Let's go back and take a look at the appearance of Lu Fatzi's villain, the day after he officially occupied Nanjing City, Lu Fatzi let the tired Fat Army settle down and rest, and at the same time began to expand the army, desperately expanding his own strength, preparing to completely annex Jiangnan. Fortunately, Nanjing City is not only the largest granary and silver warehouse in the south of the Yangtze River, but also the most populous and manpower city in the south of the Yangtze River, and there are Xie Dong and Mu Tianyan The two major snakes helped out, so the recruitment of the Fat Army went very smoothly, and it was easy to recruit 3,000 recruits in less than three days, plus the surrender brought by Xie Dong and Mu Tianyan, the number of the Fat Army soon exceeded 50,000, reaching a total of more than 53,000 people.

On April 22, in the early morning of the third day of the occupation of Nanjing, Lu Fatzi couldn't wait to lead the soldiers of the three armies to pay respects in front of the Ming Xiaoling Mausoleum and Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum, so as to win the hearts of the Han people in the world. At the time of worship, the former Qing Dynasty Emperor Lu Fatzi wore a square scarf, drank the mountain and cried, and cried three times, crying until the sky was dark, the mountains and rivers changed color, and even it was difficult to get up on the ground, and the big and small lackeys of Lu Fatzi were also in tears, wailing and shaking the sky, and the Han people who were watching did not know what to do, and they were greatly moved, and they couldn't help crying! And Lu Fatzi's love is so true and earnest that even Zhu Yuanzhang, who was lying in the Ming Tomb of filial piety, was very moved, and couldn't help but ask Queen Ma next to him - our old Zhu family, do you have a descendant of the side branch surnamed Lu in Dali?

In the same morning, Wang Xu and Li Jiyang, two generals stationed in Taiping Mansion, sent an urgent report that the 20,000 Anqing Qing army led by Ni Yahan had been under the city of Taiping Mansion yesterday, and both water and land battalions were stationed in Dongliang Mountain, but they did not immediately launch an attack on the city - it was obvious that the news of the fall of Nanjing had reached the Niya Han army, so Ni Yahan was already weighing, what would be the consequences of using his weak force to forcibly attack Nanjing City with 50,000 defenders? Don't Nanjing City can't take it back, and throw this meager capital in his hand into the Yangtze River.

"Young uncle, use the fastest horse to reply to Wang Xu and Li Jiyang." Lu Fatzi, who cried into two rotten apricots with a pair of mung bean eyes, thought for a while, and immediately commanded in a hoarse voice: "Three orders, one, only defend the city, not fight, and after a few days, the dog will definitely retreat." Second, pay attention to the protection of the alum mine in Taiping Province, which is also a raw material for the production of sulfuric acid, and the more the better. Third, send skilled miners to find iron ore, according to my research, there must be a huge iron ore near Ma'anshan in Taiping Province, if you can find it, it will be very useful! ”

"Yes." Wang Shaobo agreed, and asked in a low voice: "Owner, do you expect that Mangou will definitely retreat without a fight?" Is it really necessary to send reinforcements to reinforce Taiping Mansion? ”

"Of course." Lu Fatzi replied confidently: "Ni Yahan's few men and horses are not enough to counterattack Nanjing City, and even if the Taiping Mansion is defeated, it will not have much effect, and the war will be a little longer, and our second prince who received the news will definitely go to Anqing City, Ni Yahan's old nest, and Ni Yahan will definitely calculate this account." Wang Shaobo didn't ask any more, and hurriedly went down to write a letter, asking Lu Fatzi to sign and seal it, and then send it to Taiping Mansion on a fast horse.

In the next two days, Lu Fatzi has been busy rectifying government and military affairs, appeasing the people of Nanjing, organizing the people of the whole city to cut braids and grow hair, and confiscating and receiving Nanjing's property, and the abundance of money and food in Nanjing, the abundance of property, also really opened the eyes of the fat army, a group of native buns from Guizhou, Yunnan, just in the homes of the four mite Qing officials, A Xixu, the governor of Liangjiang, Zhou Lianggong of Jiangnan Grain Road, Xia Qitong of Jiangning Yandao and Cao Xi of Jiangning Weaving, more than 380,000 taels of cash were confiscated. This does not include other possessions such as jewelry, jade, fields, and houses!

What surprised Xie Dong and Mu Tianyan and other head snakes was that among the five giant greedy beetles, the person whose property was copied out of the family was not Ah Xixu, the governor of Liangjiang that they unanimously agreed, but Kang Mazi's favorite and good friend - Cao Xi! In his home, more than 1,450,000 taels of cash alone were copied! Seeing this amount, so much so that Fat Lu, who had been mentally prepared for this, couldn't help but sigh: "No wonder the old Cao family has one or two silver and a pigeon egg, it is indeed rich!" After that, Lu Fatzi immediately ordered that all the female surnames of the Lao Cao family be sent to the military camp, so that the soldiers of the Fat Army could avenge the people of Datong.

With money in his hand, Fat Lu naturally rewarded a lot more generously, more than 40,000 soldiers of the Fat Army, and the most ordinary soldiers also got a huge reward of 25 taels of silver, and announced that the salary of the soldiers of the Fat Army would triple from now on! In this way, the officers and men of the Fat Man Army, who are only a few dollars a month, naturally all laughed from ear to ear, and shouted Long live Lu Fatty, scrambling to express their willingness to follow the wise Shenwu General Lu, continue to fight in the south and the north, and be promoted to become rich!

Taking advantage of the high morale of the fat army and the gradual recovery of the physical strength of the soldiers, Lu Fatzi ordered Gao Dejie and Li Guodong to lead 13,000 troops to attack Zhenjiang and Yangzhou, and Li Tianzhi led 10,000 troops to escort Mu Tianyan south to Suzhou, appeased and captured Suzhou and the county capital along the way. Lu Fatzi himself and Han Daren and other generals sat in Nanjing City, thinking that the whole army should respond, while recruiting troops and horses to accumulate strength, while organizing a large number of craftsmen and apprentices, in the Xuanwu Lake Weapons Bureau to produce three good explosives and three good rockets. At the same time, Lu Fatzi no longer hid his secrets, and quietly replaced the mercury nitrate in the detonator used to detonate the three good explosives with silver nitrate, which is less difficult to produce and cheaper at a lower cost.

For Lu Fatzi, it is relatively easy to grab money, grain, and land at present, first, the Qing army defenders in various parts of the Yangtze River are now empty to the point of misery, and there is hardly a city or place that can stop the expansion of the fat army's iron cavalry; Second, Jiangnan is the best place to oppose the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty, and the old and young relics of the former Ming Dynasty who refuse to succumb to the rule of the Mite Qing are everywhere, and the fat army under the banner of opposing the Qing Dynasty and the restoration of the Ming Dynasty can easily gain their recognition and support - at least it will not be destroyed.

The third is that Lu Fatzi, who is good at using the psychology of others, promulgated a benevolent policy very rationally, that is, as long as the mite Qing officials surrender in Kaicheng, then they will never confiscate their family property, let alone harm their surnames. Therefore, the will to resist of the mite Qing officials in all parts of the south of the Yangtze River is very weak, almost all of them are looking at the wind and descending, and they are unwilling to accompany the funeral of the mite Qing court that has gone to the general trend, and there are many mite Qing officials who have the idea of making a fortune and taking the opportunity to covet the property of the Mozhou Prefecture, and the fat army will open the city and surrender as soon as it arrives, and then the silver obtained by the greedy ink is dead without proof, and it has become the legal property of these officials, which greatly reduces the resistance encountered by the fat army when it expands, and makes the fat army advance very quickly.

Expansion is easy and difficult to keep, the fat army is rampant in the south of Jiangsu, but around Jiangsu, there are troublesome characters everywhere that give Lu Fat a headache, Anqing Niyahan in the west, Luzhou Jieshu in the northwest, and Zhao Xiangxing in Shandong in the north, these three Qing troops are not afraid to attack Lu Fatzi alone, but if the three forces come together to attack, Lu Fatzi will be a little unbearable. However, the above three roads are quite good, and the most headache for Lu Fatzi is the Qing army Li Zhifang and Benta Department in Zhejiang.

Previously, in order to resist Geng Jingzhong's northward march and pacify Geng Jingzhong's rebellion, Kang Mazi had gathered 80,000 land and water troops in Zhejiang, and they were all first-line troops with quite good combat effectiveness, far better than the second-line Qing army encountered by the fat army in Nanjing. Although this Qing army is still being bitten by Geng Jingzhong, once this Qing army negotiates a truce with Geng Jingzhong, or beats Geng Jingzhong back to his hometown in Fujian, and turns around and goes all out to attack the fat army that has not gained a firm foothold in the south of the Yangtze River, then Lu Fatzi will have a lot of fun. What's worse is that once this Qing army joins forces with the other three roads to attack Lu Fatzi, even if Lu Fatzi can defend Nanjing City, his greedy ambition to annex the world with Jiangnan as his base will naturally be doomed.

"Boss, the students think you're a little worried, but in fact, the situation around us is not that bad."

When discussing the military situation with Wang Shaobo, Zhu Fangdan and other lackeys, after listening to Lu Fatzi's pessimistic prediction of the situation, Wang Shaobo first expressed his comfort, and then said quite optimistically: "At least the students think that it is very unlikely that the Mangou Imperial Court will gather the power of the four roads to encircle and suppress us, at least in the short term, it will definitely not do so, the strategic focus of the Mangou Imperial Court has long been attracted to Shaanxi and Gansu by the prince himself, and the main forces of the Mangou around us are all shouldering heavy responsibilities, and they will never dare to leave the station casually and encircle and suppress us with all their might." ”

"Yes, especially the truce with Geng Jingzhong, it is even more impossible." Zhu Fangdan echoed: "Who is Geng Jingzhong? Hearing the news that we have captured Nanjing, Geng Jingzhong will easily agree to a truce with Mangou? Even if the Mangou Imperial Court appeases Geng Jingzhong at any cost, with Geng Jingzhong's personality and virtue, it must be taking advantage of the fire to rob and ask for the entire territory of Zhejiang and a large number of military salaries, grain and grass, and maybe it will also propose to draw the river with the Mangou Emperor as a boundary, and it is very likely that in the face of such harsh conditions, the Mangou Emperor should find a way to appease us instead of appeasing Geng Jingzhong! ”

"Of course I understand what you're saying." Fat Lu shook his head, still with a worried expression, "What I'm most worried about now is that Emperor Mangou will stop fighting with Geng Jingzhong at any cost." Geng Jingzhong is greedy and unplanned, ambitious and talented, mediocre and incompetent, he was able to capture half of Zhejiang before, but he was completely caught off guard by killing Mangou, and now after Mangou reacted, his weakness of lack of stamina has also been exposed. At the same time, he had promised to lend Zheng Jingquan and Zhangerzhou, and he broke his promise and angered Zheng Jing, and his weakness of lack of political foresight had also been grasped by Mangou. ”

"And what about us? Although I am not as good as Geng Jingzhong in strength for the time being, I am known as a capable minister, both civil and military, and good at firearms, good at gunpowder, and innocent and easy to win the support of the Han people, but like a dragon has never been water, once half of the Jiangnan in the rich world falls into my hands, it is a dragon into the sea, and no one can control it. As long as the Mangou Imperial Court has the slightest foresight, it will definitely understand that I am the real and most terrible enemy! I will definitely agree to all the harsh conditions of Geng Jingzhong for the time being, concentrate on nagging me in the bud first, and then turn around to deal with Geng Jingzhong! ”

Wang Shaobo and Zhu Fangdan looked at each other and smiled bitterly, they were still a little uncomfortable with Lu Fatzi's boasting and arrogance, but Lu Fatzi didn't notice it at all, just continued to bang on the table with his fingers, frowned and said: "There is another point, Geng Jingzhong and I are all anti-Qing and Ming, but in addition to the anti-Qing and Ming, I also have a four-kill order - with Kang Mazi's cunning and cunning, I can definitely see the danger of my decree at a glance, and I will be more wary and afraid, and it is more likely that I will temporarily negotiate a truce with Geng Jingzhong." ”

"What the proprietor said is very true." Wang Shaobo nodded, admitting that Lu Fatzi was reasonable-Lu Fatzi's four killing orders were indeed a vicious decree that was insidious enough to make Kang Mazi sleep, and once it was vigorously promoted, the basic banner people of Mite Qing would inevitably split. At the end, Wang Shaobo smiled again and said: "But fortunately, the four killings order of the owner is still only orally circulated, and it has not been seen in writing, and the Mangou Emperor may not know it now, and we still have a chance to remedy it." ”

"How could the Mangou Emperor not know about my Four Killings Order?" Lu Fatzi asked suspiciously: "I have already killed more than 3,000 full dogs in Nanjing City with this four-kill order, and released tens of thousands of full dogs out of the city to flee for their lives, won't these full dogs report to the Emperor of Full Dogs?" ”

"Do these dogs dare?" Wang Shaobo smiled and asked: "The four surnamed Mangou killed by the owner are all identified by these Mangou and handed over to our army to slaughter, in exchange for our army to let them carry weapons out of the city to flee for their lives, if this matter is known to the Mangou Emperor, do they still want to have a good time?" Do you hide this secret of being an official, have you forgotten it? ”

"Huh? It's a possibility. Lu Fatzi took a pinch and said happily: "There is this possibility, ordinary Mangou does not even have the opportunity to write to the Mangou Emperor, and the Mangou who is an official is afraid that the Mangou Emperor will be held accountable, and he will never dare to report to the Mangou Emperor. Even if the Mangou Emperor finally knew about this four-kill order, it would take a lot of time. ”

"Even if it's an ordinary dog, I'm afraid I don't have the courage to spread what happened in Nanjing Mites City that night." Wang Shaobo reminded: "Don't forget, the owner should not forget that Aixin Jueluo is the surname of the Mangou Emperor, and the three surnames of Tong Jia, Niu Colu and Hesheli are also the surnames of Mangou, with a large population, countless officials and generals, and they are the core backbone of the Mangou Eight Banners. ”

"And we haven't officially announced this decree, even if the Mangou officials around Nanjing have heard about it, they may not dare to report it to the Mangou Emperor immediately without getting conclusive evidence—they are not afraid of revenge from the Mangou who escaped from Nanjing? Kill them? ”

"It's possible." Fat Lu nodded, and after thinking about it for a while, Fat Lu slapped the table and said: "It's useless to be careless, what should come will definitely come, and if you shouldn't come, you will definitely not come, do your best to listen to the destiny of heaven, the four killing orders are not in writing for the time being, and they will not be announced to the world." Master Zhu, Master Wang, you pick up the pen, write three letters for me, and try your best to buy us a little time. ”

"Okay." Wang Shaobo and Zhu Fangdan agreed together, spread out the letter paper and picked up the brush together, Wang Shaobo said again: "Boss, we are ready, please speak." ”

"I said the main content, you look at the polish, and try to be as respectful as possible." Lu Fatzi instructed: "The first letter is to the prince, the content is to the prince to report our capture of Nanjing; the second is to ask the prince for his guilt, and ask the prince to punish me for my sin of taking risks without authorization; The third is to ask the prince to give an order to instruct our army on the next move, whether it is to return to Jiangxi and join the friendly army? Or stick to the important town in the south of the Yangtze River, while cutting off the lifeblood of the Mangou Caoyun, while waiting for the main reinforcements of the prince? ”

"After reading this letter, the prince has to scold you to death." Wang Shaobo laughed and said: "It's not easy to take Nanjing and ask if you give up, if you get cheap and sell well, it's strange that the prince doesn't scold the owner for being a bitch and setting up a memorial arch." ”

"Whatever he scolds, he flies over and bites me if he has the ability." Lu Fatzi smiled proudly, and added: "By the way, add one more, let's say that Lu Yu'er is also pregnant, but Nanjing is surrounded by dogs, which is very dangerous, please allow me to try to send Lu Yu'er back to Yunnan and let her give birth in Yunnan." ”

"Boss, this is no joke." Wang Shaobo was shocked: "What if the prince really agrees?" Your two children and two wives are all hostages in the hands of the prince! ”

"Stupid!" Fat Lu scolded with a smile: "It's easy for the prince to promise, but what if I can't send it back?" Nanjing is full of dogs on three sides, and Zheng Jing is on the east, will the prince let me send my wife and children to Zheng Jing as hostages? ”

"Understood." Wang Shaobo suddenly realized and said with a smile: "Anyway, it is an empty word, and the prince has played the prince, which not only shows your loyalty to the owner, but the prince has no way to really agree, so he has to push the boat down the river to praise you a few words, and let the girl stay in Jiangnan to give birth." High, really high! ”

"Why do you say that clearly? As if I were as shameless as you say, write quickly. Lu Fatzi smiled, turned to Zhu Fangdan and said: "Master Zhu, you write a second letter to the second prince, and also to him, and then tell him that my protégé is attacking the city for him in Jiangnan, saving military salaries, money and food, and asking him to move eastward as soon as possible, join our army in Nanjing, and preside over my Jiangnan army." ”

"Understood." Zhu Fangdan snapped his fingers and said with a smile: "After reading this letter, the second prince will definitely attack Anqing like crazy, Ni Yahan can't think about returning to the army, and the full dog in Luzhou will definitely have to go all out to reinforce Anqing and block the second prince's eastward road." ”

"Arrange a few reliable messengers to bring back a few rare treasures collected in Jiangning City, so that the second prince can taste some sweetness first." Fat Lu commanded with a smile again. Zhu Fangdan agreed, and after quickly writing the text message, Zhu Fangdan asked again: "Owner, who is the third letter for?" ”

"Of course, it is for Geng Jingzhong's commander of the Northern Expeditionary Army, Zeng Yang." Lu Fatzi replied with a smile: "Tell him about my conquest of Nanjing, and then ask him to wave his army to the north, capture northern Zhejiang as soon as possible, and join our army in Jiangsu." In addition, I will send him some valuable gifts, and tell him casually that after the division, the grain, grass and military supplies of their Northern Expedition will be supplied by our army as much as possible. ”

"The proprietor is clever." Zhu Fangdan patted his ass, "As long as these two letters are delivered to the second prince and Zeng Yang, they will definitely kill Jiangnan like crazy, and the more fierce they rush to kill, the safer we will be in Jiangnan." ”

Lu Fatzi smiled and said to himself: "At present, we can only count on these two brave and unscrupulous reckless men, as long as they can contain the south and west Mangou for half a year, we will alone block the north Mangou for half a year, and wait until we have a firm foothold in the south of the Yangtze River, the new army is maturely trained, the grain and grass are harvested and put into storage, and new firearms are produced in large quantities." Who am I afraid of in this world? ”

………………

On April 29, the Zhenjiang side closest to Nanjing first came to the good news, after Gao Dejie and Li Guodong's soldiers came to Zhenjiang City, although more than 1,000 defenders in the city tried their best to resist, but the Han people in Zhenjiang City spontaneously organized, opened the gate of Zhenjiang City to offer the city to the Fat Army, the Fat Army invaded the city, killed the guard Chen Tianci's family and his main subordinates, Zhenjiang prefect Gao Degui did not go to the city to participate in the battle, the Fat Army entered the city and took the initiative to lead the messenger to surrender, and was pardoned by the Fat Army. At the same time, Lu Fatzi secretly ordered the interrogation of Gao Degui, and learned that Gao Degui did not report the four killings of the Fat Army to the Manchu court, Lu Fatzi was very determined, so Gao Degui was still the prefect of Zhenjiang, and ordered Gao Dejie and Li Guodong to organize the people of the city to cut their braids and grow their hair, and began to prepare for the war of attacking Yangzhou.

On the third day of the first month of May, the fat army broke through Guazhoudu in a battle, killed the general Li Xiangui of Jingkou in the Qing Dynasty, and the second army was under the city of Yangzhou, and before that, the fat army had infiltrated the city of Yangzhou, and sent Mu Tianyan's letter of persuasion to Zhang Bingzhi and the prefect of Yangzhou in front of Jinzhen, who fled all the way from Jiangning, heard that his family property was not confiscated by the fat army with Mu Tianyan's persuasion, and the Qing army in the city had been broken by the fat army in Guazhoudu, and the escape was serious. Then he and Jin Zhen and other officials in the city swallowed up nearly 600,000 taels of salt tax in Yangzhou's stockpile, and then Kaicheng surrendered, and the fat army successfully captured Yangzhou City.

At the same time, Li Tianzhi and Mu Tianyan's soldiers came to the city of Changzhou, Mu Tianyan went to the city to persuade him to surrender, the prefect Wu Xingzuo had no soldiers to defend, and he did not have the heart to bury Kang Mazi, and honestly opened the city to surrender, Wu army occupied the capital of Changzhou, and the counties of the prefecture surrendered one after another, only Gong Zhiyi, the governor of Jiangyin, refused to surrender, killed the messenger of the Wu army, and threatened to organize the people to defend the city of the Qing Dynasty, Li Tianzhi was furious, and divided the troops to conscript, but the Wu army had not yet entered Jiangyin County, and Sha Zhangbai and Li Ji in Jiangyin City had already mobilized the people in the city to behead Gong Zhiyi's head, Dedicated to the front of the Wu army - Gong Zhiyi may be a loyal minister to Mites, but unfortunately he forgot one thing, when Mites Qing entered the customs, they had carried out massacres in Jiangyin, and the famous Sha Zhangbai and Li Ji also happened to be survivors of this massacre. By the way, Li Ji's original surname is Xu, and his father is not small.

Relying on the support and response of the gentry of the people in Jiangnan, the fat army expanded very smoothly in the empty land of Jiangnan of the Qing army, and the territory expanded rapidly, and the soldiers, horses, boats, and money and grain rolled in like a tide. However, what worries Lu Fatzi is that in the case of almost no chance of victory, the Niyahan Department of the Anqing Qing Army has always refused to withdraw its troops from the Taiping Mansion, always threatening the safety of the west gate of Nanjing, and at the same time there is bad news in the direction of Luzhou.

Prince Kang Jieshu's ability, Lu Fatzi is not afraid at all, but what worries Lu Fatzi is the signal that this incident represents, if the Qing Dynasty is really determined to counterattack Nanjing at all costs, then Lu Fatzi's plan to annex the entire Jiangnan to make a fortune is bound to be completely disrupted. But Lu Fatzi also understands that if he wants to dream that the Mites Qing Court ignores him, it is absolutely impossible - he has choked the throat of the Mite Qing Court's Cao Yun by seven inches, and the Mite Qing Court will definitely reopen the Cao Yun at any cost.

So there was no way, Lu Fatzi had no choice but to order Wang Xu and Li Jiyang to stick to Taiping City, and at the same time set out to prepare for reinforcements of Taiping Mansion, and beat away the two leper dogs of Jieshu and Niyahan with sticks. However, at this time, an unexpected news came into the city of Nanjing, and Lu Fatzi's friend Wang Xu sent a messenger, saying that he had been rushing south along the canal, hoping that Lu Fatzi could issue an order for Wu Jun to let him go, so that his fleet could smoothly pass through the section of the river controlled by Wu Jun, and go to Nanjing City to meet Lu Fatzi and have a major meeting.

"Brother Zishu came south to see me? What kind of fame is he doing? He is the secretary of the military department, I am a rebel thief, why did he come to see me? It can't be that he was afraid of being implicated by me, so he came to Nanjing to surrender to me, right? ”

After reading Wang Xu's handwritten letter, Fat Lu was inexplicable at first, and then quickly came to his senses, and a smug smile appeared on his fat face, "Great, God really helps me, with the help of Brother Zi, temporarily stabilize the Mangou Imperial Court, and gain a foothold in time, there is great hope." ”

(To be continued)