scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 334 Fatty Showdown
Fatty Lu's nerves are not that strong, and Fatty Lu's attitude is not optimistic, but fortunately, Fatty Lu has a good teacher, Liu Xuanchu, who taught Fatty Lu to have a city, and let the mountain collapse in front of him without compromising, so Until the end of the second son's full moon wine banquet, Fatty Lu never showed any flaws, which greatly stabilized the morale of the army and the people in Jiangnan.

Otherwise, as long as Fatty Lu shows a little nervous expression in front of so many gentry and landlords, it may turn into Fatty Lu peeing his crotch because of the news that the Qing army crossed the river. Morale is naturally very bad.

After the banquet, Fatty Lu insisted on returning the congratulatory gifts to the big landlords, gentry and wealthy businessmen in the south of the Yangtze River, but at the suggestion of Wang Shaobo, he agreed to accept a long-lived lock from each guest for his son. It is emphasized that the longevity lock, regardless of its gold or silver quality, should not exceed five yuan in weight, so as not to add extra burdens to these landlords and gentry who have already spent a lot of money for food and grass.

In this regard, although the guests at the meeting admired Fatty Lu's integrity and not being greedy for people's wealth, Fatty Lu's unmarried fiancee Xiaojiao often scolded Fatty Lu as an idiot behind his back, and swore that he would give birth to a son for Fatty Lu in the future. , we must run the full moon wine and receive gifts by ourselves, and Fatty Lu, who has no economic sense, will never be allowed to intervene!
Of course, Fatty Lu was not in the mood to pay attention to Xiaojiali's complaints. However, in view of the urgent military situation, and taking advantage of the opportunity that the top four major legions were basically present, he held a high-level military meeting of the Fatty Army overnight, together with the important generals of the Fatty Army Discuss countermeasures.

At the meeting, the senior generals of the Fat Man Army demanded to take the initiative to strike back with iron fists almost in unison, dispatching the main force to fight Yue Le on the bank of Gaoyou Lake. The first battle will determine the victory and defeat this annoying fly!Gao Dejie even uttered wild words, "Brother Lu, you don't need to go out in person, brother, I can bring my own troops! The 12 bullshit is full of dogs, and I can kill this gang of mobs with [-] cavalry !"

"General, the last general also thinks it's time to deal with Yue Le Man Gou." Li Guodong echoed, "Before you ordered us to stand still, it was because Yue Le had the natural danger of the Yellow River to defend, and it was easy to defeat him, but now Yue Le The main force of Xiaoer has already crossed the river, the Yellow River is not only his natural danger, but also a roadblock for his escape, it is time to kill these 12 dogs!"

"General, if you are worried that General Gao's troops will not be enough, and you can't draw troops from Nanjing and Taiping Mansion." Yang Yingyuan said impatiently: "Then General, you can draw troops from our Suzhou Legion. The situation on our southern front is complicated and full of dogs." , Geng Jingzhong and Zheng Jing check each other, our pressure is relatively small, the general can transfer our troops to the north to help in the battle, and by the way, you can ask the general to review the real combat effectiveness of our expanded Suzhou Legion!"

"Looking at the topography, the Gaoyou Lake area is indeed an ideal battlefield for us to wipe out Mangou." Han Daren also expressed his opinion: "Especially the area from Baoying to Jieshou Town, with Gaoyou Lake on the west and Sheyang Lake on the east. , to the north is the dangerous Yellow River, and our army will have a decisive battle with Yue Le Xiaoer here, which is a good opportunity to wipe out Yue Le Xiaoer!"

The difference from before is that no matter how fierce the fat man's generals are in the decisive battle, Fatty Lu never said a word, nor nodded, and did not even stand by the map sand table to listen to the opinions of the generals as usual, while listening to the opinions of the generals Looking at the sand table and thinking about tactics, he just sat on the handsome chair in the middle for the first time, with his elbows resting on the armrests and thinking.It wasn't until all the generals of the Fatty Army finished that Fatty Lu asked slowly: "Brothers, I want to ask you a question. In the three battlefields of our army, the north, south, and west, which battlefield is the most dangerous? The enemy platoon on that battlefield In the second?"

"The most dangerous enemy is of course the western front that the last general is in charge of." Han Daren who was stationed in Taiping Mansion rushed to say: "On the western front of our army, there are three full-fledged dogs, Niyahan, Jieshu and Le Erjin, all of whom are very powerful in combat. Yes, if our army does not have the advantage of firearms and fights with equal weapons, to be honest, we will still be at a disadvantage. And that idiot Xia Guoxiang lost a lot of new firearms and two airships in Chizhou. The West Front has these weapons , the pressure on our western front is even heavier.”

"The second should be our southern line." Yang Yingyuan took over the conversation and said: "Our southern line not only has two full-fledged troops of Laita and Fulata, but also Geng Jingzhong who has turned against us. Not only is our ally Liu Guoxuan weak These are not absolutely reliable, and it is not ruled out that they may overshadow us at critical moments."

"In terms of pressure alone, our northern line is indeed relatively small." Gao Dejie also admitted: "Yue Le Xiaoer's army is just a lot of people, but the quality of the soldiers is the worst, and the weapons and equipment are not as good as the western line. deal with."

"The west line is first, the south line is second, and the north line is third. As long as everyone has no opinion on this point, I think so too." Fatty Lu nodded, and asked in a hoarse voice: "Then I will ask again Generals, now that we have killed the 12 troops on the northern front, who will benefit the most?"

"Who is most beneficial?" Fatty's generals looked at each other and couldn't help answering one after another: "Of course it is most beneficial to us. If we kill the Mangou on the northern line, our north will be as stable as Mount Tai, freeing up troops, manpower and material resources." Off to deal with the enemy on the southern and western fronts."

"Wrong, and it's still a big mistake!" Fatty Lu waved his fat hand resolutely, and said in a deep voice: "If you only look at the benefits, if you kill the Mangou on the northern line, the benefits we collect can only be ranked third. In the second place is the full dog court!"

"What do you mean?" Fatty's army and generals all screamed, "Killing Mangou on the northern line will benefit the court of Mangou instead?"

"That's right, that's exactly the case!" Fatty Lu said with a sneer: "The 12 man dogs on the northern line consume 33 stones of grain and grass and [-] catties of war horse concentrate from the Man Gou court every day. It is tantamount to helping the Manchu court to reduce the financial burden! At the same time, once Yue Le’s southern expedition army was destroyed, the Mangou court would have no soldiers to defend in Zhili and Shandong, and the Mangou emperor had to give up all the land south of the Yangtze River At the same time, the Manchu court’s strategy of attacking and suppressing will be completely changed, from going all-out to attack with all-out efforts, this will definitely be detrimental to our army’s full-scale Northern Expedition!”

"It makes sense." Gao Dejie nodded, and asked again: "Brother Lu, since you think that it will be beneficial to the Mangou court second if we kill the Mangou on the northern line, who will benefit first?"

Fatty Lu was silent, and so did Wang Shaobo and Yao Qisheng, who usually like to support Fatty Lu. The generals of the fatty army had waited for a long time for Fatty Lu to speak, and were wondering secretly, when Daren Han suddenly called out, "I understand! At this time, it is in the best interest of the prince to kill the Yue Leman dog in the north!"

"What?" The fat man's generals were all taken aback again.Han Daren waved his hand and said: "You can think about it carefully. At this time, Yue Le Man Gou is wiped out, and Shandong Zhili, which is full of dogs, has no barriers. The Emperor Man Gou has to consider giving up the south of the Yangtze River and transfer the northwestern part of Jiangxi and Anhui. The soldiers and horses in the south retreated to Huaibei and defended the capital! In this way, won’t the prince’s army immediately march to the south of the Yangtze River?”

Gao Dejie, Li Guodong, Gao Hongchen and others looked at each other, and then remembered an important question. Once the Qing army completely withdraws from the south of the Yangtze River, the old traitor Wu, who has the most powerful troops, can indeed immediately annex the entire south of the Yangtze River. No matter whether it is Geng Jingzhong Or Zheng Jing, Shang Zhixin, and even Fatty Army, it is very difficult to take advantage of the hundreds of thousands of troops of Wu old traitor! ——The Fatty Army dared to snatch the territory with the old man Wu. Isn't that courting death?
"Then we should immediately send troops to destroy Yue Le?" Wang Xuxi, who was loyal to the old traitor Wu, said, "If we kill Yue Le and force Man Gou to retreat directly to the south of the Yangtze River, we will be able to join forces with the prince's army immediately. ?”

"General Wang, are you crazy?!" Han Daren blurted out, "We met with the lord, do we still want to monopolize this rich Jiangnan?"

As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Han Daren immediately regretted it, and Wang Xu jumped up and said angrily: "Han Daren, what the hell do you mean? Do you want to betray the prince?"

"I..., I didn't mean that." Han Daren quickly shook his head, waved his hands and said, "I definitely didn't mean that, General Wang, you misunderstood, Wang Ye is my uncle's father-in-law, and he is so kind to me, how dare I have that That thought?"

"Then what do you mean?" Wang Xu asked: "We will throw Jiangnan after joining forces with the prince, so you don't want to join forces with the prince, right?"

Han Daren was speechless, but secretly regretted his stinky mouth, how could he say what he absolutely couldn't say?Over there, Gao Dejie, Li Guodong, Gao Hongchen and other Wu Jun elders were all silent, knowing that what Han Daren said was the truth, and wanted to raise their hands to agree with Han Daren's opinion, but they didn't have the courage to say anything.

"Brother Wang, don't blame Brother Han Daren, he didn't mean that, he was worried about another level." Fatty Lu finally spoke, and said slowly: "Xia Guoxiang asked us to send troops westward several times to meet his army. In the south of the Yangtze River, our army failed to follow orders due to various reasons. This time General Xia Guoxiang and General Ma Bao jointly attacked Huinan, but we did not send troops to respond. We watched Xia Guoxiang suffer a big defeat in Chizhou and was forced to retreat. The general must already hate us to the bone, and if we join forces with General Xia Guoxiang at this time, I am afraid that our army will immediately have conflicts with him—generals, Brother Han Daren, are you right?"

"Yes, yes, that's what I mean." Han Daren nodded quickly, secretly thanking Fatty Lu for his help. Over there, Gao Dejie, Li Guodong, Gao Hongchen and others nodded again and again, and all spoke in agreement with Fatty Lu and Han Daren, saying that Xia Guoxiang After joining forces, there will inevitably be a big conflict because the fat man's army did not send troops to meet him, which will lead to internal divisions in the Pingxi Palace.

"So that's how it is." Wang Xu was skeptical, and then turned to Fatty Lu and asked, "General, who do you think will benefit the most if we kill Yue Leman?"

"Of course it's Geng Jingzhong." Fatty Lu said with a sneer: "No matter how much Yue Le's army is a mob, it's still 12 troops, and the generals are also very capable. If our army wants to annihilate this army, not only will it take a long time, but it will definitely consume a lot of money. When we and Yue Le Xiao'er are both defeated, won't we have an opportunity to take advantage of Geng Jing, a loyal thief who is eyeing Jiangnan like a tiger? As the prince's grandson-in-law, and the Great Zhou's General Conquering the East, naturally he would not allow Geng Jingzhong to take half a step in the south of the Yangtze River and take away an inch of land and a penny of food that belonged to the prince!"

Speaking of this, Fatty Lu took another look at Wang Xu, who was skeptical, and said lightly: "There is a more important point, Brother Wang, do you think that Yue Le, who is crossing the south of the river at this time, really wants to fight us?"

"What is that for?" Wang Xu asked in surprise.

"It's mid-February now, and the peach blossom flood is coming soon." Fatty Lu said coldly, "The peach blossom flood is coming, and the Gaojiayan in Hongze Lake is in danger. If our army sends troops northward, it will be destroyed." Man Gou lured to Huai'an, Man Gou exploded and dug up Gaojiayan, then how many of our great warriors can come back alive? Take a closer look at the sand table on the map, Brother Wang, Man Gou has already worked in the Yellow River once, Drowning our tens of thousands of troops, if we don’t learn our lesson this time, won’t we repeat Ma Bao’s mistakes?”

"Brother Lu thinks so." Gao Dejie, who is second only to Fatty Lu in the Fatty Army, nodded and said, "Brother Lu has repeatedly reminded us of the Yangzhou Army before, let us beware of the high road in Hongze Lake. Jiayan, although Yue Le Xiaoer is the main force to cross the river this time, he came prepared, and it cannot be ruled out that he jumped the wall in a hurry and pulled our main force to the end. Therefore, I think that our army should continue to adopt a defensive posture and must not rush into the army. Step into danger."

"Okay, this guy is already tempted." Fatty Lu rejoiced in his heart, nodded again and said, "Brother Gao is right, then we will act according to the original plan and let Baoying's Tian Dazhuang lead the army to retreat according to the original plan to lure the enemy Gaoyou and Chen Ming guard Xinghua, the two cities are horns of each other, they only guard the city and do not go to war, the fields are full of dogs, so there is no need to feel sorry - Jiangnan used to be able to support half of the world, but now it cannot support half of Yangzhou Prefecture ?”

"Hehe." The generals of the Fatty Army chuckled, all very proud of the current economic strength of the Fatty Army.

"Taking this opportunity, I would like to remind you brothers again." Fatty Lu said hypocritically: "Brothers, please remember that we are all the soldiers of the Great Zhou Dynasty who fought against the Qing Dynasty and restored the Ming Dynasty, and we are all subordinates of the Great Zhou Prince. So let’s not talk about doing some things, just don’t even think about them.”

Han Daren lowered his head, and Fatty Lu said again: "Of course, although we are loyal to the lord, but now that we hold the essence of the south of the Yangtze River, we must not rule out the idea of ​​some youngsters attacking us and advancing our goal in front of the lord." Slander, so for the sake of prudence, it is best not to rush to join forces with other friendly troops. We will hand over Jiangnan to the prince only after the prince himself leads the army. Otherwise, the friendly army will think that we are all rich men, Everyone reaches out to us for this and that. Should we give it? If you don’t give it, you will offend people. If you give too little, you will offend people even more. If you give too much, you can’t explain to the prince. After all, Jiangnan is the prince’s Jiangnan, not mine. , nor the Jiangnan of one of us!"

"Brother Lu is right." Gao Dejie quickly chimed in and said, "I suggest that we take this opportunity to present a joint memorial to the prince, explaining to him the reason why we failed to provide assistance to General Xia Guoxiang before, and then ask the prince to Come to Jiangnan in person and take over our Jiangnan army and Jiangnan land."

"I agree!" Wang Xu, Li Guodong and others raised their hands in agreement, and Han Daren also raised his hands in agreement loudly, but he murmured in his heart: "I heard that the prince was very ill in Shaanxi and Gansu. If the illness is more serious, or simply... …,Enough."

........................

On the night of the thirteenth, when the high-level Fatty Army decided to let the Baoying defenders retreat to Gaoyou, the main force of the Qing army led by Yue Le had actually arrived at the foot of Baoying City. The prediction of the decision-makers of the Fat Man Army.Fortunately, Baoying's fat army was originally a lure army, and they had already made a retreat plan at any time before. The city didn't even have much military rations, so the guard Tian Dazhuang didn't hesitate, and immediately burned the army rations. Taking two thousand defenders with him, he abandoned the city and fled overnight to Gaoyou County, the old man Wu's hometown in the south.

Seeing that the fat army was about to burn hundreds of stones of rations, Yue Le, who was furious, sent cavalry to chase after him, and vowed to kill this damn fat army. Unfortunately, there are dense water networks in the south of the Yangtze River, and the cavalry of the Qing army The speed is greatly restricted, unable to outflank and intercept, and can only follow and chase.Tian Dazhuang fought and retreated, and fled back to Gaoyou City after paying the price of more than [-] people. He and the city guard Yang Songkui guarded behind closed doors. The first victory since the Southern Expedition.

On February [-]th, the main force of Yue Le's army arrived at Jieshou Town at the junction of Gaoyou and Baoying, and set up a camp by the bank of Gaoyou Lake. Asked to send troops south to attack Gaoyou County, Yue Le refused on the pretext that the army was exhausted, but sent a large number of scouts to closely monitor the movements of the Fatty Army's Yangzhou Army, and sent a large number of spies to cross the Yangtze River to spy on the main force of the Fatty Army. Dissatisfied, he spoke sarcasm, and broke up with Yue Le.

As soon as the Mongolian kings were sent away, there was a report from the soldiers outside the tent, saying that Fatty’s army had sent a messenger to bring Yue Le a letter from Fatty Lu, and emphasized that it was Fatty Lu’s own letter. Yue Le, Tu Hai, Dong Weiguo and the others dared not be negligent upon hearing the words, and hurriedly ordered to be summoned.After a while, the fat man's army envoy covered in dust was led into the big tent, and after a symbolic salute, he presented Fatty Lu's letter. Yue Le quickly took it, but after opening it, Yue Le's expression immediately changed. The faces of Tu Hai, Shang Shan, and Dong Weiguo who came to read the letter with Yue Le also changed.

The letter was really written by Fatty Lu himself - the crooked calligraphy is the proof, and it is also a typical vernacular. The content of the letter is as follows:
Dear Prince An, how are you?Lu Yifeng, the magistrate of Qujing County, who had the honor to drink with you at the same table, is here to greet you, and wish you good health and a long life—although this is absolutely impossible.The reason why I wrote to you is this. I heard that you have crossed the Yellow River with an army of 12 dogs. I knew you couldn't hold back anymore and couldn't bear the pressure of Kangxi Xiaomazi. But you Don’t blame that pockmarked nephew of yours, it’s hard for him too. Your 12 troops have to eat 33 stones of grain and grass and 88 catties of war horse concentrate a day. It’s been [-] days since I wrote this letter. How can you afford it now?

Here is a piece of advice to my lord, the Gaojiayan came from a difficult place. It was built by my famous minister Liu Bowen himself. It is really not worth it to blow up and dig it down just to eat up my main force. Conscience is full of dogs, can your conscience be at ease by doing this?For example, I am absolutely reluctant to blow up, otherwise, I will destroy Gaojiayan now, and your old grain road and escape route will be completely cut off.

Also, if the lower official's guess is correct, the lord must have already set up camp in Jieshou Town or is planning to set up camp in Jieshou Town now, right?That's a good place. The double-yellow salted duck eggs taste good, and the oil will flow when you bite into it. You should eat more, but I won't share it with you, because I know you have no good intentions. Lead my main force into the yellow flood zone and blow up the embankment, sacrifice part of the troops and die with me-the army in your old hands can do so little.

Also tell the prince one more thing, I won't be in a hurry to wipe out your 12 mobs, it will be easier for me if you eat Kangxi's little pockmarks, and won't it be easier for me to deal with you when you run out of food up?So, my lord, since you didn't put on airs to me back then, I advise you to resign from this job as soon as possible, you are not my opponent, and don't ruin your fame in the south of the Yangtze River.

Ask your pockmarked nephew to come in person. I heard that there is a nursery rhyme circulating in Beijing, "Jiangnan Lu, the demon dragon is flourishing, and thousands of troops will go out to the army!"The true son of heaven, wield the heavenly soldiers, subdue demons, subdue monsters and slay demon dragons, retake Jiangnan and rejuvenate the Qing Dynasty! 'It seems to mean that as long as your pockmarked nephew comes to Jiangnan in person, he can kill me. I don't really believe in this evil. Ask him to try it. I will wash my neck and wait for him.

Sincerely, I salute, Lu Yifeng, the county magistrate of Qujing back then and now the General of Zhengdong of the Great Zhou Dynasty.

"Bang!" Yue Le slapped the table heavily, cursing with a livid face: "Little Lu Yifeng, you are too arrogant! Pass the king's order, the army stops camping, and immediately send troops south to attack Gaoyou City!"

"My lord, be careful that this is Lu Yifeng's dog thief trying to lure the enemy into deep!" Tu Hai hurriedly dissuaded him: "Lu Yifeng's dog thief is probably deliberately provoking you, and wants you to go south and go deep into his hinterland, so that we don't even have a chance to retreat. nothing."

"Then what else can I do now?" Yue Le pressed his forehead with his hand, and said with a painful expression: "I can't beat this dog thief, and I can't beat this fat dog. The only chance to win is this goddamn dog. The thief has seen through it! If the Jiangnan War continues like this, my 12 army will have already dragged down our Qing court without Lu Yifeng's dog thief doing it!"

"My lord, why don't you write a letter?" Tu Hai suggested: "Send a letter to the master, explaining the real situation of the Jiangnan battlefield, and ask the master to use other means to deal with this Lu Yifeng thief."

"What other means?" Yue Le's expression was even more helpless, and he asked: "Our Qing Dynasty, what other means can we use to deal with this Lu Yifeng thief?"

"Maybe, it depends on whether the master has the foresight and courage." Tu Hai said darkly: "For example, please ask the master to seek peace with the old thief Wu Sangui, draw the river with the old thief Wu Sangui as a boundary, and withdraw all the land south of the Yangtze River. The Qing army. Let Wu Sangui, Geng Jingzhong, Shang Zhixin, Zheng Jing, and Lu Yifeng kill each other in the south of the Yangtze River! At that time, Lu Yifeng, who holds the essence of Jiangnan, will It must be the target of public criticism!"

(End of this chapter)