Tongzhou has been the gateway to Beijing since ancient times. It overlooks Yanshan Mountain in the north, Bohai Bay in the south, the capital city in the west, and Shanhaiguan Pass in the east. It is a strategic location in North China, and it is also a land and water hub!
The normal way of playing is to push all the way from Jizhou and go directly to Tongzhou.
However, Li Xianzhong was unwilling to follow the steps and was led by You Shiwei.
He took the southern route, starting from Yutian and occupying Xianghe County, and then went straight to Tongzhou.
In fact, those who arrived at Tongzhou City were just the vanguard cavalry of the Liaodong Army.
The infantry and artillery had just arrived at Xianghe, and they were still more than a day's journey from Tongzhou.
There were enough war horses in Liaodong, so even the infantry were mounted dragoons.
However, the dragoons could only carry the light 6-pound Franco machine gun, and the 18-pound Hongyi cannon used for sieges still lagged behind.
According to the intelligence, Yuan Chonghuan's troops heading north were not far from the capital, so he had to seize time.
Yuan Chonghuan didn't have many cavalry. The main cavalry in Shandong had been taken to Huguang by Cao Wenzhao. According to the intelligence, he only had seven or eight thousand cavalry.
Li Xianzhong's attack on Tongzhou was to create the illusion of threatening the capital, so that Chongzhen would urgently order Yuan Chonghuan to go north.
Therefore, the distance between his cavalry and infantry must be widened so that his mobile cavalry can be eaten first.
Sure enough, after the Liaodong Army approached Tongzhou, the cabinet and Chongzhen panicked.
When Liaodong's sentries appeared on the outskirts of Beijing, the entire capital was under martial law.
In the Qianqing Palace, Chongzhen's face turned pale. He asked: "Now that Li Xianzhong did not attack Jizhou, but went straight to Tongzhou, does the Ministry of War have a strategy to deal with it?"
Zhang Fengyi, the Minister of War with beads of sweat on his forehead, said: "The Liaodong Army dares to bypass Jizhou and will never dare to bypass Tongzhou. Tongzhou is currently defended by the 10,000 Shenji Battalion led by Cheng Guogong Zhu Chunchen. The Shenji Battalion has powerful firearms and should It can stop the Liaodong Army’s offensive.”
"The Ministry of War has urgently ordered Governor Yuan and General You to support Tongzhou!"
"only."
Chongzhen glanced at Zhang Fengyi and said, "Zhang Benbing has something to say, but there's no harm in saying it!"
Zhang Fengyi said: "I heard that Zhu Chunchen, the Duke of Chengguo, has a close relationship with Li Xianzhong. I am worried that Duke Chengguo will surrender directly to Li Xianzhong!"
Chongzhen said: "Zhang Aiqing's worries are not unreasonable. I will give you the Shangfang Sword. You will go to Tongzhou in person to supervise the battle. If Duke Chengguo does something unethical, you can kill him on the spot!"
After listening to Chongzhen's words, Zhang Fengyi was stunned on the spot.
Didn't he dig a hole for himself?
Seeing that Zhang Fengyi still did not accept the order, Chongzhen raised his voice and said, "Does Zhang Qing have any objections?"
Zhang Fengyi said tremblingly: "Wei Chen received the order to thank you!"
Although Zhang Fengyi kept looking for help from the first assistant Wen Tiren at the side throughout the whole process, at this time Wen Tiren was like an old monk in trance, and there was no reaction at all!
Soon after, the two of them exited the Qianqing Palace together.
On the one hand, he was unwilling to help because he had always regarded himself as a solitary minister and did not engage in partisanship; more importantly, he knew that His Majesty was not satisfied with Zhang Fengyi, the Minister of War, and had already intended to replace him.
Soon Yang Sichang appeared in the Qianqing Palace.
Chongzhen's expression also softened a lot, and he asked with concern: "Yang Qing went all the way north from Huguang, thank you for your hard work!"
Yang Sichang said: "Now that the war is critical, I wish I could fly to His Majesty immediately. Fortunately, it's not too late now?"
He also saw Chongzhen's worries at this time, and said: "Your Majesty, don't worry, Duke Cheng Guo does not dare to surrender to Li Xianzhong!"
"I have long heard that the Duke of Cheng, Zhu Chunchen, is as rich as anyone in the country. He is the richest man in the capital!"
"If he were in the capital, he might put Li Xianzhong in the capital in order to pursue the so-called 'contribution to the dragon'."
"Now that he is in Tongzhou, if he dares to rebel, your majesty can just steal his property and use it as military pay! That's why I suggested that your majesty transfer him away from the capital to eliminate the hidden danger in advance!"
Since Li Xianzhong sold off his family property in advance, Chongzhen learned the lesson this time and asked Jin Yiwei to check out Zhu Chunchen's background in advance.
According to Jin Yiwei's investigation, Zhu Chunchen apparently owned properties such as Jubaozhai, Heaven and Earth, and Crystal Garden.
In fact, he also engages in smuggling, loan sharking, and owns a large number of pawn shops and farms. Even a conservative estimate is that he has a fortune of 5 million taels of silver!
If Zhu Chunchen dared to rebel against the imperial court, almost a year's military pay would be paid!
Using the 10,000 old soldiers under him to exchange for a year's military pay might not be a bad thing!
At this time, Chongzhen looked at Yang Sichang with a little more appreciation in his eyes.
Yang Sichang was still thoughtful. He threw Zhang Fengyi to Tongzhou just to pave the way for Yang Sichang to become Minister of War!
Of course, what Chongzhen was most concerned about at this moment was how to retreat from the enemy. He said: "The "Anti-Liao Shu" that Yang Qing gave me before was very insightful, but it is a pity that Li Xianzhong took action too quickly. Now Yongping, Zunhua and other places have fallen into The enemy, the defense line between Yanshan and Luanhe has been occupied by Li Xianzhong, what other strategies does the imperial court have to defeat the enemy?"
Yang Sichang had long expected that Chongzhen would ask these questions.
The situation was not so deteriorating when he wrote "Anti-Liao Shu".
First of all, Zhu Yousong did not proclaim himself emperor. He said it from the perspective of preventing Li Xianzhong from rebelling.
At that time, all the gentry and common people must have been facing the imperial court. Now the addition of Emperor Hongguang has a great influence. Those who would have been worried about Li Xianzhong's status as a rebel can now surrender to Emperor Hongguang with peace of mind. They are all Ming Dynasties anyway.
And Qingzhou was not lost at that time.
Don't underestimate the gains and losses of Qingzhou. With Qingzhou here, the pirates will be completely restricted to the Jiaodong area and will not affect the entire Shandong.
Now that Qingzhou is lost, Li Xianzhong may occupy Shandong at any time and cut off water transportation.
To be honest, it is impossible to defend the capital at this time.
Even if Li Xianzhong cannot attack the capital for a while, as long as he cuts off the water transportation, it will be a matter of time before the capital and Zhili are lost.
The fact that the four northwest towns took refuge with Emperor Hongguang is the best proof!
Of course, the solution is not impossible, that is, to move the capital to Nanjing and leave this mess in the north to Li Xianzhong.
His ideas of "dividing every farmer into an equal share of the land" and "the gentry all paying for themselves" will certainly not be supported by the gentry.
For Li Xianzhong, Zhili was not an asset but a burden.
Li Xianzhong's current territory simply cannot support such a large army. Yang Sichang is certain that he must purchase large quantities of grain from Jiangnan and Huguang every year.
The Ming Dynasty originally had a two-capital system, and Nanjing's six ministries, various management agencies and even palaces were ready-made.
As long as you reach Jiangnan, you can use Jiangnan's financial resources and food to develop a new army.
When the time comes to open the sea and develop trade with the Dutch and Portuguese, we will be able to obtain silver and firearms.
As long as Li Xianzhong's food supply is cut off, he will not be able to stand up.
When the time comes, the imperial court will do its best to wipe out Zhang Xianzhong and stabilize Huguang and Sichuan.
Then Li Zicheng can be used to deal with Li Xianzhong, and the court will be able to recover in a few years.
But Yang Sichang really didn't dare to say this.
Not to mention that with His Majesty's character, it is impossible for him to accept abandoning the north and run away.
There are still many northern officials in the capital, and they certainly cannot accept the imperial court moving south.
Now that I bring it up, I will definitely become the target of public criticism.
Unless His Majesty strongly supports me, I will definitely die in an ugly way.
Let someone else take the lead!
After some ideological struggle, Yang Sichang said: "For the current plan, we can only defend the capital first and frustrate the thieves, and then we can turn defeat into victory!"
"The key to the victory or defeat of the imperial court depends on Governor Yuan. If his 60,000 elites can arrive in the capital in time, then we can withstand Li Xianzhong's attack."
"Li Xianzhong also made a surprise attack with light troops, and his rear was not stable. As long as he cannot capture the capital in one go, the situation will become more and more favorable to the court."
"In addition, Chen Qiyu can be ordered to continue to lead the Huguang army to besiege Xiangyang; Cao Wenzhao's 20,000 elite troops can be ordered to join the reinforcements from South Zhili to go north to Yanzhou first, and form a corner with Jinan guarded by Zuo Liangyu to ensure the smooth flow of water transportation."
To be honest, I was a little disappointed with what Yang Sichang said about Chongzhen.
He originally thought that he would have some shocking plan, and even pushed back to the hinterland of Liaodong, but it turned out that he was just sticking to the capital.
Chongzhen had too few cards to play. Tens of thousands of Mongolian cavalry and soldiers were in Xuanfu Datong, and the Xuanda court did not dare to mobilize the soldiers and horses at all.
At this time, he could only place his hope on Yuan Chonghuan!
Zhang Fengyi, Minister of the Ministry of War, had already made arrangements with his family in advance when he left the capital for Tongzhou.
The shadow of a person, the name of a tree.
If you want to say who is the best in Ming Dynasty, you can name a lot of names like Xu Da, Chang Yuchun, Lan Yu, Fu Youde, and Li Wenzhong.
But if you want to ask who is the best fighter alive today, then there is no doubt that it must be Li Xianzhong.
Since his debut, Li Xianzhong has often defeated more with less, achieving an unparalleled casualty ratio.
He destroyed Jianzhou, conquered Monan, defeated the White Lotus Sect, conquered Korea and Ryukyu, and was regarded as the "Khan of Destiny" by the Mongolian Jurchen tribes.
Enough to rival any famous general of the Ming Dynasty.
Just relying on Tongzhou's 10,000 Shenji Battalion to fight against Li Xianzhong's Liaodong Army, is this any different than risking death?
Under the protection of hundreds of servants, Zhang Fengyi entered Tongzhou City cautiously!
Fortunately, the Intelligence Department sent the news in advance, and Li Xianzhong ordered him to be let into the city, otherwise he would not be enough to fill the teeth of the Liaodong Cavalry!
Zhu Chunchen, Duke of Chengguo, was depressed at the moment. Chongzhen, the man who killed a thousand swords, actually sent himself to Tongzhou to die.
If he were in the capital, as long as Li Xianzhong's troops came to the city, he would immediately open the city gate and let the Liaodong Army enter the city.
But he didn't dare to do this in Tongzhou, otherwise his house would be confiscated by Chongzhen.
Zhu Chunchen sent someone to contact Li Xianzhong early in the morning, and according to his wishes, Li Xianzhong bypassed Tongzhou and attacked the capital. His troops would not leave the city to interfere with the Liaodong Army's attack.
However, Li Xianzhong still wanted to use Tongzhou to make a fuss, and asked Zhu Chunchen to cooperate well, and directly sent a liaison officer to the city.
This was not the first time Zhu Chunchen had dealt with Li Xianzhong, and he quickly understood his intentions.
Just try your best to cooperate with the Liaodong Army in "fishing".
Anyway, Li Xianzhong has given him reassurance. As long as Zhu Chunchen cooperates well and makes great achievements this time, he will still be Duke Chengguo in the Hongguang Dynasty!
Not only him, but also the old gang of old guys in Beijing's honorable circle can keep their wealth as long as they play an active role in this incident.
If the performance is positive, it is not ruled out that it can go further.
After all, Emperor Hongguang had made an exception and granted Li Xianzhong the title of county prince.
After all, this is his own business, Old Zhu’s. Who should be the emperor?
Isn't Zhu Neng, the first Duke of Chengguo, the hero of Jingnan?
In Zhu Chunchen's eyes, this was nothing more than another "battle of peace".
In fact, Zhu Yousong's legitimacy is still higher than that of Zhu Di. After all, he still has the posthumous edict of Emperor Wanli, which belongs to "Feng Zhao Jing Nan", which has more basis than Zhu Di's "Feng Tian Jing Nan".
When he learned that Zhang Fengyi had come to monitor him with Shang Fang's sword, he was even more furious.
He secretly cursed: "Children Chongzhen, I, Zhu Chunchen, have no sworn relationship with you!"
Then he started to lie to Zhang Fengyi.
He said: "Zhang Benbing, why did you bring hundreds of people here? Aren't you asking me, Lao Zhu, to die with you?"
Zhang Fengyi said: "Can the Liaodong Army attack the city?"
Zhu Chunchen said: "The Liaodong Army's Hongyi artillery has not yet arrived, so we have not yet attacked the city; once the artillery is in place, it will be our death!"
"I like to complain a lot when there is nothing wrong, so I am jealous of His Majesty and sent to Tongzhou to wait for death. You, Zhang Benbing, are a popular figure in front of Wen Chieffu, why are you sent here too?"
Zhang Fengyi was originally in a bad mood, but Zhu Chunchen refused to open any pot!
He said awkwardly: "Tongzhou is related to the safety of the capital. Your Majesty attaches great importance to it and specially ordered my soldiers to come to supervise the battle in person!"
But Zhu Chunchen laughed and said: "Your Majesty asked you to take Shangfang's sword and watch Zhu die. Why don't we two die together?"
"Well, we are both from the end of the world! Now Yang Sichang, the left minister of the Ministry of War, is favored by the saints."
"It was Yang Sichang's idea to let Zhu guard Tongzhou, right?"
Only then did Zhang Fengyi realize that Chongzhen had asked him to come to Tongzhou to make room for Yang Sichang.
He smiled bitterly and said, "What's the point of talking about this now?"
Seeing Zhang Fengyi's reaction, Zhu Chunchen started to trick him and said, "Zhang Benbing, we can't just sit still and wait for death!"
"You are still the Minister of War after all. Hurry up and mobilize reinforcements from surrounding areas to come to Tongzhou. I know Li Xianzhong, he always avoids the truth and attacks the fictitious in war!"
"As long as there are more soldiers in Tongzhou, he might not attack Tongzhou."
Zhang Fengyi said: "No way, Li Xianzhong is best at 'encircling a point and calling for reinforcements'. If I mobilize Jizhou's troops to go south, I'm afraid I will be ambushed by Li Xianzhong."
Zhu Chunchen said with a smile: "Wouldn't Jizhou be empty then? Li Xianzhong might go to attack Jizhou. Wouldn't Tongzhou be safe for the time being?"
Zhang Fengyi shook his head and said: "That won't work. Tongzhou only has more than 10,000 people. Li Xianzhong must still conquer Tongzhou."
Zhu Chunchen said: "I heard that Yuan Chonghuan's main force is not far from the capital. Governor Yuan's troops are quite elite. If you transfer his troops to Tongzhou, maybe we won't have to die!"
"Now that Jizhou's troops are moving south to attract the attention of the Liaodong Army, Governor Yuan's troops will surely be able to enter Tongzhou smoothly!"
Zhang Fengyi said: "But Yuan Chonghuan received an order to quickly return to defend the capital. I'm afraid he won't come to Tongzhou!"
Zhu Chunchen said with a smile: "Didn't His Majesty give you the Shang Fang Sword?"
Under Zhu Chunchen's deception, Zhang Fengyi finally decided to save herself.
After all, Tongzhou is the gateway to the capital, and since I am the Minister of War, there is nothing wrong with dispatching troops to protect Tongzhou.
Even if the men and horses heading south from Jizhou were ambushed, it was to cover Yuan Chonghuan's main force entering Tongzhou, and others could not blame him.
Protect yourself and protect Tongzhou; isn't that the same as protecting the capital and your majesty?
So he did what he said, and he quickly sent an envoy to convey the order.
A few hours later, Zhang Fengyi's envoy arrived at Jizhou City.
You Shiwei, the commander-in-chief of Jizhou, currently has 40,000 troops, 35,000 in Jizhou City, and 5,000 stationed in Pinggu behind Jizhou.
To be honest, he was very resistant to this order.
But now that the capital is in crisis, this is partly due to his mistakes in deployment. He really doesn't have the guts to ask him not to send reinforcements.
Finally, he sent his deputy general Shen Santong to lead 5,000 cavalry and 10,000 infantry south to support Tongzhou.
Shen Santong was not stupid. He knew that this trip was very dangerous, so he not only sent many sentry cavalry to explore the road, but also did not dare to let the cavalry advance.
Even marching in armor, he finally arrived at Sanhe County with trembling fear all the way.
However, he never dreamed that instead of ambushing him in the wild, the 30,000 Liaodong Army would directly trap him in Sanhe County.
After all, you have to surround 15,000 people in the wild. If there is no special terrain, there will be at least 40,000 to 50,000 people, and it will be difficult to annihilate them all.
Because the Liaodong Army only had infantry at this time (dragoons were mounted infantry), the main force of the cavalry was used to ambush Yuan Chonghuan.
Soon after, the Liaodong Army's artillery began to attack the city.
Facing the Liaodong Army's artillery and Lumi's muskets, Shen Santong almost had no choice but to be beaten.
You can also fight with the enemy in the wild. Although it is protected by the city wall, it is completely passive.
So he decided to send cavalry to risk a raid on the Liaodong Army's artillery positions.
The sudden attack of the Ming army really caught the Liaodong army by surprise.
After all, it was a temporary encirclement, and there was only a trench outside the artillery position.
Moreover, Liaodong's main cavalry is not here at this time.
They only had some mounted infantry and could not carry out a cavalry charge at all.
"Bang, bang, bang"
Although the gunmen in front of the position kept firing, causing many of the charging cavalry to fall, they took advantage of the gunmen's opportunity to reload and rushed to the front of the position.
At the critical moment, the grenadiers on the position ignited the thunder.
The huge explosion of the thunder frightened the charging horses, and the impact was greatly reduced.
In the end, the shield bearers and spearmen of the Liaodong Army withstood the impact of the Ming Army cavalry.
The fire gunman had already finished loading, and the sound of the fire gun sounded again completely defeated the cavalry on the opposite side.
Seeing that there was no hope of breaking out, Shen Santong led the remaining 10,000 Ming troops to surrender.
Because he knew that there would be no more reinforcements to rescue him, and his bows, arrows, and blunderbuss were completely suppressed by the Liaodong Army's Rumi blunderbuss.
Originally, he wanted to resist through street fighting, but now the Liaodong Army has such powerful weapons as thunderbolts. Even if you hide in a house, they can easily eliminate you.
After all, it's just that someone from your old Zhu family can take over the position of emperor, so why should they risk their own wealth and lives?
After receiving the order, Yuan Chonghuan immediately led 60,000 troops north to the capital for support.
He knew that he did not have the advantage of time.
Because Jinan is more than 800 miles away from the capital, while it is only 500 miles from Shanhaiguan to the capital.
Moreover, the Liaodong Army had many cavalry, but he only had 8,000 cavalry.
So he decided to lead the cavalry to Beijing first.
When Zhang Fengyi's messenger found him, Yuan Chonghuan had already arrived in Zhuozhou, which was only 140 miles away from the capital.
He never expected that Li Xianzhong's advance would be so fast.
The envoy said: "Once Tongzhou is lost, the Liaodong Army will attack the capital, so Zhang Shangshu asked Governor Yuan to rush to Tongzhou quickly."
At this time, Yuan Chonghuan saw Shang Fang's sword behind the envoy. He also had one of these.
Since Zhang Fengyi had someone bring the sword from above to give him orders, it seemed that Tongzhou was already in an extremely critical situation.
So he led eight thousand cavalry directly to Tongzhou.
His troops ran for 70 miles and just crossed the Yongding River. Before they had gone ten miles, they encountered 10,000 Liaodong cavalry.
The leader was none other than their previous "old leader" Hong Chengchou.
After seeing Hong Chengchou, these Yulin camp cavalrymen felt as if they had seen a ghost.
Although Yuan Chonghuan had already learned about Hong Chengchou's rebellion, he did not tell his soldiers the news for the sake of morale.
Wasn’t Governor Hong already killed in the battle?
This was something Li Xianzhong had already planned.
While Yuan Chonghuan and others were astonished, 10,000 cavalry each led by Zu Dashou and Li Huaizhong had secretly appeared behind them.
Now the 30,000 cavalrymen of the Liaodong Army have surrounded their 8,000 people!
Hong Chengchou said: "Soldiers of the Yulin Camp, Emperor Hongguang has the edict of Wanli Ye, and it is destiny. Now you have been surrounded by 80,000 Liaodong cavalry, so you should not make a useless struggle!"
"Emperor Hongguang Rende said that the soldiers of Yulin camp are also his soldiers. Anyway, your treatment will be better than before. Your former bosses have now set up fields in Liaodong, and many of them are still under his command. Got a wife!"
"I believe you have all heard that the land gentry and officials in Liaodong are not exempt from tax. Even the prince of Liaodong himself has to pay land tax!"
"But I tell you, for those soldiers who have made meritorious service, your fields will be tax-free!"
The Yulin Camp in Liaodong knew about the "gentlemen and gentry receiving food from one body" program, after all, Denglai was right next door to them.
Hong Chengchou's words quickly aroused great repercussions!
Yuan Chonghuan thought to himself: No, Hong Chengchou's mind-attacking skills are so powerful. If this continues, the morale of the army will be messed up!
So he shouted: "Soldiers, Hong Chengchou's troops in front are no more than 10,000 people. Where did the 80,000 cavalry come from?"
"He himself was greedy for life and afraid of death, so he surrendered to Li Xianzhong, and he is still here to deceive everyone with his sweet words. Our Yulin camp is the emperor's personal army, and you are all powerful troops who have been inspected by the emperor. We will never be traitors to the Ming Dynasty."
"Yuan has heard for a long time that the Liaodong cavalry are invincible. I wonder if he dares to fight with our Yulin camp!"
Zha Zhongwen said to Hong Chengchou: "Liaodong Cavalry is willing to fight!"
After three thousand Liaodong cavalry went out, Hong Chengchou directly ordered 30,000 cavalry to attack across the board.
I don't have 30,000 people, but I only use 3,000 to fight with you. Do you think I'm a fool?
Originally, the morale of Yulin Camp was not high. Even if they faced 3,000 Liaodong cavalry alone, they had no chance of winning. Now that they are surrounded by 30,000 cavalry, how can they still win?
Soon the heavily armored Liaodong cavalry overwhelmed the Yulin camp's formation from the front.
Wu Sangui, Zu Dashou's 18-year-old nephew, saw the opportunity and led a group of cavalry into the enemy formation, and captured Yuan Chonghuan alive who was watching the battle from behind!
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(End of chapter)
