Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

() After receiving the order from the Shandong Governor's Yamen, the coalition forces of Wu Shigong and Liu Zeqing set off again, and began to march to Qingzhou in March of the fifth year of Chongzhen.At this time, with the civilian husbands accompanying the battalion, the entire coalition army has reached more than 1000 people.

"Brother Wu, do you think the imperial conquest will be successful this time? Will we be able to fight or not?"

Of course, in this coalition army, Liu Zeqing, who has the highest official rank, should be in command.But before he knew it, Wu Shigong also rose to the position of lieutenant general in the coalition army.

Although in this army, there are many military officers like Yan Dingshan who are higher in rank than Wu Shigong, or at the same level, but it is also very realistic in the army.They are not only looking at the ranks of the military officers, but also the strength of the military officers' subordinates.

Although the number of soldiers under Wu Shigong is small, there are only more than 2000 auxiliary soldiers.But the number of horses, armor and weapons in Wu Shigong's Runing Battalion are all top-notch.

In addition, Wu Shigong's soldiers are all physically strong.As for the other Ming soldiers, except for the soldiers around the generals, most of them were skinny due to long-term malnutrition.Those soldiers like Wu Shigong are full of muscles!

You must know that if there is no accumulation of fat on the human body, it will not be able to support long-term physical labor at all.It is no exaggeration to say that if Wu Shigong's soldiers and those skinny soldiers had a three-day march.Even without fighting at all, Wu Shigong's soldiers can drag those soldiers down.

In addition, Wu Shigong and Liu Zeqing have a good relationship, so Liu Zeqing always discusses with Wu Shigong about what matters now.

"Will the appeasement succeed?" Wu Shigong didn't directly answer Liu Zeqing's question, he directly expressed his own judgment, "You have tens of thousands of strong soldiers, and you have won many battles. You don't want to separate yourself from one side, you just want to accept it." Are civil servants angry at Zhao An? Besides, what’s the benefit of accepting Zhao An? Could it be that the emperor will give you a Duke or Marquis? If you do that, it won’t encourage our generals to rebel before accepting Zhao An!”

"You can't say that! If you don't accept appeasement, don't Kong Youde and the others want to be rogues? The world is so big that there is no room for them. Don't they think of a way out for themselves?"

Liu Zeqing's words reflected the general thinking among Ming Dynasty officials at that time.Because the Ming Dynasty has been established for nearly 300 years, the ideas of the Zhongyang Empire and the Zhu Family Dynasty of the Ming Dynasty have been deeply rooted in the hearts of the people.For them, even being a slave in the Ming Dynasty is better than being a king overseas.He didn't even dare to think about the change of dynasty.

But Wu Shigong from modern times knows how big this world is, so he said disapprovingly: "You think that there is no other place in the world except the Ming Dynasty. Do you know about the country of Wa? The Folangji people are also from the far west." Big country. Anyway, you don’t understand these things, just say, Kong Youde and the others are defeated, they take a boat from Dengzhou, and there are too many places in the world where they can enjoy themselves.”

"Take another ten thousand steps back, even if Kong Youde and the others accepted the imperial court's offer, what would happen to them? Don't talk about settlement after autumn. Even if they don't settle accounts after autumn, then " You've always heard the stories of "Water Margin"! Then you should know what happened to Song Jiang after he was recruited! Why don't Kong Youde and the others know this kind of fate? Could it be that they want to go to this dead end?"

After hearing Wu Shigong's words, Liu Zeqing blinked his eyes for a long time, and finally heaved a long sigh helplessly: "Alas!"

"Anyway, we are preparing for the best and preparing for the worst!" Wu Shigong finally emphasized.

Even vulgar army leaders like Wu Shigong and Liu Zeqing understood that the possibility of Kong Youde's rebels accepting appeasement was very small, so the civil servants guarding Laizhou City understood this truth even more.

When Zhang Guochen ordered the soldiers and civilians in the city and the reinforcements from all walks of life not to go out to fight without authorization, so as not to destroy the situation.Knowing the true nature of the rebels, Xu Congzhi immediately sent someone to sneak out of the city at night, sent a memorial to Beijing, explained the situation of the battle, and asked the emperor not to appease, but to go all out to encircle and suppress the rebels.

But this bloody memorial was suppressed under the signal of chief assistant Zhou Yanru.So much so that Emperor Chongzhen never saw such an important memorial.

It can be said that those civil officials in the late Ming Dynasty, for their own official positions and for their own party, did not take state affairs to heart at all.What they have done has reached the point of insanity.

After sending away Zhang Guochen, who was full of Kong Youde's promise of appeasement, the rebels were ready to attack the city again, and then they attacked Laizhou City with a murderous look.

At this time, Zhou Yanru could no longer suppress it, and even some officials who advocated appeasement had disagreements with Zhou Yanru.At least the rebels must be defeated. After the siege of Laizhou City is resolved, the imperial court will pay less unnecessary benefits to appease those rebels!

At this time, reinforcements from all over the country also gathered in Qingzhou, but because Shandong Governor Xu Congzhi was besieged in Laizhou City, there was no one to coordinate and command the reinforcements, so the reinforcements came to a standstill.For this reason, the imperial court once again appointed Liu Yulie, the right servant of the Ministry of War, as the governor, with full authority to command the reinforcements from all walks of life. He also came with the Jingcheng Shenji Battalion and five Hongyi cannons to fight against the rebels.

But at this time Zhou Yanru became selfish again.The governor, Liu Yulie, is also Zhou Yanru's confidant.What's even more amazing is that Liu Yulie is also a civil servant in charge.Well, a civil servant who actively seeks peace and can't fight has come to command the army.

But for the cause of peace, Liu Yulie is really active.After he came to Qingzhou, he immediately gathered 8000 soldiers from Shandong General Qiu Lei and 1000 reinforcements from other places, plus the Shenji Battalion he himself brought from the Beijing camp, making a total of 7000 soldiers. With the addition of more than 3000 civilian husbands, a total of [-] horses, they immediately drove towards Laizhou City.

By the way, the 2000 men and horses led by the Shanzhai Zhao Zilongjiang Guerrilla, the Henan reinforcements sent together with Wu Shigong, were also in this army.

Liu Yulie was so impatient.He simply didn't want to wait for a few days, waiting for the coalition forces of Wu Shigong and Liu Zeqing to come and meet.Because at this time, the coalition forces of Wu Shigong and Liu Zeqing were only three days away from the main force of the Ming army in Qingzhou City.

Liu Yulie just sent someone to issue such a military order to Wu Shigong and Liu Zeqing, asking them to follow.As the main force of the rear army to catch up with the Ming army as soon as possible.

However, although Liu Yulie's Ming army marched so rapidly, Wu Shigong's rear army had rested in place for more than a month, and because there was enough food to feed the soldiers during this more than a month, So that such soldiers have good physical strength.Therefore, Wu Shigong and Liu Zeqing's rear army marched much faster than the main force of the Ming army.The distance between the two armies was finally shortened to two days' journey.

On March 28th, fifty miles west of Laizhou City, the main force of the Ming army encountered [-] rebel troops led by Kong Youde who had been divided from Laizhou City.At this time, Liu Yulie was still thinking of using his troops to suppress the rebels and recruit them.Therefore, he ordered the whole army to set up camp and not take the initiative to attack the rebels.

But the rebels didn't give Liu Yulie any face at all.They did not allow the Ming army to set up a solid camp at all, and immediately deployed their troops to advance towards the Ming army.

After the Ming army was attacked, they had no choice but to resist on the spot in a hurry.But you must know that without modern communication conditions, if there is no effective grassroots officers commanding at various levels, it is impossible for a commander to pass orders to everyone in the tens of thousands of troops.

And Liu Yulie's two contradictory orders of camping and fighting caused chaos in the Ming army.In a hurry, the strength of the Ming army was not fully deployed at all.

But Governor Liu Yulie did not understand these basic military principles.He thought that since he had a large number of people, he would be able to defeat those rebels with few people.Liu Yulie seemed to feel that he was wearing a scholar's crown, waving a goose feather fan, and looked like a fake Zhuge Liang, commanding everything.

However, it was almost dusk when the two armies met, and neither side was willing to fight at night, so after a short battle, both armies retreated voluntarily and set up camp on the spot.

In this day's contact battle, neither side suffered much loss.Therefore, Liu Yulie believed that the combat effectiveness of the rebels was no more than that, so he became more confident in future battles.

Therefore, when the rebels set out to form the camp after breakfast the next morning, Liu Yulie also ordered the main force of the Ming army to go out to fight without fear.

On March 29th, the battle officially started.