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In the battle of Chashan, Fei Yanggu lost a full 1,700 men and horses. After fighting for three days and two nights, he needed to rest for a day or two before his morale was slightly restored. By the time he led his troops back to Jinhua, Han Xiu's 10,000-man army had already arrived in Quzhou.
After hearing that Han Gang fought to the death and all his thousand men were sacrificed, Han Xiu, who had always been cautious, could not help but become furious. After resting for a day, he immediately led an army of 10,000 to attack Lanxi.
At this time, the local armed uprising in Jiande killed the county magistrate Qing, regained control of Jiande County, and sent people to contact Han Xiu, asking Han Xiu to send troops to Jiande. Han Xiu was overjoyed and immediately dispatched a thousand troops to Jiande.
This Jiande County has the same name as the Jiande County on the Yangtze River that Meng Ke and his men originally defended, but they are actually two different places. The poet Meng Haoran once wrote a poem "Staying at Jiande River": Moving the boat to anchor at the smoke-covered islet, at dusk the guest feels new sorrow. The fields are vast, the sky is low, the trees are low, the river is clear, the moon is close to people. The poem describes this Jiande County in western Zhejiang.
From Hangzhou, go through Fuyang, Tonglu, Jiande, Quzhou, and Raozhou. This is the fastest way for Hangzhou to enter the hinterland of Jiangxi. Fei Yanggu also took this route before.
Now Jiande was occupied by the rebel landlords, and Han Xiu sent another thousand troops, which was equivalent to cutting off Fei Yanggu's retreat.
Fei Yanggu was shocked and hastily lifted the siege of Jinhua, preparing to return to attack Jiande.
After Han Xiu's army arrived, Fei Yanggu could not come and go as he pleased;
Han Xiu first sent out light cavalry to quickly seize the pass near Daciyan Town west of Lanxi, blocking the way of Fei Yanggu's army back to Jiande.
Then he led his army along the east side of Damo Ridge, and the two armies met at a place called Zhuge Village;
Zhuge Village is about 50 to 60 miles away from Lanxi. The road to Lanxi is flat, but the road to Jiande is about to enter the mountainous area. The pass has been guarded by the Qin army. Fei Yanggu has no choice but to fight a big battle with Han Xiu. There is no winner.
Han Xiu organized his army to prepare for another battle the next day, but he never expected that Fei Yanggu would lead his army back to Lanxi.
Han Xiu relentlessly pursued his men all the way to Lanxi, but Fei Guyang's troops were mostly cavalrymen and had already fought their way back to Jinhua. This counterattack did not work, so he immediately abandoned Jinhua and headed eastwards towards Yiwu.
The scouts sent by Han Xiu reported that Fei Yanggu traveled two to three hundred miles a day, and within a few days, he caught Yiwu, Zhuji and other counties off guard and broke through several counties in succession, but Fei Yanggu never stayed for long, and left after robbing and headed straight for Hangzhou.
With Han Xiu's speed, it would be a pipe dream to catch up with her.
The problem is that it was unbelievable that Fei Yanggu retreated to Hangzhou so easily.
Han Xiu tried his best, but it was like hitting cotton.
Huang Yang, the military assistant, advised in time: "General Han, Fei Yanggu took Yiwu and Zhuji and left. Now these counties are in a state of being ownerless. General Han, please send troops to take them quickly. In this way, western Zhejiang will be almost in your pocket."
Han Xiu came to his senses and couldn't help but exclaimed, and quickly sent his deputy general with 7,000 troops to rush to Yiwu. As for Jinhua controlled by Zhu Dadian, he couldn't take care of it for the time being, and first controlled Yiwu and other cities in the east.
Han Xiu also ordered Quzhou to dispatch another 1,000 troops to join him, a total of 4,000 troops to Jiande to attack Tonglu and Fuyang.
The turn of events was so unexpected. When Han Xiu came here before, he was only thinking about keeping Quzhou and preventing the Qing army from entering the hinterland of Jiangxi, and he would be satisfied.
But Fei Guyang's withdrawal was tantamount to abandoning the entire western Zhejiang. Who would have dared to think of such a good thing before
It turned out that the reason why Fei Yanggu retreated in such a hurry was that, first of all, the battle of Chashan made him lose confidence in attacking Quzhou. Then the loss of Jiande cut off his retreat. He could not gain any advantage in the battle with Han Xiu, and was trapped alone behind enemy lines, in a very dangerous situation.
Just at this time, he received news that Bolo had withdrawn his troops from Hangzhou to support Nanjing, which meant that it was impossible for any troops to come to reinforce him.
Thousands of his troops were trapped in Lanxi, with their retreat cut off, and their situation was extremely bad.
Due to various reasons, Fei Yanggu made the decision to withdraw quickly. He did not dare to stay for long along the way, for fear of being blocked on his way back.
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This news soon spread back to Anqing. Qin Mu, Sima An and others were overjoyed and immediately made major adjustments. They re-employed Liu Fangliang and ordered him to lead 10,000 cavalry to reinforce Han Xiu as quickly as possible and try to go east from Fuyang to Hangzhou.
Cavalry is a good thing. The Qin army actually has quite a few cavalry now. Originally, Qin Mu had 10,000 cavalry. He got 20,000 when he incorporated the remnants of Li Zicheng, and another 20,000 when he incorporated the Guanning Army. The total number of cavalry has reached 50,000.
When Shang Kexi was completely wiped out, more than 30,000 war horses were seized. However, having war horses does not mean that cavalry can be produced. At most, it only increased the number of cavalry infantry by more than 30,000.
After the major breakthrough on the southern front, Jiangyin also had to make adjustments. Originally, it was planned to let Su Jin and Yuan Zongdi's 20,000 cavalry quickly penetrate into eastern Zhejiang, but now it was adjusted to send only 10,000 people.
On the other hand, he ordered Hui Deng to ask Jin Shenghuan to abandon Caiguji and be escorted by Di Zhongxing's navy to go straight to Jiangyin, join forces with Su Jin, defeat Liu Liangzuo as soon as possible, and then attack Changzhou and Zhenjiang in the west, attacking Jinling City from both sides.
After this series of adjustments, the battle plan is very different from the original one, and it can even be said that it has changed beyond recognition. But that is how war works. Only by constantly making adjustments based on the battlefield situation can we always maintain the initiative.
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There were already undercurrents in the city of Nanjing, with all kinds of rumors circulating among the people. The more Hong Chengchou tried to stop it, the more the rumors spread.
People said that the Qing army was defeated by the Qin army again in Anqing, and more than 200,000 people were annihilated. It was heard that they were also defeated in Jiangyin. The Qin army that had attacked Pukou in Jiangbei went to Jiangyin. It was also said that the navy was defeated. The Qin army’s navy was carrying a full 100,000 troops and was going down the river. It was said that they were going to attack Nanjing directly. Everyone felt that the Tartars would not last long.
The Donglin Party members who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty early on were worried, while those gentry who were unwilling to be slaves of the Tartars were jubilant and secretly communicated with each other, each with their own thoughts.
At first, most people were forced to surrender to the Qing Dynasty under the threat of the butcher's knife. After experiencing the bloody oppression of the Qing Dynasty, neither the gentry families nor the ordinary people in the city had much resistance to the Qin State, which was also a Han regime, and most of them were eagerly looking forward to it.
This is like a person who is well-dressed and well-fed. If you give him a bun, he will definitely look down on it, but if it is a person who is starving, he will definitely be very eager.
The people who were now forced to shave their heads and change their clothes under the rule of the Qing Dynasty and were bullied at any time were the ones who were in dire straits. The Qin army's continuous victories were like a ray of light that illuminated the people's gloomy hearts.
The people's hearts were brightened, but Hong Chengchou's heart was dimmed.
He had no time to care about the kidnapping of his eldest son. Unlike the public's speculation, the news he received was accurate. The tens of thousands of troops in Huangshiji were completely wiped out, and even Tulai was taken prisoner;
Anqing was under siege, the situation was precarious, and the reinforcements from Tongcheng hesitated to move forward;
Meng Ke's army was even more unstoppable and reached Taiping Prefecture.
On the southern front, Huizhou was unable to break through, and Fei Yanggu also retreated to Hangzhou, leaving the entire western Zhejiang to the Qin army.
What frightened Hong Chengchou the most was the defeat of the navy. In this way, the Qin navy could cut off the north and south of the Yangtze River and could easily send troops to places where their defenses were weak. It was impossible to defend against it.
As for Jiangyin, Liu Liangzuo had been attacking fiercely for two months before the Qin army arrived but failed to capture it. Now 20,000 Qin troops have successfully crossed the river to reinforce it. It is a pipe dream to expect Liu Liangzuo to pacify Jiangyin. It would be good if he could hold out until Bolo sent troops to reinforce him.
Hong Chengchou and Bai Yintu discussed the matter every day, but a good cook cannot cook without rice. Jiangnan had only more than 200,000 troops in total, and the casualties in Jiangyin alone were 60,000 to 70,000. This was something Hong Chengchou had never dreamed of beforehand. The people of Jiangyin caused the Qing army to lose 60,000 to 70,000 people, and it still stands today. This has not happened in the Ming Dynasty for 300 years.
Including those trapped and captured in Anqing, the total was 70,000 to 80,000. Now, all the troops in Jiangnan were actually only about 100,000. The troops were stretched to the limit, and most of them were unreliable Green Camp soldiers.
As the war situation became increasingly unfavorable, these Green Camp soldiers had become the most uncertain factor;
No one knows whether or when they will turn against us.
These fence-sitters will only obey whoever feeds them. They were able to surrender to the Qing a few months ago, so would they mind surrendering to the Qin now
The defeat of Tulai has once again confirmed this point. The Green Camp soldiers can only fight when the wind is favorable. When the Qing army has the upper hand, they follow suit to rob and burn, acting as the vanguard. Once the situation changes, these Green Camp soldiers will immediately turn against the Qing army.
Bai Yintu was walking around in the hall, dazzling people. After a long while, he said, "The situation in Jiangnan is critical. Now we can only ask Prince Yu for reinforcements."
Hong Chengchou sighed, "The fact that Luoyang has not yet been captured is like a sharp sword piercing the heart of the Qing Dynasty. In addition, the rebellions in various parts of the Central Plains have not been completely quelled. Once Prince Yu goes south, the Central Plains will surely be in chaos again."
Baiyintu was not as reckless as Nikan. He had a broad view of the situation. After thinking for a while, he said, "It seems that we have no choice but to give up Zhejiang. Otherwise, our forces will be too dispersed and we will not be able to save anything in the end.
Now we have no choice but to give up Zhejiang and mobilize heavy troops to completely pacify Suzhou, Songjiang, Changzhou and other places, and resist Taipingfu in the west. Giving up Zhejiang has another benefit, which is to let the Qin army fight with the King of Lu. The Han people like to fight among themselves the most. When Qin and Lu fight to the death for the east of Zhejiang, we can calmly pacify Jiangnan. "
Hong Chengchou shook his head again and said, "What can Zhu Yihai use to fight the Qin army? With his few men, the Qin army can defeat him with only a thousand men. Speaking of the name of righteousness, it should be Zhu Yujian who is in the name of righteousness now..." Speaking of Zhu Yujian, Hong Chengchou thought of Zheng Zhilong again. He thought for a while and said, "Now if we want to resolve the crisis in Jiangnan, it seems that we can only start with Zheng Zhilong."
"How about the hand?"
"Appoint Zheng Zhilong as the King of Zhennan, and promise him to stay in Fujian forever. Ask him to send warships to Jiangnan, and then leave Xianxia by land, or go through Tingzhou to attack southern Jiangxi. Now Qin Mu's hinterland is empty of troops. If Zheng Zhilong is willing to cooperate, he will definitely be able to deal a heavy blow to Qin Mu. If he still refuses, it's okay to give him Guangdong as well."
"I'm afraid this may not be enough to get Zheng Zhilong to send out his troops."
Hong Chengchou said calmly: "I will ask him to send troops. I will tell him that my son has been kidnapped by Qin Mu's men. I will let him know what it means to be in the same boat... "
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ps: The third update, and a final shout out, do you still have monthly tickets
.(To be continued..)
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