With Hu Laoxiao's order, the soldiers who had been waiting outside the tent for a long time swarmed in and captured all the thieves. When the soldiers tied up all the generals in Anqing and escorted them away, some of them still didn't understand, and they were still asking why Hu Laoxiao betrayed the court.

After cleaning up the camp tent, Zhao Tianba and others saluted Hu Laoxiao: "Tiger Shuai." ”

There were also many generals of the Zhejiang army who came with Zhao Tianba, and Zhao Tianba officially introduced them: "This is General Xingshan Li." ”

"Tiger handsome, long admired the name." The generals of the Zhejiang army also greeted Li Laiheng politely, in the minds of these people before, Li Laiheng was the remnant of the camp that caused chaos in the world, and Zhao Tianba needless to say that he was also a member of the western thieves, but this time they all relied on Zhao Tianba to help guide the way, and many management regulations after the division were also formulated under the guidance of Zhao Tianba; Today, thanks to Li Laiheng's help, Zhejiang does not have to lose too many people near Anqing.

"Now that all the Tartars have left the city," Li Laiheng immediately convened a formal military meeting, and he proposed the Zhejiang army as the main force to attack the Anqing Green Battalion: "I will take the troops to plunder the battle for you, if you can destroy Anqing Luchou alone, I will not attack." ”

The generals of the Zhejiang army had not reacted for a while, and they didn't understand why Li Laiheng was reluctant to send the more fighting Kuidong Army to participate in the battle, but Zhao Tianba had already laughed knowingly: "Tiger Shuai has a clever plan." ”

After a little hesitation, Zhao Tianba said: "Although the Emperor has lost his command, but the Zhejiang army has poor weapons, can the tiger commander send a jīng soldier to disguise himself as the Zhejiang army, sneak to the Zhejiang army camp, and then launch an attack?" ”

"It's easy, how many soldiers do you need?" Li Laiheng agreed without thinking about it.

"A thousand men are enough."

Hearing this, Li Laiheng immediately called an adjutant general and asked him to select a thousand armor soldiers, and immediately set off to rush to the Zhejiang army, and advised: "It's better to go around in a circle and walk more than to be seen by Anqing's captives." ”

"Yes." The lieutenant general understood and immediately went out of the account to select soldiers and horses.

The generals of the Zhejiang army were even more confused, and they did not understand why they had to make such an extra move, and they must turn the two attacks into one attack. Seeing the confusion on these people's faces, Zhao Tianba explained with a smile: "Hu Shuai still wants to use this identity for a while longer, so he wants us to attack alone, and he will press the formation for us on the side. But if my expectations are correct, such a little and ugly will not be able to stop our thunderous blow at all, and when the overall situation has been decided, the tiger marshal will board the ship and continue to march eastward. In this way, even if a Tartar escapes from Anqing, it will be said that the Jingzhou soldiers will not be rescued when they see death and will flee from the battle, and they will not guess the true identity of the tiger commander. ”

"Exactly." Li Laiheng added: "Now that the city of Anqing is empty, you can first send a group of soldiers and horses, under the banner of these Tartar officials who were just caught, to pretend to be heralds to deceive the city gate." Well, I'll do this amazing soldier too. ”

Saying that, Li Laiheng called another general and asked him to take 200 people to grab the city gate, but he also had to move to the Zhejiang army first, and then go around the city gate on the other side. The Anqing generals who came to Li Laiheng's camp just now also brought some personal guards and standard-bearers, and naturally they were all taken down, Li Laiheng asked his generals to pick a few and bring them with them, forcing them to shout to the city gate guards.

"After we take Anqing, we have to put on a confrontation with Hu Shuai, and after Hu Shuai leaves, the soldiers can laugh at the Jingzhou soldiers and flee without a fight, and then deliberately let a few prisoners go." Now most of the Zhejiang army still don't know Li Laiheng's identity, and they don't know that these Huguang soldiers are friendly troops, Zhao Tianba feels that it is not impossible to conceal it for another day or two: "If we capture the prefect of Anqing, we can also use his seal and name to impeach the Jingzhou soldiers who fled without a fight in the city, and say that it is his deathbed note." ”

"Good idea," Li Laiheng stroked his palms and laughed: "Just say that you haven't had time to send it out, you can help him post it and spread it to Luzhou County." If the Tartars had found out, they would have thought that you had been unable to catch up with me and wanted to kill people with a sword. ”

After finishing speaking, Li Laiheng sighed: "I thought that I had been with the admiral for so long and had learned the strategy well, but it turned out that it was still not thorough enough. ”

Zhao Tianba laughed loudly: "Hu Shuai is modest, but he has stayed by the side of the admiral for a longer time." ”

At the beginning of Wuchang, Li Laiheng saw that Deng Ming insisted on going to Nanjing, so he built the other party to act with his own army. However, Deng Ming thought that he was acting alone and was not conspicuous, and could easily cross the Qing army-controlled area. After Deng Ming left, Li Laiheng hurriedly dispatched troops and dispatched generals, sneaked across Wuchang in batches at night, and after gathering, he raised the banner of Jingzhou soldiers and went down the river in a big way. Originally, Li Laiheng still had a certain resistance to shaving his head, but seeing that Deng Mingdu had no psychological burden, he also thought about it: if shaving his head can achieve victory more lightly, then there is no need to stubbornly insist on leading greater casualties. Li Laiheng gave an order, and the eight thousand Kuidong soldiers shaved their heads, tied up their pigtails, and held the genuine seal letter and confession given by Zhang Changgeng in their hands, and Li Laiheng was also quite careful along the way, never bringing troops into the city, but only sending people from Jīng Ling to ask for defense, and if possible, to ask for military rations by the way.

This time, if it was not for the Zhejiang soldiers, Li Laiheng had no intention of attacking Anqing, but planned to continue to disguise himself like this until the most critical time to strike a fatal blow to the Qing army.

As Li Laiheng and Zhao Tianba expected, the Anqing Green Battalion, which had lost all its commanders, was not vulnerable at all, and after the Zhejiang army launched a charge, the Anqing Green Battalion saw that the generals were gone, and the soldiers below immediately dispersed, and not many were able to escape back to Anqing. The prefect originally thought that there would be a big victory today, but the soldiers who did not want to flee back shouted one after another, saying that the Jingzhou soldiers were afraid of the enemy like tigers and did not dare to go out of the camp to fight, and the generals of the army did not know why they did not return for a long time.

When the Qing army was in shock, it suddenly found that the city tower in the north was planted with a red flag, and seeing that the city was about to be broken, the Qing soldiers of Anqing either fled home or surrendered to the Ming army, and the prefect hurriedly hung a white cloth on the beam, ready to commit suicide. But after the prefect stepped on the chair and put his head in the rope loop, he began to hesitate again, and his colleagues in Chizhou and other places also surrendered to the Ming army, but then found an opportunity Anyway, with these precedents, the prefect couldn't help but think that if he didn't die, maybe there would be some chance. When the prefect was fighting, the Ming army rushed into the yamen, tore him off his chair, and dragged him to see the Ming generals.

In front of the prefect, the Ming generals ridiculed the timid Huguang soldiers to their heart's content, and told the prefect that they were the Anqing generals who intercepted outside the Huguang military camp, but Hu Laoxiao, who was close at hand, did not dare to come out to rescue people, and even after several green battalion generals desperately broke through, they did not dare to open the camp gate to respond, and watched the Ming army chase after the camp and drag away the Anqing generals who smashed the door.

The Ming army, which entered Anqing City, quickly took over the city defense, and at the same time set up a position outside the city, facing the riverside to confront Hu Laoxiao. The captured prefects, county commanders, and other civil and military officers who stayed behind, after seeing that the Ming army really did not have many armor soldiers, hated Hu Laoxiao who had pitted the whole city of Anqing.

Li Laiheng built the Zhejiang army based in Anqing and transported family members to Huguang in batches, and he also sent 200 soldiers to the Zhejiang army, on the one hand, to enhance their strength, and on the other hand, to act as guides. Zhao Tianba and the three broke up with the Zhejiang army, and after having the guide given by Li Laiheng, it made no sense for them to stay in the Zhejiang army, and they immediately turned around and went back to chase Deng Ming.

After Zhao Tianba and the others left, Li Laiheng also ordered the army to board the ship, and set off for the downstream that night. Early the next morning, Youming, the junior general of the Zhejiang army, dragged the prefect up to the city again, and pointed out to him the Jingzhou camp that had been empty. Last night the prefect didn't sleep all night in the prison, although he hated Hu Laoxiao who had broken the big thing, but the Jingzhou soldiers were already his last hope, and the prefect turned over and over in his heart to think that the general had described the military appearance of the Huguang army to him, hoping that Hu Laoxiao would suddenly become powerful and recapture Anqing to rescue him. Throughout the night, as soon as the prefect heard something outside, he excitedly looked forward to the next moment when he saw a large number of Huguang soldiers rushing in, and the damned deputy general of Yuezhou personally ran to apologize to him and shouted: "Your Excellency has been wronged." ”

Now that the last hope has been shattered, the Anqing prefect looks at the empty Yangtze River, and really has a sense of the end of the world. At this time, Yu Youming laughed again: "Originally, we were going to attack the thief today, but I didn't want him to escape really fast, haha, when the thief ran to Nanjing, I don't know how he will report this battle?" ”

The prefect was full of misery, and he asked himself, if he was in the situation of Hu Laoxiao, he would definitely put all the blame on Anqing.

Yu Youming is like a devil, saying words full of temptation: "Do you want revenge?" If you want to, you can write a letter of impeachment, report the true situation of this battle to the Tartars, and we will pass on the letter to Nanjing for you. ”

The prefect knew very well that this was the Ming army's plan to kill people with a knife, but how could he let go of this opportunity, nodded his head without hesitation, and shouted through gritted teeth: "I bother to give the old man pen and ink, and the old man will impeach the thief." ”

In this impeachment, the prefect of Anqing scolded Hu Laoxiao, saying that he did not save him when he saw death, fled from the battle, and feared the enemy like a tiger, which affected the officers and soldiers of Anqing Mancheng, civil and military, and not only asked the court to investigate his guilt, but also told Nanjing that he must not reuse this person, in order to prevent him from repeating his old tricks and dragging down his allies.

……

Compared with the fanfare of the Zhejiang army marching westward, the 5,000 Zhejiang soldiers led by Deng Ming died down and were divided into several groups and cautiously groped their way forward, and for several days they had been out day and night, lest they should alarm the Qing army in Nanjing. These Zhejiang soldiers did not dare to take the avenue, so they advanced along the border areas of Yingtianfu, Ningguofu, and Guangdefu, which were far away from the capitals of each province, and the activities of the Qing army were not so frequent. Fortunately, with Zheng Chenggong, these rìzi came to Jiangnan Prefecture and were in chaos, all the jīng soldiers rushed to Nanjing, and the post station traffic was also in a semi-paralyzed state, so Deng Ming was not found for the first two days, and the farmers he occasionally met could not figure out whether this was the Qing army or the Ming army.

But this morning, Deng Ming's camp was discovered by a group of Green Battalion soldiers, and he was unable to continue to hide his whereabouts.

Now that Nanjing had learned that Zheng Chenggong had retreated to the mouth of the Yangtze River, Guan Xiaozhong, Jiang Guozhu and Liang Huafeng led the most effective Qing army to Suzhou and other places to be on guard, in case Zheng Chenggong landed again, and the local government also felt that the big matter had been decided, and Zheng Chenggong's attack on Jiangnan had been declared a failure. Now that the local government no longer hesitated, they clearly stood on the side of the Qing court, and they sent out their troops one after another to search for the stragglers around the Ming army.

After discovering that this green battalion was close to the camp, Deng Ming immediately mobilized the Zhejiang soldiers in the camp to prepare for war, and then led them out to kill, intending to annihilate the green battalion army of only more than 100 people. At present, the green battalions in the southern part of the Yangtze River are all units with extremely poor combat effectiveness, and this green battalion was defeated almost instantly after being attacked by 500 Zhejiang soldiers.

However, the rapid rout of the Green Battalion also made Deng Ming's plan to annihilate them come to naught, and the Zhejiang soldiers were far less familiar with geography than these local soldiers, and only eliminated more than 50 Qing troops, and the rest fled in all directions.

After knowing that his whereabouts were exposed, Deng Ming led a forward army of 1,000 people to advance rapidly, occupying several villages and towns to collect supplementary supplies. At the same time, the whole army no longer continued to lurk during the day and move at night, but quickly marched eastward, until the end of the rì and set up camp.

In the evening, Deng Ming discussed the next move with Zhou Kaihuang, Ren Tang and others: "We can enter Changzhou Mansion in one more day, and according to the original plan, we should advance along the border between Changzhou Mansion and Guangde Mansion, and then slip into Zhejiang." ”

Deng Ming and others originally hoped to be able to touch the vicinity of Hangzhou before being discovered by the Qing army, and now the defense of Hangzhou is also quite empty, and the most effective Hangzhou garrison Eight Banners has gone to Nanjing, and then the Ming army will go around the city and rush to Ningbo Mansion at full speed. Shaoxing, Cixi, and Ningbo are all perennial activity areas of the Zhejiang army, which are not only familiar with geography, but also have inextricable links with local residents. Once you arrive in Ningbo, it is easy to get in touch with Zhoushan and go to sea safely, even if Zhoushan does not send enough ships in time, relying on the familiar geography of the Ming army can also deal with the Qing army, after all, the attention of the Qing army is still mainly focused on the Suzhou area, and there should not be a large number of pursuers in the short term.

But after revealing his whereabouts, it is difficult to say whether this plan will be realized smoothly. If the Ming army was discovered near Hangzhou, it would be a problem that the Zhejiang government needed to solve, even if Zhejiang found out the strength of the Ming army as quickly as possible, and then asked Nanjing for reinforcements, Nanjing would also need a certain amount of reaction time, and it is difficult to say whether it would send troops from Suzhou and other places to Zhejiang when Zheng Chenggong had not left.

But now Deng Ming and others are still in Jiangsu, to be precise, in Yingtianfu, the closest province to Nanjing, Nanjing will definitely not sit idly by and watch a large Ming army operating here.

"The Tartars don't know our strength, we only dispatched a few hundred men this morning." Zhou Kaihuang said a little unconfidently: "Maybe we won't send a large army to chase us, let's continue to move forward according to the original plan." ”

"That's right, the Tartars don't know, so they might send a few hundred men to chase us, but now that they know we're here, they won't be ambushed, and they'll deliberately observe the traces we leave behind and judge our numbers." Ren Tang immediately pointed out: "It won't be long before our strength will be completely exposed." ”

To the east is Changzhou Mansion, and then to the east is Suzhou Mansion, which is the area where Guan Xiaozhong, Liang Huafeng and others are stationed, if they hear that there are thousands of Ming army activities around them, they will definitely come to encircle and suppress: Zheng Chenggong is still at sea, but there is a possibility of landing again, and the Ming army in Changzhou Mansion is a real threat.

"Even if Guan Xiaozhong and Liang Huafeng don't come, then there is Ma Fengzhi from Songjiang Mansion," Ren Tang mentioned another threat, Ma Fengzhi stationed in Songjiang had an ambiguous attitude in this war, and now Zheng Chenggong has been defeated, presumably he is panicking, maybe he is regretting why he didn't send troops to reinforce Nanjing like Liang Huafeng: "Ma Fengzhi has 15,000 green battalions, of which 3,000 are cavalry, which is far better than Liang Huafeng's troops. Maybe he will think that the 5,000 of us are his last chance, and he will want to use our head to wash away the crimes of both ends of his head, and beg the Qing court for a way to live. If he had only arrived with cavalry, he would have been able to catch up with us before we escaped from Changzhou, and even if we fled into Zhejiang, he would have pursued us relentlessly. ”

Deng Ming looked at the map, and after continuing to advance into Changzhou Mansion, they would be sandwiched between Nanjing and Suzhou, and the front and rear were the heavy army groups of the Qing army, unless the Qing troops in both places did not move without any reaction, and did not even send a reconnaissance force, otherwise the Ming army would be bitten and dragged by the Qing army, and then be clearly reconnoitred, and then be wiped out in the front and rear of the Qing army.

"It's time to reconsider." Deng Ming raised his head and said to Ren Tang and the other Zhejiang officers who came to attend the military meeting: "We can bet that the Tartars will turn a blind eye to us and not react in two days, so that everyone can go home safely, but do you really dare to gamble like this?" Once the Tartars chase after them, not a few of the 5,000 people will make it to Zhejiang alive, let alone Ningbo. ”

Even the most attentive Zhejiang officer was silent at this time, and Deng Ming continued: "We have tried, but the way home seems to be impassable, I should build yì Let's turn back as soon as possible, it may be too late to rush back to Huguang now." ”

Now turn around and run back, although it may still be pursued by the Qing army in Nanjing, but at least it can shorten the distance with the Qing army in Suzhou.

"As long as we move westward quickly, the Tartars on the Nanjing side may not be willing to chase after us, and the king of Yanping can still attract the attention of the Tartars for us now." Deng Ming pointed out that now that the Qing army had repelled Zheng Chenggong's attack on Nanjing, perhaps the Qing army's strategy would tend to be conservative at a time when victory was in sight.

……

Chongming Island.

It's been two days since the landing, but the defenders are still holding their camp.

After losing a large number of senior generals, Zheng Chenggong transferred the soldiers who had lost their leadership to other battalions, but now the soldiers were far from getting used to the new generals, and the generals were completely unfamiliar with these soldiers.

The generals who returned from the battlefield today knelt in front of Zheng Chenggong without saying a word, although they personally supervised the battle, but the Fujian army, whose morale and organization were in a mess, was still helpless to take the defenders.

"Let's eat first." Zheng Chenggong said calmly, beckoned his subordinates to get up, and asked the guards to bring in dinner.

"Zhang Shangshu can only ask for more blessings." When everyone was eating silently, Zheng Chenggong made up his mind to retreat.