Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 381 Sticky Rod

Dorgon could hardly believe his eyes. It was understandable that Xuzhou was captured by Zhao Yongping, but Xuzhou was still far away from the capital. Tianjin was different, as it was right under the capital's nose. But the capital had long been depleted of troops. Even if there were only a few tens of thousands of people, they might be able to capture Beijing.

Ajige said with some emotion: "The southerners are really good at boats. They transported infantry for thousands of miles and even drove straight to the capital!"

After that, Ajige said to Dorgon in a serious tone: "Regent, we have to withdraw our troops. At most, we can only leave Baiyintu in Shanxi. Although there are only 3,000 to 4,000 people under the city of Tianjin, there is no guarantee that Meng thieves will not send more troops. The capital is empty. We can't afford to gamble!"

Dorgon knew that the troops surrounding Tianjin must be Meng Jun's small force, but the meaning behind this was terrifying. If a small force could be transported today, a large force could be transported tomorrow. If they could come to Tianjin today, they might be able to go to Liaodong tomorrow.

The situation was urgent and there was no time for further thought. Dorgon immediately withdrew the siege of Datong. Dorgon looked at the city of Datong with some reluctance, wondering whether Baiyintu could defeat Jiang Xiang.

As the Qing army lifted the siege, the Datong defenders cheered. Jiang Xiang was overjoyed as he watched the Qing army leave the city. He said to his subordinates: "It must be that His Royal Highness Prince Zhou sent a large army to the north, so Dorgon withdrew his troops."

General Wang Fuchen was very excited and suggested to go out of the city to attack the Qing army. Jiang Xiang refused and said: "As the saying goes, do not stop the returning army. If Dorgon wants to escape, let him escape. Chasing him will only waste our troops."

Wang Fuchen tried to persuade him, and finally said that he would only take a hundred or so cavalrymen with him to try to pursue.

Jiang Xiang was a little hesitant, but seeing that Wang Fuchen looked eager to try, he agreed to his request.

Afterwards, Wang Fuchen led more than a hundred cavalrymen to drive directly to the rear of the Qing army. When the Qing army's rear cavalry commander Iata saw that the people in the city dared to go out of the city to pursue, and there were only more than a hundred cavalrymen, he was furious. He immediately led a Niulu of 300 cavalrymen to counterattack Wang Fuchen.

In order to prevent Wang Fuchen from escaping, Iata divided the 300 men into three teams. The middle team was led by Iata himself and charged directly at Wang Fuchen, while the two wings went around to the rear of Wang Fuchen in an attempt to wipe out this team of cavalry.

Wang Fuchen held a heavy sword in his hand without fear. When he saw the three hundred elite cavalrymen led by Iata surrounding him in three groups, he snorted coldly, then took the lead and went straight to the core of the team in the middle where Iata was.

The distance between the two sides quickly narrowed, and in an instant, Wang Fuchen had rushed into the enemy group like a tiger into a flock of sheep, invincible, and almost no one could stop his edge.

Iata was the first to be hit. Wang Fuchen rode past on his horse. As soon as the blade passed, Iata fell off his horse and fell in a pool of blood together with his horse. The scene was shocking.

With the fall of Iata, the Qing army was immediately panicked. Wang Fuchen took advantage of the victory and pursued the enemy, leading more than a hundred cavalrymen of his own army to charge left and right, and scattered the Qing cavalry.

At the same time, the Qing troops on both wings who were trying to outflanking found that the center route had collapsed. In addition, they had witnessed Wang Fuchen's bravery with their own eyes, and their morale plummeted. Their offensive was thwarted. Wang Fuchen turned his horse around and charged again, but was almost unable to match his enemy.

After repelling the Qing troops on both wings, Wang Fuchen continued to attack the rear of the Qing army until Dorgon received the news that Jiang Xiang had a fierce general under his command who was invincible. Dorgon ordered his subordinate Ganglin to lead more than a thousand elite cavalrymen of the Eight Banners to besiege Wang Fuchen. Wang Fuchen saw that the Qing army had a large number of troops and that more than half of his own troops had been lost, and the rest were tired, so he led his troops back and left the battlefield. Ganglin did not want to make any more trouble, and after expelling Wang Fuchen, he stopped pursuing him.

In this battle, Wang Fuchen became famous. He rode a yellow horse and a white robe, and galloped among the Qing troops. He fought bravely and decisively, like the reincarnation of Lu Fengxian. Many elite soldiers in the Eight Banners under Dorgon's command retreated when they met Wang Fuchen. No one dared to challenge him. Some even shouted, "Here comes the Ma Yaozi."

…………

Beijing.

In the capital, ever since the last time the Qingluan Guard secretly kidnapped the families of surrendered generals, the Qing court realized that it must be the Qingluan Guard under Meng Jun who were behind this. Therefore, Dorgon decided to establish an intelligence agency to counter it.

At that time, Dorgon thought about it and decided to reorganize the Shangyu Reserve Office into the Sticking Rod Office based on it.

The Shangyu Reserve Office was established in the second year after the Qing army entered the pass. It was initially managed by the guard squad, and later managed by royal princes, Mongolian princes, princes-in-law, and Mongolian minister Neitejian, assisted by the first-class guards of the Nianganchang class.

The Shangyu Reserve Office has three second-class guards, twenty-one third-class guards, eighteen blue-feather guards, and sixty sticky-rod Baitang'a. In addition, there are three clerks, two treasury managers, and ten treasury Baitang'a, who are in charge of memorials, document transfers, and treasury affairs.

This institution was mainly established to catch cicadas in the summer. There were many plants and flowers in the palace. In summer, the sounds of cicadas would disturb the rest of the royal family, so it was established.

But Nate Jian was completely in the dark about this intelligence agency. It had been two months since its establishment, but it hadn't even come up with a basic structure. In the past, Meng Bian and Liu Guquan had only spent two days to set up the basic organization of Qingluan Guard.

Dorgon was extremely disappointed with Netejian, so he appointed his confidant Luo Shi as the leader of the Sticking Rod Department, and appointed Luo Yangxing, Zhu Youjian's former Jinyiwei commander, as deputy commander.

Although the Qing court basically copied the Ming Dynasty's official system, it had no interest in the factory guards. The East Factory was not reopened, and the Jinyiwei was changed back to the Luanyiwei a year later.

Because the Qing court had no intention of restarting the imperial guards, Luo Yangxing was soon assigned a new position, serving as the Prince's Tutor, Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and Left Governor-General, in charge of military affairs in Tianjin and other places.

However, soon after Luo Yangxing took office, he was impeached and dismissed from his posts as governor-general and left general because he was too enthusiastic in receiving the northern envoys from the Nanjing Hongguang regime.

After that, Luo Yangxing was only awarded the title of Prince Grand Tutor during the Qing court's grand discussion in the second year of Shunzhi to commend the officials for their merits, but he still did not get any real position.

Luo Yangxing thought that this was the end of his life, but unexpectedly, Dorgon actually remembered him and appointed him as the deputy commander of the Sticking Rod Department. In Luo Yangxing's understanding, the Sticking Rod Department was nothing more than the Embroidered Uniform Guard in a different shell.

Although this position was a compromise for Luo Yangxing, he also understood that Luo Shi was the Regent's confidant, and that he was made deputy commander because the Regent was impressed by his experience in the Imperial Guard.

It’s just a little embarrassing that Luo Yangxing’s current official positions are Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard, Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince, and currently Deputy Commander of the Sticking Rod Department.

However, after Luo Yangxing became the deputy commander, Lu Ping clearly felt that the atmosphere in the capital was different. Inspections outside the city were more stringent, and from time to time there were suspicious people prowling around the city. This was not like those petty officials last time who came blatantly to ask for benefits.

After Lu Ping sent out a message of "secretly hiding, no emergency, temporarily suspend contact", this message was passed on to other personnel hiding in the capital and to Liu Guquan in Zhuzhou. Then he stopped contacting the south and went into hiding.