Hong Chengchou assured Duduo that the Merchant Army would not continue to march to the outskirts of Nanjing after capturing Guangzhou. He was not just talking nonsense, but was indeed well-founded.
When the Qing army and the merchant army were fighting fiercely outside Nanjing, Wu Sangui, Geng Zhongming, and Shang Kexi were dispatched to launch their own offensives.
Wu Sangui and Nikan divided their troops into Sichuan in two groups. Nikan led the troops and attacked Chongqing from Huguang Shizhou Guard. Wu Sangui returned to Guanzhong and entered Hanzhong. However, because Sichuan is far away, there has been no reply yet. As for the other two groups, Geng
Zhongming and Han Dai attacked Hunan, and Shang Kexi and Jueluo Bahana attacked Jiangxi, and some progress has been made.
Currently stationed in Hunan is He Tengjiao, the former Ming Dynasty governor of Huguang. After the Qing army defeated the Dashun army and captured the northern part of Huguang, He Tengjiao took the road to Ningzhou and Pingjiang to Changsha. He set up his own governor's headquarters in Changsha. The Qing army was in
After occupying Hubei, the primary goal was to advance towards Nanjing. After capturing Nanjing, he fought fiercely with Shang Yi, so he did not bother to take care of He Tengjiao, and used appeasement methods against He Tengjiao, sending people to surrender for the second time in a row.
He Tengjiao.
However, He Tengjiao refused all offers of surrender by the Qing army. At the same time, He Tengjiao took advantage of this free time to install officials in Changsha, recruit the remaining Ming army, and recruited the former Ming army generals Huang Chaoxuan, Zhang Xianbi, Liu Chengyin, Cao Zhijian and other troops, and gathered several troops.
With nearly 20,000 to 30,000 troops, they are preparing to use Hunan as a base to restore the entire province of Huguang.
After Zheng Zhilong established the Tang Dynasty King Zhu Yujian in Fujian, He Tengjiao was also regarded as Zhengshuo by the Longwu court. Of course, Zhu Yujian was very happy to receive the submission of such a powerful local official, and immediately appointed He Tengjiao as the governor of Huguang, stationed in Huguang.
in Changsha, and ordered all prefectures in Hunan to be subordinate to Qian
The Liangji Liangjiu government office was equivalent to giving He Tengjiao the power of finance and army in Hunan. He also appointed Du Yinxi, a former Wuchang soldier patrolman, as governor of Huguang and stationed in Changde. At He Tengjiao's request, he appointed Zhang Kuang as a Taoist in Hunan.
Fu Shangrui was appointed governor of Pianyuan, and all the generals in Hunan were also named commander-in-chief.
After Zhu Yujian was elected to power, he really wanted to do something. He hoped that He Tengjiao could guard Hunan as the west wing, and let Zheng Zhilong send troops to guard Jiangxi as the center, and Shang Yi would station in Zhejiang on the east wing. In this way,
This way we can protect most of the south, compete with the Qing army, and try to restore the country.
However, compared with Zheng Zhilong and Shang Yi, He Tengjiao's strength on hand is very shabby. He only relies on some stragglers left from the original Ming Dynasty. And He Tengjiao also knows that it is difficult to expect this group of people to see big things, so he also went to Hunan
Recruiting troops and training men and horses.
At this time, the remaining Dashun troops who were defeated by the Qing army also fled south one after another, entering Hunan, Jiangxi and other regions. Li Zicheng was attacked by local militia groups in the Jiugong Mountain area of Tongshan, Hubei and died. Before Li Zicheng's death, his men
The most powerful one
General Liu Zongmin died at the hands of the Qing army. The number one and number two figures of the Dashun Army were killed one after another. The Dashun Army also fell into a leaderless and chaotic chaos. Among the generals, Tian Jianxiu, Niu Jinxing,
Song Xiance and others surrendered to the Qing army.
The rest of the Dashun Army can be roughly divided into two groups. Liu Fangliang, Liu Tichun, Zhang Nai, Yuan Zongdi, Wu Ruyi, Hao Yaoqi, Wang Jincai, Niu Wancai and others fled to Pingjiang and Liuyang in eastern Hunan and gathered in the area.
, Li Zicheng's wife Gao, and his third brother Li Zi were also among them; Li Guo, Gao Yigong, Li You, He Lan, Liu Rukui, Ma Chongxi, Zhang Neng, Tian Hu, Yang Yanchang and others fled to Lizhou in western Hunan.
stationed.
However, the remnants of these two groups of Dashun troops were faced with the dilemma of lack of food and wages, and no foundation, so everyone discussed and decided to defect to He Tengjiao nearby to block Yinxi's men. At this time, the two groups of Dashun troops added up, There are nearly 200,000 troops in total. Although family members account for nearly half, a considerable number of them are elite soldiers of the Dashun Army. Their combat effectiveness is quite considerable. How to make good use of these troops can indeed play a big role in the Hunan battlefield. Moreover, He Tengjiao and Du Yinxi also lacked troops at this time, so the two sides hit it off immediately. Both He Tengjiao and Du Yinxi were willing to accept the surrender of the Dashun Army.
So He Tengjiao integrated the Dashun Army in Pingjiang and Liuyang in eastern Hunan, and Du Yinxi integrated the Dashun Army in Lizhou in western Hunan. At this time, Hunan's army expanded several times, and He Tengjiao suddenly became more powerful. Wake up.
However, after accepting the remnants of the Dashun Army, He Tengjiao and Du Yinxi had two different attitudes on how to benefit the remnants of the Dashun Army.
Although he took in the remnants of the Dashun Army, He Tengjiao did not trust the Dashun Army and still regarded them as rogue bandits, so he was on guard against them. At the same time, he also learned from the generals of the Dashun Army that Li Zicheng was ambushed and died, and faked the news. In order to achieve his own military exploits, he reported to the Longwu court that he had contacted the local heroes, ambushed the Dashun army, killed Li Zicheng, and made the remaining Dashun army regret and surrender, etc.
In terms of collective operations, He Tengjiao did not give the Dashun Army sufficient opportunities to rest and replenish, so that the Dashun Army could truly be used for his own use. Instead, he took advantage of the contradictions between the generals of the Dashun Army to divide and exclude them. He made great efforts. Promoted Hao Yaoqi, Wang Jincai and others who had higher status in the Dashun Army and appointed them as General Soldiers and Deputy Chief Soldiers under the Governor's Standard. However, they tried their best to suppress Liu Fangliang, Liu Tichun, Zhang Nai and others who were the senior generals of the Dashun Army. , neither resettled the garrison nor provided food and wages, so these Dashun troops were forced to collect food on the spot to sustain themselves. However, He Tengjiao accused them of plundering and at the same time sent people to lure these Dashun troops to surrender. The soldiers and low-level generals were recruited as their own personal soldiers.
However, Du Yinxi's approach was completely different from He Tengjiao's. First, he had realized that the remaining generals and soldiers of the Ming Army were extremely corrupt and were not useful at all. Only the Dashun Army could still fight. , therefore only by fully uniting the Dashun Army and bringing it into our own ranks to jointly fight against the Qing Dynasty can we have hope of preserving Hunan. On the other hand, almost all of Hunan's army is now in the hands of He Tengjiao, and almost every soldier under his own command is in the hands of He Tengjiao. No, we can only make full use of the power of Dashun Army.
So Du Yinxi took only a few dozen followers and rushed to the Dashun military camp in Lizhou in person. He explained his righteousness to Li Guo, Gao Yigong, Li You and others, and explained the pros and cons. Everyone was convinced, and they drank wine and swore an oath with them. The generals of the Dashun Army were very moved and were willing to obey the orders. Then Du Yinxi sent his personal follower Fu Zuolin and his Shangshu to Fujian. , in front of Zhu Yujian, he applied for a knighthood for the surrendered general of the Dashun Army.
He Tengjiao and Du Yinxi had completely different attitudes towards the Dashun Army, which also caused considerable repercussions within the two groups of Dashun troops. Soon after, several Dashun troops recruited by He Tengjiao except Hao Yaoqi and Wang Jincai In addition to the second group, others including Li Zicheng's wife Gao and his third brother Li Zidu led their troops into Chongde Mansion, joined the Dashun army led by Li Guo, Gao Yigong and others, and listened to Du Yinxi's men.
But this aroused He Tengjiao's jealousy, so he also went to Shushu Fujian, not only attacking Du Yinxi, but also trying his best to slander the Dashun army as capricious and not to be reused, let alone entrusted with important positions.
After Fu Zuolin arrived in Fujian with Shangshu who blocked Yinxi, it immediately aroused a fierce debate in the Longwu court. Cabinet academicians Jiang Dejing, Lu Zhenfei, Lin Zengzhi and others were very dissatisfied with this. Not only did they focus on
Overturned Dashun's army and captured Beijing, forcing
Chongzhen's old account was killed, and the responsibility for the destruction of Nanjing was also pushed to the Dashun Army. It was precisely because the Dashun Army abandoned Wuchang that the Qing Army was able to go down the river and take Nanjing directly, so it was pardoned.
That is to say, it is very lenient. How can you still ask for a title?
However, Zhang Jiayu, Gu Zhijun, Yushi Qian Bangqi and others in the Hanlin affair all supported Du Yinxi's opinion. They believed that their biggest enemy now was Manqing, not the Dashun army, so they were against the Dashun army.
The remaining troops should be appeased and used for their own use. After all, being granted the title of marquis and earl is just a false title. On the contrary, it can command hundreds of thousands of troops, so why not do it?
Zhu Yujian was still able to keep a clear head. After weighing the pros and cons, he decided to accept Du Yinxi's opinion, formally issued an order to recruit the Dashun Army, and sent Ma Jixiang as an envoy to Huguang to issue an edict: Conferring the title of Zhenyi to Madam Gao, Madam Gao
lady
, gave Li Guo a crown of pearls and four horses inside and outside. He named Li Guo the left army in front of the imperial camp, hung the seal of General Dragon and Tiger, made him a Marquis of the country, and granted him the title Chixin, Gaoyi the title of Gao Bizheng, and the other generals.
As the capital, Bo Youchai was granted the title of "Zhongzhenying".
After He Tengjiao learned about it, although he felt very uncomfortable, the emperor's holy will had already been decided, and it was inconvenient for him to add Ren Xiang's objections. He could only hold back his anger and endure it for the time being.
However, at this time, the Ming army in Hunan was no longer a trivial matter. After Du Yinxi recruited the remaining Dashun army, he actually had more than 70,000 or 80,000 soldiers. At this time, He Tengjiao also recruited more than 30,000 new soldiers, who were directly assigned to him.
Commanded and assigned Wu Chengzong and Yao Youxing
, Long Jianming, Qin Yuchun, Man Dazhuang, Hu Yuelong, Xiang Dengzhi and other generals, plus Hao Yaoqi, Wang Jincai and other Dashun troops, and recruited Huang Chaoxuan, Zhang Xianbi, Liu Chengyin, Cao Zhijian and other troops in advance.
It also reached nearly 100,000 people.
After Hong Chengchou took office in Nanjing, he appointed Tongdai, the Han army's Zhenglan Banner Mele Zhangjing, as governor of Huguang and stationed in Wuchang. However, at this time, the main force of the Qing army was stationed in Nanjing, and most of the troops stationed in Huguang were sent to Huangzhou for defense.
The merchant army stationed in Wuchang and Jingzhou was not very large, with a total of more than 10,000 troops. Zheng Siwei, who was stationed in Jingzhou, had only 5,000 troops.
Therefore, He Tengjiao felt a lot more courageous, and he was quite willing to fight the Qing army. Du Yinxi also wanted to take advantage of the situation to march forward and regain Hubei. So Du Yinxi also formulated a plan to send troops
, the two divided their forces to attack, with He Tengjiao,
Zhang Kuang led his troops north from Yuezhou to contain the Qing army in Wuchang; he and the Zhongzhen Battalion sent troops from Lizhou to capture Jingzhou first, then led their troops eastward to join forces with He Tengjiao's Ming army in Wuchang, and then captured Wuchang.