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Volume One: Invasion of the Capital, Chapter 854: The Prelude

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    However, Tian Jianxiu's march south to Hanzhong was relatively smooth, and the prefectures and counties along the way were all loyal to him.  On March 12, the Shun army arrived in Chenggu County and besieged the city for four days.  Gao Ruli, the commander-in-chief of the Ming Dynasty, attempted to flee to Sichuan, but was forced to surrender by the Shun army on the way.  After the Hanzhong area was pacified, Tian Jianxiu left his troops He Zhen and Han Wen to guard the area before returning to Xi'an.  Liu Zongmin, He Yaoqi, Yuan Zongdi and others led the army to march westward. When they reached Guyuan, Bai Guangen, the general of the Ming Dynasty, surrendered.  In order to win over the generals of the Ming army and reduce the resistance in the march, Li Zicheng gave Bai Guangen a banquet in person and had a great conversation.  Zuo Guang first heard the news and surrendered.  Following Bai and Zuo, other Ming Dynasty generals also surrendered.  Yuan Zong¡¯s troops advanced from Fengxiang, Shaanxi to Gongchang.  Along the way, the generals of the Ming Dynasty fought for surrender and feared the queen.  After occupying Gongchang Mansion, all the prefectures and counties belonged to it without a fight.  On the Ningxia side, as soon as the Shun Army's message arrived, the governor Li Yukui and the Qing King Zhu Zhuojun were at a loss what to do.  The Qingfan clan and civil and military officials gathered in the palace and after some discussions, decided to surrender.  Li Zicheng ordered Chen Zhilong, the military supervisor of the Ming Dynasty, to be the envoy of Ningxia, and Niu Chenghu, the surrender commander, guarded the area.  After Guyuan, Ningxia and other places were pacified, the remaining strongholds of the Ming government in the northwest were relatively remote places such as Gansu and Qinghai (then called Xiningwei).  Li Zicheng ordered Liu Zongmin to return to Xi'an and prepare for a large-scale eastward expedition. The task of completing the western expedition fell to He Yaoqi.  In March, He waved the flag and led his troops to Gansu, conquering Anding in one fell swoop. Jin County opened its doors to welcome the surrender, and the troops went straight to Lanzhou.  Seeing the critical situation, Ma Xu, the commander-in-chief of Gansu Province in the Ming Dynasty, Ouyang Gun, the deputy general, and others persuaded Su Wang Zhu Shihong to rush west to Ganzhou (today's Zhangye) and recruit troops to hold on.  Zhu Shihong was in love with the horse and did not adopt this opinion.  So Ma Xu and others fled to Ganzhou on their own.  On March 21, the troops under He Yaoqi arrived in Lanzhou, and Lanzhou Kaicheng surrendered.  Su Wang Zhu Shihong fled out of the city in a panic.  He was captured by Yang Qi, the outgoing commander-in-chief of the Ming Dynasty, and treated as a gift for surrendering to the army.  However, He Yaoqi disliked him for selling his people to gain wealth, and was neither loyal to the Ming Dynasty nor sincerely surrendered to the army. Therefore, he not only executed King Su, but also beheaded Yang Qi and his son.  " However, this approach is obviously not strategic enough and is not conducive to winning over the Ming Dynasty's civil servants and generals who are still waiting to see.  After He Yaoqi left Dang Shousu to guard Lanzhou, he led his troops to continue marching westward.  In the Ming Dynasty, the two guards of Liangzhou (now Wuwei, Gansu) and Zhuanglang surrendered successively and followed the army to invade Ganzhou.  Gansu Governor Lin Rirui, General Soldier Ma Xu and others organized resistance.  April.  The Shun army forcibly crossed the river and reached the gate of Ganzhou City.  It rained heavily at that time, and the officers and soldiers who were forced to defend the city complained about fighting in the rain.  However, the Shunjun soldiers were in high spirits and made siege equipment.  Actively prepare to attack the city.  On April 22, the defenders of the Ming Army rebelled.  Lead the obedient army into the city.  The Shun army successfully captured Ganzhou City.  Lin Rirui, Ma Xu and others were executed.  After occupying Ganzhou, Suzhou (now Jiuquan, Gansu) and other places did not fight.  He Yaoqi sent officials to various prefectures and counties to appease the local areas, and the entire territory of Gansu was under the jurisdiction of the Dashun regime.  At this time, Lu Wenbin (formerly a general of the Ming Dynasty), a Shunjun general who was ordered by He to wave the flag to advance into Qinghai, led his troops to Xining.  He was defeated by local chieftains Qi Tingjian, Lu Yinchang and others who were loyal to the Ming Dynasty, and Lu Wenbin was killed.  After He waved the flag and heard the news, he personally led the army from Ganzhou to Xining.  Qi Tingjian and others were panic-stricken and joined the army. Hu Liangqi offered his advice: "Congratulations on the bravery of the thieves. We are outnumbered and outnumbered by others. We can outwit the enemy but cannot defeat them with force." He suggested that some ethnic minority people be sent to pretend to surrender and act as guides.  Lead He and wave the flag into the ambush area to murder.  He waved the flag and was eager to annihilate the enemy. He led his troops forward and formed a formation to kill Lu Yinchang and annihilate them all.  Due to lack of vigilance, he unfortunately fell into an ambush by the Ming army and was killed by the chieftain.  This Li Zicheng's capable general fell on the way to the west.  After He Yaoqi was killed, He Yaoqi's soldiers were filled with grief and indignation and determined to avenge their general. Under the leadership of Xin Sizhong, they captured Xining and captured Chieftain Qi Tingjian alive.  Li Zicheng then ordered Xin Sizhong to guard Xining and send troops to pacify Qinghai, and various chieftains surrendered one after another.  At this point, all government and military strongholds in the entire northwest region have been eliminated, and this series of operations actually took less than two months.  The brilliant victory immediately boosted the morale of the Shun Army soldiers. Li Zicheng and others believed that the time to overthrow the Ming Dynasty had come.  Under the deliberations of Dashun's civil servants and military officers, the Shun army formulated the strategic goal of becoming the world's leader, which was to use the main force to advance in a joint attack, sweep North China, and conquer Beijing in order to change the dynasty.  After occupying the center, you can use the name Zhengshuo to win over, recruit and surrender, and jointly attack various forces, and finally achieve unification of the world.  So the Shun Army began to concentrate its forces. It wanted to gather almost all of its nearly one million (not so-called) troops first.  Li Zicheng personally led the main force from Xi'an, crossed the Yellow River, and attacked Beijing, the home base of the Ming Dynasty.  After crossing the Yellow River and arriving in southern Shanxi, the Shun army will be divided into two parts.The first was a partial division, commanded by General Liu Fangliang, which crossed the Taihang Mountains along the north bank of the Yellow River and turned north to attack Lu'an (today's Changzhi, Shanxi), Zhangde (today's Anyang, Henan), Guangping (today's Handan, Hebei), Shunde  (Today's Xingtai, Hebei), Zhending (today's Zhengding, Hebei), and Baoding were advancing towards Beijing from the south.  The other road was the main force and was under the personal control of Li Zicheng, heading north along the Shanzhong Valley, out of Datong and Xuanfu, and from the northwest towards the capital of the Ming Dynasty.  Before going on an expedition, Li Zicheng issued the famous edict of the first year of Yongchang. The full text is as follows: "God's judgment is true, but it is only for misfortune. When the people return, they only come to Su. Life is unreliable, but love is especially visible. In the past of Guangdong Ji  , I know the causes of gains and losses; I know the past and the present, and I know the reasons for each failure.  But there is very little public loyalty, and even bribes to the palace, the power of the emperor is gradually changing; the favor of the gentry is exhausted, and the princes are all flesh-eating and cowardly, and the eunuchs are like dogs and pigs.  And with the help of his eyes and ears, there are many prisoners, and the soldiers have no intention of repaying the favor; the people are full of levies and have the hatred of dying together. Si Hao Tian is so poor that he is suffering from disasters. I lifted up my cloth and saw the haggard appearance.  The body is suffering from the pain of pangs and pangs. I remember that the whole world is suffering from poverty;  I have not yet expressed my intention. This is my warning: If you are able to honor your ancestors and live up to your virtues, I will benefit those who came before you, no matter how many times you are in the Qi Dynasty.  There is a family in the house, and the people are grateful for their kindness.  Tell me that you are sincere. Don't complain about Zong Gong, and don't harm your ministers. I am still loyal to your father, and I will give you a good fortune in your family. "  The Edict of the First Year was actually an ultimatum-style letter of surrender issued by the Dashun regime to the Ming Dynasty.  In the edict, the extreme corruption of the Ming Dynasty was fully exposed, pointing out that this court only safeguarded the interests of the nobility and big landowners, and that all the wealth in the world fell to the gentry (Ming clan and bureaucrats), princes, and eunuchs.  In his hands, the common people were heavily levied, causing Lu Zuo's wealth to be exhausted.  This forced the people to rise up and fight against them.  In other words, it expressed the justice of the Dashun regime to the world.  Then, Li Zicheng solemnly announced: "I lifted up my cloth clothes and witnessed the haggard figure and the pain of pangs in my body. I remember that the whole world leads the earth, and I am suffering from poverty; I have endured the changes of water and Yanshan, and the water and fire have not been solved."  It expressed his determination to fight to the end as he shares a common destiny with the people of the world.  However, in order to reduce the resistance during the march, the edict also pointed out the way out for Emperor Chongzhen, asking him to "examine the situation", see the situation clearly, and surrender as soon as possible.  And in this edict, the sentence "The emperor is not very dark" seems to think that in Li Zicheng's eyes, Emperor Chongzhen was not that bad. The main reason was that the ministers did evil things and made the great mountains and rivers a mess.  But in essence, this edict is a letter to persuade him to surrender, so he has to leave a little room in the tone. If Emperor Chongzhen is described as extremely dim, persuading him to be aware of current affairs will become playing the piano to an ox.  However, no one would believe that if Emperor Chongzhen really surrendered, Li Zicheng would let Emperor Chongzhen's family go. This was nothing more than a propaganda strategy.  Around the time the edict was issued in the first year of Yongchang, on May 21, the 16th year of Chongzhen, the Dashun Army marched toward the Jifu area with overwhelming force in accordance with the original deployment.  With this action, the Dashun regime undoubtedly believes that the time has come.  Because at this time, there was no strong Ming army in the north, and in the Central Plains, the Runing army could not escape no matter how fiercely it fought with the Qing army and Zhang Xianzhong's Daxi Army.  Li Zicheng and the others even believed that their millions of troops were enough to crush any force.  In particular, they seriously underestimated the strength of the Qing army.  In the eyes of people like Li Zicheng who were born in the Trilateral Army Town, the Trilateral Shaanxi Army was already much stronger than the Liao Army, and the Qing Army was at most stronger than the Mongolian army that was bullied by the Shaanxi Army and couldn't find the north.  limited.  Therefore, after such a comparison, they believed that the Qing army was nothing more than this. It was only because the Shaanxi army did not appear that the Qing army jumped to this point.  There is no doubt that this common-sense view is somewhat ridiculous.  Li Zicheng and the others even overestimated their own strength.  His millions of loyal troops, the core troops are only 200,000, and the others only serve as auxiliary troops at most, and their combat effectiveness on the battlefield is not very good.  In addition, the Shun Army was gathered together by various troops in a short period of time, so mutual cooperation and centripetal force were quite poor.  But no matter what, Shunjun¡¯s march this time kicked off the various forces¡¯ quest to dominate the world!  (To be continued)
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