Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 253 Flooded Xuzhou
Hong Chengchou said: "The servant wants to say that my Qing soldiers will last longer, but there is a premise."

After a pause, he went on to say: "If my Qing soldiers can't stop the Ming army's navy and let the grain ships from Huai'an, Yangzhou and even Nanjing enter Xuzhou continuously, or if the master can't collect grain from the private warehouse of the Eight Banners, Or if the harvests in the Xuzhou and Guide Mansions are poor, then the Ming army will be the one who persists to the end."

Dorgon's expression froze, and he murmured, "Navy division? Ming army navy division?"

After whispering for a while, Dorgon suddenly shouted again: "Cao Eryu, hang up the map of Xuzhou."

"Hey!" Cao Eryu promised, and immediately brought a sandalwood screen with a few coats, and hung the map of Xuzhou on the screen.

Dorgon and Hong Chengchou walked to the screen one after another.

Facing the map of Xuzhou, Dorgon asked Hong Chengchou with a serious face: "Heng Jiu, if we don't clear the siege, can my Qing soldiers stop the Ming army's navy?"

"Master, there is absolutely no problem blocking the navy of the Ming army."

Hong Chengchou said resolutely: "Although the firearms of the navy of the Ming army are sharp, the strength and endurance of the navy's warships are completely different from those of the stronghold."

"Our Qing soldiers only need to build more forts along the banks of the Yellow River."

"And set up more red cannons on these forts, and the Ming army navy will no longer be able to reach Xuzhou."

After a pause, Hong Chengchou said again: "The reason why Chongzhen dared to hoard troops in Xuzhou, Pizhou and even Xiazhen was that its biggest reliance was the firearms of the navy. Little did they know that this was also its biggest disadvantage! If our Qing soldiers insisted on defending If this strategy is not adopted, the soldiers and civilians in Xuzhou City will sooner or later become desperate because of the lack of food."

Dorgon hummed lightly and asked again: "So how much food do you estimate in Xuzhou City? How long can it last before falling into the desperate situation of food shortage?"

"Master, it's hard to estimate." Hong Chengchou shook his head.

After pondering for a while, Fan Wencheng said: "The ten kings' letter said that there is at least [-] shi of grain stored in the Shanyang warehouse, so according to common sense, the grain stored in Xuzhou should also be [-] shi!"

"Half a million stones?!" Dorgon's face instantly collapsed.

Ning Wan said to me: "The food standard for sitting is only half of that for traveling food. Calculated on the basis of one liter per day, [-] shi grains are enough to support [-] soldiers and civilians for more than three months. The people live and die, and only guarantee the rations of [-] troops, which can last for more than three years!"

"Three years?!" Dorgon's face was almost darkened.

"Actually, it will definitely not last for three years." Hong Chengchou said solemnly, "Two years at most."

"Slave seconded the proposal." Fan Wencheng also agreed with Hong Chengchou's judgment, "The Nanming at this time is no longer the original Ming Dynasty, and the Ming army in Xuzhou has lost the morale of the Liao army in the past, and it has persisted for two years."

"Two years? Two years!" Dorgon paced back and forth again with his hands behind his back.

It is undoubtedly a huge challenge for the Eight Banners to persist in Xuzhou for two years.

The three of Hong Chengchou stopped talking and just looked at Dorgon quietly.

Dorgon kept pacing in the warm pavilion, and his pace became faster and faster.

This is undoubtedly a difficult decision, is to persist?Or retreat early?

Ning Wan and the three of us silently closed our mouths. They were only responsible for planning and providing Dorgon with reference opinions, but Dorgon still had to make the final decision.

A quarter of an hour passed, and Dorgon still hadn't made up his mind.

Because it is really difficult to make a decision and the stakes are too great, Dorgon has a faint intuition that this decision is likely to determine the fate of the Qing court for hundreds of years in the future.

So there is absolutely no room for error.

It was really hard for Dorgon to make up his mind, so he stopped and asked Hong Chengchou: "Heng Jiu, then do you think it will be possible to leave only half of the troops in Xuzhou Guide to garrison and besiege Xuzhou?"

Dorgon still couldn't make such a decision, and wanted to make a half.

It is to leave half of the army to continue to besiege Xuzhou, and by the way to farm, and then allocate the other half of the troops to fight in other directions, such as Tumotechuan and Shandong.

"No." Hong Chengchou said decisively, "Half the troops are definitely not enough."

Hong Chengchou's answer was expected by Dorgon, he knew it would be this answer.

At this moment, Dorgon really felt the difficulty of insufficient national power. As long as the Qing Dynasty has half of the national power of the Ming Dynasty, he does not need half of the national power. And worrying about the military rations of hundreds of thousands of shi, the problem was solved in a matter of seconds.

Didn't Chongzhen station [-] to [-] troops in Xuzhou, Pizhou and Xiazhen?
Didn't Chongzhen recruit so many braves just in Huai'an?

Didn't Chongzhen stockpile more than [-] shi of grain in just one warehouse in Shanyang?
If the Qing Dynasty needed such manpower and material resources, wouldn't it be a joke to destroy the Ming Dynasty and the Pseudo-Shun?

It's a pity, it's a pity, such a huge manpower and material resources belonged to the Ming Dynasty. Chongzhen, the idiot emperor, was really reckless, and he didn't know how to use such a powerful manpower and material resources.

Seeing that Dorgon was still unable to make up his mind, Hong Chengchou said again: "Master, the lion and the elephant fight the rabbit with all their strength, let alone a war against a Central Plains dynasty like Nanming?"

Ning Wan and Fan Wencheng also echoed: "Master, don't divide your troops! In October last year, the troops were divided into two groups to attack Nanming and Yin Jian of Pseudo-Shun, but it was not far away. Did the master forget it so soon?"

Dorgon felt more and more irritable, but he held back his anger.

Because he knows that getting angry at people does no good, it just chills people's hearts.

Those who can control their emotions are the strong, and only the weak can be controlled by emotions.

Dorgon stared deeply at the map, and suddenly, Dorgon's eyes lit up and said: "Heng Jiu, besides adopting a long-term siege of Xuzhou, is there a quick win?"

"Quick victory?" Hong Chengchou said in astonishment, "Master, although the Ming army is unbearable in field battles, it is still no problem to defend the city. The previous defeats of the ten kings in Xuzhou also proved this point, so it is not appropriate to pursue a quick victory, otherwise it will be regarded as a victory. Going to Xuzhou, I'm afraid it will be a miserable victory, which will inevitably affect the next step of the southern expedition."

Dorgon said in a deep voice, "Is there no other way than a strong attack?"

Hong Chengchou said with a wry smile: "This slave is stupid, and I really can't think of any other better way to break the city."

"Is it true that I can't think of it, or is it that I thought of it but I don't want to say it?" Dorgon looked directly into Hong Chengchou's eyes and said, "I don't believe it. With Hengjiu's resourcefulness, you can't think of flooding?"

"Flooded? Digging the Yellow River?!" Hong Chengchou's face changed drastically.

Ning Wanwo and Fan Wencheng also looked concentrating, this is really unexpected.

"That's right, it's the strategy of flooding!" Dorgon said with a cold snort, "Yan Yingyuan attacked with fire and flooded in Shanyang, beheading nearly [-] warriors and more than [-] coats of arms of our Qing Dynasty in one battle." , then now, this king will repay him in his own way, and also dig the Yellow River embankment, flooding Xuzhou!"

"Master, this is absolutely impossible." Hong Chengchou said urgently.

"No?" Dorgon said angrily, "How dare you say no? In the eyes of Heng Jiuyi, the life of the Han people is life, and the life of our Eight Banners warriors is not life, right? So you would rather save both sides of the Yellow River The Han Chinese people in China are willing to sacrifice tens of thousands of my Eight Banners disciples, right? Is this how you repay my trust in you?"

"Master, the matter is not as simple as you imagined." Hong Chengchou knelt down anxiously, "Although this slave is a Han Chinese, he is a courtier of the Qing Dynasty, and even a servant of yours, master. Everything he thinks and thinks is for my sake." Qing, the slaves are not reluctant to sacrifice the Han people on both sides of the Yellow River, but are all for the sake of the Qing Dynasty."

"Really?" Dorgon said, "I don't want to flood Xuzhou, but for the sake of Qing Dynasty?"

"Yes, not digging the embankment of the Yellow River is just for my sake." Hong Chengchou nodded and said again, "Master, you only know that the course of the Yellow River is higher than the ground, as long as the embankment is dug, the pouring water will be enough to flood the entire city of Xuzhou , as for the hundreds of blunderbusses surrounding Xuzhou city..."

"That's it." Dorgon said, "Once the Yellow River breaks its embankment, Xuzhou and even the downstream prefectures will be transformed into Zeguo in an instant. In this way, the Huanghuai defense line carefully built by Chongzhen will no longer exist."

Speaking of this meal, Dorgon said again: "When the flood recedes, our Qing soldiers will send troops again, and we can easily break through the Huanghuai defense line and hit the Yangtze River without any effort! Isn't this kind of tactics better than spending a lot of money?" Manpower and material resources, the stalemate with the Ming army in Xuzhou for several years?"

Hearing this, Ning Wan and Fan Wencheng and I nodded again and again.

Because they feel that what Dorgon said is reasonable, flooding Xuzhou is indeed better than spending in Xuzhou.

Hong Chengchou sighed, shook his head and said, "Master only knows one thing, but not the other. Digging up the embankment of the Yellow River is actually a double-edged sword. A careless move will not only fail to hurt the Ming army, but also hurt the Qing Dynasty!"

"What do you mean by that?" Dorgon frowned, "How could it hurt Da Qing instead?"

Hong Chengchou said: "The Yellow River has been a river that nourishes the people since ancient times, but it is also a river that harms the people. It bursts twice in three years and diverts its course once in a hundred years. The people along the river are really miserable."

"However, since Pan Jixun ruled the river in the Wanli period, the course of the Yellow River has been fixed in Kaifeng, Kaocheng, Shangqiu, Dangshan, Xuzhou and Suqian. Although there were occasional dikes and dams during the period, there has been no major disaster in nearly a hundred years. As a result, the river bed is getting higher and higher, and it is already far above the ground."

Having said this, Hong Chengchou continued with a more emphatic tone: "But apart from the fact that the river bed is higher than the ground, there is another feature of the dams on both sides of the Yellow River, and this is the most deadly."

"Oh really?" Dorgon said with a sneer.

"Then the king should listen carefully, hum!"

(End of this chapter)