Cao Yue chose the present, when the situation in the Ming Dynasty was not stable, he and Sun Chuanting did not fully control the situation in the world, the army recruitment was still ongoing, and the Northern Expedition of the Nanjing New Army still needed further training, which was carefully considered.

Because there were so many channels to transmit news, although Cao Yue stayed in Nanjing, he still had a clear understanding of the situation in the north, and he felt that it was very necessary to attack Jiannu in the Northern Expedition at this time.

After the fiasco of the Battle of One Stone, Li Zicheng hurriedly proclaimed himself emperor in Beijing, and then chose to flee and fled back to Taiyuan first.

Li Zicheng did not plan to flee all the way west, he wanted to use the numerical superiority of the army he led to use Xiongguan Haosheng to fight against Wu Sangui and Jiannu. The number of troops under the command of the Dashun Dynasty was far greater than that of Wu Sangui and Jiannu, and Li Zicheng was confident that he would be able to stabilize the situation. As long as the situation is stabilized, Li Zicheng believes that with the numerical superiority of the Dashun army, he can still turn defeat into victory and drive Jiannu out of the pass.

Although Jiannu occupied Shanhaiguan and Beijing, the nearby cities were not captured, as long as these cities were still in the hands of the Dashun army, Jiannu could not stay in Beijing for a long time, at least one grain and grass problem they could not solve. The places controlled by the Dashun army still constitute an encirclement of Beijing, and the abandonment of Beijing is only temporary, and the Dashun army will soon fight back.

But soon, Li Zicheng suffered a further blow, and the former Ming generals Tang Tong, Zhu Zhifeng, Wang Chengyin, Jiang Pin, Jiang Rang, and other heavy soldiers who surrendered to the Dashun Dynasty betrayed Dashun and asked Jiannu to surrender, and like Wu Sangui, they all played the banner of begging thieves to restore their sight. Because of the rebellion of these powerful generals, the strength of the Dashun army was seriously weakened, and Li Zicheng's plan to counterattack Beijing became a castle in the air. Under the combined siege and attack of Wu Sangui and Jiannu forces, as well as other rebellious former Ming officials, Li Zicheng had no choice but to abandon the city again and return to Shaanxi.

Originally, Liukou had already captured Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, and most of the northern Zhili, but in less than half a month. Most of Beizhili and Shanxi were lost, and the Red Lady openly broke with the Liukou because of Li Yan's killing, so that Li Zisuo's sphere of influence shrank significantly, and there was almost only Shaanxi.

Because the Liukou was defeated too quickly and did not cause great losses to Jiannuhe, except for Wu Sangui's Guan Ning Army, the other former Ming generals who repeatedly served as wall grass, such as Jiang Zhu Brothers, Tang Tong and others, did not suffer a big loss in strength. Cao Yue was worried that Li Zicheng's rogues would soon be wiped out by Jiannu and those Ming rebels. Just like in history.

If such a situation arises, then Jiannu will definitely attack the south with all his strength after entering the customs and eliminating the Liukou, which will bring huge pressure to the small court of the remnant Ming Dynasty. What Cao Yue has to do now is to find a way to contain Jiannu and those rebels who surrendered to Jiannu to eliminate Li Zicheng's rogues. Cao Yue believed that as long as Li Zicheng was given a chance to breathe, the rogue would soon recover.

If the Liukou recovers, the battle with Jiannu will continue, and it will be impossible for Jiannu to attack the south with all his might. Although Cao Yue is not very afraid of Jiannu's southern attack now. He believed that with the 200,000 troops of the Ming Guards New Army, it should not be a problem to hold the south. However, the rear was unstable, he did not fully control the power of the government and all the army, and if something went wrong, the situation was likely to be uncontrollable.

He didn't want the situation in the world to become uncontrollable. I don't want Jiannu to attack the south without scruples. Therefore, he wanted to lead the Northern Expedition, and he did not plan to re-establish slaves in this Northern Expedition, but just wanted to contain the attack of Jiannu on the Liukou, so that Li Zicheng had a chance to survive. Cao Yue is clear. At least for now, Li Zicheng will regard Jiannu as an enemy who does not share the sky, if he recovers his strength. will find Jiannu for revenge.

The enemy of the enemy is a friend, Cao Yue knew that the wisest thing to do now was to unite Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong's troops to resist Jiannu and drive Jiannu out of the pass. But Li Zicheng is the culprit who forced Emperor Chongzhen to death, no matter which rogue is the enemy of life and death of the Ming Dynasty, if you want to unite with them, you will definitely be opposed by the government and the opposition, even if he controls the army, he will eventually end up in tragedy, and everyone will rebel and leave.

Since you can't openly join forces with the Liukou to fight against Jiannu, it's always okay to go north to attack Jiannu in the name of the Northern Expedition when you besiege Wei to save Zhao, and relieve the siege for Liukou in the tone of recovering the Jingshi, right? The Northern Expedition avenged Emperor Chongzhen and restored the Jingshi, such a slogan was shouted, and no one in the world would oppose it, and no one would dare to oppose it.

Also, today's Datong is still in the hands of the Ming official army, Cao Bianjiao led tens of thousands of Ming troops, relying on the Datong strong city to defend, whether it is a rogue, or a slave, there is no way to help Datong. But Cao Yue knew that although Datong was not an isolated city, the communication between Datong and the mainland had basically been cut off, and if he did not help, the situation of the Datong defenders would become more and more difficult, and he had to find a way to relieve the siege of Datong.

The tens of thousands of soldiers guarding the city of Datong are all elite people, and their combat effectiveness is not lower than that of the newly formed Daming Guards New Army, and Cao Bianjiao is the person Cao Yue can rely on the most in military affairs.

In any case, he had to find a way to relieve the siege of Datong, and at least not let Datong become an isolated city.

However, in the rush of the Northern Expedition, the reorganization of Jiangbei Gaojie, Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo, and Liu Zeqing was not fully completed, and Zuo Liangyu in Hubei still did not accept the appeasement of the imperial court, and the risk was also very great. The Northern Expedition contained Jiannu's attack on the Liukou, which Cao Yue had to do, that is, the Northern Expedition had to be carried out. But in what way and on what scale of the Northern Expedition, Cao Yue has not yet decided.

When Cao Yue was bothering about this, he lived in the barracks, served as his staff, and served as one of his residents, Liu Ruyi, came to Cao Yue to talk about the general trend of the world.

"Brother Yue, are you going to wave the Northern Expedition and crusade against Jiannu?" Liu Ruis, who was dressed as a man, took it upon himself to dismiss the other people around Cao Yue, and asked straight to the point: "The slave family sees that you have a lot of worries these days, and you have no time to pay attention to our sisters, why should you be worried about the big thing?" ”

"You really know how to look at your face," Cao Yue didn't deny it, plus he wanted to observe Liu Ru's talent in strategy, so he also threw out a few questions and asked Liu Ru is words: "If it's my sister, let me ask you, now that the Liukou has been defeated by Jiannu, the Ming generals who originally surrendered to the Liukou have surrendered to Jiannu, and Li Zicheng has fled back to Xi'an, in this case, what should I do to be appropriate." ”

Hearing Cao Yue discuss such a question with her, Liu Ru suddenly became very happy, showed a charming smile, and said coquettishly: "Brother Yue, thank you for trusting me." If you'd like, listen to me today, right or wrong, and hope you can listen to it and don't blame me, okay? ”

"Just say it, I'll listen to you!" (To be continued.) )