In August, the typhoon season finally passed, and the long-lost sun was revealed. Under the dual effects of sunlight and north wind, the originally muddy roads slowly hardened, and the entire southern China entered autumn.

However, the autumn in the Ming Dynasty was different from that in later generations, and it was not as clear and cool as in later generations. In the Ming Dynasty, due to the influence of the small ice river weather, the cold currents from the north and south began to control the lower reaches of the Huai River early. Therefore, the temperature in the southern Zhili area had dropped below ten degrees after August.

According to the records in ancient Chinese military books, it is best not to march and fight in winter to avoid frostbite. However, Ma Cheng's new army is different. These people eat three dry meals a day, conduct extremely intense training every day, and have complete logistics guarantees and thick cotton coats, so Ma Cheng's new army can still maintain its best condition.

Ma Cheng originally wanted to march into Hangzhou on August 15th in Suzhou. According to his estimate, the Lu Wang in Hangzhou was completely at the end of his strength and had no threat at all. His 70,000 troops could take Hangzhou without any effort, but Qi Biaojia from Suzhou didn't think so.

Although Qi Biaojia won the political struggle, this victory did not affect Ma Cheng at all. Although Qi Biaojia was named the Minister of War, could the admirals and generals under Ma Cheng listen to him as a short secretary? What's more, Ma Cheng's army has become a warlord now, and the generals in the army are all Ma Cheng's direct subordinates, and Qi Biaojia has no control over the army at all.

At this time, in order to get these Qiu Ba to leave Suzhou as soon as possible, Qi Biaojia responded to Ma Cheng's requests, and as long as it was not an excessive request, they would be satisfied.

Now all officials in Suzhou City have replaced Qi Biaojia's confidants, and Ma Cheng can't stay silly. He has no choice but to issue an order in mid-July and officially starts to enter Hangzhou on the first day of August.

Ma Cheng's 110,000 army is now divided into three parts. Under the leadership of Xu Dahu, the 10,000 new army has bypassed Taihu and occupied Huzhou Prefecture. There are 30,000 soldiers leading to Songjiang. This is a place of taxation, so Ma Cheng naturally has to control it. So now Ma Cheng has only 70,000 troops in his hands, including 30,000 new troops, 20,000 new subordinate troops, and 20,000 civilians.

This time, Ma Cheng did not prepare any tactical orders for the march. Lu Wang had no strength. As long as the army was over, the remaining defeated generals of Lu Wang would definitely open the city to surrender. So Ma Cheng ordered Xu Dahu from Huzhou to advance to Yuhang County, cross the Qiantang River from here, and attack Yanzhou Prefecture and Quzhou Prefecture in western Zhejiang. Gu Changwei of Songjiang Prefecture led 10,000 main new army to start the army on July 20, occupy Jiaxing Prefecture first, waiting for Ma Cheng's main troops to arrive, and then attack Hangzhou together.

On the first day of August, Ma Cheng made a vow outside Suzhou City and set off again to head south. Qi Biaojia politely attended the vow as a governor. Standing on the platform, he saw a 70,000 army of troops as strong as rainbows, Qi Biaojia looked like earth. He knew that he was defeated half a year ago. He didn't want to say that he was a half-baked scholar when facing such a tiger and wolf army. Even Yue Wumu dared not say that he could win completely.

Seeing Qi Biaojia's face looked like earth, Ma Cheng smiled and said, "Mr. Qi, how is my army like this? Can you capture Lu Ni in one fell swoop this time when you go south?"

Ma Cheng definitely doesn't know which pot he has. Qi Biaojia was the governor of Lu Wang half a year ago. Now Ma Cheng's words are really a slap in the face.

Qi Biaojia looked calm and said nothing. Xie Qikun, the new governor next to him, smiled and rescued: "This is naturally. The military achievements of the Chief Supervisor have made outstanding achievements. This battle in Hangzhou will definitely be successful!"

Ma Cheng laughed and said, "Then I will lend you a good word to Lord Xie! When this governor captures Lu Ni, he will ask Lord Qi to receive him here in Hangzhou! After all, he is Lord Qi's old master! Haha!"

When Qi Biaojia saw Ma Cheng's face as villain, she could no longer control it. She snorted angrily, threw her sleeve off the platform and returned to the city. Seeing this, Xie Qikun had no choice but to bow to Ma Cheng, and then followed Qi Biaojia back to the city.

Seeing these two people leaving, Ma Cheng sneered and shouted to his subordinates: "The army is on the way!"

Ma Cheng left Suzhou on the first day of the August 1st and arrived in Jiaxing on the fifth day of the day. Gu Changwei led a 10,000 new army to occupy the place for ten days. Although Jiaxing Prefecture was the territory of Lu Wang, the officials of Lu Wang here had already run away, leaving only an empty city. Some gentry and wealthy families in the city saw the army of the court coming outside the city and quickly opened the city gate to surrender.

At this time, Ma Cheng had no shortage of civil servants. His son had prepared hundreds of middle and low-level officials for him, and there were a lot of blank appointment letters. So after entering Jiaxing City, Ma Cheng immediately appointed several local officials to maintain public order.

Ma Cheng repaired here in Jiaxing for a day, and then continued to go south along the canal. At this time, Xu Dahu had already crossed the Qiantang River in Yuhang County, twenty miles outside Hangzhou City, and headed towards Yanzhou Prefecture.

Xu Dahu's actions scared the Lu Wang Group in Hangzhou. In May, Ma Cheng stopped attacking in Suzhou, which made Lu Wang Zhu Changqing feel lucky and thought that there would be some talks with Emperor Shaowu Zhu Lunkui, so Zhu Changqing was ready to send envoys to Nanjing for peace talks again. This time, Zhu Changqing was ready to do this. He would not do anything as an emperor, but just hoped to be a rich man.

But Zhu Changqing, you don’t want to play anymore, and the ministers under your command didn’t think so. The ministers who supported Zhu Changqing at that time included Huang Daozhou, Zhu Dadian, Yuan Hongxun, Zhang Bingzhen, He Lun and others. These people were originally senior officials who failed in the struggle, but now they have returned to the center of power, and they are willing to hand over power again. So when these people heard that Zhu Changqing wanted to stop playing, they all submitted memorials to prevent King Lu from doing this.

At this time, Zhu Changqing deeply felt the helplessness of Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian back then. He should have fled south, but no one in the civil and military affairs in the court agreed, so Zhu Changqing could not escape even if he wanted to run away.

At this moment, Fang Guoan ran back from Suzhou with more than 30,000 people, which made the ministers in the court more determined to fight Ma Cheng. It was very simple. After Fang Guoan came back, he took all the blame for the Battle of Lucheng on Qi Biaojia, but this was the case. If Qi Biaojia had led elite troops to rely on Suzhou's thick city walls according to Fang Guoan's plan, he would have been able to hold on for a while.

However, Qi Biaojia was arbitrary and insisted on fighting against Ma Cheng in the wild. As a result, he lost a lot in Lucheng, and threw all the 30,000 most elite men in his hands. Even if the elites were gone, they could not defend themselves. In order to retain their strength, Fang Guoan had to give up Suzhou and return to Hangzhou, preparing to rely on Hangzhou to fight Ma Cheng to the death.

Of course, these are all the opinions of Fang Guoan. He did not say that he was defeated by Ma Cheng in Suzhou, but said that he gave up Suzhou in order to preserve his strength. This wrong statement made the whole Hangzhou

The imperial court formed an illusion that Fang Guoan was capable. If Qi Biaojia had not lost his elite, he would have been equally matched with Ma Cheng.

Therefore, the cabinet assistant Huang Daozhou and the Minister of War Zhu Dadian decided to take Fang Guoan as the head commander to gather all the forces around Hangzhou, rely on the solid walls of Hangzhou City to fight to the death with Ma Cheng. It is already August, as long as it lasts until October, when the snow falls in southern Zhili, the Ma Cheng army, which has no houses to keep warm, will definitely retreat to Suzhou for the winter. It is said whether to withdraw or escape at that time.

The Chinese civil and military ministers of the court were united and prepared to fight Ma Cheng to the end, but they did not expect that the emperor Zhu Changqing, whom they supported, wanted to open the floodgates and release the water.

Zhu Changqing is similar to several emperors in the Southern Ming Dynasty. Zhu Yousong likes to listen to operas, and Zhu Changqing likes to play chess. Later generations recorded that Zhu Changqing had really good chess skills and he also wrote several famous chess scores. However, in such troubled times in the late Ming Dynasty, there were no artists needed, but they needed heroes. However, none of the emperors of the Southern Ming Dynasty had the true nature of heroes.

Zhu Changqing learned that the city was about to be prepared to defend the city, so he was so scared that he had no idea and had no choice but to discuss with the little eunuchs around him. These little eunuchs were not as good as him, so he finally decided to send someone out to make peace with Ma Cheng, which would be best to ensure Zhu Changqing's personal safety.

However, this candidate who made peace with the city was really difficult to deal with. He had to have a relationship with Ma Cheng and had a courageous look. However, none of the eunuchs under Zhu Changqing knew Ma Cheng. There was no way. Ma Cheng was Ma Shiying's second son back then. Although Zhu Changqing was the prince of escape, he was the prince after all. How could the homeless Ma Cheng make friends?

Finally, a little eunuch came up with a solution. Since Zhu Changqing's subordinates were not good, he would find someone from the prison in the city.

Zhu Changqing cursed angrily when he heard this bad idea: "You don't dare to see Ma Cheng, can you dare to be a death row prisoner?"

When the little eunuch saw Zhu Changqing angry, he quickly knelt down and said, "Emperor, have you forgotten that someone was imprisoned in the prison two years ago? It was Yue Qijie, the governor of Henan!"

Zhu Changqing suddenly realized the name when he heard it, patted his head and said, "Yes, why did I forget this person? Get up and invite Lord Yue, remember not to disturb the ministers in the court!"

Yue Qijie was elected as the governor of Henan in December of the 17th year of Chongzhen, but in April of the following year, Wuchang Zuo Liangyu went south to the Qing dynasty. Yue Qijie and Jingnan Bo Huang Degong were ordered to lead the army along the river to intercept Zuo Liangyu.

Huang Degong was indeed very good at fighting. He defeated Zuo Liangyu in a battle with Zuo Liangyu's tribe in Tongling, but it was too late. After Zuo Liangyu's death, his son Zuo Menggeng defected to Prince Ying of Manchu Qing Ajige. This time, Huang Degong was not good at fighting Shangqing Army.

Huang Degong and the Qing army fought in Wuhu. Huang Degong committed suicide due to defeat and became the commander of the bare hands, Yue Qijie had to put on the clothes of ordinary soldiers and escape quietly.

Yue Qijie originally wanted to escape back to Nanjing, but at this time the entire Nanjing was surrounded by the Qing army. Yue Qijie did not dare to approach the city wall, so he had no choice but to bypass Nanjing and flee to Hangzhou.
Chapter completed!