Because of Li Zicheng's march to Beijing, Shi Kefa, as the secretary of the Nanjing Military Department, was also the only person in Nanjing's six ministries who held real power, and it was understandable that he began to make preparations for the regulation and deployment of defenses.

Under the Ming Dynasty's two-capital system, Nanjing is almost a place for officials to retire, and those who are unwilling or temporarily avoid political enemies are the best choice to raise their hopes in Nanjing.

However, Nanjing is not only a place for idle officials, Nanjing is a place of beauty in the south of the Yangtze River, and an out-and-out place where dragons and tigers are located. It is also the core area of the entire south of the Yangtze River, and it used to be the national capital, and now it is accompanied by Beijing, so politically, military, economic, and cultural, Nanjing is far more than Suzhou and Hangzhou, as for Guangzhou, Nanchang, Fuzhou, Changsha and other provincial capitals, it is even worse. It can be said that Nanjing is the important town of the Ming Dynasty in the south, including the southwest. The rebellion in the southeast, the chaos in the southwest, the deployment of military quarters, the dispatch of troops and horses, and the appointment of generals are all things that Nanjing should manage, not the Beijing division far away in the north.

Of course, the general direction is still in the hands of Beijing, and Nanjing is responsible for the operation and execution of southern affairs under normal circumstances.

The one who did these things was the military secretary of Nanjing, and he was also the real power figure of the Ming Dynasty in the entire south, and his status was far above that of ordinary governors.

The current Nanjing soldier is Shi Kefa, who rose to prominence in Fengyang and is known for his ability and responsibility. Chongzhen personally sent his horse Gong Yonggu to the south to check, Gong Yonggu praised Shi Kefa after returning to Beijing, Shi Kefa originally had the blessing of Donglin connections, and then was trusted by Chongzhen, and finally sat in the position of Nanjing's own soldiers, that is, Emperor Chongzhen entrusted the safety of most of the south to Shi Kefa's hands.

Chongzhen is actually useless and knowledgeable, in the ordinary season, Shi Kefa, a minister with ethics and ability, is quite suitable to sit in Nanjing, at least it is decent, and there will be no big mess and trouble. In the last years of Chongzhen, there were strong enemies of the Manchu Qing Dynasty who had already established the country, and there were two major disasters of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong...... But Chongzhen really has no choice, in the last years of Chongzhen, Sun Chengzong died of martyrdom, Fu Zonglong died, Lu Xiangsheng died, Hong Chengchou surrendered, Sun Chuanting and Ding Qirui Chongzhen wanted to use it to fight with the peasant army in the northwest of the Central Plains.

From the perspective of later outsiders, Shi Kefa's most commendable thing is ethics, but apart from ethics, it can be described as useless.

If it was not Shi Kefa who presided over the overall situation of Nanjing, but Sun Chuanting, the situation in the entire Nanming Dynasty might be very different. Of course, it may not be different, after all, the political resources that Sun Chuanting can control in Jiangnan are far less than Shi Kefa, and the history of the Southern Ming Dynasty may be even more chaotic, no one can say for sure.

What is happening now, of course, comes from Shi Kefa's arrangement.

Beijing is in danger, and King Qin's order has already been issued, but this time it is completely different from the situation of the Eight Banners besieging the capital.

There are only a handful of soldiers and horses of King Qinwang in the north, and the enthusiasm of civil and military officials is quite limited, Shi Kefa is making deployments in Nanjing, such as Liu Liangzuo, who is known as the flower horse Liu, guarding Linhuai, and peeking into Henan, which has been controlled by the rebellion.

Huang Degong, a fierce general born in Beijing, was trusted by Shi Kefa in character and ethics, so he guarded Chuzhou and Hezhou, which were very close to Nanjing, and at the end of the sixteenth and early seventeenth, Huang Degong was ordered to crusade against the rebel Liu Chao.

The strength of Liu Zeqing, the general soldier of Caozhou, is not weak, mainly after 14 years, he was ordered to Henan to rescue Kaifeng, and the soldiers did not fight, and he was ordered many times, Liu Zeqing found an excuse not to obey the edict, and by the 17th year, Liu Zeqing, who had tens of thousands of troops, was already very strong, and Shi Kefa put Liu Zeqing in Huai'an, which was in a secondary position, when he was preparing to go north to Qinwang and defend Nanjing.

More importantly, Xuzhou did not have a general to defend at this time, but soon Gao Jie, who was born in the peasant army, would flee all the way south from the battlefields of northern Shaanxi and Shanxi, and after the attack on Yangzhou failed, Gao Jie obeyed Shi Kefa's order and moved to Xuzhou in September.

So far, the four towns in Jiangbei have been roughly formed, the armed forces of the Southern Ming Dynasty, facing the strong enemy stationed in Huaisi and Xuzhou, are these four towns, with a quota of 120,000 soldiers, an annual salary of 600,000, and 600,000 stones.

In addition, there are still Zuo Liangyu in Hubei, as well as Zhejiang, Hunan, Fujian, Guangzhou and other local general troops, with a total number of troops, and the number of troops is still more than one million.

"It's Caozhou Liu." Zhu Wanchun is worthy of being well-informed, and when he looked at people from the window on the second floor, he was sure that he said: "In the eighth year of Chongzhen, Caozhou Liu was ordered to lead the troops to Huai'an, and the Huaiyang soldiers set up a banquet to entertain them, and there were many officials and gentry in the banquet, and my father and I were also in the banquet. At that time, he was only a deputy commander-in-chief, and he was quite humble and liked to write poetry, but his poetry was average...... Well, pretty average. Within a few years later, he was the chief soldier of Caozhou, the chief soldier of Shandong, and then the governor of Zuo, the prince and the prince. Now it's even more powerful, let's do it

Min Yuanqi saw a general wearing a phoenix-winged helmet, wearing a mountain armor, and a Dake flower brocade robe and cloak behind him, looking about forty, with a very thin face, huge eyes, and a lot of power when looking forward to it, but looking at this person's eyes from a distance, he could see that he was quite arrogant and gloomy, judging from the comments of Zhu Wanchun and others, this Liu Zeqing's ethics were quite not very good.

"The right people are too bold to speak." Zhu Wanchun whispered: "Caozhou Liu is not a big person, those who dare to contradict him when he is in Shandong are either beheaded or skinned, and if they can't move, they will send someone to assassinate him secretly." He is such a general who controls tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, and the court does not dare to do anything to him. In the Linqing Dynasty, his subordinates burned down the towns and villages along the way, and the people died more than 10,000 people. ”

When Zhu Wanchun talked about this, his dissatisfaction was quite obvious.

If Min Yuanqi knew the weight of the matter in the imperial court, he would also feel Liu Zeqing's lawlessness and arrogance.

The ancestral system of the Ming Dynasty is a large and small system, the cabinet and the six departments are large, and the imperial history is small in the matter, but the cabinet elder and the six books are generally not moved to the matter, don't look at the small officials from the seventh grade, the weight of power and responsibility is much greater than the general four and five officials, and the senior one gives the matter, in the matter of the right to speak, a few points greater than the general waiter.

For example, in the Liaodong War, the draft given by the military department was more important than that of the ordinary governor and servant, and his attitude could completely influence the military movement of the imperial court.

Before Chongzhen, don't talk about a general soldier, even if the noble prince assassinates one of them, there will be an uproar, and no one can protect him.

Now, a small general soldier blatantly assassinated him in the matter just for a single bullet stamp, and the court was not only helpless, but also had no superficial investigation and reprimand.

Think about it...... No matter what, assassination is a capital crime, but with Emperor Chongzhen's "pragmatic" character, he dares to force a military leader with tens of thousands of troops?

The law of the Ming Dynasty, the most corrupt period is Chongzhen, even if it is the Emperor of the Apocalypse, who is known as the Son of Carpenter, he acts in a very orderly manner, compared to Chongzhen, the realm of the Apocalypse is beyond eighteen streets.

During the Chongzhen period, no emperor of the Ming Dynasty would be destroyed......

Of course, Min Yuanqi doesn't know this, even he doesn't know much about the four towns of Jiangbei and Liu Zeqing, the generals of the late Ming Dynasty, such as Ma Shilong, Zu Dashou, Cao Bianjiao, Mao Wenlong, and Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others Min Yuanqi still knows a little, but of course Min Yuanqi doesn't know anything about second-rate or even third-rate characters like Liu Zeqing.

Now this third-rate character has entered Huai'an in a grand manner, and will soon master the defense, with the current situation, it is not wrong to say that it is the Taishang Emperor of Huai'an.

"Alas......" Zhu Wanchun couldn't sit still, turned to Min Yuanqi and said: "The incident happened suddenly, I want to go home once, four hundred taels of silver, and someone will send it to Brother Min's boat before tonight." This time, Brother Min was also invited to move to the warehouse of my Zhu family's salt store. ”

"It should work." Min Yuanqi had long been mentally prepared for everything in front of him, but he was not as flustered as Zhu Wanchun.

But when they left the restaurant and returned to the dock after eating and drinking, there were destroyed stalls along the street everywhere along the way, and many wounded people were still lying on the ground, and the streets were full of arrogant Shandong soldiers, these Shandong soldiers were tall and arrogant, and they wandered around the market in groups of three or five, and they did not pay any money for the goods, and the shopkeepers and men dared to be slightly dissatisfied, or dared to ask for money, and they were all beaten by these guest soldiers without exception.

The guards and battalions in the city were all driven away, everyone in the city was cautious, and many shops were closed for insurance, but if there were guests knocking on the door, they had to open the door honestly, and watch the guests move their belongings at will with smiling faces.

Robes, hats, shoes, food......

Min Yuanqi and the three of them were wearing flag military robes, but there was no trouble along the way, and those guest soldiers looked at the three military attachés of the guard, although they looked disdainful, but they didn't come to make things difficult.

These guests also knew that the military attachés of the guard were a group of poor ghosts, and they really couldn't get any oil and water from them.

Along the way, many wealthy businessmen and gentry were robbed, and even a few talented students were robbed by the guests with ornaments and silver. One of the students loudly expressed his dissatisfaction, and as a result, the guest soldiers took turns slapping his mouth and beating him with blood all over his face.

Those students looked shocked and incredible, the two Huai are not as good as Jiangnan, the students in Jiangnan can drive away their parents and officials, and they can affect the general trend of the imperial court, Huai'an's students are definitely not as good as Jiangnan, but the status of the students is not much lower.

A group of ordinary soldiers dared to beat the students on the street, and they could only say that the sky of the Ming Dynasty had changed.

Min Yuanqi didn't pay attention to these things, and what he noticed was that although the guest soldiers robbed shops and pedestrians, they did not rush to the houses to loot, and the dumping shops, money shops and pawnshops opened by large households were not affected...... It seems that these guest soldiers still have a bottom line in their actions, and they should have been ordered by Liu Zeqing in advance.

After entering the city, allowing the soldiers to loot must be a promise before the promotion, but they are not allowed to rob the gentry and grain, do not rob the valuables, and do not act too much, which should also be Liu Zeqing's order.

Judging from Zhu Wanchun's words, Liu Zeqing is not a person with discipline and bottom line, he did not rob Huai'an and burn it to the ground, just because it was possible to garrison the army here for a long time.

Rabbits don't eat the grass next to the nest, and even if they do, they can't eat too much, so that's what it should be.

Min Yuanqi was thoughtful, Liu Zeqing's arrival, and the evolution of the whole situation will be more intense.