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Text Chapter 57 Night Fight (Part 1)

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    In the third year of Kangxi and at the end of the nineteenth year of Yongli, the Qing government launched an offensive against northern Sichuan.  At the beginning of the next year, it suffered an unprecedented defeat, and since then it has completely lost its military deterrence power against the South.

    The central court of the Ming Dynasty, headed by Grand Scholar Yang Zaiyang, immediately wanted to further promote Deng¡¯s name in the name of Emperor Yongli.  Deng Ming declined the offer to promote him to county king, but hinted that he hoped for a higher promotion in his position.

    After some research, Yang reopened the Governor's Office in the name of the Emperor of Heaven, and planned to grant Deng the title of General of the Conqueror, which was also the highest official position a military general could receive.  Although Zhu Yuanzhang stopped conferring the post of general to conquest generals, reopening the governor's office seemed to be a violation of the ancestral system.  However, Zhu Yuanzhang never awarded a prince to a person with a foreign surname. From this perspective, the title given by Yongli to the three princes of Nanming had set a precedent.

    Soon after Deng Ming happily accepted the highest position as a warrior, fierce turmoil occurred again in the south.

    Due to the disastrous defeat in northern Sichuan, the Qing court had no choice but to hand over the governance of Fujian and Guangdong to monk Geng Jimao, making them two vassals of an independent kingdom like Wu Sangui.  However, the Qing government was a little slow in handling Guangxi. Sun Yanling could not compare with his father-in-law Kong Youde in terms of qualifications and strength, and his control over Guangxi was also very limited, so he failed to take advantage of this opportunity.

    Sun Yanling, who had gained nothing, was of course very dissatisfied with this. He began to openly complain to his subordinates, saying that the main force of the Qing government could not defeat the Sichuan Army first, and then the Kuidong Army and the Eastern Zhejiang Army supported by the Sichuan Army. Now it could not even defeat the farmers in western Sichuan.  - The most embarrassing thing for the Qing court in northern Sichuan was that the Hexi elite led by the famous general Zhao Liangdong, who was much touted by the Qing court, was actually almost completely destroyed by the Western Sichuan Peasant Self-Defense Force of Jiangyou generation.  Although the Qing court tried to explain that the farmers in western Sichuan were not farmers in the ordinary sense, this was completely smeared. Sun Yanling and others had no intuitive impression of the combat effectiveness of the Sichuan army, and concluded that the elite of the Qing court had become rotten. In this case  , actually still clinging to power, shows that the current court has no self-awareness at all.

    Under this situation, Sun Yanling began to collude with Wu Sangui, planning to use the crime of "tong Deng" to attack Huguang Governor Zhang Changgeng.

    In Guangxi, which had relatively little information, Zhang Changgeng in Wuchang was horrified by the combat effectiveness of western Sichuan. He read many reports about the battle in northern Sichuan from newspapers.  Before the regular Ming army and the main force of the Qing court entered the battlefield, Zhao Liangdong faced only Jiangyou's militia.  Moreover, famous general Zhao also had the advantage of a surprise attack. At first, Zhao Liangdong used Han Xin's old trick of building a plank road to cross Chencang secretly. When Jieshu announced that he was going to Chongqing, he secretly sent elite soldiers with a small amount of food on their backs to sneak across Jiange and raid Jiangyou day and night;  It was true that they failed to respond at the first moment. When the vanguard of the Qing army approached the Jiangyou area, the regular Ming army had not yet received the news.

    Jiangyou is vast and sparsely populated, but each farmer owns a large amount of land and produces abundant food. Therefore, farmers raise their own horses and sell them to mule and horse dealers in western Sichuan.  When Zhao Liangdong invaded Jiangyou, every local farmer had a horse, and each family had several rifles.  What shocked Zhang Changgeng the most was that newspapers in western Sichuan detailed the feats of a farmer named Kuang Taiping in defending his homeland.  This man refused to provide food to the Qing army's grain requisition team, and hid in his barn with his wife and two-year-old child to resist.  There were ten people in the Qing army's grain requisition squad. Kuang Taiping killed five of them with his rifle. Then he rode horseback to pursue the fleeing Qing army and hacked to death three more.  The next day, the Qing army mobilized hundreds of armored soldiers, led by a Qian general, and used spears, swords and crossbows to attack the barn where the farmers were stationed. Several more people were killed by rifles.  At this time, Kuang Taiping's brother-in-law, Sima Qiudao, heard the news and rushed with more than a dozen surrounding farmers on horseback and armed with guns. He killed the leader Qian on the spot and pursued the victory, killing and wounding dozens of Qing soldiers.  The brothers-in-law became heroes throughout Sichuan and were interviewed by several newspapers after the war.  There was also a farmer who came from Mianzhu to support Kuang Taiping and became a news figure. This Mianzhu farmer was named An Yichen. He was a former friend of Kuang Taiping and was one of the first people to mount a horse and bear a gun after hearing the police.  Many newspapers enthusiastically reported the two men's comradeship among the Mianzhu farmers who rushed to Jiangyou to support them at starry night.

    The Qing army, which was advancing lightly, could not collect food and was immediately in trouble.  Zhao Liangdong's men were beaten to pieces by the peasants, forcing him to personally direct the attack on these armed peasants and also put in his personal military camp.  However, facing the Peasant Dragoon Brigade, which had one man and many horses and each of them had advanced weapons, Zhao Liangdong's heavy infantry was no match and was trapped in the mud.  Ten days later, the Ming army's regular troops had not yet arrived, but thousands of gun-wielding peasant brigades from Mianzhu had arrived on horseback and in carriages for reinforcements. Even Zhao Liangdong's personal barracks had been beaten to the point of losing its combat effectiveness.

    For these reports, most other regions think that they are fantasy, and even Beijing willI am suspicious, and I suspect that the Ming army was mostly bragging. The greater possibility is that the Ming army's regular troops disguised themselves as farmers and ambush Zhao Liangdong, who was unfamiliar with the place.  But Zhang Changgeng had no doubts, so after the Northern Sichuan Campaign ended in the early fourth year of Kangxi's reign, he made up his mind to move closer to Sichuan.  Moreover, at this time, Zhang Changgeng had already received news from Chengdu and Beijing respectively, and knew that Wu Sangui was planning to occupy his territory.  After learning that Sun Yanling was also involved in the conspiracy, Zhang Changgeng mobilized a large number of troops originally deployed in Hubei to Hunan to guard against Wu Sangui and Sun Yanling, and also asked Beijing and Chengdu for help.

    In order to gain support from Chengdu, Zhang Changgeng sold Yuezhou to Li Laiheng at a low price and Zhongxiang to Hao Yaoqi. After receiving the money from Chengdu for selling the land, he gave half of it to Beijing as loyalty fee.  Originally, neither Chengdu nor Beijing was willing to let Wu Sangui enter Hunan. After receiving the benefits, they both expressed their stance and supported Zhang Changgeng to continue to rule Huguang. Because of Zhang Changgeng's land sales, Chengdu felt that Zhang Changgeng was indeed the most suitable candidate to rule Huguang at present.  And Beijing also expressed its understanding for his forced behavior.  Beijing announced that Zhang Changgeng had never acted in collusion with Deng Deng. If Wu Sangui and Sun Yanling started a war without authorization, they would be committing rebellion, and asked them to restrain their behavior. Chengdu said that although it had no collusion with Wuchang, it was sworn to be sworn in with the Qing court.  However, if Wu Sangui and Sun Yanling were neither loyal to the Ming Dynasty nor loyal to the Manchu Qing Dynasty, they would also support Wuchang out of the principle of supporting loyal ministers and righteous men and opposing repeated villains, so as to promote the awe-inspiring righteousness in the world.

    While Wu Sangui continued to secretly appeal to Chengdu and Beijing, he was still intensively preparing to attack Hunan.  His ally Sun Yanling also openly criticized Zhang Changgeng's behavior of selling land and moving troops south, believing that this showed that Wuchang had no intention of resisting the Ming Dynasty and was bent on fighting a civil war with the direct Qing army.

    ¡°If all this has dazzled the world, what happened at the end of the fourth year of Kangxi¡¯s reign became even more exciting.  Wu Sangui finally swore an oath and set out to attack the "Tong Deng" rebels. Sun Yanling provided some food and grass and sent troops to assist in the battle.  As a result, after Wu Sangui got the food and grass, he suddenly purged Sun Yanling's troops, captured Sun Yanling and his son in a surprise attack, put Kong Sizhen under house arrest, annexed the army and land in Guangxi, and declared that Sun Yanling was bent on launching a civil war in the Qing army and was a traitor who "committed to Deng"!

    After the war, Wu Sangui and Zhang Changgeng restored friendship and voluntarily evacuated the troops stationed on the borders of Guizhou, Guangxi and Hunan. At the same time, they also included Sun Yanling's share of Huguang's pay; Zhang Changgeng retained most of his territory.  This prevented Wu Sangui or the Ming army from entering his territory; Beijing and Chengdu also put aside their worries about Hunan; Wu Sangui doubled his territory at once.  Everyone was happy, except Sun Yanling, whose head was missing.

    Because the Ming army regained the two mansions, Academician Yang also removed the word "Zhenglu" from before Deng's official title, and from then on he was called General Deng.  When the Nanyang War was launched this time, after Deng Ming announced the dispatch of troops in a high-profile manner, the daimyo cabinet also announced in a high-profile manner that it would restore the official position of "prime minister" that had been abolished by Ming Taizu, and temporarily let Deng Ming photograph "deputy prime minister" and act on behalf of the prime minister.

    When this war is won, the word "vice" in front of the prime minister will definitely be removed. Everyone knows this, and Deng Ming's men have already begun to call him prime minister.

    "In close combat, it is best to seize the Spanish large ships." After reading out the documents of the academy meeting, Deng Ming sat down with the generals and further elaborated on his combat purpose: "It is very important to keep these Spanish large ships.  Mission, if we simply destroy them, we will certainly gain control of the surrounding seas and can successfully obtain Manila, but the threat from the Dutch is still there."

    Not every naval battle can be predicted. Once it enters a state of war with the Netherlands, the entire South China Sea will no longer be safe.  If they encounter a huge Dutch ship in the vast sea, China's armed merchant ships will become targets without the ability to defend themselves.

    The Spaniards certainly hoped to rely on a decisive battle to destroy the Ming navy, and the Ming army was not the same. Deng Ming hoped that through a few upright naval battles, he could completely destroy the maritime power of Spain and the Netherlands in Southeast Asia, so as to avoid being passively beaten.  maritime engagements and guerrilla warfare.  The Spaniards and the Dutch valued trade, and Deng Ming valued trade no less than his enemies.

    "Only the Spanish large ships have heavy artillery comparable to the Dutch large ships. Only by capturing the Spanish large ships can we penetrate the Dutch's armor when they attack us. By then, these large ships will be Dutch  The primary target of attack is that our small boats can have the opportunity to approach and attack; if the Dutch avoid a decisive battle, we can also use these large ships to protect the waterway. As long as we use new artillery shells, even if our sailors have less actual combat experience, we can fight one-on-one  We can still gain the upper hand over the Dutch." At this point, Deng Ming smiled: "After all, our goal for this expedition is Batavia, not Manila. If we can solve it at once, we don't have to delay it for several years.  come again later.  "

    Therefore, the key to this expedition is the naval battle with the Spanish main fleet. The Ming army not only wants to win, but also seizes the Spanish warships instead of simply destroying them, and also prevents the Spanish ships from escaping; in this battle, not only  There will be large battleships to attract firepower and create opportunities for the Ming army's small battleships to attack progressively. As for the commander of the Ming army, Deng Ming, he had no experience in naval battles.
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