Saving the Ming Dynasty: I can exchange bodies with Chongzhen

Chapter 241 War is like fire
When he woke up the next day, Chongzhen divided the troops according to the military system of the Ming army.

The Ming court guaranteed the supply of their food and wages, and Chongzhen would certainly "respond to the imperial edict" and implement the military system, with 5 people forming a chamber, 1 people forming a battalion, and 3000 battalions forming three divisions.

Ensure that soldiers are inseparable from their generals, and generals are inseparable from their commanders. This will not only improve the army's organization but also enhance its combat effectiveness.

Sun Kewang, Shi Daoshen, Li Dingguo, together with Hong Niangzi's 8,000 troops, only added up to more than 50,000 people.

As they arrived at Shanhaiguan, the Ming court began to distribute artillery and muskets to them.

Of course, these artillery pieces were eliminated from the five major battalions, but even so, they were advanced enough.

boom! ~
"Hey, this is the fire gun of the Ming court?" Li Dingguo touched a fire gun and couldn't help but test-fired it. He praised sincerely, "It is indeed well-made. If we had this thing at the beginning, no one would dare to compete with us."

"That's right. We suffered a loss because of this thing." Shi Daoshen touched the cannon as if he were touching his wife, and was reluctant to let go.

Not only them, but Sun Kewang was also attracted by these things and couldn't take his eyes away.

"I heard that the firearms of the five battalions are more advanced than ours, but I don't know if it's true or not?"

"That's definitely true. Our artillery can fire 100 rounds per stick of incense, and the five major battalions are said to be able to fire 300 rounds per stick of incense. What's their ammunition called... fixed-load rounds, with strong power and long range."

"It seems like he's still on guard against us!"

"We have just surrendered, so it's good to be given these. With cannons and muskets, it at least shows that the Ming court is not using us as cannon fodder."

"..."

This is why Zhu Changgan distributed firearms to them without leaving Tongzhou. Everything must be done to be foolproof.

The national war has begun, and there must be no more internal strife in the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty.

This is the key point in recovering Liaodong.

In addition to Zu Dashou, the Grand Council also made adjustments to the stay or departure of generals such as Wang Zaijin and Yan Shanming, dismissed a number of incompetent officials and deserters, and promoted a number of generals who were sincere in their work and took it as their responsibility to defend the pass and recover Liao.

In addition, there is a clear division of labor among generals and officials, so that each performs his or her duties.

From Ningqian to Guannei, troops were carefully deployed according to different geographical conditions.

At Shanhaiguan, a key defensive area, and at the seaport of Zhima Bay from Wanghaitai, the latest artillery was deployed to intercept the enemy invading from the sea. On land, 1 people were stationed in the stone city of Sandaguan to launch surprise attacks on the enemy at the right time.

……

When Chongzhen and his men entered Shanhaiguan, they found out that Lu Xiangsheng and others had already arrived and had received the imperial edict long ago.

"Commander-in-chief! Lu Xiangsheng leads 20,000 elite troops from Xuan, Da and Shanxi to come to aid Liao."

"Jiandou."

Li Banghua was still the commander of the five battalions. He patted Lu Xiangsheng on the shoulder and asked, "How long have you been here?"

"Reporting to the commander, I have been here for three days."

In the imperial edict, Sun Chengzong asked Lu Xiangsheng not to engage in battle at will.

We must wait until the troops from the five major camps gather together before leaving the country together.

Don't give the Manchu Tartars any chance.

……

At the same time, in the southern provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

Sun Chuanting led his troops and fought his way south along Hangzhou Prefecture and Jinhua Prefecture.

In order to wipe out all the "bandits" in one fell swoop, Sun Chuanting courageously led the government troops to chase them south for 700 miles, heading straight to Zhangzhou Prefecture in Fujian.
Since Prince Xin surrendered, Sun Chuanting, Cao Bianjiao and others have broadened their horizons a lot. They deeply felt the shortage of administrative talents around them. After entering Jiangsu and Zhejiang, they no longer killed all the bandits.

Instead, they appeased these bandits and made it impossible for the Independent Commission Against Corruption to implement its policies.

Let them take action and make these gentry “wake up”.

The provinces of Nanzhili, Jiangxi, and Zhejiang had enjoyed peace for a long time and had not experienced war for a long time. They had never seen such a scene before and were so stunned that they were killed. In some places, the entire clan was wiped out.

Therefore, the ICAC implemented it very quickly.

Taxation in Jiangnan and corruption among local officials from all factions were also quickly eliminated.

……

"General Pinglu, the commander-in-chief asked you to go to the central military camp to attend the pre-war meeting." A Jinyiwei ran over and informed Chongzhen.

"Okay, I'll be there soon."

Chongzhen quickly stood up and called Sun Kewang, Shi Daoshen and Li Dingguo to attend the pre-war meeting.

When they arrived, they found that the central army tent was already full of people. In addition to the generals of the five major camps, there were other generals they did not recognize.

"General Pinglu has arrived, so I will tell you about our battle plan. In addition to the five major camps fighting the Qing Dynasty on land, the Tianjin, Deng, and Lai navies will serve as reserve forces to support the five major camps at any time. In addition, we will also use the Korean troops to provide support from the side..."

"General Pinglu, your troops will be responsible for facing the Bingmadun Camp of the Five Camps and setting up defenses in some key locations. They can serve as the old camp on the front line of Shanhaiguan and form a mobile force to quickly support the central army."

"what?"

Sun Kewang, Shi Daoshen and Li Dingguo's minds were confused and buzzing when they heard this.

What do you mean?
Did they think they heard wrongly?
Let the troops of the five major camps fight the Qing Dynasty in the front, while they are the old camp?

What is the old camp? It is the most loyal of the loyal. In the past, in the rebel camp, the soldiers of the old camp were always their relatives and fellow villagers, used to protect the rebel king and his family.

These people of theirs had just been recruited and had never had any credit for capturing a city. They were already very grateful for not being used as cannon fodder. But now they were directly turned into old soldiers?
"Commander-in-chief... isn't this inappropriate?" Chongzhen was also stunned for a moment. Just as he was about to say something, he was stopped by Li Banghua, who said, "I have also heard about the life story of the prince."

Li Banghua had also doubted the rumors that Zhu Changgan was deeply involved with the emperor, but he had met with the prince several times along the way.

Li Banghua has been a Beijing official for more than one or two years. He has had more contact with the emperor than with any of his family members. He only left Beijing a few years ago because he was demoted, and has been traveling outside in the past few months, so he has had less contact with the emperor.

But his impression of the emperor was deeply rooted, such as the emperor's walking posture, the emperor liked to gently raise his right hand before speaking, and...

The behavior of this prince is no different from that of Your Majesty; it is almost identical. If one must find some differences, one can still see some shadows of Emperor Tianqi in him.

How to explain this?
There is only one reason.

The reason why Zhu Changgan is so similar to Your Majesty is simply because he is the prince of Your Majesty... or there is a greater possibility that he is the prince of Emperor Tianqi.

In order to protect him from Wei Zhongxian, he was secretly sent away and raised in the Prince Xiang's Mansion.

Now that he has been welcomed back... Your Majesty is just letting him gild his art on the battlefield.

No matter from which aspect, he could not let the prince make any mistakes.

Li Banghua seemed to be still worried about their safety, and added, "In addition to you, there is also the Yongwei Battalion, which is also an old battalion, and we will protect each other."

"..." The muscles on Chongzhen's face twitched. He wanted to speak several times but didn't say anything in the end because he didn't know how to refute. Especially when he saw the excited eyes of Sun Kewang, Shi Daoshen and Li Dingguo looking at him, he was even more unable to open his mouth.

"Sir, are you really a prince?"

"You are indeed a man of hidden talents, and you can decide the outcome with one move..."

"Prince Xin, we will follow you until death!" After hearing what Sun Kewang and others said, his judgment was further confirmed.

Li Banghua smiled and continued to talk about the battle deployment: "The enemy is good at bows and arrows, and we are good at artillery. We still use a large number of firearms to sweep the ground, and then use the tactics of musketeers firing volleys and cavalry charging. But what we need to do is to make sure that the garrison connection can not only create a favorable situation of "linking the east and the west", but also put the Later Jin in a position of being surrounded..."

"In war, it is important to seize the opportunity. When the opportunity comes, you must seize it when the enemy has left but has not yet left."

"set off!"

The army set out, and unlike the interior of the country, Shanhaiguan was only a few miles away, but this side was snowing.

Apart from this, there were no idle refugees outside the Great Wall, let alone the so-called "bandits".

Because in Liaodong, any Han people who could still breathe had already been captured and enslaved. If they were arrested, they would be killed on the spot by the Qing Dynasty.

At the beginning, Sun Chengzong implemented the policy of "using Liao people to guard Liao land, and using Liao land to support Liao people".

The Liao people who flowed into the interior of the country were settled in various garrisons to engage in farming; as for the Liao people above the Great Wall, those who were strong and skilled in martial arts were settled in the middle and front garrisons and the forts along the Ningyuan line to strengthen the garrison, and their families were organized to engage in farming; as for the hundreds of thousands of Liao people in the 13 stations outside the Great Wall, they were also properly settled with the strong ones serving as soldiers and the weak as herders.

This trick is really good in the early stages.

However, as the Ming Dynasty declined, the Eight Banners Army of the Later Jin Dynasty bypassed the Shanhaiguan defense line and captured Zunhua, Luanzhou, Qian'an, Yongping and other cities several times, and a large number of Liao people were massacred time and time again.

For more than ten years, the Liao people became the target of the Qing Dynasty's killing of chickens to scare monkeys, and every time they entered the pass, blood would flow like rain.

The corpses of the Liao people inside the pass almost covered the roads and ridges of the fields... Often the white papers on the graves of those killed in the last massacre had not yet turned yellow when the next wave of attacks came.

The policy of "using Liao to govern Liao" became worse and worse, and the so-called unity of the military and the people and "jointly guarding the border" became almost empty words.

……

Jinzhou City,
Huang Degong had already persisted in the south of Jinzhou for several days.

"Hurry, the Qing troops are coming again, let's get on the boat."

Ten thousand soldiers and horses could not confront the tens of thousands of Qing troops head-on, so they could only fight guerrilla warfare.

The sound of the Red Cannon resounded throughout the sky, and large clouds of smoke rose.

In the sea water, thick water droplets were blown up and scattered, like a downpour, falling on the soldiers of the Yongwei Camp, but they still persisted.

However, due to the lack of ships, the Qing cavalry could not play to their due advantages, and the two sides could only bombard each other with artillery.

Once the Eight Banners soldiers wanted to turn around, they would go ashore. If they set up camp, the Yongwei Battalion would leave, march to a place several miles away, go ashore again, and fire artillery shells at the Qing camp.

In this way, the Eight Banners soldiers of the Qing Dynasty were fooled around.

It tied down more than 20,000 Eight Banners soldiers of the Qing Dynasty and relieved the pressure on Jinzhou City.

Just as the two sides were struggling, a warning horn suddenly sounded.

Tan Tai turned his head suddenly and his scalp went numb when he looked at something not far away. He saw a torrent of steel emitting a cold light covering the distant hills.

"Retreat, retreat quickly!"

In order to encircle the Yongwei Battalion coming from the sea, they were already dozens of miles away from Dorgon's central military camp. If they were blocked by the Ming court's troops, the consequences would be disastrous.

So Tan Tai ordered a retreat immediately.

"Beep, beep, beep~~" a low horn suddenly sounded.

The troops of the five major camps finally appeared on the battlefield of Guanningjin. Sun Yingyuan and Zhang Shize, with tens of thousands of troops, naturally stood in the front.

The soldiers did not say a word, only the rustling of their horses could be heard.

Among the soldiers of the five major camps, only a very small number had mental illnesses, while the others had more or less fought against the Manchu Tartars and experienced the tempering of blood and fire.

So when they looked towards the Manchu Tartars, there was no fear in their eyes, only a vague fighting spirit that was gradually rising.

They were mentally prepared before they came.

Fight the Tartars, be granted titles and honors, achieve fame and success... So when they really faced the Tartars, the soldiers' hearts were pumping like pumps, the buzzing sound in their blood seemed to be clearly audible, and they were almost trembling with excitement.

Tension, contraction, and excitement enveloped everything.

Afraid of death? Why do you want to cut your head and come to the Five Camps if you are afraid of death?

Sun Yingyuan held up a spear and pointed to Zhang Shize and Ma Xianglin, indicating their respective routes. The remaining two nodded.

The enemy only has 20,000 soldiers and horses. If we set up artillery at this moment, the enemy will probably have already escaped. The best plan now is to charge directly with cavalry.

The three armies separated, with the Beijing Battalion charging in the middle, and the White Spear Soldiers and the Loyal and Brave Battalion on both sides. They passed over the hilltop like a flood, and the speed of the war horses gradually increased, getting faster and faster...

The troops spread out, and the battle formation was like two black floods, undulating on the earth.

Bang bang bang~~
The troops of both sides were rapidly closing in on each other, and Manchu Tartars were constantly hit hard by muskets and fell off their horses, but the horses continued to drag their corpses forward.

……

"kill!"

Boom~
The troops of the Loyal and Brave Camp, the White Rod Camp, and the Beijing Camp soon ran into the Tatar camp, and tens of thousands of soldiers were rolled together like two huge waves of man-eating ants.

In the blink of an eye, you are in me and I am in you.

The Manchu Tartars put away their swords, while the Ming court put away their muskets, and the two sides began to engage in hand-to-hand combat.

Steel knives and spears were slashing and stabbing, and sticky blood plasma began to spread on the ground.

The Yongwei Battalion, which had been on the sea before, now rowed ashore and fought their way out from behind the Tartars.

Tan Tai's eyes were red, and he held a steel knife in his hand, slashing continuously, "Don't get stuck in a tough fight, rush out and join the main force——"

But before he finished shouting, several Ming soldiers rushed up to him and asked, "This bastard seems to be the leader of the Qing Dynasty?"

"I'm afraid the official title is not small."

"mine!"

"Don't compete with me~"

Tan Tai waited, looking at the Ming court soldiers in disbelief, only to see the same burning look in their eyes.

As frantic as a beast seeing food.

"How can you...stop them quickly!"

At this moment he could no longer care about shouting, and hurriedly asked his bondservants to come and protect him.

……

"Come on!"

(End of this chapter)