Just as Li Qin was leading an army of over 200,000 southwards in a grand procession.
Nanjing was already in complete chaos.
In this battle, Li Qin's army numbered nearly 600,000, though some claimed it was a million.
They are continuously gathering towards the border of Jiangnan.
The news of Li Qin's personal expedition reached Jiangnan in particular, causing great panic.
At this moment, they are in the inner palace of the imperial palace.
Zhu Jianshen sat on the throne in the inner palace, with the ministers before him all being his carefully selected and trustworthy confidants.
Because he also knew that holding those grand court assemblies again would only provoke even greater attacks and arguments.
Basically, they can't make any decisions.
In front of him was a map.
Meanwhile, Grand Secretary Skelfeld was explaining the current situation to the Emperor and his ministers.
"According to intelligence, Li Zicheng has now personally led a large army south from Jiangbei, with an estimated strength of three to four hundred thousand."
It contained his direct troops, the Tatar army, and troops from Datong and other places.
Their southward journey was likely intended to reunite with the bandit generals Zhang Hengshuo and Qin Chenyao, who had been stationed in Shandong.
Meanwhile, Hong Chengchou of Shaanxi led a large army out of Shaanxi. Judging from his march, his target should be Yang Zhiyong's troops in Runing.
As he spoke, Skaf placed several flags on the map to represent them.
Then he pointed to the map of Hubei and Hunan and said:
"According to intelligence, Li Ze's younger brother has left, and now Li Ze's nephew Li Xuanshang has taken over. They have about 200,000 troops in Jiangnan."
Moreover, Liu Sixiu from Sichuan and Li Hongji from Henan also led their troops to follow.
The total force along this route should be over 300,000.
After listening to Skelfa finish speaking, everyone present...
Everyone wore a solemn expression. The reason was simple.
The difference in strength between the two sides is too great.
The army they commanded was far inferior to Li Qin's army that had marched south this time, both in terms of combat strength and numbers.
After listening to Shi Kefa's intelligence report, Zhu Jianshen...
Faced with such a huge gap, they unconsciously clenched their fists.
Then, with a serious and tense expression, he looked at the ministers before him, and addressed his trusted confidants:
"My dear ministers, the court is now in a very dangerous situation."
The kingdom of Wu could collapse at any moment.
Does anyone have any better ideas?
After Zhu Jianshen finished speaking, a minister immediately stood up and said:
"Your Majesty, please grant me a word."
Zhu Jianshen looked up and saw that it was the minister named Sun Kaiyang who had previously advised him to give up Jiangbei.
When he saw him step forward, Zhu Jianshen knew he wanted to speak.
I was about to wave him away.
But now that things have come to this, I'll let him speak.
He then raised his hand, gesturing for him to come up and speak.
When Sun Kaiyang met the emperor and was asked to speak, he immediately stepped forward and said:
"Your Majesty, please hear my words. Even if our current deployment can stop the traitor Li, we are completely finished."
The troops we deployed in the three towns along the Huai River were actually completely isolated and without any support from each other.
It can indeed disperse Li's forces, so that even if Li breaks through the Huai River, he will be unable to launch a full-scale attack on the Yangtze River due to the presence of these three towns, thus preserving Jiangnan for the time being.
However, Li, unable to cross the Yangtze River, will inevitably vent all his anger on these three towns.
However, the three towns were isolated and helpless, and at the same time faced the pressure of Li's army of hundreds of thousands.
In the end, the only outcome was that the city was gradually captured by the traitor Li.
This was achieved by sacrificing the lives of soldiers in three towns to ensure the safety of the Jiangnan region.
These three towns are all the elite forces of our imperial court.
In particular, Yang Zhiyong's troops and Qi Jiguang's troops are among the few forces we currently have that can engage in open field battles with Li's large army.
If their entire army is wiped out, we won't even have the strength to fight back when Li the Traitor marches south again.
Therefore, I suggest that this large army be withdrawn to Jiangnan, relying on the Yangtze River to block Li's army, so that their army has power but nowhere to use it.
At the same time, we recalled the troops from these three towns, which gave us the ability to counterattack.
With these troops and the advantages of our navy, relying on the Yangtze River, we can completely launch a counterattack against Hubei and Hunan.
after..."
"Alright, I understand."
Before Sun Kaiyang could finish speaking, Zhu Jianshen interrupted him.
He knew that the other party was trying to persuade him to give up the Jiangbei area again.
Just after Zhu Jianshen interrupted Sun Kaiyang.
Smith directly asked Sun Kaiyang:
"Minister Sun, do you think the three towns will be destroyed if things continue like this?"
I don't think so. Although Li's army is large in number and has a great momentum, it has a fatal flaw.
That means it consumes a huge amount of food and supplies.
We had already implemented a scorched-earth policy in the Huaihe River region, and Henan and other places were only just beginning to recover due to disasters and unrest.
There was simply no surplus grain. In other words, all the food for his hundreds of thousands of troops had to be transported long distances from Shandong and Zhili.
Their attack cannot last long.
As for the three towns, we have been operating them for quite some time now. Relying on their strong fortifications, Li the traitor will certainly not be able to conquer them in a short period of time.
If this continues for too long, they will be trapped in a predicament of insufficient supplies, and in the end, they will have no choice but to retreat.
If he personally goes south and returns empty-handed, it will severely damage his prestige.
Next time he wants to march south, he certainly won't have as many feudal lords following him as this time.
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