhenjiang to take a look first, the sloop schooner has a shallow draft and good wind performance.

Understanding the battle situation was only one of the purposes of keeping order, and he saw Shen Tingyang for something more important.

Shou Xuan took out the draft articles of association of the Taiwan Development Bank, "Mr. Ji Ming, I have a business plan, please help me refer to it." “r