Min Wangfu.

This building, which was originally a little dilapidated, spent a lot of money to repair it after the new owner moved in, but it still "kept the courtier's festival" and did not use those transgressive elements.

Every day, all kinds of people from inside and outside the area controlled by Zheng Jun came in, some of them waited in the gatehouse for a whole day, some only needed to wait for half an hour, and some could swagger directly in.

Except for the traces of the old man with the surname of the country, no one knows what the young vassal king favored and who he alienated because of what.

On November 21, the thirteenth year of Yongli, the people sitting on the bench in the gatehouse of the Fujian Wangfu saw a scene that they would never forget in their lives: theoretically, only Zhu Chenggong himself or the emperor opened the main gate of the palace. It's opened!

A sedan chair stopped at the door, and a middle-aged man wearing a black gauze hat, a red background and blue edges, and a jade belt around his waist walked down. He looked at the wide open main gate and shook his head: "Go, tell them, I am a minister, and only the prince and His Majesty can walk through this gate." ”

The entourage went in and ruffled for a while, and the people inside reluctantly opened the side door and let Zhang Huangyan enter through the side door.

Zhang Huangyan knew very well why Zhu Chenggong was so polite to him--- a few months ago, Zhu Chenggong had a public dispute over strategic direction in the palace.

"Ladies and gentlemen, my major event has been accomplished today, and the top priority is to enter Huguang and open up the connection with the thirteen families in eastern Sichuan, so as to save Your Majesty."

"My lord, the minister has to say that the main force should be placed in the north first, not in the west; In addition to the main force in the south of the eastern captives, that is, in the area of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the area of Jiangsu and Zhejiang was beaten by the army of the prince or killed, Yunnan three roads of the eastern captives were defeated by His Majesty and retreated back to Kunming, Manchuria and the green battalion soldiers, at present it is still the north. If you give Dongyu a chance to breathe, take advantage of the winter when the river is frozen..."

Before Zhang Huangyan could finish speaking, Zhu Chenggong rejected Zhang Huangyan's suggestion, placed the main force in the west, and went upstream to capture Huguang. But the logistics of going up the river are far worse than going downstream, and after besieging Wuchang Mansion for more than a month, Zhu Chenggong was forced to decide to withdraw his troops.

The difficulty of withdrawing troops is actually greater than marching into the army, and which troops will withdraw first and which troops will be behind is a big problem, and if it is not solved well, it may lead to the collapse of the whole army. The 100,000-strong army retreated in batches with baggage, and has not been able to return to the vicinity of Nanjing to this day. But the Qing army is getting closer and closer to Nanjing!

Thinking of the Yangtze River, which already showed signs of freezing outside the city, Zhu Chenggong couldn't help but panic, if it was really frozen, his gunboats could only be used as batteries, and he might not be able to compare with the Qing army even if the Qing army could not quickly pass through the frozen and not thick river, but the surprise attack of the small army was also unguardable.

Previously, Zhu Chenggong rejected Zhang Huangyan's opinion out of the exclusion of King Lu's old people, and today, he had to honestly invite in this prescient minister.

Stepping over the threshold, the eyes of the concierge corridor were projected on Zhang Huangyan, ignoring this group of whispering minions, Zhang Huangyan calmly followed the little guy who led the way through the main hall.

"Minister Zhang Huangyan see the prince."

"No need to be polite, it's an eventful time right now, alas!" Zhu Chenggong sighed, asked someone to move a Taishi chair with a backrest, and motioned for Zhang Huangyan to sit down.

Zhang Huangyan was not polite, and sat down after saluting. Looking at the dark circles and wrinkles on Zhu Chenggong's face, he couldn't help but feel a little sentimental, although this prince was extremely factional: in order to protect the interests of his own group, he negotiated peace with the Qing court, and the merger with the King of Jin was delayed again and again... Even a few months ago, he didn't take his own advice. However, who else can this huge Shenzhou rely on?

Putting away his contempt for the villains who only knew how to protect the interests of maritime trade, Zhang Huangyan stared at the empty table in front of him, waiting for Zhu Chenggong to take the lead in speaking.

"I regretted a few months ago that I didn't listen to Shangshu's direct words, so that's it!" Zhu Chenggong slapped the armrest on the chair, and with a click, the table in front of him was replaced by a raised sand table. On the sand table, you can clearly see the topography of Nanzhili, and a large number of small red and blue flags are inserted on the "castles": the red flags represent the Ming army, and the blue represents the Qing army. The blue flag was planted along the canal all the way to the vicinity of the Yellow River, like a dagger about to pierce the heart.

"I regret not listening to Mr., please teach me!"

Yes, this is going to endorse my own words.

Zhang Huangyan nodded, stroked his beard and pondered: According to the speed of the loss of cities from Xuzhou, it can be inferred that the current conquer of this series of states and counties is not the main force of the legendary 100,000 army, but a small but fine army, Nanzhili has been poisoned by the war many times, it is difficult to make up the food of 100,000 troops, and the Qing army, which is necessary for the siege, does not bring hundreds of people, don't want to break through the city of Nanjing. Both of these points determined that the main force of the Qing army marched at an extremely pitiful pace.

This is something that anyone with a little common sense can see, so Zhu Chenggong naturally knows it, but Zhu Chenggong has not taken action for a long time, which makes him feel puzzled.

"Lord Wang, according to the speed of the march, the eastern captives that pass through the state and county are just forward troops, which can be annihilated or inflicted heavy losses."

"If you don't want to, you can't!" Zhu Chenggong sighed again: "If you cross the Yangtze River at this time to fight back, it is good to win, if you are defeated, the river is frozen and difficult to withdraw by boat, the baggage is gone, Nanjing is completely empty, if Zhejiang, Jiangxi and other places come to fight, our army is left and right, wouldn't it be necessary to retreat to the sea?" ”

Zhu Chenggong's worries are actually very similar to the heart disease of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in later generations: the safety of Tianjing. Almost all of the Qing army's goals were to take Tianjing and explode the crystal. The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, on the other hand, went north for a while, marched westward for a while, and marched eastward for a while, and won successive victories tactically, but strategically it was always difficult to completely remove the threat of the Qing army to Tianjing. Although Zheng's army had taken almost all of Southern Zhili and parts of northern Zhejiang by October, the Aobai army, which had advanced like a knife cutting butter, quickly threatened the city of Nanjing.

"But no matter what, the Yangtze River always has to be frozen... Don't you send troops to the north, the Yangtze River is frozen, and the eastern captives will retreat on their own? ”

What's more, even if the Yangtze River is not frozen, it is still possible for the Qing army to find a breakthrough point on the Yangtze River. However, before the arrival of the Qing army, the safety of Nanjing City was not a big problem.

What was really dangerous was the window period between the Qing army crossing the Yellow River and the Ming army returning to Nanjing. After the Qing army crossed the Yellow River, it was completely possible to send a force of similar size to the one under the jurisdiction of Aobai to support it, while the speed of the Zheng army was limited by the speed of the ships, and it was difficult to increase it too much.

"It's not easy to do..."

Indeed, since the Qing army wanted to increase the speed of the march, it was inevitable to change horses instead of people, and even directly treat livestock as consumables, and have to abandon artillery. Abandoning the artillery did mean that it was almost impossible to take Nanjing, but the burning of the Ming Tomb (although it was uncertain what the Qing army would do and whether it would do) could have a large political impact in its own right. If the commander is smarter, maybe he can come to a siege point to send reinforcements or something.

Solid wall clearing? It takes time to clear the field on the wall and fight on the march, and when you have not cleared the field, the Qing army will be ready to cross the river first, but if you want to delay time, you have to send the troops guarding Nanjing to the north to meet the attack.

"Lord Wang, the minister has nothing to do for the time being, can you know more information before making suggestions?"

Zhu Chenggong was arrogant this time: "This is not an easy thing to do, it doesn't matter!" I have already asked people to prepare a guest room in the house, and my husband will stay in the house in the next few days! If you need anything, just ask for it. ”

Seeing that Zhu Chenggong was not polite, Zhang Huangyan no longer shirked, and said goodbye to Zhu Chenggong, Zhang Huangyan followed the people in the house into the guest room.

"I want all the documents on the movements of the Eastern Captives since Wang Shi entered the city, as well as the number of reserves of all materials in Nanjing City, and the detailed distribution of the army."