The eyes of Ma Ke, the commander-in-chief of Shanhaiguan Pass, were full of suspicion. He did not immediately hand over the envelope to Ma Zhiren, but silently lit up the cigarette again. The curling smoke shrouded his body again, making his expression look...
, even more gloomy than can be described.
After a long time, Marco asked sadly: "Is the person you sent to contact him reliable?"
Ma Zhiren hurriedly came forward and whispered back: "Commander, don't worry, that person is absolutely reliable."
Marco stared at Ma Zhiren sharply for a while, then closed his eyes and asked again: "I forgot, what is this person's name?"
Ma Zhiren quickly reminded: "Ma Jinzhong."
He then added cautiously: "Commander, have you forgotten? In the ninth year of Chongzhen's reign, you saved the lives of his family. From that day on, as a loyal brother, I was determined to die for you in repayment.
Yesterday when he went out to make contact, he put poison in the gap between his teeth. Once the incident was revealed, he would commit suicide on the spot to repay your kindness and never let outsiders notice.
Commander, a loyal brother is absolutely reliable!"
Ma Ke suddenly opened his eyes, his eyes were so sharp that Ma Zhiren trembled all over.
Afterwards, Ma Kecai said calmly: "Okay. After he returns from completing this matter, he will give his family in Shanhaiguan a hundred taels of silver as a pension according to the treatment of the fallen bodyguards."
Ma Zhiren's heart trembled suddenly, but when he saw the evil look in Ma Ke's eyes, he hurriedly replied stiffly: "Yes, yes. I understand, I will make arrangements for myself, and ask Ma Jinzhong to do it."
The commander is loyal."
Marco then picked up the letter on the desk. He stared into Ma Zhiren's eyes, handed the letter to him, and said in a deep voice: "If you handle this well, I will never treat you badly!"
Ma Zhiren looked horrified. His face was pale and his forehead was covered with sweat. He kept saying, "Yes, yes. I'll make arrangements right now."
He folded the letter carefully, put it in his arms, and left in a hurry.
Ma Ke was smoking a cigarette, looking at Ma Zhiren's figure with a thoughtful expression. Just when Ma Zhiren was about to step out of the tent, he suddenly said: "By the way, when Ma Jinzhong went out yesterday, there were many things on the road.
Is it going well?"
Ma Zhiren hurriedly stopped and turned around. He didn't quite understand the meaning of Ma Ke's question, but he still replied: "It's generally going well. Even the Xuanfu army and horses are sending out all kinds of sentries. It's a waste of time."
It took a lot of twists and turns.”
His words were like a bolt from the blue, hitting Marco hard in the heart. For a moment, his face turned pale without any blood.
Ma Ke shouted in a trembling voice: "You mean...you mean...Ma Jinzhong...it is possible that he...encountered the Xuanfu army's sentries on the road?"
He suddenly screamed: "Come back, come back quickly."
Ma Zhiren didn't know why and said in surprise: "Commander..."
Marco continued to yell anxiously: "Come back, come back quickly!"
Ma Zhiren stood by the tent door. He was also stunned and said in a stupor: "Commander... Commander, what's wrong with you?"
Marco waved at Ma Zhiren and shouted with a pale face: "Tell you to come back quickly..."
Ma Zhiren didn't feel sorry for himself until this moment. Seeing Marco's strange look, he couldn't help but tremble with fear. He hurriedly walked back to the desk.
Ma Zhiren's expression was uneasy. He didn't know what was wrong with his commander, why he suddenly became so arrogant.
But when Ma Ke found strength from nowhere, he suddenly jumped up from his seat, grabbed Ma Zhiren by the collar, stared at him with red eyes, and said viciously every word: "You tell me
Ma Jinzhong, if he is captured by the Xuanfu army, not a word will be revealed..."
His pupils shrank suddenly, and he changed his words: "No. We can't be caught by them!"
Ma Ke's blood-red eyes widened, and he said in a vicious voice: "Tell Ma Jinzhong that if he is caught by the Xuanfu army, he must die on the spot and not leave Zhang Cheng alive.
Otherwise, I will not be able to protect the safety of his family members in Shanhaiguan."
He pushed Ma Zhiren away violently and asked sullenly: "Do you understand?"
"I understand... I understand, I understand... I understand!" Ma Zhiren was obviously frightened by Marco's actions.
I heard Marco ask again: "Zhiyong, does he know about this?"
Ma Zhiren couldn't help but trembled when he heard this, and replied in a trembling voice: "Commander... Commander, my brother... he doesn't know about this, and I haven't... never told anyone."
It was only then that Ma Ke's expression became slightly calmer. He was still standing behind the case, staring at Ma Zhiren with his eyes fixed on him, and said word by word: "You know, I know. No third person should know."
This matter!"
"Yes, yes. Small things can be saved, they can be saved."
Marco felt a little relieved. He sat back on the chair slumpedly, waved his hand feebly and said, "Go ahead and do your work."
He just breathed a sigh of relief, holding the table with his hands, breathing heavily, and still had lingering fear in his heart.
As if he remembered something again, he shouted in a low voice to Ma Zhiren who was about to walk out of the tent: "Haosheng told Ma Jinzhong that I regard him as a caring person and will never embarrass his family and will definitely make them happy.
As long as he behaves carefully, he will be able to work beside me when he returns!"
After hearing what he said, Ma Zhiren couldn't help but feel frightened. The commander's capriciousness made him feel as if he was surrounded by a tiger and a wolf.
He didn't dare to be negligent in the slightest, for fear that something new would happen. He responded in a low voice and hurriedly left the tent.
Seeing Ma Zhiren turn around and leave the tent, Marco seemed to have aged several years instantly. After a long time, he sighed and growled bitterly: "Young man Zhang Cheng, you forced me to do this!"
…………
It was early in the morning on August 23, the fourteenth year of Chongzhen.
The morning glow showed its pink light on the horizon. Looking from the air to the northeast of Huangtu Ridge, from the plains under the mountains to the west bank of Xiaoling River, there were crowds of people like ants.
The topography of this area is generally higher in the northwest and lower in the southeast. The rivers and streams are almost exhausted. The few rivers flow along the northwest highlands and eventually merge into the Xiaoling River in the east.
Originally, there were plain areas around these rivers that were easily irrigated, but now they have become wasteland.
Further northeast along Tianjiagou, there is a narrow valley between Shimen Mountain and Xiaoling River, which is where Dongshimen is located.
Xiaoling River flows from west to east in the south of Jinzhou City. After passing Jinzhou City, it suddenly turns and flows south until it enters the sea.
Not far to the north of Tianjiagou is a place called Handwater Camp, which is across the river from Xiaolinghe Fort not far to the east of the river.
In the early Ming Dynasty, Xiaolinghe Fort was just a post station. With the frequent traffic on both sides of the Xiaoling River, because this section of the river was an important ferry route, many boatmen gathered here, and it gradually developed into a fort.
At this time, this camp had been completely occupied by the Qing army, and a deep trench was dug a hundred steps in front, cutting off the connection between the mountain and the river.
At the same time, from the west of Sailor Camp, the terrain gradually increases from low to high, with undulating mountains, running east-west like stairs, from north to south, until not far from Huangtu Ridge.
This is the terrain from Shimen Mountain to Huangtu Ridge in the southeast of Jinzhou City and northeast of Rufeng Mountain, with various landforms including mountains, rivers and rivers.
Compared with before, there are not many Qing troops stationed on Shimen Mountain.
The flags flying here are the Manchurian Zhengbai Banner and the Korean Army. There are less than 3,000 armored soldiers in total. Of course, there are thousands of handymen here. They can also count the battle at critical moments.
Powerful.
When these Qing troops looked down from the mountains, they saw that the plains in the southeast were densely covered with banners of various colors of the Ming army. The rolling masses of people and horses seemed to fill the plains between the mountains and the river.
With over 10,000 men and horses, it feels like they are innumerable, but how many Ming troops are there in front of them?
A rough estimate suggests that there could be around 30,000 to 40,000 troops!
Even though they had always despised the Ming army's combat effectiveness, this feeling of a flood of soldiers still made many Qing soldiers on Shimen Mountain and Loess Ridge breathless.
As for those Korean soldiers, their faces were even more pale, and their hearts were filled with fear!
The Ming army has a large number of troops. If they really go crazy and attack Shimen Mountain and Huangtu Ridge, with more than 10,000 troops on their side, can they hold it?
On the Shimen Mountain City, Huang Taiji, who was getting fatter and fatter, held a telescope in his hand and motionlessly looked at the Ming army camp formation in front of the mountain.
Looking at their dark sea of people, endless campsites spread over mountains and plains, surrounding Songshan Castle, it seemed that there was not much change from the previous days.
He couldn't help but admire Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, and thought to himself: He can really keep his composure!
Looking at the flags of the Ming army outside Songshan City, I didn’t see the flags of Liu Zhaoji and others in Liaodong Town. There are only two most conspicuous ones. One is Zhang Cheng’s Xuanfu military camp. Due to the large number of soldiers and horses, the area is very vast.
, looking at a large area of Xuanfu military flags.
The second is the camp of Chen Jiugao's soldiers and horses in the front camp of Shenji Camp. Although they only have more than 10,000 people, they take up a lot of space because of the large number of cannons, and there are also many mules and horses dragging the cannons.
The dark mass of artillery pieces, large and small, greatly attracted the attention of the captive chief Huang Taiji. Almost every time he came to observe the Ming army's camp, he would look at the Shenji camp for a long time.
Huang Taiji looked far away in the direction of Songshan through the telescope in his hand. His opponent, Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao in the Ming Dynasty, was sitting there. Huang Taiji valued Hong Chengchou very much.
In his opinion, Hong Chengchou was not comparable to those previous Ming Dynasty governors. Since the first year of Chongzhen, he began to participate in the war to eliminate bandits.
He was promoted from the post of governor of Shaanxi Province to governor of Yansui, and later in the fourth year of Chongzhen, he succeeded Yang He as the successor governor of the three sides. He changed Yang He's "border suppression and border control" to "all-out suppression" and concentrated his forces on the attack.
The Shaanxi thieves won a great victory.
In the seventh year of Chongzhen's reign, he served as the governor of the three provinces, with the title of Prince Taibao, Minister of War, and governor of military affairs for the five provinces of Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Huguang, and Sichuan. He became the main military commander of the Ming Dynasty in suppressing bandits.
In this way, until the eleventh year of Chongzhen, Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting, who was the governor of Shaanxi at the time, set up an ambush in Tongguan, defeating the most powerful rogue bandits in the Ming Dynasty at that time, and broke into the general Li Zicheng's troops.
At that time, he severely defeated Li Zicheng's troops, leaving only 18 of his riders to flee into the Shangluo Mountains in southern Shaanxi. It was because of this battle that the domestic rogues disappeared for a time.
Thieves such as Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai, and the troops of the Fifth Battalion of Gezuo all accepted the imperial court's appeasement. However, Li Zicheng, who had always refused to be appeased, was defeated and was unable to recover from the fall.
If Huang Taiji had not sent Dorgon and Hauge to lead the Qing army into the Ming capital, perhaps Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting could have completely wiped out Li Zicheng.
It is not hopeless that the Ming Dynasty will revive from now on!
It's a pity that history has no assumptions. History is always full of coincidences. Or maybe it's not a coincidence at all, but a deliberate move by some thoughtful people.
How could he not pay attention to a man like Hong Chengchou, a scholar-general who had overseen military campaigns for many years, and who had been victorious against rampant bandits in the Ming Dynasty without ever losing?
At this time, Hong Chengchou's prestige in the court and local areas of the Ming Dynasty cannot be underestimated. I am afraid that he is the most prestigious person among the military generals in various towns during the Ming Dynasty.
Although Huang Taiji had various thoughts in his mind, his expression remained calm. He slowly moved the telescope and stopped in the direction of the Xuanfu army camp.
The Qing kings Baylor, as well as ministers and generals who accompanied Huang Taiji, were also paying attention to the movements of the Ming army at this time.
Hauge stood next to Huang Taiji, looking down the mountain without blinking. His usually unruly look had weakened a lot at this moment. It seemed that he was still restrained when he was around Huang Taiji.
Daishan stroked the gray whiskers on his upper lip and lowered his head in thought. Dorgon next to him also had a thoughtful expression. Only Duoduo behind him was looking around.
Ying Erdai, who was in charge of the Ministry of Household Affairs, laughed loudly at this time and said to Huang Taiji: "I congratulate you, my servant. The Southern Army is still setting up camp around Songshan Mountain, which shows that it is not aware of the movements of our army.
It is possible to win this battle!"
As soon as he said this, the officials of the Qing Dynasty around him immediately flooded with flattery, praising the captive chief for his far-sightedness and clever calculations, and that this time he would be able to defeat the Southern Army in one battle.
Even if we capture Hong Chengchou alive or capture Zu Dashou alive, it won’t be a problem!
Hauge said even more bitterly: "Not only Hong Chengchou and Zu Dashou, but also Zhang Cheng of the Xuanfu, we must not let them escape. This time they must be captured alive to relieve the hatred in my heart. It is also a good idea.
Prince Keqin has taken revenge!"
Here, the Prince of Keqin County that Hauge mentioned was the posthumous title given to Yue Tuo by Huang Taiji. When they invaded the Ming Dynasty, Yue Tuo was killed by Zhang Cheng in a night attack in the Qing camp. They have always regarded it as a great shame and humiliation.
Prince Li mentioned Yue Tuo to Hauge on behalf of Shan, but as a father, there was no trace of sadness on his face.
In fact, although he and Yue Tuo were father and son, their political opinions had always been at odds with each other. Especially on the issue of Huang Taiji's succession to the post-Golden Khan throne, Yue Tuo blatantly supported Huang Taiji with a red flag, which made him even more angry.
However, Daishan did not answer, but Dorgon stepped forward and said: "The governor of the Southern Kingdom is not bad, but he is so calm. My warrior attacked Jinzhou so hard, but he can still be so calm, but it is not easy.
However, with the news about General Ma, as long as we, the Qing warriors, follow Jin's ingenious plan and really cut off the southern army's food route, I don't believe he can still be so secure.
In particular, Zhang Cheng of the Xuan Prefecture fought against me many times. Not to mention Ma Zhan and Yue Tuo, even in the previous battle, I, the warrior of Batulu, Zhun Tagu Mountain, died at the hands of this thief.
In just a few years, he was promoted from a guerrilla to the commander-in-chief of the Xuanfu. He must be very capable. If it goes on for a long time, he may become a powerful enemy of our Qing Dynasty.
This time, we must take advantage of this opportunity to defeat the Southern Army in one fell swoop. In addition to capturing the Governor of the Southern Army, Hong Chengchou, and forcing the surrender of Jinzhou Ancestor Dashou, we must also eliminate the scourge of Zhang Cheng for our Qing Dynasty!"