Because of the war in Nanzhili, Zhejiang has been under considerable pressure to hold elections at all levels, but the vast majority of those who have signed up for the elections said that they will do their best to put Zhejiang on the track of war and defend Zhejiang's political rights by force after they take office. Xia Wanchun did not doubt the loyalty of these people to the Nanming government, and Shunting might be able to buy a few of them, which was only possible if the Shun army had military superiority, but it was absolutely impossible for Shunting to buy a provincial secretary - in the face of the Nanming regime that returned government to the people, Shunting could not take so many benefits.

"The so-called Great Condensation Country of the sages refers to our new policy," although he has the official position of the Duke of Qi, Xia Wanchun has no intention of allegiance to the Duke of Qi, as far as he knows, the Zhejiang Provisional Secretary Yuan is very worried that the Zhejiang soldiers will be sent to serve in the first five armies in the future, and they plan to pass a motion after the establishment of the formal Provincial Secretary Yuan - that is, the volunteers of Zhejiang must serve in the army that obeys the authority of the military judges of the Constituent Assembly.

This motion is actually to say no to the military power that has always been completely in the hands of the Duke of Qi (although theoretically the replenishment of soldiers, material replenishment, and baggage transfer are all attributed to the War Department, when in fact the Northern Expeditionary Army Command still regards the War Department as a subordinate unit, and often directly orders the War Department to provide how many supplementary soldiers or materials to the front-line units in an ordered tone, and the War Department never dares to openly refuse such an order), if this motion is passed, it will be a challenge to the military power of the Qi State. But Xia Wanchun did not plan to report this matter to the Qi State Mansion. During this period of time, Xia Wanchun devoted himself to the construction of the election, contributed all the experience gained from years of travel in the land of China, and cooperated closely with the Zhejiang Provisional Academy.

Xia Wanchun's assistants may be a little uneasy about this, after all, he is the plenipotentiary representative of the government appointed by the Duke of Qi, but Xia Wanchun does not see the slightest intention of putting loyalty to the government first. In response to these reminders, Xia Wanchun replied: "At the beginning, General Xu treated me as a national soldier, but I still carried him away. Xia Wanchun believed that Xu Ping would not blame him for this, and initially Xu Ping promised that they would defend the sage and religion with swords, and that Gu and Xia would rule the country in a thorough Confucian spirit, but Xu Ping was ultimately unable to fulfill his promise; And this time, when Huangshi entrusted him with a heavy responsibility, he also had no reservations about Xia Wanchun like Xu Ping at the beginning, and explained that he put all the people first, and if the interests of the people conflicted with the Duke of Qi, there was no need to consider the latter: "If the Duke of Qi thinks that I have done something wrong, he can remove me from his official position, but as long as I am still in this position for a day, I will have to consider the Qing Yuan, and the order given to me by the Duke of Qi is very clear, it is to build the Zhejiang Qing Yuan and not destroy it." ”

After electing 150 full-fledged members of the Imperial Court on 1 July, Zhejiang's Imperial Yuan proposed at its first meeting a series of agreements on taxation and the recruitment of volunteers to fight against Shun. Previously, Fujian, Liangguang, Jiangxi, and Guizhou Qingyuan all voluntarily joined the war against Shun, but this time the Qi State Mansion still delegated the right to declare war to the official Qingyuan of Zhejiang.

"Before the doctors begin voting, this official makes the following statement on behalf of the Qi State Mansion." Xia Wanchun stood on the podium of the official Qing Yuan, facing the three hundred eyes, and said loudly: "If the Zhejiang Qing Yuan refuses to join the war against Beishun and refuses to pass the tax and conscription orders, the imperial army's army will withdraw from Zhejiang. Xia Wanchun raised an order in his hand: "This is a handwritten order from the Duke of Qi to the officers at all levels of the Seventh Army, ordering this official to choose to open it or return it according to your voting results, regardless of whether the Zhejiang Qingyuan participates in the war or not, the imperial court will not use force to intervene." ”

After finishing speaking, Xia Wanchun stepped down from the podium and sat in the audience to listen to the debate of the Zhejiang Qing Academy. Originally, Xia Wanchun thought that he would be able to see the Zhejiang Secretary of State pass the war appropriation and tax increase motion on the same day, but in fact, the doctors of the Secretary Yuan discussed whether to participate in the war for a whole day, and the most fierce debate was how much military intervention the Provincial Secretary Yuan should demand.

In the afternoon of the next day, with the exception of one doctor, who was opposed to all wars because of his staunch belief in Buddhism, the vast majority of doctors voted in favor of the military proposals, and a few abstained. Immediately after that, the Zhejiang Secretaries' Yuan submitted a request to the Constituent Assembly to participate in the war, and the Secretaries' Yuan of the five provinces promised that they would use all their strength to plunge into the war with Li Shun and would never make peace alone, and the documents sent by the Zhejiang Secretaries' Yuan to the Constituent Assembly also made such a guarantee, but the Zhejiang Secretaries' Yuan added two things that were not previously available: First, whenever there are Zhejiang's children involved in the battle, the Zhejiang Secretaries' Court has the right to know the process of the war decision (with the right to openly discuss and disclose the inside story to the media), If an army bleeds the children of Zhejiang but refuses to provide specific circumstances to the Zhejiang Qing Yuan, the Zhejiang Qing Yuan has the right to suspect that the army discriminates against the Zhejiang children and selects them to carry out mortal tasks, and thus withdraws the authorization of this army to continue to command the Zhejiang volunteers; Second, it is the issue of military judges that Xia Wanchun already knew about before (here the Zhejiang Qing Yuan made a concession, they did not ask the Constituent Assembly to ensure that all Zhejiang soldiers serve in the army where the military judges have full authority), and the Zhejiang Qing Yuan demanded that the previous unwritten tacit understanding be turned into written law, that is, all crimes involving the death penalty must be handed over to the rear criminal officer to deal with, so as to ensure that the prisoners can get a fair and open trial.

"This document is really important." When the Zhejiang Qingyuan solemnly handed over the resolution to the delegates of the Constituent Assembly, Xia Wanchun, who was beside him, commented.

No one doubted that the Zhejiang Imperial Court would choose not to join the war, they had no possibility of independently opposing Li Shun, and both the Imperial Court and the Governor's Office could only survive under the Southern Ming regime, although the Constituent Assembly urgently needed Zhejiang's allegiance, but Zhejiang urgently needed the protection of the Southern Ming army.

This time, however, the Zhejiang Qingyuan submitted these two conditions to the Constituent Assembly as preconditions, and said that if the Constituent Assembly did not agree to their preconditions, then Zhejiang would use the funds to purchase weapons, train and arm volunteers to defend the Zhejiang Qingyuan and the Governor's Palace, and would not hand them over to the command of the Nanming War Department.

The delegates to the Constituent Assembly, who had just taken over this hot potato, smiled bitterly at him after hearing Xia Wanchun's words, Zhejiang can provide a lot of money and materials, and the densely populated Zhejiang can also provide a large number of volunteers - as the war continues, Nanming needs a larger number of additional soldiers. Therefore, the Constituent Assembly will definitely approve the request of the Zhejiang Qing Yuan, especially since they will also think that such a request is very reasonable.

Xia Wanchun knew that the delegates to the Constituent Assembly were not worried about whether the Constituent Assembly would approve the request, and that no one would reject the enormous benefits that Zhejiang could bring because of these two trivial demands – and if they did, how would the doctors explain it to the voters? The exclusion of Zhejiang from the war would be a national sensation, and could the doctors say to the electorate: "Because we want to protect the right of the officers to execute your sons at will, we would rather not let Zhejiang go to war." "What?

The problem is that, according to the principle of equality of the provinces, after the Constituent Assembly has given a benefit to any one province, the other provinces can claim it openly, unless they voluntarily give it up. But the people of Jiangxi may not be too concerned about the affairs of Jiangxi, but the provincial secretaries will never know that Xia Wanchun cannot think of any province that could voluntarily give up this right - if only the soldiers of this province are executed on the front line without trial, and the soldiers of the neighboring provinces can return to their hometowns to be tried, then the doctors who agree to give up this right will be torn to pieces by the angry voters.

And if all six provinces make such a request, it will be a comprehensive challenge to the supremacy of the military power of the Qi State Principality - although the specific requirements are still very vague and the things demanded are insignificant, after all, this is the first time that the Qi State has taken the initiative to invade the scope of Qi Guogong's rights (Qi Guogong has given it on his own initiative before), and it is also a collective act.

"As far as I know, Qi Guogong has always been very tolerant of the Qing Yuan," on the way back to Quanzhou, Xia Wanchun comforted the delegates of the Constituent Assembly again: "Qi Guogong will not care about such a trivial matter with the Constituent Assembly." ”

"Perhaps." The delegates to the Constituent Assembly have been thinking about it for the past few days, and he thinks that he doesn't really understand the mentality of the emperor, and although Yellowstone is not an emperor yet, it seems that it is only a matter of time. And the emperor would often fight back at the slightest challenge with all his might to deter other potential challengers – the Constitutional Representative admits that Duke Qi doesn't look like that kind of person, but who's to say that he hasn't violated his bottom line this time?

"Believe me, Duke Qi will definitely not blame the Constituent Assembly for this." Xia Wanchun helped the Zhejiang Qingyuan complete the election, during which he sacrificed the interests of the Qi State Mansion for the interests of the Qing Yuan more than once, but the Qi State Mansion did praise the work of his work as a public government official, and Qi Guogong wrote to congratulate the Zhejiang Qing Yuan on the successful convening of the meeting, and also told Xia Wanchun that he intended to make him the Minister of Communication between the Qi State Mansion and the Constituent Assembly.

Seeing that the faces of the delegates of the Constituent Assembly were still a little unconfident, Xia Wanchun couldn't help but laugh: "What are you afraid of?" Are you afraid that the Duke of Qi will declare you a rebel and send troops to seal up the Constituent Assembly and arrest all the doctors? ”

"Lord Xia is serious." Although Xia Wanchun has always been friendly to his side, the people in the Constituent Assembly can't help but think of his status as an official of the Qi State Mansion.

"If there is really such an order, it must not be from the hands of Qi Guogong, even if it is from the hands of Qi Guogong, then it must be that it is not his original intention." When Xia Wanchun was in Henan, he also followed the camp to fight in the south and the north, and witnessed the battlefield killing many times, and he said to another person: "Although I am on an errand in the Qi State Mansion, if there is such a chaotic life, I will definitely defend the Constituent Assembly with a rifle." ”

Looking at the somewhat surprised expression on his companion's face, Xia Wanchun smiled and said: "Don't underestimate me, I have been in the camp for a few years, not to mention rifles, even handcuffs and long swords can be played twice, if I were a member of the Constituent Assembly, I would rather die on the steps in front of the parliament than give in to the chaos." ”

When the delegates to the Constituent Assembly heard this, they were silent for a while, and then spoke again in a low voice: "Unlike Lord Xia, I have never touched a rifle or a handcuff in Xia, and I don't know anything about swordsmanship, but if there is such a disorderly life, I would rather die on the steps of the parliament; If there really is such a day, I hope to stand side by side with Lord Xia in front of the gate of the Constituent Assembly. ”

……

After the first election of the Zhejiang Qing Yuan, the Seventh Army also received an order to go north to relieve the siege of Chun, and Commander Li held a meeting of officers above the regimental level at the military headquarters, and his plan was to advance steadily and steadily with two divisions in turn. Everywhere they went, a division dug trenches and fortified them, establishing a solid position to cover the other division's advance, and so on and so on, slowly approaching Chunhua.

This plan sounded very similar to Yi Meng's strategy of relieving Jinzhou back then, with 30,000 troops carrying a large number of baggage slowly rolling to the target.

Yi Meng, the "...... of the military seat", immediately raised questions, he pointed out that the pressure on such an army was very great, because it had to protect a large number of baggage, so the speed of action would definitely not be fast, and there was no mobility at all for the Shun army. It is conceivable that the Seventh Army will definitely be taken care of by the enemy throughout the whole process like the troops that relieved the siege of Jinzhou, and an army that walks so slowly is easy to find opportunities in the locality.

"Speaking of the Battle of Songjin...... Commander Li admitted that the battle gave him a lot of inspiration, but Commander Li thought that they would definitely not make the mistakes that Hong Chengchou would make, and the Ming army would not take the military grain depot with him this time, and then carefully advanced towards Chunhua.

Yi Meng felt that this was an impossible task, and when he was in Kaifeng, Pu Guanshui took all the baggage with him, which resulted in the new army not being able to go far in a day, and it was even slower than a turtle crawling under the harassment of the Shun army; What's more, at that time, the Shun army did not pose much threat to the Ming army's grain route, and Puguanshui had always been able to get supplies and reinforcements from the rear.

And this time in the face of the much stronger Shun army, Commander Li planned to defend all the baggage by the combat troops and advance together, not to mention whether it could be done, the mobility would definitely be worse than the battle of Puguanshui; Moreover, Yi Meng and Zhao Ning were very skeptical that Commander Li could do this, the closer they got to the main force of the Shun army, the more frequently they would be harassed by the other party, they both thought that no matter how good Commander Li thought at the moment, in the end he would still have to divide his troops to guard the grain road, and it was unimaginable that tens of thousands of combat troops would automatically give up their mobility and be beaten together with the baggage troops.

However, Commander Li was unmoved, and Shunjun showed that he was helpless against Chunhua, and was encouraged by this to plan to follow suit, and he called the core idea of his plan "anti-guest-oriented", to force Xu Ping to take the initiative to attack his fortified stronghold through constant oppression.

"The instruction of the Northern Expeditionary Army Command!" This kind of strategic thinking is not only Commander Li's own, but also embodies the thinking of the Northern Expeditionary Army Command, and on this instruction that Commander Li just came up, Jin Qiude ordered that all Ming armies should not engage in field battles with the field troops of the Shun Army under the personal command of Xu Ping when their numbers were less than three times the number.

"Lord Jin doesn't know the situation on our side, and I've never heard of the possibility of breaking the siege without fighting a field battle." Yi Meng and Chen Ning still opposed Commander Li's plan to break the siege, in fact, the Northern Expeditionary Army Command was not very much in favor of lifting the siege immediately, but the War Department thought that the time was almost up, and the Constitution Division's side was becoming more and more dangerous—its forces were still being consumed. In the end, the command of the Northern Expeditionary Army, which was far away in Jiangxi, reluctantly agreed that the Seventh Army in Zhejiang would launch an operation to relieve the siege against the main force of the Shun Army, but the four armies in Jiangxi would not immediately cooperate in the operation.

"Could it be that General Yi plans to let the Seventh Army fight against Xu Thief in the field?"

"If it's the main force, of course not, but if it's a weak team, maybe you can take a look." Chen Ning felt that the Northern Expeditionary Army Command was a little too cautious: "How can there be a reason why you can't fight if you can't reach three times the number of troops?" Chen Ning felt that this was to give the initiative to the other party, Xu Ping led the main force of the Shun army to watch on the side, and the Ming army dragged his family and slowly rubbed on the opponent's territory, and in the end, most of them had to end up with the battle of Songjin.

However, Commander Li was still determined to carry out the instructions of the Northern Expeditionary Army, he pointed out that the artillery of the Ming army was much stronger than that of the Shun army, so he planned to use artillery as the main lethality, and the infantry was mainly used to build and defend fortifications, Commander Li believed that no matter how cunning the Shun army was, as long as the Ming army had the idea of never fighting in the field, then sooner or later the Shun army would have to hold a certain defensive line to prevent the Ming army from breaking the siege for Chun, and at this time the Ming army could carry out a long-term artillery battle and consume the opponent with overwhelming firepower.

"Hong Chengchou also thought so back then, and he had a greater advantage over his cannon in the north." Yi Meng retorted.

"Does Division Commander Yi think that Hong Chengchou's army can be compared to our current army?" Commander Li felt that Yi Meng's comparison of the Seventh Army with the Songjin Ming Army, which had fled after camping, was an insult to the Seventh Army.

"But does the military seat think that Xu Ping on the other side is the same as the Beiyu?" Yi Meng thought that there were many kinds of so-called siege relief, and he strongly advocated not to get too close to Chunhua, but to actively swim around Ying Tianfu to harass the Shun army, after all, now the Ming army has the intelligence advantage brought by airships.

"Airships can also bring artillery advantages," Commander Li immediately retorted that due to the appearance of airships, Xu Ping's positional warfare has become more unfavorable, and he could have used low walls or terrain to secretly organize counterattack troops, but now these deployed Ming troops can be seen clearly with airships, and Commander Li feels that giving full play to the role of airships in the war can greatly reduce Xu Ping's command advantage.

Yi Meng and Zhao Ning were originally going to fight, but they were persuaded by Wang Qinian and Ji Xinghui, saying that everyone should not be rash first, and then talk about it after thinking about it.

"The most ridiculous thing about Junzuo's plan is not what Xu Ping will do to prevent us from breaking the siege, but what will we do if Xu Ping doesn't stop us from breaking the siege?" In addition to the camp gate, Wang Qinian immediately said: "The military seat does not dare to fight in the field at all, so even if Xu Ping does not stop us from breaking the siege at all and puts us all the way into Chunhua, then what?" And then what do we do? There's not enough food there for three divisions, right? Do we want three divisions to alternately cover and then break out of the fortress all the way from Chunhua? Or rub it to Longtan? ”

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