December 28, the twelfth year of Kangxi in the Qing Dynasty, Xi'an Mansion.

At this time, this important town of Guanlong is a lively scene before the arrival of the New Year.

Under the rule of the Qing Dynasty, most of the cities with flag troops stationed in the same place as Beijing implemented the system of occupying houses and full cities (flag cities) in a very inauthentic way. It's to take all the best pieces of the city!

The specific method is to drive the original residents away, forcibly occupy the house and the property in the house, and do not give any compensation, it seems that only Geng Jimao found a little compensation in Fuzhou.

And these Eight Banners soldiers who occupy houses are generally quite dark, and they usually forcibly occupy a large area where they can't use it at all, for example, in Xi'an, it occupies about 30% of the urban area. Its area includes all of the original Ming Dynasty Qin Palaces and the seven streets and ninety-four lanes in the northeast corner of Xi'an Mansion City led by Xianning County!

In that large area, there were five Eight Banner soldiers and less than 20,000 family members, a total of 20,000 people.

Moreover, after these black-hearted Eight Banners soldiers occupy the real estate that they can't live in at all, they also have to isolate the flag and the Han - isolate them with the city wall!

Usually one or more walls were built in the city where they were stationed to separate the area they occupied from the Han people's settlement. In this way, even if the Hermes-Epitek rebelled, it would not be easy to break into the city. At the same time, the isolation of the Han and the Han can also prevent the garrison of the Eight Banners from mingling with the Han people. How could the noble banner man mix with the Han people? What should I do if I want to learn it well?

Therefore, under the rule of the Qing Dynasty, all the flag cities except Beijing were sparsely populated ghost towns, with more empty houses than people, and there were no shops on the streets.

Of course, Xi'an Flag City is no exception, the originally prosperous and lively Seven Streets and Ninety-four Alleys have been empty and dilapidated. By the time Emperor Kangxi came to Xi'an to "hunt in the west", half of the houses had collapsed or were half collapsed.

However, the arrival of Kangxi miraculously reversed the process of "ghost city" and "ruinization" of Xi'an, and began to prosper.

At the end of the twelfth year of Kangxi, even if the weather in Xi'an was cold, it snowed heavily. Among the seven streets and ninety-four lanes of Xi'an, there are still crowds of people everywhere. The shops along the street that have been closed for I don't know how many years are now mostly leased by Shanxi businessmen who came to Xi'an with the Kangxi Emperor. Cloth and silk shops, rice and noodle shops, dried fruit shops, sauce gardens, furniture stores, grocery stores, restaurants and restaurants, as well as Qinglou Chu Restaurant, etc., are all booming businesses.

And the people who take care of the trading of these shops are a group of men and women who operate Beijing films, and their shots are far more generous than the group of men and women who have been stationed in Xi'an for a long time. These men and women who Beijing films, of course, are the children of the Eight Banners and the Eight Banners sisters who came to "West Hunting" with Emperor Kangxi from Beijing.

Emperor Kangxi obviously had a very accurate understanding of the arduousness of the "Battle of the West Hunt", and when he announced the imperial expedition, he knew that he had to slowly consume Wu Sangui in Xi'an, and the fight was a lasting. And then the idea of wanting a quick win is unrealistic.

And in order for himself and his subordinates to hold on to Xi'an, his imperial expedition this time is almost like moving the capital, and half of Beijing City has followed!

Kangxi himself brought his wife and children, the palace maid and eunuch, to Xi'an to live a small life, and the people under him also have to live! Even if they had not brought their families and slaves to Shaanxi and Gansu at the beginning, in the following months, their wives and children in Beijing were escorted to Shaanxi and Gansu by the various banners to which they belonged.

All the families and servants of the Eight Banners, whether they are the family members of the time-honored Manqi and Mengqizi, or the families of the unreliable Han Eight Banners, or the families of the original households, account holders, and Baoyi slaves who are newly carried up, are all unified in Xi'an Mancheng, and are protected by Emperor Kangxi with the escort army!

The flag soldiers stationed on the northwest front will return to Xi'an in phases and batches to reunite with their families and create small flag men for the Qing Dynasty.

In other words, now the wives and children of the Eight Banners in the northwest have all been received by the amiable little Emperor Kangxi to Xi'an, which is seventy or eighty thousand people!

So many people moved to Xi'an Mancheng together, and the originally empty Seventh Street and Ninety-fourth Lane was suddenly crowded with "compiled" banner people. Although in the past two years, as the world has become more and more chaotic, the finances of the Qing Dynasty have become more and more difficult, and the "harvest" of the hardcore crops of the banner people has not been as good as in the past, but the harvest has not been exhausted after all.

When it was approaching the end of the year, Kangxi gritted his teeth and took out a large sum of silver from the increasingly empty treasury, and gave a New Year's reward to the families of the banner family in Xi'an. So that the Eight Banners sisters and Eight Banners children, who had been frightened for more than half a year, ate, drank and spent money around the New Year Festival in the thirteenth year of Kangxi, and his generosity also made Xi'an Mancheng have a kind of sick prosperity at the turn of the year.

Emperor Kangxi's line was located in the palace of the Qin King of the Ming Dynasty in the southwest corner of Mancheng. This Qin Wangfu is said to be a house, in fact, it is also a city, and the area is not small, with two circles of inner and outer city outlines, the outer outline is called Xiao Wall, and the inner city is called the brick wall. And the total area of the Qin Palace, even twice as large as the Forbidden City in Beijing! Even if you only count the area within the brick walls of the inner city, it is equivalent to half the size of the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Therefore, after the condensed version of the palace and the imperial court brought by Kangxi moved into the Qin Palace, Xi'an, it did not feel crowded at all.

Moreover, the tall and sturdy city walls of Xi'an and the Xiao wall and brick wall of Xi'an, which are no worse than the Xi'an city wall, also gave Emperor Kangxi a great sense of security. Whenever he was worried about the battle situation on the Northwest Front, as long as he climbed the brick wall of Xi'an and looked at the majestic fortified city under his feet, he could immediately become full of confidence.

Today is the twenty-eighth day of the lunar month, and the yamen in Xi'an, except for the military department, has been sealed and no longer works. Kangxi, who had just come down from the brick wall, was walking on a small building in the back garden, holding a wine party, drinking and chatting with a few henchmen and ministers of the guard. A warm curtain was set up on the small building, and a charcoal basin was set up. The building is warm and warm like spring. Several Portuguese ladies from the palace poured wine and served food for the emperor and his ministers.

Outside the warm curtain, the scene of the snow covered in silver makeup, although there is a different scene, but remembering the scene of the Spring Festival in Beijing last year, the ministers present are a little unable to cheer up. And Kangxi looked a little lazy, a pair of triangular eyes always staring at the breasts of a palace maid from Portugal with a collar and looking quite graceful!

After watching it for a while, Kangxi probably felt that the mood of the big guy was a little low, so he withdrew his gaze from the "bulging place", took another sip of wine, and then squeezed out a little smile, and said with a smile: "The eight-hundred-mile delivery I received this morning was sent by Mingzhu from Yangzhou, Zhu Wei and Geng Wei have agreed to divide the river and rule, and are ready to hold negotiations with Mingzhu on specific matters in Yangzhou City!" It seems that Zhu Wei and Geng Wei have fallen for my plan, and really thought that I would let them go of this group of traitors! ”

Hearing Kangxi's tone of voice, Suo Etu smiled as if he were in the middle of the situation: "Your Majesty, you are really strategizing and winning thousands of miles away!" The rebels in Jiangning must now use their troops in Taiping Mansion and Chizhou Mansion to prevent Li Zicheng from going down the river after Prince Kang evacuated Jiujiang. This can give Prince An the opportunity to take advantage of the Spring Festival to raid Jiangning, maybe Prince An can succeed in one blow and directly attack Jiangning City, quelling the southeast rebellion for the emperor. The ministers are here, congratulating the emperor. ”

Although the current Qing Dynasty still maintains a fairly strong armed force, the number of banner troops that have completed the "new army" (in fact, it is more reasonable and equipped with more firearms) is about 100,000, and the green battalion of the new army is almost the same. As for the green battalion soldiers who have not yet been newly armified, they are still very scattered, and there are still as many as two or three hundred thousand on the books!

In addition, the army of Inner Mongolia, including the Chahar Eight Banners and the Tumut Two Banners, can also pull out about 56,000 after Fuquan's rectification!

Taken together, these miscellaneous armies add up to no less than half a million troops!

Counting the heads, it's still quite impressive!

It's just that this considerable army is now divided into four main directions, such as Shaanxi and Gansu, Liangjiang, Fujian and Zhejiang, and the Central Plains, and at the same time, it also has to garrison and defend on the currently stable territory such as Guanwai's hometown, Shanxi, Shandong, and Beizhili, so the strength is actually quite stretched.

If Kangxi could win first in one of the four battlefields that had to be armed, then his forces would immediately become more abundant.

And if Kangxi wants to win in Shaanxi and Gansu, he has to defeat the 50,000 elites of the Wu family led by Wu Yingqi and Wu Shicong's father and son in one fell swoop. This is obviously impossible!

And to relieve the danger in the direction of the Central Plains, then the Qing army must recover Xiangyang. It seems to be quite difficult!

As for the direction of Fujian and Zhejiang. The Qing army faced two great enemies, Zheng Jing and Geng Jingzhong, who stayed in Fujian, and Wang Fuchen, who could join the battlefield at any time! If you want to maintain it, it is impossible to win quickly.

So the only chance now is Liangjiang!

In order to win a quick victory in Liangjiang, Kangxi had given up the Huguang battlefield, which could still be maintained, strengthened the coefficient of Yue Le's department to the Jiangdong battalion, and also strengthened the strength of the three battalions in Jiangbei, Jiangxi and Jiangnan, so that the total strength of the Qing army on the Liangjiang battlefield was as high as 1340,000.

At the same time, he also used a "river row and rule" to paralyze the third prince of Zhu, who had just appeared in Jiangning and reopened the Ming Dynasty.

Now it can be said that everything is ready, only the east wind is owed!

Just when Kangxi thought about it more and more he felt that he had the chance to win, a report from Xiao Guizi's father-in-law suddenly came from outside the small building: "Your Majesty, the military department is still in the dark and has an urgent military request to see you." ”

Urgent military affairs?

Kangxi frowned, and just said one word: "Xuan!" ”

As soon as the words fell, the warm curtain hanging at the door of the small building was lifted, and the cold wind blew in, which made Kangxi feel refreshed, he turned his eyes to the door, and saw that Sai Sehei, who replaced Mingzhu as the head of the military department, was holding a wooden box in his hand, frowned and walked in quickly, and then lifted his robe and knelt down towards him.

"The servant Sesehei respectfully invites the emperor to be sainte."

"Bow down!" Kangxi replied, "Plug the color black, where did you get the urgent military report?" ”

"Back to the emperor, there are two urgent military reports, one is jointly signed by the governor of Henan and the governor of Henan; The other is from the deputy general of Shangzhou, Shaanxi. ”

"What? Shangzhou lieutenant general? Kangxi was stunned, "Take the military report from Shangzhou to me first!" ”

It is normal for the governor of Henan and the governor of Henan to send troops to Xi'an, and the direction of the Central Plains they are responsible for is also very important, although it has not started yet, but there may be a war at any time!

But what kind of military report did the adjutant general of Shangzhou report? Could it be that Wu Yingxiong will still send troops to the military pass?

"Huh!" Sehei immediately opened the wooden box, took out a military report placed on it, and handed it to a eunuch waiting for Kangxi with both hands.

The eunuch took the military newspaper and unfolded it, and after making sure that there was no poison in it, he handed it over to the Qing Emperor.

Kangxi took the military newspaper and read it, and after only reading a few lines, he exclaimed: "Impossible!" That's impossible. Wu Yingxiong must be making a feint! ”

"Your Majesty, what happened?" Suo Etu saw Kangxi messing up again, and hurriedly followed to inquire.

Kangxi put down the military newspaper in his hand, his triangular eyes narrowed, his numb face was calm, and he said in a solemn tone: "Wu Yingxiong has moved Nanyang, most of them have been lost!" Now there are still tens of thousands of Wu troops marching to Wuguan on the road of business! ”

"Tens of thousands of Wu troops are coming to Wuguan?" Suo Etu gasped, "Does he want to raid Xi'an?" ”

"Impossible, impossible" Kangxi shook his head, "How is it possible?" Even if he led tens of thousands of troops into Wuguan, it would be impossible to break Xi'an! Unless." He suddenly thought of something, and asked again, "Sehei, is there any news from Fengxiang Mansion and Pingliang Mansion?" ”

"Nope." Se Se Hei replied, "Wu Yingqi's army has been resting since the capture of Lanzhou Mansion. And the cold weather in Gansu is better than Guanzhong! Longxi is mountainous again, and the mountain roads are blocked by heavy snow at this time, and there is no way to walk at all, and Wu Yingqi has no road to pass even if he wants to send troops. ”

"That's it!" Kangxi nodded, "Even if Wu Sangui wants to send troops from Hanzhong, he can't take the mountain road in the Qinling Mountains, right?" Qinling is also white at this time! ”

It was quite cold this year, and it was still in the Xiaoice River period, although it was much warmer than Chongzhen year, but the northwest mountainous area of the cold winter and the moon was still difficult to pass. As soon as it snowed heavily, I couldn't leave immediately.

Even if Wu Sangui and Wu Yingqi want to send troops to cooperate with Wu Yingxiong, they will have to wait until the ice and snow melt in spring.

Se Sehei said: "Your Majesty, do you think there is such a possibility?" This Wu Yingxiong is playing Lonely Army? ”

"Alone? How is this possible? How could he have such bear bile? Kangxi shook his head, and then he saw the box in Sehei's hand again, "Show me the military reports of Amida and Tong Fengcai." ”

"Huh!"

Sehei immediately handed over the military report jointly sent by the military and political leaders of Henan Province to Kangxi.

Kangxi took a look at the military report, and it turned out that it was a report on the loss of Nanyang, and the loss of Nanyang was actually in the plan!

Nanyang and Xiangyang both belong to a basin, and Xiangyang has natural risks to rely on, and it has been a strong city of iron since ancient times. But Nanyang is a bit unsafe to defend, usually Xiangyang is lost, Nanyang is difficult to defend. Unless it is the weak party that controls Xiangyang, it is not able to move north at all, so Nanyang will naturally sit back and relax. But the old Wu family is not a weak party now, they have the strength to take Nanyang and approach Luoyang and Kaifeng.

And the Qing court's method of Wu Yingxiong is a bit of a "flexible defense", and Nanyang is ready to give up! Even Ruzhou and Xuzhou are ready to give up. First use Nanyang, Ruzhou, and Xuzhou in exchange for time and wear down the spirit of the Wu army, and then stick to Luoyang and Kaifeng to wait for reinforcements, and finally the Zhili army went south, and the garrison of Xi'an came in the east to attack the west and north, and defeated the enemy in one fell swoop!

Of course, in the eyes of Kangxi and others, Wu Yingxiong's main target should be Jingzhou!

If Wu Yingxiong and Wu Guogui join forces, there will be an army of 100,000! The 100,000 army is attacking from the north and south, not to mention Jingzhou, and the even more dangerous Yuezhou can't hold it!

Therefore, Wu Yingxiong's attack on Nanyang was originally a feint, with the purpose of pushing the Qing army farther away from Xiangyang. In this way, Wu Yingxiong and Wu Yingqi can feel at ease and become Li Zicheng.

And now Wu Yingxiong is going to Xi'an if he is vigorous. Is he and Li Zicheng still on fire?

Could it be that Wu Guogui should go to "cross the river in white" and attack Jingzhou?

"Your Majesty," Sehei reminded, "we don't have many troops in Wuguan, as long as there is only one guard camp in the entire Shangzhou, we will have 1,500 people. If Wu Yingxiong really sent tens of thousands of troops, then Wuguan would not be able to hold it. Let's send reinforcements to Shangzhou as soon as possible! ”

Send reinforcements?

Emperor Kangxi was a little embarrassed, sending reinforcements for the New Year?

And now the banner army of Shaanxi and Gansu all take turns to come to Xi'an to recuperate. After they returned to Xi'an from the front, they had to reunite with their families and live at home every day. Wait until the end of the holiday to put on your sleeve and go back to the front.

And the Ganxi front fought very hard a while ago, and many people died in the battle of Qinzhou! The morale of the flag army is a little low, if they don't take turns to rest and don't give a good rest, they have to go to Wuguan to set up defenses.

"Your Majesty," Suo Etu said, "why don't you send the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, who is stationed in Xi'an, to Wuguan!" ”

"Camp Green?" Kangxi frowned, "The green camp will also complain, right?" ”

If the green camp complains, will it defect to Wu Sangui?

To be honest, Kangxi doesn't believe in Green Camp more and more now. Even if he wants to use the green battalion now, he will put the green battalion and the flag soldiers together, let the green camp be used as cannon fodder, and use the flag soldiers to hold back.

"Look again" Kangxi thought for a while, and also rejected Suo Etu's proposal, "The Wu army must be a feint, how can they enter the customs?" It's simply impossible! ”

He smiled and said, "Sai Sehei, you give a military card to the Shangzhou Association, let them close the Wuguan, cut down more trees to block the road, and don't fight with Wu Junlang." I believe that it will not be long before the Wu army will retreat. ”

(End of chapter)