Chapter 1178 Cover the lid

Although Gao Xuewu's suggestion is pertinent, it is somewhat unrealistic in Liu Feng's view. If the Ming army is really capable of cutting off the supply lines of the Haihan army by military means, it will not be much easier than defeating them on the frontal battlefield.

After achieving this step, the Haihan army probably couldn't even enter the Qiantang River, let alone land outside Hangzhou. However, Gao Xuewu fought bravely, and his performance on the battlefield did not embarrass the Ming army, nor did Liu Feng.

I didn't say it too harshly, so I just asked him to go back to the city to recuperate from his injuries.

Earlier when Zhejiang organized elite troops to go north to the Central Plains to participate in counter-insurgency, most of the capable generals had been transferred away. Nowadays, there are not many generals in Hangzhou who can take charge of the army alone. Generals like Gao Xuewu are already among the best. Otherwise,

There is no need to let Qi Jie, a half-hearted commander, go into battle. Liu Feng had no one available for him, so he forced Qi Jie to go into battle. As a result, his army almost collapsed before the battle even started. This kind of performance must not be tolerated again.

He has been entrusted with a heavy responsibility.

Of course Liu Feng can continue to send troops to launch an offensive. The army in Hangzhou city is not enough, and he can also mobilize troops from the various state capitals in Zhejiang. After all, from the perspective of Zhejiang as a whole, if an all-out war is really going to happen, tens of thousands of Ming troops can still be gathered together. But there is a problem.

The reason is that the effect of using pure military superiority to deal with Haihan is not good, and if things get out of control, Zhejiang officials will not be able to explain to the court. You must know that the court ordered Zhejiang to send troops some time ago

At that time, he specifically asked not to allow chaos in the place, so as not to destroy the overall situation of the imperial court to first calm down the internal affairs and then fight against the outside world. In less than a month, foreign troops were allowed to attack the city of Hangzhou. If the imperial court knew the causes and consequences

, Zhejiang Dusi and other officials must bear corresponding responsibilities.

The Chief Envoy Wang Ji, who had originally criticized the main war faction, looked at today's battle situation, and his attitude can be seen without asking any more questions. Obviously, he cannot expect that the Chief Envoy can still be with him after things get serious.

Standing on the same front and facing the court's questioning, Liu Feng must find a way to save himself.

So that night, a Ming army quietly came out of Hangzhou City and tried to launch a night attack on the Haihan camp on the Qiantang River. However, it was a night attack, and there was not much privacy at all. After all, the Haihan camp was far away from Hangzhou.

The city is too close. If there is any disturbance at the city gate, Haihan can basically monitor it in real time. Although the Ming army boldly launched a charge after approaching the Haihan camp, the effect was not ideal. The Haihan defenders in the camp used muskets to

Shooting in response.

Although the sky provided excellent cover for the Ming army's offensive, the extremely poor visibility was actually a double-edged sword. In order not to become a living target, the Ming army gave up the use of lighting tools such as torches in the attack. This

While reducing the shooting hit rate of Haihan soldiers, it naturally also caused great trouble for them to pass through the obstacle area outside the camp. If they want to quickly pass through the more than 30 meters in depth in the dark, the barbed wire fences are scattered high and low, large and small.

The horse traps and the fortifications made up of the scattered deer villages and horse barriers are not easy to complete even for battle-hardened veterans. Moreover, there are constant whistling sounds of bullets piercing the air above and around you, as well as the tragic death of your companions after they were shot and injured.

It's easy to lose your way in the dark.

In the end, a few lucky people got through the fortifications under the cover of night, but only then did they discover that a trench more than five feet wide had been dug outside Haihan's village wall, although no water had been drained into it yet.

But if you jump into this trench, you will not be able to reach the upper edge of the wall. When the Ming army left the city for a night attack, they did not carry tools such as ladders. At this time, there was no other way except to use a ladder.

Think about it.

However, it was naturally easy for Haihan to deal with this primitive attack method. His condescending jabs made it almost impossible for those at the top of the ladder to escape. The Ming soldiers who had finally reached the finish line were stabbed over one by one.

In the trench, the desperate Ming army found that it was impossible to invade Haihan Camp with only the scattered troops who arrived at the trench, and there was not even a chance of causing chaos. They could only choose to give up the useless offensive and retreat from the battlefield.

After leaving many corpses in the night attack, the Ming army still failed to make significant progress. Seeing that the hard battle was fruitless, they had no choice but to withdraw into the city. The Haihan army was ordered to stick to the camp and wait until the other side took the initiative.

They retreated without leaving the camp to pursue, in case there was another ambush in the dark night. When the results were counted at dawn, the soldiers found more than 130 corpses on the defense line outside the camp, but various fortifications on the front of the camp were also destroyed.

Most of them still needed to be rearranged. In addition, because the Ming army reached a relatively close place in the dark, the archers fired intensively, causing several casualties to the Haihan army in the camp.

Wang Tom inspected the battlefield in the early morning and saw the arrows stuck on the wall outside the camp. At that moment, he sighed at the persistence of the Ming army. During the day, the attack of the Ming army was blocked by Haihan's long-range weapons at a distance.

From a safe distance, it was difficult to cause direct damage to Haihan soldiers, but after the Ming army came close at night, this blind-covering shooting caused damage. Fortunately, the casualties were limited, and the Ming army could not confirm them.

The results achieved.

Wang Tom ordered the dead soldiers to be buried properly, and later arranged for special ships to transport their bones back to Zhoushan. After cremation, they would be transported back to the cemetery in Sanya for burial. The biggest shortcoming of the Haihan Army at present is still the lack of troops, even if its combat strength has been

It can defeat the opponent, but because the troops are too small, it is still unable to launch an offensive in a large area. Similar to the attack on Hangzhou, if the troops are sufficient, the troops can be divided into nearby states and counties to show force and further put pressure on the Zhejiang government.

But now they can only gather all the participating troops here to offset the opponent's huge advantage in military strength.

According to the action plan formulated in advance, the battle under the city of Hangzhou must be resolved within ten days as much as possible, otherwise it will drag on for too long and turn the small-scale conflict into a full-scale war, which will not be in line with Haihan's purpose of deterrence.

Now. The Ming army has lost hundreds of people in the battle under the city of Hangzhou. If the battle continues like this, the situation may really develop into an uncontrollable direction. Wang Tom also hesitates a little in his heart, whether he needs to increase his strength.

to put pressure on Hangzhou.

However, his worries were actually a little unnecessary. There was already a huge quarrel in Hangzhou. Some wealthy gentry with means managed to buy a way and began to evacuate Hangzhou with their families. Meanwhile, the Haihan Army was dispatching troops and generals to take over.

The rumor that the next step was to besiege Hangzhou City also spread like wildfire in the city. The asymmetry of information led many people to believe this to be true. Even those who were unable to leave Hangzhou City and fled began to try to hoard daily necessities and supplies. The price of food in the city is at

It increased fivefold in just two days, but even so, the supply was still in short supply, and the government had to take over the control of the grain trade.

Although the government claims that the city's grain reserves are sufficient for at least two months of consumption, the sharp changes in grain prices and the government's actions to control the market still make the people feel very uneasy. The city of Hangzhou has been under the rule of the Ming Dynasty for more than two hundred years.

We have all lived in peace, and we have never been attacked by enemy troops without being able to fight back. Whether it is the government or the people, their ability to withstand this situation is quite poor. Although the Haihan Army has not officially launched an offensive against Hangzhou City, there are still many people in the city.

The social order has been disrupted.

It stands to reason that if both sides are determined to fight, then it is normal for everyone to use their financial resources and fight in Hangzhou to decide the outcome. But the subtle thing is that both sides have their own scruples.

The consciousness is to control the intensity of the conflict, and do not want to escalate the scale of the war to a point of no return like a national war.

After the Ming army that fought out of the city suffered successive setbacks, the main war faction that once had the upper hand lost its influence. Both the official and the private sector expressed a pessimistic attitude towards the prospect of defeating Haihan and driving him out of Hangzhou.

Now it has entered the fourth day that the Qiantang River's sea channel has been blocked by the Haihan Army. It is not just the city of Hangzhou that is affected. Currently, ships that are unable to go to sea because of the blocked channel are docked on the river bank in Fuyang area upstream. Whether it is investigating a case

It is better to compensate for the losses. In the eyes of the businessmen, Haihan's conditions indicate that there is at least room for negotiation. Using force to solve the current deadlock will only worsen the situation. The wealthy businessmen whose interests have been harmed are all using their own ways to deal with Hangzhou.

Officials in the city lobbied, hoping that the government would change its attitude and start peace talks with Haihan as soon as possible.

At this moment, a life-saving straw finally appeared in front of the officials who were about to drown. Qu Yutong, the prefect of Ningbo, sent people to cross the Qiantang River by land via Shaoxing Prefecture and across the upper reaches of the Qiantang River to Hangzhou, delivering an official document asking for help.

He went to negotiate with the Haihan people outside Hangzhou to resolve the crisis in Zhejiang. Qu Yutong's capital for voluntarily coming forward was his experience of dealing with the Haihan people many times in the past year - which was originally considered by Zhejiang senior officials.

Flaws have now become an opportunity to save the situation.

Although many people had criticized Qu Yutong's position before, when the two countries were at war, they could take the initiative to ask envoys to go to the enemy-controlled areas to negotiate, even if they didn't like him.

It is difficult for people to criticize this kind of courage. At least among the people in Hangzhou who clamored to fight and kill, no one dared to go out of the city as envoys to visit the Haihan Army on the Qiantang River.

The chief envoy Wang Ji was originally inclined to find an opportunity to replace Qu Yutong's current position and ask the court to find an official with a tougher attitude to serve in Ningbo Prefecture in order to change the situation where Haihan did whatever he wanted in the local area. But after these few days of armed force

Conflicts arose, and he gradually realized how troublesome it was to deal with the Haihan people. Haihan had settled off the coast of Ningbo for more than a year, and there had never been any trouble in Ningbo. It was not easy to do this.

After the Ming army suffered successive setbacks, no one in Hangzhou dared to stand up and take responsibility. Qu Yutong was very thoughtful in taking the initiative to step forward and ask for help at this critical moment.

Of course, considering the face issues of some people, Wang Ji politely held another meeting and informed the military of Qu Yutong's suggestion. Although Liu Feng and others were unwilling to accept it, they also knew that the current situation had

There is no room for any more mistakes. Even if the Haihan people cannot capture Hangzhou, if this confrontation continues for a few more days, they will not be able to hide it from the court. The top priority is to get the Haihan troops to withdraw as soon as possible. At this time, there can be no more

Consider the conflict between different political views.

At the meeting a few days ago, there were quite a few people shouting and killing, but this time no one insisted on using force to resolve the existing disputes. Although some people still expressed doubts about Qu Yutong’s purpose of choosing this time to come forward.

Doubtful and unwilling to trust his ability to solve the crisis, but at this time no one can come up with a more practical and effective solution. To put it harshly, letting Qu Yutong come forward is already a bit like treating a dead horse as a live doctor.

If Qu Yutong also fails, then Wang Ji will have no choice but to completely break his face and complain to the court so that he can mobilize more troops from neighboring provinces to deal with the Haihan Army.

So with very little opposition, Wang Ji decided to immediately appoint Qu Yutong, the prefect of Ningbo, as a special envoy for negotiations to represent the Zhejiang government and contact Haihan. Wang Ji drafted the relevant appointment documents in his own hand at the meeting, and then

Immediately ordered the messenger who accompanied him to deliver the official document to return to Ningbo via the same route so that Qu Yutong could set off as early as possible.

While the officials in Hangzhou were uneasy, Qu Yutong was hosting a family banquet in his courtyard to entertain the secretly visiting Haihan envoys. In this great drama performed by the Haihan army, Ningbo Mansion was not affected.

Due to too much harassment, Haihan's army only briefly stayed at the mouth of the Yongjiang River, then left Ningbo and entered Hangzhou Bay. From then on, Haihan's progress in each state capital was reported every day by Haihan's special envoy.

This also allowed Qu Yutong to have an excellent grasp of the execution status of the entire operation.

As for the documents to be submitted to Hangzhou City, they have actually been drafted a long time ago, and they are just waiting for Haihan to notify him of a suitable time to send them over. Qu Yutong has now completely boarded Haihan's ship, regardless of the direction of the ship.

No matter what, he could only follow him as a passenger. Fortunately, Haihan did not break his promise. He set up camp at the foot of Hangzhou City and did not take the initiative to take offensive measures.

This also made Qu Yutong, who was worried about the Haihan people pretending to be a fake attack on Hangzhou, finally relieved. He knew very well that as long as the big bosses in Hangzhou found that they could not defeat the Haihan army, they would try to evade responsibility and seek help from the imperial court.

Concealing the chaos here, they just want to solve the war crisis, and they still lack a reliable communication channel. At this time, if Qu Yutong comes forward to be the peacemaker to solve the crisis, he will gain a lot whether it is goodwill or credit.

Haihan's role has almost been played, and now it's time for him to appear as a character.
Chapter completed!