Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 443
In July, just after the financial war ended, the Nanzhili market gradually stabilized amid fluctuations, but the battle situation was somewhat confusing.

After Hong Chengchou went south, he was very mysterious. No one knew where he was or what his strategy was.

Yang Chao stopped from June to July with silence, but he didn't even wait for Hong Chengchou to make a move.

Instead, through Jiangxi and even Beijing, news of the retreat of the Qing army in Jiangxi was received at the same time.

It was not that the entire army retreated, but a small number of Eight Banners soldiers were transferred to the north.

Tan Tai from Nanchang, Jiangxi led 1 Eight Banners soldiers back to Beijing, and the general Heluohui also led [-] Eight Banners soldiers back to Beijing. Only [-] Eight Banners elites remained in Jiangxi.

"Go to Shandong!"

Yang Chao was very concerned about the movements of these two Qing armies, and finally sent back news from Beijing. Diao Erdou found out and confirmed that Tan Tai's department was transferred to Linqing, Shandong, and Heluohui's department was transferred to Jining Prefecture.

Dorgon originally deployed [-] banners in Shandong, but now there are [-]. It can be said that the main force of the eight banners is basically here. Yang Chao couldn't help but believe that the Qing army planned to attack Jianghuai from Shandong.

Since ancient times, guarding the river must guard the Huaihe River. Once the Jianghuai River is lost, the direction of the Yangtze River is a thousand-mile loophole. It is impossible to block an inch of the river bank by boat. Yang Chao wondered if it was because of Haoge's failure that the Qing army completely gave up attacking Jiangnan from the upper reaches. Although there is a saying that defending Jinling must defend Jingxiang, the Qing army does not have the advantage of the navy. Occupying Jingxiang is just to take advantage of the upper reaches, and they can go down the river. Last time, the entire army was wiped out by Yang Chaoshui's army. It is reasonable for them to give up the attack strategy from the Yangtze River down. Compared with fighting directly south along the canal from the Jianghuai River, it is more suitable for the Eight Banners soldiers.

But Yang Chao always feels that something is wrong, because this is not a strategy at all, it is simply an attempt to fight for strength, crushing from north to south, just fighting swords and guns, there is nothing false, if it is this kind of strategy , What do you want Hong Chengchou to do, there is no need for Dorgon to let Hong Chengchou out of the mountain.

"Order Li Wuliu to test it out to see if the Shandong Eight Banners is the real main force. Don't be fooled by their false flags. If it's a group of green battalion soldiers holding the Eight Banners banner and the real Eight Banners hiding in the dark, then Passive."

Yang Chao thought about it, and asked Li Wuliu to attack tentatively.

"Let Jiang Yang go out to Haizhou to attack Yizhou, and Li Wuliu to go out to Xuzhou to attack Yi County. If the Eight Banners is a bluff, take the two places and continue to advance to the hinterland of Shandong! If it is really impossible to attack by force, immediately retreat to the original place and garrison."

Yang Chao gave orders one after another.

Even Jiang Yang from Haizhou was mobilized. This Jiang Yang was one of the hundred households of the Donghai Qianhu Office. Later, because of his meritorious service in defending Haizhou, he was promoted to Qianhu after the Battle of Haizhou. But after Yang Chao rescued Haizhou for the second time, He still chose to follow Yang Chao.

It's not that Jiang Yang doesn't want to be an officer of a thousand households, but because his military position was originally borrowed.

Military officers in the Ming Dynasty Weisuo were hereditary, passed down from father to son, but military households were not prohibited from participating in the imperial examination. The policy of borrowing positions means that if military officers who become officials after the imperial examination have no sons, or if the sons are too young, they can temporarily lend their military positions to close relatives such as brothers or nephews.

But if his son becomes an adult, the brother and nephew must return the position.

Jiang Yang's Baihu was borrowed from Zhongju's elder brother back then, but as his nephew gradually grew up, his position still had to be returned, but Jiang Yang was a little reluctant to hand over Qianhu, and he wanted to leave it to his son. After thinking about it, when Yang Chao's army came to Haizhou for the second time, Jiang Yang cooperated with Li Wuliu to defend the city, so he revealed this idea and joined Yang Chao.

Yang Chao agreed without hesitation. This Jiang Yang is still a reliable person, and he fought together in the past. There are nearly a thousand military households under Jiang Yang at the East China Sea Thousand Households Office. Encountering Yang Chao's expansion of the army, he directly appointed Jiang Yang as Chief Qian, and asked him to recruit these military households to his subordinates. After Li Wuliu's strict training and a group of officers, he became a veteran.

After Li Wuliu hit Xuzhou, Jiang Yang was in charge of guarding Haizhou, and this time he was also ordered to attack.

When the two entered Shandong, they were attacked head-on by the soldiers of the Eight Banners, and almost all the members of the Eight Banners went out to battle. The elites of the [-] Eight Banners were concentrated in the southern Shandong area, and Li Wuliu and Jiang Yang were all defeated.

"Fifty thousand and eight flags are true!"

After getting this result, Yang Chao was even more confused.

Could it be that the Qing army really planned to attack from north to south, this is Hong Chengchou's strategy?
Although he didn't know the conspiracy, but after confirming that the main force of the Qing army was in Shandong, Yang Chao still wanted Jiangbei to be the focus of defense. Only many men, Lu Mo and Xie Fei were left in Jiangnan, and all other troops were transferred back to Jiangbei to garrison.

"Too passive!"

Faced with this military situation, Yang Chao found himself extremely passive. The Qing army had many places to attack him, and he couldn't set up defenses everywhere, which would put too much pressure on the troops.

The best way to deal with it is to replace defense with offense, that is, to occupy the initiative in the war by yourself. If you take the offensive yourself, it is up to the Qing army to guess where they will attack from.

However, judging from the current situation of Yang Chao, there is no condition to take the initiative to attack. Yang Chao is still working hard to train his troops. He intends to train his 30 troops to at least the level of the Han army in the Qing army before he can fight the Qing army. It is necessary to take a defensive position to buy time.

Because of the strong military strength of the Qing army, they can take the offensive tactically and always take the initiative, which makes Yang Chao feel more and more that the situation is not good for him.

"Since the Qing army is in Shandong, Jiangxi is bound to be empty at this time. Can we try to attack the enemy in Jiangxi? If we can capture Jiangxi, we will completely eliminate the threat of the Qing army to my flank. If we occupy Jiangxi, our troops can Integrate with He Tengjiao in Hunan, and only need to face the enemy in Hubei, and the strategic situation will be greatly improved."

Yang Chao pondered over the military map.

However, Jin Shenghuan and Wang Tizhong in Jiangxi already have 20 mercenaries. Judging from their battle against the Ming army, they still have a certain combat effectiveness. The core of these two Jin Shenghuan is the elite of Zuo Liangyu, while the core of Wang Tizhong is Li Zicheng. The elite, there must be strong players who can fight, and it is not so easy to deal with.

Moreover, Yang Chao knew that the small imperial court had been trying to persuade these two people to surrender, so he heard that the situation was very optimistic.

The relationship between Jin Shenghuan and Wang Tizhong and the civil officials sent to Jiangxi by the Qing court was very rigid.

The fundamental reason is because of money. Jin Shenghuan and Wang Tizhong extorted a batch of gold and silver treasures by force when they captured Jiangxi, and became upstarts; They give money.

But Jin Shenghuan and Wang Tizhong held heavy troops, and their strength was getting stronger and stronger, so they became domineering, especially when most of the Jiangxi Eight Banners soldiers were withdrawn, it was even more impossible for them to hand over their property.

But the civil officials were not willing to let go, so Zhang Yutian sent an official ticket to chase his salary of 30 yuan, and threatened to write a letter to impeach them.

The civil and military discord between the Qing army in Jiangxi was extremely deep, and the Fujian court wanted to take advantage of this. Zheng Zhilong also notified Yang Chao, hoping that Yang Chao would cooperate. Eight Banners Soldiers, give these two people a chance to act.

Previously, Yang Chao had been rectifying the internal affairs, negotiating trade matters with Nassau, and solving financial problems at the same time, so Yang Chao had never taken any measures against Jiangxi. Now that he planned to attack Jiangxi, the Zheng family spread the news.

Yang Chao had no reason to refuse. If Jin Shenghuan and Wang Tizhong could come anyway, and Yang Chao sent troops to wipe out the Eight Banners soldiers entrenched in Nanchang, the whole of Jiangxi would be alive, and the situation would be reversed in an instant without having to attack every city and pool by himself.

Therefore, Yang Chao continued to stand still and wait for news from the court.

At the same time, he began to start a psychological war with Duo ErGun.

Yu Jiye had already arrived in Beijing. According to Yang Chao's instructions, he made great fanfare along the way, under the banner of Ming envoys. The Qing army didn't stop him at first, but soon they announced that they were going to negotiate with the Qing court to exchange Hauge for Zhu Cihong's news.

As a result, Dorgon took action quickly. Although Yu Jiye was not killed, he was detained in Shandong.

After detaining Yu Jiye, Yang Chao asked Diao Erdou in Beijing to spread rumors and detain Dorgon as an envoy to negotiate with the Ming court. This was because the envoy planned to exchange Hauge for Zhu Cihong.

As Yang Chao expected, this caused the old dignitaries in the Eight Banners to seize Dorgon's pigtails again, accusing them one after another, and even some old guys, important ministers from the Huang Taiji era, went to Shandong in a group to meet the Ming dynasty. Court envoy.

Seeing that Dorgon couldn't stop him, he could only let Yu Jiye go to Beijing.

But he never negotiated with Yu Jiye, and it was those old dignitaries who pressured Dorgon to reluctantly express his position, saying that Zhu Cihong was the emperor of the Ming Dynasty, how could he give up easily, and Hauge was captured in the battle, which would damage the prestige of the Eight Banners army. The Emperor of Ming can be exchanged for a defeated general.

Yang Chao was very happy for causing trouble to Dorgon, and he finally managed to win the round and avenged Dorgon's use of one arrow.

But Dorgon soon made Yang Chao sick.

He sent someone to notify the small court in Fujian, saying that Yang Chao wanted to exchange Hauge for Zhu Cihong, and asked the young emperor Zhu Cihuan of Fujian if this was what the Ming court meant. If so, the Qing court planned to negotiate with the Ming court on this, and Yang Chao was just a General, they can't trust Yang Chao.

How could Zhu Cihong dare to let Zhu Cihong come back? What should he do as the emperor?

This is like the Southern Song emperor Zhao Gou who never dared to take over the Huiqin sect from Jin Guo, because when the two old emperors came back, how should he deal with himself and abdicate to the virtuous?Obviously impossible!
Back then, the Jin Dynasty kept threatening Zhao Gou by releasing the two old emperors, and Zhao Gou’s general Yue Fei also clamored all day long for the Northern Expedition to bring back the two former emperors. Yue Fei went to the Huanglong Mansion to rescue the two emperors. He reckoned that the emperors would not be able to do it, but they would have to confess their lives.

There is also a precedent in the Ming Dynasty. Ming Yingzong was captured in the battle against Oirat. Yu Qian ignored the emperor's capture in Beijing and shouted "The people are the most important in the country." Yingzong's younger brother Jingdi succeeded to the throne. After Ming Yingzong was released, he imprisoned Jingdi and killed Yu Qian.

Zhu Cihuan felt that if his elder brother Zhu Cihong came back, his ending would not be much better than Ming Jingdi, and Ming Yingzong was only alone at that time, and Yang Chao was standing behind Zhu Cihong.

So Zhu Cihuan immediately sent an imperial decree to Nanjing, asking Yang Chao to immediately deport Hauge to Fujian, where he planned to offer prisoners to his ancestors.

Zhu Cihuan's reason is also very legitimate. It is indeed worth burning paper for Zhu Yuanzhang and the others to capture Hauge, the son of the former emperor of the Qing Dynasty.

But Zhu Yuanzhang's mausoleum is in Nanjing, what kind of captives did you offer in Fujian, so Yang Chao immediately wrote a letter, expressing the hope that the emperor would come to Nanjing and offer captives in Taimiao and Xiaoling.

But how could the little emperor dare to come to Nanjing? For this reason, the Zheng family gave Yang Chao 300 million taels of silver every year.

So the plan of exchanging Hauge for Zhu Cihong was Yang Chao, the Ming court and the Qing court began to argue. First, Yang Chao made Dorgon uncomfortable, and Dorgon used the little emperor of Fujian to disgust Yang Chao. Disgusting little emperor.

It was a good plan to attack each other, but in the end it turned into mutual disgust.

And Dorgon used this as a reason to tell the old dignitaries of the Qing court that it was not that Dorgon didn't want to talk, but that the Ming court had no sincerity at all, and obviously just wanted to trick himself into releasing Zhu Cihong, and this business could not be done.

But the old dignitaries are still relentless, hoping to let the useless emperor of the Ming Dynasty go back and fight another emperor. The Qing court just reaps the benefits of the fisherman, and can use this to save the Qing court prince, why? Not happy.

Dorgon again argued that it was not worthwhile to exchange the emperor for the general of the defeated army, and he had a great time arguing with the old dignitaries.

Yang Chao also watched happily, but he didn't realize that under the lively surface, a real conspiracy, a real threat, was slowly approaching!

(End of this chapter)