Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 406: False Peace Talk

Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the Le Dynasty of Annan was replaced by the Mac Dynasty. The remaining monarchs and ministers of the Le Dynasty continued to restore and fight for power. The war lasted for more than a hundred years. The Le Dynasty was successfully restored. However, there were constant disputes between the powerful ministers, the Zheng and Nguyen rulers. In addition, there were some small separatist warlords in Annan, and the remnants of the Mac Dynasty held Cao Bang.

The small Annan was split into three forces. Even if the standards of militarism were followed, the royal guards and militiamen owned by the Zheng Lord would never exceed 80,000 troops. The Nguyen Lord had at most 50,000 troops, and the Cao Bang Mo clan had at most 20,000 troops. However, the Annan side had a powerful weapon, that is, the war elephant.

Yan Keyi led an army of 20,000 men and marched south from Liuzhou in a mighty manner. Yan Keyi had a look of joy on his face at this time, because the King of Zhennan had said that if Zhongzhou and Shangsizhou were easy to fight and the soldiers of the Zheng family in Annan were weak, then there was no need to say more, just march south, kill their way in, and rob them.

Li Chengdong was not a person with mental mysophobia. He robbed people all the way in the Central Plains and killed countless people in the south of the Yangtze River. For Li Chengdong, entering Annan was just a step in his expansion.

Yan Keyi's 20,000-strong army arrived at the city of Zhongzhou. Although the people in the city had no good feelings towards Li Chengdong, they had even less good feelings towards Annan. There were only more than 2,000 Annan defenders in the city. Yan Keyi attacked for several days and forcefully broke through Zhongzhou City. The Annan defender in Shangsizhou, seeing that the situation was not good, immediately evacuated Nanning.

After resting for a few days in Zhongzhou, Yan Keyi led his troops into Annan.

………………

Jinan.

After receiving the news that Wu Sangui had captured Shaanxi and killed Meng Qiaofang, Meng Jun was alone, staring at the gloomy sky outside the window, with a lot of thoughts in his mind. The power of the Qing court was like the fallen leaves after autumn, gradually declining. The only places it controlled were northern Zhili and Henan, but these places were all located on the plains, which were the perfect places for cavalry to move freely.

Meng Jun was uneasy about whether to continue to march north. This was an intuition. Thinking of this, Meng Jun stood up and paced back and forth. Suddenly, Meng Jun said to himself: "It's not the fear of war, but we need to be extremely cautious."

In fact, many generals had advised Meng Jun before the Northern Expedition that the rear area was not stable and that the Northern Expedition should not be launched. Meng Jun also agreed with this. However, the change in the situation did not change as Meng Jun and others thought.

At the beginning, Meng Jun ordered Zhao Yongping to march north only to help Jiang Xiang and prevent him from being destroyed. His main purpose was to "besiege Wei to save Zhao" and transfer the Qing army away from Shanxi. But unexpectedly, since Zhao Yongping launched the northern expedition, he was unstoppable all the way. "Besiege Wei to save Zhao", as the name suggests, means to surround it. Unexpectedly, the country that was being surrounded was actually easily conquered.

It seemed that Meng Jun could complete the Northern Expedition if he worked hard, and the probability of success seemed very high. He asked Lee Hao of Korea to cooperate in Liaodong to cut off Dorgon's retreat, and asked Jiang Xiang to send troops to the west to contain the Qing army. He would lead the army to the north from Shandong. With a three-pronged attack, this strategy had a high chance of success.

However, the Zhou army had been fighting for years, and the soldiers were somewhat tired, and the military supplies and food were consumed very much. In fact, if they could rest for a few years, the Zhou army, which occupied Jiangnan and half of Huguang, would have been more and more far behind the Qing court.

Hauge's 10,000 cavalry were enough to force Liu Tichun and Hao Yongzhong's 20,000 infantry to be immobilized. When the army entered the Hebei Plain, the Qing cavalry had such an obvious advantage that it seemed a bit risky for him to easily send troops to Hebei.

With the tax-collecting areas in the south of the Yangtze River, the granaries in Huguang, and the land for raising horses in the north of the Huai River, Meng Jun only needs to recuperate, accumulate money, food and armaments, and stockpile gunpowder and firearms. By then, no one will be able to stop the Zhou army from sweeping across the world.

Meng Jun stood in front of the map and pondered for a long time, then whispered to Yu An beside him: "Go call Sun Kewang."

Yu An immediately bowed in response and then hurried out.

After a while, Sun Kewang came hurriedly.

"Your Majesty has summoned me. What's the matter?" Sun Kewang saw Meng Jun's back to him and hurriedly bowed and asked.

Meng Jun turned around and motioned Sun Kewang to sit down, then asked, "During the Kunming Incident, Kewang left in a hurry, and many of his former confidants are still staying in various places. I wonder if they are still in contact now?"

The Qingluan Guard also had spies in Kunming and secretly developed some officials. The Yongli court had long been like a sieve.

Sun Kewang stood up and bowed when he heard this, saying, "Your Majesty, when the army was defeated and retreated, I was not able to make detailed arrangements, but since I came under your command, the generals in Kunming have been sending letters to contact me from time to time."

Meng Jun smiled. Sun Kewang was worried that Meng Jun might suspect him of having ulterior motives, so he quickly added, "Your Majesty, although there are letters from Kunming, most of them are unimportant. Moreover, I have kept many of the letters and will keep them for Your Majesty to read at any time!"

Meng Jun waved his hand, signaling Sun Kewang not to worry, and then said: "Don't worry too much, I just want to understand the current situation in Kunming."

Sun Kewang nodded and said yes, then reported: "Since the Kunming Dynasty abandoned the barracks system, the supply of food and money has gradually become insufficient. When Li Dingguo entered Kunming, he had more than 50,000 troops and more than 100,000 surrendered soldiers. However, to this day, the number of troops has not increased but decreased, and the food and money have not continued. Several generals and officials who used to hold important positions, although they are obedient on the surface, are secretly dissatisfied with the court."

Meng Jun was silent for a long time after hearing this. When Sun Kewang was a little surprised, Meng Jun spoke slowly with a cold tone: "I want to send troops to pacify the south. What do you think?"

Sun Kewang was stunned, but did not reply immediately. Instead, he took two steps forward and carefully looked at the map that divided the current situation of all parties. Then he shook his head gently and replied: "Your Majesty, at this time, our large army has been divided into two groups, one gathering in Jinan and the other gathering in Huguang. If we march north, we will march with all our strength. If we march south, we will march south with all our strength. We cannot fight on two fronts!"

Meng Jun also knew that what Sun Kewang said was correct, but the responsibility of hundreds of millions of people fell on one person. If they easily entered Hebei, once something went wrong, the cavalry would be able to chase down the infantry and completely destroy them in the plains, which would be a complete defeat.

"If the south is not at peace, how can the Huguang camp launch the Northern Expedition? It is difficult to sweep the south with Lin Shiqi's strength alone." After Meng Jun finished speaking, he felt a little annoyed. It was all Jiang Xiang's fault. If he had listened to Jiang Xiang's advice, he would have started the rebellion a year or two later.

At this time, Sun Kewang suddenly had an idea, and he bowed to Meng Jun and said, "Your Majesty, why not negotiate peace with the Qing court!"

Hearing this, Meng Jun burst out laughing and shook his head, saying, "What effect does this kind of peace treaty have? It's signed today and broken tomorrow!"

Sun Kewang said sternly, "No, Your Majesty can issue a proclamation saying that you will gather a large army and send troops in three directions. One direction is Jiangxiang and the other is Shandong. Two directions will attack the capital in the north, while the other will take the sea route to attack Liaodong and cut off the Qing court's retreat! Then send envoys to negotiate peace and say that if they withdraw from the interior, we can live in peace together!"