Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 487 Contacting the Southern Desert Tribes

Han Xiong marched straight ahead, passing through Shaoguan and Yingde, and arrived at Qingyuan. Qingyuan opened the city and surrendered. Before Han Xiong reached Guangzhou, Zhaoqing changed its flag.

Since Han Xiong set out on the expedition, the biggest casualties were diseases and falls. Han Xiong thought that after arriving in Guangzhou, he would have to fight a battle anyway, but the result was the same, he surrendered at the first sight of the enemy.

Xu Fan and his subordinates, from their initial excitement to their current helplessness, have done nothing along the way. How can they claim credit for their achievements? At most, they have only done hard work.

Han Xiong saw that his generals were somewhat discouraged, so he convened a military meeting to calm everyone down, saying: "Everyone, although we were not able to make a big move, this bloodless move to capture the city has also stabilized the south and pacified the people, which is also an outstanding achievement."

Although the generals nodded, such words still did not make them happy. They were still unhappy. Finally, Han Xiong got angry and scolded: "Generals are the focus of the soldiers. If you are so depressed, won't it make the soldiers panic? If the morale of the army changes, who will dare to take on this important responsibility!"

After the scolding, the generals finally cheered up. Although they were unhappy in their hearts, no one dared to show the slightest worry on their faces.

On the other hand, Wu Sangui was not as relaxed as Han Xiong. After Wu Sangui led his army to Guilin, he continued to march south.

When Wu Sangui arrived in Liuzhou, he met Li Chengdong's subordinates, Wu Wenxian's troops. Wu Wenxian led an army of 17,000 people to garrison Liuzhou.

Most of the families of these soldiers had been moved to Annan by Li Chengdong. Before the war, Li Chengdong sent people to inform the entire army that if anyone surrendered, his family members would be killed, but if anyone obeyed military orders, they would be rewarded generously after the war.

Li Chengdong did not have to fight a war with Wu Sangui to prove anything, but the supplies from all over the country had not yet been evacuated to Annan. Li Chengdong wanted to move all the people in Nanning City to Annan and leave an empty city for Meng Jun. Wu Sangui came too fast, so Li Chengdong had to stop Wu Sangui and give himself some time to plunder.

When Wu Sangui just arrived outside the city of Liuzhou, he received the news that Han Xiong easily captured Guangzhou, an important city in Guangdong. Wu Sangui felt that Li Chengdong must be a waste. Han Xiong's 20,000 troops fought all the way from Ganzhou to Guangzhou without even stopping. With his 30,000 troops, it would be easy for him to take Nanning.

Therefore, Wu Sangui first sent a letter of persuasion to surrender, hoping that the defenders would be more sensible and not resist stubbornly. However, after waiting for a whole night, there was no reply at all.

Wu Sangui stationed his troops at the foot of the city, built ladders, and after firing a few rounds of artillery, he led his troops to attack the city, but the result was a heavy blow to Wu Sangui.

By noon, the siege equipment that Wu Sangui had improvised had been completely destroyed by the defenders on the city wall. The infantry suffered more than 800 casualties and failed to even reach the top of the city wall.

This made Wu Sangui doubt himself. How come Han Xiong was so successful that he even captured Guangzhou, but why was it so difficult for him in his first battle?

Wu Sangui immediately became serious and was determined to fight a good battle to let Meng Jun see whether the title of marquis he gave him was too low.

Therefore, Wu Sangui built a large number of weapons under the city of Liuzhou. After two days of construction, on the fifth day after arriving in Liuzhou, Wu Sangui launched another siege on Liuzhou.

All that could be heard was the sound of thundering war drums and horns. It was indeed a magnificent sight at first glance. However, Wu Wenxian refused to come out of the city. Wu Sangui personally supervised the battle and commanded the army to launch a strong attack. There were roars of cannons and arrows. On that day, although Wu Sangui's men tried their best, they failed to break into the city. The city was heavily defended and Wu Sangui's men climbed the city walls many times but were repelled.

………………

Beijing.

Beijing was established as the capital during the Ming Dynasty. After more than two hundred years of growth and development, there were a large number of princes and nobles, officials and ministers, hundreds of thousands of civilians, and a huge number of Beijing troops in the capital. These could not be fully supplied by Hebei alone. Therefore, a large amount of grain had to be transported from the south, which also supported tens of thousands of grain workers.

However, in today's capital, the population has dropped sharply, and the civil and military officials, as well as the court nobles who need to consume a lot of wealth, are only a very small minority.

After recovering the north, Meng Jun ordered various places in Hebei to resume production, so that the vast plains such as Hebei and Henan could produce large quantities of grain.

At this time, Meng Jun pulled the reins and looked at the wheat fields on both sides of the official road, swaying in the wind, and felt quite satisfied.

Judging from the rainfall this year, there should be a bumper harvest. At this time, Gu Yanwu said, "Your Majesty, even in a good year, you need to prepare for a rainy day and store the excess grain in the warehouse."

Meng Jun replied: "This kind of thing has been done in every dynasty, but when peace lasts for a long time, the rats will multiply. When there is a famine, there will not even be a grain of rice in the warehouse. Even with severe punishments, it cannot be stopped."

Gu Yanwu pondered for a moment and said, "Your Majesty, after the south is pacified, you should stop fighting and let the world recuperate. If there are ten years of peace, with your Majesty's talent, you will surely bring peace to the world."

Meng Jun smiled slightly upon hearing this and said, "After the world is unified, I will not engage in major wars, but the borders are still blocked, so it is still time to use military force."

Especially in Liaodong, Meng Jun did not plan to fight along the Ningjin Defense Line. Although a surprise landing by the navy was one method, this kind of landing battle required extremely high speed of reinforcements from the rear. If one was not careful, the entire army would be wiped out.

Therefore, after discussing with the generals, Meng Jun decided to strategically encircle the Qing court, sending troops from Jeju Island to Korea, and then attacking Liaodong from Korea. This plan is already being implemented.

The other route is Mongolia.

After the Qing army defeated Ligdan Khan several times, in the seventh year of Chongzhen, Ligdan Khan marched towards Qinghai, intending to occupy Tibet. On the way, he died of smallpox on the Xilatala grassland.

At this point, the Mongolian tribes south of the desert surrendered to the Qing court one after another and regarded the Qing emperor as their Khan. In fact, these Mongolian tribes had always dreamed of rebuilding the Mongol Empire, but they were beaten by the Eight Banners Army several times and even lost their ambition, so they could only keep that dream in their hearts.

But things are different now. The Qing court has become weak and was driven out of the interior by Meng Jun. As a result, the tribes south of the desert are ready to make moves and are secretly resisting the Qing court's conscription of men and horses.

This is because the Mongolians in the south of the desert are close to the Qing army and have not yet forgotten the beatings they suffered before. The Mongolians in the north of the desert have simply ignored the Qing court.

Meng Jun sent a large number of envoys to many Mongolian tribes south of the desert in an attempt to contact the tribes. When the Qing court was in trouble both internally and externally, Meng Jun tried to use diplomatic means to unite the Mongolian tribes south of the desert.

To this end, Meng Jun sent dozens of special envoys on horseback, each team with dozens of guards, carrying gold, silver, and secret letters, to the Mongolian tribes south of the desert, intending to win them over and jointly attack the Qing army.

The purpose of winning over the tribes south of the desert was, firstly, to cut off the arm of the Qing court, secondly, to strike at the Qing court, and thirdly, Meng Jun was preparing for the future control of Mongolia.

The biggest problem facing the grassland throughout the ages was not that they could not defeat them, but that they could not find or outrun these tribes that lived by the water. As the saying goes, the people who are most familiar with the grassland must be the grassland people.

Meng Jun believed that he would be able to produce cement and railways during his lifetime. By then, as long as the railways were used to connect various parts of the grassland and divide the tribes to prevent them from fighting and unification, the threat of grassland nomads in the Central Plains for thousands of years would be ended in his hands!