Chapter 50: Qing Army Reorganization (III)

After Wu Sangui, Shang Kexi, and Geng Zhongming led the army to set off, Hong Chengchou also began to rectify military affairs in Nanjing and the Jianghuai region.

Although Dorgon promised to draw another 100,000 troops to Hong Chengchou, the 100,000 troops could not be gathered all at once. Therefore, Hong Chengchou only brought 50,000 troops in advance, and also brought a group of fire artifacts personnel. At this time, they all arrived in Jiangbei and Jiangnan areas one after another.

The Qing army now has about 250,000 and 60,000 troops concentrated in the Jianghuai and Nanjing areas, and has a large number of firearms, including more than 450 various types of cannons, including nearly 100 red-clothed cannons, more than 120 thunder cannons, more than 22,000 muskets, and more than 1,500 thunders. There are more than 2,000 thunders, and more than 5,000 thunders. Although the number of firearms of the Qing army is only equivalent to the firearms owned by two divisions of the Shang army, in Qingting, this has already taken out all the inventory firearms.

The proportion of the troops in the whole body is: the army of the Manqi and the three major battalions is about 45,000, and there are about 15,000 followers. Because after Dorgon's reform, general soldiers in the flag were not allowed to bring followers. Only a few elite soldiers such as White Armor, Niulu, and Jiala, or general-level figures can bring a certain followers to fight. The main generals are Gushan Ezhen four: Ashan, Zhengbai Banner, Tunqi, Zhenghuang Banner Tantai, and Baitu, the royal family includes Dorobelelekdehun, Beizi Shangshan, and Mandahai. And Meilezhen has: Zhumala, Valkha Zhumala, Zhuolu, Teshha, Lanbai, Shuozhan, Ahanikan, Ajignikan and others.

The Han flag and the Green Camp army had about 80,000 people. The main generals were Gushan Ezhen: Tong Tulai inlaid white flag, Shiting pagoda inlaid red flag, Liu Zhiyuan inlaid yellow flag, Jinli inlaid red flag, and Jinli inlaid red flag. Meile Ezhen: Ma Guanghui, Haiertu, Li Sizhong, Shiyan, etc. Other Han generals were Shen Zhixiang, Wu Chaozuo, Jin Guangyu, Xia Chengde, Liu Wuyuan, Tong Dai and others.

The army of *** Banner has more than 25,000 people, and the main generals include: Gushan Ezhenma Laxi, Wu Lachan, Gebaku, Furakta and others.

After the Qing army marched south, there were about 100,000 Ming troops surrendered. The main Han generals were Liu Liangzuo, Liu Zeqing, Zuo Menggeng, Tu Guobao, Liu Jinzhong, Jin Shenghuan, Wang Deren, Lu Guangzu, Tian Xiong, Xu Yong, Hao Xiaozhong and others. However, many of them were Hong Chengchou's old subordinates.

The focus of Hong Chengchou's army was of course the Ming army that was surrendered after the Southern Expedition. Because of the Manchu and Han flag troops, the green camp had been relatively complete, and Hong Chengchou did not need to reorganize them. Moreover, the relationship here was complicated, so Hong Chengchou was unwilling to go to this beach of mixed water. The Ming army that surrendered was not only numerous, but also very complex, and the troops under each general were not equal, with more or less. However, Hong Chengchou ordered all of them to be disrupted and then reorganized.

Hong Chengchou's surrendered army was a total of eight towns, four major and four small towns, including Liu Liangzuo, Liu Zeqing, Zuo Menggeng, and Jin Shenghuan as the big towns, each town had 15,000 troops, Tu Guobao, Liu Jinzhong, Wang Deren and Hao Xiaozhong as the small towns, with 10,000 people in each town. In this way, the troops of each general were leveled and there would be no particular outstanding.

In terms of the distribution of troops, Hong Chengchou arranged 100,000 troops in Jiangbei, and the mandahai was in charge of Guide Prefecture, and fully commanded the military affairs in Jiangbei. In addition, there were two Gushan, Ashan, Tan Tai, Tong Tulai, Shi Tingzhu, Man and Han, each of Manchu and Han; and about 120,000 troops were arranged in Nanjing, and Duoduo was in Nanjing, with Tunqi, Yin Baitu, Liu Zhiyuan, Jin Li, and others under his command. The rest of the troops were used as mobile forces.

At the same time, he ordered Abatai from Shandong to send some troops to station in Yanzhou to restrain the merchant army's troops in southern Shandong and reduce the pressure on his side in the Jianghuai line.

In terms of civil governance, Hong Chengchou appointed Shen Chaoji as the governor of Henan, Wu Jingdao as the governor of Henan; Zhang Wenheng was the governor of Huai'an Prefecture and also the governor of Huai'an; Jin Zhijun was the governor of Fengyang Prefecture and also the governor of Huai'an; Ma Zhixian was the governor of Wuteidi Prefecture and also the governor of Huguang, and Liu Qingtai was the governor of Hubei; Qin Shizhen was the governor of Jiangnan, and Tong Dai was the governor of Jiangnan, and was responsible for managing civil affairs in various places, appeased the people, waived money and grain, and resumed production. He also ordered that the troops stationed in various places should not disturb the people.

At the same time, Hong Chengchou issued an edict to Hunan, Jiangxi and Anhui provinces to recruit pacify. As long as he surrendered to the Qing army, the former officials and officials could remain in office without reminiscing about the past. He also ordered Geng Zhongming, Shang Kexi and others to strictly order all prefectures and prefectures that took the initiative to surrender to the Qing army shall not invade and loot, and should focus on pacification.

However, the measures for the merchant army are to implement comprehensive measures. Hong Chengchou demanded that in Zhejiang, Jiangbei and Shandong, the border between the two sides should be completely occupied. It is absolutely prohibited to pass through the border and connect with the merchant army, and it is also strictly prohibited to trade in the merchant army. Once discovered, it will inevitably be severely punished.

Because Hong Chengchou learned that Shang Yi’s main source of finance now relies on overseas trade income, and relying solely on production in Zhejiang Province, it cannot support the war expenses of the merchant army. However, in order to conduct overseas trade, it is necessary to provide a large amount of goods in the mainland to ensure sufficient supply for overseas trade. Although Zhejiang can now produce a large amount of raw silk and silk on its own, other goods also need to be purchased from the mainland. In order to attract merchants, Zhejiang has tripled the purchase price of goods.

In order to pursue big profits, when the merchant army and the Qing army were in conflict, many merchants took risks to pass through the Qing army's occupied areas and transported them to Zhejiang for sale. Of course, after passing through the Qing army's defense zone, merchants would bribe them with a large amount of money. Naturally, this money fell into private pockets, so the Qing army stationed in various places also turned a blind eye to this. After all, there were still a few people who could not get along with the money. Moreover, the intelligence personnel of the merchant army were stationed in Nanjing, and the Jianghuai River mainly transmitted intelligence information to Zhejiang through these channels.

Hong Chengchou is of course very clear about this phenomenon, so he ordered that the complete severance of Zhejiang's commodity supply should not be too significant in the short term, but over time, although it cannot completely drag the cross-shangyi economically, it can also greatly reduce Zhejiang's income, thereby greatly weakening Shangyi's power. At the same time, it can also increase the difficulty of transmitting intelligence from the merchant army.

Duoduo also fully supported Hong Chengchou's arrangements and sent his own personal guards to form an inspection team to patrol various defense lines.

In Hubei, Hong Chengchou was not in a hurry to launch an attack on the Hubei base of the merchant army, because the army was reorganized and adjusted. He just ordered Bei Zi Shangshan to lead the army to Huangzhou to prepare for the next step of conquering the merchant army in Hubei. Moreover, the *** was more tight. Near the border between the two sides, people were not allowed to be resident, and houses and buildings were demolished repeatedly. Anyone who dared to live with the merchant army would be killed repeatedly. The merchant army's base in Hubei should be completely isolated.

Because Hong Chengchou knew that the merchant army's base in Hubei could not be self-sufficient and needed support from Zhejiang, and Zhejiang's support to the Hubei base mainly relies on the Yangtze River waterway. Therefore, if you want to attack the merchant army, you must first prevent the merchant army from helping the Yangtze River. Therefore, Hong Chengchou also began to rectify the naval army of the Qing army.

Since the Qing army failed in the Longshan River War, the Qing army has also rebuilt its own naval army and collected four or five hundred ships of all sizes. However, the Qing army's naval army was mainly responsible for transporting brigades of people and materials to cross the river, rather than fighting with the merchant army for control of the Yangtze River. Moreover, the Qing army now knows the power of the merchant army's naval army. Apart from the last time Wu Sangui ventured to cross the river from Yizhen, the Qing army did not dare to move in the river section below Nanjing. At this time, the merchant army occupied Chuzhou in the north of the Yangtze River and the front line of Hezhou, so the Qing army crossed the river in Tongling area in Chizhou Prefecture to avoid the attack of the merchant army's naval army.

In this way, it is necessary to take a detour from the Jianghuai River to Nanjing. Fortunately, the military supplies in Jiangnan are mainly supplied by Huguang and locally, so they have little impact on the logistics supply of the Qing army.

Hong Chengchou was from Quanzhou, Fujian. Although he was in the northwest and southwest for most of the Ming Dynasty, he was not unfamiliar with sailing and ships. And now Hong Chengchou also knew that the achievements made by the Merchant Army at sea can be said to be enough to compete with Zheng Zhilong. Now the Merchant Army has an absolute advantage on the Yangtze River. In the short term, the Qing army could not establish a naval army that could compete with the Merchant Army. Fortunately, the Qing army's purpose was not to defeat the Merchant Army's naval army, but to stop the merchant army from scrambling the merchant army from the Yangtze River to support the Hubei theater.

At present, Hong Chengchou believes that the Qing army can still do this. Moreover, although the fleet of the merchant army is strong, it is mainly sea ships. There are not many warships that can navigate the Yangtze River. Of course, Hong Chengchou is clear about the difference between sea ships and river ships. Therefore, in the Yangtze River, the Qing army's ships must have a large number of merchant troops, and they also have the benefits of the upstream. This is very beneficial for the water war in the Yangtze River. The defeat in the Longshan River War was mostly due to the Qing army's unfamiliar with water wars and the tactics were incorrect.

So Hong Chengchou also ordered that all the Qing army's ships be reorganized according to their size, and that the Longshan Shipyard was still used as the front base of the navy. However, Hong Chengchou did not dare to be careless, but only stationed more than 300 ships in the Longshan Shipyard, and the rest of the ships were still moored in Chizhou. At the same time, Da continued to collect various ships along the Yangtze River and ordered all shipyards to continue to produce new ships for the Qing army.

Then Hong Chengchou recruited fishermen to serve as sailors in Huguang, Jianghuai and other places, and selected soldiers who were proficient in water from the Han army and could train boats into naval forces for training, create weapons for water war, and actively prepare for war.

However, just as the Qing army was actively preparing, the merchant army mainly attacked and launched an attack on Nanjing from both water and drought.
Chapter completed!