The Battle of Handan broke out two days later. The 13,000 Ming troops from Xingtai arrived at the city of Handan in just one day. With the sound of fierce artillery fire, the Ming army began to launch a fierce attack on Handan City.

At the beginning of the war, the Ming army occupied the initiative of the war. Although the number of Qing troops in Handan was not large, with nearly 10,000 guards, and in order to protect Handan, the Qing army had long strengthened the city defense of Handan. However, facing the Ming army with powerful firearms, especially those stationed in Xingtai for many months, and had sufficient preparations, both in terms of food and ammunition, the Qing army was no match at all.

In just one day of the battle, the entire Handan City was bombarded by the Ming army's artillery fire, and the Qing army suffered heavy casualties in the city. Although the Qing army's guards immediately asked for help, they were afraid that they would not have time to wait for reinforcements to arrive in the face of the Ming army's powerful offensive.

The situation was indeed the same. On the morning of the next day, the north gate of Handan was broken first. With the breaking of the north gate, the Ming army's infantry took advantage of the situation. At this time, the fall of Handan was the destined result. By the afternoon of the battle, most of Handan had fallen into the hands of the Ming army. The Ming army in the city of Handan broke through the south. The Qing army resisted step by step but was powerless. As the Qing generals saw that the situation was gone, they led more than a thousand subordinates to flee from the south gate to Anyang, and Handan was officially lost.

The Ming army captured Handan three days ago and the morale of the Ming army was greatly boosted. After occupying Handan, the Ming army did not stop and continued to march towards Anyang. At this time, the Qing army in Anyang had learned the news that Handan had lost. The Qing army was frightened and received an order to give up Anyang directly. Their troops took the initiative to retreat to Tangyin. At the same time, Longkodo quickly mobilized the troops of various units to gather in Tangyin to block the Ming army's offensive in Tangyin.

But who would have thought that on the day when Handan was defeated, the Ming army in the South Road also moved, and the Ming army in the South Road was Nanyang.

Zhang Gaoji led his troops to attack Nanyang. The two armies collided in Dengzhou and then launched a big battle. Although the Qing army had more troops than the Ming army, the Ming army gained the upper hand after the battle, especially after Yang Xu's main force arrived on the battlefield, the Qing army could not bear it. Although Prince Guo Yin sent troops to reinforce in time, he still could not withstand the Ming army's offensive.

Seeing this, Yin? had no choice but to command his troops to retreat northward and cross the Tuanhe River to the defense line. At the same time, he also set fire to destroy all the ships on both sides to stop the Ming army. However, because the retreat was too urgent, more than 10,000 Qing troops behind the palace had no choice but to escape. In order to seize the life, they jumped directly into the Tuanhe River and tried to swim across the shore, but were washed away by the turbulent river. Their miserable situation was shocking.

The whole body was moved by a single blow. Originally, the Central Plains was a gunpowder barrel. The Ming and Qing dynasties gathered nearly one million troops in the Central Plains. As soon as the battle between Handan and Dengzhou began, the entire Central Plains fought around two places, and the situation changed.

In Beijing, Zhang Zhao turned over and dismounted and walked quickly towards the garrison palace.

As the Ming army war broke out in the Central Plains, most of the main forces of the Ming army in northern China had gone south. At this moment, there were only more than 30,000 Ming troops left near Beijing.

This army was dominated by Zhang Zhao, with most of them stationed in Fengtai, and the rest were stationed in other places. Today, Zhang Zhao entered the city and received an order from Zhuang Yan.

"Ship Zhuang! Report on the humble position of Zhang Zhao!"

With the loud shouts, Zhang Zhao, who was slightly charming, appeared in front of Zhuang Yan. Zhuang Yan raised his hand and replied with a military salute, then called him to sit down.

"How is the situation in the army?" Zhuang Yan was not polite and asked straightforwardly.

Zhang Zhao reported on the situation of the troops in Fengtai Camp. The troops in Fengtai Camp were the main force of Zhang Zhao's new army, and there were some troops that were later incorporated and reorganized. After half a year of training and reorganization, although they have not yet reached the level of the new army, they can be regarded as useful.

In addition, there are also garrison troops around Beijing. These troops are certainly inferior to the new army in Fengtai, but as local garrison troops, they are considered to be careless and can at least fight.

Zhuang Yan listened very carefully, and nodded slightly while listening to him. In fact, as the chief of staff, he was naturally clear about what Zhang Zhao said, but he called Zhang Zhao to listen to the report today, in addition to listening to the report.

"The Central Plains War has begun. You have read the Military Daily, right?"

"Return to Zhuang Zhuang, I have read the military newspaper before coming." Zhang Zhao replied seriously. Although his answer was calm, he was a little disappointed from his expression. You should know that when the Ming army attacked Tianjin Wei and then attacked Beijing City directly, Zhang Zhao was the absolute commander, and even made great contributions in the battle to conquer Northern China.

But now, friendly troops are fighting fiercely in the south, but he is doing nothing in Fengtai. Although the responsibility of a soldier is to obey, as the war begins, the safety of Beijing is equally important, as a soldier, that soldier does not have the idea of ​​making achievements? What's more, such a big battle?

"What? Have an idea?" Zhang Zhao's expression had long fallen into Zhuang Yan's eyes, and he asked with a smile.

Zhang Zhao immediately straightened his chest and said, "It is impossible for Zhuang Zhuang to have no idea, but Bei Zhi knows his responsibilities in his heart."

"It's right!" Hearing Zhang Zhao's answer, Zhuang Yan praised him with appreciation. To be honest, Zhang Zhao and Jia Cheng are the best among the new army generals, and these two are called the two heroes in the new army. However, in comparison, Zhang Zhao acted more calmly, which was the main reason why Zhuang Yan and Lin Jianzhang left Zhang Zhao in Beijing after discussing.

If Jia Cheng is a powerful general and a sharp knife of the new army, then Zhang Zhao can have the potential to become a commander. Moreover, judging from the fact that Zhang Zhao was stationed in Fengtai and trained the troops in the past few months, this has indeed proved this.

"It's something else to call you here today." Zhuang Yan curled his smile and said seriously: "I received a report from the Jinyiwei yesterday. You can take a look at this first."

As he said that, Zhuang Yan handed over a piece of stuff in hand. Zhang Zhao hurriedly took it and looked carefully. It was the information of the Jinyiwei's Qing army and Mongolian troops. After Zhang Ran, the commander of the Jinyiwei, arrived in Beijing a few days ago, further strengthened the intelligence network of North China, and at the same time launched a special investigation into the variables in the previous battle of Huaian.

Regarding the intervention of Tsarist Russia, Zhang Ran drew a group of capable personnel from Nanjing to specialize in intelligence collection in this regard. He soon found out the movements of the Qing army in Chahar, and learned that the Qing army had joined forces with the Mongolian troops to prepare for a military operation.

Compared with the Central Plains, although the movement in Chahar was not very big, the Ming Dynasty did not dare to relax at all. You should know that whether it is Shanxi, Chahar or other Mongolian troops, they can directly enter the Ming army controlled area as long as they cross the border wall. Once the Qing army gathers this force, it cannot be underestimated, let alone the shadow of Tsarist Russia is included.
Chapter completed!