Forbidden City, Fengtian Hall, Dongnuan Pavilion.
After listening to Zhu Chunjie's words, the ministers who were summoned urgently looked like they had won the first prize - the Qing Dynasty was really dead! These people will soon be the heroes of the Ming Dynasty's resurgence, and each of them will be remembered in history.
They originally planned to attack the Qing Dynasty in five directions, but this time there was another Zhang Xianzhong!
And Wu Sangui's strength is stronger than imagined...three hundred and thirty thousand households! A thousand households with two hundred elite soldiers would have sixty-six thousand!
When the ministers here thought about the victory that was within reach, they began to talk loudly, all with arrogant expressions.
"The Donglu are finished, how many troops do they have? The old Eight Banners, including the Han army and the Mongols, have a maximum of 80,000 people, and the new Zhenglu Banner has almost 100,000 people...a total of 180,000 people. Zhang Xianzhong can contain at least 50,000 of them, His Highness Daiwang can contain 30,000, and there are still 100,000 left to guard against the large army we launched from Liaoxi, Dagukou, and the Grand Canal. It will definitely be difficult to control the beginning and the end!"
"There is also Wu Sangui's army! As long as General Wu switches sides, Donglu will be doomed!"
"It seems that three years of Ping Liao and five years of Ping Bei are too pessimistic. In one year at most, the world will be able to return to peace!"
"That's right, the first year of Hongxing will be the time when peace and prosperity come again!"
"Your Majesty, you are truly blessed!"
"Your Majesty, let's send troops quickly. We don't have to wait for the weather to get colder. We can start now!"
The interest of the ministers is getting higher and higher one by one, and they all underestimate the enemy a little... Although the victory is within their grasp, they cannot be proud!
Emperor Zhu's eyes slowly swept across Dongnuan Pavilion and found that only Wu Xiang frowned slightly and said little.
"Wu Guozhang?" Zhu Cixi looked at Wu Xiang with a smile, "The uncle's request is nothing... The third sister is my wife, and she must be the queen! As for General Feng Pingxi, It's nothing. There are so many brave and brave warriors in the remote countryside of the northwest that even a general government can't suppress it! It's nothing to pay millions of taels of military expenses a year. Now the court has money! As long as the northwest is stable, the money will be worth it. "
Now that Wu Sangui is still the "cuckold king" of the Qing Dynasty, can Zhu Cixi not say something nice? It doesn't matter what the future will be like... Only Wu Sanmei's queen is guaranteed, and it's hard to say anything else.
Zhu Cixiang and Wu Sanmei were a couple in need who had been on the battlefield together. Their feelings were undisclosed. If the queen didn't give it to her, who else could they give it to?
After Wu Xiang heard Zhu Cixiang's words, he immediately burst into tears of gratitude and stood up to kowtow.
Zhu Cixiang waved his hands repeatedly: "Old monarch, there is no need to salute, just sit and talk."
Wu Xiang was not polite and sat back with a full head. Then he stroked his beard and said carefully, "Your Majesty, don't underestimate the enemy too much!"
"Underestimating the enemy?" Zhu Cixiang thought for a while, "Do you think Donglu's situation of being surrounded by enemies can still be solved?"
Wu Xiang said: "Your Majesty, you have to fight to know what happens on the battlefield! You are surrounded by enemies on all sides, and you are attacked on all sides... As long as the soldiers are good and brave, it is not a problem. If the soldiers are weak and will be defeated, the enemy will be defeated. Even just one way can kill you."
"The state leader thinks the new army cannot defeat the Eight Banners soldiers?" Zhu Cixiang asked with a smile.
Wu Xiang said: "It's not that we can't beat him, but fighting in the northern wilderness, we are not sure of victory."
This judgment is not Wu Xiang’s alone, but made jointly by the Generalissimo’s Office and the Ministry of War!
The battle must be at a favorable location, and the Northern Qing Dynasty had a large number of cavalry. Even the newly established Zhenglv Banner had a large number of mules and horses available. Therefore, on the northern plains, the Qing army can quickly assemble and maneuver!
The Ming army was mainly infantry. Although it had the advantage of firearms, due to the lack of draft horses, the Ming army's artillery had to rely on waterway maneuvers. Once far away from the waterway, the Ming army's artillery advantage will probably disappear.
In addition, the Ming army did not have many model troops to overcome difficulties.
Now the number of the new army to overcome the difficulties has reached more than 400,000 on the books, but half of them are new soldiers, mainly recruited from the northern refugees who followed Zhu Cixiang south to beg for food.
These new recruits are now stationed in various places, conducting training while maintaining law and order. They were actually the "inner guards" used to maintain rule - Zhu Cixang's court collected so many taxes a year and weakened the power of the gentry and landlords, so they naturally had to bear more costs of rule.
Therefore, the local government offices in the eight provinces under the direct jurisdiction of the Southern Ming Dynasty are all larger in scale and cost more - 20% of the public land is the official land. Local commercial taxes are shared with the court, and the part allocated to the local governments is also used to maintain the government. operation.
Among the remaining veterans, about half are stationed in regiments in various places. There are only less than 120,000 people with strong field combat capabilities. The main force is organized into seven divisions, and there are also some independent cavalry regiments and artillery regiments.
Moreover, Emperor Hongxing couldn't pull all seven divisions out, he had to leave one to look after him!
Therefore, the elite troops that can be used for the Northern Expedition are only around 100,000... There is indeed no numerical advantage.
Wu Xiang further analyzed: "The Eastern captives had little money, little food, and no advantage of sea routes and rivers, so it was difficult to operate, so it was advantageous to make quick decisions. However, our dynasty had more people and wealth, and had the advantage of water routes and naval forces, so it was advantageous It will last for a long time. Therefore, the Northern Expedition will be successful in three to five years, and it is still very confident to regain the customs.
As for Zhang Xianzhong...it's just a show of excitement, but in fact he is vulnerable. We don't need to take him too seriously, let alone raise troops in advance for this. "
Zhu Cixiang nodded slightly, Wu Xiang's analysis was not completely unreasonable. In history, Zhang Xianzhong quickly pounced on the Qing army entering Sichuan... But this time he took Luoyang and proclaimed himself emperor, just on the lips of Dorgon. Dorgon could quickly mobilize hundreds of thousands of Nine Banners troops to exterminate him, how could Zhang Xianzhong become a leader?
This guy will die if he gets too addicted!
"Actually, there is nothing wrong with the Northern Expedition earlier," Li Yan put forward a different opinion. "Shandong and Huaibei are already ready and can start at any time. I inspected the armies in Shandong and Huaibei some time ago, and they were pretty good... ...No problem walking along the canal.
Liaodong and Liaoxi are a little worse, but one division can go up... It may not be enough to take Ningyuan, but there are many abandoned castles along the coast of Liaoxi and Liaodong, and occupying just a few can create a lot of momentum. "
This makes sense!
Although Dorgon began to run his hometown in the Northeast again, the Northeast was so big and the population he could send out was so small, so the "dangerous zone" along the coast was very desolate, and only a few important castles were garrisoned. It was not difficult at all for the Ming army to find a fortress that was very close to the coast and had few troops to garrison.
After occupying it and operating it, it can become the support point of Ming Dynasty in Liaodong and western Liaoning...
"Wu Guoyong, what do you think?" Zhu Cixiang asked the question to Wu Guoyong, the right military advisor.
"Your Majesty," Wu Guoyong glanced at Wu Xiang, who was getting older and more timid, and said with a smile, "Zhang Xianzhong is a withered bone in the grave, but he has many people. Can the Donglu really defeat them with one blow? If the war is delayed, Soon, the opportunity will come."
Zhu Cixiang nodded, thinking: If Zhang Xianzhong is really like in history, he will die in one beating, then Li Dingguo and his gang will just take over...
He turned his attention to his chief assistant Wei Zaode, who shook his head and said, "Your Majesty, you also need to be careful of Zhang Xianzhong's defeat and his escaping into Nanyang, Runing, Xiangyang and other prefectures to cause trouble.
In addition, Wu Sangui would probably take advantage of Zhang Xianzhong's defeat to attack Xi'an. The imperial court might as well station a large number of troops in Nanyang, firstly to guard against the traitors, and secondly, to support Wu Sangui anyway. "
"Chief Minister, in your opinion, should the imperial court immediately go on an expedition to the north to conquer the captives?" Qian Qianyi, the Minister of Rites, suddenly interjected at this time.
Wei Zaode glanced at him and said, "There is no need to expedition to the north immediately. We should wait and see the changes in Heluo."
Qian Qianyi asked again: "Do you still want to ask about Dorgon's crime of massacre of Datong? Did all the more than 100,000 loyal people in Datong City die in vain? If the imperial court cannot immediately issue an edict to punish the captives, what will happen to the North? Aren’t the tens of millions of people in the south looking at the king’s army extremely discouraged and disappointed? Can the people in the north still be able to take care of themselves?”
