Zhang Tongchang then left Chang'an, because the Han River was frozen, he took the Kunhan Road out of Luoyang, and turned into the national highway in Chenzhou to return to Nanjing.

At this time, the national highway had been repaired to Chenzhou.

In order to avoid the hard-hit area of the Yellow River flooding to the southeast of Kaifeng, the national highway from Fengyang to Huai did not take the Bozhou route, but crossed the vortex river at Mengcheng and turned to Chenzhou to Zhengzhou. In addition, the three water transport lines of the Yellow River, the Whirlpool River and the Yinghe River, if it were not for the freezing period, there would be four supply lines to Zhengzhou, but in winter there would only be one line of national highways.

Fortunately, because there was no real war for six years, Zhengzhou always hoarded enough materials to support the two armies to continue fighting for half a year.

Nanjing Imperial Palace Conservatory.

"What does Li Zicheng want to do?"

Her Majesty said with a puzzled expression.

This is indeed very surprising, even in Yang Qing's speculation, he doesn't think that Li Zicheng will be the first to jump out and be the first bird, at most he will take the opportunity to extort some silver, after all, he still has the three brothers of Dingwang there! Yang Qing made the empress, and he couldn't sell the emperor anymore, in this case, he showed his dissatisfaction appropriately, then bargained, and finally knocked a sum of money to make a fat year......

Yang Qing is ready to send him away with a million!

But Li Zicheng didn't play like this, he actually pulled out his knife without even talking, which is really incomprehensible!

"Whatever!"

Yang Qing said and handed the empress a small cucumber.

The palace maid next to her hurriedly took the handkerchief and prepared to come forward to wipe it clean for Her Majesty, but before she could do her duty, Her Majesty the Empress had already gnawed it open. The little palace maid stood aside in fear, watching the empress and the protector in the sunlight overhead, one person nibbling a bright cucumber, surrounded by countless out-of-season vegetables, suddenly a quiet time......

"Hmph, after all, it's wild and untamable!"

Her Majesty said.

"It's not that simple, Li Zicheng still has some brains, even if he is stunned by Gu Hengbo, he won't do such a stupid thing!"

Yang Qing said.

This is not in Li Zicheng's interests, because he still has Dolgon in front of him, he has no need to block the gun for Dolgon, and even if he is ranked, he may not be the second, in fact, Yang Qing has been hesitating between him and King Gui, and he can't determine who should be killed by the second. After all, King Gui's oil and water are bigger, and his strength is weaker than Li Zicheng, and he can get a lot of income by winning Liangguang, even if he doesn't raid his family, the tax revenue of Liangguang alone will be very fat. Now to put it bluntly, in addition to the higher proportion of workers who die of exhaustion, the density of factories around Guangzhou, especially in Foshan and the South China Sea, is not lower than that around Nanjing.

It's just a little less technical.

But the competitiveness of those blood han factories is significantly higher than that in Nanjing.

At this time, there is already a business grab.

Taking Guangdong could add a large tax warehouse to the imperial court.

But Li Zicheng can't do it there, even if he takes it, he won't get anything, he can already burn high incense without filling the hole, especially if he solves Dolgon first, Yang Qing has to fill the hole in Hebei at the same time. If King Gui is solved first, he can use the increased taxes of Liangguang to help him share this pressure, and if Li Zicheng is solved first, there will be no such good thing.

In Yang Qing's position, interests must be considered first of all in everything.

This is the number one.

He had to take responsibility for the more than 100 million people under his rule before he talked about anything else.

But Li Zicheng actually took the initiative to jump out?

"Whatever, he wants to fight us to accompany him, it's nothing more than 70,000 main forces, six armies to block Dolgon from taking advantage of the fire to rob, three armies to guard King Gui and Zhang Xianzhong, the two armies of the guards do not move, and the remaining six armies are enough to deal with him, not to mention that the militia in Huguang has not yet been disarmed, I really want to know, what is he going to fight with us!"

Yang Qing then said.

Dolgon will definitely take advantage of the opportunity, he will attack with all his might, in order to be able to struggle for a glimmer of life, this time it will be a joint operation between Li Zicheng and Dolgon. Although they are sure that they will not have a connection with each other, and even Li Zicheng will make a show of his innocence with Dorgon, the truth is that they are united. Li Zicheng may not go all out, but Dolgon will, which means that Yang Qing will have to face two enemy forces of at least 400,000 or more this time. Li Zicheng contributed 200,000 at most, and in the case of the freezing of the Weihe River in winter, his logistics could not support more, and this was mainly because he had a large number of reserves in Luoyang, and Dolgon also had 200,000, so the Ming army would indeed face a severe test this time.

After deducting the 18th Army, the 13th Army on guard against Zhang Xianzhong, the two armies on the Southern Front, and the two Guards Corps in Nanjing, Yang Qingneng put into battle only one cavalry corps plus 12 infantry corps and one corps of marines.

Fourteen armies.

A force of more than 300,000 troops.

Not including, of course, the militias everywhere.

Yang Qing's principle for the militia is to try not to use it if they can, after all, their mortality rate on the battlefield will definitely be higher than that of the regular army, especially in this winter, if it is not for the enemy army to enter the Huangzhuang District, the logistical constraints make the militia go north but become a drag.

After all, material reserves are limited.

And the Ming army definitely has an advantage in terms of equipment.

But there was no decisive advantage, only the second Marine Corps flintlock pistol, and the rest was still arquebus.

Li Zicheng's 70,000 main force only has 30,000 infantry, and the Morris phalanx, the other 40,000 are dragoons, the commune soldiers are Spanish phalanx, his dragoons are very capable of fighting, a large part of them are from the Western Regions to change the defense, and the rest are also killing people in the Hetao, these guys' combat effectiveness is no worse than the cavalry of the Ming army. The latter can hardly even be said to be stronger than them, after all, the cavalry army in Hebei and the Mongolian soldiers hunted each other, and the battle of these guys in the Western Regions is not at the same level at all, people are real wars, and the Ming army is at most hunting, so the cavalry of the Shun army despise the cavalry of the Ming army.

Dolgon was the worst of the three because of the tragedy of industrial strength, but he also had 30,000 Manchurian dragoons.

There were also 20,000 Mongol cavalry.

The rest is more and more infantry with the Eight Banners Divine Army as the core, because the number of firearms is insufficient, only one-third of the Spanish phalanx is formed, and the rest have picked up shield carts, but the Eight Banners Divine Army can't use the hard bows of Eight Banners Manchuria, so many of these shield carts have been replaced with crossbows......

Well, he's really bad.

The Eight Banners athletes, who used to be breathless to Daming, are now getting more and more backward, but the crooked wind of Yang Qing's guidance of all firearms at every turn, a bunch of cannons at every turn, and a whole bullet at every turn is really not something they can follow! This is not the game of the past when a bow was rampant all over the world, and a large group of craftsmen had to support a large group of craftsmen behind a cannon shot, and the whole system had to be maintained from cannonballs to gunpowder, and there had to be a supply of raw materials behind this system, and there had to be someone to provide them with food and clothing. Not to mention that under the blockade of the Ming army alone, the soil method of refining nitrate required countless manpower, and these manpower seriously affected Dolgon's already insufficient food, when the war turned into a competition of economic strength and industrial strength, the barbarians really had to be exposed all at once.

I can't afford to play!

In order to make cannons, Dorgon melted all the bronze objects in the palace!

Now our Qing Dynasty has degenerated to the era of barter! Anyway, the banknotes he printed were the same as the fiat money of the forty-nine years, so what could he do without bartering?

But the god warriors are still heroic.

After all, at this time, looking at this piece of land, there is only this one shelter left, and no matter where they are, they are the objects of purge, in fact, there are no other places, and now even the Yarkand Khanate is almost finished, and the Dzungar tribe and them are not brothers.

In short, this is the current situation.

There is no suspense about the winner, and the other two are only looking for a draw.

A tie would give them a few more years.

Lose ......

There is no future when you lose!

"Didn't you say that there are still a lot of people in Chang'an? Why don't you let Li Zicheng die? ”

Her Majesty said with dissatisfaction.

"This is not something that can be solved by killing a Li Zicheng, the result of killing Li Zicheng is that they will break up internally, and then they will kill each other, some want to vote for us, some want to secede, and some want to avenge Li Zicheng. In the end, it is the ordinary people who die, even if we can take the opportunity to take Guanzhong, at least hundreds of thousands of people will have to die, Li Zicheng represents order, he is alive, even if he lives on the hospital bed, he can ensure that Guanzhong is not chaotic, and as soon as he dies, it will be chaos! ”

Yang Qing said.

"Isn't there no death if you start a war?"

The Empress scoffed at this.

"Start a war, I really don't know what the outcome of the war will be, I always feel that Li Zicheng has to have other intentions for doing this!"

Yang Qing said.

He did have some skepticism.

Li Zicheng wouldn't be so stupid, but he really couldn't figure out what Li Zicheng wanted to do.

"I don't care, my wedding is coming, whoever dares to make me unhappy, I will cut off his head!"

Her Majesty the Empress said in the style of a concubine.

As soon as she finished speaking, she suddenly covered her mouth, then lowered her head and retched......

Yang Qing grabbed her wrist.

"Didn't you come last month?"

He asked eagerly.

"Nonsense, don't you know?"

The Empress whispered with a red face.

The palace maids next to them didn't hear it, once His Majesty and the Protector were alone, this kind of thing would inevitably happen, and everyone should just think that they were wooden stakes.

"Well, I don't usually pay attention to that."

Yang Qing said.

"Am I sick?"

The Empress asked, somewhat nervously.

"That, Your Majesty, you're not sick, you just need to take maternity leave!"

Yang Qing said with a serious face.

Her Majesty was stunned for a moment, and then grabbed him with a red face......

"We haven't gotten married yet, do you want me to get married with a big belly?"

She said viciously.

……

Well, this problem is indeed very serious, the empress married with a big belly, no matter what, it is very embarrassing, although the date chosen by the Ministry of Rites for them before has to be after the New Year, but at this time it can no longer be delayed. After the New Year, it is estimated that Her Majesty's stomach can really be seen, and in order to avoid such embarrassment, the wedding of the Empress was held in a hurry.

As for Yang Qing's identity.

The Imperial Husband.

Anyway, it's the first time in the world, just give him a title casually.

It's the first of its kind.

Just a real empress Wu Zetian is a widow and her husband is the emperor, and there is a Northern Wei Yuan girl left, not only for a day but also as a baby, there is no precedent to follow. But the more this is the case, the easier it will be, there is no precedent to make it casually, the imperial husband can, and the prince of Chu Guoguo will be promoted to the imperial husband of the Ming Dynasty......

It's not an official title, though.

It's just a title, unlike a concubine, there is also a fortune, the court will not give this title a penny, and this title does not have any privileges......

Actually, there is.

The only privilege of the royal husband is not to kneel to the empress.

After all, in the eyes of the ministers, it is still too much for a husband to kneel to his wife, and besides, they don't care about this problem, so they simply set up such a system, which can be regarded as giving the imperial husband a privilege. As for the rest, there is no need for it, anyway, everyone knows very well what Yang Qing's identity is, he is a de facto lone and has a fart privilege, and any power is not all his, and it is not the same whether he gives it or not. What if you give him a lot of privileges, what if there is another empress in the future? In other words, according to the new inheritance law, although it is still theoretically limited to men, since the empress has set a precedent for the succession of princesses, who knows if there will be any follow-up in the future?

Even according to the rules, it is the Four People's Assembly that has the final decision, and if the Four People's Assembly really chooses another princess, it is also completely legal.

So you can't start with this.

Can't leave the royal husband has a lot of privileges, this kind of infinitely harmful thing, simply send the royal husband away without kneeling.

So on the twelfth day of the fifth month of the Ming Dynasty, the Empress of the Ming Dynasty officially married the protector.

It's just a princess marriage.

According to the empress, it was the first emperor who married her to the protector, so she had to fulfill the first emperor's wish, and the first emperor definitely never thought that she would ascend the throne and become the empress, so she could not marry according to the empress ceremony, but married according to the princess ceremony, this is to satisfy the first emperor......

Well, it's actually mainly because she got married too suddenly.

Before, the two of them had already prepared the things they needed to get married, but it was prepared according to the princess's marriage, and they had already prepared it before Zhu Cihong came back, but after the empress ascended the throne, this set was no longer suitable, and they had to prepare another set that met the empress's standards for marrying. And what kind of etiquette should be used for the empress to marry also has to be studied one by one, which is also the reason why the Ministry of Rites set a date for them to the end of the year. In fact, according to the date of the Ministry of Rites, it is February, which is enough time for the ministers of the Ministry of Rites to study what method to use for the empress to marry.

But not anymore.

Because Her Majesty the Empress was suddenly pregnant, she was inevitably embarrassed to marry with a big belly, so she had to use the things that she had prepared before for the princess to marry, and then before the Ministry of Rites had studied the procedure for the empress's marriage, the princess wedding was hurriedly completed with the princess's wedding ceremony.

Of course, ordinary people will not know these inside stories, in fact, even the ministers do not know that the empress was forced to conceive before marriage.

As for the future......

At this time, how can you take care of the future!

(Happy New Year, all the best!) ）