Kunming Prefecture, Wuhua Mountain.
The Sun and Moon Tonghui flags symbolizing the Ming Dynasty and the twelve yellow dragon flags symbolizing the Ming Crown Prince have been flying on Wuhua Mountain for six months!
But the final victory in the Battle of Yunnan has yet to come!
Zhu Hexing only sent his troops to invade Yunnan Province in the 28th year of Hongxing, that is, the winter of 1675 in the Western calendar. In order to win the final battle of the Ming Dynasty's decline and chaos, Prince Zhu Hexing, who was out of the capital for the second time to support the army, did not dare to be careless in the slightest.
Yunnan is not like Xinzhou Continent and the Western Regions. The wars that took place there were all "hundred years of war", and nothing was accomplished in one battle. Even if the warring parties sign a peace treaty, it is just a truce, not peace!
Yunnan Province was one of the two capitals and thirteen provinces before the Rebellion of the Ming Dynasty. It was the ancestral land that the Ming Dynasty could not abandon. As long as Yun Province is not restored, the Ming Dynasty's resurgence led by Zhu Cihong will not be considered a success. Therefore, the Yunnan campaign presided over by Zhu Hexing was only allowed to succeed and not fail.
If he loses... I'm afraid Ming Dynasty will have to change the crown prince!
Zhu Hexing, who had been serving as magistrate, prefect, governor-general of military affairs and generalissimo for many years, could not be said to have grown into a military strategist now, but his actions have become more prudent and thoughtful.
Therefore, after entering Sichuan to support the army, Zhu Hexing was not in a hurry to mobilize troops and mount a large-scale attack. Instead, he asked his father, Zhu Cixiang, to merge the two Sichuan feudal towns into the Sichuan Jiedu Envoy Department, and to ask himself to serve as the Sichuan Jiedushi Envoy concurrently. His purpose of doing this was of course to transform Sichuan from two towns back to one province, and then turn Sichuan into one province. The manpower and material resources of a province have been concentrated to deal with this must-win battle to pacify Yunnan.
Zhu Hexing, who had been a county magistrate in Sichuan in his early years, knew that the road to Shu was difficult, and the road to Yunnan was even more difficult!
If we really want to fight, the difficulty lies not in the battlefield, but in the logistics!
Since Zhu Cixiang took out the "last golden finger", there was not much difficulty on the battlefield - with 20,000 Hongxing 20-year-old long rifles and 1 million cork rifled bullets, it was impossible to win in a head-on confrontation. of.
However, in order to ensure that the army can penetrate deep into the rugged mountains and forests, and maintain supplies for several months or even a year, it is impossible not to integrate the Sichuan rear area.
Moreover, he also knew that the terrain in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan was very "fragmented", and the large plain that was easier to control was the Sichuan Basin.
In other places, there are countless valleys and slopes that can be cultivated. In addition, the climate in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan is relatively humid, which is conducive to the growth of crops and can support a relatively large population. Therefore, it is easy for a self-sufficient separatist regime to emerge on this territory... For the Ming Dynasty, it was not difficult to defeat the small number of soldiers Li Jicheng left in Yunnan.
But it is too difficult to eliminate countless local snakes in Yunnan, Sichuan and southern Sichuan. If you are not careful, it will be an endless war!
But Zhu Hexing couldn't just recruit all these local snakes and turn them into thousands or hundreds of households in the Ming Dynasty... These are all rebels!
Even some chieftains who were originally on the side of the Ming Dynasty have betrayed the imperial court for so many years.
If you don't pay any price and replace the Chuangzi flag with the Sun and Moon flag, you can continue to be the local emperor. Where is the majesty of tomorrow's dynasty? Will Southwest Chieftains still take the Ming Dynasty seriously in the future?
Besides, there were a large group of old chieftains and old military households (senior military households) from Yunnan, Guizhou, and Sichuan in the Ming Dynasty, all waiting to carve up Yunnan’s territory!
Prince Zhu Hexing cannot not satisfy their demands at all!
Otherwise, how can we fight the battle to pacify Yunnan if all these local gangsters give you the pick?
But to fully meet their conditions, why don't the local snakes in Yunnan risk their lives? Some of this group of people are veteran chieftains who have taken refuge in Dashun, and some are soldiers and military households in Dashun Prefecture who have taken root in Yunnan for more than 20 years. They have long been ingrained and cannot be easily uprooted.
So the second difficulty in the campaign to pacify Yunnan is to reconcile the interests of the old and new groups of local gangsters?
For this reason, the second important thing Zhu Hexing did after entering Sichuan was to come to Sichuan with Ding Yuying to invite Li Dingguo. "Dian Grand Military Advisor", together with Prince Xima Ma Wanchun (the grandson of Qin Liangyu) and Duke Mu Tianbo of Guizhou, all the big shots in all aspects have been invited.
Then Zhu Hexing, together with Ding Yuying, Li Dingguo, Ma Wanchun, Mu Tianbo and others, worked out a set of strategies for pacifying Yunnan by "transferring seals, moving towns, entering the dynasty, granting marriages and annihilating".
The so-called transfer of enfeoffment refers to transferring the chieftain out of the world territory and entrusting him to another place - this policy is currently only implemented in the three provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan. All the former bandit chieftains who surrendered to the imperial court were likely to be transferred to other places, and their original territories had to be taken over by the old chieftains who had followed Zhu He into Yunnan.
The so-called town relocation refers to the relocation of redundant, landless feudal chieftains to Nanyang, the Southern Continent, and the New World - this expense is huge! Travel expenses plus resettlement fees are at least two to three hundred taels per person!
The so-called entering the court means entering the court as an official. The whole family, old and young, will be resettled in Wuhan Mansion or Yingtian Mansion, and they will be given idle posts and serve as officials, allowing them to make do with their lives.
The so-called marriage grant... is for the transferred military guards and thousand-level chieftains - the daughters of the old Zhu family belong to each family, and they will all be relatives of the emperor in the future!
In addition, some of my own daughters also have to contribute, and they will all be married to the sons and grandsons of the old Zhu family...
As for the strategy of annihilation, of course it is also indispensable!
Suppressing bandits and quelling chaos is not about treating guests to a meal, it is always about killing a few stubborn bandits. If there is no way to kill the chicken, the monkeys will not be afraid.
I don't know how to be afraid. All the gentle means of transferring a title, moving a town, entering the court, and granting a marriage are all vain and empty!
Therefore, after completing a series of political, military and economic preparations and mobilization, in the winter of the 28th year of Hongxing's reign, the 100,000 Yunnan army marched southward in Chengdu!
The Southern Expedition and the Battle of Yunnan went very smoothly at the beginning. Several Dashun prefectures and counties that originally belonged to Sichuan Xingdusi had long known that the heavenly troops were invincible, so when Zhu Hexing was preparing for the Southern Expedition, they contacted him through various channels. Surrendered!
The Dashun Dynasty did not seem to intend to place its defense line in southern Sichuan and Sichuan, so in the southern and Sichuan areas, the Shun army's defense line was almost ineffective.
Zhu Hexing's army left Chengdu on November 18, 28, the eighth day of December, but they captured the "Shun-controlled areas" in southern Sichuan and on the edge of Sichuan in just 20 days. The vanguard troops crossed Wumeng Mountain in one fell swoop, occupied Wuding Prefecture in Yunnan, and approached Kunming Prefecture, the northern capital of Dashun!
Beginning in the spring of the 29th year of Hongxing's reign, the Ming army, which had cleared southern and border areas of Sichuan, launched a second wave of offensives, targeting Kunming.
And this wave of offensive failed again!
The 80,000 Ming army invaded the empty Kunming City with almost no bloodshed. Zhu Hexing, who "successfully entered" Kunming City, was not happy at all.
Because he knew very well that his enemy had not collapsed - although the rogue bandits had almost lost their territory in the Ming Dynasty, the rogue bandits had opened up territory in Burma and also established territory in Tianzhu.
Therefore, Li Jicheng has the power to support the war in Yunnan, and he must also support the war situation in Yunnan.
Because no one assured him that the Ming army would stop in Yunnan, instead of pursuing the victory and entering Burma... Without Burma, Li Jicheng's base for the western expedition to India would be gone!
By then he will be the last Chuang King of Dashun Kingdom!
Therefore, Li Jicheng's actions in abandoning Sichuan, southern Sichuan and Kunming were actually luring the enemy to go deeper... However, Zhu Hexing was not stupid. The other party wanted to lure the enemy deep, so he just stayed in Wuhua Mountain in Kunming for six months. Just don’t go deep.
The 80,000 troops he brought to Yunnan also carefully deployed around Kunming Prefecture, carefully clearing out the five prefectures of Wuding, Qujing, Xundian, Chuxiong, and Minjiang.
From the looks of it, he is determined to fight a protracted war and is not in any rush to dominate the world!
