After night fell, the mountain wind became more fierce and even felt cold. The young eunuch and his party had to find a shelter from the wind, lit a fire behind the rocks to ward off the cold, and barbecued. Everyone sat around and chatted, but they were very comfortable.
.
But more than ten miles away in the mountain col, three thousand soldiers were ordered not to light open fires or make loud noises. This was an order given by Lu Xing and others after receiving a report from Yuan Wentian.
The Wannian Ship must be careful not to let the Qing army discover the location of the ambush. Although the Qing army spies have left, who can guarantee that they will not smear their way in? Although there are more than a dozen light and dark sentries within a few miles from the mountain pass to here, but
It's better to be careful.
In the observation shed halfway up the mountain on the north side of the mountain pass, Chen Suole and a few guards looked at the lights of Qingzhou City in silence. The roars of wild beasts came from the forest behind them. Everyone was accustomed to being unmoved and as quiet as this night.
The hustle and bustle in Qingzhou City has disappeared, and there are few pedestrians on the street. Qian Fugui and his brothers are patrolling along the street. Many village warriors are huddled together at the wall at the city gate and chatting. They are ordered to stand by and rush in if the warning of war is sounded.
Go up to town.
Jia Waixiong and Lao Jiu have been patrolling the city for who knows how many times. Now that the war is about to break out, they have been tasked with defending the city. The psychological pressure is so great that they have lost interest in gambling money and have temporarily forgotten about their Wang Erhua.
.
In the palace of Prince Heng, Zhu Youdi went to express condolences to Song Luoyu, a female bodyguard under Chang Yu's command, as a dignified vassal. This made the heroine who was born in the world a little excited, but after chatting for a while, she realized that this old man was here to visit her.
He was obviously here to listen to stories, to listen to the story of the little eunuch, and he kept asking questions about this and that. He had been talking for almost an hour and still had no intention of leaving.
Song Nuxia's temper got worse, and she ordered her to be kicked out without any dignity. Prince Heng smiled slightly and left awkwardly: "Have a good rest, female general. I will come to see you tomorrow morning..."
Looking at your mother's size, Song Luoyu almost blurted out when she was excited!
Dorgon was also listening to stories in the Qing army camp outside the city. He listened to Kangkal's uncle and nephew telling them what they saw and heard along the way. After thinking for a while, he said: "Maybe the dog eunuch is in Qingzhou City!"
"How is it possible that his dignified eunuch of Dongchang would take such a big risk to come to Qingzhou to report the news?" Duduo didn't believe it.
Dorgon was also unsure: "I'm just saying maybe, this man has so many tricks up his sleeves, who knows."
"It doesn't matter whether we are in Qingzhou City or not. What we are focusing on now is how to stop the enemy from breaking through the city." Duduo rubbed his head: "I have been babbling for almost a night and still haven't figured out a clue. The brains of so many of us are not as good as that dog eunuch.
one?"
Dorgon laughed: "You have the best brains among us. You can't even come up with a good idea, and others can't do anything."
Duduo was aroused by him: "If there is really no good way, why not fight him first tomorrow, give the reinforcements some color to see and try the depth at the same time, if they know how powerful they are, then retreat, even if they don't retreat, we will already
If you know its depth, you will know how many troops you can use to stop it when attacking a city."
Everyone nodded, this may be the best solution at the moment.
"They have come after them for thousands of miles. It is impossible for them to retreat after being beaten, but it is good to try to feel the real situation and get a good idea." Dorgon raised his eyebrows and said.
"Perhaps defeating them in one fell swoop will save trouble!" Geng Zhongming said harshly, and Duduo glanced at him: "Maybe they won't accept the attack."
On the banks of the Beiyang River, more than ten miles northwest of Qingzhou City, the two armies were facing each other several miles across the river. The confrontation has been going on from noon to now, with provocations and exchanges of insults and greetings to the ancestors by the river, and bows and arrows fired at each other when the insults started.
, but there was no way to cross the river to the other side.
The Ming army's headquarters was set up in a small village at the foot of the mountain seven or eight miles away from the river bank. All the villagers had already fled. Li Yan, Zhou Yuji and other generals were in the village at this time, looking at a map again and again.
, turned it over and over countless times.
Li Yan has absolute reasons to believe that tomorrow will definitely be uneventful!
If the Qing army did not attack the city, they would go to war with him!
If the Qing army attacked the city, what tactics should they use to cross the river to bring reinforcements? If the Qing army went to war with him, how would they fight it?
This was a theme that he discussed repeatedly with a group of generals.
Will the Qing army choose to attack the city tomorrow, or will they want to fight?
Li Yan and others fell into deep thought.
Under the night, within a few dozen miles of Qingzhou City, several troops from the two forces were either dormant or ready to move, some were leisurely and contented, or some were racking their brains.
But if you ask who is most concerned about the war situation in Qingzhou at this time, it is definitely not Zhu Youji, the King of Heng in the city, but Emperor Chongzhen in the majestic imperial city thousands of miles away.
Yes, Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty appears again.
The Qing army moved south, and the capital city could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Emperor Chongzhen and his court officials focused on civil affairs in the past few days, hoping to restore the vitality of the capital area as quickly as possible.
A large number of refugees need to be resettled. As the weather gets hotter, the plague becomes a top priority. Several provinces in Hebei have just been raided by rebels, leaving messes one after another that need to be cleaned up by the court. In addition, war troubles continue in the south, and from time to time someone comes.
When the memorial of vomiting three liters of blood was delivered, it can be said that Emperor Chongzhen was in dire straits and was on the verge of collapse every day.
However, even so, what he was most concerned about was where Chang Yu had pursued the Tatars and how the battle was going. One day when the report came that there was no battle, he would call Wu Mengming and Chunxiang to the palace for questioning.
Went to Qingzhou Prefecture!
This guy is heading for Prince Heng! Emperor Chongzhen's heart tightened. The princes and vassals are all members of the same family. If they mess with my family, they will humiliate me. If they mess with my family, it can only mean that the emperor is incompetent! That is an extremely slap in the face.
, although Li Zicheng had already slapped him several times, and the Qing army also slapped him, the bruised and swollen Emperor Chongzhen still wanted to face him, and he must not let them destroy another vassal king.
In private! The vassal prince is so rich that he can rival the country, and the destruction of one prince's palace can reach ten cities!
As the saying goes, the wealth does not flow to outsiders. It would be really heartbreaking if this huge industry was taken away by the Tatars. Chang Yu, Chang Yu, if Qingzhou City cannot be saved, you must get the gold and silver jewelry from Prince Heng.
ah!
No wonder Emperor Chongzhen thought so, because the Ming Dynasty was too poor now, and there were too many places where money was needed.
But it would be wrong to say that the imperial court would be poor now, because Emperor Chongzhen instantly became rich in these two days, which is why he was so excited and unable to sleep in pain and joy these past two days.
The national treasury suddenly had tens of millions of money. It was definitely a fortune overnight.
Where did the money come from? Of course he didn't win the lottery or something, or the little eunuch got it for him.
Several so-called smuggling and traitorous businessmen in Shanxi who were later named imperial merchants of the Qing Dynasty were all taken away by Chang Yu. Not to mention the confiscation of their homes and the destruction of their ancestors, they took out twenty to thirty million taels in cash alone.
What is this concept?
In the late Ming Dynasty, the annual tax collection was only four million taels!
Confiscating the homes of a few profiteers is equivalent to five or six years of work for the imperial court!
No one can be unhappy or excited!
Because the matter was of great concern, both the officialdom and the army in Shanxi were extremely corrupt, so Chang Yu named Dongchang and Jinyiwei to work together to handle this matter, and parachuted the Guards to assist. Anyone who dared to cause trouble in the local area would be killed first and reported later.
, after more than a month, the matter was finally settled, and the money was shipped back.
At this time in the Ming Dynasty, the country was poor and the people were rich. Of course, these people were not ordinary people. They were all big businessmen, nobles, princes, generals, and so on. In short, they were the powerful class, which Emperor Chongzhen did not dare to touch easily.
Even if you are poor and don't have money to fight, the most you can do is cry and beg for donations. Not to mention that you don't have the courage to use force. Even if you have the courage, there is no good excuse.
But as soon as the little eunuch took action, he directly labeled these profiteers as traitors and collaborators!
No matter which dynasty or generation it is, this crime will never be rectified, let alone framed witnesses and physical evidence. The good guy got it all at once, and even one family made millions of taels of silver, but it all belonged to generations of these aristocratic families.
His hard work was confiscated by the young eunuch without hesitation.
Emperor Chongzhen was so happy!
With enough money and confidence, you damn Li Zicheng and idiot Dorgon are all waiting for me... But good things come to you in pairs, and when good things come to your door, they are often followed by tooth-ache-inducing things.