Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1052 Discussion ([-])

On October 1654, 10, the weather in Ningbo, which had already entered mid-autumn, quickly cooled down. Liu Haiyang sat in the back house of the Yamen in Yin County, talking with Peng Yuanzhi, an envoy from Yantai and Shao Shude's confidential secretary.

"Commander Liu, Commander Shao has already read the report you submitted. I came here this time to hear your opinion further. After all, if you listen to it, you will understand. Commander Shao also wants to listen to the suggestions of you frontline commanders. "Peng Yuanzhi, who held the rank of second-class staff officer in the Ministry of War, wore a dark blue Chinese tunic suit, sat opposite Liu Haiyang, and said softly.

"What kind of charter is Lao Shao?" Liu Haiyang walked back and forth in front of a giant map of the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, frowning and said: "The situation in Hubei is already very clear, and the information from multiple sources has been verified with each other. We also have fast gunboats going there. On the other hand, nothing can go wrong. The more than 7 troops of the Dashun Youying and Qianying are at a disadvantage in the war. Yuan Zongdi and Gao Yigong are obviously in decline. The year-long tug-of-war in the Chengtianfu area has proved that they cannot withstand the superior Qing army. At present, all the land in the north of the Yangtze River has been lost, and the remnants of the defeated army will retreat to the fortification areas such as Jingzhou and Baling to support them; [-] people from Liu Fangliang of the Zuoying camp retreat to the backcountry of Yunyang Prefecture, and are squeezed by the Qing army in Xiangyang. Unspeakable. If the situation is so bad, the favorable situation we won for them by launching the Yangtze River Campaign two years ago has all been ruined. Now, it is time to continue to involve them. Otherwise, once the Shun Army is destroyed, the whole country will fight against the Qing Dynasty. It will fall apart. After all, you can’t expect the Ming army that can’t support the wall or the newly defeated Western army to take the lead, it’s too difficult.”

Liu Haiyang's worry is justified. Whether it is the lessons of history or the perception in actual contact, he has a deep understanding of the weak combat effectiveness of the Ming army.Beginning in the first half of 1653, Jierhalang, who was based in Hangzhou, in addition to mobilizing a large army to continue to exert pressure on Ningbo Prefecture, also sent several partial divisions southward to attack the Lu King's troops who had occupied more than half of southern Zhejiang.The result of the battle was not unexpected. The more than [-] Ming troops were defeated by [-] to [-] Qing troops and lost a large area of ​​land. I'm afraid that King Lu and others have been driven into the sea again.

The situation in Zhejiang is deteriorating rapidly, and the situation in Fujian is not optimistic.At the beginning of this year, Zheng Chenggong once organized more than [-] people to besiege Fuzhou City. However, the Qing admiral Zhao Guozuo who steadfastly defended Fuzhou commanded it, and the surrounding Qing troops also actively rescued the siege. Therefore, the offensive on Fuzhou ended in failure.Now that Zheng Chenggong is using Quanzhou as his base camp, he is planning to organize a second offensive to flatten the vicinity of Fuzhou in one fell swoop. It is hard to say whether the military operation of "Fuzhou" will be successful—but Zheng's side is not without a positive side. After realizing his lack of attacking capabilities, Zheng Chenggong actively sent people to improve relations with the East Bank, and at the same time requested Buy a lot of ordnance (mainly artillery and armor) to strengthen your chances of winning.

If it is said that the Qing army has not completely gained the upper hand in Fujian and Zhejiang, then in Sichuan, both the Western army and the Ming army cannot stand under the blows of Wu Sangui, Li Guohan and others.If it weren't for the poor military discipline of Wu Sangui's army, which caused many chieftains to rebel, it is estimated that the whole of Sichuan would have been taken by this time.But no matter what, if there is no external assistance, Wu Sangui and Li Guohan's more than [-] troops will be able to defeat the remaining local anti-Qing forces and unify the entire Land of Abundance after gathering reinforcements from Shaanxi, Gansu and Gansu in the second half of next year at the latest. In the historical plane on the east bank, since the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia rarely entered Sichuan (due to a large number of being restrained on the Yangtze River and Shandong), the military disasters suffered there were not as tragic as in history, so although the degree of population loss was still serious, in the end It has not reached the point where "Huguang fills Sichuan".

The only thing that is optimistic now is probably the Jiangxi battlefield. Since the people on the east coast launched the Battle of the Yangtze River in the summer and autumn of 1652, the main force of the Qing army in Jiangxi was transferred to the east in large numbers. This objectively created an expanded territory for the Shun and Ming armies on the Jiangxi battlefield. conditions of.Before July of that year, Guo Sheng led more than 7 reorganized troops from Gao'an County, Ruizhou Prefecture. Wan Jingrui pressed back—of course, this objectively relieved the pressure on the main force of the Shun Army of more than 20 on the Huguang battlefield.

In October 1652, in order to cooperate with the Huguang battlefield, Guo Sheng selected 10 elites and set off from Gao'an County, which had become a fortress, with a large number of firearms. A large number of the Qing army, Geng Zhongming's general Xu Degong fell off his horse and died, and the Manchurian Eight Banners who supervised the battle also lost more than [-] people.

This campaign greatly affected the confidence of the Qing army in northern Jiangxi, and Wang Deren, who heard the news, was also very excited, and immediately raised 3 troops (only [-] or [-] people could fight), and swore to the Northern Expedition.As of the beginning of this year, the Ministry has captured all of Jianchang Mansion and Fuzhou Mansion. The vanguard has entered the area of ​​Guangxin Mansion. It is confronting the Jiangxi Qing Army Shen Zhixiang who rushed back from Nanzhili, and a war will break out soon.

After Guo Sheng won the battle of Fengshui, he quickly urged all the ministries to enter Nanchang Prefecture, approaching Nanchang County (including Xinjian County relying on Guo), and fought fiercely with the Qing army dispatched from Huguang for the second time, with a small defeat; In mid-November, Guo Sheng attacked again with more than 11 troops. Taking advantage of the favorable situation in the Zhangshui River Basin that was not conducive to the Manchu and Mongolian cavalry galloping and assaulting, he defeated the Qing army with skillful firearms tactics, and then took advantage of the victory. The three prefectures in northern Jiangxi were greatly shaken.

In the next period of time, it was basically a melee between the Ming, Shun, and Qing parties in northern Jiangxi—fortunately, after a year of fierce fighting, all parties were a little tired, and the division of their respective territories gradually became clear.Guo Sheng's Shun army has expanded to more than [-] people. With more than [-] muskets and dozens of cannons, they basically control more than half of western Jiangxi; Nan'an, Jianchang, Fuzhou and other eastern prefectures have received limited support from the local gentry. After all, they still bear the name of Ming Dynasty on their heads, and they are not comparable to "thieves" like Guo Sheng; as for the Qing army At present, only Raozhou Mansion and Guangxin Mansion are still under complete control. In addition, the Heshun Army occupies Nanchang, Nankang, and Jiujiang Mansions, which are basically cramped in the northeastern corner of Jiangxi.

Such a distribution of forces is undoubtedly extremely dangerous for the Qing army, because Guo Sheng’s two victories in Nanchang Mansion have almost severed the land connection between the Qing Army in northern Jiangxi and Wuchang Mansion in Huguang. At present, it is only possible to get in touch with the main force of the Qing army in Huguang through the Huangzhou Mansion on the other side of the river. It is quite inconvenient to delay the military aircraft.Of course, such a situation is also extremely dangerous to Guo Sheng, because he is now under the attack of the two traitors Kong Youde in Wuchang and Geng Zhongming in Nanchang. Generally heavy.

"The development of the Jiangxi battlefield has surprised us." Peng Yuanzhi put down the pen and paper, and said: "When Guo Sheng's troops first marched eastward, there were only more than [-] people, and Li Guo treated them as a partial division. But after several years of fighting, not only occupied a large area of ​​land, but also expanded its troops to [-]. It has become a thorn in the side of the Qing army on the Huguang-Jiangxi line, and it has also become another battalion that has grown up after the fifth battalion of the Shun Army Head, the small temple in Dashun Zhongying may not be able to accommodate this great god in the future. Marshal Shao also confessed that Guo Sheng has a very close friendship with us. Now that the troops have arrived at the bank of Poyang Lake, we have also sent people to send him supplies twice. , this kind of contact should be normalized in the future.”

"What? Old Shao, this is..." Liu Haiyang couldn't believe it.

"Yes, Commander-in-Chief Shao has approved the plan for the second Yangtze River campaign you submitted, but he thinks that we should be bolder on the basis of last year (the troops advanced to Chizhou and Taipingfu) and continue westward to reach Jiujiang. We Now there are 22 inland river shallow water gunboats (meaning more than 200 small and medium caliber artillery), this force is enough to destroy any Qing army water forces on the Yangtze River and Poyang Lake, and then ensure the safe driving of transport ships. We have already done so , Chongmingsha has now become a large warehouse, where we store a large amount of food, coal, munitions and other materials. At the same time, we also set up a small ship repair yard and a temporary repair shop. Military ships, in the past two years, we have captured hundreds of Qing government and civilian ships. The water transport in Zhenjiang and Yangzhou has been greatly affected, and they can only sneak and smuggle, and the efficiency has been greatly reduced. This has actually weakened the continuous combat of the Qing army. Therefore, we need to continue to carry forward, further split the two battlefields of the Qing Dynasty in the north and the south, then harass both sides of the Yangtze River, constantly mobilize the Qing army, and then use the main force - at least three divisions and two brigades - to reach Poyang Lake to support Guo Sheng Let's do some research, and then decide on the next move depending on the situation." Peng Yuanzhi's face flushed a little when he said this, after all, this plan is indeed a bit surprising.

"Old Shao..." Liu Haiyang was also a little surprised, "Is this going to be crazy before leaving? But that's okay, Ningbo, Denglai and other places don't have many people to immigrate. This time when soldiers enter Jiangxi, It happened to be looted again, craftsmen, storytellers, doctors, handicraftsmen, low-level scholars, money, food, books and jade, all moved away. Well, if tens of thousands of people were robbed back and forth, it would be enough to support us to emigrate one or two It’s been a year. This business is definitely doing well, after all, we can’t keep eating grass, and the continuous forced immigration in prefectures and counties such as Denglai and Ningbo has caused people’s resentment to boil, and we must find another way.”

(End of this chapter)