Jiang Guozhu's order to let the magistrate find a way to secure the city himself opened Pandora's box, and after receiving this order, the prefectures and counties knew that Jiangning was no longer able to support them. Chinese The last time Zheng Chenggong attacked the Yangtze River, a similar thing happened, when Lang Tingzuo was not only unable to support the surrounding prefectures and counties, but instead transferred all their troops to Jiangning, and the result was that the four prefectures and more than a dozen prefectures and counties surrendered to Zhang Huangyan without the slightest resistance.

This time, Jiang Guozhu didn't want to repeat the scene more than half a year ago, so he tried to disperse his troops to garrison various prefectures and cities, betting that Deng Ming was unwilling to disperse his troops. It's a pity that Zhu Guozhi took matters into his own hands and lost most of the mobile troops of the Jiangnan Green Battalion, and there was no big difference between Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan that time.

It's just that although the prefectures and counties collectively returned to the side of the Qing court after Zheng Chenggong withdrew from the army, all the local leaders were dismissed, and now the Qing court is not at ease with this kind of wall grass. Now Deng Ming has met all those who have just taken office as prefects and prefects, and they know that if they surrender with a clear banner, it will be like being dismissed after the Ming army leaves--many prefects and counties have been in the cold for ten years, and they have only been admitted to the Jinshi and Tongjinshi with great difficulty, and they have only taken office for less than a year in the envious eyes of their hometown fathers, so how can they be willing to be dismissed and return to their hometowns?

Of course, if Deng Ming must force them to surrender, some magistrates may still be the same as their predecessors, after all, it is better to be dismissed than to lose their heads. But fortunately, Deng Ming had no such intentions, and he also didn't want to repeat Zhang Huangyan's mistakes.

"The policy of the Qing court is actually quite absurd, in order to block the way for officials to escape, they stipulate that the loss of the city is a capital crime, but surrendering and going back anyway is only dismissal, because they do not want those officials who surrender to us to resist to the end. In other words, the Qing court's thinking was to do its best to keep the land and pardon those magistrates who did not resist the Qing court's attack. Deng Ming also felt a lot of emotion when he talked about Běijīng's pragmatism policy with his subordinates: "When faced with a powerful enemy that could not be resisted, the magistrates of the Qing court generally had only two paths, desperately resisting, and finally committing suicide to find a cute official for their descendants; Or simply surrender, and then see the wind to save the rudder's life. In response to the rigid policy of the Qing court, I think that the current policy of our army is the most effective, and the worst result of the magistrates who make a deal with our army is the same as those officials who surrender and then go anyway; And if they're lucky, they can even keep their jobs. ”

The last time Ren Tang followed Zhang Huangyan into Chizhou, Anqing and other places, he was also happy that the local officials had come down from the wind, and at that time he felt that the shape was very good, and the great cause of Zhongxing seemed to be completed without much effort. But after the last great upss and backwards, Ren Tang has now become much more mature, and no longer pursues the change of local officials, but resolutely supports Deng Ming's strategy - this is of course also because of Deng Ming's influence: "As the Admiral said, these people can surrender to us lightly, and they can go back anyway, if we accept their surrender, we still need to appease the locality, and we need to send officials and troops to the local area to ensure that our decrees can be carried out and that the reputation of the imperial court will not be affected." In the event of a change of events, these scattered officers and men would be attacked by the grass on the wall, and now that our army has always been assembled, there is no such concern, and no city dares to provoke us. ”

The Ming army continued along the Yangtze River, and the grain and grass along the way were provided by the prefectures and counties of the Qing court. Wherever the army went, the local merchants welcomed them and traded with the Ming army, buying the local products they brought, and at the same time selling local goods to the Ming army. Ever since it appeared on the Yangtze River, the Ming army has monopolized trade in this golden waterway, and shipping has shrunk for most of the past six months, and the prefectures and counties on both sides of the strait have suffered greatly, not only are it difficult to see goods from other places, but also a large number of local products in their hands have not been purchased.

What is even more gratifying is that the selling price of the Ming army is quite low, even a little lower than that of peacetime merchants, and the purchase price is also quite high. Many people think that Deng Ming deliberately gave profits to the local people for the purpose of buying people's hearts, but they only knew one thing and did not know the other, and the reason why the businessmen in the past tried their best to lower the purchase price and raise the selling price was because they had to pay high taxes along the way, and they also had to endure extortion and extortion by the officials and the officers and men of the green battalion patrolling the river -- this was even several times the official tax of the government, so if they did not try their best to sell high and make low advances, the businessmen would have no profit at all. Deng Ming's "caravan" had hundreds of warships and nearly 10,000 soldiers, and not only refused to pay all the taxes of the Liangjiang Governor's Yamen, but no one dared to extort money from the "Deng caravan" after eating the bear's heart.

Even if the consumption of supporting soldiers is counted, Deng Ming's cost of transporting goods is still only a fraction of that of a serious businessman, so even if he gives preferential prices to the people along the way, the profit is much higher than that of the legitimate merchant group, not to mention that even the cost of raising the army is now borne by the local government of the Qing court.

When Deng Ming's fleet arrived at Taiping Mansion, the shore was already densely packed with people, and these people who looked at the Yangtze River fleet in the Ming Dynasty cheered loudly after seeing the vanguard ships of the Ming Yangtze River fleet. Deng Ming's actions in the upper reaches have spread all over the river, the people around the Taiping Mansion began to gather to the shore a few days ago, bringing a large number of self-produced cotton cloth, silk, soon the Ming army's follow-up cargo ships also arrived, after disembarking, the Ming army set up some sheds on the shore, while purchasing the people's goods, selling dates, porcelain, tea oil brought from the upstream.

In addition to the small landlords and common people who rushed to the market, there were also some local gentry and heroes, and these people who did large transactions would be invited to the back by the Ming army, served tea, and then began to bargain-for-tat.

After the Ming army stayed in Taiping Mansion for three days, there was an endless stream of people rushing to the market, and finally there were crowds of people on both sides of the strait. The taxation of the Taiping Mansion was immediately reflected in the price, but the Ming army was aware of this, and Mu Tan reported that a group of gentry asked to see him.

After meeting with the governor of Sichuan in the Ming Dynasty, these gentlemen complained to Deng Ming, saying that it was not easy for them to transport goods to the shore, but they were extorted by the greedy Qing army, so that they lost all their money; What's even more terrifying is that, according to these gentlemen, the Qing army who set up the card also carefully interrogated people in the past and inquired about the military deployment of the Ming army on the shore, which was obviously ill-intentioned, and some people even claimed that the Qing army at those checkpoints also tried to force them to carry fire oil in the goods, or to mix the goods sold to the Ming army with poison...... All in all, these gentlemen hoped that Deng Ming would strike with an iron fist and wipe out the Qing troops along the way.

Although the setting up of cards along the way may be beneficial to the Xu official class of the Taiping Mansion, this force is actually not monolithic, and some of the most powerful of them have the capital to do business with the Ming army, and they also hate this kind of card setting behavior. After carefully weighing the power of the two sides, Deng Ming found that the faction that supported the Zìyóu trade had obvious advantages, and immediately sent Zhou Kaihuang to lead 2,000 soldiers to Taiping Mansion to threaten the prefect.

Due to Deng Ming's good reputation for trustworthiness and the peace and quiet of the first two days, the Taiping Mansion has relaxed its vigilance against the Ming army, and has opened two city gates since yesterday to facilitate the gentry in the city to come out and trade with the Ming army. After seeing more than 2,000 Ming troops fully armed to the city, the Yamen of the Taiping Prefecture was shocked, mistakenly thinking that Deng Ming planned to break the contract, and the prefect hurriedly ordered the city gate to be closed, and personally led the guards up to the city tower, preparing to resist or surrender according to the situation.

However, the Ming army stopped after driving two miles away from the city, and then Zhou Kaihuang sent a team of envoys to send an ultimatum to the Taiping Mansion. Deng Ming demanded that the Taiping Mansion withdraw all tax collection checkpoints within four hours and contact all official restrictions, otherwise Deng Ming would think that the Qing army in Taiping Province was planning to do something wrong and be at war with the Taiping Mansion.

After thinking about it for a while, the prefect of Taiping Mansion suddenly realized, gritted his back molars and scolded: "These Diao people, they are self-respecting thieves!" ”

No matter how much he hated it, the prefect accepted all the conditions on the ultimatum and withdrew all the tax checkpoints with astonishing efficiency.

Shut down

After learning that his demand had been fully satisfied, Deng Ming immediately ordered his soldiers to announce the good news to the people of Taiping Mansion who were rushing to the market. For a while, the crowd was excited, and I didn't know who would raise their arms first and shout: "Long live!" ”

Immediately, countless people on the shore responded, and a large number of people excitedly shouted: "Long live the Ming Dynasty, long live, long live!" ”

Deng Ming smiled and listened to the thunderous cheers for a while, then turned his head to the guard beside him and said, "In any case, it is not right not to pay taxes, we still have to consider the feelings of the Yamen of the Taiping Mansion." ”

At the same time as ordering Zhou Kaihuang to withdraw to the camp, Deng Ming sent another envoy to the Taiping Mansion and proposed a tax payment to the Taiping Governor: that is, the Taiping Mansion Yamen sent a group of officials to the Ming Army to verify the Ming Army's transaction account books, and the Ming Army would pay a certain percentage of taxes to the Taiping Governor's Yamen according to the transaction volume: "I know that this is difficult to record, so I might as well sue the Taiping Mansion, I can give them this money privately, partly for the prefect himself, and partly to compensate the officials of the Yamen, I don't care how it is distributed. ”

While staying in Taiping Mansion, Deng Ming was still waiting for news from Zhoushan, and he did not forget that the purpose of his trip was to threaten Caoyun and at the same time to attack the merchant groups in Huizhou. Now Jiang Guozhu is concentrating on the front line of Nanjing and Yangzhou, Deng Ming is not clear about the strength of the opponent's naval division, and he feels that with the existing strength in his hands, it is still a little insufficient to threaten Yangzhou.

"I don't know where Zhang Shangshu has gone?" Deng Ming, Ren Tang, Mu Tan, Zhou Kaihuang and others repeatedly discussed, and felt that without the cooperation of Zhoushan, it would still be too risky to go deep into both sides of the canal on their own.

…… Chongming Island.

Li Tianyuan and his companions walked quietly on the shore, and last night, their group of more than 100 people sneaked to the edge of the island by speedboat. A few of the spearheads swam close to the shore to find out what was going on, but they were lucky enough to find that there were no Qing sentry posts around the place where they had landed. After these sharp soldiers let out the call of owls, Li Tianyuan and the others paddled silently and cautiously approached to complete the landing.

Zhang Huangyan's order to these Ming troops was very clear, after discrediting the shore, find the camping site of the Su Song Naval Division, and then try to create chaos, it is best to set fire to the battleships of the Su Song Naval Division, and then find a place to hide and wait for the arrival of the naval brigade in Zhoushan. This is undoubtedly a very dangerous job, the probability of the success of this small force of 100 people is not high, and even if it succeeds, it is likely that it will not be able to hold out to the arrival of the main force, but if they succeed, the main force of the Ming army can reduce a lot of losses; If they were completely defeated, then the Zhoushan army would have to engage Su Song's division openly—which would certainly lead to huge losses and casualties.

Although they were lucky enough to find an unmanned location to complete the landing at once, Li Tianyuan felt that their good luck seemed to have been exhausted, and they rushed straight to the place where Su Song's sailor division was stationed when they came to Chongming last time, but they were all in vain - although there was a water camp there, there was not a single warship, only a small number of ferries, and there seemed to be few Qing soldiers stationed there, Li Tianyuan did not disturb them but quietly retreated. Then Li Tianyuan and the others began to circle around the shore of the island, but they still didn't find the shadow of a boat until late at night.

"Oops, oops." Li Tianyuan kept screaming bad luck in his heart, as a great hero who captured the governor of Liangjiang alive, he was assigned as the person in charge of this raid, Li Tianyuan knew well before he set off that this was a nine-life operation, even if he successfully attacked Su Songshui's camp, he had almost no hope of survival. But Li Tianyuan didn't think too much about himself, what he cared about was how to burn one more enemy ship before he died, so that the brothers in the main force suffered fewer casualties - for the sneak attack on the water camp, Li Tianyuan asked himself if he still had experience, he had followed Deng Ming to attack Su Song's water division once under the city of Nanjing.

And Li Tianyuan thought that he had also learned the tactics of Deng Ming and Admiral Deng, that is, to launch an attack while the enemy was sleeping or eating, but now that the night was about to pass and the enemy was about to wake up, Li Tianyuan still failed to find the location of Su Songshui's water camp.

"Where else is there a suitable place for a sailor to moor?" After another swoop, Li Tianyuan stood by the empty bay in a daze, and his companions looked at him at a loss, Li Tianyuan tried to recall the map of Chongming Island that Zhang Huangyan explained to him: "There should be no suitable location, right?" The rest of the place is steep, but it's not sheltered from the wind, and I wouldn't have come here if it weren't for somewhere else. ”

Since he couldn't launch an attack while the enemy was sleeping, Li Tianyuan had to modify the plan and plan to launch a surprise attack while they were having breakfast, but the question remained, that is, where was the enemy's sailor?

The powerful Su Song Naval Division has always been the most terrible enemy of the Zhoushan Army, and countless brothers have died in battles with the Su Song Naval Division over the years. Even if the city of Nanjing was annihilated once, the pressure it brought to Li Tianyuan and the Zhoushan army still lingered, gritting their teeth, Li Tianyuan and his companions ignored the fatigue of running all night, and once again acted quickly, and continued to work hard to find the trace of the Yangtze River fleet of the Qing court.

Li Tianyuan looked solemn and realized that this operation had failed, and once it was discovered by the Qing army, the more than 100 Ming soldiers who landed would be wiped out, and they would die meaninglessly.

"We're going to fight to the death." Li Tianyuan came up with the last plan, that is, to surprise the old camp of the Su Song Water Division, according to the previous reconnaissance, there were only a few ferries there, and the Qing army obviously did not pay attention to it, so there were not many defenders: "We launched an attack while they were eating, and after seizing the camp, I held on to it to attract the enemy's attention." Li Tianyuan planned to torture the Qing court's Yangtze River Naval Division from the mouth of the captive, and when he attracted the attention of the Qing army, he divided half of his men to attack the port: "At this time, the Tartars will definitely be on guard, and it is impossible to burn their warships, but we can disrupt their deployment, so that they cannot prepare in time, and cannot have enough time to sail out to sea and line up in formation to meet the main forces of Zhang Shangshu and Admiral Ma." ”

Everyone knew that this action was undoubtedly suicide, but every Zhoushan soldier nodded solemnly and agreed with Li Tianyuan's plan without hesitation.

Outside the "abandoned" Su Song Navy Division's camp with his subordinates, Li Tianyuan quietly pulled out the long knife on his waist, and finally looked east, he knew that there were tens of thousands of Zhoushan brothers hidden behind the sea level, and Zhang Shangshu was anxiously waiting for his signal.

"Zhang Shangshu, we must expel the Tartars and recover Shenzhou." Li Tianyuan prayed silently in his heart, and without the slightest hesitation, he shouted: "Kill!" Then he flew up and rushed towards the water camp of Chongming Island.

"Kill!" Hundreds of Ming soldiers followed, following Li Tianyuan and rushing forward bravely.

The guard of the water camp was estimated worse by Li Tianyuan, and the Ming army climbed over the camp wall without any resistance and rushed into the camp that seemed to be empty.

After seeing a large group of enemies holding bright steel knives and waving red flags, these soldiers of the Green Battalion who were eating did not hesitate at all, threw away the horse spoons and rice buckets in their hands, and squatted on the ground with their heads in their hands.

After asking the captives, Li Tianyuan knew that there were not many people on Chongming Island at all, not only were there only a dozen Green Battalion soldiers in Shuiying, but there were only a hundred people in the fortress on the island.

Liang Huafeng's subordinates have all been promoted, and when they rushed to various places to take office, every officer of the Su Songshui Division who left his post took his old unit with him. After Deng Ming marched east along the Yangtze River, Nanjing, which was overstretched, transferred the last hundred armors of Chongming Island away, and now only some newly recruited auxiliaries are guarding the water camp and fortress, and many people have been to Chongming Island for a month.

After asking for details, Li Tianyuan let out a sigh of relief and lit a fire with his companions.

A wolf smoke rushed into the sky, and the Ming troops on the island looked side by side to the east, looking forward to the place where the sea and the sky met.

Soon, something was shaking at the sea and sky, and one by one the masts rose to the surface of the sea, hung with red flags, and the sails were full of the sea breeze, and the ships were galloping towards Chongming Island.