Kunning Palace, a young child wearing a thick cotton coat staggered in the hall, it was the Ming prince Zhu Cihong, who was just more than a year old, and four or five palace maids and eunuchs followed him closely, staring at Zhu Cihong tightly, for fear that he would fall and bump into him, in fact, Zhu Cihong was wearing such a thick coat that it didn't hurt at all even if he fell to the ground.

Queen Zhou sat on the brocade couch, looking at her toddler son with pity in her eyes, and from time to time stroked her bulging abdomen with her hands, she was pregnant again.

"Niangniang, it's past noon, why don't you and the prince have dinner first." The female officer waiting on the side reminded.

Queen Zhou shook her head slightly: "Today is the Stove Festival, Your Majesty said that you want to accompany me and the prince to dinner, so let's wait." ”

The female officer smiled and said: "I heard that Your Majesty is summoning the military department and the elders, it is estimated that you will not be able to come for a while, the prince is still young, don't go hungry." ”

Queen Zhou said: "Let's take some snacks first and let the prince cushion it, the mourning family is not hungry." By the way, let people go to the Qianqing Palace to watch, and report it immediately when the court discussion is over. ”

"Yes, sissy." The female officer turned and walked out.

"Come, little Cihong, come to the queen mother." Empress Zhou opened her arms and shouted to Zhu Cihong with a smile.

......

"Originally, they all attacked Liaoyang City, but they wanted to retreat, what the hell is Sun Chuanting doing!" In the Qianqing Palace, Zhu Youzhen threw the military intelligence from Liaodong on the ground, full of unhappiness.

In the past few days, Zhu Youzhen's mood has changed from joy to sorrow, and then from joy to surprise, which can be described as twists and turns.

In the Ming Dynasty raging for many days Jiannu finally withdrew from the side wall, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, although the thistle Beijing was plundered, several prefectures and counties were burned and killed, but the Ming army also achieved a certain victory, rescued tens of thousands of plundered people, recaptured a lot of Jiannu looted grain, livestock and property, beheaded nearly 10,000 levels, captured more than 10,000 Mongolian soldiers, and gave Jiannu a heavy blow! Definitely worth the surprise!

However, the main force of Jiannu is still there, and he successfully escaped from the border wall and retreated to Liaodong, considering that the Praetorian Guard army in Liaodong is in Liaodong, Zhu Youzhen is worried again, can the Praetorian Guard led by Lu Xiangsheng beat the main force of Jiannu?

When he was worried, intelligence came from Liaodong, saying that Cao Bianjiao and Zhou Yuji had broken through the Liaoyang city wall with the cooperation of Jinyiwei's secret agents and had entered Liaoyang City, which made Zhu Youzhen very surprised!

According to the prior plan, this time he sent troops to Liaodong to encircle Wei to rescue Zhao and force Jiannu to withdraw his troops, and then to take advantage of the absence of Jiannu's main force to attack its lair, wantonly burn and loot, destroy Jiannu's war potential, and did not think about recovering Liaodong this time. Except for Zhenjiang Fort and southern Liaoning, most of the captured territory could not be defended, because it was too far away from the Ming Dynasty.

Liaoyang City is too strong, and it is heavily defended by Jiannu, so it is impossible to attack it in anticipation. However, I didn't expect Cao Bianjiao and Zhou Yuji to really attack the city, which was a great surprise!

If there is Liaoyang City, Liaoxi and Liaonan will become the hinterland, and the Liaohe Plain will be shared by Daming and Jiannu!

With Liaoyang City, Jiannu does not want to farm safely in the Liaohe Plain, and the space for development will be greatly reduced, without the fertile black soil of the Liaohe Plain, Jiannu will not be able to continue to grow in strength, and will no longer be able to pose a threat to the Ming Dynasty.

What? The Jiannu cavalry cut off the grain route in Liaoyang and besieged Liaoyang City? If you have a good relationship, you can use Liaoyang City as a bait and continue to bleed Jiannu, how many banners are left in Jiannu, and how much loss can you withstand?

However, there were no surprises for two days, the news came again, Liaoyang City was actually burned, and along with the military situation, there was also Sun Chuanting's request to withdraw troops back to Liaoxi, which was simply infuriating!

"Didn't Jiannu also withdraw his troops to Shenyang, Liaoyang is an empty city, why don't you repair the garrison, but retreat, what is Sun Chuanting thinking?" Zhu Youzhen said angrily.

From the bones, Zhu Youzhen is also a person who is very happy, recovering Liaoyang is equivalent to recovering half of Liaodong, and the merit of recovering the land is enough to go to the temple to worship the ancestors and ancestors! Liaodong was lost from my grandfather Wanli's brother Tianqi, and I recovered Liaodong two years after I ascended the throne, so the achievements are far ahead of the previous emperors!

Hong Chengchou sighed, picked up the music under his feet, and sighed: "Your Majesty, Sun Boya also has a hard time. ”

"A fire ignited the entire Liaoyang, and it was not extinguished when Sun Chuanting wrote the song. Most of the Han slaves of all the banner people in the city followed Huang Taiji to Shenyang, but there were still tens of thousands of Han people who remained in Liaoyang, and these needed to be taken care of by Sun Chuanting. But now it is the cold winter season, there is no house to keep out the cold, there is no food in Liaoyang City, just relying on some grain and grass left in Sun Chuanting's army, more than 100,000 soldiers and civilians can't support much time, so Sun Chuanting has to withdraw. ”

"Da Sima's words are contemptible and people dare not agree." Sun Chengzong, who was sitting on the side, shook his head and said, "The Han people saved from Liaoyang can withdraw to Liaoxi, but there is no need for the army to withdraw. The flames of Liaoyang City will eventually be extinguished, and the army will naturally be able to enter Liaoyang City at that time, and Sun Chuanting's recital is clearly to abandon Liaoyang. ”

Hong Chengchou sighed: "The army can naturally be stationed in Liaoyang, but everything the grain and grass needed by the army must be transferred from Liaoxi. Liaoyang is more than 400 miles away from Jinzhou, how much burden will the transportation of grain and grass bring to the imperial court? Moreover, Liaoyang City was burned to ruins, and the city needs to be rebuilt, and how many silver taels are needed? The battle of Liaodong alone cost more than four million taels of silver, does the imperial court still have money? ”

Sun Chengzong stopped speaking for a while, and Zhu Youzhen looked at Shoufu Huang Liji: "Yuanfu, how much silver is left in the treasury?" ”

According to the division of labor in the cabinet, the household department is directly under the jurisdiction of Huang Liji, the first assistant, Huang Liji sighed, stood up, and saluted Zhu Youzhen: "Back to Your Majesty, the household department is now destitute......

A big war emptied the treasury controlled by the household department, and almost emptied Zhu Youzhen's inner treasury. In the past two years, Zhu You's silver copied from his family, the wealth obtained by King Fu, and the wealth obtained by the Jin merchants in Zhangjiakou, as well as the silver sent by Li Yanzhi from Fujian, most of them were filled in. Otherwise, the little money stored in the treasury alone would not be able to support such a big war.

The reason why the battle of Liaodong was fought so smoothly was based on the consumption of millions of taels of silver! Every time the artillery is fired, it counts two taels of silver, and every time the gun is fired, it shoots at least a few dollars, and there are also the firearms such as 10,000 enemies, grenades, rockets, flying dragons, and flying crows that are consumed, which one does not need silver?

The cotton clothes needed by tens of thousands of troops, the vehicles needed for marching, the tents, the drums, the daily rations eaten by the soldiers, and the high salaries and silver were all reasons for maintaining high morale.

However, this is not over, the battle is over, hundreds of thousands of people in the Gyeonggi area need to be resettled, and hundreds of thousands of Han people are rescued from Liaodong, and it is impossible to resettle the people without hundreds of thousands of taels of silver.

There are also rewards for meritorious soldiers, according to the previous rewards, each Jiannu head reward 30 taels of silver, Mongolian soldiers 20 taels, this war, the head of the Jiannu Mongols will be tens of thousands, just to give the soldiers a reward of silver, it will take millions of taels of silver!

Now the household department is empty, although Zhu Youzhen's inner treasury still has some silver, but it still has to be kept for the Praetorian Guard, and it is also necessary to support the operation of the martial arts boys' battalion of the Academy of Sciences Arsenal.

Tens of thousands of troops are stationed in Liaoyang, four or five hundred miles away, the pressure on the operation of grain and grass is extremely great, and Jiannu is willing to easily give up Liaoyang City to the Ming army, it will inevitably send cavalry to plunder the grain transport team, Liaoyang is surrounded by plains, Jiannu cavalry can go around to the rear of Liaoyang at will, if the grain road is cut off, the lone army trapped in Liaoyang is likely to be wiped out!

"Sun Boya is one of the commanders of this battle, how can he not know how brilliant the work of recovering Liao is, but he can not be blinded by fame and fortune, and suggest that the imperial court temporarily give up Liaoyang and give up the meritorious deeds at his fingertips, it is precisely to see the heavy pressure brought by the occupation of Liaoyang to the imperial court, and he is really a loyal minister who is dedicated to the country." Hong Chengchou praised from the bottom of his heart.

If he were to be himself, Hong Chengchou was convinced that although he knew that it would be beneficial to the Ming Dynasty, he would never be able to do Sun Chuanting.

"But if our army retreats, Liaoyang will inevitably be occupied by Jiannu, and it will be even more difficult to fight it down in the future!" Sun Chengzong said, "Although my Ming Dynasty lacks financial resources, it is still no problem to supply tens of thousands of troops with food and grass, and if you think of a way, you can always raise it." Your Majesty, the old minister suggested that Lu Xiangsheng could lead the Praetorian Guard headquarters to garrison Liaoyang, and other troops could be evacuated. Lu Xiangsheng's Praetorian Guard is unparalleled in combat strength, and it should be able to hold Liaoyang City! ”

Hong Chengchou rolled his eyes when he heard this, the Praetorian Guards had just made immortal achievements, and it was the time to enjoy the glory, at this time, instead of letting the family come back to rest, he wanted the family to defend a lonely city with extremely difficult conditions in ruins, and he really didn't treat the Praetorian Guard soldiers as human beings!

"Alas, if Sun Chuanting can hold on for one more day and not attack with fire so early, if Lu Xiangsheng can get to Liaoyang one step faster, maybe he won't have to worry so much." Huang Liji sighed.

If Lu Xiangsheng can arrive before the fire attack, with the strong combat power of the Praetorian Guard, maybe he can capture the complete Liaoyang City, there are houses in the city, there are food materials in the city, it will be much easier to defend the city, and the food in the city will be supported for at least half a year, and there is no need to transfer it from Liaoxi for hundreds of miles, then there will be no problem in defending Liaoyang.

When Lu Xiangsheng arrived in Liaoyang, Jiannu had already evacuated, and because Jiannu had a large number of cavalry to cover the battlefield, and Cao Wenzhao's cavalry had not yet returned, Lu Xiangsheng had to focus on defense, and he couldn't detect the bannerman Hannu wrapped up the team escorted by Jiannu, and he couldn't stop it.

Huang Liji's words resonated with everyone, but it was also nonsense, after all, what should have happened had already happened, and it was useless to talk about it.

Zhu Youzhen has completely calmed down, and has repeatedly calculated the pros and cons in his heart. Sun Chuanting, as the commander of the army, suggested giving up Liaoyang temporarily, which shows how bad the situation in Liaoyang is, should he agree to Sun Chuanting's request?