The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 183: Under Shuntian City

Zhu Jianxuan was in the cabin of the Yingzhou, watching through a telescope as his troops captured the Dagu Fort and the port, and he felt a bit inexplicably emotional.

He organized the Northern Expedition according to the combat logic of the naval power army, and his fighting style was very similar to that of the invaders coming from the sea.

Dagukou in Tianjin was the place where the Qing Dynasty fought against its opponents during the Second Opium War and the Eight-Nation Alliance's invasion of China.

The Qing army's fighting spirit is very good now, much stronger than during the Second Opium War and the Eight-Nation Alliance in history.

However, the level of the Ming Dynasty Wu Kingdom's Northern Expedition Army, from military equipment and training level, from fighting will to local mass base, was stronger than the Qing Dynasty's historical opponents.

The main divisions of the Wu Kingdom were modern troops with basically no illiterate soldiers, while the Anglo-French Allied Forces and the Eight-Nation Alliance were mostly colonial rogue troops.

At this time, the common people in the north were not interested in which emperor or official ruled them, and they did not have the thinking of a nation-state.

The language of the Northern Expedition Army and the local people was barely intelligible, unlike the British, French and Eight-Nation Alliance who had to find translators.

As for the intellectuals in the north, a considerable number of them openly or privately believed that the Ming Dynasty was the true orthodox Central Plains and that the Qing court was foreign barbarians.

Most of the people who became officials only pursued wealth and did not care whether it was the Ming Dynasty or the Qing Dynasty. In fact, there were not many people who were willing to die for the Qing Dynasty.

Therefore, as long as the Northern Expedition Army defeated the main force of the Qing army, the rest would be to run around to circle the land and push forward.

During the Eight-Nation Alliance War, the Qing Dynasty had already carried out the Westernization Movement, and the level of its army's weapons was not bad.

The new army of the Qing Dynasty at that time was also equipped with bolt-action rifles, Maxim machine guns, and breech-loading rifled cannons, and there was no absolute generation gap between them and the Eight-Nation Alliance.

The current Ming Wu Kingdom Northern Expedition Army uses seamless steel tube bolt-action rifles, rifled cannons, and machine guns.

At that time, the Qing army's standard rifle was a flintlock smoothbore rifle, and the gap in military equipment was much greater than that of the Eight-Nation Alliance.

However, the Northern Expedition Army was able to achieve rapid results, not only because its military equipment was far ahead of the Qing Army, but also because of its suddenness.

In all the battles so far, namely the Battle of Jeju Island and the Landing Battle, and the Battle of Dengju, the enemy was somewhat prepared and able to respond.

Siege battles in most other places were basically surprise attacks.

The enemy was completely unprepared, and the Northern Expedition Army had already reached the gate directly. The enemy was defeated before they had time to organize a defense.

The same is true of the current Battle of Dagukou.

The Qing Dynasty had a total of about 30,000 troops stationed in Tianjin, and more than 5,000 troops stationed at Dagukou Wharf.

At present, they have not received any battle reports from the front line, and they can't imagine that the battle has already reached them.

The Northern Expedition Army's gunboats suddenly appeared and directly overturned the cannons on the Dagukou Fort.

At the same time, the military camp where the garrison was located at the dock was bombarded. The garrison ran out in panic and were met with the guns of the Northern Expedition Army.

Under the cover of ship-borne artillery, Wu's main division quickly landed and destroyed the Qing army camp on the dock.

The subsequent course of action is the same as the landing battle on Jeju Island.

The main force, the Fifth Division, went ashore first and took control of the docks and artillery batteries. More land forces that landed later began to move directly inland.

After landing, the Fourth Division rushed directly to Tianjin City, specifically responsible for defeating the more than 20,000 Qing troops stationed near Tianjin City.

After landing, the Third Division bypassed Tianjin and directly captured Wuqing, Dong'an and other county towns in Shuntian Prefecture and Tianjin Prefecture, as well as important villages and towns nearby.

The last two main divisions and four vassal divisions landed one after another and went to Shuntian City in batches to control the main entrances and exits around Shuntian City.

After the Wu transport fleet dropped off all the soldiers and unloaded all the supplies and cargo, they returned to Wu to transfer the supplies.

The Northern Expedition Army of the Ming Dynasty and Wu Kingdom landed on a large scale and advanced and attacked rapidly in batches.

The Qing generals and officials who came into contact with the Northern Expedition Army had no time to observe the situation in other places, and they all first sent their findings to the Forbidden City.

The Tianjin area is too close to the capital, so the situation at the front can be reported at any time, and military reports can be delivered to the Forbidden City quickly.

When Qianlong looked at the dense military reports sent from the surrounding areas, he felt that the entire situation had taken a sharp turn for the worse.

On the same night that Qianlong received the news that Tianjin Port, also known as Dagukou, had been attacked, he received direct news that the garrison at Dagukou had been defeated and the wharf and camp had been lost.

The next morning, there was new bad news. The garrison in Tianjin Prefecture exchanged fire with the Ming army and suffered heavy losses.

The next afternoon, the Ming army occupied Tianjin City.

Also on the afternoon of the next day, the Ming army occupied Wuqing County and Dong'an County.

On the morning of the third day, the Ming army appeared outside Tongzhou City and occupied Tongzhou County that afternoon.

Also on the afternoon of the third day, a large number of Ming troops arrived at the capital.

On the morning of the fourth day, the Ming army and the garrisons around the capital exchanged fire at the same time in Nanyuan and Yuanmingyuan. A total of more than 30,000 main forces of the Eight Banners were defeated on the spot.

On the afternoon of the fourth day, the Southern Ming army occupied major royal gardens such as Nanyuan, Yuanmingyuan, and the Summer Palace.

When the Ming Dynasty's Northern Expedition Army captured Tianjin, Wuqing and other places, the actual duration of the battle was longer than the time interval for the delivery of news.

Because the Northern Expedition Army actually fought in divisions, the closer to Shuntian Prefecture, the faster the news was delivered.

The first message took a whole day to reach the Forbidden City, while the last message took only one hour to reach Qianlong.

So the further time goes by, the more frequent the news becomes.

Whether it was the surrounding local garrisons or the garrisons around the capital, the speed of their defeat was too fast, and they basically collapsed at the first blow. It seemed as if the Qing Dynasty was doomed.

It seemed that the Ming army was everywhere outside the city of Beijing, so it was too late to run away.

Although there were still at least 30,000 Eight Banners troops in Shuntian Prefecture, tens of thousands of troops could be quickly organized from the hundreds of thousands of Eight Banners descendants.

However, seeing the news that the garrison outside the city was on the verge of collapse, Qianlong did not dare to let these troops go out of the city for field battles, and could only keep them as a garrison to defend the city.

Qianlong looked at the bad news and almost collapsed. He sat alone on a chair, holding the memorial and repeating:

"How could this happen? This is impossible. What on earth is happening outside..."

The officials and servants around were all extremely panicked, and no one dared to respond to Qianlong's words.

Qianlong looked at Zhangjia Agui, the leader of the military ministers:
"Heroic Duke?"

Ah Gui was the calmest person at the scene:

“Your Majesty, I believe that there are no reports of war in the southern regions, and the Southern Ming came here by boat across the sea, so the local areas should not have been lost.

"In any case, it is impossible for the Southern Ming army to completely sweep and occupy Shandong, Henan, Huaibei, Zhili and other places within a period of ten days to a month.

“This Nanming Wu Wang army should have taken advantage of the fact that steamships can move as fast as the wind to bypass Mr. Fu’s inland sea fleet, force their way into the Bohai Sea, and threaten the capital.

“At the same time, the firearms of the Southern Ming army seemed to be extremely powerful, and they quickly defeated the defenders outside our city.

"Now we just need to hold on to the city, and at the same time order troops from all over the country to come to the capital to defend the king, and wait for the navy led by Fu Kang'an to return for support.

"When the Southern Ming army runs out of food and fodder supplies, they will naturally have no choice but to retreat to the south."

Qianlong felt that what Agui said made sense, but he also felt that there was a big loophole in it.

However, Qianlong did not say it himself, but looked at Heshen on the other side.

He Shen immediately understood and pointed out several suspicious points:

"Sir, the Southern Ming army has powerful firearms, so they were very strong in the field battle outside the city and quickly defeated the garrisons outside Tianjin and the capital.

"Then it should be possible for them to quickly defeat the defenders in other places, and then defeat the troops from other places who are coming to support the king, right?
"What if they continue to use the steamships that come and go like the wind to continuously transport supplies from the south?

"At the same time, we will surround the capital and attack its reinforcements, and then order the main force of the Southern Ming army to move north?

"How should we deal with it then?"

Ah Gui frowned and glanced at He Shen:
"Just do your best and leave the rest to fate. There's no point in thinking too much about things now."

Heshen and Qianlong were suddenly speechless.

Obviously, Agui, a veteran who has been on the battlefield for many years, also knows that the current situation is very bad.

It was because the garrison outside the city was defeated too quickly.

These were the true elite of the Qing Dynasty, and facing the Southern Ming Army they were like a mob.

From this we can see that even if the troops from all over the country were able to enter Beijing to defend the king, what would be the outcome?

Qianlong was silent for a few seconds and ordered Agui to take charge of defending the city.

Then he asked the Grand Council to draft an imperial edict to recruit the Eight Banners garrisons and Green Camp soldiers from all over the country to come to Beijing to serve the king.

The scene was quiet for a few seconds. Ah Gui seemed to have thought of something and suggested cautiously:
"Your Majesty, can we send someone out of the city to test the Nanming's attitude?

"See what they want. So we can have a better idea."

Taking the initiative to go out of the city to inquire at this time was obviously a gesture of submission. Qianlong certainly didn't want to do it, but it seemed he had no choice but to do it now.

Qianlong thought silently for a few seconds again.

Finally, they decided to accept Agui's suggestion and sent Fu Kang'an's cousin Fu Cha Mingliang, together with Heshen and Ji Xiaolan, out of the city to the Southern Ming military camp to inquire about the situation.

Heshen suddenly couldn't hold it anymore and couldn't help but give Agui a fierce look.

Heshen knew who the King of Wu of the Southern Ming was. It was this King of Wu who presided over the peace negotiations in Yingtian Prefecture six years ago.

At that time, the King of Wu was only twelve years old, but his character was already extremely strong and overbearing.

He is already eighteen years old this year, and he led his troops directly to Shuntian Prefecture City.

According to Heshen's analysis, the purpose of this King Wu should be very simple, which is to completely destroy the Qing Dynasty.

There is nothing to discuss if we go out for negotiation.

At most, we can discuss the conditions for the Qing Dynasty's surrender.

It was because of his previous doubts and previous conflicts that Ah Gui deliberately suggested to test the waters.

Agui was responsible for defending the city. Among the remaining people, Heshen himself was the one who was most convenient for Qianlong to use and could be easily assigned by the emperor.

Heshen was furious, but he could do nothing but obey the order.

(End of this chapter)