Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 194 Everything is inseparable from blending
Wuhu
Since a certain day, the Ming army launched an almost crazy attack on the local defense line.

This situation made Tunqi want to give the opposing Ming army general a good scolding.

To be honest, although the number of his troops is much smaller than that of the enemy, he has a rough idea of ​​the situation after such a long period of attack and defense. If he really wants to win, it is not impossible to defeat the enemy.

But he is from the Blue Banner.

Now that Duoduo's faction has clearly suffered a series of defeats, is it necessary for Tunqi to risk his life to clean up the mess for them?

Therefore, when the Ming army on the opposite side attacked the Wuhu defense line like crazy, he felt as disgusted as if he had eaten ten thousand flies.

However, starting today, this situation will probably change.

As for how things will change, it all depends on his meeting with Tulai.

"I see the Ming army is attacking very fiercely."

General Tulai had just entered the Tunqi army's tent and without waiting for the other side to speak, he directly changed the topic to the battle situation he had just seen.

He had just arrived in Wuhu more than an hour ago, but before he even entered the city, he heard a soldier report to Tunqi that the Ming army had launched another attack.

He couldn't just sit there and do nothing in this situation, so he followed Tunqi directly to the front line, where he got to know the situation a little better.

"That's right," Tunqi said as he poured some tea into Tulai's and his own cups. After he finished, he continued, "It was fine earlier, but in the past few days, the Ming army seems to have lost its life."

Normally speaking, Tulai is higher than Tunqi in terms of official rank and title, but he is also from the Aisin-Gioro family after all.

In this way, he and Tulai could be said to be on equal terms, so during the conversation, the two spoke directly to each other without adding any other titles.

"Are reinforcements coming?"

Tulai did not respond to Tunqi's words immediately. Instead, he thought about it for a while before asking uncertainly.

Although he was originally stationed in Liyang, which was about a hundred or two hundred miles away from Wuhu, the specific situations in various places were reported to each other every few days. It was obvious that he was pretending to be stupid.

"There are no reinforcements."

Tunqi was also a sly man. He replied according to the actual situation and stopped talking. It was obvious that he was planning to let Lai reveal some information so that he could decide what to say based on the situation after he made a judgment.

Tulai's reaction was as clear as a mirror in his heart.

If Huang Taiji was here, he would have just walked away without saying a word to him, but now...
After all, the situation is stronger than people.

Even though they were directly led by the emperor, the current emperor was not even as good as clay sculptures or wood carvings. He naturally did not dare to do as he did before. Even though he knew Tun Qi's plan, he could only accept it.

"Could it be that they knew the situation in the south and attacked so fiercely to prevent you from coming south to support them?"

“Hiss~~~! What should I do?!”

As soon as Tulai finished speaking, Tunqi seemed to suddenly understand something.

Tulai's words were equivalent to putting his thoughts clearly in front of him.

This is a sign of weakness and also a bargaining chip. After knowing the other party's intention, he will not take advantage of it again, otherwise this mutually beneficial transaction will not be able to proceed.

In fact, since Tulai led his army towards Wuhu, Tunqi had already had some guesses about his intentions.

But on this trip south, Na Tulai got too close to Duoduo, and even got huge benefits after putting on an attitude of being ready to be exploited.

In this situation, he had to be cautious and test his true intentions.

However, Tu Lai was very smart and surrendered after just a few words.

Then he said the words that Tunqi had longed to hear from others: To prevent support from going south!

"This is indeed a troublesome matter. The situation with the prince is unclear right now."

Hearing this, Tunqi, who was originally in a good mood, immediately felt a little dissatisfied.

The clash of words between him and Tulai was about who would say "the situation forces us to be unable to rescue the prince" first.

Now that Tulai had already started talking but was unwilling to say it directly, Tunqi was naturally dissatisfied.

When Tulai was about to arrive, he was indeed a little nervous. If this guy was really determined to side with Duoduo, no matter what the situation ahead was, he would definitely force him to lead the troops south with him.

But now that Tulai had already said half of the sentence, he no longer had to worry about it.

In this way, the strong and the weak were completely reversed, and he naturally did not think that Tulai had any qualifications to negotiate with him.

"I still have the Ming army ahead of me, but I am somewhat powerless. Why don't you go and rescue the prince first, and then we can rush south after I defeat them?"

Threat!

Tulai heard the threat in these words clearly.

If there were no decent Ming troops in front of him, why would he come all the way to Wuhu?
But now he has shown enough sincerity, and even took the initiative to point out the situation "to prevent support from the south", but the other party regards this as weakness, and then presses on step by step. How can he accept this situation calmly?

"It's a solution."

Tulai said this lightly, but Tunqi just raised his eyebrows and showed no reaction.

Seeing this, he couldn't help but secretly call you a fool, and then continued, "I won't play dumb with you anymore.

You don't want to go south, and I don't want to go south either.

I will prove to you that there is a fierce attack from the Ming army. Please write me a letter asking for help.

In this way, we can each take what we need, and leave the rest to fate."

Testing is only necessary when one is not clear about the other party's intentions. Now that he has revealed his own thoughts and understood the other party's thoughts, there is really no need to be secretive with Tunqi anymore.

But he still overestimated the other party. As soon as he finished speaking, he heard Tunqi sneer and said, "Yingtian still has Boluo Beile, so I don't lack people to testify here."

"Then you two blue flags should take care of yourselves. Goodbye!"

The meaning of Tunqi is very clear. Bolo of Yingtian is higher than Tulai in both identity and status.

In his opinion, having such a big Buddha as a witness is naturally much better than Turai.

But he still didn't think it through thoroughly.

In the entire Jiangnan battle, all the generals suffered heavy losses in the end, but the two of them from the blue flag were safe and sound. In this situation, who could not guess what was going on? "Oh! It was just a joke, how could you take it seriously?"

Fortunately, Tunqi was not stupid. When he heard "two blue flags", he reacted immediately.

Then he took a few quick steps and blocked the tent door, then grabbed Tulai's arm and pulled him into the tent with a playful smile.

"You are still playing tricks at this time, but I don't know how Prince Su can tolerate you."

Seeing the other party like this, Tulai knew that Tunqi had been enlightened by his words, but he had also been a little angry recently, so it was inevitable that he would take this opportunity to vent.

"Hey! Stop being so conceited. You were the first one to be released among all the generals. You got so much money for nothing, but you don't allow me to take any action?"

Now that the matter had been made clear, the relationship between the two of them had undergone a subtle change, and Tunqi no longer had too many concerns when speaking.

He was really jealous.

Jiangnan is the richest place in China, but he had access to such a treasure trove but could only watch from the sidelines. Who could remain calm in such a situation?
"It's just some money and property. Just tell me. I'll give you some when my troops arrive. You don't have to be a housekeeper."

"really?"

"Of course. I have prepared a copy for Beile Boluo and Prince Su. How can I leave you out?"

"Oh my! I've always heard that Tuo is a righteous man, and today I know that the rumors are true!"

As the conversation progressed, the atmosphere in the tent became more and more harmonious, and the relationship between the two men was almost like that of half-brothers.

He just tried to promise on the surface, but his heart felt like it was being cut by a thousand knives.

Earlier, the war in Jiangnan was no longer disturbed, and the status of Dorgon brothers in the court would be as stable as a rock.

Under such circumstances, he naturally and decisively chose to get close to Duoduo.

But who would have known that only two months later, the situation in Jiangnan would take a sharp turn for the worse. The political situation would naturally change as a result, and he would naturally have to pay the price for his previous "rashness".

But it is not clear whether these prices are enough to make up for his repeated betrayal.

Of course, there are actually reasonable explanations for his behavior. As long as the soldiers under his command are still there, as long as the struggle within the Qing court is still there, and as long as he has not openly torn his face with any party, he can play both sides and become a force that all parties can win over.

However, the situation of some people is not as comfortable as Tulai.

"General! How can I come up with so much silver?!"

In the Wen Mansion in Huating County, Master Wen had long lost his usual composure. Apart from kowtowing and crying to Wu Zhikui who was sitting firmly in the main seat, he dared not make any other moves.

"Can't you produce it? If you can, wouldn't you just give all the money to the Tartars? How can I find evidence of your crime?!"

Although he was shouting harshly, Wu Zhikui had a smile on his face, as if these murderous words did not come from his mouth at all.

Earlier, when he was fighting with Ordu, his soldiers found something similar to an account book on him. After a careful inspection, he discovered that the account book was actually an IOU written by a noble family in Suzhou and Songjiang to Ordu.

To be honest, at first he was planning to destroy this thing directly.

As someone who has been in Suzhou and Songjiang for such a long time, he knows better than anyone how powerful these aristocratic families are.

If those people knew that he had the leverage over them, God knows how he, a small general, would end up disappearing from this world.

Having made up his mind, he put the matter aside.

Afterwards, he led his troops to attack the scattered Qing troops in various cities, and at the same time, he followed the old way to find local wealthy families to "co-sponsor" military pay. His life was fulfilling and satisfying.

However, the "civil uprising" in Hangzhou made his already quiet mind active again.

It can be said that he was really smart. Others only saw from this incident that the aristocratic families were almost powerless in front of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, but he saw something else in it.

In these turbulent times, the old rules seem to have changed a lot. As long as one holds the knife, not to mention the aristocratic families, even the prince has to show respect to him.

Hence, today’s trip came about.

"General, please understand! The Tartars forced me to sign these."

In fact, Mr. Wen knew exactly why Wu Zhikui came, and the two had already discussed the price.

It's just that Wu Zhikui asked for too high a price, and Master Wen was unwilling to pay too much for a document that he was forced to sign by the Tartars, so the situation developed into a situation that was embarrassing for both sides.

He actually thought clearly that, to be honest, the thing was forced upon him by the Tartars, and he did not offer it voluntarily.

What's more, most of the wealthy families in Suzhou and Songjiang have signed this. Even if the matter is made a big deal, no one can accuse them of anything wrong.

Why would he care about Wu Zhikui's blackmail?

"Master Wen, think carefully. This is solid evidence of a crime. Based on this piece of paper alone, I can punish your family according to military law."

As soon as Wu Zhikui finished speaking, Master Wen, who had been begging for help, suddenly fell silent. But when he thought that his words had worked, he saw Master Wen stand up from the ground, dust himself off, and find a chair to sit down.

"General Wu has a large army under his command. Ordinary people like us are naturally powerless to resist. But you have to think carefully. Will we really have a good ending if we do such a thing?"

Master Wen was no fool; he naturally knew to what extent a military leader with a large number of troops under his command would go.

But in his opinion, the court now seemed to have breathed a sigh of relief. Even if the Qing army had not been completely driven away, it could ensure that Jiangnan would not fall into chaos.

Under such circumstances, if Wu Zhikui had set up a clan like the four towns in Jiangbei, it would be possible for the Wen family to do their best to welcome him. But now this guy actually wanted to rob others of their wealth with just a piece of torn paper. How could he easily fulfill his wish?
"Whether I will have a good ending is not your concern. I just want to ask you whether you should or not."

After he finished speaking, Master Wen began to think about it.

A wise man never suffers a loss in front of him. If this reckless man really uses force against my family, then wouldn’t the family business that has been built up over hundreds of years be destroyed in my hands?
But if they really admitted it, not to mention that the Wen family's reputation would plummet, it was easy to imagine all kinds of troubles following.

No better than.
"General Wu, I can accept your offer, but you can't just give money to my family. Otherwise, I will not let you have your way even if my family is ruined."

What does it mean?
Hearing this, Wu Zhikui was immediately confused.

In his opinion, who else should he go to collect money from and what does it have to do with the Wen family?
But the old man from the Wen family spoke in a very decisive manner, as if he had already made up his mind, which made people feel a little embarrassed.

"My family is a noble clan that stands in the local area based on its reputation. If only my family pays this money, how will my Wen family survive in the future?"

Just for this?
It doesn't seem impossible to agree.

(End of this chapter)