In Wuchang City, Lin Daji came to Li Yunzhong excitedly and said: "Your Highness, I am so happy. The people in the city heard that we are going to abandon the city and march eastward, and many people are willing to follow us."

Li Yunzhong said with a 'huh' sound: "Did you burn down other people's houses again? I will warn you when I enter the city! From now on, you are not allowed to disturb the people. We are regular troops, not bandits. We are the ones who win the hearts of the people."

Win the world..."

Seeing Lin Daji's dull look, Li Yunzhong said with satisfaction: "It seems that my words have touched your soul. I won't say more. If anyone dares to do this in the future, I will definitely kill him."

Lin Daji quickly shook his head and said: "Your Highness, the people came here spontaneously, not us."

Li Yunzhong blushed and said embarrassedly: "Why didn't you tell me earlier and caused Your Highness to waste so much saliva?" After a while, Li Yunzhong asked again in doubt: "How aware are the people now?"

Lin Daji explained: "The people in the city were afraid that the officers and soldiers would come back to retaliate. They saw that we had done nothing wrong when we entered the city and had strict discipline. They trusted us. They also heard that they could be tax-free for three years if they followed us eastward."

Li Yunzhong said: "How many people are there in total?"

"There are more than 300,000 men and over 100,000 women," Lin Daji replied.

"So many, you really didn't use any special means." Li Yunzhong said meaningfully. Seeing Lin Daji blushing and shaking his head in denial, he stopped pursuing it.

After Tang Zhengcai became the commander of the navy, he collected many small boats on both sides of the Yangtze River in Wuchang in a short period of time. Including the original ones, there were more than 13,000 boats in total. Li Yunzhong's Second Army and Third Army advanced along both sides of the Yangtze River to attack important places along the coast.

In the city, the remaining troops and the common people took boats and followed the navy's movements. The mighty battles of hundreds of armies scared the Qing troops on both sides of the Yangtze River to death. The Jiang Defense Army that Lu Jianying had worked so hard to manage was defeated, and no resistance was encountered along the way.

We arrived in eastern Hubei.

Lu Jianying deployed heavy troops in Guangji County, eastern Hubei, led by Shouchun General Enchang, intending to block the Han army at Shuxiaxia, a natural and dangerous place. On March 1, Li Yunzhong arrived in eastern Hubei and ordered Tang Zhengcai's navy to attack. Soon

After capturing Shuxiaxia, General Enchang died in battle, most of the 5,000 Jiang defense troops fled, and the rest either surrendered or were killed.

The defeated troops in Guangji County fled to Jiujiang. Lu Jianying abandoned his troops in a hurry and fled overnight. He did not enter Anqing City and fled directly back to Jiangning, claiming that he would live and die with Jiangning.

On March 4, the Han army came to Jiujiang smoothly. Li Yunzhong knew that Jiujiang was a barrier to Anqing, so he expanded Li Qirong's "Qi" battalion to 3,000 men, promoted him to division commander, and stationed him in Jiujiang. He promised to allow him to stay in Jiujiang.

Ten thousand soldiers were recruited locally, and he was later promoted to army commander.

After crossing Jiujiang, troops were stationed in Li Yunzhong, large and small cities along the Yangtze River. Some were stationed in companies and expanded to a thousand men, while some were stationed in two or three squads and expanded to a battalion of 600 men.

Arriving in Anqing on March 7, Hu Yihuang had already captured Anqing two days ago and was greeted outside the city. It turned out that Hu Yihuang led the First Army to rest during the day and march at night, bypassing the large and small cities along the coast where the Qing troops were stationed, and marching straight

After driving Anqing away, they pretended that the Qing army was defeated and entered the city, and captured more than 30 officials of all sizes who were left in Anqing by the Qing army, including the governor Jiang Wenqing.

Li Yunzhong ordered the army to continue moving forward, appointed Hu Yihuang as the governor of Anhui and the prefect of Anqing, responsible for Anhui's military and political affairs, and took back the military power of the First Army. Luo Gang was appointed as the acting commander, and Li Desheng's regiment was expanded into the Seventh Army.

De Sheng was appointed as the commander of the army. The entire army was rated at 30,000 men, but only 10,000 were left for him. The rest were ordered to recruit locally.

Yanjing

Xianfeng received memorials about the fall of Jiujiang and the fall of Anqing at the same time. He understood that Jiangning was in danger and hurriedly ordered Xiang Rong to lead his troops to Jiangsu. He also ordered Qishan to lead his troops into Anhui to intercept the Han army and buy Xiang Rong time.

Not to mention that Xiang Rong received the imperial edict and marched towards Jiangsu at starry night. Qishan was filled with sorrow when he received the imperial edict and asked him to lead his troops to fight against the powerful Han army. Wouldn't this cost his life? If he wins,

The Han army was blocked in Anhui and Jiangning was saved. The bandit army must take revenge on him, and the credit belongs to Xiang Rong and Lu Jianying. Needless to say, if they lose, they will be dismissed from their posts or beheaded. After thinking for a long time, I found that I can only be passive.

It is safest to slow down the work and march at a suitable distance from the Han army.

On March 9, the prefect of Chizhou heard that the Han army was attacking and fled out of the city in a hurry. Li Yunzhong did not enter Chizhou City and directly ordered Liu Cai to guard it. He also asked him to send troops to take over important counties in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The headquarters was expanded into a division.

He separated from the Seventh Army and took orders directly from Hu Yihuang.

On March 10, the army defeated Tongling and Wuhu. The Qing army collapsed upon hearing the news and did not dare to fight.

On March 14, the army arrived outside Jiangning City. The Second Army and the Third Army on land also arrived in the afternoon and quickly surrounded Jiangning City and cut off Jiangning's communication with the outside world.

Jiangning is a famous city and political, economic and cultural center in the south of the Yangtze River. Its strategic position is very important. Its city wall is high and thick, with a circumference of more than 90 miles. It is bordered by the Yangtze River to the northwest and Zhongshan Mountain to the east. It is surrounded by nearby hills. The situation is dangerous and there are "

The Qing army in Jiangsu had more than 30,000 green battalion soldiers and thousands of Eight Banners soldiers, guarding various key points, with less than 10,000 mobile soldiers. After the Han army captured Wuchang, Lu Jianying transferred green battalions from the entire province.

There were 4,800 soldiers, of which 3,000 were brought upstream to Mouse Gorge to prevent the blockage. They were all wiped out by Tang Zhengcai, and the remaining 1,800 stayed in Jiangning. Jiangning has General Jiangning with more than 3,000 bannermen under his command. Today

, there are more than 5,000 flag soldiers and green battalion soldiers in the city, as well as 1,000 brave soldiers temporarily recruited by Qi Suzao, the governor of Jiangning, to assist in the defense.

After Lu Jianying escaped from Jiujiang, he was frightened by the Han army. He hid at home all day and ignored political affairs. Yang Wending, the governor of Jiangsu, heard that Wuhu had fallen and Jiangning was in danger, so he left the city on the pretext of defending Zhenjiang. He was very anxious.

General Houxiang of Jiangning mobilized all the Qing troops outside the city to defend the city, and jointly impeached Lu Jianying with Jiangnan Admiral Fu Zhu for refusing to fight in fear of the enemy. Yang Wending abandoned the city and fled. Unfortunately, the memorial was sent out, and Jiangning was also surrounded.

Outside Jiangning City

The generals gathered in Li Yunzhong's flagship, laughing and bragging to each other about the results of the city and territory captured in the past few days.

I just heard Ling Shiba use his loud voice and suppress the other voices, bragging about leading an army to attack Chuzhou. Before the army arrived, someone came out of the city to greet them. It turned out that all the officials in the city were scared away.

Seeing that Ling Shiba could not be criticized, everyone began to flatter Li Yunzhong.

Meng Shengsheng said: "His Royal Highness the King of Han is really wise. When I heard about the march to the south of the Yangtze River, I was really sweating. I thought it would be in vain. Unexpectedly, wherever the army went, the enemy was invincible. It only took less than half a day.

In the past month, we have captured Jiangning, I really admire you."

Jiao Liang said: "I didn't expect that the Qing army in the south of the Yangtze River was so vulnerable. Jiangning can be attacked in a day and night. Then your highness can establish a country here. The Han Dynasty will be the Han family Zhengshuo."
Chapter completed!