Receiving Dorgon's order, Duoduo immediately led his army back to Xi'an, and led most of the main forces of the Manchu, Mongolian and Han banner armies north to Beijing to stand by.

At the same time, the news of Li Zicheng's failure to enter Henan and his unknown life and death spread all over the world, and the officials of Nanjing City were excited. Since Li Zicheng occupied the city of Beijing, the Ming Dynasty officials were not only afraid of the Manchus, but also afraid of Li Zicheng, especially Li Zicheng's forced death of the emperor, has always been a knot in the hearts of the officials, the officials resented Li Zicheng more than the Manchus, and now Li Zicheng has fallen into such a situation, almost revenge, how can the officials not be excited.

Some officials even wrote to Zhu Cihong to hold a state banquet to celebrate.

"A couple of dog things, brains are wasted!" Zhu Cihong slammed the few books that said that he would hold a state banquet to celebrate Li Zicheng's defeat and scolded him.

"Don't say that Li Zicheng is dead or not, I don't know, even if Li Zicheng is really destroyed by the Manchu Qing, what is there to celebrate, the Manchu Qing is the enemy of my Ming Dynasty, and it is the real confidant! All of them are full of rats! None of them see current events clearly! ”

Zhu Cihong was disappointed, most of the officials in the imperial court were people who sang praises of virtue, except for one Liu Zongzhou who dared to clearly conclude that the next target of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was the Ming Dynasty, the rest of the people were like Qian Qianyi, Huang Daozhou and some other people, even if they had the same idea as Liu Zongzhou, but they were all fragmented in the performance, and they didn't even have the courage to speak clearly, the Ming Dynasty was full of such officials, which was what Zhu Cihong was most angry about.

"Your Majesty, Li Yan, the squire of the military department, and the red lady of General Zhaoyi ask to see Your Majesty!"

"Xuan!"

Soon, Li Yan and a red lady in a fiery red uniform walked into the main hall.

"See the emperor, long live my emperor, long live long live!" The two of them paid homage.

"Flat!" Zhu Cihong's right hand was raised.

After the two stood up, Li Yan took the lead and said: "Your Majesty, the minister heard that the Qing army's chief general Duoduo received an order from Dolgon a few days ago, and only Wu Sangui's Guanning army and tens of thousands of Han banner troops were left in Henan, and most of the rest of the main forces were ready to withdraw to Beijing City. ”

Jin Yiwei's secret report has been transmitted to the capital for an hour, and Li Yan has Zhu Cihong's permission to know the content of the secret report as soon as possible together with the six cabinet books.

Zhu Cihong nodded, he was very satisfied with Li Yan in his heart, just because Li Yan could take the initiative to enter the palace to discuss with him at the first time, he was better than Ma Shiying and the other six Shangshu.

"Aiqing has any suggestions, but it doesn't hurt to say it!" Zhu Cihong said.

"Emperor Qi, the Qing army has been fighting for more than half a year since entering the customs last year, the soldiers are tired, according to the minister's speculation, the reason why the main force of the Qing army is so anxious to retreat north, must be that Dolgon wants to use troops against my Ming in the near future, this time will not be too long, when it is about three months, this time is just enough for the Qing army to rest and recuperate, and I am afraid that at least hundreds of thousands of Qing troops will attack my Ming Dynasty in the south, and the emperor has to defend, Shandong, Jianghuai and Huai both need to send heavy troops to guard it."

"Your Majesty, this is a defense map drafted by Weichen, which can be deployed in Shandong and Jianghuai." Li Yan took out a fold from his cuffs, and when even a eunuch went down to take it, he presented it to Zhu Cihong for a look.

Zhu Cihong opened it, read it carefully, and the more he looked down, the more happy his face appeared. If the Qing army really has hundreds of thousands of troops going south in the future, it will take at least two or three months to break through so many layers of defense, and it will be even more difficult to break through the defense of the Yangtze River.

"Hehe, yes, Aiqing is talented, if you follow what Aiqing said, I should be worry-free!" Zhu Cihong laughed.

Although Zhu Cihong did not plan to deal with the southward movement of the Manchus with a defensive posture in the future, but took the initiative to attack a decisive battle, Li Yan did not know Zhu Cihong's plan, and being able to come up with this defense map in such a short period of time at least proved that Li Yan was really very talented, and sought truth from facts, did not exaggerate, did not fool, and Zhu Cihong did not hesitate to praise.

"Just do what Aiqing said!" Zhu Cihong said with a smile.

Jianghuai is rich, second only to Jiangnan, although Zhu Cihong will not take defense at the expense of Jianghuai in the future, and intends to take the initiative to attack and fight a decisive battle with the Qing army, but he will not be careless, anyway, the imperial court raises so many soldiers and horses, and it is idle to be idle, and it is good to be able to mobilize Shandong and Jianghuai to deploy defense.

"Emperor Xie!"

Li Yan immediately discussed the details with Zhu Cihong.

According to Li Yan's defense map, the imperial court needed about 220,000 soldiers and horses to complete the deployment.

Today's Ming Dynasty, counting 120,000 Yinglong troops, as well as garrisons in various places, there are about 600,000 troops in the country, in addition to the soldiers and horses in Sichuan and Guizhou and Hubei can not be used, the Ming Dynasty can also draw about 400,000 troops.

Jianghuai itself has 130,000 soldiers and horses in four towns, although 50,000 have been transferred to Shandong and Ji Feng's Yinglong Army First Army to confront the Qing army in Jinan City on the line between Tai'an and Laiwu, but Li Yan's defense map originally counted the first line of Tai'an and Laiwu, that is to say, Shandong and Huai'an already have 170,000 soldiers and horses, and only another 50,000 need to be transferred.

After discussion, Zhu Cihong transferred 30,000 from Jiangxi and 20,000 from Suzhou, a total of 50,000 soldiers and horses to the north of Jianghuai.

"General Zhaoyi and Li Aiqing came together, is there anything else?" After discussing the matter of arming, Zhu Cihong looked at the red lady and asked.

"Yes, Your Majesty!" The red lady smiled.

"Now the main force of the Qing army has withdrawn from Henan, most of Henan is still in the hands of the righteous Liukou, the last general had fought in Henan for several years, some foundations, and many Liukou generals have friendships, but they can be persuaded to get lost and return, for the emperor's use!" The red lady said.

Zhu Cihong's heart moved, and he was immediately interested, but Zhu Cihong did not agree immediately, but asked: "General Zhaoyi, can you know that Li Zicheng is not necessarily dead, if you meet Li Zicheng, what should General Zhaoyi do?" ”

The red lady was silent for a moment and said: "Li Zicheng once insulted me, my kindness with him has long been broken, and I will not have any worries!" ”

"I believe in General Zhaoyi, I'm right! I hereby promise General Zhaoyi that as long as I accept the persuasion of General Zhaoyi to surrender, I will not be responsible for what I have done in the past. Zhu Cihong gave the Red Lady a promise, after all, those rogues were also the people of the Ming Dynasty, and Zhu Cihong did not plan to kill them all.

"Thank you for your grace!" The red lady bowed on one knee and thanked her.

Red Lady belongs to the Red Battalion 10,000 horses are now resting in Luzhou, the Red Lady said goodbye to Li Yan on the same day to go to Luzhou, a few days later, led the Red Battalion soldiers and horses out of Luzhou, through Liu'an, into Henan, soon recruited Shen County, Zhengyang, Xinyang and other counties of more than a dozen counties of Liukou, recovered nearly one-fifth of Henan's land, approached Yicheng and Runan and other places.

At the same time, the news that Li Zicheng was not dead finally came out.

On the twelfth day of the first year of Zhongxing in the Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng led more than 30,000 soldiers and horses out of the mountains and successfully broke into Nanyang City. The 30,000 Han banner troops transferred to Wu Sangui by Duoduo also arrived at Nanyang City on the same day, and Wu Sangui and Li Zicheng fought in Nanyang.

Wu Sangui had a slight upper hand, but Li Zicheng relied on Nanyang City, and no one could help anyone.

Li Zicheng began to gather the soldiers and horses of the Dashun army in Henan, and Wu Sangui also temporarily gave up fighting with Li Zicheng in Nanyang, and led more than 50,000 soldiers and horses, including the Guanning army, to seize the city of Henan.

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