"Cabinet Department, the county order of Jinxian County sent someone to report that the territory under its jurisdiction was looted by chaotic soldiers, more than a dozen villages and towns were robbed, and hundreds of people were killed!" When Yuan Chonghuan was convening a civil and military meeting, someone suddenly came to report.

"Find out which one the rebels are?" Yuan Chonghuan frowned.

"It should be General Du's subordinates, and General Du's headquarters is stationed in Jinxian County." Lu Peng sighed.

The military discipline of the thieves is very poor, even if they are dressed in legal status. In the past few days, reports have been reported from all over the country, and they have been plundered by the army, which has made everyone in the court very annoying.

"These rabbit cubs, Lao Tzu has long told them not to rob the people, but they still don't listen!" Song Jin scolded and stood up, "Don't worry, I will deal with them, and those who should be killed will be punished." ”

Yuan Chonghuan shook his head and said, "General Song is angry, killing and punishing can't solve the problem." ”

"Yes, there has been a shortage of food and grass, and the brothers have no choice." Song Jin hurriedly explained.

Yuan Chonghuan thought for a while: "The prince of the country should be rewarded to the three armies. General Song, Lu Shilang, you draw up a list as soon as possible, list all the meritorious soldiers, and the cabinet will give the soldiers a reward. ”

"That's a good feeling." Song Jin grinned.

"Cabinet Department, now that there is a shortage of food and grass in the city, can you give a reward with money and grain?" Lu Peng stayed and said worriedly.

Yuan Chonghuan smiled slightly: "If there is not enough money and food, you will be rewarded with less money and food and more officials." ”

The next day, after Yuan Chonghuan was appointed to Zhu Youxiang, the court announced a reward, and directly added more than 100 general soldiers, and the number of canonized deputy generals and guerrilla generals exceeded 1,000, and there were countless thousands of households, and many small leaders had four or five people under them who were also named 100 households, which can be said to be a great joy for everyone to be promoted.

"Now we only occupy Jiangxi, money and food are not good, and when we take Nanjing, there will be another heavy reward. Now everyone is an official army, Jiangxi is our own territory, we all rely on the people to support, everyone must do their best to restrain their soldiers after they go back, and do not loot and slaughter the people. After the prison country ascended the throne and became the emperor, everyone was the founder of the country, all of them were princes, hereditary wealth. And if you can't defeat the country, when the imperial army comes, no matter how much money and food you plunder, it will be useless and you can't keep it. Yuan Chonghuan said.

"Don't worry, let's take care of those rabbits when we go back." The generals were overjoyed and expressed their opinions.

"There are no rules, there is no circle, I have already given the country a clear supervision, set up the Jinyi Guard, with Liu Zhong as the commander of the Jinyi Guard, specifically responsible for supervising the civil and military army. If the Jinyi guard detects that there are robbers of the people, whoever is in the army will be directly dismissed from his post and his lieutenant will take over his official position! Yuan Chonghuan said sternly.

The generals looked at each other, they all knew the murderous name of Jinyiwei, so they naturally didn't want to be monitored.

"That, the Cabinet Department, there's no need to set up a Jinyi Guard, right?" Song Jin said on behalf of everyone.

"Yes, the factory guard has always been horizontally domineering, and the people of the world are suffering from it, so don't set up a brocade guard." Lu Peng also said that the civil service system hated Jinyiwei even more.

Yuan Chonghuan said coldly: "Do you want to assist the prison country to achieve great things, or do you want to plunder it for a while?" ”

"Of course, it's going to be a big thing." Everyone said.

"Then don't object to the establishment of Jinyiwei! Unchecked power breeds corruption. If the generals are not monitored, how can they prevent the soldiers from looting? How can you achieve great things? If you really don't want to, I can only resign from my official position and make way for Xian! Yuan Chonghuan said lightly.

Everyone looked at each other again, why did they say that they were about to resign?

"According to the cabinet department, the establishment of Jinyi Wei is." Lu Peng sighed and had to agree.

At present, in Jiangxi, except for Yuan Chonghuan, no one can convince the public. If there is no Yuan Chonghuan, it will become the original grass head team again, what is the big deal?

Although Song Jin is brave, but it is just reckless, if there is no secret support from the gentry and maritime merchants, it will not be able to succeed at all, and its charge is so-so, it is not the commander's material at all, let alone deal with complicated government affairs, otherwise it will not be able to take Nanchang City for several months.

For the gentry and maritime merchants, Yuan Chonghuan was the best candidate for the leader, so Lu Peng had to compromise. Lu Peng compromised, and Song Jin and other generals could only admit it. Most of them are uninformed mud legs, and to put it bluntly, many of them don't understand anything at all.

With a reward to stabilize the morale of the army, and to monitor the army with the newly established Jinyi Guard, Yuan Chonghuan finally controlled the situation preliminarily.

Of course, such a large-scale official closure will inevitably bring great hidden dangers in the future, but I will talk about it later, in order to stabilize the morale of the army, in order to let the army listen to himself, Yuan Chonghuan can only do this. However, there will definitely be more wars in the future, and it is unknown how many of these generals will survive to the end.

Next, Yuan Chonghuan began to use his means again, in the name of forming the Dadu Governor's Office, appointing Song Jin as the Dadu Governor, and the other leaders of the thief army as the front and rear left and right central governors, deputy governors, and stayed in the court as officials. Zhu Yousong, the superintendent, also rewarded these generals, rewarded mansions, gold and silver, and a large number of beauties. These leaders were ignorant farmers, and most of them were suddenly trapped in the gentle countryside, unwilling to return to the army to endure hardship. At the same time, Yuan Chonghuan personally ordered the army, comforted and attracted other general generals, and used various means to subdue these generals. These generals are all rough people, who have never seen such a scene, seeing that a high-ranking official like Yuan Chonghuan is so easy-going, one by one they are excited to dig out their hearts and stomachs, and they all express their willingness to listen to the cabinet minister. At the same time, Yuan Chonghuan also disposed of a group of rebellious soldiers who did not obey orders and still looted, cutting off hundreds of heads, which made the generals terrified. On the one hand, there are promotions and rewards, and on the other hand, there is strict military discipline, which finally makes these former thieves obedient.

While stabilizing internally, Yuan Chonghuan also set out to solve external problems. He Hongzhuang, the governor of Guangdong, led the Guangdong army to Shaozhou Mansion and was attacking Meiguan, and after capturing Meiguan and crossing Meiling, he reached Jiangxi. Cai Yuanliang, the governor of Huguang, led the Huguang soldiers to capture the Jiling Pass and invaded the Yuanzhou Mansion, and the original small leader of the Righteous Army, Qian Sanliang, led his troops to defend the Yuanzhou Mansion, but there were only 5,000 troops in his hands, and it was estimated that it would be difficult to block the Huguang soldiers.

If you want to send troops to attack Nanjing, you must first deal with these two imperial armies, or you will be raided on the road.

"Don't worry, the Guangdong soldiers will be handed over to me." Lu Peng took care of everything.

"Do you have a way to get He Hongzhuang to return to the prison country?" Yuan Chonghuan asked.

"He Hongzhuang, I can't help it, but I have a way to persuade his generals to surrender." Lu Peng said with a smile. He Hongzhuang is a native of Shaanxi, and his hometown is under the control of the imperial court, so I am afraid that he will not be obedient, but his generals are all Cantonese and poor, and Lu Peng knows how to deal with them.

"The Guangdong soldiers are in charge of Lu Shilang, as for the Huguang soldiers, then Cai Yuanliang has worked with me for a while, he should sell me some face, I wrote a letter to him to make it clear, it should be able to let him return to Huguang." Yuan Chonghuan said.

"Why bother so much, there are only 30,000 soldiers in Huguang, Yuan Gebu, you only need to give me 50,000 troops, and I can wipe them out!" Song Jin asked.

Yuan Chonghuan shook his head: "Now is not the time to entangle with them, what we have to do now is to quickly lead the army out of Jiangxi and attack Nanjing downstream, as long as we take Nanjing City, half of the big thing will be done." ”

In the current situation, Henan is in turmoil, and Zhu Youzhen has dispatched tens of thousands of border troops to Henan to quell the chaos, but Zhu Youzhen himself has led more than 10,000 troops to retreat in Zhenjiang to carry out Juntian. And once Sun Chuanting led the army to pacify the Henan rebels, he would inevitably lead the army across the river, and it would be very troublesome at that time.

Therefore, it is necessary to lead the army to take Nanjing as soon as possible, and then launch an attack on Zhenjiang, if you can capture Zhenjiang and kill Zhu Youzhen, it will naturally be a major event, even if you can't kill Zhu Youzhen, you can also capture Jiangdong and occupy the entire Jiangnan.

As long as Nanjing can be occupied and Jiangdong can be captured, Huguang, Fujian, Zhejiang and other provinces will inevitably be able to spread the word, and there is no need to send troops to conquer at all. Because for the provincial officials and gentry, they don't want to see Chongzhen continue to reign, so they will naturally choose to support Zhu Yousong.

After taking Jiangnan, even if Sun Chuanting can pacify Henan, he can also divide the river and govern it. No matter how strong the Praetorian Guard is, without Jiangnan's money, food, and wealth, what will Chongzhen take to raise soldiers? At that time, as long as the water division is formed to block the Yangtze River, it will consume the capital and consume Chongzhen!

So the key is the word "fast", and we must send troops quickly! Yuan Chonghuan didn't have time to rub off with the armies of Guangdong and Huguang.

After using various means to straighten out the interior, on the tenth day of Zhu Yousong's announcement of the prison of the country, Yuan Chonghuan announced in the court that he would send troops to Jingjing!

Yuan Chonghuan personally served as the commander of the army in the name of a scholar of the cabinet of the Ministry of War, with Song Jin, the governor of the capital, as the vanguard, and Liu Zhong, the commander of Jinyiwei, as the supervisor of the army, requisitioned more than 2,000 ships of various types, and led 200,000 troops to Jingjing along the north of Poyang Lake. Lu Peng, the household servant, was the governor of Jiangxi, and Zhu Yousong, the assistant superintendent, stayed in Nanchang City to raise and transport grain and grass for the army.

On November 19, the fourth year of Chongzhen, 200,000 troops swore to the northern expedition to Jingjing, and the land and water troops advanced and left Nanchang City. Song Jin led an army of 50,000 as the vanguard, and arrived at the important town of Anqing ten days later, and Ji Yongan, the prefect of Anqing, defended the city and refused to surrender. Knowing that there were only 3,000 troops in Anqing City, Song Jin was overjoyed and ordered the army to surround Anqing and besiege it on all sides. However, after a whole day of storming and losing more than 1,000 soldiers and horses, it was impossible to storm the city wall at all.

When Song Jin was at a loss, Yuan Chonghuan sent an order, ordering Song Jin to ignore the cities along the way and rush the army to Nanjing. In Yuan Chonghuan's view, the cities along the Yangtze River are not important at all, and what is needed now is to fight quickly, as long as they can quickly attack Nanjing, it will be a victory.

"There are as many as 200,000 in our army, that is, Chongzhen has arrived in Nanjing City, and there are only more than 10,000 cronies around him, and there is no problem in conquering Nanjing City. However, I guess Chongzhen didn't dare to go to Nanjing City at all, because he knew how unpopular he was! His attitude towards the gentry and officials has already chilled the hearts of the gentry in the world, and his treatment of the nobles who died with the country is also mean and unkind, and the nobles of Beijing City were almost slaughtered by him, how can the nobles of Nanjing City not be cold? The twenty-four guards of Nanjing City are under the control of Xungui, if these nobles take the opportunity to rebel, Chongzhen may not be able to get out of Nanjing City at all, so it is easier for him to go to Nanjing. Yuan Chonghuan smiled and said to the generals, "So as long as we reach Nanjing, we will win!" ”

On November 25 of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Song Jin led the army to reach Chizhou by land and water, the prefect of Chizhou led the people to surrender, Song Jin did not delay, led the army to attack Wuhu, in the face of the attack of the army, the prefect of Taiping Mansion who defended Wuhu also surrendered without a fight, and Wuhu was only 200 miles away from Nanjing City.

"Let's rush to the outside of Nanjing in one go!" Song Jin's high-spirited opponent was down, and the successive victories had already made him full of ambition.

"Grand Duke, we have found a fleet ahead, only ten miles away from us!" Suddenly, a sentinel ship came to report.

"How many ships?" Song Jin perked up and hurriedly asked.

"There are about 20 of them, but they are all big ships, big big ships." The messenger said with some horror.

"Big ship?" Song Jin smiled slightly, "I heard that there is a fleet by the emperor's side, which is the sailor division of Li Yanzhi, the general soldier of Fujian, and these more than 20 ships should be Fujian's sea ships." But this is the Yangtze River, not the sea! Our ships are more than ten times larger than theirs, and we have the advantage of going downstream, so what is the use of their ships being bigger? ”

However, for the sake of prudence, Song Jin still ordered the ships to move closer, set up an array on the Yangtze River, and wait for the Fujian sailors to come.

An army of 50,000 troops and more than 300 ships laid out an array on the south bank of the Yangtze River, which stretched for more than 10 miles. The ships in the river are lined with masts, the sails are like clouds, the flags are waving on the shore, and the people are shouting and the horses are neighing, which can be described as magnificent.

It didn't take long to see a fleet of ships slowly moving upstream.

The boat is really big! When the distance between the two sides was only more than two miles away, and he could clearly see the situation of the other party's ships, Song Jin gasped.

There were more than twenty ships, each very large, with their side decks higher than the river bank, and their own ships were like bathtubs compared to the other side. In particular, three of the largest ships are like castles floating on the river!

"Big, big, big governor, let's, how are we going to fight?" Du Hammer, the chief soldier of his subordinates, asked, stammering in horror.

"Don't be afraid, although their ships are large, they are all sea ships, and they rely on the wind to drive, and it is inconvenient to turn on the river, and once there is no wind, they can't even drive, so they can only become live targets. We have a large fleet, and if we besiege one of the ten ships, we can always win! Song Jin encouraged his subordinates.

Song Jin immediately ordered to prepare the flying claw rope and dispatch the archers and firearms to prepare to besiege the other party.

However, as soon as the order was issued, "boom, boom, boom", the earth-shattering sound of artillery suddenly rang out, and one after another shells were fired across the sky. Most of the shells fell into the river, splashing huge splashes, the river rippled layer by layer, and the small boats of the Jingnan Army shook violently. A small number of shells smashed into the flotilla, and whenever they were hit by the shells, there would be a hole with a thick bowl mouth, and the river water poured into the cabin along the hole, and the ship began to tilt at a speed visible to the naked eye.

"It's a redcoat cannon!" Song Jin was shocked, such a great power is not an ordinary artillery at all! But with such dense artillery fire, how many red-coated cannons are there on the opposing ship?