The alliance between Zhu Di and Ugqi was successful, but it was far from complete, and the two sides still lacked some trust. From Zhu Di's point of view, Beiping is his home, of course, it should be guarded by him, and it is impossible to hand it over to Ugqi; Grain robbery is a matter of low input and high output, and he thought that Ugqi would gladly accept it; But Ugqi didn't think so, he only maintained a cautious trust in Zhu Di's combat effectiveness, he was worried that Zhu Di would not be able to defend Beiping for long, once he went south to rob grain, Zhu Di did not hold Beiping, then wouldn't he be wrapped in dumplings? This is absolutely unacceptable to Ugqi. In addition, in terms of the will to fight, Zhu Di and the imperial court are incompatible, and they will inevitably fight to the last moment; Ugqi is different, and its benefits will not be realized until Zhu Di ascends the throne, so Ugqi must have a bottom line in his heart, once he crosses this line, he will immediately abandon the agreement and withdraw from the pass.

So in the final agreement, Zhu Gaoxu was assigned to go south to rob grain, which is to some extent equivalent to a hostage; Once Zhu Di is defeated, he can notify his army to retreat as soon as possible, so this plan is very beneficial to Ugqi, which can be attacked and defended, but it can also be said to be the best plan for Zhu Di, because for him, there is no problem of advancing and retreating, because he has no way to retreat.

In any case, when the two sides reached an agreement, the transfer of sergeants was immediately launched, and when Zhu Di's 60,000 cavalry and Wugeqi's 90,000 cavalry combined and paraded along Beiping City, the endless cavalry shocked everyone. Li Yuan and Zhang Hantian immediately retreated to Fangshan and the two lines; Xu Huizu of Changping and Sheng Yong under the city of Beiping were closed and did not dare to fight.

The city wall of Changping is not high, and Ugqi plans to attack it, but Zhu Di has no objection. Ugqi dispatched cavalry to shoot along the city wall, and Zhu Di dispatched 10,000 infantry to attack the city. The Mongols' cavalry and archery skills were indeed unbeatable, but they had to march to a position of twenty or thirty zhang in order to threaten the Ming army on the city wall, but unfortunately this distance was nothing for the tiger squat cannon and arquebus. Xu Huizu arranged a large number of shield soldiers on the city to protect the arquebusiers and tiger squat cannons behind them, and then when the rebels approached, the close ones used arquebuses and the far ones used tiger squat cannons, so it didn't take long for Zhu Di and Ugqi to stop attacking.

After counting the losses, Zhu Di lost 3,000 and Ugqi lost 2,000, but the results were actually none, and when the two saw this result, both of them turned pale. However, Ugqi did not blame Zhu Di, but asked about the origin of the weapons used by the Ming army in the city, and Zhu Di replied. Ugqi was very interested, and asked Zhu Di for these weapons, and Zhu Di told him with a wry smile that he only had tiger squat cannons, no arquebuses, and they were all deployed on the head of Beiping City. Ugqi had no choice but to give up.

After the failure of the attack on Changping, the two had no interest in attacking Shengyong's camp at all, and at the same time strengthened their belief that in order to defeat this kind of army, it was not advisable to attack head-on, and they could only rely on looting food. However, since there are also tiger squatting cannons at the head of Beiping City, Ugqi also has some more confidence in defending Beiping City. However, Ugqi asked for an equal share of the tiger squat cannon and arquebus captured in the future, and Zhu Di was somewhat discouraged, but finally agreed.

Wu Yingdian, Military Aircraft Department.

Since the beginning of the war, I don't know when it began, Zhu Yunwen has a habit of going to the military aircraft every day to listen to the analysis and report of the battle situation, and if the time is tight or the body is not feeling well, he will also ask Wang Du and others to go to the Qianqing Palace to explain to him. However, in most cases, Zhu Yunwen will still go to the military aircraft to listen to the report, because the information in it is more complete.

Wang Du took the baton and looked at Zhu Yunwen: "Your Majesty, can you start?" ”

"Well, let's get started."

Wang Du coughed, straightened his waist slightly, and began to explain: "Today is April 30, but the military newspapers are basically issued on April 25. ”

"At present, Sheng Yong's department is doing the work of draining the moat and filling the moat, and in terms of progress, it has not been completed on April 25, but it should be about the same today."

"The Wei Gongbu is still in Changping, and it is impossible to approach the Beiping city wall, because the cavalry of Ugqi is cruising near Changping."

"The Ministry of Peace is still in Baoding, and according to his report, Zhu Gaoxu and the Mongolian army are cruising on the front line of Baoding and Zhending, cutting off his grain route."

"General Qu Neng has joined up with General Zhang Lun and is stationed in Hejian and is engaged in a tug-of-war with the nearby Mongol army."

"Wang Zhonghui of Cangzhou was in a hurry, saying that the Mongols were cruising on the north bank of Cangzhou, and they were trying to harass the people who were crossing the river, and hoped that the imperial court would reinforce them."

Zhu Yunwen thought for a while and said, "What did Song Li say?" ”

"Lord Song means that the location where the Yanshu people dug the canal is carefully designed, so it is more difficult to repair, and it will take another month."

"Can you speed it up?"

"Yes, in addition to manpower, he also wants to use cement."

"Yes, let the political envoys of Shandong, Tie Xuan and Du Si Meiyin, fully cooperate with the repair of the canal, and it will not take more than twenty days."

"Yes!"

"What about Yongping? Haven't you taken it yet? ”

"Not yet, General Geng's military report on the 24th said that because Yongping City is surrounded by mountains on three sides, the only southwest side is narrow, and it is not easy to use the army to attack the city, so you can only use the tiger squat cannon, but it is difficult to transport the cannon to the mountain, so the progress is slower, but he promised to break the city within five days, and the city should be broken today."

"Oh."

After a while, Zhu Yunwen suddenly remembered something and said, "Is Zhu Di in Beiping City?" ”

"yes, according to the intelligence, it should be."

"That means that there are only 30,000 cavalry from Ugqi outside Beiping City, which blocks Xu Huizu's 50,000 army, and Zhu Gaoxu's 20,000 cavalry holds back Ping'an's 150,000 army?"

"This?" Wang Du hesitated for a moment, and Liu Jingping next to him withdrew the auxiliary staff officers, and then knelt down together, and said, "Your Majesty, the ministers think that the candidate for General Pingyan will be established at this time." ”

"What do you mean?" Zhu Yunwen was a little puzzled.

"Now there are 300,000 people in Ping'an, Shengyong, and Xu Hui's ancestral departments, plus nearly 400,000 people in Tongzhou, Baoding, Zhending, Zhigu and other departments, but they can't be twisted into a rope. As the saying goes: there are a thousand people in a family, and there is one person in charge. Now that it's the last moment of Pingyan, your majesty, you should make up your mind. ”

Zhu Yunwen looked at Wang Du and Liu Jing suspiciously, vaguely understood, and said with a gloomy face: "Then who do you think the 300,000 people under Beiping City should be handed over?" ”

"The minister doesn't dare to say anything, and this matter should be clearly decided by the emperor."

Zhu Yunwen sighed, stood up, and patted the two of them on the shoulder: "Get up, I understand what you mean." ”

Wang Du and Liu Jing stood up and looked at Zhu Yunwen's back, not even daring to breathe.

Zhu Yunwen hesitated for a moment, and finally said: "Spread my will: grant Ping'an as the general of the expedition to the north, and on the day of receiving the order, Keri rushed to Beiping to take charge of Pingyan's affairs; Sheng Yong and Geng Xuan are deputy generals. ”

"Order Geng Xuan to break through Yongping within five days, and then capture Luanxian, Zunhua, and Jizhou towns, and block Xifengkou Pass. In addition, he was reminded to be careful, step by step, Yanshu people are not easy to deal with. ”

"In addition, Guo Ying, Marquis of Wuding, and Wu Gao, Marquis of Jiangyin, waited for the opportunity to seize Daning and Kaiping, with Marquis of Wuding as the mainstay."

After a while, Zhu Yunwen continued: "Grant General Pingbei to Xu Huizu, Duke of Wei, to command the garrisons of Zhending, Hejian, Cangzhou, Baoding, and Zhigu, ensure the supply of grain, grass and weapons for the Pingyan army, and exterminate Zhu Gaoxu and the Mongol army, with Qu Neng and Xu Kai as deputy generals. ”

"In addition, I will make the founding prince Changsheng and the Marquis Yu Tongyuan prepare to take over in Kaifeng, and I will be stationed in Kaifeng and personally preside over the affairs of Pingyan."