At the end of August of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, twenty days have passed since the Battle of Hutuo River, which is enough to be forgotten in this turbulent era.

In the place of the bloody battle in Gaocheng, a huge stone tablet was erected, and the names of the fallen soldiers were engraved by more than ten stonemasons according to their origins. Their bodies were buried deep under a hill not far away, and they could see the Hutuo River in the distance, which can be regarded as a treasure of feng shui with a photo in the front and a back to rely on.

On the first seven days, Zhu Cihong personally offered incense in front of the monument and attended the transcendent puja, mainly to allow the audience to comfort their souls.

As for the corpses of the Eastern Soldiers, they were all cremated into ashes and scattered into the ground, one of which was the biggest curse of the Ming people to the enemy, and the other was to avoid infectious diseases in the hot summer.

According to Song Hongye's intelligence, after the soldiers who fled in the Battle of Gaocheng returned to Beijing, the Zhenglan Banner station in Chongwenmen was full of crying. Dolgon was so angry that he fainted on the Wuying Palace, and the two yellow flags of Sonny Ao Bai and the others gathered together after the dispersal of the dynasty, and they still can't hear what they were talking about at that time.

It is no wonder that there is a generation of Manchurians who have never suffered defeat, especially in the hands of the Ming army.

A few days later, Song Hongye reported that the two yellow banners wanted to send troops south, but Dolgon insisted on placing the main attack in the northwest and waiting for a decisive battle with Li Zicheng. It is said that Sukh Saha and Vubai, Dolgon's confidants, spent the whole day in secret with the regent in the palace, and it must have been them who made Dolgon decide to stick to the established strategy.

Because Dolgon was so cautious this time that it was impossible to find out what he was saying.

Before the situation became clear, Zhu Cihong was ready to evacuate the front line of Zhencang (Ding) Cang (Prefecture) at any time. As long as they retreated to Shandong, the Qing army would have to take care of Li Zicheng's army in the west, and would definitely not go south.

Such a situation is tantamount to handing over Li Zicheng's troubles to Dolgon, but the former is to guard against the Wu family's iron cavalry in the east. Now it was Dolgon's beware of the rebel army to the west.

In the end, Dolgon refused to let the two yellow flags pick up the leak, and he still insisted that the remnants of the Ming were not more than Er'er, and as long as they dispatched an army of 10,000 people, they would be able to extinguish the remnants of the Ming soon. Only Li Zicheng's army, which numbered more than 200,000, was the real enemy of Manchuria. This method of judging the strength of the threat in terms of quantity made Zhu Cihong breathe a sigh of relief. He also dismisses Dolgon.

"Leave the active and weak enemies on our side not to fight, and go to the negative and powerful Li Zicheng over there, Dolgon has no more vision." Zhu Cihong looked at the map and smiled easily for the first time.

You Shiwei said seriously: "He has no other way. The division of troops in battle is a taboo for soldiers, and how much to divide is even more problematic. If you get less, you are tantamount to asking for your own death; has divided a lot, originally he was in a weak position in front of Li Thief, even if he was willing, others would not. ”

"Once we retreat to Gangnam. Facing each other across the river, Dolgon did not have the slightest advantage, wasting money in vain, and giving Li Thief a chance to take advantage of. Li Changling also said: "Even if he swallows Shandong and Jiangbei, once the Li thief enters the east, he will have to spit it out." ”

Other staff officers echoed and found many reasons for Dolgon not to go south, which made Zhu Cihong, who knew the original script of history, smile bitterly.

As later historians said. The Manchu Qing Dynasty's ability to win the world was full of accidents, and various factors hidden under the ice floes of reality arose one after another. This semi-feudal and semi-slave regime, with a total population of less than one million, miraculously ruled over a vast empire of more than 100 million people.

No matter how wary Zhu Cihong was of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, judging from the current situation, no one believed that the Manchu Qing Dynasty could become the Central Plains Zhengshuo. Even the most pessimistic people only think that the Qingming Dynasty coexists, the river is divided, and there is Li Zicheng's Shun Dynasty in the northwest. Reenact the story of the Three Kingdoms of Song, Liao, and Xia.

Who would have expected that once the Manchu Qing Dynasty went south, the military towns with hundreds of thousands of troops would surrender one after another?

Who can believe that once the Manchu Qing Dynasty went south, the Jiangnan celebrities who were full of etiquette and dignity shaved their heads one after another?

Who would have thought. The pig-like army, which was originally about to collapse at the touch of a button and repeatedly defeated, turned into a tiger and wolf army after being thrown into the Manchu Qing Dynasty......

Don't say that people can't think of it, even Dolgon himself can't think of it, and he doesn't even dare to think about it!

If Zhu Cihong hadn't peeked at the historical script, he would never have believed that Nanming would not even be able to divide the river and govern it, and would have preferred the land of wealth in the south of the Yangtze River, taking root in the hometown of wealth and trying to restore the country. As a result, as soon as the Manchu army arrived, the famous men with itchy scalps tied him up and opened the door to rob him.

Thankfully, he knew.

"This battle has changed the dilemma that our army does not dare to fight with the Dongyu, and it is enough to praise the world." Yu Shiwei said.

"This battle will become the front page headline of the inaugural issue of the "Emperor Ming Bulletin", and every literate person in the world will know that I still have a division that dares to fight and a division that can fight." Zhu Cihong said: "But the main problem at present is the enclosure. This time, everyone saw that the place they passed was like locusts crossing the border, and no people or animals were left. What's even more terrifying is that they spare no effort to forcibly recruit civilian labor, let them occupy one more place, and the people will suffer, and the vitality of our Ming Dynasty will be even weaker, while they can have an extra group of slaves to fill the trenches. ”

Dongyu is like a virus carrier in a post-apocalyptic novel, as long as they are allowed to get it, the good guys will become zombies, even if their combat effectiveness is extremely weak, they can be used to fill the knife edge and block the guns. Zhu Cihong once thought that Li Zicheng and other rogues were already destroyers of civilization, but after really seeing Dongyu, he was shocked to realize that Li Zicheng still had a bit of a kingly atmosphere.

"Your Highness," You Shiwei said, "The General Staff has already suggested that it can occupy more land and expand the army at the moment, and rely on the city to configure artillery defense. Blooming everywhere, so that Dongyu has no way to settle down. ”

Zhu Cihong was silent. This is not the first time this idea has been proposed. In the current environment, many military towns are already doing this. All strong men will be pulled into the battlefield, and those who survive two battles will be considered veterans, and most of the dead can only be regarded as the back of history.

"People in troubled times are not as good as peaceful dogs." Zhu Cihong sighed: "I know this, but I still believe more in elite soldiers and fine government, occupy one place, and consolidate one place." The advantages of doing this are also obvious, as long as I survive these three years, Shandong Province alone can provide me with the force to resist the Eastern Captives and break through the rebellion. ”

You Shiwei knew that Zhu Cihong would not give up this steady and steady strategy after all, so he had to retreat and say: "Your Highness, even so, our army should seize the dangerous pass to ensure the convenience of entering the army in the future." The first is Shanxi. With the strength of our army, it will inevitably not be able to hold the whole territory of Shanxi, but the Jingcheng occupies Pingding Prefecture, controls Yu County in the north, and locks Leping (now Xiyang County) in the south, and its land is mountainous and dangerous, as long as two artillery pieces are deployed, even if tens of thousands of people come to attack, they may not be able to overcome. ”

The legend of Yuxian County is the place where Cheng Ying and Gongsun Pestle of the Jin Kingdom hid Zhao Wu, the orphan of the Zhao family, in the Spring and Autumn Period, so it is famous for the Tibetan Mountain. Its place is surrounded by mountains, the middle is low and flat, and the shape is like a pot, so it gets its name. There are white horse mountains in the territory from east to west, there are white horse passes in the northeast, and there are yuzao passes in the east. There is also a pipe head beam running through the north and south, dividing the whole county into two basins in the east and west, with abundant water sources, all of which are suitable for planting.

If enough artillery can be deployed in Tunxian County, Guankou Village, Yuxian County, it is indeed not necessary to be afraid of the threat from the direction of Taiyuan. If the soldiers have spare strength, they can even go out of Yangqu to support or attack Taiyuan.

As for locking up Leping, it also cut off the hole for the enemy army to go north from Lu'an, ensuring that the entire Pingding Basin was in the hands of Donggong.

"Because Taiyuan has not yet fallen, first take Pingding, Yuxian can be sure to determine the road to Jin." You Shiwei continued: "If there is still strength left, I should seize Lu'an Mansion together, so that the southeast of Jin is in my hands. When the time comes, you can get Taiyuan in the west, Datong in the north, and Henan in the south. At the same time, they are easy to defend and difficult to attack, and a single gun can control the entire mountain road. ”

The government of Lu'an Prefecture is Changzhi County, and it was the party during the Warring States Period, which was the fuse of the battle of Qin, Zhao and Changping.

In later generations, some people often thought that King Zhao was greedy, so it attracted Qin soldiers to fight, but in fact, Shangdang was a high ground surrounded by mountains. Its eastern part is the Taihang Mountains, which are separated from Beizhi and Henan provinces; To the west is the Taiyue Mountains, bordering Pingyang (present-day Linfen); The north is Wuyun Mountain, Bafu Ridge and other mountains, isolated from Jinzhong; To the south are Danzhuling and Jinquan Mountain, adjacent to Zezhou (now Jincheng).

Shangdang's land is high and dangerous, and it has been a strategic place since ancient times, and there is a saying that those who can go to the party look forward to the Central Plains, which is the real reason why Qin Zhao wants to fight a decisive battle for it with the strength of the whole country. (To be continued......)

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