The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 422 Zhang Xianzhong

The fifteenth year of Chongzhen, the tenth day of the second month.

Nanjing fell.

The Southern Prime Minister Lu Xiangsheng died for his country.

Generals Huang Degong and Mou Wenshou both died in battle.

More than seventy officers, including deputy generals, lieutenant generals, and guerrillas, were killed in the battle.

More than 30,000 Ming troops surrendered, and the rest all fled.

The Wanmin Army set up an ambush in the east of the city and captured thousands of officials of all ranks in Nanjing, and obtained countless gold, silver, supplies, jewels and jade.

The Western Army and the Wanmin Army successively broke into the city and established their own regimes.

The two sides used Qingliang Mountain as a dividing line, each occupying the north and south of the city.

The Nanjing Palace City also belongs to the south of the city, but the Western Army looted the city indiscriminately and it was difficult to gather them together.

The offensive that the Western Army had finally concentrated was also repelled by Lu Xiangsheng's troops.

In the end, the Wanmin Army arrived later but struck first and captured the Nanjing Palace in one fell swoop.

By the time Zhang Xianzhong gathered his troops and wanted to occupy the Nanjing Palace, it had already been captured by the Wanmin Army.

Zhang Xianzhong was furious, but there was nothing he could do.

The Wanmin Army was in good order and had been ready for battle, so there was no chance for us to take advantage of them.

At the west gate of the Nanjing Palace, Zhang Xianzhong, in a rage, whipped and beat his generals, scolding them for a full half hour before withdrawing his troops.

The Battle of Nanjing ended here.

Two completely different rebel armies stood opposite each other, one in the north and one in the south.

The alliance that had been agreed upon was not mentioned by both parties tacitly, and they did not even send an envoy to the other party's location.

After both sides controlled their respective areas, they tacitly deployed their troops to the dividing line, without any sign of alliance.

Compared with the Allied Forces, the Western Army and the People's Army are now more like two hostile armies.

There are very few residents in the northern part of Nanjing, and most of the buildings are imperial court buildings and government offices.

The military camps for garrison troops, the warehouses for storing goods, the bell tower, the drum tower, and the Sitian Temple are all in the north city, and the Imperial College is also in the north city.

The southern part is where ordinary people live and the real core area.

The sun sets over the western mountains and darkness falls.

In the area controlled by the North City People's Army, there were only scattered lights, and most of the light was concentrated along the dividing line.

However, in the areas controlled by the Western Army in the south city, there were raging fires in many places, and cries of grief could be faintly heard under the night sky.

Zhang Xianzhong did not issue an order to ban looting.

We finally captured Nanjing. The men under my command had been holding back for so long and had expended so much effort. What's wrong with letting them off some steam?

As long as there isn't too much trouble, nothing will happen.

"You idiot bastards, you are all a bunch of bastards!"

In the side hall of the government office of Yingtian Prefecture, Zhang Xianzhong was filled with murderous intent, his eyes full of murderous intent, and he suddenly smashed the table with a hammer.

The dishes and plates on the table were vibrating and making clanging sounds due to Zhang Xianzhong's hammer, which made the hall noisy for a while.

"Father."

Li Dingguo, who was sitting nearby, hesitated for a moment, but decided to persuade Zhang Xianzhong again.

"When Nanjing fell, the front troops disregarded military orders and engaged in looting, which resulted in the loss of the opportunity to fight and caused the Nanjing Palace to be occupied by the People's Army. I think that military discipline should be enforced now..."

The Nanjing Palace City is of great significance to Nanjing, and it is even more important to their Dashi Army.

The biggest reason why the Wanmin Army arrived first after them was due to internal factors within the Dashi Army.

If Zhang Xianzhong had been able to remain consistent and strictly enforce military discipline, they would not have had to expend so much energy to control the situation and could have gathered their troops to capture the Nanjing Palace first.

But it was too late now. The Wanmin Army had already occupied the Nanjing Palace, leaving them with little chance.

Zhang Xianzhong was already depressed, and when he heard Li Dingguo's advice, he became even more annoyed.

"This kind of military discipline is enough now. The Nanjing Palace was occupied by the Wanmin Army. It was all because of Lu Xiangsheng."

Zhang Xianzhong was somewhat dissatisfied with Li Dingguo, but when he thought about how loyal his adopted son was and how good a fighter he was, he tried his best to suppress his anger and spoke.

Lu Xiangsheng, the idiot governor, had chased him everywhere, and now he was trying to make him unhappy before he died.

When his troops entered the city, Lu Xiangsheng led them to fight to the death.

When the Wanmin Army entered the city, Lu Xiangsheng actually committed suicide.

What about the elders of the three governments, what about loyalty and righteousness? Being an official makes your brain pedantic, and what about studying makes your brain useless.

Li Dingguo wanted to say more, but Sun Kewang on the side grabbed his arm and signaled him.

Sun Kewang shook his head slightly, but Li Dingguo understood the meaning of this gesture.

When Zhang Xianzhong was angry, he would never listen to any advice.

Li Dingguo sighed helplessly in his heart and could only give up.

He was struggling innerly. He was born into a poor family and in order to survive, he wandered around and was adopted by Zhang Xianzhong as his son and joined the army.

Fighting for survival in troubled times, his hands were stained with blood.

But all he did was just to find a way to survive.

He is no longer the ten-year-old boy. He has seen too many things along the way.

While defending Xiangyang, he read a lot of books and understood a lot of things.

The path his adoptive father was now taking had long since deviated.

They took the wrong path.

I thought that Military Advisor Xu's words had made my adoptive father change his mind.

But now everything is starting to return to normal.

Aren't the weapons in our hands meant to be waved at the high and mighty princes, nobles, emperors and generals?

Why should they take up arms against those poor people who were just like them, those common people who were just trying to survive?

This shouldn't be the case...

"Military Advisor Xu, what should we do in the current situation?"

Zhang Xianzhong was feeling annoyed and asked Xu Yixian for advice.

It was obvious that they were the first to break into the city, but Nanjing City is now divided into half and half, and Li Yan even occupies more.

"Now the Wanmin Army has 150,000 troops, and our army has 200,000. The difference in military strength is not much."

"But the Wanmin Army should not be underestimated. They have been fighting for a long time. Although their military strength is weaker than ours, their strength is probably still above ours."

Xu Yixian frowned, this situation was undoubtedly the worst outcome.

If they can occupy the palace, they will be able to gain a certain degree of initiative.

But the palace is now in the hands of the Ten Thousand People's Army, and the initiative is in the hands of the Ten Thousand People's Army.

The Wanmin Army was powerful and defeated the government troops one after another.

Xu Yixian didn't have much confidence in his heart.

Xu Yixian was thinking in his heart. He saw that Zhang Xianzhong was becoming increasingly impatient, and knew that he had to come up with a feasible plan.

Zhang Xianzhong had a bad temper, although he did not beat or scold these scholars as casually as he did ordinary officers.

But Xu Yixian knew that if it was really useless, the end would not be good. Serving the emperor is like serving a tiger.

"In the current situation, the Nanjing Army has lost the initiative, but our army has other advantages and can use static to control changes."

Zhang Xianzhong's eyes lit up slightly, and his expression became much more relaxed. He then asked
"Military Advisor, could you please explain it more clearly?"

Xu Yixian calmed himself down and continued.

"Our army has occupied Wuchang and the two prefectures of Luzhou and Anqing in Southern Zhili. Zuo Liangyu has stopped his troops from advancing. The territory under our jurisdiction is not threatened and is relatively stable."

Xu Yixian looked serious, thinking quickly in his mind, but he spoke slowly because he needed time to think.

"But the Wanmin Army lost Xuzhou first, then Fengyang. Most of Fengyang and Xuzhou were taken by Chen Wang, and they even had to give up most of Huai'an Prefecture's territory, withdraw from Huaibei, and retreat to Huainan."

Xu Yixian slowly narrated the current situation, sorting out the current situation bit by bit.

"I can stay still, but the People's Army must move..."

After quick thinking, Xu Yixian also figured out the key.

The biggest reason why the Wanmin Army wanted to attack Nanjing was because of the pressure from the north.

The offensive of General Chen Wang, who was in charge of suppressing bandits, made it difficult for the Wanmin Army to resist, and they had no choice but to move south.

"The situation of the People's Army is much worse than ours."

Xu Yixian stood up and walked to the map hanging on the side of the side hall. His originally unclear thoughts became clearer because of the map in front of him.

"The only places controlled by the Wanmin Army now are Yangzhou and Chuzhou."

"The soldiers and navy have arrived at Zhenjiang, and Yangzhou has become an enclave."

"Chen Wang's army is strong and will definitely move south again. Whether it is Chuzhou or Yangzhou, the people's army will find it difficult to defend them."

Zhang Xianzhong kept silent. He first glanced at the map on the side, and then looked at Sun Kewang beside him.

Sun Kewang clasped his hands together and said.

"According to our spies, the Wanmin Army is shrinking its defenses and continuously abandoning cities. They are indeed heading south."

"In Chuzhou Prefecture, the Wanmin Army only left more than 20,000 soldiers and horses, led by Zhao Shouping, the clay pot man, to guard against the Hanzhong Army. They seemed to be gathering soldiers and horses and preparing baggage a few days ago. It seems that they really want to go south."

As he spoke, Sun Kewang stood up, walked to the side of the map, and reported the situation of the Wanmin Army to Zhang Xianzhong.

As early as when Gucheng pretended to surrender, Zhang Xianzhong had already sent a number of secret agents to various places.

The reason why he was able to recruit the amnesty was due to the network of relationships he had built in the capital.

Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong's subordinates naturally had ways to obtain intelligence about the movements of the Wanmin Army.

"In Yangzhou Prefecture, the Wanmin Army is concentrated in Yangzhou City. The leaders are Geliyan He Yilong and Gai Shi Wang Liu Xiyao. There are about 50,000 soldiers and horses. Because of the arrival of the government soldiers and the navy, they are separated from the north of the river and become an isolated army."

"The rest of the troops have gathered at the ferry crossing north of Nanjing and are constantly crossing the river."

Xu Yixian looked at the map and listened to Sun Kewang's narration, his brows slightly frowned.

Zhang Xianzhong raised his eyebrows slightly and asked in confusion.

"Didn't Li Yan win the battle of Pizhou and kill Sun Chuanting?"

"Can Chen Wang alone make Li Yan so helpless?"

Although Zhang Xianzhong knew Li Yan's purpose of going south, when he came to ask for an alliance, the situation of the Wanmin Army did not seem to be so bad.

It has only been less than a month or two, and how come the vast territory of the Wanmin Army is reduced to only Yangzhou and Chuzhou.

"The Wanmin Army was very powerful. They killed the governor of the imperial court, including Sun Chuanting. They also captured the elite troops and weapons of the Ming army in Fengyang and Pizhou, and dominated the southern country."

Xu Yixian looked solemn and said
"The Wanmin Army is now more prestigious than when Gao Chuang was here, but in just a few months, they were forced by Chen Wang to give up the territory they had fought so hard for."

"The Marshal wants to secede from the South and conquer the Central Plains. I'm afraid this man will be the biggest enemy the Marshal will face."

Zhang Xianzhong snorted coldly.

"Chen Wang's ambitions are indeed not small."

How could Zhang Xianzhong not pay attention to Chen Wang?

He had suffered a lot at the hands of Chen Wang.

The news from the capital has confirmed that Chen Wang is not loyal to the court.

Chen Wang now firmly controls Hanzhong Prefecture, Yunyang Prefecture, and Henan, and his territory has become one.

He has more than 100,000 soldiers and horses under his command, including countless elite soldiers and generals.

After Sun Chuanting's death, Gao Jie, Hui Dengxiang and others also defected to Chen Wang.

Chen Wang, as a military officer, was given the seal of a general who could suppress the bandits and was in charge of the affairs of supporting and suppressing the bandits, holding great power.

The imperial court's transfer order was no longer useful to Chen Wang.

"But everything is blocked by the Wanmin Army. Although Chen Wang has many soldiers and generals now, he still can't take over such a large territory in one go. What's important is the current situation."

"Besides, although Chen Wang wants to be the emperor, he is still a general of the imperial court and cannot let go."

Zhang Xianzhong waved his hand. He used to be an officer and after surrendering, he also pretended to be nice to the officials of the court.

Zhang Xianzhong was naturally familiar with the various systems of the imperial court.

Zhang Xianzhong knew very well how low the status of military officers was and how great the power of civil officials was.

Chen Wang’s power is indeed strong now, but it is not to the extent that he can completely ignore the imperial court.

Chen Wang has many military generals under his command, but not many officials capable of governing the country.

Most of the local officials were still from the imperial court.

And although Chen Wang is strong, it is not a matter of urgency.

The most important thing at the moment is how to divide Nanjing and coexist with the People's Army.

"The most important thing now is the problem with the Ten Thousand People's Army."

Xu Yixian nodded and flattered him.

"The Marshal sees everything."

After analyzing the situation, Xu Yixian was already confident and spoke immediately.

"The People's Army is in a difficult situation now. They are more anxious than us. I think they will send an envoy in a day or two..."

Before Xu Yixian finished speaking, he heard a report coming from outside the hall.

"The envoy of the Ten Thousand People's Army is outside the government office. Please see the Marshal."

Xu Yixian had a smile on his face, slightly raised the folding fan in his hand, and smiled without saying a word.

A smile also appeared on Zhang Xianzhong's face.

Li Yan couldn't hold it in any longer.

And it arrived earlier than expected.

It seems that the difficulties encountered by the Ten Thousand People's Army are even more difficult than they understand.

"Hahahahaha!"

A fierce look flashed between Zhang Xianzhong's brows.

He stood up, grinned, revealing his yellow teeth, and laughed wildly.

His two whiskers trembled up and down as he laughed, and all the depression in his heart was swept away.

The Wanmin Army is now in trouble.

It's time to take advantage of the situation!