Author: Scholar Wu

After learning that Jin Shenghuan was still leading his troops to attack Ganzhou, Qian Mo also felt deeply depressed.

Unexpectedly, my advance planning was disrupted by Huang Renlong, a "big liar".

However, fortunately, Qian Mo had already sent people in advance to purchase 70% to 80% of the grain on the ground in Ganzhou.

With insufficient food, Liu Wuyuan, the governor of Southern Jiangxi, could not stay on guard for long.

Historically, when Ganzhou was besieged by Jin Shenghuan, the food supply in the city increased to 45 taels of silver and 1 stone.

Now that Ganzhou's grain has been plundered by Qian Mo in advance, the price is probably going to go crazy. Although most of the purchased grain has been secretly transferred to the vicinity of Nanchang by Qian Mo.

However, greedy Qian Mo still left 5,000 shi of grain near Ganzhou, intending to turn it into hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

Looking towards the direction of Jiangxi, Qian Mo thought to himself: Lao Jin, I can only help you here. If you can't take Ganzhou again, you won't be able to justify it.

But it’s not all bad news coming from Jiangxi.

Qian Mo got two pieces of good news.

One is that Qian Ning came to report that Song Yingxing had finally been found.

It turns out that Song Yingxing did live in seclusion in his hometown of Fengxin County, Nanchang Prefecture, but he had been living in seclusion in the mountains and had not had much contact with the outside world.

This time, Jin Shenghuan made too much noise, which alerted Song Yingxing. The Intelligence Department had a chance to discover his whereabouts this time. Mr. Song has agreed to go out and is on his way to Tianjiazhuang.

Second, the Northern Expedition armies of Jiang Riguang and Pan Yongxi have entered Huizhou Prefecture and won the first battle.

Many local gentry in Huizhou also responded, and with the support of the gentry, the Wuyuan County Magistrate declared that the situation was over.

Pan Yongxi also captured Qimen County with the cooperation of the gentry, and is now marching towards the capital city of Huizhou.

The city of Nanjing was now empty of troops. Governor Ma Guozhu urgently ordered Bashan to lead 5,000 Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners to return to defend Nanjing.

In addition, Gushan Ezhen, the Eight Banner garrison in Hangzhou, and Pingnan General Jin Li led 4,000 Eight Banners to aid Huizhou at night.

Now that there are only 4,000 soldiers and horses left in Hangzhou, the governor of Zhejiang, Xiao Qiyuan, urgently mobilized 4,000 green battalions from Ningbo, Shaoxing, and Taizhou to aid Hangzhou.

Originally, Xiao Qiyuan wanted to deploy Tian Xiong's troops to defend Hangzhou, but the Chongming Navy was shelling Jinshan Guards at this time, and the Susong area was insufficient in troops, so he gave up this idea.

In addition, Guangxin Prefecture in Jiangxi was also in emergency, and the Qing troops in Yanzhou and Quzhou were also ordered to reinforce Shangrao.

At this time, there were very few Qing troops in the entire eastern Zhejiang region.

It is already March. Historically, at the latest in early May, the Qing government's southern expedition army reached near Nanchang.

There are less than 2 months of prime time left for Qian Mo.

Huizhou is mountainous, and it is no longer realistic for Jiang Riguang's Northern Expedition army to capture Nanjing.

If Huizhou can be controlled, the Qing troops can be prevented from entering Jiangxi in Huizhou. Rapid control of Huizhou is the best strategy.

So Qian Mo decided to send someone to contact Jiang Riguang and said that we would raise troops in Huzhou and fully cooperate with him to capture Huizhou.

Qian Mo, who wanted to hide behind others and reap profits, felt like Huang Jiguang who dared to "block the spotlight" and sacrificed himself to help others, which was not his style at all.

Now that the time was ripe in all aspects, Qian Mo decided to send troops to occupy Huzhou and attract Qing troops from eastern Zhejiang to come for reinforcements to cover Zhang Mingzhen, Zhang Huangyan and others in their attack on Taizhou Prefecture.

After another month and a half of preparation, the battalions under the Suhu Governor's Mansion are now strong and strong, and their firearms have all been replaced with new Rumi guns.

At this time, Huzhou Prefecture had jurisdiction over six counties and one state: Wucheng County, Gui'an County, Deqing County, Wukang County, Changxing County, Xiaofeng County, and Anji Prefecture.

However, the Qing army in Huzhou was empty at this time. There were only 1,000 troops stationed in Huzhou Prefecture, 500 troops stationed in Anji Prefecture, the prefecture city, and only 500 troops stationed in other counties. The entire Huzhou Prefecture only had a green camp of 2,000 troops.

This time, 1,000 people from the Taihu Battalion of the Suhu Governor's Mansion stayed in Taihu, and 1,000 people from the Jiaxing Battalion were stationed in Tianjiazhuang.

At this time, the Jingnan Camp, Chongming Camp and Shenji Camp had all reached a size of 1,600 people.

Qian Mo was planning to take over six counties and one state in Huzhou in one fell swoop to see the reaction of Zhejiang Governor Xiao Qiyuan.

March 2, the second year of Yongli (1648).

At the gate of the government office in Anji Prefecture, two brothers, Orion Wang Ji and Wang Li, were beating the grievance drum at the gate of the government office.

At this time, two government officials hurriedly stepped forward to stop him and shouted loudly: "Where are you these unscrupulous people who dare to disturb Master Zhizhou from his rest? I think you don't want to live anymore."

I saw my brother Wang Ji smiling and saying: "Two official brothers, it's not that we brothers mean to disturb Master Zhizhou from his rest, but we have really big news to report to Master."

The yamen servant glanced at the two poor hunters with disdain and said impatiently: "What news can we get from just the two of us?"

At this time, Wang Ji quietly whispered in front of the government officials: "We discovered the gang of 'Uncle Ma', a key anti-Qing criminal wanted by the government, and the government has offered a reward of 500 taels of silver."

Hearing the name "Uncle Ma", the yamen servant immediately became energetic.

You must know that this "Uncle Ma" group is an anti-Qing bandit that has been causing trouble for a long time in Huzhou. They have been fighting against the government for the past two years.

The Huzhou government chased them many times, but this group of people came and went without a trace, and there was no trace of them at all.

Last year, Huzhou Prefecture dispatched a thousand people and rounded them up in Mogan Mountain for two days and two nights. In the end, they found an empty village abandoned by the bandits.

A few months ago, they ambushed officers and soldiers who went to the countryside to collect taxes, killing and wounding several people.

The prefect of Huzhou was really at his wits end and directly offered a reward of 500 taels of silver for the leader "Uncle Ma"'s head. Even those who provided accurate information were rewarded with 50 taels of silver.

So the yamen servant quickly took the two of them into the yamen to meet Mr. Zhizhou.

Ma Li, the magistrate of Anji Prefecture, is 42 years old this year. He was a Jinshi in the 16th year of Chongzhen's reign. Speaking of which, he is the same age as Qian Mo.

Now I have been serving as magistrate for several years, and I am thinking about how to curry favor with Shangguan so that I can make further progress.

Hearing that some hunters had discovered the whereabouts of the bandit leader "Uncle Ma", they immediately became energetic and asked, "Are you sure it is the bandit leader 'Uncle Ma'?"

Wang Li said: "Every time we two brothers enter the venue, we see the portrait of 'Uncle Ma' on the wanted poster. This is 500 taels of silver. Even if we mistake our biological father, we cannot mistake 'Uncle Ma'."

Wang Ji added from the side: "We also heard this 'Uncle Ma' call a one-eyed dragon his second brother."

Ma Li thought to himself that 'Second Master Ma' was a one-eyed dragon. It seemed that he couldn't be wrong.

He quickly asked: "How many troops do they have in Mogan Mountain?"

At this time Wang Ji said: "The villain was discovered accidentally while hunting. The exact number of people is unclear, but it seems that there are at least forty or fifty people."

Ma Li, who was eager to perform meritorious service, asked his subordinate General Hu to lead 400 officers and soldiers to Mogan Mountain to eliminate "Uncle Ma", while he stayed in the city to wait for good news.

Brothers Wang Ji and Wang Li took Mr. Hu Ba and others around Mogan Mountain for more than two hours.

Mr. Hu asked impatiently: "Where is this bandit's camp? Why haven't they arrived after walking for a long time?"

Wang Ji said: "It shouldn't be far away. I remember it's in the col ahead."

"How about you, military men, take a rest here while we brothers go ahead to explore the road first."

So General Manager Hu pointed at a few soldiers and said: "You two should follow him together. When you see the camp, don't scare the enemy, and come back as soon as possible to report."

After the Wang brothers left, the exhausted Qing soldiers sat down on the mountain path to rest.

Before my butt was even hot from sitting, I heard a "bang, bang, bang" sound.

Many Qing soldiers were shot and fell to the ground.

I saw a large number of bandits on the nearby hillside.

Boss Hu shouted: "Oh no, we have been fooled and ambushed by bandits. Everyone, please follow me to break out."

As soon as General Hu Ba looked up, he saw several soldiers in front of him were shot and fell to the ground.

Several gunners on the high slope in front were holding torches, and two squatting tiger cannons were pointed directly at him.

At this time, 'Uncle Ma' Ma Zhanyuan shouted: "If you don't quickly put down your weapons and surrender, I will fire the cannon."

Hu Baizong originally thought he was just being ambushed by some bandits, but after seeing the Ming Dynasty flags and uniform military uniforms all over the mountains and plains, he no longer had any intention of resisting.

Where are the bandits here? They are clearly the elite officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty!

So he immediately ordered his men to stop resisting and declare surrender!

At this time, Ma Li, the governor of Anji, was listening to a ditty in the government office, waiting for Mr. Hu to capture "Uncle Ma" so that he could go to Huzhou Fucheng to claim credit and reward.

Suddenly, Ma Zhanyuan led his troops to attack the Zhizhou Yamen, which frightened Ma Li to death.

Ma Zhanyuan smiled at Ma Li and said, "I heard that Master Zhizhou was going to use my head to ask for rewards in the city. I took the initiative to deliver it to you. Master Ma, why don't you do it quickly?"

At this time Qian Mo appeared and said: "Brother Ma, please stop scaring Ma Zhizhou."

I still have a deep impression on Qian Mo and Mali. They were both Jinshi in the 16th year of Wanli. Qian Mo has been known as a "child prodigy" since he was a child. In addition, he is the youngest Jinshi in that department, so he naturally has a deep memory.

Not long ago, Qian Mo made such a big splash in Nanjing and became a disciple of Hong Chengchou. Ma Li was even envious of him.

But I heard before that Qian Mo had died in the Yangtze River, so how could he appear here?

Seeing Ma Li's confusion, Qian Mo said, "Brother Nian, don't you remember Qian Mo? You and I are Jinshi in the same discipline?"

People in this era still pay great attention to the feelings of being from the same hometown and age. With this relationship, they will naturally be much closer than ordinary people. Qian Mo called Ma Li "Brother Nian" to express his intention to win over. How could Ma Li do this?

do not understand.

So he immediately changed his face and said: "If you don't know the great talent, how can you forget it? It's just that I heard a while ago that I didn't know my life and died in the Yangtze River, so I sighed for a long time."

"Now that I see Wu Shi safe and sound, my brother is really overjoyed."

Ma Zhanyuan couldn't stand it anymore and shouted angrily: "How dare you, a fake official like you, dare to be brothers with the Governor here, are you worthy of it?"

Looking at the confused Ma Li, Qian Mo said: "I am now the governor of Suhu, personally appointed by Emperor Yongli of the Ming Dynasty, and supervise all affairs of Susonghu and Jiasi Mansion. Now Jin Shenghuan is already in Jiangxi. Anyway, the world is facing the Ming Dynasty. I am the governor."
To be continued...