In August of the 11th year of Chongzhen, news came from the north, Huang Taiji ordered Dolgon to command 100,000 Qing troops to bypass the Guanning defense line and enter the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty from the North Great Wall.

In less than half a month, the Qing army entered the army again. Divided into two ways to enter the wall of the ridge, Qingshankou, the governor of Ming Jiliao Wu Aheng, the general soldier Lu Zongwen was defeated and died, the lieutenant Zheng Xizhao fled. The Qing army then drove straight in, and the soldiers were stationed in Niulanshan, and the general soldiers Yang Guozhu, Wang Pu, and Hu Dawei entered the guard, and the Beijing division was under martial law.

However, the Qing troops bypassed the heavily guarded Beijing and did not attack, and made a detour deep into the eastern border of Zhili Mountain to attack Gaoyang City.

At this time, Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting led the army to encircle and suppress Li Zicheng and broke through the southern plains of Tongguan. Zicheng was seriously injured, broke through with Liu Zongmin and other seven horsemen, and hid in Shang and Luoshan.

In November, the Governor Lu Xiangsheng was defeated and died, and the high submarine army broke and fled. The Qing army took advantage of the victory and drove straight in, trapping Changping, Baodi, Pinggu and other places, and the Beijing division was shaken. After the defeat of the peasant army, Emperor Chongzhen strictly ordered Hong Chengchou's army to enter the Weijing Division.

In the first month of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the main army of Dolgon broke through the city of Jinan, divided the troops and plundered, and even went down to Shandong and more than ten counties in Zhili.

From August to the first month of the following year in five months, the Qing army divided into the hinterland of the Central Plains, came and went like the wind, won dozens of battles of the Ming army without a single defeat, the generals of the Ming army were afraid of the enemy like a tiger, the Qing army took the opportunity to loot money and countless people, the Ming court was frightened, and Emperor Chongzhen sighed every day.

Zhu Hao, who was far away in Xuzhou, did not have time to care about Emperor Chongzhen's mood, and by October, he had 8,000 regular army infantry, all equipped with new muskets, as well as an artillery unit of 1,500 men and a Shenji battalion of 500 men. Of the 2,000 cavalrymen, half were armed with double-armed pistols, for a total strength of 12,000 men. There were 50,000 rounds of paper shells, 5,000 old-fashioned grenades, nearly 100 small and medium-sized artillery pieces of various types, including 30 new-type artillery pieces with sights and rear loading shells, 200 five thunder machines, 100 multiple launch rockets, and 20,000 reservists, half of which were equipped with old-fashioned electric switches and bird guns. The first cadets also graduated ahead of schedule and were assigned to various units. Zhu Hao estimated that it would be no problem to fight one or two small-scale battles, and now it was time to look for fighters.

Zhu Hao, who generally knows the history of the late Ming Dynasty, knew that the Qing army in the eleventh year of Chongzhen entered the customs, and the main force reached as far as Jinan, and the troops divided into troops and plundered even reached Yanzhou Mansion, and the troops were only 200 miles away from Xuzhou. Later, there were contradictions within the Qing court, Huang Taiji was afraid that Dolgon would defeat Beijing and establish himself as king, and he was afraid that the Ming army from all walks of life would cut off his back road, so he strictly ordered him to immediately take the teacher.

The Qing army was not all cavalry, only the Manchurian Eight Banners and the Mongolian Eight Banners were all cavalry, and the Han Army Eight Banners still had a considerable part of infantry and backward artillery.

"Everyone also knows, the situation in the north is not optimistic enough, the Qing army entered the customs, the official army collapsed at the touch of a button, unbearable to fight, Dolgon is rushing to Shandong to kill, according to my estimates, it will take a few days to capture Jinan Mansion, with the character of the Manchurians, it is not impossible to hit Xuzhou, even if I can't hit Xuzhou, I will also meet Dolgon, what do you think?"

"Young master, the so-called raising soldiers for a thousand days and using soldiers for a while, the brothers' hard training all day is for this day, you give an order, we dare to break through the sword mountain and the sea of fire." Luo Yunqu was the first to speak.

"Yes, General, what else is there to say, hit the fuck." Wang Boda rarely spoke, but this time he seemed a little indignant, many of his brothers died at the hands of the Qing soldiers, and they hated the Qing soldiers to the core.

The other generals also asked for battle, and for a while, the entire council hall was full of fighting spirit.

"Everyone is in a very good state, but I want to remind you that the Eight Banners Army is not a Ming army, nor a thief, not a bandit, it is an elite cavalry with strong combat power, all these years have been fighting everywhere, with rich combat experience, since we became an army, we have not fought a decent battle, I am really afraid that you and your soldiers will pee their pants against the enemy." Zhu Hao said solemnly, the first time he fought against the famous Eight Banners Iron Cavalry, he was not sure of winning, after all, the prestige of the people was there.

"General, what you said is right, I, Wang Boda, have fought with the Eight Banners and have killed many brothers, their combat effectiveness is indeed very powerful, and the general Ming army, including the thieves, is not an opponent at all," Wang Boda said lightly, seeing that everyone frowned, and some of them still looked at each other angrily, and ignored it and continued: "But the Eight Banners are not invincible, haven't they suffered a big loss under Yuan Chonghuan's supervisor?" Our Ming Dynasty's Guanning Iron Cavalry is not weaker than them at all, full of people are also people, a pair of shoulders carrying a head, no three heads and six arms, relying on nothing more than skillful horse kung fu and long-term battle formation, after this year of training and pondering, I think the musket team is the nemesis of the cavalry, as long as we can give full play to the level of usual training, not afraid of them, dare to fight, we will be able to defeat them. ”

Listening to Wang Boda's eloquent talk, Zhu Hao couldn't help nodding, this guy really spoke to my heart. After listening to Wang Boda's preaching, everyone gave a thumbs up in disapproval.

"Boda said very well, he is not afraid of strong enemies, he dares to fight, this is my soldier, and he is my hot-blooded man!" Zhu Hao said appreciatively. Once the opponent's defense line is broken, then relying on the advantage of the Eight Banners cavalry and individual combat effectiveness, it will be as easy as chopping melons and vegetables to deal with the enemy infantry who have lost their support, which is why the Eight Banners often fight with the Ming army with fewer victories and can annihilate a large number of Ming troops with very few casualties.

The Ming army's firearms were not in place, and they could not come up with effective methods to deal with them, so they could only rely on a small number of cavalry to deal with the cavalry of the Eight Banners, which was a drop in the bucket. In this way, after many times of the same battle, the Ming army always loses the battle, and the morale is bound to be even lower, and it is not difficult to understand the consequences of fearing the enemy like a tiger. ”

Looking at everyone's pensive looks, Zhu Hao continued to hit the railroad while it was hot: "Actually, what I said are all superficial reasons, and the deepest reason is not the army's tactics, weapons and equipment, but people's hearts. ”

"People's hearts?" Looking at the half-understood eyes of the crowd, Zhu Hao secretly shook his head.

"I gave an example earlier, children and adults fight, as the saying goes, the soft is afraid of the hard, the hard is afraid of the horizontal, the horizontal is afraid of the dead, if the child reports the idea of the same end, then the victory or defeat is difficult to decide."

"The soft is afraid of the hard, the hard is afraid of the horizontal, the horizontal is afraid of the dead, hehe, husband, your sentence is really a classic, although it is a little playful, but it portrays the psychology of people into three points." This sentence made everyone very curious, and Liu Ru praised him even more. She also attended the meeting as secretary of the military aircraft.

It turns out that this sentence is not yet in this era? Zhu Hao was also a little embarrassed.

"Let's look at the current Ming army, from the generals to the soldiers, they are afraid of death in battle, and they are all experts in bullying the common people, how can they still look like an army, they are worse than bandits, at least most of the bandits do not harm the people." Zhu Hao said a little angrily.

"What are the duties of the army? Some of you may have forgotten, some of you may not know, then I tell you that the duty of a soldier is to defend the country and protect the people. The soldiers came from the common people, and among the Ming troops who lost the battle in the north, how many soldiers' families were ordinary people who suffered? But instead of protecting their homeland, these people openly engage in banditry, and if my family suffers, I will harm others. They don't know why they are fighting at all, and for whom they are fighting, so it's strange that such an army can win the war! ”

Seeing that everyone was mobilized by himself, Zhu Hao hurriedly said: "So, I asked for ideological education for the soldiers before, being a soldier to fight is to defend our beautiful homeland, to protect those who are close to you, if you don't contribute, will it be difficult for your parents, wife and children at home to come forward to protect you?" If you protect the people, your family will also receive the same protection, the army and the people are like a family, and those who really want to do this can treat the strong enemy as a mustard and be invincible. ”

"Young master, you don't need to say it, our Lao Zhang's biggest ideal is to die on the battlefield, the battlefield is afraid of death, it is a eunuch who has no eggs, we are a well-known Han family man, there is no bad seed who is afraid of death!" Zhang Dacheng stood up and shouted excitedly. The rest of the people also stood up, their faces full of excitement.

"Good! It's all gentlemen. I won't say much nonsense, but let's talk about the plan for this expedition. Seeing that the enthusiasm of everyone was greatly mobilized, Zhu Hao announced the designated plan.

"This operation is not a large-scale battle, only looking for a small group of enemy training, to remove the fear of the enemy psychology of officers and soldiers, so the number will not be very large, Luo Yunqu, Xiao Maoce, Zhao Yuansheng and Wang Boda each selected a thousand veterans with strong psychology from the headquarters, Zhang Dacheng and Zhang Benduan each led a thousand recruits, Zhou Da led the cavalry battalion as a reserve, a total of 7,000 people, Tai Dingfang stayed in Xuzhou to prevent the enemy from sneaking attack, and if necessary, the reserve can be activated. The army arrived in Peixian first, the reserves stayed behind, and the main force slowly advanced northward, looking for fighters. You are not allowed to object, I have my own arrangements for those who have not been selected as the main force this time, and there will be enough for you to fight in the future. Seeing that Zhang Dacheng, Zhang Benduan and others wanted to refute, Zhu Hao said undoubtedly.