In the third year of Dashun Yongchang, in the middle of summer, Gangneung City.

The summer cicadas were buzzing and chirping, and it seemed that there was no time to stop, and the noisy kings and ministers in the main hall of the Jiangling Palace were upset one by one.

It is said to be a large hall, but it is not big at all, but it is the most decent palace left after two catastrophes in this palace. But after squeezing in so many people, it doesn't seem spacious at all. And now the weather is hot, although a few pots of ice cubes are placed in the four corners of the main hall, but it still can't reduce the heat in it. The big men of the blue cloth and black yarn stood there, looking at Li Zicheng, who had not spread his thick eyebrows since returning from Huya Mountain, and they didn't dare to gasp.

The people who were called to pay homage today are all old people in the old camp, and even Huang Shu, who was very favored a while ago, is not among them - if Zuo Liangyu and Zuo Mengeng are regarded as independent forces, Huang Shu is also a third minister!

And he also killed the previous boss Zuo Mengeng's family....... How superstitious is Li Zicheng, an emperor? How can you really trust this "obstructive" Huang Shangshu?

So not long ago, Li Zicheng gave Huang Shu a heavy responsibility, and followed Yan Xi, the right minister of the Great Western Kingdom (a kingdom) who came to Jiangling to ask for help, and ordered him to enter Sichuan to meet Zhang Xianzhong - Zhang Xianzhong is much more difficult to serve than Li Zicheng. Li Zicheng is also quite murderous, but he is still reasonable, and he will not kill people for no reason.

And Zhang Xianzhong doesn't need a reason to kill, he can kill when he thinks of killing, no matter who you are?

Therefore, no one who has been working under Li Zicheng for a long time is willing to go to Sichuan to see Zhang Xianzhong, and Huang Shu is a newcomer, so he doesn't know how powerful, so he went. Whether you can live or not depends on creation!

However, even if Huang Shu didn't go to Sichuan, he wouldn't be qualified to appear in this stuffy hall today.

Because what we are going to discuss today is that it must be non-proliferation!

Li Zicheng held two copies of the report in his hand, one jointly signed by Yuan Zongdi and Bai Wang, reporting the new trends of the class struggle in Xiangjing and Nanyang...... The people there have forgotten the great kindness of the emperor Li Zicheng, and they have all been bewitched by Zhu Cihong and Zhu Yujian to become enemies of Dashun.

Although Nanyang Mansion City and Xiangjing Mansion City are temporarily unhindered, they are not guaranteed elsewhere!

And Yuan Zongdi and Bai Wang felt sorry for the families of the old battalion soldiers, and didn't want them to become the objects of revenge of the peasants in Xiangjing and Nanyang, so they concentrated them in Xiangjing City as much as possible.

And in this way, it further added to the collapse of the rule of the Great Shun Dynasty in the rural areas of the two provinces!

However, the bad news from Xiangjing and Nanyang was not the most annoying to Li Zicheng. Anyone who knows a little about military affairs knows that Xiangjing is a fortified city made of iron and copper, and it will not fall so quickly.

As long as Xiangjing is not lost, Dashun's situation in the north of Huguang can barely be maintained.

Moreover, the road from Xiangjing to Yunyang and Hanzhong along the Han River was not so easy to cut off, so even if the battle situation was unfavorable, Li Zicheng's troops, supplies, and family members of the old battalion in Xiangjing could retreat along the waterway.

However, Liu Fangliang's recital from Hanyang Mansion made Li Zicheng feel very disappointed - the town of Hankou, which was firmly guarded by Yuan Gongdi and Guishan Fort, fell after less than 15 days after the Ming army attacked.

And...... The fifteen-day battle of the city was not fierce at all, and the Ming army only made one charge in total - that is, the charge that broke through the Yuangong Embankment from the fifteenth day after the battle began.

Before that, the Ming army was digging trenches and arranging a huge cannon that could throw explosive shells, and then carried out endless artillery bombardment......

Although Yuan Gongdi can withstand the solid bullets that shoot directly, he can't stop the flowering bullets falling along the parabola from the air!

The falling bullets caused heavy casualties and demoralization among the officers and men of Dashun guarding the Yuangong Causeway—they had never seen such a weapon, and they could not imagine that the enemy had so much gunpowder that it seemed that it would never run out.

So when the Ming army attacked, the defenders of Dashun there had already broken down and were powerless to resist.

And the loss of Hankou Town also put the Guishan Fort within the fire coverage of this terrible "projectile artillery"! Because Guishan is less than two miles away from the embankment on the north bank of the Han River, a twenty-pounder mortar can be reached.

The Shunjun Hongyi cannons (only four) and general cannons (there are dozens) deployed on Guishan Mountain cannons are simply out of reach of the cleverly arranged Ming army mortars because there are too many shooting dead ends.

Once the Guishan Fort was completely suppressed, the Ming army's Yangtze River naval division would be able to pass through the blockade line and enter the waters of the Jingjiang River......

"Emperor, Zhu Cihong is too deceitful...... How many people did he come to Huguang? How dare you march into the army in three ways and fight with you? Look at him, he's looking for death! ”

It was General Liu Zongmin who spoke, he was really angry with Zhu Cihong's behavior of "taking the script indiscriminately", and he couldn't wait to lead his troops to kill Zhu Cihong immediately.

"He's looking for death?" Li Zicheng looked at Liu Zongmin's roughness, "Do you have a way?" ”

"This ......," Liu Zongmin said, "What's the way?" I only know that there are no fewer people in Huguang than those surnamed Zhu! Moreover, the men and horses can still be concentrated in one place, but Zhu Cihong must divide the troops. ”

Li Zicheng nodded, this rough man will still fight.

He looked at Tian Jianxiu again: "Yufeng, you say." ”

Tian Jianxiu said: "Emperor, what Jie Xuan said is right, don't care how many ways he comes, just kill all the way!" ”

"Which way to kill?" Li Zicheng asked again.

"Kill Xiangjing, Nanyang!" Tian Jianxiu said loudly, "Damn dare to rob Lao Tzu's land, don't let them know that it is powerful, and the surname Tian will be written upside down in the future!" ”

"Tian is still thinking of Tian upside down!" Li Zicheng reminded, and the hall was full of laughter.

Gu Junen looked solemn: "I can't go back to Xiangjing and Nanyang." It was the land of the four wars, caught between the Tartars and the thieves. Even if they can repel the Zhu thief, what if the Tartars follow closely and kill them? And this man's heart ......"

Li Zicheng nodded, silent.

Gu Junen continued: "And after returning to Xiangjing and Nanyang, how can you enter Sichuan?" If you don't enter Sichuan, how can the trend of three parts of the world be formed? Emperor, the old brothers have been fighting with you for so many years, but you can't end up without a fate! ”

Li Zicheng's eyebrows were tangled: "That's right...... I can't be sorry for the old brothers! ”

It's already a bit frustrating to say this, but one party leader in troubled times always has to make all kinds of plans.

Gu Junen said: "You can enter Sichuan by retreating...... You have to fight with the Zhu thief in Jingzhou and Yuezhou! He pondered, "And we can't delay, we must fight a decisive battle before the Guishan Fort is defeated by the Zhu thief!" ”

Li Zicheng's brows furrowed tightly, and he said to himself: "The Zhu thief can't be moved in the camp in Jiangnan...... The bridgehead in Jiangbei also looks very strong, small and hard, and it is very difficult to fight! ”

Siege is not the work that the Dashun army is good at, and at the same time, building and defending the city is the specialty of the new army to overcome difficulties - there is a special "city building department" in the Nanjing Lecture Hall, which is to teach how to repair the fortress.

Although it is also a class, the knowledge learned is enough to deal with Li Zicheng's Dashun army.

Therefore, Li Zicheng did not expect his army to storm and seize the bridgehead of the pontoon bridge south of Jiangling City.

"Emperor," Gu Junen pondered, "the minister knows that there is a stone mountain outside Shixian County, which is close to the Yangtze River in the northwest and is about fifty zhang high, and if a cannon is deployed on it, the river can be blocked. ”

Gu Junen is a native of Zhongxiang County, Chengtianfu, Huguang, born in a landlord family, and an intellectual who has been a talented scholar.

"Want to cross the river?" Li Zicheng is still a little worried.

Gu Junen shook his head and said, "The stone mountain doesn't occupy a lot of land, so it can't put a big soldier...... We can first show its prestige to attract the Ming army to the east, and then guard the mountain with elite soldiers and set up suspicious troops in the north of the river. Then the main force crossed the Yangtze River to the north and marched westward to see if it could break the Hukoudu camp and the Jiangbei bridgehead.

If it can be successful, then the entire territory of Jingzhou Mansion and Shizhou Wei can be taken by the emperor, and the road to Sichuan will be smooth. ”