Since the Far Eastern Army surrounded the Chu Palace, Zhu Huakui, who had long been frightened, handed over the guards and young servants of the palace to the command of Changshi Xu Xueyan in an attempt to hold the Chu Palace.

Although Xu Xueyan of the palace is still loyal, he wants to live and die with the palace. But many palace guards and young servants did not have this awareness. How many people in this world are willing to be loyal to their masters, and there will always be a few smart people in the face of the wolf-like Far Eastern Army outside the house.

Before Ye Changsheng and the others gave the order to attack, the two gates of the palace were opened by several palace guards, and they took the initiative to surrender to the Far Eastern Army.

Faced with such a situation, Ye Changsheng was of course not polite, and directly issued the order to attack, easily controlling the Chu Palace, and almost did not encounter resistance.

The Far Eastern Army did not make it so difficult for Zhu Huakui, the king of Chu of the Ming Dynasty, and a large number of his county kings and the Ming clan, but only restricted their personal freedom and waited for the order of the Military Commission.

Ye Changsheng also deliberately went to see Zhu Huakui, the king of Daming Chu, but the performance of this king of Daming Chu was very disappointing, and when he saw Ye Changsheng, he knelt on the ground with a "poof", kowtowed, and begged for mercy with a handful of snot and tears, Ye Changsheng They were very disappointed.

After the First Detachment of the Southern Corps took control of Wuchang Mansion, it began to carry out large-scale looting of grain, cloth and other materials in Wuchang Mansion in a planned manner with the assistance of the intelligence department.

Of course, the main thing for the troops is to collect food everywhere, and as for other supplies, they have to make way for food. Even a large number of gold, silver, jewelry, antique calligraphy and paintings and other rare treasures seized from the Chu Palace's mansion could only be temporarily sealed in the temporary warehouse at the Wuchang Mansion wharf.

There is no way, the ships of the First Fleet seem to be a lot, but in the face of the mountain of supplies, it is still a little stretched. Just one Wuchang Mansion, the seized grain and other materials are already an astronomical amount, and it is not possible to transport so much grain across the Yangtze River in ten days and half a month.

Moreover, although the First Fleet has dispatched a large number of troops, it has taken advantage of the well-developed water network in the Huguang region to quickly occupy the cities and towns along the Jingjiang, Xiangjiang, Yuanjiang, Zishui, and Lishui, as well as Dongting Lake, Honghu Lake, and many other lakes.

The results of the various units of the First Fleet were extremely brilliant, and there were large quantities of grain in stock at any wharf, which was unimaginable.

Since the great drought in Chongzhen, the price of grain in all parts of the Ming Dynasty has been rising upwards, and the Huguang area has gradually replaced the Suchang area since Jiajing, and has become the largest commercial grain base in the Ming Dynasty.

The continuous rise in grain also brought opportunities for gentry officials, local tyrants, landlords, and large businessmen in Huguang, Jiangxi, and other Jiangnan areas to make a fortune.

The grain captured by the First Fleet in the rivers and lakes was all grain that these gentry officials, princes and nobles, local tyrants, landlords, and large merchants had hoarded for several years.

The entire northern part of the Ming Dynasty was thousands of miles away from starvation, but a large amount of grain in the south of the Yangtze River, in addition to the grain that must be paid every year, was hoarded by the gentry groups and big businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River, and they also made amazing profits in the past few years.

In this era at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the imperial court wanted money but no money, and there was no grain for food, and the common people in the world lived hard. However, those sanctimonious and hypocritical gentry groups under the Great Tomorrow, as well as the vassal kings and nobles in various places, are all rich and rival countries.

Even if the dynasty is about to fall, they are still shamelessly making a fortune, in fact, the death of the Ming Dynasty will die on the bodies of these parasites who don't want to be embarrassed.

After all, the First Fleet was under-manned, and when it occupied a place, it could only leave a small number of troops to collect food, and then stationed on the spot and waited for the fleet to send ships to transport food. Although there were many ships in the First Fleet, in the face of such a large amount of food, the ships were certainly not enough.

For this reason, Ye Changsheng specifically asked the Theater Command for reinforcements, hoping to reinforce some ships to strengthen the First Fleet. He also gave a detailed report to the Theater Command on the predicament that the First Fleet is currently experiencing.

In fact, not only the First Squadron of the Southern Corps, but also the Second Squadron and the Third Squadron in Jiangxi and Nanzhili also faced this dilemma, although the situation of the other two fleets was not as severe as that of the First Fleet, but the amount of grain they captured was also very huge.

Now that the Central Plains Campaign Command has moved forward to the city of Beijing, Li Ming, the theater command, immediately attached importance to this situation after receiving telegrams from various detachments of the Yangtze River Fleet of the Southern Corps.

After the general offensive of the Central Plains Campaign began, the offensive of the Northern Corps and the Eastern Corps went smoothly and unexpectedly, and the speed of the various assault units was very fast, greatly exceeding the previous expectations.

Although it was not a military problem, it also showed that the theater command was not prepared enough before the war, which led to the dilemma of insufficient troops and ships for all detachments of the Yangtze River Fleet.

Although the Far Eastern Army launched the Central Plains Campaign, mainly to occupy the area north of the Yangtze River, the Southern Corps' plan to plunder the Jiangnan River was of great significance to the company's entry into the Central Plains.

In the final analysis, it is because of the lack of grain, the northern part of the Ming Dynasty has been in drought for many years, coupled with the thieves everywhere, such as Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Shandong and other regions, it has long become erosive, and agricultural production in many places has almost come to a standstill.

Although the Far East Company spent several years to reserve a large amount of materials in order to launch the Central Plains Campaign, it was still slightly insufficient in the face of the vast territory of the northern Ming Dynasty and countless people waiting to be fed.

And the biggest gap is still grain, grain, or special food.

Since the Far East Company came to this era, the food problem has been plaguing the Far East like a dream demon. Now the Southern Corps' plan to plunder Jiangnan is very successful, because the captured grain has greatly exceeded expectations.

But now it is a bit funny that it is in trouble because of the lack of enough ships.

Li Ming only thought about it for a few minutes before he made a decision. He turned to Lin Hua, the chief of staff behind him, and shouted, "Old Lin, record the order......"

When he said this, he walked back and forth in the theater headquarters, and then suddenly turned around and said in a deep voice: "Send a telegram to the Southern Corps, and order the Yellow River Fleet and the Canal Fleet, except for the reserved part of the river engine sailing ships, to be responsible for the river surface guard task, and all the other inland river steam deck barges will all go south to reinforce the Yangtze River Fleet." All the landing forces stopped the offensive and stood in place. ”

Li Ming thought for a moment when he said this, and then said: "In addition, all the ships of the Eastern Corps will also go south to reinforce the Yangtze River Fleet of the Southern Corps...... Tell all the troops that when carrying out the order, you must not discount me, and you must send me the ship over immediately, if anyone dares to delay, Lao Tzu will kill him. (To be continued.) )