Whether Zhu Ni possessed magical abilities was unknown to Fu Huan, but Fu Huan knew that the imperial envoy Agui had been scared witless, startled into a quail by the slightest disturbance.
This wouldn't do. Fukanggan was waiting to be rescued, and His Majesty was awaiting news of victory in the capital. If the imperial envoy was incapacitated, how could the subsequent battle be fought?
The mere thought of battle made Fu Huan's head ache.
Given the combat effectiveness of our Great Qing army…
After hesitating for a while longer, Fu Huan finally spoke, "What do you intend to do about the deserters?"
Agui felt as though Fu Huan was twisting the knife in his gut.
If this imperial envoy knew what to do, why would he have called you here for a discussion? It's precisely because this imperial envoy has no good ideas that I've called you to discuss it!
After carefully considering, Agui tentatively asked, "Why don't we ask His Majesty to dispatch the Solon troops?"
Fu Huan shook his head and said, "Although the Solon troops are formidable and should be dispatched, distant waters cannot quench a nearby fire. Fukanggan is currently in Zhu Ni's hands. By the time the Solon troops arrive…"
Fukanggan would likely be dead and cold.
If that were to happen, Agui, the imperial envoy, would certainly fall out of favor, and Fu Huan, the Grand Scholar, would not escape unscathed.
After all, everyone in our Great Qing knew that Fukanggan was the apple of Qianlong's eye. If he hadn't been born outside the palace and his mother hadn't been a noble consort, the position of Crown Prince would likely have been Fukanggan's.
At this thought, Fu Huan and Agui sighed simultaneously, then stared blankly at each other.
After a long silence, Agui sighed helplessly and said, "The only solution now is to drink poison to quench thirst."
Fu Huan, not understanding, asked, "What method is there to drink poison to quench thirst?"
Agui said, "When the deserters hadn't appeared, I planned for us to proceed cautiously, marching twenty li each day to conserve the soldiers' strength and to guard against Zhu Ni's ambushes."
"But now it seems that by the time we reach Zichuan, more than half of our twelve thousand troops might have scattered, and then it will truly be beyond recovery."
"Therefore, we will promise them high positions and generous rewards while accelerating our march. Every deserter we can reduce is one less. If the situation isn't too dire, we might still have around eighty thousand troops by the time we reach Zichuan."
"Once we arrive, we will force Zhu Ni's army back into Zichuan county and then besiege them without attacking."
"By merely encircling the city and not attacking, even through attrition, we can wear down Zhu Ni's army. If we are ambushed by Zhu Ni halfway there, there is nothing we can do. Besides facing death heroically for our king, I can think of no other recourse."
Fu Huan nodded, tacitly approving Agui's proposal.
This was the only feasible plan in an impossible situation. After all, the combat effectiveness of our Great Qing army was what it was, and the rate of desertion was also a factor. Doing this might offer a glimmer of hope; not doing it would mean waiting for the army to disperse and facing execution by His Majesty.
With this in mind, Fu Huan began to discuss promises of high positions and generous rewards with Agui, such as the amount of bounty for rescuing Fukanggan, the bounty for killing a rebel, and how promotions would be granted for meritorious service.
In short, within their authority, they promised as much money and as high positions as possible.
However, before they could reach any conclusions, Agui's personal guard, who had been waiting outside the tent, rushed in, knelt and kowtowed, saying, "Reporting to my lord, our brethren on rear guard duty have suddenly been attacked by Zhu Ni's bandits!"
Agui shot up from his chair and asked repeatedly, "What is the situation? Have you captured Zhu Ni?"
Agui's question left the soldier unsure of what to say.
Capture Zhu Ni? Didn't his lord know how incompetent the Great Qing army was, especially the Green Standard Army serving as rear guard?
After secretly scoffing, the soldier replied, "Reporting to my lord, by the time I received the news, Zhu Ni had already retreated. Our brethren's casualties were not heavy, however, Zhu Ni left a message before departing, saying…"
Agui's heart trembled, and he asked, "What did Zhu Ni say?"
The soldier's body trembled as he replied, "Zhu Ni left word that Lord Fu would be waiting on the city gate tower of Zichuan to be dried by the wind, and that he wasn't sure if Lord Fu would still be… still…"
Agui slumped back into his chair dejectedly, waving his hand to dismiss the soldier.
Still what? He certainly meant he wasn't sure if Fukanggan would still be alive by the time he and Grand Scholar Fu arrived in Zichuan with the army.
A perfectly fine person, hung on the city gate tower to dry, would likely die within two days. And could he and Fu Huan lead tens of thousands of troops to Zichuan within two days?
Agui exchanged glances with Fu Huan, and both saw the frustration in each other's eyes.
Even by accelerating their marching speed, it would take about three days to reach Zichuan. Unless the ten thousand cavalry charged straight for Zichuan without regard for anything else, or abandoned all the army's supplies and rushed to Zichuan, they might reach it in two days or even one.
The problem was, even if the ten thousand cavalry could reach Zichuan in one day, it would be useless because they couldn't expect cavalry to attack a city.
Similarly, if they chose to abandon all the army's supplies, reaching Zichuan in one day would also be useless because without artillery and provisions, the battle couldn't be fought.
What if they simply increased their marching speed?
Simply increasing their marching speed wouldn't be of much use either. According to a pace of forty li per day, it would take three or even four days to reach Zichuan, by which time Fukanggan would likely be long dead.
Furthermore, a constant increase in marching speed meant that the rear guard would inevitably face harassment from Zhu Jinsong, and even if the Green Standard Army responsible for covering the rear didn't collapse, the number of deserters would greatly increase.
What was even more frustrating was that even if Agui hardened his heart, disregarded Fukanggan's life and his own, it wouldn't solve the problem.
Because even if the marching speed wasn't increased, the Green Standard Army would still produce a large number of deserters, and it was possible that the Eight Banners soldiers would also be led astray by the Green Standard soldiers.
This situation, no matter how one looked at it, was a certain death trap.
After contemplating for a while, Agui could only sigh helplessly and say to Fu Huan, "Let's speed up the march. Drinking poison to quench thirst doesn't necessarily mean death."
Fu Huan also nodded helplessly and said, "We can only do so."
However, to Agui's dismay, once they accelerated their march, Zhu Jinsong, this paramount rebel, would occasionally ambush the Green Standard Army responsible for the rear guard. If Agui sent out the Eight Banners cavalry for reconnaissance, Zhu Jinsong, the traitor, would get ahead of the army and lay landmines.
It was simply impossible to guard against.
Agui couldn't understand how Zhu Ni managed to ambush the rear-guard Green Standard Army and then run to the front to lay mines when he had tens of thousands of troops. The army's head and tail were two to three li apart.
What was even more infuriating was that Zhu Jinsong, this unscrupulous rebel leader, was truly dishonorable.
If he lays mines, well, Agui couldn't control Zhu Ni's movements, but this dishonorable rebel leader, after each mine-laying, would not forget to erect a sign reminding Agui of the landmines.
And this sign was usually placed close to the direction of Zichuan.
This meant that only after being blown up once and passing through the minefield could Agui's scouts see the warning signs that Zhu Jinsong had erected in advance.
This was simply too much bullying!
Later, Agui and Fu Huan decided to have the civilian porters transporting military supplies serve as scouts, while the Green Standard soldiers would transport the supplies and provisions.
After all, they didn't care if a few porters were blown up, and it would also appease the Green Standard Army and slow down the rate of desertion among the Green Standard soldiers.
When this method of forcing civilian porters to scout ahead was implemented, Zhu Jinsong, that unscrupulous fellow, did indeed stop laying landmines, but he changed his tactics and began to constantly engage in long-range sniping.
At first, Agui and Fu Huan thought about sending the Eight Banners cavalry to pursue. After all, only a few hundred people were involved in each sniping incident, and the Manchu cavalry numbered ten thousand. Even by sheer numbers, they could overwhelm the Zhu surname.
However, Agui and Fu Huan never expected that Zhu Jinsong, that unscrupulous rebel leader, was too dishonorable. As soon as he saw the Manchu cavalry in the distance, he would immediately flee, showing no intention of engaging with them.
As a result, the number of Green Standard soldiers deserting again increased, as no one wanted to be shot and killed while marching.
Therefore, by the time Agui led his troops to the west bank of the Xiaofu River, the original twelve thousand strong army had dwindled to just over fifty thousand, but less than sixty thousand.
However, the truly despairing plot for Agui and Fu Huan was just beginning.
Initially, Agui and Fu Huan thought that since they had reached the Xiaofu River, they should eliminate the rebels on the opposite bank. After all, they had hundreds of cannons combined, and even if each cannonball killed one rebel, their cannonballs could essentially devastate the enemy on the other side.
But when the battle actually commenced, Agui and Fu Huan discovered that it was not at all like that.
The number of cannons they possessed was indeed large, and the number of cannons deployed by the rebel army was also not many. In terms of quantity, their side held a significant advantage.
However, cannons are about power, not numbers.
In terms of range, the cannons produced at Menglianggu were slightly longer than those held by Agui and Fu Huan. In terms of power, Agui and Fu Huan's cannons used solid shot, while Menglianggu used explosive shells mixed with a large amount of nails and gravel, making their destructive power also slightly greater than that of Agui and Fu Huan's cannons.
It was precisely this slight edge in range and power that caused Agui and Fu Huan to suffer consecutive losses despite their numerical advantage, and the number of Green Standard soldiers deserting surged.
After a brief two-day standoff with the rebel forces on the east bank of the Xiaofu River, Agui and Fu Huan were left with less than thirty thousand troops.
Among these thirty thousand troops, the Eight Banners cavalry numbered ten thousand, the Eight Banners infantry eight thousand, the Green Standard soldiers only four thousand, and the remaining several thousand were porters.
Agui, the imperial envoy, was worried, and Fu Huan, Fukanggan's nominal father, was equally worried, both of them pulling their hair out in handfuls.
Of course, there was one piece of good news that could somewhat comfort the worried Agui and Fu Huan, and that was that Fukanggan had not been hung on the city gate tower to be dried by the wind as Zhu Xiaosong had claimed.
This meant that Fukanggan was likely still alive.
However, as they were worrying, a rather bold idea suddenly popped into Agui's mind. After careful consideration, Agui found his idea to be quite plausible.
After mentally organizing his words, Agui said, "Brother Fu Huan, don't you think we've both been thinking about this the wrong way?"
Fu Huan was stunned and asked, not understanding, "What have we been thinking about the wrong way?"
Agui said, "You say, what was Zhu Ni's motive for killing officials and rebelling? Was it truly just for those commoners? Do you believe such a thing?"
Fu Huan shook his head and said, "Of course I don't believe such a thing. As the Water Margin says, killing officials and rebelling is only for appeasement. If you told me Zhu Ni wanted to be emperor, I might…"
Before he could utter the word "believe," Fu Huan suddenly froze.
That's right, as the Water Margin says, killing officials and rebelling is only for appeasement.
Even if Zhu Jinsong, that rebel leader, had the ambition to be emperor, wouldn't fighting wars always carry risks? Could Zhu Jinsong guarantee that he would live to become emperor?
Therefore, as long as you, Zhu Jinsong, are willing to accept appeasement and acknowledge our Great Qing court, then our Great Qing court will not have to go through the trouble of suppressing bandits, and you, Zhu, will not have to risk your life. Isn't that for the best?
At most, this Grand Scholar and I, Grand Scholar Agui, will jointly submit a memorial to His Majesty, requesting that His Majesty enfeoff you, Zhu Jinsong, as Prince of Qi or Prince of Lu or some other hereditary prince, and grant you a fiefdom to do as you please. What does Prince Zhu think of this offer?