Chapter 152, The Flash in the Pan of the Qing Empire (Part 2)
In general, due to the "stepmother" treatment in logistics, the second round of Jinan strategy launched by Marshal Chen Xin is still very lacking in technological content: there is neither bombing or strafing by airships and aircraft, nor passing [ The central breakthrough and beheading tactics carried out in the city were carried out by Marshal Chen personally leading the 60,000 Dengzhou Army, dragging the artillery all the way to the west, preparing to blast through the Jinan city wall and penetrate.
Moreover, since it is necessary to sweep various strongholds along the way and station some troops on the main transportation routes to protect the supply lines, when the military flag of Dengzhou Town is erected outside Jinan City, the effective forces under Marshal Chen Xin that can be used to attack the city are There are only about 25,000 people left.
However, even facing such a seemingly weak opponent, Huang Taiji still did not have the confidence to face the enemy.
An undeniable fact is that the Qing Dynasty’s family background is really too thin!
And another fact that cannot be concealed is that the Eight Banners of Manchuria can no longer afford to die!
You know, when Nurhaci unified the entire Jurchen clan, the superficial territory of his rule seemed to have stretched for thousands of miles, making it the largest country in the world. But in fact, the total number of Jurchens in Liaodong at that time was only a few hundred thousand. In the previous Jurchen civil war, the Yehenala tribe sent a thousand troops, which was considered a massive mobilization of troops. As for Nurhachi's core direct descendants, the "Jianzhou Jurchens", there are only a few tens of thousands of people.
Therefore, Lindan Khan of the Mongolian Chahar Tribe at that time disparagingly called Nurhaci the "Lord of Thirty Thousand Jurchens on the Waterfront" in his credentials.
After Huang Taiji came to power, he established the Han Army Banner and the Mongolian Army Banner, and gradually "raised the flag" of some Han, Mongolian and Korean people and integrated them into the Jurchens. This brought the total population of the Eight Banners to 300,000 the crowd. Since Huang Taiji continued to fight during his reign and consumed a large number of men, the number of men among the 300,000 people is only about 100,000 at most. And if these 100,000 men subtract underage children and elderly Old man, there are only 60,000 adults at most who can actually go to the battlefield. If it were not for the Eight Banners system that maximized the Jurchens' war potential, with such a thin population base, it would have been impossible for the Jurchens to unify Liaodong, let alone seize control of the Central Plains.
Due to limitations in population and military strength, several major decisive battles between the Jurchens and the Ming Empire, such as the Battle of Saarhu, the Battle of Ningyuan and the Battle of Dalinghe, were fought with all troops, and all the people in the country were recruited over the age of thirteen. All men under the age of sixty went into battle. When the Eight Banners entered the customs this time, due to the consumption of the bloody battle at Daling River in the previous stage, the total strength of the Eight Banners Army had been reduced to more than 50,000 people. Even if the Han Army Banner, the Mongolian Army Banner, and the Allied Forces of the Mongolian Horqin Tribe were added, the number would be around 80,000 at most. If not for the collective defection of the Guan Ning Army, this force would be enough for armed robbery at best.
Then, in a series of battles in North Zhili, Shandong and South Zhili, the Eight Banners of Manchuria lost thousands more troops, and they could not be replaced for a while. Next, with the overall loss of the Liaodong homeland, the more than 100,000 old, weak, women and children of the Eight Banners who stayed outside the pass were also wiped out.
After the Beijing Incident broke out, although Guan Ningjun did not want to do anything, he opened the city gate and took the initiative to release the families of the Eight Banners Army living in Beijing. However, due to frequent attacks by landlord militias along the way and defections from the Ming Dynasty's surrendered troops, the bannermen stranded in Beizhili suffered heavy casualties. In the end, only about 60% of the bannermen managed to escape to Dezhou, Shandong, and gained their own Protection and rescue of people.
Therefore, by the time the Dengzhou Army launched the second Jinan offensive, there were only more than 30,000 Manchu Eight Banners soldiers left in the entire Qing Dynasty who were relatively capable of fighting, plus more than 50,000 old, weak, women and children of the Eight Banners who were less able to fight. The scale is about the same as that of a top large tribe on the Mongolian grasslands. However, this "Manchu tribe" who moved into the hinterland of the Central Plains did not farm or herd sheep. They only focused on robbing and massacring the Han people.
Of course, in addition to the more than 30,000 Eight Banners soldiers, Huang Taiji also had the Han Army Banner, the Mongolian Army Banner, Horqin and other allies from the Eastern Mongolian tribes, as well as the Ming Dynasty surrender troops and the Wenxiang Sect under the banner of the Qing Dynasty. The total number of armed forces such as the Jiangjun Army and the Landlord Xiangyong Tuanlian was no less than 200,000. But except for the Mongolian military flag and the Han military flag, they are all just outsiders who can only share wealth and wealth but not adversity. They have become very unreliable now.
In particular, the Eastern Mongolian reinforcements headed by the Horqin tribe originally stationed themselves in the suburbs of Jinan after confirming that the Qing Dynasty had lost all its homeland in Liaodong, that even Beijing had changed its owner, and that the remnants of the Eight Banners were trapped in a dilemma in the Central Plains. The 20,000 Eastern Mongolian reinforcements outside immediately tore down the flag of the Qing Dynasty. Without saying hello to Huang Taiji, they decisively tore up the alliance, broke camp and left, preparing to escape from this mess in the Central Plains and quickly return to their hometown on the grassland.
On the way north, a group of Horqin cavalry even looted the belongings of the Eight Banners family members in Texas, without any regard for the alliance they had formed for many years.
If these Mongolians want to go home, they have to pass through the territory occupied by Guan Ning's army. However, since Wu Xiang and Zu Dashou, two famous wallflowers, are not even willing to quarrel with the Jurchen Eight Banners, they naturally will not fight with these The Mongolian cavalry who wanted to go home fought hard. Therefore, after bargaining with Guan Ning's army and agreeing on the amount of money to buy the road, these Mongolians successfully passed the Great Wall Pass and returned to the Horqin Grassland to hibernate.
——Although the Horqin tribe's approach of adding insult to injury seems a bit unkind or treacherous, on the grassland with harsh environment, the rule of survival has always been such a law of the jungle. Only a powerful enough overlord can win the surrender and allegiance of many small tribes, hoping to gain protection and share benefits from the strong. On the other hand, once any strong person shows signs of decline, his next fate will definitely be betrayal and separation.
In any case, the collective rebellion of the allied tribes of Eastern Mongolia dealt a heavy blow to the already precarious Qing court. Even the Han and Mongolian military flags became somewhat unstable, and sporadic desertions soon appeared. Some of the escapees became bandits and bandits on the spot in Shandong, while others found new jobs with Guan Ning's army. Among the Han banners of the Manchu Qing Dynasty, many of them were originally captured Guan Ning. Adapted from the army. Similarly, in the establishment of Guan Ning Army, there are also many positions for Mongolian riders.
Faced with such a panic-stricken situation, the anxious Huang Taiji no longer wanted to fight with the Dengzhou Army in Jinan: there were only tens of thousands of Eight Banners soldiers left, and the lonely Central Plains could not be replenished. Not to mention that the Dengzhou Army is a tough nut to crack, and even if they win the battle in Jinan, what will happen? If the last capital was lost here, what would he, the so-called Emperor of the Qing Dynasty, have left?
Like any nomadic barbarian khan, Huang Taiji would not care too much about the gains and losses of one city or one place at this time.
Therefore, when the Dengzhou Army approached again, the Qing Army shamelessly gave up Jinan again and retreated hastily westward to Dongchang Mansion on the canal.
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However, after the wise and mighty Qing Emperor fled thousands of miles away with his Eight Banners soldiers, the Han landlords in Jinan Prefecture, Shandong Province, bravely fought against the "rebellious" people again in order to defend the last provincial capital city under the Qing Empire. "The Dengzhou Army launched a desperate fight. ... Under the overwhelming bombardment of artillery fire, the rural warriors of Jinan Prefecture showed amazing courage. First, nearly a thousand people were bombarded to death on the city wall, but they still clung to the gaps in the city wall, using gray bottles to , gold juice, tens of thousands of enemies and shotguns, repelled the two assaults of the Dengzhou Army.
After Jinan's city wall collapsed due to artillery shells and could no longer be defended, these village warriors retreated into the city's neighborhoods and fought with the Dengzhou Army in street battles for a day and night. They used the complex terrain to successfully delay the Dengzhou Army. fierce offensive. The second Qing Dynasty magistrate of Jinan, who had just taken office, even sent envoys quietly out of the city to contact the landlord regiments lurking in the nearby countryside in an attempt to attack the Dengzhou Army's camp.
Finally, Chen Xin, who couldn't bear it anymore, ordered a fire attack on Jinan City. However, at this time, there was a pouring autumn rain, which made the fire attack strategy ineffective. The morale of the defenders also increased, thinking that they had been blessed by God, and continued to fight in the dilapidated city. Fighting tenaciously in the streets and alleys...
This tragic city attack and defense battle lasted for five days and five nights. By the time the new Qing Dynasty Jinan magistrate committed suicide by hanging himself from a beam, and the last flag on the roof of the government office was cut down, the entire city of Jinan was covered with ruins, scorch marks and thick smoke, and scattered corpses filled the streets. , the scene is simply like hell. And Marshal Chen Xin's general liquidation after the city was destroyed, most of the remaining landowners and gentry were hanged from trees.
Then, after capturing Jinan Prefecture, the Dengzhou Army's offensive reached its limit again, causing the Shandong battlefield to fall silent once again.
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However, when the Jin gentry, the Han landlords in Jinan City, were leading their rural warriors to fight to the end for the glory of the Qing Dynasty, Huang Taiji, who had "transferred" to Dongchang Mansion, had arranged carriages and ships for the Eight Banners family members. After collecting food and crops, they continued to retreat southwards.
Although this strategy of avoiding fighting and fleeing is really embarrassing, for Huang Taiji at this time, it is indeed a helpless move.
Because the Qing Dynasty, which is now falling apart, cannot hold such a large territory at all. It can be seen from the map that the occupied areas of the Qing Dynasty are now lined up along the canal, from Dezhou in the north to Yangzhou in the south. Not only are most of them flat, with convenient transportation, they are extremely easy to attack and difficult to defend, but there are also wars going on in all directions. Enemies and potential enemies, no one from ancient times to the present has been able to defend such a strangely shaped territory.
Now that Guan Ning's army has defected and betrayed, the people of the Eight Banners have been separated, and there is no hope of going north to regain their homeland in Liaodong. In view of this situation, Huang Taiji decided to abandon Dezhou, Linqing and other places in the northernmost part of the occupied area, and moved his family to Yanzhou Prefecture south of Mount Tai.
In this way, the east and north of Yanzhou Mansion can be separated from the front of the Dengzhou Army by relying on the majestic Dongyue Taishan Mountain. To the west is the yellow flood area created by Dorgon after he dug up the Yellow River embankment to attack Kaifeng, which can also block the movement of the army. To the south is the Xuzhou Mansion where Huang Taiji is stationed, and the Lianghuai land where grain and fodder taxes can be collected. The strategic situation is much better than when he was in Jinan.
On the other hand, the land in Yanzhou Prefecture is relatively flat and fertile, and the production is relatively rich. Compared with the hot and humid Lianghuai area, the climate conditions are more suitable for the people of the Eight Banners. The Eight Banners of Manchuria, which had just completely lost its homeland in Liaodong and was driven to wander all the way, could establish a foothold in this land to recuperate and at the same time peek at the movements in the north, waiting for the next opportunity to make a comeback.
However, in the previous tug-of-war between the Ming and Qing armies and the Wenxiang Rebellion, the area along the canal in Yanzhou Prefecture was the main battlefield. It suffered from military disasters and is now sparsely populated and dilapidated. If Huang Taiji wanted to properly settle these tens of thousands of Eight Banners family members in Yanzhou Mansion, the money and food needed would not be a small amount. Although Huang Taiji had plundered the Wenxiang Sect's treasury in Xuzhou before and still had some savings on hand, considering the military expenses for future battles, he still felt more comfortable spending other people's money. So, he searched carefully on the map, and sure enough he found a fat sheep nearby that was suitable for robbery. He was very happy and immediately ordered someone to call his close friend Fan Wencheng.
"...Xiandou!" Huang Taiji shouted Fan Wencheng's name, "...I have an errand that I want you to help me with! Now my Qing soldiers and horses have suffered setbacks one after another, and the homeland of Liaodong has been destroyed by that little Yellowstone thief. Stealing evidence, the city of Beijing also He fell into the hands of the rebels and moved all the way to the border of Yanzhou Prefecture in southern Luna before settling down. However, in order to reorganize the division and resettle his family, the army was really short of money and food.
Therefore, it is the top priority of this dynasty to raise military pay and food as soon as possible. I heard that the Yanshenggong Mansion in Qufu, Yanzhou is a thousand-year-old family, a wealthy and powerful family that has been honored by all dynasties. Half of Yanzhou Mansion is his family's farmland. . Because the county seat of Qufu is not by the canal, and the previous wars did not go there, it must be that Duke Yan Sheng's mansion now has a lot of savings. So I prepared to lead my troops there and borrow some money and food from Duke Yansheng. You are also a reader of sages, and you are familiar with the etiquette of scholars. Why don't you go to Yan Shenggong's house to inform you first, and stand in front of me? ”
When Fan Wencheng heard this, his face suddenly turned pale, and even his words contained a hint of crying, "...Does your Majesty want to seize Duke Yansheng's Mansion? Absolutely not! All dynasties have only given bounties to the Confucius Mansion in Qufu. Silver, title, and land as a show of favor, but no one has ever distributed money, food, taxes, or taxes to the descendants of saints. For example! Even if this incident comes out, even if we get some money and food, we will definitely lose the hearts of the scholars in the world! Since ancient times, we can only conquer the world immediately, but there is no reason to rule the world immediately! Your Majesty, don’t let your family’s reputation fall because of small things.”
"...Hey, you can't say that! The so-called "all over the world" is not the land of kings. Even if Duke Yan is a descendant of a saint, he is still a minister of our Qing Dynasty! Since the family of Saint Kong has been granted the title of "Great King" If he has the title of Duke Yansheng of the Qing Dynasty, then the Kong family will be regarded as my servants. The wealth of the Kong family is naturally the wealth of my Qing Dynasty! There is a famine in the master's family right now. It is only right to use the money and food from the slave's family! In the worst case, I will reward the Kong family and raise the flag. It would be great if they were also incorporated into the Eight Banners of Manchuria!”
Huang Taiji waved his hand disapprovingly, interrupting Fan Wencheng's advice, "...No need to say more about this matter, let's just settle it..."
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On the other side, when the Qing Dynasty, which once dominated most of northern China, was suddenly extinguished like an epiphyllum, in the Yangtze River Basin of southern China, the life-and-death contest between the two Ming emperors also reached a point of sword-fighting. , the decisive moment in which the outcome is determined by one game.
——After spending a full four months to complete a series of difficult tasks from recruiting troops and raising food, to training the army, and to rushing to manufacture ordnance, Lu Xiangsheng, the Minister of War of the Ming Dynasty who supervised Jiangnan and was ordered to quell the rebellion, finally Confidently submitted a petition to Emperor Chongzhen:
"...I wish my emperor long live Jin'an, and I serve Lu, the governor of the south of the Yangtze River, and I report: Since the previous order to set up a large camp in Huguangda to fight against the rebellion, armies from all directions have gathered one after another, and Wuchang's food and horses are booming... By the end of August, the eastward expedition was matunju Already finished, the ordnance, war horses, and food and fodder are all ready. There are more than 4,000 cavalry, 35,000 infantry, 15,000 sailors and trackers, more than 100 large and small artillery pieces, 400 large and small warships, and accompanying army copy officers. Assisting more than 900 people, There are more than 26,000 craftsmen, militia, and soldiers... At that time, the troops are well-supplied and the troops are in good order. All the three armies are waiting day and night. They often think of the emperor's kindness and seek to serve the country and seize the southern capital. ,still The unyielding stubbornness and the roar of thieves are directly arousing people's anger. There is a saying in the art of war that morale can be boosted but not let down. Therefore, I am frightened and beg for surrender before the time of conquest. This is the emperor's sage..."< br>
At this point, the court of Emperor Chongzhen, who had been exiled from Beijing to Huguang, had finally basically completed the preparations for the Eastern Expedition. Just waiting for an order from Emperor Chongzhen, the 80,000 counter-rebellion army would sail eastward, advance by land and water, and attack directly Nanjing, the remaining capital where the Yonghe puppet emperor was entrenched.
At the same time, the various prefectures and counties in the south of the Yangtze River under the rule of Emperor Yonghe of Nanjing were still in chaos...
※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※※PS: The plan is to finish the Ming Dynasty Brawl volume as soon as possible this month. In short, I will definitely enter "Sword and Sword" at the latest next month "God's Domain" volume.