The "attack on the stronghold" went much smoother than planned. Xue Laoer and Sun Hu did not continue to ambush. Wang Chaodong and Zhang Hong took action immediately and escorted Shengjia and twenty carts of gold and silver into Lujiazhai.

By the time all his two thousand soldiers and horses had returned to the stronghold, Zhou Shixian had already asked Zhu Maozhen and Kong Tao to take the people and carry everything the convoy needed onto the ship.

Of course, Zhou Shixian wouldn't want all of the nearly 10,000 shi of grain, but the 2,000 soldiers, nearly 800 horses of 15 days of grain, and the 110,000 taels of silver from Lujiazhai, apart from a fraction, he would naturally not need.

I'll be polite.

As for weapons and equipment, Zhou Shixian only asked Wu Xingye to collect more than fifty pieces of armor and half of the gunpowder. He didn't care about the remaining scraps of metal.

Moreover, in such troubled times, these things are dispensable to Zhou Shixian, but for the people of Lujiazhai, without them, they lose the right to live.

This was a population of nearly 3,000 people. Zhou Shixian was cruel to corrupt officials, the Tatars, and deserters, but to these women and children, there was no need to kill them in disguise.

Such consideration also won unanimous praise from the three ministers Li Banghua, Ni Yuanlu, and Wu Linzheng. When Emperor Chongzhen learned about it, he was full of praise.

Maybe Chongzhen didn't really care about the life and death of his people, but as an emperor, he still had to have this attitude, otherwise his "legitimacy" as the emperor as the father of all people would be lost.

This may have been nothing in the peaceful and prosperous times, but now on the road to escape, "legitimacy" is the foundation of Emperor Chongzhen's power, and it is what he must defend.

Of course, in addition to these ministers and Emperor Chongzhen, Zhou Shixian naturally had to go to Empress Zhou to receive some "education". Naturally, someone wanted to see Zhou Shixian in the name of Empress Zhou.

Zhou Shixian was very sensible this time and swore directly to the sky that as long as he encountered danger, he would turn around and run away. Then Princess Kunxing nodded with satisfaction and told him that it was not for this reason, she just wanted to see him.

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Zhou Shixian naturally understood that when he rescued Princess Kunxing from the brink of subjugation and rescued Ming Dynasty from the brink of subjugation, in the heart of his fiancée, who was unparalleled in beauty, raised in a deep palace, and very simple.

What kind of position and image.

However, now is not the time for friendship, Zhou Shixian quickly returned to his position.

After all the soldiers and horses under his command returned to the team, and all the materials needed in the stronghold were moved to the ship, he did not delay at all. After symbolically seeking Emperor Chongzhen's will, he immediately re-adjusted the army.

Although there are more than 180 watercraft, except for the dozen or so large ships that escort grain, grass, gold and silver, and protect the ministers of the Tian family, most of the rest are small boats. Under the conditions of ensuring speed, it is naturally impossible to combine the two

Thousands of soldiers and more than 800 war horses were all mounted together, especially those lively horses.

Moreover, even if it can be installed, given the width of the canal and the lack of cavalry protection along the way, it is definitely a taboo. Once an enemy is encountered, the consequences will be disastrous.

Therefore, the escort army must be divided into two parts. One part has one person and three horses, divided into two shifts, carrying only one day's food and grass, and follows the fleet south along the canal. The other part is escorted by boat, with regular rotation on both sides to keep the soldiers and

The physical strength of the war horse.

The troops on the shore were naturally led by Xue Laoer and Zhang Hong in turns, and were composed of the Jin Yiwei, the old Beijing Camp and the "Wu/Weiying". The ships specifically responsible for supplying them with food and grass would also keep pace with them.

Although Zhou Shixian no longer doubted the loyalty of Sun Hu, Weng Dajie, and Kong Tao, the cavalry and the musketeers were the key to him resisting the obedient army at critical moments, and they must be in the hands of his confidants.

After all, if your confidants are not reused, who will sincerely work for you?

After Zhou Shixian's kindness and power, Sun Hu, Weng Dajie, and Kong Tao no longer dared to have any small thoughts. What's more, now that they have the canal in hand, the journey south is almost half successful.

As long as they arrive in Nanjing, they will be the ministers of the Dragon Guard. They know what this means. Victory is in front of them, and only fools would defect at this time!

Chao Chaodong still led the other half of the Jinyi Guards to guard around Emperor Chongzhen, while Zhou Shixian led more than a hundred old Beijing camp guards at the front and rear, including more than 80 musketeers.

The soldiers and horses of Sun Hu, Weng Dajie, and Kong Tao were deployed in the front and rear sections of the fleet respectively. Zhou Shixian also divided the more than fifty armors equally among the three people, instead of continuing to arm the "Wei/Weiying Camp".

As long as you pass through Cangzhou and Dongguang, you will soon be able to enter Shandong. Li Zicheng has not yet sent troops to Shandong to take over the place. Although Liu Zeqing has led his troops to flee south, Shandong is still nominally the territory of the Ming army.

Of course, this is not the most important thing. The most critical thing is that the armor and military supplies, grain, grass, wages and silver that were requisitioned from Shandong, Southern Zhili and other places in previous years were stranded at the key pass next to the canal due to the turbulent situation.

Zhou Shixian knew that the local officials must have made plans to swallow these things up, but they were definitely not that quick yet.

Therefore, as long as the fleet enters Shandong and seizes warehouses in several important canal towns, the problem of military equipment can probably be solved.

Before dawn, Zhou Shixian's team had already assembled. Except for the cavalry, everyone boarded the boat and sailed out of the waterway leading to the canal from Lujiazhai.

At this time, with Pang Lun as a guide, Gu Kecheng, the forward general of the Shun army, personally led five thousand soldiers and horses, and pursued them from the capital to Dacheng County, and successfully discovered the traces of Zhou Shixian's movements to escort the army.

Pang Lun still brought his hundreds of soldiers and horses. Although he boasted about Haikou and lured the Shun army to dispatch a large number of troops to pursue them thousands of miles away, he still had no idea. Now that he had clues, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Originally, he didn't know that Emperor Chongzhen was in the convoy, but Li Zicheng had almost searched the capital and still couldn't find anyone. Naturally, he had doubts in his heart. After comparing the two, things became much clearer.

However, Pang Lun did not dare to admit such an important matter directly, and Li Zicheng was still just guessing, and he did not want to alert the enemy. Chongzhen escaped from the capital. The political impact of this matter was too bad, and he had to deal with it quietly.

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Moreover, according to Pang Lun, the opponent only has two to three hundred elite cavalry. Even if the broken troops are collected, they are only more than a thousand soldiers and horses with uneven armor, which is not enough to fear.

As a result, Li Zicheng sent his confidant General Gu Kecheng to pursue with five thousand elite troops. At the same time, he asked Gu Kecheng to send someone to inform Hao Yaoqi of Jinghai County and let him lead his troops south to Qingxian County. Cangzhou intercepted and intercepted more than ten thousand elite troops.

With the horses attacking from the front and back, if nothing unexpected happens, can we definitely defeat the more than a thousand Ming court troops?

However, if there is no accident, there will inevitably be an accident.

Hao Yaoqi was not a direct descendant of Li Zicheng, but Gu Kecheng, as a direct descendant of the Dashun Army, did not want the other party to win the first victory in intercepting Emperor Chongzhen.

There were many factions within the Shun Army, but they were all military generals in power and obeyed Li Zicheng, so the internal fighting was not serious.

As a result, under Gu Kecheng's operation, the four scouts who went to deliver the message accidentally lost their way. Hao Yaoqi's headquarters, which was supposed to have appeared in Qingxian County, had just set off tonight, and Gu Kecheng happened to be late.
Chapter completed!