After leaving Qiling Town, Lin Fan, who was anxious because of what happened to the people in the town, constantly ordered the whole army to speed up the march in order to reach the capital as soon as possible.

However, after the heavy snowfall, the roads were muddy and difficult to walk, which greatly delayed the marching speed of the army, even if Lin Fan kept urging, the battalions were marching almost day and night, but the staggering Huainan Provincial officers and soldiers still took two full days to slowly approach the city of Jingshi.

People outside the city know nothing about the current situation in the city, nor do they know what has happened in the city in the month since the siege of the city, nor do they know whether the situation in the city is still stable.

But even so, in Lin Fan's opinion, the Jingshi was well defended, there were no less than 100,000 defenders in the city, and the food, grass and ordnance were still sufficient.

Under the strict vigilance of the Beijing Division, the Manzhen army seems to know that it is difficult to capture the Beijing Division this time.

Therefore, in addition to besieging the Beijing division with a large army, they rarely made substantial sieges. More often than not, a large number of small rangers were sent out to scatter around in order to plunder the population and wealth.

In addition to killing and looting, the purpose of these rangers is to detect and monitor the movement of the Qinwang Yunjun in various places, and if there is an opportunity, they will directly defeat the Qinwang soldiers and horses of the Yunjun, so that they cannot rescue the Jingshi. Even if it can't be defeated, it is necessary to report the strength and movements of the cloud army to the king in time, so that the king can deal with it in time.

These Manchu armies wantonly slaughtered the people of Gyeonggi for the sake of the land of Gyeonggi, and the damage they caused to the land and people of Gyeonggi was a disaster that Gyeonggi had not encountered for hundreds of years.

It can be said that in the entire land of Gyeonggi, in addition to the people who fled into the capital and a few nearby scattered fortified cities in time, even among the people who survived without encountering the Manzhen army before, they could encounter or are being slaughtered by the Manzhen cavalry at any time.

The Manzhen army in the territory of Dayun is extremely ferocious, and the slaughter of the people of Qiling Town a few days ago, that is, the group of Manzhen cavalry that Lin Fan met and fought on the road, is one of them.

Since Manzhen broke through the barrier and entered the land of the Beijing Division, with the passage of time, officials from all over the world have also reacted and sent soldiers and horses to the Beijing Division to Qinwang.

Among them, the distance between Zhongyuan Road and Shandong Road is closer, and the mobilization of troops and horses is more convenient, so before Lin Fan and other Huainan Provincial officials and soldiers arrived, they had already rushed to Beijing.

The two official armies are now stationed thirty miles outside the city, camping to confront the Manchu army.

The rest of the soldiers and horses in the world, such as Longxi Road and other places, are still on the road due to the tense situation or the long distance, and the army of King Qin is still on the road and has not yet arrived.

As for where the soldiers and horses who were still on the road were going now, how long it would take to reach the battlefield, and whether any of the leading generals deliberately delayed their journeys because they had different intentions of fearing the battle and avoiding the enemy, Lin Fan did not know and could not explore. When he first arrived on the battlefield, he could only set his sights on the two armies of Shandong and the Central Plains.

Among the two soldiers and horses that had arrived, there were 6,000 people in the army of King Daoqin in Shandong, and nearly 5,000 people in the official army of King Daoqin in the Central Plains, with a total strength of more than 10,000 troops.

In order to deal with the possible attack and harassment of the Manchu army, the two sides joined forces to deal with the current battle situation together.

However, the Manzhen army was too powerful, and the two Qinwang soldiers and horses did not dare to take the initiative to engage the Manzhen army after camping, but chose to wait and see from afar to contain the Manzhen army's offensive on the capital, and there was no other action.

But the battle has dragged on until now, so that the foreign soldiers are under the city, the Beijing division has been besieged for more than a month, and the court has already lost face.

If we don't take the initiative to change the situation and expel the Manzhen people as soon as possible to end the war, what will the entire Dayun Imperial Court and the soldiers sitting here have to face the people of the world in the future.

After Lin Fan led the Huainan Provincial official army to arrive in Beijing, in order to discuss the next battle and action, he didn't care about stopping, so he led his generals to the camp to visit the generals of the two major armies in the army.

Ji Minglan, the chief general of the Central Plains Dao, and Zicheng, the chief general of the Shandong Provincial Army, heard that Lin Fan was visiting, so they dared to slack off and greeted them outside the camp.

Although Ji Minglan and Yu Zicheng are not of low grade, they are different from Lin Fan and Zhou Chang who are civilian officials and lead troops.

Therefore, after Lin Fan entered the camp, they did not dare to be above Lin Fan, and they had to invite him to sit on the main seat no matter what.

Lin Fan couldn't refuse, and in the end he could only reluctantly sit on the main seat, and after he sat down, the others dared to sit down.

Everyone settled down, Lin Fan was no longer polite, he arched his hand to the two of them and said: "Two generals, I am new to the city, and I am not very clear about many things. ”

"And the two generals arrived a little earlier than us, and now what the situation inside and outside the capital is, the two must know better than us. I also hope that the two generals will give us advice and explain to us, so that we can have a rough idea of the current situation and not make mistakes. ”

Among the two, Ji Minglan, the leading general of the Central Plains Dao, was Zhou Chang's confidant, and at this time, he had also received a letter from Zhou Chang in advance, asking him to assist Lin Fan in this battle.

In the letter, Zhou Chang asked him to discuss with Lin Fan more in case of trouble, if there are no special circumstances, he should try to focus on Lin Fan in everything, cooperate with Lin Fan to do things, and not embarrass him for no reason.

Ji Minglan didn't dare not listen to the words of his own minister, so he took the lead in replying: "It should be so!" Everyone is leading the troops here for the sake of the imperial court, and we should introduce the current situation to Lord Lin and you in detail, and we will not hide anything. ”

Yu Zicheng also said: "General Ji is right, we are all here to solve the crisis in the capital, sincere unity, watch and mutual assistance are the proper meaning, how can there be a reason to hide it, so Lord Lin doesn't have to be so polite!" ”

Lin Fan thanked: "Since this is the case, then I would like to thank the two generals here!" ”

Ji Minglan first thought back to the various news he had obtained in the recent past, and then took a deep breath to sort out his thoughts.

After roughly finishing the draft in his heart, he slowly spoke: "The Manzhen Tartars have camped outside the capital, and the siege has been under siege for a month now. Our army has been confronting them for several days, but the situation is not very tense, although the people of the capital division are trapped in the city and cannot enter or leave, but the capital is not in danger of falling for the time being! ”

"In fact, in the first few days of the siege, the Manzhen army also tried to attack the city, but they attacked the city several times without success, but the damage was not small."

Therefore, after that, the Manzhen army had a long memory, and it was always besieged but not attacked. They were more likely to raid in small groups of horsemen to gather money and food than to capture cities. The Manchu army did not attack the large cities in the land of Gyeonggi, such as Jizhou and Yizhou, and often bypassed these cities and ravaged the counties and towns below. ”

"Now, with the arrival of soldiers and horses from all over the country, the most dangerous time has passed for the capital, and the crisis in the capital is solvable."

"According to our calculations, if the Manzhen army doesn't want to be intercepted by the imperial court officials and soldiers, then the Manzhen army will withdraw and return to the north, maybe in the next few days!"

"It's just that I pity the people of Gyeonggi, who have been plagued by the Manzhen Tartars for a period of time, many towns have been killed and looted, and the victims are only afraid of tens of thousands, and more people have to flee their hometowns in order to take refuge."

Hearing this, Lin Fan also sighed: "Yes, along the way, just what I have seen with my own eyes, the tragic situation of the people is already indescribable. And what I have not seen will surely be more. The suffering of the people can be seen! ”

Seeing that the atmosphere in the tent was getting more and more dull, Lin Fan asked again: "How is the situation on the side of the Liaodong border army?" ”

Ji Minglan shook his head and said, "We have sent several scouts to investigate the news before, and we want to get in touch with the Liaodong Border Army. But most of them didn't make it back, and the rest, although they survived, made little progress. Although the Liaodong Frontier Army also sent scouts and messengers to our side, the Manzhen army was too fierce and set up layers of interceptions, and there were very few who could break through and intercept us, so the contact between the two armies was really limited, and it was difficult for us to obtain too much information. ”

"So at the moment, we only know that the Liaodong Border Army is camped dozens of miles away in the north, and we don't know the specific situation!"

Lin Fan was puzzled: "Didn't the Liaodong Army go to war with the Manzhen army?"

”

His question made Ji Minglan, Yu Zicheng and the others a little embarrassed, after all, they had been closed without a fight since they arrived. Although Lin Fan was asking the Liaodong Border Army, in their opinion, he was also asking them.

It took a long time for Ji Minglan to recover from his embarrassment, and he said, "As far as I know, no!" ”

He didn't shy away from the fact that he avoided a fight, anyway, this is something that everyone knows, and there is no need to hide it here.

What's the point of lying to yourself here? It's just a shame.

Ji Minglan said directly: "The Liaodong Border Army, like us, did not take the initiative to fight against the Manzhen army, and was more focused on containment. ”

"At least I haven't heard of any major battles between the Liaodong Frontier Army and the Manchu Zhen Army, and our army has never received any news from them asking us to cooperate in the battle. And as for whether they have ever had a small-scale contact war or something, then I don't know! ”

These words made Lin Fan frown secretly: "It shouldn't be!" The Liaodong border army followed the Manzhen army all the way, and arrived earlier than the soldiers and horses of the King of Qin. It stands to reason that there should be a chance to fight against the Manzhen army, and even stop them before the Manzhen army besieges the Jingshi, and keep the enemy out of the Jingshi. But why is there no movement? ”

"Even if the Manzhen army is too strong and the Liaodong border army can't stop it, it shouldn't be a battle and put people under the Jingshi City, it's too risky!"

"The capital is such an important place, in case there is a change in the capital division, and at that time, the situation will be unpredictable!"

However, it is useless to say these words here, Lin Fan can only bury them in his heart and leave him alone for the time being.

Lin Fan hid the worry in his heart, and then asked, "Two generals, according to what you can see, how is the combat strength of the Manzhen army?" ”

Ji Minglan said bitterly: "The Manzhen army is extremely powerful, although we have not fought a big battle since we set up camp here, the scout rangers sent out have also encountered them a few times. ”

"In several battles, our army failed to take any advantage, but lost its troops, and many brothers did not come back alive."

"The scouts are all elite in the army, they are still invincible, if they are ordinary soldiers, I am afraid that the scene will be even more ugly."

Listening to what Ji Minglan said, Lin Fan felt the same way: "What General Ji said is extremely true, our army also fought with a team of Manzhen cavalry two days ago, and it also suffered a lot of losses. ”

"The Manzhen cavalry was only a few dozen in number, but it was repulsed by our army after killing and wounding nearly 100 of our army, and it could not completely annihilate the enemy, most of the Manzhen cavalry still retreated unharmed."

"The Manzhen army is terrifying, and with the same strength, I think that although I can't say that I have no chance of winning, it is also difficult to compete with it!"

Ji Minglan said with a smile: "Lord Lin doesn't have to worry too much about this matter, the Manzhen cavalry is invincible in the world, and it can often be defeated by outnumbering the crowd and fighting." ”

"There are many officials and soldiers in the court who have been defeated or even defeated by the Manzhen cavalry whose number is far lower than their own, and it is not easy for the adults to be able to stabilize their positions, not to be taken advantage of by the Manzhen cavalry, and finally to repel the enemy army!"

Regarding Ji Minglan's words, Yu Zicheng also kept nodding in agreement, which showed that their fear of the Manzhen army was already rooted in their hearts.

Even Lin Fan, with thousands of people, was able to repel dozens of Manzhen cavalry with several times the casualties, and this kind of record was actually regarded as good by them.

It's just that Lin Fan hasn't reached the point where he wants to compare with others, and Lin Fan is not happy about the so-called praise of the two, he only feels sarcastic.

"You don't have to talk about the past, it's what you need to do next," he said. ”

Speaking of this, Lin Fan's words suddenly changed: "Two generals, if I plan to take the initiative to fight against the Manzhen army, what do you two think?" ”

His words surprised all the generals of the two realms present except for the Huainan Dao people, and they even wondered if they had heard it wrong, or if they had misunderstood what Lin Fan meant.

Ji Minglan was also incredulous, he stammered and asked, "Big... My lord... Do you want to take the initiative and fight a decisive battle with Manzhen? ”