The next day, bursts of birdsong came into the palace study.

When Zhu Linmiao was woken up by the maid Huiqiu, a glimmer of morning light appeared on the horizon.

"What time is it?"

"Back to Your Highness, it's almost time."

Huiqiu brought two maids to help him change into the dragon robe, and told him that the princess was going to run the "Autumn Society".

He responded casually and hurried out of the house, but he didn't even have time to eat breakfast, only took a bag of snacks from the little maid's hand, and boarded the carriage that Shi Lin had already prepared in front of the palace.

As soon as the car drove out of Erlilai, Zhu Linmiao saw more than a dozen horsemen speeding past not far away, and the person at the head was dressed in a dark green military uniform, which looked quite similar to Yu Xin.

He hurriedly ordered Shi Lin to call the group of people, and when they came closer, it was Yu Xin.

The latter hurriedly dismounted and saluted, "My lord forgives the sin, his subordinates have repeatedly encountered heavy rains along the way, and the road is difficult to travel, so I only entered Tianxing Mansion this morning, and I wanted to go directly to the Wenhua Palace......"

"It's been hard work all the way, and I haven't eaten breakfast yet." Zhu Linmiao pulled him into his car, pointed to the dim sum on the small table and said, "Just eat some with me." ”

"Master Xie."

Zhu Linmiao knocked on the carriage and ordered the coachman to continue on his journey, and then looked at Yu Xin and said, "There will be a while to walk on the road, so let's talk about the recent situation of the military department." ”

Yu Xin put down the food in his hand, and said with a solemn face: "My lord, everything in the military department is done according to your orders, and there is nothing wrong. But there's one big thing that needs to be told to you first. ”

"Oh? What's the matter? ”

Yu Xindao: "When my subordinates passed through Minqing County yesterday, they saw the report sent to the Ministry of War, and the thief Hong Chengchou sent the puppet Zhenjiang General Soldier Ma Degong with Yang Chengzu, Hu Maozhen and others, and led an army of 40,000 to cross Qiantang to the south, and now they are storming Xiaoshan. ”

The Qing army has already moved south? Zhu Linmiao was also a little surprised when he heard this, this time the action of Jianyu was really fast, which shows that the Qing court attaches great importance to the southeast front.

You must know that the old-style army built by the captives is no better than the dragon guard army that is less sophisticated and has received modern military training. If they want to mobilize an army of 70,000 or 80,000 troops, it will take at least three or four months to prepare for the heavy burden of food and grass, and by the time the husbands and men who have been recruited from all over the country have arrived, it is often five months before the soldiers have gathered and been promoted.

Historically, the rhythm of construction and capture operations has basically followed this law. Even when the winning streak was smooth, the interval between the two large-scale troop deployments was at least half a year.

Just like in the first year of Longwu, the Azig army returned to Beijing to repair after "pacifying" Henan, Huguang, and Jiangxi, and a year later, Bolo led his troops to attack Fujing.

In the summer of this year, Boluo's 70,000 horses had just been wiped out by the Dragon Guard, and it was only less than four months before Hong Chengchou gathered more than 100,000 troops and took the initiative to attack Zhejiang. This was done when Bolo "conquered the south" and requisitioned all the soldiers, horses, grain and grass near Nanzhili, which can be called miraculous efficiency.

Of course, behind this "miracle", there must be a large number of Han people who were used as hard labor, tortured and even killed in the process of preparing for the war.

It can be seen from this that after the defeat of Bolo, Dolgon has begun to face up to the strength of the Ming Dynasty. His cautious preparations for the war were to prepare for a desperate battle with the Ming Dynasty on the front line from Nanzhili to Zhejiang.

Zhu Linmiao couldn't help frowning, at the beginning of the year, it was because King Lu's Qiantang garrison was about to collapse at the touch of a button, which caused Jianyu to easily seize Zhejiang, and this time it was difficult to guarantee that Zhejiang would not be lost in his hands again.

And he didn't want to fight a civil war with King Lu, so that Jianyu would benefit, and now unless King Lu took the initiative to ask for help from the Taizheng Dynasty, he could only do it in a hurry.

He then asked Yu Xindao: "How is the battle situation in Xiaoshan?" ”

"Lord Hui, there are more than 7,000 Zhejiang soldiers in Xiaoshan, and Fang Guoan is leading nearly 30,000 horses to reinforce it."

Zhu Linmiao said: "These 7,000 Zhejiang troops have some combat power. ”

Yu Xin nodded and said, "This is something that Jian Yu never expected. At the beginning of Fang Guoan's false surrender, Bolo organized the Zhejiang army under his command into a green battalion, and repatriated the old and weak according to the usual practice, leaving only more than 30,000 strong and strong, equipped with weapons and strict drills, so that the combat power was greatly increased.

"After the return of the rear country to the Ming Dynasty, the army was divided into Qiantang, and although the soldiers and horses were reduced from more than 100,000 to 30,000, they were not defeated as quickly as before.

"Now Zhang Huangyan's department, which guards Xiaoshan, was selected from this, and it is actually the elite of the Zhejiang army."

It turned out that it was a military genius like Zhang Cangshui who was guarding Xiaoshan. In history, when Zheng Chenggong made a northern expedition to Nanjing, Zhang Huangyan cooperated with the army to attack Huizhou and Dingguo in the west. With only more than 6,000 people under his command, he broke the Qing army in a few months, conquered four prefectures, three prefectures, and twenty-four counties, and fought the prisoners in fear.

Zhu Linmiao nodded secretly, with Zhang Huangyan leading the army and the men and horses trained by Jianyu, it is no wonder that Xiaoshan City was not captured by the captive army.

Yu Xin continued: "And the thieves know that the 13,000 elite soldiers of my broken camp are stationed in Quzhou, because they always have to divide their troops and prepare for them, and they can't attack the city with all their might. ”

Quzhou is only more than 300 miles away from Xiaoshan, and with the speed of the marching of the broken camp, it can rush to help the battle in a few days. Hong Chengchou didn't know what the relationship between King Lu and Tai Zhengchao was now, so he had to be careful to send troops to guard against it at all times.

Although Xiaoshan can be held for the time being, Zhu Linmiao saw the danger in it, and frowned: "To be built and the grain and grass are hoarded along the Qiantang coast, they will definitely continue to increase their troops in Xiaoshan." It was half a month at the least, and at most two decades, and more than 100,000 captives crossed the south of Qiantang. At that time, no matter how capable Zhang Huangyan is, he will not be able to last long under the disparity between the outnumbered. ”

Yu Xin also worried: "What the adults said is extremely true. If the portal of Xiaoshan is lost, Shaoxing will be broken overnight, and Zhejiang is afraid that it will fall into the hands of thieves again. ”

The two were discussing the military situation, when they heard Shi Lin reminding outside the car: "My lord, it's noon." ”

Yu Xinyan hurriedly confessed his guilt, got out of the carriage and walked towards the Wenhua Hall by himself.

When the eunuch in charge of the post sounded the whip, all the civil and military officers in the court lined up in front of the palace, knelt down on the mountain and shouted, "Meet His Royal Highness the Auxiliary King." ”

"Gentlemen, please get up."

After the courtiers stood up, they first praised His Royal Highness the Auxiliary King for his great victory in the Western Expedition as usual, and did not hesitate to say that "the merit is high in the world", "the momentum of Zhongxing has been revealed", and "the resurrection of the Duke of Zhou".

After almost everyone had said a few words, the scene gradually returned to calm, and then the discussion officially began.

First of all, He Kai, the secretary of the Criminal Department, was the first to come out of the class, and said in an impassioned tone: "Your Highness, the lower officials have heard that the East has gathered 140,000 troops in Nanjing, and they want to commit crimes in the south. Now its striker has reached Xiaoshan, and Shaoxing Mansion will be broken overnight.

"The lower officials thought that there was no way to protect themselves with the power of the Zhejiang Domain. The imperial court should quickly transfer the army into Quzhou, and when the king of Lu is defeated, he will immediately go to Jinhua to capture the emperor, or he can map Zhejiang! ”

Zhu Linmiao said in her heart, it seems that the military situation in Zhejiang has spread, and these courtiers are well-informed.

Before He Kai's words fell, he saw a person step forward and said in a loud voice: "What Lord He said is false! The thief army is sharp, how can it be light? ”