Of course, if it is about fighting, Chen Yue will naturally not be afraid of Gao Jie and Liu Zeqing's generation, but after all, there are only more than 1,000 cavalry under his command, and the most important task at present is to take Chongzhen to Nanjing, and he cannot delay time.

Because according to the history in Chen Yue's memory, after the fall of Beijing, Shi Kefa, Ma Shiying and others supported Zhu Youxiang, the king of Fu, to ascend the throne and established the Hongguang court.

Chen Yue doesn't know if Zhu Youxiang has ascended the throne now, what he can do is to receive Chongzhen as soon as possible, and it is best to rush to Nanjing before Zhu Youxiang ascends the throne, otherwise once Zhu Youxiang becomes the emperor, Chongzhen will be helpless, and his hard work will also be a complete failure.

The Yellow River flows southeast, joins the Huai River in Huai'an, and flows east into the sea. The mother river of the Chinese nation has been diverted many times in history, the current river course is not the later generations from Henan through Shandong into the Bohai Sea, but from Cao County to the southeast through Xuzhou to Huaiyin, Wanli years, Pan Ji domesticated the Yellow River, built from Cao County Xuzhou to Huaiyin embankment, in Huaiyin Yellow River water most of the water flows into Hongze Lake, a small part of the east into the sea.

However, the river channel that has been seriously silted up to the sea for many years has almost been abandoned, and all the water of the Yellow River flows into Hongze Lake, forming a vast lake that stretches for hundreds of miles. Chen Yue sent people to explore the east along the abandoned Yellow River, and found that the riverbed was far higher than the two banks, and the river was extremely narrow. After the sea ship arrived, it had to disembark and go to Huai'an by land.

As for the Ming army in Xuzhou, it is reported that there is indeed a Gao Jie army stationed in Xuzhou, but at present, the main force of Gao Jie's army is not in Xuzhou, and only a small number of troops are stationed in Xuzhou City.

Chen Yue knew that the Hongguang Imperial Court was established by Gao Jie, Huang Degong, and Liu Zeqing, and Gao Jie must have led his troops south to protect the Fu King Zhu Youxiang to ascend the throne. Chen Yue suddenly felt the urgency of time, and hurriedly led his troops along the north bank of the Yellow River, and he wanted to quickly rush to the beach to pick up Chongzhen who came from the sea. We set off from Tianjin on April 8, and today is already April 20, so I don't know if everything will be in time.

......

What Chen Yue didn't know was that as early as when he had just set off from Tianjin with his troops, the news of the fall of Beijing had already reached Nanjing.

In early March, Nanjing received Chongzhen's holy decree from King Qin, and Shi Kefa, the secretary of the Nanjing Military Department, immediately mobilized Nanjing's army to send troops to King Qin. At the beginning of April, Shi Kefa crossed the Yangtze River with his troops to Pukou, and the news of the fall of Beijing had already arrived. On 8 April, Lu Zhenfei, the governor of Huai'an, announced the fall of Beijing through Tang Bao.

Now that Beijing had fallen, King Qin was meaningless, so Shi Kefa was stationed in Pukou, anxiously waiting for news from the north, to confirm whether Chongzhen was still alive. However, all kinds of news came one after another, some said that Chongzhen was martyred, and some said that Chongzhen had gone south along the sea route.

A few days later, Wei Bingbing, a former university scholar, went south from Beijing and fled to Pukou, confirming the news that Chongzhen had self-immolated and martyred, and Shi Kefa was completely dead.

Since Chongzhen died, the country cannot be without a king for a day, and one person must be selected from among the vassal kings to ascend the throne and be the emperor. Shi Kefa is the secretary of the Nanjing Military Department and the head of the Nanjing Wenchen, and the matter of choosing the vassal king to ascend the throne naturally falls on him.

Here, it is necessary to tell a little about the situation in Nanjing. Nanjing, as one of the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty, has the same six yamen as Beijing, the Imperial Historical Observatory and other yamen, and the government agencies are exactly the same as Beijing, and even the grades of the officials of each ministry are exactly the same as Beijing. As long as the new emperor ascends the throne, the Nanjing government institutions can immediately operate. Of course, there was no cabinet in Nanjing at this time, so the military department Shangshu who held the military power was the head of the civil ministers. Of course, there are two other stewards, one is Han Zanzhou, the eunuch of Nanjing, and the other is Zhao Zhilong, the commander of Xincheng, Nanjing, who is the three giants of Nanjing together with Shi Kefa, the secretary of the Ministry of War.

Of course, Shi Kefa's status as a civil official makes his status far above Han Zanzhou and Zhao Zhilong, and it can be said that which vassal king will ascend the throne can be decided by Shi Kefa in a word.

According to the distance of the bloodline, Chongzhen was martyred and should be succeeded by his son. But none of Chongzhen's three sons escaped from Beijing, and Chongzhen had no brothers, but Chongzhen's grandfather, Shenzong Zhu Yijun, had other descendants. For example, Fu Wang Zhu Youxiang, Hui Wang Zhu Changrun, and Gui Wang Zhu Changxuan. In addition, King Lu Zhu Changshu is the nephew of Shenzong, and his bloodline is not too far.

From the perspective of Lun Xu, King Hui and King Gui should be considered first, and among the three kings, King Fu is the most suitable, because King Fu's father, Lao Fu King Zhu Changxun, is the third son of Shenzong, King Hui is the sixth son, and King Gui is the seventh son of Shenzong. Moreover, Fu Wang Zhu Youxiang and Chongzhen are of the same generation, and he can invoke his brother and successor when he ascends the throne, while King Hui and King Gui are both Chongzhen's uncles, which is not too suitable.

So at the beginning, Shi Kefa's heart was biased towards the Fu King Zhu Youxiang as the emperor. At that time, some people of insight also advocated that Zhu Youxiang should succeed him, such as Lu Zhenfen, the governor of Huai'an, who agreed with King Fu in his letter to Shi Kefa. Li Qing, Zhang Zhengchen, Jinshi Zheng Yuanxun and others also had the same attitude.

However, most of the officials in Nanjing opposed King Fu's accession to the throne, because of historical reasons, most of the officials of the Sixth Department of Nanjing were degraded from Beijing, and most of them were Donglin Party members who lost power in the Chongzhen Dynasty. For example, Lu Daqi, the squire of the Ministry of War, Gao Hongtu, the secretary of the household department, Zhang Shenyan, the imperial history of the right capital, Jiang Yueguang, the Zhan Shifu Zhan Shifu, etc., while Qian Qianyi, the former waiter of the Ministry of Rites, is the leader of the Donglin Party.

Qian Qianyi rushed to Nanjing from his hometown Changshu twice, met Shi Kefa, and strongly opposed King Fu's accession to the throne. The reason is that Zhu Youxiang's grandmother is Zheng Guifei, who is favored by Shenzong, and Shenzong likes Zheng Guifei's son Lao Fu Wang Zhu Changxun, and has repeatedly planned to abolish the crown prince of Chongzhen's father Guangzong Zhu Changluo and set up Lao Fu King Zhu Changxun as the crown prince.

Around the dispute of the prince, the Donglin Party and Wanli and Zheng Guifei fought for decades, and a series of events such as "Demon Book", "Attack" and "Moving the Palace" occurred. After the unremitting struggle of the Donglin Party, Shenzong and Zheng Guifei's plot to make Zhu Changxun, the king of Lifu, the crown prince, came to naught.

Therefore, the Donglin Party and the Fuwang family have a deep hatred, and Qian Qianyi and others are afraid that after the Fuwang Zhu Youxiang ascends the throne, they will retaliate against the Donglin Party.

And Shi Kefa himself is also a member of the Donglin Party, he is a disciple of Zuo Guangdou, an important member of the Donglin Party, and he is inextricably linked with the Donglin Party, and he also has scruples about supporting King Fu psychologically.

In the name of "Lixian", Qian Qianyi lobbied everywhere and proposed to welcome Zhu Changshu, the king of Lilu. But in Shi Kefa's heart, he still thought that the son of the Divine Sect should be established in the order of Lun. Zhu Changshu is the nephew of Shenzong, and he is remote in blood, and Shi Kefa is worried that giving up his relatives and sparse will cause a bigger turmoil.

However, most of the ministers in Nanjing supported Qian Qianyi and rose up to establish King Lu. In desperation, Shi Kefa secretly decided to go to Pukou to discuss with Ma Shiying, the governor of Fengyang, to choose one of King Gui and King Fu. Because Ma Shiying was the governor of Fengyang, the army in Jiangbei, such as Gao Jie, Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo and other departments, were controlled by him and had great power.

And for Ma Shiying, this is also a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, participating in the support, and making meritorious contributions to the support, he will be the second person under Shi Kefa in the future, and it is not a problem to enter the cabinet to worship the prime minister.

The result of Shi Kefa and Ma Shiying's secret discussion was that they were close to each other, but Gui was good. King Fu and King Gui are both descendants of Shenzong, and King Fu's character and ability are not as good as King Gui, so King Gui is the most suitable. As for Shenzong's other son, Huiwang Zhu Changrun, who is superstitious about Buddhism, does not understand the world, and no longer considers it.

After the two discussed, Shi Kefa wrote a letter to the ministers of Nanjing, inviting them to Pukou to discuss matters and jointly make a decision to welcome King Gui to the throne. It is said that this compromise plan not only caters to the Donglin party's reluctance to establish the king of Fu, but also ensures that the son of Shenzong will ascend the throne, which can be said to take care of the needs of all aspects. However, the Donglin Party in Nanjing was very arrogant, they thought that Ma Shiying was just a local governor, and had no right to convene a court meeting, and refused to come to Pukou to discuss the matter. In fact, the Donglin Party wanted to squeeze Ma Shiying out of the array of supporting the emperor, for the future power struggle.

After being despised by the ministers of Nanjing, Ma Shiying had no choice but to return to Fengyang.

However, to Ma Shiying's surprise, when he went to Pukou to see Shi Kefa, his old nest Fengyang underwent a big change. The cause of the incident was Lu Jiude, the eunuch of Fengyang Town, who was the second person under the governor and held a high position. The key is that Lu Jiude once served the old Fuwang Zhu Changxun and had a close relationship with Fuwang Zhu Youxiang.

Seeing that the throne was about to fall, Fu Wang Zhu Youxiang was naturally not reconciled, and secretly contacted Lu Jiude, and then Lu Jiude came forward to persuade Gao Jie, Liu Liangzuo, Huang Degong and other generals.

In the four towns of Jiangbei, Liu Ze expressed his support for the Donglin Party members early in the morning. Gao Jie, Liu Liangzuo and Huang Degong don't matter, according to the tradition of the Ming Dynasty, who is the emperor is not their turn to call the shots. However, Lu Jiude came on behalf of King Fu, and easily persuaded them to agree to support King Fu together. For Gao Jie and others, the meritorious service of supporting them will increase their status dramatically, and King Fu will inevitably reward them after he ascends the throne, and they will be rewarded with titles, and from then on they will rise from ordinary general soldiers to a town of warlords.

After Ma Shiying returned to Fengyang, he was shocked to find that Lu Jiude had persuaded Gao Jie and others, and Gao Jie and Liu Liangzuo even led the army to Fengyang. Seeing that all his generals threw themselves into King Fu, Ma Shiying knew that if he insisted on the agreement with Shi Kefa, he would be hollowed out and eliminated by his subordinates, and the desire for power made him careless about his faith, so he immediately swore allegiance to King Fu.

For King Fu, the forces that supported him included military generals (Gao Jie, Liu Liangzuo, Huang Degong), eunuchs (Lu Jiude), and there was just a lack of a civil official, so he was very happy to accept Ma Shiying.

At this moment, Shi Kefa was still in the dark, and he also wrote a letter to Ma Shiying, saying that King Fu was "greedy, lewd, drunk, unfilial, abused, did not study, and interfered with Yousi" Seven reasons that cannot be established.

Compared with the indecisive Shi Kefa, Ma Shiying's ability to adapt to changes is much stronger, and he immediately realized that now is a golden opportunity for him to bring himself to the pinnacle of human affairs. Shi Kefa's letter scolded King Fu for being worthless, which was equivalent to calling the hilt of power into Ma Shiying's hands. With this letter, Shi Kefa has already lost the trust of King Fu, and there will be no one to compete with him in the court in the future!

Ma Shiying immediately sent a letter to Han Zanzhou, the eunuch of Nanjing, in the name of the governor of Fengyang and the three towns, announcing his support for Zhu Youxiang, the king of Fu. When the ministers of Nanjing were invited by Han Zanzhou to his home to circulate Ma Shiying's letters, everyone was shocked and furious, but after being angry, they were helpless. Because they have no military power in their hands at all, of course, they can also unite with Liu Zeqing, Zuo Liangyu and the armies of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to support other vassal kings, but that will inevitably cause a split in the Ming Dynasty, which all ministers do not want to see.

Of course, the most depressed at this time is Shi Kefa, from the fall of Beijing to the news is now nearly a month, his indecision, so that he lost the merit of supporting the emperor, resulting in the emperor by the warlords, if according to the original historical development, and Shi Kefa, the head of the Nanjing court, was later expelled from the Nanjing court because of the mistake of supporting, and was driven to Yangzhou by Ma Shiying.

And the warlords of the four towns in Jiangbei have become arrogant one by one because of their meritorious support, and they have never been willing to obey the will of the imperial court again. And the Southern Ming court also lost its authority to restrain local warlords. This also caused the direct cause of the fall of Nanming.

Of course, in this life, with Chen Yue, there are variables.

When Ma Shiying swore in Fengyang to support King Fu, together with Gao Jie, Liu Liangzuo, Huang Degong, Liu Zeqing, and escorted King Fu from Fengyang with 50,000 troops, Chen Yue came to the north of Huai'an with 1,200 cavalry, and looked at Huai'an Mansion City across the Yellow River.

At this moment, the troops in Huai'an City were empty, and Liu Zeqing, the Shandong general soldier stationed in Huai'an, had just changed his camp, swore allegiance to Zhu Youxiang, the king of Fu, and went to Fengyang with the army.

Chen Yue then sent people to collect boats and set up pontoon bridges, intending to cross the abandoned Yellow River.

At this moment, in Huai'an City, led by Governor Lu Zhenfei, after learning that an army had arrived on the other side of the river, Lu Zhenfei immediately sent someone to contact Chen Yue, knowing that it was Chen Yue, the governor of Pingnanbo Tianjin, who came from the north with an army.

For Lu Zhenfei, of course, he is willing to see the strength of the Ming Dynasty as strong as possible, and for the southern army that lacks cavalry, Chen Yue's cavalry will greatly enhance the strength of the Ming Dynasty.

So Lu Zhenfei actively sent people to build a pontoon bridge to lead Chen Yuebu across the river.

After crossing the river, the army was stationed outside the city of Huai'an, and Chen Yue immediately asked Lu Zhenfei about the situation in Nanjing, and he wanted to determine whether King Fu was now on the throne.

When Lu Zhenfei said that King Fu had gone to Fengyang, he was about to go to Nanjing to take the throne with the support of the warlords of the four towns. Chen Yue was shocked, Chongzhen hadn't received it yet, if King Fu was made emperor, it would be too late!

"Emperor Chongzhen has not died, he is coming by sea, you must immediately send someone to Nanjing and tell them the news!" Chen Yue grabbed Lu Zhenfei's shoulder and said viciously.

ps: It took some pen and ink to explain the reason for King Fu's accession to the throne, and I consulted a lot of information and wrote it a little slowly, and the update was late, but fortunately, it was before twelve o'clock.