weaving

Chapter 900 What does General Zhang Cheng think?
In the main hall of the stone city on the top of Rufeng Mountain, the civil servants and military generals who aided the Liao king of the Ming Dynasty gathered together to discuss the strategy of advancing and solving the siege of Jinzhou.

Just now, Wu Sangui, the commander-in-chief of the Ningyuan Regiment, has introduced to you the retreat of the Qing army at Rufeng Mountain and Daughter Hepan at the southern foot of Shimen Mountain.

It turned out that in the early morning of yesterday, when the sky was not completely bright, the sergeants in charge of patrolling the foot of the mountain rushed to report. After hearing this, all the generals of the Ming army were surprised.

Even Hong Chengchou, the governor of Jiliao, was surprised. He led his generals to the watchtower and looked down. Sure enough, the Qing army's camp at the foot of the mountain was empty, as if it had never appeared before.

Everyone thought that there must be a conspiracy for the Tartars to disappear suddenly, but they didn't dare to go down the mountain to investigate. There was still no movement until noon, so they sent a small group of cavalry to test it out, and found that the Tartars had really retreated.

The [-] to [-] Tartar bandits under Dorgon actually retreated more than [-] li and set up camp. At the same time, all the pontoon bridges on the Daughter River were burned by the Qing army.

Everyone, including Governor Hong Chengchou, was puzzled by this, so they summoned all officials and generals to discuss countermeasures.

Because Wu Sangui was in charge of the defense of Shimen Mountain, and Hong Chengchou wanted to support him, he ordered him to introduce the military situation here to everyone, so as to show his face in front of Wang Chengen.

After hearing this, everyone in the lobby seemed to be in deep thought. Some of them shook their heads in puzzlement, while others looked deeply.

For example, Chen Jiugao, the former commander-in-chief of the Shenji Battalion, said carelessly: "Isn't it because the Tartars are afraid that they retreated? Let me tell you, we can take advantage of this opportunity, and we will cross the Hebei River to relieve Jinzhou." around."

He picked up the teacup on the small table beside him, swallowed it in one gulp, and then said happily: "I can't say, we not only broke the siege of Jinzhou, but also captured the Tatar chieftain Hong Tai alive, so the emperor will be worried from now on."

Everyone in the hall saw that he spoke easily, but they also had different expressions. Some shook their heads and smiled wryly, some ignored him, and of course there were even more supporters.

Even so, Wang Pu, the commander-in-chief of Datong, just as soon as Chen Jiugao's words fell, he immediately said: "Here. I just beheaded Duoduo a few days ago. If we can capture the slave chief Hongtai again this time, how can we?" Didn't the chaos of the Liao incident be settled in one fell swoop?

In my opinion, we might as well go straight to Shenyang City in one go and destroy the Tartars' lair. "

"Hahaha……"

Everyone in the lobby was amused by their mutual praise and amused each other.

Supervisor Wang Zhizhen was eager to show himself in front of Hong Chengchou and Wang Chengen, and after a little thought, he said: "The governor, the prince, the reason why the slaves retreated is because the attack on Xingshan on the western front failed, and instead they lost the slaves and the slaves." There are so many people, why do you retreat and stick to your defense?"

As expected of a person who has been in the officialdom for a long time, what he said was clearly a study of military affairs, but secretly he said that Xingshan had made great contributions to defending the defeated slaves. He did not mention the attribution of the credit, whether it belonged to him or Zhang Cheng.

It's just a strong statement that Xingshan deserves credit for defending the defeated slaves. This is the fact of the past few days, which is irrefutable!

However, Zhang Dou, the former soldier of Ning, did not fully agree with this, and only heard him say: "Duoduo was beheaded and killed by Zhang Zongbing of the Xuanfu. Although you have the advantage of the land, you can't fight back the slaves, so how come the whole army is retreating today?"

He added at the end: "It's unreasonable for slaves to be like this, but we must be on our guard."

The civil servants of Ming Dynasty are all old foxes in the officialdom, they don't speak bluntly, and they all beat around the bush here to trick others.

Zhang Dou's words were clearly talking about the retreat of the slaves, but he secretly fought back against Wang Zhizhen. He bluntly said that Duoduo was killed by Zhang Cheng's Xuanfu army, and had nothing to do with Wang Zhizhen.

It is even more clearly stated that even if Duoduo's Tatars were defeated, it did not affect the battle situation on the Shimen Mountain side. Under the unfavorable terrain, Dorgon was still able to fight Hong Chengchou evenly, and even had a slight advantage. .

All of this has nothing to do with the victory or defeat in the direction of Xingshan on the west line.

Now that someone started the conversation, everyone in the lobby started to discuss after you said something and I said something.

It went on like this for quite a while, and they didn't argue with each other, but Wang Chengen seemed a little impatient, and from time to time, he tapped the desk next to him lightly with his fingers.

A smile appeared on the corner of Hong Chengchou's mouth when he saw this, he raised his hand and waved it in the air a few times, stopping the debate among the crowd, and after everyone in the hall became quiet, he asked, "General Zhang Cheng, what do you think?" ?”

Zhang Cheng was contemplating alone at the moment. In his opinion, the sudden retreat of the Qing army must be related to the failure of Duoduo on the western front. However, it was the same as everyone's concerns, but the defeat on the western front was not so serious.

Therefore, the Qing army retreated at this moment and turned from attack to defense, there must be something hidden, but he couldn't understand the mystery of why.

But at this moment, Hong Chengchou asked him by name in front of everyone, but he had to answer, so Zhang Cheng could only smile apologetically, and said: "Reporting to Governor Hong, Zhang Cheng thought that the retreat of the Tartars must be related to the failure of Duoduo's troops on the western front. .

However, Zhang Cheng thought that the retreat of the Tartars was not entirely due to the death of Duoduo and the defeat on the western front. There may be hidden secrets that we are not aware of, and we need to investigate in detail. "

As soon as Zhang Cheng finished speaking, some people in the hall shook their heads. They couldn't help feeling a little contempt because of Zhang Cheng's ambiguity. So Zhang Cheng was just like that?
But Hong Chengchou, the governor sitting at the head, nodded slightly. Even Wang Chengen, who kept his eyes closed beside him, also nodded.
Hong Chengchou didn't seem to want to let Zhang Cheng go. His face sank like water, and he asked softly: "General Zhang, according to your guess, what are the hidden secrets of the Tartars?"

"Oh. This..."

Zhang Cheng was taken aback when he heard the words, although he also had some conjectures in his mind, but they were completely imagined, how could he speak out in front of everyone, he couldn't help hesitating.

Hong Chengchou seemed to guess what he was worried about, with a smile on the corner of his mouth, he said to him: "General Zhang, I have something in my heart, just tell it, we are all guessing now, not necessarily accurate information. "

Seeing what Hong Chengchou had said, Zhang Cheng couldn't refuse anymore, so he got up and clasped his fists and said, "I want to report to the governor, since that's the case, Zhang Cheng is here to throw all kinds of speculations in his heart, please cooperate with Zhang Cheng Let’s figure it out together.”

After Zhang Cheng sat down, he said, "The reason why the Tartars are like this is certainly because of the defeat of the Duoduo tribe on the western front, but in Zhang Cheng's view, the Tartars must not switch from attacking to defending because of this.

Just imagine, everyone, it has been more than a year since the day when the Tartar bandits encircled the brocade. It can be seen that their plans are deep, and now they are gathering the power of the whole country, and they frequently see slaves under the age of sixteen or seventeen on the battlefield. witness. "

At this point, he glanced at the crowd with piercing eyes, and said: "Just think about it, the Tartars are already like this, the battle of Jinzhou is a battle of life and death, how can they give up so easily.

In the defeat on the western front, the Tartars only lost a few princes and generals such as Duduo. The loss of troops was less than [-]. However, they fought against our division at the foot of Shimen Mountain and on the other side of Huangtu Ridge without any difficulty.

Under such a situation, he actually took the initiative to shrink the line of defense, and even burned all the pontoon bridges on the Daughter River, cutting off his way to re-attack. In Zhang Cheng's view, it must be caused by internal changes. "

As soon as Zhang Cheng finished speaking, everyone in the lobby began to discuss. Although they had debated before, they did not expect that there would be problems within the Qing army.

It can be said that Zhang Cheng opened up a new way of thinking for them!

But those problems would arise within the Qing army, which stumped the civil servants and military generals of the Ming Dynasty in the lobby. They knew very little about the intelligence inside the Qing state and had no clue at all.

After arguing for a while, Hong Chengchou couldn't help but turned his head and glanced at Wang Chengen. Seeing that he was also nodding slightly to himself, he waved his hand again to stop the discussion.

The governor's Xingyuan hall became quiet again, but Hong Chengchou asked Zhang Cheng once again: "General Zhang, can you tell us what you think in your heart?"

Zhang Cheng smiled wryly in his heart, it seemed that Hong Chengchou was following him today, and he really couldn't dodge it even if he wanted to.

Although Zhang Cheng wanted to hide from Hong Chengchou's repeated questioning, but he still couldn't help others' jealousy towards him.

But at this moment, his humility and retreat, in the eyes of others, have all become full of hypocrisy and manipulation, which is entirely his intention, and his intention is to respect his identity.

Just like Wu Sangui, the general of Ningyuan, who has never said a word, looks at Zhang Cheng with mixed feelings in his eyes at this moment. In his heart, he also really wants to be friends with Zhang Cheng, earn money together, and be able to rely on each other. keep warm.

However, at this moment, Wu Sangui felt more and more that Zhang Cheng seemed to be the stumbling block in front of him. Imagine if Zhang Cheng didn't exist, then he should be sitting at the top of the generals right now.

God is unfair, since you gave birth to me, Wu Sangui, why bother to give birth to another Zhang Cheng?

Then there is Ma Ke, who has committed crimes and tried to redeem himself, looking at Zhang Cheng with even more vicious eyes. He even blamed Zhang Cheng for the collapse of his soldiers and horses in Shanhai Town. Meat is average.

This is really, people sit at home, and the pot comes from the sky!
I am afraid that with Zhang Chengzhi's intelligence, he would never have imagined that Ma Ke's resentment towards him would be so great that he could even blame Zhang Cheng for all his mistakes in this world.

There are also a few civil officials, such as Wang Zhizhen, who supervises Taoism, who also have some opinions on Zhang Cheng, but they just don't like the good generals, and they don't like Zhang Cheng's domineering.

However, if there is jealousy and resentment, there will naturally be people who admire it. For example, Datong Wang Pu, Jingying Chen Jiugao and others who attended the meeting today are Zhang Cheng's biggest supporters.

Wang Pu was originally because he and Zhang Cheng belonged to the same family of Xuanda, so he naturally wanted to be closer. As for Chen Jiugao, it was because he and Zhang Cheng were the first to know each other. , is naturally very close.

But as they interacted with Zhang Cheng for a long time, they found that as long as they were with Zhang Cheng's Xuanfu army, their safety would be greatly guaranteed, which greatly strengthened their desire to draw closer to Zhang Cheng.

But now, although they are not Zhang Cheng's subordinates, they are already closely united with Zhang Cheng, and everything is based on Zhang Cheng's decision-making. In addition, Li Fuming, who is sitting on the grain road at the mouth of the river, has formed a group. The embryonic form of a new military interest group.

In addition to the generals, among the civil servants present, such as Zhang Ruoqi and Zhang Dou, also supported Zhang Cheng, and there were also deputy envoys Yao Gong, Liang Dao Zhu Tingxie, etc., who also had a very good opinion of Zhang Cheng.

Zhang Cheng is not fully aware of the opinions and opinions of everyone here today, after all, he is just a living person, not a living god in this world.

But at this time, seeing Hong Chengchou asking repeatedly, knowing that he couldn't avoid it, he calmed down instead, and after thinking for a while, he replied: "Minister, Duoduo has an extraordinary status among the Tartar thieves. But now that the banner owner of the Xiangbai Banner has died at the foot of Changling Mountain, there may be some changes in the position of the banner owner."

Wu Sangui has been in Liaodong for a long time, and he is also a person with great ambitions. He usually attaches great importance to the intelligence of the Tartar thieves, and knows a little more than other people.

At this moment, he continued to say: "The banner owners of the Eight Banners of Slavery are mostly the false kings they appointed, and there is no hereditary succession. Now that Duoduo died in battle, it stands to reason that his son should inherit this position."

Zhang Cheng turned his head and smiled at Wu Sangui, and said: "General Changbo, as far as I know, Duoduo is not very old, and his son is still young, so I guess the slave chief Hongtai will definitely take advantage of this Incident, change the banner owner."

He turned to Hong Chengchou and Wang Chengen, who were at the top, and continued: "You must know that the Tartars only have Eight Banners in total, and each banner owner is equal in strength, each controlling one-eighth of the Tartars' strength.

Today, the slave chieftain Hongtai holds two banners himself, and his son Haoge holds another banner; then there is Daishan who holds two banners with one body; finally there are brothers Dorgon and Duoduo who hold one banner each , merged into two flags.

Just imagine, is there a possibility that after Duoduo's death, Mrs. Hong wants to change the position of the banner owner of the inlaid white flag, and Dorgon will naturally strongly oppose this. "

Just when everyone followed Zhang Cheng's analysis and began to think about it, they heard Zhang Cheng say again: "Besides, I heard that Hong Tai, the slave chief, seemed to be in poor health. It is said that when he left his old nest and came to Jinzhou But the nosebleeds kept flowing all the way, at most, there must be someone riding beside him to catch it with a bowl."

Zhang Cheng glanced at the crowd again, and said in a deep voice: "So, please think about it boldly, is there such a possibility that the slave chief Hongtai is in health, or even suddenly has a serious illness, and Dorgon is like this? Withdrew in a hurry?"

Under Zhang Cheng's inspiration, everyone's thinking instantly opened up, and they spoke one after another, continuing to discuss strength according to Zhang Cheng's thinking.

"Snapped!"

Suddenly, Datong General Soldier Wang Pu slammed his palm on the table, and he shouted in horror: "Oh my god, did Dorgon suddenly withdraw to go back to fight for Khan's position?"

(End of this chapter)