Eighth year of Chongzhen

Chapter 4 Hong Chengchou

There is a small square in front of the Yamen of Xinyang Prefecture, Runing Prefecture, Henan Province. In the middle of the square, there is a large banner with five big characters "Hong, Governor of Five Provinces".

On both sides of the door, stood eight tough soldiers, wearing helmets and armour, holding knives on their waists, and their eyes kept scanning the surroundings. At first glance, they were strong soldiers who had been fighting for a long time. They were the standard battalion guards of Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces.

In the lobby of the state government office, a middle-aged official with a pale face was dressed in a red crane men's suit and a black gauze on his head, sitting behind the big case, stroking his beard and thinking quietly, beside him stood a man dressed as a scribe. Middle-aged staff.

He is Hong Chengchou, the governor-general of the five provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Sichuan military affairs.

Hong Chengchou, courtesy name Yanyan, nickname Hengjiu, was born in Yingdu (now Xiamei, Liangshan Village, Yingdu Town), Quanzhou, Fujian. He was a Jinshi in the 44th year of Wanli. Participate in politics.

When the local thieves came to the fore, Hong Chengchou showed his literary and martial arts strategy, vigorously suppressed the thieves, and performed outstandingly.

In the third year of Chongzhen, he succeeded Zhang Mengjing, who died in office, as the governor of Yansui.After taking office, he commanded his brave general Cao Wenzhao to kill Wang Jiayin, Diandengzi, Wang Zuogua, Bai Ruxue and other relatively large-scale bandits, which was appreciated by the emperor.

Chongzhen succeeded the arrested Yang He in four years, and became the governor of Shaanxi Trilateral Military Affairs and the right servant of the Ministry of War.

In just over a year, the bandits in Shaanxi were either wiped out or fled to other provinces, and Hong Chengchou's reputation was greatly shaken.

In seven years, Chongzhen replaced Chen Qiyu, who had failed to appease bandits in Chexiangxia, which led to its spread, as the governor of the five provinces, which can be described as a high position.

But his family knew about his family affairs, and with the promotion of his status, Hong Chengchou, who was originally high-spirited, felt more and more pressure, and his heart was miserable.

I thought that after the extermination of the thieves from Shaanxi, the remaining ones and those who fled were all suffering from scabies.Unexpectedly, the thieves and bandits are becoming more and more powerful, and they are suppressing more and more, and now it has become a trend.

The original small group of bandits gradually grew stronger, and they were quite skilled in marching and fighting, especially Chuangwang Gao Yingxiang's department and Shetatian Tuoyangkun's department were the most difficult to deal with.

He once told the emperor that the difficulty of killing and chasing was not what it used to be: at first, the bandits feared the officers and soldiers, and fled as soon as they saw the flags of the officers and soldiers, and basically did not dare to fight head-on.Now he has the courage to confront the officers and soldiers, and can lure the enemy, lay in ambush, and charge with cavalry.

Of course, this is due to the teachings of the officers and soldiers who surrendered to the thieves, but it is not difficult to see that the thieves have more and more combat experience.

The second is the difficulty of chasing.

The bandit soldiers are mainly cavalry, and some even have a bandit with two horses. If the battle is not good, they will flee immediately.Most of the officers and soldiers are horses at three steps and seven steps. Even if they win the battle, they can only watch the opponent flee and catch up.

Furthermore, after the bandits escaped, they hid in the strongholds in the deep mountains and old forests, and stood firm according to the dangerous terrain.

The officers and soldiers are unable to sustain the army food, and the second is that they cannot carry siege equipment, so it is difficult to defeat the enemy.Because guarding the dangerous terrain, the attacker is like attacking the city. Without equipment, can it be filled with human life?

Once again, we are outnumbered.

Because of the continuous drought, there are more and more hungry people, and many people will die in their arms. It is better to join the bandit army with the mentality of eating a full meal before death.

Because the bandits looted everywhere, there was generally no shortage of food.

The brave ones who join the bandit army can often eat enough, which is a fatal temptation for the hungry people who are already starving and have begun to eat each other.

Now all the thieves add up, there are more than 30 thieves under their command, while the encirclement and suppression officers and soldiers are only more than [-], and the gap is getting bigger and bigger.

It is very difficult for officers and soldiers to be replenished after they are killed in battle, but bandits respond to all calls, and it is very easy to gather together. The current situation has become more and more difficult, and even worsens.

This time, he convened a military meeting with his subordinates and assistants in Ruzhou to study and judge the current situation and the movements of the bandits, and deploy the next strategy.

Before that, he submitted a new combat plan to the emperor and the Ministry of War——with the governor of Sichuan, the commander-in-chief moved to Kuimen and Dazhou to support Huguang; the governor of Huguang, the commander-in-chief moved to Xiangyang; Bozhou, taking care of Guide and Runing in Henan Province; the governor of Shandong moved to Caozhou and Puzhou to prevent bandits from going south; the governor of Shanxi moved to Puzhou to help Lingbao and Shanzhou; the governor of Henan moved to between Runing and Nanyang Defense; the governor of Shaanxi moved to Shangzhou to respond to Xing'an and Hanzhong; the purpose of this plan is to surround them on all sides, and strive to drive and completely kill the bandits in Henan.

Although the emperor had approved the plan, it was strongly opposed by the government headed by Henan Governor Xuan Mo and the Henan gentry.

Because once a battlefield is set up in Henan, such a large battle formation means that Henan will be completely smashed, most of the area will become a piece of scorched earth, and the interests of Henan gentry will be seriously damaged. At that time, the people will be displaced and the population will decrease in a large area or drain.

In this era of digging in the soil, what is the use of having land without a population? With tens of thousands of acres of land being guarded by no one to cultivate, most of the gentry will go bankrupt.

What's more, in a war, whether it's a thief or an officer or soldier, a large family can be destroyed in minutes. It is well known that the thief is like a comb, and the soldier is like a grate. The reputation of the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty is not good.

Hong Chengchou was well aware of the thoughts of the Henan side represented by Xuanmo, but the strategy had already been approved, and it was impossible to change it.

So he simply pretended to be deaf and dumb. The governor of Henan asked for an interview several times, but was resigned by the governor's office for various reasons.

During this meeting, Xuanmo was so angry that he simply said that he was sick, and Hong Chengchou didn't bother to talk to him. After all, if the strategy starts to be implemented, you Xuanmo, as the chief official of Henan, would not dare to disobey the military order. will die.

While I was thinking about it, the sound of horseshoes came from outside the yamen, noisy voices, greetings, laughter, clanging of armor, and then footsteps came straight to the yamen. The Ming army with helmets and armor will enter the lobby.

"The humble Changping Chief Soldier Zuo Liangyu meets the Commander-in-Chief, and the Deputy Chief Soldier Tang Jiuzhou meets the Commander-in-Chief!"

"Zuo Guang, the low-ranking aid and suppression general, first meets the commander-in-chief!"

"Cao Wenzhao, the humble general of Lintao, visited the commander-in-chief"

"Deng Qi, the low-ranking Sichuan aid and suppression general, sees the commander-in-chief!"

"You Shiwei, the humble general of Ningxia, sees the commander-in-chief!"

"Ai Wannian, Deputy Commander of Gushan, a low-ranking officer, has a meeting with the commander-in-chief!"

The generals, deputy generals, generals, guerrillas, and chiefs of all provinces knelt on one knee, cupped their hands above their heads, and saw their names. The prestige of the governors of the five provinces can still restrain this group of arrogant soldiers.

"Everyone, please rise up," Hong Chengchou said slowly.

"Thank you, Dushuai!" Amidst the clashing sound of nail leaves, everyone stood up one after another, and then lined up on the left and right.

The governors of the five provinces are mainly responsible for military affairs, and the governors of each province are responsible for local civil affairs.

Except for the governor of Henan, the rest of the chief officials did not need to convene a meeting.But the governor of Henan couldn't calm down, saying that the illness hadn't arrived, so it didn't matter.As for the prefect of Ruzhou, the magistrate of Xinyang was arranged to raise food and grass for the army.

"Today, the governor convened a meeting to discuss the strategy of suppressing thieves. You and the other generals can come up with any good strategies! After the discussion, we will formulate the next battle plan. Once the plan is formed, all the generals must strictly follow it, otherwise the military law will be followed!"

Hong Chengchou scanned the generals with piercing eyes, and his tone was very severe.

The generals looked at each other in blank dismay. They were good at fighting, but they were not good at strategy.Besides, the governor's asking them to offer advice and suggestions is just a polite word, who would believe it.So Zuo Liangyu went out and clasped his hands and said: "I respectfully ask the Commander-in-Chief to order, we will obey the order!"

"Then the governor will announce the military order!" Hong Chengchou said.

Just as he was about to speak, he suddenly heard the guard outside reporting loudly: "Report to the Commander-in-Chief, urgent military situation!"

Hong Chengchou froze for a moment, with an ominous premonition in his heart, he raised his voice and said, "Tell me!"

In the blink of an eye, a guard walked in quickly with a red box in his hand, knelt down on one knee before the case, and lifted the box above the top with both hands.

The scholar beside Hong Chengchou bypassed the desk and came to the guard and took the box, turned back to Hong Chengchou, opened the box, picked up a newspaper inside, glanced at it quickly, and handed it to Hong Chengchou with a frown. .

After Hong Chengchou took it, he looked at it. It was sent by Yu Yinggui, the inspector of Yunyang. Qin!
Hong Chengchou's face suddenly darkened, and the strategy that he and his staff worked hard for more than a month was completely invalidated!
He felt extremely angry in his heart.

Damn rogue, really worthy of the word "flow"!He led his subordinates to fight hard. It can be said that they fought thousands of miles before driving the bandits to Henan and Huguang.I wanted to gather and annihilate them, but I didn't think that because all the combat-capable troops in Shaanxi were brought to Henan by myself, the bandits had a keen sense of smell, and they even took advantage of the emptiness of Shaanxi to kill a carbine!
Soldiers go out and consume a lot of food and grass, and they are tricked by bandits, which really shames their reputation!It will also make the emperor unhappy!These damned rogues, I swear to kill them all, so as to get rid of the hatred in my heart!
However, the most urgent thing now is to change the strategy and come up with corresponding countermeasures to solve the urgent need. Otherwise, if the thieves are allowed to wreak havoc in Shaanxi again, their own future will be in jeopardy.

Thinking of this, he ordered: "You camp for a while, don't forget to train sergeants on weekdays, and wait for the order of the governor!"

All the generals agreed to obey, Hong Chengchou got up and went to the back hall, all the generals watched him turn the screen before leaving one after another.

During the period, those who had a good relationship couldn't help discussing in a low voice, while those who were not familiar with each other kept silent. They greeted after they left the state government office, and their own soldiers and servants led the horses.

(End of this chapter)