Yongli Ming Dynasty

Chapter 312 Choice
In the hall of the government office, most of the ministers left in a blink of an eye, and soon only Hao Yongzhong, Ma Jinzhong, Wang Yuncheng and other military commanders from various towns were left.
Ma Jinzhong and the others looked at the empty lobby with ugly expressions on their faces. Everyone was silent for a long time, and finally Hao Yongzhong spoke up to break the silence.

"The Tartars are coming soon. We don't have time to hesitate. What do you think? Should we leave or stay?"

Wang Jincai heard this, but he did not hesitate at all and immediately said

"Of course we should go. Although Governor He is determined to defend the city, we are all military commanders. How can we fight a war just by making up our minds?"

"The Tartars are very strong. They defeated the 60,000-man army under Changsha with one blow. Now we are left with only a few remnants. How can we stop them?"

"In my opinion, we should leave immediately and collect food and supplies from the counties south of Hengzhou before the Qing army attacks. Then we will retreat to Chenzhou and defend it."

"If the Tartars really pursue us, we will retreat to Guangxi Province. There is more than one way to retreat southwards, we can retreat from Chenzhou into the mountains and retreat to Guangxi and Guangdong provinces via the mountain roads."

Ma Jinzhong heard this, but shook his head and said

"It's useless. The court has already thought of everything we can think of. Have you read the recent court reports issued by the governor's office?"

"Palace newspaper, what palace newspaper? Look at what that thing is for."

Ma Jinzhong looked at the bewildered crowd, and there was no surprise on his face.

Ma Jinzhong, like Li Zicheng, started out as a bandit in Shaanxi Province. Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others chose to establish themselves as kings, but after becoming powerful, Ma Jinzhong chose to accept the imperial court's offer of amnesty and became an official soldier of the imperial court.

When Ma Jinzhong was still in the rebel army, he was a well-known figure. Whether in the underworld or in the officialdom, the most important thing was intelligence.

The officialdom is not about fighting and killing, but about the ways of the world. Only by understanding the connections and trends of the upper and lower levels can one thrive and prosper.
Ma Jinzhong originally only paid attention to the developments in Huguang. However, a few months ago, when he was in the Huguang Governor's Office, he found that the court was indifferent to the generals of Huguang. He was very suspicious, so he began to deliberately collect intelligence about the court in Guangdong Province.

After Ma Jinzhong compiled the monthly reports from the Guangdong court, he discovered that the court had already arranged a

When the imperial court first entered Hunan Province, it indeed only occupied Yongzhou and Quanzhou. This road was also the main road from Hunan to Guangxi at that time. However, in the past few months, the imperial court's arrangements on the Hunan-Guangxi border have become more and more complete.

The Ming court not only stationed troops in Yongzhou and Quanzhou, but also in Yongning, Daozhou. At the same time, Deng Yao and others in Nanxiong, Guangdong Province, also mobilized soldiers to defend the Lechang Shaoguan line.

Once these three points were guarded, almost all roads from southern Hunan Province into Guangxi Province and Guangdong Province were blocked.

The Ming court's arrangement was not to guard against the armies of Huguang, but to guard against the Qing army's attack on Guangxi and Guangdong after the fall of Hunan Province.
Even if Wang Jincai and his men retreated to Chenzhou at this time, they would have nowhere to go if the Qing army caught up with them.

The court's troop movements should have been kept secret, but they were clearly written in the court report sent to the Huguang Governor's Office.

The court's move was actually a warning to the generals in Huguang. The court had already prepared for the border between Hunan and Guangxi. The court's killing of Cao Zhijian at this time was to kill the chicken to scare the monkey, so that the generals in Huguang would not dream of abandoning Hunan and escaping.
After hearing what Ma Jinzhong said, everyone in the hall felt a sinking feeling in their hearts. Wang Jincai was even more shocked and angry. He couldn't help but shout
"The imperial court is simply trying to force us to die. Aren't they afraid that we will surrender to the Tartars?"

Ma Jinzhong and the others were silent upon hearing this. Almost all the generals who were still in Hengzhou Prefecture at this time were opposed to surrendering to the Qing Dynasty.
The Ming and Qing dynasties were confronting each other on the Huguang front. These people had been in Hunan for a long time. If they wanted to surrender, they would have surrendered long ago.

After Ma Jinzhong accepted the amnesty, he served under Zuo Liangyu. After Zuo Liangyu's death, Zuo Menggeng suddenly surrendered to the Qing Dynasty with his entire army in Jiujiang.
At that time, hundreds of thousands of Zuo troops were trapped in Jiujiang. Zuo Menggeng suddenly surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and Ajige led the Qing army to threaten them. Ma Jinzhong and Wang Yuncheng were forced to follow suit and shave their heads and surrender to the Qing court.

However, once the main force of the Qing army left, Ma Jinzhong got the opportunity to leave the town alone, but he immediately cut off his queue, led his army to escape to Huguang, and returned to the Ming court.

The same was true for Hao Yongzhong and Wang Jincai. After Li Zicheng's death, the Huguang Shun army also collapsed. Yuan Zongdi, Tian Jianxiu and others led a group of defeated troops to flee into Hunan Province.
Although He Tengjiao was forced to recruit the Shun army under pressure, he still regarded Tian Jianxiu and others as bandits and made things difficult for them.
The Qing court saw an opportunity and secretly sent people to contact the Shun army, hoping to recruit the remaining Shun army to surrender. The two sides exchanged messengers and even negotiated the treatment of the Shun army after their surrender.
However, the Qing court insisted on shaving the heads of the Shun army, and Tian Jianxiu and others refused to do so, so the surrender to the Qing court failed.

Hao Yongzhong and others had already discussed this with the Qing court several years ago. If they were willing to shave their heads, they would have been Qing generals long ago. Why wait until now?
Ma Jinzhong was silent for a long time before he continued to speak.

"The court made this arrangement based on the situation of Hunan's fall. I'm afraid that when Liu Xiang came to Changsha a few months ago, the court had already made preparations for the fall of Hunan."

Hao Yongzhong couldn't help but speak when he heard this.

"How is this possible? It is said that the imperial court defeated the Qing invaders in Fujian and Zhejiang, and directly defeated Liu Chengyin after entering Hunan. The imperial court clearly has a large army available, so why should they give up Hunan for no reason? What benefits will this bring to the imperial court?"

"Benefits? We are the benefits."

Ma Jinzhong sighed and spoke again

"We occupy Hunan Province. From our perspective, we are defending the territory for the court and have made great contributions to the court."

"But in the eyes of the court, we are intercepting taxes from Huguang, dividing salaries and plundering land. A few months ago, Regent Gui came to Huguang and invited us to meet him. Except for Lu Ding, no one else went. In the eyes of the court, we are probably too powerful to be eliminated."

When Wang Jin heard this, he looked dissatisfied and said

"The imperial court had just entered Hunan Province at that time, and they killed Liu Chengyin without saying a word. Who knew what the imperial court was going to do when they summoned us over?"

Hao Yongzhong and the others nodded slightly when they heard this. Liu Chengyin was a member of the imperial army. The Guangdong court said to kill him and then suddenly summoned them to attend the court meeting. Who would dare to enter the court easily?

Ma Jinzhong continued to speak

"The court won't care about these. When the court sees that we refuse to obey orders, it will only think that we are trying to coerce the court with our own troops. I'm afraid that at that time, the court has already wanted to deal with us." "It's just that we have the identity of the court, so it's not easy for the court to take action. At that time, the court happened to know that the Tartars were going to attack Huguang, so the court simply threw us in Hunan Province and let us fend for ourselves."

Wang Yuncheng, who was standing by, had been listening quietly, but the more he thought about it, the more angry he became. He couldn't help but shout out in anger.
"If they don't accept us, then don't accept us. Does the court really think that we will have nowhere to go without them? If they don't want us here, we can find other places to stay. At worst, we can just surrender to the Tartars."

Ma Jinzhong just glanced at Wang Yuncheng, then turned his gaze back and continued speaking.

"You may not have noticed recently, but the amount of food and money transported from Yongzhou to Hengzhou has increased over the past month, and has already exceeded two thousand dan. This shows that the court does not want to sit back and watch Hengzhou fall. Although the court has not sent troops, it has begun to increase its support for the Huguang Governor's Office."

"The Governor is right. Hengzhou is the place of death that the court has left for us, but it is also our chance of survival."

"Hengzhou is the residence of His Royal Highness the Regent. As long as we can defend Hengzhou, it will be a great achievement. Only in this way will the court accept us again."

"In my opinion, our only way out now is to defend Hengzhou. The main reason why Changsha was defeated was that we went out of the city and fought against the Qing army in the field. If we had defended the city at that time, Changsha would never have fallen so easily."

"Although we are fewer in number now, our consumption of food and grass has been greatly reduced. Governor He has been constantly transferring food from various places in Hengzhou these days, and food has been continuously transported to Yongzhou. We don't need to worry about the food and wages in the city in the short term."

"We have 15,000 to 16,000 troops in total. As long as we hold the city and don't leave, we should be able to defend Hengzhou."

Wang Jincai, who was standing by, heard this and said in a deep voice:

"What if we can't keep it?"

"The Tartars attacking Huguang have a lot of firearms, and there is no guarantee that they will not have Red Barbarian heavy artillery. If they really have heavy artillery, then Hengzhou will be difficult to defend even if there are city walls."

Ma Jin was dignified, but he did not hesitate at all and said directly
"We have to defend it even if it is difficult. If we defend the city with our lives, even if Hengzhou really falls in the end, we can still explain it to the court."

"If we withdraw now and let He Tengjiao die in the city, even if we don't surrender to the Tartars, the imperial court will not let us go."

Hao Yongzhong then spoke again

"If the court still refuses to accept us after we defend the city, will they hold us accountable?"

Ma Jinzhong's expression froze when he heard this. Although He Tengjiao said that if they held on to Hengzhou, they would have a chance of survival, after analyzing the various actions of the imperial court, Ma Jinzhong also believed that the imperial court wanted to use Hengzhou to select the generals from Huguang.

But the court never made it clear, and no one knew what the court's attitude would be afterwards.
"If that's the case... then we can only make our own plans when the time comes."

After Ma Jinzhong finished speaking, the place fell silent again.

Ma Jinzhong was silent for a moment, but his expression suddenly became firm and he said

"I have decided to stay in the city and accompany He Tengjiao to defend the city. What do you think?"

Wang Jincai, Wang Yuncheng and others were silent when they heard this. It was easy to defend the city, but if they really stayed in the city at this time, once the Qing army surrounded the city, it would not be so easy to leave.
Even if they managed to escape successfully, most of their soldiers would be killed.

They had already suffered a loss at the foot of Changsha City. If they were to suffer another loss here, how many soldiers would they have left?
Once all the soldiers under their command are killed, what is the point of them finally being forgiven by the court?
In this world, if these thieves were without soldiers, who would even look at them?

Wang Jincai and the others all frowned, their faces showing uncertain expressions. Hao Yongzhong looked at the gray head on the table above, and felt annoyed. He couldn't help but curse.
"When the Tartars attacked the city, these Ming Dynasty soldiers fled or rebelled, and in the end it was up to us rebels to defend the city with our lives. What the hell is this logic?"

After Hao Yongzhong finished speaking, he no longer cared about the people in the room and turned around and walked out of the hall.
Everyone in the field was silent after hearing this. At this time, among the four generals in the hall, except Wang Yuncheng who was from the official army, the other three were indeed bandits. When Ma Jinzhong and others thought of this, they couldn't help but feel absurd.

Kong Youde and his men captured Hengshan without a fight. After taking Hengshan, Kong Youde and his men did not attack Hengzhou directly, but decided to first wipe out Huang Chaoxuan, who was entrenched in Youxian.

Kong Youde and his men conquered Huguang and had some knowledge of the various towns in Huguang. Huang Chaoxuan claimed to have 100,000 soldiers, making him the most powerful among all the towns in Huguang.

You County is located to the east of Hengshan Mountain. If the Qing army ignores You County and directly attacks Hengzhou, it is very likely that Huang Chaoxuan will cut off their retreat.
However, Kong Youde and his men completely overestimated Huang Chaoxuan. As soon as Kong Youde and his men's army left Hengshan, Huang Chaoxuan's secret envoy who came to surrender had already arrived at Kong Youde's army.
Kong Youde knew that Huang Chaoxuan wanted to surrender, so he made a huge request, requiring Huang Chaoxuan to leave Youxian with all his troops to accept reorganization and disarm all his troops before he would accept the surrender.

Kong Youde was originally waiting for Huang Chaoxuan to bargain, but Huang Chaoxuan actually agreed.

Kong Youde led his troops to You County and found that all the soldiers in Huang Chaoxuan's army had indeed left the city and disarmed. During the many exchanges between the two sides, Kong Youde also discovered the true quality of Huang Chaoxuan's so-called 100,000-man army.

Kong Youde finally had no more hesitation. When Huang Chaoxuan came out of the city to greet him, Kong Youde found a random excuse that Huang Chaoxuan had overstayed his welcome and had bad intentions, and shot him dead on the spot.
After Kong Youde killed Huang Chaoxuan, he immediately led his soldiers into the city, took over the city defense and controlled the surrendered soldiers. When the soldiers and civilians in You County saw that Huang Chaoxuan was killed, no one resisted and they surrendered directly to Kong Youde.

After Huang Chaoxuan occupied You County, he expanded his territory wantonly, forcibly conscripted civilians as soldiers, and even killed people at will. The people of You County had already hated Huang Chaoxuan to the core.
At this time, the people of You County saw Huang Chaoxuan being killed, and they didn't even have time to cheer. How could anyone avenge him?

When Kong Youde learned about this, he went into the city and summoned the people in the county, listed Huang Chaoxuan's crimes, and then dismembered Huang Chaoxuan's body again in front of the people of the city.
The people of You County cheered and told each other about it. The people of the city scrambled to grab Huang Chaoxuan's body and ate it up.

At this point, Kong Youde killed Huang Chaoxuan, the so-called largest town in Huguang, without any soldiers, and surrendered his 80,000 soldiers. Huang Chaoxuan looted hundreds of thousands of wealth accumulated by the people of Huguang over the years, and all of it fell into Kong Youde's hands.

After Kong Youde and his men dealt with Huang Chaoxuan, they finally had no more worries and marched directly from You County to Hengzhou. In early October, Kong Youde and his three kings arrived at the foot of Hengzhou City. Tens of thousands of Qing troops deployed under the city and completely surrounded Hengzhou City.

(End of this chapter)