The time soon came to the middle of May of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen.

At this time, Zhang Xianzhong's Great Western Army was blocked by Chongqing, an important town in eastern Sichuan, and was digging tunnels with puffs, preparing to blow up the Chongqing city wall with gunpowder.

Chen Shiqi, the governor of Sichuan in the Ming Dynasty, is struggling to support.

Zhu Zhishu, the king of Shu, was still drunk and dreaming of death, and he didn't know that his death was coming.

Li Zicheng had already retreated to Shanxi from Jingcheng, one of the eight Taihang Mountains.

Unfortunately, less than 20,000 of the more than 100,000 old soldiers who followed Li Zicheng out of Shaanxi were left, and 60,000 of them were wiped out.

The Dashun army can actually still fight, and these cavalry have fought to the end.

For Li Zicheng, the only good news was that with the help of the Guguan natural danger, the Dashun army finally blocked the pursuing troops, and Wu Sangui's Guanning army had been storming Guguan for several days, with thousands of dead and wounded but never allowed to advance.

Li Yan suggested that Li Zicheng transfer troops from Shaanxi to Shanxi to strengthen the defenses of Shanxi and Datong.

Li Yan believes that Shanxi and Shaanxi are dependent on each other, and if the lips die, the teeth will be cold, so only by sticking to Shanxi can the Dashun army ensure that the hinterland of Shaanxi will not be attacked, and only then can it have a chance to recuperate.

But Li Zicheng went home and rejected Li Yan's suggestion.

After leaving behind a small number of troops, Li Zicheng set off for Xi'an.

As a result, as soon as Li Zicheng left on the front foot, Jiang Ping, the general soldier of Datong, and Wang Daye, the deputy general of Tiancheng Guard, reversed on the back foot.

Li Zicheng left behind Zhang Tianlin, the general who guarded Datong, and more than 10,000 Dashun troops were all slaughtered.

On Jiannu's side, in the face of the sharp butcher's knives of the Eight Banners, the gentry and people of various states and counties in Gyeonggi did not give in, but set off a larger-scale resistance, not only Gyeonggi, but almost the entire Northern Zhili rebelled.

For the Han gentry and the common people, it is okay to change the court, but not to change the clothes! I don't change my life!

As soon as Dolgon saw that the situation was not right, he hurriedly transferred Wu Sangui's Guanning army and the main force of Jiannu led by Duoduo back from Guguan to carry out more bloody suppression and massacre of the rebellious gentry and common people.

On the side of the Ming Dynasty, Chongzhen had successfully arrived in Xuzhou with 1,000 Yiding and Wang Zuntan and other ten town troops, and joined Li Chengdong, Hu Maozhen and other eight town soldiers who arrived in Xuzhou first.

At this time, the Ming army gathered in Xuzhou had a total of eighteen town border troops.

Huang Degong also sent a flying horse to report that Liu Liangzuo had been killed and Liu Liangzuo's department had been incorporated.

Ten days at most, five days at least, and the 60,000 people led by Huang Dequan will also arrive in Xuzhou, and by that time, there is a high probability that the total army of 28 towns can be gathered.

Twenty-eight towns, which sounds like a huge lineup, are actually only 120,000 horses.

There are a total of 120,000 people in the four towns of Jiangbei in the history of the Southern Ming Dynasty, and the dogs and cats are basically here.

In addition, there are more than 5,000 Weisuo troops under the command of Wang Wenming under the command of Xuzhou Wei, as well as the brave and strong villagers of nearby Xiao County, Pei County, Feng County and Dangshan County, all of which add up to about 20,000 people.

With 20,000 people, the combat effectiveness is really a bit indescribable.

Of course, the 120,000 horses in the four towns of Jiangbei are not much stronger.

Dealing with bandits and bandits, these 120,000 people are still enough to do it.

But against the Dashun Army or the Daxi Army, there is basically only one word - run!

If you are even more unfortunate against Jiannu, you will not even have a chance to escape, only surrender.

In history, Gao Jie, Liu Zeqing, Liu Liangzuo and Zuo Liangyu's army, basically this vein, when the Dashun army came, they could still run, and when Jiannu came, they had no chance to escape, they could only kneel and beg to surrender, and then after surrendering Jiannu, they suddenly became very capable of fighting, and the wind swept the leaves and generally hit most of China.

Therefore, with the current 140,000 people, the field battle against the Shangdashun army can only escape, and against the Shangjian slave, there is a high probability that there will be only a kneeling and begging to surrender, and there will be no other possibility.

Chongzhen still has a clear understanding of this.

Chongzhen would not be naïve to think that because of him, the emperor himself, this rabble would immediately be able to become an elite group, which was a dream.

The real elite is only a thousand Yiding.

This Qianyi Ding can break his wrist with the white-armored soldiers of Jiannu.

Some people will ask, can these 140,000 people improve their combat effectiveness through rectification and training?

The answer is no, even if the Ming court can provide sufficient food and salary to ensure the consumption of physical energy, these 140,000 people will never become a strong army through training.

The only effect is to make them run faster.

Originally, they couldn't outrun the Mongol cavalry, so they could only kneel and beg for surrender to Shangjiannu, but if the logistics support kept up and the physical strength was guaranteed, they might be able to create a miracle and outperform the Mongol cavalry.

It is useless to rectify, change the soup without changing the medicine, and there will be absolutely no reborn changes.

In a word, this army, from high-ranking generals to grass-roots officers to big-headed soldiers, has become accustomed to fleeing in field battles, and the slightest disturbance on the battlefield will cause them to be defeated like a mountain, and they will be tried and tested repeatedly.

To put it bluntly, this army has collapsed mentally and is hopeless.

Some people will say, what you said is not right, you say that they are hopeless and will collapse at the first touch, but why can they become a strong army after surrendering to Jiannu?

The answer is actually very simple, one is because after surrendering Jiannu, I can finally eat enough, and my physical strength can keep up, and the other is that there is a prison army behind the buttocks!

Behind these surrendered troops, the prison army guarding Jiannu!

Didn't you see Duoduo holding Wu Sangui to beat the Dashun army to death?

So unless they have the courage to rebel, they can only move forward desperately.

Otherwise, the Jiannu prison army would really dare to kill people, and the heads would fall to the ground one by one.

In fact, there were also those who couldn't stand the oppression of the Jiannu prison army and rebelled angrily, such as Li Chengdong, Jin Shengyuan and Jiang Jiao, who all rebelled in the end, but after the rebellion, their army immediately showed its original form.

Wu Sangui's Guan Ning Army has a better foundation, so it will last a few more days.

The border troops of the towns of the Ming Dynasty have knelt down spiritually and are kneeling.

Then some people will ask, can't Daming set up a prison army?

Of course, there is no problem in setting up a prison army, but Jiannu's prison army is backed by 130,000 Eight Banner soldiers, what is behind the eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty? There is only one bare-pole emperor, what about trouble?

So, is this army really hopeless?

Yes, this army is really hopeless.

The field battle can't defeat the Dashun army, let alone Jiannu.

It is still barely competent to defend the city or hold the barracks.

Of course, this army is incurable, which does not mean that the Ming Dynasty is incurable.

Daming is still worth rescuing, and the prescription is to imitate Qi Dashuai to train Zhejiang soldiers, start from scratch to train the new army, and create a new army that has nothing to do with the border army of the 28th town.

Of course, Chongzhen also wanted to start a new army and train a new army.

However, it is a pity that there is no money, and second, time does not allow it, because Jiannu is about to go south, and third, there is a lack of excellent officers, and in order to train into a new army, in addition to having a clean family background, there must also be a large group of excellent officers who have experienced a hundred battles or received higher education.

Qi Dashuai's Zhejiang soldiers had a group of iron-blooded veterans who fought on the anti-Japanese battlefield as officers.

Yuan Gongbao's Beiyang New Army also had a large group of new-style cadets who graduated from the Tianjin Military Academy.

Not to mention the Northern Expeditionary Army, without the thousands of cadets of the Whampoa Military Academy, there would be no Northern Expeditionary Army.

Before such a group of high-quality officers is cultivated, training the new army is purely a flower in the mirror.

So, can a group of veterans who have fought in the 28th Town Border Army be transferred to serve as officers of the new army?

The answer is still no, the so-called soldiers are the courage of the generals, they will be the soul of the soldiers, and what good soldiers can be trained by finding such a group of psychologically "unlifted" veterans of the border army to serve as officers of the new army?

It's nothing more than another fleeing army that is about to collapse at the touch of a button.

Therefore, there is no need to think about the formation and training of the new army for the time being.

Having said all this, it can be summed up in four points.

First, the current situation is extremely serious, but there is still time.

Second, the conditions for the formation and training of the new army are not in place for the time being.

Third, the border army of the 28th town in Xuzhou is very rubbish, but at the moment they can only rely on them to support national defense.

Fourth, the field battle of the border army of the 28th town in Xuzhou is basically about to collapse at the touch of a button, so it is necessary to step up the repair of the fortifications to provide them with a sense of security, otherwise the Huanghuai defense line can only be a flower in the mirror.

However, before Chongzhen drove these arrogant soldiers to build fortifications, a disturbance suddenly broke out.

At first, it was Li Chengdong Town, Gao Jie's old department, and then quickly spread to the remaining seven towns and the ten towns of Liu Zeqing's old department, and finally evolved into a large-scale group incident.

The Ming Dynasty can be said to be the poorest of the twenty-four dynasties, there is no one, so there are often arrears of military salaries, and the Zhejiang soldiers built by Qi Dashuai are the afterglow that fell in the salary incident.

For Guan Ningjun, the salary is a traditional craft.

Facing the raging border town soldiers, Chongzhen instantly became alert.

It's not a big deal, it's just asking for money, and it's asking for money for selling your life, which doesn't sound like anything wrong.

In fact, it is a big mistake, because this is to blackmail the imperial court, and once this end is opened, there will be no way to manage it in the future, but if there is a little unsatisfactory, there will be a group of troubles.

If you compromise this time, you will have to make an inch next time.

When Jiannu went south, these arrogant soldiers dared to make a fuss and ask for a southern expedition.

So how to deal with this salary has become a problem, and it is really tricky.

A comprehensive compromise will definitely not work, if it is really compromised, these arrogant soldiers will only taste the sweetness more excessively, the emperor's authority will be fatally weakened, and the Huanghuai defense line will still be guarded.

But it is not possible to compromise at all, otherwise the disturbance will turn into a mutiny.

The middle of this measure must be just right, not only to deter these arrogant soldiers, but also not to let the trouble evolve into a mutiny, time can not be delayed, must be fast and ruthless!

First of all, calmly analyze, is there any interference between the Dashun Army and Jiannu behind this incident?

It is impossible for the Dashun army, Li Zicheng has now been beaten into a dog by Jiannu, and it is difficult to protect himself, and it is impossible to have the energy to infiltrate the Ming army at this time.

It is also impossible to build a slave.

Because according to the historical process, Jiannu had been overwhelmed by the rebellion in Beizhi at this time, and even Duoduo's main force of Jiannu and Wu Sangui's Guanning army were transferred back.

And Jiannu's tentacles are far from reaching Xuzhou.

After determining this, Chongzhen had a bottom in his heart.

As long as the general soldiers of the towns do not want to rebel, it will be easy to do.

It's a crisis, but isn't it an opportunity?

Crisis crisis is always an opportunity in a crisis, it depends on whether you can grasp it!

At that moment, Chongzhen instructed Gao Qiqian and Lu Jiude: "Gao Companion, Lu Companion, you prepare 20,000 taels of silver and go to Li Chengdong's camp with me." ”