Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 205: One’s own affairs, one’s own affairs

Xu Yinjue tossed and turned all night.

In other dynasties, people like him with super-high titles would not be so nervous about a "play".

But after Emperor Baozong of the Ming Dynasty, the nobles became increasingly marginalized in the court, and by the end of the Ming Dynasty, they were not much different from ordinary wealthy men.

It was both unexpected and reasonable that Duke Wei of the Ming Dynasty, who had hardly ever participated in state affairs, would have such a reaction when facing his first battle in life.

At first, Xu Yinjue was only thinking about tomorrow's battle, but later on, although his mind became clearer, his thoughts became more and more confused.

Things like the war and the court disputes emerged in his mind one by one, and then disappeared as his thoughts stirred. In the end, only one thing remained in his mind.

Xu Shaoyue's marriage.

Xu Yinjue naturally knew that Empress Dowager Zou kept his daughter by her side.

To be honest, he felt a little smug at first.

The three brothers can all be said to be highly valued by His Highness. If Xu Shaoyue can become the Crown Princess, the prosperity of the Xu family will surely far exceed the past.

To be frank, this situation is only comparable to that during the Yongle period, not to mention the past hundred years of wasted time.

But Xu Yinjue was not a crazy person after all. After the initial joy, his worries grew day by day. These days, he even felt like he was walking on thin ice.

Why?

Since the Song Dynasty, emperors have fully learned from the experience of their predecessors and have been extremely wary of the group of foreign relatives. By the time of this dynasty, although there were some who married the daughters of nobles, the vast majority of concubines were from common people's families.

Then the problem is coming.

Why can something that is obviously inconsistent with the ancestral system be as certain as a done deal?
Xu Yinjue understood clearly that if the late emperor were still alive, the prince's marriage would naturally be decided by his parents, and even if others had some ideas, it would not cause any big trouble.

But the current situation is extremely special. Although His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has turned the tide and saved the collapsing empire, to put it bluntly, he is just a sixteen-year-old kid.

Even if there is no one to teach him, he can learn things like strategy and tactics from books, but where can he learn the tricks involved in such an important matter as marriage?

Under such circumstances, it is natural that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince cannot see the disadvantages, and it is reasonable for him to follow Empress Dowager Zou's wishes.

just
There are so many civil officials in Hangzhou, how could they not think of this?
If I could think of it, how come no one reminded me?

The more Xu Yinjue thought about it, the more dangerous it felt. In the end, he even stood up and wanted to write a letter to tell His Royal Highness the Crown Prince about the seriousness of the matter.

By this time, Xu Yinjue had probably figured out the key.

With the Crown Prince's intelligence, by the time this marriage comes to light, he should be able to figure out the ins and outs of it.

But by that time there would be no turning back. No matter what was done, a rift would surely be created between the ruler and his subjects. If someone with ulterior motives fanned the flames, it was possible that the two would turn against each other and the situation would get out of control.

At this point, some people may think that it is just a marriage and there is no need to go to such lengths. However, if you sort out the various factors involved, you will find that as long as the marriage can be successful, this is probably a destined result.

The harm caused by external relatives was already widely known at this time. Anyone who had read a few books could count many examples of external relatives causing political chaos.

Under such circumstances, as long as Zhu Cilang married Xu Shaoyue according to the wishes of certain people, his relationship with the Xu family would probably be exactly the same as that of Duoduo and Bolo now.

I know that you will cause trouble in order to protect yourself, and you know that I will suppress you in many ways to prevent you from causing trouble.

This situation would probably not be a big deal at first, but as long as Xu Shaoyue gave birth to a dragon son, the situation would definitely develop in an uncontrollable direction.

In this way, both parties have no other thoughts, but in order to protect themselves, they have to slowly come up with the idea of ​​striking first.

Then
He wrote and tore it, tore it and wrote again. When the sky gradually brightened, Xu Yinjue still hadn't figured out how to write the letter. He even had some doubts about whether he should write it at all.

I can't say this myself, I need to ask someone else.

With this in mind, Xu Yinjue asked someone to bring an iron basin, and then he personally burned all the paper balls on the ground.

By the time he finished all this, the sky was gradually brightening. He closed his eyes and rested for a while before getting dressed and heading straight for the camp in the north of the city.

Is Xu Yinjue cautious?

Compared with ordinary people, he is naturally extremely cautious, but compared with civil officials, his caution is probably not enough.

Just like Liang Yungou, as soon as the trivial case came out, he had already started to make up for it, if he had not made a mistake in judging the situation.

Zhu Cilang had already prepared various countermeasures, so a case of street fight resulting in death might not be able to do anything to him.

Political struggles are like this. They are often ignored because they originate from inconspicuous places, and by the time they really break out, there is no room for reversal.

Xu Yinjue was probably a little slow to react to this, but Bolo, who was outside the city, was much more alert than him.

Bolo is spoiled, but he has seen his father suffer a lot of attacks since he was a child, so he has some "childhood skills" in this matter.

Therefore, as early as when the war situation gradually turned unfavorable to the Qing army, he had already formulated a response plan based on the principle of clearing himself of responsibility.

This method of coping seems simple, it is nothing more than fighting a few tacit battles with the Ming army. However, if you are in the situation, you will find that the formation of this tacit understanding not only takes a lot of effort, but also cannot involve yourself.

Under these two restrictions, it was much more difficult for Bolo to escape safely. If there wasn't another Tunqi in Wuhu, he wouldn't dare to act even if he had all kinds of ideas.

In Bolo's opinion, it was his indirect attacks on Tunqi that led to the tacit agreement between Wuhu and the enemy. Once the news was passed on, a letter inviting a fight was sent from Yingtian last night.

But the actual situation was very different from what he imagined, but the final result was still the same. He had no intention of asking further questions, so the Ming army naturally would not give him a detailed explanation.

When the appointed time came, both armies were waiting outside Yingtian City. After thinking for a moment, Boro turned to the general beside him and asked, "General Ma, are you willing to lead the charge?"

Hearing this, Ma Huabao was stunned at first, but when he felt Bolo's compelling gaze, he immediately replied, "I obey your command!"

He was originally a subordinate of Liu Zeqing, but after Liu Zeqing escaped, he and several other generals led their troops to surrender to the Qing Dynasty.

Afterwards, various troops moved south, and those who dispersed also dispersed one after another. Until now, the only ones left in the Yingtian camp were the bannermen under Bolo and these troops that no one wanted.

However, he did not have many complaints about such a life. After all, during the Ming Dynasty, their town did not benefit much due to its military and combat power.

When he arrived in the Qing Dynasty, he was happy to do some auxiliary work.

After all, since he surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, the generals didn't have to worry about raising money and food for military supplies, and he was already a general, so it seemed that he could not be promoted any further.

What's more, the work was done by the soldiers, so no matter how hard or tiring it was, he didn't need to do it himself.

Under such circumstances, he would naturally live peacefully in the Yingtian camp, eating and waiting for death.

Based on this, Ma Huabao was naturally very confused about Bolo's order. In the past two months, the Ming army in Yingtian City only came out once at night, and their morale and fighting power were naturally evident.

But no matter what, this is the first field battle after Bolo took charge of all affairs in Yingtian. Even if it is just for the sake of face, he should try his best to win this battle.

Thinking in this way, unless Bolo had gone crazy, he would have gathered a strong army to fight no matter how difficult it was. Why would he set his sights on these weaklings?
But to put it bluntly, Ma Huabao was just a small general of the surrendered army. Bolo's military order had already been issued, so how could he dare to make any comment except to go down and reorganize the army?
After a while, a team of a thousand people slowly walked out of the Qing army's formation, and after about an incense stick of time, they stood facing the Ming army in front of them.

"General Tena, Yingtian has been under siege for two months, and I think people are eating each other. If you abandon the dark and join the light, and join the Qing, I will ensure that you will never have to starve again."

The verbal abuse may seem like personal attacks between the two generals, but the underlying logic is to undermine the morale of the other side's soldiers.

Just like what Ma Huabao said, it directly pointed out the biggest difficulty of Yingtian. Once the city was really out of food, even if no soldiers defected, they would not be able to fight with all their strength, and victory in this battle would naturally be easy to foresee.

But what Ma Huabao said was just common sense. As one of the top cities in the world, Yingtian not only has many warehouses, but also many military fields between the inner and outer cities.

Of course, the grain in the fields belonged to the people and the guards, but the grain in the warehouses could not be seized at will without reason.

However, Zhu Cilang had already focused his attention on grain from the first day he came to power, and the top warehouses were all in his hands.

Therefore, although the food supply in the city was already stretched to the limit by this time, it was still a long way from cannibalism.

"No need to say more, let's go and fight!"

Normally, this war of words would have lasted for a while, but the opposing general only responded with this one sentence before retreating into the battle formation. All of Ma Huabao's words were of no use, and he felt like he was punching cotton.

Since that was the case, Ma Huabao also went to the back of the formation from the side.

Although the combat effectiveness of his army is not worth mentioning, as a veteran with many years of experience, his vision is not bad.

In just these two sentences, he had realized that the Ming army on the opposite side was not equipped with any firearms and was obviously just ordinary infantry.

joke!

Nowadays, any soldier who dares to engage in close combat is not a strong army.
But if this team of less than a thousand people was really a strong army, why would the prince leave them in Yingtian City?

Thinking about it this way, the situation couldn't be more obvious.

This group of people might have been newly trained, and they might have never even touched a firearm.

With this in mind, Ma Huabao gave a few instructions to the general leading the team, and only gave the order after the general understood his meaning.

"March!"

I have to say that the troops under Ma Huabao are truly veterans. Regardless of their combat capability and fighting spirit, they march in this formation very beautifully.

The so-called donkey dung has a shiny surface.

He knew very well how important the order of the formation was when two armies were at war, and he also knew very well what kind of character his soldiers had, so during his many years of leading troops, he focused most of his energy on training the formation.

I don't know how many superiors who came to investigate were deceived by his soldiers who could march in beautiful formations.

"Oh!"

"Oh!"

"Oh!"

Just as he was enchanted by the beautiful formation of his own soldiers, the distance between the two armies had reached the range of firearms.

Then, the soldiers in the front row lit the fuse, and within three or two breaths, bursts of sound from muskets firing echoed across the battlefield.

"Tsk."

Seeing this, Ma Huabao couldn't help but smack his lips. Then he looked at the Ming army formation opposite and naturally felt regretful.

This musket is good in every way except that its accuracy is poor at long distances and its power is too weak.

His soldiers completed a round of shooting when the range was just enough, and their greatest achievement was to leave some marks on the large shields of the front row of the Ming army.

But this is nothing. According to the current distance, this musket can probably fire one more round. By then, these recruits on the opposite side will probably be defeated.

Loading medicine, adding seeds, tamping and inserting.

This rather complicated set of movements was as smooth as flowing water in the hands of Ma Huabao's soldiers. If he were not on the battlefield, he would also like to cheer for his own soldiers.

But he also knew clearly in his heart that although training, experience, equipment, and ability had a great impact on combat effectiveness, what could truly determine victory or defeat was the will to fight.

He had led soldiers for 10 to 20 years, and had never seen any Ming army whose equipment or training were inferior to others. But what was the final result?

The capital was occupied by a group of rioters, and most of the country was seized by a group of barbarians.

"Oh!"

"Oh!"

"Oh!"

Just as Ma Huabao was thinking about something, the sound of the second round of musket firing brought his thoughts back.

Just let it collapse.

The lethality of the musket is naturally stronger the closer it is. Although he does not know what kind of damage can be caused by firing at close range, he knows clearly that at this distance, the musket can not only penetrate the palm-thick wooden shield, but also penetrate the cotton armor and cause great harm to the body.

Faced with such power, not to mention a group of new recruits who had never been to the battlefield, even veteran soldiers would hesitate for a while.

just
"kill!"

A burst of loud shouts came from the opposing army, and then large shields were immediately thrown to the ground. The Ming army actually launched a charge.

This.! How.! How is it possible?!
Ma Huabao clearly saw that a small number of the Ming army's shield soldiers were knocked down by the muskets, but what was beyond his expectation was that after suffering such a blow, the Ming army not only did not flee, but actually rushed forward.

Want a physical fight?! How dare they?!

Seeing this situation, Ma Huabao, who knew his own soldiers well, prepared to retreat immediately. But before he could make any move, he felt an extremely sharp gaze coming from behind.

"Soldiers! Follow me and meet them!"

(End of this chapter)