Ming Dynasty man

Chapter 298
But before attacking Fengyang, Hong Chengchou's siege had to be broken first, and the officers and soldiers would still not be able to get out without breaking through.In other words, someone has to attract the attention of the officers and soldiers, and the rest wait for an opportunity to break through.

But the roles of the officers and soldiers who came this time are very clear to the rogues. Basically, the most capable troops of Ming Dynasty are here. Everyone is not stupid, and they all know that doing this job is almost like sending them to death. Who wants to do this job? Son?

It should be said that the brains of the leaders of the rogue bandits were not given for nothing, and they quickly came up with a solution that only geniuses could think of.

This method is to draw lots.

Why do you say this is a genius idea?Because Zhu Youjian used this method when he selected cabinet members.

It seems that if people are forced to be impatient, their thinking will be the same.

The result of the lottery was very strange. Only Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, and Gao Yingxiang won the lottery to go to Fengyang. The rest either went to Shaanxi or Shanxi, and the better ones went to Hubei.

It should be said that although the leaders of the rogue bandits often engage in fraudulent surrender activities, they still accept the lottery they have caught.

After clearing the direction, start to do it.

The gangsters' ministries suddenly exerted their strength, and Hong Chengchou was stunned at once.

Hong Chengchou never expected that the rogues would attack from multiple directions at the same time, he didn't know the intentions of the rogues for a moment, he hesitated.

It doesn't matter if Hong Chengchou hesitated, the generals below would not dare to attack casually without his order. Due to the indecision of the generals of the Ming army and the desperate desperate efforts of the bandits, several holes were torn in the defense lines of the officers and soldiers.

All the rogues ran wildly along the opening, and finally broke through the siege of the officers and soldiers.

Seeing the rogues rushing out of the encirclement, Hong Chengchou reacted, and hurriedly ordered all the ministries to chase and intercept them.

It's a pity that it was too late when Hong Chengchou realized it. There were a total of 30 bandits, and there were at least dozens of groups, large and small.Can take care of this, can't take care of that, in the end most of the rogues escaped.

At that time, although all the ministries of the government and army were under the jurisdiction of Hong Chengchou, each had its own defense area. For example, Cao Wenzhao's defense area was in Shanxi, and Zuo Liangyu's defense area was in Henan.

The rogues were scurrying around, and the first consideration of the officers and soldiers was to eliminate the rogues who had entered their own defense zone, because if they could not destroy the rogues in their own defense zone, they would have to take care of themselves if something happened, and Hong Chengchou would not blame them.

As a result, Hong Chengchou's orders were not very effective, and some rogues who should have been blocked were let go by the officers and soldiers.

Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, and Gao Yingxiang escaped under such circumstances.

Because they were going in the direction of Anhui, which was called Nanzhili at that time, this place was not under the control of Hong Chengchou, and the officers and troops of various ministries did not have the responsibility to defend Nanzhili.

It is for this reason that Li Zicheng suggested running in this direction.

However, Li Zicheng and others hadn't had time to be happy when they ran out of the encirclement of the officers and soldiers, the officers and soldiers caught up with them.

If it was another army unit that was catching up, Gao Yingxiang and others would definitely turn around and fight the army, but not this one, because it was Cao Wenzhao who was catching up.

Regardless of the fact that Gao Yingxiang has more than 6 troops, plus the troops of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, the total is close to [-], but against Cao Wenzhao, they don't have the guts at all, because they are really scared by Cao Wenzhao .

Back then, Cao Wenzhao had only 10,000 troops, of which [-] were infantry, and he beat tens of thousands of [-]+ bandits to the ground. Now Cao Wenzhao has [-] cavalry, and they are cavalry equipped with new weapons .

Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng haven't learned how powerful Cao Wenzhao is in the past two years, but Zhang Xianzhong has.

In the sixth year of Chongzhen, before being transferred to Datong, Cao Wenzhao led his troops to attack the various tribes of the rogues in Wu'an. Grass.

Fortunately, Cao Wenzhao was in a hurry to deploy defenses in Datong, and he did not pursue and fight fiercely. The officers and soldiers did not expect Cao Wenzhao to be so capable of fighting.

However, it was precisely because Cao Wenzhao launched in advance that the officers and soldiers took advantage of the chaos of the rogues to complete the siege, which led to the fact that the rogues bribed Wang Pu to escape the predicament later.

Zhang Xianzhong's memory of that battle is still fresh, seeing Cao Wenzhao chasing him, he dared not hesitate, let go of his feet and fled desperately.

In fact, Cao Wenzhao had targeted Zhang Xianzhong a long time ago, and Li Jing gave him an order that even if all the rogues ran away, Zhang Xianzhong must not be let go. Li Jing valued Zhang Xianzhong so much, how dare Cao Wenzhao neglect it?

But sometimes, it doesn't mean that you can do whatever you want.

Cao Wenzhao's defense area was Shanxi. When Hong Chengchou mobilized the army to besiege the bandits, Cao Wenzhao's troops were arranged in the direction of Henan near Shanxi. The specific location was in the north of Henan, in the Jiyuan area.

This position is a bit far from Zhang Xianzhong's headquarters, and it is a bit difficult for Cao Wenzhao to keep an eye on him, so Cao Wenzhao suggested to Hong Chengchou that he either compress the encirclement or let him push the troops forward.

However, Hong Chengchou rejected Cao Wenzhao's proposal. There are two reasons. First, the Chinese New Year is coming soon. He wants to wait for the soldiers to celebrate the Chinese New Year before attacking the bandits. If the bandits are pushed too hard now, this year may pass It can't be done.Second, if Cao Wenzhao advances, there will be a gap on the line from Luoyang to Jiyuan, and the bandits are likely to get out through this gap.

Cao Wenzhao didn't believe Hong Chengchou's two excuses at all. The first excuse was barely plausible, and the second excuse was completely nonsense.

Because others don't understand Cao Wenzhao's strength, it's impossible for Hong Chengchou to be unaware. Cao Wenzhao was Hong Chengchou's subordinate back then. Cao Wenzhao wiped out so many rogues. When did the rogues take advantage of him?

Moreover, Cao Wenzhao's troops are all cavalry, and even if there is a gap, they can fill in at any time.

Cao Wenzhao knew very well what Hong Chengchou's real thoughts were, and he knew why Hong Chengchou made excuses not to let him advance, nor to compress the encirclement.

Hong Chengchou thinks that the rogues will play another false surrender with him, and he plans to let the rogues gather together when the rogues swindle and surrender, and then catch them all in one go.

Hong Chengchou obviously regarded the leaders of the bandits as idiots.

The so-called fooling me once is the fault of others, and fooling me twice is the fault of me.If you can successfully surrender once or twice, will you still succeed three or four times?No matter how stupid the rogues were, they would never feign surrender again.

However, Cao Wenzhao did not expose Hong Chengchou, nor did he remind Hong Chengchou that the bandits would never surrender.

Because this is not in line with Li Jing's strategic purpose, it will be useful for Li Jing to keep the rogues in the future.

If all the rogues were wiped out, Li Jing would lose a bargaining chip to establish his prestige when he came to power in the future.

Just don't wake up Hong Chengchou, Cao Wenzhao can't move lightly. If he moves lightly, Hong Chengchou will definitely put all the responsibility on him when the bandits rush out of the encirclement.

At that time, he will inevitably be taken as a scapegoat and sent to prison for questioning.

However, Li Jing might not turn his face against the imperial court to protect him, because it is against Li Jing's strategic thinking to take a clear stand against the Ming court.

The task Li Jing entrusted to Cao Wenzhao was to keep an eye on Zhang Xianzhong, but he would never destroy his strategy for Zhang Xianzhong.

Wanting to understand the reason, Cao Wenzhao didn't dare to move lightly, so he could only let the scouts keep a close eye on the movements of Zhang Xianzhong's troops.

When the rogues began to break through, Cao Wenzhao immediately received the report from the scouts. Without waiting for Hong Chengchou's order, Cao Wenzhao crossed the Yellow River and began to pursue eastward, smashing several rogue troops on the way.

Although Cao Wenzhao's speed was fast, he was still hundreds of miles away from Zhang Xianzhong's army. He fought several battles during this period, so he did not catch up until the fourth day.

As usual, Cao Wenzhao would fight if he caught up, but this time Cao Wenzhao didn't, because Zhang Xianzhong didn't act alone, but got together with Li Zicheng and Gao Yingxiang's three troops.

Although these three armies were numerous and powerful, Cao Wenzhao did not take them seriously. It was really easy for Cao Wenzhao to defeat these three armies.

But Cao Wenzhao's goal was not these three people, but Zhang Xianzhong himself.

Cao Wenzhao had a deep understanding of Li Jing's intentions. He knew Li Jing's purpose in letting the bandits go, and Cao Wenzhao knew who to kill and who to let go.

The most indestructible is Gao Yingxiang. It should be because Gao Yingxiang is the strongest among the rogues, with 7 horses. Only Gao Yingxiang has the strength to contain the official army.

If the rest of Luo Rucai, Gezuo Fifth Battalion and other ministries can be united, they will be as strong as Gao Yingxiang, but as long as there is no unified command, they will not be Gao Yingxiang's opponent.

In other words, without Gao Yingxiang, the officers and soldiers would have devoted all their energy to these few people, and they would not be able to compete with the officers and soldiers based on their personal strength.

As for why Li Jing wanted him to kill Zhang Xianzhong with all his strength, Cao Wenzhao knew that it was because Zhang Xianzhong was too ruthless in killing people, whether it was officers and soldiers, local tyrants and evil gentry, or ordinary people, as long as they fell into Zhang Xianzhong's hands, they would all be killed. Never let it go, Zhang Xianzhong led his troops basically three times: kill, rob, and burn.How can Li Jing's style of handling things tolerate this person?

In fact, Cao Wenzhao knew that Li Jing had planned to deal with this person a long time ago.

It's just that Li Jing's military strength was not sufficient at the beginning. It was not until after the occupation of Pingyang Mansion that the military strength began to grow. When Li Jing's military strength was sufficient, first there was a flood in Henan, and then there was a plague in Shanxi. He was so busy that he finally freed up his hands to deal with Zhang Xianzhong, but later Jin came to make trouble again.

This time, when Li Jing made up his mind to deal with this person, he got mixed up with Gao Yingxiang again.

Cao Wenzhao really didn't know whether it was his bad luck or Zhang Xianzhong's good luck.

It is definitely too late to ask Li Jing for instructions now, and he can only solve it by himself.

Cao Wenzhao thought about it for a long time, and decided to call Li Dingguo to discuss it.

Although Li Dingguo was young, he was able to do things, and Li Jing valued him very much. Maybe he could have some ideas.

(End of this chapter)