Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 416: Hauge's Hesitation

"What can I do? I am a slave who has surrendered to many people, and my subordinates are all cowards. You might as well kill me with a knife, so that you won't have to worry!"

As the saying goes, the speaker may not mean it but the listener may take it to heart. When Sun Shoufa's words came out, He Zhen said something directly as if she was angry.

He knew that his experience was quite embarrassing. He was neither a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty like Sun Shoufa, nor was he forced by the situation like Li Dingguo.

When he heard Sun Shoufa asking him to think of a solution, his mind immediately started to turn.

There is no way around this.

Earlier, he and Sun Shoufa had arrived in Xing'an. As the Qing army in Jiangbei was already depleted of manpower, they only needed to sneak out of the mountains and safely enter the territory of Hunan.

As people returning from a long journey, they will certainly be set as role models by the court, and a bright future will be within their reach.

The road ahead was bright at that time, and there was no possibility for him to rebel again for both emotional and logical reasons. Even if he encountered some difficulties and setbacks during the period, he would just laugh it off. He would not be as sensitive as he is now.

"That's not what I meant, it's just that~~."

Sun Shoufa could roughly guess what He Zhen was thinking, but when he was about to explain, his words turned into a sigh, and finally the detention room became quiet again.

It is said that a poor couple has many worries, and it is also said that troubles arise in poor families.

At this point they can be said to be trapped both internally and externally, and all kinds of hidden dangers will naturally erupt.

Sun Shoufa had been fighting guerrilla warfare for such a long time that he was quite familiar with this kind of situation, but he was also very clear that once it came to this point, unless the situation outside changed drastically, it would only become more and more serious until the group completely collapsed.

At first, when faced with such a situation, he had to choose either a fight or leave early, but now Hanzhong City is related to the outcome of this war. He has the least number of troops, but he still has to rely on the other two to stop the Tartars. Faced with such a situation, he doesn't know how to deal with it.

"If your emperor could come and kill us sooner"

The two generals Sun and He, who had the closest relationship with the general, remained silent. However, Li Dingguo, who had not participated in the topic from beginning to end, suddenly said this.

But he seemed to know that this possibility was just a pipe dream, so he just said a little bit and then said no more.

Zhang Xianzhong had also attacked Yangping Pass before, and those responsible for the defense that time were not the elite troops of the Eight Banners, but only He Zhen's troops. However, under such circumstances, Zhang Xianzhong led his elite soldiers to attack for more than a month but failed to break through the pass, and finally had to lead his troops to withdraw.

"Marshal! Something terrible is happening!"

Just when the three of them were at a loss as to what to do with the current situation, a military general came running in, tumbling and crawling. When he saw that all three were in the room, he started shouting without any regard for etiquette.

"The soldiers in the camp are communicating with each other, saying they want to plead for those people!"

He Zhen jumped up from his chair when the words came to his ears. Then he took a few quick steps to the general and asked in a low voice, "Who is leading?"

"I don't know. They just said that they were forced into a situation and wanted to ask the Marshal to show some leniency."

Hearing this, He Zhen's already bad mood immediately fell to the bottom.

He has been through a lot for many years and is definitely not someone who would be easily fooled.

If the city gate had been opened by those men earlier, according to the Tartars' style, apart from the hundred or so people directly involved, it would be difficult for anyone in the warehouse to survive.

He believed that everyone in the camp knew about this outcome.

But now, there are people who are using this pretext to collude with soldiers. How could there be any other possibility except that they want to seize military power?

I'm afraid there will be a fight.

With this in mind, He Zhen glanced at Sun and Li. When he saw that they had both stood up, he gritted his teeth and said in a deep voice, "Now that things have come to this, I have to rely on you two."

"That's all right. I'll allocate two thousand from my own camp for you to use. You must calm things down before it gets out of hand."

After saying this, Li Dingguo was about to go out and give orders, but to the surprise of everyone present, Sun Shoufa's voice came over after he had only taken two steps.

"No!"

After hearing this, Li and He couldn't help but cast doubtful looks at Sun Shoufa, obviously thinking that he shouldn't have spoken out to stop them.

The intention of Li Dingguo and He Zhen was very clear, that is, to strike first and do their best to prevent it from affecting the defense of the city. However, Sun Shoufa was not an ordinary person either. He must have his reasons for preventing this.

"The Tartars haven't attacked the city in the past few days. I'm afraid they are gathering their strength. If there is too much noise in the city, I'm afraid it will attract the Tartars to attack with all their strength."

"We can attack now. We can't just sit there and wait for them to connect with each other."

"I mean that Dingguo's troops should be on full alert, and leave the suppression of the rebellion to me."

As Sun Shoufa spoke out all that was in his mind, not only Li Dingguo looked surprised, but He Zhen also looked quite confused.

You must know that although Sun Shoufa's subordinates are all determined people, after so many years of tossing and turning, there are only a thousand or so people left who followed him to Hanzhong City.

If He Zhen could still maintain his authority as the Marshal, it would be possible for him to quell the rebellion in the army with these thousand men. But now they are completely in the dark, and it would be a bit too arrogant to have such a small number of people.

As his thoughts turned, Li Dingguo was about to say something else, but what Sun Shoufa said made sense. After thinking for a moment, he punched the two of them and then went straight out of the detention room.

When the Tartars were about to reach the outskirts of Hanzhong, they really spared no expense. If the defenses of this granary had not been too strong, they would not have been able to hold out that long.

But things suddenly changed the day before. The three of them waited for the Tartars to attack early in the morning, but they didn't expect that the Tartars didn't make any movement until night.

In the past two days, they have made various speculations about the reasons for this change. The most reasonable one seems to be that the Qing army is planning a big move, and at this time such a situation has occurred in the city, so no one dared to divert too much attention from the city.

Now that things have come to this point, the three generals of Hanzhong will not delay any further.

Afterwards, He Zhen and Sun Shoufa made a plan, but Li Dingguo transferred all his soldiers to the city.

At this time, the Qing army camp outside was still in a relatively quiet state. Apart from the occasional patrol soldiers, there were few people to be seen.

Seeing this, while strengthening the guards at each gate, they could not help but speculate on what the Qing army's big move was. To be honest, the granary in Hanzhong was not that big, and even though many of the warehouses had been burned, it was still a bit crowded with nearly 10,000 troops stationed in it.

But there are pros and cons to every advantage. A higher density means they have enough manpower to resist the Tatar attacks, and the rotation between the various units will be much smoother.

Since the Tartars outside the city lack siege weapons, such a granary can be said to be flawless.

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If the Tartars could not capture Hanzhong City, they would be likely to be attacked from both sides. However, they took a few days off at such a tense time, probably because they were confident that the big move would be able to capture the granary.

Could it be that someone in the city is collaborating with the enemy?

With this in mind, Li Dingguo looked outside the city. When he saw that the Qing army camp was still quiet, he couldn't help but doubt his guess.

About half an hour had passed, and he still had no idea about the Qing army's plan. At this moment, a cry of killing came from the city. He, a veteran who had been fighting on the battlefield since he was in his teens, couldn't help but become nervous.

"Pass the order. Generals Sun and He are suppressing the rebellion in the city. All generals must stay in their positions. Anyone who approaches, whether inside or outside the city, will be killed without mercy!"

"Order."

As soon as he finished speaking, a soldier went down to pass on the order, but the shouting and killing became louder and louder, and Li Dingguo had to keep a close eye on the Qing army camp outside the city.

Sure enough, although the Qing army had rested for a few days, it did not mean that they relaxed their surveillance on the granary. The shouting and killing lasted only half a cup of tea before the Qing army camp was already in motion.

"Your Majesty, there must be internal strife in the Ming army. Why not mobilize all the troops to destroy this granary in one fell swoop?"

Just when General Haoge had just climbed onto his horse, a general beside him shouted loudly, but he had already received the message from Luo Luohun and rejected the suggestion without thinking.

"Just follow orders and don't worry about anything else."

After he finished speaking, the general didn't dare to say anything more. After he retreated, Hauge rode out of the camp.

Perhaps these night attacks left him with a great psychological trauma. Even though only the granary in Hanzhong City was still in the hands of the Ming army, he still set up the central army camp outside the city, as if he was afraid that the Ming army would use civilian houses as cover to attack him again.

By the time Hauge arrived at the granary gate, all kinds of equipment had slowly moved in.

The so-called equipment was mostly simple items like ladders. After all, Hauge's troops had suffered several defeats and all their belongings, including firearms, had been lost. If it weren't for the fact that his troops had fought for many years, it would have been difficult for them to even build so many pieces of equipment.

"Whoosh~~!"

"Whoosh~~!"

"Whoosh~~!"

As the soldiers got closer, a rain of arrows rained down from the city, and at this time, door panels and shields appeared above the soldiers' heads. Except for the unlucky ones who were hit by the arrows that came in through the gaps, all their efforts were in vain.

Such a scene did not cause Hauge any psychological fluctuations. Even though the soldiers were advancing at a fast speed, his face was still gloomy. He obviously knew that hanging the ladder on the city was just the beginning, and everything had to wait for the head-on battle to decide.

After a while, the ladder was finally leaning against the wall under the strong push of the soldiers, and Hauge's expressionless face seemed to fluctuate slightly.

Just when he was about to say something else, he heard the sound of horse hooves from behind him, and then a horseman knelt on the ground.

"Your Majesty, Prince Yanxi has arrived outside the camp."

His relationship with Luo Luohun was extraordinary, and it was somewhat similar to that between Uncle Liu and Prime Minister Zhuge. Upon hearing the other party's actions, Haoge asked in confusion.

"Huh? Why doesn't he come over?"

"Reporting to the prince, the prince said that he was a defeated general and should be dealt with according to military law first."

Hearing these words, Hauge couldn't help but suck his teeth. Then he looked at his own soldiers who had already attacked the city and said to the knight, "Let him come first. It's not easy to judge without knowing the details of the situation."

"twitter!"

Obviously, he did not intend to punish Luo Luohun for the defeat in the war. Naturally, the two of them complemented each other, but it was undeniable that as the grandson of the leader of the Zhenghong Banner and the eldest son of the previous leader of the Xianghong Banner, Luo Luohun's value did not only lie in his expertise in political struggles.

It turned out that the Qing army camp was not far from the granary. Perhaps it only took one or two incense sticks for Luo Luohun to appear beside Haoge.

Then Haoge asked a few questions, and after Luo Luohun explained the whole story in detail, he smiled and said, "Victory and defeat are common in the military, so there is no need to worry too much. The Emperor Ming will come to rescue Hanzhong, so we can settle the accounts then."

According to common sense, Luo Luohun had lost a very important pass, so seeing that Hauge had no intention of pursuing the matter, he should have been polite. However, what was contrary to common sense was that after Hauge finished speaking, not only did he not shed tears of gratitude, he even looked hesitant, as if he had something left to say.

"But you think this is not a safe option?"

"Yes."

Luo Luohun did not hide his thoughts. When Haoge asked, he answered directly. Haoge's expression did not show any impatience. He then explained to him in a low voice.

After a moment, Hauge's voice finally fell. After that, he didn't care what Luo Luohun was thinking and turned his attention to the granary again.

At this time, some soldiers had climbed up the city wall using ladders. Even though not many people could hold on, three or two battlements were eventually controlled by the Qing army.

Seeing this, all the generals present showed joy on their faces. However, when they turned to look at their own prince, they saw that Haoge still had a gloomy face, as if he was not satisfied with this progress.

Faced with Hauge's performance, everyone couldn't help but have all kinds of speculations in their minds. After those unreliable ones were ruled out one by one, there was only one possibility left in the minds of the generals.

The reason they couldn't capture the granary earlier was because the equipment had not been built. The reason they failed later was because the soldiers had become discouraged after consecutive battles. But now the situation has slowed down, the equipment has been built, and even the Ming army in the city is in the midst of civil strife, but their own troops have only made such progress. It is understandable that their prince is a little dissatisfied.

It was not known whether the soldiers on the battlefield sensed the dissatisfaction from the generals in the rear, or whether the Ming army, which was in the midst of civil strife, had reached the end of its strength, but after the Qing army around the battlements gradually stabilized its position, the blue figures on the city spread out in a very short time.

Everyone present had fought in wars for many years and was very familiar with such scenes. Several generals immediately asked Hauge for help, hoping to send more troops to distract the defenders.

This is also a routine operation. When the battle has reached this point, everyone knows that with a little more effort, they can capture Hanzhong.

But who would have thought that Hauge just remained silent, as if hesitating about something.

(End of this chapter)