In just three months, Shandong showed signs of prosperity, which immediately aroused the vigilance of the Qing Dynasty and the Southern Ming Dynasty.

So, before the Qing Dynasty, who was entangled with Li Zicheng, could free up his hand, Nan Ming was the first to attack Wang Xuejun's Tianji Mansion.

The reason is that Xu Jie, Cangzhou of Tianji Prefecture, seized the 100,000 stones of grain and 50,000 taels of silver that Nanming rewarded Wu Sangui through the canal.

The reason why the Southern Ming Dynasty awarded Wu Sangui was because they believed that Wu Sangui was the first proposed by Yang Sichang to resist foreign powers, and to discuss peace with the Qing Dynasty, and then to do his best to deal with the bandits in the country. This time, he borrowed troops from the Qing Dynasty and recovered the Shenjing.

So the small court of the Southern Ming Dynasty was happy and encouraged.

Two important figures in the Southern Ming regime at that time, Shi Kefa and Ma Shiying, both agreed to the policy of joining the Qing Dynasty to eliminate the thieves.

People are often influenced by traditional concepts and portray Skefa and Ma Shiying as completely different facial features. However, facts show that the difference between Skefa and Ma Shiying is much smaller than many later historians imagined.

The quality of the two of them is mainly in terms of personal ethics, but there is not much difference in basic policies. They are both winners of the "union of enemies and suppression of enemies".

As the leader of Donglin and the controller of the discourse power of this era, the left-level censor Liu Zongzhou and Huang Daozhou were even more excited and jumped up and down.

In short, among the decision-making ministers of the Hongguang court, Wu Sangui's introduction of wolves into the house, they all believed that it was a great pleasure. They all advocated that they should contact Wu Sangui as soon as possible and use the power of the Qing army to jointly destroy the "bandits".

And what really gave them confidence was that Dorgon and his group of people were doing it now.

In the early days of the Qing army's entry into the pass, the troops were limited, especially the Manchu population was sparse, so it was not easy to replenish troops.

Although the original Ming Empire was divided into the Dashun regime west of Shanxi, the Nanming regime centered on Nanjing, and the small Shandong government.

But no matter what, the Ming Dynasty was too vast and the strength of all parties was quite considerable. Dorgon couldn't figure out the details and dared not act rashly.

In Dorgon's view, it was an accident that it occupied Beijing and Jifu areas under the guidance of Wu Sangui.

His initial intention was to collude with the Southern Ming Dynasty, pacify the "bandits", stabilize the north, and achieve division of the north and the south.

This side was very attractive to the Nanming Hongguang. Given their corruption and incompetence and being at ease, they showed great interest in pacifying the "bandits" in the Qing Dynasty.

I thought that once this strategy was implemented, I could easily enjoy the wealthy place in Jiangnan and still live a peaceful life.

"Union of enemies and pacifying the enemy" became the best policy for the Hongguang court to do so.

But whatever is wrong is the traitor.

When I heard that Dorgon said to the kings around him, "The Ming Dynasty is so big, we can't even get a sesame salt when we sprinkle it, and it will disappear in a blink of an eye. How can we unify the country?"

Now we just need to be able to get one inch, and one foot is one foot. Just take advantage of it. If it really doesn’t work, we will go back to Shanhaiguan and become the king of the Northeast.

Those former Ming Dynasty ministers who had just surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and dreamed of becoming the founding of the new dynasty were quit.

You left with satisfaction, how can you do it? What should we do then? Do we want us to give up the wealth of the Central Plains, live a life of a savage with you?

That definitely won't work.

Therefore, the traitor, led by Jin Zhijun, the former right assistant minister of the Ministry of War of the Ming Dynasty, wrote a letter to firmly oppose it. He tried his best to instigate the Qing Dynasty to make a decision on the southern expedition, and talked about the fragile customs of the people in the south of the Yangtze River, which was not difficult to pacify.

Gu Yan

The development of the situation also provided a basis for Dorgon and others to make decisions.

Since the Qing army occupied the capital in May, in addition to the Dashun Army counterattacked from Shanxi and occupied Jingxing County in July, the Hongguang regime in Nanjing has shrunk south of the Jianghuai River, and hundreds of thousands of troops have ruled over the might of the local people.

The small court in Shandong is now unable to take care of itself and cannot see how ambitious it is.

Therefore, everyone was in their own territory, and the result was that after the Dashun Army retreated westward, it belonged to the undecided southern Hebei, and Henan did not take effective measures to "recover".

There are various forces intertwined, but they are different from each other, and it seems to have become a homeless place.

What truly and thoroughly firmly unites the north and the south is indeed the stimulation that Shandong cuts off the Beijing-Hangzhou Canal.

Let Dorgon truly feel that the north of the Ming Dynasty would not be able to do without the south's material supplement.

As the war progressed, the Qing Dynasty continued to transfer the main Eight Banners outside the pass, plus the Eight Banners of the Han and Mongolians to Zhili.

Then, he began to accept the surrender of the Ming army in large quantities and formed a green camp.

With the expansion of Wu Sangui, Sanshun King and other teams, the troops were strong, but the first difficulty in the north arose - that is, the serious shortage of food supplies.

The north was not a place for grain production. Since the Sui and Tang Dynasties, even with such a population size, the north still needed to dig canals and mobilize grain and food resources from the south to supplement the north.

By the Ming Dynasty, with the population explosion, Beijing alone had a population of one million.

At that time, Beijing City alone had 80% dependence on the south.

Furthermore, ceramics, tea, cloth, and many of the products needed by the north are completely dependent on the supply in the south.

It can be said that if there is no supply in the south, the north will not be able to play even if it is just Beijing.

What's more, the sudden increase of the 300,000 to 400,000 people, and the tens of millions of horses, has further increased the pressure on food.

Originally, the canal was smooth and could barely deal with it, but Wang Xuejun's Shandong Tianji Prefecture was established. How could the canal be smoothly connected to provide supplies for the Qing Dynasty?

Not to mention, they completely blocked the transportation of canal and the transportation of private merchants. Even the orthodox Nanming tribute to the Qing Dynasty this time, they intercepted them. How can they be better in the future?

Of course, sea and land transportation has been developed in this era, and materials from the south can also arrive in Tianjin through sea routes along the coastline, and then use the canal from Tianjin to Beijing.

As a result, there was a problem with this sea route. This really made the Qing Dynasty unanimously agree that if you want to gain a foothold in the north, you must unify the north and the south. Otherwise, the final outcome of everyone is to work in vain and then retreat to the white mountains and black waters and continue hunting.

This shows a common but very strange phenomenon.

I just obtained a piece of land. For the sake of the safety of this piece of land or for survival, I had to order a piece of land. In the end, I could only keep annexing this way until I could die.

Fortunately, the terrain in the Central Plains prevented several unified dynasties from being held to death.

But now Dorgon is standing in front of this situation. In order not to return to Baishan Hei River as a savage, he must preserve the Zhili area.

In order to preserve the Zhili area, it is necessary to seize the grain production area in the south.

Therefore, Dorgon's unified Central Plains was actually forced.
Chapter completed!