Outside Ningyuan City.

The messenger sent by Dorgon was reporting to Hauge: "Prince Su, Prince Rui has arrived in Gaizhou."

"Oh, the Jinzhou area!" Hauge responded casually.

"It's not Jinzhou, it's Gaizhou," the messenger corrected.

"Gaizhou?" Haoge's head was full of question marks: "The court's order is to support Ningyuan and Tashan, why is he going to Gaizhou?"

The messenger said seriously: "Prince Rui followed the imperial order and led the navy to Tashan to provide assistance. Unexpectedly, they were ambushed by the Ming navy on the way. After a fierce battle, the Eight Banners navy suffered heavy losses. Prince Rui himself was also wounded by an arrow and bled profusely. He was forced to retreat to Gaizhou to recuperate."

Haoge's body shook uncontrollably, and he asked in disbelief, "You just said that Prince Rui and the Eight Banners Navy...were defeated?"

"Yes, Prince Rui suffered heavy casualties and has now retreated to the Gaizhou area," the messenger replied.

"Retreat to Gaizhou?" Hauge still had some doubts.

At this time, the envelope had been opened. He did not read the contents of the letter immediately, but first identified the handwriting and checked the authenticity of the seal.

Only after confirming that it was a handwritten letter from Dorgon did he begin to read its contents.

After reading the contents of the letter, Hauge was completely stunned.

He never expected that Dorgon came so quickly and was defeated even faster.

Is the navy really so vulnerable?

At this moment he didn't realize that he had been tricked.

With this question, Hauge found Man Dahai.

He first showed the other party Dorgon's handwritten letter.

After reading the contents of the letter, Man Dahai's eyebrows twisted into a knot, "Prince Rui arrived in time and was defeated quickly. He is worthy of being the first-class prince of the Qing Dynasty!"

Haoge was stunned and asked hurriedly: "What do you mean?"

"If I'm not mistaken, Prince Rui lost on purpose." Man Dahai said with a frown.

"Defeat on purpose?" Hauge stretched out his right hand and tugged at the braid on his head. "No way? We have to bear corresponding responsibilities for retreating without fighting and for defeat, otherwise we wouldn't have spent so much effort planning a retreat. Dorgon has been demoted once, isn't he afraid of being demoted again?"

"Prince Rui is not afraid"

"Why?"

"Because there is no one available in the court!"

"The Qing Dynasty is full of talented people. When did there come out no one available?" Hauge said dissatisfiedly.

"Your Highness is wrong!" Man Dahai sighed, "The navy is a mess. Not only does it waste money and food, but it rarely wins battles against the Ming army. The navy commander not only cannot gain credit from the navy, but will be implicated if it loses a battle. It is precisely because of this that other people are unwilling to take over the navy, and finally handed it over to Prince Rui."

"If the court holds Prince Rui responsible, he can just resign as the commander-in-chief of the navy. But no one is willing to take over the navy, so the court will not hold him responsible."

"To put it another way, Prince Rui was demoted once, and at that time he lost everything except his princely title! But even then, he still managed to rise again. The worst that can happen after this defeat is that he will be demoted again. With his connections, it is only a matter of time before he rises again!"

When it comes to the word "relationship", Hauge shook his head helplessly.

Although he had some connections in the court, they were nothing compared to Dorgon's.

"Fuck it," Hauge was so angry that he started swearing.

"Wait," Hauge suddenly remembered something, "Why would Dorgon deliberately lose the battle? It doesn't make sense!"

"Alas," Man Dahai sighed, "Your Majesty, have you not figured out the intentions of the imperial court yet?"

"What intention?"

"The court knew that we were asking for more troops but actually wanted to withdraw them, and they also knew that we wanted to shift the responsibility of withdrawing the troops to the court. But the court didn't point it out, after all, it was a tacit agreement, so Prince Rui and the navy came."

"Their arrival means that the court has met our request for reinforcements. If we lose the battle again or have to retreat, the responsibility has nothing to do with the court, but will be borne by you and me," Man Dahai said meaningfully.

Haoge stared and thought for a while: "Wait, this is a bit messy, let me sort it out!"

"Your Highness, please take your time. There is no rush." Man Dahai stood by and thought about the follow-up countermeasures.

After an unknown amount of time, Haoge finally figured out the interests involved. He stared at Man Dahai and asked, "So... the imperial court wants to force us to withdraw our troops?"

"That's about right."

"How should we respond?" Hauge asked.

"This..." Man Dahai said with some difficulty: "The situation of our army in Ningyuan is becoming increasingly difficult. Without reinforcements, we can only... retreat."

He didn't want to say the word "retreat" in front of Hauge, after all, it would give others an advantage.

"Retreat would be the best strategy, but the Ming army is pressing on us relentlessly. How can we retreat?" Hauge was in a dilemma.

"There is a way, but..." Man Dahai only said half of the sentence.

"It's already this time and you're still being fussy. Just say whatever you want to say." Hauge said angrily.

"Select a group of death warriors to stay in the city to contain the Ming army and live and die with the city. The rest of the troops should cover each other and retreat in batches." Man Dahai replied.

"Where are the supplies?" Hauge asked, "We have stored a large amount of supplies in Ningyuan City. We can't just abandon them all, right?"

"Take away what you can, and leave what you can't take away to the soldiers guarding the city."

Haoge thought seriously for a while and shook his head slowly: "Not appropriate."

"Please enlighten me, Prince Su." Man Dahai was a little dissatisfied.

"The defeat is like a landslide. Once the news of our retreat spreads, our army may suffer a crushing defeat like the Ming army in the Battle of Songjin." Hauge said with great concern.

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