Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

On July [-], the ninth year of Chongzhen, Shaanxi.

"He Zongbing! Cao Zongbing learned from the past, do you remember? Don't underestimate the enemy and rush forward, and don't get too far away from our army." Sun Chuanting frowned and told He Renlong.

Unexpectedly, He Renlong waved his hand indifferently, and said, "Don't worry, Governor, I, Lao He, will save you. The unshaven soldiers you brought out are useless. Let me, Lao He, make contributions ahead!"

He Renlong's words were very casual, with faint contempt for Sun Chuanting.Over the years, He Renlong has seen too many incompetent civil servants, and he has long since lost his respect for civil servants.Therefore, He Renlong was quite disapproving of Sun Chuanting, the newly appointed governor of Shaanxi.

Sun Chuanting raised his eyebrows, but after holding back for a while, he suppressed the anger in his heart, and said in a deep voice, "Then Zongbing He has worked so hard."

In fact, He Renlong was not as reckless as he appeared on the outside, he was also observing Sun Chuanting's expression.However, after hearing Sun Chuanting's words, He Renlong couldn't help but contemptuously "Huh!", then cupped his hands and said, "Then I will go down and prepare."

Seeing He Renlong leave in arrogance, one of Sun Chuanting's aides couldn't bear it any longer. He said to Sun Chuanting, "Then madman He has no dignity, why didn't your lord deal with it strictly?"

Sun Chuanting lightly tapped the big case a few times with his index finger, and replied: "The future will last forever!"

After the peasant army entered Henan this time, it was repeatedly frustrated by the siege of various Ming armies. Therefore, in the long-term battle, the peasant army in each battalion lost more than half.In order to preserve their own strength, except for Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and other battalions who stayed in Yunyang to fight with Lu Xiangsheng and other Ming troops, the other battalions of peasant troops returned to Shaanxi one after another.

First of all, in the first month of the ninth year, Li Zicheng, Man Tianxing, the Sixth Team, and the Four Branches of Zhenggong Wang, a total of thirteen battalions, with a total of tens of thousands of elite riders, traveled from Xi'an to Tongguan, Yijun, and Yichuan.Detour to Hancheng, intending to transfer to Shanxi after the Yellow River freezes.

Due to the high temperature in winter this year, the river was not frozen; the governor of Shanxi, Wu Sheng, also strengthened the river defense force, so the peasant army's plan to enter Jin failed to materialize.Afterwards, this peasant army set up camp and went to Heyang and Chengcheng.

In February, Hong Chengchou mobilized [-] officers and soldiers to pursue them desperately. Li Zicheng and Hun Tianxing traveled from Chengcheng through Hancheng, Heyang, Yichuan, Luochuan, Fuzhou (now Fuxian), Yan'an, Huanxian, Qingyang, and Guyuan. and go.The Guotianxing and Mantianxing tribes enter the Gaoling and Sanyuan areas of Shaanxi from Zhenning and Heshui eastward.

Hong Chengchou was worried that Xi'an, the provincial capital, was lost, so he was forced to divide his troops to pursue it.He brought an army back to Shaanxi to suppress Tianxing and Mantianxing, and let his generals continue to chase Li Zicheng and Huntianxing westward.

The army led by Hong Chengchou overtook Tianxing and Mantianxing in Zhongbu County (now Huangling, Shaanxi).Due to the great power of the officers and soldiers, the Guo and Man Divisions avoided fighting and headed west to join Li Zicheng and Hun Tianxing.Intended to attack Lanzhou, Gansu.

Hong Chengchou mobilized Zuo Guangxian and Liu Shaozong, the commander-in-chief of Gansu, to jointly attack the uprising army in Ganyanchi (now Haiyuan County, Ningxia).The peasant army was defeated, and Guo Tianxing (that is, Zhang Tianlin) asked to surrender.Gan Xuekuo, Governor of Shaanxi Province in the Ming Dynasty, placed tens of thousands of his troops in Yan'an, and soon went away to rebel.However, this also led to Gan Xuekuo's dismissal, and Sun Chuanting took over as governor of Shaanxi.

But when the two sides are at each other's stalemate, on the tenth day of February.Ningxia officers and soldiers mutinied due to long-term lack of pay.Governor Wang Ji was killed.Hong Chengchou felt that a provincial governor was killed.The situation was serious, so I rushed to Guyuan, Ningxia to deal with it in person.Li Zicheng, Man Tianxing and other ministries revived and took the opportunity to attack Yulin and Suide in northern Shaanxi.

In May, Li Zicheng, Zhang Tianlin and other ministries fought against the official army in Anding.The army was defeated, Yu Chongxiao, the commander in chief, was captured and executed, and Li Cheng, the deputy commander in chief, was also shot to death.3000 soldiers were wiped out.

However, when the Peasant Army took advantage of the victory to attack Mizhi, they accidentally fell into an ambush by the commander-in-chief He Renlong, and suffered great losses.There was heavy rain again, and the Wuding River flooded.Many peasant soldiers were drowned in the flood, and Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, Zhang Neng, etc. were only left with a few hundred riders to escape the danger.

At this moment, Li Zicheng's subordinate Gao Yigong brought more than 1 people from Guyuan, and after the meeting, his momentum recovered.Li Zicheng then united with other peasant armies in northern Shaanxi to successively conquer Yanchuan, Suide, and Mizhi.Because Mizhi is Li Zicheng's hometown, this return is a powerful call to the local people. Li Zicheng's relatives and old friends came to vote one after another, which quickly restored his strength.

Therefore, it can be said that the peasant army who returned to Shaanxi earlier was also at a disadvantage.

In May of the ninth year of Chongzhen, seeing the intensified rebellion of the peasant army, the policy of the imperial court also changed a little.First, Emperor Chongzhen issued the imperial edict "Amnesty for the Bandits of Shanshan Threats", and sent Bao Fengqi, a member of the Ministry of War who was ordered to follow the imperial edict, to recruit.

It should be said that this edict also played a certain role in the future, especially when the peasant army was attacked one after another.

And also in May, it was difficult for Gao Yingxiang's department to gain a foothold in Huguang. He joined Chuangtatian and Xiezikuan to transfer to Xing'an and Hanzhong areas in Shaanxi.And now in Huguang, only Zhang Xianzhong's peasant army is active.

Due to Gao Yingxiang's outstanding reputation in the peasant army and his troops' combat effectiveness was the strongest, a military operation with the main goal of encircling and annihilating Gao Yingxiang's troops began.

The Henan Ming army, led by governor Li Xianfeng, blocked the way for the peasant army to return to the Central Plains from Shaanxi, while Shaanxi governor Sun Chuanting and the trilateral governor Hong Chengchou's army served as the main force to encircle and suppress Gao Yingxiang's troops.

At this time, after Gao Yingxiang's tribe retreated into the mountainous area of ​​southern Shaanxi, there was nowhere to look for food in the barren mountains and ridges, and the people were hungry and horses were exhausted.In order to get out of the predicament, he decided to take a small road to attack Xi'an and give the official army a surprise attack.

But the path Gao Yingxiang chose is the famous Ziwu Valley.

During the Three Kingdoms period, when Zhuge Liang came out of Qishan, Wei Yan once offered a strategy in the Ziwu Valley, which was to surprise Chang'an through the Ziwu Valley.But Zhuge Liang vetoed this conspiracy because it was too risky.Of course, in the end Zhuge Liang failed when he left Qishan because Ma Su lost the street pavilion, and then the conflict between Zhuge Liang and Wei Yan was buried, and so on and so on.

In later generations, many Zhuge Liang said afterward that if Zhuge Liang used the Meridian Valley's conspiracy, he might unify the Three Kingdoms when he came out of Qishan.However, judging from Gao Yingxiang's ending, it shows that Zhuge Liang's decision is still very correct.There is no way, Zhuge is only cautious in his life!

And Sun Chuanting had expected this, so he led He Renlong and other 4000 people to set up an ambush in Heishuiyu, Zhouzhi County, the only way that Chuangwang Gao Yingxiang must pass, and prepared to attack labor with ease.

However, He Renlong was simply taking credit for himself, and he didn't pay attention to the Shaanxi new army formed after Sun Chuanting took office, which led to a sharp deterioration in his relationship with Sun Chuanting.It was only because Sun Chuanting needed He Renlong as the main force for this battle that Sun Chuanting held back his breath for the time being.

On July [-]th, Gao Yingxiang led the troops to Heishuiyu, Zhouzhi County.Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou's troops also followed and arrived in Zhouzhi on the [-]th and [-]th respectively, and the two sides immediately started a fierce battle.

The desperate peasant army was dying and broke out with amazing fighting power, so it won the first battle with the official army and defeated the official army of the general Li Yuchun.

But the situation of Gao Yingxiang's department became more and more critical.They have no food and grass, are in a desperate situation, and the morale of the entire army has become extremely low.

At this time, Hong Chengchou resorted to surrender and divided the peasant army.However, the unstable elements in the Peasant Army Ganji Zhang Er, Yidou Gu Huanglong and others approached the commander-in-chief He Renlong in private to surrender.

In the battle of Ma Zhaoyuan the next day, they took advantage of the heavy fog after the rain, when Gao Yingxiang got off his horse and opened his bow to shoot at the enemy, and secretly pulled Gao Yingxiang's mount and troops away to the south.It was too late when Gao Yingxiang discovered the conspiracy, so he had to take off his armor and hide in the grass, but was unfortunately captured by the officers and soldiers.

The news of Gao Yingxiang's capture greatly inspired the Ming court, and Emperor Chongzhen was extremely pleased with it. He ordered Gao Yingxiang to be escorted to Beijing to offer prisoners, and asked the Shaanxi authorities to deploy troops along the way to guard against danger.Later, the leader of the peasant army was executed by Ling Chi in Beijing.

And Gao Yingxiang's subordinates were led by his younger brother Gao Yingdeng to continue fighting.However, due to the large loss of military strength, especially the loss of a prestigious leader like Gao Yingxiang, morale was greatly reduced.Afterwards, Li Zicheng was supported by the generals to inherit King Chuang, and finally became the nominal leader of the Peasant Army of the World.

With the capture and killing of Gao Yingxiang, it was a major blow to the peasant army fighting in Shaanxi at that time.The first is to set off a wave of surrender.Of course, some are real surrenders, and some are false surrenders.

In early September, two famous leaders of the Peasant Army, Zhang Miaoshou (Zhang Wenyao) and Xie Zikui (Tuo Yangkun), traveled from Huizhou and Qinzhou (now Huixian County and Tianshui City, Gansu Province) to Fengxiang, begging the Shaanxi authorities of the Ming Dynasty for security.Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi, personally recruited him, Zhang Miaoshou led his troops to surrender on the spot, and Xie Zikuai also went to Huicheng to beg for surrender in March of the following year.

And Zhang Xianzhong also took the opportunity to flee to the west of Xiangyang and rest on the spot.He erected a five-foot-high wooden pole in the Jiangshen Temple in Xiangyang, and tied it with large characters in chi script at the end. On the flag, he wrote: "I want to talk to the military gate." He also sent a letter.

But Miao Xuntu, the newly appointed governor of Huguang, received a letter from Zhang Xianzhong, saying that he wanted to see the governor, and was very pleasantly surprised.Immediately, two generals were sent to greet him. After talking, it was agreed to formally surrender in August.Governor Miao believed it without doubt, and sent three people including Zhu Xifan to conduct specific consultations on relevant matters.The Peasant Army proposed to add pontoon bridges on the river to communicate with each other.Miao promised to do so, so he ordered the city guards to open the city gates and allow the peasant army to enter the city to do business.

So the peasant army pretended to be doing business and entered the city in large numbers. Naturally, the officers and soldiers of the city could not interrogate them and let them go one by one.In order to show his sincerity, Miao ordered the officials and soldiers in the city to withdraw all their bows, knives and artillery, and put them in the warehouse, saying that they should not be suspected!

But Zhang Xianzhong's behavior must be a false surrender!

But why did the governor of Huguang change from Lu Xiangsheng to Miao Xuntu?Where did Lu Xiangsheng go again?This is because the strategic focus of the Ming court has shifted again! (To be continued..)