"Suzhou City was demolished, Yangzhou City was demolished, and Wuxi City was demolished."
"Changshu was demolished, Jiangyin was demolished, Taicang was demolished,"
"I would like to ask, which other city is there in Jiangnan?"
In Jiangning City, Yan Jinglue was furious and cursed at a group of governors and soldiers, spitting in their faces.
"Ministry of the Cabinet, Changzhou City is still there, Zhenjiang City is still there." Jiangning garrison Melezhang Bashanjing said with a smile, with a mocking tone in his tone.
The situation in Jiangnan has become so rotten that everyone is used to it now, and they even feel like they are worse than each other. Anyway, they are all rotten to the end, as long as others are worse than me.
In comparison, the Eight Banners generals from Beijing felt a great sense of superiority. They were not responsible for the chaos in Jiangnan anyway.
Zhumala said, "Hangzhou City and Songjiang City are still intact."
Tu Guobao, who had been recalled to Jiangning, had been officially demoted to Jiangnan Right Chief Envoy. He hurriedly said, "Admiral Zheng, the Marquis of Haining, and Governor Li, the former Governor of Songjiang, are indeed remarkable. They are not comparable to us. Not only did they protect the Jiahu
Just like Tie Tong, he repeatedly defeated Ming thieves who invaded, and captured the important town of Hangzhou in one fell swoop. They didn't even have a chance to destroy the city, and gained Hangzhou intact."
"In addition, Songjiang Mansion was able to remain intact despite the rampant invasion of Ming thieves. In addition to the contribution of Governor Li Yuchun, it also had to be handed over to Magistrate Yan. The tiger father has no son. I think when Li Chengdong was stationed in Songjiang, he was captured by the Ming Dynasty.
Later, Boluobele appointed Mr. Yan to know Songjiang Mansion, and he and Li Yuchun worked together with civil and military forces. Not only did they quickly restore Songjiang's industry, commerce and people's livelihood, but they also made Songjiang look like an iron barrel. This time, all places in the south of the Yangtze River fell.
But Songjiang is still standing, and I have to say, I admire it very much."
Yan Woggong immediately said, "You don't need to praise that kid too much. It was all done well by Governor Li when he was there. He is a scholar and doesn't understand anything. He is just able to listen to excellent suggestions and won't take pictures randomly."
It’s just the brain.”
Hetuo sighed, "I heard that Huguang was also very unlucky. Xiangyang was captured by Ming thieves, and then they demolished the two cities of Xiangfan and retreated to Yunyang. Jingzhou was also defeated after being captured, as well as Zhongxiang, Anlu, etc.
They were captured and demolished one after another, and now the three towns of Wuchang are also in critical condition."
"Those Ming thieves are now very scoundrels. They attack cities and plunder territory without defending it. Every time they break a city, they move away the craftsmen and people and transport money and food. Then they organize the people to tear down the city walls, fill in the moats, and even drain the wells in the countryside.
Filled in,"
"Do you think there's ever been a fight like this?"
"O Xiangyang, O Jingzhou, they actually took it and abandoned it."
Although Ma Guozhu said that these people were guilty of the rogue mentality and did not dare to confront the Qing Dynasty, which was seeking their own death, in fact, every governor and general soldier here knew very well that the Ming army's current behavior would give them a huge headache.
Just like Luo Xiujin, the former governor of Henan, he was originally transferred to the governor of Chuanhu and brought thousands of troops to reinforce Huguang. He planned to fight the Ming army in Xiangyang and annihilate the Ming army in Yunxiang in one battle. But in the end, they robbed them.
Run away and build a strong wall to clear the field.
The result was that when Luo Xiujin arrived at the Han River, she could only look at the river and sigh. In the end, she could only abandon the dilapidated Xiangfan City and return to Dengzhou to eat. Then she would collect grain from Nanyang and other places to supply military supplies, and even reinforce Huguang.
It was necessary to recruit more money, grain and people from Nanyang, Dengzhou and other places, and go all the way to Xiangfan to restore the city defense and restore the Han River water transportation.
But these cannot be done in a day or two. Luo Xiujin is still in Dengzhou and cannot go south at all.
Similarly, here in Huaixi, the Ming army was on both sides of the Dabie Mountains. There were hundreds of small and large forts. They were close to the mountains and could come and go erratically. They often came down from the mountains to attack prefectures and counties by surprise, and even plundered villages. After looting, they returned to the mountains. The Qing army
During the campaign, the mountains were high and the roads were dangerous. It was not advantageous to be in those mountainous areas. Instead, one could be ambushed and beaten accidentally.
Now that Wuchang is under siege, there is no way Huguang can send troops to go into the mountains to encircle and suppress them. Xu Yong and other general soldiers who went into the mountains before were also forced to return to Qihuang and were also besieged.
Therefore, the current situation in Huguang is very strange. Neighboring Guanzhong, Henan, Huaiyang and other places are actually unable to come over for reinforcements. It’s not that they don’t have troops, but they can’t get through. Along the way, they are surrounded by strong walls and cleared of food and grass, and the city is destroyed.
They had to pass through a long area controlled by the Ming army.
Nowadays, Huguang relies entirely on additional troops from the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, but Luck Dehun and others do not have many troops. They have traveled thousands of miles westward and have no wings.
We can only watch the situation deteriorate to this point, watching the Ming army capture one prefecture and county city after another, and then every time they capture a city, they move people, move food, and demolish the city.
The Hubei region is almost becoming a ghost land now.
In comparison, the Jiangnan side feels pretty good. At least Hangzhou has just been recovered. Songjiang and Jiaxing have always been quite stable. Jiangning and Zhenjiang are also rock solid. However, Changsu and Taihu are not peaceful and are constantly fighting for each other.
"Mr. Yan has always been very resourceful. How should we deal with the Ming army's rogue tactics of demolishing cities now?" Zhumala asked. He used to be the minister of the Ministry of War in Beijing, and he considered the problem fairly comprehensively.
But the current situation is that he should have garrisoned in Hangzhou, but the canal is blocked, there is no supply of money and food along the way, and the Ming army is elusive, making it difficult for him to move forward.
Three days ago, he was supposed to lead his troops south with Bashan and others to rescue Changzhou, but as a result, the food and grass promised to them by Yan Wogong failed to be fulfilled.
As for Yan Wogong's failure to withdraw grain, the reason was that spies actually came out of Jiangning City and set fire to the granary, burning the grain and grass that should have been supplied to the army.
Duke Yan could not provide food for the time being, so he had to postpone the plan to send troops.
Zhumala heard that after investigation, Yan Wogong discovered that the fire in the granary was not necessarily caused by spies of the Ming army. It was more likely that the granary officials set the fire privately. The reason was that he had recently been reorganizing Jiangnan, from the guard station to the green camp.
We then went to various local government offices and even granaries to conduct investigations.
Granaries have always been an area hardest hit by corruption. It is difficult to match the grain on the books and in the warehouses. Once the superiors check closely, the granaries will naturally catch fire.
This kind of thing happens often.
Now they directly blame the Ming army spies, which is even more perfect.
Yan Wogong suspected that an insider set the fire, but there was not enough evidence for the time being.
But for Zhumala and others, the burning of the granary affected their ability to go south to rescue Changzhou and march directly to Shaoxing.
Originally, we could still count on Yangzhou, an important water transport town on the other side, to provide relief, but Yangzhou had just been captured by the Ming army Huang Binqing and Ruan Jin's navy not long ago. Liu Liangzuo ran faster than a rabbit, and all the grain and salt in Yangzhou city fell into the hands of the Ming army.
inside.
Then the Ming army did not stick to the defense, and used ships to transport away the grain, salt, silver, etc. in the city, and then carried out a large-scale demolition. As a result, Yangzhou City, which was fully restored after the Qing government massacred Yangzhou, became a ghost town again.
"It's hard for a good woman to make a meal without rice. When Hong Jinglue and Luck Dehunbeile went to Huguang, they had already taken away most of Jiangning's money, food and supplies. Now Su, Song, Anhui and other places have no money and food to hand over, and it is even less likely that the imperial court will have food.
The current plan for transfer is to wait until after the autumn harvest, when the new rice is collected and put into storage."
