Chapter 208: Surrender and lose half, resist and die for the whole family

Author: Mrmumumuah

Chapter 208: Surrender and lose half, resist and die for the whole family

"Your Majesty, I am afraid that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty will be restless in the west. The British and Tsarist Russia are expanding their influence in Central Asia, and I am afraid that they will collude with these two countries." Gu Song said.

"If you want to collude, let's collude. It's best to make the collusion tighter. When the time comes, we can fight Tsarist Russia and the British together."

Emperor Zhu waved his hands nonchalantly and said.

After these years of growth, Emperor Zhu's symptoms of xenophobia have improved somewhat.

In his opinion.

The military power of the Ming Dynasty was already strong enough, especially on land.

Needless to say, the British, if their lobster soldiers faced a country with hundreds of thousands of new-style land forces alone, it would be a joke.

The British had to form cliques to intervene in Europe, and they only dared to take action after they had a large group of allies.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for them to fight against a continent with the strength of a small local island nation.

Tsarist Russia's army had a large number of soldiers.

But now is the era of industrialization.

Not to mention the industrial strength of Tsarist Russia compared with Ming Dynasty, it was only second-rate even in Europe.

In essence, the current Tsarist Russia is still a country of serfdom.

It can have a huge army, but in terms of national strength, even though Tsarist Russia's territory is so vast, Tsarist Russia's industrial strength is still not enough to support them in a long-term confrontation with the Ming Dynasty.

Especially in the lands of the East.

so.

Emperor Zhu was not afraid of Britain and Tsarist Russia at all.

It would be best if they could collude more closely with the Qing court and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

In the future, when the Ming Dynasty takes action, it can also push the northwest border further towards Europe.

In fact, in the Western Regions and Central Asia,

There is no shortage of land for farming.

For example, the oasis belt at the foot of the Tianshan Mountains, the Fergana Basin, or the black land of the Tangnu Uryang Sea through which the Yenisei River flows.

These places were divided by deserts and walls, making it very difficult for the Central Plains dynasty to completely control them.

But now is the era of industrialization.

The control of land in the industrial era is not comparable to that in the agricultural era.

Tsarist Russia was able to firmly control Siberia in modern times.

Then why couldn't China firmly control the Western Regions and Central Asia in the era of industrialization?

Since the Manchus showed signs of fleeing to the west, Emperor Zhu certainly wanted to add fuel to the fire. Finally, using the pretext of pursuing the Manchus, he moved the agricultural land of Central Asia southward, built cities, and invested in coal, iron, oil and other minerals.

Immigrate to farm and turn Central Asia into a paradise for the Han people!

If it can firmly control Central Asia, it can threaten Tsarist Russia to the north, direct its troops to the oil fields of the Middle East to the west, and firmly control the Indian vassals to the south. It can be said that the strategic level of the entire Eurasian continent is controlled by the Ming Dynasty.

historically.

The Red Empire, which controlled Central Asia, relied on its geographical advantage on the Eurasian continent and its army advantage in the iron torrent to compete with the American Empire, which controlled the two oceans of the East and West.

"There are mainly four things before us now." Zhu Daohua said, looking at the ministers under his command.

"One is the battle of the Central Plains!"

Zhu Daohua stretched out a finger: "Now the Ming Dynasty has Jiangnan, Huguang, and Lianghuai, and only Henan is left in the Central Plains. Zhili has not yet been recovered, but they belong to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Qing Dynasty."

"The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has caused too much damage to the local area. We must block them to the west of Kaifeng and block them in Henan. They must not be allowed to escape to the Huaihe River, Shandong and other places."

"In this winter, we need to launch two armies from the north and the south to attack the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and drive them back to Guanzhong to completely eliminate future troubles. Then, after the spring begins, the two armies will join forces to form the Northern Expeditionary Army. They will cooperate with the Liaodong Army to attack the Qing Dynasty by May next year.

Before that, the influence of the Qing court must be completely driven out of the Central Plains!"

Zhu Daohua's voice echoed in the conference room.

The faces of the ministers also became serious.

Since ancient times, only a dynasty in the Central Plains can be called orthodox.

If the Qing Dynasty could be completely expelled from the Central Plains, the Qing Dynasty would become the Northern Qing Dynasty.

The Ming Dynasty is the truly orthodox dynasty in the world.

But we must complete the goal of driving the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom away from Henan, expel the Qing government from Zhili, and occupy the entire Central Plains before May next year.

It seems to be a bit difficult in terms of time.

But this at least shows that Emperor Zhu is determined to completely regain the Central Plains.

"Now there are 40,000 soldiers in Zhao Si's army. Next month, we will deploy 10,000 dragon cavalry and 10,000 infantry. I will personally lead the army across the Yangtze River and join forces with Zhao Si. If Liu Zhixie doesn't want to be my King of Pingxi, then he can do it first

Let’s talk about the fight in Henan!”

Gu Song looked at the map, then frowned and said: "Your Majesty, there are only 60,000 soldiers in total. Isn't this too few? The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has 60,000 old soldiers in Henan, 100,000 soldiers in the inner camp, and the cannon fodder in the outer camp is not included.

Its number."

"That's enough! And we don't have many troops left."

Zhu Daohua shook his head and said.

Now the Ming Army has a total of thirty-five brigades.

The total strength is less than 180,000.

The Liaodong Army Corps has eight brigades with 40,000 troops.

Zhao Si has eight brigades with 40,000 troops.

This is the 80,000 mobile corps fighting abroad.

Yingtianfu and Guangzhou each have 20,000 rotating garrison troops.

Then deduct the troops garrisoned in key places.

It is no longer easy to allocate another 20,000 troops.

"The Taiping Army can only fight with tens of thousands of soldiers, but their equipment and training are very backward. Although they are bloody and brave, my 60,000 soldiers are enough to drive them away."

Zhu Daohua was not actually worried about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The soldiers were indeed very willing to fight, but their equipment was too poor.

Now the Ming army is equipped with a large number of rifled guns, miniguns, rifled cannons, mortars, and grenades.

The Taiping Army generally used matchlocks, and only Liu Zhixie's direct troops of about 20,000 were equipped with flintlock muskets.

It’s okay to lag behind so much in terms of equipment. In terms of organizational form, the Ming army basically has unified military orders. With the coordination of the staff at all levels, it has become a completely modern military organization.

On the Taiping Army side, it was mainly a large gathering of feudal lords with private armies organized by kings and lords.

Not to mention the huge gap between the two sides in terms of national strength and reserve combat power.

If Liu Zhixie does not accept the position of King Pingxi of the Ming Dynasty, he will have to fight.

Then Zhu Daohua thought that a fight would not be a bad thing to let Liu Zhixie see the huge gap between the two sides.

"Only 20,000 more troops can be added to the battlefield in the Central Plains." Zhu Daohua said, "Sichuan Province cannot be delayed any longer. Your Majesty, why don't you just take over Sichuan?"

Zhu Daohua looked at Gu Song and smiled.

Now Zhao Si is making great achievements in the Central Plains.

Old brother Gu Song also needs a little credit. In the future, the first civil and military generals beside him, Heng Ha, will also be able to take further steps due to his merits.

I have to say that Emperor Zhu is really nostalgic.

But Emperor Zhu also had his own considerations. He wanted to create a group of meritorious nobles of the Ming Dynasty around the royal family to balance the power of the landowners and scholar-bureaucrats who still have great influence.

By then, the Ming Dynasty would be a troika, consisting of the aristocratic group who had contributed to the restoration of the Ming Dynasty, the Confucian scholars of the landowners and scholar-bureaucrats, and the emerging industrial capitalists.

And Emperor Zhu believed that with the development of the times.

The class of landlords and scholar-bureaucrats will decline sooner or later. Some may become nobles of the Ming Dynasty and some may transform into capitalists.

and.

The Ming royal family itself is the largest capital group.

In the future, the two upper-level forces in the Ming Dynasty will be aristocratic chaebols or private capitalists representing advanced productivity.

It's really too advanced. Ah, it's really too reactionary.

"Accept Sichuan?" Gu Song was stunned for a moment, then immediately reacted,

This was the emperor's opportunity for him to make meritorious deeds.

"I would like to share the emperor's worries." Gu Song agreed hastily.
To be continued...