There is a space for passenger planes in the late Ming Dynasty

Time flies so fast, and it’s September of the twelfth year of Chongzhen in a blink of an eye.

In May, news of Zhang Xianzhong's rebellion came out, and Yang Sichang immediately wrote to the court, expressing his willingness to go to the front line to supervise the troops and completely annihilate the peasant army. After all, it was his fault and he had to solve it himself. Emperor Chongzhen was very happy and immediately approved his request.

Emperor Chongzhen had great expectations for Yang Sichang to personally go to the front line to supervise the divisions. He believed that Yang Sichang was qualified for the job because of his combination of civility, Taoism and martial arts, so he rewarded him greatly and ordered Yang Sichang to wear the silver seal of "Supervisor and Assistant Minister". , allocate 50 taels of training pay for the newly imposed levy, and give Shang Fang a sword. If the generals disobey the commander's orders, they can be killed first and then punished, so as to do things expediently.

In early June, Yang Sichang paid his respects to Chongzhen and hurried out of Beijing to rush to the front line. When Yang Sichang came out of Beijing to supervise the division, his first target was Zhang Xianzhong, the "Eight Great King" nicknamed "Yellow Tiger", followed by Li Zicheng.

According to Chongzhen's decree, Zhang Xianzhong surrendered and rebelled repeatedly, and must not be pardoned, because he also excavated and destroyed the Mingzu Mausoleum in Fengyang, and had a mortal enemy with the Zhu Ming clan. As for whether the leaders of the remaining "rogue bandits" should be suppressed or pacified, Yang Sichang had full authority to decide.

Yang Sichang arrived in Xiangyang, Huguang at the end of June. He appointed Zuo Liangyu, a powerful general, as a general and awarded him the seal of "Ping Thief General", which can control other generals in the towns.

Zuo Liangyu has many soldiers under his command. He has always been arrogant and domineering and does not listen to the orders of his superiors. His former supervisor Xiong Wencan suffered a lot and was dismissed and recalled. He respected his troops and was unwilling to cooperate with friendly forces in fighting.

This time Yang Sichang came to supervise the division in person. Zuo Liangyu was afraid of being imprisoned and questioned, but he was unexpectedly promoted. He never expected that.

This is also Yang Sichang's cleverness, he is good at winning people's hearts. Although he held a high position and was familiar with military literature, he was still a civilian official and had no actual combat experience in leading troops. He urgently needed an experienced general like Zuo Liangyu to help him achieve success.

Zuo Liangyu ignored Yang Sichang's past grudges and was filled with gratitude for being promoted by the front line. He secretly made up his mind to try his best to help Governor Yang to fight against the "rogue bandits" in return for his great favor.

Zhang Xianzhong, who was entrenched in Gucheng, learned that the brave and resourceful Yang Sichang had come to Jingxiang to supervise the battle. He had a premonition that the coming party was not good and that a fierce battle would be ahead. In order to avoid the sharp edge of the Ming army, he led his army to retreat westward and moved to the high mountains at the junction of Sichuan and Shaanxi.

After Yang Sichang detected Xianzhong's departure, he ordered Zuo Liangyu to lead his army westward, stationed the main force in Xing'an, and sent another 3000 elite troops into Sichuan to pursue and suppress him.

In early September of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, Zuo Liangyu's army and Zhang Xianzhong's peasant army encountered each other in Taiping County, Sichuan. Seeing his old rival Zuo Liangyu leading a massive attack, Zhang Xianzhong led his troops to seize the commanding heights of Manao Mountain and hold on to the danger.

Zuo Liangyu supervised the fierce attack. Zuo Liangyu sent the surrendered peasant army leader Liu Guoneng to lead the troops pretending to be Zhang Xianzhong's grain transport team, quietly approached Zhang Xianzhong's camp, and then launched an attack inside and outside.

Zhang Xianzhong's troops were outnumbered. After a fierce battle, Zhang Xianzhong was defeated miserably. He lost the sword, gold seal and tiger charm he carried with him. He also lost sixteen generals. His wife, children, and military advisors Pan Duao and Xu Yixian were all captured.

Zhang Xianzhong led the main force to fight hard and finally broke through the encirclement.

After the Battle of Agate Mountain, Zhang Xianzhong's elite main force suffered heavy casualties and suffered heavy losses. Their strength was sharply reduced, their morale was depleted, and they were in an extremely dangerous situation.

If Zuo Liangyu takes advantage of the victory and pursues him, Zhang Xianzhong's northern Shaanxi peasant army is likely to be completely annihilated by him. However, Zuo Liangyu was arrogant in taking credit, and had a rift with the supervisor Yang Sichang. There was a conflict, so he relaxed his pursuit of Zhang Xianzhong's remnants, which gave Zhang Xianzhong, who had been severely weakened, precious breathing space.

On September 11, Yang Sichang took a large boat and arrived outside Wushan City. The boat parked by the river without going ashore. It only stopped for one night and prepared to continue westward.

Among the peasant army battalions that surrendered in eastern Sichuan, Yang Sichang paid the most attention to Wang Guangen's battalion. He was given a special audience on board the ship.

"Do you know the situation of Zhang Xianzhong's department?" Yang Sichang asked.

"Zhang Xianzhong's troops were defeated in Manao Mountain. If the army can pursue them closely, there is great hope for a complete annihilation." Wang Guangen replied respectfully.

Yang Sichang then asked: "Where is Li Zicheng?"

"Since his brother Guangliang met Li Zicheng in Zhushan, we only know that he fled to the northwest and may be lurking at the junction of Shaanxi and Huguang." "Is there any hope of surrendering?" Yang Sichang asked. If he could recruit Li Zicheng to surrender, he would This can eliminate a hidden danger for the imperial court.

Wang Guangen replied: "The general knows that Li Thief's temperament is different from others. No matter how frustrated he is, he will never lose heart. It is difficult to get him to surrender!"

"Since Thief Li is stubborn, wait until Thief Xian is wiped out before dividing his troops to eliminate him. When you are stationed in the Yunyang area, be sure not to be careless. Be sure to send more spies to investigate his whereabouts and beware of his sudden appearance. , break the city." Yang Sichang explained.

After meeting Wang Guangen, Yang Sichang reviewed official documents on the ship. He felt that the current situation of suppressing bandits was very good, so he immediately sent an urgent order to Zuo Liangyu: "Chase! Suppress Bandit Zhang quickly!"

Academician Yang strongly called on Zuo Liangyuyi to pursue the remaining bandits bravely, carry forward the spirit of continuous fighting, and must deal with Zhang Xianzhong once and for all.

But Zuo Liangyu's tribe did not move after hearing the order.

The reason for not moving was that Zuo Liangyu was dissatisfied with Yang Sichang because Yang Sichang privately promised to give his title of Pingthief General to another general, He Renlong.

Secondly, Zhang Xianzhong sent Bai Wenxuan to send a large sum of money to Zuo Liangyu, and told him the simple truth of "the cunning rabbit dies and the lackey cooks".

Zuo Liangyu considered the problem of condoning soldiers' robbery and decided to give Zhang Xianzhong a way out and give himself a way out.

After hearing this, Zuo Liangyu felt justified and said, "If you are tempted, let it go." The main reason is that he himself accepted bribes and conducted plunder, and his ass was very dirty. As long as the situation stabilized, he would definitely be liquidated.

With Zuo Liangyu deliberately opening the door, Zhang Xianzhong was able to lead the remaining troops to flee to the Bazhou area of ​​Sichuan, and began his highlight moment of traveling between Sichuan and Hubei, mobilizing the imperial army for encirclement and suppression.

At this time, Li Zicheng's troops were defeated by He Renlong's troops in Yunyang and once again retreated into the mountainous areas at the junction of Shaanxi and Huguang to lurk.

Li Zicheng intended to lead his subordinates to join Zhang Xianzhong's troops, but upon realizing that Zhang Xianzhong intended to annex them, he immediately fled with his troops.

This also fully reflects the relationship between the peasant armies. They know each other's differences, cover each other, and plot against each other. They are always ready to annex other gangs to strengthen themselves.

In short, during this period, Yang Sichang relied on his strong troops and horses to send Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng and other troops fleeing, and he was in the limelight for a while.

Jiazhou City, Zhenminghou Mansion.

Lin Feng was looking through the latest news sent by Guo Zheng on Yang Sichang's encirclement and suppression of Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng's troops. Last time, special arrangements were made to set up Tingfengwei intelligence stations in Xiangyang and other places. Now the intelligence obtained by the Zhenming Army is very timely, even faster than the imperial court.

"Yang Sichang still has two brushes. With the full mobilization of the imperial court, it is still very effective to attack the peasant army, but it is probably the last struggle." Lin Feng said to himself while watching.

Because they did not openly raise the flag of rebellion, the Zhenming Army sat back and watched the tigers fight during this period, and achieved stable development for more than two months.

During this period, Lin Feng's Governor-General's Mansion strengthened its overall control over the newly occupied territories, and tax revenue increased significantly. Land tax and business tax increased from 70,000 taels per month to more than 100,000 taels.

With the expansion of its business territory, Zhenming Group's business has expanded rapidly, especially Li's Cereals and Oils and Zhenming Trading. The follow-up deployment is fast and the results are obvious. The monthly profit has increased to about 130,000 taels.

(End of this chapter)