Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 181 Accident?
In Kong Youde's opinion, the current situation is very unfavorable to their side, so they should get out of it as soon as possible, regroup and make plans again.

This was originally a proper method, but the change of hands of Ningguo made Duoduo, who was originally hesitant, make up his mind in an instant.

Ningguo and Anji are about a hundred miles apart, so even if Duoduo's army of nearly 10,000 people could easily sneak through.

After all, Huang Taiji was able to lead tens of thousands of troops through Xifengkou, which was only ten or twenty miles wide, without alerting the army led by Yuan Chonghuan.

There is really no reason why this road, which is more than 100 miles wide now, cannot be the same as it was back then, unless...
Of course, there is the factor that Duoduo wants to get back his advantage from Zuo Menggeng's tens of thousands of troops, but the risks involved cannot be denied.

Another point is that if Duoduo had gone to meet Tulai like this, he would have been defeated by the Ming army and fled in embarrassment. He was only able to settle down with the help of Tulai.

But if he defeated the "Ming army" in front of him, captured the city and then defeated the powerful Zuo Menggeng's troops with the cooperation of Tunqi, then abandoning the descending army and crossing the mountains could be logically explained as a strategic shift.

Anyway, there are only a few reasons. Which one is the main one and which one is the auxiliary one is up to you to consider.

Let’s put the matter aside for now and return to Hangzhou city.

After making this plan, Zhu Cilang had been keeping an eye on the Qing army camp outside the city. However, Natangxi was not close to the city, and the Ming army did not dare to move too close for fear of the Tartar scouts.

So until now he only knew that the Qing army was constantly transporting earth into the camp, but he knew very little about other things.

From this, he came to a conclusion.

Duoduo probably decided to defend this place to the death and wait for reinforcements.

In fact, up to now, what Zhu Cilang fears most is fighting a tough battle with the Tartars.

Don't be fooled by the fact that he won battle after battle. To put it bluntly, he was just relying on his powerful navy to bully a group of landlubbers.

If a real battle broke out, even if he broke his fingers, he could probably only gather more than 10,000 troops.

Moreover, among these more than 10,000 troops, Fang Guoan's troops have been fighting in one battle after another, and half of them have been lost so far; although Hou Chengzu's troops can be used, their actual combat effectiveness has not been tested.

If Duoduo really decided to weld here, Zhu Cilang would really be like a dog chewing a hedgehog with nowhere to start.

Faced with such a situation, there was only one thing he could think of: using the navy to cut off internal and external access, and when Duoduo ran out of food, he would naturally reveal his flaws.

Under such circumstances, the original plan will have to be slightly changed.

For example, Huzhou, which had been deliberately given up, had to be taken back, and the connection between the Qing army camp and Jiaxing and other places had to be cut off as soon as possible.

However, after this change, the troops that had already taken their positions had to move according to orders. It was not a big deal to bother the soldiers and cause consumption, but it would be troublesome if the Qing army saw an opportunity and attacked them.

Don't think that replacing troops is as simple as issuing a military order and then sending each army to its new mission location.

Not to mention the various complicated matters that arise during the process, even the gaps that appear when the armies are moving may be a godsend opportunity for the enemy to turn the tide.

Therefore, before issuing the military order, Zhu Cilang began to have some evil thoughts.

"Go to the Qing army camp and tell them I want to meet Duoduo."

As soon as the words fell, the soldier took the order and left. However, he had only taken three or two steps outside the tent when he heard the voice of the Crown Prince behind him: "Just say that I have something important to discuss concerning the life and death of his brothers, and that Duoduo needs to come in person."

"Order."

He could imagine what kind of state Duoduo was in now. He rushed to the south of the Yangtze River with great momentum, but suffered heavy losses in troops and the loss of his generals.

It would be fine if such a thing happened when we were about to move south.

After all, the Qing army sounded like it had more than 200,000 troops, but the vast majority of them were just surrendered troops from various towns in northern Jiangsu. Even if they encountered some setbacks when attacking Nanjing of the Ming Dynasty, everyone could understand that.

But now the emperor of the pseudo-Ming Dynasty has been captured, and most of the cities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang have fallen into his hands. However, Duoduo has suffered several defeats in a row under such circumstances. Who can easily swallow this humiliation?

Of course, Zhu Cilang believed that Duoduo would definitely be able to see the current situation clearly.

Although he might be able to turn the situation around if he fought to the death outside the city of Hangzhou, he would certainly lose a lot of bannermen, which was naturally unacceptable to the Manchus, whose population was already small.

But if he withdrew at this time, the Qing army would lose some soldiers under the pursuit of the Ming army, but since they would not have to fight any tough battles, the banner soldiers would not suffer much damage.

In this way, the reason why Duoduo still insists on staying in Hangzhou is probably that he is in a difficult situation.

So Zhu Cilang planned to give him a reasonable reason to withdraw his troops.

"Your Highness, Elder Ma and Mr. Huang request to see you."

Just when Zhu Cilang was thinking about how to make that reason more credible, he heard the soldier outside the tent reporting. He thought for a moment and replied, but in the blink of an eye he saw two old ministers coming into the tent.

"Your Highness, we are here to report."

Yesterday, Zhu Cilang asked Ma and Huang to be responsible for handling the "civil unrest" in the city.

By now, the day's deadline was almost up, and even if he hadn't sent anyone to urge them, the two old ministers would naturally come and report as His Highness had instructed.

"How's the situation?"

"Your Highness, there was something strange about what happened yesterday. I think we should investigate it thoroughly!"

Hearing Zhu Cilang's question, Ma Shiying, as the person in charge of this matter, naturally answered without hesitation. However, as soon as he finished speaking, Huang Daozhou on the other side expressed his own opinion.

"Your Highness, what Ma Shiying said is just groundless. I think that with a powerful enemy at hand, we should quickly cut the Gordian knot and deal with the leaders to calm the people in the city."

Hearing the words "grasping at straws", Zhu Cilang couldn't help but lean forward a little, and then cast his gaze on Ma Shiying, obviously becoming interested in the reasons behind it.

"When I was trying to capture the mastermind, I found some correspondence between Su Dengdi and the Tartars from their homes."

"Oh?"

Upon hearing this, Zhu Cilang raised his voice, seeming extremely surprised.

According to common sense, he should understand the style of that group of aristocratic families better than Ma Shiying and Huang Daozhou, but no one knows why he acts like this.

Of course, in the opinion of the two ministers Huang and Ma, His Highness should not only be surprised, but also a little annoyed.

Although this prince was young, he was not an ordinary boy, so they interpreted this slightly abnormal reaction as restraint.

"Your Highness, most of those letters are just business transactions with the Tartars. They do not contain any military intelligence. I hope Your Highness will understand."

Huang Daozhou explained it as quickly as possible before the Crown Prince could no longer suppress his anger, and then stared at the expression on the young man's face in the tent nervously.

In fact, there were many business dealings between merchants in the Ming Dynasty and the Manchus. Although these things were not clearly stated, they were not a secret in the Ming Dynasty court. Well, Chongzhen probably didn't know about it at the time. Hongguang might have heard some rumors, but he probably didn't know much.

As for whether the Crown Prince, who grew up in the deep palace but had been struggling among the people in recent years, knew about it, Huang Daozhou was not quite sure, so he was so nervous.

"Your Highness, please forgive me for speaking frankly. There are many furs, medicinal herbs and other goods from outside the Great Wall that are circulated in the Ming Dynasty. If you punish me for this, I will punish you."

Seeing that Zhu Cilang seemed to be still considering, Huang Daozhou added another chip to the mix. In this way, his words naturally carried some threat.

Honestly speaking, his intention was good, and he had no intention of threatening His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, but Mr. Huang was not a man who was good with words, so his words sounded a bit awkward.

Some people may think that Huang Daozhou’s open speaking for those aristocratic families that have ties with the Tartars cannot be considered as having good intentions.

But whether you accept it or not, the actual situation is in front of you.
Take the business with people outside the Great Wall for example. There are many aristocratic families in the Ming Dynasty who are involved. Among them, there are naturally some with ulterior motives, but it is common sense to infer that most of them are just doing business.

If there is no clear evidence that the other party is reporting military intelligence to the Tartars, and they kill them directly, not to mention whether it will alert the real traitor, it is possible that some people who do not hold a position will be forced to the Tartars' side, which is enough to make people cautious.

Many people may not be able to accept such a reason, let’s take the powerful regime in later generations as an example. (753 words omitted here).

In short, there are some things that we don’t want to do, but we just can’t do them.

Of course, Huang Daozhou did not mean to let them go. After all, this group of people caused such a big incident in the city when the enemy was at the doorstep, and the court had to deal with it with thundering means.

After all, his reason was just not suitable to be shown in public.

"Your Highness, I was accidentally killed."

After hearing what Huang Daozhou said, Ma Shiying felt that given His Highness's strong character, he would be angered by the threat in these words.

But who would have thought that after a few breaths, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince remained silent, as if he was carefully weighing the pros and cons.

He realized something in this situation, but when he was about to say something, he saw His Highness raise his hand and then said, "I understand what you mean. For the time being, we will treat this as a civil uprising and arrest the leaders."

"Old minister, take your orders."

"Yes."

At this point, yesterday's events were basically settled. Although Ma Shiying felt somewhat regretful, he was able to take this opportunity to weaken the local forces in Hangzhou and thus achieved his minimum requirement.

Afterwards, the two felt that there was nothing serious and prepared to leave.

just
"How's that Zhang Yinli?"

Huang Daozhou was not able to react for a moment after hearing these words, and even Ma Shiying looked at the Crown Prince in surprise.

"In the final analysis, Ruan Dacheng did his best to prepare for the army, and those families just had no place to appeal. But as the prefect of Hangzhou, he allowed this to happen. Does that mean he is not guilty?!"

hiss~~~
Ma Shiying couldn't help but take a breath as he finished speaking.

Who is Zhang Yinli?

He is the prefect of Hangzhou and theoretically the biggest local boss in Hangzhou.

When dealing with the "civil uprising", he and Huang Daozhou both tacitly agreed not to bring it to the table, in order to decide the ownership of the Hangzhou prefect through the competition for this person when it was about to end.

Of course, they could bring this man to justice and then compete for the vacant prefectural position.

But in this way, the matter will be clearly stated in front of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince.

Who knows by then whether the gifted Crown Prince will realize the importance of this insignificant official from the fight between the two sides?
"It was my old minister's negligence. This person is indeed..."

In a flash, Ma Shiying, who was in a passive position, was ready to smash the seal into the dust, but who would have thought that he was just the beginning, and Zhu Cilang continued with his words.

"Your Excellency, that's not right. Time is so tight that it's already great that we can be so thorough. How can we demand perfection?"

Zhu Cilang had a kind expression when he spoke, and he seemed to be extremely satisfied with Ma Shiying's actions that day. But in a moment, he seemed to have thought of something, and his expression suddenly changed: "Come here! Bring me that seal, I want to see what kind of person this is!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the guards took the order and left.

Seeing this situation, Huang Daozhou finally reacted.

I'm afraid the city of Hangzhou will soon change hands.

Thinking of this, Mr. Huang's first reaction was not anything else but to glance at Ma Shiying.

The local forces in Hangzhou suffered a great blow after this incident. If Zhang Yinli turned to the "Eunuch Party" again, then Donglin would have to face subsequent attacks from Ma Shiying.

After a fight, even if the local forces in Hangzhou can survive this, I am afraid that their final outcome will not be much better than that of the people in Yingtian.

Of course, he also made a lot of preparations for the subsequent competition, but the current situation has not fallen to the worst level. After thinking about it carefully, he has to accept it.

"Your Highness is wise. I will go back and prepare now."

Huang Daozhou whispered something and quickly retreated, as if he was afraid of waking up Ma Shiying who was in a daze.

What does he want to prepare?
Of course, it is the punishment for those families.

Although there is no turning back once His Royal Highness the Crown Prince has ordered the confiscation of property, it is still very important to know who will lead the confiscation and which team will carry it out.

It wouldn't take too much time. As long as Huang Daozhou could return earlier than Ma Shiying's incense stick time, he could settle all of these and wait for the troops to be dispatched. Even if Ma Shiying came back, it would be of no help.

"Mr. Ge?"

"Ah, Your Highness handled it properly. I am very pleased."

"Mr. Huang is gone."

When he heard the words, Ma Shiying instinctively turned his head to look, and when he saw that there was no one beside him, he knew what had happened, and then he said goodbye and hurriedly left the military tent.

Although Zhu Cilang didn't know why the two reacted like this, he could guess that they were thinking about what was going to happen later.

Don't think that he is going to hand over those fat sheep to others after winning this time. The key person has not arrived yet, so he still has to wait for a while.

Just as he was calculating his gains, he heard a report from outside the tent: "Your Highness, there is a reply from the Tartars."

Well, I deleted those 700-plus words.

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(End of this chapter)