In the camp of the Qing army in Xinyang, Henan, Hong Chengchou received an emergency document from Jiang Guozhu, the governor of Jiangning.

Zuobiao Admiral Li Benshen persuaded him: "My lord, Baoqing has the 100,000 army of General Tunqi to hold on, and the Great Western Army will not be able to attack it for a while. Now that Jiangning is in crisis, why don't we go to the rescue of Jiangning first? ”

Hong Chengchou flatly refused: "No! Hubei's soldiers and horses have been withdrawn, and if Baoqing is broken, the Great Western Army can sweep Hubei. Once Xiangyang is occupied by the rebels and the Zheng family sailors forcibly blockade the Yangtze River, our Qing Dynasty will not be able to cross the river at all. In this way, even if Jiangning is defended, it will be captured sooner or later. We must defeat the Great Western Army first and secure Xiangyang City, so that our Qing soldiers and horses can continue to cross the Yangtze River and calmly deal with the Zheng Army! ”

Li Benshen hurriedly arched his hand and said: "The little one understands!" ”

Hong Chengchou said: "Now that Jiangning is in crisis, it can't be delayed any longer. The Great Western Army must be defeated first! ”

Hong Chengchou immediately ordered the people to set off, and they should travel for two days in one day, such as being cut in a late manner; On the one hand, he ordered Daniel Zhang, the right commander of the right standard, to go to Baoqing at starry night, and taught Tunqi not to fight, and to be sure to stick to Baoqing City.

……

Zheng Chenggong agreed to accept Shen Ruoxi as a concubine, and everything was easy to handle.

In order to win over the Jiangnan squire, but also to respect the Shen family, a wealthy family in Suzhou, although it is a concubine, it is also a big deal.

It's just that it's still on the expedition, and it's not appropriate to organize a wedding, so after the two families negotiated and captured Yingtianfu, the wedding will be held.

After resting for a day in Suzhou, pacifying the people, and meeting with the squires and scribes, the army continued its march towards Yingtianfu.

With the help of the people, the Zheng family's army marched quickly, and in two days they reached the city of Nanjing and joined the Zheng family's sailors.

Nanjing, also known as Jinling, Jiankang and Jiangning, is one of the four ancient capitals of China and has long been the political, economic and cultural center of southern China.

Zhongshan Longpan is in the east, Shicheng Tiger is in the west, Zhuge Liang once Chen Zan said, "Zhongfu Longpan, Stone Tiger, this emperor's house." ”

Therefore, Nanjing City has the reputation of "dragon and tiger".

Nanjing city north of the Yangtze River, abundant water, convenient transportation, south of the Qinhuai River around the city, is the water transport distribution center. There is a large water surface of Xuanwu Lake in the north. Surrounded by mountains, it is necessary for the soldiers.

Since ancient times, Nanjing City and Xiangyang City have been the two most important military strategic places in the south.

The princes of that side could occupy both Xiangyang and Nanjing City, and the vast territory south of the Yangtze River could be said to be in his pocket.

There were countless battles for the cities of Nanjing and Xiangyang.

The city of Xiangyang was broken, and the Southern Song Dynasty died.

The city of Nanjing was broken, and the Kuomintang retreated to Taiwan.

Yao Qisheng and Chen Yonghua's plan was to take advantage of the stalemate between the Manchus and the Great Western Army to send troops to capture Yingtianfu and Xiangyangfu.

With the powerful sailor of the Zheng family, the Yangtze River was extremely guarded, and then the emperor was established to try to win the world;

It's just that I didn't expect Li Dingguo to be so fierce and the Manchus to be so rubbish, and they were defeated one after another.

Now that Huguang was about to fall into the hands of the Great Western Army, Zheng Chenggong had no choice but to attack with all his strength in order to quickly capture the city of Nanjing.

Even if you can't dominate the south, you must be able to occupy the Jianghuai Jiangnan region, the economic center of the Ming Dynasty, in order to hope to participate in the game of competing for the world.

The old capital of the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing, was built in 1366 by the order of Zhu Yuanzhang. From the inside to the outside, it consists of four city walls: the palace city, the imperial city, the capital city, and the outer Guo.

The base of the city wall is paved with strip stones, and the wall body is built with large city bricks of about 10 cm× 20 cm× 40 cm on both sides, and the middle is solid and mixed soil.

The 33.68-kilometer-long city wall, the bricks used in the 125 counties along the Yangtze River were fired and transported to Nanjing, and each brick was printed with the names of the supervising officials, potters and servants.

After more than 200 years of vicissitudes, the tall city walls are still standing.

There is also an outer wall built outside the city of Nanjing.

Zhu Yuanzhang built the city of Nanjing, and took his sons to Zhongshan to observe the situation in the capital.

They found that Miyagi was too close to Zhongshan, and if the cannons were erected on the mountain, the imperial palace would be easily hit, and there were some important commanding heights, such as Yuhuatai in the south and Shogunate Mountain in the north, which were left outside the city, which was very unfavorable to the defense of the city.

Zhu Yuanzhang ordered the construction of Waiguo City in the 23rd year of Hongwu (1390 AD).

The outer Guo is diamond-shaped, mainly built by using loess hills, and a part of the city wall is added in some weakly defended areas.

Looking at the fortified city, Zheng Chenggong found that it was a difficult task to conquer a fortified city like Nanjing.

Zheng Chenggong let the Zheng family sailors collapse on the edge of the Yangtze River, and the muzzle of the cannon was aimed at the city of Nanjing.

From time to time, shells would fall near the city walls, killing several Qing soldiers.

The range of the artillery on the head of Nanjing was not as long as the improved artillery in the Zheng army, and it could not hurt the Zheng fleet at all, but would provoke countless artillery fire, the artillery was destroyed, and the Qing soldiers were killed.

The counterattack had no effect, and the plan to bombard Zheng Jiajun was given up later.

Without artillery, the Qing soldiers could only hide behind the female wall, and did not dare to come out at all.

The morale was low, if it weren't for the more than 6,000 Eight Banner soldiers watching from the side, I was afraid that they would have dispersed in a hurry and become deserters.

A military council should be convened within the Tianfu Ya to agree on defensive measures.

After glaring at the Qing civil and military officials present, the commander of the protector army, Marseille, shouted: "Defending Jiangning is the most important thing now, whoever dares to be a spy and wants to rebel, I will kill his whole family." ”

After saying something serious, Marsai relaxed his tense face and said, "Jiangning City is high and deep, even if there are only a thousand people in the city, it is enough to withstand tens of thousands of male soldiers. As long as we hold out for a month, the Qing reinforcements will come back to support us. Rest assured! ”

Guan Xiaozhong endured his scalp and said, "My lord, there are only less than 30,000 soldiers and horses in Nanjing City, and a total of more than 100,000 soldiers and horses from the two roads of the Zheng family army and waterways are coming to attack, and the lower officials are afraid that Nanjing City will not be able to hold it!" ”

Marsai glared at Jiang Guozhu angrily: "Could it be that you want to surrender?" ”

Guan Xiaozhong was so frightened that he said again and again: "Don't dare to go down to the officials, don't dare, the lower officials' hearts for the Qing Dynasty can show the sun and the moon!" ”

"Then what do you mean here when you say that Nanjing City can't be defended, do you want to shake the army's heart!"

"Xiaguan didn't mean that, Xiaguan felt that we couldn't hold the city, so it was better to blow it up!"

Marseille asked, confused, "What kind of bombing method?" ”

Guan Allegiance was busy underestimating in Marseille's ear, and Marseille frowned and whispered, "Does this method work?" ”

Guan Xiaozhong replied: "Even if it doesn't work, there will be no loss to our army." If we can fight for a period of buffer, we can not only ease the morale of our army, but also have more time to wait for our army to rescue. Why not! ”

Marsai nodded and said, "Then do it as you do?" But we must order the soldiers to step up their precautions, in case the Zheng family army takes advantage of our loose army and attacks. ”

"Yes, the lower officials will definitely remember!"

When Zheng Chenggong led several civil officials and military generals to Zhongshan to look down on the city of Nanjing, the guards stepped forward to report that a Qing envoy had asked to see him. (To be continued.) )