Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1313 No big waves in the small pond ([-])

"There are no big waves in the small pond, but the water is shallow, so there are a lot of bastards!" In the Yin County Southern Theater Command, Liao Xiaoyao was inviting the staff officers to eat ice cream to cool off the heat.

Today is the last ten days of August in 1661, but the heat here in Ningbo is still hard to dissipate.As a last resort, Liao Xiaoyao ordered the kitchen to start up the **** refrigerator, made a lot of ice cream with milk, Taiwan cane sugar, cream, etc., and brought it to the conference room for the officers of the headquarters who were holding a regular meeting It's quite a luxury to cool off the summer heat - you know, the cost of purchasing some chemicals from the local northern chemical factory and then shipping them to the Ming Dynasty in the Far East is really impressive, and only a leader like Liao Xiaoyao can do it Such luxury can be enjoyed.

"Liu Guochang and Liu Shijun have come to resign." Sun Wu, the army staff officer, said suddenly, and he seemed a little angry as he spoke: "At the beginning they were excluded in the Shun army and came with nowhere to go, but we accepted them , and then helped them dress up, train, and participate in several battles to improve their combat power, but I didn't expect that they were all a bunch of white-eyed wolves. After having some quarrels with us, they clamored to return to Huguang and Jiangxi. !"

His words aroused the echo of some people, and everyone knew in their hearts that the cause of the rift between the two sides was the battle of conquering Huai'an Mansion more than three years ago.Before the start of that battle, the people on the east bank had promised him that after the population of Qingjiangpu was plundered, the surrounding counties would still be handed over to the Shun army for defense, that is, they would find a piece of land for them so that they would not have to rely on others.

Liu Guochang and Liu Shijun were radicals in the Shun Army. They resolutely opposed the Qing Dynasty, and at the same time they were extremely hostile to the Ming Dynasty. People from the east bank of Ningbo Mansion were crowded together to say that it was to improve their combat effectiveness, but in fact it was out of sight and out of sight.In the past few years, the troops of Liu Guochang and others have also expanded to 6000 to [-] people. Although there was an unpleasant incident in the middle of which Cai Huaze led his troops to leave the east bank, but generally speaking, the two sides got along fairly well. The Shun army trained honestly, To learn new tactics, people from the east bank take them out to fight for training from time to time, and the two sides can be said to have a happy cooperation.

However, perhaps the people on the east bank ignored Liu Guochang and Liu Shijun's desire to obtain a piece of their own territory, coupled with the conflict caused by Qingjiangpu's scramble for spoils, the relationship between the two parties eventually deteriorated after they completely withdrew from Huai'an Mansion—— At that time, the Shun army pulled 3 to 2 horses, and once wanted to defend Yunti Pass and Guanhekou City, but was defeated by the Qing army. The Shun army stationed in their own defense area also felt a bit intrusive. In addition, there was a virtual ceasefire with the Qing Dynasty, so Liu Guochang and Liu Shijun, who understood their embarrassing situation, came to the door to resign. Return to Huguang to play for Dashun.

Of course, the reason why Erliu asked to return to Dashun at this time is actually closely related to the current changes in the southern situation.Since the conflict between the Shun army and Nanming two years ago and the capture of several prefectures in southern Hunan, recently, some officers and soldiers from the Zhongzhen Camp (that is, the Shun army battalion who defected to Nanming) returned to the Dashun side again, and fierce conflict broke out. conflict.It seems that the Shun army, which seemed to have been prepared for a long time, pushed all the way south and completely drove the Ming army out of Hunan. It was suppressed in the area of ​​Ganzhou Prefecture, and China and foreign countries were shocked by it for a while.This seems to indicate that after many years of relatively friendly cooperation, the conflict between Shun and Ming has surfaced again, especially since the Qing court is negotiating peace with the two sides and is also taking care of its own internal affairs, so the long-planned Shun army Taking the opportunity to start friction with Nanming and occupy the territory is a matter of course.

The reason why Liu Guochang and Liu Shijun left at the beginning was not because they strongly opposed Dashun's cooperation with Daming, so they were kicked aside.But this time the world has changed, and the conflict between Dashun and Nanming has expanded again. Liu Guochang and others returned to Huguang with their troops, so there is not so much resistance. After all, everyone needs their strength of 2 people now , although most of them are recruits recruited from the Huai'an Mansion, and their combat effectiveness is limited, they are after all a force familiar with the new firearm tactics.

The people on the east bank are also very angry at the Shun army's behavior of breaking the ceasefire agreement again. Now they own the whole of Hunan, half of Hubei, more than half of Jiangxi, and Chongqing in eastern Sichuan. Continue to expand the sphere of influence, this kind of behavior that undermines the strategic deployment of the people on the east coast must be resolutely suppressed.Therefore, the East Bank has stopped part of its aid to Dashun—the 1250 matchlock guns and more than 400 pairs of armor that had just been repaired were detained at the Chongmingsha Base—at the same time, they sent envoys to Changsha to meet Li Guo , asked him to explain the violation of the ceasefire agreement and openly attack Nanming.

Naturally, Li Guo didn't give any satisfactory answers to the people on the east coast, but he also stopped marching after occupying part of the territory, and instead digested the territory, which was considered as a way to sell the east coast envoys.However, its ambition to expand its strength to achieve greater goals is already evident.Regarding this point, everyone on the East Bank already knows it well. The fact that they held the second imperial examination in Dashun a while ago and took 23 Jinshi (a total of only a few dozens of people came to take the exam) has already explained everything—this The regime, after initially gaining a foothold with the help of people from the east coast, now has bigger ideas.

"Although Li Guo's Ministry is ambitious, for now, their interests are still consistent with ours, and they are still the fulcrum of our China strategy." Naval officer Liu Fubo also said at this time, "And if they count the farmers and soldiers, The total force has reached more than 20, and they rely on us in many ways, such as agricultural tools, livestock, medicines, weapons, military supplies, etc. They dare not turn their backs. Li Guo suffered from malaria a few years ago, so we sent people Can he be cured, or he would have died long ago. The entire Shun army has rolled out of the pile of dead people, and they are most aware of current affairs, so they know what to do."

"Shun Jun is afraid to turn against us now, but we must be on the defensive. They have their own interests and will not always follow our steps. It is hard to say what will happen in the future. We must make contingency plans Plan." Captain Tian Xing, who rushed back from Macau in the south to participate in the military meeting, said, "Once the Shun Army's wings are hardened, they will definitely have the ambition to dominate the world. At that time, a fierce conflict will break out with us, and it is not impossible to start a war. Therefore, I suggest increasing assistance to Li Chengdong in Guangdong to help them train their troops and improve their combat effectiveness. Wang Zamao in Ganzhou can also be considered, but it is too far away and out of reach. As for the Zheng family in Fujian, we also You can send people to actively contact them, they have already occupied more than half of Fujian, and they still have strength, so you can try to support them."

"I don't know what happened to Wu Sangui from Sichuan. There are many officers and veterans under his command, and most of them are from Guanning. He has military experience. Later in Shaanxi, he annexed more than 6 elite Shaanxi-Gansu Green Battalions. The troops have expanded to [-] to [-], and they are all capable of fighting. It’s just that the distance is too far, and it’s inconvenient to contact, otherwise we can try to blend with him.” Some staff officers also proposed to contact Wu Sangui, but it was not Unexpectedly, it aroused heated discussions among the people present.

It is said that Wu Sangui has also entered Sichuan for several years, and has been asking for money, food and soldiers, but he has never been able to completely drive away the Daxi Army led by Sun Kewang (Zhang Xianzhong died of an illness during a march last year), and still let him entrenched in southern Sichuan Northern Guizhou area.He was not willing to send him out of Sichuan to attack Dashun, he was still reluctant to leave, the meaning of supporting the bandits was obvious, and of course this was in line with his warlord nature.

But now that the Qing court has taken care of Azig and is carefully shuffling power, Wu Sangui's situation has undoubtedly deteriorated a lot.I heard that the Qing court had stripped him of his title of King Pingxi, and asked him to immediately launch an attack on the Western Army in southern Sichuan. resignation.But Wu Sangui is also an old fritter. Naturally, from the imperial decree given to him by Emperor Shunzhi, he saw that the Qing court was wary of rats, so he just laughed it off. A small-scale war that doesn't itch, to deal with the envoys sent by the Qing court to supervise the war.

Such a warlord with ambition, a team, and an army was originally an excellent support object for the people on the east coast, but it is a pity that, as some people said, he was too far away and out of reach, so he only can give up.Let's see how the situation develops in the future. What if Wu Sangui gets out of Sichuan?

Everyone continued to discuss for a while, and finally came to a unanimous conclusion: the situation in China will not change much in the short term. At present, all parties are taking care of internal affairs and accumulating strength to prepare for the more ferocious merger war in the future. be prepared.As for some small-scale local conflicts, they can't affect the overall situation. Everything is still on the track that people on the east coast want to see. As Major Junior said in his report, "There is no big wave in a small pond". It's all in your hands!

On September 1661, 9, Lu Fang, the envoy sent to the east coast of the Shun Army-controlled area, returned to Ningbo Fuding Harbor with a group of Dashun officials, and then had a discussion with Liao Xiaoyao who was inspecting the operation of the saltworks in Dinghai.Knowing that the Shun Army had stopped attacking Nanming, and promised not to "actively attack", Liao Xiaoyao also went down the donkey, gave Shun Army a face, and returned the ordnance detained in Chongmingsha Warehouse to Shun Army At the same time, he said that he would arrange ships to transport the troops of Liu Guochang and Liu Shijun back to Huguang and Jiangxi to join the battle order of the Shun Army.

The Shunjun envoy expressed his gratitude and recalled the glorious past of fighting side by side with Marshal Mo in Shandong, saying that Dashun and Dongchao are friendly states, and the two sides can continue to cooperate A rising tide raises all boats), and jointly attacked the Tartar court and so on.Afterwards, the envoy introduced the accompanying officials. One of them seemed to be the champion of the new subject in the examination last year. Liao Xiaoyao took a look and found that he was a middle-aged man in his forties with weathered temples. In Daming, he also failed in the test repeatedly. This would be forced by life, so he had the cheek to take the Dashun test, and won the first prize because of the lack of competitors. It always sounds a little funny.

However, the number one scholar may have been in the society for many years, so he is still of a certain level. When negotiating with Dong'an about personnel handover and transportation, he was very capable and thoughtful about various details. Impressive.I heard that this fellow has been favored by Dashun Zuoying Quan General Liu Fangliang, and married his new widow's daughter (he didn't hesitate to divorce his wife for this), it seems that he does have some skills.

Zhuangyuan Lang mentioned in the negotiation that Dashun had captured [-] to [-] captives (of course, many of them were people from various prefectures in Hunan) during this conflict with the Ming court, and this time they were handed over to the Eastern Dynasty. Ships under Liu's command were transported back), and with the brotherhood of the two countries—this may be a signal that Dashun, in order to make up for the bad impression on the people on the east coast by brazenly launching the Conquering War, took this Twenty to thirty thousand captives were sent over as an apology, officially expressing their attitude.You know, with the continuous stabilization of the site and the more formalization of the system over the years, the Shun Army rarely does things like sending people away, because this is not a good reputation after all.But this time, in order to appease the dissatisfaction of the people on the east bank, they sent nearly [-] Hunan Ming army prisoners of war to the east bank at one time.

On September 1661, 9, the first batch of thousands of sergeants under Liu Guochang left Ningbo Fuding Harbor by boat, and under the escort of naval gunboats stationed at Chongmingsha Base, they headed straight for Madang, Jiangxi Province, which was under the control of the Shun Army. The fort drove away.According to the plan, everyone will disembark here, and then the ships on the east coast will replenish water and burn coal here. This greatly facilitated the movement of ships on the east coast—then loaded a batch of Hunan prisoners of war back to Dinghai Port, and so on and on until all the personnel were handed over.

On October 1661, 10, all nearly 16 Hunan prisoners of war were transported to Dinghai County, Ningbo Prefecture (they happened to live in the vacant residences left by some immigrants from Huai’an Prefecture), and then immediately put them into Yin County, Dinghai, Fenghua The construction of horse-drawn truck tracks in core cities such as Ninghai, Ninghai, etc. is underway. At this time, various transport ships are also entering the dock for maintenance, preparing to start the new year's immigration transportation work.

(End of this chapter)