"His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, the minister has no idea about the reform of the court." Zhang Huangyan's face was a little solemn, "The minister just wants to go to Penglai as soon as possible." The ministers have been paying attention to the news from the north these days, and now the northern Zhili is already the territory of the Tatars, and most of Shanxi is also controlled by the Tatars. They also have tens of thousands of soldiers on the border of Shandong and Henan, and they are constantly recruiting rebels and expanding their troops. ”

Zhu Cihong was busy with various new policies during this time, and did not seem to put military issues in a very critical position, which made Zhang Huangyan a little worried.

In addition, the news from the north is not very good. The Tartars' rule in Beizhili and Shanxi became more and more solid, and Datong was surrounded by the Tartars for many days, and it was not known when it would fall?

As for Li Zicheng, he shrunk to Shaanxi, and recently gave up Kaifeng Mansion, and it seems that he is ready to retreat and defend himself! I don't know if Dolgon will let Li Zicheng go and fight the Ming army in Shandong first?

Chen Rui, the secretary of the Ministry of War, confidently took over the topic and said: "The imperial court is also stepping up preparations for war these days!" At the end of last year, three more foreign generals arrived in Nanjing, plus Shi Ruien's foreign general regiment, which arrived at the earliest, and now it can support four foreign-style infantry regiments, and in addition, the artillery foreign generals are almost in Nanjing.

By this autumn at the latest, we will have four Western-style infantry regiments, an 800-man Western-style artillery regiment, four musketeer regiments, and two cavalry regiments, and nearly 20,000 exemplary elite soldiers available, and 25,000 if we count the baggage troops. ”

Western-style infantry regiments are infantry regiments that use the Morris phalanx tactics, with nearly 2,000 men per regiment. At present, one regiment has been formed, and three more regiments will be formed in the summer, and should be able to fight in the autumn.

At the same time as forming a Western-style infantry regiment, Zhu Cihong also expanded and renamed the infantry associations under the jurisdiction of the divisions.

All infantry regiments were to be expanded to 2,000 soldiers and 500 baggage soldiers (one baggage battalion) with reference to the model regiment, so as to facilitate the reorganization into Western-style infantry regiments in the future. The two cavalry regiments were expanded to 1,600 soldiers and 500 baggage troops—that is, a baggage battalion of 500 men was added.

Among all the infantry regiments, cavalry regiments, and artillery regiments of all divisions, only four model regiments, four muskeon regiments, two cavalry regiments, and one artillery regiment are truly capable of fighting effectiveness.

These 11 regiments were not incorporated into any division, but were all incorporated into the model army with Wu Sanfu as the general soldier.

Zhang Huangyan frowned, "Your Royal Highness the Prince, the foreigners' art of war may not be able to be used by us, and their method of using soldiers to fight can be compared with ours?" Besides, four Western-style regiments, with a total of only 8,000 soldiers, and they are also infantry, what can they do?

The minister felt that the emergency method was to build more castles, train more militias, and select capable officials who were proficient in military affairs to serve as magistrates in Shandong, Henan and other places.

In addition, Li Zicheng gave up Kaifeng Mansion, should the imperial court send troops to recover it? If Henan Haoqiang can be used for his own use, he may be able to delay the pace of the Tartars moving south. Gain a little more time, so that we can train more elite soldiers! ”

Zhu Cihong's brows were also twisted, the northern defense line did give him a headache - not because of Dolgon's aggressiveness, but because of Dolgon's restraint in Henan and Shandong.

Because of Dorgon's restraint, it is equivalent to putting away his fists, and he can hit hard at any time. However, the officials of the Ming faction in Henan and Shandong and the local gentry loyal to the Ming Dynasty blindly expanded, eager to occupy all the territory they could. As a result, the line of defense is very loose, fortified everywhere, and difficult to defend everywhere.

Therefore, once Dolgon is ruthless, the northern defense line of Daming paper paste will soon be swept away, and at most, the Denglai Peninsula and Taiyi Mountain can be defended

"His Royal Highness the Prince," Zhang Huangyan pondered for a moment, and then said, "The minister has another suggestion, the imperial court should continue to contact Li Zicheng, and agree on the Northern Expedition to attack instead of defending, and disrupt the steps of the Tartars." ”

"Liukou has no faith in his words, and if he contacts Li Zicheng, the court will definitely suffer!"

As soon as Zhang Huangyan's second suggestion came out, it was opposed by Chen Rui, the secretary of the Ministry of War.

Zhu Cihong also frowned, noncommittal.

Judging from the general trend of the world today, Daming Dashun should indeed join forces. But there is no foundation of trust between Daming and Dashun at all, and without trust, how can there be cooperation? It's just a matter of thinking about it, but you can't do it.

He sighed and turned his gaze to Hou Sui.

"Mr. Hou," Zhu Cihong looked at Hou Sui, "What did Zuo Liangyu say over there?" Are you welcome to go? ”

In addition to Li Zicheng, Zuo Liangyu is also a figure that gives Zhu Cihong a lot of headaches.

Don't look at the number of troops on Zhu Cihong's books, there are six divisions and eleven regiments in the divisions of the New Army alone. Among them, the number of infantry divisions such as the front and rear left and right and the first division has also expanded from the previous 8,000 to about 11,000 (including the baggage and division), and there are 66,000 people in the six divisions alone. With the 25,000 people of the model army, the total strength is as high as 91,000, and there are several thousand people in the Xiaolingwei New Army, which is actually the establishment of the divisional army. Therefore, the total strength of the divisions and armies of the New Army is close to 100,000, which can be described as a large number of soldiers!

However, there are indeed very few of these 100,000 troops that can be used, because the backbone of the divisions is more than 50,000 people brought by Zhu Cihong from the north. After entering Nanjing, most of these people and the 20,000 people of the Yangtze River Sailors were given silver and homestead land. Then they took turns to take holidays so that they could settle down in Nanjing-these more than 70,000 people became more than 70,000 families, which became Zhu Cihong's basic plate in Nanjing.

With them, Zhu Cihong can do whatever he wants in the southeast!

In addition to these 70,000 basic units, there are now several thousand Xiaolingwei New Army, 10,000 Huai'an soldiers and 30,000 Huaixi soldiers, of which Huai'an soldiers are Lu Zhenfei's troops, and only some officers are from the Yuan Cong of the New Army. The Huaixi soldiers were recruits recruited by Li Yan and Zhu Chunchen for Zhu Cihong.

These latecomers don't have the treatment of immediately dividing the house and land - they have to serve for ten years, or have a certain military merit to get the land. However, there is no residential land in Nanjing, and there is no settlement fee of one or two hundred taels, and it is impossible to get the Jiangnan paddy field. After all, the number of basic disks is limited, and it is impossible for Zhu Cihong to give all his followers the treatment of "Yuan Cong".

And those well-paid "Yuan Cong", after getting the homestead and land, spent a lot of time to take care of it, some were busy marrying wives, and some took their families from Shandong and Huai'an to Nanjing for reunion. So far, the four divisions arranged in Nanjing are just empty shelves, and a large number of "Yuan Cong" are still on vacation. Only the two divisions bound for Fengyang and Shandong were basically full, but these two divisions had the heavy task of defending the border, and it was impossible for them to be used to conquer Zuo Liangyu.

Therefore, what Zhu Cihong can really use to crusade against Zuo Liangyu is the eleven regiments of the model army (these regiments are also full), but four of these model regiments have not yet completed training, and the training of the artillery regiment has just begun

And Zuo Liangyu is not one of those useless nobles in Nanjing City, even if he can't beat Zhu Cihong in the field, he still has the two fortified cities of Wuchang and Hanyang to defend.

Once the battle of Huguang is protracted, will Dolgon and Li Zicheng watch and see if they will intervene? How will Zhu Cihong end up then? There can be no draw in the war against Zuo Liangyu, because a tie means that there are two power centers within the Ming Dynasty that can compete with each other!

Similarly, Zuo Liangyu did not dare to easily play the anti-flag. Because he can't be the emperor himself, Zuo Jiajun is not a rogue after all, he wants to be the emperor, and the people under him must be gone. And Zhu Cizhao can't be the emperor, because Chongzhen hasn't stepped down yet! You ascended the throne first as a filial son, where is this? Those who are not right-named and unsuccessful in their words have no appeal. Therefore, Zuo Liangyu can only "clear the monarch's side", that is, to defeat Zhu Cihong. In this way, he must march to Nanjing, or Qing Mao Jun's side? Isn't it over to cut off your own territory in Hubei and make a fortune in a muffled voice? And if Zuo Liangyu wants to enter Nanjing, he can only win, not lose! Therefore, Zuo Liangyu did not dare to have a showdown.

And Zhu Cihong is waiting for change - Zuo Liangyu won't live long anyway, and when he dies, Zuo Jiajun will be easy to deal with.

"Master Chitose," Hou Sui frowned slightly, "The minister has been writing to Zuo Hou these days, and Zuo Hou has been writing to Zuo Hou that he can marry his daughter to King Yong, but he is old and in poor health, so he can't go west to Sichuan." And King Yong is too young to be the king of Shu, he hopes that King Yong can change his title to King Chu. ”

Zhu Cihong thought to himself: This is going to be divided from Jing Chu?

"It's good!" Zhu Cihong nodded and smiled, "When the palace turns around, I will ask my father and the emperor to issue a decree, and Feng Cizhao will be the king of Chu, and the fief will be in Jiangling!" ”

"Gangneung?" Hou Sui was stunned for a moment, "That's King Jing's fiefdom." ”

Zhu Cihong smiled, "The Jing Domain has been withdrawn, and the current King Jing is just an idle prince, where is the use of a fief?" Just seal Jingzhou to Cizhao. Isn't Zuo Mengmei's biological father Qiu Lei the chief soldier of Jingzhou Town? With him taking care of Cizhao in Jingzhou, the palace can also rest assured! ”

Zhu Cihong is not affectionate to the vassal king of the Ming Dynasty, and he is not soft at all! Anyone who "loses a feudal domain" is basically wiped out from this line from the vassal king to the county king - he doesn't care whether these vassal kings and county kings are responsible or not, whether the king is good or not, he will withdraw and talk about it.

In the context of the withdrawal, a little king will also be renewed - now living in Nanjing is the "thirty-three kings" that will be renewed, and they will be withdrawn first and then followed. The prince and county king who withdrew from the iron hat, and the prince and county king who continued to descend on behalf of the prince and county king, the treatment is not as good as before, and not everyone has it.

Zhu Cihong paused, "In addition, give Mr. Hou 200,000 taels of silver to the Chu Palace, you can take the silver and leave for Wuchang as soon as possible."

After arriving in Wuchang, you must remind Zuo Liangyu and Qiu Lei to pay attention to Li Zicheng! This palace is worried that after Li Zicheng loses one more game, he will go south to Huguang! ”

"The old minister's order."