On the west bank of the Xiangjiang River, countless warships were anchored.

Zhu Gaoxu came all the way with the cavalry brigade and saw the long fleet of boats on the riverside, which stretched for many miles; He estimated that there were at least hundreds of warships alone!

The grand horse team on the shore, the dust and fog cover the sky, and the sailors on land cover the Xiangjiang River, the scene is very magnificent!

The officers and troops under Zhang Fu's command suddenly mutinied, which was unexpected, and they didn't even arrive at the predetermined place.

Therefore, the Han Wangjun did not catch up with the good show, and when the main force of the horse team arrived, everything was over! Looking at the surrounding scene, it seems that the situation has been completely controlled...... Otherwise, the officers and navy divisions would not have docked on the west bank; At this time, they were in a position where the Han army's land cavalry could attack, and it was obvious that they had completely abandoned the practice of resistance.

But before that, there seemed to have been infighting between the officers and the navy; There were some burned warships floating on the river, and the embers were still smoking. Zhu Gaoxu looked at the other side of the wide Xiangjiang River, and could vaguely see the phalanx of the army division.

The two soldiers and horses who had fought and died were close at this time, but there was no longer any movement of fighting.

When Zhu Gaoxu saw the officers and soldiers on the other side, he raised his hand and shouted, "Stop marching!" ”

The generals then shouted and shouted, and the long horses of the four departments slowed down one after another.

After waiting for a while, a warship on the Xiangjiang River slowly drove over. After a while, the ship came to shore and a ladder was set up on it; A group of warriors disembarked from the deck, jumped into the shallow water, and waded towards the shore.

Those people gradually got closer, and Zhu Gaoxu had already recognized the person in the middle as Zhang Fu. And the people around Zhang Fu, Zhu Gaoxu didn't know. Chen Dazhui stepped forward and said a few words to Zhang Fu and others.

The officers and generals all unarmed their weapons, handed them to Chen Dazhu, and then continued to walk towards Zhu Gaoxu. Zhu Gaoxu sat on horseback, staring at the comer, motionless and waiting.

For a while, Zhu Gaoxu was in a weird mood.

In front of Zhang Dashuai, his father died for Emperor Yongle, and he died a tragic death at that time, covered with blood holes; In the "Battle of Jingjing" and "The Battle of Annam", everyone is also a brother who shares the honor and disgrace of life and death. Then in the past two years, Zhang Fu is simply one of the most critical figures in opposing Zhu Gaoxu, and wants to put Zhu Gaochu to death and then ......

Zhang Fu approached, and suddenly knelt down on one knee and said, "Sin General Zhang Fu, meet His Royal Highness the King of Han!" Sin will help to abuse and repent, and I have come to ask for sin and ask His Royal Highness the King of Han to punish him. Sin will be deserved, and there will be no complaints! ”

The generals next to him knelt on one knee one after another, and saluted: "The guilty generals will ask the king of Han to punish the crime......

Zhu Gaoxu almost didn't laugh out loud when he saw this! He was still sitting on horseback just now, but at this time, he turned over and came down, stepped forward to help Zhang Fu with his own hands, and said, "Water Master, this king dreams of it." Today, General Zhang has made great contributions to the 'Crime Army' and has been able to make up for it. But your title of Duke of England is not legitimate. ”

Zhang Fu said very sensitively: "The sin will be confused for a while, and it is a great favor for the King of Han not to kill, and he is willing to ask for a knight!" ”

As he spoke, he turned his head and stretched out his hand, took a wooden box from his subordinates, presented it with both hands, and said, "There will be a small gift for sin, and it will be presented to His Royal Highness the King of Han!" Please smile at His Royal Highness the King of Han. ”

Chen Dazhui immediately stepped forward to take the wooden box, opened it first, and then held it in front of Zhu Gaoxu with both hands. Zhu Gaoxu smelled a smell of blood, and when he looked closely, there was a bloody human head inside!

Zhu Gaoxu frowned and looked at it carefully for a while, and recognized it as the head of Jin Zhong, the secretary of the military department! He suddenly laughed with an unexpected "heh".

Zhang Fudao: "The matter was revealed in advance, and the crime will have to kill Jin Zhong as a last resort, and the army will be hastily mutinied!" ”

Zhu Gaoxu glanced at Zhang Fu, waved his hand lightly, signaled Chen Dazhu, and took the head away. Zhu Gaoxu was silent for a while, as if he had forgotten about the head, and he continued the topic of the title just now, and said quietly: "The truth is not like this. Although my eldest brother is the eldest son of the first emperor, the Ming Dynasty ruled the world with filial piety; My father was killed by a traitor in the East Palace, so my eldest brother's throne is not legal! My eldest brother conferred on you the title of Duke of England, of course, it is invalid.

Before the great cause of the 'Battle of Jingjing' was not completed, Er's father fell in the middle of the battle and died for the first emperor; naturally he could not get the title during his lifetime, so he was posthumously awarded the title of "Rongguo Gong". I think it is more appropriate to wait for the ministers of the court to discuss it in the future, and let you inherit the title of Rongguogong. ”

"Huh?" Zhang Fu looked surprised.

Zhu Gaoxu reached out and patted Zhang Fu's shoulder, "General Zhang has fought side by side with me, you know me." ”

Zhang Fu was speechless for a while, looking pensive, as if he was pondering Zhu Gaoxu's words just now. He had a surprised look on his face just now, but there was not much joy on his face at this time...... Zhang Fu not only understands the battle formation, maybe he understands that things are far from being that simple.

Zhu Gaoxu looked back left and right and pointed to the white-faced man on Zhang Fu's left: "Are you Liu Sheng?" ”

Dahan hurriedly said: "The sin general Liu Sheng pays a visit to His Royal Highness the King of Han!" ”

Zhu Gaoxu nodded approvingly.

He then rushed to the riverside, and the guards around him immediately followed.

Zhu Gaoxu waved his hand and shouted: "All the Ming soldiers, this king and you were originally brothers who shared weal and woe, and now they are again!" Our Ming officers and soldiers, aiming at all countries in the world, and the days of cannibalism will soon come to an end! ”

On the warships near and far, shouts gradually came one after another.

…… On the same day, Zhu Gaoxu ordered the officers and men of the main cavalry force to successively control the warships and officers and men of the naval division on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River.

As for the surrender of the land division on the other side, Zhu Gaoxu ignored it for the time being; Only to ask Liu Sheng to go back and lead the surrender army on the east bank. To this day, Zhu Gaoxu doesn't take the official, military and land divisions of Huguang Province in his eyes at all, and the only thing that can make him worry about him is the water division.

The main forces of the battalions of the Han Dynasty will not be able to reach this place until tomorrow at the earliest. Today, the Chinese army of the Han Dynasty camped on the riverside and waited for the subsequent battalions to arrive.

In the evening, several generals of the Han Dynasty, as well as Mr. Li and others, all came to the cavalry camp on the west bank of the Xiangjiang River.

Zhu Gaoxu immediately convened his confidants to discuss the civil and military affairs. When everyone came, he said directly, "This king has an idea...... In recent days, tens of thousands of elite soldiers and warriors have been selected to take naval warships from here and go down the Xiangjiang River and the Great River; After the dispatch, it will be close to the Beijing division within ten days! ”

The big tent was cold.

Zhu Gaoxu glanced at Sheng Yong, but tonight Sheng Yong didn't say anything like "this is a gamble". However, Zhu Gaoxu knew in his heart, and he seemed to want to gamble again! He has won several big bets before, and he feels that this time the chance of winning is not small!

Mr. Li hesitated, and finally spoke: "Lord Wang, as far as the lower officials know, the Yongle Chujing Division has a permanent garrison of seventy guards!" There are 22 guards of the emperor's army and 48 guards of the Beijing camp. The total strength is more than 400,000 people!

At the beginning of the 'Campaign to Destroy Crime', the puppet dynasty first mobilized 100,000 Beijing battalions to Huguang Province, and then mobilized 300,000 garrison troops from the northern and southern provinces of the Great River, and gathered 400,000 troops in Huguang. Later, the puppet dynasty lost the three southwestern provinces, and Wu Gao was defeated and lost 100,000 divisions; The puppet imperial court probably transferred more than 100,000 reinforcements to Huguang from the Beijing garrison, so that the main force of the land division led by Zhang Fu gathered more than 400,000 troops in Huguang Province!

At this time, there were at least pro-army and Beijing battalions in the Beijing Division, with a total of between 100,000 and 200,000 people. The situation has been tense recently, and the puppet imperial court should be able to mobilize some men and horses from the provinces near Gyeonggi and left. Therefore, the lower officials estimated that the current Beijing division can still gather about 200,000 troops. ”

Zhu Gaoxu said: "The main force of the enemy's naval division surrendered, the world was shaken, and the people's hearts were in turmoil. As long as the king leads his army to the city, even if the Beijing division has an army of 200,000, it will be useless. ”

Mr. Li nodded lightly and said, "What the prince said is extremely true. But the lower officials thought that there was still a little danger.

Although the main force of the enemy's naval division was surrendered, there were still some remnants of naval division warships on the big rivers in Jingzhou, Wuchang and other places. The warships we have now have to be transferred out for water battles, or forced to land the remnants of the enemy's naval divisions.

Although there were many of the remaining warships, if they were used to transport soldiers, horses, grain, grass, military supplies, and firearms, I am afraid that they could transport up to 50,000 or 60,000 horses at a time. If I rush to the Beijing Division, the disparity in strength is too great, and I cannot be sure of victory. ”

At this time, Qu Neng spoke: "Our army is like a soldier in Beijing, and there are not a few people in the puppet dynasty who want to surrender and invite merit; The puppet monarchs and ministers may not be able to defend the city, otherwise one of the city gates will be lost, and the whole city will be lost! The last general guessed that the DPRK and China would mobilize the remaining main forces to find our forward army for a decisive battle. ”

Zhu Gaoxu glanced at Qu Neng, "General Qu's guess is reasonable!" ”

Sheng Yong hugged his fists and said: "The last general is willing to be the forward, lead the army to the east by boat, and defeat the main force of the enemy army in Beijing!" ”

Zhu Gaoxu said: "This king wants to personally lead the army, and the final battle will be the victory of the 'Battle of Crime'!" Although the enemy's personal guards and the Beijing camp were well-dressed and had many men and horses, their morale was lost at this time, and the soldiers were depressed; My striker is outnumbered, and the odds are still great! ”

Everyone was talking, and Mr. Li once again dissuaded Zhu Gaoxu from not having to recruit in person, but only entertaining the generals.

Zhu Gaochu insisted on his opinion: "As Mr. Li said, this battle may be somewhat risky to be outnumbered in the Gyeonggi area. Now the overall situation, we have the chance to win, since this king wants to gamble, how can he be afraid of tigers and wolves? We must win a war, and we can't make extraneous branches and let the war situation repeat. ”

He patted his thigh and said, "That's it!" All the main forces of the crime army, the troops are divided into three routes.

After the king selected and mobilized the elite, he led the vanguard army, and the Keri sailor went eastward, with Ping An and Wang Bin as the deputies; The main army in the middle route, with Qu Dudu as the generals, led the army to advance along the river by land. The rear army was led by General Sheng, and led the rear army to protect the officials and families of the Han Dynasty's palaces, and after hearing the news of the victory of the forward, they set off from Hengzhou and went to Beijing. ”

Everyone bowed one after another: "The last general (lower official) is waiting for the order!" ”

According to this strategy, as long as the forward army has boarded the ship, the forward will enter the river from the Xiangjiang River and Dongting Lake; Then go all the way to Beijing along the river, and the real sailing time may only take more than ten days.

However, the main force of the Chinese army took the nearest land route and traveled along the river, and it took about two months just to walk.

In the early stage, they may have to be more troublesome, and they have to persuade the officials and defenders of the cities along the way; Once the advance of the Han army entered the Beijing division, the rest of the time, the Chinese army had to walk and march.