Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 40 Return to the city
The appearance of the scouts means that the attack and defense of Yingtian is about to begin.

Normally, a battle of this magnitude would inevitably be accompanied by a large-scale scout fight, but there are only a few of these people in Yingtian City, and sending them out to fight the Tartar scouts head-on would be tantamount to sending them to their deaths.

However, Zhu Cilang had no intention of just sitting there and waiting to die.

China has had many ways of using the weak to defeat the strong for thousands of years. Although most of these strategies are not applicable to Yingtian's current situation, Zhu Cilang racked his brains and finally found one or two.

One of them was to let Ji Qingyuan negotiate the surrender.

Now it seems that this method does have a certain effect, otherwise there would be more than just a few people appearing under Yingtian City.

But Duoduo is not a fool after all. Although this method can last for four or five days, anyone will come to his senses after a long time.

Therefore, Zhu Cilang had to think of some other ways to try to cause some trouble to the Qing army.

"Your Highness, we know nothing about the situation outside the city. If we rush into battle rashly, we will suffer a great defeat."

Before Zhu Guobi got close, he heard Chang Guanlin's distressed voice.

He was shocked in his heart but looked calm. He walked up to Zhu Cilang, bowed, and stood aside to listen carefully.

"I'm not talking about a battle in formation, but a night attack."

After listening to Zhu Cilang's explanation, everyone present couldn't help but nod slightly.

As the saying goes, if you defend for too long, you will lose. Since ancient times, I have never heard of a city being defended only by city walls, so your highness’s idea is correct.

However, this night attack is an extremely difficult task. Not only does it require highly disciplined soldiers, but it also requires a certain understanding of the enemy's defenses.

If these two points are not achieved, let alone a night raid on the enemy camp, the troops that have already been dispersed will probably be discovered by the enemy before they even see the enemy camp.

"Your Highness is wise, but our soldiers have never been in actual combat, and the enemy situation is unclear. It would be better to wait for some time before implementing this plan."

Chang Guanlin's previous words were equivalent to a direct challenge to Zhu Cilang. Although he has always been like this, and His Highness did not show any dissatisfaction, he had seen everything Zhu Cilang did in the past few days and had already developed respect for Zhu Cilang in his heart. That's why he felt a little guilty after he realized what he was doing, and then he considered his words when he tried to dissuade him.

"The enemy situation is easy to find out. I have my own way to find out. As for the soldiers..." Zhu Cilang pondered for a moment, then turned to Xu Yinjue and asked, "Can training solve the problem?"

train?

It would be fine if training was not mentioned, but as soon as training was mentioned, Xu Yinjue became extremely angry.

Originally, Zhu Cilang had promised to buy him at least ten days, but after only three or four days he directly dispatched more than 40,000 militiamen.

"Your Highness, the soldiers can be trained, but you can't do it like last time."

Seeing Xu Yinjue so aggrieved, Zhu Cilang was originally a little confused, but when he imagined his makeshift team as a company, he suddenly understood.

No matter whether the company is on the verge of bankruptcy or not, as long as you are in it, you will try to keep your current position. And isn’t the best way to keep your position to have important projects in hand?
According to the current situation, the company's existing projects are defensive warfare, food and fodder collection, militia training and maintaining company operations.

Among these four projects, defensive warfare is the most important, but Xu Yinjue, who has no experience in leading troops, can only play the role of consultant relying on the books in his home collection.

The collection of the second-rate food and fodder had already been completed by the boss himself, so naturally he had nothing to do with it.

In the two first-class projects, there are a lot of people with similar status to them who are responsible for maintaining the operation of the company. Naturally, they are not good choices, and the only option left is to train the civilians.

As a result, Xu Yinjue hated the behavior of destroying the only project in his hands. "It was a helpless move before. This group of militiamen will definitely buy enough time."

After thinking this through, Zhu Cilang comforted Xu Yinjue a little, and after arranging the night attack, he turned to Zhu Guobi and others who had just arrived and said, "Thank you for your hard work in the city these days."

Since seizing military power, Zhu Cilang has been running between the military camp and the city walls, and has hardly paid attention to the civil affairs in the city.

This was partly due to the fact that he was unable to cope with so many tasks, but to a greater extent it was due to Zhu Cilang's absolute confidence in the clerks and clerks who were not constrained by the civil servants.

Although Zhu Cilang was full of prejudices against the civil service system at first, he was not very confident about the clerks.

However, in the process of recruiting militiamen, the clerks not only demonstrated extremely high administrative efficiency, but also developed a series of contingency strategies based on their rich experience.

Thanks to their efforts, the 80,000 to 90,000 militiamen were arranged properly without causing any trouble.

With this incident as a foundation, Zhu Cilang naturally dared to entrust all civil affairs in the city to the hands of clerks.

However, this does not mean that the officials stationed in the Ministry of Justice did not contribute at all.

After all, in this era, the status of clerks was not even as high as that of ordinary civilians, and matters such as the conscription of slaves from the homes of nobles had to be handled by them.

So this hard work is not just a compliment.

"Your Highness, please move to the inner city!"

Just when Zhu Cilang wanted to say something else, he saw Xu Yu, Yue Qijie and Qian Qianyi kneeling in front of him.

At first, Zhu Cilang was a little at a loss. Anyone who saw three white-haired old men suddenly kneeling in front of him would have the same reaction as him.

But after he figured out the intentions of these three people, he calmed down a lot.

"I understand what you all mean, but with the enemy at hand, how will the soldiers defending the city react if I hide in the inner city?"

Although Zhu Cilang's tone was not harsh, it was not as kind and amiable as before.

The other two were still considering how to respond, but Old Master Xu asked back in surprise: "Your Highness, it is the duty of a soldier to fight on the battlefield, so why should we talk about being alone?"

"If everyone could abide by their duties, how could the Ming Dynasty have come to this?"

Logically speaking, he shouldn't have confronted Xu Yu, but Master Xu's words were too taken for granted, so he couldn't help but retort.

"Mr. Xu, if the soldiers knew that I was fighting alongside them, our chances of defending Yingtian would be much greater."

Although Xu Yu was a little stubborn, what Zhu Cilang said was not without reason. However, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was concerned about the overall situation, so how could he stand behind the wall?

Just as Master Xu was about to say something, Qian Qianyi took over the conversation: "Your Highness, arrows have no eyes. If there is something that cannot be said, how can Yingtian be defended?"

"I have my brother Xiang and the soldiers protecting me on the city wall. If they can't protect me anymore, Yingtian will be destroyed," Zhu Cilang turned to look at Xiang Rensheng, who was wearing armor, and then glanced at the soldiers not far away. "Then I will naturally go to see my father and ancestors."

"I, your humble servant, will protect your Highness!"

"We will definitely protect your highness!"

(End of this chapter)