Emperor Zhengde led the army south to Shandong, and even prepared to go south to the Jiangbei front, and he just left on the front foot, and the back foot of the Beijing division is surging, many people, well, mainly to say those civil officials, they feel that the opportunity they have been waiting for for many years has finally come, as long as the crown prince is supported as the emperor at this time, then the Ming Dynasty will usher in a new benevolent monarch!

Well, a Renjun who listens to them!

As for Emperor Zhengde, that bastard is not a good emperor at all, he has never listened to the words of these ministers, and now it's okay, the puppet Tang Dynasty has occupied half of the Ming Dynasty.

Now, it's time for the Ming Dynasty to need them to help a benevolent monarch save the world!

Many people secretly ran to persuade the prince, saying that they could not lose the opportunity and would not come again, but the prince was benevolent and resolutely rejected their proposal, which made them regretful.

On the other hand, on the Mongolian steppe, Altan Khan also heard that Emperor Zhengde had almost exhausted the entire northern army, and then personally went south to fight.

And now he can't help it.

Now the situation is clear, in the future, it will be the best opportunity for them to break through the Ming army's defense line and go south to the Central Plains, to be honest, he is very excited.

Two days ago, the envoy sent by the Ming Dynasty struggled to speak, saying that he wanted to borrow troops, but Altan Khan did not show his mouth at all, neither agreed, but did not refuse.

Simply borrowing troops, only in exchange for what titles, mutual market benefits, he is naturally unwilling, and he Altan Khan under the Mongolian army, and the Ming Dynasty border army for many years, it is not an exaggeration to say that it is a mortal enemy, now Zhengde is not happy, he is in a very comfortable mood.

If you want him to borrow troops to help Emperor Zhengde resist the Tang army in the south, this is absolutely impossible!

But at the same time, he is also very clear that once the Ming Dynasty is defeated, when the Tang army unifies China, then he will face a great crisis in the next step, but this crisis is at most difficult to go south.

But if those Tang troops dare to go deep into the grassland, Altan Khan will let those Tang troops see, although your guns are powerful, but when they reach the grassland, they are still useless.

In the steppe, cavalry is king!

Guns play a huge role in attacking and defending fortifications, but how useful can they be when there are not a few cities in the entire Mongolian steppe?

In addition, he also felt that this opportunity to go south this time was a rare once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, after going south, the best result was to sit and watch the Ming army and the Tang army lose both, and then he used the advantage of cavalry to sweep the Ming and Tang armies on the North China Plain.

Going south, for the strong people of the Mongolian steppe, it is a dream that has been entangled in their hearts for thousands of years, but as long as there is this opportunity, they will not give up.

If the Tang army is too strong, he can also use the advantage of cavalry to escape at that time!

As long as he was cautious, Altan Khan felt that he should be able to gain a lot of benefits from going south this time, and no matter how bad it was, he would be able to loot some people, food, and property and come back.

Altan Khan is also a fierce man, and if he wants to go south, then he didn't think too much about it, and he just prepared to go south, of course, before going south, he had to prepare, first of all, he brought some tribes that were not convinced by him.

On the one hand, it is to prevent these tribes from rebelling in the rear after they go south, and on the other hand, it is to let them be cannon fodder first when they are ready to fight, and let them break off when they want to escape, so as to preserve the strength of their own tribes as much as possible.

Altan Khan went south, although on the surface he agreed to borrow troops from the Ming Dynasty, but in fact, Altan Khan and those Tatar leaders and brains all knew that this time they went south, borrowing troops or something was false, the important thing was to take the opportunity to go south, control several border towns, and then take the opportunity to go south to fish in troubled waters, and if there is a chance, the Ming army and the Tang army will be killed together, and if there is no chance, they will get a vote and come back.

In short, in today's world situation, sitting and doing nothing is the worst loss!

Altan Khan's thoughts, to be honest, Emperor Zhengde can more or less guess it, but he doesn't care!

In order to go south to conquer in person, he almost always transferred the border army, except for a few fortified cities, other places have been left to the Tatars to come and go freely, and the Tatars went south, whether they want to or not, in the end they have to reduce the pressure on their side.

A large number of Tatar cavalry went south, and no matter how strong the puppet Tang thief army was, they would divide their forces to deal with it, so that their pressure would be much less.

As for being robbed of some property by the Tatars or something, Emperor Zhengde doesn't care anymore!

Now that the Great Xia is about to fall, who cares about a few bricks and tiles!

The news of the change in the north also quickly spread to the south through the spies of the Military Intelligence Department!

Jiangbei, outside Huai'an City, Hao Bonian was preparing to attack Huai'an City, and after hearing that Emperor Zhengde in the north personally led his army south, and then heard that the Tatars had also begun to move south, he couldn't help but sigh:

"This pseudo-Ming emperor is ruthless enough!" After Hao Bonian heard about some of the situations in the north mentioned by the spies, he couldn't help but admire, this Zhengde Emperor still had the courage to play a broken pot and sink a boat at this time, and he was worthy of being a fierce man who ruled China for more than 40 years and played a group of courtiers to death during his reign.

But even so, the rise of the Tang Dynasty is already unstoppable, not to mention anything else, relying on his third army alone, not to mention the Zhengde Emperor's personal expedition, even if it is ten Zhengde Emperor's personal expedition, he Hao Bonian is sure to win the battle.

He knew very well that even if Emperor Zhengde personally conquered, there were not many troops he could draw, and there was definitely no way to compare with the previous Yangzhou defenders in terms of elite.

The 100,000 Ming troops in the First Battle of Yangzhou can be said to be the last batch of troops in the Ming army that can fight.

The northern provinces and the border army also have the Ming army in Beijing, they are now short of guns and artillery, and the quality of the soldiers is definitely not comparable with the elite of the previous Yangzhou Ming army.

The only thing that worried him a little was the Tatar cavalry!

Regardless of whether these Tatar cavalry were borrowed by Zhengde, or the Tatars had other intentions to take the opportunity to go south to attack the city, but they were all enemies for the Tang Dynasty.

And if their cavalry comes less, then the threat is not great, but if there are too many, I am afraid it will not be easy to manage.

The number of cavalry in the Tang Army is not much, and in his third army, there are only 4,000 cavalry when it is full, if the Tatars come with 30,000 or 50,000 or even more cavalry, if it is encountered in the wild, I am afraid it will not be easy to fight!

However, Hao Bonian is only slightly worried, now, these things are still early, and now his Hao Bonian's top priority is to take Huai'an, and then take a good rest, replenish troops and materials, and then go west to the north.

He had already received Li Xuan's latest order, asking him to take Huai'an as soon as possible, and then conquer Fengyang Mansion and Xuzhou, and after taking these two places, with the arrival of the severe cold weather in the north, the Third Army will suspend large-scale military operations.

At that time, the strategic focus of the Tang Dynasty will be shifted to Anqinglai, in other words, the Third Army will not be limited in terms of troops and materials.

If you count the time, there will only be one month left for him at most.

Hao Bonian, who knew that time was tight, was not affected by the changes in the north at all, but quickly launched the Huai'an Campaign!

At this time, the Ming army defending the city was actually not small, but most of them were Ming troops who fled all the way to this place, and the morale of the army was very low, and the local Ming army was also seriously lacking in guns and artillery.

The Ming army in the Jiangbei area had a lot of guns and artillery at the beginning, but most of them were lost in Yangzhou, and many of the 20,000 people who escaped escaped empty-handed.

And some of the Ming troops originally garrisoned, except for the Beijing camp, the others were second-line troops, and there was a shortage of guns.

As a result, the morale of the Ming army in Huai'an City was low, and there was a lack of guns and artillery, and the city defense here was not reinforced for a long time like Yangzhou, so they could not stop the onslaught of the Third Army.

After more than 200 artillery pieces were smashed down, and then they didn't even need to dig tunnels to blast, they successfully conquered Huai'an City, from the attack to the capture of the city, it took three days for the Tang Army.

One day to prepare, one day to shell, one day to siege!

The whole process was almost a textbook battle, and there was not the slightest accident in between.

After conquering Huai'an, the troops of the Third Army advanced directly to the Yellow River, Huai River, and Chaohu Lake basins.

At this time, the Datang Navy also cooperated, and dispatched many inland river combat ships into the Yellow River Valley, and merged with the original canal fleet, and reorganized into the new Yellow River Fleet.

This is also the fourth inland river fleet in the current Tang Dynasty, the scale is not large, only more than 40 combat ships, but it is a specially built inland river warship, and its combat effectiveness has surpassed that of the Pearl River Fleet, and its strength is second only to the Yangtze River Fleet.

The war in the north was going well, so even after Li Xuan heard that Emperor Zhengde had personally conquered and Tatar went south, he was not too moved.

Even if Emperor Zhengde is a personal conquest, but the Ming army is like that, it is impossible to pose any threat to the third army, and the cavalry of the Tatars, as long as Hao Bonian is smarter, don't be stupid to play mobile combat with people, and if you find an opportunity, you will have a head-on decisive battle, and it is possible to win, no matter how bad it is, you can stabilize the battle line.

The important thing now is to prepare for the Anqing war!

The current Anqing, like a sharp blade, is inserted into the artery of the Yangtze River, so that the Tang Dynasty cannot use the Yangtze River to link the troops and material supplies in Huguang, Jiangxi, Jiangnan and other places.

And if you want to fight in the north, take Huguang, and finally march into Sichuan or Henan, this Anqing must be taken first.