Zhu Cihong's attitude was very resolute and did not listen to any advice at all. It's not that Zhu Cihong likes to fight, but this war is too important, the six armies of the Ying Long Army, as well as the military horses from all over the country, together with more than 400,000 troops, there is no one in the Ming Dynasty who is suitable to take on the heavy responsibility of the commander now.

To say that the generals of the Ming Dynasty today take Qin Liangyu and Huang Degong as the most, but Qin Liangyu is a woman, and she is over seventy years old, plus she bears the burden of resisting Zhang Xianzhong in Sichuan. And although Huang Degong has some prestige and will lead troops, his strategy is not as good as Dolgon's, and in addition, the last defeat of Jiujiang has greatly damaged his prestige, and neither of them can bear the heavy responsibility of commanding hundreds of thousands of Ming troops to resist Dolgon's Qing army.

As for the appointment of important cabinet ministers to command the army as in the Chongzhen period, in Zhu Cihong's eyes, it is a joke, the cabinet ministers are all civil ministers, and it is okay to assist him in governing the Ming Dynasty, but he is not familiar with military affairs at all, and handing over all the troops that the Ming Dynasty can draw now to any of them is an act of looking for death.

Therefore, whether it was to personally conquer Zuo Liangyu or to defend against the Manchus this time, Zhu Cihong actually had to serve as the commander with the respect of the emperor.

Zhu Cihong didn't dare to say how good he was at fighting, nor did he dare to say that his strategy was stronger than Dorgon, and he would definitely be able to defeat the Qing army, but he was the emperor, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, at least no general dared to disobey his orders, and he could do the ban, and at the same time, the soldiers knew that they had the emperor by their side, and their morale would be much higher.

It doesn't matter if he will fight or not, he doesn't need to be commanded by the emperor, he charges into battle, it doesn't matter if the strategy is insufficient, he can refer to the strategies of various generals.

Since the armies from all walks of life had already gathered around the city of Nanjing, the grain, grass, and weapons had already been prepared, as long as the things were loaded into the car, the army could quickly set out for the expedition, and the time for Zhu Cihong's personal expedition was set for two days later.

In Tai'an City, Shandong, when Dolgon led his army to Jinan City, Ji Feng had already received the news that the Qing army was heading south.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the Qing army's 800,000 troops are going south, the momentum is huge, we only have 60,000 horses in Tai'an County, it is not suitable to fight hard, according to the emperor's deployment, Tai'an will be the starting point, all the way to Yanzhou, Jining direction to gradually resist and retreat, the greatest possible killing and wounding of the Qing army, weakening the strength of the Qing army, and finally retreat to Xuzhou, together with the main force of the imperial army that came, relying on Xuzhou Jiancheng and the Qing army to fight a decisive battle!" Ji Feng will deploy the strategic policy that you have already drawn up.

There are a total of 100,000 troops in Shandong, but Tai'an is only a medium-sized county, which can accommodate 60,000 troops at most, and the remaining 40,000 troops are Laiwu County, dozens of miles east of Tai'an County.

"The emperor wants a decisive battle with the Qing army?" Shandong Deputy Chief Soldier Lu Yanshou heard this important decision from Ji Feng's words.

Shi Kefa was originally also in Tai'an, but his position was too high, and Zhu Cihong, in order to prevent him from influencing Ji Feng's decision-making, reappointed him as the governor of Jianghuai, coordinating the defense of Xuzhou and Jianghuai and other places.

"Yes, the emperor has already instructed us to set up ambushes on the road and delay the process of the Qing army's southward movement." Ji Feng nodded and said.

Ji Feng, as the commander of the First Army of the Yinglong Army and one of Zhu Cihong's confidant generals, once received a hint from Zhu Cihong in a handwritten message from Zhu Cihong.

Lu Yanshou frowned, he always felt that the Manchu Qing Dynasty was powerful, and the decisive battle between the imperial court and the Manchu Qing Dynasty was a little inappropriate, in fact, in his heart, he was biased towards defense, and the Ming Dynasty had the Yangtze River moat, and it was not a problem to block the Qing army in Jiangbei.

Lu Yanshou wanted to say something, but he thought that he was just a front-line general, and it was not his turn to give his opinion to what the emperor decided, and he didn't dare to blame the emperor, so in the end he could only sigh secretly, obey the order, and retreat all the way to Xuzhou first.

On May 8 of the first year of Zhongxing in the Ming Dynasty, Azige, the prince of Shuoying of the Qing Dynasty, led a 100,000-strong vanguard army composed of 40,000 Manchurian cavalry and 60,000 Han banner troops to arrive at the city of Tai'an and launched the first round of tentative attacks on Tai'an.

Tai'an County is located in the south of Jinan City, Jinan City, north of Mount Tai, is the main road to Yanzhou Jining, although it can also be bypassed, but it has to go around more than 100 miles, the Qing army of 800,000 troops to the south, if it is a detour, it will definitely hit morale, Dolgon will never do this, it is necessary to capture Tai'an County.

Due to the slow delivery of the cannons, they could only follow the main force of the army, and the vanguard army led by Azig carried only ten detachable catapults, but before the catapults could throw stones a few times, they were shattered by the four cannons defending the city on the walls of Tai'an.

"Attack!" Azig angrily waved his army to attack the city, eager to take Tai'an immediately.

"Kill"

It was only a tentative attack, and the number of people attacking was only in the thousands.

"Shoot the arrows!" Ji Feng smiled contemptuously and waved his hand.

Countless arrows rained out from the city of Tai'an, and the Qing army retreated after leaving more than 300 corpses.

"Humph! With so much rain of arrows, the main force of the Ming army did not retreat, and it seemed that they were planning to defend the city. Azig smiled coldly, and after a tentative attack, he could be sure that the tens of thousands of troops in Tai'an City were still there.

"Ji Feng, when Tai'an is captured, this king will let you survive and not die!"

Azig will never forget the last time his army of more than 100,000 people actually let Ji Feng lead 15,000 people from the barracks of his army to carve out a bloody road to the city of Tai'an, this is the biggest shame in his life, making him the laughing stock of the whole world, Ji Feng can be said to have stepped on his Azig head to achieve today's prestige, even if he eats Ji Feng's flesh raw, he can't solve the hatred in his heart!

Half a day later, Dolgon arrived with a main force of 700,000 troops.

"Hey, the number of Qing soldiers is really large, you can't see the end at a glance!" Ji Feng said with a smile.

After the main force of the Qing army arrived, 800,000 horses, densely packed, Ji Feng stood on the seven-meter-high Tai'an city wall and couldn't see the edge at a glance, you can imagine how huge the momentum of the Qing army was, but this did not make Ji Feng have the slightest fear.

Not only Ji Feng, but all the soldiers of the First Army of the Ying Long Army did not show any fear, the last time Ji Feng led them to kill from the barracks of the Qing army's 100,000 army, the confidence brought to them was too strong, making them think that the Qing army was nothing more than that. However, those ordinary soldiers transferred from Jianghuai turned pale and their feet trembled, if it weren't for the confident looks of the soldiers of the Ying Long Army who gave them some comfort, the morale of these ordinary Ming soldiers would have collapsed.

A fast horse suddenly rushed out of the Qing army and shouted at the Tai'an city wall nearly a hundred meters away.

"The regent of the Qing Dynasty has an order, and those who surrender quickly will be added to the knighthood! Otherwise, once the city is broken, there will be no survival! "This is a heart attack, if it weren't for Tai'an with Ji Feng and 20,000 Ying Long Army, there are really people who have the idea of surrendering in Kaicheng, after all, in the hearts of many Ming generals, the Manchu Qing Dynasty has always been stronger than the Ming Dynasty, this time the 800,000 army went south, and the best result of the Ming Dynasty was to defend the Yangtze River moat.

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