The Rise of Ming Dynasty 1646

Chapter 693
"It's about millions of people in Ming Dynasty, so we must be cautious."

Zhu Linming also had no intention of continuing to inspect the shipyard, and said to Shi Lin, "Go back to the palace. Pass the main officials of the cabinet, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Households, and the Ministry of Industry to the Wenhua Palace to discuss matters."

"Yes!"

On the way, Zhu Linmi asked Gu Yanwu again: "Is it true that Dorgon came to Yangzhou? Do you know how many soldiers and horses he brought?"

"Returning to the emperor, this news came from the inside of Beijing, and it is probably not bad. As for the strength of the troops... Fanduoduo took the two yellow flags of Jianlu to the south of the Yangtze River, and there are at most 8000 Jianzhou soldiers left in Beijing. Now we have to divide them into guards. City, Dorgon estimates that it can bring out [-] people at most."

Zhu Linmi turned to Zhang Jiayu again, "Counting He Luohui, Zu Runze and others who fled back to Jiangbei, how many captives are there near Yangzhou?"

Zhang Jiayu thought for a while, and said: "Back to the emperor, He Luohui and others have a total of more than [-] troops, and the Yangzhou garrison is about [-]. Including several nearby counties, there are at most [-]."

Zhu Linmei frowned and said: "Including the soldiers brought by Dorgon, there should be more than 3 prisoners in Yangzhou. They still have to guard against the attack of the Swift Battalion. Why can they move a million people around Yangzhou so quickly?"

Gu Yanwu cupped his hands and said: "Your Majesty, I heard that Dorgon promoted all the captive officials in Yangzhou, Taizhou, Gaoyou and other places to three ranks, and the officials in the nearby counties to two ranks, and promised to reward them heavily. It is only by driving away the people with servants and rogues that they can reach this speed."

For the whole of China, foreign enemies have never been the biggest scourge, and the most terrifying thing is always the traitors and traitors!

An hour and a half later, the emperor's guard of honor drove into the Forbidden City.

Yang Tinglin, Song Yingxing, Zhang Canghai and other officials had already been waiting outside the gate of Huiji. Seeing that the emperor got off the imperial chariot, they were about to kneel down and salute, but they were stopped by Zhu Linming, "There is no need to be too polite." go.

After more than 20 important officials stood still in the hall, Zhu Linmi signaled to Gu Yanwu, "Master Gu, first tell everyone about the situation in Jiangbei."

"Subordinates obey."

Gu Yanwu then recounted in detail how Shunzhi fled north, Dorgon led his troops south to sit in the town, and Jianlu drove out the people from Yangzhou to Huaihe River, burned all village houses, fertile fields, trees, and destroyed roads.

Yang Tinglin immediately answered: "Your Majesty, Jianlu intends to fortify the wall and clear the country, so as to delay our army's northern expedition!"

Although he is not good at fighting, he has led soldiers anyway, so he is quite expert in this.Several officers from the military department also nodded, "Winter is coming, if the army can't even find firewood on the way north, I'm afraid..."

"The thieves are very vicious, and even the roads have been destroyed. In this way, even if our army gritted its teeth and transported luggage from the south of the Yangtze River, it would be extremely slow."

"Yes, it is extremely difficult to transport food and grass, and the nearby villages have been burned, so it is impossible to collect food nearby."

"It is three or four hundred miles from the Yangtze River to the Huaihe River. If the road is full of scorched earth, how can we use troops..."

Zhu Linming knew that even in later generations, it would be very difficult to safely cross hundreds of miles of barren land, not to mention the technical capabilities of the present generation.When there are no people nearby and no roads, just transporting food will be extremely troublesome.

You must know that in the era of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, because of sparsely populated areas and poor roads, each soldier needed at least seven or eight strong men to carry food, grass and luggage.

As for the "man-made" red land built by the captives in the section from Yangzhou to the Huaihe River, the logistical pressure may be even more alarming.

He frowned and said: "It seems that the food and grass needed for the Northern Expedition will be twice as much."

Everyone was discussing anxiously, when they saw Ma Wensheng walking quickly into the hall holding a red-labeled brochure, bowed to Zhu Linming and said, "Long live, the Ministry of War has just sent an urgent message."

Why is it an urgent report again?Zhu Linmi took the booklet and opened it, at first she showed her face a little, but then immediately sank down.After reading the last line, he handed the urgent report to Zhang Jiayu beside him, "It seems that Jianlu is going to fight to the death this time."

All the ministers in the hall surrounded Zhang Jiayu and looked at the booklet in his hand. Someone read out in a low voice, "Wang Yingxiong, the governor of Sichuan, reported... The [-] main force of Luhaoge's troops have withdrawn from Hanzhong, leaving only the [-] troops of Dou Chengwu's troops in the Green Battalion. Xi'an... Before the captives fled, they drove the people from Fengxiang Mansion, Xi'an Mansion and other places east into Shanxi, and burned the two mansions to the ground, leaving thousands of miles of barrenness... The minister has led his troops to recover Hanzhong, but it is severe winter, and Shaanxi is full of red land. It is difficult for the army to continue. Only by gathering food and grass after the spring and mobilizing the Sichuan people to repair the roads can we conquer the whole of Shaanxi in one fell swoop and march into Shanxi..."

Immediately, there was silence in the Wenhua Palace. Obviously, Jianlu was trying to stop the Ming army from going north regardless of the consequences.

After a while, Ying Tianxiang took the lead and said, "Your Majesty, the 4 troops from Hauge are probably going to the front line of the Huaihe River for reinforcements."

Someone answered: "There are more than 6 captives defending the Huaihe River, but it is not easy for our army to destroy them quickly."

"It seems that we can only wait for the weather to get warmer, and then slowly map it."

"Yes, the captives are already like the cicadas in winter, but there is no need to rush for a while..."

Zhu Linmi shook her head resolutely and said: "No way! The millions of people who were driven to Shanxi and Huaibei by Jianlu all left their homes, and they must not have much savings, and Jianlu is now in a state of embarrassment. The number of people who died is probably hundreds of thousands or even millions, and these are all the people of my Ming Dynasty!"

There was another silence in the hall.

(End of this chapter)