"Cross the river!"

With Zhang Mingzhen's order, the dense soldiers of Zhoushan Town, dressed in single clothes, carried their personal belongings and walked on the ship that transported them across the north bank of the Yangtze River.

Zhang Mingzhen rode his horse to stand beside the boarding procession, and beside him, Liu Shixun, the general of An Yang, Ruan Jin, the Bo of Danghu, Ruan Junhu, the general of Yingyi, and Ma Tai, the general of the former Lu Dynasty, all followed, and they looked at the soldiers with high morale and military morale, and their hearts were full of confidence in the next battle with the Qing army.

This time to cross the river, in addition to all the soldiers in Zhoushan Town, Su Yan also equipped them with fifty Franc machine guns and hundreds of tiger squat guns, which is almost all of Su Yan's artillery stocks, in addition to a large amount of grain, grass and ammunition.

It is worth mentioning that in order to increase the shooting frequency of the bird guns, Su Yan also promoted the paper wrapped bullets in the bird guns, so the bird guns in Zhoushan Town will distribute an average of five paper rounds of paper bullets before the start of each battle.

Seeing that the number of soldiers in the port was gradually decreasing, Zhang Mingzhen was about to get on the ship, and at this moment, he saw his wife holding his mother Fan and a pair of children watching him from afar outside the port, and his children all came forward to bow down and see him off.

Seeing this, although Zhang Mingzhen was a little reluctant in his heart, he still resolutely turned his head, rode his horse and stepped on the pedal connecting the ship and the port, and boarded the ship to set off.

On September 18, the Ming army crossed the river from Nanjing, landed at Pukou, and immediately marched to Luzhou Mansion after a little rectification.

The news of the Ming army's crossing of the river was not deliberately hidden, so it didn't take long for the Qing army to learn of the news, but they did not know how many men and horses the Ming army had crossed the river, and for the sake of prudence, Shuo Sai decided to give up and continue the siege of Luzhou, but where to go next became a question.

If it is to the east and join the Nikan of Yangzhou, although it can take Yangzhou City together, this can not completely restore the Cao Yun, because the cities along the river from the east of Anqing Mansion are in the hands of the Ming army, and the Ming army also occupies the right to control the sea, and only takes Yangzhou City to solve the problem of the Grand Canal being blocked.

As for the Yangtze River, the Qing court still has to think in the long run.

After this period of fighting, Shuo Sai also figured out the Ming army's troop layout in Jiangbei, Luzhou, Chuzhou, Yangzhou three cities are stationed in many soldiers and horses, heavily garrisoned, the Qing army is not good at attacking the city, naturally can not attack for a long time.

But they can't bypass these three cities and continue to go south, the Ming army is directly in the Jiangbei strong wall clearing, where is there a place to fight grass valley outside the city, rashly bypassing the three cities to go south, will only fall into the situation of being attacked by the enemy on the belly, and finally be completely annihilated in Jiangbei.

Shuosai's eyes soon fell on one place—the city of Anqing on the north bank of the Yangtze River.

The relatively narrow water surface of the Yangtze River on which Anqing was based would allow them to control the river, and if the Qing army continued to occupy the city, they could continue to transport troops from Anqing and attack the cities along the river, provided that they could escape the attack of the Ming army's naval divisions.

Su Yan also trusted the ability of the water division, and the troops were relatively stretched at that time, so he did not divide his troops to attack Anqing, which gave Shuo Sai an opportunity.

On September 20, the Qing army Shuosai Department dismantled the camp, bypassing the city of Luzhou to Anqing, after the siege of Luzhou was lifted, Wang Yi immediately sent a messenger to report the matter to the rear, but he was not bold enough to take the five thousand soldiers and horses in the city to risk, chose to stand still, continue to hold the city.

Wang Yi's caution made Shuosai's calculation fall through - he also wanted to seduce the Ming army to take the initiative to go out of the city and fight a wave of annihilation outside the city, even if he couldn't take Luzhou by chance, it would be good to weaken the strength and morale of the Ming army and boost the morale of his own army.

It's a pity...... The Ming army did not look impulsive.

The news that Shuosai led the army to bypass Luzhou and go straight to Anqing was quickly sent to the rear, Zhang Mingzhen immediately ordered someone to get a map of Jiangnan after learning the news, he looked at Anqing's location, and said: "*** Go straight to Anqing, is it possible to cross the river from here?"

"Not exactly." Danghu Bo Ruan Jin frowned slightly, and said: "The last general has been to Anqing a few years ago, the city stands by the river, and can directly control the surface of the Yangtze River, *** I am afraid there are two layers of ideas."

"What?" Nguyen Jin's son, Anglo General Nguyen Jun, asked.

Nguyen

Jin glared at him, as if he was dissatisfied that he dared to ask questions to himself, but he still said: "Occupy Anqing, the Qing army can attack the cities along the river from the waterway, and can also control the water surface of the Yangtze River, so that our army and navy cannot pass through.

"Anqing is so important, then our army must take the city before the Qing army." An Yang General Liu Shixun said in a somewhat anxious tone.

Zhang Mingzhen nodded, the Shuosai Qing army had twice as many troops as them, and if they occupied Anqing Mansion, they would not be able to capture the city anyway, so they had to take the city before the Qing army.

However, if they could not take the city before the Qing army, they would be besieged by the Qing army once the siege of the city fell into a stalemate and the Qing army arrived.

From Luzhou to Anqing, if they travel 40 miles a day, it will take at least seven days to arrive, and they have just entered the border of Hezhou, and it will take at least ten days to reach Anqing, and if they want to catch up with the Qing army, they can only take the risk of marching quickly.

After thinking for a while, Zhang Mingzhen decided to take a risk.

He gritted his teeth and said to the generals around him, "Leave one battalion to take care of the baggage and artillery, and the rest of the army put on armor on the spot, carry only five days of dry rations, and march to Anqing Mansion in a hurry!" Be sure to take Anqing Mansion before the 26th!"

"What?!"

The surrounding generals were all stunned, and several of the young generals even shouted out in a lost voice.

Leaving baggage and artillery to march quickly, if they fail to successfully take Anqing, once the main force of the Qing army arrives, they are likely to be wiped out outside Anqing!

"It's too risky!" An Yang General Liu Shixun was the first to stand up and object, "If you are a little careless, the whole army will run out of food, and if you can't take Anqing, it is very likely that the whole army will be annihilated!"

"Yes, Hou Fu, this is too risky, besides, with the quality of the soldiers in this town, if you march to the outside of Anqing Mansion in a hurry, it is very likely that half of the men and horses will be scattered before they can meet the enemy." Ruan Jin's younger brother, Jinghai General Ruan Mei also followed suit.

His voice fell, and it drew another wave of echo.

But Zhang Mingzhen was unmoved, he looked at the worried generals and said, "This is indeed risky, but if the Qing army successfully enters Anqing Mansion, our army will pay more if it wants to recover the city, and this risk is worth it in comparison."

When the words fell, he said in a firm tone: "I have made up my mind, you don't need to persuade again, if anyone wants to persuade again, don't blame me for being ruthless, and punish me for disturbing the morale of the army!"

Seeing Zhang Mingzhen say this, the generals had no choice but to keep their mouths shut, and the pessimists among them sighed for a long time, thinking that this battle would be lost.