Since the Northern Expedition of the Ming army in Huguang recovered Nanyang and Ruzhou without a fight, its military seal was directed at Luoyang.

The Ming Army's Northern Expedition!

In the face of this sudden news, the situation in the entire north changed drastically. For the small Manchu court in Jinan, it was like a thunderbolt, which only shocked the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty with pale faces, and even looked frightened in the face of this sudden news.

“…… After the Nanyang prefect surrendered to the thief, the Ruzhou prefect did not hear the enemy and surrendered first, and now the 300,000 army led by the Li thief, the front of the army pointed directly at Luoyang, and the governor of Henan, Liu Qingtai, wrote to the imperial court again, asking the imperial court to send reinforcements to Henan as soon as possible, so as not to take Henan by the thieves and threaten Zhili......"

At that time, I learned that Zheng Chenggong and Zhu Mingzhong could not confront each other, and they mobilized their armies with each other, and they looked like a big war was about to break out, but who would have thought that this side did not wait for them to shout "ancestor bless", and Li Ziyuan, who was not eyed at all in the past, went north out of Xiangyang and into Nanyang, and went straight to the hinterland of Henan.

What is even more irritating is that the Han officials such as Nanyang either abandoned the city and fled or surrendered when they heard the news, and few people were willing to be loyal to the imperial court.

"Please ask the emperor to send reinforcements to Henan, otherwise the situation in Henan will collapse, and the thieves will definitely enter Shanxi and threaten the Beijing Division!"

Twenty years have not passed in the year of Jiashen, but it has only been more than ten years, among these slave ministers kneeling on the ground, of course, there are also officials who descended to the Qing Dynasty that year, and they naturally know how Li Zicheng went out of Xiangyang, went to Luoyang, took Taiyuan, and then directly took the Beijing Division. Naturally, they made a panicked request to send reinforcements.

"Your Majesty, there is no reason to divide the troops now, Li Thief has 300,000 elite soldiers, even if tens of thousands of reinforcements are sent to Henan, and the green battalion led by Liu Qingtai, the governor of Henan, is only tens of thousands, with less than 100,000 soldiers against Li Thief's 300,000 elite soldiers, even if the imperial army can be elite, how can two fists be the enemy with four hands? In the eyes of a minion, this soldier is inseparable! ”

When he bowed his head and asked not to divide the troops, he continued.

"Besides, once the imperial court divides the troops, what if the Zhu thief in the south makes any changes? At that time, if the Zhu thief invades the north, the imperial court will divide the troops into several places, how can it stop the thief from committing the north? ”

"Lord Ao is surprised, then the Zhu thief is now facing off against the Zheng thief across the river, how can he raise troops to invade the north?"

"If Zhu is a thief in the north, with the temperament of a thief Zheng, how can he take advantage of his northward offense to wave Jiangbei?"

Contradicting his opinion, Ao Bai continued.

"When Emperor Taizu raised troops, the Ming army was divided into hundreds of thousands of troops, and my Emperor Taizu concentrated his troops with the method of "relying on your few ways, I only go all the way", and broke the Ming army one by one, so as to lay the foundation of my Qing Dynasty today's business, if we divide the troops today, wouldn't we make the mistake made by the Ming army back then? Repeating the mistakes of the past? ”

When Ao Bai mentioned the allusion of how Nurhachi defeated the Ming army during the Battle of Sarhu, even Fu Lin and others, who originally intended to divide their troops, all changed their expressions and immediately tended to concentrate their forces instead of dividing them to defend.

"Aobai, what do you say now? This Henan, don't you want it? ”

Fu Lin looked at Ao Bai and asked.

"Back to the emperor, from the point of view of the slaves, the Li thief must have been bewitched by the Zhu thief, and now that the Li thief is in the north, the Zheng thief will invade Jiangbei without the help of friendly troops, so the Zhu thief naturally does not need to deal with the attack of the Zheng and Li families at the same time."

first mentioned the reason for Li Ziyuan's Northern Expedition, and then Ao Bai continued.

"Looking at the Li thief to the north, it is just like the thief back then, out of Xiangyang, take Luoyang, go down to Taiyuan, out of Taihang, and threaten the Beijing Division, so that the imperial court not only can not divide the troops in Henan, but should gather troops from all over the country near Dezhou, once Li Thief goes east out of Taihang, that is, he will transfer heavy troops to encircle and suppress,"

"Aobai, why are you gathering the army in Texas?"

Fu Lin looked at Ao Bai with some puzzlement and asked.

"Gather in Dezhou and enter the south of the Yangtze River, recover the south of the Yangtze River, pacify the Haikou, and retreat to abandon the Beijing Division, so that Li Thief does not dare to cross the Yellow River lightly......"

Aobai's words only said that everyone nodded yes in deep opinion, and at the same time that everyone praised it, Fulin also agreed, and then ordered the army near Jinan to be transferred to the area of Dezhou. As for Henan's request for help, no one cares, at most it is a consolation.

In the face of the Northern Expedition of the Ming Army, the Qing army in Henan was like a frightened bird, and when they were waiting for reinforcements to arrive, five battalions plus an artillery battalion of nearly 20,000 loyal soldiers returned to Germany and went north.

The Loyal and Righteous Army waved the Northern Expedition!

In the face of such news, Liu Qingtai, the governor of Henan, sent several letters of 800 li to the imperial court for help, but the response was very simple - the loyal and righteous army would never go north, they just responded to Li Thief, so that he could calmly capture Luoyang.

The imperial court could ignore the Northern Expedition of the Loyal and Righteous Army, but Liu Qingtai, who was the governor of Henan, did not dare to be careless, and while asking the imperial court for help, he urgently transferred his heavy troops to set up a large camp in Zhuxian Town, so as to be horns with Kaifeng City.

At this moment, Liu Qingtai in Kaifeng Mansion is much older than when he took office a few months ago, the governor of Henan has just been established, and he is the first governor of Henan, the establishment of this governor is to pacify the thieves in the south, and after the pirates occupy the south, he is also a banner man, although it is the banner of the Han army, but it is deeply trusted by the imperial court.

After coming to Henan, he also lived up to expectations, trained 30,000 green battalion soldiers in Henan, plus 15,000 eight banner soldiers led by Tuhai, there were almost 50,000 troops under his command, and in order to strengthen Luoyang's defense, he had previously transferred 2,000 eight banner soldiers and more than 10,000 green battalions to Luoyang, and now there are only 30,000 troops under his command, but the eight banner soldiers led by Tuhai have been camped on the north bank of the Yellow River, not on the south bank of the Yellow River.

Because Guide has already been occupied by the Ming thief, it was also expected for the Ming thief to attack Kaifeng, but he didn't know when, so even if Luoyang was in an emergency, he did not send a soldier to Luoyang, in Liu Qingtai's opinion, after Li Ziyuan's Northern Expedition, Zhu Mingzhong could not wait long.

Now, the northward movement of the Jiangbei Zhu Thief undoubtedly proves his initial guess, but the bad situation makes him breathless at all.

"I want to be a court, return to Taizong with all my lives, and be gifted by Taizong with the name Qingtai, how can I surrender to a thief?"

Thinking of Taizong's gift to him, Liu Qingtai's heart suddenly became hot, as long as there was a glimmer of hope, he would never give up, and he would never live up to the court's trust in him.

"Two Northern Expeditions, which road is true?"

Thinking of this, Liu Qingtai got up and crossed to the map. Now Li Ziyuan, Zhu Mingzhong, the two Ming armies are in the north to Henan, and now Li Ziyuan's department is approaching Luoyang, and Zhu Mingzhong's department is approaching Kaifeng. Now the imperial court can no longer count on reinforcements. In addition to the green battalion soldiers in his hands, Liu Qingtai can rely on the elite of the Eight Banners led by Tu Hai.

"I hope the emperor won't take Tuhai back!"

Just when Liu Qingtai was thinking so much in his heart, and pinned his hope of holding Kaifeng on the Eight Banners led by Tu Hai, a personal soldier came to say:

"Your Excellency the Governor. General Tu asked to see him. ”

"General Tu has arrived? Please, please! ”

Liu Qingtai's eyes immediately lit up. The front foot only calculated when Tuhai's reinforcements would arrive, and he came on the back foot. How could he not be excited.

"Ah, it's Tudutong. There is a loss of welcome, and there is a loss of welcome. ”

Liu Qingtai personally got up to greet him, and when he saw Tuhai, he hugged his fists politely, looking quite affectionate.

"The lower officials are greeted by the Governor of Lao, and they are really terrified!"

Tu Hai hurriedly knelt down and saluted, his career in the past few years had not been smooth sailing, and the emperor's favor for him was decreasing day by day. He was successively dismissed to worship his Rabul Hafan, the crown prince Taibao, and demoted three levels, and in the sixteenth year of Shunzhi, because the guard Arana fought with the Gongerke Daiqing slave in the city. Tuhai, who was still presiding over the criminal department, sentenced Arana to 100 lashes and redemption during the trial. But eighteen days later, Emperor Shunzhi issued a decree to deal with him strictly, and he was dismissed from his post and his family property was confiscated. This punishment is of course a very fatal blow to Tuhai, losing his official position and losing his family, and almost losing his life.

It wasn't until last year that the emperor drove the expedition in person and thought of Tuhai, thinking that his love and crime were originally wronged, so he issued an order to meet Tuhai to make up for the capital, and there was a shortage of Manchuria. And ordered him to drive south, so that Tuhai had the opportunity to lead more than 10,000 troops south to Henan, and together with Liu Qingtai, he planned the imperial army in Shandong, but he had been stationed in Hebei, not Henan.

After some politeness, the two sat down, and the next person had already served tea. After Liu Qingtai took a sip of tea, he politely invited Tuhai to drink tea.

"I don't know how many soldiers and horses Tudutong brought this time? Where are you stationed now? ”

"Back to the Governor."

For Tu Hai, who has undergone drastic changes, he is now very cautious and respectful to others, and he also claims to be an inferior official in front of Liu Qingtai.

"Xiaguan led the elite of 15,000 Eight Banners this time to the south to relieve the trap of Kaifeng. Now it is crossing south at the ferry port on the north bank of the Yellow River. Please rest assured that the lower officials and the Eight Banners under his command are willing to be loyal to the court and defeat the Ming thief to repay the master Sidian! ”

For this southward trip, Tuhai can be said to be full of confidence. He not only wanted to defeat the Ming army, but also to revive his prestige. After all, the upheavals that have struck him over the past few years have taught him that he must seize this opportunity if he wants to regain his prestige.

Tu Hai's words made Liu Qingtai say with deep thought.

"What Dutong said is extremely true, as a slave, we should serve our masters and keep Kaifeng."

Then he reminded again.

"However, Lord Totong must be careful. The Jiangbei Ming thieves are different from other Ming thieves, not to mention that the Jiangbei Ming thieves are all out of salt, all of them are very fierce, and they have a good weapon to help, unless they have to do it, otherwise they can't fight with it! ”