Chapter 3: Hangzhou Victory (Three)

News from Liaodong is reported three times a day. Even so, the specific news from North Korea has to go on the road for seven or eight days to reach the Yangzhou Palace. Feige delivers a letter quickly, but it is easy to intercept the Northern and Later Jin parties. Therefore, the total news will inevitably be delayed by three or five days before reaching the case table of the palace study room.

After fighting for a month, the North Korean monarch and ministers and tens of thousands of soldiers fought bloody battles, but the difference in strength was really huge. Originally, because of a general like Zu Dashou commanding the city to defend the city, and with a large amount of preparation materials and supplies in Seoul, Seoul could last at least three months to half a year, but unexpectedly, the mud in North Korea could not support the wall. Although he had the courage to fight, he was still the elite opponent of the Eight Banners of the Later Jin Dynasty. In one month, Huang Taiji took a month to completely destroy the morale and blood of the Seoul defenders.

In the Later Jin Dynasty, there were many powerful generals. In addition to Zu Dashou, there were dozens of middle and low generals and officials who were brought to the Seoul, and they were fed up the salary. In addition, they did not belong to the same country, Huang Taiji continued to use the plan of divisiveness. The Korean monarch and ministers also regained the command power of the Ming generals such as Zu Dashou and others, and used the incompetent mediocre generals of North Korea. Zu Dashou commanded the Seoul defense battle more and more restricted. By the time the Korean monarch and ministers understood, Seoul was already shaking and the city was about to break!

Even though Zhu Yinglong judged that the possibility of Huang Taiji's attempt to attack Jinzhou after taking North Korea was slim, Huang Taiji's talent was very talented and had few minds in the world, and there was also Fan Wencheng's support who was comparable to Zhuge's talent. If Huang Taiji really attacked Liaodong at all costs, it would be unpredictable without Yuan Chonghuan, a master of defensive war, the winner would be unpredictable. If the court really fell into the quagmire of the southern expedition, it would be possible that Huang Taiji would advance to Shanhaiguan earlier than in history.

Zheng Zhilong's defeat not only accelerated the process of the southern expedition, but also forced Huang Taiji, who was far away in Korea, to temporarily give up the plan of attacking Jinzhou and attacking Ming in the south, and to attack North Korea wholeheartedly. This actually caused great trouble to Zu Dashou, who was about to break through and withdraw from Seoul, and the monarch and ministers of the Korean king and minister. The cavalry of the Eight Banners of the Later Jin followed and chased after almost non-stop, causing extremely painful casualties to the Korean military and civilians. At the same time, the Koreans hated the Jin people more and more. For a considerable period of time, bandits in North Korea were rampant and attacked the soldiers of the Later Jin everywhere. Huang Taiji was unable to deal with it.

In the next few days, good news spread frequently. First, Chang Yanlin led an army of 50,000 to Huzhou. In the three days, he cleared the pseudo-Ming defenders in Huzhou. Then he went south and attacked the two armies of Hong Chengchou. With the support of Meng Liang, he took down the city of Hangzhou without much effort. All the pseudo-Ming officials in the city were captured alive, including the confused governor Li Shi, or the quilt that he had never known which wife and concubine he was dragged out. He was scared and incontinent, and then he became crazy and had no chance of survival.

The battlefield on the Western Front also heard good news. Xiong Tingbi obtained fifty powerful long-range artillery, and immediately picked out some smart soldiers, and performed continuously for five days. Then he ordered all the artillery in the general to gather and bombard Pengze's southern gate. Soon, the south gate of Pengze City, which Li Qi had worked hard to manage, became a pile of ruins in the fierce artillery fire, and Pengze's gate was opened to Xiong Tingbi's army from then on.

Pengze is sufficient food and supplies, and Li Qi is not a mediocre person. He is not willing to fail because of his hard work. You should know that he led most of the Beijing army to rebel, and many of his subordinates were loyal to him in Pengze. Since Wei Zhongxian protected Li Chaoqin and pushed most of the responsibility for defeat in Huguang to him, he seemed to have recognized Wei Zhongxian's character. The two had a leisure time, so he secretly surrendered to the Empress Dowager Xu Rongrong's relationship, which also greatly increased Xu Rongrong's strength in the court and increased the capital for dialogue between Yu Wei Zhongxian. He, the governor of Jiangxi, was half the role of Xu Rongrong, and the other half was that Wei Zhongxian wanted to use Xiong Tingbi's hand to remove Li Qi, the "two-first" Li Qi, Li

Qi naturally knew Wei Zhongxian's intentions very well, but staying in Nanjing might disappear silently that day, and leaving Nanjing, the sky was high and birds could fly. Although the crisis still existed, there was more room for rushing and moving, and danger and opportunity coexist. The new master also urgently needed strong and powerful forces to support her. Before this, the Queen Mother Xu Rongrong had a respectable status, but was controlled by Wei Zhongxian everywhere. Even when she saw her son, she had to get Wei Zhongxian permission. She had no trust in her subordinates who held military power. Li Qi took advantage of the opportunity and became Xu Rongrong's most trusted general, and then she regained military power. She became the governor of a province and a chief official in the border area.

Li Qi's desire for power and wealth is no less than that of Cui Chengxiu, Xu Xianchun and others. After holding heavy troops, they began to cultivate their own strength. They transferred out the generals and schools that were originally loyal to themselves in the Jing camp one by one, arranged to enter the Jiangxi guards under his control, and continuously integrated training. Finally, he pulled out a 70,000-strong army of war, and then judged the situation. He chose Peng Ze, a military strategist, to fight for a long time, as his base, repaired the city defense, refined the soldiers, and made him stand up. Just when he was about to do a big battle, Zhu Yinglong launched a southern expedition. Jiangxi under his rule was about to face the attack of Xiong Tingbi in Huguang, so he took the lead and retreated the main force in Jiangxi into Pengze, leaving some of the combat power or constantly commanded himself.

The army sang a large-scale empty city plan in Jiangxi, which made Xiong Tingbi, who entered Jiangxi, confused and could not understand Li Qi's actions. Li Qi's secrets were used, and the shadow could not detect his plan for a while. Until Xiong Tingbi discovered Peng Ze where Li Qi was, Li Qi had basically completed the shrinking of troops. Pengze City, which was defended by a 70,000 army, was like a wall of iron. Even famous generals like Xiong Tingbi, had no choice but to trap him. It was obviously difficult to win the city where 70,000 elite soldiers were defended in a short period of time. No matter how you tempt it, Li Qi could not hold on. Xiong Tingbi was like a mouse pulling a turtle and had no idea to start. His army was not much more than Li Qi, so he was exhausted in Pengze City.

Although Xiong Tingbi did not show signs of eager advance eastward, Li Qi was not a fool. As long as he defended Peng Ze, it would be equivalent to dragging the tens of thousands of troops in Xiong Tingbi's hands to prevent him from besieging Nanjing with the main force of the new army. This strategy was very effective, and Li Qi also did this and forced the commander of the Southern Expedition Yuan Chonghuan to change his original advance strategy. From this point of view, although Li Qi is not a famous general like a stunning genius, he is at least a qualified general. Even if he can take the position of the admiral of the Beijing Camp, he is not capable of not being able to do so. No matter how much Emperor Tianqi trusts Wei Zhongxian, he will always consider his own safety.

After adjusting the strategy of the Southern Expedition, Li Qi's strategy of holding Peng Ze overshadowing Xiong Tingbi's tens of thousands of troops was useless. Xiong Tingbi also calmed down to prepare for capturing Peng Ze, transferred He Renlong back, and sent another deputy general to continue to sweep the remaining prefectures, artillery, ladders, siege vehicles, rockets and other siege weapons to the city of Pengze. These will determine the fate of hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Pengze City.

The biggest gain of Pengze's battle was that it tested the huge power of the artillery group's attack in siege war. Xiong Tingbi, who obtained this weapon of war, destroyed Li Qi's painstaking efforts and created the city defense system. At the same time, he also complained in his heart that Zhu Yinglong, the emperor's son-in-law, had he mobilized so many artillery earlier, Pengze would have been compromised long ago. Why wait until the strategic adjustment is done? There will be much less casualties? You must know that he fought the hardest along the way, and the enemy and us are the biggest casualties. In the battle of Pengze, he finally cleared the casualties. More than 20,000 of his own casualties, more than half of Li Qi's subordinates died and injured. After the prisoners were reorganized, there were only 20,000 people who could fight, and it would be even more difficult to count the casualties of the people. It is necessary to wait until Jiangxi is pacified before there is a definite number.
Chapter completed!