New Book Collection: The Rise of Great Powers 1900

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Yang Chao's military action has been reported to Sun Kewang, and it is reported with a humble attitude, because Sun Kewang is now the generalissimo of the world's soldiers and horses personally appointed by His Majesty Zhu Cihuan of the Ming Emperor, and the commander of the fake Huang Yue.

Sure enough, Sun Kewang was in a hurry, he had long regarded Huguang and Guangxi as things in his pocket, and he didn't toss with Zhang Xianzhong in Sichuan in the past, and then he tossed in Yunnan, and he did have some achievements, but Yunnan is a bitter cold place, and the naturalized population is only one million, counting the hidden, black households and fugitives, it is only three million, plus Tusi and ethnic minorities are five million, such a province is far from satisfying Sun Kewang's ambitions.

So Huguang, which has a population of more than 10 million and is still the center of grain production in the world, is the foundation of his dominance over the world, and he will never allow others to get involved.

So Sun Kewang gave up the competition with Li Dingguo, hurriedly went north, sent Feng Shuangli from Changsha to attack Yuezhou, and then attacked Wuchang Mansion, he personally commanded 150,000 troops to go north to attack Jingzhou Mansion, and at the same time left Ma Jinzhong to defend Li Dingguo in Changde Mansion.

Sun Kewang crossed the river easily at Zhijiang, and then quickly advanced towards Jingzhou Mansion.

And Feng Shuangli was even more relaxed, the Qing army fled without a fight, allowing him to easily capture Yuezhou City, and then quickly advance into Wuchang Mansion.

At the same time, the Qing army gathered heavy troops to snipe Lü Mo in Xingguo Prefecture and Daye County, making it very difficult for Lü Mo to advance his troops.

Zheng Yongwang's army, led by Yang Chao, did not attack well in Huangzhou, and the battle against Huanggang City was very fierce, with thousands of dead and wounded, and Yang Chao had to temporarily retreat.

Feng Shuangli quickly defeated the entire Wuchang Mansion, and only Wuchang City, a lonely city, could not be defended by heavy troops.

After Sun Kewang successfully marched to Jingzhou Mansion, he also suffered setbacks. The Qing army in Jiangbei seemed to be more tenacious by the Qing army in Jiangnan, and Sun Kewang had nothing to do for a while, even if he used the cannon sold to him by Yang Chao, even if he blasted open the city wall, but the Qing army did not retreat and fought with him for ten days. In the end, Sun Kewang had to take the initiative to retreat, and the Qing army did not pursue.

After Sun Kewang returned the same way, he began to mobilize troops and focus on attacking Wuchang Mansion.

Yang Chao carefully analyzed the routines of the Qing army, and it was obvious that they were conniving at Sun Kewang and ceding most of Wuchang Mansion to only keep Wuchang City, an enterprising base.

"It's Hong Chengchou again! It's a pity that he is still a little less courageous, if he dares to give up Wuchang City. It's bold! ”

Yang Chao decided that this was another strategy from Hong Chengchou, the purpose was to let Yang Chao and Sun Kewang compete for Wuchang Mansion, he blocked Yang Chao's advance, but he gave up most of Wuchang Mansion to Sun Kewang, if Yang Chao was not strong enough to compete with Sun Kewang, he could watch a good show.

At this time, Sun Kewang could be regarded as appreciating the combat effectiveness of the Qing army through this advance, especially the Eight Banners in Jiangbei were even stronger. Sun Kewang is not a fool, quite the opposite. His political wisdom is also quite high, but it is a pity that he is a general with strong governance ability and insufficient ability to lead troops.

The same army, if it is handed over to Li Dingguo's command, can be opened and closed like art, and it can only be decent in his hands. In terms of the quality of the army and the quality of individual soldiers, his army is still inferior to the Qing army, so he can only eat defeat, while Li Dingguo can win the battle, saying that he has strong troops. It is better to say that he has a high level of command.

After this temptation, Sun Kewang was even more jealous of Li Dingguo, and at the same time he also guessed the intentions of the Qing army, and he was keenly aware that the Qing army was deliberately conniving at him, and the bottom line of connivance was that Hunan could be handed over to him, and Jiangnan only kept Wuchang Fucheng. If it weren't for this connivance, Sun Kewang would never have retreated from Hubei, and at least half of the army he brought with him would have to remain.

However, the connivance of the Qing army made Sun Kewang very uneasy, the other party obviously did not give up Hunan by keeping a Wuchang city, as long as there was an opportunity, Sun Kewang believed that the Qing army would not give up this opportunity.

So after he returned to Hunan, he turned around and led his troops to attack Wuchang City, and at the same time caused Feng Shuangli and Yang Chao to have internal strife.

Since the Qing army ceded all the other prefectures and counties to Feng Shuangli, and the Qing troops in Xingguo Prefecture and Daye also retreated, Yang Chao easily took these two places, but also joined Feng Shuangli's troops.

Who would have thought that Feng Shuangli would suddenly surround Daye.

Yang Chao immediately sent troops to protest to Sun Kewang, who quietly told the envoy that his goal was Wuchang City, so he asked Feng Shuangli to lead troops to surround Daye and Xingguo Prefecture's Lu Mobu on the one hand, and on the other hand, the main force advanced to Wuchang City.

After Yang Chao received Sun Kewang's meaning, he quickly withdrew the army of Huangzhou Mansion and went south to Jiujiang on a large scale, making a desperate plan with Sun Kewang, Sun Kewang also evacuated the main force of Wuchang City, and mobilized the main force to surround Daye and Xingguozhou.

Sun Kewang's move not only pleased the Qing army, but also felt regretful, Sun Kewang always left 50,000 troops outside Wuchang City, so that he could not fight with Yang Chao with all his strength, and the Qing court determined that Sun Kewang was afraid of the Qing army in Wuchang City.

Hong Chengchou boldly proposed to Dolgon to abandon Wuchang City at this time, and after Dolgon weighed it repeatedly, he agreed to his suggestion, after all, if Sun Kewang and Yang Chao could not be allowed to fight among themselves, then they would not have the slightest chance to go south again, so he didn't want to let go of this opportunity to let Sun Yang and the two fight infighting.

After the Qing army withdrew from Wuchang City and crossed the river, Sun Kewang entered Wuchang City as he wished, but then he withdrew from the siege of Daye and Xingguozhou, and the Qing court was dumbfounded at this time, and they underestimated Sun Kewang's resourcefulness.

Hong Chengchou was embarrassed and wanted to send troops to cross the river again, but found that Yang Chao's army had stopped at the dock in Wuchang.

Helpless, he can only swallow this bitter fruit, those who are good swimmers die in water, and those who are good at playing conspiracy will also die in conspiracy.

Sun Kewang was very satisfied with Yang Chao's cooperation, and he sent a large number of gifts to thank him, including thirty Hunan women.

At the same time, he promised Yang Chao that he would play the emperor and give Yang Chao the title of king, he was very upset with Yang Chao, and made so many military exploits, it turned out to be just an earl, it was really unfair, some people just killed a few little-known Manchu princes, they could be crowned kings, and Yang Chao killed Duoduo and captured Haoge, but he was only an earl.

Sun Kewang promised that he would return to Guizhou in person and meet Emperor Zhu Cijiong of Longwu. Ask the emperor to canonize Yang Chao as the king of Wu and command the land south of the Yangtze River.

Yang Chao regarded these as Sun Kewang's wooing, and he didn't take it seriously at all, the reason why he has always been just an earl was because his earl was used to pay for escorting Chongzhen's princes south, so when Hongguang opened the country. He failed to be promoted to the next level, and when he made new contributions, Emperor Hongguang had a bad relationship with him, and at the same time, he was captured by the Qing army and sent to Beijing without a chance to reward him.

Later, Emperor Longwu, under the inducement of a large group of scribes surrounded by him, was even more wary of Yang Chao, and was unwilling to give any reward that could increase Yang Chao's power, but Yang Chao was still a loyal and righteous uncle. is like two brothers with Zheng Chenggong's loyal and filial uncle.

What Yang Chao didn't know was that Sun Kewang did not go to see Emperor Longwu, but after leading his troops back to Changsha, he immediately summoned Li Dingguo in Hengzhou and asked him to discuss the military situation. However, he let the Bai Wen Xuan Department enter the Baoqing Mansion.

Li Dingguo was about to go north, but was told that Sun Kewang planned to harm him.

The informant is Liu Wenxiu's son.

As a result, Li Dingguo was shocked, he had long suspected that Sun Kewang wanted to harm him, but he didn't expect to really do it. It was also learned that Bai Wenxuan led 50,000 troops into Baoqing and threatened Hengzhou from the flank. Li Dingguo immediately made a decision, immediately gave up Hengzhou, retreated to Yongzhou, Sun Kewang led troops into Hengzhou, Li Dingguo retreated again, and retreated directly to Guangxi. And the Guangxi and Hunan passages were burned down.

When Yang Chao received these circumstances, he realized that Sun Kewang promised not to win him over, but to simply coax himself. It's just trying to stabilize myself, but it's too late by this time.

Immediately let the envoy protest to Sun Kewang, accusing him of provoking infighting, hoping that he would rein in the precipice, otherwise the Jiangnan soldiers would have to act, probably the threat had worked, or the whole of Hunan would be in his hands so that Sun Kewang was satisfied, he stopped further action, and did not go south to attack Li Dingguo in Guangxi, but really returned to the army and stationed in Guizhou.

At this time, in the Great Western Army, Sun Kewang's family was dominant.

Originally, among the four brothers, Ai Nengqi died in battle when he entered the rebellion of Shadingzhou in Yunnan Pingtusi, Liu Wenxiu was responsible for attacking Sichuan, which was extremely smooth at first, and almost the entire Sichuan was recovered, but he met Wu Sangui sent by the Qing army in Baoning Mansion in northern Sichuan, and after a fierce battle, both sides suffered heavy losses, and Liu Wenxiu was defeated and retreated.

As a result, after returning to Yunnan, Sun Kewang immediately punished Liu Wenxiu and took away his military power.

That's why Liu Wenxiu was angry with Sun Kewang, so he sent someone to inform Li Dingguo of the news that he wanted to return Li Dingguo. And the reason why Liu Wenxiu was able to find out such news is not a difficult thing. Back then, the four brothers merged the prime minister and the queen's party, and divided the rest of Zhang Xianzhong's army, in fact, you have me, I have you, who doesn't have a few henchmen in the opponent's army, or at least among their own subordinates, there are high-level people in the opponent's camp.

In fact, Li Dingguo himself also found out that Sun Kewang wanted to harm him, and it was not all Liu Wenxiu's notice, so he was sure of the news, and immediately gave up southern Hunan and entered Guangxi.

Liu Wenxiu was dismissed from the army, Li Dingguo left Guangxi, Sun Kewang had 300,000 troops, entrenched in Hunan, Yunnan and Guizhou provinces, at this time there was a feeling of being a hero in the world, and I couldn't help but have a desire to go further and wear a white hat on the king of Ji.

Under the mediation of Yang Chao, Sun Kewang did not make a move against Li Dingguo, but soon did it against Emperor Longwu.

first punished Li Ruyue, an important minister beside Longwu.

This Li Ruyue was killed, and the cause was because of a traitor, Chen Bangfu of Guangxi.

After Li Dingguo invaded Guangxi, he captured this Chen Bangfu and tied Chen Bangfu to Sun Kewang, Sun Kewang directly skinned this traitor and thief.

And Li Ruyue used this to impeach Sun Kewang for killing the ministers.

Emperor Longwu withheld his impeachment document, for fear of annoying Sun Kewang, but this Li Ruyue was a person who was not afraid of death, so he immediately copied a copy of his own recital, handed it directly to Sun Kewang's subordinates, and told Sun Kewang that Li Ruyue impeached him.

As a result, Sun Kewang did not stop doing anything, and also stripped Li Ruyue of the skin and filled the grass, and killed dozens of members of his family. (To be continued......)