Holding off with the emperor's army in the city of Nanjing, waiting for the banner of righteousness to be raised in various parts of the south of the Yangtze River and chaos in the area controlled by the emperor was Yuan Chonghuan's countermeasure after thinking deeply.

The whole strategy is very conservative, but it is also a helpless choice. Because by now, Yuan Chonghuan has also been in a dilemma.

The inner city of Nanjing is too strong, after Hong Chengchou cleared the gentry and nobles of the inner city, he mobilized the people of the whole city to defend the city, and its upper and lower hearts, coupled with the arrival of reinforcements led by the emperor himself, it was almost impossible to break through the inner city.

Lead the main force out of the city to intercept the emperor's reinforcements and besiege the city to send reinforcements?

Yuan Chonghuan really wanted to make such a choice, if he could take the initiative to defeat the reinforcements led by the emperor himself, even if he captured the inner city, it would be a matter of time before he captured the inner city. However, Zhu Youzhen chose the main force to march along the south bank of the Yangtze River, and Yuan Chonghuan's subordinates occupied most of the outer cities, but the Guanyin Gate north of the Shogunate Mountain failed to be captured.

As for retreating, Yuan Chonghuan didn't dare to make such a choice. Because if you retreat, you will inevitably be pursued by the Praetorian Guard, and it is likely to cause a rout of the whole army.

Yuan Chonghuan knew that his subordinates were not elite soldiers, and they couldn't retreat without chaos at all, and the Yangtze River waterway was controlled by the Praetorian Guards, and when the Praetorian Guards could transport troops through the waterways to intercept them, rout was inevitable!

If you can't advance or retreat, then you can only choose to hold each other. Yuan Chonghuan believes that the general trend is on his side, and the longer he holds on, the better it will be for him!

And just a day later, Yuan Chonghuan received information that Huguang gentlemen Lu Dequan and He Xiaoyi led their servants to rebel and entered the city of Changsha, and captured Wei Guangxu, the governor of Huguang who went to Changsha to inspect, under the persecution of the gentry, Wei Guangxu had to announce Huguang's uprising, announced his support for Jiangxi, and since then obeyed the dispatch of Zhu Yousong, the prison state.

At the same time, Xu Chengming, the general soldier of Huguang in Wuchang, also raised his banner and rebelled, making the same choice as Wei Guangxu. In just a few days, the power of the Jingnan Army expanded to the entire Huguang, and its strength increased rapidly.

Zhu Yousong, the supervisor of the country, has issued an order to seal Wei Guangxu as the crown prince Taibao, the imperial history of the left capital, and the governor of Huguang military administration, and at the same time add Xu Cheng as the chief soldier of Huguang in the left capital, and order him to lead the Huguang soldiers down the river quickly to support Jiangxi. And Lu Dequan, He Xiaoyi and other gentry were all transferred to the Jiangxi court as officials.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Huguang has chosen to return to the prison country, and Xu Chengming will soon lead tens of thousands of Huguang soldiers to Nanjing." Yuan Chonghuan smiled at everyone. Song Jin and the others were all elated and happy when they heard this.

"Huguang is of great significance, without the grain of Jiangxi and Huguang, there will inevitably be a food shortage in the four prefectures of Jiangdong this spring, and it will not be long before there will be turmoil in Jiangdong." Qian Qianyi said with a smile. Qian Qianyi is a frequent acquaintance of Jiangdong, so he naturally knows what the current situation in Jiangdong is, most of the fields in Jiangdong are planted with cash crops such as mulberry and cotton, and there is simply not enough grain to eat, so he needs to buy a large amount of grain from Jiangxi and Huguang every year.

And now, Jiangxi, Huguang and Guangdu are under the control of the Jingnan Army, and without food to help, there will inevitably be a food shortage in the four prefectures of Jiangdong. If you don't have anything to eat, it will inevitably be chaotic, and then it will be difficult to use Juntian. The vast majority of the reinforcements commanded by the emperor were Jiangdong people, and when the news of the turmoil in Jiangdong came, these troops must have been demoralized!

"Cabinet Headquarters, everyone, maybe we will be able to capture the inner city soon!" General Song Jin said with a smile.

The generals present also laughed.

"I'm afraid it's not just this good news, Huguang is in chaos, what about Zhejiang, Fujian and other provinces? I am afraid that turmoil is not far off. Huang Liyin said compassionately.

"Cabinet Department, Mr. Zhang has returned from Huizhou Mansion." At this moment, someone suddenly came to report.

Yuan Chonghuan was stunned for a moment, why did Zhang Pu come back.

"Ask him to come in."

"Zhang Pu meets the cabinet!"

"Mr. excuse me, didn't you let Mr. be in charge of Huizhou Mansion, why did you come back suddenly?" Yuan Chonghuan asked.

Zhang Pu said: "The situation in Huizhou has been decided, and the prefectures and counties are completely under our control, so the cabinet does not have to worry." The reason why Zai Xia came back was because he heard about the defeat of Sun Chuanting in the Battle of Nanyang. Suddenly an idea came to mind, so I hurried back to discuss with the cabinet. ”

"Oh, what do you think, sir?" Yuan Chonghuan said.

"Previously, because of the achievements of the Praetorian Guard, the world was all because of its strength, and he didn't dare to resist even though he knew that the emperor was tyrannical. And now that Sun Chuanting has been defeated, the emperor has cut off support in Nanjing, not to mention, the people of the world have also realized that the Praetorian Guard is not as strong as imagined, as long as we persuade it, the gentry of the provinces will inevitably rise up to resist the emperor and join the prison side.

Cabinet, I want to mobilize the power of the entire Fusha to launch an uprising in the provinces south of the Yangtze River, and call on the people of the world to rise up against the tyranny of the emperor. That's why I'm coming back. Zhang Pu said solemnly.

As the leader of the Restoration Society, Zhang Pu was ambitious, and the defeat in Suzhou made him feel very humiliated, and now he finally found his opportunity.

"What Mr. Tianru said is that the cabinet department, we can't sit and wait, we should take the initiative to send people to the provinces and contact the gentry from all over the country!" Huang Li also said excitedly.

Yuan Chonghuan nodded slowly, thinking that what Zhang Pu said was very reasonable.

"What is the gentleman going to do?" Yuan Chonghuan asked.

"If the cabinet agrees, I am ready to go to Zhejiang in person, there are many colleagues in Zhejiang, I want to persuade them to raise their righteousness, and at the same time persuade the Zhejiang army to take action, if they can occupy Zhejiang, they can launch an attack from Zhejiang to Jiangdong. The emperor transferred 80,000 troops from Jiangdong, and the four prefectures of Jiangdong are now empty, and when the time comes, the entire Jiangdong army in the hands of the emperor will inevitably be in chaos. Zhang Pu said.

"When you go to Zhejiang, raise righteousness again, and occupy the whole of Zhejiang, it will be impossible in a few months, and I am afraid that the battle in Nanjing will be over by then." General Song Jin complained.

"I can first write a letter to my colleagues in Zhejiang Fushe and send someone to send it quickly, so that when I arrive in Zhejiang, I can launch it immediately. Huguang is an example, and it doesn't take much to raise an uprising in Zhejiang Province, and it won't take a few months at all. Zhang Pu said confidently.

Under Yuan Chonghuan, he was only regarded as an errand runner, and he couldn't enter the core at all, which made Zhang Pu very unwilling. Therefore, he wants to go to Zhejiang in person, if it can go well, he will definitely be able to control the entire Zhejiang, and then send troops to fight Jiangdong, and then the power he controls may not be under Yuan Chonghuan, and he will definitely be able to occupy an important position in the imperial court of the prison country!

"Okay, that's hard sir!" Yuan Chonghuan agreed directly. Yuan Chonghuan naturally knew about Zhang Pu's careful thoughts, but he didn't care. Everyone has ambition, ambition is motivated, as long as Zhang Pu can help take Zhejiang, the rest will be talked about later!

With Yuan Chonghuan's consent and a letter written by Yuan Chonghuan himself, Zhang Pu was qualified to represent Jiangxi, and even though he was impatient to leave Nanjing. From Nanjing all the way to the south, through Ningdezhou, you can enter Zhejiang, if you hurry up, you can reach it in a few days.

Huang Li also took the opportunity to ask for his life and returned to Fujian to launch a gentry uprising. Yuan Chonghuan thought about it and refused, only asked him to write a few letters to the gentry he was familiar with, and sent them to Fujian together with the news of Sun Chuanting's defeat in Nanyang, because Huang Li's identity was far inferior to Zhang Pu, but he was the son of the Huang family in Quanzhou, and the Huang family in Quanzhou had already been uprooted by Li Yanzhi, and Huang Li returned to Fujian, which did not play much role.

In the following days, Yuan Chonghuan began to deploy defenses. Since it has been decided to hold each other, there will be no more attacks on the inner city. But it was necessary to prevent the Praetorian Guard from attacking the inner city to the outer city. After all, with 80,000 reinforcements, Hong Chengchou's army has increased dramatically, and he must have the idea of driving his own side out and recovering the outer city.

"The Praetorian Guard has the inner city walls, and we can't attack the inner city without breaking through the walls, but they can directly attack the outer city through the gates of the inner city. Now that the offense and defense are easy, we must be careful to guard against their attacks.

Therefore, it is necessary to build more forts, especially outside the gates of the inner city, and send heavy troops to prevent them from attacking out of the city.

The order was sent down, and the people of the outer city were requisitioned, and the camps were quickly built on the basis of the mansions in the outer city. Barricades were built on the streets of the outer city to block their march path!

I want to turn the entire city of Nanjing into a battlefield, if the emperor and Hong Chengchou come to attack, then fight with them in the streets, and see who can consume whom! Yuan Chonghuan said viciously.

In a head-on battle, Yuan Chonghuan is not too sure that he can defeat the other party, after all, the opponent's total strength now exceeds 100,000, including more than 20,000 elites, and it is not easy to defeat the other party.

However, if the barricade camp is repaired, there is still no problem in holding it, and if the opponent attacks, it will suffer a lot of losses.

"It's not easy to build a barricade fort in this winter, and where can you get so much masonry and wood?" Huang Li asked.

"If there is no masonry, then the house will be demolished nearby, and the courtyard wall of the house will be pulled out and used to build barricades!" Yuan Chonghuan said categorically.

"This will be a misery for the people of the city." Qian Qianyi sighed leisurely.

"The big war is coming, and I can't care about that much." Yuan Chonghuan said coldly. Ci does not lead troops, as the governor of the army for many years, whether it is the soldiers under his command or the people, in Yuan Chonghuan's eyes, it is just a number, as long as he can win the battle, what can he do if he dies more?

With Yuan Chonghuan's order, the entire outer city moved, and countless people were driven out of their homes by the army, braving the cold and began to build barricades and camps. Houses were demolished by order of the army, and the masonry and timber were used to build barricades. The people whose houses were demolished wept and could not do anything about it. In front of the army with sharp blades, these weak people did not dare to resist at all.

Although Yuan Chonghuan has always emphasized military discipline, his subordinates are not elite soldiers after all, whether they are the original Jiangxi soldiers or the original rebels, they are not good people, and robbery, adultery, and plunder cannot be avoided at all. And once the army was stimulated, it couldn't take care of a lot at all, and later, even the courtyards of the gentry, and even the properties of many Nanjing nobles who had surrendered, were robbed by the soldiers. In this case, Yuan Chonghuan chose to turn a blind eye. As long as you can quickly repair the barricades. is still the same sentence, the common soldiers are just numbers in the eyes of Yuan Chonghuan and others.

The movements of the anti-thief army outside the city naturally could not be concealed from Hong Chengchou in the inner city. Standing on the city wall, looking at the commotion of the outer city, Hong Chengchou couldn't figure out what the thieves were doing for a while. Is it to lure yourself into attacking so that you can take the opportunity to attack the city?

After thinking about it carefully, Hong Chengchou gave up the idea of sending troops out of the city to attack, the emperor is leading a large army to come, and it will soon arrive in Nanjing City, it is better to be safe at this time. First, the embankment thieves intercepted and attacked the reinforcements, and then received the reinforcements into the city, and as for the rest, we will wait until later.

In Hong Chengchou's view, as long as Zhu Youzhen led reinforcements into the city, the thieves would no longer have the possibility of capturing Nanjing. So Yuan Chonghuan's only chance was to defeat the reinforcements, or attack the inner city before the reinforcements arrived. So the movement in the outer city is likely to be a trick to lure the enemy!

Because of the rugged roads on the south bank of the Yangtze River and the large number of troops under his command, the army did not move fast for fear that the thieves would attack. Yuan Keli was very careful and sent a large number of sentinels to investigate the enemy's situation, especially those hills, in order to prevent the thieves from lying in ambush in the mountains, and if the enemy situation was not clearly investigated, it would not be easy to pass.

Because Yuan Keli knew that in addition to the five thousand elites of his subordinates, the rest were peasants who had just formed an army, and if they were attacked, they were likely to collapse.

The distance from Zhenjiang to Nanjing is 100 miles, and the army has walked for four days, and the daily march is only more than 20 miles, which is extremely slow, which shows that Yuan Keli is cautious.

Fortunately, there was no attack, and the army set off on the fifteenth day of the first month, and finally arrived outside the Guanyin Gate on the nineteenth day of the first month.

Looking at the tall and majestic Nanjing city wall in front of him, Zhu Youzhen sighed with emotion. Starting from Beijing last spring, in the name of the southern tour to worship the ancestors, after nearly a year, I finally walked to Nanjing City!

However, as soon as he entered the city, he received a bad news, Huguang reversed!

"Wei Guangxu, the governor of Huguang, made a rebellion, and Xu Chengming, the chief soldier in Wuchang, also rebelled, and all the provinces in Huguang declared rebellion, and now the entire Huguang is out of control." Hong Chengchou said in a heavy tone.

Huguang rebelled, Jiangxi Huguang rebelled with thieves, and the strength became bigger and bigger. The anti-thieves have a steady stream of reinforcements, and on their own side, Sun Chuanting is newly defeated, and the other Praetorian Guards are far away on the border! Even if there are armies in other provinces, can they still be trusted?

"Rebellion is rebellion, and one by one is to put down it." Zhu Youzhen said lightly. Because he had already prepared in his heart, after hearing the bad news, Zhu Youzhen did not panic as he imagined. Defeat Nanjing's thieves first, and then defend Nanjing! Nanjing is in hand, and Jiangdong is connected. Then calmly send troops to attack Jiangxi!

"The minister had misjudged the enemy's movements, thinking that Yuan Chonghuan had used a plan to lure the enemy so that he could take the opportunity to send troops to attack the inner city, so he did not send troops, so that the thieves took the opportunity to build a large number of barricades in the outer city. Now it is not easy to expel the thieves from the outer city. Hong Chengchou smiled bitterly.