Once Guilin is over, Liuzhou, the next important town in the hinterland of Guangxi, may not last long.
Not only that, Xiong Wencan also received news that the Chu thieves in the He County area had crossed the mountains and ridges and fought directly to the Huaiji line. Although these Chu thieves came over the mountains lightly armed and did not carry any heavy artillery to attack the city. Relatively poor.
But if the siege lasts for a long time, it is estimated that Huaiji will not be able to support it for long.
This piece of bad news spread continuously to Wuzhou and reached Xiong Wencan’s ears in just half a month.
Although Xiong Wencan has never been to the front line in person and has never seen even a Chu traitor with his own eyes, he also knows that the main fronts in Guangdong and Guangxi have all collapsed...
Guangdong and Guangxi are probably going to be doomed.
Faced with such a dilemma, Xiong Wencan was in no mood to even lose his temper with his subordinates.
Xiong Wencan behaved like this, and all the civil and military officials under his command also sighed.
Times are tough!
At this time, Xiong Wencan did not know that what happened to the Ming army in Guangdong and Guangxi also happened in Fujian and Zhejiang.
In order to successfully launch the Northern Expedition in the later period and not let the Ming armies in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang behind, the Chu Empire was cruel, thinking of taking down all the Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian and Zhejiang provinces in the south in one go.
Then turn around and make the Northern Expedition!
For this reason, the Dachu Empire even suspended the fortifications in Jiangbei to a certain extent. The Fourth Division said it was going to attack Yangzhou, but it had already arrived outside Yangzhou for several days and did not launch a strong attack on Yangzhou!
reason?
Because the ammunition is not enough yet!
In the past one or two months, including the next one or two months, the material supply direction of the Dachu Empire has mainly been in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang. As for other places, it is enough to maintain the status quo.
Although Jiangbei can also obtain strategic supplies, it is not that well-off. Therefore, if the Fourth Division wants to attack Yangzhou City, the real stronghold, I am afraid it will have to wait a little longer for more ammunition to arrive.
At the same time, a large amount of ammunition was transported to Zhenjiang via the Yangtze River, and then loaded into river boats, along the Jiangnan Canal to Ningbo, and then continued to be transferred southward via land or rivers to provide ammunition for the Sixth Division and the Tenth Division fighting locally. The Second Mixed Brigade provides various types of ammunition and other supplies.
Provide sufficient ammunition supplies for the large-scale war that broke out on the front line in Zhejiang.
The current high-level officials of the Dachu Empire are very ambitious!
When the senior generals headed by Xu Zhixian could rest assured and concentrate all their efforts on the Northern Expedition, the strategy they formulated was to conquer Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang in a short period of time. Take it.
This short period of time will not exceed half a year at most.
That is to say, before autumn comes, the Chu army should comprehensively capture the Fujian, Zhejiang, and Guangdong and Guangxi regions. Even if it is not a comprehensive capture, it must at least control most of the strategic locations and comprehensively suppress the remaining Ming troops in the area.
To prevent them from causing trouble during the subsequent Northern Expedition of the Chu Empire.
However, although the Dachu Empire seems to be very large in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang at the same time, it seems that it will consume a lot of money and interfere with the empire's preparations for the Northern Expedition, but in fact it will not.
The battles in Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian and Zhejiang seemed to affect many places, but the actual number of troops participating in the battle was also large, and a lot of food, grass and ammunition were consumed.
However, there is a very clear difference between this and the Northern Expedition.
That was the troops going south to participate in the war. The food and grass they consumed did not require the Chu Empire to transport it all the way from distant places.
"I Have a Picture Book of Ghosts and Gods"
Because the neighboring regions such as Hengyang and Changsha in southern Chu, Jiangxi's central and northern Jiangxi regions, Zhejiang's northern Zhejiang and even Jiangnan regions are all grain-producing areas.
It used to be easy to transport food to these places.
In addition, and more importantly, the four provinces of Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong and Guangxi have not been greatly affected by the climate environment, nor have they been affected by large-scale bandit destruction. The local agricultural production has remained within a normal range.
Even if this normality is very fragile and reluctant, there is always food. No matter how the Chu army goes south, it does not matter whether it is seizing Ming army rations, confiscating gentry to hoard food, collecting taxes and levying food normally, purchasing at market prices, etc. Method, after all, you can get military rations.
But if it were the Northern Expedition, the Chu army would not bring a large amount of food. With the Chu army's huge food consumption, they would eventually either starve to death themselves, or forcibly rob the local people of their food rations, causing a large number of people to starve to death...
The northern provinces have been seriously affected by the Xiaoglaihe River. Coupled with the years of bandits, bandits, and plundering by officers and soldiers, grain production has been reduced on a large scale. In the past, it could be partly solved by relying on grain crops. However, after the south of the Yangtze River was occupied by the Chu army last year, water transportation was cut off. , there was a great shortage of food in the northern provinces.
You must know that the grain transported north by water every year amounts to millions of shi. A considerable part of these millions of shi is supplied to the capital, a purely consumer city with hundreds of thousands of people, including the people, powerful officials and family members there. , royal family, Jingying and other populations.
Another part is supplied to the border armies in various places, such as the border armies in Jiliao, Xuanda and other places, and a considerable part of their military rations rely on canal grain.
After the water transportation was cut off, this meant that there was a direct shortage of millions of stones of grain. Officials, gentry and border troops would naturally not let themselves starve to death. They would increase the scale of grain collection in several northern provinces, regardless of the situation. Whether it is through tax collection, border troops plundering on their own, or grain merchants purchasing food, food can always be obtained.
However, there will inevitably be a large-scale shortage of food on the market.
Once the Chu army moves north on a large scale, it will be impossible to obtain food from the local area on a large scale.
By comparison, you will know that the attack on the southern provinces seems to be large in scale, and the roads are even more difficult to navigate.
But in fact, the logistics supply difficulty in several southern provinces was far less difficult than that of the Northern Expedition, because a large part of the grain and grass could be collected locally without having to transport it thousands of miles from the rear.
After such a comparison, you will know the difficulty of the Northern Expedition and the Southward Expedition.
The biggest difficulty is not whether the enemy is strong, but whether there is food in one place and no food in another place leads to a huge difference in the difficulty of logistical supply!
——
The 6th Division and the 12th Mixed Brigade, which had received a large amount of supplies, especially ammunition supplies, had already launched a large-scale offensive on the Zhejiang front line in April.
In addition, the main force of the Sixth Division moved from Ningbo Prefecture to Taizhou Prefecture.
The 12th Mixed Brigade went south from Jinhua Mansion to the state capital.
In fact, the southward strategy of these two armies has no skills at all. It is to divide the troops into two groups and push forward directly.
Anyway, there is nothing large ahead, and the Ming army with combat effectiveness can stop them.
Not to mention stubborn resistance, in fact, when Ming court officials in many places saw the Chu thieves coming to kill them, they either ran away in advance or simply surrendered.
When the 12th Mixed Brigade entered the capital of Chuzhou, the local prefects surrendered without hesitation. Except for one of the following county magistrates, one ran away and the rest also surrendered en masse.
All the responsible civil servants surrendered, turned around and knelt down to welcome the King of Chu, and shouted to Luo Zhixue, a former bandit, that His Majesty has become wise...
Those generals are even more straightforward...
Before the Chu army came over, they changed their flags and then took the initiative to contact the Chu army.
Under such circumstances, the 12th Mixed Brigade marched into Chuzhou Prefecture without even fighting a battle involving more than 500 people. Several counties had not even sent anyone to go there, and the entire territory of Chuzhou Prefecture had been declared under its ownership. The Great Chu Empire came under the rule.
However, this made the tax officials who followed the army into the state capital very dissatisfied.
The local officials have surrendered. Whose house are they raiding?
If we can't get the money, the bosses at the top will go crazy.
Therefore, they don't care so much. Regardless of whether you surrender or not, you have to pay the money... At most, they will turn the house raid into paying taxes...
Our army came from such a long way to your state capital, so you have to show your respect and pay the tax.
Also, when you say you want to surrender, you can't just surrender empty-handed. You must have some certificate of surrender. You see, our army is very short of money and food. You can just scrape together a few hundred thousand taels and it will be enough.
It's not that we tax collectors don't understand how poor a small place is. You can just give it a few hundred thousand taels as you wish.
What? You ask why after donating money and food, each family is required to donate their land...
You ask me, who the hell am I going to ask...
Anyway, don't talk nonsense and hand over half of the land deed quickly... This is for the sake of your surrender. Otherwise, I will confiscate the house in a minute, and who will tell you that you will lose half of your surrender.
As a result, the officials who surrendered were unhappy. The money and food they gave to the army had already caused them to bleed, but they tolerated it in order to continue to serve as officials in the new dynasty.
But Nima also wants my farm, which is too great, and I will never agree to it.
Scholars can be killed but not humiliated!
And then inevitably there will be some resistance…
Unfortunately, what the tax officials want is their resistance... If they don't resist, how will they complete the task of collecting money, food and land!
If the task is not completed, the superiors will punish them!
Besides, if all the officials and gentry donated their money, not to mention the amount of money, food and land they would receive, they tax officials and the tax patrols below would have to drink from the northwest wind...
This followed a group of tax officials and hundreds of tax patrols who came to the state capital. The superiors did not give them much funding. They had to raise their own funds for the subsequent tax work!
Besides, a large number of tax officials left their hometowns and came to this hellish place. Their purpose is also very simple: to get promoted and make a fortune!
Promotion is too far away from most grassroots taxpayers, but getting rich is a must.
And how do tax officials and tax patrols make a fortune? For example, when a house is being searched, someone randomly puts some gold, silver, jewelry, jade, etc. into their pockets...
Otherwise, why do you think the tax officers and tax patrolmen in the tax department work so hard and work so hard!
When attacking the estates of anti-tax landlords, the tax patrols were more numerous than the army, and they rushed forward as if they were risking their lives.
Why? If you go late, you can’t take advantage of the chaos!
You can't just go through it slowly and stuff gold, silver and jade into your pockets in public!
Ever since, an unspoken rule has gradually formed. When attacking the estates of anti-tax landlords, those who want to make a fortune rush in first. Those who rush in first stuff money into their pockets. The superiors usually turn a blind eye to this. Close one eye.
As for those who follow behind, don't expect it.
Therefore, when the tax patrol fights, their tactics are very poor, and the military quality of the tax police is not very good. Well, after all, these are a group of scum, so we can't count on them.
However, the courage to fight is definitely first-class!
