"You deserve death? I'll kill you once." Chongzhen tried his best to control his anger and said coldly.

"Is now the time to ask questions? Now is the time to defend the capital. If slaves invade the capital, our Ming Dynasty is in danger of falling."

"Your Majesty is wise, and the guilty minister boldly made the suggestion, telling the world that the soldiers and horses are industrious."

Chen Xinjia knew that at this time, whether he could survive or not depended on the countermeasures.

"Mr. Zhou Ge, tell me, is Chen Xinjia's suggestion feasible?" Chongzhen did not look at Chen Xinjia. Now he was full of doubts about Chen Xinjia's ability.

After the defeat of Songjin last year, Chen Xinjia proposed three major conquest and defense arrangements in order to deal with internal and external difficulties.

In order to support Chen Xinjia, Chongzhen also spent a lot of money and allocated three million taels of silver to build and deploy these three fronts.

The first line of expeditionary defense front is to consolidate the Liaodong defense line with Shanhaiguan, Ningyuan and Jizhou as one.

The cabinet also recommended Wang Yongji as governor of Jiliao, Li Yutian as governor of Liaodong, and Wu Sangui as commander-in-chief of Ningyuan.

The second article is to conquer the defensive front, integrating Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi to consolidate the southern line of defense of the Great Wall.

Zhang Fuzhen was appointed as the governor of Xuanda, Jiang Yuxu was appointed as the governor of Xuanfu, and Cao Bianjiao was appointed as the general military affairs officer of Xuanda.

The third line of defense for the expedition was to have Ding Qirui, the governor of Henan, the governor of Huguang, and the governor of Sun Chuanting as the governors of the three sides, and stick to the front line of Kaifeng, Hanyang, Tongguan, and Chang'an.

They trapped Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong's ant bandits in Xiangyang, Yunyang and Nanyang.

Chen Xinjia's strategic plan was implemented through repeated deliberations between Chongzhen and the cabinet.

At least in terms of strategic deployment, it is indeed feasible.

But no matter how good the policy is, it must be implemented by people.

First of all, in Liaodong, although Governor Wang Yongji and Governor Li Yutian occupied high positions, they were both Jinshi and civil servants and had no military knowledge at all.

In the six months since I took office, I have made basically no achievements.

Money was poured into the three towns of Miyun, Jizhou and Shanhaiguan, but no one knew where the money went.

All in all, the troops in each town were lax. The three chief soldiers, Bai Tengjiao, Bai Guangen, and Ma Ke, only received one hundred thousand taels of silver, which was not enough to fill their teeth.

Only Wu Sangui, the commander-in-chief of Ningyuan, had an elite cavalry with acceptable combat effectiveness.

This time, when the Qing army entered the pass, they also explored Daomiyun and Jizhou and were relieved, so they entered the pass through Huangyakou.

Zhou Yanru was just one of the ten people seeking fame and reputation. His knowledge was good, but he was greedy by nature and had little ability to govern.

But he was promoted by civil servants from the Donglin faction in Jiangnan.

On the surface, he even had a grudge against the Donglin faction, but this time, in order to join the cabinet, they had secretly formed an alliance.

The reason is very simple. Emperor Chongzhen now does not trust people from Donglin's group.

But it has to be said that it is the tragedy of the Ming Dynasty that such a selfish person is now in a high position in the temple and in charge of the cabinet.

How can a corrupt scholar who has no responsibility, no court in his heart, and no common people save the country and the people?

"Your Majesty, the capital cannot afford to suffer any losses. We can issue an edict immediately. The general of the army, Cao Bianjiao, the governor of Baoding, Yang Wenyue, and the general of Shandong, Yang Yufan, will dispatch troops to support the capital."

"Instruct Zhang Guowei, the Minister of War, to go to the south of the Yangtze River to recruit troops. This will ensure that the capital is safe."

Seeing the emperor's roll call, Zhou Yanru raised his hands and stepped out of the queue, bowed and spoke.

"There are still tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in the capital camp, guarding the gates of each city. There should be no problem if we hold on for half a month."

Although Zhou Yanru's advice is quite satisfactory, it is still a sound plan.

"The elders of the Zhou Pavilion are planning for the country, and the ministers and others seconded the proposal." Immediately afterwards, cabinet scholars Chen Yan, He Fengsheng, Zhang Sizhi, Wei Zhengcheng and others also came out to agree.

"Your Majesty, just in case, I would like to go to Yunnan and Guizhou to recruit soldiers to join the court." Wang Yingxiong, a scholar of Dongge University, also stood up and asked for help.

"Your Majesty, I have requested the governor of Wuchang, firstly to contain the ant thieves, and secondly to recruit soldiers from Huguang to bravely enter the court." Wu Di, a great scholar of Dongge, followed closely and spoke.

Chongzhen raised his eyes and glanced at Zhou Yanru: "The cabinet drafted the votes and immediately issued an edict from eight hundred miles away. Cao Bianjiao, Yang Yufan, and Yang Wenyue immediately led their troops to the capital."

"Appoint Zhang Guowei as the governor of Jiangnan, Wang Yingxiong as the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, and Wu Di as the governor of Huguang. With the imperial edict, we can take it immediately and recruit brave soldiers from all over the world."

"Come here, take Chen Xinjia to prison and wait for the war to be dealt with."

"Your Majesty is wise," the civil and military officials throughout the dynasty shouted one after another.

After the dispersion of the dynasty, Zhou Yanru, the first assistant of the cabinet, and Chen Yan, the second assistant, drafted the decree and came to Wenhua Hall to ask for the seal.

"Your Majesty, now that the war is approaching, the post of Grand Sima is indispensable. I wonder if your Majesty has a minister you like?" Chen Yan, the second assistant, bowed and asked.

"Mr. Zhou Ge, who do you think can be promoted?" Chongzhen still has high hopes for Zhou Yanru, otherwise he would not have let him serve as the first assistant twice.

"Feng Yuanbiao, the right minister of the Ministry of War, is a man of great character. He has held important positions in the government and has been in charge of military affairs in the military for many years. He is qualified to take on a big responsibility."

Zhou Yanru thought for a moment, then bowed and spoke.

"Then let the cabinet draw up a vote and issue an edict." Chongzhen thought for a while and then said.

He is now completely disappointed with Chen Xinjia. Last year, Songjin was defeated and all the elite Ming troops were lost. Chongzhen was considerate of Chen Xinjia but did not punish him.

They even had great trust in him and fully supported him in rebuilding the internal and external defense lines. He really wanted people to give people and money to give money.

But as a result, Jizhou and Miyun's defense lines were in vain, and in a blink of an eye, the slaves broke through and came.

Thinking of this, Chongzhen wanted to kill Chen Xinjia immediately.

"I obey the order." Zhou Yanru and Chen Yan bowed and retreated. Although they did not communicate with each other, there was a hint of joy in each other's eyes.

Why does Feng Yuanbiao need anyone? He is actually a master of the Donglin sect.

This is Zhou Yanru. First of all, not to mention the issue of ability. Under the pressure of the enemy's army, what he considers is not the safety of the court, but whether people who are beneficial to him can occupy high positions.

In fact, neither Zhou Yanru nor Chen Yan were from the Donglin faction, but as they served as the first and second assistants in the court, they had to win over people from the Donglin faction.

Because the courtiers of the Donglin faction are spread all over the court and inside and outside the court, offending them will lead to countless rumors.

At a time when the Ming Dynasty was under martial law and under turmoil inside and outside the capital, the 70,000 Qing troops entering the Pass bypassed the capital from Jizhou, invaded Hejian, and penetrated directly into Jingzhou City.

The Qing army consisted of 70,000 horses and infantry, and was known as the 100,000-strong army.

It was commanded by Dorobele Abatai, assisted by interior ministers Turge and Dorzi Darhan, and commanded hundreds of generals.

Abatai is the seventh son of the old slave Nurhaci, the elder brother of Huang Taiji, and the uncle of the current Jiannu young emperor Fulin.

The elder brother of the regent Dorgon, this man was good at fighting and led troops to plunder Hebei and Shandong many times.

So this time he led his army into the pass, and the whole journey was very familiar. After the army conquered Jizhou, it entered Hejian from Tianjin Zuowei, broke through Jingzhou, and drove directly to Linqingguan.

In just over ten days, the Jiannu army led by Abatai had arrived at Linqing Pass.

"Zhang Shenling, Zhang Tianlu, the commander-in-chief of Linqing Pass, but your brother, it's up to you whether you can win this pass and plunder Shandong."

Outside Linqing Pass, in front of the Qing army's formation, Abatai, wearing blue cloth armor and a blue tassel helmet, rode a tall horse.

With a majestic face and sharp eyes, he looked in the direction of the city gate and said calmly to the young general wearing white cloth armor and a white tassel helmet and gun cap next to him.

If Zhu Yunfei were at the scene at this moment, he would definitely be able to recognize this man with his braids cut off and wearing Jiannu uniform.

It was his former brother Zhang Tianfu.

"Don't worry, Mr. Baylor. I'll call Guan immediately." Zhang Tianfu's eyes flashed, and he rode out with a firm look on his face.

After breaking out at the Mulun River that day, he hid in the mountains for more than a month. Finally, he had to go down the mountain due to hunger and cold.

But not long after he came down the mountain, he was captured by the Mongols.

He was then escorted to Shengjing and almost beheaded.

In order to survive, he finally betrayed Zhu Yunfei, although the news came a little late.

However, the auxiliary general who was interrogating him, Dahai, learned that his brother was Zhang Tianlu, so he reported the news.

At that time, the news that Zhang Tianlu was appointed as the commander-in-chief had already spread.

Dorgon thought it would be useful to keep Zhang Tianfu, so he took the initiative to marry Huang Taiji's daughter to Zhang Tianfu and recruited him as his consort.

Now more than half a year has passed, and Zhang Tianfu has embarked on the path of a traitor.

Although he was forced to do so at first, after becoming the consort, especially now that the princess was pregnant, he was determined to become the slave builder's lackey.

At Linqing Pass, General Zhang Tianlu and Deputy General Li Zhongxing saw Zhang Tianfu coming with his troops.

He had already received the letter from his brother, but he still couldn't believe it.

Until this moment, when he saw Zhang Tianfu appearing in front of him, he still had a look of shock on his face.

Because his parents died young, Zhang Tianlu was ten years older than Zhang Tianfu.

For this reason, he always loved his younger brother very much, and he had a rift with Zhu Yunfei.

Although Xu Handing, who was killed by Zhu Yunfei, was instigated, how could he be easily instigated if he didn't have resentment in his heart towards Zhu Yunfei for killing his younger brother?

"Brother, I'm back. The Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, His Royal Highness the Regent, and Lord Dorobel have promised me that as long as you surrender to the Qing Dynasty, I will make you a duke."

"You will continue to command all the men and horses under your command. You will be granted the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Han Army. All officers and men under your command will be promoted and rewarded."
Chapter completed!