Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 457 Meng Jun is furious

In Beijing.

Since occupying Beijing, Meng Jun has devoted most of his energy to the administrative system. However, there is a bit of inconsistency in many aspects in using the wartime system before the shogunate to run this huge empire.

The government affairs are too huge, and Meng Jun is a little overwhelmed with his current energy. Not only Meng Jun, but many new officials are not used to the current Eight Departments system. There are many problems with the grades of civil servants, official positions, grades of military generals, and so on.

Therefore, officials have successively submitted memorials to Meng Jun, requesting reforms. In many of their memorials, they implicitly suggested that Meng Jun should follow the will of the people, establish a new title and system, and satisfy the hopes of the scholars and people of the world.

On September 14, the fourth year of the Yongli reign, when the battle at Shanhaiguan was still in full swing, a group of people led by Yang En, including Li Weita, Gu Yanwu, Chen Zilong, Lu Zhenfei, Liu Zhongzao, Zhang Kentang, and Meng Hong, jointly wrote to Meng Jun, requesting to be crowned emperor and establish a system.

But in private, Lu Zhenfei and Liu Zhongzao asked to see Meng Jun privately. They did not say it explicitly, but just told the story of the ancient wise emperor who was humble.

This is because these literati are worried that the king will not play by the rules and will agree without any hesitation. If that happens, everyone will be embarrassed.

Meng Jun waved the two men away, feeling deeply moved. Politics was indeed very different from being in the military camp.

Afterwards, Meng Jun instructed his ministers that the world was now in turmoil, the people were not at peace, and Shanhaiguan was still in the hands of the Qing court, and that he did not have such ambitions. He declined the first attempt to persuade the ministers to ascend the throne.

The second time, the officials came in even faster. When the military generals heard that the civil officials had left them behind and were trying to persuade the king to ascend the throne, they became even more impatient.

However, these military generals were obviously less organized than the civil officials. The words they wrote in their memorials to persuade the emperor to ascend the throne were half-written and contained typos. The time they submitted the memorials was also uneven, and the movement was nowhere near as big as that caused by the civil officials.

Meng Jun wrote letters to the generals who were still stationed in various places, comforting them and asking them to stay in their places and guard closely. In his letters, Meng Jun wrote some reproaches to generals such as Zhao Yongping and Bai Yongfu who were still fighting in Shanhaiguan, saying: "I am very worried that Shanhaiguan has not been taken for a long time. The national plan is to stabilize the border. The general shoulders a heavy responsibility and should put the overall situation first. Quickly take Shanhaiguan to consolidate the northern border so that the enemy will have no chance to take advantage and the people can sleep peacefully."

As for the military generals in the capital, Meng Jun invited them together for a banquet and told them earnestly that the time was not yet ripe and they should not be impatient.

After pacifying the generals, Meng Jun thought alone about the current situation in the world. It can be said that as long as Meng Jun does not mess around, there is almost no suspense in unifying the world. In the north, except for Shaanxi and Nanyang, the rest is basically under his control. In the south, the rich land is also in Meng Jun's hands. With such good cards, it is difficult to lose.

Although Meng Jun wanted to destroy the Qing court in one fell swoop, the Qing army retreating outside the Great Wall was no longer the main threat to Meng Jun. The best way was to completely wipe out the internal separatist forces first, unify the Han area, and then send troops to resolve the situation outside the Great Wall. After all, as long as Shanhaiguan was taken, Meng Zhou would have the Great Wall defense line, and the Qing court would no longer be a real threat to Meng Jun.

Therefore, Meng Jun has already set his sights on Nanyang and Xiangyang areas. Meng Jun has no psychological burden in attacking Wu Sangui, a notorious figure in later generations.

In the following days, Meng Jun summoned all the generals to discuss the route to march into Nanyang and Xiangyang, who to appoint as the commander, troop allocation, intelligence collection, material transportation, ambushes and spies, etc.

Although Shanhaiguan has not been captured yet, Meng Jun did not send troops to attack Wu Sangui immediately, but the preliminary preparations can already begin. Today, Xiangyang and Nanyang are surrounded by Zhou army, and to the south, there are Lin Shiqi's troops in the Huguang camp.

This army had more than 80,000 people, and all of them were veterans who had fought in many battles. It could be said that those towns had participated in almost all the tough and bloody battles when Meng Jun started his army.

Although the army that carried out the Northern Expedition was larger in number than the army of the Huguang Camp, it was still slightly inferior in quality. Meng Jun was also somewhat hesitant during the Northern Expedition, but he did not expect that after the Qing army was defeated in Huguang, it was almost unable to recover, like a balloon that would burst at the slightest puncture.

With Lin Shiqi in the south, we can wait for Zhao Yongping to capture Shanhaiguan in the north and then withdraw troops. By then, we can attack from both sides and seize the Nanyang Basin in one fell swoop.

Just as Meng Jun and other civil officials were discussing the details of the transportation of supplies, a Qingluan Guard urgently reported, "There is military intelligence reported from the southeast."

Meng Jun was stunned when he heard this, and thought to himself: "Southeast? Could it be the Zheng family? Are they coming to attack me at this time? If that's true, if the Zheng family's navy harasses the coast, it will really be a troublesome matter!"

As the information was handed to Meng Jun, he began to read it.

Upon seeing this, Meng Jun was slightly stunned, and then his face gradually turned pale. This incident reminded him of the past humiliation, the Opium War, the Eight-Nation Alliance, and so on.

A spy from the Qingluan Guard lurking in the Zheng family sent a secret report, which showed that a great battle broke out between the Spanish-Dutch coalition and the Zheng family off the coast of Luzon. In this battle, the Zheng family used new warships to defeat the Spanish-Dutch coalition in one fell swoop.

The Spaniards in Manila were worried that the Zheng family would attack Manila. In order to prevent the local Chinese from contacting the Zheng family, the Spaniards issued an order to kill the local Chinese.

When Meng Jun saw the intelligence that nearly 7,000 Chinese had been killed, he flew into a rage and slammed the table, shouting angrily, "How could such barbarians do such a wicked thing!"

The more Meng Jun read, the more he recalled old events from another time and space. Since the Opium War, the East has been oppressed by these Western barbarians. Meng Jun was angry in his heart, but the ministers were shocked to see Meng Jun so excited.

Yang En stepped forward and asked, "My king, what happened in the southeast?"

Meng Jun threw the information on the table and said, "Look for yourselves!"

Yang En picked up the intelligence and several officials immediately gathered around to take a look. After reading it, everyone's faces looked a little bad. However, they had not experienced what Meng Jun had experienced, so they were not as angry as Meng Jun.

Yang En frowned and said, "These Western barbarians are really hateful."

Meng Jun paused for a moment, then said: "This matter cannot be easily let go, I must take revenge!"

Everyone looked at each other but didn't say anything.

Meng Jun frowned. After a while, Li Weitai stepped forward and said, "Your Majesty, the Western Barbarians are far away in Luzon. If we use troops, it will be a long journey, which will cost us a lot of money and manpower. These barbarians came from afar just to trade. In my opinion, why not order a ban on maritime merchants from trading with the Luzon barbarians?"

Some of the ministers could see that Meng Jun wanted to use force against the Western Barbarians, but in their view, unifying the world was the right thing to do.

The next strategy has just been decided, which is to first capture Nanyang, then Guanzhong, and finally pacify Sichuan and Shu. The ministers do not want to change the strategy because of the Western Barbarians issue.

In the minds of many people, the chaos in the world has just been quelled, and the casualties of civilians in various places range from thousands to hundreds of thousands or millions. In Luzon, there are only more than 7,000 people, and many of them are private businessmen. The ministers do not support the use of military force.