The Nanjing officials, who had completely changed their mentality, took this opportunity to unite around Xiao Ruxun and were willing to contribute to Xiao Ruxun's Northern Expedition.
At the same time, they also booked a generous gift for the redistribution of power in the future.
Therefore, after Xiao Ruxun led them all to Yangzhou, they all expressed to Xiao Ruxun that they had friends, teachers, or students who were officials somewhere and could contact them. In any case, the army's progress would be smooth and there would be no need for the army to contribute much.
Some people also expressed their willingness to persuade their students, old friends, clansmen, juniors, and students to come to Xiao Ruxun's army to work for him. They said that these people were talented, but unfortunately, they were not appreciated. Now they were willing to work for Xiao Ruxun and asked Xiao Ruxun to accept them.
Xiao Ruxun expressed his welcome. He hoped that they could write to their friends, teachers, or students to join the army, abandon Shen Yicheng's court and the little Emperor, unite around Xiao Ruxun, and fight against Shen Yicheng together.
He welcomed it.
Although he could not guarantee that those who wanted to write to their clansmen, students, and the like to work for Xiao Ruxun would succeed.
After all, Xie He's progress was quite smooth. The Ningbo prefecture had been purged and he was actively expanding his business in other prefectures. He had obtained a huge amount of gold, silver, treasures, and all kinds of antiques, which were more than enough for military expenses. The autumn harvest had also provided enough food for the Northern Expedition Army.
The autumn harvest was over and the farmers had finished their work, so they could carry out more drastic actions.
Xiao Ruxun would get more things.
But …
Many people had probably died, right?
It didn't matter. When they found out, it would be several months later.
And at that time, it would be time for them to lay their cards on the table.
The soldiers were in his hands, and the land was in his hands. What could they do?
Oppose?
Courting death!
Hmph!
On the twenty-fifth day of the tenth month, Xiao Ruxun ordered the navy to split into two groups. He had Jiang Dahai lead the large ships and carry a portion of the army directly by sea, heading straight for Tianjin and landing there to threaten the flank of the capital. The smaller ships were to take the canal, going the same way as the main force.
At the same time, he let Zhang Wu stay in Nanjing and began to vigorously infiltrate and control Nanjing, using Nanjing as the activity center of Black Water. He cleaned up the rebels that might emerge after he left and monitored the families of the officials who stayed in Nanjing.
In particular, the Duke of Wei Mansion must be strictly monitored. They are especially not allowed to leave Nanjing too far and go to some places they are not allowed to go.
Xiao Ruxun once again thanked this era without telegrams, telephones, or cell phones, which made the spread of information so easy to control.
The rebel suppression army officially set out for the north. Their target was the capital, Shen Yicheng!
On the same day, in Sichuan, Liu Gu and Ma Wei's troops defeated the resistance army and occupied Hanzhong.
Three days before that, Liu Gu led the army to defeat the resistance army of 3,000 people sent by Liu Guangguo, the governor of Shaanxi. He killed more than 1,000 of them and captured the rest. Then he accelerated his advance and occupied Hanzhong in only three days, directly threatening Xi 'an, an important city in the northwest where Liu Guangguo was stationed.
Before that, Liu Guangguo took in Tan Xisi and the king of Shu. When he learned that Sichuan had been occupied by the rebel army, he was shocked.
In a panic, he sent people to the imperial court to report the news and sent people to the governor's mansion of Guyuan to ask for reinforcements from Li Wen, the governor of Guyuan. At the same time, he sent his own troops to guard Hanzhong to prevent the rebel army from further targeting Xi 'an after occupying Hanzhong.
However, he still miscalculated. He did not expect that his troops would be defeated so quickly. They were easily defeated by the "rebels" and even lost Hanzhong. After Liu Gu and Ma Wei occupied Hanzhong, they immediately swept the surrounding areas and completely occupied the surrounding areas. They stationed 40,000 troops in Hanzhong, eyeing Xi 'an like a tiger and guarding Guoyuan.
According to Xiao Ruxun's strategy, after Liu Gu and Ma Wei captured Sichuan, they could lead their troops north to Hanzhong and occupy the favorable terrain. They could pin down the troops of the four towns of Gansu, Ningxia, Yulin, and Guyuan, as well as the elites of the northwest army. In this way, they could buy valuable time for Xiao Ruxun.
Liu Gu and Ma Wei faithfully followed this strategy. After occupying Sichuan, they stationed troops in Hanzhong to threaten the northwest and maintained a strong state of attack to show that they could attack Xi 'an or Guyuan at any time.
Before this, Xiao Ruxun had already ordered Zhang Wu to arrange for Blackwater's men to infiltrate the four towns and contact the commanders of the four towns. He wanted them to stay neutral and even turn against him.
However, the Ming court still attached great importance to the Nine Border Strategic Towns. Each of the Nine Border Strategic Towns had Inspectorates. In Guyuan, there were also three Governors who controlled Gansu, Ningxia, and Yulin. Under these circumstances, it would not be easy to win them over. However, if they could win over their neutrality and make them work but not put in effort, that would be the best.
Therefore, Xiao Ruxun had his own arrangements for Gansu's commander, Da Yun, Ningxia's commander, Niu Bingzhong, Guyuan's commander, Du Tong, and Yulin's commander, Li Ruzhang.
Xiao Ruxun was not familiar with Da Yun, so he did not try to win him over. He only stated the facts and asked Da Yun to think carefully. It would be best if he could stay neutral and not be hostile. If he insisted on being hostile, he could not do anything about it. However, Gansu was far away, so it should not be a big problem.
Ningxia's commander, Niu Bingzhong, was an old acquaintance of Xiao Ruxun. They had fought side by side in the battle of Ningxia. Moreover, Ningxia was Xiao Ruxun's hometown. Xiao Ruxun was confident that he could convince Niu Bingzhong not to work hard and not to be hostile to him. Moreover, Ningxia's Governor, Zhu Zhengse, was a good person with a gentle temperament. This was what Ye Mengxiong had told him before. He was not difficult to deal with.
For someone as experienced as Niu Bingzhong, it should be very difficult to win over the commander-in-chief of Guyuan, Du Tong. At the same time, Guyuan was also the base of Li Wen, the governor of the three borders.
Yulin's commander-in-chief, Li Ruzhang, was the fourth brother of Li Rusong. The Li family had always been shrewd. Xiao Ruxun only needed to explain Li Rusong's attitude to convince Li Ruzhang to work hard and not work hard. He could even secretly collude with him.
Therefore, when Liu Gu and Ma Wei captured Hanzhong Prefecture and shocked the northwest, except for Da Yun who had left with his troops earlier and did not receive a letter from Xiao Ruxun, the other three commanders had received a letter and knew of Xiao Ruxun's progress. They all had their own ideas.
However, the only similarity was that none of them reported the letter to their superiors.
It could only be said that Niu Bingzhong had more ideas and was silently preparing to put them into practice.
Li Ruzhang also had more ideas and was constantly weighing the pros and cons.
It was not that Du Tong did not have any ideas, but with the powerful Li Wen right in front of him, he did not dare to make any unnecessary movements.
As the three of them were weighing the pros and cons, news of Xiao Ruxun's army capturing Hanzhong's Hushi Pass and the northwest reached them. Li Wen, the governor of the three borders, requested to mobilize troops.
Du Tong was in Guyuan and was directly ordered by Li Wen to mobilize troops to prepare for war.
Ningxia's commander-in-chief, Niu Bingzhong, also received an order to mobilize troops to Guyuan.
Yulin's commander-in-chief, Li Ruzhang, was ordered to lead troops south to defend Xi 'an and be under the control of Shaanxi's Governor, Liu Guangguo.
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