At the beginning of the San Francisco Rebellion, the Qing army was caught off guard by Wu Sangui's rebels, and the urine flowed. Wu Sangui, Geng Jingzhong, and Shang Kexi's rebels swept through Jiangnan in a very short period of time, occupying the provinces of Yun, Gui, Sichuan, Xiang, Guangdong, and Min, which for a time made the Qing court panic, marching left and right, and taking care of one or the other. Later, the Kangxi Emperor adjusted the strategy of opposing the enemy, carrots and sticks, divided and disintegrated, and it took eight years to finally quell the rebellion.
Figure - Schematic diagram of the Rebellion of San Francisco
We look back at the entire San Francisco Rebellion, Wu Sangui's rebel alliance strength can not be strong, the combined forces of all sides and the Qing court, the area south of the Yangtze River is basically controlled by the rebel alliance, it is strange that Jiangxi is not controlled by Wu Sangui's alliance, and another part of Zhejiang is also not controlled. However, Wu Sangui divided his troops from Sichuan to attack Shaanxi from the north, what was the reason for this?
Wu Sangui is actually not as the "Deer Ding" said that he was born anti-bone, to a large extent, he rebelled was forced by Kangxi, from the beginning of his introduction of the Qing army into the customs, and later worked hard to be loyal to the Qing court, in fact, it is to fight for himself and his descendants to fight a good future, loyal to the Qing Dynasty. When his desire to be a happy king of the clan was also shattered by Kangxi, he could only rebel. Although he had a great advantage in the early stage of the rebellion, he did not want to completely destroy the Qing court, perhaps he also knew that it was unlikely, and the offensive was suspended after the soldiers pushed to Hunan, hoping to negotiate with the Qing court and rule the river, but he met the same ambitious Kangxi, and his son was killed and completely cut off the idea of peace talks.
Map - Topographic map of Jiangxi, the west, south and east sides are mainly adjacent to Hunan, Guangdong and Fujian
Wu Sangui did not attack Jiangxi at the beginning, and in addition to holding the illusion of peace talks, it also had a lot to do with the geographical environment of Jiangxi. We know that compared with other provinces, Jiangxi's jurisdiction has changed the least in history. It is because of Jiangxi's very closed geographical environment, facing the river on one side and surrounded by mountains on three sides, which is basically isolated from several surrounding provinces.
Between the east and Fujian is the endless Wuyi Mountains, which run from northeast to southwest. The south and Guangdong are separated by the Nanling Mountains, the Jiulian Mountains, and the west and Hunan mountains, which are divided by the Luoxiao Mountains, all of which are heavy and heavy mountains. There is also a Mufu Mountain Range in the northwest direction, and the Huangshan Mountain Range in the northeast direction, that is, there is still a small opening in the north, and as a result, there is also the Yangtze River and the vast Poyang Lake. With only a limited number of rugged mountain roads accessible between Jiangxi and the provinces, the Yangtze River waterway is the most suitable for military operations.
Figure - Schematic map of the location of Jiangxi Province
Jiangxi's unique geographical environment, it is really not easy to invade Jiangxi. It is relatively easier to enter by the waterway from the north. After the failure of the peace talks, Wu Geng divided his troops to attack Jiangxi, Geng Jingzhong attacked Guangxin (Shangrao) from the east, and Wu Sangui's troops divided into two roads, one taking the Yangtze River waterway to attack Jiujiang, and the other by land to attack Pingxiang, Yuanzhou, Ji'an and other places.
Wu Geng's combined forces occupied more than thirty cities in Jiangxi, but due to the discord between the generals Han Daren and Gao Dajie, they lost the opportunity to capture the whole of Jiangxi, and the occupied cities were gradually retaken by the Qing army. The entire offensive front also left a large opening, which was later used by the Qing counterattack.
Figure - Schematic map of the southeastern provinces during the Qing Dynasty
As for the northern part of Zhejiang, it was not captured by the rebels, except for the heavy defense of the Qing army, it was related to the mutual attack between Zheng Jing and Geng Jingzhong. Although Zheng Jing responded to Wu Sangui's call, judging from the territories of Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, and Xiamen, where he had sought Geng Jingzhong's loyalty since he sent his troops, he just wanted to take advantage of the fire to loot and touch the fish in muddy waters. After taking Quanzhou and other places, he continued to attack Geng Jingzhong, causing Geng to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. If Zheng Jing really followed the rebel alliance, he sent water divisions to attack Zhoushan and Chongming Island in Zhejiang Province, and then went up the river to threaten Nanjing, even if it could not be attacked, it could also contain a large number of Qing troops.
Figure - Schematic map of the topography of Shaanxi
The main reason why Wu Sangui divided his troops to attack Shaanxi was that there was a rebellion by Wang Fuchen on the Shaanxi side, and Wu Sangui had a lot of trust in his righteous son Wang Fuchen and wanted to take Shaanxi to attack Beijing. Wu Sangui's move cannot be said to be wrong, because the main forces of both sides are hanging out along the Yangtze River, and it is not necessarily possible to defeat the Qing army if they are hard, and even if they can win, they will suffer heavy losses. Taking the Sichuan-Shaanxi circuitous way, copying the Kangxi old nest is also a wonderful move. It's just that Wang Fuchen is also a person at both ends of the rat, and when he saw that the situation was not good, he lowered the Qing Dynasty again and pit Wu Sangui.