In the end, he decided to go against the norm and adopt the strategy of "defending the east and attacking the west", concentrating superior forces on the way, focusing on breaking through Yungui and smashing the rear of the Southern Ming Dynasty.

If this can be the case, then, by virtue of the superiority of troops, thousands of elite Ming troops can be submerged, and for this reason, even if the East Road is temporarily defeated and loses some territory, it will not hesitate.

……

On the west side of the Ming Imperial Palace in Nanjing, in the yamen of the former Five Armies Governor's Mansion in the early Ming Dynasty, as soon as Hong Chengchou and his entourage arrived, they used this place as the governor's palace and urgently summoned generals from all over the country to come to discuss matters.

Nanjing, the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties, was known as Stone City in ancient times, and was once called Moling, Jianye, Jiankang, Jiangning, and Jinling. In the Yuan Dynasty, it was renamed Jiqing Road, after Zhu Yuanzhang captured this place, it was changed to Ying Tianfu, and then decided to set the capital here, renamed Jingshi, and took the surrounding Jinggi region as the direct li, and Kaifeng as Beijing, and the hometown Fengyang as the central capital.

Since then, Nanjing has become the political, economic and cultural center of China at that time, with a population of about 700,000 in the early Ming Dynasty, and a population of more than 1.2 million in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, it is the largest and most populous city in China at that time, and it is also the largest and most prosperous city in the world.

On the shore of Xuanwu Lake in the city, there are nearly 10,000 students from the foot of Jilong Mountain, including many students from Japan, Korea, Annam, Ryukyu and other countries studying here.

Ten miles of Qinhuai is the prosperous place of Nanjing, a river across the river, respectively, the general examination hall of the southern region examination Jiangnan Gongyuan, the other side is the southern teaching workshop, the place where famous actors gather, the Qinhuai Bayan at the end of the Ming Dynasty is famous.

The bazaars on both sides of the Qinhuai River gather, the flow of people is like weaving, economic prosperity is often accompanied by the development of culture, poetry, calligraphy and painting are the wind of a generation.

In the fourth year of Jianwen in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di launched the Battle of Jingyan and seized the throne of Jianwen Emperor Zhu Yunwen, changed the Yuan Yongle, and 19 years later, Zhu Di officially moved the capital to Beiping, renamed Beijing, and called Hebei and Tianjin Zhili.

Then Nanjing was changed to Liudu, the original Zhili area was changed to Nanzhili, and the six ministries of Nanjing and other institutions were set up, and the imperial family and ministers were appointed to manage and exercise the Shuangjing system.

During the Wanli period, after traveling to China, the Western missionary Matteo Ricci wrote in the "Commentary on Matteo Ricci": "I was dazzled by the sight of the great city of Nanjing...... The city of Nanjing was so majestic that the founding emperor of this dynasty, Hongwu, made it a miracle, and everything that could be seen in the East could not ......be matched."

Later, after a visit to Beijing, he compared Beijing with Nanjing: "This city is far inferior to Nanjing in terms of its scale, in the layout of its buildings, in the structure of its public buildings, and in its fortifications. ”

In the Ming Dynasty, Nanjing has always been the political, economic and cultural center of the south and even the whole country, not only all the food and clothing in Beijing were raised from this place, but even Zheng He's seven trips to the West were all started from this place.

In February 1644, Li Zicheng rushed to attack Beijing, some people suggested that Ming Sizong Zhu Youzhen move the capital to Nanjing for temporary refuge, Zhu Youzhen was disheartened and decided to martyrdom because of his disappointment with the ministers, and in May of the same year, Zhu Yousong, the king of Fu, was supported by the four towns in Nanjing, changed the Yuan Hongguang, and established the first Southern Ming regime.

In the following year, the Qing army was in the south of the Yangtze River, and after the capture of Nanjing, Nanjing was changed to Jiangning, the Nanzhili area was renamed Jiangnan Province, the Ming Imperial Palace was changed to the Eight Banners garrison city, and the general and the two yamen of the capital were set up in the Ming Imperial Palace, which caused great damage to the Ming Imperial Palace complex.

From then on, Nanjing became the seat of the Liangjiang Governor's Office, which governed the military and civilian affairs of present-day Jiangsu, Anhui and Jiangxi provinces.

The Forbidden City of Nanjing, although it has fallen into disrepair for a long time, and has been destroyed, is still an extremely large and magnificent building complex, the inside is the palace city, the outside is the imperial city, there are the end gate, the Chengtian gate and the Jinshui Bridge are built in front of the palace city, forming a T-shaped square, the east side of the square is the office of the five departments (except the criminal department), and the west side is the governor's office of the five armies.

……

Hong Chengchou was very cautious and did not dare to enter the palace to live, so he chose the Governor's Mansion of the Five Armies as his headquarters.

After the important generals at all levels in the vicinity arrived in Nanjing, Hong Chengchou discussed with the generals, clarified the strategic plan, issued an order for combat deployment, and repeatedly ordered to minimize looting and strictly prohibit the slaughter of the city again.

Although several of the generals under his command were all kings and officials who sat on one side, and their titles were much higher than him, because Hong Chengchou held the sword above, the princes gave him face very much, and they were ordered to leave.

This time, Shunzhi was indeed very supportive of him, not only promising him to reactivate Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi, and together with Li Guohan, the general of the Eight Banners, he led the army into Sichuan to prepare for the war, but also sent the Manchu warrior Jingjin County King Nikan to help.

He is the grandson of Nurhachi, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, and was originally a prince and one of the three kings of the early Qing Dynasty.

When the Qing army entered the customs, Nikan made a lot of achievements in the battle with Li Zicheng's Dashun army, and after defeating Li Zicheng to pacify Henan, Nikan followed the prince of Yu Duoduo to the south to attack the Hongguang regime of the Southern Ming Dynasty, and soon broke through Nanjing, led the army to pursue and capture Zhu Yousong, the king of Mingfu who fled to Wuhu, and then led the army to attack Jiangyin.

The people of Jiangyin all over the city resisted the shaving order, under the leadership of the three princes of the Qing Dynasty, they resisted and defended the lonely city for 81 days, in the case of more than 200,000 Qing troops with more than 200 heavy artillery besieged, they killed the three princes of the Qing army, 18 generals, and killed more than 75,000 Qing soldiers in total, known as "Jiangyin 81 days" in history, after nearly 100,000 people in the city were all martyred, no one surrendered, and only 53 people hid in the temple tower to save their lives.

In addition to the Qing soldiers slaughtered more than 70,000 people outside the city, a total of more than 170,000 people were sacrificed in this battle, Jiangyin City, which is known as the "State of Loyalty and Righteousness", and this Nikan is one of the Qing generals who participated in the massacre of the city.

In the third year of Shunzhi, Nikan entered Shaanxi with Haoge, attacked Hanzhong and Sichuan, suppressed Zhang Xianzhong's rebel army, killed Zhang Xianzhong in Xichong, and pacified Sichuan with Beizi Mandahai.

In the fifth year of Shunzhi, Nikan pacified the bandits in Tianjin together with the British prince Azig, and in the sixth year of Shunzhi, he was appointed as the general of Dingxi, crusading against the rebel general Jiang Xuan, and was named Prince Jingjing, but soon because he shielded Azig and hid weapons without reporting, he was demoted to the king of the county.

Hong Chengchou divided the whole army of more than 300,000 people into three groups, with the Western Route Army as the offensive arrow, and the Central Route Army as the cooperative feint to contain the Ming Army, while the Eastern Route Army mainly held on to its territory.

Among them, the Wu Sangui Department of the Western Route Army, consisting of more than 10,000 elite full cavalry, plus Wu Sangui's own Guanning Iron Cavalry and many miscellaneous traitor teams, gathered a total of more than 100,000 people, as the main force of the attack, while purging the anti-Qing forces in the western Sichuan region, the front of the troops pointed directly at Zunyi, Guizhou.

The middle route army, by Jingjin County Wang Nikan personally out of Changsha, Hunan, with 10,000 full cavalry as the main force, plus the Qing Association army also has more than 100,000 people, divided troops stationed in Chenzhou, Yongzhou, Suining line, directly threatened northern Guangxi.

The Eastern Route Army was still commanded by Pingnan Wang Shang Kexi, with a total of 50,000 or 60,000 troops stationed in Guangdong, and another 30,000 or 40,000 troops stationed in Fujian and Zhejiang, mainly defensive.

As soon as the deployment was finalized, Hong Chengchou asked the mysterious figure to be invited in, which was an extremely important chess piece for him on this expedition.