In the spring of the nineteenth year of Chongzhen, on April 23, when the snow melted, when Hongtang Wu Jie's department was stationed in Phoenix City, he suffered from the fierce siege of the Qing army.

In the battle, the Hongtang garrison Phoenix City army suffered more than 5,700 wounds and more than 4,300 deaths, and the Qing and Han troops suffered no less than 20,000 casualties.

In the same month, less than 100 miles away from Phoenix, the Qing Dynasty launched an attack at the same time, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming, two Dongjiang Town commanders stationed in Hat Helmet Mountain, led more than 10,000 Dongjiang Town soldiers to counterattack, after three days of hard fighting, the Qing Dynasty finally did not succeed, and the Hat Helmet Mountain was still in the hands of the Dongjiang Town army, and Phoenix City was each other's horns.

It's just that in the information that Li Tianyang knows, the movement of Geng Kong's troops on Hat Helmet Mountain is a little weird.

The soldiers under the command of Gu Gengkong secretly reported that the Qing army attacking the Hat Helmet Mountain at that time seemed to be fierce and long-lasting, but the pressure on the soldiers of Dongjiang Town on the mountain was extremely low, and there seemed to be a feeling of thunder and rain.

At the same time, at the time of the attack on the mountain, the movements of the two general soldiers of Geng Kong were different, and many close officers often came and went in and out of the tent, and the length of time they stayed in the military tent was different, but no one knew the details.

Geng Kong and the others were originally summoned into the Hongtang army when the Hongtang army left Korea, after ambushing the other party on Ganghwa Island, where the palace of the Korean Kingdom is located, and finally forcing the other party to surrender.

For this kind of general, Li Tianyang and Hongmen themselves have never discriminated against them because of this, but the so-called prevention is better than prevention, Li Tianyang and they did not deliberately monitor the other party's actions, for security reasons, the Hongmen external guard system is next to the two general soldiers of Geng Kong in Dongjiang Town, and a lot of secret agents are placed in it.

On weekdays, the situation of these two general soldiers, as long as it is not a big mistake or taboo, although the outer guards monitor them, they have not deliberately reported to Li Tianyang because of this, but now the geographical location of the two is critical, and the northern war situation is closely related to the future of Hongmen, and no clue can be treated sloppily.

After discovering that the movements of Geng Kong's two deputy commanders on Hat Helmet Mountain were secretive, the outer guards used an urgent express letter to report the situation back to Li Tianyang on Dayuan Island.

Geng Kong and the others are now one of the four leaders of Dongjiang Town, unless there is real evidence in front of the sea, otherwise even if Dongjiang Town's nominal number one is still gratifying, it is not easy to do anything to these two people.

What's more, this is the time to employ people, if these two generals are taken down without explanation, it may cause turmoil in the hearts of the Hongtang army and damage the Hongtang army.

For today's plan, the only one who can make up his mind is Li Tianyang, who is thousands of miles away, and he can decide how to deal with these two general soldiers, and he can also persuade Wu Jie, Shang Kexi and others who are far away outside the Liaodong Pass at this time to do it.

Li Tianyang Chen thought about this for a long time, it was precisely because of the importance of the matter that Li Tianyang could not afford to lose this war, so he needed to worry about too many things, far from being as easy as his performance when he showed it to the public.

In the end, Li Tianyang picked up his pen and began to write on a piece of stationery: closely monitor the movements of the two, and when there is no rebellion, they must not act rashly.

In the end, Li Tianyang was still willing to believe in the loyalty of these two general soldiers to Hongmen, although it was not out of the idea that there was no doubt about the use of people, but Li Tianyang believed that with the prospects shown by Hongmen and the favor given to these two general soldiers by Hongmen, at least they would not be allowed to make a decision when the main force of Hongtang's army and the Qing army was not divided.

At this time, they had tens of thousands of Dongjiang Town troops in their hands, but many of them were in the hands of their cronies, and if they wanted to win this war and other victories, Li Tianyang needed to unite every force in his hands.

And just as the foreign guards reported back the early warning, the Qing people did find Geng Zhongming and Kong Youde, two former Qing Dynasty generals, and gave them the price of various high-ranking officials, trying to impress these two generals who had never been resolute enough, so that they could fight back and help themselves win the war.

It's just that the high-ranking officials given by the Qing Dynasty were placed in front of two people who had never been loyal, although it did make the hearts of these two commanders moved, but it did not let them turn their hearts into action and betray their current masters.

This is something that even Geng Zhongming and Kong Youde themselves did not expect. It is said that the treatment given by the Qing people is really not small, and the position of any banner owner of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty is selected by the two of them, with a reward of tens of thousands of taels of silver, two counties of fiefdom, etc., and they can continue to negotiate with this.

The contest between the Qing people and the Hongtang army made Prince Dorgon change from full confidence at the beginning to a little worried. His worry was not that he was afraid that he would not be able to defeat the enemy in front of him, but that after finally defeating the strong enemy in front of him, their soldiers of the Eight Banners of the Great Qing Dynasty would suffer heavy losses, which would affect their southward attack on the vast territory of the Ming Dynasty and establish a territory of the Great Qing Dynasty that would not be easy for eternity.

Only by expanding the territory of the Qing Dynasty to this point can he Dolgon be able to trample on a large number of opponents in the country, so that his power can reach the peak, and then ascend to the throne occupied by the yellow-haired child, and no one dares to question it.

The young Prince Rui, before he has destroyed the enemy in front of him, has already begun to plan the overall situation of the future, for this overall situation, he does not care about giving some things outside his body to win over some enemies, so that he Dolgon still has such a heart.

Even Fan Wencheng, Deng Changchun, and Zhang Shang, who were reused by the emperor's brother in the previous dynasty, Dolgon could continue to reuse them, not to mention the matter of winning over some enemies and making the Qing warriors suffer fewer losses.

Although from the bottom of his heart, Dolgon looked down on the despicable characters of the Han people such as greed for life and fear of death, bullying the soft and afraid of the hard, but he also knew that the future Qing Dynasty wanted to occupy the rich land in the south, and in the end it was inseparable from these Han ministers and generals, but Dolgon needed the Han people to understand that even if they made great contributions, they were all slaves and subordinates, and the Jurchen warriors were the masters, and they could kill and take the lives of their minions!!

This is the true purpose of the young Prince Rui, who has both rewards and severe punishments for the Han ministers and military generals around him.

"Lao Geng, you should give a quasi-word, are we against it or not?"

As an old partner for many years, Kong Youde has always attacked and retreated with Geng Zhongming, even if he is actually very excited about the treatment given by Daqing Ren in his heart, he still habitually looks at Geng Zhongming's choice.

“……”

It is naturally against his heart to say that he is not moved by the promises made by the Qing people, but Geng Zhongming, who has been in the Qing Dynasty for a while, has a lot of understanding of the Qing people's vision and attitude towards the Han people.

At the beginning, they talked heavily in the Qing Dynasty, and they seemed to be in charge of the only sailor in the Qing Dynasty, and the power in their hands was no less than now, and there were even more sons and daughters under their command than now, but the two of them did not dare to slack off at all, and they were also trembling as officials, for fear of attracting attention.

In those days, there was no trace of being an official and heroic, and it was more due to the fear of the Jurchen Ren of the Qing Dynasty, for fear that he would accidentally offend a Jurchen nobleman and be cut off by him.

This kind of thing is not uncommon in the Qing Dynasty, although this Qing Emperor Taizong Taiji gradually elevated the status of the Han people, but what kind of Jurchen is this Rui Prince Dolgon, Geng Zhongming and the two of them heard about it when they were officials in the Qing Dynasty.

In the years of Hongmen, although they also had to abide by a lot of rules, and the rules were even more cumbersome than they had experienced in the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty, as long as they did not violate these rules and regulations, they could live freely in Hongmen without worrying about other troubles.

What makes them even more rare is the novelty that you can never think of in Hongmen: two wheels together, you can run a fast bicycle; Like a long snake, it can walk like a fly and tirelessly steam train with tens of thousands of catties; A ship that has no sails, but can go a thousand miles......

All kinds of things made Geng Kong and the others see a completely different world, and the nephews of the two of them in their later lives can choose whatever kind of life they want. In the territory of Hongmen, any profession can have a bright future, and there are all kinds of unknowable possibilities to climb various peaks.

Of course, they are not without loss, that is, the privileges in their hands will not be passed on to their descendants like the nobles of the Ming Dynasty and the Qing Dynasty, and their descendants need to see their own efforts if they want to make a difference and achieve. The only thing that I can leave to future generations is the net worth that is richer than ordinary people.

The two groups, with completely different status and treatment, made Geng Kong and the others hesitate, not only moved by the high-ranking officials of the Qing Dynasty, but also reluctant to live a warm and comfortable life in Hongmen.

At this moment, the two of them also knew very well that if their own side launched a rebellion, for the Hongtang army on the expedition to the northeast, the blow would inevitably be heavy, and it was even impossible to be defeated because of this; But in the same way, if you continue to hold on to Hat Helmet Mountain and form horns with the main force of Hongtang in Phoenix City, you may not be afraid of this Qing army.

I heard that the Hongtang Cavalry Division led by Commander An Xianguo has now caused a lot of pressure on the supply line of the Qing Dynasty's rear defense, making the Daqing Gushan Ezhen Yuedong too anxious when he was chasing the footsteps of the cavalry division, but he was ambushed and suffered a lot of losses.

In the end, before the Qing people had time to react, An Xianguo's cavalry division once again took a heavy army of the Qing Dynasty and burned down the convoy of the Qing Dynasty transporting Liang Chao's materials, resulting in a shortage of food and grass for the main army of the Qing Dynasty, which is now hundreds of miles south and has entered Hongtang to control the territory.

All kinds of favorable or unfavorable information continued to flow into the hands of generals like Geng Kong, making them waver in their judgment of the future prospects of the Qing Dynasty and Hong Tang, not knowing who the final winner would be.

"Otherwise, let's wait, shall we?"

To tell the truth, it was precisely because of Geng Zhongming's hesitation that the Hongmen guards noticed that something was wrong, otherwise when the Qing envoys visited before the war, if Geng Zhongming and the two of them were determined to rebel, I am afraid that this hat and helmet mountain would have already changed hands.

"In my opinion, the chances of our Hongmen winning are still very great, you can talk about it, with so many firearms in hand, with the assistance of all kinds of novel creations, how can this Jurchen barbarian who only knows that he is sitting on a war horse and fighting the world be the opponent of Hongmen."

"Not to mention how much damage we have caused to the tribes and towns of the Qing people along the way, you don't have a little estimate in your heart?"

"With the number of tribal populations outside the Guan, after suffering heavy losses now, how much can the other party achieve in the future?"

Geng Zhongming, as the military advisor of the two partners, thinks more far-reaching, far more important than Kong Youde, and thinks more about immediate interests, but what he says can also convince that Kong Youde.

It seems that the Qing people have the upper hand in the contest with the Hongtang army, but the destructive power caused by the Hongtang army to the Qing people along the way is far from being able to be shown in such a short time.

In addition, the prospects shown by Hongmen itself, as well as the status of the two of them now, family considerations, etc., are all important factors in Geng Zhongming's hesitation.

"But will this Qing people wait for us? After this village, you may not have this benefit! ”

Kong Youde was tempted by interests in his heart, but he was unwilling to persuade his partner again.

"How long do you think we'll be able to hold out on this mountain?"

Geng Zhongming raised his head and asked with a smile.

"If we really want to hold on, at least for a month or two, they Jurchen barbarians don't want to climb this mountain!!"

Kong Youde replied domineeringly.

"That's it! Even we have such confidence, not to mention the main force of Commander Wu Jie in Phoenix City, in my estimation, if they want to hold on to Phoenix City, I am afraid that if Prince Qingrui personally goes into battle, it will be difficult to defeat this city! ”

"Unless the city runs out of ammunition and food, or there are other variables, there is no problem for Commander Wu to hold on for more than three months."

"The longer they hold on, the more heavy the Jurchens lose, and the longer they show their weak posture, for the other nomads and Han Chinese and Korean generals within their rule, there will inevitably be other ideas in their hearts, and our position will become more and more important at that time."

"So you don't have to worry that the Qing people will withdraw their conditions, you should instead think about what better conditions we should have at that time, which is more beneficial to us!!"

Geng Zhongming said thoughtfully, and Kong Youde nodded again and again, deeply feeling that his partner was thinking more far-reaching.

It's just that in Geng Zhongming's opinion, he hopes to see that before he makes a choice, the Hongtang army, which has fallen into a passive state, can have other changes, otherwise he will really think about the future and join this Qing Jurchen barbarian.

(End of chapter)