Nearly 10,000 mountain bandits were completely annihilated, but the casualties of the new army were negligible.

Only two soldiers were killed, and a dozen or so were slightly wounded, and the casualties of these dozen or so were mainly caused by the old bandits in armor.

Most of these old bandits are from thieves, and they are still quite fierce.

Chongzhen asked Xu Yingwei to put away the identity cards of the fallen soldiers, and at the same time made a stretcher to carry more than a dozen soldiers who were slightly injured, and ignored the queue of Yingshan officials to ask for a meeting, and continued to march to Huanggang.

After another half a month of marching, we finally arrived at Huanggang at the end of the first month.

At this time, Zheng Hongkui's sailor had already arrived in Huanggang.

At the same time, he also received a letter from the flying cavalry sent by Du Yinxi: 100,000 town soldiers have arrived in Hanyang.

With the assistance of the sailors, the army crossed the Yangtze River smoothly and reached Pankou, which was only less than 200 miles away from Wuchang at this time, and could be reached in two days by a rapid march.

Chongzhen immediately ordered a rush forward.

……

The rebels outside Wuchang City have become a mess.

More than a dozen generals and lieutenants who took the lead in the mutiny were gathering in the big tent to fight.

"I said that I couldn't kill He Tengjiao, you didn't listen, you had to kill He Tengjiao, now it's okay, the imperial army has been killed, and there is no room for even the last bit of turnaround, so I asked you what to do? What to do? ”

The chief soldier who spoke was called Xu Yong, this person was also from the border army of Liaodong Town like Huang Degong, and he had been fighting at the forefront of the suppression of thieves during the Chongzhen period, and he also followed Yuan Jixian, who was the governor of Xunyang at the time, to guard Xunyang for seven years, forcing thieves from all walks of life to take a detour, and he was a fierce general.

It's just that ethics can't be compared with Huang Degong.

The army led by Huang De was really a clear stream in the troubled times of the late Ming Dynasty.

And Xu Yong, Zuo Liangyu, Liu Zeqing and others are mudslides, and they also suppress thieves, but they also rob and kill the people, in short, they don't take the life and death of the people seriously, and only want personal interests.

"! He Tengjiao killed Ma Zongzhen and the other four people, if he didn't kill him, how could he calm the monstrous anger of the soldiers in each town? ”

The name of the deputy general who refuted Xu Yong was Hao Xiaozhong, and he was also born in Liaodong Town, and there were many generals like Xu Yong and Hao Xiaozhong who were born in Liaodong in the left army.

For example, Lu Guangzu, Li Guoying, Zhang Yingyuan and others.

The generals of Liaodong Town, or the Guanning Army, have a very serious tendency to become warlords.

And this is also the most fundamental reason for this mutiny, because Chongzhen's series of measures in Xuzhou and Guide have reached Wuchang and the ears of these generals from Liaodong.

Hearing that all the border army generals in Xuzhou were named viscounts, and each border army soldier was rewarded with Entian, these border army generals and soldiers in Wuchang felt that they were treated differently and insulted.

Because none of the generals on the Wuchang side have been knighted, and the soldiers have no grace.

In fact, not to mention the reward of grace, even the salary was not paid in full.

The salary standard of the border army in Wuchang Town is only a salary, two taels of silver per month, which cannot be paid in full, but the border army in Xuzhou Town is a war salary, and it is also paid in full, which is too much!

Because of this, the generals and soldiers of Wuchang Town have long held back the evil fire in their hearts.

In other words, the hundreds of thousands of border troops in Wuchang Town have long since turned into a powder keg.

At this time, He Tengjiao imitated Sun Chuanting to kill the general during the banquet!

After killing the general, He Tengjiao actually dared to break into the military camp outside the city alone, but he was directly cut into pulp by the angry and rational border soldiers.

cut He Tengjiao, and the rebel army plundered the township again.

In just ten days, more than 100,000 rebel troops turned Jiangxia County upside down.

After wantonly killing and robbing a lot of goods and women, the rebellious army regathered outside Wuchang City, preparing to attack Chengchang City, as for what to do after taking Wuchang City, they haven't thought about it, anyway, take one step at a time, as long as you have an army in your hand, where can you not eat?

It's just that the attack on Wuchang City did not go well.

After attacking for more than 20 days, he could not defeat it, and he also lost many people.

Just when the rebel army had nothing to do, an astonishing news suddenly came, the sailor had arrived in Huangzhou Mansion, and had blocked the way for the rebel army to enter Nanzhi or Jiangxi.

At this moment, the heads and brains of the chaotic army immediately became a mess.

Today, it is the third day of continuous quarrels, and there has not been a result of the quarrel.

"Everyone, stop arguing, everyone calm down." Lu Guangzu interrupted the quarrel between Xu Yong and Hao Xiaozhong, and said, "It is imperative that we come up with a charter as soon as possible, if we fight, how should we fight next?" If so, where do you go? We have to make a decision as soon as possible and we can't put it off any longer. ”

Hao Xiaozhong said with a dark face: "If you want me to say, don't fight Wuchang at all, Wuchang City is high and deep, it's too difficult to fight, let's directly raise troops down the river to fight Nanjing!" Go and get Childe back! ”

"Pick up what son." A lieutenant general said hatefully, "Kill Chongzhen directly and let Gongzi ascend the throne in Nanjing!" ”

"That's right, Chongzhen, the dog emperor, dares to bully us like this, it's time for him to see our means." Another lieutenant said with a black face, "Hit Nanjing, let's fight Nanjing directly!" ”

"Crazy, are you all crazy?" There are also people who maintain a certain sanity.

"Even our hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses want to fight Nanjing? Hundreds of thousands of Jiannu were beaten to the ground by Chongzhen, and you are all tired of being crooked, right? You want to die, but I don't want to die. ”

"What are you afraid of? Chongzhen's army is guarding in Xuzhou, and there are not many soldiers in Nanjing. ”

"That is, Nanjing is tens of thousands of Beijing soldiers, and the Beijing soldiers are also soldiers? Lao Tzu's battalion of soldiers can beat them so that their mothers can't recognize them! Just hit Nanjing, just fuck Chongzhen! ”

Several generals and more than a dozen lieutenants are getting more and more energetic, and they are spitting.

I have to say that these martial artists still have a bit of vision, knowing that at this time, the elite border troops of the Ming army are all in Xuzhou, all in the Huanghuai defense line, and there are no elite soldiers in Nanjing in the real sense at all.

This idea is exactly the same as Zuo Liangyu in another time and space.

Of course, their real intention of attacking Nanjing is not really to support Zuo Mengeng as the emperor, but purely to covet the goods in Nanjing.

After conquering Nanjing, they could immediately get an endless amount of silver.

Most of these rebels are from thieves, and even if a small number of officers and soldiers are from the army, most of them are the Guanning army with extremely poor military discipline, so the set of loyalty to the monarch and the country does not work for them.

These rebels only have money in their eyes.

Looking at the angry more than a dozen general adjutant generals shouting, Xu Yongzhi shook his head.

Xu Yong is rare to remain calm, he knows that fighting Nanjing is a dead end, from Wuchang to Nanjing more than a thousand miles away, such a long road, how to solve the grain and grass? Is it to grab it along the way? What should I do if I can't grab it?

I'm afraid that before they can reach Nanjing, these hundreds of thousands of people will have already collapsed.

But it is impossible for him to speak more than a dozen people with one mouth, so he is simply too lazy to say it.

Just when Xu Yong was thinking about whether to take advantage of the fact that others were not paying attention, he hurriedly ran away with his army, and suddenly a sentry commander ran in panting and reported: "Ladies and gentlemen, it's not good!" ”

"Hou Si, why did you run back to Wuchang?" A general soldier shouted and asked, "Didn't you ask you to take the cavalry of this sentry to guard in the direction of Huangzhou to prevent the Ming army's naval division from raiding?" ”

"It's over, it's all over." Hou Si said in a panic.

The general soldier was furious and said: "What is over, make it clear." ”

"My soldiers are all gone." Hou Si cried as he spoke, "I've been killed by Yiding!" ”

"Yiding?" More than a dozen adjutant generals of the general army were shocked when they heard this, this is Chongzhen coming?

In Daming, Yiding is an extremely special army, and now there are hundreds of them around Chongzhen.

If these hundreds of Yiding appeared in Wuchang, wouldn't it mean that Chongzhen had also arrived in Wuchang?

Don't look at them all shouting that they want to fight to Nanjing to kill Chongzhen, and they shouted quite fiercely, but when Chongzhen really appeared outside Wuchang City, especially when he appeared so suddenly, it still made them feel numb.

As the so-called shadow of the famous tree of people, no matter what, Chongzhen defeated hundreds of thousands of Jiannu army in Xuzhou!

After a moment of dead silence, an adjutant general asked in a deep voice, "Hou Si, do you know how many Yiding came?" ”

"At least a few hundred." Hou Si said with a sad face, "General Town, it is really Yiding from the east, and there are more cavalry to follow behind, and it is about to reach Wuchang." ”

"Don't panic." Pardon allegiance said in a deep voice, "Chongzhen may not come to Wuchang with Yiding. ”

"What if? What if Chongzhen also comes? An adjutant general immediately retorted loudly, "Can you guarantee that Chongzhen himself didn't come but only transferred Yiding?" ”

"Xu Yuxian, where are your eggs?"

Hao Xiaozhong was immediately angry: "Just now you were still clamoring to fight Nanjing? ”

"It was just now, and now it's now!" Xu Yuxian said in a panic, "We can't beat Chongzhen." ”

"It's all here, if you can fight, you have to fight, but if you can't fight, you still have to fight, otherwise you and I will die and have no place to be buried." Xu Yong sighed and said, "Let's hurry up and gather people and prepare to meet the enemy." ”

More than a dozen adjutant generals of the general army woke up like a dream.

Now they each went back to the camp to gather some people.

……

At this time, it was twenty miles away from Wuchang.

Chongzhen is leading an army of more than 6,000 horses and infantry to march towards Wuchang.

From Pankou, Bailuji, Huangzhou and other market towns, I found that I did not suffer from military disasters.

It wasn't until he entered Huangzhou Town that he encountered a group of rebellious cavalry, and was soon annihilated by Yiding.

Seeing this, Chongzhen was also slightly relieved in his heart, it seems that the military disaster has not spread, at most, Jiangxia County, which is attached to Wuchang Prefecture, has been looted.

In this way, the impact on the entire lake will be minimal.

After entering Jiangxia County, I finally saw one after another burned villages and market towns, and also saw the displaced people who were helping the old and the young, fleeing in the direction of Nankang Mansion in Jiangxi.

Chongzhen immediately ordered the dry food carried by the army to be distributed to the people.

He also sent someone to inform the sailor and asked the sailor to send a boat to pick up the people and go to Nanjing to hand over to the Ministry of Internal Affairs for resettlement.

Daming is on the eve of industrial development at this time, and manpower is the most valuable resource, so Chongzhen will not easily give up any people, a common people is a labor force!

After settling the people, Chongzhen continued to lead the army to the west.

It was almost noon, and finally entered fifteen miles east of Wuchang City, and then there was no way to go further, because the rebel troops of Wuchang had already set up a formation in the wilderness ahead.

Seeing this, Chongzhen immediately climbed into the side van and pulled out the binoculars.

Through the vision of the telescope, I saw that the wilderness ahead was full of chaotic soldiers.

Chongzhen's heart is as stable as an old dog, and the three thousand cavalry and eight hundred Yiding are also unwavering in their hearts, but Xu Wuniu and other soldiers of the new army can't help but gasp.

So many rebels? I'm afraid there are hundreds of thousands?

More than 100,000 rebels, can we beat it?

These rebels are not the same thing as mountain bandits.

Not to mention anything else, there are still a lot of cavalry!

While observing the formation of the chaotic soldiers, Chongzhen asked Zuo Mengeng: "Duke Chu Guo, how many soldiers and horses are there in Wuchang?" ”

Zuo Mengeng didn't dare to hide it in the slightest, because he knew that he couldn't hide it if he wanted to, so he replied honestly at the moment: "Wuchang Town has a total of ten towns, with a total of more than 200,000 soldiers. ”

"But there are less than 100,000 soldiers."

"The remaining 100,000 people are basically supporting pawns."

Speaking of this, Zuo Mengeng said again: "The previous minister and General Jin brought 30,000 soldiers and horses from two towns to Xuzhou, of which half of the soldiers and half of the soldiers were raised, so the rebellious soldiers in Wuchang Town at this time should be about 80,000 people. ”

"Eighty thousand soldiers." Chongzhen smiled and said, "How many can really fight?" ”

Zuo Mengeng glanced back at Jin Shenghuan and said, "There are only twenty or thirty thousand people left who can really fight." ”

"Only twenty or thirty thousand?" Chongzhen laughed and said, "If it weren't for the Duke of Chu, I would have almost been bluffed by these rebels. ”

Speaking of this, Chongzhen asked Hu Guozhu again: "Hu Guozhu, how did you feel about fighting with the scout cavalry of the rebellious army in Huangzhou before?" ”

"It's okay." Hu Guozhu said, "At least that team of scout cavalry is okay." ”

"I don't believe that all the cavalry of the rebel army has this fighting power." Chongzhen said, "You take another team of Yiding to probe their bottom and see how good they are?" ”

The rebels seized 8,000 horses and trained 8,000 cavalry, which looked quite bluffing.

However, Chongzhen never believed that these cavalry could become elite cavalry in a short period of time, Jin Xuan took more than half a year of training with 3,000 Jiading to barely become an army, and most of the 3,000 Jiading were still good at equestrianism.

"Yes!" Hu Guozhu waved his hand, and immediately led a team of Yiding to speed forward.

"Hu Guozhu!" Suddenly, Chongzhen shouted again, "Don't hurt my horse!" ”

Hu Guozhu immediately shouted at Wu Jiaotan and other Yi Ding: "You heard everything, right? Try not to hurt the horse! ”

"Yes!" Nearly 100 Yiding suddenly agreed, and then divided into more than a dozen groups and rushed forward, each of which was seven or eight horses, as if they were preparing to detour from the two wings of the chaotic army.

The infantry formation, especially the large formation composed of thousands of people, is most afraid of the cavalry outflanking from both flanks, because once the infantry formation is placed, it is almost impossible to turn.

Therefore, the flanks of the infantry formation were generally protected by cavalry.