I

  Chapter 326 324 [Sunset West Mountain]

   Chongzhen twelve years, October.

  Zhao Han ordered the troops to divide into two groups, one to receive Fuzhou by boat, and the other to go south to receive Tingzhou. Those who resisted in the corner were all wiped out, and the number of officials who surrendered or fled was almost evenly divided.

  In recent years, more than a dozen uprisings broke out in Fujian, and droughts occurred many times. No matter the gentry, the officials or the people, they don't want to fight.

  Four words: people's mind is fixed.

  The autumn grain just harvested in Jiangxi was transported to Fujian for disaster relief. A large amount of grain from Hunan was transported to Jiangsu and Zhejiang for sale. The territories in several provinces under Zhao Han's rule were finally able to recuperate this time.

  The north is even more chaotic.

  The officers and soldiers in Yunyang and Xiangyang have been without pay for half a year, and they usually rely on looting the people for food and drink.

  Governor Wang Aoyong requested for military pay, totaling more than 100,000 taels of silver. If the imperial court has no money, ask for the distribution of salt quotations, and attract merchants to sell salt quotations to offset military funds.

   Chongzhen agreed.

  The rest of the officers and soldiers from all walks of life also used salt to deduct the deduction, and let them figure out a way to cash it out.

  For a while, the salt price was oversold and depreciated rapidly.

  Hui merchants, Qin merchants, and Shanxi merchants suffered heavy losses. In order to appease merchants' resentment, the Lianghuai patrolling salt censor strengthened the management of salt farms.

  By doing this, the businessman was happy, but he forced Yanxiao and Zaohu to rebel.

  Especially the salt-burning stove households, if they don’t rebel, they will only die, because they rely on selling illegal salt to survive.

  Salt lord Zheng Guofeng gathered troops to raise troops, and the two Huaizao households echoed each other, killing the supervisors of each saltworks. In ten months, he had more than 30,000 troops and occupied Rugao, Haimen, Taixing, and Tongzhou (Nantong) four counties.

  The salt merchants exploded.

  Huizhou salt merchants and Shanshan salt merchants used to play tricks on each other, but this time they joined forces to recruit soldiers and assist local officials to suppress the salt owl uprising.

   Huizhou merchants kept writing letters, asking Zhao Tianwang to send troops to take the Lianghuai area as soon as possible.

  Zhao Han turned a deaf ear to it and stayed on the sidelines until next summer's harvest.

  The battle between Huaihe and Huaihe was lively, and Hubei was occupied by Zhang Xianzhong.

   "Cao Cao" Luo Rucai, originally mixed with Zhang Xianzhong, the two had a falling out some time ago. The reason was that Zhang Xianzhong gave the land to his godsons and generals for selfishness, and Luo Rucai was busy for a long time with only two counties.

  Luo Rucai led his army eastward to the Dabie Mountains and captured Shangcheng, Gushi, Guangzhou, Guangshan, Xixian, Luoshan and other counties.

  This action frightened the Henan officers and soldiers. They were besieging Li Zicheng, and Luo Rucai suddenly developed wildly behind his back.

  …

   Xinzheng.

   "Cough cough cough!"

  Yang Sichang coughed repeatedly, until he couldn't straighten his waist, as if he wanted to cough up his lungs.

  The most powerful civil servant in Ming Dynasty, his beard and hair are all gray at this moment. Compared to last year's full of energy, she seemed to be twenty years older, and her face was covered with wrinkles at some point.

  The city of Luoyang was high and deep, and Li Zicheng couldn't fight it down. As Xuan Da's frontier army went south, King Chuang was driven away again.

  What kind of farming, what kind of institutional system, these policies can't be implemented, he can only continue to be a rogue.

   Li Zicheng was in a difficult situation, and Yang Sichang was also in a difficult situation. The armies from all walks of life were fighting for pay.

   "Report!"

   "Tiger Dawei, fierce as a tiger, Zuo Liangyu, teamed up to attack and break the bandit camp, beheaded more than 5,000 enemies, and the bandits fled to Yanling!"

  Yang Sichang stood up excitedly, with a sickly flushed face, and said again and again: "Okay, okay, good fight, let the generals of all walks of life report their merits."

   "Cough cough cough cough!"

  Yang Sichang coughed again and coughed up a hand full of blood. He secretly wiped off the blood, not daring anyone to see it.

  The next day, all parties reported their military exploits, and Yang Sichang drafted a victory report document, and immediately sent someone to Beijing.

  The imperial court had no money to reward meritorious deeds, so Yang Sichang could only ask for the title of earl, requesting that Hu Dawei, Meng Ruhu, and Zuo Liangyu all be made earls, and the rest of the generals should also be made wives and sons.

  If he didn't do this, he wouldn't be able to command the army, and the imperial court owed him too much.

   "Supervisor, a **** is here!"

  Just as the letter of victory was sent out, a **** suddenly came to Xinzheng to announce the decree.

  This decree was not official, so the **** stepped back and said to Yang Sichang: "Mr. Yang Ge, Your Majesty asks you, when will the intruders be wiped out?"

   "I just won a big game a few days ago." Yang Sichang replied.

  The **** sighed and said: "Your Majesty ordered you to quickly suppress the bandits and dispatch elites to rescue Jinzhou! If...the bandits cannot be suppressed within half a year, Your Majesty will change someone to supervise the division."

  Yang Sichang was too lazy to argue, and said weakly: "I will definitely do my best."

   There were not many goods in the army, so Yang Sichang took five hundred taels and gave them to the eunuchs as filial silver, and repeatedly explained that he had no money.

  The **** sneered when he left the barracks with the spring breeze blowing on his face: "This old man Yang Ge is so stingy, how about sending a beggar for five hundred taels?"

  Yang Sichang was exhausted physically and mentally. Due to the emperor's order, he could only let the ministries speed up to surround Li Zicheng.

  Li Zicheng continued to move south, intending to join forces with Luo Rucai.

  By November, Li and Luohe's soldiers rested in the county, with a crowd of nearly 200,000 people.

  The two sides confronted each other in a small town called Tongzhongdian, conducting small-scale testing of each other, and no one dared to attack without authorization.

   After half a month of confrontation, Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai suddenly left camp at night.

  Yang Guozhu, Wang Pu, and Zuo Liangyu thought it was a tactic to lure the enemy, and ordered not to pursue them. As fierce as a tiger, Hu Dawei led his troops to chase after him, thinking that this was a good opportunity to defeat the enemy.

  Yang Sichang is in command, and it is difficult to stop chasing the enemy. He was afraid that the two tiger generals would be in an ambush, so he asked Yang Guozhu, Wang Pu, and Zuo Liangyu to chase the enemy together, so that they could take care of each other.

  The three of them didn't dare to disobey the order, but they didn't want to chase into the mountains. They stopped after a few miles and sent out sentries to inquire about the situation.

  Fierce as a tiger, Hu Dawei has gone crazy, chasing headlong into the mountains, more than 100,000 bandits fled in all directions, collapsed everywhere.

  Zuo Liangyu got the victory news in the middle of the night, how could he be willing to take this opportunity? Immediately lead troops to chase after him, intending to take the opportunity to make some military exploits.

   "Kill the left thief!"

  When Zuo Liangyu entered the mountain, it was already light, and a group of cavalry suddenly appeared behind his buttocks.

  It was Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai who were cruel and ruthless. They used more than 100,000 infantrymen of their own as bait, let the officers and soldiers chase and drive them away, and each led an elite old battalion to ambush far away.

  More than 4,000 cavalrymen from the old battalion of rogue bandits rushed out in the morning light, and charged towards Zuo Liangyu who had been marching for half the night.

   "Quick retreat!"

  Zuo Liangyu was inexplicably horrified, thinking that the tiger who had entered the mountain was as fierce as a tiger, and the tiger was as powerful as a tiger, and had already been defeated.

  In this raid, Zuo Liangyu lost all his infantry.

  Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai chased and killed them for a while, and soon went into the mountains to continue fighting.

   More than 100,000 bandits fled in all directions, as fierce as a tiger, and Hu Dawei has already chased them madly. After chasing them, they couldn't hold back at all. The soldiers under his command killed thieves and robbed property everywhere, and only the servants and cavalry were still around the two of them.

   After Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai entered the mountain, they led more than 4,000 old battalion cavalry, and rushed to kill the scattered government troops when they saw them.

   Killed all the way, followed the fleeing officers and soldiers, and soon found Hu Dawei's family guards.

   It was another cavalry duel, more than four thousand against more than one thousand, and the former still broke out suddenly.

  Where does Tiger Dawei dare to fight? Immediately choose to escape.

  The pursuit lasted until noon, and both sides were exhausted. Hu Dawei's horse stumbled, fell to the ground suddenly, and was hacked to death by Luo Rucai.

  As for the tiger-like army, it was transporting goods in the mountains, and it was also escorting more than a thousand captives.

   "Tiger Dawei is dead!"

  Luo Rucai held up the head of Hu Dawei with a spear, Li Zicheng asked people to hold up the banner of Hu Dawei, and ordered the cavalry to shout together.

  Fierce like a tiger, he turned his head and looked back, but couldn't see his head clearly, but the flag was exactly the general flag of Tiger Dawei.

   "Withdraw!"

   As fierce as a tiger, he dared not love to fight, dropped his infantry, and ran away with his servants and cavalry.

  In this battle, about 60,000 to 70,000 infantrymen of Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai ran away, and thousands of them were beheaded by officers and soldiers.

  But on the officers and soldiers side, Zuo Liangyu and the tiger-like infantry were all lost, and Tiger Dawei was directly annihilated.

  Only in terms of the number of troops lost, Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai must have lost, but they actually won a big victory.

  Although there are more than 100,000 rogues, most infantry are consumables. The two men's elite troops add up to more than 4,000 cavalry, and thousands of old battalion infantry are defending Xixian County with their families.

   Commander.

   Yang Sichang, who received the military report, sat down slumped, staring blankly at the front.

  Looking at the combat effectiveness of both sides alone, it is impossible for officers and soldiers to lose.

   "How could you lose?" Yang Sichang couldn't figure it out.

  Several Tang newspapers were sent in a row, and the generals from all walks of life accused each other.

  Yang Guozhu and Wang Pu's soldiers and horses have not fought until now. They guessed that there was a problem, so they chose to stand still.

  Tiger Dawei and fierce as a tiger are the first to chase the enemy, and they completely lose their organizational system.

  Zuo Liangyu didn't dare to chase at first, but when he heard about the big victory, he went after him again, and was caught off guard.

  The several groups of troops in the official army were completely fighting on their own, and they were not twisted into a single rope at all.

   "Poof!"

  Yang Sichang spat out a mouthful of old blood, and passed out on the spot in the barracks.

  …

Beijing.

  If Chongzhen was struck by lightning, he could not believe it: "Did Yang Ge die of illness?"

   "Your Majesty, this is the last letter of Elder Yang Ge."

   With trembling hands, Chongzhen read the suicide note carefully.

  Yang Sichang first blamed himself, saying that he was indebted to the emperor. It also explained that the reason for the defeat in this battle was all due to the generals' disobedience to military orders. If they pursued together or did not pursue them, such a big defeat would not have occurred.

  Finally, Yang Sichang recommended Chen Xinjia to be Minister of War.

  Chongzhen put down Yang Sichang's suicide note, and tried not to cry, he knew that Daming was completely hopeless.

  Zhao Han's occupation of Jiangnan was a fatal blow, and the imperial court only had the salt tax of Huaihe and Huaihe Rivers available.

  Now, the Yanxiao and Zaohu uprising have caused the imperial court to fail to collect salt tax, and Yanyin has become a piece of waste paper.

  The imperial court ran out of money, and the capital was experiencing a rice shortage, and the price of rice had risen to five taels of silver per stone.

   Even in the city of Beijing, people began to starve to death due to lack of food!

  The Tartars are besieging Jinzhou, Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai are raging in Henan, and Zhang Xianzhong is expanding wildly in Hubei. As soon as the Shandong Cao Army Uprising was suppressed, the Lianghuai salt lord stove households rebelled again.

  By the way, Sichuan also has an uprising army, and more than a dozen groups have emerged. Qin Liangyu is running to suppress the rebellion in Sichuan.

  Due to the severe famine, the people of Beizhili revolted, and the officers and soldiers of Jizhen were suppressing it.

   Chongzhen was in a desperate situation, and there was no way for Liaodong to rescue him. He couldn't even pay for the army's departure fee.

  The Liaodong generals of Zu Dashou can only slowly defend the city by themselves, and will definitely surrender when the food runs out. Reinforcements can't be waited for, at most let Hong Chengchou bring Jizhen soldiers to rescue, and the Beizhili uprising army must be pacified first.

   Chongzhen called all his sons and daughters here, and it was rare for him to have a good meal.

  He couldn't bear to look at these children, and suddenly remembered Wang Tiaoding's message.

  Send your children to the South?

  Chongzhen sent several groups of Jinyiwei to the south, knowing that Zhao Han has the name of "benevolence and kindness". Whether it is true benevolence or false benevolence, reputation must be taken into account after all, and perhaps it will not kill the royal family.

   Figured things out, Chongzhen hesitated again, if the children were sent to the south, what would be the face of the Ming imperial family?

   (Sorry, I missed a lord, thanks to the leader of Readerk for the reward.)

   (Take it easy, there are only two updates today.)

  (end of this chapter)