Shanxi was broken by the Qing army more than 20 passes, cities, and fortresses, and not every offensive and defensive battle was fought tragically.

There are very few Daming cities that really fought fiercely with the Qing army to the last moment like the attack and defense of Yanmen Pass.

Therefore, there were countless Ming troops who fled, and many Ming troops were captured by the Qing soldiers, and the proportion of Ming troops who died on the battlefield was not very large.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming army had long been unable to achieve the standard configuration of three cavalry and seven infantry, the reason was of course that the cavalry was too expensive, and to raise a cavalry, it was necessary to match at least one inferior war horse, and the cost was enough to raise three or four pikemen.

Of course, the proportion of cavalry in the Ming army that can escape is very high, after all, the four-legged war horse will definitely be able to explode faster than the infantry.

When they came to defect to the "Red Banner Army", many Ming troops were reluctant to talk about their former garrisons, fearing that they would be questioned by the captured general for fleeing without a fight.

This situation was extremely common among the scattered Ming troops in Shanxi, and Huang Han gave the order to blame the past, and all the Ming troops recorded their merits from the moment they were taken in by the "Red Banner Army".

This order was really timely, and tens of thousands of Ming troops who were in a nervous mood were suddenly relieved.

In fact, they were also full of complaints, and they told the "Red Flag Army" magistrate one after another, where were they who spared their lives, but the chief took the lead and ran away without a trace.

If the only remaining Ming army consciously and voluntarily organized to defend the city, not only would they face the dilemma of having no one to command, but they would also have no food and supplies, who would be stupid in such a situation?

There are also many Ming soldiers who have seen the food, clothing, armor and weapons in the hands of the "Red Banner Army" with their own eyes, and they are eager to become such people, and they swear on the spot that the generals are so kind to the soldiers that once they become the "Red Banner Army", they will definitely repay them with death!

The "Red Banner Army" calming officials expressed their stance one after another, saying that what they said was false, and then looking at everyone's actions, as long as their combat skills and ideological consciousness were passed, the "Red Banner Army" welcomed everyone to become a member.

With the help of the young soldiers, under the uninterrupted heart-to-heart talks of Liu Zaiqi's propaganda team, and under the inspiration of the positive energy of the "Red Flag Army", the veteran of the former Ming Army, Youzi, gradually took off his banditry, walked like the wind, stood like a pine, sat like a clock, and did not dare to roll his eyes.

The "Red Banner Army" has formed a system that is completely capable of assimilating newcomers, so Huang Han is not worried at all that his subordinates will be damaged by the soldiers.

In the future, there will be tens of millions of Ming soldiers to face, and it is an unavoidable problem to transform the old army.

It has only been less than a month since entering Shanxi, and the number of people and horses of the "Red Flag Army" has actually doubled, which is a good thing, but it also has a negative impact, that is, the food problem has become a big problem.

Huang Han can't just leave the people who can contribute, but also have to care about the life and death of these people's families, although they are only given two thin meals and a multigrain cake, he must also ensure that these people can be six or seven percent full, so that they will not be so hungry that they can't even walk.

After the drought and insect plague, it was a military disaster, and it was an indisputable fact that Shanxi had a serious shortage of grain in the ninth year of Chongzhen, and even if the city of Shuozhou was seized and the food hoarded there by Jiannu was not enough to settle the refugees.

The food ration before the Spring Festival should not be a problem, the most difficult should be the late spring and summer, although the autumn harvest is in sight at that time, but the small people of Shengdou should be exhausted.

Zhang Fengyi's position as a supervisor is correct, just like Zheng Zhihui and Cheng Quan, Fang Jingcheng and other eunuchs who supervise the army, he chooses to obey the orders of the general unconditionally without pointing fingers.

The first task that Zhang Fengyi accepted was to inspect all the Daming cities that were still holding on, count the population and grain stocks, and estimate in time how much food was still needed to ensure the minimum survival needs of the army and civilians.

Maybe Zhang Fengyi can't fight a war, but he can be said to be handy at doing such a thing, he has been an official for decades, and he doesn't know that the consequence of the lack of food is that there are fires everywhere, and he sees that the general is already thinking about the resettlement of refugees after the war.

Zhang Fengyi was enthusiastic and immediately started working, he finally didn't need to figure out the holy will, he didn't need to cheat with the courtiers, he could do something practical to make a living for millions of hungry people.

The impatient Emperor Chongde of the Manchu Qing Dynasty led his men and horses to cross the frozen Yellow River and enter Shanxi again, and drove 1,700 miles in eight days to bypass the fortified city of Taiyuan and come to Ningwu Pass.

Lu Xiangsheng is not an ordinary person, he always thinks about killing slaves to repay the emperor's kindness, and the generals under his command Hu Dawei, Li Chongzhen, Lei Shisheng, Liu Guangzuo, etc. are not given in vain.

The emperor issued a decree clarifying the tasks of the defenders in various places, and did not support leaving the city to launch an attack, but Lu Xiangsheng's department made changes.

Since Jiannu crossed Luoyang to besiege Kaifeng, Lu Xiangsheng and Hu Dawei and other generals often led cavalry out of the city to find fighters to attack the Qing army.

There were a lot of raids and disturbances, and there were victories and defeats against each other, and the number of beheadings was more than 100, and more than 300 Ming cavalry were killed.

Finding that the Qing army passed from outside the city again, the men and horses were boundless, and Lu Xiangsheng, who was sticking to the big city of Luoyang, keenly discovered the fighter plane, and in order to verify the situation, he personally led a general cavalry out of the city to investigate.

At the same time, Hu Dawei, Li Chongzhen, and Lei Shisheng also each led a general cavalry to explore the Quartet, and Liu Guangzuo was given the task of going to Kaifeng to contact Chen Biqian, the governor of Henan, to further find out the whereabouts of Jiannu.

After gathering intelligence, Lu Xiangsheng learned that Dongnu intended to retreat from Henan, and found out that the main force of Jiannu was in a hurry to take the lead and leave behind the rear team that escorted and looted the population, livestock, materials, and grain, not to mention 300 miles.

Lu Xiangsheng immediately conveyed the order to prepare to go out of the city to attack the Qing army, and Hu Dawei, Li Chongzhen and other Luoyang guards responded and actively prepared for war.

The emperor had a holy decree to strictly defend it, so Lu Xiangsheng hurriedly wrote a sketch of the emperor to ask for the main force to go to war, and took the initiative to go to the official letter to contact Liu Zhilun, the secretary of the military department.

Lu Xiangsheng clarified that the main force of Jiannu in Henan should have hurried to Shanxi to fight a decisive battle with the captured generals, leaving not many soldiers and horses, but a lot of captured population, livestock, grain, and materials.

Liu Zhilun and Fang Zhenghua were under the control of the emperor and never crossed the Yellow River, and now it is confirmed that the main force led by the Nu chief to cross the Yellow River from Shaanzhou to the north has gone to Shanxi.

The two of them were particularly interested in Lu Xiangsheng's intelligence, and Fang Zhenghua and the others who fought with Huang Han were able to get a lot of captures every time, and they had long been accustomed to taking advantage of the war.

Now seeing that the rear team of Jiannu escorted the Han people to transport the seizures, and they barely walked fifty miles a day, they were all moved.

Liu Zhilun and Fang Zhenghua did not dare to act without permission, and in order to get the emperor's approval, Fang Zhenghua personally galloped to Beijing overnight to face the emperor.

Of course, he was ready to explain that attacking the Qing army at this time was risky and rewarding, and asked the Son of Heaven to order him and Liu Zhilun to join Lu Xiangsheng's troops to attack the slowly retreating Qing army.