The counteroffensive launched by the Dashun army, which began in Huaiqing Mansion in Henan Province on October 15, was not the same thing as the local counteroffensive known in history as the Huaiqing Counterattack, but took place in a similar place.

The scale of the Huaiqing counterattack in history was quite limited, and the strength of the Dashun army did not exceed 20,000, and it was not Li Zicheng's elite main force. And this time, the Huaiqing counteroffensive commanded by Tian Jianxiu and Li Guo invested a full 40,000 elite soldiers in the old battalion!

In addition, this Huaiqing battle has also been carefully planned and prepared! According to Li Zicheng's original plan, these 40,000 elite soldiers of the old battalion will suddenly attack and outflank after the main force of the Qing army is attracted to the Great Wall of Guguan.

To this end, Tian Jianxiu and Li Guo spent more than a month preparing and collecting the deployment of the Qing army in Huaiqing, Weihui, Zhangde, Dezhou and other places.

In addition, they also sent people to contact Lü Daqi, the new governor of Henan in the Ming Dynasty, who was stationed in Wupingwei (Fengyang Prefecture) in Bozhou, and asked to join forces with the Northern Expedition.

Although Lü Daqi did not agree to send troops, he still agreed to an armistice and Wen Henan General Liu Liangzuo and Guide General Xu Dingguo, let them reorganize their armies for war, and then stationed a force in Xiao Songji (located north of the Yellow River) in Kaifeng Prefecture to deter the Qing army in the territory of Daimyo Mansion.

Because they were very well prepared, the troops invested were enough and fine, and Tian Jianxiu and Li Guo also adopted the tactics of showing weakness and luring the enemy. The Dashun army was disguised as a bandit in Wangwu Mountain, and after occupying Jiyuan County and Huaiqing Mansion City, he did not publicly show the banner of Dashun, but played the banner of the chief military officer of Huaiqing Town in the Ming Dynasty, so that Zu Kefa (Zu Dashou's adopted son) who was stationed in Weihui Mansion mistakenly thought that the bandits on Wangwu Mountain were recruited by the Ming Dynasty's Henan Governor Yamen.

In order to wash away his suspicions, Zu Kefa did not dare to delay for a moment, so he led his subordinates to recover Huaiqing Mansion, and as a result, like Jin Yuhe, he crashed into the ambush circle under Tian Jianxiu and Li Guobu. The three or two thousand men he brought with him were also wiped out, and even Zu Kefa himself was taken prisoner.

Immediately afterwards, Tian Jianxiu and Li Guo held Zu Kefa hostage to attack Weihui Mansion, and did not play the banner of Dashun, but under the banner of Liu Liangzuo, the general soldier of Daming Henan, and Xu Dingguo, the general soldier of Guide. As a result, the gentry in Weihui City were deceived, and they thought that the Ming Dynasty had returned from a counterattack, and they were unwilling to help the prefect sent by the Qing Dynasty to defend the city. Weihui Mansion was immediately broken by the Dashun army!

After defeating Weihui Mansion, Tian Jianxiu and Li Guo openly played the banner of the Dashun Army, and led 35,000 troops to pour into the territory of Zhangde Mansion and Daimyo's Mansion like a tide! On the Qing side, Zhu Guozhu, the commander-in-chief of Zhangde, and Zhang, the prefect of the daimyo, were caught off guard and both were defeated. Anyang, the first county of Zhangde, and Yuancheng, the first county of Daming, all fell into the hands of the Dashun army.

At the same time, the main force of the three-way Qing army that invaded Taiyuan Mansion and Datong Mansion also encountered a lot of trouble.

In the direction of Taiyuan Mansion, because Wu Sangui and Azig both had the intention of preserving their strength, they did not chase Li Zicheng. So that Li Zicheng was able to withdraw the whole army to Taiyuan.

Duoduo's department, which went south from the North Road, was blocked at Shiling Pass north of Taiyuan Fucheng, and was blocked by Chen Yongfu for two days, so he lost the opportunity to outflank and cut off Li Zicheng's back road.

The two-day delay caused the Qing army to temporarily lose control of Li Zicheng's main forces. So when Duoduo, Azig, and Wu Sangui met under Taiyuan City, they didn't know if Li Zicheng had retracted into Taiyuan City?

On the other hand, Li Zicheng used these two days to strengthen Taiyuan's defense. Left behind Li Ruoxing, the governor of Shanxi, and Han Wenquan, the two departments of Shanxi Jiedu, combined with the general Chen Yongfu, leaving a total of 25,000 troops in Taiyuan, of which 3,000 were veteran soldiers who had been in battle for a long time.

Because Li Zicheng left enough defenders in Taiyuan, Chen Yongfu not only garrisoned the isolated city of Taiyuan, but also built a camp on the east mountain and the west bank of the Fen River. Let Li Ruoxing and Han Wenquan lead their troops to station, so as to become horns.

In this way, it created a lot of trouble for Wu Sangui, who was trying to besiege the city. And Azig and Duoduo were worried that Li Zicheng was still in Taiyuan, so they didn't dare to leave with their troops immediately, but led their troops to guard Taiyuan City. At the same time, Wu Sangui was asked to capture Qingyuan, Jiaocheng, Wenshui, Xugou, Taigu, Qixian, Pingyao and other places near Taiyuan City.

The delay of the Duoduo Department under the city of Taiyuan affected the war in Datong Mansion in the north. The battle that was supposed to be a flank attack from the north and south turned into a lone attack from the direction of Xuanfu. didn't go too far, and the Zhenyuwei at the junction of Datong and Xuanfu was blocked by the Ming army who had just divided the field!

Just when the Qing army attacking Shanxi suffered a temporary setback, the army of Tian Jianxiu and Li Guo entered the territory of Beizhili with great momentum.

The originally clear situation has become very blurred in a few days!

......

October 20, Nanjing.

Wu Ruzheng, the envoy of the General Administration Department, took the Tang newspaper from the Henan Governor Yamen that he had just received early in the morning, and went straight to the Dagongfang Dagongtang.

When he arrived at the Great Gong Hall, he realized that he was not the first to arrive. Zhu Chunjie, the commander of the Jinyi Guard, Cao Youyi, the commander of the Military Commandery, and Wu Sanfu, who had just been transferred to the general of the Beijing camp, had already arrived.

And before Zhu Cihong himself came out, Zhu Chunjie, Cao Youyi and Wu Sanfu called Wu Ruzheng, who came in a hurry.

"Gong Shun Hou, is there a Tang newspaper from the Northland?" Uncle Wu Sanfu asked.

"Henan's Tang Bao, Tartar doesn't seem to be good......" Wu Ruzheng knew that Zhu Chunjie, Cao Youyi, and Wu Sanfu were Zhu Cihong's most trusted Wei Shuai, and the Tang Bao he just got had to be copied to these three, so there was no need to hide anything.

By the way, the secrecy work of the Ming Imperial Court's envoys is now much stronger than before!

All decrees, letters, and proclamations are classified into four levels of secrecy: A, B, C, and D. Except for the D-level documents similar to the "proclamation", which can be viewed casually, the other three levels of orders, writings, and reports can only be viewed by designated officials.

In addition, the military commander guard and the brocade guard also have their own independent information transmission systems. The former was used to transmit the military orders of the Generalissimo's Office and the military reports of the New Army, while the latter was a secret intelligence transmission channel.

Wu Ruzheng put the box he brought with him to store the music on the table, then took the tea bowl from a waiter Xiao Huangmen, took a sip of tea, picked up the pastries on the coffee table and ate a bite, cushioned his hunger, and then said: "The Tartars seem to have fallen into the trap of the rogues, and the soldiers have been lured into Shanxi. The 100,000 elite soldiers of the Liukou crossed Wangwushan to invade Huaiqing Mansion, and then went north to break through Weihui, Zhangde, and Daimyo, with great momentum and invincible...... In addition, according to Zu Kefa's confession, the Tartars also sent a large number of soldiers from Xuanfu to attack Datong! ”

"Zukoffa?" Wu Sanfu was stunned, "What's the matter?" ”

"He was arrested by the rogues and sent to Guide Mansion in a prison car. Lü Futai personally went to Guide and interrogated Zu Kefa there. ”

This Zu Kefa was really unlucky, not only was he captured alive, but also used to coax Wei Hui's Qing army, and now he was even treated as a gift and sent to Guide Mansion for Liu Liangzuo, Xu Dingguo and others to visit.

"There is such a thing?" Wu Sanfu gasped, "It seems that this rogue who attacked Beizhili is really an elite soldier!" ”

"His Royal Highness the Prince of Fujun has arrived!"

The voice of the eunuch's roll call suddenly sounded, and several people in the hall stood up one after another, and then stood up according to the size of the official position. saw Zhu Cihong come out and bowed together.

Zhu Cihong waved his hand at them and said with a smile: "Sit, sit down." ”

Zhu Chunjie, Cao Youyi, and Wu Sanfu all sat down, and Wu Ruzheng handed Huang Xiaobao the box containing the music with both hands. Huang Xiaobao opened the box and saw that there were two pieces of music inside, so he took them out and placed them on Zhu Cihong's imperial case.

Zhu Cihong picked up the first recital, which was the recital of Henan Governor Lu Daqi. The content is what Wu Ruzheng just said, and Zhu Cihong quickly finished reading it. Then he picked up the second cantata, which was a joint recital by Shi Kefa, the governor of the seven provinces, and Gao Hongtu, the governor of Shandong, in which the two proposed to wait for the opportunity to go on a northern expedition and overcome Shenjing.