"The Manchu soldiers from Guangxi died in battle, and the imperial court has no reinforcements. General Deng, Hequ can't hold on for long. What should we do?"
"Without him, the only option is to die in battle."
In February of the first year of Wuding, Man Gui, the commander-in-chief of Jizhou, the brother-in-command of the Da Qi Emperor, overcame numerous obstacles and led his army to Shaanxi. When the four thousand reinforcements encountered the bandits, they were destroyed like moths to a flame, silently.
Seeing that the official army was so vulnerable, Li Xianzhong left 20,000 troops to continue the siege of Hequ. He personally led the main force in the eastward expedition, preparing to take advantage of the "Jingnan Army"'s Northern Expedition in the south of the Yangtze River to capture the capital in one fell swoop, which would also make him an emperor. .
The situation was grim. The three provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan were all occupied, and were ravaged by bandits. The bandits snowballed and rapidly grew to hundreds of thousands, while Deng Changxiong's men only numbered 5,000.
On the sixth day of the second lunar month, Centipede Kuai's men held Mangui's general military order flags and large banners and made noise around the bend of the river to intimidate the defenders in the city.
Deng Changxiong, Sun Chuanting and others secretly discussed what should be done next.
Seeing that Deng Changxiong was determined to die, Sun Chuanting said calmly:
"Mangui underestimated the enemy and advanced rashly, relying on his own strength. Two or three thousand people did not take the hundreds of thousands of bandits in their eyes. It was only a matter of time before they were defeated by the bandits. At present, in the entire Shaanxi Province, except for Tongguan, Xi'an, and Xianyang, Land, all other cities were captured by the bandits, the emperor should have a new understanding of the strength of the bandits, and will send more reinforcements."
Everyone was silent. Everyone knew that what Sun Chuanting said was just wishful thinking. The imperial court was too busy to take care of itself and had long since stopped caring about the number of troops in the Western Expedition.
"The governor of Xi'an Prefecture sent someone here and asked us to assist Xi'an." Sun Chuanting said cautiously.
"The post road from Xi'an to Hebending has been cut off by bandits. How did Tang Ma get to Hebending?"
No one can answer Wang Zengbin's question. The answer is readily available. This is the strategy of the bandits. They want to get out of the way of the original army and further divide their troops so that they can defeat them one by one.
Perhaps, Xi'an Mansion was also captured by them, and Tang Ma was just a bait.
Deng Changxiong was silent for a long time, and then said to an intelligence officer from the Capricorn Guard: "Go down and interrogate him carefully and see what you can find out from this Tang Ma."
Sure enough, after some interrogation by the coir raincoat guards, the Tangma who claimed to be sent from Xi'an Fucheng immediately confessed that he was a subordinate of Zhang Zicheng, the centipede block. The post roads and stations leading from Xi'an Fucheng to the outside world had all been occupied by bandits. At the end of last year, Fucheng lost contact with the outside world.
The Coin Yiwei asked the fake Tang Ma and asked him if the city of Xi'an had been captured. Tang Ma shook his head repeatedly. Centipede Block fought under the city of Xi'an and many horse soldiers died, so he did not dare to attack again.
At present, all of Shaanxi has fallen into the hands of bandits. Deng Changxiong is unable to advance or retreat. Every day, he is thinking about where Kaiyuan's army should break out. Before he can figure it out, on February 10, Zhang Zicheng finally launched a new round of attack on Hequ County.
Deng Changxiong concentrated all his troops on the east bank of the Yellow River, preparing to deal with the continuous wave of refugees. In these days, the Kaiyuan Army and the bandits had fought, and they had already summarized the opponent's combat rules. They usually drove the refugees ahead and acted as cannon fodder. After the generals' cannons, bows and arrows are used up, the thieves will take turns to attack. Sometimes, refugees are also tasked with demolishing city walls.
Although Zhang Zicheng's 30,000 troops were not very large, they were able to quickly recruit hundreds of thousands of refugees in the surrounding rural counties. These refugees washed down like waves. Without the remote output of firearms, it would be difficult to defend Hequ County. .
Deng Changxiong knew that he was going to die in Shanxi this time, but at this point, he had nothing to say. After all, the enemy was ten or even a hundred times more powerful than Kaiyuan's army.
For the Kaiyuan Army, this is a hopeless war, with no winner on either side.
The 20,000 troops left by the bandits in the meander of the river continued to attack the county town. They had no shortage of cannon fodder for the siege. The gunpowder and arrows of the Kaiyuan Army in the city had been exhausted at the end of last year. They had no supplies and could only fight hand to hand with the bandits.
I believe that Emperor Wu Ding has a new understanding of the strength of Li Xianzhong and Zhang Zicheng, because at the current speed, it won't be long before hundreds of thousands of troops will descend on Beijing, just like Li Zicheng did in history.
As Deng Changxiong expected, in the last few days when Hequ County was about to be destroyed, the bandits of the Eastern Expedition were invincible and more powerful than the official army. Along the way, large and small cities and passes surrendered one after another. The generals and generals immediately offered Li Xianzhong as their leader. Lord, guide the invading army to continue eastward. Some people even act as guides for the intruders and help persuade the Ming army generals in front to surrender.
In this way, Li Xianzhong occupied all of Shanxi with almost no bloodshed. By the end of February, except for Qin Yuji, the commander-in-chief of Ningwuguan, who was still resisting, the other generals had surrendered and fled to the bandits.
The reason why Qin Yuji refused to surrender was very simple. Li Xianzhong's army had to pass through Ningwuguan, his home base, and Ningwuguan was not only the most powerful pass in the world, but also a rich pass. According to the virtue of the thieves, this If you go over there, you'll probably have to rob this place.
Unlike other military leaders who have various ways of making money (smuggling, suppressing bandits, and drinking soldiers' blood), General Qin is an honest man. The subtext of being an honest man is that he only makes money in a single way (only buying money for traveling), so he invades the army to occupy Ningwuguan had a great influence on Master Qin.
So no matter what, Qin Yuji would never leave Ningwuguan even half a step.
The invading army encountered a small setback in front of Ningwuguan, with more than a thousand casualties, which was more than the number of officers and soldiers killed all the way from Shaanxi. Basically, they had the Qin general's servants shoot arrows from the top of the city. Deadly - Ningwuguan is short of ammunition.
In the end, Qin Yuji's servants suffered all casualties. Seeing the intruders going crazy with murder, Qin Yuji climbed onto the roof, threw down the torches, and burned himself to death with more than 30 members of his family.
From the forty-seventh year of Wanli to the first year of Wuding, in the past ten years of war, all parts of the north have been completely hollowed out.
People's livelihood in the North is in decline, and the fields are barren. This year's harvest in Hejian Prefecture is less than half of last year's.
Many people have no food to eat, people everywhere are worried, and more and more people who can't survive are choosing to join the bandits.
If you can't solve the problem, get rid of the people who created the problem.
Rumor has it that Emperor Wu Ding will prepare to lead a personal expedition, personally lead an army to fight against the bandits in Shanxi, and massacre the bandits.
However, this rumor is obviously not credible, because the Kaiyuan Army has just experienced a big battle in the capital and still needs a good rest, and is unlikely to immediately engage in a new battle.
However, these rumors were quickly confirmed. On February 20th, Emperor Wu Ding swore an oath to go to war at Yongding Gate in the capital. In order to show that he attached great importance to this war, the emperor killed a group of prisoners before going to the war, and jumped to the throne as an archbishop. There was a spiritual dance.
The emperor's prayer goes like this:
You don't see it, the Confucian scholars have risen up and the strong men have died, and China has been praising benevolence and righteousness ever since. Once the bandits invaded the Central Plains, the scholars rushed to the coward and the people wept.
I want to learn the ancient style and regain my heroic spirit. Wearing an iron sword, he kills people in anger. It takes ten weeks of stars to kill an enemy thousands of miles away. Zhutian Guangren, and Jie have a deep love for each other. Heading out of the west gate, Mu Tiren turned around. I feel tired and sleepy, and the war trumpet suddenly blows. The killing battle between heaven and earth shocked the Yin Court with tragedy. Kill one person in three steps without stopping. Blood flowed for thousands of miles, and corpses pillowed Qianxun Mountain. When a strong man finishes a battle, he sleeps on his enemy's corpse when tired.
