weaving

Chapter 1242 Showing weakness to the enemy

On that day, the document with the seal of Sun Chuanting, the governor-general of the three borders of Shaanxi, was sent back to the central military tent of Zhang Cheng, the Earl of Yongning. All the terms in the document were accepted without any modification.

However, Sun Chuanting put forward two additional requests, hoping to get the approval of the Earl of Yongning, and his words were very humble.

One was to request the Earl of Yongning to temporarily use the seal of the Governor-General of the Three Borders of Shaanxi as proof. He would try to obtain the seals of the Governor-General and the Governor-General later, but this should not delay the loan matters and the payment of various military equipment and supplies.

The second was to request the Earl of Yongning to send him some auxiliary personnel, such as professionals to check the land accounts, recruit brave soldiers, train soldiers, operate guns and cannons, etc. At the same time, all kinds of tax auditing officials stationed in Shaanxi by the Yongyi Army Headquarters should also be included in them and sent to various places in the name of Sun Chuanting's Three Border Governor-General Headquarters.

  Of course, Earl Yongning was happy to accept this!

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However, what Earl Yongning didn't know was that when these two additional requirements were added, there was also some debate on Sun Chuanting's side.

Regarding the first point, almost no one had any reason to object, so naturally there was no objection, but there were many objections to the second point.

  The staff believed that once all matters of Shaanxi, such as land inventory, recruitment and training of soldiers, and tax auditing, were in the hands of the clerks sent by Zhang Cheng, the Earl of Yongning in Xuanfu, over time, wouldn't the affairs of Shaanxi be completely controlled by the Earl of Yongning? What would happen to Sun Chuanting, the governor-general of the three borders at that time?

What they said made perfect sense. Sun Chuanting's appointment as the governor-general of the three borders of Shaanxi had only two tasks: to collect money and food, and to train troops. His purpose was only one - to wipe out the bandits!

Once money, food and military affairs are in the hands of Yongning Earl's people, wouldn't Shaanxi become Yongning Earl's territory? What would be the use of Sun Chuanting, the Governor-General of the Three Borders?

In response to the opposition of his staff, Sun Chuanting responded: "To suppress the bandits, we need soldiers, and to train the soldiers, we need money and food. In addition to purchasing money and food from Xuanda in the early stage, we must rely on Shaanxi for supply in the future. Therefore, it is imperative to check the land area, which is the first priority when entering Shaanxi.

It's not that there is no one in Shaanxi who has this ability, but that we have no one to use. The local talents are all afraid of officials and wealthy families, so how could they be willing to work sincerely for the governor's office? I'm afraid we will still be unable to get rid of the failure.

The officials sent from Xuanfu were different. They had no connection with the officials and nobles in Shaanxi, and they had the strict instructions of Yongning Earl, so they were able to do their work sincerely. This was a way to achieve twice the result with half the effort.

Furthermore, the matter of Earl Yongning sending officials to inspect and supervise taxes has already been written in the documents. Now, in the name of the Three Border Governor's Office, they will be stationed in various prefectures to audit money and grain taxes for our Governor's Office. The collected money and grain will all be used by the Governor's Office. Of course, part of it will be used to repay the loan from Earl Yongning, but whether to repay, how to repay, and how much to repay are all matters that can be discussed.

The last thing is the matter of recruiting brave men and training soldiers. There is no problem with you keeping accounts and making plans for me. However, recruiting brave men and training soldiers is not your forte, and I do not have the spare time to handle this matter. Why not entrust it to the people of the Earl of Yongning?

The Shaanxi troops are trained under the command of the Governor-General, supported by the money and grain of Shaanxi, and deployed by the Governor-General. How could they be controlled by the Earl of Yongning?"

Sun Chuanting even made a bold statement at the end: "If you can wipe out the bandits, it will not be impossible for me to serve under the Earl of Yongning!"

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Yongning Earl Zhang Cheng shook his head and said to the people around him: "Sun Baigu, your personality hasn't changed at all!"

He then looked at Liu Chengzu and said, "Write a letter to Wu Zhizhong, asking him to prepare quickly. In addition to guns, chariots, armor, weapons, food, silver, etc., there are also clerks, officers, etc., who must be selected in advance to avoid being caught off guard when the time comes."

At the end, he added: "Also... Wu Zhizhong should also be prepared, he might go to Xi'an!"

In this regard, everyone in the military tent expressed envy. Zhang Cheng also said with a smile: "Don't worry, everyone has a chance. The beautiful mountains and rivers of our motherland need the footprints of our brave army everywhere!"

When everyone heard this, they all showed excitement, especially Hu Yiwen, whose eyes were full of surprise. He looked deeply at Yongning Earl Zhang Cheng, and it was unknown what he was thinking in his heart...

Amid the envious gazes of the crowd, there was no change on Zhang Chengfang's face. He still stood behind Yongning Earl Zhang Cheng as before. He did not become complacent about his upcoming post as the pacification officer of the "Independent Camp", nor did he change his style of doing things because he was about to enter Shaanxi.

Next, the Earl of Yongning ordered Zuo Qinghe to quickly organize the troops. He would lead the Independent Battalion Cavalry Division A to escort the Three Border Governor Sun Chuanting into Shaanxi first, while Huang Baozhong's Cavalry Division B would wait for Liu Shizun to arrive, and then set out together with the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Quartermaster to Xi'an to meet him.

Of course, in addition to the soldiers of the independent battalion, Liu Shizun also went with the first batch of supplies to be sold to Sun Chuanting. Most of them were grains, which would be transported by Zuo Zhaoyi's Yellow River fleet to Mengjin County west of Mangshan Mountain, and then loaded onto baggage carts and shipped to Xi'an City.

Precisely because they had to wait for the fleet to deliver grain, Liu Shizun was not so anxious and had plenty of time to train the troops and make preparations before departure.

Since the assistance to Sun Chuanting had been agreed upon and was about to enter the implementation stage, there was naturally no need to spend more energy on it, and the topic turned back to the ongoing war.

Daguantou, Xianggongmiao and Liuzhuang, three places besieged by bandits, were experiencing rounds of attacks, among which the fighting at Daguantou was the most intense.

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Xianggong Temple was a relatively peaceful battlefield, as Li Zicheng, the King of Rebellion, was in charge here personally. However, his mind was on the other two places, so he basically surrounded Xianggong Temple but did not attack it. He only sent some starving people to launch feint attacks and harassment every day.

Now, Li Zicheng was worried about whether Liu Zongmin could capture the key point to complete the flank breakthrough and then encircle Xinchengji to achieve the ultimate goal.

Secondly, he was worried about whether something might happen on Cao Cao's side, Luo Rucai. Even if Luo Rucai did not surrender to the court, it would be a burden that Li Zicheng could not bear even if he led his troops to attack him.

Originally, he was not very worried about this, but after being persuaded by Song Xiance, Niu Jinxing and others, and sending Li Guo to lead 5,000 elite cavalry to contain Luo Rucai, he began to worry about it.

That's why he was so conservative in Xianggong Temple. Before getting confirmation from Li Guo, he didn't want to waste his troops in vain and had to leave some capital to deal with uncertain factors.

Li Zicheng knew very well that he could only fight against the imperial court and besiege Kaifeng if he joined forces with Luo Rucai's Caoying. Once Luo Rucai led his troops to him, although the Chuang army could continue to attack Kaifeng, the chance of winning would be low. Once the imperial court sent reinforcements, they would have to withdraw. The worst outcome would be that Luo Rucai would be ungrateful and lead his troops to surrender to the imperial court like Yuan Shizhong of Xiaoyuanying. If that was the outcome, Li Zicheng's plan to attack Kaifeng would not only fail, but his dream of becoming the emperor would also be completely shattered.

It was precisely because of these concerns that he agreed to send Li Guo to restrain Luo Rucai so that he would not dare to make any unplanned moves.

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The biggest variable at the moment is on the Liuzhuang side. Although there has not been many fierce battles, it is the battlefield where the most main forces of the bandits were killed and wounded.

Zhang Guodong's Qinglong Battalion was stationed here. Contrary to his previous cautious behavior, he ordered his soldiers to retreat and abandon two trench and low wall defense lines in succession after the first wave of attack by the Chuang army.

Such "showing weakness to the enemy" naturally did not escape the eyes of the rebel general Tian Jianxiu. He not only ordered his men to fill in several passages in the trench, but also to tear down the low wall. However, he did not attack the last line of trench defense. He also ordered to strengthen the defense of his own camp to prevent the camp from being attacked at night by the Yongyi Army in Liuzhuang.

However, Zhang Guodong did not organize his soldiers to launch a night attack. Instead, he organized two counterattacks every day in an attempt to recapture the two lost trench defense lines. However, they were all repelled by Tian Jianxiu and he never succeeded.

At first, Tian Jianxiu thought that the government troops in Liuzhuang deliberately retreated and abandoned their defense line in order to lure him into an attack. However, the counterattacks for two consecutive days were very weak. The sound of gunfire was sparse, and the artillery fired crookedly. There were even a few explosions in the government army's camp, as if some artillery had exploded.

As many generals around him requested to fight, Tian Jianxiu, after repeated consideration, also felt that there was nothing wrong with launching a fierce attack on the last trench of the government army's Liuzhuang camp. Even if he failed to break through it, he could always retreat and continue to besiege it.

Moreover, if they could really break through the Liuzhuang government army camp in one fell swoop, then Liu Zongmin and I would encircle the government army's Xinchengji camp from both sides and complete the siege. Wouldn't that be perfect!

On the second day, Tian Jianxiu personally went to the front line to supervise the battle. The bandits from various groups were eager to try and scrambled to take the lead. However, they did not expect that they would encounter the fiercest resistance on this last line of defense, and the two sides even engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

Although two consecutive rounds of attacks were thwarted, Tian Jianxiu also discovered that the government troops in Liuzhuang were already at the end of their strength and they were only fighting to survive. He immediately ordered the withdrawal of the bandit troops in the north and only launched a final fierce attack on the other three sides.

At the same time, he deployed all 7,000 elite cavalry under his command to the north, set up three ambushes in succession, and waited for the government troops to break out from the north and then kill them all here.

The battle progressed just as Tian Jianxiu had expected. The afternoon offensive was fierce enough that the government troops in Liuzhuang began to break out from the north after holding out for half an hour. However, the subsequent battle did not develop in the direction Tian Jianxiu had planned...

Just as the government troops rushed out from the north of the camp, a loud "boom" was heard. As a large amount of gray-white smoke rose in the Liuzhuang government army camp, even the earth began to shake.

There were fifteen Type 2 Portuguese cannons on the five large artillery carriages of the Qinglong Battalion of the Yongyi Army, forty Type 4 Portuguese cannons on the twenty side chariots, and forty Type 4 Portuguese cannons on each of the forty baggage carts, making a total of ninety-five standard artillery pieces.

At the same time, the five infantry thousand headquarters under the Qinglong Camp had more than 150 mortars, tiger squat cannons, flying cannons, etc., adding up to nearly 250 artillery pieces firing at the same time. Bursts of fire flashed continuously, and the rising white smoke covered the sky.

Artillery of all sizes launched waves of bombardment at the positions outside Liuzhuang...

At a distance of fifty to one hundred steps, the Yunzhou quick guns of the Qinglong Camp's fire muskets could hit the bandits;

  There are also hundred-shot guns and mortars within 100 to 300 paces;

300 to 500 steps is the bombardment range of the Tiger Crouching Cannon and the Flying Cannon;

And 500 steps away, the No. 2 and No. 4 falconets continued to fire...

It can be said that in front of the last line of defense of the Qinglong Camp, on the entire position between fifty and five hundred steps, cannonballs kept falling, like a pouring thunderstorm and hail, covering the sky and the earth.

Especially those medium and short-range flying shells, the shrapnel they ejected were like exploding thunder, emitting countless star rays the moment they landed, and they flew in all directions, as if they were going to destroy everything around them!

The shells hit the dry ground, stirring up layers of dust, then leaped forward, stirring up more dust...

In the flying smoke and dust, puffs of blood mist were constantly stirred up. In order to achieve complete victory in one battle, the rebel army actually deployed nearly two-thirds of its troops.

Although the Qinglong Camp's camp in Liuzhuang is not large, its entire defense system is exactly the same as that at Daguantou. Outside the thick camp wall, there are also three defense circles composed of flower hedges, trenches, and low walls. The defense depth is nearly 500 steps, which is nearly two miles.

The Qinglong Camp had nearly 30 artillery pieces of various types, which could fire projectiles at a time. Given the training level of the Yongyi Army's artillery, a Portuguese cannon could fire four rounds within one minute. One minute in the Ming Dynasty was equivalent to seconds today, which shows how fast the firing speed was.

The same is true for other artillery such as the crouching tiger cannon, mortar, flying shell cannon, etc. Almost all of the Yongyi Army has this type of short-barreled close-combat artillery, and almost all of them use powder bags and sub-guns. They have extremely fast loading speeds and are very convenient to fire.

In the space of an incense stick, the Qinglong Camp had already fired more than a thousand rounds of artillery shells at the battlefield full of rebels. The entire battle line, which was nearly two miles deep, was like a purgatory on earth, with broken limbs and some pieces of flesh that came from nowhere scattered all over the ground...

There were continuous screams and wails, and the soldiers of the Chuang army with incomplete limbs struggled hard. They didn't even know which way to crawl. Although there was no possibility of survival, the desire to survive still supported them to crawl forward.

At the moment when the artillery fire stopped, more than 2,000 soldiers suddenly rushed out from the last line of defense of Liuzhuang's government army. They fired guns or shot arrows, constantly reaping the lives of the rebel soldiers who were running around.

They were like the death-seeking ghosts from hell, baring their teeth and roaring, rushing forward like crazy, waving their spears and swords, slaughtering the bandits like headless flies...

(End of this chapter)