Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 325
Zhu Yihai's Jinwu cavalry, the vanguard of the Northern Expedition, was only a few tens of miles away from his hometown of Yanzhou Luwang Mansion, but they finally stopped in Jining and did not continue to advance.

Before Zhu Shengli and the others left, they blasted the city wall with gunpowder, and took out part of the military rations to give relief to the victims. First, they recruited a large number of craftsmen and scholars from them, and after rewarding many young brides for the camp, they took the rest of the rations. Relief with work, let the victims assist in destroying the city.

There is a big demolition here, but the Jinwu cavalry over there is bluffing, rushing to the border of Yanzhou, pretending to besiege Yanzhou, and making various propagandas to the outside world. And Jian Guo is also calling 10 horses to gather in Xuhuai, vowing to recover Yanzhou and rebury the tombs of Lu Fan's ancestors.

Zhu Shengli and his cavalry blocked the frontier of Yanzhou and Jining, and the Qing army's scout cavalry could not go south, and they couldn't figure out the intelligence here.

Tan Tai was also confused.

Without accurate intelligence, it is impossible to make accurate judgments and responses.

However, after Tan Tai suffered two major defeats, now he did not dare to send the Eight Banners south easily. He asked Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming to send cavalry south to explore Jining and Xuzhou.

But these two people are also very treacherous, and Shang Kexi's entire army was defeated and killed, which was beyond their expectations. They were also a little more afraid of the Ming army, and they were just perfunctory in the tasks Tan Tai entrusted to them .

The scouts below didn't dare to really go deep into the enemy's territory at this time. They circled the border a few times, robbed a few villages by the way, and killed some innocent people to act as enemy scouts and falsely report their military exploits.

Under such circumstances, Tan Tai didn't dare to send the Eight Banners south easily, so he had to keep asking Beijing for emergency help, while dispatching troops and food to various places in Shandong, Henan, north and south.

However, Tan Tai was only the General of the Southern Conscript, and he could not directly mobilize the troops of the surrounding provinces. After receiving his letter, the governors felt uneasy, and hurriedly dispatched troops to reinforce and guard their important towns.

Everyone sweeps the snow in front of the door, regardless of the frost on the roof of others.

Without reinforcements, Tan Tai could only defend Yanzhou and be on guard day and night.

Beijing.

When Dorgon received Tan Tai's report, he was shocked.

After regaining consciousness, Dorgon immediately convened a meeting of princes and ministers discussing politics. The princes of the Eight Banners, ministers discussing politics, Han scholars, ministers and other ministers in Beijing were all summoned to discuss urgent countermeasures.

"Shang Kexi is really dead?"

Many people didn't believe the news, but Dorgon told them that it was true. Not only did Shang Kexi die, but also all of his 2000 Liao soldiers were lost. Kong Youde also lost [-] soldiers before.

"Tan Tai urgently reported that the Ming army has approached the outskirts of Yanzhou, and their cavalry even suppressed Kong Geng's second sentry cavalry. According to their speculation, the main force of the Ming army is now going north, and there are at least [-] Ming troops near Yanzhou. There are still many people in Xuzhou, Huai'an and other places.

The leader of the battle this time is Zhu Wu, the admiral of Jiangnan, Jiangbei, and governor of the Ming Dynasty, the Minister of the Military Affairs Department of the Imperial Army, and the King of Lu, who supervised the country, also personally accompanied the army in the Northern Expedition, sitting in Huai'an..."

Duo ErGun said amazing words.

"I want to submit to His Majesty the Emperor to lead the Eight Banners in Beijing to personally conquer Shandong, and annihilate Lu Jianguo in one fell swoop!"

All the ministers who discussed the state affairs were extremely surprised.

Has it reached the point where the emperor will be invited to conquest?

But the emperor was only eight years old.

The regent even brought the eight-year-old emperor with him. This is not just a personal conquest, but an expression of the determination to use the power of the whole country. Is it really to this point?
"Didn't Zheng Jiwu just capture Mingxing in Shaoxing before?" someone asked.

"This also shows that Zheng Jiwu was able to invade Shaoxing in one fell swoop only when Lu Jianguo raised all his troops to the north. We were careless before and didn't realize this."

University scholar Gang Lin reminded Duo ErGun.

"Your Highness, winter is coming soon, and it will be inconvenient to go south in the Beijing Eight Banners. What's more, if you mobilize tens of thousands of Eight Banners and the Conscript Han Army, Green Camp, etc. at this time, the money and food needed will not be available for a while."

"The canal is about to freeze. At that time, the transportation and supply of grain and grass will also be a big problem. Now Shandong can no longer supply the army. Tan Tai's delay in Shandong before was also caused by insufficient grain and grass supply."

Prince Yu Duoduo, who is in charge of the household department, also stood up at this time and said, "Since July, the Yangtze River and the canal have been blocked, and the money and food from Huguang and Jiangnan have not entered Beijing. At present, there are only 30 taels left in the treasury under the management of the household department. The money is gone, but the military pay and pensions owed to the Ministry of War have accumulated more than 500 million taels..."

"The granary in the capital is also empty, and the Chinese New Year is coming soon, and the monthly rations of the officials and bannermen have not yet been settled."

War requires money and food.

After entering the customs last year, it took half a year to drink horses from the Yangtze River and Qiantang, and captured Beizhi, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, Huguang, Jiangnan, and half of Zhejiang and Jiangxi. The military situation is very good.

But because of this, he took over half of the burden of the Ming Dynasty, hundreds of thousands of Ming soldiers who surrendered, bandits recruited, and countless officials, etc., and even before that, they had to care for those clans and relatives, and treat those gentry kindly.

With these burdens on his body, Da Qing couldn't get used to it all at once.

And when the situation in the south changed and the military began to strain, the financial problem became even more serious.

Now the princes and nobles of the Eight Banners are very rich, and the people of the Eight Banners are not bad, but the problem is that the court has no money or food.

Granary Huguang cannot collect grain, and Jiangnan Huaiyang, a tax-heavy area, cannot collect money, and the canals are blocked.

Places such as Shaanxi, Henan, and Shandong have been destroyed long ago, and there is no hope.

Dorgon has already deeply felt that the Qing Dynasty is seriously losing blood. If this continues, he may have to return to his hometown outside the pass soon.

So he wanted to take advantage of the fact that the Eight Banners were still able to fight, and before the Ming army had recovered, he would complete his efforts in one battle and fight the Ming army in Shandong.

But Doduo poured cold water on him.

It's simply not possible now.

Right now, we are starting to prepare food and wages, and it will be possible to go south after the thaw in the spring of next year, but this task is also very difficult, because now all the places in Huguang, Jiangnan and other places have been smashed, and the autumn tax cannot enter Beijing.

It is also very difficult to recruit from other places.

The current situation, not to mention the imperial conquest of Shandong, is that this year's Chinese New Year salaries for hundreds of officials and monthly rations for bannermen will not be distributed.

If the problem of grain grain entering Beijing cannot be solved, the consequences will be very serious. There are so many officials and soldiers of the Eight Banners in Beijing. If grain grain cannot enter Beijing on time, there will be no rations and famine will occur.

This is not a joke.

Back in the Ming Dynasty, because of the blockage of the canal from Beijing to Tongzhou, the price of food in Beijing would rise sharply, and the people would suffer from hunger, let alone the lack of food in Tianjin and Tongzhou today.

Dai Shan also said that the current situation is indeed very difficult. Obviously, the Eight Banners' combat power can still crush the Ming army, but because the battle line is too long, and the Ming army is always guerrilla, this makes it impossible for the Eight Banners to defeat the Ming army quickly, and is forced to run eastward Go west, but always can't find the right opponent.

Although the Huguang situation was cleared, it was still broken.

Now the Ming army corrupted Jiangnan and then attacked Huaiyang and Shandong. This style of play is a bit like the Qing army's combat strategy against the Ming army outside the pass.

Now they have tasted this kind of pain, but they can't fight if they want to fight, and their money, food, taxes, etc. have been eroded.

"Hurry up and send Hong Guang south, and send someone to negotiate peace with King Lu."

Princes such as Jierhalang, Daishan, Haoge, and Azig who were originally unwilling to make peace negotiations can only compromise at this time, and let's get over the current difficulties first.

After returning from the meeting of the king and ministers, Dorgon was exhausted physically and mentally.

He originally wanted to conquer Shandong himself and gather the Eight Banners to fight with all his strength, but Daishan and others were unwilling to fight this way. There were a lot of difficult reasons for this reason.

They were actually scared!

He called Chen Mingxia, Gang Lin, Feng Quan and others, "Let Qian Qianyi and Chen Hongfan send Emperor Hongguang south immediately, and send Lu Jianguo to Changsha to negotiate peace with King Lu."

"Tell Tan Tai that the imperial court can't move the Eight Banners to go south to Shandong for the time being, let him stick to Yanzhou first, if it doesn't work, then retreat to Jinan, don't underestimate the enemy and fight in waves, and go south when the spring is warm next year."

Dorgon was helpless to make this decision.

For King Sanshun, after Dorgon hesitated for a long time, he finally decided to bestow the posthumous title Wuzhuang, and let Shang Kexi's nine-year-old eldest son Shang Zhixin inherit the title of King Zhishun. A sister promises to Shang Kexi's second Shang Zhixiao.

For Kong Youde, who was seriously dereliction of duty this time, not only did he not issue an order to punish him, but instead issued an order to comfort him. He even asked the queen mother to accept Kong Youde's ten-year-old daughter Kong Sizhen as her adopted daughter, and named him He Shuogege, even hinting that she would be betrothed to Emperor Shunzhi in the future.

As for Geng Zhongming, Dorgon also wrote to him personally, saying that he abandoned Jining without authorization, and Shang Kexi was besieged and committed suicide. He was lenient, and even gave his son Geng Jimao the post of Jing Nihafan (Viscount), hoping that he could serve the country with gratitude.

Before Qian Qianyi went south, Dorgon summoned him and two envoys, Chen Hongfan.

"When I saw the Queen of Lu, I persuaded him well that it is an unchangeable fact that I entered the Dingding Central Plains of the Qing Dynasty. But considering the origins of the two countries, as long as the King of Lu is willing to accept my Daqing as the suzerain, then the Qing Dynasty can consider using it as the suzerain. It is a vassal, assigned to him the land of six provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou..."

The condition of Dorgon's peace negotiation was that the Ming Dynasty would proclaim itself a vassal to the Qing Dynasty, and the emperor of the Ming Dynasty would be lowered to a lower level and renamed the king, and would be a vassal of the Qing Dynasty.

"This tribute is tentatively set at 400 million stones of grain, 100 million taels of silver, and 10 taels of gold."

In fact, this number is basically the original amount of grain that the Ming Dynasty sent to Nanzhi and Zhejiang. 100 million taels of silver is equivalent to the original gold flower silver. .

Qian Qianyi said, "If you give King Lu six provinces, they may not be satisfied, and without Su Song and Jiangxi, it will be difficult for them to collect 400 million stone grains as a tribute."

"Talk first, and it will be too late, but the premise is that the negotiation starts, and the king of Lu must withdraw to Zhedong, otherwise there will be no talk." Dorgon confessed, "You can reveal something, as long as they are willing to talk, they can still talk , to make them feel that the imperial court is willing to give them all the south of the Yangtze River, and divide the north and south of the Yangtze River."

Qian Qianyi understood at once that this was a tactic to delay the attack.

"Hongguang will be sent to Jiangning first, and can also be sent to Hangzhou. Don't be in a hurry to return it to King Lu, and use it as a bargaining chip to talk to him. If the negotiation fails, send King Lu to Shaoxing for restoration, or send it to Nanchang. If Zhu Yihai is willing to have a good talk, then it is also possible to let Hong Guangyun deal with him."

Dorgon would not care about Hongguang's life and death, it was just a bargaining chip.

Before the conversation was over, the guard sent an urgent report.

"Jiangxi Admiral Jin Shenghuan rebelled and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, the general soldier Wang Tizhong was killed, the governor Zhang Yutian and others were captured and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, all northern Jiangxi defected to the Ming army, and the entire territory of Jiangxi fell..."

After reading this urgent report, Dorgon's face was dark and his hands trembled.

The house leak happened to rain all night, misfortunes never come singly!

　I actually forgot to post this chapter, and I didn’t pay attention when I went to New Year’s greetings. Sorry, I only found out at two o’clock in the middle of the night, so I quickly updated it.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)