Jingnan Strategy

Chapter 241 Historical Changes
  "Fixed fire loading, target Guangning Central Guards City, pre-fire three rounds, adjust the angle by itself, prepare... release!"

"Boom boom boom!!"

On the first day of August, on the first day of the new moon, the sound of artillery resounded throughout Guangning Zhongwei, and the Bohai Navy also sent hot shells to the Southern Army here.

Hundreds of artillery shells hit the Zhongwei City, shattering the bricks of the Guangning Zhongwei City Wall that had been newly built for less than two years.

After this round of shelling, the Ming troops hiding behind the walls also stood up, sighing that they had saved another life.

More than half a month has passed since Meng Zhang attacked western Liaoning. During this time, two of Guangning's four guards and one of them were lost.

The Guangning Right Fortress where Liu Song was originally stationed had been lost. He led his army to retreat to Guangning's Zhongzuo Fortress, but it was still lost in less than ten days.

At present, they retreated to the Guangning Zhongtun Guard in Xiaoling Hebei, but Meng Zhang still pursued them here and continued to bombard the city.

"Why haven't the military rations been delivered to Yiju for so long?"

In the commander's yamen, Liu Song stood in the main position and questioned Qiu Wu, the commander of the new city guard, but Qiu Wu could not answer this question.

"We have sent people to urge them three or four times, but no one has returned. I am afraid that Yizhou has fallen and the more than [-] troops stationed there have also surrendered to the enemy."

Wu Sheng spoke with the worst intention, but these words stung Liu Song.

In recent days, Meng Zhang outside the city has been testing them with scheming tactics, saying that Jiulian City has surrendered, and his father Liu Zhen has also surrendered to Bohai.

Liu Song didn't believe that his father was that kind of person, but Meng Zhang did have a good way of psychological warfare, so much so that he became very angry when he heard the word "surrender to the enemy".

But he couldn't get angry when faced with Wu Sheng's words, so he could only hold back his temper and asked Wu Sheng: "How long will the food in the three guards' treasury be enough?"

"Counting shipping, two months at most..." Wu Sheng's eyes darkened, and Liu Song's heart twitched.

These days, it is not that he has never tried to lead his troops out of the city to fight with the Bohai Navy. However, the Bohai Navy's firearms are too powerful, and the spear formations covering the firearms troops are not inferior to those of the Daning and Liao soldiers, so they have not been able to challenge them. Get it cheap.

Currently, the Liaoxi Corridor is in their hands as well as Shanhai Guard, Ningyuan Guard, and the Guangning Zhongtun Guard where they are currently located. There are three guards in total and five guard posts under their jurisdiction.

There are [-] military households in Sanwei and Wusuo, with a population of [-]. Including the Daning troops who still have more than [-] people after the war, the total is [-] soldiers and civilians.

[-] people eat horse chews every day, consuming more than a thousand shi of food, while the three guards and five houses only have less than [-] shi.

Although Shandong continued to send food to them by sea, because there was no suitable place to dock large ships in the Liaoxi Corridor in this era, only small boats with dozens of materials could be used to transport food.

In order to transport this amount of food, countless small boats capsized in the Bohai Sea along the way.

To transport one stone of grain to western Liaoning, the Shandong Chief Envoy must prepare at least three stones of grain.

This kind of grain transportation situation, coupled with the fact that last year Shandong shipped millions of shi of grain to Liaodong Dusi and Daning Dusi respectively, this year it also shipped [-] shi to Jinzhou and was intercepted by the Bohai Navy.

It can be said that the Chief Envoy of Shandong, which has long provided blood to Daning and Liaodong, has now been completely hollowed out.

In order to transport grain, the imperial court had no choice but to transfer copper coins to the Chief Envoy of Shandong to buy grain locally and transport it to the front line.

The war was already difficult, and now we were faced with the interruption of the food route to Yiju.

As Wu Sheng said, it may be difficult for them to survive two months.

"Boom!!"

After a quarter of an hour's rest, the Bohai Navy started bombarding again. Listening to the dull sound of the artillery, Liu Song felt extremely aggrieved.

It's just that his frustration can finally be over now...

"General!"

The sound of hurried footsteps sounded shortly after the sound of artillery stopped. Several Daning commanders and military attaches rushed into the middle hall and said anxiously:

"A large number of Bohai Navy troops came outside the city, including soldiers and horses flying our Daning flag!"

"What did you say?" Liu Song quickly walked out of the Yamen upon hearing this, and Wu Sheng followed him.

Not long after, they appeared on the horse path of Zhongtun Acropolis in Guangning. Holding on to the wall stacks, they saw a team of no less than [-] people outside the city.

"They are coming over here. What do they want to do?"

A commander exclaimed. Liu Song and others could also see with their naked eyes many people walking out of the team, but they were not dressed like soldiers, more like common people.

"What do the rebels want to do? Do they want to imitate the Hu soldiers and drive the people to attack the city?"

"They don't have to... wait!"

"How is this going?!"

As the team gradually approached the city wall, the Daning soldiers and generals who were guarding the city were in a trance.

The people walking towards them turned out to be common people carrying the Daning flag, or rather their relatives.

"Dad! King Bohai wants you to surrender quickly. Daning has been captured by King Bohai."

"Yang Erlang! Open the city quickly. The Twenty-Two Guards have surrendered. Stop fighting!"

"Er Mazi! Don't fight anymore. Your brothers are still in King Bohai's team. King Bohai promised us that we can become citizens and no longer need to be soldiers."

When the military families of the [-]nd Guards of Daning appeared at the foot of Guangning Zhongtun Guards City, it was not only Liu Song and Wu Sheng who were dumbfounded, but also the middle and lower-level generals and ordinary soldiers.

Most of the people who can appear in the city are familiar faces to them, including their immediate family members.

For a moment, the entire city was in chaos, and the expressions of Liu Song and Wu Sheng changed drastically.

There were no family members of the two of them in the city. Their families were all in the capital or their hometown in Huaixi, but even so, they still felt a sense of despair.

If Daning Dusi was breached, wouldn't it mean that the Three Guards of Liaoxi Province had become completely isolated islands?

What's even more deadly is that [-] of the more than [-] Liaoxi defenders are from Daning, and their families are calling them.

"The city cannot be opened! This is a trick used by the Bohai rebels!"

"Come here! Shoot the arrow!"

"Fuck your motherfucker!"

On the horse road, some generals suddenly tried to order arrows to be fired, but they were immediately scolded by Daning's soldiers and horses.

When those voices came out, Wu Sheng immediately felt nervous. He knew that no sensible person would order an arrow to be fired at this time.

"There are people from Bohai common people in the city!"

Wu Sheng looked at Liu Song hurriedly, and Liu Song immediately yelled: "You can't shoot arrows!"

Although the two made an emergency response, the noise on the horse road has now become a pot of porridge, and their voices are too low for everyone to hear.

The two of them took their personal guards to try to stop the chaos, but before they could appease a few troops, someone hurriedly came to report.

"Captain! The city gate has been opened!"

"Buzz rumbling..."

When the soldiers who reported the news went up the horse path and found Liu Song to inform him of the situation at the city gate, the dull sound of horse hoofbeats also sounded outside the city.

The sound of the horse's hooves didn't sound like it was trampling on the ground, but more like trampling on Liu Song's heart.

"Close the city gate!"

When Liu Song and Wu Sheng got the news, they led more than a thousand people from the chaos to the horse road, but there were even more soldiers and horses at the gate of the city.

Thousands of Daning soldiers and horses descended from the city at some unknown time. When Liu Song saw this, he cursed angrily: "Who let you point the sword at your brothers!"

Among the crowd, a familiar general appeared. Faced with Liu Song's scolding, he retorted: "Liu Song, you are so fucking merciless, you just wanted to shoot our brothers' parents with arrows." Relatives, you still have the nerve to come here now.”

"That's not a military order from me!" Liu Song tried to explain, but the general ignored it and just led his men to form a formation at the gate of the city.

Standing here, Liu Song could see with his own eyes the Bohai cavalry rushing towards them, getting closer and closer.

"Huang Qu, you close the city gate immediately, and I can forget about what happened just now!"

Liu Song spoke urgently, and Wu Sheng also secretly commanded his troops to form a formation and press forward step by step towards the thousands of people in Huangqu.

"We dared to open the city gate, but we never thought of following you!"

The commander who stood up to speak made Huang Qu yell at Liu Song. At this time, the Bohai cavalry was getting closer and closer to the city gate. Their number was simply not something Liu Song could withstand with his thousands of men.

"Withdraw, there are two thousand draft horses behind us, we can withdraw!"

Seeing the chaotic situation around him, Wu Sheng knew that he could not regroup his army, so he could only persuade Liu Song to retreat.

Faced with his dissuasion, the Bohai Navy was about to enter the city, and the obstruction of Huangqu, Liu Song could only curse Huangqu, but he had no choice but to withdraw with more than a thousand soldiers.

Within two minutes, the Bohai Navy cavalry successfully entered the city. Huang Qu asked the soldiers to withdraw and put down their weapons.

Not only them, but also many soldiers from Daning and Liaoxi.

In these days of fighting, they had not gotten any advantage from the Bohai Navy, and their morale was already low. Now that the city has fallen, for many soldiers, they no longer want to fight anymore, so it would be a good idea to take this opportunity to surrender.

"Where are Liu Song and Wu Sheng?"

When the Bohai Navy completely took over Guangning Zhongtun Guards City, Zhu Gaoxu also brought more than a hundred cavalry into the city and met several surrendered commanders and dozens of thousands of households.

"Back to Your Highness, they took some remaining soldiers and withdrew to the south."

Huang Qu, who took the lead in opening the city gate, spoke, and at the same time asked about the generals' worries: "Dare you ask, Your Highness, my relatives..."

"You and other relatives are all fine. We can reunite with our families in a short while." Zhu Gaoxu replied before he could finish his words. At the same time, he said to Chen Mao, who entered the city with him: "You take two thousand Qingqi to chase Liu Song and the others and catch up. Credit to you!"

"The last general takes orders!" Chen Mao, who had just joined Bohai, needed a credit to prove his existence. When he heard Zhu Gaoxu say this, he immediately ordered two thousand cavalry and chased south.

While he was pursuing southward, Zhu Gaoxu began to ask Meng Zhang and Xu Sheng to count the treasury of Guangning Zhongtun Guards and the amount of surrendered troops.

In less than two hours, the two of them arrived at the commander's Yamen with various documents and military registers from the treasury.

Zhu Gaoxu looked through various documents. Generally speaking, as a garrison, Guangning Zhongtunwei has a lot of farmland under its command, [-] acres. The total number of military households in the city including surrendered troops is [-]. There are more than [-] people, more than [-] shi of grain, [-] plowing oxen, and [-] mules.

As for the war horses and draft horses in the city, they were all taken with them by Liu Song and Wu Sheng when they retreated.

"The military attachés above Xiaoqi and their families moved to Changchun, and [-]% of the grassroots soldiers and their families moved to southern Liaoning, [-]% stayed locally, [-]% moved to [-] Guards, and [-]% moved to Tieling."

Zhu Gaoxu's words basically determined the whereabouts of more than [-] military households and their [-] to [-] relatives. Meng Zhang bowed, and Zhu Gaoxu also told the two of them: "Let Yishiha take the princess and the others south, and take with them enough officials. If there are not enough officials, they will be temporarily transferred from the health school to study for three years, and they must be fifteen years old. Students over [-] years old are welcome.”

Zhu Gaoxu was short of people, especially scholars.

Now, even a Bohai student who has only studied for three years is an indispensable asset to him.

In three years, these students have basically learned the multiplication table and simple addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. They can use it to measure farmland and divide the acres equally without any problem.

Zhu Gaoxu remembered the number of students enrolled in health schools every year. There were more than [-] health school students in the four cities of Bohai, and there were more than [-] people over the age of fifteen. However, the health schools in places like Heishui City and Andong City had only been established for a short time. Only Jilin Health School can recruit more than [-] people over the age of [-] who have studied for three years.

But even so, this quantity is enough for Zhu Gaoxu to use now.

The acres of land in Liaodong and Daning were [-] to [-]% more than what was recorded on the roster. Zhu Gaoxu estimated that it should be a little higher than the more than [-] million acres of land stipulated by Zhu Yuanzhang, but not much higher.

After all, after more than [-] years of vigorous cultivation during the Yongle period, the number of acres of land cultivated by Liaodong residents was only more than [-] million acres. It is impossible to exceed this number now.

But even so, for Zhu Gaoxu, as long as it can exceed [-] million acres, it is still a great surprise.

Counting the more than one million acres of cultivated land in Bohai this year, these three million acres may be able to produce two million shi of grain this year, reducing the gap in Bohai to more than [-] million shi.

Next year, this amount will increase, but the premise is that Zhu Gaoxu must improve the water conservancy in Liaodong and Daning, and this is why he asked Yishuha to go south.

Needless to say, there is no need to say much about the water conservancy projects in the four cities of the Bohai Sea. With the blessing of cement, a large number of basic water conservancy projects have been built, which is enough for the people of the Bohai Sea to cultivate with peace of mind for three to four years.

The problem now is Liaodong. There is no cement in Liaodong, and the so-called canals are just gullies with no reasonable design.

Now, the top priority is to transfer Yishiha to Liaodong to build cement, steel and other factories in Liaodong, and then build water conservancy facilities, increase the grain yield per acre in Liaodong and Daning, and promote nursery fields to cultivate rice.

From now to the beginning of winter, Zhu Gaoxu still has two months to use, and he must not waste it.

"Your Highness!"

Suddenly, the commander heard a familiar voice outside the yamen, and Chen Mao appeared in the yamen, but his expression was a little ashamed.

"Failed to catch it?"

Zhu Gaoxu knew what had happened as soon as he looked at his expression. Chen Mao bowed and said, "The general was incompetent, so Liu Song and his two men led their troops to flee into the Zhongtun Station in the southeast."

"I understand, I don't blame you for this. Don't let your subordinates lose their temper." Zhu Gaoxu beat Chen Mao, and Chen Mao also stood aside in shame.

When Meng Zhang saw this, he also spoke: "The Zhongtun Station is only more than ten miles away from here. It is only separated by the Xiaoling River, so there is a slight obstacle."

"Then Liu Song and Wu Sheng should not stick around there, and should look for an opportunity to escape to Guangning Guard in the south."

"Your Highness, do you want me to lead my troops to surround Ningyuan City first?"

"Take the Shenji Battalion with you, and bring an additional two thousand fine cavalry." Zhu Gaoxu ordered.

"General, take your orders!" Seeing Meng Zhang bowing and leaving, Xu Sheng also said: "Your Highness, the general is willing to lead two thousand elite cavalry to escort the military households to the various guard camps."

"Go." Zhu Gaoxu nodded, and finally turned his attention to Chen Mao: "Go and help your father control the surrender of troops."

"Yes..." Chen Mao blushed and retreated, and soon only Zhu Gaoxu and a few guards were left in the yamen.

However, under his arrangement, Meng Zhang led the horse infantry and firearms soldiers of the Shenji Battalion across the Xiaoling River, all the way south, and surrounded Zhongtun Suo, Ningyuan Zhongzuo Suo, Ningyuan City, and various horse stations.

For a time, Wu Sheng and Liu Song were completely isolated. The two thousand Bohai cavalry outside the city prevented them from leaving the city. They could only watch Meng Zhang lead the musketeers and artillery southward.

The next day, Ningyuan Zhongzuo surrendered without reinforcements, and news that Ningyuan City was surrounded also reached Shanhaiguan.

Wu Shouan, who was stationed here, learned that Ningyuan was surrounded, and immediately released dozens of carrier pigeons to send news to the south.

Not only him, but also Liu Song and Wu Sheng of Guangning Zhongtun Station.

In just three days, Ningyuan City, which had only a thousand troops stationed, fell, and Guangning's former garrison and other garrison posts surrendered. Only Shanhaiguan and Guangning's central garrison, with a combined strength of less than [-], were left in western Liaoning.

After receiving the news from the carrier pigeon, the Shandong Chief Envoy immediately sent a horse to deliver the news to Jingping. It was already the fifth day of August when they arrived.

"Daning was captured by the common people of Bohai, and three of the four guards in Liaoxi were also captured. Only Wu Shouan from Shanhaiguan and Wu Sheng from Guangning Zhongzuo were left."

In the Zhending commander's office, Geng Bingwen read the news that made the Confederate Army's heart sink.

Although Shanhaiguan has not yet fallen into the hands of the rebels, without Daning, the rebels can freely enter and leave Liaodong and Beiping, but it will only take some time.

"The number of rebels is probably no less than [-]."

Geng Bingwen told this situation while scanning the yamen with his eyes, finally focusing on a tall figure.

"Pingdu is the governor of Qianshi. I order you to lead Yang Song and Pan Zhong's nine thousand elite cavalry north to Xiong County."

"The last general takes orders!"

When Geng Bingwen's voice came, Ping An, known as the most powerful general in the north, also stood up.

He had been transferred to Shandong before, and now he led his troops to Zhending, and he was regarded as a pioneer general that Geng Bingwen could trust.

He was asked to lead troops north to Xiongxian County in order to test the Yan army's reaction to his own side.

Seeing that he had received the order safely, and that Daning and Liaodong had been basically lost, Geng Bingwen was not in a hurry.

He was anxious before because Daning and Liaodong were in danger of running out of food. The imperial court asked him to hurry up and capture Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu, so as to ensure that Daning and Liaodong would not surrender to the enemy.

Now that Daning and Liaodong are gone, he needs to ask the southern court for instructions, temporarily stationed in Zhending and Hejian, and guard the Shanxi pass to prevent the rebels from converging and moving south in large numbers.

"Send this news to the capital as soon as possible and ask for your Majesty's instructions."

"The last general takes orders!"

Geng Bingwen put away these military information and turned them over to Li Jian, the commander-in-chief of the Prince Consort.

As one of the people sent by Zhu Yunwen, Li Jian was different from Ning Zhong, Wu Jie and others. Behind him was Zhu Yunwen, so it was the safest plan for him to deliver the letter to Zhu Yunwen.

Li Jian walked out of the yamen, and soon arranged for an eight hundred-mile rush to send the situation in Peiping, Liaodong, and Daning to Nanjing.

In just three days, Zhu Yunwen received this series of news.

Sitting on a red sandalwood and jade-inlaid throne, Zhu Yunwen in the Wuying Hall had a solemn expression. In front of him stood Qi Tai, Fang Xiaoru and other ministers from the five houses and six ministries.

He did not get angry as everyone thought, but remained silent for a long time before speaking:

"It is my decree that from today on, people are prohibited from becoming monks and nuns privately. In monasteries and Taoist temples in the world, each monk and Taoist can only keep five acres of land. The court can exempt him from rent and tax in order to provide incense. The remaining acres will be transferred to the government. From then on, The government offices are all given to the people."

"Your Majesty Shengming..."

Listening to the emperor's new policy, everyone knew that it was a counterattack against the loss of land per capita to military households in the Bohai Sea in the north, but the counterattack was not very powerful.

The land of Buddhism and Taoism in the world has been recovered once as early as the founding of the People's Republic of China. Although more than [-] years have passed, Buddhism and Taoism were restricted during the Hongwu period, and the land that can be purchased with incense money is very limited. Buddhism and Taoism in the world have added to At the same time, it is only one million acres at most.

This amount is naturally a lot in Liaodong, but it doesn't seem to be much in Guan.

Using this amount of land to bribe the people will have no effect at all, not to mention whether these fields will be in the hands of the people is another question...

Thinking of this, some military attachés glanced at Bao Zhao and other civilian officials in a vague way.

"The Marquis of Changxing came to report, and he believed that since the urgency of rescuing Daning and Liaodong was not understood at the moment, troops should be stationed in Hebei to limit the rebels' tracks, and gradually move northward to slowly defeat the rebels."

"What do you think of this strategy?"

Zhu Yunwen took Geng Bingwen's memorial and asked everyone. Qi Tai was the first to say: "At the moment, it seems that it should be so."

"It's just that the treasuries of Shandong and Henan have been exhausted, and there is still one and a half months before the autumn harvest." Huang Zicheng followed up and continued:

"If we continue to plan slowly, I'm afraid Shanxi's treasury will be exhausted."

As soon as Huang Zicheng opened his mouth, he talked about money and food that Zhu Yunwen was most concerned about.

There are more than [-] troops in Shanxi and Peiping. Although the number of civilians who need to supply them is not as exaggerated as a million, there are still [-] to [-] people.

Not to mention the delay in farming time, just eating horse chews alone consumes two to three hundred thousand dan of grain every month.

The autumn harvest has not yet begun in Shandong, Henan, and Peiping, so the army's food can only be allocated from Zhili.

This coming and going, plus the losses on the transportation road, will only consume more.

For every month of delay, the court had to spend hundreds of thousands of dan.

But compared to this small amount of money and food consumption, Zhu Yunwen was more concerned about whether Geng Bingwen could still deal with Zhu Di and Zhu Gaoxu.

"The number of thieves' troops is no less than [-]. If Geng Gu and others surrender, it may reach [-]."

"Do you think it is necessary to deploy additional troops to Marquis Changxing?"

The scale of Zhu Dijing's trouble was too great, and Zhu Yunwen was naturally worried about Geng Bingwen's failure.

In this regard, Li Jinglong also stood up and said: "The war in the southwest is coming to an end. Perhaps we can mobilize the [-] soldiers and horses from Sichuan led by Commander-in-Chief Qu Neng and Gu Cheng to go north."

"In addition, [-] troops can be mobilized in the Guangdong and Guangxi areas. If this is not possible, another [-] troops can be mobilized from Zhili."

"In addition, the Yangtze River and Liangguang naval forces can be transferred to Yang Wen or Chen Xuan to head north to Denglai, Shandong, to prevent the common people in the Bohai Sea from imitating the Emperor Gao's move to cross the sea to Liaodong. By the way, the Denglai navy can be ordered to detour to North Korea and join Liu Zhen's troops in Jiuliancheng. Slowly retreat, and order Wu Sheng and others to stay and wait for the Yangtze River Navy to respond to the retreat."

Li Jinglong wants to give up Liaoxi and Jiuliancheng, but this is a foregone conclusion.

There is not enough food supply in these two places, and surrender is only a matter of time. It is better to use the Yangtze River, Guangdong, Guangxi and Denglai navy to support them and withdraw them to Shandong and Peiping while they still have food.

However, there are certain hidden dangers and dangers in doing so, so Li Jinglong said with a little worry:
  "It's just that the rebels probably won't give us time to mobilize our troops..."

His words revealed Zhu Yunwen's worries, so when faced with this problem, Zhu Yunwen rarely listened to Huang Zicheng's words, but ordered:
  "Order Changxinghou to station in Hejian and Zhending to prevent the rebels from going south. In addition, he will mobilize [-] troops from Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Zhili and other capitals to go north, and transfer [-] troops from Gu Cheng and Qu Neng to go north."

"Once the war in the southwest is concluded, I order Wei Guogong and Xipinghou to mobilize [-] troops from Yunnan to go north, and the commander-in-chief He Fu will stay behind."

"In addition, Chen Xuan was transferred to command the Yangtze River Navy to go north to support Liu Zhen, and Denglai Navy was transferred to support Wu Sheng and Wu Shou'an."

"The Governor's Mansion will send a letter to Geng Feige of Shenyang again. I will show my merit and promote him to the rank of Uncle Shenyang. I hope he will encourage himself."

After saying all this, Zhu Yunwen glanced at everyone calmly:

"I don't believe that an army of more than [-] people assembled will not be able to deal with the [-] rebels."

　The latest chapter has been blocked and will probably be released later.
  　　
  　
  (End of this chapter)