Chongzhen enthusiastically ordered the expedition against Denglai, which stumped the cabinet.
In the previous Chuzhou War, the court spent a lot of money and food to reward meritorious soldiers and to compensate the fallen soldiers.
I thought that the rogue bandits were basically wiped out, and there would be no major wars this year, so it would always be a relief.
Unexpectedly, Yuan Chonghuan ran out and started another war.
If we just send troops to Lai, we can barely sustain it by transferring a batch of grain from Jiangnan.
However, His Majesty was influenced by Yuan Chonghuan's "Five-Year Ping Liao" plan and actually wanted to recruit and train an additional 30,000 Yulin battalion at the same time.
Moreover, not only must the Yulin camp be organized and trained in the capital, but all provinces must also refine new armies and actively prepare for war.
Within one year, each province must train at least 200,000 new troops, ready to go to the battlefield at any time.
This time Coca-Cola spoiled the governors of various provinces, and they withheld the taxes paid to the court on the pretext of training new armies.
And he also took the opportunity to distribute money to the people under his rule.
In order to collect pay to train troops.
Emperor Chongzhen announced that the expenses of the harem would be cut in half. Except for the expenses of the Empress Dowager Zhang Yan, the expenses of everyone including himself were halved.
He also called on ministers to donate money for military training.
However, the reaction of the ministers was not positive. Only Zhou Yanru, the chief minister, donated 5,000 taels, and then Feng Quan, the Minister of War, donated 3,000 taels. The following officials were reduced in descending order according to their official positions.
The nobles who were severely suppressed by Emperor Tianqi before were also quite stingy.
Zhu Chunchen, Duke of Chengguo, said angrily: "The vassals of his old Zhu family are all extremely rich. Why should Chongzhen take advantage of us?"
The British Duke Zhang Weixian on the side reminded: "Gong Cheng, please be careful what you say!"
The establishment of the Beijing camp was cut again and again by Zhu Youxiao. Now they can only eat 30,000 people in free salary. Zhu Chunchen has long been filled with resentment.
He said: "What are you afraid of? Anyway, the hawks and dogs of Jin Yiwei and Dongchang have become Chongzhen's royal bodyguards. We can rest assured."
"Since the Duke of Liao no longer comes to the capital, our income has also shrunk. Now I can barely support the few people in the house. If you want to donate silver, that's fine. I donated 100 taels of silver to the Duke of Cheng, which is too little for them. You don’t have to accept it!”
Looking at the stingy Zhu Chunchen, Zhang Weixian could only shake his head helplessly.
Zhu Chunchen was the first to follow Li Xianzhong to make money everywhere. Even if his family was not the richest man in the capital, it was still in the top three, and he was much richer than himself.
Now that the imperial court and Liaodong are on the same level, he is still speaking out.
Even without the hawks and dogs of Dongchang, who knows if these people in front of him would have revealed his rebellious words to His Majesty.
If His Majesty really takes over his Chengguo Palace one day, he probably won't have to worry about military expenses!
In the end, British Duke Zhang Weixian donated 3,000 taels, while the nobles, encouraged by Zhu Chunchen, only donated a few hundred taels.
In such a large capital, hundreds of officials and nobles donated a total of more than 137,000 taels.
It's hard for a clever woman to make a meal without rice. After deliberations, the cabinet could only decide to suffer the people first. In addition to the original "Liao rate" of 3 cents and 5 cents per acre, an additional "Lian rate" of 2 cents and 5 cents was levied.
This proposal soon gained the support of almost all officials. If the "training salary" was not collected, they might have to help with the salary again!
In the end, Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to issue an order to add "training rates" to the Autumn Fu in the third year of Chongzhen's reign.
After Hong Chengchou learned of the result, he couldn't laugh or cry.
He tried his best to suppress the rogue bandits. Once the court's "training salary" is withdrawn, it won't take long for the rogue bandits to reappear.
This Yuan Chonghuan is really harmful to people.
But he has no choice at the moment. He must fight the Battle of Denglai.
He recruited He Renlong's 30,000 Yulin Battalion, and ordered Shandong General Liu Zhaoji to send 20,000 troops, Nanzhili to send 20,000 troops, Baoding Governor Yang Wenyue to send 20,000 troops, Kaifeng General Chen Yongfu to send 10,000 troops, plus Zuo Liang Yu originally stationed 20,000 people in Qingzhou.
There are a total of 120,000 troops, of which 50,000 are the elite of the Yulin Camp. Most of the other 70,000 people also participated in the Ming Army in the Battle of Chuzhou. They have certain combat experience. These generals who lead the army are also worthy of important tasks. man of.
In addition, taking into account the sharp artillery of the water pirates, he mobilized 40 18-pound Hongyi cannons and hundreds of Franco machine artillery from the capital.
This is almost all the elites from the mainland of the Ming Dynasty that he can mobilize at present.
Hong Chengchou did not mobilize the troops from the nine frontiers. It was not that he looked down upon the combat power of the frontier troops.
He was afraid that if the nine borders were empty, Li Xianzhong would send troops directly from Liaodong.
Moreover, he also suggested transferring five thousand troops from Taiyuan Town to increase Jizhou's defense strength.
In order to prepare for this war, the Ministry of Revenue allocated 1 million shi of grain from Huguang, Jiangxi, Nanzhili and other places to prepare for a protracted war!
The artillery shells, gunpowder and muskets stored in the capital were almost used up.
This expedition to Denglai can be said to be the largest mobilization of the Ming Dynasty since the Battle of Sarhu.
Even the quantity, scale and quality of a single troop dispatch exceeded the previous "Four Major Expeditions of Wanli"!
Emperor Chongzhen even took his ministers to the military camp to review the Yulin Camp that was about to go on an expedition.
After all, it was an elite division created by the imperial court during the Apocalypse and Chongzhen dynasties with a lot of effort. After several years of suppressing bandits, the soldiers of the Yulin Camp were in very good condition, both in terms of equipment and condition.
When the soldiers of the Yulin Camp, each with bright armor and a murderous look on their faces, appeared in front of everyone, all the ministers were full of confidence.
Under the command of He Renlong, the soldiers of the Yulin Battalion conducted orderly formations and shouted: "Destroy the pirates and recapture Denglai!"
Zhou Yanru said: "The Yulin camp is so elite, they will definitely be able to capture Denglai and relieve the imperial court of a major problem!"
Not to be outdone, Feng Quan hurriedly said: "The Yulin camp is the emperor's personal army. Today, the soldiers are lucky enough to see Tianyan. Naturally, they are full of energy, their weapons are majestic, and their combat power is even more extraordinary!"
Wen Tiren, who had just joined the cabinet this year, was very contemptuous of their behavior, but they were now in high positions and had won His Majesty's trust.
As a fledgling, he could only endure it for the time being.
Chongzhen also felt a little elated amidst the praise from the ministers.
He is now even planning the war against Liaodong in the future.
After all, it had been several years since Li Xianzhong pacified and established the state. In the past few years, Liaodong had been almost self-reliant, and the imperial court deliberately avoided matters in Liaodong, so his name was gradually forgotten by these new generation courtiers.
As a cabinet minister and Minister of War, Feng Quan naturally knew everything about the army.
However, he joined the Intelligence Department as a monk halfway. He himself has never even been to Liaodong, so he naturally does not know the true strength of Liaodong.
He felt that the Duke of Liao must be in big trouble this time, so pieces of intelligence about the Ming army and Hong Chengchou's military deployment were rushed to Liaodong.
And Liaodong has been gearing up for a long time. After all, they haven't fought a big war in several years.
Not to mention Li Sanshun, Mao Wenlong and the others, even Li Xianzhong himself wanted to find someone to practice his skills with.
However, the Liaodong Army had already completed mobilization before Feng Quan's information was sent.
Historically, Lu Xiangsheng annihilated the main force of bandits in Chuzhou and captured Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang alive.
What Li Xianzhong didn't expect was that he had already taken Lu Xiangsheng and Sun Chuanting under his command in advance, and Hong Chengchou still accomplished this feat.
The 300,000 peasant army was defeated by the official army in more than a month, which is really unbelievable.
This Hong Chengchou really dared to do it, and he did not hesitate to use the lives of 20,000 soldiers as bait. This ruthlessness is really admirable.
Anyway, Li Xianzhong himself would never be able to do it, even if these are not his direct troops.
Later, Li Zicheng made a sneak attack on Fengyang, which was considered a clever move, but Hong Chengchou remained unmoved.
It seems that this "Crazy Hong" is indeed difficult to deal with.
It's no wonder that the peasant army he carefully supported was defeated by him so quickly.
However, Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng and others had not yet completed the task of reshuffling the Ming gentry for them. At this time, Li Xianzhong had no choice but to end it himself.
In the end, Yuan Chonghuan, who was far away in Nurgan Dusi, became the target of his message.
As a person of later generations, Li Xianzhong did not like Yuan Chonghuan, although he certainly could not be an internal agent of the Tatars and did anything treasonous.
However, Yuan Chonghuan used any means to achieve his own goals. To actually use such a despicable method to kill Mao Wenlong and destroy the important restraining force of Pidao, it was so disrespectful of the overall situation.
Li Xianzhong certainly couldn't use such a person with confidence, so he threw him to Nurgan Dusi to open up wasteland.
The Intelligence Department has long reported that Yuan Chonghuan has been complaining about himself and has been asking the crew about the situation outside.
Li Xianzhong simply used the trick, which was also a test for Yuan Chonghuan. If he passed the test, then Li Xianzhong would start to use him.
In the end, Yuan Chonghuan told the court about the East Ryukyu Company as Li Xianzhong expected.
But he didn't expect that Yuan Chonghuan, a big liar, would actually come up with the theory of "five years of Ping Liao".
Next, Chongzhen actually ordered the nationwide recruitment of troops and began to collect "training pay", which did him a big favor.
Both sides are now well aware of Denglai's affairs. Since Chongzhen wants to fight, let's have a good fight.
Li Xianzhong believed that as long as the court was held there for half a year, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others would be able to recover.
Li Sanshun said: "I am informing the Duke of Liao that there are a total of 30,000 people going south to Denglai this time, consisting of 5,000 cavalry and 25,000 infantry. Mao Wenlong, the commander-in-chief of Shanhaiguan, serves as the chief general, and Zhao Lejiao, the commander-in-chief of Fushun, serves as the deputy general. .”
"According to your request, the Liaodong Iron Cavalry has not been dispatched, but there are five thousand elite cavalry from the assault battalion."
Li Xianzhong said: "The terrain in Denglai is not suitable for large-scale cavalry operations. There are already 5,000 cavalry among Lu Xiangsheng's 20,000 people, and the addition of 5,000 assault battalions is enough."
Li Sanshun said: "Previously, there was no problem with Lu Xiangsheng leading the Denglai Army in combat. Now Mao Wenlong is suddenly transferred to take over his command. I am worried that they will have conflicts."
Logically speaking, the reinforcements were guest troops. It was indeed inappropriate for Mao Wenlong, a guest general, to take over Lu Xiangsheng's command of the 50,000-strong army. After all, Mao Wenlong did not understand the terrain and conditions as well as Lu Xiangsheng.
However, the military still likes to rank based on seniority. Nowadays, there are only a few hundred thousand people in Liaodong. Lu Xiangsheng, a fledgling newcomer, commanding 20,000 people is already the result of his own strength.
It would be even more inappropriate to directly let him command 50,000 troops in addition to the 30,000 reinforcements, and to let an old man from Liaodong like Mao Wenlong, who had repeatedly made military exploits, accept the command of Lu Xiangsheng.
Liaodong has many strong players. To be honest, they only recognize Li Xianzhong as the coach. If Li Xianzhong is not here, everyone can accept Li Sanshun as the deputy coach.
Many of the remaining people are generals at the general level. Whoever you want to command the other party will probably have problems.
Or I was negligent. I should add more governor positions in the army, so that the governor can legitimately command the general soldiers below.
For example, if Xiong Tingbi is the governor of Monan, there is no problem in commanding the general Mangui. Of course, Xiong Tingbi is senior enough, and Mangui does not dare to object.
Li Xianzhong smiled and said to Li Sanshun: "Sanshun, you are right to remind me that neither Lu Xiangsheng nor Mao Wenlong is suitable to lead the other. I can only work hard and continue to take charge!"
Li Sanshun suspected that Li Xianzhong did it on purpose. Now that he was a prince, he still liked to command personally as before.
But he was also used to it. Every time Li Xianzhong went on an expedition, he was left to look after the family.
After all, he once commanded the Liaodong Iron Cavalry, but now he has not been on the battlefield for many years.
It seems that this time I have to look after the house with Fan Wencheng again.
After all, Hong Chengchou was the only one of the remaining commanders of the Ming Dynasty. Li Xianzhong naturally couldn't miss this opportunity.
As for Yuan Chonghuan, he really didn't take him seriously.
Soon Li Xianzhong personally commanded the battle.
Zheng Zhilong, the nominal head of Denglai, had long gone back to Ryukyu to do business and make money.
The fleet near Denglai this time is a joint fleet of the Liaodong Navy and the Eastern Ryukyu Company, with Admiral Deng Gang of the Liaodong Navy as the commander-in-chief. There are more than 100 large and small warships in total, and more than 10,000 naval personnel!
Since the Ming army had a large number of troops this time, Li Xianzhong decided to choose Laizhou Prefecture as the battlefield.
The 20,000 Denglai Army led by Lu Xiangsheng was stationed in the Laizhou Prefecture area to the north, and the 30,000 Liaodong Army led by Mao Wenlong defended the Jiaozhou area south of Laizhou.
As for Dengzhou, there are 5,000 White Lotus militiamen under Wang Xifan, which is enough to maintain law and order.
Without the navy, the Ming army would not be able to sneak attack Dengzhou.
Although this war was initiated by the Ming Dynasty, the Liaodong Army mobilized earlier than them.
It’s less than half a day’s journey from Lushun to Dengzhou by water.
So when Hong Chengchou's army prepared food and grass supplies and arrived at the Qingzhou front line, the Liaodong Army had already arrived here for two and a half months.
On July 18, the 120,000 troops under the command of Hong Cheng, the governor of the five provinces, finally arrived in Qingzhou Prefecture.
Soon Hong Chengchou summoned the generals to discuss matters!
At this moment, except for He Renlong, who learned the inside story of the pirates because of the nearby water tower, the other generals were actually kept in the dark.
They were also surprised that the imperial court actually assembled 120,000 elite troops against mere pirates.
It is said that these 120,000 people are just one batch. Henan, Shanxi, Shanxi, Huguang, and North and South Zhili have already begun mobilization. The second batch of people can also leave for Shandong at any time!
Yang Wenyue, the governor of Baoding, had the highest official position. He said: "Governor Hong, what is the enemy situation in Denglai? The imperial court actually used so many people?"
As the only person who has ever fought against these "sea pirates", Zuo Liangyu is the only one who understands the situation of the pirates.
So Zuo Liangyu told the tragic story of how he made great progress at first, then was controlled by the bandit's firearms, and finally the main cavalry was tortured by the bandit's ship cannon.
Although he was evasive and attributed his failure to the enemy's naval guns and firearms, it was obvious that he had fallen into the bandit's trick of luring the enemy deeper.
At this time, Yuan Chonghuan spoke, and he said: "Actually, Mr. Zuo's defeat was not unjust, because you were not facing any pirates at all. This Dongliuqiu Company was jointly opened by Li Xianzhong, the Duke of Liao, and Zheng Zhilong. I dare to say, We are facing the elite of Liaodong."
The amount of information was quite large, so he briefly explained it.
At this time, the atmosphere in the camp suddenly became solemn.
Originally they thought this was an easy trip to abuse food, but now that they had to face the Liaodong Army, they instantly lost their confidence.
Then Hong Chengchou said to Shandong Commander-in-Chief Liu Zhaoji: "Commander Liu, you and the Duke of Liao conquered the White Lotus Sect in Shandong a few years ago. How are the public troops of the Liao State and how effective is the Liaodong cavalry?"
Liu Zhaoji said: "The Liaodong cavalry under the command of the Duke of Liao is very powerful and is a rare strong army in the world. Both the cavalry and infantry of the Liaodong Army are mounted on horses and at least two horses. They use 6-pound Folang machines in field battles. The artillery is equipped with special artillery carriages that can be pulled directly by horses, so the Liaodong Army's marching speed is unmatched, often faster than you expect."
"The public soldiers of the Liao Kingdom have always anticipated the enemy's opportunities. Every move of the bandits was anticipated by him. His military orders to the generals were even issued half a month in advance, but he was able to accurately predict the movements of the bandits. Exactly the same time!"
Hong Chengchou waved his hand, signaling Liu Zhaoji to stop.
He said: "The so-called knowing yourself and the enemy means you will never be defeated in a hundred battles!"
"The East Ryukyu Company is probably just a group of armed pirates funded by the Duke of Liao. Of course, it cannot be ruled out that some of them are soldiers of the Liaodong Army. Their equipment should be equipped by the Liaodong Army, so the firearms are relatively strong."
"However, the mountains, rivers, and lakes in Denglai are not suitable for large-scale cavalry operations by the Liaodong Army, so you don't need to worry too much."
"The Yulin camp's firearms are not weaker than those of the pirates, otherwise General Zuo wouldn't have been able to persist in Qingzhou until now."
"The total Liaodong Army is only one hundred thousand, and the Denglai area will not be less than twenty or thirty thousand at most. As long as we avoid the enemy's naval guns, this battle will be much easier to fight!"
"Where do the generals think we should fight the first battle?"
He Renlong said: "The fastest way to capture Denglai is naturally to capture Wei County and Changyi from the north, then capture Pingdu Prefecture to ensure the flanks, and then directly capture Ye County, the prefecture of Laizhou; capture Laizhou Prefecture and capture Dengzhou directly. !”
Hong Chengchou said: "The terrain of this road is relatively flat, and it is the closest route. It goes straight into the core of Denglai, so it is naturally the first choice for entering the army. I must have chosen this way from General Zuo at the beginning, right?"
Zuo Liangyu replied: "I did advance all the way to Laizhou Prefecture like this. Because Wei County is located in a protruding part of Laizhou deep into Qingzhou, so Weixian must be captured in the first battle, otherwise the North Road will not be able to advance at all; and the Jiaozhou area on the South Road There are also many lakes and rivers, making it difficult for the enemy to set up ambushes."
Hong Chengchou said with a smile: "General Liu said that the public troops of the Liao Kingdom always anticipate the enemy's opportunities, so I'm afraid he had already expected us to attack Weixian and go straight to Laizhou!"
He Renlong said: "Then according to Governor Hong's wishes, we will not attack Wei County?"
Hong Chengchou shook his head and said: "Without attacking Wei County, we will not be able to open the passage to Denglai."
He said: "Commander Zuo listened to the order and ordered you to lead 20,000 troops from our headquarters and 10,000 troops from Kaifeng Commander Chen Yongfu to attack Wei County. But if the enemy retreats easily, do not pursue him. If the enemy insists on defending there, you will attack fiercely!" "
Zuo Liangyu and Chen Yongfu said: "The last general has received his order!"
Soon Zuo Liangyu's Yulin camp began to advance towards Wei County.
Today's Yulin camp has a high degree of firearms use, and soon the officers and soldiers deployed 12 Hongyi cannons.
Following Zuo Liangyu's order, artillery shells were fired at the city wall of Weixian.
However, the Ming army still uses solid bullets, so the casualties of the defenders are not large.
Although under the attack of Hongyi cannon, a large number of craters appeared on the city wall, and many city bricks fell off, exposing the rammed earth inside.
But it is unrealistic to demolish the city wall in just one day.
Moreover, the defenders were well prepared, and they quickly used sacks filled with soil to pad the gaps in the city wall.
However, Zuo Liangyu was not in a hurry to attack the city. He just surrounded Weixian and then ordered the artillery to continuously bombard the city wall. Anyway, the city wall would be blown down in a few days. It would not be too late for him to attack again!
The battle on the northern front started as scheduled, which was within Li Xianzhong's expectation.
He had already prepared several lines of defense for the Ming army to chew on.
Judging from Hong Chengchou's appearance, he should be feigning an attack on Weixian and placing his main force on the southern front.
But it doesn't matter, because Mao Wenlong's 30,000 men are stationed on the southern front and there are more troops.
50,000 men were more than enough to defend Laizhou, and Li Xianzhong would not leave a loophole for Hong Chengchou.
Sure enough, not long after, the line between Gaomi and Jiaozhou in the south of Laizhou was raided by the Ming army.
However, Mao Wenlong's Liaodong Army was tightly defended and the Ming Army had no chance at all.
He Renlong said with some frustration: "Governor Qi Hong, there are a large number of bandits stationed in the two cities of Gaomi Jiaozhou. The brothers have suffered a lot of casualties after attacking several times!"
Hong Chengchou said with a smile: "If this little trick of claiming the north and attacking the south can deceive the bandits, then you are too underestimated the Duke of Liao!"
He said: "Governor Yang, your troops will continue to attack the two cities of Gaomi and Jiaozhou. Remember to use a louder momentum. Don't let the bandits see that you are feigning an attack!"
"In addition, the northeast of Gaomi City is Gaomi Lake. You can have people build boats to make the bandits mistakenly think that we are going to break through their defenses from Gaomi Lake!"
He Renlong was very puzzled and said: "Governor Hong, both the northern and southern fronts are feigning attacks. Where are we going?"
Soon they arrived at Lingshanwei in the southeast of Jiaozhou.
Because this place is already on the seaside, the Ming army has no navy, and there is no defensive value here at all, so Mao Wenlong simply gave up here.
Hong Chengchou pointed to the Fushan Guards on the other side and said: "Since the bandits have abandoned the Lingshan Guards, the Fushan Guards on the other side should not have any troops left to defend them. Order the soldiers to build small boats, and we will cross the sea directly from here!"
Although the two guard stations are facing each other across the sea, they are less than 3 miles apart. If the water is good, you can even swim directly to the other shore.
As long as you cross here, you can bypass the Ming army's defense line and penetrate directly into their rear.
Moreover, he had already sent people to investigate, and there were almost no bandits setting up defenses there, and the bandits' naval forces were basically on standby in the Denglai area to the north.
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(End of chapter)
