Xie Ming

Jiangbei endured a bitter struggle to stabilize the war situation, while the two forces of Hu Chen and Yuan Ping in the south urgently suppressed and cleared out the fleeing bandits.

In the past 21 days, with Ningguo, Suzhou and Songjiang successively falling, Xiao urgently ordered Yuan Ping and Li Huchen to set off from Nanjing to various parts of Jiangnan to suppress the enemy.

This move is clearly intended to maintain stability in the Jiangnan region, which is imperative. The immediate action is to eliminate the threat and apprehend the enemy.

During this period, Yuan Ping's force was not large, but mainly consisted of elite cavalry.

Xiao Xia hastily ordered that they go to block the Ningguo line, and the order stated that they must get ahead of the enemy and intercept the invading Bahana tribe.

You should know that Bahana is actually an old acquaintance of Xiao Jun.

When Shandong was blocking the Yellow River north of Dezhou to Jiyang, they had many battles with these brutes.

Now that enemies are meeting, they are naturally filled with hatred. In order to ensure the safety of Hangzhou and the safety of Emperor Hongguang, General Xiao will have no choice but to send Yuan Ping's elite cavalry to the area to fight the enemy.

Meanwhile, Tiger Minister's 30,000 troops made his subordinates much wealthier.

The general was ordered to remain stationed outside Nanjing, and instead take a longer route through Suzhou and Jiaxing to intercept the Qing troops scattered throughout various places by Kong Youde.

In reality, Xiao Lang himself had his own selfish motives in setting up this scheme.

Given the current situation, Xiao's journey eastward is justified, and the great principles should not be disregarded.

The troops of Jiujiang blocked the mouth of the Yangtze River, and the recapture of Nanjing served as a testament to this.

It would be unreasonable not to immediately send troops south to Hangzhou to defend the emperor.

However, if we calculate carefully, we can really wipe out these Qing soldiers who are trapped in the southern border and capture them all cleanly.

Once the external enemies are eliminated and Emperor Hongguang and key figures of the Southern Party are unharmed and have recovered, Xiao Jun's situation will be fraught with future troubles.

Don't let all your hard work go to waste, only to end up with someone whose achievements overshadow the emperor, and treacherous ministers causing trouble again, adding another episode to the drama of Fengbo Pavilion.

Ah!
Wouldn't that be asking for trouble and adding unnecessary burdens to oneself?

Therefore, after weighing the pros and cons, Xiao Jingchuan was full of hope that he could accomplish the task in one battle.

While it was located at the mouth of the Yangtze River, and was cooperating with He Zhou in resisting the northern blockade of the river, it was unable to spare any resources, so it cleverly arranged for Yuan Ping to go to the near-line to pursue the movement.

Why assign it this way?

Who is Yuan Ping? His demands and dissatisfaction with the Southern Ming are even greater than those of Xiao Lang.

It is easy to imagine that he was sent to Hangzhou as a vanguard to defend the emperor.

There's no need to spell it out; my sworn brother should know exactly what's going on.

At this critical juncture, if he needs to secretly plot something, Xiao Yi's only reliable sworn brother is this brother of his.

And so, in the blink of an eye, twenty-four years have passed.

Sun Peizhong's northern front, towards Chuzhou, has already launched a rapid and fierce offensive, beginning a major assault on Chuzhou and Lai'an, creating a great deal of momentum.

After the withdrawal and eastward movement of troops, the main force of Dodo on the north bank gradually weakened, and the counterattack gradually turned into a defensive posture.

In this way, Xiao's troops in Jiujiang, who had been stubbornly resisting the resistance on the riverbank, could finally breathe a sigh of relief.

I have heard that the situation in the north has eased.

The generals under his command were all on edge, and many of them relaxed.

But Xiao Jingchuan understood that the important matter he was on this trip was far from over, and there was no time to slack off.

His heart was filled with concern for the situation in Hangzhou, south of the Yangtze River.

Since he couldn't personally go to the front lines and only commanded from the rear, Ye always felt he couldn't put his mind at ease.

Furthermore, due to the chaos caused by Qing troops in various parts of Jiangnan, Qiu Zhizhong and Yao Zuyin, who had fled south with the emperor and his officials, were unlikely to receive any news in the short term.

In order to quickly ascertain the current situation of the imperial court, Xiao Yi must set off as soon as possible.

Therefore, after leaving his trusted confidant Changting in He Zhou's army along the Yangtze River, he personally led over a thousand garrison cavalrymen, along with Sangmenxing, Yuexiu, and others, and hurriedly landed on the river and fled south, without even taking a glance at the recaptured city of Nanjing.

They gathered over a thousand cavalrymen and set off along the Yuanping-Ningguo line, heading towards Hangzhou.

However, things are unpredictable, and no one could have foreseen that it would truly prove the poem right.

Time comes and the world has the same force, and it is not free to transport heroes.

Unexpectedly, Xiao's misfortune turned out to be a blessing from Heaven for the Southern Ming Dynasty.

Unexpectedly, those two enemy generals, Bahana and Kong Youde, were both thwarted at this critical juncture, both in Huzhou and Jiaxing.

The militia and garrison troops of the two townships spontaneously garrisoned the city and held their ground, proving that the fate of the Ming Dynasty was not yet over. It was not until the 24th that the armies of Ba and Kong finally broke through the enemy lines one after the other.

To vent their anger and deter future generations, both cities were massacred.

By the 25th, Qing troops had stormed in, the city had fallen, and many civilians had resisted, resulting in a massacre.

Countless women and infants threw themselves into wells or hanged themselves, turning the river water red.

Jiaxing and Huzhou suffered massacres and looting.

The alleys and lanes were deserted, and nine out of ten houses were empty.

Inside the city gate, corpses piled up like mountains, and blood flowed into the river, continuing for three days without ceasing.

A monk was passing by the city at night when he saw phosphorescent lights flickering and faintly heard weeping sounds that lingered for a whole month.

Yuan Ping and Li Huchen's forces also took advantage of this time difference to pursue and attack.

In the eastern region, Hu Chen is quite strong. It's unclear whether he's truly brave and single-minded, unable to bear the suffering of the people, or if he harbors selfish motives and wants to please both sides.

Anyway, when he got really angry, he chased and blocked several thousand of Kong Youde's cavalry in the Jiaxing and Jiashan areas. Without any further ado, he went into battle and fought to the death.

A day of fierce fighting, a chase, an encirclement and harassment.

The two armies fought fiercely in the open field.

It wasn't until nightfall that Kong Youde, unable to endure the prolonged battle, seized the opportunity to break through the encirclement, and more than a thousand cavalrymen escaped.

Originally, this enemy general intended to sweep westward to join forces with a part of the Bahana tribe.

After all, in the Jiangnan region, the two factions have already become too deeply entangled in the conflict.

Now that he has suffered heavy losses and a defeat, he is also panicked.

I intend to join forces with Bahana and discuss further plans.

However, having learned that the enemy leader had been overlooked, how could the Tiger Minister let the matter rest?

Moreover, the situation was unclear at night. The enemy cavalry headed southwest, and he thought to himself that this old fellow was actually leading his troops and was recklessly heading towards Hangzhou.

That's not bad.

Tiger Minister cracked his whip and didn't wait long.

They abandoned their tents, mounted their horses, and led their troops in a desperate pursuit.

As dawn approached, the two armies were engaged in another pursuit battle north of Haining.

Despite being abandoned, they persisted and relentlessly pursued and bit.

Kong Youde was ultimately trapped in Haining by Hu Chen, and had no choice but to flee north, unable to take another step towards Hangzhou or Chaozhou.

Iron horses neigh under the cold moon, carved bows pierce the icy stars.

Ten thousand tents ablaze with flames, their light illuminating the bones; a single blade cleaves the frozen sea, and blood-stained robes flutter in the north wind.

Arrows rained down from the sky and nailed the earth to the ground; mountains of corpses filled the ravines of Pingcheng.

Suddenly, they saw the enemy chieftain's head fall, trampled into a red mud pit by the chaotic cavalry, while the battle flag still lay horizontally.

The victories on the eastern front will be recorded later, while Yuan Ping harbors selfish motives on the western front.

In contrast.

Yuan Ping's situation was much more peaceful than that of the eastern front.

Just as chaos was breaking out in the Bahana Changdian and Huzhou areas.

Yuan Ping's elite cavalry then pursued and caught up from behind.

The reason we were unable to rush to the rescue of Huzhou was that the scouts had unclear information and we could not have anticipated this.

However, even when you intercepted the Bahana army south of Huzhou, Yuan Ping instructed your troops to use the excuse of insufficient manpower and difficulty in dealing with the enemy to refrain from fully resisting them.

They only harassed the flanks.

After several days of maneuvering, Bahana, unaware of the situation on the eastern front, also coveted the unparalleled achievement of capturing the Hongguang Emperor alive.

Having made a desperate gamble, after massacring the city of Huzhou and regrouping his troops, the army continued their march without rest, passing through Yuhang, and then truly heading towards Hangzhou Prefecture to kill their way out.

(End of this chapter)