Yu Qian quietly picked up a cup of tea, took a sip, and leaned back on his chair. Many ministers next to him sighed when they saw this. The first assistant is the first assistant. This kind of mental endurance is really beyond the limit!

The emperor was captured?

If it were another emperor, Yu Qian might have asked why he didn't commit suicide, but if it were Zhu Qizhen, it would be very logical. I don't know why, but it's not surprising at all. It seems that after hearing that he was going to conquer personally,

There is a kind of psychological construction for this worst outcome.

"Have the envoys been sent out?" Yu Qian asked.

If you lose, you have to admit it, and you have to bear the consequences. What else can you do? Send envoys to negotiate, exchange people back, use compensation, use materials, use everything that can be negotiated, even people, what else can you do?

However, when these words came out of Yu Qian's mouth, a glimmer of hope suddenly flashed through his heart. The Qing Dynasty was very ambitious. It would be great if they continued to fight, so that he could...

He might not say this out loud. The ministers who came to discuss urgent countermeasures had already begun to argue, not about the price of arguing, but about who should be the envoy.

Yu Qian suddenly had another thought in his mind. If a city gate guard was sent as an envoy, would Dorgon feel that they were not sincere and directly give Zhu Qizhen to him... Hiss, really, why are you thinking so fast recently?

Take off.

Yu Qian shook his head and said, "Let the Queen Mother appoint the candidate."

This statement is meaningless as soon as it is said. Whose family's evil son will feel sorry for them. No matter who they send, they are afraid that they will be criticized by people with intentions. At this time, only the Queen Mother can avoid suspicion. Whether it is from political or family considerations, only the Queen Mother

Talents are the purest and have only one purpose, which is to save Zhu Qizhen.

"The prince is back! The prince is back!"

There are many people shouting outside, and all the ministers are looking at each other. There are many royal princes in the Ming Dynasty, but there are only a few direct ones. It may be for various reasons. It is easy for the collateral line to spread its branches, but the descendants of the direct line wither. I understand.

Everybody understands.

However, there is probably only one prince who can make outsiders so excited at this time, the brave god Hou Zhu Yili!

The title 'Tiedan Shenhou' is very awesome at first sight. Who in the world can't feel excited after hearing it? But... he is Zhu Qizhen's uncle, and he is of the royal blood of Zhengba Jing'er, and the other direct descendants have already

Although he was granted the title of king, he was still a "hou", and apart from some fertile land rewarded for his meritorious service, he did not even have his own fiefdom.

Do you say this is a gift?

Anyway, the courtiers didn't think so, but Zhu Wuli's contributions to the royal family and the Ming Dynasty were real, so over time, everyone began to call him "Prince" without knowing when.

Zhu Jingli didn't say anything, neither acknowledged nor rejected, and Zhu Qizhen didn't say anything either. It was very strange, like a small tacit understanding between the monarch and his ministers.

News came from the front line that Zhu Wuli was under house arrest. Everyone was still thinking whether Zhu Wuli had lost his holy favor? But it was not until this moment that everyone finally remembered one thing. This 'Prince' is brave

Shenhou' is still a strong person on the Earth Ranking!

It’s no wonder they were there. After all, this man was usually too humble. Coupled with what happened to Zhao Zheng before, these courtiers had more or less the illusion that the masters of the Earth Ranking were also afraid of the imperial power, but that was all.

It wasn't until the emperor was captured by others, and Zhu Wuwu came back intact, that they realized that even the army couldn't surround him!

Zhu Mingli didn't do any washing, and hurriedly met the ministers. The broken sleeves and wounds looked quite dazzling.

"Your Majesty, is there any news from the front line?"

The various questions were all about wanting to know the news about Zhu Qizhen. Zhu ignored the fact that he had nothing to hide at this time. The news about Zhu Qizhen's arrest was not a secret, but he had to remind everyone that "Qing Qizhen" The military ambitions are so great that they will not be satisfied with just capturing His Majesty or receiving any number of cities or compensation."

Everyone immediately fell silent, "What is the prince referring to?"

In fact, everyone knows what Zhu Wuwu means, but you can't wake up those who pretend to be asleep unless you urinate on their faces.

"The top priority is that we can hold the position. As for rescuing His Majesty, His Majesty will only have value if the Ming Dynasty continues to exist."

"Then your next sentence is, 'A country cannot live without a king'?" A certain minister with a beard sneered, looking at Zhu Wuwang's expression of 'I can see through you'.

Zhu Wu ignored but didn't care, hum, there are many people who can see through me, who do you think you are?

"When His Majesty left, he said that all matters in the court, big and small, would be handled by the Chief Assistant. Now we naturally have to take the Chief Assistant as the main one." Zhu Mingwu did not stand up and say, 'I want to be the emperor,' but recommended him first. Yu Qian.

But Yu Qian just looked at him with an indifferent expression. Both of them were old foxes, and they both understood each other tacitly at this time.

It is not an unexpected move that Zhu Wuwu pushed him to the front. To put it bluntly, what should Zhu Wuwu be anxious about? Although there are many members in the entire Ming Dynasty royal family, in terms of connections, strength, and strategy, there is no one Can anyone compare with Zhu Wuwu?

No!

Even if those royal families have this ambition, they don't have the strength.

Of course, it is not ruled out that if someone has bad intentions, he will insist on making another prince the emperor, but if that happens, Zhu Mingli can guarantee that the new one will die young.

It is precisely because he has understood this that Yu Qian has no choice. When the situation comes to this, as long as you are still a smart person and have sense, then your choice can only be him.

"Your Majesty is right. The top priority is to protect the country. As for the envoys who go to negotiate, let the Queen Mother make the decision as mentioned before."

The ministers looked at each other and keenly realized that the situation was a bit delicate. Afterwards, the palace quickly sent out candidates.

The eunuch chosen by the Queen Mother was an eunuch named Wang Zhen. This man was once a down-and-out scholar. Later, he castrated himself and entered the palace and was lucky enough to serve the emperor. In the past, he seemed to be cautious and modest, but after receiving the favor, his true colors were revealed. Meaning, it's quite arrogant. However, in the harem, the Queen Mother has the final say, and Wang Zhen is restrained to a certain extent. In addition, when Zhu Qizhen falls in love with someone, he doesn't care whether you have done anything wrong, as long as he likes him. , Wang Zhen is the kind that suits him quite well.

In fact, the Queen Mother originally had no interest in Wang Zhen, but now that things have come out, if she wants to bring Zhu Qizhen back, she must send the person who wants His Majesty to come back the most, and there is no doubt that it is Wang Zhen.

He usually offends many people by relying on his divine favor. If Zhu Qizhen cannot come back, his end will be tragic.

Wang Zhen was also very nervous and anxious, so he left the capital before dawn the next day, took three cars with greeting gifts and headed towards the Qing army camp.

Also acting at the same time as Wang Zhen was Yu Qian, who had already begun to mobilize combat forces in the capital. At the same time, he issued a warrant to mobilize combat troops from surrounding Xuanfu to gather in Xuanfu for resistance.

Previously, Zhu Qizhen led the main force of the Ming Dynasty to pursue them very far, but he was able to create enough strategic depth for Yu Qian to deploy.

However, it is definitely unrealistic to rely on the temporarily gathered strength to block the Qing army's large-scale siege. Therefore, the strategy set by Yu Qian and Zhu Wuli is to block the attack in layers to slow down the Qing army's advance and ensure that they have effective strength.

And they sat in the capital and used the fastest speed to build this place into an iron barrel, so that the defenders and attackers could fight the Qing army in a protracted battle to determine the outcome.

This strategy is cowardly and clumsy, but it is the only method that Zhu Wuwu and Yu Qian can think of.

There is no way, the situation does not allow it, they also want several surrounding cities to stick to form a corner, and cover up plagiarism and so on. But the problem is that in the entire Ming Dynasty, the only master on the list available now is Zhu Wuyi. In addition to being in the capital,

Zhu Wuli had no other place to go.

Without the masters of the local rankings in charge, the persistence of other cities will become a joke.

…

Two days later, in the Qing army camp, Zuo Zhou and Li Yuzhu were chewing dry food and drinking broth. It was obvious that the supplies of the Qing army were more powerful than those of the Ming army.

In the past few days, the two of them had watched Zhu Qizhen turn from a cautious person to a domineering one, which made them both quite surprised for a while.

How to say it?

Dorgon's intention was to extract the luck from Zhu Qizhen, so he had no intention of abusing Zhu Qizhen at all. On the contrary, he treated Zhu Qizhen quite favorably. In the entire Qing army, Dorgon always ate at the same time as the soldiers, only Zhu Qizhen

Qizhen usually has melons, fruits and cakes to go around, except that there are no beautiful women to serve at any time, it can be said to be quite comfortable.

However, Zhu Qizhen obviously misunderstood something. He may have thought that the Qing army just wanted to take the opportunity to extort some cities or money, so he would not do anything to him. He also became more and more wanton in his behavior, often leading two Qing soldiers around.

I looked down on them here and looked down on them there. I just felt that the Qing army camp was full of shortcomings. From time to time, I lamented that I would lose to such a team? I must have been deceived by the false information from Hulong Villa.

Several times, Zhu Qizhen passed by Zuo Zhou and Li Yuzhu, and saw that there were question marks on their heads.

At nightfall, Zuo Zhou entered the camp. This tent was a small tent where nearly fifty people slept. However, these fifty people were all exiles, and they were all Li Yuzhu's people.

This was the confidence for the two of them to sneak into the Qing army camp. It was easy to do things with so many people covering them.

"Are you saying that the army has reduced its strength and prepared for the defense of the capital?"

"Yes, all the young men in the entire Ming Dynasty have been summoned, but not many responded. The previous battle seemed to have had too great an impact."

A Qing soldier reported to Li Yuzhu in a low voice. The latter nodded after hearing the words, and after thinking for a moment, he commented: "There are many people in the capital. The imperial guards in the palace and the yamen servants, plus the local young men, it is not feasible to gather a hundred thousand troops."

It’s too difficult. Coupled with the terrain advantage of defending the city, we should be able to hold it for a while. However, it would be naive to try to defeat the Qing army by defending the city. There should be other arrangements."

Just as he was talking, a message arrow suddenly flew in from outside the tent. Zuo Zhou easily caught it with his wave, "Don't be nervous, it's my people who have the news."

He opened the letter, took a look at it, and rubbed it into ashes, "You are right, Yu Qian secretly sent a message to the Yuan Kingdom, hoping that they could influence the supply of the Qing army in the rear."

Li Yuzhu was not surprised, "If the Qing army really destroyed the Ming Dynasty, then the Yuan Kingdom would definitely be next, so it's not surprising that they would agree. Huh? Your news is only from the Yuan Kingdom? You actually have information from the Yuan Kingdom as well.

people!"

Zuo Zhou smiled deeply and said, "To travel in the world, you rely on having many brothers and loyalty. What's so surprising about the Yuan Kingdom having so many people?"

Li Yuzhu was happy and said: "I guess Yu Qian has not only contacted Yuan Guo, but I am afraid there are also people in Da Qin to communicate."

Although Zuo Zhou did not get any information from Da Qin, he was right to think about it. "I will definitely ask for help. No matter how stupid Hu Hai is, he will not remain indifferent."

"Yes, it is impossible for the Qin Dynasty to watch the Qing Dynasty annex the Ming Dynasty so easily."

Zuo Zhou shook his head in denial, "That's not the case. The situation in this world is different from that of the earth next door in ancient times. The Qing Dynasty is not a nomadic people. They also have their own territory. If the battle line is stretched too long, they will definitely suffer.

Even if the Qin Dynasty and the Yuan Dynasty did not hold back, the Tang Dynasty could not continue to watch. Therefore, if Zhu Qi did not take the initiative to kill people, they should stop their conquest after the Qing army captured several key cities.

Footsteps."

Li Yuzhu nodded when he heard this, "But today's war model seems to have changed. Winning is not just about defeating the army or occupying the city. The key is to compete for luck!"

Zuo Zhou trend waved his hand and said: "No, in fact it is still the original model, because the so-called luck will be tilted when you lose the army and the city. There will not be many things like the Qing Dynasty that used tricks to condense luck.

.”

Li Yuzhu smiled and said: "That's true. After all, not all wars can capture the opponent's emperor."

"It's just that Yu Qian and other countries don't know the Qing's plan now."

"Then should we remind them?"

"Of course, we not only need to remind the capital of the Ming Dynasty, but also other countries."
To be continued...