Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 35
The weather in April is a changeable season. The sky was still clear just now, and it entered a continuous spring rain in the blink of an eye.

On the official road along the Yangtze River, grain carts covered with tarpaulins, carts loaded with straw and hay, baggage carts, and huge flat-bottomed boats swayed and creaked along the Yangtze River. move forward.

The sky was drizzling, and it was the rainy season in Jiangnan. The fields and ditches on both sides of the official road were filled with rainwater, and the dense forests and mountains in the distance were hazy.

At this time, an army bearing the banner of the Ming Army was marching westward through the mud, braving the drizzle, shouting and cursing, with the crackling of whips and the creaking of axles, and the momentum was astonishing.

The soldiers wearing bamboo hats and coir raincoats, despite the rain falling from their bodies, still followed the chant, marching in neat steps, moving forward silently, looking extremely elite.

Suddenly there was a commotion on the official road, and a cavalry team of hundreds of people galloped from the east.

The horseshoes stepped through the mud, splashing a large amount of sewage. Several soldiers were unable to avoid it, and their bodies and faces were splashed with mud, but the soldiers seemed to have nothing happened, and continued to step on the mud with their heads down.

Surrounded by a general in armor, the cavalry galloped past the infantry until they overtook the advancing team, then reined in and stopped abruptly.

The war horse neighed, and its front hooves hung in the air. The hundred or so elite riders stopped for an instant, looking extremely elite.

"Li Qianhu, how long will it take to go to Chizhou?" Wang Yan's face was covered with rain, and he and many other officers stopped abruptly, pointing to the west with a horsewhip in his hand and asked.

Most of Wang Yan's cronies are from the north, and they don't know much about the south of the Yangtze River, so the task of scouting and investigation falls on Li Taizhen, who was born as a hunter. "There are still more than a hundred miles, and the road is difficult, and we should be able to reach it within three days."

"It's too slow! The Qing army approached Xu and Si, and the left thief broke through Anqing again, and marched into Chizhou. We must arrive as soon as possible, and first help Jingnan Hou defeat the left thief, and then return to Jiangbei to face the Qing army." Hearing this, Wang Yan couldn't help but slightly He frowned, then waved his whip, and walked forward again in the rain.

After reorganizing military discipline in Sizhou, Wang Yan led the army south that day.

Wang Yan originally wanted to spend a few days to reorganize the Zhongyi Camp, but as Zuo Liangyu was trapped in Jiujiang, Jiang Governor Yuan Jixian failed to find his death and was captured in a boat, so he had to reorganize the Zhongyi Camp while marching.

The six hundred households who were killed were all replaced by brothers from the old camp. Wang Wei and Li Taizhen reversed, and he equipped all Mrs. Xing's transfer equipment.

There are more than 100 infantry, with [-] long spearmen and [-] knife shields left, and the rest are all armed with firearms. The cavalry is equipped with bows and arrows, long knives, small shields, and long spears.

The army practiced while walking, starting from the marching queue, and walked to the riverside without knowing it, Wang Yan quickly sent people to recruit ships, buy grain and grass, and spent 3000 taels of silver. With a departure fee of 5 taels, only [-] taels are left.

Just when Wang Yan was ready and was about to go upstream, there was another news that Zuo Liangyu died violently three days after taking down Jiujiang.

Zuo Liangyu had 80 soldiers. Although there are about 20 real soldiers, of which there are only more than 2 elite soldiers, it is enough to make Hong Guangchao feel tremendous pressure. He died in Jiujiang. Hiko couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Therefore, the Zhongyi Battalion slowed down the speed of westward march, but only one day later, the news that Zuo Menggeng, the son of Zuo Liangyu, was elected to stay in the Zuo Army and continued to lead the troops eastward, pulled Hong Guangchao back to the cruel Reality.

Wang Yan had no choice but to urge the Loyalty Battalion to move westward to support Chizhou as soon as possible, but misfortunes never come singly. As soon as the army arrived in Wuhu, the Henan Qing army, led by Duoduo, crossed Shangqiu and approached the front line of Sizhou. Under the leadership of the tower, the news of going south to Xuzhou came again.

Wang Yan was struck by lightning for a moment, and the thing he was most worried about happened.

In the city of Nanjing, the Hongguang courtiers had to suffer the bitter fruit of "cooperating with the captives to suppress the bandits" at this time, because they did not dare to send heavy troops north to Shandong and Henan, and their strategic space was lost.

At the critical juncture when the rebels on the left were advancing to Chizhou and the Qing soldiers were marching southward, the emperor was completely passive and had to issue an edict: "Go upstream if you are in a hurry, and defend against the enemy if you are in a hurry."

The emperor, Ma Fu, and Ruan Dacheng all understood that Nanjing was in danger of falling no matter if they concentrated their forces against any one side.

For this, Wang Yan also took it seriously. He had countless nightmares in his dreams. The Qing soldiers went south to the south of the Yangtze River, and it really happened like this. But at this time, the Zhongyi Camp was already in the south of the Yangtze River, and it was impossible to return to the north of the Yangtze River. We can only hope that Gao Yuanzhao and Liu Zeqing's men and horses can carry on for a while longer, while he will first follow Jingnan Hou Huang Degong to defeat the left thief, and then return north with the army to fight the Qing army.

In desperation, Wang Yan urged the Zhongyi Battalion to march forward in the rain, and finally arrived outside Chizhou City on April [-].

Chizhou is located in the south of the Yangtze River, adjacent to Tongling in the east, Huangshan Mountain in the south, and across the river from Anqing. After the left army captured Anqing, Chizhou became the most important line of defense in the upper reaches of Nanjing.

At this time, 80 left troops camped along the Yangtze River in the west of Chizhou, stretching for dozens of miles, and nearly [-] Ming troops gathered in Chizhou City to fight a decisive battle with it.

There were so many warships of the Zuo Army, Wang Yan couldn't go west along the river, so he left supplies and Qian Yifeng in Tongling. The troops bypassed the Zuo Army on the river and entered the forest area south of Chizhou.

At this time, on the hill in the south not far from Chizhou City, there were several people standing, the leader was Wang Yan, and behind him stood Wang Wei, Li Taizhen, Liu Shun, Qin Shangxing and other officers. There are two thousand loyal camp troops hidden.

There are 2000 Ming troops in Chizhou City, and the number of elites is at least [-] to [-]. Wang Yan feels that even if he enters the city with [-] troops, it will not have much effect on defense. Unexpected feats.

The hill is not far from Chizhou City, and you can have a panoramic view of the situation within a few miles.

Wang Yan looked at the blurred city wall in the distance, and at the scattered flags and broken shields and broken arrows not far below the hill, knowing that several fierce battles had already taken place under Chicheng.

Hundreds of thousands of troops gathered in Chizhou and Anqing for a scuffle. The scene must have been spectacular. Seeing the bright flag still fluttering on the top of the city, Wang Yan knew that he came at the right time.

"It has been cloudy and rainy for several days. Although the sky is sunny today, the ground and the forest are quite humid. Can the gunpowder be kept properly?" Wang Yan asked while looking at Chizhou.

"Don't worry, general, gunpowder is the most important item in the camp. The general has already ordered it properly, and there will be no loss." Wang Wei responded with clasped fists.

In order to control the infantry, Wang Yan dropped Wang Wei to the infantry as a thousand households, while Li Taizhen was dropped to the cavalry camp, and most of the cavalry camps were old people who followed Wang Yan, who just took him off.

At first, Wang Wei was quite emotional about this, but after talking with Wang Yan, he knew that Wang Yan trusted him, so he started to be a thousand households of infantry, painstakingly studying the infantry tactics that Wang Yan said, and Li Taizhen was also happy. Accept Wang Yan's arrangement and take charge of the cavalry.

Wang Wei used to be just a small officer under Zhao Yingyuan, but Li Taizhen relied on his hard work to make thousands of households, and he was born as a hunter. After joining Gao Jie, he also did the work of scouting horses. The best cavalry general candidate.

Wang Yan was very satisfied with the performance of the two, which saved him a lot of trouble.

"That's great!" Wang Yan glanced at Wang Wei approvingly, then turned around and said to the many officers: "The battle of Chizhou is related to the life and death of our dynasty. Although there are many thieves on the left, we are very skilled. We will fight to the death. I will surely defeat it. All of you are willing to join me in killing the thief, serving the imperial court, and honoring the loyalty of the battalion commander!"

"Willing to fight with the general to the death!" Hearing this, all the officers immediately replied in unison.

After going through this journey, the Zhongyi Battalion has become somewhat of a strong army. Wang Yan pressed his saber and was infected by the atmosphere. He couldn't help feeling a surge of pride in his heart, determined to kill the Zuo Army and save Daming.

~ Woo~ Woo~ Woo~
While Wang Yan and the others were standing on the top of the mountain to observe the terrain, from a distant place in the west, there were bursts of erratic horn sounds.

When Wang Yan and the others heard about it, they couldn't help turning their eyes to the west, their expressions all changed, and they couldn't help saying: "Here we come!"

At this time, a scout rushed to the foot of the mountain, then got off his horse, and ran down the mountain in a hurry. After a while, he knelt down on one knee in front of Wang Yan, and reported out of breath, "General Qi! Formation, five miles away from Chizhou!"

There is no need to visit the horse to report, and everyone can see it.

In the far west, as far as the eye could see, a long red line behind the horizon appeared in front of everyone.

Slowly, as the red line moved forward, it gradually became thicker and wider, making the plain to the west of Chizhou City seem to be covered with a red carpet.

The left part claims to have 80 people, most of them are family members. Wang Yan couldn't count how many people came this time, but he saw the left part rebels all over the mountains and plains, almost dyeing the land in the west red.

"So many soldiers!" Wang Yan and the others couldn't help but gasp as they looked at the Zuo army who couldn't see their end. This was the first time he saw a large group fighting, and he couldn't help but feel a little nervous, and his palms began to sweat.

So many rebels made Wang Yan's heart tense. As the chief general, he couldn't let his subordinates feel that he was nervous, so after calming down, he said seriously to the surrounding officers: "Hurry up and hide, wait for the opportunity!"

"Here!" The crowd quickly replied in unison.

At this moment, Wang Yan made Qian Yifeng read the seventeen military rules. Facing the coming rebel army, it is impossible for the soldiers and officers not to be nervous or fearful, but the military rules calmed them down. Under the command of the officer, the troops soon died down, showing a trace of elite.

As the rebel army approached Chizhou, Wang Yan also led many officers and moved to a hidden place to continue observing.

(Yuan Jixian was betrayed by his general Zhang Shixun when Zuo Zebing arrived in Jiujiang. He failed to beg for death, and was taken into a boat by Zuo Liangyu. After Zuo Menggeng surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, Yuan Jixian met Azige, King of Qing Ying, and bowed to Azige. He tried his best to persuade him to surrender to the Qing Dynasty and "still be the governor of Jiujiang", but he was flatly rejected, and then he was escorted to Beijing, where he died heroically.)
(End of this chapter)