Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 83 Taking advantage of the situation
Soon, Liu Zhong, Li Jiyu, and the Bayala sent by Duoduo were all tied up, and Yan Yingyuan, who was planning all this behind the scenes, finally showed up.

Although he was already the prefect of Xuzhou at this time, he had no reputation either in the officialdom or among military leaders in various places. Even outside Xuzhou, almost no one took him seriously.

But now, all the senior Qing army leaders, including Duoduo, Bolo, Tulai and Li Jiyu, were fooled by him alone.

The reason why Gao Jie was able to make the right choice at every step and pass every test was because of Yan Yingyuan's advice.

Zhu Cilang asked Gao Jie and Yan Yingyuan to pretend to surrender immediately after the Qing army moved south to the Huai River. His fundamental purpose was actually to delay time and at the same time consume the morale of the Qing army and the commander's determination.

After all, if Gao Jie did not take the initiative to pretend to surrender and draw all the attention of the Qing army to Xuzhou, Duoduo would probably have tried to induce surrender in other places.

In this case, Zhu Cilang must of course firmly grasp the initiative and occupy this market gap by surprise.

If he succeeds in fooling Duoduo this time, he will probably never dare to surrender easily in the future, which will also have a huge impact on his authority as the commander-in-chief of the Qing army.

You must know that at this time, in addition to Duoduo's troops, the Qing army heading south also included Gushan Ezhen Zhunta's troops that Dorgon had recently assembled in Shandong.

Zhu Cilang instructed Gao Jie to do this in order to bring the two Qing armies together.

As more and more people join different camps, the Qing army's decision-making will naturally become more complicated and protracted due to the secret power struggle.

Zhu Cilang was very clear about his own strength. He knew that he would never be able to defeat the Qing army if he wanted to fight it head-on. All he could do was wait until the Qing army went back and forth between Jianghuai and continued to consume its military strength due to terrain, siege, climate and other reasons.

The false surrender designed by Yan Yingyuan and Gao Jie was the key step in achieving this goal, and they also successfully consumed Duoduo for five or six days by tug-of-war with the Qing army.

And this was only the first level. The ultimate purpose of Yan Yingyuan and Gao Jie's false surrender was to make the Qing army commander suffer losses, anger the other side, and then lure the other side to besiege Xuzhou and consume its military strength.

When Zhu Cilang designed this defensive battle from the very beginning, he clearly realized that in such a serious situation, he only had two chances to fight.

The first time was to use the river as a barrier to confront the Qing army's vanguard and blunt its edge; the other time was to launch a full-scale counterattack when the Qing army was exhausted.

Gao Jie looked at Yan Yingyuan who was walking out slowly from the back of the lobby, and immediately stepped forward, got in front of Yan Yingyuan, and said with a smug look on his face:

"Brother Yan, I think we should kill all three of them and hang them on the city wall, just like we did with Xu Dingguo. Especially that Tartar, he's sure to piss off Duoduo. Once he starts attacking the city, it won't stop for ten days or half a month."

After hearing this, Yan Yingyuan smiled and nodded, and whispered:

“This plan is good, but simply killing the wall hangers-on is not enough. We have to make these two worthless bastards and the Tartar dogs beg for mercy, and let the Tartars and surrendered soldiers watch, so as to destroy their prestige.

At that time, brother, you can stand on the city wall and give out the gold and silver you cheated as rewards, and at the same time humiliate Duoduo, who is stupid and gullible. You will surely succeed in angering him and force him to fight a battle in Xuzhou.

However, before that, we must investigate and see if they have any military intelligence that they haven't disclosed before. Your Majesty needs more solid military intelligence to fight back against the Qing army in Jianghuai."

Yan Yingyuan was very careful about what he did. He knew that Gao Jie was conceited and concerned about reputation, so he always stayed behind the scenes, treating him as superior, and letting him pretend to be both intelligent and brave in front of the stage.

"That makes sense!" Gao Jie suddenly understood, nodded happily, and then said with a smile:

"I'll interrogate them first. After they tell me everything they know, I'll skin them alive and see if they beg for mercy or not!"

The two men didn't waste any time and immediately started to torture the three men. Yan Yingyuan was not a good person either. After a series of tortures such as burning and cracking bones, the three men soon confessed everything.

Afterwards, the two men ordered their soldiers to take the three men on a parade, so that the people in the city could once again see what the real Tartars looked like, and the morale of the army was once again boosted.

Although Zhu Cilang had held a similar grand parade before, which dispelled the fear of the Qing army in some people's hearts, at this time, more than 100,000 Qing troops set up camp outside the city, and the solemn momentum once again made the morale of the soldiers and the people in the city waver.

However, after this grand parade, the soldiers and civilians in the city saw a Tartar with broken limbs, wounds all over his body, blood and flesh all over his body, wailing constantly, and no special powers. He looked vulnerable, and they were no longer afraid of him at all.

It turns out that the so-called Tartars are just like this!
Afterwards, Gao Jie and Yan Yingyuan climbed up to the top of the city wall of Xuzhou and hung all three of them on wooden stakes. Li Jiyu was castrated and his tongue was cut off, so he was covered in blood and was almost dead. Liu Zhong and Bayala were groaning in panic.

But both of them had their mouths blocked. No matter how terrified they were or how much they wanted to beg for mercy, they couldn't make a sound, and they couldn't change their fate of being cut into pieces.

Gao Jie specially found the butchers in Xuzhou City and selected three of the best ones. He asked them to skin Li Jiyu, Liu Zhong and the Tartar alive like cutting up a fat pig.

The three men were stripped naked and rinsed with cold water several times. After the blood was washed off their bodies, they were tied to wooden stakes like live pigs. Then three butchers took their butcher knives and cut them up bit by bit, starting from the belly.
"Ah, ah, ah——"

To the south of Xuzhou City, on the wooden tower erected by the Qing army, Duoduo, Bolo, Tulai, Zhunta, Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming and others listened to the shrill wails coming from the top of the city wall, all with frowns on their faces, and said nothing.

Li Jiyu, Liu Zhong, and Bayala, the personal guard sent by Duoduo, were cut off one by one. Although the three butchers were very professional, it was their first time skinning the pigs and they were under a lot of pressure. They often accidentally cut the muscles and blood vessels under the skin, and the scene was covered with blood.

As expected, it took eight butchers to basically dismember the three people. Gao Jie then ordered all their remains to be thrown into the trenches of the outer earth wall, hoping to lure the Qing army to rob them.

When the Qing troops outside the city saw this scene, they were indeed in an uproar, but they were helpless against the Ming troops behind the fortified city and could only vent their anger by shouting and cursing in the battle formation.

The Qing army was so humiliated that its morale suffered a great blow. This was the first time they had suffered such a loss since entering the Pass.

But it was a great boost to the morale of the Ming army, and shouts of "Kill the Tartars, kill the Tartars" were heard from the city walls.

Most of Gao Jie's soldiers had been on the battlefield before, and watching the lingchi executions was no burden to them. Meanwhile, the civilians, having long since hated the Tartars, were shouting and cursing, with no one showing any fear.

Duoduo kept staring at the wall. The process of skinning and boning did not cause any fluctuations in his heart, nor did it even arouse his anger. Seventeen or eighteen years ago, when there was a famine in Liaodong and cannibalism was everywhere, he had seen worse things than this.

But Gao Jie actually killed his personal guard Bayala. The morale of the Ming army on the city wall was obviously boosted. Moreover, the other side rewarded the defenders with the silver they had cheated from him in front of him, which made Duoduo feel embarrassed.

It was not until this time that anger was finally seen on his face. Bolo, Tulai, Junta and others did not dare to speak when they saw this, for fear of angering the other party and bringing trouble upon themselves.

"Let's prepare to attack the city!" After a long while, Duoduo finally spoke.

After hearing this, the other generals looked at each other, but no one dared to speak.

Gao Jie provoked the Qing Dynasty in such a way, Duoduo was cheated out of thousands of taels of gold and tens of thousands of taels of silver, and the envoy sent to persuade him to surrender was publicly tortured to death. The situation has come to this point. From any angle, it is impossible not to fight a war.

Otherwise, even the restless military morale at this moment cannot be appeased!

Duoduo looked at the group of people who seemed to be hesitant to speak, and naturally knew what they were worried about. Then he laughed and said:
"Put your hearts at ease, I haven't been fooled."

As soon as these words were spoken, all the generals, who had frowned and had different thoughts in their minds, looked up at Duoduo, and many of them had expressions of surprise on their faces.

"Gao Jie did all this just to provoke me and make me besiege and attack the city, wasting time." Duoduo said while shaking his head, as if he had seen through everything, just like the expression he had before when he was sure that Gao Jie was definitely not pretending to surrender.

"I'm afraid this was the idea of ​​the Ming emperor in Fengyang. He knew very well that he couldn't defeat me, so he wanted to use this method to delay time.

Once May or June is over, the weather north of the Yangtze River will become hot and dry, and our food and morale will be almost depleted. He will probably launch a counterattack."

"But we have to fight a battle now, otherwise the morale of the army will definitely be affected." Junta shook his head.

"Didn't I just tell you to go down and prepare?" Duoduo sneered, then added, "Since the Emperor of Ming is plotting against me, why don't I use his own strategy against him?"

"Take advantage of their own strength?" Bolo didn't understand for a moment.

"We must still attack Xuzhou, but while we prepare for the siege, you should redistribute your troops. I've already sent scouts to locate the villages along the southbound route for those Nikans who haven't migrated. Capture them all and bring them to Fengyang. Then you won't have to worry about a shortage of men for the siege."

Duoduo was very proud, paused, and then continued:
"Gao Jie will undoubtedly send people south to report to the Ming Emperor that we've been tricked. The Ming Emperor will undoubtedly become complacent and lower his guard. If we suddenly march south, we'll surely catch him off guard.

"No matter how strong Fengyang City is, I will use 100,000 Nikan to fill it and I don't believe it can't be taken. If 100,000 doesn't work, then 200,000. If there are no Nikan to capture in Huaibei, I will go to Yangzhou and Luzhou to capture them and see how long the Ming Emperor can hold out!"

Bolo, Zhunta, Tulai, Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, and the others all nodded in agreement. They remained confident in the Qing army's strength; all they wanted now was a clear direction and a swift end to the war. At this point, Duoduo remained clear-headed; he knew his advantage lay in his sheer military might.

His enemies are the hot and humid climate and the numerous fortified cities in Jiangbei. He can capture Nikan and attack with the red cannons, but there is basically no solution to the former.

Therefore, he had to end the southern expedition within three months. The longer he delayed, the more difficult the battle would be.

This is the crux of the matter. For the veterans in the Qing army who have fought for decades, there is almost no need to judge the priorities; it is entirely based on intuition.

Dorgon was also very clear about this, otherwise he would not have destroyed Shun and immediately urged Duoduo to lead his troops south.

Soon, all the Qing army generals were ordered to disperse back to their respective camps. Zhunta and Kong Youde led their troops respectively and stayed in Xuzhou to bluff and tie down Gao Jie's army stationed in Xuzhou and the north of Fengyang.

Bolo, Tulai and others were sent out in batches by Duoduo, quietly heading south and began to capture those people who had not yet migrated in the vast area from Xuzhou to Huaibei.

In less than half a month, half of the villages and towns in southern Shandong, eastern Henan, Xuzhou, northern Fengyang, west of the canal in Huai'an Prefecture, and even some prefectures in the north were looted by the Qing army, and tens of thousands of civilians fell under the Qing army's butcher knife.

Some villages were not breached thanks to their strong fortresses, but most of them could not withstand the fierce offensive of the Qing army. A considerable number of them even chose to surrender after seeing the red cannons dispatched by the Qing army, hoping for luck. As a result, they were all captured.

Soon, tens of thousands of civilians who had defended their villages or were hiding were abducted by the Qing army. The official roads in Jiangbei were filled with groups of civilians who were whipped and kicked and escorted south, as well as the bodies of people who had collapsed on the roadside due to exhaustion.

Naturally, these captured people became coolies for the Qing army, cutting wood and transporting supplies and military equipment, and even became cannon fodder for breaking through other villages and fortresses.

However, Zhu Cilang had previously tried his best to fortify the city and clear the countryside, and had already relocated hundreds of thousands of civilians. Although some people still hid on their own and those who were unwilling to migrate were captured, it would still not be possible to fully meet Duoduo's manpower needs.

To this end, Duoduo could only find ways to capture the cities where the Ming army was stationed, which contained not only tens of thousands of civilians, but also a lot of food and military supplies.

Of course, the most crucial thing is that Duoduo must ensure the safety of the food supply route in the rear, at least he cannot advance all the way without taking a single city as he did before.

At this time, he had already experienced Zhu Cilang's thorough preparations in Jiangbei and knew that Fengyang could not be captured in a day or two.

In other words, after his dream of replicating the victory of the Battle of Tongguan and Xi'an, quickly conquering Jiangbei, then crossing the river to the south and capturing Emperor Ming was shattered, Duoduo had to be honest and fight this battle according to conventional tactics.

So, Duoduo quietly left Xuzhou and led the troops in person. He ordered the red cannons that had been diverted westward to return to Bozhou. He wanted to capture the gateway from Henan to Fengyang, plunder the population there, and boost morale.

As Duoduo launched a series of operations in Jiangbei, Zhu Cilang, who was personally stationed in Fengyang and on the front line of the battlefield, soon realized that he had been fooled. He immediately ordered the defenders of each city to assess the situation, launch a counterattack, and consume the Qing army.

Troops from Xuzhou, Dangshan, Suzhou and other places attacked one after another, and even the defenders of Suqian joined in. Gao Jie even took advantage of the opportunity when the main force of the Qing army moved south to launch several night attacks on Zhunta and Kong Youde's troops outside the city, but failed.

The two sides fought for several rounds, but Gao Jie failed to gain any advantage. Instead, he lost dozens of cavalrymen and more than a hundred armored soldiers. In the end, he had to choose to hold on.

Of course, the Qing army under Zhunta and the feudal troops under Kong Youde were not very strong. They also lost more than a hundred men and horses. In fact, neither side gained any advantage.

Zhu Cilang also sent troops to harass Nikan's troops near Wuhe. The Tianqi Camp and Tianwei Central Camp under Chang Denggui, the Wuyong Camp under Hu Maozhen, and the navy led by Zheng Hongkui were all dispatched.

But Nikan was not fooled at all. On the one hand, he never went near the river bank. On the other hand, he wanted to lure Chang Denggui and Hu Maozhen to attack. Both sides were very cautious and in the end they only fought a few times.

However, the soldiers who went on this attack did get some training. This was their first time to fight against real Tatar soldiers on the battlefield, and the scouts of both sides engaged in several battles.

But the garrisons in other places did not have this strength. Faced with the absolute strength of Duoduo's army, they were repelled as soon as they went out of the city to attack, and some were even wiped out.

The Suzhou defenders launched a rash attack, and not only were their entire army annihilated, but the main garrison commander was captured, the city was breached, and more than 30,000 civilians in the city were captured and enslaved by the Qing army.

As soon as this news came out, the morale of the troops in various places was inevitably affected. Even Taoyuan County, which was originally holding out on the west bank of the canal, surrendered. The Qing army then went straight to Huai'an Prefecture.

At this time in Huai'an Prefecture, although Huang Degong had tried his best to defend and continuously sent troops to counterattack, after Taoyuan surrendered, the pressure from the west increased sharply, and he had to withdraw troops to defend.

As a result, the local towns and villages north of Huai'an, where there were few garrisons and the navy was unable to provide assistance and protection, were soon burned, killed, and looted by the Qing army in the Xuzhou area. Corpses were everywhere and blood flowed like a river.

The situation took a turn for the worse, but Duoduo, relying on his absolute strength, managed to turn the tables after recognizing the situation. Half of the major containment points in Huaibei were breached by the Qing army.

Although Zhu Cilang took a series of countermeasures, they had little effect because he was unable to engage in large-scale field battles.

After all, field battles rely on absolute strength. At this time, the Qing army was absolutely crushing the Ming army in the field, which ensured that Duoduo's army could move unimpeded in Huaibei and continue to plunder people.

Duoduo, who had regained the initiative on the battlefield, became more and more arrogant. On the one hand, he sent Bolo to lead a cavalry to contain Huang Degong's troops in Huai'an, and on the other hand, he sent Geng Zhongming to lead the charge, preparing to let the other side set up a camp on the river bank opposite Fengyang City and wait for the main force to arrive.

After deploying these, he personally led his troops to besiege Bozhou City.

After more than ten days of searching, Duoduo had successfully captured 50,000 to 60,000 civilians from various places in Huaibei. Among them, more than 10,000 people were newly captured from Henan, and he ordered them to be taken outside the city of Bozhou.

Although Bozhou City also strengthened its defenses, widened the moat, and added battlements on the city walls to improve its defensive capabilities, it did not have the massive projects of Xuzhou, Fengyang and other places. Under the siege of tens of thousands of Qing troops and more than twenty red-coated cannons, it soon became shaky.

The efficiency of the red cannon in attacking the city is actually not very high, but if you find the weak points in the city wall, and then use human wave tactics to fill the ditch and cross the river, and the elite armored soldiers break through, the speed of the siege will be greatly improved.

Of course, the strength of the defenders is also key.

But at this time, in Bozhou City, the Guide Camp under Chen Qianfu and the local militia organized by Sang Kaidi were obviously not strong enough even with the support of the Beijing Camp.

After a burst of rumbling cannon fire, thick smoke billowed from the east side of Bozhou City. The city wall that had just been repaired and reinforced last night showed signs of collapse again.

Seeing this, Sang Kaidi immediately went down to the city and found Chen Qianfu, who was organizing his troops at the foot of the city and preparing to personally lead the troops to resist the Qing army. He pulled him aside and whispered:
"Xuan Qian, I'm afraid we can't hold Bozhou City for many more days. We must break out as soon as possible."

After hearing this, Chen Qianfu shook off Sang Kaidi's hand and said:
"You can leave if you want. His Majesty asked me to defend the city and didn't let me break out. I swore an oath before His Majesty that I, Chen Qianfu, would live and die with Bozhou City."

"Xuan Qian, as long as there is life, there is hope. His Majesty told us to act according to the circumstances, but he didn't tell us to defend the city to the death." Sang Kaidi became anxious after hearing this, and immediately advised again. He didn't want to die in Bozhou like this.

Chen Qianfu didn't seem to expect Sang Kaidi to be so afraid of death. He stared at him for a long time before asking, "Are you really going to leave?"

Sang Kaidi looked at Chen Qianfu and was stunned for a moment, as if he felt a little ashamed, but he finally nodded and explained:

"Bozhou is definitely undefendable. Suzhou, Taoyuan, and even some villages and forts surrendered a few days ago. The Qing army didn't massacre the people, so the people will be fine."

"Of course the Qing army won't massacre the city. Those civilians will be kept as trench fillers. Duoduo is no fool!" Chen Qianfu snorted coldly, then turned around and pointed at the city. He seemed to have been suppressing his anger for a long time, but was worried that others would hear it and disrupt the morale of the soldiers in the city, so he roared in a low voice:
"There are 50,000 civilians and 3,000 soldiers in Bozhou City now. I brought them all from Guide. I can't just leave them to the Tartars."

Sang Kaidi was speechless for a moment. Many of these people were brought south by him, and many people at that time called him the upright official and savior.

Seeing that Sang Kaidi still refused to give in, Chen Qianfu could only compromise and said, "Go away, leave tonight. I will tell everyone that you are going to get reinforcements. I won't ruin your reputation."

"If we anger the Qing army, they will probably massacre the entire city when the city is captured!" Sang Kaidi wanted to persuade them again.

"The Tartars have already reached Nanzhili, and instead of thinking about fighting back, we're worried about angering them?" Chen Qianfu's eyes widened as he cursed:
"Inspector Sang, have you been frightened and confused these past few days? Do you think that if you just leave, these people will be able to survive?"

"I" Sang Kaidi was speechless.

"Boom~~~Boom~"

There was another loud noise, and before the two could continue arguing, the Qing army had begun a new round of artillery fire. Seeing this, the two men immediately stopped arguing and each led their troops to climb the city wall.

Contrary to Chen Qianfu and Sang Kaidi's expectations, the east wall of Bozhou City collapsed with a "bang" half an hour later under the continuous bombardment of artillery shells.

At the same time, as the war drums and bugles outside the city sounded, large groups of Qing troops stepped on the countless corpses that had fallen to the ground and quickly rushed to the gap in the collapsed city wall.

(End of this chapter)