After participating in the enthronement ceremony of King Lu on August 15, Zhu Shuren always had to spend a few more days in Nanjing.

There is still a lot of red tape and colleagues to socialize, network maintenance, and people's hearts to find out the work that needs to be done.

He was suddenly promoted to the governor of the three provinces, and he was given the title of secretary of the military department, and which people in the court were really happy for him, which ones were jealous but helpless, and which ones were not optimistic about this court and still felt that it was better to vote for glory and wealth in the north as soon as possible.

It is time to drink and talk heart-to-heart, pretending to be heart-to-heart, and it is also a time not to save, and after the new monarch ascends the throne, the unity of the court is always the first important.

Considering that returning to Wuchang from Nanjing is going upstream, it must be much slower than going down the river when he comes, and after doing all this, Zhu Shuren will have to hurry back to Huguang at the end of August at the earliest, and it will be early September if there is a slight delay.

However, the mountain rain is about to come, the wind is full of buildings, and the situation in the world is so shaky, and the other forces will not wait for the Nanjing Imperial Court to further and completely integrate the interior.

As early as before and after the enthronement ceremony of King Lu, on the northwest front, there was an urgent military report sent by the governor of Sichuan, Fang Kongzhi, who hurried 600 miles to the horse, and wanted to ask the imperial court for advice on how to deal with the enemy's situation.

Subsequently, similar tense messages came from the Xiangyang and Xinyang fronts in Henan, which can basically be corroborated with the information sent by Fang Kongzhi.

The information sent by Fang Kongzhi is not too bad, but it is a mixed blessing, with risks and gains coexisting, and the specific content is as follows:

According to the reports of the Sichuan defenders Qin Liangyu and Fang Guo's Ministry of Security, the Ming army in the direction of Hanzhong encountered the invasion of a small group of thieves under the command of Yuan Zongdi at the Chencang Road crossing at the end of July.

The defenders of the Ming army in Baoji County and Dasanguan naturally defended the cage city and did not engage the enemy -- this is also the policy set by Zhu Shuren since the second half of last year after he pacified Sichuan.

Because Shaanxi is the first day pit in the world in the last years of Chongzhen, the absolute financial bottomless pit, since there is so much land lost, there is no hurry to collect it first.

Of course, Shaanxi will definitely want it in the future, and it is all the homeland of China, but in the case of many phased options, it is still necessary to prioritize and take other good ones first, so this policy itself is no problem.

After Zhu Shuren left, the defense of the Hanzhong region has been watched by Fang Kongzhi, and a part of the local troops in Sichuan have also been added to make up for the gap caused by Zhu Shuren's troops who took Cao Bianjiao's troops to rescue them.

The Sichuan troops were relatively not good at field warfare on the plains, and they lacked cavalry, so it was impossible for them to take the initiative to fight on the Guanzhong Plain.

But after holding each other for a short time, Qin Liangyu's troops and horses quickly discovered the abnormality - Yuan Zongdi seemed to be just crossing the border, and occasionally the troops fled in a hurry and plundered in the field, but they did not dare to attack Baoji County, which was controlled by the official army.

Even Yuan Zongdi dared to ignore his own grain road, and sometimes directly led the army to take a detour not far from Baoji County, and then went up the Weishui River, crossing the river valley between Qinling and Longshan, as if to transfer the troops to Longxi.

In the art of war, the reason why those fortified cities in front of the main roads cannot be directly bypassed by the attacking side is because if you bypass and do not fight, when your main force is far away, the troops in the fortified city can open the city gate and cut off your logistics and food routes.

Yuan Zongdi's practice of fleeing westward regardless of the fact that he was not worried about the Ming army in Baoji County cutting off his Weishui shipping really made Qin Liangyu stunned for a while at first. Then she was also unceremonious, and instructed her son Ma Xianglin to follow the routine and see the opportunity to go out of the city to rob grain.

Ma Xianglin really hit with one blow in a decent manner, annihilated Yuan Zong's first small rear army division, and brought the baggage and materials with him. And Yuan Zongdi actually swallowed his anger, without the slightest intention of resisting, but just asked the rear army to march and flee more carefully.

At this point, Qin Liangyu basically figured it out - Yuan Zongdi would definitely not hold Xi'an for a long time, he retreated his troops to Longxi in batches, this is to lose even the old nest sooner or later, the whole army will withdraw.

At that time, because of the closed news, Qin Liangyu, who was in Sichuan, did not know the battle situation outside the border, so she instinctively felt that Xi'an was the place where Li Zicheng started to be the king, and it must be an important military town, even if Beijing fell, Li Zicheng would most likely take Xi'an as a companion capital, how could he give up so easily?

But now the ironclad evidence is in front of him, Yuan Zongdi retreated westward in batches like this, and he didn't care about being cut off from the grain road, Qin Liangyu couldn't believe it anymore.

After a period of friction between the two sides, in early August, the situation finally became clear: Yuan Zongdi really couldn't hold on, and tried to make a request for negotiation with Ma Xianglin in Dasanguan. As soon as the two sides made a little contact, Yuan Zongdi directly relented, wanting to ask the imperial court if he could allow him to abandon the darkness and turn to the light, and not blame the past.

Qin Liangyu was shocked when she heard this, and she couldn't believe it for a while, she didn't have the right to decide such a big matter, so she forced the other party to explain more reasons and not hide it. and said that as long as he truthfully explained the causes and consequences, the imperial court would never force him under more harsh conditions because he was at the end of his rope.

Considering that the Ming Dynasty is now in charge of Zhu Shuren's father-in-law, although Yuan Zongdi is in a remote border, he also knows Zhu Shuren's good reputation in recruiting rebels-

Even Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, and Liu Wenxiu surrendered, but now they are all whitewashed, and they have also become generals by cleaning up the remnants of other thieves. Zhu Shuren is still famous for his penchant for reusing the righteous sons of the thief chieftains who killed their father-in-law, and they are simply specialized in destroying the order of Huaxia's godfather.

After Yuan Zongdi hesitated, he decided that the situation was very different from when Chongzhen was alive, a new prison country that did not dare to settle old historical accounts, and a powerful minister with a flexible moral bottom line, he just surrendered, and it should not be a big problem.

In the end, Yuan Zongdi truthfully confessed: The reason why he fled westward, wanting to give up Guanzhong one after another, and finally even gave up Xi'an, and fled to Longxi was because from mid to late July, the direction of Tongguan and Pubanjin in the east was attacked by the Qing army one after another.

To be precise, it was not only the Qing army that came to attack, but also another army with a special status and an unclear position due to the butterfly effect, that is, Wu Sangui's Guanning army.

As mentioned earlier, in history, the Qing army in October of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen/the first year of Shunzhi completely completed Shanxi and Hebei, and then the troops were divided into two routes, respectively commanded by Azig and Duoduo, all the way west to Li Zicheng, all the way south to Nanming.

And because Chongzhen died two months early and other rhythms have been accelerated, in this life, this round of large-scale expeditions of the Qing army has been advanced to mid-July, just after the hottest season, Dolgon rushed to deploy.

And Wu Sangui in this life, because of the butterfly effect of Zhu Shuren, has always maintained control over one or two prefectures in the Guanning area and Guannei.

Because of the retreat by sea, Dolgon forced Wu Sangui to be in a hurry, and Wu Sangui could still count on withdrawing a considerable part of his troops from the sea, and at most he would only leave behind some troops that would be blocked by the palace. Therefore, Dolgon also knew this, and he didn't want to force the other party too much, and wanted to slowly soften Wu Sangui, so the two sides maintained a delicate and fragile balance.

It's a pity, since it's a delicate and fragile balance, it's good to be able to keep it for half a year. Wu Sangui didn't expect Li Zicheng to be so unbeaten, and Dolgon was so strong,

Li Zicheng fled not long after entering Beijing, and in the next four months, the entire territory of Hebei and Shanxi provinces fell into the hands of the Tartars. Everything is changing too fast, so that Wu Sangui has fewer and fewer chips in his hands, and it is becoming more and more difficult to maintain his transcendent status, he wants to keep the identity of the "thief alliance" with Dolgon, but he already knows that he is not qualified.

If Wu Sangui is a man with no ambitions, willing to go back to be a military general of the Southern Ming Dynasty obediently, and lose the transcendent status of the feudal town, then he can also follow Zhu Shuren.

But once power is such a thing, once it has tasted its beauty, it is really difficult to go from luxury to frugality, and few people can retire from it.

Of course, Wu Sangui knows that in the past few years, Zhu Shuren has been trying to win over and divide his own descendants, although Zhu Shuren has been helping the Guanning army to transport food and wages, but at the same time, he is also buying people's hearts!

Zhang Guozhu and other generals under Wu Sangui had already retreated south with Zhu Shuren, and at least a quarter to thirty percent of the veterans of the Guanning Army under Wu Sangui were taken away! Li Fuming, who used to work with Wu Sangui, was also taken away by Zhu Shuren and subdued.

If he chooses to go south, Wu Sangui knows very well that he will not be able to be the emperor of the soil who dominates one side and has the final say in his own life in the future. will only be regarded as a guest general who has lost his base, and all the money, food, and property power will depend on people's breath, once you see that you are not happy to cut off your supply, you can immediately take it. Just like Han Fu's strategists in "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" persuaded Han Fu to control Yuan Shao.

If Wu Sangui was a traverser and knew the history of later generations, then he should have felt at the time that after Zhang Hanqing lost the Northeast territory and entered the customs, he would be worried that he would be dispatched and consumed by Chang Kaishen as a guest.

Out of this concern, he decided to take a last chance and use Zhu Shuren as the backup tire to renegotiate a more feasible condition with Dolgon.

As early as June, when Hebei was completely pacified, Wu Sangui extended an olive branch to Dolgon, hoping to cooperate more deeply with the Qing army to suppress the thieves, and even consider "abandoning the Guanning base area", as long as Dolgon agreed to his other two new conditions.

The first condition is exactly the same as historical inertia, that is, "as a Ming minister, only fighting thieves", he can be a coalition of the Qing army, or even a guest army invited by the Qing army, to fight Li Zicheng together, but it is limited to fighting Li Zicheng, if the Qing army dares to make a move against Nanming, he will never participate.

Not to mention, many people who don't know much about the history of this period may be surprised by this condition, but in fact, Wu Sangui has always done this in the Hongguang and Longwu periods.

Before the Southern Ming regime in Nanjing, Jiangsu, and Zhejiang was defeated by Duoduo, Wu Sangui insisted on fighting only against the thieves, and never against the Ming army. Therefore, when Dolgon divided his troops between the two routes, Wu Sangui chose to follow Azig of the Western Route Army, but not with Duoduo of the Southern Route Army.

As for Wu Sangui's army later made a move on the Ming Dynasty, it was mainly a matter of the Yongli period, Wu Sangui also found a fig leaf - he thought that Yongli was no longer orthodox in the Ming Dynasty, because Yongli did not have its own troops, but chose to give Sun Kewang Li Dingguo, these "Zhang Xianzhong's righteous sons" to be crowned kings, and borrowed the remnants of Zhang Xianzhong's army to protect themselves,

Therefore, Wu Sangui issued an article saying that Yongli was a "puppet of the Western Thieves" and was coerced by anti-thieves, so he did a good job in psychological construction, so that he led the troops under his command that originally played the banner of the Ming Army to change course and completely become the Qing army. In between, there is actually a two-year transition period.

Now Wu Sangui's situation is much better than that of the same period in history, and of course Wu Sangui will not take the initiative to be a traitor, and the conditions he put forward in this regard will naturally be more harsh than in the same period in history.

And since Dolgon had promised Wu Sangui in the original history, he had to agree even more now. Dolgon said that Wu Sangui would never be asked to participate in military operations in areas controlled by the Ming Dynasty at this time.

As for whether the thieves in the world will be eliminated after they are eliminated, Dorgon did not say, but everyone knows that after the situation changes, there can be new requirements.

The second requirement put forward by Wu Sangui is a more stringent and purely butterfly effect than in history.

Wu Sangui said that because he still has the territory of Guanning, if he wants to give up this territory, he must give him a piece of "land for grain" under his own jurisdiction, and this land for grain, he doesn't ask Dolgon for it, he can help beat Li Zicheng and snatch it from Li Zicheng.

When the time comes, a part of the land recaptured by Li Zicheng will be given to Wu Sangui, and Dolgon will admit that this land belongs to him, and everyone will not offend each other, and he can continue to help Dolgon pursue the remnants of Li Zicheng with his troops.

Under this condition, Dolgon was more cautious, and repeatedly confirmed where Wu Sangui wanted. And Wu Sangui weighed it again and again, and also knew that it was impossible for Dolgon to give it where it was valuable, and after a multi-party game, Wu Sangui said:

Since I heard that the regent wants Prince Azig to lead the army of the Western Expedition to completely eliminate the thieves in the northwest, Wu Sangui is willing to be the vanguard of the guest army to help Prince Azig fight, as long as Wu Sangui's troops take Guanzhong as the main force, Shaanxi will be used as the new base of Wu Sangui's army.

At that time, all the population and land in the Guanning area will naturally be handed over to Dolgon, and it is also guaranteed that it will not be withdrawn from the sea route south to Jiangnan.

After thinking about it, Dolgon considered that if he didn't agree to this condition, Wu Sangui might really jump off the wall and go to Zhu Shuren by sea. And the naval strength of the Qing army is still a piece of defense, and it is not comparable to the Shen family sailors who have dominated the Yellow Sea for generations, and this kind of thing cannot be stopped. In any case, the most important thing is to deceive Wu Sangui out of Guanning and give up fleeing south.

On the other hand, Dolgon also did some intelligence work, especially to understand the current situation in Shaanxi, he also learned that during the Chongzhen period, Shaanxi almost did not have a normal year, and the environment deteriorated extremely badly.

Considering that Shaanxi was not worth much economically, Dolgon finally decided to agree, as long as Wu Sangui fought the main force to recover Xi'an, he would make Wu Sangui the de facto king of the northwest, and then Wu Sangui would continue to send troops to help fight in southern Henan and other sweeping work.

After the thieves are completely eliminated, it is not too late to talk about further conditions. Dolgon believed that as long as Wu Sangui became the de facto king of the northwest, he would never dare to surrender back to the Ming Dynasty, which was seriously guarded against military generals, and was under the actual control of the Nanjing court.

Under such layers of butterfly effect, Wu Sangui in this life, when he followed Azig to fight the Shaanxi thieves again, he became more and more motivated, just like beating chicken blood.

Yuan Zongdi was defeated at Tongguan and Pubanjin, and the road between him and Li Zicheng's territory was cut off, and Yuan Zongdi's defense area became a de facto enclave. Shaanxi, on the other hand, has not been self-sufficient in grain and grass, and has been relying on the consumption of population to keep the remaining army alive for the past two years, and such a piece of land cannot be defended.

Only then did he run to Longxi with his descendants on the eve of the loss of Tongguan, and then he was intercepted by the Ming army, and he also wanted to surrender to the Ming Dynasty nominally through Qin Liangyu - Yuan Zongdi actually knew that as long as he was nominally obedient, it was impossible for the Ming army to really divide his troops to Longxi so far in a short period of time to control him, and he actually governed himself.

And as long as he gets the title of surrender and becomes a military general of the Ming Dynasty, Wu Sangui, who is known as "not attacking the Ming Land", will have no reason to fight him again.

The land in Guanzhong was lost to Wu Sangui, and he also knew that Wu Sangui had invested blood, and he would not give up until this goal was achieved.

But as long as Yuan Zongdi can leave a Longxi, separated from Wu Sangui by Longshan Mountain, and Baoji County controlled by the Southern Ming Dynasty in the middle, and choke the Chencang Road Pass and the Longshan Weishui Valley Pass, then he will basically be able to do not violate the river water with Wu Sangui's well water.

When the time comes, it is a big deal to divide a little bit of troops, and block the street pavilion crossing in the central and northern section of Longshan, Qin and Long are two independent geographical units since ancient times.

……

Of course, Qin Liangyu didn't dare to be self-absorbed in this kind of matter involving righteousness, so there was a situation where she reported to Fang Kongzhi and Fang Kongzhi to report to Nanjing in an urgent report for another 600 miles.

At that time, just in time for King Lu to ascend the throne, Zhu Shuren was still in Nanjing, and the important ministers gathered together, and the discussion was naturally efficient.

Zhu Changzhu didn't have an opinion on this kind of thing, but he was cowardly and felt that someone could accept it if someone came to surrender. In this way, the people below will be better -

Originally, if Chongzhen was alive, the people below were most worried that after Chongzhen asked the other party to surrender, the other party surrendered not completely enough, and Chongzhen had to investigate his subordinates "why did they accept the surrender of such a thief who did not surrender completely", and then punish the crime.

Now Zhu Changzhu is weak and muddy, and after the surrender, the other party will not investigate the responsibility of the decision-making civilian officials if they do not vote thoroughly, and everyone will let go of the courage to surrender and rebel.

Under Zhu Shuren's mastery, Shi Kefa went through the process, and the imperial court quickly replied to Fang Kongzhi, asking him to accept Yuan Zongdi's surrender, and he could give him the status of a general, and at the same time quickly sent an envoy from Baoji to Xi'an, informing Wu Sangui and Yuan Zongdi of a truce, and by the way, appeased Wu Sangui, saying that the imperial court recognized his self-assertion and meritorious service so far, so that Wu Sangui should not have psychological pressure.

】

Zhu Shuren felt that there was nothing wrong with doing this, if he could stabilize the Great Northwest, even if he showed favor to Wu Sangui, no matter whether Wu Sangui was a traitor in the end in history, at this moment he was still pulling the fig leaf of "only fighting thieves, not fighting the Ming army", then the court should make the best use of the mud, so as not to make more enemies.

In such a complicated and troubled world, it is necessary to pay attention to a little bit of modeling, and we can't all be like scholars, and we will not let go of the ethics of righteousness and righteousness. To liquidate, it is not a matter of now.

These round-trips took about a month, and when the imperial court's will was delivered, Wu Sangui had indeed occupied most of Xi'an and Shaanxi, only Tongguan, Pubanjin and a few ferries were mastered by the Qing army - the Qing army also wanted to take Wu Sangui, not to let Wu Sangui be too divided, so to pinch the throat military fortress in their own hands, and only give Wu Sangui some unsafe farming territory.

After Wu Sangui received the order, he also borrowed the slope to get off the donkey, saying that he was still a Ming minister, but he cooperated with the Qing army to break through during the special period, and if Yuan Zongdi really accepted the reorganization of the imperial court and was appointed by the imperial court to take over local government affairs, he would not fight Longshan again.

Before the war in the Central Plains, the Southern Ming court had stabilized the defense line in the northwest direction. In this way, it is only necessary to consider the battles in the middle and east lanes.

Wu Sangui, Yuan Zongdi, Azige, and the Sichuan army of the Ming army were also temporarily kicked out of the Central Plains hegemony chess game in the next year and a half.

On the battlefield of the Central Plains, only Li Ziyuan, including Liu Zongmin and Liu Fangliang, the Eastern Route Army of the Qing Army led by Duoduo, the puppet Fuwang regime in Fengyang, and the orthodox court of the Ming Dynasty in Nanjing, the struggle between the four forces.

——

ps: Before the Qing army went south, it was still necessary to spend some space to change the pattern and map of the secondary battlefield, so as not to make everyone feel abrupt and question why Wu Sangui, Azig, and Yuan Zongdi did not come to participate in the decisive battle of the Central Plains this year.

This chapter is almost 6,000 words, so I won't dismantle it, and I'll start officially dismantling it tomorrow, in February.