The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 234 Emergency

Chongzhen 11th year, November 24rd, at noon.

Just when the Qing army was conspiring, Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng were standing opposite each other outside the Ming army camp outside Zhending City.

Sun Chuanting was still the same as before, wearing a fish-scale armor, a bright iron helmet with cloud wings, and a red tassel on the top. Under the armor, he was wearing a crimson civilian uniform, and his sleeves had already been tied up with his arms.

His spirit and appearance remained the same, not much changed from when he stepped out of the capital a few years ago.

If you have to say yes, then it is even more aggressive, and Gu Pan is obviously fierce and powerful.

But today's Lu Xiangsheng is no longer as high-spirited as when he took office as the prime minister of the seven provinces.

Sun Chuanting looked at Lu Xiangsheng in front of him, although he had a tough heart, he couldn't help being moved by it.

Lu Xiangsheng was wearing a white robe and a white scarf on his head. His father died on the way back to his hometown. It was during his father's funeral and the country was facing difficulties.

Lu Xiangsheng had frost on his temples, many scars on his armor, torn robes, dust all over his body, and a tired face.

He never had the spirit that an important official who supervises the world's reinforcements and holds the Fangjian should have.

Only one pair of eyes was still bright and hot.

Chen Wang, also wearing a burqa and belt, followed Cao Wenzhao, Cao Bianjiao, and He Renlong to stand beside Sun Chuanting.

On Lu Xiangsheng's side, Du Wenhuan, the general of Datong, Yang Guozhu, the general of the Xuanfu, and Hu Dawei, the general of Shanxi, stood according to their seniority.

Yang Guozhu, the chief soldier of the Xuan Mansion, wore a three-flag moonlight helmet on his head, a dark black armor, and a battle robe, with his right sleeve exposed. He looked modest and stood with his sword.

Sensing Chen Wang's gaze, Yang Guozhu nodded slightly, then turned his gaze to Chen Wang, and then quickly retracted it.

Chen Wang also nodded slightly, as a greeting, and then shifted his gaze to a rather burly general with a beard and silver-white fish scale armor standing beside Yang Guozhu.

The dark-skinned general with beard and dark complexion was none other than Hu Dawei, then General Soldier of Shanxi.

Hu Dawei and Mengruhu are both Mongolians. In the early years of Chongzhen, they came from outside the Great Wall to join the Ming Dynasty. Their names were "two tiger generals" when the governor of Yansui changed their names.

Hu Dawei made meritorious service in the army, tired of officials and went to Shanxi as a general, backed up to suppress Shaanxi, and replaced Wang Zhong as the general of Shanxi.

When Chen Wang looked at Hu Dawei, Hu Dawei's eyes just happened to cast his gaze.

Looking at each other, Hu Dawei grinned slightly, showing a smile, which can be regarded as a courtesy.

In the end, Chen Wang's gaze rested on Du Wenhuan. The storm caused by the flapping of his butterfly wings changed many things.

Wang Pu, who was supposed to be the commander-in-chief of Datong, is now demoted due to a crime and has no reason to be the commander-in-chief of Datong.

The commander-in-chief of Datong fell on Du Wenhuan, who was different from the timid and incompetent Wang Pu.

Although Du Wenhuan has a lack of personal morality, he is first-class in both command and combat, and his prestige in the army is extremely high.

Du Wenhuan served as the commander-in-chief in the two towns of Yansui. He was repeatedly defeated and invaded the Mongolian tribes.

Even though he has been dismissed for many years, all the generals and soldiers in Yansui Town still respect Du Wenhuan's name very much.

In the fourth year of Chongzhen, Shen Yiyuan besieged Qingyang, and Du Wenhuan broke the siege.

Censor Wu Yu impeached Du Wenhuan's generals who had killed Yanchuan refugees and impeached them again during the incident, and Du Wenhuan was imprisoned and dismissed.

This time, he was released from prison and took over as the commander-in-chief of Datong Town.

In history, Lu Xiangsheng was promoted at the end of November, and when it was nearly December, there were only five or six thousand soldiers left under his command.

Yang Sichang dispatched troops several times to continuously weaken the army under Lu Xiangsheng's command, just to prevent Lu Xiangsheng from going out to fight.

Lu Xiangsheng and Yang Sichang quarreled against each other because of their different political views. Lu Xiangsheng reprimanded Yang Sichang for "the crime of being a teacher and supporting bandits", while Yang Sichang forced Lu Xiangsheng to use the Shangfang sword against him, and they broke up.

Not long ago, part of the troops commanded by Lu Xiangsheng was handed over to Chen Xinjia to guard the Changping Imperial Mausoleum.

Then Yang Sichang transferred the Datong army under Lu Xiangsheng's command again on the grounds that there was a police in Datong, which made the army under Lu Xiangsheng's command extremely weak.

But now, Lu Xiangsheng still has more than 8000 people under his command, and Du Wenhuan still follows Lu Xiangsheng.

There was also an alarm in Datong, and the Ministry of War did issue the news of returning to defense, but Du Wenhuan did not lead all the soldiers and horses of Datong Town back to help like Wang Pu.

Instead, he ordered the other two battalions to return to Datong, and the main soldiers of the self-led headquarters still followed Lu Xiangsheng.

Chen Wang felt strange, at this time Yang Sichang was suppressing Lu Xiangsheng mercilessly.

The reason why Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei followed was because they obeyed the military order, but Du Wenhuan had an excuse, but he didn't take the opportunity to escape like Wang Pu. Instead, he went deep into the tiger's den with Lu Xiangsheng, but it was a bit wrong.

Chen Wang's eyes were slightly fixed, observing Du Wenhuan who was standing not far away without any trace.

Du Wenhuan was wearing a school armor and a bright iron helmet on his head, standing beside Lu Xiangsheng.

His appearance is upright, his eyes are peaceful, and he doesn't see much hostility. He doesn't look like a general, but like an ordinary rich man in the countryside.

For Du Wenhuan, Chen Wang has some impressions, but he is not familiar with it. The reason why he remembers one or two is because of juniper.

Du Wenhuan's qualifications are quite old, and his prestige is also high. Compared with Cao Wenzhao, he is several points higher, but he is not as good at life as Cao Wenzhao.

I heard that she was full of arrogance and domineering before, but now she doesn't see any trace of the legend.

Chen Wang was thinking in his heart, Du Wenhuan, who was standing not far away, seemed to have noticed something, and cast his eyes slightly sideways.

Between eye contact, Chen Wang's heart sank involuntarily.

However, Du Wenhuan's eyes only glanced, and then quickly retracted.

Chen Wang frowned slightly, and also withdrew his gaze from observing Du Wenhuan.

No matter what Du Wenhuan thinks, all of this has nothing to do with him now, he doesn't need to follow Lu Xiangsheng to stay in Zhending, and soon he will follow Sun Chuanting out of camp all the way to the north, heading towards Baoning Mansion.

The main force of the Qing army had already passed Boryeong at this time, and Boryeong Mansion was temporarily safe, and the Qing army could not be encountered in Boryeong Mansion at all. If you go north to Boryeong, you can get a short period of peace.

only……

Chen Wang turned his eyes back, looked at Lu Xiangsheng who was standing in front of him, and his mood sank involuntarily...

……

Sun Chuanting stared at Lu Xiangsheng standing in front of him, but for a moment he didn't know where to start.

"Brother Boya is willing to share part of the military rations. Don't worry about the lack of money and rations."

Lu Xiangsheng took a step forward, he could see the thoughts in Sun Chuanting's eyes, but he didn't use this as the starting point of the conversation, but came forward to thank him sincerely.

Sun Chuanting's expression moved slightly, he subconsciously glanced at Beibei, and then couldn't help but sighed softly.

"I heard that the battle against the sun is fierce on the temple, but I don't think it has reached such a point."

Sun Chuanting's heart was cold, he only knew that Lu Xiangsheng and Yang Sichang were at odds, Lu Xiangsheng was in charge of the battle, and Yang Sichang was in charge of caressing.

I thought it was just a dispute of political opinions among the court, but Yang Sichang actually made it to this point.

Yang Sichang held the military power in his hands, and was constrained in everything. He forced Lu Xiangsheng not to fight by cutting off food and salary.

Lu Xiangsheng's army has been short of food and hungry for several days. If it is an ordinary army, it has already sparked a mutiny.

However, Lu Xiangsheng had a very high prestige in the army. When Lu Xiangsheng took office as Governor of Xuanda, most of the soldiers in the two towns of Xuanda were hungry, precarious, and dressed in rags.

It was Lu Xiangsheng who clarified the administration of officials, made great efforts to farm the fields, invited food and clothes, and brought them no longer the same suffering as before.

During the period of lack of food and pay, Lu Xiangsheng shared weal and woe with the sergeants, and did not even eat for several days. The soldiers under him felt that Lu Xiangsheng did not complain even though he was starving.

Lu Xiangsheng's eyes moved slightly, and there was no expression on his face, but Sun Chuanting still saw the helplessness deep in Lu Xiangsheng's eyes.

Sun Chuanting was moved in his heart, thought for a long time, but couldn't help but said.

"Building slaves is powerful, with strong armor and sharp blades, and the sharpness of soldiers is hard to resist. The frontier army has been weak for a long time. Soldiers who dare to fight are cherished. If they are defeated in a battle, the kingdom may be in danger of overthrow."

"Jiandou..."

Sun Chuanting didn't finish his sentence, because he saw the answer from Lu Xiangsheng's eyes.

Lu Xiangsheng's eyes were calm, like a silent ancient well.

"I know, I know, I know..."

Lu Xiangsheng's tone was calm, but his trembling hands still showed the turmoil in his heart.

"Building slaves and entering bandits, burning, killing and looting all the way, ravaging cities and counties, plagiarizing and looting."

"I led the troops out of the capital and went all the way south. All I saw along the way was devastation. The people were cut open and disfigured, their heads were in different places, and their corpses were left in the wilderness,"

"Gaoyang City was broken, Taifu Sun died in the city, and I was sitting in Baoning, but I was powerless to save him."

"Build slaves to capture my people, destroy my city, kill my people, cause my race to be separated, exiled as slaves, and spread all over Zhili!"

Lu Xiangsheng clenched his fists and looked directly at Sun Chuanting. His original peaceful look was gone, and his eyes were full of anger.

Gaoyang City was besieged, but he could do nothing. Sun Chengzong, a senior official, led his family to guard the isolated city of Gaoyang. In the end, the city was broken and captured, and he hanged himself to death. His five sons, six grandsons, two nephews, and eight nephews all fought Death, more than a hundred members of the Sun family were killed, martyred for the country.

"How can such bloody enmity and national humiliation be tolerated?!"

"It is true that Jiannu is powerful and the soldiers are sharp, but Jiannu is not invincible!"

Anger swirled in Lu Xiangsheng's eyes, and Lu Xiangsheng tried his best to suppress his emotions, and said in a deep voice.

"The reason why Jiannu entered the customs was not to conquer cities and lands, to expand territories, but to plunder money, food, and people's power."

"Jiannu took advantage of the internal turmoil in Liaodong to grow stronger, and Mongolia was separated because of the death of Khan, so Jiannu was able to gather all the tribes of Mongolia to fight."

"The Mongolian tribes have always come here for profit, and if there is no profit, they will retreat. The will to fight is not firm. This time they followed Jiannu to the south, but it was only for gold and silver treasures."

"Although Jiannu and Mongolia are different, the purpose of going south this time is the same. They also came here to plunder money. Once the casualties are too heavy, their army will retreat without a fight."

Lu Xiangsheng said with a gloomy expression.

"The population of Jian slaves is small, the population of Ding is only a few hundred thousand, and the number of soldiers is only tens of thousands. Most of the so-called one hundred thousand troops are Mongolian and Jiang Ding. They have different ideas, and they are strong on the outside and dry on the inside. They only need to kill a few thousand of the main force of their army to make them It hurts its muscles and bones, and the army has no will to fight."

Sun Chuanting frowned slightly. Although Lu Xiangsheng's words were reasonable, but in the current situation, the probability of defeat is more than [-]% if he rushes into battle.

Although Lu Xiangsheng is known as the governor of the world, but at this time there are only 8000 soldiers under Lu Xiangsheng's command.

Except for the Tianxiong Army of the Supervision Battalion under his command, only the Zhengbing Battalion under the command of Du Wenhuan, Yang Guozhu, and Hu Dawei was left.

According to reports from various places in the past few days, the number of Qing troops who entered the bandits was nearly [-], and now there are [-] to [-] people entrenched in the two prefectures of Zhending and Hejian. …

"I already know the pros and cons of it, Brother Boya, there is no need to say anything more."

Lu Xiangsheng interrupted Sun Chuanting's movements with his fists, and said in a deep voice.

"I will never go into battle rashly. To protect the environment and the people, you need to protect yourself first. I know it all."

Sun Chuanting opened his mouth, but in the end he couldn't say any more words of persuasion.

Lu Xiangsheng has already spoken to such an extent, what else can he say.

It's not that Lu Xiangsheng doesn't know, he knows everything, but Lu Xiangsheng can't be like Yang Sichang, sitting high on the temple, watching ordinary people displaced and taken into slavery...

It's hard to tell whether it's right or wrong, the matter between Yang Sichang and Lu Xiangsheng is too complicated, he can't get through this muddy water, and he can't manage it.

Allocating seven or eight days of military rations to Lu Xiangsheng is already his greatest authority and the best thing he can do.

From a long-term perspective, Yang Sichang seems to be right. Now that the country is in trouble, if you want to fight against the outside world, you need to settle down first.

Otherwise, fighting on two fronts, the generals and soldiers running back and forth, exhausted and unable to fight, fighting on two fronts means dividing troops, which means weakness.

And now the country's finances are getting more severe year by year, the imperial court really has no money...

If the internal troubles and rogues are not eradicated, the country will not be peaceful. The rogues go to one place to destroy another place, and there is no way to collect taxes from the places where the rogues go.

If you want to be a slave, you will be pacified, and if you temporarily stop troops on the border, you can concentrate on solving domestic worries.

At that time, the domestic worries will be eliminated, the power will be in hand, the disadvantages of Liaodong will be eliminated, the world will strengthen the army, the northern expedition will restore the land, and it will not be difficult to avenge the enemy.

but……

Along the way, the formerly prosperous Beizhili is now a scene of withering everywhere.

The slaves burned, killed, looted, destroyed the city and slaughtered. The towns around Zhending City were turned into hills and ruins.

Seeing such a scene, how can he let Jiannu be so unscrupulous.

As Lu Xiangsheng said, what Jiannu did was gold, silver and money. They could not accept a large number of casualties. Once the casualties were about to reach the critical value, they would voluntarily evacuate outside the pass.

"Take care of yourself."

Sun Chuanting clasped his fists lightly, all the thoughts in his heart turned into a sigh in the end.

Lu Xiangsheng bowed slightly, lowered his head, and also clasped his fists in return. He knew that everything about Sun Chuanting was sincerely for him and for the consideration of the country.

The horse neighed, and a rush of hoofbeats came from far away, interrupting the dull atmosphere among the crowd.

"The main force of building slaves turned to the south, passing through Wuqiang, Wuyi, and Hengshui in the northeast of Zhending Mansion and quickly advancing south!"

"The Jiannu vanguard has passed Tuoshui, Jizhou, Zaoqiang, Xinhe, Nangong and other eight counties are in urgent need!"

……

"History of Ming Dynasty Biography 140 Biography of Lu Xiangsheng":
"In the army, there is no salary for three days, and the water is not imported for Xiang Sheng, so he won the hearts of soldiers and soldiers, and he has made great achievements in battle."

(End of this chapter)