"The little emperor is ready to drag the Mongols to the Central Plains?" Duoduo asked the people around him in a low voice, and everyone nodded silently. No one laughed, but everyone had a beaming expression on their faces.

Dordor turned his attention to the Mongols, a native of the Borzigit clan, whose father was Belmingan of the Korqin Ulut tribe of Mongolia. In the twenty-first year of Wanli, the battle of the Nine Coalition Army had the share of Ming'an, the father of Xuanji, who was one of the Nine Divisions at that time, and was defeated in the battle of the Nine Coalition Army, and later fell to Nurhachi, and also dedicated his daughter to Nurhachi as a side blessing. This Ming An died in the early years of Shunzhi, leaving behind several sons who were all big names in the Eight Banners of Mongolia.

In the Battle of Jieshi Mountain, several of Ming'an's sons made bets on both ends, and Qiuerji voted for Duoduo, and Qiuerji's younger brother Namushengge followed Azig to play soy sauce.

Because of the first-class level of speculative and thigh-hugging, Namushengge did not suffer any punishment after the war, but was reused by Shunzhi and became the Minister of the Interior and the commander of the cowardly Xue Ying.

And Juerji followed Duoduo, and also held important positions, overseeing the Mongol cavalry recruited from the three Eastern Mongolian alliances, including the Zhelimu League, the Zhaowuda League, and the Xilin Gol League—after the Battle of Jieshi Mountain, Duoduo had found that the lancers were useful, so he began to expand the number of lancers. And the easiest way is to recruit warriors from the three alliances of Eastern Mongolia for training.

Since he maintained a certain amount of contact with Namushengge and the Korqin tribe, he was well aware of the situation on the battlefield of the Hetao.

Now that he saw Duoduo's gaze, he smiled and said, "As the emperor expected, when he saw the Mongolian cavalry gathered in Hetao, he moved his mind to use them in the Central Plains. In addition, the battle of Hetao did not go well, so everyone from top to bottom started to think of switching troops to the Central Plains. ”

"The Battle of the Loop was fought?" Duoduo was stunned.

He was also well-informed, but he didn't know that there was a big battle in the Hetao.

"There's no big fight, it's just a small fight." "The cavalry of the Ming army in Shuofang Town learned the method of our forward battalion, put together muskets and cavalry, and also ambushed and fought black guns, and caused heavy losses to the warriors of the Zhuosuotu League, the Zhaowuda League, the Xilin Gol League, the Ulanqab League, and the Khalkha Three Khans." ”

"Ambush? Shoot black guns? Duoduo's brows furrowed, a military strategist of his level, and having played with musket cavalry for so long, of course he had realized that there were many ways to play muskets and cavalry!

Moreover, he also deduced the play of muskets and cavalry, which was extremely unfavorable to the Qing Dynasty and Manchuria!

Because of the Manchurian cavalry's ability, what kind of horseback archery, dismounted archery, and dismounted hand-to-hand combat were of little use in front of "a musket that can move at high speed".

Of course, the cavalry of the forward battalion of the Qing Dynasty could still defeat the musketeers of the Ming army in a dignified formation...... But the problem is that, apart from the two armies fighting in a circle, the cavalry scattered across the vast battlefield rarely faces each other in a serious manner. Rangers, of course, guerrilla!

Although the cavalry of the Qing army's forward battalion also had muskets, and they would also ambush, surprise attack, and guerrilla attacks, the problem was that their ability to play these tricks would not be higher than that of the Han Chinese.

A Manchurian warrior as precious as a rare animal had nothing to overwhelm the true ability of the Han warriors, who numbered to tens of millions, so he had to rely on musket shooting and a trick that everyone could play...... The consequences are unimaginable!

I know everything in my heart, but Duoduo still looks like he is sitting firmly on the Diaoyu Tai on his face.

"Good! Everything is expected and under control! Duoduo smiled, "The battle of Zhongzhou is conducive to our speed, and the Ming Dynasty is conducive to long...... If there is no danger of digging rivers in Henan and Hebei, Zhu Cihong will inevitably fight a protracted war with us. As long as it is delayed for a few years, the officers and men of our army will have nothing to gain on the front line, and the land at home will be uncultivated, and they will inevitably run out of assets and have nothing, and naturally it will be impossible to afford military service. When the time comes, it will be undefeated and defeated!

Fortunately, the little emperor was still willing to listen to the persuasion and set up camps north and south of the Yellow River to force Zhu Cihong to fight a quick battle. Now they have tricked tens of thousands of Mongol warriors into sweeping the Central Plains...... This will inevitably make it difficult for the Ming army to advance and retreat, and it will have to take risks and drive forward for a long time in order to achieve a quick victory. This is the situation of the Songjin War! ”

"Uncle Emperor," asked Nikan, the number one general under the command of Dodor, "are we going to prepare to send troops?" ”

"Of course!" Duoduo said with a smile, "After the autumn, gather 80,000 troops and prepare to set the top of Zhongzhou again!" ”

......

As early as five years ago, when Zhu Cihong and the Qing Dynasty signed an armistice treaty, this was scheduled to be the base city of the Northern Expedition in the future.

The choice of Xuzhou as the base is, of course, to facilitate the westward passage along the Yellow River. To be honest, the current Yellow River is not suitable for navigation, the water is rapid in spring and summer, and it is easy to flood (the river section in the Ming Dynasty is not likely to flood, but the river in the Qing Dynasty is very bad), and the water is shallow in autumn, and the big ships cannot be navigated. Moreover, there are many dangerous shoals and shoals, and if you are not careful, the boat will capsize.

However, in the case of inland warfare, it is better to have a waterway to transport grain and grass than to have no river and be completely dragged by mules and horses!

Now the Huaibei section of the canal is no longer navigable (the Huainan and Jiangnan sections of the canal are extremely well maintained and can earn a lot of tolls every year), so Emperor Zhu can only use the Yellow River as much as possible.

If you want to use the Yellow River to carry out water transportation, of course, you have to make good use of Xuzhou as a transportation hub. Although there is no canal connection between Xuzhou and Huaihe River, the section between Hongze Lake and Suqian Luoma Lake is less than 100 miles that really needs to be transported by land. In order to improve the efficiency of transportation, Emperor Zhu ordered people to expand the road, paved the road with stones, purchased many four-wheeled carriages from Shanghai Shenche that could be dragged by four donkeys and mules, and built a large number of warehouses in Xuzhou to store the materials that arrived one after another in peacetime.

In addition to the construction of roads and warehouses in Xuzhou, a large number of military barracks, docks, shipyards and an arsenal capable of casting and repairing cannons have also been built in the past few years.

In order to make Xuzhou shoulder the heavy responsibility and not be threatened by the Yellow River, Zhu Cihong also invested in the city of Xuzhou and the Yellow River dam.

In addition, Zhu Cihong also ordered the Navy Department and the Shipbuilding Department to establish a Yellow River shipyard in Xuzhou, designed and built a number of small sand boats that could sail on the Yellow River, and formed the Yellow River Naval Division!

After five years of preparation for war and countless investments, it is finally time for everything to be ready, and only the time is owed to send troops.

Beginning in the summer of the sixth year of Hongxing, the field unit of the Ming army, the Model New Army, began to march to Xuzhou from all directions with regiments as units.

The establishment of the infantry of the model new army has not changed much in the past five years, the vast majority of the infantry regiments are still using the Morris phalanx tactics, and the weapons they are equipped with are still pikes and Hongxing three-year arquebuses, and only a very small number of troops have just been finalized and began to produce Hongxing six-year flintlock pistols - there is only one regiment of troops equipped with Hongxing six-year flintlock pistols, and this regiment has canceled the establishment of pikemen and adopted an all-musket configuration!

In the absence of major changes in the establishment, the number of infantry regiments of the Model Forces nouvelles has increased considerably, reaching as many as 150, and at full strength (2,500 men), the number of field infantry of the Model Forces nouvelles can reach as much as 375,000!

The number of cavalry of the New Army has also increased significantly over the past five years. In peacetime, the cavalry of the new army of the Ming army was based on the battalion (there were also cavalry regiments, not many in number), due to the introduction of a large number of war horses in the northwest and the appearance of musket cavalry, the scale of the cavalry of the Ming army was finally greatly expanded, and now it has finally reached 50 battalions (including mounted infantry), with a total strength of 20,000 thousands, and a total of more than 50,000 horses and mules equipped!

Although the cavalry (mounted infantry) of this scale cannot be compared with the cavalry of the Qing army, how dare the Old Manchuria of the Eight Banners have more people than the Ming army?