A century-old family that runs through the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 336 Nanjing is in danger!

However, he then seemed to think of something and asked cautiously:

"Are there many disasters here?"

The problem in the late Ming Dynasty was not just that land was occupied by landlords. Some refugees are indeed forced to wander due to land annexation and no land to cultivate, but there are also many who have land or can barely survive as tenants, but have no harvest due to natural disasters.

Wang Jiu was in the latter category, and he was very worried at this time.

After all, no matter how many fields there are, if you can’t grow food, you just can’t grow it.

"Don't worry, at least so far, there haven't been any major disasters."

The official smiled and said:

"Even if something goes wrong, the government will support everyone, so you don't have to worry about your livelihood."

When Wang Jiu heard this, he immediately felt relieved.

He remembered that in times of crisis, when even the court had abandoned them, only in that place could they eat enough food to fill their stomachs.

Such a government would never treat them badly.

……

A certain county in eastern Huguang.

More than 100,000 people gathered in the city, filling the whole city to capacity, and the noise filled the sky.

Gao Yingxiang's army is an alternative among the rogue bandits. He did not capture all the people in his path on a large scale. His subordinates are very strong (relatively speaking). The core of them are the original Ming army, and his old camp is even more of a border force. There are even Mongols in the army. Even ordinary soldiers, although they cannot be said to be elite, still have a certain degree of organization.

However, it is not that he has no old, weak, women and children, but these are mostly the family members of the soldiers, and there are tens of thousands of them. They are organized into the rear camp and do not usually go into battle, unlike other bandits who treat them as cannon fodder.

Nowadays, these young men, women and children live in the residences of this city. Further inside, there are soldiers who are well-equipped and even accompanied by horses. These are the elite of the old camp.

Their station surrounded the most luxurious mansion in the county, and the person inside was none other than "Chuang King" Gao Yingxiang.

It was already February of the 18th year of Wuxing, and eight months had passed since they successfully broke through the siege.

In the past eight months, he had been traveling all the way to Huguang, and the elite officers and soldiers here had already gone north to suppress the bandits. At this time, Huguang was extremely empty, and he could only adjust the few troops to important cities such as Wuchang, and strategically gave up. other regions.

This caused the rogue bandits to feel like they were in an uninhabited land. When the imperial court mobilized troops to eliminate them, the rogue bandits had grown much stronger and were able to suppress them for a while. There were even a few powerful ones that the Ming army did not dare to provoke.

Gao Yingxiang is like this.

After eight months of hard work, Gao Yingxiang's strength has greatly increased. Excluding the rear camp, the total strength has reached 120,000. Half of them took refuge in the army because they could not bear the natural disaster, and half of them were ordered by him to occupy the army. Young people were forcibly conscripted from the towns.

Then he found a place to stay and rest here temporarily. It has been two months now.

In two months, the food and grass supplies in this county have been exhausted by his army. He has no choice but to set off again.

And his position was not chosen casually - the wealthy Nanzhili was just around the corner.

If you can go in and grab one, your strength will definitely increase significantly.

Looking at Nanzhili on the map, his eyes couldn't help but move south, looking towards the legendary stone city where dragon energy is entrenched...

Repeated victories in eight months had inflated his confidence, and the army of more than 100,000 people had given him the confidence. At this time, he was no longer in the same embarrassment as when he broke out, and his ambitions were rising.

After all, there are two hundred thousand troops (plus women and children)! How could he, a small businessman selling horses, imagine where he is today? At this time, he was extremely ambitious, and figures of self-made people like Liu Bang and Zhu Yuanzhang emerged in his heart. That's it, go south to Jinling and you will definitely dominate!

He slammed his hand on the table and made his decision.

However, there are some things that have to be considered.

After all, Nanjing is one of the two capitals of the Ming Dynasty, and there are heavy troops stationed around it. He also knows that once Nanjing is attacked, the Ming Dynasty's army will definitely go to rescue frantically. By then, his 200,000 people may not be enough to fight.

He thought of Zhang Xianzhong, who was just next to his territory, and some other bandits nearby.

It should be enough to rope in these people...

……

"Urgent report, rogue bandits have entered Nanzhili from Huguang, wreaking havoc in the area and running rampant!"

"Urgent report, thieves have entered Anqing Mansion. The Qianshan and Taihu Lakes in the northwest of the city have been captured. The thieves are surrounding Anqing!"

"Urgent report, thieves have entered Luzhou Prefecture, Lujiang, Yingshan, and Huoshan are all trapped, and thieves are attacking Luzhou!"

"It has been found that a total of six thieves, including Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong, entered Nanzhili. Since they entered Nanzhili, in half a month, fourteen cities and countless villages and towns have been captured. The thieves are very powerful. Our army was invincible. We also attacked Anqing and Luzhou, but fortunately we did not surrender. We turned eastward and lost thousands of troops and horses."

The Nanjing War Department was in chaos.

An urgent message came from the west of Nanzhili, shocking the heartstrings of Nanjing officials.

The intruder Gao Yingxiang joined forces with the bandit leader Zhang Xianzhong and some Hun Tianwang Sweeper King. The total force has reached as many as 500,000. Even though there is a lot of water among them, many of them are old and weak who cannot fight, but after all, this is still 500,000. People are surrounded by darkness, and the psychological pressure is great.

In those counties, there was almost no resistance for more than a day.

Fortunately, Luzhou and Anqing were able to hold on after all.

After all, these two cities are imperial cities and strategically important places. The city defenses are solid, and the defenders plus the temporarily recruited brave and gentry servants number tens of thousands. When life and death are at stake, the gentry inside are not stingy about spending money, so they unite as one. .

The rogue bandits were not good at attacking fortresses. Half a million people could not capture the two well-defended cities in one day like before. Even though a group of bandit leaders cursed angrily outside the city, even the old camp was sent up. In the end, They also failed to break the city in a short time.

Considering that they wanted to catch Nanjing off guard, they did not stop fighting against these two cities, but turned eastward. They did not worry about their retreat being cut off, since they had no logistics anyway.

The persistence of these two cities also successfully bought Ming time to react.

Nanjing got the news when they attacked Anqing.

Yan Yinghui, who was appointed as the garrison of Nanjing and in charge of the affairs of the Chinese Army Governor's Office, immediately judged that the other party was coming to Nanjing.

For a moment, all the senior officials in Nanjing were frightened, and the officials from the six ministries were even more frightened. Who would have thought that even though they just came to Nanjing to retire, they could encounter such disasters.

Fortunately, Yan Yinghui was prepared. While he was sending people to ask for help from Beijing, he was also mobilizing troops from South Zhili in accordance with a long-established plan to prepare for defense.

In the face of life and death, various departments that usually fished out broke out with unprecedented efficiency, and the army quickly assembled.

There are many garrison stations stationed around Nanjing, with a theoretical number of nearly 300,000 people. Compared with the Jingying Camp in Beijing, this is only near Nanjing, not counting those in Southern Zhili.

But how many people there actually are is a matter of opinion.

(End of this chapter)