Chapter 269 Azig on the left and Duoduo on the right
Li Zicheng committed suicide, Zuo Liangyu was assassinated on his hospital bed by his subordinates who had abandoned the secret and turned to the bright side, and most of the roving armed forces in Nanyang, Xiangyang were captured by Zhu Shuren.
This harvest seems very huge, and it is indeed a great achievement.
Not only did he save tens of thousands of troops for the Han civilization who would have turned to the Tatars as traitors in history, but the situation of military confrontation between the Ming and Qing Dynasties improved quite a bit. He also avenged the regicide of the late emperor Chongzhen. How can this be commended?
Not an exaggeration.
Unfortunately, in the final analysis, the world is still a chess game that cannot be separated. Zhu Shuren delayed at least twenty days in order to achieve all this. By the time he completed this step, it was already October of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen.
As early as twenty days ago, King Fu had surrendered to Duduo with the territory of Fengyang Mansion and Guide Mansion. During this period, official documents from the imperial court asking for help from the Eastern Front also came like a snowflake.
They all discussed asking Zhu Shuren to stop military operations between Huguang and Henan and send more main forces to Nanjing for reinforcements. Judging from the contents of those letters, Duduo only had about ten days to receive and pass through the pseudo-Fuwang territory, and then
Then they began to attack the counties in Yangzhou Prefecture.
Shi Kefa did organize troops for defense, but the counties outside Yangzhou Prefecture could only hold off for a few days. The last urgent troop summoning document received by Zhu Shuren showed that the offensive and defensive battle of Yangzhou City was about to begin.
If it weren't for the fact that Zhu Shuren was His Majesty's son-in-law and could not betray His Majesty, then Zhao Gou's intention to summon Zhu Shuren's army might have been as urgent as Zhao Gou's twelve gold medals in recruiting Yue Fei's master.
Zhu Shuren also knew that he would not be able to catch up with the defense of Yangzhou in any case, because even if he had sent his troops eastward along the Yangtze River before Li Zicheng's death, it would have taken at least ten days for the army to reach Nanjing without any delay.
And his understanding of the Qing army was far deeper than that of other Southern Ming officials - most of the other Southern Ming civil servants always regarded the Qing people as barbarians with little military technology, only skilled in bow and horse.
Even in history, when Shi Kefa himself defended Yangzhou, he actually did not expect that Duduo could organize so many red barbarian cannons to blow down the city wall, which is why the Battle of Yangzhou ended like that.
In this life, Zhu Shuren, a sharp-sighted colleague, helped remind him and repeatedly warned Shi Kefa: Facing Duduo's Qing army, a strong city and a thick wall were not enough to rely on. When the army's comprehensive combat power was insufficient, the city wall was expected to be a temporary defense.
It is better to rely on natural water systems such as the Yangtze River, Huaihe River and Han River to delay the enemy.
After all, the navy of the Qing army was really incompetent, and it would not be possible to easily cross the river to fight if the Ming army blocked it.
In addition, because of the butterfly effect brought by Zhu Shuren, Shi Kefa was in charge of the center this time, and it was impossible to go to Yangzhou to supervise the army in person. Therefore, Yangzhou's city defense naturally had generals assigned to garrison it.
Shi Kefa was warned repeatedly in advance, so he was naturally mentally prepared for the possibility of temporary loss of Yangzhou, and asked the troops to organize the transfer of money, food, materials and people to the south of the Yangtze River temporarily.
In the end, when Zhu Shuren did not receive the news in time, Yangzhou was defeated by Duduo for several days. Fortunately, those who could evacuate the city and the military and civilians who were loyal to the Ming Dynasty did not suffer much material losses. They could evacuate in advance.
He crossed the river and retreated.
This kind of temporary retreat and tolerance is still acceptable.
After all, if you save people and lose land, you will save both people and land. If you save land and lose people, you will lose both people and land. The Ming Dynasty has already lost a lot of land. After temporarily losing Yangzhou for a few months, Zhu Shuren naturally vowed to Duduo to repay it double in the future.
Such a large-scale retreat would certainly inevitably be infiltrated by the camouflage arrangements sent by the Qing army in advance of the arrival of the main force. However, across the river, these arrangements could not be effective immediately.
Shi Kefa also knew this. He also weighed the pros and cons and knew that he had to endure this disadvantage for the time being. He could only hope to continue to stabilize the river defense, isolate the news, and try to be as stable as possible.
Suddenly, Shi Kefa ordered the entire city of Nanjing to be under martial law, and the city gates were closed. Except for the supplies escorted by the imperial army, as well as the troops, messengers, and scouts mobilized for defense, ordinary people were not allowed to enter or exit the city.
There were some people in Nanjing who complained about this, and some who were wavering, but Shi Kefa was in charge of the Ministry of War, and with Shen Tingyang's assistance, they were able to completely control the army south of the Yangtze River, and the opponents could not make waves for a while.
In addition, not everyone in the temporarily occupied Yangzhou City had evacuated. Some of the rich and salt merchants who had numerous farms in the area were afraid that if they ran away with the court, Duduo's Qing troops would enter the city.
Liquidate and confiscate their property, and their land will not be recognized in the future.
Therefore, a considerable number of these people chose to secretly contact Duduo and stay in Yangzhou, hoping to serve as guides and internal agents in exchange for the Qing Dynasty recognizing their legal industry——
But not to mention, it is not surprising that these people have this idea. Because during the Huang Taiji period, although the Qing army burned, killed and looted in the north, this time after Dorgon took power, in the first few months, in order to stage a fight
Tianxia's attitude once made his subordinates restrain themselves.
It is not surprising that these wealthy people in Yangzhou, salt merchants, and big landowners in Huaihe and Huaihe were deceived by this illusion and thought that they could save their property by surrendering to the enemy.
Of course, this kind of restraint is by no means a change of temper by the Gou Tatars. It is entirely a temporary forbearance in order to weaken the Han people's fighting spirit.
Therefore, when the Qing army took control of North China and the Central Plains in history, the resistance of the people and local troops was very weak. It was not until Duduo defeated the Yangtze River that he felt that the world was settled and that the Southern Ming could not come back. Dorgon and Duduo's
Only then did the fangs appear completely and unabashedly.
The famous "keep your head but not your hair, keep your hair but not your head" order, as well as the subsequent purges and massacres, were only promulgated by Duduo in the Jiangnan area after entering Nanjing City in history. This aspect was to completely destroy
On the other hand, the resistance of the defeated Han people and the bureaucratic class simply needed to find a reason to carry out large-scale massacres and looting.
Otherwise, the common people would directly become the subjects of the Qing Dynasty. What excuse would they have for ruthlessly plundering the obedient people under their rule?
The people were forced to be unwilling to shave their heads, so they launched a massacre in the richest land south of the Yangtze River. Killing the fewest people would get the most wealth, money and food, which was extremely efficient.
Therefore, I can honestly say that after the Qing army entered the Pass, the Han people in the north did not resist much, while the people in the south of the Yangtze River resisted extremely fiercely. Later, tragic massacres occurred in Jiangyin, Kunshan, and Jiading. However, we cannot blame the northerners for this.
They lost their integrity and obeyed obediently. The forbearance and cunning of the Qing people also played a considerable role in this.
When they attacked the north, they did not show the side of forcing people to have their heads shaved or provocatively massacring the city. The people in the north did not know their despicableness and thought that Dorgon was different from Huang Taiji and had the "potential of a wise king". They were temporarily softened in their resistance and fighting spirit.
It can be considered as being deceived.
At this moment, Duduo did not feel that the overall situation had been decided. Although he entered Yangzhou City, he still knew that the Yangtze River defense line in front of him was very difficult to overcome.
He needs the wealthy merchants, common people, sailors, and Han people from all walks of life in Jiangbei to work together for him to make up for the shortcomings of the Qing Dynasty's navy. Only then can he have a chance to achieve great success. Therefore, for the giants who are willing to stay in Yangzhou City and secretly surrender in advance.
Even though he was rich, he chose to keep his promise to preserve his family's small industry, as long as they donated ships to the army and helped recruit sailors.
Of course, killing people must be killed. After all, they have arrived in a prosperous land. Along the way, the Duduo Army has been very short of supplies except ordnance. If they are not allowed to grab a handful, the troops will not have the morale to cross the river later.
Combat.
】
Therefore, as long as they did not follow Shi Kefa to lead the people across the river, and did not say hello to the Qing Dynasty in advance to lead the way, the remaining people were still frantically killed by Duduo, and all their property was looted for military supplies.
In history, it is said that 800,000 people died in the "Ten Days in Yangzhou". This life only lasted three days, and at least tens of thousands of people died. It was claimed that "these soldiers and civilians resisted the Qing Dynasty under the deployment of Shi Kefa"
The army, so they massacred. All subsequent cities in the south of the Yangtze River will be exempted from massacre as long as they surrender without fighting and open the city without blood."
This rhetoric was quite deceptive for a while, because as early as the beginning of the 16th year of Chongzhen, when Li Zicheng had just established his account, he had already announced a similar policy. This time Duduo was just copying others' wisdom and copying the others.
…
Duduo made good progress in Huaiyang, and his lone army went deep into Guazhou Ferry in Yangzhou, connecting to the east of the main city of Yangzhou and other counties under Yangzhou Prefecture (later Taizhou, Nantong and other places, all belonged to Yangzhou Prefecture in the late Ming Dynasty), Duduo
He didn't have the energy to fully master it for the time being. He just wanted to quickly penetrate the Nanming defense zone and cross the river as soon as possible.
In order to achieve his strategic goals, Duduo would of course make full use of resources, so when he was preparing to attack the main city of Yangzhou, he sent a Pegasus messenger six hundred miles away to contact Azig in the Kaifeng area.
I hope that Azig's Western Route Army will leave the Guanzhong area alone and go directly south from Heluo and Kaifeng to help him contain Zhu Shuren and prevent Zhu Shuren's troops from returning to defend Nanjing too quickly. This will create a time difference for Duduo to attack Duduo by force.
Jiang took Nanjing.
When Azig received Dodo's letter asking for help, he did not dare to shirk the blame too much. On the one hand, history has now seen a huge butterfly effect——
In the original history, Azig wanted to attack Xi'an personally with the main force, and then found an opportunity to break through the Qinling Mountains and enter Hanzhong, and finally got involved with Zhang Xianzhong's regime.
Due to the difficulty of the Shu road, the Qinling defense line could not be easily broken through. The key to the success of Azige in history was that Zhang Xianzhong and the Ming Dynasty Sichuan garrison were fighting each other in the Shu area at that time, and Hanzhong was still alone in the
In the hands of Li Zicheng, the Sichuan land was not monolithic, and no one was careful about entering the Sichuan Mountains, which gave Azig a chance.
And today's Sichuan was pacified by Zhu Shuren with great efforts a year and a half ago. From Chengdu to Hanzhong, they are all unified under the same military flag and are monolithic. Azig naturally knows that there is no chance of entering Sichuan.
As for Wu Sangui's change in status, the deal he reached with the Qing army to "give up Guan Ning in exchange for the Qing army allowing him to pursue Li Zicheng in the central part of Guanzhong", and various factors, Azig's westward march mission has been basically completed.
There is no other way to get busy at the moment.
As a result, the mission to the west came to an end in advance, and Azig, who had freed up his hands, was originally going to find some new troubles and provocations. The troops were stationed in Heluo and Kaifeng, and it was logical to go south to Nanyang and Xiangyang.
This was not only for Azig himself and for the Qing Dynasty, but also to give Duduo, Dorgon's half-brother, some face and ease the relationship between Azig and the highest decision-making level of the Qing Dynasty.
Zhu Shuren originally thought that after finally killing Li Zicheng, assassinating Zuo Liangyu, and recruiting most of his followers, he would be able to completely free up his hands to deal with Duduo.
But this unexpected butterfly effect caused him to fall into a new quagmire - he took back the Nanyang Mansion territory from Zuo Liangyu, but this territory turned into a new hot potato.
Just when he occupied Nanyang, Azige's Manchu and Mongolian cavalry had already taken advantage of the chaos to seize Yinque Pass, Taigu Pass and Fangcheng Valley Pass, taking control of the mountainous surroundings of the Nanyang Basin.
For a time, Azige could advance, attack, retreat or defend.
But if Zhu Shuren wanted to defend Nanyang, which was already extremely poor and had been wiped out by Zuo Liangyu for several years, they had to invest a huge amount of troops, and even had to prepare for a decisive field battle with the main force of the Qing army in the west!
Moreover, once Zhu Shuren invested too many troops, he would have to transport a large amount of food from Xiangyang to the Nanyang front line. Because the Nanyang area had been raided by Zuo Liangyu and the population was getting less and less year by year, there was no way to feed more troops.
Zuo Liangyu's tens of thousands of people had been supported by this government's money and food in the past few years, and they had to squeeze out all the marrow.