Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 181 Dorgon regains his calm

Another ten days passed.

The time has come to the New Year's Day of the eighteenth year of Chongzhen.

As soon as the Ming army reached the northern foot of Songshan Mountain in Dengfeng County, it began to snow.

Seeing the heavy snow falling one after another, Chongzhen sighed, "It's New Year's Day, and it's snowing. The seventeenth year of Chongzhen has become the past, and it will be the eighteenth year of Chongzhen from today."

From this moment on, the world line officially deviated from the original track.

Thinking of this, Chongzhen couldn't help becoming interested, wondering if he should copy some poems about Yongzhi?
But this good mood was quickly shattered, because the pack horses and donkeys walking in front suddenly slipped and fell, and the whole team was in chaos.

"what happened?"

Jin Xuan stepped forward to drink and asked.

A general responded: "My lord, the mountain road is not very easy to walk in the first place. It snowed heavily just now, and the animals carrying the catapult components slipped under their feet, and many of them have been injured."

Jin Xuan hurriedly reported to Chongzhen, and said: "My lord, the catapult is useless anyway, so why not just throw it away?"

Chongzhen sighed and said: "Although these catapults are useless, these woods are good woods. They will definitely be of great use when transported back to Xuzhou, but since it is difficult to carry them, forget it and throw them away."

Jin Xuan responded yes, and was about to turn around to leave but was stopped by Chongzhen.

"Just throwing it away is not enough." Chongzhen said, "It's better to burn it."

Jin Xuan said: "Your Majesty is worried that these timbers will fall into the hands of Jiannu, and then be used by Jiannu to make siege equipment and attack Luoyang City?"

"No way?" Zhu Cijiong didn't believe it, "Doduo still dare to attack Luoyang?"

"Duoduo is definitely not willing to withdraw his troops at this point, he will definitely attack Luoyang." Chongzhen said, "So these timbers cannot be left behind and must be burned."

Speaking of this, Chongzhen suddenly remembered that there are still many big trees in Shaolin Temple.

Immediately Chongzhen didn't do it, and kept going, and asked Wu Batan to take more than a hundred barbarians to Shaolin Temple to cut down and burn all the big trees, anyway, not one tree could be left.

Shaolin Temple also suffered eight lifetimes of bad luck.

It’s nothing more than being robbed of all the property in the temple. Now even the big tree that was kept in the temple for hundreds of years and originally used to build the Daxiong Palace was burned by the Ming army. If it weren’t for Master Xingzheng and other old monks to stop , Wu took the charcoal and burned all the beams of the Thousand Buddha Hall.

……

But Chongzhen did have foresight.

After Doduo tried several times to attack the city with long ladders and failed, he decisively stopped the attack, and then sent a large number of coats to collect wood in the surrounding counties.

Duoduo is going to rebuild various siege equipment such as chariots and ladders.

While sending Baoyi to collect wood, Duoduo let the remaining Baoyi dig trenches around Luoyang City, preparing to completely trap the Dashun Army in Luoyang City.

Although Dorgon and Duoduo brothers hated Huang Taiji, they admired Huang Taiji's military thinking very much. When fighting, they often imitated some of Huang Taiji's practices, such as digging trenches to besiege the city.

The Ming army had suffered a lot, but the Dashun army hadn't learned much.

So at the beginning, Li Zicheng didn't take this matter to heart at all.

When Li Zicheng reacted and wanted to send a messenger to Tongguan to deliver a letter to Liu Zongmin, he found that he could not get out, and the entire Luoyang city was surrounded by Jiannu.

But Li Zicheng didn't panic.

Because the food they grabbed was enough to feed [-] troops for more than half a year.

What's more, there are Hongyi cannons, so Li Zicheng is not worried.

……

In the blink of an eye and half a month later, Chongzhen had arrived at Kaifeng Mansion.

Hearing that Chongzhen led the army to come, Chen Qianfu, the governor of Henan Province who was stationed in Kaifeng, hurriedly led a group of officials to welcome him, and held a banquet in honor of Chongzhen at the governor's office that night.

Looking at the dishes on the banquet, Chongzhen knew that Chen Qianfu had also fallen.

Because in the current situation in Henan, it is impossible to collect tax money at all, and they even have to use the money to help the refugees. The current situation in Kaifeng depends entirely on the little money allocated by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

But Chen Qianfu used the money for him to eat and drink.

From this moment, Chongzhen had already classified Chen Qianfu into another book, but he didn't show it on his face, on the contrary he was talking and laughing with Chen Qianfu.

Chen Qianfu said: "It has been more than two months since the sage went to Henan. I don't know what the result is?"

For Chongzhen's trip to Henan, the civil officials and generals along the Huanghuai line were still very concerned. They were not only concerned about the success or failure of the battle, but also concerned about the safety of Chongzhen.

Now Chongzhen has returned safely.

Just don't know what the outcome of this battle will be?

"It's not good, but it's acceptable." Chongzhen smiled, and said, "In short, the attempt of the Duoduo army to attack Tongguan has completely failed, and it is now confronting the army of thieves in Henan."

[Note: Henan here refers to Henan Prefecture, not Henan Province]

On the way back to Xuzhou, military reports about Henan continued to come.

Hu Guozhu, who came back with the letter of alliance, even brought back news of Tongguan.

It is said that Liu Zongmin has left Tongguan with an army of [-] and stationed in Xin'an County.

Duduo left part of the army to continue to besiege Luoyang, and he brought the main force of the slave building back to Xin'an to confront Liu Zongmin.

When he first got the news, Chongzhen was even a little dazed. Isn't this a fucking replica of the Battle of Songshan?It's just that the Ming army was replaced by the Dashun army, and Huang Taiji was replaced by Duoduo.

However, the performance of the powerful generals and controlling generals of the Dashun Army should be better than those of the border town generals of the Ming Army, so the final result should be different, at least it should not be a disastrous defeat.

Chongzhen said again: "In a short period of time, it should be difficult for the two sides to tell the winner."

"Oh really?" Chen Qianfu smiled, "This is good news for me, Ming."

"Good news? That's probably not necessarily the case." Chongzhen shook his head and said, "Lao Tzu said: Misfortune depends on fortune, and fortune rests on misfortune. This time, I, Da Ming, helped trespassers to relieve the danger of destroying the country, but it may not have a good result. "

Chen Qianfu said: "Your Majesty is worried that the intruder will repay his kindness?"

Jin Xuan said: "What the Holy Majesty is worried about is not that the intruder will repay his kindness with revenge, but that Jiannu may relist my Daming as the number one enemy, and then choose to repair with the intruder, and attack my Daming with all his strength."

Chongzhen waved his hands, and sighed, "I'm afraid it's not possible, but certain."

Although Dodo is still struggling, his southern expedition has actually failed.

If there is no accident, the Duoduo army will withdraw because of running out of food before the first month.

Once Duduo's army withdrew, Li Zicheng could mobilize all the main forces to go north to Yulin, and have a final decisive battle with Azige's West Army. If you are not careful, you may still suffer a big defeat. After all, Li Yan is in northern Shaanxi.

In other words, this time, the two armies of Azig and Duoduo will return with their feathers.

The simultaneous failure of the two armies will surely calm Dorgon's mind.

Dorgon, who has calmed down, is still quite scary. Next, he will definitely adjust his national policy and re-list Daming as the number one enemy of Jiannu. Leading the troops to the south personally, in this case, Daming's Huanghuai defense line will withstand the unprecedented strict test.

So the ancients were really wise, and the proverbs they summed up are really reasonable.

Let’s just say that sending troops to the west of Henan this time defeated Duoduo and saved Li Zicheng’s life, but it is likely to attract a more powerful enemy for the Ming Dynasty: Dorgon!
……

Chongzhen's worries were justified.

In fact, Dorgon had already calmed down at this time.

The two armies of Azig and Doduo were only slightly frustrated, and Dorgon's mind had regained its former composure, and he had made a clear judgment on the situation in front of him.

Facing Ning Wanwo, Fan Wencheng and Hong Chengchou's three staff members, Dorgon sighed, "Divide the troops into two groups, and let Prince Ying and Prince Yu each lead an army to attack Puppet Shun and Nanming respectively. This is my king's mistake. Even if this king later changed the goal of Prince Yu's army and joined forces with Prince Ying to attack Puppet Shun, it would still not be enough to save him."

Hong Chengchou exchanged glances with Ning Wanwo and Fan Wencheng, and said, "My lord, it's actually all right to divide the troops into two groups..."

"Heng Jiu, you don't have to save face for this king." Dorgon said with a wave of his hand, "In the battle of Sarhu, why did the Qing Dynasty win? Why did the Ming Dynasty end in a disastrous defeat?"

"Without him, the reason why Ming Dynasty lost was because of the division of troops."

"The reason why my Qing Dynasty won was because of the old Khan's strategy of concentrating all the troops in one direction, which was set by the old Khan.

After a pause, Dorgon sighed again: "This time, this king is also in a hurry, breaking the taboo of military strategists."

Hearing this, Fan Chengchou couldn't help but exchanged glances with Ning Wanwo and Fan Wencheng, both of them looked relieved, it seemed that the emperor's father, the regent, had really regained his composure.

At that moment Hong Chengchou asked again: "So what does the prince mean?"

Dorgon didn't make a decision right away, but tapped the Kang table with his fingers.

Hong Chengchou and the others were not in a hurry, how could they make such a decision easily?

After a long time, Dorgon finally said: "Three gentlemen, this king intends to let Prince Yu's army withdraw to Hebei, temporarily rest in Huaiqing Mansion and Weihui Mansion, and then withdraw Prince Ying's army, transfer to Shanxi and enter Hebei and Prince Yu will meet up, and then send an envoy to Shaanxi to discuss peace with the Puppet Shun, and finally concentrate on defeating Ming, is that okay?"

"This is the best strategy!" Hong Chengchou said without hesitation, "Your Highness should have done this long ago."

"Slave, wait for second." Ning Wan, Fan Wencheng and I also supported it without hesitation.

"Very good!" Dorgon nodded happily, "This king will send envoys to recall the two armies."

After a pause, he said again: "However, this matter cannot be mentioned to the outside world, just say it is a tactical adjustment."

"Slave, wait for you to understand." Hong Chengchou and the three understood. The two armies of Azig and Duoduo were frustrated at the same time, so they had no choice but to combine the two armies into one. The prestige, after all, the previous two-pronged attack was also decided by Dorgon.

(End of this chapter)