The three lines and four routes attacked together, coordinated seamlessly, arranged extremely carefully, and the tactics changed so much that people were dazzled, but the final result disappointed Yue Le, the commander-in-chief of the Qing army, and Tu Hai, the chief of the general staff. In the case of exerting all their efforts and consuming a large number of valuable materials, not only did they not achieve the goal of severely invading the Fat Army or capturing a major town of the Fat Army, but also paid a very painful price, Yue Le, Le Erjin and Jieshu were all lost soldiers and heavy casualties, and the Zhejiang army on the southern front did not even receive the effect of consuming the strength and materials of the Fat Army, and was completely attracted by Liu Guoxuan's firepower, so that the Fat Army sat on the mountain again to watch the tiger fight and reap the benefits.

What frightened Yue Le and Tu Hai and other senior generals of the Qing army was that this time they worked together to encircle and suppress the fat army, and the third-line Qing army could be said to have done its best, dispatched all the elites, and used all the tricks, but the fat army only dispatched the main force of the two corps and part of the strength of the two corps, which caused huge losses to the Qing army.

At the same time, what made Yue Le and other senior generals of the Qing army laugh and extremely depressed was that in this Jiangnan War, the only outstanding performance in the Qing army was the recognized 25 among the Qing army generals - the prince of Zhangtai County.

What's even more outrageous is that after the prince of Zhangtai County attacked Nanjing only a little bit of success, he actually grabbed a large amount of grain and grass in the area controlled by the Fat Army, and broke through the Fat Army's 'encirclement, pursuit, and interception' in a big way, completely establishing the prestige of the Qing Dynasty God of War, not to mention it, and making Yue Le, Tu Hai and others even more unable to explain to Kang Mazi - the prince of Zhangtai County did not implement the tactical plan explained by Yue Le to establish the world's miraculous feats, doesn't this just prove that the tactical plan arranged by Yue Le and others is completely a bunch of canine excrement?

Extremely depressed, unconsciously, the time has come to the 23rd day of March in the 14th year of the Great Tuesday and the 14th year of the mite Qing Kang Mazi, and it is also the last day that Kang Mazi gave Yue Le the last chance. went all out to get through the confusion, and broke the idea of Kang Mazi's personal expedition.

The idea is certain, Yue Le immediately summoned all the Qing army generals at the level of commanders and commanders, arranged the siege plan with a stiff face, and then told these Qing army generals that Kang Mazi had only one day left for his deadline, so if he couldn't capture Gaoyou City on this day, then he would be escorted back to the Zongren Mansion to be imprisoned forever, and if he was heavy, his head would fall to the ground - but before he was escorted back to the capital or beheaded, he would definitely be on his back!

Seeing that Yue Le, who was usually generous and gentle, suddenly became so murderous, the generals of the Qing army also understood the seriousness of the matter, and when they returned to the camp to organize the army, they naturally had to threaten the deputy commander, the deputy commander threatened the staff leader and the assistant leader, the staff leader and the assistant leader threatened the assistant leader, the assistant leader threatened the sentry commander, the sentry officer threatened the captain, and the commander threatened the soldiers......; The same is true for the green battalion soldiers, the general threatens the deputy general, the deputy general threatens the general, the general threatens the general of the thousand, the general threatens the chief sentinel, and the chief sentinel threatens the sentinel, and the sentinel officer is ......, and so on and so on.

In a word, if these threats are really realized, then there may not be a few people left in Yue Le's 120,000 army.

The soldiers were fed, the horses were fed, the bows and arrows and ammunition were well prepared, the horn sounded, and when the siege army was about to leave the camp and go into battle, a team of scouts suddenly rushed into the camp of the Qing army. Wu dog reinforcements are coming! Wu Gou's reinforcements entered Gaoyou Lake from the canal, hundreds of big war ships! There are thousands of boats! ”

At the same time, earth-shattering cheers erupted in the towering Gaoyou City in the distance, and even if it was more than ten miles away, it could be heard clearly here - it was obvious that this was the sailor of the Fat Army who had arrived at the water gate west of Gaoyou City. Hearing this cheer, and knowing the news of the arrival of the reinforcements of the Fat Army, the Qing army was all desperate, Gaoyou City was already difficult to fight to the point that the loss of tens of thousands of Qing troops could not be captured, this time with the help of the Fat Army's sailors, the Qing army did not want to capture this terrifying Gaoyou City again.

After repelling the three-way attack of Jieshu, Leerjin and Zhangtai, the pressure on the western front of the fat army was greatly reduced, and he learned about the cruel and bloody battle situation of the Gaoyou defense battle, and estimated that the Gaoyou defenders had reached the end of the strong crossbow Lu Fatzi adjusted his tactics, and transferred 5,000 troops from the two corps of Taiping Mansion and Nanjing, and brought a large number of garrison materials and new firearms, boarded the main fleet of the Fat Army Naval Division commanded by Li Guodong, and took the advanced Shaobo Lake through the canal to avoid the Qing army. Then enter Gaoyou Lake from Shao Bo Lake, and arrive at Gaoyou Battlefield from the waterway for reinforcements. The purpose is to further strengthen the sustainable combat efforts of Gaoyou City, continue to contain Yue Le's 120,000 rabble, and use the sailor to transfer the soldiers and civilians in the city if necessary.

Lu Fatzi's wishful thinking was screaming, but Yue Le, Tuhai and others scolded loudly, scolding Lu Fatzi for playing hooligans and not having a good heart, and clearly wanted to use Gaoyou City to drag down the self-army, so that their army could fight hard under Gaoyou City, while consuming the invaluable grain and grass of the self-army, and consuming their own hundreds of thousands of troops to death!

"How? To fight or not to fight? Glancing around at the generals in the tent, Yue Le asked in a hoarse voice: "Our army is attacking Gaoyou now, what are the chances of victory?" ”

The generals of the Qing army, including the resourceful Tu Hai, were all silent with sad faces, and after a long time, Dong Weiguo, Yue Le's hand-picked deputy, said stubbornly: "Don't blame the prince, forgive the slave for being blunt, we'd better give up this siege plan." Now that Wu Gou's reinforcements have entered the city from the waterway, the morale of the Gaoyou anti-thief army and the people has been greatly boosted, and they must have obtained firearms and baggage supplies. ”

"I also know that the siege of the city now is a senseless sacrifice of the soldiers, and I also know that when the quality of weapons, firearms, food and grass and soldiers is not as good as the enemy, relying on more people to attack the city is completely child's play with human lives." Yue Le patted the handsome case and lamented: "But what else can I do? If I can't get a record that satisfies my master today, my master will probably have to go on a personal expedition! When that time comes, do I dare to imagine what the consequences will be? ”

Dong Weiguo lowered his head, and felt sad for Yue Le in his heart, such a stupid emperor's nephew is really a dilemma, and there is no choice - with the current situation of the Qing Dynasty, the wisest choice should be to retreat to the north and take a defensive position to survive, so that there may be a little hope for a turnaround, but Kang Mazi not only insisted on taking the offensive, wasting the already small precious national strength with a weak attack on the strong, but also shouted at every turn what the royal driver personally came to fight to the death with the first talent Lu Fatzi! The stupidity of his strategy and the paranoia of his decision-making make people wonder whether Kang Mazi is the product of the marriage of close relatives.

"Tuzhongtang, what do you think?" Yue Le turned his expectant gaze to Tu Hai again.

"Back to the prince, it is difficult for a clever woman to cook without rice, and the slave is really helpless." Tu Hai replied weakly.

"No matter how much you can't do, you have to come up with a way for this king." Yue Le slapped the table and shouted: "I can't pass this level, you and I have been robbed of our homes and beheaded, and thousands of knives are just trivial matters!" The master really came to drive the expedition in person, that's the big deal! ”

"If the prince only intends to stop the emperor from driving the expedition in person, regardless of all costs, then the slave has a way." Tu Hai replied with a wry smile: "That is, immediately attack the city, attack Gaoyou City at all costs, capture Gaoyou and then attack Yangzhou, and then we don't have to worry about the master's personal expedition - there is no army, what else will the master take to conquer the imperial army?" ”

"Hehehehe......." There was a helpless chuckle among the generals of the Qing army in the tent, Yue Le also smiled bitterly, and then slapped the table and shouted: "Tuzhongtang, be serious, although you are our general staff and can express your opinions at will, but this is a handsome tent, and you can't joke around." ”

"I'm not kidding, I'm serious." Tu Hai muttered in his heart: "Our master who doesn't understand military affairs at all, the only hope now is the 120,000 rabble, if you can make up your mind to lose all the 120,000 rabble, then not only can you break the master's thoughts, but also save valuable grain, grass and military salaries, and the correct strategy of the Qing Dynasty to retreat north of the Yangtze River with all its strength may also be realized." ”

Muttering and muttering, but the strategy of deliberately accompanying hundreds of thousands of troops is too appalling, no matter how powerful and bold Tu Hai is, he does not dare to put it forward in public to discuss, so after Tu Hai muttered, he quickly suggested: "Prince, there is only one way, let the minions take the record of Prince Zhang's surprise attack on Nanjing and return to Beijing to report on their work, try to get through the confusion, and I also hope to persuade the master to change his mind, give up the plan to drive the imperial expedition and insist on the strategy of attack, and choose the correct strategy of retreating to the north with all his might." ”

"Are you sure you can persuade your master to change his mind?" Yue Le's eyes lit up.

"Originally, there wasn't, but now there's a little hope." Tu Hai took out a newspaper from his arms, pointed to the contents of the newspaper and said: "Lord Wang, please see, this is the newspaper of the master Ming sent to the world more than 20 days ago, and it reads such a paragraph - Zhou Chang, the squire of the military department and the general of the expedition to the west, returned to Beijing to report on his work. This Zhou Chang Zhou Peigong once served as a staff member for the slave, and was later appreciated by the master due to various coincidences, and was promoted from a seven-grade official all the way to the current second-grade master, who won the trust of the master and was a first-class celebrity in front of the master. ”

"Do you want to join forces with Zhou Peigong to persuade the master to change his mind?" Yue Le came to his senses.

"The prince is famous, that's exactly the case." Tu Hai nodded, and said: "The slave guessed that the master summoned Zhou Peigong back to Beijing at this time, and it was likely that he planned to let Zhou Peigong staff the military plane and accompany the master to drive the expedition in person. This slave of Zhou Peigong understands that he is a very wise and far-sighted person, and he has fought with Wu Gou for many years, and he knows the military situation on the front line well, so he will definitely be able to see the danger and adventure of the master's personal expedition, and he will definitely find a way to persuade the master to change his mind. Counting the time, Zhou Peigong should also return to Yanjing in these few days, so the slave plans to return to Beijing, one is to report to the master for the prince, and the other is to join forces with Zhou Peigong to try to persuade the master to change his mind and not to come to Jiangnan to take risks. ”

"Then it's hard for you." Yue Le, who was completely at a loss, nodded, ready to let Tu Hai try his luck again. At the end, Yue Le said again: "Then don't be busy leaving, wait for me to write a secret fold to the Empress Dowager's ancestor, you can bring it back to Beijing for me, hand it over to my Sanfujin, let her send it to the ancestor, and ask the ancestor to come forward again to stop the emperor, so that you can have more hope." ”

"That's the best." Tu Hai nodded, and said helplessly: "Now in this world, the only person who can force the master to change his mind is probably the Empress Dowager's ancestor." ”

The plan was certain, Yue Le immediately put pen to paper and wrote a letter of pleading with tears to the old witch of Xiaozhuang, begging the old witch of Xiaozhuang to come forward again, obstruct Kang Mazi's personal expedition and change the counterinsurgency strategy, hand it over to Tuhai to take back to the capital, and send it to the old witch of Xiaozhuang through nepotism. Then Yue Le decisively ordered to abandon the plan to attack Gaoyou City, and the whole army retreated north to return to Jieshou Xiazhai, waiting for Kang Mazi's will, so as not to let these innocent Qing soldiers go to Gaoyou City to die in vain. And as soon as this order was given, the fat army and civilians in Gaoyou City were naturally thunderous, celebrating that they had worked together to finally force back the Qing siege army, and the green battalion soldiers and the Eight Banners infantry of the Qing Army who were responsible for the heavy task of attacking the city were also all happy, and the Mongolian Eight Banners who did not need to attack the city were full of complaints, and secretly scolded Yue Le for being cowardly as a mouse, resulting in the abandonment of all previous achievements.

When the news of Yue Le's withdrawal came back to Nanjing, it was already March 26 of the year of the Great Tuesday, and when he heard the news, Lu Fatzi not only did not have the slightest joy, but slapped his fat palm on the table and said hatefully: "Oh no! On the Mangou side, there must already be people who are already fighting the idea of a full retreat! Otherwise, the Gaoyou War has reached this point, and it is impossible to give up so easily! ”

"Three good brothers, the full retreat of the dog is a good thing for us?" Xie Dong asked inexplicably: "Mangou stops attacking, we can seize the time to expand the army and train troops, build more new firearms, and use the profits of Jiangnan's money and food to kill Mangou, why are you calling it bad?" ”

"Brother Xie, you don't understand this." Lu Fatzi shook his head, frowned and said: "For our army, now we are definitely not afraid of the full dog to take the initiative to attack, but only afraid of the full dog retreat, once the offensive and defensive situation is converted, we want to eliminate the main force of the full dog not only to spend more time and money, but also to expose all kinds of internal problems in a comfortable environment, at the same time, once the full dog retreats, the problem of money and food urgency will also be greatly alleviated, eating a pound of food on the front line of the war and eating a pound of food in the rear are completely two concepts, not only no road consumption, In the case of non-combat, the food and grass consumed by soldiers will also be greatly reduced. Under the trade-off, our money and food advantage is not so obvious. ”

"That's not the scariest thing." Wang Shaobo added for Lu Fatzi: "The most terrible thing is that Mangou completely retreats south of the Yangtze River, if this is the case, Mangou's main army scattered south of the Yangtze River may be twisted into a single force, posing a greater threat to our army." And our friendly troops will also come to the door to ask for money, food, and territory. ”

"I see." Xie Dong came to his senses and hurriedly asked, "Brother Sanhao, then what should we do now?" Now we have the most food and silver in the whole world, and if they border with friendly forces, they dare to open their mouths no matter how big they are. ”

Fat Lu didn't answer with a straight face, and he couldn't find the words to answer, but Yao Qisheng next to him suddenly spoke, smiled and said a clueless word, "It is estimated that in a few days, there will be a lot of noise in the court full of dogs, but unfortunately, it is too far away, and we don't have a chance to see this kind of dog-eat-dog lively scene." ”

"What does Yao Junshi mean is that within the Mangou Imperial Court, there will be a quarrel over whether to change the strategy?" Fat Lu asked tentatively.

"Of course." Yao Qisheng replied with a smile: "When the Mangou rose outside the Guan, the Ming Dynasty also quarreled over whether it was the main battle or the main guard, for which Yang Hao, Wang Huazhen and Yuan Yingtai, who were the main battle, fell to the ground one after another, either died in the hands of the Mangou or died under the national law, and Xiong Tingbi, who was the main guard, was also rumored to be the head of the nine sides, until he lost Guangning. The main force of the Mangou Imperial Court still exists in Jiangnan, and it owes a lot of bad debts, and it urgently needs Jiangnan's money and grain to repay its debts, so can it be so easy to give up south of the Yangtze River and change the strategy of attack? ”

"Makes sense." Lu Fatzi nodded, and said in a deep voice: "However, the Mangou Imperial Court is different from the Ming Imperial Court, the imperial historian of the Ming Imperial Court even dares to scold the Ming Emperor Yanjing, and can obstruct, oppose, or even refuse to implement all the decisions of the Ming Emperor, but the Mangou Imperial Court is a hall of the Mangou Emperor, what the Mangou Emperor says, even if it is wrong, the minions have to implement it, and there is no possibility of opposition at all." ”

"Yes, exactly!" Yao Qisheng nodded vigorously, and said with a smile: "If the general wants to continue the strategy of inducing the Mangou Emperor to drive the expedition in person, then the general still has a chance now, and that is to make good use of the slave system of the Mangou Imperial Court." As long as the general can come up with a way to make the Mangou Emperor make up his mind to drive the expedition in person, then no matter who it is, even the old slut of the Empress Dowager Mangou, he will not want to obstruct the Mangou Emperor's personal expedition! ”

"That's right." Fat Lu clenched his fat fists, gritted his teeth and said: "The life and death of the Mangou Imperial Court is actually already in Kang Mazi's thoughts, if he can listen to the opinions of the main defenders, then the Mangou Imperial Court will definitely be able to survive for a considerable period of time, and there is even a little hope of turning the tables." But if Emperor Mangou is determined to fight the main battle and decides to continue to recapture Jiangnan, then it will be a blessing for the people of all ethnic groups in China! ”

"Master Yao, in your opinion, it is more likely that the Mangou Emperor will adopt that strategy?" Xie Dong asked curiously.

"I can't say." Yao Qisheng shook his head and analyzed: "In my opinion, it will definitely be difficult for the Mangou Emperor to make this determination, on the one hand, it is the correct strategy of the main defenders, and on the other hand, it is the pressure of money and food and the temptation to recapture Jiangnan. But fortunately, with the arrogance of the Mangou Emperor, it is not so easy for the main defenders in the Mangou court to convince him. ”

Speaking of this, Yao Qisheng turned his gaze to Lu Fatzi again, and said with a smile: "General, you are also very important, if you can come up with some way to make the Mangou Emperor, who hates you to the bone, decide to fight, we still have hope." ”

Fat Lu pondered and didn't answer, and after a long time, Fat Lu suddenly turned his gaze to Xie Dong again, and asked with a smile: "Brother Xie, I heard that your newly married concubine Li Xuemei is very beautiful, how about giving it to my brother?" ”

"Brother Sanhao, do you fancy your younger brother's concubine?" Xie Dong replied hurriedly: "If the three good brothers like it, just take it, brothers are like siblings, wives are like clothes, just a piece of clothing, if the three good brothers like it, they can take it as much as they like." ”

"Brother Xie, you are really honest." Fat Lu couldn't cry or laugh.

"Lord Xie's weight is not enough." Yao Qisheng shook his head and reminded: "And the general, don't forget, your resourcefulness has long been known to the world, and suddenly robbed your subordinates of their concubines and forced them to rebel - everyone can guess that the general is cheating again, not only will it not be effective, but it may also backfire." What's more, Lord Xie and you are friends of life and death, and if you suddenly betray you, everyone will suspect that you are using a plan again, General. ”

"Yes, owner, have you forgotten about Han Daren?" Wang Shaobo also echoed: "Before, the owner asked Han Daren to surrender by fraud in Jiujiang, and you have already made Mangou suffer enough losses, and Mangou will fall for your fraud again?" ”

"I really forgot, my character is not good, and now no dog dares to believe me." Fat Lu sighed.

"You just know? I was one of the victims! Yao Qisheng muttered quietly in his heart, but after the muttering was over, Yao Qisheng suddenly realized that something was wrong again-because Fat Lu suddenly turned his eyes to him, and the smile on his fat face was extremely deceitful. After the doubts, Yao Qisheng suddenly came to his senses and hurriedly asked, "General, don't you want the students to surrender?" ”

Fat Lu continued to laugh, but quickly put away his smile, shook his head and said: "No, this is absolutely not good, I had this plan before, but thinking of your sister ......Yao Junshi, no, I should think of another idea." ”

"General Xie is considerate." Yao Qisheng breathed a sigh of relief - Yao Qisheng's sister Yao Qisang is now in Yanjing City, and she is still the main house of Huang Xiyan, the secretary of the Ministry of War.

"Yes, I also hope that Yao Junshi's sister can come back smoothly." Fat Lu waved his hand and muttered again: "Then what should I do?" Brother Wang Xu, it would be nice if you were still here. ”

(To be continued)