Dashun Yongchang

Li Zicheng couldn't help but praised Liu Zongmin and Li Guo beside him: "That's right, the city should be like this, full of vitality, living and working in peace and contentment, it seems that you haven't been lazy these days."

The generals around Li Zicheng heard Li Zicheng's relaxed voice of praise, and most of the hidden worries about the front line in their hearts disappeared for a while.After following Li Zicheng for more than ten years, they have developed a kind of superstition towards Li Zicheng, thinking that as long as Li Zicheng is still there, there will be no difficulties that can overwhelm them. After all, Dashun now is comparable to what Li Zicheng led 18 Qi escaped into the Shangluo Mountains and the environment was much better.

After hearing this, Liu Zongmin said to Li Zicheng proudly: "Those officials always want to make the people obey the rules. They are not allowed to do this, and they are not allowed to leave. To abide by the rules, you must first let them have a living. If you can’t even support your family, who cares about those rules? I think your majesty is right, first find a way for them to live, and then slowly build them up. Rules, as for etiquette, who cares about it now..."

Gu Junen, Liang Qilong, Wang Zeyao, Han Lin, Yuan Yuzong and other civil officials behind these generals watched the generals surrounding Li Zicheng habitually belittle civil officials. Although they felt unhappy in their hearts, they were helpless at this time.

The Xuzhou resident of the Marshal's Mansion is still in the Xuzhou Wei Yamen in the southeast of the city, but at this time the Marshal's Mansion is far beyond the scope of the Xuzhou Wei Yamen. The blocks of the city are surrounded by a wall, thus forming a pattern of a city within a city.

Seeing this scene, Li Zicheng didn't ask any questions. He just asked whether the original residents had settled down well, and then entered the gate.Even if it is not in wartime, soldiers and civilians should not live together. This is Li Zicheng's order.In the current situation, it can only be said that Xuzhou has strictly implemented his orders.

When he walked into the lobby, Li Guo asked Li Zicheng, "Your Majesty, should you go wash up first? Or should you hold a meeting to discuss the current military situation?"

Standing on the steps, Li Zicheng turned around and glanced back. Seeing that everyone was looking at him with anticipation, he pondered for a while and said, "Well, I'll listen to the general staff's message to me in the morning. Tell me about the current situation on the front line. After dinner, at 01:30 in the afternoon, the members of the Military Council in Xuzhou City, the main person in charge of the General Staff and the main person in charge of the Civilian Government came here to hold a meeting. Now, everyone You can go back to your work first.”

Liu Zongmin and other generals who originally wanted to follow Li Zicheng could not help but stop after hearing this. Everyone looked at each other and followed Li Zicheng's suggestion. Let Li Zicheng understand the real situation on the front line first, and then discuss countermeasures in the afternoon up.

So Li Guo also bowed his fists to Li Zicheng and retreated. Only members of the general staff such as Song Xiance, Han Lin, Yuan Yuzong, Zuo Yi, Wan Rui followed Li Zicheng through the lobby and entered the second hall.This was originally Li Zicheng's office and temporary residence before he went south. Although Li Zicheng had opened for several months, the room was still kept quite tidy. Li Zicheng touched the tables and chairs casually, and there was no dust on them. Obviously someone was in charge of the daily work here. cleaning job.

Li Zicheng opened the south window and saw the big pagoda tree in the courtyard. Unlike the green leaves whirling in summer, the big pagoda tree now looks like an old man who has lost his hair. Outside the snow, there is no green leaf to be seen.

Li Zicheng turned around, moved a chair and sat down in the sunshine through the window, then greeted Song Xiance, Han Lin and the others: "Come on, come on, move the chairs over here, and sit warm under the sun. I am in the canal When I got on the boat, I felt that the wind was like ice skates, and I couldn’t stand it no matter how many clothes I wore. I thought it would be colder here in Xuzhou, but I didn’t expect it to be sunny here. It shows that Xuzhou is really a good place. .”

Song Xiance responded to Li Zicheng's call first, moved a chair and sat on Li Zicheng's right, and then replied jokingly: "Your Majesty is right, Xuzhou is really a good place, the cold wind from the north is blown by the surrounding The hills are blocking it. In spring, the wind from the south reaches Xuzhou along the Yellow River, so there is no shortage of rain in spring and summer. It is a real geomantic treasure.”

After Li Zicheng and Song Xiance chatted about the weather and daily routines, he coughed a few times and said, "Okay, we have a meeting in the afternoon, and we don't have much time, so just tell me about the specific situation on the front line." Bar."

Song Xiance thought for a while, then turned his head to Yuan Yuzong and said, "Vice Minister Yuan, please tell your Majesty the situation since the army of founding slaves went south."

Yuan Yuzong nodded slightly at Song Xiance and wanted to get up, but Li Zicheng waved his hand at him and said, "Don't get up, just sit and talk. This is not a formal meeting. I just want to know something. Relax. Say what comes to mind, and what other people want to add, you can add it after the last person finishes speaking."

Yuan Yuzong then sat back, he was silent for a few breaths and organized his words in his heart, and then he said to Li Zicheng: "According to the information we have collected, Jiannu dispatched three armies at the end of September and early October.

The first route was led by Huang Taiji's eldest son Hauge, with the red flag Gushan Erzhen Yechen and Gongshun Hou Wu Weihua as his deputies. There were not many Manchurian soldiers, mainly surrendered frontier troops.This group of people joined forces with the Xuanfu rebels to attack Datong Town.Since Datong Town is too far away from Xuzhou, this is all we know about the intelligence of the slave army along the way;

The second route was led by Dorgon's elder brother Azige, who was bestowed the title of General Jingyuan by the slave court. Wu Sangui, king of Pingxi, and Shang Kexi, king of Zhishun, were his deputies, claiming to lead 11 troops. From November 1st to November 11th, Liu Fangming and Wu Sangui's troops broke through the Yellow River defense line from Mengjin to Zhengzhou Huayuankou. Li Jiyu of Henan Province surrendered Liu Fangming, and Liu Zhong led his troops back to Luoyang.

Both Liu Zhong and Liu Fangming fought under Hong Chengchou's command to encircle and suppress the peasant army, so we suspect that Mengjin's fall is quite suspicious, but now that Jiannu's army has cut off the connection between Luoyang and Xuzhou, we can only tell the guards in Tongguan to be careful The movements of Liu Zhong's troops are not allowed to retreat into Shaanxi.

On November 11, Wu Sangui's troops captured Zhengzhou, then went down along the Jialu River, and within 5 days successively captured Zhongmou, Zhuxianzhen, Chenliu, Tongxu, Weishi and other places. These counties and towns hardly resisted. Seeing Wu Sangui The sign and letter opened the city gate.It can be seen from this that Wu Sangui's so-called borrowing teachers to suppress... is quite confusing.

Chen Yongfu lost Zhengzhou and retreated to Zhongmou, and then organized several resistances, but Wu Sangui's tribe was powerful, and he could not get the support of the local gentry and militia, so almost all of them failed.Only in Qi County, Yuan Shuai sent an army to support Chen Yongfu, did he repel Wu Sangui's pursuit here.

However, on November 11, Azig led the main force across the Yellow River to Zhengzhou, and then divided the army into three groups, attacking Lanyang, Yifeng, and Kaocheng from Kaifeng along the Yellow River, trying to threaten the northwest of Guide City; Attack Qixian, Suichou, and Ningling from Chenliu and Tongxu, and the target should be west of Guide City;

Going south from Weishi County all the way, continuing to go down along the Jialu River, captured Lijiatan and Fugou, and then attacked Xihua County and Zhoujiakou.Now we are in a stalemate with our army in Shangshui, Xiangcheng, Shenqiu, and Shahe.Judging from the direction of Jiannu's attack, it should be aimed at Chenzhou, and then seized Bozhou via Luyi.

After winning Bozhou, Azig has more choices.You can go north and besiege Guide City with the other two routes; you can also continue to capture Yongcheng County eastward, cutting off the connection between Xuzhou and Guide; Attack Xuzhou..."

These days, Li Zicheng has been studying the maps of the Central Plains area, so when Yuan Yuzong mentioned each place name, he closed his eyes and a map appeared in his mind, and he found the location of these place names on the map.

When Yuan Yuzong stopped talking, Li Zicheng briefly recalled the distribution of the Azig army, shook his head and said: "Azig army must not have [-] troops, if he has [-] troops, he should go straight to Guide house.

Guide Mansion is the main point in the northwest of Xuzhou. Taking this place will not only open up the passage to Xuzhou, but also threaten the rear of Jining.For the current Jiannu, if the two armies of Shandong and Henan are connected together, we will lose most of them.It is a good thing that Azig went south to attack Chenzhou.The farther south he went, the farther he was from the Dodo army, which was obviously to our advantage. "

Yuan Yuzong also nodded and said: "The General Staff also thinks so, so we advocate strengthening the defense of Guide, weakening Chenzhou's military strength, and throwing Chenzhou to Azig if necessary..."

Chapter 295

Li Zicheng glanced at Yuan Yuzong, and the decision Yuan Yuzong made was indeed quite in line with his wishes.He had to admit that almost none of the more than 300 Jinshi admitted every three years was stupid.

Although stereotyped essays have greatly constrained people's free thinking, those who can stand out under such constraints, at least intellectually, have no problem.As long as these people are given an environment to display their talents, they can impress others, even Li Zicheng who has a modern soul in his body.

When the system of the General Staff Headquarters appeared, Yuan Yuzong, a former soldier, quickly adapted to the new system and quickly understood how it worked.In contrast, Song Xiance, a military adviser who was born as a charlatan, couldn't keep up with the development of the new situation, and was still playing with his old cleverness, which made the core of the General Staff Headquarters shift more and more towards Yuan Yuzong.

It's not that Yuan Yuzong played any tricks in it, but that Song Xiance's shortcomings are too obvious.The General Staff is actually a civilian bureaucratic system, and everything except going to the battlefield to kill the enemy is managed by this bureaucratic system.

Based on someone's understanding of the bureaucratic system of the General Staff, this system is equivalent to the factory management of later generations, mastering the production process, personnel management and salary design.Where should each worker stand, what posture should be used to work, how many actions should be performed per hour, the length of daily work and remuneration, how much raw materials should be imported by the factory in a day, how many products should be completed in a day, what should be the yield rate, etc. , has been calculated clearly before the factory has been established.

Simply put, it is to decompose a complex job into multiple simple steps, thereby reducing the technical ability of workers and allowing each worker to complete a simple task.In this production process, the worker is just a living machine and does not need to think or communicate with other workers, although they are all in the same production process.

The same is true for the role of the General Staff for the army. It deprives soldiers of their ability to think, and then allows officers and soldiers to stand in their positions according to prescribed tactics and complete their own simple tasks.The war has shifted from competing for the intelligence of generals and the courage of soldiers to the discipline, organization and logistics supply capabilities of the army.

This kind of bureaucratic system is completely at home for civil officials like Yuan Yuzong.To be honest, the defeat of the army in the late Ming Dynasty on the internal and external battlefields was not due to any problems in the combat plan and supply system, but a huge problem in execution.

The fact that civilian officials lost military supplies did not only appear during the Apocalypse and Chongzhen periods.Just like the generals of the Ming Dynasty who ate empty wages to support their families, there is also a historical origin of the civilian officials' loss of military supplies, because the design of the wonderful system of the Ming Dynasty does not include transportation costs, and usually labor is conscripted for free services for the army, but this Obviously, it is impossible to let the supplies reach the front line on time, so most of the [-]% of the lost money and food is actually used to fill the gap in transportation costs.

The people in the south complained about the heavy taxes, and the people in the north complained about the heavy labor. In essence, it was the big hole left by the Ming Dynasty when it tried to use the small peasant society to promote a national logistics system at the beginning of the founding of the country.

Mao Wenlong wrote to the imperial court to report that the officials had drifted away. His original intention was to let the imperial court bear the transportation costs from Shandong to Dongjiang Town.But when I met Chongzhen, an emperor who didn't understand the commodity economy and loved the truth, what was originally a complaint about the lack of money and food turned into a political dispute between the civil servants and Dongjiang Town.In the end, it became that no one was willing to be responsible for supplying supplies to Dongjiang Town, and instead wanted to investigate Mao Wenlong's private trade with the Jurchens.

But once the system is redesigned on the basis of the commodity economy, the contradiction between the logistics system and the army will be greatly eased, because after adding the consideration of freight costs, it means that the books of both parties can be balanced.The next step is to curb the corruption of military expenditures by civilian and military officials. This level of anti-corruption is tolerable for both systems.After all, compared to the military expenditure of tens of millions of taels of silver a year, no one wants to overthrow it.

Yuan Yuzong could understand how this new bureaucracy worked and was happy to keep it going.In contrast, Song Xiance had a hard time understanding how the system worked, and he didn't know how to maintain it. Power naturally began to concentrate in Yuan Yuzong's hands.

When a person has enough resources in his hands and knows how to use them, he can make correct responses even if he is facing a brand new world.Now Yuan Yuzong has touched this threshold. Although he has not systematically studied the art of military command, he has already judged from the difficulty of mobilizing personnel and materials on his own side. It is more suitable to lure the Azig army to the south. The interests of the Marshal's Mansion.

Li Zicheng thought of this and looked at Song Xiance again. After all, he didn't say anything, but asked Yuan Yuzong about the movements of the Qing army along the way in Shandong.Regarding this question, Yuan Yuzong became more cautious.

"The coach of the road in Shandong is Dorgon himself in name, and the slave court appointed him as the general who was ordered, but Dorgon did not leave the capital. Instead, he ordered his younger brother Duoduo to go south along the canal to attack Shandong. Duoduo is the great general of Dingguo, and this group of people is said to be 50.

After Dong Xueli surrendered and became a slave, Duoduo entered Jinan on October 10, and then the slave army divided into five groups.Gongshun Wang Kong Youde, Huaishun Wang Geng Zhongming, and Dong Xueli went east all the way into the hinterland of Shandong, and also incited the gentry everywhere in the name of borrowing teachers. In mid-November, Qingzhou, Changyi and other places have been taken, and now they are marching to Jiaozhou and Laizhou. There are about 27 to 11 people along the way.

The slave generals Nikan and Tong Tulai joined together, about 4 people, went down the canal from Dongchang Mansion, and captured Shouzhang, Yuncheng, Juye and other places. Fighting, because the Juye gentry rebelled and had to retreat. On November 11, the squires of Caozhou opened their doors and surrendered to build slaves. Now Niu Wancai is stationed in Dingtao and Chengwu, confronting the slave army.

The slaves also led Boluo and Ashan together, about 2 people, and set off from Jinan to the east to capture Duping, Zhoucun Town, and Yanshen Town, and confronted our army at Qingshiguan.If the slave army of this route takes Qingshiguan and crosses the watershed, they will be able to attack Tai'an along the Hui River, and then stationed on the Xiaowen River, threatening Ningyang, Yanzhou, Qufu and other important places.

The main force of the slave army set off from Jinan, captured Pingyin and Dongping, and is now confronting our army at Wenshang.This road is the main force of the slave army, and Duoduo led it himself, and there are no less than one hundred thousand of them.The dense rivers around Wenshang County are not conducive to the slave cavalry, but as the weather continues to turn cold, the rivers freeze and the roads freeze hard, the slaves will inevitably launch an attack.

Judging from the use of troops on the southward route of Duoduo, he was accustomed to using cavalry to cut off the city's connection with the outside world, and then stationed infantry on the main roads, and then concentrated cannons to attack a corner of the city, intimidating the defenders in the city to surrender.

Since the city's external connections were cut off, and the forty or fifty cannons frequently deployed by the slave soldiers were concentrated in one place to bombard the city wall, most of the soldiers and civilians in the city could not bear the pressure.But the outside world wants to rescue them, but they are often stopped by their infantry, and they are often defeated in field battles, so even the city has no soldiers to defend.Facing Duoduo's army, if he can't fight against it with a large army, I'm afraid he can only be captured city by city..."

After listening to Yuan Yuzong's narration, Li Zicheng admitted that the General Staff Department's research on the combat capabilities of Jiannu's commanders was quite in-depth.Although he had a small victory over Dodo in the Battle of Tianjin, Dodo was obviously out of shape at that time, and the warm weather made Jiannu's cavalry unable to play a role in Tianjin, a wetland with many rivers.

And the current weather is just right for building slaves. After all, compared to the weather outside the customs where the weather is more than ten degrees below zero, the winter in the Yellow River area can be said to be a warm spring for the fishermen, hunters and nomads outside the customs.

And judging from Duoduo's use of troops since he went south, his state has finally adjusted.Although Duduo used his troops so savagely, he used his own advantages to the extreme. No matter what tactics Shunjun used, he would eventually face Duduo's army head-to-head, otherwise he would not be able to interrupt this smooth attack. momentum.

Although a certain person was not from a military background, but after seeing these battle examples commanded by Doduo, he had to praise: Doduo did use the troops with a mixture of hot and cold weapons to the extreme, which can be called an art of command.

After a long silence, Li Zicheng suddenly said to Yuan Yuzong: "Do you know how civilization defeats barbarism?"

Yuan Yuzong looked at Li Zicheng in astonishment, not knowing what the question meant, and the staff around him also turned their attention to Li Zicheng, wanting to know what Li Zicheng meant.After all, the General Staff had been discussing for nearly a month, but they didn't come up with a plan to defeat Dodo, so they could only rely on the defense system established before to stick to it.

After Li Zicheng glanced at everyone, he said a few words indifferently, "Production capacity, the biggest difference between the civilized world and the barbaric world lies in the production capacity. Duoduo may be an outstanding one among the barbarians, but he can't get rid of the barbarians The biggest flaw is the low production capacity of the barbarians. Therefore, for the outstanding ones in this weak and small nation, we don't need to defeat the individual, we only need to destroy the nation.

The population of Jian slaves is less than one million, and relying on their own production capacity alone cannot support a long-term war.So if it wants to fight a nation with a population of more than [-] million, it divides the nation, then enslaves some of them, and finally plunges us into internal struggles, making us powerless to fight back.This is the so-called strategy of cutting down trees, removing its branches and leaves and cutting down its roots.

We want to defeat Jiannu's logging strategy, but there is actually a simple and effective way to develop productivity.As long as we grow faster than Jiannu can cut down our branches and leaves, we are laurel trees that will never be cut down.This is the principle of first standing in an invincible position and then waiting for the enemy to be defeated.

And the best way to reflect production capacity in war capabilities is gunpowder weapons.If 1000 million of the 15 million Chinese hold a matchlock gun, and ten people kill one Jiannu, the Jiannu will also be wiped out.It didn't even take three days to learn how to shoot an arquebus, but it took at least [-] years for Jiannu to give birth to a male and put him on the battlefield.

Therefore, the easiest way to defeat Jiannu is to drag them into a war dominated by gunpowder weapons..."

Chapter 296 An Expensive War

For Li Zicheng's judgment, the few people present did not have much objection, but what worried them was another matter.Yuan Yuzong exchanged glances with his subordinates, and finally asked Li Zicheng a question.

"Your Majesty's judgment has actually been considered by us, but after we made some calculations in this direction, we found that if we replace the gunpowder weapons for the army, there are still many problems.

The first is the unfavorable conditions of gunpowder weapons in close combat. According to the current regulations, musketeers should shoot between 40 and 30 steps away from the enemy, which means that after a round of shooting, musketeers will be killed by the remaining enemy troops. In close combat, Musketeers need the protection of Spearmen at this time, so the ability of Musketeers to fight alone is actually not good.

The second is the issue of cost. According to the refined granule gunpowder configured by the current military inspectorate, the value of gunpowder per hundred catties is 21.4 taels.A heavy arquebus shooter can fire about 20-22 times in a more intense battle, just consuming a catty of gunpowder; a heavy matchlock gunner uses half the amount of gunpowder, and a battle consumes about half a catty of gunpowder.

In this way, the gunpowder consumed by a thousand heavy arquebus gunners in a battle is worth almost 214 taels, and the gunpowder consumed by a thousand light-weight arquebus gunners is worth 107 taels.An artillery company is calculated with six cannons, firing 500 catties of gunpowder a day, worth more than 1100 taels.

Then one thousand heavy arquebus gunners, two or two thousand lighter arquebus gunners, plus an artillery company, will consume more than 1500 taels of gunpowder for a day of combat.Such a force multiplied by ten can almost launch a field battle, and then more than 15000 taels of gunpowder can be consumed in a day.

This is not counting the cost of making muskets. In the past, a bird gun was one or two taels of silver, and a three-eyed gun was only three taels of silver, but a heavy arquebus was nine taels, and a lightweight matchlock was seven taels.As for the price of artillery, it is even more expensive, ranging from hundreds of taels to thousands of taels.

Jiannu really can't afford to fight with gunpowder weapons like this, but I'm afraid we can't sustain it..."

Listening to Yuan Yuzong's difficulties, Li Zicheng naturally knew that what the other party said was true, because in essence, Daming was a larger small-scale peasant society, and there was no fundamental difference economically from the civilized Jurchens.At the end of the feudal dynasty, the small-scale peasant economy was unable to resist the defects of natural disasters, coupled with the invasion of foreign enemies, directly led to the collapse of the Ming Dynasty.

Yuan Yuzong believed that we could not afford an army with gunpowder weapons. This was based on what he understood as the basis of the small peasant economy.What the small peasant economy pursues is self-sufficiency, not development, so it is obviously too heavy a burden to rely on the development of handicrafts to equip large-scale gunpowder weapons.

After thinking for a while, Li Zicheng said: "The low-quality pig iron smelted from ore sand costs 2 cents of silver per catty. This kind of pig iron can only be used as raw material for wrought iron and cast iron, and cannot be directly processed into ironware.

The malleable iron initially processed with this pig iron can be used to make farm tools, knives and iron pots, and the price is 4 cents per catty; if it is further processed, it can be made into iron wire, which costs 8 cents per catty; if you want to forge nail leaves and shotguns The refined iron used needs to be further processed. At this time, the price is 5 cents and [-] cents per catty; while the steel used to make a good knife costs [-] cents per catty.

Steel is a better raw material for making utensils than wood. The utensils we use in our daily life can actually be made of steel, but the price of steel is too high now, so we have to use other easily available materials for processing .

What the former deputy minister just said is true. It is indeed expensive to build an army with gunpowder weapons, but this cost is exactly the technical barrier for us to defeat barbarians.For we can support it, and savage nations cannot in any case.

In addition, the cost of gunpowder weapons is not due to its own characteristics, but a manifestation of our insufficient production capacity.Let's think about it, shall we?To dig out iron ore and coal from the ground and then process them into steel, except for human labor, the influence of other factors can be ignored.However, in agricultural production, planting and harvesting must be done according to the seasons, and if the time is staggered, there may be no harvest.

Therefore, what we have to consider now is not how much the army equipped with gunpowder weapons will cost, but how we can reduce the production cost of coal and steel, so as to make gunpowder weapons cheaper..."

After Li Zicheng established a direction, the next speeches of the people naturally began to discuss around this direction.This small meeting lasted until noon. At this time, the direction of the General Staff's work in the next stage finally became clear.

Yuan Yuzong also deeply admired Li Zicheng's ability to point out the direction of the general staff so quickly.Although Li Zicheng did not intervene too much in the specific practice, but in the general direction, Li Zicheng's decision cannot be questioned.Sometimes he couldn't help but compare Li Zicheng with Emperor Chongzhen, and then he regretted that Emperor Chongzhen lacked such an overall view.

Emperor Taizu Gao abolished the prime minister system, but his descendants did not have such rich life experience and abundant physical strength, so the cabinet that replaced the prime minister system was restored in Yongle.

The purpose of Emperor Yongle's establishment of the cabinet is to hope that the cabinet can take on the responsibility of being responsible for the daily operation of the Ming Dynasty, so that he can devote himself wholeheartedly to the affairs of the war against the Northern Yuan Dynasty.It can be seen from this that the cabinet is actually the emperor's assistant, not the prime minister with decision-making power.

In other words, no matter how many outstanding talents there are in the Ming cabinet, the final decision is still made by the emperor himself.But after Emperor Yongle, Emperor Ming didn't even want to use this decision-making power, so he created a supervisor of ceremonies to decide daily government affairs on his behalf.It can be seen from this that the cabinet and the ceremonial supervisor are essentially vassals of the imperial power, and none of them can replace the imperial power to make decisions on their own.

Emperor Tianqi still knew this, so he raised Wei Zhongxian to exercise imperial power on his behalf.However, Emperor Chongzhen was obviously limped by being fooled. After killing Wei Zhongxian, he did not stabilize the power of the Supervisor of Ceremonies in time. became a representative of the bureaucracy.

If Emperor Chongzhen could have half of Li Zicheng's view of the overall situation at the moment, then the supervisor of rituals and the cabinet would still maintain a balance, and there would not be so many chaos in the court.Even if the Apocalypse Dynasty Eunuch Party and the Donglin Party were at odds, the daily operations of the court were still quite stable, so there was hope that the wars in Liaodong and Southwest would gradually subside.

Li Zicheng didn't care what Yuan Yuzong was thinking at this moment. After talking with the main members of the general staff, he had a basic understanding of the Qing army's movements and the situation of the Shun army, and he also knew the current situation on the front line. some situations.After hearing the message from Li Laiheng outside that lunch was ready, he also made a summary for this small meeting.

"Let's stop here for the morning meeting. The General Staff will submit a summary of the latest intelligence summary of the Qing army and the actual situation of our army's defense line before tomorrow morning. In addition, the General Staff has done a good job these days, but I I think that according to the current work content of the General Staff Department, there should be a clearer and more specific division of labor under the General Staff Department. Chief Song, go back and study it, and then submit a work division report to me. Next, let’s have dinner first, and after dinner Let's hold a meeting together later..."

In the lobby of the Zhengzhou resident of the Marshal's Mansion, a newly developed cabinet-type pendulum clock was placed in the northeast corner of the lobby. When the hour and minute hands pointed to 1:20, the lobby was already full of people.Some sat down and inquired with colleagues around them what the theme of today's meeting was; some sat silently looking at the pillars on the beams or turned their heads to look at the pendulum clock in the corner in a daze.Obviously the morale of some people doesn't look so uplifting.

At almost 1:30, the cotton curtain of the corner door in the northwest corner was lifted, and then Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, and Li Guo walked out of the corner door. The faces of the three were slightly red, and it seemed that they were sitting together at noon. Had a drink.

But even though he drank some wine, Li Zicheng walked steadily and looked very sober.When he walked to the chair at the top, he didn't sit down immediately, but turned around and glanced at the people in the hall. When his eyes shifted to that direction, the crowd in that direction became quiet, and then Sitting upright, he watched Li Zicheng's position.

When the hall was completely quiet, Li Zicheng stood there without sitting down, but directly said: "I talked with the staff of the General Staff for a long time this morning, and I have a general understanding of the current situation on the front line. Let me tell you, We’re in a great situation right now.”

Li Zicheng's words made everyone present not understand, and everyone couldn't help discussing with their colleagues in a low voice.The main content of discussion is: Did Your Majesty drink too much at noon?We have lost half of Shandong, the Yellow River defense line has also been breached, and the Jiannu are almost hitting the hinterland of Henan. Does this mean the situation is good?

Li Zicheng didn't care about the discussion of the people below. He clapped his hands vigorously and said: "Quiet, quiet. I haven't finished yet. Why do I say that our situation is very good now? Who of you knows, stand up when you know Say it."

Who can know?Everyone shut their mouths immediately, not wanting to be named by Li Zicheng to make a fool of themselves.Seeing the silence in the hall, Li Zicheng opened his mouth and answered by himself: "Because those enemies hidden inside us have finally jumped out. Let's think about it, are the enemies in front of us scary, or the enemies behind us?"

Tian Hu immediately replied: "It must be that the enemy behind is terrible. In a frontal battle, we can fight with a knife and a gun. If we die, it is bad luck. If someone is stabbed in the back, we will not be reconciled to death."

Li Zicheng applauded Tian Hu lightly, and then said: "I think so too. In the past, we wanted to select these enemies from ordinary people, friends, and even comrades-in-arms. Not only did we have to spend a lot of effort, It may not be possible to get the understanding of the people and friends. But now? They jumped out on their own initiative, we don’t have to do anything, they are exposed to the people, isn’t this a great thing?”

Chapter 297

When everyone in the hall heard Li Zicheng's explanation, they also understood in their hearts. Li Zicheng didn't drink too much, but wanted to comfort everyone.Although they know that Li Zicheng said this for everyone's benefit, some people think that the most important thing at present is not to reassure everyone, but to point out a way out for everyone.

For example, Ma Chongxi said bluntly: "Your Majesty said very well, indeed, these enemies jumped out by themselves, allowing us to distinguish who are true friends and who are hypocritical villains.

But the problem is that there are a lot of enemies who have jumped out now. Our brothers in the front have to deal with Jiannu and guard against the traitors behind. It is simply impossible to guard against.The reason why the frontline troops retreated many times was not that they could not stop Jiannu from the front, but because traitors appeared behind them. It was difficult for them to persist between Jiannu and the city occupied by the traitors, so they had to choose to retreat.

If we can't deal with the insurrections that keep popping up everywhere, we won't have time to deal with these enemies when they reveal their true colors.In my opinion, the gentry and landowners in Shandong and Henan are all…well, most of them are unreliable. Either we move them all to one place to take care of them, or at least take care of the gentry in the area along the canal and the Yellow River to prevent them from betraying us. "

Ma Chongxi's suggestion was supported by many people, and some people put forward a more radical suggestion than Ma Chongxi, thinking that since the gentry and landlords in the Central Plains are unreliable, it is better to withdraw the troops and retreat to the south.

They said: "...Since His Majesty has already cleared the Ming government army between Jianghuai and Jianghuai, it is better to retreat to Jianghuai instead of entangled with Jiannu here. Jiannu is just a small clan, and entering the pass by chance is already a collision Great luck, get Henan and Shandong again, is there any dissatisfaction? Since the people in these two provinces don’t want to support me, then throw them to Jiannu, it depends on how Jiannu treats them , can be regarded as a warning to the people of the world."

Most of those who supported the retreat were generals from the peasant army. Although they had more combat effectiveness than the official army, those who survived the peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty, in addition to being able to fight, also mostly adhered to: fight if you can fight, and fight if you can't Hit and go idea.

Li Zicheng presided over most of the head-to-head confrontations with the officers and soldiers.As for the other generals of the Peasant Army, they would not fight desperately with the officers and soldiers unless they were pushed into a hurry.The confrontation with Jiannu this time was precisely the defensive battle of the base that these peasant generals did not like. Naturally, some people felt uncomfortable, so they put forward their own views at the meeting.

The reason why the peasant army is unwilling to defend the city is that after the city is surrounded, there is almost no possibility of escaping. If you are fighting in the wild, if you can't beat it, everyone can escape in all directions. As long as you can run faster than your colleagues, you will always able to escape.

However, this idea was of course opposed by the civil and military officials who surrendered in the Ming Dynasty. Gu Junen pointed out: "In the past, Dashun had not yet established a foundation and established a country, so His Majesty left the local people to look for opportunities, and the people would not say anything.

But now that His Majesty has ascended the throne and established a country, how can the people of the world support His Majesty if they abandon the local people without a great war?It is difficult to gain the trust of the people, but it is easy to destroy the trust of the people.As long as His Majesty abandons the people of the Central Plains, I am afraid that these people will become slaves in the next moment.

With the addition of these populations, after Jiannu's strength has greatly increased, does His Majesty really intend to establish the Southern and Northern Dynasties with Jiannu with the Huai River as the boundary?It's just that I am worried that the gentry in the southern provinces may not submit to His Majesty after hearing such news, and the Southern Dynasty may not be established. "

Seeing that the hall was divided into two factions arguing, Li Zicheng finally understood why Xuzhou had repeatedly asked him to go north as soon as possible. It didn't mean that the front line was so critical that Xuzhou was helpless, but that the civil and military officials in Xuzhou had their own ideas. .

Before he went south to Huai'an, although he had unified the thinking of the Marshal's Mansion, he wanted to set up defenses in Henan and Shandong to prevent Jiannu from going south.However, at the beginning of the war, the rebellion of the gentry and landlords in various places made the generals from the peasant army suddenly lose their confidence in fighting defensive warfare.Before being able to determine the position of the powerful people in these places, the generals from the Peasant Army felt that they stood in front of them and fought hard against the slaves, and it was very likely that these gentry and landlords would be the last fisherman. Naturally, they did not want to stick to the old battle plan up.

As for those former Ming civil and military officials who surrendered to Dashun, except for some hidden double-dealers, most of them believed that the current Dashun army should shoulder the responsibility of defending the land.