According to the Yangtze River in Dangtu, which is more than 100 miles away from Nanjing, more than 700 warships stretched for seven or eight miles, and they rushed towards Nanjing along the river. Zhu Chenhao's army had traveled hundreds of miles of waterway in just over three days from the day they left the mouth of Poyang Lake, and if it hadn't been for the half-day stay in Anqing Mansion waiting for the ration of the fleet of grain and grass to be withdrawn from Nanchang, they would have already arrived at the city of Nanjing.

For the loss of Nanchang, it is naturally expected, since Zhu Chenhao has made up his mind to give up Nanchang, although his heart hurts, but it is not unacceptable. He was just annoyed that Wan Rui dared to disobey his orders, and did not withdraw all the soldiers and horses to follow the large army, and 15,000 soldiers and horses were cut off in Nanchang City, which was what he was most annoyed about.

If these fifteen thousand people join in, they will have a real army of 100,000 at hand, although the soldiers who are drawn in and the soldiers who were included after capturing the three prefectures of Nankang, Jiujiang and Anqing are also among them, but these are also people, and they can still play a role in a war.

According to the news from the morning, Wang Shouren sent people to capture Nankang and Jiujiang, that is to say, the road back to Jiangxi was completely blocked, and now there is only one mind to capture the road of Nanjing.

Zhu Chenhao's flagship was in the middle of the fleet, guarded by iron-headed ships on the left and right, standing on the deck, looking at the scene of thousands of sails racing across the clear water and blue sky in front of him, Zhu Chenhao's worries were less. When he was squinting and admiring, he heard the footsteps behind him, and the voice of the military advisor Liu Yangzheng came: "Your Majesty, a great thing, a great thing, the news in Nanjing has arrived." ”

Zhu Chenhao turned around with great joy and saw that Liu Yangzheng was holding a piece of parchment in his hand, which was naturally a message from Nanjing City sent by a carrier pigeon. Zhu Chenhao snatched it from his hand and took a quick look, a smile appeared on his handsome cheeks.

"Hahaha, I came at the right time, Feng Xiaoyi and they learned about Song Nan's blocking plan; I was worried that Song Nan would be unfavorable to me after arriving in Nanjing City ahead of schedule, but now that we have learned about his plan in advance, I can let Song Nan taste the taste of defeat and death, isn't he known as the god of the Ming army? After he, the god of the Ming Dynasty, was defeated and captured by me and cut off his head, let's see who in the court dares to come to fight us. ”

Liu Yangzheng smiled and said: "Congratulations to the emperor, congratulations to the emperor, with the other party's battle plan, we can get twice the result with half the effort." In other words, Song Nan's plan is really vicious, if we didn't know it in advance, we wouldn't have suffered a big loss. The vision is not clear at night, and if he really mixes into the fleet with a fireboat, although we will definitely win, the loss will be not small. ”

Zhu Chenhao nodded and said, "It's a pity, such a good plan was learned by us, Yangzheng, how do you say we should deal with it?" ”

Liu Yangzheng said: "It's not difficult to deal with it, close to the river bank to arrange the defense of the warship, send ten iron-headed boats on the left side of the riverbank, and wait for their small boats to go out, immediately drive up to crush the impact, the iron-headed ships are fire-resistant, even if they light a fire?" At most, we destroyed a few of our ships, but we ruined his entire plan. ”

Zhu Chenhao laughed and said: "Yes, in addition to sinking them, you can also use the Francophone cannon on the iron-headed ship to knock them over, I can't wait to see this scene, Song Nan wants to vomit blood angrily when he sees this scene." ”

Liu Yangzheng smiled and said: "When repelling his ambush attack, we will send heavy artillery ships to gather at the mouth of the river, and a few rounds of bombardment can collapse the blockade obstacles and fortifications on the estuary, and then nothing will stop our army from entering Nanjing." Feng Xiaoyi's thousands of their soldiers and horses will make trouble in the city again, and our nearly 90,000 soldiers and horses will cover up and enter the city, or before dawn, Nanjing City will be the emperor's capital. ”

Zhu Chenhao's body trembled with a smile, and he waved his hand and ordered: "Go and reply to Feng Xiaoyi, just say that we will go to the mouth of the river after dark, and as soon as the army breaks through the estuary, they will start an incident in the city, so that we can enter the city and land on the shore." ”

Liu Yangzheng nodded in agreement, picked up his robe and left, Zhu Chenhao shouted again: "One more sentence, take Nanjing, Feng Xiaoyi, and the three of them will be immediately promoted to the position of general, and ask them to do their best for me." ”

Liu Yangzheng hurriedly returned to the warehouse, and after a while, three carrier pigeons flew up into the sky and flew straight downstream, at the same time, the flag on the flagship changed, and all the ships from the side sails were full sails of the wind, and the fleet accelerated, like moths that pounced on the flames, and rushed downstream without hesitation.

……

The sun slowly set on the horizon, and the moment the golden afterglow disappeared, the sky and the earth were shrouded in a pale blue twilight, and the four fields instantly became depressed. It's a cold time in February, and after the sun sets, the air is filled with a chilly feeling.

Mei Zizhou lies quietly in the river, like a huge fish, and its arched back splits the river in half, changing the river into two passages in the north and south. The width of the Yangtze River here was originally nearly five miles wide, but the width of Meizizhou was more than two miles, and the width of the river on both sides of this guide was less than one mile; Although it still looks very wide, it has lost much of the power of the great river. In fact, this is exactly the result that Song Nan wants to see, choosing this place is to be able to use the diversion effect of Meizizhou to make the river into two narrow sections, so that General Zhankou and Mrs. Song's rocket artillery are within range.

There is no light on the black river, only the roaring sound of the water is rolling, and the dead silence on Meizizhou is also dark, but under the cover of darkness, nearly 20,000 soldiers and horses are staring at the river with wide eyes, if these eyes will shine like stars, you will find that this Meizizhou is full of twinkling stars.

At the beginning of the shift, there was a faint fire shining on the river in front, which shocked Song Nan, who was hiding behind the big reef, and after a while, he rushed over several warships with sails like arrows, and Ma Ming said in a low voice: "It's coming." ”

Song Nan shouted in a low voice: "Don't act rashly, this is an outpost, once an abnormality is found, the boat behind will turn around and leave." ”

Sure enough, several boats came to the place where the water surface of Zhoutou eased and slowly slowed down, and some people on board held wind lanterns to look around, although they were dozens of steps away, the body movements of the rebels on board were still faintly recognizable. The rebel soldiers spied on Meizizhou across the river, and even had the intention of getting off the boat to check on the river.

Song Nan's heart was in his throat, Zhu Chenhao was really careful, but whenever he encountered something like Jiangxin Island, he was afraid that he had to be cautious, for fear that someone would be ambushed on the island. But soon, the rebels on the ship were blocked by the reef in the water in front of Meizizhou, because the mud in front of Meizizhou was washed away by the river upstream, and the large and small reefs were densely covered with rocks, which was not a good place for ships to dock.

As if hearing a few curses from the rebels on board, someone hurled a torch from the boat to the shore of the island, and the torch arced through the air and landed in a bush, and soon ignited a bush of wild grass.

"Not good." Ma Ming shouted in a low voice.

"How?" Song Nan frowned and asked.

"Where are the soldiers lurking, this fire is afraid that it will burn people, if it is burned and jumps, it will be over."

Song Nan was shocked, and raised his eyes to look at the bank of the Zhoutou River under the rocks, the wild grass burning on fire was very violent, but the bushes and wild grass here were all growing together, and it was impossible to spread, but if there were really people hiding in the grass, it would inevitably be discovered by the rebels in the river.

However, none of these fears happened, and the soldiers on the rebel warships on the river deliberately stayed for a while, waiting for themselves to be extinguished from the dead grass, and then turned the bow of the boat and rowed away with great difficulty, presumably thinking that there was nothing unusual, and returned to the river to give a signal.

After the enemy ship left, there was a noise from the fire below, and Ma Ming shouted with his head down: "What's the matter? ”

"Admiral Yuma, Brother Qiu Duoyun has been burned."

"Huh?" Ma Ming was surprised: "Where is there really someone?" ”

Song Nan jumped off the rock, all the way down the slope, and came to the place where the fire started, only to see a soldier lying on the ground with his eyes closed, and the soldiers around him were pasting his legs with river mud, the soldier's upper body was unharmed, only two legs were burned black, emitting a scorching smell, and the person was already unconscious.

The surrounding soldiers reported the situation to Song Nan, and the rebels' torches ignited the barren grass, and the fire burned to Qiu Duoyun's legs, everyone thought that he would roll and scream, but they didn't expect Qiu Duoyun to be silent, biting a branch and holding back. The flames scorched his legs, but he remained motionless, so that the rebels would not notice that there was an ambush.

Song Nan knelt down on one knee, looked at Qiu Duoyun's closed eyes, personally took a water bladder to feed him water, and put a few mouthfuls of water into his stomach, Qiu Duoyun woke up, and when he saw Song Nan, he was busy struggling to see him. Song Nan patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't move, I'm afraid your leg is useless, you are very good." ”

Qiu Duoyun didn't dare to look at his legs, gritting his teeth, tears welled up in his eyes.

Song Nan said: "Don't worry about the way out in the future, from today onwards, the rest of your Qiu Duoyun's life will be covered by my Song Mansion." Your family and parents are also supported by the town government. In addition, when you are better, I will order someone to make you a wheelchair that can roll, and someone will push you around. In addition, your military rank will be promoted and retained; Ma Ming, after returning home, he was promoted to the internal affairs position of the Shenshu Battalion and enjoyed the treatment of thousands of households. ”

Ma Ming said: "I understand my humble duties. ”

Qiu Duoyun burst into tears with excitement, and thanked him repeatedly, Song Nan said: "I should thank you, if you don't take care of the overall situation, our ambush tonight may fail, this qiē is all you deserve, I still think it's far from enough." Order someone to carry you to a safe place first, and then discuss the matter after the battle. Don't worry, your legs won't be burned in vain, wait and see, the rebels will have a hundred times more difficult tonight than you. ”