After Dorgon's death, Azig was reborn and wanted to be regent, so he secretly sent someone to summon his son Laoqin, so that Laoqin would lead his army, and instructed Laoqin not to inform the kings of Dolgon's illness and death and the transfer of troops. At the same time, Azig coerced the two White Banner ministers under Dolgon's command to join him, and when they refused, he threatened to fight them. But Azig, you are not a brilliant Dolgon, and the two white flag generals did not buy his account at all, and reported to Prince Zheng Zilharang that Azig was taking advantage of his desire to seize power in chaos.

On December 26 of the seventh year of Shunzhi, the Council of Ministers of the King of Parliament was convicted of Azig and imprisoned, and his son Lao Qin was removed from the prince and demoted to Beizi. During his solitary confinement, Azig not only did not restrain himself, but became more and more rude, hiding a large knife in the prison cell, secretly digging tunnels, and claiming to set fire to the prison cell. On October 16, the eighth year of Shunzhi, the kings thought that Azig had rebelled to the extreme, and they should be executed immediately for fear of future trouble. played in, Emperor Shunzhi ordered him to commit suicide and expelled from the clan.

Azig is dead, which also means that no one can lead the army in generals, and now the only one who can be considered is Prince Zheng Zierharang.

Zilharang was born in the twenty-seventh year of Wanli, that is, in 1599, and this year is the year 1652 of the Gregorian calendar, and Zilharang has turned fifty-four years old. Although his age is okay, but after years of fighting abroad, Jierharang's body has long collapsed, and the defeat in Wuchang in the third year of Shenwu has destroyed Jierharang's health, so now it is still uncertain whether he can lead troops to fight. (Historically, Zilharang died three years later, not in battle, but in disease, at this age among Nurhachi's nephews and nephews, it seems that he really responded to that sentence, killing too many people will be damned!) ）

Xiaozhuang now has a total of candidates in his heart, and it seems that he can only use Jierharang.

"Emperor, it seems that the candidate can only use Zi'er Harang, how about Yue Le and Shuo Sai as the vice-presidents?"

Of course, Yue Le is fine, but this Shuo Sai is different. Shuo Sai is twenty-five years old this year, and he is also an extremely capable young general. Just eight years ago, Shuo Sai, who had just turned seventeen, followed Duoduo to attack Shaanxi, and broke Li Zicheng's generals Zhang Youzeng and Liu Fangliang. Later, he followed Duoduo's southern expedition, defeated Mingfu King Yousong, and gave the group a dragon gauze suit, 2,000 gold, and 20,000 silver.

Looking at it this way, this Shuo Sai is an outstanding young general of the Manchu Qing Dynasty like Yue Le and Bo Luo, but Shuo Sai is the fifth son of Huang Taiji, that is, the elder brother of the little emperor of Shunzhi. If Shuo Sai is an ordinary Manchurian, of course he is highly valued for being able to fight, but you are the emperor's elder brother, and you naturally have the legitimacy to inherit the emperor, which makes Shunzhi unable to ignore him.

Therefore, after Shuosai pacified Jiangnan, Shunzhi issued an edict saying: "Boluo, Nikan, and Shuosai should not be among the nobles." The grandson of the ancestor is hereby deceased, the prince of Gassi. Its shifts and salaries are not allowed with Prince Heshuo and so on. "What do you mean? That is to say, these people cannot be rewarded according to their military exploits, but because you are the grandson of Taizu, I will give you a prince! But the treatment and salary are not the same as those of other princes. In the seventh year of Shunzhi, the emperor issued another edict: those who are called princes under Prince Heshuo and the king of Doro County are still changed to county kings. That is to say, the prince is the king of the county, and a few of you are not the prince of Heshuo, so let's change it to the king of the county!

Shunzhi was so wary of Shuosai, of course, he didn't want his brother to come into contact with the army. Now I heard that the Queen Mother wanted Shuo Sai to lead the army, so she hurriedly said: "Queen Mother, the fifth brother was infected with the epidemic when he was in Jiangnan, and now his body is not about to be raised, so let's change He Luohui!" ”

Xiaozhuang thought about He Luohui and it was not bad, although he followed Duoduo to fight a big defeat in Nanchang, but now there is no one available, so he has to be used.

"Emperor, there will be, but what about the soldiers?" Although the Manchurian soldiers could fight, the number of the Ming army was too large, and there were more than 200,000 in Huai'an, and the Manchus were no match for the Ming army in terms of number and quality.

Shunzhi sighed and said: "Queen Mother, after the two wars of Nanchang and Hanyang, the Eight Banners have injured their muscles and bones, and now let the bannermen over the age of twelve be incorporated into the army, and they can only make up 30,000 people, plus the Han Army Banner is only 70,000 people. Therefore, I also need the help of the queen mother to let Uncle Wu Keshan send troops again! ”

Wu Keshan is the eldest brother of the Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang, and also the Mongolian Prince of Korqin Zhuoliktu, half of the army in the first two Duoduo and Zilharang's southward army was the Mongolian cavalry, most of which were contributed by the Horqin tribe, so Wu Keshan's losses were also very large.

"Emperor, the first two times your uncle spared no effort to support you, and lost a total of 100,000 horses, even your uncle can't afford it, this time it is estimated that your uncle will not be able to agree!"

Shunzhi heard Xiaozhuang say this and said anxiously: "Queen Mother, I can give my uncle gold, silver and jewelry, and I can also give him slave food!" ”

Xiaozhuang sighed and said, "Emperor, do you think your uncle lacks these?" ”

"Queen Mother, now that the Ming army is about to fight at the door, you beg your uncle, you must let him send troops to help!"

"Emperor, Mongolia is not your uncle's tribe, if Horqin has lost too much, it will be difficult to protect those tribes in Mobei! But it's not impossible to ask your uncle to help you, I just need you... ”

Now the Mongols have become the last straw for Shunzhi, and now when he heard his mother say this, Shunzhi hurriedly said: "Mother, I can agree to any request from my uncle, as long as he can send reinforcements!" ”

"Your uncle's request is very simple, as long as you marry your cousin Meng Guqing, your uncle can send 100,000 Mongolian cavalry to help you again!"

Shunzhi stopped talking as soon as he heard that this condition was the case, Borzigit Meng Guqing is Wu Keshan's daughter-in-law and Xiaozhuang's niece. In the first year of Shunzhi, he was assigned to marry Shunzhi by Dolgon, who was the regent at the time, but the two were too young at that time, so Meng Guqing was raised in the Beijing palace and married after Shunzhi became a pro-government.

It stands to reason that this kind of childhood sweetheart has a very good relationship, but Meng Guqing, as the county lord of Horqin, has been pampered since he was a child, and he doesn't let Shunzhi do anything, and this Meng Guqing is extremely jealous, and his heart is still small, and many young and beautiful palace maids in Shunzhi Palace have to make trouble with Shunzhi, so Shunzhi doesn't like this cousin.

If Dolgon could live to be seventy or eighty, Shunzhi would have no choice but to marry his cousin, but Dolgon would not live long. Therefore, as soon as Dolgon died and Shunzhi was pro-government, he was about to repent of his marriage, if it wasn't for Xiaozhuang's obstruction, Shunzhi would definitely send Meng Guqing's cousin back to Mongolia. Now that he heard that his mother let him marry Meng Guqing, Shunzhi was of course unhappy.

Xiaozhuang saw his son hesitating and asked, "Emperor, now is the time of my life and death in the Qing Dynasty, is it important for your ancestors or your personal preferences?" ”

Xiaozhuang's words woke up Shunzhi, yes! I am the emperor, I can't let the family business created by Taizu and Taizong come to me to ruin, so it seems that I can only marry my cousin!

Shunzhi gritted his teeth and said, "Okay! After the mother, the son promised to marry Meng Guqing's cousin, but he needed his uncle to send troops to support him immediately! ”

"Emperor, don't worry about this, as long as you agree to this marriage, your uncle will definitely help you with all his strength, but even if your uncle uses all his strength, he can only send 50,000 Mongolian cavalry, counting other tribes, there are only 100,000 cavalry at most, plus the 70,000 horses we prepared, less than 200,000, and it is not Nanming's opponent!"

The number of ethnic minorities ruling the Central Plains is indeed a big problem, and the Han population is too large, even after more than 20 years of war in the late Ming Dynasty, there are still more than 10 million people in the northern provinces, not to mention Jiangnan, whose population structure has not suffered much loss. In history, Zhu Youlang has been biased towards Yungui, but he can also organize 200,000 people to be handed over to Li Dingguo's Eastern Expedition, not to mention the current Zhu Hongsan. If Zhu Hongsan hadn't implemented the policy of elite soldiers and let go of the violent army, he would have been able to organize an army of one million.

Shunzhi heard Xiaozhuang say this, and he was also very annoyed in his heart, last time in order to raise troops for Zilharang, he basically transferred all the troops that could be mobilized in the country. As a result, Zilharang was completely defeated in Hanyang, leaving 200,000 people in Hanyang.

Xiaozhuang doesn't know about military affairs, but he knows how to use people, Xiaozhuang thought for a moment and said to the eunuchs in the palace: "Go and pass on Prince Zheng Jierharang to meet you!" "Since you can't make up your mind, it's better to listen to the opinion of the commander general.

Zilharang is recuperating at home, and the Battle of Hanyang three years ago hurt him a lot. However, after hearing the news from the palace, the emperor and the queen mother wanted to see him, but Zilharang still dragged his sick body to the palace to meet him.

When he came to the Qianqing Palace, and saw that the Shunzhi Emperor and the Queen Mother were present, Ji'er Harang quickly knelt down on his knees and shouted: "The slave Ji'er Harang is ordered to meet him!" ”

Xiaozhuang asked people to help Jierharang, and gave him a seat, and then told Jierharang the news of the Ming army's Northern Expedition, and told the current difficulties again, wanting to hear Prince Zheng's opinion.

After Xiaozhuang finished speaking, he asked: "Prince Zheng, you have fought for my Qing Dynasty for many years, and now when the country is at stake, I would like to ask Prince Zheng not to postpone and become this general!" ”

Zilharang smiled bitterly in his heart when he heard the Queen Mother say this, it seems that he is still going to go on the expedition, I don't know if he can come back alive this time!

Zilharang hurriedly stood up and bowed down and said, "Your Majesty, Queen Mother! Although the slave is old, he is still the descendant of the Xinjueluo family, and now he needs the old slave to go on the expedition, as long as the old slave still has a breath, he will definitely sweep Nanming for His Majesty and the Queen Mother! ”

Xiaozhuang heard what Ji'er Harang said, and was happy in his heart: "Then trouble Prince Zheng!" The emperor prepared an army of 170,000 for Prince Zheng, of which 30,000 were Manchurian Eight Banners, 40,000 were Han Army Eight Banners, and the rest were Mongolian cavalry! But the Southern Ming army has more than 200,000 troops in Huai'an, not counting the 50,000 people in Hanyang, and the strength of the DPRK and China is really stretched, I don't know if Zheng Wangye has any good opinions? ”