Ming Taizi's Total War

Chapter 188 The First Encounter with Dorgon

"Thank you, Your Majesty." After Du Feng stood up, he still didn't dare to look up at Zhu Cihong. He put his hands in front of him shyly like a little girl, lowered his head and said to Zhu Cihong.

"How could they even think of doing that?"

To be honest, Zhu Cihong was very surprised. How could these local gentry rush to give him money, and it would be fine if he didn't ask him for money.

In fact, even if he is short of money, Zhu Cihong is not going to take these gentry into a knife. If these people don't cause trouble for him, this is the greatest help for him.

"My lord and the gentry in Huaiqing city donated thousands of taels of silver each under Hauge's power. The lords pray to His Majesty to send troops to attack the city as soon as possible, punish the people for crimes, and save the people from the sea of ​​suffering, so I hope to reward the army with fertile land, servants, and money outside the city to help His Majesty attack the city."

Du Feng was worthy of being the person sent by Du Ruhui to meet Zhu Cixiang and hand over the assets of the Huaiqing gentry outside the city to Zhu Cixiang. His language organization skills were not inferior to those of ordinary scholars.

"Oh, then how can I believe that you are not from Haoge?" Zhu Cihong said with a wicked smile, staring at Du Feng.

He didn't think his luck would be so good, and the gentry rushed to give him money. Maybe what Du Feng said had some truth, but who knew that he was not Hauge's man.

As the saying goes, you must not have the intention to harm others, and you must not have the intention to guard against others. Zhu Cihong has been a human being in two lifetimes, and it is impossible for Zhu Cihong to be as easy to deceive as a college student who has not been deeply involved in the world.

Hearing that Zhu Cihong doubted himself, Du Feng was immediately dumbfounded. He didn't expect Zhu Cihong to do this.

Before coming, he thought that his mission would be completed if he relayed what Du Ruhui told Zhu Cihong and then handed over the property of the gentry outside the city to Zhu Cihong.

"Your Majesty, the Cao Min are definitely not Haoge people. With the hope of the gentry in Huaiqing City, the Cao Min donated their wealth to Your Majesty and cooperated with Your Majesty inside and outside to attack the city. Every word of the Cao Min can be learned from heaven and earth. If there is even half a lie. , just call the grassroots people to be struck by thunder."

Pointing to the sky, Du Feng swore to Zhu Cihuang, with a sincere look on his face, it really didn't look like he was lying.

"In this case, then you can bring those goods first and then tell me." Zhu Cihong would not believe his oath.

It doesn't matter if you make a promise, it doesn't matter if you make a promise, no one will believe it, even if you make ten thousand vows, it's better to speak with facts and bring things here.

By then, everything will be solved and no one will doubt it anymore.

After Zhu Cihong finished speaking, without Du Feng's excuse, a soldier came forward to drive him out of the barracks.

Du Feng knew that he could only make Zhu Cihong believe what he said by bringing the land deed, the deed of selling himself, gold and silver, so he went straight to Du Ruhui's manor outside the city after leaving the barracks.

Fortunately, Du Feng often went out of the city for Du Ruhui to do errands on weekdays, so the heads of these manors were very familiar with him, but even if they were familiar with him, they did not believe that their master would make such a decision to donate such a large sum of wealth go out.

But when Du Feng took out Du Ruhui's personal letter and saw Du Ruhui's seal, everyone had to believe it.

In this way, Du Feng obtained all the wealth of those gentry's manors with a letter of his own.

Only when he transported the land deed, the deed of sale, and the gold and silver to the gate of Zhu Cihong's military camp in one carriage after another did Zhu Cihong believe that he really represented the entire gentry in Huaiqing City.

Of course, Zhu Cihong would not refuse such a large amount of wealth. These gentry contributed tens of thousands of acres of fertile land, thousands of tenants and servants bound to the fields, and more than one hundred thousand taels of silver to him.

Although he owned tens of millions of taels of silver after the bond was issued, it was a debt after all, and he had to repay it when it matured, so spending it felt quite different from the silver.

At the same time that Haoge was surrounded by Zhu Cihong, Dorgon also set off from the capital and went south.

He went south not to march south, but to go to the south of Zhili to block the Ming army who might go north. The Beijing-Tianjin main road is the most important passage to Liaodong. Once Beijing and Tianjin are surrounded or even fall, they will be wiped out The most important passage back to the outside of the customs is gone.

Although it is possible to cross the Great Wall from Gansu, Shanxi, and Zhili, and return to Liaodong via Chahar Mongolia, the distance is too far.

Along the way, you have to experience countless poor mountains and rivers, and you have to deal with the extreme weather on the grassland from time to time.

The most dangerous thing is that the Mongols are likely to see the weakness of Mi Qing, and take the opportunity to add insult to injury and prevent the Qing army from returning to Liaodong.

At that time, it would be good if the hundreds of thousands of Qing troops could go back half alive. Even if half of them went back alive, the Qing Dynasty, which lost its absolute military advantage, would not be far from declining.

South of Beijing and Tianjin is Zhili Hejian Prefecture, which can be called the gateway to the capital. Once the Ming army arrives here, it will not be far from the important military goal of blocking the Beijing-Tianjin arterial road.

So Dorgon led his troops here first. As for Hejian Mansion and Weihui Mansion area, it is not very important. It is still a long time away from Beijing and Tianjin.

Even if the Ming army had hundreds of thousands of horses to maneuver, Dorgon would have plenty of time to return to defense.

It can be said that the garrison of Hejian Mansion can ensure that Dorgon takes into account the largest area, so that the more than 1 people he put together in a hurry can exert the greatest effect.

But after arriving at the Hejian Mansion, Dorgon found trouble. At some point, Zhou Yuantong crossed the Yellow River and brought tens of thousands of people to the border of Zhili, and was approaching the river at an extremely slow speed. Between Fucheng.

Since Zhou Yuantong was appointed by Zhu Cihong as governor of Denglai and governor of Shandong, and was in charge of major military and political affairs in Shandong, he hastened to organize and train the local army.

He gathered hundreds of thousands of rebels from the original Qi Wang Zhu Shuai's uprising to drive away the peasant army and the Qing army together for training, selected 6 or 10 elite soldiers, and paid a small amount of severance pay to the remaining [-] people. Lose.

In this way, the financial burden of Shandong was reduced, and the quality of the army could be improved qualitatively. However, out of the consideration of taking precautions, Zhou Yuantong did not mean to let all the rebels go home to farm.

Instead, let those eliminated rebels form the state capital's reserve army, who can farm at home in normal times, and Zhou Yuantong will send guards and military officers from the governor's mansion to train them in his spare time.

Once necessary, order the prefects and counties to gather them and send them to the place designated by Zhou Yuantong for Zhou Yuantong to command.

As for the elite soldiers who were left behind, Zhou Yuantong trained them well, fed them well, practiced every morning and evening, and forged them with swords, guns, swords and halberds, including cotton armor, chain mail armor, and zip armor.

In order to train these 6 to 100 people, Zhou Yuantong spent more than [-] million taels of silver in just one or two months.

(End of this chapter)