1627 Rise of the South China Sea

Chapter 2365
"Didn't you come to fight?" Chen Yixin thought for a while and said, "Among the prisoners we captured recently, are there any people with special identities?"

Wei Lin understood the meaning of Chen Yixin's words, and shook his head again: "The last time our army captured the enemy's prisoners was more than 50 days ago. If any special person was captured, the enemy should not wait so long It took a long time to remember to ask us to exchange prisoners."

Chen Yixin had also figured out the key point at this time, nodded and said: "If we really caught a big shot, they will definitely try to deal with it in a low-key way, and send someone over to ask to see me, which will attract our attention instead. It shouldn’t be possible to make such a low-level mistake.”

The two armies had confronted each other on the front line of Jinzhou for several years, during which they fought hundreds of times. Naturally, some people would inevitably be captured, and most of them were captured by the Qing army.At the beginning, the Qing army would deliberately kill prisoners before the battle to vent their anger, trying to deter the Haihan army, but later Haihan followed suit and organized several large-scale shootings of prisoners of war before the battle to show revenge.

The number of captives in the hands of the Haihan army was far greater than that of the Qing army, so the number of prisoners killed by the two sides was completely disproportionate. No matter how many people the Qing army killed, the Haihan army retaliated with several times the number of prisoners.

The Haihan army even executed nearly [-] prisoners of war in one breath. Seeing so many Qing soldiers fall down in a row, they were executed by the Haihan army like chopping melons and vegetables, which also caused a very strong psychological impact on the Qing army. shock.

The Qing army soon realized that if they continued to adopt such a strategy, it would be secondary to sacrifice more captives, and the opponent's retaliation would seriously shake the morale of their own army, so they took the initiative to stop this practice and turned to Haihan Exchange prisoners.

This kind of exchange of prisoners of war is generally arranged during the truce period. Unless there are special people involved, Chen Yixin usually does not need to ask personally. At most, he will sign the document for the release of prisoners of war after his subordinates report for approval.

From this point of view, it is indeed unlikely that the purpose of the Qing army envoy's visit was to exchange prisoners of war. If the two possibilities of sending a war letter and exchanging prisoners of war are ruled out, it seems that there is only one seemingly absurd situation left.

"This Azig didn't suddenly want to start peace talks with us, did he?" Although Chen Yixin also felt that the possibility of this was very slim, it seemed that there was no other explanation.

"Perhaps they really feel that they can't hold on any longer." Wei Lin analyzed: "The Liaodong coast will be swept by us almost every year. This is no solution for the enemy. Either a truce or a truce. Continue to be plucked by us."

For the Qing army, the difficulty of Haihan was not only the garrison of Jinzhou, but also the looting operations that might occur on the coast of Liaodong at any time around winter every year.The Haihan army would suddenly land on the coast of a certain place, and then plunder the nearby villages and towns. After taking away all the people and supplies, they would also burn all the local houses.

This kind of armed looting against the people is actually very similar to the actions taken by the Manchu Qing in the northern border area of ​​the Ming Dynasty every year. As a passive party, the Manchu Qing's response was not much better than that of the Ming Dynasty.The long coastline made it impossible for the Qing army to form an effective defense. Usually, when receiving news of the Haihan army appearing in a certain place, it was too late to send troops to rescue the area, and could only sit back and watch the Haihan army come and go freely from the sea.

During each operation of the Haihan army, the number of people snatched from the coast of Liaodong ranged from a thousand to eight hundred, and as many as in the operation two months ago, which took thousands of people back in one go.Although the number cannot be compared with the results of the Qing army's looting in Daming, but for the Qing army stationed on the Liaodong coast, because of this, they lost the nearest source of supplies, and the logistical pressure will also increase greatly.

After three years of confrontation in the Liaodong Peninsula, the Qing army basically did not take advantage of any advantages. Not only did it pay the price of thousands of deaths, but the heavy troops stationed here also consumed a lot of military expenses and supplies.

If the Manchu Qing could deploy these tens of thousands of garrisons to other directions, such as to deal with Ming Dynasty, then there must have been good profits in the past three years.But these troops are now forced to be stationed on the front line of Daheishan, not only have nothing to gain, but also have to rely on the rear to provide supplies.And maintaining the garrison of tens of thousands of people for a long time has probably become a burden to the Manchu Qing from a certain perspective.

In contrast, the population resettled by Haihan in Jinzhou is increasing year by year, and social production is slowly recovering. Jinzhou's dependence on foreign countries has been greatly reduced, and it is even close to achieving self-sufficiency in terms of food supply.In this way, it becomes apparent which side needs a truce more urgently.

Chen Yixin and his group rushed to the frontline headquarters, and after getting off the car, Wei Lin went to summon the envoy of the Qing army to meet Chen Yixin.

Chen Yixin only waited for a moment, and Wei Lin came back with his people.Seeing Chen Yixin, the envoy of the Qing army clasped his hands together and said, "I'm Shangqing, I've met the general."

"Are you Han?" Chen Yixin heard the accent, which seemed to have a Central Plains accent, which was quite different from the muddy Chinese pronunciation of the Manchus, so he immediately asked him.

The man who claimed to be Shang Qing replied: "My next ancestor is from Shanxi."

When Chen Yixin saw that this person was a Han who served in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, he felt a little unhappy, and said coldly: "I heard that Azig doesn't like to employ Han people."

That Shang Qing's face was very calm, and he replied unhurriedly: "I am not under the command of King Wuying."

"Then who are you representing?" Chen Yixin finally became a little interested when he heard this.

Shang Qing said: "I am serving King Zhishun."

"King Zhishun?" Chen Yixin hesitated for a moment before remembering who King Zhishun was.

Due to the heterogeneity of sources, Huang Taiji's subordinates are not monolithic, and there are many mountains.And Azig, who has been placed by Huang Taiji as the commander in Liaodong, is an independent mountain.However, Azig had made very little military exploits in the past few years in Liaodong, and he must have been unpopular with Huang Taiji, otherwise he should have been transferred to lead troops in other places, instead of being pinned around Jinzhou all the time.

Azig has been unable to solve the problem of Jinzhou, maybe Huang Taiji will try to let other people handle this matter.And the "San Shun King", who has been appreciated by Huang Taiji in recent years, is very likely to be appointed by him.

The so-called "Three Shun Kings" refers to Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, and Shang Kexi, the Ming rebel generals who defected to the Qing Dynasty in the early years. After Huang Taiji changed the country name to Daqing in 1636, he named these three people as King Gongshun, King Huaishun, and King Zhishun.

Before Shang Kexi, the Han army flag commanded by Geng Zhongming had fought against the Haihan army on the front line of Jinzhou.However, the Qing army was already on the defensive at that time. Geng Zhongming learned from Azig's lesson and made his troops unable to defend the Daheishan defense line.

Afterwards, Huang Taiji took away all the troops of King Sanshun when he marched east to North Korea, leaving Azig to garrison in Jinzhou.However, in the winter that just passed, the Liaodong Peninsula was once again looted by the Haihan army, but Azig failed to respond in a timely and effective manner. Perhaps this is the reason why people who are still gratifying appear here .

Chen Yixin pretended to be puzzled and said: "If I remember correctly, King Zhishun's fief should be in Haizhouwei, hundreds of miles away from Jinzhou, so the war here should have nothing to do with King Zhishun, right? "

Shang Qing responded: "General Chen has a good memory! My prince's fief is indeed a bit far away from here, but this move is to share the worries of the king and the country, and it has nothing to do with where the fief is."

"What is the worry, and what is the worry?" Chen Yixin asked again.

"Our country's worry is the border war." Shang Qing finally got to the point: "The war that broke out between our two countries is about to enter its fifth year. Although your country has occupied the Golden State, it has not yet Can make further progress. Now that we have fallen into a state of confrontation where no one wants to fight, why not sit down and discuss how to end the war."

Chen Yixin said: "If there is no war, do you think your prince can be a prince of peace?"

Shang Qing's face changed slightly, but he squeezed out a smile and said: "General Chen is joking, although my prince has spent half his life as a soldier, he has always hoped that one day he can be disarmed and return to the fields and live a peaceful life. It is a great blessing, of course.”

Shang Kexi defected to Houjin back then. Although the cause was the power struggle within Dongjiang Town, he swept away tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians and a large amount of military equipment at that time, which greatly weakened the strength of Dongjiang Town. Maybe get the understanding of Daming and Dongjiang Town again.

After Shang Kexi defected, although he was crowned king, in fact, his life was not smooth.He and two other rebel generals of the Ming Dynasty are collectively called "San Shun King", but in fact he has almost no contact with them, and instead has irresolvable enmity. In 1633, Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming took refuge in Houjin and led troops to capture Lushun. However, Shang Kexi had hundreds of wives, concubines, family members, servants and maidservants at that time, all of whom drowned to death during the war.

This account is gratifying, of course it is impossible to write it down to Huang Taiji, but it is also impossible to let it go easily, so Kong and Geng naturally became his enemies.Those two had worked together in Dengzhou, so it can be said that they had a life-threatening friendship, and they would definitely join forces to fight against him.

Now Huang Taiji still has a lot of things that Shang Kexi can use, but one day if Shang Kexi loses his military power, he might be liquidated by his enemies.Therefore, in Shang Kexi's situation, it is only worth fighting when there is a battle. When there is no battle to fight, it is not very meaningful for Man Qing to support him.The so-called eagle dog is destined to be such a fate.

After Chen Yixin was transferred to Jinzhou, he spent a lot of spare time researching famous figures in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, especially the generals who led troops to fight, which were the objects of his focus.Although he has never dealt with Shang Kexi before, he is no stranger to this old man's deeds, and he also has a general understanding of Shang Kexi's current situation, so Shang Qing's face changes color with just one word.

Why was Shang Kexi responsible for the armistice negotiation? Chen Yixin can only speculate that this is because Huang Taiji hopes to use his Han identity to gain some communication advantages. Otherwise, sending a Manchu official over will make it difficult to communicate smoothly in language alone The effect of discussing serious matters must also be greatly reduced.

As for why this errand was not handed over to the other two of King Sanshun, Chen Yixin speculated that it had something to do with the fact that the two defected from Dengzhou.Before Chen Yixin came to Jinzhou to take charge of the government, he was in charge of Fushan County in Dengzhou. It is estimated that this fact cannot be hidden from Manqing. Yes, this is likely to affect the effectiveness of negotiations.

But if you look at it from another angle, Shen Shikui, the Dongjiang general who forced Shang Kexi to defect, has now defected to Haihan and is working under Chen Yixin. Will also jump out to oppose.

It’s just that the Han military generals under Huang Taiji’s hands who are relatively familiar with the situation in Liaodong are only these few people who can do it, and there are no other suitable candidates for this job. Even if they know that there will be some unavoidable problems, they can only insist on it. Scalp pick one to use.

Of course, for such a big matter, it was impossible for Shang Kexi to show up in person at the beginning, so he only sent a confidant who could speak well to test Hai Han's attitude first.And in order to avoid deviations after conveying opinions through layers, Shang Qing asked to meet Chen Yixin directly when he arrived here.

But Shang Qing probably didn't expect that General Haihan didn't seem to have much interest in the truce, and he knew his master quite well, and every sentence was extremely specific. It seems that this task is not so easy to complete .

Chen Yixin said: "Since your country requested a truce on its own initiative, what kind of conditions can you offer to persuade me to accept this proposal?"

Shang Qing said sternly: "If General Chen can bring about a truce, our country would like to give him a thousand taels of gold and a hundred top-grade war horses, and he can enter and leave our country at any time and enjoy VIP treatment forever."

Chen Yixin said: "What you said is for my personal benefit, but you have to understand that this war is not my business alone."

Shang Qing misunderstood what he meant, and thought that he thought that the benefits were too little and wanted more. Fortunately, he had prepared a plan before coming, so he pretended to be embarrassed and said: "If the conditions make it difficult for General Chen, then Let’s add another thousand taels of gold, how much will it cost for the troops under General Chen’s command?”

Anyway, this benefit is handed over to Chen Yixin, it is nothing more than an extra name, as for whether Chen Yixin distributes it to his subordinates or keeps it in his pocket, that is not something Shang Qing needs to worry about.As long as he can persuade Chen Yixin to accept the conditions, it will be a great achievement.

Chen Yixin smiled and said: "You talk about it all because you want to bribe me. Have you ever thought about how to satisfy our country?"

Shang Qing was stunned, but luckily his brain was turning quickly, and he quickly said: "Our country is willing to use the Jinzhou Isthmus as a boundary to rule with your country."

(End of this chapter)