Zuo Liangyu led the army to march down the river by waterway, leaving an empty city of Wuchang that was still burning, and the young and strong men and women in the city were all carried away by the left army, leaving only the old, weak, sick and disabled to be fed.

The left army is known as an army of 800,000, and the real army is more than 200,000, and most of them are young and strong people. From this point of view, Zuo Liangyu's behavior is no different from that of Chuang Xian.

Hao Shaoqi's subordinates only had 30,000 newly reorganized troops, and they relied on a breath to defeat the army sent by Zuo Liangyu, and in the face of the more than 200,000 Ming troops who retreated from the whole army, where did they dare to catch up. So he stationed outside Wuchang City and sent people across the river to report to Li Zicheng.

Li Zicheng in Hanyang City naturally saw the retreat of the Ming army on the other side of the river, and although he had the intention to chase after him, he suffered from not having enough warships to cross the river. It was only when Hao Shaoqi transferred more than 200 ships under his command to this side that the Shun army began to cross the Yangtze River.

In addition to Liu Zongmin's troops who resisted the Qing army in Hanchuan, the Shun army in Hanyang Mansion and their families and 1560,000 dependents took five or six days to completely reach the other side, and two days later, Liu Zongmin came to Wuchang with the remnants of the defeated army, and he was once again defeated by the Qing army, and there were less than 20,000 remaining from the 40,000 army.

After Li Zicheng arrived in Wuchang, he rewarded Hao Shaoqi, a meritorious minister who captured Wuchang, and named him a general, and the official position was only under the highest-ranking general, and he also had the title of earl, and the army of Liu Fangliang, which Hao Shaoqi annexed, was still led by Hao Shaoqi. Now that Dashun is in danger, the purpose of Li Zicheng's commendation of Hao Shaoqi is to improve the morale of the whole army and encourage everyone to fight bravely to kill the enemy.

The supplies of Wuchang City were looted by Zuo Liangyu, and the Shun army left their own territory, and the supply of grain and grass was very problematic. Li Zicheng could only order a temporary garrison in Wuchang, and at the same time sent more than a dozen troops to collect grain everywhere.

Now that they have fled to the south bank of the Yangtze River, most of the ships in the Hanyang area of Wuchang have been taken away by Zuo Liangyu, and a small part is in the hands of the Shun army, although the Qing soldiers who are chasing are not so easy to cross the vast river.

Gu Junen once again suggested to Li Zicheng that the army should not stay in Wuchang, but move south and march to Yuezhou Mansion and Changsha Mansion.

"Yuezhou, Changsha and Changde are all the land of fish and rice, and they face Jingzhou across the river. Our army occupies this vast land of Huguang, to the east can attack Jiangxi, to the south can attack Liangguang, only need to accumulate strength, two years to wave the army to the north, and then to the Central Plains and Manchurian Tartar to compete, is it not better than a thousand miles to attack Nanjing? ”

Gu Junen said excitedly.

"Gu Shilang, you only care about the small profits in the moment, but you don't have a long-term vision." Before Li Zicheng could speak, Prime Minister Niu Jinxing shook his head and said.

"Attacking Huguang can naturally avoid the long journey of the army. However, Huguang is the land of four wars, with Manchu and Tatar coercion in the north and the Ming court in the east. How can these two allow us to develop steadily in Huguang?

In the past few years, our army has not been fighting a single day, but its combat effectiveness has become bigger and stronger, and there are more and more troops. If it weren't for Wu Sangui's dog thieves to seduce the Mantar sneak attack, my Dashun would have occupied the entire territory of Daming right now.

The weakness of the Ming army's combat effectiveness can be known, and the Ming Dynasty is the trend of the times, as long as our army arrives, the people of the Ming Dynasty will definitely welcome each other. Although Huguang is the land of fish and rice, it is far less rich than Suzhou and Hangzhou.

In the current situation, only by quickly defeating the Ming Dynasty and capturing Nanjing, Zhenghe surrendered the army, and with the manpower and material resources of the southeast, he could confront the Manchurian across the river. As long as our army captures Nanjing and destroys the Ming court, Huguang, Jiangxi, and even Liangguang will be decided, so why send a large army to conquer again? ”

Niu Jinxing's words were calm, but he revealed a strong self-confidence, and all the generals present were convinced, as if they saw the Shun army waving their troops to Nanjing, and the civil and military forces in Nanjing were fighting for surrender. And this kind of situation just happened in Beijing not long ago, so all the generals present didn't think that Niu Jinxing was really fooling and deceiving everyone.

Yes, compared to the slow development of occupying Huguang, capturing Nanjing and destroying the Ming Dynasty is the fastest and best strategy. Li Zicheng, who was originally a little shaken by Gu Junen's thoughts, became firm again.

They all have the same view on the smooth defeat of the Ming army, down to ordinary generals and up to Li Zicheng, the emperor of Dashun. In the past few years, the Ming army has won many battles, and the Ming army has surrendered one after another, which is deeply rooted in everyone's hearts.

In this case, what else is there to discuss, the attack on Nanjing! That's what most people think.

Looking at the situation of everyone, Gu Junen could only sigh, he knew that it was useless for him to say anything now. However, don't you see that the situation and location are no longer the same as last year?

Last year, the Shun army was still in the north, the north was in turmoil for many years, the people had already lost hope in the Ming Dynasty, and the slogan of the Shun army not paying grain for three years was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.

And now the Shun army has been defeated one after another, losing Beijing, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Xiangyang, De'an, and fleeing to Wuchang in a hurry, the invincible image of the Shun army has long been shattered in the hearts of the people of the world, and the Ming army will no longer be afraid to fight against the Shun army.

The reason why Zuo Liangyu didn't dare to resist and flee with his troops was just that he valued the army in his hands too much and didn't want to be easily damaged. However, the Ming army is not only Zuo Liangyu, but also generals like Chen Yue and Huang Degong, and there are more than 100,000 Beijing camps in Nanjing.

The south of the Ming Dynasty was far richer than the north, and the people could barely live their lives, and their enthusiasm for the Shun army was not as high as they imagined. Therefore, Li Zicheng and Niu Jinxing may have thought too highly of themselves and despised the Ming army.

If the enemy is lightly defeated, Gu Junen is not optimistic about attacking Nanjing for thousands of miles. But what if you don't look good? No one would listen to him anymore.

Like Gu Junen, there is also Hao Shaoqi, who is not optimistic about attacking Nanjing. Others don't know, Hao Shaoqi knows that the Ming army is not as weak as he imagined, at least the Ming army still has a Chen Yue, and Hao Shaoqi knows the most and is most impressed by the combat power of the Pingnan Army under Chen Yue, and he does not dare to despise it at all.

According to what Liu Neng said last time, Chen Yue has been the governor of Jiangbei and has been operating in Yangzhou for nearly a year.

I think that at the beginning, when Chen Yue only had a big fart in Xishan Town, he could pull out an army of 1,000 people, but now he has the entire Jiangbei Prefecture and millions of people, how many troops can he train in a year? Last time, Liu Neng said that the Pingnan Army now has an army of 100,000, 100,000 is a bit exaggerated, and 60,000 or 70,000 must be there from time to time.

If these 60,000 or 70,000 troops have the same combat strength as the Xishan Army at the beginning, not to mention the exhausted army of the Shun Army, even the tens of thousands of Qing Army Eight Banner soldiers on the other side of the river will not be able to please in front of the Pingnan Army!

Therefore, Liu Neng was not optimistic about the army's trip.