Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 121 Recovering the Lost Territory in Huaibei
On the night of the victory of the "Battle of Tushan", after listening to the reports on casualties from various units, Zhu Cilang immediately adjusted the subsequent pursuit plan based on the performance of Tulai's troops in this battle and the Qing army's retreat to the north.

As soon as the military meeting ended, he immediately sent Tang Ma to convey new combat orders to the two main generals Gao Jie and Huang Degong in Huaibei. At the same time, he transferred all the thousands of troops originally stationed in Yangzhou, Liu Zeqing's troops in Luzhou, and Huang Fei's navy in Zhenjiang to the north.

After Chang Denggui chased to Shouzhou, he confirmed that the remnants of Tulai's troops had retreated north, so he immediately led his troops back to the temporary camp of the Ming army south of Tushan. He was then sent by Zhu Cilang to chase the army led by Chen Fu, continue to pursue Duoduo's Qing army, and recover the prefectures in Huaibei and eastern Henan.

Zhu Cilang and a group of generals analyzed Duoduo's deployment to block the enemy during his retreat and knew that the enemy had not completely lost its composure. Tulai's defeat at Tushan was more due to the fact that he did not anticipate the sudden change of the navy.

However, as Tulai was quickly defeated and lost more than half of his troops, Duoduo must have dared not to ambush along the way again. The confidence of the Qing army had been exhausted in the process.

However, the Qing army still had an absolute advantage in military strength over the Ming army at this time. Zhu Cilang rested in Tushan for another day. Even if he wanted to chase, he could not.

As for Gao Jie, who was leading his troops to recover lost territories in southern and western Shandong at this time, and Huang Degong, who had been harassing the Qing army in the northern prefecture of Fengyang, they had to temporarily avoid the attack.

Although Gao Jie and Huang Degong received support from the Palace Army and the Beijing Camp, especially Gao Jie, who now had tens of thousands of troops under his command, they would still be vulnerable if they encountered the main force of the Qing army led by Duoduo.

However, although the Ming army was unable to catch up with the Qing army and implement the so-called roundabout encirclement, Chang Denggui and Chen Fu still tried their best to catch up and bluff to prevent the Qing army from having a chance to catch its breath and leaving heavy troops to occupy important places such as Guide.

Similarly, the Fujian Navy led by Zheng Hongkui will also send a detachment to escort the baggage ships and go directly north along the flooded Wo River to assist the land army in regaining lost territory, especially retaking Bozhou, the gateway to Fengyang.

If Zhu Cilang wanted to build the Jianghuai defense line and seize the initiative on the battlefield, he could not only recover the prefectures in Nanzhili, but also Yanzhou, Guide, southeastern Runing, and even half of the prefectures in southern Kaifeng. He had to take advantage of the time window when the Qing army retreated hastily to the north to recover them.

The Ming army currently does not have the strength to deal with the Qing army's counterattack in the Central Plains, but the Qing army has been fighting in the south and the north for more than half a year, and Duoduo's troops have suffered repeated defeats. They will definitely not be able to march south again in a short period of time.

Zhu Cilang wanted to seize the initiative in the war, not to save land, but to save people.

These prefectures will definitely be the front lines of future battlefields and the forward strongholds of the Qing army's southern expedition. Those pass cities located between transportation hubs are natural defensive positions. If they are controlled by the Qing army, the Ming Dynasty will inevitably be at a disadvantage in future wars.

But if the people in these places were all transferred by Zhu Cilang to the area between the Yangtze River and the Huai River in the south, even if the Qing army went south to capture these cities, it would not be able to obtain manpower and material resources locally.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty still had sufficient depth, and Zhu Cilang's strategy of relying on strong cities and rivers to block the enemy step by step also won the actual combat. What he had to do now was to buy more time and accumulate enough strength to overwhelm the Eight Banners Army.

After resting for a night at Longkangji on the banks of the Woshui River, Chen Fu waited for Chang Denggui, and then continued to lead his troops in pursuit. On the way, they saw countless civilians who had fallen to death from exhaustion, as well as cannons and weapons abandoned by the Qing army.

However, almost all of the cannons were destroyed by gunpowder by the Qing army, but the armor and weapons were almost intact, which shows how embarrassed the Qing army was when they retreated.

Chang Denggui quickly led his troops to Mengcheng, which had become an empty city with no soldiers stationed there. Only a few civilians who took advantage of the chaos to escape from the clutches of the Qing army were left around it, and many Qing soldiers' bodies were lying around the road.

Chen Fu and Chang Denggui continued to lead their troops northward without encountering any obstacles along the way. Four days later, they successfully entered Bozhou City, which was heavily guarded and heavily defended by the Qing army.

By this time, Zhunta had already led his troops and followed Duoduo in their retreat northward. Under his command, the last retreating Eight Banners Army burned down several grain warehouses and houses in the city, leaving the city in ruins.

The baggage that could not be burned in time was looted by the servants of Huang Degong, who had led his troops into the city first. The latter even sent troops directly to the government offices and barracks in the city.

However, Huang Degong was not a short-sighted and ignorant person. When he saw Chen Fu and Chang Denggui leading the troops, he personally led his troops out of the city to welcome them.

Chen Fu had read the intelligence sent back by the Embroidered Uniform Guard and naturally knew that the baggage in Bozhou City could not be completely burned, but he could not care about that at the moment. After meeting up with Huang Degong's army, he continued to head north.

However, Duoduo finally left a troop garrison in Guide. Although Chen Fu joined forces with Huang Degong, he had no siege equipment prepared. After the vanguard's surprise attack failed, he could only choose to recapture other cities in Guide Prefecture first.

At the same time, Gao Jie quickly led his army eastward to assist Chen Fu in recovering the lost territory in the Central Plains. The Qing army in Guide Prefecture saw that more and more Ming troops were gathering outside the city, and the main army led by Duoduo was getting farther and farther away, so they resolutely chose to break out.

Duoduo did not let them hold on to the death. The entire eastern Henan had already been destroyed by the Qing army and almost turned into a wasteland. Leaving such a force behind was nothing more than an attempt to block the Ming army and prevent the latter from catching up quickly.

As the Qing army in Guide Prefecture fled north, Chen Fu encountered almost no decent resistance in his actions in eastern Henan, and even in the prefectures south of Kaifeng.

By the time the southern army, under the personal command of Zhu Cilang, the emperor of the Ming Dynasty and commander-in-chief of the six armies, marched north to eastern Henan, the Ming army finally had enough troops and began to launch offensives against Yanzhou Prefecture and Runing Prefecture, successfully recaptured a number of cities.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the Qing court immediately sent Hauge to lead troops south to enter Jinan, Dongpingzhou and other places to deter the aggressive Ming army and curb the latter's offensive.

Zhu Cilang had no intention of launching a northern expedition. After achieving his strategic goal, he naturally stopped recovering the lost territory. After deploying garrisons and governing officials in various prefectures, he led his troops back to Xuzhou City, which he had been away from for a long time.

Looking at the still majestic and impregnable Xuzhou City in front of him, Zhu Cilang couldn't help but think of the victory of the "Battle of Suizhou", the battle of wits and courage with the Qing army in the past six months, the nights of high tension, and the seemingly endless sound of artillery day after day.

Although these things happened within half a year, Zhu Cilang felt as if a long time had passed. Even the great victory in the "Tushan Battle" more than ten days ago, when he relaxed physically and mentally and smoked with a group of generals in the big tent, seemed like something deep in his memory.

This made Zhu Cilang feel like he had met someone again after a long separation, and the past events were still fresh in his memory.

However, the loud shouts and warm welcome of tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians in Xuzhou City quickly dispelled Zhu Cilang's pretentiousness. He immediately regained the majesty of the emperor on horseback. The state of relaxation of body and mind had never been characteristic of the monarch of the Ming Dynasty.

Shortly after the army entered the city, Zhu Cilang convened the first military conference in Xuzhou with the participation of all the generals in Jiangbei after the great victory of the "Jianghuai Defense War".

In the government office of Xuzhou City, he immediately praised the merits of these generals who had held their ground for more than half a year, starting with Chen Fu and Chang Denggui who had made the most contributions, then to the generals of the Palace Army and the Beijing Camp, followed by Gao Jie, Huang Degong and others. Naturally, Liu Zeqing was left out without any surprise.

The first item on the agenda of the meeting was a brief report on the results of the "Jianghuai Defense War" by Chang Denggui, who was responsible for counting the battle results in the army, and Zhang Huangyan, the chief instructor who was responsible for verifying the results.

"Since the Battle of Suizhou, until the Battle of Recovering Guide, for more than half a year, our army fought seven major offensive and defensive battles in Suizhou, Huaibei, Fengyang, Tushan and other places, and countless small battles in Yanzhou, Xuzhou, Huai'an, Guide, Fengyang, Bozhou, Suzhou, and Wuhe, killing more than 22,000 Qing troops.

Among them, more than 8,000 Eight Banner soldiers were killed on the battlefield, more than 4,000 armored soldiers of the Geng and Kong factions, and nearly 10,000 Han soldiers surrendered to the Qing army. In addition, they also wiped out many rebel groups, recruited more than 3,000 Han soldiers who rebelled in Fengyang, and recruited more than 40,000 volunteer soldiers in Shandong, Henan and other places.
In addition to these beheadings, more than 200 Eight Banners soldiers, more than 100 Baoyi soldiers, and more than 1,300 Han soldiers surrendered during the battle and pursuit. Among them, several officers were quite familiar with the situation of Duoduo's Eight Banners Army. They took the initiative to confess a lot of military information about the Eight Banners, only asking Your Majesty to spare their lives. They wanted to atone for their sins and serve Your Majesty to recover the country.

Furthermore, when Duoduo led his army in retreat, he dispatched hundreds of cavalry to slaughter the civilians remaining in the camp. Our Celestial Cavalry Battalion quickly stormed out of the city, driving back these Eight Banners, ultimately rescuing over 40,000 civilians."

After hearing the report, all the generals smiled, especially the Palace Army and the Beijing Camp generals in Fengyang City. Most of the Qing army's more than 20,000 casualties occurred near Fengyang City, Huaibei, and Tushan. They were all the results of their battles.

Although Gao Jie and Huang Degong worked very hard in the north, their own strength was limited. They could not even deal with the two Jiala of Zhunta and less than 3,000 Eight Banners soldiers. Naturally, the number of Qing troops killed and wounded was not large.

The Palace Army and the Beijing Camp also paid a huge price for this. After thousands of soldiers were drawn from the Fengyang Camp and local camps to supplement them, only more than 13,000 soldiers capable of fighting were left in the seven camps.

When Chang Denggui was summarizing the casualties of each unit, Zhu Cilang and the other generals all looked restrained and even clenched their fists.

After all, the Qing army's combat effectiveness was strong. At this time, there was no essential gap between the Ming army and the other side. Their training and equipment were even similar. Both sides belonged to the feudal armies of the 17th century. Although the Ming army had the advantage of holding on, its casualty ratio was also not good.

During the more than half a year they have been stationed in Fengyang City, the Palace Army and the Beijing Camp, which are the main force in the field, have to train and coordinate with the soldiers drawn back from other camps after each major battle to ensure their combat effectiveness.

Otherwise, Zhu Cilang would not have given up such a good opportunity to pursue. After the "Battle of Tushan", he set aside a day and a night for the army to rest.

However, after witnessing the Qing army's crushing defeat, and even the ugly scene of internecine slaughter during the rout, these battle-hardened generals' previous fear of the Eight Banners had completely dissipated. In the face of the total army's rout, the so-called elite Eight Banners troops, like the soldiers they once commanded, became headless flies. The Eight Banners soldiers were not invulnerable, nor were they invincible.

Under Zhu Cilang's long-term influence, Chen Fu and Chang Denggui's logical thinking abilities improved rapidly, and they all thought of the same question - if they were to launch a Northern Expedition in the future, when they were about to capture a fortified city, would they also face such a dangerous situation? How should their soldiers be trained to completely defeat those Eight Banners soldiers?
Zhu Cilang naturally followed the old rules in dealing with those who surrendered to the Qing army, dealing with them in different levels. He would squeeze out every last bit of value from the Eight Banners soldiers, baoyi soldiers, and vassal soldiers who had committed serious crimes.

After introducing the casualties of the "Jianghuai Defense War", Zhang Huangyan immediately began to report the spoils before and after the battle, especially Duoduo's early withdrawal, and finally had to speed up his retreat in the face of pursuit, leaving behind a lot of supplies and artillery along the way.

Among these captured items, the most valuable were various types of armor and war horses that were in short supply for the Ming army.

The captured armors were mainly cotton armor and chain mail, with some expensive and sturdy scale armor as well. However, most of them were severely damaged on the battlefield. Only more than 5,000 sets were barely usable after repair, and most of them were close to being scrapped.

There were over 3,000 newly captured war horses, the vast majority of which were in good condition and uninjured, otherwise they would have been roasted. The number of captured swords and guns, which had not yet been counted, was even greater.

The number of muskets and artillery captured was not small, with more than 3,000 muskets and more than 40 artillery pieces. However, most of them were damaged, especially the artillery pieces.

When the Qing army abandoned their artillery, they would often use gunpowder to blow them up to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Ming army.

What Zhu Cilang was most concerned about was actually the captured war horses. The cavalry of the Palace Army and the Beijing Camp suffered heavy losses in this battle, and the Ming army also needed to further expand its cavalry. In the future Northern Expedition, he would need at least 50,000 cavalry and hundreds of thousands of war horses.

Of course, Zhu Cilang wasn't the only one delighted by the news of the capture. These weapons, armor, and horses would eventually be assigned to the various divisions. No one could have too much armor, swords, and firearms. Even though the captured horses were specifically for the cavalry battalions, the scout horses of the various divisions and the generals' personal guards would also receive corresponding benefits.

In this battle, all the divisions suffered heavy losses, and their forces needed to be replenished and restored after the battle. Jiangnan had no shortage of troops, but whether the equipment could keep up was another major problem.

After summarizing the battle results, casualties and spoils of war, Zhu Cilang began his speech. He praised the heroic performance of the various units in this war that lasted for more than half a year, as well as the strategic and tactical results of this battle.

This not only includes the strategic and tactical thinking of concentrating superior forces, combining offense and defense, and coordinated operations on land and sea, but also thinking about arms equipment, especially the strengthening of infantry formations with muskets and artillery, and the powerful mobility and battlefield application of cavalry.

The cavalry's several night raids in the Battle of Fengyang, the great flexibility and initiative shown in the full-scale counterattack, and the harassment by Gao Jie and Huang Degong's armies in Jiangbei all proved that cavalry was the "king of war" at that time.

This military conference was actually both a commendation and summary meeting. In fact, it was also a meeting for generals from various departments to fight for military budgets in order to expand the army after the war and improve their status in the army.

At the beginning of the meeting, Zhu Cilang asked Chang Denggui and Zhang Huangyan to make various summaries and fill in the gaps. Naturally, this was to fully understand the situation in the army, but also to determine the focus of future military expansion and the specific direction of military reform.

The silver in the national treasury is limited, and he must use it wisely!

Of course, in addition to this, Zhu Cilang also wanted to cultivate this kind of military democratic deliberation style of brainstorming and promoting collective wisdom among the top military leaders.
The military meeting began in such a heated atmosphere, and a group of generals immediately analyzed the strategic and tactical gains and losses of several major battles in the "Jianghuai Defense War", as well as the problems existing in each department.

Before the war, Zhu Cilang summoned the ministers of the six ministries and the commanders of each camp to formulate a thorough defense and counterattack plan, as well as backup plans for dealing with various emergencies. These plans played a huge role in the early stages of the war. The early deployment in northern Jiangxi even played a crucial role in the final victory.

Not only that, in the middle of the war, based on the reaction of the Qing army, the rapid and bold attacks launched by Gao Jie and Huang Degong's two armies in the north should not be ignored.

If the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of War had not prepared food and military supplies early on, and if Jianghuai had not built a large number of strong cities early on, these linked actions would have been almost impossible to achieve.

The outcome of a war is never determined by a single factor. The victory of the Ming army was the result of all the efforts made by Zhu Cilang after he went south and ascended the throne.

As the discussion became increasingly heated, Chen Fu and Chang Denggui suddenly stood up and, amidst the eager and passionate gazes of the crowd, requested Zhu Cilang to rebuild the Grand Marshal's Office and control the military.

Although the current Minister of War, Li Banghua, was knowledgeable about military affairs, he was ultimately a civilian. After witnessing the ridiculous behavior of those elders in Fengyang, they ultimately did not dare to fully trust them. Meanwhile, the Five Military Governors' Offices had long since become a mere formality, with the descendants of those nobles merely occupying positions without doing anything.

Zhu Cilang naturally guessed the purpose of Chen Fu, Chang Denggui, and the military they represented in making this request. He actually wanted to take advantage of this great victory to expand the power of the army.

However, as the military's power expanded, how to control it became his primary concern as a ruler. Otherwise, if the military's combat effectiveness increased, the national system would be in danger.

The Ming army's weakness and frailty during the war weren't simply a matter of powerless generals and low status for soldiers. Reforming the entire irrational system was the only real solution, addressing both the symptoms and the root causes.

"This war has exposed many problems, many of which must be resolved as soon as possible. Otherwise, they will accumulate over time and become a serious problem." Zhu Cilang looked around at the generals in front of him and slowly said:

"Reforms to the Grand Military Governor's Office and the Ministry of War must be advanced after this battle. You are all meritorious officials of the nation and my wise generals. You must demonstrate the same enterprising spirit you demonstrated today when deliberating in the court in the future."

"Your Majesty is wise!" Upon hearing this, all the generals knelt down.

Zhu Cilang's words clearly indicated that as the ruler of a country, he had to carry out reforms, but he would not do so right from the start.

Of course, these military generals were thinking about power, while Zhu Cilang was thinking about how to use reforms to reshape a powerful army, how to utilize the military system and decentralize logistics and military affairs, and keep the army firmly in his own hands.

The key lies in the specialization and systematization of conscription, training, command, officer training, and logistics and military supply, which is the separation of duties and powers.

He needed the Ming Dynasty to have several powerful corps to conquer all directions, recover lost territories, and even expand the country's territory, but he did not need any generals to have a strong army.

After the summary of the generals, Zhu Cilang also pointed out some shortcomings in the performance of each army in this war. At the same time, taking advantage of some chaos that occurred in various departments during the war and the post-war pursuit, he proposed further expanding the authority of the Military Affairs Department, increasing the power of the instructors, and requiring officers to strengthen training and improve their capabilities.

He immediately announced that the "Military Academy" would be expanded after this battle. At the same time, he emphasized the necessity and urgency of improving the quality of officers, and announced that military literacy and cultural level would be the necessary conditions for the promotion of middle and senior officers in the future.

Zhu Cilang has always attached great importance to military education, especially the education of officers, as well as timely and appropriate improvement of the soldiers' military and cultural qualities. In particular, many soldiers and officers will retire in the next few years for various reasons and become the backbone of the Ming Dynasty's future social governance and reform.

These measures to improve the overall organization of the army and promote the specialization of its functions will undoubtedly weaken the power of the battalion commanders and generals of each army at this time.

But Zhu Cilang had just led them to victory over Duoduo and defeated the invincible Eight Banners Army. His reputation was at its highest. No one dared to explicitly oppose anything he wanted to do at this time.

Therefore, the construction of "Military Academy" based on battalions in the army and the training of grassroots officers, along with the reform of the Grand Marshal's Office in exchange, successfully became the top priority of further reform of the army after the war in military discussions.

There is no doubt that officers who have received systematic education are significantly superior to traditional officers in terms of combat will and command flexibility, grasp of the battle situation, and understanding of military orders.

In addition, Zhu Cilang has always attached great importance to the soldiers' pensions, treatment, and solving their worries in battle. He took advantage of the opportunity created by this war and immediately asked the Military Affairs Department and the Logistics Department to formulate a series of detailed regulations.

Among these, the most important is the pensions and living security for veterans who are injured and soldiers who died in battle, especially the priority protection of veterans and families of heroes and martyrs.

What Zhu Cilang needs to do is to eventually form a complete set of laws and systems for the army, and supplement and improve them step by step. This is the key to ensuring the combat effectiveness of the army and promoting the army's transformation towards modernization.

　I saw the feedback from book friends about last night's chapter, as well as some explanations of the power of firearms and battlefield casualties at this time, as well as the author's thoughts on these issues, which were posted in the chapter review of last night's chapter. Book friends who are interested can take a look.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)