Then, however, as if thinking of something, he cautiously asked:

"Are there many disasters here?"

The problem at the end of the Ming Dynasty was not just that the land was occupied by landlords. It is true that some displaced people are forced to wander because of land annexation and lack of land to cultivate, but there are also many who have land or can barely survive as tenants, but because of natural disasters, they have no harvest.

Wang Jiu was the latter, and he was very worried at this time.

After all, no matter how much land there is, if you can't grow grain, you can't grow it.

"Rest assured, at least so far, there hasn't been any major disaster."

The officer smiled and said:

"Even if something really goes wrong, the government will support everyone, and there is absolutely no need to worry about livelihood."

When Wang Jiu heard this, he immediately relieved himself.

He remembered that in times of crisis, when even the imperial court had abandoned them, it was only in that place that they could eat enough food to fill their stomachs.

Such a government would never treat them badly.

……

Guangdong part of Huguang, a county seat.

More than 100,000 people gathered in the city, filling the entire city to the brim, and the noise resounded in the sky.

Gao Yingxiang's troops, in the rogue is an alternative, he did not large-scale people everywhere to coerce, its subordinates are very strong (relatively speaking), the core of which is the original Ming army, its old battalion is the border army and even the Mongols, even if it is an ordinary soldier, although it cannot be said to be elite, but there is also a certain organization.

However, he is not without old and weak women and children, but these are mostly the families of the soldiers, and there are tens of thousands, who are organized into the rear battalion, and they do not go into battle in peacetime, and they are not similar to other rogues who treat them as cannon fodder.

Now these young men and women and children live in the dwellings of this city, and further inside, there are well-equipped armor soldiers who are even accompanied by horses, and these are the old camp strong.

Their station surrounded the most luxurious mansion in the county, and the person in it was Gao Yingxiang, the "King of Chuang".

At this time, it was already February of the eighteenth year of Wuxing, and eight months had passed since they successfully broke through the encirclement.

In the past eight months, he has been flowing all the way to Huguang, and the elite of the official army here has already gone north to suppress bandits, and Huguang at this time is extremely empty, and can only adjust a small number of troops to Wuchang and other important cities, and strategically abandon other areas.

This led to the rogues as if into a no-man's land, when the imperial court transferred troops to clear the suppression, the strength of the rogues had grown a lot, and they could not be destroyed for a while, and even a few powerful ones, the Ming army did not dare to provoke.

Gao Yingxiang is like this.

After tossing for eight months, Gao Yingxiang's strength has increased greatly, excluding the rear battalion, the total strength has reached 120,000, half of which are unable to withstand natural disasters and take refuge, and half of them are young men who he ordered people to forcibly recruit from the occupied towns.

Then he found a place to rest and rest, and it has been two months now.

In two months, the food and grass in this county town has been exhausted by his army, and there is no way, he must set off again.

And his position was not chosen casually - the wealthy Nan Zhili was on the side.

If you can go in and grab a handful, your strength will definitely grow by leaps and bounds.

Looking at Nan Zhili on the map, his gaze couldn't help but move south, looking at the legendary stone city where the dragon qi was entrenched......

The repeated victories in the past eight months have swelled his confidence, and the army of more than 100,000 has given him confidence.

After all, 200,000 troops (plus women and children)! He is a small merchant selling horses, how can he think of today? At this time, he was ambitious, and the figures of self-made people like Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang appeared in his heart.

That's it, go south to Jinling, you will definitely dominate!

He slammed his hand on the table and made up his mind.

However, there are some things that have to be considered.

After all, Nanjing is one of the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty, and there are also heavy troops stationed around it, and he also knows that once Nanjing is attacked, the Ming army will definitely go crazy to rescue, and when the time comes, his 200,000 people may not be enough to fight.

He thought of Zhang Xianzhong, who was on the edge of his territory, and some other rogues nearby.

Pull these people, it should be enough......

……

"Urgent report, the Liukou from the lake into the south of Zhili, wreaking havoc on the place, rampant!"

"Urgent report, the thieves have entered Anqing Mansion, and the hidden mountains and Taihu Lake in the northwest barrier of the city have all been lost, and the thieves are besieging Anqing!"

"Urgent report, the thief entered the Luzhou Mansion, the Lujiang, Yingshan, and Huoshan all fell, and the thief attacked Luzhou!"

"It has been ascertained that the six thieves who entered the south and were the thieves Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong, who entered the south and were in the south, were trapped in 14 cities in half a month, and there were countless villages and towns, and the thieves were very strong, and our army was invincible. He attacked Anqing and Luzhou again, but fortunately did not go down, and turned eastward, and the imperial court lost thousands of military horses. ”

The Nanjing military headquarters was in a mess.

An urgent report came from the western part of Nanzhili, shaking the heartstrings of the hundred officials in Nanjing.

The thief Gao Yingxiang joined the thief Zhang Xianzhong and some of the leaders of the Chaotian King and the Sweeping King, the total strength of the rogue has reached as much as 500,000, even though the water in it is very large, many of them are old and weak who cannot fight, but after all, this is also 500,000 people, and the psychological pressure is very great.

Those county seats, almost no resistance for more than a day.

Fortunately, Luzhou and Anqing still held on after all.

After all, these two cities are capital cities, and they are strategic locations, the city defense is solid, the defenders plus the brave and strong who are temporarily requisitioned, and there are tens of thousands of gentry and family members.

The Liukou were not good at attacking fortifications, and 500,000 people failed to capture these two well-fortified cities in one day as before, even though a group of thieves scolded angrily under the city, and finally even the old battalion was sent up, and finally failed to break the city in a short time.

Considering that they were going to be caught off guard by Nanjing, they did not smash these two cities again, but turned eastward, and did not worry that their back roads would be cut off, and there was no logistics anyway.

And the persistence of these two cities also successfully bought time for the Ming to react.

When they attacked Anqing, Nanjing got the news.

Yan Yinghui, who was appointed as the garrison of Nanjing and the governor of the Chinese army, immediately judged that the other party was coming for Nanjing.

All of a sudden, Nanjing's high-level officials were terrified, and the officials of the six ministries were even more shocked, who would have thought that they would encounter such a disaster even if they only came to Nanjing to retire.

Fortunately, Yan Yinghui was prepared. On the one hand, he sent people to Beijing to ask for help, and on the other hand, he mobilized the troops of Nanzhili in accordance with the plan that had been drawn up long ago and prepared to deploy defenses.

In the face of life and death, the various departments that usually fish broke out with unprecedented efficiency, and the army was quickly assembled.

There are a lot of guards stationed around Nanjing, with nearly 300,000 people in theory, and the Beijing camp in Beijing is benchmarked, which is only near Nanjing, not counting the southern Zhili.

But how many people actually have to say.

(End of chapter)