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

Chapter 635 Chongzhen's Calculation

The capital, a side hall of the Qianqing Palace.

Emperor Chongzhen stayed up all night again last night. This Ming Dynasty's number one hard worker was truly destined to be a hard worker. He was busy every day, but to no avail.

Although the encirclement and suppression of the bandits has made good progress in recent days, good news has been heard from time to time, especially the core figure among the bandits, that is, Gao Yingxiang's troops have been forced into Sichuan from Huguang. The complex terrain of Sichuan is not conducive to the activities of the bandits, and Qin Liangyu has been on high alert in Sichuan. In the first battle, Gao Yingxiang's troops suffered heavy losses. Gao Yingxiang had no choice but to flee to northern Sichuan. The various Ming army units continued to encircle and intercept, and Gao Yingxiang's troops would be able to be eliminated in time.

But compared with the problem of bandits, changes have taken place on the side of the Jiannu in Liaodong. These changes are not for the better, but are deteriorating to an uncontrollable level.

Not long ago, Huang Taiji suddenly sent troops to attack Pi Island. The defenders of Pi Island were defeated and had to retreat to the island for defense, while seeking help from the Guanning Army in Shanhaiguan. However, the Guanning Army had no rescue power at the moment, Zu Dashou was hiding in Jinzhou City and the Ming Dynasty was unable to withdraw other troops to rescue Pi Island.

The bad news came the day before yesterday that Korea had been conquered by Huang Taiji. Because Pi Island was powerless to resist Huang Taiji's attack, Korea lost its strong support. Korea's national strength was not strong to begin with, and the combat effectiveness of its Korean troops was even weaker. Facing Huang Taiji's Eight Banners, Korea had no power to resist at all.

Huang Taiji was determined to conquer Korea when he personally led the expedition. After suppressing the Ming army in Pi Island, he led the Eight Banners across the river and headed south. Huang Taiji did not attack the city, abandoned the city of Korea, and directly defeated the enemy in a field battle.

Joseon sent troops to resist, but they collapsed at the first blow. Huang Taiji advanced extremely quickly and drove southward to Seoul soon. Joseon King Yi Jong fled to Namhansanseong Fortress and surrendered after being besieged for more than 40 days. He knelt three times and kowtowed nine times to Huang Taiji at Santiandu on the south bank of the Han River. After that, Joseon severed its vassal relationship with the Ming Dynasty and became a vassal state of Jiannu.

By the way, Huang Taiji officially changed the country's name when he conquered Korea. Although he had prepared to change the country's name before, this time was different from the last time.

Now the Later Jin has officially changed to the Qing Dynasty, and Huang Taiji has also given up the Khan throne and proclaimed himself emperor. After he was proclaimed emperor, he conquered Korea. Huang Taiji is in high spirits and arrogant. Now he is organizing troops in Korea and dispatching various naval forces of Korea for his use. If nothing unexpected happens, Huang Taiji's next target may be Pi Island.

The reason why Pi Island was able to remain isolated overseas and harass and attack the Later Jin Dynasty from behind and cooperate with the Guanning Army in combat was, on the one hand, because of Mao Wenlong's proper command, and on the other hand, because Pi Island had a navy.

At the beginning, Nurhaci and Huang Taiji were both unable to do anything about Pi Island. They hated and were helpless against the Ming army on Pi Island. The main problem was that although the Eight Banners were good at fighting, they had no navy. Naval battles were not the Eight Banners' forte. The Eight Banners were invincible on land, but they were helpless when they were isolated by the sea.

This is how Nurhaci conquered Juehua Island. If it weren't for the fact that the winter was so cold that year and the strait connecting Juehua Island to the mainland was frozen, with the ice so thick that horses could run on it, there would be no way that Juehua Island could be conquered by Nurhaci.

From this point of view, the tragedy of the battle of Juehua Island was an accident. Although it was caused by Yuan Chonghuan's carelessness, the weather factor was more important. But Pi Island is different. Pi Island is not Juehua Island. Pi Island is not as close to the land as Juehua Island. Even if the weather is cold, it is impossible to freeze such a large strait.

If you want to fight to Pi Island from land, it is impossible without warships. Moreover, Pi Island has a good navy, which was founded by Mao Wenlong. Although the navy has suffered a lot due to several incidents in Pi Island in recent years, the Eight Banners are still no match for it.

But now that Huang Taiji has conquered Korea, things are different. Although Korea is a small country, it also has 3,000 miles of territory. As a country, Huang Taiji's gains from Korea are huge. In addition to being able to plunder food, utensils, and manpower from Korea, the Korean navy can also be used by him.

You should know that the Korean navy is not bad. In the Battle of Noryang, the Ming Dynasty coalition defeated the Japanese army. Although the Ming navy was the main force, the Korean navy also played a role in this battle. This battle was only a few decades ago, and the Korean navy is still there. Now that Korea has been under the control of the Qing Dynasty, this navy has become a weapon in the hands of Huang Taiji. How could Huang Taiji, who has long regarded Pi Island as a thorn in his side, miss this opportunity? He is now reorganizing his troops and summoning the navy, and his intention is extremely obvious.

"Yuan Chonghuan is despicable!" After seeing the contents of the memorial, Emperor Chongzhen was furious and could not help but curse Yuan Chonghuan, who had been executed by him long ago.

If Yuan Chonghuan had not deceived him and taken advantage of his trust to kill Mao Wenlong, how could the current situation have happened?
When Mao Wenlong was alive, the Jiannu could only circle around Liaodong at best. Even when they attacked the Ming army north of Shanhaiguan, the Jiannu often had to guard against Mao Wenlong's sneak attack from the rear. But everything changed after Mao Wenlong's death. The Jiannu not only drove Ligdan Khan away from Chahar, causing the Ming Dynasty to lose a powerful foreign aid, but also took over Chahar, Khorchin and other tribes, greatly increasing their strength.

Not only that, Huang Taiji also invaded the Great Wall through Mongolia, and plundered the capital for several months before retreating safely. After the Ji Si Incident, the Eight Banners soldiers ran to the Ming Dynasty from time to time to burn, kill, loot and commit all kinds of evil, making the Ming Dynasty in a mess. This is not all, because after Mao Wenlong's death, Pi Island underwent a huge change, which led to the subsequent Shandong mutiny, which almost caused a big incident. After that, Pi Island was in civil strife, and Mao Chenglu raised an army. Although it was finally destroyed, the Pi Island navy suffered heavy losses. What's more, Mao Chenglu's deputy general Shang Kexi surrendered to Huang Taiji, so that Huang Taiji not only got precious artillery from Shang Kexi but also part of the navy.

As one thing grows, the other declines. Pi Island is no longer the same as it was before. The current Pi Island is no longer as strong as when Mao Wenlong was there. Moreover, due to the loss of Korea, Huang Taiji already has the capital to attack Pi Island. Once Pi Island is destroyed, Dongjiang Town will no longer exist, and the Ming Dynasty will also lose an important base that can threaten the rear of the Jiannu.

All of this was because of Yuan Chonghuan. Whenever Emperor Chongzhen thought of this, he felt so angry that his teeth itched. If Yuan Chonghuan had not been executed by slow slicing, his flesh and blood would have been eaten up by the angry people of the capital. Emperor Chongzhen wished he could dig up Yuan Chonghuan's bones and grind them into ashes.

Pi Island needs to be saved, but the problem is that Emperor Chongzhen has no way to save it now.

It would have been most appropriate to let the Guanning Army go to rescue the city, but Emperor Chongzhen urged the Guanning Army several times to rescue Pi Island, but the Guanning Army either found various excuses to shirk their responsibility, saying that the Eight Banners of the Jiannu had already taken precautions against the Ming Army's dispatch of troops. Once they left the city, not only would they be unable to rescue Pi Island, but they would also be likely to suffer a defeat in the field battle. In this case, even Jinzhou might be lost.

In desperation, Emperor Chongzhen could only settle for the second best and ask Xu Xiancheng, the Governor of Shandong and Leiden, to find a solution.

Xu Xiancheng replied a few days ago that he was powerless. Although Shandong had a navy, there were not many warships in the navy, and most of them were just transport ships. If they fought at sea, Xu Xiancheng was not sure to defeat the navy of Huang Taiji and Korea. Moreover, Xu Xiancheng himself had never fought a naval battle, and he had no one who was good at naval battles.

Xu Xiancheng suggested that since Pi Island was in danger, it might not be able to be saved if a war broke out. It would be better to send ships to take the soldiers and civilians of Pi Island to Shandong while Huang Taiji's navy had not yet been mobilized and attacked Pi Island, and directly abandon Pi Island.

Xu Xiancheng said that now there was no chance of winning if they defended Pi Island to the death. It would be better to lose land and keep people than to lose land and people. As long as they could bring people back, Dongjiang Town would still be there, and they could recapture Pi Island and continue to deal with Jiannu. Once the war started, according to the current situation, not only would Pi Island be undefendable, but once Pi Island was destroyed, the entire Dongjiang Town would be completely finished.

It cannot be said that Xu Xiancheng's suggestion is unreasonable. You must know that there are quite a few soldiers and civilians on Pi Island. When Mao Wenlong was there, there were more than 200,000 soldiers and civilians on Pi Island, including more than 17,000 people in Dongjiang Town, and the rest were Liaodong people gathered by Mao Wenlong.

After Mao Wenlong's death, Pi Island experienced many upheavals, and its population was no longer as large as it was in its heyday. At present, the Ming army on Pi Island, including the surrounding islands, is about 10,000, and the civilian population is about 100,000, which is still a large number.

If Huang Taiji took Pi Island, not only would Dongjiang Town disappear, but Huang Taiji would also gain so many people, which was not a good thing. Therefore, Xu Xiancheng suggested that the soldiers and civilians on Pi Island be withdrawn immediately and these people be transported to Shandong for resettlement. It was no problem to give up Pi Island and preserve strength from a tactical point of view.

But Emperor Chongzhen was hesitant and had not made up his mind. Although he wanted to agree with Xu Xiancheng's proposal, he was worried that if he did so, he would be attacked by the civil and military officials in the court and be accused of being afraid of the enemy and avoiding war.

Emperor Chongzhen was a man who cared a lot about his reputation and was also a hesitant person. He always considered himself a wise ruler, so how could he give such an order? He was also worried that if the hundreds of thousands of people were not properly resettled from Pi Island to Shandong, there would be chaos in the local area. Wasn't Kong Youde's rebellion caused by the conflict between the Liaodong army and the people and the Shandong local government?

Although Emperor Chongzhen believed that Xu Xiancheng could appease the soldiers and civilians, he was afraid of the worst! If someone in the court took advantage of the situation, what could he do? Should he punish Xu Xiancheng? Or should he take the responsibility? Emperor Chongzhen was in a dilemma.

After thinking it over, Emperor Chongzhen did not respond, but gave Xu Xiancheng an ambiguous attitude. Emperor Chongzhen did this because he intended to let Xu Xiancheng handle it himself, but it was difficult to say it clearly, because once he said it clearly, it would prove his attitude as the emperor. If the responsibility for what happened later was implicated with him, if it was Xu Xiancheng himself, then it had nothing to do with him.

If nothing happened, that would be great. If something happened, he could just push it off and let Xu Xiancheng shield him. The extent of the Chongzhen Emperor's schemes was rare in ancient times. To put it in an unpleasant way, he was completely in power and in vain!

(End of this chapter)