Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 197 Boat, Floating Bridge, Choose One

Yingtian
Qing Army Camp
The battle reports from the south had arrived earlier. As the person in charge of the remaining camp, Bolo was naturally already planning how to end it.

In fact, he didn't care how many troops were lost in the battle of Suzhou and Songjiang, nor did he care how many Qing troops scattered in various cities could come back.

No matter what, those people are from the other six flags. If we stand in the position of the prince, the leader of the flag, it would be better if the battle was lost even more severely.

This time, the Qing army was divided into three routes. Hauge took the western route and was responsible for fighting the Dashun Army; Ajige took the middle route, mainly responsible for cleaning up the remnants of the various armies; Duoduo took the eastern route and was responsible for dealing with the pseudo-Ming.

This distribution seems fair, but if you look at the details you can also taste some of the flavor.

According to common sense, the Ming Dynasty had actually been destroyed by Li Zicheng, and the Dashun Army was the main obstacle to the Qing Dynasty's unification of China.

No matter how you look at this situation, we should concentrate our forces to completely kill it first, and then turn our attention to other aspects.

Of course, Dorgon did the same thing, but his bad thing was that he divided his troops into three groups first, and then waited until Hauge's troops seemed to be unable to hold on before sending the other two groups, who were picking up flies and mosquitoes on the side, to support them.

In this way, no matter how large a territory Hauge finally gained, it sounds like he was able to achieve it with the help of the other two groups.

Well. This can naturally be understood as Dorgon underestimated the strength of the Dashun Army when he initially formulated the plan, and only made timely adjustments after Hauge encountered setbacks.

Although the Dashun Army suffered several defeats after the Qing army entered the pass, the combat effectiveness it demonstrated was not that of a weak opponent. Moreover, Jinan and Shandong successively submitted their surrender letters, and the four towns in northern Jiangsu also secretly communicated with the Qing army.

No matter how you look at it, Dorgon should not have divided his troops before the Shun army lost its ability to resist.

Therefore, Bolo thought that there was no other reason for such action except to undermine Hauge's prestige and dilute his credit.

Bolo originally had no way to deal with this situation.

Hauge fought so many tough battles in Shanxi and Shaanxi, needless to say he suffered heavy casualties. What was even more distressing was that he did not gain much.

On the other hand, Duoduo was advancing rapidly, recruiting surrenders and rebellions. Not only did he achieve one successive achievement, but the strength of the troops under his command also expanded to an extremely exaggerated level.

If the gains from Ajige are taken into account, the power comparison among the three families has undergone a fundamental reversal.

Those people from the two blue flags can either be like those fence-sitters from the two yellow flags, or they can only wash their necks and get slaughtered.

Well, actually Bolo was thinking too much.

In the original history, Dorgon's power expanded rapidly because he gathered a large number of troops from the Shun and Ming parties. Later, he found a random excuse to kill Hauge without any clear reason.

Dorgon did not kill all of Bolo and his men. Instead, he suppressed those who had surrendered to him. The situation only changed significantly after his death.

But these are all things that happened later. In Bolo's opinion at this time, Hauge's side was not completely at a disadvantage.

In addition, the battle situation in Jiangnan was very different from what was expected, so the masters of these people still had a chance to compete.

Therefore, after receiving the letter from Tunqi, he was naturally tempted.

The letter was written by the Crown Prince of Ming Dynasty himself. In addition to explaining his views on the current war situation, there was a paragraph that made Bolo read it carefully several times.

"Dorgon is a wolf. The situation of the Qing Dynasty is getting more stable, but the wolf's intention to harm people has never stopped. If one day the wolf's power is far stronger than that of humans, his life will be in danger. Please investigate in detail."

Bolo knew very well that this was a provocation, an obvious provocation!
Help you analyze the situation clearly and put what is likely to happen in front of you.

What's even more infuriating is that he never made any requests of Bolo in his heart. It seemed that he only pointed out the danger Bolo and others were in out of good intentions from beginning to end.

"Snapped!"

He slammed the letter on the table, and then Bolo slumped in his chair as if he had lost his temper.

To be honest, he didn't want to trip others up behind their backs, but the pressure brought by reality forced him to make some decisions.

So after being stunned for a while, he finally wrote a letter to Tunqi.

On the surface, at this point in the matter, it seemed that Zhu Cilang had no choice but to respond passively.

However, as the instigator, although he had no idea what Bolo and others would do, he could still roughly guess their thinking.

Ultimately, it's all about how to make Duoduo suffer greater losses without them having to bear the responsibility of watching him die.

Now that things have come to this point, it seems that the only thing left to do is to concentrate on killing Duoduo.

But Zhu Cilang was not stupid. He knew that although he had a tacit understanding with Bolo, if he let down his guard, once Bolo found a flaw, he would never let go of the opportunity.

As a result, an extremely strange situation emerged in Wuhu.

Both the Ming and Qing dynasties were constantly sending out scouts to spy on each other's movements, but scout battles, which were extremely common at other times, rarely occurred here.

"Young Marshal! There is a group of Tartars in the east!"

A few days ago, Zhu Cilang ordered all troops to investigate the movements of the Qing army as much as possible, but at the same time he strictly ordered not to fight with Qing scouts.

Hou Shilu was originally full of complaints about such military orders. He even thought that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was "giving blind orders". But after the scouts in the army returned one after another, he found that many of the scouts who had suffered heavy casualties were not even spared.

Therefore, he spent a whole night asking each one of them, and finally he realized that the reason why the scouts did not suffer any casualties was not because his own scouts had made great progress in a few days, but because the Qing scouts chose to hide after discovering them.

As a result, Hou Shilu, who was already smart, immediately realized the problem, so today he personally brought people out to check out the situation.

"coming?"

"No, it has been like this for the past two days. We are hiding from the Tartars, and the Tartars are hiding from us."

Upon hearing that the traces of the Tartars had been discovered, Hou Shilu immediately became interested, but after hearing what his own soldiers said, he couldn't help but think about it.

It is natural to send out scouts before a war. Our scouts are not as strong as the Tartars, so it is also correct to avoid fighting. But the strange thing is why the Tartars do the same?

"Follow up and take a look!"

"Young Commander! His Highness has issued a strict order that if you spot enemy scouts, you must quickly hide."

"I know, I'm just following and seeing, it's okay."

After saying this casually, Hou Shilu led the way in the direction where the Tatars were found. Seeing this, the other soldiers had no choice but to urge their horses to catch up.

After about a cup of tea, the group arrived at the location where the Qing army Tartars were discovered. After some exploration, when they found their traces, they quietly followed them.

Around Wuhu, a relatively complete water system is formed with the Wuhu section of the Yangtze River as its main trunk.

The Wuhu section of the Yangtze River is about fifty or sixty miles long. The Qingyi River on the right bank flows into the Yangtze River in its south, and the Yuxi River on the left bank flows into the Yangtze River near Yuxikou. The Bantan River is a branch of the Qingyi River and Shuiyang River after they merge in Qingshui Town, Wuhu County. It flows through the east side of the suburbs and flows into the Yangtze River near Dangtu County.

In this way, several waterways more than several meters wide formed a series of "J"-shaped river loops around Wuhu.

After following for a while, Hou Shilu didn't find anything special, so he decided to try his luck in another place to see if he could find the reason for this situation.

But who knew that just when he was about to turn around and leave, a sharp-eyed soldier seemed to have discovered something.

"Young Marshal! Look, there seems to be a figure in the forest!"

Hearing this, Hou Shilu naturally looked into the distance. After seeing a figure flashing in the distance, he hesitated for a moment and then quietly slipped away with a few riders.

At this time, deep in the dense forest, teams of simply dressed laborers were cutting down trees, and around them could be seen many soldiers wearing Qing army armor patrolling constantly.

One, two, three, twenty-five. Fifty-six.
Relying on his long experience, Hou Shilu kept calculating the number of Qing soldiers in his mind. Although the numbers were messed up in the end, he was able to be sure that this team of Qing soldiers had more than a hundred people.

There are so many people just to guard the place, so how many militiamen are there to do the work?

Why is there so much logging going on at this time?

Seeing this situation, Hou Shilu couldn't help feeling confused.

Timber is an important strategic material and is indispensable for both siege and defense.

But now the Qing army's offensive has already completed the construction, even if there are some damages in it, it will not require so much wood.

unless
is it possible?
An idea came to his mind, and he decided to take the risk and move forward a little further, but before he could make any move, he felt someone grabbing his armor.

When he looked back, he saw a general looking at him seriously. After thinking for a moment, he did not force himself to move forward, and then he and everyone else quietly retreated.

In the past two days, because the scouts of both sides liked to avoid each other, the Ming army scouts went to many places they had never been to before. Although the situations they explored were not too many, it was still more than before.

But this does not mean that the strength of the Ming army scouts can really be compared with that of the Qing army scouts, so Hou Shilu finally decided not to take risks and it would be right to report the intelligence he obtained first.

Nearly an hour later, Hou Shilu returned safely to the camp. After reporting what he had seen to his father, Hou Chengzu took him to the central military tent.

At this time, Zhu Cilang was discussing something with Yuan Jixian. He was stunned when he heard that the Qing army was collecting wood.

After sending the letter, he did not receive a reply from Bolo, and even the Qing army did not react at all. It seemed that the letter had fallen into oblivion.

Faced with such a situation, he was not at all anxious.

After all, Bolo was not a fool. If even a word of this kind of thing were written on paper, his entire family would be wiped out. So he just paid close attention to the movements of the Qing army and did not take any other action.

Sure enough, after hearing reports from scouts again and again, he discovered that the Qing army was doing the same thing as he was doing. So he naturally understood that an agreement had been reached between him and Bolo.

All that remains is for the two to cooperate and put on a good show.

However, Zhu Cilang had no control over how this play should be performed. To put it bluntly, although he had strategically controlled Bolo and others, he did not have much initiative tactically.

Therefore, when he got the information from Hou Shilu, he had to find out what Bolo was planning first.

"What do you think?"

After thinking for a while, Zhu Cilang had some guesses in his mind, but according to the usual rules, he did not express his thoughts directly. Instead, he asked and then waited calmly for everyone's response.

"Your Highness, the purpose of felling wood is to make tools, but I have heard that Wuhu City has a lot of military supplies, so it seems that they don't need so much wood."

These days Hou Chengzu has been thinking about how to gain some military merit, but after his proposal to open up a waterway was rejected by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, his mind fell directly into nothing.

Therefore, although he felt disappointed, he was not too depressed. Seeing that no one responded, he directly said everything he could think of even though he had not made up his mind.

After hearing this, most people present had no reaction. After all, these things were basically known to everyone, and at most they could only be sorted out by Hou Chengzu.

But even such seemingly ordinary words gave Zhu Cilang a different feeling when he heard it.

The reaction of the Qing scouts in the past two days was obviously the first signal that Bolo gave him. On this basis, the large-scale collection of wood was naturally the second signal sent by Bolo.

Then the situation becomes obvious.

If it is just a signal, then when analyzing this matter we should not only focus on the use of wood, nor should we only focus on its reasonable use.

timber
timber
Zhu Cilang kept muttering to himself, and his eyes gradually became somewhat empty. The people present, who originally did not have much idea about the Qing army's collection of wood, stood quietly without saying a word after seeing the Crown Prince's expression.

Hou Shilu was known to be intelligent since he was a child, and when he grew up he was outstanding in many things.

But as the person who brought the news back, he really couldn't figure out what nerve his father's ordinary words touched in His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to make him fall into deep thought.

What made Hou Shilu even more frustrated was that, as someone who witnessed the entire situation with his own eyes, he had not noticed any abnormality at all!

Time passed minute by minute, and the Crown Prince's somewhat empty eyes showed no sign of refocusing.

As a result, not only did Hou Shilu become more and more impatient, but even Yuan Jixian kept wondering what was so special about Hou Chengzu's words.

"Boats or floating bridges, which one do you think is more suitable for the Qing army to go south?"

After a while, Zhu Cilang asked a question out of the blue. Although they were a little confused about the situation, they couldn't help but recall the surrounding terrain in their minds.

But who would have thought that before they could come up with a rough idea, Zhu Cilang made a direct conclusion: "Where is a suitable place to build a floating bridge?"

This chapter, I feel like it didn’t express clearly what I wanted to say.

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(End of this chapter)