Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Because, Wu Shigong remembered that there was a great man in the peasant rebel army in Shaanxi—the Chuang Wang Li Zicheng.

Since he can beat Li Zicheng, Hong Chengchou must be a very capable military commander.So Wu Shigong firmly remembered Hong Chengchou's name.

However, Wu Shigong was also a little puzzled. In the current residence newspaper, why is the name of King Chuang called Gao Yingxiang?But Li Zicheng has become a breakthrough?Anyway, this question is difficult to understand, so I will put it on hold for now.

Another point of speculation is: Hong Chengchou's meritorious service has aroused the suspicion and precautions of Emperor Chongzhen and the ministers of the court.Therefore, they did not authorize Hong Chengchou to lead troops into Shanxi to destroy the main force of the peasant rebel army.

Of course, Zheng Ling also provided quite a lot of evidence, and these evidences all came from the clues revealed in the mansion newspaper.After seeing it, Wu Shigong really felt enlightened.Indeed, as Zheng Ling speculated, Hong Chengchou, the tiger, is now tied up in Shaanxi by the Ming court and cannot escape!

Wu Shigong didn't know that this actually wronged Emperor Chongzhen a bit, and it was the new Chief Assistant Wen Tiren who made these arrangements.Wen Tiren is now in a period of prosperity.He was also in the honeymoon period with Emperor Chongzhen.

We already know that Wen Tiren is a person who is dedicated to "state affairs".Not greedy for money and lust, not forming a party for personal gain, is a model in morality, so it is difficult for any political opponent to catch Wen Tiren's pigtails.

Of course, among Wen Tiren's "state affairs", the first is to consolidate his position as chief assistant; the second is to cater to Emperor Chongzhen; and the third is the real national event.

And Wen Tiren is also a person with a strong desire for power.Although Hong Chengchou's threat is still far away, Wen Tiren still needs to plan ahead.What if Hong Chengchou sent troops to Shanxi to wipe out the peasant rebel army?Then he will definitely be promoted to Minister of the Ministry of War for his meritorious service.It may even be overdrawn into the cabinet.

With military exploits in hand, Hong Chengchou is likely to threaten Wen Tiren's position as chief assistant.It's better to let Hong Chengchou stay in Shaanxi honestly now, and let other officials share some credit.

But Wu Shigong will certainly not know the secrets of these high-level officials, and his official position is too small.There was no room for Wu Shigong to intervene in the temple, and now that he understood Zheng Ling's conjecture, it would not be of much use, it was just to let Wu Shigong satisfy his curiosity.

However, Zheng Ling's other bold speculation is crucial to the Runing Army.

According to Di Bao, the situation of peasants rebelling against the army in Shanxi is not too good.

On the seventh day of December in the fifth year of Chongzhen, Cao Wenzhao, the commander-in-chief of Lintao, was ordered to lead 500 horse infantry soldiers from Qingyang, Gansu Province, together with generals Ma Ke, Cao Bianjiao and others, who were "selected one by one and experienced many battles". Cross the river through Tongguan and go to "Puzhou, Hejin, Shanxi where the thieves gather. Transfer to Pingyang and Lu'an, where the four thieves committed four crimes"

The Ming court placed great hopes on Cao Wenzhao, the chief executioner of the bandits, to enter the Jinhui to suppress them.Emperor Chongzhen personally approved Cao Wenzhao to be promoted to a higher level first, and authorized "restraining Qin and Jin generals." Ma Ke, Cao Bianjiao, etc. were also promoted to encourage them.The Ming court hoped to expand the victory in Shaanxi to Shanxi, and a battle to encircle and wipe out the rebel army in Shanxi was about to begin.

And in order to deal with the Ming army who gathered in Shanxi.The peasant rebel army adopted a strategy of avoiding the facts.In the first month of the sixth year of Chongzhen, they crossed the Taihang Mountains and entered the Jifu area.It appeared in Shunde (now Xingtai, Hebei Province) and Zhending (now Zhengding).This made the Ming government deeply disturbed.

In order to prevent the peasant rebel army from entering the Jinan Plain.To protect the safety of the capital, the Ming court hastily dispatched 8000 soldiers from Tongzhou and [-] soldiers from Changping, together with [-] soldiers from the Liangfu Division of Baoding General Army, to cooperate with Daoist Lu Xiangsheng and Shanxi officials and soldiers to suppress.

In the battle with the Ming army, the peasant rebel army gave full play to the advantages of mobile warfare.They kept moving in the border areas of the three provinces of Shanxi, Hebei, and Henan, avoiding the heavy forces of the government and the army, and attacked at random.This puts the officers and soldiers in a passive position to be beaten. (The Henan area mentioned here refers to the area north of the Yellow River in Henan Province. Wu Shigong’s Runing Army believed that Henan, where the peasant rebel army entered, was the area south of the Yellow River in Henan Province. Therefore, these two concepts are different).

With this guerrilla warfare, the contradictions in the Ming court also intensified.The Ministry of War accused "Henan is not in the danger of the Taihang, and the thieves will not be innocent." The gentry in Henan (these gentry are standing behind the local officials in Henan) requested the court that Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides, would also be in charge of Shanxi. , Henan Military Affairs.

Although the Ministry of War agreed with this plan, it believed that it could unify the power of affairs, prevent the provinces from shirking each other, and facilitate the comprehensive deployment of the encirclement and suppression of the peasant rebel army.Moreover, the Ministry of War also suggested that Hong Chengchou move to Tongguan at the junction of the three provinces to supervise the second governor of Shanxi and Henan and the three generals of Cao Wenzhao, Deng Qi, and Zhang Yingchang.

However, under the persuasion of the chief assistant Wen Tiren, Emperor Chongzhen was still unwilling to let his subjects hold greater power at this time, and did not agree to this plan.

Emperor Chongzhen attributed the activeness of the uprising army in the three provinces to the ineffectiveness of the official army, so he sent eunuchs Chen Dakui, Yan Siyin, Xie Wenju, and Sun Maolin as the internal army to serve as the supervisors of the four towns of Cao Wenzhao, Zhang Yingchang, Zuo Liangyu, and Deng Qi respectively. military.

Emperor Chongzhen has also been emperor for six or seven years, and he has suffered too much in front of civil officials, so now he can only slap himself and appoint eunuchs to the army to act as his eyes and ears, so as to prevent civil and military The deception of officials.

However, what the eunuchs were good at was to deceive the emperor's trust with clever words and tricks, so as to recruit power and accept bribes.Militaryly they are completely amateurs.The so-called "discipline supervision merits and demerits" is just to provide them with a chance to make a fortune.

And the local civil and military officials, in order to let them say something nice in front of the emperor, and distribute some oil and water from the corruption proceeds, they colluded and acted as each other's outsiders.

The peasant rebel army fought against the Ming army in Jinan area, winning and losing each other.Since the strength of the rebellious peasants was no match for the official army at that time, and there was no danger on the North China Plain, after the imperial court gradually strengthened the defense forces in this area, the rebel army moved into the Taihang Mountains.

However, King Lu of the Ming Dynasty was entrusted to Weihui Mansion (the mansion is located in Jixian County, Henan Province). He saw that the peasant army was growing stronger in northern Henan, and the fiefdom was in danger, so he went to Shu for emergency.Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen specially appointed Ni Chong and Wang Pu as the commander-in-chief, and the eunuchs Yang Jinchao and Lu Jiude as the supervisors, and commanded [-] soldiers from the Beijing battalion to fight against the rebels in northern Henan.Relying on their superior strength, the official army gradually compressed the main force of the rebel army to the area north of the Yellow River in Henan Province.The Ming government thought that there were heavy troops in the north and the river in the south, so that the rebel army could be wiped out here.

At this time, in May of the sixth year of Chongzhen, Zijin Liang (Wang Ziyong), an important leader of the uprising army, died of illness in Jiyuan, Henan.After Wang Jiayin's death, Wang Ziyong was promoted as the leader of the alliance by various insurgents in Shanxi.Later, due to Ming Ting's estrangement, there was a gap between Zijin Liang and other leaders.Nevertheless, Wang Ziyong was still an influential leader at the time.

At this time, the officers and soldiers dispatched by the Ming court gathered at the junction of the three provinces of Shanxi, Hebei, and Henan.Since the main battlefield had been moved to northern Henan at that time, the official army in Henan Province was called the main army, with a total of more than 600 soldiers; Shanxi, Hebei and Beijing camps had [-] guest soldiers, plus Cao Wen The total number of officers and troops participating in the encirclement and suppression should be more than [-].The peasants had less and less room to rebel against the army, and they felt extremely difficult to provide food, and faced the danger of being surrounded by the army.

Therefore, there is optimism in the mansion report issued by Ming Ting.Surprisingly, at this time, the entire Ming court still did not pay attention to the peasant rebel army in several provinces.Most of the military expenditure of the Ming court was invested in Liaodong.Of course, Kong Youde's Denglai rebellion also took up a lot of military expenditures of the Ming court.

But the Runing Army is different, because their leader-Wu Shigong has already made the prediction of "the world is in chaos".Therefore, all actions of the Runing Army are prepared for the worst outcome.

Zheng Ling's speculation was based on this point.In his speculation, he said: If the Shaanxi bandits want to get rid of this unfavorable situation, they must cross the Yellow River and enter the hinterland of Henan in the Central Plains.

However, under heavy defense, crossing the river is very difficult, and there are not so many ferry boats collected, so if you want to cross the river, you must wait until the Yellow River freezes.Therefore, the time when the Shaanxi bandits are most likely to enter the hinterland of Henan, and also the most dangerous time, is this winter.For this reason, the Runing Army must make all preparations for the enemy as soon as possible.

Of course, if the Shaanxi Bandits cannot cross the Yellow River this winter, the Shaanxi Bandits will suffer heavy losses. In the next few years, the Shaanxi Bandits will no longer be able to enter the hinterland of Henan and threaten the Runing Army.

After reading Zheng Ling's conjecture, Wu Shigong discussed with Deng Qifan, Xue Yongli and other main staff, and found that this conjecture was quite possible.And Wu Shigong was also able to grasp the dynamics of the peasant rebel army for the first time.And this is even more crucial to the preparations of the Runing Army.

So I would rather work hard in vain than take chances.Wu Shigong immediately began to step up the preparations for the Runing Army.And all the workshops of Yang Goudan have also started shift production, and seize every bit of time to increase the strength of the Runing Army.

Wu Shigong immediately promoted Zheng Ling to the deputy director of the Shanchuan Department.Moreover, the intelligence collection and analysis department that Zheng Ling was in charge of was also directly managed by the inner study of the Runing Army.

In modern intelligence collection, the collection of news media such as newspapers and television in enemy countries is also a major source of intelligence.And now with Zheng Ling's department, the intelligence work of the Runing Army has finally begun to open up.However, this is also inseparable from Zheng Ling's own hard work.This opportunity always falls on those who are prepared!

But what Wu Shigong didn't expect was that while Wu Shigong was racing against time, a big accident happened.He will have to leave Runing and rush back to the capital. (To be continued..)