Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Was Li Bing Beidao's approach wrong?Should be right.Since he was incapable of leading troops, he was very self-aware to bring the already dispirited Ming army back to Kaifeng to preserve the strength to guard Henan, in case the hinterland of Henan was empty without the Ming army's defense.This approach is also a reasonable move at this time.

But in this way, the original military plan made by Wu Shigong and Xuan Mo was completely broken, and the defense of the Henan border was abandoned, so that the peasant army could enter Henan unimpeded.Even worse, all other Ming armies in Henan, including Wu Shigong's Runing Army and Yu Zilian's Ruzhou Army, were unaware of this change of plan.

But it's useless to say anything now.Having made up their mind, the eight thousand Ming troops rushed back to Kaifeng with Xuan Mo's body.Only Zhou Junwu, who was not reconciled, asked Li Bingbei to send a team of personal guards to report to Ruzhou first, and then look for Wu Shigong, so that his Runing army could respond in time.

These days, Emperor Chongzhen really had a house leak and it was raining overnight. First, the suppression of bandits in Shaanxi was not going well. Not only the city was lost in succession, Xi'an was attacked twice, but two generals Cao Wenzhao and Ai Wannian were killed one after another.Then came the news that Henan Governor Xuan Mo was accidentally injured and killed.

"Wen Aiqing! The Shan bandits are so rampant, what good strategy does Aiqing have?" Because of the serious illness of Zhang Fengyi, Minister of the Ministry of War, the current Emperor Chongzhen pays more attention to the first assistant Wen Tiren.

"Report to the Emperor!" Wen Tiren said with a bow, "I have read the battle report for nearly half a year, and found that there is nothing wrong with what Governor Hong did, but why did he keep making small setbacks? Thinking that his jurisdiction is huge, it is difficult to care about the end, so he neglects the other."

"Oh?" Emperor Chongzhen also convened important ministers to discuss the rampage of the peasant army in Shaanxi several times these days.But today, when I heard Wen Tiren's new statement, I couldn't help being very interested, so I hurriedly asked: "Ai Qing, tell me!"

Wen Tiren concealed his pride in his heart, and continued: "The old minister thinks that although Governor Hong was appointed governor of the three sides and five provinces for the sake of unification of powers, his responsibilities and powers are indeed too great, and another important minister should be appointed as the governor of the five provinces. Governor Hong is concentrating on the three sides, this way, each command and subordinate will fight separately, so that we can get twice the result with half the effort and wipe out the bandit army."

In fact, Wen Tiren's statement is also very reasonable. The reason why the imperial court added the official post of governor of the five provinces at that time was to unify the command.Improve the efficiency of suppressing bandits.

But the appointment of Hong Chengchou went from one extreme to another.You must know that Hong Chengchou's original trilateral governor's position has not yet resigned, and these two governors are in charge of the two most important war zones in the Ming Dynasty except Liaodong.So it is indeed as Wen Tiren said: the jurisdiction is a bit too big, and some of them lose sight of others.

But Wen Tiren's proposal is of course selfish.He was still afraid that Hong Chengchou's power would be too great, and his prestige would be too high after the peasant army was wiped out.After joining the cabinet, he threatened his position as chief assistant.So take advantage of this opportunity to weaken Hong Chengchou's power.

But Wen Tiren's proposal was very much in line with Emperor Chongzhen's wishes.For him, any method that does not use money now is a good method.And what Wen Tiren said was indeed reasonable.So his interest suddenly rose, so he asked with a smile: "Then Ai Qing thinks who should be sent?"

"Two of the veterans reported to the emperor. It's a pity that Governor Xuan is unlucky, and now there is only Lu Fuzhi." Wen Tiren said helplessly.

Only then did Emperor Chongzhen realize that Xuan Mo's death was not necessarily a bad thing, at least it should have been a headache between Xuan Mo and Lu Xiangsheng, but now there is no such problem.So he immediately nodded and said: "Quizu!" Then he felt a little sorry for Xuan Mo.He also ordered: "Ai Qing! Let the Ministry of Rites give favor to Governor Xuan!"

"According to the order!"

In August of the eighth year of Chongzhen, Emperor Chongzhen bestowed Prime Minister Lu Xiangsheng Zhili, and the military affairs of Henan, Shandong, Sichuan, and Huguang provinces gave Shangfang Sword, who was in charge of the defense of the Central Plains, while Hong Chengchou was in charge of the military defense of the Northwest.

East and West are responsible for each other.Instead of carrying out large-scale encirclement and suppression beyond our capabilities, we will attack the peasant armies in the areas under our jurisdiction separately.After Lu Xiangsheng took office as Prime Minister of Military Affairs, he adjusted his military deployment, centering on Henan, relatively concentrated the Ming army, with the Guanning cavalry led by Zu Kuan as the backbone, and other ministries cooperated to firmly defend Luoyang.

So far, Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong Army has officially entered the stage of history.

Chongzhen eight years on July 28.

"It took a lot of effort to finally surround the bandits. My lord, when will they be completely dealt with?" Li Sanhe said excitedly.

"Don't worry! It's only been around for a few days now? The bandits are quite capable of making trouble. Let's smooth out their strength first!" Wu Shigong also said with a smile.

Without the troops of Xuan Mo and Yu Zilian, Wu Shigong and Xue Yongli would contact and act together.After that, it took nearly 20 days to finally surround the main force of more than 6 rebels in this area of ​​Qi County.But now the weather is midsummer, it will take a long time for the gangsters to freeze and starve, so Wu Shigong blocked the escape route of the gangsters, wanting to slowly wear down the morale and energy of the gangsters, and reduce the loss of his peace .

Especially among the besieged bandits, there are also some old battalion troops left by the peasant army last time. Their combat effectiveness is very strong, and there are also some local bandits from Henan. The loss of the army must be great, so Wu Shigong's general idea is to suppress and appease.

"Report to your lord! Governor Zhou from Yingwaixuan's place asks for an audience!" The soldiers who came in from outside the big tent suddenly reported.

……

"What!" The officers in the big tent exclaimed in unison.

"Can this kind of thing be joked?" Wu Shigong smiled wryly and shook his head, "Zhou Shenshi is resting in the back tent."

Hearing the news of Xuan Mo's sudden death, all the officers were as unbelievable as Wu Shigong when he first learned about the situation.But those officers were only worried that the loss of Xuanmo's army defending the Henan border would bring great changes to the peace of the Runing army, but they didn't know that Wu Shigong would lose more politically.

To be honest, until now, Wu Shigong has only formed an alliance with Xuan Mo, a senior official.Originally thought that with Xuan Mo's support, Wu Shigong would get a protective umbrella and some help when developing the power of the Runing Army, but now Xuan Mo passed away inexplicably just a few months after forming the alliance .

Wu Shigong couldn't help laughing at himself, whether it was his destiny that he would not get any help from the officialdom.Even high-ranking officials who form an alliance with themselves will also have bad luck?

But no matter what, it's better to adapt first.

"My lord! What should we do?" Liang Hui was still the calmest.

Wu Shigong was also upset at this time.Turn around and plug the gap left by the main force of the Ming army in Henan, then the efforts of the local bandits who have surrounded these days will be in vain; but if the original plan of peace and stability remains unchanged, then the peasant army in Shaanxi will be unimpeded into Henan.You know, most of the main force of the Runing Army has been dispatched now, don't let the empty hometown of the last time happen again?

The only way to get the best of both worlds is to attack the besieged bandits.But in this way, the loss of the Runing Army will definitely not be small, and it will also have a great negative impact on the future when the Runing Army deals with the Peasant Army and the Tartars.

So Wu Shigong couldn't sit still.He stood up and paced back and forth in the big tent, trying to think of a comprehensive method.After thinking about it again and again, Wu Shigong realized that he could only trust his old love rival Yu Zilian.As long as his Ruzhou army protected his back, the peasant army who re-entered Henan would not dare to go deep indiscriminately.

But trusting Yu Zilian always made Wu Shigong feel a little uncomfortable, so after repeated weighing, Wu Shigong decided to put his personal feelings aside first.He stopped in his tracks and said: "Wait for Sensei Zhou to wake up, let him work hard again, go to Ruzhou and tell Yu Zhizhou, no matter what, he must persist for a month, and we will talk about it after I wipe out the bandits here."

Wu Shigong decided to follow the original plan to destroy the besieged bandits.However, Wu Shigong can only gamble on Yu Zilian's character as to whether Yu Zilian has the ability to use his mob to delay the pace of the peasant army.

Seeing that Wu Shigong had already made up his mind, the officers immediately said at the same time: "No!" and took the order to leave.

Maybe Oh Se-kung's character did come.Within a few days, the besieged bandits sent envoys to surrender to Wu Shigong.The main cause of this surrender was Yuan Shizhong, a leader of the bandits.

Yuan Shizhong's Little Yuanying was the main force among the besieged bandits. He took advantage of the severe drought in Shandong, Henan, Hebei and other places, when locusts blocked out the sun, and when the winter was famine, he gathered tens of thousands of hungry people to rebel.

However, Yuan Shizhong has always wanted to take the old path of rebellion-recruiting security-to become an official, but he has never been able to find a way, and the original runing army's brutal encirclement and suppression of Baozitou also frightened Yuan Shizhong, making him unable to make up his mind to make up his mind. The Runing army surrendered.

But this time Yuan Shizhong was really desperate. With the idea of ​​giving it a try, he dealt with a few tougher leaders, integrated the other bandit troops, and then sent envoys to surrender to the Runing army with generous gifts.

Wu Shigong was of course overjoyed when he learned that the bandits had come to surrender.But he didn't dare to be negligent, after all, Wu Shigong encountered too many false surrenders before.So Wu Shigong readily accepted the surrender, while carefully disarming the bandits.

Fortunately, Yuan Shizhong really surrendered this time, so the adaptation of the bandits went quite smoothly.But no matter what, it takes a lot of time to collect weapons and other chores for more than 6 gangsters.Therefore, the Runing Army could not escape at any moment.

It wasn't until August [-]th that Wu Shigong was free to return to Ruzhou with [-] main forces from Huhou Town, while Xue Yongli escorted the surrendered bandits back to Runing. (To be continued..)