***
Qin Mu's intention from the beginning was to capture Xuzhou by luring the enemy to Chuzhou. The Huai'an naval and land forces had been prepared for this for a long time.
In Huoshan, Li Guo's 20,000 troops have been resting for a long time, and it is time to go out and stretch their muscles.
Qin Mu's orders were issued one after another. For the Qin Dynasty, the arduous battle had just begun.
Although 70,000 to 80,000 troops were mobilized to besiege Duoduo before, they were all mobilized within a hundred miles.
This attack is different. The number of troops mobilized will reach 100,000. The strategic goal is to capture Xuzhou, push the defense line 300 miles northward, and seize all the land south of the Huai River.
To defend the Yangtze River, we must first defend the Huai River. Only when the defense line can be pushed forward to the Huai River can Nanjing and even the entire Jiangnan region be truly safe.
In addition to its military significance, this move also has great political significance. The safer Nanjing is, the more stable the rule of the Qin Dynasty will be, and the stronger its cohesion among the people will be.
With the Huai River as a line of defense in hand, the Qin Dynasty was able to devote its energy to sorting out the chaos in the south.
Qin Mu originally intended to return to Nanjing, but the arrival of Du Yinxi, Song Xiance and others made him change his mind and decide to continue to stay in Chuzhou to reduce the constraints he faced.
After the wounded and prisoners were taken back to Nanjing, Liu Meng regrouped and sent 25,000 troops north to attack Fengyang as soon as food and grass arrived. As for chasing Duoduo, that was the job of the cavalry. It was a joke to use infantry to chase the cavalry.
After issuing various combat orders, Qin Mu finally sent an edict to Jinling, asking the ministers to begin preparations. Once Duoduo was annihilated or fled far away, they should immediately use the thousands of prisoners they had just captured to build a city in Pukou.
Pukou faces Jinling across the river. It is an important ferry crossing to the north. The Qing army succeeded twice this time, not only because the defenders were careless, but also because there was no city at this important port of Pukou.
In view of this, Qin Mu decided to build a small city in Pukou. It did not need to be a big project, just like a small county town, with certain military defense capabilities.
"Li Shi, wait, there is another decree. Ask the Minister of War Gu Jun'en, the newly-appointed Jin Lei and Sima Kai to come immediately and obey the orders of the Marquis."
"Yes, King Qin."
Li Shi left the tent. Only Qin Mu and Hong Niang were left in the tent. Qin Mu took the medicinal wine and squatted in front of him. Hong Niang immediately asked with some caution: "What are you going to do?"
"Ying'er, it's time to apply the medicinal wine." Qin Mu smiled, moved the fire tray closer, and began to take off her boots.
Lady Hong opened his hand and said, "What are you doing? I can do it myself. I don't need you."
She was crushed by the warhorse last night and sprained her foot. Qin Mu didn't care what she said. He grabbed her foot and carefully took off her boots. "Ying'er, don't move. Be careful not to sprain it again."
In this era, women's feet, in a certain sense, have sexual connotations. If a man touches a woman's feet, he is flirting with her. Even if he takes away a woman's shoes, it is also a sexual assault on her.
Therefore, women’s feet should not be touched casually.
However, Hongniangzi and Qin Mu were already husband and wife. What she cared about was not that Qin Mu touched her feet, but that Qin Mu, as the king of a country, had to take off his boots and apply medicine on her feet, which was hard for her to accept.
On the other hand, because she did not bind her feet, a pair of bare feet was considered an evil sign in the eyes of people at that time, and she really did not want to show them in front of Qin Mu.
"Don't do this, let me do it myself, I can do it myself." Hong Niangzi begged.
Qin Mu smiled and took off her stockings. Although Hongniang's feet were not delicate, they had natural beauty. Her ankles were a little red and swollen. Qin Mu poured some medicinal wine and gently rubbed them, saying, "When the time is right, I will order a ban on women binding their feet."
"Really?" asked Lady Hong in a lost voice.
"It's fake, just as fake as my feelings for you." Qin Mu rolled his eyes.
"That's great." I don't know why Hongniang is so happy and smiling.
"What are you happy about?"
"hehe... ... .."
"So everyone's feet will be the same as yours, right?"
"So what? Humph! I just can't stand those rich girls who need help to walk a few steps."
For some reason, Hong Niang was so happy that she even forgot that Qin Mu was applying medicine to her. Her eyes and eyebrows were full of smiles.
After a while, she suddenly stopped smiling and asked unhappily, "What are you waiting for? You are the ruler of a country, can't you just issue an order to ban women from binding their feet now?"
Seeing her impatient look, Qin Mu couldn't help but laugh and said, "Look at how anxious you are. This custom of foot binding has been around for a long time. Just banning it by law may not be effective. Can I send people to break into every household and check whether people have bound feet? Since foot binding is caused by social trends, we must start by changing people's ideas. After Gu Yanwu and Fu Qingzhu criticize it for a while, let people agree that foot binding is a product of distorted social thinking. Then I can order a ban on foot binding. This will be effective."
“Oh…” When Hongniang heard that she would have to wait for a long time, she couldn’t help feeling a little disappointed.
"Hahaha!" Qin Mu laughed heartily and said in a teasing tone, "Why are you so anxious about whether others bind their feet or not? I just like your big feet."
Hong Niangzi's face suddenly turned red with shame...
***
Duoduo's counterattack not only seized the much-needed food and supplies, but also greatly boosted his almost collapsed morale.
He did not dare to stay in Pukou for long and hurried to Xingdian Town. Niu Wanchuan was besieging Gong Acha's troops. When he received the report from the outer sentry, he was shocked to find that the Tartars had divided their troops. He was worried about being attacked from both sides and had to retreat in a hurry.
Duoduo came back with food and grass and met Gong Acha at the foot of the mountain. Although the food and grass problem was temporarily solved, Duoduo would face a more serious problem next.
After several battles, they had not received any supplies and their arrows were almost used up.
For the Qing army, whose specialty was horse riding and archery, losing arrows would be like losing half of their martial arts.
What's even more terrible is that among the remaining 20,000 people, at least one-fifth of them caught a cold, and the symptoms varied from mild to severe. The mild cases had runny noses and general fatigue, while the severe cases had flushed faces and bodies that felt as hot as a stove.
So many soldiers contracted typhoid fever, but there was a lack of medical care and medicine, which made Duoduo feel like crying without tears.
He called all the generals to discuss countermeasures, but they were silent. Only Aobai urged, "Your Majesty, Li Jiu and Su Jin are about to catch up. If our army doesn't leave, we might be surrounded again."
Li Jiu and Su Jin were indeed approaching, and together with Niu Wanchuan, the Qin army's cavalry was nearly 20,000. If they were held back by them, the consequences would be disastrous. Duoduo understood all this, but now there were so many patients, how could he get away
Duoduo could only put his hopes on Ning Wanwo, hoping that he could come up with another good plan: "Master Ning, what do you think we should do?"
"Your Highness, I'm afraid Su Jin and Li Jiu will not fight our army head-on." Faced with such a predicament, what tricks could Ning Wanwo have? However, his words were very to the point.
Putting aside the injuries, Duoduo's military strength is still not much different from Su Jin and his men. If they can fight to the death with Su Jin and Li Jiu, they still have a great chance of winning. The problem is that anyone with a little bit of common sense will not challenge them to a decisive battle now. It will be enough to just delay them.
"Mr. Ning, you have always been resourceful. Is there no other solution?" Zu Dale asked.
Ning Wan thought for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, if we want to escape from the pursuit of Su Jin and the others, it seems that we have no choice but to continue to divide our forces."
"Divide the troops? That won't work. The enemy was fooled once, so why would they do it again?" Zu Dale thought that Ning Wanwo wanted to continue to lure the Qin army away and let the main force escape. He thought for a while and said, "Your Highness, if it were you, I would say we should go back and attack Xiatang Village after nightfall. Qin Mu will never think that we dare to go back. We might be unprepared. We can defeat Qin Mu's 50,000 troops in one fell swoop. It is not impossible to turn defeat into victory."
A sudden counterattack might be beyond everyone's expectation, but now the Qin army's scouts are spread all over the surrounding area. It is impossible for tens of thousands of troops to attack Xiatang Village without being noticed by the Qin army's scouts. Zu Dale came up with such an idea, probably because he wanted to fight back and rescue Zu Dabi privately.
Duoduo turned around and asked Ning Wanwo, "Master Ning, please continue. How should we divide the troops?"
"This..." I hesitated, not knowing whether I should tell you this idea which would cause endless trouble to myself.
Seeing him hesitating, Duoduo, who was extremely anxious, could not help but secretly get angry. However, since he needed his help now, Duoduo suppressed his anger and said gloomily, "Master Ning, don't be embarrassed. Just say what you want to say. No matter what you say is wrong, I will not blame you."
Ning Wan also knew that we couldn't delay, so I had to say, "Your Majesty, whether we go west to Fengyang Prefecture or attack from the east to the west to return to Sizhou, it's only four or five hundred miles away. Under normal circumstances, we can return to Fengyang in two days at the least."
Duoduo understood that what Ning Wanwo meant by dividing the troops was to leave behind those patients who slowed down the marching speed and let the army return to "normal", so that returning to Fengyang would basically not be a problem.
Intellectually speaking, abandoning those patients is indeed the best option at the moment; but emotionally speaking, how many people can make such a decision? After all, there are only two or three thousand people, and the Qing Dynasty does not have many two or three thousand people to abandon.
"Your Highness, it's easy for Xia Chengde to disguise himself as a refugee and go south." Ning Wanwo added.
Duoduo had an idea and thought that this might be a good idea.
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ps: Dear brothers, it's the end of the month, you won't all go to support the great gods, right? Please take care of us little devils, please support us with monthly tickets. (To be continued...)
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