Ming Empire

Chapter 237 Dorgon Sees Hope Again
When Sun Chuanting in Nanjing heard the news, he was furious and scolded Zuo Liangyu at the cabinet meeting.But he didn't panic, because the matter had already been arranged.He immediately drafted a crusade in the name of the imperial court, and after notifying Cao Yue, he transferred three guards who stayed on the front line of the Yangtze River and marched westward along the river to prepare for the crusade against Zuo Liangyu.

The two guards guarding Nanjing did not move and were still stationed in Nanjing.

Afterwards, the Ming court issued an edict of King Qin to the world, ordering the nearby town troops not to associate with Zuo Liangyu, and to regard the Hubei army led by Zuo Liangyu as an enemy.At the same time, the imperial edict advised the soldiers of the Hubei Army not to do anything rebellious. If they did not follow Zuo Liangyu's rebellion and found their way back, the imperial court would not punish them for their crimes.But if he continues to go all the way to the dark side with Zuo Liangyu, he will be severely punished.

Cao Yue sneered when he received the news, and immediately sent an order to the Hongniangzi Department, which had been on standby for a long time, to march to Hubei as planned, preparing to destroy Zuo Liangyu's Department. The Liangyu Department, put down the rebellion in the shortest possible time, and must not let Zuo Liangyu's rebellion affect more places.

At the same time, Cao Yue sent a secret letter to Sun Chuanting in Nanjing, asking him to pay close attention to the movements of the officials in the court and prevent the officials from the court and China from secretly supporting Zuo Liangyu.He then ordered Chang Yanling, Cao Chao and others of Jinyiwei to closely monitor every move in Nanjing to prevent anyone from taking the opportunity to make trouble.He then gave Qian Qianyi, Lu Daqi, Fang Yizhi and others a secret order to mobilize members of the Donglin Party and Fushe to denounce Zuo Liangyu's rebellion.

Although Nanjing officials basically have no doubts about the identities of the former Empress Zhou, the current Empress Dowager Zhou and the young emperor Zhu Cijiong, Zuo Liangyu played the banner of "the side of the Qing emperor" and said that Zhu Cijiong was a fake and that the Queen Mother Zhou was forced by Cao Yue. It is necessary to respond, grasp the public opinion of the world, and prevent the army who does not know the truth from being bewitched by Zuo Liangyu. The public opinion in Nanjing must be controlled, and the role of Donglin Party and Fushe must be brought into play.In addition, the Empress Dowager Zhou and those members of the royal family who were lucky enough to escape from Beijing, as well as those who can best prove Zhu Cijiong's identity, such as Aimee Zhu, have to stand up and express their views.Try to isolate Zuo Liangyu as much as possible.

"Da Ming Guards Daily" also used more pages to report on this incident, reporting Zuo Liangyu's shameful things, and implying that he had the support of Jiannu to have the courage to rebel.

"The master of the Great Ming Dynasty and Jianu were fighting bloody battles in Liaocheng. The rebel Zuo Liangyu took the opportunity to cause chaos and collude with Jianu. He was willing to join forces with Wu Sangui, Tang Tong and others in an attempt to sacrifice the country of the Ming Dynasty to the foreign captives. Tens of millions of soldiers and civilians of the Ming Dynasty settled I will not agree. All bloody soldiers and civilians of the Ming Dynasty, take up the weapons in your hands, and fight against all anti-Ming forces with the greatest determination and full confidence!" The attitude of the generals is fully expressed in the big red letters of the Imperial Guards Many people just saw the call to arms of the military newspaper and were encouraged by the content inside to join the ranks of the Ming Guards.

After Cao Yue led the army to the Northern Expedition, the recruitment work of the Ming Guards has been going on, and the scale is still expanding.In just one and a half months, nearly [-] recruits were recruited.These recruits are all carefully selected, young and middle-aged men who are good in all aspects.They also started the training of recruits under the leadership of a group of soldiers sent by the [-]st and [-]th Guards Divisions.After three months of recruit training, they will be incorporated into the newly formed Guards Division or the previous Guards Divisions.

For the needs of the war, Cao Yue's plan was to recruit 11 to 20 guard divisions to expand the Ming's military strength to nearly a million people.It is impossible to expand an army of one million people all at once, it must be done one by one.The establishment of the first ten Guards Divisions was the result of the first batch of recruitment, and the formation of No.[-] to No.[-] Guards Divisions was prepared by Cao Yue after the Northern Expedition ended.

During the Northern Expedition, the recruitment plan did not stop. On the one hand, it was to meet the needs of the war. In case the battle ahead was unfavorable, or if there was a lot of wear and tear, the soldiers could be continuously replenished.On the other hand, if the war is suspended soon, the recruits who start training after being recruited and mixed with other veterans will soon be able to form an army, so as not to delay the pace of military system reform.

After Zuo Liangyu rebelled, he continued to expand the scale of recruitment, and there would certainly be no opposition from the DPRK and China.

Dorgon also soon received news that Zuo Liangyu had rebelled.

The plan to instigate Zuo Liangyu to rebel was realized, and Dorgon finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The war was still not progressing smoothly. During this period, Dorgon adopted various methods to attack the Ming army's positions, but with little effect.It also rained, but Dorgon was disappointed to find that the heavy rain did not cause much trouble to the Ming army. The Ming army's muskets and artillery could still be used in the heavy rain, which puzzled him very much.However, he also understood that the Ming army must have improved the manufacturing process of artillery and muskets, making it easier to shoot in rainy weather.The Ming army didn't seem to consume much ammunition. After more than ten consecutive days of attacks, their artillery and musket fire were still very intensive, which made Dorgon worried.

The Qing army had paid at least 5 people. Although they had achieved some results during the attack, the results were very small. It is estimated that the Ming army lost no more than a few thousand people.These victories were not obtained on the main front, but were obtained by Dorgon sending a partial division to attack Daming's transport convoy.

They failed to attack the warships on the canal, but they succeeded in attacking the convoy transported by land several times, seizing and destroying some ammunition and grain of the Ming army.However, judging from the overall quantity, these losses of the Ming army are basically negligible. Thousands of stones of grain and thousands of catties of ammunition will not cause any trouble to the Ming army.

The fine cavalry of the Qing Dynasty could not break through the Ming army's defense line composed of artillery, muskets and gunpowder, and Dorgon's self-confidence dropped severely.He had to order to suspend the large-scale attack, and only sent a small group of troops to harass the Ming army. At the same time, he sent troops to collect food from the people in Shandong, Beizhili, and Shandong.This time the food collection was no longer held under the banner of friendship between Manchu and Han, but openly looted.There was no other way, the rations of the Qing army were about to run out, and if there was no way to raise food, the soldiers would have nothing to satisfy their hunger.

The situation gave Dorgon a headache. He knew that if he wanted to win the war, it would be impossible without surprises, unless he stopped the conquest of the bandits and called all the troops back to deal with the Ming army, but this was not what he expected.Zuo Liangyu's rebellion made Dorgon feel that the accident had finally come, and he immediately ordered all the ministries to prepare to launch another attack on the Ming army.

Dorgon believed that after Cao Yue received the news of Zuo Liangyu's rebellion, he would definitely withdraw his troops.After all, Zuo Liangyu's troops had several 10 people, and the Ming army had only tens of thousands of soldiers and horses left behind in Nanjing. It was impossible for Cao Yue to fight on two fronts.

The Ming army withdrew from the main position and retreated to Nanjing by land and water. The power of muskets and cannons must not be fully exerted. The Qing army can take this opportunity to deal a severe blow to the Ming army. Maybe they can reverse the situation in one battle and turn defeat into victory. , Completely solve the residual disease.

Under Dorgon's order, Jiannu, who had originally confronted the Ming army, planned to follow and attack with all his strength when the Ming army retreated.

(End of this chapter)