The Ming Dynasty did not revolutionize

Chapter 188 The Second Phase of the Northern Expedition
Cui Er, a military officer from Heze, made a special speech to warn the local merchants and gentry.

The commander of the Northern Expedition Army, who was responsible for occupying Heze County, immediately came forward to explain this year's tax rules.

For the time being, keep the amount unchanged from previous years to appease the hearts of these local gentry.

Just pay all of it directly to the Northern Expedition Army without going through the government's hands. It would be useless even if officials at all levels didn't want to accept it.

At the same time, they demanded to start "clearing the land and exchanging deeds."

All land deeds of the Qing Dynasty were replaced with those of the Ming Dynasty, and a comprehensive inventory of all land within the jurisdiction was conducted.

All abandoned land, all land without legal source, and all land with unclear ownership are all considered "king-owned".

The gentry knew that they could not avoid this kind of thing, so they could only manipulate the process of exchanging deeds, and even hope to turn the uncertain land into their own.

In addition to Cui Er’s previous warning, no one dared to object directly.

The head of the group went on to explain that all those who had made contributions and held official positions in the Qing Dynasty were considered to have surrendered to the barbarians, were guilty, and must pay land to atone their sins.

The land of officials in the provincial capitals of the Qing Dynasty, officials in the central court of the Qing Dynasty, and members of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty were all confiscated and became the property of the king.

All officials of the seventh rank and above, and Jinshi who have no official position or are retired, must pay 50% of their land.

Officials of the seventh rank and below, and those who held no official position or were retired, were required to pay 30% of their land.

Anyone who violently interferes with or resists the field clearing operation can be arrested on the spot by the field clearing team and publicly punished with military sticks.

Anyone who directly and violently attacks the Qingtian team can be shot dead on the spot.

If the mastermind can be confirmed through investigation, all land of that person will be confiscated and his entire family will be imprisoned.

For all the confiscated and seized land, as well as the disputed land that was cleared, landless farmers were recruited to form guards to cultivate the land.

These simple and crude demands are almost forcing the officials' families to rebel, so that they can easily confiscate all the land.

All officials and their families certainly do not want to give up any land they own, which is the most valuable asset of this era.

So much so that after the announcement, many people at the scene couldn't help but speak out in opposition.

Of course, it’s not direct opposition, but complaints about the officials forcing the people to rebel.

This time the team leader didn't say anything. He glanced at Cui Er who was standing by and then he spoke carelessly:

"Then you can just go and rebel. In the eyes of the Ming Dynasty, you are all traitors who defected to the Qing invaders.

"Asking you to pay the land to atone for your sins is a chance for you to survive. In my opinion, you should all be shot.

"All officials and gentry were shot dead, and all land was distributed directly to the peasants."

The gentry at the scene immediately shut up. They really didn't dare to rebel directly. At most, they could sabotage openly or secretly.

But looking at the ferocious Ming army, everyone felt very guilty.

Many people began to regret surrendering, and even began to wonder whether the Qing Dynasty could return.

But the Qing Dynasty obviously could not come back.

The land clearing operation was quickly launched in Caozhou Prefecture and other places.

The Northern Expedition Army recruited craftsmen who were good at accounting in the city to cooperate with the army in going to the countryside to settle accounts of land. One squad, with two craftsmen, was responsible for a town.

If the Northern Expedition Army encounters resistance and disruption for the first time, it will deal with them severely and severely.

Most of the resisters were shot dead on the spot, and the relevant personnel were severely interrogated after being arrested. If the mastermind behind the scenes could be found, he would be shot dead directly.

If the land clearing team was assassinated in a certain place and casualties occurred, a large army would be sent in to liquidate all the local landlords.

Ordinary farmers and landless farmers had no motivation to interfere with the land-clearing teams. Most of the time, they were instigated by the landlords, or the gentry, or did so by donors.

Cui Er had already warned that the gentry who did not cooperate were bad and would be imprisoned and punished, and the Northern Expedition Army would certainly show no mercy to them.

If the Qing Dynasty's central court still existed and the hometowns of senior central officials were liquidated in this way, personnel could certainly be dispatched from the central and high-level levels to come down and make the decision for their families.

But unfortunately, the Qing central court is now trapped in a jar.

The Qing Dynasty was a completely centralized country. After Zhu Jianxuan was trapped in Shuntian City, he was like a brain-dead person.

Any feedback from the local area can only be regarded as a conditioned reflex.

The various places can no longer cooperate with each other and can only rely on instinct to fight on their own.

At the end of April in the 42nd year of Xianning, summer harvest began in Huaibei and southern Shandong regions. This spring can be said to have been a good spring with good weather and good harvests in all regions.

Now that the Ming Dynasty's Northern Expedition Army has arrived, the grain and taxes from these places can no longer be sent to Shuntian Prefecture.

The Northern Expedition Army directly received this year's taxes, and relied on these taxes and confiscated land, as well as the weapons of the original Qing army prisoners, to organize garrisons to cultivate land and garrison local areas.

The Northern Expedition Army successively established dozens of garrisons, each of which was reorganized into a militia division to garrison the area.

Then, the militia divisions with better conditions were selected as auxiliary divisions to follow the main divisions to launch the next phase of the Northern Expedition. In early May, the second batch of military supplies from Wu's homeland arrived one after another.

The work of clearing land and exchanging deeds in various places has not been completed yet. Only the land around the provincial capital and county towns has been counted, but enough garrisons have been organized.

Only one company was left in a county town, and they continued to clear the fields and exchange deeds with the organized garrison soldiers.

Other main forces began the second phase of the Northern Expedition.

The Seventh Division first captured Jinan, and the Eighth Division quickly captured Tai'an. All prefectures, counties and cities in northern Shandong surrendered.

The 11th Division that landed in Jiaozhou and the 6th Division that blocked the road in Dengzhou jointly surrounded and captured Qingzhou.

Here is another important Manchu city of the Qing Dynasty in Shandong area.

After conquering the entire city of Qingzhou, other prefectures, states, and counties in the central Shandong region surrendered one after another.

At the end of May, the entire Shandong province was liberated, and the Northern Expedition Army turned westward, attacking the southern part of northern Zhili and northern Henan.

The Ninth Division in the south successively captured Yingzhou, Huaiyuan, Sizhou, Chenzhou, Guide Prefecture, and Suzhou, and the entire territory of Southern Zhili was recovered.

The 10th Division led the Hubei Corps and successively captured Nanyang, Ruzhou, Shanzhou, Henan Prefecture, and Kaifeng Prefecture.

In early June, the 9th and 10th Divisions, in cooperation with the 7th Division, crossed the Yellow River and captured Huaiqing, Weihui, and Pengde, thus liberating the entire Henan Province.

At the same time, the vassal troops on the Korean battlefield captured the Korean royal city and Pyongyang almost simultaneously. The main force of the Qing army in Korea was annihilated, and the local prefectures, states, and counties in Korea surrendered.

The five vassal divisions in the Korean region began to enter the Liaodong region from Korea.

The main force of the navy completely destroyed the Qing domestic fleet, and then the main fleet went east to the Korean Strait and destroyed the Qing army's offshore fleet.

The 12th Division, the main force on Jeju Island, completed the reorganization with the 30,000 troops of the Duke of Min, leaving 10,000 to manage Jeju Island and 30,000 to go north with the main fleet.

Taking advantage of the midsummer, they occupied the naval bases in Vladivostok, Sapporo, Khabarovsk and other places around the Whale Sea.

Control Ezo Island (Hokkaido), Kuwu Island (Sakhalin Island), and the coastal areas of the former Nurgandusi.

Completely block the North Pacific shipping route and cut off the sea route between the Qing mainland and North America.

In mid-June, various Northern Expedition troops entered the territory of northern Zhili.

The first few main divisions were responsible for attacking the front, while the newly reorganized auxiliary divisions, which were several times larger in number, were responsible for occupying and controlling the area.

The news of the Ming Dynasty's Northern Expedition and the war in the south had spread widely. All parts of Northern Zhili were prepared, and there were many Manchu cities in various parts of Northern Zhili.

But all this is meaningless now. People in northern Zhili also know that the capital has been surrounded.

After the news reached all parts of the city, generals from all over the country led their troops north to support the king.

Then they were surrounded and attacked for reinforcement.

The troops directly led by Zhu Jianxuan were the real main force of the Northern Expedition.

A total of five main divisions and four servant divisions were stationed in Shuntian Prefecture, Tianjin Prefecture, Shanhaiguan and other places.

There are now nearly 100,000 troops deployed around Shuntian Prefecture, all of whom are infantry using bolt-action rifles.

Even if all the main forces of the Qing Dynasty were concentrated, they would only be able to deliver food.

Including the Manchu cities in northern Zhili, as well as the reinforcements from outside the Great Wall and the grasslands, they were all defeated in field battles after arriving in Shuntian Prefecture.

Most of the soldiers and officers were killed or captured on the spot.

The few who were lucky enough to escape spread the news that the situation was hopeless.

In the northern Zhili region, ordinary prefectures, counties and districts basically surrendered, and ordinary officials and civilians had no will to resist at all.

The capital and the south are gone, and he is already a turtle in a jar. Resistance will only lead to a miserable death.

Even places with full cities did not have much combat power, and the main divisions from multiple places would crush them after encircling them.

The more intense the resistance, the more people will die, and the more people will die in the Northern Expedition, but the proportion of casualties will be only a few tens of the entire city, or even one percent.

Even the residents of the city knew that if they surrendered now they could survive, but if they resisted they would die.

The siege of Shuntian City has also reached its final stage.

The Manchu cities in northern Zhili were also successively captured or surrendered directly.

The grain outside Shuntian Prefecture was gradually harvested and stockpiled by the Northern Expedition Army.

There wasn't much food stored in the city, and now it's almost all eaten up.

The families of the rich and powerful still had some food left, but ordinary people were already starving to death.

There is no one left on the market, and nothing will be traded anymore.

(End of this chapter)