Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 381: Stop talking about Sangui in the shop

January 6

Termination Shop

This place was originally an important post station for entering Sichuan, and it became even more lively after Hauge went south.

It can be said that the hustle and bustle of the past few days only made the official road busier, but it was not like it is now, the entire valley is already packed with people.

"Which battalion are you from? Why haven't you returned to the team yet?!"

Following a loud shout, several soldiers at the edge of the valley stood up from the fire nervously.

Most of them came from the arid northwest, and they couldn't live without something to keep warm once they entered the cold and damp forest. But in the current situation, they had lost contact with the team and had no one to rely on, so they could only leave that warm place reluctantly.

"Reporting to the superiors, we are Jiang Denglei, serving under Deputy General Jiang. We lost our affiliation because the deputy general was killed in the battle."

That night, Jiang Denglei and others did not encounter the expected ambush when they went to support the Bordered Yellow Banner Guards, but were directly defeated by the sudden enemy forces on their way back.

In this battle, Jiang Denglei died and the others fled in panic. By the time these soldiers reacted, they had already escaped into the Jinniu Road.

To be honest, they wanted to escape back to Shaanxi in one breath, but who would have thought that when they reached Qipan Pass behind Zhijiepu, Hauge's military order had already been passed on.

Afterwards, the road to the north was cut off and all the defeated soldiers were driven back until they began to gather their troops.

"Jiang Denglei? You were the first to collapse that night."

The military law here is strict among the Tartars, but disobeying it could result in the loss of one's life. When the general asked this question, they immediately became terrified.

"Reporting to the superiors, we were ambushed on our way back that night, so..."

"Snapped!"

Faced with such a situation, the older one naturally stood up to make a few words in defense, but he was severely whipped before he could finish half of his words, and then the general's reprimand was heard.

"Humph! You rubbish! The Bordered Yellow Banner Guards survived two surprise attacks, and you guys are about to collapse at the first blow, yet you still have the guts to quibble?!"

I have to say that what the general said was true. The Bordered Yellow Banner Guards were indeed much more resilient.

However, the Bordered Yellow Banner Guards were not only attacked in their own camp, they also received reinforcements. Jiang Denglei's troops were ambushed on the way back, and all the Qing troops were in chaos at that time.

The situations faced by the two groups are completely different, so it would be a bit biased to use this to elevate or belittle them.

However, people like Jiang Denglei had no status in the Qing army, and at this time some of them were dead or had escaped.

In this case, whether it is round or flat can only be decided by others.

"General, calm down! General, calm down!"

The old soldier seemed to be accustomed to the punishment from his superiors, and when he saw that the other party wanted to beat him again, he immediately knelt on the ground and begged for mercy. The general also put down his raised hand as if he had thought of something.

"You should be sensible and report to the southern valley entrance."

As soon as he finished speaking, the general turned around and left. He neither registered them nor sent anyone to escort them. It was obvious that he was not afraid that these soldiers would hang around outside again.

This is no wonder. Although there are not only two roads to the north and south to reach the end of the shop, the other paths are all hidden in the mountains and forests. Even the locals would be in danger of death if they enter, let alone these outsiders?

A moment later, the general caught two more groups of soldiers who had not yet found their commanders. After scolding and punishing them again, he assigned them to report to the southern valley entrance according to the previous example.

By this time, the sky had gradually darkened. He thought about the results of today's battle and led his men to the camp.

Don’t underestimate the fact that the valley where the terminal is located is only three miles from east to west and less than three miles from north to south, but there are at least 40,000 to 50,000 defeated soldiers blocked here.

During the day, he had to interrogate the soldiers carefully every time they walked a few feet, and then he had to order them to return to their camps according to their orders. By this time, he was really tired.

But having said that, no matter how tired he was, he still had to save his life. As soon as he returned to the camp, he asked his soldiers to return to their tents first, and he went straight to the central military tent.

The owner of the central military tent was not Hauge, but Li Guohan, Angbang Ezhen of the Eight Banners of Han.

This man was from Qinghe, Tieling Wei. He surrendered with his father in the sixth year of Tianming. After that, he was affiliated with the Eight Banners of Han and was assigned to the Bordered Blue Banner.

It must be said that this man had some abilities. During the Tiancong and Chongde years, he repeatedly led the Tartars to conquer the Ming Dynasty and was promoted to the rank of Commander-in-Chief of the Bordered Blue Banner for his merits. Later, when the Qing army entered the pass, he was even promoted to the position of Angbang Ezhen for his merits.

You should know that Angbang Ezhen is equivalent to the general in the Ming army, and the next level up is Gushan Ezhen.

Although this position is not the most outstanding among the Han people, there are only a few people higher than him.

"Ezhen, today we have collected 6,000 deserted soldiers. In two or three days, we can have all the soldiers in the valley return to their camps."

After listening to the report from the general in the tent, Li Guohan frowned and began to calculate.

A lot of defeated soldiers have been gathered in the past few days, and when those who were already under the control of various generals are counted, the number should reach 40,000. However, when they marched south, there were 80,000 to 90,000 Han people in addition to the Eight Banners of Han.

If we only consider the loss of soldiers, this battle was a real disastrous defeat, at best on the same level as Duoduo.

But even in this situation, the prince actually wanted to strike back.

Isn't this just asking for trouble?
With this in mind, Li Guohan glanced at Wu Sangui standing beside him, and seeing that he was also frowning and thinking, he slowly spoke.

"General Wu, according to the reports from the generals, the defeated soldiers should be able to return to their camps tomorrow. By then, I will have to trouble you to make an extra trip to Qipan Pass to report to the prince."

Originally, Hauge was also stationed here, but with the complete closure of Qipan Pass, many defeated soldiers had to return here. Then, at the suggestion of a number of generals, he left Li Guohan and Wu Sangui here to gather the defeated soldiers, while he led the Manchu and Mongolian troops to retreat to Qipan Pass.

Li Guohan, who had long been accustomed to the differences between Manchus and Han people, naturally did not have too many thoughts about such a decision. However, although Wu Sangui did not show it on his face, he had already cursed Hauge in his heart.

After all, he was a person recruited by Dorgon himself. Even though Hauge was not harsh on him, he couldn't help but have some grudges in his heart.

When he heard what Li Guohan said, his first reaction was to politely refuse. "Ezhen is a favorite of the prince, and it is Ezhen who is in charge of gathering the defeated soldiers. I, a surrendered general..."

As he said this, Wu Sangui gave a bitter smile, as if he was extremely regretful that he was not qualified to report to Hauge in person.

But he is a person who can clearly understand the situation at hand. If there was really no reason, how could he miss such an opportunity?
"Marshal Wu, you are joking. You are a meritorious official of the Qing Dynasty. How can you be compared with those trash?" Li Guohan arranged the tokens and documents on the table, and then continued, "Reporting to the prince is also a good opportunity to bring us closer together. Why don't you go with me tomorrow?"

Go? Go to hell!
Li Guohan spoke sincerely, but Wu Sangui couldn't help but complain in his heart.

If he were still outside Guangyuan City, he would naturally accept this "good intention", but now almost half of the more than 100,000 troops under Hauge's command have been lost, and he doesn't know how long it will take to recover.

Under such circumstances, the division of power within the Qing court would inevitably be different. Even if he was crazy, he would not get close to Hauge at this time.

just
But he had to find a way to reject Li Guohan's solicitation.

With this in mind, Wu Sangui began to think quickly, but Li Guohan's burning eyes clearly showed that he did not intend to let him go easily.

Just at this moment, a burst of hurried footsteps was heard, and then a soldier appeared outside the central military tent.

"Report to Ezhen, there is a disturbance in the defeated army camp in the south."

"Tell me quickly, what happened?"

Seeing that someone was helping him out, Wu Sangui stood up from his chair immediately without caring who was the leader and who was the assistant. When the soldier saw this, he looked at his own Ezhen and reported the whole story.

All the surrendered troops under Hauge came from Shanxi and Shaanxi.

Among these people were not only those from the Ming army, but also those from various bandits. During that night, some generals died in the chaos, while others simply abandoned their troops and fled.

Once they are all gathered in a camp, all kinds of trouble are inevitable.

Without the support from above, the soldiers were relatively restrained. Although a fight broke out in the camp due to some quarrels, there were only eight or nine hundred soldiers actually involved. As long as a group of people went in to suppress the fight, it would probably be put out in a short time.

"How ridiculous! How ridiculous! These idiots are causing trouble here! How can we convince the public if we don't punish them severely?!"

Looking at the extremely angry Wu Sangui, Li Guohan couldn't help sneering in his heart.

He knew very well that Wu Sangui was completely different from the other surrendered generals.

This man not only maintained a high level of influence over his men, but also, due to his status in the Ming Dynasty, he had connections with those Ming Dynasty officials who surrendered in Beijing.

In this way, this person not only maintained a high degree of independence in his actions, but also had a clearer understanding of the situation in the court than other surrendered generals.

If not, why would he approach the prince after Ajige's defeat in Ganzhou, and why would he be so eager to draw a clear line with the prince after retreating to Jinniu Road?
Li Guohan did not particularly disdain this.

Going back to the roots, he also walked the same path as Wu Sangui, and it can even be said that the internal struggle within the Later Jin Dynasty was even more blatant than it is now.

But after all, he is now a die-hard supporter of Hauge, and winning support for him is equivalent to paving the way for his own future.

With such an understanding, how could he let Wu Sangui escape?
"Why use a butcher knife to kill a chicken? Just let the subordinates handle such trivial matters. Marshal Wu, please stay here and let us chat more with our comrades."

When Wu Sangui heard these words, he froze where he was. Then, seeing that Li Guohan seemed to be smiling, he could only sit back in his chair helplessly and wait for the other party to speak.

"Marshal Wu, it's just you and me now, so I'm going to tell you something from the bottom of my heart."

Since Li Guohan had already brought out such a powerful weapon as "truth", Wu Sangui could naturally calm down and listen attentively.

But in his heart he knew better than anyone that the other party forced him to stay just to give Hauge more capital so that he could be prepared militarily for future struggles within the Qing court.

Therefore, he was just thinking about how to deal with this situation, but he didn't think about having any connection with Hauge at all.

"When I was about to come here, I was just like you, always thinking of finding a bigger tree to lean on so that I would have fewer setbacks. But later on, I realized, who can be bigger than the Khan?"

At this point, Li Guohan paused, then he glanced at Wu Sangui's face, and when he saw that he seemed to understand something, he continued, "So when the old Khan was alive, my father and I listened to him. When the old Khan was gone, we listened to the late emperor. When the late emperor was gone, we only followed the prince's orders and didn't care about anything else."

Hearing this, Wu Sangui couldn't help but feel confused.

According to this logic, Huang Taiji should have listened to the young emperor after the death of Li Guohan and his son. How could he have ended up listening to Haoge?
Xu also noticed the doubts in Wu Sangui's heart. Before he could speak, Li Guohan's voice came over.

"In fact, everyone knows that the late emperor wanted to pass the throne to you, otherwise why would he give all the strongest flags to you?"

After all, he is still a lobbyist for Hauge, and he can't escape these words no matter what.

Thinking of this, although Wu Sangui still looked touched, he couldn't help but feel resentful inside.

He thought clearly that even if Haoge was not named the crown prince, what would it matter?

Who doesn't know that the current Emperor Ming has been locked up in prison for nearly half a year? In terms of legitimacy, isn't he a thousand times better than Hauge?
But Li Guohan forced Wu Sangui to stay here, so how could these be the only reasons he had?

"Let's not go too far. Let's just talk about the present. Although the prince is fighting for power with Prince Duo Rui, he is not trying to fight for the throne for himself. He wants to keep the throne in the Fourth House. So helping the prince is helping the emperor. As long as Dorgon doesn't succeed, our wealth and honor are still secure."

Having said this, Li Guohan had finished speaking. He then looked at Wu Sangui with a smile, as if the other party would come to his senses and work for Hauge with him in the next moment.

just
Hasn't this guy spent too much time with the Tartars and become a barbarian himself?

Faced with Li Guohan's logic, Wu Sangui felt it was ridiculous, but things had come to this point, what other choice did he have except to pretend to be submissive?

"Listening to your words is worth ten years of reading. If it weren't for your enlightenment, I don't know how long I would have been confused!"

"Oh~~~! Marshal Wu is really too polite. You just don't know the customs of the Manchus. Even if you don't have your brother to remind you, you will understand the inside story after some time. In the future, we will serve in the same court and have a lot to learn from each other."

Seeing that his words had worked, Li Guohan immediately put on a hearty smile. But before he could finish his words, another soldier knelt outside the tent in panic.

"Report to Ezhen, there is a fire in the defeated army camp!"

(End of this chapter)