Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 476 Chongzhen Becomes Suspicious
Faced with such a situation, Yuan Chonghuan could only choose the safest step, which was to return to the capital in accordance with the wishes of Emperor Chongzhen, lead the troops to fight against Huang Taiji, and ensure the safety of the capital.

He kept Sun Yuanhua to talk to him about his difficulties, hoping that Sun Yuanhua could understand his difficulties. After listening to Yuan Chonghuan's explanation, Sun Yuanhua was silent. He had to admit that Yuan Chonghuan's concerns were reasonable, but he was also sure that his suggestion was right. It was a pity that he was not the governor of Ji and Liao, and he was not Yuan Chonghuan. Since Yuan Chonghuan had made this decision, he could only obey orders as a subordinate.

Yuan Chonghuan explained this to him to comfort him, and on the other hand, he hoped that Sun Yuanhua could help him stabilize Liaodong when he led his army to the capital. After all, Sun Yuanhua was a firearms expert, good at defense, and a trustworthy person. Yuan Chonghuan was worried that if he left Liaodong, the arrogant soldiers and generals in Liaodong would cause some problems when he was away. With Sun Yuanhua around, he could feel much more at ease.

Although Sun Yuanhua still felt that his idea was right, he was powerless in the face of Yuan Chonghuan's insistence. However, he promised Yuan Chonghuan that he would help him keep an eye on the Liaodong tribes when Yuan Chonghuan was not in Liaodong, so he could rest assured.

Seeing that Sun Yuanhua agreed, Yuan Chonghuan was in a good mood and immediately entrusted the affairs of Liaodong to him. He also promised him that after the war in the capital was over, he would definitely recommend Sun Yuanhua to the court as the governor of Liaodong. The position of governor of Liaodong was vacant now. He had this idea when he asked Sun Yuanhua to come, but the time was not right. After this battle, the time would be ripe.

After bidding farewell to Yuan Chonghuan, Sun Yuanhua was worried. Although he was somewhat tempted by Yuan Chonghuan's promise to be the governor of Liaodong, he was not so eager. What he was worried about was Yuan Chonghuan's reinforcement of the capital, because as Sun Yuanhua worried, this battle would be difficult to fight, and he was probably not as optimistic as Yuan Chonghuan.

Not long after receiving the imperial edict, Yuan Chonghuan's vanguard set out, and then Yuan Chonghuan led the main force to follow, out of Shanhaiguan and headed directly towards Jizhou, intending to meet up with Baoding General Cao Minglei in Jizhou to stop Huang Taiji from going south.

But who would have thought that just as Yuan Chonghuan sent out reinforcements, Huang Taiji, who had been resting in Zunhua for two days, also began to move. Just as Sun Yuanhua expected, Huang Taiji's Eight Banners did not stay in Jizhou and Zunhua for long, but mobilized troops to prepare for the westward advance.

By the time Yuan Chonghuan bypassed Zunhua and arrived in Jizhou, Huang Taiji had already made preparations. After receiving the news that Yuan Chonghuan was leading the Guangning Army towards Jizhou, Huang Taiji immediately sent a troop to Mashenqiao east of Jizhou, showing an attitude of readying for a head-on battle with the Ming army.

When the scouts reported the news, Yuan Chonghuan was overjoyed and immediately ordered his troops to speed up their march and head straight for Jizhou. As long as they could stop Huang Taiji's Eight Banners in Jizhou, his purpose of returning to provide support would be achieved.

On the second day, when Yuan Chonghuan arrived at the east of Jizhou City, Huang Taiji's vanguard troops had passed Shimen Post Station. At this time, Yuan Chonghuan ordered the entire army to line up and prepare for battle.

The two armies were facing each other, with a distance of only five miles between them. Yuan Chonghuan stood on the command chariot and looked ahead, frowning slightly, because he suddenly discovered that although the Eight Banners soldiers on the opposite side were powerful, their numbers were not large, and it seemed that there were only nearly 10,000 people. Previously, he had received intelligence that Huang Taiji brought more than 60,000 troops, and the main force was not here at the moment.

And from the enemy's flag, there was no Khan flag of Huang Taiji, which meant that Huang Taiji was not in the army. So where was Huang Taiji? Could it be that Huang Taiji had not arrived yet?

Frowning, Yuan Chonghuan planned to wait and see, maybe Huang Taiji's main force was still behind, he was ready to wait until Huang Taiji's main force arrived before launching an attack. But this wait lasted for two hours, from morning to afternoon, but still did not see Huang Taiji's main force arrive. At this time, Yuan Chonghuan was even more puzzled. He could not figure out what Huang Taiji wanted to do for a while, but it was not a good idea to continue waiting, so Yuan Chonghuan decided to make a tentative attack to see the situation.

After the order was issued, the Ming army set up artillery and fired directly at the enemy. After firing three shots in a row, the Eight Banners soldiers on the opposite side not only did not charge as expected, but retreated without even fighting. In a blink of an eye, the Eight Banners on the opposite side ran away, and there was no trace of anyone. This made Yuan Chonghuan inexplicably surprised. He had fought with the Jiannu for many years, but had never fought such a battle. When did the Eight Banners become so unbearable? If the Eight Banners could be driven away by a few shots, then the Ming Dynasty would not have to fight the Eight Banners in Liaodong for so many years, and the Jiannu would have been destroyed by the Ming army long ago.

When it was getting dark, the Eight Banners that had escaped still had not returned. Yuan Chonghuan, who didn't understand the situation, could only order his troops to prepare for defense and set up camp on the spot to prevent the Eight Banners from launching a surprise attack at night.

That night, Yuan Chonghuan's camp was on high alert, and Yuan Chonghuan himself almost did not sleep all night. But when the sun rose the next day, the Eight Banners that had been driven away the day before were still nowhere to be seen, and there was no sign of Huang Taiji's main force.

At this time, Yuan Chonghuan had a vague feeling that something was wrong. Just as he was about to send a small force to investigate, a scout suddenly came to report that the scout had brought such bad news that Yuan Chonghuan almost fainted.

It turned out that while Huang Taiji sent out the vanguard to pretend to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army, he led the main force of the Eight Banners to make a detour, and took advantage of the fact that the main force of the Ming army was attracted by the vanguard to secretly bypass Jizhou and head west from a hundred miles away. When the scouts sent out accidentally ran into the Eight Banners army that had passed Jizhou, they hurried to report it quickly. By the time Yuan Chonghuan learned the news, Huang Taiji's main force had passed Jizhou, bypassed the Sanhe defense line, and headed straight for the capital, and was now heading towards Tongzhou.

Upon hearing the bad news, Yuan Chonghuan's face changed. He never thought that Huang Taiji would be so cunning and play him like a monkey and delay him for a whole day. Now the Eight Banners have passed Jizhou, and even the Sanhe defense line that was previously arranged was directly bypassed by Huang Taiji. According to the next route, they will reach Tongzhou within five days. Tongzhou is the eastern gate of the capital. It only takes one day to travel from Tongzhou to the capital. Once Huang Taiji's Eight Banners army arrives at the gate of the capital, the whole country will be shocked.

Yuan Chonghuan could not sit still at this time. He immediately led his troops to chase Huang Taiji, intending to rush to the capital to rescue him before Huang Taiji arrived. At this time, General Zhou Wenyu suggested that Yuan Chonghuan quickly go to Tongzhou and set up a defense line in Zhangjiawan, Tongzhou to block Huang Taiji, so as to prevent Huang Taiji's Eight Banners from reaching the capital directly.

However, Yuan Chonghuan, who had suffered a loss before, rejected Zhou Wenyu's proposal without much thought. He was afraid that if Huang Taiji repeated the same trick and used false troops to attract his main force in Tongzhou, and the main force would bypass Tongzhou and go straight to the capital, the situation would be even more serious.

In order to ensure that everything goes well, Yuan Chonghuan no longer has the idea of ​​continuing to intercept Huang Taiji. The more important point is as Sun Yuanhua mentioned before, compared with the Eight Banners, the Ming army, except for the Guanning Iron Cavalry, are all infantry, and their marching speed is far slower than that of Huang Taiji. If they are intercepted everywhere, they may fall behind everywhere and can only follow behind the Eight Banners. So Yuan Chonghuan directly gave up this idea. His mind is now full of ways to reach the capital before Huang Taiji arrives, because only in this way can Emperor Chongzhen not misunderstand that he is being led by Huang Taiji, but instead judge the direction of the other side's advance in advance and prepare for the defense of the capital in advance.

After making the decision, Yuan Chonghuan immediately led his troops and rushed towards the capital, trying to reach the capital before Huang Taiji's Eight Banners arrived.

After rushing no matter how hard they tried, the Guanning Army was as tired as dead dogs, and their tongues were hanging out after running so hard. Finally, five days later, they arrived at the capital before Huang Taiji and set up camp at Weigong Temple, two miles outside Zuoanmen.

As soon as the Guanning Army arrived, Huang Taiji's Eight Banners Army also arrived, and they set up camp at the horse ranch 20 miles away from the capital. When the news reached the capital, Emperor Chongzhen, who was anxiously waiting for military information, was shocked. He could not understand why Yuan Chonghuan's Guanning Army and Huang Taiji's Eight Banners arrived on the same day, as if they had a tacit understanding, and the two sides set up camp separately and did not offend each other.

"What on earth is Yuan Chonghuan doing? Wasn't he asked to encircle and annihilate the Jiannu? Why did he let the Jiannu reach the outskirts of the capital? Why didn't his Guanning Army stop the Jiannu in Jizhou and Tongzhou?" In the side hall, Emperor Chongzhen's face was terribly gloomy, his hands clenched into fists and anger flashed in his eyes.

He had previously given Yuan Chonghuan an order to command and dispatch various troops with the aim of encircling and annihilating the invading enemy.

In the eyes of Emperor Chongzhen, it was not difficult for Yuan Chonghuan to achieve this. Several armies had already arrived, and except for the capture of Zunhua City, all other prefectures in the capital were in the hands of the Ming army. Although the Ming army was not as strong as the Eight Banners in combat, the number of the Ming army was several times that of the Eight Banners. Besides, the Eight Banners had penetrated deep into the territory of the Ming Dynasty this time, which was extremely beneficial to the Ming army from the perspective of geographical advantage. As long as Yuan Chonghuan commanded properly, the Jiannu could be stopped in Jizhou. Even if the Jiannu broke through Jizhou, they would not be able to suddenly attack the Sanhe line west of Jizhou. What's more, there was Tongzhou between Sanhe and the capital. Tongzhou was the eastern gate of the capital. It was definitely not easy for the Jiannu to break through Tongzhou. However, it had only been a short time before the Jiannu troops were at the gates of the city. Moreover, the Jiannu arrived right after Yuan Chonghuan's Guanning Army, as if Yuan Chonghuan was leading the way in front and the Jiannu were following behind.

Emperor Chongzhen could not understand this situation, and could not imagine why the war turned out like this. This was just like the bearded man during World War II. He had clearly ordered all the troops to defend themselves against the mechanized army of the bearded man, and to stop the enemy's advance at all costs. However, within a few days of the order being issued, his own army was still there, but the bearded man's army had directly fought outside Moscow. It would be strange if the bearded man did not get furious at such an outrageous situation.

"Wang Banban! What do you think Yuan Chonghuan is trying to do?" Emperor Chongzhen was not a magnanimous person, and he was always suspicious. Now that the Jiannu army was at the gates of the city, Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but become suspicious of Yuan Chonghuan. He thought for a moment and directly asked Wang Chengen who was serving on the side.

Hearing the emperor's question, Wang Chengen secretly groaned in his heart. Although he held a high status in the palace and was deeply trusted by Emperor Chongzhen, the status and power of eunuchs had been no longer as high as before since Wei Zhongxian. Even the power of the Imperial Household Department had been weakened a lot. Besides, his master had never been easy to serve, so if he said the wrong thing, he would be in trouble.

But the emperor asked, and as a servant, Wang Chengen had to answer. He immediately lowered his head and replied: "Your Majesty, I don't know either, but now that Lord Yuan has arrived in the capital, why not send someone out of the city to investigate and inquire in the name of rewarding the troops, and find out what is going on. Moreover, the Jiannu army is now at the gates of the city, and Lord Yuan controls the main force of the Guanning Army, so it is necessary to appease them appropriately. No matter what, repelling the Jiannu and ensuring the safety of the capital is the first priority, as for other things, we can put them aside for the time being..."

Emperor Chongzhen thought carefully and understood what Wang Chengen meant. He nodded silently, thinking that Wang Chengen's suggestion made sense. He immediately asked Wang Chengen to find a reliable person to go out of the city to visit the troops and see Yuan Chonghuan's attitude.

(End of this chapter)