In the military system of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, the general is the commander of a battle, the military and political shoulders, the power is great, so big that the battle must be dismissed, generally by the Aixin Jueluo family of the clan generals, such as Dolgon served as the "ordered general", there are only a few generals with foreign surnames who can be generals, such as Kong Youde, He Luohui and Tan Tai.

When Zilharang went south, he was awarded the general of Dingyuan, Tan Tai's battle was not over, and the title of general of Zhengnan was not revoked, and the Qing court only ordered to seal his general's seal letter, so as not to cause confusion in the command, and Tan Tai himself still served as the main general of one party, subject to the control of Jierharang.

No one thinks that this is a punishment for Tan Tai, and even He Luohui, who has always fought openly and secretly with him, can only be secretly happy in his heart, and on the surface, he has to put on an indifferent attitude of "it should be like this, nothing worth paying attention to...... Zierharang is an old qualified auxiliary uncle and king, and he has made great achievements in his life, and it is a matter of course for Tan Tai to stand aside, in the minds of most Qing officers and soldiers, he is still a big man on the top, a word can make thousands of troops die, and a word can drive thousands of people to serve.

People who are strong on the outside often have a very fragile side on the inside, and when the battle is most intense these days, Tan Tai often falls into a nightmare, and a memory full of shame from his youth always appears in his mind.

It was a cold winter in the north, the rivers and lakes were frozen, the young Tan Tai and two partners of the same age went to play on the ice together, but the ice suddenly cracked, and the two partners fell into the ice hole one after another, shouting for help to Tan Tai...... Tan Tai used his hands and feet to lie on the cracked ice, stretching out a branch to his companion who was about to drown. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't pull them out of the ice hole, and the ice in front of them made a terrible cracking sound again. He threw his companion down, turned and fled.

When the adults of the clan arrived. smashed open the ice and scooped up two corpses that had been frozen hard, Tan Tai was not punished, but in his heart he regarded this incident as a great shame in his life, and often felt ashamed of his cowardice and cowardice, and secretly swore a blood oath at that time that if he encountered a similar situation again, he would rather die with his companions than escape alone.

Over time. Tan Tai had forgotten about this incident for a long time, until after Jierharang was killed in battle, tens of thousands of Qing troops in the mountainous area of Ningzhen fell into a desperate situation where they could not save themselves, and he suddenly found that after his life turned a circle, he became the helpless teenager lying next to the ice cave.

The mountainous area of Ningzhen is a terrifying ice cave, devouring the lives of countless Eight Banner soldiers, and the Chu army is an icy lake, which will drown the Qing army that stepped into the mountainous area of Ningzhen at any time. Tan Tai's choice was the same as at the beginning, lying on his hands and feet next to the ice hole, stretching out a branch to his companion who was about to drown, but he didn't dare to get too close. I'm afraid I'll put myself in it...... The psychological shadow of his youth made him feel very guilty and ashamed, but reason prevailed over feelings. If it was just a personal matter, he could die generously. But he is now the chief general of the first army, and he is responsible for the more than 20,000 elite Qing troops under his command. It is necessary to attach importance to major national affairs, and when we are not sure, we must not act rashly.

"If you win, you will raise a glass to celebrate, and if you lose, you will fight to save each other." This is a widely circulated Chu military training article, and Tan Tai has also heard about it, and scoffed at it. When the Manchu Qing Dynasty just rose, it was still very weak compared to the Ming Dynasty, and it was precisely because the Ming army only knew how to preserve its strength that it was broken by the Qing army. Everyone is desperately dying together, what does it matter?

After receiving He Luohui's request for help, he led his troops to advance to the southeast, and the blocking troops of the Chu army fought fiercely repeatedly, although the progress was slow, but the victory was perseverance, and the subordinate generals proposed to build a few times, and divided the troops to intersperse behind the enemy, but he did not hesitate to refuse...... The defeat of Ning Zhenhui has been decided, and he will continue to deal with the Chu army in the future, Tan Tai does not have much capital left, so he does not dare to take risks.

The blocking force of the Chu army is limited, and under his fierce attack, more and more Qing troops are breaking out of the encirclement, and they successfully escape under his response, but it also brings one frustrating news after another, in these days, the Qing army has been defeated by the Chu army one after another, following He Luohui, Tunqi and Shuozhan, Zakana, Bashan and Gurmahun have also been scattered, and the Han army banner and green battalion soldiers who are dragging behind are even more defeated, Zhang Dayou and Zhang Guozhu are missing, and it is rumored that the two of them have defected to the enemy.

"The Han people are unreliable after all." Under such a fiasco, Tan Tai's mood was very heavy, but he was a little relieved and relieved in his heart, it turned out that his choice was correct, the Qing army collapsed so quickly, even if he risked moving forward faster, it would not help the overall situation.

In the past two days, there have been more than 1,000 Qing troops who fled to Tan Tai's army, including many middle and low-level officers such as Niu Lu and Zhang Jing, but there was no senior general such as He Luohui and Tunqi, and when asked about their whereabouts, the Qing army's rout was contradictory, some said that they were killed, some said that they were captured, and some said that they had broken through from other directions, or were still trapped in the mountains, and urgently needed Tan Tai to go to the rescue...... With the attitude of trying his best, Tan Tai sent several small troops to follow the direction provided by the rout, and actually rescued Tunqi.

Tunqi was attacked in a relatively high position, was defeated by the Chu army immediately after breaking through the siege, under the desperate cover of his subordinates, grabbed the most critical escape golden time, escaped the first wave of pursuit of the main force of the Chu army, when the Qing army was defeated, the Chu army spread out its forces in the mountains for carpet pursuit, Tunqi gathered hundreds of remnants to hide in a mountain col to wait for help. This is undoubtedly a correct choice, the main force of the Chu army pursues forward in waves, if the more than 100 Eight Banner soldiers of Tunqi run around, sooner or later they will be killed by one of the waves, they hide in the mountain col, they have escaped the main force of the Chu army, and the sporadic small troops of the Chu army have searched here, and they are not the opponents of Tunqi, so they can hold on until now.

"Thanks to Gushan Ezhen's timely rescue, if it is two more nights, waiting for the Chu army to mobilize troops to attack, Ben Beizi will not be lucky." Although Tun Qi looked wolf and haggard, he was still very calm. escaped from the pursuit of thousands of troops, and one wrong step was shattered. It's not much easier than winning a tough battle.

"Bei Ziye's noble nature can naturally turn evil into good fortune. I just don't know where the generals He Luohui and Gurmahun are now? Tan Tai felt a little unhappy in his heart, Zierharang died, and He Luohui's whereabouts were unknown, he thought he was the supreme commander of the Qing army in Jiangnan, but Tunqi only called him the truth of Gushan, not a general, which was clearly intentional.

"He Luohui is probably dead, I heard that he disguised himself as an ordinary soldier to break through, but was intercepted by the Chu army brigade. He has died in the chaos. Tun Qi paused, and then said: "I'm afraid that Gurmahun and the others are also very lucky, if they can escape, there should be news now." ”

"......" Tan Tai was silent.

Under the carpet pursuit and repeated search and arrest of the Chu army, no news is bad news, and the longer it drags on, the less likely it is to escape, He Luohui and Tan Tai have always had contradictions, after hearing the news of his death. Tan Tai didn't feel any joy, but felt stunned, and his heart was as heavy as pressing a big stone...... The so-called thousands of troops are easy to obtain, but one will be hard to find. Zilharang went south this time, bringing with him a large number of middle- and high-ranking officers who had experienced a hundred battles, most of whom were lost in the mountains of Ningzhen. The talent gap will have an impact for a long time to come, no less than the loss of tens of thousands of elite soldiers. The blow to the morale of the military is also devastating.

"Our army is newly defeated, and it is not advisable to be in danger for a long time. Gushan Ezhen should withdraw his troops as much as possible. Tun Qi sighed and said: "The battle of Ningzhen ended in a fiasco, and I don't know how the imperial court will punish you and me, but someone has to clean up the mess of the Jiangnan war. ”

The main force of the Chu army is pressing over from all directions, and Tan Tai only has less than 10,000 Qing troops around him, so it doesn't make much sense to continue to stay here, and it's still very dangerous.

"In Bei Ziye's opinion, should the last general retreat to Nanjing? So what should Tong Tulai, Wu Bai, Jumala and other ministries do? Tan Tai is Tong Tulai's brother-in-law, and the two are each other's Austrian aid in the Korean and Chinese armies, if Tong Tulai is defeated and dies, it will also be a heavy blow to Tan Tai personally.

"Each one has a destiny and asks for more blessings." Tun Qi gritted his teeth and said: "When Boluo led the army south to Fujian, Wang Kefan rescued Zhu Yujian at the last moment, and at that time, he should devote the whole country's troops to attack Guangdong and get rid of these two disasters!" It's a pity, at that time, no one in the court had such a vision, and mistakenly regarded Zhang Xianzhong's thief as a big trouble, and transferred the whole country's troops to attack Sichuan, only to be raised by Zhu Yujian and Wang Kefan, and now the Chu army is full-fledged, and our army is not their opponent for the time being, so they should withdraw across the Yangtze River and avoid the edge for the time being. ”

The Battle of Ningzhen completely frightened Tunqi, and in his opinion, the Eight Banners did not adapt to the terrain and climate of the south of the Yangtze River, and should withdraw to the north as much as possible, so as not to be completely wiped out by the Chu army.

"How's that going to work! Even if we don't rescue Tong Tulai, our army should stick to Nanjing and other places! Tan Tai frowned, tried his best to suppress his unhappiness and said: "Although our army was defeated, there are still three provinces of Jiangnan, Zhejiang, and Fujian, as well as fortified cities such as Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Suzhou, Hangzhou, and Fuzhou, which cannot be handed over to the southern thieves like this, and besides, Zheng Chenggong's sailors now occupy the Yangtze River, and our army cannot cross the river!" ”

"This ...... It's I want to be left. Tun Qi pondered for a long time and said: "At present, the only way to do this is to retreat to Nanjing, and then order Tian Xiong and other troops to return to Hangzhou, Tong Yangjia to stick to Fuzhou, relying on Jiancheng to deal with the southern thieves, alas, this is actually not the best policy, but just a helpless choice." ”

Tunqi knows the strength of the Chu army best, and with the current strategic shape, it will become more and more passive to continue to stay in the south of the Yangtze River, and while the main force of the Chu army is still in the mountains of Ningzhen, concentrate his forces to move closer to the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, avoid Zheng Chenggong's naval division, and retreat across the river under the response of the Qing army in Anqing Prefecture, which can still be achieved. But he also knew that if Tan Tai and he gave up Nanjing, Suzhou and Hangzhou, and the entire Jiangnan, ignored Fujian Tong Yangjia, and led his troops to flee back to Jiangbei, I am afraid that they would be arrested and taken into Beijing immediately and the entire clan would be killed......

In the afternoon of the same day, Tan Tai and Tun Qi led the army to retreat and retreated from Danyang County all the way to the Ningzhen Mountains.

Considering that the Chu army will attack on a large scale when it frees up its hands, Tun Qi Jianyi gave up Changzhou Mansion and other prefectures and counties that are not easy to hold, and transferred all the troops and grain baggage to Nanjing, and prepared to hold on for a long time. The same is true in Zhejiang, let Tian Xiong withdraw the main force to the provincial capital Hangzhou, and at most defend one more Suzhou, otherwise the troops are too scattered and will be broken by the Ming army.

Tan Tai basically agreed, but also raised some questions, Changzhou Mansion doesn't want it, Zhenjiang Mansion still does it keep it? Is Songjiang Mansion (Shanghai) still guarded? Zhejiang only guards Suzhou and Hangzhou, Shaoxing Mansion, Huzhou Mansion, and Jiaxing Mansion are not wanted? These state capitals are all rich in the world, if they are all occupied by the Chu army, how long can the isolated cities of Nanjing and Suzhou and Hangzhou last?

Tan Tai is not with Tunqi to raise the bar, but really in a dilemma, divided troops to garrison various state capitals, inevitably broken by the Chu army, concentrated troops and all resources to hold a few fortified cities, and handed over the rich Jiangnan to the Ming army, there is a suspicion of the enemy, the two repeatedly discussed all night, and finally finally decided on a desperate plan, except for Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Suzhou and Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Shaoxing and other major cities, all other places were abandoned, but before retreating, the scorched earth policy was implemented in the entire Jiangnan and Zhejiang, and all the Han people were killed, Burn down all the towns and villages, tear down the river embankments, wash away the fertile land, and turn the whole of Jiangnan into a flooded country.

This is a huge project, Tan Tai and Tun Qi came to Nanjing, persuaded Ma Guozhu, who was still hesitating, and sent someone to inform the Zhejiang side, and they were busy for more than ten days.

During this period, there were some remnants of the defeated generals who broke through one after another, with a total of about 2,000 people, and Zhang Dayou, who was rumored to have surrendered to the enemy, miraculously escaped, and also rescued Zakana, who was seriously wounded, and other Qing generals were either killed in battle or captured. Immediately after the news came, Tong Tulai, Wu Bai, Zhu Mala and Mu Lima joined forces, but also forcibly broke through the siege in recent days, under the encirclement and suppression of the Chu army's Dongguan battalion, Pingjiang battalion and other departments, the whole army was defeated, Tong Tulai was captured, Zhu Mala was killed in battle, Mu Lima's whereabouts are unknown, only Wu Bai with a dozen relatives to break out of the encirclement, fled to the Changzhou Mansion area, is gathering the rout in the local area, it is said that also gathered seven or eight hundred people.

The Battle of Ningzhen lasted four and a half months, and thus came to an end, the Qing army counted from Zhang Tianlu's headquarters, a total of more than 42,000 people were killed, more than 35,000 people were captured, and less than 5,000 people broke through the encirclement, which was really a complete defeat of the entire army. (To be continued......)