Chapter 104 Beacon fire plays on the princes

But at this moment, a Jiala Ezhen led a panting cavalryman to the three people and said nervously: "Your Majesty Khan, urgent military information from Shenyang!"

"Emergency military information?" Huang Taiji was startled, and hurriedly looked at the cavalryman and asked, "What happened in Shenyang?"

The cavalryman knelt down and replied, "Your Highness, Mao Wenlong of the Southern Dynasty led a large army to land and attacked Haizhou, Anshan, and Dongjing (Liaoyang), and the front line was heading straight to Shengjing!"

Huang Taiji heard this, and the fat on his brows was squeezed into a small mountain. "Have Haizhou, Anshan and Dongjing been conquered?"

The cavalryman was stunned when he heard this, and then replied: "No, in fact, Mao Wenlong just circled outside the city and pretended to attack, but when our army went out of the city to fight, they ran away again."

Dorgon laughed and said, "I understand. This must be a conspiracy of the Southern Dynasty!"

"You want Mao Wenlong to damage the morale of our army, so that we can defeat it in one fell swoop at the Daling River! Humph, how childish!"

However, Huang Taiji did not agree with Dorgon's opinion, but asked again: "How many troops did Mao Wenlong bring?"

The cavalryman thought for a moment and replied, "It should be around 30,000."

Huang Taiji finally turned his neckless head towards the cavalryman after hearing this and asked in a dull voice, "Are they all wearing armor?"

This time the cavalryman did not pause and immediately replied: "They are all standard cotton armor of the Ming army. There are not many iron armors."

"Not good!" Huang Taiji suddenly slapped the carriage and said angrily: "Nan Chao is so good, he actually wants to play a trick of making a feint to the east and attacking in the west!"

After Huang Taiji roared, he immediately shouted: "Immediately order the entire army to retreat!"

The Jiala Ezhen was stunned for a moment, but he immediately clasped his fists in fear of Huang Taiji's majesty.

The order to return was immediately heard by everyone.

Seeing this, Dorgon said anxiously: "Fourth brother, if we go back now, we will fall into the Southern Dynasty's evil plan!"

Huang Taiji rarely showed a trace of anxiety, and only explained after confirming that the army had begun to retreat: "Have you heard of the story of the beacon fire to trick the princes?"

"It's just that we were treated as King You of Zhou this time!"

"What do you mean by lighting beacons to trick the princes?" Dorgon was stunned.

Duoduo also blurted out: "It's not mentioned in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms?"

Huang Taiji said in an angry tone: "Although the Han language is obscure and difficult to understand, I have long advised you to read more Han books besides Romance of the Three Kingdoms when you have time. It is good for your brain, but you just don't listen..."

Dorgon said impatiently: "Fourth brother is right. Now tell us the story of the beacon-fire trick on the princes."

Huang Taiji snorted coldly and told the story of lighting beacons to trick the princes. Then he said, "This time, the Southern Dynasty has treated Shengjing (Shenyang) as King You of Zhou, and Haizhou, Anshan and Dongjing, which are closest to Shengjing, as princes who are loyal to the king!"

"Mao Wenlong pretended to attack the city, so the three cities of Haizhou closed their gates for defense. They were afraid that they would fall into Mao Wenlong's trick of luring the tiger away from the mountain, so they did not dare to let the army pursue too far."

"At the same time, Mao Wenlong's actions of alerting the enemy but not attacking will also give the three cities the impression that Mao Wenlong is only here to harass them and would never dare to use real weapons." "In this way, when they really attack Shengjing, Haizhou, Anshan and Dongjing will think that Mao Wenlong is just pretending, and they will be afraid of being tricked into leaving the tiger behind, and will never send troops to support Shengjing!"

Duoduo was young and still hadn't figured things out, so he asked, "But Mao Wenlong's fighting ability is average. Even if we withdraw troops from Shengjing because of our expedition to Chahar, it's definitely not something the Ming army can easily break through, right?"

Huang Taiji snorted coldly and said, "Didn't you hear me ask that cavalryman how many soldiers Mao Wenlong has and whether they are armored?"

Dorgon was the first to react and said in shock, "Fourth brother, do you mean that Mao Wenlong is sending out all his elite troops this time?"

Huang Taiji nodded and said, "Yes, Mao Wenlong was able to establish Dongjiang Town with only 200 people. It is clear that he is not an easy person to deal with!"

"In the past, they collapsed as soon as they met us because they were afraid of losing face and didn't want to fight with our army. In the past, some of them were armored and some were clothed. Sometimes there were more clothed. From a distance, they looked more like refugees than soldiers."

"However, this time, all 30,000 soldiers and horses were wearing armor. It can be seen that Mao Wenlong brought all his family's assets with him. If he didn't have some big plan, with Mao Wenlong's personality, he would never take the risk of bringing all his family's belongings with him!"

Dorgon and the other two were shocked when they heard this, and blurted out in unison: "The Ming people are indeed cunning!"

After saying this, Dorgon and Dodo immediately dispersed and went forward to urge the army to advance, fearing that if they were a step slower, Shengjing would be captured.

Wang An and Chongzhen, who were far away in the capital, would never have imagined that their actions would accidentally make Huang Taiji mistakenly believe that the Ming court was aiming at Shenyang.

Jiang Yueguang would never have imagined that because of his dedicated work as a "military supervisor" and his insistence on having Mao Wenlong's army march out in full force to make a big fuss, Huang Taiji would have misunderstood his intentions.

All in all, Huang Taiji's misjudgment was simply a series of coincidences that happened to come together.

Because Yuan Chonghuan took up his post ahead of schedule, the entire Liaodong strategic policy towards the Later Jin was changed.

Because the strategic policy changed, Zu Dashou entered Jinzhou City ahead of schedule. Coincidentally, General Zhu Mei resigned due to illness, so Yuan Chonghuan let Zu Dashou take charge of Zhu Mei's troops.

It was precisely because Zu Dashou led Zhu Mei's troops that the number of people who came to rescue the Dorote tribe exceeded 20,000!
It was precisely because there were too many people that Huang Taiji and others mistakenly believed that this was a conspiracy set up by Kharachin and the Ming Dynasty!

Also, because Chongzhen told Jiang Yueguang that Huang Taiji would soon attack Chahar, he ordered him to supervise Mao Wenlong to send troops to harass.

Originally Chunzhen just wanted to make Huang Taiji cautious and not dare to attack the Duoloth tribe with all his strength, but he didn't expect that because of Jiang Yueguang's dedication and responsibility, Mao Wenlong was able to send out all his elite troops.

And because Mao Wenlong's original intention was just to harass, he just bluffed around the three cities of Haizhou, making Huang Taiji outsmart himself and think that this was the Ming Dynasty's strategy of "playing tricks on the princes by lighting beacons"!
It can be said that this series of coincidences led to Chongzhen achieving results far beyond his expectations.

At this time, Zu Dashou, Gulu and others who were on high alert looked at Huang Taiji in amazement as he suddenly turned around and withdrew his troops. They looked at each other in confusion, not knowing what was going on.

Dorjihatan even felt like he was about to pee, and the corners of his mouth couldn't help but rise.

Great, no need to fight!

The entire battlefield was eerily silent for a long time, and Gu Lu suddenly turned around and looked at Zu Dashou.

(End of this chapter)