Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 384: Full Army Preparation
The same words spoken by different people can often produce completely opposite results.

When Zhang Xianzhong's letter made the pros and cons clear, Hauge felt that it was a provocation. However, when Luo Luohun brought up Huang Taiji, the already furious Hauge calmed down in an instant.

However, this excuse could be a reason to let Wu Sangui and Li Guohan go, but it was far from enough to make Hauge hand over Qipan Pass.

After all, his situation was completely different from that of Tudor.

At that time, Duoduo was facing the Ming navy that was able to crisscross the south of the Yangtze River along the waterways. If he retreated slowly, his retreat would be cut off and he might be trapped to death on the south bank of the Yangtze River.

Not only did Haoge have Qipan Pass as his support, he could also easily mobilize troops from Shaanxi.

Under such circumstances, if he handed over this pass to others, it would not only cause great damage to his prestige in the army, but also be tantamount to handing a handle to Dorgon.

Of course, Luo Luohun didn't really want Haoge to give up Qipan Pass. He just wanted to use Zhang Xianzhong's letter to intercede for the two men.

When Hauge realized that he could not execute the two men openly, he immediately changed the subject.

"Your Majesty, we must not give up Qipan Pass, but this place is narrow and not conducive to the deployment of the army. It is useless to leave more troops behind. It is better to let Li Guohan and Wu Sangui make meritorious contributions while the army withdraws to Guanzhong for rest."

After he finished speaking, Haoge remained silent. Then he winked outside, and in a moment, the figures of Wu and Li appeared outside the door.

"The criminal general Wu Sangui pays homage to His Majesty."

"Your servant Li Guohan pays respect to His Majesty."

Looking at these two bastards, Hauge really wanted to cut them in half on the spot, but the blood rushing to his head had already subsided, and the reality made him stop drawing his sword.

"You two have buried tens of thousands of my soldiers. Don't think you can escape punishment by begging the prince."

After hearing this, the two men kowtowed and apologized again, their fear and regret were evident in their words.

But things have come to this point, everyone knows that the punishment will come gently, and this behavior is just to give Hauge a way out, and it does not mean that they are really worried about their lives.

After all, in troubled times, the one with the bigger fist is king.

One of them commanded tens of thousands of Guanning soldiers, and the other commanded most of the Han army of the Bordered Blue Banner. If they really died like this, it would definitely deal a huge blow to Hauge's power.

Under such circumstances, even if Luo Luohun had not pleaded for mercy, Haoge would not have cut off his own arm. Otherwise, how could he have ended up being tied up for a whole night?

"Considering that you have made great contributions in the war and brought our troops back safely, I will order you two to guard Qipan Pass. This can be considered as making up for your crimes."

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Guohan and Wu Sangui kowtowed again to express their gratitude.

Things should have come to an end here, and what remained would probably be Hauge's return to the north, and Generals Li and Wu repairing the border defenses.

But who would have thought that just when Hauge was about to order the two to get up, a soldier appeared hesitantly at the door.

"Your Majesty, the scouts have captured a man who said he was returning from Sichuan to report back. We have been asking him for a long time but he insisted on seeing you in person."

In central Sichuan?

After hearing this, Hauge immediately thought of the people he sent out when he first entered Sichuan. However, those who had returned earlier did not produce any practical results, so he did not have much hope for this one.

"Yes, that's what happened. After verifying his identity, send him back to the camp."

After saying this, Hauge turned his attention to Wu Sangui and Li Guohan again, but to his surprise, the soldiers not only did not retreat as ordered, but also looked as if they wanted to say something but hesitated.

"Anything else? Report it to me."

"Reporting to the prince, that person...that person insisted on seeing you immediately, saying that there was urgent military information."

Military emergency?
Hearing these words, Hauge immediately perked up.

According to the reports from those people, Zhang Xianzhong's rule in central Sichuan was extremely weak. Not only did all the forces have no loyalty to him, even some of the Onishi generals had complaints about him.

But Zhang Xianzhong still maintained a very strong military force. Most of these people only verbally agreed to Hauge's recruitment, but none of them dared to take any action before the two sides decided the outcome.

At this time, someone reported "urgent military information". Could it be
With this in mind, Hauge ordered the soldiers to bring the person quickly, but when the person was brought into the room, he had no impression of his appearance.

"What's your name? Who did you go to Sichuan with?"

"My name is Erlutu, and I came to Sichuan with Agner."

When Hauge heard the name Agnar, a figure immediately emerged in his mind, but now he could only hear the name but not see the person. It was obvious that he was in trouble. Therefore, Hauge did not ask about the military situation at the first time, but asked about the reason.

"Where are the Agnars?"

"Reporting to the prince, as soon as we made some gains in Dazhou, Agner returned via a small road. I guess he is nowhere to be seen now."

Hauge did not show much emotion about Agnar's disappearance. On the one hand, it was because he was attracted by the word "Dazhou" in the words, and on the other hand, it was because the tiger problem in central Sichuan was too serious.

He didn't know what Sichuan was like in the past, but the army entering Sichuan this time was attacked by tigers.

Such a situation naturally made Hauge, who was born between the White Mountains and the Black Waters, quite happy. If he had not had to fight against the Dashi Army, he would even want to hunt in the mountains and forests for fun for days.

"What did you gain in Dazhou?"

"Reporting to the prince, Liu Jinzhong, who was stationed in Dazhou, was demoted because he angered Zhang Xianzhong."

Hearing Hauge's question, Elutu reported the situation in detail. When Hauge heard his impromptu decision, the Qing prince who had been controlled by negative emotions for a long time suddenly stood up from his chair.

"Really? Then can Liu Jinzhong be trusted?"

"Reporting to the prince, the handwritten letter written by Liu Jinzhong is still in our hands. He has no way out."

"Good! Good! Good!"

After hearing the words, Hauge said it three times, and then he paced around the room. It was unknown whether he was thinking about how to cooperate or he was extremely excited about this great news.

"Order all units to prepare! As long as Liu Jinzhong succeeds, we will attack with all our forces!"

"twitter!"
-
January 7

Guanganzhou City
Zhu Cilang had arrived in the city three or four days earlier. During this time, although he had dealt with three or two large families that were closely connected with the Dashi, his main focus was still on dealing with Zhang Xianzhong's return.

I have to say this is an extremely difficult task.

Although it was difficult to enter Sichuan, the road was flat after passing through the mountains. Zhang Xianzhong and other bandits had a large number of cavalry, so it was a difficult task for the Ming army, which was almost entirely composed of infantry, to completely annihilate them in such a terrain. With this understanding, limiting their mobility became the primary task of the Ming army.

Of course, there are many waterways in the central Sichuan area, which theoretically would greatly restrict the cavalry.

But on the one hand, most of these waterways are concentrated around Chongqing, and the remaining Tuojiang and Minjiang rivers both run from north to south, with large plains in between for Zhang Xianzhong to roam.

On the other hand, these waterways are far less abundant than the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. They are full of reefs and dangerous places, and are not suitable for navigation at all for the Ming navy equipped with a large number of artillery.

Taking these two factors into consideration, these waterways treated both the Ming and Qing dynasties equally and provided no convenience to either side. Therefore, if one wanted to restrict the mobility of Dashi, they had to find ways from other aspects.

But this is just difficult, not completely impossible.

After all, there are large mountains behind Guangyuan. If the Dashi Army can successfully block Jiangyou, Xichong and Bazhong, it will be trapped in the narrow strip of land around Guangyuan.

just
"Your Majesty, in my opinion, Jiangyou will be taken by me, Li Guo and Gao Yigong, while Bazhong will be taken by General Fan, Yang Zhan, Zeng Ying and other Sichuan troops. As for Xichong, Xiang and Mei will be in charge."

As Zhu Cilang heard Wang Yingxiong's words, his brows couldn't help but frown.

In fact, his suggestions are extremely suitable for the current situation, but for Zhu Cilang, he can't help but feel a little uneasy.

On the surface, Li Guo's troops also had a lot of cavalry, so it was natural for them to attack Jiangyou, the farthest place from Guang'an Prefecture. However, Yang Zhan and Zeng Ying had already reached between Bazhou and Dazhou. It would be appropriate for them to first occupy Bazhou with their troops and then wait for follow-up troops to arrive for support.

But before this, Zhu Cilang had never used any of them.

Without personal training, he was always worried that these people would cause trouble of one kind or another.

Take the armies in central Sichuan for example. Not only are these troops of mixed management, but there are also conflicts of varying degrees between the various units. Even with Fan Yiheng in charge, there is no guarantee that some sort of chaos will arise.

In comparison, Li Guo's troops, which had been reorganized, made Zhu Cilang feel much more at ease.

If only those guys were here too.

Thinking of this, Zhu Cilang couldn't help but think of several guards and Hu Maozhen and others.

However, these people are either on defense along the river or guarding local areas. There is no possibility of them being transferred to central Sichuan in a short period of time.

Under such circumstances, Zhu Cilang could only rely on his limited strength to try his best to maintain the situation.

To be honest, at that time he actually wanted to change his tactics, but he was very worried that releasing Zhang Xianzhong would bring another disaster to central Sichuan.

Therefore, after Wang Yingxiong finished speaking, he just stared at the map in silence. When everyone was a little confused, he spoke hesitantly.

"What Lord Wang said is very sound, but Zhang Xianzhong's troops are very numerous. If our army is divided into three parts, it will be difficult to take care of both ends."

Facing a group of ministers, Zhu Cilang would not reveal his true thoughts, but after he found an excuse that seemed reasonable, Fan Yiheng, who had some conflicts with Wang Yingxiong, stood up first.

"Your Majesty's concerns are reasonable, but we have the advantage of the city, so we should be able to hold off the thief for a while. By then, no matter where he attacks, the remaining two armies can join forces to cut off his retreat, and the thief will have no chance of escaping."

After he finished speaking, Zhu Cilang turned his attention back to the map.

This response seemed reasonable, but he still felt something was wrong. After staring at the map for a long time, he couldn't find any clues. In the end, he could only helplessly admit that he did not have much talent in land warfare.

This is not because he is belittling himself.

Whether it was the Battle of Jiangnan or the later Battle of Ganzhou, Zhu Cilang relied on combat concepts that were far superior to the current ones and used the advantages of the navy to firmly seize the initiative on the battlefield.

But now the navy that he relied on as a pillar of the country could not play a role in Sichuan, and his abilities would be largely restricted.

Under such circumstances, it is understandable that people would be hesitant again.

However, given the current situation, he did not have much time to hesitate. After he could not think of a more reliable solution, he had no choice but to agree to this plan.

"Okay, let's prepare according to this method, and the whole army will set out early tomorrow morning!"

"Order!"

As soon as he finished speaking, all the civil and military officials obeyed the order and left. However, when Fan Yiheng and Wang Yingxiong were about to leave, Zhu Cilang kept them. When there were no more outsiders in the room, he began to explain everything in detail.

"Lord Fan."

"The minister is here."

"I am relieved to entrust the affairs of Bazhong to you, but the troops in Sichuan are complicated and there are even conflicts of varying sizes among the generals. You must investigate this, my dear minister."

As Zhu Cilang's words were heard, Fan Yiheng immediately looked at his Majesty with surprise on his face.

As for the situation among the generals in Sichuan, he knew it very well without having to describe it like the back of his hand.

Some of these people became enemies because of their different personalities, some had conflicts because of the dispute between the two governors, and some were even deliberately done by Fan Yiheng. All in all, it was just as Zhu Cilang said.

However, these conflicts have gradually eased since Wang Yingxiong left Sichuan, and after they retreated to Zunyi, there was no news of any trouble between them.

Under such circumstances, Fan Yiheng just regarded it as a thing of the past. It was not until Zhu Cilang brought up the matter seriously that he realized that the conflict was only temporarily eased and had not completely disappeared. If there was a suitable trigger, it might really lead to serious consequences.

Fortunately, Your Majesty reminded me.

Thinking of this, Fan Yiheng couldn't help but break out in a few beads of sweat on his forehead. He only calmed down after thanking his Majesty.

Seeing this, Zhu Cilang knew that Wang Yingxiong had taken his words to heart, so he encouraged him before turning his attention to Wang Yingxiong.

"Lord Wang."

"The minister is here."

"Li Guo and Gao Yigong don't have the same problems as the armies in central Sichuan, but they are from the Chuang army and are quite good at guerrilla warfare, but they have rarely defended a city. This is something you need to pay attention to, my dear."

"Thank you, Your Majesty, for your advice."

The reason for leaving Wang Yingxiong behind was that he was worried that leaving only Fan Yiheng behind would make him feel resentful. However, when he came to this point, Zhu Cilang suddenly thought and continued, "Besides, they are new members of the alliance, so when fighting, we must be careful about the methods and ways, and not let them feel that they are outsiders."

Faced with his Majesty's reminder, Wang Yingxiong would not be impatient at all, but when he was about to thank his Majesty again, another guard rushed in.

"Your Majesty! According to reports from Yang Zhan and Zeng Ying, Zhang Xianzhong's troops were badly defeated!"

(End of this chapter)