In the third year of the Republic, the fifth day of the seventh month.

Yangtze.

The torrential rain poured down.

Two pontoon bridges had been erected on the river, and the cavalry, wearing cloaks, patrolled around in the vast rain and fog. The heavy rain almost formed a wall of water, and it fell to the ground.

It turned out that the east wind that began on 20 June was the vanguard of a typhoon that blew all the way from the southeast coast, and it blew quite well in the first few days, blowing Li Zhongshan's sailors to Wuxue at the junction of Hubei and Jiangxi provinces. However, from June 25, the Yangtze River began to blow strong winds and torrential rain, and in the next ten days, two rains fell in succession, one for five days, and one for four days (until the fifth day of the seventh month), among which the wind and rain stopped for one day - it is estimated that the eye of the wind happened to hit Wuxue and passed by Chengzi Town. After a day of "rest", the wind continued to rain and wind, the wind was much lighter, but the rain was still quite heavy, and it kept raining.

Because of this storm, Li Yat-sen, at the suggestion of Liu Guoxuan, stopped the fleet on the water surface of the Yangtze River near Wuxue and did not continue to advance westward. At the same time, he got two good news that could corroborate each other, "Wu Sangui was sick by someone who didn't know why" and "Wu Sangui couldn't move in Jiujiang".

Li Zhongshan pinched his fingers and calculated, this year is the third year of the Republic, and Kangxi's side is the sixteenth year of Kangxi, converted to the Western Christmas calendar, it is the birth of Brother Jesus in 1677. It seems that Wu Sangui has almost gone down to report to Emperor Chongzhen.

Since Wu Sangui is almost there, it is really possible for him to be stimulated by someone, and he will lie flat on the spot in Jiujiang and be ill.

Then Li Zhongshan and Zhou Chang, Yao Qisheng, Li Zhongzheng, Liu Guoxuan and others summed it up, and changed the plan slightly, to divide the troops into two routes, the first way is that Liu Guoxuan led the main force of the naval army plus a town (old-fashioned town, not a model town) of the land division, while the east wind is not over, he will continue to advance a little more westward, so as to take Tianjia Town and Banbishan, which are facing each other across the river, first, and then block the Yangtze River with pontoon bridges and iron cables. Then build a naval battalion in Tianjia Town, Fuchi Town, southeast of Banbi Mountain, so that ships damaged during typhoons, engagements, and voyages can be repaired.

The second road is led by Li Zhongshan himself, a total of eight towns of the land division, first crossed the river with a part, took the Chengzi Town in Jiangxi, and then built a pontoon bridge on the Yangtze River, and then the army crossed the river and entered the territory of Jiujiang Prefecture in Jiangxi Province, and then decided according to the situation whether to go to Jiujiang to send Wu Sangui on the road, or go to Nanchang first to rescue Li Fuchen, and then go north to Jiujiang together, and send Wu Sangui down to see Chongzhen.

After several days of hard work, the two pontoon bridges were finally erected on the wide Yangtze River.

Under the dripping rainstorm, two invisible teams were walking briskly through the two pontoon bridges. Each soldier wore a hat and a coat, a spear rested on his shoulder, and a musket wrapped in an oilcloth, and walked at a brisk pace. Occasionally, a bolt of lightning struck down from the black, oppressive sky, and a crimson flag was lit up by the flash.

Li Yat-sen rode on a horse, surrounded by young staff officers who had studied in the Wutang staff class, as well as Zhou Chang and Yao Qisheng, the two big soldiers, and Li Zhongzheng's personal guard cavalry regiment led by Li Zhongzheng, everyone carried flintlock pistols wrapped in oilcloth, and immediately stood on the embankment on the south bank of the Yangtze River in the rain, looking at the surging Yangtze River, rolling eastward.

The rain hit Li Zhongshan's face, almost making him unable to open his eyes, and in the sound of the rain and the wind, he could only hear him muttering somewhere.

"If this Wu Sangui dies like this, then everything will be fine. I'm afraid that this old boy won't go down to see Chongzhen happily, and he wants to struggle again. But if he still wants to struggle, where will he make a move? ”

Zhou Chang and Yao Qisheng didn't know when they had come to Li Zhongshan's side, the two seemed to hear him talking to himself, and they were also thinking about the same question and had some ideas.

Zhou Chang said: "General, the lower officials also feel that Wu Sangui is very likely to be pretending to be dead again!" He's already installed it twice, so we can't afford to be on guard. Xia Guan always felt that Wu Sangui was still holding back something! After all, although his water division is gone, his land division is at least more than 300,000! Among them, there are at least 250,000 land divisions in Jiangxi and Hunan. Definitely have the power to fight! ”

Li Zhongshan nodded lightly, he also felt that Wu Sangui was probably holding back his big move!

Yao Qisheng said: "General, the lower officials think that the half-dead Wu Sangui in Jiujiang City is very likely to be fake. If the lower official was Wu Sangui, when it was determined that the water battle could not be won, the Yangtze River channel was about to be owned by the enemy, and it was difficult for the main force of the Zhou army to return to Wuchang, he would lead a large army to maneuver around Jiangxi with the Ming army. At the same time, let Wu Yingxiong and Wu Shifan return to Xiangyang first, and mobilize troops and horses to strengthen the defense of Jiangxia, Hanyang, and Hankou, so as to prevent me from advancing west to recover Hubei.

In this way, even if he is defeated in Jiangxi, Wu Zhou can still control Huguang, Yunnan-Guizhou, Sichuan, Shaanxi-Gansu and Henan, no matter how he can maintain the situation of Shu Han after Zhaolie, and let Wu Yingxiong be Wu Adou. ”

Li Zhongshan wiped the rain from his face, "Peigong, Xizhi, where do you two think Wu Sangui will fight us?" ”

Zhou Chang thought for a moment and said, "The surroundings of Nanchang are the most likely. Didn't he besiege Nanchang for so long just to besiege the city and send reinforcements? ”

Yao Qisheng said: "If Wu Sangui is not in Nanchang to fight with us, then it will lead us to the territory of Yuanzhou Mansion to fight our ambush, and the territory of Yuanzhou Mansion is full of mountains and forests, and it is easy to ambush." Moreover, Yuanzhou Mansion is next to Hunan, even if the war is unfavorable, you can retreat to Hunan. ”

"So what are we going to do?" Li Yat-sen then asked.

Zhou Changdao: "First of all, if we want to take Jiujiang Mansion or not Jiujiang Mansion, our control over the Yangtze River will be a bit false, and if the Yangtze River in Hubei is not fought well, I am afraid we will have to return to Anqing." ”

He paused, "Secondly, we still have to relieve the siege of Nanchang and rescue the old prince's army from Nanchang City. After joining forces with the old prince, our troops will be much stronger. Next, whether to march to Hunan or to Wuchang Mansion, the initiative is in our hands. ”

Li Yat-sen thought about it again, "That is to say. The key is to fight Jiujiang and relieve the siege of Nanchang! We don't seem to have enough troops, right? ”

"It's really not enough," Zhou Chang said with a smile, "It's enough for our more than 100,000 people to fight Jiujiang or fight Wu Sangui around Nanchang." But to do both at the same time, there are still a little fewer troops. ”

Yao Qisheng added: "If we solve Jiujiang first, then solve the siege of Nanchang. I'm afraid that the old prince will be surrounded and run out of food!

If we ignore Jiujiang and go directly to Nanchang, we will be attacked by Wu Zhoujun on the periphery of Nanchang and Wu Zhoujun from Jiujiang! ”

Li Zhongshan said with a smile: "It seems that we have to send someone to Mubu Mountain to find Li Zicheng to surround Wu Sangui in Jiujiang!" ”

As he spoke, he glanced back at his good brother Li Zhongzheng and said with a smile: "Brother Zhongzheng, you work hard, go to Makubu Mountain!" ”

East! East. Go catch Wu Sangui!

In the darkness of the night, the troops of the brigade were moving forward along several mountain roads in the Mubu Mountains at the junction of Hunan, Hubei, and Jiangxi provinces. The sound of people shouting and neighing. This army, which came out of the "anti-Wu base area" in the Shogunate Mountain, was, of course, the loyal prince's army entrenched in the Shogunate Mountain, led by Li Zicheng, the old king of Chuang under the pseudonym Li Fengtian. Because Wu Sangui's army absorbed many Hubei tyrants and inferior gentry who lost their land because of Li Zicheng's faithful implementation of the "Heavenly Dynasty Tianmu System", and let them become the homecoming regiment, the war between Wu Zhou's army and the Zhongwangfu army in Wuchang, Hanyang, Anlu, Dehua, Huangzhou and other five prefectures in Hubei actually had some meaning of "land and life war"!

Since it is a "land war for life", there are many people involved in it! This is no longer a war between two warlord groups or two feudal lords or two feudal dynasties, but a war between the Wu and Zhou feudal dynasties and the local tyrants and inferior gentry in eastern Hubei and the toiling masses of the five provinces in eastern Hubei Province! Moreover, the "Heavenly Dynasty Tianmu System" implemented by Li Zicheng's group in the five prefectures of eastern Hubei is endorsed by the "Republic of the Ming Dynasty".

The "Republic of the Ming Dynasty" is not a rogue, but the orthodoxy of the world that has inherited the legal system of the "Imperial Ming Dynasty"!

Although those toiling people in eastern Hubei didn't think that the "Republic of the Ming Dynasty" was too orthodox, but when the big guys got the land allocated in the name of the "Republic of the Ming Dynasty" and thought about it carefully, they all felt that the "Republic of the Ming Dynasty" was too orthodox!

Since it is the land that is legitimately distributed by the world, it is the land that they legally own, and it is justified and justified! Those local tyrants and shoddy gentry want to go back, that is the anti-thief!

Therefore, defending the "Republic of the Ming Dynasty" is to defend their own land, and I heard that this Republic of the Ming Dynasty is quite rich, and when the defense is completed, it can also issue a military salary and reward to the big guy! Therefore, the determination of the toiling masses of the five provinces in eastern Hubei to defend the "republic" is called a firmness!

Moreover, because Wu Sangui was anxious to enter Jiangxi in the east, he did not clear the Zhongwangfu army that fled into the Makubu Mountain in time, and even did not send troops to capture the Xianning County on the plain at the foot of the Makubu Mountain, so that Li Zicheng and the Zhongwangfu got a precious respite, and soon gained a firm foothold in the Makubu Mountain and developed stronger.

And when Wu Sangui's "million army" suffered successive defeats in Xiaogushan, Balijiang, Xiaochikou, Chengzi Town, and Wuxue Town, and even Wu Sangui himself was trapped in the city of Jiujiang Mansion When the news reached Makubu Mountain, it was really full of boiling! The loyal king's army squinting in the valleys and cols was all overjoyed. It's a bet! Wu Sangui is finished, they are all republican heroes, and when they become heroes, they can't be rewarded with dozens of acres of land?

As a result, Li Zicheng's Zhongwangfu army doubled at the speed of light! Many peasants who were still relatively honest and were still tenants for Wu Sangui's homecoming gentry threw down their hoes and went up the mountain to join Li Chuang.

For a while, it was rare to see young and middle-aged farmers in the countryside around Wuchang Fucheng!

And Li Zicheng's momentum is even greater, he saw Li Zhongzheng in Jiugong Mountain, and learned from Li Zhongzheng that he lost the "Battle of Little Lonely Mountain" and lost the main force of the naval army, Wu Sangui, who had been trapped in Jiujiang Fucheng, and was probably still ill and couldn't move, but he was really happy. Without talking to Li Zhongzheng about money, he immediately issued a mobilization order, and pulled 50,000 people to march towards the east side of the Makubu Mountain.

Li Ziyuan himself rode on a horse, and marched forward with the soldiers under Sima Si of the marching army of the Zhongwang Mansion and Li Zhongzheng who came from afar. This Wu Sangui's "old man" is now also an old man over seventy years old, and he can still be so strong, in addition to tasting the sweetness of power again, his whole person is full of vitality, just because there is a big feud against the country, and there are so many old brothers who have been killed and have not looked for Wu Sangui to report!

And this time, the opportunity for revenge has finally come! Although there was a lot of wind and dust all the way, it couldn't hide the radiance on his old man's face. Around his column of the Chinese army, there were all infantry marching with their heads in large groups, as well as carriages and mules dragging six-pound bronze cannons. Li Zicheng has carried out some construction in the Makubu Mountain over the years, repaired the mountain roads, erected bridges, and the rain has stopped in the past few days, the road surface has also dried up, the weather at night is cool, and the moon is still hanging high in the sky, which is a good thing for marching and fighting. In addition to the sound of marching in the night, the generals of the Zhongwang Mansion were occasionally heard gritting their back molars to mobilize and cheer up: "Eh, you are going to Jiujiang to kill Wu Sangui, the turtle grandson!" Big guy work hard, don't let this old boy slip away! ”

"That's right! You must work harder, otherwise even if Wu Sangui, the old boy, doesn't slip away, he may be able to wipe out the general's soldiers and horses! ”

"Don't let the general cut Wu Sangui! That's a sea of blood feud. You have to kill the one surnamed Wu! ”

Listen to this accent, listen to the hatred in this tone, you know this "second generation" - it should be the ancestral wealth, but this old boy is gone, if it weren't for the chaos in the world in the past two years, it would really not be able to live a good day in a lifetime!

In the queue, the morale of the local Hubei accent resounded. These troops in the Zhongwang Mansion, in addition to a small number of old battalion soldiers and the second and third generations, how many young and strong people in the five eastern Hubei provinces. Some of them had long been soldiers of the Zhongwang Mansion and already had their own granges and national status, while many more were former peasants who could obtain land and national status after the victory.

I have to say that now the Republic of the Ming Dynasty has this "Roman-style" national military system, which is really quite land-consuming. However, as long as the identity of the Chinese people still has a high gold content, and there is enough land to be distributed, then this Chinese army has no opponents that they cannot defeat!

If Wu Yingxiong, who was "abandoned by his father" in Jiujiang City, saw this large army rolling forward in the dark night, and saw the white-haired Li Zicheng who had only revenge left for the rest of his life, he would be so frightened that he would surrender to Li Zhongshan immediately

It's a pity that Wu Yingxiong didn't know that his good son-in-law Li Zhongshan sent someone to the Mubu Mountain to "shake" Li Zicheng, the old devil, to fight Jiujiang Mansion City, and in the same way, at this time, Li Zhongshan, who was waiting for Li Zicheng's arrival in the Ming army camp on the periphery of Jiujiang City, didn't know that Wu Sangui would pit Wu Yingxiong at this critical moment, of course he didn't expect that Wu Sangui's pattern would be so big. He led 40,000 Wu Zhou elites to Hunan to join Wu Guogui, preparing to fight Li Zhongshan's "old Chinese area" Guangdong!

However, Li Zhongshan did not guess wrong, the emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty did have little time, his heart was obviously wrong, and he had a small seizure on the way to Hunan, although it did not kill him, but he could not ride a horse, so he could only sit in a sedan chair and let people carry him into Hengyang City.

Wu Guogui's palace was originally located in Changsha, but in order to carry out the task of raiding Guangdong sent to him by Wu Sangui, he had already moved the palace to Hengyang two or three months ago. Moreover, he also concentrated 50,000 troops in Hengyang, and if you add the 40,000 troops brought by Wu Sangui from Jiangxi, as of the tenth day of July, the troops in the hands of Wu Sangui and Wu Guogui that can be used to fight Guangdong have reached 90,000!

In addition, Sun Jiqing also raised 50,000 rabble, and the total strength of Wu Zhou's army to attack Guangdong has reached 140,000!

This means that the Wu and Zhou dynasties also engaged in the government military system, and also obtained Shaanxi, Gansu and Huguang, which have relatively large populations, otherwise it would not be so easy to make up so many troops.

However, Guangdong, the "old area of the Chinese people", also has a strong mobilization ability, so Wu Sangui has been worried that Guangdong will not be able to fight all the way. When he arrived in Hengyang, he lived in Wu Guogui's palace, and after resting for the night, he immediately summoned Wu Guogui, Li Benshen, Wu Shijue, Wu Shifan, Liu Xuanchu, Wang Shirong and other military generals and ministers to his soft couch, and began to discuss with them about attacking Guangdong.

"Father, don't worry, old man. Now that Guangdong's troops have been transferred to Wuzhou, Jia Hanfu, who could have served as a buffer, was transferred back to Guangzhou by Xiao Su, and his sixth brother led the Hunan soldiers to guard Shaozhou, as long as we reward him with a Zhili Prefecture as a domain, he will definitely defect! ”

Wu Guogui was reporting to Wu Sangui while peeking at his adoptive father, who looked old, with purple lips and a pale face, and knew at a glance that he was not very good.

"So, it's very sure to take Guangfu?" Wu Sangui asked Wu Guogui in high spirits, but he didn't wait for his adopted son to answer, so he said in an accentuated tone, "Guogui, the first battle of Guangdong is a key battle for my Great Zhou to overwhelm the Ming Dynasty and thus dominate the world in the future." Once it fails, the Ming Dynasty will be like Cao Wei in "Three Kingdoms". No, it should be Emperor Xian of the Han Dynasty who occupies Cao Wei's territory! Do you understand? ”

"Father," Wu Guogui heard the old man say this, and hurriedly patted his chest and said, "Don't worry, if Xiao Su dares to lead his troops to resist my Da Zhou Tianbing, my son will not recognize her as a daughter!" ”

Wu Sangui nodded, "Guogui, for my father, I also brought 40,000 people from Jiangxi, except for 5,000 of my own soldiers, everyone else has been handed over to you, and you must fight hard!" ”

"Yes, Father!"

(End of chapter)