Due to successive military defeats, Li Zicheng and his Dashun regime fell into the siege of the three major forces.

Even the little Tusi of Qinghai dared to lead the army into Gansu.

Putting aside the large and small forces in various places, let's talk about Nan Ming and Zhang Xianzhong.

The first is Nanming.

It all started on 17 August, because on this day Hongguang and his cabinet divided the defense areas of the four towns in Jiangbei.

On the map, Xuzhou and Huai'an are the most important, facing the great army from the north.

But Gao Jie, who guards Xuzhou, is not only from a rogue background, but also unruly.

The cabinet wanted to come up with a trick to drive the tiger and devour the wolf, and first detained Gao Jie's family in Yangzhou in the name of resettlement, so as to facilitate nearby surveillance; Then send Gao Jie north to fight Li Zicheng or Yang Chengying.

Just in case, he also took advantage of the discord between Sun Yingyuan and Gao Jie to transfer Sun Yingyuan to Zhenzhou to guard the town, which could not only defend Nanjing, but also monitor Yangzhou.

The wishful thinking snapped, but I didn't expect it to overturn at the beginning.

After receiving the order, Gao Jie set out from Xuzhou and directly led the army to Yangzhou.

As a result, local officials in Yangzhou refused to accept them.

The reason is very simple, with the military discipline of Gao Jie's Ming Army, let him in, so the rich Yangzhou will not escape.

So, they told Gao Jie, "Your family cannot be placed in the city, but only outside the city."

A reason was also given that there were no extra houses in the city.

Gao Jie exploded angrily: "Lao Tzu has killed more people than you have ever eaten, ***, a bunch of dogs look down on people, and they don't let Lao Tzu enter the city!" Okay, there are a lot of people in the city, right, there are no houses, Lao Tzu kills you all, and there will be empty houses."

He ordered the countryside outside Yangzhou to be plundered, and after collecting grain and grass, he directly surrounded Yangzhou City.

Then, he did something evil outside the city that the people of Yangzhou remembered deeply.

Gao Jie took all the women he found outside the city and asked them to go around the city. Then let the soldiers line up and take turns abusing these poor women.

In this way, it has caused huge psychological pressure on the people in the city.

This kind of great evil, which lost all conscience, also laid the groundwork for later.

Yangzhou officials were frightened and had to send people out of the city overnight to ask the southern court for help.

Poor Shi Kefa, the first major thing as a superintendent was neither the Northern Expedition nor the arming war, but to clean up the mess for a bunch of fools in the cabinet, to beg Gao Jie not to slaughter the city, and to plague the people of Yangzhou.

Why "seeking"?

Because Shi Kefa doesn't have a single soldier in his hands now, he doesn't even have the standard battalion that the superintendent should have.

The only new force was also sent to Jingkou by Shi Kefa, who took care of the overall situation, and took on the heavy responsibility of defending Nanjing.

It is worth mentioning the origin of this new force.

It is the legacy of Yuan Chonghuan, who once garrisoned the Guanning Army and Naval Division on Juehua Island.

When the Guanning Army was assigned to Yang Chengying, the imperial court did everything possible to pry away a part of the army, and the sailor division was part of it.

The commander of the water division is named Tu Fei, and he is the nephew of Huang Long, the general of the Liaodong Army. He had been serving in the Guanning Army before, and then moved to Tianjin Wei with the Navy Division, and became the chief soldier of the Navy Division step by step.

Yang Chengying led the army into the customs, and Tu Fei had nowhere to go, so he had to flee south to Zhenjiang. Due to his lack of familiarity with the court officials in the south, Tu Fei had to attach himself to Yang Yufan and eat leftovers.

From Tu Fei's experience, it is not difficult to see that after Yuan Chonghuan's death, Guan Ningjun did not become a warlord, but obeyed the imperial court dispatch for a long time and was loyal.

This is also one of the reasons why Yang Chengying chose to wait for the opportunity before the Ming court was not overthrown by Li Zicheng.

After all, he has 30,000 First Army soldiers from the Guanning Army under his command, as well as a large number of veterans of the Guanning Army who retired from the army.

After Shi Kefa served as the supervisor, he took Tu Fei out of Yang Yufan's hands and sent him to Jingkou to guard.

The importance of Jingkou is self-evident, just as the gateway to Luoyang is Mengjin, and Jingkou is the gateway to Nanjing.

In the face of the four towns of Jiangbei and all walks of life, they are not rebellious

The tamed chief soldier, Shi Kefa wants to protect himself and become a real overseer, Tu Fei is a good force to rely on.

Loyal and reliable, and his combat power stands out from the crowd.

But Shi Kefa did not do that, but sent Tu Fei to Jingkou.

Shi Kefa is such a person.

Now, in the face of the call for help from Yangzhou officials, Shi Kefa has not a single soldier in his hands, but he can't ignore it.

He asked Bu Congshan to borrow 300 Sichuan soldiers to protect his own safety and went to the Gaojie military camp.

Gao Jie was amused by his actions, first sent someone to disarm the Sichuan soldiers, and then sent swords and axes to stand outside the tent, and then asked Shi Kefa to enter the camp to answer.

Shi Kefa glanced at the big knife in the hand of the knife and axeman, raised his head with his chest straight, and walked into the camp.

Gao Jie saw that such a bookish and angry overseer came in with a fearless face, and his heart began to admire a little.

But he said, "The overseer has worked hard to come here, I don't know what it is for?" Shi Kefa was also not invited to take a seat.

Shi Kefa said: "I specially persuaded the general to withdraw from the siege."

"Humph! The Yangzhou government deceived me so much that they didn't allow me to enter the city. Our army can't go without food, so that's why we will do a little trick!" Gao Jie quibbled.

"Yangzhou officials are inherently at fault, is the general innocent, robbing the people, and humiliating women around the city, this is something that people can do?"

"How dare you accuse me!" Gao Jie drew his sword in his hand and plunged three inches down into the earth.

"The general wants to kill me and then cut himself off from heaven and earth?" Shi Kefa was not afraid of danger.

He stepped forward and continued, "The general is in trouble, I don't know if this sword will kill me or yourself."

"Haha...... Alarmist!" Gao Jie didn't believe it.

"Isn't it alarmist, let me tell the general. The general abandoned the darkness and turned to the light first, and the thief had the hatred of taking his wife behind. If Li Zicheng goes to Jiangnan, can the general's life be saved?"

"This ......"

"The general is plundering everywhere, and what he does in Jiangnan is all hurtful and unreasonable. In order to recover the hearts of the people in Jiangnan, will Yang Chengying let the general go?"

「……」

"You can't retreat Li Zicheng and Yang Chengying's soldiers, and retreat to the imperial court as enemies, is this a blessing or a curse?"

Gao Jie did not answer, but silently drew his saber and inserted it back into its scabbard.

In a cold sweat.

He got up and clenched his fists at Shi Kefa: "Supervisor, I was ignorant for a while, and I did something stupid. Please show the Overseer a clear path, and I will be grateful." As he spoke, he bowed and bowed.

Shi Kefa helped him up, but did not speak, only glanced left and right.

Gao Jie understood, asked the sword and axe men to withdraw, and asked Shi Kefa to take a seat.

After Shi Kefa sat down, he said, "Today's plan, Yang Chengying in the north is too strong, and You Shilu in the west belongs to the Ming courtiers, and only thieves can crusade.

Why didn't the general lead his army on a northern expedition, first take the land of the thieves, accumulate strength, and then try to the north? It can not only leave a name in history, but also avoid being surrounded by enemies on the back of the abdomen."

"What the Governor said is very true, but I have offended the people of Yangzhou, and Yangzhou City will not accept me."

"If the general can trust me, he can place his family in Kua Chau, and I will do my best to take care of your family."

"Well, thank you, Master."

Relying on his incorruptible tongue, Shi Kefa reluctantly stopped Gao Jie's looting and placed him in Guazhou.

As for whether Gao Jie will rob the people, Shi Kefa doesn't know.

It's not that you don't pretend you don't know, but you really don't know.

Because he didn't have time to return to Yangzhou City, he was kidnapped as an ordinary person by a group of unknown soldiers and became a coolie in the army.