At this time, Chongzhen was anxiously waiting for news in Xuzhou.

Because Chongzhen has already played all the cards in his hand, Huang Degong, Lu Zhenfei and even Ma Shiying, the governor of Fengyang, have done their best, but it is still unknown what choice Jiannu will make.

To be honest, the price paid by the Ming military and civilians for this counterattack can be described as extremely great.

The border army of the ten towns alone killed more than 3,000 people, and more than 10,000 people were wounded, and the people who went out of the city to pull wheat seedlings were successively attacked by Jiannu and the Mongolian cavalry of the Eight Banners and the Mongolian cavalry of the Outer Domain, and more than 30,000 people were killed and wounded.

Then there are the sailors, who have so far lost more than 30 bird boats and more than 1,600 officers killed.

This is only the casualties of Xuzhou, the Ming army of Xia Zhen, the Ming army of Pizhou and the Ming army of Fengyang Mansion must also have casualties, especially the border army of Xia Zhen and Pizhou Town, the casualty number will not be small.

Because Chongzhen gave these two towns a death order.

The so-called at all costs refers to the fact that even if the border armies of the two towns are exhausted, even if Xia Zhen and Pizhou are lost, they must be entangled with the Jiannu in front of them, and they must not be allowed to come back!

So Li Zicheng and Dolgon are not wrong, this is really a desperate gamble.

For this ferocious counterattack, Chongzhen really bet all his might.

Then again, as long as you can win the bet in the end, then no matter how much money you bet, it will be profitable, and it will be blood, because as long as you survive this hurdle, the rest of the matter will be easy to do.

But the annoying thing is that I don't know how Jiannu will choose?

Or maybe Chongzhen is not sure if Jiannu still has a hidden backhand?

Three days have passed, and there is still no definite news, Chongzhen's anxiety is getting worse day by day, so he keeps pulling Huang Zongxi, Du Yinxi and other scholars and officials to review the situation in Xuzhou.

Chongzhen asked again: "Gao Banban, how many catties of green seedlings have you received so far?" ”

Gao Qiqian hurriedly said: "If you go back to the Long Live Lord, you have received a total of 180 million catties of green seedlings to remove roots and mud so far, but there will be another batch of green seedlings back to the city before the evening, and the total number will definitely exceed 200 million catties." ”

Chongzhen nodded and said: "One mu of green seedlings is 100 catties, and 200 million catties is two million mu." ”

This is estimated repeatedly by high diving, and one acre of green seedlings is about 100 catties.

Huang Zongxi said: "In other words, at least two million acres of green seedlings are gone. ”

Du Yinxi said: "Xuzhou's arable land is as high as 4 million mu, even if it is discounted, the total number of acres of Jiannu's tuntian will definitely not be less than 3 million mu, 2 million mu, and there are 1 million mu." ”

Zheng Sen continued: "According to the calculation of two stones per mu, it is two million stones!" ”

Huang Zongxi said again: "According to the calculation of the supply of three buckets per month, it is enough to support an army of 400,000 for a year and a half!" ”

"That's it." Chongzhen's face instantly darkened, "If you can't destroy the remaining million acres of tuntian, Jiannu will be enough to last until next year's winter wheat is ripe." ”

Huang Zongxi said: "The scout cavalry of the Eight Hundred Yiding has been scattered near Guide, and so far no reinforcements have been found from the Jiannu army, which shows that the Jiannu army is also hesitating, so we still have enough time." ”

Gu Yanwu said: "Even if Jiannu comes back, Xuzhou's Cao Yun has been opened, and the grain and rice from Huai'an Mansion and even Yangzhou Mansion will continue to enter Xuzhou, so there is still a fight for this protracted war." ”

"It's too optimistic." Chongzhen was worried, "Once the Jiannu army returns to Xuzhou, it will definitely restore the blockade ditch and fort on the west bank of the Yellow River, and then the water transportation will be interrupted again, at least the Cao boat will definitely not be able to reach Xuzhou." ”

Unlike the sailor warship, the sailor warship has a rocking oar and sail, and can walk independently, but the cao boat cannot.

There is no problem when the boat sails along the river, and when the boat is sailing against the current, it must be pulled fiber, if both sides of the Yellow River are under the control of Jiannu, how can the slender man pull the fiber? Don't you look for death?

Zhu Cijiong said with a dark face: "Then destroy this million mu of tuntian at all costs!" ”

"Your Royal Highness, do you know what you mean by whatever you say?" Huang Zongxi changed his color and said, "That will mean the death of 100,000 or even hundreds of thousands of old and young women and children!" ”

Zhu Cijiong said: "No matter how much it costs, it is worth it. ”

Huang Zongxi said angrily: "The people are precious, the community is secondary, and the monarch is light, if a court is reduced to relying on the sacrifice of the people to be preserved, then it will ......."

Zhu Cijiong said angrily: "Then what? Huang Zongxi: What do you want to say? ”

Chongzhen's face was even more embarrassed, but this is the reality, when things are going well, everything seems to be going well, but when the authorities are in adversity, everything seems to be messed up.

There can be a fierce conflict between the prince and the scholar.

This has never happened in more than half a year before.

"That's enough, don't make any noise." Chongzhen could only forcibly suppress the quarrel between the two.

Looking at Chongzhen with an anxious face, Li Xiangjun suddenly felt a little distressed, and immediately persuaded: "Shengshang, presumably Jiannu is more entangled than us at this time, because they will take a greater risk if they return to Xuzhou." ”

Chongzhen said: "Having said that, Jiannu has always dared to take risks. ”

The old slave concentrated his troops all the way in the Battle of Salhu, Huang Taiji poured the country's troops in the Songjin War, and this time Jiannu also poured out the country's troops, all of them were dangerous, and they were all desperate.

What's even more infuriating is that Jiannu's first few adventures actually won.

So this kind of thing is really mysterious sometimes, and I can't help but believe it.

So no one dared to guarantee that Dolgon would not take the risk to kill back to Xuzhou.

In short, before the final mystery is revealed, Chongzhen has to continue to be anxious.

While being anxious, Chongzhen secretly swore in his heart that as long as he survived this hurdle, he would never be able to repeat such a situation in the future, because it was too tiring to bet on all his net worth to gamble against others.

If he kept gambling with others like this, Chongzhen seriously doubted that he would not live to be fifty years old.

How strong is that psychological quality to withstand such psychological suffering?

Chongzhen is suffering, Zhu Cihong, Zhu Cijiong brothers, Wang Chengen, Lu Jiude, Gao Qiqian and other three big eunuchs, Huang Zongxi and other dozens of scholars and officials such as Guan Yinxi are also suffering.

Everyone was anxiously waiting for Jiannu's reaction.

But Jiannu didn't react immediately.

This torment continued until the end of the night.

At the beginning of the child, the old and young women and children who went out to pull out the seedlings returned to Xuzhou one after another.

Chongzhen naturally won't let them go back to the city, and temporarily arranged the platform outside the city, anyway, the number of platforms outside the city is enough to accommodate everyone, and now that it's summer, it's nothing.

Around the beginning of the ugly year, Jin Xuan and Zheng Hongkui, the chief soldier of the water division, returned to Xuzhou at the same time.

Then the two came to Chongzhen's line and reported to Chongzhen what they had found.

The first to walk in was Zheng Hongkui: "Holy Lord, when the scout fleet of our sailors entered the junction of Guide Mansion and Xuzhou, they received a group of remnants of Dashun who fled for their lives. ”

"There was a squad of Mongol cavalry chasing them."

"The scout fleet of the sailors repelled the Mongol cavalry and saved the remnants of Dashun."

After a pause, Zheng Hongkui said: "These remnants of Dashun told us that they were ambushed by the main force of Jiannu on the way to Guide Mansion, and the army of 50,000 had collapsed. ”

"Fifty thousand?" Huang Zongxi said, "Did they say who the Lord would be? ”

Zheng Hongkui said: "Say, the main general will be Liu Zongmin, the number one general under the command of the thief." ”

Huang Zongxi said: "Shengshang, this is interesting, Jiannu actually ambushed the Puppet Shun army at this time, and what is even more interesting is that the Puppet Shun army actually attacked the Defu at this time?" ”

Zhu Cijiong said: "There must be something unknowable between the pseudo-shun and Jiannu. ”

Xu Yingwei said: "We might as well make a bold guess that Jiannu wants to set up a bureau before returning to Xuzhou, and uses the pseudo-shun's eagerness to chase and kill a horse gun?" Then the pseudo-shun really fell into the calculation of Jiannu. ”

"Not necessarily." Huang Zongxi shook his head and said, "It is impossible for the pseudo-shun to have such kindness and pursue Jiannu for us." ”

Xu Yingwei said: "What if the pseudo-shun is not for us, but just wants to pick up the cheap and take the opportunity to attack Guide?" ”

"Well, that's a possibility." Huang Zongxi nodded and said, "Emperor Pseudo-Shun, Prime Minister Niu Jinxing, and that Left Army Division Song Xiance, I don't think they are visionary figures, maybe they really have such careful thoughts." ”

Xu Yingwei said: "Then the question now is, after Jiannu finished calculating the puppet Shun army, should he return to Xuzhou, or should he take the opportunity to roll back into Kaifeng Mansion?" ”

Huang Zongxi said: "It's hard to say, both are possible." ”

As soon as the words fell, Kim Hyun also walked in.

"Jin Qing!" Chongzhen asked anxiously, "Did you find anything over there?" ”

"Holy." Jin Xuan arched his hand and said, "I'm afraid Jiannu is going to retire!" ”

"What?" Chongzhen didn't hear it clearly, or he actually heard it clearly, but he couldn't believe it, so he had to confirm with Jin Xuan again to rest assured.

Jin Xuan repeated with a serious face: "Holy Lord, Jiannu is about to retire!" ”

When he said it the first time, Jin Hyun also used the word "afraid", but when he said the second time, he had lost the word "afraid", because he was already sure that Jiannu had indeed withdrawn.

"Jiannu has withdrawn!" Chongzhen was stunned.

Happiness came too suddenly, and Chongzhen was a little overwhelmed.

Huang Zongxi, Du Yinxi, Zheng Sen and other officials and scholars also looked at each other.

When Jiannu did not withdraw from the army, they all looked forward to Jiannu's withdrawal, but Jiannu really retreated, but they couldn't believe that this human mind is so complicated.

"Haha, Jiannu has withdrawn!"

It took a long time for Chongzhen to finally react.

Emotional, Chongzhen hugged the person closest to him.

"Jiannu has retreated, Jiannu has finally withdrawn!" Chongzhen was so excited that he roared twice, only to find that it was Li Xiangjun who was hugged by him, and his face was already red with shame at this time.

(End of chapter)