Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 192
After Wang Yan understood He Tengjiao's great ambition, lack of talent, and narrow-minded nature, he knew that he must not be allowed to control the overall situation of Huguang Anti-Qing, otherwise Chudi would become the next Jiangbei.

Wang Yan originally came to let He Tengjiao send troops to take back Yuezhou, and sent troops to meet Du Yinxi and reorganize the defense line, but at this time he had the intention of seizing the power of Chu.

Back then, Shi Kefa had the opportunity to control all the troops of Gao Jie's troops, but he didn't listen to Wang Yan's words. Instead, he humiliated the rest of Gao Jie's troops, causing the Qing army to go south, and Xuzhou Town was the first to surrender to the Qing court.

Every time Wang Yan thinks back to the past, when he felt that the Shige Department cherished his own reputation too much and was too pedantic, he also felt that he was too indecisive and had too many scruples.

Facing He Tengjiao at this time, Wang Yan couldn't help flashing a cold light in his eyes, but he quickly calmed himself down. Although he already had the desire to seize power, it was not now.

Now is the time when soldiers are approaching the city, and he has only four thousand soldiers, so he cannot take over the power of Chu. If he wants to replace He Tengjiao, he must first establish prestige in Chu.

Now the easiest way to gain prestige is to take the troops from Chu to defeat the Qing court Beilelk Dehun who came to Hubei for support, and occupy Wuchang City.

At this time, Wang Yan had already cleared his mind. He rushed into the mansion overnight to let He Tengjiao send troops, not to argue with him, so he ignored He Tengjiao's words, but pushed away the guards of the governor's mansion who stood in front of him. He stepped forward to adjust his tone and said: "Governor He misunderstood, I have no intention of seizing power, I am just worried about the situation in Chu. Governor He has never fought against the Qing soldiers, but I have dealt with the Qing soldiers many times. The combat power of the Qing army is quite familiar. When I was in Shandong, I saw the strength of the Qing cavalry several times. Every time I and several rebel leaders thought that we had escaped far enough and were safe enough, the Qing cavalry always It was a sudden attack, and then the rebels fled all over the mountains. The cavalry of the Qing army can run more than 170 miles in a day. At this speed, if Luck Dehun really wanted to take Changsha, he would never let Governor He lead his troops back to Changsha smoothly. , so his intention can only be to raid and block the governor's back route, or even directly raid the Jingzhou city from the side."

He Tengjiao saw that Wang Yan's tone was slowed down, and his voice was very sincere, and he couldn't help trembling. He had to admit that Wang Yan's analysis was very possible, but he still couldn't admit his mistake. , but Chu Guogong also has to believe in the ability of the governor. He has 30 soldiers and horses, so how could he fail so easily. Duke Guo and Governor Zhang go back to rest."

He Tengjiao's attitude towards Du Yinxi is more complicated. He not only hopes that Du Yinxi can defeat the Qing army, but also does not want Du Yinxi's power to be too strong.

Du Yinxi won, and He Tengjiao, as the governor of Huguang, naturally had to take the lead. He Tengjiao didn't feel sorry for Du Yinxi's loss of troops. That's right, He Tengjiao didn't want to take action immediately, but hoped that after Du Yinxi and the Qing soldiers were both defeated, he would come back to reap the military exploits.

Hearing the words, Wang Yan frowned immediately, he pushed away the surrounding guards again, and refused to leave the mansion now.

At this time, he had already made up his mind that if He Tengjiao did not make a decision tonight, he would not give up, so he reminded him coldly: "Governor He, as the saying goes, soldiers are precious and fast. Your army retreated to Changsha, and Governor Du and Li Guo But I thought you were in Yuezhou, so you would not have to worry about looking east, but the fact is that they are to the east. There are neither warships guarding the Yangtze River waterway, nor soldiers and horses guarding the dangerous land. Qing soldiers are like entering a land without people , drove directly to Jingzhou, but Governor Du and Li Guo were completely unprepared, and the result could only be a big defeat. Since the Qing army went south, our Ming Dynasty has almost no victories to speak of, and the morale of the army has fallen to the bottom. If you lose in a situation where you have all the advantages, the morale of the army will inevitably collapse, and it will be even more difficult to deal with it."

He Tengjiao did not expect Wang Yan to be so resolute, and his words did make sense. For a moment, he couldn't help hesitating, "This~this~"

Zhang Kuang is He Tengjiao's confidant, and he was promoted step by step to the position of governor of Hubei. Bu bowed to He Tengjiao and said, "Master, if Governor Du is defeated and the Qing army takes advantage of the momentum to go down to Hunan, can the governor stop the Qing army?"

When He Tengjiao heard the words, he fell silent for a while, but at this moment, an official stumbled into the mansion. He saw He Tengjiao and Zhang Kuang standing outside the house, and immediately ran over and said, "Master, Mrs. Servant, something is wrong, and when Li Guo concentrated his forces to attack Jingzhou, Luck Dehun divided his troops into two groups and rushed straight to Li Guo's camp. Li Guo was caught off guard and was defeated and retreated west."

When Wang Yan heard the words, his face turned pale with shock, and He Tengjiao and Zhang Kuang also looked at each other in embarrassment.

It turned out that after He Tengjiao retreated without a fight, the Qing army marched straight in and occupied Shishou County on the eighth day of the lunar new year. Later, it was discovered that Li Guo's main force was besieging Jingzhou, but the logistics and supplies were stationed on the south bank of the Yangtze River. Luo Langqiu attacked the south bank, and he led his troops to gallop to Jingzhou by night.

On the tenth day of the lunar new year, Du Yinxi and Li Guo thought He Tengjiao's troops were in the east, so they were unprepared and still attacked the city with all their strength, but they were suddenly attacked by Luck Dehun, and the whole army was defeated immediately.

The defenders of the Shun army on the south bank did not expect that the Qing soldiers would appear suddenly. All the supplies were seized by the Qing army, and Li Guo's army suffered heavy losses. They had to flee into the Three Gorges area under the pursuit of the Qing army.

Governor Du Yinxi led his soldiers and horses to retreat to the Changde area, but under the pursuit of the Qing soldiers, Du Yinxi fell off his horse and broke his arm. In addition, he was extremely sad and angry, and he vomited blood and fainted, unable to take charge of affairs.

In addition, Li Zicheng's third younger brother Li Zi, former Dashun Cihou Tian Jianxiu, Yihou Zhang Ding, Wuyang Boss, and Taiping Bo Wu Ruyi led more than [-] troops at Yilingkou because they had no time to retreat. People surrendered to the Qing army.

After this battle, Li Guo's army was severely injured and was forced to retreat into the barren mountainous area at the junction of Sichuan and Hubei. Changde, the gateway to northern Hunan, was also occupied by the Qing army.

After listening to the officials' narration, Wang Yan felt resentful in his heart. The good situation was ruined in one go. He really wanted to cry, but his heart was cold.

After hearing this, He Tengjiao's face was also pale. After asking several times, he believed that the nearly 30 Shun army had really lost, and the defeat was extremely miserable.

He had the intention of using the Qing army to consume Li Guo, but he never thought that Li Guo would be defeated so badly. He thought that even if the 30 Shun army failed, it would not be too bad, but he never thought about it. Since the Qing army entered the customs, the Shun army has been hunted down all the way, and has never won a single battle. He was terribly afraid of the Qing army, but after the Shun army retreated into Hunan, he did not replenish them with food and supplies to help them. Restore combat power.How could such a Shun army be able to defeat the Qing soldiers who suddenly attacked.

He Tengjiao never expected that the result of his unauthorized withdrawal of troops would be that the Battle of Jingzhou collapsed and the Qing troops directly entered Changde.

(End of this chapter)