Although they are only small courts, in the past, the small court of the Yue Ming Dynasty and the Longwu Dynasty were always at a disadvantage when they fought for orthodoxy, and everyone especially liked to ridicule the small court of the Yue Ming Dynasty, which was only one province in Zhejiang, but regarded the Longwu court, which was also only one province in Fujian, as orthodox.

However, after taking Fujian and Jiangxi provinces, everyone thought that the Chengtian Dynasty occupying the southeast was the real orthodoxy, not only the northern rebels came to contact, but even the officials of Liangguang and Yungui believed that the Chengtian Dynasty was the orthodoxy of the Ming Dynasty.

In fact, what everyone cares about is not the "orthodoxy of the Ming Dynasty", but the question of whether the mountains and rivers of the Han family can survive, so even the backbone of Donglin like Jiang Yueguang now fully supports the Zhongxing cause of the Chengtian Dynasty.

Therefore, after taking the whole province of Jiangxi, the Yue Ming army not only did not have any losses, but became very powerful because of the addition of Jin Shengheng, Wang Deren's troops and other local forces in Jiangxi, and everyone hoped that this time the march into Huguang would be a complete victory.

It's just that it's not all good news, now Zhang Boyi of Huzhou and Wang Zhiren of Huai'an have reported an emergency, that is, after the brothers Zhang Tianlu and Zhang Tianfu of Haizhou surrendered to the Qing Dynasty again, the Qing army has sent a fairly powerful force south to meet the Zhang brothers, and it has been impossible to solve Haizhou in a short time.

And according to Zhang Boyi's report, the Qing army is likely to launch a large-scale offensive against Xuzhou in the near future.

However, the reason why Liu Yongxi chose to let Zhang Boyi sit in Xuzhou was because Zhang Boyi was trustworthy, and in the report, Zhang Boyi neither asked for reinforcements nor other support, but only described the specific movements of the Qing army and the mobilization potential of the Ming army in Jiangbei very objectively.

But Liu Yongxi still saw more details from the report, he knew very well that Zhang Boyi would definitely be able to maintain the situation in Jiangbei alone in the short term, but if the Qing army was indeed ready to launch a retaliatory large-scale offensive against Xuzhou, Liu Yongxi felt that the scale of this offensive would not be inferior to Duoduo's southern expedition, and he must end the Huguang campaign in the shortest possible time, after all, he had already wasted a lot of time under the city of Nanchang.

And Mrs. Xing also saw Zhang Boyi's report, although she has always recommended Chen Yuan, who belongs to Gao Jie's old department, as a candidate for the general in Xuzhou, but he also has to admit that Zhang Boyi is more general-oriented, and Liu Yongxi asked him to guard Xuzhou is definitely the best choice, so she said softly: "Jiangbei military affairs are entrusted to Admiral Zhang, let's still focus on how to meet with Empress Fengtian as soon as possible!"

It's just that when it comes to "Empress Fengtian", Mrs. Xing has a sour feeling.

Empress Yingtian is the queen of the first dynasty, and Empress Shuntian is the princess of the first emperor, everyone has no objection to these two queens, but she and Empress Gao were both Li Zicheng's wives, and now they are also attributed to Liu Yongxi, the emperor of Chengtian.

But she has paid so much for Liu Yongxi, and Empress Gao has not even met Emperor Chengtian until now, why did Empress Gao later come to the top and have the honorific title of "Empress Fengtian of the Ming Dynasty", and she has no name until now.

Liu Yongxi immediately noticed all kinds of grievances in Mrs. Xing's heart: "Sister Xing, after learning from Sister Gao, you must have the bearing of a queen as a big sister after you learn from Sister Gao!"

Hearing Liu Yongxi say this, Mrs. Xing suddenly became happy, because she knew that Liu Yongxi had always been good at talking: "I didn't say anything, I just felt that I could entrust the military affairs of Jiangbei to Admiral Zhang." ”

Although Liu Yongxi and Mrs. Xing pinned all their expectations on Zhang Boyi, Zhang Boyi felt a lot of pressure.

Although his performance in the Battle of Huzhou was particularly outstanding, he was the first time he served as the commander of the theater, and the status of the armies commanded by Wang Zhiren, Zhou Zhisheng, and Wang Puxiang was not much inferior to himself.

And the more important problem is that although he only said that the Qing army would launch a large-scale offensive against Xuzhou, according to his judgment, the offensive launched by the Qing army must exhaust the strength of the whole country, after all, this may be the last chance for the Qing army.

If the Qing army can't take Xuzhou and occupy the advantage in this offensive, I'm afraid there will be no chance in the future, but because he understands this, Zhang Boyi's expression is very serious: "It seems that Li Yuchun's problem must be solved as soon as possible!"

Wang Zhiren, the governor of Huai'an, opposite him, was under even greater pressure, after all, the territory of the Zhang brothers was within his jurisdiction, and although the Qing army now heading south was dominated by the Han army, there were at least forty or fifty battalion leaders and Niu Lu, and after joining with the Zhang brothers, Muyang County had been taken away from Wang Zhiren.

Although a Muyang County is nothing, Wang Zhiren feels ashamed and indignant: "That's right, if we don't solve Li Yuchun in Sizhou, I'm afraid we will be tied up in everything we do next, Zhang Tianlu and Zhang Tianfu are really hateful!"

According to Zhang Boyi and Wang Zhiren's plan, Li Yuchun in Sizhou first will play a role in knocking on the mountain and shaking the tiger, killing the chicken to show the monkey, and even have the effect of luring the snake out of the hole, but no one expected that the Jiangbei Ming army had just begun to act, Zhang Tianlu and Zhang Tianfu brothers would resolutely surrender to the Qing Dynasty, and the Qing court sent a large army to support the Zhang brothers as soon as possible.

The result is the current situation of sandwiching raw rice, but Zhang Boyi made up his mind instead: "No matter how Jianyu reacts, he must pull out the nail of Li Yuchun!"

And now Zhang Tianlu was triumphant, and he said to Zuo Mengeng: "As soon as I heard that Zuo Shuai went south this time, I knew that the north of the river would belong to my Great Qing Kingdom!"

Zuo Mengeng did not have such confidence as Zhang Tianlu, after all, although he was the nominal commander of Haizhou this time, whether it was Dong Yuan or Geng Jimao, he was more trusted by the princes of the Great Qing Kingdom.

As soon as he heard that Zhang Tianlu and Zhang Tianfu were in Haizhou, the Qing court immediately sent Zuo Mengeng, Dong Yuan and Geng Jimao to lead the army south, and in order to rescue Zhang Tianlu's five or six thousand soldiers and horses, tens of thousands of Han troops and eight banners were mobilized.

But Zuo Mengeng is a very cowardly commander, otherwise he would not have led an army of 80,000 in Jiujiang to surrender to the Qing Dynasty, he could only reply to Zhang Tianlu: "This is all the credit of the regent, several princes, and Baylor!"

It's just that as soon as Zuo Mengeng spoke, Dong Yuan, as his deputy, unceremoniously expressed his opinion: "Although the regent uses soldiers like a god, how can I forget the merits of Emperor Shunzhi in this matter!"

Although Emperor Shunzhi is still only an eight-year-old child, Dong Yuan's other identity is Tong Yangjia, so he is keenly aware that due to the defeat of the Southern Expedition, many Manchurian nobles are very dissatisfied with the regent Dorgon, and they pin their expectations on the little emperor who is not yet able to govern himself.

And Zuo Mengeng didn't dare to answer, after all, he only surrendered to Jiujiang in May last year, and he was still an outsider to the Manchurian nobles, but Geng Jimao, an old man from Liaodong, generously took over the topic: "This southern expedition does have the dispatch of the Queen Mother and His Majesty, but General Zhang Tianlu's first righteousness must not be forgotten!"

Zhang Tianlu was naturally full of joy when he heard this, he was originally worried that the Great Qing State would send a Manchurian Beyler or a Mongolian prince over, and he would not be able to communicate at that time.

But now it is easy to do it with the Eight Banners of the Han Army, and the combination of Zuo Mengeng plus Dong Yuan and Geng Jimao also makes him full of joy, he has made up his mind to join forces with Dong Yuan and Geng Jimao to completely empty Zuo Mengeng, the commander who is not valued by the Qing Dynasty: "King Huaishun said it too politely, in fact, the real merit of the first righteousness is not my Zhang Mou, but the general Li Yuchun of Sizhou, our primary problem at the moment is how to support General Li Bing!"

Now even Dong Yuan and Geng Jimao feel that Zhang Tianlu is going crazy, Sizhou is already the depth of the Ming army's defense line in Jiangbei, and although Li Yuchun's three or four thousand remnants of the defeated army can be maintained for the time being under the siege of the Ming army, it is a matter of time before they are lost, but this situation to rescue Sizhou is simply a fool's dream.

But Dong Yuan has been lurking in Zuo Liangyu's army for more than ten years, and he can be said to be a real old fox, and he quickly guessed that Zhang Tianlu had a plan: "How is General Zhang going to rescue Sizhou?" ”

Zhang Tianlu gave his answer without hesitation: "The Jinhua thieves have arranged tens of thousands of troops on the four roads in Jianghuai, and if they want to rescue Sizhou, they will naturally ask His Royal Highness the regent to personally lead the army to drive in!"

Now even Zuo Mengeng understood that Zhang Tianlu was preparing to cause an unprecedented war between the Chengtian Dynasty and the Great Qing Kingdom, but these generals who commanded the Eight Banners of the Han Army did not think that this was an extremely crazy idea, on the contrary, they all thought that this idea was wonderful.

Although the troops of Zuo Menggeng, Dong Yuan, Geng Jimao and Zhang Tianlu can be called a strong force, the total number of soldiers and horses on the four routes is less than 20,000, and they are simply unable to compete with the elite of the four routes arranged by the Yue Ming army in the Jianghuai defense line.

Even if Li Yuchun led thousands of people to contain the Ming army in Sizhou, the situation would definitely be extremely unfavorable to the Qing army in Haizhou if they held each other for a long time, and these Qing troops did not want to become cannon fodder for the Qing Dynasty, so they had been holding their troops after capturing Muyang County.

But after the Ming army solved Li Yuchun, it was impossible for them not to become cannon fodder, so the plan proposed by Zhang Tianlu was the only feasible plan at the moment, and Dong Yuan was the first to agree: "That's right, as long as the regent army personally leads the army to drive straight in, Xuzhou will be just around the corner!"

"Don't talk about Xuzhou, even Fengyang and Huai'an can be taken down!"

"Maybe Nanjing can be defeated, it depends on whether the regent is willing to seize Xuzhou in person!"

"The key to the victory or defeat of the Battle of Jiangbei is whether the regent can drive the expedition in person!"

Although the generals of the Eight Banners of the Han Army present had different backgrounds and had their own interests, they reached an agreement on this issue at the first time, and they were already determined to drag the regent Dolgon down, even if Dolgon could not conquer Xuzhou in person, they would let Duoduo, Haoge and Daishan conquer Xuzhou together.

Only by fighting such a nationwide battle can they, the generals of the Han army, fish in troubled waters and maximize their personal and group interests in the troubled times.