In March of the second year of Yongli, Jin Shenghuan and Li Chengdong successively, except for the unexpected stubborn resistance in Ganzhou, Jiangxi, the rest of the prefectures surrendered, and the situation in the south changed drastically. The **** in the northwest took advantage of the situation to capture six or seven prefectures and counties, and competed with the Qing court. Li Zicheng's remaining troops from Shaanxi also joined forces to attack Xi'an with tens of thousands of troops, and the momentum was huge. Jiang Xiang of Datong could not sit still, and claimed to be a general, turned against Datong, and captured more than a dozen cities. Jiang Xiang did not express his support to Yongli, but wanted to be a king in the northwest.

Anyway, the Qing court was shocked. The total number of Manchus was less than 100,000, but there was an absolute center of power, which was the Regent Dorgon. The Regent knew in his heart that Jiang Xiang and the Northwest Hui could not be in chaos, so he asked his younger brother Ajige to lead his troops to scare him, so the rioters would not dare to make any major moves.

The key is that Jiangxi and Huguang. The Qing court has always regarded these two places as the central key places for going south to attack Guangdong and Guangxi. Therefore, when Jin Shenghuan was received and Li Chengdong and the Ming army repelled Kong Youde's army in the south, the Regent Dorgon immediately attached great importance to this matter.

Anyway, Dorgon was also very surprised that the officials in Ganzhou did not participate. He knew deeply that the gains and losses of Ganzhou involved the entire southern situation. The regent was also a little surprised that the governor of Ganzhou, Gao Jinku, was loyal to the Qing Dynasty. Gao Jinku was the nephew of Gao Jie and was also from a thief. He did not expect that he was so loyal and righteous, and that Ganzhou must not be trapped in the hands of the Ming army! Therefore, the rescue matter should not be delayed.

In order to regain the initiative in the war situation in the south, Dorgon decided to take out his old capital this time. He not only ordered Kong Youde from Yuezhou, Hubei, Geng Zhongming and others to consolidate their troops and train horses, and actively pursue progress. He also sent his confidant general, Ezhen Tan Tai, Gushan, Manchu Gushan, and Ezhen, as the general of the Southern Expedition. The King of Shuncheng County, who had performed very well on the Huguang battlefield, was the deputy. In conjunction with Gushan Ezhen Heluo from the Inlaid White Banner Manchu, the surrendered general Liu Liangzuo led the Manchu, Han and Mongolian troops from Beijing to Jiangxi, attacked Jin Shenghuan and Wang Deren's troops besieged Ganzhou, and rescued friendly troops. At the same time, Dorgon ordered Ezhen Zhumala of Gushan and Ma Guozhu, the governor of Jiangnan, to lead troops from Jiangning (Nanjing) to take the water route, and met with Tan Tai's army in Anqing Prefecture to launch an offensive against Jiangxi.

In addition to dispatching these two extremely capable generals, Dorgon also ordered the King of Pingxi Wu Sangui to move from Jinzhou to Hanzhong, support him in Sichuan and Shaanxi, and led 40,000 Guanning troops to prepare for an expedition to Huguang.

After careful preparation, the Regent ordered all troops to join forces; in one fell swoop, he put all his strength into the army to go south, and he could only win but not defeat. Except for the 20,000 left in Heilongjiang, Jilin and more than 10,000 Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners in the capital, the remaining Green Camps and the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty went south with 50,000 Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners. This was a life-and-death battle. Manchu general Tan Tai was the general of the Southern Expedition, Liu Liangzuo, Tulai, Tong Dai, He Luohui and other people joined forces and marched south in a large number of troops. A total of 100,000 infantry and cavalry, ox carts, camels, cannon cars, and Western firearms. The firearms camp was dispatched in full swing. The army was 300 miles in a row, with golden drums shook the sky, and warships blocked the river. The Qing army had never had such a great momentum since its establishment.

One thing to be explained here is that the main force of the Qing army sent by the Qing court to attack Jiangxi this time was no longer an ordinary traitor army, but the main force of the Qing army, the ace among the ace, and the eight banner soldiers of the Manchu and Mongolian!

In fact, the Qing army after entering the pass was roughly composed of three parts, namely the Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners Army, the Liao army and the Surrendered Army.

The Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners Army is the collective name of the Manchu Eight Banners and the Mongolian Eight Banners in the Qing army. This part of the army is mainly cavalry and has always been the main force of the Qing army. It has extremely strong combat power, very fast marching, and is even more desperate when fighting. It is definitely the most powerful cavalry unit in China and even the world at that time. But although the Manchu Eight Banners, the Mongolian Eight Banners account for two-thirds of the 24-flag soldiers of the Qing army, in fact, the number of troops in this part is relatively small. Of course, this is relative to the Han flag.

It is because of this that the senior leaders of the Qing Dynasty attached great importance to this Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners Army, and basically achieved "no go out without any major issues". Unless the situation was forced, the Qing court would never use this ace army easily.

Below the Eight Banners of Manchu and Mongolia, the Liao army was followed by. As the name suggests, the main component of this army was the Liaodong people. Although they were Han people, the Qing court had partially changed its policy to treat Han people in the occupied areas since Huang Taiji came to power, and some Han people joined the Qing army in order to have a meal.

This part of the army was mainly led by the Sanshun Kings such as Kong Youde, and the soldiers under them also formed the main force of the Liao army. Although the combat effectiveness of the Liao army was far less than that of the cavalry of the Eight Banners of the Manchu and Mongolia, they were an indispensable and important component of the Qing army. This is because in addition to the firearm camps of Kong Youde and others, there were also separate artillery battalions in the Liao army. Among them, Zhang Cunren, the artillery battalion was led by the artillery battalion, and there were hundreds of red barbarian cannons in the artillery battalion.

The third part is the green camp of the surrendered army, which is quite complex, and in terms of combat effectiveness alone, there are even differences in the quality of the world.

There are three main sources of the green camp of the surrender army. One is the original Jingshi Army of the Ming Dynasty. Most of them surrendered on the way southward in the first year of Hongguang (1645 of the Western calendar). In addition to strong soldiers like the Guanning Iron Cavalry under Wu Sangui, there are also the more capable Ming army like Zuo Menggeng's Zuo Menggeng's first four towns represented by Li Chengdong and others. Of course, the rest are relatively miserable, and they are basically cannon fodder during the war. The other two major sources of the surrender army, the Minjun and the remaining pirates of Zheng Zhilong. Although there are many useful ones in the middle, the combat power is still relatively low.

If sorted by combat power, the general result should be like this: Manchu-Mongolian Eight Banners Army (Guanning Iron Cavalry), Liao Army (Elite Left Army and the Ming Army, Dashun Army, Western Army), others.

In this way, if we compare the three parts of Yongli's army with the Qing army, the Ming court spared no effort to train more than 40,000 imperial guards in the Beijing camp that had been trained and trained with all their money was roughly between the Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners and the Liao army. Li Chengdong, Jin Shenghuan, Li Guo and Gao Yigong troops had the same combat power as that of the Liao army, while the military strength of the ordinary xiang camp was between the Liao army and the Qing army's ordinary green camp.

The Ming army had about 45,000 Beijing camps, 60,000 Xiang camps, 30,000 Li Chengdong's troops, 30,000 Jin Shenghuan, Wang Deren's troops, and more than 60,000 Li Guogao's troops, and more than 50,000 Li Guogao's troops, and the total force that could be deployed in Huguang and Jiangxi was about 250,000. In addition to Wu Sangui's more than 40,000 Guanning troops, the total force that could be deployed in Huguang and Jiangxi was about 200,000. Among them, the main force of the Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners was about 50,000. Although the total number of people was less than that of the Ming army, the overall combat power was much higher. The strategic situation became unfavorable to the Ming Dynasty.

According to Dorgon's arrangement, in mid-April, the Qing army marched to Dongliu County and then divided into two groups. Tan Tai's army was responsible for attacking Jiujiang, while Luke Dehun's army attacked Raozhou. Wu Gao, the Ming general who was ordered by Jin Shenghuan to guard Jiujiang was timid. He heard that the main force of the Manchu and Mongolian Eight Banners of the Qing army was attacking, so he took the initiative to abandon the city and fled. His greed for life and fear of death almost caused the whole situation to be out of control.

In late April, Yang Jie, the deputy general of aid and suppression sent by the Qing court, basically occupied the Jiujiang City, known as the gateway to Jiangxi without any effort. At the same time, the Lukedehun army also conquered Raozhou Prefecture on April 25, and since then, Guangxin and Raozhou have captured the enemy again.

Tan Tai and Liu Liangzuo and others received the order to lead the troops to rescue Ganzhou. However, although the Qing army was mainly Manchu and Mongolian cavalry and was moving faster, it was not an airplane after all, and could advance thousands of miles in a day and night, and it was mainly based on horses. So after Tan Tai and the generals discussed, everyone agreed that when the army reached Ganzhou, it was estimated that Liu Wuyuan and Gao Jinku's head had moved, so they could never continue to fight like this one city and one land.
Chapter completed!