As expected by many people, after the Chu army captured Jiangbei, the subsequent Northern Expedition was unstoppable and encountered no actual resistance at all.
In April, the Chu army had controlled all of Jiangbei and pushed the front to the area around Runing Prefecture in Henan.
After entering May, the Second Army and the Fourth Army of the Dachu Empire launched an all-out offensive in the Henan area. Zuo Liangyu fled without a fight and retreated directly to Shanxi.
As a result, the Second Army and the Fourth Army together took over Runing Prefecture, Ruzhou, Henan Prefecture, Kaifeng Prefecture, and Guide Prefecture almost effortlessly, and captured Ruzhou, Luoyang, Kaifeng and other important cities.
These large cities basically did not put up any resistance from Xiangyang. In many cities, local officials and gentry had already opened the city gates and surrendered before the Chu army even reached the city gates.
Luoyang relied on the remaining local Qingzhuang Guardsmen to mount a certain resistance, but this resistance was meaningless.
In less than a day, the second division of the Chu Army's Fourth Army rushed in.
After capturing Luoyang City, the Chu Empire was surprised to find that the amount of money and food confiscated in Luoyang was far higher than that of ordinary cities, and was second only to world-famous wealthy places such as Yangzhou, Suzhou, and Jinling City.
The reason is because of King Fu in Luoyang City.
The amount of money and food stored in King Fu's vassal palace would surprise even the well-informed Dachu tax officials.
From a mere feudal prince's palace, five to six million taels worth of cash and various curios were confiscated.
This does not include the huge number of various shops, houses, land and other fixed assets. If these were included, there would be even more.
The Da Chu Empire had copied so many vassal kings, and this was the first time that they met such a wealthy vassal king.
Ever since, he accepted a large amount of money and food with a smile while being surprised.
Immediately afterwards, he couldn't wait to report the victory to Huai'an, saying that the gains from Luoyang alone were worth the total expenses of all the ministries fighting in Henan during the second stage of the Northern Expedition.
The rest is pure profit!
Luo Zhixue was also very happy about this, and even sent a condolence edict to the tax official who was in charge of the local confiscation work.
The imperial edict stated that although the Henan Taxation Department is a new team, it has displayed a tenacious fighting style and achieved great results in confiscation and taxation work. I am very pleased.
It is hoped that tax officials and patrol police at all levels in Henan will continue to carry forward the fighting spirit of not being afraid of hardship and fatigue, continue to do a good job in confiscation and tax collection, and contribute their own strength to the unification of China.
It can be basically seen from this imperial edict that what the Chu Empire did in Henan in April and May, in fact, fighting was secondary, confiscation and tax collection were the main ones, and then they were also carrying out various people's livelihood projects. Relief is provided by providing work-for-relief services, resettling all kinds of homeless people, and restoring local people's livelihood.
As for fighting...that has to be ranked third or fourth.
There was no way, with Zuo Liangyu's retreat, there were no more sizable guardsmen in Henan, and there was no way to mount any resistance.
Not to mention the tens of thousands of army troops sweeping through, the two to three thousand armed tax policemen under the Henan Taxation Department could probably sweep across the entire Henan Province.
Fortunately, when Zuo Liangyu evacuated to Shanxi, he sent someone to tell Sun Chuanting in advance that he had run away. If Sun Chuanting didn't want to die, he quickly sent heavy troops to garrison Tongguan. As a result, Sun Chuanting deployed heavy troops to strengthen it about seven or eight days in advance. The defense of Tongguan was destroyed, otherwise Tongguan would have been captured by the Chu army.
After the Fourth Army captured Luoyang City, they found that Tongguan had been heavily guarded by Sun Chuanting's troops, so they did not rush to attack Tongguan. Instead, they directly dispatched an entire mixed brigade and a group of independent mortars outside Tongguan. And build a defense line on the spot.
To separate Shaanxi from the Central Plains and prevent a large number of New Qin troops under Sun Chuanting from entering the Central Plains and affecting our own strategy, we do not have to conquer Tongguan. It is also possible to directly block the gate outside Tongguan.
Then, at the front line of Tongguan, thousands of Chu troops and tens of thousands of Ming troops built defense lines hundreds or thousands of meters apart, and then stared at each other...
But east of Tongguan, the Chu army's actions did not stop.
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On May 28, the Second Division of the Fourth Army crossed the Yellow River and captured Huaiqing Mansion, which also had little defensive force. Immediately afterwards, the Third Division of the Fourth Army also crossed the Yellow River and captured Kaifeng. He moved north to Yangwu, Fengqiu and other places north of the Yellow River, then went north to capture Weihui Mansion, and cooperated with the various units of the Third Army on the east road to continue going north and captured Zhangde Mansion.
In other words, by the time June entered, the entire Henan Province had fallen under the control of the Chu army.
The 16th Division of the Fourth Army of the Great Chu Empire was stationed at strategic locations on the western defense line such as Tongguan and Lushi, and was facing off against Sun Chuanting's troops in Shaanxi.
Its second division was stationed in the area around Luoyang, including Huaiqing Mansion on the north bank of the Yellow River and other places, and faced off against Zuo Liangyu's troops in Shanxi Province.
The third division is stationed in Zhangde Mansion, Weihui Mansion, Daming Mansion and Kaifeng Mansion in the rear.
The entire three divisions of the Fourth Army fought against Sun Chuanting's troops on one side and Zuo Liangyu's troops on the other, while suppressing the newly occupied parts of Henan.
As for the Second Army, which originally participated in the Henan battle, it had already followed the pace of the Third Army and continued to move north.
In the direction of the canal in Shandong, the Third Army officially launched an offensive from Xuzhou to the north in May. In this direction, the Third Army encountered some obstacles, and the biggest obstacle was not the strength of the Ming army, but the obstruction of the Ming army. It was the Ming army that sank ships and blocked the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal along the way...
There are also smart people on the Ming army side. They know that your Chu army has to march along the river, otherwise supplies will be very troublesome, so they collected all kinds of ships and even dumped sand and gravel directly to block the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal.
When they were in Pizhou, before the Ming army withdrew, they destroyed all the ship locks in the local canals and blocked the interrupted canals.
In order to quickly repair more than ten ship locks along the way and reopen the channel of this section of the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in a short period of time, the Chu army was forced to organize thousands of engineers and tens of thousands of civilians to work for more than a month. Only then did this section of the canal be opened.
This is one of the reasons why the Third Army's Northern Expedition was delayed until May.
In May, after the Third Army entered Shandong, they found that the local Beijing-Hangzhou Canal was still severely blocked. They had no choice but to slowly advance while unblocking the canal.
During this process, the battle was actually not fought very much. Most of the time, the infantry and artillery of the Third Army were idle, resting for a few days and then marching for a day.
At the same time, there are tens of thousands of civilians and thousands of engineers working hard to dredge the canal.
Against this background, the Third Army of the Chu Army captured Yanzhou, Juye and other places, and then moved north to capture Dongping, Dong'a, Pingyin and other places.
When the rear engineer troops dredged the canal to the Daqing River section, that is, in June, the Third Army also took advantage of the situation and launched an attack on Dongchang Fuzhi Liaocheng. At the same time, it also divided a division to attack Jinan City.
At the same time, the two divisions of the First Army were fighting in eastern Shandong. After marching in May, the First Guards Division had already reached and captured Yidu, Qingzhou, while the Fourth Division had fought towards Jiaozhou and others. We are currently heading towards Dengzhou. It is estimated that it will not take long to join forces with the 23rd Mixed Brigade in Penglai, Dengzhou.
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The 23rd Mixed Brigade, which previously landed on the eight islands of Chang Son, landed on the eight islands of Chang Son in May after experiencing a long and painful sea transportation.
The personnel of the 23rd Mixed Brigade were exhausted due to sea transportation. As for the mules and horses... this time, as expected, more than half of the mules and horses carried on the ship died, and the rest turned into soft-footed shrimps.
After landing on Changshan Island, the 23rd Mixed Brigade corrected for four or five days before initially recovering, and then continued to capture and seize other islands in the eight Changshan Islands with cooperation.
Because there are no Ming troops stationed on other islands, the early landing operations were basically carried out by the navy itself. The army only sent people to garrison after the war.
This time the navy also brought a first marine regiment to the north.
Even when they landed on Changshan Island before, the landing battle was actually fought by the Marine Corps. By the time the Army's 23rd Mixed Brigade landed, the ground battle had actually been completely resolved.
It's just that there is only one Marine Regiment in the Navy. This Marine Regiment has very heavy tactical tasks, and it is impossible for it to be stationed somewhere for a long time as an ordinary force.
After defeating the Eight Islands in Changshan, after the Marine Corps rests for a while, it is estimated that it will be transferred to the Da Yuan Island area in the southern coastal area.
Recently, the Great Chu Empire is not only engaged in the Northern Expedition... it is also quite busy on the southern sea.
For example, after capturing Guangzhou last year, in order to cut off the supply of guns and artillery to Zheng Zhilong from the Portuguese in Macau, the Chu army did not waste any time talking to the Portuguese and directly sent troops to recapture Macau.
As for the various agreements that the Portuguese had signed with the Ming court before, no matter whether they were legal or not, the Chu Empire was not the Ming court, so it did not recognize the various agreements of the Ming court.
Anyway, the local Chu army general, actually Army Lieutenant General Huang Xiangbin, commander of the Guangdong and Guangxi garrison, felt that the Portuguese in Macau were an unstable factor, so he simply expelled the Portuguese.
As for those who want to trade, it’s not like the Chu Empire doesn’t allow you Portuguese people to trade. You don’t need to go to the small place of Macau. You can come directly to Guangzhou.
Along the Pearl River estuary all the way to Guangzhou, the Chu Empire deployed numerous river defense forts. Only when your barbarian ships trade under our shore defense artillery can we feel safe!
If you dare to mess around, the coastal defense artillery will open fire, and the navy stationed in Xiangjiang will directly dispatch to block the Pearl River entrance. You will not be able to escape...
This naturally led to resistance and even revenge from the Portuguese, but well, these are small things and harmless.
Anyway, at the beginning, the coast of China was controlled by Zheng Zhilong. The Portuguese sent warships to blockade and attack the coast. This had nothing to do with the Chu Empire...
As for the future and even now... If you want to do business, do business. If you don't do business, get out. If you want to fight, fight. Anyway, after the current Dachu Empire Navy accepted a large number of warships from Zheng Zhilong's fleet, its overall strength can be regarded as a hegemon in East Asia. If you want to hit me, go ahead.
Therefore, the Chu Empire recently had a lot of conflicts with the Portuguese in the south, and even the Spanish and the Dutch had a lot of conflicts. It was about to have some big fights with these barbarians, so the navy The fleet and marines were hurriedly mobilized to go south, ready to fight...
