Grand Tutor Ruan considered the "Great Ming Duke of Assisting the Nation," the spokesperson of the Dai family in Zhejiang, Duke Dai, to be a complete fool.
The million-strong allied army, composed of over twenty rebel forces of various sizes, saw the Great Ming court's own forces as the most capable. The rest, while not entirely useless, were essentially there for show.
With their own territory being invaded, what advantages could the remaining rebel forces possibly gain?
After a long pause, Grand Tutor Ruan finally spoke, "Jiaxing Garrison has been attacked by Zhu Erdan's forces. Xiétáng Town and Guǎngpíng Town have fallen. Jinshan Garrison, previously seized from the traitor Zhu Zhongfeng, has also been lost."
"In Shaanxi, the traitor Zhu's army has captured Xi'an Prefecture and renamed it Chang'an Prefecture. Ganzhou is under siege, and Nanshan is in peril."
"In Hubei, Yunyang Prefecture has been breached, and Xiangyang and De'an Prefectures are in urgent need of reinforcement."
"I presume there's no need for me to elaborate on Anhui?"
Grand Tutor Ruan said with a bitter expression, "What good news could there be? Is it good news that the traitor Zhu Jinsong can go to Fengyang for ancestral worship at any time?"
This could indeed be considered good news, but it was good news for Zhu Jinsong. For Grand Tutor Ruan and the leaders of the Huang, Mei, Dai, and Xu families, this news was a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
Why was this happening?
Their army's numbers were no less than Zhu Jinsong's, and their firearms were no inferior to those in Zhu Jinsong's army. This should have been a war where victory was assured, yet it had turned into this disaster.
Finally, Grand Tutor Ruan spoke first, "In my opinion, either Zhu Jinsong's army is exceptionally skilled at rapid assaults, capable of fighting after marching a hundred li a day, or Zhu Jinsong has been concealing the actual number of troops under his command."
Upon hearing Grand Tutor Ruan's words, the other great lords exchanged glances and then fell into an eerie silence.
If Zhu Jinsong had been concealing the number of his troops, and these regions were attacked by different armies, it would be manageable. After all, Zhu Jinsong controlled six provinces, so having more troops was understandable.
But what if Zhu Jinsong only dispatched over two hundred thousand troops...
Even if these over two hundred thousand troops were divided into three routes, with the same army attacking Xiétáng Town and Guǎngpíng Town, the same army attacking Ganzhou and Nanshan, and the same army attacking Yunyang Prefecture and De'an Prefecture, it would mean that Zhu Jinsong's troops were capable of marching a hundred li and immediately engaging in battle.
Historically, there had been infantry armies capable of rapid assaults over a hundred li, but these armies were small in scale and number. Yet, Zhu Jinsong, the traitor, commanded over two hundred thousand troops, and each unit could march a hundred li and immediately enter the fray... it was terrifyingly so!
Of course, according to Zhu Jinsong's statements in the "Great Ming Newspaper," he had dispatched a total of 1.2 million troops this time—which was even more terrifying!
After a considerable time, Mei Nianqiu, the leader of the Mei family and Duke of Chengguo of Great Ming, looked at Grand Tutor Ruan and asked, "Then, according to the Grand Tutor, what should we do now?"
Grand Tutor Ruan shook his head slightly and said, "What else can we do? Either let these allied armies retreat and defend their own territories, or consolidate our forces and, regardless of how Zhu Jinsong's army fights, march directly towards Jinan Prefecture."
"As long as we eliminate Zhu Jinsong, this top-tier rebel, the crises in Shaanxi, Hubei, Anhui, and even my Zhejiang will be resolved."
"If we cannot win, the consequences are obvious."
This bit of nonsense was essentially saying nothing.
If these allied armies were to retreat and defend their own territories, the ultimate outcome would be to be defeated individually by Zhu Jinsong's army.
If these allied armies were to unite and directly attack Jinan Prefecture to eliminate Zhu Jinsong, that was also pure fantasy.
Even if all the rebel forces from other regions were willing to unite, and even if Mei Chunrao of Guangdong and Bai Ziqi of Guangxi could unite, would the White Lotus Society in Hubei unite with them?
Mei Chunrao and Bai Ziqi could unite because Guangdong and Guangxi were located in the far south, far from Zhu Jinsong's army.
Try the White Lotus Society.
Even if the White Lotus Society knew that they could only achieve stable missionary work by eliminating Zhu Jinsong, would they abandon Hubei and follow Zhu Zhongqu's army to attack Jinan?
That was an international joke.
Even if Zhu Jinsong was eliminated, the White Lotus Society would lose its territory. The only outcome would be for the White Lotus Society to be swallowed whole by these allies.
This logic also applied to other rebels in regions like Shaanxi and Anhui.
Therefore, these rebels of the Anti-Ming Alliance could absolutely not achieve selfless unity.
The other great lords of the Huang, Mei, Dai, and Xu families also fell silent.
This was because the Huang, Mei, Dai, and Xu families themselves could not achieve selfless unity. The Huang family was a renowned salt merchant throughout Zhejiang and even the former Qing Dynasty. The Ruan family lived comfortably thanks to the "Illustrated Catalog of Wonderful Instruments" passed down by their ancestors. The Mei, Dai, and Xu families were somewhat less affluent.
Indeed, among these five families, the Dai family was the most active in opposing the Qing, and the Xu family had initially considered defecting directly to Zhu Jinsong. The Mei family maintained an indifferent attitude, while the Ruan and Huang families, especially the Huang family, were the most fervent in their opposition to Zhu Jinsong.
The Huang family, in particular, wished for the deaf old dog Qian to pacify the realm immediately so that the Huang family could continue to be the wealthiest salt merchant in the land.
The reason these families could unite and rally over twenty other rebel forces of various sizes to jointly attack Zhu Jinsong was entirely because Zhu Jinsong's policy of "striking down local tyrants and distributing land" touched upon the fundamental interests of these families.
As Zeng Cheng had previously lamented about Zhu Jinsong, if it weren't for Zhu Jinsong's insistence on implementing the policy of striking down local tyrants and distributing land, the realm would have long been "pacified with a mere declaration."
...
In the 4484th year of the Yellow Emperor's era, the third year of Zhu Jinsong's enthronement, the fifty-third year of Qianlong's reign, May.
Geng Rui, who was in charge of the Right Army Commander's Office, led the Fourth and Sixth Armies under the Right Army Commander's Office, a total of 80,000 troops, out of Shaanxi. The Fourth Army attacked south of Chang'an, while the Sixth Army attacked Fengxiang and Gansu.
Zhu Erdan, in charge of the Left Army Commander's Office, led the Second and Seventh Armies, a total of 80,000 troops, southward. The Second Army attacked Zhejiang from Suzhou Prefecture, while the Seventh Army attacked Anhui from Xuzhou Prefecture.
Liu Hemming, in charge of the Central Army Commander's Office, led the First Army south from Xinyang, Henan, to attack Hubei.
After beginning its offensive into Hubei, the First Army abandoned its previous tactics of ambush and sneak attacks and directly launched a fierce assault.
The First Division, Second Division, and the Army Artillery Regiment advanced without regard, while the Third Division assisted the official system sent by Zeng Cheng in reorganizing Hubei.
First, they publicly tried and condemned corrupt gentry, then distributed land, followed by the establishment of farmer associations, village farmer associations, county yamen, and prefecture yamen. With this series of actions, Hubei essentially had no significant resistance. The White Lotus Society was a professional rebel group? Sorry, Zhu Jinsong's army was more professional than the White Lotus Society.
Seeing that their homeland was about to be lost, the White Lotus Society leader directly abandoned the so-called Anti-Ming Alliance and returned to Hubei to prepare to counter the First Army's offensive.
With the departure of the White Lotus Society, the so-called Anti-Ming Alliance immediately disintegrated.
Because, besides the White Lotus Society fleeing first, the remaining rebels in regions like Shaanxi and Anhui also fled one after another.
In the 4484th year of the Yellow Emperor's era, the third year of Zhu Jinsong's enthronement, the fifty-third year of Qianlong's reign, July. Shaanxi was completely under Zhu Jinsong's control. Hubei and Anhui were successively pacified. Geng Rui directly led his troops to attack Sichuan, while Liu Hemming began his offensive into Hunan.
Among the so-called allied forces, the "Great Ming Emperor" of Sichuan fled back to Sichuan, and the "Prince of Xiang" of Great Ming in Hunan also led his troops back to Hunan.
Mei Chunrao of Guangdong, citing his eighteenth concubine giving birth, directly led his troops back to Guangdong. Bai Ziqi of Guangxi also found a pretext and fled back to Guangxi.
On the way back, Mei Chunrao incidentally incorporated Ningdu Prefecture and Ganzhou Prefecture of Jiangxi into his territory. Bai Ziqi incidentally captured Yongzhou Prefecture and Guiyang Prefecture.
With Mei Chunrao and Bai Ziqi's actions, the rebels in Jiangxi, who had originally intended to join Zhu Zhongqu in eliminating Zhu Jinsong, went mad and began to turn their attention to attacking Mei Chunrao.
The plan conceived by the great lords of the Ruan, Huang, Mei, Dai, and Xu families – to first eliminate the top rebel leader Zhu Jinsong, and then compete for victory based on their own abilities – had now become an incredibly ironic joke.
Not only did the great lords of the Ruan, Huang, Mei, Dai, and Xu families not expect this, but even Zhu Jinsong did not expect things to develop into such a laughable situation.
What was this? Where was the promised world attacking the Ming?
I haven't even exerted myself yet, and you've already fallen?
However, Zhu Jinsong's subordinates were no longer as short-handed as they were in the previous years.
This was similar to doing business. It might be difficult to earn ten thousand yuan with ten thousand yuan, but earning two hundred million yuan with one hundred million yuan would become very easy.
Originally, Zhu Jinsong only occupied the single province of Shandong, making it difficult to cultivate talent. After occupying the entire Shandong, the efficiency of cultivating personnel increased significantly. Now that Zhu Jinsong controlled six provinces, even if the efficiency of cultivating talent did not increase at all, the number of talents cultivated was almost several times greater.
The strong became stronger.
Of course, as the territory increased, the matters Zhu Jinsong had to deal with also increased. The national treasury received more silver, which also meant that more money needed to be spent.
Liu Huaiwen, who had previously clamored to "fight big if you fight," was no longer clamoring.
Liu Huaiwen had initially believed that fifteen million taels of silver would be sufficient to pacify the realm. However, in the first two months of the war, the national treasury had spent one million taels. In the third and fourth months, it had directly spent two million taels. By the fifth month, the national treasury's expenditure had even reached five million taels.
This was only after conquering Shaanxi, Hubei, and Anhui, with many other regions yet to be conquered, and the national treasury had already disbursed eight million taels out of the fifteen million. The remaining seven million taels did not know how long they could sustain the war.
It was evident that as the speed of territorial expansion increased, the speed at which money was spent would also increase.
This was because the later stages of the war would become increasingly difficult.
In regions like Shaanxi and Anhui, there were originally no significant rebels. The White Lotus Society in Hubei might have been able to fight the Qing to a draw, but against Zhu Jinsong's army, the White Lotus Society's troops, who treated firearms as demonic objects and used menstrual pads and black dog blood to dispel evil spirits, posed even less of a threat than the Qing army.
However, the remaining regions such as Zhejiang, Hunan, Jiangxi, Sichuan, and Guangdong would not be so easy to conquer.
If nothing else, the Zhejiang version of the "Great Ming Court" alone was enough to drive Liu Huaiwen mad.
The Ming Dynasty's army liked to attack people with cannonballs and grenades. The Zhejiang version of the "Great Ming" army also liked to attack people with cannonballs. Even the Zhejiang version of the Great Ming army had grenades, although their power was somewhat inferior to the grenades used by Zhu Jinsong's troops.
The key was that two armies that both liked to attack people with cannonballs and grenades, and were equally fearless of death, clashed...