Chapter 26 Chapter 26 Looking North at the Yangtze River

On March 25th, the 14th year of Kangxi, the flames of war burned to the Mongolian grasslands.Taking advantage of the rise of Wu Sangui's anti-Qing cause, Burni of the Chahar Ministry of Mongolia also rebelled.Burni is a descendant of Lin Dan Khan. After Lin Dan Khan was suppressed, the imperial court supported his son Ezhe as the prince and married a princess to him.Although this Burni was born to a princess, he was not close to the imperial court.He instigated various Mongolian ministries to rebel, and only a few people, including King Naiman Zhamushan, responded.On April 6th, Emperor Kangxi appointed Eza, the king of Duoluoxin County, as the "Great General of Fuyuan". Counselor, led Manchurian Eight Banners soldiers and Mongolian troops to crusade against Burni.

Wu Sangui is really capable, and altitude sickness can't stop him. Tibet was bewitched and bribed by him, and even sat on the same boat with him, provoking military friction with the Qing court from time to time.At this time, the whole country, except the Liaodong area outside the customs, and a few areas such as Shandong and Henan, are still relatively stable, and the rest are already full of wolf smoke. The situation became more and more dangerous, and Emperor Kangxi even moved the idea of ​​Yujia's personal conquest.He said to several scholars: "I want to go to Jingzhou in person, and I will dispatch the camera to destroy Wu Sangui, the leader of the bandit. If Wu Sangui is destroyed, the bandit party he belongs to will not attack itself, and the people will live in peace." He asked them to discuss politics with them. Minister Wang secretly discussed that the ministers believed that the capital is the most important place. If the emperor goes out to conquer in person, if there is an accident, the consequences will be disastrous.Emperor Kangxi accepted the opinions of the ministers and continued to stay in the capital to control the overall situation.

It's nothing more than domestic troubles, and even some small foreign countries have come to join in the fun.In July of the thirteenth year of Kangxi, Jin Guangzu, the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi, reported secretly: "Jiaozhi (Vietnam) Zhisun Yanling rebelled and took the opportunity to move. Chen Bing's border is unpredictable. Please defend." Emperor Kangxi had to increase his troops to "defend the dangerous pass." The Cochin Kingdom had two intentions. One was to fear that the Chinese civil war would spread to the country, so the border was sealed off in advance, just in case.The second is that seeing the civil strife in China, I feel itchy in my heart, and I really want to try my luck to see if I can get some benefits.

Besides the actual Cochin people, there are also proud Koreans.The Lee Dynasty of North Korea was originally a vassal of the Ming Dynasty. Due to the force of the Qing court, they had to surrender, but they were always dissatisfied.After Wu Sangui raised his army, some ministers and intellectuals (Confucian scholars) in North Korea went to the king and asked to raise troops at the right time to get rid of the control of the Qing court.Confucian scholars Luo Shuozuo, Zhao Xianqi, etc., successively went to Shushu in May of the thirteenth year of Kangxi (the fifteenth year of Li Shixianzong).The general idea is that Wu Sangui "dominates the south, and Mongolia is not close to it. The world's events are imminent. Take this opportunity to train troops and supply food. If you take this opportunity, you can avenge your shame, and you can protect the country and protect the people."

The king of Joseon knew the ferocity of the Qing army and the strength of the Qing court. If they turned their faces, the Qing court would not give them any good fruit when they took control of the situation, so he wanted to wait and see. Difficulties at home and abroad, the most difficult time for Emperor Kangxi was also the most proud time for Wu Sangui.He raised troops from Yunnan and Guizhou and made a good start.Then all the way, they fought all the way to Hubei, Songzi (now Songzi North) on the south bank of the Yangtze River, and confronted Jingzhou, the base camp of the Qing army across the river.Wu Sangui stood by the Yangtze River, looked up to the north, and a beautiful scenery was already in front of him.

It can be summed up in one word: cool! Wu Sangui's army can cross the river at any time, and the people in Jiangbei are already thinking about when they can grow their hair and restore the clothes of the Han people.At this time, the military initiative is completely in the hands of Wu Sangui. Most people believe that if they can immediately move northward at this time, it will further expand their influence politically. Come in the anti-Qing team.The Qing court is bound to continue to retreat to the north bank of the Yellow River. However, after Wu Sangui's army entered Songzi and stayed there for more than three months, there was no sign of crossing the river.Many important people in the group were puzzled and wrote letters one after another, demanding to fight across the river.

Wu Sangui's opinion is different from others, which may be related to his experience.He believes that although many victories have been fought now, after all, it is based on the corner of Yunnan and Guizhou, which is inherently deficient. Although there are many responders from various places, their goals are not the same. They often fight on their own and cannot form a unified command. Iron fist torrent.In Yunnan, Guizhou, Fujian, Guangdong and other areas where major victories were achieved, most of the garrisons originally belonged to the Han army and green battalion soldiers from San Francisco, while the Eight Banners of Manchuria and Eight Banners of Mongolia were mostly concentrated in the north, which means that the decisive contest has not yet begun.Once the river is crossed, with the deepening of the war, the shortcomings and weaknesses of the Wu army will gradually appear, while the advantages of the Qing court will gradually be brought into play.

Wu Sangui has always had an idea: "If you want to get everything out of it, you don't want to abandon the root of Yunnan and Guizhou." Originally, he only wanted a piece of territory that could dominate his own destiny, and now the expected goal has been achieved.The Yunnan-Guizhou region is his foundation, and going north means betting on all his old capital. Although he can create a new world, the risk is not small.If the battle goes wrong and the back road is cut off, you will fall into a dangerous and embarrassing situation with nowhere to go.And the troops stationed south of the Yangtze River, relying on this half of the country, can also compete with the Qing court.It is an imperfect but relatively safe result to rule the river.

War is sometimes difficult for people to ponder, and Wu Sangui's idea of ​​ruling the river is rational and brilliant.But at the same time, we cannot deny that this bought precious time for the Qing army to assemble its troops and strengthen its defenses.Perhaps this is the so-called unreasonable war.Why is the balance of war tilted? Goldbach's conjecture in the military field has never been solved since ancient times. By April of the fourteenth year of Kangxi, Emperor Kangxi had initially completed the deployment of troops to various strategic locations. The total strength of the Qing army was about 200,000, and most of Wu Sangui's troops were concentrated in the Hunan area. Including the troops who went to Sichuan, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi, and stayed in Yunnan and Guizhou, the total was about 300,000.

Taking into account the overall strength of the two sides, logistical supplies, strategic depth, resources in the controlled areas, population, economy and other comprehensive factors, it should be impossible for the two sides to eat each other in a short period of time, and the formation of a confrontation is inevitable.