Chapter 518: Guilty, but the Sentence Should Be Lightened

Seeing that Zhu Cilang had adopted Jing Muqing's clever plan, Li Yan smiled and said to Crown Prince Zhu, "Thousand Years, we originally could not find Li Zicheng's weak spot, so we had no choice but to advance steadily, pushing forward step by step. Although we can take Hanyang and Hankou, it will take at least a month or two. And even if we break through Hanyang and Hankou, Li Zicheng will not necessarily be put on the back foot. After all, Hanyang and Hankou are not his lair!

Now things are much better. We no longer need to storm Hanyang and Hankou by force; we only need to bypass the key points along the Han River and strike straight at the roving bandits' nest. Not only can we enter Xiangyang, we can also go from Runing into Nanyang. Nanyang is the old territory of the Tang fief, and the brothers under the Prince of Tang still have many old associates in Nanyang. If we can also raise the banner of land distribution by headcount, we will certainly turn the roving bandits' world in Nanyang upside down."

Li Zicheng's garrison forces in Xiangyang and Nanyang will not be too numerous, but they are enough to hold the cities. Without opening the Han River route, the Ming army's infantry and cavalry can still cross, and the three-pounder battalion guns and twenty-four-pounder mortars can be hauled over in small numbers, but the twelve-pounder and twenty-four-pounder Hongyi cannon certainly cannot be dragged up there.

So taking strong cities like Nanyang and Xiangyang will not be easy, especially Xiangyang, which has the strength of Mount Xian and the peril of the Han River. Without strong naval support, it would be difficult for an outside enemy even to get close to the city walls, let alone assault the city.

And getting the navy to break through layer after layer of obstacles and reach the walls of Xiangyang is truly no easy matter!

Jing Muqing interjected, "The military advisor is absolutely right. I am a native of the Jing-Xiang region and know the terrain on both banks of the Han River like the back of my hand. I know there are many defensible strategic points along the Han River.

I also know that the rebel Li has built fortresses at Qianjiang, Mount Neifang, Zhongxiang, Yicheng, Mount Lumen, Mount Xian, and several other places, preparing to resist step by step. If the government troops advance cautiously and consolidate at every step, they might not take Xiangyang even in a year."

Li Yan nodded. "What Li Zicheng is plotting is surely to set up defenses along the Han River to the east, delaying the government troops' advance. At the same time, he will take Jingzhou, Yuezhou, and Shizhou to the west, then look south toward Hunan and press west against Bashu. In that way he will be in an invincible position!"

Zhu Cilang smiled. "We have also received a memorial from Ma Shiying. Zhang Xianzhong is gathering troops at Chengdu, preparing to counterattack Chongqing. A great battle in Bashu is about to erupt... If Li Zicheng succeeds at Jingzhou, Shizhou, and Yuezhou, I fear he will advance west into Kuizhou and threaten Chongqing, and then the situation in Bashu will be beyond saving. Perhaps Li Zicheng even wants to learn from Liu Bei of the Three Kingdoms era, entering Bashu from Jingchu to establish a three-way division of the realm in one stroke."

Li Zicheng's scheme was hardly brilliant, and naturally it could not fool the three cobblers Zhu Cilang, Li Yan, and Jing Muqing.

Li Yan laughed. "Li Zicheng's calculations may be shrewd, but he has still overlooked the hearts of the people in his own lair... Who can blame him? His capital is small and his profits thin. If he does not reward his officers and men with the land and people of Xiangyang and Nanyang, who will keep following him?

Those old-camp soldiers are all desperate with poverty. Once they get their chance to turn things around, how can they not scrape a fat haul? Besides, Li Zicheng has no spare funds to subsidize the old-camp soldiers below him. He counts on them squeezing oil out of the land and tenant farmers to support their military service, so he has no choice but to wrong the common people.

Therefore, as long as the banner of land distribution by headcount enters Xiangyang and Nanyang together with the government troops, Li Zicheng is one hundred percent certain to lose control of his own backyard!"

This was feudal society, after all. Li Zicheng could not escape his social foundation and turn the old-camp soldiers under him into revolutionary fighters.

Even revolutionary fighters want the fruits of victory — it is just that their vision is different...

In the eyes of Li Zicheng's old-camp soldiers, what better fruit of victory could there be than an estate of a few dozen, a hundred, or even several hundred or a thousand mu of land? What else could it possibly be?

This is the most typical feudal land-based military service!

Moreover, under the feudal land-based military service system, soldiers who received land from their feudal lord not only received no pay, but also had to provide their own equipment, horses, attendants, and even part of their rations.

For them, military service was not only an obligation but also a huge expense.

So the estates in Xiangyang and Nanyang were the very lifeblood of the old-camp soldiers under Li Zicheng!

Once Zhu Cilang uses land distribution by headcount to stir up the peasants in Xiangyang and Nanyang, even if Li Zicheng can keep his composure, the old-camp soldiers under him will not be able to hold back!

With their family property gone, how could they hold back?

And Zhu Cilang understood this point very well, because the Kenan New Army guard units under his command holding the line in Shandong, Runing, and Fengyang had implemented a similar system — only when granted land would they fight to the death to defend it!

But his division troops were not like that. Only veterans who had won merit or served a certain number of years could receive land.

Yet that land was not meant to cover the costs of military service; it was merely a reward. The division troops were the backbone of the Kenan New Army and the foundation of Zhu Cilang's regime. So he was unwilling to let the division troops' families settle in places beyond his control. Instead, he settled them in Nanjing, and in the future Jiangdu and Wuhan would also become concentration points for the families of the division troops of the New Army.

This practice somewhat resembled the Eight Banners troops of the Qing dynasty, but Zhu Cilang did not want his New Army to become "bannerized" in the future.

He knew that hereditary armies were naturally prone to corruption. The first generation of hereditary soldiers was formidable, but the second and third generations tended to gradually rot, and hereditary soldiers settled in big cities rotted even faster!

So Zhu Cilang did not tie land rewards to hereditary military service. Thus the main force of the Kenan New Army, the division troops, remained, institutionally speaking, mercenaries of the state. They could only rely on the military academy system to train and cultivate officers, so as to guarantee the army's combat effectiveness.

"We must now divide our forces into three routes. Military Advisor, you take one route, commanding the New Army's Left Division and the Runing guard troops to enter Xiangyang and Nanyang by side roads, and also raise the banner of land distribution by headcount and debt and interest forgiveness.

Sanfu, you will command here in Wuchang Prefecture! The artillery coming up from downstream, and the Central Division, are all yours. Continue the attack on Hankou and Hanyang!

Liheng, take the Guards Battalion plus one cavalry regiment and escort Us to Gong'an!"

Zhu Cilang tapped his fingers on the table as he assigned tasks to his trusted commanders.

His mood was now quite excellent. The initiative on the Huguang battlefield was already in hand! Li Yan was originally of roving-bandit stock — how could he get the tricks of peasant uprising wrong? In less than two months he would turn Xiangyang and Nanyang upside down!

Once Xiangyang and Nanyang fell into chaos, the Shun army here at Hanyang would surely be unable to hold steady. With Wu Sanfu's ability and the firepower of the Kenan New Army's artillery, taking Hanyang and Hankou would be no problem.

Zhu Cilang looked thoroughly pleased with himself. "As long as Xiangyang and Nanyang fall into chaos and Hanyang and Hankou are lost, Li Zicheng will be completely on the back foot!

Military Advisor, Sanfu, what do you think of Our arrangements?"

After hearing Crown Prince Zhu's dispositions, Li Yan smiled. "Thousand Years, Jingzhou Prefecture will most likely be Li Zicheng's burial ground! I have only two suggestions: first, do not rashly seek a decisive battle; second, hold Kuizhou and be sure to guard against Li Zicheng fleeing west into Bashu."

Wu Sanfu nodded. "Thousand Years, wait until I have taken Hanyang and Hankou, then advance by both water and land to rendezvous at Jingzhou before going to seek a decisive battle with Li Zicheng. Then all will be foolproof!"

Zhu Cilang nodded with a smile. As for a decisive battle — Li Zicheng is the one in a hurry, not me! Even if we face each other across the river for three or five months, it is no great matter.

At the same moment, far away in Jiangling, Li Zicheng was likewise in no hurry to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army on the south bank of the Yangtze. He was busy with just two matters. First, carrying out land distribution by headcount on the Jianghan Plain. After seizing the prefectural city of Jingmen and the city of Jiangling, the plain between the Yangtze and Han rivers had come completely under the control of the Shun regime, and he could freely distribute land.

Second, preparing for the westward advance into Sichuan — because recently Zhang Xianzhong had also been working hard to reverse his decline. While inviting Li Zicheng into Sichuan, he had also concentrated heavy troops and launched counterattacks against Xuzhou Prefecture, Luzhou, and Chongqing Prefecture, hoping to smash the Ming army in Sichuan in one blow, or at least retake Chongqing Prefecture, the prefecture with the highest tax revenue in all of Sichuan. To this end, Zhang Xianzhong had even sent his Right Chancellor Yan Ximing out of Sichuan by a roundabout route to urge Li Zicheng to send troops against Kuizhou as soon as possible. For Li Zicheng, this opportunity was also extremely rare!