Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 552 Datong
Datong.

In the Ming Dynasty, it was one of the important towns on the nine frontiers, governing Bawei, Qisuo, and 580 Sanbao.

Its land is south of the Outer Great Wall and north of Yanmen Pass in the Inner Great Wall. Since the early Ming Dynasty, guards and fields have been set up here, serving as the northwest barrier of the capital. camp.

It was originally a time of great auspiciousness and joy for the new year, but at this time, in Datong, an important town on the nine borders, the rumble of artillery replaced the sound of firecrackers.

The Qing army has been besieging the city for half a year.

Wang Yuele, a famous clan member, took command in person. He successively dispatched more than [-] troops from Manchu, Han and Mongolian tribes, and dispatched many cannons in red to bombard the city. However, after half a year of such a violent attack, the Qing army suffered countless casualties, and they failed to capture Datong.

However, Datong's ability to defend for so long was not only due to Jiang Guan's early preparations, strengthening the city's defenses, and vowing to resist, it was also related to the strategy of the Qing army.After Yue Le took command and set off, he first surrounded Datong, tried several times to attack and found that the defenders were strong-willed and the city defenses were strong, so they sent troops to supervise and recruit Minzhuang to dig ten trenches around Datong City to seal off the siege.

Then surrounded Datong with more than [-] elites, and the rest of the soldiers and horses split up to attack various places in response to the rebels.

For example, Liu Qian and Lang Fang raised troops in Fanzhi, claiming to be General Zuo, and were later awarded the General Soldier of Yanmen by the supervising army. They captured Fanzhi. Thousands of soldiers and horses returned to attack Daizhou. The Qing army defended the road to the death, and the rebels only captured Dongguan.

During the siege, Yue Le personally led the Jingqi to kill Liu Qian. He traveled two hundred miles a day and killed Liu Qian. Leading the Eight Banners in pursuit, Liu Qian was defeated again and again, and finally was surrounded and died in battle. Gao Shan led a group of troops to break through, but was soon overtaken and had to surrender.

Yue Le first accepted the surrender, and then killed thousands of surrendered troops.

At the beginning of the Datong uprising, people from all walks of life in Shanxi responded. At that time, except for Taiyuan and a few important towns, the whole of Shanxi was captured by the rebels, and the number of people from all walks of life was 28.

People from all walks of life cut their braids and changed clothes, restored the clothes of the Ming Dynasty, accepted the appointment of the Shaotian court, supported the Emperor Shaotian, and fought against the Qing Dynasty.However, because Shanxi still cannot directly border with the Shaotian Dynasty-controlled area at this time, although the momentum was strong at the beginning, after the Qing army counterattacked, the various ministries lacked unified dispatch and command, and the rebel army was not strong. The elite of the Eight Banners are often defeated by one blow.

From Liu Qian in Daizhou, Chen Du and Zhang Douguang in Zezhou, Niu Guangtian in Pingshun, Yu Yin in Puzhou, to Han Zhaoxuan and Li Qisheng in Hancheng, Zhang Ding in Wutai Mountain, Zhang Wugui in Hedong, etc., have all been defeated one after another .

In less than half a year, the rebel army started from the start of a prairie fire and almost captured Shanxi. Now the rebel army has fallen and all kinds of birds and beasts have dispersed.

Yue Le also returned to the city of Datong after defeating the rebels in Shanxi for the second time.

When he came back at this time, Datong had become an isolated city, and only Zhang Ding was left in Shanxi's rebel army, who was defeated in Wutai Mountain, and Zhang Wugui and others withdrew into Wangwu Taihang.

Amidst the sound of cannons, Yue Le, who had just been conferred the title of General Xuanwei because of his meritorious service in Ping Shanxi, and Prince Shuo'an came to the city of Datong on horseback.

Signal the guards to shout to the city.

"General Jiang, please come out and answer!"

Jiang Yu stood at the top of the city with his helmet on top of his armor, "If you want to fight, fight, don't talk!"

Behind him is Dong Zhining, a member of the military department of the Daming Jianyuan, who is also the supervisor of Shanxi and the supervisor of Datong. The siege has been fought until now, and there have been many casualties in the city. Fortunately, Datong is the most important town in the nine borders. There are also artillery, etc., which have lasted until now, but the defeat of various rebels in Shanxi has also made their hearts heavy.

What's more, there is not much food and grass in the city.

The Tartars dug ten trenches outside the city of Datong, and built an earthen wall, which looked like an iron bucket.

Yue Le restrained his temper, and shouted at Jiang Yu on the city, "I also heard that there were many misunderstandings before, and the general's rebellion was just a moment of helplessness. It was all forced by Brother Dorgon Azig, and now the court is in chaos. Anyway, Azig was also punished for treason, and the current regent uncles Daishan and Jierhalang have ordered that as long as the general can repent and return to sincerity, he will continue to support him as usual."

"All the soldiers and generals in Datong City, don't blame the past."

Jiang Yu scolded, "Brother Dorgon Azige deserves to die. This town was forced by the situation to return to you and others, and followed Azige to conquer Shunying to avenge the late emperor. As a result, Azige regarded us as slaves and slaves, and he yelled and drove us at will. , Even if we fight first, we will retreat first, and then we will retreat, but there is often no supply of food and grass.

Azig was stationed in Daibei before, and even plundered the property of the soldiers and common people in Datong, and even raped his daughter at will with his followers. The niece and daughter-in-law who went through the door were snatched away in the street. I heard the news and went to him to talk about important people, but he beat me out. It was not until the next day that my niece and daughter-in-law were brought back by him, but she was already trampled to death. How can this hatred be tolerated? ? "

"You tartars not only treat us like cows and make us do the dirtiest and tiring jobs, but also treat us like dogs!"

Jiang Yu also knew early on that it would be impossible to get good results if he tried to surrender after rebelling against the Qing Dynasty, so even if Yue Le came to surrender, he flatly refused.

"Jiang Zongbing, if someone else comes to recruit you, you don't have to give face, but this king is General Xuanwei, Prince He Shuo'an, and the assistant prince appointed by the emperor, so you don't give any face to condescending like this ?
In the name of the auxiliary prince, this king promises you that as long as you surrender, you will forget the previous suspicions, and all past crimes will be pardoned, and the imperial court will still retain your title of King of Datong, and allow you to enter the capital to support you.
What's more, this king hereby promises to give Azige a daughter as his wife to your nephew to make up for the crimes he committed against your family that day, how about it? "

"Pooh!"

Jiang Guan spat at Cheng Xia Yue Le.

Although he didn't spit on his face, Yue Le, who is the grandson of Nurhachi, had an extremely ugly expression on his face.

He came to surrender in person, but Jiang Guan was so shameless.

In the city, among the generals next to Jiang Guan, someone seemed to be a little moved.

General Yang Zhenwei said from the side, "Why don't you pretend to promise the king of captives and let them withdraw their troops first to get some respite, and take it slowly?"

Dong Zhining interrupted him directly, "The general's words are wrong. The enemy army has been besieging the city for a long time. Although the situation in Shanxi is bad now, the emperor will not just sit back and watch us do nothing. As long as we persist, the Tartars will not be able to attack for a long time, and it will be difficult for them to attack." To continue.

If they pretend to surrender now, I am afraid that the morale of the soldiers will be drained, and the hearts of the soldiers will be scattered, and it will be difficult to maintain a strong city. "

Dong Zhining took a step forward, directly revealing his identity to Yue Le at the bottom of the city.

"Listen, the leader of the Tartars in the city, this official is the military officer of the Daming Jianyuan, the supervisor of Shanxi Dao, and Dong Zhining, the supervisor of Datong. The decree came to Datong to comfort the three armies and the people on behalf of the emperor,
Since I came to Datong, I have already seen clearly that you and the Tartars are treacherous. Jiang Zongbing and others mistakenly believed you and others to join us, and made great contributions to your battles. You have not committed any crimes. Not only did you not receive a reward, but you Let the people who followed the captives be displaced, be persecuted and oppressed by your Eight Banners, wantonly expropriate and extort money, not let the people live, and slaughter the Han people indiscriminately,

Women from Datong are the most beautiful women in the world, but you Eight Banners plunder and rape at will.

You even dare to snatch Jiang Zongbing's nephew and daughter-in-law for adultery, let alone the wives and daughters of other common people?

The captive commander in the city listens,

The people of the whole city of Datong are united as one, and they will never be caught without a fight!

Don't be arrogant, I am the Emperor Shaotian of the Ming Dynasty, I am wise and powerful, and I will not sit back and watch your arrogance. How many soldiers are left now?

Now that everyone is here to encircle Datong, aren't you afraid that your little emperor in Beijing will be captured by my great emperor?
If you are interested, quickly withdraw your troops and flee back to your hometown in Liaodong outside the customs with white mountains and black waters, maybe you can survive for a few more years! "

Many Datong soldiers whose hair had not grown out after cutting their braids and could only wrap their heads with red scarves on the city wall shouted in unison, taunting the grasshoppers of the Tartars, telling them to get out of here soon.

Yue Le failed to surrender, so he returned to the camp on horseback.

In fact, it was a helpless move for Yue Le to recruit for security. Although the rebels in most places in Shanxi were defeated one by one, many of them were just defeated, not completely wiped out, and even many places were still occupied by the rebels.

At this time, there were not many soldiers and horses staying in Beijing and Tianjin. Although in winter, there is no need to worry about the navy of the Ming army directly attacking Jinmen, but the situation of the Qing army in various places is very bad now.

Zhu Yihai moved his capital to Dengzhou, like a knife to the throat, making the emperor and ministers of the Qing Dynasty feel uneasy day and night.

Although Xuzhou and Jinan are still guarding, it is already a front-line trend. In the east, Denglai controls the Hailian Mountains, and in the west, there are rebels in eastern Henan and Luxi. In addition, the Yellow River burst and the canal was destroyed. The front line, on the surface, is still controlled by the Qing army.

But Xuzhou, Yanzhou, Dongping, Dongchang, and Jinan are already very fragile, especially Dongping, which is blocked from time to time. Xuzhou is almost becoming an isolated city, and Jinan has also become the front line. Generals such as Boluo and Tan Tai Up to now, they can only hold on, but the supply of money, food and equipment has been poor, and if this continues, it will not last long at all.

Beijing is also having a headache now. Xuzhou can no longer give up easily, but it is not easy to defend, let alone attack to open up the situation.

Zhu Yihai was very cunning before. Although he attacked from multiple directions, he did not forcefully attack the important towns of the Qing army. Instead of attacking Jinan or Xuzhou, they sent troops to Liaodong.

But on the other hand, they instigated Xu Dingguo, Li Jiyu and others to fight against the Qing anyway, making Henan a mess, and what's even more hateful is that they also let the national treasures enter Hebei and wander around, making the North Straight and the rear uneasy.

Having just experienced a central upheaval, the two regent uncles in Beijing kept writing to Yue Le, hoping that he could quickly pacify Datong, or transfer some troops back to Beijing to strengthen the defense of the capital.

In case the Ming army raided Beijing and Tianjin, the weak Beijing might not be able to defend it.

And you have to always be on guard against the Mongols in the north. Teng Jisi of the Sunite tribe defected to Mobei Chechen Khan after the rebellion. They joined forces with tens of thousands of troops and went south last year, and they have robbed several Monan Mongolian tribes.

The Qing army had no time to mobilize troops to go north for conquest, so it could only order the Mongolian princes to send troops to fight by themselves, but it didn't go well, and all the ministries asked the imperial court to send troops for conquest.

But the Tartars don't have any soldiers now.

Once the princes and princes of Monan Mongolia can't hold it, it will be a disaster if Chechen Khan and others are killed in the pass.

Yue Le is under a lot of pressure now.

But facing the fortified city of Datong, although most of the rebels in Shandong were wiped out, they still felt that it was difficult to take it by force.

After the final persuasion failed, Yue Le looked back at the bright flag fluttering in the wind above Datong City.

gritted his teeth.

Back in the camp, he summoned the generals.

"The imperial court wants us to transfer the main force back to Beijing for garrison. I won another month from the two regent uncles. Within one month, we must win Datong, no matter the cost."

"Get ready to attack the city."

Yue Le had no choice at this time. After meeting Zhu Yihai, Man Qing finally realized where their fatal shortcoming was. Their military strength was too small. Facing such a vast Central Plains, this military strength seemed stretched and even exhausted.

When facing the Ming army of the Chongzhen Dynasty, the Eight Banners were enough. They could always take the initiative and lead the Ming army by the nose, but now, they have become the ones led by the nose.

For a month, looking at Datong City, he didn't have the slightest confidence in his heart.

Countless water was poured on the city wall of Datong, forming a thick layer of ice, covering the wall like armor, which greatly increased the defense of the city wall and the difficulty of climbing.

But if it is difficult to fight, they can only fight, otherwise they will be more passive after the Bohai Sea thaws!
We must make a quick decision to regain Datong!
The horn sounded again, and the Qing army launched a full-scale siege!

(End of this chapter)