On the second day after Shang Kexi retreated, the reinforcements of the Shang army also arrived at Wu Xi. The cavalry division of the Third Army came to rescue Wu Xi. Shang Yi formulated a rescue plan to allow the cavalry division to join Wu Xi's garrison, first defeat Shang Zhixin's troops stationed at Gaoqiao, and then attack Shang Kexi to relieve the danger in Jiangyin.
However, Shang Kexi's withdrawal caused the combat plan of the Shangjia Army to fail. Afterwards, Shang Kexi learned the news and felt lucky, because Shang Zhixin's troops stationed in Gaoqiao Town had only 20,000 troops, and the Cavalry Division and the Fifth Division stationed in Wu Xi combined the total strength of more than 20,000, and half of them were cavalry. Therefore, this battle was indeed very successful.
However, now all the troops have been withdrawn to Changzhou, and the losses are finally not big. Therefore, Shang Kexi feels very glad that he is temporarily stationed in Changzhou and does not move his troops. At the same time, he also inquires about the news about Wu Sangui on the other side.
This time, Wu Sangui dispatched a total of 80,000 troops to attack Zhejiang, and he was in charge of Liyang. He sent his general Xia Guoxiang and Ma Bao to Jianping, and sent his general Hu Guozhu and Gao Dajie to attack Yixing on the west bank of Taihu Lake. At this time, Cheng Jin was in charge of Huzhou, divided his troops to guard Guangdezhou and Changxing, and fought against the Qing army. The total strength was three infantry divisions and one infantry brigade. In addition, the fourth and fifth squadrons also sailed into Taihu Lake to guard.
When Wu Sangui attacked Yangzhou in Jiangbei, he had seen the fierce firepower of the Shangjia Army defending the city. He also carefully studied the two battles of Jianghuai and Nanjing. He knew that Shang Yi was flexible in using troops and was good at defeating one by one, so he did not dare to attack the Shangjia Army's defense line easily. The two sides just dispatched heavy troops to guard the Taihu Lake coast, and could not stand stalemate.
Therefore, the attacks of the Qing army from both sides can be described as loud thunder and small raindrops. For more than ten days, neither side had any further engagement. Moreover, no matter how Ajige persuaded him, Wu Sangui, monk Kexi, was determined to find various reasons to refuse, and even established an offensive and defensive alliance, deliberately opposing each other. Wu Sangui believed that the merchant army on Shang Kexi's side had weak military strength, so he should take the lead in launching an attack; while Shang Kexi emphasized that Wu Sangui's strength was stronger than him, and he could only attack after Wu Sangui launched the attack first.
As a result, Ajige was so angry that he wanted to arrest these two guys and slaughter them. But even though he was angry, Ajige was not a brainless person. Now, the total force of Monk Wu Sangui Kexi exceeded 150,000, and his total force in Jiangnan was only more than 100,000. What should I do to capture them? If Monk Wu Sangui Kexi forced Monk Wu Sangui Kexi to counterattack, then the Qing court's great cause of purge of the world was over, and Dorgon would definitely not be able to spare himself.
Therefore, Ajige couldn't help but feel a little regretful. It was like this long ago, so he shouldn't have sent them to fight. Now he is not even able to advance or retreat. How can he end? He had to report to Beijing and let Dorgon decide.
Although Shang Yi had expected the Qing army to launch an attack on Zhejiang and had made various solutions, he really did not expect this situation of not attacking. Although the Qing army did not launch an attack on Zhejiang, it suppressed Zhejiang's defensive forces, which made the Shang army dare not act rashly. Moreover, this time the Qing army also absorbed the lessons of the previous two battles, and the various troops were closely connected, making it difficult to implement the tactics of defeating one by one by one by one by the merchant army. At the same time, Ajige's was also in Nanjing, with more than 80,000 troops. Although his purpose was to watch the tiger fight, and let the monk Wu Sangui be happy to fight with the Shang army, objectively, it also played the role of protecting the Qing army's outside line.
Therefore, this situation also made Shang Yi feel that he had nowhere to start, which made him feel troubled. However, Shang Yi was definitely not a person who was willing to be beaten passively. If he could not find the weakness of the enemy, he would mainly attack and try the Qing army's response first. Now both sides are basically surrounding Taihu Lake and divided into two lines of north and south. Then in the middle of the east and west banks of Taihu Lake, there is a relatively large area between both sides. However, because the merchant army stationed a fleet in Taihu Lake, he was not worried that the Qing army would attack across the lake, but now he may be able to find a breakthrough to break the Qing army's blockade from here.
Just as Shang Yi was facing the map and looking for a breakthrough point to attack, at this moment, Ming Shiji came in to rescue him and reported to Shang Yi that the Qing army had already broken through Huizhou, and Zhu Changqing, the king of Lu who was supervising the state in Huizhou, was captured.
At this time, Akishiji was in charge of transforming the remaining troops of the Xuanhuang Sect. An intelligence network was established in the areas near Zhejiang. Lu Wang Zhu Changqing was in charge of the state of Huizhou, and Lu Wang Zhu Yihai was in charge of the state of Wenzhou. These two places naturally became the areas currently under the focus of intelligence network monitoring. As soon as the Qing army sent troops to attack Huizhou, Shang Yi immediately knew about it, so he asked Akishiji to collect information feedback from Huizhou at any time.
Now that he heard the news of Akishiji's report, Shang Yi was also very surprised and said, "Is it so fast?"
Because Shang Yi knew that the Qing army sent troops from Nanjing to attack Huizhou on March 5th, and it was March 12th. It would take at least one day for the Qing army to send it from Huizhou to Hangzhou, and then deducted the time for the Qing army to march, so there was not much time for actual war. Moreover, in terms of strength, Huizhou is obviously much stronger than Wenzhou. Now, the Huizhou Supervisor Group has gathered many Yuanming officials. In terms of military affairs, the former general Fang Guoan, his nephew Fang Yuanke, and Chen Hongfan have gathered more than 20,000 people, which is not small. How could it be defeated so quickly?
Akishiji nodded and then told Shang Yi about the detailed story.
It turned out that after Huang Zongxi returned to Huizhou, he explained Shang Yi's attitude to Zhu Changqing. To be honest, Zhu Changqing was really willing to go to Hangzhou, but he couldn't help but decide on the matters in Huizhou.
Although Lu Wang had just been appointed as the governor of the country for less than a month, and Huizhou could not be called a normal court at this time, it was divided into two clear-cut factions. One was represented by the Donglin Party, which escaped from Nanjing, represented by Huang Zongxi, Huang Zhenzhou and others, and had the glorious tradition of infighting. The other was the local forces such as Yuan Hongxun, Zhang Bingzhen, Zhu Dadian, and He Lun who supported Zhu Changqing as the governor of the country for great strength.
The remnants of Donglin agreed on whether to send Lu Wang to Hangzhou, but local forces strongly opposed it. The two factions argued endlessly about this. Even Huang Zhenzhou proposed the resolution to ask Zhu Changqing to become emperor as soon as possible.
Of course, whether it is agreeing or opposing, it is all out of consideration for the interests of the two factions, rather than to truly take into account the overall situation. Because Nanjing was lost, the Donglin Party had to bear the main responsibility, and many important members of the Donglin Party surrendered to the Qing court. Qian Qianyi's article of persuading surrender had spread throughout the south. This was a heavy blow to the Donglin Party, which boasted of being a loyal and righteous gentleman, and greatly weakened the reputation of the Donglin Party.