The affairs of Kangning Mansion were assigned to Liu Guoneng. Although the chieftain and his old friend Mu Ya tried their best to persuade him to stay, Liu Chengzong turned around and returned to Xining.
It's not that he doesn't want to stay longer in Kangning Mansion, it's just that the weather has turned cold and winter has come too quickly. If he doesn't set off, he won't be able to go back before the year... The war situation is changing rapidly, and any news in Kangning Mansion will be delayed by one month. There is more than enough, which is really unsettling.
Liu Chengzong's journey north was extremely dangerous. First, he encountered a storm at the source of the Yellow River, and the bridge was blown away by the wind. Fortunately, the post city of Huang Yuanyi was made of stone. He hid for four days before the postmaster found a boat from the shore to send him away. When we arrived at the North Coast, we had only been on the road for two days. When we got to Kuhaiyi, it started snowing again. This time we rested for eleven days.
The weather in the entire world has been abnormal these years, and the territory controlled by Liu Shishi is the place with the most abnormal weather.
Qinghai is like a forgotten corner to God. When it doesn't rain in other places, it rains very hard. When it doesn't snow in other places, it also rains very hard.
The key is that there is not much arable land in Goluo and there is no shortage of water. Why are you doing so much rain? When a strong wind blows, the bridge is blown away, and people and animals are blown away; when it rains heavily, the river valley is flooded, and the cultivated land is soaked.
If he had encountered such a disaster on the road earlier, Liu Chengzong would have died on the road with a high probability.
Fortunately, Liu Chengzong once established an autonomous Wei and County parallel here, which was called Duogandanwei or Duogandan County according to the ancient name. The commander of the Wei and the county magistrate were named Zou Feng.
The environment in Duogandan is harsh. It is one of the highest altitude places in the entire area under the jurisdiction of the Marshal's Mansion. Originally, there was no need to set up a guard station and county government. After all, there are only 3,000 registered residents in the land that is more than 100 miles from north to south and 300 miles from east to west. There are many people, including men, women, old and young, but they can't even form a guard to form a flag army.
However, even though there were few people, they were still able to clear the road. Even so, it took a full ten days.
Fortunately, after leaving the boundary of Duogandan, they entered the Heka grassland. Liu Shishi galloped and ran away. He completed the 400-mile journey in just three days. Just as Qinghai Lake was freezing, he ran all the way to Longlong. On Komajima Island, I rode out the old horse Hongqi and braved the wind and snow into the new city with lights and colorful decorations to welcome New Year's Eve.
It's the twelfth lunar month, and the eighth year of Chongzhen is coming.
The sudden return of the Generalissimo from Kangning Mansion to Xincheng not only excited the soldiers and people of Xincheng, but also made the family members who stayed in the Marshal Mansion in Xincheng extremely happy.
[In view of the general environment,
In fact, Liu Shishi had no intention of staying in Xincheng for too long. There were wind and snow storms along the way, and it started snowing when we entered Hehuang. The imminent locust plague was no longer a problem.
In the past, he was afraid that the winter would be too cold and the crops would freeze to death, but now the insect eggs in the ground are like swords hanging over his head. Two evils harm each other. On the contrary, the extremely cold winter makes him more happy. What he is now afraid of is the warm winter. As long as it's cold enough, the eggs in the ground can be frozen to death.
As for the crops in winter...they were almost eaten by locusts when they were still young, so the harvest in the spring was insignificant.
He just wanted to meet his family, and then immediately rushed to the front line to take a look at Jingning Prefecture.
But just as he entered the new city, met his mother, returned to the Marshal's Mansion after a long absence, and saw the three wives Fan Sanlang, Bai Liuxi and Yun Jiaoyue who had not seen him for a long time, he really wanted to have a good rest - this year was too tiring.
He has always been an energetic person, whether it is the leader of the official army or the peasant army. He has the situation on various fronts in his mind. It is common for him to stay up for days and nights, just to sleep on the horse for a while and still lead the army to march and fight. But this does not mean that they are talented. Most of them are acquired abilities, or they are forced.
What supports them is not only their own energy, but also the huge system behind them.
Decision-making, command and execution are tasks at different levels. Challenging decisions for one's own career are completely different from mechanical execution for other people's careers, which stimulate the mind completely.
But even so, the entire seven years of Chongzhen was a bit too tiring for him.
From the beginning of the year to the end of the year, when he returned to the Xincheng Marshal's Mansion, his tense nerves suddenly relaxed, and the long-lost fatigue suddenly came over him, which made him change his mind and decided to depend on the situation on the front line.
, if nothing unexpected happens, we will spend the New Year at a mansion in Xincheng or Lanzhou, and then go to the front line.
However, the huge Marshal's Mansion would not let him rest.
He told the three ladies how much he missed her, and early the next morning, just as Liu Shizi asked Yu Linqi to issue the order to summon the Mongolian Empress, the guards from the palace came to report, and Yang Dingrui, the prefect of Xining, asked to see her.
The eight empresses from Chahar, although they are related to each other, and some of them have never been touched by Liu Shizi, but after all, they are the ladies of their own armed forces. They have not seen each other for a year, and now that they are back, they should all meet.
It's just that they don't all live in the marshal's mansion in the new city. As a powerful helper in claiming the throne at that time, they had absolute freedom and their own armed forces. They had mansions in the new city, O'er'er outside the city, and Qinghai Lake coast. They have pasture land, their own army, tribes and other properties.
Although the army was indeed mobilized a lot by Liu Shishi, each one of them still acted like a free tribal leader, who might be somewhere at the moment.
Yang Dingrui came from Xining City. As early as Liu Chengzong arrived at Longju Island, he sent a message to Xining Mansion to inquire about the situation on the front line. This would bring several followers into the manor with documents. Before they even exchanged a few words, Liu Shishi asked. In Jingning Prefecture, the conversation went from far away to close at hand.
"Wang Brigade Marshal sent the vanguard Wei Qian'er into Jingning Prefecture in advance, and then replaced the Wei Counselor General with Yang Chengzu. The commander-in-chief can rest assured that everything will go smoothly in taking over the three cities in Jingning Prefecture."
"Switch, where did Wei Qian'er go?"
"General Wei Shen is still stationed in Tongwei and Jingning Prefecture..."
Speaking of the situation in Jingning Prefecture, Yang Dingrui looked for documents with a compassionate look on his face, slowly shook his head and said, "The place is as its name suggests, it is very peaceful."
This was not said by Yang Dingrui at first, but by Wei Qian'er in an official document sent back to the Marshal's Mansion after he settled in Jingning Prefecture.
Most of the generals in the Marshal's Office have a very redundant procedure when sending troops to fight, that is, in their spare time, they will compile an extra copy of the frontline information and send it to Liu Chengzong.
Sometimes, Liu Chengzong personally leads them, so there is no problem with this procedure; but sometimes, like now, when Wei Qian'er is assigned to Wang Wenxiu, he still not only reports the news to Wang Wenxiu, but also passes the news to Wang Wenxiu. To Liu Chengzong.
If Liu Chengzong was too far away or could not be found, Wei Qian'er would report the news to the Marshal's Mansion in Lanzhou.
Wei Qian'er was not the only one to do this, all the direct line officers and generals in the Marshal's Mansion would do this, or in other words, only the direct line officers and generals would do this.
In essence, this is the same as relying on bribes to please the superior. It is a trend that is difficult to stop but very easy to form. It is just a different method. After all, as long as one person gives a gift, others will also give gifts. In the end, it does not matter what gift is given. Avoid a situation where it’s the one who doesn’t give the gift that counts.
The same goes for the senior generals in the Marshal's Office who insist on sending information to Liu Chengzong regardless of their affiliation. Why don't you send it to you even if others do?
Gao Yingdeng was from Gansu, and he was like a traveling frog, sending official documents to the Marshal's Office in Lanzhou whenever he had something to do.
Liu Chengzong read Wei Qian'er's letter expressionlessly, put it aside for a long time, then narrowed his eyes angrily and let out a long breath, and then sighed again.
"well."
As early as when he set off from Kangning Mansion, Liu Chengzong received Wang Wenxiu's report about Jingning Prefecture, saying that it was not a siege by the Marshal's Army, but a spontaneous change of flags by the gentry and common people, seeking the prestige and protection of the Marshal's Mansion.
Liu Chengzong also felt complacent in his heart because of this. We, Liu Shizi, could protect tens of thousands of people in one state and two counties from the suffering of war and war, and we were successful.
He had an impression of Jingning Prefecture. Liu Chengzong remembered it very clearly. It was in August of the third year of Chongzhen that he led his army over Longshan into Guyuan for the first time. He spread out the Lion Camp for twenty miles and scared the Wating Pass. The defenders retreated, the patrols fled in haste, the postmen opened the city to surrender, and the border soldiers begged for mercy.
His soldiers and horses were spread all over Guyuan Town, and their troops reached the southernmost place, Longde, the leading county of Jingning Prefecture. The small town in Sifang was built simply. At that time, he wanted to besiege the city, but Yang Dingrui tried his best to dissuade him. Later, he only put his troops and horses in the city. Showing off his power outside, he went to the market to buy some winter clothes and clothes with the people in the countryside.
The reason why Liu Shishi was right
I remember clearly that it was because a big event happened that month and Guyuan surrendered his troops, he asked Luo Rucai and Yang Chengzu to go to Pingliang to create a thing like Jin Chanzi with endless reincarnations.
After conquering Pingliang City, the Lion Battalion gained a lot from that operation. Later, it was able to establish a firm foothold in Qinghai and establish the Marshal's Mansion, all thanks to the gold and silver of the Han Palace.
To be fair, according to Liu Shizi's perspective at the time, except for the hundreds of thousands of acres of Hulu River that are considered river valleys, the other two million acres in Jingning Prefecture are all mountainous plateau land. The people in one prefecture and two counties are only over 60,000. He is a man who can control the situation. A miserable place where people die from exhaustion.
But back then, Liu Chengzong was still too young. He had never been to Qinghai or Kangning. He always felt that his hometown in northern Shaanxi was the poorest. From his current perspective, Jingning Prefecture has a lower altitude, dense water networks, and a low level of development. With high altitude, suitable climate, numerous forests, and abundant farmland in the mountains, it is a rare paradise in Longxi!
Unfortunately, in Wei Qian'er's letter, the current Jingning Prefecture is no longer the Jingning Prefecture he saw in the past.
These place names generally describe the characteristics of a place. If it is a bad word, like Kushui, Angou, Rentoushan, etc., then if the name is right, it is probably a good place, but it is not the worst. situation; the worst case is to use some adjectives that express good wishes.
The reason why a wish is a wish is because it cannot be easily achieved.
The one who led Jing was 80% in a state of chaos, and the one who led Ning could walk out of the ancient battlefield in a matter of three miles with a shovel.
Wei Qian'er led his army into Jingning Prefecture and realized that what protected one prefecture and two counties was not the simple and crude marshal's mansion flag, but that there was not a four-legged animal or a well with clean water within a hundred miles. , there is no river that does not accumulate corpses.
His camp of nearly five thousand troops marched all the way to Jingning Prefecture on the banks of the Hulu River, not seeing a single living thing on the official road along the way.
There were no people even begging from wealthy households. When it was time to eat, the wilderness was completely silent. Not a single smoke could be seen within a radius of twenty miles, and the cold wind gusted everywhere as if it were haunted.
A dirty marshal's flag hangs in the city of Jingning Prefecture. There are only seventy-four defenders on the four walls. They are soldiers of Lu Menglong, the right-hand member of the Gu Yuan Dynasty. When Gao Yingxiang and others first attacked Jingning Prefecture, they came with 300 Gu Yuan soldiers to support them. , and then they all died outside the city. Only these seventy-four people were injured and escaped into the city and escaped.
Wei Qian'er collected all the people in the city, including the defenders, men, women, old and young, a total of 732 people, more than half of whom were men either had no palms or no fingers.
The situation in Longde County, Zhuanglang County, and Shuiluocheng is similar. There are only 1,997 people left in the entire Jingning Prefecture.
Wei Qian'er simply moved all the living people into Jingning Prefecture, treated the injured and sick, and asked the soldiers to clean up the corpses and wells in the city. He appointed a general to act as the acting magistrate of the prefecture, leaving behind military provisions. He and 600 soldiers took care of the baggage, and then led the brigade to withdraw from Jingning Prefecture and return to Tongwei County.
His camp had nearly five thousand men and horses, and Jingning Prefecture could not provide him with supplies, so he discussed with General Yang Chengzu to let him enter Jingning Prefecture.
After all, Yang Chengzu's camp only had more than 2,000 people. A few wells had been cleaned in the past, so at least draft water was not a problem.
After finishing these things, Wei Qian'er wrote a letter to Liu Chengzong, describing in detail what he had learned. The current situation in Jingning Prefecture was so tragic that he, a man who emerged from the dead, almost collapsed.
Before Gao Yingxiang entered Jingning Prefecture, the population here was only more than 20,000. It had been four years since Liu Chengzong last entered Jingning Prefecture. In these four years, this land experienced three years of severe drought, Two hailstorms, three waves of locust plagues, two wars, a smallpox epidemic, and a civil unrest.
There were two battles, one between Wang Laohu and Yang Qi, and one between Shen Yikui's remaining Red Army friends and Li Hongsi.
The chaos was caused by the drought. Tens of thousands of refugees from Pingliang, Longzhou, Huating, Wu'an, Zhuanglang, Jingning and other places came out to loot.
Gao Yingxiang attacked the city of Jingning. Lu Menglong, the right political advisor, did not dare to defend the city in a desperate situation. The city was not safe for the Ming army. He went out to fight with the intention of dying and died in the battle. Li Zicheng attacked Longde. When the day came to an end, Fei Yanfang, the county magistrate, died after closing his door. The people of Zhuanglang County responded in large numbers and started to plunder in different directions.
Originally, there were not many poor families left in Jingning Prefecture, and the remaining people relied on wealthy families to survive as a group.
Every household was also cleared during this phase.
This Zhuanglang County is not the Zhuanglangwei where Liu Chengzong established a county in the Zhuanglang River Basin, but a subordinate county of Jingning Prefecture.
Later, the government troops came to help, and the troops of Zuo Liangyu, Tang Jiuzhou, and Deng Qi broke out in a war with Gao Yingxiang and others in Jingning Prefecture. Now many people in Jingning Prefecture who lost their palms and fingers are survivors of the war. In the past, they They are all soldiers.
Those captured by the official army were killed if they could be killed. If those captured by the peasant army did not surrender or did not want to be surrendered, their hands or fingers were chopped off and let go.
Then Deng Qi's Sichuan army mutinied again, dealing a fatal blow to the crumbling Jingning Prefecture.
Yang Dingrui watched Liu Chengzong read Wei Qian'er's letter with a gloomy expression on his face, and asked, "Now that Jingning Prefecture has surrendered, what is the Generalissimo going to do?"
"The war can't continue anymore. We need to pacify Longxi and establish order as soon as possible." Liu Chengzong frowned and said, "If we let them continue like this, there will be no one left in Shaanxi!"
