Daming kill

Chapter 288 Dilemma
In the early morning, standing on a high place in Tongluo Gorge, Zhang Rujing, king of Dingdong of the Great Western Army, observed the sparse and blurred figures of the Ming army in the distance as always.

The key to defending Chongqing lies in Tongluo Gorge. This is Zhang Rujing's understanding and his basic strategy.

In fact, the Ming army's defense against Zhang Xianzhong was also this general strategy.

But the difference is that Zhang Xianzhong, the attacker at that time, had an absolute advantage in military strength, and the focus of the Ming army was to defend the city.

But this time, Zhang Rujing, who is the defender and has a superior force, is not the key task of defending the city. What he wants is to block Li Ping.

Chongqing City is located on a mountainous peninsula formed by the confluence of the Yangtze River and the Jialing River. It is surrounded by water on three sides and only has land access to the west.

To put it bluntly, it is very good for defense, but it is also easy to get trapped in the city.

Therefore, the importance of Tongluoxia comes out.

As long as Tongluo Gorge maintains a strong force, Li Ping, who has few soldiers and lacks that dreadful fleet, will not dare to cross them easily to cross the Yangtze River or Jialing River to attack Chongqing City.

In this way, the defense of the entire Chongqing government will be realized.

Unless Li Ping is really brave enough to jump over Chongqing, he will not be afraid of being flanked by front and back and don't attack Chengdu from the back.

In order to concentrate more forces and ensure safety, Zhang Rujing's entire Chongqing defense policy also insisted on only the Tongluo Gorge, Chongqing City, Jiangjin, and another confluence of two rivers about a hundred miles to the north, which is also more famous. A place that is easy to watch and difficult to attack - the four key places of Hezhou Diaoyu City have deployed an organized combat force.

At the same time, Zhang Rujing personally went to the Tongluo Gorge to hold the battle, and he also brought half of his elite.

Even in order to further boost morale and facilitate the direct command of the troops to carry out sneak attacks, Zhang Rujing stayed on the north bank of Tongluoxia, where it would be difficult to escape due to the two rivers blocking him if he lost his defense.

This is also an important reason why Li Ping, who already has a strong attacking ability and sufficient experience in sneak attacks, has lost successively in Tongluoxia.

Although Li Ping's plot on Tongluo Gorge was successfully defeated and Li Ping had to retreat to Fuzhou in frustration, Zhang Rujing still insisted on personally observing the Ming army left outside the gorge every day.

Those Ming troops belonged to a small force left after Li Ping withdrew the main force.

Although there were few people, these Ming troops were very active.

In addition to continuing to observe them every day, exploring the surrounding terrain on a large scale, and setting traps and obstacles everywhere, such messy chores as fishing, hunting, collecting firewood, walking dogs and birds, etc. are also done. It was such a joy.

Even sometimes you can't tell whether the Ming army is watching them, training, or living.

For example, every morning, you can often see these Ming soldiers doing various things, and some even practice their voices and sing alone.

Fearing that it was a trap, Zhang Rujing only organized a few cautious small-scale sneak attacks on this Ming army.

But all failed.

This Ming army seems to be divided and careless, but it is extremely guarded, and it is all the best of the best.

Zhang Rujing couldn't figure out the significance of Li Ping leaving such a precious elite to monitor them, and he couldn't figure out the purpose of this Ming army being so weird all day long.

If you want to attract them out of the gorge to attack, this is too obvious, and it is impossible to attract many people. In fact, it will not have any substantial help in capturing Tongluo gorge.

And if it's a cover-up, it doesn't seem to be doing that.

However, out of caution, Zhang Rujing still insisted on observing from a distance in person every morning, so as to discover unusual things in time.

It's just that today, Zhang Rujing's mind is a little confused, and he is distracted most of the time.

Not long ago, he received an urgent report from Jiangjin.

"What to do?" has become a very urgent task before him, and he dare not be careless, nor can he ignore it.

He knows that this is not only about the aspirations of the people, but also about the aspirations of the army.

Since the defeat of Baishui, the Daxi Army has started to kill to stop fleeing and to kill to gather the crowd, and the military discipline and people's hearts are gradually collapsing.

From Huguang to Sichuan, the numerous soldiers and the corpses and body parts of the civilians along the road shocked almost every general of the Great Western Army.At the same time, the intensified fleeing has not been effectively curbed.

To make things even more troublesome, the Daxi Army had been encountering strong resistance as it advanced into Sichuan.

Although the Great Western Army relied on the huge advantage in numbers and the success in tactics, the progress was smooth, but due to the serious shortage of elites, the casualties were also very large, and the escape was even worse.

As a result, Zhang Xianzhong succeeded in entering the hinterland of Sichuan under the instigation of his fury and Wang Zhaoling, but he gave up the newly established policy of being kind to the people to win the hearts of the people in Sichuan, and the military discipline of the troops also became a wild horse.

This made Zhang Rujing very worried. His troops, which had always been under strict control and whose hearts were already seriously fluctuating, were also more turbulent.Not only did a large number of escapes due to dissatisfaction appear again, but military discipline also tended to collapse under the influence of human nature and the influence of the general atmosphere.

As a last resort, Zhang Rujing decisively killed his subordinates after staying in Chongqing to stabilize the situation.

Although he finally managed to contain the troops from becoming corrupted and temporarily stabilized the people in Chongqing, he knew that all this was still very fragile, and some injuries could never be healed.

And Li Ping's arrival really set off huge waves.

The Ming army general Zeng Ying who had been stationed in Fuzhou and caused them great trouble in entering Sichuan, and the famous female general Qin Liangyu who had personally led troops to Fengjie to stop them all came out again and gathered in front of Li Ping's army.

Although Zeng Ying and Qin Liangyu almost lost all their soldiers and horses because they were defeated by them, they are both local generals, and both have high reputations and are familiar with each other. Once again, a team of nearly ten thousand people was recruited to play for Li Ping, and the people in Chongqing and surrounding areas were also eager to move.

This put tremendous pressure on Zhang Rujing.

Li Ping's military discipline, which has long been known to his entire army, and Chen Zidao, a rebel general in the Battle of Baishui who reported his name outside Tongluo Gorge all day long, also brought great disturbance to Zhang Rujing's troops.

Even if Zhang Rujing was on the Tongluo Gorge, even if Zhang Rujing had repeatedly defeated Li Ping, there were still many defections from the Great Western Army on the Tongluo Gorge, including many elites, especially those who had joined them full of ideals. Macheng soldiers.

Of course, this also allowed Zhang Rujing to be accurately grasped by Li Ping on Tongluo Gorge.

Thinking of these, Zhang Rujing had a headache.

He knew that the tragedy that happened in Jiangjin should not be tolerated, and it was best to act quickly to prevent the incident from fermenting and triggering a chain reaction.

But what can he do?

Those are the ones who came to preach the imperial decree!
What is the difference between killing them and rebelling?

But don't kill them, any punishment is no different from appeasement in essence!

What was even more troublesome was that he didn't want to understand why those people suddenly dared to be so bold.

Although through correspondence with Liu Wenxiu, who has always had a good relationship with him, Zhang Rujing clearly knew that during the process of the main force of the Western Army marching towards Chengdu and attacking the whole of Sichuan, because he stayed in Chongqing, there were fewer elites, and even more in each battle. Difficult, Zhang Xianzhong became more angry, and then the Daxi Army became more tyrannical.

As a result, the officials, soldiers and common people in Sichuan became more and more inclined to resist, and then the Daxi Army became more violent, and then the resistance became more intense, and finally formed a vicious circle.

After Zhang Xianzhong proclaimed himself emperor, rebellions surged in all parts of Sichuan, and even many places that had just been captured or surrendered were lost in riots shortly after, and then Sichuan soldiers and Sichuan people slaughtered all foreign Daxi troops.

In the end, in his rage, Zhang Xianzhong first ordered to kill all the Sichuan officials and soldiers in the army, and then completely let go of the massacre of ordinary people.

Liu Wenxiu even worriedly described some bizarre tyranny in the letter.For example, when a soldier enters a civilian's house to prostitute a woman, he is required to greet the humiliated family with a smile, otherwise it will be regarded as a traitor and the whole family will be killed.

Zhang Rujing was completely shocked!
At the same time, it also made his heart fall into deep confusion.

In fact, Zhang Xianzhong's massacre in Sichuan did not start suddenly in history, but went through a long and very complicated evolutionary process, and at the beginning he had a honeymoon period with the people of Sichuan.

When Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan, the banner of "Clarifying Chuanyue" was not nonsense.

It's just because of Li Ping, and because of historical changes, the evolution at this time has been accelerated.

Although Zhang Xianzhong's Daxi Army has fallen into madness, the Daxi Army has heard more or less about Zhang Rujing's army and temperament, especially Zhang Rujing's subordinates were frightened by the purge of military discipline and fled to Xijing. There are not a few of them, so they basically know that they can't mess around in Zhang Rujing's territory.

Those who came to preach the edict for the first time and the messengers who usually come and go are very honest.

So what happened in Jiangjin made Zhang Rujing a bit confused.

It also made him more worried.

"Prince Dingdong, other observations have confirmed that the activities of the Ming army outside have decreased significantly this morning, and some people may have withdrawn." A close friend who just came from elsewhere interrupted Zhang Rujing's distraction.

"General Li is really leaving!" Zhang Rujing still didn't seem to believe it.

But shaking his head and sighing deeply, Zhang Rujing finally made up his mind and said, "Get ready, I need to go back to Fucheng immediately."

"Go back to Fucheng?"

Zhang Rujing's cronies were all a little surprised, and their tone was full of doubts.

They are too familiar with Zhang Rujing, and they know Zhang Rujing's awe and caution towards Li Ping.When the imperial decree came for the first time, Zhang Rujing stayed on the Tongluo Gorge and asked someone to bring the imperial decree.

This time, although it was reported by many sources that Li Ping had been named General of Conquering Thieves and would soon return to Huguang to deal with Li Zicheng who was marching towards Beijing, Zhang Rujing still did not dare to relax in the slightest and remained extremely suspicious. , and even specifically stated that as long as Li Ping has not left Sichuan, he will continue to fight in Tongluoxia.

"Yes, go back to Fucheng. I have to meet the imperial decree!" Zhang Rujing gritted his teeth.

At this time, Squealer and his guards were also leaving Jiangjin for Chongqing.

Leaving Jiangjin smoothly, the squeaky voice whose heart had been hanging in his throat was finally relieved.

Although he was still worried, and although they were surrounded by a large number of soldiers and horses sent by Jiangjin for the rest of the journey, the guards with high-pitched voices never cared. .

Until the afternoon, they finally arrived at the pier outside Chongqing.

The group of neat and quiet armored soldiers on the pier made the guards with high-pitched voices completely quiet for the first time.

When several sharp-eyed guards who had been here last time pointed to a young general with torch eyes in the crowd and whispered that that was King Dingdong, the expressions of all the guards became serious. Also unconsciously slightly bent.

The name of a man, the shadow of a tree.

No matter how domineering they are, they dare not show off in front of King Dingdong.

Everyone hurriedly disembarked from the boat to the pier as fast as possible.

The squeaky voice had never seen Zhang Rujing before.

This time, Zhang Xianzhong specially changed the person in delivering the decree.

While squealing in surprise, why did Zhang Rujing come to pick them up at the pier and whether he was about to take out the imperial decree now, Zhang Rujing, who had already greeted him with a straight face, said first: "Please wait until you enter the city, and we will handle the case first." .”

"Handle the case?" The squeaky voice made his heart tighten.

"Everyone, I have an order: murderers die, looters die, rape women die too. I don't care what happens to you in Xijing, but Jiangjin is my territory. Since you dare to do it, don't blame me Ruthless, I can only hang your heads on the city of Jiangjin!" Zhang Rujing suddenly shouted.

And as soon as he finished speaking, the soldiers standing around rushed forward and pushed the guards who were still confused behind the squeaky voice to the ground one after another.

The guard leader with a high-pitched voice finally came to his senses. While struggling desperately, he shouted in fear: "King Dingdong, you have no right to kill us, and you can't kill us. The emperor is very dissatisfied with you killing your own people. You Look at the imperial edict, you look at the imperial edict..."

Zhang Rujing's face tightened, obviously hesitating for a moment, but then he continued to shout firmly: "Do it! Do it!"

"Brothers, don't kill me, don't kill me, you want to fight against the emperor's order... ah..." Before the leader of the guard could finish speaking, the screams stopped abruptly, and then he stared at the head with eyes as big as Niu Ling. It rolled to the ground almost simultaneously with dozens of other heads.

At this time, Squealer was completely stupefied with fright. He was sprayed with a lot of blood, and he looked at the head of the guard leader who was still glaring unwillingly at his feet and the body that was still twitching after being released, and looked at it again. Look at the expressionless Zhang Rujing.

He suddenly felt that his lower body seemed to be wet, and a pile of hot stuff was flowing down his thighs, and then his legs went limp, and he collapsed to the ground.

But Zhang Rujing suddenly stretched out his hand to him at this moment and said: "Don't be afraid of the holy envoy, I only punish the wicked, and I will never hurt the holy envoy. The holy envoy was shocked, and he still looked at Haihan. After entering the city for a while, I will definitely make amends. "

(End of this chapter)