Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 177 Don’t Let Others Know
Previously, Zhu Cilang gave Zeng three strategies: the best, the best, and the worst, and broke down in detail the situation that Duoduo was facing.

To put it simply, the best strategy is to run as fast as you can, run as far as you can; the middle strategy is to run a little bit and wait until you are in a safe position to see the situation; the worst strategy is simple, which is to attack Hangzhou immediately.

Judging from the current situation, Duoduo has obviously chosen the worst strategy mentioned by Zhu Cilang, and he has not yet been able to capture Hangzhou, so the situation will naturally take a sharp turn for the worse.

"How could Angie be lost?!"

Although Duoduo's voice was weak, it could not hide his surprise and anger.

In fact, what surprised him was not the fact that Angie was missing, but why he had only received the news now.

Anji is located in the northwest of Hangzhou, and the two cities are nearly two hundred miles apart. The most important thing is that although this city is connected to Taihu Lake by a river, there is still a city of Huzhou in between.

Now that this place has been lost, it is obvious that the Ming army came by water, but why didn't Huzhou issue any warning under such circumstances?

"Your Highness, the Ming army came on warships. Before we could react, they launched a fierce artillery attack, and then the city was lost."

"Snapped!"

"Traitor!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Duoduo knocked over the medicine bowl beside the bed and cursed without waiting for others to persuade him.

The "traitor" he called was naturally not directed at the trembling general, but as for who he was calling out, there was no need to elaborate.

Duoduo has now come to his senses. No matter which of the three strategies Zhu Cilang gave him, he would end up with the same result. The only reason why he took the trouble to write such a letter was to limit his thinking to such a small area.

"It's better than"

Seeing Duoduo's violent reaction, Kong Youde wanted to persuade him, but he was interrupted by Duoduo with a wave of his hand before he could utter three words.

"You guys go out first."

After stopping Kong Youde from speaking, Duoduo drove out all the generals in the tent. It was obvious that he had already made up his mind, but it was not convenient for him to say it in front of so many people.

"I know what you mean," he said, trying to straighten himself up from the bed. When he was sitting cross-legged on the bed, he continued, "The road through Anji is already rugged, so why not go directly to Huzhou, right?"

"Ah."

What Kong Youde could think of, Duoduo could naturally think of as well, so he did not show any surprise when his thoughts were revealed.

Judging from the current situation, it is basically impossible to capture Hangzhou in a short period of time.

Not to mention that all the artillery pieces with shorter range were destroyed in last night's battle. Even if those artillery pieces were still there, how would the soldiers get the morale to continue fighting after losing several battles?

Of course, if Duoduo was willing to use all the more than a thousand flag soldiers in his hands to attack, there might still be a chance to fight.

But I don't know if it was because he was wearing shoes, or if he had other considerations. Anyway, when the situation had reached this point, Duoduo didn't seem to have the slightest intention of using his trump card.

Under such circumstances, the only option left for them was to retreat.

When talking about retreat, we have to mention the location of Hangzhou. It is located north of Qiantang River and east of Tianmu Mountain. It is the gateway to the mountain range in southern Zhejiang and Fujian.

If we want to retreat from now on, there are probably only three routes available: either through Anji, through Huzhou, or through Suzhou.

Although the road to Anji is not rough, you still have to pass Tianmu Mountain, and the city has already been occupied, so it is naturally not an option.

To go to Suzhou, one has to pass through an area with dense water networks. If one is not careful, one may repeat Nikan's mistake. It is not a good choice.

The only place left is Huzhou, which has a short and flat road. Duoduo took this route when he came here, but at the same time, there is still a problem with taking this route.

Would the Ming army be so kind as to only capture Anji, which is more difficult to leave, and give up Huzhou, which is easier to leave?
"Would that traitor be so kind as to leave Huzhou for us as a retreat?"

"This"

Sure enough, when Duoduo asked a question, Kong Youde was choked.

This is not to say that Duoduo is worse than Kong Youde, but mainly because he has had free time to look at the captured map since he went south. But Kong Youde has only been here for a few days, so he is naturally not as familiar with the terrain as he is.

The result was that Kong Youde thought of retreating from Huzhou, while Duoduo concluded that the Ming army's retreat from Huzhou must be a trick based on his familiarity with the surrounding terrain.

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If not Huzhou, where else should we choose?

Seeing Kong Youde's worried look, Duoduo would not keep him in suspense. After he leaned over to listen, he told him his thoughts in detail.

"Can this be done?"

"There is no other way."

As soon as he finished speaking, Duoduo seemed to have all his strength drained away. Although Kong Youde had doubts in his heart, he had to admit that this was the only way.

When he crossed the Yangtze River to the south, Duoduo was so high-spirited with the power to pacify Jianghuai. But now, although the prince is still the same prince, after seeing through Zhu Cilang's plan, he has to regret his underestimation of the enemy.

He now understood that although Zhu Cilang defended Yingtian and Hangzhou, the essence of his strategy was to disperse the Qing army's strength as much as possible.

Just like now, nominally he still has more than 100,000 troops under his command, but some of them are scattered throughout Jiangsu and Zhejiang. The only ones who can really be used as a mobile force are the tens of thousands of surrendered soldiers in the Hangzhou camp.

The development of the war situation to this extent cannot be blamed entirely on Duoduo.

Which commander could remain vigilant enough when the enemy king was captured and cities surrendered? Which commander could resist the temptation to quickly conquer the enemy?

Of course, Duoduo is not someone who would simply shirk responsibility, but he knows very well that if he can return safely, someone will settle his account, so there is no need to rush.

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Thinking of this, Duoduo didn't care about Kong Youde's opinion and finally said out his thoughts: "When we lead the troops to come again, I'm afraid this traitor will be too powerful to be controlled."

"You are also sick and confused."

Upon hearing Duoduo's decadent words, Kong Youde immediately retorted.

Under normal circumstances, although they were both princes, he knew the difference and would not be like this.

But now the army is in danger. As the commander-in-chief of the army, Duoduo behaves like this. How can he let the generals and soldiers under him face the world?

"Prince Ying and Prince Su both fought well. Even if we suffer some setbacks here, it won't change the overall situation."

Kong Youde's words were not entirely comforting.

Ajige had already defeated the remnants of Li Zicheng into pieces, and Hauge had also reached Guanzhong and was preparing to enter Sichuan. As long as the two routes progressed smoothly, even if Duoduo had some problems, it would not affect the overall situation.

As for whether Zhu Cilang would be free to rectify the internal affairs after his troops retreated, thus making all parts of the Ming Dynasty united.
Bah! You can’t eat a dog!

Kong Youde, who came from the Ming army, was very sure that the local forces were at most Ming's followers. If Zhu Cilang was to be expected to follow his orders, he might as well focus on persuading the surrendered troops to return to the Ming.

Although this is just Kong Youde's guess, it is not far from the actual situation.

There is no need to say much about other things. The fact that Zhu Cilang's letters to governors and governors-general in various places have not received a reply after arriving in Hangzhou is enough to roughly illustrate their attitude.

Perhaps some people think that Zhu Cilang turned the war situation in Jiangnan around by his own efforts, and the governors and governors-general of various places had no choice but to welcome the new regent with great joy.

But who is Zhu Cilang? How could he have such unrealistic expectations?

He understood clearly that if he was beaten by Duoduo and fled in panic like a stray dog, then the governors and governors-general in various places would certainly find ways to bring him to them.

But now he has a large army at his command and has the ability to turn the tide. It would probably take a lot of effort to get these people to recognize him.

However, these are things that need to be considered after the battle. For Zhu Cilang now, what he needs to consider is how to end this wave perfectly.

What is perfection?

Everyone has different opinions.

But in Zhu Cilang's eyes, war ultimately serves the government.

Taking the current situation as an example, he has the ability to block Duoduo in the Hangzhou area and has the ability to annihilate all the troops along this route, but this is bound to result in huge casualties.

It should be noted that "to survive in a desperate situation", "fight with one's back to the river", and "surround three sides and leave one behind" are all principles summed up by our ancestors after thousands of years.

If he didn't give the Qing army any chance to survive, he couldn't guarantee that those battle-hardened soldiers would not be able to capture Hangzhou.

Therefore, the most ideal situation in Zhu Cilang's mind was that Duoduo would escape to the north through the deliberately left gap, and then he would mobilize the rebel forces from all over the country to harass along the way. When Duoduo retreated to the Yingtian camp, it would be best if he was left with only a commander without troops.

Of course, this is just an ideal situation, and he has no control over how things will turn out in the end.

So after Zhu Cilang read the reports from Chang Guanlin and other generals, he did not make much comment and took the second military report from the soldiers.

"Allow him to enter the city."

Compared with the information in the first letter, the second one is really not worth mentioning.

Last night, Zhu Datian had already arrived at the other side with 3,000 soldiers, but because it was not convenient for a large group of people to cross the river at night, they just found a random place to stay for the night.

Although they have crossed the river now, they still need the permission of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to enter the city. This is a kind of respect for the imperial power represented by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

After reading the two military reports, Zhu Cilang staggered towards the gap in the city wall.

Although two days had passed since the breach in the city wall was blasted, several major battles had taken place between the Ming and Qing armies during this period, and due to the need to collect materials, the defensive fortifications around the breach were still not complete.

Therefore, Li Yongmao's troops were tasked with building defensive fortifications early in the morning.

This is not to say that Zhu Cilang is partial to one over the other. After all, both the guards led by Xiang Rensheng and the troops led by Fang Guoan have fought several battles in a row. It would be really inhumane to leave such trivial matters to them to deal with.

After a while, Zhu Cilang appeared staggeringly near the gap. After seeing the blood-stained figure, Li Yongmao came forward.

"Your Highness, I pay my respects to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince."

At this time, a parapet had been built around the gap, and the front of it was covered with rocks and debris. Such fortifications were obviously a bit simple, but it was difficult to raise various materials in a short time. It took Li Yongmao some thought to achieve this level.

"well done."

After praising from the bottom of his heart, Zhu Cilang, under the guidance of Li Yongmao, checked the functions and effects of each node. After looking around for a while, he couldn't help feeling a little confused.

As far as Zhu Cilang knew, Li Yongmao had never been exposed to military affairs, but the defensive fortifications he set up were well-organized, and it was obvious that he had some experience.

Seeing that the reality was somewhat different from his own understanding, he could not help but ask: "I only know that Li Zhongcheng is quite good at governing the people, but I didn't know that he also has experience in defense."

After saying this, Li Yongmao did not thank His Highness for the compliment like an ordinary minister. Instead, he looked at Zhu Cilang with suspicion and said, "Your Highness, you don't know that I served as a military official in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, and I also read a few military books during that time."

"Oh."

Zhu Cilang responded indifferently and did not say anything more about it. However, Li Yongmao could not help but blame himself after seeing the Crown Prince's expression.

He deliberately brought up this old event, actually wanting to test the extent of the Crown Prince's amnesia.

It’s not that Li Yongmao has any other thoughts. To put it bluntly, it’s just the instinct of being a minister.

But when he saw the prince's somewhat lost expression, he couldn't help but think of all the matters that would happen after arriving in Hangzhou, and he thought that the person in front of him was only about sixteen or seventeen years old.

He felt that his behavior was somewhat
"Don't worry, Your Highness. Everything will return to normal in a few days."

"May I?"

"When I was in Jiangxi, I heard that a man also forgot some of his past events due to a severe blow to the head, but after recuperating for three or two months, everything was back to normal."

"I hope so,"

Zhu Cilang did not show much expectation for Li Yongmao's consolation. After he gave an example whose truth or falsehood was unknown, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince just responded indifferently.

But when Li Yongmao wanted to use this example to persuade him again, he heard the Crown Prince said without thinking: "Li Zhongcheng, I have a favor to ask of you."

"Your Highness, please speak."

"Help me find a portrait of my father."

Hearing this, Li Yongmao first looked up in astonishment, then immediately put away his expression and replied solemnly, "Yes."

Why look for the portrait of the previous emperor?

Is it not.
Thinking of this, Li Yongmao suddenly felt sad.

Everyone knows that His Highness regards the late emperor as a role model, but now he can't even remember the late emperor's face. This situation can be regarded as a heavy blow to an ordinary teenager of sixteen or seventeen years old.

What's more, this young man has the Ming Dynasty on his shoulders and dares not show it in front of others at all. How cruel is this?
"Your Highness!"

"Don't let anyone else know."

I was kicked out!

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(End of this chapter)