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The Nanjiang area is mostly low-lying plains with numerous waterways and lakes.
Only Jiangyin is located on the hillside with water around it, surrounded by mountains and arched by water. It overlooks Huaiyang in the north, Gusu in the south, Haiyu in the east and Jingkou in the west. It is a magnificent sight and a battleground for military strategists in the south of the Yangtze River.
With the help of the pirate Gu Sanmaizi, Su Jin's 10,000 troops successfully crossed the south bank. They did not immediately charge into Jiangyin city, but took advantage of the situation to seize Huangshan Mountain in the northeast of Jiangyin. Huangshan Mountain meanders westward like a group of angry snakes, shielding the beautiful buildings and fertile fields of Jiangyin.
At this point, the battle of Jiangyin had completely turned into a war between Su Jin and the Qing army. The Jiangyin soldiers and civilians, who had held out for two months, became spectators on the sidelines.
After dealing with Su Jin, the Qing army had no spare energy to attack Jiangyin City. The soldiers and civilians in the city suffered heavy casualties, lacked weapons, and had no ability to leave the city to participate in the war.
Su Jin camped on Huangshan Mountain and fought more than ten battles with the Qing army, winning and losing. Yuan Zongdi, who received the order, also followed the route Su Jin took to Jiangbei, preparing to join Su Jin.
Gu Sanmaizi on the river was leading his troops to attack Jingjiang County at this time. Jingjiang is a large island in the middle of the river. It was originally named Maduosha. A county was established on the island during the Hongwu period. Because it is located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, across the water from Jiangyin, it controls the gateway to the river and the sea and defends the entire Wu. Therefore, Emperor Hongwu named it Jingjiang.
Gu Sanmaizi attacked Jingjiang while Su Jin was fighting the Qing army, which seemed like he was taking advantage of the situation, but since Su Jin needed his help at the moment, he could only turn a blind eye.
Gu Sanmazi called himself the King of Loyalty and Righteousness, and he was quite righteous. He sold some of the food and grass he obtained after conquering Jingjiang to Su Jin. Su Jin said he didn't bring any cash, so he owed him the money first. Gu Sanmazi didn't care, and he just owed him the money, and he wasn't afraid that Su Jin would default on the debt in the future.
Su Jin asked him to help Yuan Zong's 10,000th army cross the river. He did not hesitate and took the fleet to act as a ferryman.
Seeing how enthusiastic he was, Su Jin became interested and decided to recruit this Gu Sanmaizi if he had the chance.
The Qing army had spent two months under the city of Jiangyin. The division was old and the soldiers were tired. Although they were outnumbered, their morale was low. Before Yuan Zongdi crossed the river, Su Jin had fought him to a draw.
After Yuan Zongdi successfully crossed the Yangtze River, Su Jin ordered him to divide his troops into several groups to attack the Qing army's logistics supply.
With the help of intelligence provided by the Yebushou and local people, Yuan Zong's first strike was accurate. In three days, he seized two batches of food and grass from the Qing army. This not only solved the food supply problem of the Qin army itself, but also put the Qing army under the city of Jiangyin into a dilemma of running out of food and grass.
Jin Xiucai, who had brought several hundred men to support Jiangyin City and was completely defeated by the Qing army, actually organized two or three hundred local militiamen to come to support him. Jin Xiucai's name was Lei, and his courtesy name was Gongnan. He brought a small number of people, but he played a good leading role.
In the past, the Qing army was powerful. Many people did not dare to act rashly. With the support of Su Jin's army, and seeing Jin Xiucai organizing local militias and being reused by Su Jin, people with good intentions followed suit and organized local militias, ranging from dozens to three or five hundred, to come to support Jiangyin.
Within a few days, the number of militiamen who came to support reached 27,000.
Su Jin did not expect to defeat the Qing army with them, but these local soldiers were familiar with the terrain, and it was very suitable to use them to ambush the Qing army's logistics transportation lines;
More importantly, uniting these people can build momentum for the Qin Dynasty and win the hearts of the people in the south of the Yangtze River.
Su Jin selected lower-level officers from the army to lead these local militias in battle. At the same time, the military assistant officers also went there to work hard to publicize the benevolent policies of the Qin Dynasty.
Soon Liu Liangzuo was caught up in the people's war, his logistical supplies were repeatedly attacked, and his situation became increasingly difficult.
Seeing that Su Jin's momentum was growing and the number of local soldiers coming to join him was increasing, Liu Liangzuo began to feel timid.
That day, Su Jin fought another battle with the Qing army. When he was withdrawing his troops to the camp, Jin Xiucai hurriedly found Su Jin and said, "General Su, according to my careful observation of the celestial phenomena, at the latest the day after tomorrow, there will be heavy rain in the Jiangyin area for several days."
"Oh?" Su Jin thought for a moment and said, "Does the scholar have any ideas?"
"General Su, please allow me to talk for a moment." Jin Xiucai looked mysterious, which made Su Jin full of suspicion.
Jin Xiucai dared to come to reinforce Jiangyin with just a few hundred militiamen. The first time his army was wiped out, and he barely escaped with his life. But the second time he dared to organize several hundred people. Just for this reason, Su Jin respected him very much, but he only admired his courage. Su Jin did not take his military talent too seriously.
After Jin Xiucai pulled Su Jin to a secluded place, he said softly, "General Su, the time has come to defeat the Tartars."
"What good ideas do you have, Scholar?" Su Jin thought to himself. These scholars just love to say something shocking.
"General Su, the place where the Tartars are camping is flat and low. If it rains for several days in a row, the camp will be flooded. Then we will have no choice but to move the camp to another place."
"Well, what the scholar said makes sense."
"General Su, if the Tartars want to move their camp, they must find a place with higher terrain. Now that we have occupied Huangshan, looking around Jiangyin City, only the area of Huajia'ao in the southwest has relatively high terrain. The Tartars will definitely move their camp to Huajia'ao."
"so what?"
"Oh my General Su, why didn't the Tartars set up camp in Huajia'ao? It was because Huajia'ao was far from the river and it was inconvenient to get water. Now they have to move to Huajia'ao due to floods, so they can only temporarily get water from the nearby pond. General Su, do you understand?"
"Mr. Xiucai is saying that we can send people to poison all the ponds near Huajiaao in advance?"
"Yes! Yes!"
"Yes, yes, this is a good idea. I will send someone to find arsenic right away."
"General Su, wait a minute. Arsenic won't work. It works too quickly. Usually, the stokers will eat it first while cooking, and they will show signs of poisoning immediately. It will be impossible for the Tartars to be poisoned in large numbers. Laxatives are the best. They work slowly and are not easy to be discovered in the early stages. By the time the Tartars find out, most people will have already drunk it."
"Okay, okay, I'll use the laxative. If this is accomplished, the Scholar will definitely be the first to win. By the way, can you really be sure that there will be heavy rain the day after tomorrow at the latest?"
Su Jin's question made Jin Xiucai feel greatly insulted. He immediately stiffened his neck and said, "If General Su doesn't trust me, then I can do it myself. General Su won't have to worry about it."
"No, no, no, please forgive me for my disrespectful words, my king is eager for talents. You know astronomy and geography, and it is rare to have both loyalty and righteousness. I will write a letter to the King of Qin to recommend you. With such a talent, my king will definitely make use of you..."
Jin Xiucai replied sternly, "I, Jin Lei, organized the local militia to drive out the Tartars, just because I was unwilling to see my country in ruins and the people being bullied by the Tartars. How could it be for the high position and generous salary of your family, the King of Qin?"
"You are loyal and upright, and you deserve our admiration. However, the reason why our King Qin raised an army is because he, like you, could not bear to see the world fall into the hands of foreigners. We all share the same aspirations, so why should we differentiate between ourselves? Well, let's not talk about this for now. Just tell me what you need, and I will try my best to satisfy you."
"The laxative package is on Jin. General Su just needs to send me a hundred cavalrymen."
"Well, let alone a hundred cavalrymen, even a thousand cavalrymen would be no problem."
"We don't need that many. Too many people will easily expose our tracks. A hundred cavalrymen will be enough."
Su Jin immediately said to a centurion in the distance: "Li Ke, you lead a hundred men, and from now on, follow Jin Xiucai's command and don't make any mistakes."
Jin Xiucai's riding skills were a bit shameful. He staggered after getting on the horse, which made Su Jin sweat. But this guy held on to the saddle tightly and managed to hold on without falling off the horse. He took a hundred cavalrymen to look for laxatives.
The next afternoon, after finding all the necessary medicines, Jin Xiucai and his party returned to the Huangshan camp. When he was dismounting from his horse, if Su Jin had not stepped forward to help him in time, he would have fallen head over heels from exhaustion.
Su Jin asked with concern: "Is the scholar okay?"
"It's okay, it's okay. I may be a little tired now, but in two days, I can make all the Tartars lie down. It's worth it no matter how tired I am. Hahaha..."
Jin Xiucai was in his early thirties, with a thin figure. He stroked his short beard and laughed with great pride, as if he had seen the spectacular scene of countless Tartars lying on the ground all over the mountains and plains without even pulling up their trousers.
When it was time to administer the medicine at night, Jin Xiucai, despite being tired, insisted on going to the scene to guide the administration of the medicine. Hundreds of people worked for half the night, and finally everything was ready.
Su Jin began to eagerly hope that it would rain heavily soon, but the moon was bright and the stars were sparse in the night sky, and it didn't look like it was going to rain, which made Su Jin so anxious that he couldn't sleep.
Jin Xiucai, who was confident about what he had done, didn't care. He returned to the camp and fell asleep as if nothing had anything to do with him anymore.
Su Jin walked around in the camp. At five o'clock in the morning, just as Jin Xiucai predicted, the north wind blew first, and then thick dark clouds covered the stars and the moon. Lightning flashed across the night sky like dancing silver snakes. A moment later, heavy rain poured down like pearls.
Su Jin could not help but run into Jin Xiucai's tent, shook him awake and said, "Mr. Xiucai, you are a god. It is really raining. It is raining heavily!"
Jin Xiucai didn't give him any face at all, and muttered: "General Su, are you going to let me live? I've been tired for two days and two nights, can't you let me have a good sleep? If General Su still doesn't believe it will rain, why don't you go out and get wet for a while to see if it's real rain or fake rain."
"Hehe, look at what the scholar said, is there a difference between real and fake rain?" Su Jin said embarrassedly.
"Alright General Su, please let me sleep for a while, or you can just kill me with a knife."
"Haha, the scholar is so talented, how dare I act rashly? I will write a letter to my king right now and explain the scholar's abilities to him one by one."
After Su Jin left with a big laugh, Jin Xiucai turned over and sat up. He was not sleepy at all. In fact, before the rain, he was more nervous than Su Jin. As the saying goes, there are always unexpected events. According to his observation, it seems that there will be heavy rain in the next few days, but he dare not guarantee whether it is true or not.
Now that the heavy rain has really come, his heart can be described as ecstatic. Not to mention sleeping, it is already a rare thing that he can resist running out and shouting to vent the joy in his heart.
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ps: Well, today is the second update, please continue to support me.
.(To be continued..)
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