On April 15, the second year of Shenwu, the Shuiguan Wharf of the Canal outside Yangzhou City.

Yangzhou, a famous city that has been around forever, was probably the most miserable city in the late Ming Dynasty. Four years ago, the Qing Dynasty who went south, massacred millions of people in the city, young and old. In the original history, Yangzhou was killed in the next time after this disaster, it would take until the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom three hundred years later. Unexpectedly, Zhu Hongsan, a big butterfly, suddenly appeared in this time and space. Under his instigation, the Southern Ming counterattack successfully and occupied Yangzhou again. Naturally, the Yangzhou people in the city who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and were ready to be the people became the target of the second massacre.

Zhu Hongsan issued an edict when he raised an army in Guangdong. He was a subject of the Ming Dynasty, and the army must be slaughtered for no reason. However, the battlefield changed rapidly and the emperor's imperial edict became less useful. In addition, Zhao Guodong's army fought bloody battles in Yangzhou City for half a month, and nearly 10,000 people were killed or injured. Naturally, he had no good feelings for the Eight Banners guarding the city troops in the city, and naturally he had to take revenge after entering the city. In addition, the new military records of the Qingqing-Fresh Army that joined the army were too bad, so Yangzhou City was slaughtered again four years later.

After statistics, in addition to the more than 80,000 defending troops in the Qing Dynasty, there were tens of thousands of merchants killed by the Ming army, and 70,000 or 80,000 ordinary Yangzhou citizens were killed. After this struggle, Yangzhou no longer had the grand occasion of "a hundred thousand bulls of money and riding a crane to Yangzhou" five years ago.

After Ma Jiyuan took office, he saw that Yangzhou was so ruined that he could not transfer 50,000 people from Taizhou and Yizhen counties, which made Yangzhou a little more popular.

Now Tong Tuchang was standing on the Shuiguan Wharf, frowned and looked at Ma Jiyuan and Fang Fengnian on the shore, and was very angry. He was obviously a righteous man, so why was Ma Jiyuan only polite to Fengnian and completely treated himself as a transparent person. He has been in Yangzhou for half a month and has not even said a word to him.

Tong Tuchang knew that his uncle and Ma Jiyuan were sick, but after all, he was the emperor's official envoy. Unexpectedly, he would not give him any face.

Tong Tuchang waited on the bow of the boat for a long time. Fang Fengnian finally said goodbye to Ma Jiyuan and other colleagues, and slowly walked onto the springboard.

Tong Tuchang looked at Fang Fengnian and laughed: "It seems that Lord Fang and Ma Taifa have a deep relationship!"

Fang Fengnian had no good impression of Tong Tuchang. When Tong Tuchang asked, he stared at him and said, "What? Are you not satisfied with Lord Tong?"

Tong Tuchang quickly shook his hand and said, "I dare not! This is Lord Fang's private matter, how dare Tong interfere! However, Tong heard that Lord Fang's promotion was recommended by the chief assistant this time, don't you know if Ma Jiantai knows?"

Tong Tuchang wanted to provoke the relationship between the two brothers of the Ma family, but Fang Fengnian was also an old man in the world, so he could be fooled by him.

"Hmph! I have nothing to do with you who I am recommended, and you can't care! The canal is strong, so I won't be with you!" Fang Fengnian said that, and returned to the cabin by himself, leaving Tong Tuchang's peace talks on the bow.

Tong Tuchang was robbed by Fang Fengnian and was reluctant to come to Taiwan. He could only say to another deputy envoy, Zhao Mengguan, who was beside him: "This old man is really ignorant. Lord Zhao, you are responsible for the supervision. You must report to the truth when you return to the capital!"

Zhao Mengguan rolled his eyes and said nothing. Zhao Mengguan was framed by Qian Yiai in Nanjing and was born with disgust for these scholars and intellectuals. Anyway, the emperor gave him the order to monitor these two people, and the prince gave him the order to disrupt the peace talks. The remaining two adults fought as much as they like, and had nothing to do with him.

Seeing that Zhao Mengguan did not agree with him, Tong Tuchang laughed twice and laughed at him, standing on the bow of the ship watching the fleet set sail.

There was also a battalion of 500 guards who set sail with Tong Tuchang, but they did not follow them to Beijing, but only escorted them to Huai'an.

The weather is now the season when spring is blooming, the best season of the year. Tong Tuchang stood on the bow of the boat and looked at the weeping willows on both sides of the canal, and couldn't help but feel good. However, when he saw the refugees walking on both sides of the canal, Tong Tuchang's good mood was gone.

The grain of grain was cut off. The canal boat people, laborers and porters who originally relied on grain of grain for their livelihood immediately lost their inputs. At that time, it was not that there was unemployment insurance in later generations, and that there was no food for the next generation. These poor people had no choice but to sell their children, raise some money, and then head south along the canal. If they were lucky, they could cross the Yangtze River to Nanjing. If they were unlucky, they either died on the road or became water ghosts in the Yangtze River.

When Tong Tuchang saw this tragic phenomenon, he was about to ask his subordinates to send some food and drink to these poor people, but he was stopped by Zhao Meng.

"Sir, it's better not to give these people food!"

Tong Tuchang said in a daze: "Why is this?"

"Sir, you don't know that there are leaders among these refugees. If the food you give them cannot reach the hands of the refugees, they will be taken away by the leaders. If these ordinary refugees are not properly dealt with, they will lose their lives!"

Tong Tuchang nodded, and then he let his subordinates give up!

Zhao Mengguan continued: "There is another one! Sir! It's nothing to give some food here, but don't show it easily when you arrive in Shandong!"

"Why is this?"

"Shandong is now barren, with bandits and bandits everywhere. If they are targeted, we will have no way to survive!"

Tong Tuchang was shocked when he heard Zhao Mengguan say this. He had more than 500 people under his command, and there were only 100 Jinyiwei who were escorting him. Can he still be afraid of some bandits and bandits in Shandong?

"Sir, Shandong has now become a place of no control. The Qing Dynasty's rule can only be effective in a few prefectures, and outside the city has become a lawless land!"

When Tong Tuchang heard Zhao Mengguan say this, he was a civil servant and had the mission of peace talks. Don’t die at the hands of bandits without doing anything.

"Sir Zhao, are there any other roads to Beizhili?"

Zhao Mengguan smiled bitterly and said, "Sir, Shandong is already the safest. At least we can't take action even if we see a lot of people. If we go to Henan, we will probably be eaten before we reach Luoyang!"

"Then how can we ensure the safety of entering Shandong?"

"Please rest assured that this is true. There are several bandits in Shandong who are in contact with our Jinyiwei. The subordinates have sent people to contact us. I guess they will be protected by them by entering Shandong!"

In fact, there is still some news from Zhao Mengguan that those waves of bandit leaders were actually spies of the Jinyiwei. In recent years, Zhu Hongsan’s money and weapons support, he has become the king and dominant in the Shandong territory. So Zhao Mengguan just said that Shandong is not safe and that it is somewhat of a terrifying Tong Tuchang. It is true that it is not safe, but it has not reached the point of losing his life.

The Grand Canal is like a blood vessel in the north, transporting millions of stones of grain from various provinces in the south of the Yangtze River to the north every year. Although most of these grains are exploited by various officials on the canal, it also indirectly promotes the economic development of the two sides of the canal. Along the Grand Canal, a series of emerging cities are embedded in the canal like pearls, such as Huai'an, Suqian, Jining, Dongchang Prefecture, and Linqing. Huai'an Prefecture is the intersection of the canal and the Yellow River, and the Lianghuai Salt Field is not far from Huai'an, which becomes the capital of the canal. Huai'an was the blood center of the Ming and Qing dynasties. The Governor of the Grain Transport, who was in charge of the grain transport, was stationed in Huai'an Prefecture, and the Governor of the River Channel was also moved to Qingjiangpu, Huai'an during the Kangxi period. Huai'an was the pit transport command center, river management center, grain transport center, grain ship manufacturing center, salt tax center,

The transportation hub of the canal is known as the "four major cities" and the "four southeastern capitals" along the canal, along with Yangzhou, Suzhou and Hangzhou. Qingjiangpu in Huai'an also has good reputations such as "south ships and north horses", "the thoroughfare of nine provinces", and "the granary of the world".

However, Huai'an, the canal capital, lost its meaning of existence with Zhu Hongsan's rise. The Lianghuai Salt Field was incredible that it was impacted by the fine salt transported from Guangdong. The large salt merchants in Huai'an and Yangzhou went bankrupt one after another. This was also one of the main reasons why the large salt merchants in the two places supported the Qing Dynasty.

However, there was no salt farm in the past, but Huai'an, as the center of the canal, was responsible for transporting grain to the north. Life was quite decent. However, as Zhu Hongsan occupied Southern Zhili and Zhejiang, Jiangxi provinces, the canal of the artery that transfusion blood to the north was completely shut down. Zhu Hongsan himself did not have enough food, and he could support the Qing Dynasty free of charge. Therefore, after the last grain of grain passed through Huai'an in December last year, the Grand Canal, which had been busy for hundreds of years, completely stopped.

After Zhu Hongsan occupied Yangzhou, he did not want to stimulate the Qing Dynasty too much, so he ordered the army not to advance north. Therefore, the Ming army only occupied Shaobo Town twenty miles outside Yangzhou City, and built a position here as the first line of defense to resist the Qing Dynasty. At the same time, Gaoyouzhou in the north of Yangzhou was still under the rule of the Qing Dynasty.

When Tong Tuchang and his party passed by Gaoyou, the guards of Gaoyou did not dare to open the door at all. Seeing the Ming army heading around the city, they found that the Ming army had only opened the city gate and sent a messenger to Huai'an to report the emergency.

Huai'an has now become Hong Chengchou's temporary base camp. After being rescued by Ma Degong, Hong Chengchou fled to Huai'an. He originally planned to rest here and flee to Jining. He thought that the Ming army occupied Yangzhou and did not go north, but was stationed in Yangzhou on the spot. This really made Hong Chengchou not what the Qingming army was thinking.

The key to defending the river is to defend the Huai River. Now the Ming army only occupied Yangzhou. Why is this?

In the end, it was the analysis of Jiangning Governor Zhou Boda. Is the Ming army weak in attack and the logistics supply cannot keep up!

Zhou Boda's words woke up the dreamer. Hong Chengchou discovered that the Ming army did not start from Zhejiang to occupy Nanjing, but started from Guangdong and swept half of China. It was already at the end of its strength to go north to Yangzhou and no longer have the strength to develop north.

After trying to get out, Hong Chengchou breathed a sigh of relief and quickly prepared a defense line here in Huai'an. At the same time, he sent another letter to Dorgon in the capital, saying that he had fought for a long time and finally repelled the Ming army's attack under the city of Huai'an, blocking the Ming army on the south bank of the Yellow River, and asking the Regent to quickly transfer reinforcements.

At this critical moment, Hong Chengchou received news from the Gaozhou garrison that thousands of Ming troops passed by Gaoyou and rushed to Huai'an through the canal.
Chapter completed!