scourge the qing dynasty

Chapter 426 Expansion Hindered
The unforgivable Pingnan Palace was completely eradicated. The Fat Man's Southern Expedition Army, which has been fighting continuously for more than a year, has almost reached its limit. The generals and soldiers are exhausted, and it is very difficult to supply ammunition. There are countless civil uprisings in the newly captured Fujian and half of Guangdong. The Fatty Army's grain transportation team is a great threat to the safety and stability of the Fatty Army's rear.

What's even more funny is that there was also a disturbance in the new land occupied by the Fatty Army. A Zhangzhou man named Cai Yin named himself the third prince Zhu, recruited a gang of rogues, known as the heads of the 82 gangs, and colluded with a Quanzhou city named Xu Yan's underworld leader, taking advantage of Zheng Jing's return to Taiwan and the main force of the Fat Man Army's southern expedition to Guangdong, planned to take advantage of the emptiness to take Quanzhou, establish the capital and build a country, and even played the banner of expelling the white hat soldiers and returning them to my country tomorrow.It turned out to be natural, the newly released Third Prince Zhu just came to the city of Quanzhou with his lackeys. The fat general Yang Yingyuan who stayed in Quanzhou to recuperate sent only [-] infantry, and killed them to the ground. Nei Xuyan, who was about to set fire to the incident, was also sent south by the fat man's army patrolling the city, and became a ghost under the sword with Cai Yin. Cai Yin also became the first third prince Zhu to die under the fat man's saber.

Although a group of hooligans took advantage of the fire to rob, and they were just too overwhelmed to shake the tree, it also reminded the Fatty Army South Road Army that the Fatty Army has not yet gained a firm foothold in Fujian, and it will take time to consolidate its rule and stabilize the place. , not only is it difficult for Fujian to become the rear of the fat army to attack Guangdong and Guangxi, Zheng Jing, who still has strength, may make a comeback at any time.So after much deliberation, Li Tianzhi finally decided to write to Fatty Lu, reporting the actual situation in Fujian and Guangdong, and requesting a temporary suspension of military operations against the remaining state capitals of Guangdong, allowing the soldiers of the Fatty Army to recuperate for a period of time, freeing up their hands to wipe out the locals. The remnants of rebellion consolidated Fujian and Guangdong.

Li Tianzhi's memorial was sent to the capital together with the victory of the victory over Guangzhou. Fatty Lu quickly approved Li Tianzhi's request to suspend large-scale military operations, but he also asked Li Tianzhi to send another team north to Shaozhou to cooperate with General Fatty's army. Wu Yonghua teamed up to besiege Shaozhou, and completely eradicated the remnants of the Shang army Jin Guangzu and Shang Zhiying who were entrenched in Shaozhou city, and then stopped the large-scale war completely, lest the weeds would not be eradicated, and the spring breeze would blow again.In addition, Lu Fatzi also named Tian Fengji the governor of Guangdong and Li Tianzhi the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, and authorized Li Tianzhi to use his official position and salary to appease small local warlords in Guangdong and Guangxi that could be won.

Then, Fatty Lu naturally went to Shang Wanyi's room to report the bad news and comfort his wife. At the same time, Fatty Lu, who deeply felt that he owed Shang Wanyi a lot, made a promise in front of his wife that he would do whatever it takes Rescue Shang Wanyi's son Lu Bangjing, and promise that he will make Lu Bangjing's position as the eldest son unshakable in order to compensate for the harm he did to Shang Wanyi's mother and son.Fortunately, Shang Wanyi is a very reasonable and good wife. She knows that her natal family has deserved it and deserved it, so apart from crying, she didn't blame Fatty Lu for a single word.

The fat man army on the southern front has reached its limit, but the fat man army on other battlefields still has a lot of strength to spare, especially in Zhili and Liaodong. In order to deal with the remnants of the Qing army in the primeval forest of Daxing'an Mountains, and stationed [-] troops on the sparsely populated Liaodong battlefield, all of them were elite soldiers. Not only was it a waste of troops, but it was even more wasteful Money and food.Therefore, Fatty Lu made a large-scale army adjustment. He dispatched [-] troops from the Gaodejie Army, and [-] troops from the Wangxu Army. They were handed over to General Gao Hongchen to lead the army. An elite team with extremely powerful combat effectiveness rushed to the Huguang battlefield via Fengyang and Luzhou, Anhui, and attacked the Huguang Huangzhou and Hanyang prefectures controlled by Xia Guoxiang's army, directly deterred Xia Guoxiang's base camp Wuchang and Yuezhou, and forced Xia Guoxiang to retreat from the Jiangxi battlefield. Get ready for the next attack on the southwest, and at the same time monitor Han Daren who is attacking and fighting in the west of Huguang.

Fatty Lu finally dispatched the long-stored Zhili Army and the powerful Liaodong Army. The news spread to Huguang, and Xia Guoxiang, who had always been helpless against the two strong cities of Jiujiang and Nanchang, was even more helpless. In order not to run out of strength, he even fought back With no strength, Xia Guoxiang had to retreat obediently, quickly retreated to Wuchang, and changed the focus of offense to comprehensive defense.At the same time, Xia Guoxiang is also very clear that this strategic change is likely to be the last strategic change of the Honghua court. Unless Fatty Lu wants to rule against the Honghua court, otherwise from now on, the Honghua court will have to keep defending And the life of constantly retreating.

Xia Guoxiang's brother-in-law Guo Zhuangtu also came to the same judgment. Seeing the allies who could be used were wiped out one by one by the Fatty Army, and seeing the Fatty Army gradually adjust their strategy and defense to counterattack, the Wu clan refused to fight with Honghua. The imperial court turned hostility into jade silk, and joined hands with the Honghua court to resist the attack of the fat man's army, and Guo Zhuangtu gradually panicked.After careful consideration, our Xiangye Guo came up with an idea that I don't know whether it is a genius or an idiot. He invited the Fifth Harmony Lama who had a good friendship with the old traitor Wu to come forward to mediate the war, and expressed his willingness to draw the river with Lu Fatty as a boundary and divide the world equally.

In addition, Guo Xiangye sent Feng Su, who was Fatty Lu's parent official in Dali when he was a scholar, and the household secretary of the Honghua court, to ask Feng Su to visit Fatty Lu in Beijing and persuade Fatty Lu to accept Guo Zhuangtu's peace proposal. Fatty Lu accepts the condition of drawing the river as a boundary. The Honghua court can return Fatty Lu's eldest son Lu Bangjing, or accept Fatty Lu as emperor and become a brother country with the Dayue Empire. Wu Shifan respects Fatty Lu as his brother and pays tribute every year. Years come to court.

As a modern person who has been brainwashed by the idea of ​​unification since childhood, Fatty Lu is of course impossible to agree to Guo Zhuangtu's conditions - although Guo Zhuangtu is really full of sincerity this time, he not only rejected Guo Zhuangtu's proposal, Fatty Lu also demanded Feng Su stayed behind, and gave Feng Su an official position as a member of the Yue Wang Mansion, which is equivalent to the Minister of Criminal Affairs. He even said that as long as Feng Su is willing to accept, after the Fatty Army dominates the world, the positions of governors of various provinces can be given to Feng Su himself. pick.

Of course, Feng Su was flattered by Fatty Lu's love, and repeatedly said that he had no merit in size and dared not accept such a generous gift from Fatty Lu, but Fatty Lu said with a smile: "Feng Futai is too modest, if you hadn't given me my The examination papers were picked out of the wastebasket, and I became a scholar and gained fame, can I have what happened later, can I have what I am today?"

"How did the lord know?" Feng Su was taken aback, and quickly changed his words: "The lord misunderstood. The one who picked your papers out of the failed ones was not a lowly post, but Master Chen Yaochen, a scholar of politics in Dali."

"Old Grandfather (the respectful title of the common people to the magistrate), you don't need to be humble." Fatty Lu laughed and said: "The late family members are not confused. At that time, Dali Xuezheng Chen Yao was in charge of the boy's trial, but he was not Wu. The old prince, old grandpa, you are the most trusted official of the prince at the first level of the Yunnan government. The prince needs to recruit more civil servants, so that this job can bypass you and directly hand it over to the Dali Xuezheng appointed by the Mangou court. Yao?"

Feng Su smiled bitterly in embarrassment, not daring to continue to quibble, Fatty Lu asked curiously again: "Old Grandfather, there is one very strange thing about Wan Juansheng. Back then you gave Wan Juansheng such a big favor. Didn't mention anything in front of the late wife? When others asked, you also desperately pushed it to Mr. Chen Yaochen?"

Feng Su's expression was even more embarrassing, and he replied after a long while: "My lord, don't blame me. In fact, when my lord was promoted by the second prince to be the county magistrate of Qujing, the subordinate official planned to mention this matter in front of my lord, boldly presumptuously, and wanted my lord to call me a lower official." A teacher, but the officials heard what you did after you entered the capital, my lord, so I didn’t dare to mention it again.”

"My limelight is too strong. I'm worried that my beauty will be destroyed by Lin Feng, and I'm afraid that I will be implicated, right?" Fatty Lu asked with a smile. "But I can't blame you. Thinking back to what I did in those years, I often break out in a cold sweat. If it wasn't for the favor of the prince, who tried his best to protect it, and if it wasn't for the conflict between Oboi and Emperor Mangou that was difficult to reconcile, how could I Can you live to this day? At that time, if you told the truth, old grandpa, you would have to be implicated, too."

Sighing, Fatty Lu patted Feng Su on the shoulder again, and said softly: "Men, don't worry, the student is still doing well and didn't embarrass you, and now he can protect you in turn, stay, don't go back Guo Zhuangtu was buried with him." Feng Su nodded heavily with tears in his eyes.

Fatty Lu left Feng Su, the envoy of the Honghua court, to serve in the Palace of the King of Yue. In this turbulent world where the banners of the king are everywhere in the city, it is really a trivial matter that cannot be more ordinary. Even if Feng Su is sent Guo Zhuangtu didn't feel too surprised, but it was undoubtedly an obvious signal to other civil and military officials in the Honghua court. It can also be entrusted with important tasks.Seeing such hope, for the sake of prosperity and wealth, the civil and military officials of the Honghua court will inevitably have the idea of ​​following Feng Su's example, and they are no longer too afraid of the defeat of Guo Zhuangtu and Xia Guoxiang. Yungui.

The civil and military officials of Honghua's small court who had such thoughts were a little too far-sighted. The emaciated camel was bigger than a horse. No matter how unpopular Guo Zhuangtu was, no matter how many personality defects Xia Guoxiang had, the old traitor Wu left them behind. The inheritance is still enough for them to squander it for a while, because the fat army whose expansion is too fast has brought countless internal problems, it is still too difficult to completely eliminate Guo Zhuangtu and the warlords of all sizes in a short time to rule the world. The restrictions on road traffic and scientific and technological productivity, as well as the desperate resistance of the Honghua court and the Wu clan, and the crazy expansion of the fat army were finally contained in the second half of Honghua's three years.

At the end of the third year of Honghua, the Fatty Army's southwest territory was still limited to Huguang, Jiangxi, and Guangdong, and failed to make new major breakthroughs. Only the Fatty Army led by Gao Hongchen conquered Huangzhou and Hanyang. The Wuchang army confronted each other across the river; Han Daren was stubbornly resisted by Wu Yingjing brothers at the foot of Jingzhou city, and Fatty Lu, who lacked a navy, made it clear that Han Daren was not allowed to dig up the embankment of thousands of people to harm the people of Jingxiang, so Han Daren had no choice but to It may be to take the attrition tactics of capturing Yiling, cutting off Jingzhou's grain roads and besieging the city with heavy troops, and fight against the Wu Yingjing brothers who have no food and no aid.Although Li Tianzhi captured Shaozhou, he focused his energy on destroying the remaining enemies in Fujian and Guangdong, and failed to take another step west.

But it doesn't matter, the expansion momentum of the fat army is hindered. The biggest problem is not the enemy, but the internal problems of the own army. In the first half of the year, a large amount of food, grass and weapons were invested in the Fujian battlefield and the Liaodong battlefield. It was too northward, and it was difficult to transfer southward for a while, and the new recruits were inexperienced and weak in combat effectiveness. This gave Guo Zhuangtu, Xia Guoxiang, and the Wu clan a chance to breathe.And as the Fat Army's overall strength gradually tilted towards the southwest battlefield, new recruits and new troops gradually matured through actual combat experience, the newly occupied state capital gradually stabilized, local government affairs gradually became normal, and it was only a matter of time before the southwest battlefield made a major breakthrough.

Winter is coming to spring, and before you know it, time has entered the spring of [-] AD, which is also the spring of the fourth year of Honghua. At the beginning of March in the lunar calendar, good news finally came from the Jingzhou battlefield, and was surrounded by Han Daren for half a year. Because of the exhaustion of food and grass in many Jingzhou cities, the soldiers in the city mutinied and opened the city gates to surrender to the fat man's army. Jingzhou city finally collapsed without attack.Han Daren entered Jingzhou, rescued Wu Guogui's younger brother Wu Guozheng who was imprisoned by the Wu clan, and then led his army across the river from Hudukou to continue to attack Wu Yingchang's army in Lizhou. Yongshun.

Immediately afterwards, Fatty Lu senior brother Liu Zhifu, who was lonely in Changde, was recruited by Wu Shiqun, the son of Wu Guogui, led the army to change flags, and announced that he would be incorporated into the Fatty Army.When the news reached Wuchang, Xia Guoxiang was shocked. In order to avoid being cut off by the Fatty Army, he once planned to abandon Wuchang and Yuezhou and retreat to Changsha, concentrating on recapturing Changde. Unable to make up his mind, Han Daren's army took the opportunity to go south calmly and take over the important town of Changde, forcing Guo Zhuangtu's army to take the long Baoqing and Hengzhou roads to provide weapons for Xia Guoxiang, and also forcing Wei Pu to return to Shiheng from Chenzhou The state greatly shared the military pressure on Li Tianzhi's army on the Fujian-Guangdong battlefield.

Of course, even though taking Changde and cutting off the most convenient and quick connection between Guo Zhuangtu and Xia Guoxiang, it is not so easy to win Wuchang, Yuezhou and Changsha, the three major cities in Xia Guoxiang's hands. It is said that Xia Guoxiang had already stocked up a large number of new firearms in these important towns in advance, and the food and grass hoarded in these three major towns were enough for Xia Guoxiang’s army for three years. Historically, these food and grass were sold by our second prince Wu Yingqi.

But it doesn't matter, Fatty's army has already caught Xia Guoxiang in three breads, and the weapons, ammunition, food, grass and military supplies for attacking northern Hunan are also in place. With Lu Fatty's order, Han Daren sent troops to attack Changsha by land, Li Maozhu and Li Jiyang from Anqing, Poyang Going up the lake, rushed to the battlefield to meet Gao Hongchen and crossed the river. The three armies joined forces to attack Wuchang City. Yao Yi also sent troops from Fengyang to Hanyang to set up defenses along the river to prevent Xia Guoxiang from going northward to attack the relatively empty Huguang defense line of the Fatty Army, and at the same time as a preparation The army can be put into the Wuchang battlefield at any time, Xia Guoxiang was attacked from the north and the south, and suddenly fell into a hard fight.

At the same time, Li Tianzhi, who was gradually gaining a foothold on the Guangdong battlefield, was not to be outdone, and also wrote to Fatty Lu, requesting to send troops westward from Guangzhou to capture the hinterland of Guangdong and Guangxi and threaten Guo Zhuangtu.However, after Li Tianzhi's memorandum was sent to Beijing, Fatty Lu unexpectedly rejected Li Tianzhi's request, and ordered Li Tianzhi to continue to stand still and postpone the westward advance. There was no intention to launch a large-scale attack westward.In this way, let alone Li Tianzhi, who is full of enthusiasm, will be baffled, even Fatty Lu’s running dogs in Beijing, Yao Qisheng, Zhu Fangdan and others, will also be baffled. , to share the pressure on the main battlefield in Huguang.

"There are many reasons, mainly three." Fatty Lu replied: "Judging from the fact that our army's expansion momentum was hindered in the second half of last year, it is still quite difficult for our army to win two major battlefields at the same time. In the second half of last year, our army's offensive One of the most important reasons for the blockage was the excessive consumption of firearms. Basically all the firearms in stock were exhausted. Later, they could only produce while fighting at the same time. The supply was not enough, and there was a shortage of firearms. The situation where the precision shells are all used up makes it difficult to open the situation under the city of Jingzhou."

"This time, our main opponent on the Huguang battlefield, Xia Guoxiang, also has new firearms in his hands. The firearms we need to consume are bound to be more, and the number of firearms we need to supply is bound to be larger. If we put our forces into the Huguang battlefield, we might be like Han Daren again, relying on primitive sabers and spears to attack Changsha, Wuchang and Yuezhou."

"That's true." Yao Qisheng nodded to express his understanding, and echoed: "I remember that the prince also said that when fighting against rebels Guo Zhuangtu and Xia Guoxiang, what you fight is not soldiers and horses, but firearms supply. Xia Guoxiang was in Changsha and Yuezhou. He and Wuchang have hoarded a large number of firearms, and the only way for us to win is to fully guarantee the supply of firearms for the Huguang army."

"But Li Tianzhi's main opponents in Guangdong and Guangxi did not have many firearms?" Zhu Fangdan asked suspiciously: "Among our enemies in Guangdong and Guangxi, except for Dong Chongmin who has some firearms, the other opponents are Zu Zeqing and Ma Chengyin. Li Fengchun and Li Fengchun must not have many firearms in their hands. The firearms we have supplied to General Li Tianzhi in the past half a year should be enough? Besides, people like Zu Zeqing and Ma Chengyin can all try to recruit them?"

"This is the second important reason, political reasons." Fatty Lu replied: "Zu Zeqing and Ma Chengyin, Zu Zeqing is the first cousin of Emperor Gao, and Ma Chengyin's father, Ma Xiong, has always been loyal to the emperor. What honor to appease them? Or use the last emperor's edict?"

"Of course it was the last emperor's edict." Zhu Fangdan said in surprise, "Could it be possible to use other reputations to appease him?"

"Using the emperor's edict to appease you will cause endless troubles." Fatty Lu replied coldly: "Wang Xu and Gao Dejie asked several times to move their troops to Shaanxi, and attack Hanzhong and Sichuan from the south of Shaanxi, but I refused for various reasons. This is also the reason—Sichuan is controlled by the Wu clan, and it will be difficult to deal with the aftermath in the future if they are recruited here."

"It's difficult to deal with the aftermath? But it's impossible for us not to fight Guangdong, Guangxi and Sichuan forever?" Zhu Fangdan asked again doubtfully: "Could it be that the prince still wants to use a knife to kill people and use Guo Zhuangtu's hand to kill them?"

"Of course not. If I wanted to borrow Guo Zhuangtu's knife, I wouldn't attack Huguang now." Fatty Lu smiled, then waved his hand and said, "Don't worry, I have my own solutions to these problems. Hurry up, it's already five years old." It's been a month, and the time is almost up."

"The time is coming soon?" Yao Qisheng and Zhu Fangdan looked at each other, feeling more and more that Fatty Lu was elusive.

"Master Yao, Doctor Zhu, do you still remember?" Fatty Lu suddenly asked again: "On the first day of the first lunar month last year, what did you lead all the civil and military officials say to me in the Hall of Martial Heroes, and how did I answer you? I have too many official duties and often forget small things, when it comes to the first day of July, remember to remind me to answer your requests."

Yao Qisheng and Zhu Fangdan were completely dumbfounded, and they couldn't figure out what kind of medicine was sold in Fatty Lu's gourd. They had already made a poisonous oath at the Temple of Heaven never to do such a thing, so why bring up the old story again?Could it be that Fatty Lu has gone back on his word again, that he is not going to leave the throne to his son, and is planning to proclaim himself emperor by force regardless of the world's scolding?

"Give Wang Shaobo and Gao Dejie two Jun decrees." Fatty Lu ordered again: "Let them hurry up and account for their errands, and return to Beijing before the first day of July. There are Liucao's palm prints, Wang Shirong and the chief The descendants of the Wu army must all gather at the Hall of Martial Arts on the first day of the seventh month."

(End of this chapter)