When Shen Zhanran heard about this, he looked dazed for a while, and said to Wu Mengming with some disbelief: "Wu Tongzhi, have our spies seen An Guogong's..."
He said and then stopped. He didn't dare or was unwilling to say the last two words.
Wu Mengming shook his head and said: "No, our spies also searched for this news. I heard that the Red Lady accidentally caught Li Jiantai who was surrendering in Taiyuan. In order to protect himself, Li Jiantai betrayed An Guogong."
Seeing that everything was as Zhu Yuanzhang expected, Shen Zhanran couldn't help but steal another glance at him.
He saw that although Zhu Yuanzhang's brows were furrowed, the previous look of sadness had long since disappeared, and he couldn't help but feel some sympathy in addition to admiration in his heart.
Then he steeled himself and whispered in a low voice: "Your Majesty, there are not many rebel soldiers left behind, and Duke An Guo's men are all elites. Since we have not found Duke An Guo..., it is not possible to come back. It is true, I ask your Majesty to issue an order to go and investigate."
Zhu Yuanzhang was deep in thought when he was suddenly awakened by Shen Zhanran's voice and said with some surprise: "Are you going to the Taipei..."
But as soon as he said the word "tai", he knew he had misunderstood Shen Zhanran's meaning.
Because Shen Zhanran is a calm man with a strong mind, he will never be entangled like a little woman at this time.
And even if Shen Zhanran had such thoughts, with Shen Zhanran's character and mind, it would never be possible for him to express them in front of him.
Then he saw Shen Zhanran's eyes showing murderous intent, as if he was looking forward to death, and then he continued: "Are you going to Yu County to lead the troops in battle?"
When Shen Zhanran heard this, he did not explain as before, but directly knelt down and kowtowed: "Your Majesty, please grant me your permission!"
Zhu Yuanzhang felt warm in his heart when he saw this.
He knew that Shen Zhanran was asking for help regardless of suspicion at this time. In addition to his righteous indignation, he also wanted to help him get out of his predicament.
Because although Gong Yonggu was not defeated, his weakness of inexperience was exposed.
After this incident, not only Wu Sangui will look down on him, but even Ma Jinzhong and others may not take him seriously anymore.
If he cannot make a turnaround in time, or makes another mistake, the generals will no longer follow orders, and the defense may fall.
Furthermore, once the news of Liu Wenbing's death in battle spreads, Gong Yonggu will definitely panic, and at the same time, it will once again damage the morale of the frontline soldiers.
So now the Ming soldiers in Yu County are in urgent need of a victory to boost their morale.
It would have been best if Zhu Yuanzhang could go, but now there has just been an incident in the capital between one county and two county magistrates, which shows that the capital is not peaceful.
In addition, the Jurchens may also send troops, but there has been no news from Li Guozhen, and the commander of the attack on Pi Island to contain the Jurchens has not yet been confirmed...
Zhu Yuanzhang had to deal with such a myriad of things, so he had no time to distract himself at the moment.
Zhu Yuanzhang sighed secretly, looked at Shen Zhanran and said: "Shen Qing, your trip..."
As he spoke, he accidentally saw Wu Mengming looking like he was hesitating to speak. He gestured to Shen Zhanranping behind him, then looked at Wu Mengming and said, "Wu Qing, do you have anything else to report?"
Wu Mengming heard this and said in a deep voice: "Your Majesty, Ning Nanbo Zuo Liangyu broke through Yuan Zongdi's defense line the day before yesterday and led his army north to King Qin. I heard that Ning Nanbo was in a hurry to go north and the palace army behind him suffered a lot of losses."
"Furthermore, although Yuan Zongdi led his army to pursue him, Bai Wang took the opportunity to go south and besieged Wuchang. People in Huguang are now panicked..."
When Shen Zhanran heard this, he said with a worried look on his face: "Your Majesty, if Bai Wang captures Wuchang, he can go down the river. Once there is war in the south of the Yangtze River, it may be difficult to transport grain from the south to the north."
Zhu Yuanzhang shook his head and said: "This matter is not that serious. You must know that Zuo Liangyu has about 200,000 people. Even if there is some loss, there should be more than 100,000."
"If Yuan Zongdi wants to pursue Zuo Liangyu, the number of people will definitely be large. Looking at it this way, Bai Wang's troops attacking Wuchang should only be his original 60,000 to 70,000 people."
"With such a force, he will never dare to head south in the short term. And have you forgotten that we have previously issued an order to Jiangxi Governor Yuan Jixian. This edict was sent by sea. I think Yuan Jixian should have received it by now."
"Jiujiang is a fortress in the south of the Yangtze River. As long as he can guard Jiujiang, even if Bai Wang leads his troops south, it will be difficult to achieve anything."
It turned out that before the capital was besieged, Chongzhen and others only knew about Bai Wang, Chen Bing and Jing Xiang. Thinking that Zuo Liangyu had more than 200,000 people under his command, they hurriedly ordered him to go north to King Qin.
Then the capital was besieged and news was cut off. Chongzhen and others had no idea about Yuan Zongdi's rush for reinforcements, so Zhu Yuanzhang followed his original thinking and urged reinforcements.
Zhu Yuanzhang didn't know about this until the siege of the capital was lifted. He immediately ordered Zuo Liangyu to stay in Wuchang.
However, since the two places were more than 2,000 miles apart, he was also worried that Zuo Liangyu would advance rashly, so he ordered Yuan Jixian of Jiangxi to guard Jiujiang.
Shen Zhanran had just been disturbed by Liu Wenbing's incident. Now when he heard Zhu Yuanzhang mention it, he remembered it. The worry on his face faded slightly, but at the same time he showed a look of hesitation.
Because he dared to ask for a fight before, he had already studied the situation in Shanxi thoroughly and was confident that he could fight.
However, with the arrival of hundreds of thousands of troops from Zuo Liangyu and Yuan Zongdi, the battle situation became more than a hundred times more complicated than before.
And he had only been on the battlefield once, commanding only 40,000 to 50,000 people. In addition, this battle was related to the safety of the capital. He was under too much pressure and felt that it was beyond his own capabilities, so he couldn't help but want to quit.
Zhu Yuanzhang had previously intended to let Shen Zhanran go, but when he heard about Zuo Liangyu, he gave up the idea.
Seeing the hesitation on Shen Zhanran's face at this moment, he was not worried but happy, and at the same time he valued Shen Zhanran even more.
After Zhu Yuanzhang made up his mind, he asked casually: "Wu Qing, is there any other news besides this?"
When Wu Mengming asked, he bowed and reported: "Your Majesty, there is news from Weibeihou that they have intensified the conflict between the two through Dorgon and Brother Hao's influence in North Korea."
"It's just that after Bumbutai secretly summoned Dorgon, Dorgon immediately changed his attitude. Not only did he no longer confront Brother Hao, but he also took the initiative to show his goodwill to him."
"Marquis Weibei was worried that the Jurchens would send troops, so he decided to reveal his identity as an envoy in three days. At the same time, he also asked your majesty to send troops to Pi Island to contain the Jurchens."
When Zhu Yuanzhang heard this, he looked at Wu Mengming with some displeasure and said: "This matter is so important, why did Marquis Weibei report it so late?"
Wu Mengming was still hesitant before, but when he saw Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes, he immediately knelt down and apologized: "Your Majesty, the Marquis of Weibei sent the message three days ago. It was only because we had less manpower that it took some time. Please forgive me." !”
Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said: "The responsibility for this matter is not yours. Get up and answer the question!"
After that, he pondered for a while and said: "Wu Qing, go back to the Ministry of Household Affairs and collect three...five hundred thousand taels of silver to rebuild the Jinyiwei everywhere, especially in Liaodong and the war zone. You must keep information timely."
"If you don't have enough manpower at the beginning, you can find some non-staff personnel. It doesn't matter what their identity is. As long as they can provide us with information in a timely manner, they can be used. We only have one requirement, that is, the information must be timely!"
Wu Mengming thought he would be reprimanded, but he did not expect that Zhu Yuanzhang would allocate 500,000 yuan to him. He knelt down to thank him, and then left Dongnuan Pavilion at Zhu Yuanzhang's signal.
