Wang Kefan took out the fold that had been written a long time ago, asked Guo Weijing and Tang Laicong to congratulate him, and invited them to sign their names and fold them together.

Guo Weijing and Tang Laihe took this recital and read it several times, obviously a little tempted, but the matter was serious, they did not agree on the spot, but left a live word, saying that they would go back to think about it and discuss it, and they would definitely give Wang Kefan a clear answer within two days.

Wang Kefan was not in a hurry, responded with a smile, and personally sent them out of the door...... This kind of heavy thing, you have to give the other party a process of thinking about digestion, two days is already very fast, and Guo Weijing and Tang Laihe proposed a two-day buffer time, most of them were deliberately pinched, but in fact, they have been persuaded by Wang Kefan.

In this era, there is a special economic population distribution, the Jiangnan region is the political and economic center of the southern provinces, Guangzhou is only a "regional central city", not a first-line metropolis like the later generations, if the Longwu court has no ambitions, just want to be in a corner of peace, it will choose Guangzhou and Ganzhou, if you want to inherit the Ming Zhengshuo, complete the grand goal of Zhongxing Ming, you must return to the south of the Yangtze River...... Yes, when the Longwu court returns to Jiangnan, there will be fierce struggles with warlords like Wang Kefan, Jin Shenghuan, and Zheng Chenggong, but those who are engaged in politics cannot be afraid of struggle, if the Longwu court is partial to Ganzhou or Guangzhou, Wang Kefan and these warlords will get out of control sooner or later, so it is better to return to Hangzhou and face the challenge.

Let the storm come harder!

Emperor Longwu and Tang Laihe actually had no choice.

Guo Weijing weighed it repeatedly, but he was also a little hesitant. For the Southern Party, whether Emperor Longwu was in Guangzhou or Hangzhou could be said to have their own advantages and disadvantages, but in the long run, it may be more active to go to Hangzhou...... Taking Guangdong as a rear base and fighting against other political forces in Hangzhou is the choice of the world, and if he loses in the political struggle, it will not be too late for Emperor Longwu to retreat to Guangzhou.

Two days later, Wang Kefan, Guo Weijing, Tang Laihe, and dozens of Jiangnan civil and military officials jointly asked Emperor Longwu to move to Hangzhou to preside over the overall situation of the Northern Expedition. In addition to this official twist, Guo Weijing and Tang Laihe also have their own secret folds in private, sprinkled thousands of words, carefully analyzed the current situation, analyzed the pros and cons of Emperor Longwu's move to Hangzhou, many things that could not be said in public, but they could be written very clearly in the secret fold, and made a detailed analysis of Wang Kefan's attitude and motives, and finally asked Emperor Longwu to judge.

In the eyes of Guo Weijing and Tang Laihe, Wang Kefan is still more sincere in this matter, he may be ambitious, but he does not have the strength to pull the flag alone, and he is inseparable from the golden signboard of the Longwu Imperial Court, in turn, Emperor Longwu also needs the support of Chu Xun and Chu Jun, after the fierce struggle in the previous paragraph,

The relationship between the two sides almost fell to the freezing point, and now because of the need for the form, Wang Kefan tried to repair the relationship with Emperor Longwu, so he asked him to move to Hangzhou.

Guo Weijing and Tang Laihe are the spokesmen of the Longwu court in Jiangnan, and they agreed that Emperor Longwu would come to Hangzhou, which is equivalent to clearing the obstacles here...... However, Wang Kefan is not worried about this, the powerful Western Army is attacking Guilin, Liu Wenxiu will break the illusions of those diehards, what Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong have to do is only to guide at a critical moment and "help" Emperor Longwu and the civil and military officials to make up their minds not to go to Guangzhou and Ganzhou, but to Hangzhou.

……

The battlefield in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, from Wuchang to Jiujiang to Anqing, is the most important main battlefield.

Since entering the autumn of the fifth year of Longwu, the Chu army has been quietly making preparations, but on the surface it has not moved, and also sent Tian Jianxiu and Wang Jincai to the north one after another, as if the main direction of attack was placed in the Jianghuai area to confuse the Qing army.

However, large-scale campaign preparations will always expose all kinds of clues, for a long time, it is impossible to hide the eyes and ears of the Qing army, the art of war pays attention to a false reality, too calm often indicates that it is followed by a violent storm, the Chu army has been close to Jiujiang Mansion, Wuchang Mansion is not fighting, sooner or later it will arouse the vigilance of the Qing army, so before the main force is transferred to Jiangxi, Wang Kefan ordered to launch a local offensive in Jiangxi and Hubei at the same time, on the one hand, to release the pressure of war, on the other hand, to clear the peripheral obstacles, And it can also play a role in testing the virtual and the real.

On the Hubei side, it was the original camp that served as the main attack, and the target of the attack was De'an Mansion in the north of Wuchang Prefecture, and if Shun Lì captured De'an, Suizhou, Yingshan and other places, it would be able to cut off the connection between Wuchang Mansion and the three passes of Yiyang, and block Kong Youde's retreat from the north to Henan.

On the Jiangxi side, the newly formed 15th Division was the main attack, and the target of the attack was De'an County, the southernmost part of Jiujiang Province, and if the battle went well, it would continue to attack Nankang Province between Jiujiang Province and Wuchang Province to clear the outer strongholds of Jiujiang Province and prepare for the upcoming general attack.

The commander of the 15th Division was Zhang Jiayu, the battalion officer of the original Dongguan battalion.

In the old eight battalions of the Chu army, the combat effectiveness of the Dongguan battalion is in the middle of the lower reaches, they have not experienced the most difficult entrepreneurial stage, but the Chu army has several dangerous and dangerous headwind battles have appeared at that time, after the Dongguan battalion joined the Chu army, it caught up with the golden age of a hundred battles and wins, and the tailwind battle has been fought a lot, and the headwind battle is almost not once, just like the little white player who follows the master every day to mix experience, it looks like a boss drops the best equipment, and the level is also high and scary, if he really lets him lead the team to brush the copy alone, he is often in a hurry, Mistakes keep coming.

Zhang Jiayu was born in poverty, "good fencing, Ren Xia", and proficient in scriptures, poetry, calligraphy and painting, 19-year-old Xiucai, 22-year-old Zhongjuren, 29-year-old Zhongjinshi, and was awarded the Hanlin Academy's Shu Jishi, is a handsome man with all-round talents in civil and military affairs, and his personal experience is obviously stronger than Tan Xiao, Zhou Guodong and others, but he missed the entrepreneurial stage of Chu Jun, did not go through the hard period of training, did not get along with Wang Kefan day and night, and got his words and deeds, in other words, the foundation was not laid, the inside and outside were comprehensive, and the total ability was the same as Tan Xiao, Zhou Guodong and others are about the same.

But then again, Zhang Jiayu was able to be named in the gold list in the imperial examination of thousands of troops, and he was admitted to Xiucai at the age of 29, and he is not a rotten Confucian who is dead to study, regardless of the age difference, his development potential is much stronger than Tan Xiao and Zhou Guodong, you must know that although the imperial examination has been criticized in later generations, the content of the examination is not important, the key is to ensure fairness, and to stand out in a relatively fair environment and outperform other scholars is a manifestation of ability.

In Wang Kefan's view, Zhang Jiayu will not stop at a division commander, give him enough opportunities, and he will soon be able to go further in the future.

Although he was only a division commander, the situation of the 15th Division was relatively complicated and not easy to lead, and it was also a test for Zhang Jiayu.

Like the brother troops, there are three brigades under the 15th Division, the 78th Brigade is from the old unit of the Dongguan Battalion, the 79th Brigade is from Xiong Lichun's Green Battalion, and some officers and soldiers are transferred to him from Bian Xiang's Ningzhou Battalion, plus some new recruits, and the 80th Brigade is also dominated by the Green Battalion, and the officers are from the troops of Chuang Battalion, Ji'an Battalion and Bu Congshan, and the brigade commander is the original Chi Tai General Bu Congshan.

It stands to reason that a tainted person like Xiong Lichun was not suitable to serve as the commander of the troops, but considering the feelings of other generals and the lack of experienced senior officers in the Chu army, Wang Kefan finally made a decision and appointed Xiong Lichun as the commander of the 79th Brigade...... But just in case, his troops were completely dispersed, especially the so-called pro-soldier family Ding and some of his cronies in his cottage at the beginning, were all transferred to other units, the deputy brigade commander of the 79th Brigade and several battalion commanders were specially selected officers of the Ningzhou battalion, and Xiong Lichun's men and horses were originally from the same family, but they were all loyal to the Chu army, and they were not afraid of Xiong Lichun's troubles.

A few days ago, Kong Youde attacked Jiangnan, covering Tan Tai's breakthrough in the east and west, and launched a fierce attack on Guichi, the capital city of Chizhou Prefecture, Bu Congshan's department suffered heavy casualties, but he still held Guichi for many days, and many of his henchmen and generals were promoted and transferred to other units to hold important positions, for example, his deputy was transferred to the Third Army of the Northern Expedition that had just been formed as a deputy brigade commander...... Wang Kefan did this, not to rise and fall secretly, but to rise and fall darkly, and then the opportunity for the great development of the Chu army allowed these old officers to be reused, and no one could say a word.

Jin Shenghuan's troops left Jiangxi in a move, and the 15th Division and other fraternal troops took over Nanchang Prefecture, which was a win-win result, Jin Shenghuan and Wang Deren went to Jiangnan to make a fortune, and participated in the Northern Expedition to expand their territory to the Jianghuai region, as long as they fought well in the future, there was an opportunity that after the Chu army controlled the area of Nanchang Prefecture, it was connected from Huguang to Jiangxi and then to the vicinity of Nanjing, Ji'an Mansion and other places became a large rear, and the Yangtze River waterway was also controlled by half, as long as the Qing army was driven away, Wang Kefan could carry out his grand plan.

The local officials here have also been completely changed, Wang Kefan's attitude is very resolute, all the officials appointed by Jin Shenghuan are driven away, and none of the officials appointed by the Longwu court are not wanted, Nanchang Mansion must be the same as Huguang, firmly controlled in the hands of Chu Xun, with the arrival of a large number of "Chu election officials", the Chu army troops were stationed near Nanchang one after another, and the time was gradually ripe to launch an attack on the Qing army, and the 15th Division took the lead in firing the first shot, starting from Jianchang County and launching a surprise attack on De'an County.

Said to be a surprise attack, this battle is not much sudden, the Qing army stationed in Jiujiang Mansion and Nankang Mansion is under Tun Buer, who were all Tan Tai's men and horses at the beginning, after Tan Tai escaped from Nanjing, in addition to assisting Kong Youde to defend Jianghuai, he also deeply felt that the location of Jiujiang Mansion was very important, and deliberately sent additional troops here several times to strengthen defense, and when the Chu army launched an attack, they had already prepared.

Wuchang Mansion - Jiujiang Mansion - Anqing Mansion, Wang Kefan stared at it for a long time, according to his plan, the order of attack of the Chu army was from easy to difficult, first hit Jiujiang Mansion on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and after pulling out the camp of the Qing army in Jiujiang Mansion, divide and surround Wuchang Mansion and Anqing Mansion, and then eat it in one bite.

In general, the Chu army fought relatively smoothly during this time, and the only thing that caused the delay was Shi Fu's sailors, although they were repeatedly defeated by Zheng Chenggong, but they have always refused to submit, but they retreated in the Jiujiang Navy Division camp, using the fortifications on the shore to defend to the death, and the wooden warships always couldn't beat the stone forts, Zheng Chenggong in order to avoid losses, has not launched a strong attack on it...... The Chu army invaded Jiujiang Mansion and broke through the camp of the Qing army's sailors by land, and the day the camp was broken was the end of the Shifu sailors, and when the time came, they were either forced to surrender or be completely wiped out.

In order to accomplish this goal, before launching a large-scale general attack, the 15th Division must first pull out the nail of De'an County.

Judging from the map, Jiujiang Mansion and Nankang Mansion are located at the northern end of Poyang Lake, Jiujiang Mansion is like a big hat, worn on the small head of Nankang Mansion, and De'an County is thrown at the lower left end of this big hat, so it is closer to the defense area of the Chu army than Nankang Mansion. In order to conquer De'an County, it was first necessary to cut off its connection with the Qing army in Jiujiang, and Zhang Jiayu sent Bu Congshan's 80th Brigade to attack the Xingzi Ferry of the Boyang River, which was close to De'an County.

Near the ferry, the Qing army built four barriers, each of which contained 300 to 400 soldiers, and built a military village in front of the ferry, with deep ditches and high walls, forming a solid defensive formation. After Bu Congshan launched an attack, the Qing army relied on the fortress and the camp wall to hold on, several times to repel his attack, just when the Chu soldiers were slightly discouraged and slack, a thousand Eight Banner cavalry suddenly came out of the military village, although Bu Congshan had already laid out a monitoring force in advance, but did not block the wolf-like Eight Banners, they launched a fierce charge from the flank, the Chu army's attacking troops were defeated, and then they returned to the military village proudly.

"Brigade commander, the cavalry of the Tartars is powerful, this battle is not easy to fight, otherwise let's retreat first." His officers persuaded Bu Congshan.

"Can't be returned! Since the formation of our 80th Brigade, today is the first battle, if we retreat like this, how can I explain to Division Commander Zhang? "The commander Zhang in Bu Congshan's mouth is Zhang Jiayu, the commander of the 15th Division.

In the battle of holding Guichi, Kong Youde's Tianyou soldiers continued to launch onslaught, wave after wave, if they hadn't traveled long distances and didn't carry powerful large-caliber artillery, Guichi would definitely have been breached.

Since the Qing army could not blow up the city wall, it used siege equipment to attack continuously, Bu Congshan defended very hard at the time, and when the battle was most intense, he even personally participated in hand-to-hand combat, and fought back desperately with his own soldiers, only to retreat the Qing army that attacked the city tower, but he was seriously wounded, and he felt that he could no longer hold on to the situation, and repelled Kong Youde's attack again and again.

At the last moment, Bu Congshan's troops were already on the verge of collapse, and someone inside was secretly planning to assassinate him, and then Kaecheng surrendered, at this time, Zhang Jiayu arrived in time with the Dongguan battalion, and relieved the siege for Bu Congshan in one fell swoop. R1152