Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 405 Actions of all parties

After capturing Qingyang, Wu Sangui was very proud and said to his subordinates: "This is God's will, not my achievement!"

Wu Sangui implied that he must have been favored by God, which was why Qingyang City was in turmoil and he was able to accomplish his goal so easily.

Fighting continued all night long in Qingyang City, and the whole city was in chaos. The Green Camp attacked each other, and the Green Camp fought against the Eight Banners. Until the next day, the fire in Qingyang City was still not extinguished, and the streets of the city were littered with corpses and the whole place was devastated.

By the time Wu Sangui's troops entered the city to quell the situation, thirty or forty out of ten people in the city had died, tens of thousands of Green Camp soldiers had attacked each other, and nearly ten thousand casualties had occurred. An Tai was killed, and only less than three hundred of the fifteen hundred Eight Banner soldiers remained. Most of the thousands of Eight Banner family members were killed in the chaos.

Ma Zhixian, the governor of Shaanxi, was hung at the gate of the government office by the rebel soldiers and burned to death with firewood. Fang Baishi, the provincial governor of Shaanxi, jumped into a manure pit and barely managed to survive. The rest of the officials were all gathered in the government office, so except Fang Baishi and a few other officials who hid, the rest all died in the rebellion.

Although the city was pacified, Wu Sangui did not enter the city. Meng Qiaofang, the governor of the three borders, was now a prisoner. Wu Sangui felt that he might be able to persuade him to surrender.

If the governors-general of the three borders all surrendered to me, it would certainly be a great boost to my prestige. Even if Meng Qiaofang wrote back to curse me, I could still be magnanimous and not take it as a crime.

As Meng Qiaofang was tied up by Wu Sangui's men, he was seen in tattered clothes. His former majesty was gone at this moment, and his clothes and armor were covered with stains and blood.

Meng Qiaofang had a messy beard and his eyes were full of fatigue. Pushed by the guards beside him, Meng Qiaofang knelt in front of Wu Sangui.

Wu Sangui pretended to scold the guards, then hurried forward to help Meng Qiaofang up, saying, "Xinting, please get up quickly."

Meng Qiaofang stood up and stared straight at Wu Sangui. Wu Sangui was not afraid at all and looked back at her.

Meng Qiaofang suddenly smiled and asked, "I wonder what the ambitions of the King of Pingxi are?"

Wu Sangui was delighted when he heard this, and said in a loud voice: "I used to be the general of Ningyuan in the Ming Dynasty. I have inherited the grace of the country and vowed to destroy the Jurchens to repay the country. I will fight against the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty. Xinting, are you willing to join hands with me to create such a grand event!"

Meng Qiaofang rolled his eyes and laughed coldly, "The King of Pingxi really has great ambitions. The Qing Dynasty has treated me well. They know me, trust me, and use me. I can get wealth and honor with just a flick of my finger. As the saying goes, a scholar will die for his friend. Why should I rebel against the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty?"

Meng Qiaofang did not wait for Wu Sangui to reply and continued, "Wu Sangui, you are ambitious, but you pretend to be so, using the excuse of overthrowing the Qing Dynasty and restoring the Ming Dynasty. How dare you, a fickle and treacherous villain like you, persuade me to surrender to you? Why don't you ask yourself, are you worthy of it?"

These words hit Wu Sangui right in the heart, and he was so angry that he immediately ordered his men to take Meng Qiaofang out and behead him.

Meng Qiaofang was dragged away by the guards. As he walked, he cursed: "You are a cowardly rat, a ungrateful villain, a traitor. How dare you spy on the world..."

After Meng Qiaofang was dragged away, Wu Sangui's anger still did not stop until Fang Guangchen hurried in. The smile on Fang Guangchen's face formed a sharp contrast with Wu Sangui's anger.

Fang Guangchen asked with some confusion: "Your Majesty, what are you doing..."

Wu Sangui sat in the main seat somewhat frustrated, and said in a hateful voice: "Meng Qiaofang is stubborn and recalcitrant, speaking ill of me." At this point, Wu Sangui waved his hands and said: "Forget it, let's not talk about this corrupt man. Is there anything important that Tingxian has come here for?"

Fang Guangchen said excitedly: "Your Highness, after conquering Qingyang, nearly 30,000 soldiers surrendered. In Shaanxi, except for Li Sizhong, there are no other Qing soldiers. Now the Qing court is in danger. You can send an envoy to persuade Li Sizhong to surrender. In my opinion, the thirteen prefectures in Shaanxi can be settled by issuing an edict!"

Wu Sangui's brows relaxed when he heard this, and he laughed out loud, "This is all due to the advice given by the court."

"No, no, no, the success of this great event is entirely due to your ability to make decisions, Your Majesty."

The laughter of the two men flattering each other could still be clearly heard outside the military tent.

The victory in Qingyang meant that Wu Sangui obtained the Guanzhong area. Just like a chess game, Wu Sangui barely got a place to play, and Wu Sangui's next strategy was clear at a glance. First, he would take Hanzhong, enter Sichuan and Shu, and then obtain Yunnan and Guizhou, and then his momentum would be achieved.

In the fourth year of the Yongli reign, in the world situation in April, Wu Sangui, after killing Meng Qiaofang, forced Li Sizhong to surrender and took Shaanxi. The Wu army was sharpening its sword and pointing it at Hanzhong.

After Meng Jun surrendered in succession to Dengzhou and Laizhou, the entire Dongchang Prefecture surrendered as well. The Zhou army had now occupied Shandong and could march north to Zhili at any time to threaten the capital.

The Qing court's Dorgon's troops from outside the Great Wall have basically joined the capital, and the 6,000 Solon soldiers are about to arrive. At this time in Beijing, there are 27,000 Baiyintu troops who retreated from Shanxi, 50,000 troops who retreated from Datong by Dorgon, and 36,000 troops who arrived from outside the Great Wall, totaling 113,000 people, including 46,000 Han soldiers, nearly 13,000 Mongolian cavalry, and the remaining 44,000 people, all of which are Eight Banners soldiers.

However, these Eight Banners soldiers can no longer be compared with the original Eight Banners that entered the Pass. Although some of them are veterans, most of them are new recruits who have never experienced bloody battles.

This army was the last mobile force the Qing government could muster. If it was lost, all would be lost.

…………

The war in the north was raging. Although there was no major war in the south, apart from the Kunming court, Li Chengdong and Zheng Chenggong were also busy.

Li Chengdong took advantage of Sun Kewang's defeat and surrender to Meng Jun to seize the southern part of Guangxi. In Guangxi, Li Chengdong controlled Wuzhou, Xunzhou, and Nanning prefectures, which were half of Liuzhou. Li Chengdong stationed troops in Liuzhou prefecture, hoping to seize the opportunity to move north and take over Liuzhou prefecture and Guilin.

What Li Chengdong did not expect was that the Zheng family of the Annan Li Dynasty had secretly occupied Siming Prefecture, Shangsi Prefecture, and Zhongzhou under the jurisdiction of Nanning Prefecture.

Li Chengdong felt that although he could not defeat the Qing army and was defeated by Meng Jun, he could still deal with some petty thefts in Annan. So Li Chengdong ordered his general Yan Keyi to send out 20,000 troops to recapture Zhongzhou and Shangsizhou.

The situation in Annan at this time was comparable to that in the Central Plains and was also very chaotic. The Caoping Mo clan, which was adjacent to Baise in Guangxi, occupied most of the southern part of Annan, while the Zheng clan of the Le Dynasty occupied most of the southern part, and the Nguyen clan occupied the south.

In the third year of the Yongli reign, Zheng Xun, the head of the Zheng family of the Le Dynasty, had just finished his fourth southern expedition against the Nguyen Lords. This war, like the previous three, ended in failure.

At this time, Zheng Xun was already seventy-two years old, old and weak. It was naturally not Zheng Xun who planned to seize Nanning Prefecture, but his son Zheng Zao.

Zheng Zao felt that since it was difficult to conquer the Nguyen clan in the south, and the Mo clan in Cao Ping was occupying a strategic location and would be difficult to eliminate for the time being, while the Central Plains was in constant war, it seemed that he could seize Guangxi to use it as a place to raise troops.

When Zheng Zao sent out his troops, Sun Kewang was fleeing in panic. Neither Sun Kewang nor the Yongli court had time to take care of some minor disputes on the border, so Zheng Zao took the opportunity to seize Shangsizhou and Zhongzhou.

Li Chengdong was different. He had no way to go north now. If he went to Jiangxi, he would immediately come into conflict with Meng Zhou. Although Li Chengdong spoke tough, he was still a little scared in his heart. On the other hand, Kunming and Fujian, Li Chengdong thought about it and felt that they were not suitable. Until he heard that Annan secretly occupied the territory of Nanning Prefecture, Li Chengdong suddenly had an idea. If going north was not possible, then he would go south.