300 miles and 5 hours!

Chongzhen, who can only talk to people on paper, of course doesn't understand what Zhu Cihong is talking about?

Behind these "300 miles" and "5 hours", there is actually a lot of investment. First of all, the roads and bridges between the Jianghuai have been renovated and armed!

In the past seven or eight months, the Generalissimo's Mansion, the Central Capital Left-behind Division, and the Huaiyang Governor Yamen have successively hired 200,000 or 300,000 people to renovate the official roads leading from Jiangbei Yingying to Fengyang Fucheng, Huai'an Fucheng, Xuyi County, Shouzhou City, and Luzhou Fucheng.

All the bridges along the way were also reinforced so that the 12-pounder Hongyi cannon could pass through.

In addition, improvised forts were built next to important bridges, a small number of officers and soldiers of the guards were stationed, and large general cannons were deployed to block the bridge deck of the river.

The second is the strong marching ability of the new army - a distance of 300 miles is fast for an ordinary Ming army, walking for three or four days. Before the Wuqiao Mutiny, thousands of soldiers and horses led by Kong Youde and others traveled from Dengzhou to Wuqiao, Dezhou, for a few thousand miles, moving an average of more than three miles a day...... Life has come to the end of food!

Such a thing is not allowed in the new army of overcoming difficulties! The standard speed of the new army's official road march was not less than 50 miles a day, while in the case of a rapid march it was required to be 150 miles a day, which was maintained for two days, and could be put into battle immediately after the march was completed.

In other words, the 300-mile march on the official road can be completed in only two days, and the troops can be immediately put into battle.

With such a marching speed, you can already fight with the Eight Banners Force!

The second is a 600-mile expedited Tang newspaper network covering the Jianghuai River, which has also been established. The Tang newspaper sent by Fengyang Mansion City can be delivered to Jiangbei Camp within 5 hours!

With this Tang Bao network, Zhu Cihong will be able to remotely command the entire Jianghuai battlefield in the Jiangbei camp. It can also grasp the movements of the invading Qing army at any time and seize the opportunity of the decisive battle in time.

In addition, there is a fairly large wharf to the south of the camp in the north of the river. Through this wharf and the Yangtze River Naval Division, the 60,000 troops stationed in the camp in the northern part of the Yangtze River could also move to Anqing or Jiujiang by water in a very short time.

With Anqing as a base, the new army could cross the Dabie Mountains to Xinyang Prefecture in Runing Province in 12 days and join the Henan battlefield.

With Jiujiang as a base, the new army could launch an offensive against Huguang.

That is to say, with Jiangbei Daying as the center, relying on the Yangtze River waterway and the two "sub-centers" of Jiujiang and Anqing, as well as several important official roads between the Jianghuai River. Zhu Cihong's 60,000 new army was completely capable of rapid maneuvering between the Yangtze River and the Huai River and along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River.

No matter where Haoge broke through, Zhu Cihong's army could rush to the battlefield in the fastest time.

Even if that half-dead and inactive Zuo Liangyu raises troops in Wuchang, Prince Zhu can mobilize troops to prevent or extinguish them in the shortest possible time!

The army deployed by Zhu Cihong along the Huai River and the Liu Kongzhao Naval Army (formerly the Caojiang Water Division, now known as the Jiujiang Water Division) in Jiujiang were just "meat shields" against the Qing Dynasty or Zuo Liangyu, or other forces down the river.

In later military terms, this is called "defense in depth". The so-called defense of the river must defend Huai, in fact, refers to this kind of large-depth defense - from Fengyang to Jiangbei camp, a defense depth of 300 miles, is now placed in front of the Qing army!

......

South Zhili, Mengcheng.

When Zhu Cihong and Chongzhen, the two fathers and sons, were stationed in the camp in Jiangbei, the Qing Dynasty sent Qiu Beile Ye (Haoge himself did not admit it), the general of Jingyuan, and the prince of Su, Haoge, were riding their horses into the empty Mengcheng County with an angry face, and there were dilapidated houses everywhere after the fire.

What made him angry was not the scene of a scorched earth in Mengcheng County resisting the Qing Dynasty, but his fourteenth uncle, the regent of the Qing Dynasty, Dorgon.

Dolgon's behavior of coercing the Son of Heaven and sleeping with the Queen Mother is already very excessive!

But a few days ago, something even more radical happened. Dolgon actually promoted himself by one level under the pretext of "Xuzhou Victory", and was promoted from regent to regent of his uncle.

And that's not even counting the holy decree that canonized himself as regent of Dorgon's father, and there were a whole bunch of privileges attached to it. For example, when all the great gifts such as hunting and going out to the school, the princes and nobles must gather together to wait for the decree, and they must also "kneel down to greet Dolgon". If they go out (out of the city) and return to the palace, the princes and nobles need to be sent to the palace gate.

In addition, in case of New Year's Day and celebration gifts, the Minister of Civil and Military Affairs went to Dolgon after Emperor Shunzhi of the court. During the last dynasty, Dolgon got off the sedan chair inside the noon gate, and the kings had to get off the sedan chair outside the noon gate, and so on.

In other words, when Hauge returns to Beijing, he will have to "kneel down to greet Dolgon...... Everyone is a prince, Hauge is still the eldest son of the first emperor, why kneel to Dorgon? Dolgon, this is putting himself above the kings, this is preparing for usurpation! And the one who can stop him from usurping the throne, looking at the Qing Kingdom, is only he Haoge!

"Lord Wang, it's here!"

The sound of worship suddenly sounded, interrupting Hauge's thoughts, and Hauge looked up to see a tattered yamen in front of him. said that it was a yamen, but in fact, there was no door for a long time - it was burned to people! Half of the lobby inside is gone—the roof is gone, the walls are still there.

"Right here?" Hauge frowned. Dolgon is sleeping in the Forbidden City, and his eldest son of the first emperor, the prince of the Qing Dynasty, lives in this roofless house?

Ao Bai smiled bitterly: "The slave has already asked someone to find thatch, and a thatched roof can be built tonight." ”

"Thatched roof...... "Hauge looked around, it was all charred black, and there was no good house, "Okay, okay, it's just a thatched roof, it's quite cool." ”

"What the prince said is extremely true!" Ao Bai nodded again and again, "The thatched roof is cool......"

Hauge wiped the sweat from his forehead and smiled bitterly: "Then let's get it quickly...... Now what? Will this king stay in a roofless house for a while? ”

"Where can that be?" Ao Bai smiled, "The servant has prepared a cowhide tent for you...... It also made people boil the bath water. ”

"That's pretty much it!" Hauge had already dismounted from his horse as he spoke, and immediately a blue-clad minion stepped forward to raise a parasol for him. Ao Bai led the way, leading Hauge all the way to the backyard of the county government, in front of a cowhide tent covered with a lot of thatch.

The curtain of the tent was lifted, and several women dressed as maids were moving in and out.

Hauge smiled and asked, "Where did they get them?" ”

"Returning to the prince," Ao Bai said with a smile, "They are all Shang Kexi and filial piety to you, not caught here in Nanzhili, they are all clothed minions with blue flags." ”

Shang Kexi is the identity of the prince, but he can call him by his name when he worships a solid mountain, which shows how much water this prince has? If he is replaced by a serious Manchurian prince, even if he is the king of the county, Ao Bai can't call him that.

"It's good to be good at doing things," Hauge smiled, "By the way, where is this Shang Kexi?" Why didn't you see him? ”

"Back to the prince," Ao Bai said, "Shang Kexi has led people to collect ships along the whirlpool, north and west water." ”

Vortex water, north fertilizer water, and west fertilizer water all pass through the territory of Mengcheng County, all of which are northwest to southeast, and all of them are connected to the Huai River.

"What? Can you still find a boat? Hauge was stunned, "The county has burned like this......"

"Shang Kexi sent someone to report that he had found some," Ao Bai said with a smile, "There are no big boats, but there are a lot of small boats." Xu is Hou Sui and Zhu Chunchen, they have the Huai River water division, and they are not afraid of our warriors driving a small boat to cross the Huai, right? ”

"Hahaha......" Hauge laughed, "do they think it's the Three Kingdoms now?" The northerners rode horses, the southerners drove ships, and they had dozens of warships, so I didn't recruit the Qing Heavenly Soldiers? ”

"Not really!" Ao Bai smiled, "We came south with dozens of Hongyi cannons, not to mention the small Huai River, what about the Yangtze River?" Hongyi cannons went to the riverside, and all ships were blown into slag! ”