"Tut-tut..."

One day at the end of April, Zhu Cihong looked at the battle report in his hand, and said with pity on his face:

"I'm afraid I'm going to be the king of the northwest."

After a few days of hard work, Dashun suffered another big defeat.

The Qing army seemed to have gone crazy, and under the leadership of Duoduo and Azig, they bit the main force of the Dashun army led by Li Zicheng.

It was supposed to be a five-day journey, but Duoduo arrived with his cavalry in three days.

In other words, the more than 100,000 Dashun troops who fled all the way from Xi'an to Wuchang were actually caught up by the Qing army after only resting in Wuchang for two days.

In these two days, the Dashun army even fought a decisive battle with hundreds of thousands of left troops outside Wuchang City, although it was won, but it was useless.

Li Zicheng ran for more than a month, and Duoduo and Azig chased for more than a month, but they were really surrounded and intercepted, and there were more and more Qing troops encircling them, and they didn't even give them a breather.

Li Zicheng thought that only the cavalry of Duoduo came alone, and he was determined to fight a counterattack, so he organized the generals of Dashun to set up an ambush.

Not surprisingly, the Dashun army was defeated again.

In fact, the Dashun army was about to win, but the heavens were not beautiful, and every time Dashun watched the victory, he had to send a wave of reinforcements to the Qing army.

Those who were defeated by the Qing Dynasty not long ago were killed again under the leadership of Zuo Mengeng.

The heroes can't stand the crowd, although the Dashun army has experienced a hundred battles, but after all, there are many people on the left, and it is still a situation where the enemy is on the back of the enemy.

Li Zicheng knew that he could not fight fiercely, so he could only order a breakthrough in batches.

After this battle, the troops around Li Zicheng were even more scattered, and there were no more than 100,000 people, and it was estimated that only about 20,000 old battalions remained.

After accepting the canonization, although the Ming army in Huguang had a certain effect on the rest of the Dashun army, it had little effect.

The local Ming army in Huguang, even Zhu Cihong himself could not be contacted, and whether Nanjing would listen to the order or not was still two words.

Taking a step back, even if the remaining Ming army in Huguang does not accept this holy decree, there is nothing Zhu Cihong can do now.

There are no tricks, who said that the knife handle is not hard now?

Now Zhu Cihong is no more worry-free than Li Zicheng, since he became the emperor, the news he receives every day is either cleared or captured.

Otherwise, it is the Wenchen military generals under his command who fight fiercely in one nest after another, and they don't care about external.

If you want to really control the field, you should first control the one-third of an acre of land in Nanjing!

Putting down this report, Zhu Cihong's face was full of worry, there was not much time left for him, and Li Zicheng was going farther and farther on the road to defeat.

Once Li Zicheng finished playing, several armies of Tatar Qing would all come towards him.

......

Nanjing's arsenal was opened, but Huang Degong soon discovered that these things were old goods from more than 100 years ago, and most of them could not be used.

Rusty armor and swords and guns, damp gunpowder and cannonballs, these are all the belongings of the Ming army guarding Nanjing.

But the good news is that there is money.

How so?

Li Banghua's first suggestion was very reliable and won the love of the children of the rich families in Jiangnan.

This group of people is not bad at all, what is bad is the method of spending money.

No, spend money to buy the name of the prisoner of the country, the protégé of the Son of Heaven, who doesn't want to put this on his head?

No one will refuse to have the identity of one more "reader", after all, readers are still very popular, at least for now.

I heard that in Beijing, it is also quite good.

The invigilator is just a national student who can directly take the imperial examination, neither fame nor official position, and Zhu Cihong doesn't have to worry about anything at all, it's just a blank check.

The name of one of the prisoners was five thousand taels of silver.

Five thousand taels, what is the concept?

Ordinary people can't spend ten taels of silver in a year, and it takes five thousand taels to buy a prisoner, and these silver are enough for any common people, and the whole family will be enough for several lifetimes.

Originally, Zhu Cihong was worried about whether it was set high, but later found that his worry was completely unnecessary, and there were too many stupid people and too much money in Jiangnan.

Every big family, the first time they heard the news, wanted to put their few unscrupulous sons and daughters on their heads as "national prisoners".

Not to mention anything else, he can be regarded as a scholar anyway, isn't this better than nothing?

When we meet in the future, the sons of other people's families are all prisoners of the country, but my own sons are not, isn't it a shame?

A son is 5,000 taels, and the whole is only tens of thousands of taels, which is still a lot of money for the big chaebols in Jiangnan?

So, let's make a whole one!

They were happy, and Zhu Cihong was also happy to collect the accounts.

At this time, some people will ask, the Guozi prisoners on the streets, can this still be worth it?

Guozijian is the highest institution of learning in the country of the Ming Dynasty, and its supervisors are originally the best talents in the world, so they can be given the praise of the protégé of the Son of Heaven.

Zhu Cihong sneered in return.

Valuable?

The prisoners of Guozijian have long been worthless, and the reason why there were not many in the past was because they were monopolized by the Donglin Party.

As early as the Chongzhen period, the prisoners of Guozijian were already synonymous with the Donglin Party among many poor scholars.

Those who are not close to the Donglin Party are as difficult as climbing to the sky if they want to enter the Guozi Prison.

Prison students, in the eyes of the poor scholars, is a real derogatory term, no matter whether Zhu Cihong opened the prison or not, it can't change this fact.

Rather than continue to let the Donglin Party monopolize it, it is better to let him go and let him in if he gives money, anyway, he doesn't expect Guozijian to have any effect.

Daming is almost finished, do you still care about this?

Now, getting money is the number one priority!

For this point, Zhu Cihong's goal is very clear.

Now that you have money, the first step is to get the armor and equipment of the army that is loyal to you!

It must be a little bit of money, and the army's salary is distributed first!

The strategy of cleaning up people's hearts will not be outdated in any dynasty, and giving money and food is the easiest way.

What Zhao Zhilong can give you, I can give you, and what he can't give you, I can also give you.

I don't believe it, you take my money and eat the food I give you, and you will not listen to me?

So, on this day, Zhu Cihong came out of Jiming Temple, and under the escort of Mei Chun and other pro-army guards, he came to the barracks of the Nanjing City Defense Army.

Before Zhu Cihong came, Huang Degong had already led his subordinates to control the venue in advance.

Huang Degong didn't believe Zhao Zhilong very much, after all, the city defense army was still nominally at his disposal, and had to take precautions to prevent mutiny.

However, Zhao Zhilong has been busy fighting with the Donglin Party recently, and he has no intention of playing any power leaning towards the government and the opposition, and he does not have the lofty ideals of coercing the Son of Heaven to order the princes.

Some time ago, Zhao Zhilong tortured and plundered more than 200 children of the Fushe Society, and made a lot of money, anyway, he gained a lot of fat.

He was very satisfied and troubled.

Satisfaction means that the emperor is very satisfied with the method proposed, because the silver is real, looking at the white flowers of silver baskets to their own home, who is not pleasing to the eye?

The trouble is against the hypocrites of the Donglin Party, because the former left capital Yushi was released to supervise the defense of Nanjing, and it is called demotion and meritorious service.

From the Imperial History of the Left Capital of the Imperial Court to the Imperial History of the Patrol City, it is said that this must be a downgrade, and it is not just a little downgrade.

But Zhao Zhilong found that after Li Zhan was demoted, he unfortunately became his top boss, and he became more and more prestigious, and he had nothing to do with him all day long.

Because of the imperial history of patrolling the city, it happened to be the city defense army under him.

On the surface, this was the demand of the Donglin Party, and the emperor was to fulfill their demand, and each took a step back.

If you have insight, you can detect the cattiness.

It's a pity that Zhao Zhilong, in addition to the real benefits in hand, will only look at the surface, and he and Li will become incompatible with him at the first time, and blame all the mistakes on the Donglin Party.

In Zhao Zhilong's opinion, this group of people really has too many eyes, I thought that this was a demotion for Li Zhan, who would have thought that they would suffer the loss of being unfamiliar with the official system!

If it weren't for Huang Degong pressing in the city, it is estimated that Zhao Zhilong would directly flip the table and not play, and lead the troops to cut Li Zhan.

And Zhu Cihong wants this effect.