When Jiang He, the governor of Anhui, got the news that the loyal battalion was heading north, he quickly sent it to Jinxia, which was thousands of miles away, and nine days had passed. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

This means that when Zhou Shixiang received the urgent delivery, the "big guys" led by the loyal battalion had already set off.

He couldn't stop it.

The sea-crossing battle meeting ended hastily, and the northward movement of the loyal battalion broke Zhou Shixiang's attempt to block Manchuria in the north. Beijing's plan forced Zhou Shixiang to abandon the plan to cross the sea and abandon the plan originally formulated by the military department to go north. He must make a decision now, otherwise, the situation in the north will change dramatically in an instant.

When the loyal battalion went north, the most direct impact was the battle situation in Henan. The Qing army in Henan will definitely give up the confrontation with the Wu army in Kaizheng because the loyal battalion is going north, and the whole line will shrink and retreat to the north of the Yellow River, so as to strictly prevent the hundreds of thousands of "big cowards" of the loyal battalion from being blocked.

Compared with the last heavy army group of the Qing army in the hands of Aobai, Zhou Shixiang did not think that the loyal battalion could defeat the Qing army. This has nothing to do with the number of troops, the intelligence of the Military Intelligence Department is clearly placed on Zhou Shixiang's desk, and the old foundation of the loyal battalion, that is, the elite who can fight, will never exceed 30,000. The rest were the young men and the green camp captives who were coerced after leaving Kuidong, and these people lacked both equipment and money and food, and were completely used as cannon fodder by the old generals and bandits. Fight with the wind and follow the flag and shout, it is okay to really meet to defend the north. The red-eyed Manchurian Eight Banners in Beijing may not necessarily have the effect of being overcrowded, but there is a danger of collapsing at any time.

On the other hand, once the Qing army shrinks back to the north of the Yellow River, Wu Sangui's Guanning army will definitely not let go of this great opportunity, and they will definitely drive straight into the Yellow River defense line at once. No matter how much Ao Bai can fight, it is absolutely impossible to win two great battles that will determine the fortunes of the Manchu Qing Dynasty at the same time.

He can't be separated, and he doesn't have the strength.

Regardless of whether the loyal battalion wins or loses, it is definitely Wu Sangui who benefits in the end. As long as Aobai is defeated, there is no need for Wu Sangui's troops to come to the city, and the Manchus themselves will pack up the north. All the goods in the capital withdrew from Shanhaiguan in one go.

In the eyes of others, this is a grand act to expel the Tartars and restore China, but in the eyes of Zhou Shixiang, it is a poisonous recipe for eternal disasters.

If the roots are not removed, they will always grow into big poisonous weeds in the future.

"Li Laiheng, how could they have such a big courage to go north, do they think they can really take the north. Jing can't do it! ”

Zhou Shixiang was sulking, and now he can only sulk, after all, the loyal battalion is not his Taiping army, and Li Laiheng, the king of Shun, is not under his control. The Loyal Battalion itself is going north, what can he do? Is it possible to use the name of Emperor Dingwu to reprimand Li Laiheng?

The Loyal Battalion went north to the deference of Zhou Shixiang, but in the eyes of the world, they were the vanguard of the Tartars. Since the Battle of Jiangbei last year, the Taiping army did not take advantage of the victory to go north to beat the Qing army and recover the old capital, but instead sent troops to capture Guizhou occupied by Wu Sangui, which indirectly led to the death of Emperor Yongli. On the surface, no one dared to discuss this matter, but there was a lot of whispering below. The reason why there was no trend of impeaching Zhou Shixiang and not advancing was because his knife was hard enough and his hand was long enough. Some of the "backbone" were either stripped of their official uniforms and thrown into prison, or they were put on a sea ship sent to Annam, and the rest of them saw in their eyes that they would dare to stage the trick of "deceiving the court staff" since the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

However, although Zhou Shi achieved absolute control over the court and the locality, cracked down on the gentry and old officials through major cases such as debt settlement and capture, and took advantage of the opportunity of Zheng Sen's father and son to win Jinxia, he still had not integrated the rest of the anti-Qing forces. The King of Jin, who is far away from the border, doesn't talk about him, the power of King Shun, who is close in front of him, is beyond the control of Zhou Shixiang.

For a long time, Zhou Shixiang, who held high the banner of opposing the Qing Dynasty and supported the Tang Dynasty to obtain righteousness in his hands, gave the world the impression that he was a hero who killed Tartars, a great hero such as Yue Wumu, so he himself could temporarily reach an armistice agreement with the Qing court, but he could not prevent others from fighting the Qing army. In that case, it will have a great impact on his image and prestige.

Now Zhou Shixiang's mood is like a dumb person eating a yellow lotus, he can't tell if he has suffering, he can't figure out how the loyal battalion, which has no ability to attack fortifications, could choose to go north. You must know that their advantage lies in field maneuvering, or in other words, in wandering, and attacking fortified positions is fundamentally their shortcoming. Don't say north. The capital is the big cities in Henan, such as Kaifeng, Nanyang, Luoyang and other cities, which is enough for them to look at the city and sigh.

Yes, when Li Zicheng was there, the army broke through many big cities, but which time was not a lot of hard work and hard work. What place didn't become a white ground after the army had been stationed for a while! It's the north. The capital was not fought by the army itself, but the opening of the door in the city led to the loss!

Li Laiheng: Are they going to find death?

Finding death is not this way to find death, Ao Bai can allow them to reach the north. Capital city? North. Will the Manchurian magnates in Beijing become their internal subordinates? Wu Sangui can make the north at your fingertips. The capital flew from its own hands to the hands of the loyal battalion?

Zhou Shixiang dared to assert that from the moment they made the decision to go north, the loyal battalion was destined to be a road with no return.

"Dashuai, King Shun, they can't help it, they think it's just begging."

Xu Yingyuan, who had just supervised the transportation of a batch of money and grain from Zhejiang to Siming, saw the original intention of the loyal battalion to go north, and they just wanted to live.

Zhou Shixiang was silent, Xu Yingyuan was telling the truth, in order to limit the harm of the loyal battalion and the gang of bandits to the local area, he did not fully support Li Laiheng, resulting in more than 100,000 people in the loyal battalion often running out of food. An army does not even have basic food and grass guarantees, and the hearts of the soldiers are panicked, and the officials are also panicked. Perhaps, the loyalty battalion is desperate to go north, and it is really hungry and afraid.

"King Shun, they don't have food and grass to go north." Dong Changqing, an officer with the army, coughed lightly.

Xu Yingyuan glanced at Dong Changqing and shook his head slightly: "When the army was crisscrossing the Central Plains, there was no grain and grass. ”

It's good that Xu Yingyuan didn't say this, but as soon as he said this, Zhou Shixiang was even more worried. The facts are clear, the loyal battalion wants to go north to meet the fortune because of lack of food, and they want to hold on to the north. Under the capital, they must first ensure that there is enough food to support them. So where does the food come from? The answer is obvious, in addition to plundering all the way, Zhou Shixiang can't think of a second possibility.

Thinking that there might be another uninhabited area that is thousands of miles long, Zhou Shixiang couldn't help but shudder.

He had to make a decision.

"Pass the order down, change the sea crossing operation to the north operation, and target Liaodong! The three towns of the land division, the East China Sea division, and the Yangtze River water division were all transferred, and the commander personally set out to fight. ”

This order made Dong Changqing hesitate: "Dashuai, the grain and grass have not yet been prepared, and the Jinxia side has not been reorganized, is it a little anxious to go north in a hurry?" ”