Southern Ming Rebel Army

Time is like the rushing river, flowing forward without stopping, never stopping, and never looking back.

Among the emperors of the Southern Ming Dynasty, from Hongguang Zhu Yousong, Longwu Zhu Youjian, Shaowu Emperor Zhu Youlang to Yongli Emperor Zhu Youlang, only Longwu Emperor was born a criminal vassal and experienced many hardships. Compared with the drunken and dreaming Hongguang Emperor and the cowardly Yongli Emperor, he is worthy of praise in terms of both his skills and courage. If Meng Jun had not lived far away and developed outside the Southern Ming system, Longwu Emperor should have been the best choice among the emperors of the Southern Ming Dynasty, but Meng Jun had no choice.

If they chose to develop within the Southern Ming system, they would inevitably face endless party struggles, infighting, and wrangling, and the anti-Qing cause would ultimately end in failure, because neither the Southern Ming emperor nor the literati would be confident in letting Meng Jun hold the military power alone. They would either find ways to restrain him, interfere in his affairs, or supervise the army and be on guard against him. This was already deeply ingrained in the blood of the Southern Ming bureaucracy and could not be changed.

After the collapse of the Longwu regime, some of Longwu's former officials defected to Meng Jun, such as Liu Zhongzao, Zhang Kentang, Lu Zhenfei, Zeng Ying, Liu Jiyan, etc. Meng Jun once asked everyone, saying: "My dear ministers, there are two courts now. Which one do you think I should support? If I support one of them, I will have to defeat the other. Now that the Qing army has captured Fujian, Jiangxi, and Hunan, we are facing a powerful enemy. Are we going to abandon everything and fight a civil war?"

All of these old officials of Longwu were speechless, and Meng Jun said: "I rose from the grassroots, experienced hardships, and survived many dangers. I did not do it for the throne of a certain Zhu Ming prince, nor for a family or a surname, but for the world and for the clothes and honor. If you want to leave, whether you want to join the Yongli court or the Shaowu court, to fight the infighting that makes your relatives sad and your enemies happy, I will not stop you at all."

These once loyal officials were also disheartened at this moment. They really did not want to go to Guangdong to participate in the civil war. After all, they should have worked together to resist foreign enemies, but now they had to kill each other, which made them feel painful and helpless. Faced with such a situation, they all chose to remain silent or escape, and did not want to be involved in this meaningless dispute.

As the saying goes, heroes are made by the times. Meng Jun's strong rise and his much-anticipated room for growth have made some people in Meng's army more ambitious. However, there are not only those in Meng's army who expect Meng Jun to go further. There are also people who hope that Meng Jun can help those in need like Guo Ziyi and Yu Qian did and rebuild the Ming Dynasty. However, for the time being, the two factions have not yet revealed themselves and are still of one mind in the hope of restoring the Han Dynasty.

In Fujian, Bolo has completely occupied all the land in Fujian except Anping where Zheng Zhilong was located, as well as Zheng Cai in Xiamen, Zheng Hongkui in Kinmen, and Chen Bao in Nan'ao Island. The Qing flag has been raised, and Bolo wants to attack Zheng Zhilong and completely wipe out Fujian.

All the generals of the Eight Banners opposed it, and Tulai said bluntly: "General, there are only more than 5,000 people in our Eight Banners, and Li Chengdong has only 10,000 people who surrendered. If we force Zheng Zhilong too hastily, I am afraid that the entire province of Fujian will be lost before our eyes."

Bolo was also undecided. The regent had already given the order, ordering him to lead the Eight Banners headquarters via Jiangxi back to Beijing for rest and recuperation. But Bolo was unwilling to do so. If he was defeated like he was in Zhejiang, he would be disheartened and return to Beijing to be laughed at. But now, although he was defeated in Zhejiang, he could be considered to have won Fujian for the court and destroyed the Longwu regime. Although this was not his contribution in the eyes of the regent, if he could eliminate Zheng Zhilong, he would still be considered a great hero and live up to his reputation.

Thinking of this, Boro gritted his teeth and said, "No need to say more, I have made up my mind."

Tulai said anxiously: "Marshal..."

Bolo interrupted Tulai and roared in a low voice: "I am still the general of the Southern Expedition, I am still the commander-in-chief, and I will take responsibility for everything."

Then Bolo held a celebration banquet in Fuzhou and invited Zheng Zhilong to join him. At the same time, he wrote letters to Zheng's generals. Bolo was very humble and treated Zheng Zhilong as a stately man.

After Zheng Zhilong received the letter, his son Zheng Sen tried to persuade him: "The Northern Dynasty is untrustworthy. If you leave, you will be in the enemy camp. The tribes will be wary. It will be too late for you to regret it."

Just when Zheng Zhilong was hesitant and undecided, Bolo sent another letter, saying that he would discuss with Zheng Zhilong matters such as garrisoning Fujian and attacking Guangdong, and that the seal of the Duke must be delivered.

At this point, Zheng Zhilong decided to go to Fuzhou to meet Bolo, but he also took his son's words to heart and led an army of 20,000 to Fuzhou together.

Unfortunately, the excitement came too quickly. On November 15, Zheng Zhilong met with Beile Bolo. Both sides broke arrows as an oath. The Qing court promised to give Zheng Zhilong an important position. After that, Bolo invited Zheng Zhilong to drink for three days. Suddenly, in the middle of the night, Bolo ordered to move the camp back to Beijing and ordered Zheng Zhilong to march north with the army. Zheng Zhilong reacted this time, but it was already over. The army was outside Fuzhou city, and there were only a hundred guards beside him, all of whom were secretly killed by the Qing army. Zheng's troops were afraid to move and dared not move. In this way, Zheng Zhilong never had the chance to meet his wife and son again. Bolo led the Eight Banners and Zheng Zhilong to withdraw from Fujian and go to Beijing. Fujian was handed over to Li Chengdong and Jin Shengheng's troops who were about to enter Fujian.

Just over ten days after Zheng Zhilong surrendered to the Qing and headed north, the Qing army threatened Anping. Zheng Zhibao, Zheng Zhipeng and others were afraid of the Qing army's power and dared not fight. They gathered their people, collected their property and children, loaded them onto a huge ship, abandoned the city and sailed to the open sea.

The Zheng family's forces in various places fell apart. With Zheng Cai's support for Prince Lu, the Zheng family's strength was further dispersed. When Zheng Sen fled to the sea, he was only accompanied by his family and hundreds of guards. The Zheng family's business collapsed almost overnight.

Afterwards, Zheng Sen arrived at Gulangyu Island and formally raised his army, and then withdrew his troops to Nan'ao. Later, old generals returned to him, and Zheng Hongkui offered all his military strength. At this time, Zheng Sen had 6,000 land forces, 2,000 naval forces, and a total of more than 8,000 officers and soldiers.

Bolo patted his butt and left Fujian for Jiangxi. Almost every part of Fujian was in flames. In the first month of the following year, Zhu Yihai swore an oath to his troops in Changyuan. He issued a wide proclamation, calling on gentry from all over Fujian to revolt. All of a sudden, the Fujian uprising army rose up, and the eight counties started on the same day. Fuzhou Prefecture, Xinghua Prefecture, Jianning Prefecture, Yanping Prefecture, Tingzhou Prefecture, Shaowu Prefecture, Quanzhou Prefecture, and Zhangzhou Prefecture all had uprisings. The Qing court's ruling foundation in Fujian was crumbling, and Li Chengdong and Jin Shengheng were almost busy all day, fighting against the uprising armies everywhere.