Nanjing, Yamen, Governor of Liangjiang. レ八一Chineseレ

After receiving a report from the upstream prefecture and county a few days ago, Jiang Guozhu also had mixed feelings. Happily, Deng Ming is still greedy for money like last year, and the downstream prefectures and counties have not lost the city, even if it is to spend money to eliminate the disaster; The worry is that the upper prefectures and counties are completely useless for containing Deng Ming, and the Ming army can come to the city of Nanjing unimpeded.

"The most urgent thing at the moment is to ensure the safety of Jiangning." Liang Huafeng was much more pessimistic than Jiang Guozhu, and he strongly advocated following Lang Tingzuo's countermeasures last year, simply abandoning the western region that could not be held at all, and dispatching a force to support Nanjing: "Last year, Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan captured the land of Wufu in total, and they had to divide their troops to defend it; Needless to say, tens of thousands of troops were all used to control the land of Sifu in the upper reaches of Zhan, and Zheng Chenggong was the same, only Zhenjiang City stayed in 4,000 armor, followed by Guazhou also had 2,000 armor...... And Deng Ming is different from them, and he comes from the whole division. The last general doubted that as long as he took Nanjing, even if these prefectures and counties did not surrender now, it would be up to him at that time, so he was not willing to send an extra soldier at all. Since Deng Ming doesn't want these prefectures and counties, then we don't want it either, so let the green camps of the prefectures and cities take a detour back to Nanjing. ”

"The Admiral is overly concerned." Liang Huafeng, as a military attaché, does not have to be responsible for the loss of land, as long as he wins the battle, but Jiang Guozhu has different considerations. Last year, Zheng Chenggong and Zhang Huangyan had a total army of 200,000, and it made sense for Lang Tingzuo to withdraw the defense forces of the prefectures and counties in the south of the Yangtze River; Now that he gave up such a large area of territory for the threat of Deng Ming's 20,000 or 30,000 troops, Jiang Guozhu felt that it was difficult to explain to the imperial court, and most of Deng Ming's subordinates were still prisoners of the Green Battalion, and there were only more than 10,000 people from the headquarters brought over from Jiangxi, which was not to mention. After hearing Liang Huafeng's construction, Jiang Guozhu took out the truth he had said before at that time, and comforted Liang Huafeng and said: "Deng Ming doesn't even take Wuchang and Hanyang, how can he stay in Jiangnan, which is thousands of miles away from Sichuan?" Besides, there are tens of thousands of soldiers in Jiangning City now, how dare Deng Ming attack Jiangning with 10,000 henchmen? ”

Two days ago, a new urgent report came from the eastern front, saying that Zhang Huangyan and Ma Fengzhi led a large number of fleets to invade the mouth of the Yangtze River, and now they were going upstream.

After learning that tens of thousands of Ming troops had arrived, Jiang Guozhu was dizzy for a while, Deng Ming may not have the strength to defend Nanjing before, but now the troops should be enough. And in Jiang Guozhu's view, it is certainly not a coincidence that Zhang Huangyan launched an attack almost at the same time, and it should be in response to Deng Ming.

"Does he really want to fight Jiang Ning?" Jiang Guozhu, who realized the problem and was strict, did not dare to take it lightly, and immediately agreed to Liang Huafeng's construction, not only did not send a single reinforcement to Suzhou and Songjiang Mansion, which were facing the Ming army's troops, but also asked them to quickly dispatch Jīng troops to reinforce Nanjing, and as for Zhenjiang Mansion, they were all timed - the last Zheng Chenggong's offensive caused the city defenses of Guazhou, Zhenjiang and other places to be destroyed by Yan Zhan, and the Yamen of the Liangjiang Governor was short of funds, so he could only carry out the repair work intermittently, and it was far from being completed. Since the defense is insufficient, Jiang Guozhu and Liang Huafeng do not plan to leave their soldiers and horses there to die, and all of them are withdrawn to Jiangning, allowing Zhang Huangyan to occupy them, and maybe they can use them to contain some of Zhang Huangyan's troops.

Because he was busy dealing with these tasks, Jiang Guozhu did not carefully read the reports sent by the upstream prefectures and counties during this period, and only after he hurriedly issued orders to the various prefects and yamen to concentrate their forces on Jiangning, did he have time to read these reports carefully. When looking at the few copies of Anqing Mansion, Jiang Guozhu didn't feel anything wrong; The next was the Chizhou Prefecture, which was the first city to arrive after Deng Ming left Anqing, and the Chizhou Governor, after reaching a private agreement with Deng Ming, also began to report attentively, and these reports were sent to the Liangjing Governor Yamen and Caoyun Yamen in two copies.

After opening the report from Chizhou Mansion and looking at it twice, Jiang Guozhu's cold sweat came down.

"Confused!" Jiang Guozhu screamed, hurriedly called his staff to inquire, and learned that the batch of reports in his hand was not the only one, and the other had been sent to the Caoyun Governor Yamen to inquire about the matter according to the normal channels, and the sweat beads on Jiang Guozhu's forehead were even more.

"It's all because I've been so busy lately." Jiang Guozhu muttered, of course Jiang Guozhu knew how the upstream prefectures and counties "held" the city, although he acquiesced in this matter, but he did not preside over it single-handedly, and the prefects of the following prefectures basically acted alone. In addition, Zhang Huangyan added chaos, so that Jiang Guozhu did not check these reports in time.

There is also a report from the Taiping Mansion behind, although Deng Ming is still staying in the territory, but the prefect can't wait to report that his mansion is foolproof, Jiang Guozhu still has a trace of luck in his heart, but after opening the report and looking at it a few times, Governor Jiang let out a long sigh of despair: "From Zhu Guozhi to these prefects and county orders, are my subordinates all pigs?" Do you know that if you are a thief, you don't know how to make a confession? Do you want me to clean up everything? ”

In addition to these, Hezhou, located across the Taiping River, also proudly announced that it had kept its city. Even the Luzhou Mansion, which Deng Ming did not threaten, actually came to join in the excitement, realizing that the two neighbors of Anqing Mansion and Chizhou Mansion had reached an agreement with Deng Ming, the prefect of Luzhou Mansion was afraid that Deng Ming would attack Chaohu Lake, or attack Wuwei Prefecture and other places located on the edge of the Yangtze River, and smear his political achievements, and also sent people to have a relationship with Deng Mingla. Like other prefectures and counties, since this credit was bought with money, the prefect of Luzhou Prefecture was also busy bragging about his wisdom to the imperial court.

"It's over." After Jiang Guozhu read this thick stack of reports, he began to think about the feasibility of absconding and hiding his name.

……

Zhang Huangyan led the sailors to pass through Guò Songjiang Mansion and entered the territory of Suzhou Mansion, and the Qing army could not be seen on the shore at all. After receiving Nanjing's order, the officials in Suzhou and Changzhou all knew that this was another round of abandonment of the car to protect the commander, and it was unknown whether Jiangning could keep it.

Officials in Suzhou, Changzhou and other places had to obey the order to send some troops to Nanjing, while the rest were firmly held in the hands of the prefects and gathered in the capital city to hold on. What happened in the western prefectures and counties last time taught these eastern officials a very good lesson, that is, they did not take the initiative to surrender, nor did they resist desperately, if the Ming army was too strong to resist, they would surrender, and if Jiangning finally saved it, they would return to our Qing Dynasty anyway to save their lives; If Jiangning is lost, then there is nothing to hesitate about.

Last time, of course, it was mixed up by Jiang Guozhu, but that was because Dasu led the green battalions in Henan, Shandong, Shanxi and other places to the south to reinforce, and the forward arrived in Yangzhou Deng Mingcai to withdraw his troops, but now Dasu was named the general of the southern expedition by the imperial court, and he has sent troops to Fujian, and the green battalion in the north has also gone with him. Whether it was Dasu's return to the division, or the imperial court sent more reinforcements from Zhili and Liaodong Mongolia, they were all far away from quenching their thirst, and Nanjing could only rely on its own strength to resist Deng Ming's attack in the short term - this god-like Ming general, the mysterious Ming clan could defeat all the Qing troops it encountered in one year. Now the wait-and-see is not mainly because of Jiang Guozhu but because of the walls of Nanjing, if it were not for the almost superstitious trust in the solidity of Nanjing, these magistrates would never have bet on Jiang Guozhu.

Although Fucheng still has a certain ability to protect itself, the surrounding county towns are too pitiful, and they are swaying in front of the Ming army. However, Zhang Huangyan did not mean to attack them, but continued to lead the whole army to Nanjing.

"The last time I arrived in Zhenjiang, Guazhou had been taken, the Yangtze River route had been opened, and the king of Yanping County felt that the city was useless and useless to attack, so he wanted to bypass Zhenjiang and attack Nanjing directly, but I felt that there was still a Tartar on the back road that was always unreliable, so I persuaded the king of Yanping to attack." Zhang Huangyan recalled the last attack on Nanjing, and sighed to Ma Fengzhi: "The king of Yanping County was also hesitant at that time, unable to make up his mind, probably also had the same concerns as me, I persuaded him to give up the original idea without hesitation, and raised troops to attack Zhenjiang, although there was a great victory in Zhenjiang, but it was delayed in Zhenjiang for fifteen days, so that tens of thousands of prisoners and ugly reinforcements rushed to Nanjing, and had to leave a large number of troops to monitor the surrendered troops. Afterwards, I looked at the meaning of the king of Yanping County, and it seemed that I was quite remorseful. ”

Thinking of his subsequent division of troops in the upper prefectures and counties, Zhang Huangyan sighed lightly again, when the Nanjing Battle was at a critical juncture, about one-fifth of Zheng Chenggong's soldiers remained in Zhenjiang Mansion, while Zhang Huangyan's tens of thousands of Zhejiang soldiers were scattered in the territory of the four upstream prefectures, and they did not play a role in deciding the outcome of the battle at all.

"I won't make the same mistake this time." Zhang Huangyan said that what he wanted now was to unite with Deng Ming's soldiers as soon as possible, and if another decisive battle broke out, the Ming army could devote all its strength - so that even if it was defeated, it would not leave any regrets.

……

běijīng。

Following Jiangxi, Jiangnan's urgent letter flew into the Forbidden City like snowflakes, making it difficult for Shunzhi, who was sitting on the dragon chair, to sleep and eat.

At the beginning, there were some officials who used "a lone army to go deep, and it is difficult to last" to describe Deng Ming, but now there are fewer and fewer people who talk like this, Deng Ming unscrupulously crossed the Wu and Han dynasties, entered Jiangxi, and then gave up Jiujiang and smashed Nanjing again. When Jiujiang was first recovered by Dong Weiguo, some officials cheered, believing that this was a precursor to Deng Ming's withdrawal of troops, and when they learned that Deng Ming was still advancing eastward, they all kept their mouths shut -- no matter how much Dong Weiguo boasted about himself, everyone knew very well that Deng Ming's morale was still high, otherwise he would not have continued to drive straight in.

The news of Zhu Guozhi's fiasco shattered Běijīng's last illusion, compared to the Liangjiang Governor Yamen, the Caoyun Governor Yamen was much more excited, and sent a hoarse wail to Běijīng, saying that since Zhu Guozhi's defeat, the Liangjiang Governor had never sent a single soldier to Yangzhou, and Liang Huafeng, the Jiangnan Governor who was originally scheduled to rush to Yangzhou to sit in the town, also stayed in Nanjing and did not move.

But today, Shunzhi received good news, the governor of Caoyun Yamen reported to him, and Anqing was saved.

The day before yesterday, the same news from the Yamen, the governor of Caoyun, that Shunzhi learned that the prefect of Anqing was not afraid of danger in the face of a strong enemy, and decided to follow the plan of Lang Tingzuo and Guan to be loyal, and surrendered to Deng Ming to delay time, so as to gain time to hold on to wait for help. At the same time, the prefect of Anqing sent a report to Yangzhou, which described in detail the current situation of Anqing City, an empty city, and the prefect pointed out that the fraudulent surrender was the only countermeasure that could solve the urgent need.

Shunzhi didn't have any objections to this, and after seeing the report of the governor of Caoyun, he had already scolded Zhu Guozhi fiercely for a while, and he still felt puzzled: Deng Ming came from afar, and he was in a quick battle, what kind of stupidity does this have to be to come up with the idea of going out to fight Deng Ming in an empty city? What made Shunzhi hate Zhu Guozhi even more was that this guy actually relied on inciting mutiny to complete his idea of a decisive battle -- Jiang Guozhu sent Zhu Guozhi's letter of request for war to běijīng before the news of the defeat came.

At that time, Shunzhi saw Zhu Guozhi's anxious face, and he despised a strong enemy like Deng Ming so much, so he had an ominous premonition, and the result really came true. After seeing the report of the governor of Caoyun, Shunzhi was furious, took out Zhu Guozhi's letter of invitation and read it again, stared at the first-ranked signature at the end of the letter for a while, and suddenly laughed: "If Deng Ming kills you with a knife, even if you are lucky, I really hope that he will release you back." ”

Shunzhi was worried that the Anqing prefect's plan would not succeed. Just eight months ago, Lang Tingzuo and Guan Xiaozhong had used this trick, and when they heard that Deng Ming had met with Zheng Chenggong in Nanjing, Shunzhi felt that Deng Ming could not be impressed by this matter, and the Anqing prefect seemed to underestimate Deng Ming's intelligence. And even if it succeeds, it will not do Anqing any good, and Anqing is not Nanjing, and even if he can buy some time, it will be for the other cities - but Shunzhi does not care about this, he simply thinks that the loss of Anqing is a foregone conclusion.

Thinking of Lang Tingzuo and Guan Zhongzhong, Shunzhi felt that there was another fire in his belly, both of them were banner people, and they would actually rebel against the court! This caused a shock in běijīng, and people had been feeling incredulous and talking, but a few months ago it suddenly subsided a lot, and people rarely mentioned it again, and when it was occasionally said, many people not only did not express the slightest surprise, but exchanged a tacit look of "you know and I know".

Today, seeing the success of the Anqing prefect's plan, Deng Ming actually believed him, Shunzhi was surprised and happy, the report said that only a small amount of money and food was used to trick Deng Ming into believing in Anqing's surrender sincerity, when this report was written, Deng Ming had already left Anqing, and the prefect said that he would seize the time to rectify the city defense.

"I can't imagine it." Shunzhi smiled happily, such an obvious tactic of delaying time can actually work, it seems that no matter how powerful the enemy is, he can't always be as clear as himself, and it was finally time for Deng Laohu to take a nap, and it also made Shunzhi clearly realize that Deng Ming was still too much worse than him, and Shunzhi felt that he would not fall for this kind of trick even when he was drunk.

Although the Anqing prefect did not describe it in detail, Shunzhi believed that the process of his plan must not be simple, and the emperor took out a roster, dipped it in thick ink and carefully wrote down the names of the Anqing prefect - this book is full of the names of those minor officials, and there will be a short evaluation or two - Shunzhi has too many officials, and if he does not record the xìng lives of these particularly low-level officials in the notebook, he will soon forget jì.

As soon as he finished writing the annotation to the prefect of Anqing, another report was delivered, and after learning that he was from Jiangnan again, Shunzhi immediately opened it and read it carefully.

This report was also forwarded by the Governor of Caoyun, and the author was the prefect of Chizhou, which was also the place that Shunzhi was most concerned about.

"Well, although Anqing has delayed for him for a few days, the time is still a little rushed, and I don't know how Chizhou's defense is arranged." With such doubts, Shunzhi carefully read the report of the Chizhou prefect to the Yamen of Caoyun: "Oh, he plans to use a trick...... It turned out that I wanted to delay for a while...... The specific method is to deceive the ...... The example to learn from is Lang Tingzo and Guan Allegiance......"

"Ugh." Shunzhi threw down the report in disappointment, shook his head and sighed: "Jiang Guozhu's people are not good, they don't have quick wisdom, they only know how to learn from the examples in front of them in an emergency, and there is no new way." ”

Shunzhi knew that the Chizhou prefect's plan was doomed to failure, Deng Ming may have been negligent for a while, and did not remember the lesson of Zheng Chenggong eight months ago, but just a few days ago, the Anqing prefect had just used the same strategy against him, this is a fresh memory, and it did not happen to others, but to experience it firsthand.

In this regard, Shunzhi no longer has any hope for Chizhou, he estimates that this will also affect Anqing, and Deng Ming will immediately realize that the prefect of Anqing is also deceiving him after discovering the scheme.

"Chizhou is over, Anqing is also over, but it's okay, Anqing still delayed Deng Ming for a few days, if it wasn't for the Chizhou prefect who just used the same method, maybe it could have been delayed for a longer time."

After the next urgent report came in, Shunzhi was surprised to find that Deng Ming had actually been tricked again, and the Chizhou prefect claimed that the emperor had been deceived and that Deng Thief had been deceived and was heading downstream, and the Chizhou prefect had also sent out a jǐng report.

"Hehe, you are gullible and arrogant, but that's it." Shunzhi looked at Deng Ming's name on the report and smiled, in his opinion, Deng Ming was too inferior to himself after all, proud and despised, and careless: "With your heart and resourcefulness, you still want to fight for the world with me?" It's ridiculous! ”

Although the report of the Chizhou prefect is an understatement, Shunzhi knows that there must be a thrilling battle in it, and he doesn't know how the Chizhou prefect relieved Deng Ming's doubts, but the Chizhou prefect is undoubtedly quite a trick of change.

After discovering that his intellectual advantage was so great, Shunzhi was in a very good mood, and once again opened his roster and added the Chizhou prefect to it. After the emperor who was in a good mood finished writing his comments to the prefect of Chizhou, he picked up another report sent at the same time and flipped through it -- this was the report of Hezhou.

"Deng Mingbing is coming to the city...... The city has not been consolidated, and the soldiers and horses have not been gathered...... After thinking about it again and again, he suddenly remembered the method of Lang Tingzuo and Guan Allegiance to deal with Zheng Chenggong...... Although these two traitors are insignificant, the strategy might as well be imitated......" After Shunzhi read the mental journey of the Hezhou officials, he thoughtfully put down the report: "What kind of stupidity does Deng Ming have to be to believe you again?" Shunzhi suddenly had an ominous premonition in his heart: "Deng Ming shouldn't have been tricked again this time, right?" ”