Chapter 555: The Fatal Flaw of the Manchu Military System
Those present did not know that the biggest disaster in the Qing Dynasty was the flood. The flood www.biquge.info not only drowns all living beings, but also the future of the flooded land.
This really broke the mouth of the Yellow River, if not completely, it was an irresistible splash. Not only the city of Huai'an, half of Huai'an Mansion, but also the northern part of the neighboring Yangzhou Mansion will also be submerged.
After the flood, the land became a flood, and it was not only difficult to produce a good harvest when the crops were replanted, but also very prone to plagues.
Therefore, everyone was looking forward to the Yellow River never breaking, but they didn't expect Mu Yin to fight back against the Cantonese thieves and start the idea of breaking the Yellow River embankment.
For a moment, everyone present fell silent. No one dared to speak, after all, the number of dead and injured people in this break would not be one or two thousand. How much yin virtue must be lacking to come up with such an idea!
Seeing that everyone was silent, Mu Yin was a little panicked. He realized that he had overdone his idea.
I just wanted to explain, but I heard Xianfeng say: "Okay! As long as you can destroy those Cantonese thieves, even if you can't wipe them all out, you can destroy half of them, it's good. I agree to this law. Qingxuan Aiqing, you will preside over the matter of breaking the embankment and destroying the thieves. Everyone else also said, what should I do in the current situation? ”
Mu Yin looked surprised, and hurriedly took the order to the side.
When everyone saw that Xianfeng actually agreed to Mu Yin's vicious idea, they all gasped: it seems that the emperor is really at the end, and he even adopted this idea that harms Yin virtue and the benevolence of the Holy Monarch.
Prince Yi Zaiyuan saw that no one answered left and right, so he had to be lined up and said, "Your Majesty, the slave has an idea." I heard that the Yue thief chief was separated from the long-haired thief soldiers, and now he has fallen out with the long-haired thief chieftain and constantly annexed the territory of the long-haired thief soldiers. It is better for the imperial court to come forward and recruit the long-haired thief chieftain, even if he does not recruit him, he can not fight with him for the time being, and send someone to talk to him secretly and discuss how to deal with the Cantonese thieves together. ”
Su Shun on the side couldn't help but smile bitterly: It's another ghost idea, but this kind of idea, which seems to be for the overall situation, is simply ridiculous.
Xianfeng had no opinion, but saw Su Shun's inadvertent mockery, and asked at the moment: "Yuting, do you have a different opinion on Prince Yi's idea?" Let's hear it. ”
Su Shun was shocked, this was noticed by the emperor? He didn't dare to say what he really thought in his heart, even if he flattered the emperor, he also greatly offended Prince Yi, he wouldn't do such a stupid thing.
So, after thinking about it, he humbly replied: "Long live Lord, the servant agrees with Prince Yi's proposal very much. However, after all, the other party is a long-haired thief, who has been against the court for many years, and if the court comes forward and talks with him, it will inevitably damage the face of the court. Therefore, Weichen felt that it was better to let Fuji, the nearest governor of Anman, come forward and send someone to secretly negotiate with him to jointly attack the Cantonese thieves. ”
His words were stable and steady, and they were always scheming. Jaegaki listened to it and was very satisfied.
Although Xianfeng felt that making peace with the long-haired thief chief would damage his face, but now that the Qing Dynasty's troops were really nervous, he could only keep silent and acquiesce.
Su Shun saw that Xianfeng didn't say anything against it, how could he not have imagined that the emperor had acquiesced? So, he put forward another idea: "Your Majesty, the slave still has an idea." The slaves heard that there was an anti-thief force in this Huaibei area, named Twist Army, which was not small and had a large number of people. The slave thought that these were Huaibei Xiangyong who couldn't get enough to eat, and they were instigated and instigated by others, so they moved their minds crookedly. It is better to order the governor of Anman, Fuji, to appease together, recruit him to the imperial court, promise some false positions, and let him return to the imperial court. Even if the other party is unwilling to submit, he can find a way to make him have a conflict with the Cantonese thief, fight for territory, and let them go dog-eat-dog. ”
Xianfeng nodded and said, "What Yuting said is reasonable! However, what I am worried about is that these anti-thieves have also defected to the Cantonese thieves, which will make it even worse for the Qing Dynasty. ”
Su Shun smiled and said: "Your Majesty, the minions have some ideas, you can send some dead soldiers to pretend to be Cantonese thieves and assassinate the leaders of the Twisted Army, so that they can provoke the contradiction between the two thieves. ”
Xianfeng looked at Su Shun approvingly and said, "The rain pavilion is good. The same should be true of all the secretaries. He thought for a moment and talked about the specific issue of troop allocation: "All the ministers of military aircraft are here, so they will discuss where to transfer troops. ”
Xianfeng actually understood in his heart that the troops he could transfer now were the troops of the Jingshi Weirong in the Zhili area.
It's not that there are no extra troops in other areas, but there are soldiers, but there are not many, and they are too scattered, they have to be assembled, I don't know when they will wait, the most important thing is that everyone knows these soldiers, they have no combat power, and when they go to the battlefield, they don't say that they defeat the enemy, and it is already good not to add chaos to the camp.
Du Han, Minister of Military Aircraft, said: "Your Majesty, Weichen has been walking in the military aircraft for more than a year, and the disadvantages of our Qing Dynasty's military strength are mainly due to the excessive dispersion of military deployment. Since the pacification of the three feudatories, it seems that the Qing Dynasty has never mobilized more than 200,000 troops at one time, not only the green battalion soldiers are scattered and stationed in various places, strictly monitor the defensive places, the command is scattered and scattered, and they do not command each other, contain each other, and cannot be concentrated; Even the Eight Banners are stationed separately in all directions, and the number of troops is limited, so what can they do in the face of so many anti-thieves? ”
Du Han's words can be said to be heart-wrenching, and he said the sore spot in the bones of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.
Everyone nodded secretly when they heard this, but on the surface, it was difficult to agree. Su Shun glanced at Du Han, and sneered secretly in his heart, Du Han said that these drawbacks, in fact, he had already known, and he believed that others had long been clear, but no one had brought it up. It is also that Du Han has a good father, Du Shoutian, the emperor's most respected teacher, otherwise what he just said would be enough to send him to prison.
It's ridiculous that Du Han, as a Han Chinese, is a little unclear about the thoughts of the banner people. In fact, the reason why the army layout of the Qing Dynasty is like this is that Su Shun, as a Manchurian, is very clear.
The fundamental reason is that the Qing Dynasty is the Qing Dynasty of the Manchu nobles, at most plus the Mongolian aristocracy, the core force of the Qing Dynasty Manchu and Mongolian population is too small, the number of troops that can be formed is very limited, the Qing Dynasty has not dared to let the complete Han armed - the number of green battalions - too large, which is too dangerous for the Qing Dynasty, therefore, the number of green battalions is strictly limited.
As a result, although the entire Qing Dynasty had nearly 1670,000 banner soldiers and 500,000 green battalion soldiers, it was now in a situation where there were no soldiers available.
Oh, by the way, there are not so many anymore, the Eight Banners and Green Battalion soldiers in the southern provinces have been defeated by more than 100,000 Cantonese thieves before and after, plus the more than 100,000 consumed by fighting with the long-haired thieves in the past two years, the entire Qing Dynasty, there are only more than 100,000 Eight Banner soldiers, and there are only 300,000 Green Battalion soldiers left.
Su Shun couldn't help but sigh in his heart, could it be that Daqing is really going to be powerless to return to the sky?
Here, Xianfeng listened to Du Han's words, and he was also secretly angry in his heart, but for the sake of his late teacher, he couldn't help himself and didn't scold the other party. But after listening to it, I was stunned, what my senior brother said was really a fatal drawback of the Qing Dynasty.
But Xianfeng smiled bitterly in his heart, he had been on the throne for four years, and the anti-thieves and wars were raging everywhere, and the court was overstretched with soldiers, how could he not know this drawback? But as the emperor of the Qing Dynasty, he naturally had to safeguard the interests of the Manchus, and when the first emperor passed on the throne, he specially explained that when the Manchu and Mongolian banner soldiers were only 200,000, the strength of the Han people could not exceed 800,000, which was an iron law, otherwise, there would inevitably be a situation where the Han soldiers would be difficult to fall and unable to control.
Therefore, even if it is a long-haired rebellion, he can only mobilize tens of thousands of troops to encircle and suppress it. On the one hand, it is difficult to raise money and food, and on the other hand, there are really no soldiers to send!
Later, he also realized this situation, but he could not completely change the ancestral system, so he issued an edict and ordered all localities to set up regimental training to fight against the long-haired thieves. Originally, Zeng Guofan, who was in the south of the country, did okay, but he didn't expect that after running away from Changmao, he ushered in the Cantonese thieves again, and Zeng Guofan was defeated by the Cantonese thieves and died in Wuchang.
It seems that this regimental training is not a good way, and it cannot solve the fundamental problem of the shortage of troops in the Qing Dynasty.
However, Du Aiqing's words, although unpleasant, spoke to the reality of the imperial court.
In this case, it is better to take advantage of the fact that the ministers of military aircraft are here today to discuss the issue of changing the ancestral system and expanding the army!
Thinking of this, Xianfeng made up his mind and said loudly: "What Du Aiqing said, although it is a bit condemning, but it talks about the root of the imperial court's use of soldiers. I think about it carefully, it is that there are no soldiers to be sent in the DPRK and China! Therefore, I have decided to expand the army with all my might, and the survival of the Qing Dynasty is at stake, and I will give it a fight! ”