March 27, the seventeenth year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty.

The news of the fall of Jingshi and the failure of the temple was only a little more than ten days old, and it had been transmitted to Xu and Huai by land, and then it was introduced to Nanjing by flying horses.

The earliest news is vague, only that there are very few thieves who break the outer city, and the eunuchs guarding the Yanyi Gate open the city gate and surrender, so the Jingshi fell instantly. Then there was the movement of artillery and fighting in the area of Zhengyangmen and Chaoyangmen, and then down, the officials and gentry who fled to Huai'an were vague and could not say anything at all.

It is no wonder that, except for those who stayed in Beijing to prepare for surrender, these officials and gentry had long lived in the outer city, and their luggage and everything were ready, and as soon as there was any movement, they immediately fled south with their families. They began to go out of the city at the same time as Luo Hu broke the Yanyi Gate, and at most stayed until the time after the fierce battle broke out in Chaoyangmen, so that whether the inner city was held or not, and whether the emperor and the prince fled, these most important news and major events were ignorant and ignorant.

Such a situation, of course, makes people uneasy, most of the ordinary people are still in the dark, and the gentry with a little status, especially the bigwigs who stay in Nanjing, know that things are not good, because since the beginning of March after receiving the emperor's edict from the king of the world, there has been no official order from the Beijing division, all the news has been cut off, and the bigwigs who stayed in the capital gather every day, but they can do nothing, they can only be relatively worried every day, and the meeting is dispersed after a long sigh, and the next day is still the same.

The bigwigs are like this, there is naturally an undercurrent surging below, all kinds of immortals are doing their own tricks, chaotic and doing their own thing, for a while, the mud and sand are rising, from Xu, Si, to Feng, Shou, Huai, Yang, the entire north and south of the Yangtze River, everywhere is the messenger of flying horse contact, between the towns and local officials, constantly in contact with each other, discussing major matters with each other, in contrast, the Liudu side because of the slow action, until now there is no charter to take the shot, invisibly, the status and authority have been seriously weakened.

At this moment, Sun Chuanting, who supervised the military affairs of the five provinces with the secretary of the Ministry of War, has invisibly become particularly important.

In the past few months, Sun Chuanting took his own Fubiao troops, together with Gao Jie's department, walked around the provinces of northern China in a big circle, it is strange to say, so hard, this supervisor did not lose much weight, but the person became darker, and because in northern Shaanxi is to run for his life, the usual sedan chair is not able to sit, in many passes and dangerous roads can not even sit in the car, months of hard work to eat, The spirit is much stronger, and the body is much stronger than before.

It's just that when the thieves approached Beijing, Sun Chuanting was originally going to swear north, but at the critical time, Liu Liu, who was stationed in Zhengyang, Henan, went first, and then Liu Zeqing, the chief military officer of Shandong, fled again.

Besides, the crown prince has already given orders, and the situation has evolved to the point where it is now, you might as well go south with Gao Jie first, and wait for the emperor and the crown prince to move south.

With this order, Sun Chuanting also went south with Gao Jie, and after arriving in Xuzhou, he knew that this place was a key point in the north and south, and if the Northern Expedition was to be restored, Xuzhou was a necessary strategic place.

Since ancient times, guarding the river must guard the Huai, without the upstream barrier of Xu Huai, it is useless to rely only on the separation of a river.

Sun Chuanting's supervisor Yamen is located in the original Xuzhou Mansion main hall, from the gate to the second gate, the instrument gate, the inner house door, all the passes are guarded by the brightly armored supervising soldiers, Sun Chuanting's lieutenants are all following him for many years, all of them are selected in Shaanxi to be beautiful and handsome, and the young man of Guanzhong who has lost his martial arts and bravery, so it is used to stand on duty, and it is very prestigious, so that the officials who came to see Sun Chuanting were invisibly deterred, and they began to tremble without meeting.

This kind of majestic guard, coupled with his status, and the "Shang Fang Sword" hanging in the middle of the public hall, are all part of his status as a supervisor who cannot be offended and neglected, even if it is a fierce general from a peasant army like Gao Jie, in this situation today, he is still in awe of Sun Chuanting, because Sun Chuanting has a good command and will never let his subordinates see his weakness and hesitation at any time.

At this point, he is conceited, and he does have a reason to be conceited.

At this moment, Sun Chuanting was extremely dissatisfied with Shi Kefa, who was guarding Nanjing!

Shi Kefa, there are more than squares, and there are also some changes. The biggest weakness is the lack of progress, there is no problem in dealing with people, but when it comes to state affairs, it is indecisive and lack of confidence.

As early as when Sun Chuanting first arrived in Xuzhou, he wrote a letter to ask people to send it to Nanjing quickly, persuading Shi Kefa to join him together, one is the cabinet minister who guards the capital, is the leader of the Donglin Party, and has full appeal, and Sun Chuanting himself is the minister of the superintendent, and Gao Jie has a heavy army together, the two jointly called for Huang Degong and other towns to set off immediately, gather in Xu, Zhou, Feng, Shou and other places, and then led by Shi Kefa, in the name of King Qin or the Northern Expedition, go north to rescue the monarch's father, at least, to create a huge momentum to come out!

The thieves did not have many soldiers and horses in Shandong, and the Henan area was also very empty, and the gentry and officials in Shandong and Henan were constantly adding chaos to the puppet official regime of the thieves, and the thieves could not be governed in many places.

In such a situation, as long as someone ascends to the top and shouts, it will naturally be responded by all sides, and the situation will be very different. But for some reason, Shi Kefa reacted coldly to his proposal, and among the four towns, except for Gao Jie, one town, which could be controlled by Sun Chuanting, the other three towns also ignored him at all.

Of course, there are many reasons for this, such as Liu Liangzuo's arrogance and lawlessness, while Huang Degong's conceit, and Liu Zeqing's close relationship with the Donglin Party, like Zuo Liangyu, only obeys the orders of the Donglin Party.

Now the situation in Beijing is unknown, and the three towns have just withdrawn from Henan, Shandong and other places to carry out the Northern Expedition, which is indeed a strong feeling of inadequacy...... But all this is not a reason, the key is that Shi Kefa's attitude is ambiguous!

And today, the Northern Expedition is still far away, and it cannot have the slightest impact on the overall situation of the Beijing Division...... Such an ending naturally disappointed him!

However, since Sun Chuanting was imprisoned in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, and then repeatedly defeated, defeated again and again, his heart is strong, and he has long been not comparable to ordinary people...... In case the emperor and the crown prince go south from the canal, his move will of course be a powerful response!

However, after ten days of hard work, his subordinate strikers have arrived near Tai'an, and they also sent spies to the north to inquire about the news, but unfortunately the news from the Beijing division is ambiguous, some people say that the emperor has been martyred, because there are eunuchs in the palace who saw the emperor and Wang Chengen on the Long Live Mountain, and some people say that the emperor and the prince are nowhere to be found, and some people say that they are already on the way to Huai'an...... Of course, there were many rumors about going to sea from Tianjin, but people at that time really didn't know much about Kaidao, and this real situation was hidden in many specious rumors, and it became less true and reliable.

In front of many staff members and subordinates, Sun Chuanting still looked stubborn and conceited, as if everything was under his control, and there were many rumors and the situation of the Jingshi, and he couldn't mind it.

But only when he was alone, remembering that the emperor could not go south, and the south was bound to fall into chaos, and the crown prince had the grace of knowing and encountering, and the virtue of helping and saving him, Sun Chuanting believed that if it were not for the crown prince speaking for him in the court and acting in secret, with his lack of foundation in the court, and even in the case of a great conflict with the Donglin Party, the last time he fled from Weinan without a fight, it is likely that he met the captain of Jinyiwei on the way, and issued an edict to behead him, at least he would be escorted to Beijing, locked in prison for interrogation, or Ming Zheng.

"If it weren't for Your Highness, my bones would have been [***]! But I can't do anything, I can only wait for the news, and when I think about it, it's really useless! ”

In the public hall, when he was alone, Sun Chuanting wandered around the room, panicking.

What should be done, he also did it all, but in addition to the small place of Xuzhou, in terms of his qualifications and actual influence as an official, in this part of Nanzhili, his influence is really small and pitiful, not to mention compared with Shi Kefa and other Donglin Party members, even compared with Ma Shiying, the governor of Fengyang, it is far inferior, after all, Ma Shiying has been an official here in Nanzhili for many years, including Liu Liangzuo and other towns, many military towns have been under his direct command, and there are also many alliances in the DPRK, compared to Shi Kefa, Sun Chuanting can see it, This Ma Shiying is quite skillful and scheming, and is a strong opponent that should be faced.

The world has become chaotic, and the past is no longer enough to do the law, and many people who were originally unknown have become more important at this moment.

Just as Sun Chuanting was wandering around the room, a very beautiful Chinese officer walked quickly to his side and said in a low voice: "My lord, the chief military officer Gao Jie said that he was unwell, and after listening to the call of the adult, he sent a Chinese guerrilla to him, saying that the adult has any orders, and he will explain to this guerrilla to go back and do it." ”

Sun Chuanting and Gao Jie came all the way from Shaanxi, the two armies met at the same time, to the Shandong area, the military department wrote, assigned some scattered armed forces to Sun Chuanting's superintendent, after arriving in Xuzhou, and annexed the local armed forces, enhance the strength, now he and Gao Jie have more than 43,000 people, more than 11,000 mules and horses, the four towns in the south of Zhili, with a town in Xuzhou as the strongest. There are more than 6,300 people and more than 2,100 mules and horses, and the strength is not weak, but compared to Gao Jie's department, it is still far behind, and after establishing himself in Xuzhou, Gao Jie is also gradually separated from Sun Chuanting, and he does not listen to the call.

"Hmph, then call that guerrilla in!"

To the surprise of his subordinates, Sun Chuanting did not get angry, but his face became more and more serious. Recently, Gao Jie's movements are strange, which really makes him very worried. But his own strength is limited, if the central authority is there, he can still coerce Gao Jie to obey orders, now at this time, the discipline is not good, and it is indeed not appropriate to regard the military as a slave as before!

(To be continued)