The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 451 Overturned
"The left wing of the Qing army entered the border wall from Jielingkou, and the right wing entered from Yanmenguan Huangyakou, and joined forces in Jizhou, then crossed southward and divided into five routes to advance into Shandong."

"The Qing army marched southward with unstoppable force. In three months, they captured 43 cities, defeated 17 Ming army formations, killed two generals, two deputy generals, seven lieutenant generals, and four guerrillas."

"The Prince of De, Zhu Youshu, was captured, and the Prince of Lu, Zhu Yipai, hanged himself, and the northern kingdom was shaken."

"The capitals of Shandong, Dongchang, Yanzhou, Jinan, and Qingzhou were all destroyed and captured by the Qing army."

In the north of Yangzhou City, on top of the Central Army Observation Tower.

While Chen Wang was gazing at the ruined Yangzhou city in the distance, he was listening to the staff of the Central Military Department reporting on the situation in the North.

The siege of Yangzhou had lasted for more than a month. At the beginning, the artillery team had a total of twenty 18-jin cannons and eight 24-jin cannons that launched a massive bombardment.

Later, eight 24-jin cannons and Western-made 32-pound siege cannons were added.

As a result, the outer walls of Yangzhou City collapsed in many places, and the siege had reached a fever pitch. The Wanmin Army could only rely on the ruined city walls and streets to fight the Jingnan Army.

Li Yan led his army across the canal and stationed his troops ten miles west of Yangzhou City.

Zhao Shouping, the clay pot man, and Yidougu Changjianxi also led their troops to station ten miles south of Yangzhou City. The three of them formed a triangle and relied on each other for defense.

At this point, the Wanmin Army’s strength around Yangzhou had exceeded 350,000.

This amount of troops is more than twice that of the Jingnan Army.

A battle of this scale cannot be resolved in a day or two.

The strength of the Wanmin Army is not weak, at least on paper they have not lost too much.

During this period of time, the Wanmin Army fought several battles but was not completely defeated. Instead, it achieved certain results.

Chen Wang now commands a force of 140,000, but the real elite troops are only the First Division directly under his command and the Fourth Division of Hanzhong Town led by Zuo Guangxian, which total no more than 36,000 people.

There are more than 100,000 soldiers and horses in the three towns of Shandong, Henan and Huguang.

However, the Shandong Town was composed of newly recruited soldiers, while the Henan and Huguang Town were originally reorganized from the old armies of the Zuo and Meng Towns, and the Huguang Town was reorganized from the West Army.

Although the three have undergone reorganization and training, their main composition is still the original old army.

Even though the military equipment has been updated a lot, the combat power is naturally not as good as the direct line of Hanzhong Town.

Despise the enemy strategically and take the enemy seriously tactically.

A war of this scale naturally requires extreme caution.

Therefore, neither Chen Wang nor Li Yan deployed all their troops.

The Qing army is still wandering around the north, and a large amount of Jingnan Army's forces are tied up, making it difficult to provide assistance.

"Gao Jie reported in Haizhou that he encountered Qing scouts fifteen miles north of Haizhou City. His troops beheaded three Qing soldiers, captured three pieces of armor, and one horse."

"At night, we observed from afar and found that there were about a thousand Qing troops marching southward. After being frustrated, the Qing troops retreated."

"Chen Yongfu and Gao Qian reported that a large number of Qing troops were spotted north of the Yellow River in Xuzhou. From a distance, the number of Qing troops should be more than 5,000. After hesitating in Hebei for half a day, they went down the river and headed east."

Chen Wang lowered his head and examined the map on the table. The direction of the Qing army's advance on the map did not change much from that in history.

Haizhou was originally captured by the Qing army during the Immortal Rebellion.

But this time, Haizhou was no longer guarded by only weak guards, but by more than twelve thousand soldiers.

To protect the shipyard in Haizhou and deal with possible threats from land.

Haizhou has long become a huge military fortress.

A large number of craftsmen were recruited by Chen Wang to build many bastions for auxiliary defense near Haizhou City. At the same time, they strengthened and rebuilt the city defense of Haizhou.

Not only that, Chen Wang also bought more than twenty three- and four-pound cannons from Zheng Zhilong and placed them on the city walls of Haizhou to guard against possible attacks.

Among them, there were eight coastal artillery batteries built in Haizhou. The red cannons installed on the batteries were all heavy artillery with shells weighing 18 pounds, which is equivalent to 24 pounds in Western standards.

In this area of ​​the Far East, it is undoubtedly a heavy coastal defense artillery.

"Send a message to Gao Jie, and when the Qing army withdraws north in April or May, lead the troops to take control of Andongwei, Xiahezhaiqiansuo, Lingshanwei, and Fushanqiansuo along the way."

"He has both the blank official documents and the military order. Take the military order to him. If the defenders are unwilling to surrender the city, they will be considered as collaborators with the enemy."

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, because of the empty seal incident, Zhu Yuanzhang launched a major case and hunted down and killed officials who were deeply involved.

Empty seals do open the door to corruption, and prohibition does have certain benefits.

But now Chen Wang needs an empty seal. The advantage of an empty seal is convenience.

Therefore, the military commanders of each town had many blank documents with the seal of Commander Wu Shen printed on them.

"The newly recruited craftsmen will be moved to Fushan Front Station. Haizhou alone is far from enough. Fushan Front Station has a unique location and can serve as our army's second military port."

Many people may be confused when hearing Fushanqianso.

In later generations, there was a city whose predecessor was Fushan Qiansuo.

The name of that city is Qingdao.

"The Qing army's movements are unclear. I remember that Chen Gong's Dingnan Town is training new soldiers in Suqian, right?"

Like Haizhou, Suqian is located in Huai'an Prefecture north of the Huai River, and the two are only a hundred miles apart.

The camp that Chen Gong was originally assigned to lead was called Jingnan Town.

However, the title bestowed by the imperial court was Jingnan, and there was a conflict between the two, so the Jingnan Town led by Chen Gong was changed to Dingnan Town by Chen Wanggai.

"Dingnan Town will send three divisions to stay in Suqian, and send troops to garrison Lingshanwei and Fushanqian."

"Let Chen Gong lead the first, second, and third divisions down the canal to help Yangzhou."

The training in Dingnan Town has been going on for more than three months, and all the soldiers are recruited from canal workers.

The canal workers were strong, hard-working, orderly and obedient.

Three months of training is enough to develop a certain combat effectiveness.

Although they are not strong enough to defeat the elite troops of the Wanmin Army, they can definitely suppress the ordinary soldiers of the Wanmin Army.

The war in Yangzhou is intense now, so it can be used as a training ground for the new army.

The reason why Chen Wang had not personally led the Hanzhong garrison to join the war and launch a general attack on the Wanmin Army was not only out of careful consideration, but also to a large extent because he wanted to sharpen the reorganized and retrained old troops under his command.

In more than a month, the 15,000 men under Liu Zeqing's command were almost completely wiped out, leaving only about 3,000 men.

Liu Zeqing did not cause any trouble. Half a month after attacking Yangzhou, just as planned, he fell asleep forever under the city of Yangzhou.

The remaining 3,000-plus soldiers were used by Chen Wang as reinforcements and deployed to various towns that were attacking the city.

These more than 3,000 people have already been reborn in the fierce battle of Yangzhou and have become the real gold that survived.

"The two garrison towns were handed over to the craftsmen to be rebuilt into bastions."

Hu Zhili nodded, and just as he was about to agree, a burst of hurried horse hooves sounds suddenly rang in everyone's ears.

Hu Zhili followed Chen Wang's gaze and looked down at the observation deck.

Chen Wang frowned slightly, looking gloomy as he stared at the messenger coming from the north.

Carrying three feathers means to speed up the journey of 800 miles.

Such an urgent situation, especially coming from the North, would naturally attract Chen Wang's attention.

The news brought by the messenger who climbed the tower later was indeed worthy of the three feathers on his back. "On the 23rd day of the first lunar month, the Qing army's battle line was completely evacuated and the soldiers were trapped in the capital!"

As soon as the cavalryman finished speaking, all the generals on the central army's lookout tower turned their heads and looked towards the cavalryman.

"Can you say that again?"

A cold light flashed in Chen Wang's eyes and his voice was as cold as a knife.

"What happened to the Qing army?"

Xin Qi, who was half-kneeling on the ground, was frightened by Chen Wangsen's cold gaze. His throat rolled and his voice trembled unconsciously.

"Qing...Qing...Qing troops...shrink their front lines...and surround the capital..."

"The troops surrounded the capital..."

Chen Wang looked solemn.

In the original timeline, the Qing army plundered the south, and after plundering Shandong, they turned back and retreated north without staying in the capital. In May of the following year, they crossed the Qiangziling Ridge and left the border.

But the information coming in now is that the Qing army is closing in on the front lines and surrounding the capital.

Once again, events have changed and history is no longer static.

"Huang Taiji..."

Chen Wang felt a little depressed. From the very beginning, he sensed something unusual was going on.

In the original timeline, Huang Taiji had been stationed in Liaodong, and the Renwu Rebellion was led by Abatai. However, the intelligence sent by the Intelligence Department at the beginning and the Ming court's reports all knew that it was Huang Taiji who was in charge.

Things really changed and took a turn for the worst.

"Big brother."

Hu Zhili's body trembled slightly as he looked at the location of the capital on the map.

"Do you think the capital can be defended?"

Chen Wang shook his head, lowered his eyes, and spoke slowly.

"If the Qing army really attacks the capital with all its might, the capital will definitely not be able to be defended."

The strong wind blew, causing thousands of flags to flutter.

On the observation deck, all the officers and soldiers lowered their heads involuntarily.

Even though they and the Ming court had actually been in opposition for a long time.

But they were once officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, and were also the people of the Ming Dynasty...

The capital may fall into the hands of Li Zicheng.

But the capital cannot fall into the hands of the Qing army...

"In the Battle of Songjin, the fierce fighting of the nine border towns consumed a lot of the Qing army's military strength."

"But the Qing army is still stronger than the Ming court today."

The strength of the Qing army is indeed much weaker than in history.

However, the strength of the Ming army was much weakened compared to the year of Renwu in history.

In the original timeline, Li Zicheng did not occupy the northwest at this time, and the Ming court's troops in Shandong did not suffer too many losses.

The strength of the Ming court at this time was weaker than in the 17th year of Chongzhen in history.

"The entire Ming court has only 70,000 troops available for field battles, 30,000 of which are in Zhou Yanru's hands."

"Zhou Yanru did not dare to send troops to fight against the Qing army that was marching southward."

"After the Qing army broke through the pass, Zhou Yanru led his troops to Baoding, but he did not dare to go north again and just held on to Baoding."

"The capital now only has 70,000 soldiers, including the 40,000 soldiers from the four towns."

The four towns have too few soldiers and horses to fight in the field, so they are now concentrated in the capital to guard it.

"The Ming court was unprecedentedly weak, which also made the Qing army's victory in the south great. They conquered cities and states along the way as if they were in an empty land."

Huang Taiji's decision to surround the capital at this time was indeed unexpected, but also reasonable.

"The capital is under siege. As the chief minister of the cabinet, Zhou Yanru must return to defend the capital no matter what..."

Hu Zhili looked struggling, and after a while, he slowly spoke.

"One hundred thousand people, one hundred thousand people, it shouldn't be difficult to defend the capital..."

Chen Wang examined the map placed on the observation deck.

"Do you think Huang Taiji couldn't foresee such a situation?"

"When the Qing army surrounded the capital, Zhou Yanru would have to lead his troops back. You could have thought of that, but why couldn't Huang Taiji?"

Chen Wang sighed. Things finally took a turn for the worst.

"I'm afraid Huang Taiji has already set a trap outside the capital, waiting for us cabinet ministers to lead the last field troops of the Ming court to fall into the trap..."

This time, it may not be Li Zicheng's turn to capture Beijing.

"If Zhou Yanru had returned to the capital when the Qing army first entered the pass, he could have ensured the safety of the capital."

"But when Zhou Yanru was afraid of the Qing army's offensive and stopped in Baoding, it was too late."

The current situation is not optimistic.

"Find out the situation and intelligence in Sichuan."

Chen Wang frowned. All of Huang Taiji's arrangements before entering the border this time were just like his previous plans to plunder and return to the outside of the Great Wall.

This can be seen from the fact that the Qing army looted all the way south and at the same time divided its troops everywhere.

If Huang Taiji wanted to capture the capital from the beginning, there would be no need for him to waste so much time in Shandong.

After hearing Chen Wang's instructions, the staff of the Central Military Department quickly began to search for documents about Sichuan.

"Last year, on the third day of November, General Liu Zongmin of the Chuang army led 50,000 infantry and cavalry into Songpan, joined forces with the Qiang, Mongolian, and Han soldiers of Songpan Guard, and marched into Sichuan."

The staff of the Central Military Department quickly collected and organized the information about Sichuan.

A staff officer handed the compiled military report to Chen Wang, then saluted and reported.

"Zhang Ling was defeated at Diexi Suo, and could only lead the remaining troops back to Chengdu. The Sichuan Army was defeated, and the Chuang Army was able to cross Diexi Suo and besiege Chengdu. Chengdu was in a state of emergency and sent a message to the local chieftains in all towns to come to its aid."

"However, the troops in the various towns have been owed wages for a long time, and their military preparations have been neglected, so they all sit on the sidelines and watch."

"The chieftains in all directions also firmly held their homelands and refused to provide assistance."

"There are only about 10,000 remnant soldiers in Chengdu. We rely on the civilians who help defend the city. In addition, the rebels don't bring too many siege equipment, so they need to make them on the spot. Therefore, we can barely hold on now."

"According to the analysis of the General Staff, based on the current situation, Chengdu can only hold out until April this year at most."

Chen Wang's eyes moved across the map. The staff of the Central Military Department quickly rearranged the military chess pieces on the map based on the battle report from Sichuan.

As the number of military chess pieces increased, the context in Chen Wang's vision gradually became clear.