Li Laiheng was determined to launch a large-scale offensive and led the Dianzhong Army and Dianzuo Army troops who stayed in Kaifeng to meet with Dorgon to hunt the Yellow River. Once the determination to go to war was made, officials from the Military Government, the Military Academy, and the Ordnance Academy acted quickly. After a period of running-in, Dashun's new central department has been able to operate at high speed.
Now all departments are fulfilling their respective responsibilities. Gu Junen, Bai Wang, Bai Jiuhe, Xiao Weisong, Zhang Guang and many other heads of the imperial government offices are busy.
An army of 100,000 people set out for the expedition, and Li Laiheng was determined to complete his work in one battle, so the preparations for the project were also very large. The civilians were already raising funds. The Shun army was very rich because of the money and food they had accumulated in Henan, so they were very concerned about the recruitment, employment, and treatment of the civilians. Very good too.
Therefore, the people were not afraid of the conscription. On the contrary, most people were overjoyed as soon as they got the news that they were conscripted as civilian husbands, and immediately rushed home to tell their families the good news.
The generous remuneration conditions made Henan civilians happy to transfer, and they were not afraid of the hard work and dangers on the front line. Their morale was high and the atmosphere was even more enthusiastic.
In addition to bunches of rice and wheat beans, the rest of the sacks, armor, cotton-padded clothes, swords, guns, arrows, gunpowder, and all kinds of military equipment have been gathered inside and outside Kaifeng City. Now walking on the street, it is easy to I saw an astonishing number of mules, horses and vehicles, all of which were filled with various military supplies.
In the military camp outside the city, armored war materials were piled up like a hill. Although the number of mules and horses was not as large as that of the Qing army, before the Dashun army withdrew from the northwest, Li Laiheng also specially collected a group of Hexi war horses that were good at galloping and charging. , so although the number of horses in the Shun army was not as large as that of the Qing army, the absolute number was still quite large.
As the head of the hundred officials, Fang Yiren had to pay attention to all government affairs. After finally handling the official affairs, he just left the Jin Palace and declined several waves of local gentry and old Ming Dynasty officials who came to greet him. Official, I now have time to patrol Kaifeng City to observe the preparations of the army for war.
"Brother, in the battle of Liaocheng, the famous king was crowned, the barbarians were frightened, and the credit was due to Dashun Sheji. After this battle, I believe that the day when the soldiers of Daliang can reach Youyan is not far away."
Fang Yiren's cousin Fang Yizhi is now a bachelor of Hongwen Academy in Dashun Dynasty, and his status is equivalent to that of Hanlin in Ming Dynasty.
Among the three scholars from Xuzhou who surrendered to Li Laiheng before, Xu Du had the highest official position. Now he has reached the position of Shandong's military envoy. It is foreseeable that he will succeed Guo Sheng, who is not familiar with government affairs, as Shandong's military envoy in the future; Zhang Jiayu's exploits as an undercover agent in Longtan, Beijing, were greatly appreciated by Li Laiheng. Zhang Jiayu has been awarded the post of admonishment officer of the military government, and Chen Zilong has also been appointed as the advising officer of the Military Academy.
Among the three scholars, only Fang Yizhi is less involved in direct government activities.
On the surface, this is because Fang Yizhi, as the cousin of the Independent Prime Minister Fang Yiren, needs to avoid suspicion. In fact, it should be because of Fang Yizhi's personal hobbies. He himself is not very interested in actual government affairs, but instead serves as a After earning a bachelor's degree from Hongwen Academy, you can write books and biographies with ease and spread the practical knowledge you are interested in.
Comparing the two, it was natural that Fang Yizhi declined his cousin's promotion and settled down to be his own scholar.
Fang Yiren is wearing the first-class official uniform of the Dashun Dynasty. He is only about thirty years old now, but he is already a very popular minister. I don't know how many dignitaries of the Ming Dynasty are now trying their best to curry favor with him.
Because Fang Yiren's uncle Fang Kongzhen was forced to death by Yang Sichang, the area around Wuling, Yang Sichang's hometown, has now been controlled by the Dashun Army. The local gentry was worried that Grand Master Fang would hate the whole family and blame the Wuling people, so they specially sent
Many Xiangxian tribesmen came to Kaifeng, and while fawning over Prime Minister Fang, they lobbied officials from Changde to come to Fang Pingzhang's house to plead guilty.
When Zhang Xianzhong captured Wuling, he had already opened the tombs of Yang Sichang and his wife and their fifth generation ancestors, opened the coffins and slaughtered the corpses, and also killed many people from the Yang Sichang clan.
Even if Fang Yiren takes action himself, he probably won't be able to reach the level of Zhang Xianzhong. Therefore, in Fang Yiren's view, the past grudges have long since disappeared.
He met with the elders who came to Bian from Wuling twice to apologize, and comforted these people, which actually spread his reputation as "the prime minister's belly can punt a boat" to the Hunan area - Huguang is a large province, and Li Laiheng originally occupied the northern part of Huguang
At that time, it had been split into three towns: Jingxiang, Dehuang and Wuyue. Now that Huguang is about to be captured by the Shun Army, Fang Yiren has already proposed to re-divide Huguang into two provinces: Hubei and Hunan.
The Dashun regime also prohibited sitting in sedan chairs not only for military attachés, but also for civil servants. This was not a new policy initiated by Li Laiheng himself, but one of the reform issues that Li Zicheng himself had proposed in history.
Therefore, when Fang Rengui was the grand master, he did not ride in a sedan chair. Instead, he rode horses like other martial artists.
This kind of policy must still be able to play some role in cultivating the martial spirit of civil servants.
Fang Yiren held the riding whip in his hand and looked at the people coming and going on the street. There were military supplies and supplies being transferred on all sides, so he said:
"I am not as good as Gu Haozhi about commanding Lu Bu. Since Gu Junen has concluded that the opportunity for war is ripe, it is inconvenient for me to offer contrary opinions to His Highness.
And just as you Mi Zhi said, after the Battle of Liaocheng, the opportunity to switch the offensive and defensive momentum has indeed arrived. His Highness will stay in Kaifeng with nearly 100,000 elite troops from the Central Army and the Left Army to recharge their batteries. The army has already been full of people.
The popularity of bullfighting makes you want to fight to the death immediately.
By using this to arouse the anger of the army and attack the exhausted people of the Eastern Han Dynasty, perhaps the decisive battle to establish the unification of our country at home and abroad will come soon."
Fang Yizhi asked: "In that case, why should elder brother be worried?"
"What do I have to worry about?"
"The eldest brother didn't speak and remained silent in front of His Highness, so I guessed that he was worried about something else."
Fang Yiren closed his eyes and said: "...If you take half of your wisdom out of the study, it will not be difficult to enter the palace to worship the prime minister in the future. Yes, what I am worried about is Dorgon's movements."
Fang Yizhi was a little confused: "Isn't Dorgon now attacking Jinan with all his strength? Is there anything about his movements worth worrying about?"
"This is what happened. But this decisive battle is indeed very important for our country. Once it fails, it can only retreat to Luoyang and Kaifeng. But for the Qing army, once it loses, the Manchus may not even have a chance to retreat outside the pass.
.
In such a crucial battle, did Dorgon really have no other choice but to fight against the Yellow River?
Yuan Zongdi had previously supervised the construction of the river defense line and built a large number of fortifications. As long as we fight decisively on both sides of the Yellow River, regardless of whether the Yellow River is frozen or not, the advantage will be with us.
Would Dorgon really sit back and wait for death like this? I don’t believe it.”
Fang Yizhi said hesitantly: "Since eldest brother has doubts, why not raise them directly to His Highness?"
"Your Highness also has doubts." Fang Yiren said, "Your Highness and I know each other best, and we can understand each other's thoughts without saying much. Now that the war situation has developed to a critical moment, His Highness ordered the army to dispatch because this army has stayed in Kaifeng for a long time.
It will not only make the frontline soldiers dissatisfied, but also affect the morale of the remaining army itself."
Fang Yiren said:
"Your Highness is sending troops because we can no longer stay. So regardless of whether His Highness and I are right in our suspicions, the dispatch of Daliang troops is imminent.
All I'm waiting for now is news from Long Yiwei."
"News about Long Yiwei?"
Fang Yiren looked to the north:
"Longyiwei... and Kendeji's trading houses all over Hebei Province suffered serious losses under the order to shave their heads, but it is still possible to investigate the direction of the enemy's large-scale mobilization of grain.
As long as things change unexpectedly, I will immediately go to the Military Academy to find Gu Junen... There can be no mistakes in this decisive battle."
Fang Yiren finally thought about it and said to himself: "Jiangnan, Jiangnan, I'm not worried about Zhang Xianzhong, but what about Jiangnan? With bad characters like Hongguang Junchen, you can never imagine what kind of stupid things they will do!
"
Fang Yizhi also smiled bitterly and said: "Indeed, the most difficult thing in the world to guess is the mind of a fool."