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

Chapter 319 United Front
The Red Army defeated the Qing Army outside Luodingzhou City, and Cen Danchu won the bet again.

The next day, the rain gradually subsided, and it fell gently like silk, wetting everything silently.

According to preliminary statistics of the Red Army's battle record, since crossing the Taki River, they have beheaded more than 3,200 people, captured more than 2,400 prisoners, and killed more than 5,600 enemies in total.

Yesterday, the Red Army chased the Qing army for 20 miles and did not return to the camp until dark. There must be deserters in the Qing army and people trampled to death. According to experience, the Qing army will lose at least 2,000 to 3,000 people.

The Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia were almost completely wiped out. The Jingnan Fan Shengqi Battalion was crippled by the Red Army before it could even fire a single shot. The Left Wing General Xu Degong saw that the situation was not going well, so he gathered up the remnants and fled. The Green Camp soldiers were all foreign soldiers, and they had no intention of fighting to the death, so they fled when the situation was not right.

The Red Army also paid a heavy price. In two days of fierce fighting, more than 2,600 people were killed, more than 1,800 were seriously injured, and an estimated 3,500 people were killed, most of whom were elite soldiers in Huben Town. There were also more than 1,000 other lightly wounded soldiers, who would be treated as reduced personnel and sent to the rear for treatment.

This battle was so dangerous that it really scares me just thinking about it.

The chief guard Yang Dingzhen came into the tent excitedly and reported to Danchu: "My Lord, the body of the dog Tartar Bashan has been found and his head has been cut off."

The outside of the central army tent was very muddy, and the inside of the tent was also very damp. Although they had lit a fire and burned incense, there was still a faint stench. On the battlefield not far away, corpses were everywhere and had begun to rot. They had to move the camp as soon as possible and organize civilians to clean up the dead bodies.

The Red Army is resting today, but there is still a lot to do, including dealing with prisoners, cleaning up the battlefield, and sending people into Luodingzhou City to persuade them to surrender.

Danchu was feeling bored in the tent, so he asked cheerfully, "Where is the head?"

"He is with Director of the Education Bureau Chu Yongpei, who is handling the prisoners with Bashan's head."

"Let's go over and have a look."

The prisoner camp was not far from the main camp, and was very simple, without even a place to take shelter from the rain. More than 2,000 prisoners sat on the muddy ground, having been soaked by the rain all night, and were tired, hungry, and sleepy.

A marching table was set up in the camp, and Chu Yongpei sat on a chair, supervising and guiding the staff officers to identify the prisoners. In front of him were two rows of spears, with the butts of the spears stuck in the ground and heads stuck on the spear heads. The left row was the heads of the Qing army generals who were beheaded. The right row was the heads of the prisoners who tried to escape last night.

Danchu arrived at the prisoner camp in person, and Chu Yongpei hurried out of the camp to greet him. Seeing this, the prisoners also rushed to kneel on the ground, hoping to get mercy from the Red Army.

"Have you examined Bashan's head?" Danchu asked.

"We have checked it," Chu Yongpei replied, "There are some Jingnan soldiers and bannermen among the prisoners, and we can recognize them as Bashan."

"How many banner soldiers are there? How many Jingnan soldiers are there?"

"The screening is almost complete. Currently, there are more than 160 bannermen, but they are mainly Aha. There are only more than 60 real bannermen. There are about 600 Jingnan soldiers."

"Yeah." Danchu sat down and waited for the Education Bureau to identify the flag soldiers.

Chu Yongpei gave a wink and the staff officer understood and ordered to speed up the screening of prisoners.

The so-called identification mainly involves two tasks. One is to determine the identity of the prisoners, mainly based on the prisoners' accents; the other is to check the prisoners' physical conditions. If someone is sick, especially with internal injuries that can easily cause plague, they must be dragged out and killed as soon as possible to avoid infecting the entire military camp.

Soon, the screening was over. Danchu said to Chu Yongpei, "You organize the prisoners as normal, and I'll watch from the side."

"Yes." Chu Yongpei responded and came to the prisoner in person.

These prisoners were divided into four parts. The leftmost column was the Manchu and Mongolian banner soldiers, with the smallest number. Following them were the Baoyi Aha, Jingnan soldiers, and Green Camp soldiers, with their numbers gradually increasing.

Chu Yongpei first came to the Green Camp soldiers, cleared his throat, and asked, "Rice and wine are here. Is there a general in the team? Your Majesty, if there is a general willing to submit to the Red Army, the Red Army will not bear grudges and will entrust him with important tasks."

When the prisoners heard that they had food and wine to drink, their eyes lit up. Last night they sat on the mud all night, without even a sip of water to drink, and could only stretch their necks to catch rainwater. Today the rain stopped, and if they wanted to drink water they could only lick the mud on the ground.

But there was no general among the Green Camp prisoners. The Qing Dynasty inherited the Ming system, and the general commanded a town of soldiers and horses, which could be regarded as a senior military officer. Chu Yongpei asked if there was a deputy general among the prisoners? The deputy general was second only to the general and was also a senior military officer.

One of the captives stood up and said loudly, "Sir, I am Wang Debiao, the deputy general of Jiujiang of Jiangxi Green Camp. I was originally a subordinate of Zuo Gong, the Marquis of Ningnan, and was under the command of General Xu Ensheng. Zuo Menggeng surrendered to the Qing Dynasty with his troops, and Xu Ensheng died of old age. I was transferred to Jiujiang and was at a loss. I wanted to raise an army, but I was afraid. Today, I can surrender to the Heavenly Army, and I will die without regrets."

"Very well, are you willing to kill the Manchurian Tartar?"

This means that Wang Debiao must pledge his allegiance.

"Why not?"

"Okay!" Three Red Army soldiers stepped forward and handed Wang Debiao a dagger.

The Red Army brought another bannerman and said to Wang Debiao, "If you sincerely surrender, kill this Manchurian Tartar."

The Manchu Tartar was about to die. He struggled desperately and said, "I am willing to surrender. I beg the Lord to spare my life. I ..."

"You Tartar dog, you have killed countless people, and your hands are stained with the blood of the Han people. How can the world allow you to live?"

Wang Debiao took the dagger and stabbed the Manchu soldier to death with one blow.

"Okay," Chu Yong praised, "Three rice balls and a glass of wine."

A staff officer immediately wrote down Wang Debiao's name and prepared to use him as an officer. Another Red Army soldier took him aside to distinguish him from the captives. Dingnan Fan's general Lian Guoan led his troops to surrender and was used as an infantry battalion commander. Deputy generals like Wang Debiao who had no soldiers were usually arranged to serve as battalion deputy.

Danchu also spoke up, saying, "Han people don't fight Han people. As long as Han captives are willing to surrender, we are willing to keep them."

After hearing this, the captives were all excited. Before them were Bashan, the heads of the escaped captives, the Manchu soldiers who had just been killed, and rice balls and drinks. Any normal person would make the right choice.

The more Chu Yongpei asked, the more middle and lower-level officers he found, all of whom were willing to surrender. When he asked the battalion commanders, the screening of the Green Camp soldiers was over.

Among the Green Camp prisoners, officers below the rank of team commander will be selected by the Red Army along with the soldiers. Those who are strong, have a clear and resolute look, and are willing to surrender will be recruited into the Red Army. The Royal Guards will not accept surrendered soldiers as a rule, but the rest of the Red Army will accept surrendered soldiers. The rest of the prisoners will be used as free labor for the Red Army, and are usually sent to mines, salt ponds, etc. to serve.

During the war years, prisoners were also valuable human resources. When the armies of the Ming and Qing dynasties captured prisoners, they usually used them nearby, forcing them to do menial work, such as digging trenches, carrying horse feed, carrying corpses, and repairing city fortifications.

The Education Bureau dealt with the Manchu and Mongolian prisoners in a relatively simple and rough manner. Banner soldiers directly executed them, and usually handed them over to Green Camp generals for execution. Baoyi Ahaduo were Han slaves, and usually their tendons in their hands and feet were cut off, their ears and noses were cut off, and they were allowed to return to the north.

The slightly tricky part was the Jingnan soldiers. We certainly couldn't just kill these Jingnan captives. It was obviously not appropriate to cripple them and let them go. It was also hard to feel at ease to recruit the Green Camp captives.

The Red Army annihilated the Dingnan vassal army, and the Qing court was deeply shocked. Fulin specifically ordered that the Jingnan and Pingnan vassal states must not mobilize their families until the Red Army was eliminated. The families of the two vassal states are still stranded in Ji'an and Ganzhou, Jiangxi.

Chu Yong came over to ask for instructions. Dan Chu hesitated for a moment, walked in front of the Jingnan soldiers, and asked:
"Our Red Army is invincible and will fight to drive out the Tartars and restore China. You were originally soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, following General Mao to fight against the Tartars, but you were fooled by Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming, and you took the enemy as your father and killed your compatriots. Now Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming have been killed, and the Red Army has killed Bashan and is about to sweep across eastern Guangdong. The Dingnan vassal army has surrendered to the Red Army. Are you, the Jingnan captives, willing to surrender sincerely?"

Rather than being killed or forced to do hard labor, the Jingnan soldiers wanted to be reorganized into the Red Army. More than 600 Jingnan captives shouted, "If the Lord has mercy, we are willing to surrender and go through fire and water for him."

Apart from anything else, if you surrender, at least you can eat rice balls and drink wine!

"Following the example of the Green Camp, select officers from Jingnan and have them kill the Manchurian soldiers as a token of their loyalty. The rest of the personnel will be disbanded and organized into the Auxiliary Soldiers Association and the Second Regiment."

Danchu was in charge and made major adjustments to the prisoner policy. He took Kong Sizhen as a concubine and incorporated the Dingnan Fan Army into his own service, with significant results. In the future, he should go a step further and incorporate the Eight Banners of the Han Army into the united front.

(End of this chapter)