Chapter 287 The Only Path to Choose (Part 3)
"Uncle Thirteen, I don't trust Uncle Fourteen."
"Your Majesty, what do you think is the difference between your royal father and your royal grandfather?"
Hong Zhou looked at his sickly uncle and suddenly had a bad feeling. This question was not so much a question as it was an attitude towards life and death. When asking such a question, it often means facing a very severe test. Since he couldn't think of an answer, Hong Zhou shook his head.
"Your Majesty. Your royal grandfather is the emperor, and your royal father wants to be the emperor. We Manchus followed your royal grandfather through countless storms and finally secured our throne. They worked hard for your royal grandfather and received high positions and generous salaries from him. They thought that these were their due. Your royal father did not think this was their due, and naturally wanted to rectify the government. You have seen some of what happened afterwards, so guess what they thought in their hearts."
"Please give me some advice, Uncle Thirteen." After Hong Zhou said this, he waited very attentively for Uncle Thirteen to speak.
Old Thirteen smiled bitterly, "They think that everything your father took from them is theirs. As for this kingdom, it belongs to your father."
Hong Zhou was stunned for a moment and couldn't help shouting, "Isn't this crazy?"
"They are not crazy. They know that they cannot defeat Huo Chong, and they will die even if they go to the battlefield. They are thinking about whether there is a way to retreat. If Lao Ba wins, will he defend the capital to the death? I don't think Lao Ba will. We Manchus make a living outside the Great Wall. If we can't defeat him, the worst that can happen is to retreat outside the Great Wall. But they don't understand why Huo Chong would let us go."
Hong Zhou's face turned pale with anger. He had thought of countless explanations, but he didn't expect that Uncle Thirteen would point out such a key point. If what Uncle Thirteen said was true, the thoughts of those Manchus who defected to Shengjing were too dirty! It was simply disgusting !
"Letting your Fourteenth Uncle lead the army is not because he will definitely win, nor is it because he is very reliable. It's because your Fourteenth Uncle doesn't want to go back to the border areas. Even if we can't defend the capital, your Fourteenth Uncle will... uh, cough, cough..."
Old Thirteen started coughing violently, as if he was going to cough out his lungs. Hong Zhou first helped Old Thirteen to massage his back, but it was of no use. In desperation, he could only ask the imperial physician to come in.
Seeing that Hong Zhou was about to leave, Old Thirteen reached out and grabbed Hong Zhou's sleeve. He used up his last bit of strength and said reluctantly while coughing: "Your Majesty, uh, cough, cough... cough, ...
Hong Zhou nodded repeatedly, but ordered the imperial physician to treat Old Thirteen as soon as possible.
On the way back, Hong Zhou repeatedly thought about what his uncle said. The more he thought about it, the more he felt it made sense, and the more he felt it made sense, the angrier he became. If he followed what his uncle said, it would be Hong Zhou who would serve the Manchus, instead of the Manchus serving the emperor Hong Zhou. The good world actually felt like everyone was fleeing when disaster struck.
After returning to the palace, Hong Zhou tossed and turned, unable to sleep at night. Not only Hong Zhou, but also Old Fourteen could not sleep. How could he sleep when he thought that he really had to fight with the starling to the death? He thought about it over and over again, but could not find a plan to defeat the starling in one fell swoop.
Unable to sleep, Lao Shisi turned over and sat up, walked to the window and opened it. It was not as cold outside as he had imagined, but he saw snow falling in the air.
It was already November in the lunar calendar, and it was time for snow. Old Fourteen looked at the shadowy snowflakes and suddenly had an idea. What if the food supply was cut off? Transportation inside the pass would be very difficult after the snow. Old Eight entered from Shanhaiguan, and his transportation line was even longer. As long as the food supply was cut off, I'm afraid Old Eight would be trapped to death in Luanzhou.
With a preliminary idea in mind, Lao Shisi closed the window and went back to bed to sleep.
The great general Wang went out again, and the capital was shaken. The fourteenth old man led 100,000 troops straight to Luanzhou. At first, it was not bad. The snow was not too cold, and the road was not even very slippery.
However, two days after he left, two pieces of news came from the capital. The first one was naturally sent by Old Fourteen's people. After being the Prime Minister for two years, although most of his followers were sycophantic, at least Old Fourteen would not be left in the dark.
Seeing the news that Old Thirteen had passed away, Old Fourteen didn't know what to feel for a moment. If he was sad, he was also a little sad. But he didn't feel happy. Just when he couldn't figure out what he was thinking, a wave of emotion came out, and Old Fourteen cursed angrily: "You are dead... Brother Thirteen."
For many years, the Thirteenth Brother had always been Yongzheng's staunch supporter, and there were no telling how many fights had taken place between the Fourteenth Brother and the Thirteenth Brother. However, after the scolding, the Fourteenth Brother felt grief-stricken, and after saying "Thirteenth Brother" he had already started to cry.
After crying for a while and just calming down, the fourteenth brother received the news sent by Hong Zhou. Seeing that Hong Zhou did not hide anything, the fourteenth brother was relieved. If his nephew was playing tricks, he probably would not send the news so quickly. The fourteenth brother did not want to see the emperor sitting in the capital behind him, and he did not believe his emperor.
Now that he knew that the Thirteenth Brother had passed away, the Fourteenth Brother was even more encouraged and led his troops to march in the snow.
When Ortai and Yue Zhongqi were alive, they brought back 120,000 troops. Hong Zhou first gave one quarter of them to Lao Shisi, 30,000 troops. 30,000 troops could not be lined up in a long snake formation. Instead, they were divided into several routes.
Two days later, all 30,000 troops arrived at the Qing army camp outside Luanzhou. Aixinjueluo Basai was a veteran after all, and the camp was built quite solidly. When he learned that the fourteenth general was coming with his troops, he had already started to build a new camp in a pincer attack.
After the 30,000 troops arrived at the camp, they had a fire to roast and the accommodation was crowded, but it was still usable. However, Lao Ba did not stop and immediately sent troops to attack the water source here.
Basai immediately sent people to fight for water with the Shengjing rebels. The two sides fought fiercely and many people died. After the bodies were fished out of the gurgling river and the bloody smell in the water dissipated, Basai's men hurried back to fetch water.
Although snow turns into water when it melts, this method can only be used in emergencies. The reason is very simple. Snow will not melt by itself when it is freezing cold. If you want to melt snow, you have to burn it. Snow is actually very fluffy. When a large pot of snow melts, it often only covers the bottom of the pot.
Melting so much water requires a lot of firewood, which is not worth it. If you drink snow water directly, it will feel very bad and have a kind of earthy taste.
In comparison, the river water in winter is much better and clearer.
After getting enough water, the relieved Old Fourteen discussed with Basai the idea of cutting off Old Eight's food supply. Basai said with regret, "Fourteenth Master, I have tried it. The rebels in Shengjing defended very hard, but it cost us a lot of troops."
Lao Shisi originally thought that he might succeed in one fell swoop, but he didn't expect that he was not the only one who thought of this idea. However, Lao Shisi still didn't give up, "Did we send too few people?"
Basai could understand the feelings of the Fourteenth Brother. If they could cut off the Eighth Brother's food supply, they could pin him down in Luanzhou. However, Basai still answered frankly, "No. It's snowing heavily. If we send a large army, the rebels in Shengjing will cut off the food supply of that group. Even if we take action, we have to wait until the snow melts."
After all, Lao Shisi had sent soldiers to fight and knew that war was no joke. He could only sigh and say, "Speaking of which, I don't know if I should hope that the snow will melt soon."
The next day , Lao Ba sent people to compete with Lao Shisi for the water source. Lao Shisi did not expect Lao Ba to be so persistent, and the troops sent to fetch water were ambushed and many people were killed. Fortunately, the water source was very close to Lao Shisi's camp, and when the large group of troops went out, Lao Ba's troops withdrew.
On the third day, the people who were fetching water were attacked again, and a bloody battle broke out between the two sides. Many people died in the creek again, and they were not able to fetch water until night.
Old Eight was so harassing that Old Fourteen was so angry that he ordered an ambush first. Unexpectedly, the people who went to ambush were frozen all night, and even two of them froze to death, and they didn't wait for Old Eight to come to harass them.
Old Fourteen was so angry that he had no choice but to send more people to ambush.
For three days in a row, there was no sign of a surprise attack. The Fourteenth Elder was so angry that he sent people to attack the Eighth Elder's water source. However, they were ambushed by the Eighth Elder, and they lost a lot of men before they even found the water source.
The two sides persisted for a few days, and the snow had stopped. At first, the snow melted a little, but suddenly the north wind blew for two days. It blew the wet ground dry. Then, the sky was covered with red clouds, and it snowed again. This time, it lasted for two days. This time, unlike before, the snowflakes did not melt when they fell on the ground. Soon, the snow was more than a foot thick.
At this point, Old Fourteen realized that it was impossible to launch a surprise attack on Luanzhou. At least, it was unlikely to be launched before the snow melted. But Old Eight also had no way to come out, so the two sides had to stare at each other.
On the first day of the twelfth month of the first year of Kunlong, Lao Sisi was discussing with Basai what to do when he saw Basai's personal guard shaking slightly with a red face. Lao Sisi had noticed it half an hour ago. But that was Basai's personal guard, and Lao Sisi didn't want to say anything. However, the personal guard swayed left and right more and more, and when Lao Sisi and Basai had to stop and look at this guy, they saw that this guy was red-faced and fell to the ground softly as if drunk.
The guards beside him rushed forward to check, reached out and touched the guy's face, and exclaimed: "He's so hot!"
Several of Basai's personal soldiers also tried and quickly reported, "Your Majesty, General, this brother has a high fever."
Basai ordered, "Send him down to rest."
Lao Shisi didn't think anything of it, but soon more and more people in the barracks had high fevers. The next morning, which was the morning of the second day of December, all the camp officers came to report that many people had appeared in their camps.
From this time until the fifth day of December, typhoid and cholera broke out in the military camp. At least 15% of the troops either had a high fever or vomiting and diarrhea. Or both.
The camp was already crowded, so the soldiers had no time to care about anything else. When they were sick, they urinated and defecated anywhere, making the already bad smelling camp even worse.
Even the Fourteenth Elder knew that the situation was serious. If things continued like this, not to mention fighting, the illness alone would be enough to overwhelm these 70,000 troops.
After discussing with Basai, Basai also knew that something was wrong. However, he did not propose to withdraw the troops, but suggested to immediately submit a memorial to Hong Zhou to describe the current predicament of the army.
Although the journey was difficult, the news was delivered to the capital in one day. After reading it, Hong Zhou gave the contents to the ministers of the Military Affairs Office. Liu Tongxun read it and looked very frightened. Without waiting for Hong Zhou to ask, Liu Tongxun took the initiative to say: "Your Majesty, when Li Chuang went to Yipanshi, the army was plagued. We must be careful now!"
Hong Zhou knew that Liu Tongxun had studied the history of the conquest of Shandong rebels during the Shunzhi era, but he did not know that Liu Tongxun had studied the history of the Eight Banners entering the Pass. Only after asking did he know what happened at that time.
It turns out that Yipianshi refers to Shanhaiguan. Wu Sangui led 40,000 troops to garrison Ningyuan (now Xingcheng, Liaoning) to prevent the Qing army from entering Shanhaiguan. When the Dashun Army approached the capital, Wu Sangui was ordered to lead his troops into the pass to defend the capital. When he arrived at Fengrun (now in Hebei), he heard that the capital had been captured and Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian had hanged himself, so he returned to Shanhaiguan.
Li Zicheng ordered Tang Tong, a Ming general who surrendered, to lead 8,000 troops to Shanhaiguan to solicit surrender. After repeated consideration, Wu Sangui decided to surrender and led his army from Shanhaiguan to Beijing. When he arrived at Xishahe Posthouse in Yongping (now Lulong), he met his family who had escaped from Beijing and learned that his father Wu Xiang was tortured by the peasant army in Beijing and his concubine Chen Yuanyuan was taken away. So he changed his mind and refused to surrender to Li Zicheng under the banner of revenge for Emperor Chongzhen. He returned to Shanhaiguan and attacked Tang Tong's troops.
Upon hearing the news, Li Zicheng summoned his civil and military ministers to discuss countermeasures and decided to adopt both military campaigns and appeasement. When Tang Tong repeatedly appealed for help, Li Zicheng ordered General Liu Zongmin and others to lead an army of about 100,000 (some say 60,000) to Shanhaiguan on April 13. In order to win over Wu Sangui, he brought along the Ming Dynasty Crown Prince Zhu Cilang and Wu Xiang.
Wu Sangui knew that he could not defeat the enemy, so he sent an envoy to write to Dorgon for help. The Qing army met Wu Sangui's envoy in Wenghou (in today's Fuxin, Liaoning), so they changed their route and marched day and night from Lianshan (in today's Huludao City) and Ningyuan to Shanhaiguan. The Qing army set out on April 9th and arrived at Lianshan (in today's Lianshan District, Huludao City) on April 20th. Wu Sangui repeatedly urged the troops. Knowing that Li Zicheng's army was approaching Shanhaiguan, the Qing army marched day and night, traveling more than 200 miles a day and night, and marched for a total of 13 days.
Li Zicheng's troops were infected with the plague in the capital, and many problems had already occurred during the march. However, because he broke through the capital, he forced Chongzhen to death. He was very confident when fighting the Ming army. He ignored the epidemic and fought with the Qing army and Wu Sangui's coalition forces in Yipianshi.
The Dashun Army actually fought well, but in the end they were defeated because of insufficient manpower and the unexpected joining of the Qing Army.
In this battle, the Qing army not only captured Shanhaiguan, but also annihilated tens of thousands of Li Zicheng's core camp. This exhausted Li Zicheng's vitality and he no longer had the strength to fight for the world. Li Zicheng, who once destroyed the Ming Dynasty, entered the countdown to his demise.
Listening to Liu Tongxun's story, Hong Zhou felt uneasy. Uncertain in his heart, he immediately wanted to ask his uncle. Then he remembered that his uncle had passed away, and from then on, they were separated by life and death, and he could no longer rely on his uncle's wisdom. Hong Zhou's eyes turned red and he almost cried.
The military ministers nearby were all very smart and immediately advised Hong Zhou not to miss Old Thirteen too much. It would be better to make a decision quickly.
Hong Zhou's first thought was to withdraw the army first. However, Uncle Thirteen's will clearly stated that the army could not be withdrawn. Once the troops were withdrawn to Tongzhou, those unstable elements in the capital would only make a choice.
But if we don't withdraw our troops, will we just wait for more than 70,000 soldiers outside Luanzhou City to die of illness?
After thinking it over, Hong Zhou asked his ministers how they thought they should deal with such a situation.
The military ministers were silent, and Hong Zhou looked at them without any definite idea. Several Manchu ministers stole a glance at Hong Zhou, as if they wanted to find the answer from his face. This made Hong Zhou angry. What he wanted was for these high-ranking ministers to come up with a plan, not for them to say the plan that Hong Zhou liked to hear. If he only wanted to hear what he wanted to hear, Hong Zhou felt that he might as well draw lots! At least the answer obtained by drawing lots could still be regarded as the true will of heaven.
Perhaps the military ministers saw that Hong Zhou had seen through their minds, so no one raised any opinions in the end. Hong Zhou was angry and asked Liu Tongxun, the youngest among them, "How do you think we should deal with this?"
Liu Tongxun answered decisively: "Send a doctor to treat him first."
Hong Zhou immediately thought that this method was feasible, and ordered the imperial doctors to prepare a treatment plan and prepare any herbs needed.
After issuing a fairly reliable order, Hong Zhou continued to ask: "What's next?"
Liu Tongxun thought for a while and said, "Your Majesty, I think we cannot withdraw. If we withdraw, where will we put these people? They are already infected with the disease, and wherever they go, they will surely infect the locals. If we let them return to the capital, then the capital will also be in danger."
Hong Zhou was still thinking about his uncle's will, so he didn't agree to withdraw the troops. At this time, Liu Tongxun pointed out a more realistic and cruel situation. Hong Zhou didn't know what to say except sighing.
At this time in Luanzhou, Lao Ba went out of the city in person. Tens of thousands of soldiers lined up on the snow in front of him. Each team of soldiers was equipped with travel equipment.
Standing on the high platform, Lao Ba raised the wine bowl in his hand. The tens of thousands of soldiers had already been served wine. In addition to the wine, the soldiers also took out the warm paper bag from their arms and took out the spicy rabbit legs from it.
The wine in the bowl exudes the unique flavor of Shandong potato liquor. If you drink it directly, your stomach will not be able to bear it. You have to eat meat with it to feel comfortable.
Lao Ba raised his wine bowl and shouted to the crowd below the stage: "All of you brothers are our Manchu heroes. Although this attack is dangerous, it is not difficult for you. I wish you all a successful start! Come, drink this bowl of wine first. When we win, I will hold a banquet in Beijing to celebrate for you all!"
After saying that, Lao Ba drank the potato liquor in one gulp. He felt as if a stream of fire passed through his throat and stomach, and then expanded like a raging fire.
After drinking wine and eating meat, tens of thousands of people began to move. In the snow, they moved southward.
Tens of thousands of people drank the wine in one gulp, and then ate the rabbit legs directly. There was not much rabbit meat, but fortunately it was tasty. It was very satisfying to eat.
After drinking wine and eating meat, tens of thousands of people began to move. In the snow, they moved southward.
