Li Qin was also shocked after seeing the message above.
Because he did not expect that Li Hongji's peasant army could actually take Wuchang.
He Tengjiao actually ran away.
Wuchang was a key town he planned to conquer in his next southward march to Jiangnan and destroy the Nanjing court.
Now it has actually fallen into Li Hongji's hands.
He originally intended to have his troops acclimatize to the southern climate.
Select some who still have fighting ability, then take them along with the artillery they have equipped, and tens of thousands of surrendered southern soldiers.
In addition, the peasant army under Li Hongji and others, with the support of artillery, captured the three towns of Wuchang.
As a result, you just ran away, handing Wuchang over to Li Hongji's peasant army.
It should be noted that in his original plan, he intended to take Wuchang together with Li Hongji.
That should be his army as the main force, with Li Hongji and his peasant army as the secondary force.
He'll be in charge of Wuchang then.
But now, with He Teng's sudden escape plan, Wuchang has fallen completely into the hands of Li Hongji and his peasant army.
He had no influence of his own in Wuchang.
That's when things get tough.
For those peasant soldiers who had little experience of the world, this was the first time they had entered a well-preserved and prosperous town.
They had never occupied such a wealthy city before.
If they refuse to leave...
Should I fight them with swords?
Li Qin then produced a blank imperial edict and bestowed an official title upon Li Hongji.
After all, he is now nominally his subordinate, and his capture of Wuchang this time is a great achievement.
I'll just give him both the reward and the pressure this time.
Subsequently, Li Qin further bestowed upon Li Hongji the titles of Governor-General of Henan and Marquis of Yushun.
At the same time, he ordered his troops to withdraw from Wuchang and station themselves in Hankou in the north.
He himself will send troops with artillery to take over Wuchang.
Of course, you can take away all the treasures, grain, and people in Wuchang.
All I need is Wuchang City.
After conveying his message, he handed the imperial edict directly to the Military Affairs Office.
They were to draft an imperial edict according to their own wishes, and then go through the proper procedures to send it to Li Hongji in Wuchang.
At the same time, he ordered Liu Shengwu to quickly take his reinforcements stationed in Jingzhou, select the troops that still had combat power, bring artillery, and the surrendered soldiers recruited from the south to Wuchang.
If Li Hongji refuses to let us leave Wuchang City, we will station ourselves outside the city and await his next instructions.
In fact, although Li Qin gave Liu Shengwu an order, he also gave orders that Li Hongji would follow if he did not obey his orders and cede Wuchang.
However, he knew that Li Hongji was unlikely to disobey his orders.
Because Li Hongji and his peasant coalition were based in Henan.
Their initial goal in heading south was to capture Nanyang and plunder its wealth and grain.
Now they have not only captured Nanyang, but also occupied the prosperous Wuchang.
In addition to what they had plundered along the way, they had already amassed a fortune.
Now that they've broken ties with themselves in Huguang, I doubt many in that peasant coalition could make that decision.
Especially during their journey south, based on reports from the Jinyiwei (Imperial Guards) they had secretly placed within the army, as well as Liu Shengwu and others.
Many peasant army leaders began to fear Li Jinglong after they defeated him.
Let them fight against the army that has demonstrated its formidable fighting power along the way.
They probably didn't have the guts.
After Li Qin issued the order...
He then ordered the armies in the capital and other regions to continue preparations, as his next step was to march south to the south of the Yangtze River.
During this period, he kept ordering Zhang Hengshuo, who was currently in Lianghuai, to conquer cities and territories and cause trouble everywhere in Lianghuai.
Ask him to draw more detailed maps of the Huai River region and to contact local officials and gentry.
Prepare for the future southward advance of our army.
He ordered officials in various regions to quickly gather provisions and weapons for him, and once everything was ready, he immediately led his army to conquer Jiangnan.
Li Qin looked at the map in front of him. Now that he had taken control of Huguang, he also had control over the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
The Jinhu Prefecture in Jiangxi has also secretly submitted to him.
The Jinling court is now completely caught in a pincer movement.
The so-called Yangtze River defense line can no longer stop anything.
With the change in the strategic situation, his previous plan to conquer Jiangnan was no longer applicable.
Our own navy is inferior to that of the Nanjing court; their navy will surely be able to firmly control the surface of the Yangtze River.
Now that I have taken over Huguang, if I were to attack Jiangnan, I could divide my troops into two parts.
As he spoke, Li Qin divided the map in front of him into two parts along the Yangtze River.
On the north bank of the Yangtze River, there were the Huai Army of the Nanjing imperial court, as well as tens of thousands of former Shanxi troops under Yang Zhiyong.
On the Jiangnan side, there are 100,000 newly trained troops from the Jiangnan imperial court.
Moreover, according to intelligence from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, they traded with the foreigners at sea and purchased a large number of cannons and muskets.
This is a bit difficult to deal with, even though only a portion of these 100,000 people use muskets and cannons.
However, he was well aware that the training time for musketeer units was very short.
After this period of training, they should have developed a certain level of combat capability.
However, the other units probably haven't been trained yet.
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