In the Shenji camp, looking at the rows of energetic soldiers in front of him, Zhou Yuji walked up to the leader in front of him and slapped him in the mouth with a fist.

"Hahaha, Jiang boy, you were also selected, are these your soldiers?"

The person in front of Zhou Yuji is not Jiang Deshen, who else can he be.

Jiang Deshen smiled at Zhou Yuji with a hesitant face, and hurriedly clenched his fists and replied loudly: "General, the junior general is also willing to follow Qin to kill the thief." ”

He turned his head to look at the soldiers and horses behind him, "There are one hundred and fifty-seven people here, all of whom are under the command of lowly officials. ”

"Okay, good", Zhou Yuji turned his head to look at Liu Ximing who was walking on his left with some joy, "Uncle, the good soldiers and horses you have selected under your command, the names of these young generals are all I have heard of in the five military camps, and they are good men." ”

Liu Ximing looked at Jiang Deshen and other guards officers with a smile, pretending not to know him, and laughed loudly: "I can be appreciated by General Zhou, I think he is really a great general in the army." ”

"That's it, the establishment of our six thousand people is a little chaotic, it's better to disrupt and rearrange it, and I will talk about it from Gonggong Gao."

"What's this Jiang?" , Liu Ximing pretended to pause.

"Humble Jiang ginseng", Jiang Deshen immediately knelt down and replied.

"Okay, Jiang Shen, you were originally the general manager, since General Zhou recommended you, then the official will appoint you as the general manager of Quan Qian, and after the meritorious service, you will officially report to the imperial court for merit."

Liu Ximing looked at Zhou Yuji with a smile, "What does the general think?" ”

Zhou Yuji's face was full of relief, this new Amber really respected himself.

"Uncle selects talents and appoints talents, and the end will admire."

"Hahaha, let's do it, let's choose the rest of the generals today, put up the shelves first, and start training tomorrow."

"Yes"

In doing so, it is natural that Jiang Deshen and other pro-guard officers all control the mid-level officer posts in this army.

Seven thousand generals and twenty generals basically firmly controlled the entire army in the hands of Liu Ximing.

After some selection, Liu Ximing selected a total of 6,700 soldiers and horses from the three major battalions, plus Zhou Yuji's personal soldiers, which was actually close to 7,000.

Although Jingying is erosive, it still has some family background.

Of the 7,000 men, there were 2,000 cavalry, 2,000 infantry, 1,000 crossbowmen, and 2,000 musketeers.

Throwing the army to Zhou Yuji, Jiang Deshen and others to rectify the training, Liu Ximing, Huang Zonghui, Du Liangji and others hurriedly went to Gao Qiqian to report.

For such a trivial matter as Liu Ximing recruiting an extra thousand people, under his offensive of two thousand taels of silver tickets, Gao Qiqian naturally turned a blind eye with a smile.

On the contrary, it took a lot of effort for Liu Ximing to ask for the settlement fee for the soldiers under his command, and after spending 20,000 taels of silver to settle all parties, Liu Ximing finally pulled out 40,000 taels of silver from the military department.

This result once again made Huang Zonghui and Du Liangji and others gain knowledge, and the eunuchs and officials at all levels embezzled half of this money, which shows how far the Ming officials have ruled.

Fortunately, Liu Ximing is not an ordinary person, and he doesn't plan to get money from the court.

From the very beginning, he promised that his idea was to pay for the soldiers himself.

It's just that at the feet of the Son of Heaven, this kind of thing can't be done too much, so there is such a thing as arguing with the Ministry of War, Gao Qiqian and others, mainly to hide people's eyes and ears.

"Did you hear about it, the new Amber promised that our settling-in allowance would only be six taels first."

"I'll go to his uncle's, how can I change the hexagram if I promised, we won't fight this battle."

"That is, going back on their word, these officials are all virtuous."

Among the 7,000 troops gathered by Liu Ximing, rumors about the settlement fee continued to circulate, causing constant disturbances in the army.

Zhou Yuji was still a little worried, but he didn't know that Jiang Deshen and other middle- and low-level officers quickly took action, which directly stabilized the hearts of the entire army.

In the Shenji Battalion, in the form of Qu and Tun, which were familiar to the Liu family's army, Jiang Deshen and others conveyed Liu Ximing's unified voice one by one.

"What the hell are you panicking about, did Xin Amber say that the rest of the money will not be distributed, this is the reason why the corrupt officials in the court withheld it, and Xin Amber himself paid tens of thousands of taels of silver."

"Think about it, if the new Amber really wants to deceive us, why spend so much effort, and bother to pay for it yourself, don't worry, the new Amber said, this money will be all sent down before we send troops, if there is one penny, we will not send troops."

For this reason, Zhou Yuji also sighed a few words to Liu Ximing, he really didn't expect that there were such precious grassroots officers in the Beijing camp, which made Liu Ximing and Huang Zonghui and others secretly happy for a long time.

As the atmosphere in Gyeonggi became more and more tense, the situation in Gyeonggi as a whole deteriorated.

On January 27 of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the 50,000-strong army of Jianyu, under the leadership of Dolgon, the prince of Heshuorui, and Yuetuo, the prince of Heshuocheng, broke through the Great Wall in two ways, and joined the troops in Qian'an, Fengrun, and Hexi in Nengzhou.

At this time, there was already panic among the people in the Beijing Division, and Lu Xiangsheng tried his best to ask for battle, but Yang Sichang and Gao Qiqian always insisted on defending the Beijing Division.

On the fourth day of the first month of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, without the Ming army to stop them, Dolgon and Yue Tuo's troops divided into eight routes, bypassing the Beijing division and marching into Zhuozhou and other places.

A cry lingered over the land of Jizhou, millions of people fled in all directions, and hundreds of thousands of innocent Han Chinese were killed by Jian.

On February 19, the urgent letters that flew from Beizhili like snowflakes flooded the desk of the General Administration, and at this time Chongzhen finally couldn't sit still.

In front of the great court meeting on February 20, Emperor Chongzhen, who had a compassionate face, strictly ordered Lu Xiangsheng, Gao Qiqian, Liu Ximing and others to lead their troops to battle, otherwise they would all be dealt with according to dereliction of duty.

Among the courtiers at this time, there were naturally many people gloating, and there were few people with them.

In the yamen of the military headquarters, the atmosphere was already very solemn.

Lu Xiangsheng's black gauze hat was placed on top of his copy, and he anxiously discussed with Gao Qiqian on the map in front of him:

"Gao Gonggong, at present, the general soldiers of Hu Dawei, Yang Guozhu and other places have entered the guard, and tens of thousands of soldiers and horses have entered the city in the two towns of Guanning, and there are more than 220,000 soldiers in the Beijing Division.

"How about I lead Hu Dawei, Yang Guozhu and Wang Pusan with a total of 40,000 soldiers and horses to the south to suppress the thieves when they see the opportunity, and Gao Gonggong will lead Shanhaiguan and Guanning and other soldiers to clear the thieves near Gyeonggi, how about it?"

When the big event came, Gao Qiqian also put away his unhurried watch and made some anxious gestures.

However, he refused Lu Xiangsheng's proposal without thinking about it.

"It's not proper, it's not proper, the eastern captives are strong, we will lead the troops to fight in the field, just to give them the battle results, in my opinion, you and I are still in one place, cooperate with the people of the Beijing camp, and the hundreds of thousands of troops will clear and surrender Gyeonggi together."

"As long as the Dongyu near Gyeonggi is cleaned up, we will be considered to have completed the emperor's explanation, and the imperial court will not blame us."

"Confess, confess, this is all human life, where is an explanation can be justified", Lu Xiangsheng was furious, "Gonggong Gao, Your Majesty has repeatedly ordered us to go to war, if you are afraid of the enemy, this official will definitely join you." ”

Gao Qiqian was also a little angry, "It seems that Lu Shangshu is the only one who serves the country and the people, and we are not for the sake of the country when we lead the troops to participate in the war, whether these people are important or the emperor is important." ”

"All in all, if you want to go south to pursue Jianyu, then you can do it yourself, but you can only give you 20,000 horses at most, and the rest of your men will have to defend Gyeonggi."

"Hmph, Elder Yang Ge, what's your idea?"

Lu Xiangsheng couldn't argue that he could not raise his head, so he had to look at Yang Sichang, who was watching from the sidelines.

Clinker Yang Sichang sighed and shook his head, "The old man agrees with Gonggong Gao's statement, Gyeonggi ......"

"Okay, if you are afraid of the enemy, you will guard in Gyeonggi, and this officer will lead his troops to battle."

Without waiting for Yang Sichang to finish speaking, Lu Xiangsheng already knew what he was going to say.

Revealing a look of disgust, Lu Xiangsheng waved his hand, turned his head and walked towards the door.

When he passed by Liu Ximing, he stopped, "Liu Shiyu, this official sees that you have been diligent in rectifying your soldiers and horses in the past few months, and you obviously have the heart to serve the country, are you willing to fight with this official?" ”

Liu Ximing looked up at Yang Sichang and Gao Qiqian, who were also staring at him with an embarrassed face, and could only laugh twice and bow to Lu Xiangsheng.

"Lu Shangshu, the deputy envoy of Xiaguan District, naturally he can only listen to the imperial court, and now Yang Ge Lao and Gao Gonggong are inclined to fight in Gyeonggi, and the lower officials dare not disobey."

"Hahaha", Lu Xiangsheng raised his head and laughed, pointing at Liu Ximing, Huang Zonghui, and Du Liangji, "I thought that Er and the others were different, and I didn't want to be no different from the group of corpse vegetarian ministers in the court, no matter what, no matter what, Lu Mou would go by himself." ”