Two months ago, Yuan Zongdi led an army of 100,000 to the south, all the way to Anqing Mansion, this news almost made Zhu Yousong, who had just been called the emperor in Nanjing, announce his abdication, at that time Ma Shiying was conspiring with a group of generals whether to retreat to Hangzhou, not long after he suddenly received a military report from Liu Zeqing, saying that the thief lost troops in Huaining City, and then Zhu Yousong breathed a sigh of relief, Ma Shiying even took advantage of this matter to brag about it, because Liu Zeqing was originally his subordinate, and he had to have a share of this credit.

Therefore, no one knew about Liu Ze's purging and robbery of the Anqing Mansion Treasury and escaped, let alone investigated deeply, but instead added him to the rank of knight.

Now, Zhu Yousong, who has just made the legendary Wu Zhuangyuan the general of the Nanjing garrison, and estimates that he can sit back and relax in Nanjing from now on, when he heard that Li Zicheng's tens of millions of people were coming again, he was suddenly like a deflated ball, and he had already scolded Li Zicheng thousands of times in his heart, why are you here again, how good it is for us to coexist peacefully.

The emperor's depressed expression soon spread to the entire court, and all the courtiers were panicked, shaking their heads and sighing and discussing one after another.

Wang Lanping looked at everyone, and then looked at Zhu Yousong's enthusiastic and expectant eyes on the chair in the hall, and said secretly in his heart: It seems that Emperor Chongzhen is really right, the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty can be killed, and one of them can be taken out and cut with a knife, which will definitely only be good for the future of the Ming Dynasty.

Ma Shiying seemed to have no idea for a while, and couldn't help but look at Wang Lanping, the Huang Degong Department on the Anqing front line had a total of 30,000 troops, and it had just been stationed in Hezhou not long ago, and many of them may not be fully prepared, and it was very difficult to defend them.

Wang Lanping really wanted to see if this Ma Shiying really had some real talent and learning, and he arched his hand, "Your Majesty, Lord Shoufu is full of strategy, and a little traitor is coming, presumably Lord Shoufu must have a plan to retreat from the enemy, how dare the minister get an axe in front of Lord Shoufu"

Zhu Yousongmu nodded, "Ah, yes, Shoufu, you have a good plan"

Ma Shiying was stunned for a moment, he also understood that if he didn't know anything, he would lose face, and hurriedly said, "The soldiers are coming to block, and the minister thinks that he should immediately send troops to meet the enemy."

"Where are the troops to be transferred, and which generals to send?" Wang Lanping went one step further.

Ma Shiying glanced at Wang Lanping with annoyance, "Tune, far water can't solve the near fire, naturally it is to transfer troops nearby, Fengyang General Liu Liangzuo's department is only six hundred miles away from Hezhou, and it can be arrived within ten days."

Wang Lanping smiled, "As far as the lower officials know, Liu Liangzuo's troops are only 30,000, plus Huang Degong's troops are only 60,000 in total, and there are 60,000 thieves, there is no advantage, and Fengyang, the central capital, is the land of the Ming Dynasty. ”

Ma Shiying's face was red and green, and he stammered a little when he asked, "This, this, Wang Zhuangyuan, didn't you just say that in the first battle of Tongguan, the Qing soldiers had returned to Beijing due to lack of food and grass, and said that they would not go south within three or five months, so why should I transfer Fengyang's troops to help Hezhou?" ”

Wang Lanping snorted lightly and arched his hand, "Lord Shoufu, this is only an inference from the current situation, whether the Qing soldiers will go south is not up to me, but Fengyang is the Huai River barrier, with General Liu Liangzuo here, the Qing army will never rush south when the troops are insufficient, but once the Fengyang troops are transferred, whether the Qing troops will go south, I don't know, but presumably Lord Shoufu, you must have a foolproof plan to make such an arrangement, right?" ”

Ma Shiying and Li Laixiang attacked Anqing again, and the news of approaching Hezhou had just been learned, how could he have any arrangements, if he wanted to talk about arrangements, it was nothing more than to transfer the general troops of the four towns under his command, and he would not give up if he did not tire out the three armies.

"I, I naturally have an arrangement, but Shi Shangshu also said just now, since you can anticipate the enemy first, why don't you also tell me what you think" Ma Shiying saw that the limelight was wrong, and immediately turned his attention.

Hearing this, the courtiers' eyes widened, and they subconsciously moved towards Wang Lan.

At this time, Ma Shiying was angry with Wang Lanping, and said secretly: I want to see what you are capable of, if it wasn't for the battle of Tongguan last time, Yuan Zongdi went north, how could you stand in this person today, five people and six, break the enemy, what do you do to break the enemy?

Wang Lanping arched his hand and said, "Since the first assistant has an order, then the general will get an axe, can you break the enemy, please ask the emperor to break it."

When Zhu Yousong heard this, he hurriedly beckoned the eunuch to help him up, grinning and saying, "Look, I really didn't see the wrong person, hurry, quickly relieve my worries."

Wang Lanping has also made a speculation in response to Li Zicheng's comeback in the past few days, the current situation is not optimistic, the main force of the Ming army is mainly in the four towns of Jiangbei, with a total strength of nearly 150,000, and there are also some small towns in the Chizhou Mansion in the south of the Yangtze River, Huizhou Mansion, Ningnan Mansion and Suzhou Mansion, adding up to no less than 100,000 troops, but these people are a little different from the four towns in Jiangbei, and the military power is controlled in the hands of local governors, Zhu Yousong and Ma Shiying in Nanjing can't move them at all, and the most powerful of these people is He Tengjiao, the governor of Hunan, There are more than 100,000 troops, as well as Zheng Zhilong, the general soldier of Fujian, and 200,000 water infantry troops.

In addition to these leading generals, there are also some generals who were driven by Li Zicheng from Jiangbei to Jiangnan and temporarily stationed on other people's territory, the most powerful is the former Wuchang general Zuo Liangyu, who was driven to Jiujiang Mansion by Li Zicheng's southern expeditionary army.

In this way, the total number of troops in the entire Ming Dynasty exceeds 700,000, and the bad thing is that the imperial court can command only the four towns in Jiangbei, and Wang Lanping also knows that the strategic location of the total army of these four towns is very important, and none of them can be transferred lightly.

Wang Lanping took a few steps closer to Zhu Yousong, and arched his hand, "Your Majesty, the thief Li Laixiang is making a comeback again, this is expected, Huaining City is lost, Anqing City is not guaranteed, it can be inferred that the thieves must have seen the weakness of our defense line along the river in Anqing this time, so they came to the public, Li Laixiang wants to capture the Yangtze River, he must be afraid of General Huang Degong stationed in Hezhou, because he is afraid that if he crosses the river, and the back road is empty, if Huang Degong takes advantage of the situation to occupy Anqing, then cut off his retreat, 60,000 troops are isolated on the south bank of the Yangtze River, Sooner or later, it will be a dead end, so Li Laixiang will definitely defeat Huang Degong's 30,000 people first, and then calmly cross the river."

Where does Zhu Yousong understand this, he just wants to hear how to stop this gang of thieves, and at the moment he is staring anxiously for the following.

Ma Shiying sneered disdainfully, "This is a well-known thing, the emperor asked how to retreat from the enemy"

Shi Kefa interjected at this time, "Don't worry, Lord Shoufu, I think Wang Zhuangyuan still has the following."

Wang Lanping nodded, "Retreat from the enemy, yes, the thief lost Tongguan, the door of Xi'an was wide open, Li Zicheng only opened the way to the south, in order to avoid the offensive of the Manchurians, this battle is a vicious battle, however, the emperor, Shoufu, Shi Ge Lao, have you calculated the date, from the battle of Tongguan to Li Laixiang went south again, before and after only about 20 days, the battle of Tongguan, the thief not only lost the army, but also lost a lot of military grain and grass, where can he get the military supplies of 60,000 troops to the south in a short period of time, so, I expect that Li Laixiang will almost fight and rob this time, to feed the war, otherwise his army will soon run out of food."

Shi Kefa nodded approvingly, "Well, yes, the thieves are afraid that the thieves will take advantage of the victory in Tongguan to attack Xi'an, Li Zicheng is afraid that there will be nowhere to go after another defeat, so he can only send troops south, yes, Wang Zhuangyuan is reasonable."

The courtiers couldn't help but cast admiring glances at Wang Lanping, and sure enough, he was born in Wu Zhuangyuan, and he analyzed it well.

Wang Lanping continued, "Not only that, as long as Li Laixiang's 60,000 people are stationed in Anqing, he will immediately fall into a dilemma."

Ma Shiying asked rhetorically, "Why?" ”

Wang Lanping thought about it, looked at what to say next, and smiled unconsciously, "This is all due to the fact that General Liu Zeqing expected the enemy to be like a god, and when his army withdrew from Anqing, he cleaned all the granaries and silver warehouses in Anqing City, and did not leave a grain of grain for the thieves, maybe Li Laixiang also counted on Anqing, a big city with 300,000 people, to provide him with supplies, but he never expected that the current Anqing City has almost nothing but 300,000 red-eyed people."

Shi Kefa turned his face to look at Ma Shiying, and swept up a city, the imperial court didn't even know it at all, this courage was too big.

Ma Shiying knew about this, not only did he know, but he also received Liu Zeqing's hush money of 100,000 taels of silver, and together with the other three general soldiers, he also received 50,000 taels each, but Zhu Yousong, the king of a country, was completely kept in the dark.

Ma Shiying saw that there was more such a thing out of thin air, and at this time, if he defended Liu Zeqing, it would be tantamount to provoking fire, coughed a few times, forced himself to calm down and changed the conversation again, and said, "Then, do you mean that Li Laixiang will retreat without a fight?" ”

Wang Lanping said, "Of course not, I have dealt with Li Laixiang in Huaining City, this person is brave and strategic, not lightly defeated, very competitive, since he came, he will not retreat lightly, and there is no way to retreat, if my expectations are good, there are two results, first, Li Laixiang intends to fight a quick battle, defeat General Huang Degong to replenish the army, second, according to the troops, from Xi'an to expedite the transfer of grain, but in my opinion he is more likely to fight quickly, because Li Zicheng does not know when the Qing soldiers will attack Xi'an, Naturally, the sooner you get through Jiangnan, the better."

Zhu Yousong was a little anxious when he heard this, and actually moved off the platform, "Wang Zhuangyuan, you said so much, how to withdraw from the army?" ”

Wang Lanping was upright and arched his hands, "The emperor should immediately issue an order, order General Huang Degong to divide his troops into two roads, one with 20,000 soldiers to defend Hezhou City, and the other with 10,000 soldiers to enter Luzhou City, strengthen the city defense, the two cities are separated by hundreds of miles, echoing each other from afar, Li Laixiang no matter which city to attack, the other city will send troops to rescue, if he divides his troops to attack, he will not be able to defeat that city, within half a month, Li Lai will enjoy the food and will return to Anqing"

Shi Kefa nodded again and again when he heard this, he is the secretary of the military department, so he naturally knows more about these things than others, and this method of battle should be the most advantageous at present.

Ma Shiying saw that everyone had the intention of looking towards Wang Lanping, this was to change the rhythm of the sky, so he was busy with his face, "Guard? Could it be that in the eyes of your Wang Zhuangyuan, the brave army of our Ming army can only be beaten passively? General Huang Degong waited for his work, and he should take advantage of the fact that the thief soldiers were not stable and took him by surprise, but he was defeated by 60,000 remnants, so he should not be afraid."

Wang Lanping heard it, this old boy was cowardly, who can't see it, the Ming army has never taken the initiative to attack against the Shun army, and even the guards have come from the Yellow River to the Yangtze River, this old boy just can't tolerate his own opinions, and he will inevitably contradict what I say.

Wang Lanping said, "Lord Shoufu, what you said is right, Li Laixiang is a remnant of the defeated general, but at the same time, he is also a remnant of the defeated general of the remnants of the battle, General Huang's 30,000 horses, since Chongzhen's ten years of Zhang Xianzhong's attack on Fengyang, has never fought a battle, it has been seven years now, and he has not been on the battlefield for seven years, some recruits don't know what the battlefield is, how many chances of winning can be if they take the initiative to attack, have you thought about it?" If we can't win a battle, the consequences will be unimaginable, and the army will be defeated like a mountain, and maybe we will be able to run to Nanjing in one go."

Zhu Yousong was frightened when he heard this, retreated again and again, waved his hand and said, "Guard, guard, I will be rewarded"

Wang Lanping saw that Ma Shiying was really angry and hurriedly stepped forward and arched his hand, don't really make this old boy anxious, you must know that most of the people in the court are his people now, in case he really goes out and insists on being hard with himself to the end, then he will be numb and annoyed, and whispered with a smile, "Shoufu, the last general is also your consideration, think about it, General Huang Degong was your old subordinate, if you win this battle, don't you have a light on your face?" And I, Wang Lanping, am just a small city defense general, and today I said this in the court is just to solve the emperor's worries, and it is you, the adult, who really make the decision."

After speaking, Wang Lanping took a step back, and said solemnly to Zhu Yousong and Ma Shiying, "Please make a decision, Lord Shoufu."

When Ma Shiying heard him say this, he had a little more confidence, and glanced at the emperor, Zhu Yousong was staring at him with eyes full of expectation, everyone knew that the emperor had no power to make decisions about this kind of thing, and Ma Shoufu had the final say.

Ma Shiying brushed up his court clothes and pretended to say to Zhu Yousong, "Your Majesty, Wang Zhuangyuan's words have been carefully considered by the ministers, and I think it is indeed feasible, please ask the emperor to make a holy judgment."

Zhu Yousong was overjoyed, ran back to the dragon chair, and shouted, "Proposed ......"

This is only Wang Lanping's first step, it is difficult for Li Laixiang to retreat from the army, in the battle of Huaining City, he didn't think about giving up with more than half of the casualties of his men, so he had to add some material.

Wang Lanping went out again, "Your Majesty, for the sake of safety, the minister requests that all the battalions in Nanjing City be gathered fifty miles outside the city, set up a school field, and train the soldiers, this move can be used to train the soldiers, and the second can be to cheer for the Hezhou defense line, paralyze the thieves, and make them dare not attack General Huang with all their might."

There is another advantage to doing this, Wang Lanping didn't say it, so clean up the military power of this group of generals.

Zhu Yousong can call the shots, because there are many factions in the 15th battalion garrison inside and outside Nanjing, and they disobey each other and Ma Shiying, but they all respect one person in name, that is, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, so Zhu Yousong dared to make Wang Lanping the supreme commander of the 15th battalion.

Zhu Yousong was very generous, "Accurate! ”