scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 374

In the early morning of the fourth day of the fifth lunar month, when the sky was twilight, the guards sent by Kang Mazi to the north bank of Hongze Lake to investigate the situation returned to the Xiba Camp, which also confirmed the truth guessed by Kang Mazi and Zhou Peigong. On the night of the third day of the fifth lunar month, The Fat Man Army actually blew up the dam directly north of Hongze Lake and diverted the flood water to the south of Taoyuan County, Huai'an Prefecture, which is sparsely populated. Now the south of Taoyuan County is a piece of Zeguo, with endless water surface, and there is a possibility of returning to the old path of the Yellow River. Hongze Lake A large opening more than three miles wide was also washed out in the north, and the water level dropped rapidly, and it has dropped at least nearly eight feet so far.

As the bad news continued, Kang Mazi delivered an order with a pockmarked face, ordering the main force of the Qing army led by Yue Le to go northward at full speed, and lure the main force of the fat army into the yellow flood zone as soon as possible, trying to use the water of Hongze Lake that had not yet retreated to slow down the pursuit of the fat army. In the middle of the day, another bad news came from Taoyuan County. When the sky was just dawn, the Fatty Army blasted the northwest embankment of Hongze Lake to divert the flood water, diverting the water from Hongze Lake to the prefecture of Sizhou, Anhui!

Although the population in that area is much denser than that in the south of Taoyuan County, and there are still two market towns, Bancheng Town and Qingyang Town, but because the Fat Man Army blew up the dam in advance to divert the flood in the current Chengzi Lake area, leading the high water level to rush into Chengzi Lake , This will blow up the northwest dam of Hongze Lake again. The destructive power of the flood to Sizhou has been reduced by more than ten times, and the local people have more time to move to the highlands. , but once again accelerated by more than double. It is estimated that by tonight at the most, the water level of Hongze Lake will drop by at least one foot and five.

In this way, unless the main force of the Qing army led by Yue Le can immediately lure the main force of the Fatty Army to the Gaojiayan, the Qing army may hurt the Fatty Army by blowing up the Gaojiayan, but Yue Le's army just arrived last night Baoying County is still 110 miles away from Huai'an City, so what can be used to lure the main force of the Fatty Army to Gaojiayan immediately?If the Qing army blows up Gaojiayan at this meeting, besides cutting off the return route of its main force, what effect will it have?
Faced with Fatty Lu's shameless and vicious embankment bombing and flood diversion tactics, Kang Mazi was so angry that he even thought about digging up the Yellow River South Dike hundreds of miles away in Huai'an, but in a hurry, Kang Mazi went there again to find so many manpower Digging dikes, you can't mobilize the local Han people in Huai'an to dig?Moreover, the Yellow River is now between the peach blossom flood and the late flood, and the flow of the river is not particularly large. This will explode the Yellow River channel. The damage to farmland water conservancy is certainly devastating, but for living people who can run and jump, Especially for an army with a collective organization, it will not cause major harm.So the only thing Kang Mazi could do was to hide in the Xiba camp and curse desperately.

When Kang Mazi yelled, Zhou Peigong also looked gloomy and did not speak. The current situation is already obvious. Gaojiayan has lost its greatest threat, and Fatty Lu has made it clear that he wants to use the opportunity of the Qing army to cross the river to launch a general attack and wipe out at least The main force of the Qing army was severely damaged, and in order to keep the main force of the Qing army led by Yue Le, the Qing court had only the last two options.

"What method should I propose to the master? The first one must be sacrificed, and the second..." Zhou Peigong thought about it, and looked at Kang Mazi who was yelling at Fatty Lu's eighteenth generation ancestor. Zhou Peigong still gave up on the second one. He made a plan and clapped his hands to Kang Mazi and said: "Master, please calm down. We can talk about other things slowly. The most important thing right now is to withdraw the main force of our Qing Dynasty from the north bank of the Yellow River. This slave boldly proposes that the master should issue an order immediately, so that The rear of our Qing army stopped retreating and organized defenses on the spot to buy time for the main cavalry of our Qing army to withdraw across the Yellow River."

"Fart!" Kang Mazi suddenly slapped the false dragon case, and roared with blood red mung bean eyes: "The most important thing right now is not to retreat! It's to attack! It's to chop off the head of that bastard Lu Yifeng, Make me a chamber pot!"

"Master, right now we..." Zhou Peigong was taken aback, and was about to persuade him again, but Kang Mazi picked up the teacup from the Pseudo-Dragon case and threw it at him, which made Zhou Peigong's face bloom, and Zhou Peigong fell to his knees with his forehead on the ground. No more daring to say anything.

"Preach my will!" Kang Mazi yelled frantically: "The whole army will pull out their camps to cross the river and line up with their backs! I will fight to the death with Lu Yifeng's dog thief on the south bank of the Yellow River, and I will fight him to the death! I won't believe it, I will come to the front line in person Commanding a decisive battle, my Qing army will definitely not be able to defeat that landed scholar!"

"Master—!" All the civil and military officials in the imperial tent were scared out of their wits, scrambling to kneel down together, shouting frantically: "Master, absolutely not!"

"Shut up! I would rather be the emperor who dies in battle than the lord of Gou An!" The proud Kang Mazi roared again, "Those who are afraid of death don't have to cross the river! Anyone who dares to stop me from crossing the river, beheaded immediately!"

"Master! You can't cross the river!" Prince Xian Danzhen stood up.

"Shut up! One more wordy word, and I'll kill you immediately!" Kang Mazi yelled.

Dan Zhen closed her mouth, gritted her teeth, reached into her bosom, took out a flat yellow scroll from her bosom, stood in the middle, and sang loudly: "The Empress Dowager, the old ancestor Yizhi, Aixinjueluo Xuanye kneels catch!"

Kang Mazi was stunned, and stared at the flat yellow scroll with numb eyes. After a long time of no movement, Dan Zhen yelled again: "Emperor Empress Dowager, ancestor Yizhi, Aixinjueluo. Xuanye kneels to accept it!"

The civil and military officials in the imperial tent all knelt down to Dan Zhen honestly, Kang Mazi hesitated again and again, and finally knelt down to Dan Zhen, kowtowed and said: "Son Xuan Ye, kneel to accept the order of the Empress Dowager, the Empress Dowager is a thousand years old, a thousand years old , thousands of years old."

"Xuan Ye, when you see the decree of the Ai family, it must be time for you to be furious and insist on crossing the river." Dan Zhen read aloud: "The Ai family doesn't say much, I just hope that you will read it in our Daqing country." For the sake of hard-won, but also for the sake of the ancestors of the Qing Dynasty throwing their heads and blood for the Central Plains, remember your promise in front of Aijia. As long as you can return to the capital alive, our Qing Dynasty will There is still hope, no matter how exhausted the Ai family is, they will try their best to help you maintain the Great Qing Dynasty. This is it.”

Kang Mazi raised his head and stared at the will of the old witch of Xiaozhuang. He remained silent for a long time, and after a long time, Kang Mazi suddenly yelled like crazy, "Grandmother, what hope do we have for the Qing Dynasty? How can we repay the huge debt owed to the people?" How can the court be maintained without Jiangnan taxes? How can the Qing army be supported without military pay and food? How can we resist Wu Sangui’s Northern Expedition army? How can we resist Lu Yifeng’s Northern Expedition army? Grandma, tell me, tell me what to do?!”

"Master, the ancestors of the Empress Dowager are right. As long as you are still here, there is still hope for our Qing Dynasty." Zhou Peigong walked up to Kang Mazi on his knees and persuaded with sobs: "But if our Qing Dynasty does not have a master like you Root your heart, and everything will be over!"

"Master, the Qing Dynasty cannot live without you as the backbone. If you cross the river, our Qing Dynasty will be over." All the civil and military officials of the Qing Dynasty kowtowed together and wailed loudly. One piece.

Looking at the civil and military officials who were weeping and kowtowing to prevent him from crossing the river, Kang Mazi couldn't help being confused again, and there was only one thought left in his mind, "Why are they trying to prevent me from crossing the river? They all think that I Not as good as that failed scholar? Or are they, like Yue Le, already secretly colluding with Lu Yifeng's gangsters, and are planning to join forces to destroy our Southern Expedition Army?"

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

At the same time, in Huangpu Town at the junction of Yangzhou Prefecture and Huai'an Prefecture in Jiangsu Province, the news that the Fatty Army had blown up embankments to divert floods on the north bank of Hongze Lake was finally delivered by messenger to the Qing army coach Yue Le.Hearing this news, Yue Le, who was leading the army on a horse, fell to the ground with a whip in his hand, fainted, and fell off the horse on the spot. When he was rescued by the generals of the Qing army, Yue Le wailed on the spot, "Daddy!" It's over! There's no more hope, there's no more hope!"

"No wonder Wu Dog chased him so steadily. It turned out that Lu Yifeng's dog thief had already arranged a plan to blow up the embankment and divert the flood, so there was no need to chase too fast!" Shang Shan also stomped his feet and cursed, hating Fatty Lu's cunning and viciousness to the bone.

"Report—!" At this time, a fast horse from the south came chasing, and the messenger hurriedly said before dismounting: "Reporting to the lord, Wu Dog's chasing troops suddenly accelerated, and the forward Han Daren's troops are already in the north of Baoying. Wulichu and Lord Kang's team fought fiercely, and Wugou's main force is also approaching the Baoying battlefield quickly! Lord Kang can't resist, please order the Chinese army to support!"

"My lord, Wu Gou must have received the news that the embankment was blown up to divert the flood, and he has started to exert his strength." Shang Shan quickly turned to Yue Le and said, "The most important thing right now is to quickly withdraw our main force across the north bank of the Yellow River as soon as possible. We must leave an army behind, and sacrifice the rear army to preserve our main force!"

Yue Le lowered his head, and after thinking for a while, Yue Le raised his head, gritted his teeth and issued three orders one after another, "Order Jieshu, order him to stand on the spot and not take a step back! Then order Dong Weiguo's former army to speed up with all their strength." , before arriving at the Qinghe Ferry, there must not be a moment of rest! The Chinese Army Brigade, advance at full speed, no one is allowed to enter Huai'an City, go directly to the Qinghe Ferry!"

The order was conveyed, and Dong Weiguo's former army twenty miles ahead immediately sped up their speed and rushed along the canal to Qinghe Ferry at full speed. The Huai'an city retreated ten miles away, and only Jie Shu, who didn't know the inside story, was still fighting hard with the Fat Army's Han Daren Department in the outskirts of Baoying, desperately resisting the Fat Army's pursuit.

Correspondingly, the main force of the Fatty Army who had been slowly marching and chasing after the rhythm of the Qing army in the past three days also all sped up their pace. The fat cavalry led by Bu, with nearly ten thousand cavalry, simply bypassed the Baoying battlefield and chased Yue Le's Chinese brigade at full speed.As a result, Jie Shu's team, who didn't know the truth, thought that the fat cavalry was going to cut their way back, and their morale collapsed. Qinghe Ferry.

A big race that determines the outcome of life and death begins. The Qing army throws down all the baggage that can be thrown away, uses the strength of breastfeeding, and runs desperately along the official road to the north; Food, grass and other supplies were transferred to the fleet of the rear army led by Li Guodong. The cavalry bypassed the infantry of the Qing army led by Jie Shu, and desperately chased and killed the middle brigade of the Qing army led by Yue Le. Meanwhile, the infantry brigade of the Fatty Army led by Fatty Lu carried relatively light Miyoshi rockets and hacked at Jie Shu's ass.There is me in the enemy, and there is the enemy in me, but none of the armies on both sides stopped to stop and fight. They just ran northward desperately, racing against the enemy, against time, and against death.

There are countless soldiers left behind on both sides. It is better for the soldiers of the fat army to fall behind. The fat army team that came later took them in, but the soldiers of the Qing army fell behind, and usually they only had one choice: death. To take in captives, when encountering laggard soldiers of the Qing army, they would kill them with a knife. Only a very few lucky ones got the chance to surrender to the rear of the Fat Man Army.Whether it is a soldier of the Qing Army or a soldier of the Fat Man Army, there is only one thought left in his mind, and that is to run, run northward desperately!Whoever can reach the Qinghe County Ferry of the Yellow River first will have a chance of survival or victory.

The spectacular scene of 10,000+ people running northward together reminds people of a song with a very apt name, that is:

I went all the way north,
The world in the rearview mirror,
Farther and farther farewell,
you turn your back,
The profile is still beautiful,

I chase with my eyes,

I heard your tears...

Let me introduce another tactical arrangement of the Fatty Army, that is, when the rear of the Fatty Army passed through Gaoyou Lake, the Fatty Army had already separated out a team consisting of [-] fast boats and ten Huitian sampans loaded with three good explosives. The fleet composed of boards took the Jinhu waterway and rushed to Hongze Lake at full speed, from Hongze Lake to the Yellow River waterway, preparing to attack the Qing army's river-crossing fleet when the Qing army crossed the Yellow River.As for whether this small navy can reach the battlefield, and whether it can reach the battlefield in time, it can only depend on luck.

The distance from Baoying to Huai'an is more than 110 miles, and the distance to Qinghe is 140 miles, and the infantry's rapid march speed is usually [-] miles a day, but Yue Le and Fatty Lu tried their best to break this routine this time. Unanimously, they gave an unreasonable death order, that is, don't stop, go north at full speed, and don't rest until you reach Qinghe Ferry!
In order to let the main force of the Qing army cross the Yellow River as soon as possible to get rid of the pursuit, and considering that the main force of the Qing army arrived at the Qinghe Ferry after such a high-intensity march, they must be exhausted and difficult to fight again, so Yue Le sent Shang Shan took the letter for help and a new horse on the road first, and went northward with all his strength without changing horses. He went to the Xiba camp on the north bank of the Yellow River to ask Kang Mazi for help, and asked Kang Mazi to come down to gather ships at the ferry on the south bank of the Qinghe River. More than 1 new troops from the Xiba camp were dispatched to the Qinghe ferry to stop the fat army that must be equally exhausted.

What Yue Le probably never imagined in his dreams was that he was looking forward to the Qing army's fresh troops crossing the river in Xiba camp to meet him. In fact, Fatty Lu was more looking forward to the Qing army's fresh troops crossing the river in Xiba camp than he was—of course he hoped that Kang Mazi would personally lead the army. This new force crossed the river to meet them.So when the Fatty Army blasting team led by Li Ji carried out the task of blowing up dikes and diverting floods, another small boat was separated from the Fatty Army blasting team, carrying Li Ji, the son of Xu Xiake, who was over half a century old, and sailed alone to the place where the Qing army was stationed. Gaojiayan embankment, after seeing the Qing army team on the embankment, Li Ji, who stood with his hands behind his back, said only one sentence, "My name is Li Ji and Li Jieli, I am the son of Xu Xiake, the chief of the Jiangnan Engineering Cao Division of the Great Zhou Dynasty, take me to the West See your emperor at Ba Daying, and I brought him a letter written by our General Zhou Zhengdong."

How dangerous is Fatty Lu's autographed letter? Of course, Tu Hai, whose family was ruined by Fatty Lu's bloody letter, knows better than anyone else. So after Tu Hai heard about Li Ji's intentions, his first reaction was to kill this gray-haired old man. Chop it up and throw it into Hongze Lake to feed the fish.But it is a pity that although Tu Hai has the final say on Gaojiayan at this moment, but Tu Hai's two assistants, Sai Leng'e and Cai Yumao, heard about Li Ji's identity and purpose of coming, but were afraid that Kang Mazi would pursue him in the future, what would he say? They refused to carry out Tu Hai's order to kill Li Ji and insisted on sending Li Ji to Xiba Camp.

The two lieutenants did not dare to silence Li Ji, and Tu Hai, who was also afraid of Kang Mazi's pursuit, had no choice but to let Qing soldiers escort Li Ji to evacuate Gaojiayan, which had no effect, and return to Qingjiang Ferry, and deliberately delayed the time until it was dark. Send Li across the Yellow River to Xiba Daying and hand it over to Kang Mazi.Coincidentally, Shang Shan, who changed horses all the way without changing horses, arrived at Qinghe Ferry just at this time. Li Ji and Shang Shan also crossed the Yellow River on the same ferry, and arrived at Xiba Camp where Kang Mazi was at the same time. The choices of life, face and life were also placed in front of Kang Mazi at the same time.

When Shang Shan and Li Ji entered the camp of the Kangmazi Central Army at the same time, the Xiba camp of the Qing army was already brightly lit, and the [-] Qing troops stationed here were ready for battle and ready to go. The preparation to set off at any time is just the next step for this army, whether to fight to the death with the Fatty Army, or to meet Yue Le's remnant army across the river, up to Dan Zhen and La Bu and other Qing princes, down to ordinary soldiers, They were all ignorant, and they were all waiting for Kang Mazi's final decision.

Together they came to Kang Mazi's so-called imperial tent. The first person to be ushered into the imperial tent was of course Baylor Shangshan. At this moment, in the so-called imperial tent burning with 81 huge candles as thick as arms, the civil and military officials of the Qing Dynasty had already knelt all over the ground. They all begged Kang Mazi to withdraw their orders and not to cross the river in person to fight the fat man army. Shang Shan didn't dare to be negligent, so he hurried forward and kowtowed, and presented Yue Le's handwritten letter of pleading for help, explaining the critical situation, and begged Kang Mazi to send troops across the river immediately to respond. Yue Le's team crossed the river.

"Bang!" To Shang's surprise, Kang Mazi not only did not immediately agree to send troops to respond, but instead took the case of the pseudo-dragon and yelled with a pockmarked face, "You still have at least 6 troops? You won't?" If you are loyal to me, it’s fine if you don’t want to work hard for me to kill thieves, why do you still ask me for help? You are really afraid that Wu Dog will not be able to kill all my troops, are you?”

"Master, I am wronged." Shang Shan also knew that Kang Mazi was a military idiot, so he quickly kowtowed and explained: "Master doesn't know that when the army crosses the river, they can't respond to each other. The morale of the soldiers is low when they rush to cross the river, and they are most likely to be attacked by the enemy and collapse. Now the main force of Wu Dog is biting the tail of our army. Its purpose is very obvious. It is determined to take advantage of the panic when our army crosses the river to launch a general attack. If there is no new force to cover the retreat, then our Qing army will be severely damaged by Wu Dog .”

"Then what about the army I sent to meet your army?" Kang Mazi's pockmarked face was even more ashen, and he yelled frantically: "Is this what you plan to do? To trick the team loyal to me to cross the Yellow River to die? Then you will go to the Xiba Camp Do it, capture me alive and offer it to the old thief Wu Sangui, and the dog thief Lu Yifeng, in exchange for your glory and wealth after the change of dynasty?"

"Slave dare not!" Shang Shan was so frightened that he was scared out of his wits, and hurriedly kowtowed and shouted for injustice, "Master, you have killed this slave unjustly, even if this slave has eaten the heart of a bear, he dare not have such a thought!"

All the civil and military officials in the imperial tent looked at each other in blank dismay, wondering why Kang Mazi had such an idea?Only Zhou Peigong groaned secretly, knowing that it must be the fault of the letter Zhuman sent last night, but it is a pity that Kang Mazi has not shown the content of the letter so far. I don’t know what trick Fatty Lu used to make Kang Mazi give birth With such thoughts in mind, even if he tried to persuade Kang Mazi, he couldn't open his mouth.

"No such idea?" Kang Mazi shouted again and asked, "Then why did you intentionally let my western front suffer a disastrous defeat? Why did you intentionally annihilate Zhangtai's [-] army? And why did you intentionally lose so many troops under the city of Yangzhou? The matter of Gaojiayan, which one of you secretly leaked it to Lu Yifeng's thief?"

Shang Shan was in a state of dizziness for a while, and he never expected that Kang Mazi would ask these weird questions at this time, asking these questions that Shang Shan couldn't understand at all. Seeing the critical situation, it was rare for Shang Shan to get entangled with Kang Mazi, and he just begged with tears Said: "Master, the defeat on the western and northern fronts will be a disgrace to the country's prestige. The slaves are indeed guilty. Afterwards, the master can punish the slaves for a hundred deaths! But the situation is critical now, and most of the ferry boats at Qingjiang Ferry are concentrated on the north bank of the Yellow River. , The slave does not ask the master to send troops to respond, but only asks the master to send the ferry to the south bank to meet it! As many troops as can be saved, as many troops can be rescued!"

"Otherwise, the remaining 6 Qing troops under Prince An's command will all be finished! Master! I beg you—!" After finishing speaking, Shang Shan kowtowed until his forehead bled, showing extreme sincerity.

"Master, Lord Baylor is right. Right now, we need to rescue the Qing army on the south bank of the Yellow River as soon as possible." Zhou Peigong also kowtowed and said, "Master, please issue an order immediately to let the ferry boat cross the river to rescue as many Qing soldiers as possible. Come back! If the master is still worried, you can ask the troops from the Xiba Camp to monitor at the ferry, and if the troops cross the river, they can be disarmed immediately!"

"Master, please issue an order immediately to let the ferry cross the river to meet him." All the generals and officers of Mite Qing kowtowed together, imploring Kang Mazi to agree to Shang Shan's request.

Of course, Kang Mazi didn't want his running dog army to lose everything, and scolding Shang Shan was nothing more than venting his anger. When he was about to decide whether to send troops across the river or just send a ferry to meet him, he suddenly remembered He raised a voice, and asked loudly with great dissatisfaction: "Hey, Emperor Manchu, did you forget me? I brought a letter written by General Lu Yifeng, the great general of the Great Zhou Zhengdong. Do you want me to wait here? How much time?"

"The envoy of Lu Yifeng's dog thief?" Kang Mazi finally remembered Li Ji's existence, and hurriedly shouted, "Let that Wu dog envoy come in!"

"Master, absolutely not!" Zhou Peigong jumped up and screamed with a pale face: "Master, Wu Dog's emissary can only be killed but not seen, this slave dares to guarantee the head of the whole family, Lu Yifeng is a thief, this time It must be playing tricks again!"

(End of this chapter)