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

Chapter 196

It was early May when Zhu Cihong returned to Beijing from Nanjing, and winter wheat was being harvested all over the north.

More than three years of recuperation has made the north no longer as devastated as it was in the 17th year of Chongzhen. However, the population loss is too heavy, and it cannot be recovered in three to five years. Therefore, except for the vicinity of the capital, the road is still deserted.

Beijing is really lively. The industrial area in the west is almost completed, and the residential area and commercial area in the north and east have a rough outline.

Although it has not yet been completed, Beijing, the capital of the Ming Dynasty, together with the floating population, has now exceeded 200 million, and a super giant city is taking shape.

"My dear concubine, how is the current situation?"

"Returning to Your Majesty, the three parties are still standing still. Jiannu's army has been staying east of the Liaohe River, and the Eight Great King's army has also been reluctant to advance northward in Hanzhong. They should all be waiting for our army's next move." The red lady replied. road.

"They don't see rabbits and don't scatter eagles, but in terms of consumption, are they qualified to fight with me?"

Zhu Cihong sneered, Jiannu occupied North Korea, and the Eight Great Kings probably thought that they were sitting in the land of abundance, since they still wanted to wait for him to move first.

Let's see who can afford it first.

Then he asked again: "Have all the subordinates of our army been in place?"

"Returning to Your Majesty, Tang Tong and Liu Zeqing's troops have all arrived in Xunyang, Pingyang, the Central Army, the Left Army, and the Right Army have already been transferred to Xuanfu, and the food and grass have been hoarded no less than 500 million shi."

The red lady smiled slightly, and knew that the little emperor was worried about the lack of food and grass in the past, and the fact that he was forced to go crazy by Jian slaves.

"How many soldiers and horses did Jiannu leave on the front line of Jinzhou?"

"Your Majesty, Jiannu also implements the system of garrisoning farmland in the Jinzhou area. During the war, it can gather about [-] Han soldiers."

Zhu Cilang frowned immediately when he heard this, and put away the idea of ​​letting Zhou Yuji leave Shanhaiguan.

"My concubine, Jiannu claims to have 30 horse infantry, what is the real strength?"

This time it was the turn of the red lady to turn serious, and she replied, "Your Majesty, the establishment of slaves this time should not be a bluff. According to the report of the spies, there may not be 30 horse infantry in the east of the Liao River. .”

"Tsk tsk, it seems that Jiannu has indeed made a fortune in North Korea."

Zhu Cihong smiled sinisterly. It is not unusual for Jiannu to gather 30 horse infantry after conquering Mobei Mongolia and North Korea. What is strange is that Dorgon dared to gather 30 horse infantry on the Liaohe grassland. nearly a month.

That man ate horse chews, and the food and grass he consumed every day was scary just thinking about it. It can be seen that Jiannu must have scraped North Korea three feet deeper.

"Indeed, according to Jin Yiwei's report, Jiannu almost killed all the local wealthy landlords in North Korea, and obtained countless wealth and food." Hong Niangzi nodded with a look of greed.

"My concubine, don't worry, all this wealth belongs to me, Daming, and Zhen, after all, I just let Jiannu take care of it first."

Zhu Cihong waved his hands, then looked at the red lady and said: "Tomorrow, my concubine will go to the Xuanfu first, and I will come back in a few days. This time, if Dorgon doesn't move first, we will never leave the Great Wall, and even if we leave the Great Wall, we will never take the initiative." Attack, I will also come to him as a soldier who will subdue others without fighting." At the end of the speech, her delicate face became a little distorted.

"The concubine obeys the order. Don't worry, Your Majesty. Let alone a year or a half, our army can afford it for three to five years."

The red lady clasped her fists together, and said confidently.

The next day, Hong Niangzi set off for Xuanfu with [-] imperial soldiers, including Lan Duoer and her [-] Mongolian cavalry.

These [-] Mongolian cavalry belonged to the Royal Forest Army. They could basically speak Chinese in the past two years, and they all had a sense of belonging to the Ming Dynasty. They were the backbone of the future assimilation of the Mongols.

And Zhu Cihong stayed in the capital for a few more days, and after explaining everything, he also led the [-] Imperial Forest Army to Xuanfu.

Including the 2 Imperial Forest Army in Nanjing, there are only [-] Imperial Forest Army left in the capital. This time Zhu Cihong also used all the troops that could be mobilized in the north.

So Guangxuan Mansion assembled 26 troops, including 6 central army, 6 left army, 6 right army, 2 Yulin army, 3 from Liu Fangliang's department, 3 from Wu Sanfu's department, and nearly 4 light cavalry.

And these more than 20 troops are all field troops, not including the reserve military households in Xuanfu and Datong and the standing troops stationed in the guards on the Great Wall.

At this moment, near Zhangjiakou, as far as the eye can see, there are all white tents, one after another as if there is no limit, and there are people shouting and neighing everywhere.

"Long live my emperor! Long live!"

With the arrival of Zhu Cihong's Grand Marshal's flag, more than 20 soldiers knelt down on one knee and began to shout in unison, and their morale rose a lot in an instant.

Obviously, the emperor's personal conquest has been the best way to improve morale since ancient times. What's more, the ideological education of the students in the martial arts halls in various armies and towns for more than a year has also begun to show results.

It can be said that the more than 20 Ming troops will not talk about their combat effectiveness, but their morale is definitely far higher than that of ancient troops.

Because even the most ordinary soldier has the revenge of making meritorious deeds and killing the enemy.

They have also heard the stories of Huo Qubing, Yue Fei and other heroes, and they also have the concept of nationality, and the understanding that the Chinese nation is above all else.

"Sir, when shall we leave the Great Wall?"

There was no sign of the army moving out for several days, but Landuoer couldn't help asking.

Because the eldest brother has already assembled all the warriors in the clan for naturalization, and if it drags on, it will have to consume all the family wealth accumulated by the Tumote tribe.

After all, the war horses are all gathered together, and it is definitely not possible to rely on grazing. They need a lot of forage and grain to feed them every day.

"How about it, Duo'er, you go back to naturalization, let your elder brother bring all the cavalry to the north of Datong first, and I will provide them with food and grass at that time, let your elder brother not be in a hurry, just wait patiently for my order! "

Zhu Cihong waved his hand and said, the family property of the Tumote tribe is probably almost exhausted. If Daming doesn't provide food and grass, I'm afraid they will have to break up and go back to their tribes in ten and a half months.

"Thank you, Mr. Xiang, I will return to tell my brother..."

Lan Duoer said happily, and then hurriedly left the big tent, returning with a thousand cavalry.

In the days that followed, Zhu Cihong was still inspecting each army, town, and battalion every day, and the summer grain and fodder collected from various places were also continuously transported to Xuanfu.

"My concubine, it's been a year or two and our cavalry is still a bit unsatisfactory. The gap with those Mongolian cavalry is too great."

After some inspection, he was quite satisfied with Zhu Cihong of all arms, but he was only a little dissatisfied with the cavalry of each battalion.

I didn't think so before, but now compared with those Mongolian cavalry, the horse control skills are not a little bit worse, and the riding and shooting are even more incomparable.

No matter whether the Mongolian cavalry was riding horses and archery, or hacking and charging, dividing troops and turning around, they all seemed to be smooth and comfortable, but the Han cavalry looked a little unnatural and stiff.

"Your Majesty, those Mongols grew up on horseback when they were young, and they have a deep relationship with their war horses. They hardly need to be manipulated. The horses know what the master wants, but our cavalry, although the past two years I also personally feed my war horses every day, but after all, there is still a lack of tacit understanding, and there is nothing I can do about it.”

The red lady sighed, and stroked her chasing cloud after she finished speaking. Although she loved her horse very much, she was far from being able to treat her war horse like the Mongols.

She couldn't do it, and neither could the other cavalry.

"These Mongolian cavalry are unreliable at critical times, and our own cavalry is useless. This is really a big flaw."

Although the Mongolian cavalry under the banner of the Eight Banners are also unreliable, the tens of thousands of Jurchens' own cavalry are powerful. It is definitely unrealistic for Tumote to fight against the Jurchens at a critical moment, and their cavalry If you can't win, this is undoubtedly a huge hidden danger.

After all, fighting on the grassland is not like fighting in the customs. There are no cities, no official roads, and no obstacles from rivers and mountains. If the cavalry is not strong, hundreds of thousands of troops will become extremely passive.

"Your Majesty, if you want to curb the cavalry that builds slaves, relying on our own cavalry to train the cavalry will not only take time and effort, but in the end it will not matter whether we can win the fight or not. It is more practical to build more chariots."

The red lady thought about it and said that the cavalry they trained would only fight against the cavalry and infantry of the rebels, and they were not as strong as they wanted against the Mongolian cavalry and the Eight Banners cavalry.

"Yes, this grassland is simply a natural battlefield for chariots. It seems that the old antiques like chariots must be moved out."

Zhu Cihong's eyes lit up, and he immediately nodded in agreement.

The chariot is the natural nemesis of the cavalry, otherwise it would not be the most powerful like the chariot in chess.

It's just that with the continuous development of the Central Plains, the restrictions on the chariot have become greater and greater, and they were eventually eliminated.

But there are very few rivers on the grassland, the mountains are gentle, and there are no fertile fields and gullies. If it is used with cavalry, it is simply invincible.

The more Zhu Cihong thought about it, the more excited he became, and he wished he could go tinkering with the chariot himself immediately.

(End of this chapter)