It's just that although there are many soldiers and horses, Empress Changping knows very well that she is actually just a symbolic mascot, not only did not interfere in the specific command, but handed over the military command to Zhou Zhisheng to be fully responsible: "General Zhou, how to use troops in Huai'an Mansion this time, the palace is at your disposal, but the top priority now is to relieve the siege of Huai'an and rush to the aid of Xuzhou as soon as possible!" ”

And Zhou Zhisheng didn't expect that he would take on such a heavy responsibility, but fortunately, he was born in the queen's army of Empress Zhang, and he knew how to deal with this kind of scene: "Niangniang, the top priority now is to defeat Zhang Tianshen Shenlu and Zhang Tianfu brothers, the Zhang brothers are broken, and the rest of the children are not enough to trouble!" ”

Now Wang Zhiren and Zhang Huangyan are both fighting hard in Huai'an Mansion, but unlike the Xuzhou battlefield with the Manchurian and Mongolian Eight Banners as the main force, the main force of the Qing army in Huai'an Mansion is the Han Army and the Eight Banners of the Han Army as the main force, and the hatred of these Han troops and the Eight Banners of the Han Army against the Yue Ming Army is not inferior to the real Manchurian Eight Banners, among which there is Geng Jimao, who has a grudge against his father with the Chengtian Dynasty.

But it was the onslaught of the 20,000 Han troops and the Eight Banners of the Han Army that made Wang Zhiren, the Marquis of Wuning, fall into a comprehensive passivity, and even dragged Zhang Huangyan, who rushed to help, into the water.

Although Wang Zhiren only said in the report that he had lost more than 1,000 soldiers, the actual number was far more than that, and according to the secret report that Empress Changping had just obtained, the total losses of Wang Zhiren's troops reached 3,700 people.

Although Zhang Huangyan tried his best to rescue Wang Zhiren, because the Qing army was also constantly investing troops in Huai'an Mansion, the two sides formed a confrontation situation around Huai'an Mansion.

And now since Empress Changping has led 16,000 troops to the north along the canal, it is naturally not a problem for Huai'an Mansion to relieve the siege, and the biggest problem is how to defeat the 20,000 thousands of Qing troops in Huai'an Mansion in the shortest possible time and continue to advance to Xuzhou, and now Zhou Zhisheng has proposed his own solution.

Although Empress Changping was not prepared to interfere with Zhou Zhisheng's specific command, when she heard the name of the Zhang brothers, she still asked one more question: "The Zhang brothers were originally the official soldiers of the Hongguang Dynasty, right?" ”

Zhou Zhisheng said very clearly: "That's right, the first Hongguang Dynasty to surrender to Jianyu was the Zhang brothers, and when we captured Jianghuai, it was the Zhang brothers who were the latest to annex, and this time Jianyu moved south, and the Qing army had already surrendered to the enemy and led the Qing army south!" ”

The existence of repeated rebellions like the Zhang brothers was originally the first target of the Chengtian Dynasty's elimination, not to mention that Zhou Zhisheng used three "earliest" and "latest" to describe the Zhang brothers' troops, so Empress Changping said without hesitation: "Since Zhang Tianlu and Zhang Tianfu are killing themselves, don't blame the court for being ruthless!" ”

Zhou Zhisheng was worried that Empress Changping would not really understand his intentions and continued: "And this time the Qing army marched south to Huai'an, it was also the idea of the Zhang brothers, the Zhang brothers were ambitious and ambitious, and even wanted to form a country of their own between Jianghuai!" ”

Although Zhou Zhisheng's statement is a bit exaggerated, the long-term disadvantage of the Yue Ming army in this Huai'an battle is largely caused by the Zhang brothers, so Empress Changping said very clearly: "Beigubo, since the Zhang brothers are the first evil, when the time comes, just cut it first and then play, but after defeating the Zhang brothers, can you end the Huai'an war as soon as possible and rush to help Xu?" ”

This is the most concerned issue of Empress Changping, although Wang Zhiren and Zhang Huangyan fell into the battlefield in Huai'an, but after all, there are two armies of Wang Zhiren and Zhang Huangyan to support the overall situation, so even if the Qing army is not exhausted, but it is close to exhaustion, and the Yue Ming army will naturally be able to win a big victory in the Huai'an battlefield at this time.

But now the key is on the battlefield of Xuzhou, although Dolgon personally supervised the battle, but the performance of Zhang Boyi and the defenders of Xuzhou can be called incredible, resisting the continuous attack of the main force of the Qing army.

But Zhang Boyi's magical performance can last no one knows, if Xuzhou lost the tide of the Qing army from the north to suppress down, Fengyang Mansion, Huai'an Mansion will be completely disrupted, and even the entire Jiangbei will fall into the hands of the Qing army, so Empress Changping hopes to continue to gallop north along the canal to aid Zhang Boyi at the first time.

And Zhou Zhisheng said very clearly: "I said it, as long as you defeat Zhang Tianlu and Zhang Tianfu brothers, Zuo Mengeng, Dong Yuan, and Geng Jimao will not be in trouble!" ”

As long as the Zhang brothers are defeated, not only these Eight Banners of the Han Army are not enough to trouble, but even the Eight Banners of Manchu and Mongolia are not enough to trouble.

And the Huai'an Qing army also fell into great anxiety, although at the beginning of the victory in Muyang Qi, these Han generals felt that they could continue to march to Yangzhou after defeating Huai'an Mansion, but until now they have not taken Yangzhou Mansion but continue to lose troops and generals, and they all say that Zhou Zhisheng of Jingkou Town has led a large army to rush to help.

These Han generals behaved so actively in Huai'an Mansion, naturally they were fishing for the Great Qing Kingdom to go into the water at the same time, but although the entire Great Qing Kingdom was dragged into the water by them, the change in the situation was out of their expectations, and now the most unbearable pressure is Zuo Mengeng, the second generation of the general with a master: "Jingkou Town has rushed over, so what should we do?" Is it to withdraw first? ”

Not only Zhang Tianlu had the most headache and Zuo Mengeng, who was screaming at every turn, but even Dong Yuan, who was in charge of monitoring Zuo Mengeng, couldn't stand it: "Even if Jingkou Town comes, it's not a big problem, the Jinhua thieves have reinforcements, and we also have a steady stream of reinforcements, and the regent has already sent reinforcements to our Huai'an Mansion!" ”

And Zhang Tianlu also persuaded bitterly: "Yes, Zhang Huangyan rushed from Yangzhou to support Wang Zhiren before, wasn't he repelled by us?" ”

If you don't say Zhang Huangyan, it's just that, as soon as you say Zhang Huangyan, Zuo Mengeng is anxious: "That's also called repulsion?" At most, it's a lose-lose situation, and it's even worse on our side! ”

Without Zhang Huangyan's full support, the Zhang brothers and Zuo Mengeng, Dong Yuan, and Geng Jimao would definitely be able to solve Wang Zhiren, but it was precisely because Zhang Huangyan was killed that the victory was still unscored, and even a rice bucket like Zuo Mengeng felt that the combat effectiveness of Wang Zhiren and Zhang Huangyan's department was completely different.

Wang Zhiren's subordinates are his old team when he served as the general soldier of Dinghai, but because Wang Zhiren's old team is not really integrated into the Yue Ming army system, so the performance on the battlefield is only a "strong Ming official army" after all, although it is difficult to deal with, but the Qing army just relied on the advantage of troops and the advantage of attacking first or beat the master to death.

But Zhang Huangyan's department is completely different, although the history of Zhang Huangyan's department is only one year at most, even if it is about a year and a half, even if it is traced back to about a year and a half, but no matter how it is fought, it is full of sharpness, both offensive and defensive, it is difficult to find a real flaw in the battle, even if it finds a flaw, it is difficult to attack the existence, in this matter Zuo Mengeng can be said to have suffered a big loss.

At that time, he thought that Zhang Huangyan and Wang Zhiren were all the way, and they did not hesitate to attack Zhang Huangyan's subordinates, but they lost six or seven hundred soldiers in two rounds, and until now his subordinates are still terrified when they hear Zhang Huangyan's name.

However, Zhou Zhisheng didn't care about history, combat power, and strength was still above Zhang Huangyan, so Zuo Mengeng made up his mind to retreat.

But Zhang Tianlu knows very well that as long as Zuo Mengeng withdraws, this battle will not be fought, after all, when Zuo Mengeng is fighting with all his strength, he will be in a confrontation situation with Wang Zhiren and Zhang Huangyan, if Zhou Zhisheng rushes to participate in the war and Zuo Mengeng runs away, there will be no way to clean up the mess.

Therefore, he immediately asked Dong Yuan on the side: "General Dong, how do you think to deal with the Jinhua thief?" ”

If Dong Yuan is really a Han Dong Yuan, he will definitely agree with Zuo Mengeng's suggestion to withdraw first, the Qing troops who participated in the war this time are really fighting too hard, and if they continue to fight like this, even without Zhou Zhisheng's reinforcements, there will be big problems.

But the problem is that Dong Yuan is not only a Han Dong Yuan but also a Jurchen Tong Yangjia, in this situation, he can only make a judgment that is most in line with the interests of the Qing Dynasty: "The regent has taken into account the unexpected factor of Zhou Zhisheng, Zhou Zhisheng has a total of ten battalions of men and horses, no matter how much he coerces the rabble, that is, the eight thousand people, and the regent, the princes, and Baylor have taken into account all the variables caused by the eight thousand people!" ”

Hearing Dong Yuan say this, Zhang Tianlu put pressure on Zuo Mengeng: "General Zuo, General Dong This is a good word of Jin Yu, Zhou Zhisheng is not afraid, the real fearful person is about to defeat the Jinhua thief when he sees it, and we will retreat first!" ”

Zuo Mengeng is not a character who can withstand the pressure, not to mention that Zhang Tianlu's accusation is very serious, so he retreated as soon as possible: "Then what should we do according to Brother Zhang's meaning?" ”

Zhang Tianlu immediately laughed: "Anyway, no matter how Zhou Zhisheng tosses, he has a maximum of 8,000 people, so we don't have to be afraid of him!" ”

But the more Zhang Tianlu said this, the more Zuo Mengeng felt that Zhou Zhisheng was terrible, after all, 8,000 people was not a small number, Zuo Mengeng even felt that Zhou Zhisheng could break his formation with just a few back and forth, so he immediately said: "Since Brother Zhang feels that Zhou Zhisheng is not afraid, can I let my soldiers retire and rest for two days, it is really a defeat with Zhang Huangyan!" ”

Zhang Tianlu also knew that Zuo Mengeng suffered a big loss under Zhang Huangyan and lost seven or eight hundred people, and if he didn't retreat to rest, he might not be able to hold on, but as long as Zuo Mengeng still stayed on the battlefield, he had a way to let Zuo Mengeng continue to act as cannon fodder: "Two days, we said okay, just two days!" ”

As soon as Zuo Mengeng wanted to say something, he heard the sound of iron hooves of fast horses outside, and then someone said in a panic: "Oh no, Zhou Zhisheng has killed him, Zhou Zhisheng's soldiers have already killed along the canal!" ”

Zhang Tianlu immediately changed his mind: "General Zuo, I'm really sorry, you can't withdraw in this situation now!" No one is allowed to withdraw now! ”

It's just that Zuo Mengeng glanced at the outside of the camp but laughed: "That's right, no one is allowed, the Jinhua thieves are now storming General Zhang's camp!" ”