In the early morning of June 21, the 10th year of Longwu, a huge fleet appeared in the waters east of the Zhoushan Islands in northern Zhejiang. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 The flags of the chief officer of the Nanyang Fleet of the Zuofu Army, the chief officer of the Fifth Town of the Zuofu Army, and the chief officer of the Fujian Naval Division of the Right Fu Army are impressively listed.

In the mist, the outline of Putuo Mountain in the distance is faintly visible. On the Daming, the flagship of the Nanyang Fleet, Shi Lang's hand holding the clairvoyant mirror was already trembling slightly. Beside him, the two people dressed in vegetarian clothes were even more excited and burst into tears.

"I didn't expect that I, Zhang Mingzhen, would be able to wait for the day when Wang Shi's northern expedition to Jiangsu and Zhejiang and the recovery of Zhoushan would be in my lifetime." Among the two people dressed in vegetarian clothes, the one who looked like a military general sighed with tears in his eyes, and a trace of flushing appeared on his sickly face, and his body shook and he almost couldn't stand.

"Brother Hou and take care of your body." Another person who looked like a civil servant hurriedly supported him with Shi Lang, "Now that the king is coming to the north, the blood debt of the soldiers and civilians who died in Zhoushan three years ago can be repaid from the Tartars!" We must see it with our own eyes! For the soldiers who spilled blood on the battlefield back then, and for the people who died and our respective families! ”

These two people dressed in plain clothes are Zhang Mingzhen, the Marquis of Dingxi, and Zhang Huangyan, the right attendant of the Supervision Army and Military Department. They were originally the courtiers of Zhu Yihai, the king of Lu, and in the sixth year of Longwu, after the king of Lu announced his abdication and returned to the vassal and recognized the Longwu court, Emperor Longwu issued an edict to maintain the original titles and official positions of the two of them. Since then, they still led the original soldiers and horses to use Zhoushan as a base to resist the Qing Dynasty along the coast of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

In August of the seventh year of Longwu, King Jing Jinqin of the Qing Dynasty, the general Nikan of Dingnan, and Hong Chengchou, the general of the five provinces, personally planned a raid on the Zhoushan Islands. Wang Dongri, the governor of the Right Army, was pinned down by the land offensive of the Qing army in northern Zhejiang, and the Zhoushan Islands had fallen before they could be rescued. Most of the anti-Qing soldiers on the island were killed in battle, and only a small number of them, under the leadership of Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan, protected King Lu to break through the siege and retreat south to the Youfu Army-controlled area in southern Zhejiang.

After occupying the Zhoushan Islands, the Qing army carried out a massacre of the people on the island, as well as the captured Ming officials, soldiers and their families. King Lu's concubine Chen threw herself into a well and died, and the side concubine Rong and the prince were captured and escorted to Nanjing to be killed, and officials under King Lu such as Zhang Kentang, Wu Zhongluan, Li Xiangzhong, Zhu Yongyou, etc., either committed suicide or died heroically. The slaughtered captured soldiers and the people on the island were countless, and the Qing troops who landed on the island at that time met and killed each other until the next day. At dawn the next day, when Liu Jiaao was killed on Zhoushan Island, he heard the rooster crowing before sealing the knife, and there were only a few surviving people. Most of Zhang's family members were also killed in the massacre.

After three years, the Ming Dynasty once again sent troops to Zhoushan, and Zhang Mingzhen, Zhang Huangyan and the surviving Zhoushan soldiers also joined the Southern Route Army of the Zuofu Army in Fuzhou. In order to express their condolences to their relatives and their determination to avenge their blood hatred, more than 1,000 surviving Zhoushan soldiers were all vegetarians. Shi Lang, Liu Renjun and Zheng Sen also ordered the soldiers of their subordinates to tie white cloth on their helmets, and when they raised their eyes, the more than 30,000 troops were all silent.

"Brother Cangshui is right! I have to see the recovery of Zhoushan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Nanjing! Watching Nikan and Hong Chengchou and these beastly beasts pay for the lives of the soldiers and civilians who died! After Zhang Mingzhen finished speaking, he coughed violently again. He had already been ill, and his condition had been exacerbated by the rough seas of these days. But he still ignored the dissuasion of his colleagues and subordinates, and supported the sick body to go north with the army, just to return to Zhoushan to collect the bones of his relatives and watch the culprits pay for their lives with his own eyes.

……

At present, the Qing troops stationed in Zhoushan are Dinghai Town, Luying, Zhejiang, and the Zhoushan Water Division, with a total strength of 6,000 or 7,000 troops, and Zhang Jie, the commander-in-chief of Dinghai, is one of the specific perpetrators of the Zhoushan Massacre three years ago.

The disparity in troops, training and equipment between the two sides also made the battle for the recovery of Zhoushan no longer suspenseful before it began. In less than a day, the Zhoushan Islands were completely recovered. Some of the Qing troops stationed on the island were annihilated, some were captured, and almost none of them escaped. Many officers and assistants below Zhang Jie, the commander of Dinghai, became prisoners of the Southern Route Army.

Shi Lang ordered all the more than 3,000 Qing army captives to be beheaded, and the heads were piled up into a landscape to pay tribute to the Zhoushan soldiers and civilians who died three years ago. Zhang Jie, one of the executioners, was even executed by Ling Chi.

After the recovery of Zhoushan, Zhang Mingzhen tried to search the island for the remains of his family, especially his mother. However, at that time, the Qing army buried most of the bodies of the dead soldiers and civilians on the island, and many of them were thrown directly into the sea, and more than three years have passed, and it has long been impossible to find them. Zhang Mingzhen then knelt down and cried loudly, and everyone who heard it was moved.

Since most of the Qing troops in northern Zhejiang have shrunk to the vicinity of Hangzhou, after the fall of the Qing army in Zhoushan, there is no enemy army nearby that can cause trouble for the southern route army. Therefore, Shi Lang ordered to camp in Zhoushan for a temporary rest, and then continue to march to Nanjing tomorrow, while the Qing army in Hangzhou was left to the Youfu army that marched north by land.

That night, Zhang Mingzhen remembered the current good situation, and recalled the difficult years of resisting the Qing Dynasty in the past, the surging mood was difficult to calm down, dragged the sick and decent face to the direction of Nanjing Xiaoling three bows, and wrote a poem:

Ten years across the sea is a lonely minister, and the good spirit Zhongshan is true.

Zuofu Tiger Ben Fang is out of Chu, and Yanyun Yu has passed through Fujian.

Wang Shihuan choked his heart and liver, and his father and old man cried tears.

Looking south at Xiaoling, you will see the Great Longjin!

After writing the last word, Zhang Mingzhen finally couldn't support it anymore, and spat blood and fell down. Blood stained the undried verses in front of him. The entourage of the pro-soldiers next to them was shocked, and while going to find the entourage Langzhong, they went to inform Zhang Huangyan, Shi Lang and others.

"Brother Houfu......" When Zhang Huangyan arrived, Zhang Mingzhen was already lying on the bed with a dying breath, and his sallow face was gloomy. Seeing that his old comrades-in-arms were already like this, Zhang Huangyan suddenly felt sad, and tears burst out of his eyes.

"Dingxi Hou ......" Shi Lang, Liu Renjun, Zheng Sen and others also couldn't bear it.

"Brother Cangshui, generals Shi, Liu, and Zheng, life and death are fateful, I have already seen it, and you don't need to be sad for me." Zhang Mingzhen said with a weak breath and difficulty, "I can see with my own eyes the recovery of Zhoushan, the revenge of the dead soldiers and civilians, and the two governors Pang and Wang led hundreds of thousands of tiger troops to sweep through Jiangsu and Zhejiang and point directly at Nanjing, I am already satisfied, and I have nothing else to ask for." ”

After inhaling two breaths hard, Zhang Mingzhen trembled and stretched out his hand to Zhang Huangyan, who quickly reached out to hold it.

"Brother Cangshui, after I leave, the remaining more than 1,000 Zhoushan soldiers will be handed over to you. You must take them well, we never gave up in those difficult years, and we should not give up now. Take them, follow Pang Dudu to continue to kill the enemy, and recover the rivers and mountains. Zhang Mingzhen's breathing became more and more difficult, and his breath became weaker and weaker, "In addition, I would like to invite Brother Cangshui...... Please try to help me find my mother's remains as much as possible. I have not repaid the kindness of my mother, and if I can't find my mother's remains, don't take my bones into the coffin......"

Zhang Mingzhen's voice became smaller and smaller, and finally disappeared completely, and his open eyes also lost all their brilliance.

"Brother Hou Fu? …… Brother Houfu! Zhang Huangyan was stunned, and finally couldn't help crying loudly.

……

On the evening of June 21, the tenth year of Longwu, Zhang Mingzhen, one of the former leaders of the anti-Qing Dynasty in eastern Zhejiang, and the Marquis of Dingxi, died of illness in the Zhoushan army.

……

On the same night, in the city of Nanjing. Nikan left his cousin and main deputy, Anjun Wang Yuele, alone after the military discussion.

"You must prepare everything you need tonight, and tomorrow you will lead your troops across the river to Yangzhou at the fourth watch." Nikan said, "In addition, there are some things that are not easy for others to listen to in the military discussion just now, and I am only here to say to you, so you must remember it." ”

"Third brother, please speak."

"Now the reinforcements led by the sixth uncle (Ji'er Harang) have not yet arrived, if I am not mistaken, after the Pang thief leads the army to Jiangning City tomorrow, he will definitely divide a strong army to cross the river to attack Yangzhou to cut off the retreat of our army. When the time comes, Yangzhou can keep the rules, if you can't hold it, you don't have to be reluctant, and don't hesitate for a moment, immediately take your banner soldiers to the north to break through and meet the sixth uncle. Let the sixth uncle stop going south easily before the war in Jiangning is over, and stop needlessly filling this fire pit with human lives. ”

"Third brother...... Why did the third brother say this? Yue Le didn't seem to believe his ears, and said hurriedly, "The total strength of our army in Jiangsu and Zhejiang is eighty or ninety thousand, and when the reinforcements from the sixth uncle arrive, it can reach more than ten thousand, how can we not have the strength to fight?" Grandfather and his old man ......"

"This time and that time!" Nikan interrupted Yue Le without waiting for him to finish, and then shook his head with a wry smile, "Forget it, there are some things, how can you not see them at all with your vision and knowledge?" You're just holding on to the shelf and don't want to admit it. But whether you admit it or not, facts are facts after all. The thief is no longer the thief of the past, and we don't have much chance of winning this battle! ”

These few words seemed to speak to Yue Le's thoughts, and he stayed for a moment and sat down a little depressed.

Nikan glanced at him, looked up at the starry sky outside the window, and sighed: "From the founding of the country in the Mandate of Heaven to the entry of the first year of Shunzhi, our Qing Dynasty seems to be unstoppable along the way, but in fact, every step is almost a gamble with all of our net worth, as long as we take a wrong step, it may even be doomed." Fortunately, the Han people have been sleeping in their dreams, and we are fortunate to have won every bet, and it is really not easy to get to this point. But how could the Han people stay asleep like this? Even if one of them wakes up in a hundred, waking up five people around them is enough to drive us to a dead end. Now that the Pang thief who woke up first has woken up more and more Han people, it is time for the Qing Dynasty to be transferred. This is not the fault of you and me, nor is it the fault of any Manchurian, this is fate, it is the will of God. In this case, let's plan for the future as soon as possible, for the love of the Xinjueluo family, and for us to leave more seeds. You are still young, and the burden of revitalizing the Qing Dynasty in the future will still be on your shoulders. ”

"Third brother......" Yue Le stood up suddenly.

"I am the general of Dingnan who was ordered by the imperial court, and I have lived for so many years, and I have already lived a similar life, of course I am different from you." Nikan raised his hand to stop Yue Le's words, walked over and patted him on the shoulder, "Don't be so pessimistic. Don't you often say it? Grandfather, his old man, was a soldier with thirteen pairs of armor, and he came all the way. Compared with his old man, what is the difficulty we are encountering now? Whatever the final outcome of this battle is, there is still a long way to go. Well, remember what I said, and go down and get ready! ”