For more than two years, Emperor Chongzhen was accustomed to hearing the victory news on the battlefield, and this time when he first heard the news of the defeat of the Gan army and the fall of Lanzhou, although he was a little surprised and uncomfortable, he thought about it seriously and soon knew where the root of the problem was.

In the final analysis, it is still the current Chongzhen Emperor's own strategy on the northwest issue that is not resolute and thorough.

If the imperial court had been able to withdraw the official troops and Han people in Xining and Lanzhou, who had already withstood the test of the Musuman Rebellion, just as the defenders who had withdrawn to Guangning and Dalinghe in eastern Liaodong had withdrawn to Guangning and Dalinghe, there would naturally not have been such losses as today.

It's just that it's no wonder that Emperor Chongzhen is there.

At the beginning, the Lintao town was moved to Hanzhong, and the Guyuan town was moved to Huamachi, which had already caused a voice of doubt between the government and the opposition, and if the Mu Suman Rebellion was ordered to abandon Xining and Lanzhou, the two big cities that the imperial court relied on to guard the northwest, then the government and the opposition would probably be in turmoil.

This is precisely why, although the Chongzhen Emperor now has the insight of later generations, although he knows that in the early years of Chongzhen, he should comprehensively shrink the military power of the imperial court and withdraw all the outstretched fists, but he can't give up the Liaoxi Corridor outside Shanhaiguan.

For the Ming Dynasty, if Jingshi was the head, then Xuanda was the chest facing the north, while Hexi was one arm, and Liaodong was another.

When it came to the Chongzhen period, the fist of Liaodong should be withdrawn, and the fist of Hexi should also be withdrawn, and only after recuperation and development could it be vigorously fought again.

Now this is what Emperor Chongzhen thinks, and in his imagination, when these two fists are swung out again, the entire northeast of the future and the entire northwest of the future generations will be taken down.

It's just that these are easier said than done.

He has been working hard according to this vision, and now, more than three years later, he has only achieved the current situation.

Of course, in addition to some strategic last resorts at the beginning, a series of actions of Emperor Chongzhen in Beijing inevitably affected the war situation in the northwest.

For example, after the reorganization and reorganization of the Governor's Office of the Five Armies, the 3,000 battalions of cavalry under the command of King Wu'anbo were withdrawn and reorganized into the fourth town of the Guards Army, which made the Northwest Officers and Army lose a powerful mobile combat force at once.

After taking Pingliang City, Wang Tingchen and his 3,000 battalions of cavalry and more than 3,000 Qingyang soldiers who were responsible for heavy supplies marched all the way west, and soon occupied the areas around Jingyuan, Zhuanglang and Longcheng.

However, at the end of July, the 3,000 battalions under the command of Wang Tingchen received the imperial court's order to reorganize the 3,000 battalions into the fourth town of the Guards, and then quickly collected all the men and horses scattered out, and stayed in the area of Shuiluo City near Zhuanglang to wait for reorganization.

In mid-August, Emperor Chongzhen's newly appointed Imperial Guards Fourth Town Supervisor Ni Yuanlu rushed from Xuanfu to Shuiluo City with ordnance and materials, and the reorganization of the Fourth Town of the Guards Army could be regarded as entering a substantive stage.

Zhang Wenzheng, the Qingyang staff general under Yang Qi of Guyuan Town, and the Qingyang soldiers of the department were also included in the reorganization of the fourth town of the Guards this time.

This Qingyang army, which has more than 3,000 people, has been following the main cavalry of the 3,000 battalion before, and is responsible for guarding and escorting the transportation of grain and grass, and this time it was officially incorporated into the sequence of the fourth town of the Guards.

The battalion sentry system, which had been implemented by the 3,000 battalions before, was also changed to a new system of guards such as towns, associations, standards, battalions, sentries, and teams.

And the military attachés who were sent by Emperor Chongzhen to serve as battalion officers in the 3,000 battalions before were fierce as tigers, tiger Dawei, and Wu Sangui, who were born as military attachés, naturally followed the tide and rose to the standard system under the fourth town of the Guards.

After Zhang Wenzheng, the general of Qingyang, was incorporated into the fourth town of the Guards Army with more than 3,000 Qingyang soldiers under his command, he also became a target system, and the Qingyang battalion under his command was upgraded to a standard, and there was a battalion under the standard.

And the Qingyang soldiers, who withstood the test of the Mushubarian Rebellion and the test of the siege of the city, also changed their shotguns from then on, and equipped with the new equipment brought by the new superintendent Ni Yuanlu, and the original shoddy and simple arquebus in their hands was also replaced by the Chongzhen front-loading flintlock smoothbore gun produced by the Armament Institute.

It's just that after the 3,000 battalions stopped in Shuiluo City and became the fourth town of the Guards, not only the reorganized Qingyang soldiers were familiar with the new establishment and equipment, but the other target battalion leaders also needed to be trained and taught according to the standards of the first and second towns of the Guards before they could really become an army.

Especially after the reorganization, those battalion leaders who were not yet in the original 3,000 battalions still need to recruit, replenish, and train a group of men and horses among the Shaanxi immigrants on the spot.

In this way, by the beginning of September, the fourth town of the new Guards Army could be regarded as a total of 12,000 people.

Compared with the first and second towns of the Guards, there are still three or four thousand fewer posts.

Almost the entire period of August and September that followed, the courtiers of the king of Wu'anbo and the imperial history of the supervising army, Ni Yuanlu, and others led the army in the area of Zhuanglangshui Luocheng, according to the establishment and drill rules given by the Governor's Office of the Guards, and the fourth town of the newly formed Guards Army was simply pulled up.

At the same time, Mei Zhihuan, who had been serving as the governor of Gansu to restrain the army of Gansu Town, was also transferred back to Beijing by the decree of Emperor Chongzhen when the Governor's Office of the Five Armies was restructured and reorganized, and served as the left protector of the Governor's Office of the Border Guards, and the governor of Gansu was also dismissed from then on.

In addition, Liu Zhilun, the superintendent of Gansu Town, took his own superintendent battalion to escort and resettle the Gansu Han people who went north to the north to reclaim the Great Wall.

After the Gansu governor Mei Zhihuan was transferred, Liu Zhilun, the superintendent of the army, was not in the army for a while, which caused problems in the military discipline of Gansu Town.

In addition, not long after Zhang Jiamo led his army to capture the city of Jingningzhou, Yuan Chonghuan, the governor of the three sides, traveled south to Jingning, and Yuan Chonghuan immediately ordered Zhang Jiamo to lead the Gan army west to Huining to garrison.

Not long afterward, the imperial court ordered the trilateral governor's office to collect the soldiers and people from all over the Liupan Mountain, and then the will to recruit them for regimental training also went to the northwest.

Yuan Chonghuan immediately sent his subordinate Senator Mao Yujian to serve as the deputy envoy of the Trilateral Governor's Office.

On the one hand, the Township Yongmin Army that was previously incorporated by Gansu Town was supplemented to Gansu Town.

On the other hand, the will of the imperial court was issued as a proclamation, and the three border townships were recruited to vote, and as long as they accepted the reorganization of the imperial court, the imperial court would give food and salary support.

In this way, in September, Mao Yujian, the new deputy envoy of the trilateral regimental training, the township brave regimental training team under the command of the new deputy envoy of the trilateral regimental training, grew rapidly in a short period of time.

When the team grows, these people will inevitably think about making some contributions.

Especially those brave leaders of the Northwest Township who have just accepted the reorganization of the imperial court, they also want to show some achievements as soon as possible, show them to Shangguan, and show them to the imperial court, so as to prove their usefulness and consolidate their status.

At this time, Ma Jinzhong and others, the puppet commander of Hezhou, were forced to abandon the city and go north under the tremendous pressure of the thieves such as Gao Yingxiang, the king of Chuang, and the thieves who continued to advance westward.

The Gansu Zhen Army, which had been looking forward to advancing westward as soon as possible and recovering the lost territory in Gansu as soon as possible, thought that this was a golden opportunity.

Zhang Jiamo, the commander-in-chief of Gansu Town, soon decided to pursue the army under the persuasion of Zhang Tianli, the general of the army, and Zhang Wugui, the newly incorporated leader of the Liupan Mountain Han Regiment, and others, thinking of taking advantage of the situation to annihilate the tens of thousands of Mu Subarians who had fled north on the south bank of the Yellow River.

And Mao Yujian, the new deputy envoy of the trilateral regiment, also sat in Huining County, Gongchang Prefecture (later Huining, Gansu), west of Jingning Prefecture at this time, together with Zhang Jiamo, the chief soldier of Gansu Town.

Yuan Chonghuan sent Mao Yujian to come, and he also had the intention of letting him supervise the army in Gansu Town, after all, he was also a senator of the Trilateral Governor's Mansion before.

However, Mao Yujian, a scholar from a scholar's background, suddenly incorporated tens of thousands of good and bad regimental training armies in the nearby mountainous areas, and it was difficult for him to restrain these newly recruited township warriors to train them, and he had no energy and authority to restrain the army in Gansu Town.

When Zhang Jiamo heard that Ma Jinzhong led his troops to flee north and decided to lead the army to pursue, he told Mao Yujian that Mao Yujian had not yet made up his mind whether to go or not, but the regimental training teams under his command had already clamored to follow the army in Gansu Town to pursue the Musu barbarian army.

First, Zhang Jiamo and other Gansu town generals were not wrong in their ideas, after all, Mu Suman only wanted to escape at this time, and he was chasing after him, and he had a big chance of winning.

And there is a big river in front of the Musu Barbarian Army, and he is not afraid of not being able to catch up.

And the most important thing is that with the great river and natural insurance, it is very likely that they will lead the army to pursue and have a chance to attack halfway, which is a must-win situation.

Second, although Lanzhou City is only a lonely city, after all, it is still in the hands of the official army, even if it is pursued to the bank of the Yellow River and does not win, these people and horses still have a chance to retreat into Lanzhou City.

In other words, even if the pursuit is lost or lost, there is not much danger to these people and horses.