Wu Sangui was named by Zhu Youzhen, so he had to step forward and kneel, but he didn't dare to speak, for fear that he would say something wrong and be caught by the emperor by the pigtail.

Zhu Youzhen is not pleasing to Wu Sangui, no matter how he looks at it. But now that he is the emperor, of course he will not be rash, but smiled kindly: "General Wu doesn't have to be too formal, get up and speak." Speaking of which, you had the skill of saving the driver a few years ago, but you are still only a fourth-grade guerrilla. Li Dingguo, Li Laiheng and others, who are younger than you and have shallower qualifications than you, now have more official qualities than you, do you know why? In all fairness, are you convinced? ”

Wu Sangui thought to himself, why else, he offended the emperor because of Chen Yuanyuan, it would be good to be able to save his life, how could he dare to think of being promoted? Besides, Li Dingguo and Li Laiheng, these are the emperor's confidants, how can they compare with others?

But Wu Sangui didn't dare to say this anyway, so he had to sweat profusely: "I think the minister is not as brave and resourceful as Li Dingguo, Li Laiheng, and can fight habitually, and the minister is that..."

"Haha, as the saying goes, there is no first martial arts and no second, I see that you are not convinced." Zhu Youzhen said with a smile, "Actually, the reason is very simple, there is only one criterion for the promotion of military generals, and that is military merit." Li Dingguo and Li Laiheng, they have the opportunity to make meritorious contributions, but you don't. The eastern Liaodong border army guarded the Shanhaiguan and faced the Tartars, and the pressure was the greatest, so I didn't dare to move easily. The Tartars are not fools, they refuse to attack, the border army has no battle to fight, and of course there is no way to make meritorious contributions. ”

Wu Sangui is also a clever person, and when he heard it, he understood that Zhu Youzhen was giving him a chance, and he couldn't help but snicker in his heart: It seems that the emperor has not forgotten the life-saving grace of the year, and now that the situation is so difficult, there is probably no other choice, so he still has to use him!

And listening to the emperor's words, he didn't want the border army to go out of the customs to fight against the Eight Banners Army. Wu Sangui, like his son Wu Xiang, is a person who is good at drilling, and he thinks that it is not as useful as stammering with the emperor, and now that the emperor has given him the opportunity to be promoted and make a fortune, how can he easily miss it. Besides, as long as he doesn't fight with the Tartars, Wu Sangui is still quite confident in himself. So he hurriedly said: "The saint is useful, and the ministers go to the soup and the fire, and they will not give up!" ”

"It's not that serious." Zhu Youzhen nodded and said, "You also know that Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, two bandits, have been making a lot of trouble in the northwest recently, and the imperial court is overstretched and has lost one after another. The officers and soldiers involved in the counterinsurgency were either extremely tired and needed to be repaired, or they could not get out. I think about it, and I can only use your Liaodong border army. However, the defense is extremely heavy, and it is not possible to recruit on a large scale, and only one general needs to lead 3,000 cavalry into Shaanxi. Wu Sangui, I think that Zu Kuan led 500 troops back then, and he was still invincible against thieves, you won't be worse than him, right? ”

These words are very reasonable, Wu Sangui thought to himself that this is really the case, the imperial court really has no choice now, it can only count on the Liaodong border army, this is a great opportunity for his own performance. Zu Kuan led the Guanning Iron Cavalry, which was the most elite unit in the eastern Liaodong border army. However, if you deal with the thieves, your own cavalry is more than enough. Except for the Guanning Iron Cavalry, his subordinates in the border army are strong and strong, Wu Sangui is quite conceited about this, and he doesn't even pay attention to generals like Man Gui and He Kegang, let alone a thief.

However, Wu Sangui still peeked at Zu Dashou and asked for his opinion with his eyes. After all, Zu Dashou is the head of the Li family, the chief general of the border army, and Wu Sangui's uncle, so he doesn't dare to agree to such a big event.

Zu Dashou's brain was also spinning rapidly, wondering what the emperor's intentions were. From his heart, he didn't want to divide his troops to go anywhere, and he didn't even want to come to Shanhaiguan, he always thought that Ningyuan and Jinzhou were the real territories that belonged to his ancestors. Yuan Chonghuan's so-called "guarding the Liao land with the Liao people and raising the Liao people with the Liao soil" was actually the idea of Zu Dashou, so that he could become a warlord entrenched in Liaodong.

But now that Ning and Jin have been lost, the "Liao soil" is gone, and tens of thousands of troops in the eastern border of Liao are cramped in the important city of Shanhaiguan, and the life of Zu Dashou is also very difficult. The food and salary were all supplied by the imperial court, and although he was no longer in arrears, he could not get any benefits under the nose of Gao Di, the governor of Liaodong.

On the "Liao" side, there were more than 60,000 really capable border troops under Zu Dashou. Among them, more than half of the 8,000 people under the command of Zhu Mei were lost, and after the defense of the Beijing Division, because of the sacrifice of Zhao Led Sect, Gao Di transferred Zhu Mei's department to Jizhou to supplement the defense.

There were more than 50,000 troops left, originally 35,000 in Daling River and 20,000 in Ningyuan. Ningyuan's 20,000 men suffered no losses because of their timely retreat, while the border army of Dalinghe suffered heavy casualties when breaking through, with less than 30,000 remaining. And because Zu Dashou almost beheaded He Kegang in Daling River, now the two are completely evil. He Kegang's prestige in the border army was also very high, and after returning to Shanhaiguan, there were 5,000 people who were only willing to listen to He Kegang's orders. Gao Di took advantage of the situation to transfer He Kegang and these 5,000 troops into the inner city of Shanhaiguan, and now there are less than 40,000 troops in Zu Dashou's camp.

Today's Zu Dashou is very conflicted. These 30,000 troops are his greatest capital, and he will never let go. But in the past, the border army guarded the pass, and it was too late for the imperial court to increase troops, so of course it was impossible to transfer troops from him. Now it's different, after so many border troops returned to Shanhaiguan, the total strength of Shanhaiguan was no less than sixty or seventy thousand, and it was more than enough to defend the city, so there was a legitimate reason for the imperial court to transfer troops. Compared with General Man Gui and He Kegang, Zu Dashou's subordinates have a large number of generals, and the imperial court will of course first think of transferring troops from him, although Zu Dashou is dissatisfied, he can't come up with a legitimate reason to refuse.

But on the other hand, Zu Dashou knew very well that the imperial court did not trust him, and he also wanted to do something "within his power" to regain the emperor's trust. Previously, the imperial court asked Zu Kuan to lead five hundred Guan Ning Tie to ride into the pass to suppress the thieves, although there was an order from the Ministry of War, Zu Dashou did not object, one is that five hundred people have little impact on him, and the other is that once Zu Kuan has made war achievements, he will have a light on his face, and his words will be heavier.

Unexpectedly, Zu Kuan followed Hong Chengchou to rebel, Zu Dashou almost died of anger after learning the news, and he was also terribly afraid. Fortunately, the emperor had no intention of joining the army, and now he plans to transfer Wu Sangui into the customs to suppress the thieves. For Wu Sangui, the nephew, Zu Dashou is also very important, if Wu Sangui succeeds in suppressing the thief, his pressure will be much less. Besides, the emperor has made it clear that only 3,000 men and horses will be transferred, and his subordinates will not be "broken". Therefore, Zu Dashou secretly glanced at Wu Sangui and signaled that he could agree.

With Zu Dashou's approval, Wu Sangui did not hesitate anymore, and impassionedly vowed to exterminate the thieves and relieve the worries of the imperial court. Zhu Youzhen appeared to be "long-faced and happy", but in fact, he had another thought: the first step to cut off the warlords of Liaodong was successfully implemented!