First update, please vote for recommendations and support, Lao Kun is about to be kicked off the list As long as Dorgon's strategic center of gravity does not tilt to the southeast, Zhu Cihong does not have to worry too much.
Judging from the current situation, the overall situation is very similar to the original history, except that Nanming has already established a firm foothold in Shandong.
"I will leave the matter of food, crops, and army pay to my soldiers.
Not only will we fight the battle in Shandong, but we will also beat the Eastern captives painfully."
What Zhu Cihong needs most now is time.
For this reason, he must wave his fist at the Qing court and tell Dorgon that Ming Dynasty is not easy to bully.
Historically, Nanming's biggest problem was that it was too soft.
The direct consequence of political weakness is the contempt of opponents.
The Manchu Qing Dynasty could devote all its troops to the Western Front without any scruples, take Guanzhong and relieve its worries before freeing up its hands to destroy Nanming.
What Zhu Cihong had to do was to drive a nail into Dorgon's heart.
"Your Majesty, don't worry.
I will do my best to ensure the supply of food, crops and military pay in Shandong."
Lu Zhenfei paused for a moment and said, "There is another matter that I don't know whether to talk about or not."
"But it doesn't matter."
"Your Majesty, a report came from Xuzhou saying that a large group of enemy cavalry was found in Xiao County, as many as a thousand.
Xuzhou judged these people to be horse thieves."
Lu Zhenfei's face was full of worry.
Now the war in Shandong is about to break out.
A backyard fire at this time is never a good thing.
Zhu Cihong was not very surprised.
He tapped his fingers and said, "It is Gao Qing's nephew Li Benshen who is staying in Xuzhou now."
Lu Zhenfei was stunned for a moment, and then said: "Your Majesty is wise, it is Li Benzhen who is guarding Xuzhou now."
"Although this person's military skills are average, one advantage is that he is very cautious.
That's why General Gao can safely hand over Xuzhou to him while sending all his main forces northward."
The name Li Benzhen is very familiar to Zhu Cixiang.
In the original history, this man surrendered to the Qing Dynasty together with Li Chengdong after Gao Jie was killed.
He acted as the vanguard of the Qing Dynasty and killed his compatriots along the way.
He could definitely be regarded as the accomplice of the tiger.
It's just that in this time and space, Gao Jie has already taken over Shandong, and Li Benshen seems to have no motive to surrender to the Qing Dynasty for the time being.
So what does it mean that he suddenly went to the pond to report to the court?
"Southern Zhili does not produce horses, but thousands of them suddenly appeared in Xiao County.
Don't you think it's strange?"
Zhu Cixiang said rather playfully: "In my opinion, if this Li Benzhen is not exaggerating, then there are only two possibilities.
One is that these people are soldiers of the Qing Dynasty.
The other is that the Liu tribe disguised themselves as horse thieves and robbed them.
I thought that these people were soldiers of the Qing Dynasty.
Which kind?”
"this" The emperor suddenly asked Lu Zhenfei the question, which made him a little at a loss.
Of course, he had doubts about the identity of the cavalrymen who robbed Xiao County, but he did not come up with a reason.
If it was the Qing army, it must have come from the south of Henan.
But now that the main forces of the Qing army in Henan are hoarded in western Henan to confront Li Zicheng, how can they dedicate thousands of cavalry to plunder Xiao County?
Besides, Fengyang Mansion directly borders Henan, where Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo were based.
If the Qing army really sent cavalry to Xuzhou to raid and plunder, it would definitely have to go through Fengyang Mansion.
Didn't Er Liu issue any warning to Xuzhou?
The second possibility is more likely.
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It's just that the generals of the two towns sent their subordinates to disguise themselves as horse thieves and rob the important town.
This is too sensational.
"Your Majesty, if it is really Er Liu who did this, I'm afraid this matter will be a little difficult to handle."
Lu Zhenfei sighed and said: "In the past, Liu Liangzuo was invited by Fengyang Governor Ma Shiying to station in Fengyang, and he burned, killed and looted along the way.
Liu Zeqing's military discipline was also very bad when he fled from Shandong to Huai'an.
But at that time, they all They are destitute dogs, and they robbed just to survive.
Now that they are stationed and settled, it is too shameless to want to rob again. " "That's why they disguised themselves as horse thieves and went to rob Xiao County."
Zhu Cixiang sneered: "They also know that what they do is shameless, so they cover their faces thinking that no one will know."
Lu Zhenfei was suddenly startled and said: "If it was really Er Liu who did it, could they have plotted against Xuzhou?"
No wonder Lu Zhenfei thinks so.
Now Gao Jie's main force is in Shandong, and Xuzhou's troops are empty.
Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo were two hungry wolves crowded together in Fengyang Mansion, so they would inevitably become greedy.
“They dare to think but not do it.”
Zhu Cixiang shook his head and said: "Unless they want to completely break up with Gao Jie.
But to be on the safe side, it is better to deploy some of Huang Degong's troops to garrison Chuzhou and Hezhou."
If he had sufficient troops in his hands, Zhu Cixiang would not hesitate to mobilize his troops to station in Chuzhou and Hezhou.
But now the Shence Army only has 8,000 people, and the army of 2,000 Royal Horse Guards is only 10,000 people.
Ten thousand people stationed in Nanjing are still a bit stretched.
How can we allocate them abroad?
It seems that military expansion is urgent.
If there is a personal army of 50,000 to 60,000 people in hand, no military leader would dare to underestimate the imperial court.
The reason why Zhu Cixiang did not recruit too many new soldiers before was because he was worried about the shortage of money.
After all, it is natural for soldiers to eat food.
If one person opens his mouth, ten thousand people will have ten thousand mouths, which can empty the already insufficient internal funds.
But now, after several rounds of inspections, there are tens of millions of taels of silver piled in the internal funds.
It is impossible to spend them all in a short time, so there is no need to worry about expanding the army.
By the time the sea trade cooperation between Zhu Cihong and the Zheng family was on track, the imperial court would be able to earn millions of taels a year from sea trade alone, and could fully afford to support an army of tens of thousands.
At present, it is undoubtedly the best choice to transfer Huang Degong's troops to Chuzhou and Hezhou for garrison.
Huang Degong was from the Yongwei camp and was loyal to the imperial court.
His department was the most powerful army besides Gao Jie's department.
Deploying a part of the army to monitor Liu Liu could prevent them from acting rashly.
Zhu Cixiang's move also had another purpose.
That is to force Er Liu to raid enemy-occupied areas as much as possible.
Henan is now in the hands of the Qing court.
Er Liu cannot go to Xuzhou, Chuzhou, and Hezhou, so he can only attack Henan.
No matter whether they went there openly or disguised as horse thieves and bandits, they would shake the Qing government's already weak rule in Henan.
Perhaps Zhu Cihong is still unable to regain Henan like he recovered Shandong, but he does not mind constantly harassing the Qing court's rear with guerrilla warfare.
Even if it is a small-scale harassment, as long as they can bleed the Qing court from time to time, they will fall into a bottomless quagmire.
In the current context of the Little Ice Age, the north has been suffering from drought all year round and food harvests have been severe.
When the Qing government took over the Henan and Gyeonggi areas, it had to support the surrendered troops from these areas.
And if the soldiers don't have enough to eat, they will cause trouble.
Once a mutiny occurs, it will sweep across like a tsunami.
Even if the Qing government suppresses it, it will be exhausted.
Of course, it would be better if Er Liu could fight the Qing army, because to some extent this would also consume Er Liu's strength.
Both the Qing army and the Liu army suffered losses, and it was definitely the most ideal outcome for Zhu Cixiang to reap the benefits. s: Thanks to book friend Hetang v Tingyu for the 1,000-coin reward: