In the end, Di Chen chose to give it a gamble.
However, the moment Abatai entered the city, he pointed at Di Chen and chided, "Bastard slave, why did you not assist when you see our troops losing at the frontlines?"
Abatai's words were unreasonable to the max.
Dodo had personally ordered Di Chen to defend Yangzhou. The Battle of Jianye happened at night, and Yangzhou and Jianye were hundreds of miles apart. Even if Di Chen wanted to assist, he would not be able to make it in time.
Abatai was venting his frustration from the defeat onto Di Chen.
Di Chen had his own temper. Toward Dodo, Di Chen was still polite, but toward Abatai, Di Chen did not care. He said in a low tone, "Mind your words."
"What a slave, you still dare to talk back?" Abatai blew up.
If Di Chen did not say anything, Abatai would have just let the matter slide. However, Di Chen's attitude had totally infuriated Abatai.
Since the Qing army passed Shanhai Pass, there was no Han Chinese that dared to talk to them like that.
Abatai said without thinking, "Men, drag down this dog slave and give him 30 whips."
"Yes general!"
Abatai's personal troops were about to go up to capture Di Chen.
"Who dares?"
Lianpo, who was standing behind Di Chen, hollered. With a 'Shua!', instantly groups of Great Zhou palace guards arrived. In the blink of an eye, Abatai and his Personal Guards were surrounded.
Both sides drew their swords and pointed their bows at one another.
When Abatai saw that, his expression changed. Only then did he remember that Yangzhou city housed 100 thousand player troops. On the contrary, only 50 thousand Qing troops remained.
If they really fought, the Qing army would end up in total defeat.
However, if he gave in like that, he would lose all his face. Being in a tough situation, Abatai's face flushed red. Compared to Dodo, Abatai was just too inexperienced and too rash.
From the start till now, Di Chen was expressionless and was really calm.
Seeing Abatai's awkward expression, only then did Di Chen speak, "Remember, I am here to work with your army, and I'm not your slave. As long as I want to, none of you will walk out of Yangzhou today."
"What do you want?" Abatai retorted.
Di Chen shook his head in amusement, "It is not what I want but what the enemy wants. The Ming army is on their way here, yet we are still fighting amongst ourselves. What's the point? Are you not afraid of being laughed at."
Seeing that, Abatai asked, "What you're saying is?"
"Retreat!"
Di Chen explained simply, "We will not be able to defend Yangzhou. As for what decision we should make, we must seek advice from the Prince Regent."
"Okay!"
Abatai nodded, but the anger in his heart had not truly dissipated.
After coordinating everything, Di Chen and Abatai's forces did not waste any time and left Yangzhou. It was not that Di Chen was too anxious. Rather, it was that if Guo Ziyi blocked their way up north, they would not be able to go anywhere even if they wanted to.
Along with the Qing army retreating out of Yangzhou, the entire Battle Map entered its second phase.
Li Jing was really stable and calm. After leading the troops into Yangzhou, he was not in a rush to head up north. Instead, he liaised with Guo Ziyi's forces to totally take control of the Huai River region and reclaim lost land to ensure the safety of Jianye.
Only by taking down Huai River could the Ming army have the foundation and ability to fight an all-out war against the Qing army.
On the 13th day of the Battle Map, upon learning that the South Ming army not only took back Yangzhou but also cleared out the Huai River region, Great Xi emperor Zhang Xianzhong finally replied.
Both sides agreed, "After three days, officially proceed up north."
Yanjing.
The fall of Dodo's forces was a huge loss for Dorgon.
Different from history, in the Battle Map, after wiping out Great Shun, apart from the 100 thousand Dodo troops and the 50 thousand Abatai forces, the Qing Dynasty still had 400 thousand troops in the north.
Their army make up was comparatively complicated.
The most elite ones were the eight banner army, being split up into the Man eight banner, Meng eight banner, and Han eight banner. The Man eight banner army was made up of mainly Manchu cavalry at around 50 thousand. The Meng eight banner army were Mongol cavalry with around 50 thousand men.
As for the Han eight banner, it included Wu Sangui's army as well as the Great Ming army that surrendered, reaching a total of 150 thousand men.
The last portion were prisoners that the Qing army had captured when sweeping the north, and it included the remnants of the Great Shun army.
Apart from the Man and Meng eight banner armies, the other 300 thousand troops had their own problems, which was why Dorgon did not arrange them down south and kept them in the north.
However, he could not care so much anymore.
Dorgon saw through the entire situation. He knew that with their 150 thousand elites, to control the entire situation was like walking on thin ice.
If the battle went smoothly, their foundations would only become more and more stable.
But if it went badly, and the enemy saw their weakness, it might cause a chain reaction and bury the entire Great Qing.
The fall of Dodo's forces might have been such a spark.
The reason was that Dodo's forces were the absolute core of the Qing army. Out of the 100 thousand of them, 50 thousand were Man eight banner cavalry.
It was such an elite army that lost utterly outside of Jianye, getting one shot by the player army and revealing the weakness of the Qing army.
Compared to the dead 100 thousand troops, this was more lethal.
"It's difficult."
Dorgon was at a lost all of a sudden.
For starters, he was worried that Di Chen and his troops would leave Great Qing.
The strength of the players were on full display during the Battle of Jianye. At such a time, Di Chen's 100 thousand troops seemed more and more precious.
Luckily, the following good news made him heave a sigh of relief.
Di Chen did not abandon Great Qing and even showed magnanimity. Even after being humiliated by Abatai, he made the rational decision of leading his troops up north.
When he got the news, Dorgon special wrote a decree to praise Di Chen and rewarded him.
Toward Abatai, he was furious. "That idiot, he nearly cost us dearly. Why did Dodo die and not this idiot!"
Dorgon was already prepared to take away power from Abatai to calm down Di Chen.
It was easy to deal with smart people.
Di Chen's plot finally gained results. Taking the chance that Dorgon was trying to get into his good books, Di Chen raised a small request, which was that he wanted a personal item and a letter from Shunzhi Emperor.
With these two items, once the battle ended, no matter which Qing Dynasty emperor moved into Jingdu, he would owe Di Chen a huge favor.
That would make everything much easier.
At this stage, no matter what the final results of the Battle Map were, it would not matter because Di Chen had reached his goal. This also meant that before the final battle, he was at a position where he would not lose either way.
Such scheming was really exceptional.