Go back to the Ming Dynasty to be a thousand households

Chapter 187

July 20th, 1592th year of Wanli, August 8th, 15 AD.

On July [-]th of the lunar calendar, it is already autumn, and the weather is slowly getting cooler.Putting it in Wuzhai Fort, the whole people must have been mobilized at this time, and the harvest of spring wheat has begun.

However, it is still in a state of decay near Ningxia City.Ruined walls, dilapidated homes, and displaced people.Fortunately, not long ago, Emperor Wanli issued a decree to exempt all taxes and grains in Shaanxi and Ningxia, so that the lives of the people in the two places would not be worsened.

At this time, Wei Xuezeng, the governor of the three sides, Ye Mengxiong, the governor of Gansu, and Zhu Zhengse, the governor of Ningxia, were patrolling the city of Ningxia, and beside them were a large number of generals from various military towns.However, Li Rusong, the admiral, accompanied Mei Guozhen, the supervising army, but he didn't follow.

Looking at the situation under the city, Zhu Zhengse sighed: "The soldiers are fierce and the battle is dangerous. There are clear instructions in ancient times. It is the common people who suffer. In the past, Ningxia has always had the reputation of fortressing the south of the Yangtze River. It is convenient for irrigation and the land is fertile. It’s a barn full of wheat grains, so it’s not as devastated as before.”

Wei Xuezeng also sighed: "It's just that the war continues, and the people will never return to their homes."

Ye Mengxiong frowned: "I don't know when the bandits in Ningxia will be able to calm down. Looking at the situation in front of us, the bandits are still very powerful. It is difficult to break through the city."

Everyone was silent, and all the generals behind were staring at each other. It is no problem to let them go to battle to kill the enemy, but if they are asked to offer advice, there is nothing they can do.Huang Laifu's heart moved, he stepped forward, cupped his fists and said: "Your Excellency, the two governors will have a plan in the end, I don't know whether to speak or not."

Several civil servants uttered oh, and even all the generals looked at Huang Laifu.Wei Xuezeng had a good impression of Huang Laifu, he smiled and said, "Just tell me if General Huang has any tricks, the old man is very interested to hear."

Huang Laifu replied, "Yes."

He said: "The last general has seen the surroundings of Ningxia City. The city is at the bottom of the cauldron, and the northwest of the city is low. Guanyin Lake, Xinqu, Honghuaqu, Jinbo Lake, and Three Pagoda Lakes surround the city. Just imagine, my lord, if you send Soldiers build embankments around the city, and when the time comes to divert water to irrigate the city, the destruction of Ningxia city is just around the corner."

Everyone took a deep breath, Huang Laifu's plan was really good.Even the generals behind him were talking about it.

Wei Xuezeng stroked his beard and fell silent, Zhu Zhengse bowed his head in thought, Ye Mengxiong said: "This plan is feasible, but it is just to divert water to attack the city, and the only concern is whether there will be many casualties among the people in the city, which is against the righteous heart of the Holy One."

Huang Laifu thought to himself, Ye Mengxiong was the one who thought up this water attack strategy in history, and you were the first one to agree.

Thinking of this, Huang Laifu smiled and said: "Master Ye has a kind heart, and the general admires it. The general has also thought about what your lord has thought. After our army builds embankments on three sides, we can slowly pour water into the city. The water will flood the city wall and make the base of the wall If it collapses, although the water will soak into the streets, it will not endanger the safety of the people in the city.”

Wei Xuezeng felt relieved, and said: "So, it's feasible." He gave Huang Laifu a meaningful look, and thought: "This Huang Laifu did not expect to be so powerful in battle, and his strategy is so outstanding."

Zhu Zhengse also said: "Wei Gong, this plan is feasible."

Ye Mengxiong, governor of Gansu Province, looked at Huang Laifu and said with a smile: "General Huang is really capable of both civil and military skills. I couldn't think of such a plan. Unexpectedly, General Huang came up with it."

Huang Laifu saw that the generals around him looked at him with envious eyes, and hurriedly said modestly: "Don't dare, the last general is just a chance."

Ye Mengxiong said: "General Huang doesn't have to be overly modest. If Ningxia's bandits are leveled, General Huang should do a great job."

He suddenly remembered something and said: "By the way, I have been studying firearms for a long time, but I have never seen such sharp firearms as General Huang's mark. I wonder where General Huang's firearms come from?"

The generals of the nearby military towns also pricked up their ears. They have seen the sturdy firecrackers of the Wuzhaibao army, and they are naturally very concerned.

Huang Laifu said: "Nothing else, just let the military craftsmen make it carefully. If the test shooting fails, if there is a problem with the equipment, we will strictly investigate and deal with it. In this way, the equipment is naturally excellent."

Ye Mengxiong smiled and said, "So that's the case."

After a while, he sighed again: "It's easier said than done."

※※※

After discussion, everyone, including Li Rusong and Mei Guozhen, agreed with the water attack plan.Wei Xue, the governor of the three sides, reported the plan to the court, and the court also believed that it was feasible to irrigate the city with water from the Yellow River.Right now, the national treasury can't support it anymore, and everyone hopes to solve it quickly.

Soon, on the second day, Wei Xuezeng, Mei Guozhen and others assigned soldiers to build embankments around the city in preparation for a water attack.

However, while everyone is busy, Mei Guozhen, the military supervisor, is writing the impeachment memorial. He believes that the reason why Ningxia City has not been captured until now is because the generals failed to attack the city, mutual avoidance of meritorious service, and Wei Xuezeng, the governor of the three sides, was incompetent. .

He impeached the generals to wait and see, and reported what he saw in the Ningxia army one by one: "The generals are not in the same mind, but they know how to avoid meritorious deeds and refuse to make meritorious deeds...Although the generals are only one-sided, those who have no followers are expected by the ministers." If power is shallow, it is not enough to intimidate, and if you sit and humiliate the king's order, even if you die, it will not help....The generals use troops not as good as games, because they know the success of the past, and they are all deceitful."

His memorial also reflected the lack of banners and golden drums in the anti-insurgency army, the lack of food and grass in the various armies, and the fact that more than half of the army and horses died of starvation, and the most important thing was the lack of arrows in the army.He also complained that the generals did not listen to him, so that he could not do his best: "The officials of the ministers are empty, if you don't give them up early, you have to leave the line..."

After reading Mei Guozhen's impeachment memorial, Emperor Wanli was naturally furious.At this time, Zheng Luo, the former Northwest strategist, also impeached Wei Xuezeng for several points: he was good at opening border gaps, recruiting and entertaining bandits, covering up defeats without reporting them, and behaving well.

The courtier Fang Congzhe also encouraged the officials to impeach Wei Xuezeng to appease Liu Dongyang and Xu Dynasty. He stopped the army and did not enter Guyuan for ten days, which was a lost opportunity.Li Yu crossed the river slowly, Songshan and Hetao were occupied by the Tartars, and our army was passive.

At this time, Emperor Wanli was even more furious, and immediately ordered Wei Xuezeng to be removed from the post of governor and replaced by Ye Mengxiong.Soon after, Jin Yiwei was ordered to arrest Wei Xuezeng and bring him to Beijing.

July 20, Wanli 1592, August 8, 24 AD.

After the efforts of nearly 1700 officers and soldiers under the city, on this day, the embankment around the city was built, with a total length of [-] feet.Just this morning, the imperial decree arrived, dismissing Wei Xuezeng, and ordered Ye Mengxiong to replace him, and also awarded Shangfang the sword.

Since the imperial court had received Mei Guozhen's memorial in advance, the generals were impeached and waited and watched.Emperor Wanli missed his teacher for a long time but failed.It's all because the commander's lax discipline and mismanagement, so that all the soldiers don't have to die, and the affairs of the country are wronged.Therefore, he ordered all the troops to be unified, dispatched by the governor, and supervised by the army, with no right to infringe.

At that time, the 12 Ming army under the city of Ningxia was divided into several divisions, including the four towns in the northwest under the control of Wei Xuezeng, Ye Mengxiong, the governor of Gansu, and the Xuanfu and Datong towns led by Li Rusong.The governor and the army supervisor are their own ministries, and each has the right to deploy troops.At this time, the Ming army under the city was truly commanded and unified.

In the afternoon of the same day, the new Governor Ye Mengxiong called a meeting of Wei Xuezeng, Zhu Zhengse, Mei Guozhen, and the generals of the towns.Ye Mengxiong was very different from Wei Xuezeng, he dared to kill and make decisive decisions, even Li Rusong, who was always domineering, was afraid of him and dared not not come to obey orders.

Ye Mengxiong then cleaned up military discipline and issued various military orders. The more than [-] Ming soldiers under the city all obeyed orders with awe.

万历20年七月21日，公元1592年8月28日。

Ye Mengxiong ordered to flood the city with water, and immediately the flood rushed towards Ningxia City.The rebels in the city were terrified. Seeing that the water level outside the city continued to rise, cracks continued to appear on the base of the city wall, which could not be blocked. Li Dongyang and others were at a loss for worship in the city.

Qiaobai hurriedly sent his adopted son Kerry to break out of the siege and ask for help from the Mongolian king of Shunyi in Hetao.After Li Rusong learned about it, he ordered Li Ning to chase after him, beheaded Ke Liyi and other 29 people, but failed to ask for help.

Unwilling to give up, he sent his subordinates to bring gold, embroidered pythons and other belongings to seek help from Bu Shitu in the Hetao Department, asking him to rush to Lingzhou to occupy Xiamaguan and block the officers and soldiers' payment road.

This time, Xiaobai contacted Bu Shitu.After a heated debate, Bu Shitu decided to send troops. He joined forces with Zhuang Tulai from the Hetao Department to gather [-] troops and divide them into two groups to reinforce Qibai.

2 people along the way, led by Tu Mei and Mi Jiulei, attacked Dingbian and Xiaoyanchi.Leading the way, Dazheng led [-] Mongolian cavalry to attack from Shapaikou west of Ningxia's rear guard Huamachi, attacking the rear of the official army.

After the new governor Ye Mengxiong learned that tens of thousands of Mongolian soldiers had come to aid Qibai, the soldiers launched two counterattacks.

First of all, he ordered Huang Laifu, the deputy commander-in-chief of Shanxi, to lead the 300 troops he had marked.There is also Ma Gui, the deputy commander-in-chief of Ningxia, who led more than 4000 horses under his own bid, and the two combined nearly [-] troops to block and attack.The two also brought some artillery vehicles allocated by Ye Mengxiong to help.

In addition, Ye Mengxiong judged that the tens of thousands of Hetao troops came to help, and the rear must be empty. He sent Dong Yiyuan with 800 troops to take advantage of the void to go out of the fortress, and he was determined to smash his lair.Moreover, Ye Mengxiong sent Gong Zijing, a guerrilla from Gansu Province, to block Shapaikou with [-] Miao soldiers. At that time, he would cut off the rear of the main army and join Dong Yiyuan who had returned from the fortress.

After Ye Mengxiong's order was handed down, everyone acted urgently.Soon, Huang Laifu and Ma Gui gathered their soldiers and horses, crossed the Yellow River south, and headed towards Lingzhou City.

To be honest, Huang Laifu requested this battle on his own initiative. If possible, he would rather fight the Mongols in the field than engage in that cruel siege battle. His elite soldiers were not wasted there meaninglessly.

Seeing Huang Laifu being so active and taking the initiative to fight the Mongols, all the generals in the city were surprised. It’s not good to be in the city well, to fight the Mongols?That was more ominous than good, even Li Rusong was surprised.Of course, seeing Huang Laifu being so brave, Ye Mengxiong was of course very happy, and he greatly praised Huang Laifu.

And when I heard that my lord was going to lead troops out of Ningxia City to fight in other places, all the soldiers of the Wuzhaibao army, from officers to soldiers, howled with joy.These days, under the city of Ningxia, everyone is extremely depressed. This kind of siege battle is really meaningless. kill.

When the opportunity came, everyone was gearing up, discussing how many enemies they could kill and how many heads they could get in the future.Seeing this kind of warlike appearance in the eyes of other troops under the city is another feeling.

During the siege battles these days, the Wuzhaibao army lost about 150 people. In order to replenish the source of troops, Huang Laifu selected 150 people from the Wuzhaibao soldiers.Although these soldiers were more elite than many Ming soldiers in the city, they were not qualified to enter the Wuzhaibao army camp. At this time, they were selected, and everyone was happy.

(End of this chapter)