Griffin Commander in the Late Ming Dynasty

After all, the difference in living environment between the two sides is too great. The Liaodong region can be said to be a northern country with thousands of miles of ice and snow, and even ghosts can hardly grow crops. But Daming still has Jiangnan and the entire south as backup grain producing areas. As the situation changes, once the Ming Dynasty recovers, they will rely on strong city defense and be dragged to death.

Even in history, the Qing army was blocked by the three important passes in Liaodong and could not advance an inch. It was not until Li Zicheng captured Beijing and Wu Sangui surrendered to the Qing army that they were able to officially enter the pass.

So Huang Taiji was very anxious. He had to let the Ming Dynasty continue to be in chaos so that they would have a chance.

Xue Guoguan, the chief minister of the cabinet, shouted: "Your Majesty, Yang Sichang made peace with the thieves. His crime is unforgivable. I beg you to kill him!"

Xue Guoguan has always been at odds with Yang Sichang. Now he has got the chance. If I don't kill you, I will be unworthy of the opportunity you gave me.

Chongzhen also knew about the fight between the two, so he would not follow Xue Guoguan's wishes. He said with a sullen look on his face, "Now is not the time to pursue responsibility. Let's talk about how to deal with the Jiannu!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the hall suddenly became quiet, and several important officials secretly glanced at Chongzhen at the same time.

"Why are you all mute? Speak!"

Chongzhen slammed the table and shouted angrily. The ministers were frightened and trembled. Finally, someone stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, now... now we only have the troops of Governor Hong Chengchou that can be mobilized. The most urgent task is to send him to Beijing to defend the king..."

"But, Lord Hong just went south to suppress the bandits, and now he is called back..."

Chongzhen was a little hesitant.

"Your Majesty, the bandit problem is just a minor problem. The Jiannu are the real problem of our Ming Dynasty. Now the Northern Zhili can no longer support the Jiannu's rampage again, Your Majesty!"

Xue Guoguan immediately said, "I ask Your Majesty to summon Hong Chengchou to the capital, and order all the troops in the country to come to the capital to defend the king and fight against the bandits together!"

Cabinet Minister Kong Zhenyun said: "I second the motion!"

Minister of Justice Feng Ying also said: "I second the motion!"

"I second the motion!" Several important officials said, expressing their support for Xue Guoguan.

Chongzhen glanced at Xue Guoguan and saw that he looked determined. He then looked at Yang Sichang, who had just messed up and was now hiding his head and pretending to be a turtle. He must not be counted on. He said, "Announce the decree to summon the Governor of Ji and Liao, Hong Chengchou, the generals of Xuanfu, Yang Guozhu, Datong, Jiang Xiang, Shanxi, Hu Dawei, Shandong, Liu Zeqing... and all the troops from the garrisons to defend the capital. Give Hong Chengchou the Imperial Sword and order him to come to Beijing overnight to command the troops of the whole country to defend the king!"

......

Ever since Lu Xiangsheng was besieged and killed, Hong Chengchou was the only reliable military general in the Ming Dynasty. Although Lu Xiangsheng was dead, he had served as the governor of Xuanda for many years and managed the place very well.

Thanks to his efforts, the situation in Xuanda, which had been badly damaged by the Qing army, gradually improved. Chongzhen issued an instruction for this purpose, requiring all the nine border areas to learn from Xuanfu and Datong and learn from Lu Xiangsheng.

This time when entering the pass, the Qing army knew that Xuanda was not as easy to attack as before, so they changed their route to enter the pass via Qiangziling and Qingshankou in Miyun.

On June 4, Dorgon led the left wing of the army to destroy the border wall at Qingshan Pass and entered. The two armies of the Qing army met in Tongzhou on the outskirts of the capital, swept across the suburbs of Beijing, burned, killed, looted and committed all kinds of atrocities. They also stationed troops at Niulanshan and built a stone wall fortress. Everyone in northern Zhili was terrified.

Looking at the imperial edict in his hand, Hong Chengchou was numb. Was the emperor suffering from some serious illness?

Volume 293: Chapter Chapter : Naming is so troublesome, so let's leave it at that

"Let me see, this is He Jin, this is Liu Xiyao..."

On a piece of ruins, a scarecrow stood in the pile of corpses and was identifying the identities of several bodies. After a long pursuit and multiple bombings, the bandit leader, who was left with only a few thousand people, ultimately could not escape the fate of destruction. It can only be said that they died in an uneasy way.

"No, why is there one missing? Where is Ma Shouying?"

Scarecrow stood up and looked around, searching for the last piece of the puzzle to complete her KDA mission. Before long, she found... a piece of the puzzle.

Unfortunately, Ma Huihui had bad luck. When he escaped, he chose the area where the SOP was located, where there were relatively fewer people.

"...Ababababababa, it's really good."

Sop was playing with Ma Huihui's head.

"Forget it, there's no need to report everything, Commander? Do you hear me?"

“Ahhh, I can hear you.”

Jiang Han's somewhat hurried voice came from the other side. He is very busy now, because the progress of the humanoids in all aspects is a bit too fast, which makes the original dormitory construction plan a bit behind schedule. Fortunately, several core areas have been dug, and they just need Jiang Han to place and assemble them. So he is working overtime on the dormitory these two days.

".....Why does it sound weird? This is what I mean. Commander, I am here to report the progress of the mission to you."

"Ah, the mission progress, ha... ha... Just give me a verbal report, don't ask me to verify my brain again, I will really thank you, who did you kill again?"

"Commander, are you okay? You're breathing heavily now?"

"Ah...I suddenly felt like doing some exercise today, so I went running, yes, running..."

"I heard some music from your end?"

"Ah...that."

Jiang Han quickly turned off the sound system he was tuning: "I think running alone is a bit boring, so I plan to listen to music while running, right?"

"...You, running around the house?"

"Oh, yes. Look, the sun is so strong. If I go out, I will be sunburned to death. So I run in the house. This way I can exercise and avoid being sunburned. Isn't it genius?"

".......To be honest, it's pretty stupid."

When it comes to Scarecrow's emotional intelligence, he has always had a firm grasp on it and his performance has been very stable.

"Ahahahahaha, I guessed you would say that. I think it's pretty stupid too. So, what's your progress this time?"

Jiang Han quickly changed the subject; he could no longer make up a story.

"At present, Ma Shouying, He Jin, and Liu Xiyao of the Left Fifth Battalion have all been wiped out. Together with Lin Yangcheng and He Yilong, the entire Left Fifth Battalion has been destroyed. Now there are only some post-war finishing tasks left, and this mission can be completed."

"What's going on?"

Jiang Han was stunned for a moment. Are you progressing too fast? You were only 2/5 of the way there before, how come you have completed all three at once? Can't you do them one by one? What happened to me while I was pretending to be a repairman?

"In fact, the Ming Dynasty soldiers you mentioned helped a lot. They paid a certain price to help me significantly reduce the number of these bandits, which ultimately allowed me to complete the goal relatively quickly."

Cao Bianjiao: "Damn! I'm now a worker!"

"...I see."

Jiang Han silently mourned for the Ming army officers and soldiers whose names were unknown. The casualty rate in today's cold weapon battles is quite exaggerated. Basically, after each battle, the number of casualties is not small. In this case, the bandit leader who had made the main contribution was secretly taken away. To be honest, putting himself in their shoes, Jiang Han felt his blood pressure rising for those Ming army officers and soldiers.

However, this doesn't matter to me.

At this moment, Cao Bianjiao was still unaware that the bandit leader he had been searching for for nearly half a month had been caught by someone else. However, even if he knew, he would not care. Now he was shocked by Hong Chengchou's wholehearted order.

"Go north to defend the king? At this critical moment? However, our efforts to suppress bandits have just been very effective, and we are about to kill the bandit leader. If we go to defend the king at this time, won't it be a waste of time for the bandits to develop? If we continue like this, when will we be able to wipe out the bandits? Moreover, the army just went south, and now we have to go north again?"

This military movement was not some kind of autumn outing for the whole family that could be carried out at a moment's notice. Moreover, in those days, there were giant crocodiles in the water, ferocious beasts in the mountains, the environment was harsh, and the road conditions were difficult. Traveling a long distance was a difficult journey for everyone. That is why ancient poets always felt melancholy when bidding farewell to their friends, because once they left, the other party might really get stuck along the way.

Even when traveling abroad, there are more things to consider. How to accommodate so many people? How to do ideological work for these people who have just gone south and are heading north again? How to make sure that their morale is not affected? How to manage the soldiers and make sure that they do not disturb the people as much as possible? These are all big issues that the commander has to think about.

The most important thing is, after such a long journey, will my troops still be able to fight? Moreover, with the ability of the Tartars, will the situation in Northern Zhili be like mud when I am halfway there?

These are all problems, not so easy to deal with.

"Even you know about it, how can I, as the commander-in-chief, not know about it? But the imperial court has issued an imperial decree that the situation in Northern Zhili is extremely urgent, and all generals must immediately go north to defend the king. The emperor's order cannot be disobeyed."

Hong Chengchou is also in a difficult situation. I understand what you said, but this is an imperial edict. Do you dare to disobey it?

"This is a good thing. Fighting with bandits is really boring. Those kids just threw down their hoes not long ago. I can't bear to kill them! How can it be more satisfying than killing the Tartars!"

"Hahahaha, that's right, this time, we must fight that Tartar to the death!"

The two put aside their troubles and chose to use this method to regain their mood. Not to mention that the effect was really good. It can be said that every Ming Dynasty citizen hated the Tartars to the core, and when it came to fighting the Tartars, they really were full of energy.

In history, Hong Chengchou was once a pioneer in the anti-Qing war, but in repeated battles against the Qing, he was held back and betrayed by his teammates. He also lost his beloved general Cao Bianjiao in the Battle of Liaodong. After that, he just started to do whatever he wanted.

The march north was a foregone conclusion, and the two generals could only comfort themselves in this way and look forward to the upcoming battle with the Tatars.

At this moment, the situation in Northern Zhili was much more complicated. After Dorgon led his troops to capture Miyun, he began to build a stone city on the outskirts of the city, as if he was determined to stay here.

The other tribes began to go into carnival mode, plundering and looting in the suburbs of Beijing, and began to send reinforcements to other areas of Northern Zhili.

The local defenders in Northern Zhili could only say that when they saw the Tartars, they rushed into the house as quickly as starving pigs and turned off the lights. The Tartars were mainly composed of cavalry and had no way of taking down their fortified cities.

This is indeed the case. The Qing army, which had crossed several high mountains in succession, lacked sufficient heavy firepower to deal with the thick city walls of the Ming army. The composition of their troops made it basically impossible for them to fight a siege. If they wanted to fight, they had to wait for subsequent reinforcements to arrive.

But although they couldn't attack the big cities, they could still attack some small cities. The portable six-pound Shenwei Dajiangjun cannon made it very easy to blast open the gates of these towns. The Qing army could basically just chop up the defenders in the city like cutting melons and vegetables, and then it was the familiar zero-yuan purchase link.

The battle situation in Northern Zhili had become so bad that people in the court were still arguing about the tone of the war.

That's right, although Hong Chengchou has been sent back to Beijing to lead the generals from all over the country, but should he fight the Tartars to the end, or should he fight instead of negotiate, fight and negotiate at the same time, and mainly seek stability, so that the situation can be stabilized so that the Ming Dynasty can free up its hands to solve internal problems?

Different ministers have different views.

Yang Sichang bowed deeply and said to Chongzhen first: "Your Majesty, the only armies of the Ming Dynasty that can fight are Zu Dashou's Guanning Army in Liaodong, Hong Chengchou's Hong Army, Sun Chuanting's Qin Army, and Qin Liangyu's Baigan Army. They are now either in Jiangnan, Sichuan, or Shaanxi. Water from afar cannot save a nearby fire! Even if they all come, it will be a desperate gamble. Once they are defeated, the consequences will be disastrous. Our Ming Dynasty is in danger!"

Before, there was Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong Army, but now, the Tianxiong Army is gone, and the Ming Dynasty has one less card to play.

Xue Guoguan and Yang Sichang had been at odds for a long time. Facing his proposal, he had to argue with him. Moreover, he was standing on the moral high ground this time. He pointed directly at Yang Sichang on the spot: "Lord Yang, what you said is wrong. Not to mention that our Ming Dynasty has never negotiated peace for hundreds of years, are we going to let the Jiannu swagger around our Ming Dynasty and even wreak havoc around the capital?"

Gao Qiqian stepped out to help Yang Sichang speak: "This time the Tartars entered the pass with a force of 200,000. Now the Grand Commander Hong Chengchou is still on the way. Even if he arrives, he will only have 80,000 soldiers. The arrival of the other generals is nowhere in sight. The Tartars are difficult to deal with. Can this 200,000-strong army defeat them?"

Yang Sichang looked at Gao Qiquan gratefully, and said patiently: "Since ancient times, there has never been a country that could win foreign wars while having endless internal strife. Although our Ming Dynasty has quelled the rebellion of bandits in various places, the people are still not stable. For example, Shaanxi and Henan, which have suffered from wars for many years, still need to be slowly stabilized and governed. Once there is no worry at home, our Ming Dynasty can reorganize its military preparations and go north to attack the Qing Dynasty to avenge the shame of the Jiannu's repeated blockades and eliminate border troubles forever! Therefore, the court must first stabilize the country!"

Xue Guoguan sneered, "What you said makes sense, but the Jiannu are barbaric people. Now they have stationed their troops beside the capital and are doing cruel things. Brother Wenruo, as a minister of the imperial court, can you bear to see this?"

Yang Sichang remained silent. He was extremely conflicted and found it difficult to make up his mind.

Xue Guoguan coughed and said, "The enemy army is approaching, invading our land, and killing our people. We can only talk about war, not peace? There is only death, what is there to fear?"

Yang Sichang was so angry that his nose was crooked. It turned out that you were the one who started to complain as soon as you got to the battlefield, right? Why didn’t you get killed by the cannon?

"Master Xue, you..."

"enough!"

Chongzhen slammed the table and stopped the discussion: "I will not negotiate. The only option is war. I will never reconcile with this Tartar. Either he or I will win!"

Volume 294: Chapter Chapter : Considerations

"What? Let me stay? No, no, I still want to go north to fight the Tartars, I won't stay"

When Cao Bianjiao heard about Hong Chengchou's new arrangement, he felt terrible. This guy, he was counting on defending his country today, but who would have thought that he would be left where he was in the blink of an eye.

"Don't worry, don't worry."

Hong Chengchou comforted the jumping Cao Bianjiao: "Listen to me first"

"I won't listen!"

Hong Chengchou was so annoyed. You are a nine-foot-tall strong man. Why are you playing tsundere with me? This scene is really too hot for the eyes: "There are many variables in this trip to the king. I am afraid that there will be more changes after I go. Moreover, the current situation in the south is really not good. The five camps of the left are wreaking havoc again, and Zhang Xianzhong is also aggressive. What's more, there is the big thief Jiang Han, who is entrenched in Yangzhou. These are all the major concerns of our Ming Dynasty. If we can't get rid of them, the Ming Dynasty will have trouble sleeping and eating..."

Hong Chengchou thought very clearly that the main idea in the court now was not to fight the Tartars to the end. Although the emperor and the ministers were talking a lot, it was just a superficial work because they couldn't save their face. In fact, everyone mainly wanted to negotiate peace.

There is no way out for the war faction.

Why do I say so? The example of Lu Xiangsheng is right in front of me. Old Lu can be said to be an out-and-out advocate of war. He advocated a fight to the death with the Tartars. The Tianxiong Army he led was also very brave when fighting the Qing army, causing great trouble to the Qing army. However, he did not conform to the mainstream thinking of the entire court, so he and his troops were sold out.

From the moment Lu Xiangsheng led his troops to fight against the Qing army, Gao Qiquan, as the military supervisor, was madly dragging their feet in the back. There was even a situation where Lu Xiangsheng led Xuanda's soldiers in the front to fight a one-on-three battle with the enemy, while Gao Qiquan led Guanning's soldiers to watch from the back.

Gao Qiqian had good reasons to retreat. The Ming Dynasty was in an awkward situation now and was not suitable for a decisive battle with the Tartars. If they continued to fight like this, the Ming Dynasty would only be dragged into the quagmire and unable to recover.

According to the ideas of Gao Qiquan and others, they should set up their battle formations with the Tartars and keep pulling the strings but not fight. Then when the time is right, everyone can negotiate for peace and muddle through. When the Ming Dynasty has dealt with the internal banditry, they can free up their hands to concentrate on dealing with the Tartars. To resist foreign aggression, one must first stabilize the internal situation. In this way, the Ming Dynasty will no longer have any worries.

Hong Chengchou and Lu Xiangsheng both scoffed at his idea. What is your education background? Everyone here is well-read and cultured, and you, an illiterate, are talking to us about the national situation? If you can't drink, go to the dog's table. You want to fight with others? They just flash up and use a big move to kill you in one second. What are you fighting for? It's just nonsense!

The fact is that the Qing army would never allow the Ming Dynasty to get rid of the banditry in the south. If you get rid of it, won't I be in trouble? So Gao Qiqian, Yang Sichang and others' ideas were completely wishful thinking.

But unfortunately, they don't have the final say. As the military supervisor, Gao Qiquan has great power, and Lu Xiangsheng can do nothing about it. Moreover, Gao Qiquan is still the military supervisor of the army on this northern expedition to defend the king. This means that what the other party did is likely to be replicated on him.

Being able to dispatch a person with such obvious gangster character as Gao Qiquan as the military supervisor, the meaning of the above is probably very clear. He does not want to fight either. Therefore, Hong Chengchou is generally pessimistic about this trip to the north. He has not started yet. He still has some last thoughts about the Ming Dynasty in his heart, but he also knows that this trip to the north to defend the king is most likely just a formality. On the contrary, the cause of suppressing bandits in the south is the top priority. If it can be resolved, it will definitely be a major benefit to the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, I can't say these words to Cao Bianjiao. Just keep it in your heart. Little Cao is so straightforward that he definitely won't be able to accept it, so I have to say it in a roundabout way.

"Bian Jiao, do you know why the Tartars came south this time?"

"do not know"

"The Tartars have entered the pass several times, and they have always been at the critical period of our Ming Dynasty's suppression of bandits. Every time we are about to succeed in suppressing the bandits, the Tartars will go south. This shows that the Tartars do not want our Ming Dynasty to recover, so we must never fulfill their wish."

The first thing to do to fool employees is to paint a rosy picture and give them a grand goal.

"I left you here to quell the banditry here. I have always been optimistic about your ability to command troops. A mere banditry is definitely no problem for you. The great cause of the rise of the Ming Dynasty will fall on your shoulders."

After painting a big pie and giving chicken soup to the children, the simple-minded Cao Bianjiao was completely controlled by him. He immediately threw away the annoyance of being left alone, and looked extremely excited, as if he wanted to sacrifice his life for the Ming Dynasty.

"Marshal Hong, don't say anything. Just wait and see. I will definitely wipe out all the bandits here!"

He showed his determination with full energy.

"Also, be cautious. I think the big thief Jiang Han is quite troublesome. If you are not absolutely sure, don't act rashly. Make safe arrangements. When I come back, we will make plans."

"Yes, Marshal Hong"

Did even Marshal Hong find the other party difficult to deal with? To be honest, he attached great importance to Jiang Hancao Bianjiao. He had collected battle reports about the other party and knew that the other party had a very powerful army, as well as rapid-fire muskets, powerful artillery, etc. All these showed that the other party's combat effectiveness should not be underestimated.

However, he did not expect that even for Hong Chengchou, Jiang Han seemed a little too difficult and had to be treated with caution. He once again became more wary of the other party.