Daming kill

Chapter 187 Garrison Fuchi
On the [-]th day of the first lunar month, the day after Zuo Liangyu's army withdrew from Wuchang, Li Zicheng's peasant army, who had come down from Chengtianfu and captured Hanyang, gathered some small boats and began to cross the river to attack Wuchang.

Due to the turbulent river and strong winds, and the troops of the Peasant Army were generally unfamiliar with boat handling and water skills, many ships were sunk by the wind and waves.Eventually, the peasant army had to stop crossing the river.

In the next two days, the current and wind were still not ideal, and the peasant army did not take any action.

The trembling officials and citizens of Wuchang City finally miraculously witnessed on the 21st that the peasant army brigade stationed on the side of Hanyang began to move away from the shore and even left Hanyang County, and took all the ships away.

The Peasant Army seems to have no intention of attacking Wuchang.

Although they didn't understand why, the officials and people in Wuchang City were still greatly relieved. A large number of officials and people who had escaped from Wuchang City and had not yet returned also returned one after another.

This includes King Yankee, the supervising army and participating in politics.

Since this buddy wanted to return his daughter who was robbed by Zuo Liangyu, he took his family and ran to the south of the Snake Mountain to hide for fear of being robbed again, and did not come back until he was sure that the peasant army would not attack Wuchang .

Wang Yangji is the person with the highest position in the Ming government near Wuchang City at this time, and he is not in Wuchang City, so who has Wuchang City been relying on?

Zuo Liangyu's army has gone so crazy that they even robbed grain and Wang Yangji's family, why didn't they lose control further and rob Wuchang City.Moreover, it is said that some reckless rebellious soldiers did rush into Wuchang City at first and committed misdeeds, but they all retreated soon.

One person has to be mentioned here.

It was He Fengsheng, a scholar who became an official at home. He Fengsheng was a scholar of the Ministry of Rites and a scholar of Dongge University. He was a native of Jiangxia.

According to the chronicles of the Hanyang government department, it was He Fengsheng who asked Zuo Liangyu to persuade him to save Wuchang City.

However, Zuo Liangyu gave He Fengsheng a lot of face, and He Fengsheng didn't show up when Zuo Liangyu left, probably because the old comrade wanted to celebrate and scold his mother.

Zuo Liangyu left, but he also left Wuchang to fend for itself.

In the end, it may be under the auspices of He Fengsheng that the remaining officers and soldiers in Wuchang City had the courage to set up troops on Jinshazhou to show the peasant army that the officers and soldiers in Wuchang were still there and did not intend to surrender.

Of course, the final result was good, regardless of the reason, anyway, the peasant army stopped its attack on Wuchang.

Having said that, although Li Ping has been walking downstream along the Yangtze River, he is very aware of the current miraculous situation in Wuchang, who pays close attention to the safety of the back road. The reconnaissance company continues to provide him with the latest news every day intelligence.

On the north bank of the Yangtze River, there are many large rivers running through the river from north to south, but the south bank of the Yangtze River is different. Although there are rivers flowing from south to north, but the number is small and they are all small rivers. It is relatively easy for cavalry to pass quickly.

Li Ping realized that the peasant army's stop attacking Wuchang was probably a matter of Li Zicheng's grand strategy, and his peak of soldiers might stop in Wuchang.

Li Zicheng's peasant army occupied a large area of ​​land too quickly, they must be stable.Moreover, the main base of the Peasant Army is in Shaanxi and Henan, that is, the northern region, but in Shaanxi there is also Sun Chuanting, who dares to fight and is very strong, and is eyeing him.

If the Peasant Army continues to gather its main force in the south for a long time, it will easily cause major problems in its northern occupied area, and it is also inconsistent with Li Zicheng's strategic focus in the north.

Of course, Li Zicheng could also make strategic adjustments, but in this way they would not be able to capture Beijing a year later, and the history would be different from what Li Ping knew. Of course, Zhang Xianzhong would no longer capture Wuchang.

Thinking of these, Li Ping realized that his retreat should be safe for the time being.

Without the military pressure of the peasant army, Zuo Liangyu's army ran fast in front of the boat again, and many merchants and gentry who followed Li Ping from Hanshui to seek asylum began to decide to leave one after another.

Li Ping also fell into entanglement again, and then walked more and more slowly.

"When you get close to vermilion, you get red, when you get close to ink, you get black!" Gao Lei's worry was not unreasonable.

Although Zuo Liangyu's army retreated all the way along the river, he continued his style of burning, killing and looting all the way since Xiangyang retreated eastward, and everything he passed was scorched earth.Li Ping's subordinates, who were following Zuo Liangyu's buttocks, also continued to be stunned and mood ups and downs all the way.

If Li Ping continues to follow Zuo Liangyu, he knows that he cannot hang alone from Zuo Liangyu's army forever, then his army will not be infected and deteriorated.

There is a devil in everyone's heart. There are always a few people who can get out of the mud and can withstand the temptation. It is a very precious and rare quality, otherwise it would not need to be pursued by people for thousands of years.

What's more, there is already an irreparable rift between Li Ping and Zuo Liangyu, so what's the point of sticking to someone else's ass?He really needs to seriously consider where to go again.

On this day, when he was about to approach Qishui, the scouts who were exploring the road ahead brought back a message.

I'm afraid they'll have to divert.

On the north bank of the Yangtze River before reaching the Qihe River, there is not only a huge lake Guanjia Lake (now Chixi Lake), which is very difficult for horses and horses to pass along the coast, but also Qizhou City, which was built along the river after passing the Qihe River, completely blocked their attempts. way to go.

Qizhou City is very interesting. It is a city along the river surrounded by many large lakes.Not only are city gates built on the narrow passages close to it on both sides, but also a section of city wall is extended from both ends of the west wall facing the river to the river. It became a closed area and blocked all possibilities of traveling along the river.

If you want to bypass Qizhou in the north, you will face the problem of being blocked by Chidong Lake, a super huge lake just north of Qizhou.If you continue to circle around, not only do you have to go directly to the mountainous area, but the distance is also terrifying.

The location of Qizhou City is quite tricky, no wonder the city was built here, the strategic position is very well placed.

As for passing through the city, don't even think about it.

Not to mention that Zuo Liangyu's army may have scared the defenders of the city, and it was reported that the defenders of Qizhou City did not allow Li Ping's scouts to approach at all, and put on a stance of strictly guarding against death.

This is completely different from the Huangzhou Fucheng they passed by before, which is also on the bank of the Yangtze River, but the city wall did not reach the river.

When they passed Huangzhou Fucheng along the river, no one stopped them, only pairs of frightened eyes.

As a last resort, Li Ping could only organize everyone on land to cross to the south bank of the Yangtze River.Anyway, this place is more than 200 miles away from Wuchang. Even if the peasant army suddenly changed its mind and attacked Wuchang again, it would not threaten him for a while.

Moreover, the terrain on the south bank of the Yangtze River is more suitable for land marches.

When he finally passed Qizhou City, out of curiosity, Li Ping, who seldom took a boat, purposely boarded a big boat to get close to the heavily guarded city and wait and see.

Scouting not only brought back the road conditions ahead, but also brought back some reports that were different from the past.

The entire surrounding area outside Qizhou City was obviously not damaged by the rebels, which was significantly different from the mess in other areas.

"Have you heard of the officials in this city?" Li Ping asked Zhou Wen curiously on the boat.

His gaze has been fixed on Qizhou City, which is close at hand, which is full of flags, and on the long line of soldiers and horses standing upright with swords and soldiers on the bank of the Yangtze River under the city wall.

On a horse in the middle of the group of horses and horses, the official in scarlet civil uniform is particularly eye-catching.It's just that because the distance is still a bit far, Li Ping can't see clearly what patterns are embroidered on the official's clothes.

But the scarlet color at least means that this civil servant's position is not low (fourth grade or above), and he is very kind.

The civil servant was obviously using this method to show his fearless attitude and to guard against Li Ping's fleet's sudden landing and harassment.

"I haven't paid attention to it, so I really don't know." Zhou Wen replied apologetically, but he immediately added: "But..."

"But what?"

"I know what officials are here."

"Then let me tell you, this city is not small, so the official should be not small either."

It is enough to see from the visual that Qizhou City has a very high building standard. It is obviously much larger than Huangpi County and Hanyang County, and a little smaller than Xiangyang.

Zhou Wen nodded and said, "That's right, this Qizhou is not simple. It used to be a mansion, but after it was reduced to the prefecture of Huangzhou Mansion, it still led Guangji and Huangmei counties. There lived a vassal king in this city. ——King Jing. And the yamen of the Deputy Envoy of Xiajiang Fangdao is also set up here."

"There is a vassal in the city, and it used to be a mansion. No wonder! But what does Jiang Fangdao's deputy envoy do now? How old is an official." Li Ping asked in a daze. The situation is estimated to be related to this.

"Well...Xiajiang Fangdao, not only has the duty of supervision, but also has the responsibility of preparing the military. It is probably the fourth grade." Zhou Wen said after a little thought.

The establishment of Taoism in the Ming Dynasty is unprecedented, with a wide variety of names. There are more than two hundred Taoisms recorded in the history of the Ming Dynasty alone, and their responsibilities are constantly changing.If the scholars at that time were not very familiar with officialdom, they would often not understand it.

"Interesting." Li Ping fell into deep thought.

……

On the second day after Qizhou, both sides of the Yangtze River began to be mountainous, and then the Yangtze River began to narrow. In some places, the width of the river was even less than 500 meters. Setting up artillery on one side was enough to block the entire river.

After passing a mountain with a height of more than [-] meters that looked like it had been split in half, Li Ping's army arrived at a large town along the river. Large and small rivers pass through the town and flow into the Yangtze River.

It is about 50 miles away from Qizhou City, and it is said that you will enter Jiangxi after a few dozen miles.

Looking south along the river that passes through the town, the upstream of the river is a large flat land surrounded by mountains, and there seems to be a large lake, like a large basin.

Although the whole town is currently in a mess, except for the corpses all over the ground, there is no sound of people or dogs barking.But the town is very large, and it should be rich and prosperous from the numerous and complicated buildings, and there is even an inspection office inside.

From the remaining signboards and signs, we know that this place is called Fuchi Town, and the river passing through the town is called Fushui.

The reconnaissance company soon brought back a further report. Along the Fushui, the space on the flat land is very huge. Not only are there many large lakes, but also a county town can be seen dozens of miles away.

"We're not leaving, we're here." Li Ping said firmly after he climbed to the nearby mountain and observed for a long time.

"The place is good, but how are you going to explain it to Zuo Liangyu? Are we going to break with him completely and go it alone?" Song Baolai, who followed him up the mountain, asked.

Li Ping pondered for a moment, and said: "There is no need to break up, just say that we are willing to seal the river here for the army, and think that Zuo Liangyu will agree to the barrier and vigilance."

"Then who's going to say it, you can go by yourself! It's too dangerous." Song Baolai was surprised.

Li Ping said with a smile: "I'm timid, of course I won't go. Let Duan Qiang's newcomer, Yang Ming, go. He did a good job last time."

Description:

According to some books, the peasant army seized [-] to [-] ships in Hanyang Prefecture (some say it was Hanchuan County), and organized a cross-river attack on Wuchang.

I'm rather skeptical about this.

Not to mention how Zuo Liangyu, who wanted to escape for his life, could make such a low-level mistake. If the peasant army really had four or five thousand boats, even if they were all small boats without a big boat, it should be no problem to cross the Yangtze River.

(End of this chapter)