Southern Ming: A boy soldier at the beginning, supporting the world

Chapter 125 Five Villages
Danchu did not return along the original route of the Li River, but instead passed through Tengxian and Wutunso, preparing to go up the Mengjiang River.

Arriving in Teng County, they entered Chen Bangfu's territory. Chen Zengyu advanced by land and water, going up the Xun River and along the south bank of the Xun River. Danchu led a thousand soldiers along the north bank of the Xun River, 40 miles away from Chen Zengyu.

This was clearly a provocation. The always brave and courageous battalion commander Wei Guosong could not help but feel guilty and advised Danchu: "General, our army is small and it is not appropriate to go deep into the enemy's territory alone. Chen Zengyu has five times more troops than us. If he has evil intentions, we will be in a very passive position."

Danchu disagreed and said, "No, Chen Bangfu and Chen Zengyu, father and son, are powerful on the outside but weak on the inside. They were humiliated by Li Chengdong last time. Now that our two armies have joined forces, they will not dare to act rashly.

"Besides, even if Chen Zengyu has evil intentions, he has to cross the Xunjiang River. With the Chen family army in such a bad shape, I am not afraid even if he has 50,000 soldiers, let alone 50,000."

This was of course just bragging. Danchu was not afraid of Chen Bangfu for another reason: Chen Bangfu was fighting with Xu Biao for Nanning.

Xu Biao was a native of Hengzhou, Nanning Prefecture. When the Qing army entered Guangxi, Xu Biao led the local soldiers to revolt. In April of the first year of the Yongli reign, Xu Biao followed Chen Jin to recover Lingshan County, Guangdong, and was promoted to deputy general for his meritorious service. Chen Bangfu wanted to recruit Xu Biao, but Xu Biao refused, and the two sides continued to attack each other.

Chen Bangfu was much stronger than Xu Biao, but he was defeated repeatedly, and even Xu Biao could not defeat him. In March of the second year, the Qing army attacked Nanning, and Xu Biao and Luo Quanbin defeated the Qing army in the south of Yujiang River.

Emperor Yongli went to Nanning, and Zhao Yi, the governor of Guangxi, was stationed in Nanning. He strongly advocated the pacification of Xu Biao. Xu Biao accepted the pacification, and Nanning finally had a moment of peace.

Zhao Yi was upright and diligent, and was trusted by Emperor Yongli. He was promoted to Deputy Censor-in-Chief, Governor of Nan, Tai, Lei, and Lian, and was also in charge of the food in the palace.

Chen Bangfu was good at scheming, and seeing that Zhao Yi was useful, he became a relative of Zhao Yi and married his daughter to Chen Zengyu.

When Emperor Yongli moved his throne to Wuzhou, Chen Bangfu sent the Central Army Zhao Hongyuan to kidnap Hou Xing and seize his sons and women. Hou Xing was already the Marquis of Xiangfu and led his army to protect the emperor. Chen Bangfu coveted his wealth and was jealous of his favor, so he actually sent troops to seize his wealth and women!

Hou Xing cried and complained to Emperor Yongli, who summoned Chen Bangfu and rebuked him in person, also blaming him for the mistake of guarding Guangxi for generations.

Chen Bangfu relied on the fact that the Yongli Emperor and his ministers were on his territory, and he said confidently: "If it weren't for the bloody battle between me and my father in Xun and Wu for three days and nights in February of the first year, how could we be here today?"

Emperor Yongli had no answer. Chen Bangfu bribed the central government to add the words "hereditary guardian" and "looking after the Mu family" to the imperial edict. When Zhang Liguang, the secretary of the Central Secretariat, copied the imperial edict, he changed it to "reside in Guangxi and be in charge of the special selection of grain taxes".

When the small court went to Wuzhou, a power vacuum appeared in Nanning, which was coveted by Chen Bangfu. Zhao Yi saw that Chen Bangfu was obviously rebellious and broke off the engagement with him. Chen Bangfu led his troops to attack Nanning, but Zhao Yi refused and led Xu Biao into the city to guard it.

……

"Have you ever heard of Xu Biao from Nanning?" Danchu asked.

Feng Lin and Wei Guosong looked at each other and said, "I've heard that he was born a bandit, but was later surrendered and had some military merits."

"When I was in Wuzhou, Li Yuanyin told me that Xu Biao was stationed in Nanning and was engaged in a fierce battle with Chen Bangfu."

The two suddenly realized and felt relieved. Wei Guosong asked, "The Marshal has already been stationed in Zhaoping, but it is six or seven hundred miles away from Nanning. Will you still try to take Nanning in the future?"

"Of course. Zhaoping has no strategic location to defend, and Yong'an is remote, neither of them is a base. Nanning has vast farmland and is located on the border, so the Qing invaders cannot reach it. Even if the Qing invaders invade Guangxi in the future, we can deal with it calmly in Nanning; if they are in Zhaoping and Yong'an, we won't even have room for a buffer." "What the Marshal means is that the Qing invaders will invade Guangxi in the future?" Feng Lin and Wei Guosong looked at each other, seemingly unwilling to believe it.

It's more than just a possibility, it's inevitable.

Now that Jiangxi and Guangdong have rebelled, the situation in the Southern Ming Dynasty has never been as optimistic as it is now. It seems that it is still a long way to go before the Qing army will invade Guangxi. However, everything rises and falls. The Yongli court failed to seize this opportunity for revival and could only continue to go downhill, sinking deeper and deeper into the abyss of depravity.

"The commander-in-chief's counterattack was ineffective. Our army in Yongzhou is ten times larger than the enemy. We have been besieging the city for three months, but we have never been able to capture this isolated city. From this, we can see that the war situation in Huguang is not optimistic.

"In Jiangxi, Duke Yu also besieged Ganzhou for a long time but failed. When he heard that the Qing invaders had launched a counterattack, he hurried back to defend Nanchang. The Guangdong and Chu armies were reluctant to reinforce Jiangxi, which shows that Jiangxi was also in a bad situation."

"In the three previous victories in Guilin, although the Qing invaders had reached the city of Guilin, they all returned empty-handed. It is clear that the Mandate of Heaven is with the Ming Dynasty, and the Qing invaders will not be able to capture Guangxi for a while." Wei Guosong was very confident and did not agree with Danchu's point of view.

Danchu smiled bitterly and said, "The Qing invaders were defeated three times in Guilin because our army fought bravely and also because the Qing invaders were not safe in the rear. We had the governor in Huguang, the Duke of Yu in Jiangxi, and hundreds of thousands of volunteers.

"The Duke of Yu rebelled in Jiangxi, and the Duke of Hui rebelled in Guangdong. This is too much of a commotion and will surely provoke a frenzied counterattack from the Qing invaders. Once the Manchus cross the river, Jiangxi and Huguang will probably fall completely.

"By then, the Qing army's rear will be clear, and we can attack Guilin directly. It will be extremely difficult for our army to achieve a fourth victory in Guilin."

"Ah?" Feng Lin and Wei Guosong looked at each other in dismay, half believing and half doubting Dan Chu's words.

Danchu realized that he had said too much and was afraid that he had revealed the secret, so he changed his tone and said in a relaxed manner: "However, it will take two or three years for the Qing invaders to invade Guangxi. By then, we will be able to train at least 10,000 or 20,000 elite soldiers and seize Nanning as our territory, which will be enough to fight the Qing invaders head-on."

Feng Lin and Wei Guosong were relieved and said, "It's all thanks to the Marshal's talent."

On August 20, Danchu led his troops to approach Wutunso and camped ten miles south of the city. Wutunso was a quasi-territorial defense post and a key defense point along the coast of Datengxia, known as the "left arm of Tengxia."

The garrisons in the Ming Dynasty can be roughly divided into real garrisons, quasi-real garrisons, and non-real garrisons. There are no prefectures or counties near the real garrisons, and the chief officer manages the army on horseback and governs the people on foot. They are mostly located in border areas, such as Liaodong Dusi and Shaanxi Xing Dusi. There are prefectures or counties near the quasi-real garrisons, but they have a large amount of land and population, and are mostly located in coastal and inland minority areas. There are prefectures or counties near the non-real garrisons, and they have their own military farmland, but they have no right to govern people other than military households.

Like other garrisons, the Wutunsuo military households fled in large numbers, and the military farmland was seized by the landlords. The landlords in turn bought the military household quota and enjoyed the policy dividends such as imperial examinations and tax cuts brought by the military households.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, there were uprisings among tenants and slaves, and Wutunso, the left arm of Tengxia, also suffered from civil strife. Tenant Nguyen Phu Cuong led the uprising, calling himself "King of Suppression", and occupied Wutunso for two years.

Chen Bangfu failed in two expeditions, and because the land in the five settlements was barren and the people were poor, he ignored it.

Local people had come to complain and begged Cen Danchu to recapture the five tuns. It turned out that Nguyen Phu Cuong was born a tenant farmer, but he was ruthless and resourceful. After seizing the five tuns, he abused his power and first robbed the rich families, then selected concubines, robbed merchants, and killed people to establish his power. He was truly evil.

This is another story of a peasant uprising leader turning into a mountain king. Danchu had never attacked a city on his own and wanted to take this opportunity to practice, so he secretly ordered his subordinates to prepare for the siege.

(End of this chapter)