Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 267 After the War
Chen Fu rode on his horse, waving a long sword, and the fleeing Qing soldiers in front of him fell one after another under his hacking.

Both he and the horse under him were stained red with blood. The sticky blood slid down his armor, splashed on the ground, and formed streams of blood.

His eyes were filled with murderous intent, as if he had forgotten all the fatigue and pain.

If the second warhorse under his crotch had not finally fallen down due to exhaustion, Chen Fu might have continued the pursuit until the last Qing soldier was killed by his own hands.

On the battlefield, the Ming army's offensive was as fierce as a tide, while those Qing army soldiers who had managed to break through the encirclement fled desperately to the eastern mountain pass.

Most of those who were able to escape were Qing cavalrymen. They thought that as long as they broke through the Ming army's defense line, they could escape, but how could things be so simple?
Part of the Eight Banners cavalry that had originally been holding back Zhong Dingfu's troops had been taken away by Jin Li. The remaining Eight Banners soldiers had already been in chaos due to the collapse of morale, and fell to the ground one after another under the pursuit of the Ming army.

These defeated Qing soldiers tried their best to break through and finally saw a glimmer of hope at the eastern mountain pass. As soon as the spark of hope ignited in their hearts, they found that what was rushing in front of them were the Ming cavalry who turned around to defend.

Faced with this powerful enemy force, they were no longer able to resist.

After a long period of fleeing for their lives, the physical strength of these defeated soldiers had long been exhausted, as if they had reached the point of running out of energy.

The Ming cavalry rushed into their midst without mercy, hacking at them with their swords, and the defeated soldiers could only helplessly wait for death to come.

This last group of defeated soldiers quickly disappeared without a trace at the eastern mountain pass.

Of the 60,000 to 70,000 Qing troops led by Ajige and Jin Li, including the baoyi soldiers who were responsible for luring the enemy, only less than 10,000 people managed to escape, except for the several thousand people taken away by Jin Li during the chaos.

At the same time, more than 10,000 Green Camp soldiers and Green Camp troops chose to surrender, and the remaining tens of thousands of Qing troops were all buried in this bloody valley.

As the earth-shaking sounds of fighting gradually dissipated, the vast valley battlefield southwest of Jinan City finally returned to a brief period of calm.

The air was filled with a strong smell of gunpowder mixed with the pungent smell of blood.

Tens of thousands of fallen bodies were strewn everywhere, some still in their fighting stances.

On the battlefield in the valley, countless war horses lost their riders and stood alone on the battlefield full of corpses, making shrill neighing sounds, as if bidding their final farewell to this tragic battle.

Chen Fu rode his horse slowly back to his original command position.

He looked down at his armor stained with blood, his eyes fell on the "clairvoyance" that was pierced by the Qing army's spear, and he couldn't help feeling a little regretful.

This treasure played a huge role in the battle, but now it has become useless.

He secretly regretted that he should not have brought such a precious item with him to the battlefield.

He looked up and ahead, and the scene before him left him speechless for a moment.

The ground of the valley was covered with corpses. The dense corpses, scattered weapons and broken flags covered the entire battlefield tightly.

The earth was dyed crimson by the blood, and several originally clear streams had now become rivers of blood. Countless broken limbs and bodies floated on the surface of the rivers, which was a shocking sight.

"The Manchus were defeated, the Tartars were defeated, I won, the Ming Dynasty won!" Chen Fu muttered to himself, his eyes gradually became moist, and a few drops of hot tears rolled down involuntarily.

He didn't know whether he was crying for the unprecedented victory of the Ming army, or for the more than 20,000 soldiers who fought alongside him but could never stand up again.

However, in this battle, the main force of the Qing army ambushed by Chen Fu also suffered heavy losses.

At the end of the battle, only more than 20,000 men under Chen Fu were still capable of fighting, while the remaining one-third of the troops were either killed or seriously injured and were no longer able to continue fighting.

The force was temporarily unable to launch any new offensive until it could undergo a comprehensive reorganization.

But the significance of this victory is indisputable.

After this battle, the Qing army's main forces in the Central Plains and even in the interior were almost wiped out.

For the Qing Dynasty, this was not only a defeat in a battle, but also a major strategic failure.

From now on, the Qing army's power within the Great Wall will be completely wiped out, and the Ming Dynasty will take this opportunity to further recover lost territory, or even go out of the Great Wall to destroy the Qing Dynasty and eliminate future troubles.

On the battlefield, the setting sun was blood-red, illuminating the valley littered with corpses. The neighing of war horses gradually faded, replaced by a deathly silence.

As the news of Dorgon and Ajige's defeat reached Qihe County, which was still resisting around Jinan City, the situation there quickly reversed.

Upon hearing the news, the Green Camp soldiers and Baoyi soldiers in the city turned against the enemy without hesitation and opened the city gates.

Gao Jie's army took advantage of the situation and entered the city, wiping out a part of the Qing Eight Banners troops stationed in the city with almost no effort. Two Qing generals in the city died on the battlefield.

Those Green Camp military officers who still had the will to resist were forced to surrender under the coercion of their subordinates, and the situation turned upside down in an instant.

At the same time, Lin Changfeng led an army of 20,000 that was still capable of fighting, and pursued the remnants of Jin Li's defeated troops without hesitation.

Jin Li hastily gathered nearly 10,000 defeated soldiers during the retreat, but facing the aggressive Ming army pursuers, his army's morale had already been broken and he was unable to organize an effective resistance.

Lin Changfeng's pursuit was like a gust of wind sweeping away fallen leaves, and he was unstoppable all the way.

With Jin Li's retreat, news of the complete collapse of one of the main forces of the Qing army in the Central Plains spread like wildfire, from Jinan Prefecture in Shandong all the way to Hejian Prefecture in northern Zhili.

Wherever Lin Changfeng's army went, the Green Camp defenders in various places defected one after another, and there was almost no large-scale fighting.

Large areas of land in the northern two prefectures of Shandong and northern Zhili were recovered by the Ming army in just a few days. The few remaining Qing cities had become isolated islands, and it was only a matter of time before they could fight back.

Lin Changfeng's troops advanced quickly, clearing out the remaining enemies, and the situation completely tilted towards the Ming army.

At this point, Zhu Cilang's army had successfully recaptured two important prefectures in northern Shandong, and some counties in eastern and northern Henan also returned to the territory of the Ming Dynasty.

The Ming army's victory was further expanded, and the troops headed straight for Kaifeng. The dawn of victory in completely conquering the Central Plains had already appeared.

However, Zhu Cilang knew very well that after a series of hard battles, his 50,000 most elite main forces were exhausted and suffered heavy casualties, making it difficult to continue a large-scale offensive.

Although the war in Northern Zhili was imminent, he was unable to launch a new offensive against Northern Zhili due to lack of troops. Although he was anxious, he had no idea what to do.

However, Zhu Cilang has successfully achieved his strategic goal. Except for northern Zhili, almost the entire land within the Great Wall has fallen into his control. His advantage is now very obvious.

When the news came that Jin Li had fled hastily to Northern Zhili, and at the same time Tian Jianxiu and Ma Shixiu led a large army to recapture the prefectures in eastern and western Henan, gradually advancing towards Nanyang, preparing to capture the city in one fell swoop, the situation changed again.

At this time, in Nanyang City, Chen Tai and Gao Di knew that the situation had reached a desperate point and it was meaningless to continue resisting.

But in order to save their lives, they still chose to put up a final resistance, trying to hurt the Ming army with a tough defensive battle in exchange for surrender.

Gao Di knew that instead of defending the city pointlessly, it would be better to fight to the bitter end, intimidate the enemy, and force them to accept his terms. However, Gao Di and Chen Tai's plan failed, and their plan did not work.

Seeing that the situation was not good, Gao Di immediately made up his mind to deal with Chen Tai, and it was not just as simple as depriving him of his military power.

His plan was to completely eliminate this old Manchu general and not give him any chance to resist in exchange for his own life.

At the same time, Tian Jianxiu and Ma Shixiu had already decided to get rid of Gao Di, who wanted to surrender, rather than just depriving him of his military power and putting him under house arrest.

Tian Jianxiu and Ma Shixiu's strategies appear to be more sophisticated and experienced.

If Gao Di surrendered smoothly, Tian Jianxiu and Ma Shixiu would naturally integrate the most elite troops into their main camp, while the remaining Qing army surrendered soldiers would be organized into independent troops like the Qing army in Huguang, and would continue to be commanded by the original generals.

In this way, not only can the enemy's combat effectiveness be weakened, but one's own military strength can also be expanded at the lowest cost.

As a result, the two successfully completed the task of regaining lost territory without suffering any major losses.

At this point, without any major losses, the two men expanded their influence, which was originally limited to a few prefectures in southern Henan, to more than a dozen prefectures in northern and western Henan, and rescued millions of people.

However, despite the fruitful results, it did not fully meet the expectations of the two.

Gaodi's troops were still stationed in Nanyang, a force that should not be underestimated. Furthermore, remnants of the Qing army led by Jirgalang remained in Shanxi, making the situation complex.

Zhu Cilang felt complicated when he heard the battle report.

Although he had the strategic upper hand, the scale of the army's losses exceeded his expectations.

Although he still had enough troops to continue fighting, the pressure suddenly increased.

However, the victory news, which should have been a good sign, was accompanied by huge losses for the army.

First, the main forces of Ajige and Jin Li were almost wiped out by Chen Fu.

Although Jin Li led five or six thousand remaining soldiers to flee eastward, they were eventually intercepted by Lin Changfeng's troops in the Hejian area, and half of them were annihilated.

Although Jin Li did not choose to die on the battlefield, he eventually escaped back to Beijing by chance.

However, after Lin Changfeng's pursuit, Jin Li's troops were dragged down and almost collapsed.

However, this unit had been fleeing for a long distance under Lin Changfeng's pursuit, and its combat effectiveness was almost gone. Chen Fu easily defeated them and achieved great military merit.

As a result, Jin Li's troops no longer posed a substantial threat.

The Qing army suffered heavy losses in this battle, and rebuilding its elite troops was no easy task for the Qing army, which had not yet established a complete military training system.

Without two or three years, or even longer, they will not be able to recover their original combat effectiveness.

This means that the Qing army will not be able to launch an effective military confrontation with Zhu Cilang's army in the short term.

Although Zhu Cilang's army only lost 20,000 people in the "Valley Battle", it seemed that it did not have much impact on his more than 100,000 elite troops.

In fact, the real losses are far more serious than the numbers show.

Although the 80,000 troops under his command were all elite, their combat effectiveness was uneven.

The reason why the fifty to sixty thousand veterans carefully selected by Zhu Cilang are so important is that they have rich combat experience and sophisticated combat skills.

The experience and skills of these veterans cannot be replaced by new recruits who have been in the army for less than a year.

You know, even if the various departments of the Palace Army have established an assembly line military training system, it is still not enough.

In other words, the Qing army's loss of these veterans not only meant that the army's combat effectiveness was severely weakened, but also meant that the time to train new recruits and improve overall combat effectiveness was greatly extended.

The Qing army has not yet established a standardized and professional training system, and it will probably take several years to restore its former combat effectiveness.

However, the favorable situation of the war made Zhu Cilang issue orders to all troops to enter northern Zhili without hesitation.

Chang Denggui, Gao Jie, Huang Degong and other troops quickly wiped out the remnants of the Qing army in Shandong. The prefectures guarded by the Green Camp Army defected one after another. Except for the city of Jinan, almost all the Qing army strongholds in Shandong were eliminated.

Soon after, with the defeat of Ajige and Jin Li, the vast area south of the Yellow River was almost entirely regained control by the Ming army.

The last main force of the Qing army led by Kong Youde was besieged in Jinan, and the situation took a turn for the worse.

The news quickly spread to Beijing, making the Manchu nobles extremely anxious.

Turmoil within the Qing court ensued, and Manchu ministers in the court submitted memorials one after another, demanding emergency measures.

However, the eight-year-old Emperor Shunzhi had no decision-making ability, and the regent Dorgon, who was actually in power, was deeply shaken.

In order to consolidate the situation, Dorgon decided to urgently transfer generals such as Jirgalang and Aljin and their troops back to Beijing to deal with the fierce attack of the Ming army.

The military and political power of Shanxi is about to fall into the hands of the Green Camp Army, and the situation of the Qing Dynasty in the northwest is precarious.

If Dorgon had not taken timely action, the thousands of Qing troops in the northwest would probably have been unable to return to Beijing and might even have been completely annihilated.

The Qing army's disastrous defeat and low morale gave Zhu Cilang the opportunity to further advance into northern Zhili.

Zhu Cilang now felt that this was a rare opportunity. Despite the loss of some veterans and elite troops, he still had an absolute advantage overall, especially as the situation in northern Zhili gradually became clear.

He understood that if he did not seize the opportunity to attack now, there might never be such a favorable opportunity in the future.

He summoned all the generals, especially his trusted generals such as Chen Fu and Gao Jie, to launch a new round of strategic discussions.

Zhu Cilang's instructions were very clear - while the Qing army had not yet recovered, immediately launch a full-scale attack on northern Zhili and make sure to completely control the area in the shortest possible time.

In this way, the situation in the capital and even the entire north will be controlled by the Ming army.

At the meeting, Zhu Cilang analyzed the current situation in detail.

The Qing army's strongholds in Shanxi, Henan and Shandong were successively eliminated, but remnants still remained, especially Jirgalang's troops in northern Shanxi, which still had considerable manpower. If the situation was not resolved quickly, there would inevitably be another wave of turmoil in the rear.

Although Kong Youde in Shandong has been besieged, if the war in northern Zhili is delayed, the Eight Banners of Manchuria may regroup and go out of the pass to occupy Liaodong, which will create an irreversible situation.

(End of this chapter)