A few days later, Zhang Huangyan received the news of Zheng Chenggong's defeat in Nanjing. The news www.biquge.info came suddenly, and he was so shocked that he didn't say anything for a while. The four banners of the left wing of Jiangning in Jiangnan and the Han army flag in the city were almost all wiped out, and the green battalion soldiers were not a problem, how could this battle be lost, and how could it be lost, even if he racked his brains, he couldn't figure it out.

However, Zhang Huangyan knew very well that he was able to recover such a large area of land so smoothly, relying only on the big tiger Zheng Chenggong, with the blessing of this tiger skin, the local officials and the Qing army would be afraid, and the local gentry would support it, and everything would be logical.

But now, Zheng Chenggong's army withdrew from the Yangtze River, and there were only more than 2,000 combat auxiliaries in his hands, although there was no family drag, but there were tens of thousands of green battalion soldiers around, and the green battalion in each province was several times his total strength, not to mention that in order to ensure the stability of the occupied area, he dispersed the more than 1,000 soldiers to these three prefectures, and the gap in strength was really huge, as long as you can do addition and subtraction, you can see the problem.

"Victory and defeat are commonplace, and they are no different. Today, the people are in the heart, and the counties and towns in the upper reaches are guarded by me, if I can benefit from hundreds of ships to help, the world can still be done. If you give it up, what is it like a million living beings? ”

After sealing the letter, Zhang Huangyan solemnly handed it to the monk in front of him: "Master, you have to work." ”

"The poor monk will set off and deliver the letter."

The purpose of this visit was to deliver the letter to Zheng Chenggong and try to get Zheng Chenggong to send reinforcements to stabilize the occupied area in the upper reaches of Nanjing.

The envoy set off, Luo Yunzhang raised his head and said to Zhang Huangyan: "Da Sima, if the Yanping Domain can't come, or Master Songyin can't find it, it's better to send someone to contact the King of Huiji." ”

Zheng Chenggong has been defeated, the army is like a mountain, it is likely that he will not be able to contain the momentum, contacting Chen Wen is a clever trick, but Chen Wen Zhang Huangyan has not contacted before, and there has never been an intersection between the two sides, even if you want to find Wang Jiang who is now in Nanchang by means of familiar contact, far water can't quench your thirst.

"A dead horse is a live horse doctor."

Zhang Huangyan hurriedly wrote a letter and handed it over to a cronie to go to Hangzhou quickly. Two days later, Zheng Chenggong's news did not come back, but Hangzhou received the news, and changed horses to the messenger so that he could return as soon as possible, but Yin Yue, the Marquis of Dongyang, who stayed in Hangzhou, said that Chen Wen had been away from Hangzhou for several days, and his task was to guard the occupied areas of these four prefectures, and it was impossible to send troops.

Yin Yue spoke politely, but the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Ming military groups were somewhat hostile to them. Zhang Huangyan clearly heard Yin Yue's overtone-since you have the ability to cut off the beard, you should also have the ability to solve the unfavorable dilemma, at this time I think of us, it's too late.

Zhang Huangyan knew that if it was the Fujian Ming Army, it would be the same, because of the matter in Zhoushan, the two sides had become suspicious, even if Chen Wen was tolerant and willing to help Zheng Chenggong, but the dissatisfaction of the generals below still could not be appeased, and now it has appeared.

"It must be a joke that the Huiji Fan wants to see us!"

Luo Yunzhang was very angry, but Zhang Huangyan did not change his feelings towards Chen Wen because of this: "Impossible, this is not like Chen Wen's temperament, since he is willing to send troops to share the pressure, there is no reason not to help us." He will definitely not be in Hangzhou, but it is impossible to expect his generals to send troops, which may pull the entire Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Ming armies into a larger war. ”

"But ......"

"Forget it, it's better to ask for others than for yourself. For now, without reinforcements, how should we deal with it? ”

In the past two days, with the news of Zheng Chenggong's defeat, those local officials and green battalions who surrendered began to move, and today someone even came to ask Zhang Huangyan if he asked Chen Wen to send troops to help resist Ma Guozhu's army. This is an extremely dangerous signal, if the Ming army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang does not send troops, these people will no longer be the Ming ministers he wrote in his letter to Zheng Chenggong, "all for me to guard", but will be Xu Yuanzhi in the late Ming Dynasty who was in the Ming camp and had his heart in the Qing Dynasty!

"Da Sima, in that case, we must regroup our troops as soon as possible, scattered everywhere is really easy to be broken by the Tartars."

"That's true."

After the Ming army of Ningguo was assembled, it soon began to march in the direction of Chizhou, which was adjacent to the occupied area of the Ming army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Moreover, there were also well-connected rebel armies in the Huoshan and Yingshan areas in the north of the Yangtze River, and it was also a way to cross the Yangtze River and open up new occupied areas there.

The army set off and headed west, but Tanma soon reported to Zhang Huangyan that Ningguofu had changed banners, and the green camp of Ningguofu followed.

"Damn, I knew that I would have slaughtered all these Tartars, but now it's a legacy of tiger breeding."

Zhang Huangyan said that today's army is much stronger than in history, after all, it is still Zhang Mingzhen's old foundation, and those local green battalions formed in the south have also seen the military appearance these days, and they may not really have much confidence to win, but if they follow all the way, if they snowball and get bigger and bigger, the Ming army will become more and more dangerous.

"Da Sima, we still have to march normally, and we can't be in a hurry, otherwise the army will be difficult to control."

"Everything is General Lauro."

Luo Yunzhang is one of the more outstanding generals under Zhang Mingzhen, especially today, after the death of Ruan Jin, a famous sailor, he is the leading general, so Zhang Huangyan is quite dependent.

This Ming army of several hundred people camped normally, marched normally, and slowly moved westward. It wasn't until the boundary guard troops that left Ning Guofu engaged in a skirmish with the impatient Ning Guofu Green Battalion forward, and quickly defeated the opponent in front of them, but the Green Battalion of Ning Guofu did not give up because of this, and was still far behind.

It is extremely unrealistic to stop and fight this pursuer like Chen Wen did when he was in Siming Mountain, because the environment and the overall situation between the two are very different. There was no choice but to continue to think about Chizhou to move forward, but before he arrived in Qingyang County, the bad news came one after another.

First of all, the garrison on the Chizhou side was expelled by the local green battalion and forced to come to converge, and was on the way, but also recruited the green battalion in Chizhou. Next, bad news came from the Taiping Mansion, Ma Long, the general stationed in the local area, was attacked by the local green battalion, died in battle, and his troops were scattered. As soon as these two places were lost, the sea ships moored there were no longer owned by the Ming army, and it was in vain to cross the Yangtze River. What's more important is that there is one more pursuer in the back, but it is under the banner of the Huizhou Green Battalion.

The chasing army is getting closer and closer, the road ahead is slim, and it is not impossible to consider entering the boundary of Huizhou from Qingtian, in that case, stepping into the mountainous area, the strength advantage of the Qing army is not easy to develop, not to mention, the reaction of the Ming army in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Zhejiang will also be considered by these green battalions. But that area, Zhang Huangyan and the generals under his command are not familiar with it, especially they are far less familiar with the Huizhou Green Battalion, even if they enter the boundary of Huizhou, before the Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Ming armies can react, they have already been annihilated in an unknown mountain col and valley.

Along the Qixing River to the west, soon the Ming army entered Muzhen Town and camped, where it completed the merging with the Chizhou army, but also received a letter of persuasion from Ma Guozhu.

"Needless to say, Zhang Huangyan will never surrender!"

After expelling the envoys to surrender, Zhang Huangyan looked at the generals under his command and the soldiers in the town, although their morale did not collapse, but it was much lower than before.

This is inevitable, some time ago it was smooth sailing, but now it has fallen into a desperate situation where the troops are weak and have no foreign aid, and they are about to be surrounded by the superior Qing army, even if these soldiers can do it rather die than surrender, but the low morale is inevitable.

"Da Sima, while the Tartars have not yet come up, let's set off tomorrow before dawn."

It is already nightfall, and the closest Qing army is the Chizhou Green Battalion that followed the Ming army that came to converge, and the others are still twenty or thirty miles away, but the Tanma can never be thrown off, nor can it be bombarded, and sooner or later it will be overtaken. Especially now that they don't have much food and grass, they must move it as soon as possible.

"Let the soldiers go to bed early, and the third watch will set off south with dry food."

The ship is gone, and the only way to survive is to go south to Huizhou. just said that he asked the soldiers under his command to go to bed early, but Zhang Huangyan couldn't sleep at all.

The process of Nanjing's defeat has been vaguely transmitted, although the specific situation is not very clear, but Zheng Chenggong did not attack the city as soon as possible, but he still heard about the matter of waiting for the opponent to surrender under the city. From the rare brilliant victory since the Liao Incident to the inexplicable fiasco, Zhang Huangyan was lying in bed, the more he thought about this, the more he couldn't sleep, so he simply got up to patrol the camp and set an example, which was also a change of brain.

Out of the big tent, the lights in the distant room were bright, and those men were still preparing dry food for tomorrow. Along the way, he ran into a patrol and hung his head like a walking corpse. Zhang Huangyan wanted to say something, but he didn't know where to start, so he had to continue to walk forward.

The further you go north, the clearer the sound of the water becomes, and in front of you is the North River, which is pitch black, like the future of this lone army, only a few fires in the distance, which seem to symbolize hope, but it is also extremely weak.

"At this time, who is lighting a fire on the other side?"

Thinking of this, the cannon roared, and Zhang Huangyan hurriedly ran to the camp with his entourage Yang Guanyu, but when he ran back, the camp was already in chaos.

At this moment, it was late at night, and they were still a lone army, about to be besieged by the Qing army, at this time the sound of artillery sounded, obviously the prelude to the night attack of the Qing army, since everyone panicked, so that they fled in all directions, wanting to get out of this "dead land".

Zhang Huang Yanqiang grabbed an officer, only to see that this person's clothes were only hastily put on, not to mention the armor and helmet, and only one shoe was worn, even if he was pulled by Zhang Huang Yanqiang, he was in a hurry to escape from the crowd.

"Da Sima, the Tartar is here, let's run, if we don't run, we'll die."

"It's not a Tartar, it's not a Tartar, it's just that someone across the river has fired cannons."

"The cannon is a night attack."

The officer in front of him had been knocked down by fear, and Zhang Huangyan let go of his arm in a daze, letting him run away.

"Let's go find General Luo first!"

Zhang Huangyan is the commander, but he is a civilian official, this army is mainly Luo Yunzhang's subordinates, Zhang Huangyan knows that he is powerless, and only by finding Luo Yunzhang can he control the situation.

However, even if there are less than 2,000 people, it is not something that can be found if you want to find it. Moreover, there is a bigger question, that is, whether the Qing army really planned to attack at night, or something else, Zhang Huangyan himself did not know, and was soon carried away by the chaotic army and fled this area, until dawn He found out that Luo Yunzhang was in this rout of hundreds of people.

"Da Sima, I'm afraid we've been fooled."

Luo Yunzhang guessed correctly, the fires that Zhang Huangyan saw were the artillery team of the Chizhou Green Battalion, they originally planned to launch an attack before the arrival of the other Green Battalions the next day, so as to seize the first credit, so they decided to fire a few cannons at night to interfere with the rest of the Ming army, and the chances of victory during the attack would be greater.

Just as in history, the Huguang reinforcements led by Gushan Ezhen Ming Andali were eager to relieve the siege of Nanjing, because the water battle during the day and Zhang Huangyan's troops could not distinguish the victory or defeat, so they decided to set sail at night. As a result, when they set sail, they fired cannons to order all ships, but they were mistaken for a night attack by this lone army, and they directly blew up the battalion, and by the time Zhang Huangyan cleaned up the embers during the day, there were not many people left.

"What about the others?"

"Last night, there was a shortage of soldiers, but I'm afraid they have all run away."

Originally, there were more than 1,000 soldiers and horses, but now there are only a few hundred left, and they are all discarded armor, and there are even fewer of them with weapons in their hands.

"And what is this place?"

"The last general doesn't know, and I have to find a fellow to ask."

After running all night in the night, how can they still identify the direction, let alone the location without the direction, and they are not very familiar with the upstream prefecture and county of Nanjing, even if they know the location, they don't know how to go down.

After a long time, I finally learned from the local mountain people that this is already a mountainous area south of Muzhen Town, and it takes a hundred or dozens of miles to the south to enter the boundary of Huizhou, and there are many mountain roads. And their rout, the only remaining food was also lost in Muzhen Town, and at this moment it was in the predicament of fatigue and lack of food.

It is impossible to go back, there must have been occupied by the Qing army at this moment, and to go back is to die; Going south to Huizhou, the mountain road that is more than 100 miles long, there is no food, how to be good.

"There's a town to the west, let's go to the town, well, go to the town and let the gentry and rich families in the town praise some military supplies, so that we can continue on the road."

Luo Yunzhang was embarrassed to use the word robbery, he knew that Zhang Huangyan would never allow the army to govern the army, so he asked the gentry and rich families to donate some and eat as long as they could, and if not, he continued to find the squires on the road to ask for some, it was better than starving the whole army to death in the mountains.

It is difficult for a good woman to cook without rice, Zhang Huangyan has no way, fortunately, during this period of time, the support of the Jiangnan gentry is still relatively large, when he was in Chizhou, he remembered that there seemed to be a squire in that town, Zhang Huangyan felt that it was always possible to ask for some.

"Then let's go, but we have to tell the soldiers that we are the king's master, and we must not disturb the people, and we must not disturb the people."

"The last will obey."