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

Chapter 349 Zhu Chenggong's Annexation of Lu Clan

The situation changed quickly, and Danchu had to end his incognito visit and return to Guangzhou early.

In the southeast, the Qing army conquered Zhoushan, and Zhu Yihai, the regent of Lu, could not gain a foothold and had to retreat to Zhongzuo and rely on Zhu Chenggong. As the "son-in-law" of Emperor Longwu, Zhu Chenggong still had a grudge against the internal strife between Tang and Lu. As the navy of Cixing Fan was strong, Zhu Chenggong was not worried that the regent of Lu would take over the position, but took the opportunity to annex Lu Fan.

Under Zhu Chenggong's coercion and inducement, Zhu Yihai gave up his title of regent, called himself the Prince of Lu, and sent a letter to Emperor Yongli to declare himself a vassal. Zhu Yihai was placed in Kinmen, under the surveillance of the navy of Cixing, and was treated poorly.

The Cixing Fan soldiers produced a lot of grain, and food was in short supply. Zhu Yihai was in dire straits and had to eat sweet potatoes like the Cixing Fan soldiers. He was ridiculed by the Qing people as the "Sweet Potato King".

Chaozhou was incorporated into the Nanyue Kingdom. Cen Danchu sent Li Yuanyin as an envoy to recruit Hao Shangjiu, an old subordinate of Dongxun and the Earl of Xintai, and promised him the position of infantry commander. Hao Shangjiu had been occupying Chaozhou for a long time, and was unclear and wavering between the Ming and Qing dynasties. He used his old tricks and agreed to surrender to the Red Army on the condition that he continued to occupy Chaozhou and lead military and political affairs as before.

Cen Danchu refused to agree and sent a large army to approach Chaozhou. The righteous army Liu Gongxian and Huang Hairu surrendered, and the people were fed and provided with food.

With such kindness and force, Hao Shangjiu had no choice but to open the gates and surrender. The army left Chaozhou and was reduced to an infantry battalion under the command of Du Yonghe.

The Red Army peacefully occupied Chaozhou, left troops to garrison it, and kept its promise to send troops to Zhangzhou to help the Cixing vassal seize Zhangzhou.

With Zhangzhou, the Cixing vassal state had a solid foothold on the mainland, greatly alleviating the problem of food shortage. Zhu Chenggong also kept his promise and used Dacheng as the boundary, and the navy no longer entered the waters of eastern Guangdong, giving up the interests of eastern Guangdong's maritime trade.

Cen Danchu took Zhu Chenggong's cousin Zheng Li, the daughter of Zheng Hongkui, as his concubine. The relationship between the two fiefdoms became closer and they temporarily entered a honeymoon period.

In November, Cen Danchu ended his incognito visit ahead of schedule and immediately convened a meeting of the Privy Council after returning to Guangzhou to discuss whether to send troops to the north.

The Privy Council was the highest decision-making body of the Nanyue Kingdom. After the Red Army occupied Guangdong and Guangdong, military and political affairs increased greatly, and the Privy Council also underwent a reform, from the Privy Office to the Privy Council, and the number of staff increased significantly.

The chief of the court was the Privy Councillor, who was appointed by Danchu himself. The Privy Councillor had five counselors, whose full title was "Counselors of the Privy Council". In order of rank, they were Yu Houji, the Left Counselor, Fang Yizhi, the Left Counselor, Wang Huacheng, the Right Counselor, Yang Yuqi, the Right Counselor, and Qu Shisi, the Chief Minister of the Council of State.

The Council of State had a number of councilors, whose purpose was to place senior officials and nobles, and to investigate the military and political gains and losses. Only those with great prestige like Qu Shisi could be appointed as prime ministers.

Whenever something important happened, the Intelligence Bureau Director Feng Jiali would always attend the meeting. This meeting was no exception. As usual, Feng Jiali first introduced the latest situation in various places:
The Cixing Fan had Zhangzhou as its base and had incorporated the navy of the Lu Fan. It was now busy integrating its internal affairs and had no intention of expanding outward. In the short term, it would not come into conflict with the Red Army.

On the one hand, Zhu Chenggong followed the examples of Sun Kewang and Cen Danchu and set up six ministries and offices, as well as officials such as inspectors, procurators, and judges to take charge of government affairs.

However, Zhu Chenggong's territory and power were relatively small, so the official positions he set up were lower in status and rank. For example, he changed the Siwu to Dushi, and the six department officials to six inspectors. His subordinates wanted to follow the example of Sun Kewang and Cen Danchu and call Zhu Chenggong the state lord, but Zhu Chenggong refused and continued to call him the vassal lord.

On the other hand, Zhu Chenggong stepped up his efforts to incorporate the Lu Fan army, which attracted everyone's attention.

When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. The civil and military officials who originally belonged to the Lu Regent regime also split. Some of them joined Zheng Chenggong's army, such as Min'an Marquis Zhou Rui, who was originally the adopted son of Zheng Cai and a former member of the Zheng family. His troops were directly reorganized into the surnamed vassal army; some of them regarded themselves as guests and no longer participated in military affairs; Dingxi Marquis Zhang Mingzhen was born in the Jinyiwei, and the Minister of War and Military Supervisor Zhang Huangyan had the title of Juren. Such regular officials were incompatible with the surnamed vassal generals who came from pirates. They were more loyal to the orthodoxy of Yongli and were determined not to submit to the surnamed vassal, and were only willing to maintain an alliance with Zhu Chenggong. Feng Jiali specifically mentioned: "The Lu vassal army regards itself as the orthodox of the Ming Dynasty, and does not look down on the surnamed vassal who came from pirates. People like Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan are unwilling to submit to the surnamed vassal, and the gap between them is deep.

"Zhang Mingzhen went to the Zhongzuo Palace and met Zhu Chenggong. Chenggong wanted to humiliate him and asked him, 'You have been the Marquis of Dingxi for several years. What have you done?' Mingzhen replied, 'The great cause of the restoration of the country.' Chenggong asked again, 'Where is it?' He replied, 'If it is successful, it is the actual achievements of the expedition. If it is not successful, it is just a matter of seconds.'

Chenggong was relentless and asked, "Where is the evidence?" Mingzhen replied, "On my back." He took off his clothes to show him the four characters "Serve the Country with a Loyal Heart" engraved on his back. The characters were an inch long and deeply embedded into his skin.

"Chenggong was stunned and regretted his gratitude, saying, 'I have long admired the old general's reputation, but what can I do with so many people who hate him!' So Chenggong took out all the slanderous books he had written over the years, all of which were slanderous books about Lu Fan, and burned them. Chenggong treated Mingzhen as a distinguished guest, but their suspicion of each other remained the same."

Wang Huacheng, the former second assistant of the Yongli Dynasty, has entered the decision-making circle of the Nanyue Kingdom and served as the right councilor. He said: "Zhang Mingzhen's military supervisor, Zhang Huangyan, who served as the left assistant minister of the Ministry of War during the Lu Regent regime, arrived in Guangzhou the day before yesterday, intending to meet the king and explain his plan."

Danchu's heart was moved, and he remembered a common saying in later generations: "Huang Yan's death means the end of the Ming Dynasty."

Among the many civil and military officials of the Southern Ming Dynasty, the ones who can be said to have first-class strategic vision include Du Yinxi, Zhang Huangyan, Qian Bingdeng, Wang Huacheng, and Yang Fuzhi each half.

Historically, Zhang Huangyan led the navy into the Yangtze River three times. After the death of Lu Jianguo and the retreat to Taiwan, he insisted on staying in the southeast coast to fight against the Qing Dynasty. He was later arrested and executed by the Qing Dynasty. "It is easy to die heroically, but it is difficult to die calmly." After his death, Zhang Huangyan was buried by the West Lake in Hangzhou. He was called "Three Heroes of West Lake" together with Yue Fei and Yu Qian.

Thinking back to the time when Cen Danchu traveled through time, he had made a special trip to the West Lake to pay tribute to Zhang Huangyan's tomb. Now that Du Gong is dead, he should meet Zhang Huangyan as soon as possible and listen to his explanation of the "join forces at the Yangtze River" strategy. Wouldn't that be great?

"After today's meeting, arrange for Zhang Huangyan to come to the palace and I will meet him in person." Danchu said: "The Cixing clan will not conflict with my clan for the time being, so we can rest assured in the east. Next, we have to focus on the north, especially the situation in Huguang. I am still cautious about the Northern Expedition to Jiangxi. But now the situation in Huguang is really good, so we might as well launch the Northern Expedition in advance."

Danchu's attitude softened, and the left military officer Fang Yizhi said: "The Western Army is based in Yun and Guizhou. Although it won a great victory in Hunan, it was defeated in Sichuan. Its flank is threatened and it cannot pursue the victory and go east along the river.

"This is a God-given opportunity. Our army can march north to Jiangxi and seize Jiujiang and Hukou before the Western Army. Jiujiang is the waist and rib of the southeast. With Jiangxi and Jiujiang, our army can cut off the upper and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and have the potential to split the south."

Right Assistant Army Officer Yang Yuqi also echoed, "That's right. Now that the Western Army is managing Hunan, they have already seized the initiative. If Sun Kewang gets Jiangxi, our army's northern expedition will be completely blocked. If our army wants to march east, we will be blocked by the Cixing vassal, which will put us in a very passive position."

Although Lingnan is good, its location is too remote and does not have a strategic advantage. Historically, there has been little hegemony in Lingnan.

After the Red Army occupied Lingnan, it was at a strategic disadvantage. If it wanted to expand in the future, let alone fight the Qing army, there was the Dashi Army in the west and the Cixing vassal in the east and south. Only Jiangxi in the north had no rivals for the time being.

If they wanted to march north to Jiangxi, they had to conquer Ganzhou. But Ganzhou was easy to defend but difficult to attack, and extremely difficult to conquer. Since the Song Dynasty vigorously developed Ganzhou, for nearly a thousand years, no army had conquered Ganzhou by frontal attack.

Danchu was somewhat tempted, but he tried his best to control his emotions and said, "Let's hear about the situation in Huguang and Jiangxi first."

(End of this chapter)