Zhu Neng's face changed slightly after hearing this, he personally experienced the fiasco in Guangxi, and immediately said: "The rebels may have more artillery than Guangxi, if they fight long enough, the brothers will not be able to withstand it, and it will be easy to collapse." ”

"I'm just betting with the rebel to see if his cannon is powerful, or my brothers are fierce." Zhu Di has made up his mind and has no regrets.

He was a natural gambler, and it was also a gamble to raise an army.

Zhu Di said that three days later, the whole army would attack together, and they would only be allowed to advance but not retreat, or they would win the battle to break through the rebel defense line and destroy their artillery.

If the officers and soldiers can rush up against the artillery, Zhu Neng and them will lead 50,000 cavalry and press down on a large scale, and have a chance to destroy all the soldiers and horses of the rebel son in Huguang in one battle.

If they lose, Zhu Di, Chen Zhi, Wang Cong, Tong Xin, and Tan Qing still have 100,000 elites under their command, half of them retreat in an orderly manner from the ten pontoon bridges, and after crossing the river, they immediately destroy the bridges, and then retreat to the vicinity of Jingshi, and the other half retreat along the waterway to Jiujiang.

Because ten pontoon bridges cannot pass through these soldiers and horses in a short time, and it is impossible for the boats on the other side of the Jiujiang River to bring so many soldiers.

The generals were helpless, knowing that His Majesty the Emperor was going to gamble once.

This time, the bet is on who is braver, 350,000 foot cavalry or Zhu Gaoxu's artillery.

——

Song Meng, Dao Mengjiang, and Xu Xiaodao each held a knife, and the saber was used as a firewood knife.

The Ming troops on the left and right behind him are doing this.

Liu Laohan and two other mountain people were leading the way in front.

Xu Xiaodao and Liu Laohan first came to Qinghuan Mountain, and then found the local mountain people, and learned that there was a way to go down the mountain from the east, but under the mountain in the east, there were officials and soldiers guarding it, and if you went in other directions, you need to find the mountain and open the way.

Song Meng and Dao Mengjiang arrived with 4,000 soldiers and horses.

After the two sides converged, Song Meng paid a lot of money and asked the mountain people to lead the way.

The mountain people took them around in the mountains for a day, only then they found a piece of stone tablet that was buried in the soil for most of the time, almost did not see it, the mountain people said that this was the Three Kingdoms, I don't know how many years from now, listen to the news passed down by the ancestors, when the soldiers and horses walked here, when the Jin attacked the Wu State, the Jiujiang that sent the remote army to sneak attack from here.

This road has not been walked by anyone for thousands of years, and when Song Meng and them came in, it was cluttered, full of jungles and thorns.

They avoided the trees and cut down the thorns as they went, slowly clearing a passage.

But these two mountain people only know that the stele is a road intersection, and they have not walked through it.

Song Meng and the others had no choice but to rush in.

Fortunately, there was a crossing less than two hundred steps after entering, and there was no choice but to follow this crossing.

The crossing was rough and full of thorns, and they usually cut it down.

After walking for two days and two nights, I finally left this pass.

The most difficult thing in the middle is to rest at night, this pass is extremely narrow, and only three or four can sleep side by side, so the army of more than 4,000 people sleeps out for miles in a row.

If this is known by the officers and soldiers, they will be attacked from the front and rear, and only a hundred officers and soldiers will be able to wipe them out in this pass.

On the third day they were tired and thirsty, so they brought food and a small amount of water, because they knew that there were many springs on this side of the mountain.

It is now September, the weather is extremely hot, and if it is replaced by an ordinary Ming army, it is estimated that it will collapse long ago.

But Zhu Gaoxu chose Tusi soldiers who could bear hardships and stand hard work, and Yunnan soldiers who were stationed in Yunnan.

All are relatively heat-tolerant and adaptable to mountainous areas.

But the lack of water is also a problem, Song Meng and Daomengjiang combined, they can't go out for two more days, they can't find a water source, they must turn back, otherwise the whole army will have to explain here.

They insisted on walking for most of the day, and in the afternoon of the same day, Liu Laojiang and a mountain man rushed back.

"There's water, there's water."

All the soldiers were overjoyed and rushed over, and suddenly saw a large piece of flat land on the right side of the passage, a small pond in the middle, and a large amount of mountains and water flowed from the north to the pool, and then to the bottom of the mountain.

The whole army rejoiced.

On such a hot day, I am afraid of lack of water.

Song Meng asked Xu Xiaodao to lead the team to make up some water to wash their faces first, and then speed up to explore the way, and the rest of them replenished water here and slowly followed.

Before dark, Xu Xiaodao came back to report that he was about to go down the mountain, and there were still about two miles of road, and there was a village at the bottom of the mountain, and there was a river at the foot of the mountain, maybe it was the Huangshui River in Jiujiang?

The turbulent water has always been connected to Jiujiang Mansion, and if the mountain is turbulent water, it is indeed not far from Jiujiang.

Song Meng was overjoyed, signaled to rest early that day, and asked the soldiers to take turns to take a shower on the side of the landscape.

The next day, continue to rest and shower.

After a day and a night of rest, the morale of the whole army has been restored, and the physical strength is also recovering.

On the third day, Song Meng still didn't move, so he let him rest until the afternoon, and then went down the mountain.

At this time, the spirit of the four thousand soldiers and horses had already returned to the state before going up the mountain.

After going down the mountain, they went to the village to ask, only to know that this is outside Ruichang County, and five miles to the northeast is Ruichang County.

Ruichang County is about 20 miles away from Jiujiang.

Song Meng sent people to Jiujiang Mansion to inquire about the situation, and the whole army was temporarily resting at the foot of Qinghuan Mountain to control the local villagers in case of alarm.

Each family gave five taels of silver, and the people were very happy.

Xu Xiaodao came back at noon the next day, and said excitedly that he happened to see tens of thousands of cavalry going in the direction of Taiping Mountain.

Jiujiang is empty? Song Meng said happily.

"Almost, early this morning, I saw tens of thousands of officers and soldiers riding out of the city, and after leaving the city, the city gate was closed."

"I wanted to come back, but after thinking about it, I hid outside the city."

"After waiting for about half an hour, I was about to come back to report the news, when suddenly the gates opened again, and a fast horse ran out."

"I thought it might be a messenger, so I waited on the official road and caught him."

Xu Xiaodao said and handed over a dense letter.

Zhu Neng received the emperor's order to bring 40,000 or 50,000 cavalry to support Taiping Mountain, stay behind his nephew Zhu Ping, and lead 5,000 foot battalions to defend Jiujiang.

In Nankang Mansion in front of Jiujiang, there are still 5,000 foot battalions, and Zhu Neng is the infantry battalion of Nankang who also retreated to Jiujiang.

Now that this letter was robbed by Song Meng, Song Meng immediately paid attention.

"What about the messenger?"

"In the back."

"Bring it here."

Song Meng saw that this messenger was very young, less than twenty years old, and he was a small flag officer.

"What kind of guard is stationed in Nankang? Who is leading the troops. Song Meng asked.

The little flag officer's face turned pale with fright, and he stammered: "The main thing is An Qingwei, and the commander is Zhou Chong." ”

An Qingwei is from Zhili, not Jiangxi.

However, Jiangxi's soldiers and horses were defeated in Fuzhou before, so Nankang had a lot of guards' soldiers and horses combined, mainly Anqingwei was the most, and the commander was also the commander of An Qingwei.

Song Meng looked down, they were all wearing Jiangxi Dusi clothes, but Jiangxi and Zhili were almost the same.

The clothes of the northern army of the Ming army and the southern army are a little different, because the north is colder, and more (dark armor) cotton armor is used.

"Good. Okay, if you abandon the darkness and turn to the light, the king of Han will definitely reward you. Song Meng laughed.

The little flag officer could only smile bitterly, as long as he could save his life.

In the afternoon of the same day, Song Meng led his troops to raid Ruichang County, and then guarded the city gate.

There were no guards in the city, and the city guards did not respond when they saw a soldier coming, and when Song Meng and they entered, they knew that it was the people of the King of Han.

Song Meng said that he didn't have time, so he immediately asked the tailor to get them a Ming army flag with Zhou.

Each guard of the Ming army has its own guard flag, some may be the surname of the commander, and some may be stationed.

Song Meng didn't care, and got a flag with the word Zhou as soon as possible.

Then counting the time, the whole army went to Jiujiang Mansion.

Before dark, Song Meng's men approached Jiujiang.

At the head of Jiujiang City, Zhu Ping was looking into the distance.

There were more than 50,000 officers and troops in Jiangxi, and except for about 10,000 infantry, they were basically taken away.

Zhu Ping was also afraid that the rebels would attack, but they got the news that Li Yuan had brought people to support Zhu Gaoxu.

Li Yuan did not attack from Jiujiang, presumably for fear of being broken by Zhu Di one by one.

In the Jing disaster, Sheng Yong and Ping An were divided into two waves, and as a result, Zhu Di first broke Sheng Yong and then Ping An.

But Zhu Ping didn't dare to take it lightly, and still planned to guard Jiujiang.

"It's coming, it's coming." At this moment, someone pointed to the front and shouted, only to see a chaotic Ming army in front of him walking towards this side.

The Ming army walked listlessly, as if it was a defeated army, and at first glance it looked like the official army of Nankang Mansion.

Zhu Ping breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, so that the Jiujiang garrison reached more than 10,000, even if tens of thousands of rebels attacked the city, he would not be afraid.

But he still had to be just in case: "Look at the flag." ”

Zhu Ping is the same as his uncle Zhu Neng, he can't read a single big character, and his military level is average, if it weren't for his uncle Zhu Neng, he would have had the opportunity to be a commander.

The subordinates looked at it carefully, and when they got closer, they saw it clearly: "It's Commander Zhou." ”

Zhu Ping looked up at the sky, it was already dark.

He calculated the distance between Jiujiang and Nankang Mansion, and the cavalry went to communicate, and it was almost the same when he came over at this time.

Not long after, Song Meng led people to the city.

He is also bold, betting that Zhu Ping doesn't know Zhou Chong, or is not familiar with it.

After all, there must be 780,000 officers and soldiers, and it is impossible for Zhu Ping to know all the commanders.

When he walked to the city, Zhu Ping at the head of the city was about to speak: "Let you command Zhou Chong to come up and speak." ”

Unexpectedly, as soon as he spoke, Song Meng shouted under the city: "Special mother, Zhu Ping opens the door quickly, Lao Tzu is here." ”

Zhu Ping stared at it, and then remembered that he didn't seem to know Zhou Chong.

He turned his head and asked if he knew Zhou Chong, but the officers and infantry were completely lost in the first battle of Fuzhou, and they didn't know anyone.

"Does anyone know Zhou Chong?"

The generals around him shook their heads.

Just kidding, after the defeat in Fuzhou, all the generals around Zhu Ping were put together by various guards, and many people don't know who is standing opposite now.

"Zhu Ping, Zhu Ping is not there? Open the door, I'm tired. Song Meng didn't react when he saw the city, it is estimated that this Zhu Ping really didn't know Zhou Chong.

Zhu Ping had really seen Zhou Chong, but at that time, they fled back from Fujian in a hurry, and they had already forgotten when they looked at it, not to mention that they couldn't see the city when it was dark now.

"Bang bang bang" There were already people knocking on the door under the city at this time, and many soldiers were scolding.

"Damn, don't open it, let's go, brothers, go back to Nankang, this dog thing, Lao Tzu wants to go to His Majesty to participate in him."

Song Meng turned his head and left.

"Don't go, don't go, open the door, open the door." The head of the city immediately cried out.

Squeak, the gate of Jiujiang City slowly opened.

Song scolded and walked in, leaning lightly on his waist with one hand.

At the same time, he nodded backwards, and a wave of elite native soldiers immediately followed.

A lot of people are prepared with short knives, daggers and whatever.

"What about Zhu Ping, what about Zhu Ping?" Song Meng shouted when he came in.

"Commander Zhou, I'm sorry, I'm sorry to -——" Zhu Ping laughed and ran down from the city tower with a few generals.

When he got to Song Meng, he saw it, Yi, this is Zhou Chong, he vaguely remembered that it didn't look like it? Is it because it's dark?

"Who is? Commander Zhou? He asked curiously.

"I'm your Grandpa Song." Song Meng grinned and hugged Zhu Ping heavily.

“。。。” fluttered, and two knives stabbed into Zhu Ping's heart.

"Flutter flutter." Almost at the same time, the native soldiers rushed up, screaming and being stabbed everywhere.

The streets also shouted and killed.

"The king of Han has entered the city, surrender and do not kill."

"The king of Han has entered the city, surrender and do not kill."

On August 23, Song Meng raided Jiujiang, fought a battle, and then sent people to recruit people to surrender Nankang Mansion, and Zhou Chong surrendered.

Song Meng collected two troops and surrendered troops, and the number of troops immediately reached more than 13,000.

(End of chapter)