Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 806 The Dazzling Situation

Shao Shude has been sitting in Yantai Port for several months.The situation in Shandong is quite delicate now, but it seems that there is no possibility of any major war in the short term.

In the four months after the conquest of Jinan, the troops on the east coast took advantage of the fact that the main forces of the Qing army gathered in Shanxi to quell the rebellion of Jiang Xiang, Wang Yongqiang, Gao Youcai, Han Zhao, etc., and quickly wiped out the remnants of the Qing army in Shandong. . In late June, the main force of infantry and cavalry led by Mao Desheng attacked Dezhou to the north. Thousands of Manchurian Eight Banners of the Qing army received orders and retreated into the territory of Hejian Prefecture. Most of the more than a thousand troops surrendered, and a few diehards died in street fighting.

On June 6, Shao Shude led part of the victorious army to the south to attack Gaodi who had gone north from Huai'an Mansion and the remnants of Kong Xigui's troops who had retreated here. On July 30th, the two sides fought in Yizhou. The Qing army was defeated and more than 7 soldiers were lost. The rest of the troops retreated to Xuzhou; In Xuzhou, after a great war, the Qing army was defeated again. Kong Xigui's troops suffered a devastating blow. He himself fled southward with only a few dozen cavalry in embarrassment, and retreated into Huai'an Prefecture together with Gao Yi; After plundering, Shao Shude ordered to withdraw his troops and return to Jinan.

After returning to Jinan, while organizing the transportation of materials nervously, they vigorously searched for all kinds of craftsmen needed on the east bank; in autumn, they recruited peasants to harvest the grain in the fields, and then loaded them all back to Dengzhou.Apart from reserving a small amount of rations for the local people, Shao Shude was unwilling to leave a grain of food to the Qing army.

By the end of October, the grain harvest in Jinan, Dongchang, Yanzhou, and Qingzhou prefectures was over, and the savings of Jinan City in recent years (Jinan had been slaughtered and looted by the Qing army entering the customs in the 10th year of Chongzhen) had also been lost to the east bank. People were evacuated, and even its city walls were completely demolished, and it will never return to the old look.At this time, the main force of Mao Desheng, who was marching north to Dezhou, had just returned from Zhuzhou and counties in Hejian Prefecture, and at the same time drove a large number of people and cattle and sheep.Whether it is people or cattle and sheep, they will all be sent to Dengzhou to stand by, or to the east coast, or to the rear Sakhalin Island after the spring.

In early November, the vanguard of the Qing army, composed of thousands of Mongolian cavalry, successively defeated the Yuyuan Army in Hejianfu and Guidefu. A lot of news came from the Yuyuan Army that was retreating one after another: the Qing army had conquered Datong one after another, and Jiang Xiang was defeated; due to the tense situation in Shandong, Dorgon immediately ordered King Jingjin to lead the Thousands of forwards from the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia went straight to the prefectures of Henan and North Zhili on the border with Shandong, in order to quickly stabilize the situation and prevent the flames of war from spreading to the northern provinces.Therefore, the situation in Shanxi had not been completely settled at that time. Except for Jiang Xiang and Wang Yongqiang, there were many "rebels" guarding the city in the rest of the city. Together with Wu Sangui, Li Guohan, Shi Tingzhu, Zuo Menggeng and other generals of the Han army to "put down the thieves".

Of course, the above news was not brought by the Yuyuan Army, but Mao Desheng, Shao Shude, Zhang Xudong, Yang Mingyang and other major military and political officials on the east coast, deduced it from various news and historical trajectory judgments, and in fact their judgments were very accurate. Basically in line with the facts.

Although it was determined that it would be difficult for the main force of the Qing army to gather to attack Shandong for a while, Shao Shude did not intend to stay in the Jinan area any longer.After fighting for a whole year for a long time, the soldiers and soldiers on the east bank are a little tired, so it is better to return to Dengzhou earlier.It happened to take this opportunity to reward meritorious service, and to reorganize all the servants thoroughly.

At the beginning of December, as more and more Qing troops appeared in Beizhili and Henan, Shao Shude finally led his troops out of Jinan City and headed straight for Dengzhou Prefecture.This time when returning to the division, because the ships had been conscripted to transport immigrants, the army could only walk back on two feet.After Shao Shude withdrew, the main force of the East Coast Army led by Mao Desheng also began to gather slowly, and evacuated Jinan Mansion one by one.Before they left, they also dispatched a large number of messengers to various anti-Qingyi army camps to report to them, hoping that they would not make unnecessary sacrifices, and evacuate to Denglai Second Mansion with the people from the east bank to settle down, so as to "mutually take care of".

It's a pity that the local thieves in Yuyuan Army and other places are reluctant to leave their homes and do not want to go east to Dengzhou. They plan to return to the old camp in Dongchang Mansion to stick to it, just like they have done for more than ten years.Other people from all walks of life have almost the same idea. Only Ding Weiyue's regiment training army, the remnants of Li Huajing's anti-Qing rebel army in Caozhou, and a small number of mule troops following Du Chong are willing to go east to Dengzhou to see.

Mao Desheng regretted this very much.He felt that although these people were not very effective in combat, they generally had a strong will to fight against the Qing Dynasty, at least much stronger than speculators like Jiang Xiang, Jin Shenghuan, and Li Chengdong.As the Qing army pacifies the situation in Shanxi—this is almost what will happen in the next few months—the elite Manchurian Eight Banners and a large number of green battalions will also be able to move eastward to Shandong. It was almost fatal to the Qing Rebels.It's a pity that they are all "sitting bandits" instead of "trafficking thieves". They have a strong sense of locality, and it is almost difficult to persuade them to abandon their lairs and go to an unfamiliar place. Most of them will end up being wiped out by the Qing government one by one .

After the main force on the east bank withdrew, at the end of December, Tan Tai and Bo Luo also led their troops to Hejian Mansion in Beizhili. Wakda, Man Dahai, Wu Sangui and others continued to suppress in Shanxi. Shaanxi governor Meng Qiaofang and others led the army back to Xi'an, because it was reported that He Zhen had followed Li Zicheng's old route of retreating to Hubei, and counterattacked all the way back from the mountains in western Huguang and southern Shaanxi, and is now approaching the vicinity of Xi'an. The situation is extremely dire It's critical, so the two of them can't help but return to rescue.

Shaanxi is in such a critical situation, and Sichuan, which was captured by the Qing army just a while ago, is even more unbearable.In June, Zhang Xianzhong's army besieged Chengdu for a hundred days, and finally conquered this famous city in central Sichuan.Afterwards, Zhang Xianzhongyi's descendants are expected to lead tens of thousands of soldiers to the east, attack the eastern Sichuan region, and then go all the way south to conquer Chongqing with lightning speed, which is a moment of great shock.At the same time, Liu Wenxiu and Ai Nengqi also led part of their troops to the south to monitor the Ming army under Yang Zhan, who was in the midst of civil strife, and waited for opportunities to advance.As for Zhang Xianzhong himself, he and his adopted son Li Dingguo captured the counties and counties near Chengdu, and under Li's persuasion, they prepared to strengthen the foundation. They followed Li Chuang's example of establishing a military system in Xiangyang and planned to manage Sichuan as the foundation.In the end, he also sent a few cavalry soldiers into northern Sichuan, while recruiting the local Qing army to surrender, while inquiring about news from Hanzhong, it seemed that he had the intention of going north.

In addition to these two routes, the largest scale on the entire anti-Qing battlefield was undoubtedly the battle of Jingzhou with more than [-] people from the left and right battalions sent by Dashun.This unit, led by Liu Fangliang and Yuan Zong, took advantage of superior forces and superior firepower (bronze artillery) to conquer the He conquered Jingzhou, which had changed hands several times, and then consolidated some surrounding counties and counties, completely controlling the western part of Hubei in his own hands.

After conquering Jingzhou, they built the city on the original site of the almost completely destroyed Jingzhou city wall (Jingzhou was severely attacked and defended since the end of Ming Dynasty, and the city wall was seriously damaged), and built a fortress with a bastion style.In mid-August, Gao Yigong, the former battalion of the Dashun Army, attacked Wuchang City on the south bank of the Yangtze River, but the main force of the Second Battalion on the left and right led by Liu Fangliang and Yuan Zong's second men suffered a major defeat at the foot of Hanyang City, and were defeated by Kong Youde and Shang Kexi (Geng Zhongming). , Shen Zhixiang and Shen Zhixiang have been transferred east due to the slow progress of the Jiangxi battlefield) and chased and killed them for more than ten miles, and the loss of troops almost reached more than [-] people.Under this unfavorable general situation, Gao Yigong was also forced to abandon Wuchang, which he had already occupied, and once again retreated to the Jiugong Mountain area southwest of Wuchang Prefecture.

After Dashun's [-]-strong army suffered a rare defeat in Hanyang in recent years, in late September, Liu Fangliang, the left battalion of the reorganized Shun army, went north to attack Xiangyang. He could only return in dismay, and run the Yunyang Mansion together with Yuan Zongyi, planning to digest the western part of Hubei first.As for their archenemy Kong Youde and others, because of Jiangxi Jierhalang's strict order, they are still stationed around Hanyang and dare not attack without authorization, so the two sides have settled down for a while.

It can be seen from this that after Jiang Xiang in Shanxi was reversing, the Sichuan and Huguang battlefields that were temporarily abandoned by the Qing army underwent earth-shaking changes.Judging from the current situation, it is highly probable that the Qing court will lose the entire territory of Sichuan and most of Huguang. As for when to regain it, it depends on how the two battlefields of Shandong and Jiangxi, the south and the north, are fought.

Let’s not talk about him in Jiangxi, even if Jierharang’s troops are pitifully smaller than in the same period in history (without the reinforcements from Wuhan going east and Nanjing going west, the number of Eight Banners soldiers has also dropped sharply), even if the navy gunboats on the east coast harass the Qing army from time to time The ships transporting supplies were dragging their feet. Even though the yellow-clothed thieves were so noisy that the Qing army in western Zhejiang could not move westward, Jin Shenghuan, who was defending Nanchang to the death, was still defeated in September 49.After Jin's defeat, his remnants withdrew to the south-central area of ​​Jiangxi and merged with Wang Deren's tribe in Ganzhou.The tens of thousands of Qing troops under the command of Jierhalang have only carried out a symbolic pursuit of the remnants of the Ministry of Finance due to their high attrition and insufficient food and wages, and the main force is still resting in Nanchang.

The Jiangxi battlefield cannot be relieved for the time being, so can the Qing army on the Shandong battlefield make a breakthrough?Judging from the current situation, it is very difficult!The goddamn bandits in yellow made Jinan, Dongchang, Yanzhou, and Qingzhou prefectures almost three feet above the sky. The Qing army that has successively entered Shandong since December can hardly even raise food and grass, let alone everywhere. The city walls were torn down and the official roads were destroyed.

In desperation, the Qing army began to transfer grain from North Zhili, Henan, and Jiangbei, but distant waters could not save nearby fires, so it was impossible to raise funds in a short period of time.In this way, from the end of December to the middle of March, the 12 Qing troops who successively marched into Shandong have successively purchased and prepared a large amount of food, grass and military resources needed for combat, and are in a state of being ready to fight at any time.At this time, the Jiaozhou Fort built by the people on the east coast on the north shore of Jiaozhou Bay had already placed the artillery, and 3 soldiers from the Fourth Battalion of the Volunteer Squad also entered here, and everything was ready.

(End of this chapter)