Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 247 Fujian

On the way back, Meng Jun felt relieved a little. The defeat of Jin Shenghuan in this battle gave him strategic depth, not only in terms of population, land, and strategic locations, but also in terms of elusive prestige. With these, Meng Jun could finally breathe a sigh of relief. As long as he consolidated the river defense and worked hard to govern the country, the Northern Expedition would be expected in the future. He would turn the world from the original historical carriage to another direction. Perhaps history really would have another possibility.

As a person from outside the universe, Meng Jun was pushed to the forefront by this passionate era, but in essence, he is still an ordinary modern person. Some people may say that since he knows history, he should understand the manufacture of steam engines, cannons, muskets, and explosive packs. Aren't these things something that everyone can do?

Unfortunately, Meng Jun didn't understand. For this era, he only had a rough historical memory and some foresight about future trends in his mind. However, when a person is in a position, he must plan his politics. Since Meng Jun is in the tide of the times, he can only advance to survive or retreat to die.

Lin Shiqi's army marched southward, and the Jin army surrendered. On July 28, Liu Kun's cavalry had already entered Xiuning. Jin Shengheng fled in a panic, running nearly a hundred miles in a day. The rest of the troops also withdrew to Jiangxi without looking back.

By the time they retreated to Nanchang, there were countless deserters and defeated soldiers. They could not stop being killed. Morale was low, and all food and grass were lost. The number of chaotic situations among the defeated soldiers in Nanchang was simply horrifying. For example, they visited brothels without paying, and ate without paying, which were already extremely friendly deserters. But they also robbed people on the streets and killed people in the streets. The whole city of Nanchang was in chaos.

Until Jin Shenghuan could no longer bear it. He thought that if things continued like this, the day Meng Jun's troops arrived in Nanchang, the people of the whole city would rebel. So he sent his personal soldiers to enforce military law, beheaded more than 80 defeated soldiers, and opened the treasury to appease the soldiers. Only then was the chaos quelled.

After Nanchang was stabilized, Jin Shenghuan sent more than ten waves of envoys to ask for help, requesting Li Chengdong to send troops. On the other hand, Jin Shenghuan asked the Yongli court to mediate, hoping that Emperor Yongli would issue an edict to order Meng Jun to stop the pursuit. Jin Shenghuan was willing to apologize, or gold, silver, money and food, anything was acceptable.

Fujian.

After Li Chengdong rebelled against the Qing Dynasty in Guangdong, he took control of the entire province. Although he greatly expanded his army, he was not as crazy as Jin Shenghuan. When Li Chengdong retreated from Zhejiang to Fujian with Bolo, he had only 2,000 cavalrymen. After the Longwu regime was destroyed and Zheng Zhilong was abducted and left Fujian by Bolo, in order to suppress the Fujian rebel army, Li Chengdong recruited surrenders and rebels, and his army had more than 40,000 people.

Later he entered Guangdong, attacked and destroyed the Shaowu court, controlled Guangdong, and expanded his army by 60,000. After forcing the Governor of Guangdong and Guangxi Tong Yangjia to rebel against the Qing Dynasty, Li Chengdong expanded the army on a large scale. By the time he attacked Fujian, Li's army had expanded to 110,000.

At this time, Li Chengdong's army had already entered Fujian. Li Chengdong had made preparations when Jin Shenghuan swore to go to war. He left 30,000 men to defend Guangdong, and the rest of the land and sea forces numbered more than 80,000. The infantry tied down the 6,000 men deployed by Han Xiong at Fenshui Pass, while the navy transported 10,000 elite soldiers, led by Wu Wenxian, to Zhangzhou Port.

The Zheng family's ship was discovered when Li's navy set out, but they did not report it directly to Han Xiong in Fuzhou. Instead, they turned to Taiwan Island and reported to Zheng Chenggong, and then informed Han Xiong.

After all this back and forth, when Han Xiong received the emergency letter and sent someone to order Zhao Erchun and Li Xiu to withdraw from Fenshui Pass, Wu Wenxian of Li's army had already landed at Zhangzhou Port. The messenger had not arrived yet, and Wu Wenxian and Li Chengdong attacked Zhao Erchun from both inside and outside. Zhao Erchun was caught off guard and was defeated at Fenshui Pass. When the 6,000 defenders retreated to Quanzhou, there were less than 2,000 people left.

The situation was critical, and Han Xiong's general advised: "Tongzhen, why don't you ask the king for help?"

"Your Majesty is currently in the middle of a fierce battle with Jin Shenghuan, so how can he have the energy to come to your aid? Besides, I cannot share your worries, so how can I cause you more trouble?" Han Xiong shook his head in objection. He knew that Meng Jun was at a critical moment, and it would be useless for him to ask for help, which would only distract Meng Jun.

Since Li Chengdong had already entered Fujian, the troops guarding Fujian and Jiangxi were no longer useful. Han Xiong ordered the remaining troops of Zhao Erchun and Li Xiu to retreat to Fuzhou. At the same time, he ordered the troops guarding Daguan to abandon the pass and return to Fuzhou.

Han Xiong decided to defend Fuzhou City to the death. On the one hand, he recruited volunteers, and on the other hand, he asked Zheng Chenggong for help. By the time Zhao Erchun and the Daguan defenders retreated to Fuzhou, Han Xiong already had 6,000 troops from Kewu Town, 17,000 troops from Ma Chenglong and Li Xiu, and 20,000 newly recruited volunteers.

Just looking at the number of people, it seems that it is not difficult to defend Fuzhou. However, among these more than 40,000 people, nearly half are newly recruited soldiers. They are not well-equipped and have low combat effectiveness. Li Xiu and Ma Chenglong are surrendered generals. If the Zhou army is strong, they will surely behave themselves. But if that happens, no one knows what the two are thinking. The only ones who can fight are the 6,000 people of Han Xiongkewu Town.

Just when Han Xiong was ready to die and decided to live and die with Fuzhou, Li Chengdong received a letter from Jin Shenghuan asking for help. After reading it, Li Chengdong was dumbfounded at first, and then angrily cursed: "Is Jin Shenghuan a pig? How could an army of more than 300,000 be defeated? Even if it was defeated, it wouldn't be so fast!"

Li Chengdong saw Wu Wenxian's puzzled look and was too angry to speak. He threw the letter to Wu Wenxian. He opened it and was also stunned. He swallowed and asked in disbelief: "My king, is this... is this true?"

"Do you think this is false? Jin Shenghuan must have been kicked in the head by a donkey. Would he write a letter for help for fun?" Li Chengdong sat down on the chair and asked weakly.

Wu Wenxian was also stunned by the news. After a long while, he finally spoke: "Your Majesty, the Duke of Changguo was defeated. Should we go to rescue him or continue to attack Fuzhou?"

"Why save it? That pig should be left to die. When I heard that he was dead, I set off some firecrackers to celebrate!" Li Chengdong was furious when he heard this. It was not easy to get this good situation, but it was completely ruined by Jin Shenghuan.

After Li Chengdong's anger subsided, Wu Wenxian began to persuade him, "Your Majesty, things have come to this point. There is no point in saying more. We must find a way to remedy the situation!"

Li Chengdong sighed and said, "Alas, the heaven is so unfair. In the past, Meng Jun was just a thief who attacked Suzhou. He had only a few thousand soldiers, but now he is so powerful that it is difficult to control. Jin Shenghuan's army was defeated, and Jiangxi is in danger. If we don't send troops, Jiangxi will be lost. Once Meng Jun gains Jiangxi, he will definitely threaten Guangdong!"

Wu Wenxian said unwillingly: "My lord, then we won't fight for Fuzhou? That's such a pity!"

Hearing this, Li Chengdong stood up angrily, swept everything on the table, threw it on the ground, and cursed: "You bastard, you bastard, you useless thing, you useless thing, I am so angry!!!"