On the vast white ground, the sound of horse hooves rumbled like thunder. Twenty thousand cavalrymen from the Right Cavalry Army and the Left Cavalry Army of the Great Zhou Kingdom, surrounded by the flags of General Wu Yingqi of the Great Zhou Dynasty, were walking in front.
Behind the 20,000 cavalry, there were countless black flags fluttering in the wind, endless infantry, carriages loaded with food, and artillery carriages dragged by mules and horses. The 100,000 Northern Expedition troops of the Great Zhou Dynasty have entered the territory of Kaifeng Mansion!
And behind this Northern Expedition army, the city walls or city walls of Xuzhou, Ruzhou, Nanyang Prefecture, and Runing Prefecture have long been replaced with the black flag of the Great Zhou Kingdom!
Although Wu Yingqi's army did not divide its troops, attack the city, or occupy any territory on its way north, it just headed north with its head covered.
But after all, President Wu was not the leader of Hongda, and the fourteenth year of Kangxi was not the year of Daoguang or Xianfeng. The people of the Central Plains and Han officials did not yet regard the Qing Dynasty as a matter of course. Most of them still hope from the bottom of their hearts to have a Han emperor to rule.
Although Wu Sangui's signboard is a bit stinky, prefecture and county officials from all over Henan looked at their resumes and found that they were actually quite bad... Who hasn't voted for the Tatars?
If they want to seek refuge with the Third Prince Zhu and the Third Grandson Zhu, they may not be willing to accept them. Even if they accept it, based on their experience as Tatar officials, unless they achieve miraculous achievements, what future do they have?
After all, Prince Zhu and his grandson Zhu San have never voted for the Tatars. There are many officials who can stand up!
In addition, Wu Sangui's "stink" is relative to his righteousness, and his official reputation is still very good... He takes good care of his subordinates. As long as he is with him, corruption and perversion of the law can be covered up. . If the officials below him are not good at corruption and can handle their errands well, Wu Sangui will also take the initiative to give them red envelopes.
Where can I find such a good boss?
Therefore, although Wu Yingqi's army went deep alone, before entering Xuzhou, wherever his army moved, it would become the rear area of the Zhou Kingdom, with military rations, chariots and horses, civil servants, guides, everything!
All the cities opened their doors to his army, and even before Wu Yingqi arrived, these cities had already been changed to the flag of the Great Zhou Kingdom.
Wu Yingqi even suspected that he had been marching in the Great Zhou Kingdom...
Of course, these local officials of the Qing Dynasty defected so quickly, Wu Sangui also used a lot of force in the secret, and sent out countless letters of official appointments and wishes.
Before Wu Yingqi sent troops, everything that needed to be discussed had already been discussed!
However, after Wu Yingqi's army entered Xuzhou, the situation became different. It's not that the officials in Xuzhou were loyal to the Qing Dynasty, but the Qing Dynasty's Eight Banners New Army had already brought disaster to Xuzhou before Wu Yingqi arrived!
Xiangcheng, Yancheng, Linying, Changge and other counties under Xuzhou were all looted by the Eight Banners soldiers, and most of the houses in the city were burned. Only the city of Xuzhou escaped because the Zhizhou responded promptly, closed the city gates, and mobilized the strong men in the city to defend the city. However, he was still forced to hand over most of the grain and livestock in the city.
In addition, the villages in Xuzhou were also harmed by the Eight Banners soldiers. The villages in Xuzhou, which had never recovered from the chaos in the late Ming Dynasty, were now turned into a wasteland. Wu Yingqi's army passed through Xuzhou along the official road heading north, and there was not a single village that had not been burned along the way!
And when Wu Yingqi's army crossed Xuzhou and entered Weichuan County in Kaifeng Prefecture, they found that the situation here was the same as that in Xuzhou, and they were all caused by the Eight Banners soldiers.
Seeing the ruins on both sides of the official road, every Zhou army officer had a serious look on his face. They turned out to be Qing Yao themselves, and they knew very well the destructive power of Qing Yao - they had made the land of abundance in Sichuan a savage land with more tigers than people!
Could it be that Kang Mazi now wants to cause Henan, Shandong, Beizhili and Shanxi to suffer the same disaster as Sichuan?
If it really comes to that point, how can the Wu and Zhou dynasties plunder the people's fat and their anointing after they take over the world?
Wu Yingqi also frowned tightly.
He didn't think that far ahead. What troubled him was the current problem...because Wu Zhou's national power was limited, and Wu Sangui had already won over a large number of local officials in Henan and Beizhili.
Therefore, Wu Yingqi's army did not carry a large amount of food and baggage, but adopted the method of providing food to the enemy. Relying on the local officials of the Qing Dynasty who surrendered to the Zhou Dynasty to raise military supplies and civilian labor.
But the Qinglu were completely shameless now, and actually attacked the people under their rule... This was to make the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Great Zhou Dynasty have no place to raise food and recruit labor!
Just as Wu Yingqi frowned, he was thinking about how many days the little food on hand could last him. Can the yamen of Nanyang Prefecture, Ruzhou Prefecture and Runing Prefecture be asked to quickly organize civilians to transport them to the front line?
At this moment, a group of Wu Zhoujun's night cavalry suddenly rushed over and arrived in front of Wu Yingqi's general's flag, only to be stopped by Wu Yingqi's soldiers. A leader of the soldiers went up and checked the password, asked a few more questions, and then led a scholar-looking figure to Wu Yingqi.
Wu Yingqi took a look and saw that the man was Wang Shirong.
"Mr. Wang, why is it you?" Wu Yingqi was stunned when he saw Wang Shirong.
Wang Shirong, on the other hand, looked impatient. He raised his hands in a salute on horseback, and then said: "Second Young Master, Kangxi is going to run away... He wants to annihilate the people of Henan, Beizhili and Shandong." He was carried away outside Shanhaiguan, leaving only a white field for the president!"
"What?" Liu Xuanchu, who was following Wu Yingqi and serving as a member of the Northern Expeditionary Army, was shocked when he heard this. "Did Kangxi really want to be Emperor Shun of the Qing Dynasty?"
Wang Shirong nodded, and said urgently: "It should be true... Ever since the Second Young Master's army entered Nanyang, he has begun to break things. If you hadn't marched quickly enough, Nanyang, Ruzhou, and Runing would have The Eight Banners soldiers must be allowed to rob the ground.
Now the people, grain, grass and livestock that the Eight Banners soldiers looted from Xuzhou are all concentrated in Zhuxian Town, south of Kaifeng City. Wang Fuchen and the Green Camp soldiers from Henan Province are taking care of it... It was Wang Fuchen who asked me to contact the general secretary. General, please march in quickly, General, and be sure to capture Zhuxian Town before Kangxi sends people to transport away all the people and food in Zhuxian Town! "
Liu Xuanchu frowned and asked, "Is there no fraud? Wang Fuchen really wants to surrender?"
Wang Shirong said: "I don't know Wang Fuchen's thoughts, but the people who were taken to Zhuxian Town by the Eight Banners New Army, the livestock and grain transported to Zhuxian Town will definitely be true! There are no less than one hundred thousand people, all supporting the old and the young! The food is piled up like a mountain, and it looks like there are three to four hundred thousand dan, and there are tens of thousands of large animals, and there are a lot of carriages and fodder... If you grab them all, it will be enough to support the army to fight all the way to Beijing. Need it!"
The credibility of his words is quite high. On the one hand, Wang Shirong was originally sent by Wu Sangui to lurk around Wang Fuchen.
On the other hand, Zhuxian Town was originally a transportation hub in Kaifeng Prefecture. During the Ming Dynasty, it was one of the four famous towns in the world!
Because of the opening of the Jialu River, it has become a transfer station for "Southern Ships and North Trains" and a distribution center for goods from the North and the South.
Although it is winter now, the Jialu River is still frozen. However, the official road to the north is still open, and there are still a large number of horse-drawn carriages and mule carts waiting for the Jialu River to thaw in Zhuxian Town. In addition, the warehouses and buildings in the town are also ready-made.
Therefore, it is very natural that Kangxi concentrated the people and materials plundered from all over Henan to Zhuxian Town.
"Where are the soldiers?" Liu Xuanchu asked, "How many defenders are there in Zhuxian Town?"
"Five thousand," Wang Shirong said, "are all Henan Green Camp... Kangxi's Eight Banners soldiers are now divided into three parts. One part is responsible for escorting the materials and population of Zhuxian Town northward; the other part is sent to Guide Prefecture, Henan Some of them were guarding the city of Kaifeng to protect Kangxi. So only Wang Fuchen’s 5,000 green battalions were left...General, advance quickly! Don’t let Kangxi rob Zhongzhou’s population!"
Now is the time when scarcity is valuable!
Wu Yingqi was not willing to let Kangxi take such a precious population to the outside of the pass, so he shouted: "Send an order to the entire army, the enemy is in Zhuxian Town, don't let Kang Mazi escape!"
