Zhang Boyi knew very well that the actual situation in Huai'an Mansion might be even worse than what Wang Zhiren had reported.

After all, Wang Zhiren only said that "hundreds of officers and soldiers were killed or wounded" but did not specify the specific number of captured and missing, but according to Zhang Boyi's experience over the years, the casualties reported by the Ming army were often separated from the number of captured and missing, or the actual losses may reach nearly 1,000 or even higher.

That's why Wang Zhiren put down his body and asked Zhang Boyi to flank the Eight Banners of the Han Army led by Zuo Mengeng and Dong Yuan from the direction of Pizhou, but Zhang Boyi felt that his face-to-face enemy was still the main force of the Qing army pressed over from Shandong: "Tell Wu Ninghou that I will ask General Zhang Huangyan to fully support him, but I am Peng Chengbo!" ”

Pengcheng is the old name of Xuzhou, and the reason why Liu Yongxi gave the title of "Peng Chengbo" to Zhang Boyi is naturally to hope that he can ensure that Xuzhou is foolproof.

And now although Zhang Boyi has three brigades and fifteen battalions and several battalions of state and county soldiers, the total strength is only twenty battalions, and the Qing army pressed from the direction of Shandong has at least forty or fifty Niu Lu and battalion heads.

But after rejecting Wang Zhiren's request for help, Zhang Boyi was still not at ease: "Inform General Wang Puxiang of Linhuai to move closer to Xuzhou immediately, my flank needs him to cover, and mobilize the entire Xuzhou!" ”

Now there are only more than 20 battalions of horse infantry in the entire Xuzhou, plus more than 13,000 state and county soldiers and auxiliary soldiers, but this is already the largest field corps of the Chengtian Dynasty in Jiangbei.

However, Zhang Boyi knew very well that under the situation of Liu Yongxi's large-scale westward expedition, this was a once-in-a-lifetime strategic opportunity for the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing army would definitely do its best to attack the south.

Facts also proved that Zhang Boyi's judgment was impeccable, and the news of the Qing army's southward march came from Shandong on the second day after the mobilization order was issued, although it was Duoduo and Haoge who took the lead and the two uncles and nephews were difficult, but in addition to Duoduo, Haoge and Kong Youde, there were tens of thousands of Qing troops who joined the southern expedition, and some people even claimed that the regent Dolgon was also in the army to supervise the battle.

The outpost battle soon began, and the leaders were still Duoduo and Hauge's troops, all of whom were old opponents of the Yue Ming army, and had suffered many heavy losses on the battlefield.

Although these two princes tried their best to mobilize the royal guards, Baoyi, and armor soldiers from the Beijing Division and Guanwai to rebuild the two large armies, the stronger Duoduo Department was less than 7,000 people, the Haoge Department was only more than 3,000 people, and Kong Youde was only 1,000 people.

Therefore, Zhang Boyi felt that the main force of the Qing army might not be easy to deal with, but the old opponents such as Duoduo and Haoge would definitely have no problem coping, after all, they had been disabled by the Yue Ming army several times on the battlefield.

But Zhang Boyi soon found that the evolution of the battle situation was much more difficult than he expected, and the current Duoduo and Haoge departments seemed to have returned to the peak situation in the early days of the Southern Expedition.

Although the Vietnamese Ming army also organized several blockades and counterattacks, but the results have not been good, but this also proves that the information obtained before is true: "The Qing army went south this time because of the regent Dolgon's personal expedition!" ”

Only in the case of the regent Dolgon's personal conquest, the newly rebuilt Duoduo, Hauge and Kong Youde will have such a commendable performance, so Zhang Boyi said without hesitation: "You can inform Zhou Zhisheng and Nanjing, let them hurry north!" ”

Although Zhang Boyi is the governor of Jiangbei and the military affairs of Jiangbei, it is a very special situation in Jingkou Town, where Zhou Zhisheng of the Jiangbei Fourth Road Army is in a very special situation, as the first-class elite of Gongwei Nanjing, Jingkou Town is not subordinate to the Jiangbei Governor but directly to the Ministry of War, and the specific transfer of this army and horses must be decided by the Imperial Council.

At this moment, the city of Nanjing has become extremely tense, although Jiangbei said that the Qing army in Xuzhou and Huai'an have suffered heavy losses and progress is slow, but everyone is still deeply impressed by the fall of the Hongguang Dynasty last year, at that time it was also a great victory every day, and the result was that the Qing army almost unhindered from Xuzhou to the city of Nanjing.

And this year, the Great Qing State launched another large-scale southern expedition, the only difference is that last year's main force in the southern expedition Duoduo, Hauge's department has become the vanguard this year, but this also means that the scale of the Qing State's southern expedition is likely to exceed last year, it is said that the regent of the Great Qing State, Dolgon, also led the army to personally conquer.

Therefore, the atmosphere in Nanjing suddenly became tense, and some officials even directly abandoned their posts and absconded, but most of the officials were just panicked and prepared for contingencies; after all, the Qing army was far away in Xuzhou and Huai'an, and the situation did not seem so sinister, and Nanjing now had Empress Zhang, Empress Changping, Zhu Dadian, and Zhang Guowei in charge, and there should be no major problems in a short period of time.

In particular, Qian Qianyi, the president of the "Qing Guozhi", who has a history of descending to the Qing Dynasty, is even more calm and relaxed, after a series of setbacks, the leader of Donglin is also dissolute and has no scruples, and goes to the Qinhuai River every day, and even said that the whole book of "Qing Guozhi" is written by him Qian someone, and the integrity of all the people in the book is determined by him.

Now the most important issue is the question of whether Zhou Zhisheng's Jingkou Town was transferred north to Xuzhou to participate in the war, considering that the imperial court has already participated in the war under the condition that Zhang Boyi, Wang Zhiren, Wang Puxiang, and Zhang Huangyan have all participated in the war, Zhou Zhisheng's Jingkou Town is almost the last field mobile force of the Chengtian Dynasty in Jiangbei, so this issue has caused great controversy in the DPRK.

Although the Yue Ming army has experienced many major battles, most of the battles of the Yue Ming army from the beginning of the army are to occupy the advantage of troops, even if a few battles have not occupied the advantage of troops, but due to the limited number of elites of the Eight Banners participating in the battle, and the combat effectiveness of the new annexed army in Jiangnan is not high, the Yue Ming army can still form a force advantage on the battlefield.

However, the current situation is different from the past, although Zhang Boyi, Wang Zhiren, Wang Puxiang, and Zhang Huangyan have done their best, but the Qing army's southern invasion was personally commanded by the regent Dolgon, and most of the main field forces of the Chengtian Dynasty were led by Liu Yongxi to participate in the Western Expedition, so the Qing army formed a strength advantage in every battlefield.

Now whether it is Wang Zhiren, Zhang Boyi, and Wang Puxiang are all asking for reinforcements from Nanjing, so a variety of opinions have been formed on the use of Jingkou Town, one opinion is that Jingkou is the only place to enter Nanjing, and Zhou Zhisheng's department must not be transferred out of Nanjing, and there is also an opinion that Zhou Zhisheng's Jingkou Town should be transferred to Yangzhou to hold Yangzhou with Zhang Huangyan, and the third opinion is that it should obey Zhang Boyi's arrangement to transfer north to Xuzhou.

But no one can convince anyone of the three opinions, so in the end it is up to the imperial council to decide, but this time the imperial council in addition to Empress Zhang, Empress Changping and several cabinet ministers, Shangshu also has one more important minister, that is, Wu Shengzhao, who is responsible for guarding Nanjing.

Although Wu Shengzhao was not the top general in the Chengtian Dynasty, the reason why Liu Yongxi chose to let Wu Shengzhao be in charge of the Nanjing garrison was naturally because Wu Shengzhao gave Duoduo and Haoge a fatal blow in the Battle of Liyang and completely reversed the situation in the Jiangnan War.

Wu Shengzhao, who had such a glorious history, naturally would never surrender to the Qing army, and Wu Shengzhao said with confidence in this imperial battle: "How to dispatch Zhou Zhisheng's army is decided by the imperial court, and no matter which direction it goes, it will not affect the Nanjing garrison!" ”

Speaking of this, Wu Shengzhao added: "Nanjing garrison has my Wu Shengzhao, and I guarantee that it can be foolproof!" ”

Although Wu Shengzhao's words were a bit full, Liu Yongxi chose to let Wu Shengzhao garrison Nanjing instead of handing it over to a lord like Taikanghou, naturally he was full of confidence in Wu Shengzhao and the Nanjing garrison under his command, and he couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he heard Empress Zhang: "It would be the best if Jingkou Town could be dispatched freely!" ”

Now all the armies in Jiangbei are in an emergency, especially the Wuning Marquis Wang Zhiren of Huai'an Mansion is the most seriously damaged, and it has been clearly stated in the report that if there are no reinforcements, they may return to Huai'an City at any time, but in this way, Zhang Boyi of Xuzhou will face a two-sided attack.

In the past, everyone thought that Wang Zhiren, the Marquis of Wuning, was born in the Dinghai Army, and his department was also the elite division of the Ming Dynasty, and he made a lot of contributions to Liu Yongxi's northern and southern campaigns, so there was no dispute that he was appointed governor of Huai'an, and some people even felt that Liu Yongxi should let Wang Zhiren be in charge of Jiangbei military affairs, rather than Peng Chengbo, who was one level lower than him, Zhang Boyi, to be the governor of Jiangbei military affairs.

But this time after the Qing army invaded the south, it tried out the quality of the generals in Jiangbei, although Wang Zhiren's face-to-face enemy was only the eight banners of the Han army, but Wang Zhiren, who had more than ten battalions of soldiers and horses, was almost passive in the whole world, and lost troops one after another, and the generals retreated again and again, and now they are even ready to retreat to Huai'an Fucheng, everyone feels that after leaving the command of Emperor Chengtian, Wang Zhiren is just a third-rate general.

Although the Qing army put more and more troops into the battlefield of Xuzhou, Zhang Boyi has always been as stable as Mount Tai, although he asked to transfer Zhou Zhisheng's Jingkou Town to the north, but he was also ready to independently hold Xuzhou City, which reminded everyone of his performance in the Battle of Huzhou.

Everyone even felt relieved when they thought that Wu Shengzhao in front of them was also a candidate personally appointed by Liu Yongxi, so Zhu Dadian first said: "Since the Nanjing garrison is foolproof, then it is best for Jingkou Town to go north to Xuzhou in time, do the two ladies have any opinions?" ”

Zhu Dadian felt that both Empress Zhang and Empress Changping would veto their suggestions, after all, this was also the arrangement of Emperor Liu Yongxi of Chengtian, but no one expected Empress Changping to suddenly ask: "How many soldiers and horses are there in Jingkou Town now?" ”

Zhu Da immediately replied: "Zhou Zhisheng's Jingkou Town has a total of more than 6,000 people in two brigades and ten battalions. ”

Empress Changping asked again: "Then how many soldiers and horses are there in Jianyu who went south this time?" ”