On October 29th, the feast was in full swing under Xinhui City. The Ming army under Chen Kai, who had only arrived to join the army in mid-October, had already begun to break up camp and leave.

Huqi Town, Tieqi Town, Qianchong Town, Houchong Town, Zhongquan Town and Fubiao boarded the ship in batches. Chen Kai set off with Fubiao at the end. Due to official etiquette, Li Dingguo and Liancheng Bi always came

They just saw each other off when they arrived at the pier. When they saw Chen Kai, Li Dingguo was already noncommittal about Chen Kai's departure, but Lian Chengbi still had a straight face, as if he was still depressed.

"Time is urgent, you don't need to send me any more."

With a bow, Chen Kai turned around and boarded Jiang Mei'ao's flagship. All Fu Biao boarded the ship, and the army also sailed away from the military dock in the south of Xinhui City under the eyes of the friendly forces here.

"Your Highness, this Chen Kai is too unrestrained!"

Originally, Guo Zhiqi had chosen to retreat, but here finally a joint effort was achieved between Li Dingguo's army, the Ming army in the west of Guangdong, and the reinforcements in the east of Guangdong. To seize Xinhui, it was not a matter of how harmoniously the three parties cooperated, but Lian Chengbi asked himself

With the principle of mutual tolerance for the sake of the country, he could not only obey orders, but also offer words of help, in order to ensure that this military operation to regain Guangdong could proceed smoothly.

The result of the cooperation was naturally that the Ming army captured Xinhui County without paying too many casualties or spending too much time. At the same time, it gained the support of the people here and the gentry class.

This was an excellent start and would certainly serve as an excellent example for future cooperation. However, at this moment, Chen Kai led his army alone to conquer the city on his own.

Having been in the officialdom for a long time, Lian Chengbi is used to party disputes, so this is not too surprising. But this time there is already a basis for cooperation. When he captured the city two days ago, Wang Xing also said that he would kill the tiger and then divide the meat.

The story of Shang Kexi is now that the tiger is not in good condition. At most, it is only slightly injured. Chen Kai can't wait to obtain greater benefits. Such short-sightedness really makes him unable to believe that it will happen.

On Chen Kai's body.

In Lian Chengbi's view, Chen Kai's eyes are still filled with the interests of the Zheng Group, rather than the Ming Dynasty. This is in line with how they have always viewed the Zheng Group, Zheng Chenggong and Chen Kai

The old views are vaguely consistent, or exactly the same.

"This person is really not elegant."

Lian Chengbi was very angry. In his heavy breathing, he couldn't express his indignation that Chen Kai's forbearance and cooperation these days could not awaken Chen Kai's forbearance for the country. There is no need to say more here. He said this to Li Dingguo.

, he didn’t wait for Li Dingguo’s response, snorted coldly, and walked away.

The governor of Guangdong and Guangxi turned around and left, and the generals of the Ming army in western Guangdong under his control also said goodbye to Li Dingguo and returned to their camps. The army still needs time to rest and re-consolidate the newly acquired control area of ​​​​Xinhui. Only in this way can

Ensure that this place can play a greater role in the coming war.

The generals each had their own busy schedules, and even the city wall could only be described as being incompatible with each other. Li Dingguo watched the generals leave, and then looked at the fleet that had already anchored away. He smiled bitterly and shook his head, feeling helpless.

.

"Your Highness Wuyou, don't you still have a letter from Chen Fujun?" Seeing this scene happening with his own eyes, Jin Weixin stepped forward to remind him in a low voice, and then changed the subject: "The conflict between Lian Zhijun and Chen Fujun is not just a day.

It has been two days, and His Highness does not need to be too distracted by this. Fortunately, even Zhijun and Chen Fujun are not the kind of villains who would corrupt state affairs for their own selfish interests. As long as the overall situation is not affected, that is enough. As for the future,

That’s something that will happen in the future too.”

When the words came out of Jin Weixin's mouth, they had a different taste in Li Dingguo's ears. The break between him and Sun Kewang was caused by the contradiction between the Fuming faction and the self-reliance faction within the Daxi Army. Sun Kewang still followed suit.

His original plan was to go ahead with the emperor's house arrest, evacuate the court, support party members, and annex other Ming army forces. On his side, he had to join forces with the Yongli court to counter Sun Kewang's ambitions, and at the same time realize the agreement with the Zheng Group.

Hand. However, as the Guangdong strategy in the past two years has progressed to this point, whether the military level or the political level is more important, even he himself can no longer tell clearly.

The current situation is already like this. Of course, Li Dingguo understands that there is something in Jin Weixin's words. If he continues to let the conflicts between the two allies go, he can indeed play both sides and obtain greater benefits. However, this does not mean

It fits his style, but it always makes him feel that it is extremely awkward, even disgusting, from the bottom of his heart.

"As Mr. Jin said, this kind of thing cannot be resolved in an instant. It is better to try to capture Guangzhou first, and we can wait until this goal is achieved to discuss anything else."

"Your Highness is wise."

Li Dingguo's expression of helplessness was quickly diluted by the subsequent military deployment. According to the plan, the army was going north to seize Gaoming, Shunde, and Sanshui counties, and remove the Qing army's barriers and nails in southwest Guangzhou. In these places,

Li Dingguo has never been there in person, but what the Ming Army in western Guangdong lacks most is locals who are familiar with geography and terrain. During this period of time, Xizuo has never stopped collecting information about the surrounding situation, and has continuously sent it to Li Dingguo's case.

, making him very familiar with the situation in the area west and south of Guangzhou.

"If I were the traitor Shang Kexi, Xinhui would fall, and it would be the same thing whether Gao Ming defended or not. The key lies in Sanshui and Shunde."

After Chen Kai's nine thousand soldiers left here, it was inevitable that the strength of the Ming army here would decline. However, it would be too exaggerated to say that the strength of the Ming army had reached such a level that all the sharp soldiers were wiped out.

Li Dingguo's headquarters has more than 40,000 troops, and the Ming army in western Guangdong also has 20,000 to 30,000 troops of varying quality. That's why Li Dingguo dared to claim that 200,000 troops swept across western Guangdong. There are at least 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers in this order of magnitude.

, it is definitely not something that can be easily countered by the Qing army.

Not many troops participated in the siege, and Xinhui was about to leave. Li Dingguo immediately mobilized several troops who had been preparing for a long time to go to the battlefields on various fronts. To the southwest of Guangzhou, the war quickly swept across. Chen Kai's troops retreated.

, has disappeared from their sight, and even if they can see it, they don't have much thought to pay attention to it now.

This is human nature. After all, people are always accustomed to paying attention to the things around them. The same is true for Chen Kai's army.

The fleet set off in batches, but there was no rush to return to Hong Kong. After leaving the dock southwest of Xinhui County, the fleet indeed headed west, traveling through the waterways of the Pearl River Delta, heading towards the Lingding Ocean.

.However, halfway through the journey, the pioneers Qianchong Town and Tieqi Town disembarked from the ship, and then headed straight for the Xiangshan County not far away.

Xiangshan County at this time included the later Zhongshan City, Zhuhai City and the Macao Special Administrative Region. Macao was indeed controlled by the Portuguese at this time, but the real cession was in the late Qing Dynasty when the mask of the old empire was torn apart by strong ships and cannons.

What happened after the break, before that, in both the Ming and Qing dynasties, the Xiangshan County Government had administrative and judicial rights over Macau.

Xiangshan County, where the army was approaching, was later known as Zhongshan City. The name was changed to commemorate the revolutionary leader and founding father who overthrew the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Xiangshan County is close to the river, and is exactly to the north and south of Macau. As early as the Tang Dynasty, Xiangshan Town was established for the production of sea salt, which was the beginning of its establishment. Later in the Song Dynasty, it was upgraded to a county, and it once governed Nanhai and Panyu.

, the coastal areas of the four counties of Dongguan and Xinhui. In the early Ming Dynasty, Xiangshan County was built with bricks and stones, which was quite solid. There was also a moat outside the city wall, which added a layer of barrier to the city.

However, over the years, the repairs here have always been poor. So much so that the year before last, on the 20th day of the twelfth lunar month in the sixth year of Yongli, a county town was captured by bandits. The then magistrate of Xiangshan County, Zhang Lingxian and his son, were persecuted and arrested.

The bandits killed him. Wu Jinggong, who arrived later, regained the county without much effort.

This city can't be said to be undefended, but it can't be said to be very well defended. What's more, when Li Dingguo stormed Xinhui, the Qing army in Guangzhou was in a state of full contraction. This city is on the shore of Lingding Yangtze and has always been the Ming navy.

A good target. This time, when Qianchong Town and Tieqi Town approached the city, they captured the county town without much effort.

"Master Fujun, please enter the city from the south gate."

Xiangshan County has four gates: Qixiu in the east, Dengying in the west, Gongchen in the north, and Fumin in the south. The surrendered officials kowtowed to Chen Kai outside the west gate, but respectfully invited Chen Kai to enter the city from the south gate.

He was a little confused about this at first, but then the staff around him came to his ears and explained: "Fujun didn't know something. The north gate is also called the gate of death, and the opposite gate to the south gate is the gate of life.

Gate. Historically, when officials of this county arrived at their posts, they did not disembark at the pier and enter the city via Guanlan Street, Qiyangli, Huaili, and Wufengli. Instead, they had to detour through the south gate to get a good start."

According to custom, this is what it should be. Chen Kai nodded and walked around to Fumin Gate before swaggering into the city. There, the gentry and wealthy households in the county were also waiting there.

After entering the city, the area was already under the control of the Ming army. During the siege, the fighting was not fierce and the damage was not great. The defenders, who were at a serious disadvantage, only resisted symbolically and did not even waste their energy by struggling. Inside the city

The notices for peace of mind have already been plastered all over and the order is in order. There is no need for Chen Kai to make any more arrangements. He simply sent an aide to act as the county magistrate here.

The gentry and wealthy families came to greet them, and Chen Kai also sat down with them at the county school and had a talk. At first, he just preached about the Ming Dynasty's army's recovery of lost territory and the good news of the current counterattack in Fujian and Guangdong provinces. The Ming army came.

After saying this for a while, when the Qing army came, they would repeat it in their tone. They were all gentry, and the rich people were tired of hearing this. However, Chen Kai never intended to disappoint people. The meeting lasted for a while, and he just said

After waving his hand, a middle-aged man with a shaved head and a net scarf shirt walked in, and someone immediately recognized his identity.

"It's Brother Mo Shi from Xinhui!"

"How come Brother Mo Shi is so thin?"

Mo Zhilian is a Juren of Xinhui County. Xinhui and Xiangshan counties are adjacent to each other. The gentry from the two counties have frequent contacts with each other on weekdays. How could one not recognize Mo Zhilian's appearance.

However, the Mo Zhilian we met this time, not to mention the net scarf, the t-shirt, etc., and the braid on the back of her head was gone. However, her body shape was completely skinny, which is not a good thing for her.

He has always attached great importance to health and is not fat on weekdays, but the appearance of this old acquaintance, who is of normal body shape, still shocked them.

"To tell you the truth, if Chen Fujun hadn't helped King Xining conquer Xinhui County, I'm afraid I would have been made into bacon by those vassal soldiers who killed a thousand people like Lu Xiucai in this county!"

Xinhui County was captured by the Ming army, but within three or four days, there was a blockade by the Ming army navy. They were not sure about it at first. But as the Ming army entered the city, the news that Xinhui returned to the Ming Dynasty soon became known.

The news spread, but the most popular rumor was about Chen Kai and the giant cannon that "brought down the city wall with one shot", but not many people noticed the situation inside.

Mo Zhilian was specially invited by Chen Kai. To use the words of him, Li Dingguo, and Lian Chengbi, if voting can be regarded as taking sides, then the vote represents one's personal opinion. He will naturally work for the Ming army and go out to publicize it.

The "Xinhui on the Tip of the Tongue" performance performed by the feudal lords is also a matter of course.

At this moment, Mo Zhilian recounted in detail how starting in May, before the vanguard of the Ming army arrived in the county, the feudal soldiers arrived first and then began to loot and exploit the gentry and people in the city. After the siege, they intensified.

, in the past six months, the people of Xinhui were killed and countless people died of starvation.

"Lu Ao, the student member of this county, has always been an outstanding scholar in our county, and the possibility of passing the imperial examination in the future is quite high. However, those vassal soldiers, regardless of their fame and status, turned out to be just because they could not pay the money and food.

Killed both Lu Xiucai and his son. His wife was a chaste woman, so when she saw that her husband and son were dead, she just bumped into the well and died. It was such a tragedy..."

"Besides, Huang Zhizheng has received so many benefits from me on weekdays, but when the feudal soldiers came, he didn't even dare to fart. Lu Xiucai's family is dead, and he didn't even say a word for us intellectuals.

Let alone ordinary people. After this incident, Yudi has realized that we disciples of the holy religion do not exist in the eyes of Lu Ting. If Lu Ting takes over the world in the future, we will also have to be defeated by those Tatar emperors.

The slaves are so tortured that they have no way out!"

The more she went on, the more Mo Zhilian burst into tears, and everyone present was dumbfounded. With Chen Kai by the side, they did not dare to question, so they had no choice but to echo his words and kept condemning the Qing officials for their inaction.

However, the Qing court's identity as a foreign colonizer was kept secret.

They did not dare, not only because they were not optimistic about the Ming army, but also because they did not know whether what Mo Zhilian said was true.

However, the two counties are adjacent and their relationship has always been inextricably linked. After listening to it this time, once they left the county school, they immediately sent people to investigate, but the results they found were even worse than what Mo Zhilian said.

It's an exaggeration, everyone ran to Chen Kai's residence more diligently.

Xiangshan was recovered, and the centripetal force of the gentry and wealthy families was still slowly being cultivated. However, after the tragedy of Xinhui, I believe they can see the current situation more or less clearly. At the very least, as long as the city is not under strong siege by the Qing army, it will

To a greater or lesser degree, we still need to have the support of the people and the people.
Chapter completed!