Chapter 340: Southern Expedition and Northern War Five Luzon
On August 31, the 46th year of Wanli Dynasty, when the imperial court was mobilizing food and wages and recruiting soldiers to prepare for the expedition against the Jurchens in Jianzhou, Liaodong, news came from the palace that "the disease was getting serious." British Duke Zhang Weixian and great scholar Fang Congzhe Zhou Jiamo, the Minister of the Ministry of Personnel, Li Ruhua, the Minister of the Ministry of Husbandry, Huang Jiashan, the Minister of the Ministry of War, Zhang Wenda, the acting Minister of the Ministry of Punishments, Huang Keji, the acting Minister of the Ministry of Works, Sun Ruyou, the right minister of the Ministry of Rites, and others rushed to the Hongde Hall to meet Emperor Wanli.
Everyone was in a panic. The Ming Dynasty was preparing for a war with Liaodong. Although the emperor was not in charge of things, if something went wrong with the emperor at this time, the conquest of the Jianzhou Jurchens would have to stop. Then, this would give Nurhaci took advantage of the opportunity to seize the opportunity, but a Chinese company failed to solve it in time. Now it has become too big and can even shake the country's foundation; plus a Jianzhou Jurchen, the fate of the Ming Dynasty is worrying.
Wanli was lying on the dragon bed in a sick state. He first asked Haifan how much money Liao's salary could increase.
Li Ruhua, the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, hesitated for a moment and said: "When Liao Zuo used troops, the Liao rates were increased by nine cents per mu. Last year, sea rates were levied at an additional three cents per mu. In addition to the Liao rates of nine cents per mu, a total of one cent per mu was levied. Divided into two cents, the total increase was 7.2 million taels. In the past two years, not a cent of the tax land in the south of the Yangtze River was put into the treasury. The governor of Yingtian was under the jurisdiction of Yingtian, Suzhou, Changzhou, Zhenjiang, Songjiang, Huizhou, Taiping, Ningguo, Anqing, Chizhou Shifu, Su, Chang, Zhenjiang, Songjiang and other places are still in the hands of Taiwanese pirates, so food and salary taxes cannot be collected. For the time being, all these increased taxes are collected by Shanxi, Sichuan, Huguang and other places."
Huang Jiashan, Secretary of the Ministry of War, said: "The nine-border frontier army is short of pay, which has accumulated to hundreds of thousands over the years. Your Majesty, please use more internal funds to help pay."
Emperor Wanli covered his head, as if he had a splitting headache. He murmured: "The Eastern Division is short of pay, and more internal funds are allocated to support military supplies. Please ask Mr. Fang to take charge of this matter... I have a headache, and the rest of the matters can be handled by you gentlemen." ," After saying that, a group of eunuchs and doctors gathered around him.
All the ministers looked at each other and had no choice but to leave the Hongde Hall. In any case, His Majesty the Emperor finally agreed to use internal funds for military pay. This was an unexpected gain.
However, the next day, the eunuch in charge of rites sent a decree. Emperor Wanli declared that "the internal funds are for the blessing of the king's country. Most of them have been removed from the Taiwan pirate battle, and now there is not much left." In short, Emperor Wanli overturned yesterday's promise, Unwilling to embezzle internal funds for the Liaodong War.
Fang Congzhe looked up to the sky and sighed, and he and the ministers looked at each other again, helpless.
A month later, Zhang Heming, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, who was in Hangzhou, received a personal letter from Fang Congzhe, a great scholar, in which he apologized to him: the military expenditures for the training of the new army were not available. The troops in Liaodong were about to be mobilized, and military supplies and food were lacking. He asked him to postpone the establishment of the new army. Nanjing Manager Xu Guangqi, who was actually in charge of training and organizing the new army, was greatly disappointed, and his plan to go to Macau to hire Francois to purchase Western firearms could not be carried out.
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After being stimulated by the rebellion of the Chinese army, the huge body of the Ming Dynasty only trembled slightly, and then followed the inertia and continued on the old road towards its fateful end.
On the island of Taiwan, all industries are prosperous. With the population immigrating from Jiangnan and Beijing and Quzhou, the wealth of Jiangnan is taking effect. Zeng Qi, Zeng Ke, Han Ping and his son... The members of the board of directors of Zhonghua Company are fully committed to the economic development of this year and next. The expansion plan was under way, and at this time, Yin Feng had initially completed the reorganization of the army.
The main infantry field force of the Chinese Army now has five divisions:
Zhao Tie, commander of the 1st Division, is stationed at the old camp base of the Chinese Army north of Taiwan Port.
Yang Dacheng, commander of the Second Division, and the old battalion of the headquarters are stationed in Ryukyu.
Li Xing, commander of the Third Division, is stationed in Manila, Luzon Island.
Mai De, commander of the 4th Division, is stationed in Jilong Port, Taipei, Taiwan Island.
The commander of the Fifth Division, Yan Siqi, is temporarily stationed in Nanya State, West Borneo.
In early November, Yin Feng left Taiwan Port on the Dingyuan battleship and led the reorganized First Division to Luzon.
In addition to Dingyuan, the accompanying main warships of the Second Fleet also included Feilong and two other Feizi ships. Under the escort of forty three-masted gunboats from three squadrons, the First Division troops were already in Manila ten days later.
The harbor is ashore.
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In the mountainous area of central Luzon, in the middle reaches of the Pampanga River, Arayat is the important town of the Pampanga people.
Li Xing, the commander of the third division, and Andre, the commander of the foreign mercenary corps, were at an artillery position, enduring the deafening shelling and observing the situation in Alayat with binoculars.
The division's artillery regiment is using twenty field guns to bombard the city of Alayat on the Pampanga River. In fact, this is just killing a chicken with a knife. In the eyes of the Chinese, this so-called city of Arayat is at most a large place.
The market town, in mainland China, was at best a large stockade with a low wooden wall. Under the repeated bombardment of twenty field cannons, sections of the wooden wall collapsed, and the bamboo watchtower was shattered by the shells.
The Pampanga people believed in Catholicism during the Spanish rule. They were the most warlike indigenous people in Luzon and the most loyal fighters of the Spaniards. Although the Spaniards had given up on the colony by default, a few Spanish missionaries were still lurking.
In Pampanga, over the years, the Pampanga people have been repeatedly attacked by Chinese armed forces and have lost a lot of land.
A year ago, a group of Japanese Catholic exiles, led by several Spanish missionaries, landed in Luzon and soon joined the Pampanga people. The addition of the Japanese warriors made Macapa, the leader of Arayat (an important town on the Pampanga River)
Gal became more courageous, and soon, under the instigation of the lurking Spanish missionaries, the Luzon natives
As Catholics and Japanese Catholic exiles jointly launched a rebellion, the largest tribal and village alliances of the Pampanga people quickly joined. The scope of the rebellion swept across central Luzon. Those merged villages and communities that implemented the Chinese regime plundered the indigenous people.
Tagalog natives who were dissatisfied with land and other policies also joined the rebellion one after another.
The Chinese troops originally stationed in Manila were transferred to fight on the southern front. Only Zhuang Ding and a regiment of the Second Division were guarding Luzon. A total of 30,000 indigenous and Japanese rebel forces surrounded Manila.
Fortunately, the foreign mercenary corps was in Manila at this time. Most of the more than 300 old German mercenaries captured in the Spanish counterattack on Manila joined the Chinese Army's foreign mercenary corps and were stationed in Cebu.
Get back to Manila in time
, defeated the rebel army with a force of 2,000 men and relieved the siege of Manila. For most of the next year, the Chinese army, supported by the Yi'eluo-Chinese mountain people in northern Luzon, regained the area around Manila and conquered Pampanga.
and Japanese rebels were besieged within the former Pampanga Province.
Zeng Jingshan asked Zhao Xuanming's Nanyang Brigade for help, but at this moment Nanyang also began to be in chaos, and all forces were fighting again, so the Nanyang Brigade was unable to mobilize troops to support Luzon.
It was not until the Ming Dynasty made peace with the Chinese Company that the Chinese army dispatched troops to support Manila.
The Pampanga and Japanese Catholics resisted desperately, turning the mountains and forests of the Pampanga River Basin into a battlefield for guerrilla warfare. In July, Li Xing's third division landed in Luzon while reorganizing, and began to comprehensively encircle and suppress the indigenous rebels.
Now, Arayat is the last stronghold of the Pampanga people and the Japanese.
Li Xing smiled and said to Andrew: "Now, let's set another fire, and then we'll wait for the Japanese pirates and natives to rush out and die."
Four regiments of the Third Division surrounded Arayat from four directions, and foreign mercenaries and the alliance of mountain tribes in northern Luzon were preparing to attack.
On the west bank of the Pampanga River, five more howitzers and Thunderbolt rockets from the artillery regiment directly under the division began to bombard Arayat.
Soon, thick smoke billowed and flames shot into the sky over Arayat, which was dotted with bamboo and wooden stilt houses.
The last strength of the Pampanga warriors and the Japanese warriors could no longer stand still. They rushed out of Arayat with shouts and brandished their swords, and rushed towards the Chinese army's position, which was waiting for them. They were fired by the Chinese army's flintlock muskets without any suspense in front of the position. , field artillery, and grenades, and then chopped into pieces by the German burly men among the foreign mercenaries with axes. After killing nearly half of the people in the north, the indigenous and Japanese coalition forces finally had to retreat to the blazing Arayat.
The foreign mercenaries immediately launched an attack and invaded the eastern part of Arayat that was not yet on fire. After burning and killing, the entire Arayat was completely shrouded in a sea of fire, and there were scenes of massacres everywhere.
At dawn the next day, the fire in Arayat was extinguished. More than 30,000 Pampanga natives were killed, and all 3,000 Japanese Catholics were massacred. The Pampanga River turned bright red and countless floating corpses drifted Downstream, Tagalog villages along the coast sent envoys to express their surrender to the Chinese army.
The massacre unfolded throughout Pampanga. In the end, only less than 20,000 Pampanga indigenous women, children, and children survived. Basically all the Pampanga men were massacred. The Chinese company was very concerned about the Pampanga state, which was always in rebellion. The people of Pampanga had lost their patience a long time ago, so they attacked mercilessly and planned to solve the problem of the Pampanga people in one battle. Especially since the Japanese were involved in this rebellion, Yin Feng, who was most disgusted with the Japanese, also responded to this Turning a blind eye to the massacre, almost all the Japanese Catholic exiles who landed in Luzon were killed by the Chinese.
When Yin Feng landed at the Port of Manila, the fire in Arayat had just been extinguished. At this moment, Manila had restored its prosperity. The arrival of a large number of new immigrants made the population here more dense, surrounding the original Spanish city of Manila. , residential areas have appeared in patches, and are spreading to surrounding areas like noodles.
Tea, silk, porcelain, grain, hardware, jewelry and other shops are densely distributed on both sides of the city streets, copper smelting factories, steel mills, sugar mills, cotton spinning factories, silk weaving factories, tea processing, ironware workshops, sugar cane wine Workshops, as well as weapon workshops and gunpowder workshops directly under the Chinese Army, are distributed throughout the city of Manila. The original square in front of the Manila Cathedral is now a place where foreign immigrants recruit workers and find jobs. Immigrants from the governor's jurisdiction of the mainland gather all year round.
Although Yin Feng was pleased with the economic prosperity of Luzon Island, he had no time to learn more about it in detail. As soon as he arrived in Manila, he called Zeng Jingshan, Li Xing, Mai Xiaoliu, Li Moge and others.
The two divisions of Chinese troops gathered on Luzon Island not just to suppress the local rebellion, their goal was Nanyang.