Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 440 Conquering Shengjing
Wen Qing nodded silently upon hearing this.

Li Jing pondered for a while, pointed to the book case and said, "Write a letter to Cao Wenzhao immediately, if Shengjing has not been captured, tell him to stop attacking, and then escort Huang Taiji to Beijing quickly, I want to see Huang Taiji. In addition , order Li Dingguo to send troops eastward immediately to find Huang Taiji's concubine and those ministers, and if these people are caught, they will be escorted to Beijing as quickly as possible."

Wen Qing heard the words and knew that Li Jing was going to personally persuade Huang Taiji to surrender, so he didn't dare to be negligent, and immediately laid out paper and ground it, and then quickly wrote a letter to Cao Wenzhao according to Li Jing's intention.

It's a pity that Li Jing's letter was sent less than two days ago, and it is estimated that it has not yet reached Cao Wenzhao's hands. Cao Wenzhao's success news spread to the capital again: Cao Wenzhao captured Shengjing.

Hearing that Cao Wenzhao conquered Shengjing, Li Jing couldn't help being taken aback, so fast?
After reading Cao Wenzhao's memorial carefully, Li Jing couldn't help sighing, the so-called throwing a stone at his own foot was referring to the Qing army in Shengjing City.

Cao Wenzhao said in the letter that when he learned that Shengjing City had prepared a large number of arson objects, he used all the artillery. After destroying the Shengjing artillery, he quickly occupied the outer city, and then blocked the inner city with powerful firepower. City, and let Chen Erhu lead his troops to rush into the city at night and set fires everywhere.

Due to the poor communication in the city, the Qing army saw the flames and thought that the Ming army had broken through the inner city. The general had ordered the city to be burned, and immediately set fire to the city.There was a sudden chaos in the city, and Cao Wenzhao took advantage of the situation to attack the inner city, then occupied the palace, and captured Yue Tuo and other generals of the Qing army alive.

Cao Wenzhao reported that according to statistics after the war, no less than 2 soldiers and civilians in the city died in the fire, and countless others were injured.

In addition, Cao Wenzhao said in the letter that when the Qing army broke the city, it set fire to the grain and grass materials hoarded in the city, and about [-] to [-] shi of grain were burned.

Now that there is no food in the city, Cao Wenzhao asked Li Jing to send a batch of food to Shengjing for emergency, otherwise, the captured soldiers and common people would have to starve.

Sighing, Li Jing gently put the letter back on the table, got up and walked slowly in the room.

The current situation in Liaodong has completely exceeded Li Jing's expectations.

In Li Jing's expectation, after the battle, the people in the city would inevitably be looted by soldiers of the Ming army.

This is not a matter of military discipline, but the fact that the Ming army has suffered too much at the hands of the Qing army for many years. Now that Shengjing has been conquered, these soldiers can't help venting their anger. The people in Shengjing must suffer a lot. Property is also sure to suffer a great deal of damage.

This is the time to test the ability of the leader and commander to deal with the aftermath after the battle. The soldiers must be vented, and the situation must be controlled, so that the soldiers cannot do too much.

Then it is to win the hearts of the people. The best way to win the hearts of the people is to open warehouses and release food. First, solve the problem of eating for the common people. As long as the common people can eat enough, the follow-up problems will be solved.

But Li Jing didn't expect that the Qing army would burn the food at the last moment. This is really a plan to let the people of the whole city die for the country.

The Qing army wanted all the people in the city to die for their country, but Li Jing would not just watch the people starve to death.

Liaodong has a large area of ​​uncultivated land, and the most lacking thing is population. If Li Jing immigrates in the future, he does not know how much food will be spent.If the more than [-] ordinary people in Shengjing can survive, the treasury can save a lot of expenses.

But now is the time when the crops are green and yellow, and even the potatoes with the shortest growth cycle are not yet ready for harvest.

Although Pingyang Mansion has accumulated a lot of food over the years, it is not inexhaustible. In order to support this battle, Li Jing almost invested all the food accumulated by Pingyang Mansion over the years.

Originally, Li Jing had already struggled to support more than [-] Eastern Expeditionary Army, and with the addition of more than [-] ordinary people, Li Jing really couldn't afford to support them.

Suddenly Li Jing stopped in his tracks, no, Daming is fully capable of feeding these people, it's not that Daming doesn't have food, it's just that he doesn't have so many people to transport food.

Years ago, Liu Erleng expropriated more than one million shi of grain in Jiangxi, and Chen Erhu also expropriated more than one million shi of grain in South Zhili, but in winter the canals were frozen and water transportation was impassable, and these grains could not be transported by water at all. The cost of transporting by land would be too high, so Li Jing did not let Liu Erleng and Chen Dahu transport grain to the north.

After the beginning of spring, the canal thawed, but the two provinces were busy with spring plowing, and there was no idle labor for transportation, so the grain had been stored in the two provinces.

But now it will be May (lunar calendar), the spring plowing has already ended, and the common people are in the slack time. If we don’t seize this opportunity to transport grain, there will be more than a month until the summer harvest time, and there will be no one available at that time. up.

Thinking about this festival, Li Jing was overjoyed, and quickly asked Xiao Jiuchuan, Shen Zheng and Zhang Ao, to come to Dongnuan Pavilion to discuss matters.

After a while, Shen Zheng and Zhang Ao hurried over.

"Marshal, what is so urgent?" Shen Zheng asked after taking his seat.

Li Jing smiled, poured tea for the two of them, and handed Cao Wenzhao's military report to Shen Zheng.

Shen Zheng took a cursory glance and suddenly said pleasantly: "Shengjing has been conquered? So fast?"

"Ah? What a happy event!" Zhang Ao exclaimed when he heard the words.

As he spoke, he took the letter from Shen Zheng and read it carefully.

After reading it, Zhang Ao suddenly frowned and said, "These Jurchens are very vicious, don't they want to starve the common people to death?"

Li Jing waved his hand: "This is the end of the matter, it's useless to talk too much, I came to you to discuss how to solve these people's food problems."

Shen Zheng shook his head and said: "I'm afraid it can't be solved now. Even if all the grain stored in Pingyang Mansion is transported to Liaodong, it will not be of much use, and it is really not cost-effective. Every batch of grain transported, half of it will fall into the In the belly of the civilian husband."

Li Jingjing nodded: "The food in Pingyang Mansion can no longer be moved. Just in case, we can only find a way from the south. Er Leng and Dahu collected a lot of food last year, and we must find a way to transport the food to the north." .It is not necessary to bring all of them here, half of them will be sent from each province, and all the problems will be solved.”

Zhang Ao pondered for a while and said: "Commander, it may not be so easy to transport so much grain. I have checked the information of the household department. In recent years, the canal has been silted up, and water transportation is very inconvenient. In recent years, the grain in the south Most of them are transported by land.”

"Oh? Is the water transportation of the canal blocked?" Li Jing was startled when he heard this.

Zhang Ao and Shen Zheng nodded slightly.

Li Jing frowned: "Immediately mobilize manpower to dredge the canal. We must ensure the smooth flow of the canal. Otherwise, the transportation of materials from north to south will be inconvenient, which will cost money and delay time."

"However, the Liaodong side may not wait for the canal to be dredged. If the food is transported by land, it will take at least a month to reach Liaodong. Will the Liaodong side wait for such a long time?" Shen Zheng asked hurriedly.

Li Jing shook his head: "It can't be transported by land. Not to mention the long time, the consumption is too high. We can't afford it. We still have to rely on boats. If the canal is impassable, we will go by sea."

Shen Zheng was startled when he heard the words: "Go by sea? Now that Lushun and other places are occupied by the Qing army, it is too risky to transport food by sea."

Li Jingjing nodded: "So, we must first eliminate the Qing army in southern Liaoning and open the sea route to Eastern Liaoning."

After pondering for a while, Li Jing continued: "However, we can't wait for everything to be ready. We must take a two-pronged approach. The Liaodong side should solve the Qing army stationed in the south of Liaoning as soon as possible. Chen Dahu immediately organized manpower and ships to load the grain. It could not be that the grain was shipped only after southern Liaoning was stabilized, or the grain in the south had already been shipped, and the Liaodong side had not done anything."

"Commander, although we have already controlled the situation in Liaodong, it is not so easy to pacify the southern Liaoning area. I heard that Wu Sangui is still being dragged around by Abate." Shen Zheng said.

Li Jingjing nodded: "That's right, Wu Sangui has been dragged so badly by Abatai that the battle in southern Liaoning hasn't made much progress after dragging on for so long. The Qing army can't be dragged on like this, and the battle must be resolved quickly. Now that Huang Taiji has been captured alive and Shengjing has been conquered, the main force can be dispatched to reinforce Wu Sangui. I am going to let Hutou lead his troops to help Wu Sangui and finish off the Qing army in southern Liaoning."

Shen Zheng hesitated for a moment when he heard the words, and said: "Adjust Hutou's troops to reinforce Wu Sangui, so that our cavalry troops in Liaodong will only be left with Dingguo, and Dingguo's [-] men may not be enough for the subsequent battles." .”

Li Jing looked at Shen Zheng and smiled: "Father-in-law, it seems that you are still worried about the original army of the imperial court."

Shen Zheng smiled and said: "It's not that I'm worried, I really can't. In the battle of Shengjing, Zu Dashou's troops lost troops and lost 6000 people. Now I'm worrying about the issue of pensions after the war. Those who died in battle and those who were injured I estimate that it will cost at least 200 million taels of silver for the pensions of the soldiers, and now Daming spends money everywhere, how can I get so much silver?"

Li Jing waved his hand and said seriously: "Father-in-law, don't give me a sloppy eye on the issue of pensions after the war. You can pay for the money. These soldiers died for the country. They are my Ming heroes. I can't let him die for nothing." Shed blood and sacrificed for Ming Dynasty.

Those wounded soldiers and the families of those who died in battle must be properly settled. I have to be worthy of these soldiers. Otherwise, who will be willing to serve as a soldier and work hard for the country in the future? "

After a pause, Li Jing continued: "Also, the post-war rewards for meritorious servicemen are also a considerable expense. If you really can't afford the money, then I will pay for it myself."

Shen Zhengwen hurriedly said: "Jimin, how can I ask you to pay this money? In fact, I have prepared money for rewards and pensions, but I didn't expect so many casualties. The battle is not over yet, It's way beyond my budget.

If Zu Dashou's army fights a little bit and doesn't kill so many people, how can I have any opinion on him?If he continues to fight like this in the next battle, the treasury will really not be able to pay for the pension. "

(End of this chapter)