Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 684
From the end of last year, Xie Qian took advantage of the lack of food in the Qing army, called himself Gao Yuanhou, and called himself the general of the barbarians. He took down Yancheng, Xinghua, Taizhou, Jianhu and other places in one go, and seized a large amount of food and equipment. skyrocketed.

However, in this situation, after Hong Chengchou opened up the water transport, the situation began to change.

A steady stream of military rations from the south of the Yangtze River was transported into the Huaihe River. After Duoduo had soldiers and food, he took advantage of the cavalry and gradually controlled Xie Qian's activities in the eastern part of Yangzhou and the southern part of Huai'an Prefecture. The rebels gradually lost the room to maneuver. Forced to change from the original mobile combat to the hard battle of city-by-city scramble.

The food supply of the Qing army was solved, but Xie Qian's supply of food had problems. The people who were coerced by him were also reduced to 20, but the food was still in short supply.

Xie Qian used to rely on looting to maintain his troops, and all the places were destroyed by him. Although he still occupies a few county towns and has some food reserves, he can think about it. If he doesn't work hard to recover, the spring planting and summer harvest in these places will definitely be over. How long will there be famine? If he can't break through Dodo's blockade, he can only die.

Beginning in December last year, the Qing soldiers began to organize the suppression of Henan, Shandong, and Jiangnan provinces when food and grass were sufficient.

Hong Chengchou suggested that Duoduo should be easy first and then difficult, so as to prevent the refugees from fleeing to other areas, engulfing more people, and getting bigger and bigger. After restricting Xie Qian to a fixed area, he first mobilized a large amount of food, resettled the refugees, and avoided wandering around. A fire situation.

Hong Chengchou has many years of experience in suppressing bandits, and with his advice, hundreds of thousands of refugees in Lianghuai were repatriated and resettled, temporarily solving the crisis in Lianghuai.

After solving several groups of refugee armed forces, Duduo's army pressed on Xie Qian, and Xie Qian's life became sad. He dispatched several troops one after another to jump to the periphery to develop, but without exception, they were all defeated by the Qing soldiers one by one exterminate.

At this time, there are not many roads left for Xie Qian. The first is to break through the Huaihe River and return to Shandong; the second is to cross the Grand Canal and move westward to Jin Shenghuan or Hengyang Fan; This ancient land of Han Kingdom took root.

The first two were all because of the [-] cavalry in the hands of Doduo, which made Xie Qian afraid to leave the hilly area. In the end, he had to choose the third one, relying on King Lu, and sticking to the current site.

In February of this year, in order to strengthen ties with the King of Lu, Xie Qian divided his troops into three groups. He ordered General Ding Keze to lead 5 troops to defend Tai County, Xinghua to prevent Duoduo from Yangzhou to the east, and ordered Pei Shouzheng, the head of the White Lotus Society, to wait Ren led 5 people to guard Yancheng and Jianhu in Huai'an Prefecture to prevent the Qing soldiers from going south, and prepared to farm and dry salt to resume production. He himself led 10 horses to garrison Rugao.

Rugao is on the Yanhe River to the east, and the location is exactly on the peninsula where Yangzhou Mansion extends into the sea. Although it is a dead place, the sea is the territory of King Lu. In case of defeat, he can choose to retreat into the sea.

Jin Shenghuan and Hengyang Fan in the west are too far away from him, and only the King of Lu can help him, so he can only rely on the King of Lu, and in order to merge with the old officials and gentry of the Ming Dynasty, he deliberately distinguishes the boundaries with the White Lotus Sect inside. Send Pei Shouzheng and the Holy Maiden to the Huai'an area in exchange for the acceptance of the King Lu's regime.

In fact, if he doesn’t do this, the King of Lu will happily accept him. The King of Lu has a small land and few people, and his strength has not been able to develop. Now that he can get such a team and get several counties in Jiangbei, he almost wakes up laughing when he sleeps. .

This time Xie Qian attacked Nantong, and the king of Lu also sent a navy to echo him in Chongming Island.

Nantong is an important stronghold of the Qing army in the north of the Yangtze River. The main purpose is to prevent Chongming's King Lu's army from invading the interior, so there are [-] troops stationed under the command of the Qing general Zhenghongqi Liu Qingtai. The city has enough food, grass, equipment, and money. Thank you I have been coveting it for a long time.

Xie Qian's [-] troops were stationed in the wilderness south of Rugao County. The simple tents stretched for more than ten miles, and the momentum was huge. There was a tall banner with a huge "Ming" character in the middle, and a small letter "Gaoyuan" on the left. Thank you", this is Xie Qian's banner.

King Lu won so many people for nothing, and he was willing to give up titles, not to mention Marquis, even if Xie Qian asked to be named Duke, it would not be a problem.The Golden Seal of Pardon has already been delivered without any delay.

In a large tent covering an area of ​​half an acre in the middle of the camp, Xie Qian stood in front of a map in a daze, and beside him stood the military advisor Zhao Shuxiang. It was because of his plan that Xie Qian was able to enter the Huaihe River from Shandong. , Sitting on several cities, with 20 soldiers, can you change from a bandit to a marquis of Ming Dynasty.

Like all rogues and bandits, Xie Qian's biggest problem is that the team expands too fast and there is no stable logistics supply. As a result, they can only rob the people of food, the military discipline is lax, the combat power is low, and they are also hostile by local tyrants and ordinary people , So Zhao Shuxiang has been planning his transformation, taking advantage of the fact that he is on the line with the King of Lu, and after taking down Nantong, he will restrain his military discipline and change from a bandit to an official army.

Xie Qian also accepted Zhao Shuxiang's persuasion. For the sake of long-term planning, he really needs to change, otherwise it will be difficult to achieve a major event, but the change will take time, and the Manchu Qing may not give him this opportunity.

"The commander got the news that the Qing soldiers cleared out the surrounding troops. Duoduo has assembled an army of [-] in Yangzhou and is pushing towards Tai County from the east. Ma Guanghui and He Luohui have also prepared an army of [-] in Huai'an. Sweeping from the north, it seems that they are going to drive us into the sea!"

Xie Qian seemed a little anxious. He has come to the present step by step, from the ideal of having a wife and children on the kang, to being named Gao Yuanhou by Lu Jianguo, it is not easy.

He knew very well in his heart that the reason why King Lu was so generous was because he occupied five counties on land and had more than [-] horses. If he was defeated by the sea, he might not be able to secure his position as Lord Marquis.

Although the Marquis awarded by King Lu is not as valuable as that of the Longwu Dynasty, he still wants to sit longer.

Zhao Shuxiang used to organize refugees in Dongtai and other coastal areas to dry salt and prepare seeds for the refugees so that they could be planted in the spring, so that the entire rebel army could have a foundation for transformation. He just arrived in Rugao yesterday. There was anticipation, and there was some thought in his mind: "The Qing soldiers wiped out the foreign vigilante army, and they will definitely attack us. This is an inevitable thing, and Lord Hou needn't be anxious."

How can it be possible not to be anxious, Xie Qian is very self-aware, "Although the commander-in-chief claims to be 20, the actual situation is not unknown to the military adviser, so how can we not be in a hurry?"

Zhao Shuxiang thought for a while, "Right now, Lord Hou can only take down Nantong first, pull out this nail, get some food and grass, and then rely on Chongming Island, relying on the support of His Royal Highness King Lu, fortify layer by layer, guard city by city, and persist Go to the imperial court to attack Jiangnan. If Lord Hou persists, it will be a great credit, if not, then the only option is to retreat to Chongming."

Xie Qian listened with doubts on his face, "Isn't the imperial court going to negotiate peace with the Qing court?"

Zhao Shuxiang sneered, "If peace can be negotiated, Duoduo would have withdrawn his troops and returned to Huaibei long ago. How could he have worked so hard to wipe out the rebels on the outskirts for Daming? As for those refugees, just drive them across the river. Hong Chengchou needs to send food Is it settled?"

Xie Qian realized in an instant, "Didn't the court fall for the Qing court's strategy!"

Zhao Shuxiang sighed and said: "It should be that the Qing government wanted to delay the decisive battle and stabilize the internal affairs first, but I don't think this matter will be resolved for a long time, and it will be exposed in the near future. When the time comes, the government and the opposition will be excited, and they will definitely send troops to retaliate. Then Time is Lord Hou's chance!"

Xie Qian nodded. He had no other choice. He couldn’t run to the island right now. He murmured slightly, “Okay! Then the commander-in-chief will pull out Nantong first, and then fight Dodo desperately when he turns around. See if he took Ben’s hand first. Shuai rushed into the sea, but this handsome man was so hard that his front teeth collapsed!"

Zhao Shuxiang thought for a while, and added: "Besides, it's better for Lord Hou to send someone to the west to ask Jindu Town and Hengyang Fan for support!"

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(End of this chapter)