While talking, Dongxiang came up with the latest information received.
Yang Fan took it, looked at it, and threw it on the small kang table.
Xiao Niangpi and Lin Yueru quickly took it over and looked at it. After reading the paper, they could only shake their heads and sigh.
Yuan Chonghuan's pursuit method was impossible to catch up with the Qing army. In fact, it was meaningless to catch up. As long as the Jimen natural barrier could not be used to block the main force of the Qing army, the pursuit was actually meaningless.
More than 9,000 cavalrymen, no matter how elite they are, can only drive a few nails if they are made of iron.
How could they defeat the 200,000 Qing army? Moreover, the Qing army had already divided its forces at this time, pursuing Liu Ce all the way to Shunyi, and Yu Shiwei all the way to Changping. The main force of more than 50,000 Eight Banners directly attacked Tongzhou and headed straight for the imperial capital.
go.
However, this roundabout way to save the country has only one consequence. That is, the Qing army must arrive at the capital city before Guan Ning's army.
The latest intelligence shows that the Qing army was surrounding the capital, clearing grass and valleys, and looting manors along the way. They robbed the population, robbed food and various materials and property. Because they were marching in a hurry, Guan Ning's army only had more than 9,000 cavalry who arrived in the capital first. The other infantry fell behind.
, is coming soon.
"On the 15th, Huang Taiji's troops arrived in Tongzhou and began to wreak havoc on the people around the capital. Ironically, on this day, the imperial court received a memorial from Yuan Chonghuan that "(Hou Jin) will not be allowed to take a step beyond Jixi"." Yang Fan said with a sneer.
.
Anger arose in his heart. These people were wielding power and it was the common people who suffered.
Xiao Niangpi said: "What do these actions of his mean?"
"Don't you even have to ask? It's just to create panic and make the emperor and the cabinet afraid. He has now taken off his mask and stopped pretending." Lin Yueru curled her lips and said.
"He dares!" Xiao Niangpi said angrily.
"What's there to be afraid of? A coward cannot be a general. Hasn't he made his fortune in half his life by daring to do things better than others? Every time he took a risk, he made huge profits. As time went by, he became numb. He had long lost his single job.
He was very trembling when he rode out of the barrier." Lin Yueru continued to speak venomously.
"The truth is not necessarily what you said. This is just your most vicious speculation." The little girl still has a bottom line. She doesn't want to believe it all.
But the direction of things is indeed moving closer to the most malicious speculation.
Yang Fan lowered his head and said nothing. In fact, until the dust settled in history, this matter was not exposed. Whether he really wanted to take risks at that time cannot be confirmed. It cannot be confirmed.
Because Chongzhen was not intimidated at all. Even though he had all kinds of faults and shortcomings, every time he was in crisis, he was terrifyingly calm and rational.
At this point, Governor Yuan is still far behind his rank.
Chongzhen never gave him any chance from the beginning to the end. It was a pity that Governor Yuan asked him to defend Jizhou from the beginning instead of leading troops to the capital. This move was not understood clearly.
Chongzhen started his career by conducting coups, and he was very good at this.
When ordinary people try to compete with him in this regard, it is like hurling an egg at a stone.
"He had only one purpose in scaring the emperor and the cabinet, which was to lead troops into the city." Lin Yueru slapped a piece of information on the table.
On the night of the 17th, Yuan Chonghuan led his army to the Zuo'an Gate in the capital and camped at Wei Gong Temple outside the city. The first group of troops only had 9,000 cavalry arriving at the gate of the city, while the infantry troops had to advance in batches and camped everywhere to rest and arrive at the capital to join Yuan Chonghuan.
.Yuan Chonghuan's troops were exhausted due to the rapid march. Yuan Chonghuan requested to enter the city to rest, but His Majesty refused to allow the Liao troops to enter the city.
Yang Fan said: "After all, the thing didn't happen, so we can't conclude it. It can't be ruled out that he saw that there was little hope of restoring the Liao Dynasty in five years, and planned to take this opportunity to intimidate the emperor and the cabinet. He would use war to promote peace and form an alliance with Huang Taiji under the city to put him to death.
Five years later, the hidden danger of Liao Dynasty will be eliminated."
"If it is the first plan, he wants to seize the door and completely eliminate the hidden danger. Huang Taiji will definitely cooperate with him. Then all his weird behaviors must be fornication and slavery, which is a traitor. If it is the second plan, then he will definitely cooperate with him.
He is not a traitor, he just wants to exonerate himself. Under this situation, it is the only chance to negotiate peace with the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Now the emperor and the cabinet are frightened. He knows very well that if he does not frighten the emperor and the cabinet, it is
Non-negotiable."
Xiao Niangpi and Lin Yueru nodded, expressing their approval of Yang Fan's analysis.
This analysis is based on the imminent crisis Yuan Chonghuan is currently facing. This time the Qing army invaded the capital, and he could not escape his guilt. The only way to escape his guilt was to find a way to promote collegiality.
Otherwise, as soon as the Qing troops left, Chongzhen would have to jail him.
If an alliance under the city can be forged and the consensus is reached, Chongzhen will naturally have no way to find fault.
Of course, these are all speculations, speculations without evidence.
However, regardless of whether he was a loyal minister or a traitor, many things he did in the past two years cannot be explained. He corresponded with Huang Taiji privately (the originals of these letters are in the National Palace Museum in Taipei). The White Lama traveled between him and Huang Taiji
, threading needles and threads to deliver messages.
In the past two years, various excuses have been used to postpone the Northern Expedition. First, it was delayed for a year because of insufficient preparation. The second year, it could not be postponed, and it was also said that there was a lack of war horses.
The emperor approved the money to buy him horses. In the end, there were 80,000 horses, but not a single one was seen. No one knows where the money went.
Otherwise, there would not be more than 9,000 shabby cavalry now. Instead, there would be 100,000 cavalry rushing to the gates of the capital.
This time, he couldn't explain clearly what happened in Jizhou even though he was talking a lot.
His dismissal of Jizhou's army was useless no matter how he explained it afterwards.
At that time, the troops in Jizhou City included You Shiwei from Changping Town, with 5,000 soldiers; Cao Minglei from Baoding Town, with 3,000 soldiers;
There are more than 10,000 soldiers in the team.
Yuan Chonghuan dismissed the reinforcements before the battle. You Shiwei's troops from Changping Town returned to Changping, Xuanzhen's troops were stationed in Sanhe, and Cao Minglei's troops from Baoding Town's 3,000 soldiers were stationed in Jizhou City, ordering Liu Ce's troops to leave Jizhou and go to Miyun.
Originally, Jimen had a strength of 40,000 to 50,000 troops. Later, Yuan Chonghuan proposed to eliminate old and weak soldiers and streamline some of the troops. Then, when building Jinzhou City, another 10,000 troops were transferred to outside Liaodong Pass. In this way, Jimen defense was
Weak. If Yuan Chonghuan could immediately mobilize troops to strengthen the defense of Jimen after building Jinzhou City, Hou Jin would not have a chance to take advantage of it.
Yuan Chonghuan arrived in Jizhou and finally found Liu Ce, the governor of Jiliao. He said to Liu Ce: I am here in Jizhou. You can go and guard Miyun. It is also very important there.
Liu Ce knew very well that as the governor of Ji Liao, he should be stationed in Jizhou. If he left, if something happened, he would flee the battle. If Governor Yuan did not admit his guilt then, he would be in trouble.
Besides, he lost Zunhua and Santun camps, and the Great Wall defense line collapsed, and he still couldn't explain it.
He then said: "This is the place I am responsible for defending in Jizhou. Why did you let me go, Inspector?"
Because according to the practice of the Ming Dynasty, the defense area of Ji Liao Governor-General is in Ji Town, which is Liu Ce's defense area. Although Yuan Chonghuan also supervises Ji Liao, he only has leadership responsibility. His actual focus is on the Western Liaoning Corridor. He is mainly responsible for outside Shanhaiguan.
Chongzhen clearly clarified the responsibilities of both parties. Qing was responsible for managing troops outside the pass, and evacuating Yu within the pass had separate responsibilities.
So Liu Ce actually didn't want to leave, because the Qing soldiers broke through from here, and he had the greatest responsibility.
But Yuan Chonghuan said: My presence is enough. Then he sent Liu Ce and other reinforcements to various places to set up defenses, leaving his own army to guard Jizhou.
Originally, Liu Ce wanted to fight, but just a few days ago, the emperor issued an order to hand over the command of all reinforcements to Yuan Chonghuan. He had no way to resist. Otherwise, if he continued to resist, it would become a rebellion. Mao Wenlong and Yin Jian
It was not far away. If Governor Yuan got angry, it would not be unprecedented for him to use Shang Fang's sword to kill him. Liu Ce thought about it and gave up, and went to Miyun honestly.
If these things weren't big enough, he also killed Mao Wenlong, and this was even bigger.
This time Governor Yuan invented a curved pursuit, plus the requirement to lead troops into the capital (in the Ming Dynasty, it was a capital offense for guest troops to enter the capital without an imperial decree).
These things accumulated together, and the emperor was already suspicious of what he would think of him.
Everything he did, everything he did, in Chongzhen's opinion, were all beneficial to Huang Taiji.