Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 201: People who miss the old times

Militia, volunteers, and government troops.

The war had reached this point, and there were so many independent armies throughout Jiangnan that even Zhu Cilang was a little confused about the specific situation.

Don't think this is a sign of a major increase in military strength.

The real power is what is in your hands, and those scattered outside are
Zhu Cilang had actually thought about this a long time ago and had a general way to deal with it, but in a chaotic world, he would always have some concerns, so he would be extra cautious in his actions.

For people like Jin Sheng who have mixed origins, since their own power is limited, as long as they are lured with official positions by the leaders, and then the soldiers are screened and placed by various methods, generally speaking, there should not be too many problems.

For example, the troops recruited by civil officials such as Yang Tinglin and Zhu Datian are not difficult to deal with. In short, those who are willing to lead troops can lead troops, and those who are willing to herd herdsmen can herd herdsmen. After discussing with everyone, we will reorganize their subordinates. I think there will be no trouble.

Although these two groups of troops were numerous, they had only been formed for a short time and had low combat effectiveness. In addition, they had no fixed territory, so Zhu Cilang planned to mainly use a conciliatory approach.

Sure enough, after a conversation, Jin Sheng took the initiative to express his intention to seek reorganization, and Zhu Cilang was extremely generous in return.

In fact, the Southern Anhui Volunteer Army is an extremely special existence.

The biggest difference between them and other rebel armies and militiamen is that they have their own territory, which is somewhat similar to the government troops that Zhu Cilang is most worried about.

Never underestimate the concept of territory. When an armed force has its own territory, it means that they have the ability to break free from the control of the court.

In this way, the interests of this armed force will diverge from those of the imperial court. Even if its generals are loyal to the imperial court, they will eventually be controlled by this interest group.

There are actually many such examples in the late Ming Dynasty. Not to mention the distant ones, the most representative of the recent ones is probably Liu Zeqing, one of the two Lius from Jiangbei.

After learning that the Qing army was approaching, this man abandoned his army and fled. He only surrendered to the Qing when Jiangbei was basically pacified and the Qing army sent people to persuade him to surrender.

Then the problem is coming.

Nowadays, every military general regards the army as his lifeblood. Whether Liu Zeqing wants to surrender to the Qing or be loyal to the Ming, he should keep the army firmly in his hands. If he was not forced into a corner, how could he abandon the army and flee?
From this incident, we can easily conclude that Liu Zeqing may have lost control of the army when the Qing army marched south because of differences between his own ideas and the interest groups under his command.

Only in this way would it be unreasonable to abandon the army and flee.

Subsequent facts actually confirmed this point indirectly. After he surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, the Qing court openly wanted to kill him, and none of the many generals under his command pleaded for him.

Therefore, in Zhu Cilang's view, if he wanted to truly control the army, the personal loyalty of the commander-in-chief was not enough, and the way to solve the fundamental problem was to tie this interest group tightly to himself.

Of course, as a "foreigner" who had only been here for two months, he had not yet figured out how to achieve this goal. And it was easy to imagine that even if he had a way, he would encounter many obstacles in the implementation process.

Therefore, he thought of starting with the rebel army and the militia first, and then turning his attention to the government army after the war in Jiangnan was completely settled.

To be honest, this is a bit like picking on the weak.

However, each general in the army has been in his own team for many years. For example, Hou Chengzu, who was from an outer garrison, was destined to lead this army since birth.

How easy is it to do something about such a deep-rooted relationship?
However, Zhu Cilang is not completely without a solution.

In his mind, he had roughly divided the government troops in Jiangnan into three categories.

The first category includes people like Fang Guoan and Chang Guanlin, who played an extremely important role in the entire battle of Jiangnan, and they and their soldiers were extremely loyal to Zhu Cilang.

The second category is represented by naval generals. Although these people have not experienced hard battles, they are also the decisive force in the Battle of Jiangnan.

However, since its army is a technical branch that relies heavily on strong logistics, even though the loyalty of its soldiers is far less than that of the first category, it can still be considered under control.

The last category is the most troublesome.

For example, people like Zuo Menggeng and Wu Zhikui, the organizational structure of their army has already been finalized, and because they did not have much communication with Zhu Cilang during the entire war, both in reality and in name, compared with the first category, they are truly "non-direct lineage" troops.

From this, it is easy to imagine that in the absence of sufficient mutual trust with his generals, once Zhu Cilang wants to change it, he will inevitably face a violent backlash. Even if he can suppress this backlash, it will still cause extremely adverse effects.

Under such circumstances, it was natural for Zhu Cilang to do the easy things first and then move on to the difficult ones, and then take action after setting a good example for them.

Of course, this is just afterthought.

After all, there were still tens of thousands of Qing troops stationed in southern Anhui at that time. Before dealing with them, no matter how long-term Zhu Cilang's plans were, he had to focus on the enemy in front of him.

Hmm. That’s getting off topic.

In this meeting, Zhu Cilang's most desired goal was not anything else but to do his utmost to prevent Duoduo from joining forces with Bolo and Tunqi.

Duoduo roughly guessed this after thinking about it, but given the current situation, he was really undecided.

"This is going to be difficult."

After returning to the camp, Duoduo and Kong Youde fell into silence.

After a long time, Kong Youde finally broke the silence in the tent.

Looking at the whole of China, Kong Youde can be considered one of the top people, but facing the difficult problems thrown by that insidious guy, he has no idea how to deal with it.

On the surface, he and Duoduo still have about 10,000 soldiers and horses. Even though this number is far less than that of Bolo and Tunqi, it will be difficult to end the situation if those two guys with the blue flag openly harm them.

But does disadvantage necessarily have to be justified?
At this time, the fig leaf of the two families had been forcibly torn off by the sinister Zhu Cilang. Unsure of the other party's intentions, both they and Bolo and Tunqi had to prepare for the worst case scenario.

In this way, the situation becomes a competition of who will strike first, and naturally all kinds of tricks will be used.

There is no need to say anything else. Didn’t the soldiers sent by Tunqi say that they were trying hard to break through the Ming army’s blockade?
With such a reason, they could naturally sit idly by and watch the Ming army's siege. After returning to Beijing, they could just say that Duoduo was greedy for merit and acted rashly, and that Bolo could not be rescued even after fighting to the death.

Even if Dorgon was the regent at that time, how could he win this verbal lawsuit when his strength was greatly weakened?

What Kong Youde can think of, Duoduo can naturally think of as well.

In fact, he thought even more deeply. Kong Youde probably just attributed the situation to Zhu Cilang's instigation, but he felt that even if Zhu Cilang hadn't been involved, Bolo would have killed him directly.

Why?

The leader of the Bordered White Banner!
Once Duoduo was killed in the siege of the Ming army because of underestimating the enemy and advancing rashly, this position would be vacant. Even if Dorgon could eventually keep this position, he would definitely pay a considerable price.

By then, the balance of power among the various parties in the court will undergo a fundamental change. Hauge, who has lost the throne, may be able to regain power, and the status of Bolo and Tunqi will naturally rise.

Under such temptation, is it necessary for Zhu Cilang to sow discord?

It is probably true that those guys in the north were instigated, but it is true that they have been eyeing us covetously for a long time.

This meeting seemed worthwhile.

As soon as this thought came into Duoduo's mind, he immediately dispelled it, and his face even turned red and white, making Kong Youde think that he was having a relapse of an old illness.

"Don't worry too much. Those guys can only stand by and watch, but they dare not take action themselves." Kong Youde saw that Duoduo's face seemed to have improved. It seemed that his persuasion had worked. So he continued: "At least we still have 10,000 soldiers. Even if that sinister guy really mobilized all his troops, we can resist him."

It seemed that Kong Youde's persuasion really worked. Three or two breaths after he finished speaking, Duoduo's complexion returned to normal.

"I'm not worried, but I feel a little regretful," Duoduo said, getting up from his chair and pacing in the tent as if he was worried. "When I first crossed the river, I thought the Ming Kingdom was vulnerable and I let down my guard."

Ok? !

When Kong Youde heard these words, he was extremely surprised.

In fact, some high-level generals in the army knew very well why the war situation in Jiangnan had fallen to such a state. Even the people under Kong Youde's command had complained to him more than once.

But what others say is what they say, but what you hear from Duoduo's mouth is of a completely different nature.

"First, they did not leave a large number of troops in Zhenjiang, and because they wanted to win the hearts of the people, they let the generals disperse. When they arrived in Hangzhou, they were unable to eliminate the hidden dangers for various reasons, and even when they should have withdrawn decisively, they were greedy."

Duoduo paced as he spoke, and when he reached the tent door, he drew out the sword from his waist and looked at it carefully.

Faced with his performance, Kong Youde's mood naturally became increasingly depressed.

Although other factors played a role in each of these incidents, it is undeniable that Commander Duoduo did make a series of mistakes after crossing the Yangtze River to the south.

However, Kong Youde thought that victory and defeat were common in the military. As long as Duoduo could learn lessons from this defeat, he would have revenge one day.

What's more, no matter what, they didn't suffer much loss in this battle.

There were only about three or four thousand Eight Banner soldiers on Nikan's side, and the rest were surrendered soldiers. Those thrown outside Hangzhou as bait were all surrendered soldiers, and there was not even half a Banner soldier.

As for the troops that will stay in Xuancheng to confuse the Ming army
Thinking of this, Kong Youde couldn't help but feel a little distressed.

For more than ten years, they have followed him all over the country since Dongjiang. Even if they have to take extraordinary measures under the current situation, people are not heartless. How could Kong Youde really be so heartless?

Forget it. After I return, I will report to the Regent and ask him to treat his family well.

With this thought in mind, Kong Youde's slightly guilty mood improved a little.

Soldiers fight to the death on the battlefield, after all, isn't it to earn a good life for their families and a good future for their descendants?
If not, what's the point of just living one day at a time like a walking corpse?
In this chaotic world, you will die sooner or later. No matter how you deal with it, it will all be the same in the end.
"How could I have made so many mistakes after fighting for so many years?"

Just as Kong Youde was comforting himself in his heart, Duoduo slowly put down the sword in his hand, and then he began to wander aimlessly in the military tent while muttering something.

At this time, Duoduo seemed to have completely fallen into self-doubt under heavy pressure. Kong Youde, who was still sitting in the chair below, didn't know what "self-doubt" meant, but he could also sense that Duoduo was abnormal.

According to common sense, people who have reached such a position usually have strong psychological qualities to a considerable extent.

But Kong Youde knew clearly that when Duoduo was born, Nurhaci had already laid a solid foundation. Although he suffered some setbacks afterwards, Huang Taiji was generally good to the three brothers. It might be more appropriate to describe those setbacks as training.

Needless to say, after that, when facing the straw-like Ming army, Duoduo almost never suffered a defeat, and even if he suffered occasional minor setbacks, they were not serious at all.

Therefore, in his opinion, it was understandable that Duoduo's mind was somewhat turbulent due to the difficult situation.

"Don't talk nonsense. Which general has never suffered a defeat? Even the old Khan and the late emperor were disturbed by the Dongjiang River and couldn't sleep, right?"

Speaking of which, Kong Youde was also a weirdo. After returning to the Qing Dynasty, he did not shy away from talking about his experience of fighting against the Qing army in Dongjiang Town. He even mentioned Mao Wenlong whenever he argued with others.

This is the overall style of painting.

When Kong Youde disagreed with what Huang Taiji or other high-ranking officials of the Qing court said, he would simply say: "The Marshal once said xxxxxxx."

Duoduo naturally knew about his habit, so he didn't take it as an offense. He just smiled and walked around in the tent again with his sword in hand.

"Look at you. You've been talking about Marshal Mao all the time for so many years. You're also sentimental."

"As a human being, we should always remember the old friendships. The Marshal treated us well in the past, so I should remember his kindness. The Ming Dynasty has failed my Dongjiang Town, so I have no reason to rebel."

Kong Youde is not a pure ruffian after all. Although he still speaks carelessly, if you savor his words carefully, you can discern the meaning behind them.

But who would have thought
"Then you will naturally remember the old friendship of the late emperor."

Kong Youde was startled when he heard the words, but before he could make any move, he felt a chill on his neck.

"You!! What are you doing?!"

"Don't blame me. The late emperor treated you very well. How could I not be on guard? When you return to Jiangbei safely, I will take the blame."

(End of this chapter)