Facing the prefect of Zhenjiang, Ren Siqi was very polite and told him that he had come by order to arrange the Yangtze River defense line. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

However, the holy decree required Ren Siqi to lead the army to Nanjing, otherwise it would be impossible for Governor Li not to know that an army would stop in Zhenjiang. So Ren Siqi explained to him the reason for stopping in Zhenjiang.

Governor Li was skeptical, and it wasn't until Shen Tingyang, who was in the camp, explained to him that he understood Ren Siqi's approach, but he was also shocked by Ren Siqi's audacity. The holy decree was to let him go to Nanjing, but he stopped in Zhenjiang, isn't this disrespectful to the decree?

But thinking about the warlords in Jiangbei, Governor Li also understood Ren Siqi's not too much-so-excessive approach. The current imperial court has reached its lowest point of control over military generals.

After greeting Shen Tingyang for a while, and after inviting Shen Tingyang to Zhenjiang as a guest was refused, Governor Li returned to Zhenjiang. Before leaving, he asked Ren Siqi to control the army and not to harass the people, and after getting Ren Siqi's promise, he went with peace of mind.

In the afternoon, a group of people came to the riverside under the leadership of the Zhenjiang Mansion and sent the Daishan army with the things of the army, including cattle, sheep, rice and wine, and Ren Siqi accepted it happily.

In the next few days, the prefect of Zhenjiang was in fear every day, for fear that the Daishan army would cause trouble in Zhenjiang.

What made him happy was that the military discipline of the Daishan Army was quite strict, and no soldiers went ashore to wander around without permission. Just when Governor Li was about to put his mind at ease, someone suddenly came to report that the soldiers of the Daishan Army wantonly intercepted ships on the river and robbed all the boats on the riverside near Zhenjiang, which surprised Governor Li! When I sent someone to question, I was told that this was a military and the local government had no right to interrogate!

Ren Siqi has not been idle in Zhenjiang these days, but has sent a wide range of meticulous work to investigate the situation in Jiangbei. And he himself discussed with Li Yanzhi and Shen Tingyang day and night.

As early as a few months ago, when the Enemy Intelligence Division was first established, Anthony sent many detailed workers to various places. Hangzhou and Ningbo sent the most, and Nanjing and Jiangbei Yangzhou also sent some. Of course, due to the limited time for the establishment of the Enemy Intelligence Division, a complete intelligence network has not yet been established.

On the second day after the Daishan army arrived in Zhenjiang, a fine work came from Yangzhou and reported to Ren Siqi what he had heard.

It turned out that just a few days ago, the Qing soldiers had arrived in Sizhou. Duoduo's troops left Tongguan in February, and arrived at Guide (now Shangqiu) on March 5, and the Ming army of Shangqiu surrendered without a fight.

Then Duoduo's army went south from Guide and went directly to Sizhou through Yingzhou and Taihe. On March 25, the Qing troops arrived in Sizhou, which was not far from Yangzhou.

Seeing the arrival of the Qing soldiers, Liu Zeqing, who was stationed in Sizhou, did not dare to resist, and fled to Huai'an in a hurry, giving up the gate of Yangzhou to the Manchus.

After receiving the news that the Qing soldiers had arrived in Sizhou and approached Yangzhou, Ren Siqi immediately summoned Li Yanzhi, Song Liben, Shen Tingyang and others to discuss the matter.

"Yangzhou is in danger, and the Cabinet Department is in danger!" Hearing the news that the Qing soldiers had arrived in Sizhou, Shen Tingyang was shocked, "We should rush to Yangzhou immediately to assist the Shi Pavilion Department in defending the city!" ”

"Master Shi has hundreds of thousands of troops under his command, how can he use us?" Song Liben said disapprovingly.

Shi Kefa, the secretary of the Soldier Department of the Cabinet University, is currently in Yangzhou, and he has Liu Liangzuo, Liu Zeqing and other officers and soldiers under his command, although Gao Jie died in Suizhou, but the officers and soldiers under his subordinates are still there, plus Liu Zhaoji, Zhang Tianlu, and Zhang Tianfu, Shi Kefa's nominal army has nearly 300,000 people.

And how many Qing soldiers were there? The Manchu and Han armies led by Duoduo and the green battalion soldiers who surrendered all the way together probably will not exceed 100,000. The strength of the Ming army is several times that of the Qing army, and it occupies a favorable position, so can't it stand Yangzhou?

Faced with Song Liben's question, Shen Tingyang was speechless, yes, the troops under Yangzhou Shi Kefa are so strong, what are you worried about? However, he still had a faint feeling that the situation was already very critical.

"General, the holy decree we got was to assist in the defense of the Yangtze River, and without the will of the imperial court, we couldn't go to Yangzhou at all." Li Yanzhi's words made Shen Tingyang speechless.

Raising his eyes to look at Jiangbei, Ren Siqi sighed. He knew that although the Ming army in Jiangbei was several times that of the Qing soldiers, the war was never won by whoever had more people, and no one dared to resist the hundreds of thousands of Ming troops in the face of tens of thousands of Qing soldiers.

Liu Zeqing went to Huai'an, Liu Liangzuo had an army of 100,000 but ignored Shi Kefa's request for help, and he couldn't escape in a hurry, allowing Shi Kefa to be besieged in the lonely city of Yangzhou. And Li Chengdong, the general soldier of Xuzhou under the former Gao Jie, had surrendered to the Manchus and acted as the vanguard of the attack on Yangzhou.

When Shi Kefa was surrounded in Yangzhou with a small number of troops, no one was willing to rescue hundreds of thousands of Ming troops around, allowing Yangzhou to be contributed by the Qing soldiers, and hundreds of thousands of Yangzhou people died in the massacre of the Qing soldiers, which was "Yangzhou Ten Days".

After Yangzhou was captured and Shi Kefa was killed, Liu Zeqing, Liu Liangzuo and others resolutely surrendered to the ......

And now, can I still watch the tragedy happen in front of my eyes? At this moment, Ren Siqi really wanted to order the whole army to go north to assist Shi Kefa in defending the city. But soon he got himself under control.

For Yangzhou, his 20,000 troops are not too much, and if he goes to Yangzhou, he may be able to delay the fall of Yangzhou, but it will not help at all.

And he went to Yangzhou without an order from the imperial court, will Shi Kefa trust him? At this moment, Ren Siqi was very hesitant.

"General, my subordinates think that what we should do now is to immediately order the collection of ships on the Yangtze River and establish a defense line on the Yangtze River. In this way, even if the Qing army captures Yangzhou, we can defend it according to the river. Li Yanzhi saw Ren Siqi's hesitation and suggested in a low voice.

Li Yanzhi is also an ambitious person, how can he allow the Daishan army to consume Jiangbei in vain. The Daishan army is a naval army, with a strong ability to fight water, as long as the Qing army can be defeated on the Yangtze River, Ren Siqi will inevitably be reused by the imperial court, so the power of the Daishan army will develop from the island to the land.

Ren Siqi took a deep breath of cold air and forced himself to calm down.

Li Yanzhi was right, what he should do now is not to rush to Yangzhou, but to quickly collect ships and arrange the Yangtze River defense line. Collect all the ships to the south bank of the Yangtze River, even if the Qing army captures Yangzhou, they will not be able to cross the Yangtze River.

Moreover, now that the Qing troops have not yet arrived in Yangzhou, the matter of reinforcements is not so urgent, and it can be left for later consideration.

Under Ren Siqi's order, the soldiers of the Daishan Army set off by boat to collect all the ships near Zhenjiang.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the water transportation in the south of the Yangtze River was extremely developed, and the north-south canal was at the intersection of Zhenjiang and the Yangtze River, so there were not too many ships nearby.

For ordinary ferries and passenger boats, the Daishan army did not care about it, and all the big ships, all the ships that were fast and suitable for combat, were taken down, and together with the boatmen on board, they were brought to the water camp.

After a few days of hard work, more than 500 river boats were collected.

Just when Ren Siqi was actively arranging the defense line of the Yangtze River, the order from Nanjing arrived in Zhenjiang, and the order of the imperial court surprised Ren Siqi! (To be continued.) )