Chapter 255: The Fourth Defeat (Part 4)
The eunuch lifted the door curtain, brought in a pot of strong tea, and stood inside the door. A personal eunuch took the teapot, and Lao Sisi stood up, apologized, and walked out. As soon as he stood under the eaves outside the house, he heard footsteps. It turned out that the Minister of War, Fu Hai, followed him out.
When Lao Shisi was about to take out his cigarette case, Fahai had already taken out a cigarette case from his pocket and opened it. Lao Shisi took out a Shandong-made cigarette from the silver-plated cigarette case. He lit the small stove outside the house with paper coal. They both took a few puffs and gradually felt refreshed.
Fahai asked in a low voice: "My Lord, do you really want Ortai to abandon Jining?"
The Fourteenth Prince did not know how to answer. During the day, he went to see the Thirteenth Prince and heard him tell some "nonsense" about walking with Yongzheng in the Old Summer Palace. After that, the Thirteenth Prince fell into a coma again. The imperial physician was left to take care of the Thirteenth Prince, and Hong Zhou returned to the palace to convene a meeting of the Military Affairs Council.
Whether Huo Chong has children is a distant question. The most important thing at the moment is whether Ortai will abandon Jining.
After thinking about it for a while, the Fourteenth Old Man sighed and said, "This matter still needs the Emperor to make the decision. Even if he has made the decision, he can't say this."
Old Fourteen did not realize that he had actually expressed his thoughts. Jining could no longer defend itself.
Regardless of whether Old Fourteen realized it or not, Fahai had understood Old Fourteen's thoughts and stopped talking. The two of them smoked the cigarettes made by Huo Chong in silence, and Old Fourteen was about to leave when Fahai whispered, "Your Majesty, I feel that something is wrong with General Basai these days. I can't explain it, but I just feel that something is wrong."
"Is there no news?" Old Fourteen was a little impatient.
Fahai took out another cigarette, and the two of them lit it with the cigarette butt and talked in low voices again. Fahai frowned, "The news from Jinan said that Basai is attacking Linzi. But this battle has been going on for more than ten days, there must be an explanation, right?"
Old Fourteen was speechless for a moment. With Huo Chong's ruthlessness in fighting, he would never let Basai take it easy. He said he was fighting all the time, but I'm afraid something is wrong.
Thinking this in his heart, Lao Shisi found that he didn't know what to say. If possible, Lao Shisi would rather the northern line remain silent. But Lao Shisi also knew that things would not be so simple. As a last resort, Lao Shisi could only order: "Send someone to Jinan! Find out what's going on!"
As they were talking, they heard the clock in the room ringing, emitting three melodious sounds.
At three o'clock in the morning in the capital, several people came to the city gate of Jinan Prefecture. Before they approached the city gate, the patrol had already seen them. A group of people came over and surrounded them. The group of people who came were not afraid and immediately shouted: "We are sent by the general. We have urgent military information to see the prefect!"
Hearing this, the team surrounded the men and took them into a courtyard outside the city gate. They checked their identities and read the official documents. After confirming that the items were correct, they began to question them.
It turned out that after Basai broke out to the south, he sent several waves of people to Jinan to report his decision. However, the Han army blocked the river and canal roads, and these people also went through untold hardships, taking small roads and various detours to reach Jinan City.
After confirming that Basai had led his troops south, the government troops here asked several people to sit down and rest first, but then went out. Not long after, some people came in from outside. They tied several people up without saying anything. Several people were shocked and hurried to explain. However, they were stuffed with sackcloth in their mouths, and then tied with ropes, and then taken away.
The one who stayed behind smiled at the leader of the defending army and said, "Brother, when our governor takes Jinan, I will tell him about your contribution."
After saying that, he took out a money bag and handed it to the leader of the garrison. The leader quickly took it, weighed it, and said happily: "I have tried my best. If people come from other city gates, don't blame me."
"Of course." The Han army leader in charge of Jinan readily agreed and took the people from Basel away.
The people from Basai were taken to a house a few miles away. It was already dawn when they were taken in. When they saw several people in the house with black hair and no braids on their heads, they were sure that they had fallen into the hands of the Han army.
Immediately, someone started cursing. However, the curse was not directed at the Han army, but at the Jinan defenders. At this point, even the dumbest person would know that the Jinan defenders had colluded with the Han army and deliberately blocked the message from reaching Jinan City.
Some Han soldiers interrogated the captives, and some took the identification cards and letters of these people to the next room. Several people in the room were eating, and they took the letters while chewing. After reading them carefully for a while, they discussed how to change the letter.
The key now is the seal. The difficulty in counterfeiting a seal is to reproduce all the patterns of the seal. Since the texture and material of each seal are different, it takes time to counterfeit.
Soon, several technical staff members started arguing about food technology. The person in charge couldn't help rubbing his temples.
Just when everyone's food was getting cold, the person in charge couldn't help but shout, "Don't make it so detailed. It doesn't matter if the seal is blurred. As long as the governor of Shandong can't see through it, it's fine. Just say that the communication was very anxious and it was wet with sweat!"
Although the technicians working on the job thought this was unreasonable, the person in charge thought it was reasonable, and he eventually overwhelmed everyone.
That afternoon, a person who still maintained the Manchu hairstyle impersonated someone else and delivered official documents to Jinan City.
The subordinates pretended to know nothing and let the few people into the city. They were inevitably worried, thinking about what to say when they met the Shandong governor. There were footsteps outside, and a clerk came in. When he saw the few people, he said, "Go back and tell General Basai that the governor knows!"
Several people were overjoyed, but the leader was anxious, "This won't do. The general wants us to see the master."
"The master tells you to go back, so just go back!" the clerk said viciously, then turned and left.
It's okay to pretend appropriately, these people don't really want to make a big deal out of it.
The governor here listened to the report from the clerk and sighed. This letter from the front line said that Basai was fighting hard with Huo Chong. Although he had the upper hand, he suffered heavy losses. Please ask the governor of Shandong to send a few thousand more troops to help.
Of course the Shandong governor was unwilling to send anyone to help in the battle, so he had to quickly send the messenger away.
Just as the head of the Han army's intelligence expected, as long as the content of the letter was within the governor's expectations and made the governor feel embarrassed, the governor would be completely attracted by the content of the letter and would not even look at the seal or anything.
Poor General Aisin-Gioro Basai lost his last chance to be helped.
However, the general did not consider the matter of reinforcements at this time. He was furiously scolding the soldiers around him, accusing them of why they did not let the generals gather around the central army, but instead went to the homes of the gentry who had defected to the Qing Dynasty.
The guards lowered their heads and were scolded, and they were also angry. Everyone could understand that these generals were starving and wanted to grab food quickly. If they were next to the central army, the central army would have no food for them.
After General Basai finished scolding, he asked, "Is the meat steamed?"
The guards lowered their heads even lower, they knew what meat meant. Two of the women who cooked for General Basai were already missing.
The general said succinctly, "Chop it up and distribute it to the troops!"
