Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 301 Rise and Fall

Gu Yanwu looked at the mighty army and said to Meng Jun with some emotion: "Jingchu is the gateway to the southeast, with millions of households. If Your Majesty obtains it, the world will be stable, but if you lose it, the country will be in danger. In the past, Lu Hang once said, "If it survives, Wu will survive, and if it is lost, Wu will perish." Wuchang is a place of prosperity in Jingchu, and it has always been a place that military strategists must fight for!"

Meng Jun said on his warhorse without looking back: "There are many places in the world that must be fought for. In the north-south confrontation, Xuzhou is the center of the world. Xiangyang, Wuchang, Hanzhong, none of them is unimportant. In the east-west confrontation, there are Zhengzhou, Xinyang, Kaizhou (now Puyang) and even Tongguan and Luoyang. Everywhere is a place for military strategists to fight for."

Gu Yanwu smiled upon hearing this and said, "Your Majesty, what you said makes sense, but isn't Wuchang a key location in this decisive battle in Huguang?"

"I want to take Huguang, but Dorgon is not willing to give it to me easily, so the war started. I gathered troops, and Dorgon also mobilized troops. The war between the two sides has intensified, and now both sides have used all their strength, just like gamblers at the gambling table, putting all the chips in their hands!"

Gu Yanwu was silent for a while after hearing this, and then he slowly said: "Tens of millions of people and the country are like gambling. Is your Majesty's wording inappropriate?"

Meng Jun looked back at Gu Yanwu and said in a deep voice: "In the battle, there may be a brilliant person who is sure to win, but I have personally experienced the battle for several years and I dare not say that I will win. Since there is no certainty of winning, what is the difference between this and gambling!"

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Meng Jun personally led the army. The central army included Changlin Town, Bai Yongfu's Guwu Town, Qian Biao's Wuning Town, Wang Deren's Pingdu Town, 10,000 soldiers equipped with firearms to break the enemy's will, 5,000 heavily armored soldiers, and 21,000 service soldiers. The total number of central army was 76,000.

The vanguard was led by Lin Shiqi, whose troops conquered Wu Town, Liang Sanhu's Wusheng Town, and Wu Tiao's Wuping Town. There were more than 2,600 cavalrymen, and the total number of the vanguard troops was more than 32,600. At this time, Lin Shiqi had already entered Daye County. Scout Li He made another contribution and captured two Qing soldiers alive. It turned out that the Qing army in Daye County at that time was just a team of scout cavalry.

Therefore, after obtaining sufficient intelligence, Lin Shiqi used Huang Cheng's cavalry, Yesen, to drive out the Qing army from Daye County. He then left troops to garrison Yangxin City, while the vanguard marched forward and entered Daye County.

The troops of Wang Fugui and Zhang Yingwei deployed in the direction of Xianning also had 20,000 people.

There are nearly 130,000 combat soldiers, plus the Zheng family infantry on the flank of Meng Jun's central army, a total of 40,000 people, more than 350 warships on the river, and nearly 30,000 naval forces. Even though the Zheng family's infantry is not strong in combat skills, and Zhou's army also has four newly built troops, but on the battlefield in the direction of Wuchang, Meng Jun's number of people is already close to twice that of the Qing army, with a naval and land army of 200,000, which is an extremely large military force.

But Meng Jun also knew that numerical advantage could not guarantee victory, so Meng Jun was not in a hurry to fight. He was more cautious and sent scouts everywhere to guard against surprise attacks by the Qing army. Military discipline must be strictly enforced wherever the army is stationed, and no slackness is allowed when setting up camp.

Meng Jun also ordered the Zheng family's navy to blockade the river surface of the Qing army, trying to prevent the Qing army from transporting supplies through the river. Faced with the blockade of the river surface by the Zheng family's navy, the Qing army did not sit idly by, but took a series of countermeasures.

The Qing army built a large number of artillery batteries on both sides of the river to attack the ships of the Zheng family navy. Once the ships of the Zheng family navy approached, they would be fired upon by the artillery batteries, forcing the ships of the Zheng family navy to move away, thus ensuring the Qing court's supply line from the north. However, the only drawback of this was that the red cannons that came with the army were consumed on the artillery batteries and could not accompany the army into battle.

At the same time, the Qing army built a large number of rafts in Hanyang, upstream of the river, and used these rafts to transport supplies to the Qing army marching south.

Although the Qing army no longer had a strong naval force after the destruction of the Guazhou navy, it still had a small navy in Honghu Lake in Wuchang, with more than a hundred warships. However, these warships were not as good as those of the Zheng family, and were not even a little bit inferior to those of Shen Tingyang's navy.

However, even with these small warships, under the cover of the artillery, they were still able to maintain the Qing army's food supply route upstream and not be blocked by Zheng's navy.

Zheng Chenggong repeatedly failed to break through the Wuchang waterway, and instead lost six warships and more than 300 naval personnel. An enraged Zheng Chenggong mobilized 20,000 infantry and used the navy to transport them across the river to attack De'an Prefecture.

Zheng Chenggong was arrogant and proud. He thought that although it was reasonable for him to use the military rations used by his army, it was still a loss of face. Therefore, as soon as Zheng Chenggong's troops crossed the Yangtze River and attacked De'an Prefecture, they collected rations on the spot wherever they went. Regardless of whether they were soldiers or civilians, those who did not fight were all treated as Tartars. The killing was excessive, and the villagers in De'an Prefecture were terrified when they heard about Zheng.

When Meng Jun received the news, he couldn't help feeling annoyed. Zheng Sen was an arrogant person with a decisive and extreme character. The people had no choice but to shave their heads, but to treat this as a crime was a bit indiscriminate.

Meng Jun then sent a letter to Zheng Sen, saying: "Those who have received the gift are righteous people, and those who have not received the gift are refugees. Guo Xing has acted in this way, and the people of Huguang are all worried. Once this happens, everyone will turn against you. I hope Guo Xing will think twice!"

After receiving the letter, Zheng Chenggong snorted coldly and threw it aside. Although he was extremely disdainful of Meng Jun's hypocritical attitude, he still ordered that fewer people should be killed when collecting military pay.

The longer he stayed in this era, the less admiration Meng Jun had for these celebrities. Perhaps it was because he had already held a high position, or perhaps it was because Meng Jun discovered that these celebrities were just ordinary people. As for Zheng Sen, Meng Jun felt that this man was too arrogant. No wonder more than 100,000 elite soldiers could not capture the city of Nanjing.

The total strength of both sides was nearly 500,000 troops, gathering in Huguang. In Huguang, the sky seemed to be shrouded in heavy clouds of war.

The huge army was like a dark cloud pressing down on one's head, making people feel suffocated. Under the shadow of war, many people from nearby towns and villages began to flee, and they began their escape with fear of the unknown.

Some of them came with their families, some were elderly people who walked unsteadily, and some were children who were held in the arms of their adults, their faces filled with fear and confusion.

Among the fleeing crowd, there was a middle-aged man carrying a tattered package on his back and holding the hand of a little girl of five or six years old, who was his daughter.

The man's face was covered with dust and sweat, his eyes were full of fatigue. He looked back at his hometown with a sad expression. After a long while, he said with emotion: "When will the peaceful and prosperous times come?"

The fleeing people were like a group of sheep driven by war, or like fallen leaves, swaying in the wind and finally disappearing on the distant horizon.

When a country prospers, the people suffer; when a country perishes, the people suffer. This is truly a true saying!

On the seventeenth day of the first lunar month in the third year of the Yongli reign, Meng Jun's troops officially arrived at Daye City, and Duoduo was already close at hand. The scouts of both sides had already begun to fight each other. It was as the saying goes, strategies were planned in the temple, and life and death were fought on the narrow road.