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

Chapter 335: Feeding the Shu Army with Shu Grain

When Cen Danchu defeated the famous king in Guilin, Sun Kewang was deeply stimulated and also vowed to fight against the Qing. He was ambitious and as soon as he pacified Guizhou, he divided his troops into two groups. The eastern group was led by Feng Shuangli to attack Hunan, and the western group was led by Liu Wenxiu to attack Sichuan.

Hunan has been a major north-south thoroughfare since ancient times, and is crucial to the war situation in the south. If the Dashi Army could capture Hunan first, they would have a chance to go down the river and join forces with the navy of Zhu Chenggong, the Prince of Yanping and the regent of Lu in the southeast, to attack Nanjing.

The Red Army was temporarily unable to compete with the Dashi Army, so it turned eastward to attack eastern Guangdong. Sun Kewang continued to increase his forces in the Hunan battlefield, first sending Li Dingguo to reinforce Feng Shuangli, and then personally leading the vanguard army into Hunan.

Under the powerful offensive of the Dashi Army, Xu Yong, the general of Chenchang, was killed. Kakamu, a famous Manchu general and governor of Jiangning, led the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Mongolia to reinforce Hunan, but was also ambushed in Hengzhou and killed by Li Dingguo.

Hunan, like eastern Guangdong, was mostly occupied by the Ming army. The situation in the south changed, and Sun Kewang had a great chance to march eastward.

Hong Chengchou, the governor of four provinces, was in Jingzhou, anxious as an ant on a hot pot. Shunzhi and his ministers were also terrified and even thought of paying tribute and seeking peace.

The Western Dashi Army had fewer troops, but they were no less powerful and made faster progress. After Liu Wenxiu entered Shu, he was good at providing relief to the soldiers and civilians. When the people of Shu heard that the Ming army had arrived, many responded. As a result, Chongqing and Xuzhou prefectures and counties were successively recovered. Wu Sangui was defeated repeatedly in battles and fled with his troops, heading for Baoning.

Baoning, now Langzhong, Sichuan, is located in northern Sichuan and was the temporary capital of Sichuan during the Qing Dynasty.

The Manchu king of Pingxi, Wu Sangui, and Gushan Ezhen, Li Guohan, were both foreign soldiers who dared not defend Baoning and planned to retreat to Hanzhong, Shaanxi. Li Guoying, the governor of Sichuan, and Hao Yu, the inspector, had the responsibility to defend the land and insisted on holding on, saying "If you don't die at the hands of the enemy, you will die by law."

Wu Sangui and Li Guohan had no choice but to join forces with Li Guoying to defend Baoning.

Liu Wenxiu was very ambitious. He imitated the Red Army's iron-barrel siege of the city, gathered a large army, and completely blocked the Qing army's retreat route.

Wang Fuchen, a brave general of the Dashi Army, General Mielu, and Marquis of Dongning, was Liu Wenxiu's deputy commander. He was deeply worried, thinking that the Ming army only had 50,000 soldiers and the siege was too tight, so there would be loopholes. The Qing army had no way to retreat and would fight to the death.

Liu Wenxiu refused to listen and insisted on annihilating the Qing army completely.

Unexpectedly, Wu Sangui discovered that Zhang Xianbi's unit was the weakest among the Ming troops and decided to concentrate his forces to attack Zhang Xianbi.

Zhang Xianbi was from Yunnan and had been through many battles. He initially followed the commander He Tengjiao, but had a grudge against Cen Danchu because of Madam Liu. After He Tengjiao was defeated, Zhang Xianbi did not dare to join the Red Army and instead followed Sun Kewang.

Zhang Xianbi's troops were weak, so how could they be a match for the Guanning Iron Cavalry? After a short battle, Zhang's army was defeated and retreated, and the defeated soldiers disrupted Wang Fuchen's army. The Qing army took advantage of the situation and attacked, and the Ming army gradually collapsed.

The worst thing was that Zhang Xianbi's younger brother Zhang Xianzhen was smart enough to cut off the floating bridge to cut off his own retreat route, to show that there was no retreat but only advance.

The Ming army had nowhere to retreat, and many of them drowned. Wang Fuchen was exhausted and refused to surrender, so he committed suicide. Liu Wenxiu was in a very bad state, and his seal was seized by the Qing army, and most of his soldiers were killed.

Wu Sangui's great victory in Baoning undoubtedly injected a shot of stimulant into the decadent Qing court.

Shunzhi listened to Wu Sangui's victory report. He was excited at first, then puzzled, and finally disappointed. Finally, he couldn't help asking: "Wu Sangui won the battle, why didn't he pursue the victory, but retreated to Hanzhong?"

Although Jirgalang was old, he had a good understanding of Wu Sangui's mind and said, "Wu Sangui said in his memorial that he had never seen such a strong enemy in his life. He was sincere. He planned to retreat to Hanzhong, but this was probably against his will. He seemed to want to retreat to advance." To retreat to advance was to threaten the court. Shunzhi looked down on Wu Sangui, a traitor, but he was mature and had a decisiveness and wisdom that was not commensurate with his age. He said, "Wu Sangui has made great contributions in defeating the Western Bandits. Let's promote him to Prince Pingnan."

In the Ming Dynasty, royal titles were initially given by place names. Later on, as most of the place names had been used up, they had to use beautiful names, such as King Fu.

In the Qing Dynasty, titles of nobility no longer used place names, but generally used beautiful names to dilute the color of feudal fiefdom. The title of king was also a beautiful name, and was not limited to the single character "king". The character "qin" could be added to the title of king to indicate that the person was a relative of a prince.

Prince Jingjin Nikan intended to lead the army southward, so he had to take care of the relationship in advance. He said, "Your Majesty is wise. Geng Jimao has led the Jingnan vassal army and has made great contributions. It seems that his title of King of Jingnan can be restored."

Geng Jimao led the remnants of the Jingnan Clan to garrison Ganzhou and reunited with his family. In order to prevent the Jingnan Clan from rebelling and surrendering to the Red Army, the Qing court appointed the famous Manchu general Zhu Lama as the General of Pingnan and ordered him to garrison Ganzhou.

"Well," Shunzhi readily agreed and said, "Geng Jimao will inherit the title of King of Jingnan, and Shang Zhixin will inherit the title of King of Pingnan. As for Dingnan, let's not discuss it for now."

Kong Youde had no children, Kong Sizhen married Cen Danchu as a concubine, and most of the Dingnan troops surrendered to the Red Army. There was no need for the Qing court to unite the troops. On the contrary, the Red Army slaughtered the Pingnan vassal army, and Shang Zhixin stayed in the capital as a hostage. Shang Zhixin inherited the title of King of Pingnan, which was enough to unite the remnants of the Pingnan vassal.

Jirgalang secretly admired Shunzhi's wisdom and said, "Sichuan borders Yunnan and Guizhou, which is enough to threaten the western bandits. But Sichuan has been repeatedly destroyed by the western bandits, and the population is sparse, and the grain production is not abundant. If the army is stationed in Sichuan, the food and wages will have to be transported from Shaanxi, which is definitely not a long-term solution."

Shunzhi refused to accept the suggestion and said, "I just don't believe it. Sichuan is a land of abundance with thousands of miles of fertile land. Can't we organize the army and the people to cultivate the land as the history books say? Using Sichuan grain to feed Sichuan soldiers is not possible?"

"Your Majesty is wise. Using Sichuan grain to support Sichuan soldiers is truly a wise saying. I agree. If you want Wu Sangui to stay in Sichuan, you must mobilize the military and civilians to cultivate the land."

"Then we should mobilize the military and civilians to establish farmland in Sichuan." Shunzhi was impatient and blurted out.

"Your Majesty, the cost of farming is huge, no less than the military pay for the expedition. Think about it, Sichuan is far away, and we must give money to settle down in order to attract soldiers and civilians to farm. In addition, food, seeds, oxen, and farm tools all cost a lot. If we can't raise enough money, there will be no talk of farming."

Money, after all, is still money.

Shunzhi frowned, and a plan came to his mind. He said, "I think that the three people, Zhang Xuesheng, the governor of Fujian, Huang Shu, the inspector, and Ma Degong, the general of the right wing, have no reputation for virtue and are greedy for money. The court is in charge of its own power and there is no need to mobilize the censors to impeach the three. It is better to send an upright minister as an imperial envoy to investigate Fujian directly. With the money from the Central Left Office, the expenses for the military farms in Sichuan and the military operations in Central and South China will be settled."

There has been no shortage of cruel officials since ancient times. Shunzhi felt that as long as he found a few cruel officials to serve as imperial envoys, he would not be afraid of not being able to get this huge sum of money.

"Well," Jirgalang argued, "Your Majesty, it is not appropriate to launch a large-scale prison in troubled times. The Qing Dynasty gained power too easily, and there are many foreign officials who are scheming. If you are too harsh on Zhang Xuesheng and the other two, it may discourage the foreign officials."

Shunzhi had heard of Huang Shu for a long time, not to mention other people. This remnant of Donglin had impeached Ma Shiying for ten crimes and instigated Zuo Liangyu to send troops to defend the emperor. He was a famous troublemaker in the Hongguang period of the Southern Ming Dynasty. After Zuo Liangyu died of illness, Huang Shu instigated Zuo Menggeng to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. In order to win the favor of the Qing Dynasty, Huang Shu deceived Jin Sheng, an old friend of Donglin and leader of the rebel army, which led to Jin Sheng's capture and murder.

Shunzhi was a little confused at first, why the court would use Huang Shu, a traitor who seemed loyal. After hearing Jirgalang's words today, he finally realized that the Qing Dynasty had gained power by illegal means and had to use traitors.

"If the court tempts foreign officials with benefits, then the foreign officials will be greedy for benefits and have no moral integrity." Being an emperor cannot do whatever one wants, and it seems that it is not as free and easy as being a scholar. Shunzhi was a little disappointed and said, "I think there is no need to mobilize the censors to impeach Zhang Xuesheng and his three men. Even if an imperial envoy is sent to Fujian to investigate, Zhang Xuesheng and his three men will bribe the imperial envoy, and in the end nothing will be done, and the world will laugh at them."

(End of this chapter)