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

Chapter 598 The world is divided into three parts
As the news spread, people who were paying attention to the war realized that the scale of the Jingnan Rebellion was extremely large. One capital and nine provinces in the south all raised the banner of rebellion, while the northern court was left with only one capital and four provinces.

(The previous article was wrong. The two capitals of the Ming Dynasty did not refer to Beijing and Nanjing, but to Zhili and Nanzhili. I counted Zhili and Nanzhili as two provinces before, so I corrected it here.)

The Ming Dynasty was the first and only dynasty in Chinese history that unified the country from south to north. Therefore, since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, the south has been strong and the north has been weak, and the south is far stronger than the north.

The Ming Dynasty court has always relied on taxes from the south to maintain its northern defense line.
Therefore, the idea that the south is strong and the north is weak is deeply rooted in people's minds. Although the north has recovered a lot after more than a hundred years, and although the north has been developing industry in the past 20 years and has achieved great results, it is still not enough to change people's views on the north and the south.
Therefore, in the eyes of the southern gentry, the Jingnan Army they supported cleared the northern court's power from the south in a very short period of time.
The rule of the Northern Court suddenly became precarious, and some people even believed that the Northern Court was now just a candle in the wind.
Because the only thing that worried the southerners was the invincible Guards, and such an army suffered two consecutive defeats, which made all the gentry in the south extremely excited.
Many people think that the war has been largely won. It is still unknown who will win in the end, but the Beijing court will definitely lose.
Therefore, those who were hesitant before whether to join the rebellion made up their minds after receiving these two pieces of news. Those who have money will contribute money, and those who have strength will contribute strength. If you join now, you can get the credit of following the dragon. If you join later, you will get nothing.
Therefore, for a time, the arrogance of the southern rebels rose a little.
"Your Highness, what should we do next?" Liu Yangzheng asked.

"Mr. Liu, what do you think we should do next?" King Ning Zhu Chenhao said with a smile.

"We now have only two choices, to go north or not to go north," Liu Yangzheng continued.

"Please tell me in detail, Mr. Liu," said Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao.

"Going north means occupying the northern part of Huguang, and then conquering Henan. Not going north means continuing westward, occupying Huguang, and then conquering the four provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou and Guangxi," Liu Yangzheng said softly.

"Then we definitely can't go north at this time. The Beijing court seems to be in decline, but its military strength is intact. There will be a fierce battle if we go north. Even if we win, it will be a situation where both sides suffer losses, and the kid in Nanjing will reap the benefits," said Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao after a moment of hesitation.

"At this time, we should seize territory, recruit soldiers from various provinces, and pool the strength of all provinces. This is the best option." King Ning Zhu Chenhao said with a smile.

He had recently realized the benefits of enclosing land and coercing the gentry to fight for their troops, and the number of troops under his command had increased rapidly, now numbering 250,000, and this was only the result of occupying Jiangxi and a small part of Huguang.
"Your Highness is wise!" Liu Yangzheng said with a smile.

So after conquering Qizhou, King Ning continued to move up the river, and further up was Wuchang City, the fief of the King of Chu.
The King of Chu also raised the banner of rebellion at this time. The Chu Palace had secretly trained 20,000 soldiers in the past few years, but the King of Chu did not have as great ambitions as the King of Ning. Most importantly, he also knew himself well and knew that the lineage of the King of Chu had no reputation in the world. He knew that the future emperor could only be a member of the royal family of the King of Yan.

So the main purpose of training these troops was to protect themselves, but he did not expect to meet Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao, who had no self-awareness.
The King of Chu did not want to surrender to the King of Ning, so he gathered 40,000 soldiers from the surrounding gentry and the garrison to guard Wuchang City, not wanting the King of Ning Zhu Chenhao to seize Wuchang. However, the King of Ning had too many troops, and Zhu Houcong, who was far away in Nanjing, was unable to reach him. The King of Chu, who was defending the city, found that he could not defend Wuchang at all, so he had to open the city and surrender to the King of Ning Zhu Chenhao.
Prince Ning's army captured Wuchang City without a single drop of blood.
They wanted to seize Sichuan, but they encountered setbacks because it was too difficult to attack Sichuan along the Yangtze River. Sichuan's troops only had to defend a few key places, and the Ning Wang army could only sigh in vain.
They could only turn south and attack Guizhou.
While Prince Ning was constantly taking action, Zhu Houcong in Nanjing was also not idle. He also saw Prince Ning's intentions and was constantly issuing decrees to various provinces, using both soft and hard tactics to demand that the gentry, military officers and royal family members of each province be loyal to him.
Zhu Houcong's efforts achieved considerable results, and his appeal was much higher than that of Prince Ning. The gentry in Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Yunnan, Sichuan, and Guangxi responded in droves.
Some gentry in Jiangxi and Huguang also wanted to defect to Zhu Houcong, but they were discovered and stopped in time by Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao. The two sides also had many negotiations on this matter and had fierce arguments, but in the end no large-scale fighting occurred.
Finally, in September of the first year of the Republic, the situation in the south of the Ming Dynasty, which had been in turmoil for two and a half months, finally became clear.
Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao's appeal was still too weak, but he took advantage of the first move and occupied the three provinces of Huguang, Jiangxi and Guizhou. He had 450,000 soldiers and claimed to have a million troops.
Zhu Houcong occupied Nanzhili, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, one capital and six provinces, and had an army of 700,000, claiming to have 1.5 million.

Zhu Houxun occupied one capital and four provinces, namely Zhili, Shandong, Shanxi, Henan and Shaanxi, and claimed to have only 500,000 troops.

So far, the world is divided into three parts
In the eyes of the people of the world, Prince Xing Zhu Houcong was the most powerful because the territory he occupied had the largest population in the Ming Dynasty.

Zhu Houxuan was second, and Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao was the weakest.
But Zhu Houcong was also full of grievances. If Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao had not interfered, he would have occupied the capital and nine provinces, which would have given him a huge advantage over the north.
Although Ning Wang Zhu Chenhao had the smallest territory, it should not be underestimated. Jiangxi in the Ming Dynasty was not as backward as it is today in the national economic ranking. The economy of Jiangxi in the Ming Dynasty was among the top five.
Huguang is also a fertile land with great potential for war. It is the combination of Hunan and Hubei provinces in later generations. There has always been a saying that "If Huguang is prosperous, the world will be prosperous." It has a dense population and abundant resources, so it has great potential for war.

Guizhou is still a wild land, in the stage of reforming the natives and returning to the officialdom, so it is a bonus. Its economic strength is not strong, but it can still produce 40,000 to 50,000 veteran garrison soldiers.
(End of this chapter)