Turn your gaze back to Yanjing from before. When Taiyuan was lost and the news of Zhou Yuji's death festival reached Jingshi, Emperor Chongzhen felt that the knife on his neck was closer. The thought of 'moving south' arose in my heart again.

At this time, Li Banghua made a secret fold, begging Emperor Chongzhen to stick to the Jingshi, and at the same time imitate the old practice in the Yongle period, and let the prince go to the southern capital to supervise the country. After a few days without a reply, Li Banghua asked to divide King Ding and King Yong to the two mansions of Taiping and Ningguo (Hangzhou and Guangzhou), and let them protect the two capitals.

At that time, Emperor Chongzhen was angry and annoyed, because he thought in his heart that he and the princes and kings were going south, even if one of the two had to stay in Beijing, it would be to leave the prince in the northern capital, and he would lead the court to move south to Jinling, and now Li Banghua's proposal is just the opposite, which is tantamount to making him self-sacrificed.

Immediately said indignantly: "I have been running the world for more than ten years and still can't make money, what have my brothers and children done?" ”

But Emperor Chongzhen's side has long been infiltrated into a sieve, and Li Banghua's twists and turns can't keep it secret at all, so this strategy has won the approval of many officials, such as Zhou Yanru, as well as Chen Yan, Wei Zaode, Jiang Dejing, etc.

Such a force should be said to be very strong, even if many northern officials come up with the excuse of "abandoning the country and abandoning the north", it will not be able to form an overwhelming advantage.

But Emperor Chongzhen was very dissatisfied, so he gave the officials in the middle and lower ranks a chance to speak, or the military department gave Guang Shiheng in the matter (from the seventh rank), he stood up and retorted: "Feng Prince goes south, what do the ministers want?" Will you want to be the story of Tang Su Zong's Lingwu? Who would dare to speak this correct slogan?

The so-called "gains and losses" were vividly demonstrated in this court meeting, and the personal interests and national interests, the shamelessness of the scholar class and the emperor were vividly reflected.

After Li Zicheng divided Zhou Yuji's body, Jiang Jiu had secretly sent someone to send the surrender table, Li Zicheng was overjoyed, and immediately set up some troops, crossed Yanmen, occupied Shuozhou, and went straight to Datong.

The soldiers captured an important town in Daming without blood, which made Li Zicheng very proud. But what he was most proud of was Liu Fangliang's progress in the Central Plains - Hong Chengchou was simply unable to parry Liu's army, and Emperor Chongzhen's southern escape route had been cut off by most of it.

At the beginning of the year, when the edict of Youyan of the Northern Expedition was promulgated, Li Zicheng was most worried about the three things - first, he was worried that Chongzhen would transfer some of the men and horses guarding Xuanhua and Datong back to Beijing to defend the city, so that the people's army could garrison the city. At that time, if Yanjing cannot be conquered, things will not go well.

Second, Chongzhen did not hesitate to cede land to Jianzhou Tartars, and transferred back to Guanning Tieqi to Wei Yanjing.

Third, Chongzhen had no choice but to slip away, leaving a few important ministers to guard Yanjing, go to Qilu and Jinmen by himself, choose one of the two, and flee to Jinling.

Now that Datong is going down without a fight, the canal in Qilu has also been cut off by Liu Fangliang, and the Ming army in Xuanfu has not moved at all.

"Brother Tianlin, sit." Li Zicheng greeted Zhang Tianlin after seeing him.

"Your Majesty, are you looking for an amount?" Zhang Tianlin sat down unceremoniously and opened her mouth to ask.

"Datong's business. You advised the forehead not to kill the surname Jiang, it makes sense, and the forehead will not be killed. But Jiang Hao can't believe it, people are in a commotion, his face is obedient, and he is very slippery. I want to leave you and Ke Tianxiang and Zhang Hei to control Datong. Jiang Hao is still the chief soldier, but you have to hold the real power, and you have to hollow out the soldiers under him. Just keep it for a look, save Mada. ”

"You know, Your Majesty, don't worry." Zhang Tianlin patted her chest and assured Li Zicheng.

But he immediately said: "The three of you left Datong, and all the soldiers and horses were left?" ”

Of course, Li Zicheng would leave all their soldiers and horses behind.

"Then you have even fewer soldiers in your army. It is claimed to be 500,000, and there are only 100,000 people who have gone there, so why not bring more people to go? ”

Li Zicheng's original worries, his generals are all clear, now Datong and Xuanfu are useless, but the Northeast is still about Ning Tieqi, plus Zheng Zhilong, who was killed in the middle of the road.

"If it goes well, these soldiers are enough. If it doesn't go well, no matter how many people there are, it's useless. Li Zicheng was still very clear in his mind at this time. Although the army around him is only 100,000, they are all the elite of the Dashun army, especially the tens of thousands of old battalions, which is his biggest capital.

If these people still can't take the capital, it won't be okay to pull up another 100,000 people.

What's more, he really wants to gather soldiers and horses, and his strength doesn't allow it.

In the past six months, the people of the People's Army have quickly occupied most of the Central Plains, the northern part of Huguang, and the entire territory of western Shanxi, and also related to the Central and Northwest.

It turned out that there were hundreds of thousands of horses, and it was enough to use them if they were not dispersed, but when they were dispersed, their strength was weak.

Like after he left Huguang, didn't Detianfu, Chengtianfu, and Xiangyang Mansion divide a lot of troops?

At present, the situation in many prefectures, prefectures, and counties in Huguang and the Central Plains is not very stable, and many people are looking left and right, waiting for an opportunity to move. If they can rebel, they will all rebel.

Gao Doushu, the governor of Yunyang, is even more a hard bone, since the end of the fifteenth year, he has been entangled with the people's army, Li Zicheng has sent a large army to attack several times, but he has been defeated, and the Ming banner is still floating in the sky over Yunyang.

Li Zicheng also knew that the contradictions between himself and the gentry class had not yet resolved.

It's just that from the previous life and death to the current general peace, it has just eased up, but if you want to really dissolve, you still need him to completely take Yanjing, and then hold the imperial examination, so that you can really win people's hearts.

He understands this very well in his heart, and Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, Li Yan and others also understand it.

Therefore, in order to maintain the current situation in the short term, Li Zicheng can only spread the uneven hundreds of thousands of troops in his hands like a scatter. Just like the current Datong Mansion, if not, he is not at ease, and he can't control the situation.

It's like right now, if Zhang Tianlin and them hadn't been left, what would have changed in Datong Mansion? What if Jiang Hao is unstable? It's too risky.

As for the lack of soldiers and horses, why not recruit them?

It is easy to recruit more soldiers and horses, there are displaced refugees in the north, and there are many soldiers, but the difficulty is that Li Zicheng has no money to raise soldiers.

Eat the king, welcome the king, and the king will not pay for the food.

This is Li Zicheng's political slogan, and it has played a great role in his rise. Since last year, wherever the people's army went, the prefectures and counties had fallen to the wind, and the people had suffered for a long time. But at the same time, this is also a heavy shackle on his body. If he couldn't collect money and food in the hands of the people, he could only use the gentry and bureaucrats, which also caused the current predicament of the people's army.

Li Zicheng is already very aware of the negative effects of this slogan, but the slogan he shouted can be shouted on his knees. At least before he enters Yanjing, he will continue to shout this slogan.

It is like the development of Internet companies in later generations, depending on whether to burn the money in hand first, or burn the money first to burn the results. It's a fierce competition for life and death.

It depends on whether Li Zicheng was exhausted first, or whether he destroyed the Ming Dynasty before the mountains and rivers were exhausted.

Otherwise, he can only become the second Ming Dynasty. Otherwise, why did he raise an army to fight?

To put it bluntly, the army has entered the capital, and Li Zicheng has captured half of the country, so do you want to reward the whole army? If he led hundreds of thousands of people into the capital, the cost of the army alone could crush a person to death.

Therefore, Li Zicheng's current people are enough, and even the army has to divide troops on the way, and when he really kills Yanjing City, it will be enough to have 100,000 people.

Looking at the past dynasties, when the situation has come to this point, the new dynasty is not blindly military to the old dynasty, but also the people's hearts.

Zhu Ming was already on the verge of collapse and was vulnerable.

The hearts of the people are scattered, and the little brother is not easy to bring, so the new army is marching, isn't it what people often say.