Chapter 325 The house leaked and it rained all night
Zhu Yihai's Northern Expeditionary Army forward Jinwu Cavalry was only a few dozen miles away from his hometown, Prince Lu's Mansion in Yanzhou, but they finally stopped in Jining and did not continue to advance.
Before Zhu Shengli and others evacuated, they blasted the city wall with gunpowder and distributed part of the military rations to the victims. They first recruited a large number of craftsmen and scholars, and then used the remaining food to reward the camp after dressing many young brides.
Work-for-relief was used to allow the victims to help destroy the city.
There was a large-scale demolition here, but the Jinwu cavalry over there was bluffing, rushing to the border of Yanzhou, pretending to besiege Yanzhou, and also publicizing all kinds of things to the outside world. Why did His Highness the Jianguo have sent nine kings and 80,000 cavalry as the vanguard to Jining?
At the same time, the supervisory state was also summoning 100,000 troops to gather in Xuhuai, vowing to regain Yanzhou and rebury the tombs of the ancestors of the Lu vassal dynasty.
Zhu Shengli and his cavalry blocked the Jining frontier in Yanzhou. The Qing army's reconnaissance cavalry was unable to go south, and the intelligence on this side was unclear. All kinds of false and true news converged into Yanzhou City.
Tan Tai was also confused.
Without accurate information, accurate judgments and responses cannot be made.
However, after Tan Tai suffered two major defeats, he did not dare to easily send the Eight Banners south again. He asked Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming to send cavalry south to explore the Jining and Xuzhou areas.
But these two people are also very treacherous. Shang Kexi's entire army was wiped out and he was defeated, which was beyond their expectation. They were also a little more wary of the Ming army. They were just perfunctory with the tasks assigned to them by Tan Tai.
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At this time, the reconnaissance cavalry below did not dare to go deep into the enemy's territory. They circled the border a few times, robbed a few villages, and killed some innocent people to act as enemy scouts and falsely report military merits.
Under such circumstances, Tan Tai did not dare to easily send the Eight Banners south, so he had to constantly ask for help from Beijing, while dispatching troops and supplies to various places in Shandong, Henan and north.
However, Tan Tai was only the general who conquered the south. He could not directly mobilize the troops from the surrounding provinces. After receiving his letter, the governors felt uneasy and quickly mobilized troops to reinforce and guard their important towns.
Everyone sweeps the snow in front of their door, not caring about the frost on other people's tiles.
Tan Tai, who could not get reinforcements, could only defend Yanzhou and be on guard day and night.
Beijing.
When Dorgon received the report from Tan Tai, he was shocked.
After regaining consciousness, Dorgon immediately convened a meeting of princes and ministers to discuss political affairs. Princes of the Eight Banners, ministers of political affairs in Beijing, Han Chinese bachelors, ministers and other ministers were all summoned to urgently discuss countermeasures.
"Is Shang Kexi really dead?"
Many people did not believe the news, but Dorgon told them that it was true. Not only was Shang Kexi dead, but all his eight thousand Liao soldiers were also gone. Kong Youde had also lost two thousand men before.
"Tan Tai urgently reported that the Ming army was approaching the outskirts of Yanzhou. Their rangers even suppressed the sentries of Kong and Geng's second division. According to their speculation, the main force of the Ming army is now heading north. There are at least 50,000 Ming troops near Yanzhou, and there are at least 50,000 Ming troops near Yanzhou.
There are still many people in Xuzhou, Huai'an and other places.
This time, the leaders of the Ming Dynasty were the Admiral of Jiangnan and Jiangbei of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Wu, the Minister of the Military Affairs Department of the Governor's Royal Camp, and King Lu of the Supervisor of the Kingdom who also personally accompanied the army in the Northern Expedition and took up residence in Huai'an..."
Dorgon said something astonishing.
"I want to lead the Eight Banners in Beijing under His Majesty the Emperor's command to personally conquer Shandong and annihilate the Lu Jianguo in one fell swoop!"
All the ministers who discussed the affairs were extremely surprised.
Have you reached the point where you want to ask the emperor to personally lead the expedition?
But the emperor was only eight years old.
The regent has to take the eight-year-old emperor with him on a personal expedition. This is no longer just a personal expedition, but to express his determination to mobilize the power of the whole country. Is it really like this?
"Didn't Zheng Jiwu just capture Mingxing in Shaoxing?" someone asked.
"This also shows that Lu Jianguo mobilized all his troops and horses to move north, so that Zheng Jiwu could invade Shaoxing in one fell swoop. We were careless before and didn't realize this."
Grand Scholar Ganglin reminded Dorgon.
"Your Highness, winter is about to begin, and it will be very inconvenient for the Eight Banners to move south from Beijing. What's more, if tens of thousands of Eight Banners and accompanying Han troops, green camps, etc. are mobilized at this time, the money and food needed will not be available at the moment."
"The canal will be frozen soon, and the transportation and supply of grain and grass will also be a big problem. Now Shandong can no longer supply the army. Tan Tai's delay in Shandong was also caused by the insufficient supply of grain and grass."
Prince Duduo of Yu, who was in charge of the Ministry of Household Affairs, also stood up at this time and said, "Since July, the Yangtze River and canals have been blocked, and no money or food from Huguang or Jiangnan has entered Beijing. At present, there are only 300,000 yuan left in the treasury under the supervision of the Ministry of Household Affairs.
I have taels of silver, but I owe the Ministry of War for military pay, pensions, etc., which have accumulated more than 5 million taels..."
"The granaries in the capital are all empty. The Chinese New Year is coming soon, and the official and bannermen's monthly rations of rice have not yet been received."
Fighting requires money and food.
After entering the customs last year, it took half a year to conquer the Yangtze River and Qiantang, and conquered Beizhi, Shanxi, Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi, Huguang, Jiangnan, and half of Zhejiang and Jiangxi. The military situation was excellent.
But because of this, he took on the burden of most of the Ming Dynasty, hundreds of thousands of surrendered Ming troops, recruited bandits, and countless officials, etc. He even had to give preferential treatment to those clans, relatives, and treat those gentry well.
These burdens weighed heavily on him, making Qing unable to adapt to them all of a sudden.
But when the situation in the south changed and military conditions began to tighten, the financial problem became even more serious.
Nowadays, the princes and nobles of the Eight Banners are very rich, and the people of the Eight Banners are not bad, but the problem is that the court has no money and no food.
Huguang, the granary, cannot collect grain, and Huaiyang, a tax-heavy area in Jiangnan, cannot collect money, and the canals are blocked.
Places like Shaanxi, Henan, and Shandong have long been destroyed, and there is no hope.
Dorgon has deeply felt that the Qing Dynasty is losing serious blood. If this continues, he may have to return to his hometown outside the customs soon.
Therefore, he wanted to take advantage of the fact that the Eight Banners still had the strength to fight and the Ming army had not yet recovered, so that he could complete his victory in one battle and fight the Ming army decisively in Shandong.
But Duduo poured cold water on him.
It's simply impossible now.
We are now starting to prepare for food, wages, etc. It will be possible to go south after the freeze is thaw in the spring of next year. However, this task is also very difficult, because Huguang, Jiangnan and other places are now completely destroyed, and the autumn tax cannot enter Beijing.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! It is also very difficult to collect from other places.
The current situation, let alone the imperial commander's personal expedition to Shandong, is that this year's New Year's official salaries and monthly rations for bannermen cannot be paid out.
If the problem of grain being brought to Beijing cannot be solved, the consequences will be very serious. There are so many officials and soldiers of the Eight Banners in Beijing. If grain cannot be brought to Beijing on time, there will be no food rations and famine will occur.
This is no joke.
I think back in the Ming Dynasty, the blockage of the canal from Beijing to Tongzhou caused a sharp rise in food prices in Beijing and famine among the people, let alone the lack of food in Tianjin and Tongzhou now.
Dai Shan also said that the current situation is indeed very difficult. It is clear that the Eight Banners' combat power can still crush the Ming army, but because the battle line is too long and the Ming army is always guerrilla, the Eight Banners cannot quickly defeat the Ming army and are forced to flee eastward.
Going west, I always find the wrong opponent.
Although the situation in Huguang was relieved, it was still in ruins.
Nowadays, after the Ming army invaded Jiangnan, it attacks Huaiyang and Shandong. This style of attack is very similar to the Qing army's combat strategy against the Ming army outside the Pass.
Now they have tasted this pain. They want to fight but can't, and their money, food, taxes, etc. are all wasted.
"Send Hongguang south quickly and send people to negotiate peace with King Lu."
Princes such as Jierhalang, Daishan, Hauge and Azig, who were originally unwilling to negotiate for peace, could only compromise at this time and overcome the current difficulties first.
Dorgon came back from the meeting of kings and ministers to discuss government affairs. Dorgon was physically and mentally exhausted.
He originally wanted to personally conquer Shandong and rally the Eight Banners to fight with all their strength, but Daishan and others were not willing to fight so hard. They found a lot of excuses for this reason.
They were actually scared!
He called Chen Mingxia, Gang Lin, Feng Quan and others, "Ask Qian Qianyi and Chen Hongfan to immediately send Emperor Hongguang south, and also send Lu Jianguo to Changsha to negotiate peace with King Lu."
"Tell Tan Tai that the imperial court can no longer mobilize the Eight Banners to go south to Shandong for the time being. Let him stick to Yanzhou first. If that doesn't work, then retreat to Jinan. Don't underestimate the enemy and fight in waves. Wait until next spring when the flowers bloom, and then go south again."
Dorgon was helpless after making this decision.
After Dorgon hesitated for a long time about King Sanshun, he finally decided to give him the posthumous title of Wu Zhuang and let his eldest son Shang Zhixin, who was still nine years old, inherit the title of King Zhishun. In order to show the court's preferential treatment, he also decided to give Shunzhi's son Shang Zhixin the title of King Zhishun.
A sister promised Shang Kexi the second best, Shang Zhixiao.
Regarding Kong Youde's serious dereliction of duty, not only did he not issue an edict to punish him, but he issued an edict to comfort her. She even asked the Queen Mother to adopt Kong Youde's ten-year-old daughter Kong Sizhen as an adopted daughter, and she was granted the title Heshuogege. She even hinted that she would be betrothed to Emperor Shunzhi in the future.
As for Geng Zhongming, Dorgon also wrote to him personally, saying that he had abandoned Jining without permission, which led to Shang Kexi being surrounded and committing suicide for the country. The court considered him guilty of depriving him of his title and imprisoning him. However, considering that he had voluntarily surrendered and made many military exploits, so
He was treated leniently and even awarded his son Geng Jimao the rank of Viscount, hoping that he would be able to repay his kindness and serve the country.
Before Qian Qianyi went south, Dorgon summoned two envoys, namely him and Chen Hongfan.
"When I met Queen Lu, I persuaded him carefully that our Qing Dynasty would enter Guan Dingding Central Plains. This is an unchangeable fact. However, considering the relationship between the two countries, as long as King Lu is willing to accept my Qing Dynasty as the suzerain, then the Qing Dynasty can consider using it as the suzerain.
It is a vassal vassal, and the six provinces of Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou were allocated to him..."
Dorgon's condition for peace was that the Ming Kingdom would become a vassal to the Qing Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty emperor would be demoted to a lower rank and renamed king, becoming a vassal of the Qing Dynasty. As in the case of Korea, the Ming Dynasty would have to pay a certain amount of money and grain tribute to the Qing Dynasty every year.
"The tribute is tentatively set at 4 million dan of grain, 120,000 taels of silver, and 100,000 taels of gold."
In fact, this number is basically the original amount of grain that the Ming Dynasty sent to Nanzhi and Zhejiang. One million taels of silver is equivalent to the original gold and silver. As for the one hundred thousand taels of gold, it can be regarded as the commercial tax of the original provinces.
wait.
Qian Qianyi said, "If we give King Lu six provinces, they will not be satisfied. Moreover, without Su Song and Jiangxi, it will be difficult for them to come up with four million stones of grain to pay tribute."
"Let's talk first, we won't be able to talk until later, but the premise is that before the negotiations start, King Lu must withdraw to eastern Zhejiang, otherwise there will be no talks." Dorgon confessed, "You can let some news out, as long as they are willing to talk, we can still talk.
, to make them feel that the imperial court is willing to allocate the south of the Yangtze River to them and divide the Yangtze River from north to south."
Qian Qianyi understood immediately that this was a delaying strategy.
"Hongguang will be sent to Jiangning first, or he can also send it to Hangzhou. Don't rush to send it back to King Lu first. Use this as a bargaining chip to negotiate with him. If the negotiation fails, send King Lu to Shaoxing for restoration, or send him to Nanchang.
.If Zhu Yihai is willing to have a good discussion, then it is okay to leave Hong Guangyun to him."
Dorgon doesn't care about Hongguang's life or death, it's just a bargaining chip.
Before the conversation ended, the guard sent an urgent message.
"Jiangxi Admiral Jin Shenghuan rebelled and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty. The general Wang Ti was killed. Governor Zhang Yutian and others were captured and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty. Everyone in northern Jiangxi rebelled and surrendered to the Ming army. The whole of Jiangxi was lost..."
After reading this emergency report, Dorgon's face turned green and his hands trembled.
When the house leaks and it rains all night, misfortunes never come alone!
