The forward horse team can arrive in three days, and the main force will arrive in Xuzhou on the fifth day!

This is exactly the answer that the civil and military officials present need the most, and Liu Richeng, the governor of Xuzhou Prefecture, immediately said: "Peng Chengbo, I happened to stock up on fifteen stone rice at home, which was originally intended for emergency use, and now I am giving my brothers more food!" Let the brothers be polite! ”

This Liu Tuiguan is a real tumbler, in the Chongzhen Dynasty, Hongguang Dynasty, Shunzhi Dynasty, and Chengtian Dynasty are Xuzhou Mansion Tuiguan is as stable as Mount Tai, so his fifteen stone rice has been hidden very well and has not been discovered, if it is not for the princess of Changping to cross the river to conquer in person, the so-called emergency fifteen stone rice will continue to be hidden.

Although this matter is extremely disgraceful, Zhang Boyi saw that Liu Tuiguan was the first to stand up and support him, and immediately made a decision: "Liu Tuiguan did a good job, and your name must be at the top of the list of Xuzhou's victorious recitals this time!" ”

With Liu Tuiguan as an example, everyone naturally became extremely enthusiastic, and someone over there immediately reported his private family background: "I just selected twenty Ding out and don't know which direction to send it, so I will hand it over to Peng Chengbo for dispatch!" ”

"My father left me ten armors when he left, and now is the critical moment, I am willing to take out all ten armors!"

"I still have some gunpowder and lead at home, I think Peng Chengbo should be able to use it!"

This is all the goods at the bottom of the box and has been kept secret, so everyone's expressions were a little embarrassed at first, but soon Zhang Boyi completely ignited everyone's emotions, he said that not only did he not blame the past but also remembered everyone's merits, and everyone quickly cobbled together a force of two or three hundred people.

Although the force of two or three hundred people does not have much significance in such a battle to destroy the country, it is really helpful for Zhang Boyi now, and everyone also thinks that since Princess Changping led thirty battalions of soldiers to march in person, Xuzhou can naturally be foolproof, and some people even said: "Empress Changping's reinforcements only need three or five days to arrive in Xuzhou, we can't hold on to thirty or fifty days, can't we even hold three or five days?" ”

On the contrary, Zhang Boyi was not so optimistic, he told the civil and military officials present: "Now that Jianlu has used all the strength to eat milk, mobilized 100,000 troops to besiege our small Xuzhou, and the regent of the Qing State to supervise the war, we can't take it lightly, even if it is one more day is the result of the soldiers' best efforts, which of you has a way to delay the construction of the captives for a day or two, and I will give him another great credit?" ”

Since Zhang Boyi said this, the civil and military officials present suddenly became interested, and everyone made suggestions and suggestions, and some people suggested using the strategy of deception to delay time: "We can contact the Qing army in the name of surrender and ask them to suspend the attack, even if it can only drag on for half a day, but the initiative will be transferred to us!" ”

But Liu Tuiguan felt that the strategy of deception was inappropriate: "This method is no problem to deal with thieves, but it is not at all good to deal with Jianyu, as long as we show a little weakness, Jianyu will definitely attack with all his strength, and where it shows weakness, the attack will be the most fierce." ”

Zhang Boyi also felt that Jianyu was different from both the Ming officials and the thieves, and the trick was to give the Qing army a bloody attack to speed up the attack, after all, there had been too many similar histories before: "You have to think of a safe idea, everyone should use some thoughts!" ”

Since Zhang Boyi said that "remember a great achievement", these civil and military officials present naturally did their best to cooperate with Zhang Boyi, and Liu Tuiguan of Xuzhou Mansion came up with a very good intention: "Since we can't surrender by fraud, we will go the other way, let's say that Zhu Dadian Xiangguo led 50 battalions of soldiers to rush to Xuzhou from the direction of Fengyang, and they can arrive in Xuzhou in one or two days, and see how Jianyu will deal with it when the time comes!" ”

Zhang Boyi felt that Liu Tuiguan's idea was really good: "Just do it according to Liu Tuiguan's wishes, I'll see how Jianyu reacts then!" ”

Regarding the news from the city, most of the Qing generals, including Dolgon, felt that they were talking nonsense: "Fifty battalion soldiers? Forty thousand troops? The main force of the Jinhua thieves has already marched west with Liu Yongxi, a little thief, how could it be possible to send out 40,000 troops to help Xuzhou! If you can really mobilize an army of 40,000, I will give him the head! ”

Even Haoge, who has never dared to show his head these days, thinks this is nonsense: "Yes, the Ming Kingdom sent a maximum of 4,000 people to help Xuzhou, and I resolutely don't believe 40,000 people!" ”

Only Kong Youde was once a defeated general under Zhu Dadian, so he specially reminded him: "Although the strength that Jinhua thieves can loot is extremely limited, if it is really Zhu Dadian who led his troops to fight in person, there should still be thousands of people, and these are all real thieves!" ”

Dolgon has figured out the specific deployment of the Ming army in Jiangnan and Jiangbei during this time: "Before the Jinhua thieves marched westward, Zhou Zhisheng's Jingkou Town was indeed left for emergency use, but I personally asked the prisoners of the Ming Kingdom, and they all said that Jingkou Town only had ten battalions and 5,000 people, which was also the last field force that the Jinhua thieves could mobilize in Jiangbei!" ”

Speaking of this, he used a Han proverb: "But the Han people say that there is a reason for the trouble, I estimate that the reason why Zhang Boyi released such a rumor must be that Jingkou Town has been ordered to march north, but we can handle the ten battalions of the Ming army!" ”

After all, the Ming prisoners all said that Emperor Chengtian Liu Yongxi had served as the chief soldier of Jingkou Town at the beginning of his southern crossing, and now since the number of Jingkou Town was handed over to Zhou Zhisheng, the ten battalions of soldiers and horses, it shows that the Southern Dynasty has great hopes for Jingkou Town.

Although Zhang Boyi, who is now in front of him, claims to be more than 30 battalions of soldiers and horses, the actual core of combat power is only the 3rd Brigade and 15th Battalion, and if these 10 battalions of soldiers and horses suddenly enter the battlefield, it will definitely have a major impact on the Battle of Xuzhou.

Therefore, Dolgon knew that there would never be 40,000 soldiers of the 50th battalion of the Ming army in the direction of Fengyang, but he had already decided to send a horse team to find out, and Dai Shan, who was already disheartened, also reminded: "If it is 5,000 Ming officers and soldiers, it is not enough to be troubled, but 5,000 Jinhua thieves must not be underestimated, we must find out where the reinforcements of Jinhua thieves come from, otherwise we will definitely suffer a big loss!" ”

Duoduo was psychologically shadowed by the sudden attack of the Yue Ming army, so as soon as Dai Shanyi reminded him, he immediately added: "That's right, although it is impossible for the Jinhua thieves to have an army of 40,000 to rush to Xuzhou, but the five or six thousand Jinhua thieves should not be underestimated, and it is not a bad thing to send a few more light horsemen to find out the details of the Jinhua thieves!" ”

Although Dai Shan and Duoduo both suggested "sending a few more teams of light cavalry", but the actual implementation was not just as simple as sending a few teams of light cavalry, although it was believed that the Ming army could not actually loot many troops, but whether it was the direction of Fengyang or Huai'an, the Qing army sent a number of Niu Lu and battalion heads to be responsible for stopping the Ming army reinforcements.

According to the judgment of Dolgon and Dai Shan, although there are only ten battalions of five or six thousand soldiers and horses in Jingkou Town, the enemy must be lenient, so the Qing army is prepared according to the scale of the Ming army invested in fifteen battalions and eight thousand people, as long as the strength of the Ming army's reinforcements does not exceed eight thousand, the Qing army is responsible for blocking each Niulu and battalion head can ensure that nothing goes wrong.

Dolgon personally assured the princes and Baylor: "The main force of the Jinhua thieves should be trapped in Huguang, and now the soldiers of the Prince of Ying must have begun a full-scale southern expedition, coupled with the full strength of the Western thieves, it is impossible for the Jinhua thieves to get out of Huguang in two or three months, even if the Prince of Ying does not move, the Jinhua thieves will not have time to rescue Xuzhou." ”

And Duoduo finally breathed a sigh of relief, since Dolgon said that it was foolproof, it would naturally not be a big problem, but he still reminded Dorgon: "No matter what, please also ask the regent to control the elite soldiers in his hands at any time to deal with everything!" ”

And Dolgon also laughed: "This is definitely no problem, but I really don't believe that the Jinhua thief can conjure up an army of 40,000 by magic, if the Jinhua thief can really conjure an army of 40,000, I will directly admit defeat!" ”

It's just that since the Qing army attaches so much importance to the possible reinforcements of the Yue Ming army, the onslaught on Xuzhou City naturally slowed down slightly, taking advantage of this extremely precious time, Zhang Boyi continued to do everything possible to collect troops and all the resources used for combat, and took this opportunity to rebuild four or five battalions that had retreated and reorganized.

When the Qing army launched an offensive again, it noticed that the combat effectiveness of the Yue Ming army suddenly increased a lot, although it was only a quantitative change rather than a qualitative change, but no matter what method the Qing army used, there was no way to rush to the Xuzhou city wall, and the Xuzhou defenders once again stated that Zhu Dadian's 50 battalions and 40,000 troops would rush from Fengyang to support at any time, so that the Qing army could retreat quickly.

Although there were actually only Wang Puxiang's troops and a small number of state and county troops in the direction of Fengyang, the Qing army still unconsciously sent more horses and infantry to Fengyang as much as possible, but he did not know that a Ming army had advanced along the river on both sides of the canal.

According to the Xuzhou defenders, the reinforcements sent by the Ming army this time totaled 50 battalions and 40,000 people, while according to the direction of Nanjing, Zhang Boyi was cheered up by 30 battalions and 19,000 people, but the actual strength was not so exaggerated.

Although it was the Empress of Changping's personal conscription, and all the troops that could be requisitioned near Nanjing, plus all of Jingkou Town, the total strength of this support army was only 14,000 people in the 23rd Battalion of the Fourth Brigade.

But this is already the limit that the Chengtian Dynasty can mobilize in Jiangbei, if it were not for the Empress Changping's personal expedition, it would be impossible to mobilize such a field army, and the limit is only 8,000 people estimated by Dolgon.

However, the appeal of Empress Changping's personal expedition was amazing, so there was a scale of 14,000 people in the 23rd battalion of the 4th brigade, and when Zhang Huangyan passed through Yangzhou, hundreds of soldiers and horses left in Yangzhou and more than 1,000 volunteers were willing to follow Empress Changping's personal expedition, so the strength of this army expanded to 16,000 people.

Although almost half of the 16,000 recruits, volunteers, and state and county soldiers who were slightly weaker in combat were 16,000, the number of 16,000 alone was enough to inspire people.