After receiving Wang Xu's application for an audience, Lu Fatzi quickly dismissed the plan to personally lead an army to reinforce the Taiping Mansion, and instead sent Han Yuanren to lead an army of 3,000 to the Taiping Mansion to help Wang Xu and Li Jiyang guard the west gate of Nanjing. [Full text reading] -- Although Wang Xu did not mention the intention in the letter, since Kang Mazi sent Lu Fatzi's only friend in the Qing court to Nanjing, Lu Fatzi had more or less guessed what his intention was.

Fortunately, although there are nearly 50,000 mite Qing troops coming to the city on the Taiping Mansion, but the skills of its commander Prince Kang Jieshu, Lu Fatzi has long been clear, and it is expected that with the strength of Wang Xu's army, the strength to repel the incoming enemy head-on may not be enough, but it is not a big problem to hold the Taiping Mansion city with all its might, and at the same time, the Taiping Mansion City is only more than 150 miles away from Nanjing City, and it is very convenient to reinforce and retreat. Therefore, Lu Fatzi didn't have to worry too much, he could settle down and wait for Wang Xu's visit while starting to solve two technologies - fixed medicine packs and lost wax casting shells.

As early as the camp of Qujing Nule Fengfeng, Lu Fatzi had already discovered the weakness of the Wu army and the Qing army's artillery reloading and charging, and also discovered the weakness of the poor accuracy, poor air tightness, and insufficient range of the shells cast by the clay mold technology in this era. But considering that sooner or later he will have to fight against the Wu army brigade and fight the country by himself, so Lu Fatzi just didn't say anything - now that Lu Fatzi is in charge of his own affairs, naturally there will be no hiding in this regard.

Of course, I didn't talk about it in Nule Peak and Ji Ji Mountain before, but Lu Fatzi had already secretly started to study the material problem of the fixed medicine package, and found that with China's special raw silk as the outsourcing material, it was possible to make the artillery quickly loaded with a fixed charge medicine bag, and now Lu Fatzi occupies half of the silk country, and this technology is naturally much more convenient and faster to use. In just a few days, the raw silk that Cao Xi was going to make clothes for Kang Mazi's family turned into silk, and then into thousands of fixed-pack medicine bags, which became the accomplice weapon of the Fat Army to kill the Qing Dynasty soldiers.

The problem of the fixed powder pack, as long as you know the principle, can be easily solved, but the problem of using the lost wax method to cast cannonballs is not so easy to solve for Lu Fatzi, who has a rotten level of craftsmanship, although Chinese craftsmen have invented the lost wax casting method as early as two thousand years ago, and there are also a few craftsmen in Nanjing who have mastered this process, but at most they can only cast some high-precision solid shells, and they can do nothing about the hollow flowering shells required by Lu Fatzi.

There are many outstanding people in the south of the Yangtze River, just when Lu Fatzi and Nanjing craftsmen are at a loss, Gao Dejie and Li Guodong, who have captured Yangzhou City, sent a boat to Lu Fatzi to send a young man named Huang Luzhuang, and sent it to Lu Fatzi together - and a wooden bicycle made by Huang Luzhuang himself! Seeing the world's first bicycle, Fat Lu was so excited that his whole body was trembling, and he immediately invited Huang Luzhuang to join the grass and be the chief craftsman of the Fat Army, and Huang Luzhuang, who was the same raccoon dog as Xu Zhengming, calmly told Fat Lu that he was willing to be a lackey for Fat Lu, and the only condition was that Fat Lu must teach him the manufacturing technology of the airship! Then naturally, the chief craftsman of the Fat Man Army was surnamed Huang, and the casting problem of the high-precision flowering cannonball was also kicked by Lu Fatzi like a leather ball to the genius craftsman Huang Luzhuang.

Misfortune is not a single line yesterday, Fu Wushuang has come so far, since the fight Lu Fatzi took 50,000 Wu Army as a bargaining chip to win the victory of Nanjing, the goddess of luck seems to have seen the eyes of the eyes continue to favor Lu Fatzi, on the tenth day of the fifth month, Li Tianzhijun escorted Mu Tianyan to Suzhou City, Mu Tianyan to the city to persuade surrender, Suzhou Governor Ning Yunpeng hesitated, and did not reply.

In the evening of the same day, Li Tianzhi's army scouts inadvertently hijacked a messenger outside the city, and searched out from the messenger a letter from the Qing army in Zhejiang to Ning Yunpeng, and found that Benta had sent his subordinate Hu Tu to lead an army of 5,000 troops to reinforce Suzhou, and had arrived in Jiaxing, and rushed to the rescue of Suzhou within a day at the latest. Li Tianzhi decisively gave up the surrender plan and commanded the Fat Army to attack the city overnight, never thinking that the artillery of the Fat Army had just begun to be loaded with ammunition, and Ning Yunpeng, who had made up his mind, had already opened the city gate and led the whole city army and people out of the city to surrender. The Fat Army successfully entered the city. After receiving the news of the fall of Suzhou, Hutu reluctantly gave up the northward rescue plan and instead went east to reinforce Songjiang Mansion, which was relatively minor in this era, and Suzhou officially fell into the hands of the Fat Army.

At this point, the Fat Army has basically controlled the four prefectures of Jiangning, Zhenjiang, Changzhou and Suzhou in Jiangsu, as well as the most prosperous area in the south of Yangzhou Mansion and Taiping Mansion in Jiangxi. And the primary problem in front of Lu Fatzi is how to block the Qing army's counterattack and gain time, digest and completely control this most fertile land in the whole world - a really fat and oily land.

Of course, no matter how lucky you are, if you want to expect the Qing Dynasty to ignore Zhu Yuanzhang who is entrenched in Nanjing like the Yuan Dynasty did to Zhu Yuanzhang, it is a good thing to think about, at least the Prince of Kang of the Great Qing Dynasty is not like giving Lu Fatzi this opportunity, since arriving in Taiping Mansion on the eighth day of the fifth month, Jie Shu commanded the Qing army in Luzhou and the Anqing army, and actually launched three sieges on the Taiping Mansion City in ten days. Fortunately, Wang Xu, the defender of the fat army, is still a reliable master in the war, relying on the strong city and the strong army to defend and not retreat, three times to repel the Qing army's attack, Jieshu lost his soldiers, suffered heavy casualties, and lost his spirit.

On May 19, after waiting anxiously for many days, the dusty Wang Xu and his entourage finally arrived in Yangzhou, and at the same time, probably to express their goodwill, the two deputies sent by Kang Mazi to Wang Xu this time were also carefully selected, one was Suo Mintai, the first-class guard of Suo Etu's younger brother who had received Lu Fatzi's great favor, and the other was Kang Mazi's confidant Wu Dan, who had never had any grievances with Lu Fatzi, not only let him monitor Wang Xu and Suo Mintai, who were close to Lu Fatzi, but also not like Cao Yin, Li Xu then clashed with Fat Lu, which was a big deal. Lu Fatzi was overjoyed when he heard the news, and hurriedly ordered his cousin Qin Yong and his confidant Wang Shaobo to go to Zhenjiang to greet him, and repeatedly asked that he must be respectful and courteous.

On May 20, Wang Xu's fleet arrived in Zhenjiang, Wang Shaobo and Qin Yong went to the dock to greet them, saluted a thousand times, and introduced their identities, and when they heard that Wang Shaobo was Lu Fatzi's confidant master and Qin Yong was Lu Fatzi's cousin, Wang Xu, Suo Mintai and Wu Dan were also very happy, Wang Xu also took Wang Shaobo's hand and asked, "Are the three good brothers okay?" After a few years, I don't know if he has lost weight again? ”

"Lord Wang, the student's owner is not very good." Uncle Wang confessed again, and told Wang Xu very honestly: "The owner is not only not very good, but also contracted a little illness, so he sent students and General Qin to Zhenjiang to greet Lord Wang on his behalf, otherwise, the owner originally planned to personally go to Zhenjiang or Yangzhou to meet Lord Wang." ”

"Brother Miyoshi is sick?" Wang Xu was stunned and hurriedly asked, "How is the condition?" Is there any in Langzhong, please? ”

"Of course Lang Zhong is invited, and Zhu Fangdan, another master of the owner's family, is the number one miracle doctor in the world." Wang Shaobo replied worriedly: "But the owner is a heart disease, even if it is Doctor Zhu, he is helpless." ”

"What's wrong with Brother Sanhao?" Wang Xu asked with concern again.

"This ......." Wang Shaobo hesitated for a moment, and then said in a low voice: "I was scolded by the second prince, our owner established a miracle for the prince, but the second prince did not reward the owner for his merits, but instead sent a letter to insult and threaten, and the owner was angry, so he had a heart disease." ”

Wang Xu is an honest man, when he heard this, he was immediately overjoyed, and when he peeked at Wu Dan and Suo Mintai, he found that Kang Mazi's two henchmen and guards were also full of joy, Wang Xu hurriedly said to Wang Shaobo: "Mr. Shaobo, then let's not delay, let's go to Jiangning City immediately, since the three good brothers are ill, I should go to Jiangning City to visit as soon as possible." ”

"Lord Wang, you're not in a hurry for such a little time, are you?" Wang Shaobo smiled bitterly and said, "The students and Zhenjiang officials have already prepared ...... for Lord Wang and the two guards in the city. ”

"Don't, don't." Wang Xu hurriedly waved his hand and said seriously: "Brother Sanhao knows my temper, last time in Qujing, I just asked him to entertain me with pancakes and green onions, and this time it is the same, let's hurry on the road and go to Jiangning City to eat the pancakes and green onions of the three good brothers." Over there, Suo Mintai and Wu Dan were also very incorruptible, resolutely refused Wang Shaobo's hospitality, and resolutely asked to go to Nanjing in a hurry, Wang Shaobo had no choice but to quickly let Qin Yong lead the team and escort Wang Xu's boat upstream, rushing to Nanjing to meet with Lu Fatzi.

At noon on the second day, Wang Xu's boat arrived at the Lion Rock Wharf in Nanjing, and Lu Fatzi led Han Daren, Gao Hongchen, Hu Tongchun, Quan Jie and Xie Dong and others to welcome them to the wharf in person. Suo Mintai, who had received the great grace of Lu Fatzi, also honestly kowtowed in front of Lu Fatty, and called him Engong, and the sickly Lu Fatzi didn't even dare to say it, and personally picked up Suo Mintai to ask for warmth, and asked Suo Mintai to convey his greetings to Suo Etu for himself, Suo Mintai agreed, and sincerely invited Lu Fatzi to have time to go to the capital and be a guest at his Hesheri house, Lu Fatzi happily accepted the invitation, and the guests and hosts were happy.

The stars hugged Wang Xu like the moon and entered Nanjing City, and then came to the Yamen of the former Liangjiang Governor where Lu Fatzi stayed, and sat down according to the guest and host, Wang Xu immediately praised: "The three good brothers are really worthy of being recognized as capable ministers in the world, Jiangning City has just experienced war, in just one month, the streets are as prosperous as before, business and travel are prosperous, the people live and work in peace and contentment, drum up their bellies and praises, and the officials of the world should really take the three good brothers as models." ”

"Brother Zi has won the award, but the younger brother really doesn't dare to be it." Fat Lu hurriedly humbled himself, "Speaking of which, this is all the credit of Lord Xie Dongxie, without his full assistance, Nanjing City would have recovered so quickly?" ”

"Xie Dong?" Wang Xu's eyebrows furrowed slightly, turned his thin face to Xie Dong, who had been cursed by Kang Mazi many times, and said with a smile: "Lord Xie, you really have made the lower officials bitter enough, you took a Jiangning City to repay the life-saving kindness of the three good virtuous brothers-the lower officials who have also received the great grace of the three good virtuous brothers, but because of this, they were not slandered and slandered by the young villain." ”

Xie Dong is more honest than Wang Xu, and his face was red when Wang Xu's words were so red that he didn't dare to say anything. Fat Lu hurriedly smiled and said: "Brother Zizhu must not say that, Brother Xie also abandons the dark and chooses to be wise." Moreover, under the circumstances at that time, if Brother Zishu and Brother Xie were allowed to get along with each other, the younger brother firmly believed that Brother Zizhu would not watch the younger brother's 300,000 troops starve to death under the city of Nanjing, and would definitely do his best to pull the brother along. ”

"Not necessarily." Wang Xu smiled and said: "Although the foolish brother is not talented, he also knows that there is a clear distinction between public and private, if it was replaced by the foolish brother in this Jiangning City, the more than 40,000 troops of the three good and virtuous brothers, I am afraid that they will not be able to enter this Jiangning City." ”

"Really?" Lu Fatzi smiled slightly and asked: "Brother Zizhuo, since you are so clear about public and private, then you and I are now our own masters and enemies of each other, why did Brother Zishu come to this Nanjing city to talk about the old days with my brother and me?" ”

"I'm here to save my brother!" Wang Xu replied categorically: "I also came to save the 50,000 soldiers of the virtuous brother!" ”

"Save?" Fat Lu smiled and asked rhetorically, "Brother Zishu, is there anything that the younger brother needs to be saved by his brother?" Now that the younger brother is sitting in a majestic city, he has plenty of food and money, and there are several friendly armies on the periphery ready to meet him, so he really doesn't know what danger there is. ”

"Brother Sanhao, don't laugh too early." Wang Xu replied with a smile: "The three good virtuous brothers are besieged by hundreds of thousands of troops of my Qing Dynasty, and the news is blocked, so you must not know that the main force of Shaanxi and Gansu in our Qing Dynasty has successfully broken through under the leadership of the prince of Doluo, right?" ”

"Oza has successfully broken through?" Lu Fatzi was really a little surprised, and said that Wu Laohan personally went out of the horse, why did he let Ezha slip away? Han Daren and Gao Hongchen and other generals next to him were also taken aback, and Gao Hongchen couldn't help but shout: "What are you bragging?" Our prince has surrounded your main force of Shaanxi and Gansu in Baoning for nearly two months, how can the old dog of Oza break through? ”

"General Hong Chen doesn't believe it?" Wang Xu smiled, took out a piece of music from his arms, and said with a smile: "This is the autographed piece of the prince of Doro, after being sent to the capital, the emperor sent 800 miles to catch up with the foolish brother's boat, and used it to ask the three good brothers to give the purpose." ”

Lu Fatzi quietly gave Xiao Erlang a look, Xiao Erlang was busy stepping forward to take the fold, and then handed it to Lu Fatman, when Fat Lu took it, he found that this fold was indeed written by Eza's own handwriting, and it was crookedly written on the main force of the mite Qing Shaanxi and Gansu. It turned out that the Baoyi army led by Tong Guogang adopted Zhou Peigong's strategy, attacked the Wu army's baggage team, and burned the new firearms sent by Wu Guogui to Tao Jizhi, and then the Baoyi army took advantage of the opportunity of the Wu army's morale to break through the Wu army's blockade with all its might, and went all out to enter the territory of Xing'an and get in touch with Ozha.

"Is this also called a breakout?" Fat Lu laughed, and while handing the fold to Han Daren and Gao Hongchen and the others, he said with a smile: "Why didn't the prince of Doro even dare to write about the number of troops who had successfully broken through on the fold?" Trapped in Baoning Mansion for nearly two months, and crossed the Bazhong Mountain Range, which is full of lofty mountains, no food and no city, even if our prince does not send troops to chase and kill, he will have to starve to death on the road and die of seventy or eighty percent of the people and horses, right? ”

Wang Xu was silent, in fact, Wang Xu had already seen the strangeness of this twist, since Oza didn't even dare to write how many troops successfully broke through on the twist, it proved that the main force of Shaanxi and Gansu was so heavy that it was unbearable to see the casualties, 100,000 trapped troops, and I am afraid that there were not even 10,000 people alive to break through, and the reason why Kang Mazi wanted to show this twist to Lu Fatzi was that his purpose was definitely just to create some psychological pressure on Fat Lu and give Fat Lu a dismount.

"Huh." Han Daren also laughed, and said in a huff: "General, if the last general suffers a big defeat in the future, he must learn from the prince of Doro to write a battle report like this, even if only the last general is out of the encirclement, he must tell the general in the battle report that the last general's whole army has successfully broken through!" ”

"If it were me, I would definitely add one sentence - the last general will kill countless enemies!" Gao Hongchen also laughed and agreed.

"Dare!" Fat Lu threatened: "See if I don't skin you!" Before he could say anything, the hall was already full of laughter, and Wang Xu, Suo Mintai and other mite Qing officials were extremely embarrassed, secretly regretting that they had made a fool of themselves.

"Brother Sanhao, don't be too happy." Wang Xu hurriedly changed the topic and said solemnly: "Let's not talk about the partial breakthrough of our main force in Shaanxi and Gansu in the Qing Dynasty, even if our main force in Shaanxi and Gansu in the Qing Dynasty is wiped out, what if the main force of Shaanxi and Gansu in our Great Qing Dynasty is wiped out?" The strong city of Hanzhong is still in the hands of our Qing Dynasty, and there are still more than 100,000 green battalions, banner soldiers and Mongolian soldiers available in Shaanxi and Gansu. Brother Sanhao, don't you think about yourself, don't you think about the soldiers under your command? ”

"Listen to the tone, Lord Wang wants to come and recruit us?" Gao Hongchen said arrogantly: "What if we are surrounded by enemies? Want to take back Nanjing City and talk with a knife? How long has your Kang Wang Yejie book been blocked in Taiping Mansion by Brother Wang Xu? Why didn't you see him come to Nanjing City to fight us? ”

"General Hong Chen, with only one army and horse of King Kang, it may be difficult to recapture Jiangning City?" Wang Xu asked slowly: "But what if you add the 80,000 troops of General Zheta?" What about the 100,000 banner soldiers and Mongolian soldiers that our emperor urgently recruited from outside the border? Is it enough? ”

"If you have the courage to draw troops from Zhejiang, then you can come." Han Daren sneered and said: "The 100,000 army of the prince of Jingnan is in the middle of Zhejiang, you have transferred Zhejiang's troops, do you still want Zhejiang?" ”

"Engong, junior brother also has a twist and turn here." Suo Mintai stood up, also pulled out a fold from his sleeve, and said with a smile: "This twist and turn, which was also forwarded from the capital when we were on the road, is a piece that Engong will never think of, please take a look at it." ”

Lu Fatzi opened it, but was surprised to find that this was actually written by Fan Chengmo, the governor of Fujian, who was imprisoned by Geng Jingzhong, to Kang Mazi, and it was clearly written at the beginning that this was Fan Chengmo, the governor of Fujian, who was imprisoned by Geng Jingzhong, to Kang Mazi. When he looked at the contents more closely, Lu Fatzi's fat face turned a little pale -- Geng Jingzhong actually asked Fan Chengmo to come forward to mediate the decisive battle between Geng's army and the Qing army, and asked the Qing court for a truce, and promised that as long as the three prefectures of Taizhou, Wenzhou, and Chuzhou in Zhejiang, and even Hengzhou and Jinhuafu, which had already controlled half of them, Geng Jingzhong also said that they could return it, so as to show his sincerity in seeking peace.

"General, what's wrong?" Han Daren saw that Lu Fatzi's face was wrong, so he hurriedly came up to watch it together, and when he quickly finished reading it, Han Daren's face couldn't help but change, and he exclaimed: "Geng Jingzhong is crazy? ”

"General Han, of course King Jingnan is not crazy." Wang Xu smiled and said: "Here, the foolish brother can also tell the three good virtuous brothers a secret, the reason why the king of Jingnan sued the court for peace is for two reasons, one is that Feng Xifan, the lackey of Zheng Jing's traitor, treacherously captured the Tingzhou Mansion of the king of Jingnan, and the prince of Jingnan was furious, and the alliance with Zheng Jing's traitor was about to break. ”

"The second reason." Wang Xu added with a smile: "It's because of you, the three good brothers, after hearing the news that you have broken through Jiangning, the king of Jingnan immediately understands that if he insists on attacking Zhejiang now, not only will he not get any benefits, but he will also serve as a shield for you, the three good brothers, and contain the Qing Xiong Division of General Zhita and Governor Li Zhifang for you, and lose troops and lose nothing, so the prince of Jingnan chose to take the opportunity to sue for peace, and has already ordered Zeng Yang's surname to stop going north. It was the prince of Jingnan who admitted it to Fan Chengmo Fan in person. ”

Lu Fatzi and Han Daren glanced at each other, and said together: "Oh no, it seems that we still underestimate Geng Jingzhong too much, this bastard is far more shrewd than we imagined, and he can even take this into account." ”

"That's not right!" After the shock, Lu Fatzi quickly calmed down and came to his senses, "Things are not right, if Kang Mazi believes in Geng Jingzhong's sincerity in seeking peace, he will definitely not let Brother Zizhu continue to go south to recruit and surrender, and directly negotiate peace with Geng Jingzhong, and then transfer troops back to attack me!" and Geng Jingzhong, the current anti-Qing situation is very good, and he will not be stupid enough to spit out what he eats in his hands! ”

"Got it! Geng Jingzhong must be following Brother Lu's plan to divert the tiger from the mountain that I gave to Wu Laohan at the beginning, pretending to negotiate peace with Mangou, and the Banmen got an axe to use Brother Lu and me as bait to lure the main force of Zhejiang Mangou to go north, and then take the opportunity to annex Zhejiang! Kang Mazi just suffered a loss and was fooled once, so he didn't believe anything! ”

Thinking of this, Fat Lu folded his hand, pretended to think about it for a long time, and then stood up and said with a smile: "Brother Zizhu, Brother Mintaixian, Master Wu, you have worked hard from afar, and other things will be said slowly. There is also Brother Zishu, I know that you like pancakes and green onions, and the younger brother specially prepared a plate for you - the younger brother bought it with his own money, and it was clean. ”

(To be continued)