books44 Chapter 276 Planning
Chapter 276 Planning
Changsha city.
Meng Hong looked exhausted when he stepped into Changsha City. After eight days of long journey, even the strong Zhou Guangyuan felt exhausted, not to mention Meng Hong's old bones. Zhou Guangyuan worried more than once during the journey, fearing that old man Meng would die before arriving in Changsha.
Meng Hong stepped into Changsha City. At that time, Changsha City was like a large military camp. Warriors with guns and swords were everywhere. Occasionally, civilians passed by, but they were in a hurry. Next to Meng Hong was Jin Tongwu, a trusted general of Jin Wang Li Dingguo, who was sent by Li Dingguo to welcome the envoy of King Zhou.
Jin Tongwu looked at the skinny old man in front of him with some admiration in his heart. The hardship of a long journey could not be understood without personal experience. Seeing Meng Hong exhausted, Jin Tongwu said to Meng Hong: "The envoy has traveled a long way, you can go to the inn to rest for a while. After nightfall, my prince will welcome the envoy."
Meng Hong was very tired, but after hearing Jin Tongwu's words, he still managed to muster up his energy and responded: "The guest should follow the host's wishes. Please lead the way, General."
At night, in Changsha City, the temporary government office of Prince Jin.
The palace was brightly lit and all the generals gathered together. This was the first time that Prince Jin's subordinates had held a banquet since Sun Kewang used the excuse of food shortage to refuse to deliver food and fodder to the Huguang front.
Meng Hong, who had rested in the inn for an afternoon, was obviously in better spirits. At the banquet, many generals of Prince Jin glanced at Meng Hong from time to time. These people had fought several battles with the Qing army and knew that the Qing army was like a world of difference from the former Ming court's garrison troops. Since Prince Zhou could snatch food from the Qing army's mouth and take over the rich Jiangnan area, not only Li Dingguo's subordinates were curious about Meng Jun, but Li Dingguo himself was also quite surprised.
According to Li Dingguo's experience over the years, he had extremely rich experience in marching and fighting. At this time, Li Dingguo was only 28 years old, but he had already been struggling in the military for 18 years.
Li Dingguo thought that only good soldiers could fight a good war. What were good soldiers? The poor people, like the people from Shaanxi and the soldiers recruited during the wilderness period in Henan, were brave enough to fight and were not afraid of death. However, Li Dingguo was quite disdainful of the areas south of the Yangtze River. He believed that the people in the south of the Yangtze River were weak and sad every day. How could they produce strong soldiers? But Meng Jun suddenly appeared, beat Bolo and made him flee in a panic, and also beheaded Lekedehun.
Li Dingguo knew this Lekedehun. His old brothers in the Shun army were defeated by this man and have not recovered yet. No one in the army had the nerve to say that a sneak attack was an unfair victory. If they lost, they lost. No matter how they lost, they were just not as skilled as their opponent.
Thinking of this, Li Dingguo raised his glass to Meng Hong beside him and said, "Messenger, please come."
After drinking, Li Dingguo put down his wine cup and said with a smile: "The King of Zhou is famous and powerful. I have heard of him like thunder. What is the matter with you sending an envoy?"
Meng Hong stroked his beard, bent his forehead slightly, and said, "Your Highness, Prince Jin, my king wants to help you and defeat the enemy army together."
At this time, Li Dingguo's cousin, Ma Siliang, who was sitting opposite, snorted coldly and said, "Everyone knows that the King of Zhou covets Huguang. He is not credible if he pretends to help me!"
Meng Hong's expression did not change after hearing this. He just turned his head to look at Li Dingguo and said softly, "This is a fallacy and is not worth refuting. Now that the enemy army has gathered a large army and Prince Yu Duoduo is personally leading the army, if our king covets the land of Huguang, why not wait for Your Highness to fight with the enemy army first, and then sit on the mountain and watch the tigers fight, and the fisherman will benefit. Why should we mobilize the troops in the south of the Yangtze River to fight a decisive battle with the enemy in Huguang?"
When Li Dingguo heard this, he laughed and scolded Ma Siliang: "How can a common man, a hero of the Zhou Dynasty, have such a heart?"
Then he turned to Meng Hong and said, "These warriors don't know the general situation, please don't blame them, envoy."
After that, he took another gulp of wine and said in a hateful voice: "The enemy killed my adoptive father. I cannot live with the enemy. It is my wish to defeat the enemy army together!"
Meng Hong said happily: "Your Highness is so righteous. This time, my king, Guoxing, and Your Highness will form an alliance to fight against the Tartars together. This will surely become a good story for all ages!"
Li Dingguo and Meng Hong looked at each other and laughed, but the generals led by Prince Jin had different expressions.
The next morning, Li Dingguo invited Meng Hong to meet again. At the banquet yesterday, they only reached an agreement to fight together. The specific matters still need to be discussed in detail.
There were only Li Dingguo, Jin Tongwu, and Meng Hong in the palace this time. After Meng Hong sat down, they exchanged a few pleasantries before getting to the point. Jin Tongwu spoke first, "Mr. Meng, how does the King of Zhou want to fight? Should we gather our troops together, or fight separately?"
"The details of the battle will be decided when our king arrives."
At this time, Li Dingguo spoke up: "To be honest, sir, although our army is large, we are short of food and grass. If we don't get any more supplies, I'm afraid it will be difficult to continue. Not to mention attacking, it will be difficult to defend Changsha!"
"As for the food and fodder, my king is willing to provide you with more. The food route may go through Jiangxi and enter Changsha."
"Sir, if the Tartars withdraw from Huguang, this place..." Li Dingguo asked hesitantly.
"My king wants to occupy Wuchang as a foundation for the Northern Expedition. Your Highness, it is too early to say this now. The enemy army is powerful. If we win, everything can be discussed. If we lose, not only Huguang, but the entire south will also be under the control of the Qing court." Meng Hong shook his head and said to Li Dingguo.
To whom does the land of Huguang belong? Huguang is different from Fujian. It is not only a grain-producing land. As the saying goes, if Huguang is prosperous, the world will be prosperous. Moreover, this place is the heart of the entire southern China. Whoever controls this place will be like the Central Plains in the north. Li Dingguo led his army into Huguang and became famous. Although Sun Kewang's supplies were cut off, Li Dingguo was able to rely on half of Huguang and fight back and forth with Hauge. Although food and grass were always in short supply, it did not cause the army to starve.
Li Dingguo would never be willing to withdraw from Huguang unless it was absolutely necessary. Now that Meng Jun was willing to send troops to help, Li Dingguo was willing to grasp this straw no matter what the reason was.
………………
Since the Qin Dynasty, the change of dynasties was a common occurrence. A new emperor appointed new ministers. There were many Xianbei and Mongolians who ruled the Central Plains, but none of them made the stupid move of requiring the people to shave their heads. In other words, Dorgon's move was not a stupid one. Some of the beile princes in the Qing court also had objections to the shaving order.
For example, Beile Nikan once expressed his opposition to the regent's order to shave his head. This resistance to shaving one's head was not the first among the people of Jiangnan. There were also many voices of opposition among the Manchu nobles. Nikan once said publicly in public: "The Manchus and the Han should be clearly distinguished. Forcing the Han people to shave their heads and change their clothes is an offense to our customs. Everyone will become the same. How can we tell who is who!"
When Dorgon heard this, he reprimanded Nikan sternly and ordered him to reflect on his mistakes in seclusion. However, times had changed. Dorgon had thought that the shaving order would cause a popular uprising, but he did not expect the uprising to be so intense that the Qing Dynasty even lost Jiangning.
In this decisive battle in Huguang, Dorgon not only entrusted most of the Qing army to Duoduo, hoping that he would win the battle on the battlefield in one fell swoop, but also, politically, Dorgon no longer cared that this move would damage his prestige, and issued a public decree.
He said: "In the past, the hair system was originally to be unified, and everyone was allowed to do as they pleased. We wanted to bring peace to the world, so we implemented this system to make China and foreign countries one. Unfortunately, the subjects of the world do not care about the court, and the dispute over hair braids has become a hot topic. From now on, the court will allow all subjects of the world to tie their hair as usual, or shave their hair and keep the braids, as they please!"
Dorgon issued another decree to revoke the shaving order. This was the second time he had revoked it. The first time was also because of fierce resistance. Dorgon thought the time was not ripe, so he withdrew it. After Dodo pacified the south of the Yangtze River, Dorgon felt the time was ripe and issued another strict order, either keep the head or the hair, or keep the hair or the head. However, he never expected that there were not many resistances in the north, but the weak south could cause such a big storm.
In this war, in order to reduce the resistance of the people in the south of the Yangtze River, Dorgon cancelled the strict order of keeping the head but not the hair. If he won, he could issue the order to shave the hair again after the world was completely pacified.