stubborn thief

Very strange.

Liu Chengzong looked through all the official documents.

From Taimengwei on the right bank of the distant Tom River, to the U-Tsang Governor's Office on the snow-capped mountains; from Yulin City on the edge of the desert, to Hanzhong Prefecture south of the Qinling Mountains.

There is not a single peaceful place in the four provinces and nine regions of Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai and Ningxia.

Officers and generals from all over the country were either fighting, on their way to fight, or suppressing bandits in their own garrisons. There were even troops like the Chijinwei outside the Gansu border that were suppressing a rebellion.

When Liu Shizi saw this novel statement, he couldn't help but think that Kang Liangfu was quite good at telling jokes, even using the term "suppressing the rebellion."

Chijinwei was rebuilt by Liu Chengzong himself, and he knew very well what that place was.

A desert with a radius of 700 miles.

It gathered together 500 elite soldiers including pastoralist horse bandits, desert robbers, Ming Dynasty deserters, Mongolian defeated soldiers, and was reinforced by 300 marshal's army to form the Chijin Guard.

Even in the eyes of the well-informed Marshal's Office, that damn place was considered the worst of the worst. No one could survive there, and the only things it produced were kerosene, saltpeter, and gold.

The only hope of survival for the more than 800 people in Chijinwei was to enter Jiayuguan to buy food.

Is this still a rebellion?
As a result, when Liu Shizi took a look, he found that it was indeed a rebellion.

However, the rebels were not from the Chijin Guard, but from the Governor of Hami in Yarkand, Babai Khan.

As for Chijinwei, Chijinwei was also ridiculous. It actually had Dunhuang as its center and seemed to be prosperous.

It's fucking weird!

The strange situation of this rebellion and its suppression naturally came from Liu Chengzong's casual behavior.

With the trade route between the Marshal's Office and Oirats, and hundreds of thousands of people migrating back and forth on this trade route every year, Liu Chengzong knew that Chijin Wei would prosper sooner or later.

But it's a bit too early.

Because Chu Huer was here.

When Chu Huer stayed in Chijinwei for a short time, he dug several Taiji wells... This sounds like a simple and small thing, but it was a big thing that neither Liu Chengzong nor Batur Hun Taiji had done.

Because digging a well in the 700-mile desert within a radius of Chijinwei was not a wise move.

This is like a person going out for a trip and accidentally sleeping in the wild at night. He would not build a house on the spot.

Liu Shizi believes that Dunhuang will prosper again, and he also thinks that as more people sleep in the wild in the future, someone will naturally build houses.

But he doesn't know how to build a well, so naturally he doesn't know how to repair it, because no one will use it even if he repairs it, and the well will be buried by sand.

It's just a useless effort that wastes the soldiers' physical strength.

But Chu Huer is not such a person. He doesn't care whether you are physically strong or not. If he can't have drinking water, he will ask for a well. Before the well was repaired, he went into the pass to get beaten by Liu Chengzong.

He left behind more than a hundred subordinates and lived outside the Great Wall for a winter. When he came out of the Great Wall, he did not go to Dunhuang, but directly called people in Guazhou and returned to Tianshan.

I didn't drink a single sip from those Taiji wells.

But it doesn’t matter. At least Chu Hur felt happy when he gave the order for people to dig a well.

Chu Hur did not drink from the wells that he ordered to be dug, but others did.

This person was the old commander Liu Shizi, who led his troops to Yarkand, He Renlong.

Liu Chengzong was a grateful person. When he left Yuhebao, He Renlong left his armor and weapons unattended and filled his quiver, which was considered a gesture of justice.

Therefore, he appointed He Renlong as a general, filled the quivers of three thousand former official troops under his command, and replenished the firearms of another two thousand militiamen, and sent them to march towards Turpan.

Liu Chengzong's usual hypocrisy was still at work. Although he sent troops to Yarkand, he did not clearly tell He Renlong and order him to declare war on Yarkand... Basically, it was a state of doing whatever you wanted in the past.

In fact, in He Renlong's army, there was a small group of ruthless people that Liu Chengzong didn't know about, such as Li Zicheng's missing good friend Gao Jie.

He Renlong certainly knew what he was going to do, which was to seize territory.

He went over and robbed Turpan.

The most outrageous thing is that the general who fought against He Renlong was not Aji Khan who ruled Turpan, but Chai Shihua, a Ming army general who was defeated by Liu Chengzong's Gansu and fled to the Western Regions.

Chai Shihua went crazy when he saw this group of people.

He fled from Zhuanglang River to Gansu, and Liu Chengzong's troops kept chasing him. After the fall of Gansu, Chai Shihua fled all the way to Hami outside Jiayuguan. He found that Babai Khan, who had cooperated with him in smuggling outside the pass, was in a state of terrible condition. He searched the whole city but could not find a single piece of armor.

Chai Shihua finally fled to Turpan, where he was taken in by the Turpan Governor Aji Khan, and was canonized as an alien noble and settled in Liuzhong.

Before two days had passed since those happy days, He Renlong's advance force of 300 cavalrymen crossed 500 miles of Gobi Desert and rushed towards Liuzhong in the smoke and dust.

It's not that He Renlong didn't want to launch a war of annihilation against Yarkand with 5,000 troops, but he really didn't have the ability to do so.

If Hami had the ability to maintain an army, Babai Khan would not have allowed Batur Hun Taiji, Liu Chengzu, Chu Hur, and He Renlong to come in and out.

On the contrary, there is no such thing in Liuzhong.

Liuzhong is the ancient Cheshi Kingdom. It is a good place, an oasis, with plenty of everything, including iron, copper, lead, coal, saltpeter, kerosene and various stones. You can find everything with just a chisel.

There are just too few people, and even if we conquer the enemy we cannot support 5,000 troops as the basis for the front-line base.

He Renlong's 5,000 troops were actually widely distributed in the vast lands of Turpan, Hami, Chijinwei Dunhuang, and Tianshanwei Balikun.

On the contrary, when Aji Khan of Turpan found out where they came from, his first reaction was that these people were mentally ill.

You, come from the Ming Dynasty to fight me?

Zhangye alone is so much richer than Turpan.

The rich man robs the poor, what's the difference between this and the Ming army robbing Mongolia?
How could anyone in the world do such a thing?

Aji Khan thought these people were crazy.

Despite Chai Shihua's repeated advice, saying that Liu Chengzong's gang were villains and rebels, Aji Khan remained determined to negotiate peace with Liu Chengzong.

Even the Rebel villains are better.

As the ruler of Turpan, Aji Khan did not care about the situation in the Ming Dynasty in the east.

He only cared about the Jin Road and whether the successor of the Ming Dynasty was willing to accept his tribute.

As long as they are willing, it doesn't matter whether the successors of the Ming Dynasty are rebels or bandits, they are all good people.

It is even better if they come from a rebel background, because the difficulty of negotiating tribute can be lower, the number of tribute payers and the amount of goods can be greater, and there is even no need for smuggling. It is not impossible for the Jin Road to be directly operated by the government!

If He Renlong had personally led the troops to the west, perhaps the deal would have been made.

However, faced with a situation where both the people and the land were unfamiliar, He Renlong could not possibly bet all his money, so the 300 vanguard troops he sent out were Gao Jie and Li Chengdong.

When faced with the servants sent by Chai Shihua to convey his desire for peace, the two men simply chased them away. Two days later, they arrived in Turpan and looted two towns.

Are you kidding? If we negotiate peace, won’t we have to go back to Gansu? Then Li Zicheng will be able to find us, right?
We must get in!
He Renlong was fighting fiercely in the Western Regions, and groups of captives were sent to Hami, and then through Hami to Chijinwei.

Because Chijinwei needed people to pan for gold. Kang Liangfu was very anxious about this matter. He worked hard for a whole year last year, but the little gold he panned was taken away by Chu Huer. Although the Grand Marshal did not blame him, he did not praise him for his good work either.

So he needs more people to pan for gold.

Unfortunately, Chijinwei did not have more food, so those who came here to pan for gold would definitely rebel, and Kang Liangfu would have no choice but to put down the rebellion.

On the other side of the border of the Marshal's Mansion, U-Tsang was also fighting.

When Kangning prefect Liu Jiusi received a request for help from Baiyan Taiji, he happened to meet the governor-general Shi Xiang, who was appointed by Liu Chengzong, who arrived in Nangqian.

According to the original plan, Shixiang's Governor's Office had only 5,000 troops. It had to complete some conscription in Kangning Prefecture and then wait until it arrived in Lhasa to recruit a full brigade.

As a result, after receiving the request for help, Shi Xiang could only leave the matter of recruiting soldiers to Liu Jiusi, and led his troops into Chamdo. Under the guidance of Li Laochai, he sent a vanguard of 1,000 people to Lhasa, and then continued to advance westwards through Lhasa.

To be honest, Liu Chengzong found this battle report even more ridiculous than seeing the news that the Chijin Guards were suppressing a rebellion.

Because he simply couldn't understand what the three Huo Luochi brothers were doing in U-Tsang... It had been several years, and ever since he returned via Kangning, he had taken over Gansu, Shaanxi, Ningxia, the Tianshan Basin, and the southern grasslands of the desert.

The three from Huo Luochi's family are still playing hide-and-seek with Zangba Khan in U-Tsang.

But there is really no way around it.

The three brothers were the kind of people who would not release the eagle until they saw the rabbit. It was not until this request for help that Baiyan Taiji sent over the map drawn for the U-Tsang area.

Liu Chengzong took a look and found that the territory was indeed large.

The map they handed over was only slightly smaller than the territory he had conquered over the years.

This even made him look up to Baiyan Taiji's military talents, because it was all very difficult.

The enemies he faces are stronger, but the environment he faces is worse.

The marching distance is shorter, the combat endurance is worse, and the non-combat casualties are greater.

At present, the three Huoluochi brothers have squeezed the Tsangpa Khan out of the Lhasa River and established trade relations and exchanges with the three countries of Brukba and Nibala in the southern Himalayas as well as folk monks.

At one point, its troops headed straight for the Oris Military and Civilian Marshal's Headquarters in the west of U-Tsang, which is the small Kingdom of Ladakh.

However, Huo Luochi's weakness in terms of military strength became increasingly apparent during the wars of the past few years. He could win in field battles but could not occupy the country for long periods of time, and he did not have efficient means of ruling. As a result, all places only submitted to him in name only. They would surrender when he attacked them, and would ignore him if he did not attack them.

Only then did he reluctantly ask for military support from the Marshal's Office.

In fact, Liu Chengzong understood that the three brothers would not be willing to borrow troops from him unless it was absolutely necessary.

It's strange to say, but logically speaking, the person closest to Liu Chengzong in personal relations was Baiyan Taiji, who led the army, and the one with whom he had the worst relationship was Xiao Lazun.

However, in terms of accepting Liu Chengzong's direct rule, it was Xiao Lazun who was most inclined to submit to the Marshal's Office, while it was Baiyan Taiji, with whom he had had contact, who was the most resistant.

After all, Xiao Lazun used a different way of identification, and he knew deep down that Liu Chengzong would not kill him, nor would he send him to the battlefield. In fact, because the Marshal's Office needed someone like him to stabilize U-Tsang, his living environment would not change much.

Not to mention that he had already made plans to reincarnate into Liu Chengzong's family as a son after his death.

It was different with Baiyan Taiji. After he really surrendered, Liu Chengzong would definitely send him out of Tibet to fight. With his military strength and power, he was invincible in U-Tsang. If he went out, he would most likely be beaten to a pulp due to the change in the war situation.

Let alone other things, what would Liu Chengzong do if he dragged him from the snowy mountains to the basin to fight? After marching for four months, the army, which was exhausted and weak, met the enemy on the battlefield. How could it not lose?

Therefore, even if the Chamdo line was blocked by Kangning Prefecture, it was an inevitable trend to submit to the increasingly powerful Marshal's Office, and Baiyan Taiji was willing to delay this trend as long as possible.

After all, being someone else's lackey is not as comfortable as being your own boss.

Therefore, U-Tsang was like squeezing toothpaste. Although it understood the general trend and would not resist too blatantly, it was still brought into the Marshal's Office bit by bit and handed over power step by step.

Liu Shizi had nothing to say about this. He really didn't want to send troops to fight. It would be a good thing if he could take over U-Tsang imperceptibly.

As for the time, even if it is extended to ten or twenty years, or even one or two generations, it doesn’t matter.

Liu Chengzong had only one ambition for U-Tsang, which was to prevent it from hindering him from sending the Minister of Rites to India in the future.

Apart from the distant border, the situation inside the Marshal's Office was also the same as before, with wars going on everywhere.

Ren Quaner, who was responsible for the attack on Yansui Town, achieved results two months ago.

Wang Yongji, a captain of the Second Brigade's reinforcement battalion, fired a cannon and killed General Wang who was guarding the southeast corner tower in Yulin during the siege.

However, the troops outside the city did not know for the time being which general from the Wang family of Yulin was killed by artillery fire. After all, there were six people with the surname Wang in the city who had served as generals, so it was difficult to identify this lucky general.

Liu Shizi couldn't help but look solemn after reading the battle report sent by Ren Quaner.

The defensive configuration of Yulin City was too luxurious, and the generals were deployed to guard the corner towers.

But Liu Chengzong knew that those generals, lieutenant generals and guerrilla commanders who had inherited noble titles and titles were well aware that Yulin could not be defended and would fall sooner or later.

The entire defense system of Yansui Town had been penetrated, and the town was surrounded. Even if there were more than a dozen generals and dozens of guerrilla generals, they could only rely on experience to see through some tactical tricks, and could not change the current situation where there was neither rescue nor food.

They refused to surrender and were determined to hold out, simply because... they did what they knew was impossible.

Until last month, the entire Yansui Town had been taken over, and some places had even returned to normal life.

Only Yulin City remained, still defending.

But Ren Quaner just surrounded them.

On this point, Ren Quaner inherited Liu Chengzong's nature of liking to help others achieve their goals, and prepared fifty good coffins outside the city so that those loyal ministers and generals could die a worthy death.

In Guannei Road, Li Zicheng, who had sneaked into Yunyang last year, broke through.

He didn't dare to fight to the death with Lu Xiangsheng, Zu Dale and their gang anymore.

More than 500 cavalrymen entered Henan and led tens of thousands of troops to attack Luoyang. However, like Zhang Yichuan, they were shocked by the city walls of Luoyang.

Afterwards, he fought against Zhang Renxue, the general of Henan Province, and won at first but then lost. Some of his troops were infected with plague, and only a thousand cavalrymen escaped to the outside of Tongguan.

Zhang Tianlin, the general of the Shanhai Pass, who was itching to get his hands on some trouble, didn't dare let him enter the pass. He sent someone to point out a ravine for Li Zicheng to go in and lick his wounds. He himself sent troops to ambush Zhang Renxue in Lingbao and robbed thousands of horses.

In Hanzhong Road, General Luo Rucai led his generals to display their great prowess. On the thirteenth day after entering Hanzhong, they captured the important town of Hanzhong Prefecture, allowing Hanzhong Prefect Jiang Yingchang to take office smoothly.

At this moment, Prince Rui no longer had the chance to shout "Zhenzi, save me"

He was taken to Xi'an Prefecture.

Luo Rucai’s battle report is very beautiful.

Luo Rucai first appointed his cunning and ruthless Li Rugui as the vanguard general, and led his troops to wear tattered clothes and pretend to be peasant soldiers outside the city... That battalion of soldiers did not need to disguise themselves, as they were originally peasant soldiers, just with rich experience.

The defenders had been suppressed by Gao Yingxiang for so long that they had long been angry. When they finally saw a group of people who were easy to bully, they immediately went out of the city to suppress the bandits.

As a result, they had not chased the enemy far out of the city when they were pinned to the ground and beaten by Zhang Shangxuan of the Zhenxiang Army who was lying in ambush on the side. They wanted to withdraw and reorganize, but were beaten again by the Liao cavalrymen under Zu Chengyong who were armed with iron whips and flails.

In the end, Luo Rucai and his reckless brigade rode their horses directly into the Hanzhong City that had collapsed due to the flood.

Hanzhong Prefecture, captured. (End of this chapter)