This is a good thing, but for the Ming army, it is not a good thing.
Because the most important response to the Qing army's march south was to strengthen the walls and clear the country. The battlefield should be moved to Susong and other places, and to the area around Taihu Lake, with the Yangtze River, Qiantang, East China Sea, Taihu Lake, and canals as hubs, using boat water to
With the advantage of the division, we can stop the elite troops of the Eight Banners marching south.
"When the rice is ripe, the Qing army also has food. It will be difficult to stop them from going south."
Chen Qianfu also had a solemn look on his face. How many people are looking forward to the rice ripening? When the rice is ripe, it means that countless people will not have to endure hunger, and can even survive the long winter and spring seasons.
But the Qing army is marching southward, and this newly ripe rice will also become their supply.
"Let's harvest rice with them."
"It's useless," Zhu Yihai shook his head. As long as the people had food in their homes, the Qing army would have no worries about food supplies. If there was no food in the government warehouses, they would force it from the people.
It is impossible for the Ming army to take away the food from the hands of all the people in Jiangnan. It cannot and cannot be done.
All that can be done now is to attack the Qing army's grain collection team and transportation and supply team as much as possible.
The people who were most injured in the war were the people. After Su Song launched the tug-of-war in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the people were hurt even more deeply. But could Zhu Yihai stop fighting or give up because of this?
However, the Qing army is more powerful. If they adopt a stupid method of carrying enough food and equipment at one time and letting the baggage troops follow the main force, it will be difficult for the Ming army to attack. Although this method is stupid, although it is costly
It was much higher, but it was still able to support them all the way south to Hangzhou and Shaoxing.
If you can't hit them from the front, you can only change their position and go around to fight behind them.
You only have so many main forces. If you go south, I will go north.
Let's hurt each other.
"Let the people hide as much food as possible, otherwise this winter will be very difficult."
"Your Highness, many people in the south of the Yangtze River have abandoned their land and fled to Zhejiang and Fujian. They have even entered Taihu Island, Donghai Island, and mountainous areas in various places. Chongming has reported that the total population on several sandbanks has now exceeded 500,000.
It’s overcrowded.”
When Zhu Yihai heard the news, he could only lament that the war was so cruel and ruthless, forcing the people to become homeless.
"Try to relocate as much as possible and transfer some of the population to Zhoushan, Yuhuan, Xiangshan and other places. In addition, we can build more workshops in Chongming Jisha to serve as our northern expedition frontier fortress at the mouth of the Yangtze River. If food is not enough, it will be shipped from the rear.
"
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Chongming Islands had a population of more than 200,000. There were many fields on the islands, and the harvests were good. There was actually a lot of arable land on the sandbanks, and there were also many tidal flats that could be reclaimed. Except for tidal soil, saline soil could not
For reclamation and cultivation, other sandbanks can be reclaimed. All you need to do is enclose the embankment first and then cultivate and plant. There are as many as 500,000 to 600,000 acres of land available for reclamation.
If all were developed and cultivated, Chongming Zhusha could acquire one million acres of arable land. Although the reclamation project to reach this figure is not small, it shows that the potential is huge.
What's more, Chongming does not rely entirely on agriculture. It is located at the mouth of the Yangtze River and connects both sides of the river. Its own fishery and salt industry are also very developed, and the transportation and shipping industry is also very powerful. It can be further developed.
Not to mention that it is now a frontline military fortress against the Qing Dynasty, and it can also become a shipbuilding and military industrial base.
Historically, Zheng Chenggong once wanted to use Chongming as a frontline base to resist the Qing Dynasty. Later, after defeating Nanjing, he turned to attack Taiwan. Although Taiwan was big at the time, in Zheng Chenggong's eyes, it was far inferior to Chongming. Lianxia, Jin
The island is far inferior.
Because Chongming had a population of more than 200,000 at the end of the Ming Dynasty, relying on the huge population on both sides of the Yangtze River, the potential was huge. However, Taiwan was isolated on the sea. In addition to the unruly islanders, there were the Dutch and Spanish who colonized the island.
Even those mountain creatures eat grass and eat people.
Long before Zheng Zhilong, they had carried out immigration and land reclamation on the island, but it cost a lot and the harvest was not great. For the maritime forces who pay attention to efficiency, this thing is too laborious and thankless. It is better to just do it along the coast.
It would be much more efficient to occupy an island and engage in smuggling trade.
Zheng was forced to move to Taiwan after successive defeats in the mainland.
Zhu Yihai has no energy to develop Taiwan now, but he has already mentioned this matter to Zheng Zhilong, Zhang Kentang and He Tengjiao, asking them to send some people there first to contact and negotiate with the local natives, Dutch colonists, etc. to make preliminary preparations.
Intelligence collection and geographical and hydrological information mastering.
When the time comes in the future, he will definitely go to the island. He has even taken the first step to open up the territory and established the Taiwan Prefecture under Fujian. Zhu Yihai encouraged the Zheng family to regain Taiwan. He even promised Zheng Zhilong that if the Zheng family regained Taiwan for the imperial court,
To expand the territory, Zhu Yihai would confer the title of Zheng to the family of Taiwan forever, just like the Duke of Guizhou, Mu, to the family of Yunnan.
He even hinted at becoming a Duke.
This is actually equivalent to half of the royal vassal town.
He also promised that Taiwan would establish a shipping department and customs office in the future, which would be under the control of the Zheng family.
This condition can be said to be very astonishing. What the Zheng family has always wanted is not only the benefits of monopolizing the southeast maritime trade, but also a higher political status to ensure the inheritance of this right.
And now Zhu Yihai offered this condition to Zheng Zhilong, not only to let him explore Taiwan, but also to let the Zheng family go to sea, so as to help He Tengjiao, Zhang Kentang and others take Fujian under the control of the imperial court.
Zheng Shizhi would definitely not be willing to exchange Taiwan for Fujian, but Zhu Yihai also had follow-up measures, that is, he agreed to hand over Xiamen and Jin to the Zheng family, and even handed over the Fujian Shipping Customs to them. Then the Zheng family would have to take good care of it.
Considered.
After all, such an opportunity is rare. As Zhu Yihai's power in the north becomes stronger and stronger, the Zheng family who is guarding Fujian is gradually at a disadvantage. Furthermore, although the Zheng family monopolizes sea trade, he is just taking advantage of Chongzhen's suicide.
The imperial court collapsed, and although it controlled Fujian for a short period of time, it was not even able to truly control Fujian.
Now that this control is still weakening, Zhu Yihai gives him such conditions, which is very honorable to him.
Although he was not granted the title of king, he was promised to be granted the title of Duke, and even be granted the permanent title of permanent ruler of Taiwan. This was equivalent to the favor granted by the Ming Dynasty to the Duke of Guizhou, Mu Mansion, and the Mu family had previously received a share.
This kind of treatment is so good that it makes people jealous.
What Zheng wants, Zhu Yihai now gives enough and good enough, he should be satisfied, this is an exchange.
Of course, if Zheng Zhilong is not ignorant of good and evil, Zhu Yihai can only ride with him on the donkey and read the songbook and wait and see.
"Your Highness, Mr. Yan has reported secretly that Jiangning Zhumala, Bashan, and Tosamele Zhangjing, leading the Eight Banners 7500, have gone south to rescue Changzhou. Although he tried his best to delay, he can't delay it any longer."
Zhu Yihai nodded. Mr. Yan has done a good job. The Eight Banners has been delaying it for so long.
"Since Changzhou can't be conquered yet, then withdraw. Don't let the Eight Banners reinforcements make dumplings. Before withdrawing, try to collect as much rice as possible!"
Wu Yi, Zhang Mingbin, Lu Xiangguan and others took the Kangkara marching route provided by Yan Wogong, ambushed them halfway, and then surrounded Changzhou. However, after fighting for so many days, they succeeded in annihilating 700 soldiers in Benniu Town and Wuxi.
Eight Banners, and defeated thousands of green battalions, but Kangkara's headquarters of 1,800 people defended Changzhou. They attacked for a long time, but they were still unable to capture it.
The Eight Banners, who had a city to rely on, urged the green battalions and Minzhuang to defend Changzhou. Although Zhang Mingbin and others attacked in hundreds of ways, the casualties were high. They only killed and wounded some Qing troops defending the city and were unable to invade.
This also made Zhu Yihai, who was still looking forward to it, understand that the strength of the two sides was still very different. Zhang Mingbin also commanded the imperial camp of the first town, and Wu Yi, Lu Xiangguan and other ministries were reinforced by navy troops, so there were not many troops.
, but when attacking Changzhou City, many problems were still exposed.
First, the city was fortified and difficult to attack, and second, the Eight Banners had a strong will to defend the city. Although the Ming army was numerous, it had little armor. Although it had artillery, it was not effective in front of the fortified city.
Up to now, Kangkara still has more than 1,500 eight banners. This time he led 2,58 banners and 2,500 green battalions to go south, and now there are only 1,58 banners left. The losses are actually very huge, but
They have a strong will to resist and rich combat experience. They have countermeasures for various siege methods of the Ming army.
Even if you want to rely on the gentry, spies and other internal agents in the city to open the city, it won't work. Instead, many internal agents were exposed and all of them were executed. This guy is worthy of being a warrior of the Eight Banners, capable of conquering and fighting.
"Let's withdraw. The battle this time has been very good. Almost a thousand and eight banners have been wiped out. When the news is spread back to Beijing, the whole city will probably cry in mourning."
If a thousand people die and the Eight Banners are full of people, it means that a thousand families will mourn.
How many cows and how many bannermen are there in the Eight Banners?
To them, the death of a thousand people was even more than the death of 10,000 Ming soldiers.
These casualties were already a great victory for the Ming army, not to mention the fact that they also annihilated thousands of prisoners of the Green Battalion?
They also captured Jiangyin, Wuxi and many other cities, and even Suzhou was captured twice by Wu Shengzhao and Li Chengdong.
The fact that Kang Kara was beaten so badly may be one of the reasons why Wu Shengzhao, Li Chengdong and others were willing to surrender.
The Eight Banners were unable to move south, and the Ming army plowed through Susong again.
Bashan and others have finally moved south, so they can no longer attack Changzhou.
"This time we attacked Kangkara with several troops. We knew the marching route in advance, ambush us halfway, and took advantage of the victory to encircle Changzhou. We were unable to capture it. It's a bit surprising." Chen Qianfu said.
"It's normal that we can't defeat him. It's a surprise if we actually defeat him. To say that we can defeat Kang Kara in this ambush makes me a little surprised. Soldiers can't be trained overnight. We can defeat Kang Kara in this ambush."
It’s really amazing, don’t ask for so much.”
"Do you know why I didn't let you guard Xiangyang and Jingzhou?"
"It's not that I don't know the importance of these places. It's just that at this stage, they would be very happy to let the generals abandon their defense. But if they are really allowed to hold on, how many people do you think can do it? Are they willing to defend it, and do they dare to fight?"
"At the beginning, Zuo Liangyu claimed that he had 800,000 troops and abandoned Xiangyang and went south. Liu Liangzuo's 100,000 troops guarded the Huaihe River and the whole army surrendered without firing an arrow. The six towns of the Yangtze River Navy did not dare to face the enemy. Isn't that enough of a lesson?"
"I'm just afraid that the generals won't listen to the order at all. Even if they do, they don't have the strength to hold on. If the time comes, they will lose their wives and troops, and the gain will not be worth the loss."
At this stage, Zhu Yihai's imperial camp does not have the strength to fight the Eight Banners head-on, let alone the local troops in Huguang and other places. The Zhongzhen camp attacked Jingzhou, claiming to have 200,000 soldiers, but the actual number of soldiers was only 20,000 to 30,000, and there were not many armored soldiers.
The Yunyang troops who captured Xiangyang only had 4,000 remaining soldiers.
What are they guarding against?
"Then what's next after retreating from Changzhou?"
Zhu Yihai thought for a moment and said, "Avoid the enemy's edge. If you find an opportunity, make a sneak attack. Strike if you can. If you can't, avoid first. Let the Yangtze River Navy, Zhejiang Navy, and Yuying Navy return to Chongming and follow me.
During the move northward, Wu Yi's caobiao camp and Lu Xiangguan's Zhongsu camp continued to stay in the Taihu area, while Zhang Mingbin brought Shizhong camp to Chongming."
"The Ming troops in Jiangyin and other cities should evacuate immediately after demolishing the cities. Don't let the Tatars besieged them."
·····
Zhu Yihai headed north along the coast. As soon as he arrived in Chongming, he received a series of bad news.
"The troops in Qizhou collapsed, the troops in Huangzhou collapsed, the troops in Wuchang collapsed, the troops in Hankou collapsed, and the troops in Hunan collapsed!"