Daming kill

Chapter 267
Leaving aside the history that Li Ping knew, he and the staff office had been researching for several days but couldn't figure out why Zhang Xianzhong wanted to march into Sichuan at this time.

In fact, Li Ping did not understand why Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan in the original history.

Although the Sichuan Basin is fertile, it is a poor place.

It is no problem to fight for world hegemony as the granary and the rear area, but there is no precedent in Chinese history for trying to fight for world hegemony there as the center of power.

Maybe someone will give the example of Liu Bang.

But Liu Bang actually only stayed in Shu for half a year before he built plank roads, crossed Chencang secretly, and then quickly defeated the unstable Sanqin one by one to control the real foundation of hegemony-Guanzhong, which is today's central Shaanxi.

But when Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan, he obviously couldn't learn from Liu Bang.

Liu Bang can defeat the three kings of Qin who are weaker because of the three points in Hanzhong (the three kings who surrendered to the Qin Dynasty, namely Zhang Han, Sima Xin and Dong Yi, were divided into Hanzhong), but Zhang Xianzhong wants to take Hanzhong. Facing Li Zicheng who is in full swing, the possibility of being able to kill him is almost slim.

At this time, Zhang Xianzhong knew that Li Zicheng had already defeated Sun Chuanting in Nanyang and was heading north like a hurricane.

Although he still doesn't know that Sun Chuanting is dead and Tongguan has been broken, it is absolutely obvious to Zhang Xianzhong, who is also a Shaanxi native and a frontier soldier, that Li Zicheng will occupy Hanzhong and can occupy Hanzhong. Answer.

History has also proved this point. When Zhang Xianzhong, who occupied Sichuan, sent troops northward in an attempt to invade Hanzhong, he was immediately attacked by Li Zicheng's general He Zhen and was beaten into a dog.

Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong's decision is indeed very puzzling.

Especially when he just suffered a major failure, such a decision is not only abnormal, but also too hasty.

Can the inertia of history really be so great?
As for Li Ping's original intention to go to Sichuan, it was because he could use the technology tree of later generations to cheat and jump out of the rules and regulations that others couldn't.

Therefore, Li Ping, who was confused, took a very cautious and skeptical attitude towards the information sent by Huang Chengdong.

However, he couldn't believe it.

Because Zhang Xianzhong engulfed a large number of people and marched westward to cover the sky and cover the sun, there were almost 10 people, so it is unlikely that the whole nest that completely abandoned his hometown was a fake.

But there is another problem here.

Yuezhou controlled by Li Ping is stuck on the only waterway connecting Dongting Lake to the Yangtze River. If Zhang Xianzhong wants to go west to Sichuan, he must come to Yuezhou. Why is he going west?Instead of taking the Yangtze River waterway, is it necessary to take tens of 10 people over mountains and mountains into Sichuan?
But if you play tricks and make a lot of noise, this is not the right way to play, right?
With countless doubts, Li Ping stopped all construction work and shifted all his forces to defensive combat preparations, while quietly observing what Zhang Xianzhong wanted to do when he marched west along Dongting Lake.
At the same time, he was also hesitating whether to give up Yuezhou.

But Zhang Xianzhong, who was heading west, just went west. They quickly captured Changde Mansion on the west bank of Dongting Lake (more than 200 miles west of Xiangyin County), and then stopped suddenly, but their large fleet None approached Yuezhou or attempted to approach Yuezhou.

Changde Mansion

The fifth day of Zhang Xianzhong's stay here.

When Sun Kewang found Zhang Xianzhong in a barracks outside the Fucheng, Zhang Xianzhong was looking sullenly at the dozens or hundreds of people kneeling in a large open space trembling in silence.

The clearing was surrounded by soldiers.

Zhang Xianzhong didn't speak, and none of the surrounding soldiers dared to speak, only those kneeling on the ground kept crying and begging for mercy, the atmosphere was very depressing.

Sun Kewang walked carefully behind Zhang Xianzhong, first nodded his head to Li Rujing, who was beside Zhang Xianzhong, who was looking at him, as a greeting, and then reported:

"Father, we have been identified by righteous people, and we have captured seven more people with the surname Yang. Today I also sent dozens of teams to disperse the tokens in all directions, and the entire clan of Yang thieves will definitely not be able to escape."

Zhang Xianzhong's expression finally eased a little. He looked away from those people kneeling on the ground, turned around and looked at Sun Kewang and said with approval: "Very good. Kewang, you did a good job! Remember to insert them alive on the stake."

"Father, please don't worry, whoever dares to move the bodhisattva's heart to the Yang thief clan, I will kill him alive." Sun Kewang replied loudly.

Zhang Xianzhong nodded with great satisfaction, and said, "Yes! I'm most at ease now when you handle things."

But then, he immediately warned: "However, we still have to hurry up. We won't be here for a few more days. It is reported that Liu Wenxiu's men are about to catch up with us. At that time, we have to leave. Before that, you must make sure to wipe out the entire clan of Yang Thief."

The thief Yang mentioned by Zhang Xianzhong was Yang Sichang, the late supervisor of the Ming Dynasty.

And Wuling County, the capital of Changde Prefecture, is Yang Sichang's hometown.

Zhang Xianzhong's stay in Changde Fucheng was mainly for Yang Sichang, for revenge.

As for Liu Wenxiu, who was not able to converge in time due to his proximity to Guangdong and Guangxi, and fell to the rear, it was only secondary.

Because it’s okay not to wait.

During Zhang Xianzhong's stay, his entire task was to do the same thing that he did after capturing Qishui County (now Xishui) in March, and killing the entire family of Xiong Wencan, who was an old enemy and "benefactor" in the city.

This is something he must do, and it is also something he cannot do.

Although Yang Sichang was dead, Zhang Xianzhong still burned all the properties of the entire Yang family, and then dug the graves of Yang Sichang and his wife, opened the coffin and slaughtered the corpses.And continue to issue a famous token as in the original history.

Said: "It is said that Yang, the thief of Zhu (Zhu), used to mobilize the world's soldiers and horses in the past, and dared to resist the heavenly soldiers. Fortunately, he died early in Wuren (blade). Today, after passing Wuling, it is his house and soil field, and the grave is here. It is enough not to return to obedience, why tie the gentry and common people of the same country, and set up regiments everywhere. Together, the nine clans will be killed, the graves will be dug, and the houses will be burned; Whoever captures his descendants and brothers will be rewarded with a thousand gold. For this card, I will pay tribute to the mansion."

In the original history, Zhang Xianzhong also did this at about this time, and he also did it specially and personally.

The difference is that Zhang Xianzhong at that time was at his most energetic when he flattened the entire southern part of Huguang and then successfully marched into Jiangxi.

"My son will not disappoint my father." Sun Kewang, who knew Zhang Xianzhong's nature well, assured with a louder voice.

Sure enough, Zhang Xianzhong grinned, as if nothing made him happier than taking revenge.

Of course, this may be the only thing that can make him happy at present.

But Zhang Xianzhong's laughter stopped abruptly soon, and his face became gloomy again. Then he gritted his teeth and said to the left and right as if he finally wanted to come: "Put all these people on the stakes for me! I think they will beheaded now." It's useless, you have to use some ruthlessness."

"What King Xi said is very true. It should have been done a long time ago." The new military adviser Wang Zhaoling immediately echoed loudly.

Sun Kewang was startled, but he concealed it quickly, quickly returning his slightly discolored face to normal, and finally just glanced at the young new military adviser with complicated eyes.

But Li Rujing turned pale with shock.

After anxiously looking at Wang Zhaoling with an excited face, and at Sun Kewang who quickly entered the old monk's meditation mode, he suppressed his depression and said, "Father, please think twice. They are all siblings, you can't do this...so..., you can't be like this what!"

"Brothers? When they decide to run away, they will no longer be our siblings. The so-called combination of grace and power means that you can't just use grace, but also use power. If you don't use extreme measures at this time, it will only make the army even less respectful. Worse." Wang Zhaoling talked eloquently.

These dozens of hundreds of people kneeling in the open space are deserters and refugees who have just been captured, that is, their own people.

After Zhang Xianzhong was defeated in Baishui and fled back to Changsha, the morale of the army and the people inevitably began to be seriously turbulent, but misfortunes never come singly. The news that Zhang Qi, who marched into Jiangxi, was defeated and killed followed closely.

Then Liu Wenxiu, who was leading [-] elite troops to pursue the San Francisco king in the south, also flew to Daozhou (now Daoxian County, formerly Fuzhou, governing the five counties) and suffered his first defeat since fighting south.

The kings of the three vassals were Zhu Changying, the former King Gui of Hengzhou, Zhu Cikui, the former King Ji of Changsha, and Zhu Changrun, the former King Hui of Jingzhou. They were escorted by officials and troops loyal to the Ming court and fled south continuously.

Although the battle of Daozhou was only a small battle, and the main reason for the defeat was the rash advance of light soldiers, Liu Wenxiu himself was injured by a bow and arrow in that battle.

The troops were therefore temporarily blocked.

In addition, Liu Wenxiu's troops were already experiencing severe acclimatization and the spread of disease, and the king of the San Francisco fled quickly, obviously unable to catch up, so Liu Wenxiu asked Zhang Xianzhong to return to the army.

And the subsequent defeat of Hun Tianlong, who attacked Yuezhou, was even more obvious and had been thought of by everyone.

The continuous bad news made the terrified Zhang Xianzhong's soldiers and civilians even more panicked. Many newly attached subordinates and surrendered dignitaries began to waver. escape phenomenon.

Even if Li Rujing led the army from Hengzhou to Changsha and Sun Kewang gathered all the surrounding troops in time to ensure that the total strength of Zhang Xianzhong's army around Changsha quickly recovered to more than [-], it did not play a stabilizing role at all.

In order to stabilize the rule, Zhang Xianzhong, who was emotionally unstable due to the big defeat, adopted the opinion of the new military adviser Wang Zhaoling, and extended the butcher knife to his army for the first time, and extended it to ordinary people, in an attempt to frighten the morale of the army and the people through massacres.

Wang Zhaoling was a scholar captured by Zhang Xianzhong when he attacked Tongcheng at the end of last year. He was only 19 years old at the time.After the defeat of Qianshan, Zhang Xianzhong killed a large number of husbands who had treated each other with courtesy, leaving only Wang Zhaoling and another man named Lin Zichang.

Only Wang Zhaoling and Lin Zichang were not killed, which is a very interesting thing.

But Lin Zichang later found an opportunity to escape, and it is more interesting that Wang Zhaoling stayed.

But for a long time, maybe because he was too young, Wang Zhaoling remained unknown.

It wasn't until Xu Yixian's death that Wang Zhaoling emerged in Zhang Xianzhong's army, which was severely lacking in talents. Recently, his status in Zhang Xianzhong's eyes rose rapidly, and he was worshiped as a military adviser.

And what moved Zhang Xianzhong was to enter Sichuan.

After the defeat of Baishui, Zhang Xianzhong's original intention was to gather and mobilize all forces to continue to attack Jiangxi, and open the channel for Zuo Liangyu's heavy army group that bypassed Yuezhou and Wuchang to enter the south of the Yangtze River.

Zhang Xianzhong judged that although Zhang Qizai was defeated, Zhao Jin who was currently in Yuanzhou was not as perverted as Li Ping, unable to fight against his huge army.And if Zhao Jin is beaten away, he can go straight to Nanjing without facing the heavy forces of Li Ping and Zuo Liangyu.

Zhang Xianzhong needs to quickly regain confidence in his subordinates.

At the same time, Zhang Xianzhong also had a premonition that Li Zicheng would achieve greater success in the north, and he himself was very unwilling to be left behind.

It was the product of this idea that he quickly divided his troops and sent Zhang Qizai to support and attempt to occupy Yuanzhou.

But Wang Zhaoling suggested: "There is no way to map the south of the Yangtze River. If you want to change it to a positive name and build up your power, there is nothing like Qin and Shu. If you want to take Qin, you must win Shu. If you win Shu, you will take it as your foundation. Once you have a solid foundation, you will conquer the world in all directions. "

This is basically Liu Bang's routine, and Wang Zhaoling also gave Liu Bang's example very appropriately.

What is Liu Bang?That was the founding emperor of the Han Dynasty.

Zhang Xianzhong, who knew little about history, was overjoyed when he heard this.

Then Zhang Xianzhong quickly gave up his plan to plot Jiangnan, and decided to march to Sichuan.

This is also the reason why Zhang Xianzhong made a major strategic change in history.

At that time, he quickly ended Zhang Qizai's good situation in Jiangxi, returned to the army in December to recapture Yuezhou, opened the channel to enter the Yangtze River, and finally the whole army entered Shu from the Yangtze River.

It's just that in this time and space, Zhang Xianzhong, who was in a serious strategic dilemma, advanced this decision.

In order to solve the current serious instability of the morale of the army and the people, Zhang Xianzhong also adopted Wang Zhaoling's suggestion again.

Wang Zhaoling's suggestion is to establish prestige by killing.

In fact, Wang Zhaoling, who became Zhang Xianzhong’s second-best think tank in the Dongge University of the Chengdu regime and Prime Minister Zuo at a young age in the original history, not only put forward the extremely unreliable theory of entering Sichuan, but also was behind Zhang Xianzhong’s policy of bloody massacre in Sichuan. key enabler.

In the face of fierce resistance from the soldiers and civilians in the Shu region, it was he who suggested to Zhang Xianzhong to "slaughter all the people in the city... This system is aggressive, and it is a good strategy to reverse the situation."Soon, he suggested to Zhang Xianzhong to massacre the scholars, then suggested to kill surrendered soldiers, and finally even frantically extended the killing to his own battalion.

It can be said that without Wang Zhaoling, Zhang Xianzhong and the Daxi Army may not have completely become devils.

At the same time, this also doomed Wang Zhaoling's ending.

After Zhang Xianzhong's death, Sun Kewang and Li Rujing, who had always been extremely dissatisfied with the indiscriminate killing policy, and several Zhang Xianzhong's adopted sons who were also actual military controllers immediately executed Wang Zhaoling together.

It may also be because of this horrible experience that the Daxi Army later began to pay great attention to military discipline, and Li Rujing's determination to take the road of loving the people like a son may also be related to this.

But in this time and space, Li Ping's appearance not only failed to stop Zhang Xianzhong from making up his mind to go to Sichuan, but actually greatly increased Zhang Xianzhong's determination to go to Sichuan to make a comeback, and even greatly advanced Wang Zhaoling's indiscriminate killing.

Similarly, the result of Wang Zhaoling's killing Liwei naturally just caused greater panic just like in history.

Then at this time, Zhang Xianzhong made up his mind to go westward, and bound as many people as possible to go with him, so that the escapers could not be cut off.

"That's right, since they decided to leave me, they are no longer our siblings. Li Rujing! Are you questioning me?" Zhang Xianzhong's anger was suddenly picked up.

But Li Rujing turned his head straight to Zhang Xianzhong and said: "Father, our army has suffered repeated setbacks. It is normal for soldiers and ordinary people to lose confidence due to fear. It is useless to kill Li Wei. Now we have to start again." Torture, the army and the people will only become more alienated. Father! Please take back your life."

"You are the benevolence of a woman. If you don't stand up with authority, the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians of this king may have already collapsed. Li Rujing, this king has made up his mind. Anyone who dares to make noise again will be punished accordingly." Zhang Xianzhong said angrily.

……

A few days later, when it was learned that hundreds of thousands of Zhang Xianzhong's army had gathered with Liu Wenxiu's troops who were finally chasing after them and burned all the ships, they marched overland to Lizhou in the north, intending to pass through Lizhou and reach Jingzhou, an important town on the Yangtze River. Li Ping, who was nervously preparing for the battle, let out a long sigh of relief.

But then, he smiled helplessly.

At this time, those officers and soldiers of Zhang Xianzhong's army who fled to Yuezhou in large numbers, especially those officers from Macheng who had ideals like Chen Zidao, and some intellectuals who had served in the puppet government, had completely explained to Li Ping why Zhang Xianzhong Doubts must go to Sichuan.

And he has also confirmed that Zhang Xianzhong's plan can no longer be changed.

Li Ping knew that he hadn't changed anything in the end.

Notes:

Regarding where Wang Zhaoling joined Zhang Xianzhong, there are many records in the current historical materials, and there is a lot of controversy.Among them, Zhang Xianzhong released him from the prison in Qishui, which is also a mainstream theory.This article tends to be that he was captured in Tongcheng, and he was not a prisoner in prison, and only represents his personal point of view.

(End of this chapter)