Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 171 The Battle of Huzhou Chen Gongye Retreats

As early as August, Fang Guoan, together with Wang Zhiren and other ministries, cooperated with local volunteers to recover Fuyang, Yuqian and other places, and once approached Hangzhou, but failed.

Zhang Cunren, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang in the Qing Dynasty, wrote to Dorgon, "The rebels Fang Guoan and Wang Zhiren crossed the river from Fuyang and invaded Hangzhou. They sent deputy generals Zhang Jie and Wang Dingguo to encircle and suppress them, beheaded [-] people, and the remaining thieves occupied Fuyang. He also ordered Dingguo to pursue the surrender, defeated Fang Guoan, captured his son Fang Shiyan and others, and beheaded him."

Fang Guoan had previous failures, so he naturally knew the combat power of the Qing army in Hangzhou, but the King Lu regime was eager to go down to Hangzhou to gain the prestige to fight against Emperor Longwu. He alone has the final say.

After hearing Xia Wanchun's words of persuasion, he was silent for a while, and then said after a while, "Your Highness sent a hundred thousand troops today. If you retreat to the south bank without achieving an inch of merit, you will be ridiculed by the world, and the people's hearts can't be vented. Even if you retreat, You have to win for a while!"

Hearing the words, Xia Wanchun couldn't help being stunned, knowing that King Lu's regime had lost his mind and was eager for success, so he tried to persuade him as he wished, but he was only a member of Yizhong Shushe, and he was still close to the Longwu court. For one faction, the Lu Wang regime naturally couldn't listen to his words.

Seeing that Xia Wanchun remained silent, Fang Guoan knew some of his thoughts, but sometimes, people couldn't help themselves. Even if he knew that he might lose, the current situation of King Lu's regime did not allow him to retreat easily. There was also a little luck, so he said: "If you can't go to Hangzhou before the 25th day, you will definitely persuade the King of Lu to retreat. Before that, please tell Chen Gong from Xiaoyin that you must stick to Huzhou no matter what, and don't let the Qing army Support Hangzhou."

Xia Wanchun had no choice but to agree, and hurried back to Huzhou without paying a visit to King Lu.

Chen Zilong had defended the city for four or five days, when he saw Xia Wanchun came back, he hurriedly asked about the situation in Hangzhou, but Xia Wanchun said, "I'm afraid we will lose."

Chen Zilong was startled when he heard the words, he knew his apprentice's talent, he knew that he would not say this out of thin air, so he quickly asked the reason, and Xia Wanchun told him all about what he had seen and heard outside Hangzhou city.

"The dispute between Tang and Lu is not the blessing of the country!" Chen Zilong quickly agreed with Xia Wanchun's judgment.

Tang and Lu broke apart, and in terms of geographical location, the Lu Jianguo regime was on the front line of resisting the Qing Dynasty, providing a barrier for the Longwu regime in the south.

The power of Lu Jianguo was weak, and he should have relied on the Longwu regime in Fujian, backed by the southeast, and Xu Tu was aggressive. However, because Lu Jianguo insisted on fighting against the court of Longwu, Eastern Zhejiang lost the support of Emperor Longwu, and he was unwilling to send troops. Zheng Zhilong, who left Fujian, was even more delighted in his heart, he finally had an excuse to keep the soldiers safe.

In the land of eastern Zhejiang, the defense against the Qing troops in the south of the Yangtze River was still insufficient, but the King Lu's regime was eager for success. If they wanted to attack Hangzhou, failure was inevitable.

"Let's wait until the 25th!" Chen Zilong couldn't help sighing, the national fortune was sluggish and things were not going well from time to time, all he could do was to defend Huzhou to prevent Lu Wang's army from being pinched by the Qing army on both sides, and hoped that their defeat would not be too ugly.

Outside the city of Huzhou, Kong Youde, the respectful king, bombarded Huzhou every day. Except for the first few days when the infantry stormed the city, they rarely attacked the city in the past few days, which immediately relieved the pressure on the defenders.

Kong Youde's army is an old bandit who has followed the Beilu for many years. They are very elite. Chen Zilong was very worried about whether he would be able to defend until the 25th. Now that he no longer stormed the city, he felt relieved, but Xia Wanchun felt that the situation was abnormal. Have doubts.

Many people in the rebel army believed that after Kong Youde failed in the initial siege, he felt that he would not be able to break through Huzhou in a short period of time, and he did not want too many casualties among his subordinates, so he changed his siege strategy accordingly, but Xia Wanchun felt that it would not be that simple. The internal laws of the Qing court were strict, especially when dealing with generals of the Han Dynasty. If they were ordered to advance, they would advance, and if they were ordered to retreat, they would be retreated.

On the night of the [-]th, Xia Wanchun was depressed and couldn't fall asleep. He went to the city to look around, but he met a warrior in night clothes, climbing up with a rope, and was caught by the soldiers.

The warrior didn't resist, he just said he had something important to report to Chen Shilang, Xia Wanchun was amazed and brought him to Chen Zilong.Chen Zilong asked, and the warrior saluted and said: "Tiandihui Qingmu Hall Yu Taichu pays homage to Chen Gong."

Hu Weizong was ordered by Wang Yan to return to the south of the Yangtze River to form the Tiandihui, and collected many good people from the rivers and lakes in the water transportation. It happened that the remnants of Jinyiwei who had withdrawn from Nanjing City were also active in the water transportation. Incorporated into the Qingmu Hall of the Tiandihui.

These Jinyiwei are all good at espionage and espionage. Now that they have the support of money, some relationships that had been abolished have been re-established immediately, so that Tiandihui will soon gain a foothold in Jiangnan.

This time, when Yu Taichu came to see Chen Zilong, it was Hou Fangyu who was lurking next to Hong Chengchou who reported that Duoduo intended to let Kong Youde restrain the Huzhou defenders, while he personally led the navy to attack the rebel army's water village on Taihu Lake.

Chen Zilong and Xia Wanchun were shocked when they heard Yu Taichu's narration. Xia Wanchun immediately remonstrated to withdraw from Huzhou, and it was important to protect the water fortress, but Chen Zilong hesitated in his heart, worried that the army of King Lu of Hangzhou would be killed by the Qing army because of his withdrawal from Huzhou. be defeated.

Seeing this, Yu Taichu said: "The Heaven and Earth Society has reported to the King of Lu quickly, and the Boluo army outside Xianxia Pass has also secretly returned to help Hangzhou. It is meaningless for Chen Gong to guard Huzhou!"

Hearing the words, Chen Zilong sat down slumped. Although he had long been prepared to face failure, when the failure really came, he still couldn't help feeling sad.

That night, Chen Zilong ordered his soldiers to plant more banners in the city and put grass men to guard the city. He led the rebels out of Huzhou overnight and returned to Taihu Lake.

Not one day later, Duoduo led the navy to Taihu Lake. He thought that Chen Zilong was still in Huzhou, and only Wu Yi and a small number of rebels were guarding the water block of Taihu Lake. After laying an ambush, hundreds of small boats loaded with firewood and kerosene suddenly rushed out of the reeds. The Qing army's large ships were unable to turn, and all of them burned immediately. The Qing army was defeated, and Duoduo fled Taihu Lake in a hurry.

In Hangzhou Prefecture, although King Lu's army got the news from Tiandihui, they failed to pay attention to it. Even the righteous soldiers who went to report to Tiandihui were sent back without seeing the leading general.

Soon, the Boluo army came from the west, and the Lu Wang army, which was not in the upper hand, was defeated immediately.

After this battle, there were 11 lieutenant generals captured in King Lu's army, and 48 generals, guerrillas, captains, and defenders.

After the failure of the Battle of Crossing the River and Restoring Hangzhou, the ambitions of the Lu Jianguo regime disappeared, and basically turned to planing the river to guard against danger, and no longer had the determination to forge ahead.

(End of this chapter)