Outside the city of Qingdao, the mountains and plains were filled with jubilant soldiers and civilians, rushing over with tears in their eyes and shouts. Guns were saluted on top of the city and whistles blew in the bay. This grand occasion made the dozens of riders behind Liu Ziguang, including Shi Kefa, sigh.
This is what the people want.
Liu Ziguang's eyes were also wet. He clamped the horse's belly fiercely and shouted: "Drive!" As if feeling the excitement of its owner, the war horse raised its neck and let out a long cry. It flapped its two front hooves in the air a few times, and then accelerated forward.
Go, the knights looked at each other, and followed the commander one after another to join forces with the Qingdao army and civilians.
Running at the front were hundreds of navy infantrymen wearing blue and white striped sea soul shirts. Even though they were soldiers of the navy, their riding skills were even better than ordinary cavalry. They rushed towards them at lightning speed, one by one.
He jumped off the horse and bowed down to greet him. After paying homage to the commander, he unrolled a large roll of paper with a roar, revealing a huge black Liu character among the bright red flags, which was very dazzling.
Liu Ziguang continued to move forward under the banner. Qingdao's navy, army officers and people gathered around the banner like a tide, shouting in various accents: "Commander! Marshal". People spontaneously left a road and stood on both sides.
Looking at the heroic figure of the Marshal, Liu Ziguang bowed his hands to the left and right from time to time while on horseback. Wherever his eyes went, people prostrated themselves in droves, saying that the Marshal was lucky. This was still a verbal habit left over from the Manchu rule. Now the Han-Manchu family is close to each other.
, this blessing has not been abolished.
After just a few miles, they walked for less than half an hour, and finally reached the city gate. Liu Ziguang's face was numb from laughing, and his hands were sore from holding them. But when he saw the person standing at the city gate, his face was filled with tears.
The stiff smile gradually softened. There was a smile on the corner of the mouth, but the corners of the eyes were a little moist. It turned out that there was a group of people standing in the center of the city gate. The leader was Peng Jinrong, who had been with him for many years. After not seeing him for many days, her face was obviously thinner, and her appearance was also...
It was a little darker. Behind Peng Jinrong were the remnants of the Red Shirt Army who had escaped from the capital and the generals and servants of the Duke's Mansion. They were all familiar faces. When they saw Liu Ziguang finally returning safely, they couldn't help but shed tears of relief.
I have been worried and scared for many days and had restless sleep and food. Today I can finally let go of my heavy heart.
There was a huge crowd of people, so Liu Ziguang didn't want to do anything overly intimate. He just jumped off the horse, held his hand, and said softly: "Thank you for your hard work."
Peng Jingwei said with tears in her eyes: "I'm sorry for you. The princess and Kuang Hong were not rescued. Liu Xiaomao was also lost. Han Xueer (Fan Bingbing) and her child were missing. My sister also failed to come back safely. The whole family is just me and Xiang."
You escaped, and more than half of the family members in the mansion died. I..." Before I could finish my words, I broke down in tears.
Liu Ziguang said: "As long as you are safe, I have arranged for people from the Tiandihui to rescue my family members who have escaped on the way. Just don't worry, as long as I am here, no one will dare to touch a hair of my family members."
When he arrived at the Navy Admiral's Yamen, Liu Ziguang ascended to his seat in the main hall. A group of cadres would line up on both sides. The number of troops left behind in Qingdao was less than 10,000, but they could already sweep across Shandong. This is why the imperial court did not immediately attack Qingdao after it openly rebelled.
Looking at the whole army, the area north of the Huaihe River is basically Liu Ziguang's sphere of influence. Now there is no threat of war in the Central Plains. The troops are concentrated in Beijing, Tianjin and Shaanxi, Gansu and Shanxi. The garrison in Hebei is controlled by Xu Zengshou's Xuzhou Army and Li Yan
Xu Zengshou is not very capable of commanding troops. He can lead a beautiful army with 3,000 men and horses, but he can't stand it if he is given 30,000 men. As for Jingjin,
Don't worry, military pay, clothing, and equipment are all provided by the Red Shirts, so they won't be able to mutiny.
The situation in the three northwest provinces is a little more complicated, because Yuan Chonghuan is in charge of Chang'an. He has more than 100,000 troops under his command, and dozens of generals such as Wu Sangui and Liu Zongmin. Although this man is not as good at fighting as Liu Ziguang, he has better ability to command troops. Liu Ziguang stayed in the west.
None of the generals was his opponent, and the Western Red Shirt Army relied entirely on transportation of weapons, ammunition, and food from the Central Plains and Jiangnan. As long as the imperial court cut off the supply, this army would become alone.
Looking at the power of the imperial court, in addition to the troops in the northern provinces and the Red Shirt Army, the most effective one is the 100,000-strong army in the capital. Since ancient times, the capital garrison has been the best equipped and best-trained troops.
Although the training is not as good as that of the Red Shirt Army, the weapons and equipment are comparable to them.
In addition, there are a small number of forbidden troops and regiment training troops in various places in the south of the Yangtze River. The total number of troops in Hu, Guang, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi and Guangxi is only 50,000 or 60,000. They can maintain local public order, but they are almost useless when they are deployed in the field.
As for the navy, the imperial court's power is even weaker. The Yangtze River Navy is not considered a navy at all, and the water police are just about the same. The naval forces in the three provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, and Zhejiang combined are not enough to defeat the Beiyang Navy in one salvo. The strength of the Taiwan Navy is
Strong enough, but it’s hard to say who Zheng Chenggong’s heart is towards, so Liu Ziguang basically rules the sea.
Taken together, it seems that Liu Ziguang already has enough capital to fight against the imperial court, but there is another important factor that has not been taken into consideration, and that is military pay and logistics.
Every time China has been divided between the north and the south for thousands of years, the north has always been strong and the south has been weak. This is because the northerners are tall and have the advantage of cavalry. However, this situation has been reversed five years ago. Nowadays, fighting does not depend on whose troops are more powerful.
Stronger, who has more horses, but who has more money, and who has more steel production, the battle is all about logistics, if you have 10,000 cavalry, it is not enough for my artillery battalion to fire a volley.
Except for the Liguo Iron Works in Xuzhou, almost all the military factories of the Ming Dynasty were in the south. From basic industries such as coal and steel to chariots, gunships, airships, cannons and bullets, the south could produce them, not to mention food and cloth. Jiangnan was prosperous.
, there is countless money and food, and as long as we collect taxes ruthlessly, it will not be a problem to get tens of millions of taels of military expenditure.
The basic industries in the north controlled by Liu Ziguang are far inferior. Although in recent years he has gradually relocated factory machinery to the Beijing-Tianjin area in a planned way, the industrial foundation cannot be built in one or two years. In addition to coal, the north now has more
Apart from some, the others are useless. They cannot produce high-quality steel, large-caliber artillery, or advanced weapons such as steam engines, armored chariots, and power parafoils. They can only provide maintenance for technical weapons and produce some firearms and bullets.
The output of grain and cloth is also seriously inferior to that in the south, the people are in poverty, and taxes cannot be collected. Let alone the war, military pay will not be paid in a few days.
Most of Liu Ziguang's industries are in the south. Now that these factories and shops have been owned by the imperial court, how can they provide sufficient salary and silver? The tradition of the Red Shirt Army is that the salary is high. Ordinary soldiers have twenty taels of silver a month. Calculated in this way
, the monthly payment alone would cost more than three million taels. Liu Ziguang came here alone, how could he pay them?
How did the generals know these things? At this time, their morale was high, and they were all clamoring to fight back to the capital and eradicate the traitors, as if a single charge could solve the problem. Qingdao garrison Lu Ying stood up and shouted: "Big
Marshal, as long as you give the order, the brothers will immediately board the ship and go straight to Nanjing, kill all the traitors, and vindicate you!"
Other generals also shouted: "Commander, please give the order. The brothers promise to attack the gates of Nanjing within a month."
Hearing these arrogant calls, Shi Kefa, who was also sitting below and attending the meeting, couldn't help but frown.
Liu Ziguang slapped the table: "How presumptuous! Aren't you openly rebelling? Aren't the accusations fabricated by the traitor against me confirmed? Your Majesty has been kind to me. Now that he has been temporarily deceived, it won't take long for him to wake up.
Our Ming Dynasty has been in war for a long time, and its people are determined that they can no longer bear fighting and killing. The same is true for me, commander-in-chief. It is okay to kill Tatars, but it is absolutely impossible for our own people to fight our own people."
Everyone looked at each other and were shocked by Liu Ziguang's words. The commander-in-chief is really a loyal minister who understands justice well. He was wronged and almost died, but he could still retaliate with kindness. This level is something they will never be able to reach. Some people were unwilling to accept it and whispered: "
You’ve already been strung up on your neck and shit, and you still have to tolerate it, it’s really…”
Liu Ziguang was usually very easy-going towards his subordinates, so anyone who dared to speak nonsense in front of him would have been dragged out and beheaded if they were under Yuan Chonghuan's tent. Liu Ziguang did not get angry after hearing this, but just said calmly: "Don't say it's riding on a horse.
I have pooped on my neck, and I can bear it even if I have dysentery. Who knows that I am a minister of the Ming Dynasty? All generals, listen up. From now on, no one is allowed to make false remarks about rebellion, and violators will be severely punished!"
There are no very senior generals in Qingdao. The highest level is the garrison level. They are all middle and low-level officers. Liu Ziguang did not need to explain too much to them. He suppressed them with just a few words.
Seeing that everyone did not dare to talk nonsense anymore, Liu Ziguang said again: "When calling the armies in Gansu, Shanxi, and Hebei, they must obey the imperial court's orders and be on guard against foreign enemies taking the opportunity to invade. Please sign with my commander's name."
The flag officer received the order and went to the telegraph room to send the report. Shi Kefa's frown relaxed. He did not expect that Liu Ziguang's spiritual world was so noble. It seemed that his previous understanding of him was really wrong, and
Compared with other high-ranking officials in the imperial court, this seemingly rude and simple-minded warrior is actually much greater.
After Liu Ziguang finished the meeting, he returned to the back hall. Peng Jingrong came up to him and said, "Look who is here?"