Although Xu Hongzu did not have any fame from the imperial examination, not even a child, strictly speaking, he was not a person in Shilin, but the Xu family was a big family in Jiangyin, and he himself after 20 years of traveling the world, he was also well-known in Susong and other places, so he had intersections with many well-known figures in Shilin who were born in Nanzhili. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

For example, Wen Zhenmeng, the champion of the Apocalypse, also admired Xu Hongzu, and there was a lot of correspondence between the two, and some of the letters were handed down to later generations and were compiled into the anthology of the two.

Another example is Chen Renxi, a tanhua during the Apocalypse, who also had contacts with Xu Hongzu, and also had a lot of correspondence.

Whether it is Wen Zhenmeng or Chen Renxi, they appreciate Xu Hongzu's vision, ambition and talent in geography.

And Xu Hongzu also learned a lot about the military and political situation of the current court from the correspondence with Wen Zhenmeng, Chen Renxi and other officials in the court, and he also admired the young Emperor Chongzhen, knowing that this was a rare British master who appreciated miscellaneous studies and was interested in Zhongxing.

This is also one of the reasons why this geographer, who originally had no intention of pursuing a career in office, was determined to accept the invitation of Zhou Yanru, the secretary of the Nanjing Ministry of Rites, to serve in Nanjing Guozijian, and now he accepts the will of the imperial court and takes up a post in Beijing.

After receiving the will of the imperial court, the forty-two-year-old Xu Xiake bid farewell to the Nanjing Guozijian, first went down the river to the east, returned to Jiangyin's home, settled the family affairs, and a few days later, set off north with a few loyal servants, took a boat through the canal, and rushed all the way to Beijing.

In the south of the Yangtze River at the beginning of May, the warblers are singing and dancing, and the grass and trees are verdant, which is already a summer scene.

At the same time that Xu Hongzu, that is, Xu Xiake, set off to the north, a military newspaper from Huzhou Mansion in Zhejiang Province was also carried by a team of fast horses, crossed the Yangtze River near Jiangyin by boat, and galloped north.

Riding a horse and taking a post road is much faster than taking a boat through the canal, six hundred miles is urgent, and the most urgent military information can be sent to the Beijing division and sent to the desk of Emperor Chongzhen in a few days and nights.

The military intelligence report carried by this team of fast horses came from Huzhou, Zhejiang, on the south bank of Taihu Lake.

Let's say that the Taihu Lake water thieves Tu Achou and his gang, under the leadership of Jiashan traitor Cheng Zai, Chen Dalang and others, took the county seat of Jiashan by surprise and forced the Jiashan county order to death.

And because Tu Achou and his gang were originally water thieves who robbed the road on Taihu Lake, although they were also engaged in the business of killing heads, they never thought that they could really capture the state capital and start a rebellion, and now they occupy Jiashan County by chance, and they can't change their thief nature of grabbing a handful and leaving for a while.

Although Tu Achou's gang is the largest water thief on Taihu Lake, the total number of people is only about 300 people, and this time they entangled several other small water thieves, and they barely managed to get more than 500 people ashore.

With the addition of Cheng Zai and Chen Dalang's subordinates, the sum of the two sides is just over a thousand.

Under the leadership of Tu Achou, more than 1,000 people broke up the inspection department that escorted the victims to sea, and then drove and coerced the more than 2,000 victims who did not escape, and captured Jiashan County.

Except for the Taihu Lake water thieves in Tu Acho's headquarters, the other thieves had no combat effectiveness at all.

Tu Acho, Cheng Zai, and Chen Dalang also know this well. In the final analysis, Tu Augly is just a water thief who robs houses on Taihu Lake, and although Cheng Zai has a little knowledge, he is just an ordinary maritime merchant who has gone to sea.

Therefore, although these people captured the county seat as they wished, they did not dare to stay here for a long time.

This is because the location of Jiashan is too important, just between Suzhou Mansion and Jiaxing Mansion, which belongs to the first prosperous place in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the imperial court will never sit idly by and watch the fact that Jiashan is captured.

Moreover, there are several guards around Jiashan, and there are guards in nearby Taicang, Jinshan, Haining and other places.

Although the armament of the Jiangnan Guard Station has been abandoned for a long time, the embers left by the governor Hu Zongxian in the southeastern provinces to fight against the Japanese are still there during the reign of Emperor Jiajing.

And because the coastal area of eastern Zhejiang is prepared all the year round, the coastal guard post should be more capable of fighting in addition to the nine border guard posts, at least a little stronger than the pure inland guard post.

Of course, after all, many years have passed since the anti-Japanese preparation, and the combat power of the garrison army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is no longer as strong as it was back then, but no matter what, the number of people who should have remained is still so seventy or eighty percent.

There are 12 guards along the coast of Zhejiang, with a total of 13,600 guards and 1,800 sailors, totaling 15,400 people under the command of the Zhejiang General Army.

Among them, except for the Dinghai Battalion Sailor Division, which is a battalion soldier and is prepared to fight pirates all year round, so it is full, and the other guards have 13,600 soldiers, but there are only 10,000 people, including the generals.

Of course, this little power is nothing in the eyes of the Northeast Jianyu, and it can be destroyed in a battle, but in the eyes of these water thieves and disaster victims, these elites who fought against the Japanese back then are so powerful that they dare not look up to them.

After Tu Achou and others drove the rebels to occupy Jiashan County, they discussed with Cheng Zai and Chen Dalang, and several people quickly reached an agreement.

They knew that staying in Jiashan was not a long-term solution, and the best choice for them was to stay away from the Ming army's garrison as soon as possible.

Therefore, the day after Tu Achou and others captured Jiashan, they connived at their water thieves and rebels to loot in Jiashan County, and then fled westward.

Because the east of Jiashan is Jinshanwei, the south is Hainingwei, and the north is Taicangwei.

But Tu Achou and the others didn't know that there were so many things in the Ming army's guards, they only knew that there were garrisons in these three directions, and only western Zhejiang was empty, because western Zhejiang had never taken on the heavy responsibility of preparing for the coastal guards.

Except for some almost abandonment of the Township Soldiers of the Inspection Division, there was no Ming army stationed in the system at all.

The most important thing is that the western part of Zhejiang is all mountainous, and it is located at the junction of southern Anhui and Zhejiang in the later generations, the mountains are continuous, the forests are dense, especially the Tianmu Mountain stretches for hundreds of miles from south to north, among which there are many thieves and grass, which can be used as a place to settle.

In this way, Tu Achou and Cheng Zai, who are quite familiar with current affairs, after looting Jiashan County, took a cart of grain, cloth, and stolen cattle, horses, pigs and sheep, abandoned Jiashan County, and went all the way to the west.

The situation was the same as they imagined, not long after they left, Fan Jingwen rushed to Jiaxing Mansion from Hangzhou with the hastily recruited guards, and after learning the details, while reporting it, he commanded the men and horses to recover Jiashan County, and at the same time sent people to reconnoiter the whereabouts of the rebellious people, while waiting for the instructions of the imperial court and the Fujian and Zhejiang Governor's Palace.

And Tu Achou took more than 1,000 thieves and thousands of people who were forced to follow the thieves, besieged Jiaxing Mansion all the way to the west, and the inspection departments stationed in Huzhou Mansion were all about to collapse at the touch of a button, and they couldn't resist it at all.

As a result, half a month after starting from Jiashan, they looted villages and towns along the way, coerced the people, and the team grew like a snowball, and soon grew to more than 20,000 people.

However, more than 20,000 people looked like a huge mess, but it was really a mess.

At the beginning, there was still a lot of food stolen from several grain stores in Jiashan County for consumption, but after arriving near Wucheng County, where the Huzhou capital is located, there were too many chaotic people who came to defect and coerce all the way, and the backbone of these chaotic people was the Taihu Lake water thieves, and there was no good hand at managing their finances, so the food looted along the way was quickly consumed.

In the absence of a way, Tu Acho, who originally didn't want to attack the state capital again, reluctantly followed the advice of Cheng Zai, Chen Dalang and his subordinates, and led a group of loosely disciplined and low-fighting chaotic people to attack the Huzhou capital city, trying to break it, and then loot it again, and then fled to the deep mountains in western Zhejiang to hide for the winter.

It's a pity that Tu Achou and others looted all the way, and the momentum was very huge, which also made Zhao Jianji, the prefect of Huzhou Prefecture, receive a warning very early, so he also ordered all counties to clear the walls and defend the city, and made full preparations for prevention.

Tu Achou and others besieged the capital city of Huzhou for more than ten days, except for many casualties, they did not climb the city once.

Because of the lack of food and weapons, especially the lack of craftsmen to make large-scale siege equipment, Tu Achou and others stayed outside the Huzhou capital for more than ten days, and finally returned in vain and had to withdraw from the siege.

During this period, Wucheng County, which also took the initiative to lead the township soldiers out of the city to pursue, was defeated in the township Gongsheng Ling Xuanfang.

In the end, under the pursuit of Ling Xuanfang, the leader of the Huzhou Township Army, Tu Achou took more than 20,000 hungry chaotic people, and once again went westward, and under the response of a group of bandits, he turned around and came to the northwest end of Tianmu Mountain, that is, Niutou Mountain at the junction of southern Anhui and western Zhejiang in the later generations, and plunged into the mountain, which was regarded as a temporary foothold.

Ling Xuanfang brought only more than 1,000 Huzhou township soldiers, Tu Achou led the rebels to go up the mountain under the response of the thieves in Niutou Mountain, entered the forest, and did not dare to go into the mountains to chase and suppress, so they had to let people go back to report to the prefect Zhao Jianji, while leading the township soldiers raised by their own funds, and gathered the township soldiers of the inspection department in Changxing, and set up camp in the Erjieling on the east side of Niutou Mountain.