"Surrender? What surrender?" Dorgon's eyes widened: "I would rather die than surrender!"

Dorgon was not really not afraid of death, but he had no choice.

For others, surrender may mean survival.

But for the Qing emperor, surrender meant death.

So he couldn't surrender.

Not only should you not surrender, you should also find ways to make others surrender as well.

Only in this way can he save his life and maintain his rule.

But the Ming army had already attacked.

He knew that he could not confront the enemy head-on, so he could only think of other ways without surrendering.

to this end.

Dorgon turned his gaze to Fan Wencheng, hoping that he could give him some advice: "Mr. Fan, the Ming army has entered the court. How should we respond?"

Fan Wencheng had no idea, so he just lowered his head and remained silent.

Dorgon was a little angry. He raised his voice and said, "Mr. Fan, it was you who said there was enough food here that I agreed to enter Korea. Now the Ming army is chasing us. You can't just keep silent, right?"

Fan Wencheng's thoughts were already a little confused, and became even more confused under Dorgon's questioning.

He opened his mouth and kept repeating one word: "Minister...Minister..."

Hong Chengchou sarcastically said, "Mr. Fan, are you planning to surrender?"

Fan Wencheng immediately knelt down and kowtowed, saying, "Your Majesty, I have no intention of surrendering."

"Does Mr. Fan have any solution?"

"I have a plan, but I don't know if I should tell you."

"Hurry up and tell me."

"Yes," Fan Wencheng straightened up, "My method is to break up the troops into small pieces and hide them."

Hong Chengchou couldn't help asking: "What is breaking the whole into parts?"

"The Hamgyong Province area is mostly mountainous. We will disperse our forces to various mountains to hide our whereabouts. The Ming army can't go through all the trouble to search in the mountains, and there is no way to search! We will come out after the main force of the Ming army has left!"

"And then?" Hong Chengchou asked, "Since entering the court, there have been deserters every day. Have you ever thought about how many deserters will appear after the whole is broken down into smaller units?"

"Also, even if there aren't many deserters, how can you be sure that the Ming army won't go into the mountains to search for them?"

Fan Wencheng blushed and said, "Our army is short of manpower and cannot confront the Ming army head-on. We can only resort to this as a temporary measure."

Hong Chengchou found Fan Wencheng's weakness and immediately launched an attack: "A stopgap measure cannot be used to undermine our military strength. Our army's morale is low and people's hearts are unstable! We must stay together at this time, otherwise people's hearts will be scattered. Once people's hearts are scattered, everything will be over."

Hong Chengchou had led troops before and knew the importance of people's hearts.

He believed that if they followed Fan Wencheng's method, most people would desert.

Fan Wencheng's face flickered when he was confronted by Hong Chengchou, and he asked unhappily, "Then...then what do you say we should do?"

"Haha," Hong Chengchou sneered, ignoring Fan Wencheng, and said to Dorgon: "Your Majesty, I would like to ask Mr. Fan to step aside for a moment."

This move is intended to both belittle Fan Wencheng and show doubt about him.

Fan Wencheng was so angry that he almost exploded.

But Dorgon didn't care about these, he just wanted to solve the problem.

For this reason, he waved his hand towards Fan Wencheng and said, "Mr. Fan, go down and have a rest."

Although Fan Wencheng was helpless, he had no choice but to get up and leave.

As soon as he left, Hong Chengchou whispered, "Your Majesty, I think Korea is a place of trouble and we cannot stay here for long."

"Can't stay for long? Where else can we go?" Dorgon asked in a deep voice: "We can't return to Liaodong, right?"

"No," Hong Chengchou shook his head, "It's fine to go north and return to Liaodong, we can only go south."

"Go south? There's a vast ocean to the south of North Korea. We can't go into the ocean, right?"

"I mean to cross the sea to Dongfan (Taiwan)."

"Eastern Fan?"

"Yes, I heard from Shi Lang that the land there is fertile and the climate is pleasant, which is very suitable for recuperation. Most importantly, there are no Ming troops there, only some Western barbarians. As long as we go there, we can gain a foothold and confront the Ming court across the sea."

"Dongfan..." Dorgon began to think seriously.

This matter concerns the life and death of the Qing Dynasty and the Eight Banners, so he has to be cautious.

After an unknown amount of time, Dorgon slowly raised his head and said, "This plan is certainly feasible, but how do we get to Dongfan?"

Hong Chengchou lowered his voice and said: "We can ask Shi Lang to contact Zheng Zhilong to send a few ships, and we can take the ships with our troops to Dongfan."

Dorgon's eyes dimmed, "I'm afraid it's too late! The Ming army is coming in full force and will be at the gates of Jingcheng soon. Even if Zheng Zhilong agrees to send a ship, it will take at least two months to go back and forth. There is simply no time."

"We still have time," Hong Chengchou analyzed. "According to the deserters, the Ming army's goal is not to let anyone go, so their advance is very slow. All we have to do now is fight and retreat to delay for two months, and we can wait for Zheng Zhilong's fleet."

Dorgon pondered for a while, "If the Koreans don't betray us, let alone two months, even two years will be no problem. The only thing to worry about is that they will turn against us and surrender to the Ming army. In addition... it's hard to say about Zheng Zhilong, because he may not help us."

Hong Chengchou replied: "If we treat the Koreans as we did before, they may betray us. But if we tell them that the Qing Dynasty is willing to return Hamgyong Province and use money to buy grain ships, they will cooperate very much."

"The problem with Zheng Zhilong is also easy to solve. We can buy Korean ships and go to Dongfan ourselves. Let Shang Kexi, Geng Zhongming and other people who are familiar with warships take charge and sail south along the coastline of the Ming court."

......

Hong Chengchou talked a lot and Dorgon listened very carefully.

After Hong Chengchou finished speaking, Dorgon asked the last question: "Why did Mr. Hong ask Mr. Fan to recuse himself?"

"I suspect there is something wrong with him!" Hong Chengchou said bluntly.

"What's the problem?"

"At the beginning, we knew that entering Korea was a dead end, but Fan Wencheng still strongly recommended that Your Majesty come to Korea on the grounds of food and fodder. To put it nicely, it was ill-considered, and to put it bluntly, I am afraid that I am suspected of betraying you and the Qing Dynasty..."

In the past, Dorgon would not have believed such words.

But after arriving in North Korea, he found that the situation was much worse than he had imagined.

The huge psychological gap made him feel regretful.

But as an emperor, he cannot easily regret it.

The responsibility can only be put on Fan Wencheng.

Dorgon nodded heavily: "We will talk about this later. The most urgent task is to deal with the attack of the Ming army!"

After the two finished their conversation, other generals also came outside.

After some discussion, Dorgon decided to use the terrain and elite soldiers to block the Ming army and delay time.

The rest of the troops moved slowly southward, preparing to fight and retreat at the same time.

Send out two waves of messengers at the same time.

A group of people went to Korea to discuss the purchase of warships and food supplies with the Korean king.

Another group went to Fujian to contact Zheng Zhilong and asked him to send ships to Korea to transport the Eight Banners soldiers to Dongfan.