Chapter 841 The Last Battle

In the vast night, more than 20,000 soldiers and horses began to travel back to Anqing Prefecture in more than 100 warships. At the same time, more than 20,000 soldiers and horses in the Jiangpu camp also left the land to Anqing. On the Jiangpu Pier, the people who came to see him off were dense, and the black figures were all over the corners, and they saw the Duke of Zhen leave Nanjing.

On his leave, Song Nan secretly ordered the two commanders of Jin Wuwei's army guards to control the situation in Nanjing, strictly clean up the generals that Zhu Chenhao might still exist in the army, and ordered Wang Zitong, the commander-in-chief of Nanjing Jinyiwei, to participate in the matter. And Song Nan secretly explained to the two commanders in charge of Nanjing's soldiers and horses: In extraordinary times, the army will not be assigned by the Nanjing Military Department or the admiral of the Nanjing Left-be Department. In the final analysis, Song Nan is still full of distrust of Huang Jue and other Nanjing officials. At this critical time, Song Nan does not allow Nanjing to have any flash. Lost.

These people may not be at fault. After suppressing the rebellion, they naturally open up to Song Nan, an official who has no major fault, but now is not the right time.

The next morning, a slowly tracing fleet arrived in Dangtu, where a small number of rebels were stationed, but when they heard that the imperial army had attacked, they had already gone to the city; only the ruins of the burned and looted county were left.

Under the broken wall, the women and children sat on the rubble in pain. The bodies of the killed people could be seen everywhere, and the young men had disappeared. Obviously, they were all taken away and joined the army.

Song Nan gritted his teeth. Zhu Chenhao's behavior was almost the same as that of bandits. Of course, from a practical point of view, Zhu Chenhao's current supplies are tight. He will definitely plunder all the large and small towns on the way from Nanjing to Anqingfu, otherwise it would be difficult to guarantee his military needs, but this is no longer a struggle. The behavior of the prince who seized the imperial power was similar to the behavior of Liu Liu and Liu Qi in those years.

Until evening, the westbound army encountered its first resistance. It was on the river in Wuhu County, more than 20 rebel warships suddenly appeared to attack and took advantage of the current to let dozens of burning boats down the river, intending to rush into the fleet of officers and soldiers to burn ships.

But how could this attempt succeed? Before the boat approached, Mrs. Song's rocket gun on the ship bombarded and sank the boat hundreds of feet away. Mao 18 led 30 warships to fight against 20 warships of the rebels. After several battles, he sank the rebel flagship, and the rest of the ships retreated in a hurry. Because there was no advanced warship, it quickly Du couldn't keep up. Mao 18 had to watch the enemy ship escaping farther and curse on the deck.

It was night, and the fleet moored in Wuhu for a night to rest. Because Song Nan did not want to be too eager to attack, he knew that Zhu Chenhao was actually a frightened bird at this moment. Knowing that the army was surrounded on all sides, he had no way to escape. It was not a bad thing to arrive later. At least it would be better to let Zhu Chenhao suffer more mentally. Song Nan hoped that Zhu Chenhao could use this last time to figure out clearly that it would be better to disarm and surrender. Song Nan did not want Mei Zizhou's head to float all over the river again. That was also Song Nan's nightmare.

......

Anqing Prefecture has become a dead city. Zhu Chenhao's defeated army finally fled here one day and one night, but bad news came one after another. Tens of thousands of troops led by Xu Tai north of Anqing Prefecture have passed Heqi County and came aggressively. The previously planned intention to go north to occupy Fengyang Prefecture and even rely on Dabie Mountain. The plan doesn't work. With today's strength, fighting with Xu Tai is tantamount to self-destruction.

In the south, there are soldiers and horses reinforced by the state government around Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The Jiujiang Mansion in the west has been taken over by Jiang Bin, and there is news that Li Gui, the county magistrate of Pengze County, who surrendered to himself, has turned Pengze County to Jiang Bin, and Wang Shouren is sitting behind Jiang Bin. In the west I can't go either.

The east side is even more terrible, and Song Nan's soldiers and horses can't be provoked. The nightmare of that night was still in front of him, and he dared not make up his mind in the east any more.

For a moment, Zhu Chenhao felt like a flying insect in a cobweb, full of spider silk in all directions, binding his hands and feet, so that he could not move at all and could not escape. There seems to be an invisible net in the whole sky, and the disaster is in front of us.

In the face of such a predicament, the left and right military divisions and the officials and generals who followed Zhu Chenhao also lost their voices collectively. They also realized that there was nothing to save the fate of defeat. In the face of Zhu Chenhao's question, they could only keep silent, because any way was futile and waiting for their fate to be foreseeable.

On the contrary, Li Shishi put forward some untimely proposed a way that negotiation was not a way. He said that he would use the existing soldiers and horses at hand as a bargaining chip to reach a peace policy with the court, otherwise he would break through the strong siege. Even if he was defeated, he would stir up the Anhui realm. In the final analysis, he would persuade Zhu Chenhao to surrender.

Zhu Chenhao was furious. This stupid plan could be put forward by Li Shishi. If he could surrender, would he let his concubine and his mother die on the Yangtze River that day? It's ridiculous to surrender now. In the face of Li Shishi's endless chatter, Zhu Chenhao couldn't stand it. He jumped up from his seat, pulled out his sword to break the annoying head and kicked it out of the door.

All the officials were shuddered. They understood one thing. Whoever put forward this stupid idea of surrender in order to save themselves is to give their lives in advance. At this time, he either didn't speak, or he had to encourage himself and swear to fight with the officers and soldiers, so that Zhu Chenhao would not swing the sword around his neck.

In the face of Zhu Chenhao's exposure, Liu Yangzheng finally spoke out. He suggested that he could collect the soldiers and horses of Huaining, Yuexi, Tongcheng and other counties under the jurisdiction of Anqing Prefecture to fully defend Anqing Prefecture, expand the youth and strengthen the people to join the army, raise the city walls, build forts, install iron cables and dark piles on the river, and fight with the soldiers and horses of the imperial court.

This suggestion sounds beautiful, but everyone knows that it is a spring dream. A major problem is time. The army of the imperial court will arrive soon, and it will take a lot of time to complete these matters. However, Zhu Chenhao did not realize this at all. He immediately agreed to Liu Yangzheng's suggestion and asked Wang Lun to arrange it immediately. . For a while, the state capital and counties under the jurisdiction of Anqing Prefecture suddenly suffered a disaster of hell. Rebel soldiers drove people from various counties overnight to move to Anqing City, and loaded all the materials and finances they could take into Anqing City. Xiao'an Qingfu, which was originally only 50,000 soldiers and civilians, doubled overnight. Suddenly, it was crowded and had nowhere to settle down.

Although it has entered spring, the cold at night is still irresistible. The people who have nowhere to live are lying on the streets and alleys. At night, they are crying sadly, like a city of ghosts.

Young and middle-aged people were forcibly driven to participate in the expansion of the city wall building turrets. They climbed up and down mechanically and transported soil and stone under the threat of whips and swords. They were only given a ball of cold rice as food every day, and lived in hell.

What's worse is women and children. The rebels don't have so much food for them to eat. They wander in the streets like ghosts. If there is a little misconduct, they will suffer sword slaughter. One day, hundreds of people in the city died, most of whom thought that they were extremely hungry and robbed and killed by the rebels on the street.

Since the establishment of Anqing Prefecture in the Southern Song Dynasty, the people have been rich and pure, simple and honest. The ancient city of hundreds of years has become like this in just a few days, which is really unimaginable.

In the early morning of the fifth day, Liu Yangzheng accompanied Zhu Chenhao to inspect the city defense of Anqing, pointing to the newly built forts and the reinforced wall. Liu Yangzheng told him that the soldiers and horses in the city have been expanded to 40,000, and there are still 53 cannons and more than 90 warships on hand. The materials and grain arrived from Nanchang in the city can at least be supported. For several years, Zhu Chenhao sighed, and the fire of hope in his heart seemed to add fire oil.

Things are not out of control.

However, this good mood soon disappeared. Standing on the high tower, he saw the dense sail shadow on the surface of the Oriental River. Song Nan came, and the wolf came!

The whole city of Anqing suddenly fell into panic and tension. All the soldiers immediately went to the city to prepare to meet the enemy, and the warships on the dock also quickly moved to the wide river in the south of the city to prepare for the battle. The rebel soldiers who experienced the battle of Jiangxinzhou that night were tightened, and they couldn't help thinking of the situation that night. Come on. Song Nan, who is full of tricks and murder, came. What kind of vicious scheme will he use this time?

Song Nan's fleet stopped on the water five or six miles away from Anqing. The water flowed gently on the wide river, and the white sails were mirrored on the river, which was as magnificent and quiet as the scene of the coquettish tourists on this tour.

A small boat slowly cut out of the fleet. There was only one man on the boat, shaking hard. The boat was covered with a white cloth, which was tall and square.

The soldiers on both sides looked at the boat with their eyes wide. The sound of Nai was clearly heard on the river. Before entering the range of the rebels' firepower, the prince stopped the oars and shouted loudly: "Song Nan, Duke of Daming Town, has a letter to Prince Ning, and has something belonging to Prince Ning. Please send someone to pick up the ship."

After shouting three times, the father-in-law turned into the water and swam back quickly like a fish in the middle of the river.