Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

But after all, there was a period of time from the entry of the Qing army to the attack on the camp. Under the yelling of Liu Zhaoji's military attache, some Ming troops were ready to fight. They hurriedly formed formations and surrounded the Qing army attacking at night. .

At this moment, more than 200 Qing troops took the firecrackers from the horse.Those were the batches that the Qing army copied after they seized the medium-sized firecrackers used by the cavalry of the Runing Army.So after a volley of fire, the Ming army that had gathered in a hurry was completely dispersed again.

The loud noise of the firecrackers at night was quite bluffing, and the fear brought by the sound was far greater than the actual damage caused by the firecrackers, so the soldiers in Liu Zhaoji's battalion immediately collapsed, and could no longer organize effective resistance.

Seeing that the Ming army fled in all directions, Tan Tai ordered without hesitation to let all the Qing troops go straight to the camp.And they deliberately bypassed Liu Zhaoji's big tent, because there, Liu Zhaoji's personal soldiers and surrounding troops had assembled together, preparing to resist the attack of the Qing army.

So for Tan Tai, the Ming army in other places did not stand in the way, so it went smoothly, and they gradually rushed to the other side of the camp.

Taking advantage of some Qing soldiers dismounting to the fence here again, Tan Taiku checked the troops and horses, and found that no one was left behind, so he smiled and shouted: "Retreat!" Then he took the lead in leaping into the night with his horse.

The morale of the Qing army who attacked at night was also high. They uttered a victory cry in unison, and then threw the remaining torches on the surrounding tents, and then Tan Tai withdrew from the camp.

Just as a night attack suddenly occurred when they came, the Qing army also ended the battle suddenly.It took more than half an hour for the entire night attack, and the Ming troops in other battalions were also panicked and huddled in their camps, fearing that the Qing army would attack their camps next.

The reason why Tan Tai ended the night attack so early was because he remembered what Huang Taiji said to him before the expedition: "The Qing Dynasty is different from the Ming Dynasty. If you lose too many troops, it will take many years to replenish them." He remembered again The generals of the Qing army who took over other banners talked about the Ming army with a contemptuous attitude, as if defeating the Ming army in the field was easy.That being the case, why did Tan Tai risk the athletes with two yellow flags in order to increase the results of the night attack?So, he took a quick fix. [

Of course, Tan Tai's worry about being encircled by the Ming army is logical, but in reality there is no need to worry about it.At this time, the Ming army in each battalion was like a frightened bird. Who would dare to come out to rescue Liu Zhaoji's camp and attack the Qing army at night when they encircled Tan Tai?On the contrary, if Tan Tai took advantage of the situation and expanded the chaos to other Ming army camps, or expanded the scope of hacking and killing in Liu Zhaoji's camp.It can greatly increase the casualties of the Ming army to obtain greater results.

Therefore, although the chaos caused by Tan Tai was serious, the casualties of the Ming army were not large, and Liu Zhaoji's battalion only suffered a little over two thousand casualties.The Ming troops in the other battalions were not even injured.But even so, it also caused a huge panic in the entire Ming army.

So when the main force of the Qing army appeared the next day.The Ming army still settled in this chaotic camp.He didn't dare to send out a single soldier, and he had no confidence in field battles with the Qing army.

And on the third day, after the Qing army retreated a little later, Governor Hong Chengchou of Jiliao ordered the whole army to turn around and withdraw to Ningyuan first.

And this unexpected move.The Qing army was caught off guard.However, after a short shock, Hauge and Tan Tai divided the Qing army into several teams and followed them in pursuit.

Fortunately, the army of the Ming army gathered in one place, and they were also very experienced in defense.After several counterattacks by Wu Sangui, the general soldier of Ningyuan, and Wu Shigong, the general soldier of Runing.Both sides killed each other.The arrogance of the Qing army's aggressive pursuit was curbed.

But even so, when the Ming army retreated to Ningyuan, they heard that the follow-up main force of the Qing army was about to arrive.So Hong Chengchou left Wu Sangui and Liu Zhaoji in Ningyuan to help the defense of Ningyuan City, and made a sign of entering the army in an attempt to deter the further pursuit of the Qing army.Then Hong Chengchou led the other Ming troops back to Shanhaiguan again.

But this move is quite ridiculous.The Ming army did not send any scouts at all, and where did you hear that there was a follow-up main force of the Qing army?Do they have reconnaissance satellites?Obviously it's just a rumor!

But no matter what, the main force of the Ming army led by Hong Chengchou returned to Shanhaiguan smoothly.After nearly a month of marching and fighting, in order to unravel the siege of Jinzhou City, the Ming army successfully came to Shanhaiguan from Ningyuan after 2000 casualties. It was really a "brilliant battle"!

It was so embarrassing that I lost it to my grandma's house.If the Ming army was defeated after a decisive battle with the main force of the Qing army, such a retreat would be understandable.However, when encountering a night attack with few casualties, the Ming army retreated timidly. This kind of fighting will is nothing to say.

However, civil servants like Hong Chengchou have a way to cover up such a shameful incident. They wrote in the memorial to the court that they are full of flowers.It described the evenly matched battle situation, but because of insufficient supplies and insufficient troops, Hong Chengchou saved his main force and retreated to Shanhaiguan successfully.

In order to prepare for the next decisive battle, Hong Chengchou suggested in the above memorial that Cao Bianjiao, Zuo Guangxian, Ma Ke and Wu Shigong's soldiers should be dispatched into the pass to recharge their batteries.With the retreat of the Qing army of Hauge and Tan Tai, Wu Sangui and Liu Zhao were placed between Songshan and Xingshan, and once again pretended to enter the army to restrain the actions of the Qing army.

And Hong Chengchou suggested to the court: repatriate Zuo Guang and return to the west first, and replace him with Bai Guangen; release Liu Zhaoji from his post and replace him with Wang Tingchen.The two commanders involved in the night attack should be punished.Both the cabinet and the ministry agreed with Hong Chengchou's proposal.

In addition, for Hong Chengchou's transfer to the nearby frontier army, 15 soldiers were seen inside and outside the pass to prepare for the battle.Emperor Chongzhen also supported the suggestion of preparing enough food and grass for a year to use with a big stroke of a pen, and ordered the commander to give it to him quickly.

And the military operation to rescue Jinzhou ended in such an anticlimactic manner. [

At this time, the situation of encircling and suppressing the peasant army in the Central Plains was also very good. Yang Sichang used powerful forces to suppress the various peasant armies staying at the junction of Sichuan and Hubei into the territory of Kuizhou Prefecture. Later, even Luo Rucai also went to Kuidong.

Beginning in June and July, all the peasant armies that were forced to the east of Sichuan surrendered one after another, and in August, Luo Rucai was the only one who did not surrender.At this time, he also decided to surrender again in order to preserve the remaining less than 1 horses, and wait until the future to see the situation.

At this time, Zhang Xianzhong was oppressed by Zuo Liangyu and moved to Xingshan and Zigui.He took a rest in the mountains at the junction of Sichuan and Hubei to replenish food and salt.At this time, Zhang Xianzhong had only a few thousand people left. He stopped fighting, did nothing to the people, and even gave money to help the people. Therefore, such "righteous deeds" prevented the officers and soldiers from getting his whereabouts.

In mid-August, Zhang Xianzhong found out where Luo Rucai was stationed, and also heard that Luo Rucai had decided to surrender.He was very anxious, so he sent Ma Yuanli to see Rucai first, and advised him not to surrender in a hurry; then he sent military adviser Xu Yixian to analyze the weaknesses of the officers and soldiers to Rucai, and explained why Yang Sichang must be defeated, and asked Rucai to agree with him. Xianzhong meet.

But Luo Rucai was afraid of losing the news because there were two people who persuaded him to surrender in the camp, so he secretly met at the Xianzhong garrison and decided on a big plan.Zhang and Luo fought side by side again.

The natural disasters that have not stopped since the early years of Chongzhen have lasted for more than ten years, and became more violent in the 13th and [-]rd years of Chongzhen, with droughts, floods, and locust disasters overwhelming.Emperor Chongzhen also had to admit in an edict issued in May of the [-]th year of Chongzhen: "Recently, there has been hunger in various places in Zhizhou Province, and Jifu (now Hebei), Shandong, Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other places have recently heard that Ru local vegetables , the people don’t care about food, even carve out meat and cook bones.”

Even the Jiangnan area, which has always been known as a prosperous and relatively smooth weather, has experienced a rare severe drought. Many places cannot transplant rice seedlings due to water, and the price of rice has soared.However, the local officials used the aid of famine relief to set up a pretense and wantonly extort money, and some people made a lot of money instead.

And the famine situation was most serious in Henan. Lu Weiqi, the former Minister of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, recorded the situation at that time and said: "Today, the exile is full of people, and the bones are filled with wilderness. Where the wind blows, ghosts and fireflies gather, and the hungry people gather in the deep mountains and forests. Some of the whole family threw themselves into the ring. Some escaped with the whole village closed, and one day drowned hundreds of them in the river; For those who cannot speak, there are those who gather thousands of people and rise up on the city's avenue."

Therefore, except for the areas controlled by the Runing Army, the hungry people have been overwhelming. Even the Runing Army is under tremendous pressure, and the amount of food stored has also been greatly reduced.At this time, there is no way to implement the order to gather the population, because there are too many refugees who want to flood into the area controlled by the Runing Army.Therefore, the Runing Army once again sent heavy troops to block the border, and the attack to seize the land also reluctantly stopped again.

The Great Famine was already shocking, but the Ming court repeatedly increased the "three payments", which made the disaster even more painful.

In the 12th year of Chongzhen, the newly increased "practice salary" reached 730 million taels at a time. During the Chongzhen period, there were three major increases, and this time the increase was the most.And the hungry people who have been struggling on the death line for years have no way to survive in the face of such harsh deprivation. Except for starving to death or even being eaten, they have no choice but to flee.

In some areas of Shaanxi and Henan, more than [-]% of the people who fled died, and the number of households was less than [-]% of the original amount, and the number of households was less than [-]%.There were starvation and death everywhere, and there was still no way to survive when they fled, so the strong people gathered in the mountains and forests and became "robbers".These hungry people, refugees and "thieves" all over the Central Plains became the most reliable source of soldiers for the large peasant army. (to be continued...)