Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 109 Ma Jinzhong's Fake Surrender
In Fengyang City, Zhou Shixian led the Jinyiwei and quickly obtained first-hand military intelligence about the uprising in the Qing army camp the night before from the hundreds of civilians and rebel soldiers who were escorted into the city.

At the same time, the scouts sent out from the city to investigate military intelligence quickly reported back the latest situation of the Qing army camp. One team of scouts encountered two secret sentries deployed by the Qing army on the periphery while approaching the Qing army camp.

But what they never expected was that the two men actually turned against them and even wanted to lead them around other secret sentries deployed by the Qing army in front.

These two people were originally servants of Liu Zhong. After Liu Zhong was killed by Gao Jie in Xuzhou, they were assigned to Geng Zhongming along with other servants and followed the army south.

In the "Battle of Huaibei", the two were frightened by the Palace Army and the Beijing Camp. After escaping death, they completely lost the protection of their generals and were directly assigned to the Eight Banners of Han for slavery. They have been enduring this humiliation until now.

Today, the Ming Dynasty has once again demonstrated its strong and courageous side. Although the uprising in the army was suppressed last night, it is still shocking. They have experienced the battle of Huaibei. As defeated soldiers who have truly witnessed the current elite field combat power of the Ming army, they naturally have other thoughts.

Therefore, when the two saw the Ming army scouts appear, they not only did not have any intention of raising the alarm, but also took the initiative to lead the way. They had finally encountered such an opportunity and could finally escape the surveillance of the Tartars, so they naturally had to seize it.

Not only that, the two also brought back more detailed military information about Duoduo's deployment in certain aspects after the riot in the Qing army camp the night before, as well as information about the Qing army's current panic and the Shun army soldiers who had surrendered in Henan, Shaanxi and other places were ready to move.

Through mutual verification of various intelligence, Zhu Cilang quickly estimated the loss of food and supplies of the Qing army, and then sent Tangma to Huai'an to deliver the second imperial edict.

From May to June, the Qing army had been stationed at the gates of the city for more than a month. Apart from some wood obtained from the mountains and forests in the south, they had no other supplies. Even gunpowder and military supplies were still on the way.

Zhu Cilang naturally wanted to seize this opportunity and let Gao Jie and Huang Degong launch a larger offensive in Huaibei to further undermine the morale of the Qing army and intensify the contradictions within the Qing army.

As he won several victories in the defense of Fengyang, the surrendered soldiers brought by Duoduo had gradually become a burden, and even tied up a considerable part of Duoduo's troops.

Zhu Cilang had stored enough food and military supplies in Fengyang City to hold out for a year, but Duoduo originally thought that the war would be over in a month or two. In addition, the entire Huaibei area was under scorched earth, so he obviously could not continue to fight with Zhu Cilang.

After a while, when the rainy season arrives and sieges and logging become difficult, the Qing army's firewood, food, gunpowder, artillery shells and other military supplies will become even tighter.

By then, I am afraid that tens of thousands of civilians and surrendered soldiers in the Qing army camp will launch an even more massive uprising because of the problem of food and fodder.

And this is the opportunity Zhu Cilang has been waiting for!

In Huai'an, after Lu Zhenfei received the first imperial edict, he immediately sent Tang Ma to convey the message to Gao Jie and Huang Degong, asking them to increase their offensive and destroy the Qing army's logistics system.

Before this, Gao Jie and Huang Degong worked together, using the terrain to set up ambushes, and had fought with the Eight Banners led by Zhunta more than a dozen times, with casualties on both sides.

Although there were still some disagreements between the two, they both understood that they could not fight against Zhunta alone, and with the old man Lu Zhenfei watching them from behind, they did not dare to do anything tricky.

Moreover, since we can chop off the Tartar's head together and gain merit, and ask for rewards from His Majesty in the future, why should we continue to fight among ourselves?

Gao Jie and Huang Degong are both smart people, and they can still distinguish what is important and what is not.

After receiving the second imperial edict, Lu Zhenfei immediately understood the urgency of the matter and knew that the Jiangbei War might be over soon.

He immediately sent Tang Ma to inform Zheng Hongkui to prepare to call on the Zheng family navy to transport a batch of military supplies to southern and western Shandong, and then contact the rebel forces in the two places. He planned to launch a massive attack from Cao County in Yanzhou Prefecture to Jinxiang, striving to capture one or two cities and shock the Qing court.

It takes a thousand days to maintain an army and only a moment to deploy it. Even if the rebel army is unable to hold on by then, such serious unrest in the rear will be enough to shake the Qing army's determination to march south.

After receiving Zhu Cilang's imperial edict, Li Banghua immediately began to mobilize troops near Yingtian Prefecture and stationed them in Taiping Prefecture and other places. He also transferred Zhang Mingzhen, the former Taizhou Shipu guerrilla, from Yangzhou City to lead his own land and water troops to garrison in Tongling City, and at the same time began to set up various obstacles in the river.

Zhu Cilang knew the strength of the troops under his command. With his current strength, it was absolutely impossible for him to deal with two Qing armies at the same time.

Therefore, he had to find ways to organize the Qing army in the west to advance eastward. As long as he could delay for another two or three months, he would not be afraid of Ajige's arrival. He did not believe that the other party would dare to fight him in Jiangnan.

Soon, Tang Ma delivered the third imperial edict to Jiujiang. The news that Zhu Cilang had won another great victory under the city of Fengyang spread to Jiangxi, and the military and civilians in the three prefectures in northern Jiangxi were in an uproar.

He Tengjiao, Yuan Jixian, and even Zuo Liangyu and others breathed a sigh of relief. They were all waiting for news from Fengyang, which was their biggest motivation to persevere.

Zuo Liangyu had already made up his mind: if there was no more news from Fengyang, as long as the situation was not right, he would lead the army to continue advancing eastward and would never fight Ajige in northern Jiangxi.

In fact, after He Tengjiao invited Zuo Liangyu out of retirement, the reason why Zuo Liangyu immediately commanded the army to begin deploying a defense line was because he guessed that the main force of the Qing army would definitely not dare to go down the river directly by boat at the beginning. The infantry and the navy are not the same thing.

Otherwise, where did he get the courage to face Ajige, who chased Li Zicheng for thousands of miles?

In fact, his decisiveness made He Tengjiao look at him with admiration.

The navy that Ajige had just conquered was defeated by him not long ago, so he was naturally not afraid. Not only him, but also the generals under his command were the same.

As expected, the thousands of navy led by Wang Tizhong and Zheng Siwei were ambushed by the Ming navy as soon as they approached the mouth of Poyang Lake. They were quickly defeated. Not only were more than a hundred small boats captured, but they also lost thousands of sailors.

Although Zuo Liangyu did not personally lead his troops into battle, he dispatched all his trusted generals to completely control the battlefield. After being re-invited by He Tengjiao, his intimidation over Ma Jinzhong, Jin Shenghuan, Xu Yong and others returned.

After so many years in the Ming Dynasty officialdom, Zuo Liangyu could tell the details of a civil servant like He Tengjiao with just one look. He knew that even if the other party swore to heaven, he would definitely not be able to resist interfering in military affairs and snatching credit, so he made preparations in advance.

He was still hoping to make a contribution by blocking the enemy at this time and preserve his family's wealth. Even if he retreated in the future, his merits and demerits would be offset. How could he let He Tengjiao take the credit?
Just two days after repelling the Qing army, news of a great victory came from Fengyang. The generals of various departments in northern Jiangxi immediately gained confidence. They did not dare to leave the city and fight the Qing army in the field, but they were very confident in defending the city.

Although these veterans in the army were still skeptical about the victory in the north, they all felt that even if there was no big victory, a small victory should be enough, otherwise Nanjing would have fallen by now.

He Tengjiao had previously mobilized more than 200,000 civilians from various prefectures in northern Jiangxi to reinforce the four cities of Jiujiang, Nankang, Nanchang and Hukou. The three cities of Jiujiang, Hukou and Nanchang also built bastion-like defensive fortifications like Fengyang, Xuzhou, Huai'an and other places.

Not only that, De'an, Jianchang, Pengze and other cities have also been reinforced. As long as the defenders in the city do not surrender, it will be no problem to hold on for a period of time.

The reason why Ajige was able to fight his way from Xi'an to Wuchang in just two months and even took a detour to replenish horses for the army was that Li Zicheng did not resist at all and fled south with his baggage.

Moreover, Li Zicheng not only fled south himself, but also took away tens of thousands of Shun troops who were originally stationed north of the Yangtze River. This was the place where the Shun army had been operating the longest and was the most popular.

This is also the reason why Zhu Cilang dared to deploy He Tengjiao and Yuan Jixian to block the Qing army in northern Jiangxi under such circumstances. He didn't care whether these people could hold on in the end. As long as they could hold on for a few months, he would temporarily resolve this round of crisis.

But Ajige had no intention of launching a forceful attack at this time. While he sent the navy vanguard to try to go down the river to the east, he also asked Wang Tizhong to send his subordinates to secretly contact Ma Jinzhong, Jin Shenghuan, Xu Yong, Li Guoying, and even Zhang Yong, who was not in a prominent position at the time.

In the original history, Zuo Liangyu died suddenly, and Zuo Menggeng led them to defeat the coalition forces of Huang Degong and Huang Fei. This group of people were left with no other options, and almost all of them surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.

Of course, even so, Ma Jinzhong, who was known as "the one hundred thousand man", and Wang Yuncheng still managed to severely trick Ajige.

Although Lao Ma was a man of integrity, he was also very shrewd, and certainly not the type to suffer a loss in the face of adversity. If everyone else surrendered, and he didn't, wouldn't that make him a token of loyalty for others to seek credit and reward?
Although he had hundreds of cavalrymen, Jin Shenghuan, Xu Yong, Li Guoying, and Zuo Liangyu's direct generals each had thousands of elite soldiers. After surrendering, they had the support of the Eight Banners. It was impossible for him to defeat them.

So, Ma Jinzhong used his flattery skills to please Ajige and even got the good job of transporting red cannons to the Qing army.

When all the cannons were loaded onto the ship and the ship reached the center of the Yangtze River, Lao Ma greeted Ajige's eighteen generations of ancestors while pushing all the red cannons into the river. Then he left and went to Hunan to join He Tengjiao.

Of course, Lao Ma is Lao Ma after all. He has a bottom line, but usually he doesn't fight any adverse battles and runs faster than anyone else on the battlefield. So, no one knows that he actually has a bottom line!

This also led to the fact that, apart from Jin Shenghuan, the person Wang Tizhong wanted most and was most confident in persuading to surrender was Ma Jinzhong. He was also thinking about the hundreds of cavalrymen under the other party.

But he never expected that Ma Jinzhong, while bargaining with his servants, clearly marked the price for every civil official and military officer in Jiangxi, and pretending not to suffer any loss, and expressing his longing for the Qing Dynasty, would secretly send someone to report the matter to He Tengjiao and Zuo Liangyu. He did not think He Tengjiao could handle this matter. The generals with troops at their disposal would not listen to the commander-in-chief at a time of life and death. But if he wanted to get promoted and make money, he could not just report to Zuo Liangyu.

Lao Ma is very familiar with the intricacies of officialdom!

In the end, the servants sent by Wang Tizhong were treated to good food and drink, and served by three beautiful concubines all night before they returned triumphantly to report the good news.

Soon, Ajige, who was stationed in Ruichang County and summoned all the generals to make intensive arrangements for the eastward advance, received the good news from Wang Tizhong.

"Can Ma Jinzhong's words be trusted?"

"Absolutely trustworthy, Your Majesty!" Upon hearing this, Wang Tizhong immediately assured loudly in front of all the Manchu and Han generals:
"This fellow's nickname is 'Hun Shi Wan'. He's not a loyal man. He was a rebel like us before, but he was recruited and given an official position. If we really talk about loyalty, he's probably the most shameless person among all the civil and military officials in northern Jiangxi.

Moreover, this man is a bandit at heart. Previously, when Li Zicheng marched south, Zuo Liangyu sent him to stop him, but he feinted a shot and immediately ran away. Now, with the Ming army blocking his way from behind and our Eight Banners Tiger Division in front, he has nowhere to escape and will naturally choose the winning side."

“Ha, ha, hahahahahaha”

When Ajige heard this, he burst into laughter. In his opinion, almost all the Ming troops inside the pass were like this, so he had no doubts.

"This Ma Jinzhong is quite... well, quite sensible. He knows how to handle current affairs. Once he surrenders to me, I will definitely reward him handsomely."

"Ma Jinzhong also said that as long as other people respond to the uprising, he will raise the flag in Nankang City. He will also capture Zuo Liangyu, He Tengjiao and others alive and present them to the prince." Wang Tizhong saw that Ajige was happy, and then continued.

"What about the others, Jin Shenghuan, Xu Yong, Zuo Liangyu and others, what do they say?" Ajige did not pay much attention to Ma Jinzhong's flattery. He was only concerned about the speed of eastward advance.

Ajige originally thought that he only needed to gather ships and food supplies to advance eastward along the river, and the rest would be a matter of overcoming obstacles and defeating enemies along the way. There was no need to even capture cities like Jiujiang and Hukou.

But when he actually saw the ships that Li Zicheng had raised, and the reactions of the cavalry and war horses after staying on the ships for a few days, he immediately realized that he had thought too simply.

It was not just a problem that there were not enough ships to transport so many soldiers and supplies at one time, but also that the land troops had difficulty adapting to the long-term bumps on the water, especially the war horses were prone to illness.

At the same time, Shang Kexi also reminded Ajige of the wind and waves, and the possibility that the Ming army might set up obstacles in the river downstream, build fortifications on the shore, and so on.

With no access to food and grass supplies along the coast, going down the river to the east was far from as easy as Ajige had thought when he was initially overwhelmed by victory. If he was not careful, he would likely lose his way.

After the vanguard led by Zheng Siwei and Wang Tizhong was repelled by the Ming navy, Ajige became more cautious. He was usually outspoken and dared to publicly call Shunzhi a child, which was not wrong, and he was also right to disobey Dorgon's military orders.

But one must be careful in fighting, this is his instinct. Ajige soon realized that it was impossible for him to go down the river directly without taking a city.

He had no idea how wide the river downstream was, how strong the wind and waves were, and even less so how many obstacles the Ming army had set up. All of these could very likely deal a fatal blow to his troops.

Ajige was not stupid enough to apply his experience of commanding cavalry to the navy. They were completely different things.

"Zuo Liangyu directly killed the servants sent by me. Jin Shenghuan, Xu Yong, Li Guoying and others did not explicitly refuse, but they kept beating around the bush. It seems that they don't want to be the first to speak out." Wang Tizhong swallowed and said nervously.

"What a great Zuo Liangyu! I didn't expect him to be so courageous!" Ajige said, looking at Wu Sangui with a playful smile.

"I had heard that he completely disobeyed Chongzhen's orders and acted arrogantly inside the Great Wall. I thought he was also someone who would surrender at the first sign of trouble. I never thought so!"

Wu Sangui knew that Ajige was playing tricks on him, but he could only pretend not to hear. How could a man not bow his head under the eaves?
"Maybe this guy is about to die and wants to gain a good reputation for himself." Seeing this, Shang Kexi immediately spoke out to diffuse the awkward atmosphere.

"That's indeed the case." Wang Tizhong continued:

"Zuo Liangyu must have been terminally ill by this time. During the ambush that day, only his banner was seen, but not his person. Furthermore, it seemed like there was a grudge between the various armies. Zuo Liangyu should not have been among them."

"It doesn't matter. A mere Zuo Liangyu can't stop me." Ajige raised his hand to interrupt Wang Tizhong's speech, and then asked:

"What is the current situation of the Ming army garrison in northern Jiangxi?"

Upon hearing this, Zheng Siwei immediately stepped out and answered:

"Your Highness, I have already sent people to investigate. Currently, Jiujiang City is garrisoned by Xu Yong, He Tengjiao leads his battalion, and Zuo Liangyu leads a large army, also stationed in the city, with between 20,000 and 30,000 soldiers.

He Tengjiao handed over Hukou City and Nankang Prefecture, opposite Poyang Lake, to Ma Jinzhong for garrison. There were also thousands of soldiers in the city, all commanded by Ma Jinzhong, with a total strength of between six and seven thousand.

In addition, Jin Shenghuan was stationed in Nanchang Prefecture, and Yuan Jixian led another battalion of 5,000 to 6,000 men there. Zhang Yong led a separate army and was stationed in Jianchang, north of Nanchang.

"The location where Ma Jinzhong is stationed is crucial. If he surrenders, the Ming army in northern Jiangxi will be directly divided into two parts." Ajige said thoughtfully.

"Moreover, if Ma Jinzhong sets this precedent, the morale of the entire Ming army in northern Jiangxi will be shaken, and others who were originally waiting and watching will definitely follow suit." Wang Tizhong said with a smile.

"In which city is Ma Jinzhong's main force deployed? Hukou or Nankang?" Ajige was obviously tempted and asked again.

"It's in the Southeast Kang City east of Lushan Mountain. His cavalry is also inside." Wang Tizhong replied immediately, glancing at Zheng Siwei with a smug look.

"Ma Jinzhong wants us to send troops to support him before he will start his rebellion. Otherwise, Zuo Liangyu will definitely skin him alive. Many people in his army listen to Zuo Liangyu."

"The west and north are protected by Mount Lushan, and the east and south are Poyang Lake. There is only a narrow plain in the southwest that is passable. If I want to defend Nankang City, I am afraid it will take me a month to capture it."

While recalling the military reports sent back by Tangma, Ajige analyzed He Tengjiao's layout. Jiujiang, Nankang, Nanchang, and De'an and Jianchang were on the periphery. If he attacked by force, it might take him half a year to capture them. He had to persuade them to surrender.

"How many cavalrymen does Ma Jinzhong have? And how many armored soldiers does he have?"

"The number of cavalry should not exceed one thousand, maybe seven or eight hundred, or even five or six hundred. There are between one and two thousand armored soldiers. There are others who are also armored, but the armor they use is old and broken, and they are vulnerable." Wang Tizhong continued.

"Your Highness, are you worried that Ma Jinzhong is plotting something and will use the cover of the vegetation on Mount Lushan to ambush our Qing reinforcements?" Zheng Siwei asked maliciously.

“Hahahaha, hahahaha, hahahaha——”

As soon as these words were spoken, all the Manchu and Han generals in the room, including Tan Tai, Oboi, Shang Kexi, and Wu Sangui, burst into laughter. They looked as if they had heard some huge joke.

Seeing this, Zheng Siwei wanted to dig a hole in the ground and crawl into it. What a stupid question he was asking. How could Ma Jinzhong ambush the Eight Banners?
Ajige also laughed out loud. After he had laughed enough, he waved his hand to signal everyone to stop laughing. Then he said with a smile:

"Wang Tizhong, send another servant to negotiate with Ma Jinzhong. I want him to prepare as quickly as possible. In no more than five days, I will capture Nankang."

"Don't worry, Your Highness. I will send someone there immediately." Wang Tizhong bowed and clasped his fists in response.

"Aobai, when the time comes, you will personally lead 1,500 cavalrymen to Nankang to support Ma Jinzhong. I want to see how powerful Ma Jinzhong's cavalry is. He actually makes people think that he can ambush my Eight Banners cavalrymen!"

　I will take a day off for Qingming Festival, and the updates may be late on April 4.5 and . I hope my fellow readers will be informed.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)