The room goes through the late Ming Dynasty, and the back door leads to North America at the beginni

Chapter 167: The governor is disgraced and the supervisor is dead

Li Dingguo couldn't help but clenched his fists after reading Zhang Xianzhong's letter.

Zhang Xianzhong did not comfort Li Dingguo in the letter. He only said that the "deal" was forced by Liu Sheng and he had no choice but to do it.

On the one hand, he asked Li Dingguo to work seriously under Liu Sheng, and on the other hand, he gave him the opportunity to write more letters and send people to send greetings.

The meaning between the lines is obviously that he wanted Li Dingguo to "be in Liu Ying and in Zhang" and find opportunities to leak more intelligence about the Kuei Ministry to Zhang Xianzhong.

After the "sale", there was no word of comfort, but I just wanted to continue to use it.

Zhang Xianzhong's behavior made Li Dingguo feel cold even if he really regarded him as his father.

But he was not so sad because of it.

After reading the letter, he put it away, clasped his fists to Liu Sheng and said, "The commander-in-chief will laugh."

Liu Sheng said: "I just like a man who attaches great importance to friendship like brother Dingguo. How can I laugh at him?"

Li Dingguo sighed, looked at Zhang Xianzhong's former army camp, and said, "From now on, my name will be Li Dingguo."

Hearing what Li Dingguo said, Liu Sheng knew that he had faced reality.

Then he said: "After returning to Runing this time, I plan to upgrade each battalion of the Guards to guards, namely the Tiger Guards, the Shengji Guards, the Xiaoqi Guards, and the Xunfeng Guards.

Each guard tentatively determined the size of a regiment, with five battalions under its jurisdiction. Brother Dingguo felt aggrieved and temporarily took over the command of the second battalion of the Xiaoqi Guards. How about that? "

Although Li Dingguo only came into contact with the rebels yesterday, he already knew the approximate composition of the Yibu rebels due to his deliberate inquiring and Liu Sheng's deliberate disclosure.

Therefore, it is understood that the battalion command already belongs to the mid-level generals of the Yibu Rebel Army, and is only one step away from the senior generals.

Moreover, the commander of the personal guard camp is half a level higher than the commander of the standing military camp.

He had newly joined the Wei army and brought only 120 personal followers. Being able to take up the post of commanding the personal guard battalion was already regarded as a matter of trust by Liu Sheng.

Immediately he cupped his fists at Liu Sheng again and said, "Thank you so much, Marshal, for your love. Dingguo will take your orders!"

Then, Li Dingguo introduced his wife and several personal leaders to Liu Sheng.

Li Dingguo married Zhang Xianzhong shortly after he surrendered to the Ming Dynasty in Gucheng in the spring of the 11th year of Chongzhen.

She married Liu, the daughter of a small landowner who had a family history of farming and studying.

At that time, Liu's parents died due to natural and man-made disasters, and he was separated from his family. After being rescued by Li Dingguo, he fell in love and committed himself to each other.

Li Dingguo had a son the same year he got married, and he is now two or three years old.His original name was Zhang Puxing, and now he will also be renamed Li Puxing.

From this point of view, Li Dingguo felt a lot better - he followed Zhang Xianzhong when he was ten years old, so he was not ignorant. If he only had one son and could not carry on the Li family's legacy, he would feel guilty.

Now that I have changed my surname back to Li, I no longer have to worry about this.

Li Dingguo personally accompanied the leader, mainly eight people, who were equivalent to personal followers (similar to servants) captain and team deputy.

The four captains are: Xu You, Gao Wengui, Jin Tongwu, and Ma Siriang.

The deputy captains of the team are: Wang Daoheng, Dou Minwang, Wang Guoxi, and Hu Shundu.

Among them, Ma Siriang was also Li Dingguo's cousin, but it was Gao Wengui and Jin Tongwu who also served as the personal guard commander and guard deputy.

Liu Sheng chatted with Gao Wengui and Jin Tongwu for a few words, and then appointed Gao Wengui as the deputy of the second battalion of the Xiaoqi Guards.

This not only showed his trust in Li Dingguo, but also showed that Liu Shengzhen felt that Gao Wengui was quite capable, otherwise he would not have been promoted to personal guard commander by Li Dingguo.

As for the military and political personnel at the battalion and sentry levels, they must be transferred from other teams in the rebel army.

Even the soldiers who will be added to the second battalion of Xiaoqi in the future will be mainly elites selected from the standing army.

This can be regarded as a basic defense against Li Dingguo and others.

After settling Li Dingguo's case, Liu Sheng went all out to recruit civilian warriors and husbands to copy and transfer money and grain.

During the Ming Dynasty, Xiangyang City had a population of 40 million at its peak!

However, since the peasant army left Shaanxi and moved to fight in the three provinces of Henan, Chuchuan and Sichuan, although Xiangyang City had not been breached before, the Xiangyang area has been hit by several wars.

Today the city's population is only about 10,000+.

Liu Sheng didn't know the specific amount.

As for the refugees outside the city, there are almost none - it is said that they were all driven away by the government troops.

Recruiting soldiers from urban residents is not a good choice, but Liu Sheng currently has no better choice. He can only recruit civilian warriors and civilian husbands from the poor in Xiangyang City.

Liu Sheng's plan was to recruit at least five battalions of civilian warriors, that is, 3000 people.

Minfu recruited at least 1 people.

The civilian husband plans to recruit everyone within five days - if he cannot recruit them all, he will have to choose to recruit them by force.

The Ming Dynasty officials and other bandits recruited them by force. Some bandits even destroyed young people's families and had no worries before forcing them to join the attached refugee army.

Liu Shengqiang's recruitment of civilian men would give him enough money to settle his family. In this era of competition, he was already much stronger than the Ming Dynasty's official army and other peasant armies.

In addition, Liu Sheng also sent a telegram to the matchmaker.

She was asked to send three battalions of civilian warriors and two battalions of standing troops to Biyang, Tangxian and Fuli Inspection Department respectively to assist them and assist in copying money, grain and other materials from Xiangyang.

···
a few days later.

Jingzhou Prefecture, Xingshan County.

This place is on the edge of Shennongjia, with rolling mountains and deep forests.

Yunyang Governor Yuan Jixian had blocked Luo Rucai's troops in the mountains for two or three days, but could not go any further.

On the one hand, Luo Rucai's troops were stationed in a dangerous stronghold in the mountains. Even if Yuan Jixian had tens of thousands of officers and soldiers, it would be difficult for him to exert much strength advantage.

On the other hand, the officers and soldiers led by Yuan Jixian actually had many newly recruited soldiers. He used his troops cautiously and did not dare to force Zhang and Luo too hard. He just wanted to wait for Zuo Liangyu and other Sichuan officers and soldiers to arrive and annihilate them together. Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai.

That's right, until now, Yuan Jixian didn't know that Zhang Xianzhong had separated from Luo Rucai.That afternoon, Yuan Jixian was worrying about food and grass in the camp.

As the governor of Yunyang, he oversees not only Yunyang Prefecture, but also parts of Xiangyang Prefecture, Jingzhou Prefecture, and Chengtian Prefecture, which is equivalent to most of Hubei.

This type of governor mainly focuses on suppressing bandits and intimidating chieftains, such as the governor of Pianyuan in Hunan and the governor of Nangan in Jiangxi.

However, not long after Yuan Jixian took office, he was suppressed by Yang Sichang, a nearly powerful governor, and life was not easy.

After digging around and searching the ground, we managed to get tens of thousands of troops and half a month of food and grass. If we continue to use up Xingshan like this, we will soon run out.

"Report—!"

A long and urgent shout brought Yuan Jixian back to his senses.

When Yuan Jixian heard this, he walked out of the tent directly.

When the messenger saw him, he knelt down on one knee and handed over the military information letter, saying urgently: "Yuan Futai, six hundred miles away, urgent report, Xiangyang City has been captured by the bandit army!"

"what?!"

Yuan Jixian screamed in surprise, then felt dizzy and almost couldn't stand still.

Fortunately, the servant behind him helped him in time.

He calmed down, took the official letter and looked at it.

This urgent military report was written by a colleague from Xiangyang Prefecture.

It is said that he was in Yicheng when the bandits attacked the city - during the Ming and Qing Dynasties, it was normal for the magistrates and magistrates of the government to guard and handle government affairs in large counties.

On the first day of February, the day Xiangyang City was destroyed, some people fled down the Han River to Yicheng and reported the news of Xiangyang City's destruction.

It's just that the Yibu rebels broke through the city too quickly, in less than half an hour. Not to mention ordinary people, even some officials didn't know what kind of rebel army had destroyed Xiangyang City.

However, Xiangyang Tongzhi mentioned that the Yicheng rural soldiers had detected a large group of bandits passing through the border. According to the people, they were the Eighth King Zhang Xianzhong's tribe.

Xiangyang colleagues therefore suspected that it was Zhang Xianzhong who captured Xiangyang.

After Yuan Jixian finished reading, his hands holding the official letter in a hurry could not help but tremble, and he murmured: "It's over, it's all over..."

Yuan Jixian was a Jinshi in the fifth year of Tianqi's reign. He is now 48 years old. He had previously served as a traveler, an imperial envoy, a scholar, a sub-inspector, and a right counselor in Huguang.

Previously, when he was on the sub-inspection road in Huangzhou and Wuchang, he defeated the water thieves in Xingguo and defeated the fifth battalion of Ge Zuo.

He is considered a civil servant with some military capabilities.

But he knows very well that many things cannot be viewed purely from a war perspective.

As the governor of Yunyang, he was partially responsible for protecting the Xiangyang Mansion.

Now that the city of Xiangyang has been destroyed, Xiangfan is in the hands of thieves, and Zhang Xianzhong has completely escaped from the encirclement of the army. Chongzhen will definitely be furious when he learns of this.

Although he has just taken office, he may not be able to escape punishment. He may be dismissed from office at the least, or imprisoned at worst.

How could he not lose consciousness when he thought about having to bear such consequences?
After a while, he came back to his senses and said: "Send the order and use all your strength to block the news of Xiangyang's fall. Then order all the troops besieging Luo Rucai to return to camp as usual and come to see us at night."

"As ordered!"

The next day.

Yuan Jixian's officers and soldiers planted many flags in the camp and used the strategy of hanging sheep and beating drums to confuse Luo Rucai's men. In fact, they actually led the officers and soldiers to withdraw from Xingshan County, go north to Yunyang Baokang, and rush to Gucheng.

Gucheng was the place where Zhang Xianzhong used to rest and train his troops after surrendering to the Ming Dynasty. It was very familiar with the geography and people's sentiments.

Yuan Jixian was worried that after Zhang Xianzhong defeated Xiangyang, he jumped into Yunyang Mansion through Gucheng, and even entered Henan to join Li Chuang's tribe.

In that case, he, the governor of Yunyang, would be even more guilty.

As for the matter of recovering Xiangyang City... He has sent someone to inform Yang Sichang urgently. It is up to Yang Sichang to decide how to recover Xiangyang and deal with the subsequent events. He cannot make the decision.

A few more days.

Yang Sichang, who discovered that Zhang Xianzhong's troops had passed through Dangyang, led tens of thousands of supervisory officers and soldiers and took warships down the river to Jiangling.

While stationed in Shashi for repairs, Yang Sichang received news of the fall of Xiangyang.

As a governor who came from a court boss, Yang Sichang had a deeper understanding of the court situation and a better understanding of Chongzhen's temperament.

Recalling that the former supervisor Xiong Wencan was arrested and executed for failing to suppress the bandits, Yang Sichang, who was already seriously ill, was bedridden due to fear and worry, making it difficult for him to govern.

He left all military affairs to the supervisor Wan Yuanji, and with a strong breath, he asked his servants to inform his family to handle the funeral arrangements.

In the past two days alone, before Yang Sichang’s family could arrive, another piece of heavy news came from the north——

On the twentieth day of the first lunar month, Li Chuang fell into Luoyang.

Fu Fan fell and Fu King Zhu Changxun was killed!

Upon hearing this news, Yang Sichang vomited blood and died on the spot!

···
The ninth day of February.

Outside the city of Xiangyang.

Zhang Wenxiu is training his new recruits in the water village by the Han River.

Among the four adopted sons of Zhang Xianzhong, he was the least brave in martial arts, but he was stronger than the other three in water warfare.

Then there is the matter of doing things steadily and carefully.

Zhang Xianzhong considered that after all, we were on the Han River, and whether we were going north to south or west to east, we would have to use boats.

So Zhang Wenxiu was asked to collect ships and train navy during this period.

　First more.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)