The sun was setting in the west, and Chang Yu, who was on the Chaoyang Gate Tower, watched the wild birds flying low in the sky in the endless wilderness to the east. He looked back at the smoke rising from the kitchens in the city, and his eyes stopped at the imperial city.
According to reports from scouts, Dorgon's Qing army has arrived in Tongzhou, forty miles away, and has set up camp on the bank of the Grand Canal to plunder. It is not yet known whether they will attack Tongzhou City.
The Tatars broke out and left, the imperial capital was saved, and the imperial city was saved from disaster. Looking at the Forbidden City at dusk, Chang Yu was filled with emotion. Historically, Li Zicheng occupied the imperial city for a month after breaking the city, and was later defeated by the Qing army.
So he patted his butt and left. Before leaving, he set fire to the Forbidden City and almost burned it to the ground. Only a few palaces survived.
Of course, historians have been arguing for decades about whether Li Zicheng burned the Forbidden City and how much he burned. According to the "Records of the Joseon Dynasty", it is almost burned. However, some people say that the Records of Joseon seem to be based on historical data, but in fact many hearsays are not trustworthy.
In fact, Chang Yu doesn't think that Li Zicheng really burned down the Forbidden City with a fire. The most direct evidence is that he followed the Qing army and entered the Forbidden City. How could he set up a tent in the ruins? You must know that it was built with the manpower and material resources at that time.
A palace takes several years or even ten years to build, let alone an imperial city.
Some people have said that, but many of the palaces in the Forbidden City were rebuilt by the Qing Dynasty. Come on, the buildings in the Celestial Dynasty were all wooden structures. The houses with masonry structures today will be dilapidated for decades, not to mention that the Qing Dynasty alone was more than two hundred years old.
Well, it is more difficult to maintain wooden buildings. It is normal to repair them after hundreds of years of natural disasters and man-made disasters.
And now there is an ancient Forbidden City architect who made a detailed statistics based on the architectural lacquer paintings when surveying the statistics of the Forbidden City's ancient buildings. There are still far more buildings in the Ming Dynasty than in the Qing Dynasty. This is evidence that Li Zicheng at least did not commit arson on a large scale at that time.
Interested friends can search for his detailed information online.
History has deviated from its original trajectory. As soon as Li Zicheng reached Baoding Prefecture, he was beaten back by Chang Yu. At least it was impossible to approach the capital in a short time. However, unexpectedly, Dorgon suddenly came to the city. This made Chang Yu break into a cold sweat. He
Although it has changed some historical trends, it has also brought more unpredictable and uncontrollable surprises.
In the past, relying on the familiarity of history, I was able to seize the opportunity step by step and everything was under control, but in the future... one mistake could lead to disaster. Chang Yu couldn't help but shudder when he thought about this.
If we want to protect the Imperial City, we must first protect the Ming Dynasty. The road ahead will be long and arduous.
Wang Jiayan didn't know when he came over, so he walked slowly to Chang Yu: "The Tatars travel forty miles a day. At this speed, they can enter the encirclement tomorrow. Why doesn't the factory governor send troops to take action now? It will be too late."
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Chang Yu turned around and chuckled: "Why are you late?"
Wang Jiayan frowned: "The area near Sanhe, where General Zhou's soldiers are ambushing, is only half a hundred miles away from Tongzhou. The Tatars can arrive in a day. If they find their traces, it will be a big war. Let's not say whether General Zhou's soldiers can defeat them. Once they are exposed, they will fight with us."
If the overall situation is unfavorable, then the factory supervisor’s plan will be in vain.”
Chang Yu did not answer directly, but asked: "Master Wang, where do you think the Tatars will go eastward?"
Wang Jiayan thought for a while and then said: "Going east to Tongzhou, which governs the three counties of Sanhe, Wuqing, and Baodi. Going further east, you will enter the territory of Tangshan. Sanhe is close to Ji Town, and the Qing army may not go there due to the border fortresses and the barren mountains.
Baodi is connected to Tangshan to the east of Tongzhou. It is a plain with no mountains, suitable for Tatar cavalry. They will definitely go there to plunder. As for Tangshan, they may not go because it is too close to the coast and close to Shanhaiguan. The Tatars should worry about the Ming army dispatching troops from Shanhaiguan together with them.
It is easy for the capital's soldiers and horses to intercept them from behind and block them at the seaside, so they should choose to go south to Wuqing, then enter Tianjin and then go south..."
The civil servants were very good at this. They did not do well in marching and fighting, but they analyzed the situation very clearly. But even though they seemed to be comprehensive, they were still no match for Chang Yu's meticulousness. He smiled slightly and said: "The Tatars will not give up just because the three rivers are close to Jizhen and the mountains are barren."
Robbery will not be prevented because Tangshan is located in a crack, and ant legs are also meat. Dorgon will set up troops to rob these places, but he will not miss them if he passes by, but the main troops will not go there, and they may not attack
City, as Mr. Wang said, his purpose is to go south."
"Since the factory supervisor said so, wouldn't Commander Zhou be exposed tomorrow?"
Chang Yu shook his head: "General Zhou must be no longer in Sanhe at this time, and the Tatars will not send troops away in large numbers tomorrow." Wang Jiayan was startled, and then figured out that Chang Yu should have sent someone to order Zhou Yuji to let him go.
Give way, but why won’t the Tatars send out large-scale troops to plunder everywhere tomorrow?
"Because the Tatars will definitely attack Tongzhou City."
Wang Jiayan didn't ask why. The reason was simple. Tongzhou was the source of the Grand Canal, with cargo terminals running from south to north. It was the richest state in the capital. Think about how the Tatars had been plundering everywhere in the capital in the past half month. Except for Miyun and Pinggu, which were occupied by others.
If everything is destroyed, everything else is protected. Only the small villages and towns below can grab as much property as possible.
The ineffective attack on the capital not only damaged troops and horses but also wasted time. Dorgon would definitely have to destroy a city to replenish supplies and boost morale, and Tongzhou must be the target.
"Save or not?" Wang Jiayan looked at Chang Yu, his eyes full of hope.
Chang Yu looked around and saw that the sky was already dark. He sighed: "There is no need to save him even if he can't. The gain outweighs the loss!"
"Then we should give it a try. Maybe...the factory governor has ever thought that maybe the soldiers in Tongzhou City are eagerly waiting for us to rescue them. Just think that when the Tatars entered the customs, the whole capital was also eagerly waiting for the troops.
Come to Qinwang..." Wang Jiayan suddenly felt that the little eunuch in front of him suddenly became cruel.
Chang Yu shook his head: "There are no soldiers or horses in Tongzhou City."
"The common people in the city..." Wang Jiayan became a little anxious, and Chang Yu glanced at him: "Master Wang, Dorgon is holding back his anger because he failed to attack the city. We send troops to play into his hands, and we will be hit hard head-on.
He would even deliberately use the pretense of attacking Tongzhou City to lure the governor to send troops. The Qing army's cavalry is invincible, and the Qing army in the plains of Gyeonggi Province can maximize the advantages of cavalry combat. I dare to ask Mr. Wang, what can we do to resist?
"Are you going to kill those losers under your command? Do you know how terrifying the combat power of 30,000 Tatar cavalry is? We can't defeat them in plains cavalry."
"Then the factory governor just watched the people of Tongzhou being massacred?" Wang Jiayan became angry and roared in a low voice.
"The Qing army mainly captured people and did not massacre the people on a large scale, but for the Ming army they killed them all. We would like to ask Mr. Wang, would you rather watch tens of thousands of Ming troops being slaughtered or would you rather see thousands
People were massacred, which one is more important?"
"But the factory supervisor, doesn't he always keep saying that the soldiers of the Ming Dynasty are just to protect the people, so why not die in battle to protect the family and the country?" Wang Jiayan was full of pride.
"It is not terrible to die in battle. What is terrible is that it is a pity to die in battle without saving the people. This is called fearless sacrifice. If the lives of tens of thousands of soldiers are spared, the Tatars will be severely damaged. Mr. Wang, there must be choices in everything.
Give up the light and choose the heavy.”
"What is seriousness? Are the lives of ordinary people cheap..." Wang Jiayan was furious, and Chang Yu sighed deeply. Civil servants are stubborn and accept death. People like Wang Jiayan who are full of etiquette, justice, shame, filial piety, loyalty and bravery are sometimes unreasonable.
Seeing that the good words didn't make sense, he felt a little angry: "To me, the lives of soldiers are more important than ordinary people at this time. If Lord Wang doesn't think so, how about you lead tens of thousands of soldiers from the Beijing camp under your command to Tongzhou to die."
Wang Jiayan paused, stared at Chang Yu, gritted his teeth, and finally let out a long sigh. Many times, words are easy to say, but actually doing it is another matter. He doesn't have the guts to let tens of thousands of soldiers die. The little eunuch is so good at fighting.
Don't dare to provoke the Tatar cavalry.
The atmosphere was a little awkward. Both of them were full of resentment at the city gate and looked out of the city without saying a word. After a long time, Chang Yu broke the silence: "All our family can do now is to do our best and obey fate. At most, we can send a team of troops to harass the seducers."
Pay attention to the Tartars, and everything else depends on God’s will.”
Wang Jiayan bit his lip and sighed: "Let's talk as much as we can, how about we transfer this troops from the Beijing camp?" Chang Yu shook his head: "The people in the Beijing camp are going to die now. They can't survive under the Tatar cavalry.
If we can't wait for a while, we should let Huang Degong's troops go, as his troops are the strongest at the moment."
"If we don't use the people from the Beijing camp, then forget it. I can't let others die because of my own selfish thoughts." Wang Jiayan shook his head, "The factory supervisor's focus on the overall situation is not as narrow as that of Beizhi. This matter will be ignored and never mentioned by Beizhi.
”.
Saying this, Wang Jiayan was convinced. After all, if you think about it carefully, sending troops is really harmful and useless. As Chang Yu said, if the Tatar soldiers don't want what they want now, why don't you send them with their heads?
In field battles, the Qing cavalry was really awesome!
"I'm afraid it doesn't make sense to send troops now or not!" Chang Yu suddenly said. Wang Jiayan followed his gaze and looked out of the city. There was a fire approaching quickly in the distance. As expected, it should be a Ming army scout.
Tongzhou City was besieged by the Tatar army at dusk and it took less than half an hour to break the city!
Wang Jiayan stood there with a look of astonishment on his face, his hand holding on to the wall kept shaking. Next to him, Chang Yu looked at the dark night sky in the east, his expression indifferent, without any trace of anger or other emotions. (To be continued)