Late Ming Dynasty: Special Forces in 1645

A month has passed since the battle in which five thousand of Zheng's troops were annihilated at the gates of Xinzhou.

A month is neither a long nor a short time.

The Restoration Army did not expand its forces during this month, and the number of available soldiers remained at only six thousand.

For the soldiers of the Restoration Army, these were days of both joy and pain.

The good thing is that they can eat their fill every day and their pay is paid on time. They are all full-time soldiers who are not working full-time. Apart from regular training, they don't have to worry about much else.

Although the daily training was tough, it wasn't so bad that it felt "painful".

What pained the soldiers of the Restoration Army was that Commander-in-Chief Li demanded that everyone from platoon leader to above learn to read and write 120 Chinese characters within a month. If they failed, they would be demoted one rank!

For the past month, everyone from platoon leader to battalion commander has looked worried and anxious. When they meet, they greet each other with questions like, "How many words have you learned?"

For the soldiers of the Restoration Army who came from humble backgrounds, learning was even more difficult than charging into battle. The hardships of fighting were temporary, but the pain of learning was long-lasting.

Many battalion commanders also went to Li Chengming to complain, saying that they could still fight even if they were illiterate, so why spend so much time learning to read, which was useless for charging into battle?

Li Chengming was good at presenting facts and reasoning, so he directly took out a piece of paper and said, "This is a military order. Read it to me!"

One sentence was enough to calm the battalion commander who had come to pour out his troubles, leaving him speechless with gratitude.

Seeing his strong comprehension, Li Chengming specially asked him to read and write ten more characters than others. While others read and wrote one hundred and twenty characters, he had to read and write one hundred and thirty.

As a result, no one came to complain to Li Chengming anymore. They could only obediently learn to recognize characters, and if they couldn't learn it the first time, they would read and write it repeatedly until they learned it.

The victory at Xinzhou bought the Restoration Army a month of peaceful development.

However, the tranquility of Xinzhou City does not mean that other places are equally tranquil.

During that month, the shaving order reached Nanchang. Jin Shenghuan led his troops to shave their heads, but Wang Tizhong refused to do so, and the pent-up conflict between the two erupted.

Jin Shenghuan secretly made an alliance with Wang Tizhong's subordinate Wang Deren. The two plotted to lure and kill Wang Tizhong. Wang Tizhong's soldiers rose up in rebellion, and the two armies clashed, causing chaos in Nanchang!

In that month, Jiangyin City, which had held out for 81 days, was captured by the Qing army. Yan Yingyuan, the magistrate of Jiangyin, was killed in battle, and the Qing army ordered a massacre of the city.

When the Qing army sheathed their swords, only fifty-three people in the entire city of Jiangyin survived, a period known in history as the "Eighty-One Days of Jiangyin"!

During this month, the Qing army began massacring people from Gelong Town in Songjiang Prefecture all the way to Waigang Town, and then to Jiading. At this time, Jiading had been massacred for the third time because of its continued resistance against the Qing, which is known in history as the "Three Massacres of Jiading"!

During this month, a struggle against the Qing dynasty's forced shaving and clothing changes swept across the Jiangnan region.

However, Prince Lu, Zhu Yihai, oversaw the state in Shaoxing, and Prince Tang, Zhu Yujian, proclaimed himself Emperor Longwu in Fuzhou.

Both of these Southern Ming regimes raised the banner of resisting the Qing, but the Lu and Tang regimes not only failed to take advantage of the favorable situation of resisting the Qing and develop the anti-Qing struggle, but instead became bitter enemies in their struggle for legitimacy, even going so far as to wage war against each other.

During this month, Li Zicheng led Li Guo's troops to join forces with Gao Yigong, Tian Jianxiu, Hao Yaoqi, Liu Tichun and other troops at the city of Jingzhou. They gathered more than 100,000 troops and attacked the city for many days. They finally captured Jingzhou with great difficulty, but they had already caused heavy losses to the rebel army!

During this month, Zhang Xianzhong's Great Western regime nominally controlled the entire Sichuan region, but faced with the Qing army's gradual advance, Sichuan's officials, landlords, and former generals seized the opportunity to launch armed uprisings, causing Zhang Xianzhong a great deal of trouble.

Li Chengming also considered leading his troops north to fight the Qing army in the Jiangnan region.

But reality is not a casino; even in anger, he cannot act impulsively. He must be responsible for the six thousand restoration troops.

To reach Jiangnan, one must march six or seven hundred kilometers, avoiding various complex forces.

Furthermore, the logistical supply problem for a long march must be solved.

Upon arriving in Jiangnan, the enemy was not only the Qing army, but also the Southern Ming forces; they were surrounded by enemies on all sides.

Even if the Restoration Army achieves an unprecedented tactical victory if troops are dispatched, it will suffer a complete strategic defeat.

For Li Chengming, these 6,000 rigorously trained restoration troops were not only formidable in combat, but also seeds of hope.

Sow these seeds, and given enough time, they will grow into towering trees sooner or later!

Therefore, after much deliberation, Li Chengming abandoned his plan to send troops to Jiangnan.

When the Qing army first arrived, the people of Jiangnan welcomed the royal army with joy, thinking it didn't matter who the emperor was!

It wasn't until the Qing army fully implemented the shaving of heads and changing of clothes that the people of Jiangnan finally realized that the Qing army's southward march was not just about the fall of the country, but about the fall of the world!

The same was true of the officials from Jiangnan; they had never been very supportive of the Ming court's resistance against the Qing, and even stood by and watched coldly.

The officials in Jiangnan thought they could still live their good lives even after the Qing army came, until the Qing army raised their swords against them and they realized that they had made a huge mistake!

Therefore, the arrival of the Qing army was an inevitable calamity for Jiangnan.

The fact that the officials and people in Jiangnan were at fault does not mean that the Qing army's massacre was justified.

This blood debt will be remembered by the Qing army!

While the outside world was in turmoil, the tranquility of Xinzhou City also drew attention.

In the past month, envoys were also dispatched from Fujian and Nanchang to Xinzhou City.

Li Chengming met with the envoy from Fuzhou and asked him, "Are you here representing Emperor Longwu or Zheng Zhilong?"

The envoy stood frozen in place, looking embarrassed, and stammered, "Well, I... I am here on behalf of the Longwu Emperor."

The phrase "representing Emperor Longwu" clearly reveals a guilty conscience.

Seeing his reaction, Li Chengming understood but didn't expose him.

The Fujian envoy first condemned the Restoration Army's reckless attack on the Ming army, and then said that His Majesty the Emperor was magnanimous and willing to pardon the Restoration Army's "great disrespect," but the Restoration Army's commander, Li Chengming, had to personally go to Fuzhou to clarify the facts and apologize!

Li Chengming's attitude was: nod, "Okay! But the Xingfu Army can't do without me for now. I'll definitely go to Fuzhou when I have time!"

At the same time, he thought to himself: When I have time, I will definitely lead a large army to Fuzhou!

The Fujian envoy knew that Li Chengming was being evasive, and Li Chengming also knew that the Fujian envoy knew that he was being evasive, but both sides pretended not to know and continued to give each other the runaround.

The Fujian envoy had come to test the waters, and he knew that what couldn't be obtained on the battlefield couldn't be obtained through negotiation either.

So after some probing and deception, the host and guests appeared to be quite satisfied with each other.

After serving the Fujian envoy simple meals for a few days, Li Chengming politely saw him off out of the city.

The Fujian envoy came to the conclusion that Li Chengming was a man who would not submit to anyone. He would not side with the Longwu regime, nor with the Lu Prince regime, nor with the Qing army. He was not a threat to the Restoration Army fighting alone!

Li Chengming also came to a conclusion: the Longwu regime, or rather Zheng Zhilong, mainly used its troops to defend against the Qing army and to compete for power with the Prince of Lu in Zhejiang. They did not have extra troops to drive away the Xingfu Army entrenched in Xinzhou!

Li Chengming could still stall for time with the Fujian envoys, but he refused to see the envoys from Nanchang and drove them out of the city, ordering the city guards not to let them back in!

Li Chengming: You, an envoy sent by a traitor, are you worthy to see me?

The envoy from Nanchang was indignant, but when he returned to Nanchang, Jin Shenghuan had already lured and killed Wang Tizhong. Nanchang was in chaos and no longer cared about the envoy's return!