Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 44 Situation

Fengyang City is now full of fully armed patrol soldiers. The Palace Army brought by Zhu Cilang and the Fengyang Standard Battalion led by Chen Fuxin have formed numerous heavily guarded checkpoints inside and outside the city.

Lin Changfeng, wearing a shining silver-white armor, stood solemnly at the gate of Fengyang Prefecture. All the civil and military officials who came to meet His Royal Highness the Crown Prince had to pass his verification before entering the prefecture. This made him very proud, and he couldn't help but sigh that he had followed the right person.

In the past few days, Zhu Cilang has been in the city, not only meeting with some local officials and respected elders, but also inspecting military affairs. The Palace Army and Fengyang Battalion are now under his control. Chang Denggui and Chen Fu are selecting officers, and the latter still need to further eliminate the old and weak.

At the same time, the royal family members who were stranded in Huai'an Prefecture at this time were also a major problem that Zhu Cilang needed to deal with quickly, especially the two charges of Lu Jiude's treason and Prince Fu Zhu Yousong's collusion with eunuchs and entering Zhongdu without permission, which were rare to come by.

Although Prince Fu's wealth was all gone, the royal family members in the salt merchant garden of Huai'an Prefecture were still carrying a large amount of family wealth and servants with them on their way to escape. What Zhu Cilang was eyeing now was this military pay worth one million.

However, these are royal family members after all, and the Ming Dynasty has its legal system. Although his succession to the throne is legitimate, he still needs to be cautious when dealing with these royal family members.

Of course, this kind of thing cannot be rushed for the time being, and Zhu Cilang still needs a plausible reason. As a new monarch, in this era, he must be sufficiently "lenient" to his people!
In addition to military affairs and royal family issues, the actions of Li Zicheng of the Shun Dynasty in the north are also one of the major issues that Zhu Cilang is most worried about.

Dong Xueli's army, which marched south on Li Zicheng's orders, finally arrived in Xuzhou on the 17th. However, because Li Benshen had returned to the city with his servants the day before and led the people to hold the city, Dong Xueli did not easily capture this Huaibei bridgehead as he had done in history.

Dong Xueli, who had divided his troops into different locations along the way and had already taken over the cities along the Shandong section of the canal, did not choose to confront them head-on, but instead headed towards Qingzhou Prefecture.

At the same time, he also sent people back to Beijing to report the news and ask Li Zicheng for help, claiming that the prince of the previous dynasty had gone south and was resisting stubbornly in Xuzhou, and could not be subdued without an army of tens of thousands.

But what he didn't know was that at this time Li Zicheng had already led a large army to the east to Shanhaiguan to attack Wu Sangui, and the vanguard of the army had even reached Yongping.

As early as April 4, Wu Sangui noticed that a large cavalry group led by Liu Zongmin was approaching, so he suddenly led his troops back to Shanhaiguan. He also set up an ambush on the second day and severely damaged the vanguard of Liu Zongmin's army.

The Guanning Cavalry was Hong Chengchou's greatest reliance in the small-scale battles between him and the Qing army during the Battle of Songjin. Its combat effectiveness was comparable to that of the elite Qing army. The Dashun Cavalry was unable to fight against it at all when they were ambushed.

After seeing Wu Sangui's strength, Liu Zongmin did not dare to advance further. Instead, he sent someone back to Beijing for an emergency and led his troops to follow up.

So, with Gao Di's rebellion, Shanhaiguan fell, and Tang Tong fled to Yipanshi, history, after briefly deviating from its original trajectory, seemed to be pulled back by an invisible hand.

Although Zhu Cilang did not know this yet, he was aware of Li Zicheng's strength. In addition, with his successful march south, he was afraid that the other party would be even more afraid to defend Beijing and tie down the Qing army.

As a result, the Shun army was inevitably defeated and collapsed in less than a year!

Now, what Zhu Cilang is most worried about is whether he can train a strong army in less than a year, and then control these large armies in Jiangbei, relying on the Jianghuai terrain to complete the blocking of the Qing army heading south.

Through private conversations with Lu Zhenfei, Huang Degong and others in the past few days, he has basically understood the general situation of the Nanjing court and the southern provinces.

Compared with the northern provinces, the southern provinces of the Ming Dynasty were less affected by peasant uprisings and natural disasters and plagues. Productivity was not severely damaged, and the fiscal and population bases were still there.

The most crucial thing is that Hunan and Jiangxi, the two major grain-producing areas, are still under the control of the Ming Dynasty. In Jiangbei and other places, a large number of newly abandoned fields have appeared due to the plague, which are very suitable for recruiting refugees to settle and farm. In addition, with the connection of the Yangtze River system, this means that as long as Zhu Cilang handles it properly, he will not lack the large amount of food and wages needed to train the army.

This was crucial for training the new army. Without grain-producing areas, it was impossible to raise a strong army. In this era of backward transportation and severe losses, relying on external imports was not only costly, but the reliability of military rations could not be guaranteed.

It's important to note that the food and fodder supply standards for field armies and garrison troops differed. In this era, a strong army needed to maintain combat effectiveness. The most basic training regiments required a light drill every three days and a heavy drill every five days. The food and fodder consumed by soldiers to keep them well fed and watered far exceeded that of ordinary garrison troops, not to mention the horses' enormous demand for bean fodder. Furthermore, if the intensity of training was to be increased on this basis, a supply of meat and fat would become essential, which would be an even greater financial burden.

However, Zhu Cilang also clearly remembered that the impact of the Little Ice Age would gradually weaken after the Jiashen year, and the entire East Asia would usher in a period of relatively good weather. In history, Sun Kewang was able to successfully operate in Yunnan and train a strong army of hundreds of thousands thanks to this.

This means that as long as Zhu Cilang establishes a qualified regime and ensures its operation, he can obtain a steady supply of various materials from the southern provinces.

Although the Ming Dynasty had lost the northern provinces at this time, it also got rid of the huge financial burden of hundreds of thousands of border troops. Except for Zuo Liangyu, the four towns in Jiangbei, the Nanjing Beijing Camp and the standard camps in various places, the Nanjing court did not have a huge financial burden. Zhu Cilang could now use all the money and food where it was needed most, and training new troops became possible.

According to the information provided by Lu Zhenfei, there are now more than one million taels of silver and hundreds of thousands of dan of rice in Nanjing Taicang alone. Many of these are due to the war and the cessation of grain transport routes. The money and grain that were originally intended to be supplied to the north are now all stranded.

Of course, in addition to the good news, the bad news should not be underestimated.

Lu Zhenfei was still optimistic at this time. The fundamental reason was that he felt that the tax base of the Ming Dynasty was still intact. Except for Sichuan, which had become Oudong, the rest of the southern provinces, from Lianghuai to Yunnan and Guizhou, from Wuchang to Guangzhou, were still under the rule of the Ming Dynasty. They had money and grain, and their industry and commerce were prosperous.

But Zhu Cilang was far less optimistic.

First of all, Yunnan will soon be in chaos, and Sha Dingzhou will not change because of Zhu Cilang's arrival. He is far away in Nanjing and has no time to take care of Yunnan. At most, he will send someone to remind Mu Tianbo to strengthen his defenses.

Secondly, Huguang will also become the main battlefield, and the situation there cannot be taken care of before Zhu Cilang resolves the crisis of the Qing army's southward advance.

Guangdong and Guangxi are located in remote areas with high mountains and deep waters, and Fujian is actually the territory of the Zheng family. It would be difficult to control it without using some tricks, and it would be impossible to ask the Zheng family to hand over all the profits from maritime trade and taxes.

Although Zheng Zhilong had no great ambitions, he was an old sly man. It was impossible to get him to fight to the death against the Qing Dynasty without giving him enough benefits.

However, Zhu Cilang was blocking the Qing army in Jianghuai, and he needed the help of the Zheng family's navy to force the Qing army to retreat as quickly as possible.

However, such an old sly guy is also easy to control. As long as Zhu Cilang can stop the Qing army and promise him high positions and generous salaries, or even marriage, the Zheng family will still obey his orders.

As for Zheng Sen, he is a talented person who can be cultivated. Zhu Cilang must make use of him, promote him, appreciate him, and bring him under his command. If nothing unexpected happens, this boy will be able to stand on his own in the future.

In other words, for a period of time to come, the only three provinces that would be directly under the control of the Nanjing court would be Nanzhili, Zhejiang, and Jiangxi. Although Guangdong and Guangxi were also under control, capable ministers had to be sent to provide some money and food for the anti-Qing war.

In addition to territory and finances and taxes, Zhu Cilang is now facing a more critical issue, which is still the army!
On the one hand, there were almost no ready-made combat troops in the south. On the other hand, the hundreds of thousands of border troops lost in the north were very likely to quickly defect to the Qing Dynasty after Li Zicheng's defeat, just as in history. The situation would be very bad.

You know, these hundreds of thousands of border troops are currently weak, but once the Qing Dynasty feeds them, enforces military discipline, and trains them rigorously, these soldiers will be stronger. Although they still cannot defeat the Eight Banners Army of the Qing Dynasty, they are more than enough to defeat Zuo Liangyu, Gao Jie, Huang Degong and the like.

Thinking of this, Zhu Cilang couldn't help but feel worried. He had to quickly remove all obstacles, defeat the Qing army in Lianghuai, stabilize the situation, and buy more time to train more soldiers.

As time passed, the Nanjing officials who crossed the river to the north were about to arrive. After receiving the news, Zhu Cilang did not take it too seriously. In order to show his favor to the military, he even took Chen Fu, Chang Denggui, Gao Jie, Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo, Liu Zeqing and others to hunt on the banks of the Huai River the day before the officials arrived in Fengyang.

　Thanks to book friend Yuekenlu Dazhuang for the reward.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)