What is the desire to destroy the country and the family?

There is my teacher at the head of Xizi Lake;

The sun and the moon hang in the tomb of the clan,

The Yue Family Ancestral Hall in the half-block of the universe.★

"Dialoir of Hometown in August" by Zhang Huangyan, Minister of War of the Ming Dynasty

In Ningguo Mansion, a monk pretending to be the Songyin Temple in Jinshan hurried into the city. Soon, Zhang Huangyan, who was receiving the representatives of the gentry from Huizhou Mansion, received amazing news. The Yanping County Prince was defeated in Nanjing. The news came too suddenly and was too unexpected, so that Zhang Huangyan was stunned and could not believe it for a long time.

Before this, Zhang Huangyan had strongly urged Zheng Chenggong to take Zhenjiang and march from the 6th route into Nanjing. Later, in order to cooperate with the Zheng army's operations, he invited him to be the vanguard and led more than 3,000 soldiers from the headquarters to get off the ship and tie cables day and night among the reeds on both sides of the straits, and arrived at the Guanyin Sect in Nanjing eight days in advance. Unexpectedly, Zheng Chenggong did not adopt the suggestion of Zhang Huangyan and Gan Hui to go to the 6th route, and still took a sea boat to go through the water, which resulted in Zhang Huangyan's troops being isolated and helpless under the city of Nanjing. The Qing army was blocked by more than 100 fast ships out of the Xinhe River and blocked them. Zhang's troops were rarely frustrated. Fortunately, the Qing army knew that Zheng Chenggong's army was behind and did not dare to pursue them, so Zhang's troops were able to protect them.

Because he could not wait for Zheng Chenggong's army for a long time, Zhang Huangyan gathered his troops to cruise in the river near Nanjing, and sent a large number of envoys to attract neighboring states and counties. Zhang's troops stopped at Pukou, the north of the Yangtze River. More than a hundred Qing cavalry in Pukou City did not dare to defend the city, but fled from the north gate. Seven soldiers under Zhang Huangyan's troops entered the city from the south gate and were restored to Pukou.

When Zheng Chenggong's army finally arrived at the city of Nanjing, news came that officials and gentry in Wuhu and other places had surrendered and surrendered. Zheng Chenggong believed that collecting the upper reaches of the counties could not only recover lost territory, promote military power, but also block the Qing army from Shunjiang to Shunjiang in Huguang, Jiangxi and other places. So he asked Zhang Huangyan to lead the Zhou army to the west and be responsible for attacking Nanjing.

When Zhang Huangyan arrived in Wuhu, his subordinates were less than a thousand soldiers and less than a hundred ships. Fortunately, Zhao Zhen, the garrison general of the Wuhu in Qing Dynasty, led his troops to rescue Nanjing. There were no Qing soldiers in Wuhu City, and the local gentry surrendered, so Zhang's troops were able to get on the shore. Then, Zhang Huangyan issued a proclamation in the name of Zheng Chenggong, the prince of Yanping County, informing officials and gentry of the four prefectures, Taiping, Ningguo, Chizhou and Huizhou, all sent personnel to surrender. In just one month, he recruited surrender and recovered the four prefectures, three prefectures and forty-two counties. He had to surrender the Qing army and local gentry and civilians to participate bravely, and the troops were expanded to more than 60,000 troops in the water.

Except for Anqing, the upstream basically fell into the hands of the Ming army, and the downstream of the Yangtze River all surrendered. There were many great situations. As long as you get a Nanjing, you can fully recover the southeastern half of the wall. However, I never thought that King Yanping was defeated in Nanjing and the entire army retreated!

Zhang Huangyan was extremely anxious. Once Zheng Chenggong's army retreated, his more than 10,000 troops alone could not stop the Qing army. But now most of the counties in Wuhu, Chizhou, Ningguo, and Taiping Prefectures have returned to the Ming Dynasty. Countless gentry of Ming Dynasty risked beheading and supported the Ming army. If he led his troops to retreat like King Yanping, wouldn't it be that these gentry and people were killed and the hearts of the gentry and people in the world were even colder?

After Zhang Huangyan discussed with Zheng Yungeng, he decided to send the Seizuo who was pretending to be a monk to find Zheng Chenggong's camp with his handwritten letter. He asked Zheng Chenggong not to withdraw anyway. Even if Zheng Jun was really leaving, he asked Zheng Cheng to send him a hundred large ships. Zhang Huangyan made up his mind to stick to it in the upper reaches of Nanjing.

In the letter, Zhang Huangyan wrote: "The common things of victory and defeat are not different. What we rely on today is the people's hearts, and the upper counties and towns are guarded by me. If we can help a hundred ships, the affairs of the world can still be achieved. If we leave it immediately, what is it like a million creatures?"

After all this was arranged, Zhang Huangyan immediately rushed back to Wuhu, and then ordered his subordinates from all over the country to Wuhu to discuss the next steps of the Zhejiang army.

The serfs and slaves in the Wuhu yamen were all cleared out, and the people on duty were all the elites of Zhang Huangyan's Zhejiang Army. The atmosphere was very tense. When the generals who came to discuss the matter learned the news of Nanjing's defeat, they all looked solemn.

Wei Dalong, the general under the command of Zhang Mingzhen, the former Marquis of Dingxi, stood up and asked, "Where is King Yanping now? Is it in Zhenjiang? If it is in Zhenjiang, there is still something to do."

Zhang Huangyan sighed and said, "The Yanping King's fleet has sailed to Chongming."

"What? Go to Chongming!" Wei Dalong exclaimed in a flash, "Isn't King Yanping going to kill us?"

"Even if King Yanping is leaving, he should send someone to notify us. We can retreat immediately. His fleet has gone to Chongming, and we only received the news that he does not value the lives of our Zhejiang soldiers at all!" Another general, 6 Fengming, clenched his fists hatefully, and was very disappointed and saddened by King Yanping's actions regardless of his allies.

The generals in the hall were inexplicably sad and angry, and some were impatient and even angrily scolded King Yanping for being unkind and unrighteous. Zhang Huangyan stood up and signaled the generals not to quarrel. He said, "The King Yanping has no choice. In the battle of Nanjing, he lost hundreds of ships and tens of thousands of elite soldiers. Generals Gan Hui and Yu Xin both asked the Qing army to capture them. If they did not retreat in a hurry, the fleet might be blocked in the Yangtze River by the Qing army."

"The Secretary of the State knows how to think about others, what about us? King Yanping is worried about being trapped, so what should we do?! Even if we want to withdraw, we should notify us to withdraw together!"

Wei Dalong's words attracted the generals to agree.

Zhang Wensheng, the former Qing army's Nanling garrison who had just returned to the Ming Dynasty, suddenly asked: "Will King Yanping enter the river again after he arrived in Chongming?"

What Zhang Wensheng asked attracted all the generals, and they all looked at Zhang Huangyan. If King Yanping would enter the river again, the situation would not be very dangerous, but it would not be bad. After all, the Zheng army's navy was invincible on the Yangtze River. Even if some ships were lost, it was definitely not something that the Qing army could fight against the enemy.

Zhang Huangyan hesitated for a moment and said slowly: "To be honest, I don't know the plan of King Yanping. Will I reorganize the army and fight again after arriving in Chongming? Or should I withdraw or negotiate peace with the Tartars? Lord Pan Gengzhong and General Gan Hui, who can speak out against King Yanping, are no longer there. Everything depends on the thought of King Yanping. However, Yanping intends to enter the river again. Now he is careful to find out that the Tartars' warships have increased greatly and the troops are everywhere, so we need to have the worst plan. No matter what, we must persevere and not waste all our efforts."

"Everyone, the road is ready, so we don't have to complain anymore. Although the situation is not good now, it is not completely impossible. As long as we are united, we can still find a way out." The person who spoke was the general Guo Faguang, who was originally the leader of the Dingxi Hou recruited in Zhejiang, and was very brave. After Zhang Huangyan took over the Zhejiang army of Dingxi Hou's troops, he promoted Guo Faguang to be the general, and was a general under Zhang Huangyan who could be a useful general.

After hearing Guo Faguang's words, Wei Dalong also echoed: "We follow Lord Shangshu, and we are going to kill the Tartars. I will do whatever the Secretary Shang says!"

The generals also expressed their opinions that they would follow the actions of Lord Shangshu, and work together to overcome this difficulty.

Zhang Huangyan nodded and turned around to ask Xu Yungeng beside him: "What do you think?"

"Think about it first. For our relatives on the boat, is it safer to advance or retreat?"

Xu Yungeng was the aide who had been with Zhang Huangyan for the longest time. In addition to planning for him, he was easy-going and able to enjoy himself with the soldiers. When his subordinates had disputes, Xu Yungeng could still resolve the disputes. So when he heard him speak, Wei Dalong asked, "What should I do? Please tell me in detail when I join the army."

"I think the news of the defeat of Yanping King Nanjing should have not yet reached Jiangnanyou and Jiangxi, so we still have time to prepare. However, our army is not good at 6 battles, so I thought we could go straight to Poyang Lake along Jiangxi. Jiangxi has always been an important place to fight Qing Dynasty. With the reputation of Shangshu for more than ten years, we should call for the rebel army to rise again in Jiangxi, which is much safer than going to sea through the Qing army defense zone in Shunjiang." Xu Yungeng said what he thought was the best method.

Zhang Wensheng asked, "How about retreating?"

Xu Yungeng said: "When Yanping's army was defeated in Nanjing, the Tartars must be in full swing. The Qing army that originally surrendered to us will turn to us as enemies, so we are very likely to be attacked from front and back, so retreating along the river is by no means the best strategy!"

After hearing this, the generals were thinking about which is better, advance or retreat.

Zhang Huangyan said, "Joining the army means to attack upstream to consolidate my achievements in the four prefectures of Jiangnan. In this way, even without the assistance of King Yanping, we can still get food on the spot to protect ourselves. If we can seize Jiangxi, we can contact the Taiping Army in Guangdong Province..."

While Zhang Huangyan was talking, a voice of dispute suddenly came outside the house, and his personal soldiers came to report: "A commoner was outside clamoring to see the Secretary of the House. We said you were discussing, but he must see him."

"Let him come in, maybe something is wrong."

Zhang Huangyan waved his hand and asked his personal soldiers to bring in. The person who came in was a commoner who seemed to be a businessman. When the man saw Zhang Huangyan, he hurriedly stepped forward and bowed to the food business. He then said, "Shangshu Zhang, the villain is a food dealer and has long been accused of Shangshu's name. So when he heard some news, he felt it was not good for Shangshu, so he rushed for two days, thinking that he must tell Shangshu the news."

Zhang Huangyan hurriedly asked, "Oh, what news?"

The merchant said, "The Taiping Mansion has changed its flag and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty!"

Zhang Huangyan was shocked and asked anxiously: "What is the situation in Taiping Zhou and other places?"

The merchant shook his head and said, "This villain is not very clear, but I heard that many places where they surrendered to the Ming Dynasty have turned to surrender to the Qing Dynasty."

After hearing this, Zhang Huangyan was silent for a moment and sighed: "This matter was predictable, but it came sooner."

The merchant remembered something and said, "In addition, a thousand military ships of the Tartars have passed through Anqing, saying that the Prince of Tartars went to Nanjing to reinforce."

Xu Yungeng, the military officer, said urgently: "Will the Tartar soldiers berthed in Chizhou?"

The merchant said: "I may have lost a boat and rested in Chizhou, but now it is so chaotic, maybe I may not have stopped the boat in Chizhou."

Xu Yungeng asked the merchants about Chizhou and Anqing again, thanked this person and ordered his personal soldiers to take him down.

Zhang Huangyan asked the generals: "Chizhou is the important place for us to Jiangxi. Now that the Qing soldiers are approaching, should we rush to help?"

None of the generals spoke. Some were worried, some were nervous, and some were not afraid, but there was no way to imagine, and they could only remain silent.

"The situation is already very clear, and we have no way out. Maybe Prince Zheng stayed in Chongming for a few days and would regain his reputation. Then we will go down the river and respond to each other!" Seeing that the morale of the army was a little shaken, Guo Feiguang cheered everyone up.

Zhang Huangyan and Xu Yungeng discussed for a while, but had no good idea, so they asked the generals to set sail to Chizhou immediately and waited there before making the next decision.

Zhang Huangyan's fleet arrived in Tongling first, and on the way, they encountered a small team of Qing soldiers sailing towards Nanjing. The two sides fought. The Qing army had few ships, but they were defeated by Zhang Huangyan's artillery fire and were sunk four ships. However, because more than 10,000 people from Zhang's army were riding on various ships of different sizes and upstream, the front and back ships were more than ten miles apart, so many people in the back team did not know. Moreover, the army is worried about whether they would encounter the more than a thousand warships of the Qing army after arriving in Chizhou, so their morale is very sluggish.

At midnight, Zhang Huangyan and Xu Yungeng discussed military affairs until the third update. When Zhang Huangyan was about to sleep for a while, he suddenly heard the sound of cannons outside, and many people in the camp were shouting: "The thief and Tartars are coming!"

Zhang Huangyan rushed to the deck to watch, and saw fires rising from time to time in the distance on the river, and the noises were noisy, so it was impossible to know the situation. Zhang Huangyan thought that it was the Qing army who came to rob the camp, so he ordered to prepare for the war, but the sound of Qing army artillery on the river gradually faded away, and apart from the vague voices, he no longer knew the specifics.

Suddenly, Zhang Huangyan did not dare to enter the cabin, so he was on the deck with his clothes. After dawn, he sent a small boat to investigate and count it. It turned out that several Qing soldiers downstream fired their artillery to enhance their courage, and the two sides did not have any substantial battle.

Just when Zhang Huangyan and the generals were relieved, an unexpected situation occurred. When the fleet of Zhang troops was anchored in a farther place heard the Qing army coming, they were so scared that they untied the cables and raised sails without knowing the truth, leaving less than 3,000 people in Zhang troops. Most of the people who left without complaining were the Qing army surrendered and local volunteers who had been recruited and received in more than a month, Qisheng and others.

Most of the fleet left, with less than 3,000 troops able to fight, and the strategy of advancing Jiangxi became difficult to implement. Zhang Huangyan was heartbroken and decided to change to Chaohu. After he settled down and insisted on fighting against the Qing Dynasty, Zhang Huangyan suddenly felt a bitterness and aging, and the people became much older in an instant.

After learning that Lord Shangshu was about to go to Chaohu, generals such as Wei Dalong opposed it, believing that Chaohu Lake was shallow after the winter, it was not convenient to stay in the sea boats at all. It was better to enter the Huoshan Mountain area, where there were many villages of the Anti-Qing Yishi, which may be able to gain a foothold. After considering it, Zhang Huangyan adopted this suggestion and resolutely ordered the entire army to abandon the boat and board the 6th to rush to Tongcheng, and enter the mountain area from Tongcheng.

Ying and Huoshan District belong to the Dabie Mountains, and are at the intersection of Henan, Anhui and Hubei provinces. The mountains are undulating and foggy all year round. It is particularly steep in Anhui, with steep cliffs and canyons everywhere. Some anti-Qing organizations are still building villages in the mountains. Because many soldiers of Zhejiang Army accompany them, and their weapons and supplies, Zhang's progress is very slow. It took six days to arrive in Tongcheng. Fortunately, the journey is safe, and the Qing army does not know that Zhang's troops have transferred from the 6th route. However,

The greater test for the Zhejiang Army has just begun. The Zhejiang Army wants to enter the mountainous area of ​​2 or 300 feet. Not only do it through mountains and rivers, but also needs to cross dangerous peaks and cliffs. Even the cavalry can only lead horses. Moreover, most of the soldiers come from the coast and lack the equipment and experience of climbing. After a few days, they either get wet in the rain and get cold, or have blisters on their feet. The family and wife are young, and they are even more miserable, but everyone is gritting their teeth and persevering, no one complains, and no one leaves the team.

Originally, Zhang Huangyan's target was Yangshanzhai, a village located on the top of the mountain, which could accommodate tens of thousands of people and was always the base for the anti-Qing Dynasty. Zhang Huangyan had already sent a letter through the local volunteers. Unexpectedly, after walking most of the way, he learned that Yangshanzhai had been recruited by the Qing army, because of the defeat in Nanjing. Zhang Huangyan was very angry and almost wanted to lead his troops to capture it, but considering the steep terrain and was not easy to attack, he finally gave up and went to Yingshan Mountain.

On the Mid-Autumn Festival on August 15th, the Zhejiang army led by Zhang Huangyan was still marching in the mountains. Suddenly, the Qing army guarded him in front of him. In order to avoid damage, Zhang Huangyan decided to cross Dongxi Ridge and take a detour to avoid it. As a result, after walking for more than half a day, the rear came to report that the Tartars had caught up.

Zhang Huangyan was shocked and did not understand why the Qing army was so quick. Later, he came to report it. Only then did he find out that the cavalry of the Tatars behind him were exhausted. At this time, the Zhang army was exhausted, and the wife and daughters were weak, and the soldiers were so hungry that they could not walk. If they continued to march, the Qing army cavalry would catch up with him, and they would probably be destroyed here.

Zhang Huangyan gritted his teeth and ordered generals such as Guo Faguang and Wei Dalong to select hundreds of soldiers to follow him after he was appointed. Xu Yungeng wanted to join the army and lead the others to continue walking, and it was necessary to preserve the seeds of the Zhejiang Army.

The Zhejiang army could not bear to see the Lord Shangshu for their support, and they all knew that the Lord Shangshu would die for the country after this support, so both soldiers and women and children refused to leave alone, and they all said that they would die with Lord Shangshu. The scene was so sad that those who heard it shed tears and those who watched it were sad.

Zhang Huangyan said to everyone in tears: "You have followed me and Dingxi Hou for many years. I, Zhang Huang, feel the inspiration in my heart. However, in today's situation, the Tartars' goal is me. In order to preserve the strength of the anti-Qing Dynasty, you should leave and take good care of it. You will depend on you in the future to restore the Ming Dynasty." After saying that, he bowed to the ground, and everyone looked at each other with tears in their eyes, reluctant to leave.

"Take a care!"

A soldier suddenly bowed to the ground, and everyone knelt down, and howling sounded loudly in the mountains.

Zhang Huangyan, Guo Faguang, Wei Dalong and other generals led less than 50 people to lie on the hillsides on both sides of the Qing army. Before long, there was a sound of hoofs in the rear. Then everyone saw hundreds of Qing army's armored cavalry appearing, and the flag color was a white flag.

"It's the Mongolian Tartars!"

Wei Dalong once fought with the Manchu and Mongolian real Tatars, and at a glance they could see the Mongolian real Tatars with white flags. What they heard was the real Mongolian real Tatars. Although the Zhejiang Army was afraid, no one left his post easily. Everyone had the idea of ​​death to fight for their companions and relatives to survive.

Zhang Huangyan drew his sword and was about to order an arrow, but the Qing cavalry opposite seemed to have an ambush from the Zhejiang army, and they stopped. They pointed at the hillside for the generals and said something to the people around them.
Chapter completed!