After Jierhalang said these words, although Huang Taiji was not very happy, he rarely got angry. Instead, he stared at the map spread by the guard on the small table of the Arhat's bed and bent down at his desk to meditate.

Huang Taiji watched for a while, maybe because he felt that what Jierhalang said made sense, his emotions gradually calmed down, and finally he sighed and said slowly:

"So what do you think, Prince Zheng? Could it be that my army was just sitting back and doing nothing while seizing the Xiuyan Fort from Jinhai Town?"

"I am reporting to the Emperor that I am not unwilling to do it, but I am unable to do it. Xiuyan Fort is nearly three hundred miles away from here. The mountain road is continuous. It is not easy for the army to travel between the two places. Now that the mountains are blocked by heavy snow, it will be even more inconvenient for the army to move.

"

Of course it's not that Jierhalang doesn't want to take back Xiuyan Castle.

Unlike the Dorgon brothers, he does not have much ambition.

In fact, Huang Taiji treated him well, and he was willing to be loyal to him. He had no intention of supporting his troops or deliberately poaching.

But this does not mean that he is willing to let his strength of the blue flag soldiers and horses be damaged in vain.

However, he saw Huang Taiji's face turned gloomy after hearing what he said, so he immediately added.

"Since Yang Zhen dispatched the Ming army on the east road of Jinhai Town to seize Xiuyan Fort, their Zhuanghe Fort must be empty. My slave had previously sent people to scout in the direction of Zhuanghe Fort. The Ming army there was at best

Only three to five thousand people!

"Now that thousands of his main force have gone to Xiuyan Fort, the east road of Jinhai Town must be empty of troops. If the emperor is determined to take action, it is better to dispatch troops and horses to attack that Zhuanghe Fort!

"At that time, even if Yang Zhen is still a coward and cannot hold out at Zhenjiang Fort, the Jinhai Zhendong Road Ming Army who wants to send troops to Xiuyan and other places will not dare to sit idly by. If the Qing Dynasty goes south and takes Zhuanghe Fort

, what’s the use of them taking Xiuyan and other places?!”

"Um."

After hearing what Jierhalang said, Huang Taiji hummed, remained silent for a long time, and finally nodded slowly.

"This is what can be done at the moment. But as you said before, if we go to attack Zhuanghebao City in Jinhai Town, our army will mainly be on horseback and we will still lack heavy artillery and ammunition-"

Huang Taiji was very sober. Although he basically agreed with Jierhalang's idea, he also knew that in the current situation of lack of heavy artillery and ammunition, no matter which fortified city he attacked, it would be the same.

"Let's do this. Early tomorrow morning, you will lead all the soldiers and horses of the Xianglan Banner to quickly go south and pretend to attack the Zhuanghe Fort City. If the city is really empty, it's best if you can capture it.

"If you can't capture it at the moment, you don't have to rush to attack. You can surround three and one, and give them a chance to go out to ask for help. If the Ming army from Jinhai Town heading north to Xiuyan comes to rescue them, you can annihilate them all in the wild!"

"Slave obeys the order!"

Huang Taiji made this arrangement out of helplessness. When he first came to Zhenjiang Fort, he carried as many as forty-two heavy artillery pieces from General Tianyou.

Moreover, in his mind at that time, many cities west of the Yajiang River were stationed with a large number of soldiers and horses. There should be ten or eight of the heavy artillery such as General Tianyou's support.

Calculated in this way, the number of Tianyou's heavy artillery that can be used to siege Yang Zhen's troops or other cities in Jinhai Town should be at least fifty.

However, who could have expected that after Dorgon, Kong Youde and others lost a large number of heavy artillery during the unfavorable withdrawal of the war, Jilharang would also lose all the heavy artillery in the Xianglan Banner garrison area!

Now after successive battles, the original forty-two heavy artillery had been reduced sharply to twenty-eight, and the ammunition was only used for three to five days, which made him feel an unprecedented sense of despair.

During the recent trip to the Li Dynasty, they gained a lot. A large amount of grain and supplies, tens of thousands of Aha followers, and a large amount of money, food and military supplies from the Li Dynasty every year in the future will greatly improve the current situation of the Qing Dynasty.

But even so, Huang Taiji still keenly felt that the situation was very different from before.

The most obvious point is that the troops of the Qing Dynasty now go out to fight, and they increasingly rely on heavy artillery. Without heavy artillery to break down the city walls first, the Qing soldiers would have been almost unable to capture the fortified city that refused to surrender, and they would have been unable to destroy the enemy who could not hold out. .

Of course, this kind of situation has existed before, but it has never been as completely clear and open as it is today.

The Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty have always been proud of the bow and horse riding and shooting. When facing a fortified city with sufficient food and grass, especially when facing an endless stream of sharp firearms, doesn't it have no place to use it?

The imperial meeting convened by Huang Taiji that night did not reach an agreement on how to attack Zhenjiang Fort due to the appearance of Bo Hetuo and the news that Bo Hetuo brought Xiuyan Fort.

Huang Taiji, who had been disturbed and distracted that night, just made up his mind to ask Prince Zheng Jierhalang to lead his army southward the next morning to seize the Zhuanghe Fort City on the East Road of Jinhai Town.

As for the rest, he wanted to wait and see the results of Prince Zheng Jierhalang's expedition to Zhuang Hebao City.

Although he himself did not have high expectations for conquering a fortified city built on the mountain with only horse and infantry troops.

But he still looked forward with great anticipation to the upcoming operation, which would deceive the Ming troops who entered Xiuyan Castle back, annihilate them in the wild, and at least achieve a victory against the Ming troops in Jinhai Town.

However, his idea was declared shattered the next day before it could be truly implemented.

On the first day of the first lunar month in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, that is, the first day of the first lunar month, Prince Zheng Jierharang was not afraid of the severe cold. He got up early and followed the instructions given by Huang Taiji last night. He summoned the Baya La camp with a blue flag and Alha Chao Ha camp included the remaining Niu Lu of the Han army, the newly compiled Niu Lu of the Han Dynasty, and a large number of Aha followers, totaling more than 16,000 people.

Then he personally led the Bajala camp of Xianglan Banner as the outpost, and his Alihachaoha vest soldiers escorted a large number of infantry and follower Aha who were carrying food, grass and ordnance, and left the camp in a mighty manner and headed south.

Jierhalang inspected the troops and horses and compiled all the deeds of the camp. He originally had the intention of showing it to the defenders of Zhenjiang Fort, so he did not hide it at all.

Yang Zhen, who had been worried that the Qinglu heavy artillery camp would launch bombardment of the city early in the morning, got up early in the morning and heard reports of unusual movements in the Qinglu camp in the west of the city, so he hurried to the gate of Tangshan.

Through the telescope in his hand, Yang Zhen witnessed with his own eyes the scene of an endless stream of Qing captives and blue-banner troops leaving their camps and heading south.

Although he couldn't figure out for a while what the fuss was about when the Qinglu troops with blue flags were dispatched en masse, the sight of nearly 10,000 horses carrying the Qinglu horse infantry marching out of the camp and heading south still greatly shocked Yang Zhen.

What shocked him was that after successive battles, the size of Qinglu Xianglan Banner troops was not significantly reduced compared to the beginning of the war, but it seemed that their troops had become even larger. Some.

Of course, what shocked Yang Zhen and his generals even more was that after witnessing the spectacular scene of the Qinglu Xianglan Banner brigade leaving the camp and heading south, they were still speculating that they were going to reinforce Xiuyan Fort.

The Qing Dynasty garrison returned

Either they were preparing to attack Zhuang Hebao City, or some reinforcements fell into the Qinglu's plan to encircle the enemy, and when the Qinglu came to encircle and annihilate them, the Qinglu troops with blue flags who had just left for more than an hour,

He actually hurried back in a hurry and dejectedly.

Yang Zhen and his generals, who were in the camp of General Zhengdong and were discussing the whereabouts of the Qing captives with the blue banner, heard the news and couldn't believe their ears.

And when they rushed to the city gate of Tangshan Gate again and raised their telescopes to look westward, they saw a large number of soldiers and horses with blue flags and blue flags from the Qing Dynasty who had left in the morning, marching back in an endless stream on the vast snowy field to the southwest of the city.

"Damn, this is so weird - I'm really back! What kind of tricks are you doing?"

"Did the Qing captives want to use this trick to lure us into sending troops, but when we didn't take the bait, they came back again?"

"Or maybe Qinglu has received new news that Zu Zongbing and the others have captured Xiuyan Fort?!"

"Could it be that the puppet emperor Huang Taiji of the Qing Dynasty had some kind of fucking disease? Ah? Hahahahaha——"

The generals who defended the west city of Zhenjiang Castle followed Yang Zhen and hurriedly climbed to the top of Tangshan Gate. They saw the soldiers and horses of the Qing Dynasty holding blue flags getting up early in the cold weather and actually going back and forth. They were all curious.

, and felt funny again.

The nervousness and apprehension of not being able to guess Qinglu's intentions was all gone.

"The Commander-in-Chief has always been very good at predicting events. I wonder what the Commander-in-Chief thinks of the unusual behavior of Qinglu Xianglan Banner soldiers and horses today? Could it be that something really happened to Huang Taiji?"

The sudden withdrawal of the Qing army outside Songshan City in the winter of the 12th year of Chongzhen left a very deep memory for the old people around Yang Zhen.

When they woke up in the morning, no one expected that the Qing army outside Songshan City had already withdrawn during the night.

It was not until a few months later that they learned that Huang Taiji had suffered a stroke and fainted in front of the army the night before the Qing troops withdrew.

At present, there are 10,000 to 20,000 soldiers and horses of the Qing Dynasty with blue flags outside the city. They got up early in the morning to send troops, and then hurried back in less than two hours. It is really unbelievable. Could it be that something happened to Huang Taiji?

If this is the case, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and you must seize it!

Qiu Zhenhai was one of the old men back then. After hearing various speculations from Zhang Guogan, Yang Shen, Li Lu, Zhang Tianbao and others, he couldn't help but ask Yang Zhen for his opinion.

Among everyone present, he was the only one with the status of Yang Zhen's elder, so he was the only one who dared to ask Yang Zhen's opinion directly.

However, Yang Zhen was a little confused when faced with Qiu Zhenhai's inquiry.

He could still understand that the Qing captives with 10,000 or 20,000 soldiers and horses with blue flags left the camp and headed south early in the morning.

Because the Qingluo did that for three purposes: one was to reinforce Xiuyan Fort, the other was to attack Zhuanghe Fort, and the third was to go to the encirclement point for reinforcements.

However, a large number of troops left the camp and went south, and then all returned within two hours. This left Yang Zhen puzzled as to what kind of medicine was sold in the gourds of the Qing army.

As soon as Qiu Zhenhai finished speaking, Yang Zhen was thinking about how to reply when he heard Liu Lin, who had also followed the others to Tangshan Gate in the west of the city to watch the excitement, said:

"Yes, Commander-in-Chief, compared to the legendary story of King You of Zhou Dynasty playing tricks on the princes, it is not as incomprehensible as today's incident. If Huang Taiji himself was not an accident, then it must have been something terrible behind the Qing Dynasty.

Big deal! Next, we have to be careful!"

"Oh? What did Liu Bingshi say?"

Liu Lin's words shocked Yang Zhen in his heart, and a thought flashed through his mind, but when he thought about it again, he couldn't remember it, so he had to ask Liu Lin what he thought.

"No matter what happened to the Qinglu people this time, it must be a big deal. Otherwise, Huang Taiji would never have sent 10,000 or 20,000 Xianglan Banner soldiers south, only to suddenly withdraw his orders.

"I have met this Huang Taiji once. To tell you something that the governor and you may not like to hear, from what I can see, Huang Taiji is not a person like King Zhou You who treats state affairs as child's play!"
Chapter completed!