After listening to Zhu Cilang's words, the Ming dynasty and ministers present were stunned at the same time.

Originally, after hearing the news that Wu Sangui was unwilling to send troops, Chongzhen was almost unable to breathe.

But after hearing Zhu Cilang's words, Chongzhen suddenly had a little hope in his heart.

Chongzhen asked, "Yan'er, what do you mean?"

Li Guozhen looked at Zhu Cilang, and the doubts in his heart were clearly revealed on his face.

Wu Sangui is not here anymore. It is very difficult to defend Beijing City. The prince actually said that he could repel Li Zicheng?

It's a bit outrageous.

Zhu Cixuan saw the reactions of these guys and immediately smiled slightly.

You guys are still too young!

Zhu Cilang was confident and said, "Actually, Li Zicheng now looks powerful, but he can't capture it for a long time, so there must be complaints in the army.

As the saying goes, one move will decline again and then become exhausted. Li Zicheng's first wave of offensive has dissipated with Liu Zongmin's death. The second wave of offensive almost broke through Deshengmen, but it was also blocked by us.

Then, Li Zicheng will actually only have one chance left. If he still cannot break through Beijing City with the third chance, then his hope of truly conquering Beijing City will be very slim, and it can be said that it basically does not exist."

Listening to Zhu Cixuan's analysis, everyone began to feel a little convinced, as if that was the case.

Li Guozhen was a little dissatisfied and asked: "Maybe Li Zicheng is really difficult to deal with instigation, but what if he chooses to siege Beijing for a long time?"

This is actually a very common method of siege, which is to siege the city but not attack. The purpose is to trap and starve the people in the city to death. Due to the lack of resources, a large number of staff will be reduced and ultimately unable to resist.

Zhu Cixuan smiled and said, "If this method is really used, then Li Zicheng will indeed have a chance to conquer Beijing City. But the problem is that if you really want to use such a tactic, then Li Zicheng must start by besieging the capital for at least half a year. Does Li Zicheng have that long time now? In fact, there is no such thing."

As he said that, Zhu Cilang stood up and walked towards the wall of the imperial study room.

There, there is a map of the territory of the Ming Dynasty, and it is also displayed in Liaodong, Annan, North Korea and even Ryukyu and Japan outside the East China Sea.

Zhu Cixuan reached out and landed on the map: "Please see, Li Zicheng's Northern Expedition this time was actually somewhat imitating the meaning of Taizu (Zhu Yuanzhang) back then, sending two side troops to attack Taiyuan and Lu'an, and the main force went from Shaanxi to Henan, and went straight to the capital through Shandong.

In other words, Li Zicheng's current territory is Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan and most of the northern Zhili area south of the capital.

There is a characteristic of these areas. What is it? It is that over the years, the Mongols, the Tatars and the Qing Dynasty were seriously poisoned. Li Zi became the people in these places. Every time he conquered a place, he would "kill officials and release grain", kill a group of officials, and open the official granary to the common people.

If he did this, it would be beneficial, that is, the people felt that the original corrupt official was killed and they were relieved. Then they saw that the King of Chuang released food, so they naturally followed the King of Chuang wholeheartedly. This is why Li Zicheng was able to conquer so many provinces in a short period of time."

Listening to Zhu Cixuan's explanations, the Ming monarch and ministers present also involuntarily breathed a little rapid.

They seemed to be able to see Li Zicheng breaking through a land, pulling out a batch of Ming officials out and beheading the public, and the bodies were hung on the city gate and fluttering in the wind.

Seeing countless skinny people cheering, they took bags of food from the hands of the crusing army, shouting long live the King of Chuang and long live the Great Suspension.

Watching the Ming Dynasty's ruling order collapse on a large area of ​​land north of the Yellow River, watching the tide of rebels swarming like black tides, surrounding the capital!

Chongzhen swallowed and said with some difficulty: "What should I do?"

Li Guozhen also said: "If you follow the prince's statement, it will give people the feeling that the capital will be broken at any time."

When Zhu Cilang heard this, he laughed again.

at any time?

If it weren't for the time travel of this prince, the bodies of you group of people would have been rotten!

Zhu Cilang coughed and said slowly: "However, behind Li Zicheng's strength, there are actually great concerns. This is because his regime was established too short and his foundation in the local area was seriously insufficient.

Take Li Zicheng's favorite policy of killing officials and releasing grain. Everyone knows that the officials and gentry in our Ming Dynasty are actually one. Some people in the family are officials outside, so it is easy to feed back the family and make the family a local gentry clan.

Therefore, Li Zicheng's killing of officials was equivalent to killing the children of these gentry clans who were officials outside, and cut off their hope of continuing to use official power to expand their family power.

If this is the case, then it would be fine, but Li Zicheng also has a policy of releasing food.

After so many years of war and natural disasters in the Central Plains, many cities actually do not want to help the victims, but they really have no food.

Where is the food? It is in the homes of those gentry clans. The gentry in our Ming Dynasty had the cause of land being devoted, which led to the land in the gentry clans' families expanding at an astonishing rate, allowing them to obtain huge amounts of food.

Li Zicheng could not have known this, so when he could not find food in the city, how should he appease the people? You should know that the refugees are the biggest supporters of the rebel army, and Li Zicheng must give them an explanation.

So Li Zicheng had no choice but to attack these gentry and use the food from these gentry's homes to help refugees.

Since the food is strong, it is very natural that the money from the gentry's family must be stolen from the soldiers, and the women from the gentry's family must also be stolen from the gentry's family must be stolen from the gentry's family must be stolen from the gentry's family.

Under such circumstances, the gentry in these five provinces hated the trespassing army extremely. They would constantly cause trouble for the trespassing army behind their backs. The gentry often had mixed forces and fame in the local area. Even if their family wealth was lost, they could still use other methods to attract people to oppose the trespassing army.

Of course, it doesn’t matter if the rebel army is in a short period of time, but as long as the main force of the rebel army is delayed in the capital, then there will be a big chaos in the five provinces behind them.”

Hearing this, a glory began to appear in Chongzhen's eyes, and he couldn't help but say, "So, what do you mean is that there will be some righteous men in some places who rise up to resist Li Zicheng?"

Zhu Cilang smiled and said, "This is natural. If the father is willing to give a decree, saying that as long as the righteous people in the local area actively participate in the fight against the rebellion and the father will give rewards in the future, then their enthusiasm will be higher."

So Chongzhen is not capable, that's it. The rebel army is constantly approaching. Chongzhen did not want to launch various forces to resist. Instead, he kept making "self-crime edicts" and sent two more ways to do it if one way is not possible.

What is the premise for the use of the self-crime edict? You must have an army as an emperor! In that case, everyone will apologize when they see the emperor. Even if there is an army, we cannot rebel. It's almost enough.

But under the current situation, Chongzhen's self-criticism edict was heard, and everyone felt: "Oh, Your Majesty is cowardly, weak, and afraid. It seems that the King of Chuang is going to be successful."

Therefore, every time Chongzhen’s self-criticism was issued, a group of Ming officials surrendered to Li Zicheng, and more surrendered people.

Only when you are strong enough can you have the capital to show weakness. When a country is so weak that it is as weak as the late Ming Dynasty, and you still have to issue a self-criticism to show weakness, it is really a pity that your life is long-lasting - history has proved this.

After hearing Zhu Cilang's words, Chongzhen was happy: "That's what you do!"

Zhu Cixuan glanced at Li Guozhen and knew that this guy was not convinced, so he continued: "If you rely solely on local gentry, it is indeed unsustainable for a while. But don't forget that there are two other factors that are also very important."

Zhu Cilang moved his hand to Tongzhou and said, "Wu Sangui's Guanning Army has arrived in Tongzhou. Even if Li Zicheng can know through Wu Sangui's behavior that the Guanning Army is changing its ruthlessness, it is a fact that Guanning Army can stab Li Zicheng in the back at any time.

Therefore, Li Zicheng must divide some of his troops to guard against Wu Sangui. If I was not wrong, he would likely send someone to surrender Wu Sangui."

When Chongzhen heard this, he was a little nervous and said, "Will Wu Sangui surrender?"

Zhu Cilang's expression was calm: "Of course not, because Wu Sangui's whole family is in the capital now! Our court can continue to send people to contact Wu Sangui, give him, and many Guanning generals under his command to increase their ranks.

In this way, Wu Sangui will definitely want to be at the same time, and he will not make a rash decision between the court and Li Zicheng. As long as he does not fall to Li Zicheng, even if he does not send troops, he will be able to share some of the pressure for Beijing City, which is enough."

When Li Guozhen heard this, he was actually convinced in his heart.

I have to say that Zhu Cixuan's analysis is indeed very insightful, and the entire battle situation is analyzed very thoroughly, giving people a feeling of clearing the clouds and fog.

Li Guozhen couldn't help but say, "My Highness, are there any other aspects?"

Zhu Cilang nodded: "Of course there is, in fact, there is another place that can provide combat power to the Ming Dynasty. Please see it."

Zhu Cilan's fingers slowly moved towards the bottom of the map, and finally paused south of the Huai River.

Li Guozhen couldn't help but say, "Zuo Liangyu?"

Zhu Cilang laughed: "Zuo Liangyu? What can that wasteful thing do? What I want to say here."

Zhu Cilang's hand continued downwards and finally stopped south of the Yangtze River.

British justice: "Yingtian Mansion?"

Yingtian Prefecture is the location of Nanjing, and there is also a member of the Six Ming tribes, which is considered a preparatory court.

Zhu Cilang shook his head: "It's small, the pattern is small."

Duke of England: "…"

Zhu Cixuan clicked the map vigorously: "I am not talking about Yingtian Prefecture, but the entire Jiangnan!"

"Jiangnan?"

After hearing Zhu Cilang's words, the wise rulers and ministers present had different expressions on their faces.

Judging from the expression alone, they obviously were not convinced by Zhu Cixuan's words.

For a long time, although wars continued in the north of the Ming Dynasty, the southern part of the Ming Dynasty was relatively stable.

The Japanese pirates, who were once extremely rampant in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, began to recede rapidly as the sea ban was officially fully liberalized in the first year of Longqing. By the late Ming Dynasty, it was basically calm.

The opening of maritime trade allowed Jiangnan to take off rapidly and the economy showed unprecedented prosperity. When the Central Plains of Chongzhen Dynasty were ruined by Li Zicheng and Liaodong and Shandong were harmed by the Qing Dynasty, Jiangnan became the most important source of the Ming economy.

Why hasn't paid a salary in Beijing for a long time? It is also because the canal transportation route from Jiangnan was completely cut off after Li Zicheng occupied Shandong, and neither the money nor the grain could be transported to Beijing.

Li Guozhen said in confusion: "But there are not enough troops in Jiangnan."

The only one who truly excels in Jiangnan is the Qi family army, but due to the internal struggle of the Ming Dynasty, the Qi family army had long been betrayed in Liaodong and died completely.

Zhu Cilang smiled: "Although Jiangnan does not have enough troops, Jiangnan has people who are loyal to the Ming Dynasty!"

Jiangnan is very loyal to the Ming Dynasty?

Yes.

Just open the history books and check it out.

What to check?

Investigate the massacres after the army entered the pass.

Ten days of Yangzhou, the three massacres of Jiading, the three massacres of Suzhou, the Nanchang, the Ganzhou, the Jiangyin, the Kunshan, the Jiaxing, and the Haining...

These are only part of it, but it can be easily discovered that these cities are all from Jiangnan.

It does not mean that there was no resistance or massacre in other places, such as Guangzhou being massacred, at least 300,000 people died in Jinan, etc. However, through the above statement, it is not difficult to see that in the late Ming Dynasty, the resistance of the people of Jiangnan to the Qing army was undoubtedly the most intense among all regions.

Why resist your Qing Dynasty? Of course, we are all loyal to the Ming Dynasty.
To be continued...