In the second year of Jianwen, on January 12, Zhu Yunwen replaced Li Jinglong in Yingtian, and appointed Chen Hui and Ping'an, the governor of the capital, as his deputy, and the southern army re-entered Dezhou, Dingzhou, and Cangzhou.

On January 20, Zhu Di heard that the imperial court had assembled the southern army to prepare for the north, and after thinking about it, he decided to adopt Chengyuan's method and attack immediately before the imperial army had not settled.

In the Battle of Dongchang, Zhu Di led the assembled soldiers and horses to capture Cangzhou in a short period of time, marched south again, ordered to go to Liaodong, and secretly sent people to build a pontoon bridge in Zhigu.

Cheng Yuan led his troops to follow Zhu Gaoxu, and Zhu Bai turned south from Tongzhou, day and night, and arrived in Cangzhou within two days.

When Xu, the defender of the southern army, heard that the Yan army was still building the city, he heard that the Yan army was attacking, and immediately sent troops to garrison it.

However, because of the haste and the lack of time to deploy, the Yan army only took two days to break through Cangzhou.

Cheng Yuan and Zhu Bai recovered the surrendered Southern Army defender Xu Kai led his Southern Army to surrender to Zhu Di and joined Zhu Di's team.

The Yan army crossed the river from Changlu, collected grain and grass again from Dezhou, and arrived in Linqing, Shandong a few days later.

In the middle of the night, a voice came from the big tent of the Chinese army.

Zhu Di looked at Cheng Yuan and said: "This king's current plan is like this, I will send hundreds of light horsemen to the Daimyo's Mansion to intercept the grain route of the southern army, so as to completely cut off their grain route to the north." ”

Cheng Yuan said: "Then let's rest in the same place first, and when the prince comes back from the Daimyo's Mansion, we will continue to go south." ”

After hearing Cheng Yuan's suggestion that he continue to go south, Zhu Di was a little hesitant, he meant that he could return to Beiping Mansion to repair, and then continue south.

Cheng Yuan didn't agree, every time he returned to Beiping Mansion in the middle of the fight, and returned to Beiping Mansion in the middle of the fight, what progress was there, four years of Jingnan was too long, and this time he had to go south in one fell swoop.

"What? All the way south? Zhu Di was a little surprised: "Boy, what are you sure about going south this time?" ”

Zhu Di himself had no confidence, but he didn't expect him to dare to say this to himself.

Cheng Yuan said with a smile: "Lord Wang, you will go to the Daimyo Mansion to intercept the grain, and I will let them grind the corn harvested in winter into corn kernels and use them as military rations." The fodder was also brought in. ”

"I intercept the grain road of the Daimyo's Mansion, you let people allocate grain and grass, according to what your kid said, I may be able to give it a try." Zhu Di has courage, but he is also worried that he will run out of ammunition and food.

As the saying goes, before the soldiers and horses move, the grain and grass go first, and it is the endless supply of grain and grass that supports the army.

Half a month later, Zhu Di transported a lot of grain from the Daimyo's Mansion, and Cheng Yuan distributed the grain and grass transported from the north to the Yan army, repaired it for a short time, and then continued to go south.

In late February, the Yan army crossed the river from Guantao.

Successively reached Dong'e and Dongping, threatening the southeast of Shandong, forcing the imperial army's army to continue southward.

Because Sheng Yong was directly killed by Cheng Yuan in Jinan Mansion, the defender of the Southern Army in Dongchang was an unknown general.

Cheng Yuan followed the general history and placed a large number of muskets and poisonous bows and crossbows in the array, but they were captured by the Yan army without spending many soldiers and horses.

Zhang Yu and Zhu Neng cooperated with Zhu Di in the Battle of Dongchang, and the general of the Southern Army Ping'an led troops to aid Dongchang, but still did not reverse the defeat of the imperial court.

The Battle of Dongchang put Zhu Di in danger several times, but Cheng Yuan kept telling him that Zhang Yu was only slightly injured.

Cheng Yuan was also relieved because of this, in the Battle of Dongchang, Zhang Yu did not die, which is also a matter of no regrets.

Because of the Battle of Dongchang, the southern army panicked when they saw the Yan army, and their military spirit had been destroyed by Zhu Di's Yan army.

Zhu Yunwen originally saw the Yan army moving south and removed Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng's official positions, but after the defeat of Dongchang, there was no one around him, so he simply restored Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng's official positions and used them as his think tank.

He also ordered the southern army to take down the heads of Zhu Di and Cheng Yuan.

With the victory in the Battle of Dongchang, Zhu Di's mood was even better, and they intercepted a lot of official grain and supplies of grain and grass all the way.

Zhu Di discussed the next plan with Daoyan, Cheng Yuan, and Xu Zengshou.

On the third day of the third month of March, Zhu Di paid homage to the dead soldiers of the Yan army near Dongchang, and Cheng Yuan proposed that a monument could be built for these soldiers after the martyrdom.

On March 15, the Yan army pursued the general of the Southern Army and stationed near the Jiahe River, which was only forty miles away from the Southern Army.

The Southern Army then prepared a large amount of gunpowder, firearms, and crossbows, but due to the sneak attack of the Yan army's light cavalry, their gunpowder and firearms did not come in handy at all, so they had to give up.

But Zhu Di did not give up, and led 10,000 cavalry and 5,000 infantry to pursue the left side of the southern army, but he could not enter.

Tan Yuan, the general of the Yan army, saw that the Yan army and the southern army had already started a war, so he took the initiative to send troops to attack the left side of the southern army.

In order to avenge Sheng Yong's old department, Zhuang De, joined the southern army and killed Tan Yuan, the general of the Yan army.

Zhu Di, Zhu Neng and others took advantage of the chaos caused by the movement of the southern army, took advantage of the twilight and Cheng Yuan and Zhu Gaoxu to storm the rear of the southern army and directly killed Zhuang De.

But Yan Jun was also injured this time and lost a general, Tan Yuan.

The southern army faced Zhu Di many times, but they did not dare to kill Zhu Di directly, and Zhu Di escaped several times.

The victory of the Yan army in the Battle of Jiahe laid the foundation for the southward movement.

When the news reached the capital, Zhu Yunwen immediately dismissed Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng and demoted them directly from the capital.

Secretly transferred troops and horses to various places for the imperial court.

After several defeats, the southern army began to pretend to sue for peace with the Yan army, and Zhu Yunwen also said that he had demoted Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai out of the capital and would not let them enter Beijing in the future.

Zhu Yunwen sent Shaoqing of Dali Temple to negotiate peace with Zhu Di on the surface, but in fact he walked the news in the Yan army barracks.

said that as long as Zhu Di put down his sword and gun and returned to Beijing, he could not blame the past.

Zhu Di said to Cheng Yuan: "This king thinks this is just a trick to deceive children, spreading rumors in the military camp and disturbing the hearts of the bewitching army. ”

Cheng Yuan nodded and told Zhu Di the news that Yang Xianzhi sent out of the capital, "Jianwen has removed Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng's officials on the surface, but in fact, one of them went to Fengyang, and the other went to Huaihe to find a horse. ”

Zhu Di said angrily: "My eldest nephew is really human-faced and beast-hearted, and he ordered to march to Pei County!" ”

On May 15, the Yan army secretly reached the boundary of Pei County and successfully burned millions of stones of grain and forage for the southern army, causing a great earthquake in Beijing.

In June, the attack on Dezhang and the surrender of Linxian County.

On the 10th day of June, the Southern Army deliberately sent generals to attack Beiping, attacking from Zhending, and disrupting the cultivation of Beiping's land boundary.

Zhu Di ordered Zhu Quan and Zhu Gaoxu to return to rescue Beiping Mansion.

In July, Fang Xiaoru took advantage of the prejudice between Zhu Gaochu and Zhu Gaochi, and took advantage of the gap between Zhu Di's southward movement to write a letter to Zhu Gaochi.

persuaded Zhu Gaochi to defect to the imperial court, and let him be the king of Yan.

Later, he deliberately wrote to Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu, saying that Zhu Gaochi had secret communication with the imperial court.

Zhu Di wanted to go back several times, but Cheng Yuan shook his head and persuaded him that he guaranteed with his life that Zhu Gaochi's character would not be like this.

Later, Princess Yan Xu sent a handwritten letter to Zhu Di, saying that Zhu Gaochi did not open the secret letter of the imperial court.

Cheng Yuan had already seen through this trick that the imperial court used to deal with King Zhou. Then he persuaded Zhu Di not to fight with them anymore and continue to go south.

During the Battle of Lingbi, Zhu Di sent people to cut off the grain transportation channel in Xuzhou, and Zhu Neng expressed their support for Zhu Di to follow the example of Han Gaozu.

Because the Southern Army killed Li Bin, the general of the Yan Army.

It was rumored that the Yan army was defeated.

Zhu Yunwen believed it, and immediately brought Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng back and restored their official positions.

But then the court was surprised.

Because Zhu Diyan's army arrived in Zhenjiang, the general of the town guard was ordered to surrender.

On the eighth day of the eighth month of August, the Yan army was stationed in Longtan, which was more than 60 miles away from the capital, which made the Manchu Dynasty civil and military shocked, and they all thought of countermeasures.