According to the history he knows, it will not be until next year at the earliest, after more than a year of recuperation, Houjin, under the command of Huang Taiji, will send troops to the Ming Dynasty again, loot winter materials in the Ming Dynasty, and expand his strength.

Because of this, after entering the customs, Wei Zheng only wanted to enhance his strength as much as possible before Houjin sent troops to the Ming Dynasty next time.

And this leads to the very busy Wei Zheng, and he has become less concerned about Houjin.

However, what Wei Zheng didn't expect was that Dolgon and Huang Taiji, who had suffered heavy losses in their own hands, had just returned to Houjin to rest for less than five months, and they actually bypassed the customs directly, and very unexpectedly launched an attack from Mongolia to Shanxi, which was currently under their jurisdiction, and looted and killed people in Shanxi's border county near Mongolia...

It turned out that after returning to Houjin, Dolgon, who had suffered heavy losses, directly asked Huang Taiji for orders in order to make up for the huge losses of the white flag, and went to the Mongolian departments that had been attached to the Houjin Eight Banners to replenish troops and expand their strength.

As the Emperor of the Later Jin Dynasty, Emperor Taiji also wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to further strengthen the rule of the Later Jin Eight Banners over Mongolia and increase the military strength of the Later Jin Eight Banners. Not only that, after transferring Dolgon out of Houjin, he can also further strengthen his position in the Eight Banners of Houjin and stabilize his throne.

As a result, Dolgon led the white flag to the Mongolian tribes to replenish the soldiers, and it was given by Huang Taiji.

When Dolgon entered Mongolia, the news that his nemesis, Wei Zheng, was also transferred to Shanxi, also reached Dolgon's ears.

In the face of this opponent who made himself lose face, Dolgon wanted to take his subordinates directly into Shanxi and cut Wei Zheng with a thousand knives....but. He knows. to the current strength of the white flag. He had no way of doing it.

Therefore, Dolgon, who entered Mongolia, on the one hand, replenished troops in various tribes, expanded his strength, and trained musketeers. On the one hand, he is also paying attention to Wei Zheng's every move, waiting for a self-attack on Shanxi to find the best time to take revenge on Wei Zheng.

Hard work pays off......

The 5,000 musketeers under his command have been trained. When you can go to war, the opportunity comes....

Wei Zheng used his own iron-fisted means in Taiyuan, regardless of the background, to wantonly kill corrupt officials and corrupt officials after the news spread in Shanxi. The entire Shanxi officialdom has been turned upside down by a major earthquake because of this.

In this earthquake to rectify corrupt officials and corrupt officials, many civil and military officials, in order to avoid Wei Zheng's iron-fisted methods, cut off their own heads, directly resigned and went home, or used their connections to transfer out of Shanxi.

Of course, this time. There are also people who use a method that no one can think of to deal with the earthquake set off by Wei Zheng. He kept the family wealth that he had worked so hard to embezzle. and keep his high official position.

Zuoyun County, located in the west of Datong and at the junction of Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, has been a battleground for soldiers since ancient times because of its dangerous terrain.

Although there are not many people in Zuoyun County, which is not large, because of the annual war, in order to prevent the Mongolian tribes from invading the Ming Dynasty. The Ming army stationed 4,000 troops in this small county, commanded by a garrison general.

As the so-called Tiangao Emperor is far away, the garrison general who stretched out the border pass relied on himself to say nothing in Zuoyun, and began to embezzle military salaries on a large scale, and even ate empty salaries....

According to the report of the Ministry of War, the garrison of Zuoyun County is 4,000 people. However, this bold garrison general, in order to eat empty wages, directly reduced the total strength of the garrison to 2,500 men. Even the remaining 2,500 people can only get a full 50% of their military salary every month...

As for the rest of the rations, without exception, all fell into the hands of the garrison generals.

In the earthquake of Wei Zheng's purge of officialdom in Shanxi and Shaanxi provinces, the civil and military officials who embezzled tens of thousands of taels of silver were mercilessly cut off by Wei Zheng, not to mention that he embezzled hundreds of thousands of taels of military salaries.

In order to keep this silver, but also to keep his position. This garrison general directly made a bold decision to betray his ancestors: lead his subordinates, rebel against the Ming Dynasty, take the silver and his subordinates, and continue to be an official in Houjin...

As a military important place for Inner Mongolia to enter Shanxi, once Zuoyun is lost, the Mongolian cavalry of Houjin can cross the Great Wall unimpeded and enter Shanxi, which has no danger to defend, to plunder.

Faced with this good opportunity given to him by God, of course Dorgon will not let it go.

After happily giving Zuo Yun the promise of an official position, he directly took 5,000 elite cavalry, 5,000 trained musketeers, and the important town of Zuo Yun, which was already empty, and entered the territory of Shanxi....

Of course, Dolgon, who had suffered many losses in front of Wei Zheng, did not intend to defeat Wei Zheng with just 10,000 soldiers in his hands.

In Dolgon's thoughts, as long as he entered Shanxi and captured several county towns in Shanxi, as the guard of the governor of Shanxi, he would definitely be suspicious of the Ming court...

At that time, maybe if you don't have to do it yourself, Wei Zheng, as an opponent, will die in the hands of the Ming court.

You must know that in history, in order to deal with the famous generals of the Ming Dynasty who guarded the border passes, the cunning Tartars used this method more than once to make the Ming court fall into mutual suspicion, borrow knives to kill people, and get rid of these generals who blocked themselves.

After reading the urgent information sent by Zhou Shuyuan in his hand, Wei Zheng's first thought was: Dolgon's goal must not be achieved......"

"I have just gained Chongzhen's trust, gained a firm foothold in Shanxi, and developed my own strength step by step. Once Dolgon's goal is achieved, it is not known what the final outcome will be. However, one thing Wei Zheng can be sure of is that this will definitely bring a lot of trouble to his development path. “

So, Wei Zheng didn't think about it, so he hurried back to the Datong Governor's Mansion.

In the council hall of the Governor's Palace, Wei Zheng, who was standing in front of the map, was asking about the latest situation on the front line with a stern face.

Zhou Shuyuan, the military advisor, pointed to the two towns that had been marked on the map and introduced: "My lord, the situation of the Tartars has been basically investigated....The 10,000 Houjin troops who attacked this time were led by Dolgon...."

"Among the ten thousand, there are five thousand iron horsemen with white flags, and five thousand musketeers trained by Dorgon..."

"If it was placed in the past, Houjin would have 10,000 iron cavalry, and it would be impossible to capture the two county towns that we heavily defended in just two days. However, with these five thousand musketeers, the siege ability of the Tartars has significantly increased a lot...-"

"The places marked on the map have all been captured by Dolgon..."

Wei Zheng nodded and continued to ask, "Is there any other valuable information?" ”

After thinking about it carefully, Zhou Shuyuan replied with a skeptical face: "There is another situation here in Xiaguan, I don't know whether to say it or not..."

"According to the latest information from the scout group, although it was Dolgon who led the attack on Shanxi this time, his combat methods have obviously changed a lot compared with before..."

"First of all, his cavalry units were never involved in the siege of the city, but only for the protection of the musketeers and the pursuit of the enemy. Not only that, but after capturing the town, the Tartars did not stop, and after some looting, they continued their attack on the next target...."

"Second, the purpose of this attack on Shanxi, the purpose of the Tartars is not simply to plunder...."

"According to the report, after the Tartars captured these counties, in addition to looting the finances, they killed people, and it was a large-scale killing....preliminary statistics show that in just two days, more than 20,000 people died in the hands of the Tartars...."

"This was impossible to happen before......"

Under Zhou Shuyuan's gaze, Wei Zheng replied thoughtfully: "The first one is very easy to explain: he Dolgon was scared by us, and he had enough of the pain of fighting a positional battle with us..."

"So, one thing I know for sure: even if we attack now, he Dolgon will not use cavalry to fight us in positional warfare....otherwise, Dolgon, who is good at volleys, will not train five thousand musketeers to deal with us."

"As for the second one, he Dolgon wants to stab us in the back, so that we can mess up and kill each other..."

Seeing the puzzled expression on the face of the military advisor, Wei Zheng continued to explain: "Military advisor, you are more familiar with the laws of our Ming Dynasty than I am... It should be known that in our Ming Dynasty, the magistrates had the responsibility of guarding the land..."

"Think about it, once several county towns in Shanxi were captured by the Tartars, and the news of tens of thousands of people being slaughtered by the Tartars reached the capital, how much impact it would have in the capital..."

Zhou Shuyuan's brows furrowed, and he replied with a solemn face: "Even if we have the emperor's trust, those officials in the capital will be like wolves that smell blood, taking advantage of this matter to constantly participate in us in the court..."

"Yes, it is to participate in us until the emperor convicts us according to the laws of the Ming Dynasty..."

"And that's what he Dolgon used to target us..."

At this time, Zhou Shuyuan, who was frowning, had already unconsciously revealed a trace of worry on his face, and hurriedly asked Wei Zheng: "My lord, in this case, we must not let Dolgon's purpose be achieved. Otherwise, even with the emperor's trust and the support of Jinyiwei, it is impossible for us to continue to gain a firm foothold in Shanxi..."

"We must find a way to kill these Tartars who have entered Shanxi, and use the heads of these Tartars to block the mouths of those officials in the court..."

Speaking of this, another trace of worry then appeared on Zhou Shuyuan's face, and he continued to Wei Zheng: "However, he Dolgon attacked Shanxi this time, and it is clear that he does not intend to engage us head-on... ”

Just when the worried expression on Zhou Shuyuan's face became more and more intense because of this question, Wei Zheng's contemplative eyes suddenly shot out two fine lights.

Then, he shouted at Zhou Shuyuan: "There is..." (to be continued......)