Strategy for the Revitalization of the Late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 76 Intercepting Xu Ni

On December 19th, the Jinyiwei who were spying in the north once again reported the movement of Duoduo's army.

After confirming that the main force of the Qing army had arrived in Shanzhou on the 15th, and that a Shun army was stationed near Shanzhou, and the two sides were on the verge of a melee, Zhu Cilang immediately ordered the army to gather in the parade ground of Fengyang City and prepare to swear an oath to go to war.

In addition to military generals such as Chang Denggui, Gao Jie, Huang Degong, and Liu Zeqing, Shi Kefa, Ma Shiying, and even Gao Hongtu were among the emperor's entourage. Naturally, they all came to the parade ground to participate in the army's oath-taking ceremony.

Although Chen Fu was the first to stand up and express his desire to be Zhu Cilang's Xu Da, Zhu Cilang did not let him lead the troops to join the expedition.

A small Xu Dingguo was not worthy of him bringing all his capable generals. Fengyang City still needed someone to take charge. How could he feel at ease handing it over to a group of civil servants who knew nothing about military affairs?

Gao Jie, Liu Zeqing and others were stationed in one area. Like the civil servants in the court, they all feared the Qing Dynasty like a tiger. These talents were the ones that Zhu Cilang wanted to show off his muscles and strength.

On the parade ground of Zhongdu Fengyang, Zhu Cilang, wearing a gilded armor, stood in front of the reviewing platform. He looked at the nearly one thousand servants of the Tianwu Left Camp, Tianqi Camp and the three generals of Jiangbei who had already formed up in battle formation and were majestic and fully armed, and nodded with satisfaction.

These 4,000 troops were the ones he was about to lead north to Guide Prefecture to suppress the rebellion. They were the elite among the elite among all the armies in Jiangbei.

Of course, the ones who would eventually go into battle might be only some cavalry from the Tianqi Battalion and the three generals, as well as a thousand-man headquarters from the Tianwu Left Battalion. The rest of the troops were just there to familiarize themselves with the battlefield, test the training results, and prepare for any unexpected events.

Now, the uniforms and armors of all the armies in Southern Zhili have been distributed. After wearing the uniforms, the armies appear majestic and invincible with their well-organized steps.

The soldiers of the Tianwu Left Camp wore black, white, yellow, and blue chain mail and cotton armor, which were interwoven with the red cotton armor of the musketeers, like a colorful carpet spread on the parade ground of the military camp.

Around them were nearly two thousand cavalrymen also wearing various colors of armor. In such a crowded environment, thousands of war horses began to become restless, pawing the ground with their hooves from time to time and constantly making cries. The white breath exhaled by countless jumping horse heads seemed to form a layer of mist in front of the army, which looked very shocking.

At the same time, all the soldiers on the parade ground, whether cavalry or infantry, wore helmets. In the eyes of Zhu Cilang and his ministers, the austere helmets were decorated with red, white, and black tassels connected in a line.
Where had Shi Kefa, Ma Shiying, Gao Hongtu and others ever seen such an army? They were all amazed, and even some ministers couldn't help but sigh - this is what a strong army should be like!
You must know that the troops of all parties in Nanzhili were extremely weak before. Not to mention military equipment and armor, even swords, guns and uniforms had never been complete. Such a disciplined military appearance was unprecedented.

Zhu Cilang watched the faces of several people change from surprise at first to forced calmness later, and laughed secretly in his heart. This was exactly what he wanted to achieve.

In fact, if Shi Kefa, Ma Shiying and others did not really know that the Qing army was powerful and the Ming army in the south was unable to withstand a fight, how could they become peace advocates?

If the Ming army was strong enough, they could lead their troops north to defeat the Qing Dynasty and recover the Central Plains. They would have been vying for the Northern Expedition long ago!
However, the idea that by making such compromises, ceding territory and paying compensation, the Qing Dynasty would show mercy and stop its southward advance, thus allowing China to keep half of its territory, was totally wishful thinking, bringing harm to the country and the people, and was extremely naive.

The Eastern Jin Dynasty and the Southern Song Dynasty were able to do so. Didn’t they really have soldiers capable of fighting?

How can this world be preserved without fighting?
And what Zhu Cilang wants to tell them now is that the Ming Dynasty has soldiers who can fight, and he can lead the troops to defeat the Qing Dynasty!

In fact, the Tianwu Left Camp was not the most elite force of the Palace Army, but like the other three forces, they had undergone six months of high-intensity training and had basically mastered the Mandarin Duck Formation and most of the combat skills required in military books. They were more than capable of dealing with the chaotic army under Xu Dingguo.

Of course, such troops, lacking combat experience, were far from adequate to face the elite Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty on the plains. Even the slightest mishap could significantly reduce their combat effectiveness, but they were sufficient to deter Gao Jie and Liu Zeqing's armies and defend the city.

Soon, the sound of war drums and bugles stopped on the parade grounds, and a central army officer, wearing black iron armor and with several flags on his back, came to the parade platform. He immediately dismounted, knelt on one knee, and said to Chang Denggui with his hands clasped together:

"General, the Tianwu Left Camp and the Tianqi Camp have assembled. Please give your instructions!"

Upon hearing this, Chang Denggui turned to Zhu Cilang and asked:

"Your Majesty, the Tianwu Left Camp, the Tianqi Camp, and the three cavalry units under General Gao, General Huang, and General Liu have all assembled. Please give your instructions, Your Majesty!"

Zhu Cilang nodded slightly, looked around, and then, based on his memory of Qi Shaobao's declaration before the expedition in the "Military Training Records", he said a few words to encourage the morale of the assembled army and promised generous rewards after victory, which immediately triggered cheers from the soldiers below the stage.

Then, he turned back and looked at Chang Denggui and said:

"Pass on my order. The army will set out immediately to quell the rebellion in the north."

Upon receiving the order, Chang Denggui immediately signaled the flag bearer beside the general's platform to wave the flag. After three drum beats, the more than 4,000 troops set out and headed north.

The army marched quickly along the banks of the Woshui River and entered Bozhou City three days later. They rested in the city for one night and continued to march north early the next morning. They arrived at Guide Prefecture City that afternoon.

Before this, Gao Jie had already led his cavalry to Taohuaji, and Liu Zeqing had led his troops across Taikang a day earlier and reached the junction of Guide Prefecture and Kaifeng Prefecture.

In order not to alert the enemy, Zhu Cilang did not even order a siege on the Luyi County militia to the west of Haozhou, who were in cahoots with Xu Dingguo.

Not only that, Chang Denggui sent out a whole bureau of cavalry, with each man on three horses, led by three Jinyiwei, and swept across from the south and east, clearing out the seven scouts deployed by Xu Dingguo outside Ningling overnight.

Zhu Cilang was originally worried that there would be accidents during the operation, and Xu Dingguo eventually managed to escape successfully, but he obviously overestimated the opponent's strength.

This man was indeed intelligent, calm, clear-headed, and decisive. In the original history, he was able to survive the chaotic world of Jiashen with only a hundred scattered soldiers and maximize the benefits of his situation. This is undoubtedly a strong person.

Of course, at that time, his opponents were the Hongguang court, the arrogant Gao Jie, and the hesitant Shi Kefa. But now, his opponent is Zhu Cilang, and the situation is completely different.

On the second day after the Palace Army entered Guide Prefecture, before dawn, the Tianwu Left Camp, the Tianqi Camp, Huang Degong's personal soldiers, and the army composed of the civil officials who followed the expedition immediately set out westward.

After six months of rigorous training, the soldiers of Tianwu Left Camp had strong marching capabilities and entered Ningling County before noon.

Since marching south in March, Xu Dingguo has led his troops to plunder for a living. Among the counties in Guide Prefecture, the people of Ningling suffered the most plunder and the heaviest casualties. Especially after he gathered thousands of rebel soldiers, his exploitation of the local area became even more severe.

During their march, the soldiers of the Tianwu Left Camp also passed by villages, but they hardly saw any living civilians. They had been tortured by Xu Dingguo for more than half a year, and as soon as they saw the soldiers, they all hid themselves quickly like frightened birds.

What was even more tragic was that some of the villages where entire villages and villages had been massacred were already in ruins, with obvious signs of looting and killing. Corpses were scattered among the ruins, while some of them emitted a strong stench of corpses, obviously having been recently massacred by the rebels.

Not only that, following these chaotic soldiers, wild dogs and crows also followed the smell of blood and rotten meat and came in droves. Many remains were dragged to the road outside the village. After a long time, under the sun and rain, they had turned into white bones.

In the marching column, Zhao Zhengdong, Gu Defu, Chen Tao, Sun Da, Hu Laoqi and other soldiers of the Palace Army, seeing the scenes before them, couldn't help but think of themselves. If such a chaotic army ravaged Nanzhili, their wives and daughters would probably become corpses.

In fact, if they had not followed His Majesty to Nanzhili, and had not become soldiers of the Palace Army, learned how to fight, and had weapons to protect themselves in their hands, they themselves would probably have become corpses.

The miserable lives of the people in the villages of Ningling County served as a great wake-up call to all the officers and soldiers of the Tianwu Left Camp and the Tianqi Camp. They not only thought of their families and themselves, but also of what Instructor Zhang had said at the beginning, and they became even more angry.

If before this, these soldiers were inspired to fight every time because they were persuaded by the instructors, then now, everything before them made them realize that they really had nowhere to retreat except to defeat the rebels and the more brutal Tartars.

When the civil officials who followed the expedition saw the tragic scene, they were all very excited. Led by Gao Hongtu, they wrote letters on the battlefield, demanding that Xu Dingguo, who allowed his soldiers to cause trouble in the local area, be cut into pieces.

Zhu Cilang naturally accepted this, and at the same time he took the opportunity to warn those ministers who still had a fluke mentality about the Qing Dynasty that if the Qing army went south and could not repel the enemy, the people in Jiangnan would be even more miserable!
It was not a massacre of one city or one village, but a comprehensive massacre one after another, targeting a certain area with almost no omissions. The population of tens of millions in Jiangnan was reduced by half.

After the soldiers quickly finished their lunch, the army continued to march. The closer they got to Suizhou, the more villages and forts were massacred. The corpses and remains appeared more and more densely on the dirt road, and the stench of corpses in the air became stronger.

In such a depressing atmosphere, the army advanced even faster. The entire army shared a common hatred of the enemy and wanted to immediately destroy the rebellious army in Suizhou City that was causing trouble in the local area.

Soon, when Zhu Cilang led his army to within twenty miles of Suizhou City, Chang Denggui's vanguard cavalry and Jinyiwei hurried back to report that Xu Dingguo had noticed something unusual and had already led a group of cavalry westward. In the small Guide Prefecture, Zhu Cilang had long anticipated Xu Dingguo's early detection of such a large-scale military operation, but he had already arrived and Xu Dingguo had begun to run, so his reaction was still slow, even more delayed.

"Chang Denggui, take two more bureaus of cavalry and rush over to support the vanguard. Take advantage of Xu Dingguo's escape to capture Suizhou City, and then drive out all the rebel troops inside for me." Zhu Cilang gave the order immediately.

"Remember to leave some people outside the city to contain those disorderly soldiers and prevent them from escaping. Otherwise, it will be difficult to kill them later."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Chang Denggui bowed and clasped his hands. After receiving the order, he immediately whipped his horse and led a few personal soldiers to the front to take away two bureaus of cavalry.

Zhu Cilang then gave another order to Lin Changfeng: "Order the army to speed up and rush to the outskirts of Suizhou City as quickly as possible. Before sunset today, I will completely annihilate this rebellious army."

"Yes, Your Majesty!" Lin Changfeng received the order and immediately went down to make arrangements.

Huang Degong was delighted to see Zhu Cilang's decisive and swift actions. He immediately stepped forward, clasped his hands, and complimented him:
"The rumors are indeed true. Your Majesty's actions are truly inspired by the legacy of Emperor Chengzu!"

After hearing this, Zhu Cilang laughed twice, and then said:
"What kind of legacy is this from Emperor Chengzu? I'm embarrassed just hearing it. Wait until I've recovered the Central Plains, trampled across the northern frontier, and ploughed Hetuala, then you can say such compliments!"

Huang Degong heard this and knew that Zhu Cilang was not opposed, otherwise he would not have spoken of his grand ambitions. He immediately said:

"I wish to serve Your Majesty as a vanguard in the revival of the Ming Dynasty, devoting myself to the cause until my death!"

Seeing this, other civil officials were unwilling to fall behind and came forward to flatter him. This time, even Ma Shiying only got second place. It seemed that these people had made some progress in the fierce competition.

Chang Denggui led two groups of cavalry at a gallop and soon arrived outside Suizhou City. The vanguard cavalry had already blocked several gates of Suizhou City, and many of the chaotic soldiers in the city were watching on the wall, but they seemed to have no intention of defending the city.

At this time, Xu Dingguo had already escaped and these leaderless soldiers had basically no clear understanding of the sudden change in the situation.

After all, since they joined Xu Dingguo, they have fought countless battles with local militia. Even if they failed at the beginning, Xu Dingguo could always lead them to victory in the end. It was not the Tartars who came this time, so what was there to be afraid of?

After Chang Denggui confirmed that Xu Dingguo had led his troops to flee westward, he immediately ordered the opening of one city gate and the full-scale attack on the other.

At this time, the rebel army on the city wall was just a group of militiamen. They did have swords and guns in their hands, but they had almost no armor and lacked organization. It was not difficult for them to attack the city.

And things happened just as Chang Denggui had expected. A flag team of armored soldiers quickly climbed to the top of the city wall under the cover of archers, and the rebel soldiers guarding the city wall fled after more than a dozen of them were shot dead.

If Xu Dingguo had been in the city supervising the battle, perhaps these chaotic soldiers could have fought for a while. But now, Xu Dingguo had already fled on his own, and they had no desire to fight at all. They stayed in the city only because they were unable to react in time and were forced to do so by inertia.

The armored soldiers of the Tianqi Battalion who had captured the city quickly opened the city gate. After Chang Denggui ordered the two cavalry captains who remained outside the city to pay attention to the movements of Xu Dingguo's troops, he led a cavalry bureau into the city.

Then, he ordered the cavalry entering the city to advance in small teams along the streets and drive the chaotic troops out of the city.

In Suizhou City, thousands of rebel soldiers were scattered and lived in residential houses near the government office in the city. Facing the Ming army that suddenly broke into the city, they were completely caught off guard. The rebel soldiers began to flee in groups of three or five, and many of them were holding the looted food and money.

Xu Dingguo was still somewhat capable. Although the nearby houses were not protected, he had built the Suizhou government office into a small camp that could accommodate three or four hundred people.

However, this small camp was not firmly built. It was just a random arrangement of some barricades and a fence around the dilapidated gap. No trenches or traps were dug. From a distance, it looked like a shack.

Near the Suizhou government office, all kinds of unpleasant smells were emanating, and garbage and blood were everywhere. In a ditch not far from the government office, dozens of naked female bodies were piled together in a mess.

From the houses occupied by the rebel soldiers, the sounds of women screaming and crying could be heard continuously, and soldiers kept coming out with their trousers in one hand and knives in the other.

The rebel troops under Xu Dingguo had been looting between Suizhou and Ningling, stealing food, able-bodied men, women, gold, silver, jewelry, and anything else they could.

Now, as Chang Denggui led his troops into the city, Xu Dingguo had already fled. These people were leaderless and had no ability to resist. Except for a few who retreated into the government office, the others were like headless flies and were driven out of the city by Chang Denggui's troops.

Some of the rebel soldiers had just rushed out of the city when they heard the sound of horse hooves. They all looked towards the southeast and saw dozens of war horses standing on a small hill in the distance.

Although they had weapons in their hands, they were completely unprepared for such an emergency. In panic, they instantly exploded into countless small groups and fled to the west.

Then, just as this group of chaotic soldiers had not run far out of the city, they were repeatedly blocked by dozens of cavalrymen left behind by Chang Denggui. After going around in circles, they finally all gathered in an open space outside the city.

Soon, Zhu Cilang also brought his army to the outside of Suizhou City. The Tianwu Left Camp and the Tianqi Camp marched quickly for more than ten miles. After arriving at the place where the command flag was located, they immediately began to reorganize the ranks.

As soon as Xu Dingguo ran away, this group of chaotic soldiers did not even have a scout, and had no idea that the Emperor of the Ming Dynasty had come to them. At this time, looking at the huge army of the Palace Guards that suddenly emerged from the horizon, they did not know what to do for a moment.

Zhu Cilang originally wanted to let Huang Degong, Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu, Ma Shiying and other civil officials, like himself, watch the battle in the rear, but he didn't expect that these guys all had to go to the front line, and Ma Shiying even had to beat the drum.

After seeing the military appearance and marching performance of the Tianwu Left Camp and the Tianqi Camp, they had no doubts about the combat effectiveness of this army, and each of them was braver than the other.

This is in line with Zhu Cilang's original purpose. After observing closely how the Palace Army suppressed the rebel army, these civil officials who feared the Qing Dynasty like a tiger would become more confident that the Ming Dynasty could defeat the Qing army.

However, at this time, some officials who were overestimating their own capabilities and even had no self-awareness began to offer suggestions, suggesting surprise attacks, flanking attacks, and the strategy of encircling three sides and leaving one side open, using both regular and unusual tactics.
Zhu Cilang naturally ignored these people and even rejected Ma Shiying's request to beat the drum for the army. Otherwise, these ministers would make even more ridiculous suggestions or requests in the future in order to show off themselves.

What he wanted now was to test the army's strength in field battles, not how to defeat those disorderly soldiers as quickly as possible. Otherwise, if he just let Chang Denggui lead the cavalry, he could kill them all.

Just when Zhu Cilang was about to order Lin Changfeng to attack, a group of cavalry suddenly appeared from the northwest, and then quickly split into three groups. Amidst the billowing smoke, Gao Jie and Liu Zeqing's recognition flags appeared above the horizon in a short while.

After Xu Dingguo realized that something was wrong, he immediately fled out of the city to the west with more than a hundred of his most core cavalrymen, but was stopped by Liu Zeqing in the ancient river channel of Huiji River. He did not dare to get entangled and immediately turned north, and then met the more powerful Gao Jie.

In comparison, Xu Dingguo turned back again and fought with Liu Zeqing for several rounds. He found that the opponent's servants were not easy to deal with, and Gao Jie led his troops to surround him again, so he had to return to Suizhou City in the end.

He originally wanted to take advantage of the fact that the Ming army heading north had not yet established a firm foothold to recapture Suizhou, and then hold on and wait for reinforcements, or bargain and continue to delay time, waiting for the Qing army to move south.

After all, there are thousands of soldiers in the city, even a pig can't run that fast!

But he never expected that when he came back, he saw thousands of Ming troops appearing outside the city, and the thousands of soldiers under his command were worse than pigs, and almost all of them were driven out.

Xu Dingguo had tried to counterattack, but he had just lost more than a dozen cavalrymen, and now the Tianqi Camp had hundreds of cavalrymen outside the city, and he could not resist at all.

Zhu Cilang looked at Xu Dingguo, who had returned after failing to flee in panic and was now gathering his defeated soldiers, and realized that he had overestimated his opponent.

But this was not surprising in the late Ming Dynasty. At that time, everyone was competing to see who was worse. The reason why Xu Dingguo was able to run rampant before was not only because he did have some ability, but the most important thing was that his opponents were even worse!

"Let Xu Dingguo slowly gather his troops. Once he's done, Tianwu Left Camp will launch the attack. I want to see if you can defeat this chaotic army in one battle!"

(End of this chapter)