Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1844 Sichuan Finale

"Clearly discussing this matter with the Qing Dynasty will also make it easier for us to operate in other directions. The matter in Sichuan seems to be very difficult now." In Yin County, Ma Wenqiang seemed to put aside his concerns. Pen in hand.

Sitting opposite him was Jiang Yunfan, the captain of the Denglai Pioneering Team and the nominally highest military officer in the Far East San Francisco, Liu Jianguo, the special envoy sent by Liu Jianguo.This gentleman originally wanted to take over the two large enterprises, East Coast Korea Company and East Coast Japan Company, in order to weaken the influence of Wei Boqiu, who had already retired in Ezoji Island.However, just before he left for Busan, he suddenly received a close order from Liu Jianguo. The order canceled the previous appointment and instead appointed Jiang Yunfan as his special envoy to go to Changsha, Shunguo, to investigate and negotiate on some issues.

Although Jiang Yunfan was not very willing about this, he had no choice but to obey.According to the arrangement of the order, he will receive a batch of materials and personnel in Ningbo Mansion, and at the same time have a careful conversation with Ma Wenqiang, the captain of the Southern Exploration Team, hand over some documents and materials, and then set off for Shunguo.After all, most of the people who have been dealing with Shunguo for many years are the Southern Pioneering Team. They have a lot of information and relationships in their hands. It is unimaginable for Jiang Yunfan to run his own errands without their assistance. His trip to Yin County today.

Ma Wenqiang has been in power in Ningbo for many years. As an important part of his work, the trade ties, cultural exchanges and military assistance with Shunguo are basically all in his hands. Therefore, he has a lot of first-hand information. It is stored in the Archives Bureau of Yin County.A few days before this, he had ordered the Archives Bureau to select some important materials (backup copies) and hand them over to Jiang Yunfan's team for research.As for him himself, in his office today, he specially made some suggestions to this junior whom he also admired very much.

"Actually, there is no essential mortal hatred between us and the Qing Dynasty. Just think about it. Although we are Miao descendants of the former Song Dynasty, those are all old calendars hundreds of years ago. This Jurchen also Bi Juzhen, when Nurhaci gave the Tungus court the title of founding the country, it was purely for his own face. So, no matter from which point of view, there is no fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between us and the Qing Dynasty, especially in the Now that the Qing Dynasty has suffered several setbacks in its Southern Expeditions, and the external and internal problems are getting worse, the conflict between us and them has been greatly weakened." Ma Wenqiang looked at the young Jiang Yunfan in front of him, and pointed out: "Of course these things are commonplace. Now, you all know it yourself, so I won’t say more. What I want to talk about is actually why I uncharacteristically agreed to peace talks with the Qing Dynasty before. Many people speculate that it is to gain a breathing space so that the new Digesting the occupied land is both right and not entirely right, Xiao Jiang, you should know that peace talks with the Qing Dynasty is now the general trend, and it is also the common voice of millions of people in the Far East San Francisco."

"Far East San Francisco is certainly our colony, and it is a policy product that appeared to achieve our immigration goals. But it is fair to say that even if it is a policy product, after so many years of development, the population, economy, education, and culture have greatly improved. After development, the San Francisco in the Far East can no longer be regarded as an idle colony. After all, the people here are all potential citizens. We have to carefully consider their opinions, and we can't blindly damage their interests and subsidize the country. So, you You can see that in recent years, China has begun to transfer textile technology to Ningbo, transfer old-style steam engine production and maintenance technology to Heishui, and build a railway in Shandong. It is an act of feeding back the San Francisco of the Far East. Otherwise, it will not last long." Ma Wenqiang continued: "You see, I am the captain of the Southern Exploration Team, and it is reasonable to say what I say, and no one dares to criticize it. But I know that I can't do this all the time. The cadres who rule Ningbo [-]. Most of the soldiers have been localized. Even many local investors who start businesses marry wives and have children in Ningbo, and have local interests. The collective awakening of the consciousness of the local elite is a thorny problem that every colonial governor will face The problem is, although Ningbo’s consciousness is not fully awakened yet, we can’t take the initiative to wake it up. On the contrary, we should numb it appropriately, such as giving it certain benefits. Now we are negotiating peace with the Hangzhou Daying of the Qing Dynasty and advancing the Cao’e River. The development of trade in Ningbo is the greatest benefit for the local elite in Ningbo. At this point, I cannot go against the expectations of the vast majority of people. It will bring me a lot of trouble, and then affect other The advancement of work in this area.”

Jiang Yunfan nodded slightly when he heard this.In fact, how could he not understand these things after working hard in the Denglai area for many years?He still remembers the excitement of cadres, businessmen and business owners along the way when the Southern Railway Company decided to build the Jiaoyan Railway in Shandong.They are not puppet puppets, but living people. They don’t necessarily have a deep heart for the East Coast government to draw their blood for immigration. At least so far, the main work content of the Far East San Francisco is to collect immigrants. There is no resistance.

Of course, they are not happy with the huge expenditures caused by these immigration actions and some of the resulting war actions.In contrast, what they want more is a comprehensive reconciliation with the Qing Dynasty. The two countries will open their borders for trade—at least one or two trading ports will be opened to concentrate trade—the Qing Dynasty will import industrial products from them, and they will import all kinds of other land from the Qing Dynasty. Special products, some are consumed by themselves, and some are exported to foreign countries for profit.

Leaving aside whether the trade model they envision can be realized, just talking about their thoughts and impulses is worth pondering.No one is naturally willing to sacrifice their own interests. During the Anglo-Dutch War, the guys in the British North American colonies frequently traded with the Dutch, openly challenged the "Navigation Regulations" promulgated by London, and did this kind of behavior to support the enemy.Although this is not the case in Ningbo and Denglai, it is the general trend to consider more of their own interests.Jiang Yunfan reckons that the current generation is still relatively obedient, especially those servants who have learned from their parents the power and magic of many people on the east coast, so they are relatively "tame", but what about the next generation and the next generation?Everything is hard to say. Localization has never been just talk, but a major trend.

"Okay, these are not the focus of our conversation today, so I won't talk to you more." After talking for a while, Ma Wenqiang was a little thirsty, so he ordered the secretary to serve tea, and then picked up a stack of paper from the filing cabinet. After rummaging through the thick material, I took out one of them and said, "These are the reports that Guo Puxia wrote to me before he left office. It should be very useful for reference. These materials are highly classified and are not included in the part that was handed over to you before. I will have someone copy a copy and give it to you later. Take a good look at it on the way. I used to look down on Li Laiheng, the grass-headed emperor. He now finds out that the people who can jump up and down in the current situation and still take every step of the way are really simple, and his people, after several years of fighting, have almost controlled most of Sichuan!"

Ma Wenqiang's words made Jiang Yunfan terrified, knowing that he had reached the point, so he moved his body a little, and sat upright to listen to Ma Wenqiang's description of the situation over there.

"In the second half of last year, the Liu Zhonggui and Zhang Neng armies of Shunguo in Sichuan merged and fought against the Qing army in Baoning Prefecture. As a result, the army commanded by Prince An Yue Le suffered consecutive losses and had to be expelled. Sichuan is currently conducting defensive operations close to the superior terrain in northern Sichuan and the middle of the Han Dynasty, and it seems that it will not work." Ma Wenqiang greeted Jiang Yunfan for tea, and said: "We don't have too much accurate information about the decisive battle. I only know a few things, that is, the Qing and Shun armies gathered more than [-] people and fought consecutive battles in Bazhou, Langzhong and other places. In the end, the Shun army won, but it is said that they also suffered tens of thousands of casualties. It was a miserable victory. The remnants of the Qing army At present, we are retreating to northern Sichuan, Jiange in Hanzhong, Guangyuan, Nanjiang, and Hanzhong, waiting for the troops from Qin to come in, while licking our wounds."

"And after this battle, Wu Yinglin, who had been guarding the Chengdu government for a long time, directly surrendered to General Liu Zhonggui, and led the leaders of Chengdu Wu's military and political clique and more than [-] troops to surrender. This established the situation in Sichuan. It is said that Wu Yinglin, who surrendered, also received preferential treatment. Because his timely surrender saved the most elite Chengdu Plain from war and preserved the vitality of the Land of Abundance to the greatest extent, so Li Laiheng ordered him to be taken to Changsha for "glory support". As for the [-] surrendered troops, it is said that they were all counted They were scattered and added to the army of Liu Zhonggui and Zhang Neng, in order to restore the strength of the two generals as soon as possible, and counteract the possible counterattack of the Qing army." Ma Wenqiang said here with a serious expression.

The situation in Sichuan is rather dramatic. The Wu Group, which was extremely powerful for a while, fell apart because its leader Wu Sangui died of illness, and then was passively involved in the battle between Qingshun.The combined total of nearly 20 troops from the two countries fought back and forth in Sichuan. After several years of fighting, many prefectures and counties in northern Sichuan were almost wiped out, and finally the winner was decided: Shunjun Zuoying who dared to fight Liu Zhonggui's department defeated the southward Qing army with the Shaanxi-Gansu Green Battalion Committee as the main body, captured most of Sichuan, and picked the most delicious part of the victory fruits (some counties in the south were occupied by the Nanming Li Dingguo and Sun Kewang's troops who went north).

The change in the ownership of Sichuan, the land of abundance, suddenly caused a major change in the balance of power between the various parties on the land of China.In this change, the Shun army is undoubtedly the biggest beneficiary. They control Sichuan, a province with millions of people, rich products, and dangerous terrain. Since then, they have another stable hinterland and rear area (the former one The rear area is undoubtedly Hunan), the population under the rule has not only increased by more than [-]%, but also has a choice to attack the northwest Guanzhong of the Qing Dynasty, which is no longer the same as before—of course, the Qing army is still entrenched in northern Sichuan and Hanzhong Among the many passes on the front line, it is easy to defend and difficult to attack. The Shun army still needs to find a way to slowly capture it at a high price, so that the mountains and rivers in Sichuan can be shared by Qing and Shun. Otherwise, the Qing army will unilaterally occupy it. The advantageous location is very unfavorable to Dashun.

Except for the Shun army, Nanming's income was limited. Except for the prefectures in northern Guizhou that had been restored and incorporated a group of Wu's soldiers, there were only some counties in the south with complex terrain, poor products, and entrenched chieftains. It is actually hard to say whether it will gain or lose for the Li Shun regime that has just won a big victory.

The last participant, the Qing Dynasty, apparently lost such an important province as Sichuan.But if we really look at it carefully, apart from the tens of thousands of horses who died in Boryeong, Shunqing and other places, is it really a big loss?As early as after Wu Sangui entered Sichuan, the largest province in the southwest probably had nothing to do with the Qing Dynasty. Except that it was still under the rule of the Qing emperor in name and the people shaved their hair for easy clothing. Not only did this province not pay taxes to the Qing court, on the contrary He also repeatedly asked for payment and weapons; when the Qing government asked them to send troops to cooperate with the grand strategy, how many times did Wu Sangui want to save his strength and paddle?Strictly speaking, this Wu Sangui is an independent kingdom, and the Qing court only earned a good name, but in fact it can't control Sichuan at all.Therefore, the loss of Sichuan is certainly a great benefit to Shunguo, but it may not be a great loss to the Qing army, because they never really owned it, so how can we talk about losses?

"Shunguo won this Sichuan, it will be like a butterfly breaking out of a cocoon, and its strength will increase sharply, and there will be fewer and fewer ways to restrict it in the future. This is actually not a good thing for us. The independence of Shunguo is not weak. In fact, they also intend to take advantage of us (of course, why don’t the people on the east coast take advantage of them?), and now that they have won Sichuan, they don’t know what their attitude will be in the future. After you go to Madang and Changsha, you need to Pay attention to observe and test the attitude of the whole court of Shunguo to see if there is any difference, and report back to me as quickly as possible." Ma Wenqiang finally urged: "In addition, Dashunzuo, who is the first to occupy Sichuan, should remember Liu Zhonggui, the general of the battalion, should also find a way to get in touch. At the beginning, Li Zicheng established the five-battalion military system in Xiangyang, and now, Li Laiheng has controlled the front battalion (Gao Yigong handed over the military power before his death), the middle battalion and the rear battalion. Zuoying Liu Zhonggui and Youying Yuanbao (the son of Yuan Zongdi, who came to the East Bank to study) are relatively independent, and they are two major feudal towns, so they can pay more attention to it. Contacting and contacting is not a bad thing. Maybe it will be for us in the future The choice of the Shunguo policy will also have a great impact, so it should not be ignored."

"I understand." Jiang Yunfan replied: "I am afraid that Liu Zhonggui, Yuan Bao, and He Zhen and his son, who are also independent non-staff troops, also have great expectations for establishing a closer relationship with us. I will start from this aspect. Please rest assured."

(End of this chapter)