I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 625 How to deal with it
The ministers discussed again, and finally Xia Yan stepped out and said, "Your Highness is right, but what should we do with the hundreds of thousands of northern troops that have come across the sea? Nanzhili and Zhejiang are the heartland, and the front-line troops will soon be unable to continue without supply support from the rear, so I think that even if the journey is long, we should transfer the troops back from the front."

Xia Yan's words were agreed by many ministers.

"You are confused!" Zhu Houcong said, and his words stunned the ministers.

"How could our subjects be confused? Please explain clearly, Your Highness?" Xia Yan continued.

"Doing this will play right into Zhu Houcong's hands. He wants us to return. As long as we return, we will fall into his trap and be led by him by the nose. In the end, we will completely lose the initiative, so we must not return!" Zhu Houcong said firmly.

The ministers present looked at each other in bewilderment at Zhu Houcong's words, but they had to admit that what Zhu Houcong said made some sense.
"The army on the front line in Xuzhou not only cannot be withdrawn, but must also take this opportunity to launch an attack!" Zhu Houcong said with a burning gaze.

"Attack?" The ministers were even more confused.
"Yes! Attack! This is a good opportunity!" Zhu Houcong's eyes flashed with excitement. He felt that he saw through Zhu Houxun's plan and found the loophole in Zhu Houxun's plan.

"The Northern Army was able to launch such a large-scale offensive operation in Zhejiang and Fujian. The number of troops deployed to Zhejiang and Fujian reached as high as 300,000 or 400,000, including many elite divisions. How did this army appear? I guess it must have been secretly withdrawn from the Xuzhou front," Zhu Houcong continued.

Yan Song immediately understood what Zhu Houcong meant and said, "Yes! The Northern Army has done its best to maintain an army of 1.5 million and confront us on the front line of Xuzhou. They can still launch such an attack, which means they must have withdrawn troops from the Xuzhou front, at least a lot of elite troops."

Zhu Houcong was very satisfied with Yan Song's flattery, and continued: "So the Northern Army on the Xuzhou front must be weaker than before. As long as we join forces with Prince Ning and attack together, our army is twice as large as the Northern Army. We will surely succeed in one battle, break through the Xuzhou-Nanyang line, and attack Henan and Shandong, and then threaten Northern Zhili, and even destroy the Beijing government in one fell swoop."

Zhu Houcong's words caused the ministers to start discussing again, and this time many ministers agreed with Zhu Houcong's opinion.

"Your Highness is a master of calculations! The army on the front line in Xuzhou is far away from Nanjing and Hangzhou, but Henan and Shandong are right under their noses. Nanzhili and Zhejiang are our heartland, but Henan and Shandong are also the heartland of the Beijing government." Yan Song said excitedly.

"Yes! That's right. We can't be led by Zhu Houcong. He fights his and I fight mine. Besides, a large amount of supplies have been stockpiled on the front line, which is enough for the army on the front line to launch an attack." Zhu Houcong continued.

Zhu Houcong's words made the discussion among the ministers more intense.
Zhu Houcong's words make sense, but many of his ministers are from Nanzhili, Zhejiang and Fujian.
The last minister could not help but stand up and said: "Your Highness is right, but what about Southern Zhili and Zhejiang? Are we just going to let the Northern Army ravage us?" "No! Of course we can't let the Northern Army ravage us. We still have a lot of militia in Southern Zhili and Zhejiang. These people can hold them off for a while, and then we can spend a lot of money to recruit brave warriors. When a breakthrough is made on the Xuzhou front, the Beijing government might withdraw the Northern Army from Southern Zhili and Zhejiang in a panic." Zhu Houcong continued, the more he thought about it, the more he felt that doing so was the best option.

"But, whether it's the militia or the temporarily recruited warriors, their combat effectiveness is not strong, and I'm afraid they are unable to stop the Northern Army." The minister said in embarrassment.

"If your fighting power is not strong, then defend the city to the death. Don't go out of the city to fight in the field easily. Wait for good news from the north," Zhu Houcong said immediately.

Because the Liu Liu and Liu Qi Rebellion 20 years ago had its front line approaching Nanzhili, the city walls of Nanzhili and Zhejiang had been repaired. In addition to the recent repairs and reinforcements, the city defenses of the cities in Nanzhili were quite good, and they could be put to good use at this time. Moreover, Nanzhili and Zhejiang were densely populated, and it would be a big project for the Northern Army to take them all down. It would definitely take a long time, and the densely populated urban clusters in the Yangtze River Delta could be used to hold back the Northern Army coming across the sea.
After realizing this, the ministers present relaxed a lot. Even if the Northern Army reached the city of Nanjing, it would take a lot of effort to capture the city defense.
The proposal was quickly approved.
At the same time, the Nanjing government's proposal to expand the army by 600,000 was also passed. This proposal was passed smoothly, and the cost of the expansion was subscribed by the gentry.
This made Zhu Houcong laugh and cry. It was extremely difficult to expand the army before, but now the knife was almost on his neck, and everyone was extremely active.
The number of troops in this wave of military expansion is definitely more than 600,000. Many gentry will definitely expand more militias in various places. The number of troops added by the Nanjing government in this round of military expansion can reach a million.
Zhu Houcong quickly sent his edict to the Wuhan government, strongly inviting Prince Ning to attack northward together.
He also sent an imperial edict to Xu Pengju and Guo Xun at the front to launch an attack immediately. In order to make Xu Pengju and Guo Xun realize the seriousness of the matter, Zhu Houcong also sent a gold medal along with the imperial edict to show his determination in this matter.
It was 600 miles from Nanjing to the front line of Xuzhou. With the complete post station system of the Ming Dynasty, the express delivery of the goods was 800 miles and it was delivered to the front line in less than a day.
Xu Pengju hurriedly called Guo Xun over and showed him Zhu Houcong's edict.
When Guo Xun saw the imperial edict, he was very excited. He thought that the petition he had submitted some time ago had worked.
After he finished reading the imperial edict, he was completely stunned.
"General Guo, what do you think?" Xu Pengju asked hurriedly.

"Nanjing asked us to launch an attack, but did they give us any support? For example, artillery or something? Last time I wrote to Your Highness, asking for a full two thousand artillery pieces." Guo Xun asked suddenly.

Xu Pengju shook his head slowly and said, "Your Highness has made it very clear in the imperial edict. A large number of Northern Army troops have landed, and Nanjing is unable to take care of itself. We can't get any support from Nanjing at all now."

"Then there's no way to fight this battle. You know how elite the Northern Army's field troops are. Moreover, the Northern Army has a large number of artillery. Even if we have an absolute advantage in numbers, I don't have the confidence of winning." Guo Xun said, shaking his head.

"If one battle destroys the elite troops who have been trained for so long, we will be completely finished," Guo Xun sighed.

"Then what should we do?" Xu Pengju also knew the seriousness of the matter and said, pointing to the gold medal on the table.

"Let's delay it for now!" Guo Xun sighed.

(End of this chapter)