The third day of May.
Dorgon led his troops to leave Jingcheng and head to Duanchuan City in the south to deploy defenses in advance.
Wu Sangui and Shang Kexi were left behind to stop the Ming army.
It is said to be a blockade, but in fact it is harassment.
For example, destroy roads and bridges in advance, deploy troops in key places, and rely on favorable terrain for defense.
Although there would not be many casualties, this order made Wu Sangui and Shang Kexi very unhappy.
After all of Dorgon's men had evacuated, Wu Sangui approached Shang Kexi and asked, "Brother Shang, are you free?"
Shang Kexi looked around and asked in a low voice: "What's the matter?"
"It's nothing serious, I just want to buy you a drink."
Shang Kexi was stunned at first, then waved his hand: "There is no need to drink, right? The Ming army will arrive soon, and drinking now will easily cause trouble."
"Don't worry," Wu Sangui assured, "The Ming army marches very slowly and won't be here in a moment. Even if they suddenly speed up their march, they can't escape the detection of my scouts. In order to avoid a surprise attack by the Ming army, I sent out a large number of scouts."
"Hmm..." Shang Kexi hesitated for a while, then nodded and agreed: "Okay, where should we go to drink?"
Wu Sangui pointed to his central military tent and said, "Go drink from me. I have a jar of good wine."
Shang Kexi mounted his horse and followed Wu Sangui into the camp.
The fireman set up the banquet as quickly as possible and then left.
Only Wu Sangui and Shang Kexi were left in the central military tent.
After drinking three glasses of wine, the two chatted while eating.
Wu Sangui was the first to speak: "The army is short of supplies, so the dishes are relatively simple. Please don't blame me, Brother Shang!"
Shang Kexi pointed at the eight dishes on the table and said, "Is this simple? What a sumptuous meal! I haven't eaten so many dishes since entering North Korea."
"Oh, it's hard to put it into words!" Wu Sangui sighed and picked up the wine glass: "Drink, drink!"
They both drank the wine in their glasses, refilled them and continued eating.
After eating a few bites, Wu Sangui put down his chopsticks and sighed again.
Shang Kexi also put down his chopsticks and asked seriously, "Why is Brother Wu sighing?"
Wu Sangui shook his head and replied: "The future is uncertain, how can I not sigh?"
"Ah!" Shang Kexi sighed, "Yeah, I can't see the future at all."
Wu Sangui saw that the time was ripe and asked in a low voice: "What do you think the emperor is thinking? If we keep fighting and retreating, we will eventually retreat to the seaside, and then there will be nowhere to retreat!"
Just when Shang Kexi was about to say something, he suddenly remembered something and immediately shut his mouth.
Wu Sangui keenly grasped this scene, and he coughed lightly: "Brother Shang, you treat me as an outsider!"
"What do you mean, Brother Wu?"
"You hesitated to speak just now. Obviously you are hiding something from me."
Shang Kexi took a deep breath and said slowly: "Well, there are no outsiders here anyway, I will tell you everything I know."
Wu Sangui immediately became interested: "I'm all ears."
Shang Kexi whispered, "The emperor may have to leave Korea."
"Leaving North Korea? To where?"
"It seems to be Dongfan. The exact time of departure has not been decided yet, but the trip to Dongfan by boat has been decided."
"No way?" Wu Sangui was very skeptical, "How did you know such an important thing?"
"I was the one who introduced Shi Lang to the emperor, so he and I have a pretty good relationship. He told me all these things in person."
Wu Sangui was even more puzzled: "How could he know such a thing?"
"Shi Lang was an old subordinate of Zheng Zhilong. The emperor asked him to write a letter to Zheng Zhilong, asking him to send a ship to pick him up."
Wu Sangui suddenly realized: "So that's it!"
The two raised their glasses again and drank the wine.
Putting down his wine glass, Wu Sangui had a new question: "What do you think...will we become abandoned pawns?"
"What do you mean by that?"
Wu Sangui's expression was solemn: "It will take at least a month for Shi Lang's letter to reach Fujian. Even if Zheng Zhilong immediately sends a ship to Korea, it will take another month. It will take two months in total. As we all know, the Ming army has entered Korea to fight. If Zheng Zhilong does not come or comes too late, we may have become ghosts under the knife of the Ming army by then!"
Shang Kexi thought for a while and replied: "In fact, we don't have to wait for Zheng Zhilong to come! The Koreans also have ships, and we can leave on their ships when the time comes!"
Wu Sangui snorted coldly: "North Korea does have ships, but most of them are coastal warships, and there are few ocean-going merchant ships. Not only are they not able to sail on the ocean, but the supplies and number of people they can carry at the same time are also limited. If you can't take everyone away, who do you think the emperor will leave behind?"
"This..." Shang Kexi stopped talking.
Within the Eight Banners.
The Manchus had the highest status, followed by the Mongols, and finally the Han people.
In other words, by then, these Han people will become abandoned.
Seeing the changing expression on Shang Kexi's face, Wu Sangui continued, "The Qing Dynasty has so many people, so many elite troops, but the emperor doesn't use any of them. Instead, he lets you and me block the Ming army from behind! Is this reuse and trust? To put it nicely, he is entrusting us with important tasks. To put it bluntly, he is using us as shields, charging in the front and retreating in the back!"
Shang Kexi slammed the table angrily: "They don't treat us as human beings at all!"
"That's right!" Wu Sangui personally filled Shang Kexi's glass with wine. "If you treated us as human beings, you wouldn't have made the plan to go to Dongfan without telling us."
"Damn it," Shang Kexi slammed the table again, "This is too much! This is too much! I'm so sincere to them, but they want to take my heart out. This is simply outrageous!"
"Brother Shang, calm down," Wu Sangui patted Shang Kexi on the back, "Since they are playing tricks on us, we should also hold back."
Shang Kexi turned around and asked, "Why do you keep a trick?"
Wu Sangui stepped forward and lowered his voice: "Whether it is Zheng Zhilong's ship or the Korean ship, the emperor will never let their people operate the warships. The Eight Banners soldiers are not good at naval warfare, nor can they operate warships. At that time, the task of steering the ship will fall on you, Brother Shang, and Geng Zhongming."
"If there is not enough space, you have to abandon the Eight Banners soldiers and let my people get on board!"
"This..." Shang Kexi hesitated, "In this case, how is it different from rebellion?"
"Rebel if you want!" Wu Sangui sneered, "The total strength of the Qing Dynasty is more than 8,000, and the Manchus and Mongols account for less than half of them. The rest are Han people! Why should we let them ride on our necks and shit on us?"
"But..." Shang Kexi was still a little hesitant.
Wu Sangui stood up and said sneerfully, "If you are willing to be their dog, I won't stop you. But I want to tell you that the Qing dynasty is doomed, and continuing to be their running dog will not end well. It is better to make plans early and leave yourself a way out!"
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