Wuqing County is one of the oldest cities in northern China. The Grand Canal runs through its territory. It is adjacent to Xianghe County to the north and Tianjin Wei to the south. It is very prosperous.
At dusk, Huang Degong stood a few miles outside the city and looked at the ruins of Wuqing County in front of him, his eyes burning with anger.
He sent out troops late last night and marched quickly, but he was still one step behind the Qing army. Wuqing County was not spared. Such a small town could not stop the Qing cavalry. It would not take more than half an hour to break the city.
"The Tatars ran really fast. I'm afraid the city has been burned for several hours." Ji Jike looked at the remaining smoke in the city with a solemn expression: "They are fast enough. We should have arrived at Tianjin Guard by now."
.
"The faster you run, the more it means the dog is afraid of the Tatars," Huang Degong sneered.
"Perhaps it's just to throw away our army's pursuit," Tu Yuandao said, Huang Degong snorted: "That's not because you're afraid. If you're not afraid, why would you throw us away?"
It is nearly a hundred miles from Xianghe to Wuqing, and the Qing army broke through the siege and marched southward at noon yesterday. They traveled more than a hundred miles in one day and one night and broke into a small town in the middle. Although they were all cavalry, they were still burdened by heavy baggage.
This speed was already astonishing. As Tu Yuan said, Dorgon's move should have been in a hurry to get rid of the Ming army behind him.
"Whether he is afraid or wants to get rid of him, we can only watch the Tatars run away now." Ji Jike sighed. Nine out of ten of the troops he and Huang Degong led were infantry, and seven or eight of them ran away in one day and one night.
Ten miles is really the limit.
"Our running legs are going to be broken, but the cavalry men behind us can keep their composure." Huang Degong snorted coldly, and shouted: "The little eunuch and Li Yan are irritated by their chatter all day long, but there is no him here.
I feel a little guilty for being in charge."
Ji Jike, Tu Yuan and other generals laughed when they heard this.
Seeing that it was getting dark, everyone decided to camp outside the abandoned city after some discussion. While they were busy, a scout from the front sent information: the Qing army marched south and passed the Tianjin Guard!
Damn, it’s so fast! Wuqing is still more than seventy miles away from Tianjin Wei. I thought it was only possible to reach it, but it was over.
Hey, that's not right! Why did the Qing army just pass by in a hurry and not plunder? You must know that the Tianjin guards are fat.
Are you afraid of the officers and soldiers in the guard station? Don't be ridiculous, there are only a few soldiers there. But even if it is difficult to attack because of the high walls and thick walls of the city, you can still loot a lot outside the city, but you just pass by and just walk away.
.
When something goes wrong, there must be a monster!
It's just that Huang Degong and others couldn't figure out why the Qing army let the Tianjin guards go. If it was to get rid of the Ming army, the nearest Ming army was seventy or eighty miles away from them and they were exhausted.
The main force of the little eunuch's cavalry is nearly two hundred miles away. What are they afraid of!
Although there are troops stationed in the acropolis of Tianjin, the combat power of the permanent soldiers and horses in the Ming Dynasty garrison at this time... Hey! As I said before, the Ming army will not attack the city but loot the surrounding acropolis. They don't have the courage either.
Come out!
Can’t think of it!
Then report it to the little eunuch immediately!
Chang Yu still stood still in Xianghe County, not because he was not anxious but because he was weak-minded. The main battle troops and horses in the previous battle were too tired and had to take a rest. He just took the opportunity to let Li Yan recuperate from his injuries. Although his injuries were not serious in a day or two.
It may be possible to recover, but it will be faster than marching on the road.
He had considered letting Li Yan stay in Xianghe or directly return to Beijing to recuperate, but Li Yan refused and vowed to fight with the army. Just because the eunuch had made many miscalculations recently, he felt relieved to have a counselor by his side, so he agreed.
It was a comfortable and fulfilling day. I got up early to reward the army with chicken blood and then summoned the generals and generals in the army to report their merits and register. This was also the moment when the military morale was at its highest. I heard early that the emperor wanted to reward according to merits. How to discuss merits?
It is based on the list given by the young eunuch.
It was already afternoon after all the busy work. After drinking tea and chatting with Li Yan for a while, Chang Yu left the city and went fishing with Zhou Yuji in the Chaobai River in the east.
In the evening, they cooked fish soup and everyone had a good meal. They chatted until late at night and just as they were about to fall asleep, two pieces of information were delivered to them. The first one was particularly surprising: riots in the capital!
After reading the secret letter sent by Chunxiang, Chang Yu took a long breath and was horrified. The latent power of the Qing army in the Ming Dynasty was far more powerful than he imagined.
When Li Yan and others heard about it, they were all dumbfounded. The little spy had stirred up chaos in the whole city. If the Beijing camp had not handled it promptly and properly, the consequences would have been disastrous!
Fortunately, the chaos was over. Chang Yu secretly breathed a sigh of relief and discussed another piece of information with Li Yan and others. Huang Degong sent someone to report that the Tatars had passed Tianjin Guards and Qiu had committed no crimes!
It is impossible for the Autumn to be innocent. The Tatars passed through all the places along the way south where chickens and dogs were not left behind. Every village was burned, every village was burned, and every village was flattened.
Chang Yu and Li Yan were also confused as to why they just passed through Tianjin without committing a crime!
At this time, Tianjin was not called Tianjin but was called Tianjin Guard. It was an acropolis, that is, a castle for garrisoning troops, and it was not one with Tianjin left and right guards. It was not until the ninth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty that the three guards were combined into one and were called Tianjin Guard.
Tianjin Wei is the only city in China with a clear record of city construction, that is, in the second year of Yongle, because at that time Zhu Di crossed the canal from here to go south to "Jingnan" to commemorate the establishment of a city guard here and built a city. It took the meaning of the emperor crossing the river, so it was named Tianjin!
Originally, the Acropolis was directly under the jurisdiction of the Fifth Army Governor's Office. After more than two hundred years of development, it has become one of the major cities in North China. It is a rich place because it is adjacent to the canal and has customs administration.
But how could the Qing army pass by without disturbing them and go south directly?
I am afraid of the garrison in the city. Considering that each guard in the Ming Dynasty had 5,000 men, the Tianjin Guard should have had 16,800 troops at the time. But that was a hundred years ago. At this time, the Tianjin Guard could pull out 3,000 soldiers and horses. Chang Yu was thankful.
.
But it is an acropolis after all. It has a high wall and a trench and a moat behind it. It is not that easy to attack. But at this time, the officers and soldiers guarding the city in the Ming Dynasty all suffered from an infectious disease, rickets. In many cases, there was no need to fight at all. Just wave your hands.
They will surrender automatically, regardless of whether the opponent is a rebel army or a Qing army.
If the Tianjin guards did not surrender even if they retreated 10,000 steps, it would be difficult for the Qing army to fight. However, there were still huge resources that could be plundered within hundreds of miles outside the city. Why didn't the Qing army even take a look?
Chang Yu, Li Yan, and Li Muxian also frowned and looked at the flickering candlelight in a daze.
"Even if the Tatars wanted to get rid of us, they wouldn't have run so fast. They would have just fled all the way. We don't pose much of a threat to them now, so they can't do this. Moreover, they are more than a hundred miles apart. They can do whatever they want, but why?
But it looks like this." Li Muxian muttered there.
"The purpose of entering the customs is to rob, but it is unreasonable to see the meat being indifferent. Could it be that there is fatter meat waiting for them?" Li Yan was also thinking silently.
"We have long said that the Tatars will eventually enter Shandong and plunder, but I really can't figure out why they passed through Tianjin and didn't enter. It stands to reason that Shandong has been plundered twice by them in the past few years, and this year
There are constant droughts and locust plagues, and Shandong is not as fertile as Tianjin, so why should he abandon it?"
Chang Yu frowned and scratched the ground with his toes, thinking of the topographic map of Tianjin in his mind. Suddenly he was startled: "I know the reason!"
"River, Tianjin Weiduo River!" Li Yan also shouted at almost the same time.
"Tianjin is located at the mouth of the sea, and there are more than ten large and small rivers throughout the territory. Although most of the rivers have been cut off due to successive years of drought, they will still cause great trouble to the Qing army. Firstly, it is not conducive to cavalry operations, and secondly, the looted baggage will be
Crossing the river seriously slowed us down and even allowed us to catch up!" Li Yan analyzed this.
"This is just one of the reasons, but it is not an important reason!" Chang Yu laughed: Tianjin Wei has been known as the "Three Meetings of Haikou" since ancient times. In addition to countless unnamed rivers, there are also three major rivers flowing through it.
Within the territory, the first is the Grand Canal, the second is the Sancha River that passes through the city, and the third is the "Five Rivers End", which is the Haihe River.
And it was precisely this Hai River that allowed the Qing army to pass through Tianjin without disturbing it!
There was a severe drought in the north for two years at the end of the Ming Dynasty. The rivers of all sizes were cut off, and even the Grand Canal had many shoals. But there was no such worry for the Haihe River, because it was connected to the sea by hundreds of rivers. Occasionally, the tide would flow back, and the seawater would flow backwards. It was always rich and abundant.
Dry.
What is even more interesting is that the Haihe River flows from the sea in the east through the Tianjin Acropolis to the south and to the northwest of the city, semi-surrounding the Acropolis.
And if the Qing army wanted to plunder areas such as Tianjin, they would not be able to cross the river directly from its main channel to the south, and would have to turn around and go around to the west to find shoals.
And if the Ming army chases them from behind at this time, they will be completely blocked in a corner. There is the sea to the east and the Haihe River to the south. Where can they escape? Once blocked, it will be worse than the previous siege in Xianghe. If
The Ming army is blocking the road ahead and they can still break through, but facing the sea and the Haihe River, I can fly across it on horseback!
"It turns out you are still afraid that we will catch up!" Chang Yu sneered.