Xie Ming

Ma Jinzhong, courtesy name Kuiyu, was born in Yan'an, Shaanxi Province.

In the early years of the Chongzhen reign of the Ming Dynasty, a severe famine struck northern Shaanxi, and the people suffered greatly. Ma Jinzhong led a rebellion in northern Shaanxi, calling himself "Hun Shiwan".

Later, under the pursuit and enticement of the Ming general Zuo Liangyu, he surrendered to the Ming army and served under Zuo Liangyu's troops for many years.

This time, along with another of his five close generals, Zhang Shixun, a former subordinate of Yuan Jixian, all surrendered to Xiao's army and returned to the Ming army's ranks.

The reason this matter achieved such an effect was actually related to the internal power struggles within the rebel army after Zuo Liangyu's sudden death.

Hao Xiaozhong, Jin Shenghuan, and Wang Deren were all members of the same faction. After the infighting in Jiujiang and the burning of Yuan Jixian to death, Hao Xiaozhong's desire to seize power was already very strong, and his domineering nature was on full display.

He was suppressed by Zuo Liangyu in his early years and was somewhat restrained.

Hao Xiaozhong is a man of dubious character; he is extremely adept at flattery and scheming.

Just over a month ago, Zuo Liangyu suddenly died and vomited blood. The man was terrified, but suddenly felt that an opportunity had presented itself.

In mid-March, they colluded with Generals Jin and Wang, and took ruthless measures to eliminate dissidents during the internal strife, thus completing their scheme.

In order to smoothly continue the momentum of Zuo Liangyu's joint attack with the Qing dogs from the west and north, and to realize his dream of becoming emperor, he forcefully pushed for the continuation of the eastward invasion.

Ma Jinzhong had always opposed this. As early as when Zuo Liangyu colluded with the Qing court and joined forces with foreign barbarians to start his rebellion, he had repeatedly tried to dissuade him, but he was too weak to do so.

I had no choice but to come here with the army.

After the Jiujiang incident, Zhang Shixun was also unjustly dragged into the internal strife. With his former master dead, he could hardly escape being implicated.

Thus, Ma and Zhang, both ostracized by Hao, Jin, and Wang, found themselves in an intractable predicament.

Originally, the army had been trapped in Jiujiang for more than half a month, and the two of them had been spectating the drama along the way.

Most people were dissatisfied with Hao Xiaozhong's appointment as the head of the group.

At present, the situation in Anqing, in which Hao, Jin and Wang held sway, has completely collapsed. With Hao Xiaozhong and Wang Deren dying in the battle, Ma and Zhang naturally surrendered to Xiao Lang.

As expected, and as reasonable as it should be.

Furthermore, regarding the five battalions after the proofreading, there were those miscellaneous and disorganized individuals.

The situation becomes even more complicated.

These officers and soldiers, whom Zuo Liangyu had previously recruited and incorporated into the outer camps, now came eastward and followed behind the main army, which was quite effective in boosting their prestige.

Back when Zuo Liangyu was still alive, even the original commander-in-chief would have had difficulty fully mobilizing this army of tens of thousands.

After the events in Jiujiang, Hao Xiaozhong took the lead, making a big fuss, and publicly recommended Zuo Menggeng to take over.

In reality, these rear guard units were a mixed bunch, and as a newcomer, he was even more difficult to manage.

At the end of March, thanks to favorable circumstances and persuasion, this group of talents did not simply abandon their posts and leave.

They begged and pleaded with everyone, putting it all in the end, in order to expand their ranks.

Now that they have suffered a crushing defeat at the front and have been inexplicably taken prisoner, they are even more unwilling to comply with their wishes, and their ambitions must have changed.

So, these soldiers, even though they're crammed together in one place...

However, at the slightest sign of trouble, they will surely take advantage of the chaos and flee together.

Today, after five or six days of waiting, he finally lost patience and fled in the dead of night. This has already shown Xiao Junbu enough face.

This outcome was inevitable sooner or later.

Therefore, if we were to say what truly angered Xiao the most, it would probably be Jin Shenghuan.

This person is greedy and forgets morality; he is a treacherous and petty person.

Xiao had always been wary of this man who had surrendered with his troops.

The original plan was to quickly reorganize and disperse Jin Shenghuan's troops, preventing him from escaping with his forces.

But unexpectedly, in the chaos of the night, the old man really did leave quite decisively.

This son is neither benevolent nor righteous; in doing so, he has released the tiger back into the mountains.

They will follow suit and head west, returning to Hubei. Within a year, this will surely bring about another great calamity.

It was all in vain and helpless; I had no energy left to attend to anything else on the tenth.

After this incident, Xiao and his generals discussed the matter and all felt that they could not wait any longer.

What's this talk about Nanjing's reply and other plans? Why are we in such a hurry to wait?

Working according to orders from above is like waiting for the daylily to cool down; you can forget about getting anything done while it's still fresh.

Therefore, to prevent chaos from happening again on the tenth day of the Lunar New Year.

Xiao Yi strongly advocated for a swift dismantling and reorganization of the surrendered troops in Hubei, breaking them down into smaller units to fill various military posts.

The specific operation can be roughly divided into three parts.

First, the remaining 20,000 troops of Hao Xiaozhong's original army were directly transferred to Xiao Jun's naval battle meritorious general, and newly promoted to the commander of the Anqing Hezhou.

At the same time, Chen Jiulang and Lan Qi's troops were added to jointly command this naval garrison with He Zhou.

Commander He Zhou allocated 14,000 troops, while Generals Chen and Lan each allocated 3,000, in addition to the original troops from Fengyang. In total, this garrison now has 22,000 men, which can be divided into seven or eight smaller camps.

This shows how much expectation Xiao Lang had for He Zhou's arrival.

Of course, the reason for this hasty and haphazard approach is simply because there are too many soldiers and not enough generals, and it is a helpless measure.

What kind of experience or skill is needed? You didn't have it before, but as you do it, it just comes naturally.

With things so close and things having come to this point, I can provide the soldiers, but whether they're up to the task or not, then it's all up to your own abilities.

Second, the remaining 15,000 troops of Wang Deren's original force were divided in half and allocated to Li Hongsheng and Zhao Yingyuan's forces.

After this battle, when the troops were gathered up and pursued from the west, the Li and Zhao armies each acquired many ships, but had no warships left.

Currently, with the reorganization of seven or eight thousand naval troops into various units, it is possible that, given time, they may become well-rounded generals skilled in both land and water warfare.

Third, the remaining 50,000 soldiers of the five battalions were organized, and 20,000 were first allocated to Hu Chen's command.

He fought bravely and disregarded his own safety. Even though he was not familiar with naval tactics before, when it came to the real battle, he was a decisive and fierce general.

The vanguard was incredibly brave and fierce. In this battle in Anqing East, Zuo Liangyu's son, Zuo Menggeng, was captured by this black-faced fellow.

If Chuanwu were still alive, then the two brothers' military achievements might be comparable.

Now that Chuanwu has passed away, Li Huchen can be considered to have received the first-class merit.

When Xiao Jiang reports the victory by air, all the officers will request rewards, and this dark-skinned fellow will be the first to be rewarded.

Unfortunately, Nanjing has not yet responded.

In any case, Xiao would certainly be indispensable in this army.

Previously, his general Hu Chen already had 10,000 old troops, and this time, 20,000 new troops were added, bringing the total to 30,000.

Forget about titles and ranks; with such military strength alone, they are already on par with a garrison commander and are worthy of the rank of general.

Besides, once Black Tiger Minister takes the initiative, there will still be 30,000 men left. The current army may not be able to handle the situation.

To resolve the awkward situation, Xiao quickly recalled Xu Jizu's troops stationed in Chizhou.

He was given 5,000 soldiers and ordered to lead the remaining 25,000 surrendered soldiers back to Henan immediately.

The matter was handed over to Sun Peizhong for full handling and digestion.

Finally, as for the rest, they were all just logistics and supplies, porters and farmers who accompanied the army.

These people were not soldiers during the war, but due to their large number, Xiao found it difficult to deal with them in a short time.

After most of them were repatriated, the remaining ones who could be dispatched were handled by Tongye Minglu, and that's another story.

(End of this chapter)