Weapons were everywhere in Shanxi and Shaanxi, and the battle for Daling River City in Liaodong was at a critical juncture. Another mutiny broke out in Shandong.
Of course the imperial court must mobilize troops to quell the rebellion!
In early February, Tongzhou Commander-in-Chief Yang Yufan and Tianjin Commander-in-Chief Wang Hong led more than 6,000 troops to engage in battle with the rebels eighty miles away from Ye County.
The two general officers dared to pounce directly because the news they received when they were dispatched was completely different from what they received now.
The intelligence at that time showed that more than a thousand Liao soldiers had caused chaos and destroyed several counties, taking thousands of prisoners, gangsters, and refugees into their homes and robbing their homes.
The two chief military officers led several generals, guerrillas, and generals, and more than 6,000 troops. Of course, they did not take the rebels seriously.
Who knew that the rebels facing the enemy were personally led by Li Jiucheng, the self-proclaimed governor, with 5,000 cavalry and more than 10,000 infantry.
The result was funny, because the rebels had so many cavalry that the Ming army from Tongzhou and Tianjin could not escape, and half of them surrendered.
Two generals and a group of generals fled into Laizhou City with only more than 300 cavalry.
When the bad news reached the capital, Emperor Chongzhen was furious but had nothing to do. Wang Kun, the eunuch who was in the emperor's heart, had no choice but to give advice to mobilize the peace army to quell the rebellion.
Clay figurines still have a third part of their earthy nature, let alone a great eunuch like Wang Kun.
He was bullied by Huang Yi for half a year and hated him so much that he hoped he would never see that devil again in this life.
Who knew that various phenomena showed that the emperor wanted him to continue to supervise the army, and that it was the supervising army who came to quell the rebellion.
Is it easy for the rebels to come?
Intelligence showed that the number of Hongyi cannons and more than 400 French cannons that fell into the hands of the rebels was no less than forty.
As a military supervisor, is it useful for him to supervise the new governor Xu Congzhi of Shandong and the governor Xie Lian to quell the rebellion?
If the two governors were defeated, the most they could do was to be dismissed from office. He, the supervisor, would probably be killed by the emperor!
After weighing the pros and cons for three days, Wang Kun stopped pretending and decided to show off his cards. If he wanted to put down the rebellion in Denglai, he could only mobilize the He army.
As for whether he would be bossed around by Huang Yi again after operating with the Xinghe Army again, he didn't care.
But he firmly believed that the devil Huang Yi should not target him.
Because we asked ourselves, he had not thought about revenge at all during the more than a month since he returned to the capital, and he had not done anything detrimental to the Xinghe Army or Huang Yi.
Isn't it hard and tiring to follow the Xinghe Army without any benefits?
As long as you can get credit for winning the battle, it's nothing. It's better than being sentenced to death for defeat!
As a result, eunuch Wang promoted the virtuous and did not avoid revenge. In front of Wang Chengen and Cao Huachun, he asked the Xinghe army to enter the pass to quell the rebellion.
He also confessed the military discipline of the Xinghe Army he had witnessed with his own eyes, and vowed that as long as Huang Yi led the three thousand Xinghe Army to participate in the counter-insurgency, he, Wang Kun, could guarantee success.
Emperor Chongzhen knew about the Xinghe Army and Huang Yi. He also knew that Huang Yi was Geng Ruqi's son-in-law. He still clearly remembered Geng Zhanghua who joined the army to save his father.
In less than three years, these two young generals have grown up and are both second-grade deputy generals.
Emperor Chongzhen never minded the young civil servants and generals because he himself was very young.
Thinking back then, when he was only seventeen years old, he was able to defeat the eunuchs and force him to die at the age of nine thousand. Was he considered young and promising?
Emperor Chongzhen had always been self-righteous, and it was not until the moment before the fall of the country that he suddenly realized how stupid he was for dismantling the eunuchs and forcing Wei Zhongxian to death.
Chongzhen still feels good about himself now. He values Geng Zhanghua and Huang Yi.
Since Huang Yi's Xinghe Army can fight, and since Wang Kun believes that mobilizing the Xinghe Army to counter the rebellion will definitely succeed, then he will do it!
But Wang Kun was secretly complaining that it was not that simple to mobilize the army. If there was not enough food, fodder, horse feed, and starting silver, the devil would never be able to obey the order.
At the end of February, Huang Yi received an order from the Ministry of War and Governor Xuanda, requiring the Xinghe Army to leave within half a month.
Huang Yi requested to postpone the departure until early April on the grounds that spring plowing had just begun and the Xinghe Army had to seize farming time.
It was also reported that the Xinghe Army would dispatch 1,800 cavalry, 1,200 infantry, and artillery, carrying 36 Hongyi cannons.
Because there were so many cavalry and each man had two horses, many grooms were needed.
Furthermore, because the Hongyi cannon copied by the Xinghe Army weighed more than three thousand kilograms, a large number of civilians needed to be recruited.
Therefore, to mobilize three thousand Xinghe troops, we need to mobilize five thousand soldiers, one hundred thousand taels of silver, and twenty thousand dan of horse feed and food...
And because the rebels had so many artillery pieces, the Xinghe Army needed more powerful artillery fire to defeat them, so they requested the Ministry of War to allocate 50,000 kilograms of gunpowder and twenty 5,000 kilograms of Hongyi cannon.
Huang Yi was just asking for a price, and didn't expect the court to actually give Hongyi the cannon.
They would rather the Hongyi cannon be captured by the rebels of Li Jiucheng and Kong Youde than give it to any group of people readily.
It is well known how inefficient the late Ming Dynasty was.
Huang Yi began to reply after receiving the transfer order from the Ministry of War and Xuanda University, and deliberately did not rush the six hundred miles.
The official document was sent back and forth, but there was no progress on the substantive issues, and it was gone in half a month.
After going back and forth several times, I must have gone through spring and autumn...
Anyway, Huang Yi was not in a hurry. His plan was to completely defeat the rebels when the Liao Sea was frozen and unable to navigate, and to rob the rebels of gold, silver, jade and agate worth millions of taels and keep them for himself.
I guess after this battle, within two or three years, the Xinghe Army will no longer have to worry about money.
To embezzle all the seizures, you must act independently.
This means that the rebels will be completely wiped out by the Xinghe Army alone.
It is necessary to wait for half a year and let the soldiers and horses of the imperial court fill in the holes a few more times!
To avoid fighting together with other Ming armies and being separated and captured in large quantities.
Wang Kun was not stupid. He would never come here unless he saw the Xinghe Army. He personally went to the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Household Affairs, and the Ministry of Works to deliver the food, wages, gunpowder, and artillery for the Xinghe Army's departure.
Running these ministries requires not only power, but also money.
Wang Kun has no money!
He had spent all his savings to get the job of supervising the army.
I thought that after working for two or three years, I could earn hundreds of thousands of taels of silver. If I gave the profits to the ceremonial supervisor and the eunuch in charge of printing, I would end up with a hundred or eighty thousand taels of silver.
Who would have known that the reality was so ugly that he, a eunuch overseeing the army, would actually return to the capital with nothing to lose.
I can’t do anything without money!
What to do?
Just be aggressive!
As a result, Wang Kun became even more famous because he quarreled every day, with the Minister of War and the Minister of War, and with the sitting officials of the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Industry...
The Xinghe Army refused to leave without food and ammunition, and without gunpowder for cannons.
The reason is simple: the emperor has no shortage of hungry soldiers.
The rebels have too many artillery, and if they don’t have enough artillery and gunpowder to fight against them, they will die!
However, Wang Kun's quarrel was just a waste of time, and he was not able to ask for food, gunpowder, and artillery.
The emperor repeatedly urged Wang Kun, who was helpless and had no choice but to cry about his experiences in the Ministry of Household Affairs, Ministry of War, and Ministry of Works these days. He cried heartbrokenly.
