Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 204 If the situation is not clear, I will let you go and see for yourself

Zhu Cilang did order Xu Yinjue to try to contain the Qing army in Yingtian, but at the same time he also gave a detailed analysis of the current situation in the letter.

In this way, Xu Yinjue naturally knew that the so-called containment was probably just to give Bolo a reason. Even if some fighting would occur in the meantime, the scale of it would definitely not be that large.

So he took advantage of this information gap to trick Qian Qianyi.

In fact, even if he didn't do so, the civil officials would probably distribute military weapons to the militia.

However, once the situation changes, the positions of both parties will naturally change, and there will be a world of difference between being active and passive.

Now Qian Qianyi was worried that Xu Yinjue would make random accusations after his defeat, so he wanted to spend money to avoid disaster and shut him up with military equipment.

Once Mr. Xu finds some excuses like quality issues and refuses to accept these weapons, it is possible that Mr. Qian will have to bear some of the responsibility for the delay in military operations.

In this way, Mr. Qian was begging Xu Yinjue to accept the weapons as soon as possible.

But if they knew the inside story, the active and passive positions would be completely reversed. If Xu Yinjue wanted to obtain the weapons smoothly, he would naturally be controlled by various civil servants.

In the end, things were still the same, but he didn't know how much favors and energy he had invested in it. How could it be as refreshing as it is now?

But happiness is always short-lived. He was only happy for about ten breaths before someone came out to spoil his joy.

"Didn't I say goodbye?"

Ever since His Royal Highness the Crown Prince annihilated tens of thousands of Qing troops in one battle, the number of visitors to Xu Yinjue's house increased day by day. After the siege of Hangzhou was lifted, the door of his house was almost trampled down.

After all, there are no blind people in Yingtian City. With the war developing to this extent, everyone knows that the young man in prison clothes has the capital to control half of the country.

If you are still hesitant and unwilling to get in the car, do you have to wait for His Royal Highness the Crown Prince to come and invite you personally?

Xu Yinjue naturally understood this, but he understood even more clearly that the army was the Crown Prince's forbidden food, and the two armies from Yingtian were the most forbidden food among the forbidden food.

Without clear instructions from His Highness, even he, the Duke of Wei, did not dare to place people at will.

Therefore, the strategy of his people was to avoid seeing each other if possible, and to play Tai Chi and pretend not to know if they could not avoid it. If they were really forced into a corner, they would bring out Liang Yungou who had been punished, and play the role of being unyielding and unyielding.

just
There were at least eight hundred people who came to pay their respects, if not a thousand, but Mei Chun was extremely special.

When others came to look for Xu Yinjue's door, they had to find someone who had a say in the matter to go between them. If they couldn't find that person, they had to prepare a generous gift. But he had neither acquaintances to ask for favors nor generous gifts to give.

If he had not requested to see the Duke of Wei every day, and had not shown up outside the Duke of Wei's mansion on time no matter if he was driven away, beaten or scolded, causing the doorman to be annoyed and have to pass on the message on his behalf, it is possible that Xu Yinjue would not even know whether such a person existed.

Do you think this is over?
He was the commander of the Xiaoling Guard. In terms of rank, he was the only high-ranking military general who could still wander around in Yingtian City. But when he first met Xu Yinjue, he claimed that as long as he could lead his troops to participate in the war, he could do the job of a thousand or hundred households.

Does Xu Yinjue look like a fool?

Who of those who come to him for help does not seek promotion or wealth?
If Mei Chun had told the truth, Xu Yinjue might have shown him a way out because of his perseverance. But he actually lied to him like this. How could Master Xu be someone he could easily get along with?
What will happen next can be imagined from the current situation. Mei Chun was driven out of the mansion by Xu Yinjue, but he follows her like a ghost every day.

If he had not been a third-rank official and was not in charge of guarding Taizu's mausoleum, he would have been beaten by Xu Yinjue and unable to get out of bed. How could he have tolerated him pestering him like this?
"Master, even eight or nine good fighters can't get into Meichun's body, so there's nothing we can do."

Hearing this, Xu Yinjue felt annoyed.

Compared to some, he certainly seemed weak and not decisive enough, but that didn't mean he could allow a mere third-rank general to "bully" him to this extent.

"Call him over."

After saying this lightly, Xu Yinjue looked coldly at Mei Chun who was standing in the distance. When his personal attendant brought him forward, he did not wait for the other party to salute and directly said, "Are you here to challenge me to a fight?"

"Yes."

"Well, there's a battle right now where you can be used."

"Thank you, Duke Guo!"

After saying just these four sentences, Mei Chun bowed and turned away, leaving Xu Yinjue, who had a lot of tricks up his sleeve, speechless.

Yu Xu Yinjue thought that when he stated that there was a war to be fought, Mei Chun would naturally ask about the details. Afterwards, as long as he told her the situation truthfully, this person would surely make all kinds of excuses and requests.

In this way, he could vent his anger, and even if he could not punish him directly, he could still lock him up with justification.

With this chicken, maybe the monkey who is confused about the situation will give up the idea of ​​looking for opportunities here. It is a good way to kill two birds with one stone.

But who would have thought
"Wait!"

During this moment of distraction, Mei Chun had taken more than ten steps. When he heard Xu Yinjue's call, he turned his head with a puzzled look on his face.

"Don't you ask who we are fighting against?"

As soon as these words were spoken, Xu Yinjue saw that Mei Chun was also stunned for a moment, as if she was shocked by these words.

He is indeed an idiot who didn't even bother to ask about the specific circumstances.

With this in mind, Xu Yinjue waited for the plot to return to its original track, but who knew that in just a moment, Mei Chun's face showed an extremely strange expression, and then she began to explain in detail to Xu Yinjue as if she was looking at a fool.

"There are still 40,000 to 50,000 Tartars outside the city. If we don't get rid of them, all the troops in the city will be trapped here. So I think we should fight with them."

"You are not afraid of death?"

Xu Yinjue's status was inherited from his ancestors, but that doesn't mean he doesn't read people's expressions.

As soon as Mei Chun finished speaking, he asked in surprise, and he didn't even seem to notice the other party's obvious contemptuous expression.

"Your Highness the Crown Prince is so valuable that he can personally go to the battlefield. I am a warrior, so how can I be afraid of these things?"

Having said that, no matter what Xu Yinjue originally thought, his opinion of Mei Chun had to change. After he thought about it for a while, the nature of this conversation subtly changed.

"How many soldiers do you have?"

"Two thousand."

"How much exactly?"

"Eight hundred and seventy-three people."

According to court regulations, a guard should have 5,600 soldiers. However, when Mei Chun finally reported this number, Xu Yinjue was not surprised. Instead, he showed an expression that was what he should have expected.

As a mausoleum guard, the Xiaoling Guard was neither part of the Five Military Commandery nor among the Twenty-Six Guards of Yingtian.

As a result, he was not loved by his grandmother and uncle and was almost completely isolated from the imperial system. Even when the establishment of the various garrisons in Yingtian was completed before the New Year, no one thought that there was such a group of people in the city.

This is not an exaggeration. In the original history, Zhao Zhilong led the officials of Yingtian to surrender to the Qing army. When the city defense was handed over, no one remembered this group of people. If it were not for the night when the Qing army entered the city, the Xiaoling Guards launched a desperate charge against the Qing army, it is possible that this group of people would have continued to live under the rule of the Qing Dynasty.

The desperate resistance of the Xiaoling Guards was a test of extraordinary courage. At that time, the main force of the Qing army had already entered the city. Both Mei Chun and his soldiers knew that this was a battle that could not be won and that there was no way to change the overall situation of the fall of Nanjing.

But they eventually chose to launch a suicide attack on the Qing army to show the world that the Ming Dynasty still had blood in its veins.

In this battle, the Xiaoling Guards were ultimately defeated due to the huge gap in strength.

The only eighteen remaining people fought a bloody battle with the Qing army until the last moment after retreating to the Xiaoling Mausoleum, and used their lives to put an end to the Xiaoling Guard that had lasted for hundreds of years.

According to historical records, "There were only eighteen soldiers left in the camp. The Qing army surrounded them with fifty men, but they were unable to defeat them and died.

They sent more troops, but were defeated again. All three hundred men were killed, leaving only one battalion soldier and three Qing soldiers.

Three men surrounded one man and fought with him. After a while, a soldier from the camp used a hook knife to pierce the abdomen of one Qing soldier, and his intestines were exposed but not yet cut off. The man endured the pain and killed another Qing soldier before he died.

Only two Qing soldiers were left, so they fled. "

At this point, some people may ask why the battle situation was recorded in such detail.

Since the Xiaoling Mausoleum is located near the Chaoyang Gate of the inner city of Yingtian, when the Xiaoling Mausoleum guards fought fiercely all night and finally retreated to the Xiaoling Mausoleum, it was the peak time for people entering and leaving the inner city. The battle situation was witnessed by many Yingtian people and fortunately it was preserved.

However, at this time, Duoduo had been forced into a state of panic by Zhu Cilang, so the bravery of the Xiaoling Guards naturally had other uses.

After a conversation, Xu Yinjue followed Mei Chun to Xiaolingwei. After seeing that their military equipment was even inferior to that of the civilians, he waved his hand and allocated 900 sets of armor and weapons from the stock in his own camp.

Earlier, Zhu Cilang had already shown his attention to all matters in the military, so in the past two months, the quality of the military equipment produced in Yingtian has become much better than before.

However, at that time, internal and external transportation in Yingtian was still inconvenient, and the quantity of military equipment produced could not be forced due to the shortage of raw materials.

“Mei Chun, Xiaoling Wei Shao has been dealing with others for many years, but I don’t know what your people are good at.”

After a tour around the guard, Xu Yinjue had a new understanding of this low-key Xiaoling Guard, and he really wanted to entrust it with important tasks.

After Taizu passed away, the imperial court selected 5,600 soldiers skilled in riding and shooting to form a guard post to guard the mausoleum, and stipulated that when these people grew old, their descendants could inherit the position and guard the Xiaoling Mausoleum from generation to generation.

These people were truly the elite among the elite and the bravest among the bravest in their day. However, over the past two hundred years, even though the army's heritage has not been broken, it is unknown how much of their ancestors' skills have been retained.

Thinking in this way, Xu Yinjue's question is naturally reasonable.

However, the Ming Dynasty has left these people in the Xiaoling Mausoleum for more than two hundred years. During this period, who could remember them except for offering sacrifices to their ancestors?
Without firearms and horses, how could this group of soldiers be good at anything else?

"Sir, our troops are good at fighting on foot."

Hearing Mei Chun's answer, Xu Yinjue nodded slightly. At this moment, his mind was all on how to make good use of this team, and he didn't realize that they were simply not good at anything else.

"His Highness has ordered us to try to contain Yingtian's enemies."

As he spoke, Xu Yinjue paid attention to Mei Chun's expression, and when he could see some psychological activity on her face, he continued speaking.

"I intend to go out of the city and invite you to fight tomorrow, and your troops will lead the charge."

"The last general takes command!"

Normally speaking, if the superior assigns a task and the subordinate does not refuse, the matter can be considered successfully concluded.

However, the ferocity of the Tartars was well known to everyone. The more Mei Chun behaved like this, the more uneasy Xu Yinjue felt.

"Mei Chun, you must understand that this battle is related to the overall situation and cannot be taken lightly. If your unit fails, no one can bear the responsibility."

"You will finally understand."

You know shit!
If Xu Yinjue had not been maintaining his dignity as a Duke, this sentence would most likely have come out of his mouth.

After his previous tour of the guard, he was sure that the more than 800 soldiers of the Xiaoling Guard were all brave fighters.

But war is no joke after all, and victory or defeat does not depend entirely on will. If the soldiers are not carefully trained, even if they are truly fearless, they will be like a stone dropped into the sea on the battlefield and will be completely submerged in a short time.

Have these garrison troops been trained carefully?

Those on the city wall could probably still get some help after His Royal Highness the Crown Prince invested a lot of energy, but the Xiaoling Guards, which had a full quota of 5,600 but only 800 actual members, were definitely far behind.

Therefore, after Mei Chun readily accepted the task, Xu Yinjue felt that he was blinded by the momentum of the army. In addition, the Qing army suffered repeated defeats at the hands of His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, so this Geng guy was blindly confident like a fool.

"Meichun, you have to think clearly. When the Tartars attacked at night, even though no soldier on the city wall retreated, the Tartars' elite troops still reached Your Highness."

Xu Yinjue's meaning was very clear. You are all garrison soldiers, so you should know which one is stronger and which one is weaker between Xiaoling Guard and other garrisons.

But who would have thought that after hearing this, Mei Chun remained the same as before, and even his answer did not change at all.

"You will finally understand."

"Good! Good! Good!"

Seeing his performance, Xu Yinjue laughed instead of being angry, and after saying "OK" three times, he was not going to say anything more.

As the saying goes, good words cannot persuade a damned ghost.

After all, this battle was just to help the Tartars outside the city find a reason not to go south. Even if the Xiaoling Guards were really defeated, the Tartars would not pursue them relentlessly.

It would be better to use this battle to broaden Mei Chun's horizons. Who knows, after this setback, he might be able to break through and build upon his past, and become a fierce general with his courage to fight.

"Since you are sure of victory, I will help you achieve your goal."

After saying this, Xu Yinjue did not continue to pester Mei Chun, and after Mei Chun received his orders, he turned around and left the camp.

Afterwards, he went to the city and the camp north of the city, and made arrangements for the battle tomorrow before going back to his own house.

It's been two months.

Although the defenders on the city wall neglected training due to their heavy responsibilities, tens of thousands of militiamen in the camp north of the city were trained intensively for two months under his personal supervision.

Under such circumstances, Xu Yinjue was both excited and nervous. He tossed and turned all night but couldn't fall asleep.

"But I don't know how the fight will turn out tomorrow."

(End of this chapter)