In the early morning of the fifteenth day of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, the usually prosperous city of Nanjing seemed a little deserted.

Every time a major war comes, no matter how prosperous the city will suffer a major blow, Nanjing City is no exception, and the Shandong army has spent a day and a night from the siege to the conquest.

On this day and night, the city of Nanjing was besieged by water, and even the city of water was surrounded by hundreds of large and small naval ships, and Jiang Feng, the right commander of the naval army, was ordered by Wang Zheng to blockade the water city early.

However, the purpose of the naval division was to blockade, not to conquer, because Nanjing was not easy to build, and if it was destroyed with heavy artillery, it would be even more difficult to repair, and the losses would be great.

With this in mind, Wang Zheng had already done his best not to destroy the city of Nanjing with heavy artillery.

The most prosperous area of Nanjing City is undoubtedly Gulou Street, which is full of scholars chanting poems, and small merchants, hawkers and pedestrians along the street are like walking together.

However, on this day, all of them disappeared, just teams of Shandong soldiers who were patrolling back and forth with knives and guns, and there were even some houses in Nanjing City emitting billowing black smoke.

Last night, after the Shandong army entered the city, there was chaos in the city, and the officers and soldiers became chaotic soldiers, and many lawless people who mixed in the city took the opportunity to make trouble.

These are all within the scope of Wang Zheng's consideration, and immediately after the Shandong army entered the city, some soldiers and horses began to enter the streets and alleys to quell the chaos, but something went wrong.

Because no one has ever been to Nanjing City, I didn't expect it to be so huge, several times the size of ordinary state cities, and even Penglai, Jining and other places that are extremely prosperous in the territory of the Shandong Army are not comparable to one-third.

Moreover, the Shandong army entered the city from all over the city, the city gates of the inner and outer cities, as well as the battlements of various enemy towers, and the confluence of the branches and veins of the canal, and the city of Nanjing was like a labyrinth.

At the beginning, although the Shandong army went all out, it was not able to stop the chaos immediately, and for the sake of insurance, Dong Youyin, Huang Degong and others all adopted a carpet search from the outside in.

This is also the Shandong army's usual prudent approach, although it will slow down the speed, but it is better to be careful and serious, fortunately, the soldiers of the Beijing camp under the eunuch Lu Jiude are locals, under their leadership, the Shandong army quickly searched every street and alley.

"Click..."

Suddenly, an inconspicuous sound sounded, and a gap was revealed in the quaint house, and a pair of flexible eyes were revealed to look back and forth.

Sure enough, at this time, the street was very deserted, and there was basically no one else except for Shandong Bing.

"How's it going, daddy?"

Hearing the woman's inquiry, the middle-aged man cautiously closed the door and said:

"I don't know, no one has gone out yet, it looks like the officers and soldiers in the city are finished."

"Daddy, what's so good about the officers and soldiers, it's not enough to oppress us ordinary people?"

The middle-aged man sighed and said worriedly:

"A woman's family, what do you know, how do you know that this Shandong soldier is better than the official army, and now in this world, how can we still live, or wait."

It is normal for the people in the city to have such a dialogue, although the Shandong army is loved in all parts of Jiangbei, but due to the unremitting propaganda of the Jiangnan scholars, the Shandong army led by Wang Zheng has long become a jackal, tiger and leopard.

After learning the news of the destruction of the city, whether it is a large household or an ordinary person, the first thought is to close the doors and windows and sweep the snow in front of the door, for fear that their own family will be hit by a military disaster.

"Gotta ......"

Suddenly, a rapid sound of horses' hooves came from far and near, and a Shandong Army soldier sentry officer in iron armor stopped outside the drum tower, raised his hand and shouted loudly in Chinese:

"Listen to the people in the city, Anton is waiting for the military order: those who dare to plunder people's property and women will be dealt with according to military regulations, and there will be no mercy!!"

"Listen to the people in the city, Anton is waiting for the military order: those who dare to plunder people's property and women will be dealt with according to military regulations, and there will be no mercy!!"

After shouting a few times, the sentry saw that there was still no movement around, and there was no surprise at the moment, but he took out a notice from his chest, turned his head and pasted it in a conspicuous place, and then got on his horse and left.

Soon after he left, the windows on the second and third floors of the drum tower were opened, revealing many gentlemen with muttering faces, all discussing something with each other.

In the surrounding houses, a crack gradually opened as before, and many people walked out of their homes with hesitant eyes and came to the notice to take a closer look.

When they first went out, they still looked around in a panic, as if they would turn around and run back to the house at the slightest movement.

Originally, the work of posting notices was carried out by the foot soldiers in the city, but the city of Nanjing was too big, and the foot soldiers wanted to paste it all over the city, and it would basically take a day for the foot soldiers to stick it all over the city, and Wang Zheng could only use part of the cavalry, so it took half a day.

On the night of the second day after the Shandong army occupied Nanjing, the city was still very quiet, but early on the morning of the third day, people and merchants began to walk out of the city to sort out the collapsed shelves and objects, and the shops began to reopen one after another.

On the third day, the city of Nanjing was still a little deserted, but it was much better than the first two days, and it was not until five days later that the city was half back to normal.

Even so, the prosperity of Nanjing City still amazed Wang Zheng and others.

A few people walked out of the door, three men and two women, they squatted on the ground and silently lifted the stalls, picked up the handicrafts scattered on the ground and sorted them together, ready to be re-sold.

After all, no matter how the owner of Nanjing City changes, as long as he does not disturb the people and harm the people, life must go on as usual, judging from the situation in the past few days, it may be better than when the imperial court was in charge.

For ordinary people, they only care about who can eat and dress warmly, and live a better life, and what other orthodoxy is not orthodox, it is all after a stable and prosperous life.

The middle-aged man squatted on the ground, suddenly heard the silence around him, turned around and took a look, and found that many people were covering their mouths and constantly retreating, constantly whispering, as if they saw something terrible.

He raised his eyes and saw that he was so frightened that he fell to the ground, and he didn't even care about the things in his hand, so he quickly buried his head deep in the ground, hoping that the other party could hurry over.

But the more he listened, the more he felt that something was wrong, and the heavy footsteps were getting closer and closer to him, and finally stopped in his ears, and a team of Shandong soldiers actually began to help them tidy up the shelves.

The middle-aged man raised his head and looked at his daughter-in-law in disbelief, how could it be that the officers and soldiers would help the people sort out the goods?

In fact, not long ago, Wang Zheng ordered a part of the Shandong army to go to the city to help the people and shops sort out the goods, and to repair some houses that had been seriously damaged by the war.

The soldiers of the Shandong army hung their knives at their waists, carried tiger guns and axes behind their backs, and wore gloves to the streets to help the people rebuild their homes, which was not as arrogant as the soldiers propagated.

Suddenly, more than a dozen cavalrymen rushed straight into the imperial city from the south and north, holding a piece of paper in their hands, and shouted loudly as they ran:

"Anton waits for the military order and summons the officials of the state capital from all over the country to enter the city!"

"Hezhou is willing to welcome the Shandong army into the city!"

"The prefect of Zhenjiang will come in person tomorrow to discuss the reorganization of the official army of Zhenjiang Mansion into the Zhenjiang battalion!"

There were constantly cavalry passing back and forth, and the people who went out were basically conveying various military orders from Anton to wait for Wang Zheng, which was often a move to calm the people's hearts.

There are constantly soldiers of the Shandong Army running back and forth inside and outside, catching and imprisoning the local snakes in the ordinary streets, as well as those soldiers who engrave and leave their names everywhere.

The scholars usually have a habit, that is, they will carve inscriptions on the wall when they are on the head of the chant, which is a self-confident move, but it is very convenient for the Shandong army to arrest people, and it is also verified.

The young people tend to hide, and the Shandong army can fight battles, but it is not good at drilling into the streets and alleys to arrest people.

But the scholars are very easy to catch, these people are often gathered together, what is the name of the poetry will tea talk, the Shandong army sent a team of soldiers over, one person can catch two, it is no different from catching chickens in the farmhouse.

The charges are also very well arranged, and when this kind of chaos is initially decided, no one will pay attention to these Donglin scholars who just talk but don't do it, and talk about big truths, saying that they are demagoguery, just throw them in and wait for distribution.

By the way, if there is an irony for the Shandong army, there will be soldiers to take people.

Some people who are not very good at moving, such as Qian Qianyi and Hou Fangyu, will make a list and send some generals with sufficient status to get people, and Wang Zheng may also take the time to play with them in person.

Having said that, those cavalry who went straight to the imperial city often sent back the news that the counties around Nanjing were annexed, such as the opening of the city by the magistrate of a certain place to welcome the Shandong army into the city, and the officers and soldiers of a certain place accepted the rectification of the Shandong army.

The situation was very smooth, and after the Shandong army conquered Nanjing, things finally developed in a good direction, and some surrounding counties had sent people to express their intention to join the country a few days earlier.

Dong Youyin and Huang Yang split into two routes, went to Hezhou and Zhenjiang Mansion to rectify the foreign system, and established the Hezhou Battalion and Zhenjiang Battalion under the jurisdiction of the Shandong Army, all of which belonged to the foreign system.

After Wang Zheng came in, he came to the imperial city happily, and basically didn't pay attention to other places, because this was the first ancient cultural capital he saw in the real sense.

However, there is still some disappointment, the imperial city of the Ming Dynasty during the Hongwu period does not have any sense of majesty at the moment, but is full of desolation and ruin.

The Imperial City is full of fallen leaves and rubble that have accumulated a certain thickness, and the tables, chairs, and imperial tables inside are covered with dust, which should not have been cleaned and sorted out for a long time.

At least for now, this imperial city is far from being inhabitable, so Wang Zheng temporarily lived in the military camp and ordered the restoration of the imperial city.

After the soldiers came in, they first carried out rescue repairs, and it took five days to clean up a Wuying Palace, and it still looked like that.

Other places are not that Wang Zheng doesn't want to clear the li, because there are too many places to use knives and manpower and material resources at the moment, and it is enough to have a place where you can discuss things, and the rest of the imperial city can only take your time.

At present, the most urgent task at present is to help the people in the city repair the houses destroyed by the war, as well as the debris and corpses blocked along the streets, and to clear them out as soon as possible so as to restore the circulation of Nanjing.