Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 496: Comprehensive Expedition to Qing

Sengge began to evacuate. Not only was Lin Shiqi not noticing for a moment, but the Qing envoy was also extremely angry. The Qing envoy accused Sengge of being treacherous and accepting the Yuan court's imperial seal, but in the end he acted like he was here for sightseeing.

Sengge sneered and said, "You asked me to send troops, and I did. Since I sent troops, how can I be treacherous?"

After saying this, without waiting for the messenger to continue speaking, he ordered his men to drive him out of the tent.

Sengge did not withdraw his troops in a random manner. There were cavalry scattered everywhere around the army. However, the biggest problem came from those soldiers who were greedy for supplies and thus affected the marching speed.

Sengge had just ascended to the position of Great Khan and needed prestige. Therefore, although Sengge knew that it was a wise move to order his subordinates to abandon supplies such as iron pots and clothes, he still did not give the order.

When Lin Shiqi saw that Sengge had really withdrawn his troops, he immediately sent a fast horse to pass on a message to Liang Sanhu and Wu Tiao, asking them to capture Sengge at all costs and at least keep the hundreds of thousands of cattle and sheep, while he himself led the main force in pursuit.

………………

After receiving Lin Shiqi's urgent report, Meng Jun felt depressed and quickly summoned his ministers to discuss whether to send troops to rescue Guanzhong. Meng Jun was not worried about the safety of Xi'an and Guanzhong, but Lin Shiqi did not have many cavalry, and his troops were all infantry, so they were still at a disadvantage when facing cavalry.

Therefore, Meng Jun sent Huang Cheng to lead more than 10,000 cavalry to rescue Lin Shiqi. As the horse policy of the Qian Dynasty began to resume and the tea-horse trade continued, Meng Jun's source of war horses became wider.

However, just as Huang Cheng assembled and had not yet set out, Meng Jun received another urgent report from Lin Shiqi, saying that Sengge had attacked Xi'an city for a day and then withdrew his troops.

Lin Shiqi's army of tens of thousands pursued and intercepted Sengge, and after using all kinds of means, only about 6,000 cavalrymen of Sengge were left. In addition to the losses of Sengge under the city of Xi'an and the invasion of Mongolia from the western desert, nearly 10,000 cavalrymen were killed. Lin Shiqi obtained more than 200,000 cattle and sheep and more than 16,000 war horses.

Meng Jun threw down the military report and said, "There are many Mongolian cavalrymen in the Western Desert, and they run fast. But it doesn't matter. After the Qing court is completely dealt with, I will raise an army to punish them and rebuild the Anxi Protectorate in the future."

Daqian, the end of March in the second year of Zhaowu.

Meng Jun decided to launch an attack in Korea first, and then appointed Huang Cheng as the main general and Gulbuha as the deputy general, leading 30,000 cavalrymen to bypass the Mongolian desert and attack the Khorchin tribe, which was a staunch supporter of the Qing court. At the same time, he ordered Zhao Yongping to start an attack on the Liaoxi Corridor in the Shanhaiguan area.

Daqian's full-scale war against the Qing Dynasty began. Since the Qing army rose up from outside the Great Wall, northern Zhili, Shandong and Henan were severely harmed by the Qing army. The Ming army was defeated in every battle, and later on, the people in the north were terrified of the Qing army.

Now that the emperor wants to completely put down the Liao rebellion, the morale of the people has been lifted. Even though March is still the busy farming season, the villagers all rush forward in response to the court's order to conscript laborers. They are enthusiastic and have no trace of the depression they had in the past.

On the Grand Canal, there were men pulling boats everywhere, and one boat after another was transporting supplies from Jiangnan to Tongzhou.

From Tongzhou to Shanhaiguan, horse-drawn carriages, donkey carts, and wheelbarrows were everywhere all day long. On the sea, transportation was carried out from Dengzhou and sailed to Jeju Island. In this battle, the Qian Dynasty will use 150,000 troops to attack the Qing Dynasty from three directions.

Huang Cheng and Gulbuha's troops have 30,000 cavalrymen. On Jeju Island in Korea, Gao Jinku, Liang Min, and Yang Sanwu are the main troops in three towns with more than 30,000 people. At Shanhaiguan, Zhao Yongping is the main force, and Jiang Xiang is the auxiliary. The two troops have a total of more than 70,000 people, and more than 20,000 naval forces. They will wait for an opportunity to land in the vast sea area of Liaodong and disperse the Qing army's strength.

Meng Jun sent out an army of 130,000. Naturally, this movement could not be concealed from Jirgalang and other Eight Banners nobles. Jirgalang and others were extremely frightened. After the Qing army withdrew to the outside of the Great Wall, after some expansion, it had only 80,000 troops, and many of them were old and weak. The combat effectiveness was far different from when they first entered the Great Wall.

After driving away the Qing envoys, the Mongols in the western desert withdrew to the western desert on their own. The Mongols in the northern desert had long since stopped obeying the Qing court's orders, and the tribes in the southern desert were also pretending to obey but secretly disobeying. The Qing court now only relied on Khorchin to barely maintain its position in the southern desert.

After everything was prepared, Meng Jun offered sacrifices to heaven in the northern suburbs and issued the "Exhortation to Punish the Liao and Recover the Liao", accusing the Liao of exhausting China's treasury, turning cities into ruins, and turning people into bones over the past fifty years since the Liao uprising.

Meng Jun then recited it himself, his tone heavy as he said: "In the first year of Zhaowu, I stayed in the northern suburbs, looked up to the sky, offered sacrifices to heaven and earth, made my heart clear, and swore an oath here to defeat the evil and stubborn, to quell the national crisis, to recover the Liao territory, and to bring peace to our people.

Recalling the past, when the Liao Dynasty arose, wars arose, the national treasury was empty, and the people suffered. Fifty years have passed, the landscape has changed, bones are piled up, and desolate graves are spread across thousands of miles.

Today, we have gathered a million soldiers, gathered the heroes and warriors from all over the world, and raised a righteous army that will surely win, drive out the Tartars, and recover our country. We swear to hang the heads of the enemy chieftains in front of our door to comfort the martyrs. I hope my comrades will work together and remain committed to recovering Liaodong."

After the manifesto was issued, the morale of the army was boosted, and the Qian army on Jeju Island took the lead in attacking Jeolla Province of Korea.

Like the Ming court, Korea's army was extremely corrupt, which was why the Qing court was able to swallow up Korea so easily. It was also because the Qing court wanted to use Korea to make up for the losses in the interior, so it plundered the people very ruthlessly, which led to the large number of Korean volunteers.

But the fighting power is indeed impressive. For example, in Jeolla Province, according to the Joseon King Yi Hao, there were 20,000 volunteers in Jeolla Province, but in fact, the Eight Banners garrison of Bolo in Jeolla Province had only more than 800 people.

The Qing government's garrison in the entire Korea did not exceed 5,000 people, but the Eight Banners of Korea had more than 50,000 people. These 50,000 Eight Banners of Korea were associated with more than 100,000 family members. Bolo could barely maintain order in Korea by relying on these local people who had defected.

However, many of them also had secret contacts with the Korean rebels, otherwise it would be impossible for them to survive relying on the combat effectiveness of the Korean rebels.

However, all this changed after the Qian army entered Jeolla Province. The ruling foundation of the Qing army was extremely weak. The Qing court plundered Korea even more harshly than in the interior. In the interior, the Qing army did not plunder many cities, but in Korea it was all-round exploitation.

Having controlled North Korea for only two years, the country's population dropped sharply. From time to time, Jirgalang also conscripted laborers to go to the Liaoxi Corridor to build fortifications. Jirgalang did not care about these laborers and did not intend to let them go back alive.

After Gao Jinku and Generals Liang and Yang entered Jeolla Province, the people flocked to them, wanting to join the Qian army. Even the laborers were scrambling to join. Not to mention the wages, they just wanted to have something to eat.

Gao Jinku entered Jeolla Province and, despite Li Hao's refusal, forcibly brought Li Hao to the front of the army, and ordered people to spread the news everywhere that the King of Joseon was back!

(I felt that there were too many scenes about Western Mongolia, so I deleted some (＞_＜))