(Alas, some people complained about the interruption. Sometimes they are really tired and they just hate themselves for being too slow in typing - they are too shameless to ask for a red ticket)
In the past few months, the Donghu people have been monitoring the outer perimeter with heavy troops, cutting off the outer screen wings one by one, and advancing step by step until early June. Except for the fact that Yanjing City has not been lost, the only city controlled by the imperial court in the Gyeonggi area is Taihu.
Two small towns in Sanhe.(_PA&)
After Li Zhuo died after giving him wine and medicine, although Li Zhuo was very cooperative and left several suicide notes, one of them advised Chen Zhihu to be loyal to the Yuan family wholeheartedly. Emperor Chongguan did not dare to use Chen Zhihu to escort him out of the siege, and did not even want to hand over the suicide note.
The task was given to Chen Zhihu, but an unexpected incident occurred. On the eve of the breakout, Chen Zhihu was transferred to lead his troops to the north to strengthen the defense of Sanhe.
On the night of June 15th, when the rain was about to stop, Wang Jiyuan, the left minister of the Ministry of War, led more than 20,000 guards from the Beijing Camp out of the Taihe Gate and entered the Taihu Camp forty miles southeast of Yanjing City. However, by this time, there were still
Reluctant to divulge it to the generals, Zhou Zongxian, the Minister of War in charge of the Taihu Camp, only learned of the overall plan after seeing the secret edict brought by Wang Jiyuan.
The advance troops led by Wang Jiyuan notified Zhou Zongxian and others of the deployment that the court had decided: Zhang Xie would be appointed as the remaining envoy to Yanjing, and the Xuanfu Army and the main force of the Jingying Army would form the main force to go south to escort Emperor Chongguan to break through the encirclement and go south.
Including Chen Xinbo, Hao Zongcheng, King Lu, King Jin and other princes and ministers as well as concubines in the harem, the mule and horse team that needs military escort will leave the city and arrive at Taihu Camp in the early morning of the 16th.
After resting for half a day at the Taihu camp, on the afternoon of the 16th, the troops were divided into two groups, one heading towards Jinhai to break out of the encirclement, the other all the way south through Yannan, and towards Shandong.
After receiving the secret order, Zhou Zongxian was so angry that he trembled all over.
Obviously, Emperor Chongguan was worried that the early leakage of the breakout plan would shake the morale of the army, and he was worried that some generals and officials would be unwilling to retreat south and secretly contact the Donghu people to leak the breakout plan. Therefore, the entire breakout plan was formulated without the knowledge of most of the court officials.
Even though Zhou Zongxian was a minister of the Ministry of War, he did not know about the breakout plan until the last moment just because he left Yanjing City forty miles to take charge of military affairs at the Taihu Camp. He was so jealous that he wanted to kill the "supervisor commander" on the spot.
Hand over the silver seal of "Chen" and Shang Fang's sword.
Li Zhuo was dead, and there was no general in the imperial court who could calmly formulate a breakout plan. He, the Minister of War, was kept secret until the end. How could Zhou Zongxian not be angry and feel chilled?
Regardless of whether he was angry or disheartened, at this point, Zhou Zongxian had no choice but to swallow his resentment and accept the order. He wanted to use the "free" day left by the emperor to follow the secret order with Wang Jiyuan and to serve as the supervisor of the Taihu Camp since the eighth day of June.
Wang Qishan, the envoy, arranged the entire breakout operation.
The troops and horses who broke out of the encirclement were divided into two groups, one was correct and the other was strange. The secret decree did not even clearly tell Zhou Zongxian which group of troops and horses the emperor would follow to break out of the encirclement.
It is natural to break out in the direction of Jinhai. From Taihu Daying to Jinhai, it is only more than 200 miles. There is a relatively complete gallop. The terrain is also along the trend of the river. It will not be hindered by large rivers and can quickly
pass.
Going south to Taihu Daying, crossing Yannan to Pingyuan or Yangxin, the straight-line distance is more than 500 miles, and there will be many large east-west flowing rivers along the way.
Generally speaking, it is relatively easy to cover 200 miles in two days on easy terrain. You have plenty of physical strength when you first hit the road. Most of the well-trained town troops can do this. If an army can cover 500 miles in five days,
He must be a first-rate elite division to cross several rivers in succession.
Between Jinhai and Taihu camps, the Donghu people set up camp at Xianghe, with more than 20,000 foot and horsemen stationed to monitor this area. Moreover, the Donghu people's Jizhou camp was dispatched to pursue them quickly. If they break out to the east,
If the soldiers and horses move a little slower on the road, they may be caught by the main force of the pursuing Donghu cavalry and be defeated.
At this time, the Donghu people still have tens of thousands of troops attacking Jinhai. After the troops and horses breaking out to the east arrive at Jinhai, they have to fight with the Donghu people attacking outside Jinhai City to open a gap before they can finally escape.
Enter the city.
Heading east to Jinhai seems to be full of obstacles, but it offers the greatest opportunity.
The fighting power of the Beijing camp army is not good, but the more than 20,000 elite Xuanfu troops are still capable of fighting in the wild, and the journey east to Jinhai is the shortest, so they can abandon their baggage and move forward at the fastest speed while fighting with light troops.
Thinking back to the beginning, it would have taken more than three days for the Donghu people's main force of 30,000 to 40,000 cavalry to completely devour more than 20,000 Jinzhong troops in the wild.
Suddenly breaking out to the east, facing the Donghu people's Xianghe camp in the east, they had the advantage in strength. When the main force of the Donghu cavalry in Jizhou was convinced, it would take at least a day to catch up. They would send out Broken Arms along the way.
The life-saving interception force can ensure that the main breakout force reaches the outskirts of Tianjin Sea without being pursued by the Donghu people.
There are elite Jin navy forces in Jinhai City, and they are attacking from both inside and outside. They dare not expect to defeat the Donghu people besieging the city by surprise. It is not a big problem to open a gap and evacuate the main force into Jinhai City.
To the south, the Donghu people control almost more than 20 counties in Yannan, but the Donghu people's blockade force in Yannan is less than 40,000 infantry and cavalry, which is very limited. And the Donghu's 40,000 infantry and cavalry in Yannan still have to be divided into quite a few.
The troops were used to defend Liang Chengchong and Tao Chun in the south, so there were not many troops from Yannan to intercept the soldiers and horses breaking through southward.
But the breakout time to the south is too long, 500 miles. Considering the small-scale harassment by the Donghu cavalry, it will take at least ten days for the breakout troops to complete the journey and avoid Pingyuan City or Yangxin City. Ten days.
, enough for the main force of the Donghu cavalry to chase them from Jizhou and run back and forth within a thousand-mile radius of Yannan.
More importantly, the secret decree only gave Zhou Zongxian one day to prepare. It was obvious that the emperor would follow the army to the east to break out. But even if he threw away all his luggage and traveled lightly, the one-day preparation time was too short and too hasty.
Zhou Zongxian didn't know Li Zhuo's last words before his death, so he just made normal assumptions and secretly arranged the breakout according to the instructions of the secret decree. He first summoned military attachés above the rank of Colonel Zhaowu of the Xuanfu Army to reveal the secret decree. As Zhou Zongxian expected, there was an uproar.
.
Most of the families of the generals of the Xuanfu Army were in Xuanzhen. Everyone knew that once they retreated to the south, it meant that the imperial court would no longer be able to deal with the situation in the north in a short period of time. The fall of Xuanzhen and Yanjing was a foregone conclusion that could not be changed.
.
But when Wang Jiyuan led 20,000 troops from Beijing to the Taihu camp, although the generals were in an uproar about the breakout, they failed to make a fuss and went to make arrangements. However, this situation made Zhou Zongxian even more worried.
Chen Xinbo finally chose to break out of the encirclement with Emperor Chongguan, but left his family and his family in Yanjing City.
Zhang Xie is the envoy of Yanjing, and the emperor cannot allow him to stay in Yanjing. If he wants to struggle, make the emperor suspicious, and Zhang Xie becomes murderous, he will not wait for the Donghu people to attack the city, which will lead to genocide.
disaster.
No one else is very clear about the relationship between Li Zhuo and Huaidong. However, Chen Xinbo, who has been a handsome friend of Li Zhuo for more than ten years, knows it much better than others.
Even if Chen Dingbang and Lu Xiong died in the rebellion, if Wang Qishan and others fled to Jiangning, the cause of Li Zhuo's death would be revealed.
Li Zhuo was killed with wine and poison given by the emperor, but it was Chen Xinbo who handed him the wine cup himself. Huaidong could not win over Li Zhuo's old men, but it was impossible to make him feel comfortable. He was in his 80s and had no hope in life. Rather than go to Jiangning and be bullied,
It would be better to die on the way and lose the name of loyalty.
Chen Xinbo was sitting in the carriage with a sad mood. When he heard a horse galloping from behind, he lifted the gauze curtain and saw the guards of Wanshou Palace riding over and said: "The Queen Mother invites Mr. Chen to come over and talk..."
"You go back to report to the Queen Mother. I will come over right away." Chen Xinbo said.
Although Chen Xinbo had no power but was senior, he staggered into the carriage driven by the Queen Mother. Princess Yuan Yan of Yangxin was waiting at the Queen Mother's side. Now she was on the run, so she wore simple clothes and a simple carriage, and was not very particular about it.
"Are you sure that the emperor will go to Jinhai?" Liang asked.
"It should be like this. The soldiers and horses going south are just to attract the attention of the Donghu people waiting for the soldiers and horses in Hejian." Chen Xinbo said.
"Son Lin Fu has great ambitions. Your Majesty is willing to give Huaidong the great service of escorting him?" Liang asked.
"Given the current situation, the emperor has no choice but to give the great service of escorting the emperor to Huaidong." Chen Xinbo said.
Although 60,000 soldiers and horses from the Beijing camp and the Xuanfu army would eventually be mobilized to break out in two groups, even if Emperor Chongguan could successfully escape to Jiangning in the end, there would be very few soldiers left who could be directly loyal to him. Everyone in Jiangning would be exhausted in the end.
After giving up the effort to rescue Yanjing, who is not worried that Emperor Chongguan will settle this account after regaining imperial power?
It is more likely that everyone in Jiangning united with Prince Ning to force him to abdicate. When the end came, letting Prince Ning ascend the throne and him becoming the Supreme Emperor would be a harmonious ending.
For Emperor Chongguan, only by arriving in Jiangning with the support of a powerful force like Liang or Huaidong could he continue to sit on his throne.
The Liang family is too far away from Jiangning and is blocked from Jiangning's periphery. Huaidong is the best choice. Not to mention that Gu Wuchen in Jiangning still controls the Jiangning Water Camp and the Dongyang Army controlled by Lin Tingli is on the flank of Jiangning.
As long as Huaidong supports Emperor Chongguan, other forces in Jiangning, including King Ning, have no other choice.
Of course, Huaidong will get more benefits due to his role in escorting, and they may negotiate terms with each other in Jinhai. It is almost inevitable that Gu Wuchen will become the prime minister before anyone else, and the Dongyang faction will have monopoly power.
"Then what did Li Zhuo mean by his last words? Li Zhuo didn't want to see Huaidong become powerful?" Liang asked.
"The emperor's intention to break out of Jinhai is obvious. How could King Hu not make arrangements? In fact, it is extremely dangerous to go to Jinhai!" Chen Xinbo said, "Li Zhuo saw this through and suggested that he go directly south to Shandong."
"In your opinion, should the Ai family go to Jinhai or Shandong?" Liang asked.
"I will accompany the Empress Dowager to Shandong." Chen Xinbo said. He knew that if Li Zhuo had not died and had arranged the matter calmly, he would have had a chance of survival if he had gone south to break out of the encirclement and gone to Shandong. But at this point, he could not go east or south, either way.
The end of death and no life.
When Liang asked questions, Chen Xinbo would always answer that Liang just wanted to go south, and Chen Xinbo just followed her wishes, and the end would be nothing more than death.
Hearing what Chen Xinbo said, Yuan Yan didn't think too complicatedly. She only knew that she would not pass through Jinhai and Huaidong. She felt extremely melancholy, thinking: she would never be able to meet Uncle Beard again.
Before sunset, they drove into the Taihu camp. Emperor Chongguan summoned the generals in the simple palace of the Taihu camp and formally announced his intention to move the capital to the south. He immediately reorganized his army and divided his troops into two groups to break out in the afternoon.
The Taihu camp has a small city and few grain stores. Once Emperor Chongguan moves to Taihu, he must immediately break out of the siege. Otherwise, if the Donghu cavalry is able to surround them, they will be trapped in a situation where they can neither move nor defend.
.
Emperor Chongguan personally formulated a seemingly rigorous breakout plan, but it was actually full of loopholes.
About two hours after the two groups of soldiers and horses left the Taihu camp, the main force of Donghu cavalry in Jizhou arrived in the west of Xianghe City. Like a sharp knife, it was unsheathed and revealed a biting light.
Ye Ji Luorong was wearing black armor and riding a maroon horse. He stared sharply at the field ahead shrouded in light darkness, waiting for the scouts on the periphery to further figure out the movements of the two armies and horses of the Southern Dynasty that spread out from Taihu Lake to the two wings.
.
"As expected by King Khan, the Southern Dynasty troops broke out in two groups - the emperor of the Southern Dynasty should go to Jinhai, and this belongs to you, the great prince. In the end, you will chase the group that fled south. There is a cavalry camp in Huaidong.
On the periphery, the cavalry in the river cannot be mobilized if they want to seal the gap!" Na He Xiongqi said.
"No, your troops are not moving. Keep an eye on Chen Zhihu and make sure to keep him in the north," Ye Ji Luorong said. "I will penetrate south first and defeat all the troops fleeing south.
It won’t be that strong and will be easily defeated. When we look back, we still have the strength to encircle the troops fleeing eastward with King Khan—this time we will round them up!”