Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 221

Fighting Jingchu, crossing the sky, and rushing to Xiaohan.

The son of the three armies is my courage, and all difficulties and dangers are just waiting for me.

Compete for the first place to defeat the Tartars, and go straight to Huanglong to earn fame and fame.

Aspirations shake the mountains, ambitions shake the abyss, and they will drive the Manyi out of the old rivers and mountains.

When the emperors gathered in Jinling, the legend of the heroes in the Lingxiao Pavilion.

Today, I drank the wine to celebrate the victory, and my ambition was not rewarded.

In the future, Fang Chang will show his talents and sprinkle his blood to write about the Spring and Autumn Period.

During the banquet, Wang Yan was very emotional and high-spirited. The heroic spirit he sang touched all the generals, and a surge of pride arose in their hearts.

"Cai~" All the generals in the hall waited for Wang Yan to sing, and they all received a salute, and shouted in unison: "Cai~"

After a whole night of hearty celebration banquet, Wang Yan did not stay in Jingzhou City. He left his brother Wang Fuzhi to temporarily act as Jingzhou government affairs, and left General Liu Tichun to lead more than [-] loyal troops, together with more than [-] captives, to guard Jingzhou. And rebuilt the city, he led the supervising and bidding army, the loyal army, and the loyal and brave army, together with [-] elites, with the momentum of great victory, they rushed to Changde with the state of thunder sweeping the cave.

On the Yangtze River, thousands of sails, tens of thousands of boats, and [-] elite troops crossed the river, with banners covering the sky and sun, weapons and armor, and the cold light glaring.

Needless to say, Wang Yan's original troops are all elite fighters who survived the bloody battle in Yangzhou, and the reorganized Shun Army is also an army of hundreds of battles in the Central Plains. Now the battle in Jingzhou has revived their vigor Immediately, there was a feeling that the world is so big, who else can I have.

At this time, the wind from the river was blowing slowly, blowing the big banner and fluttering, and also blowing the bright red helmet tassel and battle robe on Wang Yan's head.

In the Ming Dynasty, "the essence of flame brings good luck, and the sage will be born with sincerity", which belongs to the virtue of fire among the five virtues, and there is also the saying of "triple fire" in the Ming Dynasty.First, Ming Cheng Song is the virtue of fire, this is the first fire; second, the son of Ming Dynasty is surnamed Zhu, Zhu is red, and red belongs to fire, this is the second fire; third, the Ming characters are separated to be the sun and the moon, the sun The pole of yang is also the sun, which is matched with vermilion, and it also becomes one fire, which is the three fires.

The Ming Dynasty worshiped fire, and the helmets and tassels of the military uniforms were all red. Wang Yan looked at it like the morning glow, a piece of crimson, and he couldn't help being ambitious.

Behind him, a group of generals of the Ming army looked at the troops of the Ming army who had gathered on the shore, and they couldn't help but think so.

Wang Yan's army crossed the Yangtze River and marched towards Changde. Songzi, Gong'an, Lizhou, Shimen and other counties occupied by the Qing soldiers along the way all surrendered in anticipation.

Wuling City is the seat of the Changde Mansion. Shen Zhixiang, Duke Shun of the Qing Dynasty, led 500 people from the Baijia Hanbai Banner and a green battalion garrisoned here.

Over the past few days, as Geng Zhongming led the main force to go north, Du Yinxi and Gao Yigong, who had originally retreated to western Hunan, entered Changde again and harassed the cities occupied by the Qing soldiers. The Ming army either scattered and hid, or fled into Wuling Mountain, which made him return without success several times.

Shen Zhixiang's elite cavalry had almost no countermeasures against the elusive Ming army, so that apart from the city, all the rural towns in Wuling were controlled by the Ming army.

The Qing soldiers sent out of the city to collect grain and grass in the countryside basically never returned. In the end, there were only a thousand Qing soldiers, and they dared not leave the city at all.

The Ming army's harassment annoyed Shen Zhixiang very much, and the battle situation in Jingzhou also restrained part of his thoughts. For him, once Jingzhou was defeated, he would be trapped in the south of the Yangtze River alone, and it was very likely that he would be surrounded and wiped out by the Ming army. , but Jingzhou is guarded by Geng Zhongming's elite soldiers, so it is expected that there should be no problems.

At that time, his contact with Wuchang was blocked by the Ming army in Yuezhou, Jingzhou was surrounded by the Ming army like an iron barrel, and his sentry cavalry naturally could not get any information.

This day Shen Zhixiang was sitting in the yamen, writing a letter to Luck Dehun, planning to send an envoy to try again, asking him how to deal with the current situation, but a small Qing soldier rushed into the hall in a panic .

Seeing him like this, Shen Zhixiang was agitated for a while, thinking it was Gao Yigong who came to harass him again, he scolded him angrily: "As Niu Luerzhen, who leads hundreds of elites, how can you behave in such a panic?"

After hearing the scolding, the panic expression on Bai Jia Niu Lu's face did not weaken in the slightest. Instead, he said in a crying voice: "My lord, the Ming army captured Jingzhou, and King Huaishun died~"

"What?" Shen Zhixiang was shocked when he heard the words, "You dog slave, dare to shake the morale of the army, where did you get the news from?"

Shen Zhixiang and Geng Zhongming have known each other for a long time. Looking back, they are both Mao Shuai's subordinates, so they understand each other very well and trust his ability very much.

The siege of Jingzhou by the Ming army made him worry, but he never thought that the Ming army could capture Jingzhou and force Geng Zhongming to death. Now that he heard the words of the Qing army, he instinctively thought that someone was spreading rumors to shake his morale .

That Niu Lu was reprimanded by Shen Zhixiang one after another, and he was very wronged in his heart. What he said were all things, so he kowtowed to Shen Zhixiang again and again, and kept explaining: "The slave dare not lie to the master, Wang Yan, the Duke of Chu in Nanming , has already led the army across the river, and marched towards Changde in mighty force, and all the counties and counties along the way have rebelled and surrendered to the Ming Dynasty."

Shen Zhixiang saw that Niu Lu kowtowed again and again, he didn't seem to be fake, his face turned pale, and he quickly sent someone to inquire, so as to confirm again.

Not a day later, Tanma reported back to Shen Zhixiang, saying: "The Ming army has more than [-] people, with bright armor, banners covering the sun, and a lot of swords and guns. Officials appointed by the Qing Dynasty were slaughtered one after another, and they surrendered to the Ming Dynasty again, and their soldiers and horses would arrive at the city of Wuling within two days."

After getting the exact information, Shen Zhixiang couldn't help but look gloomy. There are not many ways for him to go now. He either guards Wuling City and waits for Luck Dehun to come to help him, or he quickly abandons the city while the Ming army has not yet approached the city, looking for an opportunity. Cross the river and return to the north.

At this time, Shen Zhixiang was completely cut off from Wuchang, and he didn't know the situation of Luck Dehun at all.

Although he knew that Lord Baylor would never see him trapped in Changde and would definitely send troops to rescue him, but he didn't know whether he could persist until the arrival of reinforcements.

The Battle of Jingzhou, the destruction of Geng Zhongming and the Eight Banners of Huangjia and Han greatly shocked the morale of the Ming army, and at the same time deeply affected the Qing army. Now that Geng Zhongming has lost more than three times, what reason does he have to defend Wuling City?
On February 500th of the second year of Longwu, Shen Zhixiang abandoned Changde and took only [-] people from the Eight Banners of Baijiahan to look north along Dongting Lake, hoping to find an opportunity to cross the river in the Huarong area and return to Hubei, which was controlled by the Qing court.

After Shen Zhixiang led the Eight Banners soldiers to abandon the city, the Green Battalion soldiers in Wuling City immediately opened the city and surrendered to Duyinxi, and the Ming army recaptured Changde, the gateway to northern Hunan.

At the same time, Yuan Zongdi, a general who was staying in Lizhou, found out the news that the Qing soldiers had abandoned the city. He immediately reported to Wang Yan on a flying horse, and on the other hand, he and Wang Shixiu led [-] cavalry to chase after him.

Shen Zhixiang fled all the way to Huarong, but was blocked by the Yangtze River, and because of the shortage of ships, he was forced to escape into Huarong County. Soon Wang Yan led the main force to join Yuan Zongdi and surrounded the city with [-] Eight Banners soldiers. .

(End of this chapter)