None of the military reports sent to Nanjing in the past few days had any news of victory, and the hundreds of officials in Nanjing City had almost become frightened birds, and as long as a fast horse entered Nanjing City, they became worried again, and there might be bad news again. At this moment, several scholars could no longer afford to have the idea of restricting Li Xin, they only hoped that Li Xin would quickly train all the recruits, as long as the war did not spread to Jiangnan, it would be easy to say.

But is the war still far from Nanjing? Wuhu has fallen into the hands of the Huangmei thief, and the only thing left west of Nanjing is Jianyang. If Jianyang is lost again, this place will come to Nanjing in the morning and evening, what else can prevent the war from burning to the city of Nanjing?

After Li Xinchu heard the news that Luoyang had fallen and King Fu was killed by Li Zicheng, he was very calm. What should come will always come, but it is only half a year ahead of the history he is familiar with. If he remembered correctly, Li Zicheng would capture Luoyang in the first month of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen and kill King Fu. Previously, in the imperial court's official newspaper, the situation in Henan had been relatively stable, and Yang Sichang was also preparing to attack in the direction of Shandong, hoping to greatly improve the situation in Shandong before Lu Xiangsheng arrived in Shandong.

However, Li Xin's judgment was obviously based on what Di Bao said. Now, judging from the fact that Luoyang fell and King Fu was killed, how many of the military reports that Yang Sichang reported to the imperial court before were true and how many were false, I am afraid it is unknown.

Chen Wenshan, who has been in charge of the New Army of the Three Guards Army with Li Xin in the past few days, is not so calm, Luoyang is not an ordinary small city after all, and now it is said that it has fallen, and the bad impact caused by it is self-evident. In particular, the morale of the people of the Ming Army, which was already extremely low, became even more depressed.

"Alas, the situation has deteriorated so far, can it be recovered?"

Chen Wenzhi let out a long sigh, his voice full of pessimism and disappointment. Li Xin did not answer him, because if the situation develops according to the existing history, the corrupted situation will not only be irreparable, but also corrupted to the point of no return.

It's just that now, several key figures have deviated from the original historical trajectory, and whether those important events that determine the life and death of the Ming Dynasty can happen has become unknown. For example, Wu Sangui, who was angry and red-faced, didn't know which tribe in the Saibei grassland was incognito at this time! There is also Dorgon, who has not been able to defeat his opponents as he had hoped and will take sole regent. On the contrary, due to the failure of the attack on Liaoxi, both Prince Dai Shan of Li and Prince Dolgon of Rui suffered an unprecedented blow to their prestige...... And so on and so forth.

Although there were many changes, in Li Xin's statistics, these not only failed to play a positive role, but accelerated some historical events, and these were all events that did all kinds of harm to the Ming Dynasty and did not benefit them.

Bad news came one after another, just three days after the news of the fall of Luoyang reached Nanjing, Jiangbei sent a military report again, and He Tengjiao, who led the troops in Luzhou, was defeated, and he himself did not know what to do. The chief soldier He Cheng was martyred! The 5th Battalion of Gezuo, which defeated He Tengjiao, took advantage of the situation and drove straight in, swept Luzhou, and then rushed into Hezhou in a big way.

Hezhou and Yingtianfu are already only separated by a river, and the war is one step closer to Nanjing. There was a kind of pessimism and despair throughout Nanjing, and in order to inspire people, Sun Ji took the illness to review the new troops recruited by the Three Guards, although the training was only ten days old, and the phalanx of the recruits also walked in a good way. With the support of his son at home, Sun Ji was already tired and out of breath after walking a circle, so he went to rest in the tent for a while, and then continued his unfinished inspection.

"Well trained! If you want to do your best to kill the enemy? And today, if we don't plan early in Nanjing, when the war really burns in Nanjing, it will be too late. Speaking of this, Sun Ji sighed, then shook his head again, and said with a wry smile: "The war has burned to the other side of the river. It is just across the river from Nanjing. I don't understand, Yang Ge's troops are strong and strong, and good news is frequent, how can they be defeated overnight? Didn't the Di newspaper say that Li Zicheng had already felt that he had gone to the mountains in the north of Huguang? Why did I return to Luoyang overnight" Alas......"

The thoughts were mixed, like a mess in Sun Ji's heart, but some words were like a fish in his throat if he didn't say them.

"In practical terms, Yang Gebu is talented. But military affairs are by no means his forte, and the Holy Admiral has handed over the military and political affairs of several provinces to him, and now it seems to be a blessing rather than a curse. ”

Sun Jiao blamed Yang Sichang every word, but between the lines revealed his dissatisfaction with the emperor's stupid employment. This was extremely rare in Li Xin's impression, and he couldn't help but say: "Lu Xiangsheng and the newly recruited Changping army have rushed to Shandong, and the problem of pharmaceutical Shandong has been solved, and the north-south traffic of the Grand Canal has been restored, and the situation may improve." ”

Sun Ji smiled bitterly: "You don't have to comfort me, what the hell has become of the situation in the world now, don't I know in my heart?" It's just that I didn't expect to be corrupted into this virtue! His affection was a little excited, and his right hand trembled and patted on his thigh, but because of his weakness, he slapped on his thigh and even the sound was not so obvious.

"It's just that I hate that my body is not as good as day by day, and if I can personally lead the troops to fight the enemy like I did in Gaoyang, I don't know......"

"Don't worry, although the Fifth Battalion of the Revolution defeated He Bingxian in Luzhou, He Bingxian was not completely wiped out, and it is unknown whether he will make a comeback. The Fifth Battalion of the Left Wing may not dare to cross the river. ”

Sun Jian agreed with Li Xin's statement, but he still pointed it out sharply, and Li Xin really diverted his attention.

"The fifth battalion of the left of the revolution entered Hezhou, and the real threat was not Nanjing, the city of Nanjing was high and deep, the soldiers were strong and strong, and the idlers could not break the city. But Wei Guogong, who was in the Taiping Mansion, was different. Not to mention the discouragement of the army, he is facing the embarrassing dilemma of being attacked by the enemy on his back, if he can't withstand the pressure of the thief, he will be wronged! "How can this ruin the good situation in Nanjing?

Sun Jiao's train of thought changed quickly, and he immediately discussed with Li Xin: "To the east of Jianyang, to the west of Nanjing, there is still a big victory pass on the edge of the Yangtze River, and we can also defend it for a while, we should send some people to it, in case Jianyang falls, this place can be a buffer after all." ”

Li Xinda thought that this matter did not need to be explained by Sun Jiao, and he also planned to hold the traffic after the new army had a small success. However, it was imperative to make enough muskets, and large quantities of gunpowder were needed to serve as a primer for firing bullets and shells.

As a result, Li Xin was very surprised to find that a large amount of gunpowder had accumulated in the treasury of both Nanjing and Longtan, although many of them had been hardened by moisture, but this did not affect the use. As long as the damp and compacted gunpowder is dried and re-ground and granulated, it can be used again.

The problem of gunpowder is a trivial matter, and the difficulty is how to get the musket. In the end, after Li Xin gathered many blacksmiths in the Three Guards Army, he resolutely decided to invest in the establishment of an arsenal in Longtan, specializing in the production of muskets and artillery.

Blacksmiths say that the coal and iron in Jiangnan seem to be somewhat different from those in the north, which may affect the strength and toughness of cast cannons and muskets. However, Li Xin didn't have time to do everything himself, so he could only entrust the blacksmith Li Da to discuss, because Li Da had already been infamous as a quartermaster of the New Army of the Three Guards.

As the people around Li Xin were sent out one by one, there were fewer and fewer people who could handle the writing work for him, so he could only do it himself, and he was much busier than usual for a while. But these are all necessary, many official documents must be disposed of on the same day, if it is delayed for a day, I don't know how many things will be delayed!

Soon, but in just three days, the first prototype gun was built by the blacksmiths.

"The body of the gun is still made of a whole piece of iron in the traditional way, which has enough toughness and strength. It seems that it is feasible to build a musket workshop in the south of the Yangtze River......" the blacksmith leader babbled in front of Li Xin explaining the manufacturing process of the musket and the advantages and disadvantages of iron ore. Li Xin was very satisfied with the final test of the gun, and the charge was increased to an unprecedented level, and after several test launches, there was no explosion and boring.

Li Xin also knows that this kind of sample gun often represents the highest quality in this batch of guns. If you let the blacksmith carry out large-scale production, the quality will be different. But then again, as long as a mass-produced musket can have the standard of the gun in front of it, it will be enough to handle the most serious combat situations. So he urged the old blacksmith to organize at once and make the muskets needed by the Three Guards.

After another day, Sun Jiao's condition worsened and he was already bedridden, apparently because he had gone to Longtan to inspect the new army, which had cost him too much energy. But even so, he still has a lot of important things in mind.

"Wei Guogong of Taiping Mansion is about to run out of food, and he must find a way to transport the grain over, otherwise they will be in chaos before the Huangmei thieves attack......

Li Xin nodded in agreement, and bluntly said that Chen Wenzhi was already in charge of this matter. However, he did not explain the actual situation, and just yesterday, the fleet of Haikou Mariners, which had disappeared for a while, reappeared on the waterway of the Yangtze River north of Nanjing. These large and small ships rampage, robbing and sinking all the ships that could be seen on the waterway of the Yangtze River, for a time the entire lower waterway of the Yangtze River was very noisy, and the grain ships that should have been transported to Taiping Mansion again had to be transported to Taipingfu, in view of this situation, they had to stand still, otherwise even if they set off on time, they would definitely be sunk by the Haikou fleet on the river, and when the time came, not to mention the destruction of the ships, they would have to lose tens of thousands of stone of grain in vain.

At that time, the political hall recruited Li Xin for the first time, and their main goal was to relieve the many pressures faced by Nanjing, hoping that Li Xin could come up with a practical idea. Li Xin thought seriously for a while and replied: "If we want to solve the crisis, the transportation of the Yangtze River waterway must be restored, and the power of water transportation must be in our hands!" ”