Being in Jiangnan, Zhu Youzhen was naturally very concerned about the situation on the battlefield in Jiangxi, and the battle situation in Nanchang would be sent to Zhenjiang by fast boat every few days.

200,000 thieves have besieged Nanchang City for more than a month, and Yuan Chonghuan led Jiangxi officers and soldiers to defend Nanchang City. Reinforcements from all walks of life also arrived in Jiangxi one after another, but only the Huguang soldiers went down the Yangtze River and entered Poyang Lake through the Jiujiang River into Nanchang City, and the reinforcements from Fujian were blocked by the thieves in Chepanling and could not enter Jiangxi at all, while the Zhejiang reinforcements were routed by the rebels in Raozhou and fled back to Zhejiang in embarrassment. Fujian's reinforcements were not the army controlled by Li Yanzhi, but the original local army, and its combat effectiveness was very average.

However, with the addition of Huguang soldiers, the number of defenders in Nanchang City reached as many as 40,000, and the number of troops defending the city was still enough, but it was a little difficult to defeat the rebels. Yuan Chonghuan expressed his determination to hold the city of Nanchang, but asked the imperial court to send another army into Jiangxi and join forces with the Nanchang army to defeat the thief army. Zhu Youzhen was in Zhenjiang, and Yuan Chonghuan's recital was sent directly to him, but he didn't need to be forwarded by the imperial court.

"Order Yuan Chonghuan to defend Nanchang, control all the ships in Poyang Lake, and block the thief army south of Poyang Lake! At the same time, 30,000 Huguang soldiers were dispatched, led by Cai Yuanliang, the governor of Huguang, to attack Yuanzhou Mansion from Zhuling Pass, and after attacking the thief army, he ordered He Hongzhuang, the governor of Guangdong, to lead 30,000 Guangdong soldiers to cross Meiling and attack Ganzhou, in order to respond to the defenders of Nanchang. After discussing with Hong Chengchou, Zhu Youzhen made such a decision.

As long as the troops of the provinces are mobilized to attack the rear, as long as they can break through the defense and attack all the way, they can try to cut off their grain routes, and no matter how many rebels there are, there is only one way to rout.

According to the strength on the surface, the officers and troops have no possibility of defeat at all. Nanchang City is very strong, although Yuan Chonghuan loves to brag, he is not stupid, at least there is no problem in guarding the front line of Nanchang. When the provincial armies enter Jiangxi one after another, they can take the opportunity to encircle and suppress the thief army.

"Spread the decree, with Yuan Chonghuan as the governor of the five provinces, give Shang Fang the sword, supervise the army of Jiangxi, Huguang, Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang, and pacify the thieves in Jiangxi!" After careful consideration, Zhu Youzhen had to appoint Yuan Chonghuan as the governor again, with full responsibility for the war in Jiangxi. Because no matter whether it is ability or prestige, only Yuan Chonghuan is qualified.

Hong Chengchou suggested appointing Zhu Xieyuan as the governor of the five provinces to replace Yuan Chonghuan in charge of suppressing bandits in Jiangxi. However, Zhu Xieyuan is now guarding Chuangui and deterring the Tusi in Guizhou, if Zhu Xieyuan is transferred, he is worried that the Tusi in Guizhou will be in chaos.

However, Zhu Youzhen was still a little uneasy in his heart, it was really that the Zhejiang reinforcements were defeated too strangely not long ago. According to intelligence, at that time, 20,000 Zhejiang soldiers had just entered Raozhou Mansion, and they met the rebel division in Leping County, and they were killed by thousands of rebels.

"Is the rebel army too strong, or the Zhejiang soldiers too weak, or is there something else hidden in it?" Zhu Youzhen wondered.

"Chengping has been peaceful for too long, and the armies of the southern provinces have no combat power at all, and it is understandable how bad the fight is. However, the rebels are also a rabble, and their combat effectiveness cannot be too high, and the Zhejiang soldiers can't even defeat the rebels' partial divisions, which is really difficult to say. There may be something hidden in it. Hong Chengchou sighed.

As for what is hidden, they all know it, it is nothing more than someone colluding with the rebels to deliberately defeat the war.

Zhu Youzhen's expression became serious, he knew what Hong Chengchou meant.

Since the southern tour, what he has done has frightened the gentry of the world. In particular, the act of cleaning up the land set up by the government in Shandong made the gentry even more frightened.

In the final analysis, it was his reckless style of doing things that made the gentry feel frightened and insecure. In the current situation, the imperial court has no restraint on itself, the emperor, which the gentry do not want to see. The gentry of the provinces south of the Yangtze River were afraid that they would come to the south of the Yangtze River and carry out the Juntian. Therefore, the reason why the Jiangxi rebels were able to develop rapidly to such a large scale was not necessarily without the secret support of the gentry behind it, and the defeat of the Zhejiang soldiers was not necessarily the result of the local gentry's planning.

Perhaps the provincial gentry would prefer to see the rebels succeed and overthrow themselves as the rightful emperor!

"The officials in Jiangxi are unreliable, and the provincial reinforcements are unreliable. If you want to quickly pacify the rebellious army in Jiangxi, unless the Praetorian Guard is requisitioned south! Zhu Youzhen said coldly.

If 100,000 Praetorian Guards can be dispatched south, it will be easy to pacify the provinces south of the Yangtze River.

But.....

"Your Majesty brought more than 10,000 Janissaries on his southern tour, and not long ago he sent 30,000 Praetorian Guards south to Henan to suppress bandits. Hong Chengchou reminded.

Although the total number of the Praetorian Guard now is more than 100,000, it guards the defense line for thousands of miles from Liaodong to northern Shaanxi. Although the Mongols of Monan have been annexed, the Jiannu have not been eliminated, and it is said that the Jiannu have annexed the Mongols of Mobei and are likely to invade south. If the border army is evacuated, Jiannu will inevitably take the opportunity to invade and launch an attack on Liaodong and even Jibei Xuanda. And the Mongols, who have already been annexed, who guarantees that they will not take the opportunity to break away from the control of the Ming army?

"The border army can't be drawn anymore." Zhu Youzhen nodded.

If Jiannu is allowed to invade the territory of Daming again, it will be a big joke. The rebellion in Henan and the rebellion in Jiangxi can always be pacified slowly, but Jiannu will never be allowed to break through the border wall again!

However, if the Praetorian Guard was not deployed, the rebellion would not be able to be extinguished quickly.

"Inspector Sun will soon enter Henan, with the strength in his hands, coupled with the assistance of Marquis Zhang, it should be very quick to extinguish the anti-thieves in Henan. As long as Yuan Chonghuan can hold on to Nanchang for a period of time, after Inspector Sun extinguishes the Henan rebels, he can lead the Praetorian Guard to the south quickly. Hong Chengchou comforted.

"Jiangxi will deal with it like this for the time being, but what about Jiangdong?" Zhu Youzhen sighed and asked.

The Taihu Lake bandits were so arrogant that they burned down 8,000 officers and soldiers in one fell swoop, and now Suzhou is empty of troops, and if the lake bandits take the opportunity to attack, they are likely to attack Suzhou. Suzhou, the center of Jiangdong, the richest and most prosperous city in the south of the Yangtze River and even in the whole world, if it is attacked by the lake bandits, the loss is too great!

Now, whether to send the Praetorian Guards around him to exterminate the lake bandits, Zhu Youzhen was a little hesitant.

There are only 5,000 guards and 10,000 Fujian sailors left, and if they are sent out to suppress bandits, there will not be many troops around them, and if there is chaos again, they will not be able to deal with it. But if the army is not dispatched to suppress the bandits, if the lake bandits capture Suzhou and other cities, they will cause great losses to the Ming Dynasty! So Zhu Youzhen hesitated.

"Why bother with them?" Hong Chengchou smiled and said, "Just let them jump." ”

"Aiqing means .....," Zhu Youzhen wondered.

Hong Chengchou explained: "The current situation is very clear, there must be someone behind the lake bandits, most of them are the gentry of Wuzhong, otherwise it would be impossible to defeat Hushu Pass so easily, and it is impossible to easily eliminate 8,000 officers and soldiers."

But in Chen's view, although the gentry of Wuzhong secretly helped the lake bandits, they may not dare to join the lake bandits in a righteous and open manner, after all, this is the crime of raiding the family and exterminating the clan. In other words, the gentry of Wu should have limited control over the lake bandits. And the bandits are bandits, they are all people who see money and see profit and forget righteousness, if the lake bandits really attack Suzhou, they will inevitably plunder, the gentry of Wu Zhong can't control it at all, and then the biggest loss is still those gentry. So in that case, let's let the gentry worry about these things, and we don't have to worry too much. ”

"What if those gentry would rather let the lake bandits occupy Suzhou, or even join the lake bandits, in order to deal with me? With the strength of those gentry, it will inevitably make the strength of the lake bandits grow rapidly! Zhu Youzhen frowned.

"That's okay, since those gentry took the initiative to jump out, we don't have any scruples about acting in the future. Zhenjiang Juntian is almost completed, as long as it takes another month or two, the township soldiers in Zhenjiang Mansion will also have a certain combat effectiveness, the Praetorian Guard, the Fujian Water Division, plus forty or fifty thousand Zhenjiang Township soldiers, just the army in the hands of His Majesty will have no problem pacifying Suzhou! Hong Chengchou said with confidence.

"Aiqing is right." Zhu Youzhen's brows furrowed. If the gentry want to jump, let them jump and see who will not end well. Suzhou is broken, it's a big deal, it's a big deal to rebuild!

"Sent an edict to Li Yanzhi to send a fleet to Songjiang, Taicang, and Changzhou, and at the same time sent an order to the prefect of Suzhou to quickly transport this year's grain to Zhenjiang!" Zhu Youzhen commanded.

The autumn field tax had almost been collected, and a whip law was implemented in other places, and all that was collected was tax silver, while the Jiangdong provinces had to pay grain, and then transport the grain to Beijing through the canal, which was about four million stone a year to supply the needs of the Beijing division. According to the usual practice, the grain in Songjiang Prefecture will be collected in the Fucheng warehouse first, and then transported to the Guazhou warehouse by ship, while Taicang, Changshu, Wujin and other places have built large warehouse cities, which are specially used to store grain.

Seeing that in winter, the northern canal will be frozen, and it will not be until the spring of the following year that the canal is unsealed, and the autumn grain will be transported to the north through the canal.

Maybe the lake bandits will take the initiative to attack, and it may not be long before the whole Jiangdong will be in turmoil, in this case, it is natural to control the grain first.

Don't panic when you have food in your hands, and then respond to all changes with the same time!

"Your Majesty Shengming!" Hong Chengchou praised.

With Zhu Youzhen's holy decree, the sailors were mobilized, and Zhang Huangyan and Li Dingguo each took part of the army to Songjiang Taicang and other places by boat, and ordered the local government to quickly transport the grain to Guazhou with the holy decree. In the face of the emperor's decree and the deterrence of the Praetorian Guard, the local government naturally did not dare to resist and hurriedly organized the people to transport food.

At the same time, various counties and towns in Zhenjiang Prefecture began to train township soldiers. In each town, there are town officials from the Praetorian Guard, and there are also a number of Praetorian Guard soldiers, with the Praetorian Guard soldiers as grassroots officers, and they are familiar with the training of village soldiers.

At the same time, Zhu Youzhen issued an order to draw weapons from the arsenals of Yingtianfu, Fengyang Mansion and other places to arm the village soldiers. It is not easy to get a firearm in a short period of time, but there is no problem at all with a cold weapon with a knife or gun.

"We should make more firearms, only knives and guns can't do it." Zhu Youzhen said.

"You can then dispatch blacksmiths in various provinces in the south of the Yangtze River and order them to make firecrackers." Hong Chengchou suggested.

Zhu Youzhen nodded: "Yes, Aiqing will be responsible for this matter." ”

The Nine-Border Janissaries should not be lightly adjusted, and if they want to pacify Jiangnan, they may have to rely on the township soldiers organized on the spot in Jiangnan, and they must strengthen the armed forces of the township soldiers. In addition to firearms, a batch of armor needs to be called or crafted.

These things are very complicated, whether it is to build firearms or make armor, it takes a lot of money, but now Zhu Youzhen has no shortage of money in his hands, and the wealth copied from the Yangzhou salt merchant is as much as 20 million taels, and he has not used it now.

......

In the West Mountain of Taihu Dongting, the Shen family master, Zhang Pu and others have lost their coolness.

"It's been a few days since the official army was completely annihilated, why hasn't the official army in Zhenjiang moved, isn't the emperor afraid that the lake bandits will enter Suzhou, and he's not afraid of the chaos in Jiangdong?" The head of the Shen family wondered.

According to the pre-guess that after receiving the news that the official army was completely annihilated, the emperor would inevitably be unable to sit still, and would definitely send troops into Suzhou, and even the emperor might come over in person. Suzhou City is so prosperous, how can the emperor ignore it, and will inevitably take the opportunity to carry out the release of slaves in Suzhou.

And as soon as the emperor came, the plan was half successful. When the lake bandits are killed from Taihu Lake, the army around the emperor will inevitably attack and suppress the bandits, and the Taihu Lake is vast, although the Praetorian Guard is strong, but they are not familiar with the terrain, and it is very difficult to exterminate the lake bandits. There was no way to exterminate the lake bandits, and the emperor naturally did not have the energy to carry out Juntian.

The last army on the emperor's side was pinned down at Taihu Lake, and once the Jiangxi rebels broke through Nanchang, they could enter the Yangtze River through Poyang Lake, and then go down the river to Nanjing. At that time, the south of the Yangtze River will inevitably be in chaos, and the Ming Dynasty will be in danger. At that time, the emperor must not have the heart to do anything more to release the slaves, so he can only admit defeat and choose to reconcile with the gentry. In this way, the wealth of the gentry can also be preserved.

Of course, real reconciliation is impossible, after Nanjing is captured, the rebels will support the clan as the emperor, and then most of the Jiangnan gentry and officials will choose to support the new emperor, in order to prevent being trapped in Jiangnan, Chongzhen must not dare to stay in Suzhou for long, so he can only retreat to Beijing. Such a parallel between the north and the south has become a trend! The disasters in the north have long been ruined, coupled with the abuse of the Henan rebels, with the financial resources and population of the south, the northern expedition will definitely be successful!

However, although he thought well, the emperor was not fooled and did not send an army to Suzhou, which made the Su family master and others very annoyed.

"Since the emperor refuses to send troops, then let's do it and order the lake bandits to kill and attack Suzhou City!" Zhang Pu gritted his teeth and said. At this point, there is no turning back! As long as the lake bandits attack everywhere and make a lot of noise, they don't believe that the emperor won't send troops!

"That's the only way, but don't fight Suzhou for the time being, let's start with Wujiang and Yixing and other places." The Wu family said. If the lake bandits invaded Suzhou, they would inevitably plunder on a large scale, and the losses of the gentry in Wu were too great, which the head of the Wu family did not want to see.

Zhang Pu shook his head, since it has come to this point, he still cares about the bottles and cans at home, which really makes him a little speechless. But he has no choice, although Zhang Pu is the leader of the Restoration Society, but it is the gentry who can really call the shots.