Hong Chengchou withdrew from the Ming army camp with the defeated Qing army, and saw that his 60,000 army was less than half, and scolded Li Shutai in his heart: This damn Li Shutai, he obviously led the most elite Manchurian Eight Banners, but he was delayed, if they came to their own failure, as long as they gave me another 5,000 people, they could repel the Ming army and capture the Shenwu Emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty.

On the battlefield just now, Hong Chengchou had already seen Emperor Shenwu wearing bright yellow armor, and he ordered the Qing army to arrest him several times, but the brocade guards around Emperor Shenwu swore to resist to the death, and every time he returned in vain.

Thinking of this, Hong Chengchou sighed and said: "Time is also lucky, it seems that Nanjing can't stay, let's go back to Yangzhou to gather soldiers and horses to fight to the death with his Shenwu Emperor!" ”

Just as Hong Chengchou was about to issue an order to retreat to Yangzhou, he suddenly felt a vibration on the ground, and the puddles on the ground rippled, which was a sign that there were cavalry approaching in the distance.

Ma Degong is a cavalry general, and when he saw the ripples on the ground, he said: "Great marshal, there are cavalry approaching three miles away, and there are quite a few people, at least tens of thousands!" ”

Tens of thousands? In addition to the cavalry that has not been formed at all, could it be that Li Shuotai's Manchurian Eight Banners have arrived? There were 5,000 of them, and each of them was a pair of horses, and the number was commensurate with that!

"General Ma, you send a scout to take a look, if Li Shutai asks him to come to see me immediately, I will ask him where he has been this night!"

Ma Degong hurriedly picked a few people who were not injured and went out to investigate, and these people went out and came back quickly. In less than ten minutes, he rushed back alone, shouting as he ran: "Great commander, general!" Oh no, the cavalry of the Ming army brigade is coming! ”

Hong Chengchou was dizzy for a while after listening to it, he was really unlucky to drink water and stuff his teeth, how could he meet the cavalry of the Ming army?

Ma Degong is also 10,000 don't believe it, Nanzhili has the cavalry of the Ming army?

"Marshal, let's go out and see, is this guy lying about the military situation!"

Hong Chengchou also hoped in his heart that this was a lie about the military situation, if it was really the Ming army, it would be unlucky, he was a newly defeated division, and if he encountered the cavalry of the Ming army, he would be dead at all!

Hong Chengchou and Ma Degong rode to the outside of the grove and saw a black line between the heavens, getting closer and closer, it was tens of thousands of cavalry. When these strange cavalry got closer and closer, Hong Chengchou suddenly saw the big banner of these people, with a big "Li" on it!

Hong Chengchou saw this Li character and suddenly remembered whose cavalry this was, there is only one person in the entire South China who still has such a large number of cavalry, and that is Li Chengdong, a four-surnamed domestic slave from Fujian!

It turned out that Li Chengdong listened to Tong Tuchang's suggestion and fired the first shot of the counterattack on Nanzhili, which was actually just a few counties in Quzhou Prefecture that went north out of Xianxia Pass. After waiting here for half a month, he met with the two divisions of Qian Yong, who went north to Chaozhou Mansion, and in accordance with Zhu Hongsan's strategic arrangement, he passed through Quzhou Mansion and Yanzhou Mansion and entered Huizhou Mansion in Nanzhili. Then he attacked all the way and advanced into Ningguo Mansion and Taiping Mansion, occupying Wuhu, an important stronghold on the Yangtze River.

In Wuhu, Qian Yong learned that Hong Chengchou, the governor of the seven Manchu provinces in Nanjing, had ordered all the defenders around Nanjing to assemble in Nanjing, preparing for a big battle with Zhu Hongsan's main force heading north.

Qian Yong, who got the news, was very anxious, and immediately led a team north along the Yangtze River to rescue Zhu Hongsan after repairing in Wuhu for a day. But Qian Yong is an army, there are no horses, and the ships in Wuhu have been swept away to Jiangxi by Ma Guozhu, the governor of Henan, and now it is estimated that they are all water ghosts in Poyang Lake, Qian Yong is afraid that the emperor will lose, so he only ordered Li Chengdong, who went north with him, to save the emperor.

Li Chengdong passed through Tong Tuchang's conspiracy in Fujian and there were less than 30,000 cavalry left, and this time he brought them all. Although his cavalry is not large, all of them are veterans from Shaanxi, and they can draw against the Eight Banners of the Manchu Dynasty, and their combat effectiveness is very strong.

Although Li Chengdong is under Qian Yong's control, after all, Li Chengdong is the king of the county, and Qian Yong is not good at ordering him directly, but begging tactfully.

After Li Chengdong received Qian Yong's military order, he watched it in detail, and the military order was written very tactfully. It said that after receiving the news from Jinyiwei, Hong Chengchou, the governor of the seven provinces of the Manchu Dynasty, mobilized all the soldiers to prepare for a decisive battle with the emperor outside Nanjing, and the emperor's main force was only more than 30,000 people in two divisions, and it was estimated that the battle was very difficult, so he asked the prince to lead the cavalry to the rescue.

After reading the military order, Li Chengdong handed the order to his son Li Yuanyin, and asked, "Child, what do you think?" ”

Li Yuanyin followed Li Chengdong all his life, and when he saw Li Chengdong's demeanor, he knew that he didn't want to go to the rescue.

"Father, what do you think?"

"Humph! This bastard emperor has choked our masters enough in Fujian, and now he still wants Lao Tzu to go to him? I hope Hong Chengchou will kill this bastard emperor with one sword! ”

Li Yuanyin saw that there was no one else in the room except for his henchmen and soldiers, and he put his heart down and whispered: "Father, you can't think like that now!" Although Emperor Shenwu's future is not good, but my father, you have seen the combat effectiveness of General Qian's new army, and General Qian is also two divisions of 30,000 people, do you think our 30,000 cavalry can defeat him head-on? ”

Li Chengdong nodded when he heard his son say this, what he said made a lot of sense. Li Chengdong led 30,000 cavalry to fight with Qian Yong, which was a real eye-opener, the kind of infantry and artillery coordination, the soldiers were distributed in battle lines, and then the non-stop musket shooting gave Li Chengdong, who was completely thinking about cold weapons, a great shock. For the first time, he saw that the war could still be fought like this, if Zhu Hongsan's army was like this, what kind of battle would it take, just push it over, and what defensive formations and solid armor would not be enough in front of artillery and muskets.

Now hearing his son ask if he can defeat Qian Yong, Li Chengdong reluctantly told the truth: "No, give me 50,000 cavalry to try, 100,000 cavalry can fight!" In fact, the combat effectiveness of the Guangdong New Army comes from the perfect organizational structure and daily training, coupled with a rich diet, the physical fitness of the Guangdong New Army far exceeds that of the ordinary Qing Army, and even one-on-one hand-to-hand combat with the Qing Army may not be able to please it.

"Father, let's not talk about whether Hong Chengchou's tens of thousands of horses can defeat the two divisions led by the emperor himself, that is, Hong Chengchou agreed, catch Emperor Hongwu, can we get it?"

When Li Chengdong heard his son say this, he quickly cheered up and asked, "What do you think, let's hear it!" ”

"Father, now that the emperor has a crown prince, I heard that he is already an adult, and the prince will definitely succeed to the throne if something happens to the emperor, what can the prince do to us if he knows that the emperor was arrested because we did not help to rescue?"

"Damn, no, we're throwing back to the Manchus! Don't he's such a bird prince! ”

"It's even worse, father, we were in Fujian during the most difficult time of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, anyway, we have already hated Hong Chengchou, father, do you think Hong Chengchou and Dolgon can still treat us like before?"

"That's right, so what to do?"

"It's very simple, father, what we have to do now is to lead the army to save the emperor, and then fight bravely in front of the emperor, so that we are not in danger!"

Li Chengdong thought that there was only one way, and after thinking about it, he scolded and said: "Damn, this Shenwu Emperor is not a good person, but we have no choice, let's save him for the sake of our own lives!" ”

Li Yuanyin heard that Li Chengdong had made up his mind to save his cheap father-in-law, and he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, if Emperor Shenwu was really unlucky and was caught by Hong Chengchou, how could he face Zhu Yu when he went home!

After Li Chengdong was persuaded by Li Yuanyin, the next day, that is, October 25, he led all the cavalry, a total of 27,000 people, to leave Wuhu and run to Nanjing.

Wuhu is one hundred and fifty miles away from Nanjing, but fortunately, Li Chengdong's troops were all cavalry, and finally came to Moling Town, a peripheral town of Nanjing, day and night. Moling Town was a county in the Sui and Tang dynasties, and was incorporated into Jiangning County after the Song Dynasty, although Moling Town was not the county seat, but the scale of Moling Town was still very large, with tens of thousands of people.

It was already midnight when I arrived at Moling, the sky was raining, and Li Chengdong's 30,000 people were drenched like chickens in soup.

Li Chengdong looked around and said: "Damn, we have been on the road for three days in a row, and we haven't seen a single hair of the Qing army, and now it's raining, let's go into the town to take shelter from the rain, and wait until the weather is sunny and on the way!" ”

The subordinates are also drenched enough, and it is not a good errand to rush in the heavy rain, and now they are happy to hear the big marshal say this.

When he approached Moling Town, Li Chengdong found that the situation was wrong, the entire Moling Town was in flames, and he heard that someone was killing people and setting fires.

"Fuck, what's going on? There are still people who are ahead of us! Yang Daifu, you send a few people to see, who snatched grandpa's head and sipped the soup? ”

Yang Dafu was named the chief soldier of Fuzhou by Zhu Hongsan because of his meritorious service in Fujian anyway, and when he heard what the marshal said, he quickly sent ten people to see what the situation was.

In less than ten minutes, the ten people came back and said, "Dashuai, it's the Qing army, and they are killing people and setting fire to the town!" ”

"Qing army? How many people? What team? ”

"The number of people is four or five thousand, I don't know what team, but it seems to be the Eight Banners of Manchuria, and the equestrian skills are very skilled!"

Damn, how did you run into the Eight Banners of Manchuria, or four or five thousand people, this scale must be a large army. Li Chengdong knew that because of the war in Jiangxi, there may not be 5,000 Manchurian Eight Banners in the entire Nanzhili now, and so many suddenly appeared in this place, it must be the reinforcements transferred by Hong Chengchou from Jiangbei.

According to Li Chengdong's meaning, the Manchurian Eight Banners were not easy to mess with, so they ran away while they didn't find out, but Li Yuanyin didn't think so.

"Father, now that it's dark, the Qing army doesn't notice it, we still have more people than them, so it's better to fight!"

Hearing that his son was going to fight with the Eight Banners, Li Chengdong's head shook like a rattle, and he himself still knew something about his army. Li Chengdong's army is very strong in combat, but it is worse than the Manchurian Eight Banners, which are engaged in fighting wars, and it is about the same as the elite of the Han Army Banner.

"No, we don't know much about the Qing army, what if these thousands of centaurs are just forwards?"