"Long live my emperor! Long live my emperor, long live..."
At the foot of Shishou Mountain and on the bank of the Yangtze River, the soldiers of the Dashun Army stood densely and cheered loudly. Standing at the highest point of Shishou Mountain, Dashun Emperor Li Zicheng also showed a satisfied smile.
He just announced his decision to issue rewards! The property given out as a reward was not very large, that is, several thousand bolts of silk and cloth, several thousand taels of silver, and tens of thousands of copper coins - in a place like Shishou County, it was pretty good to be able to get these things.
And Li Zicheng was rarely generous this time. He shared everything without leaving a single copper for himself.
Can the whole Dashun army not be encouraged by such a division?
This prince has had great ambitions since a few years ago, but since then, his hands have been limited. When you get money, you have to save it so that you can do great things in the future! Unexpectedly, the style has become bigger again now. It seems that I have realized my mistake and want to correct it!
Seeing that the morale of his men was high, Li Zicheng himself was also happy. With 30,000 elite soldiers, with such morale, why would he be afraid that he would not be able to defeat the police?
"Okay!" Li Zicheng shouted, "I've been given the order to set fire to the ship!"
He was followed by a loud-voiced edict officer, who immediately raised his voice and passed on Li Zicheng's latest imperial edict. There are many edicts on horseback at the foot of the mountain. After they hear the decree coming from the mountain, they will mount their horses and run back and forth among the troops gathered on the bank of the river at the foot of the mountain, shouting while running, always letting everyone hear Li Zicheng. the will of.
At the same time, some people rushed to Shishou Pier to inform the imperial soldiers there - they had already prepared fire starters on the moored wooden boats, waiting for Li Zicheng's order!
However, the nearly 30,000 old battalion soldiers and their accompanying servants (about 20,000 people) gathered at the foot of the mountain did not know that their emperor was going to become the "Overlord of Western Sichuan" and wanted to burn the ships and cut off their retreat.
So when they heard Li Zicheng's decree and saw the wooden boats on the river being set on fire, they were all stunned.
What happened to the emperor? Why should a good ship be burned?
In addition, how can we cross the Yangtze River if we burn our boat quota?
Li Zicheng saw that everyone at the foot of the mountain was in a daze, and no one was cheering. He just frowned slightly, and then shouted: "Listen up! I just got reliable information that Zhu Cixiang, the prince of the red bandits, is in Gong'an County. .....There are not many guards around us. As long as we capture Zhu Cixiang, we will be able to go down the river smoothly, and the colorful world in the south of the Yangtze River will be our world!"
So... what does that have to do with burning the boat?
The old soldiers of Dashun Army still don’t understand!
So there was no cheering either.
Li Zicheng looked at the atmosphere and felt dissatisfied, so he added: "Well, now you ask people to burn the boat, this is called burning the cauldron!"
A broken ax can sink a boat? The old camp soldiers said to themselves: It was obviously burned without an axe...
Li Zicheng said again: "It's just that I've cut off the big guy's escape route... you and uh, you can't go back to Jiangbei now, unless you beat the red prince to death and kill the fucking Gong'an County Only by seizing it can you have a way to survive!"
ah!
No way out?
Or did you cut it off yourself... Why are you, the emperor, so unreliable?
This time everyone is anxious. After finally becoming a master, there is no way back...
Li Zicheng shouted loudly: "Let's go fight with the Zhu Thief. As long as we win, Jiangnan will belong to us. Then let go and be happy!"
You're lying... Beijing doesn't even let them go, so why not give it to Jiangnan?
The soldiers from the old camp who had followed Li Zicheng for a while were certainly not that easy to fool, but many of the troops following Li Zicheng now came from the old Zuo Family Army. They didn't know how stingy Li Zicheng was, but they became excited when they heard that he could rob Jiangnan.
"Da Shun wins! Long live the Emperor! Long live..."
Thirteen to two thousand officers and soldiers of the Dashun Army who came over from the old Zuo Family Army suddenly burst into joy.
The veterans of the old camp standing at the foot of Shishou Mountain saw that the newcomers were in such high spirits that they had no choice but to join in the yelling. The servants and followers they brought with them also joined their master in making noises.
More than 50,000 people at the scene cheered together, which was really loud and angry.
Li Zicheng was finally satisfied. He pointed to the northwest with his big hand: "The red thieves are in Gong'an County! Kill the red thieves and take the south of the Yangtze River!"
"Kill the red thieves and take Jiangnan..."
...
"Fourth brother, I really want to die as a brother... Come here, come here, let me take a good look!"
"Big brother, I know I was wrong..."
"What nonsense are you talking about? What's wrong with you? You're right... not only you are right, but you are about to make a great contribution!"
At the Yuhu Palace, two "red thieves" were performing a touching scene of brotherly harmony.
Li Zicheng was about to kill him, so no matter what grudges these two "thieves" had, they could only put them aside. At present, brothers must work together to break through the metal.
These two "Zhu thieves", one is Zhu Cihong, the prince of Fujun in the Ming Dynasty, and the other is his good brother, the "loyal king" of the Ming Dynasty, who is still the king of Chu at the moment, but will soon become the king of Yunnan.
Zhu Cizhao hid in Gong'an County for a long time, claiming to the outside world that he had chickenpox. In order to avoid giving it to Zhu Cizhong, he could not come to see him - although brothers Zhu Cizhong and Zhu Cizhao had both been vaccinated against smallpox (variola), it was not that easy. Infection with smallpox, but variola is not 100% effective.
So Zhu Cizhong "believed" and allowed Zhu Cizhao to take good care of his illness, and did not let Zuo Mengmei disturb him.
Now that the chickenpox is gone, there is no scar on the face. She is still a fair and tender young lady. When she sees her brother, she can't help but shed tears. She cries so miserably!
"Master Qiansui, what do you mean when you say that the prince wants to make great achievements?" Zuo Mengmei, who finally accompanied Zhu Cizhao, was still very smart and had already heard the meaning in Zhu Cizhong's words.
Zhu Cixiang smiled and said: "Of course I will lead my troops to fight Li Zicheng to the death!"
What?
Fight to the death with Li Zicheng?
These words frightened Zhu Cizhao. He even forgot to cry. He just looked at his brother blankly - he was trying to kill someone with a borrowed knife!
When Zhu Cixiang saw that he didn't speak, he knew that he would not refuse. He is a good brother, he is reliable!
"Fourth brother," Zhu Cixiang squeezed his brother's little hand and said with a smile, "it doesn't matter if you don't know how to fight, because Zhang Yong under your command is a rare tiger general! Jin Shenghuan, the commander-in-chief of Guangxi, can also fight, and Commander-in-Chief Qiu is also a veteran general. With the help of the three of them, you, the prince, only need to sit in and supervise the battle to win."
Of course Zhu Cixiang would not be so stupid as to use his direct lineage to fight Li Zicheng, and they couldn't come either.
Therefore, the task of fighting Li Zicheng's main force was left to Zhang Yong, Jin Shenghuan, and Qiu Lei.
"Well, well, where are you, brother?" Zhu Cizhao felt resentful in his heart, but he didn't dare to curse, so he could only stammer and ask.
Zhu Cixiang smiled and said: "I will also be responsible for supervising the battle... supervising the battle behind your back!"
Of course, Zhu Cixiang is not without troops around him. He still has an army of about 10,000 people on hand!
These more than 10,000 people were divided into two parts. One part was the cavalry (the first cavalry regiment and the guard battalion) commanded by Sun Fugui and Yan Yingyuan. There were about 3,000 people including the auxiliary troops.
The other part is composed of three infantry regiments composed of Shaanxi soldiers originally belonging to Ma Jiaolin as the main force, plus some officers transferred from Wu Guoyong's right division.
These three regiments are mainly from Shaanxi, and they can be regarded as coming to Jiangnan with fists in their hands. They are also from the Ming Army's frontier troops, so they are relatively reliable. Weapons, equipment and training are also at an above-average level among the Ming army.
Zhu Cixiang adapted them according to the methods of the infantry regiments of various divisions, but he did not equip them with firecrackers (and there were not so many firecrackers), just a combination of spears, knives, and bows and arrows.
Of course, the army's food, salary, and land rewards based on merit are the same as those of soldiers in other divisions. However, the land will not be granted near Nanjing, but will be placed in Wuhan.
According to Zhu Cixiang's plan, Wuhan will become a city where the families of Beifu army generals and their families live together, just like Nanjing.
There are also many official fields and military camps in Huangzhou Prefecture and Yuezhou Prefecture around Wuhan, which will be awarded to the meritorious officers and soldiers of the Beifu New Army in Wuhan...
