Font
Large
Medium
Small
Night
Prev Index    Favorite Next

Chapter 13 Tianming (Part 1)

It's dawn.

Looking at Chaoyang that appeared in the east, Jiangning Governor Jiang Guozhu said to himself. If everything was done according to the plan, he knew that there was a life-and-death battle next to Gaoyou Lake.

"The battle finally started, and there will be a result in the next two days." Jiang Guozhu was attacked by hope and fear, and his spirit was overwhelmed. In addition to this contradictory mood, knowing that the result was about to be decided, made Jiang Guozhu feel relieved. In order to support the military expenditure of the Ming army, the vassal treasury in Jiangning had already bottomed out. If he continued to drag it down, the collapse of the warehouse in the Jiangnan officialdom would precede Jiang Guozhu's mental collapse.

When Zheng Chenggong besieged Nanjing last time, Lang Tingzuo urgently mobilized Liangjiang troops to guard the city, and concentrated 20,000 armored troops and 70,000 auxiliary soldiers, as well as more than 10,000 war horses. The military expenditure per day was as high as 10,000 taels of silver. But this time, Deng Ming's army's expenses were still above that time. Although the governor of Jiangxi and the governor of the grain transport shared the military expenses of the Ming army, the average daily expenditure in Nanjing was still as high as 13,000, and 4,000 taels.

We must provide sufficient rations to the army in the war. Generally, a green camp needs two kilograms of rice and half a kilogram of beans a day. In order to boost morale, we also need to provide a pig or two sheep for every thousand soldiers before the war. However, Deng Ming's request is obviously not comparable to that of the general green camp. His 30,000 troops under his command adopt a unified standard, and there is no distinction between war and auxiliary soldiers. The food and grass that Jiangning needs to provide every day is 36,000 kilograms of rice and flour, 150 pigs or equivalent livestock and fish. In addition, Deng Ming also pointed out that Jiangning should provide a large amount of vegetables and beans.

In order to collect the supplies needed by the Ming army, the supply of the Liangjiang troops had been suppressed to the lowest point, and all mobilizations and training were cancelled to save materials. Of course, the raising of these materials was carried out in the name of supplying Zhou Peigong and Liang Huafeng. Uninformed staff in various prefectures and counties and governors' yamen complained about the Hunan Army. They did not know that Zhou Peigong's army was actually false, and Liang Huafeng's army's rations were repeatedly reduced. In fact, like other Liangjiang troops, they almost ate braised vegetables every day.

But for Jiang Guozhu, since the Liangjiang troops could not be used to attack the imperial camp, their uses naturally cannot be compared with the Ming army. It was a last resort to sacrifice their supplies to meet the needs of the Ming army. When there was not enough pigs and sheep, the Liangjiang Governor's Office collected plowing oxen and sent it to the Ming army without hesitation. At first, Jiang Guozhu was worried that the emperor would act too quickly and hoped that the Ming army would have more preparation time to fight the Eight Banners brigades that were terrifying the world. But in the end, Jiang Guozhu had already held a mentality of "death early and reincarnation early" and hoped that the emperor would arrive as soon as possible. The staff repeatedly pointed out that the financial situation of the Liangjiang Governor's Office had reached the last moment.

A month of high-intensity transportation also caused a large number of vehicles and boats to be scrapped and horses died. In the later period, these losses were completely supplemented by the silver allocated by Zhang Chao.

In addition to Nanchang, which was very helpful, Huguang also provided financial assistance for this operation. Zhang Changgeng took over the military uniforms of the Ming army, resisted horses, spears, gunpowder, etc., and urgently cast some bronze cannons and catapults for the Ming army. Every day, Huguang ships arrived in Nanjing, unloaded the military supplies into ships and handed them to Liang Huafeng, and then handed them over to the Ming army under the banner of the Hunan Army. The number of bows and arrows alone was as much as 10,000 trains per day - Jiang Guozhu knew that Deng Ming had only a thousand archers, which means that in the targeted training carried out by each archer every day, each person shot ten broken crossbows every day - this was almost the training loss of a green camp archer for several months.

"It's finally over." Jiang Guozhu sighed lightly. He had done his best to help Deng Ming fight against the Eight Banners, and Jiangnan paid a huge economic price for this. If Jiang Guozhu did not intend to use violent plunder of gentry and local tyrants, he would have to barely maintain the operation of the government for a long time in the future. It is estimated that normal military training will not be restored after tax next year. However, as long as Deng Ming can successfully kill Shunzhi, it will be worth it. Jiang Guozhu had discussed the political pattern after Shunzhi's death face to face with Deng Ming. The current empress dowager will definitely not want to lose power. The important officials such as Sony, Oboi and others also had too deep Shunzhi marks. They would never agree to let anyone other than Shunzhi's prince succeed to the throne - although for the Qing court, choosing an adult emperor may be a better choice.

The alliance between the Empress Dowager and the important ministers should be able to gain the upper hand and suppress the ambitions of other princes and banner masters. When the young emperor ascended the throne and the Qing Dynasty was in a state of suspicion of the young country, Beijing could only adopt a policy of gentleness against the governor of Jiangnan. If the forces loyal to Shunzhi were stalemate and those who covet the throne, fighting for power and profit or even having a forceful conflict, it would of course be even worse for the Qing Dynasty, but it would be a great advantage for the governor of Jiangnan, because both sides needed to win over them.

Although Deng Ming asserted that the latter situation was unlikely and insisted that the alliance between the empress dowager and the important ministers was far superior to the princes and princes of the Eight Banners, Jiang Guozhu still hoped that there would be internal strife in the Qing royal family, so that Jiang Guozhu would gain greater freedom and better control of Jiangnan before the court rebuilds authority, and gain the power to be loyal to himself and control his own destiny like Zhang Changgeng, rather than being completely placed in the hands of the emperor or Deng Ming like now.

...

Gaoyou Lake.

"It's dawn." The rising sun made both the confrontational armies cheer. The Eight Banners officers in the imperial camp immediately took action. Last night, they had already gathered all the loud voices among their subordinates. As soon as they saw the sunrise, the officer immediately asked the soldiers to climb the wall of the camp and began to shout to the "rebels" opposite.

The flag of the emperor with a golden dragon embroidered on the wall, and the officers and soldiers of the imperial camp shouted in unison, making the rebels on the opposite side realize that they were attacking the emperor's camp that was sacred and that they could not invade. At the same time, they also told the rebels on the opposite side that the emperor was kind and that as long as they put down their weapons, the emperor would not blame them for their offense last night.

"Anyone who can capture Zhou Ni's alive will be rewarded with ten thousand golds, carry the flag, and give Jingqinihafan; those who can kill Zhou Ni's will be rewarded with five thousand golds, and the Marquis of Ten Thousand Houses..."

The shouts of the imperial camp came from afar. Seeing the rebels wearing Huguang military uniforms, wearing green flags and the large flag with the word "Zhou" written on it, the guards in front of the imperial guards were shocked and angry, and immediately determined that the rebels on the opposite side were Zhou Peigong. After knowing who the enemy was, Shunzhi felt much more at ease. Zhou Peigong was young and suddenly reached a high position. In addition to a small number of confidants, his prestige in the army would not be too high, and even the number of best friends was estimated to be very limited. The two-pronged amnesty and heavy rewards would have a good effect on dismantling the rebels.

"It's time to break the fantasy of the Tartars." During the march yesterday, in order to cover up the eyes and ears as much as possible, Deng Ming did not ask his subordinates to wear the Ming army's uniform. Anyway, the difference between the green camp's clothing and the imperial camp is quite different. For the Ming army, it is enough to identify the enemy and us, and it has a certain confusing effect on the enemy.

While the imperial guards shouted loudly, the Eight Mongolian Banners who were blocked outside the imperial camp wall also started to yell. Now their establishment is in chaos and they are disguised. As long as the "rebels" launch an attack, they can easily crush them in a blink of an eye. So all they can do is to yell with the imperial guards in ambiguous Chinese, hoping that the morale of the "rebels" will collapse and launch a counterattack against Zhou Peigong.

With Deng Ming's order, the guards retreated the green pennant from the flagpole and replaced it with the rectangular red flag unique to Deng Ming's army. Deng Ming's guard also raised their three walls of military flags at the same time.

As the first red flag rose high, the "rebels" surrounding the imperial camp fell down the green flags, took off the disguise of the Huguang Green Camp on their bodies, revealing the Ming army's big red battle robe.

"The Admiral of the Yangtze River of the Ming Dynasty, Deng, saw the vast ocean that had turned into red flags around him, and the imperial guards and the Mongolian Eight Banners who were still shouting loudly just now suddenly lost their voices.

The Ming army began their counterattack: "According to the court's clear order, we will attack the rebels of Jianzhou, those who abandon weapons will be exempted from death, those who resist the royal army will be killed, and those who resist the king's army will be killed. Surrender early!"

Accompanied by the Ming army's shouts of "early surrender", the Ming army in the front row attacked the remaining soldiers of the Eight Banners outside the imperial wall. These Mongolians could not approach the imperial camp at all, otherwise they would be attacked by the imperial guards; most of them were unarmed and lacked armor to protect themselves, and could not resist the attack of the Ming army's armored soldiers. Moreover, it was daytime, and the Ming army formed a battle formation and forced them up, and they had no chance to fight.

Even in such an unfavorable situation, the soldiers of the Mongolian Eight Banners refused to surrender. They fought with the Ming army side by side, drawing out the arrows shot on them as short swords and daggers to continue to resist. The Mongolian Eight Banners, who were stabbed by a spear, used all their strength to hold the Ming army's gun bars before their death, trying to cover their companions around them and create opportunities for them to rush into the Ming army's formation to fight.

"This is the wilderness who has fought with us Han people for hundreds of years." Deng Ming looked at the slaughter on the battlefield and sighed softly: "They are strong cavalry and are still very good infantry when there are no horses. It's great to be able to destroy them so easily."

On the wall of the imperial camp, Manchu officers watched the battle outside coldly. The large number of Mongolians were cut down like wheat by the Ming army. A young and very light imperial officer couldn't help but say, "Do you throw some weapons to them?"

At this time, the imperial guards did not know that they were facing the problems that Lin Qilong had encountered, but they made the same choice as Lin Qilong. Soetu happened to stand next to this colleague, and he said coldly: "Is the imperial guards' weapons very rich? Will they not be captured by the thieves when they were thrown to them?"

"The whole army is on guard and protect the emperor." Since he knew that it was Deng Ming on the other side, the two thousand Manchu Eight Banners put down all the fantasies of persuading surrender. They put their shields on the camp wall and tower, and the archers stood behind them nervously, preparing to repel the Ming army's attack on the imperial camp.

"No one is allowed to approach the camp wall or the gate." The officers were afraid that the soldiers would feel pity for the Mongolians after seeing the tenacious resistance of the Mongolians, and would be ruthless to the Mongolian soldiers who were driven by the Ming army, thus threatening the safety of the imperial camp: "Anyone who approaches the camp wall is a traitor, and they will be killed!"
Chapter completed!
Prev Index    Favorite Next