Reading the telegram, Yonggui was astonished and speechless. After dozens of seconds, he raised his head and stared at Xiang Xiaoqiang and several other people with sweat on his forehead.
It came down like a "wow".
Xiang Xiaoqiang leaned back in the chair triumphantly, leaned back, stretched out two fingers with his right hand, and smiled quickly as he felt a stomach ache, then he held up a cigarette and lit it. Xiang Xiaoqiang stretched out his left hand again, and Hu Jiong quickly
He picked up the ashtray and placed it in front of him.
Xiang Xiaoqiang took a puff, blew out a few smoke rings happily, and looked at Yonggui with a smile.
Yong Gui's face was as white as a sheet of paper, and his face was covered with sweat. He raised his eyes, glanced at the group of people opposite him, and in his heart he greeted all eight generations of their ancestors, and then he stood up unsteadily.
He said weakly:
"Then...that's good, that's fine...since you...have solved it yourself, then...I have to report to our emperor...the emperor...I'm sorry..."
Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled and said:
"Ah, Sir Yong, please excuse me."
Then he raised his head to signal, Hu Jiong opened the door for him, and Yonggui stumbled out.
…
At this time, Guangwu in Beijing had just received a report that the Ming army was marching into Ankang from Hanzhong. This news was neither from Hanzhong nor Ankang, but a telegram sent from Hanyin County. That is to say, the Ming army marched from Hanzhong to Ankang.
When a swarm of people drove past the mountain road in front of Hanyin County, the officials of Hanyin County were shocked and hurriedly reported to Beijing.
But after all, this was the news a few hours ago, and it was already quite lagging behind. After Guangwu was stunned, he was trying his best to verify it by all means. He sent another report to Hanyin, but there was no reply from Hanyin. He sent a report to Ankang, and Ankang
There was no reply!... If you send a report to Hanzhong, there will definitely be no reply. Hanzhong has long been controlled by the Ming army.
At this time, the "verification" that Guangwu desperately wanted came. Yonggui, the Nanjing secret messenger, sent a telegram saying that Nanming claimed that they had just taken control of Ankang half an hour ago.
Guangwu was also sweating. What he was most afraid of now was that the Ming army would see that his negotiations were a delaying tactic and would cause trouble midway, looking for excuses to terminate the peace talks and resume the war.
After receiving the telegram, he held his head in his hands and thought fiercely.
...The focus of defense in the Hanzhong area is in the Hanzhong Basin. The Ankang Basin has always been relatively secondary and not taken seriously. Now it is a fact that Ankang is neglected. With the consistent speed of the Ming army, it can be taken with lightning speed.
It is entirely possible to seize Ankang. Now that the Ming army is like this, there are two possibilities for suddenly launching an "open robbery" in the middle of negotiations.
One is that they no longer want to negotiate peace. Seeing that Hanzhong has been taken and Ankang is still unable to negotiate, they simply grab it and take the opportunity to break up and start fighting again.
The second type is that they still want to negotiate peace, but they are afraid that the Qing Dynasty is deliberately stalling for time, and they are impatient to wait, so they will take Ankang away by themselves. What to do next, let’s talk about it later.
Guangwu analyzed it for a while and felt that the second possibility was more likely. After all, the Qinling Mountains had not been handed over to Nanming yet, and the Qinling Mountains were completely lofty mountains. It was impossible for Nanming to use the same method of attacking Ankang to raid the Qinling Mountains. Of course, it was also possible.
Using persuasion to surrender, but... negotiating with the garrison in the Qinling Mountains who are waiting to take advantage of the situation will be faster than negotiating with the central government of the Qing Dynasty?
The most important thing is that Guangwu doesn't dare or can't imagine that Nan Ming is about to start a fight. He can only put all his hope in Nan Ming's patience to negotiate. As long as the negotiations can continue, everything will be easy to talk about.
Now the reinforcements of the Qing Dynasty are marching secretly at night. They have entered Shanxi and passed Datong in the past few days. They will reach Taiyuan in five or six days. To the south of Taiyuan, the Jinzhong Plain is relatively open, but to the north of Taiyuan, Jinzhong
The plain ends. There are mountains on the east and west sides of Taiyuan, and only Taiyuan City itself is the gateway to continue going north. As long as the five Eight Banner Divisions and the fifteen Han Army Divisions guard the Taiyuan line, the northern half of Shanxi will be saved.
When he thought of this, he immediately stood up, called Chongshan, the deputy director of the left side of the sticky pole, and ordered:
"Send a report to Yonggui immediately! Let him test it out at the negotiating table, listen to the Ming side's tone, and find out whether the Ming army's raid on Ankang was fought? If it was fought, was it violent or not?... If there was not much fighting at all,
Or maybe it was a small fight, but without a big fight, let him stick to his guns at the negotiating table and call it a 'peace'
Takeover', we must not admit that this is an armed attack by the Ming army! Even if the Ming army themselves say that they fought the war, we must not admit it and insist that this takeover is very peaceful... Do you understand? Whether the peace talks can continue will depend on
Judging from how he behaved... they occupied it so quickly, I guess I won't fight much."
Chongshan also understood what Guangwu meant, leaned over and said:
"嗻!"
Chongshan went to send the report, but Guangwu felt more and more awkward as he thought about it, as if he had eaten a fly.
During the peace talks between the two parties, one side suddenly launched a unilateral attack and said carelessly at the negotiation table: Yes, we are attacking you, what's wrong?...Then, the other side has to keep smiling and refuse to admit it.
: No matter what, look at what you said, you didn't attack us. You just took over the place peacefully. Anyway, this is the place we are talking about. If you take over, it will save us trouble... Haha, it's okay, let's continue.
When negotiating, don’t hurt your harmony...
Guangwu couldn't hold back the suffocation in his chest, and finally broke out, roared, and kicked the chair over. The guards outside hurriedly rushed in, only to find that the emperor was hysterically kicking the chair on the ground, and one of the chair legs had been broken...
…
In Nanjing, after Yonggui received the call back from Beijing, he immediately understood Guangwu's spirit and returned to the negotiation table. He first tried a few words with a smile. He did not mention the words "raid" or "occupation", but
I casually said "take over", then with a smile on my face, I carefully paid attention to the other person's reaction.
Sure enough, none of the Mingfang representatives opposite, whether it was the young man Xiang Xiaoqiang or the old man Song Ruhai, had any unusual reactions when they heard the word "take over", and they still listened calmly with a smile.
Yonggui secretly breathed a sigh of relief. After all, Mingfang admitted that this was a "peaceful takeover"... Then, the basis for the peace talks was still there, and it could finally continue.
The two sides continued to negotiate in a friendly manner. Since Hanzhong and Ankang were already in Ming's hands, it was natural that the two sides would talk about the Qinling Mountains next.
Xiang Xiaoqiang went straight to the point and asked the Qinling garrison to surrender immediately, and within a time limit of 3 o'clock tomorrow morning, the two Qing army garrison divisions entrenched in Wuguan Road and Dashanguan Road all walked out of the fortifications and concentrated their weapons.
, the whole army stood on both sides of the road, waiting for the Ming army to surrender.
Yonggui was shocked, he didn't expect it to be so horizontal and so tight.
It is already five o'clock in the afternoon, and it will be three o'clock in the morning, which means there are still 11 hours. This time is just right. If you want to delay, 11 hours is too tight. But if you don't want to delay,
It is a very sincere surrender. If we send the order to "move" now, to be fair, those 11 hours will be relatively sufficient.
Yonggui smiled and said:
"Sir Xiang, are you too...too unilateral and tough? Negotiations are always between both parties. You are taking a piece of our land, and then you are going to take a piece of our land, and then you are going to give us back.
They want to take a piece of our land... and it's unconditional, not even leaving us any room for bargaining. Does this violate the basic spirit of negotiation? Since it is a negotiation, there must be back and forth...
"
"Huh?" Xiang Xiaoqiang reached out and flicked the ashes into the ashtray and asked curiously, "Master Yong, what do you mean? Do you want to regret it?"
"My lord, what does this mean?"
He raised his eyebrows at Xiaoqiang and said with a smile:
"Didn't our army stop in Shanxi a long time ago? If Xiang remembers correctly, 'Hand over Qinling and Hanzhong immediately' was the condition you promised that day in exchange for our agreement to stop in Shanxi. Qinling and Hanzhong,
This was promised to us as a whole. Now we have been stopped in Shanxi for several days, but you are dragging your feet and have not fully fulfilled your promise. How can you now accuse us of not leaving any room?"
Seeing that Yonggui's sneaky change of concept failed to scare Xiang Xiaoqiang, he smiled in embarrassment and changed his strategy:
"Sir Xiang, you also know that the efficiency of our Qing Dynasty in handling these matters...how should I put it, is not as good as yours...just take today's incident as an example. You were a little impatient and did not inform me.
Fang, just take over Ankang directly... Of course, in the end,
The result is not bad, everyone is satisfied... This is your efficiency! Haha, sir, to be honest, if you really don't take over, just rely on our handling, and the Ankang garrison will surrender.
It will take at least a day or so...
...Haha, so you really can't be too hasty. You have a time limit of 11 hours. This is obviously asking us for your efficiency... Haha, sir, sir, please be more understanding.
One day earlier and one day later, this kind of
Don't be so stuck on technical issues... You see, this Qinling Mountains is not the Ankang Basin. If we haven't coordinated well here and you take over on your own, there may be misunderstandings on the two pass roads.
, hurt the harmony..."
Xiang Xiaoqiang heard what he said: now the Qinling Mountains are in the hands of our army, if I ask for some mercy, you have to give me some mercy. Otherwise, I don't believe you can raid the Qinling Mountains like you did the Ankang raid.
Xiang Xiaoqiang sneered and said:
"Well, naturally we will not 'take over' the Qinling Mountains like we 'taken over' Ankang, but we can continue to take over Shanxi."
Yonggui was startled. He didn't expect Xiang Xiaoqiang to speak so decisively. Don't they, Nanming, want to negotiate? Don't they want to end the war with dignity and secure the fruits of victory? Do they really want to fight with Xiang Xiaoqiang in the cold winter?
How many millions of troops of the Qing Dynasty were fighting in the north?
Xiang Xiaoqiang seemed to be very impatient. He knocked on the table and said:
"Master Yong, don't worry too much. It's best to go back and send a message to your emperor now, asking him if he can do this before three o'clock tomorrow morning. If not, just say no. Although 11 hours is quite generous, it can be done
We can't stop dragging our feet. Time flies, and time flies by. We all must cherish every minute and every second of the good time."
Yonggui decided to make a final desperate move.
He frowned and said sadly:
"Sir Xiang, before 3 o'clock in the morning, that was your speed! We are not that fast! Sir Xiang, can we all show some patience? It is really not easy for everyone to sit together. This battle is going to be fought.
Life is in ruins. Since we have stopped it now, let’s try not to let it start fighting again, okay?”
Xiang Xiaoqiang saw that his tone had changed a bit, as if he had become tougher. It seemed to indicate that they were not afraid to continue fighting if they were pushed into a hurry.
Yonggui picked up the cup, took a sip of water, suppressed his impatience, and softened his words:
"My lord...you said it's three o'clock in the morning. Why is it so stuck? Can't you be more tactful?"
Xiang Xiaoqiang smiled:
"Master Yong, let me tell you why we insist on three o'clock in the morning."
"Ah...please tell me, sir."
Xiang Xiaoqiang leaned forward and said word by word:
"Because we are going to launch an offensive against Taiyuan at 3:30 in the morning... Okay, now we are telling you clearly. Can you please be tactful?"
Yonggui was stunned for the second time in the afternoon.
Without saying anything more, he immediately got up to accuse him and went to send a telegram to Guangwu.
…
An hour later, Yonggui came back and walked there tiredly, telling the Ming side representatives that the emperor accepted and would completely hand over the Qinling Mountains before three o'clock in the morning.
Upon hearing this, several representatives from the Ming side looked at each other calmly, but their hearts were filled with joy.
In addition to the Yangtze River, another major natural barrier between north and south China, the Qinling Mountains, was finally "accepted" at the negotiation table.