In the material world, the basis of everything is material. [Full text reading]

Even if you are not a materialist, even in different times and under different conditions, as long as you are doing concrete things, you will have a direct and profound experience. Only by facing reality can we solve problems, and this is a truth that everyone who does things knows.

At the beginning of 1632 A.D., there were two main forces in northern China that were plagued by practical problems. One is the local military force of the Ming Dynasty that still considers the Ming Dynasty to be orthodox. It mainly includes the Liaodong warlord group in the northernmost part, Sun Yuanhua's Shandong New Army in the Central Plains, and Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong Army.

The other is the opposing force of the army that seeks to change the dynasty. It mainly includes Gao Yingxiang, who had expelled Emperor Chongzhen to occupy the city of Beijing, and Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, who were confronting Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Yuanhua in the Zhending area.

Purely in terms of the number of troops, in addition to the 10,000 "elite" troops currently stationed in Beijing under Gao Yingxiang's command, there are also nearly 100,000 ordinary troops from the western part of Shandong that are constantly marching into the vicinity of Beijing. Moreover, after the great riot in Beijing was suppressed, the 40,000 or 50,000 soldiers of the Beijing battalion who were screened were also recruited by Gao Yingxiang.

In addition to the 150,000 troops under Gao Yingxiang, the troops under the command of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were greatly attrition in the war, and there are still about 60,000 to 70,000 people in total.

In the face of an army with a total number of more than 200,000, the number of troops on the Ming side was relatively small. The Liaodong warlord clique under the leadership of Zu Dashou had only 30,000 or 40,000 troops capable of fighting on the frontal battlefield, except for the serf soldiers who existed as coolies and cannon fodder. Of course, these 30,000 or 40,000 people can be regarded as the foundation of the Liaodong warlord group's survival, and they are all cavalry infantry units that can fight the Jurchen soldiers on the frontal battlefield.

In addition to the 40,000 Liaodong Army under Zu Dashou, the Shandong New Army under Sun Yuanhua suffered the smallest losses, and there are currently more than 20,000 people. In the later period, Lu Xiangsheng also spent a lot of money to purchase a large amount of "Nanyang" arms from Zeng Dezhao, a "Portuguese" arms dealer, but because of the lack of preparation in the early stage, there are only about 10,000 backbones left in the current Tianxiong Army, and the other more than 30,000 recruits are all local militia recruited by Lu Xiangsheng in the surrounding areas.

In other words, the current situation in North China is that the 40,000 Liaodong Army is confronting the 150,000 Gao Yingxiang troops on the line from Shanhaiguan to Beijing. The 70,000 Chuang army led by Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong was confronting the Shandong New Army led by Sun Yuanhua and the Tianxiong Army led by Lu Xiangsheng, with a total number of about 60,000.

Judging from the current situation, in the northeast is Gao Yingxiang's invasion army relying on Beijing City and other major cities around Beijing to fight against Zu Dashou's Liaodong Army with Shanhaiguan as a barrier. In the Central Plains, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong faced Sun Yuanhua and Lu Xiangsheng, and both sides had their own victories and defeats.

However, although Gao Yingxiang's troops in the northeast have an advantage in numbers, the unstable situation in Beijing and around Beijing has dragged Gao Yingxiang's hands and feet, and the ancestral Dashou Liaodong warlord group needs to guard against the Houjin Jurchen side, which has been honest for a long time.

After more than a year of continuous fighting between Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, Sun Yuanhua and Lu Xiangsheng, they have now begun to enter the sluggish stage of exhaustion on both sides. In fact, from October 1631 onwards, the fighting between the two sides gradually shifted from large-scale melee to skirmish.

At the beginning of 1632, an earth-shattering news reached both camps. This news is not good news for both sides. The original leader of the Chuang army, Gao Yingxiang, the king of Chuang, broke through the city of Beijing and ascended the throne as emperor ten days ago.

The blow to the Ming army was huge.

For Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Yuanhua, loyal ministers of the Ming Dynasty in the true sense, they felt in their hearts that this was unfortunate news that the sky was falling apart. For Zu Dashou, a nominally Ming courtier but in fact an independent local warlord leader, he was concerned that on the one hand, his own logistical supply was completely cut off, and on the other hand, his legal basis as the leader of the Liaodong warlord group had disappeared.

To tell the truth, the city of Beijing, which was garrisoned by 50,000 Liaodong Army, was easily breached by 10,000 intruding troops, and this news is still very shocking. When the follow-up information was transmitted to Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Yuanhua, knowing that it was because of the rebellion of the citizens of the capital and the loss of control of the Liaodong Army that finally led to the fall of Beijing, even loyal ministers such as Sun Yuanhua and Lu Xiangsheng and others also came out of their hearts with a kind of cold air of the Ming Dynasty.

As the first good place, the Ming Dynasty could not even guarantee the survival of the people of Jingshi, and finally a riot broke out that led to the collapse of the country, which really made courtiers like Sun Yuanhua and Lu Xiangsheng speechless.

But in despair, there is no hope. According to intelligence reports, Emperor Chongzhen and the Empress Crown Prince, as well as a small number of important officials of the imperial court, still escaped alive and fled to the Tianjin Wei area.

According to Sun Yuanhua and Lu Xiangsheng, the emperor and his entourage were probably preparing to take the risk of taking a sea ship south to Nanjing in Tianjin.

After all, the shipping boom in Tianjin Wei has been restored since a few years ago. It is said that many maritime merchants in the southern region are engaged in trade activities in the Jiangnan and Tianjin Wei areas all the year round, and the shipping from Tianjin Wei to the Jiangnan area is completely unimpeded. Even if Emperor Chongzhen didn't know this, Sun Chengzong, Wang Chengen and others who escaped from Beijing with Emperor Chongzhen still knew it.

In the midst of despair, this is basically the last hope for Sun Yuanhua and Lu Xiangsheng. In their opinion, as long as Emperor Chongzhen and his entourage can safely reach the Jiangnan region, then as long as Emperor Chongzhen reopens the imperial court in Nanjing, then the Ming Dynasty can continue to operate.

is also a Ming army force, Zu Dashou is very frightened and desperate for the information received by the opponent. You must know that for the current Liaodong warlord group, they have not yet experienced the battle of the Daling River, and they still have no concept of surrender after surrender in their minds. Although they were independent of the imperial court and even ignored Emperor Chongzhen's decrees, they still considered themselves part of the Ming Dynasty system.

The Liaodong warlord group, which relied on a steady stream of blood transfusions from Beijing, was not prepared for the idea of directly betraying the imperial court. In their opinion, maintaining the current state of supporting them all year round because of the military threat of the Later Jin Jurchens, and passing on the power of their own Liaodong Jiangmen for thousands of generations is the most beneficial situation for them.

Especially for Gao Yingxiang, the newly enthroned Emperor Dashun, the Liaodong warlord group looked down on him from the bottom of their hearts. The Liaodong warlords, who had no experience in frontal combat against the invading army, believed that with the Liaodong Iron Cavalry of about 40,000 people, it would be easy to level the hundreds of thousands of rabble who had stepped on Gao Yingxiang.

For Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, the news that their boss broke through Beijing and killed the emperor Lao'er (Gao Yingxiang announced to the public) was certainly a surprise to the two. But just after barely calming down the chaos in Beijing, his boss couldn't wait to ascend to the emperor's throne, and he also gave himself a few meaningful Shu Hou (Zhang Xianzhong) and Xiang Hou (Li Zicheng), which made the two more surprised than happy.

Even if they are big and rough like Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, even if they are heroes like Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, they also know that such a thing as being emperor cannot be rushed. There are no forces in the locality, there are still many hostile forces in the vicinity, and there is no reason to be the emperor when a battle is still being fought not far from Beijing.

The literati henchmen under the command of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong also told the two of them allusions in this regard. Since ancient times, none of those who have been called emperors in a hurry have ever had a good end.

The two knew that Gao Yingxiang had a think tank under Gao Yingxiang who was admired by the entire upper echelons of the army. They couldn't figure out why Li Junshi, who had always been Gao Yingxiang's mastermind, would give Gao Yingxiang such a bad idea.

In fact, not to mention Gao Yingxiang, in the original history, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were not very clever in this regard.

The so-called forgetfulness and madness is a kind of inferior nature that those people at the bottom who have not received class consciousness education and lack corresponding knowledge and accumulation in the feudal agricultural era will show a kind of inferiority once they turn over.

Not to mention a figure like Gao Yingxiang in the 17th century, who had an army of more than 100,000 troops. Even in the 80s and 90s after the liberation, there were seven or eight strange incidents of people being called emperors in New China.

Therefore, a guy like Gao Yingxiang, who occupies the capital division with an army of 100,000 and nominally controls the three provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan, is stimulated by the majestic and magnificent palace scene when he enters the Forbidden City, and has the idea of ascending the throne and becoming emperor immediately.

Li Zicheng and Gao Yingxiang complained that Li Yan's work was not good, and Li Yan himself didn't know who to complain about?

From the beginning of the formulation of this surprise attack plan, Li Yan clearly mentioned to Gao Yingxiang that the first thing after the initial decision on Beijing should be to canonize the warlords of Liaodong and give them the title of vassal king that matches their status and strength.

As long as Zu Dashou and others accept such canonization, then Gao Yingxiang can easily let Zu Dashou and others garrison Gao Yingxiang in the northeast to guard against Houjin.

For Gao Yingxiang, the Liaodong warlords who accepted his canonization would stabilize at least for a while. After Gao Yingxiang waved his troops south to pacify the Shandong New Army and the Tianxiong Army, and completely settled the Central Plains, then whether it was to gather a large army to destroy Liaodong, or to choke the lifeblood of the Liaodong vassal king by controlling the logistics supply, it was a very calm matter.

Li Yan himself did not expect that Gao Yingxiang, who had entered the Forbidden City, would suddenly go crazy and immediately ascend the throne and become emperor.

Gao Yingxiang made such a decision, and Li Yan, who was weak in the upper echelons of the army, had no way to stop it.

You must know that because of the "torture" behavior of the Chuang Army under the leadership of Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others, there are almost no too clever scholars in the upper echelons of the Chuang Army. Except for some poor and crazy talented children who had nowhere to go, the feudal scholars who had a little way out fled to the southern region.

In this case, the entire upper echelons of the army are Gao Yingxiang-style figures. is either a big boss from the border army, or some local tyrants who are also officials and bandits, if you really want to take care of it, I am afraid that the strategic vision of these people is not as good as Gao Yingxiang. Otherwise, how could these people be dominated by Gao Yingxiang.

After Gao Yingxiang first occupied the Forbidden City, he immediately divided the treasures and palace maids in the palace with these subordinates. Emperor Chongzhen can be said to be the poorest emperor in the Ming Dynasty, but the good things in the palace still make the eyes of these people who have never seen the world choke enough. However, the number of these things is really not much, and everyone does not get much.

After this, Gao Yingxiang showed a peasant-like cunning, and he first made it clear to everyone that there are many more of these things, but there is no name that cannot be distributed to everyone. Subsequently, some eunuchs who took refuge in Gao Yingxiang told them in private that many things were linked to grades. You can't use these things without grades.

At this point, these people also realized that if Gao Yingxiang was not the emperor, they would not be officials and would not have a title. If you can't be an official, if you don't have a title, you can't get the benefits in your hands. In this way, these guys who have long wanted to get an identity for themselves immediately rushed to Gao Yingxiang to add to the yellow robe.

Watching the gang put the yellow robe that was obviously prepared in advance on Gao Yingxiang's body, and Gao Yingxiang made three requests and three resignations like a dog, and announced that he would be the emperor along the river, Li Yan was really speechless in his heart.

If it was just such a farce of enthronement, it would not be a big deal. Anyway, for Li Yan, there is such a name, and it is also justified for the canonization of the warlords of Liaodong.

The key is that after clearly realizing that Li Yan did not support his claim to be emperor, Gao Yingxiang first coldly indifferent Li Yan, and then he didn't know who he listened to, and he was jealous of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, who were fighting with Sun Yuanhua and Lu Xiangsheng outside.

Under the influence of this jealousy, Gao Yingxiang released a huge oolong stun move. He actually canonized Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan, which were stable places, to his relatives, and then sealed Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong to Hubei and Sichuan, which belonged to the Baath Party's sphere of influence.

After Li Yan heard such a will and was rejected by Gao Yingxiang, he was very desperate in his heart.

In Li Yan's view, as powerful as the Baath Party's forces, it can only be co-opted and flattered, and it must not be easily offended. You must know that Li Yan, who has a lot of contacts with the Ba'ath Party, knows how great the strength of the Ba'ath Party, which has already controlled the logistics and supply of the invading army.

Even Li Yan, who is regarded as a think tank, could not think of a way to deal with the Baath Party. Even when he was planning for Gao Yingxiang, he forced himself to ignore the existence of the Baath Party, a terrorist force.

For him, if Gao Yingxiang can follow his own plan, first stabilize Liaodong and then pacify the Central Plains, and finally solve Liaodong once and again, fully control the Central Plains provinces, and in the process the Baath Party does not make any moves, he feels that Gao Yingxiang, who has rectified the rabble of the intruding army and re-established his own logistics supply, can barely have the capital to fight against the Baxing Party.

What made Li Yan desperate the most was that because of Gao Yingxiang's ghostly mind, he not only showed obvious precautions against Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong within the army, and created divisions within the army, but also thought that he was smart enough to let Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong deal with the Baath Party when the Central Plains was unstable.

In the depths of Li Yan's heart, if the Baath Party did not intervene in Gao Yingxiang's suppression of the Central Plains, it would be God blessed. In the current situation of internal instability, Gao Yingxiang dared to offend the Baath Party, and what Gao Yingxiang did was completely an act of seeking death.

Standing on a mound of earth in his station, looking at the Forbidden City, which was noisy and lively because of Gao Yingxiang's banquet of his ministers, Li Yan was thinking about how he should prepare a back road once the Baath Party raised troops.