In the same month, at the same time as the large-scale development of wasteland in various parts of Shandong, Li Zicheng led the bandit camp to Tongguan.
Tongguan faces the Yellow River to the north and sits on the mountainside to the south. Since its completion in the first year of Jian'an in the Eastern Han Dynasty, it has been the east gate of Guanzhong. It has always been a battleground for military strategists. Tongguan was established at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. At that time, the city of Guan was built on the loess plateau and moved several miles south in the Sui Dynasty. , Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty moved north to the plateau, forming the former site of Tongguan City. Tongjin County was established in the Tang Dynasty, and Tongguan Guard was established in the Ming Dynasty.
Tongguan is an important place in the three provinces of Qin, Shanxi and Henan. The situation is very dangerous. There are Qinling Mountains in the south, Forbidden Valley in the southeast, and Twelve Liancheng in the south of the valley. In the north, the Wei and Luo Rivers meet the Yellow River and hug the pass. Yue. The surrounding mountains are surrounded by mountains and peaks, with deep valleys and cliffs. The mountains are high and the road is narrow. There is a narrow catwalk in the middle, which can only accommodate one car and one horse. In the past, people often compared the dangerous situation here with "the thin road is dangerous and the apes compete" and "the human road ends at Tongguan Pass".
Tongguan was a Taolin fortress in ancient times. In the fifth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, Liu Tong, a thousand households, built the city. In the ninth year of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty, command Jin Shi added additional city signs and built a city wall that was "twisting and twisting according to the mountain." It was later called Ming City. It borders the Yellow River in the north, crosses Fenghuang and Qilin Mountains in the south, cuts off the East-West Road to the east and faces the Yellow River and extends to Qilin Mountain in the south; cuts off the East-West Road to the west and runs up to Xiangshan Mountain on the south side of the river. There are six city gates, each with two holes, connected by urns in the middle.
The east gate was called Jindou, first "Ying'en", and later changed to "Pingfan and Liangshan"; the west was called "Huaiyuan", later changed to "Control Sanqin". There are two south gates. The east one is called the upper south gate. It was first named "Lingyun", then "Linyou" and then "Lanshan". The west one is called the lower south gate. It was first named "Yingxun" and later "Lanshan". "Phoenix". There are also two north gates. The one to the west is the big north gate, which was first called the "sucking gate".
"Hong" was later changed to "Baying". There are two water gates in the north and south. The south gate has seven gate towers with an overpass; the north gate has nine gate towers. There are six major city gates. Except for the south gate, which has no tower, the east and west There are two in each city.
Tongshui passes through the city and flows into the Yellow River through Tongjin Bridge. There are Jinling Temple, Bell Tower, Wanghe Tower, Luzu Temple, Yueshu Tower, Xiangshan Patriarch Temple, archways and pavilions built in the city. It was called "glorious and magnificent, reflecting the plains of Sichuan" in ancient times.
The Tongguan City Wall meanders along the mountains, including Qilin Mountain, Yantai (also known as Yintai Mountain) and Bijia Mountain in the southeast, Fenghuang Mountain and Xiezi Mountain (also known as Xiangshan) in the southwest, and the section of the Tongguan River that enters the Yellow River into Guancheng. , causing the Tong River, which flows into the Yellow River from south to north, to pass through Tongguan City.
The expanded Tongguan City is high in the south and low in the north, facing the Yellow River in the north. The three walls on the east, west and north are five feet high, and the highest point of the south wall is ten feet high. The entire city has a circumference of twelve miles. The streets in the city are criss-crossed, and many scenic spots have been built inside and outside the passes, on the mountains and down the mountains. These scenic spots gradually spread and became famous in the local area. They have become the eight scenic spots of Tongguan that are highly praised by the people: Xiongguan Huju, Jinggou Longqiu, Qiaolou Wan Photo, Taoist temple bell, Zhongtiao snow case, Qinling cloud screen, Fengling Xiaodu, Yellow River rising in spring.
But at this time, everyone in Tongguan City was no longer interested in enjoying these beautiful scenery, because hundreds of thousands of troops led by Li Zicheng had already arrived at the city, surrounding Tongguan from the east and west, and not even a tit could fly out.
At this time, the bandit army was making a comeback, and its strength was even greater than before. The strength of the bandit camp alone had reached more than 200,000. Li Zicheng's Chinese army was in Tong.
A camp was set up ten miles away from Guandong. General Quan Tian Jianxiu and General He Jin were under control. Former General Guoyi Ren Jirong led 25,000 cavalry, 20,000 armored soldiers, 50,000 infantry and dead soldiers to surround the east of Tongguan.
Liu Zongmin led General Wu Ruyi of Yiyi, deputy general Dang Shousu, and general Li Jin of the left, commanding 20,000 armored soldiers, 100,000 infantry and dead soldiers to the west of Tongguan, and launched the main attack from here.
Now that Li Zicheng was defeated in Kaifeng, he was defeated by tens of thousands of elite new troops led by Liu Yan. With the advice of Li Yan, Li Dingguo, Song Xiance and others, he learned from the painful experience and began a new round of rectification of the bandit battalions. The battalion began to train soldiers and horses on a large scale. Even ordinary dead soldiers and infantry had to undergo a certain degree of training every day.
At the same time, Li Zicheng also exchanged the military equipment of each battalion, tried to unify the equipment, reorganized the firearms battalion, collected excellent firearms and artillery from everywhere, and ordered Li Dingguo and Ai Nengqi to train gunners and firearms operators.
After some reorganization, not only did the rogue bandits become stronger than before, but their combat power also began to increase rapidly, taking the first step in transforming from rogue bandits into a regular army.
At the same time, Li Zicheng, under the strong advice of Li Yan and Li Dingguo, no longer immediately demolished a city after conquering it. Instead, he left soldiers and horses to garrison every city he conquered, and sent officials to administer it. He began to move from rogue bandits to Transformed into a separatist force.
At this time, the left battalion led by Liu Fangliang was managing various places in Shaanxi, and the right battalion led by Yuan Zongdi was clearing out various parts of Shanxi. The foundation is there.
At this time, the entire territory of Shanxi is about to fall, and Shaanxi
Only a few cities in the west, such as Tongguan and Xi'an, are still struggling to support themselves.
The front battalion led by Li Laiheng and the firearms battalion led by Li Dingguo are besieging Kaifeng City, preparing to pull out the last nail in Henan.
Li Guo led the rear camp, together with more than 400,000 horses and family members of the old camp, to deploy throughout Henan. Li Guo himself even led his troops to enter Luoyang City. When the news spread, the whole country was shocked.
Unlike Li Zicheng, who was making great progress, the situation on Daming's side was almost about to collapse.
Sun Chuanting led more than 10,000 people in the Dubiao camp and more than 4,000 Tongguan garrison. They were trapped in the city by Li Zicheng's more than 200,000 horses. They refused to defend every day, but could not wait for reinforcements.
As the troops from the three towns of Yang Guozhu, Wang Pu and Li Fuguo moved south, Li Zicheng also mobilized Yuan Zongdi's right battalion to move north to stop the attack.
Upon seeing this, Wang Pu directly led his troops back to Datong Town to defend it. This was already the last important town belonging to the Ming Dynasty in Shanxi Province, and Wang Pu was afraid of losing something.
Then Li Fuguo also led his troops to retreat in large strides. After all, he, the commander-in-chief, was too weak to withstand the impact of the rogue army.
Only Yang Guozhu led his troops to continue southward and encountered Yuan Zongdi's troops in Pingyang Prefecture, Shanxi, north of Tongguan. After a fierce battle between the two sides, Yang Guozhu won a complete victory, beheading more than 20,000 people, and regained Pingyang Prefecture.
However, Yang Guozhu had just led his troops into the city. The next day, he was besieged by the army commanded by Yuan Zongdi. More than 30,000 elite soldiers from Xuanfu Town were trapped in the city. Outside the city, there were hundreds of thousands of troops from the right camp of the bandits, as well as tens of thousands of troops. An unknown sea of refugees.
As for the reinforcements from Tangtong and Mako towns, a long time has passed since they received the order from the Ministry of War, but their troops are still grinding in the area of Beizhili.
Damn, it's just perfunctory.
Only Cao Bianjiao, the chief military officer of Dongxie Town, led his entire force of 35,000 troops to Shanxi, preparing to fight against Yang Guozhu's troops in Pingyang Fucheng.
On the East Urn City of Tongguan, Sun Chuanting, the governor of the three sides, looked into the distance with a sad face. The camp of the bandit army in the east was only ten miles away. At this time, there were still knights and scouts of the bandits galloping not far away, unscrupulously. Pry into the city defense situation.
In the west, a fierce battle has been going on for most of this morning. The city's defenders have suffered more than 300 casualties. Although the army of bandits led by Liu Zongmin suffered more casualties, considering the huge force of the bandits, only 30 or 20 people were killed or injured. A thousand people is basically a drop in the bucket.
Sun Chuanting was worried at this time, lamenting that he had had ups and downs over the years, but he could never express his ambitions. Whenever he was about to achieve success, he would be hit.
"Time is destiny!"
Sometimes Sun Chuanting also lamented, why couldn't the Qin army he created by himself be able to conquer the north and south like Liu Yan's new army?
Sun Chuanting became a Jinshi in the 47th year of Wanli, and was first appointed magistrate of Yongcheng County. Later, in the early years of Tianqi, he entered Beijing and served as the chief officer of the Ministry of Personnel, and then he was promoted to Doctor Jixun. Later, because of dissatisfaction with Wei Zhongxian's dictatorship, he abandoned his official position and returned to his hometown.
In the blink of an eye, in the autumn of the eighth year of Chongzhen, Sun Chuanting was appointed as a doctor, and later he was promoted to Shuntian Fu Cheng. In March of the ninth year of Chongzhen, Sun Chuanting took the initiative to ask Ying to serve as governor of Shaanxi, responsible for wiping out the army of bandits.
It was at this time that Sun Chuanting established an army in Yulin, which became the famous Qin army in the late Ming Dynasty. Sun Chuanting led the Qin army at the Black Water in Ziwu Valley
He waited for work in the valley. After four days of fierce fighting, Gao Yingxiang was defeated and captured, and was sent to Beijing to be executed. This was the most glorious moment in Sun Chuanting's life.
Subsequently, Sun Chuanting led his troops to attack the bandit army Shengshi Wang, Guabei King, Yiyifei, Zhentian King and other troops one after another, bringing peace to the area south of Guanzhong. Later, Sun Chuanting led his troops and Hong Chengchou ambushed them with heavy troops in the south plain of Tongguan, almost wiping out all the troops of King Chuang Li Zicheng. Li Zicheng broke through with only eighteen cavalry.
At this point, the army of bandits in Shaanxi was almost suppressed. At this time, the Ming army was in a good situation, but because the Qing army invaded the Great Wall at this time, Emperor Chongzhen urgently sent Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting back to Beijing for defense, and Li Zicheng got a breather.
This is also the regret of Sun Chuanting's life. At this time, standing on the top of Tongguan City, Sun Chuanting was still sighing.
"Life is only a few decades long, but now when I think about it, it feels like a lifetime ago!"
Sun Chuanting really wanted to meet Liu Yan at this time. This famous governor of Shandong Province was invincible in attacking the Qing army in the north and defeating the bandits in the south. The new army under his command was known as the strongest army in the Ming Dynasty. Sun Chuanting had always wanted to find an opportunity to meet Liu Yan. Let's drink and chat together, and dream about the great dream of calming the world and saving the people. But now it seems that this wish may become his last wish.
"Report!"
"Reporting to the governor, the bandit Liu Zongmin is gathering and intends to attack the west side of Tongguan!"
Sun Chuanting sighed in his heart. The bandits besieged them day and night, never giving the defenders a chance to breathe. On the east side, Li Zicheng personally led a large army to contain the defenders. Sun Chuanting had to deploy thousands of elite defenses in the east, causing the defenses in the west to The troops were stretched thin, but there was nothing they could do.
"Order to supervise all departments of the Biao Battalion to prepare for war
, all military households and civilians in the city are organized to prepare for defense! "
"Order to light the smoke!"
"yes!"
A guerrilla general from the Dubiao Battalion on the side said in an almost desperate tone: "Director, the smoke has been lit for eight consecutive days, will there be any reinforcements coming?"
Another guerrilla general said: "The bandits are attacking from the east and west at the same time. I'm afraid we are the only ones left in Shaanxi who are still holding on!"
Sun Chuanting glared at the two of them, and the two guerrilla generals immediately lowered their heads, but Sun Chuanting did not rebuke them. When the battle reached this point, even Sun Chuanting lacked confidence in his heart. The strength gap between the enemy and us was too big.
"Let's go! Go to the west."
At this time, the sound of killings on the west wall was loud. The Huaiyuan Gate and Xianan Gate to the west were attacked by the bandit army at the same time. The endless bandit infantry and dead soldiers rushed up with shouts. The cannon fodder troops carried ladders, held various wooden boards as shields, and waved various knives and farm tools in their hands. Old and young, wives and children supported each other and launched a charge.
Sun Chuanting looked at the scene outside the city. He didn't feel much fear in his heart. Instead, he was filled with a sense of sadness. Those were the people of the Ming Dynasty. Maybe they were hard-working and peaceful civilians yesterday. But then, they were captured by an army of thieves. On the battlefield where flesh and blood are everywhere, the whole family rushes to the place of death until the whole family is dead!
"fire!"
However, Sun Chuanting still issued the attack order without hesitation, because Tongguan could not be lost. If Tongguan was lost, Shaanxi would declare the entire territory lost, and even the world's current situation would change. This result he could not bear.
boom!
Tongguan as a pass
At the first pass in the middle, there are more than 700 artillery pieces of various types deployed on the city walls, which is a terrifying number. There are more than 40 red cannons weighing more than 3,000 kilograms on various city walls. With such firepower, let alone the relatively poorly equipped bandit army, even if it is replaced by the new army led by Liu Yan, If you come to attack the city, you will suffer big losses.
This is why Sun Chuanting led more than 10,000 people to defend the city and withstood Li Zicheng's siege of hundreds of thousands of troops for more than half a month.
But suddenly, Sun Chuanting's face became extremely ugly. At this time, a large number of artillery pieces were launched in front of Liu Zongmin's formation, numbering hundreds. Moreover, Sun Chuanting observed through the telescope that many of the gunners who were operating the artillery surrendered. Ming army gunner.
"Concentrate the artillery fire and give me the artillery array to hit the bandits!"
At this time, even Sun Chuanting's tone became trembling. Then the smoke filled the air inside and outside Tongguan City. Thousands of artillery pieces from the Ming army and the bandit army began to fire at each other. For a time, the heaven, earth, mountains and rivers trembled, and the sun and the moon also Change color for it.
