Duoduo listened silently at first, but the more he listened to Azig, the more he went too far, and finally it involved the Queen Mother, and the frightened Duoduo quickly stood up and persuaded him: "Big brother, it's okay to talk between you and my brother, but don't involve the inner palace!" ”

Duoduo knew that the eldest brother Azig was complaining, but according to the relationship between the three of them, it was nothing for the eldest brother to scold the second brother, and Dolgon just laughed when he knew about it, but it was different for the queen mother.

Bumu Butai is very current in status, but he is not the ordinary concubine he used to be. At the same time, there are two yellow flags and two red flags standing behind Bumu Butai, these opposition parties have always been eyeing the Dolgon brothers, eager to take a magnifying glass to find the shortcomings, if Azig's blatant insult of the queen mother reaches the ears of the ministers of the two yellow flags, I am afraid that Dolgon will not be able to defend Azig.

Azig frowned when he heard Duoduo's persuasion, and scolded: "Third brother, why are you so old at a young age, now half of the imperial army is in the hands of you and my brother, according to what my brother thinks, what else are we fighting in Nanjing, directly take the hundreds of thousands of troops under his command back to Beijing, and overturn the yellow-mouthed boy in Fulin to the ground, let the second brother be the emperor, and you and my brother should be a one-word king, isn't it good?" ”

Duoduo smiled bitterly in his heart when he heard Azig say this, his eldest brother has no culture, and he usually likes to listen to the Han people's commentary, don't say that there is no one-word king in history, but there is, do you dare to be Azig?

It is also unrealistic to return to Beijing with hundreds of thousands of troops, Duoduo and Azig have 440,000 troops, which is very scary to look at, but the new annex army accounts for most of these people, and the Eighth Banner Army as the main force is only 80,000 people, of which there are only more than 8,000 people in the two white flags that can be called henchmen. At this point, people want to subvert the imperial court and support Dolgon, which is really a fool's dream.

Although the two white flags of the three brothers were the two yellow flags of Nurhachi's protectors, and their combat effectiveness was the first among the eight banners, after more than ten years of uninterrupted differentiation and disintegration of Huang Taiji, the strength of the two white flags was not as good as before, and now the two white flags only have 24,000 strong men. There are more than 30,000 people in the two yellow flags who support Fulin, and their combat effectiveness is not much worse than that of the two white flags.

Azig is a reckless man who doesn't understand this, but Duoduo understands, he doesn't want Azig, a brave and unscrupulous guy, to spoil the big things of the second brother and himself, and when he heard Azig say this, he hurriedly persuaded him: "Big brother, don't be like this, the strength of the two yellow flags and the two red flags is far above your brother and my brother, and your brother's family is in Beijing, if the eldest brother acts rashly, then what should they do?" ”

Azig was right to hear what Duoduo said, he thought for a while and said, "Third brother, you are the smartest, what do you say my brother should do when he returns to Beijing this time?" ”

"Big brother, you must listen to the second brother when you go back this time, the younger brother thinks that the second brother will definitely make the eldest brother suffer some hardships, and he will explain to those ministers with two yellow flags, but please rest assured that the second brother will soon let the eldest brother come out again to lead the troops!"

Azig was right when he heard it, he was the best at fighting, and the second Dolgon had no reason not to use himself, so when he thought of this, Azig put his heart at ease and prepared to go north wholeheartedly.

In the evening, Azig set up a banquet to entertain Duoduo, and at the same time introduced the generals of the Ming army under Zuo Mengeng to know Duoduo

Zige smiled and said, "Third brother, this time my brother has brought you a big gift!" A gift that allows you to win Yingtian without blood! ”

Duoduo didn't expect such a good thing, and hurriedly asked, "Big brother, please say, what gift is so important?" ”

Azig pointed to Tian Xiong in front of him and said, "This gift was brought by Tian Zongbing, it is Zhu Yousong, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty!" ”

It turned out that after Zhu Yousong escaped from Nanjing on 18 May, he immediately went to Wuhu to seek refuge with Huang Degong, but he did not expect that Huang Degong was already at the end of his crossbow. After Huang Degong's death on the battlefield, the chief soldier Tian Xiong and the chief soldier and horse were meritorious, and stepped forward to seize Zhu Yousong, wanting to dedicate this last emperor to the Manchu Qing Dynasty as a meritorious service.

Zhu Yousong didn't expect that he could be betrayed by his generals, crying and begging the two to let him escape, Tian Xiong carried Zhu Yousong on his back, Ma Degong grabbed Zhu Yousong's two feet and said: "The fame of the two of us is on you, where can you let you go?" In this way, Zhu Yousong fell into the hands of Azig.

Duoduo was overjoyed to hear Azig say this, he had been attacking Nanjing for more than two months, losing tens of thousands of soldiers, and making no progress at all. If you catch this emperor now, you will definitely be able to take Nanjing City.

Duoduo hurriedly thanked Azig and said: "Little brother, thank you big brother, when the younger brother captures Yingtianfu, this first credit will be the eldest brother's!" ”

Azig smiled bitterly and shook his head: "Hey, my brother doesn't know what to do when he goes back this time, don't say anything else, come!" You and my brother drink! ”

The next day, Azig returned to Beijing with 1,000 soldiers from Dashengguan, while Duoduo returned to Nanjing with 200,000 Manchu and Han troops to join his own army. Now Duoduo has 440,000 troops under his command, which is enough to surround Nanjing, so Duoduo divided the army into multiple units, starting from Dashengguan outside Nanjing, passing through the General Mountain outside the southern city, as well as Chunhua Town outside the Xiaoling Tomb, and finally to Longtan Town on the Yangtze River, using a few fulcrums here to drain the water around Nanjing.

At the same time, Azig brought tens of thousands of Zuo Liangyu's sailors to come in handy, although these people are not strong in combat, but they can still patrol daily. Duoduo had these sailors patrol the Yangtze River day and night, and strictly forbade all ships to approach the docks in Nanjing. Duoduo had already made up his mind to trap the city of Nanking here.

Ma Cheng in the city of Duoduo's strategic deployment soon found out, because he suddenly cut off all contact with the outside.

The defense of Nanjing, which began in May, has actually been confined to the southern city, that is, Jubaomen and Zhengyangmen. The length of the city of Nanjing is more than 70 li, and it passes through many mountains and rivers, and it is definitely not completely surrounded by Duoduo's troops, so although the battle was fierce before, the various wharves in the north of the city are still operating normally.

Taking advantage of this time period, Ma Cheng drew a large amount of grain from the surrounding prefectures and counties that were not occupied by the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and at the same time purchased a large amount of grain from the merchants, because Ma Cheng knew that this city defense battle would not know when it would be fought, and only with food could the army be stabilized.

But now what Duoduo did completely hit Ma Cheng's death hole, Nanjing originally had more than 600,000 residents, plus the displaced people outside the city, the people who fled to Nanjing from various counties, and now the population of Nanjing has exceeded one million. The increase in population has increased Ma Cheng's confidence in defending the city, but it has also increased the burden on Ma Cheng, because these people are

I'm going to eat.

After learning that Duoduo besieged Nanjing, Ma Cheng immediately found his grain transport officer Wang Xian and asked him about the food situation in his army.

Although Wang Xian is only a grain transportation officer from the fourth grade, he has great power in his hands, and the logistics and supplies of the hundreds of thousands of troops in the city are in his hands. Now Wang Xian is also a character in the city, some people want to post it, and there are many people who usually give gifts and beauties.

But Wang Xian was probably stimulated back then, and he was pure about everything, except for a boy in charge of chores, there was no half of the family servants, and there was no half of the beautiful girl.

It was precisely because of Wang Xian that Ma Cheng was relieved to hand over the most important grain in the city to him for management.

"Wang Xian, now that Duoduo is playing a siege outside the city, this guy is ready to play a protracted war with us, so food has become the top priority, and now there is a lot of food in the city?"

After listening to Ma Cheng's question, Wang Xian took out the account book from his side, and replied after reading it carefully: "Back to my lord, there were originally 20,000 stones of grain in the army, and in May, my subordinates received a military order from my lord, and purchased 100,000 stones from the grain merchants, and transferred 38,000 stones of grain from Lishui County, Jurong County, Gaochun County, Jiangpu County and other counties, and added 60,000 stones of grain in Changping and Yicang in Jiangning and Shangyuan counties in the city, and now there are 218,000 stones of grain in the city!" ”

The per capita ration in the Ming Dynasty was six stone per person per year, this is the average, six stone and six buckets for adult men, four stone for adult women and the elderly, and three stone for underage children, so on average, each person needs to consume six stone of grain per year. Of course, this is based on the calculation of being full, and the grain production in the Ming Dynasty was very low, so even in the rich Jiangnan, less than half of the people who had enough to eat.

According to the minimum standard, adult men need one liter of food per day, three stones and six buckets of food a year, and other minors need one stone and eight buckets of food a year. This is already the lowest value, below which it means that the person will not be able to complete the basic daily work, and he will not be far from death.

Ma Cheng calculated that he now has an army of 120,000 people, even if he counts six stones of grain per person per year, 210,000 stone of grain is only enough to eat for three months, not counting the new troops under his command who eat three meals a day.

Thinking that his army would not be able to eat for another three months, Ma Cheng scratched his head very much, and Wang Xian said after seeing it on the side: "My lord, this is just the grain in our hands, there are Taicang, Neicang and Shuicicang in the city, and my subordinates estimate that there are millions of grain in these big warehouses, which is enough for my army for several years!" ”

The warehouses mentioned by Wang Xian belong to the national grain depot, Taicang is the central grain reserve depot, and the water secondary warehouse is set up along the canal, which is the reserve grain depot to ensure the transportation of water in the north. As for the inner warehouse, it is the royal grain storehouse, which is used to store the private property of the emperor and those princes and nobles in the capital.

"My lord, in addition to these cities, there are hundreds of grain stations and grain stores, the minister has been buying grain at the wharf in the past few months, and seeing that these grain stores collect more than us, it is estimated that he wants to take advantage of the siege season to make a lot of money."

Ma Cheng heard Wang Xian say this and scolded: "Damn, when is there still someone who wants to make a fortune?" Make Lao Tzu unhappy and confiscate all their food, so that all these food rats will eat! ”