"Cough cough cough..."
As soon as Chen Yongxi left, Zuo Liangyu coughed violently. An old servant waiting on the side quickly handed Zuo a spittoon. Zuo Liangyu spit a ball of dark red liquid into it, and then the violent cough stopped. cough.
"Master Hou..." Huang Shu on the side showed a concerned expression, "Are you okay?"
"You can't die just yet..." Zuo Liangyu smiled bitterly, "There will still be some in a year and a half."
"Master Hou, don't say that, Daming is still pointing at you!"
"What are you pointing at me?" Zuo Liangyu sneered, "Dongxia Qingjun's side?"
"Master Hou..." Huang Shu didn't dare to take this issue anymore.
Historically, this person was the one who kept inciting Zuo Liangyu to go east to find trouble with Emperor Hongguang, but now Huang Shu has not mentioned this issue for a while.
Because even a blind person can see that Zhu Cixiang is not Hongguang!
Hongguang fled to Nanjing in despair, and was promoted to the throne by the officials and nobles who stayed in the capital. In fact, he was not a real monarch, because it was not his turn to make the final decision. Zhu Cihong used 9,600 musketeers and cavalry to defeat the tens of thousands of Nanjing nobles' troops and became the lord of Nanjing.
Although Nanjing's capital camp was notoriously useless, less than ten thousand people still attacked the city, which was far beyond the expectations of Zuo Liangyu and others.
So he just hid in Wuchang, pretended to be crazy, and then held Zhu Cizhao against Nanjing, just bluffing. Even when Zhu Cihong gave half of Huguang to He Tengjiao and Chang Yanling to rule, he didn't dare to resist with force... let alone go east to attack Nanjing. Isn't this just killing someone at his doorstep? Although Zuo Liangyu was in poor health, he still wanted to die well. For him, he would be content to be the King of Hubei until his death.
And he is not worried that Zhu Cixiang will come to Huguang to cause trouble, because he is actually a safe buffer in Huguang in all aspects.
Li Zicheng in the north is not afraid of him, Zhu Cixiang in the east is not afraid of him, and Zhang Xianzhong in the west treats him as transparent.
He swung in the middle and didn't worry about the three aspects. What a great thing!
If he is captured by one of the three parties, Zhu Cihong, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong, the other two parties will definitely compete for him, and Huguang will have to fight again.
And Zhu Cihong, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong are all busy now and have no time to start a war in Huguang, so Zuo Liangyu should have another year to slowly die of illness...
But Huang Shu still wants to live longer. He is in good health and will not die within a year.
"Master Marquis," Huang Shu thought for a while, "How about we go west to Sichuan?"
Zuo Liangyu sighed. Now he just felt weak and exhausted. He had been groggy all day. How could he have the energy to plan the westward march to Sichuan?
Besides, is Zhang Xianzhong so easy to deal with? He had just become emperor in Chengdu and was now in high spirits. The current situation of the Zuo Army meant that he would die if he went there.
"There is still one year..." Zuo Liangyu said, "We can also slowly reorganize and strengthen the city defenses of Wuchang, Hanyang and Hankou. As long as the three cities of Wuhan can be defended, we have a solution!"
Huang Shu sighed and said in his heart: This is the only way. There is still one year left, and we can still slowly find a way out...
...
It was already dark, the stars were twinkling overhead, the moon was shining brightly in the sky, and there was silence between heaven and earth. Seeing such a beautiful night, it would be difficult for anyone to associate it with fighting and fighting, right?
But when Li Zicheng, who was standing on a high slope outside Tongguan City, turned his gaze from the night sky to the earth, what he saw was a series of camps extending to the end of his sight. The murderous atmosphere of the war enveloped the surrounding areas.
These camps are all the main camps of the Dashun Army. They dug earth into trenches, chopped wood into fences, and formed rows of camps. They extended from Hulutan near Tongguan along the Yellow River, passing through Zhaodu Town, Luoshui, and Chaoyi City. It ends at the bank of He River.
Li Zicheng's 80,000-strong army deployed at the foot of Tongguan, relying on the Yellow River to set up defenses, blocking the path of the Qing army led by Duduo.
The Qing army's camp was located east of Tongguan and on the north bank (east bank) of the Yellow River. In the darkness, Li Zicheng could vaguely see the torches on the Qing army's camp, flickering and emitting dim light.
Compared with Li Zicheng's 80,000-strong army camp, the Qing army's camp was much smaller. Their number would not exceed 40,000, which was only half of the Dashun army. And Li Zicheng had Tongguan to defend and the Yellow River to rely on, so he was invincible no matter how he looked at it.
Of course, he was not without some worries.
There are two things that make Emperor Dashun anxious now. One is the lingering ghost of Wu Sangui - now Wu Sangui has completely occupied the entire Ningxia Town and Gansu Town; Xi'an Suo and Guyuan Prefecture; Anbian Suo and Qingxian County in Qingyang Prefecture; Jingluwei located between the Yellow River and Pingliang Prefecture; Lanzhou, Jinxian, and Didao in the west of Lintao Prefecture; and also controlled Gansu Town and Ningxia Town Between them, the territory originally belonged to some Mongolian tribes.
This is a large piece of territory, and it has been the place where guardsmen have gathered for more than two hundred years. When the Dashun army attacked, they encountered no resistance, and naturally they did not clean it up. The original powerful forces were still there. .
Now most of these forces have been gathered by Wu Sangui and have become accomplices of the Wu family army!
With the support of these local tyrants and evil gentry, Wu Sangui could gain a firm foothold in the northwest and have the remaining strength for the Eastern Expedition...
Another thing that worries Li Zicheng is that the 80,000 troops on the Tongguan front line are too consumed, which makes the Dashun court a little bit intolerable.
Because the three-year grain-free policy was still being implemented, the Dashun Army gathered heavy troops in Tongguan this time and fought a protracted war with the Qing army. The 80,000 troops on the front line were only the number of soldiers. If you include the civilians who transported grain and grass and built the city for the Dashun army, the number of people who needed Li Zicheng's support had exceeded 200,000!
In addition, there were more than 100,000 various large animals that Li Zicheng's court had to find ways to raise fodder for.
So Niu Jinxing, the prime minister of the Dashun Dynasty, is almost worried to death these days... because Li Zicheng is still thinking about winning people's hearts, and that the benevolent are invincible. Therefore, we are unwilling to give up our promise of no conquest for three years in Guanzhong!
Since there is no levy, we can only buy it with money... and the land in Guanzhong is already barren, and after years of drought and war, food prices are high. Moreover, the expansion of Li Zicheng's three-year grain-free policy caused farmers to resist rent and default on their debts. The gentry and merchants in Guanzhong suffered a heavy blow, and commercial activities quickly declined. The Shaanxi business network that originally covered all parts of Shaanxi no longer exists.
In other words, it is difficult for Niu Jinxing to buy food even with money!
When Li Zicheng returned to the palace in Tongguan City, Prime Minister Niu had been waiting for a long time. When he saw Li Zicheng coming back, he hurriedly kowtowed.
Li Zicheng yawned and waved his hand to let him get up. Seeing Niu Jinxing's sad face, he asked: "Prime Minister, why are you here? Why are you crying and losing face?"
"Your Majesty," Niu Jinxing said, "I have tried my best, but I really can't raise food and grass... If we don't start the expedition, I'm afraid the army won't be able to last for the second half of the year."
Li Zicheng fell into silence upon hearing this.
"Your Majesty," Niu Jinxing said again, "the harvests in Guanzhong have not been very good these years, and there have been wars every year. The people regard food as precious, and even if we pay a high price, we are not willing to sell it. And there will be nothing left after selling it. purchase......"
"What should I do?" Li Zicheng asked.
"Your Majesty, let's collect food!" Niu Jinxing said, "Let's collect less. One million dan is enough."
Li Zicheng sighed, "The soldiers have been given land in Xiangjing and Yueyang, and Guanzhong is about to launch another expedition... If this continues, how will the Emen and the Zhu family be different from the Tatars?"
"This..." Niu Jinxing said: Isn't it? You, Zhu Cihong, and Dorgon are all in the same boat!
When Li Zicheng saw that Niu Jinxing didn't answer, he sighed again: "I originally thought that Dashun was a country established for the poor people, and it was different from the Ming Dynasty and Donglu. I didn't expect that now I would still have to compete with the Ming Dynasty and Donglu. The same thing... If I had known this, I should have done it when I was in Beijing, and I wouldn't be here today!"
"What the Emperor said is true," Niu Jinxing breathed out, "Fortunately, it's not too late now!"
