The fire in Sanwan burned for three days. Pen | fun | pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

In the past three days, Yangzhou has been calm in the vicinity, and the war seems to have moved away from the land of Huaiyang overnight.

If it weren't for the cavalry that came and went, the tall mounds that jutted out of the ground, and the blood and ice that the sun couldn't melt, it would be hard to imagine that this place had just experienced a great battle not long ago.

The victorious Taiping army was licking its wounds, and the defeated Qing army was also regrouping.

After Ao Bai led the defeated army to retreat to Yangzhou, Shunzhi summoned him, but he did not angrily order the guards to take down Ao Bai's top and cut it down. The master and slave had a long talk, and then Ao Bai was ordered to collect the defeated troops everywhere, taking advantage of the gap when the Taiping army stayed in Sanwan and did not advance north, Ao Bai successively packed more than 20,000 soldiers and horses. The emperor's uncle, Wu Keshan, the prince of Horqin, also responded to the call of his nephew and returned to the old camp at the foot of Meihua Mountain with his subordinates. When Shunzhi talked to his uncle, he did not mention a word about the retreat of the Horqin soldiers to the north, but only expressed his grief for the third uncle Sonomu who died in the battle.

After counting, the Qing army killed (captured and missing) more than 37,000 people in this battle, including more than 4,200 Manchurian soldiers, more than 4,100 Mongolian Eight Banners, more than 7,000 Inner Mongolia and Outer Mongolian soldiers, more than 4,700 Han troops lost 21 Niulu, and nearly 20,000 Green Battalion losses. In addition, there were only five Niu Lu and less than 1,000 people left in the Zhengbai and inlaid white soldiers who retreated to Yangzhou, and it is believed that about 3,000 of the two white flag soldiers defected to the Taiping army.

After the defeat of Aobai, Kabula, who was originally guarding the front line of Tongshan, was afraid of being attacked by the Taiping army, so he also led his army to retreat in the direction of Yangzhou in a hurry. Later, it joined forces with Beile Chang Adai, Mongolian County Wang Esen, Yonggui, Tong Guowei, Gang Atai and other troops who withdrew from the first line of Daijiazhuang in the area of Baiyang Mountain in the west of Yangzhou, with more than 13,000 soldiers and horses, and less than 4,000 Manchurian and Mongolian cavalry.

Both Kabula and Chang Adai were afraid that they would be punished by the emperor, so they did not dare to go to Yangzhou immediately. When the news from Yangzhou Sony came, saying that the emperor did not even punish the crime, Chang Adai and they breathed a sigh of relief, and Chang Adai led the way to Yangzhou to play the soothing.

After the Qing army in Tongshan retreated to Baiyang Mountain, the rest of the 15th Town and the New Third Town of the Taiping Army marched more than 30 miles eastward under the command of the town generals Qi Hao and Shao Chengguo, and joined forces with the remnants of the Fifth Town. There are more than 2,600 soldiers in the fifteenth town, more than 1,900 soldiers in the new three towns, and more than 1,300 remnants in the fifth town. However, the three towns suffered heavy losses of more than 20,000 Qing troops with huge casualties, and in Daijiazhuang alone, the fifth town killed more than 5,000 Qing troops; On the Tongshan front, the casualties of the Qing army also reached more than 3,000.

In view of the fact that Yu Shizhong died in battle, and the soldiers of the three towns were all crippled, and they could no longer undertake the offensive task alone, Zhou Shixiang ordered the remnants of the fifth town to be temporarily under the command of Qi Hao, and the three towns were stationed in Daijiazhuang, and a large number of captured Han troops and green battalion soldiers were replenished to the three towns. After the prisoners were replenished, the three towns gave priority to return to Guazhou and crossed the river to rest.

........

Shunzhi's mood was very bad, and on the second day of the defeat of Sanwan, Beijing came to express it, saying that Dong Guifei's condition was getting more and more serious, which made Shunzhi irritable, worried about Beijing's concubine, and worried about the mess of the defeat in front of him.

There was an opinion in Yangzhou that the emperor had no need to stay in Yangzhou anymore, and the army would return north on the same day, and Yangzhou would be lost to the Taiping army.

The first to discuss the withdrawal of the army was Cai Shiying, the governor of Cao, and the Cai family was one of the eight major families of the Han army, so his words were agreed by many officials, especially the generals from the Han army. Many Manchu and Mongolian officials were also inclined to withdraw their troops, and this battle was like the Battle of Songjin that year, but the victorious Ming army was killed. In the eyes of these Manchu and Mongolian generals, the reason why the Taiping army was able to win this war was that they had the convenience of canals and waterways, and second, because their weapons were too powerful. Yangzhou is close to the left and is really not suitable for the cavalry of the large corps to fight, and it was slaughtered more than ten years ago, only from the Ding ration of the grain, Yangzhou Mansion has been regarded as the lower house, so it is a piece of chicken ribs, the food is tasteless, it is better to give up, the army immediately retreated to the north.

The scholar Bahana agreed with the withdrawal opinion, pointing out that once the army returned north, the Taiping army would be able to take Yangzhou City, but it would not be able to advance northward. He suggested that the emperor should return to Beijing immediately, but that elite troops could be stationed in Xuzhou and Nanyang, so that the Taiping army, which was mainly infantry, would not be able to threaten Shandong and Henan. When the court has taken a breath, it is not too late to fight with Taiping Kou.

Shunzhi convened a meeting of the camp in front of the imperial palace, which was attended by all the ministers of parliament and governors of the army.

"Your Majesty, the minister thinks that Yangzhou is no longer defensible, so he should return to the north and choose a general to guard Xuzhou, in case the Taiping army occupies the land of Jianghuai."

Cao Governor Cai Shiying knelt down cautiously, his predecessor was ordered to send Gaoyou to aid Nanjing when the pirates were in a big way, but he was frightened by the pirates, thinking that if he did not die from the thief, he would die from the law, so he committed suicide by jumping into the river from the boat on the way. In the current situation, the fate of his successor Cao Governor may be very dangerous, so he tried his best to persuade the emperor to withdraw his troops and give up Yangzhou.

Shunzhi looked at Cai Shiying absentmindedly, his brows furrowed, but he didn't say anything, I don't know if he was listening to the courtiers.

Cai Shiying didn't see the emperor's instructions, so he didn't dare to get up, and he didn't dare to raise his head, so he had to bow again and raise his voice slightly.

"I see."

Shunzhi coldly spit out a few words, but there was no follow-up, which made Cai Shiying confused, not knowing whether the emperor adopted his suggestion. All the Hanchen in the camp looked preoccupied, and the cabinet scholar Bahana was simply full of dark clouds, but Sonny did not change his normal, but his slightly trembling fingers showed that he was trying to suppress the uneasiness in his heart. Because of the defeat of Sanwan, although the emperor forgave him and did not cure his crimes, Ao Bai was discredited in the banner at the moment, which can be seen from the fact that he stood there without saying a word with his head bowed. In the past, this was not the case.

Belle Tuntai, who picked up his life, saw that everyone was standing dryly, no one broke the silence, thinking that the military situation was urgent, and most of the army's grain and grass were burned in Sanwan, where could he stay in Yangzhou, so he took a step forward and was about to persuade the emperor to return north, when Suo Hong, the commander of the Han army, broke in in with a panicked face, and said: "Your Majesty, Li Guoying, the governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, is in a hurry, Wu Sangui rebelled and captured Baoning, and the Wu army is now marching towards Hanzhong, Li Guoying can't resist, and King Heping has also led his troops to withdraw to Xi'an. ”

"What?!"

There was a "buzzing" scream in Shunzhi's head, and his face instantly lost his blood. In order to hide the panic in his heart, he "snapped" and slammed his palm on the table. Suohon met the emperor's gaze and was too frightened to speak.

All the Manchurian and Han officials in the camp were shocked by this news, and Sonny and Ao Bai were even more shocked, and a thought flashed in their hearts at the same time, that is, Shi Tu was afraid that he was a step too late!

Sonny exclaimed: "Your Majesty, Wu Sangui went down to Baoning, and the soldiers committed Hanzhong, thinking that Hanzhong is already unsafe, and the minister thinks that the Wu army will inevitably capture Xi'an next, if Xi'an is lost, then the Wu army will be able to go east to the important land of Jifu... At present, the eight banners of the garrison of various provinces and the eight banners of the forbidden brigade are here, and the defense of the Beijing division is very weak......"

"King Xin and King Heping are too young, Wu Sangui has been entrenched in Hanzhong for several years, I am afraid that the Shaanxi-Gansu Green Camp has already been infiltrated by it, and the minions are afraid..."

Sony didn't say anything, but the meaning was very clear, he was worried that after the Wu army invaded Hanzhong, the Shaanxi-Gansu-Green Battalion was likely to defect to Wu like the two white flags. No matter from which point of view, the current Qing Dynasty is shaking in the wind and rain, how similar it is to the Chongzhen Dynasty back then, the Green Flag Battalion is a Han army, and it can even be said that it is the Ming army, in this case, they may not be reliable.

There was a commotion from everyone, and in the midst of the movement, Ao Bai suddenly stepped forward and said calmly: "Your Majesty, Wu Sangui is opposed, so it is useless to say anything." The minions thought that no matter what, they must quickly send troops to relieve the siege of Xi'an in order to stabilize the hearts of the people in Shaanxi, Gansu and the Central Plains. Otherwise, Shaanxi and Jifu are only separated by a province of Shanxi, once the situation spreads, the Wu army advances eastward, and the Beijing division is in danger... Moreover, Wu Sangui's rebellion was not blocked by the imperial court, and the servants were afraid that the news would spread in the north soon, and then the capital would be frightened and chaotic, and some people would even take advantage of the fire to rob and expand the situation, and it would be difficult to ensure that he would not change... The minions thought that it was better to send the green camps in Shanxi, Henan, and Beizhili nearby, and go to Xi'an to relieve the siege, at least to block Wu Sangui in Tongguan! (To be continued.) )