Damn it! Seeing that Liu Zongmin's lewd thief actually fled, Lao Tzu was half dead in anger.

If he runs, my battle with Li Dingguo will not be a complete success.

It's a pity that now that he has crossed the Yangtze River, we have to chase him, it's too late.

There is no way, I just need to collect troops with Li Dingguo and return to Nanjing.

After returning to the city, I quickly gathered my soldiers and began to discuss what to do next.

Everyone made suggestions, and some generals said that now they had just defeated Liu Zongmin, and they had finally stabilized Nanjing, so it was better to rest the soldiers first and stick to the city; Some also said that they would take advantage of the victory to pursue, immediately take Chuzhou, and then continue to advance north.

I thought about it for a while, and I was more in favor of the second option, because now the morale of the Ming army is booming, and Li Dingguo and Xia Wanchun's army have arrived in Nanjing, and now there are almost 200,000 soldiers and horses in Nanjing.

So I struck while the iron was hot, let the soldiers rest for two days, and then began to march to Chuzhou.

The army, under the command of Li Dingguo, soon crossed the Yangtze River, and then took the military stronghold set up by Liu Zongmin in Pukou with lightning speed.

After taking Pukou, the army marched all the way north and soon arrived at Chuzhou.

After arriving in Chuzhou, I thought that Liu Zongmin would fight to my death, but I didn't expect that the city of Chuzhou was empty, and there was no army stationed at all. Without much effort, the army quickly occupied Chuzhou.

Taking Chuzhou in this way, Li Dingguo and I were quite surprised, because this is not Liu Zongmin's character.

With the character of a person like Liu Zongmin, if he doesn't say that he led troops to attack Nanjing, he shouldn't have lost Chuzhou like this. You must know that Chuzhou is a bridgehead for attacking Nanjing, and if Chuzhou is lost, it can be said that it will be extremely difficult for him to attack Nanjing again in the future.

In view of Liu Zongmin's abnormality, after I entered Chuzhou City, I sent spies to track down the whereabouts of Liu Zongmin's army.

The spies returned three days later, and reported to me that the main reason why Liu Zongmin abandoned Xuzhou and did not defend it was because he received an order from Li Zicheng, who told him to return to Beijing immediately to resist the Manchu attack. It is also said that Dolgon has now taken power from the Manchu Qing Dynasty, and has not only stormed Shanhaiguan, but also stormed Gubeikou.

After hearing this, Li Dingguo and I were ecstatic.

Because of Liu Zongmin's departure, Lao Tzu can drive north for a long time, and he will not encounter any resistance at all.

Thinking of this, I immediately led the army to continue the northern expedition, and after preparing to capture Huai'an, I entered Shandong.

Due to Liu Zongmin's hasty northward journey, Li Dingguo and I met almost no resistance along the way, and soon arrived in Huai'an.

After coming to Huai'an, it turned out that it was an empty city again, so he quickly occupied Huai'an.

After winning two battles in succession, the morale of the Ming army reached its peak, and there was no rest at all, so it slammed into Haizhou, an important town in northern Jiangsu, which is today's Lianyungang City.

When we came to Haizhou, there was still no one stationed in the city, as if they were waiting for us to occupy it.

Therefore, after taking Haizhou, Li Dingguo and I relaxed our vigilance, and let the soldiers of the Ming army camp to rest, planning to rest for about ten days, and then directly enter Shandong.

……

That night, I was playing chess with Li Dingguo in the room, and Li Dingguo's deputy Gao Anbang hurriedly ran over and said in a panic: "Your Majesty, general, we have been deceived!" ”

Li Dingguo asked calmly: "Gao Anbang, what was deceived?" ”

"The general didn't know that Liu Zongmin didn't receive Li Zicheng's order to go back to Beijing to resist the Manchus, but deliberately induced us all the way north!"

Hearing this, I immediately put down the chess pieces in my hand and asked, "The price is too great for him to trick us into going north like this." That's the loss of three cities in a row! ”

"The emperor doesn't know that the reason why Liu Zongmin gave up these cities is actually to keep his 100,000 army, and then wait for Wu Sangui to help!"

I grass, hearing this I, I was shocked.

"Waiting for Wu Sangui to help? Isn't Wu Sangui still in Shanhaiguan? ”

"Your Majesty, Wu Sangui was indeed in Shanhaiguan before, but now he has arrived in Haizhou with a large army."

As soon as Gao Anbang said this, Li Dingguo kicked the chessboard to the ground with a kick, and said with a long sigh: "We have won the emperor's plan." ”

As soon as Li Dingguo finished speaking, another lieutenant general under his command ran in unkempt, and said in horror: "General, Wu Sangui suddenly attacked the Ming army camp at night, and now ...... Now ......"

"What's going on now?"

"Now that we have broken through the military stronghold at the foot of Yuntai Mountain, we are about to drive straight into the city!"

After saying this, the general's frightened hands trembled, because the military stronghold under Yuntai Mountain was in charge of him.

Li Dingguo angrily pulled out the knife directly, put it on his neck and shouted: "Then you immediately lead the troops to the west of the city to defend it, if the west of the city can't hold it, take your head back to see me!" ”

As soon as Li Dingguo's words fell, the deputy general knelt directly on the ground and said, "General, now the camp in the west of the city has been broken by Liu Zongmin. Liu Zongmin and Wu Sangui are two ways to attack us! ”

Hearing this, Li Dingguo cut off the guy's head with a single sword, and rushed out with Fang Tian's halberd.

He rushed out, and I was not idle, and immediately climbed the Haizhou City Tower.

As a result, when I climbed the city tower, I saw that the Ming army camp outside Haizhou City was already full of fire, and the sound of killing was everywhere.

If I guessed correctly, such a tactical layout should not have been thought up by Liu Zongmin, but by Wu Sangui's old fox, which was designed after Liu Zongmin's defeat in Nanjing.

In doing so, he seems to have lost a few important cities, but in fact he is retreating into advance.

Because of the first battle in Haizhou, he wanted me to be caught off guard, and even wanted to directly destroy the main force of the Ming army in Haizhou.

Once the main force of the Ming army was completely annihilated in Haizhou, he could not only easily recapture Huai'an and Chuzhou, but even take Nanjing.

Thinking of this, I immediately sent someone to call Li Dingguo back.

After calling back, I analyzed the current situation with Li Dingguo, hoping that he would not come with Wu Sangui and Liu Zongmin, but to avoid their edge and preserve the strength of the Ming army.

After listening to my analysis, Li Dingguo felt that it made sense, so he ordered his soldiers to quickly withdraw their troops and leave Haizhou.

As I expected, after leaving Haizhou, Wu Sangui and Liu Zongmin pursued the Ming army, and soon the Ming army lost Huai'an, followed by Chuzhou, and finally had to retreat to Nanjing.

Although the Ming army retreated to Nanjing, it directly lost nearly 50,000 horses after these battles.

And the main reason why I chose to retreat to Nanjing was that I wanted to preserve my strength and wait for the Manchus to attack Shanhaiguan again before the Northern Expedition. At the same time, Nanjing has the Yangtze River natural danger to defend, even if Wu Sangui's military ability is good, he will not be able to survive the Yangtze River natural danger and take Nanjing.

However, it's a fuck up, after I retreated to Nanjing, Dolgon couldn't get the Manchu throne for a long time, so he couldn't attack Shanhaiguan, which caused Wu Sangui to never withdraw his troops to the north.

Under such circumstances, it would be extremely difficult for me to go on a northern expedition, so I would have to wait for Dorgon.

……

At noon that day, I was in the camp to comfort the soldiers in my hands, when a secret message suddenly arrived at me.

I opened the secret security and saw that it was written by Liu Wenxiu, and he reacted to me, saying that although the Shuixi native soldiers galloped to the aid of Chengdu, he still couldn't resist Tsering. Dorje's attack, I hope I can transfer Sun Kewang to Chengdu, if Sun Kewang does not go again, Chengdu will definitely not be guaranteed.

When I saw the secret guard, I was stunned!

I'm wondering if the history books are wrong about Liu Wenxiu.

The history books say that Liu Wenxiu's military talent is extremely high, but now that the Shuixi native soldiers have gone to Chengdu, how can he still not resist Tsering. What about Dorje?

What's even worse is that I gave Sun Kewang a holy decree last time to let him go to Chengdu, but he didn't reply to me at all.

Now Liu Wenxiu wants me to transfer Sun Kewang to Chengdu, how the hell did I transfer it.

And the reason why Sun Kewang didn't respond to me was most likely because of Zhu Youlang's brute interference.

Thinking of this, my head is about to explode.

On the one hand, I have to deal with Wu Sangui, and on the other hand, I also help Liu Wenxiu and them find a way, this emperor is really too tired.

But I thought about it for a while, Nanjing now has Li Dingguo here, and it can still be held.

If Sun Kewang does not rush to Chengdu's aid, Chengdu will inevitably not be guaranteed.

Once Chengdu is not guaranteed, if I want to go on a northern expedition in the future, grain and grass will become a problem.

Thinking of this, I left Li Dingguo in Nanjing, and then took Mu Xia and Xia Wanchun and rushed to Kunming overnight.