Gu Zhenhua's rise has not been long, but with the sweeping wealth and thorough reforms, the power in his hands is already quite strong. Especially in terms of military strength, it is extremely abundant.

First of all, the most important part of An** is the five thousand old guards that Gu Zhenhua personally controlled. Many of the people here followed the way from Shanhaiguan, Jingcheng. After An’s family settled, these people were all assigned to the farm, married and had children, and their political status also increased sharply.

The military generals of the Ming Dynasty were indeed treated as unimaginable. The generals at the first level had to be polite to treat the seventh-rank county magistrates. The hereditary martial arts school was even clamored by a scholar, and his face was ruined.

Now An** has a very different position, especially those old guards with bearskin hats, who are basically like Shangfang's sword and are invincible. These people know very well that everything they have is given by Gu Zhenhua and An**, and in order to protect everything they have, they are willing to gamble on everything.

In addition to the old Guards, there are also three brigades of guards, two brigades of wing cavalry, fifth battalion artillery, and three regiments of chariots. A total of more than 20,000 yuan was considered a trump card force. It was absolutely unwilling to use it until the critical moment. This was also the main source of troops in the battle in northern Henan.

In addition, new and old soldiers recruited from Henan all the way, and a total of twelve brigades were trained, which were ruled by Sun Cheng, Li Xu, Guo Yunlong, Xie Bin, Lu Yong and others, and were the main force of An**.

The subordinates of Huang Degong, Liu Kecheng, Hu Maozhen and others were also reorganized, with more than 100,000 troops, eliminated the old and weak, and eliminated the soldiers and gangsters. In the end, only more than 20,000 were left. After some expansion, more than 50,000 have now been reached, guarding the wealthy land of Lianghuai. It can be called a strong army.

After Zuo Liangyu was dealt with, Ma Jinzhong, Jin Shengheng, Li Wanqing and others also defected to An**, and their troops now have more than 20,000 subordinates from Li Guo and Gao Yigong, and 3,000 Baigang soldiers under Ma Wannian and Ma Wanchun. In terms of the navy, Shen Tingyang and Deng Wenhuan had 50,000 or 60,000.

To sum up these people, the number is almost 200,000, which is all An**'s belongings.

Li Jibo calculated silently in his heart, and then said, "Your Majesty, the prince, brought 30,000 troops in person, but according to my observation, they are all good things. Not worth mentioning. In addition, General Lu of Dongjiang Town has tens of thousands of miscellaneous troops. However, the journey is long and there is no unified dispatch. So the current ones are these troops, which are much less than those of the Tartars!"

Wu Kaijie also said: "Prince, I am humble and say bluntly that the Tartars have brought about a huge army, but we must guard against others. We have already had a quarrel with the court officials, and these people are not enough to defeat them. Henan, Huguang and the canal line must be left to guard, and Shandong also must retain people. Therefore, the maximum number of people who can be used on the front line is 150,000. The pressure is great!"

At this time, Li Dingguo, who had not spoken, suddenly stood up. Since he became a staff officer, he has been using his kung fu to familiar with An**'s system. This is the first time he made a formal speech.

"Your Majesty has different opinions on humble duties."

"Speak freely, what can I say directly?"

"Yes." Li Dingguo smiled confidently: "Prince, although the Tartars are numerous, Deputy Chief Wu has calculated that the front-line combat power is only about 200,000, which is not more than us. Besides, there are safe and complete mobilization systems. Although we don't have many regular soldiers, we can mobilize hundreds of thousands of civilians. Insufficient military strength is not a problem. Husband thought that the top priority was to seize the initiative and let the Tartars dance with us!"

To be honest, everyone present, including Gu Zhenhua, did not have the experience of commanding hundreds of thousands of people to fight. Although Li Guo, Huang Degong and others commanded a large number of people, they were all good at bravery and were not as good as Li Dingguo's civil and military talents.

"Staff Officer Li, just put forward your opinions and discuss them together."

"yes!"

Li Dingguo smiled and said, "Prince, the main battlefield of this battle is between Hebei and Henan. The two provinces are intertwined. The Tartars will inevitably go south to burn the war to northern Henan, and even threaten the south of the Yellow River. In this way, the Tartars can plunder rice, interfere with our summer harvest, and achieve the goal of raising war with war. Especially, they are mainly cavalry and have strong mobility. They can't resist it with the militia of the farm alone. Once that time comes, we will inevitably fall into a situation of losing one thing, even if we win, we will lose even more!"

Listening to Li Dingguo's analysis, everyone present nodded frequently, especially Li Jibo, who smiled and nodded.

"Your Majesty, although I have been in Liaodong for many years, I am just talking about it on paper. After listening to Staff Li's analysis, I suddenly realized that hundreds of thousands of troops were fighting. We cannot simply calculate the number of troops and advanced weapons, but also depends on whether the tactics are appropriate!"

Li Dingguo smiled and said, "The general general hit the nail on the head, and I thought our army should seize the opportunity, prevent the Tartars from going south, and let the war burn on the outside."

Gu Zhenhua said expressionlessly: "Tell me about the specific plan."

"Yes, I thought I should take Handan first. This place has been a must-fight for military strategists since the Warring States Period. It is a key rush in Henan, Hebei, Shandong and Shanxi provinces. As long as our army seizes Handan, the Tatars will not be able to go south. Our army can calmly mobilize troops and subdue the main force of the Tatars here!"

According to An**'s previous combat plan, the overall idea was to replicate the victory of the battle in northern Henan. In short, it was to fight inside, use strict defenses to weaken the Tartars, and then concentrate their troops to win.

Wu Kaijie mainly took charge of the plan, and Gu Zhenhua basically agreed, but now listening to Li Dingguo's proposal, Gu Zhenhua couldn't help but feel a little suspicious.

Wu Kaijie stood up at this time: "Staff General Li, although Handan is important, the surprise troops are prominent and the risk is very high. The Tartars can dispatch troops from Shunde Prefecture, Guangning Prefecture, and Shandong Dongchang Prefecture. Under three sieges, it is very difficult to capture Handan and defend it. If our main force wants to go north, it must first break through the Daming Prefecture and then go to help Handan. It will take about five days to count it in the first and last. If the Tartars attack very quickly, wouldn't we lose our troops and shake our morale in vain?"

Li Dingguo nodded and smiled, "Second Chief Wu is very worried. But I thought Dorgon had been using troops for many years. This time he devoted his whole country to the forefront and would not make old mistakes again. We still want to win by counterattacking defensively. Is it very big? Imagine that the Tartars went from north to south, not taking the initiative to attack, but using cavalry to scattered attacks in southern Shanxi, northern Henan and other places. How should we deal with it?"

Hearing this, Gu Zhenhua couldn't help but stand up from his seat, come to the front of the sand table, and watch carefully.

"Staff Officer Li's statement is reasonable!"

The continuous victory made Gu Zhenhua underestimate the power of the cavalry. Speaking of which, although An** was equipped with a large number of muskets, the impact of the cavalry, the maneuverability of the cavalry was still a terrible advantage. Dorgon was definitely one of the few cavalry commanders in the world when he was allowed to play. Once he was allowed to play, he was afraid that even if An** could win, it would be a situation of victory.

The generals surrounded the sand table, thought carefully, and nodded one after another.

Li Xu said: "Prince, what Staff Li said is reasonable. We cannot fight passively. Huye is willing to act as a pioneer and attack Handan!"

Gu Zhenhua's eyes narrowed, revealing two sharp lights.

“Are you sure to win?”

"If you don't succeed, you will be successful!"

"I asked if I'm sure I'll win?" Gu Zhenhua said gritting his teeth.

Li Xu also gritted his teeth, "I promise to win!"

Gu Zhenhua breathed a sigh of relief: "Staff General Li, go and be an assistant to Li Xu and draw 1,000 people from the old guards. In addition, attacking Handan must cross the Taihang Mountains and let Ma Wannian lead two thousand white-sling soldiers to go out to the expedition. I will give you a total of 13,000 people, and you will take Handan within five days."

Li Xu and Li Dingguo raised their right arms almost at the same time, greeted the standard military salute, and said loudly: "I will definitely complete the task!"

Gu Zhenhua looked at the other generals again and said, "Liu Kecheng and Hu Maozhen led 10,000 soldiers from Kaocheng to enter Shandong to support him. Guo Yunlong and Xie Bin led four brigades of infantry and two battalions of artillery as vanguards. They seized the front line of Kaizhou and Daming Prefecture. The king personally led the main force to stole the back, and strive to succeed in the battle and completely eliminate the Tartars!"

Gu Zhenhua punched the sand table, smashing the small flag symbolizing the Tartars and Mongolia into pieces! (To be continued, please search for astronomy, novels are better, updated and faster!
Chapter completed!