Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 27: The Lord of the Horses
"Yes, it's the Tartars!"

Zhu Cilang narrowed his eyes, his tone instantly becoming serious. He looked up at the desolate village beside the canal and recalled:
Last September, after looting the Great Wall, the Tartars again launched an attack on western Liaoning. The three cities between Ningyuan and Shanhaiguan fell: Zhonghouso, Qiantunwei, and Zhongqianso. In October, tens of thousands of Tartar soldiers attacked Ningyuan. Although they were repelled by Wu Sangui, their intention to enter the Great Wall was already clear.

Although Li Zicheng has an army of over 100,000, he has conquered all of North China in just two months, and his forces are scattered across various prefectures. If the Tartars invade again, can he muster enough troops to repel them?

"This"

Li Banghua was fully aware of the military situation both inside and outside the country. He was also well aware that relying solely on the Shanhaiguan fortress and the thin Great Wall to the north of Shuntian Prefecture would not be enough to stop the Qing army. Once all the fortresses in the Liaoxi Corridor were lost, the Qing would certainly not bother to go around the grassland to enter the pass.

"So, Your Highness believes that Li Zicheng cannot stop the Tartars and will eventually surrender the capital?"

"Not just the capital, but also northern Zhili, Shandong, Shanxi, and even Henan, Shaanxi, and Huguang. If Li Zicheng cannot defeat the Tartars in a head-on battle, I'm afraid they will reveal their true colors and begin to abandon cities and flee as they have done in the past."

Zhu Cilang shook his head and frowned again:

"By then, the remaining hundreds of thousands of troops in the Nine Frontiers will probably be quickly incorporated by the Tartars, just like when they surrendered to Li Zicheng. The Tartars are very experienced in this regard."

"Is Li Zicheng so despicable?" Li Banghua frowned, obviously unable to believe it. This was a giant bandit who swept across the entire northern country in just four years.

"Mr. Meng, who do you think is stronger, the Liaozhen or Shaanxi soldiers?"

Zhu Cilang had long guessed that Li Banghua, one of the few ministers in the Ming court who knew about military affairs, had also misjudged the situation.

"Naturally, the Liaozhen army is stronger. The Tartars have invaded the Great Wall six times, and countless armies have come to support the king. But let alone defeating the Tartars, only a handful of them have been able to fight against them.

Moreover, the Kong-Li mutiny and the subsequent suppression of rebellions within the Great Wall were actually suppressed by the Liao army transferred into the Great Wall. Although the troops within the Great Wall also had elite troops, they were generally inferior to those of the Liao army.

Li Banghua affirmed that since he was reinstated in April of the 12th year of Chongzhen and took office as the Minister of War in Nanjing, he began to re-study the examples of the imperial army's suppression of bandits and battles against the enemy over the years, but he had never put his skills to good use.

“But even the Liaozhen was no match for the Tartar army. They could still fight a battle between a few hundred or a thousand soldiers, but once the number exceeded ten thousand, they would often lose their composure and become disorganized.

When I was commanding the army to suppress bandits in Nanzhili, I also had a deep understanding of this. I can still command a few thousand soldiers, but if it exceeds ten thousand, then..."

"Then there will be a lot of people and horses that I don't know how to arrange. It seems like they are redundant, right?" Zhu Cilang smiled, retracted his gaze from a distance, and looked at Li Banghua.

If Li Banghua were to command an army or a group army in later generations, his command ability might be at the level of a regimental or divisional commander. If he were to command an army or a group army, the result would definitely be ugly.

Most of the generals of the Ming Dynasty were also only regimental or divisional commanders. The repeated failures of the Ming Dynasty in the war against the Qing Dynasty were not only due to the lack of combat effectiveness of the army, but also to tactical command problems, which had a considerable impact.

"Your Highness." Li Banghua looked surprised. He himself hadn't figured out how to describe this situation, but Zhu Cilang put it into words.

Zhu Cilang looked at the other person and then said:

"If we simply look at the current strength of both sides, Li Zicheng can still fight the Qing Dynasty. After Hong Chengchou defected to the Qing Dynasty, he was actually the most powerful commander in the interior, capable of commanding an army of hundreds of thousands.

Even if field battles fail, it is not impossible to hold the city firmly, wait for an opportunity to launch a surprise attack, and rely on the strong terrain of Shanxi and Shaanxi to continuously consume the Qing army's troops, just like what Hong Chengchou did in Songjin.

But he had been a bandit for so many years, always running away when he couldn't win. Now he was facing the Tartar soldiers whose field combat capabilities far surpassed his army. Would he dare to fight head-on?

Li Banghua was speechless after hearing this. He was one of the few civil officials in the Ming court who truly understood military affairs and had the ability to lead troops in battle, train troops, and organize the army. However, he had no idea what Zhu Cilang was saying.

He didn't expect that the Crown Prince in front of him, who was studying the "Military Training Records" from time to time, was actually a natural-born handsome man!
"That's why I said that even if we reach Jiangnan, our real enemy will still be the Tartars, not the rebels. Even if the rebels are still rebels, the Western Rebels may be able to help the Ming Dynasty block the Tartars' fierce offensive in the future."

When Zhu Cilang was a soldier in his previous life, he studied a lot of military theories and had in-depth studies on ancient military history, especially Li Zicheng, who was commented on by his instructor.

Therefore, he did not find it surprising or unreasonable that the Dashun Army, a semi-mule-and-horse army from the Central Plains that had just completed regularization, was defeated by the Qing Dynasty's fully mule-and-horse army from Liaodong that had already been established.

If you have a little knowledge of ancient military affairs, you will know that Li Zicheng's failure is not surprising. Even if a group of Shaanxi Ming troops had sufficient food and pay, how could they defeat the main force of the Qing Dynasty on the front battlefield when they did not have an advantage in manpower?

The reason why Hong Chengchou was able to perform so well in the early stage of the "Songjin Battle" was that he used the elite servants of Liaozhen to continuously consume the Qing army through small-scale conflicts in specific terrain and battlefields.

Those who boasted that the Ming army could easily defeat the Qing army as long as they were well fed and well-watered always ignored one fact - training and equipment were the key to the army's combat effectiveness.

Moreover, the most critical issue is that in mobile warfare, the army's mobility and sustained combat capability are the most important.

From this perspective, we can understand why Dorgon kept ordering Ajige to pursue and attack fiercely during the Qing Dynasty's destruction of Shun. He had been with Huang Taiji for so many years, and he had already learned a lot of real skills, and his ability to self-feedback and evolve politically was extremely strong.

The result of the Qing army, which was fully equipped with mules and horses, chasing the Shun army, which was half equipped with mules and horses, can be imagined.

Li Zicheng had been a bandit for more than ten years. He was unmatched in his ability to escape and roam. The Ming army had never been able to catch up with him from behind. But after encountering the Qing army, he found that he really could not run away. As long as he stopped, the Qing army would catch up immediately.

After the Battle of Tongguan, the core force of the Shun Army, the Eastern Army, which had originally suffered little losses, was wiped out.

This is the terrifying thing about the "Lord of the Horse Herd" in this era.

When the Qing Dynasty conquered the Ming Dynasty, on the surface it was a group of 300,000 hunters conquering 100 million farming people, but in reality it was 300,000 war horses conquering 30,000 war horses.

In the middle and late Chongzhen period, the total number of war horses of the Ming army never exceeded 30,000. However, Huang Taiji had already become the "lord of the horse herd" in Northeast Asia by conquering Mongolia.

Unable to defeat, unable to outrun, and denied the ability to develop, the Qing's snowballing success and Li Zicheng's sudden collapse were inevitable. So, do you understand why Huang Taiji fought Ningjin for so many years, yet ultimately failed to succeed? Do you understand why the Ming army was able to regain its strength once again in the southwest?
The mobility of the army, which was fully equipped with mules and horses, was severely restricted in such terrain, and it lost all tactical capabilities that relied on the mobility of cavalry. The opponent was a battle-ready force, so the Qing army was no longer invincible!
In other words, for Zhu Cilang at this time, such a problem could only be solved by going to the south where there are dense water networks and hills.

But relying solely on water networks and hills is not enough, because from north to south, there are three gaps in Sichuan, Jianghan, and Huaizhong. If Baoning-Chongqing, Jingzhou-Wuchang, and Xuzhou-Fengyang are not under control, danger will always be there.

Therefore, Zhu Cilang still needed three main army corps that could defend and fight in the city in order to successfully resist the Qing Dynasty's southward advance. At the same time, he had to rely on the navy to build a solid defense line.

As for pushing back from the front battlefield and launching a northern expedition to restore the country, with the power of today's firearms, it is simply impossible to rely solely on infantry without cavalry.

North China at this time was no longer the sparsely populated horse farm it was in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty. If Zhu Cilang wanted to form a cavalry army that could truly fight a decisive battle with the Eight Banners Army, he needed to wait for an opportunity to seize a horse farm.

You must know that a cavalry formed solely by relying on spoils of war on the battlefield, no matter how powerful it is, is only a one-time thing. Even if it can win, it cannot continue to expand the results of the battle quickly.

"Your Highness, how long do you think Li Zicheng can hold out?" Li Banghua didn't think Zhu Cilang was talking nonsense. The strength Zhu Cilang had shown along the way had made his words trustworthy.

"Perhaps in less than a year, the Tartars will probably head south to Yingtian Prefecture by this time next year." Zhu Cilang said bluntly:
"If Li Zicheng had the courage to hold out until the spring and summer rainy seasons arrive, temperatures rise, and epidemics spread, the Tartars would be unable to advance south for two or three years. But with so many troops in Shaanxi waiting and watching, he probably doesn't have the courage."

Zhu Cilang knew that Li Zicheng had been a bandit for so many years, shifting his tactics swiftly and escaping so many times, so he must have developed some path dependency. Furthermore, in the original history, the failure of several surprise attacks outside Tongguan had dealt him a heavy blow.

If they defended the city without any harassment or field battles to deplete the enemy's strength, they would be courting their own destruction. This is because the besieging army theoretically possesses all the human and material resources outside the city.

"Less than a year?" Li Banghua couldn't believe it for a moment. This time was not enough to train a new army.

"Northern Zhili, Henan, and Shandong have flat terrain and no strategic locations to defend, making them the most suitable places for cavalry marches," Zhu Cilang added.

"But the army in Jiangnan might not even have 20,000 or 30,000 soldiers. Huang Degong and Zuo Liangyu's forces are probably the two strongest among them. The former is said to have 30,000 soldiers, and the latter is said to have 200,000 soldiers.

But both of them probably only have two to three thousand real combat soldiers under their command. Huang Degong has only a few hundred retainers. Zuo Liangyu has gathered a large number of troops and horses, so he should have more elite combat soldiers, but his true subordinates only have a few hundred.

Li Banghua was completely dejected when he heard this. If the situation was really as Zhu Cilang said, then the Ming Dynasty would be in danger, and even Nanjing would be lost. What should he do?
"Although Yingtian Prefecture has the natural barrier of the Yangtze River and the navy in the southeast to rely on, if the Tartars march south, it will be difficult to stop them with just these."

"I know." Zhu Cilang said calmly, not seeming surprised at all. He turned his head to look at the two teams of trackers following the fleet and said:

“That’s why I plan to recruit several teams of trackers along the way. They must be strong in both physical strength and organization, and their leaders must be prestigious. Only such recruits can form a fighting force within a year.

Once the North-South War breaks out, the tens of thousands of boatmen in Shandong and along the Grand Canal north of the Huai River will inevitably face a difficult situation. This palace will recruit them as soldiers to provide relief, prevent the rebellion, and resist the Tartars from advancing southward, thus solving these two problems at the same time."

After hearing this, Li Banghua was still worried. Is it possible to train a strong army that can compete with the Tartar cavalry in just one year?

However, when he followed Zhu Cilang's gaze and saw the trackers who had followed with their families for a day and a night, and most of them had not fallen behind, he seemed to have confidence again.

If these people were equipped with armor and spears, they would probably be stronger than the garrison soldiers in the south without any training.
.
On the evening of March 26, just as Zhu Cilang was heading south and had begun to deploy troops for his new army, in the Jianji Hall of the Forbidden City, the Dashun Emperor Li Zicheng was sitting at the imperial desk with a frown on his face.

After several days of investigation, he had confirmed that Zhu Cilang had escaped from the Dongzhi Gate on the day the city fell. Also missing at the same time were Left Censor-in-Chief Li Banghua, Imperial Concubine Zhou Shixian, and others.

Li Zicheng was furious about this and ordered the execution of several officers who concealed the matter. Even the soldiers who later participated in the siege and covered up the attack on the checkpoints were punished.

As soon as Hao Yaoqi's urgent military report was transmitted back to Beijing, he confirmed that the Crown Prince Zhu Cilang of Chongzhen, whom he had been looking for, had already sailed south.

Hao Yaoqi naturally did not dare to conceal the fact that such a big thing had happened in his jurisdiction. How could he possibly conceal the loss of more than a hundred cavalrymen?
Of course, the reason for the loss of over a hundred cavalrymen depended entirely on his explanation. After leading his troops for two hundred miles, he still saw no trace of the so-called fleet, so he had no choice but to abandon the pursuit and return to Jinghai County to await further orders.

"Your Majesty, Zhu Cilang must have been guided by a master behind the scenes. Otherwise, a young boy of fifteen or sixteen would never have been able to break out from under the heavy encirclement of our army."

Niu Jinxing stood in front of the emperor, looking at Li Zicheng's rage, and then he clasped his hands and said:

"Now, our Dashun has already occupied the entire northern kingdom. Although the various regions have been recently recovered, the people's hearts have long since surrendered. The people all know that Your Majesty is the one chosen by Heaven. As for the remnants of the Ming army in the southern provinces, they are completely nothing to be feared. Even if Zhu Cilang marches south, he will not cause any trouble. Your Majesty has no need to worry."

After hearing this, Li Zicheng finally felt relieved. He actually agreed with Niu Jinxing's statement. Although Zhu Cilang had escaped, he had no soldiers at his disposal. Even if he had reached Jiangnan, what difference would it make? He would just be caught later.

After all, the combat effectiveness of the Ming army in the south is not worth mentioning at all. When the time comes, we can just send a troop south to take Nanjing directly, and the rest of the places can be conquered by issuing an order.

However, Li Zicheng was very interested in the person who planned this matter.

In the capital, the only one who could organize such a powerful army of remnants of the Beijing camp at that time and had such ability and prestige was probably the former Minister of War and current Left Censor-in-Chief Li Banghua, who disappeared at the same time.

In the military report sent back by Hao Yaoqi, he said that it was an encounter battle. The Ming army guarding Zhu Cilang was quite powerful and had the ability to annihilate more than a hundred cavalrymen in one battle.

"If I can use this person, it will be a blessing for the new dynasty!" Li Zicheng said secretly in his heart.

At this moment, Liu Zongmin suddenly hurried into the hall with a military report in his hand. After saluting, he got Li Zicheng's permission and immediately handed over the military report.

Li Zicheng unfolded it and his expression changed drastically. He stood up from the dragon throne and stared at the military report while gritting his teeth and saying, "What does Wu Sangui want to do?"

　Thanks to book friends Yuekenlu Dazhuang, 20181107124212127, and Mu Se Han Chan for their rewards. When the author has more time, he will create a forum. At that time, the three book friends, as well as other book friends who have given rewards and support, can tell the author there if they want to set up any pseudonymous characters in the book. I will ascend the throne in Nanjing soon, and when the time comes, I will form an army and a new civil service system, and introduce many new characters.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)