On the twenty-fourth day of the campaign.
Prince Regent Ouyang Shuo and the three thousand Divine Martial Guardians suddenly disappeared from Jianye.
At the same time, the Mutant Lord Feng Qiuhuang, who had been hiding all this while, suddenly stepped forward from behind the scenes. He replaced Ouyang Shuo and began to lead the Jianye Imperial Court. At the same time, he was in charge of raising funds for the frontline army and supervising the transportation of rations.
Feng Qiuhuang was accompanied by two thousand Fallen Phoenix City soldiers.
…
On the 25th day of the battle.
On the vast surface of the sea, the Great Xia Royal Fleet advanced through the waves.
On the top deck of the flagship Yu Huang, Ouyang Shuo stood bravely at the head of the tide, looking at the vast sea in front of him and asked, "How many more days until the fleet reaches Bohai Sea?"
The Bohai Sea, formerly known as the Bohai Sea or the North Sea, is a part of the Western Pacific Ocean. It is the inland sea of China, surrounded by land on three sides, between the three provinces of Liaoning, Hebei, Shandong, and Tianjin.
The journey to the Bohai Sea was a critical juncture.
To the north of the pass was Mount Yan and to the south was the Bohai Sea, hence the name Shanhai Pass.
Zhou Yu replied, "Your Majesty, the fleet is currently traveling with the wind. If everything goes smoothly, we should arrive at our destination the day after tomorrow at the latest."
"Alright!"
Ouyang Shuo was excited, and he couldn't help but look forward to it.
Shanhai Pass was known as the "First Pass in the World". It was built during the reign of Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty. It had witnessed the rise and fall of the Ming Dynasty and was the key point for the Qing army to enter the pass.
After the incident between the Great Shun and Great Xi armies, Ouyang Shuo immediately activated the emergency plan and went down the Yangtze River. After rendezvousing with the royal fleet, they entered the vast ocean.
Ouyang Shuo's objective was to seize Shanhai Pass and cut off the Qing army's last route of retreat.
Since Dorgon was calm and composed and unwilling to engage in battle with the Southern Allied Forces prematurely, Ouyang Shuo might as well add fuel to the fire and force Dorgon to attack prematurely.
After taking down Shanhai Pass, Ouyang Shuo naturally didn't mind taking a stroll outside the pass.
Although the Qing Dynasty had moved its capital to Yanjing a year ago, there were still many Manchus living in the old capital of the Qing Dynasty, Shengjing. There were even some descendants of the royal family outside the pass. It could be said to be the foundation of the Qing Dynasty.
Ouyang Shuo did not believe that Dorgon would not be anxious when his foundation was in trouble.
Even if Dorgon could keep his composure, the Manchu nobles and elders would never agree.
…
The Chinese plains.
While Ouyang Shuo was leading his troops north, Li Jing and Guo Ziyi weren't idling around. After Li Jing led his troops to attack Kaifeng, he temporarily stopped heading north and rested on the spot.
Guo Ziyi's troops chose to rest and reorganize in Jinan.
Taking advantage of the opportunity of the army's recuperation, the two of them simultaneously strengthened their control over the Nanming army. They let some of the generals who were unstable or unable to take on great responsibilities step aside and instead promoted some of the generals who were good at fighting.
Gao Jie, Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo and the others were all valiant men from the military, but there was no lack of good generals and fierce warriors under their command, such as Li Dingguo, Sun Kewang and other high-ranking officers who had lost power in internal strife.
The benefits of these generals being promoted were obvious.
First, they were not "outsiders", so they would not arouse the resentment of the Nanming soldiers. Secondly, they were brave and good at fighting to begin with. Moreover, they had once served as commanding generals of the army, so they didn't need to adapt and adjust. They were able to get into the groove very quickly.
It could even be said that the promotion of these generals raised the morale of the Southern Ming Army.
As for the reason for changing the generals, it was easy to find. The coalition army had won many battles, so naturally, they had to be rewarded according to their contributions. Li and Guo's specific actions showed their wisdom.
They didn't demote or demote those unqualified generals, but promoted them to be the commander-in-chief of the local army. It seemed like a high promotion, but in reality, they were taking the opportunity to remove them from the army.
The generals who had been "excluded" were also happy to do so.
In their view, the occupied territory was already the Southern Ming's territory, so naturally there needed to be people guarding it. Coincidentally, they had received a secret order from His Majesty to give them priority in occupying territory, so they went with the flow and agreed.
Since they were the commander-in-chief, they also needed soldiers.
This was also easy to handle. Because the Qing army had withdrawn, the local militias had become the best targets for reorganization. Reorganizing these militias would also help stabilize the rear.
In addition to the militias, every time the army passed through a city, a large number of hot-blooded youths would sign up to join the army.
With these two points, there was no need to worry about a lack of soldiers.
It could even be said that Li and Guo selected a group of truly hot-blooded and good at fighting from the militias to supplement the Southern Ming Army. At the same time, they removed some unqualified people from the army.
In this way, not only did Li and Guo completely control the Southern Ming Army and eliminate hidden dangers, but they also further increased the Southern Ming Army's fighting strength and cohesiveness. It could be said to be killing two birds with one stone.
As for Hongguang Emperor, for him, since there was territory to take over, he didn't care about these details. Moreover, no matter how the Southern Ming Army changed, it was still an army under the Southern Ming's rule.
In this way, everyone was naturally happy.
Although the departure of the Great Shun army and the lack of cooperation from the Great Xi army had a certain impact on the southern coalition army, after this round of adjustments, the overall strength of the coalition army wasn't greatly weakened.
This was the magic of regrouping.
If Dorgon misjudged the strength of the southern coalition army and chose to take the initiative to attack, at that time, whether it was the Central Army led by Li Jing or the Eastern Army led by Guo Ziyi, they would both bring the Qing army a great surprise.
… …
Because they were busy reorganizing the army, the north was rather peaceful over the next few days. The first place to erupt in chaos was Shaanxi in the west.
On the 26th day of the campaign.
The 60,000 Great Shun army marched quickly and finally entered Shaanxi, meeting up with the Great Xi army, who was busy encircling their territory.
Without any superfluous words, the two armies immediately started fighting.
At the beginning, because the Great Shun army was gathered together and the Great Xi army was scattered in various places, the Great Shun army had the advantage in terms of local military strength and won a few battles.
After winning, the Great Shun army's morale soared and heroically went straight for Xi 'an.
After receiving the news, Zhang Xianzhong, who was overseeing Xi 'an, reacted and started to gather his troops. He said with dissatisfaction, "Hmph, a bunch of Great Shun remnants actually dare to be impudent in front of me."
If Li Zicheng was still alive, Zhang Xianzhong naturally wouldn't think about it and would probably obediently give up Xi 'an. However, what did the Great Shun army have left? They were just a bunch of remnant soldiers.
Zhang Xianzhong didn't care about these people at all.
If the Great Shun army adopted the strategy of advancing steadily and slowly nibbling away at Shaanxi, with their influence and connections in Shaanxi, they would probably be able to quickly gather a large army and contend against the Great Xi army.
If that happened, it would be hard to say who would emerge victorious.
However, the Great Shun army was too arrogant.
After winning a few battles, the Great Shun army's commanders became so arrogant that they didn't even know who they were. They didn't rest at all and went straight for Xi 'an, completely exposing their intentions to Zhang Xianzhong.
Seeing this, Zhang Xianzhong began to quietly cast a net, waiting for the Great Shun army to take the bait.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
