Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 180 Why create trouble again?

Is it simple, Your Highness?

Of course it is not simple.

Being able to win the hearts of the military and civilians while being imprisoned and resisting the fierce enemy abroad, he is definitely not a simple person.

It’s just that human cognition is formed through the accumulation of years, and when people get old, it is difficult to establish new neural connections due to the decrease in cell activity.

In this way, when new things appear in front of them, people like Ma Shiying who are used to following the same path will instinctively guide the nerve signals to the original synapses.

The final result is that no matter what others say, he can only filter out what he wants to hear.

"That makes sense. Your Highness is far more capable than the two above. As old as I am, I just want to get to know Your Highness better, so that I can leave a mark in history as Yan Zhi said."

While speaking, Ma Shiying had a smile on his face as if he approved of Zhu Datian's words, but Zhu Datian had known him for many years, so how could he not know that these were just perfunctory words?
Many ministers in the first half of China's history were able to lead troops on horseback and herd the people on foot. However, in the second half, they were able to fight well but could not herd the people, and could govern the people but could not meet the enemy.

The reasons are quite complicated. It is probably that with the development of civilization, society has become more and more complex, and it takes more and more energy to be good at one thing.

As a result, civil servants who were good at killing people without shedding blood gained the upper hand after the Song Dynasty.

If it is a stable time, there is probably nothing wrong. Everyone just needs to take care of their own business and do their best to protect the people.

But when times are turbulent, the disadvantages of such a situation become fully apparent.

When faced with a problem, civil officials tend to solve it in a gentler, slower, and less damaging way, whereas military officers, who are synonymous with violence, naturally solve problems thoroughly and quickly.

There is no difference between these two completely different ways of thinking, they only exist whether they are applicable or not. However, when the civil officials used the power of the system to completely tie the hands and feet of the military generals, the ability of this system to deal with barbaric enemies naturally became the weakest link among the weak links.

And due to the inertia of thinking, even if civil officials are aware of the existence of this problem, they will still consciously or unconsciously regard protecting the dominant position of civil servants as their top priority when acting due to the inertia of thinking.

Some people with more rigid thinking will even naturally find reasonable explanations for their behavior in their minds.

Take Ma Shiying and Zhu Datian for example.

Ma Ge Lao was a civil official who could not be more erudite. Naturally, his way of thinking was different from that of Zhu Datian, who had fought many battles and won them all.

From his point of view, it is extraordinary that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince can go this far.

But no matter whether he defended Yingtian, destroyed Zhenjiang, saved Hangzhou, or killed Nikan, he was just grabbing a glimmer of hope hidden by fate, but it did not mean that he had any top-notch strategies and intentions.

It has to be said that Ma Shiying's vision was extremely sharp. Two months ago, Zhu Cilang was just an ordinary person.

Although he is now the crown prince of the Ming Dynasty, to put it bluntly, he knows more about the trajectory of history and the inner thoughts of people than people of this era.

Everything he did was based on this. As for other things, let alone being unable to compare with those old officials who had been in the officialdom for decades, he might not even have the upper hand against people like Chen Si and Wang Fuping.

According to what Ma Shiying thought, wasn't it just seizing the glimmer of hope hidden by destiny and taking advantage of the overall fortune?

Of course, we can't just go ahead under such circumstances, but who will be favored by God for a lifetime?

If one day the luck of the country starts to decline, won't these civil servants still be able to take back power?

Therefore, constantly trying to figure out Zhu Cilang's thoughts became Ma Shiying's daily routine.

As for why he didn't say what he really thought, but instead agreed to what Zhu Datian said.

After all, it was just that this old fox realized something because of this incident.

First, Li Yongmao secretly searched for a portrait of the late emperor for the Crown Prince, and then Zhu Datian openly advised him not to have any other thoughts.

These two things seem insignificant and can be reasonably explained, but Ma Shiying can see from them that these two people have a tendency to side with the prince.

Honestly speaking, Ma Shiying was not surprised that Li Yongmao sided with the prince. After all, their relationship was not too deep, and there was no interest binding them together.

Li Yongmao's help when he was in the most dangerous moment was already a fulfillment of their past friendship.

Now that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has won victory after victory and his prestige is growing, it is understandable that he would be biased.

What really surprised him was why Zhu Datian suddenly had such a change.

He naturally could not understand Zhu Datian's way of thinking, but Ma Shiying knew that there were some things that he could no longer say to Zhu Datian as he did in the past, so it was reasonable for him to agree to that statement.

Afterwards, he very naturally turned the topic to Ruan Dacheng's job, and the three of them discussed how to proceed for a while before dispersing.

Although Ma Shiying obtained Zhu Cilang's memory today, which was likely to have been lost for some time, he realized that there was a crack in his power.

However, he was not too disappointed about this. After all, he knew nothing about war and his prestige had been damaged for various reasons.

Now that I can regain my foothold in the small court, I am already feeling lucky, but I also have the thought of lying low for a while.

After all, there is a long time to come, and the war has now entered its final stage. Once this battle is over, the court's focus will probably return to domestic affairs.

At that time, with all the complications, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince would certainly not be able to do everything by himself, and Ma Shiying would have thousands of ways to regain the power in his hands.

This is Ma Shiying's strength, he never gets discouraged even after failure.

According to the original history, after Hangzhou surrendered, he had become a rat crossing the street. Neither the King of Lu in eastern Zhejiang nor the Longwu in Fujian had any intention of accepting him.

Under such circumstances, Lord Ma actually broke through the numerous obstacles of the Qing army and ran to Taihu Lake to collect chips for his comeback.

People with such traits may not necessarily achieve great things, but people who achieve great things will definitely have such traits.

Just like Duoduo at this time, after leading his troops away from the Hangzhou camp, he was not depressed because of the heavy losses in the battle in the south of the Yangtze River. Instead, he felt full of vigor and vitality, and even the pain in his body seemed to be much relieved.

"When I lead my troops to the south again, I will never use my weakness to attack the enemy's strength like I did this time."

Looking at the overlapping peaks in the Tianmu Mountains, Duoduo felt as if he had returned to the White Mountains and Black Waters, and his mind was much clearer than when he was about to leave the Hangzhou camp. After he made his plan yesterday, he and Kong Youde led their respective troops to the west at night, leaving only Li Benshen with his own troops to control all the surrendered troops to stay in the camp.

Naturally, many people can think of what Tulai can think of.

Although he said before he left that he was going to lead his troops to attack Anji in order to open a retreat route for the army, he knew, and Li Benshen also knew, that this was just an excuse.

There are dense water networks around Anji. If they were really attacked, it might be the same fate as Nikan. With the lessons learned from the previous incident, how could Duoduo be so stupid as to do such a thing again?
So the question is, is Li Benshen in a dead end? Why did he take on such a task?

It's simple to say. When Duoduo gave the task, he only asked Li Benshen to hold the Hangzhou camp for three or two days, and he didn't tell him to die here.

As long as he could drag out the time until Duoduo led his troops to escape, Li Benshen would follow Duoduo's example and abandon those soldiers.

By then, his life will most likely be safe. If he can grasp the opportunity better, he may be able to bring a lot of his own people with him.

If Li Benshen can take the blame for Duoduo, he will have something to say about it after returning to Jiangbei.

Of course, even so, such a mission is still extremely dangerous. However, Gao Jie's wife and children are in Jiangbei, and Li Benshen is the leader of the town's surrender to the Qing Dynasty. He has no choice but to obey under various constraints.

This is what I mentioned earlier about the five dangers that will occur.

Duoduo knew that Li Benshen was grateful for the support of his uncle and had spent a lot of time and effort on this orphan and widow. Under such circumstances, it was reasonable for him to find Li Benshen to do this dangerous thing.

"That's not the case. When you crossed the river, the pseudo-Ming Dynasty was already on the verge of collapse. Who would have thought that a prince would suddenly appear? This setback just happened, but you can't blame it all on you."

After hearing what Duoduo said, Kong Youde naturally helped him to make some changes.

But these words were not entirely out of promise. No matter where they were, they could not be considered completely unreasonable. Moreover, Duoduo was feeling better now, so naturally he had to find something nice to say.

It's not that Kong Youde and Duoduo have a good personal relationship. The main thing is that if Duoduo can go back safely, then the defeat in this battle will never be blamed on Kong Youde.

But if Duoduo was lost as a shield, Kong Youde, as the highest-ranking officer in the army, would be linked to the defeat in this battle.

With this in mind, regardless of public or private reasons, he had to ensure that Duoduo returned safely to Jiangbei, so it was reasonable for him to say nice things to this patient.

Duoduo did not comment on Kong Youde's words, but just kept looking at the mountains in front of him.

Earlier, after capturing Hongguang, Nikan took the route through Huzhou to bypass the mountain range. Although he had no choice but to choose this difficult road, out of his military instinct he couldn't help but compare what he knew in his heart with what he saw with his eyes.

The Tianmu Mountains are located in the northwest of Zhejiang. It starts from Huzhou in the east, faces the Taihu Plain, extends to the border between Zhejiang and Anhui in the west, and overlooks Huangshan Mountain. It is about four to five hundred miles long and more than a hundred miles wide. It serves as a barrier to the northwest of Hangzhou.

If you take the Anji route, you will still have to cross this mountain range, but after all, it is almost a plain area there, and the ruggedness of the road cannot be compared with here.

Similar to Tulai's idea, Duoduo also planned to go further into the mountains, turn around when he reached between two high peaks, and head eastward into the area between Ningguo and Anji where there were few water networks.

Afterwards, it would be convenient to go northeast to join Tulai, or northwest to join Tunqi. Even going directly north back to Yingtian Camp is also a good option.

However, Duoduo has not yet made up his mind. After all, these three paths also represent strategic choices, which still need to be carefully considered.

“Report~~~~~!”

Just as the two of them were thinking different things, a shout came from a distance, and in a moment, they saw a soldier with damaged armor coming towards them.

Although Duoduo left the Hangzhou camp last night, he had already sent elite scouts from the army to explore the way during the day.

Now looking at the soldiers' appearance, it is obvious that they have obtained important military intelligence from the front and came to report it, otherwise why would they look so miserable?

"Your Highness, we left yesterday and walked along the mountains. This morning, after we left the mountains, we met a group of travelers. They said that Ningguo Mansion was occupied by the Ming army."

After all, the soldier was an experienced scout, and without waiting for Duoduo to question him, he briefly reported what the couple had done after leaving the camp, so as to avoid further questioning by his superiors.

"Ningguo Mansion?" Duoduo repeated, and then said to Geshaha beside him: "Bring the map!"

After a while, a map the size of a square table was placed in front of Duoduo. After he took a closer look, he couldn't help but hesitate.

The Ningguo Mansion was not a place he had to pass through. At most, he was just passing by. However, his scouts obviously did not find out how many troops were there, so he always felt that he had no basis for decision when making decisions.

"Why not send a message to Tulai to move towards Anji? We can just ignore the Ming army from Ningguo Mansion."

Seeing that Duoduo was in deep thought again, Kong Youde expressed his thoughts without much thought.

What he was most concerned about now was how to get his men to a safe area as quickly as possible. As for other things, he didn't have too many hopes. However, Duoduo was different from him.

No matter how relieved he appeared on the surface, how could he possibly let go of this defeat so quickly in his heart?
Although he had not decided how to end the war, he couldn't help but want to cooperate with other forces to eliminate Zuo Menggeng's troops who were pinned down in Wuhu.

In this way, even if he really retreated directly to Jiangbei, he would have regained some face. Even if he returned to Beijing and was criticized by other forces, he would not be too passive.

But now.
“How many people are there?”

"I don't know, but from what the traveler said, there are irregular Ming troops in the city."

Duoduo was still struggling in his heart, but when the scout heard Kong Youde's question and replied with this sentence, he suddenly felt like a cat scratching a mouse.

"What if we head straight for Ningguo as soon as we get out of the mountains?"

Duoduo asked Kong Youde a question, and when he saw that he looked a little surprised, as if he did not quite agree with this proposal, he continued.

"We still have to find a way to get rid of the Ningguo Mansion's Ming army. Otherwise, our army will be over the mountain, and the soldiers' morale and strength are at a low point. If we are entangled by them, it will be a bit troublesome."

"If Tulai comes to support us, I think the Ming army won't have the courage to come and entangle us. Why should we create trouble again?"

"The Ming army won several battles previously because of the advantage of the navy. If our army does not dare to fight against the Ming army on the road, I am afraid that it will greatly damage the morale."

It’s a little late.

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(End of this chapter)