stubborn thief

Chapter 647 Henan

Chongzhen didn't want to manage Shaanxi.

But the situation in the court was extremely strange. Everyone in the court spoke freely about affairs in the east, but dared not say a word about affairs in the northwest.

Suddenly, it was as if the situation had returned to the months after the defeat at Sarhu, when all the civil and military officials in the court were silent.

It was not until this time that people realized that the situation was actually much worse than at Sarhu, even much worse.

No matter how bad the military defeat in Liaodong was, there was still the protection of the Liaoxi Corridor, so there were still people who dared to enter Liaoxi with the imperial sword to stabilize the order.

  But now, if the huge mobile corps under Chen Qiuyu was destroyed by Liu Chengzong in Guanzhong, what terrible impact would it bring? Who could enter Guanzhong to stabilize the situation?

No more.

The Ming army no longer had any decent troops that could be sent to Shaanxi.

It’s not that the Ming Dynasty has no soldiers available. Not only does it have them, but there are also many of them.

It's just that the timing is awkward. No troops that can be sent to Shaanxi can be sent, and the troops that can be sent to Shaanxi have not been reorganized. Even if they are sent there, they will only be a side dish for Liu Chengzong.

Because autumn has arrived, winter is not far away.

As the Liaoze Lake freezes over, it is time for the annual war in the Liaoxi Corridor.

At this critical juncture, the troops in Jizhen, Xuanfu and Guanning cannot move, and Shandong and Liaodong are integrated, so they cannot move at all.

The soldiers of Shanxi, which used to only guard the northern border, now have to deploy heavy defenses along the Yellow River... Of course, this is in the eyes of the imperial court. In fact, there is only one slave camp deployed on the border between Shanxi and Shaanxi.

The lieutenant general of this slave preparation camp was You Hongxun.

Earlier, Dorgon led his troops westward, intending to have a big fight with the Mobei Governor's Office.

As a result, he was tricked by Yang Qi. He first attacked the rabbit in Ordos, but seeing that he would be in a situation of riding a tiger if he dragged the situation out any longer, he attacked Guihua City fiercely for several days, then withdrew his troops and fled to Datong.

The Later Jin army first fought three battles with the defending general Wang Pu in Datong for two days and almost defeated Wang Pu. However, they retreated to other places because Fu Renxi from Xuanfu and Hu Dawei from Shanxi joined the battlefield to provide support.

Wang Pu didn't dare to chase him.

For the Ming army, the battle report was not good to look at, but it was actually okay.

Because Dorgon actually had a lot of troops at his disposal. Apart from the wounded, sick, and hungry, there were still more than 17,000 combat-capable soldiers inside and outside the border wall. They were just scattered to the suburban forts and villages to plunder cattle and sheep. This gave Wang Pu the opportunity to fight a battle.

Wang Pu had a 5,000-man slave camp under Xuanfu, Fu Renxi had a 3,000-man special forces camp, and Hu Dawei had an understaffed gun and artillery camp with only more than 2,000 people.

Their three battalions together only have 10,000 people. If they chase them and fight, they will definitely be defeated.

The person who fought the most brilliantly in this battle was Hu Dawei. He found an opportunity to join the battlefield with a gun and artillery battalion, fought with the Later Jin for a while, scared away the enemy, rescued Wang Pu and Fu Renxi, and suffered almost no casualties in his own unit.

The most shitty one is You Hongxun who is stationed in Shanxi.

His slave preparation camp had 3,000 people, and the situation was the same as Wang Pu's.

The Ming court learned the lesson of the Later Jin's invasion of Xuanda last year, and specially formed two camps to prepare slaves, one with 5,000 people and the other with 3,000 people. Both camps were recruited with generous salaries, and all horses, rewards, and equipment were provided on demand. It can be said that they were the most elite troops stationed in the northern part of Xuanda, Shanxi.

Wang Pu's five thousand men did fight two battles after all. Even though they were not fought beautifully, they were fought after all.

They suffered because the Later Jin army was more powerful and could always defeat the smaller army with the larger one in local battlefields. Even if the Ming army had more troops at the beginning of the war, the support of the Later Jin army would arrive as the fighting went on.

The problem is that when the support of the Later Jin army arrived, if the Ming army retreated, it would be running away; conversely, when the support of the Ming army arrived, the Later Jin army simply stopped fighting and retreated when it should, always holding the initiative.

Compared with Wang Pu, Fu Renxi and Hu Dawei, You Hongxun led his soldiers like a war correspondent.

When the Later Jin army arrived in Yingzhou, he was in Mayi; when the Later Jin army arrived in Mayi, he was in Shuozhou; when the Later Jin army was in Shuozhou, he fled to Kelanzhou.

In fact, in this battle which took place at the turn of summer and autumn in the eighth year of Chongzhen, the coordination between the Ming court's troops was extremely poor, far worse than last year.

However, the militiamen from Datong Town actually performed even better.

Dorgon's troops failed to capture the fort despite repeated attacks, because the Governor Wu Shen had already distributed guns, cannons and gunpowder to the fort, and taught the people to gather in the fort in case of trouble, to defend themselves with guns and cannons, and to fight the Eastern Tartars when they saw them.

In Yingzhou, more than a dozen local militiamen even led their troops to attack the enemy camp at night, scaring the Jin soldiers into breaking into their camp without knowing their true strength and leaving the camp overnight.

Many Jin soldiers were wounded or killed by guns and artillery, and reports were made from forts and strongholds in various places. However, because the battlefield could not be controlled, many corpses were taken away and burned by the Later Jin army.

Even so, more than 80 forts and villages still recovered more than 100 corpses and captured ten Later Jin soldiers alive during the battle.

On the contrary, You Hongxun, an elite soldier of the government army, did not dare to fight from beginning to end and ended up losing the battle.

The most outrageous thing is that although this battalion did not engage in battle with the Later Jin army, it still suffered hundreds of casualties.

They were stationed in Shanxi, contracted a soldier's plague, and were forced to disperse, with more than 300 people dying.

However, at the end of the battle, the Later Jin army did not gain any benefit because Yang Qi came out of Guihua City.

Dorgon had always been on guard against Yang Qi, and only sent 9,000 men into the border wall, leaving the remaining 8,000 men outside the wall to watch Yang Qi.

But outside the border of Datong is Yang Qi's territory. To be more precise, it is the hometown of Yang Qi's subordinate, Qintu Taiji. This is the old land of Chahar.

Qintu Taiji grew up here, and no one was more familiar with the topography of this grassland than him.

Ever since Dorgon led his troops into the border, Yang Qi and Wang Chengen led their troops in various ways to make agitation in Manhan Mountain, preparing to attack. Taiji Qintu took He Huchen on a detour and rushed back to his hometown in Zhangbei to wait for an opportunity.

Dorgon fought desperately inside the Great Wall, burning nearly two thousand corpses and robbing more than two hundred strong men and women and more than seven thousand cattle, sheep, horses and mules.

In fact, he could have robbed more people because during this Western Expedition, Dorgon was so hungry that he developed Liu Chengzong syndrome. When he saw people, he automatically calculated the food in his mind. This was why he did not allow the nobles under his command to rob the population.

There are only more than 200 people, and it was Hauge who snatched them away...The main character is willful and just doesn't listen to his uncle.

Dorgon was so angry that he directly transferred him to lead the troops to the west to join the front line of defense against Yang Qi, and first let the baggage team drive the cattle and sheep to the east.

As a result, He Huchen hacked and robbed them, and chased them relentlessly, stealing most of the livestock. By the time Dorgon reacted, Qintu Taiji had already taken He Huchen on a trip north.

The furious Dorgon had no other choice but to turn around and beat Yang Qi again, until he beat him back to Huihua City, and then he set off on his way home in a huff.

After going around in circles and fighting several battles, they returned empty-handed.

Therefore, this winter, the Later Jin will definitely attack western Liaoning again.

As soon as the Liaoze freezes in winter, it will be time for the annual war in the Liaoxi Corridor.

In the entire north, only the troops in Southern Zhili were able to move.

But the garrison in Nanzhili did not dare to move.

Shaanxi is gone, Henan is in chaos, and a mutiny in Wuqiao, Shandong has ruined the whole of Shandong. These were all important financial provinces of the Ming Dynasty.

The finances of the Ming Dynasty are now supported by Nanzhili, which pays the most taxes and grain.

Therefore, when Chen Qiyu's heavy troops were trapped in Shaanxi, Chongzhen had no spare energy to reorganize an army to rescue them. All he could do was to let Zhang Renxue enter Henan and try to eliminate Zhang Yichuan's rebels.

So the question is, is Zhang Yichuan...easy to destroy?

In Shaanxi, the sweeping king Zhang Yichuan is not a well-known figure.

Especially for Liu Chengzong's Marshal's Office, all the generals and soldiers have witnessed the fighting effectiveness of the Sweeping King's troops.

People even speculated that, let alone a fully armed camp, there was no need to even send out the Han army camp, as the two Mongolian camps alone would be enough to overthrow all five camps of Zhang Yichuan.

Even Zhang Yichuan himself didn't think that he was a significant figure.

After all, in terms of experience, achievements, talents, military strength and influence, he is not even in the top 20 in Shaanxi.

But that was Shaanxi.

This is the most terrifying province at the moment. The intensity of the war in recent years is even higher than that in Liaodong, the front line of the confrontation, and the number of large-scale battles is also more than that in Liaodong.

Zhang Yichuan summoned Li Zicheng to play for him, and after breaking through Wuguan and heading towards Henan, the feeling immediately changed.

"Hey, I think I still have some tricks up my sleeve!"

Of course he has some skills.

In terms of seniority, he had several hundred people under him in the third year of Chongzhen, and was qualified to participate in Wang Jiayin's Qingjian Conference - although he didn't let me in.

In terms of knowledge, when the seats in Qingjian were ranked, he knew Wang Jiayin who was first, Wang Zuogua who was second, Gao Yingxiang who was third, and Liu Chengzong who was fourth.

Wang Jiayin was the big brother, and he was asked to accept all the inheritance after Zuo Guazi surrendered. Gao Yingxiang was his acclaimed big brother, and Liu Chengzong was his immediate superior and the angel investor who burned down the ancestral tomb in Fengyang.

In terms of experience, as early as the fifth year of Chongzhen, he joined forces with the rebel Li Zicheng, the king of chaos Zhang Yingjin, the king of chaos Guo Yingpin, and the scorpion block Tuo Yangkun, and as the second generation of Shaanxi bandit leaders, he emerged in Shanxi.

They fought their way through Shanxi and advanced north of the Yellow River via the Taihang Mountains. They fought in Wu'an of Zhangde Prefecture in Henan and Linming Pass of Guangping Prefecture in northern Zhili, fighting against the Shizhu soldiers, Sichuan soldiers, Changping soldiers, Tongzhou soldiers, Baoding soldiers, and Daming soldiers, with equal outcomes and casualties.

He then sneaked through Henan and crossed all the way back to Shaanxi.

  What kind of elite soldiers and generals has he not seen in the world?

However, Zhang Yichuan was among the Fifth Battalion of the Chuang Army, and his two moves alone were not enough to show his abilities.

After all, they are all militia leaders who have experienced several years of war, and each of them is capable.

During the time in Guanzhong, Zhang Yichuan's troops were rather weak. This was because he frantically expanded the army and formed five battalions, four of which were new refugee camps. Suddenly, they became extremely weak.

Moreover, he had witnessed Liu Chengzong's regular army's large-scale combat tactics in Guanzhong, which made Zhang Yichuan's inner evaluation of himself suddenly drop to the toes.

He wondered whether he had been fighting wars or taking people's lives all these years.

This feeling of suspicion continued until he entered Henan.

Li Zicheng broke through Wuguan and turned south to Huguang; Zhang Yichuan led his troops into Nanyang Prefecture, and his first target was the Prince Tang's Palace in Nanyang.

However, standing in the way of Nanyang is a small county town called Neixiang.

This city was not easy to capture. As early as when Zhang Yichuan was still in the Fifth Battalion of the Chuang Army, they had attacked Neixiang under the leadership of Li Zicheng.

Because the magistrate of Neixiang at that time was named Ai Yuchu, a member of the Ai family of Mizhi, and the boss of the family that stopped Li Zicheng's sheep when he was a child.

When he was a child, he was caught and beaten by Ai Wannian for riding on the stone lion in front of his neighbor's gate.

Later, he borrowed money from Ai Wannian's father, Ai Yingjia. He could not pay the interest and was arrested and beaten by the government.

In his life, Li Zicheng was beaten by the Ai family twice.

So Li Zicheng attacked the city with great enthusiasm.

But they failed to capture the city that year, because Ai Yuchu was also born in a frontier general's family. Ai Mu and Ai Wannian in his clan were both generals. He himself was a scholar and was also good at military strategies.

As early as when the peasant army crossed the Yellow River from Shanxi and entered Henan, Ai Yuchu ordered people to bury an old-fashioned fuse mine called the rolling dragon outside the city. The fuse was all inside the city, waiting for Li Zicheng to come into the city to ignite the mine, killing many people.

But these days are different.

There is no Ai Yuchu in Neixiang anymore.

Funny enough, Ai Yuchu was not promoted and transferred because of his meritorious service in defending the city, but was thrown into the prison of Nanyang Prefecture by the King of Tang, Zhu Youjian.

The reason was that the King of Tang wrote to Chongzhen, saying that the ancestral system stipulated that the local officials of the prince's fiefdom must pay homage to him sooner or later, but now people like Ai Yuchu never came to pay homage.

It could make Chongzhen angry to death.

  Isn't this just looking for trouble?

This fellow was released to inherit the throne in the fifth year of Chongzhen. After becoming the King of Tang, he kept looking for trouble and showed his aggressiveness. He always wanted to interfere in state affairs in his capacity as a prince.

Sometimes he quarreled with his own court officials over the issue of replacing the royal family members, sometimes he reported others for not paying them a visit, and sometimes he asked the court to send more guards. His presence was higher than that of all the other princes combined.

It is obvious that he was locked up in the Flattery Department by his grandfather, the old King Tang, and became a complete lunatic.

  Which prince in the world would look forward to local officials paying him a visit sooner or later and really think of himself as a king?

Use chicken feathers as arrows!

Chongzhen could hardly bear the King of Tang anymore. He thought to himself, "I'm working so hard every day. The border lines are shrinking again and again, the army is suffering defeat after defeat, I'm so poor that I can't do anything. I should be thankful that I haven't collapsed."

  You, my unlucky relative, have been trying to offend me every day. As soon as you ascended the throne, you built a big building in the palace to entertain guests, and even named it Gaoming Building. You think you are smart, right?

If I have the chance, I must deal with this annoying relative who is jumping around!

But there is no chance now. The ancestral regulations are regulations, and no one says that we can ignore them. But since it is mentioned in the memorial, we have to follow the regulations.

So he could only order Ai Yuchu to be arrested and brought to the judicial office for trial, and at the same time have the Ministry of Rites issue a document to reiterate the rules to local officials, telling people that there was indeed such a regulation and they should be careful.

Then Neixiang County was easily captured by Zhang Yichuan. Even when the main force had just arrived at the city, the vanguard lieutenant general Ke Tianhu had already led his troops to attack the city wall.

Afterwards, they opened the granaries and released grain, and swept through forts and strongholds in various places, fighting against the royal guards and local guards along the way, and were not able to match them at all.

Zhang Yichuan found that after leaving Shaanxi, his evaluation of his war returned to normal.

It turns out that the defeat in Shaanxi was not caused by us, but by the people who fought in Shaanxi.

Once we leave Shaanxi, we are Liu Chengzong and Liu from Henan, and we stand out as invincible.

What about Tang County, Dengzhou, and Nanyang Wei, whoever comes will die!

After fighting all the way to the city of Nanyang and besieging the prefectural capital, Zhang Yichuan encountered the biggest problem since entering Henan - plague.

Refugees and defeated soldiers from Hongnong, Lushi and other places in Henan Prefecture fled into Nanyang Prefecture, causing his military strength to surge to 20,000 in an instant, but the resulting plague also swept across the countryside.

In desperation, Zhang Yichuan gave up Nanyang, turned north, and led his troops through Ruzhou to attack Luoyang where the Prince Fu's palace was located.

His army was like a legion of the undead marching through the mountains of western Henan. In the front they recruited all who came, but in the back they suffered a huge loss of men and many of them died.

good evening!