The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 194
When Zhu Cilang received the memorial from the red lady, the most beautiful season in the south of the Yangtze River had passed, and it was April.

At this time, the officials in the seven southern provinces had all been awarded grades and their transfers had been completed. The garrisons in each province had already been in place, and the cabinet was about to order the provinces to start measuring land and making statistical records.

The propaganda of the Propaganda Supervisor is constantly increasing, and the influence of the Royal Palace Newspaper is recovering and spreading among the people.

Banks and Huangdians are also spreading to remote states and counties.

Although the envoys sent to the two places have not yet returned to Nanjing, Jin Yiwei is also sending information from various places to Beijing and Nanjing at the same time, so Zhu Cihong is also well aware of the situation in the southwest, northwest, and northeast.

Seeing the suggestion in Hong Niangzi's private letter, Zhu Cihong also frowned, and began to analyze and weigh the pros and cons.

Judging from the current situation, Hong Niangzi's strategy is undoubtedly the safest and most appropriate, that is, to secure the inside first, and then fight the outside world.

Ketumut Department is very important in his future planning.

If it is destroyed by Jiannu, it means that Daming has no source of war horses and cavalry who are good at riding and archery.

This is nothing to a king who wants to defend himself, relying on the Great Wall for defense is nothing.

But Zhu Cihong is not a successful king. His desire to expand the territory is far more than that of Emperor Qin, Han and Wu.

In the future, if you want to expand the territory to the north and west, you can’t do without the Mongolian cavalry. Whether it’s conquering Mobei, Moxi, or even farther Central Asia, Tsarist Russia, it’s too expensive to rely on the Han people to conquer and attack. It is also too difficult.

What's more, if you want to completely wipe out Jiannu, without the help of Mongolian cavalry, I'm afraid it will be difficult to do it. It's not that you can't win, but that the opponent can't catch up after escaping.

So in the long run, the Tumed Department must be kept, otherwise what will be used to conquer the tribes of the grassland in the future?
After all, it would take at least ten years for the Han people to train cavalry and conquer the various tribes on the grassland.

He couldn't accept such a long time.

Because the earth is too big, it is impossible for him to waste too much time on Mongolia and Jiannu.

In the end, Zhu Cihong decided to defeat Jiannu first, or wait until Jiannu retreated without a fight, and then deal with King Chuang and the Eight Great Kings.

After all, the Tumed part is scattered all over the place, and there is no city. It is impossible to defend, and there is no way to defend it. The only way to keep the Tumed part is to take the offensive as the defense and take the initiative to attack.

However, it is different in the Ming Dynasty, especially the geographically closed southwest and northwest. Only a small number of soldiers and horses are needed to rely on the main roads of the city to secure the two major anti-kings, the northwest and the southwest.

With Daming's current national strength and military strength, it would not be a problem to delay it for a year or two, but no matter whether it was Jiannu or Chuangwang, the Eight Great Kings couldn't afford it.

Therefore, as long as the two anti-kings are contained in the northwest and southwest, the Ming army can compete with Jiannu for consumption. After Jiannu can't afford to retreat, it will not be too late to deal with the two anti-kings.

After deciding on the big strategy, Zhu Cihong began to adjust the deployment of troops while replying to Hong Niangzi.

In fact, there is nothing to adjust, just let Liu Zeqing be stationed in Pingyang Mansion, Tang Tong be transferred to Xunyang Mansion, and Huang Degong's right army should be transferred to Xuan Mansion, Shizhu, Henan, and Shanxi to switch from offensive to defensive.

In this way, Shizhu has the eighth and ninth towns of Qin Lihua and Li Dakai, with a total of 8 people, more than enough to hold Chongqing.

Xunyang Prefecture has the sixth town of Tangtong, Nanyang has the seventh town of Zuo Menggeng, Luoyang Prefecture has the second town of Gaojie, Pingyang Prefecture has the first town of Liu Zeqing, and Taiyuan has the third town of Liu Liangzuo. Blocked all roads entering the Central Plains, Huguang, and Shanxi from the southwest to the northwest.

As for the sneak attack on the mountain road, it is not in his consideration at all. Now it is no different than before. If King Chuang and the Eight Great Kings dared to lead an army across the mountains and mountains to attack like before, it would definitely be a lantern in the toilet, and moths to the flame. perish.

In addition, Wu Sangui's former army is stationed in Luoyang, which is enough to ensure nothing goes wrong.

After all, all the towns have been training for nearly a year according to the new organization and new training methods, and their combat effectiveness and morale are far from what they were before.

If it wasn't for the sake of being on the safe side, the towns could join forces to attack the Chuang Wang and the Eight Great Kings, and the Fifth Army would be responsible for cleaning up the Jian slaves.

Because in Zhu Cihong's view, the overall strength of his five armies and ten towns definitely surpassed the overall strength of the Eight Great Kings, King Chuang and Jiannu.

As for the overall national strength, it is even more incomparable.

But after all, soldiers are impermanent, water is impermanent, and no one can guarantee a war before it is over. That's why he chose a more conservative strategy of defending south and attacking north.

After the order was issued, Zhu Cihong could no longer stay in Nanjing with peace of mind, because it was no small matter for a large army to go out to fight on the Great Wall. From a military point of view, the entire army might be wiped out.

Although the possibility of this is almost slim, but as a king, he must also personally conquer.

Zhu Cihong is no longer worried about Jiangnan's government affairs and reforms.

The authority of Ma Shiying and the eight ministries of the cabinet has been fully established, and the New Deal can be slowly advanced without any major disturbances.

But in terms of military affairs, it made Zhu Cihong a little difficult, because there were no generals in the south of the Yangtze River.

The 3 people in the tenth town, the middle and low-level officers are all students of the martial arts hall, the more than 1 Yulin army is also commanded by Xu Lan, and the military officers stationed in various places are also the confidantes of Hong Niangzi, so even if he leaves Nanjing, Zhang Yan He can also firmly control these troops, but he has to consider some emergencies, and Zhang Yan has no ability to deal with them.

"Lang'er, Auntie has a suitable candidate here. This person has experienced many battles and is good enough to deal with the unexpected situation that Lang'er mentioned."

Just as Zhu Cihong was considering whether to transfer Dingguo Gong to Nanjing to serve as Zhang Yan's military adviser temporarily, Zhang Yan thought about it.

"Oh? Who?"

"Zuo Liangyu, what do you think of him?"

"That's right, why did I forget this old thing, but I heard that he was seriously ill after arriving in Nanjing, how is his health now?"

Zhu Cihong's eyes lit up, and he patted his forehead.

I don't know if King Chuang and Li Zicheng are not dead, but Zuo Liangyu is still alive and well.

After arriving in Nanjing, this guy was indeed seriously ill for a time. Zhang Yan sent the imperial physician to visit him a few times, prescribed some medicine, and he gradually got better, but he kept a low profile all the time.

This caused Zhu Cihong to ignore him.

As for whether this guy has two minds, Zhu Cihong doesn't care whether he is loyal to the imperial court or not. What he cares about is this guy's ability and battle experience.

Compared to Zuo Liangyu, Wu Sangui, Liu Zeqing, and Liu Liangzuo, these guys are not reliable.

After all, in history, Zuo Liangyi never surrendered to the Manchu Qing, nor did he openly rebel.

"I heard from Doctor Hu that his body is recovering well, and he should be fine. I'll know when I call him here." Zhang Yan said slowly.

"Ok!"

Zhu Cihong nodded, and immediately ordered Xuanzuo Liangyi to enter the palace to have an audience.

And Zuo Liangyu was excited and apprehensive when he learned that the emperor wanted to see him.

"Minister Ning Nanbo Zuo Liangyu, greet my emperor, long live my emperor, long live my emperor, greet the queen mother, all blessings to the queen mother!"

"Zuo Aiqing is flat, please sit down!"

Zuo Liangyu didn't die of illness back then, but Zhu Cihong still made an earl after all, firstly because of Zhang Yan's performance in person, and secondly because his son Zuo Menggeng still had some soldiers in his hands.

"Thank you, Your Majesty!"

Zuo Liangyu carefully sat down on the stool, and began to speculate in his mind the emperor's purpose for summoning him.

But the queen mother was there, so I guess it wasn't to punish him, not to mention that the emperor would not summon him if he really wanted to punish him.

Seeing that his complexion was not bad, Zhu Cihong nodded inwardly. He should still be able to use waste, so he said concernedly: "Zuo Aiqing, I heard that after you came to Nanjing, you couldn't afford to be ill. If you are in person, you still feel unwell. place?"

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your concern, I'm fine now!"

Zuo Liangyu hurriedly replied.

In fact, Zuo Liangyu still had resentment towards Zhu Cihong, the emperor, but was full of gratitude to Zhang Yan.

"Well, since Aiqing's health is no longer serious, I feel relieved. Originally, I planned to let Zuo Aiqing take care of her for the rest of her life, but now the court is employing people, and the Queen Mother strongly recommends you to me, calling you Zuo Liang Yu is good at fighting and is loyal to the country, I wonder if Zuo Aiqing is willing to continue to serve the country?"

Zhu Cihong said slowly.

Obviously, he also felt that this guy had resentment towards him, so he didn't plan to buy people's hearts hypocritically, and simply pushed the favor to Zhang Yan.

Sure enough, when he heard that the empress dowager recommended him again, Zuo Liangyu's eyes turned red, and he shed two old tears. He knelt on the ground and wept uncontrollably: "Your Majesty, the empress dowager trusts me very much. Even if the old minister is smashed to pieces, he will die No excuses!"

"Aiqing is so loyal, I am so relieved!"

Zhu Cilang knew that most of his words were aimed at Zhang Yan, but he didn't care and nodded.

Then he was directly appointed as the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, the Metropolitan Superintendent and the Right Metropolitan Superintendent, in order to coordinate and manage the 10,000+ garrisons in the nine southern provinces, and at the same time confer the rank of general.

The chief inspector of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion, Zhu Cihong plans to be responsible for managing the garrisons all over the world in the future, and these soldiers and horses are collectively called the guards and belong to the standing army.

Although I don't know what kind of ghost official the Youdujian of the Dusijian of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion is, but just with the rank of general and the management of local military affairs in the nine southern provinces, it is definitely an important and real position.

This made Zuo Liangyu's still excited body tremble slightly when he left the palace.

"Auntie, after my son leaves, Ma Shiying and the cabinet will be in charge of the government affairs. You can just watch it. You can rely on Zuo Liangyu for military affairs. My son will leave you an edict in case of accidents."

As Zhu Cihong spoke, he handed the prepared imperial edict to her.

Zhang Yan took a look at the imperial edict, she was shocked and said in a crying voice, "Lang'er, don't scare my aunt, okay? Or you'd better stay in Nanjing."

After speaking, she hugged his arm tightly, not wanting him to go.

"Auntie, the child is just in case. That kind of situation is impossible, and the imperial edict is impossible to use. You can rest assured."

Zhu Cihong comforted her with a wry smile when she saw her react so strongly.

"But…"

Although Zhang Yan also understood that he was only planning for the worst, but looking at the imperial edict in his hand, his face was still full of tension and worry.

The content of the edict is actually simple, that is, if the emperor has an accident and the situation in the north collapses, Princess Kunxing will succeed to the throne in Nanjing, and the queen mother will listen to the government behind the curtain.

(End of this chapter)