On the seventh day of October, late at night.
It was late at night, but the people on the boundary river-Beishahe battlefield did not calm down. Fierce battles and deadly battles are still going on. The gunshots are crackling like fried beans, and the cannons are like rolling thunder, roaring continuously, as if there is no time to stop. Along with the gunfire and cannon fire, there were also hoarse shouts of killing.
However, the situation on the battlefield was still very different from that during the day. On the seventh day of October, there was fierce fighting across the board! Although the battle between the right wing of the Ming army (the left wing of the Qing army) and the ford of the Beisha River called Baijiatan in the southeast of Jiehe Town was the most brutal, the fierce battles in other directions showed no sign of stopping! On the main battlefield between Beisha River and Jiehe River, the thick smell of gunpowder smoke and blood permeated everywhere, as if it would never dissipate.
And when the night fell, the fierce battle that was originally spread across the entire front began to gradually focus on the intersection of Dushan Lake and Jiehe River and Baijiatan. As for other directions, there were only sporadic gunshots and dots of will-o'-the-wisps, as well as the miserable whining and neighing of people and horses who were still dying.
After a day of bloody battles, the Ming army seemed to have gained an overwhelming advantage. The Qing army on the Jiehe-Beishahe battlefield was either annihilated, defeated and expelled, or divided and surrounded in Baijiatan and Dudu. The intersection of mountains, lakes and boundary rivers!
However, the Ming army has not yet won the final victory, because the Qing army's desperate resistance on the boundary river-Beishahe battlefield is still going on!
The casualties paid by the Ming army in this battle cannot be considered small.
Although the statistics of casualties and results of each unit have not yet been released, since the evening, carriages transporting the wounded and the remains of martyrs have been traveling between the Ming army camp and the Beishahe front line.
Preliminary estimates indicate that the Ming army must have suffered more than 10,000 casualties (deaths and serious injuries) and missing persons during the daytime battle on the seventh day of October!
The casualties and missing persons of the Qing army are estimated to be two or three times more than those of the Ming army!
To be fair, the Qing army's performance in this fierce battle was quite good.
In this battle, Kangxi's battle organization ability was still poor, but his military management level had been greatly improved after more than ten years of high-level training in troubled times.
Therefore, the tactical level displayed by the Qing Dynasty's Eight Banners New Army in this battle was no less than that of the Ming Army. If the Ming army's firearms had not had huge advantages in quantity and quality, there would be no certainty who would win in today's bloody battle!
At night, a group of exhausted but energetic Ming army staff sat around a campfire, talking about where Kangxi had gone?
"The Tatar cavalry on the Baijiatan side fought very tenaciously. They built up dead men and horses as bunkers to resist. The deputy general and Hu Junmen attacked them from the north and south. They charged ten times in a row, but they were all repulsed. If it wasn't to protect Kangxi, could they commit the crime?"
"It's hard to say. They are not Wu's army. They are Tatar soldiers who invaded the Yellow River. How can they survive in the hands of the Huaixi soldiers of the 25th Division and the Fifth Army?"
"What about the Dushan Lake side? They fought very tenaciously! The two divisions of the First Army Corps fought hard with them for most of the day. Will there be Kangxi there?"
"Probably not. That's the Bingjieshu written by Kang Wangjieshu. They should be surrounded there!"
"If there was no Kangxi in Baijiatan and no Kangxi in Dushan Lake, then where did Kangxi go?"
"They may have run away. Don't you think that the resistance of the Tatar soldiers has weakened significantly after dark? Now except for Baijiatan and Dushan Lake, the resistance in other directions is negligible."
"But didn't Kangxi fight to the bitter end? Did he leave a pontoon bridge unburned?"
"He must be deceiving people. This Kangxi is so damn cunning!"
"The yellow dragon flag on the white sand beach."
"It's probably a lie!"
This group of staff members were really three cobblers who were like Zhuge Liang. They really analyzed Kangxi's strategy clearly.
Zhou Chang, the leader of this group of staff, had been sitting on the edge eating mooncakes without saying a word. After eating two bean paste mooncakes, he drank a large pot of "salt tea" to add some salt. At this time, a staff officer walked away quickly. Come over and hand him a copy of the military newspaper. After Zhou Chang took it, he unfolded it and looked at it through the dim light from a white paper lantern nearby. Then he stood up and walked towards a tent with flashing lights nearby.
Inside the tent, Li Zhongshan was resting his mind with his eyes closed, and seemed to have fallen asleep. As the commander of an 800,000-strong army, and he is still engaged in a decisive battle to determine the ownership of the world, one can imagine how much pressure he is under. So from the beginning of this "Battle of Zouxian" - that is, from the time when Hu Yiqiang began to attract Kangxi to go south, he could no longer sleep. It has been several days and nights now!
Zhou Chang saw Li Zhongshan lying on the camp bed with his eyes closed and clothes on. He thought he had fallen asleep and did not dare to disturb him. He turned around and wanted to leave. But before he left, Li Zhongshan's voice rang out: "Did Kangxi run away?"
"General, are you still awake?"
"If you can't sleep, just squint for a while." Li Zhongshan said, "Did Kangxi run away?"
"Most likely he ran away," Zhou Chang said, "but it doesn't matter, he can't run far. Li Junmen's army has broken through the Baima River! In addition, Chang Junmen's four divisions should also have detoured back to the north of Qufu. and east of Zouxian County. In addition, there are still our people in Qufu City! If it doesn’t work, there is also the Eighth Army of Luo Junmen! It can be said that Kangxi is caught in a dragnet!"
Li Zhongshan nodded and said leisurely: "It depends on who can win the first prize in the Northern Expedition!"
In the dark of night, large groups of Qing troops were marching northward in a hurry on the plains north of the Jiehe River. Because they were afraid that the Ming army would find out, they didn't even dare to use a torch, and everyone moved forward in discredit. Along the way were all the things they had abandoned, including carts, weapons, baggage, armor, and ammunition. The wounded soldiers who had been seriously injured and had reluctantly followed were also abandoned in large numbers and left on the roadside crying. The weak mules and horses were also abandoned by their owners and stood blankly in the wilderness, trembling and making long or short whines.
On the east and west sides of this large group of Qing troops, there was a roar like rolling thunder! There were also faint gunshots like fried beans and bursts of shouts of killing!
Among them, the sound of gunfire and shouts of killing in the west should be the new army of Zhengbai Banner fighting against the Ming army that broke through the Baima River! As for the gunfire in the east, Kangxi guessed that a Ming army detoured back to the hilly area east of Zouxian County and ran into the remnants of the two Red Banner New Army troops that had retreated there along the boundary river.
Kangxi was riding on a horse, and he was accompanied by a group of ministers from the South Study Room, the ministers leading the guards, the ministers from the inner chamber, and the ministers from the imperial court. There were so many ministers! Li Guangdi and Xiao Guizi were also among them, but Chanitsabele was nowhere to be seen. I wonder if he died in the Qing Dynasty? However, Li Guangdi and Xiao Guizi, who had escaped by chance, now wanted to stand aside and could only ride horses at the end of a group of ministers. Now closely following Kangxi are the two loyal ministers Gao Shiqi and Zhang Ying.
Kangxi suddenly asked: "How long will it take to reach Yihe?"
Yihe is an east-west river in the south of Qufu City. Qufu is still under the control of Kong Shenggong and Deputy Capital Commander Mahada under Jieshu. There are about 5,000 serious defenders and about 10,000 Kong militiamen. . With these troops, not only the city of Qufu cannot be lost, but also the nearby important strongholds will most likely not be lost. Therefore, as long as Kangxi arrived there, he could take a short rest, and then pull the troops from Qufu, Ziyang, Jining, Sishui, Heze, Juye and other places to retreat to Jining Prefecture, plus the defeated troops who ran out of Zouxian, After all, there can still be an army of hundreds of thousands.
Jining Prefecture also has a lot of food, grass, equipment and the "demon queen" Yang Xiaomi. Although Kangxi had previously thought of abolishing the queen, after all, they did not really break up with each other, and there should still be room for continued cooperation.
The worst case scenario is to give some benefits to Yang's relatives, even if they imitate the Han Dynasty and appoint Yang Qilong as General Lu Shangshu, and then let Yang Xiaomi return to Beijing to be the Queen Regent!
Yang Xiaomi had already experienced the sweetness of power, and Yang Qilong was always ambitious. If Li Zhongshan was allowed to capture Beijing and destroy the Qing Dynasty, would they still want to share the imperial power? Dream on!
As long as the Yang brothers and sisters can support him, Kangxi, he can continue to deal with Li Zhongshan in Shandong.
In addition, Wu Zhou has already agreed to send troops. Now Kangxi can hardly stand it in Shandong. If Wu Yingqi no longer brings troops to help in the war, and if the Qing Dynasty is really gone, can the old Wu family survive?
After some calculation in his mind, Kangxi felt that the situation was still controllable!
Kangxi hasn’t lost all yet!
Kangxi's two confidants, Gao Shiqi and Zhang Ying, were also thinking about how much leverage Kangxi had left.
Kangxi's new banner army suffered heavy losses this time. Even if they can win a Liao Dynasty, or even lose the sixteen states of Yanyun, they will most likely have to rely on the support of the Yang family's relatives group. Yang The family is Han, and Empress Yang has always placed great emphasis on Han officials. It seems that the Qing Dynasty will speed up the Hanization in the future, and may not even rule out going one step further and becoming a "post-Sui Dynasty" with a Han as emperor!
The question now is whether Queen Yang is willing to be the Sui Princess. It seems not cost-effective!
When two of Kangxi's confidants were thinking about whether the "Beiqing" or the "Later Sui" would follow, they heard Kangxi's words. Gao Shiqi quickly replied: "Your Majesty, we have to walk faster. We will reach Qufu City early tomorrow morning."
"I'm asking about the Yi River. If I remember correctly, there is a Kong Family Villa on the south bank of the Yi River!"
Kangxi's meaning was very clear: he did not dare to enter Qufu immediately!
Instead, he wanted to summon Kong Shenggong at the Kong Family Villa on the south bank of the Yi River.
"Your Majesty," Zhang Ying immediately continued Kangxi's words, "I will go to Qufu immediately and ask Kong Shenggong to pick him up at the Kong Family Courtyard."
Kangxi nodded: "I still want to stay in Qufu for a few more days, so that I can reorganize my troops and fight against Li Thief again!"
"Your Majesty," Gao Shiqi was smart enough and immediately understood what Kang Mazi meant, "I will go to Jining Prefecture immediately and ask the Queen to come to Qufu to serve the Emperor."
Kangxi glanced at Gao Shiqi, nodded and said: "Shiqi, hurry up and come back to me. I'm a little sorry for the queen, but the Qing Dynasty cannot live without the queen!"
His words also hinted that he wanted to apologize to the queen, ask for forgiveness, and cooperate with the queen.
In short, the Qing Dynasty cannot be without Empress Yang in the future!
"I understand!"
Of course Gao Shiqi understood. Now even Kangxi had to hold Empress Yang's thigh to survive!
Qufu, Confucius Mansion.
Holy Duke Kong Yuqi hurriedly walked through the courtyards of his house until he arrived at a small, secluded building in the mansion. The doors and windows of the small building were closed. Kong Shenggong looked around and saw no one, then he gently patted the door three times: "Sister Ying, it's me."
Shang Shuying's voice immediately came from the door: "Hey, it's the Holy Duke. I will open the door for you right now."
After a while, the closed door creaked open, and Shang Shuying, formally dressed as a prostitute, appeared inside. In order to cover up, Shang Shuying asked Kong Shenggong to claim that she bought it from the Bada Hutong in Beijing. After marrying a kiln girl, she came back to the golden house to hide her beauty.
It was not honorable for Duke Kong Sheng to do this, so everyone in the Confucius family would consciously "don't see, don't listen, don't speak, and don't know." This is the family tradition of a saint!
After welcoming Kong Shenggong into the house, Shang Shuying asked Shenggong to sit down and poured tea for him, while asking about his purpose: "Shenggong, how is the situation? Has Kangxi been defeated?"
"We were defeated, we were indeed defeated!" Kong Shenggong said while frowning, "But not by much. We lost 30,000 people, and there are still 70,000 horses left. We will return to Qufu soon. Zhang Zhongtang will come in person early this morning You want me to go to Yihe Courtyard to meet you immediately. Sister Shuying, what do you think you should do about this?"
Shang Shuying burst into laughter: "Shenggong, you are such an honest person! Do you believe Zhang Ying's lies?"
"What? He lied to me?"
"Is that necessary?" Shang Shuying said with a smile, "Kangxi has 70,000 troops left, and he still needs you to go to Yihe Courtyard to greet him? He has 70,000 people, how dare you not be a loyal minister?"
"This." Kong Shenggong thought it right, "Sister Shuying, you mean that Kangxi suffered a heavy defeat and suffered heavy losses. He wanted to come to Qufu, but he was afraid that I would betray him, so he did so."
Shang Shuying nodded lightly: "Holy Duke, Kangxi is definitely trying to trick you out of the city! If you fall into the trap and are deceived by him, I'm afraid the Kong family in Qufu will be completely destroyed!"
"Totally destroyed. It won't be that bad, right?"
"Why not?" Shang Shuying said solemnly, "If you are caught by him, can the Kong family in Qufu still welcome the Ming Dynasty? If the Kong family cannot welcome the Ming Dynasty, the position of the Holy Duke will probably fall to the south of Quzhou The head of the clan is here!"
"Well." Kong Shenggong became nervous, "Isn't that the case?"
"Why not?" Shang Shuying said plausibly, "The Southern Sect was originally a direct descendant, and it was Kublai Khan who promoted your Northern Sect. You have to think carefully. If you follow Kangxi and end up in trouble, Emperor Zhu Will you break up the old score with General Li? In my opinion, not only can you not follow Kangxi, but you must also perform meritorious service!"
"Meritorious service? I am Duke Yansheng!"
Kong Shenggong looked confused.
What Kong Shenggong emphasized was that he was "useless for a hundred things". He couldn't do literature, he couldn't do martial arts, and he couldn't make meritorious deeds!
If the Holy Duke is capable of literary, military, and meritorious service, shouldn't he be ambitious?
After the saints, is it time for the leaders of Tianwen Sect and famous religions to learn from the four great caliphs of Tianfang Sect and the great pope of Catholicism?
Of course Shang Shuying knew what Kong Shenggong was thinking, and said with a smile: "Shenggong, today is different from the past. Today's Ming Dynasty is a republic, and there is no real emperor to doubt your Kong family. Now it is necessary for the Kong family to submit a petition to the republic. ! If you could cut off Kangxi’s head and offer it to him, the Holy Duke might be promoted to the Holy King!”
"Killing Kangxi is regicide!"
Kong Shenggong shook his head repeatedly: "This is not a kind thing. After I am a saint, I can't do that. Otherwise, Sister Shuying, come and chop off Kangxi's head. If you achieve this great feat, the general will trust you more in the future. Maybe your prince will be able to reward you as well!"
Shang Shuying smiled and nodded: "Holy Duke, it's settled that you will mobilize the Kong family's servant militia and select a team of elite soldiers to hand over to me. We will set up an ambush in Yihe Courtyard together. I will Come and see Kangxi off!"
(End of chapter)
