In the late Ming Dynasty, rising from the grassland

Chapter 227: Go directly to the capital

After Hong Chengchou received Sun Chuanting's letter, he also frowned. He never expected that Sun Chuanting also proposed a quick resolution.

He naturally knew that if it were delayed until next year, the Chinese army might arm all the young and strong men, but Datong was no better than other areas. As long as he defended Xuanfu and Sun Chuanting defended Ningwuguan, the Chinese army would be trapped in Datong.

Moreover, the other party blindly coerces the people and consumes huge amounts of food every day. The food will eventually be exhausted. At that time, they will definitely have to attack those big cities to obtain more food supplies.

Similarly, if the opponent wants to completely control Datong, they will eventually attack Shuozhou Yanghe, Datong. At that time, it will be the best time for the army to attack.

So he immediately wrote back a letter to Sun Chuanting, explaining that he should not rush to a decisive battle, but to hold firm and strengthen the defense of the Great Wall passes in the south.

Obviously Hong Chengchou relied on the closed environment of Datong to trap the Lin family army to death, and finally had to retreat to the grassland.

After all, there are two Great Walls in the Datong area, an outer Great Wall and an inner Great Wall, which really isolate the entire Datong and Shanxi.

Therefore, even if the Outer Great Wall is abandoned, as long as the Inner Great Wall is firmly defended, the Chinese army will still be unable to break into the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty.

After Sun Chuanting received Hong Chengchou's reply, he had a different view.

If the Chinese army only instigated ordinary civilians and military households, but chose to kill large gentry households, then Hong Chengchou's strategy of long-term siege is indeed feasible and the safest.

However, the Chinese army has now adopted a soft policy towards the gentry. If it continues to be indulged, it may be their turn to win over the military attachés. Once the military attaches no longer resist, it is very likely that there will eventually be a wave of surrender, allowing the Chinese army to completely control Datong. .

Therefore, while the Chinese army is still vigorously training its new recruits, and those acropolis, counties, prefectures, and capitals are still holding on, it is undoubtedly the most correct choice to take the initiative to attack them and fight them decisively.

So he made his position clear again, explained it, and rushed to Xuanfu.

But Hong Chengchou also believed that a decisive battle at this time was too risky, and it was simply a gamble for the entire Ming Dynasty. After all, even if the cities in Datong surrendered, it would not damage the foundation of the Ming Dynasty, but once defeated, the entire northern Ming Dynasty would be destroyed.

What's more, it's winter now, and the rivers and land are frozen solid, which is perfect for the opponent's cavalry to gallop. Therefore, even if there is a decisive battle, we have to wait until spring and summer to let the dense rivers in Datong area restrain the opponent's cavalry.

Sun Chuanting was furious when he saw that Hong Chengchou was so cautious, even to the point of fearing the enemy like a tiger.

In his opinion, their two armies were engaged in a pincer attack. Even if they failed to win, they would still suffer losses for both sides. In addition, Datong, Shuozhou, Yanghe and other important towns and cities were also in the hands of the imperial court. In the end, the other side had no choice but to retreat to the grassland.

However, Xuanfu's army is the main force. Hong Chengchou must advance first and enter Datong before he can send out troops. Otherwise, if he sends out troops rashly, he is likely to be surrounded and destroyed by the opponent's concentrated troops. After all, the three total troops are only 5 About ten thousand people.

Therefore, we could only write another letter to persuade Hong Chengchou to send troops as soon as possible without delaying any longer.

In this way, the two of them wrote letters, back and forth, each holding his own opinions. No one could convince the other. In the end, they could only submit petitions to Emperor Chongzhen for a ruling.

When the two of them exchanged letters like this, it was already mid-January of the 13th year of Chongzhen.

At this time, Li Zicheng of Henan Province had already conquered several county towns and gained momentum. He was besieging Ruzhou and his troops had returned to tens of thousands.

And because the entire Henan province suffered from no harvest last year due to the locust plague and drought, after the beginning of the new year, hungry people were everywhere, and rioters and rioters were everywhere.

Zhang Xianzhong of Gucheng and Luo Rucai of Yunyang also took the opportunity to kill the county magistrate and surrender and rebel again, which made Emperor Chongzhen furious.

Immediately, an order was issued to dismiss Xiong Wencan, the governor of Huguang who was originally responsible for recruitment, from office and jailed, and to be escorted back to the capital for trial.

Yang Sichang, the Minister of War who recommended Xiong Wencan to take over as the governor of Huguang, was also implicated. After all, he also strongly agreed to recruit Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai.

Faced with the impeachment of the censors and the accusations from Liu Yuliang, the first assistant, although Emperor Chongzhen did not directly remove Yang Sichang, he obviously did not have the favor and trust he had before.

In order to atone for his sins and make up for the mistake of recommending Xiong Wencan in the first place, and to prevent the impeachment of the censors, Yang Sichang had to request an order to go to Huguang to supervise the division and personally hunt down Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai.

Almost as soon as Yang Sichang left Beijing, the memorials from Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou arrived. Seeing that the two had their own opinions, Emperor Chongzhen was hesitant for a while, not knowing who to listen to.

Although they really wanted to adopt Sun Chuanting's opinion and let the two armies attack as soon as possible to fight the traitors to the death, and then return to the army to encircle and suppress the rebels in the Central Plains, the chief minister and other officials almost all supported Hong Chengchou's suggestion.

This made Emperor Chongzhen have to treat it carefully.

At this time, the Chinese army had stopped attacking Minbao. After more than four months, Lin Rui had expanded the seven infantry battalions to [-], with a strength of [-].

The newly added more than 6 young soldiers have not only been training for three full months, but also have all the necessary weapons, armor and uniforms.

The garrison also selected more than 5 young men to join, and after mixing, the scale also expanded to 10.The longbowmen also expanded to [-] and were divided into the longbow left battalion and the right battalion. As for the firearms soldiers, there was no expansion.

At this time, Lin Rui was also in a dilemma. Should he capture Datongyang and Shuozhou first, take the initiative to attack Xuanfu, or continue to attack those counties and military forts.

"Your Majesty, the general believes that our army should continue to wait for work and work harder, and knock down those county towns and military forts to obtain more food and supplies."

"Your Majesty, the general thinks that with our current strength, we should attack Xuanfu, fight a decisive battle with the Ming army, and then pursue the victory all the way to attack the capital directly."

"Yes, when we defeat the capital, the king might as well stop proclaiming himself king and go directly to the Jinluan Palace to proclaim himself emperor."

"Correct!"

Except for Shang Kexi, almost everyone else started to cheer, and even Na Mu Zhong's eyes shone.

"No matter what, it cannot affect the spring plowing. Let the civilians and military households go back first. You can tell the landlords and gentry that our Chinese army will never harass them during the spring plowing period."

Lin Rui waved his hand, asking everyone to calm down, and then said slowly.

It can be said that except for Guangchang in the southeast corner, almost all the young people in Datong have gathered here. Datong Shuozhou Yanghe Sanchang. If they don't dismiss them and let them go back, once they miss the spring plowing, after the autumn, the entire Datong will be No particles will be collected.

Although they have broken through more than 100 civilian forts in the past few months, and the total amount of food they seized is more than 200 million dan, it is absolutely impossible to feed hundreds of thousands of people like this all day long.

What's more, even if there is a decisive battle, hundreds of thousands of civilians and military households will have to be disbanded.

So in the next few days, hundreds of thousands of people in the three places each received fifty kilograms of grain and one kilogram of salt. They left the military camp in groups and returned to their villages. Almost everyone had faces. All with reluctance.

As for the [-] young men who had signed formal contracts and joined the Chinese army, Lin Rui also ordered people to send food and ten taels of silver to their homes for settlement expenses.

At the same time, people were also sent to inform the landlords and gentry in various forts that they could come out to organize people to cultivate the land.

Those civilian forts that had been robbed were naturally no longer afraid of the Chinese army, and they were also worried that there would be no harvest this year, so they opened their fort gates and distributed farm tools and cattle to the returning tenants for them to farm.

Although these landowners and gentry were eager to confiscate all the grain from the returning tenants, Yu Huajun was still in Datong, so they had to endure it and decided to deal with these disobedient tenants in the future.

Although the tenant farmers have become much more courageous, they are afraid of these landlords and gentry from the bottom of their hearts, so they still farm honestly after returning.

As more and more places began to cultivate, some big landlords hiding in county towns, Acropolis and prefecture towns could no longer sit still.

In order to allow these landlords and gentry to go out of the city with peace of mind to organize the people to farm, Lin Rui also led the army to Chaoyang and Kill, and at the same time asked Shang Kexi to lead Shuozhou soldiers and horses to contain the Ming army in Ningwuguan in the south.

He had no choice. The land could not be abandoned no matter what, and he did not have so many manpower to organize the people to farm for the time being, so he could only let the gentry and landlords resume production.

He believed that as long as he was still in Datong and was not defeated by the Ming army, the gentry, landlords and military officers would never dare to retaliate against the people and military households.

Lin Rui led the army and began to march eastward. Wang Pu and Dai Wang and other important officials in Datong City breathed a heavy sigh of relief. At this time, everyone was on tenterhooks, worried that the Chinese army would attack Datong again.

Hong Chengchou of Xuanfu immediately became nervous and immediately summoned all eight generals to the commander's tent for discussion.

"Everyone, I have just received my report. The main force of the bandit army has begun to march eastward. This battle is related to the country of our Ming Dynasty, as well as your wealth and future. Therefore, I hope that everyone can unite as one and go all out. Who dares not to fight in the war? Honor your order, I will punish you severely!"

Hong Chengchou held Shang Fang's sword in his hand and glanced sharply at the eight general soldiers one by one.

After several months of contact, everyone had already seen Hong Chengchou's methods. At this moment, they did not dare to neglect, and they all clasped their fists and agreed.

Hong Chengchou nodded with satisfaction and issued the order to set up camp. Three days later, he led an army of 15 to the junction of Xuanfu and Datong to set up camp.

Obviously, they did not plan to continue the march, but were prepared to deal with the Chinese army here, using defense instead of attack, to block the Chinese army from Xuanfu.

Lin Rui also joined Yanghe's troops, with nearly 20 new and old soldiers, and attacked Xuanfu in a mighty manner.

At the same time, Sun Chuanting also ordered his troops and horses to lead three general soldiers, and left Ningwuguan to fight towards Shuozhou.

The war is about to start.

(End of this chapter)