Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 195 One after another
Wuhu is located at the strategic point between the north and the south, and is an important transportation hub connecting the south and north of the Yangtze River. In addition, the Yangtze River makes a big bend here, and there are several large islands in the middle of the river behind the bay. Therefore, Wuhu, with its unique geographical location, has become an ideal line of defense to block Zuo Liangyu's army from advancing northward.

Although the Hongguang court was vulnerable when facing the Qing army, it really put a lot of thought into setting up this line of defense.

Not only did they strengthen the city defenses of Wuhu, they also built a group of fortresses outside the city.

As a result, it would cost a huge price to break through this impregnable defense line from south to north.

"Commander-in-Chief! We can't continue to fight this way."

In Yuan Jixian's military tent, several generals under his command knelt on the ground and cried bitterly.

After making a plan that day, he ordered his men to take on the task of attacking the Wuhu defense line.

In the following days, the various armies attacked the fort under the strict order of Yuan Jixian, but because this line of defense was carefully built at the beginning, so far only many people were lost, and only a few were captured.

According to common sense, war will naturally result in casualties, not to mention that their retreat will be cut off, so it is expected that they will pay a price in order to fight their way out.

But the generals could see clearly that all those who participated in the attack in the past few days were Yuan Jixian's subordinates. The left wing said that they wanted to go south to rescue Xuancheng, but they stopped after going south for a while.

Under such circumstances, the generals would naturally come to Yuan Jixian to ask for an explanation.

But what could he say in front of these generals?

The left wing had just experienced a civil strife, and some of the troops and their command structures had been completely disrupted. It was nothing short of a pipe dream to expect them to break through the tightly guarded Wuhu defense line.

But at the same time, he also knew that what was worrying was not poverty but inequality.

If it were only our own troops now, even if the generals were dissatisfied, they probably would not come here at this time. But now with the left troop as a comparison, their dissatisfaction would naturally be expressed faster.

"Are you going to make a military appeal?"

After saying this, Yuan Jixian looked indifferently at the generals in the tent.

Originally, he did not think that the Anqing Incident would have any impact on his subordinates, but when he saw all the generals coming together today, he finally realized that the reality was not the case.

Whenever there is troubled times, the power of military generals will expand without limit, and in the end they will even completely trample on imperial power and civil officials.

If it weren't for the incident in Anqing, these generals under his command might have realized this later, but now they have obviously figured out the key, and they are betting that if they come together, he will have no way to deal with them.

In this situation, Yuan Jixian could only keep up appearances.

"Commander-in-chief! We are not the kind of people who are afraid of death, but we can't be the only ones who are willing to sacrifice their lives!"

The person who spoke was named Wang Shuohua. After Yuan Jixian was deceived by Zuo Liangyu, he and several other people led the army to follow him. They only returned to his army after Yuan Jixian escaped.

To be honest, they did contribute some effort to rescue Yuan Jixian during this process.

Not to mention anything else, if it weren't for the threat posed by their group, how could Zuo Menggeng let Yuan Jixian leave?

Normally, such a general should not be involved in such matters, but as the saying goes: It is difficult to be poor.

From a country to a family, when the government is in decline, all kinds of contradictions will be triggered one after another, and then the emperor and the head of the family will lose control of the entire organization.

When the situation reached its limit, it would be extremely difficult for an emperor like Chongzhen to borrow some money from his father-in-law, not to mention that Yuan Jixian wanted his soldiers to fill the Qing army's defense line with their lives?

"The left wing's military system is still scattered, how can we expect them to fight such a tough battle?"

Faced with Wang Shuohua's argument, Yuan Jixian couldn't help but refute it.

What they had discussed earlier was that he would lead the troops to attack the Qing army's defense line, and Zuo Menggeng would lead the troops to return to support Xuancheng.

But in actual operation, he found that Zuo Menggeng's control over his troops was shockingly low. Let alone leading the troops to fight, even expecting him to bring his troops intact to Xuancheng seemed like climbing to the sky.

Yuan Jixian and Zuo Liangyu had a close personal relationship. He naturally knew that after the Battle of Zhuxian Town, the generals of the Left Army had decided to obey orders rather than decrees. However, he never expected that after experiencing the Anqing Incident, Zuo Menggeng was still helpless against the remaining troops.

Under such circumstances, he could only watch helplessly as his army stopped halfway through its march.

"General! Even if our army takes Wuhu, what will happen? After all, aren't we still trapped in Yingtian with His Royal Highness the Crown Prince? Why not go directly to Huguang before the two Tartar tribes meet? At least there is a way out~~~!"

Having said this, the generals finally spoke out everything they were thinking, and Yuan Jixian finally felt relieved.

He originally thought that the generals were planning to follow the example of the rebels in the left wing, but after hearing these words, he realized that the generals were making such a fuss simply because there was no hope for them to go to Yingtian.

"I understand what you mean. Going to Yingtian may seem like being trapped, but we have warships. As long as we can enter Yingtian, we can take His Royal Highness the Crown Prince along the river to other places."

As soon as the words fell, the generals, who were originally in a miserable state, suddenly looked confused.

There were so many princes in the Ming Dynasty, and even though many of them were killed by the rioters, it is not that all of them cannot be found.

Under such circumstances, if one wants to find a leader, the worst that can happen is to pick one from among those princes. Why bother risking such losses by looking for that unknown Crown Prince?

"The position of the king is of great importance. If we find another one." Seeing everyone's reaction, Yuan Jixian explained the reasons in detail. However, there were some things that a minister like him could not say, so he paused at the key point before continuing: "Your Highness the Crown Prince was able to save Yingtian during the siege of the Tartars. He must be a wise king."

Yuan Jixian still failed to explain his words completely, but he believed that the generals would certainly understand the meaning.

After all, this is not a difficult question to understand.

The current situation is already clear. The Tartars are able to advance with great momentum despite launching several attacks simultaneously, which is obviously a sign that they have gained control of the overall situation. If they cannot find a wise ruler to protect them, they will most likely fight for several years only to end up in defeat and death.

Now there is a person in Yingtian City who may be able to lead the Ming Dynasty to stabilize the situation. Even if it requires a huge price, how can he not give it a try?
just
"Commander-in-chief, we understand what you mean, but you have also seen the battle situation in the past few days. It is not that we did not try our best, but that the defense set up by Marshal Huang was too detailed."

Speechless.

After all, the crux of the problem is that the war is not going well.

However, Hongguang was more concerned about guarding against Zuo Liangyu than against the Tartars. Not only did he station the troops of Huang Degong, whom he trusted the most, here, he also continuously strengthened the defense here during his recent years in power.

In this case, it is understandable that Yuan Jixian's troops were unable to break through for a long time.

Why not abandon the fleet?
With this in mind, Yuan Jixian was about to look at the map, but before he could make any move, the proposal was rejected.

How to leave Yingtian without the fleet?

Hey~~~~~!

With a sigh in his heart, Yuan Jixian finally felt that Wuhu was an obstacle that could not be avoided. However, what the generals said was not completely unreasonable, so he planned to discuss the specific tactics.

But before he could say anything, he saw a personal soldier peeking outside the tent.

Under normal circumstances, he would probably have ignored it, but the misfortunes of recent days had accumulated to a certain extent, and coupled with the "pressure" of the generals, Yuan Jixian suddenly felt a burst of karma in his heart.

"What are you doing sneaky?!" As soon as the words fell, the generals in the tent turned their heads to look. The personal soldier saw that everyone's attention was on him, so he had no room for anything else and could only bow outside the tent and say, "Commander-in-chief, the enemy chief sent someone to deliver a letter."

"Hmm? Letter?"

Upon hearing this, Yuan Jixian was stunned.

He had been fighting on the Wuhu defense line for such a long time, but had almost no correspondence with the enemy chief.

Letter at this time
After nodding slightly, the personal soldier brought in the letter sealed with wax. He then opened the letter and read it for a long while before handing it to the general in the tent.

There was nothing special about the letter. It was just a bunch of repetitive words persuading surrender. However, after reading it, Yuan Jixian felt that there was something wrong with it. In addition, all the generals were present, and hiding it would only create resentment, so he gave it to everyone to read together.

"Commander, this letter doesn't smell right."

After a while, all the generals gathered together and read the letter.

Just as Yuan Jixian had thought, they also sensed something wrong with it, but they only sensed that something was wrong and could not tell where it came from.

After thinking for a while, Yuan Jixian took the letter back, but he still read it word by word but couldn't find any clue.

"Commander, it seems to me that the enemy leader wants us to slow down our offensive."

"Oh?"

Hearing this, Yuan Jixian lowered his gaze again, as if he had seen some clues from it.

“Slow down but don’t force it”

This sentence is already very obvious, but
No, that doesn't make sense.

As soon as a thought came to mind, he immediately rejected it.

In Yuan Jixian's view, the current situation is very clear. If they cannot break through the Wuhu defense line, they will soon be attacked from both front and back.

Under such circumstances, how could they slow down their offensive? Why would the Tartars waste their breath?

just
No matter how you look at it, the meaning of the letter seems to be just as the general said, which really makes Yuan Jixian a little confused.

"Supervisor."

Just when everyone in the tent was thinking hard, a timid voice came from outside the tent. When Yuan Jixian looked up, he saw the personal soldier who was about to leave the tent standing outside with a letter in his hand.

"What happened again?"

"A letter from Ningnan Hou."

When Yuan Jixian heard these words, he couldn't help but feel puzzled and even annoyed.

He really didn't want to read this letter. Given the current situation of Zuo Menggeng's troops, how could there be good news in this letter?
But then again, does not watching mean that it didn’t happen?

No matter what, no matter how chaotic the situation is, don't we still have to deal with it head-on in the end?
Sighing in his heart again, Yuan Jixian, who was over fifty years old, finally cheered himself up and borrowed the letter from his personal soldier. However, after reading the content of the letter, he actually stood up from his chair.

"Supervisor?"

Seeing this situation, the generals couldn't help but feel shocked.

Their views on Zuo Bu were the same as Yuan Jixian's. How could they think positively after seeing his reaction?
"Commander-in-Chief! If the situation changes, I hope you will not think of anything else. It is only right to keep a useful body."

"That makes sense. Why don't we take advantage of the opportunity when the Tartars send us a letter and head south directly?"

"rational!"

The generals discussed with each other and had already made plans on which route to choose.

But at this moment, Yuan Jixian, who had just recovered from his shock, handed the letter in his hand to them as before.

Seeing that the letter was in hand, everyone stopped discussing. However, before everyone finished reading the letter, someone said loudly: "Commander-in-chief, I think Ningnan Hou must have been bewitched by something, otherwise why would he say such nonsense."

"Exactly! What series of victories, what reinforcements? The Crown Prince is still trapped in Yingtian, how could he accomplish these great things?"

"That's right. What's the point of Nikan surrendering? Even if the prince really escaped, where would such a strong army come from in Jiangnan?"

The generals all spoke in agreement, and in short, none of them intended to believe even a single word in the letter.

If it were someone else, Yuan Jixian might have scolded him. After all, the person who wrote the letter was the commander of the friendly army, and such an arrangement was a bit inappropriate.

But now the doubts in his heart were no less than those of the other generals. Even during this moment of daze, he had already filled in his mind the reasons why Zuo Menggeng acted this way.

Perhaps they wanted to cover up the embarrassment of not being able to send troops south to rescue Xuancheng.

But how can I cover up such a big lie?

Are we just going to find someone to take the blame?

Outrageous!

According to his letter, his troops met the soldiers sent by Jin Sheng to report the news when they were halfway to Xuancheng.

Not only did they learn from the soldier that a group of troops were sent by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to rescue Xuancheng, they also learned that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had won several major victories in the past month, forcing Duoduo into a panic.

joke!

All over Jiangnan is filled with garrison soldiers. How could His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, even if he was Zhuge Ziran, achieve such results despite the huge gap in strength?
With this in mind, Yuan Jixian's evaluation of Zuo Menggeng couldn't help but lower several levels, but now was not the time to pursue these issues, so he abruptly brought the subject back.

"Just pretend that I haven't read this letter," he said calmly, and then sat back in his chair. "The future of us all still depends on how to conquer Wuhu, but I wonder what you guys have to say?!"

Everyone was listening attentively, but when Yuan Jixian suddenly said this, they couldn't help but turn their heads to look outside the tent.

"Commander-in-Chief, I am not disturbing you on purpose. This is military intelligence."

"Just say it."

During this period of time, the personal soldiers had already gone in and out several times, but as it was his duty, he could not delay. Fortunately, the commander did not seem angry this time, so he spoke directly.

"Commander-in-chief, two riders have arrived outside the camp, saying that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince will lead troops to arrive the day after tomorrow."

(End of this chapter)