I am the prince of the Ming Dynasty, I don't give up

Chapter 597: The Fall of Qizhou
In the Yangtze River Basin, the most important city is Nanjing, because it is one of the capitals of the Ming Dynasty and has extremely important political and military significance.

The second is Qizhou. The reason why Qizhou is so important is, first, because of its economy and industry. Qizhou is an economic and industrial city that has risen in the past two decades. Although a lot of its industries have been transferred because of Zhu Houxuan’s northward movement, it is still the most important industrial city in the Yangtze River Basin. The second reason is even simpler. In a sense, Qizhou is Zhu Houxuan’s "dragon's birthplace", which gives Qizhou important political significance.

After all, this war broke out to oppose Zhu Houxuan. Capturing Qizhou could greatly enhance Prince Ning's reputation in the rebel camp, but it could also greatly undermine Zhu Houxuan's reputation and the morale of the Beijing court.

The credit for capturing Nanjing had already been taken away by Zhu Houcong, so Prince Ning turned around without hesitation to attack Qizhou, and then gathered the militia along the way.

Prince Ning's army soon arrived at the city of Qizhou. Qizhou was a city with a strong commercial atmosphere. After so many years of expansion, the area within the city walls had become a very small part of the entire city. Such a city had no city defense at all.

But at this time, Qizhou City was basically an empty city. Since Zhu Houzhao's death, the North and South started a quarrel, and the people of Qizhou had planned to evacuate to the north.
Before this, many people in Qizhou had already evacuated, because various forces around Qizhou had been using various means to exclude people from Qizhou since a few years ago.

After Prince Ning raised his army, the last people in Qizhou who were loyal to the north evacuated.
So King Ning captured Qizhou without much effort.

After taking over Qizhou, King Ning immediately sent people to inspect the various industries in Qizhou.
"Congratulations, Your Highness. I have conducted an investigation in Qizhou and found that all the factories in Qizhou have been sealed, but have not suffered any damage?" Liu Yangzheng said happily.

When King Ning heard this, he was immediately delighted and asked anxiously, "No damage, right?"

"Yes, the roads, docks, railways, houses and factories were not damaged!" Liu Yangzheng nodded heavily.

"Where is Daye Steel Plant?" King Ning asked immediately.

"The Daye Steel Plant was not damaged either, and all the steelmaking furnaces are intact!"

"Is it really so?" King Ning still couldn't believe it.

"That's true!" said Liu Yangzheng.

"Hahahahahaha!" Prince Ning suddenly laughed out loud, "God really helps me! Zhu Houxuan is such a businessman. He cares so much about the bottles and jars in his home that he actually left them to me intact. It really makes me laugh."

"Congratulations, Your Majesty!" The people around him also congratulated King Ning. King Ning was even happier and felt very excited.
Prince Ning had been planning this rebellion for 20 years, and had experienced many setbacks. The thing that had the greatest impact on him was the sudden rise of Zhu Houzhao, who used new equipment and tactics to expand the territory of the Ming Dynasty.
This forced Prince Ning to study Zhu Houzhao carefully, and he became one of the people in the Ming Dynasty who did the most in-depth research on Zhu Houzhao.

In the process of studying Zhu Houzhao, he realized the importance of new weapons and equipment.
The 50,000 troops he trained before launching the uprising were all equipped with new weapons and equipment. He had painstakingly assembled so many weapons and equipment bit by bit.
During this process, he deeply realized the importance of industry, and had long been envious of the factories in Qizhou. He did not expect that his wish would finally come true today.

"This is the foundation of hegemony! Nanjing only has a nice name, but in terms of practicality it is still not as good as Qizhou." King Ning said proudly, pointing in the direction of Daye Steel Plant on the opposite bank.

There was another round of congratulations from the people around.

"Treat the remaining craftsmen in Qizhou well, and move all the craftsmen from Nanchang here. We want to make use of all the factories in Qizhou." King Ning said proudly.

"As ordered!"

In fact, Prince Ning was wrong about one thing. Zhu Houxuan was not heartbroken about the bottles and jars in Qizhou, but he looked down on those bottles and jars in Qizhou.

Yes, Zhu Houxuan really didn't care much about the things that Prince Ning regarded as treasures.
The four years of rapid industrial development in Qizhou were from the fourth year of Zhengde to the ninth year of Zhengde, because Zhu Houxuan was in Qizhou during this time, and under his leadership, Qizhou's industry achieved rapid development.

After the ninth year of Zhengde, Zhu Houxuan went north to establish the Royal Group. Twenty years had passed since he left. During these twenty years, the industrial development of Qizhou slowed down. In the first ten years, it even played the role of transporting technology, talents and resources to the north.
Zhu Houxuan put all his energy and resources into the north. In order to give full play to the advantages of industrial scale, he reduced investment in Qizhou's industry and only carried out some technology transfer in recent years.

However, Qizhou was the fief of Zhu Houxuan after all, and it had a special status, so Qizhou became an important commercial fulcrum of the Royal Group in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, and it has developed very well in recent years.

Therefore, Zhu Houxuan really looked down upon Qizhou's industrial capacity, because Qizhou's industrial capacity was not even a fraction of Tangshan's.
But even so, Qizhou's industrial capacity is second to none in the south.

In terms of resource endowment, especially for the First Industrial Revolution, the North's resource endowment was much better than that of the South.

The advantages of the South can only be brought into play when transportation and industrial technologies are improved to a certain level.
Moreover, in Zhu Houxuan's view, the foundation of industrial development is people. Without sufficient talents, Qizhou's industrial capacity cannot be utilized so well. That is why Zhu Houxuan left a well-preserved Qizhou to King Ning.
After conquering Qizhou, King Ning immediately announced to the world that he had led his army through a hard battle and captured the heavily guarded Qizhou.
Don't think that no one will believe this. With the traffic conditions and information transmission speed of this era, it is difficult for people to distinguish the truth from the false. Only a few people know what is going on in Qizhou, so there are many people who believe this news.
This news immediately caused a huge sensation. The gentry in the south rushed to tell each other and cried with joy.
Although this Jingnan had some twists and turns, and Prince Ning had caused complications, the progress so far was still extremely smooth.
In the first battle, Nanjing was captured, and in the second battle, Qizhou was captured. Zhu Houxuan's two important fulcrums in the south were uprooted by the Jingnan Army.
It also caused a large number of casualties to the Imperial Guards (both Prince Ning and Zhu Houcong announced this to the world), breaking the myth of the Imperial Guards' invincibility.

(End of this chapter)