The cannon roared, the smoke of gunpowder filled, Mei Yin's 30,000 troops were heavily damaged, and when less than 3,000 people were killed, the officers and soldiers had already lost the courage to fight, threw down their weapons and flags, and turned around and ran.

Once the rout is formed, almost no one can reverse it, Mei Yin looked desperate and his eyes were dull, and he was led by his subordinates to follow the flow of people.

Xu Hao breathed a sigh of relief, the extension of the supply line was fatal, and the current ammunition storage was no longer enough to support a big war, especially the bulky artillery relied too much on supplies, so he came with a relatively light fifty guns, and the rest were transported back to Beiping by the naval division.

The combat strength of the officers and soldiers was also somewhat unexpected, and in just 20 years of peace, the military households of ordinary guards were almost no different from ordinary people. In significant contrast to it, the Ming Dynasty sailors, probably the boat must rely on the team to work together, perennial sailing is equivalent to training all the time, especially the sailors sailing on the ocean, at any time in the face of unforeseen risks do not dare to slack off, even if led by incompetent generals, it seems that throughout the Ming Dynasty until the day of its destruction, nearly three hundred years, the Ming Dynasty sailors have almost not tasted defeat.

Xu Hao remembered that whether it was the Portuguese, the Dutch, or the Japanese, they were all defeated by the Ming sailors in naval battles, but it was a pity that the imperial court's deep-rooted land thinking did not attach importance to and understand the importance of the sea.

Of course, most of the warships were seagoing ships, and the Ming Dynasty sent thousands of warships to patrol the northern and southern seas every year. That is, the spring and summer patrols, in response to the maritime threat from the Japanese invaders, chased the Japanese ships and even hit the Korean and Ryukyu waters, but because the first emperor listed the Japanese as a country not to be conquered, the perennial implementation of an offensive defensive strategy.

Xu Hao glanced at Zhu Gaochi, who was excited, and said in his heart that it seems that this guy and his son are the culprits of the Ming Dynasty's sailors from prosperity to decline, of course, there are very complex reasons during that period, and you can't blindly complain about Renzong's father and son who can be called Mingjun.

But most officials really did not understand the importance of the water division, taking Zhu Di's Yan Wangfu and Jianwen court as examples, both sides regarded the water division as an adjunct to the battlefield from beginning to end. It is mainly responsible for transporting soldiers and food and grass. Sailors became transport workers.

At present, more than 50 percent of the soldiers of the naval divisions in various coastal areas are sent to farm the land, and 30 percent are sent to build ships, and officials from various localities often recruit and transfer the officers and men of the naval divisions to build city defense fortresses or other unrelated tasks. This is still the early years of the Ming Dynasty. The more this phenomenon passes, the more common it becomes.

Mei Yin's defeat made Zhu Di have no worries. The Yan army traveled back and forth on the river every day to adapt to water warfare, and the counties in the north and south of the river saw that the Yan army was strong, and they sent people to surrender secretly.

The monarchs and ministers of the court were worried about this. Emperor Jianwen was forced to issue an edict for his own crimes, and sent Lian Zining, the imperial historian, Huang Guan, the right attendant, Wang Shuying, the Hanlin Xiu, Jin Yousheng, the servant of the Criminal Department, and Zhang Xianzong, the priest of the Guozi Priest, to recruit troops everywhere and call on the king of the world.

The exiled Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng were summoned back to discuss the defense plan, but unfortunately their popularity plummeted and they could not convince the public, and the civil and military officials unanimously believed that they were the main culprits of the repeated defeats, and the court meeting was unceremoniously reprimanded. However, Fang Xiaoru stood out and became the de facto prime minister, and was regarded by Zhu Yunwen as the last straw.

Yao Shan, the prefect of Suzhou, Wang Jin, the prefect of Ningbo, Chen Yanhui, the prefect of Huizhou, Zhou Jiyu, the governor of Songjiang, Zhang Yanfang, the prefect of Leping, and Zhou Jin, the former Yongqing Dianshi, successively raised troops and entered the guard.

Emperor Jianwen ordered Yao Shan to serve as soldiers of Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou, Zhenjiang and Jiaxing.

At this time, Fang Xiaoru offered advice to Emperor Jianwen and said: "The matter is urgent, it is advisable to delay it, you can send someone to cut the land, delay it for a few days, recruit troops in the southeast, and the northern soldiers do not practice boats, I borrow the Yangtze River moat, and fight a decisive battle on the river, the outcome is unknown?" ”

Emperor Jianwen then asked the Empress Dowager to persuade the county lord of Qingcheng to go to Yan Jun to negotiate peace.

The leader of Qingcheng is the fourth daughter of Zhu Yuanzhang's brother Zhu Chong, the king of Mengcheng, and she is Zhu Di's cousin in terms of seniority.

The whole court and the central government are looking forward to the county lord's trip to slow down the Yan army a little, the question is what kind of person is Zhu Di? I don't know how to seize the opportunity, then he has led his troops for so many years and won so many battles.

On the first day of the first month of June, Children's Day in later generations, Zhu Di ordered Wu Yong to assemble ships in Guazhou, and ordered Neiguan and Du to command Huaju to lead troops to Puzikou.

Puzikou and the capital are across the river, Huaju led the fleet to probe, but was fiercely resisted by the officials and troops, and returned defeated.

For some reason, Zhu Di didn't want to reconcile Xu Hao with Mu Hui, who was wearing a pair of pants, to lead the fleet to help in the battle, nor did he want to transfer Xu Hao and his eldest son to the front line, but when he saw Zhu Gaoxu, who was leading 5,000 Yan cavalry, his worries were immediately swept away.

Zhu Di held the sword in one hand and stroked his son's back with the other, and said, "Reluctantly! The son of the world is sick. ”

Zhu Gaoxu was overjoyed, and in order to compete with his brother for several days, he did not hesitate to return to Beiping, summoned a new batch of Mongolian knights to come, and promised once again that after the matter was completed, Daning Mansion would belong to the Duoyan people.

At the same time, the imperial court felt that a big war was imminent, and feared that He Fu would not be able to support it alone, so he sent Chen Xuan, the governor of the capital, to help, but Chen Xuan ran directly to surrender the Yan army.

The supervising army beside He Fu was Chen Zhi, the squire of the military department, who came to the river to swear generously and encouraged the soldiers to fight to the death, but there was a governor in the army, Jin Jia, who advocated that the Yan soldiers could not resist, and it was better to surrender together with Chen Xuan.

Chen Zhi was furious, and severely reprimanded Jin Jia on the spot for not knowing obedience and disobedience, and not understanding the righteousness of the monarch and ministers, Jin Jia was annoyed and ashamed, stepped forward and hacked Chen Zhi to death with a sword, and then led the officers and soldiers of the fleet to defect to King Yan.

At such a time when the battle was imminent, many generals rebelled one after another, which greatly demoralized the morale of the officers and soldiers. The ministers and eunuchs who secretly colluded with Zhu Di in the imperial court kept sending people to inform the truth and truth, and when they learned that the defense of Jiangnan had collapsed from the inside, Zhu Di immediately ordered the whole army to force the Yangtze River.

On the second day of the first month of June, Zhu Di led the whole army to worship the river god in the river and read out the blessings. On the third day of June, the whole army was gathered to take the oath. On this day, the Yan army marched southward and fought a decisive battle with 60,000 troops head-on against more than 100,000 officers and troops on the opposite bank.

Zhu Di personally led his division to cross the river and cross the street. The flag covers the sky, the spear is shining, and the sound of the golden drum shakes the heavens and the earth. On this day, the day was sunny, the breeze was blowing, and the Yangtze River was not wavering. Thousands of warships crossed the river, as if walking on the ground, thinking that the Yan army would win all the way south, and it was rumored to be a divine soldier in the south of the Yangtze River.

As a result, when hundreds of Yan troops rushed to land, the official army immediately collapsed, and countless soldiers threw down their weapons and dispersed to the rear. He Fu fled alone. Those who did not have time to escape disarmed and knelt on the ground, and 100,000 officers and soldiers and most of the sailors surrendered en masse.

The Yan army crossed the Yangtze River with little resistance, and Zhu Di rejected the generals' proposal to march directly to the capital and instead attacked the important town of Zhenjiang.

The surrendered official ships all hoisted the yellow dragon flag representing the king of Yan. The defenders of Zhenjiang City watched from afar, and the battle flags of all the ships changed color. I couldn't help but be shocked. Zhenjiang Commander Tong Jun thought that the general situation had gone and led the crowd to surrender.

On the eighth day of the first month of June, the Yan army entered Longtan. Zhongshan could already be seen from afar here, Zhu Di suddenly shed tears, and the generals asked the reason. Zhu Di cried and said: "In the past, when I crossed the river, I entered Beijing to see my relatives. than being troubled by treachery, not crossing this river for several years. At this point, where am my dear? Looking at Zhongshan and looking up to the tomb of filial piety is to be sad. ”

At this moment, Xu Hao and Zhu Gaochi, who were stationed in Guazhou, were also staring at the other side of the river, and the hard work of the past few days had made Zhu Gaochi lose a little weight, and his complexion was also tanned, and he looked very energetic, and sighed: "I thought that the more I went to Gyeonggi, the more I would sink into the mud. ”

Xu Hao smiled, and said in his heart that if you change your father and son to be the emperor, you have to arrange hundreds of thousands of troops to protect you, otherwise I'm afraid you won't be able to sleep well, right? In fact, when it really came to a critical juncture, it had no effect at all, it was just to scare the generals and the people of the world.

Even if the front line of the imperial court is defeated and lost, there are still 200,000 forbidden troops stationed in the capital, which are all strong troops known as the world's strongest soldiers, but what about their actual combat effectiveness? The national capital is surrounded, and there is nothing to say without morale.

Having said that, Fang Xiaoru still thinks that the Yan army that can be fortified and cleared the wilderness, and it is impossible for the Yan army to stay for a long time without material support, of course, the way to stick to the fortified city is right, the longer the court resists, the more troops will come to King Qin.

Zhu Yunwen, who had no rules, obeyed the words of filial piety to the other party, so he ordered the dispatch of military and civilian businessmen and ministers to rush outside the city, day and night, to demolish the houses and carry materials, leaving nothing usable for the Yan army.

The bricks and tiles that were removed were accumulating more and more, and the materials that had been removed after the destruction of the homes were everywhere. The weather is hot, and the people who are dismantling and transporting goods have no rest, and they are miserable, and they can't help but complain after a long time. The situation became increasingly tense, and the overseers ordered the supplies to be transported as soon as possible, but if they could not transport them, they prepared to set them on fire.

Xu Hao's musketeers, under the leadership of the Xu family, fought violently in multiple ways, and opened fire directly at the officials and officers without saying a word, so that most of the suburban villages and towns such as Xiaojia Village were not destroyed by the fire.

If it is said that the people of the capital were still ready to live and die with the emperor in the past, then now everyone is eager for the Yan army to quickly capture the capital, who would be willing to destroy their own home for the sake of the throne of the imperial family?

At the same time, another group of soldiers and men were reinforcing the city wall of Beijing day and night, and the sound of rammed earth shouting was endless. There were many people, the command was not good, and the construction was illegal, and a section of the wall that had just been built was collapsed again, so it had to be rebuilt.

Fang Xiaoru also suggested: "The county lord has not been able to do anything, and now the kings are divided to guard the city gate, and then Cao Guogong Li Jinglong, Ru Shangshu, and Wang Du Governor are sent to supervise Longtan. At that time, tens of thousands of elites were selected, internal and external attacks were flanked, and a decisive battle could be successful. In case of unfavorability, the car will be lucky, collect horses, and think that it will be lifted. ”

At this time, Xu Hao rushed to meet Zhu Di and witnessed Li Jinglong, Ru Yu, and Wang Zuo coming to the tent of King Yan of Longtan with their heads down.

According to the etiquette system of the Ming Dynasty, the prince's status is the first rank of the Son of Heaven, and the prince and below must bow to the prince. Although Li Jinglong is the Duke of Cao Guo, he still can't help but kneel, let alone Ru Yu, the secretary of the military department, and Wang Zuo, the governor of the capital.

Xu Hao felt interested for a while, he just wanted to return to Liaodong immediately, and when he thought that he would kowtow when he saw Zhu Gaosui in the future, and he would also kowtow when he saw Zhu Di's grandson and great-grandson, what was the point of this person's life?

It seems that Zhu Di has become the supreme emperor at this time, and the court officials are lying on the ground sweating in fear, bowing their heads and not daring to look up. (To be continued......)