Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 469 Wu Sangui's Choice

Gao Qilong's behavior of preferring death to surrender made Zhou Jun's generals somewhat wary of Wu Sangui's strength, and everyone put away their previous contempt for Wu Sangui.

However, since Wu Sangui stayed in Xiangyang, the two prefectures of Nanyang were obviously not as tough as the generals imagined.

After the army captured Xiangyang, Fancheng County on the north bank of the Han River surrendered without a fight. The Xiangfan Defense Line, which was once famous in the Southern Song Dynasty and blocked the Mongolian cavalry for many years, was completely captured in just a few days under the attack of the Zhou army.

The army marched northward, and when Zhao Yongping's troops just arrived in Xuchang, Lin Shiqi's army of more than 100,000 soldiers rushed into Nanyang Prefecture.

Xinye, Dengzhou and other cities surrendered without a fight. Nanyang defender Rosen led his troops to retreat into Shaanxi without waiting for Wu Sangui's order and blocked key passes such as Wugu Pass and Shangnan.

The officers and soldiers of the Zhou army all knew in their hearts that as Meng Jun gradually became stronger, the war in the world would also come to an end. If they did not make some military achievements now, they would have few opportunities to do so in the future.

Therefore, the generals of the Huguang camp did not want to wait for Zhao Yongping to arrive. They divided their troops into four groups along the way and no one dared to stop them. Wang Fugui and others began to complain why there was no second Gao Qilong.

Just as Lin Shiqi marched straight in and swept across the Nanyang Basin, Wu Sangui, who was far away in Kunming, had just received Gao Qilong's suicide note. Then came the news that Xiangyang City had fallen and Gao Qilong had died in battle.

"Now, Lin Shiqi, a subordinate of Meng Jun, leads an army of more than 100,000. He has many soldiers and generals, and most of them are the troops that defeated Duoduo in the past. His subordinates refuse to take back Xiangyang. They have neither strong soldiers nor favorable terrain. Moreover, our army is in trouble and it is difficult to get external help.

Meng Zhou's momentum is unstoppable. I know this battle is more dangerous than good, but I will still do my best to repay the prince's kindness. When I am about to submit this letter, I have a lot of thoughts. I can only advise the prince to judge the situation and seek a glimmer of hope. "

When Wu Sangui heard the news, he was very worried, so he asked Fang Guangchen for advice.

Fang Guangchen was also a little uneasy at this time. He knew that Meng Jun would definitely take action against Xiangyang. However, Fang Guangchen did not expect Meng Jun to be so impatient. Not long after he took control of the north, he started a new round of conquests.

Fang Guangchen said to Wu Sangui hesitantly: "Your Majesty, our army has now conquered Kunming, but General Sun failed to control Emperor Yongli. Now Yongli has fled to Yongchang, and in the Yuxi area, Li Dingguo's troops are still active here. According to my subordinates, it may be difficult for our army to defeat Li Dingguo in a short time!"

Wu Sangui also had a headache. Although he had been going smoothly since he occupied Xiangyang, entering Shaanxi, annexing Hanzhong, taking Sichuan, and now entering Yunnan, he had not encountered any difficult battles.

But now facing Meng Jun's all-out attack, Wu Sangui didn't know whether he should return to defend Hanzhong and Shaanxi, or go south with all his strength to attack Li Dingguo in order to control Emperor Yongli.

And to be honest, Wu Sangui also knew that the gap in strength between himself and Meng Zhou was too big. Even so, Meng Jun still dispatched two armies to fight him. This was not simply using national strength to consume himself.

Wu Sangui was thinking a lot, and then asked Fang Guangchen worriedly: "Tingxian, what should I do now? Should I go south with all my strength? Or go north to defend Shaanxi?"

Although Fang Guangchen was intelligent, the current situation was just like that during the Three Kingdoms period. His strategic plan for Wu Sangui was to control Xiangyang as the forward base, then seek Guanzhong, with Hanzhong, Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou as the rear base, and then recuperate and wait for the situation in the world. These steps were being implemented step by step, and the situation was indeed the same as Fang Guangchen had planned.

What Fang Guangchen did not expect was that, in his conception, although Meng Jun was stronger than the Eastern Wu of the Three Kingdoms, he would not be able to destroy the Qing Dynasty like the Wei Kingdom so easily. Now it was a tricky situation, with the sparsely populated lands of Shaanxi and Sichuan controlled by Wu Sangui against Meng Zhou, which controlled 70% of the land in the world.

No matter how smart he was, he couldn't think of any way to change all this when the gap in national strength was so huge.

After a long while, Fang Guangchen slowly said, "Your Majesty, to prepare for a rainy day, I am willing to be your envoy and go to Beijing to meet Meng Jun!"

Wu Sangui was stunned and sighed, "Has it really come to this? Doesn't this mean I have no chance at all?"

Fang Guangchen also sighed and said, "If Meng Jun suddenly contracts a serious disease, the situation in the world will definitely change. If Meng Jun continues to suppress it with national strength as he is now, and does not take risky measures, then the prince's hope is slim!"

Wu Sangui was silent for a long time, then asked: "Tingxian, what should I do now? Should I continue to march south? Or should I keep my troops in place?"

Fang Guangchen looked at Wu Sangui with deep eyes and said, "Your Majesty, we must attack, but we cannot completely destroy Li Dingguo. At least before the results of the talks between me and Meng Jun, the emperor, nothing can happen!"

…………

After Meng Jun captured Hebei and controlled the Great Wall defense line, the Meng Zhou forces were able to come into direct contact with the Mongolians south of the desert.

Most of these Mongolian generals were fence-sitters. In addition to the Khorchin Mongols being too closely tied to the Qing court, the Chahar Mongolian tribes were no longer so loyal to the Qing court.

Especially after the Qing government withdrew from the areas outside the Great Wall, its control over the Chahar tribes had weakened. In addition, the Qing government itself was having a hard time and had to rely on exploiting Korea to make ends meet. It had no ability to subsidize Chahar Mongolia.

The Chahar tribes now dare not enter the pass to plunder Mengzhou, which could drive away the Qing army. Although Meng Jun's two main armies are now engaged in a domestic unification war, 90,000 troops have been left on the Great Wall defense line to defend the north.

Moreover, the Zhou army is now at its peak, and the Chahar tribes are so bold that they dare not invade the Great Wall.

Therefore, the Chahar Mongols traded privately with the Mengzhou, exchanging cattle, sheep and horses for necessary daily necessities for the grassland, such as salt, pots, tea and other supplies.

This provided Meng Jun with a larger source of war horses. Meng Jun had been dreaming of building a large cavalry, and now that the world was about to be unified, he had already made some progress.

In a short period of time, the tea-horse trade has contributed more than 10,000 war horses to Meng Jun, and this is just the beginning. Meng Jun plans to form a cavalry of 50,000 to serve as an arm to control the Mongolian grasslands in the future.

Huang Cheng's cavalry team expanded very quickly. At least for now, horses were no longer a factor restricting Meng Jun's expansion of the cavalry.

However, the north is different from the south of the Yangtze River. The literary culture in the south of the Yangtze River is flourishing, so Meng Jun can easily set up a shogunate, strengthen officials at all levels, and ensure that the shogunate's orders can be quickly transmitted.

However, it was much harder to find many people who could ride horses in the south than in the north, so Meng Jun ordered the recruitment of young men who could ride horses in the north to strengthen the cavalry.