On the tenth day of March 19, the Lu Wang army, which had been repaired in Suzhou for half a year, finally gathered together and began to advance along the two lines of the canal. The first goal of this advance was Changzhou Prefecture, more than 100 miles away from Suzhou.

After Zhu Daguan, the prefect of Changzhou Prefecture, learned that the Lu Wang army was about to attack Changzhou, he was so scared that he quickly wrote a letter of help to Ma Cheng, who was stationed in Zhenjiang, hoping that the Ma Commander-in-Chief would send a large army to save him.

I knew that Zhu Daguan’s letter was like a mud cow entering the sea, and there was no news at all. Zhu Daguan waited here in Changzhou for half a month, but the reinforcements did not wait, but instead waited for Lu Wang’s army.

On March 24, Lu Wang's vanguard came to the city of Changzhou. Changzhou City did not have a solid city wall like Suzhou and Hangzhou. Zhu Daguan only had more than 200 inspection departments in his hands, and his strength was completely unequal. In order to avoid the war in Changzhou Prefecture, he had no choice but to open the city and go out to surrender.

Zhu Daguan opened the city gate and led all the officials of Changzhou Prefecture and Wujin County to kneel on the ground to welcome Governor Qi Biaojia into the city.

Logically speaking, surrendered officials like Zhu Daguan should be locked up before talking about it, but Qi Biaojia came to Zhu Daguan, dismounted and helped Zhu Daguan up, and then said: "Prince Zhu, get up. This time, I will grant His Majesty the Emperor the imperial edict to attack the rebel Zhu Lunkui, which has nothing to do with officials of all sizes! Zhu Daguan's official voice is good, so stay tuned!"

Zhu Daguan is from Fujian. Although he is not the Donglin Party, his relationship with the Donglin Party is pretty good. In order to win the hearts of Zhu Lunkui's officials, Qi Biaojia naturally has to treat Zhu Daguan with courtesy.

Qi Biaojia thought it was pretty good, but unexpectedly, Zhu Daguan was not grateful, but said coldly: "Mr. Qi, Xiaguan did not want to surrender to Lu Ni this time, but was afraid that more than 100,000 people in Changzhou's prefecture would be in trouble! So please don't be polite and just imprison Xiaguan in prison!"

After being pushed by Zhu Daguan for a few words, Qi Biaojia looked a little ugly. He calmed down and said, "Prince Zhu, now our governor is leading a large army to the city, and we can sweep Nanzhili soon. Ma Cheng's son is just a clown. How can we compete with our governor's army? I hope that the governor's will be released and the will of heaven will be in accordance with the will of the people, and do not go further and further on the wrong path!"

"My emperor has received a very righteous throne. I am deeply grateful to the emperor and will never surrender to Lu Ni! The army of Ma Zongzheng is in Zhenjiang and can advance east soon. How can Lord Qi's tens of thousands of troops be the opponent of Ma Zongzheng? I hope Lord Qi will return to his fate and surrender to my emperor!"

Qi Biaojia heard Zhu Daguan say this and said sarcastically: "Zhu Lunkui is of a humble origin and has a distant bloodline. How can he inherit the throne? There is also the Ma father and son who control the court and block the way for speech. What else can such an emperor and powerful minister be loyal to him?"

"Two years ago, the Nandu was surrounded, and millions of people in the city were going to suffer. Where was Lu? Where was Lu? Isn't my emperor climbing the high ground and then he led tens of thousands of tigers to resist the Northern Lu. As for what kind of bloodline, did Emperor Taizu Gao's birth be born? Please don't say much, Lord Qi, I swear to be loyal to my emperor!"

Zhu Daguan was right. After Zhu Lunkui ascended the throne, he went to various southern provinces to pass edicts, hoping that all provinces would organize troops to serve the king, but then he knew that the edicts were muddy into the sea, and there was no news at all. Now that the Qing Dynasty has been repelled, you King Lu and King Lu are all coming out to fight for power and profit, and the people of Jiangnan will never agree.

Qi Biaojia was robbed by Zhu Daguan and could not help but say a few words. What they said was reasonable, but nothing

Qi Biaojia had no choice but to order his personal soldiers to detain more than a dozen Changzhou officials who were Zhu Daguan in prison.

After occupying Changzhou Prefecture, Qi Biaojia immediately sent a scout to inquire about Zhenjiang. However, what surprised Qi Biaojia was that Ma Cheng's 100,000 troops were still outside Zhenjiang City, and he didn't move for a moment, just as if he didn't know that Changzhou had been occupied.

Seeing this, Qi Biaojia was also very suspicious. What did Ma Cheng want to do without moving his troops? Do you want to defend the important roads of Zhenjiang and have an offensive and defensive battle with him?

The territory of Nanzhili in the Ming Dynasty was very large. In addition to the eight prefectures in Jiangbei, there were ten prefectures in Jiangdong (Jiangdong refers to the Nanjing area, and was called Jiangdong since the Three Kingdoms period). Among them, the richest ones were Changzhou, Songjiang, Suzhou, and Huzhou and Jiaxing in Zhejiang. This place was collectively called the Taihu Economic Circle in later generations.

This Taihu Economic Circle has been a land of fish and rice since the Tang Dynasty, and by the Ming Dynasty, it contributed two-thirds of the world's taxes. The Taihu River Basin has a very special terrain. The terrain of Changzhou and Suzhou to the north is flat and is composed of alluvial plains of the Yangtze River. However, Huzhou to the south is close to the mountainous areas of northern Zhejiang, and with a dense water network, the Huzhou and Guangde areas are not suitable for large-scale corps movements at all.

Therefore, the best way to go from Nanjing to Hangzhou is not to enter Zhejiang from Guangde, but to Zhenjiang, pass through Suzhou and bypass Taihu Lake, and enter Zhejiang. Although this section of the road is much further than Guangde, it is much easier to walk.

Ma Cheng and Qi Biaojia are both commanders who lead more than 100,000 troops, so it is naturally impossible to walk the rugged mountainous areas of northern Zhejiang, so both of them chose the marching route in Changzhou and Suzhou, so the location of Zhenjiang is much more important.

Zhenjiang is an important node of the Grand Canal on the south bank of the Yangtze River. The Yangtze River is north of this place and Taihu Lake is not far from the south. If the army wants to go to Nanjing, it must pass through Zhenjiang. When Qi Biaojia saw Ma Cheng's troops still, he naturally thought that Ma Cheng wanted to wait for his leisure and use the city to stop him in Zhenjiang.

Qi Biaojia thought he had figured out Ma Cheng's veins and was secretly happy: It is said that Ma Cheng used his troops like a god, but it doesn't look very good now. Zhenjiang is a major city, but can Zhenjiang compare with Nanjing? Ma Cheng's 100,000 people are already more than the population in Zhenjiang City. So many people want to hold the city to defend, how can this food be solved?

When Qi Biaojia learned that Ma Cheng was still in Zhenjiang, she immediately thought of besieging Zhenjiang and starving Ma Cheng's army to death. However, Qi Biaojia thought it was wrong. Zhenjiang was close to the Grand Canal, and the Yangtze River ships could come directly to the city of Zhenjiang. He could not be besieged at all. It seemed that he would still have to fight.

Since he decided to fight, how to fight would become a problem. After discussing with his generals, Qi Biaojia decided to use Lucheng Town 30 miles outside Changzhou Prefecture City as the main battlefield. Lucheng is flat and close to the Grand Canal, which is a good place for the decisive battle.

After selecting the location, Qi Biaojia wrote a letter to Ma Cheng. The content is very simple, that is, Ma Cheng, did you brag about how powerful you were before? Xiang Yu was reborn in Yue Fei and praised himself like a flower. I see that you are just a false example, with gold and jade on the outside, and a catastrophe among them! Now I am leading a 100,000 army to fight to the death with you. Do you dare to fight? Do you dare to lead 10,000 guards to fight as the letter said?

This time, Ma Cheng's reply was quick, and three days later, Ma Cheng's news was sent to Changzhou. The letter was very simple, with only eight words: On April 15th, Lu Cheng's decisive battle!

Qi Biaojia was overjoyed when he saw Ma Cheng's reply. Everyone said that Ma Cheng was a military god, and it didn't seem like it. What kind of military god dared to abandon the base camp and dared to come and fight a decisive battle with 10,000 enemies with 10,000 people?

After reading the letter, Qi Biaojia smiled and said, "It seems that this Ma Cheng is just a brave but unscrupulous warrior!"

Qi Biaojia's general Fang Guoan has always been skeptical. He didn't believe that Ma Cheng was a brave but unscrupulous warrior, but instead thought that this was Ma Cheng's trap.

Fang Guoan asked suspiciously: "Ma Cheng did not lead the troops on the first day. He fought with the Beilu for two years in Nandu. Isn't this arrogance? How could he be angry with a letter from the General Secretary?"

Qi Biaojia heard what Fang Guoan said make sense. The way soldiers live and die, so they must be careful. Qi Biaojia asked other generals under his command: "What do you think?"

The generals under his command were roughly divided into two factions, one was similar to Fang Guoan, and he was cautious. The other faction was just the opposite, thinking that Ma Cheng was seeking fame and the results of the Battle of Nanjing were very good, and there were no conspiracies and tricks in the decisive battle this time.

Although Qi Biaojia agreed with the latter faction, he could not relax his vigilance against Ma Cheng. While preparing himself, he also sent additional personnel to strengthen investigations on the army in Zhenjiang. He must not let go of any abnormality.

After deciding the strategy below, Qi Biaojia immediately started to act and left 20,000 people in Changzhou Prefecture to protect his logistics base. The remaining 100,000 people were divided into three armies on the left, center and right. The 20,000 left army led by Fang Guoan, went out from Changzhou and went to Xiaohezhai area. After the main force started fighting with Ma Cheng, he surrounded Ma Cheng's rear team from behind.

The 30,000 people of the Right Army were led by Hangzhou General Chen Keli, and were stationed along the canal line to prevent Ma Cheng from sending troops to attack his flanks. At the same time, Chen Keli was also Qi Biaojia's reserve team to prevent the army from coming up to support if the war in the middle army was unfavorable.

The 50,000 troops in the central army were led by Qi Biaojia himself. This was the main force in the decisive battle, including all the warable soldiers. Among them, Qi Biaojia also had three thousand cavalrymen, which were the elite among the elite.

While assigning tasks, Qi Biaojia did not forget to pay attention to Ma Cheng in Zhenjiang. However, Ma Cheng's side was very unexpected. Before the tenth day of April, there was no movement in Ma Cheng's army, and what the soldiers in the army should do. It was only on the tenth day of April that the Ma Cheng's army was discovered to be mobilized.

Upon learning that there was news in Ma Cheng's army, Qi Biaojia thought that Ma Cheng was finally leaving. After waiting, Qi Biaojia would doubt whether Ma Cheng had something serious illness and died of death.

In fact, Qi Biaojia thought about it almost the same. It was not that Ma Cheng was seriously ill and was about to die, but that Ma Cheng was tortured by Gu Miaoyin these days, and had lost more than 20 kilograms. He was regaining his energy these days.

In order to get what he wants, Gu Miaoyin has been pregnant as soon as possible, this month he has been busy with Ma Cheng several times every day. As the saying goes, there are no broken lands, only tired cows. Ma Cheng was squeezed by Gu Miaoyin this month, with his cheeks deep and his eyes dark and blue, just like a tuberculosis ghost.
Chapter completed!