The officials on Qiongzhou Island are not Zheng Zhilong or Xiong Wencan.
They don't have much political ambition. They don't want to separate themselves from one side, but they just want to be an official and make money...
If you expect them to be loyal to the Ming court, you might as well expect Zuo Liangyu and Wu Sangui to be more reliable. Zuo Liangyu will not surrender to the East, but Wu Sangui... well, he is a serious traitor. If he doesn't clean up, Even if he later raised an army, it was purely for himself. This man should be stuffed into a cannon barrel and shot into outer space...become a cosmic ice wither, so that future generations will always remember his betrayal of the nation!
"The Beauty of the Sun and the Moon"
But even so, Wu Sangui is much better than Shui Tailiang... He still dares to act, dare to betray the nation, and dare to raise an army to plot the world, but Shui Tailiang and others don't even have eggs...
These officials on Qiongzhou Island, if they were attacked by foreigners, bandits or the like, they might fight hard for their own wealth and lives, but these are not just bandits and pirates, but serious people. The army of the orthodox dynasty Chu Dynasty.
Resistance is impossible!
Many people are thinking of defecting to Da Chu and continuing to serve as officials. Many scholars on the island have begun to look forward to the end of the war as soon as possible so that they can participate in the provincial examination held by the Da Chu Empire in Guangdong.
Although the Chu army was born as bandits in the past, now they represent orthodoxy. Didn't you see that a large number of scholars in Jiangnan believe that the Luo Chu Dynasty is an orthodox dynasty, and they only want to participate in the Luo Chu Dynasty's imperial examination and become an official?
Not to mention the Great Chu Empire, even if they were invaded by the East, a large number of officials and scholars would still shave off their hair and hug the thighs of foreigners, just to become officials!
It is said that after the Eastern captives entered the pass in the original time and space, a large number of Ming court officials turned around and knelt down; those scholars, when the southern provinces were still fighting fiercely against the Eastern captives, could not wait to participate in the Eastern captives' imperial examinations, in order to be the emperor The East captives were killed in the imperial examination field and their heads were bleeding.
The first number one scholar after the Eastern captives entered the Pass was a native of Shandong. He took part in the imperial examination in 1645. In this year, the southern provinces were still resisting the Eastern captives and the situation was far from a foregone conclusion. Even Shandong locals had many times An uprising and even a mutiny broke out against the Eastern conquests.
It was against this background that this man resolutely participated in the first imperial examination after entering the customs from the East. He broke through all obstacles, passed all the tests, and finally won the first prize.
After becoming an official in the East Capture, this man worked hard without complaining, and was loyal and sincere. He was very happy to be captured, and he can be called a model for monarchs and ministers!
This is true for ordinary scholars, let alone the officials on Qiongzhou Island.
When you are an official, your face has already been thrown into the pit, and it is such a trivial matter to surrender.
In addition to these, they also succumbed to reality. Since the sky has changed, all they can do is obey.
Because even if they resist, they can't bear it. Even if they resist now, what about next time? What about the next time?
You can tell with your toes that the Chu army on the opposite side will definitely organize more troops and a larger fleet to attack Qiongzhou Island.
The officers and soldiers on Qiongzhou Island will be defeated sooner or later.
To sum up, the officials on the island actually do not have much strong will to resist, and there is not even much symbolic resistance.
The officials didn't resist, and the guardsmen didn't even want to resist.
They don't want to die either.
Besides, they also heard that prisoners of war were treated very well in the Chu army. If they could be reorganized into the garrison, the treatment would be even better.
People also want a good way to survive!
As a result, when the Chu army landed, they encountered no resistance from the Ming army. Immediately afterwards, the prefect of Qiongzhou Prefecture led the officials and gentry in the city to go out ten miles from the city to greet...
The battle of landing on Qiongzhou Island was actually not fought from beginning to end. However, when we went deep into the interior of the island and came into contact with the native people deep in the island, we fought many small and medium-sized battles. The native people don't care about you. Is it the Ming Dynasty or the Chu Dynasty? If you want to enter their territory and ask them to collect taxes, they will pick up a stick to resist...
This is something to talk about later. Let’s not mention it for now. After taking care of Qiongzhou Island, Colonel Xie Xingfa did not stop here in Leizhou Mansion. As for Qiongzhou Island, he himself has never even been there...
They are busy going to Lianzhou Mansion now.
At the beginning of July, Colonel Xie Xingfa had already led his troops into Lianzhou Prefecture.
By this time, except for some coastal islands and several coastal cities in Chaozhou Prefecture, which were under the control of Zheng Zhilong, all the other prefectures in Guangdong had been captured by the Chu army, or had voluntarily surrendered to Chu.
The Chu Empire could already claim to control Guangdong as a whole.
With the completion of military control, the administrative agencies quickly followed suit. A large number of officials who had been dispatched by the Ministry of Civil Affairs, plus a group of local surrendered officials, formed the Guangdong governor's office and the various state governments under the rule. The county government maintains the basic local administrative management as much as possible, so as not to cause the local area to be unmanaged and fall into chaos after the war.
And this is also the reason why the Chu Empire appeased and used the Ming court to demote officials to a certain extent.
Many Ming Dynasty officials who took the initiative to surrender were demoted, and the Chu Empire would basically grant them official positions. Middle and low-level officials could often retain their original grades and serve, while senior officials would also retain their grades and be appointed depending on the situation.
In addition, no matter where they went, the Chu Empire would organize local examinations to recruit middle- and low-level officials to enrich the local administrative agencies.
This move is to maintain the most basic local rule after the war.
After all, the number of officials trained by the Da Chu Empire itself is actually extremely limited. As the territory gradually expands, the number of officials required is also increasing. And when this number reaches a certain scale, it is actually difficult for the Ministry of Personnel Affairs to pass Officials trained in the past, coupled with officials selected through the imperial examination, were able to maintain such a large administrative organization.
Therefore, it is necessary to accept the Ming court's demotion in the short term.
However, this is only a short-term behavior. These demotions will also need to undergo various reviews in the follow-up. If they sincerely submit and do well, then they will be promoted when they should be promoted. If they still play the same tricks as before, then they will confiscate their families and exterminate their families. Genocide.
Anyway, as long as it gets through the early chaotic period, even if it relies on half-baked scholars recruited locally, the Chu Empire can maintain its basic local rule. Therefore, after the initial chaos, it will follow up on the local government to a certain extent. Rectify.
In this regard, especially after the top leaders of the Da Chu Empire launched an action to rectify the atmosphere of official governance at the beginning of the year, they paid more attention to the subsequent rectification of official administration.
Guangdong is no exception. As various prefectures and counties have successively established yamen and maintained the most basic administrative rule, they have also begun to slowly rectify the local government. This will take time, ranging from a few months to even longer. Up to one or two years.
Not in a hurry.
The handling of local government affairs is naturally the responsibility of civilian officials in the governor's office, but the military does not care about these and has no way to care.
After all, under the principle of separation of military and political affairs, the military cannot interfere with the operation of the local government system.
Now the highest-ranking general in Guangdong, Army Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin, the garrison commander of Guangdong and Guangxi, has personally led his troops to march westward in late June. Now they have all reached the gates of Wuzhou City. As for the war in Guangdong, for him, it is already Past tense.
Even though Zheng Zhilong's troops are still entrenched in the Xiangjiang River at the mouth of the Pearl River, it has become the navy's main responsibility to subsequently expel Zheng Zhilong's fleet and completely control the Pearl River estuary. The most their army can do is cooperate with the navy in carrying out sea crossings and landings. .
Therefore, the senior generals currently stationed in Guangzhou are the Navy's Commander of the Pearl River Fleet, Rear Admiral Xia Qiuyang, and the Deputy Commander of the Pearl River Fleet, Commodore Zhao Xinhou, who defected to the navy anyway.
As for the army, there is currently only one temporary brigade commander, Army Major General Tang Deyuan, of the 13th Composite Brigade.
According to the instructions of the Ministry of Military Affairs, the 43rd Garrison Regiment of the 11th Garrison Division, which accompanied the 7th Garrison Division to fight south in Guangdong, was specially ordered to be reorganized into a regular infantry regiment due to its outstanding performance in past operations. The 13th Infantry Regiment, which was the reinforced regiment that had previously gone south to fight in Humen, was temporarily organized into the 13th Mixed Brigade.
The mission of this mixed brigade is to be responsible for the defense of Guangzhou and the Pearl River Estuary, and incidentally, it is also responsible for the war in the direction of Chaozhou Prefecture.
Of course, in such a large place, it is not enough to rely only on a mixed brigade that has not yet completed its reorganization, with a mere four to five thousand troops. There is also the 17th Garrison Division that cooperates with the operation.
In fact, the 7th Division was mobilized to form a temporary force, not only the 23rd Infantry Regiment, but also another infantry battalion, which was the infantry battalion that marched westward to Leizhou Prefecture, landed on Qiongzhou Island, and entered Lianzhou Prefecture.
Because the battalion has been operating independently for a long time, the infantry battalion is the core and expanded into the temporary 14th mixed regiment. The mixed regiment and a cooperating garrison brigade are under the command of Army Brigadier General Xie Xingfa.
That's right, after landing and taking control of Qiongzhou Island, Colonel Xie Xingfa was promoted to Army Brigadier General because of a series of military exploits.
Therefore, in today's Guangdong region, there are mainly three main army units. One is the temporary 13th Mixed Brigade, which is responsible for the eastern front war in Guangzhou, the Kowloon Peninsula and even Chaozhou Prefecture, and the temporary 14th Mixed Regiment is responsible for Leizhou Prefecture. , Qiongzhou Island, Lianzhou Prefecture and other areas.
The main forces such as the 7th Division and the 8th Artillery Regiment were replenishing their troops and equipment while marching westward to Wuzhou. They were personally led by Army Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin, and were accompanied by the 11th Garrison Division, with a total strength of about 25,000. Thousands of people.
When more than 25,000 people arrived at the gates of Wuzhou City, Xiong Wencan, the southwest governor of the Ming Dynasty, personally went to the top of the city and saw a large swarm of Chu troops outside the city.
But Xiong Wencan didn't get angry, nor did he show any despair. He just looked at the Chu army outside the city calmly, without saying a word.
After a while, he turned around and left the city.
The setting sun shone on him, making his figure very long!
