Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 484 I don't know where there is an omission

The hastily built mound of earth could not shelter too many people and horses.

However, compared with traditional infantry, musketeers had neither proper melee weapons nor effective armor to protect themselves. If they were approached by melee troops, they would either be killed or injured.

When the battle got to this point, the Qing army, who had been expecting another victory, felt like they had lost their parents. When the waves of provocative shouts reached the city, the people on the city wall could not utter a word except for helplessness and rage.

I have to say, this ambush was indeed very cunning.

First, they built an earthen platform to distract the Qing army, and then used the retreat of the army to lure the Qing army to the preset battlefield. When the ambush troops emerged from the smoke, the battle was no longer suspenseful.

But then again, the total number of soldiers participating in this battle on both sides was less than 10,000. In addition, the Ming army did not complete the encirclement of the Qing army's gun formation, so the casualties in the entire battle were actually less than 2,000.

Such casualties were naturally heavy for this battle, but the number of troops on the Ming and Qing sides alone was close to 100,000, a number that did not seem to be enough to influence the entire outcome of the battle.

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"I was careless this time. I will go to the capital to file an apology soon!"

The battle was fought when the sky was about to brighten, but when the three Qing soldiers met again, the sun had already set.

It’s not their fault.

After the troops who had gone out withdrew back into the city, they were completely tied down by matters that were more important than discussing subsequent strategies.

When the battle was about to end, Hong Chengchou invited all the heads of the families in the city under the pretext of thanking them for their help.

At the thank-you banquet, he pointed out to those people that a small setback was nothing to the tens of thousands of Huai'an defenders. As long as everyone could continue to support the Qing Dynasty, the court would certainly do its utmost to protect their legitimate rights and interests.

In comparison, although Tong Yangjia and Lekedehun's tasks were more complicated, one of them punished the fleeing soldiers and the other pacified the various troops in the city, so the energy they consumed was far less than that of Hong Chengchou.

This kind of distribution can be regarded as everyone's strengths. After finishing these things, the three of them gathered in the Prime Minister's Mansion of Hong Chengchou. However, who would have thought that just when the situation in the city was stabilized, they had differences on the future strategy.

Tong Yangjia intended to reorganize the army and fight again; Lekedehun thought that they should hold the city; and Hong Chengchou, the "Prime Minister of the Ming Dynasty", believed that they should preserve their strength and find an opportunity to evacuate Huai'an.

On the surface, the three men held different opinions, but although Lekedehun and Hong Chengchou had some differences, in essence they all suffered from this defeat. When Tong Yangjia realized this, he immediately made what he thought was the most correct choice.

"Now is not the time to discuss responsibility," Lekedehun said in a deep voice to Tong Yangjia who took the initiative to take responsibility. He seemed to feel that his words were a bit stiff, and continued before the other party could speak: "The Southern Army is cunning, and this defeat is not entirely your fault. But no matter what, today's defeat was really pathetic. When I went to inspect the camp, not only the soldiers were ashamed, but even the generals were also depressed."

Having said this, Lekedehun paused and did not finish the rest of the words, but they were all considered to be the best among men and they all understood what he meant.

The greater the hope, the greater the disappointment.

In their view, you have firearms and I have firearms, and they have many more musketeers than the Ming army, so this battle is naturally in their grasp.

With such an understanding, even the most conservative and cautious Hong Chengchou could not help but imagine the strategy after victory, let alone other people in Huai'an.

Honestly speaking, ambushes are not unfamiliar to generals and soldiers who have fought in many battles, and according to common sense, they would not necessarily cause the morale of the army to drop to such an extent.

But the battle this morning was an ambush by the Ming army right under his nose, and the blow to morale had to be prepared for, so after finding the camp, he really thought about defending Huai'an.

As soon as he finished speaking, Lekedehun's gaze followed closely. At the same time, Hong Chengchou, who intended to retreat to the north, also turned his head. Tong Yangjia, who was alone, immediately felt tremendous pressure.

"You two are both on the city wall today, and you may know more about the change of the battle situation than I do. If you had close combat troops to protect us during the pursuit, we wouldn't be defeated immediately even if we were ambushed by the Southern Army." Having said this, he glanced at the other two people, but neither Hong Chengchou nor Lekedehun reacted much. Then Tong Yangjia realized that his words were useless, and then he slapped his own leg hard: "You are all leaders, why don't you understand?!"

I understand. Hong Chengchou certainly understands.

In the final analysis, Tong Yangjia just wanted to make up for his losses so that he could fully utilize his military advantage in the next battle.

This is not wrong, as everyone has done this throughout history, but the Confederate Army is not a wooden stake after all.

The purpose of the Huai'an battle was to use this new army to catch the Ming army off guard, and then use the victory of this battle to show the court and the outside world that the Qing Dynasty was not completely powerless.

But now the Southern Army already knew that there was a considerable number of musketeers stationed in Huai'an, so their surprise was no longer a factor. Even if they could eventually achieve their original goal by relying on their numerical advantage, the final losses would inevitably reach a level that the court could not afford.

You have to know that the northern provinces had long been desolate due to years of war, and even the money for purchasing firearms for the new army came from Prince Rui's brothers' pockets.

Of course, they could raise money to form another army by confiscating property and exterminating clans, but the examples of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were before them, and the Qing Dynasty was no longer as powerful as it had been before.

Under such circumstances, who can guarantee that the places that had surrendered just a moment ago would not turn around and welcome the royal army to recover their lost territories?

This is the difference between the three.

In terms of this battle alone, Tong Yangjia's considerations were not only correct, but could even be said to be extremely correct. However, due to the limitations of his background and identity, his vision was limited, and he inevitably missed other things while dealing with the current battle situation.

In comparison, Hong Chengchou was, after all, a high-ranking civil official. When considering the current war situation, he always had to put a battle in the context of the overall situation. Lekedehun was a real royal relative, so his eyes would not only be on the outside of Huai'an City.

However, their reasons were not suitable to be made public, and the room fell silent after Tong Yangjia finished speaking.

Facing the silent General Pingnan and Prime Minister of the Ming Dynasty, Tong Yangjia felt that he had gained the upper hand in the debate. After a while, when the two were still silent, he softened his tone.

"I am not a person who covets credit, but you also know the situation in the north. If we really hand over Lianghuai to others, how can the court have the money to support so many troops?" At this point, Tong Yangjia, who thought he was in control of the situation, glanced at the two of them. When he saw that they were like clay sculptures or wooden carvings, he continued: "Those stationed in the cities in the north are fine. They will not starve to death if they plunder the local areas. The key is those who can fight. If we don't pay them, these people will eat us in a blink of an eye!" "Always can"

Seeing Tong Yangjia's reaction, Hong Chengchou had no choice but to say something. However, he stopped talking after saying just two words, and then he fell into deep thought under the puzzled gazes of the two men.

What he originally meant was that according to the current situation, the imperial court could still hold out for some time. As long as they could steadily bring all their forces to the north of the Yellow River and Huai River, they could use their cavalry advantage to teach the Southern Army a lesson.

By then, the local area will be gradually stable, and the tolerance level for the imperial court's plunder will naturally be much higher. When Moo has enough strength, he will be able to stabilize the north.

Although these words did not directly point out the biggest difficulty facing the court, Tong Yangjia would be able to figure out the underlying issues if given some time. But just as he was about to say this, he suddenly realized a problem.

Will the emperor of the Southern Dynasty be able to catch up with Huang Huai as he wishes?

If it were in the past, he would not have had such doubts. After all, the balance of power between the two sides was already somewhat unbalanced, and there were signs that the West was intervening.

But a while ago, the Southern Army, after seizing several passes along the river, turned around and attacked those inconspicuous county towns, leaving Huai'an alone for a long time before finally arriving.

If we think about his brutal acts in various places in Huaidong, his intentions become obvious.

It is obvious that what the prince values ​​most is the control over the local area, and he also regards this recovery as a good opportunity to clean up the local area. If they really abandon Huai'an, I am afraid that the other party will immediately turn around and firmly control the two Huai regions.

Under such circumstances, the Southern Army, which had spent several months in the Huaidong area, might have to spend a year or two before it could turn its attention north of the Yellow River and Huai River.

By then, the Southern Dynasty, which controls Lianghuai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, will inevitably become much stronger. How can the already defeated North be used as a support to fight against it?
As his thoughts turned over and over, Hong Chengchou's originally calm expression gradually became a little panicked under the gaze of the two people, and then words that surprised Lekedehun were heard.

"Ask the capital for permission."

Although Hong Chengchou did not openly express his support for Tong Yangjia, in Lekedehun's eyes, he could be considered to have turned against his allies at the last minute.

But there was nothing wrong with his idea. At its core, the balance of power between the Ming and Qing dynasties had reversed.

In terms of territory, the current small court in Yingtian is not only inferior to that during the reign of Chongzhen, but is even slightly inferior to that during the reign of Hongguang. However, it was extremely difficult for Chongzhen to raise hundreds of thousands of silver coins at that time, and Hongguang had no means of controlling the various military towns.

Let’s look at Yingtian instead.

The foundation of the Donglin Party has been completely destroyed in several storms; all the armies regard Zhu Cilang as the supreme commander, and no one dares to claim to be a military garrison; and those provinces that were devastated by the war can either provide resources or manpower for Yingtian. The main point is that each has its own strengths and will never get support from the court for nothing.

Under such circumstances, even though the territory in Zhu Cilang's hands was not as large as that of his predecessors, the power that the Yingtian court could exert was several times stronger than that of the previous Ming Dynasty.

Based on this, the power of the Ming Dynasty is naturally stronger than that of the Qing Dynasty. No matter what decision Huai'an makes, it will face huge flaws.

Zhu Cilang did not have a particularly clear understanding of this, and all his actions after starting the Northern Expedition were just based on his usual behavioral logic.

However, he had never expected that his previous move to seek safety would put Chu Qiao, one of the few people in Huai'an who would leave their names in history, in a dilemma. It was somewhat an unintentional move.

After receiving the report that the Qing army's musket unit was discovered at the front, the battle report about the ambush arrived at his desk a day later.

But at this moment, he put it aside after taking a few glances at the good news, obviously distracted by other things.

"Congratulations, Your Majesty. Generals Chang and Mei have won this victory. Huai'an will fall in a blink of an eye."

Listening to the King of Chu's congratulations, the smile on Zhu Cilang's face did not seem genuine.

In fact, this was also the trouble caused by Philip IV.

A while ago, Du Chen brought back the news that Spain agreed to Ming's conditions. Then the Governor of Manila sent someone to ask Ming to station troops in Luzon.

After the news spread, most of the civil and military officials, as well as people inside and outside the court, simply praised the Ming Dynasty for its revival under the leadership of the Emperor. Although Zhu Cilang was a little bit proud of himself, after thinking it over for a while, he still ignored Manila's suggestion.

He understood clearly that at this stage, the Ming Dynasty and the Netherlands had only some minor frictions, and had nothing to do with France and Britain. Even though the two sides would eventually have a good fight due to the relationship between Malacca and Southeast Asia, the Ming Dynasty still had enough space to hide behind the scenes and watch the infighting in Europe.

Originally, he thought that the matter would be settled after suppressing the letter from Manila, but to his surprise, only seven or eight days later, Wang Fuping received news that the princes were secretly colluding.

Of course, at that time, the Ming Dynasty no longer had the power to dare to offend the imperial power, and this kind of collusion was certainly not something like treason.

However, when the Jinyiwei further investigated the purpose of this collusion, Zhu Cilang discovered that some of the princes detained in Yingtian had the idea of ​​going to Luzon, a foreign land, to establish their own fiefdom.

Fortunately, although Zhu Cilang did not allow the princes to return to their fiefdoms, he not only slightly cut back on their food, clothing and other expenses, but also remained indifferent to the royal family's efforts to find other ways to make a living.

Despite such generous treatment, these people would rather flee to the barbaric land than stay in Yingtian. Zhu Cilang, the kind-hearted and benevolent monarch, did feel a little hurt.

Therefore, after he confirmed this matter, he summoned the old King of Chu, who was in charge of all royal family affairs.

"At present, there are internal thieves in the north and powerful enemies outside. The court seems to be in a state of turmoil, but in fact it is difficult to move forward. However, under such circumstances, I would rather cut the expenses of the palace to the minimum and try my best to maintain the expenses of the vassal states. I don't know where the omission is, and they would rather go to the wild and barren land than enjoy the peaceful days in Yingtian?!"

(End of this chapter)