The people around him were busy with their own things. Only Zhou Qingfeng stood alone on the walls of Tongzhou. In front of him were tens of thousands of Ming Army fleeing everywhere. From east to west, they were everywhere. Those people were like panicked ants, running around dizzily. There was no longer any suspense in this battle.
Zhou Qingfeng led the northward detachment around the capital to announce his arrival to the Chinese rulers of this era and demonstrate his military power. He wanted to destroy the foundation of Daming's rule in the capital region, disrupt their ability to obtain social resources, and let the people at the bottom know that there was another way to live in this world.
The armed demonstration was only a deterrent. It needed to be matched with a hearty victory that would make the enemy feel pain in their bones. This would intimidate the Ming rulers and shake the confidence of the bureaucracy. Zhou Qingfeng's battle in Tongzhou was for this purpose.
Before the battle began, Zhou Qingfeng ordered a large number of explosives to be buried in the outer line. He anticipated the possibility of being surrounded by the enemy's superior forces for a long time. He thought about breaking out of the encirclement with bare hands at the critical moment. He also thought about flying a triplane at low altitude to destroy the enemy's "Fiery Ravens" and then bombing from the air. For victory, he and his staff had made many plans.
But none of them were useful.
The ferocious bombardment dealt a huge blow to the enemy's morale, and the concentrated fire arrows caused the enemy's general to flee in panic. The difference in weapons made this battle, which had been prepared for half a month, only lasted for one morning. To be precise, the battle only lasted for an hour. The rest of the time was spent capturing prisoners.
"I am already standing at the forefront of the era and leading the fate of the nation. War is no longer the key to solving the current social problems. The enemy can no longer use war to make us yield. The next difficult step is how to transform society. "Zhou Qingfeng walked slowly on the walls of Tongzhou, talking to himself." This is harder than war. "
The battle began in the morning and ended at noon. Cleaning up the battlefield took two days. Liu Gu's 40,000 troops surrounding Tongzhou were routed. More than 10,000 were captured that day. In reality, because the soldiers had nowhere to go, more people surrendered.
Liu Gu's army was defeated in just half a day. This caused great shock and panic to Du Song's troops stationed outside the encirclement. When the news of Liu Gu's defeat came, Du Song's troops were also in chaos. From Du Song's point of view, Liu Gu had 40,000 troops and surrounded the entire Tongzhou. Even if the attack was bad, it was impossible for them to collapse in half a day.
No one could explain how this avalanche of defeat happened. Du Song only knew that the rebels had used powerful firearms. In one breath, they had defeated Liu Gu, who was two miles away from the frontline. No matter how arrogant Du Song was, he didn't dare to say that he was several times more powerful than Liu Gu. He quickly retreated fifty miles with his troops and ran directly toward the capital.
The large number of captives caused even more trouble for the northern detachments than when they fought them. Because the Ming army was defeated so quickly, Zhou Qingfeng did not even think about how to take these people. In the end, they simply confiscated their weapons and gave them a certain amount of money to return to their hometowns. The reason for giving them the money was so that they would have a certain degree of survival ability and not cause trouble.
Most of the soldiers took a tael of silver and returned to their villages. But when they heard there was money to take from the rebels, the escaped Ming Army came back to take money. They even took money repeatedly. There were thousands of soldiers who were homeless or lived as soldiers. These people were a huge burden. They could only be separated into camps, given food, and monitored.
Zhou Qingfeng didn't make things difficult for the soldiers. But all the captives were detained separately. They needed to be screened before they could be dealt with. Among them, the one with the highest rank was naturally Liu Gu. When this old general saw the young Zhou Qingfeng, he sighed and knelt on the ground to surrender.
"Old general, get up. I don't like kneeling here." Zhou Qingfeng reached out and helped the old Liu Gu up. "Old general, you are willing to surrender. Less killing is a good thing for the soldiers. However, the military discipline of our Revolutionary Army is different from other places. You are now a prisoner of war, so you can accept the reform.
Old general, you can take some servants with you to calm down first. When the battlefield screening is over, you can go to Jinzhou University to write your memoirs in the war history major. "Zhou Qingfeng casually made up a war history major and sent Liu Gu away. For this old general, his thoughts were already fixed. He didn't want to spend time to reform him before using him. It was better to raise him as a mascot and write a book.
Liu Gu didn't understand Zhou Qingfeng's words, but he could feel that this rebel Grand Marshal didn't like him. But now he was under the eaves and had to bow his head. He had already surrendered. What else could he say?
Liu Gu nodded his thanks for the idle treatment. But the family warriors around him were quite dissatisfied. Zhou Qingfeng saw their unhappy faces and sneered, "If you want to see me greet you, then you are wrong. As for the old general's thousands of family warriors, I can take them for reform and use them in a disorganized way. As for you guys, you will be prisoners of war for a period of time. Those who want to cause trouble will be executed. "
Zhou Qingfeng's tone was cold. Ye Na held her sword and stared at him. Even Han Shi, who was sending these future members of the Liu family, immediately darkened his face. He wanted to maintain the same political attitude as his Grand Marshal. Liu Gu knew that the new master did not recognize his loyalty, so he could only turn around and comfort his family warriors, telling them to 'take things as they come'.
At the beginning of April, the north marching detachment completed the deterrence mission and returned south. There were many water transport ships in Tongzhou. The troops and more than 10,000 captives basically left along the canal. Two days later, they arrived in Tianjin.
Tianjin was now undefended. The governor of Jiliao, Xue Sancai, who was originally here, fled with the officials in the city. Zhou Qingfeng easily occupied this big city and conveniently sent a message to Yin Hu, who was at Dagukou, asking him to meet up with them in Tianjin.
When he saw Yin Hu again, the captain of the Revolutionary Army's firefighting team had red eyes, sunken cheeks, and looked haggard. After not seeing him for nearly a month, he felt that he had lost more than ten kilograms. When he saw Zhou Qingfeng, the first thing he said was not to ask about the situation of the war, but to shout, "I want to sleep. I'm exhausted."
Zhou Qingfeng went to the capital to cause trouble, and Yin Hu was under great pressure in Dagukou. He, who was in charge of logistics, could not sleep every day and night for fear that something would happen to Zhou Qingfeng. The good situation of the Revolutionary Army would be like a flash in the pan, and then it would be over. When he saw Zhou Qingfeng was fine, he was like a bowstring that was stretched to the extreme and urgently needed to relax and rest.
With Zhou Qingfeng taking over Tianjin and Li Shuwei controlling Dengzhou, the entire Revolutionary Army's chess game of being trapped in the Liaodong Peninsula would come alive. The entire Bohai Bay was within the range of the Revolutionary Army's ships, and all the coastal areas were within the range of two days of sea routes. This was a huge traffic advantage in ancient times.
The news of the victory in the capital was sent to Gaizhou by a clipper ship. Zhao Ze and Xu Bing, who were stationed there, immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Xu Bing even left the front line affairs and transferred hundreds of elites from the administrative department to Tianjin to support Zhou Qingfeng's post-war recovery work.
When the two met, Zhou Qingfeng joked, "It's troublesome to not have wireless. It takes several days to send a message. It's really like three years to see someone. "
There were many wireless devices in the time and space island, but after the end of the Ming Dynasty, they all mutated. Even the dedicated handheld walkie-talkies became useless, and the communication distance was greatly reduced. After hugging Zhou Qingfeng, Xu Bing sat on his lap and said, "At worst, we can make a spark transceiver. This is not a big problem. The question is, what should we do next? "
The incompetence of the Ming Army allowed the Revolutionary Army to obtain a new situation at a very small price. This situation came so quickly that the transmigrators, who originally wanted to fight a long and difficult battle, were overjoyed. But the next step became a big problem.
"Tianjin is a very important city. It would be a waste not to use it. The Ming Dynasty will not easily surrender and collapse. This is still the front line of the war. " Zhou Qingfeng stretched in the lobby of the Tianjin Garrison Commander's yamen, leaned back, and said softly, "Because the situation here is complicated, I want to replicate the administrative, industrial, and agricultural system of the Liaodong Peninsula and use it in Tianjin."
"You want to make Tianjin our new central city?" Xu Bing asked.
"There is a reason why Tianjin is the gateway to the capital." Zhou Qingfeng had been thinking about the follow-up development since he returned from the capital. "We can develop agriculture in the Liaodong Peninsula, but we can't build industry. Tianjin has developed transportation, a large population, and rich resources. What I value the most is that Tianjin is very close to Tangshan, and Tangshan has mines! "
The Liaodong Peninsula was safe in a remote corner. It was safe, but the lack of coal and iron made the industrial development of the Revolutionary Army quite painful. All raw materials had to be purchased. Tangshan was rich in coal and iron resources. There were records of coal and iron mining in the Han Dynasty, so it was easy to use. The steel output of later generations was ranked ninth in the world, so the development potential was huge.
For the current Revolutionary Army, there was no need for a large mine. They only needed to build a small coal mine and iron mine. With a production of tens of thousands of tons a year, it would be enough to meet the raw material needs of the early industry. The replicability of the industrial system would allow the power of the Revolutionary Army to soar exponentially.
"We are not in a hurry to seize power in the country. Instead, we can keep the mess of Daming as a sharp contrast for us. It is easy to have indigestion, and it is easy to pull the eggs if the steps are too big. It is better to nibble slowly. We will stabilize the land we occupy, and when we stabilize the land, we will reform the land and push out step by step. We have plenty of time, no hurry.
It is April 1617 now. I hope there will not be any large-scale war this year. Even if it is against Kennu, we will defend. Build a good foundation, train enough cadres, train enough troops, and then we will seize the world. " When Zhou Qingfeng reached the end, he felt that he was too excited, so he quickly asked Xu Bing, "How are the two provinces of Haigai? Did Kennu attack? "
The territory of the Revolutionary Army was already big enough, but their management ability was declining. It was necessary to stabilize appropriately.
Xu Bing rolled her eyes at Zhou Qingfeng and said, "Kennu came a few times, but the scale was not big. We almost emptied Liaoyang's population, which allowed Kennu to occupy an empty city. Their troops can come along the road, but the supplies are transported from the rear. If they can't gather locally, they can't last long. They saw that our city defense is strong and can't attack, so they can only retreat.
I feel that Kennu will likely attack Guanning to the west, and their target is the western part of Liaoning. That is still the territory of the Ming Army. There is a lot of population and supplies there, and it will be very profitable to attack. "
For a slave society like Kennu, war was business, and it was impossible to lose money. To fight the Revolutionary Army, one had to be prepared to break their teeth. If they hit a wall too many times, they would definitely not be happy. It was still easier to deal with the small fry of the Ming Army.
After Xu Bing finished, she put her hand around Zhou Qingfeng's neck and said, "I have no opinion if you want to develop steadily. But I have something to ask you. "
"What is it?"
"Do you want to be an emperor?"
"Ah …?"
"I want to be an empress, or at least an imperial concubine. I know a lot, have strong abilities, and manage the administration in an orderly manner. I have the same values as you, so I am your best assistant. I have this ambition, can you give me this chance? "
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