Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 170 Misunderstanding

Chapter 170 Misunderstanding
Without Fang Guoan's explanation, Zhu Cilang might have guarded the city carefully and waited for reinforcements. But when he understood all this, he suddenly realized that the so-called chaotic fighting was exactly what the guards were good at.
Just imagine, if it was a formal battle, with the limited number of guards, it would be impossible to wipe out all the Qing troops even if they were lined up in a row. But now the two armies are in a melee, with powerful killing and defense, one guard soldier may be able to hold back several Qing troops.

From this perspective, even if the Qing army was several times larger than the imperial guards, they would still be firmly tied up by them until the entire army was wiped out.

Then the question arises, should Zhu Cilang hide in the city and tremble, waiting for the Qing army to eliminate the guards and then calmly attack the city, or should he take the initiative and put all his chips on the guards to fight for a way out?

just
"Your Highness! No!"

Fang Guoan still failed to understand Zhu Cilang's logic. Under the influence of huge mental inertia, he still stubbornly believed that once the military formation was lost, the confrontation between the two armies would purely become a competition of numbers.

Under such circumstances, how could we fight this kind of battle with the Qing army with obviously inferior forces?
"Your Highness! Our National Security is not a coward, but this war cannot be fought like this!"

"You do not know what I mean."

Zhu Cilang felt that in order to ensure the best execution of military orders, he had to make sure those who were carrying out the mission understood his intentions to the greatest extent possible.

But when he was about to explain further, he saw Fang Guoan clenched his fists and knelt on the ground.

"I understand what your Highness is thinking. All the ministers have second thoughts. If there is no guard to suppress the situation, the situation will be the same as before. But if you make a mistake, not only Hangzhou, but also the country will be in danger."

Zhu Cilang was silent. The powerful guards did help suppress various forces, but he did not make this decision for this reason.

But in this situation, Fang Guoan has obviously made up his mind, and even if he talks his mouth off, he probably won't be able to make him change his mind.

what can we do about it?

"I request that you lead the troops to support the guards!"

Zhu Cilang hadn't thought of what to say yet, but Fang Guoan's words startled him again.

He was against going out of the city to meet the enemy just a moment ago, so why did he change his mind in a moment?
"After I leave, please ask Your Highness to recall Fang Yuanke. Although he is young and has little prestige, if the guards cannot be withdrawn, his troops can still help you. Farewell!"

"boom!"

After saying this, Fang Guoan kowtowed three times on the ground, then turned around and walked down the city wall while Zhu Cilang looked puzzled.

what happened?

What is he going to do?
"General Fang!"

"Fang Guoan!"

In the past, Zhu Cilang would have only called out to Fang Guoan and he would have come running to him. But now, no matter how he called out, Fang Guoan seemed to be unaware and went straight to the city.

In this situation, Zhu Cilang would not think that he was going to do anything wrong, but for a moment he really couldn't figure out what he was thinking.

Could it be?

impossible!
Thoughts came to his mind one after another, but he extinguished them one by one.

During this time, Fang Guoan had gathered soldiers under the city, but Zhu Cilang was still standing there in a daze without making even a single move.

He didn't want to do nothing, but if he couldn't figure out Fang Guoan's thoughts, what should he do?

"Your Highness has saved our lives many times, and today is our chance to repay you!"

A burst of shouting came from the bottom of the city. Zhu Cilang was startled and immediately connected the past and the future.

He wanted to evacuate Hangzhou without any worries.

Fang Yuanke is young and has little prestige, while Fang Guoan is older and has a very high prestige.

If the imperial guards were completely wiped out, Zhu Cilang would naturally have to guard against them taking over the army and doing the same thing as Dong Zhuo, so the imperial guards must be rescued.

But now that he has volunteered to lead the troops to do something that is certain to lead to his death, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince can use the young and less prestigious Fang Yuanke to control the remaining troops, and then use this remaining army and other ministers to re-establish a balance, and the guards will not have to be rescued.

Although he could no longer suppress other ministers with absolute strength as before, at least he still had a chance to make a comeback, and Zhu Cilang would not die in Hangzhou because he had to rescue the guards.

Self-righteous fool!
Zhu Cilang cursed and ran quickly towards the city.

He really wanted Fang Guoan to lend a helping hand to the guards, but this was only possible under circumstances where there was a certain chance of success and it was more likely to happen.

Now this self-righteous idiot obviously has no intention of coming back alive. With such a mentality, how can he guarantee the success of his plan?
"Fang Guoan! Are you going to disobey military orders?"

Just when the soldiers had finished lining up and were waiting for military orders, Zhu Cilang's voice arrived before his arrival.

When the soldiers heard this, they naturally hesitated, not knowing whether they should follow the general's orders.

"Your Highness, please have mercy on us, but we must not be ungrateful. The Tartars are now attacking the city in a big way, and we should risk our lives to buy time for Your Highness to make arrangements!"

As soon as he finished speaking, there was silence in the formation, but from the determined eyes of the soldiers, Zhu Cilang could see that his words had been completely offset by Fang Guoan.

"Your Highness, please do not stop me. When you drive out the Tartars, just give us a glass of wine. Let's go!"

Once the military order was issued, the soldiers marched out immediately. However, when they passed by Zhu Cilang, a brave soldier waved his hand.

"Your Highness, take care!"

With this start, the soldiers behind followed suit. At the end, the voices of "take care" merged into one, which actually caused Zhu Cilang's abdomen and chest to shake continuously.

idiot!

Since coming here, Zhu Cilang has been through a lot, but no matter when he was capturing Zhao Zhilong or resisting the Qing army's night attack, he has never felt as powerless as he does now.

"Fang Guoan! The guards are good at fighting in chaos! Don't commit suicide!"

After making a final effort, Zhu Cilang could only watch as his soldiers left the city to meet the enemy.

Did Fang Guoan disobey military orders?
Obviously not.

Putting aside his original intention, his actions were entirely in line with Zhu Cilang's wishes.

just
"Hi!"

After staring blankly for a moment, all the emotions in my heart finally turned into a deep sigh.

Although he understood what Fang Guoan was going to do, he did not have time to think about why he did it. Now, after a while of silence, he had some general guesses in his mind.

In his mind, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was probably a person with a very deep mind and many schemes, so when Zhu Cilang said "Follow me out of the city to meet the enemy", his first reaction was not "Follow His Royal Highness out of the city", but "His Royal Highness is ordering me to go out of the city".

But according to his thinking, rescuing the guards was probably no different from committing suicide, so after some testing and "confirming" the prince's intention, he made the decision to face death calmly in an instant.

Such ministers
"Send a message to Li Yongmao to send some men over."

It is useless to think about these things at this point. The most urgent task is to deploy manpower to strengthen the defense here.

Fortunately, Fang Guoan did not let his impetuosity get to his head and knew to leave some troops behind for defense, otherwise Zhu Cilang would have had to resort to the empty city strategy near the gap.

"Your Highness~!"

After a while, a shout came into his ears. When he turned his head, he saw Ma Shiying and Huang Daozhou running over in a hurry. Although he had not informed the ministers of the plan tonight in detail, he had informed several of the leaders as usual.

They came at this time, probably because they knew that the situation had changed.
"Your Highness, I heard that the situation has changed, but I don't know what it is?"

"It's okay. Fang Guoan has already led his troops there."

Seeing that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince did not answer directly, Huang Daozhou and Ma Shiying looked at each other secretly, and then Ma Shiying asked, "Do you need to dispatch more troops for support?"

"I have ordered Li Yongmao to bring his troops here."

After hearing these two sentences, both of them could see that Zhu Cilang was not in a good mood, and from this they also had a general idea of the battle situation at the front.

According to common sense, the forces represented by these two people are as hostile as water and fire, and some trouble will definitely arise when they come into contact. However, now, not only are they not like before, they seem to have reached some agreement. It must be that Zhu Cilang is still annoyed with Fang Guoan, otherwise he would have been confused.

"Your Highness, Zhu Dadian has brought 3,000 troops to the other side. I wonder what to do next?"

"So fast?"

The words "three thousand troops and horses" immediately attracted Zhu Cilang's attention.

Before he left Hangzhou, he ordered everyone to mobilize reinforcements to strengthen Hangzhou's defense. In fact, only a few days have passed since then.

Furthermore, he remembered that Zhu Datian had returned to his hometown of Jinhua to recruit soldiers. This amount of time was probably only enough for a round trip. How could he bring back three thousand troops?
"Your Highness"

Hearing the question, Ma Shiying gave some explanation.

Although Zhejiang Province has inherited the Baiyue culture, its folk customs are vastly different from each other.

For example, in Hangzhou and Jiaxing areas west of the Qiantang River, life is naturally more affluent due to their geographical advantages. The people lead a refined life and like elegant things. However, after crossing the Qiantang River, the further south you go, the more tough the customs of the people become.

It just so happened that Zhu Datian’s hometown, Jinhua, was located in this area, so it was natural that he easily recruited three thousand soldiers.

After this explanation, Zhu Cilang just nodded but didn't say anything more.

The arrival of reinforcements is certainly a good thing, but let's not talk about whether the soldiers have the ability to cross the river at night. Even if they can, three thousand newly recruited soldiers will not help the current situation.

However, Ma Shiying had his own purpose in reporting this matter. Seeing that he just nodded, he asked again: "Your Highness, do you have any arrangements for his troops? It would be better to give the order earlier so that he can prepare early."

"Well, let him cross the river tomorrow."

"Your Highness, the troops have been on the road for days, and the soldiers seem to be resentful. Why don't you cross the river and give them a lecture to stabilize their morale and boost their spirits?"

Ok?
What river did you cross in the middle of the night? What did you say?

Ma Shiying's words were extremely unreasonable. Even if Zhu Cilang had something else on his mind, he had to focus all his attention on this sentence.

"Speak directly if you have anything to say."

"Your Highness, I ask you to evacuate Hangzhou."

"That's what I mean, old minister."

This conversation was originally only between Zhu Cilang and Ma Shiying, but who would have thought that Huang Daozhou would be the first to kneel on the ground as soon as the words were finished.

The two have reached an agreement.

This was the first thought that came to Zhu Cilang’s mind.

Then he immediately felt irritated.

Dealing with the external enemies in the open would be fine, after all, in such a world all we have to fight for is a glimmer of hope, but what annoys him the most is that he has to divide his attention to deal with the troubles inside.

Couldn't he just concentrate on dealing with the foreign enemies first?
Thinking of this, Zhu Cilang's anger turned into a bitter smile.

If the ministers could really do this, what would he do? Who knew whether this body was in the imperial palace in Beijing or in a courtyard?
"Evacuate Hangzhou? Where to?"

"To Fujian."

"Go to southern Zhejiang."

Two completely different place names were spoken by the two people, and then Zhu Cilang waited for their argument with an expressionless face.

"Fujian is surrounded by mountains on all sides. Although it is good for defense, it is different from other provinces and is not a good choice."

"Although southern Zhejiang has the Qiantang River as a shield, it is too close to the Tartars. If we lose something, we will have to move again, which is not conducive to stability."

"Zheng Zhilong was born a pirate. From Zheng Hongkui's performance, we can see that he has two minds. It's fine that the princes were deceived by him, but do you want to let Your Highness fall into the tiger's den?"

"Tiger's den? Your Highness has the orthodoxy, and we loyal ministers are helping him. Even if Zheng Zhilong has second thoughts, what can he do? But you, Ma Shiying, want to trick Your Highness to Zhu Dadian's hometown, but I don't know what you are up to!"

"You are a mouth-watering slanderer!"

"Traitor! Are you angry because of shame?!"

Watching the two men attacking each other, Zhu Cilang began to doubt for the first time the idea of expelling the Tartars.

All the ministers in the court, whether loyal or treacherously, had their own thoughts. No wonder the Qing Dynasty had so many opportunities after entering the Pass, while the Southern Ming Dynasty didn't seize even one.

"Why not go directly to Toungoo?"

"Well, Toungoo is a bit far away, and it's also a vassal state, it seems."

Hearing Zhu Cilang's cold voice, Ma Shiying seemed to sense the Crown Prince's dissatisfaction, but Huang Daozhou thought about it seriously, and only closed his mouth when he caught a glimpse of his expression.

"You two might as well tell me."

"Greetings to Your Highness."

Just when Zhu Cilang was about to say something, Li Yongmao came over with several hundred "soldiers", but he just raised his hand to signal that there was no need to be polite and then continued to yell at the two of them.

"If the city is captured today, I will die here, and you can appoint a new king!"

After all, this place is just the outer room, without any shelter at all.

In addition, the previous quarrel between Huang and Ma had attracted the attention of the remaining soldiers of Fang Guoan's army, and Zhu Cilang's roar was heard by everyone present.

"We are willing to fight to the death for Your Highness!"

Suddenly, bursts of shouts rang out from all directions, startling Huang and Ma so much that their faces turned pale.

They couldn't understand how the Ming army, which had always collapsed at the first blow, could have such momentum, nor could they understand what was wrong with their own plans.

Swoosh~~!

Just when they were filled with fear, they suddenly heard the sound of a sword being unsheathed. When they looked in the direction of the sound, they saw Zhu Cilang, wearing armor, had walked several steps towards the gap in the city wall, with the sword still tightly grasped in his hand.

"Unless I die, I will never allow the Tartars to slaughter my people!"

Deleted several times~~~~~so.
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(End of this chapter)