Prince Chongzhen

Chapter 101 Cleaning
Siege warfare is an extremely complicated matter. Not only does it require a great deal of time to prepare, but it is also more likely that you will not get corresponding benefits after investing a lot of materials, personnel and time.

Therefore, there is a saying in the art of war that the best strategy is to attack the enemy's plans, the next best is to attack their alliances, the next best is to attack their soldiers, and the worst is to attack their cities.

It is for this reason that Duoduo will decisively try after seeing other hopes. Otherwise, with his authority in the army, with just one order, no one would dare to disperse for any strange reason.

If we only consider it from the perspective of the Qing army, although Duoduo's choice was correct, it would make people feel that he allowed his subordinates to leave the camp to seek benefits out of personal relationships and conflicts of interest.

But if you think about the consequences of this matter from Yingtian's perspective, you will come to another conclusion.

At first glance, this matter can be considered extremely beneficial to Yingtian.

After all, the Qing army's strength is not unlimited. The more troops are sent out, the less pressure Yingtian will be under, and the difficulty of defending the city will naturally be greatly reduced. Isn't this exactly what Zhu Cilang wants?

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Among Zhu Cilang's basic logic of sticking to Yingtian, one of the most critical ones will become invalid because of this.

In his memory, after various parts of the Ming Dynasty learned that the Qing army had crossed the river and was approaching Yingtian, they sent a large number of reinforcements. Although the combat effectiveness of these reinforcements varied, there were some capable ones like Yang Tinglin among them.

Based on this, as long as Zhu Cilang can contain the Qing army in Yingtian for three or two months, the anti-Qing situation will be completely different.

But things did not develop as we wished.

Due to various factors, although Yingtian was still in the hands of the Ming army, the Qing army still captured southern Jiangsu at an extremely fast speed as before and approached Hangzhou.

As a result, Yingtian was isolated from the territory of the Ming Dynasty. Not to mention the lack of information and unclear situation, even if it was certain that Yingtian had not been lost, who could have gotten to it?

If we put things back to here and then think back to what Duoduo did, can we indeed taste something else?
Zhu Cilang had not thought of these before.

If he had not been thinking about some "strategic" things after the meeting that day, he would probably still be overjoyed about the opportunity to launch a night attack.

But then again, even though he understood it, Yingtian didn't have the ability to change the situation with his current strength.

All he could do now was to settle the dispute between the two quarreling old men.

"Yue Qijie, how could you instigate His Highness to be in danger?"

"Xu Yu, I didn't ask Your Highness to fight in battle, I just asked him to put on armor. Why are you doing this?"

Seeing that Xu Yu's finger was about to poke the tip of his nose, Yue Qijie finally exploded after losing his patience.

From that day on, he focused all his attention on how to train His Highness to become a commander like Emperor Taizong of Tang.

But after thinking it over, he found that the prince seemed to be slightly better than himself in strategy, and what he lacked was experience and a strong physique.

It takes time to accumulate experience, so he can't help. However, he has some immature ideas about strengthening the body.

In the end, after discussing with Zheng Shanqing, Yue Qijie used medicine to treat Zhu Cilang's injuries, while also making him wear a cotton armor all day long.

So, when the night attack troops were waiting to set off, Xu Yu started yelling at the top of his voice when he saw the "fully armed" Zhu Cilang.

"Mr. Xu, Master Yue wants me to get stronger, not what you think."

"Practice to become stronger? Do you want to go into battle and kill the enemy?"

Honestly speaking, Xu Yu was being a little unreasonable, but with his last experience, he was really afraid that his stubborn regent would rush directly to the front again, so he hated Yue Qijie's behavior.

"Please rest assured, Mr. Xu. I was forced to do so last time. This time, I will not get close to the battlefield no matter what." Finally, after Zhu Cilang's repeated assurances, Xu Yu finally let Yue Qijie go, but then he followed Zhu Cilang closely, obviously not trusting his assurances much.

After this incident, the night became even darker. Led by Xiang Rensheng, seventy or eighty strong men who were skilled in stealing were the first to hang themselves from the city wall.

According to the original plan, the night attack troops were to go out of Yaofang Gate together, and then move out in batches after marching for a while.

But with Chang Guanlin's reminder, Zhu Cilang and others realized that if the Tartar scouts were lurking near the city wall, their movements would be detected by the Tartars as soon as the city gate was opened.

In this case, let alone attacking the Tartars at night, it is hard to say whether we can return safely.

Therefore, the first step was to send people out of the city to clean up the area around Yaofang Gate.

Fortunately, Zhu Baozi was there. He had been hiding in the surrounding area for some time, and also startled a group of Tartar scouts when entering the city. With the accumulation of these two experiences, he finally had some understanding of how the Tartars set up their sentries.

Otherwise, no matter how familiar Xiang Rensheng and his men were with the surrounding terrain, it would be like finding a needle in a haystack to eliminate all the Tartar sentries around Yaofang Gate.

"Baozi, follow the plan."

After landing at the foot of the city, he said something to Rensheng and led his men to the side of the road.

Although it was open outside the city, there was dense grass a little further away from the main road, so it was not difficult to hide a few people.

Of course, no scout would dare to place his outpost in such a position. The reason why Xiang Rensheng did this was mostly due to the last time the Tartars attacked the city.

In the battle that night, although the rout of the Tartar soldiers and the appearance of the Royal Guard Camp occurred almost at the same time, everyone knew that it was just a coincidence.

In that case, as long as a complete reinforcement force arrives, no matter how powerful the reinforcement force is, it will not have a fundamental impact on the final result.

Of course, when the merits were finally evaluated, the guard battalion did not lose any reward, but Xiang Rensheng felt very angry because of this.

They were the guard camp built by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince himself. How can we be worthy of His Royal Highness's appreciation by taking credit for other people's work?

So after deciding on the night attack, he became extremely concerned about it.

Not only did he carefully discuss with Zhu Baozi the various situations he might encounter, he even shared with him his experience of stealing from someone's home.

It can be said that all the secrets were revealed.

After carefully searching for a while, they did not find any Tartars within a mile of the city wall.

Xiang Rensheng looked up at the moon which was not completely covered by clouds, and then calculated the approximate time in his mind.

Guessing that everyone else should have finished searching the area, he pinched his throat and imitated a few pheasant calls.

This was what they had agreed upon beforehand. Once the voice was heard, the person farthest from the road would come all the way to him.

If no Tartar scouts were found on the other side of the road, they would be the same as him.

After both sides have confirmed it, they will continue to move towards the Tatars in other formations, but at the same time they will send people to inform the city of the news, and then the night attack will truly begin.

But why is there no response from the main road?

(End of this chapter)