The failure of the battle in Jiangdu City caused Marshal Melo's plan to occupy half or even the entire Ming Dynasty to fail.
Without enough troops, this country with a huge population cannot be defeated.
To this day, the marshal also realizes that the Ming Kingdom is not as vulnerable as the Inca Empire.
Maybe this empire is not a joke, and neither he nor his subordinates can make the mistake of underestimating the enemy again.
About 17,000 people were lost in the two battles, which definitely attracted the attention of the imperial commanders.
The Ming army was not only good at street fighting, but also liked sneak attacks and even night attacks. These aspects were the weaknesses of the imperial army.
Marshal Melo didn't know whether the Ming Emperor had studied this aspect or whether he was just trying his luck.
But now the imperial troops are no longer able to continue attacking Jiangdu, and can only plunder the areas south of the Yangtze River.
If the fight continues, more troops may be lost. Without being familiar with the tactics of the Ming army, it is better to be on the safe side.
After discussing with General Oquendo, Marshal Melo decided to divide his troops into two groups.
Under the protection of the fleet, they went south along the Yangtze River, passing through Dantu, Jiangyin, Changshu, Zhenhai and Jiading, and boarded the ship from Baoshan.
The other route goes south along the canal, passing through Danyang, Wujin, Wuxi, Changzhou, Kunshan, and also boarding the ship from Baoshan.
Each group of troops looted five cities, and each city planned to collect three million silver coins. The ten cities totaled 30 million silver coins.
After loading all the various commodities found, plus those obtained previously, the amount should reach nearly 50 to 60 million silver coins.
Even if more than 10,000 troops were lost, with these trophies, I would be able to give an account to His Majesty the King when I returned home.
As for those Akito who have already pledged their allegiance to the Empire, they can continue to be loyal, as long as they persist until the next landing of Imperial troops!
These people are not in Marshal Mello's plan at all. Their life and death are their own business and have nothing to do with the empire.
If they are willing to move with the army, they can be allowed to take a boat and then relocated to the recovered Philippines.
"Huh? Going to Luzon?"
After Qian Qianyi heard this suggestion, he was shocked, but he tried to control his expression and looked a little dull.
When I came back and told the scholars, everyone was immediately upset. They never expected that such a result would come so fast.
I originally thought that the Spaniards could defeat the Dog Emperor and the Dog Prince, but now they are just a group of pirates, planning to grab a handful and run away.
"yes!"
It only took a few days for the Spaniards to change their minds and throw away all the guarantees they had previously vowed.
If these appointed officials stay in the local area, they will naturally be affected.
For the Dog Emperor and the Dog Prince, there was no difference between surrendering to the Western Barbarians and surrendering to the Eastern Barbarians.
Song Zhengbi, Zhou Maoyuan, Shen Shizhu, Wantai, Wu Yingji, Yang Tingshu and others who were rescued from Ma'anshan all panicked. They no longer wanted to be miners.
Hou Fangyu, Qian Shisheng, Zhang Wei, Wang Duo, Wei Xueliang, Gong Dingzi, etc. who had directly surrendered to their Spanish masters were also terrified, fearing that they would be settled by Chongzhen's queen.
To betray the enemy again is to be worse than a rogue bandit.
The big tyrant Chongzhen can let him go, but the little tyrant Hao Jing will not let him go either.
This is equivalent to choosing whether to be a miner in Ma'anshan or a miner in Shandong...
For this group of people, there is actually not much difference between mining iron ore and mining gold!
And this is the second time. If this is not the first time, I am afraid that I will not be able to walk out of the mining area alive in my lifetime.
Thinking of this, some people decided to follow the new owner to Luzon, also known as the Philippines, where they could at least spend the rest of their lives in peace.
Under the dual influence of herd mentality and anxiety, most people decided to take their families and run away as soon as possible.
It is best not to experience mining as a whole family a second time, otherwise it will definitely be doomed.
Once the household registration becomes a miner, he will be a slave for generations, which is equal to life worse than death.
No less than 20,000 newly harvested slaves chose to retreat with their Spanish masters, which surprised Marshal Mero, who was probably in a bad situation.
On average, a ship has to carry nearly twenty more people, which is undoubtedly a big burden.
Admiral Oquendo originally wanted to refuse this request, but then he thought about it. As long as he charges ten silver coins per person for the ship ticket, all the problems can be solved.
According to this request, each person handed one silver coin to Admiral Oquendo, and the remaining nine silver coins belonged to the ship owner.
It would be great to wait until you get to the Philippines and charge them a land and house transfer fee.
These smart-alecks are like lambs waiting to be slaughtered, and they will not even realize it until they die.
After letting his men completely sack the southern capital, Marshal Melo issued a retreat order on August 28.
Since the troops along the river can receive support from the fleet's artillery fire, they have fewer troops, only about 9,000 people.
Lucky He's troops along the way reached about 24,000 people, including a legion composed of collected horses, and about 1,200 cavalry troops, which was enough to defeat any enemy force.
The British army should still be plundering south of the imperial theater, and no early warning has been issued to their own side yet, so Marshal Merlot believes that everything is business as usual.
Although this attack on the Ming Dynasty was not a complete victory, if they could get tens of millions of silver coins and corresponding products, it would be worthy of celebration.
The troops on the northern front were commanded by General Oquendo, and the southern front was led by Marshal Mero. Before arriving at Cheung Chau, everything went smoothly and did not encounter any resistance from the Ming army.
The general guarding Changzhou was Song Ji, a powerful general from the Yongwei camp. In order to control Changzhou like Ma Jinggong controlled Jiangdu, Chongzhen appointed Song Ji to lead his troops to station here.
As one of the four major cities in Jiangnan, the importance of Cheung Chau is beyond doubt.
Nandu was the capital, Jiangdu relied on salt merchants, Qiantang relied on tea merchants, and Changzhou relied on silk cloth merchants.
The silk weaving industry in the city is extremely developed, but part of it had been transferred away by Song Jirang's men.
Cheung Chau was originally abandoned, but then the situation changed fundamentally...
In order to avoid the enemy warships cruising on the Ma'anshan River, Hong Chengchou led his troops to cross the river from Yuxi Town in the upper reaches of Xiliang Mountain.
Five days later, Huang Degong's reconnaissance cavalry was found, and the two troops reunited three days later.
Chongzhen, who was hiding in Guangzhou, finally hoped for reinforcements from the north, but he didn't want to hide in Tibet anymore.
Huang Degong had 30,000 troops under his command, plus troops retreating from Dantu, Wujin, Changzhou, Gui'an, Jiaxing, Qiantang and other places.
The number of troops in Nanting alone reached nearly 60,000, and together with Hong Chengchou's troops, the number exceeded 100,000. Finally, they had the capital to fight the Western Yi.
Chongzhen really wanted to take charge of the army and conquer it himself, but he was not good at uniting the army in battle. He had no idea how to defeat the enemy.
But with Hong Chengchou and Huang Degong under his command, Chongzhen believed that he could also follow the good deeds, at least he would not be defeated in battle.
We can't always let the traitor use the military exploits obtained by Master Wang to show off his power in the newspapers. He can also do this and win back a victory.
There were rumors during the Minjian period that Emperor Chongzhen knew nothing about border affairs, which resulted in the court spending huge amounts of money every year. However, Liaodong was frequently in emergency, and was even blocked by the Eastern pirates many times.
A certain treacherous son was just the opposite, so he was able to defeat Huang Taiji in the capital, achieve a great victory in the Luanhe River, and even severely defeat the 300,000 Donglu army outside Jinzhou.
Chongzhen was very worried about this, and suffered from the lack of a suitable opportunity. He had been cautious about haste and endured, and sighed again and again, but this time he finally got through it.
In order to get some results, Chongzhen could only humbly ask Hong Chengchou for advice. After all, this Ai Qing was also a popular person around him before.
Hong Chengchou had two plans. First, if the Western Yi had already passed through the cities in the south of the Yangtze River and retreated, Wang Shi could follow them to cover them up.
Secondly, if the Xiyi are still in the middle of looting, the king's army can quickly seize a certain city, use this to fortify the city to resist the enemy, and then cooperate with the outside to severely damage it, or even annihilate it.
These are two very pragmatic strategies, which avoid rashly engaging in field battles with the invading enemy without knowing the specific strength of the enemy.
It can achieve a high battle loss ratio, and at the same time, it can also reduce the pension that the court needs to pay.
After consulting the opinions of the first assistant Qu Shishu, the second assistant Gao Hongtu, the Minister of War Yuan Jixian and Huang Degong, Chongzhen decided to implement this plan.
Now that the traitor had won in Jiangdu again, he was determined not to sit still and wait for death, but to win a decent victory at least.
Not to mention annihilating 10,000 enemies, there are still 5,000 or 6,000 people needed to meet the dignity of the Nanting King's division.
Chongzhen did not have the ability to cover up and kill Xiyi on horseback, so he could only participate in the defense of the city.
As for the specific locations to stick to, there are four, but in fact only one is more suitable.
Nandu has been captured by Xiyi, Jiangdu has been recaptured by a certain traitor, and Qiantang is on the seaside, facing artillery fire from enemy ships.
Only Cheung Chau is considered inland, and only the canal passes through it. Most of the large warships of Xiyi cannot enter.
Originally, the time it took Marshal Merlot's troops to go to Changzhou was almost the same as the time it took Chongzhen to march from the south.
However, the sacking of Wujin and Wuxi took two days. It was precisely by taking advantage of this that Chongzhen had an invisible advantage in time.
The Ming army arrived at Changzhou one day before the Spanish troops. Chongzhen and Hong Chengchou led the main forces to sit in the city, while Huang Degong and Song Jize each led 10,000 cavalry to ambush outside the city.
When Marshal Melo arrived outside Changzhou City with nearly 24,000 men and a pile of loot, the Ming army was already ready for battle.
Since the Ming army had already fled, heavy weapons were not needed to attack the city. In addition, the war zone was densely covered with water, so it was very laborious for the gunners to carry heavy artillery.
This caused Marshal Merlot to send more than half of the heavy artillery to the ship, leaving only twelve in the army for show.
I believe that even if there are defenders in the city, they will be frightened into surrendering when they see such a powerful weapon.
There are many Hongyi cannons deployed at the head of Changzhou City, and the Song Ji Department, as a direct descendant of Emperor Chongzhen, is also equipped with a company of new bronze cannons, and as many as hundreds of mortars.
As a result, the heavy artillery in the hands of Marshal Mero was completely unable to scare the defenders.
After some shooting, the defenders killed and wounded hundreds of people, and lost four heavy artillery pieces.
Marshal Mero, who had always had smooth sailing before, could not bear to let go of this Ming army that was determined to resist, so he ordered his troops to attack the city.
But unlike Europe, the big cities in the Ming Dynasty had correspondingly wide moats, which made the Spanish soldiers very uncomfortable.
Just to get through the moat, the Western Army lost no less than 3,000 men.
After two unsuccessful attacks, Marshal Melo had to order a halt to the attack.
At this time, the strength of his troops had been reduced to 20,000, and Marshal Mero had to consider bypassing the city and moving to another place.
Seeing that the defenders still showed no sign of surrender, after three days, Marshal Mero, whose anger had subsided, had no choice but to order a retreat.
The entire army will advance eastward, passing through Kunshan and Zhenhai. If possible, they will board the ship directly at Liujiabao without going south to Baoshan.
However, during the retreat, the Western Army encountered Huang Degong and Song Ji's troops.
As a last resort, Marshal Melo ordered a phalanx to meet the enemy.
But the 20,000 Ming army cavalry were just a delaying tactic. The real trump card was the city's defenders.
Hong Chengchou personally led 80,000 infantry and chariot troops into the battle. The Ming army had tanks and airships, weapons that the Spanish army did not possess at all.
In comparison, the more than a thousand cavalry in Marshal Mello's hands were completely insufficient.
After the charge, there were less than three hundred people still on horseback.
The most terrifying thing is that Hong Chengchou's troops carried a large number of mortars. This weapon was the natural enemy of the Spanish Grand Square.
Thousands of mortars aimed at more than 20 large phalanxes and bombarded them for more than half an hour, firing more than 15,000 explosive packets.
This was the catastrophe of the Western Army. Without waiting for the Ming cavalry to charge into the formation, more than half of the Spanish soldiers in the square formation were already dead or injured.
The spears and heavy muskets equipped by the Western army were completely useless, and the Ming army's mortars opened fire beyond their range.
Marshal Mero wanted to lead his men to evacuate the battlefield as soon as possible, but due to the lack of cavalry cover, he completely lost mobility.
After more than two hours of bombardment, nearly 20,000 Imperial infantrymen fought to the end. Only less than 8,000 were able to continue fighting, and the rest were either dead or injured.
After many airships of the Ming Army took off, the pilots looked down at the ground. The large square formations were as spectacular as blooming flowers of death.
When Hong Chengchou ordered about 500 tanks to cover the infantry and began to charge into the formation, in just one round, the long-famous Spanish Grand Square collapsed.
After being crushed by the 80,000 Ming army, not a single one of Marshal Mello's men was left. As long as they were alive, they were all captured by the Ming army, including himself.
In the far east, Marshal Merlot suffered a second humiliation, almost the same as the one in Paris.
This time it was more thorough. The marshal became a prisoner without even a chance to escape.
The Spanish cavalry was also wiped out by the combined efforts of Huang Degong and Song Ji's men. They were not even familiar with the road, let alone running away.
After Hong Chengchou experienced the nightmarish Dabie Mountains campaign, he finally felt proud and proud.
These Western barbarians were worse than rogue bandits. They had no idea of their own caliber and dared to attack the Ming Dynasty rashly.
Chongzhen, who was waiting for good news in the city, was so excited that he stayed up all night after receiving the news of the king's victory.
I have already thought about writing something special in the newspapers after the war, and I must raise the status of the Cheung Chau Victory to a position higher than that of the Luanhe Victory.
After all, the annihilation of the elite troops of 20,000 Xiyi troops was considered the most glorious victory achieved by the Nanting King's Division.
Although the army was still dominated by Hong Chengchou, Chongzhen believed that it was achieved under his own urging...
