On April 29, Chongzhen, the Manchu Yu prince Duoduo led the Qing army of 80,000 people to camp 20 miles north of Yangzhou. Due to the resistance of the Ming army in Guzhen, Sizhou and other places, the Qing army was more than ten days later than another time and space, which also gave Yangzhou City more time to prepare.

On the same day, Belebolo led 15,000 partial divisions to capture Fengyang City, the defenders of Fengyang were finally killed by the Eight Banners after a short period of resistance, the defenders did not dare to resist and led the army to surrender, and the prefect of Fengyang of the Ming Dynasty committed suicide when the city fell, and chose to be loyal to the Ming Dynasty.

After breaking Fengyang, the Qing army slaughtered Fengyang, and tens of thousands of people were killed in the city. Then Bolo did not stay in Fengyang for a long time, but divided his troops to attack the prefectures and counties under the jurisdiction of Fengyang Prefecture, and went south to attack Chuzhou, approaching the Yangtze River.

Fengyang is less than 400 miles away from Nanjing and is the central capital of the Ming Dynasty. Yangzhou was besieged, Zhongdu fell, and a Qing army attacked straight in the direction of Pukou, which immediately caused panic in the Nanjing court.

"Pingnan Marquis Chen Yue has an army of more than 100,000 people, but let the Manchu Tartars break through the central capital, he is really incompetent, His Majesty should issue an order to seize his military power, and send another capable minister to command the army." Immediately, there was a statement that the official folded and impeached Chen Yue for misleading the country.

"At this time, Yangzhou is an important town in Jiangbei, although Pingnanhou has more than 100,000 troops, but he can't take into account such a large territory in Jiangbei. The loss of Fengyang is not the responsibility of Pingnanhou, and changing generals in battle is a taboo for soldiers. There were also knowledgeable officials who spoke for Chen Yue.

Above the court, there were many controversies among the ministers, and there was everything to say.

Chongzhen sat on the dragon chair in a daze, and there was despair in his heart. fled from Beijing to Nanjing, shouldering the responsibility of losing the ancestors' tombs and Jiangshan Sheji, and really hoped to be able to make a comeback in the Ming Dynasty. Who would have thought that it had only been a year since he came to Nanjing, and there was not much time for a good life, and he was already facing the same desperate situation as when he was in Beijing.

In the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in the west of Nanjing, Zuo Liangyu did not listen to the dispatch of the imperial court and privately led the army to Jiujiang, and the thieves were pressing step by step behind, and there were tens of thousands of Qing army and eight banner soldiers after the thieves. The situation on the Yangtze River is precarious, and Jiujiang may fall at any time. Chongzhen had already issued an order to order Chen Jianghe, the Marquis of Zhongyi, to stop going to Jiujiang and organize a defensive line in Wuhu on the spot.

The number of Ming troops in Jiujiang is already enough, and the left army plus the Jiangxi soldiers of the superintendent Yuan Jixian is a full army of two or three hundred thousand.

The situation in Jiujiang changed several times a day, but I didn't expect that there was still no clarity, and Fengyang Mansion, which another Qing army actually breached, was only more than 300 miles away from Nanjing. And Chen Yue, who gave him great hope, was surrounded by the Qing army in Yangzhou City.

If Jiujiang's army could not resist and let the thieves and Manchu Tartars go eastward along the river, the city of Nanjing would be in danger. Damn Zuo Liangyu, let Wuchang go and didn't defend it, more than 200,000 troops actually fled to Jiujiang, for such an army and such a general, Chongzhen no longer dared to count on it.

Zuo Liangyu can't be counted on, what about Chen Yue? Can he defeat the Qing army on the East Road and rescue me again and save the Ming Dynasty from danger?

At this moment, Chongzhen's heart was in turmoil, and he kept thinking nonsense.

"Your Majesty, the Qing army's partial division has broken through Fengyang, and it is likely to cross the Yangtze River from Pukou to attack Nanjing, and the minister suggested that Huang Degong's troops in Luzhou should be dispatched to Pukou to block the Qing army's attack."

The first assistant of the cabinet is Shi Kefadao.

"The minister seconded the proposal, and in addition, the navy from Fujian should be dispatched to Nanjing as soon as possible to prevent the Qing army from crossing the river." The secondary auxiliary road Zhenfei also said.

Some time ago, I heard that the Qing army was moving south, the imperial court urgently mobilized, urgently dispatched troops from all over the country, and also gave a holy decree to Zheng Zhilong, the general soldier of Fujian, ordering him to send a naval division into the Yangtze River to prevent the Qing army from crossing the river.

With Huang Degong's army defending Pukou and the Zheng family's naval army blocking the Yangtze River, presumably the Qing army could not easily cross the river to attack Nanjing, Chongzhen's heart gradually relaxed.

In Luzhou, Jingnan Bohuang Degong led the headquarters to be stationed in Luzhou for some time, shouldering the important task of guarding the upper reaches of the Huai River and defending Nanjing.

Although Huang Degong participated in the matter of King Fu's succession, he finally lost his way and killed Liu Liangzuo with a counterattack, and when Chen Yue led the army to attack Nanjing, Huang Degong's troops cooperated from Pukou and restrained Liu Kongzhao's Jiangshui division who was loyal to King Fu, which can be regarded as a contribution to Chongzhen's re-enthronement.

Therefore, after deliberation with the imperial court, Huang Degong's initial sins were forgiven, and he was also his Jingnanbo, and the station of Huang Degong's department was set in Luzhou. Chen Yue's Jiangbei Governor's Mansion was in charge of Huaiyang Fengyang, Huang Degong was in charge of Luzhou, Jiujiang had Yuan Jixian, and Wuchang had Zuo Liangyu, so a complete line of defense was formed.

And Luzhou is not far from Fengyang and Jiujiang, where there is an emergency where reinforcements can be placed, so Huang Degong still got the trust of the imperial court.

After receiving the holy decree of the imperial court, Huang Degong did not dare to slack off, and hurriedly ordered his generals Ma Degong and Tian Xiong and others to gather troops to prepare for reinforcements in Pukou.

Huang Degong originally had an army of nearly 20,000 people, and since he sat in Luzhou for half a year, he has recruited a large number of soldiers, and the army has expanded to 30,000.

Leaving 5,000 troops to defend Luzhou, Huang Degong led an army of 25,000 people to Pukou. Arrived in Jiangpu County on the third day of the fifth month.

After Boluo captured Fengyang on April 29, he began to divide his troops to attack the prefectures and counties under the jurisdiction of Fengyang, Linhuai, Huaiyuan, Dingyuan, and Chuzhou prefectures and counties fell one after another. There is a precedent for the Fengyang massacre, and wherever the Qing army went, the defenders of all states and counties surrendered without a fight. Even if the magistrates of the prefecture and county were unwilling to surrender, the local squires would collude with the Ming generals and surrender the city in order to avoid the poison of the Qing army.

For the surrendered prefectures and counties, Bolo gave preferential treatment, prohibiting his subordinate soldiers from plundering the people, and at the same time appointing surrendered officials or famous squires as state and county officials, and reorganized the surrendered army into green battalion soldiers.

After some capture, Bolo's army did not decrease, but quickly swelled, and the Green Battalion expanded to more than 30,000 people, most of whom were newly surrendered Ming troops.

On 5 May, Bo Luo led his army to Jiangpu County and confronted Huang Degong's army. The strength of the two sides is almost the same, Boluo has 5,000 Eight Banner soldiers as the backbone, and Huang Degong also has 2,000 families to rely on.

Huang Degong had Jiangpu County as his support, and lined up his army on the high post in the north of the county, and Boluo sent troops to attack several times, but they could not break Huang Degong's military formation, and the two sides confronted each other in this way.

Just when Bolo was at a loss, a Green Battalion general stood up and said that he had an idea to deal with Huang Degong's army, which made Bolo overjoyed.