The first day of the first month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen.

Zheng Xunrui married Kou Baimen.

What no one expected was that Li Zicheng also launched another attack on Beizhili on the first day of the first lunar month.

Zheng Xunrui's gaze quickly focused on Beizhili.

Li Zicheng and Gu Junen personally led an army of 300,000 and launched an attack from the direction of Zhending Mansion, and Liu Zongmin and Li Guo launched an attack from the direction of Daimyo's Mansion.

The momentum of the rebel army's offensive was very fierce, and it can be described as overwhelming and devastating.

The Zhending Mansion City guarded by Zuo Liangyu and the Daimyo Mansion City garrisoned by He Renlong were lost in a short period of time, and Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong chose to lead the soldiers to retreat to Baoding Mansion City.

A fierce battle unfolded in Baoding Mansion, this time the imperial army was not able to continue the glory, they did not fight outside the city like the last battle, but stuck to the city.

Li Ziguo gave an order, and the two righteous armies met in Baoding Mansion, and the 400,000 troops attacked Baoding Mansion with all their might.

The emperor and cabinet of the capital were not prepared at all, they did not expect that Li Zicheng would launch a large-scale attack on the first day of the first month, at this time the officials of the official offices at all levels in the north were resting, and the liukou broke through the Zhending Mansion City and the Daimyo's Mansion City, and arrived in the capital on the fifth day of the first month.

The cabinet was in chaos in an instant, and after a day or two of quarrels, it was not able to come up with a concrete response.

At this time, the 400,000 people led by Li Zicheng had firmly surrounded the city of Baoding.

At the critical moment, Yang Sichang was forced to accept the matter of jumping into the fire pit and led the army to reinforce Baoding Fucheng.

The disease of Beizhili and the capital was rampant, although the imperial court found that the situation was not right, and vigorously controlled it, but the serious consequences had already been formed. It was not only the people who died in the ravages of disease, but also the military.

Yang Sichang's original arrangement for the 150,000 army was 20,000 in Zhendingfu, 10,000 in Daimyo, 80,000 in Baoding, and 40,000 in Hejian Mansion. During this period, due to the ravages of the disease, the number of garrisons was adjusted, and the number of garrisons increased or decreased by 20,000 to 60,000 in Hejian Province, with the focus on ensuring the smooth flow of transportation, and Baoding Prefecture decreased by 20,000 and garrisoned 60,000 sergeants.

Li Zicheng's sudden attack, and it was on the first day of the Lunar New Year, led to heavy losses among the sergeants stationed in Zhending and Daimyofu. When Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong retreated to Baoding Mansion, the total number of troops under their command was less than 15,000, which means that in the previous battle, they lost more than half of their troops.

The total number of troops stationed in Baoding was about 75,000, and they were facing 400,000 rogues.

In fact, this is just a calculated number, Baoding Mansion, Zhending Mansion and Daimyo Mansion have all suffered from the ravages of disease, and the sergeants are not immune. Quite a few sergeants fell from the disease, and no one has counted the exact number. Therefore, there are absolutely no 75,000 people stationed in the city of Baoding.

Yang Sichang was ordered to reinforce the city of Baoding Mansion, and the sergeants he could lead were the 60,000 people stationed in Hejian Mansion, as for how many sergeants there were, he didn't know.

Even if it's 60,000 people. Thinking of reinforcing Baoding Mansion, which is surrounded by 400,000 rogues, and relieving the crisis of Baoding Mansion and defeating the invading rogues, this is also an unlikely task.

This time, Yang Sichang left the capital with grief and indignation, and he was the captain of the firefight. Sensitively aware that after leaving the capital this time, there may not be a chance to return to the capital again.

When he left the capital, Yang Sichang did something, he wrote letters to Zhou Yanru and Yang Yipeng respectively, imploring the two to take care of his family in the future, and he did not want to be bullied by his family because of his own mistake.

The 60,000 troops gathered in Hejian Mansion could not rush to the capital, so Yang Sichang could only rush to Hejian Mansion in person, and then command the 60,000 troops to rush to the direction of Baoding Mansion to help.

Walking out of the capital, Yang Sichang stood in front of the city gate for a long time, and there were very few officials who came to see him off.

Yang Sichang left the capital gloomily, accompanied by only a few dozen people, these people were the personal soldiers who escorted him to Hejian Mansion safely, after all, there were bandits everywhere along the way, if the dignified cabinet deputy was killed by bandits, wouldn't it be a humiliation for the Ming court.

Shenyang, Dazheng Palace.

Huang Taiji, who had been silent for a long time, also stared at Beizhili.

Although the Battle of Songshan achieved a major victory, the Eight Banners Army led by Abatai swept through Beizhili, obtained a lot of money and grain, and plundered a lot of people, but these could not fully supplement the consumption of the Great Qing Kingdom.

According to Fan Wencheng and Hong Chengchou's suggestion, Huang Taiji took measures to recuperate, sit on the mountain to watch the tiger fight, and watch the internal problems of the Ming Dynasty, during this period, Li Zicheng led the Liukou to attack the North Zhili, and as a result, suffered a fiasco, retreated to Shanxi and Henan and other places, at this time, Huang Taiji also believed that the Ming Dynasty could continue, and its qi was not exhausted.

The news from the first month of the month made Huang Taiji's eyes widen, and he didn't expect that Li Zicheng actually launched an attack on Beizhili on the first day of the first lunar month, and the detailed information obtained by Fan Wencheng showed that the total number of Liukou attacking Beizhili reached 400,000, which made Huang Taiji gasp.

Huang Taiji had never paid attention to the Liukou before, he thought that Li Zicheng was a rabble, with no combat effectiveness, and relied on crowd tactics every time he fought, but now that the strength of the Liukou has developed to such a strong level, it cannot be underestimated.

The fight between the Ming court and the Liukou is what Huang Taiji is willing to see, but what he prefers to see is the fight between the Zheng family army and the Liukou or the imperial army.

Before paying attention to the situation in Northern Zhili, Huang Taiji was most worried about the situation in southern Liaoning.

Most of the places in southern Liaoning are controlled by the Zheng army, and the Eight Banners Army can control the cities of Gaizhou, Haizhou and Yaozhou, which is still Huang Taiji wrote a letter to Zheng Xunrui, saying that both anti-dumping and anti-dumping are looking forward to the stability of the situation, so after such a long time, there has been no large-scale fighting in southern Liaoning.

Southern Liaoning is unstable, the Qing Kingdom is always in danger, even if the Eight Banners Army is preparing to launch a large-scale attack on the Central Plains, once there is an accident in southern Liaoning, it is not only Gaizhou and other places that are threatened, even Liaoyang is also in great danger, maybe the main force of the Eight Banners Army will attack the Central Plains, Liaoyang and Shenyang and other places have been eliminated by the Zheng army.

Huang Taiji was extremely distressed, and he had to find a way to solve the crisis in southern Liaoning, so the focus of his consideration was still southern Liaoning.

However, this analysis of Huang Taiji was not unanimously approved.

Those who agree with Huang Taiji's opinion are Manchurian nobles, and Fan Wencheng, Hong Chengchou and others do not agree at all.

They believe that when the defense line of Guanningjin in the Ming Dynasty was unbreakable, the Qing State really needed to take into account the stability of southern Liaoning, because every attack of the Great Qing State was aimed at looting money, and it would eventually return to Shenyang and other places, and the instability of southern Liaoning led to a serious threat to the flanks of Shenyang and Liaoyang, which made it impossible for the Eight Banners Army to fight wholeheartedly.

Now the situation is different, the Ming court has fallen into civil strife, its strength has been greatly weakened, the Qing State needs to consider launching a general offensive from the direction of Liaodong at this moment, and take the last line of defense of the Ming Dynasty, Shanhaiguan, so that the Eight Banners Army can develop in the Central Plains, once the Qing Dynasty occupies Beizhili, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi and Shandong and other places, then the center of gravity of the Qing State will shift to the Central Plains, and the status of southern Liaoning is not particularly important.

In the suggestions of Fan Wencheng and Hong Chengchou, one thing is mentioned, that is, the Great Qing State still needs to maintain a stable relationship with the Zheng Jiajun, do not attack each other, and maintain the stability of southern Liaoning, no matter how Zheng Xunrui makes a decision, the Great Qing State needs to show its own attitude.

As for the Zheng family's army, it is not invincible, as long as the Great Qing Kingdom completely breaks through the Shanhai Pass, occupies the Central Plains, and has a large area of land, it can rely on these places to develop rapidly, and finally fight a decisive battle with the Zheng family's army.

Hong Chengchou's point of view is more pragmatic, the Qing Dynasty temporarily controls the Central Plains, and the Zheng Jiajun controls the south, and the two sides are safe and sound, and they do not interfere with each other, which is also a good way to deal with each other.

Although Huang Taiji did not make a clear statement, he recognized Hong Chengchou's proposal, after all, the Qing Dynasty has developed and grown step by step, and the current situation is not simple, many things still need to be done slowly, don't be too anxious, as long as the Great Qing Kingdom can occupy the Central Plains and divide the north and south with the Zheng army, it will be a huge progress.

Huang Taiji knew very well that if the Great Qing State controlled the Central Plains, it could completely control the grassland, and the area under its control was far larger than the area controlled by the Zheng Jiajun.

Because of the advice of Fan Wencheng and Hong Chengchou, Huang Taiji focused his attention on Beizhili and Liaodong.

The only threat to the Great Qing State in Liaodong is Shanhaiguan, but with Li Zicheng's attack on Beizhili, the Ming Dynasty that cannot support it will definitely dispatch the Ming army stationed in Shanhaiguan, and at that time, the Great Qing State can take advantage of the situation and attack Shanhaiguan.

Of course, Fan Wencheng also put forward a suggestion, that is, it is best for the Qing Kingdom to recruit Wu Sangui, the chief soldier of Shanhaiguan, so that the soldiers can occupy Shanhaiguan without blood.

This suggestion Hong Chengchou thought it was difficult, he knew that Wu Sangui was a strong general.

In short, from the beginning of the first month, Huang Taiji clearly asked Abatai, who was stationed in Jinzhou and Ningyuan, to focus on collecting information on Beizhili, which must be detailed and reported to Shenyang as soon as possible.

At the same time, Huang Taiji ordered the Eight Banners, the Eight Banners of Mongolia and the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty to make all preparations, including raising grain and grass, gathering sergeants, etc., and he was also ready to start the expedition, and this time he would personally lead the Eight Banners Army to conquer. (To be continued.) )