"Sir, you are the person I trust the most, the battle of Songjin, my Ningjin defense line has 50,000 elite Liaodong troops, plus 130,000 reinforcements, all of them are the most elite men and horses on the nine sides, 180,000 people, and then look at the Manchu Qing Tartars, but 150,000 or 60,000 soldiers and horses, even if their Eight Banners are brave and good at fighting, but they are only 100,000 people, and the rest are what are the Eight Banners of Mongolia and the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty, to a certain extent, our army has the advantage, why is it so unbearable, we also won the battle in the early stage, why was it defeated and retreated later, So that the whole army was mourned, I really can't figure it out! ”

Although the war has ended, Chongzhen also has to reflect at this moment, what went wrong, the generals sent are all war-hardened generals in the Ming Dynasty, and the commander Hong Chengchou is also very talented.

When Zhou Yanru heard this, he was also embarrassed, he knew some things, but it was hard to say, the emperor asked at this time, if he couldn't give the emperor an answer, then it would seem that he was not much use as the first minister, which was the last thing Zhou Yanru wanted to see.

After a long time, Zhou Yanru also gritted his teeth and said: "Your Majesty, according to the humble opinion of your subordinates, the defeat of this battle is not because the soldiers of our army are not brave enough, but because of the seizure of power by Zhang Ruolin, the superintendent of the army. ”

"Tell me carefully...... Chongzhen also nodded silently, and after thinking for a while, he began to ask again.

Zhou Yanru has already said a head, this cannot have a beginning and no tail, and he continued at the moment: "At the beginning, Hong Chengchou advocated fighting and defending, step by step, to relieve the siege of Jinzhou according to the opinion of the troops outside the Guanwai and the Jinzhou garrison Zu Dashou 'forcing the car battalion and not fighting lightly'. However, Zhang Ruoqi, the superintendent of the army, was opposed, and Chen Xinjia, the secretary of the military department of the central government, and others, believed that Zhang Ruoqi, who did not know the soldiers, underestimated the enemy's rash words, blindly urged the war, privately accepted the power of the governor, and indulged in command, so that our Ming army did not know what to follow, so that our army entered the division lightly, and could not break through the siege, and could not retreat to deal with the aftermath. The minister thought that the defeat of this battle, Chen Xinjia, Zhang Ruolin and others, the crime was unforgivable, and the other was the general soldier Wang Pu, in order to save his own life, regardless of the safety of the whole army, and fled first in breach of contract, resulting in the defeat of our army in Songshan. ”

"You're right, you're right! Wang Pu, this coward, in vain I valued him, it was really an unforgivable sin, when he was about to fight, he was not loyal to the country, but he escaped privately, I thought of him, I wanted to cut him with a thousand knives, and this Zhang Ruolin, his responsibility to supervise the army, not to direct the war, was so incompetent, indulged in what he did, causing my Ming 100,000 army to be lost in the hands of the enemy, but he fled back privately, it is really an unforgivable crime. ”

"Please tell the emperor, what should I do with these people?" Zhou Yanru also made a small calculation, he had already said what he should say, as for the rest, it was Zhu Youzhen's words.

Zhu Youzhen was also angry at this moment, and said hatefully: "Wang Pu will be punished for the crime of fleeing first, Zhang Ruoqi will be convicted of the crime, and Li Fuming, Bai Guangen, Tang Tong and others will be demoted and appointed as officials. The most important thing at the moment is to hold Shanhaiguan, Wu Sangui is a talent, so take him as the chief soldier of Shanhaiguan and take over the Shanhaiguan military! ”

"Obey the order!"

The city is lost, they can still take it back, but the talent died in battle, that is an irreparable loss, how many people died on the battlefield this time, until now, the court is even more employing, Chongzhen wants to kill them all, but he knows very well that it is easy to kill, but who will help him fight, there are thieves inside who are becoming stronger and stronger, and there are Manchu Qing Dynasty outside, the more at this time, he also needs to be calm, and he can't dispose of these people who can sell his life because of a momentary anger.

The monarch and the ministers chatted for a long time, and finally Zhou Yanru also left, but Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen did not have half a sleep, since he ascended the throne, he has been supper, trying his best to clean up this mess, rarely close to women, never listen to songs and dances, only sleep two or three hours a day, most of the time is working for state affairs, at this moment, still can not change the status quo, when he thinks of these, he can't sleep, can only go to work on government affairs.

Zhu Youzhen then used Chuanting as the right attendant of the military department, and personally went to the Wenhua Hall to ask him about the way to suppress the thieves and the people, Sun Chuanting said that Zhu Youzhen sighed deeply, set up a banquet to comfort him, rewarded him with a lot of things, and then ordered him to lead 5,000 forbidden troops to reinforce Kaifeng. At this time, the encirclement of Kaifeng had been lifted, and the thieves killed Wang Qiaonian, the governor of Shaanxi, so Zhu Youzhen asked Sun Chuanting to take over.

After Sun Chuanting took office, he summoned the generals in Guanzhong, first tied up He Renlong, the general soldier of the reinforcement and suppression, listed his crimes, beheaded him in the military tent, and announced that his crime was to flee back in Kaixian, resulting in the defeat of the fierce tiger general soldier in a lonely battle, so that Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai jumped out of the trap, and said that he ran away first when he encountered thieves, causing Xincai and Xiangcheng to lose Fu Zonglong and Wang Qiaonian one after another. The generals were all in awe of this, and after Sun Chuanting cut off the human dragon, he shocked the three sides, and since then he has been rectifying the army every day to make plans for the thieves.

Fengyang, known as 'Zhongli' and 'Haozhou' in ancient times, is located on the south bank of the middle reaches of the Huai River, because it is in the sun of Phoenix Mountain, so it is named after it. As early as before Zhu Yuanzhang was proclaimed emperor, some strategists suggested that the emperor should build the capital of Jinling, which was "a tiger standing on the dragon plate". However, with the development of his career and the expansion of his territory, Zhu Yuanzhang's power in Nanjing gradually grew, but the dynasty that built the capital here "did not have a long time", and the idea of "ruling the world, must be the capital of the Central Plains" has always lingered in Zhu Yuanzhang's heart. Therefore, in August of the second year of Hongwu, Zhu Yuanzhang decided to take Fengyang as the central capital, and in September, he officially issued an edict to build the capital Fengyang, and a majestic imperial city was born.

Cao Bianjiao's specific official position is the general of Pingliao, to cooperate with the Jiangbei soldiers and horses to suppress Zhang Xianzhong, now this place is not a peaceful place, at the end of last year, Zhang Xianzhong took the time to trap Bozhou, into the Ying, Huoshan District, and the five battalions of the left to meet, the momentum is flourishing, in February, Zhang Xianzhong led the peasant army after the convergence, captured Shucheng, Lu'an, entered Kelu Prefecture, and killed the prefect Zheng Luxiang. He also went down to Wuwei and Lujiang, and trained the navy in Chaohu Lake.

Cao Bianjiao is still recuperating from his injuries at the moment, but he didn't expect the emperor to let him rest for a while, if he goes to fight regardless of his injury, this road will be gone at that time, so after Cao Bianjiao got the news, he unhurriedly led the 7,000 men and horses of the headquarters and the 5,000 soldiers and horses just recruited along the way in Shandong, a total of 12,000 people, to Huainan to take office.

He is not in a hurry, anyway, he has his own excuses, he is injured, the emperor knows, and allocated a few hundred taels of silver to him, so that he can treat his injuries, Cao Bianjiao doesn't want to fight hard for the time being, he is desperate when he is trying to survive, and now he can live, why do you have to play so hard, he doesn't feel uncomfortable.