Chapter 68: Arrangements for the Finale

“Did Zhu Dadian and Xie Sanbin ask for grain?”

“Reporting, no,” Huang Ande replied. “Xie Sanbin didn’t say anything. Zhu Dadian gave me one hundred and fifty taels of silver, fifty for me and one hundred for the soldiers of the cavalry company. I have already handed it all over.”

“Very good,” Lu Wenyan nodded. “We fight for the Senate, for the common people of the world, not for a few coins.” He already knew about this matter. It seemed that the disciplinary education of the past few years had not been in vain.

“To serve the Senate and the people!” Huang Ande stood at attention.

“You’ve worked hard this time. Go back and rest well,” Lu Wenyan said. “The Senate has sent us frozen mutton, radishes, and Chinese cabbage. I have already instructed the kitchen to make you a mutton hot pot for dinner tonight.”

“Thank you, Chief,” Huang Ande saluted and withdrew.

“It seems my namesake is quite sensible,” Zhu Mingxia, who had been silent all this time, said with a smile.

“Right now, Old Zhu’s biggest problem is how to explain it to the emperor,” Lu Wenyan said. “Now his arrogance is not so rampant. At present, the troops of the Shandong Field Camp still need to be reorganized, and he will have to rely more on Sun Yuanhua.” He was somewhat elated. “This was originally his merit, but I didn’t expect him to have to share it with Old Sun. Our presence in Shandong is also guaranteed.”

Zhu Mingxia said, “The next step is how to deal with Li Jiucheng and Kong Youde.”

The rebels’ strategic situation had not been broken. This was something Zhu Mingxia had anticipated long ago. In this kind of climate, it was already a feat for the winter-clad rebels to pursue for dozens of miles in the snow, relying on their cavalry advantage. Even so, the rebels’ own losses in the pursuit were also staggering. The reconnaissance cavalry who followed and scouted reported that there were corpses of rebels and their horses frozen to death everywhere along the way.

The rebels could neither break through Laizhou, nor could they dare to move to Pingdu, Qixia, and other places while the main force of the government army was still intact—this meant abandoning Dengzhou, the only port where they could get reinforcements and escape.

“I think that after the spring, they will inevitably, as in history, take a boat out to sea and flee to Dongjiang,” Lu Wenyan said. “Dengzhou is already a dead end. Unless we intervene, they won’t be able to break the situation.”

Of course, they had no need to intervene. The “vitality” of the rebels was already gradually declining, and it was no longer necessary to collect people through the rebels. And through a series of operations, they had also created a “fait accompli” in Dengzhou. The next step was how to squeeze the greatest benefits from the demise of the rebels.

There were more than 100,000 rebels and coerced soldiers and civilians in Dengzhou City. A considerable part of these people were local commoners. According to historical materials, Dengzhou City had already begun to “lack food” at this time, and by the end of the year, it had even reached the point of “killing people for food and rendering people for candles.” According to the recent reports of intelligence personnel, although a large number of government army’s supplies and grain had been captured, the rebels had also begun to slaughter cattle, horses, and livestock for food.

And in history, when Kong Youde fled, he carried out a comprehensive massacre and robbery of the entire city, “killing, robbing, and defiling, with extreme cruelty.” So the three of them discussed and, in order to avoid excessive losses of people and livestock in the city, put the recovery of Dengzhou on the agenda.

Recovering Dengzhou and eliminating the rebels was not militarily difficult. The main considerations were political factors and the impact on the future development of the situation.

The most crucial issue was whether to let Kong Youde go and surrender to the Manchu Qing. From a historical point of view, after Kong Youde and others fled from Dengzhou, they wandered among the islands in the Bohai Bay for several months, obviously having great hesitation about whether to surrender to the Manchu Qing. During this period, they also made several requests for pacification, hoping to continue to maintain a small situation between the Ming and Qing and Korea. In the end, there was a component of “having no choice” in their surrender to the Manchu Qing.

However, Kong Youde’s surrender to the Manchu Qing caused a great change in the strategic balance between the Ming and Qing. The Ming army that surrendered with Kong Youde were all well-trained musketeers and craftsmen who could cast cannons. From then on, the Manchu Qing’s ability to manufacture and use firearms was greatly improved. So much so that in the subsequent course of the war, the advantage of using artillery gradually shifted to the Manchu Qing side.

The Standing Committee of the Senate held several discussions on this issue, during which it also convened a hearing with senators from the Great Library and the Foreign Intelligence Bureau. In the end, it was decided not to let Kong Youde’s troops surrender to the Manchu Qing, but to eliminate them directly.

Although the Huanghan faction cheered for this, the enthusiasm was second only to the time when a large number of Southeast Asian slaves were used to mine. But as far as the Executive Committee was concerned, this decision was entirely based on comprehensive interests.

If Kong Youde were allowed to escape, he would inevitably, as in history, drift among the islands of the Bohai Bay for several months in search of a way out. Almost all of these islands had Dongjiang troops. They would either fight against the rebels or join the rebels to fight against the government army and the Korean army. A large number of people died. When Kong Youde fled from Dengzhou, he took away 12,000 soldiers and civilians, but when he surrendered to the Qing, there were less than 10,000 people left. Not only his own troops, but after that, the power of the Dongjiang Town on the various islands of Liaodong was greatly reduced, which eventually led to the fall of Lushun and the death of Huang Long in battle. This was equivalent to all the hundreds of thousands of people in Dongjiang being given to the Manchu Qing. This was very uneconomical for the Senate.

A secondary reason was that after Kong Youde surrendered to the Manchu Qing, the Senate’s monopoly as an arms dealer would be threatened, and the Senate’s influence on the Manchu Qing would also decline as a result.

“We need to act a little faster and let the Ming army take Dengzhou before the thirtieth of the lunar new year,” Lu Wenyan said with confidence. “At the beginning of the new year, letting Chongzhen get some good news will make him feel much better.”

“It’s a bit difficult to help the Ming army capture Dengzhou,” Zhu Mingxia said with a smile. “It would be more like it if I commanded the northern detachment alone.”

The Ming army was newly defeated and was now panting. I’m afraid they wouldn’t have much interest in besieging Dengzhou again. Besides, if they really came, the northern detachment, which was different in training, tactics, and equipment, would not be able to cooperate with them in battle. At that time, which troops would compete for merit would instead disrupt the rhythm of the attack. Finally, the military discipline of the Ming army was extremely bad. In history, after the Sichuan army broke into Shuicheng, they fought while robbing women and property, and as a result, they were driven out by the rebels’ counterattack. After Dengzhou City was broken, the various government forces carried out a comprehensive looting of Dengzhou. The population in the city was almost completely massacred and plundered, and Dengzhou became a ruin. It was not until the ninth year of Chongzhen that the city was gradually restored.

“We’ll do it alone. After we’re done, we’ll hand it over to Sun Yuanhua and Zhu Dadian—it’s a pity that Sun Yuanhua can’t take all the credit for this.” Lu Wenyan now had a lot of affection for this governor. “As for the property and population in the city, of course, they were all killed and plundered by the rebels…”

While they were discussing how to attack Dengzhou, someone suddenly came to report that Kong Youde had sent an envoy to request a meeting with the master of the village.

“Just in time, he’s come to our door,” Lord Lu said with a smile. “Alright, let’s hear what they want to do first—Old Chen, you go out and meet him.”

Chen Sigen and Kong Youde held a second secret meeting on Dazhushan Island. Kong Youde proposed to exchange the population in the city for grain.

There were still more than 100,000 people in the city, including a large number of coerced and plundered commoners. Kong Youde and others discussed that keeping these people in the city would not only consume grain, but also create many unstable factors. It would be better to hand them all over to Lord Lu—after all, what he liked most was people.

With enough grain reserves, it would not be difficult to hold out until next spring. Otherwise, they would be reduced to eating human flesh before they could survive the winter. Although the soldiers in the chaotic times had long since become hard-hearted and had no problem eating human flesh, everyone would still rather eat grain if there was any.

The three of them discussed and thought that they could agree to Kong Youde—since they had already set the goal of capturing the population of Dengzhou, it was their duty to support these people. And starting to supply them now would preserve more manpower than supplying them after many people had starved to death or been eaten.

They immediately agreed to the plan of exchanging population for grain, still at the same price as before for refugees. However, this time, the grain used to exchange for refugees was all potatoes from Jeju Island. Because fresh potatoes were not easy to store, besides supplying the local area of Jeju, they were also transported in large quantities to Qimu Island to support the refugees.

The two sides agreed that the exchanged population would be transported by the rebel navy’s ships to Changshan Island—this was currently guarded by the rebels and served as an important base to ensure the sea route. Then, the Qimu Island side would send ships to transport the population away. The potatoes used to exchange for the population would also be delivered here.

Based on this agreement, Zhu Mingxia proposed a battle plan.

“We will first exchange the population and reduce the population in the city to a lower number,” Zhu Mingxia said. “They will definitely leave their core troops behind. I estimate that there should be thirty to forty thousand people, including family members and craftsmen. They will not hand these people over to us. When they stop exchanging population for grain, we will launch an amphibious attack in conjunction with the navy, directly occupy Changshan Island, and control the Miaodao Islands.”

The Miaodao Islands were very close to Dengzhou and were the sea gate of Dengzhou. The rebels had long had garrisons here. In history, when Zhu Dadian was besieging Dengzhou, he had specially sent troops to attack Changshan Island, but was defeated by Kong Youde and ultimately failed to block the rebels in Dengzhou.

“Once we take the Miaodao Islands, the rebels’ sea escape route will be closed. Kong Youde and his men know that they are no match for us at sea and will inevitably have to negotiate with us. At that time, we will demand that he hand over Dengzhou City and its treasures as a condition, and allow him to leave Dengzhou by boat with his direct-line troops and all his firearms.”

“Then why don’t we just occupy Changshan Island directly? It would save the trouble of exchanging people,” Chen Sigen didn’t understand. “Besides, didn’t you say we can’t let the rebels escape?”

Lu Wenyan understood Zhu Mingxia’s plan, “Once they are out at sea, they will have no choice.”

“Exactly. In this way, we can reduce the loss of population to a minimum,” Zhu Mingxia said. “We have to consider that they may refuse this condition and defend Dengzhou to the death. At that time, won’t all these people be wasted in there?”