Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 75

According to the original plan of the Qing court, Duoduo's troops should have headed straight to Jiangbei after leaving Beijing, but the counterattack of the Dashun Army caused the newly captured Jinan and other places to fall again.

As a result, Dorgon fully realized who the real opponent of the Qing Dynasty was, and decisively transferred Duoduo, who was about to enter Henan, to Guanzhong to fight.

During this precious time of nearly a year, the Southern Ming, which should have been preparing for war, on the one hand still had illusions about the Qing army and even attempted to divide the river with the Qing court, while on the other hand it was fighting internally to its heart's content.

Honestly speaking, although harboring illusions is extremely harmful, we cannot be too harsh on ourselves because we are limited by the inertia of existing history.

What really caused the Southern Ming Dynasty to collapse was the internal fighting that the Southern Ming elites were accustomed to.

Due to the infighting among military generals, Gao Jie, who was determined to resist the Qing Dynasty, died in Suizhou; due to the contempt of civil officials for military generals, Shi Kefa failed to appease the remaining troops of Gao Jie; due to the infighting among civil officials, the various arrangements of the Southern Ming in Jiangbei were greatly constrained.

Eventually, the military officers and civil officials of the Southern Ming court became alienated and deserted, which allowed Duoduo to lead his exhausted army to reach the city of Yingtian in just over three months.

However, the court’s struggles are the court’s struggles, and the people still have to live their lives.

During this rare period of peace, the people of Jiangnan finally achieved a good harvest.

However, due to various factors, the grain in the hands of the people eventually flowed into the hands of wealthy businessmen at low prices, and the grain was stored in cities with large populations and developed logistics.

Yingtian is one of these cities. According to Xiang Rensheng’s estimation, Yingtian is even likely to be the city with the largest amount of stored grain.

This is actually not difficult to understand. With wars raging and the world in chaos, anyone with a bit of vision would regard hoarding food as a necessary means to continue the family.

As the largest city in China and even in the world, Yingtian not only has convenient transportation, but also allows goods to be sold quickly when the situation changes. There is really no better place for storage.

This was naturally the best news for Zhu Cilang, but even after Xiang Rensheng told him everything he knew, he still failed to wipe away the gloom on his prince's face.

"Your Highness, your injury has just healed. Don't get angry and hurt your body."

"I'm not angry, that's it."

Zhu Cilang hesitated for a long time, but ultimately couldn't find the right words to describe his feelings.

During the meeting yesterday, Yue Qijie mentioned the matter of the fleeing civilians, but since there were only about 30,000 of them in total, Zhu Cilang didn't pay much attention to it.

But when he walked around the refugee camp, he found that
"Please come, Master Yue."

Zhu Cilang gave an order and someone left quietly. At this point he finally had the mood to sort out the logic behind it.

Today he first went to the Zhongshan camp, and then planned to go to the Chengbei camp to see the training results of the Xu Yinjue brothers.

However, since Yue Qijie had settled all the refugees outside Jinchuan Gate, he went there on the way.

In fact, from the time he saw the refugee camp until some time before he left, he just felt that the camp was a little chaotic and people's spirits were a little depressed.

Honestly speaking, he didn't care too much about it at that point. After all, they were refugees. Could he expect the camp to be well-organized and the people to be happy?
But when Zhu Cilang walked to a remote corner, this view changed completely.

That corner was located between the camp and the hill. There were four or five sturdy men dressed as servants sitting inside. Not far away, there were three or two refugees with baby girls who kept looking around.

Seeing this scene, Zhu Cilang still didn't care. If he hadn't noticed that Xiang Rensheng had a strange expression and asked one more question, what happened later would not have happened.

"Brother Xiang, what do those people do?"

Hearing the question, Xiang Rensheng immediately began to hesitate, but under Zhu Cilang's questioning, he could only tell what he knew.

"Probably. Probably someone selling girls." Zhu Cilang was shocked when he heard the words.

It has been less than ten days since the Tartars crossed the river, and Yingtian has been under siege for only four days. Moreover, he has allocated a batch of food to Yue Qijie. No matter how you look at it, he should not be selling his children now.

Corruption!

This was the only explanation Zhu Cilang could think of, but when Yue Qijie told him the whole story he had to overturn this idea.

"Your Highness, I have not distributed all the food you allocated."

"Why?"

"Your Highness, if the food in the warehouse is only used to supply the army, it can last for another three or two months. But if it is used without restraint, I am afraid it will not last even a month."

No restraint?

Upon hearing this, Zhu Cilang was immediately unhappy. He always ate with the soldiers and never dared to waste a grain of food. But in Yue Qijie's mouth, it was considered as unrestrained.

"cross"

"Your Highness, I have your report."

"Go ahead."

"Your Highness is brave and resolute, just like Emperor Wu of Han. What's more, you are frugal and simple, and you know how hard it is to support the people. If you had arrived in Yingtian when the Ming Dynasty moved south, the situation would not have deteriorated to this point. With time, it would not be unimaginable to restore the Ming Dynasty and even surpass the Han and Tang Dynasties."

As he listened, Zhu Cilang felt something was wrong, but seeing Yue Qijie's sincere expression, he could only let him continue.

"But Your Highness, you shouldn't be so soft-hearted."

A woman's kindness?

Hearing these four words, Zhu Cilang's doubts were immediately dispelled by a burst of karma.

He originally wanted to know why the food was not distributed, but Yue Qijie put a big hat on his head before he could explain the reason. How could he remain calm?

"The success or failure of Yingtian is related to the country and the people. Defending the city should be the first priority. Whether the city is in our hands depends on whether the army is still there, not the people."

After Yue Qijie finished speaking, he saw that Zhu Cilang was still unhappy, so he knew that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince did not understand what he meant. He had no choice but to speak out the truth.

"Food should be supplied to the army first, so that the people do not starve to death."

Zhu Cilang was not stupid. How could he not understand the meaning of Yue Qijie's words? He even thought of the saying "Let the people suffer and I will take the blame."

To be honest, it is extremely difficult to judge the right and wrong here.

To put it more bluntly, this matter is only about stance and hardly involves right or wrong.

From Yue Qijie's point of view, if Yingtian still existed, tens of millions of people in the south of the Yangtze River would have been spared from the ravages of war, and the Ming Dynasty would have had the capital to compete with the Tartars.

But if we stand in the position of the people of Yingtian, if it really comes to the point of "people eating each other", who will care about the Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty? As long as there is a glimmer of hope, it is reasonable to take Zhu Cilang's head.

"Let's just blame those people who brought the situation to this point." Zhu Cilang felt helpless.

(End of this chapter)