The escort army rested in Suqian City for three days, and the quiet and stable environment in the county government was naturally different from the noisy environment of the boats and boats, and the noisy environment of the guards and sailors talking and shouting.

Chongzhen and Empress Zhou are both pampered people, and they have never been out of the Forbidden City on weekdays, but now they have fled all the way south, thousands of miles away. Although they also received the most meticulous and thoughtful service from the entire fleet, it was inevitable that they still did not adapt, and Queen Zhou also fell ill because of this, but fortunately, after a few days of recuperation, there was no major problem.

Now, after entering the Nanzhili domain, Zhou Shixian doesn't have to hide too much, he can directly enter the county seat and use the resources in the city to solve his own problems.

In fact, at this time, the actions of thousands of them were trying to cover up, but they couldn't hide it at all. Not to mention that forty miles away, the incomparably large team of slender men is Zhou Shixian's escort fleet of only 1,000 people, which is also very conspicuous.

Of course, they have all entered Nanzhili, and Zhou Shixian does not plan to continue to hide it. If his side does not put on the momentum it should have, it will be suspicious.

But Zhou Shixian was not too ostentatious, just to get the supplies and medicine needed by the army more conveniently. Moreover, there is a more important reason - south of Suqian, the canal is difficult to navigate.

In fact, when he was in Xuzhou, Zhou Shixian found that the water level of the Xuzhou Canal section was too low, and many sections of the canal were exposed to silt and tidal flats, and the situation to the south might be even worse.

Zhou Shixian immediately sent people to investigate, and soon found the culprit of the low water level of the canal - the local government.

Originally, when the capital was still under the control of the Ming court, in order to maintain the passage of the canal, the government would send people along the way to maintain each section of the canal from time to time, so as to prevent the surrounding farmers from stealing water to irrigate the farmland and causing the canal to stop sailing. But as all kinds of bad news continued to come from the north, there was even news that the Shun army would go down the canal.

Especially after Liu Zeqing led the Shandong soldiers and horses southward, these rumors seemed to have been finally confirmed, and local governments hurriedly summoned local squires to mobilize farmers to dig embankments to divert water and irrigate farmland.

Hopes were placed on the destruction of the canal to stop the Shun army from moving south.

It can only be said that these officials in Nanzhili, one of them is counted as one, and they are all incompetent waste.

If the Shun army can be stopped in this way, will the capital still be breached?

And in the end, the only people who were happy about this stupid plan were the farmers along the banks who had been suffering from the water competition for the canal.

Because of this, Zhou Shixian could only take the land route in Suqian, so he needed to send Zhu Maozhen to mobilize those carriages and horses to protect the holy driver.

As long as you arrive in Huai'an City, everything is safe, and it is basically a foolproof thing to arrive in Nanjing safely through the Caoyun Governor and the Governor Huaiyang Lu Zhenfei there.

In the past few days, the messenger sent by Zhou Shixian to contact Lu Zhenfei has also returned, but things have not gone very well.

Lu Zhenfei, who had already received the news of the fall of the capital and the emperor, was suspicious of the two messengers and asked them to send a minister who accompanied him to meet him in person. Otherwise, it will be treated as a thief and a thief.

Zhou Shixian, who didn't know that Li Zicheng had spread false news, only thought that the other party was either delaying time, mobilizing troops, or for some reason, he was too cautious.

But after discussing with Li Banghua and Ni Yuanlu in the end, he decided to send Ni Yuanlu, who was recommended by Mao Sui, although he and Lu Zhenfei were not candidates of the same year, they were of the same age and had met a few times.

At the same time, with the return of the Jinyi guards sent by Zhou Shixian to Nanjing, Fengyang and other places to reconnoitre, Zhou Shixian also had a general understanding of the situation in Nanjing City.

It was the rumor spread by Li Zicheng, and he finally learned about it.

In this way, the situation is a bit delicate.

In case someone wants them to become a fake emperor, as long as they casually buckle the hat of a thief and kill people, it is easy to do.

Moreover, the situation in Nanjing City was similar to what he expected, Shi Kefa had already led his troops to set off, preparing to go north to King Qin, but after hearing all kinds of rumors, he retreated, and in the end he didn't do anything practical except to argue with a group of officials in Nanjing City.

As for the soldiers and horses near Fengyang, there have been signs of mobilization recently, and the most important thing is that Lu Jiude, Lu Jiude, the Fengyang supervisor who is loyal to King Fu, Zhou Shixian asked Jinyiwei to make special inquiries, and he has already left Fengyang with dozens of horsemen and appeared in Huai'an City.

Outside Huai'an, there are now many soldiers and horses stationed under Liu Zeqing, and it is difficult to say whether they are friends or enemies.

"How are those slender men doing now?"

Zhou Shixian turned his head to look at Zhu Maozhen, who had just rushed back, and asked, "After having medicine, the problem of the epidemic should have been eliminated, right?" ”

"If you go back to the horses, these slender men are all strong and strong, and now they are all well fed and drunk, although they are drenched in some rain, but they are fine, and now they have basically recovered."

Zhu Maozhen paused, and then continued: "It's a child, there are three frail ones who are sick and dead, and there is also a woman. ”

Zhou Shixian listened, his face still did not move, but he raised his eyebrows slightly: "It's good that the epidemic is under control, and the affairs of those children should also be properly handled, give ten taels of silver to each of their parents, and then let them be buried properly when they arrive in Nanjing." ”

"Yes, colt." Zhu Maozhen clenched his fists in response.

On the way south, Zhou Shixian recruited nearly 20,000 slender men by some means, and these slender men were originally hard-working, strong and strong, and highly organized, which was the key to Zhou Shixian's training of the new army within a year.

Now the north and south are blocked, the shipping is not passable, and the Ming army is raging, and the life of the slender men is very difficult.

Of course, it's not that no one doubts, it's just that these people who come basically have no choice, or the family starves to death and freezes to death, or drags the family towards this only hope.

It was only a tiring journey on the road, and unfortunately encountered an outbreak of epidemics, first a frail child was unfortunately infected, and then transmitted to his parents, and then passed on to the team of slender men, fortunately rushed to Suqian City before the raging, and the epidemic was able to be controlled by the medicine in the city.

"Now the situation has changed, Xue Changfu, Zhang Hong, you transfer all the soldiers and horses under your command back, and the slender men under your command will be temporarily handed over to the other two thousand generals to be responsible."

Zhu Maozhen had already mobilized all the carriages and horses, and the soldiers under Xue Changfu and Zhang Hong were still in the slender team, but they could rush back in half a day after a distance of forty miles.

Zhou Shixian planned to join the old army and escort the emperor with 1,000 soldiers and horses to continue south.

"Now the slender man is doing very well, and he doesn't need so many soldiers and horses to press. The situation outside Huai'an City is unknown, and the Holy Driver needs more guards here. Zhu Maozhen, you also asked the slender man to speed up the march, the distance between us cannot exceed thirty miles, if there is an accident, you don't care about the slender man for the time being, just come to the rescue. ”

"Yes, colt!"

Several generals who had just returned to Zhou Shixian's side clasped their fists at the same time and said in unison.

"Don't you want to send Jinyi Wei directly to Nanjing, so that Nanjing Jingying can come to meet you?" Wang Chaodong then asked:

"If Nanjing knew that the holy car was here, and sent soldiers and horses to welcome them, maybe those Xiao Xiao's people would not dare to act rashly. We are guarding the city of Suqian, and we are not afraid that he will attack the city. ”

"No, Suqian City can't be defended."

Zhou Shixian shook his head directly: "This horse has been in the city these days to see, Suqian City is a newly built earthen city after the disaster of the old city decades ago, it is not strong, after decades of wind and rain, because of the lack of maintenance, the city wall has collapsed in many places, and even has been dug and stolen, if we are trapped here, the rebels can easily break through." Moreover, we can't continue to wait like this, now the situation in Fengyang and Huai'an is not clear, and those with bad intentions must also be paying attention to the movements in Nanjing at this time. If Nanjing moves, it is very likely that they plan to break the net. ”

"What does the horse mean, while informing Nanjing to meet the driver, let's continue to go south as originally planned?"

"That's right, again, the more fanfare we make, the less power those with bad intentions will be able to mobilize. On the contrary, if we cower, then those who want to fight for merit will come. Even if we prove our innocence, it is difficult to say whether those people will be wrong. Zhou Shixian continued to analyze.

This is not a simple question, especially when rumors are flying everywhere and the truth is unknown. Everyone's choices will be constrained by various factors, and those military leaders are not Lu Jiude, Ma Shiying, and Lu Zhenfei who can be driven at will.

In other words, they are very savvy and will never make a move when they are unsure of the situation.

But if those military leaders find out that they are wrong, it is impossible to ask them to confess their sins and ambush them, and it is a better choice for them to be wrong and support the Fu King.

After all, in this way, not to mention the merits of support, even the emperor has a handle in their hands.

Moreover, there are already people who are deliberately spreading the word that their team is a shunjun.

After such a discussion, Zhou Shixian quickly determined the affairs of the next few days, and Ni Yuanlu also immediately set off to Huai'an to meet Lu Zhenfei and test the other party's attitude casually.

And Jin Yiwei was also arranged by Wang Chaodong, and immediately went south to Nanjing to contact Shi Kefa.

After Zhou Shixian arranged these things, after his generals and ministers all retired, he sat in his position for a while, reviewed it again, and made sure that there was nothing missing in the arrangements, and then got up and walked out of the attic window, but he didn't expect it to rain lightly outside.

Then, he saw that in the drizzle, the two sisters Kunxing and Zhaoren had just come back from shopping under the service of Wang Chengen and a group of officials and their dependents, and the light cyan, lake green, light red, and white dresses met Zhou Shixian's eyes, like a beautiful scroll.

When they came back from outside the palace, they were under the dripping eaves of the palace, giggling and patting each other on the rain on each other's shoulders.

Xiao Zhaoren entered the city for a few days, and finally achieved the freedom of snacks, at this time holding bags of pastries in both hands. She watched the adults around her shoot the rain and wanted to shoot too, but she had no hands anymore, so she had to keep watching with bulging eyes.

Then, she saw Zhou Shixian, who was standing at the window watching them, and jumped up excitedly, her feet were like zama steps, her hands were still holding snacks on her chest, and she shouted: "Ha, ...... world"

Before the last word could be shouted, Xiao Zhaoren seemed to realize something, and suddenly stopped, but Princess Kunxing heard her shout and looked in the direction that Xiao Zhaoren was looking at, and saw Zhou Shixian standing at the window, looking at her and laughing!