Starting in Saarhu, it is a bit difficult to make a comeback.

Chapter 191 Swallowing people in one gulp, Hong Chengchou is too vicious (please subscribe for monthly tickets)

Historically, Yang Sichang's "Four Positives, Six Corners and Ten Sided Networks" was actually a good strategic layout.

However, the Ming Dynasty at that time was in the midst of internal and external troubles, making it difficult to fully implement it.

At this time, Yang He was dismissed, and Yang Sichang's mother also died of illness. He was at home with Ding Worry, so it was naturally impossible for him to have the opportunity to offer this strategy.

So Feng Quan relied on this strategy to re-enter the cabinet.

Chen Qiyu, the "Prime Minister of the Five Provinces", controls most of the border troops.

As the governor of the five provinces, Hong Chengchou was more responsible for suppressing bandits.

However, the military strength of the provinces in the Ming Dynasty is really not strong. In addition, the main force of the bandits is now entrenched in Fengyang, and they may go south and attack the south of the Yangtze River at any time.

Therefore, as soon as Hong Chengchou took office, he requested that the 2 Yulin battalion originally commanded by Cao Wenzhao be placed under his command as the main force of his southward march. The commander-in-chief He Renlong also commanded the 2 elite Yulin battalion on the recommendation of Hong Chengchou.

The Denglai area was occupied by Zheng Zhilong, which surprised Hong Chengchou.

However, according to Zuo Liangyu, after the White Lotus Sect's rebels joined these pirates, things were still relatively stable for the time being. But he did not dare to mobilize the more than 2 Yulin camp in Qingzhou.

If these pirates echo the rogue bandits in Fengyang, the network in Shandong will be completely broken.

On the one hand, Hong Chengchou urgently ordered Lu Weiqi, the Minister of War in Nanjing, to add 5 troops to strengthen the defense of Yangzhou, Huai'an and other places to prevent the rogue bandits from approaching Jiangnan.

On the other hand, he asked Baoding Governor Yang Wenyue to lead 2 troops, Shandong General Liu Zhaoji to send 1 troops, and Kaifeng Deputy General Chen Yongfu to lead 1 troops to cooperate with He Renlong's 2 main force to go south to recapture Fengyang.

At this time, the rebels occupying the Fengyang area had differences on their next move.

The reason why they became "roving bandits" was actually a helpless move, because the land in the city they occupied simply could not support so many people.

Therefore, they can only solve their supply problem in the short term by constantly raiding new areas.

To put it simply, it means killing the gentry, landlords and wealthy households, and obtaining a large amount of money and food.

Then use food to coerce the people and make them rebel with you!

But now the situation has changed somewhat. They have occupied Fengyang, the central capital, and are surrounded by the wealthy Nanzhili.

Not to mention cities like Suzhou, Nanjing, and Yangzhou, even Huai'an Prefecture on the edge of Fengyang is not as wealthy as poor places like Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan.

The land and food here can feed hundreds of thousands of rebels.

After a large amount of money and food was seized in Fengyang, the number of rebels almost doubled.

In addition to the large number of local people in Fengyang, many people in Henan also came over. In less than a month, the rebel army grew to 300,000 people.

At this time, the mentality of Gao Yingxiang, king of Chuang, also changed. He believed that the rebel army could use Fengyang as a base and then attack Huai'an, Yangzhou and other places in the north of the Yangtze River, and even cross the Yangtze River to occupy Nanjing and Suzhou.

In this way, the economic artery of Ming Dynasty was completely cut off by the rebels.

Not to mention taxes from Jiangnan, even if water transportation is cut off, the capital will be in shortage of food.

Fengyang was the place where his Zhu family flourished, and it might also be the key to the rise of the rebel army.

However, Zhang Xianzhong strongly opposed it.

He said: "Although Fengyang is good, the surrounding Huai'an Prefecture is also quite wealthy. But we can just plunder it. This place is not suitable as the foundation of the rebel army."

"First of all, our goal is to take away their wealth and food from the bureaucrats, gentry and landowners. They regard us rebels as savage beasts. You have to rely on these people to manage the place, right? Now the rebels only have a few down-and-out scholars at most to help manage the place. Put down the supplies and register the accounts!”

"Secondly, there is no danger to defend here. I heard that Chongzhen has appointed 'Crazy Hong' as the governor of the five provinces of the Central Plains to suppress bandits. Everyone has seen his methods. Even if we guard the area with rich products, we may not have the chance to wait for the crops to mature. ”

"And when we enter the Huainan area, there are dense water nets. We may not even be able to escape by then."

"So we must not miss this place. For the rebels, this place is actually a desperate situation. How powerful was the Fangla Uprising in the Song Dynasty? It was eventually put down by the court quickly."

Li Zicheng also agreed with Zhang Xianzhong's view.

He said: "The Eight Kings are right. Although Jiangnan is rich, it is not suitable for our rebels at the moment. Fengyang is definitely not a place to stay for a long time. Moreover, South Zhili is relatively wealthy, and the people here are not as supportive of the rebels as they are in other places. high."

"But the strategy of the rebels must change. After all, we will also overthrow the Ming Dynasty and seize the world in the future, so we must be prepared now. Let Commander Zhong talk about it."

Zhong Guangdao saluted Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong and said: "First of all, we must treat gentry and scholars differently. Those gentry and officials who are unkind for wealth will naturally be killed without mercy. But for some relatively poor scholars, especially those poor scholars, we still It’s something you can fight for.”

"These people have some knowledge and their road to the imperial examination is not smooth. They can be used by our rebel army."

"In addition, I summarized the strategy of the rebel army in eight words: 'Equal land and free food, regardless of high or low'!"

At present, the rebels are still adopting the tactics of "rogue bandits". The land is of no use to them because they cannot take it away. They snatch the land from the gentry and landlords and distribute it to the people as a favor.

In this way, more people will rise up to rebel and support the rebels.

You can equalize the land, but you have to keep the money and food in your own hands. Without money and food, how will the people rebel against you?

To put it bluntly, even if you give them fields to the people who don't have enough to eat, they won't be able to survive the autumn harvest, and they will have to rebel against themselves.

However, the slogan of "Equal land and free grain, regardless of high or low" is indeed good, and it is easy for ordinary people to understand it.

Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong also applauded and immediately asked the rebels to publicize this eight-character slogan.

As for those poor scholars, although these people have fame on the surface, they do not have many substantive rights.

These people can indeed be won over. Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong also recruited several scholars as their "masters", and these people usually help them with ideas.

They killed the gentry to steal money and food. These people didn't have much property, so it didn't matter if they didn't kill them!

Soon these two suggestions of Zhong Guangdao were implemented.

In addition, the next target of the rebel army's attack has been determined. Since Fengyang is undefeated, they will first find a city suitable for holding on.

Chuzhou, south of Fengyang, naturally came into their sight.

Chuzhou is surrounded by mountains on three sides, making it easy to defend but difficult to attack. It has been known as the "Key to Jinling" since ancient times.

In the decisive battle with the officers and soldiers led by Hong Chengchou in Fengyang, Gao Yingxiang and others were not sure.

But it would be different if it were Chuzhou.

Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong all agreed that if they could capture Chuzhou, the rebel army could compete with the officers and soldiers of "Crazy Hong" here.

After all, according to intelligence, the total number of officers and soldiers from several provinces in the Central Plains commanded by Hong Chengchou was only 6.

Even counting the soldiers and horses of Nanzhili, the official army was only over 100,000.

Now there are 300,000 rebels. It would be too frustrating to be chased away by tens of thousands of officers and soldiers as before.

Three hundred thousand versus sixty thousand, no matter what, "the advantage is mine"!

Zhang Xianzhong said to Li Zicheng: "General Chuang also has a group of troops equipped with sophisticated fire guns. Whether they can stop the army this time depends entirely on them!"

Li Zicheng said: "These things were originally obtained with the help of Shanxi merchants. It is said that they come from Liaodong. These things are good, but unfortunately the gunpowder and bullets are different from those used by the army. I will shoot a little less."

"If this thing runs out of ammunition, it might as well be a fire stick!"

Then he looked at Zhong Guangdao helplessly and said, "Master Zhong, can we try to replenish these ammunition?"

Zhong Guangdao said: "This matter has already been revealed. Do you know about Zheng Zhilong?"

Who knows that the pirates led by Zheng Zhilong directly occupied the Second House of Denglai?

To be honest, they were able to easily capture Fengyang this time, thanks to Zheng Zhilong dragging Zuo Liangyu's tens of thousands of troops in Qingzhou.

Li Zicheng said: "Zheng Zhilong has no contact with us, is he willing to help us?"

Zhong Guangdao said: "This Zheng Zhilong is said to have a monopoly on maritime trade and is extremely rich. Moreover, all his men use Western warships, artillery and muskets. Even the official army is no match for them."

"I have sent someone to contact them. After Zheng Zhilong occupied Denglai, he seized a large amount of weapons and equipment from the army. He is willing to sell them to us. In addition, he has ammunition for Lumi Guns that can be replenished!"

Zhang Xianzhong said: "The pirates and the rebels are originally one family. We all rebelled against the old Zhu family and should support each other. We got a lot of money from taking Fengyang this time. It would be nice if we could exchange for some equipment."

Li Xianzhong had been supporting this group of bandits at a loss for a long time, so he naturally had to find an opportunity to retaliate.

By the way, we should arm the rogue bandits before Hong Chengchou's army reaches Fengyang.

Although Denglai is not far from Fengyang, the two sides are not bordering each other.

In order to go to the beach to complete this transaction. Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng led a hundred thousand rebel troops to attack Huai'an Prefecture in two groups.

Li Zicheng started from the north of the Huaihe River and conquered Suining, Suqian, Shuyang and finally occupied Haizhou.

At this time, the Zheng family's fleet had been waiting for a long time. In the end, the rebels exchanged 50 taels of silver for the cotton-padded clothes and armor of more than 2 officers and soldiers captured by Zheng Zhilong, as well as swords, guns, and blunderbuss.

Of course, there is also the gunpowder and bullets of Lumi gun that he has been thinking about for a long time.

Zheng Zhilong gave him another 500 brand-new Lumi gun.

In addition, there are a batch of tiger crouching cannons, light French machine guns and artillery shells worth 100,000 shi of rice.

The rebel army currently has 300,000 people, and these 100,000 shi of food seem to be a lot. Even if they are combined with wild vegetables and miscellaneous food, it will only be enough for them to eat for more than half a month.

In the end, Zhang Xianzhong set out from Xuyi, south of Huai'an, and raided the Baoying and Gaoyou areas under Yangzhou Prefecture to replenish supplies for the rebels.

Although the Ming army had strengthened its defense before, there were 12,000 officers and soldiers in Huai'an Fucheng.

However, at this time, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong attacked Huai'an Prefecture from the north and south.

They could only huddle in the city. How could they dare to go out to fight with the rebels in the field?

This is also the established policy of the rebels. On the one hand, they are replenishing supplies to complete the transaction with Zheng Zhilong.

In addition, they attacked Huai'an Prefecture and Yangzhou Prefecture with great fanfare, making a gesture of attacking Jiangnan, which just paralyzed the Ming army.

Hong Chengchou's 60,000 troops were scattered everywhere. Among them, the main force of 20,000 Yulin battalion commanded by He Renlong was scattered in Shanxi, Shaanxi and western Henan, farthest from Fengyang. Although Liu Zhaoji, the commander-in-chief of Shandong Province, and his troops were close to Fengyang and Huai'an, he did not dare to go deep alone before the main force arrived.

After all, he had already been ambushed by pirates once before when he rescued Dengzhou, so he was naturally smarter this time.

Lu Weiqi, the Minister of War in Nanjing, personally led the army to Yangzhou and ordered the general Yu Wenzhou and other generals to lead an army of 2 to support Huai'an.

A few days later, Hong Chengchou received news that rogue bandits were attacking Huai'an and Yangzhou.

Originally, he ordered several armies to join forces in Guide Mansion, Henan.

Now people from other provinces have arrived one after another. Only the main force led by He Renlong has just passed Kaifeng and will take another day to arrive.

However, Jiangnan was in danger at this time, and he did not dare to slack off. At the same time, he ordered He Renlong's troops to return to the army quickly.

On the one hand, he led 4 coalition forces from three provinces to go south to Suzhou to threaten the main force of bandits in Fengyang and prevent them from going south with all their strength.

At this time, the main force of the rebel army had already gathered around Dingyuan, the southernmost area of ​​Fengyang Mansion.

The main force of the Ming Army in South Zhili has been attracted to the Huai'an area, and Hong Chengchou's vanguard has just arrived in Suzhou, so they have enough time to capture Chuzhou.

After all, no one could have imagined that the rebels would leave the wealthy Huai'an and Yangzhou alone and attack Chuzhou, which was both remote and not wealthy.

On February 5, Zhang Xianzhong led rebel troops south from Dingyuan, captured Daqianling in Chuzhou, and approached Qingliu Pass in the northwest of Chuzhou.

At the same time, Li Zicheng led 100,000 rebel troops back to the east and took Lai'an County northeast of Chuzhou.

The Ming army never expected that the rebel army would go south to Chuzhou, and Lai'an County was quickly captured by Li Zicheng.

However, the Ming army at Qingliu Pass relied on the dangerous terrain to block Zhang Zizhong's 5 troops from outside the pass.

Qingliu Pass, located in the middle section of Guanshan Mountain 25 miles away from the western suburbs of Chuzhou City, has been an important pass since ancient times.

It is located in a strategic location, overlooking the Yangtze River in the south and the Jianghuai River in the north. The terrain is difficult, with high mountains and deep valleys. It is the only place to pass in and out of Nanjing from the north and is known as the "Key to Jinling".

Although the rebels attacked by surprise, the defenders only had a thousand men.

However, faced with this critical juncture of "one man is in charge and ten thousand men cannot open it", Zhang Xianzhong, who has always been scheming, is helpless.

After leaving thousands of corpses in front of Qingliu Pass, he had no choice but to withdraw his troops and find another way out.

Although Zhang Xianzhong has never read books, he has loved listening to stories about the founding emperors since he was a child.

He knew that when Song Taizu Zhao Kuangyin was still a general of the Later Zhou Dynasty, he also suffered a defeat at Qingliu Pass. However, in the end Zhao Kuangyin bypassed Qingliu Pass and defeated the 100,000-strong army of the famous Southern Tang general Huangfu Hui with only 5,000 troops and occupied Chuzhou. city.

In this battle of Chuzhou, Zhao Kuangyin almost became a god in one battle.

Today's Huangfu Mountain southwest of Qingliu Pass got its name because Huangfu Hui stationed troops here.

So he concluded that there must be a path there that could bypass Qingliu Pass.

Sure enough, under the guidance of local hunters, the rebels found the path that Zhao Kuangyin was said to have walked.

When the rebels suddenly appeared behind Qingliu Pass, the defenders at the pass finally gave up their resistance.

Zhang Xianzhong knew the importance of Qingliu Pass. It was not only the key to Jinling, but also the retreat for the 300,000 rebels.

And it can also block the Ming army in the direction of Luzhou.

So he left 10,000 troops here, including the elite old camp.

Zhang Xianzhong was delayed for two days at Qingliuguan. He thought that Li Zicheng might have captured Chuzhou long ago.

Unexpectedly, the rebels under the city suffered heavy casualties.

It turned out that after knowing that the rebel army was moving south, Liu Taigong, the governor of the state, immediately transferred troops from surrounding counties into Chuzhou City.

Lu Weiqi, the Minister of War in Nanjing, took advantage of the fact that the rebels did not block the waterway and sent thousands of troops stationed in Yingtian Mansion into Chuzhou City in time.

At this time, the Chuzhou the rebels faced was not an empty city, but a fortified city with nearly 20,000 defenders.

However, at this time, almost all the main force of the rebel army had arrived around Chuzhou.

More than 200,000 rebels from seven battalions, including Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang, Chuang General Li Zicheng, Eight Great Kings Zhang Xianzhong, Chuang Taotian Liu Guoneng, and Shake the Earth, gathered outside Chuzhou City.

Hundreds of thousands of rebels "camped around the mountains" and the company camped "more than a hundred miles away", with a terrifying momentum and determination to win the strategic town of Chuzhou, known as "the key to Jinling and the barrier to the Yangtze and Huaihe River".

Following Gao Yingxiang's order, countless rebels rushed towards Chuzhou City, holding shields high and ladders.

But they did not expect that Chuzhou City was actually equipped with a large number of Hongyi cannons, Folan machine artillery and tiger squatting cannons.

The officers and soldiers on the city fired thousands of cannons, and the rebels attacking the city fell one after another.

Although Li Zicheng dispatched a firearms battalion equipped with Lumi guns, he once suppressed the officers and soldiers in the city.

However, the artillerymen of the official army were well-trained, and they quickly adjusted their gun positions and directly bombarded the rebel firearms battalion, causing heavy losses to the firearms battalion.

Although the rebels once attacked Chuzhou City, the defenders resisted desperately, leaving the rebels helpless.

In front of Chuzhou City was a mountain of corpses and a sea of ​​blood.

In two days, more than 10,000 rebels were killed in the attack, forcing them to temporarily stop the attack.

Under the unfavorable situation of being unable to conquer the enemy for a long time and losing troops and generals, Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong adopted a sorcerer's idea, which was to use filthy objects to point directly at the cannons, using yin to control yang and evil to suppress good. In this way, the cannons on the city top would be The misfire cannot start.

They ordered dozens of women who were captured from the general camp to be pulled under the city, killed one by one and buried under the city. Only their private parts were exposed and faced the cannons on the city. They wanted to use this method to suppress the cannons on the city.

Although Li Zicheng tried his best to stop him, Gao Yingxiang, who was already furious, had lost his mind and ignored Li Zicheng at all.

The Ming army in the city also had "experts" who were proficient in these matters. Li Juesi, the minister of Taipu Temple, ordered hundreds of short boards from toilets to be used to remove filth.

There was no toilet paper at that time, and ordinary people relied on this shortcoming to clean the remaining dirt in the "chrysanthemum" in tens of thousands of toilets.

Li Juesi used this dirty shortcoming to suppress the filthy and unclean things of the rebels.

This is the so-called "method of being tired of winning" in ancient witchcraft!

I don’t know if this kind of spell worked, but the cannons on the city did not stop roaring except for normal cooling.

However, the ammunition on the city was indeed getting less and less, and the defenders had to reduce the frequency of firing.

Liu Taigong, the governor of the state, was also puzzled. When Lu Shangshu wanted to hold on to Chuzhou, he said that he would hold on for three to five days at most, and the army led by Governor Hong would come to relieve the siege of Chuzhou.

But now 11 days have passed.

At least 2 to bandits were killed in the battle, while only less than of the Ming troops in the city were left.

It stands to reason that Governor Hong's reinforcements should be crawling over, even if they are crawling. Why haven't they come to reinforce?

Of course, Hong Chengchou was not idle. He led his army to recapture Fengyang, the central capital, six days ago.

Of course, Hong Chengchou was not an idle person. He was only harassed by small groups of bandits along the way. Now that Fengyang was an empty city, he quickly judged that the bandits would make another big move next.

So he ordered He Renlong to quickly go south to support Yangzhou.

Even he did not expect that the target of the rogue bandits would be Chuzhou.

But he quickly realized that it seemed that these bandits wanted to occupy Chuzhou and use this place to fight him.

Since the rogue bandit wanted to fight to the end, he would accompany him to the end.

After all, this was exactly what he expected to see.

After Hong Chengchou sent Chongzhen the good news of recapturing Fengyang, the central capital, he began to mobilize various armies to encircle and suppress the 300,000 rebels near Chuzhou.

He first asked the Ming army in Luzhou to advance eastward to prevent bandits from escaping westward, and then ordered the Ming army in Tongyingtianfu in the south of Chuzhou to tightly block the Yangtze River line.

Afterwards, he ordered Baoding Governor Yang Wenyue to lead 2 troops to garrison Dingyuan to prevent the rogue bandits from returning to Fengyang Mansion.

Then he ordered Shandong General Liu Zhaoji to lead 1 troops to quietly occupy Baita Town in the northeast of Chuzhou to block the rogues' escape route to Huai'an.

He himself took He Renlong and Chen Yongfu's 80 main force to Lai'an River, which was only miles away from Chuzhou City.

Lu Weiqi also led 2 people to Lu'an, east of Chuzhou.

Hong Chengchou had quietly laid a dragnet for the rebels.

At this time, Lu Weiqi, the Minister of War in Nanjing, said in Hong Chengchou's tent: "The army was deployed three days ago. Why didn't Governor Hong send troops to relieve the siege of Chuzhou?"

"You must know that Chuzhou City is in danger!"

Hong Chengchou said with a smile: "We have indeed deployed a hundred thousand troops around Baili in Chuzhou, but there are a total of three hundred thousand bandits there. If Hong sends troops at this time, Lv Shangshu feels that it will only be based on the number of soldiers we have on each road. Can 20,000 people annihilate all the bandits and prevent them from breaking out?"

Lu Weiqi knew that although they surrounded Chuzhou, in order not to alert the enemy, their encirclement was hundreds of miles wide.

With this small number of troops, it is impossible to stop the bandits, let alone annihilate them all!

"That's just not possible," he said.

Hong Chengchou said: "No, this is entirely possible. As long as the bandits capture Chuzhou City, they will definitely massacre and rob Chuzhou to vent their anger. The bandits are almost all around Chuzhou City. The governor will send troops at this time to annihilate the bandits in one fell swoop. , completely solve these scourges!”

Lu Weiqi looked at Hong Chengchou in disbelief and said: "Governor Hong, are you refusing to save me and using the Ming Dynasty's 20,000 officers and soldiers and the people of Chuzhou city as bait?"

"You are risking the disdain of the world. This is too vicious. I want to join you!"

Hong Chengchou sneered and said: "If these bandits are allowed to escape, then the number of people killed and injured in the Ming Dynasty will be ten times more than here?"

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(End of this chapter)