"Jingcheng, Jingcheng, I asked you to ask for your opinion. It would be better for you to ask me first."

Hearing this, Zheng Chenggong smiled and shook his head, but he did not reject it outright. Instead, he suggested that the two of them write down their thoughts on the palms of their hands and open them at the same time to see if they had the same idea.

"All right."

Originally, Chen Kai just wanted to hear Zheng Chenggong's opinion. You must know that Zheng Chenggong made a choice in history. But today is different from the past. He is in charge of the Guangdong battlefield. Even if this is not the case, Zheng Chenggong is obviously more interested.

I want to know his thoughts, because he can surprise Zheng Chenggong every time.

The two of them each took a pen, dipped it in ink, and then started writing on the palm of their left hand. During this period, Chen Kai also pretended to see what Zheng Chenggong had written, but he was met with a vigilant look from Zheng Chenggong.

Their eyes were like those of two children, writing down what they were thinking stroke by stroke, then putting down the pen, coming to the candlelight, spreading their backhands at the same time, and immediately looking at each other with a smile.

"The king of Xining became king after two defeats, and the world was shocked. He is a famous general in the world. He can send troops to attack Guangdong and have great hope of restoring the province. But I can't go!"

As he said, Zheng Chenggong wrote clearly on the palm of his hand, it was the three words "can't go". However, Chen Kai noticed that Zheng Chenggong's wording was that he could not go, rather than that he did not want to go. A supervisor of Nanjing Imperial College, with

There is absolutely no possibility of deviation in the wording. This word clearly explains Zheng Chenggong's mental state at the moment. The difference is nothing more than an explanation.

"Is it because of Jin Li?"

"You know my deepest feelings. How could there be anyone else besides that guy?"

Chen Kai had already expected such an answer. The reason why many people in later generations did not like Zheng Chenggong was because Li Dingguo worked hard to promote cooperation, but Zheng Chenggong had no such intention. Some people even believed that Zheng Chenggong was selfish.

, which delayed a world-famous general like Li Dingguo who was famous for his two victories. If the two of them could join forces, they would definitely be able to regain Guangdong Yunyun.

As the saying goes, the authorities are obsessed with the beholder, and this statement is often correct, but nothing is absolute. Now that Chen Kai is in the middle of the situation, he can actually see things much more clearly than before.

"Our army is now confronting the Tatars on the front line of Hui'an. Ever since the Battle of Zhongcuo, the Lu Ting has been increasing troops for Jin Li. If nothing else happens, the Lu troops will definitely attack again before June. That will be a big deal.

In a life-and-death battle, how could it be possible to mobilize a large army to cooperate with the King of Xining to regain Guangdong?"

Zheng Chenggong said this, and when Chen Kai recalled those historical records, he felt it was even more natural.

Historically, in October last year, Zheng Chenggong unexpectedly defeated Fengchao Mountain. Later, he was admiral Huangshan, the chief soldier of Liwu Town Chen Feng, the chief soldier of Youxiang Town Liao Jing, and the chief soldier of Qinding Town Guo Ting, guarding Youzhen.

The chief military officer Hong Chengchong was killed in the fierce battle. The number of Ming army casualties is unknown. However, after the war, Zheng Chenggong had to cancel the twenty-eight battalions named after the stars and use these soldiers to supplement the towns that suffered too huge losses.

Towns regained their strength.

With the establishment of each battalion of 500 soldiers, it was an army of 14,000 people. It was not enough to supplement the losses in each town. This shows how heavy the losses of Zheng Chenggong's troops were in the Battle of Fengchao Mountain.

huge.

After the defeat, Zheng Chenggong not only gave up the siege of Zhangzhou Fucheng, but also gave up the territory of Changtai, Nanjing, Zhangpu, Pinghe, Zhao'an and other five counties that he had worked hard for a year and a half to recover, leaving only

After landing in Haicheng County, it can almost be said that I returned to the pre-liberation period overnight!

After defeating Zheng Chenggong, Jin Li did not return to the army. Instead, he rested and recuperated while restoring the place, making necessary preparations for the subsequent attack on Haicheng County and even the Zhongzuo Institute.

From the Battle of Fengchao Mountain to Jin Li's official launch of the fierce attack on Haicheng County, the period was from October of the sixth year of Yongli to April of the seventh year of Yongli. At the beginning of the seventh year of Yongli, Li Dingguo asked

Zheng Chenggong issued an invitation, hoping that he would lead a large army to help capture Guangdong. However, due to the situation at the time, once Zheng Chenggong sent troops, his last stronghold on land, Haicheng County, and his base camp would be unsafe.

This is like someone who is already dismantling the incisor tower, and is about to explode the base crystal. But at this time, he hugs the incisor tower irregularly and fights to the death, but instead runs out to cooperate with others to capture the order.

How self-destructive do you have to be to do such a thing?

Zheng Chenggong was never a person who gave up on himself. In history, he suffered several disastrous defeats after consecutive battles and victories, and he spit out many of the fruits of victory he had accumulated earlier. The losses cannot be described as huge. But after each disastrous defeat,

Zheng Chenggong never chose to give up because of this. Instead, he worked harder to plan, accumulate, and fight the Qing army even more desperately.

"We have a large army and we are betting that the King of Xining can capture Zhaoqing. It is better to seize the time to strengthen the defense of Hui'an."

As he said, if the army turns around, Zhangzhou and Quanzhou, which were recaptured last year, will definitely fall. Even if all the naval forces on the center and left are guarding the Qing army, there will be nothing the Qing army can do for a while, but the Chaozhou-controlled area will once again face the dangerous environment of being attacked from three sides.

Once Chaozhou is not secured, it will mean the complete fall of the lost land that Chen Kai and Zheng Chenggong worked hard for five years to recover. And this is just a gamble that Li Dingguo can capture Zhaoqing. This is only possible for people with normal IQs.

You wouldn't do anything stupid.

"The strategy of Southern Fujian cannot be changed, but it has actually been achieved. You have already blocked the fleet at the door of Shang Kexi's home. Are you as worried as I am?"

Like Zheng Chenggong's decision, Chen Kai did not intend to help Li Dingguo. The only difference was that Zheng Chenggong wrote "can't go" on the palm of his hand, while Chen Kai wrote "unnecessary" on his hand, that's all.

.

Zheng Chenggong asked, and Chen Kai nodded and immediately replied: "Damu, do you still remember the Hengyang victory I talked to you about a few days ago?"

Chen Kai and Zheng Chenggong in eastern Guangdong and southern Fujian received the news of the great victory in Hengyang in the first month. It was no different from other places. At first they were in disbelief, and then after repeated confirmations, they were naturally ecstatic.

We were excited about this great victory that broke the myth of the invincibility of the Eight Banners of Manchuria. The difference was just that Chen Kai pretended to be in disbelief, while the others were really in disbelief.

The news came from Guangzhou and Fuzhou, rather than spreading along the way. Obviously, the officials in various places in the Qing court got the news much faster than ordinary people. However, as time went by, except for the initial

At that time, there was still a more realistic statement, but it soon became more and more fantasy. It started with a Nikan, then the senior officers of the Qing army were wiped out, then the Eight Banners Army lost more than 10,000 troops, and in the end it turned into that army.

It is an exaggeration that the main force of the Eight Banners Army was completely wiped out.

Rumors only stop for the wise, but the vast majority of people in the world will believe what they want to believe - the Qing army is cruel and cruel, and there are naturally many people who hate them to death, and it can even be said to be a universal phenomenon. It is a pity.

, Chen Kai was among them, but what he saw was completely different from others.

"Between the fourth year of Yongli and the sixth year of Yongli, he captured the troops of Kong Youde, the Southern King, and raided Guangxi. According to our intelligence analysis, Kong Youde actually captured only Guilin, Wuzhou, Pingle, Liuzhou, and Xunzhou in central and eastern Guangxi.

As well as the six prefectures of Nanning, the prefectures and counties in the west are still controlled by the king and the chieftains."

"After the great victory in Guilin, King Xining regained the lost territory of these six prefectures. However, as the main force of the Eight Banners Army moved south, King Xining was called to go north to meet the enemy. Guangxi was empty. The defeated soldiers of Dingnan Fan successively captured Wuzhou, Pingle and Guilin.

The land of the three prefectures. In other words, after a great victory in Guilin, the only lost land that the Southwest King's Division actually regained was the territory of the three prefectures of Liuzhou, Xunzhou and Nanning."

The news about Guilin came from Chen Qice a few days ago, and Chen Qice learned it from Liancheng Bi, who had frequent contacts with Guangxi, so there must be no mistake.

"The Xining King's Formation killed Nikan, which greatly boosted the morale of the people. We can also see this in the Zhongzuo Office. However, the Eight Banners Army's opportunity to lose strength will not be mentioned by the imperial court.

, even Lian Chengbi never mentioned this, which was obviously very pitiful. Judging from the fact that King Xining abandoned Hengzhou Prefecture the next month after the war, even the commander of his main force was killed by him when he faced that team.

The remaining soldiers of the Eight Banners Army were gone, but they were still unable to compete. The true number of casualties in that battle can be imagined."

Zheng Chenggong remembered it very clearly. At that time, he did not ask Chen Kai any silly questions about why he was obsessed with the real number of casualties, because he knew very well that no matter how strong the Eight Banners Army was, it had one biggest drawback, and that was that the number of casualties was too small.

Zheng Chenggong didn't know the specifics, but Chen Kai saw it clearly from the records of later generations - after entering the customs, the number of bannermen in the Eight Banners of Manchuria immediately fell below the 50,000 mark. After several wars, regardless of victory or defeat,

, even if it won the battle, the number of Eight Banners troops lost was not small, and the number of bannermen was always declining. As a support for the Manchuria Eight Banners, the number of Mongolian Eight Banners' bannermen was very small as early as the Huang Taiji period, 20,000

For many people, this is a saturation number, and it is also declining after entering the customs.

As for the Han military flags, there were 144 niulu when they entered the pass, and each niulu had 200 soldiers, which is 28,800 soldiers. The difference from the Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners is that all the people in the pass were Han people, and there were even more Han people.

When generals were demoted and soldiers were demoted, the Han army flags once expanded to 300 Niu Lu. However, unlike the "Chen Han Army" before entering the Pass, most of the Niu Lu of these "New Han Army" were compiled by dissatisfaction and were only used to place surrendered troops.

They are just generals, and their total number of soldiers is far from reaching the 60,000 mark.

In the Battle of Hengyang, the Eight Banners of Manchu and Mongolia mainly participated in the battle, and the Han banner was auxiliary. Li Dingguo killed a prince, plus a first-class minister, and the remaining officers were basically middle- and lower-level officers, and there were many bodyguards.

, to make up the number of escorts. Senior generals who really command the army, such as Dorobel Tunqi, Bashan, Beizi Zakana, Mulyou, Gushan'er Zhenhandai, Yild, and Alashan, all must

Quanying and his "defeated generals" retreated back to Changsha confidently and without any injuries. When Li Dingguo gave up Hengzhou Prefecture and Yongzhou Prefecture successively, they followed suit and took over the territories of these two prefectures.

Sun Kewang was not given any chance at all.

"After defeating the Qing army, King Xining not only failed to recapture the two prefectures of Changde and Changsha that he had given up earlier, but also quickly gave up on Hengzhou Prefecture. This time when King Xining marched eastward, it is estimated that Yongzhou Prefecture, where he had stationed his troops, would also be lost.

Even excluding Yongzhou Prefecture, after a great victory, the territory of six prefectures was still lost. It should be noted that when the big counterattack started last year, Wang Shi once regained nearly two provinces, and now he has really obtained it.

There are only six prefectures and one state."

"Six prefectures and one prefecture seem to be a lot, but for last year's major counterattack, the Southwest King's Division would not send less than 200,000 troops. Even on the battlefields of Huguang and Guangxi, there were 180,000 or 90,000 troops. On such a scale, the battle

In half a year, four major victories were won in Huguang and Guangxi provinces alone: ​​the Jingzhou Victory, the Guilin Victory, the Chenzhou Victory and the Hengyang Victory. The number of enemies annihilated was no less than 30,000, and two prisoners were also added.

Prince Ting. Looking back, do you still think there is enough land for six prefectures and one state?"

He took a big mouthful and vomited half of it out. This was still a case of victory. If he had lost, the result could be imagined. In comparison, also last year, Zheng Chenggong used 30,000 troops to sweep through southern Fujian and regain the balance between the two provinces.

land, because his plan at the time was to seize these two prefectures so that the center and left could become the hinterland. Chen Kai's side was in a strategic defense state, and finally occupied a county. Although it was less, it was a strategic goal

They have all been achieved, at least unlike the Southwest Ming Army, which originally targeted the three provinces of Sichuan, Huguang, and Guangxi. It was effective for a while, but in the end even if they won, they would lose territory.

"The great victory of Hengyang, analyzed from a tactical perspective, the King of Xining set up a trap to lure the Qing army into a trap, and finally ambushed and killed the Tatar prince Nikan. This was an unprecedented victory since the Liao Dynasty. However, from the strategic perspective of the entire southwest war situation

, this battle was actually a loss, and even if King Xining hadn’t killed Nikan, the loss would have been even greater!”

When the good news came, all that could be heard were praises for Li Dingguo. However, Chen Kai was not optimistic about this. When analyzing Zheng Chenggong, he also held the same argument. Of course, it was only for Zheng Chenggong. For others,

It would be inappropriate for him to discourage those who resisted the Qing Dynasty and the soldiers of the Ming Army too much.

Zheng Chenggong silently recalled Chen Kai's words, trying to find out the source of Chen Kai's thoughts, but he still couldn't find the key. He vaguely felt that there was something strange about this victory, but he could never find it.

Where is the thread, until Chen Kai continues what he said.

"On the eve of my departure, I heard two things in Chaozhou, which were about the southwest war situation. One was that King Funan failed to attack Baoning in northern Sichuan. After returning to Guizhou, the King of Qin deprived him of military power and left him to live in Kunming; and the other

One thing is that the King of Qin and the King of Xining are at odds, and there is something hidden behind the Hengyang victory..."

This was something that Chen Kai had no way to explain to Zheng Chenggong, so he had to rely on rumors. However, this rumor really shocked Zheng Chenggong. Zheng Chenggong was stunned on the spot and did not say anything for a long time.

Assuming that we have a choice, one is to kill Nikan and the main force of the Eight Banners Army retreats; the other is to form an encirclement, the Eight Banners Army loses tens of thousands of troops, and Nikan breaks out. Anyone who knows anything about the actual situation of the Ming and Qing wars at that time will have no idea.

He hesitated to choose the latter, because with the number of bannermen in the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia, tens of thousands were lost in the first battle, which meant that a fraction of the soldiers were lost. This was completely unbearable for the Qing government. It was only done to brag.

Choose the former, after all, the prince's name is louder and more enjoyable to play.

Li Dingguo had no choice, because the choice was in Sun Kewang's hands, and the multiple-choice question Sun Kewang faced was not this. Instead, he acted according to Li Dingguo's plan, defeated the Eight Banners Army, and swept Huguang. However, Li Dingguo's reputation was even greater, and his secret

Withdraw Feng Shuangli's troops and let Li Dingguo and the Eight Banners Army fight to the death. No matter who wins, it will be a lose-lose situation, and he can reap the benefits.

In the past, when watching games, someone would always say in the comments that a certain team lost in this game, but a certain player did not lose. Chen Kai didn’t like this argument, because the most important thing about team competition is cooperation. But this time, Chen Kai

Kai knew very well that the Ming army suffered a strategic loss, but it was not due to Li Dingguo. The plan was originally good, but it met a cheating teammate and killed the opponent's coach. This cannot be done in any case.

To say that it was his responsibility, it was entirely Sun Kewang who ruined the overall situation and led to a great victory that could have bled the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia. In the end, he ended up with a pathetic commander.

"We are fighting against each other. If the King of Qin and the King of Xining can join forces, the Eight Banners Army will lose more than 10,000 troops and the Ming Army will sweep across Huguang. However, His Highness the King of Qin is too ambitious and does not know how to take care of everything.

The big picture.”

If Sun Kewang had not issued a secret order during the Hengyang victory, or if he had led the front army and the Eastern Route Army to join forces to fight the enemy afterwards, the Qing government's rule in Huguang would have completely collapsed, and the loss of the Eight Banners Army would have shaken the Qing government's rule.

The foundation of his rule caused a wider shock. Even not only in Huguang but also in Sichuan, Liu Wenxiu was defeated and it was appropriate to punish him. However, according to the situation at the time, Sun Kewang should have made Liu Wenxiu meritorious, replenished his army, and continued to operate.

Sichuan, instead of completely giving up Sichuan's great situation and allowing it to develop. In the final analysis, it is still selfish and destroys the great situation for the sake of those powers.

In this regard, the pair of sworn brothers in the southwest are far better than the uncle and brother-in-law Zheng Chenggong and Chen Kai. Over the years, Chen Kai and Zheng Chenggong have been either inside and outside, or on defense and offense.

There is always a tacit understanding. This is not only due to Chen Kai's foresight, but more importantly, there is no competition for power between the two of them, so there is no need to plot against each other.

"Jingcheng, you mean that King Xining marched into Guangdong to avoid King Qin?"

"exactly."

This is a fact. This is what Li Dingguo did in history. In addition, the tax revenue in Guangxi is less than one-tenth of Guangdong. Taking Guangdong can support more soldiers. Then there is the cooperation with Zheng Chenggong. Li Dingguo has already felt

When Sun Kewang threatened him and the Yongli court, he chose to join forces with Zheng Chenggong in Guangdong and use this strength to check and balance Sun Kewang's ambitions!

Li Dingguo thought so and did so, but Chen Kai didn't think so. Sun and Li were at odds, and Li Dingguo refused to participate in the Jingzhou military meeting. The result would definitely be that Sun Kewang would cut off the food and salary of Li Dingguo's troops. The army would have no food.

After the war broke out, Li Dingguo had great prestige, but the army could not fight on an empty stomach. As long as Shang Kexi could stay in Zhaoqing for one to two months, Li Dingguo could only go back to Guangxi to eat.

In the past two months, even if the army points westward, it is one thing whether the ship can arrive or not. Even if the ship arrives, the army comes from the sea to the south of Guangzhou City, while Zhaoqing is to the northwest of Guangzhou City.

Two hundred miles. There is no way around this. Chen Kai needs to capture Guangzhou first before he can go to Zhaoqing to join forces with Li Dingguo, or after capturing Guangzhou, he can withstand the siege of Shang Kexi, Geng Jimao and the entire Guangdong Green Camp until

Li Dingguo broke through the Zhaoqing front line and came to join forces with him. No matter what the possibility was, the troops in eastern Guangdong alone were absolutely not enough to achieve these two points.

"That's why I say this is unnecessary. Although it is cruel, it is a fact. In this battle, the only one King Xining can count on is himself, because he can only win quickly, otherwise he will be defeated. We can't help him."

I’m busy with anything.”

Li Dingguo left Guilin alone and went to attack Zhaoqing, which in itself proved the "rumor" Chen Kai said. Zheng Chenggong thought about it and thought several times of assuming that the "rumor" Chen Kai got was false, but

But they had to shake their heads and smile bitterly, because with their current strength, they were not enough to regain Guangzhou, or even send out a large army that would pose a sufficient threat to Guangzhou. Instead of wasting time in Guangzhou, it was better to do more useful things.

"Then I will edit a book."

"Well, it's best to tell the truth. It never hurts to show some sincerity."
Chapter completed!