Jiangnan, Jiangning City.

Now, in the south of the Yangtze River in Nanzhili, the Qing army only controlled the four prefectures of Jiangning, Zhenjiang, Taiping, Chizhou, as well as some prefectures and counties in Ningde, Guangde and Huzhou, and most of the land in Jiangdong have been lost.

However, although the place was small, it allowed the Qing army to concentrate its forces and clenched into a fist, which was frightening.

At this time, the three Qing kings gathered on the south bank of the Yangtze River, with nearly 200,000 troops. It can be said that they are very terrifying and very deterrent, which made the previously arrogant Ming army of Zhejiang suddenly stop and turn to defense.

Previously, the Qing army in Huguang made rapid progress and traveled thousands of miles to Jiangnan. Because the logistics could keep up, it failed to launch a counterattack immediately, missing the best opportunity, which made the Zhejiang faction gradually gain a foothold.

Now several months have passed, and the food and food originally transported to Huguang to attack Hunan were shipped back to Jiangnan. In addition, Dorgon held a banquet to entertain the eight major Shanxi merchants including Fan Yongdou and Wang Dengku, and gave them yellow jackets and fourth-rank official ranks, which moved Fan Yongdou and others. Each family paid million in silver to serve the Qing court.

This made Dorgon get millions of taels of silver at once, and immediately solved his urgent need.

When the Qing Dynasty entered the pass, it actually robbed a lot of money, but the money was easy to come at that time, and the Qing court did not cherish it much.

Most of the money was divided by the nobles of the Eight Banners, and after entering the pass, they did not start to restore the place, so they had to spend eight years in the pass, which made the treasury now not enough to make ends meet and a serious deficit.

With Fan Yongdou and others generously donated money, Dorgon immediately raised more than 8 million taels of silver and allocated 4 million taels to Hong Chengchou for casting firearms, purchasing Western artillery ships, and training new troops. The remaining 4 million taels were used as military expenses, preparing to counterattack Jiangsu and Zhejiang, regain taxation areas, and relieve the financial crisis of the Qing court, so that the income and expenditure were barely balanced.

At this time, as the money and food were in place, the more than 200,000 Qing army in Jiangnan wanted to move.

Jiangning City, the mansion of the General of the Conquest of the South.

The three kings of Mandahai, Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, and the Governor of Jiangnan Fan Wencheng, etc., stood in the hall, surrounded the sand table, discussing military information.

At this time, a Qing general walked in, knelt on one knee, and presented something with both hands, "The map drawn by the Prince Qi, the scout!"

Mandahai picked up the map, reached out to take it, expanded to check it out, it was the Qing army scout who drew the defense of Wuzhicheng City, and the situation near the Xicheng Canal.

"Zhao Zamao entered the city and dug a canal. This was to block the king and the west of Changzhou, so that our Qing cavalry could not attack the east of the lake!" After reading it, Mandahai handed the drawings to Fan Wencheng, Kong Youde and others.

The drawings have detailed text descriptions on the renovation of Wujin city walls, placement of artillery, and the width of the canal.

This shocked everyone. Zhao Zamao made such a big move, building a city and digging canals, Zhao Zamao was really rich.

Kong Youde frowned and said, "If the canal is dug, Zhao Zamao will block it with the navy, and then garrison it with a small number of troops on the east coast, it will be able to stop our more than 100,000 troops and almost invincible!"

Mandahai looked at Kong Youdedao: "The King Gongshu means to beat Zhao Zamao first?"

Kong Youde nodded, walked to the edge of the sand table, picked up the wooden pole and pointed at Su Songchang, and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, you can only hit Zhao Zamao first. The land east of the lake is only a few hundred miles away from Jiangning. If you don't hit Zhao Zamao, he can attack Jiangning at any time. We can't feel at ease when we go to fight anyone!"

Mandahai had a gloomy face, "Su Songchang is indeed too close to Jiangning, and Zhao Zamao's navy is powerful, and there is no danger to defend along the way. If he threatens Jiangning at any time, I really can't stand it and cannot be at ease to attack Zhu Yihai."

Seeing that Mandahai recognized his words, Kong Youde immediately said, "Since the prince also thinks so, this battle should be urgent rather than slow. I think Zhao Zamao's canal has been dug almost the same. If we don't take action quickly, it will be too late to send troops when his defense line is built."

Mandahai nodded slightly, "I understand the intention of obedience to the king. However, if I attack Zhao Zamao, Zhu Yihai will definitely send troops to help Zhao Zamao. Even the Ming army in Huguang and Jiangxi will also go to war. I must first communicate with all parties so that the people from all over the country can prepare before they can launch troops to attack."

Kong Youde frowned, "Prince, soldiers are very fast. Zhao Zamao's defense line has been based on the outline when he waits for a while, and his defense line has been established. If the new army completes training, then the court will take Hudong, which will be a great price."

In recent days, although the Ming army and the Qing army have not fought a great battle, Mandahai has closely paid attention to the actions of Zhao Ming and Zhu Yihai.

At this time, he no longer had the arrogance and was even a little too cautious.

The Qing Dynasty works were carefully written by some fenceists in Hudong. In addition to building large-scale projects in Hudong, building Wucheng City and widening the canal, Zhao Zamao also recruited 50,000 new troops, and has been training for more than two months.

If the delay continues, Zhao Zamao's defense line will be built and the new army will form combat power, and the Qing army will be really difficult to attack.

Mandahai is still quite confident about whether he can regain Hudong, but what he is worried about is that he is not prepared on other battlefields and is killed by the Ming army by mistake.

In recent years, the Qing army has had obvious advantages in the front battlefield. As they fought, the flanks and other battlefields suddenly collapsed, which eventually led to the failure of the entire battle.

This lesson is so painful.

While Mandahai was hesitating, a Qing official walked into the lobby and looked in the crowd. Finally, he walked straight to Fan Wencheng and whispered.

After hearing this, Fan Wencheng looked at the visitor in surprise. After getting the visitor's confirmation, he couldn't help but smile on his face and waved, "You go down first!"

The official heard the sound and bowed to Fan Wencheng, Mandahai and others, and then quickly left the lobby.

At this time, Mandahai couldn't help but frown and said, "Governor Fan, what's the matter?"

Fan Wencheng smiled and said, "Your Majesty, the pseudo-Ming court sent Fu Shangrui to Jiangnan to supervise the army. The slaves thought that the prince could attack Zhao Zamao immediately without being sad about Huguang and Jiangxi's thieves."

Mandahai said in confusion: "Supervisor Fu Shangrui, what's the matter?"

Fan Wencheng continued to laugh and said, "I don't know what's there now, but this Fu Shangrui is not from the Zhejiang clan. I think Zhao Zamao will definitely not be happy when the pseudo-Ming court suddenly sent such a person to come. But when the pseudo-Ming court suddenly sent someone to supervise the army, it can be seen that they have also begun to fear Zhao Zamao."

Mandahai seemed to understand, Kong Youde took over the conversation and said, "It's the same for both the pseudo-Ming court and the Chongzhen dynasty before. This is a good thing for us."

Mandahai took two steps in the lobby and suddenly waved his hand: "King Shun, King Huaishun, I will let you two lead the 50,000 army as the vanguard, and run to Wujin first. I will make a little arrangement and then arrive."
Chapter completed!