"The Shogunate of Hidego is versatile. Yingwu's domineering spirit has changed into a loyal martyr, and he is a strange man through the ages. Crossing the river and sparse the two, making people cry when they read it, how different Zhuge is out of the second table. ”

- Matsue Xia Wanchun

Xingping Bo Gaojie, who was regarded as a pillar stone in the south of the Yangtze River, died at the Hongmen banquet of Xu Dingguo, the general soldier of Henan, and the son of Hongguang was shocked by the dynasty.

Yue Qijie, the governor of Henan who led his troops into the Central Plains with Gao Jie, had just returned to Nanjing to bring definite news. When Yang Wencong learned about it, he hurriedly went to Beijing to visit his father-in-law who had returned from the front. Before leaving, he left his confidant Sun Lin in Jinshan to arrange cooperation between the two armies.

Gao Jie's death was a major event that would affect the future changes in the situation in South China, and Sun Lin was asked to collect relevant materials on Gao Jie and Shi Kefa's Northern Expedition, and Leng Yinghan made a briefing.

At the beginning of the Southern Ming Dynasty, the warlords of King Qin from all over the country frequently fought in order to grab territory, even if it was Shi Kefa's own army, it was inevitable. When Gao Jie first arrived in Huaibei, Huaifu Lu Zhenfei sent Jin Shenghuan, the deputy commander-in-chief, to guard Xuchuan and prevent Gao Jie from crossing to the south. Jin Shenghuan is also a well-known figure in the late Ming Dynasty, so naturally he is not easy to get along with.

Gao Jie's long-distance transfer to the war was sleepy and weak, and it was Ma Shiying who pulled him and sent reinforcements with supplies to Huainan. When he first came, Gao Jie was still old-tempered, and he was brave enough to plunder Yangzhou. Shi Kefa personally went to Gao Jiejun to appease, push food and food, and undress him. Gao Jie changed greatly after that, he killed Yang Cheng, the deputy general soldier who plundered Yangzhou, to rectify military discipline, prohibit the military from plundering, and did not allow the people to take the slightest money, grain, cloth, and silk, and became Wu Mu of Nanming Yue alive.

Not only restrained military discipline, after Gao Jie recovered his vitality, he successively asked for the Northern Expedition to fill the big gap in the Ming army's defense line from Huaixi to Henan, which everyone looked at. Good fireworks Yangzhou does not wait, go to the north and build a Liukou desperately.

In order to free up the troops of the Northern Expedition, Gao Jie wrote a letter to the enemy Huang Degong, asking Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo to send troops to protect the left flank of the Northern Expedition. Later, he begged Liu Zeqing and asked Liu Zhen to extend the front to the west and take over part of the defense area near Xuzhou.

The three towns regarded Gao Jie as a fool, and it was okay to seize the Huainan territory that Gao Zhen had conceded, but it was impossible to send troops to Huaibei. Gao Jie had no choice but to act on his own and take the lead in building fortifications in Xuzhou. Then he sent Li Chengdong, who had the strongest combat effectiveness, to cross the Yellow River and repel the prisoners in front of him. After eliminating the pressure from the north, he left his subordinate Li Chengdong to guard Xuzhou alone, and led 20,000 elite northern expeditions to restore the Central Plains.

Looking at the details of Yang Wencong's Northern Expedition reported by Nanjing Yueqijie Mansion, Leng Yinghan and Sun Lin were both embarrassed.

Leng Yingsheng couldn't figure it out, "Gao Jie's combat power is the highest in the official army, the fierce generals under the account are like clouds, Li Benshen, Li Chengdong, Hu Maozhen, Wang Zhigang's battalions, and 40,000 strong soldiers in Shanxi and Shaanxi, and they are not at a disadvantage in the battle against the rebellion, why was he killed by Xu Dingguo's puppet?" ”

Although Leng Yinghan is now an official in Jincheng, his feelings for his homeland are still overflowing.

Sun Lin endured his sadness, "God bless Daming." Yue Gong once persuaded Xing Pingbo not to enter Suizhou City, but he wanted to win over Xu Dingguo too much, and he didn't believe that Xu Dingguo's shaft dared to do it. ”

Shou Zhi picked up Gao Jie's "Braving the Snow to Prevent River Sparseness", "The ministers used a brigade of hungry troops, endured cold and starvation, but the only force was to see, vow to win the hearts of the people, and then rectify Wang Yu." ”

Shou Xian sighed, Nanjing really has no money and food. Before the Northern Expedition, Shi Kefa asked for salary, and Ma Shiying asked the household department to respond in every possible way, and the silver treasury was cleaned and made up for the opening fee. However, as the front advanced into Henan, Nanjing could not afford to maintain a supply line from Yangzhou to Guide by land.

Shou Xuan put down the transcript and asked Sun Lin, "Where is Gao Jie's wife now?" ”

"Jie's wife Xing and sister-in-law Gao Yuanjue and other family members are in Yangzhou." Sun Lin said, "Huang Degong was sure that Xingpingbo was dead, and immediately ordered troops to surround Yangzhou. Huang He and Erliu Sanzhen teamed up to drive the families of the soldiers of Gaozhen out of Yangzhou, and the flood land of the soldiers was divided by the three towns. ”

Leng Yinghan's tone was hateful, "Three bastards will only bully orphans and widows. ”

Shou Xuan asked, "Has the emperor agreed?" ”

Sun Lin bowed his hand to the north, "After being loyal and good, how can the Son of Heaven allow Xingpingbo's army to be divided?" The imperial court has sent the imperial horse supervisor Gao Qi to Yangzhou City to appease Gao Zhen's military families, and the ceremonial supervisor Lu Jiude went to Huang Degong's army to persuade Huang Zhen to withdraw his troops. ”

"The Son of Heaven handled this matter well, and Huang Degong was single-handedly promoted by Lu Jiude." Leng Yinghan said to Shou Xu: "Gao Jie's wife Xing was originally a good girl who was captured by Li Zicheng into the army, Gao Jie and his two loves, for a woman to lead 50 horses out of Li Chuang, Xing Pingbo is also a person in my generation. ”

Shou Xuan nodded, and said to Leng Yinghan: "You prepare some gifts and send a letter to Yangzhou on my behalf." ”

Gao Jie's department was the only large army under the command of Shi Kefa, and it was also the only land division with combat effectiveness in the Southern Ming Dynasty. Neither the Jiangnan gentry nor the Nanjing court now knew that Gao Jie's death not only marked the bankruptcy of Shi Kefa's plan to march north into the Central Plains. The gateway of the Jianghuai defense line was also opened, and the Ming army was no longer able to defend Kaifeng-Guide-Huaixi, the main offensive axis of the north to the south since ancient times.

Sun Lin saw that he had something to explain to him, so he retreated.

Gao Jie reversed Li Zicheng for his wife Xing, and in Gao Jie's own words, Ms. Xing had a strategy, and Gao Jie was able to help himself, not because of Ms. Xing's beauty. Of course, according to rumors, Ms. Xing is very beautiful. Ms. Xing played a key role in the changes after Gao Jie's southern crossing.

According to the materials provided by Sun Lin, after Gao Jie's Northern Expedition, he left more than 2,000 soldiers to guard Ms. Xing's family. In addition to Li Chengdong and Li Benshen, who are now generals who have independent tendencies, the two thousand people in Yangzhou should be Gao Jie's descendants.

Leng Yinghan prepares the pen and ink.

Shou Zhi dictated, "Jianyu went south, slaughtered millions, and Jianghuai lost all lives." ”

Leng Yinghan's hand shook, and a large ink spot dripped on the paper.

Shou Xuan waved his hand to signal that Leng Yinghan did not need to accuse, and continued: "...... The hearts of the generals are unpredictable. If you are willing, you can lead troops to Haimen, and I should help them with boats. ”

Haimen County is on the north shore of Chongming Island, far away from Jianzhou's main march southward along the canal. As long as they reached Haimen, Chongming's garrison could rescue them by boat. Of course, the premise is that Mrs. Xing does not choose to surrender.

Leng Yinghan translated all the contents of Shou Order's dictation into classical Chinese, and after Shou Xian read it twice and felt that there was no problem, he sealed it with red wax and stamped it with the ring seal of the orca.

"You're in Yangzhou, trying to spread the word. Jianyu went south this time to slaughter the city, and the people could hide as far away as possible. “

"Remember, don't let the Ming Dynasty officials notice that the source of the news is you."

Shou Order's tone was cold, like a cold winter wind blowing into the house.

"Yes, sir." Leng Yingxi's face turned pale and he didn't dare to look up.

Gao Jie's death means that the life of the Hongguang regime has entered the countdown stage, and the plan to keep the order will be accelerated.

The chaotic war between Jianghuai and Jianghuai caused many displaced people to go south and beg along the streets of Jiangbei and Changzhen Erfu, which was very miserable. Yang Wencong opened the treasury and scattered hundreds of stones of grain, barely starving too many people to death, but the long-term livelihood problem of the displaced people is not something he can solve with a single soldier. Even the first assistant Ma Shiying can't do anything about this.

Tea farmers, mulberry farmers, silk households and other displaced people have a variety of jobs soon available. Silk and cotton weaving and printing and dyeing workers are also not a big problem, and the export of raw cotton cloth to Japan and Nanyang has fallen off a cliff in recent years.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were already many professional weavers in the cities, and the economy was in recession, and these landless working class were the worst, and many people were unemployed and had no food and clothing. It is only because Jiangsu and Zhejiang are not as good as Fujian and Guangdong, and there are no mature conditions for immigration, that these people will starve in the city and sell their sons and daughters.

Nanyang and Taiwan are not the western heavens where Tang monks learn scriptures. There are many folk legends of people from Fujian and Guangdong who went to Nanyang and went to Taiwan to make a fortune. With the help of the Ming Dynasty officials, the recruitment of immigrants went smoothly.

There are still some blacksmiths, carpenters, bricklayers and other craftsmen among the Jiangbei refugees who want to get on the ship, and Cai Yuanding, who is specifically responsible for the recruitment work, also accepted all of them.

Sun Lin personally went to the refugee camp to inspect it.

Because of the thick porridge, the faces of the displaced people showed a look of joy that they had not seen for many days. Boys and girls with dark faces ran back and forth in the camp with bowls in hand, smiling innocently.

Someone under him reminded Sun Lin: "My lord, the number of people here obviously exceeds the agreement between Bing Xian and them. ”

Sun Lin was silent for a long time, "The military constitution agreed on 500 households, not 500 people. The official looked at the bunch of people as 1 household. ”

In the green season, there is no food, and I don't know how many people can survive.

Ordinary artisan farmers are easy to do, and people with some fame like Wu Youxing and Bo Yu have to use some special methods if they don't want to, and Yang Wencong has to find someone to contact the water bandits in Taihu Lake.

Cai Yuanding bought hundreds of young women in Jiangbei, 3 taels of silver per person, and the cheap ones made people sigh. Jiangnan Shilin has a lot of discussions about this, and public opinion has added another stroke to the crime of Yang Wencong of the Ma Party.

Sun Lin didn't sit idly by this time, hurriedly found Shou Order, and made it clear that he was against continuing to buy women.

Shou Xuan was a little angry, "The four towns in Jiangbei are robbing people's houses, killing people, setting fires, and abducting women, and you are powerless to stop them. Liu Zhaoji, the chief soldier of the Gansu regiment, and Huang Zhikui, the deputy chief soldier of Zhejiang, were in the south of the Yangtze River because of the looting, and Liu Zhaoji's cavalry said that the four towns killed the Earl Feng by robbery, they were afraid of a fart, and you were powerless to stop it. I have taken money and bought and sold it freely, but you will oppose it? ”

"The affairs of the Ming Dynasty are not only bad in the hands of the rogues, but also in the hands of those rogue generals. Is the lord of the country a stream general? Sun Lin didn't back down at all, "Brother Long You is a friend when he is the lord of the country, and he agrees that you have a great reputation for recruiting immigrants in Jiangnan, please consider it for my brother." ”

Looking at the Ming Dynasty officials who did not retreat in front of him, he was helpless to keep order. Sun Lin helped a lot this time, and he had underestimated that the impact of buying a woman would be so serious, so he could only stop Cai Yuanding.

In order to transport away these immigrants, Shou Xian borrowed all of Jin Shiying's sand boats, and the number was definitely not enough. The north-south Grand Canal was cut off from private trade, and now there are more than 300 civilian ships gathered in Yangzhou alone, Cai Yuanding bought 100 slightly larger ships here, and hired boat owners, most of them are dhows, and the price is not expensive. Boat owners on the Yangtze River generally call boats their home, and Yangzhou is no exception.

In the first phase of more than 4,000 immigrants, four bluffing boats in the fleet were drawn out in an orderly manner, commanded by Wu Zhixiang, and escorted the migrant fleet to leave first. Lao Wu and Enzo originally set up a team on the Zhenjiang Notification Ship, and transferred him to the river fleet in an orderly manner before entering the Yangtze River.

Wu Zhixiang asked: "Admiral, most of the migrant ships do not have the ability to go to sea and cannot sail to Taipei. ”

"Lao Wu, you don't have to worry about Taipei for now, and settle the immigrants in Chongming. Then take Chongming as a transit station, and use a ship that can go to sea to transfer to Sijiao Mountain. ”

In terms of average quality, this is the highest quality of immigrants that Taiwan has obtained, and there is absolutely no room for error.

It is not too difficult for these flat-bottomed boats to go down the river, only the whirlpools and rapids in this section of the Zhenjiang River require special attention, and they can walk as close to the side as possible. It is the beginning of March, and the voyage of more than 100 nautical miles from Zhenjiang to Chongming can arrive in a week.

"By mid-May at the latest, you have to move all the people to Sijiao Mountain." It will be too late, and many Ming troops will pour into Chongming Island in May, and they will not worry about the camp guarded by artillery, but it will be difficult for these immigrants to take care of them. Only when you go to Sijiao Mountain can you be reassured.

Wu Zhixiang frowned and calculated, two months. The requirement of order is actually quite excessive. Watching the sky and eating at sea is the most undated. Sijiao Mountain is more than 60 nautical miles away from Chongming, and it takes at least 3 to 4 trips to transport it with sand boats and large river boats that can go to sea.

Lao Wu didn't say much, and arched his hand: "I'll do my best." ”

Orderliness nodded. Among the several commanders of the inland river fleet, only Wu Zhixiang can now reassure Shou Order. Not many people have adventures to Australia and New Zealand on their resumes.

The escort team was based on the original Tamsui Fort garrison, and more than 20 people were transferred from the army and navy, and 100 people were made, and one person was assigned to each civilian ship. In order to avoid further complications, after the people and ships were ready, they immediately set sail east.

At the head of Jinshan Fort, the orderly saw the immigrant fleet depart, and Cai Yuanding is now the commander of the light pole.

Back in the fort, an old friend was already waiting for him, Wang Shize, a merchant from Linqing.

Shou Zhi picked up the name card brought by Wang Shize, "Dengzhou for a year or two, Boss Wang has always been good?" ”

Wang Shi smiled bitterly, "In this world, it's good for a family to live peacefully." ”

"Boss Wang is right," Shou Xuan nodded, "A family is better together than anything else." I remember the last time I parted, I told Boss Wang that if Daming couldn't stay any longer, he could go to Nanyang or Taiwan. ”

Wang Shi arched his hand, "Thank you for your kindness." But I have followed Zeng Zhongcheng for many years, and now I can't abandon him. ”

Zeng Ying, the former governor of Denglai, has a long-lost name. Wang Shi brought Zeng Ying's famous sticker, the five-color wax paper produced by Songjiang, which is very comfortable to the touch. There are only four words on the name sticker, "Zeng Zhonghan worships", and there is no self-title of waiter and waiter. Shou ordered and smiled, but it had Yang Tinghe's style. The name post is just a name, and the real content to be said is in the sub-opening at the back.

opened the vice opening, the content was also very brief, and I read it in a hurry, "Mr. Zeng invited me to Nanjing?" ”

……

Jiaoshanzhai, Zheng Hongkui saw the mighty immigrant fleet on the river.

"Zhiguan. Why do you say that Chen Shouxu wants to rob immigrants wherever he goes, and he would rather not have raw silk for the sake of immigration? ”

Zheng Zhiguan put down the binoculars and said with a smile, "Third brother, I have seen Chen Shouxu's letter to his eldest brother, and his words are very polite, and he will not compete with this domain for the goods of Jiangsu and Zhejiang. He was true to his word, and he must have been afraid of the 500 warships of his domain in Fujian. “

"The warships of this clan are definitely invincible at sea," Zheng Hongkui thought thoughtfully, "but I think there must be other reasons for Chen Shouxu to do this." ”

Note 1: For the number of more than 300 ships in Yangzhou, see Volume 16 of the Records of the Ancestors of the Qing Dynasty, May 2nd year of Shunzhi, "...... In the north of Yangzhou, more than 100 ships were obtained...... In the south of Yangzhou, more than 200 ships were obtained. ”

Note 2: The governor and above like to be called Mr. Lao.