More than 200,000 troops, as well as the civilians accompanying them, spread out for dozens of miles along the official road.
There was darkness everywhere and countless heads!
You can see as far as you can see!
The size of the main force of the Qing army going south was simply too huge.
It's like a tidal wave. No matter who you are, your scalp will feel numb after seeing it.
The reason why the Qing army will advance towards Suhang is because Suhang will be the main battlefield of this battle.
It is the 14th day of the twelfth lunar month in the 19th year of the Yongli calendar of the Ming Dynasty.
The Ming army sailed the fleet from the estuary of the Qiantang River into the Qiantang River. The main force of the Ming army landed outside the city of Hangzhou, and under the cover of naval guns, launched an attack on the city.
At the same time, the Fifth Infantry Division led by Li Guangyuan and the Guiyi Army reorganized from the Jingnan Army also marched north to the outside of Hangzhou.
And began to cooperate with the landing troops to launch an attack on Hangzhou City.
On the 19th day of the twelfth lunar month, after five days of violent attacks, Hangzhou fell into the hands of the Ming army!
After ensuring that his own retreat was safe, Zhu Hongyu personally led the main force and advanced northward toward Suzhou and Taihu.
At this point, the main battlefield for this decisive battle between the Ming and Qing Dynasties has been determined.
The main forces of both sides are constantly advancing towards Taihu Lake.
The Ming army's forward troops had even arrived outside Jiaxing City and launched a tentative attack on Jiaxing City.
It's just a pity that the attack was too hasty and the Qing army's reinforcements arrived from the south.
This attack by the Ming army ended in failure!
At this time, the main force of the Ming army had already arrived in the Tongxiang area.
Heavy artillery and a large amount of ordnance and supplies followed the army along the canal towards Jiaxing.
The reason why Zhu Hongyu chose the battlefield in the Taihu Lake area instead of letting the Qing army continue to go south was to wait for work and prepare for the battle.
Except for wanting to rely on the water network in the Taihu Lake area to minimize the threat of the Qing cavalry.
It’s because of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal!
The Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal starts from Beijing and ends in Hangzhou.
After the Ming army landed in Hangzhou, the army could march along the canal and fight all the way to Jiaxing, Suzhou, Changzhou, Wuxi... and other places.
These places are all connected by canals!
More importantly, the Ming army needed to take advantage of the canal's transportation convenience to transport those heavy artillery pieces to the battlefield.
As for the fortifications built by Geng Jingzhong in the Qujiang area.
Zhu Hongyu never took it seriously from beginning to end!
Geng Jingzhong showed timidity when facing the main force of the Qing army moving south. He only thought about passive defense and did not dare to take the initiative to attack.
However, Zhu Hongyu is not afraid of the Qing army!
Since he personally led the army north, he would not choose to be beaten passively.
Instead, he will take the initiative!
Only in this way can he boost the morale of the army.
Otherwise, His Royal Highness, the Supervisor of the Kingdom, has personally marched on the expedition, but the army is passively defending. What does this sound like?
More importantly, if he is passively defensive, what qualifications does he have to claim that he is in the Northern Expedition?
…
The main force of the Qing army heading south, which was marching towards the Taihu Lake area, also received news that the Ming army had landed at the Qiantang River, captured Hangzhou, and then moved northward along the Grand Canal.
Hong Chengchou's face turned a little solemn and he spoke.
"I haven't seen the Ming army dare to attack our Qing Dynasty for many years!"
"This thief's prisoner is so courageous!"
Tu Hai stroked his beard and said.
"What's the use of all your courage?"
"The forward tried to attack Jiaxing, but wasn't it defeated by our Qing Dynasty?"
The forward of the Qing army's reinforcements has also arrived in Jiaxing.
The reason why the Jiaxing garrison was able to repel the Ming army's tentative attack was that reinforcements arrived to repel the Ming army.
However, the value of this repel is not high!
Because the Ming army was not serious at all, the forward team of thousands of people tried to attack once.
Even the artillery was not used!
To put it bluntly, thousands of people wandered around Jiaxing City and retreated when they saw that military reinforcements were coming.
That's all!
Tuhai ordered.
"Command the army to speed up the march!"
"Get to the battlefield as soon as possible so that you can defeat the Ming thieves as soon as possible and make an immortal contribution to our Qing Dynasty!"
"..."
Under Tuhai's urging, the Qing army's marching speed increased significantly.
…
At the same time, Zhu Hongyu also ordered the Ming army to continue advancing towards Jiaxing.
On the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, a shadow of sails covered the sky and the sun.
Countless large and small canoes carried large amounts of supplies upstream.
Zhu Hongyu's dragon flag just stood among the marching troops, which was quite eye-catching.
He was riding on horseback, looking majestic and heroic, with an expression on his face full of excitement.
Seeing the army with high morale and holding their chests and heads high even when marching, Zhu Hongyu said very confidently.
"This battle must be won!"
Li Guangyuan said from the side.
"What your Highness said is true!"
"As the main force of the Ming Dynasty marches northward, we will be invincible against those who stand in our way. We will definitely win the battle and defeat the Qing captives in the south of the Yangtze River!"
"After this battle, Jiangnan will be recovered, and the southern capital will be recovered!"
"The revival of the Ming Dynasty is just around the corner!"
Zhu Hongyu felt very comfortable with Li Guangyuan's flattery. Just thinking about the scene of his recapture of Nanjing made Zhu Hongyu a little excited and unable to control himself.
At this time, Zheng Chenggong drove his horse to Zhu Hongyu and spoke.
"Your Highness, my teacher, Duke Donglin Muzhai, asked me to introduce him to you!"
"He wants to pay a visit to His Highness!"
Zhu Hongyu frowned slightly when he heard this.
"Qian Qianyi?"
"Why did he come to visit Gu? To ask for an official position?"
Zhu Hongyu had some disdain for the famous "itchy scalp, water is too cold" in history.
But it doesn’t matter how much I hate it.
Although Qian Qianyi surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, he never served as an official for the Qing Dynasty, right?
Moreover, he has been secretly colluding with the anti-Qing rebels, such as Zheng Chenggong, Zhang Huangyan and others.
He used his identity as a Shilin leader to secretly support the actions of the anti-Qing rebels.
Just for this reason, Qian Qianyi is much stronger than a traitor like Hong Chengchou!
Although Qian Qianyi is weak-minded, likes party fighting, greedy for money, lustful, shameless... he has a lot of problems!
But as long as he persists in resisting the Qing Dynasty, he is one of our own.
Zheng Chenggong said.
"Your Highness, I don't know!"
"But it's not a bad thing for Your Highness to meet Duke Mu Zhai!"
"Muzhaigong is a great scholar of the Eastern Lin Dynasty and a leader of the scholarly community. In a sense, he can represent the attitude of those in the south of the Yangtze River."
Logically speaking, Qian Qianyi surrendered to the Manchus and the reputation he had worked so hard to accumulate should have been completely exhausted.
But the fact is exactly the opposite. After Qian Qianyi surrendered to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, his reputation among scholars became higher and higher.
This matter is actually easy to understand!
Surrendering to a foreign race and shaving one's hair to become a slave will make a person feel uncomfortable in his heart.
No matter how shameless a person is, he will feel ashamed when he looks at his money rat tail in the dead of night.
The thoughts of our parents are deeply felt in our bodies and minds.