I

Bow makers, kiln workers, and their families were kidnapped by Zhao Han. The total number of women and children exceeded 4,000.

It is difficult to deal with the surrender of elite soldiers, mainly because they are reluctant to leave their families.

It would be fine to forcefully take away the surrendered soldiers, but the morale of the soldiers is hard to predict. They may defect before the battle one day.

Therefore, Zhao Han stayed for a few more days and sent soldiers to various villages to "pick up" their families. It was delayed for another sixteen days, and the Lantern Festival was over in the blink of an eye.

Ships were used to transport supplies. In addition to those recruited by Tian Younian, Zhao Han also grabbed more than ten ships himself.

The elderly and young children also sat on the boat, and the rest all moved along the river bank. After meeting up with Fei Ruhe from Fenyi County, the entire team already numbered tens of thousands of people, marching toward the Gan River in a mighty manner.

Arriving outside the city of Xinyu (Xinyu) County, Tian Younian personally landed ashore and shouted at the gate: "I am Tian Younian, the magistrate of Yuanzhou. I am going to Ji'an to suppress bandits. Quickly collect grain and grass!"

Damn it, they were delayed in Fucheng for half a month, and the news had already reached Xinyu County. Everyone knew that the prefect Yuanzhou was a thief.

Xinyu, the magistrate of the county, could not afford to offend him. Seeing that the thieves were dragging his family with them, as if they were just passing by, he immediately asked the big families in the city to prepare food and grass. It's like spending money to buy peace. In half a day, I got a thousand dan and a merchant ship, and carefully sent the anti-thief gift out of the country.

After walking for another two hours, it was already evening, so we camped by the river to rest.

A small boat sailed back, and the spies reported: "From the main town to the north of Zhangshu Town, no trace of officers and soldiers has been found."

"Okay, you go and have a rest." Zhao Han said.

Tian Younian frowned and said, "That shouldn't be the case. The armies of Li Maofang and Wang Siren should have arrived at Zhangshu Town long ago after receiving my secret message."

"No matter, let's go back first." Zhao Han didn't bother to think about what happened to the governor.

Four days later.

Zhao Han led a large army to Zhangshu Town, which is the medicine capital of the world and the distribution center of traditional Chinese medicine in the entire south.

Zhangshu Town, Jingdezhen, Hekou Town and Wucheng Town are also known as the four famous towns in Jiangxi. At that time, Wang Yangming put down the rebellion of King Ning and gathered troops in Zhangshu Town to go north.

This place is extremely prosperous, with more merchants in one town than in Zhao Han's Ji'an city.

The merchants had long known about the thief, and the shops were closed one after another. The merchant ships also fled to the north, and even few people were seen at the dock.

The material fleet entered the Ganjiang River and headed south along the river back to Ji'an.

Spies continued to row boats to the north to find out information about officers and soldiers. Finally, on the ninth day, news came back that the governor and his troops had gone to the Yangtze River Channel.

"They must be rogue bandits from the northwest who have poured into the areas under the direct jurisdiction of the south." Tian Younian guessed.

Zhao Han knew that the ancestral grave of the old Zhu family had been dug up, but he forgot what year it was. He smiled and said: "The rebels may have gone to Zhongdu (Fengyang)."

Tian Younian was startled and nodded: "It's very possible!"

A few days later, after crossing the border of Xiajiang County, the spies finally came back to report: "The Northwest Rebel Army has entered Nanzhi from Henan!"

This information was very late. When Zhao Han was still in Yuanzhou Mansion, the bandits had already captured Fengyang.

Thousands of people were stationed in Fengyang City, the central capital. The bandits took advantage of the Lantern Festival and sent 300 soldiers into the city in disguise. They cooperated with the outside to capture it in one fell swoop!

Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong were all involved. The imperial mausoleum was destroyed, the palace was burned, and the Longxing Temple (Huangjue Temple) where Zhu Yuanzhang became a monk was burned down. Fengyang's thousands of officers and soldiers were killed even if they surrendered, and more than sixty eunuchs were also killed. The bandits raised the banner of "Ancient Yuan Zhenlong Emperor" and drank happily in front of the ancestral grave of Lao Zhu's family.

The one who proclaimed himself emperor was Zhang Xianzhong, and the one who captured Fengyang City was also Zhang Xianzhong. Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng ran a little slowly.

As for the Ancient Yuan True Dragon Emperor, that is a legend of the White Lotus Sect. In order to win over the White Lotus Sect, Zhang Xianzhong usurped this imperial title and fell out with Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng.

We are all brothers who rebelled together. If you suddenly become emperor, who should I be?

After that, the spoils were divided unevenly and they competed for young eunuchs and royal musical instruments. Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong completely fell out.

Li Zicheng walked northwest and along the Yellow River.

Zhang Xianzhong walked south. At this moment, he was besieging Quanjiao. He wanted to cross the river and occupy Nanjing as the capital.

…

Mid-February.

The Jiangxi troops of Li Maofang and Wang Siren eagerly set off by boat to protect the emperor's ancestral tomb.

Halfway there, I heard that Fengyang had fallen and the bandits were attacking Quanjiao. So the two disembarked from the boat on the Yangtze River and walked to rescue Quan Jiao. They were considered loyal to the emperor and the country.

After marching only more than thirty miles, we heard that Quanjiao County was gone.

Li Maofang was dumbfounded and discussed with Wang Siren privately: "Ji Zhong, it's better to withdraw our troops, or wait for reinforcements from friendly forces. The traitor army is so large that we may not be able to resist it!"

Wang Siren said: "We cannot withdraw our troops. We can go to Hezhou (Hexian) to rest and recuperate, and wait for the troops from six provinces to come to help."

Both of them felt guilty at this time, but it would be too ugly to withdraw their troops midway, so they found a place to hide and give an explanation to the court regardless of victory or defeat.

The next day, the Jiangxi army began to withdraw its troops and wanted to retreat to Hezhou City by boat.

But they had been targeted, and rogue cavalry kept chasing them. At first, there were only a dozen cavalry, but after half a day, there were hundreds of cavalry.

"How can the thieves use so many cavalry?" Li Maofang exclaimed.

Wang Siren said: "We can't retreat to the river, go to the mountains in the northwest!"

The five thousand Jiangxi troops, under the watchful eyes of the bandit cavalry, threw away their baggage and accelerated their march. Hundreds of thieves constantly harassed them, but never attacked - they were all mounted infantry, mainly used for traveling.

Seeing that they were getting closer and closer to Cloak Mountain, the rumble of horse hooves suddenly sounded behind them.

Zhang Xianzhong came in person, bringing with him He Yilong (Ge Liyan) and Ma Shouying (Lao Huihui).

Three groups of thieves, with a total of three thousand cavalry, swept in with an astonishing momentum.

"Run quickly, the bandits are coming!"

The distance between the two sides was still far away. The Jiangxi soldiers collapsed immediately. Li Maofang and Wang Siren were unable to restrain themselves and could only run with the defeated troops.

This is not a battle, but a one-sided massacre. The thieves will catch up and chop them randomly.

The enemies that Zhao Han faced in Jiangxi were just like this, and he had no resistance when encountering rogue bandits.

After escaping into the Cloak Mountain, Li Maofang and Wang Siren counted the number of people, and they all looked ashen. More than 5,000 soldiers landed ashore to suppress the bandits. After a confused battle, only a thousand or so were left.

"Two or three thousand cavalry, are they still bandits?" Li Maofang was shocked.

Wang Siren also said: "No wonder it is difficult for the imperial court to eliminate them. These thieves are more powerful than the officers and soldiers!"

Last year, the rogue bandits were besieged by the army. After escaping, Zhang Xianzhong learned from the pain. After that, whenever a town was conquered, the first thing to grab was not money and food, but troops were sent to collect mules and horses.

Mules and donkeys were used to carry supplies, and horses were used to travel long distances.

If they encounter elite officers and soldiers, they will simply throw away the supplies and the entire army will flee on mules and horses.

Horses seven steps three, this is the proportion of Zhang Xianzhong's army.

It cannot be called cavalry at all, strictly speaking it is just mounted infantry.

Moreover, Zhang Xianzhong became more vigilant. Every time he set up camp, the sentries sent out in all directions could reach as far as ten miles away!

How could Jiangxi Xiangyong defeat such brutal bandits?

Even the officers and soldiers from the six northern provinces were helpless against Zhang Xianzhong. Li Zicheng and Gao Yingxiang also followed suit and looted mules, horses and livestock along the way, but the goods were not that important.

Li Maofang and Wang Siren no longer had any thoughts of suppressing thieves.

They followed the mountain, led more than a thousand infantry down the mountain in the middle of the night, boarded the ship and led the navy back to Jiangxi.

The thieves from the northwest can be suppressed by whomever they like, but they don’t want to come back anyway.

But Zhang Xianzhong conquered Quanjiao, recruited troops and reorganized, and then captured Shucheng in three days. At the same time, they also dispatched partial troops to knock down Lu'an City.

Then he went to attack Luzhou. He couldn't defeat it at first, so he looted the residents outside the city and pretended to leave. Hundreds of people were secretly dispatched, disguised as academic officials, scholars, domestic servants and servants. Many of them wore Confucian shirts and carried books on their backs. They were respectfully invited into the city by the prefect Zheng Luxiang.

Yes, you read that right, the prefect personally welcomed the bandits into the city!

Then, Luzhou (Hefei) disappeared.

After occupying Luzhou City, Zhang Xianzhong immediately trained his navy in Chaohu. He always wanted to cross the river to attack Nanjing and establish the imperial court. During this period, they also selected those who had left the imperial palace as eunuchs, so that they could first experience the addiction of being an emperor.

At this moment, the real army arrived, and Zhang Xianzhong was so frightened that he fled along the Yangtze River. He suffered several defeats along the way and jumped from Huangmei County into the boundaries of Huguang.

This is the closest Zhao Han has ever been to Zhang Xianzhong. Huangmei County is less than a hundred miles away from Jiujiang.

…

Of course Zhao Han didn't know that Zhang Xianzhong was far away in Luzhou and actually helped him eliminate the main force of the Jiangxi governor.

How can you be so embarrassed about such a big favor?

When he returned to Ji'an in mid-February, both civil and military officials went to the south dock to greet him.

"Meng Angong, long time no see." Tian Younian said with cupped hands.

Li Banghua had no impression of him and thought hard: "Your Excellency is..."

Tian Younian replied: "Tian Younian, the magistrate of Yuanzhou, when Meng Angong was the Minister of the Ministry of War, he was the head of the Household Department in Xia'an."

"It turns out to be Mr. Tian." Li Banghua was greatly surprised. Unexpectedly, Zhao Han subdued the prefect of Yuanzhou.

Chen Maosheng stood nearby with a gloomy look on his face.

Pang Chunlai looked across the Gan River and completely ignored the scene in front of him.

Zhao Han felt that the atmosphere was very strange. Something big must have happened, which caused conflicts between Li Banghua, Pang Chunlai and Chen Maosheng.

After returning to the General Military Mansion, Xiao Huan handed over a letter.

Zhao Han opened it and took a look, but it was a life-seal letter.

It was written by a female member of the mission team. She used to be a prostitute in Ji'an Prefecture and later joined the mission team. During the Chinese New Year, the mission team organized performances in the countryside to visit grassroots officials and farmers' association members in various towns.

On the way, he stayed at the mayor's house. This mayor was a thief. Because of his outstanding performance in dividing the land and his high academic qualifications, he was quickly promoted to the mayor.

This guy doesn't know what kind of style he is into, but he is greedy for the beauty of the female missionary. Or, maybe they feel that the other person has been a prostitute before and doesn't care about sex, so they insult the female missionary in the middle of the night.

The next morning, the mission captain learned of the incident and immediately sent the mayor to report it to the official.

Ouyang Zheng, the county magistrate, suddenly had a headache and could only hand the case over to the General Military Office because the mayor and the missionary team were involved.

Li Banghua and Pang Chunlai quarreled over this, and the female missionary became more and more desperate. She actually left a suicide note and committed suicide. Fortunately, she was discovered in time by her good sisters.

Chen Maosheng was so angry that he not only wanted to remove the mayor, but also wanted to accuse him of raping women.

Officials from the Jishui faction also united, thinking that a prostitute pretending to be a martyr and leaving a letter to commit suicide was just acting.

The conflict between the Elder Faction and the Jishui Faction suddenly broke out.

Zhao Han sighed: "It's still expanding too fast. Those scholars still have the same thinking as before. It's time to kill a few of them!"