The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 180 Early Settlement
Zhu Jianxuan was not too surprised when he received Liu Biao's first report about the Qing army camp in Haizhou being empty and Liu Biao having directly captured Haizhou.

The Qing army thought that they were going to attack from the south, so it was normal for them to go south to guard the Yellow River. This was directly stealing the Qing army's retreat.

At the same time, a division was immediately arranged to follow up and be responsible for taking over and controlling the situation in Haizhou, and capturing the surrounding counties with Haizhou as the center.

Liu Biao’s second report directly confused Zhu Jianxuan.

Zhu Jianxuan originally thought that he could lead the Northern Expedition alone, while the imperial court forces stayed behind to concentrate on suppressing the local warlords.

These vassal states should not dare to make any small moves.

I didn't expect they still dared to do it.

Zhu Jianxuan threw the report on the table speechlessly, looked around at the secretaries, privy councilors, and staff officers and said:
"Everyone, do you think this Gao guy is stupid? Can't he see the power comparison between Ming and Qing?

“Even without Wu’s new rifled musketeers, it would only be a matter of time before the Ming dynasty could destroy the Qing dynasty on its own.

"He betrayed the Ming Dynasty and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty at this time. Did he think he couldn't die quickly enough?"

Secretary Fei Chun, who was following Zhu Jianxuan, thought for a moment and said:

"Your Majesty... the Gao family of Huai'an Earl may have always had connections with the Qing invaders.

“They probably thought that once the Ming Dynasty succeeded in its Northern Expedition, their family would be liquidated.

“That’s why I surrendered at this critical moment and made a last-ditch effort.

“But your Majesty, don’t worry. The imperial court already has a large number of troops stationed in Jiangbei, and now we have cut off the Qing invaders’ retreat.

"If the Earl of Huai'an really surrenders to the enemy and leads his troops south with the Qing invaders, he will be annihilated by the imperial court."

Zhu Jianxuan thought about it and felt that this logic was indeed correct. He knew that he would die sooner or later, so he could only try this last straw.

“Since he wants to make one last attempt, I will settle accounts with him in advance!

“The imperial court does have a large army stationed in Jiangbei, but they don’t have much advantage over the Qing army.

"If the Qing army and the Marquis of Huai'an continue to fight and refuse to surrender, both the imperial court and the local areas will inevitably suffer losses.

"Admiral Wang Tao, dispatch a transport ship to transport a division to Yangzhou and then go north along the canal to Huai'an.

"As a spearhead force, we assisted the imperial army and defeated the main force of the Qing army heading south.

"Then he went to Lu'an and urged the Marquis of Huainan to lead his army across the Huai River to attack the north.

“Send another division to the Yangtze River, upstream to Wuchang, and urge the Duke of E to lead his army out of Xiangyang to the north to seize Nanyang, Luoyang and other places.

“If the two vassals cooperate normally, we will lead them to the north to seize the land north of Henan and Huaihe River.

“If the two vassals do not cooperate, we will arrest them for obstructing the Northern Expedition and directly capture Huainan, Hubei and other areas.

"If the two clans resist or collaborate with the enemy, you can kill them directly, and I will bear all the responsibilities."

The current Marquis of Huainan in the Ming Dynasty is a descendant of Huang Degong, a general during the Chongzhen period.

In history and in this world, his performance was relatively good among the military leaders, and he was given a higher status and more fiefdoms than Gao Jie.

The current fiefdoms include Huoqiu and Shouzhou in the west of Fengyang, Lu'an and Huoshan in the west of Hefei, Xinyang, Guangzhou, Luoshan, Gushi, Shangcheng and other places in southern Henan.

The Duke of E was a descendant of Zuo Liangyu, and his fiefdom was mainly in Hubei Province.

Areas such as Chongqing and Wanzhou to the west of Hubei and eastern Sichuan were the fiefdoms of Duke Yu Li Dingguo and his descendants.

Li Dingguo performed the most outstandingly among all the generals during the Chongzhen period. He defeated the main force of the Qing army heading south many times and stabilized the northern border of the Ming Dynasty.

At the same time, in order to divide the power of Zhang Xianzhong's troops, Chongzhen specially conferred the title of Duke of Yu on Li Dingguo, and allowed him to rule Chongqing and eastern Sichuan for generations.

On the current northern border of the Ming Dynasty, only the area around Fengyang is directly under the jurisdiction of the central court.

Zhu Jianxuan arranged the ninth and twelfth main divisions to go to the south to assist in the battle.

The main force, the Eighth Division, was sent ashore in Haizhou and was responsible for clearing the prefectures and counties in southern Shandong and northern Nanzhili.

Liu Biao's Seventh Division was responsible for clearing the north bank of the Yellow River and cutting off the retreat of the Qing army heading south.

After the battle of Huai'an was over and the main force of the Qing army heading south was eliminated, the Seventh Division joined forces with the Eighth Division and attacked Xuzhou.

Then they cooperated with the 9th and 10th Divisions moving south to capture western Shandong and various counties in Henan.

The Eighth Division first began the "march and enclosure" as originally envisioned.

Shandong and surrounding areas had just suffered a severe drought that lasted for two years, followed by a major epidemic.

There was a record of extreme famine disaster that affected the entire province and region, with "severe famine in all prefectures, states and counties in Shandong, and people eating each other."

A large number of disaster victims were displaced, a large number of disaster victims fled, and a large number of disaster victims were sent overseas.

The food and money reserves of government offices across Shandong had all run out, and the Qing court was unable to deploy too many court troops to garrison in various parts of Shandong.

The entire Shandong Province and surrounding areas are now at their weakest.

There were many Shandong disaster victims in the main force of the Ming Dynasty Wu Kingdom's Northern Expedition, including Cui Er and others who were in the organization of the main Eighth Division. They were familiar with various places in Shandong.

Coupled with their advantages in firepower and mobility, they ran across the Central Plains like they were riding bicycles to encircle the land.

They began to find that a regiment could easily capture a county town, and later discovered that many county towns could be directly occupied by just one company.

They quickly captured Ganyu, Shuyang, Yizhou, Rizhao, Tancheng, Pizhou and other places, and then rushed to Xuzhou.

Zhu Jianxuan once again led the main fleet to set sail for Jiaozhou Bay in the southern part of Shandong Peninsula.

Jiaozhou was an important naval base of the Qing Dynasty on the Shandong Peninsula.

However, Zhu Jianxuan did not encounter the main fleet of the Qing army here. The Qing army garrison fleet had less than 20 warships in total. The warships of the Left Route Army of the Northern Expedition wiped out the Qing army's Jiaozhou fleet in one fell swoop, and then directly launched a landing battle at the dock.

First, seize the garrisons that the Ming Dynasty had set up on both sides of Jiaozhou Bay, Lingshanwei and Fushansuo, as well as Huangdao in the middle of the bay.

Huangdao was really an island at that time.

After the army troops controlled the islands on both sides of the bay and in the middle and completely controlled the entrance and exit of Jiaozhou Bay, Zhu Jianxuan deployed the main 11th Division ashore.

Responsible for recovering Dengzhou Prefecture, Laizhou Prefecture and Qingzhou Prefecture, that is, the entire Jiaodong Peninsula area, but excluding the Dengzhou Prefecture city.

After the landing troops came ashore, a troop was immediately arranged to first head to Jiaozhou City, which was closest to the bay.

After the main force of a regiment arrived in Jiaozhou, they directly blew open the city gate with rocket launchers and killed several Green Camp soldiers guarding the city with rifles. The remaining Green Camp soldiers surrendered directly.

When the governor of Jiaozhou heard the news that the Ming army was attacking, he knew that Jiaozhou was unable to resist and considered whether he should die for the Qing Dynasty.

It turned out that he took too long to think about it.

He did not make a decision until the Ming army rushed into the yamen.

The governor of Jiaozhou thought that this was probably God's will, so he went out and knelt to welcome the Ming Dynasty soldiers.

Jiaozhou was a relatively important place, so the Northern Expedition Army left a regiment there to garrison it. The regiment was also responsible for continuing to capture the counties and towns under Jiaozhou's jurisdiction and notifying local people of all kinds that the Ming Dynasty had returned.

The other main forces continued to march inland to encircle the land, capturing Jimo, Gaomi, Zhucheng, Anqiu, Weixian, Changyi...

Zhu Jianxuan led the remaining main force to continue to bypass the Jiaodong Peninsula, and joined the right-wing army in the northeastern waters of the Jiaodong Peninsula, and then sailed towards Dengzhou together.

The jurisdiction of Dengzhou Prefecture is almost the same as Yantai and Weihai in later generations, but the capital is in Penglai and does not include Laizhou area.

At that time, Laizhou was a prefecture. The main urban area of ​​Qingdao in later generations is now under the jurisdiction of Jiaozhou under the jurisdiction of Laizhou prefecture.

The main fleet of the Northern Expedition encountered a patrol ship of the Qing navy more than 60 kilometers away from Dengzhou, which is almost 60 kilometers off the coast of Yantai city in later generations.

The Northern Expedition vanguard fleet immediately chased after them, blew up the patrol ship directly, captured a group of prisoners, and learned that the main fleet of the Qing army was cruising nearby.

Zhu Jianxuan was not too surprised after receiving the report, as the Bohai Strait is the sea gate of Shuntian Prefecture.

The Qing navy fleet was not in Haizhou, Jiaozhou, Incheon or Nampo, so it could only patrol inside and outside the Bohai Strait.

The main fleet of the Northern Expedition ordered the reconnaissance fleet to disperse and search, and soon encountered the main fleet of the Qing Dynasty forty kilometers northeast of Dengzhou.

Although the Ming Dynasty's steam reconnaissance ships are flexible, they will almost certainly be exposed once they discover the enemy, and the black smoke cannot hide them.

The reconnaissance ship did not hide its true intentions and carefully surveyed the situation of the Qing army's main fleet, then turned around and returned.

Fuca Fukang'an, commander of the Qing army's main fleet, was once responsible for the exploration of the Great Plains of North America. He was deeply trusted and respected by Emperor Qianlong, and also served as the deputy governor of the Bordered Yellow Banner Manchuria.

When Fu Kang'an received a report from the reconnaissance fleet and discovered a steam-powered sailing ship emitting black smoke, he knew that it was most likely a warship of the Ming Dynasty.

Fu Kang'an did not make a decision immediately. He turned to look at the three extremely embarrassed generals kneeling on the ground:

"You said that the range of the Southern Ming's artillery was at least two kilometers, and even the range of the musket was more than one thousand meters? You said that Korea might have been occupied by the Southern Ming?"

The representative of the highest rank among the three generals knelt down and reported:

"Sir, everything we said is true. If there is even a trace of falsehood, God will punish us with lightning.

“The Incheon fleet was completely destroyed, and all the warships in Nampo were smashed to pieces by them.

"We jumped into the sea and clung to the broken planks, floating to the beaches in the south and north, and we survived."

Erteken Purpu, the deputy governor of the Manchuria of the Plain White Banner, advised Fu Kang'an:

“Regardless of whether the reports of these people were false or not, the news that Korea was attacked by the Southern Ming Dynasty should be true.

“It’s certainly true that they suffered a big defeat.

"The combat power of the Southern Ming Northern Expedition Fleet must be extraordinary, so we should still deal with it with caution.

"I think we should arrange for a reconnaissance ship to go to North Korea and other places to confirm this."

Fu Kangan thought for a moment and said:
"Mr. Pu is absolutely right. We should indeed arrange a fleet to go to North Korea to find out the situation.

“However, our mission is to guard the strait and prevent the Ming army from directly entering Bohai and threatening the safety of the capital, so the main fleet should not move lightly.

"We should wait for the Southern Ming Northern Expedition Fleet to approach, and then we will do our best to deal with it.

“Lord Hailancha should have led his troops south from Haizhou, attacking Huai’an and Yangzhou, and approaching the capital of Southern Ming.

"When the Southern Ming capital is unstable, it will inevitably withdraw external forces for defense. Then we will take the initiative to attack and drive away the Southern Ming Northern Expedition Fleet."

Generals such as Fu Kang'an believed that the Ming Dynasty's Northern Expedition fleet must be very powerful, but they still instinctively did not believe the words of the defeated generals who escaped back.

Most people are unable to understand things they have never seen, and can only simulate them by adding or subtracting things based on their own cognition.

They instinctively believed that the Ming army's northern expedition fleet must be large in scale, with a larger number of battleships, or a large number of steamships and warships.

Zhu Jianxuan, the time traveler, worked hard for fourteen years, and the ironclad ships, chemical gunpowder, and artillery he developed were beyond the imagination, understanding, and acceptance of Fu Kang'an and others.

The reality that defeated generals were accustomed to boasting about the enemy's combat effectiveness made Fu Kang'an instinctively reject the deserter's specific description.

But even if they believed it, it would be of no use.

The moment Zhu Jianxuan decided to launch the Northern Expedition, the fate of the Qing navy and army and the Qing court was basically determined.

If the main force of the Qing navy led by Fu Kang'an did not respond, Zhu Jianxuan would successively capture Dengzhou and Lushun, and then directly land in Tianjin and attack Shuntian Prefecture.

(End of this chapter)