Ming Empire

Chapter 301 Occupying Xi'an
And just when Cao Bianjiao led the army to break through Shengjing, Niu Jinxing, who was ordered to go to Sichuan as an envoy, finally persuaded Zhang Xianzhong through his three-inch tongue, agreeing to join forces with Li Zicheng to fight against the Ming army.

But just when Zhang Xianzhong agreed to join forces with Li Zicheng to fight against the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Guards led by Hong Niangzi broke through the Tiandan Tongguan like a broken bamboo, and the soldiers pointed directly at Xi'an, the "capital" of "Dashun".

Tongguan is the gateway of Xi'an. It is a good metaphor that one man guards the gate and ten thousand men cannot open it, but those are all legends of the past.

Hong Niangzi fully understood Cao Yue's strategic thinking, and concentrated a large number of artillery during the siege.

The rogues guarding Tongguan had never seen such an overwhelming artillery bombardment, and they were stunned after a while. In the thick black smoke and the sound of explosions one after another, the only thing they could do was to run away and find a place to hide. In order to avoid being killed by the artillery of the Ming army.

Some defenders of Tongguan were also bought by the Ming army. When the Ming army began to attack the city, they immediately gave up resistance and prepared to surrender.

In the fierce artillery bombardment, the north gate of Tongguan was opened, and the Ming army quickly captured the north gate of Tongguan.

When the news of the North Gate's fall came, the rogues, who had already become frightened, suddenly became chaotic, and the South Gate of Tongguan was also opened amidst the chaos, and more soldiers of the Ming Guards rushed into Tongguan City.

Therefore, this fortified city known as the natural danger, the gateway to the thousand-year-old city of Xi'an, was occupied by Ming Zhan.

It took less than a day from the beginning of the Ming army's siege to the complete occupation of Tongguan City.

After occupying Tongguan City, Hong Niangzi did not delay, and ordered 5000 troops to guard the outside of Tongguan City, and she personally led the army to attack Xi'an.

Li Zicheng, who was still waiting for the news, heard the news of the fall of Tongguan, and suddenly lost his mind.Li Zicheng, like Emperor Xuanzong Li Longji of the Tang Dynasty, chose to escape instead of defending himself.It's just that the escape routes are not similar. Back then, Li Longji chose to escape in the direction of Sichuan, but in the direction of Yan'an Mansion.Today's Sichuan is not the rear of the rogues led by Li Zicheng, but Zhang Xianzhong's territory.Although Niu Jinxing proposed to join forces with Zhang Xianzhong to fight against Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng didn't know whether Zhang Xianzhong would agree. Of course, he didn't dare to run towards Sichuan, but fled for his life in the northwest direction of Yan'an.

As soon as Li Zicheng fled, Xi'an became an undefended city just like when Li Longji was back then. The Ming Guards led by Hong Niangzi captured Xi'an with little effort.

When Hong Niangzi occupied Xi'an, the entire city of Xi'an had a population of less than 20 and less than 4. Among them, there were about [-] captured bandits and about [-] civilians.Song Xiance and other gangster backbones who fled with Li Zicheng took away only [-] to [-] people.

In other words, with the addition of the army of rogues, the entire population of Xi'an is only over [-].When Li Zicheng led his army to capture Beijing, there were nearly one million troops under his command.In less than a year, the rogues have decayed like this, which Hong Niangzi never dreamed of.

Hong Niangzi doesn't have the same mind as Cao Yue, let alone Cao Yue's far-sighted vision and strategy.If Cao Yue saw all this, he wouldn't be surprised.In the past year, there were at least one million people who fled from Shaanxi, and there were at least [-] bandits who surrendered to Ming Dynasty through various means, and quite a few were wiped out.With such a crazy loss of population, Li Zicheng's "Da Shun", even without the attack of the Ming Guards, would not last long and would be defeated.

Today's Guanzhong is extremely barren.The environment deteriorated, the people fled, and the original land of abundance turned into a large area of ​​desolation.If the emperors of the Han and Tang dynasties who ruled the world based on Guanzhong back then saw the desolation of Guanzhong today, I really don’t know how they would be so emotional.

While Hong Niangzi reported the battle report and the situation in Guanzhong to Cao Yue according to the facts, she ordered the generals under her command to lead their elite soldiers and horses to chase down Jiannu who fled. Li Zicheng and his key figures must be hunted down or captured.

After receiving the news that Hong Niangzi led the army to capture Tongguan and take Xi'an lightly, Cao Yueting was surprised and very excited.He didn't expect that Li Zicheng's "Da Shun" had weakened to such an extent that the army led by Hong Niangzi captured Guanzhong like a broken bamboo and took Xi'an back.Xi'an was recovered, Li Zicheng fled, and most of his troops surrendered. Cao Yue believed that Li Zicheng's bandit forces would soon be eliminated.He originally thought that Li Zicheng, who was about to face a catastrophe, would unite with Zhang Xianzhong to fight against Ming Dynasty, but he didn't see this situation.

However, he will not let Zhang Xianzhong go. As long as Zhang Xianzhong dares to continue to fight against the Ming court, it will be a matter of time before he marches into Sichuan.It's just that Cao Yue will not let Hong Niangzi lead the army to attack Sichuan, he will send other generals.

The road to Shu is difficult, and it is difficult to go to the blue sky. Using troops in Sichuan will be much more difficult and more difficult than the Guanzhong land of Yimapingchuan.Cao Yue doesn't want his woman to go through such hardships again. The red lady can let her rest after she has made such achievements.

Soon, the Ming court issued an edict to change Xi'an's old name to Chang'an and become the Xijing of the Ming Dynasty. Hong Niangzi was temporarily appointed as the admiral of Chang'an to take charge of military affairs in Shaanxi, wipe out the remnants of Li Zicheng's bandits, appease the people, and resume production.

At the same time, Cao Yue sent Huang Degong, who had been trained by him so well and had become loyal and courageous, to lead three guards and nine guard divisions with nearly 20 horses, preparing to attack Sichuan.

Cao Yue still believed that Zhang Xianzhong would unite with Li Zicheng's remnants to fight against the Ming Dynasty, unless Zhang Xianzhong felt that the situation was over, gave up fighting against the imperial court, and voluntarily surrendered.Since this is the case, then strike while the iron is hot, and wipe out all the two rogue forces in one fell swoop.

Cao Yue's thinking was right, but Li Zicheng's movements were a bit slow, the attack of the Ming Guards was a bit too fierce, and the two gangster forces had no time to unite, and Li Zicheng's Xi'an was captured by the Ming army led by Hong Niangzi up.After hearing that Xi'an was breached and Li Zicheng fled in embarrassment with his remnants, he had promised Niu Jinxing to raise troops to help Li Zicheng. Zhang Xianzhong, who was resisting the government army, immediately stopped advancing, and after a tight defense, led his army back to Chengdu, not daring to take the initiative again. Out of Sichuan to fight.

But Niu Jinxing, who knew that the situation was over, knew that he had no choice. After breaking away from Zhang Xianzhong's troops, he led those cronies who followed him into Sichuan to return to Xi'an, which had been renamed Chang'an, and prepared to surrender to Hong Niangzi.

Niu Jinxing knew that he had lost the right to bargain with the Ming court, but Li Zicheng's power had not been completely wiped out, and he, who stood up to Prime Minister Dashun, was still qualified to ask Cao Yue for some conditions.He hoped that Li Zicheng's power had not been completely wiped out before he arrived in Chang'an.If Li Zicheng's rout was wiped out before he arrived in Chang'an, then he would no longer be able to raise conditions with the Ming court.

(End of this chapter)