Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 300: Shifting the blame

The news of Huai'an City being captured by Zhao Yongping spread quickly in all directions. Going northwards from Huai'an, except for Xuzhou which was still defended by the Qing army, the Green Camps in other places had already been withdrawn. The local soldiers could only maintain public order and perhaps wipe out some local bandits, but it was a pipe dream to want to resist the army's attack.

In Wuchang city.

Duoduo has decided to mobilize all the troops in Wuchang. The army will meet the enemy in two directions. One direction will be led by Hauge, the Western Route. Hauge's troops have more than 50,000 people, including more than 16,000 people in the Eight Banners, 4,000 Mongolian cavalry, 10,000 Han army flags, and 20,000 Green Camp, heading south to Xianning.

Wang Fugui and Zhang Yingwei in the direction of Xianning only had soldiers from two towns. Duoduo took out 10,000 Han army flags and transferred 10,000 Green Camp soldiers on the grounds that Wang Fugui's troops were weak and did not need so many people. Haoge was furious, but Duoduo said that this was a preparation for a decisive battle with Meng Jun. Although Haoge was angry, he could do nothing.

Afterwards, Duoduo ordered Baiyintu's troops to march south from Jingzhou City, cross the Yangtze River, go downstream along Gong'an, and head straight for Yuezhou (now Yueyang). When Baiyintu marched south, there were more than 12,000 Manchu Eight Banners, 9,000 Mongolian cavalry, and 55,000 Green Camp soldiers, for a total of 76,000 troops. This army had already gathered Green Camp soldiers from Shandong, Shanxi, Henan, Xuzhou Prefecture and other places.

When Baiyintu was transferred to Jingzhou, Bolo suggested that Duoduo could transfer the Eight Banners warriors in Baiyintu's army, or draw troops from the Green Camp as vanguards, but this suggestion was rejected by Duoduo.

Although Duoduo was arrogant, he also knew that Lekedehun was killed by Meng Jun, and his troops were not comparable to the former Ming army, which was like a mess. Therefore, Duoduo decided on a strategy to first break Meng Jun's two wings, and then unite the armies together and fight a decisive battle with Meng Jun.

The lesson of Lekedehun's defeat also made Duoduo understand that he must never let too many Green Camp soldiers. Once the large Green Camp was defeated, the elite Eight Banners would be too few in number and would not be able to maintain the front line at all.

Meng Jun had two wings, one was the Zheng family and the other was Li Dingguo. The Zheng family had a huge navy, and Duoduo could not find a suitable opportunity to attack for a while, and his threat to Zheng Chenggong ended in failure. However, the Qing court still controlled Zheng Zhilong and did not kill him.

The only opportunity Duoduo could find to attack was Li Dingguo in the direction of Changsha. Duoduo strictly ordered Bai Yintu to quickly defeat Li Dingguo, and then turn eastward to threaten Meng Jun's flank.

And when Duoduo led the army to meet Meng Jun, there were 6,000 soldiers from the Eight Banners of Mongolia, more than 5,600 soldiers from the Bordered White Banner, more than 10,000 bondservants of the Bordered White Banner, 17,000 soldiers from the Han Army Banner, and 10,000 soldiers from the Green Camp. At the same time, Wu Sangui's cavalry and infantry had 30,000 soldiers, nearly 80,000 people, the largest number of troops.

In this decisive battle in Huguang, Duoduo divided his troops into three groups. The first was the Baiyintu group with 76,000 men, and the second was the Haoge group with 30,000 men, led by Duoduo himself. A total of 80,000 men, a total of 186,000 soldiers, used the devastated people's strength in the north to support the battlefield in Huguang. The Qing government had already put in all its efforts.

The second Xushun Duke Shen Yongzhong was flattering Duoduo at this time, saying with a big smile on his face: "This time when Prince Yu goes south, he will surely win a great victory. As long as the Meng thief is defeated, it will be easy for the Qing Dynasty to conquer the world."

Duoduo had an arrogant look on his face. His goal was not only to stop Meng Jun, but also to block Meng Jun's first wave of attacks and see if Meng Jun could really fight. If not, he would push him away in one wave. If he was still okay, he would wait for Baiyintu and Haoge to come and attack him together.

Bolo was disgusted by Shen Yongzhong's flattery, while Duoduo burst into laughter. After a moment, he put away his smile and said, "The Regent has all the troops in the country. In this battle, we will defeat this thief!"

Just when Duoduo was in high spirits, a military report about Zhao Yongping's capture of Huai'an City was delivered to Duoduo. After reading the letter, Duoduo was furious and cursed: "Ma Sangge is more likely to cause trouble than to help. He wants to end everything by committing suicide. Pass on my order to kill all the family members of Ma Sangge!"

Wang Wenkui was not good at fighting, but he was much better at conspiracy and intrigue. When Ma Sangge threatened to report the truth about the fall of Huai'an City to the court, Wang Wenkui had already decided to kill him under the instigation of his staff.

Wang Wenkui knew very well that only the death of Ma Sangge could truly eliminate the threat, so Wang Wenkui invited Ma Sangge to the government office to discuss the military plan of defending Suqian. Ma Sangge had no doubts. He did not believe that a scholar had just done something extraordinary to him. In Ma Sangge's opinion, at most he wanted to bribe him, so Ma Sangge gladly accepted the invitation, accompanied by only five guards.

During the meeting, Wang Wenkui once again proposed to Ma Sangge that the blame for the loss of Huai'an should be put on Ke Yongsheng, and bluntly stated that if the matter was made public, it would not benefit Ma Sangge. The theory that Ke Yongsheng had betrayed the country was most suitable for both Wang Wenkui and Ma Sangge.

But Ma Sangge still refused sternly. Wang Wenkui saw that the talks were not going well, so he left the hall on the pretext of washing his hands, and then signaled to his confidants with his eyes.

Soon, there was a sound of tables and cabinets being turned over in the hall, and the five guards who came with Masange were also killed.

Wang Wenkui decided to go all out and planned to kill Ma Sangge's 300 flag soldiers silently. He chose a strategy that was both covert and deadly.

He asked his cronies to deliver wine, meat and other food to these Eight Banners soldiers in the name of reward. However, the food had actually been secretly poisoned by Wang Wenkui's men, and the Eight Banners soldiers did not suspect anything.

In order to ensure that the plan was foolproof, Wang Wenkui also arranged some confidants to secretly patrol the tents of the Eight Banners soldiers until they were sure that all the 380 Banners soldiers had been poisoned to death. Those who were not dead would be beheaded immediately. Once it was confirmed that all the 380 Banners soldiers were dead, they would immediately burn the tents and corpses, destroying all evidence, making it seem as if the assassination had never happened.

After doing everything, Wang Wenkui reported to Duoduo of Huguang and the regent in Beijing, blaming the loss of Huai'an on Ma Sangge's impulsiveness, saying: "Ma Sangge regarded himself as a brave and brave member of the Eight Banners of the imperial court. He ignored the advice of my humble ministers and insisted on going out of the city to attack the camp, which led to the enemy army sneaking into the city. The brave Eight Banners warriors who went out of the city were all killed in the battle. Ma Sangge fled to Taoyuan alone. He felt ashamed of the imperial court and could not bear to live, so he committed suicide."

After Wang Wenkui did all this, he felt uneasy, fearing that the imperial court would know about it. He then sent his aides and a team of personal soldiers to try to bring back his family in Beijing.

Duoduo was thousands of miles away, so he naturally didn't know how Huai'an City was lost. But he knew that once Huai'an City was lost, the strategic situation of the Qing Dynasty would take a sharp turn for the worse. If Meng Jun could not be defeated quickly and the situation was delayed, the rear would be unstable, which would inevitably affect the front line.