Back to the end of the Ming Dynasty when the emperor

Chapter 233 It's time to clean up Zuo Liangyu
In the 17th year of Chongzhen, that is, in mid-November of the first year of Shunzhi, Zhu Yousong condemned Huang Degong to leave Shandong, and Chen Qianfu left Henan. The two armies with 20 soldiers and horses took the opportunity to regain the lost ground.

At this time, Li Zicheng was fighting fiercely with the Qing Tartars in the land of Qin and Jin. However, since Li Zicheng started the war with stones a few months ago, Li Zicheng's troops have basically fought one battle and lost one battle. In less than a month, Then he lost a large area of ​​land from Shanhaiguan to Beijing, and Prince Rui Dorgon led a motley army in hot pursuit.

Those who said that Dorgon was a miscellaneous army did not wrong him, because his army consisted of three parts, Manchus, Mongols, followed by a large number of traitors, such as Fan Wencheng, Ning Wanwo, Wu Sangui, Zu Dashou, Shang Kexi, Geng Zhongming, Kong Youde, etc., etc., it is estimated that the Eight Banners can account for at most one-third, but such a miscellaneous army, Li Zicheng can't stand it. defeat.

So far, this outstanding peasant leader has changed his gender, or he may have been defeated to the point of no return. Only then did he show his nature as a thief. After fleeing to Beijing, he first killed more than 30 members of Wu Sangui's family, proclaimed himself emperor in a hurry, and then burned Bauhinia City, Withdrew from Beijing, and then killed Li Yan, the great counselor, which made people panic, and the soldiers were alienated. Since the Qing Tartars were chasing after him, Li Zicheng had to plunder all the way, shrinking the troops in Henan and Shandong, and fled to Shaanxi through Shanxi, all the way back. Until the border of Qin and Jin Dynasties.

But Li Zicheng also noticed that these wild boar skins outside the customs vowed to insist that Qingshan would not relax this time. No matter where he fled, this unstoppable motley army would chase him there. So when he ran to November, Li Zicheng decided Don't run away, rectify the soldiers and horses and set up a battlefield in Tongguan, planning to break the boat and decide whether to win or lose.

Sure enough, this miscellaneous army chased after them, and the two sides opened up the battlefield.At this time, a group of Li Zicheng's troops went eastward to Henan, and even went to Jiyuan, Mengjin and other places. Dorgon had no choice but to recruit Duoduo, who went south, to lead the army to the north to save Huaiqing, and went to Tongguan to fight Li Zicheng.

This gave Zhu Yousong's two groups of people an opportunity to take advantage of, because Zhu Yousong knew them too well, and he had already settled the generals of the four towns. With 40 army fans, he decisively sent troops in two directions and two routes , regain lost ground.

In just one month, good news spread frequently. That is to say, in mid-December, Huang Degong and his troops regained the entire Shandong; Henan Governor Chen Qianfu's troops had a good record. Under the leadership of the leader, a hundred thousand troops drove straight in, like a broken bamboo, even conquering important military towns such as Zhengzhou, Xiongzhou, Nanyang, and Weihui.

Now the entire Shandong and most of Henan have been merged into the territory of Nanming, leaving only a small part of Shanzhou and Lingbao in the west of Henan under the control of the intruders.

Zhu Yousong was very excited when he saw such a Tang newspaper. He immediately asked Lu Jiude and Gao Hongtu to draw up an order to reward the three armies. Two, let Lu Jiude and Li Guofu, the two eunuchs, keep the silver, and bring wine, meat, grain, brocade, horses, etc. to the front enemy to reward the soldiers of the three armies.

Although there is not much money now, the national treasury is in short supply, and now it depends on the money he got from the house to maintain it. Zhu Yousong knows that this is not a long-term solution, and he must find a way to increase income, but the immediate situation is great. He has to be willing to spend money when it comes to timing. In the final analysis, wars are fought for money.

For the former, he successively copied the homes of the great eunuch Chao Zanzhou, the warlord Ma Shiying, Ruan Dacheng, and the Baoguo Gong Zhu Guobi and others. The generals of the town still ransacked the homes of Gao Jie, Liu Liangzuo, Liu Zeqing and other military leaders. As for Huang Degong, he handed it in on his own initiative. These incomes would cost tens of millions of dollars if they were put into the treasury. A total of 2000 million in total. Silver is basically equivalent to the annual income of the entire Ming Dynasty in the Chongzhen era for two years.

It is said that these family backgrounds are already very rich, but Zhu Yousong's expenses in the past six months have also been huge. He has basically never stopped fighting big and small battles with the generals of the four towns. Recovering the lost land, repaying the arrears of the former prodigal sons, training troops, expanding the army, and raising food and grass can easily cost tens of thousands of taels or even millions of taels of silver, plus disaster relief, construction of water conservancy and other livelihood projects. Not to mention the expenses of supporting civil and military officials, all of which require a lot of money to support.

Now Li Guofu, the official seal of the Imperial Horse Supervisor, and Lu Daqi, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs, told him that even including the internal funds and the national treasury, there is only less than 700 million taels of inventory left. , because Zhu Yousong received another Tang Bao from Wuchang, saying that Zuo Liangyu was frantically expanding his troops and mobilizing frequently.

Because of Li Zicheng's consecutive defeats, he was out of control and couldn't hold his feet. His millions of troops were also broken up. Those who surrendered from Ming Dynasty were open to surrender. According to the principle of getting the moon, Zuo Liangyu never refuses anyone who comes, as long as he runs over, he accepts a large number of deserters from Li Zicheng in a short period of time, reorganizes them and does not report to the court, and digests and absorbs them all to become his strength. It was said that Zuo Liangyu had a secret relationship with Li Zicheng, and Sima Zhao's heart suddenly dawned on him.

In addition, the affairs of the Donglin party marquee Fangyu are not over yet, so Zhu Yousong knew it was time to deal with Zuo Liangyu. It would cost 200 million taels to deal with him, and the remaining 500 million taels should not last for a few months. But Zhu Yousong took up this plan as soon as he gritted his teeth.

Zhu Yousong had analyzed this Marquis of Wuchang in detail a long time ago. If Nanming's military strength is divided into three levels, Zuo Liangyu is the one with the strongest strength and the largest territory.The second is the generals of the four towns. In terms of strength and territory, the generals of the four towns are almost as strong as Zuo Liangyu.Then came the tens of thousands of Jingying and Jinyiwei under the control of Ma Shiying and his son.

But in terms of threats to the imperial court, this ranking is just reversed.Therefore, when Zhu Yousong crossed over, the factory guards and Ma Shiying and his son were cleaned first.Now that the generals in the four towns have finished cleaning up, and the Donglin Party has become obedient, Zuo Liangyu's affairs are on the agenda, which is completely within Zhu Yousong's plan.

But if we want to deal with Zuo Liangyu, we will inevitably have to fight, and it may be a tough battle. It will definitely not work if we try to deal with the generals of the four towns, because his strength is too strong. How many soldiers and horses there are in the world is still unknown, because since Zhu Yousong took the throne, he has never entered the capital to face the emperor, and the court has not mobilized any of his soldiers. At present, the territory he actually controls is not only Wuchang, It also includes vast areas such as Jingzhou, De'an, and Chengtian.

　PS: I was on duty yesterday, I was late for everyone, please forgive me, I wish you all the best in the new week!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)