Chapter 625: Is the Great Qing About to Exhaust Its Bad News?

Feicheng County, Jinan Prefecture.

In the county yamen's main hall, the Hongxing Emperor, who had rushed and hurried but still failed to make it in time for the decisive battle, was staring blankly at Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu, Zuo Maodi, Huang Degong, Li Chengdong, Li Shiyuan, and the others — men who had fought and lost again and again.

His troops had only reached Mount Yunmeng, twenty li north of the Guishan battlefield, late on the night of the 24th.

This was not just a little short — it was short by an entire force of elite reconnaissance cavalry!

Dorgon's scouts and patrols had been thrown out as far as the edge of Mount Tai, so the moment Zhu Cilang's thirty thousand troops emerged from Mount Tai, they knew.

Thus, before Zhu Cilang's great army could climb the heights of Mount Yunmeng, Dorgon had already returned victorious, tears streaming down his face.

Zhu Cilang looked at Shi Kefa and asked quietly, "Supreme Commander Shi, have the losses been tallied? Can the various units still fight? Can Qufu hold?"

What His Majesty the Emperor Zhu truly cared about right now was not the losses of a few warlord households, because the defeated troops who had retreated to Feicheng were no small number. Though every one of them had thrown away helmet and armor and cut a wretched figure, as long as the men were still there, that was enough. Issue them some pikes, firelocks, armor, and the like, then hand out a bit of silver and allot some land to soothe their spirits, and they would be fine officers and soldiers of the Great Ming once more.

But the gain or loss of Qufu was a major problem!

Because the matter of "robbing the Kong Forest tomb" was Zhu Cilang's material for smearing Dorgon and shorting the Great Qing, and a major piece of material at that.

It was because of this material that the scholars of the realm had one after another taken their stand against the Great Qing, and the Great Qing's market value had fallen again and again because of it. In the original history, by this time the Great Qing had already "won the hearts of ten thousand gentry" and was about to "bring peace to all under Shunzhi." But now how far had it fallen? It could not even settle Shandong and Shanxi.

As a former veteran practitioner of the "hype industry," Zhu Cilang knew all too well what "bad news exhausted" and "good news exhausted" each meant.

If Dorgon and the Great Qing wanted to stop the decline, they had to take Qufu, the source of the bad news!

Once Qufu was taken, whether it meant three kneelings and nine kowtows in reverence to Confucius, or actually robbing Confucius's tomb, the story of "robbing the Kong Forest tomb" would be over.

Then the Great Qing's market value would surely rebound. No matter how depressed the Great Qing was, it still maintained the posture of standing toe-to-toe with the Southern Ming, and it was still running the second-largest official shop in all of China!

Therefore, after the defeat at Guishan, the gain or loss of Qufu became the key to whether the Great Qing could stop falling and stabilize.

"Your Majesty, I — I..." As Shi Kefa spoke, tears fell, and he wore an expression of deep anguish. "Your subjects have made a preliminary count. Reckoning from the retreat from Ziyang, the various units have lost a combined total of more than sixteen thousand five hundred men. Although soldiers have been trickling back over the past few days, the true number of casualties is likely no fewer than fifteen thousand and several hundred! Wagons, provisions, horses, cannon, and other supplies have all been utterly lost! The various units that fled to Feicheng number fewer than thirty thousand, and half of them are empty-handed. If armor, weapons, and supplies cannot be replenished, these thirty thousand men here are incapable of fighting again... Your Majesty, Qufu is likely lost!"

Zhu Cilang's heart sank!

The condition of the defeated troops gathered at Feicheng was something Zhu Cilang had seen with his own eyes. Without proper replenishment, they truly could not fight.

Without those thirty thousand-odd men, Zhu Cilang would have only two infantry divisions and two cavalry regiments left in hand — thirty thousand-odd men in total.

And on Dorgon's side, the troops that had appeared on the Guishan battlefield alone numbered eighty to a hundred thousand!

Zhu Cilang did not dare stake the thirty thousand men in his hand against Dorgon's hundred thousand or eighty thousand Nine Banner troops!

These thirty thousand men were the sea-stabilizing needle on the Shandong front. If they were spent, Zhu Cilang would be forced to fall back all the way to the south bank of the Huai River!

So the correct option before Emperor Zhu was to avoid a decisive battle and drag things out — even if it meant letting Dorgon take Qufu and break the "Kong Forest tomb" play, he must resolutely delay.

As long as the situation in Shandong could be maintained, the height of the Great Qing's rebound would be limited. Going forward, even if Shi Kefa kept losing battles — trading fifteen or sixteen thousand for Dorgon's four or five thousand — after losing eight or ten times, the Great Qing would be "lost" out of existence!

Shi Kefa's volunteering now that Qufu could not be held was probably exactly this plan.

Zhu Cilang shifted his gaze to Gao Hongtu and Zuo Maodi.

"Your Majesty," Gao Hongtu said, stroking his beard with narrowed eyes, the very picture of a crafty old schemer. "Though your subjects have suffered defeat, as long as the overall situation in Shandong does not collapse, a few months of rest and recovery will restore our strength!"

Then they could go lose battles again.

Zuo Maodi said, "Qufu is in fact a strong city. As long as the Duke of Yansheng does not waver, there is no risk of it falling. What is most feared now is..."

Ah! There was still Kong Yinzhi!

Zhu Cilang shot a glance at Shi Kefa and inwardly grumbled: Why didn't you have him sample some crane's-crest red?

To die of overwork defending the Kong Forest... what a fine thing that would be! A grand funeral, and a model for posterity!

What now? If that fellow surrendered Qufu and became a traitor, it would be Confucius himself who lost face!

"Your Majesty... what if I make a trip to Qufu?" Shi Kefa knew he had erred and could only try to make amends.

Zhu Cilang asked, "Can you get through?"

Huang Degong volunteered: "Your Majesty, I will take two hundred cavalry and escort Supreme Commander Shi to Qufu. Your Majesty need only leave Feicheng and station the army at Mount Yunmeng to draw Dorgon's attention."

Marching the whole army to Qufu was impossible, but as long as Zhu Cilang moved out and drew Dorgon's attention, two hundred elite cavalry still had a good chance of breaking through.

Zhu Cilang gave Shi Kefa a long, meaningful look. "Uncle Shi, Qufu may be lost, but the Duke of Yansheng must become a model for all under heaven!"

Shi Kefa rose to his feet and said solemnly, "Rest assured, Your Majesty. Kong Yinzhi has always cherished loyalty and righteousness, and will never disgrace the Kong family name!"

"Good!" Zhu Cilang then said to Huang Degong, "I give you two hundred revolving carbines and two hundred good horses. No matter what, you must guarantee Supreme Commander Shi's safety!"

"I accept the decree. I will stake my life to protect the Supreme Commander." As Huang Degong said this, he was thinking to himself: Only protect Shi Kefa? What about Kong Yinzhi — do we still want him or not?

Click-clack, click-clack, click-clack.

The Great Qing Imperial Ama, Dorgon, was at that moment inside a bright yellow tent, flicking the beads of an abacus!

As he flicked, his eyes brimmed with tears.

A loss!

Times were bad; whatever one did, it was easy to lose money! And now there was even someone who won a battle and still lost money — that someone was Dorgon.

At the battle of Guishan, he had slain twenty thousand of the enemy (in reality only sixteen thousand) and lost fifty-five hundred of his own (this was the true figure). If one added the earlier losses along the canal line, the Qing army's losses on the Shandong front were close to eight thousand.

That is to say, according to the figures Dorgon had, the exchange ratio between the Ming and Qing armies on the Shandong front was two and a half to one — he was losing so badly he was about to cry!

If victories like this kept coming, the Great Qing would not last many more years before it victoriously perished. But the problem was, the initiative to end the war was not in his hands!

He was now steeling himself to garrison Ningyang County, waiting for Zhu Cilang to come suing for peace. The terms were negotiable: in Shandong, the Daqing River–Grand Canal line could serve as the border; in Henan, the Qing would take only the three prefectures of Henan, Kaifeng, and Guide; in Shanxi, the Prince of Dai would withdraw; in Shaanxi-Gansu, the Qing would withdraw; in Liaodong and Liaoxi, the Ming would withdraw. Princess Dong'e would be sent to Zhu Cilang's field headquarters at once. But the problem was that Zhu Cilang had absolutely no intention of negotiating peace!

A burst of hurried footsteps suddenly sounded, and then came Suksaha's voice: "Imperial Ama, your slave Suksaha has urgent military intelligence!"

Dorgon quickly fumbled out a handkerchief and wiped his eyes, then put on a smug, beaming smile. "Come in!"

"Ja!" Suksaha strode in and, upon seeing Dorgon, dropped into a Manchu greeting. "Reporting to Imperial Ama: a large Ming force has left Feicheng and is advancing toward Mount Yunmeng!"

What?

Dorgon's heart seized up. You, Zhu Cilang — are you not done yet? Not coming to sue for peace was one thing, but now you've mustered your troops again to come fight. What exactly do you want? So many people dead — how can you bear it?

"Hmph! Courting death!" Dorgon was frantic inside, but his mouth still had to stay hard! Otherwise the men below would look down on him — the business of winning battles and losing money could not be carelessly told to those below.

"Beat the drums, assemble the generals!" Dorgon said. "We shall fight the southern army to the death once more!"

(End of Chapter)