After listening to Turhai's story, Dorgon's face turned black.
Hong Chengchou, Fan Wencheng and Ning Wanwo also looked extremely embarrassed. It seemed that they had made a mistake this time. From the current situation, it seemed that Chongzhen and Li Zicheng were secretly colluding.
And the intensity of this counterattack is also extremely high.
From the facts stated by Turhai, it is obvious that the Ming army has made a desperate move.
If there was no collusion between the two parties, would Chongzhen dare to place such a big bet?
In this way, their previous judgment on Chongzhen can be said to be completely wrong and extremely wrong.
"Master, it's all our fault." Ning Wanwo took the initiative to kneel down and admit his mistake, "It was my slave who miscalculated."
Hong Chengchou and Fan Wencheng also knelt down and admitted their mistakes to Dorgon. This time they really made a mistake and provided Dorgon with a wrong analysis, which led to Dorgon making a wrong decision and leading to a big mistake.
What makes the three of them even more frightened is that this mistake may very well ruin Jiannu's only chance to unify the world.
"Get up." Dorgon was actually very angry inside, but he knew that Hong Chengchou and the three of them were not to blame for this incident, because he made the decision, so he should bear the responsibility.
Taking out your anger on your subordinates after something happened is the behavior of a weak person.
A truly strong person will never shirk responsibility and will only look for reasons within himself.
Taking a deep breath, Dorgon continued: "Now is not the time to investigate the responsibility. The top priority is to weigh the prospects of the Xuzhou battlefield as soon as possible. Is it possible for us to continue to besiege Xuzhou? If the possibility has been lost, then what should we do next?
How to restore the situation must at least reduce the losses to the minimum."
Hearing this, Hong Chengchou and the other three couldn't help but exchange looks with each other.
This is how a wise master should behave, never losing his cool at all times.
And the more critical the situation is, the calmer it becomes. A master like Dorgon is a blessing to the Qing Dynasty. I believe that the Qing Dynasty will definitely be able to turn danger into disaster and achieve hegemony in the world, for sure!
At that moment, the three die-hard traitors began to use their brains rapidly and think seriously.
After a while, when Dorgon was about to speak, He Luohui suddenly opened the curtain and walked in.
"Master." He Luohui knelt on one knee and reported, "The Puppet Army has sent a messenger, saying they want to see you."
"The hypocrites sent a messenger?" Dorgon was a little surprised, "What do you want to do? Want to negotiate a peace? Or do you want to see the Qing Dynasty's jokes?"
Everyone, please go and try it soon.]
He Luohui said: "I want to negotiate peace."
"If we really want to negotiate a peace, let him wait outside the tent first."
Dorgon snorted and said to Hong Chengchou and the others: "Third gentlemen, let's get started."
Hong Chengchou first said: "Master, before we determine whether the siege of Xuzhou is still possible, we must first clarify one fact, that is, how much is the loss of wheat seedlings?"
"Yes." Ning Wanwo agreed, "It is already June 18th. When we return to Xuzhou and replant wheat seeds again, it will be early July anyway."
"The growth cycle of spring wheat is about four months."
"If you replant wheat seeds in early July, it will be already November by the time the wheat matures."
After a pause, he added: "The weather had already turned cold at that time, and it had even snowed several times, so the wheat had already withered due to the cold before it could ripen."
"Yes, it is definitely too late to replant spring wheat. Even if we replant, we can only replant winter wheat." Dorgon said, "The question now is, how much do the three gentlemen estimate the loss of wheat seedlings will be? Can the remaining grain sustain it?
By the time next year’s winter wheat matures? That’s between June and July, about a year.”
What Dorgon meant was, how many acres of spring wheat would the Ming army destroy, and how many acres would be left?
Then, can the remaining spring wheat harvest support the maturity of the winter wheat replanted this year? If there is no problem, we can continue to besiege Xuzhou for a long time.
Hong Chengchou and the others immediately began to calculate.
Ning Wanwu first said: "My slave once pulled weeds when he was a child. As a grown man, he can only pull out six cents of grass per day. Considering that the wheat seedlings are relatively sparse, we can double that. Each young man can only uproot one mu and two cents of land per day."
When it reaches the top, if it is women and children, the number will definitely be smaller, with the maximum being one acre per person per day."
Fan Wencheng continued: "But Xuzhou City has a population of one million."
Hong Chengchou sighed and said helplessly: "If the distance is not considered, the old, young, women and children in Xuzhou City can uproot one million acres of wheat seedlings in just one day, and it only takes three days to uproot three million acres of wheat seedlings on both sides of the Yellow River.
Light."
Ning Wan, I shook my head and said: "But in reality it will definitely not be that fast, because the farmland area is hundreds of miles in radius, and it would take two days for the old, young, women and children in Xuzhou City to walk there!"
Fan Wencheng continued: "It also takes time to cross the river to the north bank of the Yellow River."
Hong Chengchou concluded: "In this case, there may not be much left of the more than 1.8 million acres of wheat seedlings on the south bank of the Yellow River, but there should be 5.6 million acres of more than 1.2 million acres of wheat seedlings left on the north bank."
Dorgon frowned and asked: "If the Eight Banners soldiers from Pei County, Xin'an Town and Xiao County return to support, can more farmland be saved?"
"Master, it's better not to have high expectations." Hong Chengchou sighed softly and then said, "If Chongzhen really had a secret conspiracy with Li Zicheng and deliberately designed such a large-scale counterattack, then Xia Zhen, Pizhou and Huai'an Prefecture
The Ming army and Xiangyong will definitely take action, so the Eight Banners soldiers in Peixian County, Xin'an Town and Xiao County may not be able to smoothly return to aid, not to mention that even if they return to aid, it will be useless. The Eight Banners soldiers in Peixian County and Xin'an Town
Can’t cross the river.”
Fan Wencheng continued: "Although the Xianglan Banner stationed in Xiao County does not have to cross the Yellow River, the Xianglan Banner has just suffered a heavy blow at the foot of Shanyang City. The bannermen and ordnance have suffered heavy losses, and their morale is extremely low. I am afraid it will be difficult to recover.
Under the threat of Ming cavalry, we defended the farmland on the south bank."
Dorgon was speechless for a while.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Because the Ming army still has 800 Yiding and 3,000 fine cavalry.
After Ning finished, I continued to calculate: "Based on two shi per mu, the remaining spring wheat can be harvested about one million shi."
Fan Wencheng then calculated: "The Eight Banners of Manchuria, the Eight Banners of the Han Army, the Eight Banners of Mongolia and the Outer Mongolia Mongolia total about 180,000 dings. Each ding has a monthly combat ration of four dou, which totals 864,000 shi for twelve months. In addition,
There are also about 240,000 dings of clothing, and the monthly ration for each ding is one bucket and five liters, which totals 432,000 dan for twelve months."
After a pause, he added: "The total rations required are 1.29 million dan."
Dorgon frowned and asked He Luohui: "How much food is left in each banner now?"
He Luohui calculated and replied: "The total of each flag does not exceed 400,000 dan."
Dorgon said in a deep voice: "In other words, with the existing 400,000 shi of grain, there will be no problem until the wheat is ripe in September. If the wheat is ripe in September, the remaining 500,000 acres of farmland on the north bank of the Yellow River can really harvest 100,000 hectares of wheat.
Wan Shi, then there will be no problem in holding on until June next year until the more than two million acres of winter wheat that have been replanted are mature. Isn’t that right?”
Ning Wan, I nodded and said: "It's true that it's wrong, but there can't be any accidents in the meantime. If there are any accidents in the next six months, for example, there will be a flood in the Yellow River, or there will be a drought, or something will happen."
Or there is a locust plague, or the Ming army once again colludes with the puppet army to launch a counterattack, it’s hard to say!”
"Yes." Fan Wencheng sighed softly and said, "The surplus of 110,000 dan is really too little."
Hong Chengchou continued: "According to the art of war, when an army goes on an expedition, the food reserves must be at least twice or even three times more than the actual consumption. Even if it is not possible, half the rations must be stored! But now, even if it is not yet mature,
Taking into account the harvest from the 500,000 acres of farmland, it is only about average."
Having said this, the big tent fell into a long silence again.
Dorgon, He Luohui and Hong Chengchou all found it difficult to accept this result.
The situation was obviously good before, but why did it suddenly become like this? What went wrong?
"Chongzhen!" Dorgon quickly found the key to the problem and said through gritted teeth, "We underestimated Chongzhen this time. We really didn't expect that after the Jiashen national disaster, this person would actually become a different person, and he could bear the humiliation and bear the heavy burden.
Li Zicheng secretly colluded and actually had the courage to throw all Xuzhou's troops into a counterattack!"
Fan Wencheng, Ning Wan and I looked at each other and really underestimated Chongzhen.
Hong Chengchou's feelings were particularly complicated. Is this still the Chongzhen in his memory?
Dorgon continued: "It is definitely not possible to expect that there will be 500,000 to 600,000 acres of farmland left on the north bank of the Yellow River, and to expect that these 500,000 to 600,000 acres of farmland can yield two stones per acre."
"So, if we want to continue the siege, we must find ways to raise food."
Hong Chengchou continued: "But if we divide our troops to raise food elsewhere, we will inevitably make the same mistake as the Ten Kings."
"Yes." Dorgon frowned and said, "Not to mention whether we can raise food by dividing our troops, an accident will allow the Ming army to take advantage of the loophole and destroy the remaining five to six million acres of wheat.
Burn them all. By then, the Eight Banners Army and more than 200,000 coated slaves will have no choice but to drink from the northwest wind."
After a pause, he added: "Therefore, it is no longer possible to continue to besiege Xuzhou, and we can only withdraw our troops."
Hong Chengchou, Fan Wencheng and Ning Wanwei all sighed softly. At this point, no matter how unwilling they were, they could only accept the result and had no other choice.
Because continued forced blockade is likely to have disastrous consequences.
Compared with suffering a disastrous defeat, retreating now can at least control losses to a minimum. If nothing else, at least Eight Banners Manchuria did not suffer substantial damage.
As for the Eight Banners Han Army and the coated slaves, it doesn't matter how many they die.
At that moment, Dorgon said again: "Three gentlemen, we can now discuss the specific matters of withdrawing troops."
Ning Wanmei said: "Master, even if we retreat, we certainly cannot retreat like this. Before retreating back to Beijing, we still have to win the battle as much as possible."
