Crazy at the end of the Ming Dynasty

On the second day of June, Ningwuguan City.

Shanxi General Soldier Zhou Yuji looked at the former deputy general Xiong Tong in the hall, and snorted contemptuously, then he took a picture of the big case and yelled loudly: "I have been favored by the imperial court, how could I follow you despicable and shameless people?" You are as rebellious as the gangsters! You command two thousand soldiers, instead of stopping the bandits, you come as a lobbyist for the bandits?"

Then Zhou Yuji loudly ordered to his soldiers: "Come here! Behead this rebel for public display."

Amidst Xiong Tong's screams and begging for mercy, a group of wolves and tigers' personal soldiers immediately stepped forward and dragged Xiong Tong down...

When the Dashun Army crossed the Yellow River and entered Shanxi, it immediately divided into two groups: one was led by Li Zicheng to attack Taiyuan, Datong and other places and went straight to Juyongguan; The north and south attacked the capital together.

As Li Zicheng's Dashun Army approached day by day, Zhou Yuji, the commander-in-chief of Shanxi Province, prepared to deploy river defenses along the Yellow River to strangle its upper reaches, and asked the imperial court for more troops.At this time, the Ming court could not mobilize any mobile troops, and the Ministry of War only sent deputy general Xiong Tong to lead [-] soldiers to help.So after Zhou Yuji ordered Xiong Tong to defend the Yellow River, he hurried to Daizhou to establish a blocking line of defense.

But at this time, the situation changed suddenly. Chen Shangzhi, the general of Pingyang, had surrendered to Li Zicheng and persuaded Xiong Tong to surrender.And Li Zicheng also asked Xiong Tong to lobby Zhou Yuji to return.But when Zhou Yuji saw Xiong Tong, he angrily reprimanded him, and immediately beheaded Xiong Tong, ordered his subordinate Yang Zhirong, the governor of Ditang, to send the head to the capital, and continued to ask the court to send more rescue soldiers.

As an afterthought, if the imperial court withdraws the Ming troops from Fengtai Camp and Tongzhou Camp into Beijing at this time, and then mobilizes the Guanning Iron Cavalry in Liaodong and the Ming troops from the cities near the capital to support them, it may not be impossible to stop Li Zicheng's Dashun Army .

When the Qing army and the Runing army fought to the capital and had a "three kingdoms melee" with Li Zicheng's Dashun army, the Ming Dynasty might not be able to survive.Although doing so is to give up all other cities in Beizhili.But after all, the city of Beijing was preserved, and Emperor Chongzhen was still safe and sound. With the nominal orthodoxy of the Ming Dynasty, at least there was still a chance for a comeback.

In fact, there were such insightful people in the Ming court at this time.

When the news of the Dashun army's arrival in Taiyuan reached the capital, the governor of Jiliao Wang Yongji and the governor of Shuntian Yang He discussed: "It is better to evacuate the four cities outside the pass and guard Shanhaiguan alone, and send Wu Sangui's soldiers and horses to guard the capital." Jointly put forward this proposal.

However, when Emperor Chongzhen showed the memorandum to the cabinet ministers Chen Yan, Wei Zaode and others, Chen, Wei and others felt that the matter was important and did not dare to express their opinions rashly.After exiting.The two said in private: "The emperor was impatient and wanted to do this. If this matter is settled, once you regret it and kill us for the crime of abandoning the land, what should we do?"

at last.The cabinet put forward a buffer plan: invite Wu Xiangui, the father of Wu Sangui, to come to Beijing to serve as the admiral of the Chinese military governor's office, and the emperor summoned him to discuss strategic plans.certainly.The results of this consultation have been described above.He died without a problem because he couldn't make up the food and wages.

Then came the court ministers wrangling with each other.There are also chaos in the capital, such as boycotting donations and organizing escapes.However, after such discussions, they failed to make a decision, which wasted the brave general Zhou Yuji and the thousands of soldiers he led.

Zhou Yuji, a native of Jinzhou Wei in Liaodong, was good at riding and shooting.Shao joined the army, and was promoted step by step from a soldier to a guerrilla in the Beijing camp commanding 3000 troops by virtue of his numerous military exploits.At that time, many of the generals in the Beijing camp were the sons of officials who obtained positions by gaining connections and connections. Some of them could not even ride a horse, let alone lead troops to fight.But they still look down on Zhou Yuji, who comes from the grassroots and has a loyal and upright personality.

And Zhou Yuji persuaded them, saying: "Everyone is spoiled and pampered. How can you shoulder the mission of defending the capital when the enemy is approaching? Why should you enjoy the imperial salary for nothing and not hurry up to practice martial arts for future use?" How about the country make some preparations as soon as possible?" But his heartfelt words drew ridicule from his colleagues instead.

After that, Zhou Yuji followed Zhang Fengyi, Minister of the Ministry of War, to fight continuously with the Qing soldiers, and made great contributions to defending the capital.Later, he followed Sun Yingyuan, Yang Sichang, Liu Yuanbin and others to conquer the north and south, and made many military exploits.Because of his hard work, he was exceptionally named Prince Shaobao and Zuo Dudu by the imperial court, so he was known as "Warrior".

Because Xu Dingguo, the former general of Shanxi, was executed for crimes in the 15th year of Chongzhen, the court appointed Zhou Yuji to take over the post.After Zhou Yuji, who was ordered in a crisis, took office, he eliminated the old, weak and remnant soldiers, repaired weapons, trained troops, and prepared for battle, which greatly improved the combat effectiveness of the Shanxi army.

And Ningwuguan is the official office and home of Zhou Yuji, the general soldier of Shanxi.Together with the famous Pianguan Pass and Yanmen on the Great Wall in the Ming Dynasty, it is called the Three Outer Passes, so it is commonly known as "Phoenix City".On the top of the hills outside the city, there are densely packed beacon towers, Guanshan and beacon fires continue one after another, and the barriers are heavily fortified.There are heavy troops stationed here, the Yanmen can be defended in the east, Pianguan can be supported in the west, and Yunshuo can be supported in the north, so as to gain power in the land.

So when Li Zicheng passed through Taiyuan, the Dashun Army continued to march northward, even going down to Licheng, Linjin, Lu'an, Xinzhou and other cities. In a short while, they came to the city of Daizhou on the Great Wall defense line of Shanxi Town under the jurisdiction of Zhou Yuji.

So Zhou Yuji relied on the strong city to block Li Zicheng's Dashun army, and sent troops to sneak out of the city to fight bravely, killing thousands of Dashun troops one after another.But after holding on to Daizhou for a few days, due to the lack of food and supplies, he could not lead his army to break through the siege and retreat to Baoning Wuguan, and the Dashun army followed closely behind.Thus, a tragic battle to defend Ningwu began.

On the fifth day of June, the Dashun Army approached Ningwu Pass.But at this time, the Dashun Army had already swept across the entire northwest, and after setting out from Xi'an, they swept northward again, sweeping away thousands of troops, and became more and more arrogant.So when Li Zicheng and the others saw that Ningwu was just a pass on the Great Wall, neither dangerous nor strong, they thought it would be easy to conquer.

Zhou Yuji in Ningwu Pass practiced the team day and night, acquired nearly [-] warriors, and took the lead. Before the Dashun Army settled down, he took the initiative to leave the pass and attack.

But this raid took advantage of the unexpected and won by surprise, annihilating tens of thousands of elite vanguards of the Dashun Army.However, although the forwards of the Dashun Army were frustrated, they still did not stop attacking. After several confrontations, they were able to get close to Ningwuguan City.

But even at this time, Zhou Yuji did not passively defend, but turned passive into active, and took the initiative to line up the troops on the outskirts of the pass city, using battle as defense; The Dashun Army made the casualties of the Dashun Army even more severe.

Seeing that he could not attack for a long time, Li Zicheng also became angry from embarrassment.He preached to Guancheng: "Those who don't surrender for five days will slaughter the city", trying to force Zhou Yuji to surrender with the help of propaganda offensive.

Some generals also persuaded Zhou Yuji to change his strategy and not to fight recklessly, but he flatly refused. Zhou Yuji said: "For three consecutive days of fierce fighting and killing more than ten thousand people, what are you afraid of? If you win this battle, The entire army in Shanxi Town can be called loyal; if you can't defend and defeat, tie me up and offer it to Li Zicheng, and you will be safe and sound."

So there is still an old saying: a tiger general, with a group of tiger and wolf divisions, is the most reliable danger.

But as the battle progressed, the gunpowder of the cannons of the official army ran out, which allowed the Dashun Army to attack the city with the cannons.But the reinforcements from the government and army have not arrived for a long time, and they can't think of any good way to deal with them.At this moment, Zhou Yuji was quick and wise, and secretly ordered the warriors to lie in ambush in the streets and alleys, and open the gate to lure the Dashun army into the city. The Shun army was in a state of desperation, and killed Li Zicheng's four generals.

At this point in the battle, although the Dashun Army had only lost more than 2 people, most of these soldiers were soldiers and horses from the old battalion that Li Zicheng relied heavily on.So seeing Zhou Yuji's tenacious resistance, Li Zicheng was ready to give up the capture of Ningwu Pass.

It was Liu Zongmin and other generals who believed that the army had reached the end of their strength, so they encouraged Li Zicheng to persevere.So the Dashun Army once again launched a fierce attack on Ningwuguan. Under the bombardment of the artillery, the pass city continued to collapse. On June [-], Ningwu Pass finally fell due to the fact that the officers and soldiers were outnumbered and outnumbered.

And when the Dashun army entered Guancheng, Zhou Yuji continued to command the street fighting. After falling off his horse, he jumped and fought endlessly, killing dozens of people with his own hands.Until he was caught by the Dashun army with several arrows in his body, Zhou Yuji was still cursing, refusing to bow his head, and vowed to die.So the Dashun Army tied up Zhou Yuji's whole body, hung him on the flagpole of the teaching ground, shot him to death with random arrows, and then cut his body up with random knives.

The soldiers and civilians in Ningwuguan City were also moved by Zhou Yuji's spirit of sacrificing one's life for righteousness, and spontaneously participated in street fighting, killing countless Dashun troops. Even children and women, none of them succumbed, and they were all massacred in the end. .

On the same day, the guards of the Zongbing Yamen went to battle one after another, and all of them were killed. Zhou Yuji's wife, Mrs. Liu, was brave and fearless. She personally led all the women in the family to the roof and shot the rebels with arrows. Don't dare to approach.When she couldn't hold on any longer, she ordered to set fire to Zong Bingshu, and Zhou Yuji's mother, Mrs. Liu and dozens of people in the whole house were all killed in the sea of ​​flames.

Such a tragic Battle of Ningwu once shook Li Zicheng's determination to go straight to the capital.After the capture of Ningwuguan City, Li Zicheng convened all the leaders to discuss and said: "Although Ningwuguan was breached, our soldiers suffered heavy casualties. Since arriving in Beijing, we have to go through Datong, Yanghe, Xuanfu, Juyong, etc. The military towns are heavily guarded by soldiers, if they all resist Zhou Yuji so tenaciously, will there be one person left in our army? Why not retreat to Shaanxi to rest and reorganize the team for the time being, in order to have a showdown with Daming in the future." (To be continued. ..)