Wang Zhiren felt that it would not end well if the scene was too big: "But it is not a good thing for these chaotic ministers and thieves to make the scene too big in the north, and if they are to establish themselves in the imperial court, it will take a lot of effort!" ”

But Queen Changping smiled: "That's nothing, it's all defeated under Brother Yongxi, no matter how much you toss, you can't make waves!" ”

Wang Zhiren was speechless for a moment, this series of defeats in Huai'an Mansion hit him very hard, and even affected the trust of many big people in him, he always felt that no matter Wang Zhiren or his subordinates in the Chengtian Dynasty, they should belong to the division rather than the main force, otherwise they would not even be able to deal with a group of Han troops and the Eight Banners of the Han Army, and even dragged down Zhang Huangyan who came to support.

You must know that Liu Yongxi has been almost invincible since he started his army, and he must have won a hundred battles against the Zhang brothers, Zuo Mengeng, Dong Yuan, Geng Jimao and others, but Wang Zhiren, the dignified governor of Huai'an and the Marquis of Wuning, fought so ugly that everyone felt that this matter could not be explained.

Although Empress Changping just said it casually now, Wang Zhiren felt very uncomfortable, and he immediately volunteered: "Since Niangniang has made up her mind, the court should also agree to Zuo Mengeng's decision, then Weichen asked Caozhou to take one or two state mansions for the imperial court!" ”

He was ready to use the victory to wash away the shame of the snow, and Queen Changping smiled again: "Marquis Wuning, don't worry, the good news of Beigubo has not yet arrived, and we will think about how to deal with Caozhou when we wait for the victory in Xuzhou!" ”

At this moment, there was already chaos outside Xuzhou, Zhang Boyi's strategy of letting the soldiers eat and sleep well was a great success, and the Qing army was extremely anxious waiting for Dorgon's order, while the Ming army had been recuperating and rejuvenating.

However, before Dorgon's order arrived, more than 20,000 troops under the command of Zhou Zhisheng of Beigubo had been killed, and the two armies were attacked inside and outside at the same time, and several field corps of the Qing army were extremely chaotic, and a Qing army did not hesitate to follow the pace of Hauge, Duoduo and Daishan to break through to the north.

There were also some Qing troops who held out for a few rounds and found that the situation was not right and began to retreat, but many Niu Lu felt that since Dolgon had not issued an order to the division, he should stick to the spot, and the result was that the Qing army was obviously not far from the Ming army in terms of strength, but now it was fighting separately, and it could not form a unified command center at all.

Not only can it not form a unified command center, but it is fighting separately and accusing each other, and it is no longer the situation of unity at the beginning of the pass, and Zhou Zhisheng and Zhang Boyi immediately changed their tactics after joining forces: "Since Jianyu dared to invade the south again after the defeat of the southern invasion last year, then I am afraid that they will know what a place to die without a place to be buried, so that Jianyu will remember the situation of blood flowing under Xuzhou City for the rest of his life!" ”

Zhang Boyi understood what Zhou Zhisheng meant: "In that case, although there will be many kills, most of the elite will take the opportunity to escape!" ”

The strategy that Zhou Zhisheng is preparing to adopt now is to deal with those baggage, artillery, musketeers, and coated cattle who are slow to move and have weak self-defense capabilities, and make the Qing army heartbroken with an astonishing casualty figure, but at the same time as solving these units, he will definitely let go of a main force of the Qing army.

But Zhou Zhisheng replied with a smile: "As long as we kill enough, no matter how elite the Qing army is, it is destined to become a shrimp soldier and crab general, I think this year's Qing army is easier to deal with than last year's Qing army!" ”

Although the main offensive of the Qing army was in the direction of Zhang Boyi's Xuzhou, and Zhou Zhisheng's support army did not encounter the most powerful Qing offensive, there was no major problem with his judgment.

Last year's Duoduo, Hauge and Azig can be said to be the pinnacle of the Qing army, many battles at that time were very dangerous, if it were not for Empress Zhang and Princess Changping brought a large number of reinforcements, the Yue Ming army might even lose the entire battle.

However, this year's Dolgon's southern expedition is completely different, many of the Qing army Niulu and Yingtou who suffered annihilation or heavy losses last year have been rebuilt again, but their combat effectiveness is not as good as before, and even the three main forces of Duoduo, Haoge and Daishan have not yet arrived in Xuzhou before Zhou Zhisheng's reinforcements have arrived in Xuzhou, and they will not hesitate to retreat northward, which can be said to be unprecedented in the history of the Qing army.

Although Zhou Zhisheng will let go of many elites of the Qing army, especially the Manchurian horse team, it is impossible for the elite of the Qing army to return to Shandong unscathed, and many elites of the Qing army suffered heavy losses in the breakthrough, and more importantly, after the defeat of this southern invasion again, the psychological advantage that the Qing State has built up in decades is gone, and no matter how elite the Qing army is, it is impossible to return to the peak situation in the early days of entering the customs.

And Zhang Boyi thought more far-reaching: "It's indeed easier to deal with than last year's Jianyu, but we have to leave enough spare strength to deal with the Qing army that withdrew from Fengyang Mansion, it is said that the regent of Jianyu Dolgon is among them, and Wang Puxiang in the south bites very tightly!" ”

Wang Puxiang is Zhou Zhisheng's old subordinate, so Zhou Zhisheng is very satisfied with Wang Puxiang's performance: "Wang Puxiang did a good job, he is worthy of being a soldier of the horse team, we can't miss this opportunity!" ”

He accidentally leaked the secret that Zhou Zhisheng was once Liu Liangzuo's family, but although Zhang Boyi had heard about the relevant rumors, he didn't care about Wang Puxiang's history, but told Zhou Zhisheng: "It's really a rare opportunity, we have to prepare a big gift for Dolgon!" ”

And for the tens of thousands of Qing troops outside Xuzhou, this was their most painful moment.

Although they were also doing their best to save the defeat, but the Ming army's offensive was as endless as a tide, no matter how much effort they made but one battalion after another came out, they even suspected that the news of the so-called Yue Ming Emperor Liu Yongxi's personal expedition to Huguang was pure rumors, and the Yue Ming army concentrated 100,000 or even 200,000 troops under the city of Xuzhou to besiege them.

But the Qing army that can have this kind of thinking belongs to the real elite, they can hold on to the tide offensive in the Vietnamese Ming army, and more Qing troops are directly in the tide of the offensive directly by the Ming army completely crushed, even if the defeated Qing army does not become a straggler, it still creates big trouble for the elite of the Qing army.

And the Qing army did not understand how such an astonishing change could have occurred in just over a year, a year ago they were invincible, no matter whether they encountered the Dashun army, the Ming army or the Tukou, they were all overwhelmed, and even dozens of horsemen could break thousands of Ming troops.

And more than a year has passed, although the combat strength of the Ming army in front of them has been greatly improved, but these elites of the Qing army always feel that they should be able to defeat the Yue Ming army on the opposite side, but the actual situation is that the offensive of the Ming army like a tide makes them unable to play all their skills, but suffers heavy losses in the melee, and more and more routs create greater trouble for them.

What confused them even more was the decision of the princes and Baylor, in the past, as long as Nurhachi and Huang Taiji gave an order, the elite of the Eight Banners would defeat everything with a courageous and indomitable attitude, but this time under the city of Xuzhou, there were first Han generals Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo who found an excuse and refused to follow the army, and then Duoduo, Haoge, and Daishan, the strongest princes, took the lead in running, and then many princes and Baylor also ran away with their soldiers and horses, leaving them to fight hard alone in Xuzhou City.

If the princes and Baylor stayed in Xuzhou City, even if they couldn't be equal to the Yue Ming army, they would be able to deal with the current crisis, but now there is no one who is willing to stand up and turn the tide of the situation, but quickly withdraw with their own Niu Lu: "Don't wait for the regent, let's just withdraw ourselves!" ”

"Let's go, if we don't go, we won't be able to go!"

"This is the country of Shangsanqi, we don't need to sacrifice everything for them!"

But the problem is that it is not so easy for the Qing army to leave even if they want to, but the most elite horse team and infantry of the Qing army still have a chance to fight their way out of the encirclement.

They had already noticed that the Ming army in front of them was extremely cunning and even extremely insidious, always attacking those units that were slow to move and had weak combat strength, and as soon as they focused on the catalog, several battalion heads or even a dozen battalion heads besieged hundreds of weak Qing brigades, and any weak brigade of the Qing army simply could not withstand such fierce and frequent attacks.

And the collapse of these weak brigades of the Qing army will trigger a chain reaction, although the Qing generals do not know how many Qing troops were lost on the battlefield, but they soon compared the battle of Xuzhou with the battle of Yanziji, it is said that the 100,000 troops of the southern expedition with Duoduo and Haoge only fled back a few thousand people, but fortunately the Qing army of Yanziji had to find ships to retreat, and now they only need to take the road and go.

But the retreat of the Qing army caused greater casualties and chaos, and at this time Zuo Mengeng rushed out to pick up the cheap, unlike Zhou Zhisheng and Zhang Boyi, Zuo Mengeng, who had been incorporated into the Eight Banners of the Han Army, even had many old Liaodong people and even the real Manchurian Eight Banners, so he quickly gathered nearly a thousand defeated soldiers.

This also made Zuo Mengeng and Ding Mofan full of confidence: "Before we send troops to Caozhou, we can also ask the imperial court for a batch of prisoners and weapons, and when the time comes, we will not be afraid that Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo will be disobedient!" ”

In fact, the current Zuo Mengeng's department can be said to be the ultimate in the scattering of soldiers, although there are nearly 5,000 people, but more than half of them are still the Qing army that has just surrendered, and the combat effectiveness is not as good as the Qing army, but seeing the scene of the Qing army under the city of Xuzhou being defeated everywhere, whether it is Zuo Mengeng or Ding Mofan, they are more confident, and feel that the Qing army is nothing more than that, and what Zhou Zhisheng and Zhang Boyi can do, they can also do.

And they also estimated their combat power, and felt that it was definitely higher than the ordinary Eight Banners of the Han Army and the Green Battalion, and even stronger than the Eight Banners of Mongolia, but it should be a little inferior to the real Eight Banners of Manchuria, but this was enough!

However, Zhou Zhisheng made a correct estimate of Zuo Mengeng's combat effectiveness: "Zuo Mengeng is also from the Eight Banners of the Han Army, I didn't expect it to fall to such a point, I was still a little worried, but now looking at their performance, they can completely let them send troops to Caozhou, at least they can cause chaos to Jianyu!" ”