New Book Collection: The Rise of Great Powers 1900

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The thirteen families of Kuidong have a complex force, but they have always survived in the mountains between Jingxiang and Sichuan, and the Qing army has repeatedly encircled and suppressed without success, so they can only let this nail be pierced in the area from Yunyang Mansion to Kuizhou Mansion, occupying more than 20 counties and supporting tens of thousands of soldiers.

If the Thirteen Kuidong families are willing to go on a northern expedition, then they will advance east along the river, and it will be easy to unite with the Ming army of the Northern Expedition to attack Jingzhou, and the Ming army's Hubei offensive will be easier to carry out, so Xu Sinan's representative Yang Chao agrees with this proposal, although Sun Kewang is a little unhappy, and is quite resistant to uniting the rest of Li Zicheng, but at this time, what Sun Kewang opposes is Li Dingguo's support, and with the support of many parties, this agreement was reached.

Wen'an's old and strong, he asked the north to go north to Kuizhou to be responsible for the central coordination, and to be the supervisor of the thirteen armies in Kuidong.

Then, of course, the preparations for the Northern Expedition began.

Xu Sinan said generously that he was willing to provide half of the military rations for the Northern Expedition, to support Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo with 5 million loads of military rations, and at the same time to give 50,000 iron armor and 1,000 cannons to each side.

This price is not low, for the poor Western Army, a pair of iron armor means an elite soldier, and the artillery has never thought about it, but I didn't expect to get a thousand at once, so I was naturally overjoyed.

And Wen Anzhi has not yet gone to Kuizhou to supervise the teacher, so he asked for 20,000 iron armor and 300 cannons for the Thirteen Kuidong families.

After the logistical support has no worries, the offensive line can be chosen, and it is impossible for Li Dingguo and Sun Kewang to be on the road. Otherwise, they themselves may fight first.

Yang Chao thought that the opponent of Li Dingguo's elite cavalry should be the elite of the Eight Banners of the Qing army. Li Dingguo was also willing to fight with the Eight Banners of the Qing Army. So he hoped that he would set out from Wuchang and pass through Huangzhou Mansion to attack Henan, and confront the Qing army in the Central Plains with the Eight Banners.

Sun Kewang had to cross the river from Yuezhou, directly attack Chengtianfu (Zhongxiang) in Hubei, then attack Xiangyang Mansion along the Han River, and finally attack Nanyang in Henan.

The Thirteen Families of Kuidong attacked Jingzhou from west to east, Yunyang Mansion to the north, and finally attacked Shaanxi along the Han River.

Yang Chaobu was the main force of the Northern Expedition, and the main directions of use were two. The first is in the direction of Kaifeng, Henan, and the second is in the direction of Shandong.

The goal of this Northern Expedition was to completely drive the Qing army out of the territory of the Ming Dynasty and completely restore the territory of China.

After the success of the Northern Expedition, the imperial court also began to distribute.

Li Dingguo is the king of Jin, and when the time comes, he will be divided into Shaanxi Province, Sun Kewang will be renamed the king of Qin, and he will sit in Shaanxi in the future, and the thirteen families of Kuidong also have the titles of duke and marquis, and they will be placed in Sichuan.

Yang Chao was named the king of Huai, and the Jianghuai region was his domain.

This division. It was obviously wishful thinking on the part of the imperial court, and first of all, Yang Chao occupied most of China. Let him let him out and accept only one Jianghuai, this is not realistic at all, not to mention Yang Chao's own wishes, even his group of subordinates will not be able to agree.

Li Dingguo readily agreed, he himself wanted to be a loyal minister, that is, personal interests, Shanxi was obviously much better than Yunnan.

Sun Kewang has no problem, not to mention that he doesn't have any territory now, Shaanxi is his hometown, and he is willing to go back.

The Thirteen Kuidong families will not think that Sichuan has treated them badly.

Therefore, the biggest sacrifice was made by Yang Chao, but Yang Chao agreed very happily, saying that he would fully accept any orders of the imperial court and completely obey the great cause of the Northern Expedition.

As soon as the agreement is reached, the operation begins.

Wen Anzhi immediately went north to Kuidong and contacted the thirteen families in Kuidong, and the thirteen families agreed very happily, they didn't have a good life, and the territory they occupied was a place where birds don't, and they were all poor counties in a few hundred years, let alone now.

The various materials promised by Yang Chao were also delivered in a steady stream.

Li Dingguo also released Zhang Sheng, Wang Ziqi, Di Sanpin, Wang Hui, Zhang Guangcui, Zhang Mingzhi, Guan Youcai, Zhang Hu and other Sun Kewang's descendants.

After Sun Kewang waved his army to Yuezhou to receive these descendants, the strength of the army quickly recovered to 100,000.

And Li Dingguo waved his army to Wuchang Mansion, and also took away 100,000 people, of which 40,000 were his descendants, and the remaining 60,000 were the centrists in the past and the Ming army troops in the imperial court.

The thirteen families of Kuidong joined forces in one place, with 50,000 men and horses, all of whom were the fighting seeds retained after the southern and northern wars, well-trained and experienced in war, as long as they had good equipment, they were a strong army, and the equipment Wen'anzhi was going to arrive for them.

The three Northern Expeditionary armies totaled 250,000 men.

And Yang Chao's 750,000 troops for the Northern Expedition were exactly enough for one million troops, and the determination of the Northern Expedition was unshakable.

Three months passed quickly, and the families were well prepared, and immediately after the Chinese New Year, military operations began.

Li Wuliu added the title of governor of Shandong to control the Shandong Corps, under the jurisdiction of Zhao Kang's cavalry and Sun Changfu's department, with a total strength of 300,000 troops; Wang Pu added the title of governor of Henan, controlled the Henan Corps, and governed Zheng Yongwang and Xie Fei, with a total strength of 300,000 people; Yang Chao personally led many male troops, as well as Hu Quan's artillery department, as the Chinese army, with a total strength of 150,000 troops.

In this Northern Expedition, Yang Chao is determined to win, and he naturally cannot give up this opportunity, and he must personally command.

It's just that this arrangement made Zheng Chenggong quite dissatisfied, and he personally ran to Yunnan to ask Emperor Longwu for his life.

Emperor Longwu has a deep relationship with the Zheng family, it was the support of the Zheng family that he was able to become the emperor, he has traveled to many places in recent years, and finally recalled that the Zheng family treated him well, and there was no resistance from Zheng Zhilong to surrender to the Qing Dynasty.

Zheng Chenggong, who had completed the internal integration of the Zheng family, was so encouraged by the emperor that he was grateful, and vowed to make great contributions and achieve great achievements to repay the emperor.

Zheng's heroes have always been maintained at 200,000, well-equipped, outstanding in martial arts, but the discipline is too poor, but if the restraint is good, it is also a force that cannot be ignored to fight a good battle, so far the total strength of the Northern Expeditionary Army has reached 1.2 million.

Yang Chao did not see any possibility that the Qing court would escape this catastrophe.

So he also sent a letter to Zheng Chenggong, hoping that he could make a surprise attack from the sea. Directly land at Shanhaiguan. Blocking the Qing army in the pass. After the Northern Expedition of the province, he will also go out to fight in the future, and tell Zheng Chenggong that if he can block the Qing army, he will make the first contribution to the Northern Expedition, which makes Zheng Chenggong even more energetic.

It was impossible to conceal such a large-scale troop movement from the eyes and ears of the Qing army, and the reaction of the Qing army was unsurprisingly tense.

Intelligence from the north indicated that Dorgon had ordered all the Manchurians to be armed. He also issued the order before entering the customs, Manchurian Banner people over 10 years old and under 60 years old, all of them must go to war, so that they can arm 100,000 Manchurian Eight Banners, and at the same time, Mongolian Ding Zhuang was again transferred from the south and north of the desert, and the Han border army was recruited from Shaanxi, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty also organized a million army.

Yang Chao also began to build a big momentum in the newspapers, swearing to the people that the world was about to be peaceful, and the day when Wang Shi set the Central Plains in the north was not far away. Encourage the people to actively buy bonds and contribute to the Northern Expedition. Yang Chao has prepared 50 million taels of bonds, which he intends to sell at any time.

It can be said that all the forces that can be mobilized have been mobilized, and the entire Jiangnan region has become a high-speed machine.

On the twentieth day of the first month, Yang Chao killed three animals by the Yangtze River and crossed the river. Wang Pu and Li Wuliu simultaneously launched an attack in the direction of Beizhili and Henan.

On the thirtieth day of the first month, Yang Chao arrived in Yangzhou. Wang Pu captured Kaifeng Mansion. Li Wuliu captured Dezhou and entered the territory of Beizhili.

On the fourth day of the second lunar month, Li Dingguo raided and captured Huangzhou Mansion, Luotian on the 5th, and Macheng on the 8th. Sun Kewang besieged Jingzhou.

On the tenth day of February, Yang Chao arrived in Xuzhou. Li Dingguo suddenly crossed the Dabie Mountain and crossed the Wushui Pass to capture the mall. On the same day, the Thirteen Families of Kuidong captured Yunyang Mansion and divided their troops to attack Baihe. Sun Kewang continued to besiege Jingzhou.

On the first day of the first month of March, Yang Chao arrived in Jining Prefecture, Li Wuliu led his troops to capture Cangzhou, and Zhao Kang advanced to Tianjin Wei. Li Dingguo captured Runing Mansion and continued to march into Kaifeng, intending to join Wang Pu's troops in Kaifeng, and after resting, he divided his troops to attack Huaiqing Mansion and Weihui Mansion. The Kuidong Army captured Baihe, marched all the way to Xunyang, and marched all the way to Shangjin. Sun Kewang is still besieging Jingzhou.

On March 15, Yang Chao arrived at Cangzhou Mansion, and Li Wuliu's troops were blocked in Tianjin Weijian City. Wang Pu captured Weihui Mansion, and Li Dingguo captured Huaiqing Mansion, preparing to cross the Wangwu Mountains into Shanxi and capture his fiefdom. The Kuidong army captured Xunyang, captured Shangjin the next day, and assembled towards Shangzhou, preparing to cross Wuguan from Lantian to Xi'an. Zheng Chenggong entered the Bohai Sea by surprise, landed near Shanhaiguan, and captured Funing. Sun Kewang is still besieging Jingzhou.

On the first day of the first month of April, after paying 8,000 casualties, Li Wuliu captured Tianjin Wei, killing 20,000 of the Eight Banners and capturing 10,000 in this battle, and Beijing was shaken! Wang Pu captured Zhangde Mansion and began to encircle Beizhili. Li Dingguo was blocked by the bowl. After capturing Shangzhou, Kuidong's army attacked Wuguan, but was repulsed and retreated to Shangzhou. Zheng Chenggong began to attack Shanhaiguan. Sun Kewang is still besieging Jingzhou Mansion.

After three months of fighting, all the soldiers and horses were very tired, and they successively moved to the stage of resting and recuperating.

Jiangnan issued bonds to fully support the needs of various armies, and Jiangnan's productivity was running at a high speed.

Shanxi is known as the rivers and mountains on the surface that are easy to defend and difficult to attack, and with Li Dingguo's bravery, he will not be able to attack it for a while. Shaanxi has been known as the land of Sisai since ancient times, and the territory of the tyrannical Qin is not so easy to capture, after all, the Kuidong Army is weak, and they should have attacked Shaanxi with Sun Kewang. What's going on with this Sun Kewang, he can't beat a Jingzhou in three months? ”

Yang Chao was really intolerable to Sun Kewang's speed of marching, although the overall situation was very optimistic, the Manchu Qing was already a grasshopper after the autumn, and he couldn't jump for a few days.

"I heard that Hong Chengchou led the elite of Jingxiang to sit in Jingzhou, and there is enough grain and grass, and Sun Kewang will not be able to attack it."

Yang Chao snorted: "I'm afraid I want to preserve my strength." But he's afraid he's going to miscalculate. Let the emperor put a little pressure on him, you might as well let out the rumors, saying that the first person to enter the customs is the king of Qin! ”

This is what King Chu Huai said to Liu Bang and Xiang Yu back then, and he didn't believe that his grandson could not be moved.

"Our army will rest for a month, and then take Beijing directly. Let the sailors transport supplies from the canal and the sea route, and within a month, we must send us enough supplies, especially shells and gunpowder, this is a military order, and there must be no mistake! ”

Success is in sight, and when Yang Chao is already planning to enter Beijing, he should hold a city entry ceremony.

On the tenth day of the first month of April, suddenly an 800-mile rush came from Jiangnan.

"No, it's not good, Wu, Wu Sangui attacked Chishui!"

Yang Chao was stunned for a moment, how did Wu Sangui run to Chishui, Sichuan is already thousands of miles of red land, the Chengdu Plain is uninhabited, the most difficult thing to enter Sichuan is not to fight, but to march, there are tigers on the road, Shu Road is difficult, without logistics supply, Wu Sangui can still fly to Guizhou, although his nickname is General Fei!

"Check, find out the information is coming back!"

Yang Chao didn't believe that Wu Sangui could fight in Guizhou, the reason why he didn't choose Sichuan for this expedition was because Sichuan was already a wilderness, Wu Sangui defeated Liu Wenxiu in Baoning last time, and he didn't take the opportunity to send troops south, but retreated to Shaanxi, because he couldn't supply food, he needed to eat in Shaanxi.

On April 15, another urgent report came.

"Wu Sangui captures Chishui!"

It is already convinced that it is undoubtedly Wu Sangui.

"Also, Sun Kewang withdrew the siege of Jingzhou, crossed the Yangtze River in the south, and went south to King Qin!"

"What!"

Yang Chao was stunned for a moment.

"This thief!"

Scolded, where did he not understand, Sun Kewang rebelled, rebelled again, and stayed in Jingzhou for four months, and when the main forces of the other armies all went north, he suddenly went south, and Wu Sangui also appeared in Guizhou, if there is nothing greasy in it, it will be hell.

"Li Guohan's troops went out of Wuguan, Kuidong's army was defeated, and Shangzhou has fallen."

"Yesterday Li Dingguo went south."

"The rear of Zheng Chenggong's department was attacked by the Eight Banners of the Qing Army, and was attacked by the defenders of Shanhaiguan, and he was defeated and fled to the sea."

From the 15th to the 30th, all kinds of unfavorable news continued to come.

Li Guohan was a Manchu general, and his father Li Jixue was a merchant in Liaodong, who had followed Yang Hao to send troops to fight against Nurhachi, and after Yang Hao was defeated, Li Jixue surrendered to Nurhachi.

Li Guohan was promoted during the Huang Taiji era, became the Huang Taiji guard, and was given the title of Mergen, the same title as Dolgon. This person has been cooperating with Wu Sangui in Shaanxi and Sichuan, and is also monitoring Wu Sangui, who knows that Wu Sangui suddenly arrived in Guizhou, and Li Guohan sent troops to attack Kuidong's army.

"Azig descended from the southwest of the mountain, captured Huaiqing, and drove straight to Kaifeng!"

This is the worst news, if Azig occupies Kaifeng, Wang Pu's army will be cut off, and without material supplies, it will become a lone army, but Wang Pu will stay in Kaifeng to guard heavy troops, if he can return in time to help, he should be able to hold Kaifeng.

And because of Li Dingguo's sudden southward movement of Henan, most of the area was very empty, and Azig easily reoccupied Henan.

April 5th.

"The Son of Heaven has abandoned the country!"

The worst news came.

Yang Chao's eyes closed: "It's a failure!" ”

Then he suddenly felt his blood surging up, and he fainted all of a sudden. (To be continued......)