The uproar that occurred at night in the artisan area in the southwest of the city shook the defenders of Nanjing, and it was natural that the matter would be reported to the cabinet. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 Although the city gate did not dare to open lightly, the head of the city used a rope to hang a few soldiers down the city wall to figure out what was going on.

Hearing that there was a riot outside the city, Ma Shiying hurriedly put on his clothes and got up, there were too many things that happened these days, and he was on duty in the cabinet day and night in order not to delay things.

Hearing the report of the officers and soldiers on duty that it was the Daishan Army plundering the craftsmen outside the city, Ma Shiying's brows furrowed suddenly.

He originally thought that Ren Siqi was a scholar with a gentle and elegant background, humble and polite, and the Daishan Army had amazing combat power and was very elite, so he gave birth to Ren Siqi to stay in Nanjing for his own use. But I didn't expect that in just a few days, such a thing would happen!

No, you have to call Ren Siqi to give it a good beating! After dawn, when Ma Shiying was about to send someone to pass on Ren Siqi, he received an excerpt from Ren Siqi, saying that he wanted to send reinforcements to Yangzhou.

Just yesterday, Ma Shiying also received a report from Jiangbei, saying that the Qing soldiers had gone down to Xuyi. Ma Shiying convened Ruan Dacheng, the secretary of the Ministry of War, Wang Duo, a scholar of the cabinet, and others overnight to discuss, and after discussing for a long time, there was no good way.

Jiangbei has gathered the strongest army of the Ming Dynasty. Gao Jie's remnants, Guangchangbo Liu Liangzuo, and Dongpingbo Liu Zeqing's troops are all elite soldiers who have been in battle for a long time, and the total number of troops in Jiangbei is as much as 300,000, and there are university scholars Shi Kefa to supervise Yangzhou, if they can't hold Yangzhou, the imperial court will have no choice. After all, there are only 30,000 or 40,000 soldiers in the Beijing battalion in Nanjing, and they are all soldiers from military families who have never experienced war, and if you talk about combat power, you can't compare with the soldiers in the four towns of Jiangbei.

It was because the combat strength of the Nanjing defenders was too weak that Ma Shiying had the idea of leaving Ren Siqi's Daishan army in Nanjing. But I didn't expect this Ren Siqi to know what to do and insisted on going to Yangzhou!

Ren Siqi's excerpt describes the importance of Yangzhou to the Ming Dynasty, pointing out that if Yangzhou is lost, the Jiangbei army is lost, and Nanjing cannot be held at all. Of course, Ma Shiying knew the importance of Yangzhou to the Ming Dynasty, but Ren Siqi's words made him feel a little alarmist, if so many troops couldn't hold Yangzhou, what was the use of more than 20,000 Daishan troops?

However, since Ren Siqi has commendable courage and is dedicated to serving the country, it is naturally not good to dampen his enthusiasm. Ma Shiying planned to invite Ren Siqi to comfort him, so that he could stay in Nanjing for his own use, and as for the trivial matter of robbing craftsmen, he naturally didn't care about it anymore.

However, before Ma Shiying could send someone, someone came to report that the Daishan army stationed by the river had already pulled out of camp and was about to board the ship and leave Nanjing. Ma Shiying's face turned blue all of a sudden.

"Yuanfu, this Su Uncle is so reckless, just arrest him!" Ruan Dacheng looked at Ma Shiying's face and proposed.

"Catch it?" Ma Shiying glared at Ruan Dacheng, what kind of bullshit idea is this, Ren Siqi has tens of thousands of troops in his hands, what if he causes chaos?

Ruan Dacheng also knew that he had said something stupid, so he lowered his head in shame.

"Immediately draw up an order to transfer the Ningbo General Army Ren Siqi to assist in the defense of Yangzhou and resist the Qing soldiers." Ma Shiying gritted his teeth and commanded. When the Chinese scholar who was waiting on the side heard this, he immediately waved his pen and wrote Ma Shiying's words as a holy decree.

"Motosuke?" Ruan Dacheng exclaimed, but instantly understood what Ma Shiying meant.

The Daishan army could not be stopped from going to Yangzhou, and the imperial court now had no way to take Ren Si. If the Daishan army sends troops privately in the name of disobeying the orders of the imperial court, it means that the imperial court has completely lost control of the local army, and more and more troops will follow suit.

Rather than this, it is not the next holy decree to let Ren Siqi lead troops to reinforce Yangzhou, so that in the eyes of others, the Daishan army was ordered by the imperial court to send troops, so that the face of the imperial court can be preserved.

After the decree was written, Ma Shiying immediately sent someone to send it to the celebrant to wear red, and then to Ren Siqi.

Looking at the Zhongshu people who hurried out of the cabinet with the holy decree, the more Ma Shiying thought about it, the more angry he became, and with a "snap", he swept the tea cup to the ground.

By noon, the army had already boarded the ships one after another. With 40,000 troops and thousands of warships, it is not so easy to set out at once. Mao 18 set off with part of the navy army and 20,000 recruits, and their group of people wanted to rush to Chongming Island at the mouth of the Yangtze River and put the recruits in Chongming, which will be another island under the rule of the Daishan army in the future.

Shen Tingyang was also found, since the fleet and the recruited soldiers were taken away by Liu Zeqing, Shen Tingyang no longer had the intention of becoming an official again. After coming to Nanjing, the imperial court also recruited him, intending to appoint him as a household servant, but Shen Tingyang categorically refused, he didn't want to be mediocre in Nanjing and wait for death.

The Daishan army's defeat of Zuo Liangyu's army in Tongling made Shen Tingyang see hope, and Ren Siqi's analysis of the situation in the world made Shen Tingyang even more amazed. In Shen Tingyang's view, if there is an army that can defeat the Manchus and turn the tide, it must be the Daishan army.

Ren Siqi's move to lead the army to reinforce Yangzhou made Shen Tingyang very admired, and there were fewer and fewer troops who dared to take the initiative to fight against the Manchu Eight Banners in the Ming Dynasty. So when Ren Siqi said that he wanted to train recruits on Chongming Island, Shen Tingyang agreed without thinking about it. The Shen family is a big family in Chongming, Shen Tingyang was born in Jinshi, he has been a high-ranking official in the imperial court, and his influence in Chongming is incomparable.

However, although he agreed to train the Daishan Army in Chongming, Shen Tingyang refused to return to Chongming to assist Mao Shiba, and planned to enter Yangzhou City with Ren Siqi. For Shen Tingyang's courage, Ren Siqi appreciated it very much and decisively agreed.

"I didn't expect the imperial court to really issue a holy decree!" Sending away the eunuch who delivered the decree, Ren Siqi sighed with emotion. In his opinion, his own approach was very excessive, plundering craftsmen and sending troops without orders, which could no longer be described as domineering. Unexpectedly, the imperial court endured it.

"Hmph, it's just to cover your face!" Shen Tingyang said disdainfully, having been an official for more than ten years, Shen Tingyang naturally knew that officialdom was tired.

On 15 April, the army set out from Nanjing and arrived at Zhenjiang on 16 April. Here, the fleet was divided into two parts, and more than half of the ships carried 20,000 recruits and hundreds of craftsmen continued eastward to Chongming Island. The rest of the ships entered the canal from Zhenjiang and headed north to Yangzhou.

"That should be the Zheng family's fleet, right?" Ren Siqi asked, pointing to a large area of water camps on the south bank, where hundreds of warships were moored.

"It's the Zheng family's fleet, I heard that it's Zheng Hongkui who leads the team!" Anthony Road.

"It's him!" Ren Siqi smiled, and suddenly remembered the meeting with Zheng Hongkui in the Wa Kingdom last year. At that time, he was only the owner of two sea ships, and he wanted to ask Zheng Hongkui for help under the threat of the Dutch, but Zheng Hongkui refused himself and allowed himself to be bullied by other races.

In history, Zheng Hongkui was also transferred to Zhenjiang by the Southern Ming Dynasty and was responsible for defending the Yangtze River, but when the Qing soldiers crossed the river, Zheng Hongkui did not dare to fight the Qing soldiers at all, so he fled Zhenjiang.

With the strength of the Zheng family's water division, if they are willing to fight with all their might, how can the Qing soldiers cross the Yangtze River so easily?

At noon on 17 April, more than 500 ships carrying 15,000 soldiers of the Daishan Army, including 10,000 infantry and 5,000 sailors, arrived in Yangzhou. At this time, the vanguard of the Qing army had arrived twenty miles north of Yangzhou City! (To be continued.) )