Zhu Di's actions were too fast. In the first month, he recovered Yanmenguan, Datong, and Weizhou; in February, he recovered Yunzhou, Daizhou, Tiancheng, Yanghe...
Almost the entire Shanxi Province is included in his pocket.
Such a vigorous and resolute move shocked everyone's eyes.
Li Jinglong kept his composure and stayed still and watched the whole show; but Zhu Yunwen couldn't sit still. His fourth uncle was so scary, which made him more and more frightened.
Inside the royal study.
Zhu Yunwen was like an ant on a hot pot, jumping anxiously, "Mr. Li, what should we do?"
What Li Qing could do was to comfort him, "Your Majesty, please be patient. This matter needs long-term consideration."
"We can't delay it any longer." Zhu Yunwen shook his head and said in a deep voice, "I want to send troops!"
Qi Tai frowned and said, "Your Majesty, the problem is that Li Jinglong has brought an army of 500,000 people out. It will be difficult to mobilize the army quickly!"
"What should we do?"
Zhu Yunwen said in panic, "You can't just watch King Yan grow bigger little by little, right?"
"I have a plan." Huang Zicheng said, "Among the military generals, in addition to Changxing Marquis Geng Bingwen, there is also a veteran general whose influence in the army is unparalleled."
"Who is it?"
Qi Tai's eyes lit up and he answered quickly: "Guo Ying, Marquis of Wuding!"
Hearing Guo Ying, Li Qing was secretly relieved, and the situation was still developing as expected.
He knew that after Guo Ying this time, Laosi would completely reverse the situation and switch from defense to offense.
Zhu Yunwen's face showed joy, but then he remembered something and couldn't help but become more worried.
"Don't worry, Your Majesty. There is no conclusive evidence for that matter. Guo Ying will not doubt anything. Besides, he must be grateful to the Emperor for using him in such a high regard," Qi Tai comforted.
Although Qi Tai didn't say it clearly, Li Qing had guessed it and knew that it was probably about killing Guo Ying's eldest son, Guo Zhen.
It's simply ridiculous to kill someone's son and then ask him to sacrifice his life.
Li Qing has investigated and found that Guo Ying only had his eldest son Guo Zhen after he was thirty-seven years old. In this era, it was quite appropriate for him to have a son in his old age.
In the end, he was deceived into patrolling the border. He was fine when he left, but he was gone when he came back. If Guo Ying didn't rebel, he would have given him a lot of face.
Will I still sacrifice my life for you?
As the saying goes, the enemy of my enemy is my friend. Guo Ying does not have much relationship with Zhu Di, but he has more reason to help Zhu Di than Li Jinglong and Geng Bingwen.
Zhu Yunwen nodded slightly, there was no way, he really had no one available. At this stage, only Guo Ying had the ability to quickly mobilize troops.
At this time, Xiao Guizi hurried in and handed over the letter with both hands, "Your Majesty, there is a letter from King Yan."
Several people were startled. Zhu Yunwen hurriedly snatched it, opened it and read it. He soon became so angry that he tore the letter to pieces and shouted: "Zhu Di, you are going too far!"
Xiao Zhu called him by his first name, no longer King Yan. If Zhu Di was not a royal family member, he would greet Zhu Di's eighteen generations of ancestors.
"Your Majesty, what did King Yan write?" Fang Xiaoru was curious.
Not only him, Li Qing was also curious.
Zhu Yunwen ignored anyone and walked out directly, "Let's go to Wuding Hou Mansion."
The four of them looked at each other in confusion. Fang Xiaoru picked up the pieces of paper on the ground and put them together. After a lot of effort, he finally managed to put them together.
Li Qing came up and took a look, and then he understood why Zhu Yunwen was so angry.
The letter was written very politely, but the content was not polite at all. The general meaning was: Nephew, you can't win anyway, so why not stop fighting? You can take care of the south, and my fourth uncle will help you take care of the north. We uncles and nephews are of the same mind, blah blah blah...
…
"Presumptuous...!" Qi Fang and Huang were so angry that they blew their beards and stared, "King Yan is so presumptuous...!"
Li Qing curled his lips secretly and then left.
…
Spring is coming, the temperature is gradually rising, the fruit trees in the courtyard are sprouting buds, and everything is full of life.
Although the war in the country is urgent, the impact is not too great, especially Jiangnan, which has not been affected at all, and the capital is still prosperous.
After Li Qing went back, he took the three little girls to go shopping for a long time and bought them a lot of jewelry, rouge, gouache and other things that women like.
They were so happy that they chatted about who looked better when they got home.
As usual, Li Qing took a book, leaned on the recliner, listened to the noise in his ears, and felt warm.
…
This letter from Zhu Di made Zhu Yunwen completely angry, and even went a little crazy.
He ordered Wuding Hou Guo Ying to mobilize 300,000 troops and horses and rush to Zhending. At the same time, he ordered Li Jinglong to prepare for the attack.
Guo Ying's influence was so powerful that it took just over a month to mobilize 300,000 troops and march towards Zhending.
When Zhu Di heard the news, he immediately gave up Zhending and made room for Guo Ying. He didn't want to keep it and couldn't keep it.
Although he has continued to grow his troops during these days, he still only has 200,000 soldiers and horses at hand, but it is still announced to the public that in fact there are only 150,000.
If he really wanted to risk his life, even if Li Jinglong continued to stand still, he would still be able to defeat him.
Zhu Yunwen really put his money on the line this time. He was afraid that Zhu Di would not die, so he simply stopped pretending and unilaterally erased Zhu Di from the family tree.
Even the memorial arch is no longer erected, and the notoriety of killing my uncle is no longer a concern.
Not only that, he was afraid of another accident, so he issued an imperial edict, asking Xu Huizu to gather tens of thousands of soldiers and horses to the rear.
Unfortunately, Xu Huizu was seriously ill, so Xu Zengshou went to war in his brother's stead.
In early April, Guo Ying arrived in Tsinghua.
When Zhu Yunwen got the news, he immediately ordered his troops from 800 miles to rush to let Guo Ying attack. At the same time, he notified Li Jinglong to launch a general attack on Beiping.
The two armies each numbered 300,000, and together with Xu Zengshou at the rear, the total number was 650,000.
Number, million!
This time, Zhu Yunwen will make Zhu Di disappear into ashes!
On the other side, Zhu Di couldn't help being dumbfounded after receiving the news.
There is not much difference between one million and 650,000, because he can't defeat him, and the court has sent a large number of civilian officials as supervisors, which makes it even more difficult.
He understood that the reason why the generals secretly helped him was because they couldn't stand the domineering civil servants, and they were not really aligned with Zhu Di, let alone help him directly rebel.
Once there is no chance to release the water, it is difficult to guarantee that it will not take serious action.
Thinking of 650,000 troops approaching the city, his scalp went numb.
Zhu Di thought about it and decided to start the old Chinese tradition.
When you are indecisive, hold a meeting!
Prince Yan's Mansion, Guest Hall.
Zhu Di, Xu Miaoyun, Zhu Gaochi's family of five, Dao Yan, Zhang Yu, Zhu Neng, Qiu Fu... gathered here.
These are people Zhu Di completely trusts.
The situation this time was more serious than before, and even the brave Zhu Neng remained silent.
The silence in the hall was terrifying. After a long time, Zhu Gaochi broke the silence: "Father, I feel that I can't defend this time and must fight out. A 650,000-strong army is approaching the city and we can't defend it at all."
Moreover, the city of Beiping is too small for our army to deploy."
"What the prince said is very reasonable." Dao Yan took over the words and comforted everyone, "Misfortune lies where blessings depend, and blessing lies where misfortune lies. As long as we can survive this catastrophe, the road ahead will be more prosperous.
smoothly."
Zhu Di frowned. Although he knew that he should not say depressing words at this time, he still couldn't get excited when he thought of the 650,000-strong army.
He could only say: "The decisive battle is inevitable. Let's get ready, rest for a day, and send troops tomorrow."
Everyone agreed, and everyone understood that this time, it was going to be serious.
…
Li Jinglong led an army of 300,000 to arrive at Baigou River first, but he did not continue to advance, but stationed where he was, waiting for the arrival of the Northern Army.
The last disastrous defeat made Zhu Yunwen suspicious of him, so in addition to supervising the army, he also changed several generals.
Li Jinglong, who was originally unable to use his arms and fingers, was even more powerless. He simply couldn't control the 300,000-strong army in a decisive battle.
What's more, there are Guo Ying in the back and Xu Zengshou in the rear.
Helping Zhu Di was a tacit agreement among several generals, but only a few of them. In fact, the generals in the army only had some vague guesses, but did not know the details.
Coupled with the large number of civil servants who came to supervise the army, it was impossible to fake an attack.
In late April, Guo Ying also arrived at the battlefield and joined forces with Li Jinglong.
150,000 versus 600,000. No matter how confident Zhu Di is, he can't say that I have the advantage.
On the 24th, Zhu Di arrived at Sujiaqiao and met the vanguard of the Southern Army.
The vanguard officer Ping'an and the commander-in-chief Qu Neng led the army to attack the Northern Army.
The southern army was waiting for work, and before Zhu Di's army had time to prepare, they rushed up to kill the generals. In an instant, the northern army was in chaos.
Qu Neng's second son pulled me, who was about to charge with Ping An, and whispered: "Father, didn't you say before..."
"Oh, now and then, King Yan's situation is over, and there is no way to save it." Qu Neng shouted anxiously, "I will kill the enemy and perform meritorious service for my father."
After that, kill the Northern Army.
The number of the southern army's vanguard troops was far smaller than that of the northern army, but they had the upper hand and did not hold back, and the pioneer officer Ping An was unrivaled.
Before the formation of the Northern Army could be formed, they were rushed to pieces.
This caused the morale of the Northern Army, which had always defeated more with less, to plummet. Considering that the imperial court still had an army of 500,000 to 600,000 soldiers, the morale of the army was even more unstable.
Zhu Di scolded his mother angrily, but he had no choice. The top priority was to clean up the army first and preserve his strength.
The Northern Army fought and retreated at the same time, but refused to let go of Ping An. His desperate attitude was even comparable to that of Chang Yuchun back then.
Zhu Di was as safe as a dog-skin plaster. He was so angry that he would drag the three guards of Duoyan to fight with him if he got angry.
"Your Highness, calm down!" Dao Yan advised, "We can't be wary. The morale of the army is already unstable. There are hundreds of thousands of troops behind us. Don't fall for Ping An's trick."
"Ah...!" Zhu Di beat his chest and stamped his feet, shouting: "Ping An, I can't spare you."
The first battle between the two sides ended in a great victory for the Southern Army and a defeat for the Northern Army.
Fortunately, Ping An didn't go up. Seeing that he was too far away from the main force, he led his team back.
In the evening, when the army was stationed, Zhu Di gradually calmed down and began to think about war strategies.
Li Jinglong and Guo Ying each led an army of 300,000 men. Neither was easy to fight, but Zhu Di had to choose one as his opponent.
After a brief thought, Zhu Di decided to attack Li Jinglong.
So he sent Qiu Fu to attack Li Jinglong's central army, and then asked Zhu Neng and Zhang Yu to lead 10,000 cavalry each to attack the weak points on Li Jinglong's left and right wings from the flanks.
He handed over the infantry to Zhu Gaoxu, while he led nearly 50,000 elite cavalry, using the mobility of the cavalry to fight guerrillas with Li Jinglong.
Zhu Di's strategy seemed quite good, and it was actually so, but he ultimately overlooked one point.
That is Guo Ying.
Guo Ying is very difficult to deal with. He is really very difficult to deal with. He cursed in his heart: "Old Fourth, please send some troops here. How can I get along with you if you are like this?"
In fact, Lao Si fell into a big misunderstanding, that is, the difference between Guo Ying and Li Jinglong.
Li Jinglong is far inferior to Guo Ying in fighting, but when it comes to fighting, Guo Ying is much easier to fight than Li Jinglong.
Due to the change of supervisory troops and generals, Li Jinglong could no longer let go, but Guo Ying's 300,000-strong army was completely under his control.
Although Qi Tai sent the Minister of War, the chief and others to serve as supervisors, who was Guo Ying? He and the Ministry of War were at odds with each other, and several supervisors died of illness before they reached the final stage.
It can be said that among the 300,000 people in his hands, Guo Ying will not allow any of them to go to the east.
As the only remaining founding general, the uncle of Taizu, and the son and daughter of Taizu, Guo Ying's influence in the military was like a lightning rod on Mount Everest.
Unfortunately, Zhu Di fell into a visual blind spot and did not expect this level.