Chapter 841 The truth
After this period of defending the city, especially after repelling two strong attacks by the Qing army within two days, no one under Yang Zhen was pessimistic about the prospect of defending Zhenjiang Fort.
Viewed.
Yang Zhen felt very pleased about this.
However, Yang Zhen certainly didn't call them over this time to listen to what they said.
"Okay, let's be quiet for a moment. I have called you here for a discussion at noon today. I want to brainstorm and clarify our next strategy for defending the city."
When Yang Zhen spoke like this, the lively scene where everyone was talking to each other immediately became quiet. Everyone looked at Yang Zhen, waiting for his next words.
From this morning to noon, the strange silence of the Qing army outside the city also made them all feel a little strange and unusual, and they had long wanted to hear Yang Zhen's thoughts.
When Yang Zhen saw that everyone was quiet, he didn't let them wait any longer and immediately got to the point.
"Everyone of you must have felt that from nightfall yesterday to noon today, more than ten hours passed, and the Qinglu area was unusually quiet, which is a bit unconventional.
"Just now someone asked whether the Qinglu army would just retreat. Some people also speculated whether the Qinglu puppet emperor Huang Taiji was holding back some bad rumors or other big tricks. Is this possible?"
When he said this, Yang Zhen paused for a moment, first glanced at everyone, then smiled and asked himself:
"How should I put it, your speculations cannot be said to be completely impossible, but this possibility is unlikely, especially if we stop and withdraw our troops, this possibility is extremely slim.
"Think about it, he Huangtai Ji raised an army and marched in person, but the result was that he first besieged the city to no avail, and then failed to attack twice, losing more than 10,000 troops, so he retreated to Shengjing City. How could he, a puppet emperor of the Qing Dynasty, still do this?
Finished?"
When everyone heard what Yang Zhen said, although no one said a word, they all nodded silently.
They all know the internal situation of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty, but unlike the Ming Dynasty, they have always followed the rule that the strong are respected.
Huang Taiji, the puppet emperor of the Qing Dynasty, suffered a stroke and was paralyzed in front of the army during his last personal expedition. It is said that he no longer looked like a king. There was already an undercurrent surging within the Eight Banners.
If he once again lost troops and generals during his personal expedition this time and returned in defeat, would he still be able to keep his bullshit throne of the Qing Dynasty?
Everyone present hoped that Huang Taiji would just withdraw his troops and then wait for the dog-eat-dog fight within the Eight Banners to stage a drama of internal strife for the throne.
However, given the shrewdness and cunning of the puppet emperor Huang Taiji of the Qing Dynasty, he probably could not fail to see this. If he could not regain some ground and save some face in the coming war, he would definitely not stop and withdraw his troops.
Moreover, it's not that Huang Taiji doesn't want to, it's that Huang Taiji doesn't dare.
But Yang Zhen saw everyone nodding in silence and knew that they knew the connection, so he continued:
"As for Huang Taiji, after being unable to attack us twice in a row, is he holding back some other bad feelings? Well, if he is holding back some bad feelings to continue to siege the city with a large army, or to launch another strong attack on us, I think it is not possible in the short term.
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"Think again, why did the puppet emperor of the Qing Dynasty continuously send troops to attack our strong city in the past few days? Of course, it is gratifying that the governor was among them to trap and kill Fan Wencheng. The reason why he deliberately angered him, but the reason why the Qing Dynasty soldiers were so anxious
Recruiting us and surrendering gives me the opportunity to take advantage of this plan, and there must be a reason behind it."
After saying these words, Yang Zhen leaned back in the armchair behind him, changed into a more comfortable position, and continued to say what he was thinking one by one.
"The reason behind this must be that the Qing army has been besieging the city for a long time and found that continuing the siege would not only be futile, but also unsustainable.
"The reason why he is said to be in vain is because our reinforcements did not come, and the Qinglu's plan to siege the city for reinforcements failed. The reason why he is said to be unsustainable is because his small army of 100,000 gathered here consumes countless amounts of food and grass every day. His food and grass
It’s almost over.”
"What does the governor mean?"
Yang Zhengang had just expressed his analysis, and Li Lu, who had been trying to figure out the movements of the Qing captives outside the city, suddenly asked thoughtfully, but had he fully asked his question?
But having such a question was enough to immediately attract the attention of others.
Everyone's eyes first shifted to Li Lu, and then followed Li Lu's gaze to Yang Zhen.
Upon seeing this, Yang Zhen looked at An Yingchang and then at Liu Lin. Seeing their frowning expressions, he simply stopped hiding his judgment.
At the moment, he chuckled, thought for a moment, and then said to everyone: "What I mean is, first, Huang Taiji, the puppet emperor of the Qing Dynasty, would never withdraw his troops and retreat like this, and he would not dare to withdraw his troops and retreat like this. Secondly,
, Huang Taiji, the puppet emperor of the Qing Dynasty, would not continue to lead his army to siege the city on an empty stomach when there was no hope of siege and reinforcements, and he had lost his troops and generals in two strong attacks."
Having said this, Yang Zhen paused for a moment. He originally wanted to consider his words before making his final judgment.
Unexpectedly, as soon as he finished speaking, Li Lu suddenly stood up from the seat next to him, clapped his hands with joy and said loudly:
"I understand! What the Governor actually meant was that after the Qing Dynasty army failed to attack the city again yesterday afternoon, the Qing Dynasty puppet emperor Huang Taiji had probably led the main force of his camp to cross the Yangtze River and entered at night!
"
After saying these words, Li Lu had obviously figured out something. He looked at Yang Zhen excitedly, nodded and repeated:
"It must be so! It must be so!"
"Yes, Governor, last night Yu Haichao sent someone to report that there was a faint sound of artillery in the direction of Renyizhou City, as if there was a big fire. At that time, I was wondering whether the Qing soldiers and horses would be unable to attack Zhenjiang.
After leaving the fort, he turned to fight against the imperial capital of Uiju. Now it seems that this is the case!"
After Li Lu expressed his judgment, some of the others were surprised, while others were stunned.
At this time, Qiu Zhenhai also made his own inference based on the clues hidden in the news reported by Yu Haichao last night, supporting Li Lu's view.
The terrain of the entire Zhenjiang Fort City is high in the northwest and low in the southeast.
To the east of the city is the main channel of the Yajiang River. At the same time, there is also a small river in the north and south of the city that naturally merges into the Yajiang River from west to east.
The drainage area of these small tributaries of the Yajiang River was not large, and they did not have their own names at this time. It was not until later, when more Denglai immigrants crossed the sea and headed north, that they were gradually given the names of several ditches and several ditches.
As for the moat in the west of Zhenjiang Fort, it was a city defense fortification manually excavated by the Ming Army in Liaodong that ran through the ditch of the Yajiang tributary in the north and south of the city.
Within seven or eight miles to the west of the moat, there is a relatively flat and open wilderness.
Of course, further to the west is the Liaodong mountainous area with endless ups and downs.
Zhenjiang Castle is located in such a terrain environment, and only the east wall facing the main channel of the Yajiang River and the west wall connecting Tang Station and Phoenix City were built with urn walls and city gates.
For this reason, although the Qing army has surrounded Zhenjiang Fort from the southeast, northwest, and south during this period, when it came time to really attack Zhenjiang Fort, they could only attack from the open land in the west and the frozen duck in the east.
Egami launched an artillery bombardment and attack.
The north wall of Zhenjiang Fort is located on a hill, with the highest terrain. It is extremely inconvenient for the Qing army to attack the city from that direction, because if they want to attack the city, they can only climb up the slope and attack from the top.
As for the south of the city, although it is flat and open on the river bank, its terrain is too low. At the same time, it is an estuary area where several small tributaries on the west bank of the Yajiang River merge into the main channel. Not only are there swamps everywhere, but there are also crisscrossing ravines.
Although by the end of October, the ravines and swamps were covered with thick ice like the Yajiang River, it was not suitable for a large number of horse and infantry troops to gather to attack the city.
Therefore, until now, in the entire offensive and defensive operations of Zhenjiang Fort City, Huang Taiji has not regarded the disadvantaged north and south of Zhenjiang Fort City as their main battlefields. He only sent troops to dig trenches and build forts far away and set up camp.
Just surrounded to death.
Yang Zhen, who had insufficient military strength, saw the Qing army deployed in this way, and of course he would not place the main defense force on the north and south walls of Zhenjiang Fort.
However, the guards and lookouts that should be set up at the north and south city walls are all there should be, and no one can be missing.
Especially on the corner tower of the North City wall with the highest terrain, Qiu Zhenhai specially selected several lookouts from his own team and Yu Haichao's team who were affiliated with the naval battalion to take turns day and night to observe the enemy's movements.
It was these lookouts who were the first to discover the relocation of the Qing Dynasty's heavy artillery in the west of the city.
It was the same group of lookouts who noticed the faint sound of cannons coming towards the capital of Renyizhou last night and the torchlight procession running southward at night.
At this moment, Qiu Zhenhai was certainly confident when talking about the news reported by these naval camp lookouts.
Of course, everyone else present quickly fell silent after hearing what he said about last night's news and the judgment he made.
Because they all realized that what Li Lu and Qiu Zhenhai said was probably the only truth.
But if this is really the case, and the main force of the Qing Dynasty troops really temporarily left Zhenjiang Castle to suppress the resistance launched by the Jiangdong court, then how should we respond?
Chapter completed!