In the night, a thick fire dragon is still rolling forward on the central plain of Zhili facing the Hutuo River in the south.

The terrain in the south-central part of Zhili is a flat river, there is no danger to defend, and it has been the best battlefield for the cavalry corps since ancient times! For the Han dynasty, which was based on the Central Plains and based on agriculture, once it lost the Yanshan Mountain in the north of Zhili, it would be a nightmare that could last for hundreds of years if the cavalry of the northern nomads entered the open and boundless Zhili Plain!

Historically, because Shi Jingjiao ceded the sixteen states of Yanyun to the Khitan, the Central Plains land barrier was lost, and the northern cavalry could rely on its strong mobility advantage to bypass the strongly-fortified castles of the Central Plains Dynasty, go straight into the hinterland, and wreak havoc. The bane of the fall of the later Song Dynasty and the first heavenly tilt in China can be said to have been planted from the loss of the Yanshan barrier.

And this bane was finally uprooted until Zhu Yuanzhang, the Ming Taizu who started a bowl and fought all over the world, established his great achievements.

However, with the Kangxi Emperor's "Wu Mafa" offering (Shanhaiguan) to the Qing, Li Zicheng, who had not gained a firm foothold in the Zhili area, was caught off guard, and the root of the "loss of Yanshan" was once again buried deep in the side of the Central Plains Dynasty.

However, the rapid collapse of the Dashun Dynasty established by Li Zicheng and the miraculous entry of the Qing Dynasty into the Central Plains in a very short period of time, establishing a dynasty that almost dominated the world, made the "Yanshan Affair" a problem that was overlooked.

But with the collapse of the Qing Dynasty's rule in Guannei, the "Yanshan Incident", which once plagued the Later Jin, Later Han, and Later Zhou dynasties, seems to have appeared on the stage of history again.

The powerful cavalry corps led by Suo Etu, Bandi, and Bi Li Ketu is now galloping on the Zhili Plain in the south of Yanshan, a horse and a flat river!

Looking at the Mongolian cavalry with one man and two horses and the cavalry of the Yellow Banner of Manchuria marching in front and behind him in the night, Suo Etu really felt a little dreaming of returning to the Northern Song Dynasty.

Obviously, the previous strategy of "one country defending one city" is undoubtedly correct!

Under the general pattern of the Ming Dynasty being strong and the Qing Dynasty weak, the Qing Dynasty should not compete with the Ming Dynasty for Shandong at all, and even Shanxi and Zhili Land except for the Sixteen Prefectures of Yanyun can be lost to the Ming Dynasty and the Great Zhou, so that they can compete with each other.

The Qing Dynasty only had to firmly control Yanshan, and at the same time keep Beijing City, a large stronghold south of Yanshan, so that the Qing Iron Cavalry could use Beijing as a base at any time, go south to invade the Central Plains, and constantly bleed the Ming Dynasty to maintain the situation of fighting each other in the Ming and Zhou dynasties, and then slowly wait for the opportunity.

Fortunately, it is not too late to implement this plan now, as long as the main force of the 80,000 Qing Army Southern Route Army trapped in the north of Shandong and the south of Zhili can be rescued, then the Qing Dynasty will still have the strength to defend the city of Beijing!

Moreover, it is already late October (lunar calendar), and it is already winter on the Naoli side. In half a month at most, it will snow around Beijing, and then it will be covered with ice. For men from Saibei and Kanto, winter in Beijing is nothing. But for Li Yat-sen's Huai Army and Southern Army, the winter in Beijing was not pleasant!

As for the Ming army's method of digging trenches and attacking the city, it is not easy to use in a cold and snowy land. Because the soil covered by ice and snow will also freeze hard, it is not easy to dig it up with shovels and shovels!

Therefore, if the Ming army wants to attack the city of Beijing, it will get Ming Chun at the earliest. With these months of preparation, Beijing City will be almost solid!

The population that cannot fight in Beijing will also be evacuated, and the reserves in Beijing will be further increased. The fortresses on the periphery of Beijing will also be completed, and the "inner walls", "inner moats", "inner fortresses" and so on within the walls of Beijing will also be completed one by one.

At that time, it will be even more difficult for the Ming army to break through the city of Beijing!

In addition, Wu Yingqi's control of Shanxi should also be completed by next spring. Wu Yingqi shouldn't have watched the city of Beijing fall to Li Yat-sen, right?

Suo Etu calculated and calculated, and felt that as long as the army under Empress Yang and Chang Ning could be rescued, the Qing Dynasty would still be very stable, and if Empress Yang and Chang Ning's 80,000 army were wiped out by Li Zhongshan, then the Qing Dynasty would be a little hanging.

Now Empress Yang and Changning's 80,000 troops were blocked by tens of thousands of Ming troops south of the Laozhang River, Hulu River, and Hutuo River. Although the Zhili Plain is almost as smooth as a tabletop, it is not completely "risk-free", and these three east-west rivers are dangerous points that can be taken advantage of.

If the Ming army demolished all the bridges on these three rivers, it would have taken some time for Empress Yang and Changning's 80,000-strong army to cross the river. But their time is limited!

Once the pursuers of the Ming army pounced, it would be too late!

Thinking of this, Suo Etu turned his head and said to the two Mongolian princes, Bandi and Biliktu: "Two princes, can you be faster?" Now it's like fighting a fire! We must hurry up to the Laozhang River, Hulu River, and Hutuo River! As long as we can arrive before the pursuers of the Ming army catch up with the army of the queen and the king Gong, then everything will be fine! ”

The nomadic cavalry of the Mongols carried sheepskin bags with them, and they could quickly make countless sheepskin rafts when needed, not to mention rivers such as the Laozhang River, the Hulu River, and the Hutuo River, even the Yellow River could be easily crossed for them.

Therefore, once the 50,000 Mongolian cavalry who are now following Suo Etu south with them reach the area of the Laozhang River, the Hulu River, and the Hutuo River, they will be able to meet Empress Yang and Prince Gong to cross the river!

However, the two Mongolian princes seemed to be a little worried.

"Many counties in the area of Suozhongtang's Laozhang River, Hulu River, and Hutuo River were occupied by the Ming army. I heard that there are tens of thousands of elite Ming army activities in that area, if we bump into someone, what would it be? ”

"Suo Zhongtang, our Mongolian cavalry has one person and two horses, of course we can run faster. But what about Yang Qilong's infantry and your Zhenghuang Banner infantry army? They are already lagging behind. If we accelerate further, they will not be able to keep up. ”

Suo Etu shook his head and said: "The two princes are too worried, most of the elite of the Ming army are infantry troops, they have four divisions in one legion, and each division has a battalion of cavalry, even if there is a legion in the area of the Laozhang River, Hulu River, and Hutuo River, that is, four thousand cavalry, and it is one person and one horse." They have walked so many ways, even if people can withstand it, the horsepower has long been exhausted, and they can't stop us at all.

Even if we bump into the Ming army, we just need to bypass it!

As for the infantry behind us, let them climb slowly behind. As long as we take the army of the queen and King Gong across the Hutuo River, we will be done! At that time, there is no need to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army, and they will not be needed. ”

The two Mongol princes thought about it, and also felt that Suo Etu was right, so Bandi glanced at Biliktu, and saw that his eldest nephew nodded again and again, so he ordered loudly: "Pass on the king's order, all the Mongol warriors give me a quick horse. Before noon tomorrow, we must rush to the Hutuo River! ”

The night was thick as ink, and the north wind was howling. In Jizhou, south of the Hulu River, there are also tens of thousands of troops converging with a large number of baggage and people, braving the night to roll southward!

This army was originally supposed to be deployed between the Laozhang River, the Hulu River, and the Hutuo River to block the Qing army in the north and south, and prevent them from successfully joining forces!

However, contrary to the expectations of Prince Gong, Empress Yang, and Suo Etu, Luo Dawei's army successfully controlled more than a dozen cities between the Laozhang River, the Hulu River, and the Hutuo River, not only did not deploy defenses to intercept them, but also regrouped, and rushed over to meet Changning and Empress Yang's headquarters heading north!

50,000 against 80,000, the advantage is in Ming!

What? The cavalry of the Qing army marching south from the city of Beijing? The 100,000 troops of Wu Zhou rushed down from Taihang Mountain? It doesn't matter, the most important thing now is to catch Kangxi's broken corpse!

Therefore, when Luo Dawei learned that the army of "Kangxi" had left Dongpingzhou and went north, he did not hesitate at all, and immediately ordered the troops to be assembled, and then took about 20 days' worth of food, and went south along the canal line to seek revenge on Kangxi. Even the dozen or so attached county towns were guarded by no troops. Let these powerful militias in the county defend themselves!

In the eyes of the Huaixi people, there is only revenge by killing Kangxi!

The 50,000 army plus the 20,000 or 30,000 mobilized Zhili Minling, just like this, rushed all the way south!

Zhili, Zhengdingfu, Shijiazhuang.

Now Shijiazhuang is a "village", not to mention the provincial capital, not even the county seat. However, it is a Zhuangzi located on the south bank of the Hutuo River, across the river from Zhengding Fucheng, at a critical crossroads.

This Zhuangzi, which prospered because of its location on a major transportation route, became a sea of "kings" on this night!

Although it is night now, the gate of Shijiazhuang is wide open, and the official road that enters Zhuangzi from the west is full of "Wang Shi" holding torches and wearing "Hanfu", and they are marching into the village.

The people in Shijiazhuang City didn't sleep tonight, and they all came out to gather on both sides of the road to eat pot pulp to welcome the king. While welcoming and returning, he sang "Welcoming Daming"!

"Seeking ascension in the morning and seeking harmony in the evening, it has been difficult for Han'er to survive recently. Open the door early, and discipline the big and small are happy. Da Ming came to divide the land, Da Ming came and did not pay rent, and Da Ming came to chase the Tartars."

However, these Shijiazhuang villagers who sang "Welcoming the Ming Dynasty" never thought that they would welcome the wrong king, because now it is not the king of the Ming Dynasty at all, but the Wu Zhou Wangshi led by Wu Yingqi, the prime minister of the Great Zhou!

"Xiangye, these people seem to have sung the wrong song." Wu Sanwei, who was entering the city, came to Wu Yingqi's side and whispered, "Do you think we want to send someone to make things clear to them?" This time, we want to recover Beijing and Shanhaiguan, but it is the king of our old Wu family! ”

"No need" Wu Yingqi shook his head, "After we recover Beijing and Shanhaiguan, we will also return it to Daming!" This is called having a beginning and an end, Beijing and Shanhaiguan are because our family lost them, and our family has to take them back, which is called righteousness! ”

It turned out that Wu Yingqi did not come to Shanxi this time to "protect the Qing Dynasty", but to collect Beijing and Shanhaiguan, which is called a beginning and an end!

Shanhaiguan was dedicated to the Qing Dynasty by his Lao Tzu, but the Qing Dynasty did not believe in his words and forced his family to rebel. Then his old Wu family should take back Shanhaiguan and recover Beijing City!

Of course, there are definitely benefits. There is no benefit, just righteousness, Wu Yingqi will not mobilize the army to make this trip.

Lu Sanhao went to Niangziguan with the silver ticket of Credit Suixin Hall, and gave Wu Yingqi a total of 3 million taels. This is still the first period, and after the Ming Dynasty takes back Shuntian Mansion, Yongping Mansion, and Zunhua Prefecture, he will give another seven million.

It's a huge sum of 10 million taels. Oh, it's a huge amount of money for Wu Zhou, and for Daming, it's a month's military expenses.

That's the power of money!

In addition, after recovering the city of Beijing, Wu Yingqi also planned to roll up the property and family members of the Eight Banners in Beijing and take them to the northwest together. Send it to Taiping Valley in the Western Regions again!

In the face of the Ming Dynasty, whose population is seven times that of Wu Zhou, whose military expenditure can be spent 10 million taels a month, and whose output of guns and gunpowder is dozens of times more than that of Wu Zhou, Wu Zhou sees that he can no longer stay in the "East Soil", and if he wants to run west, he must have a population!

But ordinary Han people are reluctant to run away with the Wu Zhou group, so Wu Yingqi must find some people who can't stay in the "eastern soil" and can only follow.

The Jin Shang Group led by the Eight Imperial Merchants in Shanxi was a little unable to stay. It happened to "voluntarily" hand over part of the family property, and then went along.

And the "flag people" in Beijing also clash with the Ming Dynasty, no matter what their full content is, but the Huaixi Army of the Ming Dynasty will definitely have no good fruit to eat, and it will be a massacre!

So they can only voluntarily follow along. Moreover, most of the young and middle-aged bannermen in Beijing went to the expedition, and most of them could not come back. Therefore, there are a lot of female dependents in the city, and they are pulled back to be the wives of the Wu Zhou soldiers who are willing to follow the old Wu family to the Western Regions!

These female dependents are somewhat soft, and some have children, wives, children, and property, all of which are available at once, where can I find such a good thing?

In the darkness of the night, in the north of Gaoyang County in Baoding Prefecture, a temporary camp for 20,000 people to rest suddenly became brightly lit.

With a rush of "gathering drums" was beaten. In a large tent in the center of the barracks, a group of Beiyang Army generals wearing blue jackets, warm hats, and waist knives soon gathered.

Most of these Beiyang generals were trained in the Zhili regiment, and they belonged to Yang Qilong's henchmen, and many of them also had the background of the Zhili Xiangjiao, and even members of the Heaven and Earth Society.

Although they were wearing the official clothes of the Qing Dynasty, what they thought in their hearts was when their lord Yang Qilong could replace the Qing Dynasty!

But when you think about it, it's not easy to get that done. Although the Qing Dynasty has been in turmoil for many years, it has always hung with such a breath and refused to break.

And the Yang family's Beiyang Army is not strong enough, it is more than enough to claim hegemony in Korea and invade the Japanese island of Kyushu. However, to land in Zhili and seize the world of the Qing Dynasty, he has more than enough heart and not enough strength.

Therefore, the Yang family's route in Beiyang is to follow Yang Jian's usurpation of the Northern Zhou Dynasty and prepare to take advantage of the Qing Dynasty.

And now, the Qing army has suffered a big defeat in Shandong, and the city of Beijing is going to go out to the rescue...... Now the Jingshi is empty, is the opportunity for the Yang family to replace the Qing Dynasty to come true?

As soon as they thought that they could rush into Beijing City to be the master of the Qing Dynasty, a group of generals of the Beiyang Army became excited, and the smiles on their faces could no longer be hidden.

The loud discussion also began, and the content of the discussion was nothing more than to follow Yang Jian's line, or be more radical, just learn from Zhao Kuangyin to have a yellow robe!

Yang Qilong's generals Shi Lang, Zhao Liangdong, Wang Jinbao, Zheng Desheng, Pang Qingshan sat aside, and did not join the discussion, but looked at the generals in the account with a smile.

Of course, they knew Yang Qilong's choice, although they couldn't learn from Yang Jian or be Zhao Kuangyin. But the king of "several countries" is finally decided!

It's not the best outcome, but it's not the worst...... The generation of the big guys is rich, and it can be regarded as guaranteed.

At this time, the curtain of the big tent was suddenly lifted, and with a cool breeze, Yang Qilong, who had changed into a Ming Dynasty Guogong python robe, strode in from outside.

Seeing his outfit, the generals below already understood his choice.

The generals in the big tent hurriedly stood up to greet him, and all bowed to him.

Yang Qilong stood in the middle of the big tent, everyone surrounded him, the lights flickered in the big tent, and his face flickered brightly and darkly, looking extremely solemn.

Everyone held their breath and waited for Yang Qilong, the prince of the Ming Dynasty, the minister of Beiyang of the Qing Dynasty, the supervisor of Korea, and the lord of Japan's northern Kyushu, to speak.

Yang Qilong was silent for a moment, then took a deep breath, opened his throat and said loudly: "The generals listen to the order, the enemy is in Shuntian Mansion!"

The whole army immediately set out, turned north, and went straight to Shuntianfu City! ”

The generals in the big tent replied loudly: "Yes! ”

(End of chapter)