Man Dahai was almost choked to death by Haoge's words. He coughed and said, "Prince Su, please don't make such jokes in the future. It's not funny at all."
"Then why are you holding him and spinning around?" Haoge pointed at the clerk in Man Dahai's arms.
Only then did Man Dahai realize that he was still holding someone in his arms. He hurriedly put the clerk down and walked back to the central military tent.
Hauge followed behind, subconsciously keeping a certain distance from Man Dahai.
He wasn't afraid, he just felt a little disgusted.
Man Dahai pretended not to notice and whispered, "There is a word 'Lu' in the words of the clerk just now. This word reminds me of a person who can help us withdraw our troops from Ningyuan calmly."
"who?"
"Zhu Yihai, the Prince of Lu of the Ming court." Man Dahai paused and said, "In the first year of Shunzhi, we entered the pass to plunder and captured the entire family of Prince Lu when we conquered Yanzhou. After returning to Shengjing, the imperial court discussed with the Ming court to exchange the entire family of Prince Lu for the bodies of Ajige, Ebilun and other soldiers who died in the battle."
"The Ming court said that we could change him, but we had to sacrifice our ancestor's birthday. Because of the different opinions, the matter was eventually dropped."
"We can bring this up again now! We can stop the fighting in the name of negotiation. As long as we can stop the fighting, we will have a chance to withdraw our troops."
"Zhu Yihai..." Haoge repeated the name several times softly: "Zhu Yihai is a useless person, there is no problem in handing him over. As for Zu Dashou... the court will probably not agree to hand him over."
"It doesn't matter whether the imperial court agrees or not, as long as the Ming army is fooled." Man Dahai raised the corners of his mouth.
"What if the imperial court doesn't agree, and the Ming army doesn't fall for it?" Hauge asked with his eyes wide open.
"Then... let the court collect our bodies." Man Dahai's voice echoed in the tent.
boom!
The sound of artillery fire rang out, and the Ming army and the Eight Banners soldiers began another brutal battle.
Both sides dug and filled ditches while attacking and harassing each other.
Soldiers die every day.
In order to stop the advance of the Ming army, Hauge racked his brains and even considered the Ningyuan Donghe River.
He connected the trench with the Ningyuan East River, turning the trench into a river to block the advance of the Ming army.
This tactic really worked and slowed down the Ming army's advance again.
On the evening of July 7, the news that Hauge and Man Dahai requested to exchange the remains reached Shengjing.
There were differences of opinion within the Eight Banners on whether to hand over Zu Dashou.
Some agreed to hand over Zu Dashou, believing that there was no point in Zu Dashou continuing to stay in Shengjing. It would be better to send him to Wu Sangui to fight for control of the Guanning Army and weaken its combat effectiveness.
Some people disagreed, after all, there were many generals of the Zu family within the Eight Banners of Han.
Once Zu Dashou leaves, the loyalty of these people may be in question.
The two sides argued endlessly over this issue.
While the rear is talking, the front is bleeding.
Hauge waited for three days but received no news. In desperation, he took the initiative to send someone to negotiate with Wang Yongji.
It was said to be a negotiation, but in reality it was a deception.
He hoped that the Ming army would be tricked into stopping the fighting.
But he greatly underestimated the minds of the literati in the Ming Dynasty.
"Are you willing to exchange the entire family of Prince Lu and Zu Dashou for the remains of Ajige and others?" Wang Yongji asked the messenger, staring at him.
"Yes," the messenger replied.
"You had been disagreeing before, why did you suddenly agree?" Wang Yongji looked shrewd.
"Zu Dashou is old and may die at any time. To you, he still has some value while he is alive. If he dies, you will make other demands to make up for this value." The messenger replied.
"Okay, I understand." Wang Yongji said expressionlessly.
"Does Governor Wang agree with this plan?"
"This governor cannot make the decision on this matter. I need to consult the court."
"Please reply as soon as possible."
"Don't be in a hurry, wait slowly, fight while you wait!"
"Goodbye." The messenger left reluctantly.
After the messenger left, Wang Yongji immediately issued a death order to all his troops: monitor the Jiannu camp outside Ningyuan City day and night to prevent them from escaping at night.
As the commander-in-chief of the three armies, he keenly guessed from the news that Hauge intended to withdraw his troops.
The Jiannu could retreat, provided that they left behind enough corpses.
He wanted to stick to the opponent by means of persistence, making it impossible for Hauge to move forward or backward.
As for the news brought by the messenger, Wang Yongji was too lazy to distinguish the truth from the false and directly relayed the original words to the court.
There are many capable people in the court, let them guess.
When the news reached the capital, Chongzhen was holding a court meeting.
From the pacification of Liao to the present day, Chongzhen has faced tremendous pressure every day.
First of all, money and food.
The 160,000-strong army consumes a lot of food and fodder every day.
Secondly, there are military supplies such as war horses, gunpowder, and projectiles.
In addition to these, we also need to prepare cotton clothes for the army for the winter.
Every time Chongzhen saw the joint memorial from the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Revenue, and the Ministry of Works, his head would buzz.
Just a casual sketch would cost hundreds of thousands or even millions of taels of silver.
In addition to the worries about money, there was also the impeachment against Wang Yongji.
The Ping Liao army had been in Liao for nearly two months, but was blocked in the Ningyuan area and could not move forward.
The court officials didn't care about the situation on the scene. They only knew that Wang Yongji had not taken Ningyuan.
In their eyes, this is a sin!
If guilty, impeachment is necessary.
As a result, the censors and the secretaries jointly impeached Wang Yongji for fear of the enemy and improper command...
Chongzhen was not at the scene and he was not clear about the situation.
In order to find out whether Wang Yongji was guilty or not, Chongzhen obtained information through multiple channels.
Official documents from the Ministry of War, Wang Yongji's memorial, letters from the eunuch supervising the army, secret letters from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and family letters from Prince Ding Zhu Cijiong.
Through this information, Chongzhen believed that Wang Yongji was not at fault.
But the censors didn't listen at all. They kept impeaching each other every day, which made Chongzhen a little reluctant to go to court.
Fortunately, Wang Yongji's official document interrupted the censors' impeachment.
After Wang Chengen finished reading the contents of the document, Chongzhen asked, "What do you think?"
"I think the Jiannu want to use this method to cease fire in exchange for a brief peace, or take the opportunity to escape, or take the opportunity to rest." said Wang Jiayan, the Minister of War.
"I second the motion." The ministers stood up one after another.
"If the Jiannu did not lie, do you think their plan to exchange living people for dead people is feasible?" Chongzhen asked.
"I think that's fine."
"It's worth exchanging a pile of dead bones for Prince Lu and Zu Dashou."
"Your Majesty, please issue an order to Wang Yongji to bring back Prince Lu as soon as possible."
Looking at the excited looks of the ministers, Chongzhen smiled faintly: "I think it is not enough."
The cabinet chief Fan Jingwen raised his head, cupped his hands and asked, "What does your majesty mean?"
"Let Wang Yongji tell the Jiannu that for every day they delay, I will exchange one more living person for them, starting with the generals of the Zu clan."
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