Southern Ming: A boy soldier at the beginning, supporting the world

Chapter 141 Time Window
Jiangxi and Guangdong rebelled one after another, injecting a shot of adrenaline into the desperate Southern Ming court. Just when Emperor Yongli and his ministers had a chance to catch their breath and were looking forward to the hope of revival, the situation had inevitably deteriorated.

At the beginning of the year, on the night of the 26th day of the first lunar month in the second year of the Yongli reign, Jin Shenghuan rebelled in Jiangxi. In early February, Wang Deren led his troops to capture Jiujiang, Hukou, and Pengze. Since he could not launch a surprise attack on Nanjing, he went up the river with the intention of recovering Huguang. However, the Ming army in Huguang did not respond in time, so Jin Shenghuan went south to attack Ganzhou in early March, despite the opposition of many people.

The Qing court reacted quickly.

On March 15, the regent Dorgon, the uncle of the Qing emperor, sent Tan Tai, the Manchu Gushan Ezhen of the Plain Yellow Banner, as the general of the southern expedition, together with He Luohui, the Manchu Gushan Ezhen of the Bordered White Banner, and Liu Liangzuo, the surrendered general, to lead the Manchu, Han, and Mongolian troops from Beijing to Jiangxi. At the same time, he ordered Zhumala, the Mongolian Gushan Ezhen of the Plain White Banner, and Ma Guozhu, the governor of Jiangnan, to lead troops up the river from Jiangning and meet with Tan Tai in Anqing.

In late April of the leap year, the Qing army approached Jiangxi and advanced to Dongliu County in Southern Zhili. The troops were then divided into two groups: Tan Tai attacked Jiujiang and He Luohui attacked Raozhou Prefecture.

On the 30th day of the intercalary fourth month, He Luohui captured Raozhou Prefecture. On the first day of the fifth month, the Qing army occupied Jiujiang, the gateway to Jiangxi. On the seventh day of the fifth month, the Qing army's vanguard entered Nanchang Prefecture.

On May 19, Jin Shenghuan led his troops back to defend Nanchang. On June 3, Wang Deren led his troops out of the city to fight against the Qing army, but was defeated and retreated to Nanchang.

On the tenth day of the seventh month, Tan Tai led his army to surround Nanchang, and then divided his troops into four groups, looting wantonly, and forcing hundreds of thousands of villagers to dig a moat that was two zhang deep and wide. He also built three floating bridges on the Gan River to facilitate the galloping of war horses.

The Qing invaders were extremely brutal and cruel, giving civilians only one meal of porridge a day. "They worked non-stop in the sultry heat, exposing them to the sun and steaming them, and the death toll was probably over 100,000." "The women in each flag took the food, and those in the same camp were tortured day and night."

On the ninth day of the eighth month, the Qing army dug deep trenches and “sold all the looted men and women by the pound.” Outside the city of Nanchang, “the fields, trees, houses, and tombs within a radius of dozens of miles from east to west of the city walls were almost completely destroyed.” Tengwang Pavilion and other historic sites were completely wiped out.

The Ming army in Nanchang still showed no sign of weakness. Jin Shenghuan was originally a general under Zuo Liangyu, and Wang Deren was a vanguard under Li Zicheng. Both were elite soldiers who had experienced many battles and were much stronger than the ordinary Southern Ming army.

From August 9 to October 26, the Nanchang defenders opened the city and went into battle at least nine times, of which Wang Deren led the charge three times, Jin Shenghuan led the charge twice, and Jin and Wang jointly commanded the charge once.

The Qing army of tens of thousands of Manchu, Mongolian and Han troops camped at the gates of Nanchang for several months. Tan Tai, Zhumala and He Luohui were all known as famous Manchu generals, but they were helpless against the fortified city of Nanchang. Tan Tai hated Jin Shenghuan for his rebellion and ordered that all the surrendered officers and soldiers and the fleeing refugees be massacred.

This is enough to prove that the so-called invincibility of the Manchu soldiers is pure boasting. As long as the Ming army is properly commanded and united, they can still fight a tough battle with the Eight Banners of Manchuria.

As Nanchang was besieged for a long time, food and firewood gradually became scarce, and the price of rice in the city rose to 60 taels of silver per stone, or even 600 taels. If no reinforcements arrived, the soldiers and civilians in the city would starve to death before the Qing army attacked the city.

In the end, Jin Shenghuan and Wang Deren could not wait for reinforcements.

He Tengjiao was the commander-in-chief and the nominal front-line marshal of the Ming army, but he had no way of commanding his troops. He led tens of thousands of troops from Yunnan, Guangxi and Chu to besiege Yongzhou in southern Hunan, which lasted for three months from July to October, but he still failed to capture Yongzhou.

In sharp contrast, Du Yinxi led his army to advance triumphantly in western Hunan. Li Chixin of the Loyal Camp was ordered to cross the river and captured the important town of Changde in September, and then approached Changsha.

Du Yinxi boasted that Changsha "lost its governor, so I will restore it, isn't that good?" He Tengjiao's jealousy doubled when he heard this, saying "Changsha lost it myself, so I must restore it myself."

In order to whitewash his military exploits, He Tengjiao did not hesitate to fabricate military exploits. He wrote in a memorial that on August 11, Jin Shenghuan went out to fight and the Qing army "fought each other, killed tens of thousands of enemies, captured tens of thousands of horses, and the enemies were so numerous that tens of thousands of large yellow boats abandoned the river bank and rushed down to the river mouth, and Huicheng was conquered." He also fabricated a story about the victory of Ganzhou: "Gao Jinku, the enemy in Ganzhou, heard that Li Chengdong's 100,000 troops had arrived in Nanxiong, and had already sneaked into the valleys of Xingguo and Yudu on September 28. The officials of Jilin and Ganzhou had been settled, and the two prefectures were pacified."

Qu Shisi and He Tengjiao were of the same mind. Perhaps because they did not understand the real situation on the front line, they were also blindly optimistic. They wrote a memorial to the court, "We ministers often pray to heaven, saying, 'I hope our ancestors will learn from the merits of Jin and Wang and annihilate these Jie barbarians.' And it turned out to be true!" Emperor Yongli and his ministers did not know the real situation on the front line, and did nothing. They were "extremely excited" and prepared to "report to the emperor for honorary titles."

Li Chengdong fulfilled his promise and sent troops to the north to Jiangxi in September. At that time, Jin Shenghuan and Wang Deren in Nanchang were in a difficult situation. The food in the city was running out and they were eager for reinforcements.

There were many knowledgeable people in the small Southern Ming court. Qian Bingdeng, a Hanlin Academy scholar, submitted a memorial to the court, arguing that "saving Jiangxi is the most urgent task for the revival of the country today, and abandoning Ganzhou and going directly to (Nanchang) is the best chance of saving Jiangxi today."

Emperor Yongli did not have such foresight and was unable to control Li Chengdong, so he could only let him do what he wanted.

In late September, Li Chengdong's army of more than 100,000 soldiers crossed Dayuling Mountain with great momentum. Soldiers carried boats across Dageng Mountain, preparing to conquer Ganzhou first and then attack Nanchang along the Ganjiang River.

On the first day of October, the Dongxun towns arrived at the city of Ganzhou, "setting up more than dozens of camps, firing artillery fire, and attacking all night long."

The Qing Dynasty's Ganzhou garrison had only a few thousand soldiers, but the Southern Gan Governor Liu Wuyuan, General Hu Yousheng, Deputy General Gao Jinku and others relied on the fact that Tan Tai's army was in Nanchang, and decided to take the initiative and went out of the city to attack the Ming army in the early morning of the next day.

Li Chengdong's army was not yet firmly established, and the Qing army rushed into the camp, causing the soldiers to flee in panic, and the battle was in chaos, resulting in heavy losses. After this battle, Li Chengdong was very depressed and withdrew his troops to Nan'an, and he returned directly to Guangzhou.

At the same time, Dorgon felt that the situation in Huguang was deteriorating, so in September he appointed Prince Zheng Jirgalang as General Dingyuan and marched south to conquer Huguang.

Influenced by Jin Shenghuan and Li Chengdong's rebellion, Liu Zeqing also made moves in Beijing. He was one of the four commanderies in Jiangbei during the Hongguang Dynasty, but later surrendered. Due to the suspicion of the Qing court, Liu Zeqing was quite frustrated and sent his confidants to contact Shandong Liuyuan Army to plot a rebellion.

The Liuyuan Army was a civilian volunteer army active in western Shandong, with a history dating back to the Wanli period. Influenced by the anti-Qing situation in the south, the Liuyuan Army also became active, threatening the security of the Qing court's capital. Jirgalang then stopped his troops in Shandong and led his troops to suppress the Liuyuan Army.

……

Danchu was located in the inland of Guangxi. Although he had set up an intelligence bureau, his intelligence was still weak and he did not grasp the real situation on the front line in a timely and accurate manner. He was not optimistic about the current situation and did not dare to relax his military expansion and preparations for war.

Looking at the Southern Ming, only Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, and Guangdong were relatively peaceful. The Western Camp had already occupied Yunnan and Guizhou, and Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo were stepping up their military training.

From a historical perspective, before long, He Tengjiao, Jin Shenghuan, and Li Chengdong will all be defeated. Guangdong and Guangxi will fall one after another, Yunnan and Guizhou will take over the baton of anti-Qing resistance, and Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo will fight hard and sing the last elegy for the Southern Ming.

The time window is getting tighter and tighter, and there is not much time left for Cen Danchu to organize his troops and prepare for war, probably only one or two years.

Time waits for no one!

We must intensify our military training and build our bases!
(End of this chapter)