Under Chuzhou City, one hundred thousand rebels were getting ready to attack Chuzhou City in one fell swoop.
Today is already the 13th day of their attack on Chuzhou. The rebels suffered nearly 40,000 casualties. This is the largest siege casualty in the history of the rebels.
Although the army led by Hong Chengchou has now captured Fengyang and is within easy reach of Chuzhou, King Chuang Gao Yingxiang is now like a gambler who is desperate to lose. He will never give up until Chuzhou is captured.
Anyway, according to their original plan, they would have a decisive battle with the government troops in Chuzhou.
However, in order to prevent "Crazy Hong" from sneaking attacks, he still sent heavy troops to defend the dangerous place in the northwest of Chuzhou.
Zhang Xianzhong's old camp was responsible for holding Qingliu Pass to the west of Chuzhou, while General Li Zicheng personally defended Tongshigu Mountain in Lai'an County to the north of Chuzhou to prevent the main force of the Ming army from going south.
Fortunately, the main force of the Ming army has not gone south, and only a small number of Ming troops have been found around Chuzhou.
Time is still in your own hands.
Gao Yingxiang pulled out his sword and shouted: "Brothers, the artillery in Chuzhou City has no shells. The city will be destroyed today. Whoever is the first to board Chuzhou City will be rewarded with a thousand taels of gold and be made a general; the three who conquer Chuzhou City will be rewarded with a thousand taels of gold." If you don't seal the sword, let the brothers use it to their heart's content!"
Sure enough, as soon as they heard that they could plunder freely, these rebels burst into loud cheers!
As a burst of artillery sounded, countless rebels rushed towards Chuzhou City.
Climb first, trap the enemy, kill the general, and capture the flag. Among the four major military merits, being first to the top is the most generous reward.
At the same time, it is something that an ordinary soldier can do with only personal bravery.
Famous generals such as Fan Kuai in the Han Dynasty, Yu Jin and Le Jin in the Three Kingdoms period, and Xu Da and Chang Yuchun in the early Ming Dynasty were all the first to become powerful.
He is also a shortcut for an ordinary soldier to change his destiny in one fell swoop.
To climb first, you only need to be the first to board the city, which is relatively the easiest to do.
In addition to logging in first, there are also rewards for logging in second and third, which are of course much less impressive than logging in first.
So even though siege is extremely dangerous, many people still flock to it!
At this time, there were only more than 3,000 officers and soldiers left in Chuzhou City, and almost everyone was injured!
The more than 5,000 young men recruited by Liu Taigong, the magistrate of Chuzhou, had been exhausted. He knew that Chuzhou City would not be able to defend tomorrow.
But at this time Liu Taigong still had some illusions!
He looked anxiously into the distance, but the roads around him were densely packed with rebels, and there were no reinforcements at all!
Soon the bandits were on the top of Chuzhou City. Although the officers and soldiers on the city fought hard, there were more and more bandits on the city.
As soon as the officers and soldiers killed a bandit, the bandits behind him immediately came up and quickly killed the officers and soldiers in front.
At this time, General He Jie said: "Liu Zhizhou, Chuzhou can no longer be defended. Hurry up and burn the granaries in the city. You can't leave food to the thieves!"
Liu Taigong understood that it was the last moment. According to the nature of rogue bandits, there would probably be no survivors after the city was broken.
Soon he rushed to the granary and ordered all the remaining 20,000 stones of grain to be burned.
He kowtowed three times towards the north direction of the capital and said, "My minister, Liu Taigong, has failed the emperor's favor and has no choice but to die to apologize!"
Then he pulled out his sword and committed suicide in the state government office. At this time, his wife and children had already hanged themselves from the beam before him!
Then the old servant of the Liu Mansion set fire to the Zhizhou Yamen and rushed directly into the sea of fire.
The gentry and wealthy households in the city had previously sent their servants to recruit young men to go to the city to help in the battle. They knew the nature of the rogue bandits, so they all chose to hang themselves from the rafters.
When the rebel army entered Chuzhou City, the corpses of people were hung on the tree trunks and beams of the city.
Many houses in the city were set on fire.
These rebels have long been transformed into man-eating beasts. After they enter the city, they kill everyone they see, young and old.
When they couldn't find anyone alive, they started slaughtering the corpses!
Those people who were still alive began to regret why they had no integrity and were afraid of death.
Didn't the rebel army say "no distinction between high and low, equal land and free food"? How come it has now changed to "no distinction between high and low, we will send you on your way"?
But now the only response to them is the butcher's knife of these thieves.
The billowing smoke of Chuzhou City can be clearly seen from more than ten miles away!
Soon, a fleet of fast horses drove into Hong Chengchou's camp, and the sentry rider said: "Report to Governor Hong, Chuzhou City is filled with smoke and flames. It must have been breached by bandits!"
Hong Chengchou had been waiting for this moment for a long time. He said: "The bandits have been exhausted after fighting hard for more than ten days under Chuzhou City. Now that they have finally captured Chuzhou, they will definitely relax their vigilance. It is the time for us to annihilate them all." Good opportunity!"
"General He and Deputy General Chen will lead your troops to attack Chuzhou City. You must wipe out this group of rebels!"
At this moment, the government and army spies around Chuzhou had already spread the news to all the camps, and soon the officers and soldiers from all directions were attacking Chuzhou City.
Soon after, Canggen Mountain in the west of Chuzhou, Quanjiao County in the south, and Lai'an County in the northeast fell one after another.
Li Zicheng wanted to go south, but he was tightly entangled by Liu Zhaoji, the commander-in-chief of Shandong Province. He could not get away, so he had to lead his troops to retreat to Shigu Mountain.
Except for the strong Qingliu Pass that has not yet been breached by the Ming army, all other strongholds outside Chuzhou have been lost!
The Yulin Camp cavalry led by He Renlong were even more unstoppable. After defeating the rebel cavalry camp, they waved their sabers and continuously killed the rebels.
The 50,000 rebel troops deployed by Gao Yingxiang to the east were quickly overwhelmed.
The rebel army was completely defeated!
Although the rebels suffered heavy casualties, there were still hundreds of thousands of rebels around Chuzhou.
Gao Yingxiang, the king of Chuang, decided to stick to Chuzhou according to the original plan and fight to the death with the government troops here.
He wanted to find Zhang Xianzhong, the "Eight Great Kings", to discuss countermeasures together, but he could never find Zhang Xianzhong.
Finally, it was discovered that Zhang Xianzhong had secretly led his old camp to retreat to Qingliu Pass.
After Lai'an County was occupied by the army, his contact with Li Zicheng had been cut off. Now that Zhang Xianzhong had also run away, Gao Yingxiang had to accept the reality of fighting alone.
Originally there were 300,000 rebels around Chuzhou. After excluding the 30,000 people led by Li Zicheng and the 50,000 troops of Zhang Xianzhong's headquarters, there were originally 220,000.
However, 40,000 people were lost in the attack on Chuzhou City, and nearly 80,000 people were scattered and killed by the army outside Chuzhou.
Today, there are only 100,000 rebels left in Chuzhou City.
This abominable Liu Taigong actually burned Chuzhou's grain reserves. If the corpses in the yamen had not been burned to black charcoal, it would be impossible to identify which one was Liu Taigong. Gao Yingxiang really wanted to crush his bones and spread his ashes.
Although the rebels themselves carried more than 100,000 shi of food and plundered some food in the city, they now only had 180,000 shi of food.
It's not enough to feed 100,000 horses for two months.
At this time, nearly 100,000 officers and soldiers had surrounded Chuzhou City!
There is definitely no way to break out.
For the time being, Gao Yingxiang can only rely on the strong city of Chuzhou to hold on and see if Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong can open up a situation for him!
At this time, He Renlong and other generals were extremely excited. In this battle, they had defeated more than 100,000 bandits in one fell swoop. Now, the biggest leader of the bandits, Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang, and 100,000 bandits were surrounded in Chuzhou.
After this battle, the imperial court may be indispensable for giving him a reward, and even a knighthood is not impossible.
Even Lu Weiqi, the Minister of War in Nanjing, who had always criticized Hong Chengchou before, had to admit that although Hong Chengchou sacrificed 20,000 Ming troops in Chuzhou, he succeeded.
Now that the bandits have suffered more than half their casualties, and the rest of the main force is surrounded in Chuzhou City, the threat is no longer great.
He Renlong said: "Now the bandits are exhausted and their morale is low. However, our army's morale is high. We can attack Chuzhou in one go and deal with this group of bandits as soon as possible."
Even Chen Yongfu and others asked for a fight!
Hong Chengchou waved his hand and said: "There were more than 300,000 bandits before, and the food consumption was huge. Now that spring has not yet begun, the people have not much leftover food, and they cannot grab much food at all; I believe that the food and grass in Chuzhou City have been destroyed. It’s burned down, so they definitely don’t have much food in store at the moment.”
"Although Chuzhou can be captured by forcibly attacking the city, there are many key bandits among them. They will definitely have to fight against the trapped beasts, and we will probably have to pay a lot of casualties."
"And if Chuzhou is captured by us, Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng's troops who are still near Chuzhou will definitely escape. We still have not done all our work this time!"
Good guy, it turns out that Governor Hong is still a bandit and refuses to let him go. He wants to get rid of it once and for all!
He Renlong said: "According to the battle report, Li Zicheng's troops tried to break through our defense lines and go south to support Gao Yingxiang many times. However, they were repelled under the joint attack of General Liu and Governor Yang's army, and his troops temporarily retreated into Shigu. In the mountains.”
"Zhang Xianzhong, this thief, is very cunning. He actually ran out of Chuzhou City under our noses. His troops are now relying on Qingliu Pass to defend themselves, and General Wang from the Luzhou direction is holding a stalemate with him near Qingliu Pass!"
After listening to He Renlong's words, Hong Chengchou thought for a moment and then said: "The thief Zhang Xianzhong committed a heinous crime by burning down the imperial mausoleum. We must not let him run away like this. This thief is very cunning. Mr. He, you personally lead the Yu Lin under you." The camp goes to destroy him, and we must not let this thief escape."
"This governor and Lu Shangshu will lead the remaining army to continue to besiege Chuzhou City!"
He Renlong clasped his fists and said loudly: "The final general's order!"
Soon he led the main force of the 15,000 Yulin battalion to the back of Qingliu Pass.
At this time, the main force of the rogue bandits in Guanxia was fighting the Ming army in the direction of Luzhou in Guanxia.
There were not many troops left behind the pass, and the Yulin Guards under He Renlong had sharp weapons.
They are all Western-style Suifa guns, with an effective armor-piercing range of ninety steps. Although they are slightly inferior to the Rumi gun in terms of range, the shooting continuity is good.
The Yulin Camp also gave up on the Rumi Gun after conducting many comparative experiments.
After all, the Lumi gun they have is still the original version in Zhao Shizhen's "Artifact Manual", which is completely different from the improved Suifa Lumi gun used by the Liaodong Army.
"Bang, bang, bang"
As a burst of white smoke rose, some of the bandits behind the gate were knocked down one after another by the fire guns of the Yulin Camp.
Soon the infantry of the Habayashi Battalion began to attack the key points under the cover of the gunmen.
This part of the Habayashi battalion that attacked the city was all wearing iron armor and was a heavy infantry force.
It has to be said that with the support of the two emperors Tianqi and Chongzhen, the equipment of the Yulin camp surpassed that of the ordinary frontier army and was comparable to the elite servants in the hands of the frontier army generals.
Moreover, these Yulin Guards have gone through dozens of battles of "annihilating the White Lotus Sect" and "pursuing bandits", so they can be regarded as an elite division!
In the end, they finally captured Qingliu Pass.
When the Ming army in front of the pass saw the fire in the backyard of the bandits, they quickly began to climb the city.
However, some of the rogue bandits in Qingliu Pass were Zhang Xianzhong's old camp after all. Although these people faced the unfavorable situation of being attacked from both sides, they still used Guancheng to continue to resist.
The hand-to-hand fighting in the city has also entered a fever pitch.
Those old bandits were very clever with swordsmanship and very tricky in their attacks, and they all killed them with one blow.
The Ming army, which had superior strength, could not defeat them for a while.
In the end, He Renlong went into battle in person with a broadsword in hand, and the situation opened up.
"Crazy He" was not a name for nothing. He kept waving the long knife in his hand, and the thieves were instantly killed by him.
In a short time, more than ten bandits were killed by him. Under the leadership of He Renlong, the Yulin camp became more and more courageous in the battle, and finally captured Qingliu Pass!
However, He Renlong soon felt something was wrong. There were only ten thousand bandits inside and outside Qingliu Pass, and Zhang Xianzhong himself was missing.
A few hours before the bandits finally confessed, when Zhang Xianzhong received news that the Ming army from the Chuzhou direction was heading towards Qingliu Pass, he led more than 10,000 people towards Huangfu Mountain, where there was a small road that could bypass Qingliu Pass.
At this time, Zhang Xianzhong had already climbed over the high mountains of Chuzhou and headed west along the junction of Fengyang Prefecture and Luzhou Prefecture.
He originally had 50,000 troops, but he lost 3,000 when he attacked Qingliu Pass, and more than 6,000 more when he attacked Chuzhou. When retreating from Chuzhou to Qingliu Pass, another 20,000 troops were dispersed by the official army.
When he finally reached Qingliu Pass, only 20,000 people were left. He cruelly left more than 10,000 people to defend Qingliu Pass. Now there are only seven or eight thousand people left around him, and more than a thousand were lost at Qingliu Pass. The main force of the old camp.
For Zhang Xianzhong, he would not feel too distressed if other troops lost 100,000 to 80,000. As long as the core of the old battalion troops are still there, he can easily conquer a county and recruit tens of thousands of troops!
However, in order to escape and ascend to heaven, he finally had to abandon part of his old camp with only a broken arm.
His goal was the Dabie Mountains to the west of Lu'an. As long as he entered there, he could escape the pursuit of the army.
Zhang Xianzhong glanced in the direction of Qingliu Pass and thought to himself: Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng, please wish yourselves good luck. We are destined to meet again!
Facing the vast mountains and ridges, He Renlong couldn't find a path at all for a while. After several attempts, he finally withdrew to Chuzhou.
Although Zhang Xianzhong escaped, it was a worthwhile trip for him to regain Qingliu Pass and eliminate more than ten thousand bandits.
After Hong Chengchou learned that Zhang Xianzhong led nearly ten thousand bandits to escape from Chuzhou, he had to lament the cunningness of this guy.
While he sent He Renlong to attack Zhang Xianzhong, he also ordered Yang Wenyue and Liu Zhaoji to encircle and suppress Li Zicheng's tribe near Shigu Mountain.
Who would have expected that Li Zicheng, a bandit, was actually equipped with advanced firearms. Under the joint attack of the bandit's firecrackers and tiger squatting artillery, Yang and Liu lost more than 2,000 people, and finally had no choice but to withdraw.
At this time, Hong Chengchou's 60,000 troops heading south had less than 50,000 left, and the troops in South Zhili also suffered heavy losses, with only more than 35,000 left.
Hong Chengchou did not dare to divide his troops to encircle and suppress Li Zicheng. Now he only had 85,000 men on hand, and 10,000 of them were stationed in Lai'an to prevent Li Zicheng's troops from going south to join Gao Yingxiang.
These troops were already stretched thin. If Gao Yingxiang made a desperate move and came out of the city at this time, then his previous efforts would be in vain.
At this time, Gao Yingxiang in Chuzhou City was also on pins and needles.
It's not that he didn't know the consequences of being trapped in Chuzhou.
Although there are hundreds of thousands of rebels in the city, most of them are mobs.
Previously, the main force of his cavalry camp was crippled by He Renlong's cavalry outside the city. Currently, there are only a few thousand infantry left in the old camp.
It is simply impossible to break through with this small force.
He believed that as long as he left the city with his front foot, his back foot would be overwhelmed by the official cavalry.
Staying in the city would at least be safe for the time being, and he also hoped that Li Zicheng would come back to save him.
After many years of dating, he knew that Zhang Xianzhong would never come back to save him. At this moment, he was probably far away from this place of right and wrong.
But Li Zicheng is his own nephew, so he can't just ignore him, right?
The current situation of the general Li Zicheng is not good either. He originally went north with 30,000 people, but after a series of fierce battles, only 8,000 people were left with him.
But fortunately, the thousands of old team members who followed him all the way from Shanxi are basically still there.
At this time, Li Zicheng was preparing to gather his troops and march south to Chuzhou again, but Zhong Guangdao quickly stepped forward to stop him.
He said: "The generals must not be reckless. The Ming army has deployed tens of thousands of troops in Lai'an. We cannot rush through."
Li Zicheng said anxiously: "At this time, Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang and more than 100,000 rebel brothers are besieged by 'Hong Madman' in Chuzhou. If we don't open the gap, the rebels will be doomed!"
Li Zicheng's nephew, Li Guo, nicknamed "One Tiger", also said: "Fuck him, you'll probably die. We can't leave King Chuang and our brothers alone!"
Zhong Guangdao shook his head and said: "Even if we are all killed in the battle, how can we help King Chuang relieve the siege if we can't break in?"
"In fact, if we want to break the siege of Chuzhou, we don't necessarily have to break through from the front. We can also surround Wei and rescue Zhao."
Li Zicheng was quite excited when he heard what Zhong Guangdao said.
He said: "But where should we attack to force 'Crazy Hong' to return to the army?"
Zhong Guangdao understood what Li Zicheng meant. They only had 8,000 people now. They couldn't even conquer a small county like Laian, and it was even more impossible to conquer a big city.
He smiled and then said the word "Fengyang"!
Li Zicheng patted his thigh with his hand and said, "Seconds!"
"In order to encircle and suppress us, Madman Hong must have sent all his main forces south. At this time, we must have been caught off guard when we fought back to Fengyang."
"The crime of losing the central capital Fengyang again is not a small crime. 'Crazy Hong' will definitely return to the division."
At this time, the Ming army had been surrounding Chuzhou for seven days. Just when Hong Chengchou was still considering whether to attack the city, news came that the bandits had captured Dingyuan and were heading towards Fengyang.
Lu Weiqi was horrified and said: "Fengyang's troops are now empty. We have to send troops to rescue it quickly. Losing it again is a serious crime, and neither you nor I can afford it!"
Hong Chengchou thought for a long time, and finally said calmly: "If you don't save me, I can't fall into the trap of bandits surrounding Wei and rescuing Zhao!"
Lu Weiqi yelled: "The thieves called you 'Mad Man Hong', and it seems they were right! You actually dared not to save Fengyang, the capital of Zhongdu. How many of those do you have?"
Hong Chengchou thought to himself: The Fengyang Imperial Tomb had been dug up by bandits a long time ago, and even the big trees planted beside it were burned down. Even if the bandits occupy Fengyang again, what will they do?
Of course, he didn't dare to say this directly, otherwise he would definitely be punished.
He said: "Li Zicheng is just a group of rogues. He doesn't have many troops, and he doesn't dare to occupy Fengyang for a long time. If Lu Benbing is worried, it will be enough to lead 10,000 troops to rescue. I guarantee that the rogues will not dare to defend Fengyang!" "
In the end, Lu Weiqi still failed to convince Hong Chengchou, so he had to lead 10,000 troops to rescue Fengyang himself.
Hong Chengchou is the bastard this time - he is determined!
Gao Yingxiang's 100,000 rebels must be annihilated.
At this time, Chongzhen, who was thousands of miles away, was also worried. Originally, Hong Chengchou had recaptured Fengyang, the central capital, and besieged all 300,000 bandits in Chuzhou. Chongzhen was still full of hope.
It seems that Feng Quan's strategy of "four righteousnesses, six corners, and ten sides of the net" has worked, and he has managed to net so many thieves in one fell swoop.
But the next memorials were all about impeaching Hong Chengchou, and each one had a bigger hat than the other.
He first received an impeachment from Lu Weiqi, the Minister of War in Nanjing, saying that in order to annihilate the bandits in one fell swoop, Hong Chengchou actually ignored death and used Chuzhou as bait to attract bandits.
As a result, all the 20,000 Ming troops in Chuzhou City, Liu Taigong and Chuzhou City were killed in the battle. Chongzhen was so angry that he ordered Hong Chengchou to withdraw from the five provincial governors on the spot.
Fortunately, Wang Chenen persuaded Chongzhen in time, and later it was reported that the Ming army defeated one hundred thousand bandits outside Chuzhou City, and surrounded the intruder Gao Yingxiang and one hundred thousand bandits in Chuzhou City.
However, at this time, news came that Li Zicheng had captured Fengyang again, and Hong Chengchou's secret troops were immobile.
This made Chongzhen furious and ordered Hong Chengchou to be escorted back to Beijing on the spot.
Fortunately, Wang Chengen and others persuaded him, and Chongzhen reluctantly agreed to give Hong Chengchou another month.
However, I did not expect that only half a month later, Feng Quan, Minister of War, and Zhou Yanru, chief minister of the cabinet, took Hong Chengchou's battle report and ran all the way shouting: "Chuzhou is a great victory. Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces, led his troops to annihilate the main force of bandits in Chuzhou and captured them alive. The intruder Gao Yingxiang!"
Chongzhen couldn't believe his ears!
He said excitedly: "Is this true?"
Feng Quan said: "It is true that on March 27, the third year of Chongzhen, the intruder Gao Yingxiang failed to break through and was severely damaged by He Renlong's tribe. Then our army took advantage of the situation and captured Chuzhou City."
This battle lasted for more than a month. More than 50,000 of our soldiers were killed, and a total of more than 280,000 bandits were annihilated. Only Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng fled with thousands of remaining bandits! "
Chongzhen, who had previously wanted to punish Hong Chengchou, suddenly cried with joy!
He shouted: "Blessed by the ancestors of the Ming Dynasty, the rogue bandits have finally been wiped out!"
He excitedly took Feng Quan and Zhou Yanru's hands and said, "Feng Qing has made great contributions to suppressing bandits, and Zhou Qing has also made great contributions to recommending Feng Qing. I will reward you heavily!"
"By the way, where's Hong Chengchou? He was the first person to eliminate the bandits this time!"
Feng Quan said: "Hong Chengchou rushed to Fengyang non-stop to annihilate Li Zicheng in one fell swoop to redeem the previous mistake of losing Fengyang!"
Chongzhen sighed after hearing this: "Loyal minister, Hong Chengchou is truly a loyal and righteous man!"
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(End of chapter)
