The process of Zhang Mingwei leading the army westward was actually a propaganda process.

The army was marching and said nothing about the local area. More than 100,000 people sang in unison, which was even more topical and spread from afar.

On the Fengyang Mansion, whether it was Huang Degong or Liu Liangzuo, they all received news about Duke Xingguo leading his troops.

First, he stationed troops in Yangzhou, confiscated the home of a large salt merchant, innovated the salt administration and promoted the salt drying method, and made a big profit from those salt merchants.

This let them know that the court is rich again!

Recently, there has been a rumor that something called potatoes is not only very delicious, but also has a high yield. This means that the food problem in the Ming Dynasty will be solved soon.

In short, with Duke Xingguo advancing westward, all kinds of favorable news began to spread.

Huang Degong was fine, but Liu Liangzuo was a little scared and didn't dare to have any more thoughts. He immediately strictly restrained his troops and reported the official list early.

At the same time, the dispatch of the night did not accept the thieves and thieves in Luzhou Prefecture began to strengthen.

When Duke Xingguo led his troops into Chuzhou Prefecture, he was not far from Luzhou Prefecture occupied by the bandits. Zhang Mingwei sent them military orders that the army owed and paid the military pay, which would be given after the army met. However, before this, Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo were asked to strictly guard against the north of Luzhou Prefecture and not allow the bandits to jump north.

At the same time, the army, which had been moving slowly, suddenly accelerated its speed and attacked Luzhou Prefecture with a thousand-mile raid.

On the Luzhou Prefecture, the slogans of attacking Nanjing were shouted loudly, and the postures he made would immediately go south along the river and attack along the south.

However, when Zhang Mingwei's troops launched an attack, Zhang Xianzhong and Ge Zuo Fifth Battalion were actually rabbits. They could be said to have fled when they heard the news and did not fight with the imperial army of Zhang Mingwei's troops at all. They also rushed into Huguang at a very fast speed.

Even the spies who had been sent to the bandit army did not know about this in advance. Therefore, the cunning Zhang Xianzhong did not disclose it to anyone at all at the beginning.

The coalition forces of Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai were known as one million troops, but they did not win the battle against the weak Xingguo Duke's troops. No matter what the reason was that they did not win, in Zhang Xianzhong's opinion, it also means that the Xingguo Duke's troops are difficult to deal with.

Since it is a hard bone, why should he chew it?

In addition, Li Zicheng's slogan was shouting loudly, and he agreed to send Liu Zongmin to attack Yingtian Mansion together, but he was too busy to meet in Luzhou. Even though the reasons he made up sound reasonable and explained slowly, Zhang Xianzhong was not so easy to fool, and he immediately understood Li Zicheng's intention.

Whether it is Fengyang, Zhongdu or Nanjing, since it is the most important part of the court, it means that the court will definitely have heavy troops to defend it. Who would be so stunned that they will attack directly!

Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong did not plan to go to these two places from the beginning. His goal was set from the beginning, that is Huguang.

Huguang, also known as Hubei, has always been the granary of the Ming Dynasty. There is a saying that "Huguang is familiar with the world," which is the most important thing in the world.

Zhang Xianzhong had long wanted to attack here. As long as he had enough money and food, he could recruit more people. In the future, not only would he fight with the court, but he would also have more capital to fight with Li Zicheng sooner or later.

Therefore, his bluffing and claiming to be fighting Nanjing were actually for the imperial governments in Huguang to see.

When Zhang Xianzhong heard that Duke Xingguo had led his troops westward, he quietly revealed this purpose to the leader of the Fifth Battalion of the Gleath. At that time, they were secretly preparing for the troops.

Of course, it was natural to attack Nanjing from the outside world. As a result, the bandits suddenly gave up Luzhou Prefecture, advanced westward, and rushed into Huguang.

Zhang Xianzhong did the same in history. He first trained sailors in Chaohu, Luzhou Prefecture, saying that he wanted to attack Yingtian Prefecture, but turned around and raided Huguang.

This time, because of Li Zicheng's participation, he formed an alliance and shouted slogans, and was even more deceptive, so that the imperial army in Huguang could really think that these thieves were going to attack Yingtian Mansion and were all watching the fun there.

As a result, the bandits attacked Huguang and were as powerful as they were. They attacked Danzhou at night, and then continued to Danshui, Huangzhou and Macheng. They robbed food and supplies all the way, and surrounded the population. The military affairs were at their peak.

Immediately afterwards, Zhang Xianzhong did not stop at all, took Hanyang west, crossed the Yangtze River from Yadanzhou, and pointed directly at Wuchang.

There is a vassal king here in Wuchang, which is the King of Chu. The contemporary King of Chu is called Zhu Huakui, who is a cruel but very stingy person.

Back then, he instructed his subordinates to beat Zhao Kehuai, the governor of Huguang who had a grudge against him, to death. Such a thing would not be seen anywhere else.

Zhu Huakui reigned for 63 years. His strength and wealth in Wuchang made him accumulate money.

But even so, when Zhang Xianzhong attacked Wuchang, local officials from Huguang gathered in the Chu Palace and begged Zhu Huakui to donate funds and pay. He even took out the imperial court's residence to convince Zhu Huakui with the deeds of the King of Zhou and asked him to use the money to resist the thieves' army.

However, Zhu Huakui asked someone to move out of the gold-wrapped chair given by the Hongwu Dynasty and said to the local officials: "This is a military officer, but he has nothing to do!"

Who dares to move something Taizu gave?

Zhu Huakui was very strong and could even kill the governor of Huguang. Although these local officials had the will of the court, none of them were responsible and did not dare to really break up with Zhu Huakui.

As a result, I couldn't get a penny of food from the Chu Palace.

Therefore, the rich gentry and wealthy people in Wuchang Prefecture naturally followed suit, thinking that the King of Chu did not take out the money, obviously because he had a support and thought that Wuchang Prefecture would be fine, so why did they take the money?

Just like that, when the Wuchang Mansion was still worried about money and food, Zhang Xianzhong rushed to attack Wuchang Mansion, and even sent people to infiltrate into Wuchang Mansion in advance. In this way, he attacked and Wuchang Mansion fell.

Zhang Xianzhong entered the city and looked at the carts of gold, silver and treasures that were moved out of the Chu Palace. He laughed happily and said, "With such wealth without a guard, Zhu Huzi is really mediocre!"

It is said that the Chu Palace was finally used to use hundreds of cars. Afterwards, Zhang Xianzhong immediately distributed more than 6 million taels of silver to summon refugees from all over the country to expand his strength.

At the same time, Zhang Xianzhong also ordered Zhu Huakui to be thrown into the Yangtze River and drowned, and drove away the Zhu royal family in Wuchang City, and drove them to the riverside and asked them to jump into the water. For a while, the crying sounds on the banks of the Yangtze River shook the sky, and floating corpses flowed down the river.

If the original history was changed and the vassal kings were harmed by thieves, Emperor Chongzhen would naturally be furious again and severely punish a group of officials. However, since Zhang Mingwei traveled through time, the situation has been different.

First of all, Zhang Mingwei explained to him clearly that the disaster of the fall of the Ming Dynasty would result in the result of the royal family. In two years, the Ming Dynasty would perish. It goes without saying which is more important, the royal family or the ancestors and the country.

In addition, the performance of the royal family after 1644 was not decent, which made Emperor Chongzhen recognize the fact that these royal families are like pigs.

To this end, Emperor Chongzhen followed Zhang Mingwei's advice and not only issued an order to require the vassal kings to take the lead in funding money and food to defend the city when they encountered thieves attacking the city, but also changed the national policy and wanted to enfeoff all the vassal kings overseas, and also set the King of Zhou as an example.

But even so, the King of Chu did not listen, so the result this time was different. After Zhang Mingwei reported this, Emperor Chongzhen made a clear order to the world and strictly demanded that the royal family of the vassal kings in various places should take the King of Zhou as an example and the King of Chu as a warning.

Look, Kaifeng has been defended, but Wuchang has fallen. This is the result of different reactions from different vassal kings!

As for the punishment of the person involved, this time there is no one!

After Zhang Xianzhong captured Wuchang Prefecture, he actively prepared for the war and prepared to fight the troops of Xingguo Duke who were pursuing him.

Because he knew that escaping was not a solution. Now that his strength has been greatly expanded, he is confident that he will compete with the Xingguo Duke.

Anyway, if you can't win, then you'll run away again!

On the side of the imperial government and the result of the killing of the King of Chu in Wuchang made the local government and the imperial government relieved. At the same time, morale suddenly increased.

After Zhang Mingwei knew that Zhang Xianzhong's troops and the Fifth Battalion of Ge Zuo were not leaving in Huguang and was about to fight with him, he was not anxious and no longer allowed the army to advance in a hurry. Instead, he began to wait for the subsequent baggage battalion, that is, the fleet and vehicle battalion that were going up along the river to follow.

At the same time, Zhang Mingwei also ordered the dispatch of officials from all over the country to strictly guard the northern transportation routes.

Not only Liu Liangzuo, but Huang Degong's men were assisting in defense on the northern front, he also transferred the three generals Tang Tong, Li Fuming and Ma Ke to lead their troops to block the northern part of Huguang, slowly shrinking the encirclement, and at least not let the bandits flee north.

With such a division of troops, his headquarters has only more than 50,000 troops.

All the generals were worried at first, fearing that there would be danger to Duke Xingguo. However, this time, Zhang Mingwei insisted on his own opinion and continued to arrange according to this arrangement.

He knew that if his troops were strong and he did not give hope to the bandits, the bandits would not come to fight him.

It is equivalent to saying that Zhang Mingwei treats his own side as bait to lure the thieves and prevents the thieves from engaging in guerrilla warfare with him.

He stayed in Luzhou Prefecture for half a month, and after the army was in charge, he restored order to the local government, he led his troops into Huguang.

……………………

On Zhang Xianzhong's side, he killed all the royal families at the beginning, not because he hated him, but because he knew that doing this would be like killing people with a knife, and he could kill a group of rank-and-rank officers and generals of the court, which was experienced in the past.

If you can kill Duke Xingguo for this, it would be the best.

As a result, the result he was waiting for was completely different from before, which surprised him.
Chapter completed!