Fellow villagers, and being in-laws, they were inseparable on weekdays. If there was anyone in the Changsha shogunate who knew Hong Chengchou best, then if Huang Zhilin was second, no one would dare to say he was first.

We have known each other for many years. We do not talk about the eradication of bandits, but only that since the Qing army entered the customs, this is the second time that Hong Chengchou has taken office. However, compared with the old saying of "If you don't appease the bandits, you can't pacify them", "If you don't suppress them, you can't."

"Chengzhenfu", this time he took up the post again, with great power and no constraints. He could place his trusted followers in local places and in the army at will. However, Hong Chengchou read the memorials in the court and met with officials after arriving in Huguang to understand the situation. What he came up with was

It's just "fighting with defense".

Being so conservative, in the final analysis, today is different from the past. I think back then, the Eight Banners Army had just entered the pass, and the military front was extremely strong. The green battalions of all the ministries had just transferred to the Qing court, and they were eager for self-efficacy. On the other side of the Ming army, the Hongguang Dynasty was destroyed

, King Lu Jianguo surrendered without a fight, and even Lu Jianguo Dynasty and Longwu Dynasty could not pose any threat to Jiangnan.

Although he only had authority in Jiangnan, and was subject to the control of his relatives, and suffered the negative impact of the hair-cutting order, he single-handedly conquered Ningguo in Jiangnan and Huizhou in just two months after taking office.

, Nanchang, Nankang, Jiujiang, Ruizhou, Fuzhou, Raozhou, Linjiang, Ji'an, Guangxin, Jianchang, and Yuanzhou prefectures in Jiangxi. Including Zehou Tian Jianxiu of Dashun Army, Yihou Zhang Nai, and Hongguang Chao

Zhang Jinyan, governor of Hebei, Shaanxi, and Henan, and general Gao Jinzhong, the commander-in-chief of Chongming.

In addition, during his tenure, the right minister of the Ministry of War of the Longwu Dynasty and the censor of the right capital of the Metropolitan Procuratorate, Jin Sheng, the governor of Hui, Ning, Chi, and Taizhou, recruited more than 100,000 rural soldiers to use Huining to fortify the natural dangers.

Thirteen battalions were set up on the mountain, guarded by thirteen lieutenants. They also took charge of the Jixi River and guarded it themselves. They sent heavy troops to control Congshan Pass and invited the Qing army to attack many times. Hong Chengchou ordered Zhen Yechen and Zhang Tianlu, the commander-in-chief, to attack the Qing army.

Li Zhongxing, Liu Zeyong and others attacked, broke through more than ten villages, captured Jixi, captured Huizhou, and captured and killed Jin Sheng and his men.

The chief minister of the Longwu Dynasty, Huang Daozhou, went on a northern expedition and was annihilated by him; the king of Ruichang, Zhu Yili, and the general Zhu Junzhao, etc. conspired to raid Nanjing and were defeated by it; even when Zheng Zhilong surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, there was also Hong Chengchou's plan.

In just two years of pacifying Jiangnan, Jiangnan no longer had any resistance forces that could directly threaten the rule of the Qing Dynasty. But this time, what they had to face was Sun Kewang, the king of Qin who was entrenched in Yunnan and Guizhou and had tens of thousands of troops.

King Li Dingguo, the king of Xining who is running rampant in Guangdong and Guangxi, now has an extraordinarily talented governor Chen Kai who is backed by the Zheng Group, as well as Ming armies from various factions such as the Ming Army in the east of Kuizhou and the Ming Army in the west of Guangdong. Their strength on paper is

Whether you are stronger or weaker than him, it is no longer the same situation as it was back then.

"Hengjiu, what are you worried about is the combination of Li Dingguo and the pirates?"

As soon as Hong Chengchou opened his mouth, Huang Zhilin had already figured out the key to this. This was not because he really had the ability to see through people's hearts. It was just that during this period, Hong Chengchou's main plans were aimed at Sun Kewang and the Qing court.

Within the control area, Li Dingguo relied on Dingnan Fan's line of defense to guard Guilin, while the Ming army in Guangdong relied on the existence of Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao. Now that Shang Geng and Geng Fan are gone, Li Dingguo and Chen Kai have cooperated.

In the past of Nanming's history of internal strife between different factions, this was indeed a very unfavorable start for the Qing court. Naturally, Hong Chengchou was worried about this new breakthrough.

"Among the bandits around Huguang, Sun Kewang is the strongest. Although they have been quiet for a while after the war in Zhoujiapu, they seem to be ready to make a move recently. Li Dingguo's side was defeated in Zhaoqing the year before last and failed in Guilin.

Afterwards, I actually sent someone to persuade her once, but I thought it was better than nothing, but ended up going to Guangdong again during the Chinese New Year."

"Both of these two people were a great threat to the imperial court before, but they also have quite a few shortcomings, that is, the former is not good at commanding on the spot; the latter does not have stable logistics supply. Sun Lihe, I am just here to treat you.

It's just death. This is the gap in hard power and the general trend. No matter how strong the manpower is, it can't resist the general trend. I have all kinds of methods, but I will only get twice the result with half the effort. Now, God bless the Qing Dynasty. These two thieves are at odds with each other and are in the same situation.

But there happened to be a Chen Kai..."

There is no direct right or wrong, but Hong Chengchou's statement has confirmed Huang Zhilin's thoughts. Over the years, he has personally seen, especially what Hong Chengchou said, that the biggest problem in the Ming Dynasty is internal fighting, which makes it possible to grasp the situation.

The five fingers of the fist could only do their own thing. Even if it did hit the Qing court, it would be difficult to cause fatal damage.

In the sixth year of Yongli, when the Ming army launched a major counterattack in the southwest, the Qing army was defeated on all fronts. In this way, the Qing government asked Wu Sangui to abandon Sichuan, strictly prohibited Shang Kexi and Geng Jimao from rashly engaging in a decisive battle with Li Dingguo, and dispatched

Nikan led the main force of the Eight Banners Army southward.

Next, the Qing court relied on the Ming army's own mistakes to withstand this round of onslaught. Liu Wenxiu was idle, and Sun and Li were at odds. The latter left for Guangxi, and the clenched fist once again returned to the five-fingered one.

status. However, that round of attacks also caused great damage to the Qing court, which directly led to the Qing court's choice to try its best to appease Zheng Chenggong, in order to prevent Zheng Chenggong from falling into a bitter fight in the southeast while facing huge pressure in the southwest, and Zheng Chenggong and those who entered Guangdong.

Li Dingguo’s cooperation.

At first, the execution was pretty good, but the outcome was unknown. Zheng Chenggong and Chen Kai were scheming against the Qing court from the beginning to the end of the peace negotiation. What made them even more unbearable was that even though the province of Fujian was lost, Chen Kai was still not idle.

Afterwards, he went to Guangdong to cooperate with Li Dingguo and co-authored the Qing government's response in the southeast, which was completely manipulated by Chen Kai.

Hong Chengchou is not a person who likes to waste time sighing, never has been. He believes that if there is a problem, he must find a solution. Today's meeting with Huang Zhilin is nothing more than a warm-up with this most trusted assistant.

"The imperial court will soon put more burdens on me."

Prediction, but did not even use words such as "possible", "probably", and "maybe". Huang Zhilin listened, and suddenly realized that when Hong Chengchou had just been ordered to explore the southwest, he was responsible for

The military affairs of the five provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Huguang. Later, because the two kings of Pingnan and Jingnan were princes and could not be controlled by Hong Chengchou, the Qing government changed the name of Hong Chengchou to the five provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangxi, Huguang, and Jiangxi.

But in fact, Yunnan and Guizhou were in the hands of the Ming army, and Hong Chengchou also left matters in Jiangxi to Ma Guozhu, Cai Shiying, and Yi Yonggui. His main energy was concentrated on Huguang and Guangxi provinces.

Now that the two vassals have been destroyed, Jiangxi is bound to be under pressure. If you think about it with your toes, you can guess that the Qing government will probably turn this five provinces into six provinces.

"There are more things that need to be done, but we still have to do what we have on hand."

After speaking, Huang Zhilin nodded. Then, Hong Chengchou continued: "Now, we still focus on consolidating the situation in the area controlled by the imperial court and building a five-thousand-mile long border."

Hong Chengchou used the Changsha shogunate to try his best to restore matters in the areas controlled by the Qing court. However, the five thousand-mile long border is the key issue now.

The so-called five-thousand-mile long border starts from Yunyang, Huguang, the northernmost part of the Huguang controlled area by the Qing Dynasty, and passes through Xiangyang, Jingzhou, Yiling, Changde, Yiyang, Hengzhou, Qiyang, Yongzhou, and ends at Guilin, Guangxi. It is used for defense including Guilin, Guangxi.

Various Ming armies, including the Kuidong Ming Army in eastern Sichuan and western Hubei, the Qin Fan in Yunnan and Guizhou, and Li Dingguo in Guangxi, sealed them in the southwest. On this line of defense, "towns were set up one after another" and "the first move and the last move"

Gu, this call and the other answer."

In Yunyang, there was Hu Quancai, who was from Wenshui in Shanxi. During the Chongzhen period, he had been a doctor in the Ministry of War. After surrendering to the Qing Dynasty, he first worked in the Ministry of War, and then in the northwest, he was promoted from Shaanxi to Han and Qiang Dao to the governor of Ningxia. He defended the city and was defeated.

He has gone through the rebellion of Hanzhong General He Zhen, defeated the Ma De rebellion, recruited a large number of surrendered generals, and formulated the "Locust Catching Law" to benefit the local area. Although the word "all-rounder" is still not as good as the word "competent person", the word "competent person" has already been achieved.

Not enough to describe it.

"Wen'an's writings are colorful, and there is nothing wrong with his personal morals. However, this is the first time he has been exposed to military affairs. His subordinates are either local Ming troops in Sichuan or bandits. The factions are complicated and they can

It's good if it can be controlled. With Hu Quancai in Yunyang, I feel relieved. In addition, in Guilin, Xian Guoan is also a veteran general. With Jiancheng, not to mention Hu Yiqing and his like, even if Li Dingguo comes in person, it may not be possible

You can chew it off."

It is not that Li Dingguo has never captured Guilin, but that time it was because of Li Dingguo's proper planning and Kong Youde's entrustment, which led to the defeat and the lack of strength of the defenders. He waited until the next year to attack Guilin again and attacked the fortified city from the front, but he was in front of Xian Guoan.

wall.

"The current problem, in addition to the middle section of this five thousand-mile long side, there is also a loophole in southern Jiangxi..."

In southern Jiangxi, they are naturally faced with the armies of Li Dingguo and Chen Kai. Those two Ming armies achieved a brilliant victory not long ago, which was when they were at their strongest. Now, after hard battles, they always need a period of rest.

But after resting and recuperating, the Qing army in southern Gansu may be about to suffer a powerful blow.

This is basically something that is bound to happen. It is just a matter of time. As for the middle section of the five-thousand-mile long side, what Hong Chengchou is referring to is the Changde-Baoqing line, where Sun Kewang's army is facing directly. Originally, it was

The main force of the Eight Banners Army, led by Tun Qi, held a stalemate with the Ming Army there. However, the army had been out for a long time, plus the losses in the Hengyang and Zhoujiapu battles, and it was urgent to return to the capital to rest and recuperate. In April last year, Hong Chengchou arrived

Huguang didn't have too long. It could be said that just after they figured out the problems here and started trying to solve them, Tunqi returned to the capital with his army.

As soon as the Tunqi army left, people on the Huguang battlefield were panicked. In May, the Qing army's "escape" incident broke out in Baoqing. It was because of the withdrawal of the Tunqi army that the Ming army took advantage of the situation to seize a series of areas around Baoqing.

Strategic location. In order to secure the Baoqing Prefecture, Hong Chengchou forced the Green Battalion, which had traveled long distances from Beizhili, Shaanxi, Henan and other places, to march urgently to help. As a result, mutiny occurred due to the unsuitable climate and lack of military supplies.

The green camp transferred from the north was like this, and the local green camp defense was already riddled with holes. For this reason, Hong Chengchou continued to adjust the defense and expand the establishment, and was very busy. However, this was particularly insufficient, so he simply asked

He set up a standard of scripture and transferred a group of his old subordinates from the north to strengthen the defense.

"If nothing else happens, except for Admiral Zhang, the other generals should arrive in May."

As the words came out of his mouth, there was no trace of relaxation on Hong Chengchou's face. Huang Zhilin knew very well that it was gratifying that Zhumala was defeated. Geng Jimao had asked Hong Chengchou for help, but as a result, the city of Guangzhou had already been destroyed as soon as the messenger set out.

The Qing court really could not blame Hong Chengchou for this matter, but the two vassals were gone, and the army he finally mobilized, which was originally used as a mobile force, was obviously not enough to fill the gap between his teeth.

"We also need to ask for troops from the imperial court to ensure the security of the southern Jiangxi region. Only by ensuring Jiangxi can I continue to exert force in Huguang. Otherwise, it will be a situation where we will be attacked from both sides. It is better to simply abandon the defense of southern Huguang. What else can we do?

Shorten the defense line and hold it out for a while until the bandits break out into internal strife again, and then the imperial court will have the opportunity to take advantage of it."

As the Southwest Economic Strategy, Hong Chengchou took over a mess that was so bad that it was almost impossible to make it worse. These days, after hard work, he finally recovered somewhat, but the enemy was still strong, and as Chen Kai continued to attack

To cause trouble, his opponents seem to be getting stronger and stronger, which is really not a good thing.

Huang Zhilin had known Hong Chengchou for many years, and he had no doubts about his abilities, and he also believed that Hong Chengchou could turn the tide. But this time, he said that he would have to wait until the Ming army was in internal strife before he could have a chance, but he still couldn't help but feel this way.

I was shocked by how conservative and even pessimistic I was.

"The crux of the problem still lies in Chen Kai. I heard about this man four years ago, but I didn't expect that four years later he would become a serious problem for the imperial court."

He shook his head with a wry smile, but there was no hint of discouragement in Hong Chengchou's eyes, but more of the ferocious determination of a ferocious beast when encountering a powerful enemy.

Huang Zhilin had not seen such a look for too many years, so that once he came into contact with such a look, he could not help but avoid this frightening sight. His sight was dodged, but he was still unable to

To avoid its existence. But at this time, the report from the soldiers outside the door put away the ferocity from the heart.

"Kwak Do-hyun?"

Guo Duxian was the governor of Jiangxi in the Chongzhen Dynasty and was now the most prominent gentry in Huguang. In the more than a year since Hong Chengchou arrived in Huguang, he had been sparing no effort to win over the local gentry in Huguang. However, he was content to stay at home as a survivor and did not want to have any relations with the Qing court.

There were many people who got in touch with each other, and Guo Duxian, who had asked to meet Li Dingguo after the great victory in Hengyang, was one of them.

"He's here to plead for Tao Ru Nai, so leave him alone first."

Having said that, Hong Chengchou sent his own soldiers to summon an aide named Liao Wenying, and after driving away the rest, he directly said to him: "The article you submitted last time was thought to be able to recruit Lianyang of Guangzhou Prefecture.

Eight rows of cottages. I'm sure, you should set off as soon as possible. However, be careful not to rush for success. The war in Guangdong has lasted for a year, and Fujian has been ruined. Whether it is Li Dingguo or Chen Kai, it will be difficult for them to fight again in the past six months. We still have time to make arrangements.

.”
Chapter completed!