nanming man

Chapter 545 Nanjing Turmoil
Gao Mingheng, the supervisor of Jiangbei, was most worried about the collapse of the Ming army.

In the past ten years, when the Ming army fought against the Qing army, almost all battles ended in failure, and every time the Ming Dynasty lost troops and lost generals.

This has long made the Ming army feel deep fear of the Qing army, so after the Qing army entered the Kou Pass, there were more than [-] people herding horses in Shandong for nearly half a year, and the Ming army did not dare to fight. Enough playing, it's a joke about returning to the north.

Gao Mingheng knew very well that the biggest gap between the Ming army and the Qing army was not combat power, but confidence and courage to fight.

Therefore, he put the battle-tested Gaojie Town next to Liu Shun, who had fought against the Qing army, and put these two strong soldiers in front, just to prevent a situation where they would collapse at the first touch and surrender at the wind.

This strategy did have some effect. The 20 Qing troops were blocked on the front line of Xuzhou. For more than two months, he set up the Jiangbei defense line and bought precious time.

Of course, this has a lot to do with the fact that the Qing army wanted to encircle and fight for aid and lure the Ming army south of the Huaijiang River to rescue them.

In the past, the Qing army besieged the Daling River and Jinzhou. Regardless of whether the Ming Dynasty could fight or not, they would send some soldiers and horses to reinforce them, and they still dared to fight the Qing army.

This time, Duoduo and Azige miscalculated. Gao Yihuan from the south of Henan couldn't come, and the Ming army from the south didn't come either, which made them waste time and gave the defenders in the city a chance to deploy their defenses.

Gao Yihuan waited for the opportunity to make a move, but the Ming army in Huainan was purely timid.

Duoduo and Azige saw that the strategy of encircling the points and attacking the reinforcements was not successful, and the siege of the city was too expensive, so the Qing army immediately changed its strategy and decided to lock the city and march south.

It was only because of the Huaihe River that the Qing army was unable to cross the river, so the Qing army dragged the time to go south until the river froze.

In November, Azig led 10 horses across the Huaihe River. Gao Mingheng tried his best to avoid the situation. The nearly 20 Ming troops on the Huaihe River were either defeated or surrendered to the Qing army. Azig's army directly went to Yangzhou under the city.

In history, it took only twelve days for Duoduo to go from Guide to Yangzhou. The Qing army easily tore through the Jiangbei defense line, which brought a huge shock to Nanjing.

Now two months after the war in Jiangbei, Azig went to Yangzhou. The shock to Nanjing was not so terrifying, but it also caused turmoil in the court.

Now the Nanjing imperial court can rely on only the four towns in Jiangbei, Zuozhen in Wuchang, and a new army that has been recruited for less than half a year, as well as troops from Fujian and other places.

Among them, the new army has not yet formed a combat force, and it is basically hopeless, and Zheng Zhilong's troops in Fujian cannot be adjusted, so once Jiangbei is finished, Jiangnan will have no soldiers to defend, and Nanjing will definitely not be able to defend.

Faced with this situation, the Nanjing court immediately became restless.

After the news of the Qing army’s arrival in Yangzhou spread to Nanjing, the voice of peace within the imperial court began to rise again. Of the three towns controlled by Ma Shiying, one town was directly surrendered to the Qing, and the other town was hiding in Huai’an City. Only Huang Degong was left. The town's people and horses could still be mobilized, so Ma Ruan's party, which was not a staunch advocate, immediately swayed.

The emperors of the Ming Dynasty had many bad habits, but they also had an advantage, that is, most of them were tough.

When the ministers were panicked, the young Zhu Cihong became tough, saying that Nanjing is the southern capital of the Ming Dynasty, and that I am in Nanjing, the emperor Zhenjiangfang.

Now that the Qing army has just arrived in Yangzhou, Nanjing has yet to see the Qing army, and is about to flee in a hurry. Zhu Cihong can't do such a thing that would shame his ancestors.

From the Liao Incident to the present, the Ming Dynasty has lost half of the country, and the entire Yellow River Basin has fallen into the hands of the Qing army. The areas actually controlled by the Ming Dynasty are only Nanzhi, Zhejiang, Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong and Guangxi.

Many of these areas are still controlled by warlords.Zhu Cihong was also forced to have no way out. If Jiangnan was lost, he could only run to the sea like the emperors of the Song Dynasty, or to Fujian and be controlled by warlords, then he would become Emperor Xian.

Unless it was absolutely necessary, Zhu Cihong would not leave Nanjing. He immediately issued an order, promising the frontline generals that as long as they blocked the Qing army, the court would not hesitate to reward them.Originally, Zhu Cihong wanted to promise to become king, and wanted to use the king's title to motivate the generals, but he was strongly opposed by Shi Kefa and other civil officials.

In today's Ming Dynasty, the warlords divided the regime, and the status of generals has been greatly improved. If they are crowned king again, how can the civil servants suppress the generals.Furthermore, being a king in troubled times is the way to seek disaster. Once you open your mouth, you will not be able to stop it, and it will inevitably shake the foundation of the court.

Seeing that there was no one to support him, and Shi Kefa's argument was also reasonable, Zhu Cihong no longer insisted, but told Gao Mingheng that I was in Nanjing, so he must guard Yangzhou.

In mid-November, the Qing army reached the north bank of the Yangtze River, and quickly captured Gaoyou, Lai'an, Taizhou and other places. They only needed to pull out Yangzhou before they could find an opportunity to cross the river.

At this time, Gao Mingheng deployed defenses in Yangzhou, Zhengyi, Liuhe and other cities, controlling several important ferry crossings such as Guazhou, Jiujiangkou, and Kuah, while Huang Degong deployed defenses in Hefei, Hezhou, and Jiangpu, all important towns along the river.

After the defeat of the Qing army under the city of Xuzhou, Azig had no hope of conquering the Southern Dynasty in the First World War. He thought that going south would encounter fierce resistance. After the army broke through the Huaihe River, he realized that the Ming Dynasty was glamorous on the surface, but the inside was full. It's all rotten.

In less than ten days, the Qing army occupied more than half of Jiangbei, and a large number of Ming troops surrendered, which greatly boosted Azig's confidence.

The current situation was beyond Azig's expectation. The defeat of the Ming army along the Huai River made him overjoyed. At the same time, he raised his goal and prepared to destroy the Southern Dynasty.

Immediately, he urged the army to attack the last line of defense of the Ming Dynasty in Jiangbei, determined to defeat the Ming army in Jiangbei, cross the Yangtze River, and destroy the Southern Dynasty in World War I.

At this time, the city of Nanjing, which was originally blooming with flowers and full of vitality, has fallen into fear.

In the hearts of the people in the south of the Yangtze River, they were not prepared for war at all, and no one expected that the flames of war would be so fast.

Not long ago, the people who were still excited about the capture of Kong Youde alive, clamoring to regain the northern land, were dumbfounded. They never thought that the Qing army would kill the riverside before the imperial court's Northern Expedition started.

For a time, the confidence of the army and the people in the imperial court collapsed, rumors spread everywhere in the city, and panic spread like a plague. Even if the emperor Zhu Cihong issued an edict, saying that the officers and soldiers would defend the river to the death, it still could not stabilize people's hearts. Many rich people fled south with their families. .

Nanjing City, inside the Imperial Palace.

Early in the morning, inside the Fengtian Hall, there were crowds of people standing full of ministers.

The Qing army approached the Yangtze River, and Nanjing was at stake. The ministers who were in charge of the war came to advise the emperor, some persuaded the emperor to stick to it, and some persuaded the emperor to leave Nanjing.

In the hall, Ma Shiying, the leader of the main combat faction, transformed into a main peace faction again.

He had no choice but to have three soldiers and horses under him. As soon as he came up, one town was demoted, and the other town hid in the city and did not dare to fight. Only one Huang Degong was left, and his strength was knocked out by half, which made Ma Shiying feel uncertain.

His main battle was originally to fight against the Donglin Party, but now that he really started the war, he was immediately dumbfounded.

After a few days, they were killed by the Qing army to the riverside, what else should they use to fight, and how should they fight?
At this time, Ma Shiying, Ruan Dacheng and other big bosses bowed down and told the emperor how powerful they were. He Tengjiao, Lu Zhenfei and others stood aside, all of them looked gloomy and ugly.

Zhu Cihong sat on the dragon chair, also with a worried expression on his face, fidgeting restlessly.

"Your Majesty, in extraordinary times, we should do extraordinary things. At the beginning of the rebellion and invasion of Shenjing, it was a few treacherous ministers who prevented the late emperor from going south, which caused the late emperor to die. I can't repeat the same mistakes, and I would like to ask your majesty to follow the example of Song Gaozong for the sake of the world and the great Ming. Leaving Nanjing temporarily, don't act on your will." Ma Shiying bowed her head to the ground, her face full of pain.

As soon as he came up, he was determined to persuade the emperor to stay, so that it was difficult for others to speak.

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(End of this chapter)