For several days, the Qing army was unable to cross the Yangtze River and contact Duduo in Nanjing. Hong Chengchou also knew that Duduo's current situation was probably very dangerous.
However, at this time, the land troops evacuated from Nanjing, led by Ibaitu, had arrived in Wuchang, and told Hong Chengchou that the Qing troops in Nanjing had begun to evacuate by waterways, and Duduo would evacuate Nanjing with the second group of troops.
, arrived in Wuchang to supervise the division.
This news also brought a glimmer of hope to Hong Chengchou. After all, a group of people had evacuated safely from Nanjing, indicating that the situation in Nanjing did not seem to be that serious now. Therefore, Hong Chengchou also hoped that Duduo could be safe with the second group of people.
They evacuated out of Nanjing. But soon this glimmer of hope was completely shattered, because the ships escaping from Nanjing also arrived in Wuchang, bringing news to Hong Chengchou that the navy of the Merchant Army had blocked the Yangtze River.
At this time, Hong Chengchou also knew that Duduo was probably in danger. If he had enough time, there would be no way to rescue Duduo. For example, he could gather a large army to cross the river from Hubei and then follow the river.
Next, there is still a great chance to rescue Nanjing.
It's just that this will take at least one or two days, and the top priority of the Qing Army now is to quickly send reinforcements back to reinforce Beijing, so other things are secondary. Therefore, it is simply impossible
So much time was spent to rescue Duduo who was surrounded in Nanjing.
Although Hong Chengchou also knew that if Duduo was really trapped and died in Nanjing this time, whether he was killed or captured, he might not be able to escape the involvement, but there was no other way but to resign himself to his fate. But Hong Chengchou
At this time, I felt very
He was angry because he had urged Duduo to cross the river several times before, but Duduo refused to listen and has been delaying it until now. Therefore, in this way, Duduo brought it on himself and no one else could do anything about it. Now he
I can only ask God to bless me.
What caused Hong Chengchou a headache was not only Duduo, but also Dorgon's plan to retain the land in Jiangbei, which might also come to nothing.
Because the Qing army's forces in the south and north of the Yangtze River are now roughly distributed, but the traffic between the north and the south has been cut off by the merchant army, leaving only Hubei. Therefore, most of the Qing army's troops left in the south of the Yangtze River may not be able to withdraw to the north of the Yangtze River in a short time.
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At this time, the Qing army still had 2.67 million troops in the northern part of the Yangtze River, and Dorgon ordered that 150,000 troops be transferred back to Beijing to aid Beijing. Then there were only more than 100,000 troops left, and it was impossible to defend the vast territory in the north of the Yangtze River.
The area, not to mention the merchant army in the Hubei area, was not completely wiped out. They just hid in the Dabie Mountains. Once the Qing army evacuated the Huangzhou Prefecture area, they could immediately make a comeback.
However, before the merchant army breaks through Nanjing, it is impossible for Jiangbei to use large-scale troops. Therefore, Jiangbei can still be stable for the time being. Now it can only take one step at a time to relieve the difficulties in the north first and see what happens next.
There will be no turning point. If Duduo holds on to Nanjing, the merchant army loses too much force when attacking Nanjing, or if the Qing army pacifies the north and then quickly moves troops south, etc., there may be a turning point.
So Hong Chengchou also summoned Le Kedehun, Shang Gai and others to discuss the plan to withdraw the troops. In the end, everyone decided that Tan Tai, Ibaitu, Tong Tulai and Shi Tingzhu would lead the troops respectively and return to Beijing from Huguang and Jianghuai routes to increase the number of troops.
He also brought the Ming Dynasty's clan, officials, and a batch of money, food and materials back to Beijing and handed them over to the court for processing. Other generals accompanying him included Rambai, Shuo Zhan, Ahanikan, Ajigenikan and Mongolia.
Flag people.
On the front line in Jiangbei, Nileke Dehun led Zhumala, Warkhazhumala, Ma Guanghui, Haiertu and others to garrison De'an Prefecture, defend the Hubei front line, take charge of Huangzhou Prefecture, and mobilize
Han Dai, who was stationed in Changsha, returned to Wuchang and was controlled by Leke Dehun. Hong Chengchou led Taishiha, Li Sizhong, Shi Yan, Shen Zhixiang, Wu Chaozuo, Jin Guangyu, Tong Dai and others to garrison.
Fengyang Mansion, together with Ah Shan who was stationed in Guide Mansion, defended the front line of the Yangtze River and Huaihe River. Then they tried to notify other Qing troops in the south and asked them to divert from the Hubei area and evacuate to the north of the Yangtze River. Shang Shan was still stationed in Huangzhou to prevent hiding.
The Merchant Army in the Dabie Mountains, but after the evacuation of all parties, the garrison in Huangzhou will only have about 15,000 people left.
After the assignment was completed, Hong Chengchou also immediately ordered that all groups of troops set off to their respective destinations. At the same time, he wrote a detailed report, reporting the current situation in the south and his own arrangements to the Qing court.
Report to Qingchu and wait for the court's disposal.
After all the major matters were taken care of, all that was left were some of his personal affairs. Hong Chengchou didn't have any personal property or beautiful women, but he still couldn't forget Zhao Yue who was arrested. And this was another thing that gave Hong Chengchou a headache.
, because several days have passed, Zhao Yue's attitude is still very resolute. No matter how much Hong Chengchou shows kindness and Li Benzhen repeatedly persuades, Zhao Yue refuses to surrender, and every time he reprimands Li Benzhen.
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Later, Hong Chengchou brought Li Benzhen to personally persuade Zhao Yue to surrender. However, Zhao Yue was ridiculed and ridiculed by Zhao Yue. Hong Chengchou's face turned red and he wished he could order Zhao Yue to be pushed out and beheaded immediately.
Yes. This is not the case
Never before, Hong Chengchou had persuaded other Ming Dynasty officials to surrender before, but he got angry and killed several of them. But this time Hong Chengchou actually endured it, just smiled bitterly, and then took Li Benzhen with him.
Left Zhao Yue's room.
Of course, Hong Chengchou had his own reasons for persuading Zhao Yue to surrender, because through the interrogation of other merchant officers and soldiers who surrendered, Hong Chengchou also knew that Zhao Yue was a very outstanding mid-level officer in the merchant army and was very valued by Li Dingguo.
Moreover, his background is different from that of Li Benzhen. He was a merchant soldier.
He started at the grassroots level and was promoted step by step. He also participated in the short-term training courses of the military academy founded by Ye Shangyi. Therefore, he was very familiar with the entire process of training soldiers of the Merchant Army. He had participated in several important battles of the Merchant Army.
He also has a thorough understanding of the Merchant Army's tactical ideas and on-the-battle command methods.
Li Benshen was originally a subordinate of Gao Jie. He led his troops to defect to Shang Yi, so he served as the regiment leader from the beginning. Although he was much higher than Zhao Yue, his actual ability was far inferior to Zhao Yue.
When Li Benzhen defected to Shang Yi, Zhao Yue also
He was just a company commander, but now Li Benzhen has only been promoted one level to become a brigade commander. According to Li Dingguo's intention, Zhao Yue was originally the deputy brigade commander, but he did not want to take the deputy position, so he condescended to be a regiment commander. Compare the two
The speed of promotion and ability of a person can be seen clearly.
If this southern expedition had succeeded, Hong Chengchou might not be so eager to surrender Zhao Yue, but now that the Qing government had placed high hopes on him, his southern expedition might have ended in failure.
, it is inevitable that he will be dismissed or moved to the left. Of course, Hong Chengchou is not willing to remain silent like this from now on, but if he wants to make a comeback, he must find all the means.
To really deal with the Merchant Army, we must have a more and more thorough understanding of Shang Yi and the Merchant Army, and Zhao Yue must be surrendered. Hong Chengchou is also very clear in his heart. In these aspects, Zhao Yue is better than Li Benzhen.
Much more useful. That's why he could tolerate Zhao Yue's cynicism towards him. After all, it was related to his future achievements in officialdom. A little impatience would ruin a big plan.
But the problem is that Zhao Yue and Li Benzhen not only have different origins, but also have very different education levels. Through this period of understanding, Hong Chengchou also discovered that Zhao Yue had received a very good education in traditional Confucianism, and he refused to surrender. , not because of his respect for Shang Yi, nor his loyalty to the Ming Dynasty, but because of the Confucian reputation of benevolence and righteousness, which he valued more than his own life, so he passed the time by dictating Wen Tianxiang's "Song of Righteousness" With time, we can see these clues.
It is precisely because of this that the methods and rhetoric used by Hong Chengchou to surrender Li Benzhen were of no use to Zhao Yue. On the contrary, Zhao Yue quoted Confucian classics and refuted them one by one. Hong Chengchou also knew that this kind of person is also the most difficult to persuade. It's useless to threaten him with death. Wasn't that what he was like back then? As a result...
At this time, Hong Chengchou discovered that every time he thought of Zhao Yue, he could not help but think of his own body. Is it because he saw his shadow in Zhao Yue's body, or was it because he always regretted why he couldn't be like him back then? If Zhao Yue is like this, should he persist a little longer? Or maybe he wants to see how far Zhao Yue can persist in the end. Can he really sacrifice his life for justice like Wen Tianxiang, or will he surrender in the end like himself? ?
And which outcome did he hope Zhao Yue would choose? Thinking of this, Hong Chengchou couldn't help but smile bitterly, because he found that he was not sure which choice Zhao Yue would make.
At this moment, Hong Chengchou suddenly had an idea and came up with a good idea. After thinking about it several times, he felt that it was indeed feasible and that this was the only way to persuade Zhao Yue to surrender. So Hong Chengchou also got up and walked into the room. He walked back and forth for a few steps and murmured to himself: "Zhao Yue! Zhao Yue, it's you who pushed me to this point. I think you have no other option but to surrender?"
So the next day, Hong Chengchou also ordered to raise troops and rushed from Huangzhou to Fengyang Mansion. Of course, he also took Zhao Yue with him.
After arriving at Fengyang Mansion, Hong Chengchou also immediately reorganized the current troops. At this time, the Qing army only had more than 60,000 troops on the Jianghuai front line. Ah Shan led 30,000 troops to garrison Guide Mansion, and Teshiha led 15,000 troops. To garrison Luzhou, Liu Zhiyuan led Li Sizhong, Shi Yan led 10,000 troops to garrison Huai'an Prefecture, and the rest followed Hong Chengchou to garrison Fengyang.