Kangxi, your Qing Dynasty is dead

Chapter 450 It doesn’t matter which way you come, I’ll only borrow it all the way! (Please subscribe, please vote)

Lieutenant General Li Zhongzheng followed Lieutenant General Zhou Chang (previously written as major general, now promoted one level) into the capital of General Li Zhongshan.During this period of time, they have probably been the hardest working people in the entire Ming Dynasty.

Zhou Chang and Li Zhongzheng are now in charge of the left and right military departments of the General's Mansion.Among them, Zhou Chang was the military advisor of the Zuo Shenjun Department, responsible for military orders across the country. He was also responsible for formulating the Northern Expedition plan and supervising its execution.Li Zhongzheng is the military advisor of the Right Army Department, mainly responsible for the recruitment, organization and training of the army.Now the Ming Dynasty has entered a wartime state. The Ming army has inflated like a blown balloon, but it can still maintain a relatively good order and not leak air everywhere in a hurry. These two military advisors really put in the greatest effort.

After more than a year of continuous expansion and training, the military force currently controlled by the Nanjing General's Office, in terms of numbers alone, has reached 100 million!Kangxi's five-way army had 80 or something. I really don't know how much water it had?As for the 100 million land and water army in the Nanjing General's Mansion, they are so real that not even a drop of water can be squeezed out.

And these 100 million troops not only spread throughout the Ming Dynasty, but also three powerful expeditionary forces appeared on the American continent, Malacca and Luzon Island.There is also an ocean fleet composed of 60 sail warships. I don’t know where it is now?

In addition, in the Western Pacific region, the Ming Dynasty also used a small number of troops to control several key strongholds, including Kushiro Castle on Ezo Island, which has become a disputed territory between North Korea and Japan; The city of Hoi An, which faces the South China Sea; the city of Nanqi, which originally belonged to Chenla and is now controlled by General Mo's Nanqi general's office who left Annan; and the city in the northern part of the Malay Peninsula, is controlled by the General Military Office of Wu's Pattani who also came from Annan. The city of Pattani.

In addition to the above-mentioned armed forces that clearly belong to the Ming Empire, there are also three "military trading companies" affiliated or secretly controlled by the Ming Dynasty General's Palace, namely the Ming Nanyang Trading Company, the Ming Yuehai Trading Company, and the Ming Mongolia Trading Company. East India Trading Company.

If you add all these various armed forces together, the number of people in the millions is simply too much!
To assist General Li in managing such huge military assets, the weight of responsibility and pressure on the shoulders of Li Zhongzheng and Zhou Chang, the two most important military staff in the general's palace, is unprecedented.

Among the two, Zhou Chang was still a "pure military advisor". He only had to lead the soldiers of the Left Army Department to formulate combat plans according to Li Zhongshan's instructions, and at the same time, he constantly sent troops to the local areas to supervise and inspect.Although things were cumbersome and difficult, it was Li Zhongshan who had the big idea after all.But Li Zhongzheng's role was different. He was not only the right-wing military adviser, but also the de facto "deputy general" and Li Zhongshan's "intentional" successor.The position of the Ming Dynasty's general and minister was not a hereditary position, and Li Zhongshan did not want to be hereditary.

How can we be a republic if it is hereditary?He is quite serious about the Republic.Moreover, the emperor will be overthrown by the revolution, and the shogun will not end well if he can't handle it.He doesn't even care about the throne, so he will guard a broken general and pass it on to his descendants?

Therefore, the future for his sons is determined by inheriting his title and property. As for how far they can go in the military and political circles, it depends on their own destiny.

In his opinion, it is best for the future general or prime minister position to be passed around among several major families, with everyone taking the position, and then finally letting others take the position.In this way, everyone will be a "general family", and they can "general and general protect each other" in the future!

And it seems appropriate that "Zhongshan" is passed down to "Zhongzheng", right?

Of course, this "internal decision" refers to the fact that General Li Zhongshan believed that he could take over. On the surface, General Li didn't say anything. If he did, then there would soon be "two people" in the General's Mansion. A sun!”

Therefore, Li Zhongshan is now just arranging for Li Zhongzheng to sit in Nanjing after his own expedition to the Northern Expedition. He will stay and look after the house, which is almost the same as Xiahou Dun's "Brother Dun" to Boss Cao. Considering that he is Li Zhongshan's good third brother, the two brothers are very good. They even look similar, so it's normal for them to be given the status of "Brother Dun".

In addition, since Li Zhongshan was "unofficially" appointed as Li Zhongzheng's successor, he would naturally bear particularly heavy responsibilities and many tests on weekdays. There would also be various hot or offending errands left to him to deal with.

And now Li Zhongshan is about to take the general's palace to Xuzhou to command the Northern Expedition army. Of course, Li Zhongzheng has to deal with the Japanese pirates in the south of the Yangtze River.

If he can't handle this little thing, then I'm afraid he won't be able to take care of him in this class.
When Li Zhongzheng followed Zhou Chang into the capital room, Yao Qisheng, who was also in charge of the Jin Yiwei, was reporting to Li Zhongshan with a serious look on the military situation of the Qing Dynasty and Zhou Dynasty that he had just learned.

". All signs indicate that the 'one country defends one city' strategy provided by Shang Shuying is false! Kangxi's true intention is probably to divide his troops into four or five groups, concentrate hundreds of thousands of troops, and fight with me from Kaifeng to Xuzhou Fight a decisive battle on the front line! If the battle goes unfavorably, it will be possible to pick up the strategy of "one country defending one city" again. What is certain at present is that the Spanish Armada and Japanese pirate mercenaries will undertake one or two of them, since Invading Southeast Haikou threatens our sacred land in the south of the Yangtze River and forces our army to divide its troops along the coasts of Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong and waste our troops in vain!"

Li Zhongshan was very calm and relaxed. He sat on the chair, lowered his head and took a sip of tea. He raised his head and was about to say something when he heard the loud command and roll call of the guards at the door of the capital.He looked towards the door again and saw Li Zhongzheng and Zhou Chang walking in quickly and saluting him.

Li Zhongshan nodded lightly: "Third brother, Mr. Pei, you are here just in time. We can discuss it together."

Li Zhongzheng asked carefully: "Second brother, what are we discussing? Is it about the discovery of the main force of the Spanish Armada off the coast of Hangzhou Bay? This time the Spanish Armada should have brought Japanese mercenaries, right? If they want to destroy the Spanish Armada in Hangzhou Bay, Landing, the chosen landing place is either Zhapu or Yuyao." He glanced at Zhou Chang: "Just now Pei Gong and I talked about the difficulties of resisting Japanese aggression along the coast. You might as well listen to his analysis first."

Li Zhongshan waved his hand: "Third brother, I gave you the errand of staying behind in the General's Mansion. Naturally, you will be fully responsible for the defense of the southeast coast. Xizhi will also stay in Nanjing to assist you. You can discuss this matter. That’s it. Let me ask you something now, do you want to leave more troops for you?”

Li Zhongzheng shook his head: "No need, second brother, you actually don't have enough troops on hand. Our army is said to be one million strong, but the navy accounts for 100 to 3, and the General's Office and the Eight Chief Superintendents occupy another two." The establishment of 50 people, and the admirals, generals, cooperators, and garrison generals of the ten provinces account for more than [-] establishments. Huguang and Guangxi still have to leave a legion each for my father and my eldest brother, plus the remaining Give me the legion. This is [-] people!
In addition to the troops deployed on Bintan Island, Luzon Island, Ryukyu Island, Ezo Island and the American continent, the number is almost another hundred thousand.Of the millions, only 40 are available at most. "

It’s true that when the troops are used, they will regret less!
It's a big deal when a million soldiers are given out money. One million!In terms of food, salary, and military supplies, coupled with the consumption of military and civilian personnel, when the Northern Expedition is fully launched, the military expenditure of 100 million taels a month will not be enough. If we want to fight more abundantly, it will be 1000 million taels a month.

But if it can really be used on the blade, there must be no 40. The 40 army refers to the number of Ming troops (not including civilians) who crossed the Huaihe River and entered the northern Central Plains!
If civilians are allocated according to a one-to-one ratio, then the number of the Northern Expedition army can reach 80!

Gathering 80 people in Xuzhou, a battleground for military strategists north of Huaibei. Well, the advantage is mine!
As for this kind of 1200 million tael a month war, even the Ming Dynasty, which controlled the two economic centers of Jiangnan and Guangfu, would not be able to fight for long.The reason why Li Zhongshan chose to have a truce with the Qing Dynasty and the Zhou Dynasty a few years ago was actually to rectify the internal affairs and accumulate military expenses.

However, after saving for several years, Li Zhongshan has not even paid off the "huge debt" of several tens of millions owed by Zhu Cijiong, the "debt master" in his early years. Not only has he not paid it off, but he has paid back more and more. The original "huge debt" of 5000 million has now been repaid to hundreds of millions.

Of course, the extra 5000 million was not caused by the emperor Zhu Cijiong's excessive lewdness, but was spent on serious matters, such as building a large navy, building shipyards, arsenals, iron mines, iron plants, and building construction The "Three Rivers Comprehensive Management Project" such as the Yellow River, Huaihe River and Canal, the construction of the "Huaibei and Huainan Irrigation Project", the coastal fortress and coastal defense projects, as well as the large-scale military expansion, military training and military resource reserves in the past year or so. Tens of millions of taels of silver, Just spend it!

And once the army crosses the Huaihe River and enters the frontier area, the cost in the future will be even more staggering!
According to the budget jointly prepared by the General's Office and the Minister's Office, from the time the army crossed the Huaihe River until the victory of the Northern Expedition, the Ming Dynasty had to prepare 1200 million taels for military expenditures alone every month. That's 1 million taels a year. !Two years of fighting will cost almost 4400 million!

The military budget prepared by the General's Office and the Ministry of Education for this Northern Expedition is 3 million!

In other words, you can only play for two years at most, and there will be no more.

Half of the 3 million military expenditure, that is, 1 million taels, had to be raised through war bonds.Adding this huge debt, after the victory of the Northern Expedition, Ming's debt will reach 5000 million taels. The debt is really high!
Thanks to Li Zhongshan's knowledge of finance, he began to build a financial system with big banks as the core very early. He also included large and small banks in the Ming Dynasty, as well as Fujian and Guangdong maritime merchants, Lianghuai salt merchants, and Jiangnan private merchants. Big businessmen such as , tea merchants, etc. all used various methods to get into this system.

And this system is highly controllable by the Ming court!
Therefore, the Ming court was able to use this financial system to set a high price for the credit of the Ming court, which was heavily in debt. This meant that the Ming Dynasty could find a large amount of public debt at a lower interest rate without worrying about being able to sell it out.It also allowed banks and banks within the Ming Dynasty to hold the public bonds of the Ming Dynasty as high-quality assets.But this is not the era of credit money after all, so the debt expansion of the Ming Dynasty is not "infinite". If the total public debt of 2 million taels is not the limit, it is not far away.

Therefore, Li Zhongshan did not have much time on his hands. Of course, Li Zhongzheng was aware of this difficulty, so he was unwilling to divide Li Zhongshan's troops.If Li Zhongshan had fewer troops for the Northern Expedition, it might take more time to complete the Northern Expedition.

After hearing his brother's answer, Li Zhongshan nodded happily: "I have 80 people, and I have a great advantage in the Northern Expedition... I will definitely be able to return to the court with victory within a year.

Third brother, as long as you can persist in the southeast for one year and prevent the Japanese pirates and Western barbarians from succeeding, it will be considered a great achievement. "

"Second brother, please rest assured," Li Zhongzheng said with a smile, "Why should we care about mere Japanese pirates? Zhongzheng has his own way to annihilate them all on the shores of the East China Sea!"

Looking at his appearance, it seemed that he was fully confident, so Li Zhongshan was certainly relieved.

"Okay!" Li Zhongshan smiled and ordered, "Brother Yu will leave everything to me in the southeast!"

Li Zhongzheng cupped his fists and said, "Second brother, I have an order!"

Li Zhongshan nodded, the Northern Expedition is already underway!A large number of troops have already moved north, and armed civilians have been recruited in frontier areas such as Huaibei and Huainan. The strategy of the Northern Expedition to the Central Plains - the plan of "camp step by step until Beijing" has been led by Zhou Chang, the Zuo Military Advisor of the General's Office. The details of joining the army have been drawn up.

It is no exaggeration to say that an extremely huge war machine is now fully activated and is rolling slowly but resolutely towards Beijing, the capital of the Qing Empire, with a crushing force!

Regardless of how many armies Kangxi had, Li Zhongshan only had to go all the way to Beijing.As long as Kangxi could not stop the rolling wheels of this war machine, his Qing Dynasty would be in danger!

Autumn, the 22nd year of Kangxi.

In Beijing, Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty was also concentrating on the intrusion of the Spanish Armada and Japanese pirates on the southeastern coast of the Ming Dynasty. His five-way army plan of 80 Ming dynasties seemed very powerful, but in fact it was a big falsehood. of.

Li Zhongshan's "80-strong army" in the Northern Expedition, if you want to count every one of them, there must be some, and both regular soldiers and civilian servants must be strong and strong.

But Kangxi's "80" cannot be said to be yes or no, it all depends on the progress of the war.If things go well, all parties will work harder to add more chips to the table, and 80 may actually be available.

If the situation is not good, it is difficult to say.Not only are Wu Zhou and Jinzhang Khan Galdan not likely to follow, but it is also difficult to say that no one within the Qing Dynasty will turn against the Qing Dynasty and turn to the Ming Dynasty - the loyalty of those loyal ministers of the Qing Dynasty is a bit "too much", so much that it can make many monarchs share!
Maybe in the end, only the 20 loyal troops of the Qing Dynasty will fight with the Ming Dynasty around Beijing. 20 vs. 80 people. The advantage lies with the enemy!
"Xuan Ye, has Li Zhongshan sent troops?"

The 71-year-old Empress Dowager Bumu Butai was walking by the water of Taiye Pond, supported by Empress Yang Xiaomi, when suddenly she was asked about military affairs, which she rarely cared about.

Although the Mazi Emperor Kangxi of the Qing Dynasty, who was now over 30 years old, was worried, he still looked confident. Hearing the old queen's question, he just smiled and said: "We have already sent out troops and sworn an oath on the eighth day of September. What do you say?" If you destroy Huanglong, you can't say that Shengjing will never pay it back."

"Hey, even Shengjing is going to be destroyed!" Yang Xiaomi frowned, "You don't plan to leave it to the Qing Dynasty at all?"

Kangxi chuckled: "That's all his wishful thinking! The Spanish Armada, carrying 2 Japanese pirates, has arrived in Hangzhou Bay in the past two days. If he really dares to ignore it, once those Japanese pirates land, the fertile land in the southeast will be miserable. Got it!

In addition, Wu Yingqi's envoy Guo Zhuangtu also arrived in Beijing in the past two days, bringing news that Wu Zhou was preparing to launch a 10-strong army to threaten Hubei, and that a 10-strong army was marching eastward to Henan. The number of soldiers can reach 10. Counting the civilians accompanying the army, there can be about 30. "

"60 vs. 80. It seems that there are more people on the Ming side." Bumbutai was still a little worried, "Also, although Chang Ning is assisted by people like Laita, Bahai, and Fei Yanggu, his opponent is Li Zhongshan. !Can Chang Ning beat him?"

This time, Kangxi did not personally lead the army to fight against Li Zhongshan. Instead, he named Chang Ning the General of Fuyuan and ordered the Manchurian tiger generals Laita, Bahai, and Fei Yanggu to assist Chang Ning.

Kangxi himself sat in Beijing and took charge of the affairs from the middle.

This made Bumu Butai a little worried... Although Kangxi seemed to have difficulty fighting against Li Zhongshan, Chang Ning's kung fu seemed to be even worse.

"Huang Ma Ma, don't worry, you have many grandchildren. If we really want to fight Li Zhongshan on the Xuzhou-Kaifeng line, your grandchildren will naturally lead the white-armored elite soldiers and the Chahar Mongolian cavalry to the front line." Kangxi He smiled, "But it's not necessary now."

"Isn't it necessary?" Bumu Butai frowned, "Li Zhongshan has already gone north... he will arrive in Xuzhou soon. After the Spring Festival, his soldiers will go to Shandong and head north towards our city of Beijing. Are you coming?

Xuan Ye, you have to think clearly... The closer the Ming Dynasty's Northern Expeditionary Army is to our city of Beijing, the less authority you, the emperor, will have.Powerful people from all sides will be tempted!If you really want to use the power of a country to defend a city, the risk is extremely high! "

"Don't worry, Madam Huang, your grandson actually has a clever plan to defeat the enemy." Kangxi said with a smile, "It's just that this clever plan is a bit detrimental to Yin De. My grandson is the emperor and the lord of the north, so it is really not suitable to use it. That's why Chang Ning was asked to replace grandson. My son has gone away this time. Once he has used his plan well, and my grandson can go south to command the entire army, he may be able to achieve a complete victory."

"It's harmful to one's morality? What kind of harmful move is it?" Bumubu said sincerely: Are you still afraid of this?That little bit of your moral character has been lost a long time ago, and now you can't make it up even if you eat vegetarian food and knock wooden fish every day. "

"Mom Huang," Emperor Kangxi looked around and found that there were no outsiders, so he moved closer to Bumbutai, "My grandson wants to use water to replace soldiers..."

(End of this chapter)