Late Ming Dynasty: Oops, I am surrounded by the Donglin Party

So, Zhang Shikang had an unforgettable night.

Physically memorable.

You have to know that Ma Lingqi's martial arts are almost the same as Zhang Shikang's personal guard commander Hong Xiucheng. Even Sun Dasheng is no match for her.

Although Ma Lingqi is not as tall as him, she is much stronger and more sensitive than him. Zhang Shikang's unexpected touch will often cause Ma Lingqi to have a stress response.

So Zhang Shikang was in trouble. He was either kicked off the bed or his arm was almost dislocated.

The problem is that Ma Lingqi always apologizes weakly and repeatedly assures that such a situation will not happen again.

To the point that Zhang Shikang became a little stressed and almost backed out.

The next day, when Zhang Shikang limped out of the house, the maids in the yard all covered their mouths and laughed.

Zhang Shikang didn't care. He took Ma Lingqi to meet his parents, and then got on the carriage to the palace.

Brother Chongzhen's hesitation to speak yesterday, as well as the sudden arrival of Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting in Beijing, made Zhang Shikang feel that something was happening.

When he arrived at the Qianqing Palace, Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting were indeed there, and from what they said, it seemed that they were reporting on their work.

Lu Xiangsheng was the Grand Commander-in-Chief of the Five Military Commandery after its reorganization, and Sun Chuanting was considered the Grand Commander-in-Chief's deputy.

The reorganized Governor's Office was no longer under the control of the Ministry of War, but was under the control of the Marshal of Army and was directly responsible to the emperor.

For such high-ranking officials, the person to whom they would report to in the capital was naturally the current emperor.

Seeing Zhang Shikang coming, Emperor Chongzhen waved his hands at Lu Xiangsheng and the others, stopping them from talking again, and said to Zhang Shikang:

"Wuji, two months ago, Li Zicheng exchanged his 30,000 infantrymen for 10,000 war horses from Wu Sangui of Guan Ningjin. What do you think of this?"

Zhang Shikang did tell him about this matter. He did not take it seriously at first, but now he thought that if Li Zicheng had so many more war horses, his mobility would probably become stronger. If he rebelled again, it would be difficult to deal with him.

Although Guan Ningjin did not lose money by exchanging 30,000 infantry for 10,000 war horses, the imperial court had always been in short supply of war horses, and they were in a situation where there was a price but no demand.

"Your Majesty, if you want to do your work well, you must first sharpen your tools. As someone once said, you can't catch a wolf without sacrificing a lamb.

Since we have chosen to let Li Zicheng out of the pass, we must give him corresponding support. How can the infantry alone open up the situation in places like the one outside the pass?" Zhang Shikang said calmly.

The number of troops that followed Li Zicheng to the outside of the Great Wall was about 60,000, and there were only a little over 5,000 cavalry.

So Li Zicheng asked Lu Xiangsheng, the governor of the Tiger Guard Army, and proposed to retain only 30,000 troops and hand over the rest of the troops to Lu Xiangsheng, on the condition that he hoped to obtain 10,000 war horses.

Naturally, Lu Xiangsheng quickly told Zhang Shikang about this matter. Ten thousand war horses were not a small number. Last year, Omubu of the Tumed tribe in Guihuacheng risked his life to snatch more than eight thousand war horses from the surrounding Mongolian tribes.

Together with the more than a thousand horses in his own tribe, he was able to barely reach the number of war horses promised to Zhang Shikang.

Almost all of these war horses were handed over by Zhang Shikang to Wu Sangui's Guanningjin Defense Line.

This is mainly because the Guanningjin Defense Line is the bridgehead between China and the Qing Dynasty, and if there is a war, it will be the first to bear the brunt.

But after careful consideration, Zhang Shikang agreed to Li Zicheng's request.

Of course, as compensation, all the 30,000 infantry selected by Li Zicheng were handed over to Wu Sangui to increase the strength of the Guanningjin defense line.

Li Zicheng had 15,000 cavalrymen. This force alone was extremely powerful on the grassland. At least the medium and lower-level tribes on the grassland were absolutely no match for him in terms of the number of cavalrymen.

Since Zhang Shikang dared to gamble, he must be gambling big, just like when he and his brother Chongzhen gambled on the fate of the Ming Dynasty.

The current situation is that Zhang Shikang is betting that Li Zicheng does not want to give up the families of all his generals, or in other words, he is betting that Li Zicheng does not want to stay outside the Great Wall forever.

To this end, the imperial court certainly paid a considerable cost, but as the saying goes, the imperial court could afford the loss.

The higher the risk, the greater the potential return.

Emperor Chongzhen knew that he was not familiar with military affairs. He just felt uncomfortable giving so many war horses to a big traitor like Li Zicheng.

Seeing Zhang Shikang's explanation, he did not ask any more questions. He was silent for a while and then said:

"Wuji, when do you plan to counterattack the Jiannu?"

……

On the second day of the second month in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, the dragon raised its head.

To the east of Guihua City is Fengzhou.

It is called Fengzhou, but it is neither rich nor a state. It is a slightly dilapidated gathering place for pastoralists and a temporary pasture for the Xitumed tribe in winter.

It was late at night, and Li Zicheng stood outside the foggy pasture in his cotton clothes.

There was no peace and quiet anywhere. There was only the sound of sheep in the pasture. There was no moonlight, but the snow still made the surroundings not seem too dark.

Behind him stood a dozen big men, all of whom were wearing cotton clothes, wrapping themselves tightly.

"Prince Chuang, I have already found out that half of the available soldiers of the Balin tribe have been incorporated into the Eight Banners of Mongolia by Huang Taiji. Now there are only more than 6,000 soldiers stationed there who can fight.

But there are also the Ujumchin and Maoming'an tribes around them, and the nearest one will arrive in two hours to provide support." Tian Jianxiu said behind Li Zicheng.

"Prince Chuang, do we really want to go against Huang Taiji? Huang Taiji has destroyed the imperial court before, he is not someone you can easily mess with." Liu Tichun said worriedly.

He could say this because some of his soldiers thought so and what he said was true.

Some people even thought that it would be a good idea to take advantage of the fact that no one was watching over them and perhaps surrender to Huang Taiji. After all, it was said that Huang Taiji was very kind to surrendered generals.

"Liu Tichun, it's already this time, and you're still saying this kind of thing. What's your intention?" Hao Yaoqi said dissatisfiedly.

His two sons and three wives are still in the hands of the court, while it is easy to say that Liu Tichun is a bachelor.

And a month ago, they used 30,000 infantry soldiers to exchange 10,000 horses for the imperial court.

It seemed like they had gained an advantage, but in fact they still suffered a loss. No one understood better than them how much resources were needed to train 30,000 infantrymen.

If he really decided to surrender, he should have done so before exchanging war horses with the court. The 60,000 elite troops would still have made Huang Taiji concerned.

Hao Yaoqi spoke, and Liu Zongmin also joined in, and the three of them immediately started arguing.

"The three generals, please stop arguing. We are now outside the Great Wall and are surrounded by enemies everywhere. We need unity." Military advisor Niu Jinxing quickly advised.

It was Niu Jinxing who proposed exchanging 30,000 infantry for 10,000 war horses. He believed that it would be impossible to fight the Mongolian tribes outside the Great Wall without a certain level of mobility.

Niu Jinxing had come up with many strategies in the war over the years, and he was also an old subordinate of Li Zicheng who had followed him for a long time. When Niu Jinxing came to persuade them, Liu Tichun and others remained silent for the time being.

“The Jian Nu are indeed good at fighting, but I only want to ask you one question: is the current imperial court also incapable of fighting?

If not, why did we surrender to the court last year when we had more than 70,000 soldiers?

To be honest, it’s because the imperial court is no longer what it used to be!

Now that we have been exiled outside the Great Wall and the imperial court is supplying us with food and fodder, you have begun to have evil thoughts again. Are we really doomed to be nothing more than rebels?

If you don't make a decision when you should, you will suffer the consequences. How can you be a grass on the wall?"

……