Please ask me to be the emperor

I want to fight, but although the enemy has high forts and deep ditches, those who have no choice but to fight me must attack and save them; I do not want to fight, even if I draw the ground and defend it, but the enemy cannot fight with me, I must behave in his own way. ——"Sun Tzu's Art of War: Virtual Reality"

When Zhu Xieyuan got the help of "intruder" Li Zicheng and led the rebel North Route Army to massively attack northwest Shanxi, he finally realized the complete failure of his strategy of "attacking conspiracy and cutting off relations".

The art of war is as follows: attack the enemy with troops first, then attack the enemy with enemy troops, and then attack the city with the third army.

The reason why the left governor Zhu Xieyuan was hiding in Taiyuan City was certainly not because he was too timid to fight.

But to use the blocking effect of Taiyuan City to buy time for his "conspiracy and friendship".

Originally, according to his plan, not long after the rebel army occupied Shaanxi, they moved troops under the strong city of Taiyuan. The land of Shaanxi was already full of "rebels".

In particular, the rebel thieves such as "invading thieves", "offering thieves" and "scorpion thieves" are all "ready-made goods". Is there any reason to be loyal to "submissive thieves"?

However, he miscalculated, and as a result, a group of born "rebels" and people with rebellious bones in the back of their heads suddenly talked about loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, which surprised him.

Victory or defeat is a common thing for military strategists. Originally, Zhu Xieyuan, the left commander, was the commander-in-chief of the Ming army. If one plan failed, another plan would be useless.

But he didn't expect that because he had been hiding in Taiyuan City, he would have been noticed by the imperial censor of the Ming Dynasty. For a time, the crowd was furious and he was raped hundreds of times.

As a result, there is no Zhu Xieyuan who can win the "soft battle". If he does not take the initiative, he may end up with no bones left and will be infamy for thousands of years.

There was no other way. When Director Gao Qiqian came to visit him again, Zhu Xieyuan, who was over seventy years old, immediately expressed his position without waiting for him to speak: "Now that the thieves have used all their methods, I know the truth and lies!"

"The 'shun thief' led the central army by himself and built a strong wall under our Taiyuan city. This is a bluff."

"I want to rectify the troops and fight to the death with them tomorrow. If we win this battle, there will be no need to fear the 'submissive thieves', and the people of the world will be at peace. Please give me a warning, Director!"

"Yes!" Gao Qiqian didn't know that there was a major change in the northwest of Shanxi Province, and he couldn't help but be overjoyed when he heard that Zhu Xieyuan knew him.

Everyone had discussed and decided that before dawn the next day, meals would be made at the third watch and troops would be sent out at the fifth watch. More than 30,000 elite Ming troops appeared outside the rebel camp.

The Ming army had just dispatched here, and the rebel army over there had already received the news.

After the news reached the ears of Zhang Shun, who was still sleeping soundly, he couldn't help but jump up, put on his clothes in a hurry, and summoned the generals to discuss the matter.

"This old turtle must have gotten the news about Li Zicheng's troops. This time he is finally willing to stick his head out!" At the beginning of the discussion, Zhang Shun was the first to say with a smile.

The generals couldn't help laughing when they heard this. How could they still be afraid of the elites of the Ming Dynasty's border troops?

"Your Highness, in my humble opinion, I am not afraid that he will come out, but I am afraid that he will not come out!" "Stars all over the sky" Zhang Damou was the first to speak.

"I think this time we can show weakness to the enemy, lure him to attack, and then send cavalry to cut off his return. Then Taiyuan can be attacked and the Ming army can be defeated!"

No wonder Zhang Damou was so confident. It turned out that the last time he defeated Shenshu Camp under Sun Chuanting, he captured many horses from Dong Yongwen, the left general of Shenshu Camp, and surrendered his troops. Now his 3,000 men and horses have been converted into cavalry.

If this battle was fought according to his method, then he would naturally have a share of the credit for cutting off the Ming army's retreat in the end.

"I'm afraid this won't work, right?" Zhang Shun hesitated and couldn't help but smile, "Although the Ming army is unbearable, it won't be surrounded and annihilated by my same troops."

It turns out that the Ming army now has the 1st Battalion of Zhu Xie, Yuan Biao and Luo Xiangqian, the 1st Battalion of Deputy Commander-in-Chief Li Fuming with 6,000 troops, the Governor of Xuanda, Zhang Fengyi, with 7,000 troops, the Governor of Datong, Ye Tinggui, the Commander-in-Chief of Xuanfu, Li Guoliang, and the Commander-in-Chief of Datong, Wang Shiren, with 5,000 troops each. There are 3,000 men and horses in the general camp, plus more than 1,000 people from the remnants of the Shenshu camp, totaling about 32,000 men and horses.

But now Zhang Shun has the main eight battalions of Zhang Damou, Wei Zhiyou, Yang Chengzu, Wang Zhong, Zhang Rujing, Xu Quan, Lu Xiangjin and Shen Jingbang. Now he has formed a new surrender battalion with the surrender general Jiang Xiang.

If calculated carefully, the strength of both sides has increased and decreased, which is no longer the inherent situation of "the enemy is strong and we are weak".

It was a situation where the two sides were roughly equal in number and strength, so Zhang Damou dared to "utter arrogant words."

"Now that our army is in sight of victory, why should we compete with them for the length of a day!" After hearing Zhang Shun's words, Sun Chuanting couldn't help but step forward to analyze.

"Now the Northern Route Army Li Zicheng's troops are fighting consecutive battles in northwest Shanxi and conquering prefectures and counties; in the Luzhou Prefecture, Yang Wenyue is being attacked by Cao Wenzhao and Li Xin's troops, and is also in danger."

"Once these places are captured by the rebels, what's the use of Zhu Xieyuan sitting in an isolated city?"

When the generals heard what Sun Chuanting said, they felt it was reasonable and couldn't help but agree with the strategy of defending.

Zhang Shun frowned. In fact, he was still a little worried about Liaodong Houjin's intervention.

It has been more than forty days since the rebels launched their massive offensive in early March, which was enough for Hou Jin to react.

If Hong Tai suddenly led the main force of the Jin army and suddenly entered the pass at this time, the situation he would face would probably be worse than that of Li Zicheng, who was a stone in the past.

"Let's hold on for another two days and send envoys to urge Zhang Sanbai and Zhang Fengyi to take Fenzhou as soon as possible; Li Xin and Cao Wenzhao to take Luzhou as soon as possible, and then we can make plans."

As for the two nails of Kaifeng and Damingfu, although they make the rebels a little uncomfortable, they still do not threaten the overall strategic layout of the rebels, so let's leave them aside for the time being.

Not to mention what Zhang Shun and his men were thinking about, Zhu Xieyuan led his generals out of Taiyuan City and rushed all the way to the rebel camp.

The Governor of Xuanda, Zhang Fengyi, couldn't sit still and couldn't help but remind him: "The 'Shun thieves' are treacherous and ferocious and difficult to deal with."

"Last time, our army fought hard with them, but because of the ferocity of the Hongyi cannon, we had no choice but to retreat."

"Today we are facing an enemy. I wonder what the Superintendent can do to deal with it?"

We didn't win last time. If you really had no choice, why did you waste the lives of your soldiers?

As soon as Zhang Fengyi finished speaking, Ye Tinggui, Li Guoliang and Wang Shiren all looked unhappy.

"What's wrong? What's going on?" Director Gao Qi was feeling strange and couldn't help asking.

"What the director doesn't know is that this 'submissive thief' has no other skills in using weapons and relies only on artillery." Zhang Fengyi couldn't help but smile bitterly.

"Before the director arrived, we fought with him, but because the enemy's artillery fire was too fierce, our army could not cope with it, so we had to retreat."

"Oh?" Director Gao Qiqian was not a three-year-old child. Of course he would not think that the difference between the enemy and us was only a few Hongyi cannons.

The Hongyi Cannon may have been a rare thing more than a hundred years ago, but it is also a common weapon in the armies of the Ming Dynasty and the Later Jin Dynasty today, and it is not considered a "killer".

Therefore, Gao Qiqian couldn't help but become curious, and couldn't help but ask: "Supervisor, is there any way to solve it this time?"

Zhu Xieyuan was not a "soldier of yin and yang", so naturally he would not set up a "yin gate formation" or spread any bad blood.

Seeing that even Director Gao Qiqian was helpless, he couldn't help but laugh and said: "The last time we fought against the 'Shun Thief', even though we had a slight defeat, I was able to see the flaw in it."

"Although the thief's artillery is fierce, he is afraid of close combat. As long as I dig deep trenches to avoid his artillery, he will be defeated without a fight!"

"How do you say this?" Gao Qiqian, Zhang Fengyi and others were stunned when they heard this, and couldn't help but ask quickly.

"Let me give you a clue, and you will know it at a glance!" Zhu Xieyuan laughed when he heard this, stroking his beard, looking like an enigmatic Song Xiance.