Long before the initial alarm came out in Shandong, Prince Kang Jieshu was in a dilemma as he advanced to Huai'an.

He ordered to gather the troops of Liangjiang to besiege the Ming army in Jiangbei, but Jiang Guozhu said that he was insufficient and could only hold on to Nanjing, and if he rashly crossed the river and was wiped out by the Ming army on the water, Nanjing would be finished.

Zhou Peigong's words are similar, the Yangtze River Suppression Deng Prime Minister believes that the construction of the Deng Suppression Corps is urgent, and after seeing this answer, Curb Bilong scolded him, and now he is burning his eyebrows, and he wants reinforcements who can come to fight side by side, not the Suppression Deng Corps that does not exist on paper. However, Zhou Peigong further explained in a letter later, saying that he, the prime minister, could only command the troops sent to him by the Yamen of the Governor of Liangjiang and the Yamen of Huguang, and now Jiang Guozhu and Zhang Chao had pulled their troops back to defend Nanjing and Nanchang.

Zhou Peigong couldn't count on it, so he wanted to count on Liang Huafeng's troops, but Liang Huafeng also simply reported that he had no reinforcements to send. First of all, Jiang Guozhu and Zhou Peigong's difficulties Liang Huafeng was not at all small, his troops were sent by the governor of Liangjiang to protect Suzhou and other important towns, and if they risked crossing the river, they would also be wiped out by the Ming army; Secondly, Liang Huafeng said that he didn't have a boat at all, Su Song's sailor had been annihilated for more than four years, and the imperial court had not allocated a penny to Liang Huafeng, and Jiang Guozhu and Zhang Chao had not given it, and now Chongming Island, the base of Su Song's sailor, was still in the hands of Ma Fengzhi's traitor; Liang Huafeng also claimed that he had carried out the imperial court's ban on the sea to the letter, and burned everything from the shipyard to the sampan, so unless Liang Huafeng could cross the river with all his reeds, he would not be able to help at all.

Zhang Chao's reasons are similar, Jiangxi has difficulties that others have, and Jiangxi also has difficulties that others don't, all in all, Zhang Chao took all Jiangxi civil and military forces to pray for Manchurian Taijun, but Jiangxi can't get out of a single soldier or boat.

Although Jiang Guozhu and Zhang Chao to Liang Huafeng and Zhou Peigong had their own reasons, he had never seen such a bold governor since he entered the customs - although many difficulties should be real, the key was that it was the order of the auxiliary minister, and the governors did not try to overcome the difficulties to complete the requirements, but desperately shirked their responsibilities and refused to serve.

In the past, the imperial court ordered to go down, no matter if it could be done or not, the governor would first return to one and do it, otherwise the official position would be difficult to protect, and then he would desperately search for the people, coerce and induce the officers and soldiers to sell their lives, and also complete the orders of the imperial court. But in the past few years, everything has not gone well in the imperial court, and Zheng Chenggong is simply helpless, not only can not protect the safety of the southeast, but also made a sea ban, which shakes the confidence of the governors in the imperial court; Not to mention Deng Ming, who swept both sides of the Yangtze River again and again as if he had entered a no-man's land, and dispatched soldiers and horses from Shanxi and other places to fight him, but he didn't seem to be able to win.

Although Ji Bilong's attitude towards the southeastern governor was like thunder, but at the moment he could not blame Jiang Guozhu and them, but could only be appeased with good words, asking them to think seriously and find a way to assist the Huai'an Central Army.

But after seeing that Curb Bilong was so pleasant, Jiang Guozhu and the others kicked their noses and shook their heads, but they insisted that there was no way.

In a subsequent correspondence, Jiang Guozhu talked about the issue of the sale case, saying that he believed that after recovering the fines from the tax arrears, the money should be used first to build the army of Liangjiang, the Yangtze River to suppress the Deng Corps, and to strengthen the city defenses in Jiangnan, and perhaps to allocate some to the Su Songshui Division, which had only empty shelves, as appropriate. Although the text prison was not in charge of Ji Bilong, he also knew that Ao Bai was still counting on using the family property of these scholars to fill the treasury, but Jiang Guozhu hummed and never made a move, under the pretext of Deng Mingdong's crusade to stabilize people's hearts, the first is that he did not agree with the case handling personnel of the central government. Now seeing the confrontation between the Central Army and the Ming Army in Jiangbei, he actually wants to swallow most of this money, and at this time Jiang Guozhu doesn't care about anyone's hearts - obviously he thinks that at this juncture, no one in the Ming and Qing armies can help him.

Before he could get to know Jiang Guozhu and Zhang Chao, Zhang Changgeng of Huguang also came to join in the fun, saying that after he received the order from the auxiliary minister, he immediately selected troops and horses in Wuchang, planning to go down the river and join the Central Army in Yangzhou. However, Zhang Changgeng said that he only had soldiers and no ships, and that he needed Liangjiang to provide him with troop transport ships, and Zhang Changgeng also claimed that the two thieves Hao and He in the Huguang and Hanshui basins had been fighting every day in recent years, and had even built the area around Wuchang to a solid foundation -- the implication was that Liangjiang had to help him with the allocation of funds and food, otherwise he would not be able to carry out the order of the auxiliary minister.

Of course, Liangjiang refused to give this money, Zhang Changgeng's reply was still public, and what was sent together with Zhang Changgeng's request for money and boat was Jiang Guozhu and Zhang Chao's crying poor letter.

"These dog minions, they're crazy, aren't they?" After the letter of Zhao Guozuo, the governor of Zhejiang, was delivered, the curb erupted like a volcano.

Zhao Guozuo said that Zhejiang was only washed by the Sichuan army last year, yes, he defeated the Sichuan army in a battle under the city of Hangzhou, but the Zhejiang treasury was also empty, so he could not respond to the order of the auxiliary minister. And Zhao Guozuo also earnestly advocated appeasing Deng Ming, he said that the most beneficial thing for the imperial court now is to negotiate peace, although the first emperor died in the hands of Deng Ming, but it was a battlefield, right? Zhao Guozuo believed that the heroic death of the first emperor was very in line with the tradition of the Manchurian Taijun, and he was the first to be a soldier and extraordinary! In short, don't let the things of the first emperor affect the appeasement of Deng Ming.

Opposite the 110,000 Qing army, there was a 100,000 Ming army, and when Jieshu's reinforcements continued to arrive from Shandong, the Ming army under the banner of Zhang Huangyan and Ma Fengzhi also continued to pour into the canal. The two armies have joined forces for dozens of days, and after more than ten days of confrontation, neither of them rushed to collide with each other's strong defenses, and at this time, the news that Deng Ming led the army to land in Shandong finally came.

When I first received the news, whether it was Liangjiang or Beijing, my first reaction was not to believe it. Like Zu Zepu's initial reaction, it was determined that it was the dying struggle of the Shandong rebel army. However, as more and more news came from Shandong, the Qing court began to lose its breath, and Beijing planned to send the sailors of the Bohai Bay to Laizhou to see if Deng Ming had really come -- if the size of the Ming fleet was very large, then there was a good chance that this would be true.

And Huai'an's Ji Bilong felt even more pained, he couldn't find a sailor around him to investigate whether the news was true, and Li Guoying also chose not to speak out on this issue, indicating that this person who had dealt with Deng Ming for many years was also not sure of Deng Ming's movements.

"How many troops does Deng Ming have?" A total of 200,000 troops from both sides confronted each other, and Jie Shu also felt very nervous, if it were not for the assistance of Ji Bilong, Li Guoying and a large number of staff, he would not be able to cope with such a job at all: "The thieves on the opposite side already have 40,000 or 50,000 armor, Deng Ming can still divide his troops to Shandong, does he have 100,000 armor?" ”

"Probably not." He said this, but he was not very confident in his heart, because his judgment was completely speculation: if Deng Mingzhen had 100,000 well-equipped and well-trained armor soldiers, he should be able to conquer Jiangnan. The last time Zheng Chenggong came with 30,000 armor soldiers, he almost made the southeast change color.

"Deng Ming alone definitely doesn't have so much, but it's hard to say if you add other henchmen." Li Guoying is also speculative, but he has more information than Suppilon. Deng Ming doesn't need to have 100,000 armor soldiers, as long as there are half of them, Li Guoying estimates that he will be driven out of Chongqing: "Deng Ming probably has 30,000 armor, which is about the same as Zheng Chenggong." However, there is also the Kui Dong thief who came with him, and the Kui Dong thief is probably 25,000 to 30,000 armor now......"

"So much!?" Suppilon yelled. Deng Ming ransacked the southeast back and forth, and he recognized it if he could have 30,000 armor soldiers - in fact, Li Guoying still underestimated the strength of western Sichuan; But why is Kui Dong? Ji Bilong knew that this number was probably only a lot more than Li Dingguo's: "In that poor and remote place in Kuidong, how can they raise so many soldiers? ”

"The food given by Deng Ming." Li Guoying replied sadly. Last time, through the interrogation of Kuidong's prisoners, he determined that Kuidongjun got more things from Deng Ming than he got from Beijing, let alone fight with Sichuan, sooner or later Kuidongjun would be able to drive Li Guoying out of Sichuan: "There are also armor, clothing, and gunpowder, as well as the shipyards, battleships and craftsmen that Deng Ming snatched back." ”

"Kui Dong thieves also have warships?" Ji Bilong felt that the Kui Dongjun in Li Guoying's mouth seemed to be completely inconsistent with his impression: "Compared to you, how about the sailors of Huguang and Liangjiang?" ”

"Deng Ming's sailors are stronger than Kui Dongjun and Chongming thieves, and they are stronger than Xiaguan, Huguang Governor, and Liangjiang Governor combined. Even if you recruit Kui Dong thief and Chongming thief, it's useless. There are probably more sailors of the Chongming thief than the Kuidong thief; And Kui Dong's own sailors are more powerful than the sum of Sichuan-Shaanxi, Huguang and the two rivers, that is, all the sailors of the officers and soldiers. To be precise, just the first person of Yuan Zong in Wanxian County was enough to clean up Xiaguan and Governor Jiang and Governor Zhang. Li Guoying looked at the stunned Kupilon, with a look of despair on his face: "Xiaguan's sailor may be stronger than the sailor of Huguang and Liangjiang." But not to mention Yuan Zongdi and Li Laiheng, even Liu Tichun's ship is coming, and the sailors of the lower officials dare not fight! may be able to compare with Dang Shousu, Ma Tengyun and Wang Guangxing. ”

And Li Guoying didn't know that there was no sailor in Chongqing now, and the Jialing River sailor, whom he regarded as the pearl of his palm, had been sold by his generals and no longer existed.

"Kui Dong thieves except for leaving some people in Hanshui to guard against Governor Zhang, I'm afraid that 15,000 armor will come; Zhang Huangyan and Ma Fengzhi have a good relationship with Deng Ming, and a lot of their things are also given by Deng Ming, and from the past few days, they have also sent 8,000 to 10,000 armor. Now there are about 50,000 on the other side. Li Guoying pointed out that because the Ming army had the advantage of the water division, the armor rate was higher than that of the Qing army, and among the 110,000 Qing troops in Huai'an, there were only 40,000 people in armor.