Back to Ming Dynasty with Industrial Revolution System

Chapter 340
There were hurried footsteps of officers outside the courtyard, carrying news from the imperial court.

"Your Excellency, the imperial court has sent reinforcements!" General He Renlong excitedly waved the letter from the imperial court.

"Reinforcements? The imperial court really sent reinforcements?" Hong Chengchou still couldn't believe it when he heard the news.

"It is absolutely true that the imperial court appointed Cao Wenzhao as the deputy general of Yansui East Road, and led part of the Guanning Army to come to help, and also ordered Zuo Liangyu to lead the Changping Army and some Shanxi soldiers and horses to come together! Our Tongguan and outside the pass The strength of the army will reach tens of thousands!" He Renlong said excitedly, "It's good this time, we can gather the army out of Tongguan and regain the lost ground in Heluo and Shaanxi!"

"Let me see the announcement from the Ministry of War." In Hong Chengchou's letter from the court, the front of the letter really informed the news that the reinforcements were coming, and behind the letter, there was the will of Emperor Chongzhen.

"..." Hong Chengchou put down the letter, with worried eyes.

"What's the matter, my lord? The imperial court sent reinforcements for us. This is a great thing. The eradication of the rogue bandits in northern Shaanxi is just around the corner. Why are you so worried?" He Renlong asked.

"The holy decree ordered us to immediately attack the intruders and recover the lost ground after the reinforcements arrived..." Hong Chengchou sighed.

"Isn't this a good thing? This time we have a large number of soldiers, but the soldiers are divided into groups, blocking the way for the intruders to escape north, and completely wiped them out!" He Renlong said.

"Oh, the Holy One is too hasty. To encircle and suppress the rebels, we must step by step and defeat them one by one. If we take the initiative to attack now, the rebels will unite to deal with us. Moreover, the reinforcements are new, they lack understanding of the enemy, and the food and grass have not yet been in place. If we attack rashly , even if you can defeat the enemy, you will not be able to achieve the results that the Holy Majesty wants." Hong Chengchou looked extremely troubled.

"But the military order is hard to disobey. If my lord leads the troops out of Tongguan, I, He Renlong, would like to be the vanguard and drive out all these rebellious officials and thieves!" He Renlong said.

"I can only do my best to turn the tide. After all, the situation in Liaodong is becoming increasingly tense. If the imperial court can gather two troops to support our side, I am afraid that it is already tightening their belts." Hong Chengchou is not completely unable to understand why Chongzhen is so urgent He wanted to wipe out the thieves as soon as possible.

Some things cannot be determined by individual will, and the situation is stronger than people.

The Ming army coming from Shanxi and other places gradually gathered in the Tongguan area. Chongzhen tried his best to kill Gao Yingxiang and his group of peasant rebels who were fleeing in northern Shaanxi and Heluo areas.The Fu Liao Army in Liaodong made him feel very uneasy. Although the Fu Liao Army had no intention of entering the customs, Chongzhen's fear of the Fu Liao Army might be several times greater than Gao Yingxiang and the others.However, he still decided that he must first settle down in order to fight against the outside world, and dispatched troops from important towns such as Ningyuan and Shanxi.

"Your Excellency!" Cao Wenzhao, deputy commander of Yansui East Road, saluted Hong Chengchou, the trilateral governor.

"Excuse me, I didn't expect the imperial court to send some soldiers and horses from Liaodong this time. This is a risky act of drinking poison to quench thirst. If the Liao army takes advantage of the situation and enters, the capital will be in danger." Hong Chengchou said.

"The Fu Liao Army in Liaodong is monitored by Yuan Dushi, and many spies have been placed in their army. If there is any disturbance in the Fu Liao Army, Yuan Dushi will stick to Ningyuan." Cao Wenzhao said, "By comparison, The imperial court still hopes to wipe out all the thieves in the pass before breaking with the Liao army, otherwise it will definitely hinder us in the future."

"That's not bad. Although the governor thinks that the best time to wipe out the thieves has not yet arrived, since the Holy One is in a hurry, we can only do our best to severely injure the thieves." Hong Chengchou said.

"Everything is under the command of the governor!" Cao Wenzhao, Zuo Liangyu and others said one after another.

"The situation in Heluo and Shaanxi to the west of Tongguan is very complicated. Officials and bandits are intertwined and completely chaotic. The rogues are besieging large and small cities, and the officers and soldiers are besieging the rogues." Hong Chengchou asked for a topographic map here , Introducing the situation in the area to the new reinforcements, "These rogues are doing their own thing, but the rogues of the 36th Battalion, especially the Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang and his deployment of Li Zicheng's troops are the strongest. The quality of Li Zicheng's soldiers is better than that of our Daming guards. It is even higher, and there are advanced muskets that are suspected to be from the Liao Army, which is the opponent we should pay the most attention to in this bandit suppression."

"How many troops are there in the 36th Battalion?" Zuo Liangyu asked.

"The 36th Battalion has [-] people, and the number of other rogues, large and small, is unknown. They haunt the mountains and plains, and their number is hard to estimate. What's more troublesome is that these rogues are likely to be civilians. When there is nothing to eat, they will become rogues and plunder the village. Now the whole of Shaanxi and Heluo are dens of rebels, if we really want to be serious, we may have to kill all the people in Shaanxi and Heluo to completely put down the rebellion that has lasted for several years." Hong Chengchou said.

Cao Wenzhao, Zuo Liangyu and others looked at each other in blank dismay. The natural and man-made disasters in Tongguan may have been so tragic that it is unimaginable.

"But you don't have to despair. We just need to kill the chickens and the monkeys, and get rid of the main leaders of the 36th Battalion, and these rioters will be afraid. The root cause of this turmoil is the panic of the people. Only by using human heads and butcher knives to establish order can peace be restored here. .”

"You should also know that some officials in the imperial court advocate side suppression and side appeasement, but in recent years, the rebels have often pretended to accept the imperial court's recruitment, and then repeatedly rebelled, only to see that it is not feasible to suppress bandits while appeasement. When you come out of Tongguan, whenever you encounter bandits, you must kill them and conquer them with iron and blood!" Hong Chengchou said sadly.

"Do you want to kill them all?" Cao Wenzhao and the others asked.

"That's right, extraordinary things must be done in extraordinary times. The rebellious people think that the law does not blame the public, so they dare to rebel again and again." Hong Chengchou said.

"As ordered..."

The news of the arrival of Ming army reinforcements in the Tongguan area reached the ears of the leaders of the 36th Battalion in Xi'an, which immediately caused an uproar and various quarrels among the leaders of the 36th Battalion.

There is no other reason. The supporters of the Shaanxi bandit suppression operation this time are elite soldiers from Ningyuan, Datong and other important frontier towns. Their arrival to a certain extent demonstrates the determination of the imperial court to exterminate them!
"King Chuang, you instigated us to attack Xi'an City together with you. Now it's all right. We have completely provoked the imperial court! Now the imperial court has sent 36 troops to attack us, as well as the Ningyuan army. Are they easy to provoke? Tongguan is sharpening its knives, and it will come soon, and I, Luo Rucai, really regret coming to fight Xi'an with you!" Luo Rucai, the "Cao Cao" in the [-]th Battalion, took the lead in attacking at the banquet.

(End of this chapter)