Thinking about it, thinking about going, Kong Youde and Shang Kexi finally decided to wait, take a look at the wind direction, this big battle between the Chu army and the Western army is very important, not only will determine the ownership of Huguang, but also may determine the general trend of the world, staying in Wuchang There is still the possibility of fishing in troubled waters, and there is no chance to evacuate Wuchang.

Since he risked staying in Wuchang, he had to take the opportunity to make conditions and benefits with the Qing court, and the monk Kong Youde was not interested in the ethereal feudal territory, but only urged the Qing court to open up the three passes of Yiyang between Henan and Hubei and rebuild the supply line to Wuchang. They wrote a letter to Dolgon, expressing their willingness to continue to hold on to Wuchang, but the Chu army was overwhelming, and the Western army had ill intentions, and if there were not enough supplies and reinforcements, the fall of Wuchang was only a matter of time, and it was better to abandon Wuchang as soon as possible and withdraw to Henan or Anhui.

The subtext of this letter is that if we do not open up the supply line from Henan to Wuchang, we may retreat at any time and abandon Wuchang.

The song was sent to Beijing, Dolgon was so angry that he almost had a stroke again, Wu Sangui had just returned to the Qing Dynasty for a few years, and it was understandable that he had not been fed yet, and the monk Kong Youde was happy but the old man who surrendered after Mao Wenlong's death, the Manchu Qing Dynasty had already regarded them as half of their own minions, how could they dare to talk to their masters like this now?!

Those who are not of my race will have different hearts.

Dolgon felt that the Han people made a lot of sense.

Monk Kong Youde Kexi asked to open up the supply line from Henan to Wuchang, which seemed to be to hold on to Wuchang, but why not leave a way back for himself? Dolgon was sure that in case of urgency, the two of them would not hesitate to withdraw to Henan.

These two minions are so hateful! Dolgon immediately issued another holy decree, and urgently told Monk Kong Youde Kexi that they could rest assured that the imperial court would send troops from Henan in the near future, open up the passage into Hubei, and send a steady stream of military supplies and reinforcements to Wuchang - some things could not be put on the table, no matter what small calculations Monk Kong Youde secretly played, their demands were reasonable on the surface, and Dolgon had no reason to refuse.

Taking advantage of the fierce battle between the Chu army and the Western army, it should not be difficult to break through the three passes of Yiyang by stabbing him in the back, but the money and food supplies that Kong Youde asked for were a headache for Dolgon. The army moved, costing millions, just for Wu Sangui and Tan Tai to raise money, grain and military supplies, has hollowed out the Qing court's family funds, if this battle can not be ended in a short time, the next stage of the food and salary will have to be taxed, and there is no money and grain to send to Wuchang, Dolgon thought about it repeatedly, and finally decided to take Shangjia to fight.

Ordinary small merchants and hawkers do not have much oil and water, and Dolgon is eyeing the salt merchants of Jianghuai and the Jin merchants of Shanxi.

The Qing court inherited the Ming Dynasty's policy of salt monopoly, through this policy, the salt merchants of Jianghuai made a fortune, selling salt with their left hand, selling grain with their right hand, and the entrainment of the head in Caoyun was these salt merchants, behind them, there were many princes and nobles as the background, after the Battle of Nanjing and the three subsequent Northern Expeditions, the Jianghuai salt merchants suffered heavy losses, but the emaciated camels were bigger than horses, and the salt merchants in northern Jiangsu still controlled the salt industry in the northern provinces, and had many years of savings and rich family foundations, as long as they could get their hands on, it was not a big problem to knock out a sum of money from them.

The Jin merchants in Shanxi are all mercenary, bold guys, when the Manchu Qing Dynasty has not yet entered the customs, they are the people of the Ming Dynasty, they smuggled grain, iron tools, etc. from the grassland to the enemy country, and now they have become the people of the Qing Dynasty, and started a smuggling business with the Nanming, only with this crime, they can be convicted of the house.

Of course, it is a pity to kill the salt merchants and Jin merchants now, some of them are not right, it is like keeping the pigs for the New Year, and it is a pity to kill them without fattening, but Dolgon can no longer care about this.

The money and grain have been roughly settled, and the remaining gap is in accordance with the old tradition of the Qing army for many years, ordering the monk Kong Youde to "take the grain to the enemy", and if there is no food to eat, he will rob the people, Dolgon transferred a Eight Banners from Tan Tai to Henan, plus the local green battalion in Henan, and put together nearly 20,000 horses, ready to attack the three passes of Yiyang.

The holy decree was sent to Wuchang, and the monk Kong Youde was happy and happy, but also worried.

The Qing court wanted to open up the supply line to Wuchang, of course, it was a happy event, but it also ordered Kong Youde and Shang Kexi to send troops north at the same time, capture Xiaogan and other places, and cooperate with the Henan Qing army to attack the three passes of Yiyang.

But we really don't dare to go out of the city!

Not to mention the capture of Xiaogan, that is, every time from Hanyang to Wuchang, Shang Kexi took a great risk, with the fall of Jiujiang and other places, the Qing army's sailors were all wiped out, and the Chu army's sailors completely controlled the Yangtze River and such tributaries as the Han River, Shang Kexi every time he came to Wuchang, he had to secretly cross the river at night, if he sent a force to march north with a swagger, once the Chu army took the back road by boat, he would immediately fall into a desperate situation.

And the order of "food to the enemy" is also like child's play, don't Dolgon know that we have been fighting in Huguang for more than a year, and we have been fighting food for more than a year, and the people in Hubei have already robbed everything they can, and now they can't grab it if they want to, unless they defeat the Western Army or the Chu Army, they can probably grab some food from them, but if we have the ability, why bother asking for help from the rear?

"Let's take one step at a time, the court finally sent reinforcements, once you think that you can't do anything, you must retract again, we might as well send some people out of the city to fight the grass valley, and then report him a great victory in filial piety." Shang Kexi suggested lying about the military situation, although he didn't know that Tan Tai had done something similar, but since Boluo marched into Fujian in the third year of Shunzhi, the Qing army had begun to kill good people on a large scale and exaggerate the results of the war, so when he made this suggestion, there was no psychological burden.

"There is only one filial piety victory, but the weight is still not enough." Kong Youde pondered for a moment, and shook his head resolutely: "No, you can't just report the victory of Xiaogan, you should report the victory of Xiaogan first, and then report the defeat of Xiaogan." Just say...... It is said that after our army captured Xiaogan, it was attacked by the friendly Li Dingguo, and could only retreat to Wuchang by surprise, after Li Dingguo captured Xiaogan, he led an army of 50,000 to continue northward, and had the intention of marching into Henan and chasing the Central Plains. ”

"......" Shang Ke was happy for a moment, and suddenly slapped his thigh: "Brother Wang is smart!" The imperial court is bent on restoring Caoyun, and only sends 20,000 partial divisions to save Wuchang, which is just a drop in the bucket, in case it attracts the main force of the Western Thieves and Chu Thieves, it will be even more difficult for me to get away in the future, if I learn that the Western Thieves are trying to march into Henan, the imperial father regent will increase the army and reverse the situation in Hubei! ”

"Yes, when this storm is turbulent, if you make a mistake and take a wrong step, it will be a catastrophe immediately, the one who saves yourself, God saves it, you and my brother can't sit still, and the little flexibility is also for the sake of the overall situation of the court. Hubei is the center of the world, you can get the world, you can never fall into the hands of the western thieves, the imperial court will use the soldiers, horses, money and grain here, it is better than barely recovering the luck, raising the hundreds of thousands of idlers who eat white rice in the capital. ”

Unlike Wu Sangui at both ends of the first rat, Kong Youde and Shang Kexi had no intention of betraying the Qing court, but looking at Dolgon's overall strategic arrangement, the two of them had a faint tendency to be regarded as outcasts, and they were really unwilling to stay in Wuchang and wait for death.

Speaking of which, they also have a clear conscience, just hope that the Qing court will shift the focus of the strategic direction to Hubei, just like the office politics of later generations, everyone feels that their work is the most important, and everyone else is paddling and fishing, in the eyes of Kong Youde and Shang Kexi, Huguangyuan is more important than Jianghuai, Caoyun or something is broken, anyway, it has been broken for a year, and there are no starving people in Beijing, we have been sticking to Wuchang in Hubei for the past year, and we have lived a real hard life.

In addition, they also have to consider their own future, when the three Shun kings and one Shun Gong went south to Huguang together, now only Kong Youde and Shang Kexi are left to guard in Wuchang and Hanyang, and most of the subordinates who have followed them for many years have also suffered casualties, paying such a big price, but in the end they were picked peaches by the Western Army, they really can't accept it, a little coax the imperial court, let Dolgon send a large number of reinforcements, they can gain a firm foothold in Hubei, and even establish their own feudal state.

The plan has been decided, and the monk Kong Youde is ready to send a troop to go around Xiaogan and make a scene, so that the officers and soldiers of the three armies know that there is an attack on Xiaogan, and they can make up nonsense in the future, deep down, the two of them are still a little afraid of the Qing court, not as unscrupulous as Wu Sangui.

Li Dingguo is attacking Jingzhou on the Yangtze River, Xiaogan is still under the control of the Chu army, Kong Youde monk Kexi after preparing the troops, waiting for Li Dingguo to take Jingzhou City, immediately send troops to Xiaogan.

Unexpectedly, the resistance of the Chu army was unexpectedly tenacious, according to the city to hold on, with the cooperation of the water division several times to repel Li Dingguo's attack, the western army because there was no water division to cooperate, has never been able to cut off the connection between Jingzhou and the outside of the city, although Li Dingguo's attack was sharp, and even once attacked Jingzhou City, and finally was supported back by the Chu army with a steady stream of reinforcements.

The war in Jingzhou fell into a stalemate for a while.

"Li Dingguo's guy is as famous as Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu, but I didn't expect it to be so useless, alas! If you change your grandson, I'm afraid you have already taken Jingzhou, right? Kong Youde really hated Li Dingguo, a "mediocre general", and he couldn't wait to go into battle in person and command the battle for him.

"Don't worry, wait and see." Shang Kexi said that he was not in a hurry, in fact, he was more anxious than Kong Youde, all their plans were based on the fact that the Western Army could defeat the Chu army, if Li Dingguo couldn't even take Jingzhou, it was better to give up Wuchang and Hanyang as soon as possible, and flee for his life as soon as possible. <