In the middle of the night, Wuhe County is quiet, looking from the top of the city to the city, there are bonfires everywhere, and you can vaguely see many collapsed or burning houses, and you can hear the cries of women or miserable cries for help everywhere in the bonfires. More of it was the wanton laughter of the Qing army.

Although the stone-paved streets were full of snow and ice, the ice and snow were red, and even the snowflakes could not hide the evil on the ground—a messy street full of corpses, and the corpses of snowflakes formed inconspicuous snowdrifts.

Three days earlier, the city had been conquered by the Qing army led by Abatai. The black smoke rolled between the black heaven and the earth, and this once prosperous city was completely erased from the map, leaving only a broken pile of rubble, which became a ghost city, only the ghosts of the unjustly died were wandering, crying, and there were groups of fierce ghosts, laughing wildly and venting in the ghost domain......

It's been three days.

The army still did not seal the sword, in fact, there was no order to seal the knife at all, after all, the emperor's will was to kill and capture the Southern Dynasty as much as possible, but now Abatai is very depressed - he can't cross the river!

Although after breaking the wall, he led an army of 30,000 days and nights, day and night, and kept going south. Before the Ming people reacted, they rushed to cross the Yellow River, but now they were trapped in the five rivers, and the boats on the north bank of the Huai River were either burned by the Ming Dynasty government or went to the south bank.

Now that the 30,000-strong army is stranded on the south bank, how can he be happy.

As long as there is a boat, he can cross the Huai River to the south and the muddy water to the west, whether it is Zhongdu or Nanjing, it is just the meat on his board, but for now, he doesn't have to think about it.

Without a ship, nothing is empty talk!

"Damn Ming Dog!"

He cursed hatefully in his heart, and then Abatai thought again.

"I don't know, did they grab the ship......"

In the past few days, Abatai has sent a lot of rangers out, grabbing food and killing people, and at the same time, there is also a task to rob ships, but he has also robbed a lot of boats - more than two hundred boats, which seems to be a lot, but that kind of small boat can only pass one horse or a few people, but the problem is that now there are 20,000 Ming troops from Feixiongwei and other places on the other side.

Although he never took the Ming army seriously, it was too risky to send a few people over. Being brave and unstrategic is equivalent to not knowing the soldiers, so Abatai did not take risks.

But the question is, what now?

Is that all there is to it?

Just when Abatai was in a dilemma, there was a report of a minion.

"Lord Belle, Hou Fangyu asks to see you."

"Let him in, I haven't seen him all day today, boy!"

"Lord Belle, I'm overjoyed!"

Before Hou Fangyu entered the door, the voice came in first.

"Hou Fangyu, what's the joy!"

"The minion greets Lord Belle."

When Hou Fangyu saluted, Abatai snorted.

"Hurry up and talk about it, don't sell Guanzi, you Han people are all virtuous, and you always like to sell Guanzi!"

"Back to Lord Belle, the minions have been spinning on the river all day this day. I want to explore whether there is a way to cross the river. ”

"Say, what are you looking at?"

"Lord Belle, the river is frozen!"

Hou Fangyu's words made Abatai unhappy.

"I'm not blind, and the ice is so thin that it may not be able to hold a person, let alone a horse."

Of course, Abatai, who is in Liaodong, knows what it means for the river to freeze, but the ice on the Huai River is too thin to withstand people.

"Lord Belle, the weather has been getting colder and colder in the past two days!"

Hou Fangyu said with a smile.

"The minions will go to the river to investigate sooner or later these days, when we first arrived at the five rivers, the ice thickness on the river is only more than an inch, and there are even many places in the river that are not frozen, and the thin places will be broken when knocked on, which is also the reason why the boat can withdraw to the other side, but last night, the ice thickness of the river has been more than two inches, and the river is basically frozen with a thin layer of ice, and it began to snow heavily last night, and by dawn this day, the ice thickness has exceeded four or five inches. Today, after freezing overnight, at least four or five inches, although it is a little risky to cross the river, it can definitely hold up the horses! ”

"Seriously!"

Abatai asked, his eyes wide in surprise.

"If you wait a few more days, it is estimated that the ice in the river will be a foot thick, Lord Belle, the winter has been getting longer and colder over the years, even the Taihu Lake in the south of the Yangtze River will have more than a foot of thick ice when it reaches the moon, let alone the Huai River?"

Hou Fangyu did not know that this was the "Xiaoice River Period" that would lead to a large drop in the earth's temperature, and the lowest temperature stage was the end of the Ming Dynasty, Tan Qian once mentioned in the "Northern Journey" that in November of the solar calendar in 1654, the ice of the Wujiang Canal was more than three feet thick, and it froze from Wujiang to Jiaxing. This is rare in history, which shows the cold weather in Jiangnan during this period. At that time, there were even records of the Yangtze River freezing.

As for the ice sealing of the Huai River, it is also very common.

"You kid, but I have a long face for my master again!"

Laughing, Abatai patted Hou Fangyu's shoulder hard.

"When I return to Shengjing, I will recommend a sixth-grade, no, fourth-grade court official to your boy, you can rest assured, as long as the Great Qing Kingdom is a talent, it will definitely not bury you! When the time comes, you will also advise the emperor on military affairs! ”

"Oh, the slave thanks the master for his grace!"

Hou Fangyu immediately knelt down and kowtowed in gratitude, his father worked hard all his life, and he was just a Shangshu of the household department, but now he is still locked up in a prison, and he is only twenty years old when he goes out, and he has become a four-grade court official, and when the Great Qing Kingdom enters the Central Plains in the future, he can not only be the founding father, even if he is a cabinet elder, he is not undeserved!

Of course, while fantasizing about the future, when the city of Guide was broken, the grandfathers and uncles who committed suicide or died at the hands of the Qing army were not in the scope of his consideration.

"You kid, look, as soon as I heard that I was going to recommend you out of the house, you kid was happy, you Han people, all of them are official fans!"

Lord Beile's words made Hou Fangyu's heart tighten, and he hurriedly said.

"Look at what you said, a slave can be an official, not all of them are the grace of Lord Belle, and if he can serve the Qing Kingdom in the future, that is also the face of Lord Belle."

"You're sensible!"

Abatai, who was in a good mood, didn't care, but smiled directly.

"Come on, spread the word about the three armies today, sleep enough tonight, and cross the river before dawn tomorrow!"

Just as Abatai's order to cross the river, Hou Fangyu looked at Lord Belle and asked.

"Lord Belle, the slave has a word, I don't know if to ask or not! I don't know where Lord Belle wants to send troops after crossing the river? Is it the central capital, or is it going south? ”