When the pioneer crossed the Yangtze River again, Xu Ping received a letter from He Feihu: "Turn Nanjing into an empty city? Interesting. ”

"What do you think?" Xu Ping handed the letter to Chen Zhe, who had just been rewarded by King Shun to become an earl, and the soldiers who had made meritorious contributions to the victory in Anqing had been rewarded to varying degrees.

"Take it." Chen Zhe replied without thinking about it, Xu Ping still didn't have any title, but Li Zicheng and Niu Jinxing both made it clear that they would restore the prince to Xu Ping after recovering Nanjing, and this time he didn't give it because he once again explicitly refused the imperial court's order to give up Nanjing without a fight, so the merit was offset - if Xu Ping recovered Nanjing, then he would naturally be able to use this credit to offset the sin he gave up at the beginning: "Your Highness." ”

"It's too early," Xu Ping laughed, and He Feihu claimed in his letter that he was willing to send high-ranking officials to negotiate in order to show his sincerity, and was even willing to send division-level officers to talk: "There is no need to talk about this kind of scene between you and me. Besides, I just don't have a prince, can't I still command you Lord Chen? ”

Shandong affairs, Chen Zhe stayed out of the degree, feeling a little sorry for Xu Ping, but he didn't want to lose the position he already had, and naturally he would not go against King Shun and Niu Jinxing, purely from a military point of view, Chen Zhe also felt that the Shun army could not carry the burden of Nanjing, so he didn't have to carry it - even if it was short-term. When he defeated Nanjing, which was undefended by the Sixth Army of the Southern Ming Dynasty, it was also in Dashun's bag, Chen Zhe just blurted out that he took Nanjing, first of all, he knew that this meant the throne to Xu Ping, and Chen Zhe didn't want his immediate boss to feel that he didn't think about him - it was okay to think about it for military reasons, but it was first and foremost to think about those who controlled their own destiny; Secondly, Chen Zhe is unwilling to steal Xu Ping's limelight, the so-called kindness comes from above, Chen Zhe has long learned not to covet too much fame and credit after so many years in Dashun officialdom, and it is taboo in officialdom to compete with his boss for the limelight.

"He Feihu's negotiation may be to delay time, he sent the town chief military officer to negotiate, and we also have to send senior officials, at this time, it is not good for the general to launch an offensive, he can drag on for a moment, but it's okay, we also need time to prepare." The Shun army has received information that the Ming army has organized a defensive line in Yingtianfu, and Chen Zhe guessed that the Ming army may have two reactions: the first is that the whole army is defending Nanjing, Xu Ping has no intention of gnawing hard bones, before coming he has made up his mind that if the Ming army acts like this, he will first recruit the local troops of Nanzhili and Zhejiang, and then block the river and besiege Nanjing; The second is that the Ming army escaped, Xu Ping crossed the river with the light army this time with the intention of following and chasing He Feihu, even if he could not annihilate him, he would bite off a large piece of meat of the Ming army.

Xu Ping led the army across the river with the vast majority of the cavalry and infantry of the rear guard battalion of the Shun army, and formulated many plans for the rapid march to outflank the pursuit, and the letters to the local officials of Nanzhili and Zhejiang had also been prepared. Now the reaction of the Ming army is very beyond Xu Ping's medical treatment, since He Feihu is digging trenches and holding on, he can't use this bit of soldiers to hit the opponent's copper wall.

"They want to rely on peace talks to delay time to transport baggage, dig trenches and build fortresses, and we have to transport the cannons as soon as possible," Chen Zhe continued, this time a large number of gunpowder and large-caliber mortars were captured from the hands of the Ming army, and the Shun army was amazed. ”

"Not bad," Xu Ping agreed, this time he captured a lot of materials, but the casualties of the troops were not small, the guards battalion and the armored battalion had to replenish a large number of recruits, these two battalions will cross the river with the rear guard battalion as planned, and their battalion training team is working hard in Jiangbei to train recruits to replenish battle losses: "It seems that the guards battalion can't rest, if the Ming army plans to fight hard, the guards battalion and the armored battalion are still a little weak." ”

Chen Zhe is not very worried that He Feihu will escape with a false shot in the name of negotiation, if the other party really intends to escape, it will not be delayed for so long, but even if the probability is small, we need to be careful: "Exactly, we have to get close to it, in case they change their minds and run away, we can't be careless and run away." ”

After several letters and exchanges with the Ming army, Xu Ping commanded the troops to cautiously lean eastward, and all the intelligence pointed out that the Ming army had no intention of escaping, and they built strong camps and a large number of strongholds.

When the Shun army camped opposite Longtan, He Feihu suggested that Xu Ping send a general to interview the Ming army's plenipotentiary envoy, and He Feihu told Xu Ping that he would send his adjutant Chen Wei, commander of the 11th Division, to the center of the two armies' positions to determine the details of the agreement.

And Xu Ping sent Chen Zhe: "Keep your eyes open, don't be deceived by them." ”

"Don't worry, General." Chen Zhe was glad that despite the changes in Shandong, Xu Ping still regarded him as a deputy.

The two squads of the Shun army and the Ming cavalry faced each other in rows across the 100 meters, Chen Zhe and Chen Wei came out of the crowd, Xu Ping and He Feihu did not come in person, and the two of them were also heavyweights in their respective camps who could make a decision.

"I have admired General Chen's name for a long time," Chen Wei jumped off his horse first and saluted the general of the Shun army opposite: "The last general and the general are still in their own family." ”

"Mr. Chen is polite." Chen Zhe also hurriedly returned the salute, Nanming made the military rank system similar to Xu Ping's copy, but Qi Guogong was more thorough, and even the name of the general level was changed, and the Shun army directly called the general a first-class general soldier, and the lieutenant general was called the second-level general soldier, and Chen Wei was the fourth-level general soldier in the mouth of the Shun army, and when Chen Zhe called it, he omitted the "fourth-level" in front of him - in fact, the fourth-level general soldier of Nanming was more than the commander of the general army of the Ming Dynasty, Chen Zhe couldn't figure out if the fourth-level general soldier would command one or 20,000 field troops, How many troops should be commanded at that level? I also heard that Qi Guogong also intends to set up some special general soldiers - where are there so many soldiers?

"When I was at the Xiapu Military Academy, the last general read General Chen's military book and benefited a lot...... "Chen Wei continued to pull the relationship, Huang Naiming drew not only Xu Ping's military book from the Shun army, but also Chen Wei's, and later Nanming also managed to buy more, Chen Wei did not start negotiations immediately, but brought up some textbooks written by Chen Zhe, including his opinions and confusion - Chen Wei was already familiar with these things, and he reviewed them again last night.

……

"Senior brother is polite, and the foolish brother also takes some things for granted." After chatting for a while, Chen Zhe began to call Chen Wei a brother, he was not a few years older than the other party, so he insisted that Chen Wei call him senior brother, from the conversation just now, Chen Zhe knew that the other party was similar to himself, and they all won the favor of the peak by virtue of their outstanding grades, and he also had a lot of resentment against the gang of people in the old department of Huangshi, which made him feel like a confidant.

I feel that Xu Ping's business still needs to be discussed, but there is this level of emotion in the negotiation is not as tense as Chen Zhe expected in advance, and the two of them politely negotiated the agreement: neither the Ming army nor the Shun army blocked shipping; No borders are closed to civilians and traders; The Ming army did not take the opportunity to let the naval division smuggle across the river defense fort, nor did it sneak attack the ships and ferries of the Shun army, and the Shun army did not smuggle into the lower reaches of the river, and did not take the opportunity to build forts along the lower reaches of the river; Neither army entered within fifteen miles of the city of Nanjing; Nanjing under the banner of the Ming army, the Ming army will send a hundred people to be stationed in the city symbolically, the officials of the Ming army continue to govern in the city of Nanjing, the Shun army does not accept, or instigate the wall grass in the city of Nanjing, the Ming army does not prevent the merchants of Nanjing from going to the territory of the Shun army to sell materials; If either party wants to repeal this agreement, it must notify the other party one month in advance.

Chen Zhe was quite satisfied with this agreement, through which he did not need to bear the burden of Nanjing before defeating the Ming army, but could buy supplies from Nanjing and the Ming army-occupied areas. After defeating the Ming army and recovering Nanzhili and Zhejiang, there is no need to worry about food problems with these production areas. The only thing that worries Chen Zhe is whether this agreement can really be implemented, from his point of view, this agreement is almost the same as treason and collaboration with the enemy - although the Shun army also paid the price, but Chen Zhe thought that it was a matter of time before he defeated the Ming army head-on, so he didn't pay too much attention to it; Nanjing means that the official is promoted, but Xu Ping doesn't care about the delay of the prince for a while, and Chen Zhe doesn't care too much about his marquis - he estimates that he can get this after the capture of Nanjing.

"The Constituent Assembly has approved it." Upon learning of the concerns of the Shun representatives, the Ming army immediately assured that the Constituent Assembly would send an urgent message to He Feihu, allowing him to hold Nanjing by all means of agreement, if it was not possible militarily. Therefore, Chen Wei was ready to sacrifice before he came, and the requirements of the Shun army did not exceed the bottom line of the Ming army.

"The Constituent Assembly?"

"Yes, General Xu and Senior Brother Chen didn't catch up with the good time." Chen Wei told the other party that it was not the old men in the army who had the final say, and the authority of the Nanming Council was increasing day by day. Of course, having a good father is still a huge advantage, for example, Huang Naiming is defeated 10,000 times, he is still the son of Huang Shi, this time he took the responsibility (Huang Naiming thinks that one of his father's great successes is to take responsibility for his subordinates and carry the black pot) The Constituent Assembly is still not in line, and Qi Guogong did not change the commander in the end: "Duke Qi must have learned the lessons of General Xu, General Yu and Senior Brother Chen, and let the Qing Yuan and the Governor's Mansion supervise the army." ”

"Well, alas, Qi Gong, Qi Gong." After hearing this, Chen Zhe also sighed a lot, and his name for Huangshi also changed from Huang Quzhi to Qi Gong.

"If it weren't for the fact that I thought that so many good sons of the south would have spilled blood on the battlefield, I heard that General Xu would ...... Hmph, it's nice to beat those guys up. ”

"There is no selfishness on the battlefield."

"Naturally, the younger brother also admires General Xu for letting go of so many people, but he hates those second-generation children who don't practice well on weekdays, but they are bigger than one by one, and they kill their classmates in the military academy who have better grades than them when they go to the battlefield." There was no one left and right, Chen Wei said to Chen Zhe: "If I had encountered that dirty thing at the beginning, I would not have run alone like General Xu, I would definitely take the whole battalion to join in." ”

"Alas, alas," Chen Zhe sighed twice, then suddenly raised his head and said, "If Duke Qi treats you like this, the junior brother will come to Brother Fool's side and bring one of your towns with you." ”

"The Qing Yuan will not treat me like this, but if there is such a day, the junior brother will definitely go to the senior brother." Chen Wei said with a smile: "If King Shun treats General Xu and Senior Brother badly, the younger brother can also send a message to the Constituent Assembly on his behalf, as far as the junior brother knows, the doctors appreciate the senior brother very much." ”

"Really?" Chen Zhe smiled, shook his head and said, "King Shun treats the foolish brother very well, there will not be such a day." ”

"That's a little brother's nonsense." Chen Wei didn't say much more, and when he broke up with the other party, he hugged his fists and apologized: "Senior brother, the younger brother's net worth and future are related to it, so it's no wonder that he offended him on the battlefield." ”

"Don't blame, don't blame, each is his own master, and the foolish brother will never show mercy."

……

Chen Zhe negotiated the conditions that Xu Ping was quite satisfied, and he has been studying the deployment of the Ming army in the past two days: "The layout of the Ming army is quite interesting, the beginning and the end cannot be echoed at all, He Feihu left his men and went to Danyang, hiding so far away, he can't do it if he wants to raid him." ”

The military headquarters and logistics units of the Sixth Army were taken away by He Feihu far away, unless Xu Ping could hit him regardless of the 30,000 Ming troops who were eyeing him on both wings, so it was easy to be hit by the Ming army, and He Feihu sat in Danyang and suppressed the prefecture closest to the front line, and now the local army of the Ming army here is still He Feihu's eyes, ears and help. The distance is far away, and there are so many pairs of eyes in the thick walls of the fortified city, Xu Ping sent a small army to make a surprise attack, and the possibility of success is very small.

"In the opinion of the last general, they don't want to echo at all."

Chen Zhe's views are completely consistent with Xu Ping.

"That's right, they just want to stop me from going east, but aren't they afraid that the price will be too great? Anyway, I don't have to raise Nanjing now, and I'm not in a hurry to take Zhejiang in the next two days. The Ming army's posture of fighting to the death obviously encouraged the friendly troops in the rear, and everyone watched the victory or defeat of the front line with wide eyes and did not immediately rise up to respond to Xu Ping, so Xu Ping planned to leave a battalion to monitor Longtan and move his battalion to the middle of the two divisions of the Ming army: "Cut off their contact first, and if they dare to come out to fight, I will break them individually." Since you promised not to blockade the shipping, and we need it too, then I will do my best to take Chunhua first and destroy half of He Feihu's military strength. I ......"

Xu Ping tapped Chunhua with his finger, did not continue to speak but stopped to think, Chen Zhe knew what his commander was hesitating, Xu Ping was very reluctant to attack the fortress of the new army from Henan, because he could not afford to lose so many troops. Although the battle of Anqing was won, but the elite of the Shun army also suffered a lot of losses, Xu Ping also personally inquired about the training of recruits while formulating the plan to return to the division, and also pulled Chen Zhe to discuss how to improve training - Xu Ping didn't want his recruits to be left behind too much by the Southern Ming Army, and was also considering extending the training time, but the resources were limited, so Xu Ping wanted Chen Zhe to help him find a training plan with a better cost-effectiveness ratio.

"Let's surround it first," in the end, Xu Ping's decision did not surprise Chen Zhe at all: "It is best to surround the three queyi and squeeze the twelfth town of the Ming army out of Yingtianfu, and then we will pursue and destroy it." If it doesn't retreat, then slowly squeeze it into a ball, if the Ming army in Longtan can't stand it and rush out to reinforce it, that's the best. If it doesn't save it when it dies......" Xu Ping finally made up his mind: "Let the prime minister try to increase the production of gunpowder, the king of Liao has also promised to increase the production of more gunpowder next year, we will use more shelling, the gunpowder can be rebuilt when it is gone, and people cannot be resurrected after death." ”

……

The plan to encircle Sanqueyi was soon found to be impossible to realize, and he put on a posture of outflanking from both wings, and went to cut off Tang Desheng's retreat and grain route in a big way, but let Xu Ping make a fuss outside, and the constitutional master sat motionless in the position. Xu Ping, who had no choice but to withdraw the outflanked army on both flanks, pressed the Ming army's position from three sides, and still left a gap in the south - just sent a small force to monitor, and did not allow the Ming army's grain route to be unblocked.

But until the Shun army pressed in front of him, the constitutional division still showed no signs of movement, during which Tang Desheng sent troops to sneak attack Xu Ping's small army to the south once - unsuccessful but posed a threat, the Shun army was surrounded for a time, but before the reinforcements sent by Xu Ping arrived, the Ming army retreated.

"He doesn't want to break through or open up the grain road, he just wants to sneak attack to take advantage, and he is also very cautious, and when the situation is unclear, he does not seek merit but no fault." Xu Ping confirmed that Tang Desheng refused to leave, and reluctantly ordered the gap to be tightened, and sentry was arranged along the ring of the Ming army to prevent the Ming army from coming out to sneak attack again. When the Shun army continued to come to surround the Constitution Division, the Council Division opened its eyes in Longtan and did not launch a diversion attack, according to which Xu Ping judged: "The two of them are consumed with me." ”

After the encirclement was completed, Xu Ping took his staff officers to the front line to observe the positions of the Ming army.

"I like this offspring," Xu Ping praised the staff officers around him while watching, Tang Desheng built a defense system based on villages and towns, and the people in these villages and towns were scattered by others, and did not leave these people as coolies or auxiliaries: "Have compassion." ”

The Shun army launched several tentative attacks on the defense system of the Ming army, and Xu Ping watched the battle from the side during each attack, and he found that Tang Desheng's defense was very good, and the soldiers relied on the trench to conceal, and when the Shun army approached, they cooperated with the friendly troops behind the fortifications to defend the trench. This time, Xu Ping did not have as much time as he did in Fujian, and he basically did not understand the defense system of the Ming army, and the reconnaissance troops would often suddenly encounter the fire of the Ming army. The Shun army made several tentative attacks on several strongholds outside the town of Chunhua, but none of them were taken, nor were they able to break through the trenches that destroyed the Ming army.

"This is not Quanzhou, and we can't waste our troops." The loss of the tentative attack was not large, and Xu Ping had no intention of filling it with the lives of a large number of soldiers here, because the Shun army was still not very clear about the defense of the Ming army, and for the same reason, Xu Ping could not build a simulated position for targeted training, so he was ready to use the combat mode of Puguanshui, first shelling and then dispatching troops to attack at night. The Ming army's headquarters, Chunhua Town, had a series of outlying strongholds, which increased the depth of the Ming army's defenses, giving the Ming army time to react and maneuver with reinforcements, while also preventing the troops from becoming too dense. Xu Ping felt that although this arrangement was advantageous, if he could raid the headquarters of the Ming army, the Ming army would be leaderless, and he would lose his baggage reserves, and if such an attack could be successful, the casualties of the Shun army would be relatively small, and he planned to launch a multi-point attack on the Ming army's peripheral positions with two battalions of nearly 10,000 people, and use the night to create more trouble for the other party - this kind of offensive can disrupt the judgment of the Ming army and mobilize the direct and reserve forces of the Ming general. The defense is also not static, if there is a breakthrough in the place, Xu Ping can compare the judgment, command and dispatch capabilities with the enemy. The Shun army hopes to pay less than 2,000 losses for the elimination of this Ming army, and also hopes to capture enough equipment so that they can be used to train and arm recruits - the training teams of each battalion said that the captured Ming army rifles are easily damaged, and in the past, recruits could not lose a rifle by one person during training, and when the recruits are familiar with the weapon maintenance work, the rifle issued to him will be the weapon when he served in the battalion, but now the weapons of the Ming army are not of the same quality as before. Chen Zhe inquired about some information and reported to Xu Ping: This is because the Duke of Qi used a large number of businessmen to participate in politics, and there may be a serious collusion between officials and businessmen in Nanming, which led to a decline in the quality of weapons.

During this period of morale, when Xu Ping had been using a small force to test the situation, Tang Desheng also infiltrated the outlying strongholds to watch the battle, although the combat experience of the Ming army was not as good as that of the Shun army, but under the protection of the fortifications, they had the ability to make the Shun army pay a heavy price. Today, Tang Desheng observed that the infiltration attacks of the Shun army had come to a halt, and in addition to him, many observation posts observed that the Shun army began to build artillery fortifications and dig more communication trenches.

"It's their going to use cannons." Tang Desheng knew that this meant that the Shun army had given up the intention of a quick victory, and the other side either thought that its own defense system could not be forced, or that the price required for a strong attack was intolerable, which also meant that the Constitution Division had dragged the war into a protracted war situation. When Tang Desheng learned defensive tactics before, the most important example of battle was the Kaifeng Blockade Battle, and Xu Ping's textbook explained in detail how to dig trenches, build fortifications, form trenches and ramparts to cover each other, and how to predict and counter enemy attacks, and even how to reduce the damage of the enemy's artillery bombardment, including mortar bombardment. Tang Desheng and his officers meticulously arranged according to the ideas in the textbook, and after noticing the signs of the Shun army's use of siege artillery, the constitutional division immediately began to learn from the lessons of Xu Ping's resistance to Kaifeng. When the infantry behind him added additional shelter and isolation to the deliberately jagged trench, Tang Desheng used his binoculars to observe the movements of the Shun army on the opposite side, and whispered to himself: "General Xu, I have read every one of your articles. ”

After the deployment of the Shun army, on the first night of the attack, all the mortars were used to violently shell the five outlying strongholds of the Ming army at the same time, firing hundreds of shells.

After dawn, Xu Ping received a report that the Shun army had suffered hundreds of casualties within a few hours, but it was still a stronghold that failed to break through.

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