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Wuchang Chu Wangfu is located at the southern foot of Gaoguan Mountain, sits in the north and faces south, back to Gaoguan Mountain, 2 miles wide from east to west, 4 miles long from north to south, more than 800 rooms such as palaces, pavilions and water pavilion courtyards are built all over the palace of Chu Wangfu.

The surrounding stone is the city, two zhang nine feet high, open four gates, the main gate is called the town Chu Gate, the main hall base is six feet nine inches high, the main gate, the front and rear halls, the four gates of the city wall are decorated with green, and the corridor room is decorated with green daisy. The main gate of the four cities, with Dan lacquer, gold coated with copper nails, luxurious and magnificent, like a palace.

Due to the serious damage to the Wuchang official office, Qin Mu unceremoniously stayed in the palace of the king of Chu after arriving in Wuchang, and the palace was also set on fire by Zhang Xianzhong's rebels, and nearly half of the houses were burned, but the city wall was still there, and the remaining half of the palace pavilions were still enough to accommodate thousands of people.

A side hall of the palace was classified as a general staff subordinate, and at this moment there were more than 20 people sitting in the hall such as Ma Anma, He Liang, Ma Yongzhen, Zhuge Min, Li Yuan, and Yang Shen.

Yan Gaofei was reporting the information he had just received.

"My lord, the fall of the Beijing Division, the Liaodong army is also in turmoil, taking this opportunity, we have successfully received a lot of members who do not receive at night, based on the information they provide, the general Tang Tong was sent by Li Zicheng, with 8,000 men and horses to Shanhaiguan on March 28, Wu Sangui accepted the surrender, on April 2, led an army of 40,000 to return to Beijing;

When Wu Sangui traveled to Yongping Xishahe Station, he met his family who escaped from Beijing, and learned that his father Wu Xiang was tortured and plundered by the Dashun army in Beijing, and his concubine Chen Yuanyuan was occupied. ”

When Yan Gaofei said this, Qin Mu interrupted: "How did you do to get you to install people?" ”

"Please rest assured, we successfully rescued the two subordinates of Wu Sangui's family, a young couple, and then let them return to Wu Sangui's side."

"Alright, let's move on."

On April 13, Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin led an army to conquer Wu Sangui, and on the 21st, they fought a fierce battle with Wu Sangui in Yibianshi and Xiluo City. After the battle, Wu's army won a small victory over Xiluo City, and then Li Zicheng's army stormed Dongluo and the two cities on the northern flank. That night, nearly 20,000 horses and horses of Tang Tong and Bai Guangen were attacked by the Tartar army in a stone and retreated into the pass;

On the morning of the 22nd, the Tartar army marched to only two miles away from Shanhaiguan City, and Wu Sangui led a few light horsemen to break out of the siege and galloped to the Tartar camp of Weiyuan Fort two miles east of Guancheng, and knelt down at Dolgon.

On the 23rd, the Dashun army invested all its troops from Jiaoshan to Bohai, set up a long snake formation, and fought a decisive battle with Dolgon and Wu Sangui. This battle lasted until the beginning of the Wei Shen period. The Dashun army was defeated, Liu Zongmin was wounded by an arrow, and the Dashun army lost tens of thousands of dead and hurriedly retreated to Beijing.

On April 29, Li Zicheng proclaimed himself emperor in the Wuying Hall of the Beijing Division, and the next day, Li Zicheng took the crown prince, the second king and countless treasures and evacuated the Beijing Division.

On the 2nd of May, the 100,000-strong army of the Tartars entered the capital, and Dolgon ordered the people to be pacified. and sent the general to pursue Li Zicheng with Wu Sangui. ”

After listening to Yan Gaofei's report, Sima An and the others who were sitting there looked a little dignified, and they felt that the mountain rain was about to come and the wind was full of buildings.

He Liang said first: "It's easy to ask God to send God, and the Tartar poured out of the nest this time." The heart of the Central Plains has been revealed. ”

"There is no doubt about it, Dorgon is a man of great talent, and he should not be taken lightly."

"My lord, the Tartars have entered the customs with 100,000 elites this time. With the addition of Wu Sangui who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, the number of troops is already close to 150,000, in view of this. The general thinks we need to add some more troops. Ma Yongzhen proposed.

Qin Mu thought about it, the summer grain harvest is imminent, due to the turmoil in the world, and Huguang Jiangxi is the most calm, the people live and work in peace and contentment, Xu Yingjie wantonly transported the silver back to Jiangxi, not only did not cause any turmoil, but let more people rush to deposit the silver in the bank.

Especially in Yangzhou and the surrounding cities in Jiangbei, the approach of Gao Jie and Liu Zeqing's army made the wealthy families at that time extremely panicked, prompting them to speed up the deposit of silver in the bank and transport it to Jiangxi. Subsequently, many wealthy families moved their families to Huguang, Jiangxi Province for refuge.

Banks just take high exchange fees from it, and they are pouring in.

With money and food, Ma Yongzhen is not the only one who proposes to expand the army.

Qin Mu asked Sima An and others for their opinions, everyone thought that it was necessary to expand some troops, Qin Mu weighed it and said: "Since everyone agrees to expand the army, let's recruit another 50,000 horses for the rear garrison, the General Staff will draw up a recruitment plan as soon as possible, and the physical fitness of the soldiers, whether they have served in the army, etc., should be considered in order to form combat effectiveness as soon as possible." ”

He Liang hurriedly responded, and instructed his subordinates to draft the recruitment regulations.

Sima An continued: "Although Li Zicheng defeated the Beijing division, he still has hundreds of thousands of troops and controls Shanxi, Henan and other places. Strategically, Dolgon still forms a joint encirclement of the Beijing Division, if Dolgon wants to gain a firm foothold in the Beijing Division, he must first completely defeat Li Zicheng, and furthermore, the northwest has always been the Ming Arsenal, strategically speaking, if Dolgon wants to peep into the Central Plains, he can't leave Li Zicheng in Guanzhong, and there must be a dragon and tiger fight between the two. ”

Ma Yongzhen said: "Yes, the Tartars have limited troops, and it is bound to be difficult to fight on both sides, and if Dolgon wants to go south, he must first sweep Yanyun and even Guanzhong, otherwise he will be attacked on both sides." ”

"One year, this official estimates that we still have a year, we will have to face the Tartar elite iron cavalry, although we currently have 150,000 troops, but the army has only been seven or eight months, we still need to pay close attention to training." Qin Mu frowned, the Jurchen was not satisfied with ten thousand, and the Manchu was invincible, although this was a bit exaggerated, but the combat power of the Manchu Iron Cavalry at this time was indeed very amazing.

With his army trained for several months, if he fought head-on, I am afraid that 10,000 troops would not be the opponent of 1,000 Manchu cavalry, and this is by no means to increase the morale of others and destroy his own prestige.

Face up to the enemy, face yourself at the same time, don't be arrogant, this is the way to survive.

Forbearance, now we still need forbearance, pay close attention to training the army, strive to enhance combat effectiveness, and at the same time ensure that the people of Huguang and Jiangxi can live and work in peace and contentment;

On the other hand, we should hold high the banner of begging thieves in order to attract talented people to defect, but at the same time, we must control the scale of the war, so that we must not only achieve the effect of training troops in actual combat, but we must not really let ourselves really fall into the quagmire of war. This is the overall strategy formulated by Qin Mu.

"Report, my lord, Yuan Zongdi sent an envoy to ask for a meeting." Li Shi suddenly came in and reported, making the side hall quiet.

Qin Mu thought for a while and said, "Bring people in." ”

After a while, Li Shi brought in a thin middle-aged man, dressed in a Confucian shirt, with a mediocre appearance, after entering the hall, he saw that there were more than 20 people inside, mostly wearing military uniforms, and the main hall had a huge sand table, and various flags were planted all over the sand table, which was clearly a complete combat headquarters.

"Meet the Marquis of Huaiyin next week."

"No courtesy, what is the purpose of Mr. Zhou's here, let's just say it."

Zhou Yongchang saw that Qin Mu was direct, so he said: "Hou Ye lives in Huguang, and he has always had no suspicion with my Dashun army, and my general Yuan has no intention of going south to fight his troops."

"Where is so much nonsense, give you another chance, if you don't come straight to the point, cut it." Qin Mu suddenly let out a deep sigh, startling Zhou Yongchang.

"Hou Ye forgives the sin, our General Yuan wants to negotiate peace with Hou Ye, and the two sides will strike the army, and from now on, the well water will not interfere with the river water"

Zhou Yong looked like pouring beans, crackling and talking, seeing that he was scared like this, everyone in the hall couldn't help but laugh secretly.

Qin Mu said in a deep voice: "I don't say dark words in front of this official and Mingren, it's not difficult for me to quit the army, you go back and tell Yuan Zongdi, let him withdraw from Xiangyang, and take Shuanggou and Longwang Erzhen north of Xiangyang as the boundary, and you must not cross the line one step from now on, only in this way can there be the possibility of striking the army." ”

"Master Hou, this can't be"

"Since it's impossible, then there's no need to talk about it, please go back."

Xiangyang is a strategic place related to the safety of Huguang, Qin Mu is determined to take it back this time, Su Jin and Li Jiu are now taking turns to attack, constantly attacking the periphery of Xiangyang, Ma Yongzhen's tens of thousands of troops are also ready to attack, as long as the time comes, immediately wave their troops to attack Xiangyang.

"Hou Ye is slow, our General Yuan is willing to take Yicheng as the boundary, south of Yicheng, and give all to Hou Ye to show our sincerity. Hou Ye should know that Xiangyang is located in the upper reaches of Jingzhou and Wuchang, and our army occupies all the geographical advantages, and Hou Ye insists on being the enemy of my Dashun, which is harmful to Hou Ye and not beneficial. ”

"Since you know what Xiangyang means to Huguang, you should know how to do it to be sincere, you go back and tell Yuan Zongdi that the official of Xiangyang is determined to win, and if he doesn't let it, the official will send troops to seize it."

Qin Mu dared to open his mouth because he knew very well that Li Zicheng had suffered heavy losses and was retreating, and Yuan Zongdi urgently needed to lead the right battalion to the north to reinforce Li Zicheng. (To be continued......)