This turning point was the Battle of Huaiqing on the fourth day of October.

This battle was arranged before the Qing army was ordered to set out for the campaign, and the Dashun army stationed in Pingyang, Shanxi Province and the western part of Henan Province took the initiative to launch the campaign, and on the fourth day of the first lunar month, more than 10,000 cavalry and more than 20,000 infantry launched an attack on Huaiqing, Henan.

This Shun army was extremely combative, and in a short period of time, it captured Huaiqing and completely penetrated the Han army troops of the Qing army in Henan.

The chief officer of Huaiqing was killed in battle, and the governor Luo Jinhui was terrified, and asked for assistance from the Beijing division several times in one day.

In his recital, the number of Shun troops was exaggerated from 30,000 to nearly 100,000 on foot, and it was extremely powerful.

Because the total strength of the battle was killed, the Han army of the Qing army in Henan was almost swept away, so the situation was also very serious, so Duoduo, who originally went all the way to the south, received the order of the regent, and the army turned to the west, first to Lankao, Huaiqing area, after crossing the local Shun army, and has been moving to Tongguan, preparing to break through Tongguan under Xi'an, defeat the main force of the Shun army, and then go south to extinguish Ming.

This change is extremely fatal.

Li Zicheng's last small opportunity was lost in this way.

Although later generations are standing in the history books and sighing, it is indeed difficult to understand why Li Zicheng has gathered the main force and is ready to give the Qing army a ruthless attack in northern Shaanxi, and at the same time fight such a battle in Huaiqing?

What is the purpose of the campaign?

If he was sure of dividing his troops, he should lead the main force out of Tongguan and personally lead the army to fight with the Qing army all the way in Henan.

Either the whole army fought a decisive battle with the Qing army in northern Shaanxi, and avoided provoking the Qing army in other battlefields.

But what is foolish is to use a small number of soldiers and horses to stimulate the Qing army's army that has gone south to turn westward, so that Li Zicheng himself is very passive.

Because his main force was stationed in Luochuan, he was ready to go north, but when he received the Qing army coming all the way to Tongguan in Henan, he was at a loss.

There is already a threat from Azig in northern Shaanxi, and Tongguan must not be guaranteed.

So after ten days of uncertainty in Luochuan, Li Zicheng led the main force to Tongguan and fought with Duoduo.

In Tongguan, although the Qing army had red-coated artillery, the main force of the Shun army still fought with the Qing army many times, and did not distinguish between victory and defeat, which shows that after a stone defeat, the Shun army gathered the main force, regrouped, and recovered in morale and combat effectiveness.

At this time, Gao Yigong and Li Guo were defeated by the stronger Azig, and the Qing army descended from northern Shaanxi and penetrated directly into Xi'an.

If Azig had made a detour behind him, then he would have fought back and forth with Duoduo, and the Shun army would not only be defeated, but also annihilated.

At this time, Li Zicheng was in a difficult situation, and in desperation, he left the general Ma Shiyao to guard Tongguan, and led the main force to the south in a hurry, directly from Hanzhong into Hubei, and the last opportunity for the main force of the Shun army to fight was lost.

Many people wonder why Dashun, who claims to have an army of one million, disappeared after a stone, and there were still 200,000 troops in Hubei, but the soul of Azig was scattered and could not resist the enemy at all.

The main reason is that the main force is actually scattered, part of the main force in northern Shaanxi, led by Gao Yigong and Li Guo, Hao Shaoqi and other generals, after Li Zicheng arrived in Hubei and died, this way the Shun army detoured to Hubei, but at that time Li Zicheng was dead, the Shun army lost its mastermind, and could only rely on the Ming army to resist the Qing Dynasty.

And Li Zicheng's elite department, in Tongguan several fierce battles can not win, and hurriedly defeated and fled, the army lost its soul, will lose its courage, even if Duoduo did not continue to chase later, but turned back to eliminate Nanming, but the main force of the Shun army is not there, although the number is large but there is no combat effectiveness, and the Azig department is defeated at the first touch, there is no power to fight back, of course, if Li Zicheng did not die in Jiugong Mountain by accident, history may have a chance to rewrite.

………… This matter was the focus of Zhu Cihong's meeting to discuss.

Now that the Huaiyang and Xu areas are integrated, the strength of the army is enough, and the financial and material resources are sufficient, whether to take the initiative to attack, or continue to ignore it like the Nanming in history.

The former may induce the Qing army to move south in advance, so that the preparation time of the new army will be as calculated by everyone, and at most around October, Xu Huai will become the front line.

At that time, although the new army had been training for more than half a year, it was of course very doubtful whether it would be able to fight a large-scale battle without a battle formation.

Another result was to take the initiative to attack, but the Qing army did not know the details of the Ming army, so they chose not to send it and did not continue to go south.

There are two possibilities for such an evolution.

First, Duoduo did not move, stationed troops in a strategic place in Shandong and Henan along the Yellow River, and guarded the Ming army to the north.

In this way, the historical emptiness of the Qing army in Shandong and Henan will change.

Originally, in the past half a year, the Qing army only had a few thousand men and horses in Shandong.

Hauge had several thousand men on the other side of Suizhou.

The two sides combined could not cover a strong town of the Ming army, so the Qing army did not move in history and did not take the initiative to provoke.

As for the new annexed local officials and Han troops in Henan and Shandong, they had no combat effectiveness and could be ignored.

The second possibility is that Duoduo, as in history, still chose to advance westward after the Ming army moved, with the Dashun army as the priority target.

Whether the Qing army does not go south, or there is a confrontation, history will undergo serious changes, and the battle between Li Zicheng and Azig is extremely interesting.

If the Qing army still marched westward, then it would be good that the new army of the Pingyu Army could have a considerable training time, and Zhu Cihong would be able to free up his hands to integrate the rear, so that the strength of the Ming Dynasty would become stronger.

Everything is possible, any practice will trigger a domino-like upheaval, how can Zhu Cihong be careless?

Knowing history can take advantage of him in a short period of time, but the current event can produce so many changes, and so many benefits and harms.

What if you know the history well? One of his decisions may bring about unexpected changes, and when the time comes, the trajectory of history may be completely different, and the previous cognition and experience will naturally be of no use.

That's why brainstorming!

And the public opinion is to wait and see, no matter what, time is a weapon in favor of Zhu Cihong and the entire Ming Dynasty. Now that the donation has brought back the loyalty of the gentry class, the money has helped the treasury and taxes, and the reform of the military town is also underway, and the center has improved the administrative efficiency at least by many times after the reform.

Everything seems to be developing in a favorable direction, and at this time, time is a friend of Da Ming and Zhu Cihong, not an enemy.

Wouldn't it be nice to tell them to kill each other?

In the past ten years, although these two enemies have not met each other and have no contact, they have cooperated with each other seamlessly.

When the peasant army was at a low ebb, the Qing army entered the customs.

Just as the decisive battle with the Qing army was about to be held, the peasant army raised its flag again.

After tossing back and forth like this, a huge empire was finally broken up, leaving only the southeastern half of the wall, and now that the two enemies themselves began to kill each other, it was up to them to kill them.

This meaning, even if the few in front of him are not clearly stated, why don't Zhu Cihong understand it in his heart?

The candle is broken, and it has been struck three times.

"Okay, since you've all said so, let's do what everyone wants."

Since it was said that it was brainstorming, then everyone meant to sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fight, Zhu Cihong nodded and smiled: "Training and preparing for military supplies must be paid attention to, even if people only kill them at the end of the year, it will only be more than half a year!" ”

"Yes, Your Highness, rest assured!"

It was too late, everyone stood up spontaneously, Wei Yue, Li Gong and Feng Kaizhang glanced at each other, and the three of them gave a military salute to Zhu Cihong together, and said in unison: "Please rest assured about military training." ”

"Military supplies, the minister will do his best."

"The ministers will be in charge of the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Industry, and allocate more materials and craftsmen to come over." Chen Mingxia also smiled and took on his responsibility.

The ministers worked together, and the atmosphere in the hall was naturally very good, Zhu Cihong also waved his hand and said with a smile: "Okay, since that's the case, let's all go down." ”

"Yes, the ministers are leaving."

Wei Yue and the others resigned one after another, and there was a burst of laughter and the sound of walking outside, and in the inner hall, Zhang Jiayu also pulled up the curtain, bowed in front of Zhu Cihong, and said with a smile: "If His Royal Highness does not order, the minister will also retire." ”

The Secretariat is nominally under the Military and Political Department, but all the big and small things around Zhu Cihong are handed over to these secretaries around him, especially the two deputy directors of the Secretariat surnamed Zhang...... These two people were sent by him to find them, but fortunately, Erzhang was not famous at this time, and neither of them had been selected as a jinshi, and they were just a person, and once they were recruited, they were also happy.

In addition to a belly of knowledge, these two people are not Donglin Party members, and they have worked hard in the world, so they are careful and careful in doing things, and staying by their side is really an excellent helper.

"Okay, rest early, things can't be done."

The archives department of the Secretariat is building files, classifying them, and classifying them according to the superficial archival science that Zhu Cihong has come into contact with.

If you have to follow the prince during the day, you can only do a lot of things at night.

Listening to Zhu Cihong's words, Zhang Jiayu just smiled and did not answer.

Then, he glanced at Zhang Huangyan, who had been recording, with his eyes.

Compared with Zhang Jiayu, Zhang Huangyan is a little older, his surname is more calm, and his horizons are broader, at this time he has already transcribed the records, sorted out the written secret records in the order of records, and then loaded the ink cartridges and pen inkstones, even before the prince's drive, this secretariat is doing these things, and it is still meticulous and serious.

It's just that these actions are usually very normal, but today's Zhang Huangyan is extremely difficult to do, and it is also very slow, so that not only Zhang Jiayu can see that something is wrong, but also Zhu Cihong feels strange, because he said: "Xuanzhu, what's wrong with you?" ”

(To be continued)