Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

This great victory in Kaifeng also gave Emperor Chongzhen and the Ming court a shot in the arm.Emperor Chongzhen immediately asked the Runing Army and Heiyun Army in Henan to step up their pursuit.He even strictly ordered the Qin army of Sun Chuanting, the governor of the three sides, to speed up out of Tongguan and attack the Li and Luo coalition forces in Henan Province.

At the beginning of the year, when Wang Qiaonian was defeated and died, and Emperor Chongzhen reactivated Sun Chuanting from the imperial prison, he asked him how many soldiers he needed when he was called.However, Sun Chuanting had sung "Tears Behind the Bars" for three years. He didn't know the outside situation, and thought that the strength of the peasant army was still the same as before, so he answered casually: five thousand elite soldiers would be enough.

But when Sun Chuanting arrived in Shanxi, he realized that the peasant army was already so powerful, and the Qin army was no longer worthy of its name, so his strategic thinking immediately changed to support troops and refuse to defend Shaanxi, and did not want to go out of Tongguan to fight.

In June, when Kaifeng was besieged, Emperor Chongzhen repeatedly urged Sun Chuanting to help. Sun Chuanting always emphasized that the soldiers were not paid enough to go out to fight.And he said: "Twenty thousand soldiers must be trained, and one million salaries must be paid."

This Shangshu immediately angered Emperor Chongzhen.Since Yuan Chonghuan in the first year of Chongzhen, these supervisors of the commanding army have repeatedly praised Shanghaikou first and then occupied the position.Then he increased the pressure on the court layer by layer, and threatened the court, as if he would not give up until he achieved his goal. How could this not make Emperor Chongzhen angry?

In comparison, although Yang Sichang always demanded huge amounts of food and salaries back then, he never deceived Emperor Chongzhen. This dwarf was the eldest son, no wonder Emperor Chongzhen trusted him so much.

Indeed, Sun Chuanting may not have deliberately deceived Emperor Chongzhen this time, but Emperor Chongzhen would not care about those objective reasons.He believed that Sun Chuanting was reneging on what he said, so he wrote in the memorandum: "It was originally proposed that five thousand troops could defeat thieves, so how can we get twenty thousand? And the salary of one million can be paid immediately? Pass, and plan to annihilate together. Don't take the blame for excessive attachment."

In this case, Sun Chuanting was somewhat helpless.After punishing the chief soldier He Renlong to rectify military discipline, he stepped up his military training and prepared to go out with a trilateral force to fight a decisive battle with the peasant army.

But at this time, Kaifeng was already in jeopardy, and Emperor Chongzhen was impatient. He issued an imperial edict to patrol the four towns of Yansui, Ningxia, Gansu, and Guyuan, and urged Sun Chuanting to leave the customs.Sun Chuanting once again went to the Shu and said that the soldiers were newly recruited, lacked training, and could not fight.The Chongzhen Emperor refused to consider his opinion.So Sun Chuanting was forced to leave the teacher.

In September, the Qin army took Gao Jie as the central army, and transferred Zuo Yi, Bai Guangen, Zheng Jiadong, Niu Chenghu and other troops, and a total of more than [-] troops left Tongguan.

At this time, the coalition forces of Li and Luo had already suffered setbacks in Kaifeng.After they retreated to Henan Mansion, they were a little hesitant about where to go next.Just at this time, I heard that Qin Jun was leaving the customs.Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai were very nervous.They were afraid of being flanked by the Runing Army and the Qin Army.Another fiasco.

But then Li and Luo's coalition forces discovered that the Runing Army had stopped on the border of Henan Province and was no longer advancing, which made them a little relieved.So the Li and Luo coalition forces placed their secondary troops on the border of Henan Province to confront the Runing Army, and then placed a large number of old and weak women and children, preparing to use the old and weak women and children to entangle Ru Ning when the Runing Army rushed Ning Jun's footsteps.The main forces of the Li and Luo coalition forces are concentrated together.First of all, deal with the Qin army who just left the customs.

On the first day of October, the two armies fought in Ruyang County.Before the war, Sun Chuanting ordered Zheng Jiadong, Gao Jie, Zuo Yi and other troops to set up an ambush, and Niu Chenghu, the commander in chief, led the troops into battle.Wait until the weapon is received.The Bulls pretended to be defeated and retreated.As expected, Li Zicheng's attempt to break into the camp was tricked into chasing him into the ambush. The officers and soldiers were all in ambush, and Niu Chenghu's troops also turned around and fought to the death.The peasant army was defeated and retreated eastward.

So the Qin army followed closely behind, and the peasant army began to repeat the old tricks, throwing a lot of property.However, Qin Jun saw that the peasant army left behind a lot of armored supplies, and they rushed to grab them, and the whole army became chaotic.

But Luo Rucai, who was responding, saw that Li Zicheng's attempt to break into the camp failed, while the Qin army was in a mess fighting for property. He seized the opportunity to attack without hesitation.

But the Qin army was caught off guard, Zuo Yi and Xiao Shending's troops were the first to be defeated, and the other troops could not stand still and fled after them.The peasant army turned defeat into victory, killing thousands of officers and soldiers, 78 generals and schools, and captured a large number of war horses and luggage, and countless Qin troops were scattered and captured.

Sun Chuanting hurriedly packed up more than 8000 defeated troops, and immediately retreated into Tongguan.In order to strictly enforce military discipline, he beheaded Xiao Shending to show the public.Because Zuo Xie was the son of veteran general Zuo Guangxian, he was only fined to pay [-] horses to pay for his crime.But Sun Chuanting impeached himself, and Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to order him to make meritorious service and redeem himself.

But in this battle, the Runing army was completely watching from the sidelines, gloating at the crushing defeat of the Qin army.As for Sun Chuanting's Qin army, it was a serious blow to their vitality.And the most powerful trilateral army in the Ming Dynasty disappeared like this. After that, they were completely reduced to the situation of local security forces, and they could only maintain law and order in Xi'an.

"|Tell me! How can I explain to my godmother? How will I face her old man in the future? Is Zhang Rubao deaf? Even I dare not care about it. He dares to block the Yangtze River and the Han River Put Zhang Xianzhong into Xiangyang. Tell him not to be the commander of the navy, but go home and nurse the child!" Wu Shigong was furious when he saw Huguang's latest battle report.

The officers of the Runing Army in the commander's tent were all silent.Seeing that Wu Shigong's anger could not be over for a while, Xue Yongli waved his hands secretly, telling the officers to retreat first.

"Uncle! My condolences! General Ma is also loyal to the country, and General Qin will not anger you, Uncle." Xue Yongli persuaded.

And Wu Shigong got angry and was also a little tired. He slumped on the chair, picked up the teapot on the table, took a few sips of the teapot, and then said to Xue Yongli: "Actually Zhang Thief and Zuo Fool fought and fell. It's nothing, I'd rather they die together. But the idiot Zuo dared to withdraw the army from Xiangyang, and threw my brother Ma in the city; the second brother Ma was really honest, and he had already seen the situation and ran away Now that we have come to Runing, we still have to be loyal to the country, so what is there to protect the Ming Dynasty?"

When Zhang Xianzhong's peasant army resurged in Shucheng Dongshan, it encountered two flanking attacks from the Runing Army.Fortunately, Zhang Xianzhong was as cunning as a fox, and successfully led the main force across the Yangtze River, and jumped out of the encirclement of the Runing Army from the Chizhou area.

After that, Zhang Xianzhong, without the "attention" of the Runing Army, began to flourish.He conquered Shitai, went east to Panyang Lake, and captured 32 double-masted ships, built a large number of boats, recruited sailors, and trained sailors in Panyang Lake.At this time, Zhang Xianzhong's infantry also had the 24nd Battalion of the Old Post and the [-]th Battalion of the Small Post, with a strength of more than [-].

In July, in order to curb the wanton rampage of Zhang Xianzhong's troops, Nanjing sent a total of more than [-] soldiers from Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo's troops. Afterwards, they fought fiercely with Zhang Xianzhong's troops and were defeated by Zhang Xianzhong's troops on the frontal battlefield.In this battle, the officers and soldiers lost more than [-] people, and the entire south of the Yangtze River was terrified by the strength of Zhang Xianzhong's troops.

After that, Zhang Xianzhong was unwilling to stay here, and was besieged by the government troops gathered in the southeast. Therefore, he began to move to other places to open up another situation.

After careful consideration, Zhang Xianzhong decided to lead his troops west to Hubei, so he sent military adviser Pan Duao to infiltrate Wuchang in advance "for internal response".In late August, Zhang Xianzhong's troops had already entered the border with Hubei and joined forces for more than [-] miles.At the beginning of September, some troops were sent to attack Huangmei, Hubei, in preparation for the whole division's entry into Hubei.

However, the troops of the Runing Army in Huguang strictly implemented a conservative strategy. They were only stationed on the territory of the Runing Army in the Huguang and South Zhili areas, and covered the southern part of Runing. Fighting, they don't attack at will.In addition, the Hubei area is basically Zuo Liangyu's territory, so the Runing Army is happy to see the success of Zhang Xianzhong's westward advance.

But Zuo Liangyu did have two brushes. He concentrated his main force in the joint operations of other officials and troops in Huguang, blocked the westward advance of the peasant army in Huangmei area, and defeated Zhang Xianzhong's troops.

Due to the failure of the battle, Zhang Xianzhong was forced to return to the mountainous area of ​​Tiantangzhai, Qianshan County, and waited for the battle in danger.And Pan Duao, who was lurking in Wuchang, was captured and killed by the government because of Shen Huilin's informant.So Zhang Xianzhong's plan to march into Hubei was temporarily blocked.Then, Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo, etc. who came after them led the soldiers to rush to Qianshan, set fire to the forest in the middle of the night, and attacked the peasant army barracks.The peasant army was in a hurry due to changes, and the mountainous terrain blocked it. For a while, the army was in chaos and was defeated by the official army.

Successive defeats made Zhang Xianzhong in a dilemma.But at this time, a partial division he sent out before completely disrupted the good situation of the Huguang army.

In order to support the main force's westward advance, Zhang Xianzhong sent Li Dingguo to lead 5000 people to the south.However, Li Dingguo quickly dispatched troops to mobilize, and immediately rushed into the weak area of ​​the Huguang army.After that, Lian Ketongshan, Chongyang, and two groups of peasant armies took refuge in them. Including the poor people who joined the army, the number of troops exceeded [-] in one fell swoop.

Then, Li Dingguo's troops crossed the river in the Honghu area and conquered the Qianjiang River.The main force of Zhang Xianzhong's department immediately switched to the main force, and followed Li Dingguo's department to Xiangyang.

In October, Zhang Xianzhong's troops arrived in Jingmen, and the force suddenly expanded to 20.And Xiangyang, where General Zuo Liangyu's mansion was stationed, became a mess.

Prior to this, in order to be ready to flee at any time, Zuo Liangyu built a large-scale warship in Xiangyang, and the money, food and civilian husbands for the shipbuilding were plundered from the people near Xiangyang.But the common people in Xiangyang hated the Zuo army to the bone, they secretly set fire to burn all the ships built by Zuo Liangyu.Zuo Liangyu was furious when he heard the news, so he simply let go and plundered Xiangyang. He immediately ransacked Xiangyang City, robbed a group of merchant ships loaded with military supplies and women's money, and transported them away first, while he led the army to guard Xiangyang and Fancheng. , ready to block the advance of Zhang Xianzhong's troops. (to be continued..)