(Another year of Chinese New Year's Eve is coming, and dusk is here to wish all book friends a happy new year and a healthy family!) Thank you for your support!) ――

Before the army set out on the expedition, Chang Yanling and others invited Cao Yue, who was busy day and night, to Qingxianglou to drink together on the pretext of discussing some confidential matters and under the pretext of heroism. Cao Yue originally refused to go, but after hearing Chang Yanling say that he wanted to discuss some confidential matters, and then hearing that Qin Huai Bayan would also come over together to make a strong move for him, after thinking about it, he finally went.

Chang Yanling's so-called confidential matter, in fact, is nothing, probably after Cao Yue led the army to leave Nanjing, how the Nanjing Jinyi Guard, which was in their hands, would move, and how to monitor and control the officials in Nanjing.

There are more than 100,000 people in the Nanjing New Army, and Chang Yanling and others, who are Cao Yue's sworn friends, are also very nourished, and no one dares to provoke them. Even a few of their superiors basically did not interfere in the affairs of the Jinyi Guard, and let them toss. It's just that after Cao Yue led the army away, what will happen to the officialdom in Nanjing, and whether the two officials in Nanjing Jinyiwei who are higher than them will let them do whatever they want, no one knows.

Chang Yanling had no bottom in his heart, so he wanted to ask Cao Yue for something that made them feel at ease.

They didn't know about some of the arrangements Cao Yue made, in order to reassure Chang Yanling and the others, Cao Yue also revealed to them some arrangements that he didn't want to tell them, and also told Chang Yanling a few killer features.

Chang Yanling and the others were naturally relieved, not afraid that after Cao Yue led the army to leave Nanjing, their forces would be weak and they would be calculated. Cao Yue still had a lot of military forces left in Nanjing, and it was more than enough to control the situation in Nanjing.

After several people discussed the secrets, they went out to meet Qin Huai Bayan, who had been waiting for a while.

Although it is said that seeing beautiful women will definitely make people feel happy, but today's Cao Yue doesn't want to tarnish his reputation because of his meeting with so many women, let alone because of his move to visit the Qinglou Courtyard before the expedition. Let the soldiers look down on him, so he didn't stay long, toasted all the glasses of wine, and then accepted a glass of wine from Qin Huai Bayan, and then left.

After Cao Yue drank a glass of Chinese wine boldly, he apologized to everyone present: "Everyone, military affairs are in place, Cao can't stay for a long time today, so I apologize with this wine, I can't drink with you today." Appreciate the talents of the girls, and when the army returns victoriously, I will drink the celebration wine with the kings!"

Seeing Cao Yue's back leaving in a hurry, everyone was stunned, including Chang Yanling and others, as well as Qin Huai Bayan. Whether it was Chen Yuanyuan, Liu Rushi, or Dong Xiaowan, they all wanted to say some words of encouragement and encouragement to Cao Yue in person before he set out on the expedition. And I wish Cao Yue a victorious start and a triumphant return. They also wanted to show their own mastery, and Bo Cao smiled. But unexpectedly, Cao Yue didn't even give them a chance to speak alone. After drinking two glasses of wine, he left without hesitation, leaving his eight sisters and several of his brothers in Qingxianglou.

At first, they were a little indignant at Cao Yue's big shelf. But after Chang Yanling and others explained and thought about it carefully, they were relieved. And admired Cao Yue's personality. even felt that when Cao Yue left, his back was very chic and magnanimous, and this kind of determination was the embodiment of the best man's pride.

"I believe that General Cao will be able to solve the crisis in Beijing and return victorious!" This was Chen Yuanyuan's soft murmur.

"General Cao is leaving in such a hurry, the situation must be very critical, I hope I will be worry-free!" This is Liu Rushi's worries, she feels that she has never cared about the current situation as much as now, and prays for the Ming generals, hoping that they can defeat the Liukou and solve the crisis in Beijing, and also hope that Cao Yue can return from a great victory and return to Nanjing safely. She also didn't forget to tell Chang Yanling and the others: "A few sons, if there is a military situation ahead, I hope that Chang Gongzi, Guo Gongzi, and Zhang Gongzi can tell our sisters as soon as possible, thank you!"

Chang Yanling and others naturally agreed.

Dong Xiaowan and other sisters, regardless of whether they have affection for Cao Yue or not, are also concerned about Cao Yue, and pray that the crisis of Daming can be resolved.

In fact, none of them know that the current situation has reached an extremely critical time.

After Li Zicheng's several people marched eastward, the progress was very rapid, and the Ming official army encountered along the way had almost no decent resistance.

On the second day of the first month of August, Li Zicheng personally led his men and horses to break through Pingyang, and at about the same time, Liu Zongmin's army entered Fenzhou, and Li Guo's army approached the Taiyuan line. At the end of August, Liu Zongmin's troops and Li Guo's men and horses joined forces under the city of Taiyuan and soon broke through Taiyuan.

After the Liukou conquered Taiyuan, they continued to the north.

At Wuning Pass, the Liukou finally encountered stubborn resistance, and Zhou Yuji, the general soldier of Shanxi, led the army to defend the pass, giving the Liukou great damage. However, Zhou Yujibu's troops were only 20,000 or 30,000 people, and he was at an absolute disadvantage compared with the Liukou. Zhou Yuji sent people to Jiang Jian and Jiang Rang brothers for help, but the Jiang brothers not only did not send troops to rescue, but finally chose to surrender when the Liukou approached, and together with the Liukou, they attacked Wuning Pass from behind. In mid-September, Wuning Pass was lost, and Zhou Yuji and more than 20,000 soldiers under his command were killed in battle.

At the end of September, Li Guo led his men and horses to attack Xuanfu, and Zhu Zhifeng, the governor of Xuanfu, and Wang Chengyin, the general soldier, defected and surrendered.

At the end of September, Li Zicheng's men and horses attacked Datong, but under the heroic resistance of Zhao Xin, the general soldier of Datong, and Zhao Tai, the deputy commander-in-chief, Li Zicheng's troops were still fruitless after paying the price of more than 20,000 casualties, and were forced to give up continuing the attack, but besieged the city with 50,000 horses, wanting to make the Datong army and civilians surrender when they ran out of ammunition and food. Datong was not captured, all thanks to Cao Yue's original management, the efficient production capacity of the firearms workshop, as well as sufficient gunpowder and food reserves, of course, the strong combat effectiveness of the remnants of the Datong army, which is also an important reason for the victory of Datong again.

Datong was not captured, and it did not affect the attack on Beijing by the Liukou who attacked to the east.

Jiannu went south from the north, wanting to attack Beijing from the middle route, and the direction of Datong was an important military town on the road they had to pass, and if Datong was not captured, the back road could be cut off at any time. However, the rogues who attacked from the Central Plains did not have such scruples.

However, they were worried that the defenders of Datong would rush to the aid of Beijing or cause chaos for them, so they besieged the city with 50,000 horses.

The situation was extremely critical, and the imperial court urgently ordered the imperial court to fly to various places like snowflakes for the division of King Qin's army to enter Beijing, but Wu Sangui, who guarded Shanhaiguan, Liu Zeqing, who fled back to Shandong without a fight, and Zuo Liangyu in Hebei, did not take any action as if they had not received a distress report from the imperial court at all.

Cao Bianjiao of Songshan outside the Guan, and Zu Dashou of Jinzhou were unable to lead the army back for the time being, because at this time Dolgon led an army of more than 100,000 troops to the south and stationed troops on the front line of Songshan and Jinzhou. After receiving the news that hundreds of thousands of Liukou troops were attacking Beijing, Dolgon quickly raised troops to the south, wanting to take advantage of this opportunity to take revenge. Dolgon's army pressed the border, and the soldiers and horses of Liaodong could not gallop to Beijing, everyone knew that if they left Songshan, Jinzhou and other fortified cities at this time, they might be wiped out by Jiannu before they entered the customs, and Jiannu could beat them in the ass.

The situation has reached a critical point. (To be continued.) )