Forty thousand Guan Ning's army is coming to Beijing?
This is good news!
It seems that Guo Zuo of the Ming Dynasty will not be finished for a while...
But when will Wu Sangui arrive?
Fifteen of the sixteen gatekeepers showed expressions of surprise. There was also Wu Sanfu who came from Chaoyangmen. He had already known that Guan Ningjun was coming, so there was no special surprise.
Zhu Cixiang continued: "Of course, Guan Ning's army can only temporarily relieve the capital's difficulties. After all, the capital is already surrounded by enemies from both sides, with bandits in the west and ugly captives in the east... The imperial court has no ability and no need to get in between them. So. Father has decided to move south after Wu Sangui's troops arrive! After the imperial court moves south, Northern Zhili will be left to the bandits and captives to fight for. The imperial court can be in the south of the Yangtze River, relying on the dangers of the Jianghuai River and the strength of the navy. Li, rely on the wealth in the southeast to recuperate and recuperate.
And all the soldiers who are in charge of the capital camp are the pillars of the imperial court and will be of great use in the capital. Therefore, as a escort, your family members must also move south to avoid falling into the hands of bandits and captors.
I have ordered people to clean up the Qingfu Hall next to the inner school grounds to accommodate your parents, wives and children. You can go home quickly and send your parents, wife and children tonight. After your parents, wives, and children arrive, they go to the Zangfang Treasury to collect military pay. Each door is given 5,000 taels of silver... These 5,000 taels are the military pay rewards for the battles in the next two days. You decide how to distribute it. This palace is only responsible for two things, one is to lead reinforcements to break through the main attack gate; the other is to severely punish the generals who fail to guard the gate and abandon the gate and leave.
In addition, this palace will send supervisory troops to every city gate. All the prison officials previously appointed by the imperial court have resigned. "
Zhu Cixiang is holding silver in one hand and a knife in the other!
If you are obedient, take the money and guard the door. If you don't want to do a good job, be prepared to be knifed! If you want to surrender, haha, I will kill your whole family without any negotiation! This prince is extremely fierce!
How could the guards of the sixteen gates not know Zhu Cixiang's plan? Now everyone looked at Prince Zhu with admiration.
This prince is really ruthless. He has the legacy of Emperor Taizu Gao and Emperor Cheng Zuwen!
"Your Highness the Crown Prince!" Just when everyone was shocked by Crown Prince Zhu's methods, a bearded old man in his forties, wearing the flying fish uniform of the Imperial Guard, suddenly stood up and bowed as a salute, "Commander the Imperial Guard, Commander. I know that Li Ruolian, the guardian of Chongwen Sect, has something unclear and would like to ask His Highness for advice."
Zhu Cixiang looked at this senior official of Jinyiwei and asked, "What do you want to ask?"
"I would like to ask how many days will it take for Wu Sangui's troops to arrive at the capital? What will happen if the capital is not defended before Wu's army arrives?"
This problem is very demoralizing!
But who is Zhu Cixiang? Of course he will not let a Ming Dynasty Jinyi guard tell the truth. Immediately he asked back: "Commander Li, how many days do you think we can hold the city of Beijing?"
Li Ruolian frowned and thought for a while, then saluted again, "Your Highness, please move to the inner hall."
Zhu Cixiang glanced left and right. A group of fire eunuchs stopped eating and drinking. They all held their breath and concentrated. It seemed that they also wanted to know how many days Beijing City could be defended!
"But it doesn't matter!" Zhu Cixiang said with a smile.
He knew that at this time, people were in panic, and what they feared most was uncertainty. Even if it was false information, it would be better than hiding it.
"Then let me tell you straight," Li Ruolian took a deep breath and said in a deep voice, "Before today, I felt that if the capital was attacked by bandits, it would not be able to defend it for two days at most."
Zhu Cixiang nodded, isn't it just two days? Li Chuang attacked the city on the 17th, and Emperor Chongzhen hung himself on a tree on the crooked neck of Meishan on the 19th.
Li Ruolian said again: "Now that the capital has His Royal Highness the Prince advising the army, I will observe that we should be able to defend it for five to seven days."
"That's enough!" Zhu Cixi showed a confident smile, "In five days, Wu Sangui's 10,000 cavalry will arrive, and in the seventh day, Wu Sangui's entire army will arrive! The circumference of the capital city is forty-eight miles. If it is to besieged, thieves will escape We need to join forces for eighty miles. There are only a hundred thousand thieves, how can we form a stronghold for eighty miles? So Guan Ning's cavalry will definitely be able to enter the city."
What Zhu Cixi disclosed was not entirely false information, it was just the best possible situation.
Wu Sangui is still in Shanhaiguan, 500 miles away from Beijing. Tian Cunzhi only left the city this afternoon with Wu Xiang's handwritten letter. If everything goes well, he can reach Shanhaiguan in one day and one night.
Assuming that Wu Sangui was an obedient and good son, he immediately organized his troops and attacked after seeing Wu Xiang's autographed letter. Then we should be able to set off around noon on the 18th. With the marching speed of Guan Ning's cavalry, they can reach the 500-mile distance in three days.
Guan Ning's army has more than 10,000 cavalry. If they can all follow Wu Sangui to rescue the capital, then Li Zicheng will have to deal with it carefully, and it will be impossible to attack Beijing with all his strength.
As for encircling Beijing and then attacking Guan Ning's army at the same time, it should be difficult to accomplish with Li Zicheng's strength. Many studies in later generations focused on the number of troops Li Zicheng had during his eastern expedition to Beijing. Estimates of the total military strength ranged from tens of thousands to 200,000, but among them, there were only tens of thousands of old battalions that could actually fight.
Otherwise, Li Zicheng would not have abandoned Beijing immediately after the Battle of Yishi and fled in embarrassment. Moreover, he would have been chased by Wu Sangui's cavalry and a small number of Manchu soldiers, and he would have fought in both Dingzhou and Zhending in the north.
Although there is no support from the Qing troops, Wu Sangui's tens of thousands of troops alone are not enough to defeat Li Zicheng's tens of thousands of old battalions. But as long as Wu Sangui's cavalry can be allowed to enter the capital, then Li Zicheng will be unable to break through Beijing in the short term, and there is a high possibility that he will eventually retreat to Shanxi.
In this way, Zhu Cixi and Chongzhen can leave calmly... This is of course the best result!
Of course, judging from the experience of Zhu Cixi, a senior financial dog, the best results usually do not appear in a downward trend... The Ming Dynasty is now in a bear market that continues to plummet. At this time, if the worst results do not appear, Not bad!
However, the country of Ming Dynasty belongs to Zhu Cixiang, so of course there is no reason for him to belittle himself.
After speaking to calm people's hearts, Zhu Cixi then announced loudly: "Tomorrow there will be the first battle, and the first battle must be successful! Today you all have a good meal, and tomorrow I will lead you and others to kill the thieves. You all should fight hard, I am fully prepared. Three hundred thousand taels of silver, meritorious officers and soldiers will be heavily rewarded!"
After saying these words, amidst cheers, Zhu Cihong ordered again: "Guards of all gates, follow me inside to speak."
Now that the morale-boosting words are over, it’s time to set up the battle defense!
Zhu Cixiang did not know how to fight, nor how to set up defenses. He only knew to block the city gate to delay time. The specific deployment of the city defense was handed over to Wu Xiang, Qiu Zhizhong, Zhu Chunjie, one of Wang Chengen's deputies, and Wang Dehua, who was in charge of the internal and external armies and admiral of the Nanhai Zijing Army.
The Leopard Room near the inner school field became the temporary Chinese army camp.
When Zhu Cihong and a dozen city gate guards arrived, Wu Xiang was frowning and talking to Wang Dehua. Qiu Zhizhong and Zhu Chunjie were not here, and they both led the team to inspect the sealing project of the six gates of the inner city.
"Sit down, please sit down and talk." After Zhu Cihong took his seat at the head of the table, he politely ordered Shoumenguan, Wu Xiang, and Wang Dehua who followed him in to sit down and talk.
Seeing that everyone sat down as he was told, Zhu Cixiang said solemnly: "The bandits have arrived in Changping today, and tomorrow the capital will have its first battle. I would like to ask for your suggestions on how to set up defenses."
It’s hard to even think about it! Not to mention Zhu Cihong, even Wu Xiang is looking sad now.
"Your Highness, I have some ways of fighting and defending." The one who spoke was Li Ruolian. Although he was the leader of the Jinyi Guards, he was a martial arts scholar in the first year of Chongzhen. He had been an officer in the Beijing camp for generations, and he had very rich military knowledge. At the same time, he is very familiar with the situation in Beijing. During the Jisi Revolution in the second year of Chongzhen (Huang Taiji entered the Pass and besieged Beijing), he was also an official in Beijing and participated in some military affairs.
"Tell me." Zhu Cixi nodded approvingly.
Li Ruolian said: "I just said that if there was no prince to support the army, the capital would not be defended for two days. It is because the capital's popular sentiment is unstable and there is no battle and defense arrangement. If the rebels are rough, there will be internal changes. Now that the prince is assisting the army, there will be I offered a reward of silver and asked people to block the city gate, so that internal changes would not happen easily. Therefore, I thought that I could defend it for five days. The reason why it was five days was because the first day was supposed to be a trial battle between the bandits, and the prince The Kengnan camp is here, and with enough silver reward support, we can win. After losing the first battle, Chuangni will order people to build siege equipment. In this way, we can attack from several sides, but there are not enough officers and soldiers to defend the city. All around. So after Chuangni prepares the equipment, the capital will be destroyed within two days! If we assume that Chuangni needs two days to build the equipment, the city will definitely be destroyed in five days!"
