Chapter 433: Plans cannot keep up with changes, race against time
The northern capital, Duke Cheng’s Mansion.
"General Liu, how is the reorganization of the Blood Robe Guard going?"
Duke Chengguo Zhu Chunchen asked Liu Zeqing, who had just entered the study, with a gloomy face.
"Reporting to the Duke, the 50,000 Blood Robe Guards have been formed, but they have just been formed. They still need some time for actual combat training before they can become an elite and powerful army!"
Liu Zeqing did not dare to be negligent, and quickly stepped forward and reported respectfully.
Ever since he was defeated by the Xuanwu Corps of the Fuxing Army in Jin Province and his army was almost wiped out, and he fled back to the capital, he has been staying temporarily in the mansion of Duke Chengguo, quietly rebuilding the Blood-Clothed Guards for Duke Chengguo.
It has to be said that Duke Chengguo Zhu Chunchen was extremely resourceful. Not only did he lightly shirk the responsibility for the defeat, but he also gave generous gifts to several cabinet ministers in the court and took over the power of the Five Military Commandery and the Governor-General of the Beijing Camp as he wished.
Duke Yingguo Zhang Zhiji has gone insane in his martial arts practice and is now on his deathbed. His legitimate son Zhang Shize is too young to defeat Zhu Chunchen.
Now the garrison troops in the capital city have almost become a one-man show under Zhu Chunchen.
The foundation accumulated by successive generations of Duke Cheng was unfathomable, and they naturally had no shortage of cultivation resources. Zhu Chunchen took advantage of his control over the capital's defense and, under the pretext of reorganizing the Beijing camp, easily selected the best of the best and reorganized the Zhu family's army of death warriors: the Blood-Clothed Guards.
"Well, that's good."
Zhu Chunchen nodded in satisfaction and said leisurely, "Seven days ago, the Fuxing Army had already captured Dongchang Prefecture, which means that the entire Qilu land has completely fallen into their control."
"The Grand Canal was completely blocked three days ago. Money and grain from the south can no longer be transported to the capital in the north by water."
"The prices in the capital are rising three times a day now. The Northern court can't hold out for much longer."
"Several ministers reported to His Majesty this morning, and pointed out the necessity of moving the capital south to Jinling City."
"Even though His Majesty was furious and threw a tantrum at the morning court, there was nothing we could do!"
"Ha ha……"
Zhu Chunchen sneered and said, "General Liu, those old ministers in the court are all very afraid of death."
"In order to avoid death and extinction of their clans and continue to enjoy a life of luxury and wealth, these old guys will certainly force Your Majesty to agree to the relocation of the imperial court to the south."
"The only obstacle is the generals in Liaodong."
"They have completely turned the Liaodong border troops into their own private army. The area from Shanhaiguan to Ningjin has become their private territory."
"It is absolutely impossible to ask them to abandon everything and go south to Nanjing."
"Nine out of ten times, when the court officials marched south in large numbers, that was when they surrendered to Huang Taiji."
"But this has nothing to do with us. Just keep them to give Li Dingguo a headache."
"I asked you to come here today because I want you to lead 20,000 Blood Robe Guards to escort the Duke's family to Nanjing for resettlement."
"I have already contacted Duke Wei of Jinling City, and through him I have purchased a large amount of land in the Jiangnan area. I am just waiting for the butler to take over."
"General Liu."
Zhu Chunchen's eyes flickered as he stared at him calmly and said, "I have already discussed with Duke Wei and several other elders that after the imperial court moves the capital to Jinling City, we will mobilize the major families in Jiangnan to jointly create a general army of the four towns in Jiangnan to resist the southward expansion of Li Dingguo's Fuxing Army!"
"As long as you work hard for me, you, Liu Zeqing, will definitely be one of the four generals!"
Although Liu Zeqing's military talent was not outstanding, he was still a qualified general, much better than most of the good-for-nothings in the army.
In order to gain a firm foothold in the south, how could Zhu Chunchen not deploy his tentacles?
Liu Zeqing is a good dog. He has always been obedient to Duke Chengguo and followed his orders. Zhu Chunchen doesn't mind giving him a hand.
"I would like to thank you, Lord Duke, and I will repay you with my whole life!"
Liu Zeqing was suddenly overjoyed and immediately knelt on the ground and paid homage.
The four towns in the south of the Yangtze River were built with all the manpower and resources of the south of the Yangtze River. It doesn't take much to guess how powerful the general of one of the towns is!
Apart from anything else, each town is estimated to have at least three to five hundred thousand warriors and soldiers!
Maybe in the future I will be able to control an army of one million elite soldiers.
After all, if they want to compete with Li Dingguo's Fuxing Army, the four generals of Jiangnan will certainly not have too many troops.
The most valuable thing is that there is a huge amount of financial and material support from the big families in Jiangnan, which is inexhaustible!
This is much better than the previous position of General of Shandong, it is simply a step to heaven!
Liu Zeqing is a person who is extremely good at scheming, so you can imagine how excited and ecstatic he is!
After all the hardship comes happiness!
Liu Zeqing only felt that he was a little shaky, and when he received the order to leave the study, he even walked a little unsteadily.
……
"what?"
"Are those generals in Liaodong plotting to contact Huang Taiji?"
Li Dingguo had just received an urgent secret report from Wei Jinfan, the head of the Military Intelligence Department. His face turned grim as he said, "These bastards seem determined to become traitors!"
He had just returned to Jinan City yesterday riding on a Dajin with six level 5 bald eagles, and reunited with Liang Dingming, the little stone who had successfully led his troops to capture Dongchang Prefecture not long ago. As a result, he learned of this urgent information and was immediately furious.
"Commander-in-chief, those high officials of the Ming Dynasty court in the north are too afraid of death, aren't they?"
Liang Dingming said in astonishment, "We have just conquered the entire Qilu land and officially blocked and cut off the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, and they can't sit still anymore."
"They even forced Emperor Chongzhen to move south. Minister He Guang, who was hiding in the capital, personally found out that all the civil and military officials in the capital were packing up and preparing to move south to Nanjing."
"Only those Liaodong generals are unwilling to give up their family business and are ready to join Huang Taiji to fight against our Fuxing Army."
"Fortunately, the Military Intelligence Department led by Wei Jinfan learned the news in time. Otherwise, if the Later Jin Tartars officially took over the entire Guanning Defense Line and Shanhaiguan, things would be very serious."
After several years of war experience, Xiao Shitou has grown up and become a qualified general with both civil and military skills.
With his horizons and vision completely opened up, even if he is not as good as Cao Yongxiang, he is no worse than other main combat corps commanders of the Renaissance Army.
After a brief thought, he realized the seriousness of this urgent military situation.
If it is not handled properly or in a timely manner, the consequences will be absolutely disastrous.
Especially Shanhaiguan, the most important pass in the world, if it were occupied by Huang Taiji, it would be very difficult even for the Fuxing Army to take it back.
The most crucial thing is that the hundreds of millions of Han people living along the Guanning Defense Line will face a devastating disaster.
That kind of situation was definitely not what Li Dingguo and the Fuxing Army wanted to see.
Li Dingguo's eyes flashed with coldness. After thinking for a while, he made a decision and said, "I will return to the northwest as soon as possible, summon the Pixiu Corps led by Cao Bianjiao and the Taotie Corps led by You Shilu, and rush to the Guanning Defense Line day and night."
"Before those traitorous generals and families surrender to Huang Taiji, we must first capture the Guanning Line, especially Shanhaiguan!"
"Only in this way can we resolve this crisis and save a large number of people from disaster!"
"But in this case, our Fuxing Army is likely to start a decisive battle with Huang Taiji right away, and the location of the decisive battle is in Liaodong!"
The major crisis triggered by the Liaodong generals on the Guanning Defense Line completely disrupted Li Dingguo's plan of steady development and expansion. The situation changed too quickly.
It was too late to transfer troops from Shanxi Province to the Guanning Defense Line.
Fortunately, the two large legions led by Cao Bianjiao and You Shilu are currently sweeping across the Mongolian grasslands and have arrived three thousand miles west of the Khorchin tribe, just in time to take them to raid the Guanning area.
Their two main combat corps destroyed countless Mongolian Tatar tribes, rescued a large number of Han people, and expanded their army at a rapid speed.
With Li Dingguo's promise of unlimited military expansion, the Taotie Legion and the Pixiu Legion are the fastest expanding legions in the Fuxing Army.
According to the latest statistics from the military, the two legions have more than 400,000 soldiers each, and they are all elite cavalry. More than half of the spiritual beasts and war horses they ride are top-grade dragon-scale horses.
These two armies burned, killed and looted wantonly on the northern prairie for a year, and the territory they captured exceeded the total of the three northwestern provinces. Their military exploits were unprecedented in history.
According to the Military Intelligence Department's open and secret investigations, the total number of Ming Dynasty official troops and warriors on the entire Guanning Defense Line was only about 600,000 to 700,000.
Li Dingguo decided to lead the Taotie Legion and the Pixiu Legion to capture the Guanning Defense Line by surprise, and the troops were sufficient.
Cao Bianjiao and his spiritual bird mount, the Great White Crane, both broke through to the middle stage of level six not long ago. Their combat effectiveness is second only to Li Dingguo in the Fuxing Army.
It is estimated that the Liaodong military families on the Guanning Defense Line would never have imagined that while the Fuxing Army was conquering cities within the pass, it would be able to mobilize two such large elite cavalry units to launch a long-range attack on them.
Therefore, before they officially surrendered to Huang Taiji, Li Dingguo was very confident that he could defeat these traitorous generals and capture the entire Guanning Defense Line.
"Okay, Commander-in-Chief."
Little Stone patted his chest and assured, "Don't worry. The court has dispatched Wu Sangui to lead 300,000 Guanning troops, who were originally heading south to Shandong. According to the emergency message sent by Commander Wei Jinfan yesterday, they suddenly stopped in Tianjin and seemed to be withdrawing."
"I guess Wu Sangui has received the inside information and is preparing to return to Shanhaiguan and join the Liaodong generals in defecting to Huang Taiji."
"As long as the Guanning Army doesn't come, I can lead hundreds of thousands of soldiers to stay here and firmly defend the land of Qi and Lu."
"correct."
He thought of another important event and reported to Li Dingguo, "Yesterday I received news from Cao Yongxiang, the leader of the Azure Dragon Army, saying that they were sailing down the Yellow River in a large fleet and had already penetrated both sides of the Yellow River in the Central Plains."
"In ten days at most, we will follow the Yellow River into the Qi and Lu regions and join our Restoration Army on the southeast coast."
"At that time, our army will be united with the East and the West, and our strength will increase greatly. No one will dare to attack our army, and the land of Qi and Lu will be able to sleep peacefully."
"We have formed a large number of new recruit camps in the six prefectures of Shandong. More and more warriors have completed the new recruit training. In three months at most, the problem of soldiers will be completely solved."
"Even if the two main armies of our army heading south to the trenches can't make it back for the time being, it's no big deal."
The two main fleets that had previously gone south to fight against Zheng’s army accounted for 70% of the combat power of the Restoration Army on the southeast coast.
This is also the reason why it took Xiao Shitou so long to capture Dongchang Prefecture.
But the military is not there to sit back and do nothing. The Fuxing Army, which has already formed a set routine development model, trains a large number of military and political personnel every month to quickly digest all the newly captured territories.
"That's good."
Li Dingguo nodded with satisfaction and said, "There is no time to lose. I need to rush to the grasslands outside the pass as soon as possible to meet up with Cao Bianjiao, You Shilu and the others."
"Send a message to Wei Jinfan and He Guang as soon as possible, asking them to fully cooperate with our military's surprise attack."
The Military Intelligence Department of the Fuxing Army has become a behemoth, with more than one million intelligence personnel, and at least one hundred thousand deployed in the Liaodong and Guanning defense lines.
With careful planning and cooperation with Li Dingguo's Taotie Legion and Pixiu Legion, it would not be too difficult to capture the Guanning Defense Line in one fell swoop.
"Send a message to Hongmei and Cao Yongxiang, and have them prepare to attack with all their forces. Once the northern Ming court abandons the area north of the Yellow River and moves the capital south to Nanjing, our army will immediately attack from multiple directions and take over the various towns in the north as quickly as possible. We must not allow chaos to occur anywhere!"
"The large fleet led by Wan'er heading south should have successfully captured the trenches, and the main force returned in time."
"You, Wan'er, Liang Liping, and He Lijing, arrange the defense of Qilu together, and then divide your forces to attack from multiple directions, occupy the Beijing-Tianjin area, and stabilize the local order."
Originally, Li Dingguo thought that the Ming Dynasty court in the north could at least hold out for a few months before moving the capital south.
However, plans could not keep up with changes. No one could have imagined that the high-ranking officials in the Ming Dynasty court were so afraid of death. After learning that the Grand Canal had been cut off by the Fuxing Army, they immediately prepared to kidnap Emperor Chongzhen and flee south.
This is amazing!
That being said, this is perfectly normal.
Throughout history, the vast majority of high-ranking officials in the courts of every dynasty have been corrupt and good-for-nothing officials.
These old guys become more afraid of death as they get older. They will do anything to enjoy a few more years of luxury and wealth.
To them, the glory of the dynasty and the decline of morality are not as important as their own lives.
So what if dynasties change?
So what if people are living in poverty?
That's nothing.
As long as they can ensure the prosperity of their own family and enjoy wealth and glory, that's enough.
After explaining everything clearly to Xiao Shitou and the generals on the scene, Li Dingguo wasted no more time and flew to the back of the big Jin who was waiting nearby.
"Chirp..."
After receiving the order, the big golden beast roared, soared into the sky, turned into a golden stream of light, and disappeared at the end of the northern sky...
(End of this chapter)
