The fleet sailed into the mouth of the Yangtze River, and Li Xin stood on the side of the deck railing, his gaze projected on the north bank of the river with the hull of the ship upstream.

"Your Excellency the Marquis, I heard that the rebels in Jiangbei have been defeated by the king, and our army can take this opportunity to cross the river." Wallace had long heard about the changes in Jiangbei, and after the great victory in the first war in Taiwan, his self-confidence had skyrocketed, so he was anxious to find his next opponent, and when he heard that it was only some troublesome thieves who occupied Jiangbei, he was even more eager to try.

Li Xin looked at the scenery of the river and the shore slowly moving backwards, and was a little distracted, and did not respond for a while. However, He Bin, who has always been against Wallace, really raised a different opinion this time.

"The defeat of the Jiangbei thieves is just around the corner, whether to send troops or not, when to send troops, the Hou Hou has his own proper arrangements."

In fact, what He Bin said was not straightforward, in his opinion, even if the Fifth Battalion of the Revolution in Jiangbei was not defeated by Lu Xiangsheng, these thieves may not be the opponents of the Three Guards.

Wallace, on the other hand, did not understand the state of affairs in the Ming Dynasty, and it was not surprising that he did not understand the mutual conversion between friend and foe. In He Bin's view, the defeat of the Fifth Battalion of the Revolution and the great victory of Lu Xiangsheng are definitely not good news for the Zhenyu Marquis and the Three Guards.

"What Hua Junmen said is exactly what Ben Shuai thinks, after returning to Nanjing, he will officially cross the river with the whole army and go on the Northern Expedition!"

Li Xin came back from his stunned and immediately answered Wallace's question, but He Bin's eyes widened in disbelief, he didn't believe that these words came from the sincerity of the Marquis of Zhenyu.

He Bin really complicated the problem, the reason why Li Xin was unable to make a move on Jiangbei was because of the repeated constraints of Nanjing's important ministers in the early stage, and he was not allowed to doppelgänger. Second, the sudden expansion of the Huangmei thief and the Huaiwang rebels, as well as the sudden involvement of Zheng Zhilong in Fujian, greatly involved Li Xin's energy, so the strategy plan for Jiangbei was shelved.

It is true that this objectively played a positive role in Li Xin's sweep away the opposition forces in Nanjing, but this does not mean that Li Xinzhen will connive at the Fifth Battalion of the Revolutionary Left to sit in Lianghuai. And now, he has finally freed his hands, and naturally he will no longer be soft on the rebel Jiangbei's Fifth Battalion of Gezuo.

As for now, he has to hurry back to Nanjing to stabilize the panic of the hundreds of officials in the city. Mi Yan's report had already been received at the beginning of his entry into the Yangtze River estuary. To Li Xin's surprise, Zheng Sanjun, who has always dared to take risks, failed to participate in the conspiracy against him, but thought that Gao Hongtu, who was weak and soft, jumped out first.

Although these two people have always been wall-grass type officials, it is clear that Zheng Sanjun is more forward-looking than Gao Hongtu. And with Gao Hongtu's current reputation in Nanjing, even if Li Xin wants to bypass this person, he will not be allowed to get away with it for fear of violent discussions.

Mi Yan's methods began to emerge, deterring the opposition forces in the city in one fell swoop, and calming down the undercurrent that had just risen. Investigate corruption, this kind of conspiracy, no, when it is a means of conspiracy, it can be concocted in the same way, who dares to take the lead, send someone to check his family wealth, no one in the Ming Dynasty during the Chongzhen period will have a clean butt, even the dignified Hai Gangfeng has bribed his boss with money, not to mention these mediocre officials who have no personality.

Thinking of this, Li Xin couldn't help but smile helplessly, in order to sit firmly under the buttocks, for the sake of the officials and generals tied to him, he is becoming more and more shameless, no matter from the orthodox point of view of Confucian psychology, this kind of dark and dark tricks are already the same as villains.

But then again, once you step into the whirlpool of power struggle, there is no longer a distinction between a gentleman and a villain, in order to achieve the goal, even a humble gentleman must become brazen in order to overcome the opponent's pervasive infiltration and smear and blow, in order to live in peace and stability.

Otherwise, once you miss, the person caught in the whirlpool will fall into the abyss of no return. For example, Hu Zongxian, a famous anti-Japanese minister of the Jiajing Dynasty, was implicated after the fall of Yan Song because he was attached to Yan Song by the party, and committed suicide.

Therefore, there is no room for a woman's kindness now, just like sailing against the current, if you don't advance, you will retreat, except for overcoming thorns and thorns, Li Xin has no second way to choose, unless he allows failure to completely swallow him up.

Wallace and Ho Bin were blushing in the argument, neither of them could convince the other, but both tried to convince the other, while the sailors on the deck peeked at one of the countless disputes between the chief and deputy commanders.

"General, the front is Longtan County."

Li Xin had specially explained to his own soldiers, and informed him when the fleet passed through Longtan County.

"Hua Junmen, order the fleet to dock at Longtan, and all the soldiers of the infantry battalion to land at Longtan."

Wallace was dumbfounded in the face of Li Xin's unannounced order, and he couldn't understand why His Excellency the Marquis had landed in Longtan, where birds don't.

"Your Excellency Marquis, Nanjing must have prepared a grand welcome ceremony, if you land in Longtan......"

Could it be that His Excellency the Marquis's purpose was to avoid the welcoming ceremony prepared by the hundred officials in Nanjing? Wallace suddenly thought of the crux of the matter, and couldn't help but squint his eyes as he carefully examined the powerful marquis in front of him, who, despite his age of not yet thirty, already controlled the equivalent of half of Europe.

"After the marshal went ashore, the fleet returned to the military port outside Shangyuanmen as usual, and everything was as usual."

Under the order of the change of flag, the ships in the fleet began to approach the pier of Longtan. However, because he was worried that the water at the wharf would be shallow, when he was still some distance from the wharf, he lowered the boat and ferried the foot soldiers of the Three Guards ashore.

Li Xin only brought 3,000 foot soldiers with him when he returned this time, and most of the remaining foot soldiers stayed in Zhejiang, including his close confidant Niu Jinsong, who was left in Hangzhou. At this point, he once again felt that there were too few people available in his hands, and after Niu Jinsong was sent out, the vast majority of those who stayed with him were already recruited new soldiers.

The Longtan County Order was a student recommended by Chen Wenshan, which can be regarded as the descendant of his lineage, but the landing of Li Xin and the Three Guards Army was very sudden, and no notice was issued to Longtan in advance. Therefore, at the beginning of the march of the 3,000 foot soldiers, it also caused a lot of shock in the local area, because it was dark, so the local people could not clearly identify their identities, and thought that the thieves crossed the river and landed, and the local regiment immediately organized to try to stop the actions of the Three Guards.

And the Longtan County Commander also quickly learned the news that there were thieves entering the country, and also took the county security army out of the city to meet the enemy. The county security force was still trained by Li Xin when he was stationed in Longtan, so it also had considerable combat effectiveness. Years later, the thieves entered Longtan County and were wiped out by the security army, so this security army gave Longtan County Commander great confidence.

When they heard that a large group of thieves had landed on the riverbank, they sent people to Pegasus to Nanjing to report the news, and on the other hand, they organized all the security forces to go out of the city to meet the enemy.

The county commander Zhao Chengdong has just passed, and he is the age when he is eager to seek merit, so he is also happy to see the hunt. But when he saw the people and horses in the darkness and blur, he was immediately shocked into a cold sweat. Although the security army deserves the word brave, after all, there are only 500 people. And the scale of the other party is roughly estimated to be at least three or five thousand, and the advantages and disadvantages are immediately apparent.

The county man, who was still showing off his might behind the county commander, was immediately frightened when he saw that the other party was so large.

"County Zun, seeing that the situation is not good, we are all few, let's withdraw quickly, if it is too late, we will have to be given by these thieves...... Let's go back to Longtan at this time, stand in the city and defend it, maybe, maybe there is a glimmer of life" Zhao Chengdong, the county commander, immediately reprimanded: "Shut up!" When the two armies are handed over, if you dare to speak out to disturb the hearts of our army, you should deal with it by military law, don't blame this county for being ruthless! ”

"This, this, this ......"

The county was immediately frightened and stammered, not knowing what to say. Don't look at the county commander Zhao Chengdong scolded the county Cheng with full confidence, in fact, he himself is also very weak-minded, compared to the county Cheng of the slippery old official, he feels that this group of people is very different from the thieves he has seen in the past, and the formation is quite neat when marching, although there is occasional noise, but his intention to deliberately hide his whereabouts is keenly felt by him.

But the matter has come to this point, and there is no room for the retreat of the security forces, otherwise the order will not be a simple withdrawal, and the security forces under their command will be demoralized and scattered like the sea at a receding tide.

"Musketeers prepare!"

At this time, the battalion officers of the security army had already given orders in accordance with the drill code, and before the other side discovered them, they must line up the musket phalanx, so that they could be sure enough to catch the other side off guard, and it was even possible to demoralize the other side without distinguishing between the false and the real.

"General, let's do it!"

Li Xin raised the monocular and observed it in the dark for a while before putting it down.

"Wait, this place is too close to several villages, and if a fight breaks out, innocent people may be harmed."

"General, I'm afraid that their purpose is to enter the village and plunder, you see, there seems to be a ...... on that side."

Li Xin followed the direction pointed by the general and vaguely saw that there was indeed a group of people and horses who seemed to be moving towards the nearest village, at this moment, suddenly saw a flash of fire in the darkness, followed by the crackling sound of popping beans came frequently, and the entire night sky seemed to be lit up in an instant, and the torches were suddenly everywhere.

"General, it's time to fight! They, they're not a bunch. ”

Li Xin was also quite strange, could it be that the people and horses moving in the dark were actually two different forces? From the sound of musket salvos like popping beans on the opposite side, he immediately judged that this was obviously a foot soldier trained according to the discipline of the Three Guards.

"It may have been the local security forces in Longtan who opened fire."

Li Xin was halfway through his words, and he couldn't help but wrinkle his eyebrows, where did the Lingyi people in the dark come from? Marching in the dark is never a good thing.