Back to the end of the Ming Dynasty when the emperor

Chapter 58

Zhu Yousongqu calculated that there are still four months before the end of the year. That is to say, according to the original historical development, the Manchu Qing Tartars will have almost cleaned up the peasant army like Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in four months. , They will go south on a large scale when they have free hands. In the past four months, they have to clean up the four warlords who support their own troops, together with Zuo Liangyu in Wuchang, five warlords to be precise, the time is too tight.

Fortunately, Zhu Yousong has already seen the key node to clean up the five warlords, that is, the strategic starting point of Henan. Due to its unique geographical location, this team can not only prevent thieves at critical moments, but also can be used to plug leaks.

That's why he asked Lu Jiude to go to Henan to supervise the division in person, and sent 100 additional Beijing soldiers to Henan, and allocated [-] million taels of official bank to run Henan at once. Shangfang sword can be cut first and played later.

It can be seen that Zhu Yousong has invested a lot of money in the four towns.

Forewarned is forearmed, without prejudging the waste.On the day when Ma Shiying and his son were punished, or even earlier, Zhu Yousong began to plan the affairs of the four towns in Jiangbei. Now he has asked the factory to find out the basic situation of the four towns in Jiangbei.

Regardless of the fact that the emperor assigned them a quota of 3 soldiers per town, and provided them with food and salaries based on this number, in fact, the existing soldiers and horses in these four towns far exceeded this number. Because of horses and territory, they know that in troubled times, strength is the basis for standing. Whoever has soldiers, horses and territory has the final say. When the strength reaches a certain level, even the emperor will have to act according to their faces. Ma Shiying is their role model.

Among these four towns, Xingping Bogaojie is the most powerful, with 13 soldiers, and occupies the largest territory, dominating Xuzhou, Sizhou, Suizhou, Guide and other places, including some areas of Yangzhou. Including the Kaifeng mansion that was just taken down, the territory is even bigger.

The second is Huang Degong, who occupies Chuzhou, Hezhou and other places near the capital. Although there are not as many troops as Gao Jie, his subordinates are as brave and good at fighting as he was from the Yongwei Battalion. In terms of combat effectiveness, they are the strongest among the four towns. There are [-] soldiers. In comparison, among the four towns, Huang Degong's army has better discipline.

Moreover, Zhu Yousong knew that although this Huang Chuangzi had all the bad deeds of a reactionary warlord, such as embracing troops, not paying taxes to the jurisdiction, squandering wantonly, not listening to the imperial court, wantonly expanding troops and territory, but Huang Degong The heart of loyalty to Daming has not died out, so that when Nanjing fell, Emperor Hongguang ran to his Yuanhu Lake, Huang Degong desperately escorted him, and finally died heroically for his country.

If you look at its mainstream and ignore its shortcomings and deficiencies, Huang Degong should be listed as a loyal minister who is loyal to Daming and protects the lord with his body among the generals of the Ming Dynasty. The best of these four town warlords.

As for Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo, these are two extremely reactionary warlords. As early as the time of Chongzhen, they were too stubborn to listen to restraint. When the Qing soldiers went south, they led their troops to the city and became shameful lackeys of the Qing court. The scum of these nations can be killed You can't stay, but now they both hold about [-] soldiers, occupying the rich Huai'an and Xushou land, their power should not be underestimated.

Zhu Yousong has been thinking about how to cut down the feudal clan for a long time, but he still hasn't come up with a plan.

On this day, Zhu Yousong was thinking about the four towns in Jiangbei, and received a side report from Lu Jiude from Henan. After reading it, Zhu Yousong was overjoyed. The seed of Henan finally took root and germinated. In just one month, Lu Jiude recruited more than 2 soldiers and horses for himself, and also took down Kaifeng Mansion. Now the total force in Henan has reached [-]. Kaifeng, Suizhou, Guide and other places in Henan are still surnamed Zhu. Eunuch Lu really lived up to the grace of God!

Zhu Yousong felt that the time to cut down the vassal was coming, so he immediately ordered the Hanlin Academy to draw up an order to reward Lu Jiude and other staff in Henan, and let them step up training troops to defend the border. It should be possible to turn the recruits in Henan into veterans and make the veterans stronger within four months, and he personally drafted a secret decree for the admiral of the Imperial Horse Supervisor An Lin to hand it over to Lu Jiude. To reward the officers and soldiers in Henan, in addition to money, food, horses and equipment, there is of course a batch of imperial wine and meat.

After Lu Jiude and others thanked the emperor for their kindness, An Lin quietly took out Zhu Yousong's secret decree. After Lu Jiude read it, he realized that the emperor asked him to supervise Henan, not only for him to resist thieves and captives, Another important task is to guard against the four towns of Jiangbei, because Zhu Yousong clearly wrote in this secret decree that all the officers and soldiers of the four towns of Jiangbei who leave their garrisons without authorization to surrender to the full or surrender to the Qing will be intercepted and killed.

Lu Jiude knew that His Majesty the Emperor was about to perform a major operation on the four towns in Jiangbei. These guys were domineering, and it would be impossible not to deal with them. Yuan Shu and others found Zhu Yousong's secret decree and passed it on to several staff members. After the discussion, Lu Jiude arranged three things: one is to intensify military training, and the other is to intensify border trimming, with Kaifeng as the center, Build a strategic line of defense that takes both internal and external considerations across hundreds of miles left and right.The third is to pay close attention to the movements of the four towns in Jiangbei, catch one by one, or kill one by one.

But how to cut the vassal?After sending away the angel officer Anlin, Zhu Yousong was thinking hard about this global problem again. It would not work to use the strategy of diverting the tiger from the mountain to bring the commanders of the four towns to the capital to deal with them. The downfall of Ma Shiying's party has already reminded them Well, none of the generals in these border towns is a fool, and they act rashly, just to urge them to raise their flags and rebel. If they join hands, the total number of soldiers in the four towns will be more than 40, and I am afraid that I will not be able to sit on the dragon chair by then. .

Which one to start with?Among the four towns, Gao Jie has the most troops, while Huang Degong's troops are small but have the strongest combat effectiveness. From a geographical point of view, Huang Degong is the closest to the capital.Judging from the original historical development track, the most reactionary ones are Liu Zeqing and Liu Liangzuo. The Qing soldiers suppressed the border and directly led their troops to surrender, while Gao Jie was killed by the general Xu Dingguo. Partitioned or eliminated, some directly surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, while Huang Degong sacrificed his life to protect the Lord and died heroically for the country, while the rest surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.

Zhu Yousong, like a few treasures, is taking stock of these four warlords again. Of course he knows that the so-called cutting down the vassals does not mean killing them all, except for those who have committed the most heinous crimes and persisted in their evil. A greater failure will undoubtedly exacerbate the demise of this regime, and I am afraid that it will not even last until the end of the year.

Only by turning them into a fighting force loyal to the imperial power can the successful reduction of the feudal clan be successful. The circumstances of the four towns are different, and of course the method of cutting the feudal clan should also be different. Zhu Yousong has been thinking about this problem for many days but he has not come up with a perfect solution. , then overthrow, come up with another one, and still shake his head.

Now Zhu Yousong has lost a lot of weight.The Golden Empress and Chan'er were so distressed that they didn't think about eating, eating, and sleeping at night. They knew that His Majesty had something to worry about, but they didn't dare to ask about the affairs of the court after all.

At this moment, Li Guofu, the supervisor of ceremonies, Bingbi, came in with a pile of folded papers and knelt down in front of Zhu Yousong, "My lord, the papers from the four towns have arrived."

(End of this chapter)