On March 29, Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan led more than 600 naval warships into the Yangtze River again, followed the wind and went upstream, crossed Jingkou (in Zhenjiang), and arrived directly at Yizhen, burning hundreds of Qing salt ships in the river outside Yizhen City. ⊙. The news reached Jiangning. Ma Guozhu, the governor of the south of the Qing Dynasty, hurriedly dispatched troops and generals to intercept the Ming Dynasty's sea division that penetrated the Yangtze River. Zhang Mingzhen and others stayed in Yizhen for a short time and returned to the east, retreating to the Shayu Baisha and Pingyang in the Chongming area. This time, the entry of the river was for the second entry into the Yangtze River.

On May 18, Zhang Mingzhen was unable to support his troops to continue to fight against the Qing Dynasty due to insufficient military service and insufficient funds, so Zhang Huangyan led his troops to Zhoushan. He personally went south to Wenzhou, Zhejiang to buy seven ships of rice, and then went to Xiamen, Fujian to meet Zheng Chenggong, asking Zheng's family to provide troops, gunpowder, equipment and other materials for Zhang's troops to continue the struggle. In order to increase the bargaining chips with the Qing Dynasty, Zheng Chenggong, who was "peace talks" with the Fujian authorities of the Qing Dynasty, agreed to Zhang Mingzhen's request and sent Zhongjing Bo Chen Hui to command 5,000 sailors, 10,000 land soldiers, and nearly 100 large ships to support the north.

Zheng Chenggong's support made Zhang Mingzhen think this trip was worthwhile and returned north. On the sixth day of September, Zhang Mingzhen's troops arrived at the Shanghai county town. The Qing Dynasty's Shanghai magistrate was paralyzed in the ground. The people in the city said that Zhang Jun was a "king of the king" and responded one after another, either killing Qing soldiers, intimidating Qing officials, or besieging the yamen. For a moment, Shanghai was in danger of recovering the Ming army. After receiving an urgent report from Songjiang Prefecture, Zhou Guozuo, the governor of the Qing Jiangning, immediately led troops to aid and threatened the Shanghai people with massacre, which stabilized the situation in Shanghai. Zhang Mingzhen, who could not get the support from the Shanghai people, was forced to lead his troops to retreat.

Since the withdrawal of the army in Shanghai, Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan decided to join the Yangtze River again, this time it would no longer be the only one entering the river estuary, but directly into Jiangning to attack the Qing court's rule in the south of the Yangtze River and disintegrate people's hearts. In December, Er Zhang and others led their troops to take more than 400 boats up the river, and on the 18th, they sailed from Sanjiang Camp across Jiaoshan and arrived directly to Yanziji outside Nanjing.

The Ming navy warship suddenly appeared on the river outside Nanjing City scared the Qing Dynasty officials in the city to exclaim, "Jiangning is close to the point, and the momentum is very rampant." Ma Guozhu, the governor of the Qing Dynasty, was loyal to prevent the Ming army from besieging Jiangning, and shake the Qing court's half of the southeast. He personally directed the Manchus who were stationed in Nanjing, and the Han soldiers left the city to intercept the Ming army.

Since the resolution of the Qing Dynasty, both Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan were good at water battles and weaker than infantry battles. In particular, the strength of the troops and horses under the two men was far weaker than that of the Qing army, and there was no cavalry support. Therefore, although the navy's advantage shocked Nanjing, under the attack of the Qing army, the two Zhangs could not last on the river surface, nor could they gain a foothold on the shore.

In view of the inability to defeat the Qing army on land and being subject to food and supplies, Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan stayed on the river outside Nanjing for only a few days and led the boat troops to slowly retreat eastward from the Yangtze River. Although this invasion of the Yangtze River did not cause any damage to the Qing army, nor did they attack the prefectures and counties. However, the shock to the Qing court was extremely great, and it also made the coastal anti-Qing forces and the gentry in Jiangnan realize the heavy threat of the Ming army's navy to the Qing court.

In fact, the real purpose of the three battles planned by Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan was not only to test the defense power of the Qing army in the south of the Yangtze River, but also to contact those who were anti-Qing and restoring the Ming Dynasty on both sides of the Yangtze River. In addition, they also wanted to echo Li Dingguo who was attacking Guangdong and Sun Kewang who was stalemate with the Qing army in Hunan, in order to achieve the grand plan of connecting the east and west, meeting the Yangtze River, and restoring the north and south of the Yangtze River.

When he first entered the Yangtze River, Zhang Mingzhen sent someone to secretly meet with Qian Qianyi, the former Minister of Rites of Hongguang, the founder of Renwu Bo Yao Zhizhuo, and the left censor of the Lujian State Council, and the title of Supervisor of the Lujian State Council, Li Zhichun, in addition to suing the anti-Qing situation under the rule of Lujian State, he also requested that they be able to provide certain money and grain support. The subsequent second entry into the Yangtze River and the third entry into the Yangtze River. Zhang Huangyan even persuaded Zhang Mingzhen to personally disguise himself as a Taoist priest of Youfang to secretly meet with Zhang Zhongfu, former Minister of the Southern Ming Ministry of War, Zhu Zhou, the former Chief of the Ministry of War, He Wangsheng, and the student Muben.

Some of the former Ming gentry headed by Qian Qianyi have been secretly engaged in the resumption of the Ming Dynasty in the Qing ruling region. The main planners who built bridges between the Yongli court in the southwest and the sea navy in the southeast were Qian Qianyi and Yao Zhizhuo. Zhang Huangyan also knew that the Yongli court's great minister Wen Anzhi had always had letters with Qian Qianyi, and Yao Zhizhuo personally brought back a large number of documents from the Yongli court and the Qin King Sun Kewang from Guizhou. It was precisely because of the support of Qian Qianxuyi and Yao Zhizhuo that Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan were able to enter the Yangtze River three times unblocked and return.

Zhang Huangyan strongly agreed with the plan to contact the Yangtze River planned by Qian Qianyi. As early as the third year of Yongli (the sixth year of Shunzhi of the pseudo-Qing Dynasty), Qian Qianyi proposed the foundation of Zhongxing in a secret letter to his disciple Qu Shisi, a senior scholar who was left by Guilin in the court. The key was to seize Jiangnan and control Nandu in his hands.

Second, when Zhang Huangyan went to see Qian Qianyi secretly, Qian compared the use of troops as chess. He said to Zhang Huangyan: "The human authorities are like chess games. The small skills of the chess flap can be described as big. Today, there are all things, some things, and some things are urgent. Those who are good at chess are quick to see what the situation is urgent and are good at saving them. Now, the urgent is necessary; today, the important places in the world are full of all things. The Central Plains are basically free from Jiangnan. Chang, Huai, Bianjing, and all the capitals are the capital. Then, the imperial eunuchs in the south of Chu will be moved to restore Jing, Xiang, and the Han sank, and the Wuchang, and the south of the river will be between me. After the Jiangnan, the wealth is gradually increased, and the fundamentals are solid. Then, the Jing and the Bian front will clear the Heshuo. Emperor Gao set up the Jinling, the army is pointed north, and Emperor Gengshen escapes to the north of the Mo. This is the result of the matter."

He also said: "The king's army first went north to Dongting without any hesitation. But once he entered the Yangtze River, there would be many sounds everywhere... I was able to consolidate the foundation, accumulate energy, restore Chu and restore the river, and restore the capital. Once the heart of heaven changes, people plan to support the goal."

Qian Qianyi called this strategic policy, which focuses on regaining the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the "Three Games of the Lu Ping".

Li Dingguo killed Prince Jingjin Nikan of Qing in Hengyang. After defeating this elite Manchu Eight Banners who went south from Beijing, Qian Qianyi immediately saw the opportunity to achieve the "Three Battles of the Lu Ping". Although the elite Manchu Eight Banners, which were severely damaged by Li Dingguo, was later led by Beiletunqi and defeated the army of the Qin King of the Southern Ming Dynasty in the Zhoujiapu Battle, the Qing army suffered a lot of casualties and was not very strong and was eager to return to Beijing to rest. At this time, the Qing army was in the river defense below Huguang, and the troops were very weak. Qian Qianyi and Yao Zhizhuo believed that the Ming army should seize the opportunity and immediately proposed a plan to implement the Yangtze River Battle with Sun Kewang, Zhang Mingzhen and others.

After receiving Qian Qianyi's secret letter, Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan led their troops to do their best to start attacking the Yangtze River, and continued to attack the Yangtze River three times, but due to the changes in the war in Hunan, Sun Kewang missed the great opportunity to join forces to seize Jiangnan this time.

One enters the Yangtze River, two enters the Yangtze River, and three enters the Yangtze River. Every time he enters the Yangtze River, it represents a good opportunity to recover the south of the Yangtze River, but every opportunity is wasted, which makes Zhang Huangyan very melancholy and very distressed, but he never blames others, and only regrets that his own troops are insufficient and it is difficult to severely damage the Qing army in Jiangnan, and then attracts or restrains the Qing army in Hunan, so that Qin King Sun Ke hopes to free up his hands to advance eastward along the river.

After hearing the news that Zhoushan was attacked by the Qing army again, Zhang Huangyan felt uncomfortable and was unwilling to stay in Xiamen for a moment. After Zheng Chenggong sent Gan Hui and Chen Liu to the sea, he immediately returned to Zhoushan with Zhou.

Although he had already had speculations about the ending of the Zhoushan military and civilians when he was on the boat, Zhang Huangyan still couldn't control himself when he saw it. He clenched his fists, his blue veins rose, and stared at Zhoushan City where black smoke was still ignited for more than ten seconds, and suddenly covered his face and cried.

Zhang Huangyan's crying made all the followers feel sad. Gan Hui and Chen Liu who came off the boat were also sad and felt very uncomfortable.

After crying for a moment, Zhang Huangyan stopped crying, wiped his face with his sleeves, and then asked the school official who came to the island to welcome: "Where is Mr. Hou?" The Hou he said was referring to Zhang Mingzhen, the Hou of Dingxi who was enthroned by the King of Lu when he was in charge of the country.

The school official heard this and looked sad and said, "Mr. Hou is in the city."

“In the city?”

Zhang Huangyan was about to ask Zhang Mingzhen if he didn't deploy Zhoushan defense at this time, he fell into a city full of corpses, but suddenly he was speechless. Looking at his body again, he was trembling violently.

Zhang Huangyan's sudden tremor made Gan Hui and Chen Liu who had just arrived stunned. In confusion, they wanted to go forward to ask, but Zhang Huangyan was shocked and then rushed to the city with big strides.

"Shilarious Minister Zhang?!"

Gan Hui and Chen Liu subconsciously cried out, but Zhang Huangyan hadn't heard of it and rushed to the city.

Seeing this, Gan Hui and Chen Liu didn't think much, and they quickly followed. Zhang Huangyan's move was too bizarre, and they both had to find out.

As we ran all the way, there were soldiers from Zhang's troops collecting corpses everywhere. The bodies were old and young, men and women. However, female corpses were all naked and naked, with female corpses under them. The bodies were filled with sticks, their faces were terrified, and blood was flowing under them, which made people unbearable to look at them.

Some soldiers saw the military supervisor running towards the city as if he was lost, and they all put down their hands and felt puzzled.

Because he ran too fast, Zhang Huangyan fell twice on the road and didn't need anyone to help him. He was afraid that he would not care about rubbing the pain and stumble forward.

Not far from the city gate, Zhang Huangyan shouted loudly: "Mr. Hou, Mr. Hou!"

At the city gate, hundreds of soldiers were lifting piles of corpses out with mules and horses. When Zhang Huangyan shouted, the soldiers did not stop. Instead, someone in the city suddenly wailed "Mum" and suddenly knelt there.

A sound of "Ah Mother" came, and Zhang Huangyan stopped as if he was shocked and stared blankly at the city gate.

At the city gate, under the gaze of the soldiers, Zhang Mingzhen, who was wearing white clothes, walked out slowly with his mother's body in his arms. The moment he saw Zhang Huangyan, he could no longer suppress his crying. He knelt on the ground with a "thump" and said, "My mother, Mother, Mother!
Chapter completed!