At the same time that the scouts of the Dashun Dynasty set off from the capital and hurried to various places for eight hundred miles, spreading the heavy news that Chongzhen was dead, Zhou Shixian's fleet had left Dongchang Mansion safely and headed for Jining Prefecture.

Because the notice he left at the beginning successfully aroused Li Zicheng's vigilance, in order to avoid the emptiness of the capital's defense, Guo Sheng, Zhao Yingyuan, Dong Xueli and other troops who should have been sent to Shandong early in the morning to take over the prefectures and counties stayed in the capital for half a month, and now they can continue to go south.

This made the entire Shandong Province after Liu Zeqing's troops fled south, temporarily in a state of vacuum, except for a small number of Ming troops in the Jiaodong area, other places are just operating according to inertia, or just like Texas, occupied by local bullies.

And the gentry and landlords in these places are also constantly inquiring about the news, so as to change their course in time and avoid being burdened by the soldiers.

It's just that under such a chaotic situation, the people who fled from the north also have different opinions, and no one knows what is going on in the current capital, and even whether the thieves have entered the city, and whether Emperor Chongzhen has had an accident, there are several versions of rumors......

However, these gave Zhou Shixian enough convenience, he took his 2,000 soldiers and horses all the way south, and along the way, under the banner of Li Banghua Qincha, he collected the elite Cao army that was still stationed in various states and counties along the way, and the soldiers and horses soon expanded to more than 2,000.

As the economic lifeline of the Ming Dynasty, there will naturally be no shortage of Cao troops left in the prefectures and counties along the canal, but Zhou Shixian only needs those elites, so in the end only more than 200 people were selected.

Of course, these canal hubs, where the banknotes are located, in addition to the Cao army, the most important thing is the materials in the treasury.

Naturally, the silver in the treasury of the banknote has already been removed by those corrupt officials and corrupt officials, but in the huge Shandong, the armor, weapons, food and ammunition in the treasury along the river are still enough to equip hundreds of people and horses.

Zhou Shixian naturally did not leave these materials to the Shun army, except for requisitioning the official ships of various states and counties, transporting and rewarding the seizures of various armies, he directly distributed other things to the local people.

In the past ten years, Shandong has experienced the "Wuqiao Mutiny", the disaster of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and the impact of rogue and natural disasters, the population has plummeted, and the economy has also been greatly damaged, and the existing people are basically on the verge of despair.

Zhou Shixian sees it now, and he has grain and grass in his hands, so he naturally won't watch them starve to death, which is what makes him different from the vast majority of people in this era as a person of later generations.

Soon, Zhou Shixian's fleet arrived in Jining Prefecture. At this point, the entire southbound journey has passed halfway, the boats are traveling day and night, and the main force of the Shun army, which is far away in the capital, is impossible to catch up with.

By the time Guo Sheng, Zhao Yingyuan, Dong Xueli and other troops led their troops into Shandong, Zhou Shixian's fleet had already entered Xuzhouwei.

However, after Guo Sheng, Zhao Yingyuan, Dong Xueli and other troops entered Dongchang Mansion, they did not continue to go south, but went directly to Jinan Mansion and Qingzhou Mansion in the northeast, preparing to collect thousands of Ming troops left in the Jiaodong area, as well as to receive the state capitals of Shandong Province.

Li Zicheng had already lost hope of catching up with Zhou Shixian, and he sent troops south, more importantly, to occupy Shandong and prepare for the subsequent southern expedition.

Wu Sangui and the so-called Mantar have now been left behind by Li Zicheng, and even Zhang Xianzhong in Sichuan is more threatening than them in the hearts of the high-level people in Dashun.

It can only be said that the defeat of the Dashun military group in the original history was not just a coincidence, and its leader's lack of overall strategic vision, and even ignoring the powerful force of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, led to the irretrievable slide of the Shun army's strategy into the abyss of defeat.

The decision-making of a huge military group is not something that Zhou Shixian can change in a few words, his butterfly wings, perhaps only the small court of the Southern Ming Dynasty where he is located.

There was a sudden clanging sound of dropping anchor chains on the deck, and the hull of the ship shook for a while, and then it slowly stopped, Zhou Shixian, who was standing at the bow of the ship, looked at Xuzhou City in front of him, and finally showed a smile on his face: "Xuzhou City, it's finally here." ”

On the dock of Xuzhou City, Xue Lao Er had already led the cavalry to wait for a long time, while Zhang Hong followed the old man Li Banghua into the city.

Li Banghua, who held Shang Fang's sword, and hundreds of elite soldiers and horses who followed closely, were enough to open the gates of every city under the control of Ming court officials.

In the next few days, Zhou Shixian did not continue to go south, but stayed in Xuzhou City, he still did not know the situation of Nanzhili, and did not dare to rush straight to Nanjing.

You must know that his enemies, in addition to the Shun army and the Qing army in the north, as well as the Fuwang faction and the Luwang faction in the south, if you are not careful, Zhou Shixian and Emperor Chongzhen will become "rebels and thieves" who pretend to be heavenly.

Therefore, Zhou Shixian had no other way than to send scouts to inquire about the news, send messengers to contact Lu Zhenfei, the governor of Huaiyang Road, and Shi Kefa, the military department of Nanjing, and blockade Xuzhou City.

In the original history, because of the mistaken belief in the news that "Chongzhen has taken a boat to the south, and the crown prince Zhu Cihong has also escaped", Shi Kefa, who had already led his troops to cross the river and prepared to go north to King Qin, stopped going north.

In Nanjing, those officials who were useless and only knew how to attack each other believed it one by one, were overjoyed, and even ran to tell each other.

After all, once the rumors are true, they, the standby officials who stayed in Nanjing, will be able to turn over from now on.

However, on the second day, the news of Chongzhen's suicide in the coal mountain came from the north, and it was confirmed by Wei Jiongcheng, a scholar who fled from the capital in a hurry when the city was broken.

As a result, the officials in Nanjing, on the issue of "establishing a new monarch", began a new round of struggle for power and profit, openly and covertly, completely ignoring the fact that there were still Shun troops in the north.

Among them, the most active is the veteran of the Donglin Party, Qian Qianyi, the waiter of the Ministry of Rites, who had already retired from the Ministry of Rites, who lobbied everywhere in the name of "Lixian" and proposed to welcome Zhu Changshu, the king of Lilu.

However, this proposal was immediately opposed by the Central African Donglin Party in the Nanjing court, and a party dispute began.

At this time, Shi Kefa, as the first powerful minister of the small court in Nanjing, should have made a decision and established authority in the chaos.

But Shi Kefa's lack of determination, stubbornness, and lack of courage were revealed at this critical time, and he did not turn the tide, but would make a foolish move.

In order not to offend all parties, he finally proposed a compromise method to support King Gui, and personally went to Pukou to contact Ma Shiying, the governor of Fengyang, hoping to get the support of the other party.

But when Ma Shiying returned to Fengyang from Pukou, he suddenly got the news that Lu Jiude, the eunuch of the Fengyang garrison, colluded with Gao Jie, Liu Zeqing, Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo and others, the chief soldiers in the Nanzhili domain, and was ready to support Zhu Yousong, the king of Fu.

As a result, this front foot had just reached an agreement with Shi Kefa, and the governor of Fengyang, who supported King Gui, had two hearts on the back foot, and was ready to join the camp of Zhu Yousong, the king of Fu.

After all, although Lu Jiude is a eunuch, he has led troops to fight all the year round, and he has courage and determination, and he is a close confidant eunuch of Zhu Changxun, the old king of fortune, and has a high prestige in the army.

In other words, such a person came forward to contact Gao Jie, Liu Zeqing, Huang Degong, and Liu Liangzuo, who were the military leaders, and they were naturally very convincing, and Ma Shiying didn't think that he could fight with these five people.

And Gao Jie, Liu Zeqing, Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo, these military leaders, in the face of this opportunity to win the "merit of decision-making" and become "Conglong Yuanchen", how could they refuse?

These are the things that Zhou Shixian is most worried about, of course he doesn't think that these military leaders will not support Chongzhen, but he doesn't know where their deal with Lu Jiude has become, whether it has reached the point of no return.

If this is the case, the mediation and differentiation and the proportionate grasp of the exchange of interests are of utmost importance.