Xie Ming

Upon receiving the imperial edict, Xiao Jun raised troops in Jiujiang and Guide to advance eastward, calling themselves a loyalist army.

On the north bank of the Yangtze River, Xu Jizu first broke through the high ground at Sheshan to intercept the enemy and removed the anti-artillery fortifications on the beachhead.

Later, Li Hongsheng and Zhao Yingyuan, with a total of more than 30,000 men, joined forces with the enemy's right flank army, led by Shi Tingzhu and flanked by Liu Liangzuo's 40,000 troops, in a fierce battle.

The areas around Hezhou and Jiangpu endured a bitter struggle to hold on, allowing the main naval forces of Xiao and He to continue their eastward advance.

At the appointed time, He Zhou, Chen Jiulang, Lan Qi, and others led a main fleet of about 20,000 men to move across the area between Nanjing and Liuhe.

By blocking the river, the enemy's passage across the Yangtze River was completely cut off, separating the Northern Army from Nanjing and engaging in a fierce battle with Dodo's main force.

The two sides were locked in a fierce battle, fighting tooth and nail for every inch of ground. The struggle dragged on until the sixth day, when the situation suddenly changed and eased on the twenty-fourth.

As for being appointed to a critical mission, who will step up and resolve the crisis?

Among Xiao Lang's men, Sun Peizhong was undoubtedly the most capable!
Several days ago, after receiving a secret letter from Xiao Jingchuan, this young man immediately began preparations, organizing troops to march eastward from Henan without the slightest delay.

They successively occupied Shouchun, Fengyang and other places.

Time was of the essence. In order to relieve Xiao Jiujiang's army from the perilous situation of being trapped deep in the Yangtze River, they would not remove their armor and would not stop their horses. Twenty-four had already rushed to Chuzhou and Lai'an.

In this way, the situation behind enemy lines becomes immediately apparent.

When Dodo heard the news that Pei Zhong's army from Henan was attacking from behind, he was terrified.

To avoid the entire army being attacked from both sides and betrayed by the Ming army, the commander had no choice but to hastily order the troops under Geng Zhongming and Liu Liangzuo to return to Chuzhou to defend the north and south, so as to protect the army's north and south depths and prevent it from being attacked from both sides and trapped in an encirclement.

He was filled with apprehension, as this was the first time he had encountered danger since arriving in Texas in April.

To be on the safe side, let's turn danger into safety.

Not long after Geng and Liu mobilized their troops to block Chuzhou, their main forces were also divided again to fill the cities of Tianchang and Liuhe in the northeast, which are directly connected to Yangzhou, and to join forces with Liu Zeqing's troops near Yangzhou.

There's nothing we can do about it.

The vanguard battalion of the left wing originally consisted of only a force of over ten thousand men led by Kong Youde who crossed the river first.

However, the rapid fall of Nanjing afterwards made all the Northern Army units envious and eager to seize it.

Kong Youde's troops, having already dispersed to various places, went to occupy Taiping, Lishui, Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Jiangyin and other places.

Wherever they went, they burned, killed, looted, and plundered, while simultaneously reaping huge profits and their military achievements increased accordingly.

Utilitarianism, utilitarianism. The Jurchens' bad habit of raising troops was nothing more than seeking glory, seizing grain, seizing money, and seizing women.

With such tempting offers right before their eyes, who wouldn't be envious?
So, within two days, seeing Kong Youde gain both fame and fortune, Bahana, blinded by greed, couldn't stand it any longer and refused to fall behind.

This man had a legitimate reason for his actions, so he wouldn't be easily criticized by his fellow troops. Under the pretext of reinforcing his troops, he swiftly cut through the mess and, driven by his desire to strike first, led his troops across the river on the fifteenth of the month without receiving orders from Commander-in-Chief Dodo.

That guy, like a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey, threw all military orders and prohibitions to the wind when faced with profit.

This force of 15,000 men crossed the river and scattered in all directions.

In a short time, news of this boy's rebellious behavior spread to Suzhou, Songjiang, and other prefectures.

In order to seize the initiative, Bahana led an army and made a detour to the east, heading straight for Hangzhou without stopping.

They were so fiercely competitive that they were practically fighting tooth and nail.

Divided into imperial troops, they pursued southwards from Anji and Jiaxing in two routes, east and west.

The target was none other than the Hongguang Emperor of the Southern Ming Dynasty, who had fled to Hangzhou.

What's that old saying again?

To steal someone else's credit and personal gain is akin to murdering one's parents.

Faced with the reality of his subordinates disobeying orders, even with his princely title and the combined forces of the Qing army and the Northern Army under the command of Dodo, it would be difficult to control these two runaway beasts in a short time. At this moment, Kong and Ba were already in the heart of Jiangnan, fighting and killing with frenzied abandon, unable to extricate themselves.

It's a complete mess, utter chaos.

In this situation, it's easy to send things out, but difficult to bring them back.

He had no other choice. With Xiao Jun's formidable enemy approaching on both land and sea, he had no choice but to grit his teeth and stomp his feet, deciding to cut off his arm to save himself.

And so, he led his troops alone to the north bank of the river before the battle began.

After all, if they were to slow down even a step, and Xiao Jun were to cut them in half with a single stroke of the river, the situation would only become more troublesome and difficult than it is now.

As for Nanjing, it was difficult to abandon it, but it was also difficult to keep it. So, Ye made the difficult decision to leave behind his main force of two thousand men.

How effective it will be to hold the city and await reinforcements is entirely up to fate.

So it is, and so it is.

Dodo was frustrated and resentful, gritting his teeth and suppressing his anger, watching as the situation was about to turn around again.

As the saying goes, military situations change rapidly. Once Pei Zhong arrived, not only were Kong and Ba in Jiangnan unable to take care of everything, but also, in order not to risk the safety of the entire army, the resentful governor Dodo could only watch helplessly as Xiao's army gained a foothold on both sides of the Yangtze River. The Qing army had to retreat to preserve its overall defenses and plan for the future.

Subsequently, after issuing orders to blockade Chuzhou, Lai'an, Tianchang, and Liuhe, he once again gathered the former troops of Gao Jinku, Geng Zhongming, Liu Liangzuo, and Liu Zeqing.

They retreated and relinquished the cities and territories around Sheshan and Hezhou, regrouped and reorganized their troops, and moved eastward along the north bank of the river, focusing on Jiangpu and Yizhen, and later connecting with the cities of Chuzhou, Lai'an and Liuhe.

The main force retreated further back to Yangzhou, and then connected with the Gaoyou and Huaian lines to secure the northward retreat route.

To avoid being attacked from both sides by Sun Peizhong via the Yangtze River waterway and from the northwest, thus avoiding the possibility of being trapped in a dangerous situation.

Arrows rained down, blocking the way ahead; smoke from battle cut off the retreat.

A lone banner hangs over the vast wilderness, and bones pile up like walls.

Iron armor cracked like withered leaves, enemy dust swarmed like collapsing black clouds.

The enemy troops cowered and surrounded the river, their blood staining the setting sun and turning the river red with the tide.

The deployment on the north bank of the Yangtze River, relying on its natural barrier to block the enemy from the north, has largely been achieved.

Although the battle was relatively short-lived at the beginning, it was protracted and resulted in attrition on both sides.

However you look at it, the initial goals have been achieved.

It saved Nanjing from collapse and maintained the Yangtze River defense line.

At the same time, his gaze turned to the south.

In fact, right after Xiao Jun marched east from Jiujiang, while the northern land and the riverbank were both facing the enemy, there was another third force from the southern land, which had not yet made any move.

Those were the troops led by Li Huchen and Yuan Ping, totaling around 35,000 men.

These two armies have been constantly engaged in battle since the start of the fighting in the north.

First, on the 19th, they launched a rapid march and fierce attack on Nanjing.

In less than a day, Nanjing was lost and then regained.

With the city in ruins in many places, Dodo's original plan to rely on the city to resist the enemy and wear them down was not fully effective.

Moreover, about 70% of the people in the city remained.

Of course, this was not because the Jurchens had done good deeds; rather, it was because the Jiangnan region was rich and vast, and the enemy soldiers were focused on the fleeing Hongguang Emperor, having no time to look back.

Generals Li and Yuan were merely testing their skills for the first time. Given the vast disparity in troop strength between the enemy and themselves, the capture and recapture of Nanjing was naturally a foregone conclusion. (End of this chapter)