Shou ordered to go ashore at the Hai'an Thousand Households, and soon arrived at the location of the Haibei headquarters of the Ming Army, which is now the capital of Leizhou, Xuwen County.

Zeng Ying once wanted to put the headquarters in Haikang County, which was outside the core defense circle, but was persuaded by the generals. Haikang has Governor Zhang Xiaoqi, and Zeng Ying, an old man in his 70s, is actually not much use.

Zeng Ying gathered troops in the government office.

In front of Shou Order's eyes were faces relieved by his arrival.

"Smack."

Shou Xuan clapped his hands and smiled: "Gentlemen, generals, cheer up, this battle has just begun." ”

Most of the more than 20,000 troops in Qiongzhou can defend the city, and their field combat capabilities are worrying.

He Huchen's 1,500 troops were at the mouth of the Beiliu River in Tengxian County, Guangxi, and had no impact on the Gaolei battlefield.

Yang Qianqing's 2,000 troops and 2,000 local troops stayed in Qiongzhou.

Zhang Pengfei commanded 5,000 sailors.

Nearly 10,000 soldiers remained, with 4,000 men scattered in the fortress in the core fortified area.

The garrison of the fortress and the remaining troops were not intended to be used, these were the last forces to defend Qiongzhou.

Zeng Ying also controlled two mobile units, the 5,000 people under the command of Zhang Shijie were the only slightly reliable Ming army field force in Hainan, and the three battalions that had been brought to Guangzhou for training in an orderly manner were among them, which can be called a collection of the essence of each department.

Nicholas. The Macau regiment commanded by Ferreira had 2 battalions and 1,200 men. Macao sent 500 reinforcements to Yongli twice, and most of the soldiers, including Ferreira himself, were Chinese. This Catholic army was incorporated into the Praetorian Guard by Yongli, and was separated from the emperor during the Xunzhou Rebellion, and Ferreira gathered the remnants of the army and retreated to Lianzhou, where it was absorbed by Zeng Ying.

A few months earlier, the Order had merged the remnants of Ferreira's army with Du Yonghe's black battalion, and then expanded it with Macao immigrants to form a largely Spanishized field regiment.

These 6,200 people are the hope of the besieged Ming army, but Geng Jimao's attack momentum is still sufficient, and it is very risky to use this precious reserve now.

Guarding the Order hopes to further stimulate the potential of the Ming army outside the core defensive circle, which requires the support of the Mariners.

"Deng Yao, Yang Yandi."

Two generals will be listed.

Deng Yao heard that the order was coming, and Yang Yandi, who took more than 50 warships to reinforce Donghai Island, had just arrived.

"Two, please enter Wuchuan with a water division and join forces with General Li Mingzhong."

A few months ago, Li Mingzhong fought a field battle with the right wing of Geng Fan in the Yangchun area, and the defeat was not small. Lian Decheng chased him and blocked him on Wuchuan Island. However, Wuchuan was close to the sea, and the Geng army only surrounded Wuchuan on three sides on land, which did not hinder the reinforcements of the naval division.

Yang Yandi raised his eyebrows, "Going against the Jianjiang River to relieve Huazhou?" Geng Fan has built a large camp and artillery fort on the riverbank, and we are afraid that we will not be able to conquer it. ”

"Well, I understand, I don't ask you to relieve Huazhou. Try to break through the Yuanhua River on the east side, and if the situation allows, use the sampan up the river to attack the small force of the Green Battalion. ”

Deng Yao and Yang Yandi glanced at each other, "This can be done." ”

"Handsome Rong."

"Yes."

"Please lead your ministry to reinforce Dianbai, and Lu Zhan Division."

Besieging Dianbaicheng were more than 4,000 troops from the green battalion Xianqiyu, Gao Jinku, and part of the Ming army that surrendered in Guangdong. The Tatars were very powerless in front of the Electric White City, but Lu Zhan had few troops and could not break the siege.

The plan of the order was that the two armies of Deng and Yang and Wu Chuan Ming would select the elite, open the Yuanhua River, attack behind the troops of Dianbai Xianqiyu and others, shake the Tatar army besieging the city, and then attack from the front with the troops of Lu Zhan and Rong Marshal.

The next step is to contact the rebels.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the autumn harvest is coming, and our friends in the mountains will definitely come down to the mountains to collect food."

Most of Guangdong has fallen, but tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians are still lurking in the mountainous areas of northern and western Guangdong.

The Ming army in northwest Guangdong had a direct impact on the Gaolei battlefield, Luo Chengji, Ye Biao, and Shi Shangyi in Deqing Prefecture, Luoding Prefecture, and Xinyi, and Song Guoxiang and Wei Yingdeng in Cenxi in southeast Guangxi. The rebel army living in the east and west mountains of Zhaoqing Mansion is also an important force.

Shou Order: "Send someone to Beihai and tell Xie Yuanbian." Let him transfer more than 1,000 Chu troops and Jiangxi troops from Yulin Prefecture and Luchuan, and hand them over to Xiong Zhaozuo and Zhou Jintang to lead them over the mountains to reinforce Luo Chengji. Then try to support a little guns and gunpowder from Cen Creek into the mountains. ”

The Qinlian Theater is seizing the last time to evacuate the residents of the two rivers in the north and south, and redeploy the defense area, and is temporarily unable to send powerful troops to reinforce Gaolei. Zeng Ying sent people to urge the Ming army in the mountains to go down the mountain to counterattack many times, and also issued a reward, but this is indeed difficult for some strongmen. The conditions of the cottage were difficult, the Ming army had no pay and few weapons, and its combat effectiveness was weak.

It was different during the autumn harvest, when the Ming army had to go down the mountain to get grain. Because of the food supply to the enemy, it can provide additional combat strength for the rebels in various places.

Squeeze a little resources out of the Chin Lien theater and try to make things bigger behind enemy lines. Since it is impossible to fight in the field, the idea is to attack on all fronts and destroy the battle.

Geng Jimao's army was stationed under the city of Huazhou, and the surrounding area of Gaozhou City was almost emptied by Hainan, and his food and salary supplement could only rely on the rear. Geng Fan has never had any scruples about doing this kind of thing, and issued tens of thousands of people to transfer them behind, and the people who starved to death and died of exhaustion along the way are endless.

There are two grain transportation and supply roads from Guangzhou to Gaozhou, starting from Wuzhou, Deqingzhou, Zhaoqing and Xinhui respectively.

The official roads southward from Wuzhou and Deqing Prefecture converged in Luoding Prefecture and arrived at the ruins of Gaozhou's capital city.

The official road of Zhaoqing passes through Yangjiang County of Moyangjiang to Gaozhou. The waterway is from the mouth of the Jiulong River in Xinhui County into the Tan River, disembark in Yangchun County, and then merge with the official road of Zhaoqing.

The former land route crosses mountains and mountains, and the capacity is limited, and Geng Jimao mainly relies on the latter channel.

Luo Chengji and others in Luoding Prefecture were not strong in combat, but after proper reinforcement, they could completely cut off the official road for transporting grain in the mountains.

As for the latter passage, as long as the siege of Dianbaicheng is lifted, it will be directly under the threat of the Ming army.

Shou Xuan added another article, "Inform Chen Qice, ask him to enter the Jiujiang Estuary to collect grain after the autumn harvest and cut off the water transportation in Xinhui County." ”

"Zhang Shijie, you first lead the troops to enter Haikang County, don't go north for the time being, and wait for orders."

"Okay."

After the orderly distribution is completed, the various departments follow the order.

In a wide theater of operations from the mouth of the Pearl River to the Luoding Mountains, it was impossible to coordinate the unified actions of so many Ming troops. It is impossible for the army behind enemy lines to cooperate with the army in front, and the order can only cooperate with them. The time for the counterattack was set for the autumn harvest season, and there was no need to mobilize at that time, and the Ming army in the mountains would definitely attack.

The meeting was dismissed, and the order called Cai Yuanding.

Since the evacuation of Xiangshan, Cai Yuanding has been promoted from the magistrate to the governor of Leizhou, and this position is a fictitious title, regardless of government affairs.

"You go to Macau and pick up Coutinho, he doesn't have much to do there."

"Yes, sir."

Macau was now ostensibly turned to the good of the Jews, and the Jesuits entered the court of the Tatars in a big way. Missionaries to Beijing were obviously more promising than Nanning, and only Qu Shawei, a Catholic monk, remained at the side of Emperor Yongli. Even if you count the envoys to the Vatican, there are only two of them.

For geographical reasons, Macau could not defend itself against enemies from land, and the choice of the Portuguese was almost inevitable. Of course, this did not prevent the Bugarao Arsenal from opening its doors to the Ming army, and so far, Zheng Chenggong's only source of heavy artillery was Macao, and Shang Kexi could not care about and did not bother to care about Macao's support for Zheng Chenggong's arms.

At this time, Macao was only of commercial significance, and a permanent commercial representative was sufficient, and there was no need to send military personnel. There are more and more European-style warships such as the Galliot ship in the local fleet of Qiongzhou, and Shou Xian plans to transfer Cotinho to Qiongzhou to command the local fleet.

When everyone left, only Shou Xuan and Zeng Ying were left in the conference room.

The old man asked, "You are dragging your feet and not solving the fundamental problem." ”

"Sir, you said that solving the fundamental problem requires annihilating the enemy army in the field, and we can't do it for the time being."

Zeng Ying sighed, "I understand, a moment is a moment. ”

"Sir, please be optimistic." Orderly walked over to the map, "Maybe we'll be able to drag it out for a long time." ”

"How?"

"The southern battlefields are connected to each other, and we'll see how the other battlefields progress."

Shou ordered to change a map of Guangxi.

"Old man, Zhu Minru is guarding Pingle and has restrained a considerable part of Kong Youde's army in Guangxi. The central armies of the various departments around Nanning and the new Guangxi governor of the Tartars fought fiercely. ”

Kong Youde nominated Ma Jiaolin to be promoted to the governor of Guangxi, but Ma Jiaolin died of illness before taking office. For the sake of stabilizing the morale of the army, Kong Youde promoted Xian De'an and let Ma Jiaolin's righteous son Ma Xiong take over as the commander-in-chief of the left wing.

Zeng Ying: "Thanks to the fighting efforts of the officials and troops of Gui Province, we have time to arrange the Qinlian Theater, and you can also draw some troops to reinforce Luoding." ”

"Old man, in fact, it's not just the officials and soldiers of Gui Province." Shou Xiang also spread out the map of Huguang, "Since the beginning of the previous year, Sun Kewang of Guizhou has frequently sent troops to attack Xiangxi. ”

Sun Kewang's accumulated strength is terrifying. Xiying originally had less than 10,000 soldiers, but Sun Kewang used luck and strength to reorganize all the Ming troops in Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, and recently incorporated tens of thousands of Sichuan garrisons south of the Jinsha River.

Sun Kewang Li Dingguo's main force was still the Ming army from all walks of life, and the veterans of Xiying only played a backbone role. Under the strict military discipline of Xiying, the combat effectiveness of these Ming troops has risen to a higher level.

Yunnan produces horses, Sun Kewang's cavalry proportion is very high, there are dozens of war elephants in the army, and the Tusi soldiers of Yunnan and Guizhou are not afraid of death when they fight, quite the style of the founding of the state.

In order to resist this strong army, the Tatars pulled a continuous defensive line in Xiangxi, including Chenzhou, Yuanzhou, Jingzhou, and Liping (Guizhou), with a straight line length of 260 kilometers alone. The big towns were 4,000 soldiers of Xu Yong, the general of Chenzhou, Yang Mingyu, 5,000 soldiers, Yang Guoxun, the deputy general, 3,000 soldiers, and Hao Xiaozhong, the general of Liping, 3,000 soldiers. The rest of the cities were guarded and nearly 20,000 green battalions were scattered on this front.

Xu Shun Gong hung and suppressed 10,000 soldiers under the Hunan general Shen Yongzhong, the Eight Banners, and the Green Battalion of Zhang Guozhu's troops, which were deployed in the second line in the area of Baoqing Mansion. The Tatars have recently used Wu Sangui and Dingping Jing to conquer the four feudal domains, which does not mean that the Manchu and Mongolian generals will not be dispatched.

The dispatch of troops at the Gushan Ezhen and Melle Zhangjing levels has never been interrupted, but these second-level relatives of the Eight Banners no longer hang the general's seal, only the general's seal, and they are more of a supervising army. The sum of the five or six battlefields from the southeast to Sichuan is close to 10,000 troops.

Since 1650, Sun Kewang has tried to attack the Tatar defense line in western Hunan Province, and easily pierced several holes in the Tatar front. Although Sun Kewang soon withdrew his troops and withdrew to Guizhou, the strength of the troops really scared Kong Youde out of a cold sweat.

Sun Guozhu's soldiers and the Tatars fought almost every day, Kong Youde in addition to the direct troops stationed in Guilin and Yanguan, his three major towns, Line De'an attacked Nanning from Kunlun Pass, and Ma Xiong fought west along the Xun River from Wuzhou. The remaining right-wing general soldier Quan Xiong was stationed in Liuzhou to defend Sun Guozhu from Guizhou directly south.

Order: "Sun Kewang sent Feng Shuangli to lead tens of thousands of cavalry, and more than ten war elephants to conquer Yuanzhou and completely tear apart the Tatar defense line. Although the Tatar Changsha hero Xu Yong held off Feng Shuangli in Chenzhou, Sun Kewang should soon be able to mount a larger offensive. We'll have to put it off until then. ”