1635 Han style rises again

Chapter 665
July 7, Nanping (now Cam Ranh, Vietnam)
Since May, countless grain merchants have flocked to Annan, Champa, Cambodia, Siam, Nakhon Siam, Pattani, Brunei and many other Southeast Asian countries, frantically purchasing local rice, wheat, sago and other grains.The purchase price also rose by more than [-]% compared with previous years, which made local grain merchants and farmers overjoyed.

These grains procured from all over the country finally flowed to several territories in the Annan General Administration of Qi State and were temporarily stored.In July, 60 shi of grain entered the warehouses of Qi State successively, but the people of Qi State did not seem to stop purchasing.

Jin Tongwu followed Cao Ning, the general manager of Qi State in Annan, and was shocked when he looked at the huge warehouses. He knew that each warehouse must be filled with a lot of rice, wheat and sago.Walking down such a circle, there are dozens of huge warehouses, probably storing [-] to [-] shi of grain.

"A new warehouse is still being planned over there. We plan to increase the grain reserve to 100 million shi by the end of September." Cao Ning said as he walked, "The reason why we have prepared so much grain is to show that we As for the ordnance you need, we can fully satisfy it. Today, the ordnance stored in Xinsheng Island (now Phu Quoc Island, Vietnam), Lin'an City (now Vung Tau City, Vietnam) and Nanping City are enough to arm 2 More than ten thousand people."

"But at present, King Anxi (Li Dingguo) is leading a large army on the front line of Changsha, ready to launch an offensive against Wuchang." Jin Tongwu said in embarrassment: "So, we can't spare extra troops now to cooperate with you in launching a massive Guangdong-Guangzhou offensive. "

"We know that King Anxi led troops to attack Huguang." Cao Ning said, "But don't you still have tens of thousands of troops in Yunnan and Guizhou? If you send these troops eastward into Guangxi, attack Wuzhou, and pretend to rescue Zhaoqing , then we will definitely be able to attract the Qing army stationed in Guangdong. Only in this way can we launch an attack on the rear of the Qing army and eat up Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao’s tens of thousands of the main force of the Qing army in one fell swoop.”

"Lord Cao, the troops currently stationed in Guizhou and Yunnan are under the jurisdiction of King Qin (Sun Kewang), and we...we have no right to move them." Jin Tongwu said with a bitter face.

"Sun Kewanggui is the king of Qin who was enshrined by the Ming Dynasty, and the commander-in-chief of the first army. If he knows our strategy of Guangdong and Guangxi, he will definitely get a positive response from him." Cao Ning said: "After all, the main force of the Eight Banners Han army of the Qing army stationed in Guangdong Annihilation is very beneficial to our security situation in the east. It is not impossible to take advantage of the situation and invade Guangdong. You must know that Zheng Zhilong's Qing army is far inferior to Shang Kexi and the Eight Banners Han army. If you attack all the way, you should It won't hinder you too much."

After hearing this, Jin Tongwu sighed slightly in his heart.At the beginning, Li Dingguo insisted on entering northern Guangxi and southern Hunan, which made Sun Kewang very dissatisfied. He once stopped the logistics supply of the army. If it weren't for the large amount of food and ordnance provided by the Qi State, Li Dingguo's troops would have almost been unable to successfully break through Northern Guangxi. It is impossible to defeat Kong Youde and enter Hunan.

Now, seeing that Li Dingguo is progressing smoothly, after joining forces with Feng Shuangli's troops, he drove the Qing army all the way to the Yangtze River, and was about to sweep the entire Huguang area.Sun Kewang then changed his mind and began to support Li Dingguo, but asked him to suspend his march to consolidate the newly occupied territory in Hunan. He would also send troops to Hunan, preparing to join the army to capture Hubei, and then spy on the Central Plains and Jiangnan.

In addition, Sun Kewang also sent Liu Wenxiu and Wang Ziqi to send troops from Guizhou to attack Sichuan as a shield for the left wing of the army.In this way, the soldiers of Yunnan and Guizhou will spend all their time, and there will be no extra troops to cooperate with Qi to launch an offensive between Guangdong and Guangxi.

But they are full of sincerity, not only prepared enough food, but also spared no effort to support them with a large amount of ordnance, if they refused them.How could he know that he would not offend the Qi State and stop providing them with weapons.

Not to mention, the ordnance provided by Qi State is not only large in quantity, but also of high quality.All the swords and spears seem to have steel infiltrated into them, making them tough and sharp, but not easy to break.Light land artillery and self-propelled blunderbuss (flintlock guns) are even more rare and high-quality goods, and they have become sharp weapons for the army to attack cities and conquer territories and urge the enemy.

Moreover, Qi State is not very picky about the exchange materials they provide, and accepts everything that can be brought, and the price is relatively reasonable.Even if there is no material available for exchange on hand for a while, it can still be temporarily in arrears.Jin Tongwu is unwilling to offend this kind of benefactor from the bottom of his heart.

"Master Cao, I need to report to the King of Anxi immediately after returning to Guangxi for your plan for the strategy of Guangdong and Guangxi. I think that King Anxi will make a satisfactory arrangement in the end." Jin Tongwu made up his mind, even if soldiers from Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi No matter how distressed Ma is, no matter what, he will squeeze out more than [-] people to cooperate with Qi to fight Guangdong.
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"The reason why we chose Guangdong and Guangxi as a breakthrough point is that there are favorable conditions for a counterattack. The Qing army Shang Kexi, Geng Jimao's department and other Qing troops had deep conflicts with Zheng Zhilong's department who came to take over Guangdong territory. Originally, the Qing court was Guangdong was given to Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao, so they fought extremely hard in the early stage. In less than a year, they attacked from Jiangxi to Guangzhou, successively wiped out and conquered the five prefectures of Guangdong, and defeated tens of thousands of Ming troops under Li Chengdong's department. people."

"But who knows, in order to surrender Fujian, the Qing court also granted Guangdong to Zheng Zhilong. Shang Kexi, Geng Jimao and others probably had some complaints in their hearts. Although the Qing court also promised Yunnan and Guizhou to Shang and Geng, but From their military deployment, we can still see that some of them seem to be not working hard, and they have been wandering around in the Guangdong area, searching for local materials and wealth, and have not attacked Guangxi for a long time."

"Faced with this situation, Zheng Zhilong sent several envoys to Beijing, requesting the Qing government to order the Qing army stationed in Guangdong to quickly move the town so that the Zheng army could take over Guangdong; , captured several Guangdong prefectures and counties still occupied by the Ming army, and vaguely gave gifts to Shang, Geng and other Qing troops."

"Therefore, we mobilized Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo to mobilize powerful troops to go out of Wuzhou and attack Zhaoqing, attracting the Qing army to take the initiative to attack, and then retreating to Guangxi after pretending to be defeated, so as to increase the logistics supplies of the Qing army. And we assembled elite troops, The raid on Guangzhou cut off the connection between the Qing army and the Zheng army. After deduction and calculation, we believe that no matter whether Shang Kexi, Geng Jimao and other main forces of the Qing army were attacked, or Zheng Zhilong’s troops were attacked, the other party would not support each other. It is beneficial for us to break through each of them, and then establish the situation in Guangdong and Guangxi in one fell swoop."

After He Yunfeng finished speaking, he looked up at the military and civilian officials of the Qi State present, and finally fixed his eyes on Qi Xianyong, the deputy commander of the black guards stationed in Daming, and said solemnly: "The key link of this strategy of Guangdong and Guangxi lies in the fact that Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, etc. People, how many troops can be assembled and mobilized to participate in the war. If the number of troops they mobilize is small or the combat effectiveness is low, not only will they not be able to achieve the goal of luring the enemy and killing the Qing army, but it may also allow the Qing army to take advantage of the situation and invade Guangxi, threatening Yunnan and Huguang. "

"The news came back from Daming last month that after Li Dingguo invaded Hunan, the offensive went like a wave and progressed very smoothly. The Qing troops of Kong Youde, Shen Yongzhong and other ministries were all defeated at the first touch and fled. Li Dingguo's troops captured Baoqing, Changsha, Xinhua, Hengyang, Shaoyang, Liuyang. Only a few cities in Hunan, such as Yuezhou and Changde, are left in the hands of the Qing army. If there are no accidents, Li Dingguo might be able to go down the river and attack Wuchang." Qi Xianyong said.

"At this time, Sun Kewang asked Li Dingguo to suspend the offensive to consolidate and stabilize the ruling order in the newly occupied area. He planned to raise [-] troops to enter Hunan, saying that he wanted to concentrate the main force and jointly attack Hubei. But let's guess, Sun Kewang wanted to do this The reason is that they don’t want Li Dingguo to monopolize the fruits of Huguang’s victory, and want to hurry to share the credit. If so, they will concentrate more than [-] troops on the entire Huguang battlefield, and they will become an overwhelming advantage against the Qing army.”

"In this way, I am afraid that there will not be many troops they put into the Guangdong and Guangxi battlefields. Even if they can barely gather some troops, I think they are the local armed forces that have been hastily recruited to deal with us. It is difficult to guarantee their combat effectiveness. The task of the army, not to mention the anti-killing of the Qing army lured into Guangxi. Maybe it will fail to steal the chicken, and let the Qing army break into Guangxi instead, threatening the retreat of Li Dingguo's troops."

"Can you persuade Sun Kewang to invest some of his troops in the Guangdong and Guangxi regions? More than 7 people are crowded in the Huguang region. I'm afraid they can't use it. There are rivers and lakes everywhere. There are [-] to [-] elite soldiers, which is enough for them to fight in Hubei. It’s gone.” Niu Hu, the commander-in-chief of the Marine Corps, frowned and said, “If the tens of thousands of Qing troops in Guangdong are allowed to ignore them, they won’t worry about them rushing into Guangxi and killing them in Yunnan and Guizhou?”

"If Sun Kewang disagrees and cannot send strong troops to attack Guangdong, then shall we abandon the Guangdong and Guangxi strategy?" Qi Dajiang asked in a deep voice.

"Yes. With our thousands of troops, I am afraid that we cannot launch an offensive against Guangdong alone. Shang Kexi, Geng Jimao, Hao Shangjiu, Huang Yingjie and other Qing troops have a total of more than [-] people, and almost all of them are clustered together. In Guangzhou, Zhaoqing, and Huizhou. In addition, there are more than [-] people from Zheng Zhilong's department stationed in Guangzhou. If we rush into Guangdong, we are likely to be besieged by them." He Yunfeng shook his head and said.

"If Guangdong can't break through, can Denglai do something?"

"Governor, since last year the Qing captives besieged Denglai and compressed the territory of the Yongchu court to a corner of the coast. Later, by moving the border and banning the sea, the land blockade of the Yongchu court was increased. This made the Denglai area already lost. He Yunfeng said with a wry smile: "In addition, during the last war, nearly [-] Yongchu court officials and soldiers surrendered to the Qing captives. It is conservatively estimated that the Qing army obtained at least [-] to [-] flintlock guns from them. There are also nearly a hundred cannons. The number of firearms and equipment of the Qing army stationed on the outskirts of Denglai is even higher than that of the Yongchu imperial army."

"Damn it, we are indirectly sending firearms to the Qing captives." Qi Dajiang cursed unhappily, "We have also sent a lot of firearms to Li Dingguo's department in the past year, and they will not surrender in the future." Clear the prisoner?"

Over the past few years, the State of Qi has successively supported Denglaiyongchu court with countless ordnance supplies, and even sent many key officers to help the Ming army train the army and teach them the combat skills of firearms.It was originally thought that the combat effectiveness of the Ming army could be enhanced by this, and it could undertake the battle against the Qing captives alone. It also placed high hopes on the development and growth of the Ming army.

Unexpectedly, under the rapid offensive of the Qing army, it was still embarrassing, and there were even large-scale surrenders.Now, except for some of the surrendered troops who are familiar with the new firearms are incorporated into Wuzhen Hachao and continue to grow the Qing army's firearms troops, the rest are all dispersed and stationed in various outlying strongholds in Denglai. The imperial court of the Yongchu Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty who was loyal in the past was approved.

In this situation, the marines and naval officers and soldiers of Qi State stationed in Daming not only felt extremely depressed, but also deeply disappointed and strongly distrusted the Ming army.This is so fucking mud that can't support the wall!
"Li Dingguo should not surrender to the Qing Dynasty." Qi Xianyong said: "According to the report of the black-clothed guards stationed beside him, Li Dingguo still has a lot of national integrity, and he also has a certain sense of closeness to Ming Dynasty, and hopes to expel the Tartars as soon as possible. Repeat Daming Rivers and Mountains."

"I hope so!" Qi Dajiang said noncommittally: "If the Guangdong-Guangzhou strategy cannot be implemented in the end, then we will follow the backup plan to attack Fujian, annihilate the Zheng army's navy, and control the Daming sea area."
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On August 8, Changsha.

Li Dingguo crossed his arms, looked at a simple sand table simulation map on the table, and meditated quietly.Several trusted generals around also held their breath, staring at the simulated sand table.

This simple sand table was made by a few tactical staff members of the Qi State who followed the army to observe and emulate. It covers the general situation in Huguang, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Guangxi and other regions. More than ten different small flags represent the distribution of influence of the Ming and Qing Dynasties. It is clear at a glance.

"If you attack Guangdong, how many soldiers and horses can you send at most?" Li Dingguo asked suddenly.

"We can dispatch 6000 people." Chang Xiangan replied.

"6000 people?" Li Dingguo couldn't help laughing. "As far as I know, there are 3 to [-] Qing troops stationed in Guangdong, and the Qing army near Guangzhou has no less than [-] troops. You are very courageous!"

"It is because of the large number of Qing troops near Guangzhou that we hope that you can launch an attack from Guangxi and attract the Qing troops so that we can take the opportunity to attack Guangzhou." We believe that the Qing court will inevitably instruct the Qing army stationed in Guangdong to attack Guangxi, or enter Hunan from Shaozhou Prefecture (now Shaoguan City, Guangdong Province) to rescue the Huguang battlefield.”

"The Qing army entered Hunan from Shaozhou Prefecture, not to mention the long distance and inconvenient supplies. Even if they came all the way, they would be easily defeated by us, and they would be defeated in vain." Li Dingguo shook his head and said, "If I were the commander of the Qing army, , directly defeat Zhaoqing, go to Deqing Prefecture, attack Wuzhou, enter Guangxi, and then whether it is to attack Guilin in the north or Nanning in the west, it will directly threaten our rear and force us to withdraw from Huguang to relieve the siege."

"King Anxi is going to return to Guangxi?" Chang Xiang'an was surprised and delighted.

"King Qin (Sun Kewang) led the army into Hunan. If I stay here again, it will become a constraint on the army. In this case, I will return to Guangxi to protect the army." Li Dingguo looked a little helpless on his face, "If you can Taking advantage of the opportunity to attack Guangdong may be of great benefit to the great cause of Ming Ming."

(End of this chapter)