Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 473 The World Situation

As soon as the Chinese New Year firecrackers went off, the second year of Longwu (1647) finally came.

In the second half of the first year of Longwu, Zhu Cihuan, the emperor of Longwu, was rarely stable for several months.

Huguang, Jiangnan, and Guangdong and Guangxi are all rare without wars.

Both the Qing court and the Ming army stopped all military operations in a tacit agreement.

The negotiating envoy sent by Dorgon is in Nanjing, but Yang Chao has not negotiated with them three times in a row. The excuse is that their rank is too low. Yang Chao is the earl, and the other party must send at least one Baylor.

But who in Baylor of the Eight Banners is willing to take this risk?

And Dorgon was also willing to toss back and forth again and again, but Yang Chao told them that everyone can stand up during the negotiation, so it is not bad to waste time on the road.

Knowing that Dorgon was reorganizing the strength of the Eight Banners, Yang Chao not only recruited [-] new Han soldiers outside the pass, all of them were incorporated into the Eight Banners of Han, and also united with Mongolia. Daughters, especially Horqin Mongolia, even sent three daughters to marry the rich and powerful in the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

While uniting with Mongolia, 20 young men were recruited from Mongolia, and they were also incorporated into the Mongolian Eight Banners sequence. During a period of time, Dorgon formed [-] new Mongolian and Han Eight Banners, and trained intensively.

Yang Chao didn't care at all about the reorganization of the Eight Banners by the Qing Dynasty, because in Yang Chao's view, what the Qing Dynasty lacked was not military strength, but internal unity. into a rope.

As for the strength of the Han Eight Banners or the Green Battalion, there is basically no difference. In terms of real combat power, the frontier soldiers in Shanshan and Shaanxi may not be inferior to the Han Eight Banners. Even the Han people who farm in Liaodong are not as good as those frontier soldiers The elite.

The reason why the Eight Banners used to be so powerful was that all of them were not engaged in production. They only practiced martial arts since they were young. But now these Han soldiers, although they are also Eight Banners in name, have been farming since childhood and have no martial arts background. Even if they are formed, they cannot be the opponent of Yang Chao's army.

While Dorgon needs time to train soldiers, Yang Chao also needs time to train soldiers. The veterans continue to train, and the green battalion elites who surrendered from Shandong need to be retrained. The tide has also expanded by 20 people. With the addition of the original veterans, the total force has reached 50. Even if Dorgon plays violent tactics, he has no capital to occupy Jiangnan, Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Shandong and other provinces. Yang Chaowan has a population of about 8000 million.

Therefore, under the tacit agreement of both parties, military operations were stopped.

The strategic form at this time was that Yang Chao occupied Shandong, Jiangnan, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi, the Qing army occupied Beizhili, Shanxi, Henan, and Huguang, and the imperial court nominally owned Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian.

Sichuan has become a no-man's land at this time, there are tigers infested on the Chengdu Plain, weeds are everywhere, there is no human habitation within a hundred miles, only a small group of warlords exist, some of these warlords are remnants of the Ming army, some of them are The rest of the Peasant Army, there are also various bandits.

Guizhou was occupied by the remaining troops of Zhang Xianzhong, headed by the four adopted sons of Zhang Xianzhong, Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu and Ai Nengqi. The four of them joined forces to annex Zhang Xianzhong's prime minister, Wang Zhaoling, and killed Wang Zhaoling and Zhang Xianzhong's queen.

The four of them united sincerely, collected and scattered, reorganized the team, and ordered to clean up military discipline: "From now on, you must fight and kill." The military discipline of the army has taken on a new look, "No offense in autumn."It was easy to occupy Guizhou, which was controlled by the Ming army, but Guizhou was narrow and poor, and Zhang Xianzhong's remaining 30 people could not support them at all, so the four decided to go to Yunnan again. Under the banner of avenging Mu Wangfu's family, they were not attacked by other chieftains and successfully invaded Kunming. After suppressing the chieftain's rebellion, the whole of Yunnan was also taken into the pocket of Daxi Army.

This is the situation that Yang Chao faced when he started to deal with government affairs after the year.

"The financial situation of last year has been sorted out and distributed for everyone to see."

At the military and political meeting of the first year, Huang Fengfu, Huang Yuan, Duo Nan, Li Wuliu and other military and political officials all participated.

After Yang Chao finished speaking, Huang Fengfu took out a stack of documents and began to distribute them.

This financial report is very beautiful. Last year, a total of 500 million taels of summer and autumn grain was collected, 400 million taels of tax silver, 300 million taels of banknote customs, and more than 800 million taels of customs silver. After deducting 300 million taels of military food, there are still 200 million orders left, which is enough to support the summer grain. Last year, 2000 million taels of silver were spent, of which 1000 million taels were military salaries and various materials consumption, and the rest were officials' salaries and building frames. Administrative expenditures for bridge renovation and water conservancy.

"My lord, isn't the shortfall too big?"

After distributing the financial report, Huang Feng Mansion sighed worriedly.

The total tax collection was 700 million taels, but 2000 million taels were spent, leaving a shortfall of 300 million taels.

"Big? How big is it? The deficit is less than [-]% of the tax revenue. Is this also called big?"

Compared with later generations, the debt owed by the government is lower than the tax, and it is considered to be in a good situation. The government of the Ming Dynasty is simply too good.

"But the shortfall has to be made up."

"What are you afraid of? Another 2000 million bonds will be issued this year. Last year, 1000 million were issued, but they were not used up! What a waste. Let local governments make a financial application, repair the renovated canals, repair the water conservancy facilities, and repair the roads. Repair it, repair it in schools, don’t be afraid to spend money, Jiangnan is rich and has plenty of money.”

Huang Fengfu was stunned: "Well, I'm afraid 1000 million taels is not enough."

Yang Chao sighed: "This year's estimated income should be 2000 million taels, and the grain that can be received should also be 1000 million taels."

Huang Fengfu nodded.

Yang Chao said: "Then what are you worried about, we have enough soldiers and food."

The men and Li Wuliu became quite excited when they heard that the soldiers had sufficient supplies. These two men came back for a meeting representing the southern and northern armies. I'm a little anxious, when will I be able to win the world if this goes on.

As expected, Yang Chao said next: "So this year our army is fully capable of attacking the Qing court on two fronts at the same time. If our army is willing, we can storm Beijing this year!"

These words made Li Wuliu ignite immediately, but many men were a little depressed. Although they are all in high positions now, they still have the mentality of striving for merit in the past. For credit, the goal is to get promoted and get rich, but now the fight is for merit, and what they want is the title of duke and marquis, and they want to be famous in history.

People’s needs have stages. The lowest level is food and clothing, the higher level is safety, and the highest level is self-realization, which is what the Chinese call merit. Who doesn’t want to make contributions and who doesn’t want to be famous in history.

No one spoke and stared at Yang Chao. Yang Chao continued: "But the goal of fighting on two fronts will not be achieved. What I need is to destroy the Qing Dynasty in one battle. There is no point in delaying it. Fighting back and forth. Li Wuliu, you are in the north I have reorganized the army formation and advised to use the whole bird blunderbuss tactic. I think it is very good. You can try it out first. If it is successful, it can be promoted in the whole army. Jiangnan now has no less than 5 craftsmen who can make excellent bird blunderbusses. 100 blunderbusses can be built every month, and 30 million blunderbusses a year can support [-] blunderbuss troops. Moreover, a new bayonet is added to the blunderbuss, and the spears can be saved. It's sharper to attack."

The bayonet problem is a big problem. With the bayonet, everyone knows that the long gun can be saved, but installing the bayonet on the barrel is a delicate technical problem, which has not been solved well. It is possible to make it by hand, but it is not possible to manufacture it on a large scale. possible.

The final solution is the divergent thinking of a craftsman. Since the iron barrel is not easy to process, why not process the wooden one, which is much easier than wood. It is rumored that this craftsman accidentally tied the broken spear to the bird gun. Inspired by the above, he then lengthened the gun bed under the barrel, exposing the barrel by three inches, which did not affect the loading, and was easier to process than wood.

It is easy to install the bayonet directly on the three-inch long wooden handle. Just find a long gun head and put it in, and tighten it. And the craftsmen do a better job. After inserting the gun holster, insert a wooden pin to solve the problem perfectly. .

Yang Chao rewarded the craftsman with 1 taels of silver, and immediately promoted this technology. The new-style bird guns now wear bayonets, which are two-foot-long bayonets, which can be used as steel knives when taken down.

"I would like to report to the governor, if you want to experiment with the army formation, you must fight against the Qing army, so can our army advance northward to Zhili?"

Li Wuliu couldn't help asking happily when he heard that he was asked to experiment with the new military formation.

Yang Chao said: "Who said that if you advance to Zhili in the north, can you attack Henan? The Southern Four Banners have always been so cooperative. Attacking them is tantamount to helping Dorgon. Let them fight among themselves."

It's not bad to be able to play Henan, Li Wuliu sat down with a smile on his face.

Many men said: "My lord, what should we do with the Southern Army?"

If there are battles to be fought in the north and no action is taken in the south, many men will always be uneasy.

Yang Chao said: "Don't worry. There will be 20 new troops in the south this year, and they will all be stationed in Jiangxi. You have to plan well, training your troops is the top priority, and occupying land is the bottom."

Many men also sat down, the responsibility is very heavy.

Then Yang Chao concluded: "Remember, we still need to work harder, destroy the Qing in three years, and bring peace to the world in five years!"

Yang Chao finally threw out a big strategy, and immediately everyone was overjoyed and couldn't hide their excitement.

Finally, they have a goal. They are afraid that Yang Chao will not be willing to pacify the world, so their identities will be very embarrassing. They say they are loyal ministers of Daming. It seems that no one will listen to the emperor of Ming Dynasty. If Yang Chao refuses to do it Emperor, what are they?
Now that Yang Chao uttered the words "Ping Tian Xia", it was right in their hearts.

(End of this chapter)