Chapter 109: The Northern Expedition ends

In the battle of Datong, the main forces of the two sides did not clash at all.

Gao Yuanjue and others sent the Qing army out of the Great Wall.

The war ended though.

But it doesn't mean that Zhang Xuan can turn around and go back.

He had to rebuild the defenses in the north.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, most of the Great Walls, lost in maintenance, have long been out of shape, not all of the Great Wall, just like the Badaling Great Wall, more Great Wall, barren grass, ruins and broken walls, there is no effective defense at all.

Not to mention, the retreat of the Qing army plundered all the people along the border to the grassland.

The whole country is empty, and even food is not self-sufficient.

Under such circumstances, it is not easy to re-establish the defense along the border.

Zhang Xuan sits in Beijing and divides five towns along the border.

That is, Liaodong Town, Xuanfu Town, Datong Town, Yulin Town, and Fengxiang Town, which defended against the western defense.

Each town has three armies, five battalions per army, and fifteen battalion heads. Forty-five thousand. The five towns along the border, a total of 250,000 people, just like this. It is quite difficult to transport grain and grass alone.

Fengxiang Town supplies grain and grass from Guanzhong and Sichuan.

The town of Liaodong was supplied partly by North Korea and partly transported from the south.

However, the three towns of Xuanfu Town, Datong Town, and Yulin Town are all supplied by Beijing.

And Zhang Xuan also officially positioned Beijing as Daxia Beijing. The status of Wuchang Xijing was revoked, and from then on, Great Xia was composed of two capitals in the north and south, and Cao Zongyu was also hung with the king of Tang, the envoy of the Privy Council, and the general who stayed in Beijing. Commander-in-chief of the five northern towns. There is also a northern army of 100,000 people under his command.

All the cavalry of the Xia army was incorporated into the northern army.

And this Northern Army and the Nanjing garrison were both included in the Central Army series. It is directly under the jurisdiction of the Privy Council. It is relative to the border army.

And opened a port in Tianjin. Set up a sailor base, with Shi Lang in charge.

The mission is twofold, to ensure the smooth flow of sea transportation and to drive out pirates.

But now the sea is the world of the Zheng family, where are there any pirates. Its implementation, Lang, also undertook the task of monitoring the Zheng family.

Because Hong Chengchou dug the canal.

A considerable section of the Grand Canal is unusable, and if you want to use it, you have to make great efforts to repair it. Now the Great Xia Imperial Court does not have this money.

Therefore, in order to support the border army, shipping is the top priority, and Zhang Xuan cannot entrust this food lifeline in the hands of Zheng Chenggong no matter what.

Shi Lang's presence is inevitable.

If you talk about it, Cao Zongyu commanded the 100,000 elites of the Northern Army, and there were already 250,000 horses in the five towns along the border, plus the Tianjin Naval Division, with a total of more than 400,000 troops in his hands.

It can be said that half of the elite of Great Xia is in the hands of Cao Zongyu.

However, Zhang Xuan is not without restrictions on Cao Zongyu.

First of all, the town of Liaodong

Still in the hands of Zheng Chenggong, Zheng Chenggong in the name of King Yue, General Zhendong, Deputy Envoy of the Privy Council, Commander-in-Chief of Liaodong, and the Korean military. Sitting in Liaoyang, there are actually far more than 50,000 soldiers and horses in his hands. Because many armies are listed as the North Korean army. And the North Korean army was also under Zheng Chenggong.

Therefore, the soldiers and horses under the command of Zheng Chenggong are around 150,000.

Zheng Chenggong will not bow down to Cao Zongyu. But in general, Liaodong is a separate battlefield. The cooperation between Zheng Chenggong and Cao Zongyu does not need to be so close.

Cao Zongyu is actually only responsible for the defense of the three towns of Xuanfu, Datong, and Yulin. The candidate of these three towns, the one who guards the Xuanfu is Xu Du. It is Gao Yigong who guards Datong, and it is Yuan Zongdi who guards Yulin.

These three people are very familiar with Cao Zongyu. The cooperation is quite tacit.

But it is impossible for the three of them to be loyal to Cao Zongyu.

First of all, let's talk about Xu Du.

The existential knot between Xu Du and Cao Zongyu.

Not to mention anything else, in the second half of the entire Northern Expedition, whether it was the Battle of Jiahe or the Battle of Beijing, Xu had no chance to play.

It is clear that Cao Zongyu's tendencies are predisposed.

The contradiction between Xu Du and Cao Zongyu has been going on for a long time. It can even be said that the contradiction between the Zhejiang army and the people of Henan, even if Cao Zongyu has a view of the overall situation, he doesn't care. But it is impossible for the people under Cao Zongyu not to care.

Cao Zongyu may not target Xu Du, but it is reasonable to put Xu Du in a secondary position, so that Xu Du will not be able to express his anger even if he is full of anger.

Xu Du may be able to be used by Cao Zongyu, but if Cao Zongyu wants to do something rebellious, Xu Du will never follow.

And the same is true of Gao Yigong and Yuan Zongdi.

They came out of the camp, and after defecting to Zhang Xuan, their subordinates were scattered, and there was no need for Zheng Chenggong, Li Dingguo and others, and they could pull out a lot of people at any time.

They can have where they are today because of Zhang Xuan's trust.

It can be said that Zhang Xuan's paper can make Gao Yigong Yuan Zongdi down. But for Li Dingguo, Zheng Chenggong and others, Zhang Xuan is absolutely impossible to do this.

They understand their situation very well, and it is impossible for them to be attached to Cao Zongyu.

Therefore, under such an arrangement, the three towns are as stable as Mount Tai.

The three towns of Datong, Xuanfu and Yulin are mainly guarded. When the Qing army enters the customs, you only need to strengthen the walls and clear the wilderness and guard the city.

And Cao Zongyu's department is used to fight back.

As long as the front is stabilized within the three towns and does not affect the recovery of the interior, it is sufficient.

And the chief general of Fengxiang Town,

Fengxiang Town, in fact, is not limited to Fengxiang, but all the troops under Wu Sangui's command are under the jurisdiction of Fengxiang Town.

Although Fengxiang Town has 50,000 soldiers, Yuan Shizhong also serves as the chief military officer of Shaanxi. That is, the local county soldiers in Shaanxi are under the jurisdiction of Yuan Shizhong.

Shaanxi in the Ming Dynasty was not Shaanxi in later generations, including Gansu and Ningxia

Bring. Of course, a considerable part was occupied by Wu Sangui.

The two sides are uneven.

Moreover, the people in the northwest are fierce, and the militias in various places, as long as they reduce or reduce taxes, even if these county soldiers are controlled by local heroes, they are enough to resist Wu Sangui's attack.

And 50,000 soldiers only need to be used as a counterattack force.

There is only one reason for this, and that is to reduce expenses.

After a big war, Zhang Xuan looked at the consumption of manpower and material resources, and even more than 30 million taels in arrears. I know that for a long time in the future, the finances of the imperial court will be stretched.

Therefore, Zhang Xuan reduced the taxes of Shaanxi, hoping that the strategy of Westerners guarding the western soil could effectively reduce the expenses of the imperial court.

This is also the reason why Zhang Xuan has put on a defensive counterattack posture on the entire front.

However, there is another difficulty, that is, Li Dingguo.

None of the five towns along the border arranged Li Dingguo. Is it possible to let Li Dingguo return to the Yunnan-Guizhou Governor's Mansion? No. Of course Zhang Xuan won't, in the name of Liu Wenxiu and Ainengqi's exploits in the Battle of Jiahe, he made Liu Wenxiu and Ainengqi respectively the general of Zhennan for the general officer of Yunnan, and the general of the Sichuan army and the general of Zhengxi.

Guizhou Province has also changed from a military structure to a civil administration system.

In fact, Yunnan, Sichuan and border towns have some similarities.

The so-called five towns along the border are all military first, and everything is based on the premise of military affairs. In the other provinces, they are all governors, commanders, and inspectors.

It's just the identity of the mainland, and the identity of the governor overtakes the other two, as a provincial member and a minister, while in Yunnan and Sichuan, he is a military general with the general's seal, overpowering the governor and becoming a major member of the province and the head of a province.

However, civil officials at all levels are still responsible for the civil affairs below.

If he comes, Zhang Xuan will take all the power of Li Dingguo down.

You must know that Li Dingguo is not Gao Yigong and others, a considerable number of the officers and soldiers under his command are the old departments of the Great Western Army, and their loyalty to Li Dingguo is still above their loyalty to the Great Xia Dynasty.

Cao Zongyu, Zheng Chenggong, and Li Dingguo were the ones who were really capable of starting a rebellion.

How could Zhang Xuan attack Li Dingguo easily. So he arranged a position for Li Dingguo, that is, the Privy Council Envoy of Great Xia.

After all, Cao Zongyu is in Beijing, and his Privy Council envoy is just a name, but Li Dingguo wants to return to Nanjing, and his Privy Council envoy is the real head of the Great Xia military.

It's just that this Privy Council envoy position, which looks very good, has to give up a lot of things.

Just look at Wei Wang Yuan Shizhong.

Wei Wang served as the Privy Councillor for several years, and his team was split into fragments, so it became a major faction in the army, but it was spread across all armies and integrated with the Great Xia military.

Wei Wang Yuan Shizhong became the head of a major faction in the Great Xia military, but he was no longer the head of a party.

Zhang Xuan clearly wanted to replicate this move.