The first day of the first month of the 216th year of Chongzhen.

Accompanied by 216 shells with the fuse set to the shortest, they were continuously hit into the sky at a height of 300 meters by 18 20-pound mortars, and then turned into bright New Year's fireworks, and the Ming army marched into Changsha in a neat line with the cheers of the people.

Changsha recovered.

Only three days later, the Second Army recaptured Nanchang.

Half a month later, on the fifteenth day of the first month, the mighty Ming army fleet arrived in Yueyang, on the same day, the second army forward arrived at the mouth of the lake, three days later Yueyang and Jiujiang were conquered by bloody battles at the same time, and the Ming army's inland river gunboats cut off the Yangtze River route from the upstream and downstream at the same time. Monk Lingqin and Huguang Governor Cheng Xucai, Zeng Guofan, who had been promoted to the governor of Hunan because of his military exploits, plus nearly 100,000 green battalions and regimental training were forced into Wuchang, and the Jingzhou general Lu Pu led the remnants to flee to Jingzhou. At this point, the war between Hunan and Jiangxi basically ended, and only Jiang Zhongyuan, who had been promoted to the commander-in-chief of Zhenxiao, was left in the whole of Hunan, and led part of the Qing army to entrench in Xiangxi, relying on the high mountains and dense forests there to continue to be loyal to the Qing Dynasty, mainly because he was supported by the gentry of Guizhou.

On the battlefield in Jiangxi, the vanguard of the Third Army has also arrived in Quzhou.

However, in Quzhou, they met with stubborn resistance.

"The Guns."

Yang Feng sneered.

By this time he had already left North Korea.

Obviously, Quzhou is the bottom line of the Zhejiang gentry, firstly, there is Nankong, which is the spiritual home of the Zhejiang gentry, and secondly, the line of Quzhou Jinhua leads directly to eastern Zhejiang, if Quzhou does not guarantee the next one is Jinhua and then the next one is eastern Zhejiang, and the Ming army along the Qujiang Lanjiang and Fuchun River down the river can be swept all the way to the city of Hangzhou. This waterway can be called a knife into the east of Zhejiang, and it is very smooth, at this time the salt of Xinrao and other places are transported from this line to Changshan, and those inland river boats that transport salt can be full of Ming soldiers at any time to appear in the field of vision of the Hangzhou gentry. If the Ming army could not be stopped in this area, I am afraid that there would be no need to wait for the Ming army to capture Nanjing, and the gentry in eastern Zhejiang would have to fight at their own doorstep.

In order to keep Quzhou, in order to keep the water transportation gate of Zhejiang, the Zhejiang regimental training or foreign gun team finally appeared on the battlefield.

And successfully repelled a battalion of the advancing Ming army.

Uh, actually a team.

The units of the 11th Brigade attacking Quzhou were the first to reach Quzhou in Changshan in order to compete for a small number of ships so that they could go down the river and get the first success, and it can be said that there was no order at all, and the entire brigade and its subordinate artillery lined up a long queue on the Changshan River that stretched for hundreds of miles on small wooden boats and bamboo rafts. In the end, the commander of the first battalion led only one team of infantry to win the championship of this hundred-mile rafting, and then at the same time as they landed, they were also attacked by a battalion of foreign guns. The Ming army relied on the range advantage of rifles to shoot at them on the river beach for more than ten minutes, after all, they could not withstand the latter's six-pounder bronze field guns, and after a third of the casualties, the Ming army had to re-board the ship and retreat, so the Zhejiang gentry were happy to reap a great victory in Quzhou, but later with the surging of the 11th Brigade they still retreated to Quzhou to hold on.

But this battle was indeed a shining debut of the foreign guns, after all, they were fighting in the field, not relying on the fortress to repel the Ming army.

Even if there is only one battalion.

Uh, a team.

This battle also gave the Zhejiang gentry a glimmer of hope, relying on sufficient financial resources and the steel military base of Suzhou, they were constantly forming battalions of foreign gun teams, commanded by those British mercenaries to rush to the Quzhou front, ready to turn this small city into the Stalingrad of the Qing Dynasty.

Of course, the main thing is that the Ming army still has only one brigade in this direction.

After all, the Yangtze River is the main battlefield.

"Your Majesty, why don't you just take Zhoushan and attack eastern Zhejiang from the sea? It also happened to clean up the British there thoroughly. ”

Xu Hui said.

He is in charge of the Marine Corps, but with the establishment of the Eighth Army, the northern battlefield is now under the responsibility of the Army, he and the two brigades of the Marine Corps have boarded the ship and retreated from Dagukou, his unit is specially responsible for the landing operation at sea, open the door and put the Army in, will not waste to a certain theater of war for a long time, in other words, in terms of their ammunition consumption, the cost of supplying them for combat can far exceed that of supplying the Army, and the supply of bullets for those machine guns alone is a big project.

"There's no need, as long as you take Nanjing, these guys in Zhejiang will be in the bag."

Yang Feng said.

He actually wanted to force Jiangsu and Zhejiang to surrender.

As long as he takes Nanjing, then the gentry of Jiangsu and Zhejiang will have no meaning to resist, after all, Zhao Gou can still run to the sea, they can't even run at sea, Nanming can also retreat to Fujian, and they don't even have to retreat from Fujian, it can be said that at that time, Zhedong will be completely trapped in a cage.

The gentry won't die to the end.

They are all smart people, don't look at them as the fiercest resistance now, but they will also be the most straightforward when it is time to surrender.

In the end, Yang Feng does not want to destroy the richest and most densely populated area in China in this era, and before seizing Nanjing, landing from the sea will only force the Zhejiang gentry to resist to the death, after all, they have a way to retreat behind them, and it is a big deal to flee north with their family property, so that the entire Jiangsu and Zhejiang will be destroyed in the war, but first seize Nanjing to cut off the canal and the Yangtze River, so that the gentry in Zhejiang and the Yangtze River Delta have no way to retreat, then it is enough to force them to surrender, so that this area can be avoided to the greatest extent from being destroyed in the war, As for the gentry after they surrendered......

It's already become meat on his board, and it's not just at his disposal.

He has a routine to deal with these people.

"Your Majesty, Haizhou has arrived!"

At this time, the captain of the Weiyuan reported.

"Retire!"

Xu Hui hurriedly said.

"Go ahead, move faster!"

Yang Feng waved his hand and said.

Well, the marines are about to land in Haizhou.

Yang Feng had to cut off the last possible transportation line for Daoguang, and a very important reason why the latter chose to go to Xi'an was that he could use the canal and the Yellow River to transport through the canal as in the Tang Dynasty.

In the final analysis, without the grain of Lianghuai, Daoguang could not maintain a normal government operation in Xi'an, Guanzhong could not provide enough food, it was no longer the time of the Han and Tang Dynasties, and the Tang Dynasty could no longer be self-sufficient in food, so he could only learn from the Tang Dynasty to transport from Lianghuai by this line. Or as in the Anshi Rebellion, open the Hanjiang River route to Hanzhong transportation, and the other is to take the Jialing River route from Sichuan transportation, the last two of these three lines must rely on part of the land, especially the need to take the plank road transportation, so it can only be used as a supplement can not be used as the main reliance, and the canal and the Yellow River line is different, it can be the same as the Tang Dynasty, directly transport the grain to Chang'an City.

And the key to this line is Xuzhou.

Yang Feng's goal was to land in Haizhou, then form the Ninth Army in Haizhou, and then transfer four brigades from the south to attack Xuzhou from Haizhou to the west.

As long as Xuzhou is captured, Daoguang's lifeline will be completely cut off, and Yangzhou can be threatened from the north, and Xuzhou can also solve his fleet's coal supply, in fact, there is no need to take Xuzhou, it is enough to take Haizhou, there is around Lianyungang, and it will cost more or less to Linyi a little farther away, and there is also the Yi River that can be used for transportation, not to mention that the Shandong Peninsula can be cut directly from Haizhou to the north.

In short, his greatest pleasure in the next place is how to cut off those lifelines of Daoguang one by one.

Lay Xuzhou to cut off the canal.

Lay down Wuchang to cut off the transportation of the Han River.

It is better to arrange another army to enter Sichuan along the Three Gorges, and then cut off Daoguang, the source of food supply, and the three lines will be cut off together, and Daoguang can only starve in Guanzhong.

The next landing was merciless, Haizhou didn't even have a few green battalions, basically when the Ming army began to land, after seeing the battleships full of sea, the officials and defenders of Haizhou began to flee, and the only attack that the Ming army encountered in Haizhou came from a wild dog that did not know whether to live or die, it bit a careless soldier, and then it also paid the price of dog meat. When the Ming army marched into Haizhou City, all the officials and gentry in the city who could run ran away, leaving only a group of confused people, who looked blankly at this strange soldier, but after finding a few translators who understood the official dialect as a communication bridge, especially after the emperor himself identified himself in the local dialect and explained the policy of the Ming Dynasty, the city quickly fell.

As for the rest, it's pretty straightforward.

At this time, there were not a few Qing troops in northern Jiangsu and southern Lunan, and all the green battalions in various places were drawn to the south to fight, and the gentry's regimental training had not yet begun to be formed, after all, they were in the rear, so the Ming army was completely free to act here.

Moreover, the oppression of the gentry to the common people in this area is almost the most cruel, it can be said that even if it is placed in the forefront of the country, it is said that the landlord's initial right to the tenants refers to here, and the northern and southern Jiangsu can be called a shameful symbol, which can be called a heinous privilege, which began in the Qing Dynasty and lasted until the forties. It is clear whether there was a clear record before this, but the clear written record began to appear in the late Qing Dynasty, and it is obvious that the landlords and gentry who have inherited poetry and books have swelled to the limit in this era, and ordinary means have not been able to make them feel the happiness of being above the people, and in such a place to fight the local tyrants and divide the land, it is basically like a little gasoline, which can be said to spread at a terrifying speed.

Of course, this is none of Yang Feng's business.

After unloading Xu Hui and the marines in Haizhou and landing for a while, he immediately led the battlefleet to continue southward, and when the fire in northern Jiangsu was blazing, he had already returned to Guangzhou.