In the Suzhou Gaojie army camp, the entire army was covered in plain clothes and cried loudly. In the central army tent, Gao Jie's coffin was parked in the middle. On the table in front, there were various sacrifices such as pig heads, steamed buns, chickens and ducks, fruits, and Xu Dingguo's head.

Mrs. Xing led a group of generals of the Gao family army to worship in front of Gao Jieling.

"Duke of Chu is here!" A long shout came from outside.

Li Guodong led all his generals into the mourning hall and worshiped Gao Jie's spiritual position.

"Dude Xie." Mrs. Xing said.

"The imperial edict is here!" Another angel who passed the imperial edict came outside and read out Chongzhen's imperial edict: Chongzhen first mourned Gao Jie heavily, and then announced that Gao Jie restored the throne of Xingping and posthumously awarded him the title of Marquis of Xingping, the Prince of Prince, and his son was reinstated with the Earl of Xingping.

Mrs. Xing thanked the angel and gave the silver reward, then retreated to the back hall.

"Duke of Chu, your wife invites you in." Li Benshen came out and said.

Li Guodong walked into the back hall and saluted Mrs. Xing.

"The Duke of the State has ruined my family. How dare I accept such a great gift from the Duke of the State?" Mrs. Xing replied.

Li Guodong said: "General Gao is a loyal and good-natured Ming Dynasty, and Mrs. Xing is also a hero among the girls. Li learned about the treason of Xu's general, and rushed to Suizhou. Unfortunately, he was still one step late and failed to save General Gao. Li was ashamed of Mrs. Xing."

"What is this saying about the Duke of the Kingdom? The Duke of the Kingdom can avenge this great revenge for my slave. I am grateful to the Duke of the Kingdom for avenging my husband. Tens of thousands of people from the Gao family army are grateful to the Duke of the Kingdom for avenging my general!" Mrs. Xing said with a blessing.

Li Guodong took the opportunity to ask: "General Gao suffered misfortune and Jiannu was about to go south again. I wonder what Mrs. Xing and the Gao family army have in the future?"

"The Gao family army was founded by his husband. Now that his husband is no longer there, the Gao family army has lost its backbone. The hundreds of thousands of Jiannu army is about to move south, and the Gao family army has only more than 50,000 people, of which only 3,000 elite old camp soldiers. How can I resist the Jiannu? I have nothing else to ask for, but I only hope that the Duke of the State can give the Gao family 50,000 children a way out."

"Mrs. Xing, this is simple. As long as the wife does not lead the troops to surrender to Jiannu, there will naturally be a way out."

"I wonder what good plans does the Duke of Chu have?"

"Madam Xing, you will take the Gao family's army 50,000 and tens of thousands of families to go south quickly and send troops to Jiangxi to block the road to Zuo Liangyu's eastward. When you go south, you will leave it to Li to deal with it. Although the Gao family's army cannot resist Jiannu, it should be fine to block Zuo Liangyu's mob, right?"

Mrs. Xing nodded: "No problem. Although Zuo Liangyu is known as the 800,000 army, it is a lot if there are 300,000 family members and auxiliary soldiers. Most of these 300,000 people are mobs, and the real soldiers are only 50,000 or 60,000. Among the soldiers, the only ones that can be fought are Zuo Liangyu and the servants of each general under his command. Can there be 3,000 people? Although our number of soldiers is small, there are also 3,000 old soldiers, why fear Zuo Liangyu?"

"Also, use the terrain to defend and deal with the Zuo family army. In Jiangxi, I, Li, can help you. Although I am an auxiliary soldier, I can help you build fortifications fortresses. In addition, my Duke also applied for a batch of military pay to Mrs. Xing from the court. After you finish General Gao's funeral, you will immediately send troops to leave Suzhou. After arriving in Anqing, the military pay will be delivered."

"What I originally thought was that the Duke of Chu was strong and powerful, and he was invincible. I wanted to take the Duke of Gao's army to join the Duke of the Kingdom with 50,000 soldiers."

Li Guodong said: "Originally, Li was also willing to let Mrs. Xing and the Gao family army come to our army, but Li was already in great power. If the Gao family army was recruited, I was afraid that the court would suspect Li, so Li could only fight for your wife as much as possible for you."

Anyway, Chongzhen has money in his hands now, so Chongzhen would not be so stupid as to take out money to a guy like Zuo Liangyu, but the Gao family army had completely surrendered some time ago. Moreover, this time when Gao Jie was killed, the Gao family army lost its backbone, and Chongzhen also needed to win people's hearts, so Chongzhen readily agreed to pay the Gao family army a lot of military pay.

"Thank you, Duke Chu." Mrs. Xing saluted Li Guodong.

After completing Gao Jie's funeral, the Gao family army sent troops south to eastern Jiangxi to block Zuo Liangyu's army from advancing eastward.

What Li Guodong said was indeed fulfilled. After the Gao family army arrived in Anqing, the military pay sent by the court arrived. Chongzhen, who had the money on hand, generously took out one million taels of silver this time and paid the owed military pay to the Gao family army.

"Silver! We finally paid the money!" The soldiers of the Gao family army, who had not received military pay for almost a year, were so excited that they hugged their heads and cried.

After the military pay was paid, the morale of the Gao family army rose. The next day, the Gao family army's 50,000 troops and more than 100,000 families crossed the Yangtze River and entered the lakes and hills on the other side to arrange defenses.

"Madam Xing, General Li, you are finally here. The last general has been waiting here for a long time." Zhang Ashui, the general of the Huai Army who stayed in Chizhou, came to greet him.

Zhang Ashui was originally a refugee who was raped by Li Zicheng. Later, after being captured in the Battle of Kaifeng, he went to Shandong to work as a militia. Because he made great achievements in recent years, he was promoted to a thousand-house officer and was sent by Li Guodong to Chizhou and stationed in the hilly lakes on the other side of Anqing.

There is the Yangtze River in the north and the hills in the south. Only a narrow plain near the riverside passes through. This plain land is actually not smooth. The river network and lakes are crisscrossing. If the Qing army and Zuo Menggeng's army want to pass through here, such a terrain is not conducive to the Qing cavalry fighting.

Although Zuo Liangyu did not dare to send troops to clear the emperor in this time and space, Zuo Liangyu, who was already terminally ill, died of illness in Jiujiang soon after. After Zuo Liangyu's death, his son Zuo Menggeng was ready to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. A few months later, Ajige's army arrived in Jiangbei, and Zuo Menggeng led the entire army to surrender to Ajige.

When Zuo Menggeng surrendered, the Qing army opened a passage to Jiangnan in Jiangxi.

"Emperor! Emperor! The big thing is wrong! Zuo Menggeng led an army of 800,000 and surrendered without fighting, surrendered to Jiannu in Jiujiang! Huguang Governor Yuan Jixian was unwilling to surrender to Jiannu and was killed." Wang Chengen hurriedly broke into Chongzhen's study and reported to Chongzhen the bad news that Zuo Menggeng surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.

Chongzhen slapped the table violently and stood up angrily: "It's hateful to the left thief! He held 800,000 heavy troops in his hand, but he surrendered without fighting!"

Zuo Menggeng surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, which opened a passage to the west of Nanjing, so that the Qing army could directly come from the west without facing the natural danger of the Yangtze River.

"Emperor, did the Duke of Chu let Gao Jie's army go south? But let Gao Jie's army stop Jiannu, and then Huang Degong advance westward to assist Mrs. Xing with his help." Wang Chengen said.

"Okay, I will issue an order now." Chongzhen asked someone to get the pen and ink.

On the other side of the Anqing Yangtze River, on the river channel, there are hills surrounded by jungles on one side and the turbulent Yangtze River on the other side. A middle avenue passes between the rice fields and the lake and river network.

A Qing army was passing through the foot of the mountain on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and the sword was directed to Nanjing!

"What the hell? It's so hot!" Lukedehun took off the lightning rod helmet on his head, took the helmet as a fan, and kept fanning. The cotton armor on his body was already wet. In June, in the south of the Yangtze River, the Eight Banners soldiers were wearing thick cotton armor and a chain mail inside. They entered the south of the sultry Yangtze River. Although they were marching on the mountain road surrounded by trees, they were also extremely hot.

However, the Eight Banners Army has regulations that no armor must be removed when marching in areas where the enemy is highly threatened. Otherwise, once they encounter the enemy, they will not have time to wear armor and suffer heavy losses.

At this time, Luke Dehun envied the former Zuo family officers and soldiers who had just joined the Qing Dynasty. The soldiers of the Zuo family were only wearing a zither suit, a red tassel hat, and at most a piece of armor on their bodies. They marched in the hot hills of Jiangnan. The Green Camp soldiers were much more comfortable than the Eight Banners Army.
Chapter completed!