The Revolt of the Three Feudatories: All-in at the start in Beijing

Upon hearing Zhu Xin's words, Liu Chengzong looked embarrassed and stammered for a long time before finally speaking.

"After all, a princess is a woman!"

"How to be the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces!"

The other descendants of the tomb keepers nodded in agreement. How could a woman lead them in rebellion? Wouldn't that be a laughing stock?

Zhu Xin was not angry upon hearing this.

"May I ask you all, are there any male members of the Zhu family nearby? If not, why not have me, a princess of the Great Ming Dynasty, lead an uprising, and then find a qualified prince to succeed to the throne?"

"Qin Liangyu, the loyal Marquis of my Great Ming who fought to the death against the Tartars, was a woman, so why can't I, a princess of the Great Ming, do the same?"

Upon hearing Zhu Xin's words, Liu Chengzong, who was already thinking of taking up arms, could no longer hold back and immediately knelt on one knee.

"We are willing to obey the Princess's orders!"

Some of the other descendants of the tomb keepers were still unconvinced, but eventually they bowed down under the pressure of the situation.

"Greetings, Your Highness!"

Zhu Xin breathed a sigh of relief upon hearing this, and then asked.

"I wonder how many more men we can gather?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Chengzong revealed a hint of pride.

"We, the guardians of the tomb, are utterly loyal to the Ming Dynasty. Huaiyuan County alone can muster a thousand young and strong men!"

"The gentry in the surrounding counties have long been exploited by the Qing dynasty and have been helping to hide the population. I believe that as long as the princess steps forward, she will definitely be able to get a lot of support."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Xin was now fully confident and immediately raised the banner of the Great Ming Zhenyi Princess in Huaiyuan County.

Sure enough, after hearing the banner of overthrowing the Qing and restoring the Ming, Huaiyuan County was opened up by the gentry in less than three days.

Furthermore, under the call of the gentry to contribute money and grain, the army expanded by 5,000 in just five days and marched directly to the walls of Zhongdu Fengyang City.

As for the Zhu family, since it was the end of the dynasty, no one knew much. But after the Qing Dynasty was established, apart from the absence of war, their lives were no different from those at the end of the Ming Dynasty, which was infuriating.

Consequently, the surrounding prefectures of Suzhou, Sizhou, and Yingzhou also fell into uprisings, all aiming to converge on Fengyang.

Seeing that the number of troops outside the city was increasing and the 3,000 Green Standard Army soldiers inside the city were about to be overwhelmed, the 308 Banners stationed in Fengyang immediately sent the eighteenth urgent request for reinforcements to Emperor Kangxi.

Meanwhile, Yang Fengxiang and Pan Yulong led a total of 12,000 troops to Suqian. The county magistrate, a Han Chinese, surrendered directly. Afterwards, Yang Fengxiang and Pan Yulong split their forces, with Pan Yulong heading south to Gaoyou and Yangzhou alone.

The news quickly reached Emperor Kangxi.

This was the second time that Kangxi had felt fear!

The first time was when he was chased and killed by Galdan.

This time, the fear is directed at the Han people. This is just a princess of Zhu Ming, and it is unknown whether she is real or not, yet she was able to besiege Fengyang Prefecture in a short time and gather an army of 10,000.

If those Ming Dynasty princes from Taiwan all went to the local areas to rally support, how could the Qing Dynasty possibly survive?

He immediately ordered Nalan Mingzhu to persuade the Dutch to send troops to Fengyang at all costs.

Inside a mansion in Nanjing, the Dutch military commander, Matten, was having a lively discussion with Nalan Mingzhu.

"The treaty we signed only stipulated that we should defend the Yangtze River to prevent the Han army from crossing, not that we should send troops to quell the rebellion for you. I cannot disobey the governor's orders!"

"As for the cession of Qiongzhou Island that you mentioned, that place is in the hands of a force called Wu Sangui."

Nalan Mingzhu was speechless at this moment, cursing the Dutchman for being so cunning, never acting until he saw the benefit. With no other options, he had to resort to his ultimate move.

"Mr. Ma Teng, as long as you can send troops to quell the rebellion in Lianghuai, our Great Qing is willing to cede the entire territory of Ningbo Prefecture. From then on, the tax revenue and population there will belong to your Netherlands."

"But we must send troops immediately!"

When Ma Teng heard the terms offered by Nalan Mingzhu, his heart pounded. He knew the Qing people were generous, but he hadn't expected them to be this generous. This was a quarter of the Netherlands' mainland, where there were also porcelain and silk manufacturing centers.

Thinking of this, Ma Teng no longer hesitated and quickly took out a blank contract from his pocket.

"Lord Nalan Mingzhu, if you write down what you just said and sign it, our dynasty will send troops across the river tomorrow to annihilate your country's rebellion!"

Nalan Mingzhu was very puzzled, wondering what the point of signing this treaty was. If the Qing Dynasty could reunify the world, what were the Dutch? What did this treaty mean? They could still fight whenever they wanted.

However, prioritizing the overall situation, Nalan Mingzhu still wrote down the terms, signed them, and affixed Kangxi's seal.

"General Ma Teng, are you satisfied now?"

"Please send troops immediately!"

After carefully putting away the contract, Ma Teng performed a noble ceremony for Nalan Mingzhu and then hurriedly left, heading towards the military camp outside the city.

As the sun set, the 5,000-strong Dutch army landed along the Yangtze River in Chuzhou and then headed towards Fengyang.

At this time, Zhu Xin was besieging Fengyang, but he had no cannons and not even many bows and arrows, so he could only build siege ladders on the spot and use human lives to build them up.

But after five days of continuous attacks, the soldiers dared not advance any further; it was simply suicide.

Just as Zhu Xin was discussing with the leaders of various rebel armies how to break through Fengyang City, a soldier stumbled into the tent and reported in a trembling voice.

"Princess, Princess, there are five thousand strangely dressed soldiers marching towards us. I saw that they are dragging twenty cannons behind them."

Strange costumes?

Although Zhu Xin was a princess of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty had already fallen by then, so he knew nothing. He could only issue orders.

"Generals, quickly assemble the troops and come with me to see what's going on!"

Although Zhu Xin was not good at fighting, her passion was very touching. So many grown men were willing to listen to her and quickly assembled a large army.

At this time, the Ming army had more than 13,000 men, and almost all the capable soldiers from Fengyang Prefecture had come.

Ma Teng's army had arrived at the west side of the city, only five hundred paces away from the Ming army, and immediately ordered the loading of gunpowder cannonballs.

The Dutch had 15-pound cannons and five 6-pound cannons, which were operated by soldiers to fire solid shot rapidly.

Zhu Xin had never seen a cannon before, nor did he know how to defend against it. Over ten thousand people stood there foolishly, and even though a three-pound cannon might not be accurate at that distance, it was still 100% lethal. Instantly, more than thirty people were hit.

The extra damage was naturally caused by the six-pounder cannon killing two birds with one stone, directly piercing through both of them.

"Sorcery! This is sorcery!"

The ordinary soldiers, unaware of the situation, were farmers just yesterday and had no idea what cannons were. They were all frightened and muttered about sorcery.

Bang bang bang! In less than a quarter of an hour, the Dutch cannons fired again, causing dozens more casualties, as the cannons had already advanced.

But on the plains three miles away.

Yin Huaxing, holding a monocular telescope, was watching the battle between the two sides and couldn't help but shake his head.

"These unknown Ming soldiers, we don't know where they came from, they have absolutely no idea how to fight. If this continues, the entire army will surely collapse!"