The next day, the Yan army divided the cavalry into three parts, Zhu Di, Zhu Neng, and Xu Zhong each led one road, and began to plunder along the Xianxian, Shenzhou, Wuqiang, and Jiaohe areas, while Chen Xuan led 5,000 cavalry to cruise to the Cangzhou area to find a suitable place to dig the river.

This raid is different from the past, the Yan army not only looted property, but also plundered the population, driving the crowd to the east, once the people resisted, the Yan army became very brutal, the Mongolian cavalry led by Huo Zhen was cruel and abnormal, once there was resistance, the knife was cut, and the knife was killed. In addition to the reason for the deterioration of the war situation, the corruption of the discipline of the Yan army was also related to the blockade of Zhu Yunwen, Zhu Di had rebelled for half a year, and the imperial court made little progress militarily, only captured Baoding, but the people of Beiping were becoming more and more impoverished. Under Zhu Di's strict orders, the army was treated adequately, but ordinary people were not treated so well. In order to make up for the losses in the Battle of Baoding, Zhu Di recruited new people, most of whom were poor and had poor military discipline. Seeing this kind of scene, Zhu Neng, Xu Zhong and others immediately strictly enforced military discipline, and after dealing with a few typical examples of not obeying orders, they slightly controlled the madness of the army. Of course, the purpose of Zhu Neng and the others was to avoid mental dissagnation caused by looting and reduce the combat effectiveness of the army.

But even so, the triangle of Hejian, Cangzhou, and Dezhou was full of flames, and the cavalry of the Yan army drove a large number of people to Cangzhou like the last madness.

Xu Kai, the general of the river, sent troops to rescue the people, but was defeated by Zhu Neng, and the deputy general Tao Ming and the governor Chen Xian were killed in battle, losing more than 20,000 soldiers, including 5,000 cavalry. Zhu Neng chased to the city, saw the suspension bridge towering, so he ordered the people to fill the river with cloth bags with soil, Xu Kai had no choice but to order the soldiers to release arrows, the people under the city had no way to advance or retreat, and they fell in a pool of blood, the moat was stained red with blood, and the river flowed backwards. The defenders of Hejian had never seen such a cruel scene, and they almost collapsed, but fortunately they barely held on to the city with the support of the city.

When the battle was dark, Zhu Neng had no choice but to retreat, leaving the people in mourning under the city, but the defenders in the city did not dare to open the city gate, and could only watch and listen to the wailing outside the city gradually fell silent. Xu Kai and others stayed up all night, lest the Yan army steal the city.

After dawn, Xu Kai let people go out of the city to clean up the corpses, according to later statistics, there are more than 30,000 corpses of the people in the city, not only the prime of life, but also the elderly, women and children, less than 2,000 survivors, Xu Kai and others mourned, but they had no choice but to fly to the court and the surrounding cities.

In order to ensure the safety of grain and grass, Zhu Yunwen ordered Mei Yin to be stationed in Dezhou, and Tie Xuan, the political envoy of Shandong, was also stationed in Dezhou, and he was responsible for supervising the transportation of grain and grass for the army. In the new year, Zhu Yunwen ordered Zhang Lun and Cao Yushu to lead the First Army and the Second Army of the Guards to move to Cangzhou to protect the grain and grass of the army, and to be ready to go north at any time.

Mei Yin was shocked after receiving Xu Kai's battle report, and after consulting with Tie Xuan, Zhang Lun and others, he ordered Zhang Lun and Cao Yushu to lead the first and second armies of the guards to move towards Wuqiao and Jiaohe, trying to intercept the people who were plundered by the Yan army and reinforce Hejian in time. At the same time, he sent a war report to Sheng Yong of Zhigu, asking him to attack Tongzhou and attract Zhu Di to come back. In the end, Mei Yin and Tie Xuan jointly wrote a letter, asking the imperial court to send a large army to attack Beiping, completely eliminate the rebels, and relieve the people from hanging upside down.

When the news of the battle between the rivers reached Jingshi, the government and the opposition were shocked, and Zhu Yunwen was greatly shocked, although he thought of this possibility, but he couldn't accept this reality, is it so difficult for the Yongle Emperor to leave a name for thousands of years in later generations? Is there something wrong with your strategy? Or did this kind of thing happen before, and was it erased by Zhu Di in the end?

Zhu Di immediately summoned Wang Du, Liu Jing, Zhuo Jing, and Xie Jin to discuss the matter together, and he proposed for the first time the method of going straight to Beiping and quickly extinguishing the war. As soon as his words fell, Zhuo Jing stood up and arched his hand: "The emperor is Shengming, the minister agrees to go straight to Beiping, and the minister has been thinking about this issue recently. Your Majesty, please forgive your ministers! ”

"But it doesn't hurt to say it!"

"Yes, Your Majesty! After the Battle of Baoding, the strength of the Yanshu people was sharply reduced to 150,000, and some of them were new soldiers, and they had to divide troops to guard Juyongguan, Beiping, Tongzhou and Yongping, and the mobile force was only 60,000 or 70,000. The imperial court requisitioned and transferred at least 300,000 troops to Zhending, Baoding, Bauhinia Pass, Hejian, Dezhou, Cangzhou, Zhigu, and Liaodong, and the military strength that could be mobilized was more than 200,000, occupying an absolute advantage. Therefore, the minister suggested that General Ping'an be promoted to General Pingyan, who would be responsible for directing counterinsurgency matters. Moreover, according to the report, General Ping'an has already gone north to Baoding, and the Baoding army will reach 100,000 at that time, and he can attack Beiping. ”

"The minister's plan is like this, shilling General Sheng Yong to attack Tongzhou, attract Yanshu people to come back to help, when the Yanshu people and Mongolian cavalry besiege General Sheng Yong, the rest of the army will go north one after another, gather under the city of Beiping, and destroy it in one fell swoop."

Zhu Yunwen secretly thought about it, and felt that it was okay, so he looked around and said: "Zhuo Qing's suggestion is feasible, but I am afraid that it will be easy to be annihilated by the rebels by dividing the troops and attacking together, which is not good." ”

"That's why the minister asked General Sheng Yong to attack Tongzhou and hold out for five to ten days, giving the army time to assemble."

"But," Wang Du smiled and said, "What if the Yanshu people use the Mongol army to contain General Sheng Yong and lead 60,000 cavalry to attack the army on the road where I assembled?" ”

"This is not difficult, order General Ping'an to move to Xiongxian, and the other armies will gather in Xiongxian, and then go north together."

Zhu Yunwen thought about it and felt that he couldn't find any flaws, but he didn't say anything, but said, "What about the others?" Any other opinions? ”

Liu Jing and Wang Du glanced at each other, and then Liu Jing stood up and said: "Your Majesty, when the battle report came, the ministers and Lord Wang and the staff officers of the General Staff Department had done some deductions, and the ministers thought that it was unrealistic to complete the battle in one battle, and the imperial court had lost the best opportunity. ”

"Huh? What do you mean? Zhu Yunwen asked.

"Please forgive Weichen for speaking bluntly," Liu Jing, who is nearly fifty years old, said calmly: "The best time to exterminate the rebels in one fell swoop is when Lieguo Gong is alive, he is the only remaining general in this dynasty who can lead the army, if he leads the army to attack Beiping, he should have a great chance of destroying the rebels." ”

"After the unfortunate death of the Duke of Lieguo, the imperial court did not have this opportunity, so the emperor formulated a step-by-step strategy, handed over to the two generals of Ping'an and Sheng Yong to implement, General Ping'an successfully conquered Baoding, eliminated a large number of rebels' troops, General Sheng Yong also caused a great deal of restraint on the rebels' actions, and the rebels had to increase the garrisons of Beiping and Tongzhou, and even let the Mongols enter the Great Wall, intending to carry out a surprise attack on General Sheng Yong."

"Although the number of Mongols in Zunhua is unknown, according to the analysis of all aspects, its strength should be 30,000 to 50,000, because the number is too small to play a big role, and if there are too many people, the Yanshu people will also be uneasy, and he can't help but worry about the possibility of the Mongol army sneaking up on Beiping."

"But the addition of the Mongols has complicated the situation, and after the analysis of the ministers, it is no longer possible to complete the battle at present."

"Why?"