"Tap tap... tap tap..."
The sound of horse hoofbeats echoed in the wilderness south of the Hun River. Thousands of soldiers riding low Mongolian horses headed southeast with hundreds of artillery carriages pulled by two draft horses.
To others, this scene may make people feel very majestic, but to those who are against them, it is a bit torturous.
Seven or eight miles away from this team, another larger army was marching.
The difference is that compared to the army that was riding leisurely, this army looked a little embarrassed.
The cavalry patrolled the perimeter, and the infantry carried armor on their backs and rushed on their way. The entire team was dusty, and everyone would look behind them from time to time, as if they were on guard against a surprise attack from the army behind them.
Not long after, the whole army stopped marching, and the team at the rear also stopped to rest under the instructions of Tang Qi.
"Master Marquis, with the rebels following like this, it seems that they are going to attack Liaoyang City. If this is the case, should we go to Liaoyang to mobilize troops?"
Among the tens of thousands of people, a commander spoke angrily, looking towards the northwest, as if he wanted to kill the army in the distance with his eyes.
"This Bohai common man has learned to be smart..."
The person who spoke was Wu Gao, Marquis of Jiangyin, who commanded the army, and what he was lamenting was also the situation of the army behind him.
"Master Marquis, why are the rebels so difficult to fight after they leave the camp? It's really strange!"
The commander was still venting, Wu Gao sighed and felt a slight headache: "This is also the reason why I praise the common people of Bohai."
"During the Battle of Tieling, the reason why I wanted to lure them into pursuit was that their various units were not coordinated. Once they pursued, their formations would be disordered, making it easier for our army to divide and outflank them."
"Looking back, when the people of Bohai ordered to stop the pursuit, they saw their own shortcomings and decided to do so."
"This time when we went south, he did not lead a large army to pursue us, but divided his forces to pursue us."
"Without the need to cooperate with the various ministries, they have become more flexible and difficult to deal with."
Wu Gao told him what was bothering him, and couldn't help but think that Zhu Gaoxu had a sinister vision.
"Then shall we go to Liaoyang?" The commander raised his head and glanced at the many clouds gathering in the sky: "With the weather, I'm afraid it will rain in the next few days."
"I won't go. This is a conspiracy of the people of Bohai. We can't commit it."
The commander was still thinking about the weather, but Wu Gao had already seen Zhu Gaoxu's intention.
"The common people of Bohai probably already knew that our army's Jinzhou was lost." Wu Gao said with a solemn expression: "If I were him, since the enemy is unwilling to abandon Shenyang City, the troops and horses must divide their forces."
"Dividing the troops is not enough to take down Jinzhou City, so we must go to various cities to mobilize troops."
"He did not lead an army to fight against us because he knew that we were short of food and grass, so he could be like a tiger in the mountains, slowly watching the blood of his prey drain away and die."
"Right now, we are the prey being bled, and blood is food..."
Wu Gao felt troubled by Zhu Gaoxu's methods, and the commander next to him seemed to understand: "According to your wishes, Lord Marquis, if we transfer some of the defenders of Liaoyang City, we will lose the seven or eight thousand people who are following us." Is it possible that the team will attack Liaoyang City?"
"It's not possible, it's certain!" Wu Gao nodded firmly, and then said:
"When we first crossed the river, their number of soldiers and horses was far greater than ours. The number of soldiers and horses following us was only 20-30% of the rebels' soldiers and horses crossing the river. The other soldiers and horses were probably heading towards southern Liaoning."
"Then we..." Hearing that Zhu Gaoxu's army was heading to Liaonan, the commander was sweating. He knew that the Bohai Navy's marching speed was faster than theirs. If Zhu Gaoxu really sent people to Liaonan, it would be difficult to do so at their speed. Keep up.
"Once Haizhou is captured, we will lose contact with the 20,000-strong army in western Liaoning, and it will be impossible to retreat from Jiulian City."
Wu Gao touched his slightly cold forehead and seemed to have a headache on how to break the situation.
He originally thought that Zhu Gaoxu was a difficult opponent, so he had always avoided fighting and used strong walls to clear the country to deal with him. Who would have thought that Zhu Gaoxu would secretly build a plank road to Chencang, fight against Tieling in the open, and actually sneak into Jinzhou via mountain roads.
The capture of Jinzhou City meant that Liaodong's maritime lifeline was cut off.
Compared with regular soldiers, Zhu Gaoxu is better at using surprise soldiers.
"Call the army to march south, along the mountains and back to the state."
Wu Gao had no choice but to abandon Liaoyang, Haizhou and Gaizhou, and use Fuzhou, the third of the four Liaonan states from north to south, as the site to capture Jinzhou.
"How about bringing troops from western Liaoning?" the commander asked cautiously, but Wu Gao shook his head:
"The common people of Yan have rebelled and captured Juyongguan, Huailai Guard, and Kaiping Five Guards, cutting off the connection between Daning and Shanxi."
"At this time, if something goes wrong between the soldiers and horses in western Liaoning, then the common people of Bohai will be able to join the common people of Yan, and then they will definitely attack Daning."
"If both Daning and Liaodong are lost, this battle will be difficult to fight..."
Wu Gao did not hesitate any longer, and after simply taking the army to rest for an hour, he led them to retreat to the south.
The military rations they carried were enough to support their retreat to Fuzhou, five hundred miles away.
But seeing them leave, Meng Zhang, who was following closely behind him, felt a little sorry.
"This Wu Gao can actually see His Highness's intentions clearly. It's a pity to follow Jianwen."
Meng Zhang used a monocular to watch the Ming army change direction, feeling a little regretful in his heart.
"Tongzhi, do we still want to attack Liaoyang?"
A commander behind Meng Zhang asked. Meng Zhang nodded: "The military order given by His Highness is to capture Liaoyang City. Naturally, we must capture Liaoyang City."
"Besides, it doesn't matter if we let him go to the south. After crossing the river, didn't we transfer 2,000 households of artillery and 200 artillery pieces to the royal capital to command them? It's not a problem to conquer the three states of Hai, Gai and Fu."
"What we should do is capture Liaoyang City as early as possible and then wait for His Highness's military orders."
As Meng Zhang spoke, the commander also muttered: "We share our artillery and brothers with them. I don't know if they will cherish it."
"It's really frustrating to fight against them. Unlike when we surrounded and suppressed those villages in Blackwater City, the brothers fought smoothly."
The commander's words are also the thoughts of the brothers of the Third Battalion of Shenji, or to a greater extent, the thoughts of the entire Bohai Army.
The various departments that have not been coordinated seem to be restraining each other. On one side, I think that they can't keep up, so I should go slower, and on the other side, I think that they will suddenly slow down, and the cooperation is not smooth, and I feel panicked.
The rhythms of each department are different, and the lack of confidentiality in the formation that was exposed in Tieling City will naturally occur.
Zhu Gaoxu also noticed Wu Gao's temptation, and then discovered his own shortcomings, and decided to divide his forces for combat.
Anyway, he has 6,000 cavalry in his hands. No matter which unit encounters difficulties, he can lead the cavalry to gallop to rescue the siege without worrying about each unit being surrounded and annihilated.
This style of play was simplified from Lao Zhu's triple defense line against Bei Yuan.
Among Lao Zhu's three lines of defense, the most important thing is that the court must have a large-scale cavalry team to quickly support the troops of the northern capitals.
After Zhu Gaoxu simplified it, he was the imperial court, and the ministries were the northern governors.
As long as the ministries do not make fatal mistakes, he will have time and opportunity to support them.
His style of play made Wu Gao feel uncomfortable and also made the cities in Liaodong very uncomfortable.
On May 24th, Chen Chang led the Andong Guard to surround Fushun. Fushun guard Zhao led the entire city to surrender. Bohai gained more than 3,700 soldiers and civilians, and more than 4,600 shi of food.
In accordance with Bohai's "Jingnan Regulations", Chen Chang reduced the army to civilians from more than 700 military households in Fushun, transferred half of them to Puhesuo, and divided the more than 24,000 acres of cultivated land in Puhesuo equally among them. In the first year, No taxation.
At the same time, he also gave more than 12,000 acres of local military farmland to the 400 military households left behind on a per capita basis, with each household receiving more than 30 acres of land and exempted from taxes.
On May 25th, Meng Zhang surrounded Liaoyang City. Liaoyang defended itself and refused to surrender. Meng Zhang did not rush to attack the city because since Jinzhou was captured, food has become a problem in the cities in Liaodong. The longer it is delayed, the weaker Liaoyang City will be. .
On May 27th, Wang Yi led the Jurchen and other guards to take the lead in besieging Haizhou City. He divided his 12,000 troops and went south to surround Gaizhou City.
In just four days, four of the eight cities east of the Liao River that had not yet been captured were surrounded, one surrendered, and one was pulled out.
The only things that could still be in the hands of the Ming army were Fuzhou, where Liu Zhen was stationed, and Jiulian City, which was far away from the main battlefield.
This situation was quickly reported to Nanjing by Liu Zhen. When he arrived in Nanjing, it happened to be the first day of June.
"I keep saying that I can stop the rebels at Tieling, but now almost the entire territory east of the Liao River has been lost. Even the 600,000 shi of grain sent by the imperial court have been captured by the rebels, haha..."
In the Wuying Hall of the Forbidden City, Zhu Yunwen held the memorandum from Liu Zhen in his hand with a cold face. While saying this in a mocking tone, his eyes were still scanning the ministers.
More than 40 civil and military officials from the Five Governments and Six Ministries, including the Inspectorate, stood in the Wuying Hall. No one spoke. They all looked at their noses and their minds.
"Do you think I will definitely be angry?"
Zhu Yunwen stood up and walked to the dragon case, looking at the ministers with a cold face.
After all, Qi Tai was the one who recommended Wu Gao, so he took the lead in standing up and bowing:
"Your Majesty, there is no problem as expected by Wu Gao. The only problem is that the rebels got firearms that are sharper than those of the imperial court. This is why Tieling was pulled out and the cities of Shenyang were besieged."
"Although the cities are currently under siege, Liaodong has not been severely damaged. Together with the three guards of the Liao Palace, the Liaodong Dusi still has as many as 60,000 soldiers to fight."
"As long as Wu Gao and Liu Zhen regain Jinzhou, the army can move north again and relieve the siege of the cities."
"The top priority right now is to find a way to transport grain and grass to Liaodong. And Daning is now cut off from Shanxi, so grain can only be transported through western Liaoning."
"I have read through the grain and grass transportation of Daning Dusi. Daning's grain and grass can only last until winter at best, and the same is true for Liaodong."
Qi Tai explained the situation in Daning and Liaodong in detail, but it was extremely harsh to Zhu Yunwen. He asked Qi Tai with a cold face:
"Before the war, your dear friends said that Liaodong lacked generals and soldiers, so I transferred them..."
"Before the war, your dear friends said that Liaodong was short of money and food, so I also transferred it, and I transferred 600,000 dan in one breath."
"Before the war, you all kept saying that the rebellion could be put down in one month, and I also trust you all the more."
"But what about now?" Zhu Yunwen asked everyone, and walked to the sand table in Wuying Hall, pointed at the sand table and said: "The common people of Bohai have sent detailed maps to the imperial court. The imperial court already has such a detailed map. , why are you still losing ground?"
At this point, Zhu Yunwen asked Qi Tai again: "Just now, the Qi Ministry of War said that the troops and horses of the Liaodong Dusi did not suffer heavy losses, but why did the soldiers and horses not suffer heavy losses, but the rebel troops went all the way south."
"Please tell me from the Ministry of War of Qi, do you have to wait until the soldiers and horses of the Bohai common people surround the capital and put a knife on my neck, then Wu Gao's soldiers and horses can be considered to have suffered heavy losses?!"
"I don't dare..." Hearing what Zhu Yunwen said, Qi Tai and everyone else knelt down and kowtowed. Zhu Yunwen stood in the hall and relieved all the unhappiness he had felt during this time.
If the ministers were aggrieved, then he was truly aggrieved.
The five governments and six ministries asked for money, soldiers and food, and he gave them all, and the amount given was much more than they had asked for in advance. However, the final result was that Liaodong was in ruins.
This is just Liaodong, what about other places?
"The Liao Dynasty is serious, please pass on my decree..." Zhu Yunwen spoke slowly, calming down a little.
"The Marquis of Jiangyin, Wu Gao, is promoted to the governor of the Zuojundudufu in Beijing. He will leave for Beijing today. He then promotes Geng Gu to be the chief military officer of Liaodong, in charge of the Liaodong capital's counterinsurgency affairs."
"Your Majesty, no!" Hearing that Zhu Yunwen wanted to abolish Wu Gao, Qi Tai said bravely: "Wu Gao is the best person to take charge of Liao affairs. If he is abolished, Liao affairs will probably spread to western Liaoning, not to mention that Geng Qing is now clinging to the throne. Shenyang City is besieged by Bohai common people with cavalry, and military orders cannot be reached. How can we command the troops of the Liaodong capital to quell the rebellion?"
"Best?" Zhu Yunwen was very disappointed with Qitai. He asked again: "Mr. Wu Gao kept saying that Wu Gao was the best to counter the rebellion, but I didn't see the first-level gains or the rebels stopping. Instead, they were killed in less than half a battle." Within a few months, the east of the Liao River almost became the territory of the rebels."
"As a deputy general, Geng Feng knew that Shenyang should not be abandoned, but the Marquis of Jiangyin abandoned thirty thousand, Tieling, Puhe and many other guard cities and towns within half a month. How can I trust him?"
"If Geng Feng can't take command, he will let Liu Zhen take command of the three armies. I don't believe that the Marquis of Jiangyin can fight the battle, but Liu Zhen can't fight it!"
"I don't ask Liu Zhen to defeat the rebels, but as long as he doesn't let the rebels surround more than half of the cities in western Liaoning for half a month, this will be a great achievement!"
Zhu Yunwen's voice was not loud, but it was very heavy in everyone's ears.
Of course, there were also civil servants such as Fang Xiaoru, Huang Zicheng, and Bao Zhao who had the same view as him. Only Li Jinglong and others knew that there was nothing wrong with Wu Gao's style of play.
There is no problem in strengthening the walls and clearing the country, exchanging space for time. With the size of the imperial court, it is completely possible to restore the people's livelihood in Liaodong after the war. This is the method that can defeat Zhu Gaoxu at the minimum cost.
It's a pity that no one expected that Zhu Gaoxu would suddenly come up with firearms that were sharper than those of the imperial court, and he also had many more cavalry, draft horses, and troops than Liaodong.
Adding these three together, it would be difficult for Liaodong Dusi to compete, and many cities in Liaodong would be surrounded.
Now the imperial court is not only losing ground in the battlefields of Liaodong, but also in the battlefields of Hebei. Therefore, the imperial court needs a big victory to stimulate the court and deter local vassals.
Wu Gao hit the arrow this time.
"How is commoner Yan doing?"
After documenting the Liao incident, Zhu Yunwen began to care about Zhu Di in Peiping.
When Qi Tai heard this, he could only move his thoughts from Liaodong to Beiping: "After the rebels captured Xiaxiailai, Juyongguan and Kaiping, they withdrew and returned to Peiping to rest and recuperate. It is expected that there were many casualties. Recently, they have been recruiting troops and reorganizing their troops. Invasion from the south.”
"On the court's side, Marquis Changxing has arrived in Kaifeng. He only needs to wait for troops from Huguang, Henan, Shandong and other places to gather before he can send his troops north to put down the rebels."
"How many troops and horses will it take to move out?" Zhu Yunwen had no intention of saying these dramatic words. He just wanted to know when the troops could be sent out and when the rebellion could be quelled.
"Right now, Sandusi's 130,000-strong army has been mobilized. Except for the 20,000 soldiers responsible for supervising Xiangyang, the rest of the soldiers are already on their way to Kaifeng. More than 96,000 have arrived so far."
Li Jinglong spoke at a critical moment. Zhu Yunwen frowned and asked, "How many soldiers and horses does Yan common man have now?"
"After recruiting and surrendering the Juyongguan, Fangzhao and Kaiping tribes, there are about 60,000 people, including about 5,000 cavalry and about 56,700 infantry." Li Jinglong answered truthfully:
"In addition to the troops and horses guarding the city, about 30,000 people can be mobilized to fight the Marquis of Changxing."
"In addition, the Dudu Mansion has sent people to board the ship from Shandong and go to western Liaoning to deliver military orders to Bu Wan, the commander of the Northern Parallel Command, asking Bu Wan to, while guarding Yanshan, deploy 4,000 cavalry and 5,000 infantry from Shanhaiguan Wu Shou'an and other troops to try to recover Yongping.”
Li Jinglong told about the situation ahead, Zhu Yunwen frowned: "Then the Bohai rebels are short of food, what about Yan Ni?"
"Both the reserve warehouses in Beiping and Tongzhou have no less than 300,000 shi of grain. In addition, the Changping warehouses and reserve warehouses in Yongping and Peiping counties have about 400,000 shi, as well as Juyongguan and Huailai, which were captured by Yan Ni. I'm afraid that Yan Ni has some of them. The amount of grain and fodder is no less than two million dan."
Li Jinglong said with shame. After all, there are Taihang Mountains to the west of Beiping and Yanshan Mountains to the north. These two mountain ranges have made Beiping's agricultural situation very good. Over the years, Beiping has not needed the court to worry about food and grass issues. Its tax payment is second only to Shanxi and Shandong in the north. It is much better than Bohai, Liaodong and Daning.
But when he said this, the ministers in the palace hesitated a little.
Most of the civil servants in this palace support the reduction of the vassal state. However, although the current situation seems to be under control, it is still far from what the civil servants said that the vassal can be leveled in a few months.
Apart from anything else, just looking at the current strength of the rebels, if the Liaodong and Peking armies did not exaggerate the strength of the rebels, the number of rebels would be 60,000 in Yanni and about 40,000 in Bohai, totaling 100,000.
One hundred thousand, this number is quite a lot. Although Geng Bingwen and Daning and Liaodong have a combined army of more than 200,000, it will probably be very difficult to deal with these one hundred thousand rebels in a short time.
Zhu Yunwen glanced at the performance of the ministers and felt very disappointed.
If he didn't still have tens of millions of money and food and hundreds of thousands of soldiers, he might not be able to deal with the situation so calmly.
"How is the situation in Yunnan? Can it be controlled?"
Zhu Yunwen continued to set his sights on Li Jinglong, and the situation in his mouth was the rebellion of Luchuan Daoqianmeng.
"Wei Guogong has opened a nine-foot road from Yongchang to Jinghan. Now the food and grass transportation speed is more than twice as fast as before. The Marquis of Xiping also led the governors Gu Cheng, He Fu, Qu Neng and others to retake Kongtong Village. Now We have already led the army to Longchuan."
"As long as Longchuan is captured, Sister Yun will be under the attack of our army. It will not be easy for the thief Dao Qianmeng to escape even if he wants to escape."
The smooth progress of the southwest war made Zhu Yunwen feel a little better. He breathed a sigh of relief: "Settling the southwest war early to prevent the situation in the north from changing."
"Yes!" Li Jinglong bowed in agreement, and Zhu Yunwen also glanced at everyone: "The Ministry of War of Qi, Minister Huang Taichang, and Dr. Fang stay, and the other beloved ministers should disperse."
"Your Majesty, please retire..." After hearing this, all the ministers left, leaving only Qi Tai, Huang Zicheng and Fang Xiaoru.
Seeing the ministers exiting the palace, Zhu Yunwen took out a letter.
"This letter was written to me by a common man from Yan. I thought he was so arrogant and should be the one to call out the thief."
The letter was handed over to Huang Zicheng and others through Li Quan's hand. The three of them opened it and read it. The contents were nothing but Zhu Di's accusations against Zhu Yunwen's actions and policies.
Zhu Di first said that it was necessary to reduce the vassal status, but there was no need to depose his uncles into common people and send troops to force his own uncles to death.
In the letter, Zhu Di also praised Zhu Yunwen for being very obedient when he was a child, so he must have been bewitched by Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng to do this.
As long as Zhu Yunwen hands over Qi Tai and Huang Zicheng, re-enters his and Zhu Gaoxu's names into the clan mansion, and pardons the soldiers who fought against them this time, then he will immediately write a letter to Zhu Gaoxu, and the two armies will return to their bases immediately. Then use "Jing Nan" as the slogan to continue to raise troops.
After seeing this letter, Huang Zicheng and Qi Tai broke out in cold sweat on their foreheads. Originally, the slogan of "Qingjun side" was very far-fetched. When encountering a weak-tempered emperor, they could kill the rebel ministers who used the slogan as a sword, and then let them go. The rebels came from nowhere.
After Zhu Di shouted the slogan "Qingjun side", Zhu Yunwen made no move, which made the two of them feel a little more at ease.
Now Zhu Di wrote another letter to the emperor, giving many promises to ask him to hand over the two of him. How could this make them feel at ease.
"Don't worry, gentlemen, I will not be controlled by Yan Ni. I want you two gentlemen to watch Yan Ni's defeat so that I can continue to govern the government."
Zhu Yunwen smiled and comforted the two of them, which made them breathe a sigh of relief: "I thank your Majesty for your kindness..."
"No need to thank you. What I care about most right now is when the rebels will be wiped out. Will there be any changes in the local vassals?"
Zhu Yunwen asked him what he was most concerned about. After all, there were still nine vassal kings who had not moved, including King Ning, King Gu and King Liao who were very close to Peiping.
"Your Majesty, please rest assured that the imperial court is powerful, but it only cost Fang Zhao one of his troops. The vassals did not dare to raise troops to rebel. The people of Yan dared to raise troops only after seeing the people of Bohai pulling tens of thousands of troops to the south. "
"Like the King of Chu, the King of Shu, the King of Qin, the King of Qing, the King of Jin, etc., they only have three guards in their hands, and they are supervised by the capital's soldiers and horses, so naturally they dare not raise troops."
"The only ones that need attention are King Ning, King Gu and King Liao."
"Especially the King of Ning and the King of Liao. Currently, there are only 20,000 officers and soldiers in western Liaoning, and 15,000 of them are the guards of the King of Liao. If the King of Liao responds to the common people of Yan and Bohai, then Daning will be completely destroyed. If King Ning follows and responds, Yan Ni may have no less than a hundred thousand troops at his disposal."
"Right now, the first thing His Majesty has to do is to summon King Ning, King Gu and King Liao to the capital."
Qi Tai gave his own opinions and suggestions. After hearing this, Zhu Yunwen felt that there was no problem, so he nodded and ordered Li Quan, the Supervisor of Ceremonies, to draft an edict.
After solving this troublesome matter, Zhu Yunwen let the three people leave. With them, he also had the intention to summon King Liao, King Ning, and King Gu to the capital.
(End of chapter)
