Zhang Nai thought for a moment and asked, "Why?" ”

He couldn't understand why Wu Sangui would refuse his relatives. Song Xiance said: "Wu Sangui didn't explain, but Li Zhaoji came to the secret letter ........ through the channel of Tianjin Wei. ”

Song Xiance handed the secret letter to Zhang Nai, when Zhang Nai took it, he felt that the secret letter was very thick, he opened it and wanted to see it, Song Xiance took it again, picked out one from more than a dozen secret letters and handed it to him, which used forty-five words to explain why Wu Sangui did not accept his relatives, but it was summed up in four words - the time has not come.

As for the timing, Li Zhaoji did not say.

Dashun naturally didn't know that Wu Sangui had a plan to support the new monarch, so he naturally didn't know when it would be, and the reason why Wu Sangui didn't take back his relatives was also related to this, Wu Sangui's purpose was to make his father have no choice, after all, to support the new monarch, what he got was the status of one person under ten thousand people, and he didn't want his brothers, sons, and nephews to threaten him.

However, when he received the secret letter, Zhang Nai was no longer so interested in this issue, and his energy was attracted by all the secret letters written by Li Zhaoji, who wrote more than a dozen pieces of paper, and it was not written with a brush, but with a feather pen to write in small letters, roughly calculated, no less than 10,000 words.

The content of the letter is completely related to the current situation, from the troops, weapons, and movements of the Eastern Capture side to the tactics and tactics, Li Zhaoji has explained and analyzed, and constantly provides various suggestions for Dashun. Zhang Nai saw the end, carefully checked the paper of the letter, and found that there were stains on the upper left and lower right of the letterhead, and its Chinese characters were circled and aggravated by lines.

"Yihou, focus on this page." Li Zicheng saw that Zhang Nai had finished reading it, so he picked out a page from it and handed it to Zhang Nai.

Zhang Nai took a look at it, this page mainly explained the tactics of the Eastern Prisoners, some of which such as shield cars, Fran machine guns, stragglers harassment, cavalry guerrilla shooting, etc., he had seen many on the battlefield of Modaoyu. He also understood why Li Zicheng let himself read this page, because the emperor of Dashun knew about Dongyu's tactics, and he learned about it from General Zhu Ming and Li Zhaoji, and Zhang Nai was the only one in Dashun who had fought with Donglu with real swords and guns.

"Your Majesty, what you say in this letter seems to be ...... Not to be true. ”

After reading the letter, Zhang Nai, corroborated the contents of the letter with what he had seen and heard from Zhu Ming's surrender to the army, although there were slight differences, but most of them were the same, plus the artillery company given by Li Zhaoji played an indispensable role in this battle, Zhang Nai, at least one thing, Li Zhaoji was serious and sincere in the matter of fighting the Eastern Prisoners, but he still gave a not very high evaluation, because he believed that Li Zhaoji's evaluation of the Qing army was obviously conservative.

"Oh, how to say it, tell me more about it." Li Zicheng asked.

Zhang Nai said: "The common tactics used in the letter are very similar, such as shield cars, light artillery, heavy armor, and big arrows, which Wechen has already seen in Modaoyu. However, Li Zhaoji's evaluation of the Qing army is really misleading by using words such as 'far superior to the Ming army' and 'the Ming army is much inferior'.

The Dongyu is strong, not the Ming army can compare, Weichen is grinding the knife valley, leading the ironclad cavalry of the department and the two Yellow Banner soldiers of the Dongyu to fight hand-to-hand, fighting to the death, the loss is not small, ask the officers and soldiers of the department, everyone agrees that the Dongyu Manchurian soldiers, only the elite of the old battalion can be compared, and the rest can not be compared. ”

Liu Zongmin smiled: "Yihou's words are exaggerated, as you said, Dongyu is so powerful, why do you get such a result with inferior troops, and the damage is less than beheading?" ”

"Cannon! Ruhou, the key to victory lies in artillery, you can send someone to ask the officers and soldiers participating in the battle, most of the eastern captives were killed by field artillery. Zhang Nai said.

Liu Zongmin nodded slightly, he knew Zhang Nai, Zhang Nai is not the kind of person who talks rhetorically and likes to talk big, in fact, Zhang Nai, this person is not smiling, and his words are much more reliable than himself.

Li Zicheng asked again: "Yihou, what do you think of Li Zhaoji's advice?" ”

Zhang Nai shook his head slightly: "The rest is good, but it's just passive." ”

The strategy provided by Li Zhaoji to Dashun was to form a fortified village to fight a dumb battle, let him gather as many soldiers and horses as possible, gather a regiment of hedgehogs, or defend the city, or set up a large camp, dig deep ditches, accumulate grain, and clear the fields around Gyeonggi to form a fortified area, fight offensive and defensive battles with Dongyu, and collect as many firearms as possible left by the Ming army, especially light artillery, and make use of them.

Li Zhaoji pointed out the direction of dealing with Dongyu, one is attrition, and the other is lethal.

The Donglu came around the grassland, and the supply line was long, as long as the Dashun side was strong and clear, the Donglu would not be able to obtain enough grain and grass, and naturally could not continue to fight. Although the soldiers and horses of the Dongyu are strong, they are not resistant to damage, the population of the Manchu Qing is only more than one million, and there are a number of soldiers, after the loss, it is difficult to make up for it, and if it kills and wounds more, it will inevitably let it retreat.

In Zhang Nai's view, it is right to clear the field and collect firearms, but it is very unfavorable to only put on a defensive posture. In his opinion, Dashun is not Zhu Ming, and he should have the confidence to fight a decisive battle with the Tartar wilderness.

After Zhang Nai's expression in simple language, everyone nodded one after another, and Li Zicheng praised and said: "Our men in the northwest can fight and dare to fight." ”

Li Zicheng took advantage of the map to say his own strategy, and he had already ordered someone to arrange the defensive strategy proposed by Li Zhaoji, but the top management of Dashun still thought that he should take the initiative to attack.

Donglu entered the customs in two ways, one road each for Gubeikou and Xifengkou, but because the road of Qiangziling was blocked by Zhang Nai, the speed of Gubeikou's attack was slower than that of Xifengkou for five or six days, resulting in Xifengkou's road has shown its true face, and Gubeikou still does not know the depth.

Li Zicheng's meaning is very clear, taking advantage of the division of troops in Dongyu, improper cooperation, concentrate the main force, go to Zunhua first, eliminate or hit Xifengkou along the way, in this way, you can take the lead in taking the people, if Dongyu really can't withstand the attrition, maybe it is impossible to withdraw the troops directly.

When Zhang Nai heard this, he had a feeling that it was difficult to ride a tiger, and the initiative he said was to concentrate the cavalry and some elites to form a mobile force, which could attack and harass the enemy army at the right time, rather than blindly defending, but he never thought that Li Zicheng would directly take advantage of the unstable foothold in Dongyu to launch a counterattack.

"Your Majesty, are reinforcements from the Central Plains and Shaanxi on the way?" Zhang Nai did not directly express support or opposition, but asked first.

Whether the reinforcements are on the way or not, it can be directly seen whether Li Zicheng really wants to prepare for defense, and it is a situation to launch a counterattack while seriously preparing for defense. If not, then attacking Zunhua is a tricky act of hoping to replace defense with offense, and once it fails, it may cause disastrous consequences.

"Strategist, tell Yihou about our strategy." Li Zicheng said.

Li Zicheng is really preparing to deal with the Dongyu, there is no doubt about this, that is because the Dongyu is powerful. According to the information provided by Li Zhaoji, the soldiers and horses of the Eastern Capture entered the customs this time were about 100,000, and if the outer feudal Mongolia, including Horqin, had more Ding, it could be more.

And Donglu is strong, almost everyone has horses, and the armor rate is high, and the firearms are also very sophisticated, while Dashun has no other advantages except for the unworthy military advantage, not even the home advantage.

Li Zicheng found that his recovery of stolen goods and subsidies had produced a bad reaction, and there was not much chaos caused by it in the locality, Li Guo had just returned from Shanhaiguan with soldiers and horses, and the gentry of Yongping Mansion immediately fled to Shanhaiguan, although the campaign had stopped, but the consequences caused by it, Li Zicheng was unpredictable.

Therefore, Li Zicheng ordered Yongping, Zunhua, and Shuntian to clear the walls, and each city could not hold out, and at the same time mobilized reinforcements on a large scale to gather in the capital.

Dashun's regular army has a total of five battalions, that is, the old army, is also the field force of Dashun, the total number is between 180,000 and 190,000, of which only the middle battalion, the left battalion and the rear battalion are in the capital, a total of about 80,000 people, these three battalions are the main force of the Eastern Expedition to the Ming Dynasty, there are some losses along the way, but there are also reasons for being stationed in various places.

Among them, more than 10,000 people were stationed in the northern Henan region of Henan, and more than 20,000 were stationed in Datong and Xuanfu to defend the border wall.

In addition, there are Tang Tong and Bai Guangen troops near the left side of the capital, but except for a small number of elites such as Tang Tong and Bai Guangen, the rest of the combat effectiveness is not strong.

In North China, Li Zicheng has begun to draw troops, but the Ming army is still in a state of incompleteness, which Li Zicheng has understood, so he sent more than 10,000 troops stationed in Xuanfu and Datong to return and dispatched the troops stationed in northern Henan to the capital, after these troops arrived, Dashun's old army in the capital exceeded 100,000 people, but Dashun's control of the north was still problematic, in order to deal with the Donglu at the same time, to rule, suppress the rebellion of the gentry in various places, To achieve the purpose of using the Central Plains as the battlefield to provide grain and grass supplies, Li Zicheng chose to replace the army.

He sent the three towns of Datong, Xuanfu, and Jizhen to the south of Zhu Ming's army, which was used to occupy territory, practice rule, and suppress oppression, because the surrendered army here was transferred, so there was no need to worry about any collusion between them and the Dongyu.

The latest deployment of more than 20,000 people has already arrived, and more reinforcements are still on the way.

Yuan Zongdi's right battalion was in Henan at this time to suppress Liu Hong's uprising, Li Zicheng sent his 25,000 troops and horses to the north, which is expected to arrive in 20 days, and another larger army is from Shaanxi, led by Tian Jianxiu, who is the commander of the battalions, this is the second person in the Dashun army, commanding the middle battalion, the rear battalion, and the front battalion, and Zhu Ming's army, a total of 50,000 people went north.

But the journey is slower and is expected to arrive in half a month.

Zhang Nai's heart was immediately relieved when he heard Li Zicheng's deployment of troops, at least Li Zicheng was preparing for war in a real way, not speculating, wanting to repel the Qing army by taking the initiative.

"Yihou, what do you think about attacking Zunhua?" Li Zicheng asked Zhang Nai.

Zhang Nai reacted immediately, it turned out that the emperor wanted to let himself lead the troops to attack.

Zhang Nai said: "In this battle, the first surprise attack is not a decisive battle. ”

Including Li Zicheng, the generals nodded one after another, although the Qing army in the direction of Gubeikou has not yet entered the pass, but the specific action is still unknown, and Zunhua is nearly 400 miles away from the capital, the infantry may come and go for 20 days, and the enemy can completely retreat into Zunhua City to avoid the battle, and the attacking soldiers and horses can be contained, so the attack on Zunhua must be dominated by cavalry.

If the enemy discovers, it must be to retreat into Zunhua City, so the first raid, the raid is successful, then it is a complete victory, once the traces are exposed, the east retreats, this battle is considered a failure.

"I will draw 20,000 cavalry from each battalion to you, and give it a try, and everyone will be happy if they succeed, if not, there is no need to force it, and the preservation is the best." Li Zicheng said to Zhang Nai.

Zhang Nai nodded and responded immediately, and then, everyone asked him about his experience in fighting with Dongyu, and he also answered them one by one, the military discussion lasted until the second day, and the cavalry was ready, and Zhang Nai left.

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