In short, Hong Chengchou's strategy is to rely on his own soldiers and sufficient food, step by step, and fight steadily. Capture a stronghold, hold it with a large army, and then attack and lay down a major town.

The whole strategy of marching into the army is very clear, the first line of Qiantang, the first line of Xiaoshan and Shaoxing, the first line of Quzhou and Suichang, and then the army enters Jiangxi.

As for Fujian, which has the danger of Xianxia Pass, he only sent people to guard against it, but did not attack it. Just wait for the capture of Jiangxi, form an encirclement of Fujian, and then attack from all sides.

Since Dolgon entrusted Hong Chengchou with the heavy responsibility of attacking Jiangxi and Fujian, he planned day and night, and finally chose this seemingly prosaic, but extremely down-to-earth tactic.

This method greatly carried forward the advantage of the Qing army's strength several times that of the southerners, and advanced layer by layer, that is, there were one or two unfavorable battle situations, but they could still support each other, keep the battle line unchaotic, and force the southern army to retreat step by step.

When the Qing generals returned to the camp, Hong Chengchou raised his eyes to the south and said to himself: "

……

It was night, in a carriage bound for Yongbeili.

Zhu Linmiao frowned and looked at the various materials and data on the wooden table in front of him, and was still carefully considering the details of the Northern Expedition plan in his heart.

He can't be cautious, this Northern Expedition is the first time after Chongzhen that the Ming Dynasty has attacked Jianyu, and the significance is extraordinary.

If you win, you will change the offensive and defensive momentum. After the recapture of Nanjing, it will certainly have a huge appeal to the Chinese people throughout the country, and the Han people in the Manchu-occupied areas will return to the wind. In addition, it controlled Nanzhili, the richest place in the Ming Dynasty, and could provide tax and manpower support for the further recovery of Beijing. At the same time, the economic foundation of the captives will be greatly weakened.

Defeat, but also extremely risky. The idea of the invincibility of the Qing army will be more deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, so that the people in the enemy-occupied areas will accept the rule of the Jianju in disappointment, and at the same time, the morale of the areas controlled by the Ming will also be greatly reduced.

The biggest advantage at the moment is that there are still many people in Jiangbei who are interested in Daming. The defeat of any decisive battle will reduce the number of people who report such thoughts, thus increasing the difficulty of the next Northern Expedition, forming a vicious circle.

Although Zhu Linmiao was very confident in the combat effectiveness of the Xinming Army he had built, he did not dare to say that he would definitely win every battle.

This Northern Expedition was far more difficult than Zheng Chenggong's in history. At that time, the main attention of the Qing court was on the Yongli regime, and the main force of the Qing army was also concentrated in the southwest to fight with Li Dingguo, the "god of war", and there were only 20,000 defenders in Nanjing. Therefore, Zheng Chenggong's 170,000 army was able to destroy all the way to Nanjing, and it was under the city of Nanjing in two or three months.

But even so, the Qing court still held Nanjing to the death, and quickly mobilized more than 100,000 troops from the surrounding provinces, and suddenly attacked Zheng Chenggong's main force in four directions.

Zheng's army was caught off guard and was defeated in successive battles, and finally lost his troops and returned to Fujian, and since then he has been unable to organize a decent army, and the Northern Expedition has become a swan song.

Let's look at the situation Zhu Linmiao is facing. Although Dolgon fought at the same time in Sichuan, Huguang, Mobei and other places, these places were not the absolute main force of the Qing army. The Qing court was still most concerned about the area of Nanzhili, and spared no effort to gather 140,000 troops again, and the number was still increasing, just to fight to the death with the Tai Zheng Dynasty.

Judging from the current comprehensive force comparison, Jianyu still has a great advantage.

In terms of the area under its control, the Qing court occupied the entire northeast, as well as the seven provinces of Jiangbei and Nanzhili, as well as most of southern Mongolia.

The Ming Dynasty only has six provinces: Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan, and Guizhou, and even if you count Sichuan, which is still in contention, the area is only less than one-third of the area controlled by Jianyu.

And these are poor places.

Zhu Linmiao looked at the Jiangbei information sent by Gu Yanwu a few days ago, and the Qing court's various tax revenues last year had reached more than 13 million taels! This is also the result of the continuous harassment of the rebel armies in Shanxi, Shandong, and Anqing, and when the rebel armies in these places are pacified, they can collect at least two or three million taels more.

On the other hand, in the Ming Dynasty, even if Zhu Linmiao agreed to Yang Tinglin's monthly increase of 130,000 taels, the total annual income would be more than 3.5 million taels. Even if Liangguang and Yungui recover their vitality, it is estimated that it will be difficult to exceed five million taels.

Although it is difficult, but leading the army to the north is the only way to drive out the Tartars and recover the Ming Dynasty, even if the resistance is great, there must not be the slightest hesitation!

It is foreseeable that this Northern Expedition will be destined to be a tough battle!

Therefore, Zhu Linwei must carefully plan every detail, must not make any mistakes, and strive to complete the battle.

Of course, Da Ming also has his own advantages, otherwise he would not have decided to fight this battle.

First of all, the combat effectiveness of the more well-equipped and well-trained Dragon Guard Army and the Broken Battalion far exceeded that of the Qing Army. Unless Hong Chengchou can concentrate his more than 100,000 horses to form a siege or surprise attack on the Ming army at one time, it is possible to sacrifice his life to fight the Dragon Guard Army and the broken camp.

As long as the Ming army's operational command does not make mistakes, annihilates the captive army in pieces, or drags Hong Chengchou into a mobile war, it will have an extremely high chance of victory when it has a crushing advantage in weapons and tactics.

Secondly, the Ming army has always adhered to the idea of a small number of elites, coupled with a more advanced and efficient logistics strategy, so the pressure on the supply of grain and grass is much less than that of Jianjiao. In the most difficult situation, the 30,000 or 40,000 Ming troops only needed one ship of supplies to hold out for more than a month.

The 140,000 Qing troops needed no less than 200,000 people just to maintain the grain and grass transportation line, and these people also had to consume a lot of grain and grass. At the same time, this logistics lifeline is extremely vulnerable to attack, which is also one of the weaknesses that Zhu Linmiao has been keeping an eye on.

Secondly, in terms of people's hearts and minds, the Ming army also has an absolute advantage. Although there are many gentry in Jiangsu and Zhejiang who are willing to be taken prisoner and enslaved, more than ninety percent of them still consider themselves to be the people of the Ming Dynasty.

In particular, Dorgon's atrocity of shaving his hair and making it easy to obey set off a monstrous anger among the people, and the people of the entire Nanzhi were all looking forward to the king. At that time, there will definitely be many people who will guide the Ming army, open the city, and ventilate the news.

Finally, it is also one of Zhu Linmiao's biggest killer features of the Northern Expedition, the Daming Water Division he planned in advance is about to take shape, and Jianyu still knows nothing about it.

As someone in the court said the day before yesterday, fighting in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang regions, the role of the sailor is absolutely irreplaceable.

It can be used to block waterways and quickly transport troops to the front line. Retreat can carry the army out of danger in a short period of time and get rid of the enemy's interception.

It can be said that the side that has the advantage of the sailors at least doubles its combat effectiveness.

Although Zhu Linmiao's fleet has been formed for a short time, there are not even many warships.

But his sailors would be equipped with galleons that were considered in history to be the most suitable for naval warfare, each capable of a large number of guns, and at the same time fast and powerful. Supplemented by advanced battle line tactics, it should not be a problem to deal with the Jianyu Naval Division on the Qiantang River.