1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 649 Denglai's Dangerous Situation
June 1650, 6, Beijing, Prince Rui's Mansion (formerly Ming Nangong).

Luo Shouzhang dejectedly put down the Qing army's victory report document, his face became even paler, and he bowed his head in silence.

"In less than a month, our Qing soldiers gathered troops from dozens of cities in Weixian, Jinan, Qingzhou, Changyi, and Yexian counties in Malianke, and gathered troops under the city of Penglai. It's just around the corner!" Dorgon said with a smile: "What's even more unexpected is that at this time, your troops from the Qi State led Yongchu's puppet troops into the coastal towns of North Korea and routinely mowed grass. It's ridiculous, now But I was attacked by my Qing soldiers and horses. Haha..., this is God helping my Qing Dynasty!"

It may be true that they have conquered dozens of cities, but it is a bit outrageous to defeat more than [-] Ming troops. You need to know that the Denglai Ming Army has a total of more than [-] people, including Li Benshen in Juzhou, Jiaozhou, and Yizhou. More than [-] people.Of course, it is also possible for the Qing army to regard the people who were massacred after breaking the city as the number of beheaded people.

But no matter what, this large-scale raid by the Qing army must have achieved great results. Pingdu Prefecture, Ye County (now Laizhou City, Shandong), Zhaoyuan, and Huangxian (now Longkou, Shandong), which were the core places of Denglai before, City) were captured by them, and they directly surrounded Dengzhou's seat—Penglai.Moreover, the Ming army must have suffered a huge loss of soldiers, and it is not known whether it will be able to repel the large-scale attack of the Qing army in the end.

"Come to think of it, when your country of Qi sends ships and troops from Hanzhou thousands of miles away to support, it will probably be mid-July." Dorgon said proudly: "Do you think the little court of Yongchu can do this?" Are you going to hold on for so long?"

The Qing court has already figured out the information about Denglai and Qi. They know that from January to June every year, because of the transfer of immigrants and returning to the mainland one after another, there will be very few warships left by Qi on the coast of Daming. .What's more terrible is that last year, in response to the Sino-Dutch War, not only the four professional warships originally stationed in the Daming sea area were transferred back to the mainland, but most of the marines were also withdrawn, so that the Qing army just took advantage of the false attack Into Denglai's heart, but the Qi army was unable to counterattack as it should.

In addition, last year, the Qing government sent a mission to the mainland of Hanzhou. Everyone thought that the Qing government had temporarily given up on the military conquest of the Denglai area, and instead began to implement gentle methods. The army also relaxed a little.

Although the Yongchu court was quite dissatisfied with Qiguo's private contact with the Qing court missions, but considering that it would take a lot of time to digest and absorb the newly occupied Shandong territories such as Jinan and Jining, and also needed a certain peaceful environment, they also focused all their attention on it. Invest in the internal affairs management of the newly occupied land, and prepare to consolidate the territory under its jurisdiction and accumulate more strength during this period.

Who would have imagined that the Qing government would not take any rest at all after quelling the Jiangguan rebellion in Datong, Shanxi Province. Immediately after the beginning of spring, it mobilized a large army to raid Shandong and Denglai, catching Qi and the Yongchu court by surprise.

The commander of the Qing army, Nikan, led the light soldiers, passed through Lijin, Binzhou, and went straight to Weixian County, cutting off the retreat of the Ming army in Jinan, Zibo, and Qingzhou in one fell swoop. , led by the cavalry, crossed the Weihe River overnight, and quickly rushed to Ye County.

The cavalry leader of the Qing army, Bai Yintu, did not stop for a while after he attacked Keye County, but only sent a small number of cavalry to monitor Ye County, and then led the cavalry to continue eastward, heading straight for Huangxian County (now Longkou City, Shandong Province), the outer gateway of Penglai. And before noon the next day, they entered Huangxian County and seized a city gate that had not yet been closed when the defenders were unprepared. In less than half an hour, Huangxian County was captured by the Qing army.

After the follow-up Nikan led the firearms battalion and some Eight Banners infantry rushed to Ye County, they forced Wu Zhenhachao to push more than ten artillery pieces to the gate of Ye County regardless of the artillery bombardment from the top of the city, and violently bombarded the city gate.After paying the casualty price of hundreds of gunners, the city gate was blasted.

The defenders of Ye County gathered hundreds of musketeers near the city gate, and fired in volleys to kill and injure a large number of Qing infantry who swarmed into the city.

Seeing that the Ye County defenders, under the cover of musketeers, drove a large number of civilians to pile up bricks, stones and giant logs at the city gate, trying to block the city gate.Nikan mobilized more than a thousand North Korean shotgunners, braved the heavy blows of artillery and bows and arrows at the top of the city, and started shooting at the gate of the city with the Ming army's shotgunners.

The North Korean shotgunners, who suffered huge casualties, collapsed several times, but under the strong bullets of the Eight Banners infantry and musketeer battalion who supervised the formation behind, they had to turn back and rush to the city gate several times, and continued to "line up and shoot" with the Ming army musketeers .In the end, relying on the advantage of numbers, they repelled the Ming army musketeers and entered the city.

Ye County, which had been run by the Yongchu court for five years, was broken that night.Annoyed by the fierce resistance of the Ming army in the city, Nikan ordered the massacre of the city, and more than [-] soldiers and civilians in the city were massacred.If not, the Qing army was eager to attack Penglai to the east and temporarily gave up massacring the residents of the surrounding villages and towns in Ye County, and the victims would have been even worse.

However, when Nikan led the army to attack Penglai, he hit an iron plate.Several times of attacking the city, they were all repelled by the defenders under the multiple blows of the main city of Penglai and several subsidiary fortresses, and suffered heavy casualties, so they had to temporarily stop their troops under the city.

Since Penglai was unable to attack the city for a while, Nikan, the coach of the Qing army, ordered Baiyintu to lead the cavalry, from east to west, and flanked the main force of Boluo, sweeping the town of Denglai and the chaotic Ming army behind him.

Yongning Hou and Jiang Yongrui, the commander-in-chief of Denglai Town, were attacked by Boluo in Jinan and were defeated all the way back to Qingzhou. However, the Qing army gained momentum and pursued them all the way.

Jiang Yongrui was a little anxious after being beaten by the Qing army, so he simply stopped retreating and organized a large army to fight Boluo in Qingzhou.Relying on Qingzhou's high city wall and defending it with strong fortifications, the Ming army killed and attacked the Qing army under the Qingzhou city, causing Boluo's offensive to stagnate.

However, the Qing army did not bring too many siege equipment because the offensive was very urgent. In the first few days, the Du Han army attached ants to attack the city several times, but they failed to shake the Ming army's city defenses, and instead lost thousands of troops.Boluo then temporarily stopped attacking the city, surrounded it on several sides, and sent people back to Jinan to urge the rear troops to transport the siege equipment and red cannons to the front line.

A few days later, Jiang Yongrui received a shocking and desperate news from the rear. The Qing army attacked Weixian, broke through Changyi, Pingdu Prefecture, Yexian, Zhaoyuan, and Huangxian, and had already entered Penglai.

At this point, Qingzhou's army is in chaos, and Jiang Yongrui is also worried about the safety of the rear. If the Qing army breaks Penglai and captures and kills Emperor Yongchu, wouldn't it mean that the Ming Dynasty will be destroyed again, and everyone's hope of recovery will be cut off.

Therefore, Jiang Yongrui ordered Qin Wensheng, the commander-in-chief of the left battalion of Denglai Town, to lead more than [-] people to guard Qingzhou. After the state, go northeast from Laiyang, go straight to Qixia, and then pass through the mountains to return to Penglai.

However, before Jiang Yongrui led the army to Linqu, he was ambushed by thousands of Eight Banners Mongolian cavalry on the way. Caught off guard, the troops collapsed.

Jiang Yongrui took less than 2000 people, bypassed Linqu, and went straight to Anqiu.However, thousands of Qing cavalry followed closely, making it impossible for him to enter Anqiu. He could only continue to run south, through Zhucheng, and fled to Rizhao, where he joined Li Benshen who was stationed there.

Less than two days after Jiang Yongrui left, the Qingzhou garrison, led by Qin Wensheng, the commander of the Zuoying Battalion, surrendered the city.After Boluo led the Qing army into the city, in addition to letting Qin Wensheng and other cronies and more than 2000 people go, a large-scale massacre was carried out on the entire city's soldiers and civilians.

"You guys can't take down Penglai." Luo Shouzhang said coldly, "Even if you have an army of one hundred thousand, you can't take it down."

Penglai County was one of the few strong cities in the world decades ago. When Kong Youde was in trouble in Dengzhou, tens of thousands of Ming troops attacked the city and failed to conquer it for nearly half a year.Later, the anti-rebellion Ming army dispatched a large number of artillery from Beijing and Liaodong, and bombarded them day and night, forcing Kong Youde and others to abandon the city and board a ship to flee.

After the Yongchu imperial court occupied Denglai, under the guidance of many city builders in Qi State, Penglai City was reinforced and thickened, and the previous city wall was bastionized, and several auxiliary buildings were built around the main city to defend the city. The fortress, coupled with the artillery on the top of the city, and the sufficient reserves in the city, even if the Qing army attacked with tens of thousands of troops, it may not be able to conquer the city.

Therefore, Luo Shouzhang is more confident that the Ming army can defend Penglai City.Don't forget that even if the Qi State withdrew its powerful professional warships, there were still a few armed merchant ships left behind on Changshan Island. At that time, they could also sail into the port outside Penglai City to support the Ming army with artillery fire.Not to mention attacking the city, the Qing army may encounter serious obstacles when setting up camp.

"Hmph, if it's difficult to attack the strong city of Penglai, that's okay." Dorgon sneered, "But since ancient times, the most important thing in the battle of siege is to attack the heart. You know, the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Penglai City are not Everyone is willing to die for the little court of Yongchu!"

"There are hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Penglai, millions of people in Denglai, and even hundreds of millions of people in Ming Dynasty. Not everyone is willing to be your slave!" Luo Shouzhang said not to be outdone.

"It doesn't matter, as long as our knives are sharp enough, there will be tens of thousands of Han Chinese as our slaves." Dorgon said coldly, "I won't kill you now, but I want you to see it with your own eyes. How did the Qing conquer the world, how did you make millions of Han Chinese our slaves!"
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October 6, Fuzhou.

Zheng Sen strode into the hall, holding the handle of the knife under his waist with his left hand, looked at the civil and military officials sitting in two rows, and then said coldly: "I have something important to discuss with my father, and you all leave here."

When more than a dozen civil and military officials under the rank heard the words, they couldn't help but look at each other, and then turned their heads in unison to look at Zheng Zhilong who was sitting in the main seat.

"Today's discussion, let's stop here for the time being. Everyone, go and take care of the affairs in hand, and let's go." Zheng Zhilong looked at his eldest son, a little dissatisfied with his sudden intrusion into the meeting hall, and there was a trace of hesitation on his face color.

When Zheng Zhilong and his son were the only ones left in the hall, there was a depressing and weird atmosphere in the quiet hall.Zheng Zhilong's face was as deep as water, his eyes were slightly squinted, and he leaned on the armchair with his right hand, and lightly hit the armrest.

"Father, the situation in Denglai is in dire straits, and Penglai City is also struggling to support it. If His Majesty Yongchu is captured and killed by the Qing army, the Ming Dynasty will perish!" Do your duty as a minister, and send troops to Denglai to rescue. Otherwise, Denglai will be destroyed and the Ming Dynasty will be destroyed. How can Fujian, which we occupy, be spared from the attack of building slaves?"

"Huangkou boy, why are you interfering in Fujian's political affairs!" Zheng Zhilong reprimanded: "Fujian and Denglai are thousands of miles away. Even if we sail northward, how many reinforcements can we provide to rescue Denglai? Qing army Tan Tai, He Luohui, Liu Liangzuo More than [-] Manchu, Han, and Mongolian soldiers and horses are in Jiangxi. Han Dai, the general of the Eight Banners of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties, also commanded tens of thousands of troops in Hangzhou, intimidating Wentai, and spying on Fujian. In addition, our Army Department fought against Chaozhou. Under these circumstances, How can my Zheng family dispatch extra troops to Denglai for rescue!"

"Father, my Fujian army is guarding Xianxialing, and it is difficult for the Qing army to invade Fujian from Jiangxi. As for the Hangzhou Eight Banners soldiers and horses, although there are tens of thousands of them, most of them are surrendered troops and rebels. Their combat power is not strong, and it is difficult to attack us Wentai poses a threat. Although Hao Shangjiu’s tribe in Chaozhou fell to the Qing court, it has more than [-] people and is in fact a separatist regime. If my Zheng family withdraws from the siege of Chaoshan, the Qing court will definitely be afraid of the Hao tribe. It is unknown. So, it is better to withdraw the more than ten thousand troops who attacked Chaozhou, and quickly transport them to Denglai by boat, so as to solve the difficulties of the court first. When there are repeated attacks in Chaozhou and Shantou, our army will attack Haobu again. Wouldn’t it be more effective with half the effort?”

"Humph, what nonsense!" Zheng Zhilong snorted coldly, "The more than [-] Qing troops in Jiangxi could not break through Xianxia Ridge. How could they know that they would not detour to Guangdong, or Jinhua and Yuhang, and invade Fujian from the north and south? Besides, our army It has been several months since the attack on Chaozhou, and it is time to finish the battle, so how can we easily withdraw our troops and return. It must be known that the Qing army will attack Denglai on a large scale, and the army may have hundreds of thousands of people. Even if we send more than ten thousand troops, we can help What's the matter? At this moment, my Zheng family should raise more money and food, build a more secure city defense, and make full preparations for the long-term future plan."

"Father, your lips are dead and your teeth are cold!" Zheng Sen said sadly: "If Denglai is destroyed and His Majesty Yongchu is killed, the Qing army will have no constraints in the north. At that time, they will use the power of the whole country to gather a large army to besiege Fujian. Who will come? Save us?"

"If there is a real failure in the mainland, my Zheng family will automatically withdraw from Taiwan and Lu, and we will be able to separate overseas and form a unified system."

"But..., if we go to Huaxia, wouldn't we be reduced to the generation of foreign barbarians?"

"So what?" Zheng Zhilong patted the eldest son on the shoulder, "In the past few years, so many heroes in Ming Dynasty rose up, but they were all wiped out by Jiannu and fell into the dust. Perhaps, when the world is changing, this Jiannu should follow There is a destiny to establish a new dynasty. We, the humble forces, should go with the trend, respond to the general trend, and think about it for our own family first....Hanzhou, be a role model for us!"

(End of this chapter)