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

Chapter 231 Abandoning the Attack on Wuzhou
Wei Guosong was a senior and took the lead. He mustered up his courage and said, "Marshal, I have listened to your teachings and read a lot of books recently. There is a book that discusses the situation in Wuzhou. It says that Wuzhou is extremely important. It is located in the center of Lingnan. If we attack Guangdong from Guangxi, Guangdong will lose its barrier if we have Wuzhou. If we attack Guangxi from Guangdong, Guangxi will be as easy as taking something out of a bag if we have Wuzhou."

Good fellow, he did his homework, but he didn't read much and couldn't remember the original text.

Wu Jie also came forward and said, "I heard from the staff officer that the brothers Su Shi and Su Zhe were demoted at the same time, one to Leizhou and the other to Qiongzhou. They met in Wuzhou and praised the situation in Wuzhou. Whatever they said, whatever they said..."

He must have left in such a hurry that he couldn't remember it. Wu Jie was a fierce general, even more careless than Wei Guosong, and he didn't like reading even more. He didn't even remember what Su said.

Perhaps it was a natural talent for time travelers, Danchu had a photographic memory, and said with a smile: "What Guosong said was from "Shan Tang Miscellaneous Essays", which said, 'Wuzhou is located in the middle of the two Guangdongs. If you go from west to east, when you reach Wuzhou, the barrier of Guangdong will be broken; if you go from east to west, when you reach Wuzhou, the heart of Guangxi will be overthrown..."

"The Su brothers discussed the situation in Wuzhou and said, 'Cangwu is the capital of Guangdong and Guangdong... In terms of the west, Guilin is the inner hall, and Cangwu is the gateway; in terms of the east, Nanhai is the heart, and Cangwu is the throat. It controls the upper reaches and occupies the key points, so it is very convenient to point and look back...'"

The generals were greatly surprised and exclaimed, "General Jue is truly a god."

"Haha," Danchu laughed and said, "Since I am a god, why don't you listen to me and try to persuade me in various ways to seize Wuzhou?"

This? The generals were speechless. Chen Wu, the commander of the auxiliary army, was unwilling to accept the result and said, "Marshal Jue, Wuzhou is an important place. If our army takes Wuzhou, we can control it from the center and connect the two Guangdong provinces. From now on, we can play an important role in the court."

Wei Guosong and Wu Jie both agreed, their faces full of anticipation.

Danchu shook his head and smiled, "If I want to seize Wuzhou, it will be easy. Zhaoping is located in the upper reaches of Guijiang River. The Fourth Infantry Battalion can go down the Guijiang River and attack Wuzhou directly. Xunzhou and Pingnan are located in the upper reaches of Xunjiang River. The Imperial Guard Battalion and the Navy Battalion can go down the Xunjiang River and attack Tengxian first, then take Wuzhou.

"Yulin Prefecture is located in the upper reaches of the Beiliu River. You, the First Infantry Battalion and the Third Infantry Battalion, can go downstream along the Beiliu River, first capture Teng County, and then attack Wuzhou. All three armies can go downstream along the river. I only need to send out one group to easily capture Wuzhou.

"Gentlemen, it's not that I don't want to seize Wuzhou, it's just that the time to seize Wuzhou is not ripe. Do you know why?"

Wei Guosong frowned and asked, "Marshal, are you afraid of being blamed by the court?"

"That's one of them."

"What are you afraid of!" Wu Jie was impatient, and he stood up and said, "The court is unjust, and its decrees cannot be issued outside Zhaoqing. We are eliminating traitors for the country, even if we kill Chen Bangfu, it is not too much. The court should thank us, how dare they blame us?"

He has become inflated and looks a bit like a proud and arrogant general.

"Sit down!" Danchu scolded, "As a general, you must be steady in everything. If you lose your temper over a small matter, how can you accomplish anything great?"

This was already a very severe accusation. The power of the Red Army was highly concentrated, and Cen Danchu had great prestige. A single document from the Marshal's headquarters could deprive the front-line generals of their power.

Wu Jie quickly bowed his head to admit his mistake and sat down in embarrassment.

Danchu sighed, "Although the imperial court has no prestige, it is the orthodoxy of the Ming Dynasty. The imperial court emphasizes etiquette and law, and etiquette and law itself is the source of authority. You must pay attention to this. This is also the reason why the military government abolished the etiquette room."

Seeing that the generals were confused, Danchu did not elaborate and just gave a few examples:

When Emperor Jiajing first ascended the throne, there was a great controversy over rituals. On the surface, it was a dispute over rituals and laws, but behind it was a dispute between imperial power and civil officials. In the late Ming Dynasty, there were frequent disputes over the establishment of a crown prince and an empress, because the crown prince and the empress were the future emperor and empress dowager. As long as the empress had the title of empress dowager, she could naturally discipline the emperor and influence national politics.

In the first year of the Yongli reign, the Yongli Emperor was trapped in Wugang, and Liu Chengyin, the Duke of Anguo, hijacked the imperial carriage with the intention of surrendering to the Qing Dynasty. Liu's mother took the lead and ordered the defenders to open the city gates and let the Yongli Emperor escape, and the rebels had no choice but to do so. The emperor and his ministers fled in a miserable state, and when they passed by the chieftain's fiefdom, the locals rushed to offer them money and food.

Civil etiquette was also strict. At the end of the Chongzhen reign, there was a famine in a certain place, and human flesh was openly sold in the market. At that time, a guest came to the restaurant to eat and saw a naked woman tied to the butcher's table, about to die. He felt pity for her and bought the woman at double the price. The woman thanked him profusely and was willing to be the guest's slave. But the guest's hand accidentally touched the woman's body, and the woman's face changed drastically. She said that a woman could not serve two husbands and lay back on the table. The butcher was furious and killed the woman with a knife.

"When our army captured Nanning, the censors in the court kept impeaching us. Fortunately, Li Yuanyin, Qu Shisi, and Liu Xiangke intervened, and Chen Bangfu also spoke up, so the court was spared from issuing an imperial edict to reprimand us.

"This time, we seized Xunzhou and Yulinzhou, which caused too much noise. If we attack Wuzhou again, we will force Chen Bangfu to death. The Wu party will definitely try their best to impeach him, and the court will not be able to stand it.

"Although the imperial court has no prestige, the people's hearts should not be underestimated. There are still many generals on the front line, such as Xuan Guogong (Jiao Lian), Hu Yiqing, Ma Jinzhong, Yang Guodong, Xiong Zhaozuo and others, who are fighting against the Tartars in Hunan.

"Our army is not going to the front to fight against the Tartars, but is fighting for territory with Chen Bangfu behind the scenes. What will the generals on the front think? And what will the upright gentlemen like Qu Ge Lao and Lu Xunfu think? What will the world think?"

Everyone was dejected and no longer spoke.

Since the Song Dynasty, feudal etiquette has become increasingly strict in China. The country's social hierarchy is strict, with imperial power, political power, gentry power, clan power, and husband power intertwined, thoughts are imprisoned, and civilians are oppressed.

The rise of the School of Mind in the Ming Dynasty lasted for hundreds of years and continuously impacted the feudal etiquette, but it has not been able to shake the foundation of etiquette. After the Qing army entered the pass, it tried its best to maintain etiquette and suppress the School of Mind, and the etiquette in the north became increasingly strict.

Danchu couldn't help but think of the Three Feudatories Rebellion in the early Qing Dynasty. When Wu Sangui started his army, he used the slogan "Restore the Ming Dynasty and Defeat the Enemy" and the South was jubilant. South of the Yangtze River, except for Jiangsu and Zhejiang, all provinces responded. The Green Camp soldiers in Shaanxi and Henan successively raised the banner of rebellion, and the situation was very good. However, the Qing court produced Wu Sangui's secret memorial requesting the killing of Emperor Yongli, and the whole world was in an uproar, and the morale of the rebels declined. The following year, Wu Sangui proclaimed himself King Zhou and gave up the slogan of restoring the Ming Dynasty, which disappointed the whole world.

In the future, if he really achieves hegemony, he will have to establish himself as emperor. How should he deal with such stubborn etiquette and laws?

Perhaps, only by promoting education, eliminating illiteracy and enlightening people's wisdom can we reform etiquette and laws, taking their essence and discarding their dross.

To promote education requires perseverance and long-term efforts. If education is effective, it will take at least a generation, at most 20 years, at least 15 years, to reform concepts and eliminate etiquette.

Twenty years later, Danchu will be forty years old, in the prime of his life, and there is still hope for his success.

Seeing that everyone still had regrets, Danchu advised: "Wuzhou is a battleground, it is too important, like a hot potato, no one can hold it firmly. The Zhongzheng Camp captured Wuzhou and then abandoned it, the reason is this. We have Yulinzhou in our hands, enjoying the benefits, so it is inconvenient to rush to Wuzhou.

"Besides, a general cannot just fight and kill, but must learn to comfort the people. Conquering a town is nothing, the key is to unite the soldiers and civilians in the town, to establish a military government, and to promote the taxation of tenants.

"Xunzhou Prefecture and Yulin Prefecture only have ten prefectures and counties in total, but most of them are large cities with a population greater than that of Nanning, Taiping, and Zhaoping combined. We must hurry up and digest these ten prefectures and counties instead of continuing to attack Wuzhou."

The generals were pleased and no longer sought to attack Wuzhou.

(End of this chapter)