Chapter 128: The Follow-up Battle to Recover Nanjing (Part 2)
Chapter 128: The follow-up battle to recapture Nanjing
The combat plan arranged in this way is actually a rearrangement of the current military strength.
There are now a total of five armies in Zhejiang and Hubei. The ranking of the strength of each army is: the first army is the strongest, the second army is the second, the third is the sixth, and the seventh army is the worst. Shang Yi plans to distribute his troops in the future.
The strongest First Army defends the Jianghuai area on the northern front, the second most powerful Second Army guards the southern front, which is to defend the north and south sides of Nanjing and Hangzhou, and the Third, Sixth, and Seventh Army defends the Lianghu area on the western front. This is how strong and weak the troops are.
The combination ensures that every war zone in the future will have sufficient troops.
After all the distribution was completed, all the troops set off one after another. At this moment, Shang Yi also received news that a group of officers and soldiers of the Merchant Army who were captured in the Hubei theater surrendered to the Qing court. Two of the more notable ones were Twenty-Two.
Li Benshen, the commander of the brigade, was awarded the third-class Mele Zhang by the Qing army. Zhao Yue, the leader of the 14th Jingjing Regiment, was awarded the third-class Adahaha fan by the Qing government. More than 40 others also had their own awards, although they all had the same title.
There is no substantial official position, but it is still pretty good.
Judging from the time, these people were probably captured in the most difficult times and the most difficult battles in the Hubei War Zone. At that time, it was also the time when the Qing army was at its strongest and the situation was looking good on the surface. Therefore, some people lost hope for the future of the merchant army.
It is not surprising that confidence would be shaken and surrendered to the enemy. In fact, in this era in another time and space, many people were wavering between the Ming, Dashun, and Qing Dynasties. Three dynasties and four dynasties were commonplace until the Qing court stabilized the situation in the Southern Ming Dynasty.
This situation gradually decreased after the gradual demise of various regimes.
Although Shang Yi did not expect that every one of his soldiers would rather die than be stubborn after being captured. After all, not everyone can maintain a firm stance in the face of death, but after learning that these people surrendered to the Qing court, he still felt
There is something unpleasant
However, generally speaking, although Shang Yi and the Qing army fought fiercely, there were not many generals who surrendered to each other. The only Qing army generals who surrendered to Shang Yi were Li Chengdong in the early days and Hao Xiaozhong who surrendered before the Battle of Nanjing.
Shang Yi is relatively tolerant of these people as long as they have not done anything before
The evil forces agreed to accept the reorganization of the army and would be given certain official positions. Firstly, they were demoted to the Qing Dynasty as Ming generals and had nothing to do with Shang Yi. Secondly, Shang Yi also hoped to use this to divide the Qing army. After all,
Surrendering to a clear general can save you a lot of trouble
There were even fewer generals like Li Benzhen and Zhao Yue who surrendered to the Qing army from the merchant army. They surrendered only after being captured and almost no generals took the initiative to surrender to the Qing army. Therefore, the surrender of Li Benzhen and Zhao Yue did not represent the thoughts of the merchant army.
The work was not done well
In addition, Shang Yi is not worried that they will leak their secrets to the Qing army after they surrender, because now except for a few high-end technologies, there are not many secrets on his side, such as administrative methods and economic means.
Publicly speaking, Shang Yi didn't pay much attention to tactics. Even if the Qing army wanted to follow suit, what could they do? You could form an army and train according to the merchant army's method, but whether it could be used well in battle is two different things.
In another time and space, although the chairman claimed to have thoroughly studied Taizu's tactics, he still suffered repeated defeats. It was like everyone could understand [Sun Tzu's Art of War] but could become like Sun Wu by studying [Sun Tzu's Art of War].
How many soldiers are there?
Now Shang Yi is considering two issues: First, as his strength expands in the future, more and more Han ministers will surrender from the Qing court, and he should attract as many of these people to surrender as possible, which will not only weaken the Qing Dynasty, but also attract them to surrender.
At the same time, the power of the imperial court can also resolve the conflicts between the Manchu and Han Dynasties within the Qing court, which is of course beneficial to the development of one's own career.
But how to deal with these people who have surrendered? Now we have to start seriously considering what kind of people should be accepted to surrender, and what kind of people should not be accepted to surrender. Should the Manchus surrender also accept people who have made big mistakes in the past? What should we do? The credit of those who surrendered is huge.
How to determine the merits and demerits, how to offset the surrender, what kind of official positions should be awarded to those who surrender, so as to ensure that they are attractive to them without causing dissatisfaction among the old officials within oneself, etc. These issues cannot be decided arbitrarily and a detailed standard should be formulated.
Another question is how should former Merchant Army personnel who surrendered to the Qing Army be treated if they want to return to the Merchant Army?
After all, this situation is more complicated and special. On the one hand, the officials from the original Ming Dynasty who can be demoted to the Qing Dynasty are different, which means that they have betrayed their own group. From the psychology of the group members, their behavior is more unforgivable than the officials from the original Ming Dynasty who were demoted to the Qing Dynasty. But on the other hand,
On the one hand, they have indeed made a lot of contributions to the merchant army in the past. For example, Zhao Yue and Shang Yi knew that he was for the merchant army.
In order to cover the retreat of the main force, he was captured by the Qing army after the lone army broke off. As a result, he surrendered. If he had also withdrawn at that time, the possibility of being captured by the Qing army would have been much smaller. Moreover, it was indeed because he led the team to block the Qing army that the main force was safe.
According to the standards of some later countries, this evacuation is not only completely within the scope of surrender, but also falls within the scope of meritorious service.
Although it is impossible for Yi Yi to initiate and implement regulations that allow conditional surrender in this era, to put it bluntly, if you are afraid of death, don't become a soldier, but he does not want to beat all the merchant soldiers who have surrendered to death with a stick, and they should be punished at least
They have a chance to make a crime and meritorious service. Of course, these unified standards need to be further discussed and formulated with everyone. They can take their time. The most urgent thing now is to win all these predetermined areas first. This is the most important thing is our own power.
Without expansion, everything else is just a cloud.
If eyes could kill, Hong Chengchou would have been stunned by Zhao Yue's gaze. However, at this moment, Hong Chengchou was still drinking tea and did not pay any attention to Zhao Yue's eyes that were almost spitting fire.
Of course, if Zhao Yue hadn't been pinned down by several people on his shoulders and couldn't move at all, Zhao Yue would have rushed up and punched Hong Chengchou to death. But at this time, he could only watch as Hong Chengchou clenched his fists so tightly that his nails were broken.
The veins on my forehead bulged out after I was trapped in the RO.
Hong Chengchou put down his tea cup and said with a smile: "General Zhao, everyone in the world now knows that you have surrendered. I am afraid that everyone in the Qing Dynasty and the Merchant Army will regard you as a traitor."
"Shut up." Zhao Yue burst out with a roar. He struggled twice but still couldn't break free and said sternly: "Old thief Hong, you are so despicable and shameless to frame me like this. You surrender to the Qing Dynasty and you will be in disgrace for thousands of years. Your whole family will not be well."
I'll kill you, the turtle bastard, my eighteenth ancestor."
The more Zhao Yue scolded him, the worse it got. The corners of Hong Chengchou's eyes couldn't help but twitch, as if he was about to have a seizure, but he finally endured it and said calmly: "Zhao Yue, it's useless what you say now, because everyone will believe that you have surrendered to the Qing Dynasty.
I think Shang Yi now wants to cut you into pieces, so you have no other choice but to surrender to the Qing Dynasty."
Zhao Yue gritted his teeth and said: "No, I will never surrender. No matter how despicable you, old unlucky bastard, you use to harm me, I will never surrender."
Li Benzhen was standing next to Hong Chengchou at this time and said with a rather embarrassed face: "Zhao Yue, why do you have to hold on any longer? Hong Shuai is right. Now the merchant army thinks that you have surrendered to Hong Chengchou."
Shuai is doing this for your own good. Why don't you get nothing to eat there? You are just a regiment leader in the Merchant Army, so here in the Qing Dynasty you will definitely be no worse than there..."
Before he could finish his words, Zhao Yue slapped him hard and said, "Shameless man, do you still have the nerve to talk to me?"
Li Benzhen was about to speak again when Hong Chengchou suddenly stood up, flicked his sleeves and said: "That's enough, let him go." The people who were pressing Zhao Yue were startled, and Hong Chengchou said again: "Let him go."
After hearing this, several people looked at each other again and finally let go of Zhao Yue, but still maintained a posture that could restrain Zhao Yue at any time. At this time, Hong Chengchou turned around and picked up his sword from the shelf. Everyone thought he was
He wanted to kill Zhao Yue himself, but Zhao Yue also wanted to do so, so he closed his eyes and held his neck to be killed.
Hong Chengchou smiled coldly and said: "Isn't it easy to die? I can help you now, but you have to know that now you have surrendered to the Qing Dynasty and become the king of the world. Even if you die, no one will believe that you did not surrender to the Qing Dynasty.
You still have the reputation of being a traitor, and I will announce it to the world after your death.
He said that you died of illness and then gave you a rich burial and reported to the court to confer a title on you. Therefore, not only now but also for all generations to come, you will be regarded as surrendering to the Qing court." He waved his hand and threw the sword in front of Zhao Yue and said: "
I have finished what I have to say. If you really want to die, just kill yourself."
After hearing what Hong Chengchou said, Zhao Yue felt as if he had been hit hard. Although the sword was right in front of him and within reach, he couldn't reach it out, but he was screaming in his heart: "No, I can't do this."
I will never die with the reputation of a traitor."
When Hong Chengchou saw that Zhao Yue never picked up the sword, he knew that his tactic of undermining his salary had finally worked. At least Zhao Yue's heart had begun to feel a little loose, so he was secretly happy in his heart. However, he also knew that he couldn't be too aggressive with Zhao Yue now.
If it's too tight, it will be counterproductive. You should leave some space for Zhao Yue to slowly lift himself. So he winked like the others, picked up the sword, and retreated.
After they all left, it took a long time for Zhao Yue to stand up from the ground, but his eyes flashed with determination.