Dominate the Country

Qianlong probably didn't even remember how many troops he had lost to the Fu Han Army. Since last year, the Qing Dynasty has mobilized more than 100,000 troops, and lost tens of thousands of troops. The Green Camp soldiers were also compensated after they died in battle, so the treasury was exhausted.

When the Fu Han General's Office was just established, a scholar in Luoyang City wrote an article attacking the Fu Han Army, praising the Qianlong Dynasty, saying that the country was prosperous, the army was strong, the emperor worked hard to govern, and the frontier officials were all awe-inspiring. They were fair and just in terms of right and wrong, and dared not show favoritism; if they were involved in deception, they would be punished and exiled. Therefore, the northwest has been in war for years, and the world has shared the blessing of peace and prosperity; even Taiwan, which is difficult to calm and easy to move, has not seen war for 30 years.

But as this scholar wrote, "the northwest has been in war for years", and with Qianlong, an emperor who likes to play, go shopping and spend money, the Qing Dynasty's treasury really can't save any money. Now the Fu Han army suddenly rose up, and the Qing treasury has been drained.

The Qing army that attacked the Fu Han army now relies entirely on local financial support, such as Shanxi.

Since the eight imperial merchants in the early Qing Dynasty, Shanxi merchants have entered their own heyday in Chinese history. Although the eight imperial merchants of that year have been defeated one after another, the remaining Fan family is still lingering. But new Shanxi merchants have already risen in Shanxi, such as the Chang family in Yuci, which is the longest-running and largest among the many Shanxi merchants engaged in trade with Russia in Kyakhta. Tea, cloth, silk, fur, and many silver and money houses that trade between Moscow and China, the family business is more than millions.

The Cao family in Taigu is also a prominent Shanxi merchant. The business has spread across half of China and has developed abroad to Moscow. The business projects include silver and money industry, silk, cloth, woolen cloth, pigments, medicinal materials, fur, groceries, foreign goods, brewing, grain stores, etc., with more than 30,000 employees and a total capital of more than 10 million taels.

The Hou family of Jiexiu, known as "Hou Baiwan", is said to have assets of seven or eight million taels of silver.

There are also the Qu family of Qi County and the Kang family of Pingyang Prefecture (now Linfen City). The latter is recognized as the richest in Shanxi, with assets of more than 10 million taels of silver.

These wealthy merchant families all run silver banks. Each family has a very deep relationship with the Qing government.

The Fan family has fallen, and its real family background cannot be compared with these powerful and wealthy people, but the Fan family is still a business card of Shanxi merchants. Other families, no matter how rich you are, can you compare with the Fan family, which is proud of both officials and merchants?

After the Fan Yubin brothers saved Kang Mazi several million taels of silver and transported millions of dan of grain and grass, the Fan family was protected by Kang Mazi. Fan Yubin is the grandson of Fan Yongdou. When Kangxi fought against Junggar, Fan Yubin sold military rations at his own expense at a price two-thirds lower than the official price per stone of rice, showing his extremely touching loyalty to the Qing Dynasty. He collected 1.44 million taels of silver, and transported more than one million shi of military rations, saving the Qing government more than 6 million taels.

The loyalty of the Fan family was richly rewarded. Many people in the Fan family were granted official titles, and they were prominent for a time. There were 20 people in the Yu and Qing generations of the Fan family who held official positions. Fan Yubin was the Minister of the Imperial Household Department, Fan Yuqi was the Minister of the Provincial Administration Department, and Fan Yutan was promoted to the General of Zhengding as an exception for the military examination, and later served as the Governor of Guangdong. Fan Yongdou, Fan Sanba and others were also honored by their descendants, and were posthumously awarded the titles of General of the Cavalry, Senior Official, Senior Official, and Confucian Scholar, and their wives were also posthumously awarded the titles of Madam and Lady.

The Fan family in the Kangxi and Yongzheng dynasties was a wealthy and wealthy family that connected the court and the market, and was half business and half official.

Even though the Fan family obviously declined after entering the Qianlong Dynasty, Fan Qingji was still the number one among the Shanxi merchants.

As early as April, Fan Qingji united the major wealthy families in Shanxi to raise more than 4 million taels of silver and countless grain and cloth for the Qing Dynasty. Then he took the lead and lent nearly 10 million taels of silver to the Qing Dynasty from major banks.

This is very abnormal.

The Qing Dynasty's court officials borrowed money from Shanxi banks. This should have only appeared in the late Qing Dynasty. Because of Chen Ming's time travel, it was suddenly advanced by a hundred years.

These merchants and wealthy people in Shanxi still have great confidence in the Qing Dynasty, and the white silver was delivered to the Qing army. They only got a few light pieces of paper and a few words of praise from Emperor Qianlong.

It was the existence of these people that really solved the urgent needs of the Qing Dynasty. At least, the Qing army has not been cut off from military pay and food until now. In addition, the various leading military officials plundered and squeezed the local areas. For example, Chen Huizu's land in Chenzhou Prefecture was not three feet high, but three feet less.

The war will continue, and the wealth of Fujian, Zhejiang and Guangdong should not be underestimated.

If the Fu Han Army really wants to pry the foundation of the Qing Dynasty, it is really necessary for the Tiandihui in Fujian to rise up. Chen Ming does not know whether they can burn the war to Guangdong and Zhejiang, but as long as they mess up Fujian, do they still worry that Zhejiang and Guangdong will not be affected?

Especially Fujian has a complex geography, with a large population and a small land area. If the chaos is really big, hehe, the Qing Dynasty will be in trouble.

The Hunyuan Sect is in Shandong, the Tiandihui is in Fujian and Taiwan, and the General's Mansion is in Henan. These are three nails that keep bleeding the Qing Dynasty. Perhaps there will be big and small Jinchuan in Sichuan, and Miao people in Guizhou and Xiangxi. It is also the Qing Dynasty that has leveled the northwest and Tibet. Otherwise, there will be wars everywhere and smoke everywhere.

And Chen Ming led his troops to sweep along the Yangtze River like a "bandit". How long can the Qing Dynasty last?

Three years? Five years?

Or even longer?

Don’t forget, there were many natural disasters in China during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. That period of time - the Qianlong period (1736-1795) is a very important period in the history of natural disasters in China. According to statistical analysis in later generations, the natural disasters that caused disasters during this period were mainly floods, droughts, and hailstorms; disasters were frequent, and many counties and cities were affected; there were great differences in the regional distribution of various disasters, and there was an obvious spatial clustering; the occurrence of disasters showed continuity and concentration in time, etc.

When Chen Ming was a keyboard warrior in his previous life, he argued with some people about whether the "Kangxi and Qianlong prosperity" was true or false. Chen Ming really felt that the so-called Kangxi and Qianlong prosperity was a big lie. He searched online for research papers on the reasons for the frequent natural disasters in China during the reign of Emperor Qianlong and the evolution of the disaster relief policy of the Qing Dynasty, and he still remembered the natural disasters during the reign of Emperor Qianlong. It was really not a prosperous and peaceful era.

During the 60 years of the Qianlong reign, there were more than 1,100 natural disasters, including more than 500 floods, 200 to 300 droughts, and 300 to 400 wind, frost, hail, snow, locusts, earthquakes, and plagues. Chen Ming could not remember the exact number. But he knew that the Qianlong reign was plagued by disasters year after year, and the total number of disasters was much higher than that during the 92-year reign of Shunzhi, Kangxi, and Yongzheng.

For example, this year, the 33rd year of Qianlong, there was no flood - Xuzhou was man-made, but there was drought. Shandong, Hunan, Hubei, and Guizhou were all drought-stricken, with Shandong being the worst; 18 counties in northern Jiangsu were drought-stricken, with Taizhou being the worst. In terms of this influence, the Fu Han Army was the most direct beneficiary.

Previously, most of the people from Jiangnan and Jiangbei who joined the Fu Han Army were unemployed boatmen and sailors, but recently, most of them were salt workers from the salt factories in northern Jiangsu, including salt workers. The twelve salt fields under the jurisdiction of Taizhou Salt Administration and Transport Judge were all suffering from drought. Because the Qing officials fled, the salt factories were in anarchy and extremely chaotic. The drought caused a large fire in the local reeds, which directly added more than 3,000 young and strong men to the Fu Han Army.

In addition, there was a locust plague in northern Jiangsu.

"Old Qianlong must be in a state of panic now. If you suppress one problem, another will pop up. Although the Qing Dynasty is not in a critical condition, it has many problems. Now it is all hanging in front of him."

According to the news from Beijing, just last year, Emperor Qianlong was still repairing the Old Summer Palace. Jianyuan was just completed last year, and the Lion Grove of the Old Summer Palace, which was built in imitation of the Lion Grove in Suzhou, was finally stopped in the summer of this year. Chen Ming felt that the old Qianlong would never restart the Lion Grove in the Old Summer Palace.

Today's Qing Dynasty has been ruined by him.

So many troops are piled up in Henan, Shandong and along the thousands of miles of the Yangtze River, swallowing up silver, food and various military supplies like a bottomless pit. Although the time cannot be compared with the White Lotus Rebellion in Sichuan and Hubei in history, Chen Ming feels that it is not bad in terms of the blow and trauma to the Qing Dynasty.

The White Lotus Rebellion in Sichuan and Hubei seemed to be very powerful, but in fact they did not capture many important towns. The rebels captured small county towns or ordinary prefecture capitals. They had never captured places like Xiangyang, let alone military and political strongholds such as provincial capitals and Jingzhou.

…

Wusongkou. More than a dozen Fu Han Army warships moved slowly. They were the last batch of Fu Han Army Navy Battalion ships left at Wusongkou. Now, these warships will also say goodbye to this strategic key point that they have occupied for many days.

Because the Fu Han Army's attack on Puxi has ended. A large number of captured items were loaded into the canal ships and civilian ships towed from both sides of the Huangpu River. The Fu Han Army Navy Battalion will cooperate with the army troops to enter the canal from the Wusong River to the west.

Chen Ming clearly knew that the current combat power of the Navy Camp could not guarantee the safety of the Yangtze River waterway. If he took hundreds of ships of captured spoils to fight the Yangtze River waterway back to Jiangyin, Zhenjiang, and Nanjing, he would be a fool.

Looking at the waterway routes in southern Jiangsu, the Wusong River is an excellent channel. Through here, the fleet can directly enter the Grand Canal and even Taihu Lake. Of course, the upper reaches of the Wusong River are under the control of the Qing army, and this is another reason why Chen Ming wants the army to turn westward. This can definitely force the Qing army attacking Wuxi to retreat to Suzhou!

-The army went to Shanghai, passed Qingpu, and then directly attacked Suzhou City. It is another form of Wei Wei to save Zhao.

The Wusong River belongs to the Taihu Lake system, is about 250 miles long, and is the largest tributary of the Huangpu River. The average river width is about 15 to 20 feet. It is the main water transportation line and important waterway in Shanghai and Suzhou.

When the news that the Fu Han Army suddenly attacked the Wusong River and advanced westward reached Suzhou, Sulde's face changed suddenly. He thought that the Fu Han army would withdraw from the offensive route. It was hard to imagine that Chen Ming would be so courageous that he dared to lead a large army into such a narrow passage as the Wusong River. Didn't he know that even the most ordinary fishing boats turned into fireboats on the narrow Wusong River could cause chaos in the Fu Han army fleet?

Regardless of the final fate of the Fu Han army fleet, Suerde knew that his plan had failed. This news must be reported to Rong Bao as soon as possible, and Rong Bao would definitely return to Suzhou as soon as possible. "It is God's will, what can we do about it."

His friends in Beijing have spread rumors that the emperor is going to put him in the position of governor of Shandong. The former governor of Shandong, Funihan, was transferred to the six ministries. Although this is just an unconfirmed rumor, it confirms his possibility of promotion from a certain perspective. If Rong Bao can capture Wuxi and Changzhou and march into Zhenjiang before Chen Ming sends his troops, then even if Chen Ming sends his troops to attack, he will not return victorious, but will be forced to withdraw. It is a foregone conclusion that Suerde will be promoted to governor.

But now this plan is not going to work.

Not only can Suerde no longer look forward to a bright future, but he also has to pray to God that Chen Ming's victory is only to transport the spoils and force Rong Bao to retreat, not because he really wants to go to Suzhou.

The main force of the Fu Han Army swept across Jiangnan, and Chen Ming's team certainly had some cannons. Compared with the total strength of the Fu Han Army's artillery, this is only a part of it, but compared with the Qing Army's artillery team, it will definitely win.

Wuxi at this time.

Rong Bao still did not see the hope of victory. The Qing army had been besieging Wuxi for seven days.

The East Gate of Wuxi was completely blocked by the Fu Han army with stones and earth bags. Not only that, the Fu Han army also built a breast wall and fence at the other end of the gate. If the Qing army cleared all the obstacles in the gate, they would not be able to enter the city smoothly.

Wei Xiuzhi changed from being uneasy at the beginning to being calm now. He felt that the war was not so terrible. The Qing army was also a real loser. There were so many people outside the city, but they were all afraid of fighting and dying. Otherwise, given the current state of the Fu Han army, the Qing army would have posed a substantial threat to the city defense, not to mention that they had already taken Wuxi City.

You know, when the Qing army began to harass and feint day and night, Wei Xiuzhi was already preparing to break out and flee north. It turned out that the Qing army's tactical arrangement was very correct, but its combat effectiveness did not change substantially at all.

As long as the Qing soldiers are afraid of death, as long as they are unwilling to pay huge casualties to give the Fu Han Army the final blow, Wuxi City will always be firmly in their hands.

Wei Xiuzhi, who was sitting in the Wuxi County Office, heard the sudden cheers outside. Just as he was about to send someone to find out the reason, his personal soldier ran in with a look of surprise on his face: "Director, Director, the Qing soldiers have withdrawn, the Qing soldiers have withdrawn..." The surprise almost made the personal soldier's heart burst.

Just when the whole army was extremely exhausted and fell into an absolute disadvantage, the enemy who had the advantage suddenly withdrew.

Wei Xiuzhi was stunned for a moment, then stood up with a start: "Tell the scouts to find out the news quickly." Did the Grand Commander lead the troops back? But there was no news from the Grand Commander.

The Qing soldiers outside Wuxi City were dejected, but Wang Zhizheng was very happy. He stretched his body. The army was going to retreat, the battle was about to end, and he was going home...