Chapter 1440: Advance by Land and Sea
After three full days of discussion, the Qing court finally made up its mind to mobilize its troops to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army.
It would be best if we could win.
They took advantage of the momentum of their great victory to gain a foothold in the north, and even took the opportunity to march south to retake the south.
If that fails, they will even lose the power to rule the north, and can only lift the ban on military operations and let each province supervise militia training and protect itself.
If all else fails, then we can only retreat outside the Great Wall.
In order to complete this plan, they even combined the Eight Banners of Mongolia and the Eight Banners stationed in Liaodong.
After putting its last bit of savings into the pot, the Qing court still felt it was not enough.
They began to recruit male men from Liaodong.
In Liaodong, in addition to the Jianzhou Jurchens, there are many other ethnic minorities.
In the eyes of the Jianzhou Jurchens, these people were no different from barbarians.
Heavy corvee labor and taxes were often imposed on them.
In preparation for this decisive battle, they directly mobilized all the males from all ethnic groups.
Together with the Green Camp of Zhili, they formed an army of 300,000.
In order to ensure logistics , he forcibly conscripted 300,000 civilians in Zhili and announced to the outside world that he had an army of 600,000.
This army was commanded by Suksaha and Ebilun personally, and was heading towards Nanjing, determined to attack Huanglong and conquer the core of the Ming Dynasty in one fell swoop.
Such a large-scale military operation naturally cannot be hidden from public attention.
When the army set out, the detailed plan had already been placed on Han Yu's desk.
"Everyone, please take a look. How do you think we should deal with this?"
Han Yu distributed the plan to everyone.
Han Yu abolished the kneeling ceremony when attending court and restored the tradition before the Han Dynasty, with each civil and military official having a seat and a small table.
"Your Majesty, I am willing to lead the army to defeat the Qing demons and restore our Ming Dynasty."
Mu Tianbo said quickly.
He never dreamed that in just a few months, he would go from being a defeated general to a great general commanding thousands of troops.
Even, half of the country was recovered.
And all this is thanks to the man in front of me.
Now, he believes that if he is given another year or two, he will be able to completely recover his homeland.
By then, even if he died, he would be able to rest in peace.
Therefore, he couldn't wait to stand up and lead the war to recover his homeland personally.
He also wanted to leave his name in history.
Not only Mu Tianbo had this idea, but several other legion commanders present also had the same idea and asked to join the battle.
Han Yu was very happy to see everyone's positive attitude.
People’s hearts can be used.
"Everyone, please be patient. The war against the Qing Dynasty must be carried out, but it cannot be fought on just one front. We must fight on many fronts at the same time."
"The specific battle plan is to divide the troops into three groups."
"I will personally command the first route and lead ten corps north to eliminate the main corps of the Qing court."
"The second route will be commanded by Mu Jiansheng, who will lead five legions. They will set out by boat, land in Liaodong, and head straight to Fengtian. We will attack the Qing monsters' lair one by one and make sure they don't escape to the mountains and forests to recuperate. We must eradicate the roots and prevent future troubles."
"Yes, sir." Mu Jiansheng stood up and accepted the order.
"The third route, commanded by General Mu Tianbo, will lead five legions and set out by boat. They will land at Dagu and head straight to the capital, capturing all the Qing court nobles in one fell swoop."
"Yes, sir!" Mu Tianbo also stood up.
His face turned a little red because of excitement.
He was so excited at the thought of having a chance to kill the Qing demon leader.
For so many years, they have always been on the defensive, but now they have the opportunity to capture the leader of the Qing demons, which makes him extremely excited.
It’s a pity that the old rival Dorgon is dead, otherwise, I would definitely have to compete with him again.
A battle plan was drawn up and the six departments began to operate.
The Ministry of Works stepped up the production of weapons and ammunition, the Ministry of Revenue allocated the money and food needed for the expedition, and the Ministry of War was responsible for allocating troops and assigning tasks.
The whole country started to operate like a huge machine.
In addition to the three armies arranged by Han Yu, the corps originally stationed in Sichuan and Hubei provinces also began to march towards the neighboring Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and Henan provinces to support the other three armies.
Originally, this route was just a sheep attack, but because the Qing court had to prepare for the main decisive battle, and in addition to the previous southern expedition led by Oboi, it had already withdrawn all the troops from these areas.
Many county towns were even guarded by only a hundred or so soldiers.
The Ming army in these areas acted like a fish in water and occupied large areas in just a few days.
However, at this time, the Qing government was no longer able to take care of the war in this area and could only order county magistrates and gentry from all over the country to recruit able-bodied men to form militia to protect the country and the people.
However, before the war broke out, Han Yu had already sent some smart and capable Jinyiwei into the areas controlled by the Qing court.
They have only one mission, which is to publicize the policies of the Ming Dynasty.
Equal distribution of land, exemption from taxes and corvée, and free education are powerful weapons to win the hearts of the people in any agricultural society.
Han Yu adopted a four-pronged approach, and the results can be imagined.
Although those landlords and wealthy businessmen had a lot of money, they could only recruit some young people.
The remaining peasants were waiting to see the return of the Ming army, to defeat the landlords and to divide the land equally.
Because the preliminary work was done well, the Ming army made rapid progress in Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia, Henan and other provinces.
New county towns were captured every day.
Intensified war reports flew into the capital like snowflakes every day.
However, the Qing court no longer had the energy to care about them at this time.
Because their birthplace, Liaodong, was captured.
Because they were traveling by boat, Mu Jiansheng's army marched much faster than Han Yu.
We entered Liaodong as early as seven days ago.
The main force of the Eight Banners had already entered the pass, and the only remaining main force was stationed in Shengjing.
As a result, he was also called up a few days ago to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army.
Even the able-bodied men were drafted away.
This resulted in Liaodong's defense being even weaker than other provinces.
Mu Jiansheng was practically conducting an armed parade, and he easily captured Shengjing along the way.
After learning that her hometown had been captured, Xiaozhuang was so angry that she fell ill. She lay in bed, breathing more out than in, and was clearly dying.
The only people who could make decisions in the entire Qing court were the old minister Suoni and the eight-year-old Kangxi.
"What should I do?"
Kangxi looked at the battle reports of frequent defeats in various places and didn't know what to do.
His backbone, Empress Xiaozhuang, had fallen, and all this made him feel at a loss as to what to do.
"How about sending the army back to conquer the Dragon's Rise area first, and then have a decisive battle with the Ming army?"
Kangxi asked.
"Absolutely not." Suoni hurriedly stopped him.
"The army must not change its orders from one day to the next. Besides, the army is about to engage in battle with the enemy. If we call them back now, the army will be in chaos. We can only fight a decisive battle with the Ming army first, and then make plans."
Soni said.
Kangxi wanted to say something else when suddenly a eunuch ran in.
"Urgent news from Dagu!"
"How could there be urgent news from Dagu ?" Suoni frowned.
Suddenly, he thought of the powerful Ming navy. The loss of Liaodong was due to the Ming army landing from the sea and rushing all the way into Shengjing from the sea.
“Could it be…”
Suoni felt a chill all over his body and snatched the battle report.
It was written: "The Ming army is powerful, with more than a thousand warships and tens of thousands of cannons firing at the same time. Dagukou has been lost and the Ming army has already landed..."
When Suoni saw this, he spat out a mouthful of blood.
