Compared with the Nanjing Ming court able to solve financial problems by reforming and rectifying corruption, the Qing Dynasty faced much more difficult financial problems.

After all, the southern provinces are not short of money, they just can't collect it, while the northern provinces are indeed short of money now. Unless they go to grab it, there will be no money or food to collect it.

In order to prepare more military pay, create weapons, equipment, soldiers and soldiers with dilapidated green camp soldiers, and supplement the equipment of the Eight Banners soldiers, the Qing court could only continuously increase taxes, and the people's corvee was even more arduous.

Besides, the Qing Dynasty really attached great importance to the investment in the army. This alone was not comparable to the original Ming court.

However, if the people in these places could not tolerate the harsh policies of the Ming court, they naturally could not tolerate the harsh policies of the Qing Dynasty. Resistances in various places were one after another. The conflicts between people and land that had been slightly alleviated due to more than half of the population losses and the reduction of natural disasters, and the newly recovered productivity were soon destroyed.

As a result, the Qing court's rule also fell into a vicious cycle of the Chongzhen period of the Ming Dynasty. In the continuous increase in taxes and heavy labor service, one after another of refugees gradually formed.

However, it’s not long now, and these refugees have not yet formed enough power.

But tens of thousands of refugees quickly combined with the anti-Qing rebels in various places who retreated into the mountains. The anti-Qing rebels, which had been suppressed by the Qing court, revived again, and the sparks gradually became a prairie fire.

However, compared with the three hundred years of corrupt Ming court, the Qing court could still open up other sources of wealth. Since they could not get money from the people, they would rob them from the gentry. The Manchu nobles were ruthless in dealing with these Han people.

But the problem is that the Qing court was able to quickly establish rule within the pass by cooperation with these gentry and plunder the poor. Now that dogs are biting dogs, many gentry who have reacted are already planning to surrender to the Ming court in the south.

However, because of the powerful military power of the Qing court and the selective robbery, the large gentry families were successfully divided and the rule was maintained for the time being.

Zhou Shixian obtained a lot of information from Lu Jiude and was more confident in defeating the Qing Dynasty. Without the support of those gentry, the Qing court's rule would soon collapse with the failure of the military.

After all, the seventeenth century was the century of the landlord class, which Zhou Shixian, a person who came from later generations, had to admit.

Therefore, his current primary task is to defeat the Qing Dynasty, eliminate the main force of the Eight Banners, and first solve national oppression.

"The troops in each unit will start mobilizing immediately after the New Year. Before the beginning of spring, the troops will be sent to the designated position, and the deployment of the remaining troops will be as follows."

In the combat conference room of the Yangzhou Prefecture Office, Zhou Shixian, Xue Changfu, Zhang Huangyan, Zheng Chenggong, Huang Degong, Gao Jie, Liu Zeqing and other major generals sat around a table, and Xue Laoer was holding a bamboo strip in his hand and explaining the latest combat plan.

The bamboo strips in Xue Lao Er's hand first fell in Xiangyang Prefecture in Huguang, and then circled Jingzhou in the southwest, drawing a circle to circle them: "Ma Shiying sent military information. At present, the Qing army in Huguang mainly has three forces. The strongest ones are the Guanning Army under Wu Sangui's army, the Green Camp Army under Gaodi's army, and the Eight Banners soldiers led by the Manchu Tatars Arjin, and the troops may be around 3,000, and they are very strong;

However, after the Qing court transferred backbone elite troops from Shaanxi and Gansu, only 20,000 to 30,000 old and weak green camp soldiers were left, and their strength was relatively weak.

At the same time, the Qing court is now in a diminishing state. The Mongolian tribes in the north and west repeatedly attack, plundering food, grass, and property. Rebel soldiers from all over the country were rising. Although it was not a good time, they also restrained a large number of Qing troops. The Qing army in Shaanxi and Gansu could actually use less than 40,000 troops, and the core ones were still the Liaoxi soldiers and horses under Wu Sangui and Gaodi's troops."

After Xue Laoer introduced the basic enemy situation in Huguang, he stopped.

Huguang is mainly defending Li Guo, Gao Yigong, Zuo Liangyu, and Du Yinxi. Li Guo and Gao Yigong will not obey orders. Zuo Liangyu's condition is aggravating, and Du Yinxi's strength is not enough to face the Qing army alone. However, with these three troops, Zhou Shixian is not worried about Huguang's failure.

Wu Sangui realized his vision, and Dorgon directly transferred him to Huguang to confront the Shun Army, because he was worried that if he sent him to Nanzhili, he would be right.

At present, his troops were divided into two major units, one of which was about 20,000 troops. He personally led the troops stationed in Jingzhou and together with the Qing army general Aljin to resist the Shun army from the south bank of the Yangtze River. The troops were led by his general Wu Guogui and stationed in Xiangyang. Gao Di was also stationed here, mainly to prevent the attacks of Zuo Liangyu and Du Yinxi.

At the junction of Shaanxi and Gansu and Sichuan, there are mountains and steep mountains, and food, grass and weapons are difficult to transport. There are also Green Camps in Hanzhong to garrison, so the Qing army was not worried about the loss of these places.

"When Li Guo and Gao Yigong will lead their troops to attack Jingzhou, restrain Wu Sangui and Aljin's Qing army, and also cover up Zuo Liangyu and Du Yin's rascal attack on Xiangyang to ensure that some Qing troops in Shaanxi, Gansu and Henan are restrained and time to capture Jingzhou." Zhou Shixian said slowly.

After Zhou Shixian finished speaking, everyone nodded. Xue Laoer then raised the bamboo strips and pointed to the north of the Huai River in the southeast of Nanzhili, where this was their own defense zone.

"The main force of the Eight Banners of the Qing army was in Jiangnan this time, so the main battlefield of the war was also here. Dodo, Ajige, Nikan, Tunqi, and Hong Chengchou, Shang Kexi, Kong Youde, and Geng Zhongming were all here.

At present, there are more than 50,000 Eight Banners soldiers stationed in Henan, Shandong, Beizhili and other places, and 20,000 are left in the capital, and they can go south at any time. In addition, there are nearly 70,000 elite green camp soldiers dispatched from all over the north, and more than 10,000 vassal soldiers, and even tens of thousands of coats. These 140,000 soldiers and horses are almost all the field corps of the Qing army.

Of course, in addition to this, there are tens of thousands of Green Camp defenders in the four provinces of Northern Zhili, Shandong, Henan, Shanxi and Shaanxi. However, these defenders have no combat effectiveness. Apart from defending the city and providing labor, they are invincible."

Speaking of the war in Nanzhili, the generals in the room couldn't help but concentrate. Xue Laoer paused and continued: "The Qing court seemed to have put all the main forces in Nanzhili. Huguang only took defensive measures and did not really invest in the core Eight Banners soldiers."

As soon as he finished speaking, a discussion suddenly sounded in the room. If so, Nanzhili would face the main force of the Qing army alone, Zhou Shixian's new army had only 50,000 troops, and the remaining armies of the troops of each unit were only 30,000 to 40,000 after expansion and supplementation. There were still more than 30,000 elite Ming troops who could still fight were still coming from Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, Zhejiang and other places.

In other words, in terms of the most core field forces, the Ming army was still much weaker than the Qing army.

However, Zhou Shixian used modern training methods and the strong army that had piled up countless money and grain, strictly speaking, they already had certain characteristics of modern army.

"In this decisive battle in Jiangnan, our goal is to block the attack of the Qing army, and to choose the opportunity to annihilate the main force of the Qing army, and consume the Eight Banners troops. It is best to push the front line to Shandong, Henan and other places after the battle."

After Xue Laoer said that, he moved the bamboo strips to the Xuzhou Wei area in southern Zhili, and talked about the combat deployment of the troops in southern Zhili: "After the Qing army began to attack in the north, the primary goal should be to conquer the Xuzhou Wei, and then attack the prefectures north of the Huaihe River. Moreover, the Qing army also needed a canal to transport food and grass, otherwise it would require countless manpower costs.

Therefore, our army built a large number of fortresses in Xuzhou Guards, and there are many mountains near Xuzhou, which is not conducive to the cavalry war of the Qing Dynasty. If we can lure the Qing army here to fight to the decisive battle, it will be a great advantage for our army."

"But how to ensure that the Qing army took the bait? Xuzhou is now so solid. The Tartars shouldn't be so stupid. Go and eat this hard bone." Huang Degong asked.

"But at the beginning, the Tartars will definitely try it out, after all, Xuzhou's position is too important." Zhou Shixian took the words directly.

"So, at this time, we have to beat the Tartars and lose their morale. At the same time, we have exposed a large number of soldiers in Xuzhou City, so that they will not dare to enter the city without solving it."

"In this way, Xuzhou is equivalent to blocking the connection between northern provinces and southern Zhili. The Qing army in Shandong and Henan will inevitably be restrained. The main force of the tens of thousands of Qing army has no other way except to attack Xuzhou City."

Xue Laoer continued, "And the Tartars might have thought they could come to a siege and support, just like Jinzhou, we just want to use this, that's what we are going to use."

Hearing this, all the generals were silent. Those were the several defeats of the Ming army over the years.

Seeing that no one else said anything, Zhou Shixian immediately gave a wink at Xue Laoer. The other party understood and continued: "In this battle, our army will dispatch three units of the front, middle and rear army of the new army, General Huang, General Gao, Liu, reinforcements from various provinces in the south, as well as the Changjiang Naval Division, the headquarters of General Zheng, with a total force of more than 200,000 soldiers and horses, including armored warriors, more than 90,000 musketeers, more than 20,000 cavalry, more than 20,000 naval troops, and more than 1,000 boats and ships of all sizes.

In addition, 150,000 civilians will be mobilized to be responsible for logistics supplies and fortifications. The army's logistics base is initially located in the southern bank of the Huai River. Nanjing will send preparatory troops to defend. If the subsequent battle on the north bank of the Huai River goes well, these troops will be replenished to the front line nearby. The navy undertakes the transportation tasks of the main army through the canal, which can save a large amount of manpower."

After Xue Laoer finished speaking, Zhou Shixian nodded, and immediately gave an instruction: "The court will provide food and equipment one after another. In addition to the dispatch of the Huguang area from Guangdong and Guangxi, the dispatch of the Southern Zhili area from the local area, Zhejiang and Jiangxi."

This is actually taking into account the cost and control issues, and it is also to constrain Li Guo, Zuo Liangyu and others to prevent these people from being unscrupulous after having food in their hands.

However, although Zhou Shixian could achieve these goals by influencing the court, he actually didn't know how much food and grass these people had hoarded in private and how long it took to consume.

Moreover, Zhou Shixian had to rely on these two troops to block the Qing army, otherwise his rear would be directly exposed to the attack of the Qing army. If so, Zhou Shixian would have to retreat to the army and return to the rescue and repel the Qing army.
Chapter completed!