Yongli Ming Dynasty

Chapter 77 Military Intelligence
The Governor's Office was on duty. It was already dark, and the lamps in the office were lit. The bright yellow lights illuminated the hall.
Qu Shisi and Chen Zizhuang sat at the table, handling official business. On the table were several thick piles of documents.
The sound of footsteps broke the silence in the room. An official in a green robe hurried into the room and spoke softly.

"Lord Qu, the Ministry of War's Director Zhang Tongchang sent an urgent message, saying that you should check it immediately."

Chen Zizhuang looked up at the green-robed official standing in the hall, then lowered his head again. He knew that although Zhang Tongchang was the head of the Ministry of War, he was also a student of Qu Shisi.
Although the various ministries in the court are now clearly divided, this clear division is only in the heads of the ministries, such as Qu Shisi's Ministry of Personnel and Hu Wuzuo's Supervisory Office. The heads of the ministries are all senior officials with many years of experience. Now that they have achieved both fame and status, they naturally have the final say in the affairs of the ministries.
Although the chief officers of each department can control the affairs of their own department, it does not mean that they can cover the sky with one hand. Although the subordinates of each department are all their own confidants, there are some good and bad people at the next level.
Although Ding Kuichu controlled the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Households, he had a man named Mai Erxuan, a disciple of Chen Zizhuang, in the Ministry of Households, and Zhang Tongchang, a disciple of Qu Shisi, in the Ministry of War. The Ministry of Personnel and the Ministry of Justice under Qu Shisi and the others naturally also had people planted by Ding Kuichu.

As for the so-called Fujian Party headed by Lu Daqi and He Wuzuo, their personnel are spread all over the court. The various departments are now in a state of mutual dependence, so there are basically no secrets about the affairs of the various departments in the court.

Chen Zizhuang lowered his head and was about to handle official business, but after Qu Shisi beside him read the letter, his expression suddenly changed.
"Not good, Guangdong Province is in danger"

Qu Shisi suddenly stood up from his seat, with a panicked look on his face, and was about to walk out the door.
Chen Zizhuang was also startled at this time. He frowned and looked at Qu Shisi, whose expression suddenly changed, and said

"What caused Jiaxuan to lose his composure like this?"

"Ganzhou City is broken, Guangdong Province is in danger"

Qu Shisi held the letter in his hand and spoke in a deep voice, as if he was carrying a heavy weight in his hand.
Chen Zizhuang's expression suddenly became serious when he heard this. He walked out from behind the table and took the letter from Qu Shisi.
The slightly sloppy handwriting on the letter paper was enough to show the panic of the copyist.
"Ganzhou Province urgent report: On October 8th, Ganzhou City was broken. Grand Secretary Yang Tinglin and Commander Wan Yuanji drowned themselves. Minister of War Guo Weijing died after setting fire to the Sha'e Temple. Military Secretary Wan Faxiang, Minister of the Ministry of Rites and Guardian Peng Qisheng and dozens of others were killed. Qing troops entered the city and looted it. Tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians were killed. Only one in ten survived. The Zhang River turned red."

Chen Zizhuang looked at the letter in his hand for a long time, then slowly closed his eyes.

A few days ago, the two of them were discussing sending troops to rescue Ganzhou, but they never thought that while they were discussing, the people of Ganzhou had already turned into ghosts and entered the underworld, and it was such a tragic situation.
The room suddenly became silent, but a voice suddenly rang out.

"Ganzhou has been destroyed and war is already underway in Guangdong. We should quickly go to see His Highness and make early arrangements. The events of Ganzhou must not be repeated in Guangdong."

Qu Shisi regained his composure, spoke in a deep voice, and was about to walk out.
But before he could make a move, Chen Zizhuang had already blocked his way.
"Since this urgent report was copied by the Ministry of War, Your Highness must have known about it by now. Your Highness will summon us to the palace to discuss it later. What's the point of Jiaxuan rushing to see me now?"

"The most urgent thing is that we need to have a firm opinion first, so that we can deal with things calmly."

Qu Shisi stopped walking when he heard this, but Chen Zizhuang continued to speak.

"Let me say one thing first. Ganzhou has been destroyed and Guangdong is in turmoil. Nanxiong is an important town in Guangdong. We need to send troops to garrison Nanxiong and mobilize civilians to repair Meiguan. We must keep the enemy out of the border."

"Regarding the troop deployment, Jiao Lian's Imperial Army will not move. Li Mingzhong's Gui Army and the Governor's Guangdong Army will be deployed in a one-two ratio. These troops must set off immediately. We must not let the Qing Army seize Nanxiong again," Chen Zizhuang said in a cold voice.

If the Qing army wanted to invade Guangdong Province from Ganzhou, they had to pass through Meiguan, and after Meiguan was Nanxiong.
If Nanxiong is occupied by the Qing army, then the Qing army will gain a solid foothold in Guangdong Province. When the Qing army attacks from all directions, the court will be unable to resist it at all.
What's more, Nanxiong is only 600 to 700 miles away from Zhaoqing. Once Nanxiong is lost, the Qing army can march straight to Zhaoqing.
Chen Zizhuang's plan was actually the same as the plan discussed before, but before they had hoped that Ganzhou could be defended and wanted to keep their troops in place, but now they had no choice but to defend it.
The ratio of the Guangxi Army to the Guangdong Army is one to two. Soldiers are deployed to the border of Guangdong Province at a ratio of one to two. If one thousand Guangxi soldiers are transferred, two thousand Guangdong soldiers will be transferred at the same time.
According to this ratio, if all of Li Mingzhong's 6,000 troops were transferred, then the Guangdong Army would have to transfer 12,000 troops.
In this way, there were only 8,000 Guangdong troops left in Zhaoqing Central, and Jiao Lian's 3,000 imperial guards remained, which could still play a role in balancing the Guangdong troops.
The reason why they did not mention such a plan before was that Ganzhou had been defended for more than half a year under the attack of the Qing army, and everyone in the court believed that Ganzhou would be safe.
If they proposed a plan to mobilize troops to stabilize the border, Ding Kuichu would certainly reject the plan on the grounds that Ganzhou was still there and Guangdong was still safe. They might not be able to gain support from the court.

But now that Ganzhou has been captured, the Qing army is about to invade Guangdong Province. The court has no choice at this time. With everyone's unanimous opinion, it is difficult for Ding Kuichu to stop the court's public opinion on his own.
Qu Shisi nodded slightly after hearing this, and after a moment of silence, he also spoke in a deep voice.

"There is one more thing, the central government of the imperial court must not leave Guangdong." "Yes, the central government must not leave Guangdong."

Chen Zizhuang's face darkened and he agreed

The court had just established Guangdong Province, and it had only been half a month. If it suddenly withdrew from Guangdong Province at this time, it would inevitably cause an uproar in Guangdong Province, and would certainly lose the support of both Chinese and foreign people.

This is not their groundless worry. After Ganzhou was captured, Zhaoqing was too close to the front line.

They were sure that once the news of the fall of Ganzhou City spread, someone would petition to move the capital.
"Even if we want to leave, we must fight for a while first. We must not suddenly withdraw from Guangdong Province before the Qing army arrives," Qu Shisi glanced at Chen Zizhuang and added.
When Qu Shisi heard Chen Zizhuang's words, he immediately agreed. Thinking of Chen Zizhuang's background, he immediately realized that what he said was inappropriate.
He said that the court must not retreat from Guangdong Province and must not flee without a fight. If a new dynasty is established and it flees without seeing the enemy, it will inevitably cause controversy throughout the country and the central authority will plummet.

But his intention was definitely not to let the imperial court and Guangdong Province live and die together.
If the battle goes badly, we can and must retreat to Guangxi Province if necessary. After all, His Royal Highness the Regent is the one that the people of the world care about.

The regent is there, the court is there, and the people of the world have a master.
But at this time, there were too many people from Guangdong Province in the court. Even in the cabinet, there were two important officials from Guangdong Province, Chen Zizhuang and He Wuzuo.

It is hard to guarantee that these people will not have the idea of ​​threatening the imperial court to station in Guangdong Province with the righteousness, so as to borrow the imperial court's army to defend their homeland.
Chen Zizhuang also reacted quickly, glanced at Qu Shisi, and was silent for a moment, but did not say much. He was not the kind of person who only cared about the interests of the country.
"Jiaxuan, there is no need to say more. Your Highness is the foundation of the country. You will have to make choices when the time comes," Chen Zizhuang said in a cold voice.

But Qu Shisi thought of more from this. There were many people from Guangdong Province in the court, but there were also many people from outside Guangdong Province. He continued
"If someone wants to stay, there must be someone who wants to leave. The court has moved several times and people's hearts are already in chaos. If someone in the court still petitions to move the capital, what should we do?"

"If someone insists on moving the capital, then we will move it"

"But the capital was not moved outside Guangdong Province, but to Guangzhou."

Chen Zizhuang thought for a moment, then a stern look suddenly flashed across his face.

"Brother Jisheng, this is a very good thing to say."

When Qu Shisi heard this, his eyes lit up and he immediately agreed loudly.
This strategy was indeed a very good idea. They had already started to prepare to move the capital to Guangzhou in order to weaken Ding Kuichu's control over the court.

If someone proposes to move the capital after the fall of Ganzhou, they can kill two birds with one stone and move the center of the imperial court to Guangzhou!
Guangzhou also has another advantage. If the war on the front line goes against one's will, the court can be evacuated to Guangxi by boat at any time, avoiding the old incident in which Emperor Longwu was captured by the Qing army when he fled by land.
The two of them also thought of the benefits of taking the opportunity to move the capital to Guangzhou. They looked at each other and nodded in agreement. The expressions on their faces finally calmed down a little.

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(End of this chapter)