Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 142 The Tide is Rising

There is an ancient town thirty miles north of Jiashan County. According to legend, this town has been inhabited by ancestors since the Spring and Autumn Period, so it can be considered a thousand-year-old ancient town.

Forty or fifty miles northeast of this town is Qingpu, and another forty or fifty miles north is one of Nikan's destinations, where Ordu was besieged.

Judging from the distance alone, this town is not far from Qingpu, but there are still two large rivers that need to be crossed. Therefore, the Qing army was ready to go before dawn today, and they would set out as soon as it got a little brighter and arrive in Qingpu before nightfall.

To be honest, these two rivers are not easy to cross.

Dahuangpu, which is closer to the south, was dredged by Xia Yuanji during the Yongle period. After that, this waterway far exceeded other waterways in terms of width and water volume, thus becoming the main channel for Taihu Lake to flow eastward into the sea.

This gave rise to the phrase "Huangpu takes over Song Dynasty".

It is not a big deal to rush to open the river to the north, as the water is only barely above the waist in some shallow places, and you can still cross it directly even without much preparation.

However, the distance between it and Dahuangpu is only about ten miles, and Nikan has to cross one river after another, which really makes him a little annoyed.

But no matter how annoyed I am, what else can I do if I don't take this path?

Do we really want to take the Nanxun route and risk being attacked by the Ming navy?

"Where is Liu Liangzuo?"

Seeing that his own army was only a few miles away from Dahuangpu, Nikan asked Goshaha beside him about the movements of the vanguard.

Although he brought Liu Liangzuo out this time with the intention of letting him atone for his sins, if we consider it carefully, we can find that this is only a small part of it.

This time he brought a total of nearly 40,000 people, of which 35,000 were surrendered soldiers brought by Liu Liangzuo. The real Eight Banners soldiers were actually only more than 2,000 people.

Therefore, in order to make these surrendered troops give their all, he discussed with Duoduo before deciding to give Liu Liangzuo this opportunity.

"Report to Lord Beile, the vanguard has passed Dahuangpu and is now heading towards Kaihe."

"Well, order the scouts to investigate thoroughly, but report immediately if they find anything."

"twitter."

After giving instructions, Nagoshaha took the order and left.

Although this road is much safer than the one in Nanxun, there is still a possibility of encountering enemies. However, compared with the road in Nanxun which is full of rivers and lakes, this side has more rivers and is much more acceptable.

After all, except for a limited number of rivers here, most of them are only a few feet wide. Some of them have slower flow and shallower water, so you can even swim across them without much preparation.

In this area of ​​Jiangnan with dense water networks, what could Nikan be dissatisfied with to find such a road?
But then again, we still need to be on guard.

The Huangpu River is at least 20 to 30 feet wide. If the Ming army attacks halfway across the river, it would be troublesome to cut the army into two.

Of course, this trouble is only theoretical. After all, Nikan led nearly 40,000 troops. As long as the troops were not separated by small groups, could the Ming army still have a way to wipe out 10,000 or 20,000 troops?

Therefore, when he heard the news that Liu Liangzuo's vanguard had reached the other side and the central army was crossing the river, Nikan felt relieved, and the words "investigate thoroughly" were probably just said out of habit.

After walking for another three or two minutes, the wide Huangpu River finally appeared in Nikan's sight.

At this time, several pontoon bridges had already been built on the river, and teams of soldiers were heading to the other side in an orderly manner.

Seeing this scene, Nikan was not completely relieved. Instead, the vigilance he had developed from years of fighting made him a little uneasy.

According to common sense, the Ming army definitely did not have the ability to destroy Ordu's troops in just a few days.

Based on this, they should find ways to delay the advance of the army so as to buy enough time for the battlefield ahead.

But along the way, Nikan not only did not encounter any obstruction from the Ming army, he didn't even see a few of their scouts.

What does this mean?
Yu Nikan thought that either the Ming army was confident enough to annihilate Ordu's troops before he arrived, or the Ming army had no intention of stopping them here.

However, the army is now only two days away from the battlefield, and the only place suitable for using the weak to stop the strong is Dahuangpu. If they do not intend to take action here, do they have other plans?
The unknown is the scariest thing.

If the Ming army had openly set up its troops at Dahuangpu to block the Qing army, Nikan would definitely not have been worried at all. But now he was somewhat confused about the Ming army's plans, so it was natural for him to feel uneasy.

"Report~~~~~ Lord Beile, traces of a large army were found on the riverside beach."

Just as Nikan was thinking about it, another soldier rushed back from the other side.

Seeing this situation, he naturally asked some questions. After the soldier told him in detail what he had found out, he felt a little less uneasy.

After the front camp of the Central Army crossed the river, they conducted a detailed survey of the terrain around Dahuangpu. During this process, they not only found large areas of traces of people trampling on them, but also found many half-built fortifications.

After combining these two points, it is easy to conclude that a certain size of army must have been stationed here not long ago, but for some reason, they did not complete the mission as planned and left in a hurry.

The question is, which group of people would build fortifications on the north side of the river? And why would they leave in such a hurry?
"Lord Beile, give me five thousand men and I will go after these sneaky people."

After listening to the soldiers' report, Nikan did not make a conclusion immediately, but the generals beside him had already come up with their own answers. While he was still thinking carefully, someone asked for a fight.

This man's name was Hetuo, and he was Meile Ezhen of the Bordered Red Banner.

To rescue Suzhou this time, Duoduo ordered him to lead one and a half armored troops under his command to go together with Nikan. In a sense, he could be regarded as the main force of this battle, so there would be no problem for him to lead the troops to chase the fleeing Ming army.

But Nikan was still unsure whether he should allow the people of the Red Banner to make too many contributions.

The leader of the Red Bordered Banner was Nurhaci's second son Daishan. When Dorgon and Hauge were fighting for the throne last year, old Daishan watched the fun sinisterly from the sidelines.

It was only when the fight between the two sides had become intense that he came forward and proposed that the current little emperor should succeed to the throne.

Afterwards, Hauge, the most powerful, got nothing, while Dorgon, who was weaker, became the regent. The balance of power between the two powers was restored, and a conflict was averted because of his proposal.

From a positive perspective, Nikan's second uncle maintained the unity of the Qing Dynasty and created the foundation for its subsequent southward advance into the Pass.

But if one thinks a little more darkly, since the two strongest parties are evenly matched, old Daishan, who holds the Zhenghong and Xianghong flags, has become an important force that all parties are vying to win over.

Under such circumstances, his people would naturally be able to take advantage of both sides and take the opportunity to expand their power.

This is certainly not Nikan's random speculation. Take Hetuo for example. When Huang Taiji was alive, he was just an ordinary general among many military generals, but after the young emperor ascended the throne, his official position was promoted again and again, and after entering the Pass, he even got a hereditary position.

Of course, this hereditary position was not a big deal, and there were many people who had obtained it. However, he had fought for half his life and had never made any achievements in building a country. It was obvious that he was a person of mediocre talent. Could it be that he suddenly became enlightened after the fight for the throne?

There are many people like him in the two red flags, plus Daishan's numerous descendants who all hold important positions. Nikan even secretly thought that the most powerful person in the Qing Dynasty might not be Dorgon or Hauge, but the old man who seemed to be indifferent to everything but secretly worked hard to develop the power of the two red flags.

With this in mind, he finally decided not to give the two red flags any chance to make merit.

After rejecting the peace proposal on the grounds that there were many rivers in this area and the heavy troops of the Eight Banners could not be moved lightly.

Nikan ordered his scouts to expand the search area while he ordered the army to cross the river as soon as possible.

In short, he pretended to be in a hurry and ignored everything else to match his own reasons.

To be honest, whether Daishan's line could become powerful should be a matter for Dorgon, Hauge and the young emperor, and had nothing to do with Nikan.

After all, no matter who is in power, they will not mistreat people like him who only know how to work but don't have much ambition.

However, judging from this period of time, the Ming Dynasty has a tendency to survive but not die. If the aftermath of the struggle for the throne, which has almost dissipated, is reignited due to the strength of the two red flags, it may give the Ming Dynasty a chance to catch its breath.

By then, unifying China might just mean dividing the country by the river. Wouldn't that be a huge loss for the Manchus as a whole?
Therefore, Nikam, who had never made things difficult for others, would take the risk of offending others and do so.

After a while, Nikan and the central army successfully reached the other side, and the expected ambush did not occur.

At this point he was certain that the Ming army saw that his military was superior, so they abandoned the half-built fortifications and fled.

In this situation, on the one hand, he admired his Uncle Fifteen's foresight, but on the other hand, he also felt somewhat regretful.

After all, if the Ming army wanted to stop him from rescuing Suzhou, he would have to gather the troops scattered everywhere. In this way, he would be able to stabilize Suzhou and Songjiang, and even the entire Jiangnan region, in one battle.

Uncle Fifteen is becoming more and more cautious.

Nikan muttered something in his heart, then left a group of people to guard the pontoon bridge and headed north again.

Duoduo is much more stable than he was a month ago, but this "stability" is also due to changes in the situation.

When the cities in Jiangbei surrendered, there was no Ming army that dared to fight back, so he dared to attack fiercely and crossed the river to fight without waiting to completely wipe out Jiangbei.

When he just arrived in Jiangnan, the war was not as smooth as in Jiangbei, but he did not encounter much resistance after all, so he dared to send Nikan to pursue Hongguang.

But now the situation has changed dramatically. The resistance in Jiangnan has become more and more fierce under Zhu Cilang's various actions.

As a commander-in-chief of an army, and as a commander-in-chief who understands the political situation, Duoduo naturally would not take risks at this time.

Nikan naturally understood these things, but he was not in a position to interfere in matters that were not his business. For him now, he was more concerned about how to pacify the south of the Yangtze River.

The sun gradually slid from the sky to the west. After crossing the Dahuangpu, the main force of the Qing army was close to the Kaihe River. However, Liu Liangzuo, the vanguard of the army, stopped his advance at the north bank of the Kaihe River.

That day, in the battle outside Hangzhou city, he lost in a very frustrating way.

Although he did have problems in some of his responses, and the timing of the Ming army's reinforcements entering the battlefield was indeed extremely tricky, the battle strategy was set by the Manchus, and the intelligence errors were also the Manchus' own problem, but in the end, the responsibility for failing to capture Hangzhou fell solely on him.

This was really hard to accept for Liu Liangzuo, who was used to seeing people blaming each other.

But when you are under someone's roof, how can you not bow your head?
Since his responsibility was unavoidable, he had no other choice but to try his best to demonstrate his value in the subsequent battles.

Can we still use various means of passive resistance as we did before surrender?

You have to know that the reason why the Manchus entrusted these surrendered soldiers with important tasks was simply because they did not want the Eight Banners soldiers to suffer losses, not that they were incapable of fighting.

With this understanding in mind, Liu Liangzuo became more active after being punished.

Just like now, according to reason, after the vanguard crossed the river, they only needed to leave some men to guard the pontoon bridge and then continue to advance. However, for safety reasons, he had to see the front camp of the central army before leaving.

This means that they have to speed up their march to make up for the lost time, and the physical burden on the soldiers will naturally increase greatly.

"Marshal, they're almost here anyway, so why don't we go first."

"Don't worry, it doesn't matter right now. Let's wait until the front camp of the central army arrives."

After hearing the persuasion of his subordinates, Liu Liangzuo just said something lightly without explaining the reason.

His younger brother Liu Liangchen had surrendered to the Qing Dynasty with Zu Dashou more than ten years ago, so he already had a clear understanding of the Manchus' way of doing things.

He appears to be lenient but is jealous inside and will never let go of any grudge.

With these two points, how could he not behave more honestly?
"Marshal, you."

"Don't say anymore!" After a while, the general still seemed unwilling to give up, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he was interrupted by Liu Liangzuo.

"We previously caused the prince's plan to fail, but the prince not only did not blame us, but also entrusted us with the vanguard. Not only are you ungrateful, but you are also complaining like this. What's the reason?"

"Marshal, no"

As soon as Liu Liangzuo finished speaking, the general seemed ready to refute, but at this moment, the resentment that had been accumulating in his heart for a long time suddenly burst out.

"What do you mean? Even though you didn't participate in the battle that day, does it mean that you have nothing to do with your comrades being defeated by the enemy?"

After a scolding, the general shut up and said nothing more.

When Liu Liangzuo heard that there was no movement behind him, his anger was still not subsided, but he didn't say anything.

This military general had been scheming for personal gain since he surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, and by this time he had already hooked up with a certain prince, so no matter how dissatisfied Liu Liangzuo was, he could only reprimand him.

just
"Marshal! Water!"

Just as Liu Liangzuo was trying to calm his anger, the short-sighted general said something again. But before he could open his mouth to scold, the horse under him seemed to sense his master's mood and stomped on the ground a few times in annoyance.

"Whoosh, whoosh."

The sound of splashing water reached his ears, and Liu Liangzuo instinctively looked towards the source of the sound.

"Hmm? High tide?"

(End of this chapter)