Summer goes to autumn, autumn goes to winter solstice, and in a blink of an eye, the New Year of the eighth year of Longwu is coming.Approaching the New Year, the wars in all parts of the world have ended, the disputes between the Ming and Qing dynasties have temporarily stopped, and after the Qing army relieved the siege of Wuchang, the army did not launch a counteroffensive, but temporarily stationed in Wuchang, waiting for the opportunity to counterattack.In 1651, the Qing army's plan to recover Hudong failed, and the Qing army in Huguang lost Yuezhou and Xiangyang, and the situation had developed in a direction unfavorable to the Qing army.Dolgon was greatly annoyed by this, and transferred the general Mandahai back to Beijing and demoted him to the rank of county king, while Haoge, who had lost in Huguang, was directly imprisoned, causing internal turmoil in the Manchu Qing Dynasty.As a result of successive defeats, Dorgon's prestige was damaged, and he was constantly questioned by the Manchu nobility, much to Dorgon's annoyance.In order to regain his prestige, Dolgon took the initiative to settle his previous suspicions with Azig, sent Azig south to Jiangning, and at the same time used Han generals to recruit the Green Battalion Army to replenish the army.After the Qing army cleared the Donghai Zhentun army in Liaodong and Shandong, the north was basically stable, and the Qing army entered the customs for eight years, and various places gradually recovered, and were able to provide a certain amount of troops and money and food for the Manchu Qing, then Meng Qiaofang, the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, recruited tens of thousands of green battalion soldiers for the Qing court, led by the four Han generals Daniel Zhang, Zhao Liangdong, Sun Sike, and Wang Jinbao in Hexi, and went to Yangzhou, Luoyang and other places for training.Shanxi contributed one million taels of silver to be responsible for the consumption of food and salary for the green battalion soldiers.In the northern provinces, the poor provinces sent troops and the rich provinces contributed money, and Dolgon estimated to expand the green battalion by two or three hundred thousand soldiers, ready to launch the next big war.On the side of the Ming Dynasty, the Longwu Imperial Court and the towns of Zhejiang were also expanding their troops to prepare for war.After the eldest son of Emperor Longwu was born, Zhu Yihai has been a little uneasy in his heart, and as the eldest son of the emperor grows up, Zhu Yihai, as the prince, feels threatened.Therefore, Zhu Yihai wanted to lead the Zhejiang towns to recover Nanjing before Longwu recovered Wuchang, making his position as the prince of the Ming Dynasty unshakable.To this end, Zhu Yihai ordered a large number of muskets and artillery from Huaxing Company, and wanted to expand the number of Zhejiang people except Zhao Ming to 200,000.In order to rebuild the authority of the central government, the Longwu court was unwilling to restore Nanjing first, and also desperately expanded the army, not only ordering firearms from Huaxing Company, but also sending Pang Tianshou, the chief eunuch of the ceremonial supervisor, to Macao to contact the Portuguese to help the Longwu court cast weapons, and set up a cannon casting bureau in Guangzhou.Among the many Xiyi, the relationship between the Portuguese and the Ming Dynasty has always been good, and they are also the most peaceful group of Xiyi.The Portuguese not only had to pay taxes to the Ming Dynasty every year for the lease of Macao, but also sent mercenaries to serve the Ming Dynasty more than ten years ago.The Grand Eunuch Pang Tianshou was a Catholic, and when he arrived in Macao, he consulted with the Portuguese governor, and the Portuguese immediately agreed to the request of the Longwu Dynasty.Portugal's national strength, unlike the Netherlands and Spain, they may have a more sober understanding of their own strength, the Manchu Qing Dynasty is too far away from Macao, they were already very hesitant, and immediately chose the Longwu court.Suzhou City, the New Year is getting closer and closer, and every household in the city is preparing sacrifices, cleaning houses, and waiting for the New Year.After Shanghai opened its port at the end of November, a large number of merchant ships poured into Shanghai to transport silk produced by Susong and tea produced in Zhejiang to overseas.As a result, large sums of money poured into Su Songchang, causing the prices of various assets such as houses and fields to rise, but fortunately, there were grains, fruits, meat, and dried fish from Zhoushan from Taiwan, but the price of various daily necessities was very limited.The people of Susong can buy some meat, dried fish, fruits, and rice to have a good New Year, and firecrackers in the city sound from time to time, and the New Year's flavor is very strong.The Governor's Mansion, the atmosphere of the New Year is also thick, on the tenth day of December, the Duchess gave birth to a son, the joy in the mansion is gone, the New Year is approaching, Li Langzhong came to help, and gave every servant in the mansion a red envelope of ten taels of silver, and the Governor's Mansion was very happy.On the twenty-fifth day of the lunar month, early in the morning, the sky was just dawning, Zhao Ming moved his muscles and bones, then washed up and ate some breakfast, and then came to the front yard.The Governor's Mansion of the East China Sea is Fu Shangrui's Nanzhili Governor's Mansion, which was previously a large mansion forcibly occupied by the Manchu Governor Su Song.In the front yard of the Governor's Palace, the shogunate was located, with office spaces such as the council hall, and the backyard was the area where Zhao Ming lived.At this time, Zhao Ming came to the front yard to participate in the last meeting of the seventh year of Longwu and make a plan for 1652.When Zhao Ming arrived at the council hall, seven people from the council hall, as well as the chief officials of the East China Sea Yamen, the Fantai Yamen, and the Yamen of the Command Embassy, also rushed over, a total of 14 people.Everyone had breakfast early, and then rushed to participate in the discussion, and now they were talking about their own presiding affairs.At this time, when the guards saw Zhao Ming coming, they immediately put their feet together, held a gun to their chests, and shouted, "Da Shuai has arrived!"
”Zhao Ming raised his hand in a chic manner and returned the salute, then walked into the lobby, everyone had quieted down, and saluted in unison, "Welcome to the handsome!"
”"You're so early!"
Zhao Ming smiled and waved his hand, walked to the middle hall and sat down, motioning for everyone to sit down.In the entire hall, Zhao Ming sat in the center, the seven shogunate secretaries of the council hall sat on the left side, and the officials of the three major yamen sat on the right side.This was done by Zhao Ming on purpose, that is, to enhance the status of the shogunate, so that the shogunate could control the decision-making power of the Eastern Navy's political affairs.Zhao Ming and the other maids stepped back after serving the refreshments, and then gently knocked on the seat, and the hall was quiet, so he smiled and said: "Today is the last meeting of the seventh year of Longwu."
Ben Shuai summoned everyone to come, mainly for one thing, that is, next year, whether to go south or go north!
”After the Qing army failed in the attack on Changzhou, it withdrew to Nanjing, Zhenjiang and other places and turned to the defensive.At this time, there were still more than 100,000 Qing troops near Nanjing, plus 100,000 green battalion soldiers who rushed to Yangzhou camp, and there was the Manchu prince Azig in charge, Donghai Town did not have the ability to attack Nanjing.If you want to take Nanjing, the strength of the army must be at least twice that of the Qing army, and now Zhao Ming and Zhu Yihai do not have this strength.Of course, the Qing army was not able to attack Zhao Ming at this time, so Jiangnan would enter a period of stalemate, and Jiangnan could not do anything, so Donghai Town formulated two plans, one plan was to attack Luzon in the south, drive away the Spaniards, or ruin the Manchu Qing's trade with the Spaniards, and the other plan was to go north, eliminate the Manchu Qing Division, which was already about to become a climate, and blockade the Bohai Sea, prohibiting Dutch and Spanish merchant ships, and go to Tianjin to trade with the Manchus.The ultimate goal of these two plans was to sabotage the arms trade between the Manchus and the Xiyi.After Zhao Ming finished speaking, Ma Shiao, as a representative of the army, immediately stood up and said: "Marshal, the Manchu Qing Dynasty has recently expanded its army very quickly, but judging from the national strength of the Manchu Dynasty, Dolgon is completely overdrawing the national strength and preparing to launch a big war.If this battle was successful, and a large amount of land and money were seized, the Manchus would be able to maintain their army, but if they did not succeed, or if they dragged on for too long, I thought that the Manchu finances would inevitably have problems.Now, knowing that the Manchus are going to prepare for a great war, we should do our best to stop the Manchu trade with the Xiyi, so that the Manchus will not be able to obtain weapons from the Xiyi.In this way, the Manchus had only two possibilities, one was that they were not well prepared and launched a big war, and the other was that the war was delayed, and the Manchus ran out of money and food, and they had problems themselves.The result of both of these situations is that the Manchus will be defeated!
”The Qing army may have 200,000 or 300,000 people expanding the green camp this time, and the money for the expansion of the army is mainly the donations of the Jin merchants and the additional taxes.This is not a continuous amount of money, it will be used up, and it is impossible for Jin merchants to keep paying for soldiers.Therefore, the Manchus had to start a war in a short period of time and achieve results in order to obtain silver money to maintain the army, otherwise there would be big problems.Zhao Ming heard the words and said: "What the soldiers mean is to implement the northward strategy!"
”Ma Shiao nodded, "Yes, if you fight Luzon and not the Netherlands, you can't cut off the trade between the Manchus and Xiyi, and only by defeating the Manchu Qingshui Division can we complete the blockade of the Manchus and completely cut off the Manchus' access to firearms from the sea."
Moreover, tens of thousands of brothers in Shandong Wei and Liaodongwei died tragically, and the soldiers were aggrieved and must avenge them. ”Zhao Ming bowed slightly, and turned his gaze to Chen Mingyu and the others, "What is the opinion of the feudal division and the feudal division?"
”Chen Mingyu said: "Back to the marshal, Taiwan still needs a million people to colonize, you can first go north to get the population, and then go south to attack Luzon and send guards to colonize." ”Zhao Ming nodded when he heard this, "Ben Shuai understands!"
Let's vote on the secretary of the council!
”When Qian Qianyi and the others heard this, they raised their hands in unison, "We are in favor of the northward strategy!"
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