On the third day of March in the second year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty and the first year of Hongye in the Ming Dynasty, Prince Duduo of Henan led an army of hundreds of thousands in accordance with the order of the regent Dorgon and divided into three groups to attack the Ming Dynasty.
Along the way, the Tianyou Army led by Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming set out from the capital and headed for Cangzhou via Tongzhou, Wuqing, and Tianjin.
The commander of the other route was Luck Dehun.
He commanded mostly the Eight Banners of the Han Army, the Eight Mongolian Banners, and the largest number of Green Camp troops.
This army set out from the capital, passed through Fangshan, Zhuozhou, Baoding, and Jizhou, and headed towards Qinghe.
The last army was led by Duduo personally, and they were all elites of the Eight Banners of Manchuria, including parts of the Zhengbai Banner, Xiangbai Banner, Zhenglan Banner, and Xianglan Banner, as well as most of the Zhenghong Banner and Xianghong Banner.
Except for the two yellow flags led by Emperor Shunzhi who did not join, the other six flags participated.
Of course, some of the Niulu were taken away by Azig, but in general, Duduo still had 30,000 to 40,000 Manchu Eight Banners elites.
After leaving the capital, the army took the route of Gu'an, Xiongxian, Hejian, and Fucheng.
Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the Qing army wanted to launch a fierce attack on Shandong from three directions at the same time.
The Tianyou Army led by Kong Youde and Geng Zhongming aimed directly at Leling and Haifeng.
And Luck Dehun wanted to take action against Linqing Prefecture.
As for Duduo, he naturally wants to gnaw on the hardest bone: Texas.
This time the Qing troops came out in full force because they couldn't wait any longer.
The longer time goes on, the heavier their burden becomes.
Incorporating a large number of Green Camp troops means that there are hundreds of thousands more mouths.
The amount of food consumed by so many people every day is staggering, and the existing food stocks and production in the north are completely insufficient to support it.
Dorgon also racked his brains and obtained a large amount of military rations through Shanxi merchants, but he could only support it for a while.
If the Qing army cannot capture Shandong and control the canal before Xia enters, the army will face the dilemma of running out of food.
The situation in Azigh is not much better.
Although he could get some horse meat to eat by squeezing various tribes in Mobei Mongolia, he couldn't eat it every day.
Therefore, Dorgon also issued an order to Azig, ordering him to choose an opportunity to attack Huguang.
Huguang is the breadbasket of the world.
If it can be captured, it will be of greater significance than capturing Shandong.
Dorgon decided to use a two-pronged approach.
As long as one side gained something, the Qing army would have the advantage, thus expanding its advantage like a snowball.
"Your Majesty, Donglu has already sent troops to Shandong.
It seems that he wants to complete his victory in one battle."
In the Nuan Pavilion of the Forbidden City in Nanjing, Lu Zhenfei, the Minister of War, said worriedly.
What is a little embarrassing is that the information about the Qing army's dispatch was not published first by the Tang Newspaper of the Ministry of War, but was obtained by the Military Intelligence Department of the Inner Factory.
After receiving the news, the Military Intelligence Department passed the news to Nanjing through its own channels, and Zhu Cixiang was able to grasp first-hand military information.
"Don't be anxious, my soldier.
These are all within my expectations."
Zhu Cixiang signaled to Lu Zhenfei to be calm and calm.
The time when the Qing army launched its attack on Nanming was roughly the same as in the original history.
The Manchu Qing Dynasty was ambitious and wanted to dominate the world.
Of course, Zhu Cihong would not be careless about this.
He began to make arrangements as early as the beginning of his accession to the throne.
Capturing Shandong is the most critical step.
In Zhu Cixiang's view, there were many factors that led to the collapse and fragile defeat of the Southern Ming Dynasty in history.
Although there are factors such as internal strife and the unavailability of warlords, there is also a fatal factor, which is the lack of strategic depth.
For Nanming, Shandong is the best barrier.
With this barrier, it can greatly slow down the advancement of the Qing army.
And if they insist on sticking to Jianghuai, the Ming army will have no room for maneuver.
Of course, the best situation is that the Ming army can completely defend the Shandong defense line and inflict heavy losses on the Qing Dynasty.
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The Qing Dynasty had a small population.
The entire population of Manchuria was less than one million, and the available soldiers were only about 100,000.
These are real people, not leeks.
Once cut, it will not grow back.
The strategic significance of consuming the Qing Dynasty's vitality was extremely important to the Ming Dynasty.
The bastions, trenches, and naval forces in Shandong were all Zhu Cixiang's hard work, and he hoped that these would play a vital role.
Of course, no one can completely predict the direction of the war before the actual combat begins.
But as the emperor and the helmsman of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Cixiang had to behave calmly.
I would like to ask if the emperor is panicking, can the ministers below still do things in a down-to-earth manner?
"It doesn't matter how he comes, I just want the soldiers to stick to the defense line of the bastion."
Zhu Cixiang is still very confident in the bastion.
This kind of Western-style fortress can not only restrain the old siege tactics, but also greatly reduce the power of artillery.
You must know that one of the trump cards in Dorgon's hand is Kong Youde's God's Blessing Army.
The God Blessed Army is equipped with a large number of artillery.
Relying on these artillery pieces, the Qing army blasted open the city gates of Taiyuan and Tongguan, and captured the two important towns without any blood.
The last time Jueluo Bahana and Shi Tingzhu led their troops to attack Dezhou, they failed miserably.
Firstly, they underestimated the enemy, and secondly, they lacked the means to attack the city.
If the Qing army that attacked Dezhou last time included the God's Blessing Army, it would be hard to say whether they would win or lose.
It's a pity that Dorgon was not a time traveler who predicted the future.
At that time, he focused most of his energy on dealing with Li Zicheng, which gave Zhu Cihong time to make plans.
Today, Shandong is no longer the Shandong it was a year ago.
A complete bastion defense line was located on the outskirts of several important towns.
If the Qing army wanted to attack these important towns, they must first capture these bastions.
And this is by no means an easy task.
"Your Majesty, is this fortress really so powerful?"
Except for a few serving eunuchs, there were no outsiders in Nuan Pavilion, so Lu Zhenfei dared to say such words.
If he was at the court meeting, he still had to save face for the emperor.
"Let me put it this way, Donglu may not be able to capture a bastion garrisoned by hundreds of people even if he invests ten times the force."
Zhu Cixiang knew very well the advantage of the Ming army, which was that it was good at defending the city.
In terms of field combat capabilities, most of the Ming army would probably be inferior to the Eight Banners of the Manchu and Qing Dynasties.
But if the Ming army held on to the city, the Qing army would be blind.
There are generally two ways for the Qing army to break the Ming army's defense.
One is to send agents to sneak into the city, spread rumors and take advantage of the chaos to open the city gates and coordinate the Qing army outside the city to invade the city.
The second is to rely on the red cannon to blast the city gate, and the overlord forces his bow.
Zhu Cixiang has responded to both strategies.
He has issued an order to Gao Jie, Qin Gongming and the generals of the Shence Army, ordering them to strictly screen suspicious people in the city and execute spies on the spot if they are found.
As for the red cannon, there's nothing scary about it.
Cities like these in Texas may be afraid of red cannons, but the bastions are not.
Zhu Cixiang wanted to see the Qing army, especially Kong Youde and others, looking helplessly at the fortress, scratching their heads and feeling deflated
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