I'm sure of the prosperous age of Kangxi and Qianlong!

Chapter 205 Huaiyang
The Ming army left Wan'an and galloped south along the Gan River.

It only took two days to arrive at Ganzhou Prefecture.

Ganzhou Mansion is also a city built in the Ganjiang River Basin.Moreover, it is still located at the intersection of three rivers.

It can be said that almost all the capital cities in Jiangxi states are built along Poyang Lake and the five major rivers.

The only exceptions are Jiujiang and Nan'an. The former is an important town on the Yangtze River, while the latter is backed by the three passes of Meiling and belongs to the pass city.

Under the city of Ganzhou Prefecture, Li Yong's plan to fight finally came to nothing.

I saw the iconic all-red military uniforms of the Ming army, and they came up from the Ganjiang River.

The officials of Ganzhou Prefecture, who had been waiting for Wang Shi for a long time, immediately opened the city to surrender without hesitation.Li Dengke asked them to defend Ganzhou before sending troops, but they had already forgotten about it when he returned to the army.

No, it can’t be said to be forgotten.

After all, it was the Ming Dynasty King who came, and they just didn't take Li Dengke with them when they surrendered.

Ganzhou Mansion, an important town in southern Jiangxi, was captured by the Ming army effortlessly.

Huang Dianxian, as the commander of the Fourth Army, personally received and appeased the officials of Ganzhou Prefecture.Immediately, he immediately wrote an emergency military report and sent it to Nanjing, requesting reinforcements.

Only Li Yong was not happy because there was no battle to fight.

The civil unrest in southern Jiangxi continued, but Huang Dian could not send out troops and could only defend the city.

Li Dengke, the commander-in-chief of Southern Jiangxi Province, did not know at this time that his hometown had been sacrificed by those civil servants.

……

Unlike southern Jiangxi and Huainan, the Seventh Army in Zhenjiang Prefecture can hardly be described as smooth.

The Qing army in the north had not done its full work, causing the remnants of the Bagua Sect to scatter in all directions.

One went deep into Shandong, and the other went south to Huaiyang.

Except for Huai'an, Yangzhou and other big cities that were not destroyed because they were difficult to fight, almost the entire Huaiyang area was succumbed to the Bagua Cult, and the Qing troops who pursued it caused great harm.

The bandits pass like a comb, and the soldiers pass like a grate.

Just one of them would kill people, but now two of them come together.

The Bagua Cult looted for one round, and the officers and soldiers looted for another round.

The whole of Huaiyang was beaten to pieces.

The Seventh Army of the Ming Army was not so much here to attack Huaiyang as it was here to clean up the mess.

No, the commander of the Seventh Army, Yu Kecheng, had just led the Seventh Army across the river, and the wealthy salt merchants in Yangzhou City opened the city and surrendered.

Not only that, these Yangzhou salt merchants immediately donated a large amount of food and military supplies to Yu Kecheng's Seventh Army, directly demonstrating their strong financial resources to the Ming army.

The reputation of Yangzhou salt merchants is indeed not in vain.

In fact, the reason why these Yangzhou salt merchants surrendered so quickly.

In addition to seeing the military strength, it is also because these Yangzhou salt merchants claim to be Yangzhou salt merchants, but in fact they are all Anhui merchants.

Not only the Yangzhou salt merchants in the Qing Dynasty were Hui merchants, but even in the pre-Ming Dynasty, almost few were serious Yangzhou natives.

During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the national salt law implemented a shore diversion system.Salt merchants who transport and sell salt must pay salt fees to the salt transport yamen and receive a salt certificate (certificate for transporting and selling salt).

Then you can go to designated salt-producing areas to buy salt from kitchen households and sell it to designated salt-producing areas.

However, to receive salt, you need to have a Yinwo (also called a Wogen or a Genwo), which is the certificate for the privilege of transporting and selling salt.

In order to obtain this privilege, salt merchants had to confess to the corresponding government.When you admit your nest, you have to pay a huge amount of silver.

In this way, the salt merchants who held the leading position had the hereditary privilege of transporting and selling salt.

In most periods of time, salt merchants, such as Yangzhou salt merchants, refer to this kind of salt merchants leading to the shore.

There is also a group of salt merchants, which do not belong to the onshore sales, but play the role of salt production, also called market merchants.

His arms are like a Zigong salt merchant.

At the beginning, the Yangzhou salt industry was basically dominated by Western (Shaanxi) merchants and Shanxi merchants.At the turn of the Ming and Qing Dynasties, Huizhou merchants entered Yangzhou in a large scale and successfully squeezed the other two major salt merchants out of the market.

Western merchants retreated to the central Sichuan Salt Industry, and they were the Zigong salt merchants, while Shanxi merchants completely withdrew from the salt merchant scene.

The Yangzhou salt merchants, who were essentially Huizhou merchants, even had their hometown confiscated by the Ming army.

There was no point in holding on in Yangzhou, so he surrendered quickly.

Moreover, the submission of these Yangzhou salt merchants was not in vain. The military gestures in front of them were not only a token of recognition, but also a demonstration of strength to the Ming army.

The reason why Yangzhou salt merchants became the world's richest people was because of one word: monopoly!
For example, from the late Qianlong period to the early Daoguang period, the famous Thirteen Banks of Guangdong donated nearly 400 million taels of silver to the imperial court, while Yangzhou salt merchants during the same period donated 600 million taels of silver to the imperial court.

Although the Thirteen Banks were still on the rise at this time, it can also be seen from the side how wealthy the Yangzhou salt merchants were.

Qianlong even said that Guangzhou was not as wealthy as Yangzhou.

Even at the peak of Thirteen Lines, it was only slightly stronger than the peak of Yangzhou Salt Merchant.

The only requirement for these Yangzhou salt merchants to submit to the Ming army was to maintain the status quo.

From salt industry monopoly to imperial examination quota...

In return, they can continue to donate at least one million taels of military expenses to the Ming Dynasty every year.

This is an extremely tempting condition, so tempting that Chengdu has no power to agree to it.

I had no choice but to write a memorial in a hurry to report to Nanjing as soon as possible. The rest should be decided by His Majesty and the big shots in the court!

Yu Kecheng received funding from Yangzhou salt merchants, and there was no shortage of military rations.

Through the continuous investigation of the detective cavalry, Yu Kecheng also knew what the situation was in Huaiyang.As a result, Yu Kecheng only left five thousand soldiers and horses stationed in Yangzhou Mansion.He personally led the main force of [-] troops and galloped north along the canal.

……

Two days later, Gaoyou Prefecture.

The Ming army approached the city.

"how can that be?"

Zhang Dayou, the Governor of Water Transport who was stationed here because of the pursuit of the Bagua Cult, was shocked: "How could the counterfeit rebels come here? Could it be that Yangzhou has been lost? But the big city of Yangzhou can be defended for several days, so how could it happen?" Lost it without warning?"

As soon as Zhang Dayou finished speaking, a general said: "My lord, now is not the time to think about whether Yangzhou has really fallen. The pseudo-Ming army has already arrived at the city. Please make a decision early!"

Zhang Dayou knew what this guy meant. It was just that the rebels had already arrived. If he didn't run away, he wouldn't be able to escape.

But he was really unwilling to leave before fighting!
He also has nearly [-] troops in his hands, which is equal to the number of puppet rebels outside the city. Plus, they are defending the city. How can they defeat a dozen?

Zhang Dayou pondered for a moment and said: "Gaoyou is located in the canal. Once it is lost, the consequences will be disastrous. Send me an order. The entire army will hold fast to this city and never allow a rebel to cross Gaoyou."

After hearing this, the general looked shocked and hurriedly advised: "No, sir! Our army only has [-] soldiers and horses. Now that Yangzhou has been lost, Gaoyou cannot be defended. It is better to retreat to Huai'an and rely on Huai'an." With water, you can attack if you advance, and you can retreat if you retreat."

After hearing this, another general also agreed: "Yes, sir, Gaoyou is just a scattered state. If it is lost, it will be lost. But if Huai'an is also lost, then the entire Huaiyang situation will be completely irreversible."

"Please Sir, please consider the overall interests of the country and the overall situation!"

"Please sir, please take the overall situation into consideration..."

The generals tried to persuade him, but no one carried out Zhang Dayou's military orders.

Seeing this, Zhang Dayou suddenly felt very angry, but he was helpless.

After a long silence, he sighed and said, "Okay, in that case, according to your wishes, our army will withdraw from Gaoyou at midnight tonight and retreat to Huai'an."

"Master is wise!"

The generals shouted in unison.

After Zhang Dayou heard this, he couldn't help but feel even more upset.

I thought that being appointed as the new governor of water transportation would help relieve the king's worries and make a difference.

But the Cao army under his command did not listen to him as the governor at all.

Just from the title, it can be seen that the general in this tent has never been called "marshal" once. He has always been called "sir".

Although both are correct titles, the meanings are completely different.

The lower overcomes the upper, nothing more than that.

From Gaoyou to Huai'an, the waterway has not been cut off. This is the retreat route specially reserved by the Ming army for encircling Sanqueyi.

Although he was forced to decide to abandon the city, Zhang Dayou did not intend to leave Gaoyouzhou City intact to the Ming army.

On that day, after receiving the order, the Qing army began to forcibly requisition the grain mules and horses of the rich households in the city. If they could not take away the food, mules and horses, they would be slaughtered on the spot.

Moreover, Zhang Dayou also ordered the army to set fire to the enemy after the conquest. Even if Gaoyou was burned, the rebels would not be able to benefit from it.

However, despite thinking so, plans often fail to keep up with changes, and forced conquests quickly evolve into large-scale plunder.

This is normal, the soldiers are just looting, but Zhang Dayou ignored a problem.

In addition to the supervision of the Cao Army headquarters, the army under Zhang Dayou also had Jiangbei Green Camp troops.These were all mobilized from Jiangbei to join forces to suppress the bandits with the power of the Governor of Water Transport.

But the problem is that these armies and his Caobiao belong to two systems after all.

It was fine in normal times, but now they were looting and making money. How could a mere Gaoyou City be enough for everyone to make a fortune?

In the beginning, it was just a dispute between two soldiers over money. To put it bluntly, it was uneven distribution.

Gradually it turned into a melee among the entire army, and everyone had a herd mentality.

Zhang Dayou had the title of "direct descendant", and Jiangbei Lvying started fighting among themselves in Gaoyou City for such inexplicable reasons.

The chaos in the city was quickly discovered by the Ming army outside the city.

"General, is there any fraud?" Yu Kecheng's lieutenant asked.

Yu Kecheng smiled disdainfully: "Oh, if they really dare to cheat, then I really have to admire them."

"What does the general mean?"

"Send my order and the entire army attacks the city."

It was still dark at this time, and the Ming army did not even use torches. The vanguard troops pushed the folding bridge and began to erect a pontoon bridge on the moat without encountering any obstruction in the process.

The pontoon bridge was quickly erected. The Ming army first entered the camp and quickly crossed the moat on the pontoon bridge, and then began to climb the city wall.

In just half a quarter of an hour, the first camper opened the city gate, and the whole process was almost effortless.

Only then did the Qing troops in the city realize that Gaoyou City had been breached by rebels during their internal fight over looting.

The Qing army was caught off guard and had no time to gather its troops. In an instant, it was defeated by the Ming army who had a solemn appearance.

Zhang Dayou felt that he was unable to save the day, and after reluctantly gathering more than a thousand soldiers and horses (including Caobiao and Jiangbei Green Camp), he immediately broke out outside the city.

By this time, Zhang Dayou and even his subordinates no longer considered retreating to Huai'an.

With just such a small number of troops, they couldn't even defend Huai'an.

　In the previous chapter, there was a word whose starting point could not be recognized. It has been changed.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)