Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 336 Ma Shiying Takes Command

Zhu Youjian no longer believed in the military talents of Fan Yiheng and Wang Yingxiong, the two civil servants.

Therefore, he could only transfer these two civil servants away from Yunnan and Guizhou, so as to save them from interfering in the war as a senior official with one as the governor and the other as a bachelor.

Moreover, Jin Yiwei's report mentioned more than once that Fan Yiheng and Wang Yingxiong's blind command caused Zeng Ying and Yang Zhan to lose many opportunities to wipe out the enemy.

But after Fan Yiheng and Wang Yingxiong were transferred away, Zhu Youjian still had to choose a commander who could coordinate the troops of all parties.

Zhu Youjian originally preferred Qin Liangyu. After all, Qin Liangyu had a high prestige in the southwest, and civil and military officials and even the chieftains in the southwest respected him very much.

It is naturally best for Qin Liangyu to lead the wars in Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Huguang, and Guangdong.

But now that Qin Liangyu is old, Zhu Youjian didn't want her to run around anymore, so he had no choice but to choose Ma Shiying, the Minister of the Ministry of War and a scholar of the Wuying Temple, as the supervisor to lead the six states in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Guangxi, Huguang, and Guangdong. Provincial military administration.

Ma Shiying can coordinate the forces of all parties, coordinate relations and even rear arrangements, but he is still a little behind in tactical command. Zhu Youjian decided to ask Li Yan to assist Ma Shiying as the left servant of the Ministry of War and the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou. fighting.

Li Yan is superior to Ma Shiying in terms of actual combat experience and personal talent in military strategic command, and Li Yan has been in the peasant army for a long time. The Guards Gao Jie and others, and the enemy Zhang Xianzhong's department is also from the peasant army.

Therefore, officials like Li Yan, who should be regarded as relatively familiar with the peasant army, assisted Ma Shiying in tactical command to know himself and the enemy, and in coordinating internal forces, Gao Jie's department could get along better with the extermination army and the official army.

In addition, Li Yan and Ma Shiying can be regarded as colleagues who have worked together in the Ministry of War for two years now, and their personalities and tempers are also well adapted.

However, Ma Shiying is still the supreme commander in name.

Fan Yiheng and Wang Yingxiong, as local armed forces in Sichuan, might have been useful before the fall of Sichuan. Now that Sichuan has completely fallen into the hands of Zhang Xianzhong, Zhu Youjian does not need their basic control in Sichuan to mobilize the masses to resist Zhang Xianzhong.

And let Fan Yiheng go to Guangdong and Guangxi to raise food and grass, Zhu Youjian also had his own considerations.

In his opinion, Fan Yiheng definitely hoped that the officers and soldiers would take back Sichuan, so it was impossible for him not to devote himself to raising food and grass.

And Wang Yingxiong, as a cabinet scholar who was deposed in Chongzhen for 15 years, now that he has been reappointed, Zhu Youjian naturally cannot depose him easily, so he has to be transferred back to the capital to be a consultant, so that he, the emperor, can be more clear through Wang Yingxiong. Learn more about the real situation in places like Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan.

It's just that Zhu Youjian intended to eliminate redundant administration and use official positions with caution, so Wang Yingxiong could not be allowed to be a cabinet scholar.

Since the 17th year of Chongzhen, the Gaojie Department of Xingping has been used by Zhu Youjian to deter the gentry in the south of the Yangtze River in the Susonghang area except for participating in a battle to exterminate Liu Liangzuo. Now it is going to be transferred to Guizhou. Zhu Youjian does not know this Is the steel knife that has been hidden in the gentle and rich township for nearly three years rusty?

But in any case, you can only count on this number of people, under the circumstances that the main force of the Guards cannot be mobilized.

Zhu Youjian's request to Ma Shiying and Li Yan is not to care about losing the city and territory, but must try to hold back the enemy as much as possible, preventing them from advancing eastward and threatening the rear of Daming, at least until a certain day in the future. After smashing the Qing army's attempt to go south again.

Gao Jie's Fifth Guard Army has also been equipped with the latest equipment. The firearms are equipped with Chongzhen [-]-style flintlock guns, and the artillery is equipped with Chongzhen [-]-style infantry field field three-pound guns, six-pound cannons and twelve-pound cannons. The most important ones are the three-pound cannon and the six-pound cannon. After all, the southwest is mostly jungle and mountainous, and large artillery is not very practical.

The Fifth Army of the Guards arrived in Nanjing first, and after a period of training in Nanjing, it began to set off for the southwest.

Zhu Youjian also summoned Gao Jie during this period and gave some instructions.

Ma Shiying actually didn't want to leave Nanjing to go to the southwest at this time. After all, now the Manchu Dynasty knew that the chief assistant Fan Ge always meant to be replaced by His Majesty, and Ma Shiying was undoubtedly a strong contender for the next chief assistant, but now He was not in a good mood when he was suddenly asked to go to the southwest to command the war.

However, Zhu Youjian also knew what these bureaucrats meant, so he also directly proposed that the selection of the chief assistant should focus on military merits and political achievements in the future, regardless of seniority and previous official positions.

Only then did Ma Shiying realize that if he made achievements in this war against Zhang Xianzhong's southward attack on Yunnan and Guizhou, it would help him become the chief assistant in the future, so he also began to actively prepare for the Southwest War.

"Yang Zhan performed very well in the Southwest War, and he is a rare general, while Li Yan has already seen his talents in the Huguang War. You must make good use of these two generals when you go to the Southwest. , maybe they can unite to deal with Li Dingguo. As a coach, you are not about being brave or foresight, but about how to use generals. Some people say that Yang Zhan is quite domineering, arrogant, and doesn't take other generals seriously. You After going to the Southwest, if this Yang Zhan does something offensive, he must be tolerant, he would rather offend others for him than follow his temper, everything has to wait until the war is settled, understand?"

Zhu Youjian said to Ma Shiying very seriously that he is not worried about anything else now, but he is afraid that officials like Ma Shiying who are good at intrigue in the officialdom will start fighting again when they arrive on the battlefield. It can be regarded as two hills, and now there is another hill that Gao Jie and Li Yan were born in the peasant army.

If Ma Shiying, as the coach, does not make a good overall plan, but recruits a gang to fight a faction to achieve a certain purpose of his own, for example, to win over his own political chips, and even lead to the defeat of the war.

Because Zhu Youjian knew that Ma Shiying was very good at such methods. In the original history, he was the governor of Fengyang, so he won the four towns in Jiangbei to suppress the Donglin Party, and took control of the political power of the Southern Ming Dynasty in one fell swoop.

As Ma Shiying did, Zhu Youjian didn't mind beheading the coach. For this reason, Zhu Youjian specially promised that Ma Shiying and Li Yan could both play in secret, so as to achieve the goal of both integration and division.

Ma Shiying knows what Zhu Youjian is worried about, so he can only ask Zhu Youjian to rest assured. After all, he also knows that his biggest political opportunity to go to the southwest is to build military merits, not to win over his own power, because no matter how much he wins power now, it is impossible. To deter Zhu Youjian today.

Now Zhu Youjian can only hand over the war in the southwest to Ma Shiying, including Yunnan, Sichuan, Guizhou, Huguang, Guangxi, and Guangdong. There is a turbulent undercurrent within the imperial court.

Li Ruolian, the commander of Jinyiwei, was assigned by Zhu Youjian to be fully responsible for the intelligence affairs of the Southwest War. He was in charge of Ma Shiying and shared the pressure of Wu Mengming, the commander of Jinyiwei.

And Wu Mengming was only in charge of intelligence affairs against the Manchu Qing Dynasty and the Zheng family in the south, while Dongchang continued to be responsible for picketing domestic instabilities.

(End of this chapter)