Perhaps it was because it had been peaceful for too long, and the officials in the Nanjing court began their traditional skill again - attacking each other.

Things that were already going to rot, such as the Lu Jiu Defu Wang incident, Li Banghua and Fan Jingwen's different political views in the capital at the beginning, and even the concubine Zhou Shixian's private mobilization of the Beijing camp Jinyi Guard, the four towns of Jiangbei, and the Nanjing Water Camp have become the focus of attacks by these ministers.

Emperor Chongzhen was furious and dismissed several officials at the level of squire, but it was useless, Donglin Party, Non-Donglin Party, Zhejiang Party, Wu Party, Nanjing Old School, Xungui Group...... Countless political groups used the Nanjing court as a stage, seeking political fame regardless of national danger.

In fact, these ministers who attack each other do not really grasp each other's handle in many cases, they just make themselves stand out among the ministers by attacking each other, or pull others into the water in order to be able to ascend to the position.

In other words, these people are just fighting for the sake of fighting, and it essentially depends on whether Emperor Chongzhen believes it or not.

However, the mutual attack between the ministers is okay, but it is just a trick, only luck and the right time can bring down the hostile ministers, although it has an impact on the situation, but Zhou Shixian's army is in an independent state, and the four towns in Jiangbei are also semi-independent, and their war of words has little impact on military deployment.

But they attacked Lu Zhenfei, Zhang Huangyan, and even Li Banghua, Ni Yuanlu, and the most undesirable thing is that they actually attacked Zhou Shixian himself, that is, they made an extremely serious political mistake.

And for Zhou Shixian, people who have made political mistakes can't stay in the court, he has countless people's black material in his hands, Li Banghua is the head of the imperial history, those ministers who touched Zhou Shixian's scales were soon exposed because of the scandal, they were attacked by hostile political groups, and they were soon dismissed.

It can only be said that for Emperor Chongzhen, who has only one son-in-law to rely on and is not loyal to him, these ministers may be difficult to control, but for Zhou Shixian, it is not the same thing.

Because he not only had Lu Jiude, Zhang Huangyan, Li Banghua, and Ni Yuanlu also stood on his side tightly, and was occupied by the Nanjing Water Camp, but Zhou Shixian also tried his best to support Zhou Shixian by the Xungui Group who found a place for them in the Nanjing Fifth Military Camp.

Of course, if Zhou Shixian sat in the position of Emperor Chongzhen, maybe he wouldn't be able to deal with it so easily. Being an outsider is often the most unchecked, and the throne is both supreme power and great constraint.

If you don't have enough strength, it's almost impossible to be comfortable in it, but you'll be limited everywhere and it's hard to use it.

After being hit by Zhou Shixian, the officials in the Nanjing court finally stopped a little, but in addition to not daring to provoke Ma Ye and Li Banghua, Ni Yuanlu and others, they were still attacking in other aspects, and the party strife of the Ming Dynasty and the endless party strife were still endangering this empire that was about to collapse.

Seeing these chaotic scenes, Zhou Shixian became even more determined to replace Chongzhen as soon as possible, truly reform the court, and reshape the bureaucracy. He originally thought that Chongzhen would work together with him, sing and harmonize, and complete the reform together, but he didn't expect that the other party had not taken measures in order to curb himself.

Perhaps, the temptation of the throne, the temptation of power, is too great. Coupled with the winner-take-all "political prisoner's dilemma" that has gradually formed since the Chinese dynasties, no one dares to really let go.

And the struggle in the court was just a bad episode for Zhou Shixian after all, and the back and forth attacks between various factions, and the continuous war of words were not as important as the drills of the army.

The time soon came to October, and Zhou Shixian also came to the military camp of the "Wu'an Battalion" again, and he was about to lead this military battalion to the north to eliminate the remnants of Xu Dingguo and prepare for the defense of the Huai River in the second year.

Lu Jiude's military intelligence espionage work in Henan had already made positive progress, and in order to cooperate with Zhou Shixian's advance, he disguised himself and came to Ningling, and then transferred to Juzhou, where he personally commanded the assassination of Xu Dingguo.

Xu Dingguo and the Qing army colluded for a long time, and watched the south begin to gain momentum, especially the rise of Zhou Shixian, Gao Jie, Liu Zeqing, Liu Liangzuo and others surrendered one after another, which made him have the idea of betting on both sides again, and began to get in touch with Zhou Shixian through Gao Jie. It's just that this just gave Lu Jiude the opportunity to assassinate him.

In the past nearly a year, Lu Jiude has participated in many events planned by Zhou Shixian, and he has also seen Zhou Shixian in the military camp in Yangzhou.

But the strong army under Zhou Shixian's command was indeed beyond his imagination, and he knew for the first time that the army could still have that kind of momentum.

In particular, when he knew that all the money that Zhou Shixian used for military training was robbed, and it was his relatives who robbed it, he was even more shocked in his heart. The army has a new look, the court is also clear, Lu Jiude is a person who does practical things, and he has personally participated in many events, and he has been convinced step by step by Zhou Shixian's series of arrangements.

It is precisely because of this that he knows the importance of Juzhou, Ningling, and Guide, so he personally went out and commanded a foolproof ambush battle, and finally killed Xu Dingguo at the cost of three killers.

With the killing of Xu Dingguo, thousands of miscellaneous troops gathered in Juzhou, Ningling and other places were not vulnerable at all, and they were directly sent to Gao Jie by Zhou Shixian, and Gao Jie also got rid of the bad luck of being killed in the original history, and began to build bunkers in Juzhou, Ningling and other places in accordance with Zhou Shixian's orders, and strengthen the city as the first line of defense against the Duoduo army.

At the same time, Zhou Shixian gathered Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo, and led the Wu'an battalion to capture the city of Guide, which was garrisoned by only more than 1,000 green battalion soldiers.

In this battle, Zhou Shixian used three eight-pounder cannons and five Hongyi cannons for the first time in the siege battle, and the city wall collapsed within two days.

And after Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo saw the strong combat effectiveness of the army under Zhou Shixian, they had long lost the mind to fight, especially Liu Zeqing, who had been frightened by Zhou Shixian before.

After all, the soldiers and horses under their command, if they were not elite soldiers, could not even defeat these green battalions transformed from the northern border army, and the elite soldiers still had Zhou Shixian's special appropriation and special training for officers, and the equipment was upgraded to a new level to defeat these green battalions.

After handing over the defense area to Gao Jie, Liu Zeqing and others, and completing the basic deployment before the war, Zhou Shixian immediately led his troops back to Yingtianfu, and then returned to Nanjing, preparing to raise troops to the north to fight against the Qing army as soon as the New Year passed.