Desert Eagle Suletan Khan

Chapter 656: The Qing Dynasty marches south

On June 1657, the th year of Qianyuan (), Hong Chengchou, the manager of the five provinces of the Qing Dynasty, personally led the Manchu and Han troops from Changsha to Xiangxiang County with Gushan Ezhenluotuo and others. At the same time, Sun Kewang sent Qing generals Li Ruchun and Under the escort of Wang Ping, he set off from Baoqing and arrived in Xiangxiang to meet with Hong Chengchou and others.

At this time, His Majesty the King has long lost the majesty of the past. Since the Qing Dynasty has surrendered, he has to say good things about the Qing Dynasty. Sun Kewang is very conscious and praises the merits of the Qing Dynasty when they meet. "Yungui is far away at the end of the world, and the teachings are not yet understood For more than ten years, he had not dared to resist the king's army, but he really wanted to wait for the time to return. Recently, he spread the word about the emperor's kindness and suihuai, and his special kindness attracted people's deep admiration in Yafang. Moreover, the Manchu soldiers were strong and powerful, and since then, In the first battle at the fork in the road in the tenth year of Shunzhi, many Yunnan and Guizhou soldiers were killed. In the twelveth year of the invasion of Changde, more than ten thousand soldiers were lost." He was afraid that the Manchus would pursue him for resisting the king's army. He praised the Qing Dynasty for its benevolence and the Manchurian troops and horses. He also The responsibility for resisting the Qing army was put on Emperor Yongli, saying that he had to be the enemy of the Qing Dynasty under the orders of Emperor Yongli, and now he regretted it, and so on.

Hong Chengchou smiled slightly and did not point it out. In fact, he knew the situation in Yunnan and Guizhou very well. He knew that the actual ruler of Yunnan and Guizhou in these years was Sun Kewang. The relationship is not over, it is expected that Yongli will be the emperor, and he will behave himself as a minister. When he can be expected to come out, he knows that he can be expected to act on his own, and it has nothing to do with Yongli." However, this old manager always treated the Han officials who surrendered to the Qing favorably. He may have thought that the more officials surrendered, the less important he was to do to surrender to the Qing Dynasty; Great work. Therefore, Sun Kewang was treated very favorably. Peng Ershu, who was the governor of Guizhou at the time, recorded the meeting between the two. Hong Chengchou "still expected to treat Sun Kewang with royal courtesy. Kewang claimed to be an orphan, and the fortune-telling office made a sign of surrender" and "sincerity and courtesy." , treat as much as you like."

However, Peng Ershu only saw the surface. In fact, the two had private transactions. Hong Chengchou asked Sun Kewang to report to Emperor Shunzhi, "Within a few years, Hunan used defense as war, and there was no gap to take advantage of. As a result, internal changes in Yunnan and Guizhou began, and people's hearts disintegrated." Change, but determined to defect", which made him attribute the reason for surrender to the Qing Dynasty to Hong Jinglue's good command and defense as war. The Ming army had no gaps to take advantage of and suffered heavy losses, which led to the spontaneous internal changes in Yunnan and Guizhou and the disintegration of people's hearts. Hong Jinglue is such a wily and scheming person that he disguises what he said a month ago as "incompetent economic strategy and failure to expand an inch of territory" as "fighting by defending", as if he defended Hunan and Guangxi, which led to the country's collapse. Your Majesty, come and descend. What's even better is that this memorial was not written by Hong Jinglue himself, but by Sun Kewang, which makes it even more credible.

The old Jinglue thought that his tactics were clever and he could hide it from the young Emperor Shunzhi. But Emperor Shunzhi, who ascended the throne at the age of six and is twenty years old this year, has been the emperor for fourteen years. He is not a ignorant boy. What's more, he has the shrewd and wise Empress Dowager Zhaosheng by his side to guide him. How could he not see through this? his means. Seeing through it without revealing it, he issued a few words of praise, ordering him to appease Sun Kewang and prepare for the southern expedition.

On June 13, Sun Kewang arrived in Changsha with Hong Chengchou. Hong Chengchou said in his memorial: "On the day when the puppet king, puppet officials, puppet officials and their families all arrived in Changsha, the civil and military ministers, engineers, soldiers, people, and common people all expressed joy to each other, celebrating the day of peace, and planning for the movement of all the people in Yunnan and Guizhou. Seeing and hearing the wind comes and returns, so as to achieve the prosperity of great unification."

Just when Lao Jinglue was singing a song of victory for himself and actively preparing to go south, the young Emperor Shunzhi was finally ready to take action. On June 25, he officially issued an edict to march into the southwest in three ways: First, he appointed King Wu Sangui of Pingxi as the general of Pingxi and Li Guohan, the bodyguard of Zhenmolegan in Gushan, led his troops from Hanzhong, Shaanxi, to Sichuan to attack Guizhou. Secondly, Zhao Butai, the Gushan Ezhen who was originally stationed in Jiangning, was appointed as the general to conquer the south. He led his troops southward to Hunan. Some Han troops were allocated by Hong Chengchou, the commander of the army, and passed through Guangxi to join the National Security Department of the Admiral Line under Dingfan to attack the north. Guizhou; thirdly, Luo Tuo, a member of Gushan'e Zhen's clan, was appointed as the general of Jingkou in Ningnan. Together with Gushan'e Zhenji Xiha and other commanders, they went to Hunan and joined the Han troops controlled by Hong Chengchou to attack Guizhou from Hunan.

Due to the influence of the Davidic Kingdom established by Sultan, the Qing army went south half a year earlier than the original time and space. Unfortunately, the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau had just ended the Ming army's civil war, and another storm came.
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In the Cining Palace in Beijing, Emperor Shunzhi paid his respects to the Empress Dowager Zhaosheng as usual. According to custom, the mother and son chat for a while after greeting each other. The forty-four-year-old Empress Dowager Zhaosheng knew that her son was arrogant and did not like her to interfere in the government affairs, so she took advantage of the mother-son chat to correct her son's political mistakes intentionally or unintentionally and put forward some of her own opinions on the government affairs. .

"Emperor Eni, Sun Kewang, the leader of the Yunnan-Guizhou thieves, has surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. I have appointed Luotuo as the general of the Jingkou army in Ningnan, and together with Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi, and Zhao Butai, the general of the southern expedition, we will attack Guizhou. On the day when the Qing Dynasty unified the world, It's almost here!" the young emperor said excitedly, with high spirits.

The Empress Dowager Zhaosheng was in a daze for a moment. Her son's confident look was just like that of the late Emperor Ji! After calming down, he said with a smile: "The emperor is getting better and better at employing people. Luo Tuo, Wu Sangui, and Zhao Butai are all capable generals. Coupled with the wily Hong Chengchou, it will not be difficult to destroy the Ming Dynasty."

After being praised by his mother, Emperor Shunzhi became proud, "I will definitely take advantage of the civil strife in the late Ming Dynasty to put an end to it in one fell swoop." Empress Dowager Zhaosheng pursed her lips and smiled, "Of course it's good for the emperor to have such ambitions, but he still needs to play Sun Kewang's role well. Firstly, he can be used to recruit his old subordinates; secondly, he can sell horse bones for a fortune and show them to other Ming Dynasty officials."

"I plan to make him a county prince," Emperor Shunzhi said without hesitation.

"Not enough." Empress Dowager Zhaosheng waved her hand, "Under normal circumstances, granting him the title of county prince is enough. But if you want to sell horse bones for a fortune and shake the resistance of the Ming army, granting him the title of county prince is not enough. In my opinion, it should be Make him a prince."

Emperor Shunzhi thought for a while and nodded, "Then I will make him the Righteous King."

You have no joke, just seal it if you say so. As soon as Emperor Shunzhi opened his mouth, he specially decreed that Sun Kewang should be crowned the Righteous King. He sent Maleji, a bachelor of the Hongwen Academy of the Imperial Academy, as the chief envoy, Hu Zhaolong, the Minister of Rites and a bachelor of the Secretariat of the Imperial Academy, and Qi Chebai, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, as deputy envoys. Seal, and made a special trip to Hunan for the canonization ceremony. Immediately, Sun Kewang responded to the imperial edict and went to the capital to meet his Majesty. The emperor also ordered Prince Jidu of Heshuojian and Prince Yuele of Heshuo'an to lead a large number of high-ranking officials such as dukes, marquises, uncles, Meile Zhangjing, and ministers to come out of the city to greet him. The scene was quite grand. Poems written by people at that time said: "The king's money was sent down from the South China Sea to the North Courtyard, and passers-by rushed to see its shape. The sable, white horse and pale face were once a killer star in the Central Plains."

The Qing court did this not to treat Sun Kewang well, but to show the people of the world, especially the resisting Nanming court, to tell them: If they are willing to surrender, they will not have to worry about losing glory and wealth. In order to enhance the temptation, Emperor Shunzhi also personally met with Sun Kewang in the Hall of Supreme Harmony. Within ten days, the emperor gave him three banquets and two gifts of silver totaling twelve thousand taels. In addition, he gave him a mansion, python robes, court clothes, satin, etc. Sun Kewang became a very popular figure in the Qing court.

Emperor Shunzhi did not hesitate to confer a royal title on Sun Kewang, who came back in embarrassment with only a few hundred people, showing his imperial demeanor. Sun Ke hoped to receive the special favor and burst into tears of gratitude. He kept singing praises to express his loyalty, "I would like to take the three provinces and offer them as a grand unification event." "The Emperor's Army"; while actively making suggestions for the Qing army's march south, he not only provided the Yongli court with military secrets, but also presented the "Map of Yunnan and Guizhou" and worked with Hong Chengchou and others on the map. "As clear as the palm of your hand", it also provided the Qing army with a group of guides who were familiar with the terrain.

He also volunteered and asked Shangshu to assist in the expedition. "On the day when the army conquers Yunnan, I will report my results. I am familiar with the situation in southern Yunnan. Either I will march with the generals to conquer, or I will accompany the ministers to appease the various territories, and I will serve my country as a young man."

(End of this chapter)