Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 69 Comprehensive preparation for war
In the next half month, there was a bustle inside and outside the Dingwu court. Imperial edicts and orders were issued from various government offices in the imperial city, and countless civil and military officials were mobilized to prepare to march north with the army.

At the same time, to everyone's surprise, amidst these depressing military and national affairs, three of the eight new imperial concubines brought into the palace announced the good news of being pregnant with dragon seeds.

Zhu Cilang worked day and night on the front line, working overtime to sow seeds, and now he has finally created a construction miracle that has shocked Nandu!
For a time, all the civil and military officials in the court, who were living under the shadow of war, and even tens of millions of people in the south of the Yangtze River, were cheering and rejoicing. A simple celebration was even held in the palace to announce it to the world.

But as Zhou Shixian led the Jinyiwei to collect overdue taxes everywhere, the gentry in Jiangnan could no longer laugh.

In the original history, it was their accumulated tax arrears of tens of millions over the years that made up for the annual military pay gap of millions in the middle and late Shunzhi period, enabling Hong Chengchou to establish the southwest defense line.

At this time, Zhu Cilang had not yet achieved a military victory in Jiangbei. Although he had decided the matter in the court, he could not be too simple and crude in implementing it.

The Qing army could carry out a large-scale massacre in Jiangnan to scare these gentry, but Zhu Cilang could not allow his troops to plunder, otherwise the loss would outweigh the gain.

However, he knew very well what these gentry feared most, and immediately issued an edict to link the amount of unpaid taxes to the number of admissions to the imperial examinations in each state next year.

For any prefecture that pays its tax arrears in full, the number of places admitted to the imperial examination in the second year will maintain a normal ratio. The greater the excess, the higher the proportion of imperial examination admissions will be.

For those whose tax arrears do not meet the assessed quota, their admission rate will be reduced, and the corresponding shortfall will be transferred to the state government that overpaid.

In this way, the number of people admitted to the imperial examinations in Jiangnan will remain at a normal level, and the competition will not become fierce.

Not only that, after November 25th, payment of outstanding taxes will be on a first-come, first-served basis, and once the collection reaches one million taels of silver, the collection of outstanding taxes will be stopped immediately.

The Embroidered Uniform Guards personally came to inquire about the tax and urged the gentry to pay. In addition, Zhu Cilang threatened the gentry with the quota for the imperial examination and set a time limit. The gentry in the prefectures and counties in Jiangnan went crazy. In less than a month, they paid off the outstanding tax of one million taels of silver, and in the end they still had more than 327,300 taels left.

While overdue taxes were being collected and food and fodder were being transported north, the Ministry of War also issued a series of military dispatch orders that were sent to Jiangbei.

Gao Jie's army remained stationed in Xuzhou, responsible for investigating military intelligence in the Henan direction, especially paying attention to the movements of Xu Dingguo's remnants.

This was the first line of defense deployed by Zhu Cilang in Jiangbei, and it was also the most important line of defense to contain the Qing army heading south.

As long as Xuzhou is in the hands of the Ming army, Duoduo will not dare to put all his strength into going south, and the various rebel forces that are temporarily dormant in Shandong will inevitably take action.

The new prefect of Xuzhou at this time was Yan Yingyuan, who was originally going to be promoted to the chief clerk of Yingde County, Guangdong for his merits in suppressing bandits.

He had great military talent and was very good at governance. Zhu Cilang naturally knew this hero. When he ascended the throne, he specially instructed the Minister of Personnel Zhang Shenyan to promote him to the position of Suqian County Magistrate. Then, because of his achievements in governance, there were serious official vacancies in various prefectures in Jiangbei, so he was promoted repeatedly within half a year and rose six levels.

Chen Mingyu and Feng Houdun were also promoted by Zhu Cilang. One of them was appointed as the Tongzhi of Luzhou, managing the money, grain and salt taxes and local inspections to restrain Liu Zeqing, and the other was appointed as the Tongzhi of Zhenjiang to monitor the troops under Liu Liangzuo.

Zhu Cilang did not place Liu Zeqing on the front line, but transferred the troops of Zhang Guozhu and Ma Huabao under his command into Fengyang City.

As for Liu Liangzuo, Zhu Cilang took him with him, while the troops under his command remained in Zhenjiang.

The troops under Huang Degong are still stationed in Huai'an, investigating military intelligence in Shandong. He is Zhu Cilang's backup force deployed on the eastern wing.

If Xuzhou City was not defended, Huai'an and Fengyang would hold the Huai River defense line to resist the Qing army's east and west fulcrums.

Faced with these two heavily garrisoned cities and without hundreds of thousands of surrendered soldiers to spare, the Qing army certainly would not dare to march directly south to Yangzhou as it had done in history.

The Governor of the Grand Canal, the Governor of Huaiyang and the Minister of War, and the Left Censor-in-Chief Lu Zhenfei continued to stay in the Huai'an base camp and coordinate the armies of Gao Jie and Huang Degong to defend the city and go into battle.

In Fengyang, the central capital, Zhu Cilang led three battalions of the Palace Guards, along with the three divisions of the Beijing Camp led by Hu Maozhen, Tian Xiong, and Bai Yongfu. Together with Chen Fu's Fengyang Battalion and the soon-to-arrive Fujian Navy, they secured a total of 40,000 elite troops by land and sea. Li Benshen's Wuwei Battalion and the Tianwu Right Battalion of the Palace Guards, totaling nearly 6,000 men, were placed under the command of Li Banghua, the Chief Minister and Minister of War, bestowed with the Imperial Sword.

On November 21, ten days before the emperor personally led the army, Zhu Cilang made a special trip to inspect the "Yingtian Weapons Bureau" to check the production of weapons.

During the period when the army was heading north, and even before the decisive battle, the "Yingtian Weapon Bureau" could produce at least a thousand muskets, as well as tens of thousands of armors, bows and crossbows, swords, spears and shields, all of which had to be continuously replenished into the army.

Once the war breaks out, whether it is defending a city or fighting in the field, the loss of combat equipment of tens of thousands of soldiers and horses will not be underestimated.

Then, he went to inspect the Nanjing Navy led by Huang Fei. This was another main force of Zhu Cilang to resist the Qing army on the Jianghuai waters, in addition to the Fujian Navy.

Huang Fei is the nephew of Huang Long, the former general of Dongjiang Town. Before going south, he had been promoted to the position of deputy governor, general of the navy to support and suppress the rebellion, and admiral of the navy of Guanliao, Tongjin, Huaihai and Jiang Town to act at his discretion.

When he went south, he also brought with him a navy of nearly 40,000 troops, including his family members. After streamlining, there were still thousands of sailors available.

Zheng Zhilong was too clever for his own good, thinking that Zhu Cilang had no one to rely on except him, and wanted to take the opportunity to ask for a price, but he did not expect that he would end up losing more than he gained, thus making Huang Fei, a loyal and down-and-out military general, famous.

Zheng Sen personally returned to Fujian and finally persuaded Zheng Zhilong. On the 23rd of this month, he brought back a new navy consisting of hundreds of warships of various sizes. He also brought back more than 300 turtledove-foot guns, more than 40 hundred-shot guns, and countless gunpowder shells.

When Zhu Cilang saw this navy, he knew that Zheng Zhilong still had a trick up his sleeve. His black guards did not see it, which meant that the Zheng family did not try their best.

However, the Fujian Navy led by Zheng Sen and the Nanjing Navy led by Huang Fei, one in the south and one in the north, one inside and one outside, were enough to deal with the Qing army.

The navy was Zhu Cilang's important force in the fight against the Qing army in Jiangbei. It was also the most important force that continuously transported weapons, armor, firearms, arrows, ammunition, food and horse feed from Jiangnan to ensure the supply of the army in various places.

In this way, the Qing army's strategy of besieging the city and consuming its resources would be futile.

On the 27th of this month, the officials sent by Li Banghua to Guangdong finally returned to Nanjing. They not only brought back the planned 1,500-plus turtledove-foot guns and various bird guns, but also 12 red-coated cannons, seven four-pound cannons, three eight-pound cannons, and more than 300 Portuguese mercenaries.

Zhu Cilang was not surprised that he could buy these guns and cannons from Guangdong, but the more than 300 elite mercenaries were a big surprise!
This force is not very strong and cannot support the battlefield independently, but as long as it is used properly, it will be able to deal a fatal blow to the Qing army at a critical moment.

After all, there is still a widespread fear of the Qing army among the various armies in the south and north of the Yangtze River. The Eight Banners Army of the Qing Dynasty has been victorious for so many years, and this fear cannot be easily eliminated.

But these Portuguese mercenaries from Macau don’t know who you Eight Banners soldiers are. What’s so great about you? Aren’t they just a head and two eyes and can be killed with a few bullets?
Not only that, the Guangdong fleet also brought back many Western cannon-casting books bought from Macau, and even some about mining and military law and battle formations.

Time quickly came to November 29th. The Palace Army in Jiangnan, the Nanjing Camp, the Nanjing Navy, the Fujian Navy and other troops all stopped training. All camps and units had received orders that they would immediately set out north in three days.

Not only did the soldiers, who had been training hard for months and had been complaining about the hardship, have a rare chance to rest, but even when they had a break, the Dingwu court, which had been involved in several impeachment battles over why the Qing army suddenly moved south, finally had a brief period of peace as the army was about to set off.

In fact, most of the time, these ministers who attacked each other did not really have any evidence against their opponents. They just used impeachment to show off their literary talent and outrageous remarks, to be original and different, to make themselves stand out among the ministers, or to drag their political opponents into trouble in order to get to the top.

In other words, these ministers who claim to be loyal and honest often fight just for the sake of fighting.

Because there are too many false accusations and even outright rumors involved, the final outcome of the impeachment actually depends on whether Zhu Cilang believes it or not, or whether he intends to dismiss a certain minister.

But Zhu Cilang has no time to care about this now. Regardless of whether the Battle of Tongguan will break out as it did in history, it is only a matter of time before Duoduo's army marches south. Zhu Cilang must make adequate preparations for the upcoming Jianghuai Battle, which is also his real battle to gain a foothold.

　I would like to tell my fellow book lovers that starting from tomorrow, we will resume the unified update time of 23:00. This will be more coordinated with the author's working hours. If there is any unexpected event that requires taking leave, I will tell my fellow book lovers in advance.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)