I have a cornucopia

Chapter 222 The Confucian Country on Earth!
Of course, a few warships could not scare Li Zicheng.

He is very calm now. Even if he really cannot break through the Yangtze River defense line, the worst that can happen is he can go south to Jiangxi.

Then he swept across Jiangnan in the same way.

After all, it was impossible for Zheng Chenggong's warships to sail to the Gan River.

In fact, what he didn't know was that with the draft of these warships at sea, they could only go here at most. It would be very dangerous to go further in this season. Even the waterway of Poyang Lake in the dry season has a natural water depth of only two or three meters, and from the Yangtze River upstream it is actually only near the lake mouth. However, having these warships stuck at the lake mouth would indeed cause great trouble to upstream attackers.

But it's just a nuisance.

Because of the battles on the Yangtze River, the upper reaches always have an absolute advantage over the lower reaches.

Battleships are powerful?

Can they withstand the hundreds of small fireboats floating downstream from upstream?

We in the Ming Dynasty even have floating mines.

If a real fight breaks out, the tiger will ultimately be no match for the pack of wolves.

"It's hard to handle!"

Yang Feng looked at Li Zicheng's leaving back and said with a look of concern for the country and the people.

The others were also in a heavy mood.

Li Zicheng did not make any promises...

Just think about it and you will know that it is impossible for him to stop under such circumstances. As for public opinion, everyone actually understands it. It is only used as a fig leaf when needed. Now that the gentry in Jiangnan needs it, they naturally use it as a fig leaf.

But Li Zicheng doesn't need it.

public opinion?

He has an army of 300,000. What public opinion does he need?
Fortunately, with Yang Feng's deterrence, Li Zicheng can still be negotiated. It can only be said that there is still hope. In fact, this is also the main use of Yang Feng now.

He didn't want to fight Li Zicheng to a death, so the only option left was deterrence.

"If we can't really defeat him on land, he will still covet Jiangnan. His current navy is not strong enough to break through our navy's interception, not to mention that Ma'an and Gushan are already setting up artillery, and the navy and shore artillery are enough to hold on in the short term. But Li Zicheng's southward march is inevitable. If he can't open the Yangtze River, he can go to Nanchang. If he attacks Zhejiang by detour, he can also sweep Jiangnan. Therefore, we still need to gather heavy troops and wait for a battle with him on the De'an front. If we can inflict a heavy blow to him, he will recognize the situation and turn to renegotiate. However, the King of Donghai cannot do it, only the Jiangnan militia can do it.

The reason why Li Zicheng was so confident was that he looked down on the militia in the south of the Yangtze River.

He was just afraid of the King of the East Sea.

But if the Jiangnan militia can defeat his elite troops in a field battle, then he will have to really think about the problem that he may not be able to win even if he goes to Jiangnan. This will put an end to his ambitions once and for all.

In addition, Zhang Xianzhong had to be won over.

Only if he threatens Xi'an will Li Zicheng not tangle with us for a long time.

But we still have to be wary of Dorgon.

This situation..."

Du Yinxi paused for a moment, and finally could only sigh.

Indeed, this situation is completely frustrating!

Now it is the Three Kingdoms War. The Qing army is on the north bank of the Yangtze River. In fact, some Qing cavalry have already appeared on the other side of Jiujiang. Even the Qing army led by Nikan has entered Huangmei, waiting for the Jiujiang War. The happiest person now is Dorgon. He is looking forward to it on the north bank, waiting for Li Zicheng and Yang Feng to fight each other in Jiujiang. At that time, he can happily clean up the mess, just like Zhang Xiaoliuzi during the Central Plains War. And here everyone still has his own plans. Yang Feng is only a limited help. After all, Li Zicheng's victory will not affect him much. He will still split Shandong. The gentry in Jiangxi are wavering, so there is no choice for Nanzhi and Zhejiang...

The sorrow of the rich.

Or it could be said to be the sorrow of rich people in troubled times.

Any force will target them first, and the tragedy is that they are usually the weakest one. Even now, tens of thousands of militia cannot truly protect Jiangnan.

There's not enough.

And it can't withstand consumption.

These elite troops, which were raised with huge sums of money, could only win a few tactical victories, but when the enemy invaded in full force, they would lose sight of the big picture. Unless they continued to expand the army, this would require huge capital investment. The annual salary, equipment, and training costs of a militiaman would not be much less than a hundred taels. If they really trained 100,000 militiamen, the annual investment would be enough to make the gentry in Jiangnan collapse.

If you don't pay to protect yourself, you will run the risk of being robbed by others. If you pay to protect yourself, you will have to face the embarrassment of emptying your family property in order to protect it.

The gentry are suffering!

too bitter.

Poor people don't have so many things to worry about.

They just want to stay alive, but the gentry still have to protect their own wealth and glory.

Du Yinxi looked at Jiang Yueguang, as for Kuang Zhao, he just stayed aside. A Sichuanese was only good at serving the Elders' Council, otherwise he would have been expelled by the Elders' Council long ago.

But Jiang Yueguang ignored him and looked at Yang Feng who was still pretending to be deep.

"King of the East Sea, there is something I don't understand. Please explain it to me."

He said.

"please say."

Yang Feng said.

"I don't know what the King of the East Sea's purpose is. What kind of person does he want the Ming Dynasty to become?"

Jiang Yueguang said very directly.

Du Yinxi looked at him in horror.

Everyone does understand this, but don’t talk about it!
Yang Feng is acting, so let's act too. As long as we can get by, we can act together and get by. It will be easy to break up if you say it out.

"King of the East Sea, there is no need to say those nonsense. We are all straightforward people. I think we can understand a lot of what King of the East Sea has done over the years. Although I am old and dim, I am not so ignorant that I cannot understand these. But I still don't understand what King of the East Sea's purpose is."

Jiang Yueguang said.

Yang Feng smiled.

It's obvious that these old guys have reached the end of their patience.

In this case, let’s just push it a little harder.

"Lord Xihu, I want to ask, what kind of friendship do we have? Your Excellency is from Jiangxi, I am from Shandong, and he is from Nanzhi. We have no relationship at all. We just have the same emperor, but this emperor is now in name only. Indeed, I can help you, but I can also help others. I even said at the beginning that if necessary, we can also write the words Zhang Hongfan, the destroyer of Song Dynasty. So please give me a reason why I should help you, don't say that I am doing this for the princess. I am a married man, so why should I help you?
Give me a reason.

For the name?

I do not need.

For profit?

I have no shortage of money.

Why loyalty?
That's a joke. You all know what I did in the capital. So why should I help a group of people who are two thousand miles away from me and have nothing to do with me in terms of interests or emotions in a country that has actually died? "

Yang Feng said.

Jiang Yueguang was silent.

"At least we are all Han Chinese, right?"

Du Yinxi said weakly.

"Ah, this is a reason. I admit that this was a reason when we were facing the Jianlu. You can say this, which is indeed progress, but the problem is that we are facing Li Zicheng now. Isn't he also a Han Chinese? Even if he usurped the throne, the result is still a Han dynasty. I won't lose Dou Rong if I retreat, and I won't lose the princes if I advance. I still can't find a reason to help you?"

Yang Feng said.

Jiang Yueguang looked at him deeply.

"So the King of the East Sea wants to change his things?"

He said.

"I didn't say that, but since we are all disciples of saints, we must live up to this status. The banner of our Confucius and Mencius Knights is to defend the Way with blood, so what is this Way? Xihu Gong is a veteran of four dynasties, and I think he should know more than me. Those elders in Nanjing did not debate much, but they were already debating, and they would always argue out the real result. However, if Li Zicheng's army entered Nanjing at that time, the result would ultimately be a joke. The Ming Dynasty has come to this day, and it is actually time for change, but in the past it was suppressed by the emperor.

there's no more.

You can do whatever you want now.

So why not try to do something you wanted to do but didn’t dare to do in the past?
Of course, if you still want to welcome the new master, continue the old days, and continue to serve the emperor and his family as slaves for generations, then I won’t say this.”

Yang Feng said.

Jiang Yueguang stood there silently.

Then he picked up the glass and drank it all.

“I will persuade the Elders Council, but King Donghai, don’t forget your own words.

Defend the Way with blood!"

He said.

So in the end they were unable to resist the temptation of a Confucian country on earth.

The current situation is very clear. As long as Li Zicheng can be stopped and the separatist regime in the lower reaches can be ensured, then with the style of the princess regent, as long as Yang Feng does not make trouble, the local elders' associations can really complete this Confucian country on the ground. Even the political system has taken shape. In the past year, the local elders' associations have successfully managed the local areas and even mobilized militia as an army. Local officials have no choice but to respect the elders' associations. Isn't this the world of great harmony that Confucianism has always advocated? The monarch is in power, the literati govern the affairs, the great Confucians educate the local areas, the gentry manage the people, and the scholars defend the truth with swords.

Perfect!
What generations of Confucian scholars dared to think but not to do was now realized.

But now comes the problem.

The basis of all this is actually that a little girl is governing the country, and the imperial power is so weak that it is insignificant. But if Li Zicheng captures Nanjing, what he will bring is not the insignificant imperial power, but a tyrant, a tyrant who tortures the gentry with a tong.

A Confucian country on earth?

boom!
It burst like a bubble.

"I am an old man, but I am still as wild as a young man!"

Yang Feng looked at Jiang Yueguang's somewhat passionate back and sighed.

Once people of this age have ideals, just like the love of an old man, they are often crazier than young people. He is now showing these gentry the things they have always dreamed of, but if they want to realize them, they have to fight.

"Go, take your men and withdraw from Jiujiang. There is no need to entangle with them any further!"

Yang Feng then said to Du Yinxi.

Du Yinxi didn't waste any time and hurried down the mountain to lead his men to withdraw from Jiujiang. There was really no need to fight for it. With Yang Feng's face, it was good enough to withdraw the garrison. After Du Yinxi returned to Jiujiang and withdrew his men and some of the militiamen who also withdrew with Li Zicheng's tacit consent, Li Zicheng completely took over Jiujiang. Then his navy launched a tentative attack on Hukou, with more than 50 warships going down the river and attacking Zheng Chenggong with artillery, but was repelled by the latter's warships.

Li Zicheng lost more than a dozen warships, while Zheng Chenggong only lost two small warships.

The three ships were barely damaged.

After all, Li Zicheng's warships were mainly equipped with large Portuguese guns, small red cannons, general cannons and the like. The shells could not penetrate Zheng Chenggong's so-called plywood gunboats, and the latter's heavy artillery could cause serious damage with one hit.

As for the fireboat attack, that required numbers, not to mention that Zheng Chenggong was not himself. He did have only a dozen gunboats, but Wu Zhikui's hundreds of warships, especially a large number of rowing centipede boats, were guarding the lake mouth with him. Unless Li Zicheng had a large number of warships and broke through them with the advantage of numbers, it would be possible to attack Zheng Chenggong's warships. In short, at least for now, he did not have the ability to win on the water.

He had to build the boat first.

Fortunately, this just takes time.

After all, behind him are the Yangtze River and the Han River, and there are enough materials for shipbuilding along this line.

After testing the results, Li Zicheng immediately gave up going downstream and decided to use Jiujiang as a fortress to block the downstream from going north. At the same time, he left Tian Jianxiu to guard Jiujiang and turned south with the main force...

Mahuiling.

"It feels a bit weird. Is there another Wanjialing nearby?"

Yang Feng asked the guide beside him.

"To answer your Majesty, if they can't defend Mahuiling, they will go south to Wanjialing. This is Linqingpu, to the south is Huangdengpu, and to the south is Sixipu. Sixipu is right by the river. Going south along the river through Wushimen, you will reach Wanjialing. After crossing the river from Wanjialing, you will reach the county seat."

said the guide.

"That's what I thought. Why does it feel weird? But your prediction is right. We really have to go to Wanjialing!"

Yang Feng looked at the battlefield ahead with emotion.

In front of them, the Jiangxi militia, which was the first to fight, was being disintegrated by the cavalry of Li Zicheng. Although the Jiangxi Elders Association finally chose to fight under the lobbying of Jiang Yueguang, it was obvious that the gentry's dream of a Confucian country on the ground had nothing to do with the militia soldiers who were conscripted. But they were the ones who really had to face Li Zicheng's cavalry. Those cavalrymen, riding northwest war horses, wearing armor made in southern Shanxi, and holding spears in their hands, were like a torrent of steel in the hills, quickly breaking through the militia that blocked them.

However, at the main position of Mahuiling, Song Yingxing, who was in charge of commanding the blocking battle, was still holding a knife and directing the artillery to fire.

Yang Feng watched with great interest.

Song Yingxing, who was already an artillery expert, skillfully used the artillery gauge to measure, then personally directed the adjustments, followed by the muzzle flame ejection.

The shells instantly pierced through the cavalry.

"continue!"

Expert Song howled.

He didn't notice that the regiment infantry responsible for covering his flank was fleeing, and the cavalry was already rushing towards him, but his artillery was smarter than him, and before he could react, the artillery soldiers around him all abandoned their guns and fled in fear. He turned around in shock, looking at the cavalry that was less than a hundred meters away, and instinctively drew his short gun. Before he could pull the trigger, an arrow hit him in the chest. Although it was deflected by his armor, he was so frightened that he quickly turned around and ran away...

"Leave people under the knife!"

Yang Feng raised the electric horn and shouted to the cavalrymen who had caught up with Song Yingxing and were about to hack him to death.

The latter turned around and looked at him in astonishment...

(End of this chapter)