Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

"Reporting to the Grand Marshal, there are currently three main groups of bandits in Nanzhili, namely Cao Shangfei from Yingzhou, Song Laosan from Luzhou, and Chuangtatian from Chuzhou.

Among the three gangs of bandits, Song Lao San's is the largest and has already gathered tens of thousands of bandits.

However, under the pressure of the Grand Marshal's reputation and General Huang, the three gangs of bandits all fled to Anqing Prefecture.

But I don’t know the exact location.” Guo Shouqi said truthfully.

Zhang Shikang frowned and looked at Tian Jingwen when he heard this.

"Manager Tian, send someone to find these three gangs of bandits and tell them that I have given them two choices.

First, they surrendered on the spot without being punished, and each returned to his hometown and was allocated land.

If you don't obey, you will be reduced to ashes."

If it were not for this national policy, it is conceivable that if these bandits behaved properly, they might have a bright future and might have left their names in the history books like Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others.

However, they really chose the wrong time, or in other words, they were born at the wrong time.

After several imperial edicts were issued, the imperial court's order to take back the land and redistribute it had gradually spread. This was tantamount to cutting off the source of trouble for the bandits.

Anyone with a sound mind will never follow them in rebelling with their heads hanging on their belts. This is what the people want.

Zhang Shikang could also guess why this group of bandits gathered in Anqing. There were two possibilities. One was that they entered Sichuan from Huguang.

After all, the only remaining bandits are Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. If you enter Sichuan and join one of them, you may have good luck in the future, or at least have a way to survive in the short term.

However, this road was blocked by Qin Liangyu, who was guarding Huguang and Shu, and Cao Bianjiao led his troops to station in Chengtianfu. Unless there was a change in Shu, these people did not have the courage to confront Cao Bianjiao head-on.

As for the second option, of course, it is to cross the river and join Xu Hongji and others, and it is also the most likely possibility.

Zhang Shikang didn't believe that this group of bandits had no support from the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River.

"I obey your command!" Tian Jingwen stood up and bowed.

After giving instructions on this matter, Zhang Shikang asked again:

"How many boats have been assembled to cross the river?"

Compared with this group of bandits, what Zhang Shikang was most worried about was probably the same as them, that is, how to cross the river.

The Yangtze River has been a natural barrier since ancient times. This time is not like later times. There are several Yangtze River bridges connecting the north and the south, and there are no reservoirs to regulate the water flow of the Yangtze River.

Serving as a barrier to the separatist regimes in the south, the Yangtze River is more than ten miles wide at its widest point and one mile wide at its narrowest point. Moreover, it was midsummer at that time, and precipitation in various places plus melting snow and ice caused the flow of the Yangtze River to surge, further increasing the difficulty of crossing the river.

Although Xu Hongji, Zhang Shenyan and others gave up the Huaihe River Basin, they strictly guarded the important crossings of the Yangtze River, especially those relatively narrow places where it was easy to cross the river.

But this is not what worries Zhang Shikang the most. After all, the Yangtze River is so long, and it is impossible for Xu Hongji to deploy defenses along the entire river.

The most worrying thing is that crossing the river requires boats, especially to transport tens of thousands of troops across the river, which requires more boats.

That's the problem, he has no boat.

Although the Ming Dynasty had a Maritime Customs Office and a large number of grain ships sailing between the north and the south, the grain transport of the Ming Dynasty had always been controlled by the Six Ministries in Nanjing.

After all, the main responsibility of the grain transport system is to transport rice, silk, porcelain, etc. from the south of the Yangtze River to the north. This is also the only power that the entire team in Nanjing actually controls.

Of course, it can also be regarded as an important support for the rebel gang.

Seeing Zhang Shikang asking, Tian Jingwen hesitated for a moment. He knew that Zhang Shikang would not tolerate any injustice, so he knelt down and said,

"General, please forgive me. We had already collected more than 80 large and small ships, but... when we passed through the Dantu section of the Yangtze River, the fleet was attacked by rebels. More than 50 ships were sunk or captured by the rebels.

The remaining thirty had to temporarily stop at Guazhou Ferry in Yangzhou Prefecture. Please punish them, Marshal! " Tian Jingwen said, lowering his head.

Although Zhang Shikang didn't feel much upset after hearing this, he still pretended to be unhappy and said:

"The damage to the ship can be forgiven, but the failure to report the knowledge is not to be tolerated. Go and receive twenty military sticks."

Compared with tens of thousands of troops, more than eighty ships are nothing but a drop in the bucket, but military law is military law and it does not tolerate mercy.

"I obey your command!" After saying that, Tian Jingwen withdrew.

After Tian Jingwen left, Zhang Shikang was silent for a long time. In the final analysis, this was his mistake.

He really didn't take Xu Hongji's garrison soldiers and Gao Jie's three divisions seriously, so his marching speed was not fast. He originally thought that he had to fight a battle in Jiangbei no matter what.

At that time, we only need to pursue the victory, and maybe we can decide the outcome in one fell swoop. As long as the plan is proper and we deliberately let some of the enemies go, we may be able to seize some of the troop transport ships while the enemy soldiers are crossing the river.

However, the idea was good, but Zhang Shikang never expected that Gao Jie and his troops were so cowardly that they fled back to Jiangnan after being beaten by Huang Degong only once.

Afterwards, Xu Hongji and Qian Qianyi acted as if they were defending the river, and they had no intention of going north at all.

This made Zhang Shikang very contemptuous.

Wasn't it agreed to 'clear out the imperial court and eliminate the traitors'?

The slogans are shouted loudly, why don’t you lead the Northern Expedition?

The traitor Zhang Shikang is here, and I have delivered him to my door.

But even though he despised her, Zhang Shikang really had no choice at the moment.

Xu Hongji used the large number of grain ships of the Maritime Customs as a basis, and requisitioned a number of various types of artillery from various prefectures and counties in the south of the Yangtze River to equip the grain ships. He managed to piece together a ragtag navy.

Although it is a miscellaneous and mixed navy, it is currently the most powerful navy of the Ming Dynasty, because the Ming Dynasty had no navy at all before.

This miscellaneous navy was divided into several groups, patrolling various sections of the Yangtze River. There were also nearly 300,000 miscellaneous troops stationed along the south coast of the Yangtze River, which made Zhang Shikang scratching his head for a while.

The only two shipyards in the Ming Dynasty were both located in the south of the Yangtze River. Zhang Shikang had no choice but to order the factory guards to summon civilian ships while continuing to implement the new policy in the Huaihe River Basin.

The stalemate lasted for several days, and there was still no progress on the issue of the troop transport ship, but there was news about the bandits in Anqing.

After receiving Zhang Shikang's ultimatum, the three gangs of bandits all chose to surrender.

It was agreed that on May 14, each of the three gangs would send its second-in-command to Fengyang Prefecture for preliminary negotiations.

The way Zhang Shikang dealt with this group of bandits was actually gentle enough. After all, almost all of them chose this path because they could not survive.

Zhang Shikang directly offered conditions such as no punishment for surrender and even distribution of land, which almost no one could refuse.

But Zhang Shikang also roughly knew what these bandits were thinking. They were simply worried that once they surrendered, Zhang Shikang would go back on his word, especially the bandit leader.

Therefore, although he felt impatient, Zhang Shikang still met with several leaders of the bandits on May 14th.

The one who came from Cao Shangfei's tribe was an old man named Zhao Liu, the second-in-command of Chuangtatian was called Du Qian, and the one sent by Song Laosan's tribe was a guy named Zhang San.

Although Zhang Shikang held a high position and great power, he was a rather unruly person by nature and never put on airs. Just a meal of wine was enough to put the three men at ease.

Although Zhao Liu and Song Qian were talkative, they were born into peasant families and did not have great ambitions. On the other hand, although Zhang San did not talk much, Zhang Shikang felt that he was quite sophisticated and his words were powerful.

After eating and drinking, Zhao Liu and Song Qian left one after another to report the good news. Only Zhang San did not get up. Zhang Shikang knew that this guy might have other thoughts, so he looked at him with interest.

Zhang San immediately stood up, clasped his fists and knelt down solemnly, saying:

"General, I have a plan. I am willing to help you put down the rebellion in Jiangnan!"

……

PS: Sorry, the updates have not been very strong recently. I will resume the update process tomorrow.