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

Chapter 278 Kong Youde Enters Jingjiang Palace

Guilin, Jingjiang Palace.

Kong Youde rode into the palace, feeling very proud. Although the Jingjiang Palace had been in disrepair for a long time, it was still majestic and dignified, and was worthy of being the longest-lasting palace in the Ming Dynasty. While he looked at the palace building, he instructed his attendants:
"Hurry up and replace the plaque on the gate of the Jingjiang Prince's Palace. Ask Mr. Feng to write an inscription for it. Just write the four characters 'Dingnan Prince's Palace'."

"Immediately report the victory to the capital, saying that we have annihilated 50,000 enemies and occupied Guilin despite great difficulties. By the way, ask the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of Rites for a set of rules. In the future, when renovating the palace, you must follow the rules."

"Post a notice to reassure the people and explain the righteousness to the gentry of Guilin. Say that the defenders of Guilin have opened the gates to surrender, and the Heavenly Army will not massacre the city. However, the food and salary are heavy, so order the gentry to raise 10,000 taels of silver and 5,000 dan of grain within ten days. Find a few officials and gentry with bad reputations, accuse them of collaborating with the thieves, and confiscate their property to build the palace for the king."

……

Entering the hall, the deputy general Quanjie was already waiting. Quanjie, a native of Guangning, Liaodong, was a former lieutenant general of the Ming Dynasty. He surrendered from Kong Youde and was granted the title of Jiala Ezhen.

Among the generals under Kong Youde, Lian Guoan had the greatest merit, Ma Xiong was the bravest, and Quanjie was the most hardworking and dedicated, and was loyal to Kong Youde and the Qing court.

Quan Jie had occupied Guilin two days ago to investigate the situation for Kong Youde and capture spies.

"Lao Quan, you've worked hard." Kong Youde was born in the countryside. Although he was a prince, he was not arrogant and had a close relationship with his subordinates. He said, "Lao Cao is old and was injured in Hunan. He has asked me to submit a petition to the court to ask for retirement. I plan to recommend you to take over as the commander-in-chief of the right wing. What do you think?"

"Thank you, Your Highness, for your cultivation!" Quan Jie was overjoyed and knelt down to kowtow to Kong Youde.

Kong Youde was very good at winning people's hearts. He stood up and helped Quan Jie up, saying, "Lao Quan, you have made great contributions, but you are only a deputy general. Logically, you should have been promoted to a general. But Lao Cao was someone the general appreciated when he was alive, so I can't offend the general, lest he be upset in his afterlife."

Meilezhangjing was the Han Chinese deputy general. Kong Youde had a perverse personality. Although he was a Manchu prince, he was still used to calling Han officials by their names. As for the great general he mentioned, it was none other than Mao Wenlong, his early benefactor.

The highest official position Mao Wenlong held during his lifetime was "Imperial Envoy to Suppress Liao, Commander-in-Chief with the Seal of the General Who Conquers the Enemy", that is, Commander-in-Chief of the Suppressing Liao, and Left Commander-in-Chief of the Left Army Governor's Office, actually in charge of Dongjiang Town.

In the Ming Dynasty, titles were widely used in official circles. Military generals who reached the rank of general could be respectfully called generals.

When Kong Youde was in Dongjiang Town, he was "brave and good at fighting, and he was the first to go to the battlefield, and he was the best among all the generals." Mao Wenlong appreciated him very much, and adopted him as his grandson, giving him the name Yongshi. He was so grateful to Mao Wenlong for his kindness that even after he became a vassal king of the Qing Dynasty, he still "could not help showing his emotion every time he talked about the current affairs of General Mao."

Thinking of Mao Wenlong, the whole section sighed, and then thought of Zhang Cunren, an old subordinate of Yuan Chonghuan.

Last year, Zhang Cunren was reinstated as the Minister of War and concurrently the Right Deputy Censor-in-Chief, Governor-General of the three provinces of Zhili, Shandong and Henan, Governor of Baoding, and Admiral of Zijin Pass. He first put down the Liuyuan Army Uprising in Shandong, and then designed to force Jingnan King Geng Zhongming to death, which made the three feudatories shudder at the mention of him.

"Your Majesty, I heard that Zhang Cunren will be put to great use again, managing the five provinces of Huguang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Guizhou?"

Kong Youde was more informed and sighed, "Yes, the court wanted to use Zhang Cunren, but he declined due to old age and illness. The court did not allow it and promoted him to the first-class Jingqinihafan and Tuosalahafan (i.e., the first-class son and cloud cavalry captain), and added him as the Prince's Grand Tutor, and ordered him to manage the five provinces of Huguang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Guizhou, and to 'supervise military affairs and manage food and wages', and 'the Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of War should not hinder him, and the Ministry of Revenue should not delay'. The court also appointed Bashan, the governor of Jiangning, as the General of Jingnan, and led 5,000 Green Camps of the Eight Banners Han Army to reinforce Guangzhou."

"This?" Quanjie was very puzzled and said, "The three kings and one duke are all old subordinates of Dongjiang Town. Why did the court send Zhang Cunren to manage five provinces and control us?" There were also serious factional disputes in the Qing court, but after all, the central government had prestige, the Eight Banners could fight, and the factions below had to obediently obey the central government's orders.

"Perhaps the court did this on purpose." Kong Youde looked mysterious and said, "The regent wanted to drive us to expand our territory, but was also worried that we would become arrogant, so he sent Zhang Cunren to control us."

In fact, although the Manchus had many civil and military officials, not many could be sent to the south to control the five provinces. This person had to be a Han Chinese, preferably a southerner, who was familiar with military affairs and good at comforting the people. Northern civil officials like Feng Quan had always discriminated against and excluded southerners, and had no experience in handling military affairs. Famous Manchu kings like Jirgalang and Ajige either did not know how to comfort the people or disagreed with Dorgon's political views.

There were probably three Han Chinese who were more suitable to control the three kings and one duke, namely Meng Qiaofang, Hong Chengchou, and Zhang Cunren. There were many events in the northwest, and Meng Qiaofang was the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, and he could not get away for a while. Hong Chengchou entered the inner court to assist in the affairs of the government, and Dorgon could not do without him for a moment. Zhang Cunren had a good reputation and had been in office for a long time. His prestige was higher than that of Hong Chengchou and Feng Quan, so it was natural for him to go south to govern the five provinces.

"Then, we are not afraid of Zhang Cunren." Quanjie said, "He is only a viscount, and the prince is a prince. There is a huge difference between them. If he uses the same tricks to deal with Dingnan vassal as he did with Jingnan vassal, I, Quan, will not agree to it."

Kong Youde smiled bitterly, but in his heart he liked Quanjie, a reckless man, and said, "Old Quan, you are right. Jingnan and Pingnan failed to capture Guangzhou after a long siege, but we easily captured Guilin. With this achievement, Zhang Cunren will not dare to look down on us.

"To tell you the truth, I plan to recommend Lao Xian as the governor of Guangxi, Lao Ma as the commander-in-chief of the left wing, and you as the commander-in-chief of the right wing. Whether it will succeed or not depends on how the battle goes. As long as we can capture Liuzhou, Qingyuan, and Wuzhou, we will have a 90% chance of success."

Xian Guoan has gone southwest to attack Liuzhou, Ma Xiong and Ma Jiaolin went southeast to attack Pingle and Wuzhou. Veteran General Cao Dexian is stationed at Yanguan to watch over the retreat of the vassal army. Quan Jie is loyal, brave and reliable, and is ordered to guard the king in Guilin.

"Your Majesty, I heard that the Red Bandits fled in panic, and there are no defenders in Zhaoping and Wuzhou?"

In order to lure the Qing army southward, Cen Danchu ordered the abandonment of Zhaoping. After the imperial court left Wuzhou, the Red Army did not occupy Wuzhou, leaving it empty.

From Guilin, you can go down the Guijiang River through Yangshuo, Pingle, and Zhaoping to Wuzhou. If Guangzhou is the economic center of Lingnan, Wuzhou is the well-deserved military center.

Kong Youde was still worried, thinking that Cen Danchu had other plans. But the Red Army did not even want Zhaoping and Wuzhou, which showed that Cen Danchu was frightened. You know, Zhaoping was the second city captured by Cen Danchu, and Wuzhou was an important town in Guangdong and Guangxi. Unless the situation was hopeless, how could Cen Danchu give up Zhaoping and Wuzhou?

"Yes, the southern bandits are invincible. They dare not defend Guilin, nor set up defenses in Wuzhou. Nanning, Xunzhou, Liuzhou and other places have all had envoys from the southern bandits to contact and secretly surrender. From this, we can see that the likes of Cen Danchu and Qu Shisi are all in name only. I will surely be able to wipe out all these scoundrels in one fell swoop."

Quan Jie was also moved and said, "Your Majesty has been ordered to establish a government in Guangxi, and the southern bandits have been defeated. I would like to volunteer to go to Qingyuan and help Your Majesty to quell the Yunnan bandits."

Zhao Yinyuan and Hu Yiqing from the Yunnan Division and Yang Guodong from the Chu Division fled to Qingyuan. Qingyuan had many chieftains and was part of the Red Army's sphere of influence. Lian Guoan, the top general of the Dingnan Clan, had led his troops to Liuzhou and was fighting a fierce battle with the Zhongzheng Camp. Qingyuan was relatively quiet for the time being.

Kong Youde also intended to send Quan Jie to the front line, saying: "Our army has occupied Guilin, and Wuzhou is within easy reach. The big thing has been decided, you go to Qingyuan to earn some military merits, and it will be a natural progression to be promoted to general. By the way, have any southern officials surrendered?"

Quan Jie said without hesitation, "Qu Shisi and Zhu Hengxun have both fled, and there are few high-ranking officials in Guilin. There are a few southern officials who have surrendered, but most of them are not well-known. Only Wang Sanyuan, the governor of Guangxi, and Peng Kuang, the governor of Cangwu, who are above the fourth rank, have surrendered. However, our army captured two southern officials, one civil and one military, at Wenchang Gate. One is Wang Hao, the Minister of Imperial Household, and the other is Chen Xixian, the general of the flag and drum army of Qu Shisi's central army."

Kong Youde was quite regretful that not many southern officials surrendered or were captured. He said, "Bring Wang and Chen to see me. I will personally persuade them to surrender and become the model for the gentry and people of Guilin."

(End of this chapter)