Southern Ming Rebel Army

After receiving Meng Jun's letter, Prince Lu was extremely excited and couldn't help fantasizing about the great feat of retaking Nanjing. He then issued several orders, urging Fang Guoan to gather his troops and rush to Suzhou as soon as possible. Fang Guoan also received news from scouts that the Qing army's large-scale siege on the city had failed. He felt relieved and couldn't help but think that the Tartars were nothing special. The real Manchus were driven down the city wall by a group of militia. He was so excited that he wanted to rush to the city of Suzhou immediately to have a decisive battle with the Eastern Tartars.

Hangzhou, the wilderness of Xiaoshan.

On November 25th, the cold wind blew into people's bodies. On the hillside, Zhang Huangyan looked deeply at the city of Hangzhou in the distance. The distance was too far, and it was just a black dot from afar. The deputy general Zhang Mingzhen beside him said in a deep voice, "Master Supervisor, Hangzhou City..."

"Yes, Hangzhou City, the wise king who was praised by the Donglin people was in a state of panic when the Eastern Tartars did not arrive. He lightly abandoned the foundation of his ancestors and surrendered. It is truly a great shame for the country." Zhang Huangyan started with a bit of sarcasm, but his tone became involuntarily angry as he spoke later.

"Military Inspector, please be careful with your words," Zhang Mingzhen said nervously.

Zhang Huangyan sighed sadly, and then said helplessly, "Forget it, I won't say anything more."

On June 11, the first year of the Hongguang reign, the Qing army approached Hangzhou. Ma Shiying, Ruan Dacheng, Zhu Dadian and others fled for their lives, while Chen Hongfan returned to Hangzhou and persuaded Prince Lu to surrender with Zhang Bingzhen and others. They welcomed the Qing army and opened the city to surrender. Upon hearing the news, Prince Chu Zhu Huabi urged Prince Lu, "The country is in danger and has reached this extreme. How can you survive with your head held high and your eyes looking north? Your Highness is so wise and well-known. You have the wisdom and strength of the world, and you will be able to rely on him to rise up. The Song Dynasty held half of the country for a hundred years. Moreover, Fujian, Guangdong, Yunnan, and Sichuan are thousands of miles long and are our old possessions. If we don't do anything now, once the current situation is gone, everything will be gone. How can we ask for an inch of land to die in the future?"

Zhu Changxun replied, "I have talked too much about official business. I am not talented enough." Zhu Huabi advised, "Your Highness, why are you so rebellious? The descendants of the Zhu family should raise their three-foot swords and swear to live and die with the country. Then the weak can stand up, not to mention that they are all the people who feed and clothe our ancestors!" Zhu Changxun refused again, saying, "I am afraid that the soldiers in the camp will not be employed, and the money and grain will not be provided. I am not wrong to do this." Zhu Huabi cried and said, "Now Guoan and tens of thousands of people are stationed in the western suburbs, and they are just asking for orders. The defeated soldiers of Hongda can still be gathered. The money stored in the Ministry of Political Affairs and the salt transport department can be added. There is no need to recruit them. These five camps of soldiers are all healthy when they go out of Dongyi, and they have recruited good people. One day, the world can be saved." Zhu Changxun refused to listen and was determined to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. Zhu Huabi stood up, tore his hat and belt, threw them to the ground, and left with his face covered.

Fang Guoan gathered 30,000 men from his headquarters and 40,000 rebels, as well as a large number of civilian laborers to transport food and equipment. Jiangnan had not experienced a war in decades, and the armor and weapons were insufficient to equip the entire army, but the rebels' fighting will was more resolute than Fang Guoan's headquarters.

The army set out, offered sacrifices, burned incense, and slaughtered cattle to offer sacrifices to heaven and earth. Then the army officially marched towards Suzhou City. A normal march would only take more than ten days.

"Send a messenger to report to Marshal Bolo as soon as possible," said Hangzhou Governor Zhang Cunren in a deep voice as he looked at the Ming army in the distance.

Zhang Cunren, Zhang Cunren was initially the deputy general of Ningyuan in the Ming Dynasty. He defended Dalinghe City with Zu Dashou, the general. In the fifth year of Tiancong, Huang Taiji personally led the army to attack Dalinghe. Zhang Cunren surrendered with Zu Dashou and was still appointed as the deputy general. In the first year of Shunzhi, he followed Emperor Shunzhi into the pass and marched into Shanxi with Gushan Ezhen Yechen to capture Taiyuan City. Later, he followed Prince Yu Duoduo to attack Henan and Jiangnan, and made many military achievements. In the second year of Shunzhi, he served as the governor of Hangzhou.

Fang Guoan watched Hangzhou getting ready to make a move. Fang Guoan was also an old soldier, and he had a clear understanding of the situation in Hangzhou. At this time, there were only more than 2,000 soldiers from the Eight Banners under the Qing generals Zhumala and Wulachan, 10,000 soldiers from the Green Camp, and more than 2,000 defeated soldiers of Li Chengdong in Hangzhou City. If they attacked Hangzhou at this time, the chances of winning were extremely high.

However, Bolo's army was behind him. If the Eight Banners attacked him from behind during the siege, the consequences would be disastrous. After much deliberation, Fang Guoan decided to lead his army to Suzhou and attack Bolo from both inside and outside with Meng Jun.

In the Qing army camp, Bolo also received a reprimand from Dorgon in Beijing, blaming Bolo for fighting recklessly and killing thousands of Manchu men. Bolo put down the letter with an ugly look on his face.

A few days ago, Bolo once again forced Bai Yongfu's troops to attack Suzhou City. Unfortunately, Suzhou City stood firm and the defenders in the city defended in an orderly manner. After several days of attacks, the Qing army still had no way to deal with Suzhou. The morale of both sides was rising and falling. The Meng army resisted the Qing army's attacks several times, which greatly boosted the confidence of the soldiers. They felt that the Qing army was no more than that. This made Bolo very angry, but he could do nothing about it.

Bai Yongfu's subordinates Xiao Mingzuo and Wu Shunchang even began to persuade Bai Yongfu to abandon the infantry and lead the cavalry to flee south to King Lu. They all felt Bolo's ill will towards them. Several attacks were all carried out by Bai's troops. There were already undercurrents in Bai Yongfu's army. Last night, a whole team even fled the army. Several soldiers in charge of guarding the camp gate also became deserters. Bai Yongfu was naturally aware of this, but he was still hesitant and indecisive.

In the Qing army camp, rain was drizzling outside the tent. At this time, in the central army tent, Bolo and the eight banners generals were discussing Fang Guoan's invasion.

"This is an urgent report from Zhang Cunren in Hangzhou. Fang Guoan's army is rushing to Suzhou. The number of people is unclear, but it should be no less than 100,000. Zhu Yihai has mobilized all the troops in Zhejiang, but the scouts have seen from afar that a large number of soldiers are not wearing armor," Bolo said coldly.

"Marshal, Fang Guoan is not worth mentioning. If the southern soldiers don't have a strong city to defend, they will have to fight in the field. Humph," Nikan said disdainfully.

"We will besiege the city and fight for reinforcements. We are only a few steps away from Hangzhou. In my opinion, we should not bring those Green Camp rubbish with us. Our elite Eight Banners will only charge into the ranks of the rioters and break through the surface with a single point. As long as one point collapses, it doesn't matter how many people there are. The more people there are, the faster the chaos will come." Tulai also said so. The other generals nodded. Although they had suffered a setback in Suzhou City, the Eight Banners generals unanimously believed that the Manchu warriors were not good at sieges and field battles, and had no rivals in the heart of the Central Plains. They had not seen that the Eight Banners had entered the pass to plunder so many times, and the Ming army inside the pass was becoming more and more incapable of fighting.

The Qing army entered the Great Wall five times. The first time was in the second year of Chongzhen, when Huang Taiji led a large army to march through Rehe, broke through Da'ankou and Longjingguan of the Great Wall and went straight into the interior, occupied Zunhua, captured Jizhou, and surrounded Beijing. Chongzhen executed Yuan Chonghuan by slow slicing.

The second time was in the fifth year of Chongzhen, when Huang Taiji led the Qing army from the Mongolian grasslands and arrived at the north of Zhangjiakou, "setting up camps for forty miles" to show off the military power.

The third time was during the reign of Chongzhen, when Ajige led a large army, broke through Juyong Pass and entered the Great Wall. He defeated the Ming army all the way and won all 56 battles with the Ming army, captured twelve cities, and captured more than 100,000 people and livestock.

In the 11th year of Chongzhen, the Qing army entered the pass four times. Dorgon entered from Qingshan Pass, Yuetuo entered from Qiangziling Pass, and the Ming Dynasty commander Lu Xiangsheng led his army to meet the Qing army in Julu, Hebei, but was defeated and killed. Sun Chengzong, a famous anti-Qing general, led the people to defend Gaoyang, but was killed when the city was broken. The Qing army captured a total of one prefecture, three states, and 57 counties, including Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province, and captured more than 500,000 men and women and a large amount of livestock and property.

The fifth time was in the 15th year of Chongzhen. Huang Taiji appointed Abatai as the general and led his army into the pass from Qiangziling, all the way to Yanzhou, Shandong. He then divided his troops to capture Dengzhou, Laizhou, Juzhou, Yizhou, and Haizhou. A total of 88 cities were captured, 6 cities surrendered, and 360,000 men and women were abducted.

Seeing that all the generals agreed to attack Fang Guoan first, Bolo said coldly, "Let's gather together. Leave Ma Degong, Tian Xiong, Bai Yongfu and other green camps to defend the camp and defeat Fang Guoan first."

"Follow orders"