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The water of the Yellow River flows through Yifeng in the east of Kaifeng to Kaocheng, Dangshan, Xuzhou, Suqian in the southeast, enters Hongze Lake, and then enters the lower reaches of the Huai River into the sea.

And Duoduo's 80,000 troops set out from Kaifeng, basically along this route to the south, tens of thousands of troops kicked off the yellow dust, straight into the air.

Along the way, there was a desolation, and the hungry people in ragged clothes were struggling to survive, with yellow faces and thin muscles.

One piece of the field was planted with some winter wheat on that one. In the past, Duoduo would have trampled on the past without scruples, but now he has given an unprecedented order: Whoever tramples on the wheat seedlings, cut off!

Today, Henan, Beizhili, Shanxi, and Shaanxi north of the Huai River have been devastated by natural disasters and wars for many years. The Qing army also experienced a food shortage a while ago, forcing many offensives to slow down.

No matter how arrogant Duoduo is, he also knows the importance of grain and grass. If you trample on it again, it will be tantamount to self-destruction.

A fast horse galloped to the front of the Duoduo cart, and said loudly: "Lord Wang, the former army has captured thousands of refugees who have fled south, and General Zu Zesheng has asked for instructions."

"Please tell me something, send it to Guide Mansion nearby and let the prefect settle it." Duoduo coughed a few times when he spoke, he was seriously ill a while ago, and he has not fully recovered yet, and he has been traveling by car all the way south.

"Wow." The herald hurried away again.

Ning Wan, who was sent to accompany Duoduo on his southern expedition, had the honor of riding in the same car with Duoduo, and he said worriedly: "Lord Wang, along the way, seven groups of refugees who have fled south have been caught, and it can be seen that there must be a large number of refugees who have fled south. However, the magistrates turned a blind eye to this, which is really unreasonable. ”

Duoduo took a sip of water from the water bladder and said in a self-deprecating tone, "I guess those magistrates themselves still want to escape." ”

Ning Wan glanced at Duoduo in surprise, Duoduo's face was a little pale, could it be because the illness had not fully recovered, and the previous sharp qi was gone, so he said such a thing. Suddenly, Ning Wan cast some shadows over me.

He hurriedly put aside the premonition that his heart was not good, and then said: "The Central Plains has been plagued by wars over the years, and the population has been very sparse. If you let the people flee south like this. It is even more difficult for this livelihood to recover. Lord Wang, it is necessary to order all states and counties to strengthen control, and the army at the front to strengthen patrols to prevent the people from fleeing south. ”

Duoduo said indifferently, "Run." Wait for the king to destroy Qin Mu. I see where they're going. ”

"Lord Wang!"

"What are you yelling about? When this king does not know the importance of the road? These people can't survive to flee south. Now you stop them, do you have food to feed them? What's the use of stopping it if you can't feed it? Now let them escape and let Qin Mu have a headache. This king wants to see how much energy Qin Mu still has to settle these refugees when this king's army is pressing."

When Duoduo said this, his heart moved, and he didn't discuss it with me, so he asked his own soldiers to call Xia Chengde.

Xia Chengde was originally the deputy general of the Songshan Ming Army, and when Hong Chengchou was alone in Songshan, he secretly colluded with the Qing army and took his son Xia Shu as a hostage to surrender. On the night of February 18 in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, Haoge led the Qing army to climb the ladder from Nancheng and conquer Songshan City. In the early morning of the next day, Xia Chengde led his troops to capture Hong Chengchou and the governor Qiu Minyang, the general soldier Wang Tingxiang, Zu Dale, etc., Qiu Minyang committed suicide, and Cao Bianjiao and others were killed in battle.

"Lord Wang, I don't know what to do with recruiting slaves?" Xia Chengde bowed down to the car and asked, in front of Duoduo and others, he had always regarded himself as a slave.

Duoduo lifted the curtain and whispered to him: "Xia Chengde, you take a few thousand people, disguise themselves as ordinary people after nightfall, disperse and blend in with the refugees fleeing south, sneak behind enemy lines, attack the grain route of the Qin army, and cooperate with our army to fight head-on, understand?" ”

Xia Chengde didn't dare to object, and hurriedly responded: "Yes, Lord Wang, the slave must live up to the expectations of the Lord Wang, go to the soup for the Qing Dynasty, and die." ”

"Go, after the deed is done, this king will not forget your merits."

"Thank you, Lord Wang."

At noon, when the 80,000 army stopped to rest, Fengyang Mansion sent a message, saying that the Chuzhou troops in the south were relatively empty, and the defending general was still the female general of Li Zicheng's army.

After receiving this news, Duoduo called Gushan Ezhen Malaxi, Chebai, Gong Adai, Xihan, Tong Tulai, Zuo Mengeng, Li Yongfang, Sun Degong, Zu Dale, Zu Dabi, Zu Zeyuan, Zu Zepei, Ye Chenluo and other generals to discuss together.

Everyone sat under an elm tree, and I said first: "Our army will arrive at Guide Mansion (Shangqiu) in half a day, and go east to Dangshan, Xuzhou, Suqian, and Huai'an. To the south, Yongcheng and Suzhou are Fengyang Mansion.

At present, there are 30,000 horses and horses of Jin Shenghuan in Huai'an, as well as Zheng Sihai's nearly 10,000 water divisions, our army wants to attack Huai'an, first have to cross the Yellow River, although it is now Layue, but the river surface in Huai'an is not frozen all year round, our army has to defeat Zheng Sihai's water division to cross the river;

From the intelligence point of view, when Qin Mu was in Huguang, he was in Dongting Lake to build a water division, never relaxed, Hong Chengchou's defeat, in fact, was defeated in the water division, and now the Qin army's gunboats have increased to more than 60, and the pirate Gu San Mazi has been incorporated, and the strength has increased greatly, so we can't take it lightly for the Qin army's water division.

On the other hand, in Chuzhou, south of Fengyang Mansion, there are only thousands of men and horses stationed in the garrison, and the guard will be Li Zicheng's old red lady. If our army goes to Yongcheng and Suzhou, crosses the Huai River in the south and enters Fengyang Mansion, and then south is Yima Pingchuan, our army can quickly advance to the Qingliu Pass."

Ning finished talking about this and paused before continuing: "However, I think Chuzhou is a trap. ”

Chuzhou is hundreds of miles deep, and it is already very close to Jinling, if the Qing army goes straight to Chuzhou, and the Qin army attacks Fengyang Mansion from Hongze Lake by land and water, the retreat of the 80,000 army is very likely to be cut off.

With Ning finishing my intelligence, it is not strange to see that Chuzhou is a trap, when Qin Mu dug this pit at the beginning, he was playing Yangmou, and he didn't expect to hide it. It's just that he believes that the bait is sufficient, and maybe some fish will not be able to resist the temptation and take the risk to try.

Duoduo said quietly: "Attacking Huai'an, the Qin army has the danger of the Yellow River and the benefit of the water division, and our army may even have a problem crossing the river." Attacking Chuzhou is a trap, and the back road may be cut off by the Qin army. What are your thoughts on this? ”

Zu Dale thought for a while and said: "Lord Wang, if we can't fight quickly, our army's grain and grass can only be maintained by fighting to feed the war, and the north of Huai'an alone is not enough to meet the needs of our army." If Huai'an is attacked and cannot break through quickly, our army is also very passive.

If it is to attack Chuzhou, what to worry about is nothing more than that the Qin army will take advantage of the advantages of the water division, advance westward from the Huai River, attack Fengyang Mansion with heavy water and land forces, and cut off the return route of our army. The last general thought that our army could leave another 10,000 troops to defend Fengyang Mansion and seal the Huai River waterway. In this way, there is no need to worry about the back road, and the army can go straight to Qingliuguan.

If Qingliu Pass cannot be attacked for a while, our army can also divide troops to cross the canal to the east and attack Gaoyou and other places, and it is not difficult to get sufficient grain and grass supplies from the Huaiyang area. ”

The southern ships and northern horses, including Zu Dale, the Han people of Liaodong, were suspicious of fighting against the Qin army's sailors at Hongze Lake, and if they couldn't cross the Yellow River to attack Huai'an City, they suffered a big loss at the hands of the Qin army's sailors.

Gushan Ezhen Ye Chenluo is also inclined to attack Chuzhou, he said: "Lord, in Huai'an, the Qin army occupies the advantage of the waterway, not to mention whether our army can cross the river smoothly, even if it can cross the Yellow River smoothly, the army is under the city of Huai'an, Yangzhou still has 20,000 horses in Ningyuan, and it is not difficult to reinforce the Qin army in the south of the Yangtze River at any time, and it is not difficult for the Qin army in the south of the Yangtze River to come to reinforce, in the minister's opinion, it is more dangerous for our army to cross the river to attack Huai'an, once it cannot be attacked, it will be difficult to cross the river to return to the north again." ”

Huai'an is adjacent to the Grand Canal and Hongze Lake in the west, and the north is the river channel into the sea after the confluence of the Yellow River and the Huai River, and the water volume after the intersection of the two rivers is not less than the Yangtze River.

The Qing army also built a lot of warships during this time, but these warships could not even be equipped with artillery, and almost none of the Qing generals present believed that they could defeat the Qin army's sailors with these warships.

In contrast, everyone thinks that they have a better chance of going to Chuzhou.

Duoduo coughed twice and asked Zuo Liangyu: "Jin Shenghuan and the Huai'an defenders are mostly your former subordinates, do you have a way to surrender?" ”

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(To be continued......)