East Factory Governor

Chapter 244

On November 28, the second year of Chongzhen, Huang Taiji led an army to capture Sanhe and nearby villages and towns.

Instead of attacking, it is better to say that the army "sent", because these places have long been without soldiers.Not only that, when Hou Shilu withdrew from Sanhe, he spread rumors that the city was about to be slaughtered by the slaves, and at the same time assisted the people in the city to withdraw to the west. Almost all the money and food in the city were taken away, so that Huang Taiji hardly got any money when he arrived in Sanhe. What a decent addition, not to mention a nice grab.

At this moment, Huang Taiji was depressed, even a little depressed.

He has just ascended the Khan position for a few years.Before he ascended the throne, he was one of the four major beiles together with Dabeile Daishan, Erbeile Amin, and Sanbeile Manggurtai. They "discussed state affairs together, and each had officials and subordinates", and had equal status.After he ascended the position of Khan, this situation has not been fundamentally changed.When he came to court, the three beiles sat side by side and were worshiped by his subjects, which is the best example.

So he has always had a deep sense of anxiety, that is, his position is actually not stable.He urgently needs a series of large-scale military operations to alleviate the domestic economy and food crisis, so as to establish his own authority and change all this.So he launched a series of campaigns against Mongolia, Ningjin, and Korea, and this time he went south to conquer Ming.

He basically achieved his goal the previous few times, but this time it didn't go as smoothly as he expected.Since entering the wall, there have been many resistances, losing troops and losing generals. When they arrived at Hengling, they encountered a big defeat that Dajin hadn't encountered in more than ten years!
If you go back like this, you can imagine the criticism from the DPRK and China. Sooner or later, the weight of the three Baylor's words will surpass his own, and his position will be threatened unprecedentedly.

So he must not go back!The setbacks in front of him didn't frighten him. This hero with great talent and strategy has already set his sights further.

In fact, the current situation faced by Houjin is quite different from that in history.Historically, Huang Taiji was ambitious and intended to attack the Forbidden City in order to intimidate Chongzhen.But now, he had no plans to attack the Forbidden City at all.

So what is he going to do when he crosses Jizhou and continues westward?

Huang Taiji's gaze was firmly fixed on a certain point on the map.

……

Qin Shuhuai stayed in Weifeng Ridge for one day, and the next day when the heavy snow stopped and the weather cleared up, he immediately took people out of the mountain.

In fact, Weifeng Ridge is only a dozen miles away from that trail, that is to say, they wandered around Hengling for most of the night before, and they only walked a dozen miles.

Chang Da and the others have lived here for a long time and are very familiar with it.They told Qin Shuhuai that there were only two ways to get out of Hengling, and they had to go back through that path, so as to keep the few horses Qin Shuhuai had brought.If you bypass that trail, you will have to leave your horses and go over the mountains.

Qin Shuhuai wasn't sure if Huang Taiji was still near the trail. Considering that he didn't bring many horses out, let alone luggage, he decisively chose to go over the mountains and bypass the trail.

Chang Da chose the nearest mountain road, and nearly [-] people finally left Hengling after a day's trek.After they came out, they realized that they had reached the southern end of Hengling.

If you continue to the west, it is Hexiwu.Hexiwu is an important place at the northern end of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, where a lot of grain is stored.However, Qin Shuhuai believed that with Yuan Chonghuan's prudence, he must have sent heavy troops to Hexiwu at this moment, and he had no more than a thousand troops, and most of them were still injured, so it would be useless to assist in the defense.Moreover, now that Huang Taiji has lost a lot of soldiers and less food, there is no shortage of food at all, so he probably won't go to Hexi.Moreover, in history, Huang Taiji saw that Yuan Chonghuan had deployed heavy troops in Hexi, so he didn't go to grab food, but went straight to Gyeonggi to grab big households.

So I might as well go back to my old lair in Tongzhou as soon as possible, reorganize my troops and focus on Tongzhou, and be ready to assist the army to fight Jiannu decisively there.

Qin Shuhuai's idea was that Huang Taiji lost troops and generals during his trip to the fortress, so he would definitely make a fortune in the rich land near Gyeonggi before he was willing to leave.Therefore, although Tongzhou, the gateway to Gyeonggi, has an unfavorable terrain, it must be guarded.Not only have to defend, but it is best to have a decisive battle with Huang Taiji here.In short, regardless of economic, political, and popular sentiments, Huang Taiji must not be allowed to fall under the root of the imperial city.

Qin Shuhuai led the troops to move on. He was about 20 miles away from Hexiwu, and he was about to enter another official road and go directly to Tongzhou.

But at this time the spies came to report that a large number of corpses were found not far ahead, it seemed that a great battle had just passed.

Qin Shuhuai was startled, and immediately took someone to check.

Sure enough, in an open field one mile away, there were corpses of war horses and soldiers everywhere. The number was roughly estimated to be three to four thousand, and they fell on the ground densely, making one's scalp numb!
Taking a closer look, these cavalrymen who died in battle were mainly Guanning cavalry, accounting for about three-quarters.The remaining quarter is the Tartar cavalry.

Obviously, a fierce encounter, or ambush, broke out here, and the Guanning cavalry was caught off guard and suffered heavy losses.

Everyone was silent, and under the leadership of Qin Shuhuai, they bowed three times to the sacrificed officers and soldiers of the Guan Ning Army.

"Master, these Guanning horsemen should be going to reinforce Hexiwu," Zhang Xiao said.

Qin Shuhuai nodded, "That's right, and it should be He Kegang's department who was originally guarding Yutian."

"In this way, Jianu has already arrived at Hexiwu?" Zhang Xiao thought for a while, then continued, "Jianu lost a lot of soldiers in this battle, but the loss of food and grass is not much. Logically, they should not be short of food. Why? Come to Hexiwu?"

Qin Shuhuai frowned for a while, then suddenly said, "No, Jiannu bypassed Jizhou not to go to the capital, they came to grab food!"

Lai San'er said puzzledly, "Since they are not short of food, why are they here to grab food?"

Zhang Xiao came to his senses first, and said, "Your subordinate understands! Jiannu is going to steal Hexiwu's food, and then go straight back to Zunhua! With this food, they can use Zunhua, Santunying and other strong cities to occupy the Jibei, when the spring thaws next year, they can increase their troops from Liaodong, and at that time they will raise troops in the Central Plains!"

After hearing this, Lai San'er suddenly realized, and cursed, "His grandma, these Tartars are really insidious!"

Qin Shuhuai's face was overcast and extremely solemn.If Huang Taiji really robbed Hexiwu of food and let him return to Zunhua, there will be endless troubles.

Nothing can happen to He Xiwu!Even if He Xiwu has been robbed, Huang Taiji must not be allowed to return to Zunhua!
The decisive battle, no matter what, must be fought in Hexiwu!

Thinking of this, Qin Shuhuai immediately said to Zhang Xiao, "Zhang Xiao, take a few brothers back to Tongzhou immediately, and transfer all the brothers in the gang!"

"Yes, helper!"

Qin Shuhuai said to Li Jingting again, "Jingting, you go back to Tongzhou immediately and transfer all the guards in Jinyi!"

"Yes, my lord!"

The two left immediately.

Qin Shuhuai said to everyone behind him, "The whole army will change its course, avoid the official road, and go to Xihewu by the small road."

(End of this chapter)