***
A large number of ministers, including Du Yinxi and Yang Tinglin, went to the Ministry of War and urged the Minister of War He Liang to dispatch troops to rescue Chuzhou. Their words were so harsh that a fight almost broke out.
Although He Liang had been prepared for this, he was surrounded by 20 or 30 ministers who were spitting at him. Yang Tinglin was the father-in-law of the emperor, so He Liang did not dare to neglect it and quickly took out Qin Mu's order. He emphasized that he needed the cabinet's approval to mobilize troops.
Currently, there are 100,000 troops stationed in Nanjing, and the power to command the troops lies in the hands of Liu Meng, the commander-in-chief of the central army. The power to mobilize troops is relatively complicated. Nominally, the power to mobilize troops lies in the hands of the Ministry of War, but when the Ministry of War really wants to mobilize the troops, it needs the other half of the tiger talisman held by the cabinet before the order to mobilize troops can take effect.
The cabinet does not have the power to mobilize troops, but because it holds the other half of the tiger talisman, it can restrain the Ministry of War.
To be precise, half of the tiger talismans currently held by the cabinet were usually in Qin Mu's hands. When Qin Mu left Beijing, he gave them to Sima An to take temporary charge.
He Liang took out Qin Mu's decree and mentioned Sima An at the same time. He really had no other choice but to do this to relieve the pressure on himself. However, after reading Qin Mu's decree, Yang Tinglin and others did not give up.
In fact, Qin Mu’s order was not to forbid Jinling to dispatch troops, but the purpose of dispatching troops was not to rescue Chuzhou, but to catch the turtle in the jar.
This would mean that the 8,000 troops in Chuzhou would continue to endure Duoduo's siege. Yang Tinglin and others, out of concern, naturally did not want to see Qin Mu trapped in danger without rescuing him.
Under the siege of 20 to 30 ministers, no one listened to He Liang's words, so he had to send someone to ask Sima An for help. Sima An hurried to the Ministry of War, and saw that the lobby of the Ministry of War had become a mess. He immediately shouted: "My colleagues, if you continue to make trouble like this, the King of Qin will be in real danger. Can you bear this responsibility?"
Du Yinli immediately retorted: "As the saying goes, don't be afraid of a thousand but be prepared for the unexpected. If something goes wrong in Chuzhou, can the Prime Minister afford it?"
"Chuzhou City is strong and well-stocked, and the King of Qin is here in person, so it won't be lost for a while. You are all just messing up yourselves, and Duoduo is just waiting for that. My colleagues, listen to my advice, and go back to your offices to handle your own affairs first, so as not to delay the military's mobilization of troops."
The ministers wanted to argue again, but the commander of the night army, Huang Lianshan, suddenly rushed into the hall of the Ministry of War and shouted loudly: "The King of Qin has ordered that all ministers should stay at their posts and not disturb the Ministry of War. The Ministry of War should immediately dispatch troops and generals according to the order and make no mistakes."
Someone immediately shouted, "How dare you! How dare you disobey my order!"
Huang Lianshan quickly took out a piece of paper with a seal on it and said, "How dare I falsify the order? My Lords, please read this. Is this the order of the King of Qin?"
The ministers of Dachang looked at the paper Huang Lianshan brought. They looked at each other in bewilderment. Could it be that the King of Qin had clairvoyance? Or had he anticipated the reactions of the ministers in the court
After reading the note with the seal, everyone felt sympathetic! Although Qin Mu was not in Jinling, everything was under his control.
This decree came so timely that the ministers had no choice but to return to their respective offices to handle official business under Sima An's persuasion.
The Ministry of War quickly made deployments according to the order. Li Chen stayed in Nanjing, while Liu Meng, the commander-in-chief of the Central Army, led 50,000 troops to cross the river and head north.
*******
Li Jiu and Zhu Yijin led 6,500 cavalrymen, braved the wind and snow, and flew past the west side of Huangfu Mountain. Then they rushed south along the west bank of Xiang River.
"Report, General Li, ten miles ahead, there are two million people looting in Litang Town." The scout reported at full speed.
Li Jiu kept on riding and said to Zhu Yijin, "General Zhu, you go west and I go east. Let's encircle them from both sides and don't let any of them escape."
"Yes, sir!"
The six thousand soldiers and horses then split into two and tumbled away like two giant dragons, with the wind and snow making a miserable sound and the sound of hooves like thunder.
The three hundred Qing soldiers who were looting in Litang Town soon heard the thunder-like sound of horse hooves. They did not need to conduct any further reconnaissance as they could judge the approximate number of enemies from the sound of the hooves.
What is going on? How come nearly 10,000 Qin cavalry suddenly appeared here
Niulu Zhangjing Bilong did not have time to think and immediately blew the retreat horn. The Tartars carried the loot and jumped onto their horses, rushing out of the town. Before they had run two miles, Li Jiu's 3,000 troops rushed over from the other side of the wind and snow like a black torrent.
The Qing army was outnumbered ten to one. They fought tenaciously, retreating while fighting. Li Jiu refused to let go, and the Qing army retreated three or four miles to the south, and ran into Zhu Yijin's troops who were outflanking them.
Under the attack from both sides, the Qing army was defeated, including Niulu Zhangjing Bilong, and none of the 200 Qing soldiers escaped. Eighty-two were killed, and the rest were all captured.
After successfully annihilating the Qing army, Li Jiu immediately ordered: "General Zhu, you take 3,500 troops to stay in Litang Town and patrol the upper reaches of the Xiang River. No matter what, you must not let the Tartars cross the river."
"General Li, rest assured. The upper reaches of the Xiang River will be left to me."
After making the arrangements, Li Jiu led the remaining 3,000 troops and continued to rush southward towards Quanjiao County along the west bank of the Xiang River.
Along the way, they wiped out two groups of Tatar cavalry who crossed the river to plunder, and destroyed the floating bridges on the Xiang River, separating the east and west banks of the Xiang River.
It is only forty or fifty miles from Litang Town to Quanjiao County in the south. There were originally three thousand garrisons in the county, who were blocking the Qing army from crossing the river on the west bank.
After Duoduo launched the first round of exploratory attacks on Chuzhou without success, he sent Gong Acha to lead 5,000 troops to attack Quanjiao County. However, they were blocked on the east bank by the garrison of Quanjiao County and were unable to cross the river for a while.
Li Jiu's 3,000 cavalrymen suddenly attacked, and the Qin army became more powerful. Gong'acha had no hope of crossing the river, so they had to temporarily retreat to Chuzhou.
***
On the east bank of the Lai'an River, Su Jin had been showing weakness. After his 6,000 cavalry retreated into Lai'an County, they had not engaged in battle. The Qing army led by Xi Han and Li Guohan with 10,000 troops fiercely attacked Lai'an County. The city defense seemed to be in danger, but it had not been broken.
In fact, Su Jin's 6,000 cavalrymen did not participate in the city defense battle at all, but had been resting and gathering strength. Only the original 3,000 garrison troops were guarding the city.
Xihan came with full confidence, but after three days of fierce attack, he lost more than 700 people and still failed to capture Lai'an. This made him extremely anxious.
When he first went to the south of the Yangtze River with Duoduo, the Ming army fled wherever they passed, and they often captured several cities in one day. He did not expect that this time the 10,000-strong army would be blocked at the small city of Lai'an and be at a loss as to what to do.
The purpose of taking Xia'an was not only to use it as a base for attacking Chuzhou, but more importantly to plunder the army's food and grass supply. If they could not capture the city, they would not be able to solve the problem of food and grass supply for the army by plundering some villages.
Just when Xihan was getting anxious like an ant on a hot pan, he suddenly received a message from the scouts: Ning Yuan, the Qin general originally stationed in Yangzhou, led an army of 15,000 troops along the Yangtze River waterway to ** County in the southeast, and quickly advanced westward from ** County, heading straight for Lai'an County.
Xihan was overjoyed when he heard the news. Although the city was difficult to capture, he was absolutely confident that he could defeat the Qin army in Ningyuan in one fell swoop in a field battle. He immediately mobilized his troops to attack Ningyuan.
The Qing army's attack on Chuzhou was well planned. If they could not quickly capture Chuzhou and capture and kill Qin Mu, they would switch to besieging the city and attacking its reinforcements. It was normal for Ning Yuan to lead his troops here. The Qing army was also hoping that the Qin troops from all directions would come to deliver their services.
As Xihan couldn't help but want to go and attack Ningyuan, Lieutenant General Li Guohan thought for a moment and dissuaded him: "General, Ningyuan is not far from ** County now. If we kill him right away, he might be scared and retreat back to ** County, which is not good. We might as well wait for him to walk for another half a day, and then kill him when he is halfway. In this way, he will not be able to escape even if he wants to."
"Yes, that makes sense. Then keep a small part of the troops to continue the feint attack, and withdraw the majority of the troops to recuperate and wait until Ning Yuan gets closer."
***
In the Qing army camp under Chuzhou, news was gathered in Duoduo's tent. In the east, Ningyuan sent 15,000 troops to help. In Jinling in the south, Liu Meng's 50,000 troops crossed the river and headed north. In Quanjiao County in the west, thousands of Qin cavalry arrived.
It seems that Qin Mu is trapped in Chuzhou, and the Qin army is really anxious and is coming to help. This is exactly what Duoduo wants. Only in this way can he have the opportunity to besiege the city and defeat the enemy one by one in a field battle.
However, the speed of Qin's army's reaction was beyond Duoduo's expectations, which surprised him. Then he thought that Qin Mu was the king of a country and was trapped in Chuzhou. The Qin army must be very anxious, so it was normal for them to come quickly.
The Qin army came quickly, or in other words, came in a hurry. In such a hurry, they must have been insufficiently prepared, so it was easier for the Qing cavalry to defeat them.
Duoduo quickly gathered all the generals to the central army tent and asked, "Now, the enemy troops are coming to support us from the east, west, and south. Which one do you think we should attack first?"
Ning Wanwo frowned and said, "Those coming from the west are all cavalry. If they avoid fighting, our army will be unable to do anything about it, and we may even be lured away by them. Moreover, even if we kill all of them, we will not be able to cause serious damage to the Qin army.
Xi Han and Li Guo Han are there to deal with the enemy troops in the east, so it should be enough. I suggest that we attack Liu Meng in the south first. Liu Meng has the most troops. If we can successfully destroy this Qin army, we can injure the Qin army, and the other reinforcements will collapse without a fight. "
Ning Wanwo's suggestion was unanimously agreed by all the generals. Duoduo no longer hesitated. He left 10,000 troops to continue besieging Chuzhou to prevent Qin Mu from breaking out, and took 20,000 troops with him to go south to meet Liu Meng.
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.(To be continued..)
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