Dasheng Pass is said to be a "pass", but in fact it is not a city pass that stands at a pass or mountain pass to block the road section, but a river defense fortress. It is built on a river with a width of less than three miles near Nanjing, less than three miles to the north of Dashengguan, and it is a relatively open estuary of the Qinhuai River.

This Dashengguan can hold the Yangtze River and cover the mouth of the Qinhuai River, so it is naturally dangerous to stay near Jiangning. In the period of hegemony at the end of the Yuan Dynasty in history, Chen Youliang's Eastern Expeditionary Army was defeated by Zhu Yuanzhang in this area, and the name of "Great Victory" was obtained from this.

After entering the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang, who liked to build infrastructure and repair the city wall, naturally wanted to build a large number of buildings in the situation of Dashengguan, not only built Dashengguan City, but also built a wharf and a water village at the entrance of the nearby Qinhuai River, firmly guarding this danger in the upper reaches of Nanjing, but unfortunately in the later war to defend Nanjing, Dashengguan no longer played any role.

However, the ancient city of Dashengguan and the wharf at the mouth of the nearby Qinhuai River have existed until now, and have become the west gate of Nanjing's "Xiaoming Court", which has just been reopened.

On the second day of the appearance of the third prince of Zhu in Jinling City in the name of Dingwang Jianguo, Wang Huaxing, who "hurried to dream" during the Xiaolingwei Change, so that Zhu Yuanzhang could come to support his dream, was appointed as the chief soldier of Dashengguan, and asked him to immediately bring 500 soldiers from the Jiangning garrison camp who had just been incorporated to Dashengguan to take up his post.

After Wang Huaxing arrived at Dasheng Pass, he recruited a sailor subordinate to the green battalion of the Qing army with only 200 people (real number), and recruited some scattered fishermen and private businessmen to make up an army of 800. The number of people is not very large, but Wang Huaxing is a martial artist who is both civil and military, with an active brain, and is familiar with "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" and "Sun Tzu's Art of War", so he can use tactics.

After he set up the team at Dashengguan, he asked for a batch of cloth and satin woven by Jiangning from Nanjing City, made many big flags, and planted a flag on the water village at Dashengguan and the Qinhuai River estuary!

In addition, he asked Li Zhongshan (Wang Zhongxiao), the secretary of the temporary military department of the "Xiaoming Imperial Court" in Nanjing, for some old-fashioned earthen cannons that were originally placed at the head of Jiangning City, and asked for some gunpowder.

Under the bluff, the Qing army in Jiangpu County on the other side of the Yangtze River was so frightened that they all retreated back to the county seat and held on behind closed doors, handing over all control of this section of the river to Wang Huaxing.

However, the "Xiao Ming court" in Nanjing could not spare its hands to capture Jiangpu and Liuhe counties on the north bank of the Yangtze River. There's no way, the troops are still insufficient!

Now that the Yingtian regiment has not yet formed an army, the "Xiaoming Imperial Court" has only the Yingtian Town Army and the Caojiang Water Division under the direct jurisdiction of Li Zhongshan (Wang Zhongxiao), the former can have 3,000 people in front of him after putting it together, and the latter is only 2,000.

It is quite a big imperial court, and there are only 5,000 "not very usable" soldiers - too few, and if you are not careful, you will be used up, of course, it is unlikely that you will make a bold move to open up the territory!

In fact, the flag soldiers and their families entrenched in the Imperial City of Nanjing (Mancheng) have not been eliminated until now!

Li Dabing's troops (Wang Zhongxiao) did not dare to attack at all, but only carefully surrounded them - the forces used to encircle them were also insufficient, fortunately there were city walls to use, otherwise they would not have been able to surround them.

In addition, the encircled flag soldiers and their families were also very cowardly, and in the face of the enemy who planted many flags to bluff, they did not dare to launch a decisive breakthrough at all, but just shrunk their heads and defended like turtles.

Around the Imperial City of Nanjing, there has been almost no record of fighting since this month.

But even so, Zhu Cijiong, the king of the Ming Dynasty who left Nanjing City today to meet the "Geng Wang Yijun", was still a little uneasy.

Yes, it was restless that in order to meet Geng Jingzhong's righteous army, Li Zhongshan (Wang Zhongxiao) had to make an empty city plan!

Specifically, it was to draw out most of the defenders of Nanjing City, including most of the 2,000 sailors sent by Zheng Jing, and then put on the red brocade robes that were rushed out by the Jiangning Weaving Yamen Organization that had been recruited, disguised as the brocade clothes pro-army directly under the direct jurisdiction of the third prince of Zhu, and then pulled them together to Dasheng Pass to fool Geng Jingzhong, Shang Zhixin, and Liu Jinzhong.

Although Li Benbing (Wang Zhongxiao) even used the empty city plan, he only transferred out a mere 3,600 "brocade clothes pro-army" - he couldn't really use up all the manpower in Nanjing City, right? There must always be some defenders at the city gate in and out of Nanjing, and a few guards must be stationed at the yamen in various places in the city, and the storehouses where property, military materials, grain and grass are stored must also be watched!

Also, the defenders who were used to meet Geng Jingzhong's army could not move. Because according to the plan, a considerable part of the army brought by Geng Jingzhong will be temporarily stationed around Dasheng Pass, and Geng Jingzhong can only bring a maximum of 3,000 people into Nanjing!

In short, if today's performance of "Welcoming King Geng" is done well, the small Ming court in Nanjing will be able to avoid being controlled by Geng Jingzhong, a prince who is neither refined nor loyal.

Outside the east gate of Dasheng Guan, in a long pavilion (in fact, a shed) temporarily built with bamboo and straw, Zhu Cijiong, who has been the king of the Ming Dynasty for a month, is wearing a dragon robe, wearing a crown of good wings, sitting on a dragon chair in a big way, and a little beauty dressed as two palace maids behind him, and there is a brocade guard next to him, which is the only "real brocade guard" Liu Shuochuan!

Now Liu Shuochuan has twelve subordinates, plus his so-called "Thirteen Taibao in Jinyi" - the famous Jinyi Guard, there are only thirteen people in total!

The thirteen people were all dressed in exquisite flying fish suits, with embroidered spring knives in their waists, and stood outside the shed with their chests protruding.

Outside the long pavilion, there are the temporary ministers of the Ming Provisional Imperial Court, including Chen Yonghua, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials, Lu Sanhao, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, Huang Baijia (the son of Huang Zongxi, who arrived with Wang Zhongxiao), the Ministry of Industry Jingchuan (Jiangning County Order), the Ministry of Criminal Affairs Zheng Desheng and so on.

In addition, there is also a group of gentry from the counties under Yingtianfu, most of whom participated in the formation of Yingtian's group training, and now they have all been awarded officials, all of them in black yarn official uniforms, and they all look very loyal.

The current Ming Dynasty, although there are only five counties in the territory and only 5,000 people in the standing army, there are still quite a lot of loyal ministers!

And in the near future, there will be many princes!

Wang Zhongxiao, who was temporarily making a cameo appearance as the secretary of the military department, was leading a few of his subordinates at this time to review the 3,600 "brocade army" lined up next to the official road outside the Dasheng Pass, and half of these 3,600 people were equipped with various muskets, including arquebuses and flintlock muskets. The rest are equipped with spears and knives, among which the knife soldiers are all rattan soldiers with the characteristics of Zheng Jiajun, and they are very good at jumping gang hand-to-hand combat! Although the combat effectiveness on the shore is average, it still looks quite spirited.

"Li Zhongtang, King Geng's men have arrived!"

He Tianran, who was following Wang Zhongxiao, suddenly shouted, his voice was a little tight, obviously, he wasn't sure if that Geng Jingzhong would have a fire as soon as they met?

If you really want to be angry, there are three or four thousand people here (including the defenders of Dasheng Pass) who rely on Dasheng Pass, and they can't resist Geng Jingzhong's 10,000 or thousands of elites.

Wang Zhongxiao turned his head to look, and immediately saw a red flag appearing on the horizon in the distance, bordered by flame patterns on a red background, embroidered with unknown words? At the same time, there appeared more than a dozen sides, fluttering in the wind, and then a few rows of spear tips glowing in the sun. I don't know how many, in short, it keeps appearing in Wang Zhongxiao's sight.

After a while, Wang Zhongxiao saw the "red head" "hidden" under the tip of the gun, and all of King Geng's subordinates were wrapped in red scarves, which was a bit of the style of the Red Turban Army at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.

Later, he discovered that behind a large group of red turban pikemen, there were more than a dozen boxy wooden prisoner carts. I don't know who is inside?

"Natural," Wang Zhongxiao suddenly took out a token and handed it to He Tianrandao, "You personally go and master the sharpshooters and let them ambush them on the wall of Dashengguan, if Geng Jingzhong dares to hijack or attack this official, give me a hard beating!" ”

"Yes!"

He Tianran agreed, and then turned around and walked towards the Great Victory Pass.

About a hundred sharpshooters trained by Wang Zhongxiao personally lurked at the Dasheng Pass at this time, occupying the commanding heights, and they could fire at any time!

And the location where Zhu Cijiong is located is also carefully selected by Wang Zhongxiao, not outside the south gate of Dasheng Pass (facing southwest), but outside the east gate (facing southeast), so Geng Jingzhong and others must pass under the city wall of Dasheng Pass to reach Zhu Cijiong's location. This exposed him and his henchmen to sniper fire.

Of course, this is just a last resort!

If Geng Jingzhong knew each other a little, Wang Zhongxiao would still be happy to watch him carry thunder in Nanjing. To be honest, it's hard to say whether the current Zhu Cijiong is Emperor Ming Xian or another little Ming King!

Not long after He Tianran climbed the city wall of Dashengguan, the pikemen under Geng Jingzhong's command had already arrived, only to hear a "whimpering" military horn sounded, and these pikemen suddenly stopped, and then turned left and right, and advanced a few more steps, to both sides of the official road, and then turned back. A passage just let it out!

After the thousands of pikemen had stopped and stood up, Wang Zhongxiao saw that in the passage, more than a dozen wooden prisoner carts had been dragged up, and the figure of Geng Jingzhong, wearing a red python robe and a hood on his head, swaggered towards this place surrounded by dozens of guards and generals. The larger cavalry and foot soldiers did not keep up with them.

At this end, including the third prince Zhu, Wang Zhongxiao, and Chen Yonghua, they all breathed a sigh of relief!

It seems that Geng Jingzhong didn't plan to tear his face and become Geng Taishi right away! As long as Geng Jingzhong doesn't turn his face immediately, in three months at most, the small Ming court in Nanjing will be able to have an army of 20,000.

This can protect yourself!

Where Wang Zhongxiao was still dozens of steps away from Geng Jingzhong, someone suddenly shouted loudly: "Shikai. Wang Shikai, is that you? How did you come to Jiangning? ”

This is the sound of the pearl!

Wang Zhongxiao was stunned for a moment and looked up at the voice, and saw a person sitting in one of the prisoner cars yelling at him.

The reason why it seems to be because the pearl looks more pitiful than the previous prison in Guangzhou Mansion, the person has lost a lot of weight, and his whole face is black, and he doesn't know if he is tanned or has not washed his face for many days? The hair was even more messy, like a bird's nest.

"Teacher, is it a teacher? Why are you a prisoner again? Wang Zhongxiao hurriedly picked up his robe and walked forward quickly, walked to the side of the prisoner cart, looked at the people sitting inside, and asked questions with concern.

"I, am I not going to meet a thief again?" When Mingzhu said this, he looked at Wang Zhongxiao with red eyes and asked, "Wang Shikai, what's the matter with you?" How did you come to Jiangning? ”

"I came to pay tribute to the new Ming court in Nanjing on behalf of my father." Wang Zhongxiao is also embarrassed to say that Jiangning's change also has his own share. So I panicked.

"You, you're coming too fast, aren't you?" Mingzhu thought it was wrong, and asked in a questioning tone, "It's only been a month since the change in Jiangning!" ”

"I came directly from Wuchang," Wang Zhongxiao said without changing his face, "When the Jiangning Revolution happened, the students were running errands in Wuchang, and when they heard the news, they came over immediately, and they also bought a temporary military department secretary as hehe, teacher, do you still look like me?" ”

"You" Mingzhu didn't know what to say, Wang Zhongxiao was good.

Does this man want to be shameless?

One is loyal to the Qing Dynasty, the second is loyal to Wu Sangui, the third is loyal to Zhu Cijiong, and he is also unclear with Li Zicheng!

What's even more outrageous is that Wang Zhongxiao is not loyal to these monarchs one by one, but is a loyal minister of three or even four families at the same time, and he should be righteous!

At this time, suddenly another thunderous voice sounded: "The surname is Wang, do you still recognize Grandpa Shang and me?" ”

Grandpa Shang?

"Shang Zhixin?" As soon as Wang Zhongxiao turned his head, he saw a Shang Zhixin with an angry face accompanying Geng Jingzhong, looking like he was about to draw a knife to cut someone, but Geng Jingzhong grabbed his arm.

Geng Jingzhong was still persuading him: "I don't want to ruin national affairs for personal grievances!" ”

"Yes, yes, King Geng, you have to stop me from answering a little! If you can't do it, let someone help! Wang Zhongxiao was also a little anxious, and he was still there to support Geng Jingzhong.

It wasn't that he was afraid of being hacked to death by Shang Zhixin, but that he was worried that the snipers who were ambushing the tower of Dasheng Guancheng would open fire. With this fire, the big victory Guan Huishi will change in seconds, and the Tianjing incident will change!

Geng Jingzhong was right when he thought about it, and hurriedly called the guards around him to go up and control Shang Zhixin - he didn't plan to turn his face with Wang Fuchen now.

Seeing his subordinates driving Shang Zhixin away, Geng Jingzhong and several of his subordinates also turned over and dismounted, and walked over to Wang Zhongxiao with a smile, Wang Zhongxiao also saluted Geng Jingzhong with a fist: "The lower officials greet King Geng!" ”

He can't call Geng Jingzhong King Jingnan now, because King Jingnan is the prince of the Qing Dynasty.

Geng Jingzhong returned the salute with a smile: "Shikai, where is the third prince?" ”

Wang Zhongxiao pointed to the shed not far away, and said with a smile: "King Geng, the third prince is in the long pavilion, right, the family teacher doesn't know where to offend King Geng?" ”

Geng Jingzhong looked at the pearl in the prisoner car, and said with a smile: "Although he is your teacher, he is also the minister of the Tartars, and he is the enemy of our Ming Dynasty!" This king put him in a prisoner car and brought him to Nanjing, just to sacrifice his majesty! ”

Prisoners? That is dedicated to the third prince of Zhu?

Wang Zhongxiao arched his hand at Mingzhu: "Teacher, you have been wronged for a while, and the student turns around and asks the third prince for a favor, which can always spare you this time." ”

After speaking, he made a solemn gesture and asked Geng Jingzhong to follow him to meet the third prince of Zhu.

Geng Jingzhong waved behind him, and dozens of guards from Geng Wang's Mansion immediately followed, where is this to meet the king? The whole thing is a negotiation between social bigwigs!

"King Geng," Wang Zhongxiao asked in a low voice as he led Geng Jingzhong as he walked, "I don't know what official title you want to confer?" ”

As soon as Geng Jingzhong heard this, he smiled proudly: "You can't be younger than Wu Sangui, right?" He is the king of the west, how about you think I am the king of the east? ”

"King of the East? Okay" Wang Zhongxiao nodded, thinking: Is this the East King entering Tianjing?

Geng Jingzhong said again at this time: "Let's also give your father a king of the south!" ”

"King of the South." Wang Zhongxiao nodded and said with a smile, "That's good, my father is also the king of the north and the king of wings!" ”

"Winged King?" Geng Jingzhong was stunned, "What kind of statement is this?" ”

"Winged Celestial Empire!" Wang Zhongxiao hurriedly explained, "Now there are people in the west, east, and south, and the two kings of the north and wing don't know where they are?" ”

"Zheng Jing of Dayuan Island can be crowned a one-word king," Geng Jingzhong said, "He was originally a king!" There is also a Wang Shangzhi's letter, is it okay? ”

"No way!" Wang Zhongxiao hurriedly shook his head, "How many people does he have now?" Why should you be crowned king? I think it's better to give it to Liu Jinzhong! ”

Shang Zhixin obviously did not deal with the Wang family, and of course Wang Zhongxiao would not agree to him being crowned king. And Liu Jinzhong has a good relationship with Wang Fuchen and Wang Zhongxiao, and he is also more loyal to the third prince of Zhu.

Geng Jingzhong thought for a while and said in a low voice: "It's okay, this Northern Expedition to Jinling, his credit is not small, and he has to bear the title of the third prince, right?" ”

Wang Fuchen, Wang Zhongxiao's father and son are definitely unwilling to be the third prince of Zhu Bao, and with this name, they will not be able to move between the Ming, Qing, and Wu easily.

Moreover, Wang Fuchen, Wang Zhongxiao's father and son don't have the time to go to Nanjing to assist the government now, they still have to accumulate grain and build a high wall in Guangdong!

(End of chapter)