Xi'an Prefecture, Chunhua County.
Hong Chengchou was sitting on the imperial chair, quietly listening to the report from the messenger in the hall. In his hand, there was an open letter.
After reporting all the military information, the messenger stood up again and quickly exited the lobby.
Quietness returned to the lobby again, and everything was silent and very dull.
The generals in military uniforms on both sides of the hall lowered their heads in silence, staring at the ground. No one spoke or moved.
The city of Hong Chengchou was deep and deep, and it won the trust of Chongzhen. He had a high and powerful position. He was not only the governor of the three sides, but also had the title of Minister of the Ministry of War, which was extremely powerful.
Since the Civil War, the status of civilian officials has been continuously improved, while the status of military generals has been continuously declining, gradually forming a system of using civil servants to control military forces.
In the future, when a war breaks out, civilian governors will be in charge of military affairs, and the generals, deputy generals, generals, guerrillas, etc. can only be at his disposal.
The war continues without end. Not only has this situation not changed, but it has intensified.
In the second year of Chongzhen, Yuan Chonghuan landed on Dongjiang Island in the name of a military parade and killed Mao Wenlong with Shangfang's sword.
As the commander-in-chief of a town, he didn't even determine his guilt. He was beheaded without being tried.
As soon as this incident came out, the world was shocked and everyone was in danger.
Later, Yuan Chonghuan was imprisoned and sentenced to Lingchi, but Mao Wenlong was still not rehabilitated.
As the commander-in-chief of Pingliao, Mao Wenlong also received Shang Fangjian, was granted the title of Zuo Governor, and was in charge of a town, yet he ended up like this.
All the generals in the hall were controlled by Hong Chengchou. Their power was not comparable to that of Mao Wenlong, and they did not dare to disobey Hong Chengchou's military orders.
Although Hong Chengchou did not kill any generals recklessly like Yuan Chonghuan, he used many methods to correct them.
Cao Wenzhao, as the former leader of the Shanxi and Shaanxi generals, was also suppressed by Hong Chengchou.
Cao Wenzhao captured tens of thousands of heads in Shanshan and went through dozens of battles. However, because he offended Hong Chengchou, the reward was extremely low after the reward was based on merit.
Fan Fucui, the governor's censor, and Wu Di, the governor's censor, argued for Cao Wen's edict, but they were suppressed by Hong Chengchou.
Hong Chengchou put down the letter in his hand, his expression becoming more and more gloomy.
The period for the imperial government to quell the thieves is getting closer, but instead of good news coming from the front line, bad news comes one after another.
The forward was ambushed in Xiangle, Ningzhou. Liu Honglie, the forward Chinese soldier, was captured. Ai Wannian and Liu Guozhen, the deputy generals, died in the battle.
In the end, only deputy general Liu Chenggong and guerrilla Wang Ximing brought back less than a thousand remaining soldiers.
Then Cao Wenzhao led the Datong troops to attack again, but was ambushed again in Zhenning, which was full of dangers and resulted in more than 500 casualties and the loss of most of the generals.
And there is even worse news than the defeat of the war. The bandits' army now has a batch of Fran cannons and several powerful cannons.
Both defeats were due to ambushes.
It was understandable that Ai Wannian and others encountered an ambush, but as a veteran on the battlefield, Cao Wenzhao actually fell into an ambush, which was not quite right.
Hong Chengchou frowned slightly. There might be some capable people among the thieves, so he could no longer look at him the same way as before.
Hong Chengchou raised his head and glanced at the generals and guerrillas in the hall.
Shaanxi has suffered from natural disasters for many years. It has just recovered a little. The bandits have entered Shaanxi again and quickly brought tens of thousands of people with them. Now the bandits are growing and growing, but the military strength under his command is getting weaker and weaker. .
In May, Gao Yingxianghui and various leaders joined forces in Shaanxi, with a combined force of 200,000, and marched towards Xi'an.
The company camp is fifty miles away, and the beacon fire is shining on Xijing.
Relying on the tall city walls of Chang'an City, the thieves were finally repelled.
"Li Zicheng, Hui Dengxiang, Tuo Yangkun..."
Hong Chengchou looked at the letter from Cao Wenzhao and fell into deep thought.
After the bandits withdrew from Xi'an City, one group attacked northwest to attack Pingliang, and the other group attacked north to Qingyang Mansion.
The number of rogue bandits attacking the northern part of Qingyang Mansion was much smaller. There were only two groups in total. The two generals Li Zicheng and Tuo Yangkun had about 40,000 troops. Guo Tianxing, Man Tianxing, and Hun Tianxing had a total of 30,000 troops. The remaining people.
Li Zicheng and Tuo Yangkun are one, Guo Tianxing Hui Dengxiang leads Gypsophila, and Hun Tianxing are another.
The two groups did not plunder the counties as previously expected, but first joined forces to ambush the subsequent pursuing officers and soldiers.
The rogue bandits heading to the west were numerous and powerful, and were the main force. Gao Yingxiang, who claimed to be the King of Chuang, Lao Huihui Ma Shouying, Eight Great Kings Zhang Xianzhong, Yi Zi Wang, Chuang Tian Wang and other tribes, numbering in the tens of thousands.
Hong Chengchou originally wanted to eliminate Li Zicheng and Prime Minister Hui Deng who were attacking Qingyang Prefecture in the north. He first cut off an arm of the rogue bandits, and then freed up all his hands to deal with the rogue bandits who were attacking Pingliang Prefecture in the northwest.
He had mobilized soldiers from all over Yansui Town to encircle and suppress them, but he never thought that the rogue bandits were waiting for him to advance, and he fell directly into their trap.
The arm that is broken now is his arm.
After hunting geese all day long, the geese pecked his eyes. How could Hong Chengchou not get angry?
"How is the situation in Pingliang Mansion?"
Hong Chengchou raised his head and asked to the side.
Nowadays, the northern front has suffered successive disastrous defeats, losing troops and generals, and he still doesn't know the news about the northwest.
Guerrilla Sun Shoufa stood up. He was responsible for mobilizing from the center, and he was responsible for receiving reports on military information in the northwest.
"General Soldier Zuo and General He defeated two formations in a row in the east of Jingzhou City and beheaded 727 people. However, the bandits' follow-up reinforcements arrived and they could only retreat temporarily."
"Pingliang Mansion is in emergency. There are only more than 3,000 soldiers in the mansion. Please ask the military gate to rush to help immediately."
It took several days for Gao Yingxiang and his troops to conquer Jingzhou, and now they are looting everywhere. Zuo Liangyu, He Renlong and other generals have few soldiers and can only hang in the rear, waiting for opportunities. The results achieved so far are still extremely limited.
Make bricks without straw.
Hong Chengchou sighed helplessly in his heart. There were only tens of thousands of generals under his command, and there were not many of them at all.
Gao Yingxiang ordered a group of soldiers and horses to go north, which directly cut off the road he wanted to pursue.
Because if we do not deal with the soldiers and horses in the north and directly pursue Gao Yingxiang, once the rogue bandits from the north move south, they are likely to be cut off from their retreat, and tens of thousands of troops will be trapped at the junction of Pingliang Prefecture and Xi'an Prefecture.
Hong Chengchou closed his eyes and tapped the armrest of the seat with his fingers, seeming to be thinking about something.
All the generals in the hall were still hanging their heads in silence. This situation was perfectly normal.
Hong Chengchou has always been arbitrary, and asking for their opinions is only for reference and will not change his mind.
Back and forth, if Hong Chengchou didn't take the initiative to ask, they wouldn't take the initiative to speak.
After a while, Hong Chengchou finally opened his eyes, and the first words he spoke made all the generals raise their heads.
"Order He Renlong and Zuo Liangyu to temporarily retreat to Yilu Town, and then order Yansui to detach a partial army and go south to Qingyang Prefecture to Huai County."
Hong Chengchou stood up slowly, his voice was terrifyingly low.
"Order Zhang Waijia to lead the troops forward and attack Zhenning again!"
