The snowy night raid launched by Wu Shijue and Lin Xingzhu did catch Li Zicheng off guard, but after all, Li Zicheng was the man who forced Emperor Chongzhen to death, and he was now in the Ming camp. Of course, he must have a fighting elite at his disposal at any time, otherwise I don't know when his head will be put in a wooden box and sent to Nanjing for display.
So Li Zicheng is not completely bragging when he says he wants to avenge his dead brothers!
The elite group he personally controlled was called "Old Camp", with the word "camp" in the name, but it actually had a large establishment of 3,000 people, all of whom were elderly veterans, including the youngest ones. In their thirties, the older ones are all running for the fifth grade. All of these veterans participated in the last great melee between Ming and Qing Dynasties, and most of them also joined the Loyalty Battalion adapted from the Dashun Army. During the defeat of the Loyalty Camp and the Kuidong Thirteenth Family, some people left the team and lived in seclusion, while others followed Shangguan and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, but they must still be thinking of Long Live Dashun in their hearts.
Therefore, after Li Zicheng and Li Laishun made a comeback, these Dashun veterans from the previous era returned to the team one after another. Li Zicheng personally selected 3,000 strong veterans as his own soldiers, responsible for protecting himself and guarding Prince Zhong's Mansion in Jiangxia City.
Since Prince Zhong's Mansion (formerly Prince Chu's Mansion, also known as the Imperial City) in Jiangxia City covers a large area and is actually a city, Li Zicheng's old camp has little contact with the people in Jiangxia City. The spies sent by Wu Sangui only know that There are some bearded soldiers around Li Zicheng, but the specific situation is not clear.
"Instructions passed down, the left battalion of the old battalion will stay in the imperial city, and the middle and right battalions will all assemble at the school grounds!"
Li Zicheng loudly issued orders to the left and right, and was about to ask the servants to change his clothes. Hu Yiqiang, who also served as the marching commander of Prince Zhong's palace, quickly took out a large envelope covered with brown paper and handed it over with both hands: "Your Majesty, this is It's a "trick bag" issued by the Military Affairs Department of the shogunate. Let us open it when Wu Sangui's troops approach Xia City in Jiangjiang. You see."
"Tips? Hey, does this Li Datou think he is Zhuge Liang?" Li Zicheng laughed and said, "Then open it and take a look. I can't see clearly. You can read it to me. I want to know, this Li What’s Zhongshan’s clever plan?”
"yes!"
And while Li Zicheng was busy gathering old soldiers and studying ingenuity, Wu Zhou's elite commanded by generals Wu Shijue, Lin Xingzhu and Gao Dejie had already made a breakthrough at Hanyang Gate!
Although the guards at the gate of Hanyang were brave enough, their number was too small and their equipment was relatively poor. They only had spears, broadswords and matchlock guns. Moreover, they are just local soldiers of Wuchang Prefecture. They have not been in the army for a long time, and there are no high-level officers to train them well, so they are not proficient in martial arts. After encountering the surprise attack, they fell into chaos and did not know how to use the terrain and each other. Fight together.
The rattan soldiers, musketeers and archers led by Lin Xingzhu, Wu Shijue and Gao Dejie are all elites selected from Wu Guogui's group!
While the guards at Hanyang Gate were in chaos, they had already cooperated with each other and rushed into the entrance of Hanyang Gate, and entered the chaotic defenders of Prince Zhong's Mansion!
Wu Shijue held a rifled flintlock gun in his hand and led the troops in. In front of his body is a skilled shield soldier, holding a shield and wielding a machete, clearing the way for Wu Shijue. Behind Wu Shijue is an archer carrying a quiver and holding a walking bow.
The three of them formed a combat team. The rattan soldiers were responsible for covering and resisting the enemy's melee soldiers. Wu Shijue used his flintlock to aim coldly at the officers and tall soldiers of the loyal king's army. The archer following Wu Shijue was a He is good at shooting continuously. Although he only has one bow, his output is very fast. He can shoot out more than a dozen sharp arrows in the blink of an eye!
There is not just one such fighting group, but hundreds of them!
After Lin Xingzhu led dozens of sword soldiers to break through the defense of Prince Zhong's soldiers at the entrance of Hanyang, the next ones who rushed in were all such three-person groups. Before today's raid, these three-person teams had been training hard in the military camp in Yuezhou for at least three months. They had already cooperated extremely well, and now they were able to kill Daming Zhong in Hanyang Gate with just one move. The king's army screamed in unison, unable to resist at all! Some officers and soldiers loyal to the king also wanted to move out the anti-horse guns that had been prepared long ago to block the city gate that could no longer be closed.
But those anti-horse guns were very strong, large and heavy, and were prepared to withstand the impact of the enemy's gun array. How could they be moved up in the chaos?
There were also some defenders of Prince Zhong's Mansion behind the crenellations of the city wall at this time. Most of them were artillerymen on duty. Li Zicheng suffered a lot from the red cannons of the Qing soldiers, so he attached great importance to artillery construction after taking control of Wuchang and hired them specially from Foshan. He hired gunsmiths and instructed local coppersmiths in Wuchang to cast a large number of bronze cannons, which were deployed on forts along the Yangtze River and Han River and on the walls of important cities such as Jiangxia, Hankou, and Hanyang.
However, the cannons placed on the wall of Hanyang Gate are all used to shoot targets on the Yangtze River. Even the Hanyang Gate Pier is in the blind spot of the cannons and cannot be hit at all, let alone the muzzle of the cannons to hit the city—— The mounts of those cannons were not field gun mounts with two large wheels, but naval gun mounts with four small wheels, which were difficult to turn around. And even if it is turned over, it cannot be used to shoot enemies at the base of the city wall.
Therefore, these gunners had no choice but to pick up their bows, arrows and sabers to resist the elite Zhou troops who rushed up along the stairs and sabers of the upper city. Amidst the sound of bowstrings, some people kept falling down. However, the remaining people rushed forward without hesitation. In a blink of an eye, they rushed to the city wall and killed the loyal soldiers guarding there.
Lin Xingzhu was always the one at the front. Several sharp arrows had been inserted into his shield, but his body without armor was still unscathed. The machete in his hand was swung, and wherever it passed, blood splashed all over the sky. The light is like a god of death. An elderly veteran of Prince Zhong's Mansion held a sword from his waist and rushed towards him, cursing and shouting: "You traitor to your country, watch your sword!"
Lin Xingzhu quickly used his shield to block the knife, and then struck the man's cloth armor with a backhand knife. He didn't see through it, but he still forced the man back a few steps and probably beat him hard. pain. The older officer scolded even more fiercely, but because his accent was too strong, Lin Xingzhu couldn't hear Da Ming. He could only vaguely hear "Wu Gou", "Carry my Dashun", "Bear Da Ming again", "Four surnames of domestic slaves" "some type of.
Lin Xingzhu wanted to scold him in return, but couldn't find any good words at the moment - although this veteran was not very good at martial arts and didn't seem to have any oral ethics, his scolding was indeed good. Wu Sangui was a domestic slave with the fourth surname, and now he is a child When people succeed, they become arrogant and even declared that they would kill Li Zi to avenge Chongzhen!
But Li Zicheng was once his king!
As soon as Lin Xingzhu thought of this, a clear gunshot sounded in his ears. The veteran of Prince Zhong's Palace trembled in his chest and fell straight down. Lin Xingzhu looked back and saw Wu Shijue holding a gun with a bayonet. The flintlock gun rushed up, shouting as he rushed: "Brother Lin, rush forward, rush up and seize the Hanyang Gate Tower! This Jiangxia City is ours!"
The Wu and Zhou soldiers who followed Wu Shijue roared and charged towards the city. The few defenders were either killed or expelled.
The Hanyang Gate of Jiangxia City was captured by Wu Zhoujun!
However, the battle for Jiangxia City has just begun. The old battalion soldiers wearing iron armor and holding swords, spears and muskets have already formed a team and are driving out of Jiangxia Imperial City one by one. A beacon tower is located on the top of Snake Mountain to the north of the imperial city. On top, there are even more fireworks!
On the early morning of the next day when Jiangxia City was suddenly ambushed by Wu and Zhou soldiers, outside the Desheng Gate of the north gate of Nanchang Fucheng, which was six hundred miles away from Jiangxia, Cai Yurong, the governor of Jiangxi appointed by Jieshu, was wearing a red Ming Dynasty official uniform. He stood outside the trench, looking at hundreds of people opening the lid, revealing a big box with an alluring silver light. He was already smiling from ear to ear. He also laughed and murmured to himself: "Your Majesty, Prince Kang, Cai is sorry for you! It's not that Cai is unfaithful and unfilial and wants to be a second minister, but that Ming Dynasty gave too much."
A dozen people who looked like accountants were there to count and record.
Li Fuchen's tall figure was riding on a horse, standing ten steps away from Governor Cai. He just let the white snowflakes fall on him, not caring at all, and just watched Cai Yurong's people counting the silver boxes.
Tens of thousands of soldiers, neatly dressed, holding muskets, carrying spears, and pushing cannons, lined up two to three hundred paces away, just waiting quietly.
If Li Zhongshan had seen this scene, he would definitely have thought of the word "dismantle" that can bring happiness and joy to people!
Li Fuchen really sacrificed his capital this time. He and Li Zhongshan took a total of 800,000 taels of cash, and now what is in front of Cai Yurong is a full 500,000 taels!
Five hundred thousand!
Buying land is also a matter of knowledge!
Li Fuchen would not buy them one by one! How wasteful is that? And it may not be enough, so he only plans to buy one city, the city of Nanchang Prefecture, the capital of Jiangxi Province!
In his opinion, as long as Nanchang is bought, who in Jiangxi Province will dare to fight against the Ming Dynasty's heavenly soldiers except Jiujiang Fucheng, which is guarded by Jieshu himself, and Hukou and Nankang, which are guarded by several of Jieshu's most trusted Manchu generals?
Are those officials who took office with Beijing debt really planning to die for the Qing Dynasty? Are you sick?
Besides, Li Fuchen didn't want them to hand over the city right away. He was just passing by, and the local officials just had to accept a surrender. It doesn't matter if you don't accept the surrender, just stay out of the way. Li Fuchen has 30,000 Guangdong soldiers under his command. What kind of combat power is that? He had demolished the fortified cities of Anqing, Taiping, and Chizhou one by one in a short period of time. How could the local officials in Jiangxi who did not have heavy troops still want to stop him? Looking for death?
However, he must buy Nanchang. It was not because Cai Yurong, who was stationed in Nanchang, would block his way, but because Li Zhongshan sent Li Zhongzheng to bring the general's gold medal order and strictly ordered Li Fuchen to take Nanchang and dedicate at least half of the army to garrison it. Nanchang!
By the way, this was the first time Li Fuchen saw a gold medal warrant - the boss had a gold medal in his pocket, so of course he had to act accordingly.
So he joined forces with Li Laishun's troops who came from Wuchang at the foot of Nanchang City. An army of 50,000 surrounded Nanchang City, and then began to negotiate with Cai Yurong on the issue of "demolition compensation."
Cai Yurong was actually quite loyal to the Qing Dynasty. His loyalty was worth five hundred thousand taels of silver! At first he wanted 800,000, but Li Fuchen only agreed to 300,000. The two sides bargained, and finally Li Fuchen raised the compensation to 400,000, while Cai Yurong said that he would never betray the Qing Dynasty for less than 500,000 taels!
As a result, Li Fuchen was moved by his loyalty, and he saw the beacon fire coming over the mountains and ridges from Jiangxia last night, so he agreed to Cai Yurong's asking price.
And Cai Yurong was also a true gentleman who kept his word. He immediately cut off his braids and put on the official uniform sent by Li Fuchen. He also accepted the idle position of deputy envoy of Nanyang Trade and went out to the city to collect silver.
As long as the quantity is right and the quality is good, he will immediately hand over Nanchang City, and then take his family and 300 soldiers to Guangzhou to take up the post. In fact, there is no errand for him to take care of. The Nanyang Trade Ambassador is Li Jizhen, and there is no deputy envoy. Aren’t you still doing it now?
At this time, one of Cai Yurong's general accountants had already counted the money. He took the account book and said to the master with a smile: "Master, it has been counted. The total is five hundred thousand taels. The quality of the silver is also good, although it is not one tael. But there are also fifty taels of Guan Yin in stock at the customs, totaling ten thousand ingots, which can be deposited directly into the four major banks!"
When Cai Yurong heard this, his chubby, furry bearded face suddenly burst into laughter. He smiled back at Li Fuchen and said, "His Royal Highness Nan Wang, you are indeed a king who keeps your word. I admire you!" Then he pointed at the Nanchang Xiongcheng behind him and said with a smile, "The Nanchang Xiongcheng built by Zhu Wenzheng of the Ming Dynasty is now all handed over to you. In the city, there are also two thousand governors of Jiangxi Province, eight hundred garrison camps, and regiment training. Three thousand two hundred, as well as enough food to feed the entire city's soldiers and civilians for six months, all are handed over to you, Your Majesty!"
Not to mention, the "demolition compensation" of 500,000 taels is still worth it. The food stored in Nanchang City alone is worth 500,000 yuan. There are also 6,000 defenders, and the weapons and equipment are estimated to be worth a lot.
Li Fuchen also smiled with satisfaction, and then said to Cai Yurong: "Ren'an, if you can persist in Nanchang until now, you are worthy of Kangxi's trust, and you also received five hundred thousand taels, which shows that Kangxi is still worthy in your heart." Two bucks!”
Li Fuchen's words were somewhat sarcastic, but Cai Yurong was also a governor-general and had the air of a prime minister. He didn't care at all and smiled and nodded repeatedly - he could sell his loyalty to Kangxi for five hundred thousand taels. He is considered the most loyal among the rebels of the Qing Dynasty, right? Kangxi would also be relieved to know.
Li Fuchen saw that Cai Yurong was thick-skinned and thought he was a good person. He smiled and nodded: "Then I will arrange for my third son to lead the troops and protect you to Guangzhou!
By the way, there are many cities along the way, and there may be one who can’t open his eyes.”
Cai Yurong patted his chest and said with a smile: "It's on my little brother. I was once the governor of Huguang, and I was from the Zhengbai Banner Han Army. King Kang also made me the governor of Jiangxi. I am the boss of those people. I surrendered. They Why are you still holding on tight?
All of them came to office with a lot of Beijing debt. Now that they have surrendered to the Ming Dynasty, the Beijing debt can at least be forgiven. What's not worthwhile? "
This Cai Yurong's analysis is quite good. He was deeply favored by the Qing Dynasty, and now he has accepted Li Fuchen's 500,000 taels of loyalty and sold it. What are the prefects and county magistrates down there doing?
Loyal to the Qing Dynasty?
They are just "temporary officials" and they are so loyal!
As for the debt owed to Beijing for buying an official position, whether it can be forgiven depends on who owes it? If the creditor is UBS, then there is no way they can be forgiven. This spirit of contract must be there! I owed debts during the Qing Dynasty, but wouldn't they pay them back after the Qing Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty? How can anything be so cheap? They were not responsible for the rebellion against the Qing Dynasty and the restoration of the Ming Dynasty.
If they owe a debt, UBS will take over it!
Of course, Li Fuchen would not tell Cai Yurong the truth. Probably no one in the Jiangxi official circles knows about it now, so they might not surrender!
Thinking of this, Li Fuchen turned back to Li Laishun, who was frowning and seemed a little worried: "King Zhong, let's go into the city. Don't worry about Wuchang. With my son King Ying's ingenious plan, Wu Sangui will be dead even if he comes. !”
Li Laishun nodded and said: "With King Ying's clever plan, Wu Ni will naturally not succeed. King Nan, what should we do next?"
Li Fuchen smiled and said: "Of course we enter Nanchang Fucheng first!"
(End of chapter)
