Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 209 Hard to Choose
What kind of urgent military situation could there be at this time?
All areas south of Wuhu are in the hands of the rebel army. Although the forces of the Ming and Qing dynasties are intertwined to the east, with Zhang Guowei and Shen Tingyang exerting pressure from Anji, there should be no problem in taking over.

The rest are Suzhou, Songjiang and Hangzhou.

If something happened in Suzhou and Songjiang, it would probably be the Qing army in Suzhou rushing out regardless of the consequences. If something happened in Hangzhou, it would probably be civil unrest.

As the rider approached, Zhu Cilang quickly went over the current situation in his mind. After thinking of where it might come from, he took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.

He was not too worried about Susong. Even if the Qing army there really rushed out, it was unlikely that they could cause any waves in the water network.

What really made him nervous was Hangzhou, which seemed to be a place of no concern.

On the surface, Hangzhou was located in the rear, and the enemies in front of it had been driven far away. Moreover, there were Fang Guoan and Li Yongmao's armies there to suppress the situation, so no trouble would arise.

But Zhu Cilang knew clearly that although he had dealt a heavy blow to the local forces in Hangzhou through the "civil uprising" and even created a rift between them and Huang Daozhou, the whole of Zhejiang was not limited to Hangzhou, and undermining the prestige of the imperial power in such a complex network of forces could be considered an option.

Don't think that the incident only refers to rebellion or something like that. These people are very adept at using despicable means, making it hard to guard against them. Sometimes their means are clearly recorded in history books, but people in later generations may not be able to see them clearly.

For example, the man who wanted to get his hands on military power fell into the water in August and died of pneumonia in March of the following year.

The clever man who succeeded to the throne later kept a group of Taoist doctors in the palace. Even though he knew that this would give him the reputation of being obsessed with Taoism, he never dared to use the imperial physician's prescriptions throughout his life.

If you say there is no problem here, you are really treating people as fools.

Therefore, when Zhu Cilang was guarding against these people, he focused his main energy on private matters, but did not care much about their blatant behavior.

The saying "those who have constant property have constant determination" is a representation of "class weakness" if we understand it from another perspective, doesn't it?

Unless they are forced into a desperate situation, these people can probably only make some trips in secret. It is obviously unrealistic to expect them to jump out openly.

But at the same time, he also knew that for the current Ming Dynasty, the enemies in the open, although deadly, were not difficult to deal with. What really made this old empire lose its ability to resist were actually those guys hiding in the dark.

If we look closely, the vast majority of these people actually did not want the empire to collapse. Some of them would even stand up and sacrifice their lives for the Ming Dynasty at its last moment.

But before that, in order to achieve the goals of one family or one person, they have caused considerable harm to the whole.

Based on this, if the knight really brought news of changes in Hangzhou, it would be both unexpected and reasonable for Zhu Cilang.

It sounds like a long story, but for the knight it was just a matter of galloping a hundred or two hundred steps. By the time Zhu Cilang had thought about it a few times, the man had already arrived in front of him.

"Your Highness, Governor Yuan, the Qing troops in Wuhu are coming out in full force, please make a decision as soon as possible!"

? ? ? ?
When Zhu Cilang heard these words, his brain immediately stopped working properly.

He had been prepared to hear all kinds of "emergency situations", but he had never expected to hear this one.

Putting themselves in their shoes, the best option for the Qing army now is to do their best to preserve a piece of territory in Jiangnan.

In this way, Duoduo could not only minimize the impact of the defeat in Jiangnan in the court, but also reserve a springboard for his subsequent move south.

Speaking of the Qing army in Wuhu, they only needed to stabilize the defense line and maintain a stalemate with Yuan Jixian's troops.

After all, there is a narrow channel formed by two rivers twenty or thirty miles to the south. Even if they can force the Ming army to retreat, they can hardly do anything else. There is really no need to "come out in full force".

"Your Highness."

Just when Zhu Cilang was at a loss for words, Yuan Jixian's voice brought him back to reality.

"Ah, what should be done? It's up to Governor Yuan to decide."

With him here, Yuan Jixian couldn't be too self-centered. After hearing what His Royal Highness the Crown Prince said, he asked the knight in a deep voice, "What's the situation now?"

"Commander-in-chief, the Tartars came too suddenly, and only two of the three fortresses we captured remain."

Earlier, Yuan Jixian's troops had launched a fierce attack on the Qing army's defense line for several days with a tactic that disregarded casualties. Although they had not been able to break through it until they contacted the imperial court, this extremely heavy price finally saved three fortresses from the Tartars.

However, when these fortresses were first built, their purpose was to defend against enemies from the south, and their defense against the north seemed somewhat unsatisfactory.

After having a general idea of ​​the situation at the front, Yuan Jixian was able to take targeted actions. On the one hand, he ordered people to lead troops from the camp to provide support, and on the other hand, he ordered people to intensify patrols in the river area.

After arranging these things, he turned to Zhu Cilang and said, "Your Highness, please return to the camp and take charge."

Zhu Cilang had heard such words more than once, so how could he not know the true meaning of them?

However, the previous circumstances did not allow him to stay quietly until the end, so he had to go into battle personally many times out of necessity.

After all, he still has two fortresses in his hands, and the situation is far from requiring him to go into battle in person to boost morale, so he naturally would not take this risk.

Speaking of which, this attack by the Qing army was really strange. Not only did Zhu Cilang not expect it, but even before this morning, Tunqi and Tulai had never thought that they would come up with such a strategy.

Almost at the same time when Zhu Cilang arrived at the Ming army camp, a group of riders came from the north and entered Wuhu city.

This group of cavalry was naturally sent by Duoduo, and its purpose was simple, which was to order Tunqi and Tulai to retreat.

Retreat would be extremely difficult for an ordinary army, but it was not difficult for the Qing army, which used a system of small forces to defeat large ones.

Take Duoduo for example. He could leave Li Benshen's troops in Hangzhou to confuse the Ming army, and he could leave Kong Youde's troops in Xuancheng to confuse the Ming army.

In the end, he could even leave all his infantry behind in order to reach Yingtian in time.

The main idea is that I would rather die than let my friend die.

But for Tunqi and Tulai, such a choice becomes a little difficult.

What is the purpose of going south?
For the emperor and those who truly hold power, it may be a lofty goal like ruling China, but when it comes to each leader in the banner, there is only one goal.

That is to rob money, rob people, and rob territory.

If it weren't for this, who would be willing to put their head on their belt?

Therefore, for Tunqi and Tulai, abandoning these surrendered soldiers was like spitting out the meat in their mouths. For the two who still retained their tribal habits, wouldn't this be more painful than killing them?

not to mention.
"If all else fails, leave some troops here to defend the city. We will come to rescue them after we have assembled our army."

After reading Duoduo's letter carefully, Tunqi gritted his teeth and told Tulai his thoughts.

He was originally reluctant to retreat. After all, the Ming and Qing sides had reached a balance of power on the Wuhu line, and they had the Yingtian camp to protect them.

As long as the right measures are taken, it should not be difficult to keep the land in southern Jiangsu.

However, Duoduo said in the letter that the army's food and fodder supply was already very tight at this time. When Jiangnan was unable to be self-sufficient, it was too difficult to rely on Jiangbei to feed nearly 100,000 troops.

In addition to the Ming army's advantage in the navy, transporting grain across the Yangtze River is also a hurdle. If the grain route is blocked, the entire army may end up in defeat.

Therefore, Duoduo decided on a strategy to withdraw to Jiangbei, and hoped that Tunqi and Tulai could retreat to Yingtian within five days. Otherwise, if food and grass were insufficient, he would not be able to guard the retreat route for the Wuhu army for a long time.

To be fair, after reading all this, although Tunqi was a little reluctant, he also felt that what he said was not entirely unreasonable.

After all, after staying in Jiangnan for two months, they knew that even in times of peace, the food here had to be allocated from other provinces. Now that such a war had been fought in Jiangnan, a lot of farming activities had been missed. It was clear that famine would occur in a while, and the food supply of the army would naturally not be guaranteed.

Under such circumstances, leaving this mess to the Ming Dynasty is naturally an excellent choice.

Based on this, he was ready to abandon some of the surrendered troops and return to Yingtian according to Duoduo's order.

Although he was good at fighting in battle, he was not as good as Tulai in other aspects.

"It's not impossible to abandon some of the surrendered troops, but do you really think he can't see that we are just dawdling here?"

Hearing this, Tun Qi was stunned at first, but after reacting, he said nonchalantly: "What if you can see it? What if you can't see it?"

He understood clearly that although he had reached a tacit understanding with the Ming army in front of him, the earlier battles were also extremely brutal. He had sufficient reasons to explain why he did not go south through these battles.

And these are the people who should really be worried about.
With this in mind, he glanced at Tulai inadvertently, and when he saw that he was frowning and thinking, he sat down steadily on the chair, obviously with the intention of sitting still in the fishing boat no matter how strong the wind and waves were.

"You are right. The prince can't do anything to us on the surface, but have you ever thought about whether we can really return safely?"

Ok?
When he heard the words, Tunqi was stunned again.

He did not quite understand what Tulai said. This place was only two hundred miles away from Yingtian. As long as he traveled day and night, he should be able to reach Yingtian in four or five days.

By then, even if the Ming army caused some entanglement, at most they would only be able to scratch their skin a little. How could it affect their safe return?

"Hey~~! Why don't you understand!"

Seeing the other party's puzzled expression, Tulai sighed heavily and said, "Even if we travel day and night, how can we compete with the navy? You must know that there is a Guxi River to the north of here. Even if the Ming army arrives there one or two days later, they can arrive there before us!"

"There are fortifications on Jiangxin Island. How can they get through?"

"Then how many people do you plan to leave behind?"

"This"

After a few words, Tunqi couldn't say anything for a long time.

Although he had missed some things before, he finally reacted after Tulai's reminder.

Don’t think that he managed to hold off the Ming army for more than a month with only 30,000 to 20,000 troops. However, once the news of their march north was known to the surrendered troops, their military morale and combat effectiveness would no longer be what it is now.

Under such circumstances, if he left too few people behind, they would not be able to stop the Ming army, but if he left too many people behind, it would be better for him to just lead the bannermen back north.

"Then what do you mean?"

Having said that, anyone can see that Tulai has a plan in mind. The reason why he has not made it clear yet is just to block Tunqi's way first.

Tunqi was a somewhat impatient person, but seeing this situation he did not hesitate and asked directly.

"You and I should work together to defeat the Ming army!"

"Defeat?!"

This sentence shocked Tunqi so much that he jumped up from his chair again.

At this time, in addition to the remnants of Huang Degong's troops and the more than 10,000 troops under Cao Hu, they also had several armored soldiers from the Bordered Blue Banner and the Plain Yellow Banner.

The most powerful among them were naturally the banner soldiers, but the combat effectiveness of Huang Degong's troops and Cao Hu's men were also comparable to the Ming army in front of them.

Generally speaking, as long as they spared no expense, they would be able to achieve this goal with such strength. However, the key point was that Duoduo only gave them five days. How could they possibly return on time after a great battle?
In response to Tunqi's question, Tulai gave an explanation, but when he finished explaining the reasons in detail, the other party was no longer as shocked as before, but just sat back in the chair in a daze, obviously unable to understand.

His reasons were simple. He could not help but link the two's current situation to the struggles in the court.

Up to now in the battle of Jiangnan, except for the two of them, the surrendered troops gathered by various parties of the Qing Dynasty have been basically wiped out.

If the two of them could lead most of the troops back to Yingtian, they would not only stand out in front of the other generals, but would also make Duoduo, who had repeatedly abandoned his men, lose face.

If we think about the matter more seriously, it is not impossible that some people in the court used this as a reason to attack Dorgon's faction.

In this way, wouldn't the two of them become the vanguards rushing in the front?
In fact, Tulai is not opposed to being a pawn. As a lower-ranking person, how can he maintain such a status if he does not serve as a pawn?
However, there are some rules to follow when it comes to how to act as a vanguard.

On the surface, now that Duoduo has suffered a defeat, he will have to go through a major test after returning north.

Under such circumstances, it was a natural thing for him to return with his entire army and give the nobles in the court an excuse to attack Duoduo.

But at the same time, Tulai could also see clearly that this military order from Yingtian Camp was issued in the name of Duoduo. Doesn't this mean that those tens of thousands of troops were already under his control?
If the two of them were ignorant of the situation and really returned to Yingtian with an excuse to attack Duoduo, who knows what kind of situation would be waiting for them.

So the best option for them is to fight a war.
(End of this chapter)