Episode 50 Secret peace talks

On the morning of the 26th, smoke was filled with smoke in the conference room. Emperor Guangwu sat alone on a sofa, staring at the blood-covered eyes, staring at the map on the wall. The cigarettes on his mouth were still emitting thick smoke, and the ashes had already hung down.

The conference room has not been cleaned yet, and it is obvious that after the meeting, Guangwu has to stay alone for a while. There is an ashtray in front of each seat of the long table, some without cigarette butts, and some have only one or two cigarette butts. But the ashtray in front of Guangwu himself has accumulated a lot of cigarette butts.

The heavy smoke in the conference room will make people who have just come in and don’t know the inside story think that the meeting has just ended. However, this conference room was opened last night. In Beijing, I learned that the Ming army had snatched the floating bridge and entered Shanxi and opened it urgently.

After the meeting, I knew that Guangwu had been smoking here for a night. No one dared to persuade him. Everyone below knew the emperor's temper. If anyone came to persuade him at this time, he would definitely be in trouble. It has happened several times before.

All night, Guangwu kept smoking, staring at western Henan, Shaanxi and Shanxi on the map. He stood up and walked, kicked over several chairs to vent, and calmed down and continued to sit down and smoke, looking at the map. A large piece of western Henan was already filled with red villains, cars, and tanks. The density was so high that it contrasted with the blue villains in the north and west.

Red represents danger, warning, radical, and on military maps, they mostly represent the color of the enemy. Blue represents safety and trustworthiness, and is generally used to represent one's own side.

But now, the enemy's colors are densely distributed in the gateways in Guanzhong and Shanxi. What's more serious is that these two most important "gateways" - Hangu Pass and Longmen Floating Bridge - have also fallen into the opponent. Now people only need to do one thing: just increase their troops. Maybe they can easily win the two provinces of Shanxi without even fighting a big battle.

All you can do is watch.

He spent two hours thinking about all the possibilities to save Shanxi... Unfortunately, none of them could be achieved.

Then, he spent another two hours forcing himself to admit that the south of Shanxi is irreversible, and to force himself to become realistic, considering the situation after losing southern Shanxi, and how to deploy it.

Save the north of Shanxi at all costs.

If you lose southern Shanxi, just the North China Plain will be threatened at any time. However, if you lose northern Shanxi, even Beijing will be threatened at any time. Also, Zhangjiakou Tank City and the Hetao Railway connecting the west will be threatened at any time.

Wutai Mountain, Hengshan Mountain and Xishan Mountain at the northern end of the Taihang Mountains are close to Beijing. It is equivalent to being up and down the mountain. Once it falls into the hands of the Ming army, the Qing Dynasty will have to consider moving the capital. When it reaches that point, Guangwu is almost sure that his dominance will be subverted.

Guangwu slowly strangled the cigarette to death in the ashtray and then rang the electric bell.

A staff officer came in immediately to pay his respects. Guangwu asked:

"How are the troops on Shilu Highway?"

The staff officer immediately went out to send a question. After a moment, several generals came in. After paying homage, they immediately marked and reported on the map of the conference room.

On the map, Guangwu saw intuition that the reinforcement force of Shanxi composed of five Eight Banners Divisions and 15 Han military divisions was repeatedly blocked on the Shilu Highway across the Taihang Mountains. In just one night, on just over ten kilometers of mountain roads, there were more than five blocking battles, and the casualties were nearly 1,000.

Moreover, judging from the marks on the map, since we got off the train in Shijiazhuang and entered the mountain, the first stage of the mountain road has not even passed by one-third.

These generals only dare to say this, and there are more hesitant and dare not say it. Guangwu knew what they wanted to say.

He asked coldly:

"Will you still be attacked by the Ming army in the air during the day?"

Several generals breathed a sigh of relief, looked at each other, and nodded.

"Transfer the order," Guangwu said with his fingers, "Immediately let the troops retreat from the same route and get back on the train in Shijiazhuang and head north."

Several generals stared at each other, wondering what the emperor meant.

Guangwu got up and came to the map, took the pencil and drew it on it while saying:

"Don't stop in Beijing, continue to head northwest, follow the Beijing-Zhangjiakou Railway through Juyongguan to Zhangjiakou, get off the train in Zhangjiakou, then take the highway and enter Shanxi from the north."

Several generals looked at each other and said slowly:

"This...

A young staff member asked boldly:

"Emperor... Emperor, I'm daring to ask the emperor to solve his doubts... The army retreated to the north, then... in the south of Shanxi, Taiyuan and other things... do we want it?"

Several generals stared at him with their eyes. Guangwu slowly moved his eyes to his face.

The young staff member was immediately frightened and his face was pale, lowered his head, trembling, and said in a dry voice:

"The emperor...slave deserves to die..."

Guangwu held back his attack, smiled, and said as kindly as possible:

"What's your name?"

"Slave...slave is called...heritage..."

"Well, Heli, which flag is from?"

"Back... Go back to the emperor, the slave is the white flag..."

Guangwu nodded and smiled:

"Zhengbai Banner, okay...Hello, and you...you should know that now our Qing Dynasty is in trouble again, with both internal and external troubles. It is precisely because we, the men in the banner, work together to protect our country... Nanming in the south, and the Han people and ordinary people below, they all want to bring us down, liquidate us, and let us die without a burial place... The more we are at this time, the more united our bannermen are like one person...

"When Emperor Tianming (Nurhaci) and Emperor Tiancong (Huang Taiji) raised their troops to fight against the Ming Dynasty, the situation was a hundred times worse than ours now. At that time, the situation in the Qing Dynasty was ten times worse than now. Aren't they all coming? As long as our bannermen are still as united as they were at that time, what is this small difficulty now? Can it really ruin our Qing Dynasty?

"Hello, if you want me to solve my doubts, I will come to solve my doubts. It's not that I don't want to have southern Shanxi, but now that the air supremacy in southern Shanxi is in the hands of Nanming, and the control of the Taihang Mountains in the south is also in the hands of the guerrillas. It is unlikely that we will mobilize troops from the south to Shanxi. I will teach you that when one road is obviously not open, you must give up decisively and find another way to walk. Now, the only way to walk is to enter Shanxi from the north.

"Of course, the Ming army has good mobility, so they will definitely be occupied by them first. But when they seized southern Shanxi, we also bought time in the north, and had time to guard some important mountain passes to ensure that the north of Shanxi is not lost. Ensuring northern Shanxi also ensures that the flanks of the Beijing-Tianjin defense circle are not threatened, and the Hetao railway is not threatened, and the connection between the eastern and western Qing Dynasty is not cut off. In this way, as long as our Qing Dynasty wins a big victory in the Central Plains, we can turn defeat into victory and drive the Southern Ming back. The southern part of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Guanzhong, western Henan, and Jianghuai can be recaptured. Do you understand?"

The young staff member never expected that he would not only not be punished, but could hear the emperor say this with his own ears with a kind look. He was so excited that tears filled his eyes, and his throat was rolling, and he could only say intermittently:

"Emperor...Your...Your...Slave...Slave..."

The other generals were also very surprised, and immediately looked grateful and swearing to express their loyalty.

Guangwu also smiled, looked at everyone with a kind look, nodded, indicating that he understood everything and let everyone do it.

Guangwu knew that as the battle situation continued to deteriorate, his position in the royal family was also shaking little by little. If he was instructed like before, he might be too arrogant and domineering. In the future, he would use all means to unite the majority of people as much as possible.

But those generals had their own ulterior motives. At least two or three were thinking: You said it nicely now, "The bannermen are united like one person." Why didn't you say this when you were in the coup? You started killing the royal family, and you killed several iron-hat kings. Even the fourteenth princess didn't let go, forcing them to escape to Nanming. The fourteenth princess is a rare talent in the royal family. Now, I'm fine. I'm going to give advice to Nanming all day long and give the Qing Dynasty a break, and clean up the things that the relatives are sore and the enemy is happy... Who is it?

... I was moody all day long, and I knew that I was killing people and arresting people, so that no one in the commander dared to speak. You were all alone... The Eight Banners Division and the Guard Division, in order not to let others get involved, could actually let your two hairless brothers take care of them... The sticking rod was even more outrageous. It was actually letting your youngest son be the chief, and Western newspapers made this a joke, making the Qing Dynasty almost a laughing stock for the whole world... The sticking rod turned out to be a tiger in the hands of the fourteenth princess. Now it's just a few days now? It's almost a pig... If the fourteenth princess was still in charge of the sticking rod, the Qing Dynasty wouldn't have allowed Nanming to successfully attack like this...

...

Guangwu sent away a group of generals, and then asked someone to find two subordinates on the stick.

"You two listen," Guangwu lowered his voice and stared at them very sternly, "What I said to you now is something that must be kept confidential. This involves the Qing Dynasty's country and the wealth and lives of our bannermen. I found you because others can't believe you, and have you heard clearly... Have you heard clearly?"

The two secondary men looked at each other, nodded in a sacred expression, and said in unison:

"Don't worry, Master!"

The second son left said another sentence:

"Slaves must keep their lives confidential!"

The right second son also said:

"Even a slave who dies without a burial place must be kept secret!"

Guangwu smiled and waved his hand and said:

"Okay, okay, don't say such a disheartening thing. If I can't believe you, I won't come here... Listen, I'll give you a top-secret task below, which is to arrange a secret contact with Nanming and test the possibility of a truce."

"ah!"

"ah!"
Chapter completed!