Forbidden City, Fengtian Temple, East Warm Pavilion.

The ministers who were urgently summoned, after listening to Zhu Chunjie's words, all had an expression of winning the jackpot - Daqing is dead! These people will immediately become the Zhongxing heroes of the Ming Dynasty, and they can all go down in history.

Originally, they only planned a five-way expedition, but this time there was another Zhang Xianzhong!

And Wu Sangui's strength is also stronger than imagined...... Three hundred and thirty thousand households! There are 66,000 soldiers from 200 out of 1,000 households!

As soon as the courtiers present thought of the victory that was within reach, they began to talk loudly, all with arrogant looks.

"The Dongyu is finished, how many soldiers and horses do they have? The old Eight Banners are full of calculations, plus the Han army and the Mongols, there are at most 80,000 people, and the newly formed Zhenglu Banner is almost 100,000 people...... That's 180,000 in total. Zhang Xianzhong can contain at least 50,000 of them, His Royal Highness the Acting King can contain 30,000, and there are still 100,000 people left to guard against the army we launched from Liaoxi, Dagukou, and the Grand Canal, which is absolutely difficult to take care of! ”

"And Wu Sangui's army! As long as General Wu defects, Dongyu will be doomed! ”

"It seems that three years of Pingliao and five years of Pingbei are too pessimistic, at most one more year, the world will be able to return to peace!"

"That's right, the first year of Hongxing is the time when the peaceful and prosperous era will come again!"

"The emperor is really blessed!"

"Your Majesty, let's send troops quickly, we don't have to wait for the cold, we can do it now!"

The interest of the courtiers is higher than the other, and they are all a little underestimated...... Although you have the chance to win, you can't be proud!

Emperor Zhu's gaze slowly swept over the Dongnuan Pavilion, and found that only Wu Xiang frowned slightly and did not say much.

"Wu Guozhang?" Zhu Cihong looked at Wu Xiang with a smile, "The eldest uncle's request is nothing...... The third sister is my knotted hair, and the queen is none other than her! As for General Fengping Xi, it's nothing, the poor countryside in the northwest, and there are so many brave warriors, and there is no general's mansion that can't be suppressed! It's nothing to give a few million taels of military expenses a year, and now the court has money! As long as the northwest is stable, this silver is worth it. ”

Now that Wu Sangui is still the "green hat king" of the Qing Dynasty, can Zhu Cihong not say something beautiful? Not what will happen in the future...... Only Wu Sanmei's queen is guaranteed, and it is difficult to say anything else.

Zhu Cihong and Wu Sanmei are a tribulated couple who have been on the battlefield together, and their feelings are not said, who else can the queen give it to if she doesn't give it to her?

When Wu Xiang heard Zhu Cihong's words, he immediately looked grateful, and he was about to kowtow when he got up.

Zhu Cihong waved his hand again and again: "The old prince doesn't have to salute, sit and talk." ”

Wu Xiang was not polite, he sat back full, and then stroked his beard, and said thoughtfully: "Your Majesty, don't underestimate the enemy too much!" ”

"Underestimating the enemy?" Zhu Cihong thought for a while, "Do you think there is a solution to the situation of Dongyu who is attacked on all sides?" ”

Wu Xiang said: "Your Majesty, the things on the battlefield have to be fought to know!" Enemies on all sides, enemies on all sides...... As long as the soldiers are brave, it is not a problem. If the army is weak, the enemy can kill even if he only has one way. ”

"Guozhang thinks that the new army can't defeat the Eight Banners?" Zhu Cihong asked with a smile.

Wu Xiang said: "It's not that you can't beat it, but when you fight in the Northland Plain, you don't have the certainty of victory." ”

This judgment was not Wu Xiang's personal, but made jointly by the Generalissimo's Office and the Ministry of War!

To fight a war, there are many cavalry in the Northern Qing Dynasty, and even if it is the newly established Zhenglu Banner, there are a large number of mules and horses available. Therefore, on the northern plains, the Qing army can quickly assemble and maneuver!

The Ming army was mainly infantry, although it had the advantage of firearms, but because of the lack of horses, the artillery of the Ming army had to rely on water mobility. Once away from the waterway, the artillery advantage of the Ming army was mostly non-existent.

In addition, the number of exemplary troops of the Ming army was not large.

At present, the number of the new army has reached more than 400,000 on the books, but half of them are recruits, mainly recruited from the northerner refugees who followed Zhu Cihong south to beg for food.

These recruits are now stationed in various places to train and maintain law and order. They were actually the "internal guards" used to maintain their rule - Zhu Cihong's court collected so many taxes a year, and weakened the power of the gentry and landlords, so it was natural that they had to bear more of the cost of rule.

Therefore, now the local government offices in the eight provinces directly under the jurisdiction of the Southern Ming Dynasty are larger in scale and spend more - 20% of the public land is the official field, and the local commercial tax is also shared with the imperial court, and the part allocated to the local government is also used to maintain the operation of the government.

Of the remaining veterans, about half were stationed in regimental units. There are less than 120,000 people with relatively strong field combat capabilities, of which the main force is organized into seven divisions, and there are also some independent cavalry regiments and artillery regiments.

And Emperor Hongxing can't pull out all seven divisions, so he has to leave one to watch the house!

Therefore, the elite soldiers that can be used for the Northern Expedition are about 100,000...... It is true that there is no numerical advantage.

Wu Xiang also analyzed: "Dongyu has little money and little grain, and there is no benefit of sea and river, so it is difficult to operate, so the benefit is to solve quickly. And I have a lot of people and wealth, and I have the benefit of waterways and the convenience of sailors, so the benefits are long-lasting. Therefore, in the past three or five years, the Northern Expedition has been successful, and it is still very certain that the Guannai will be recovered.

As for Zhang Xianzhong...... It's just a virtual excitement, but it's actually vulnerable, so we don't have to take him too seriously, let alone raise troops in advance for this. ”

Zhu Cihong nodded lightly, Wu Xiang's analysis was not entirely unreasonable. Zhang Xianzhong in history quickly pounced in the face of the Qing army entering Sichuan...... And this time he took Luoyang as the emperor, and it rested on Dolgon's mouth. Dolgon could quickly mobilize an army of more than 100,000 Nine Banners to extinguish him, how could Zhang Xianzhong become a climate?

This guy is addicted to death!

"Actually, it's nothing to go on the Northern Expedition early," Li Yan put forward a different opinion, "Shandong and Huaibei are ready and ready to start at any time." Some time ago, I went to inspect the armies of Shandong and Huaibei, and they were not bad...... There is no problem walking along the canal.

Liaodong and Liaoxi are a little worse, but a division can go up...... It may not be enough to take Ningyuan, but there are many abandoned castles along the coast of western and eastern Liaoning, and occupying a few of them can also make a big noise. ”

There is truth to that!

Although Dorgon began to run his hometown in the northeast again, the northeast was so large and the population he could send out was so small, so the "danger zone" along the coast was very barren, and only a few important castles had garrisons. It was not difficult for the Ming army to find a fortress that was very close to the coast and had no troops to garrison.

After occupying it, it will be able to become the support point of the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong and Liaoxi......

"Wu Guoyong, what do you think?" Zhu Cihong threw the question to Wu Guoyong, the division of the right army.

"Emperor," Wu Guoyong glanced at Wu Xiang, who was getting older and more timid, and said with a smile, "Zhang Xianzhong is a dry bone in the grave, but he has a lot of subordinates, can Dongyu really break it with one blow?" Once the war drags on for a long time, the opportunity really comes. ”

Zhu Cihong nodded, thinking: If Zhang Xianzhong is really the same as in history, he will die in one fight, then Li Dingguo's gang just took ......

He turned his gaze to Shoufu Wei Zaode, who shook his head, "Emperor, you also need to beware of Zhang Xianzhong's invasion of Nanyang, Runing, Xiangyang and other mansions after the defeat.

In addition, Wu Sangui will most likely take advantage of the defeat of Zhang Xianzhong's troops to take Xi'an. The imperial court is not as good as Tun heavy troops in Nanyang, one to guard against thieves; Second, to answer Wu Sangui anyway. ”

"Shoufu, in your opinion, should the imperial court immediately go north to conquer the captive?" Qian Qianyi, the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, suddenly interjected at this time.

Wei Zaode glanced at him, "You don't have to go on a northern expedition immediately, just wait and see what happens in Heluo." ”

Qian Qianyi asked again: "Don't you still ask about the crime of Er Gon Tu Datong?" Are the more than 100,000 loyal people in Datong Mansion all dead in vain? If the imperial court can't immediately make an edict to ask for capture, wouldn't the tens of millions of people in the north and south looking at the king's division be extremely discouraged and disappointed? The hearts of the people in the Northland, can they still be cleaned up? ”