Everything was ready, and finally on this day, the 50,000 powerful troops of the Ming Dynasty began to move south.

British Duke Zhang Shize was the main general, Xiangcheng Bo Li Guozhen served as deputy general, and Crown Prince Zhu Cilang served as military supervisor. These are the "three giants" of the Ming army.

The reason why there were only 50,000 people was because the Ming army suffered considerable losses after experiencing the fierce battle at Shanhaiguan. At the same time, they had to divide their troops to guard the capital and various strategic locations in northern Zhili.

In addition, the beginning of shortage of food and grass is also a reason.

Standing in front of Chongzhen, the chief general, Zhang Shize, was full of confidence: "Please rest assured, your Majesty. I will definitely be able to recover Jinan this time. If Li Zicheng dares to invade again, I will make him look good!"

The British Duke's answer was quite satisfied with Chongzhen. He nodded, said a few more words to Li Guozhen, and then walked to Zhu Cixuan.

The father and son looked at each other, and although they didn't speak, they were better than thousands of words.

Chongzhen patted Zhu Cilang on the shoulder and said seriously: "Remember to come back well."

Zhu Cilang smiled and said, "Please rest assured, my son will return with the news of victory!"

The army left the capital in a mighty manner and officially headed south.

Riding on the horse and feeling the rolling heat waves around summer, Zhu Cilang suddenly missed modern times very much.

If you drive a car with air conditioning south at this time, the comfort level will not be much improved.

During the rest, the British Duke came to Zhu Cixuan.

"Your Highness, do you think Li Zicheng will go to rescue Jinan?"

The British Duke is now very convinced of Zhu Ciyang's military talents.

Zhu Cixuan gave an answer that he had already thought about: "Yes, but not exactly."

The answer sounds a bit difficult to say, but the British Duke immediately understood: "What your highness meant is that he thinks that Li Zicheng would only send a partial army, but the main force would not come in person?"

Zhu Cilang nodded and said yes.

This is not based on the judgment of the battlefield, but on Zhu Cilang's judgment of Li Zicheng.

Although Li Zicheng first broke into Xi'an and then surrounded the capital in the past two years, he felt like he was so angry that he was like a tiger, but in fact, this guy has always been running away when facing the Ming Dynasty's official army.

Over the past years, Li Zicheng's style of fighting has always been to run if he can. If he really can't run, he will fight if he can't, and then he will continue to run if he loses.

It is in such a constant life that the Central Plains of the Ming Dynasty were scattered by Li Zicheng, and countless victims gathered under Li Zicheng's command. The elite Ming Dynasty official army also turned against each other due to lack of wages and food, which led to the victory of Li Zicheng against the Ming Dynasty in history.

To put it bluntly, Li Zicheng's level of fighting is very limited, but his level of "operation" is quite high.

At present, the Ming Dynasty's official army once again formed an advantageous position against Li Zicheng in military terms, so Li Zicheng could not lead the main force to continue to fight with the Ming Dynasty's official army. At most, it would be possible to send a partial army to harass it.

Li Guozhen didn't know when he appeared aside and interrupted: "Now he was a little worried that Li Zicheng would harass the capital from Shanxi, or he would cross the Yellow River again while we were besieging Jinan and attacking Beizhili, and play with us to surround Wei and save Zhao."

The British Duke thought for a while and said, "Shanxi should be unlikely. Since Li Zicheng retreated to Kaifeng, he has already drawn almost all the main forces from Shaanxi, Shanxi and Shandong, leaving only 10,000 mobs to guard Jinan. This proves that his current goal is to focus on defending Henan. Instead, crossing the Yellow River north..."

Seeing the British Duke hesitating, Zhu Cilang suddenly laughed: "If Li Zicheng really chose the main force not to come to rescue Jinan but crossed the Yellow River north, then we would make a lot of money."

The British Duke and Li Guozhen were stunned at the same time, with obvious confusion on their faces.

Zhu Cixuan said seriously: "After Li Zicheng crossed the Yellow River, he attacked nothing more than Northern Zhili. According to this policy, he should want to threaten the capital and force us to withdraw our siege of Jinan, right?"

Both of them nodded at the same time.

Zhu Cixuan continued: "But, you should note that the capital is in the northernmost part of Northern Zhili, and after Li Zicheng crossed the river, he had to start attacking from the southernmost part of Northern Zhili, which means that he had to open up the entire Northern Zhili to reach the foot of the capital. By that time, we had already conquered Jinan!"

The British Duke and Li Guozhen were stunned for a moment, and suddenly realized.

The British Duke smiled and said, "It's really a mystery to the authorities. If it weren't for the guidance of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, the old minister wouldn't have thought of this."

Li Guozhen also said: "I didn't expect that Your Highness is so skillful in strategy, which really makes me admire you."

Zhu Cilang smiled and accepted all the praises.

If you know how to praise, you can praise it more!

The news of the Ming army heading south naturally reached Kaifeng as quickly as possible.

When Li Zicheng heard this, he was shocked and quickly summoned many confidants to discuss.

"The imperial army has gone south again. This time it seems that I want to attack Jinan. Everyone says, what should I do?"

After listening to Li Zicheng's words, the ministers present were all worried.

Three months ago, the Dashun regime was very optimistic, and they all felt that this wave could flatten the Ming Dynasty and establish a new dynasty.

But now? The Ming Dynasty was reborn from a situation where it was almost doomed, and even launched a fierce counterattack on Dashun again. The psychological gap was too big.

Not only that, like Li Zicheng's major think tanks, Niu Jinxing was captured by Zhu Cilang, Song Xiance disappeared after the breaking of Baoding City, and many Dashun soldiers also left without saying goodbye. These also severely hit the morale of the Dashun army.

In other words, Li Zicheng has been used to the ups and downs over the years, so some people are willing to believe that he can make a comeback and continue to follow, otherwise he would have broken up long ago.

After a moment of silence, Li Yan stood up and said, "Your Majesty, I think Jinan should still be saved. If Jinan is not saved, the north and south of the Ming Dynasty will be connected again to become one, and then our situation will become more and more difficult."

Li Zicheng nodded slightly to show his agreement when he heard this.

Why did Li Zicheng's strategy first choose to launch three routes together, break Henan and Shandong first and then attack the capital? It was to cut off the transportation route from Jiangnan to the Ming Dynasty. Now that the Ming Dynasty wants to reopen this route, Li Zicheng is of course unable to remain indifferent.

Although the truth is this, it does not mean that no one objected.

Li Zicheng's nephew Li Guo stood up and said in a deep voice: "I cannot agree with what Li Yan said. At present, the military forces in the court are already stronger than us. If we go to a decisive battle with the court at this time, wouldn't it be the court's will? We should take the initiative to give up Jinan, strive to preserve the existing Shanxi, Henan and Shaanxi, and slowly deal with the court. This is the best strategy."

Li Guo belonged to an important figure in the "royal family" of Dashun, and his speech immediately changed the situation of this meeting.

Li Yan shook his head and said, "Haoxian Hou (Li Guo's title), what you said is wrong. The court has not yet completely recovered. As long as we can defend Jinan, we can pinch the supply route of the court. As long as we can persist for a year and a half, the court will inevitably suffer heavy damage due to insufficient supply. At that time, we can launch a counterattack and win, and it is not impossible to come to the capital again and conquer it!"

Li Guo shook his head and sneered, "It's easy for you to say! Did we win when we surrounded the capital three months ago? Did we win when we were in Gu'an two months ago? Did we hold Baoding a month ago? These three battles ended with the victory of the court and we failed. Now you are still thinking about fighting head-on with the main force of the court. I think you are just impatient!"

The two fell into a fierce quarrel.

Li Zicheng felt more and more irritable when he heard these quarrels. Finally, he roared angrily: "Enough, shut up!"

Li Guo and Li Yan knelt on the ground in fear at the same time, claiming to be guilty.

Li Zicheng's eyes wandered on the two of them, wanting to get angry, but in the end he still didn't.

Li Zicheng also knew that these two people were actually doing well for the sake of good luck, but they had different positions.

Li Zicheng calmed down and said to Li Yan: "Aren't you going to help Jinan? Well, I will give you 30,000 troops and take you to Jinan. If you can save it, you can save it. If you can't save it, you will withdraw it immediately!"

Li Yan was happy, but then said, "Your Majesty, the 30,000 troops are still slightly less. I wonder if Your Majesty can give another 20,000?"

Li Zicheng said impatiently: "Then I will give you another 10,000! Remember, don't pay all my troops there!"

Li Yan responded repeatedly and happily took the military talisman from Li Zicheng's hand.

The others were moved when they saw this scene, especially the unhappy expression on Li Guo's face was even more obvious.

After more than half a month of "recruiting soldiers and horses", Li Zicheng, a commander of the army of 100,000, claiming to be 500,000. However, a large part of the army of 100,000 were strong men who were forced to capture or recruited everywhere. The water content was much higher than before.

Now I have given back 40,000 yuan, almost half of it to Li Yan, which is too generous.

Li Zicheng was too lazy to pay attention to other people's thoughts and announced the end of the meeting directly.

Li Zicheng returned to his bedroom, wrote a letter quickly, and called a confidant.

"Send this letter to Shengjing City immediately and hand it over to Hong Chengchou!"

After all, Li Zicheng is a hero of a generation, and he still has the strategic vision he should have.

Since he is not a rival to the Ming Dynasty's official army, he can't say that he has to bring out the Qing Dynasty's support and use it.
Chapter completed!