In the eighth year of Chongzhen's reign, Fengyang fell, causing shock to both the government and the public.
Chongzhen sent more than one million taels of money from the capital, province, and government to serve as military pay.
But this million taels of silver had already been withheld a lot before it left the capital.
When it was sent to Shaanxi, Huguang, and Henan, there wasn't much left.
It was originally agreed that the total number of troops to counter the rebellion would be 72,000, but in fact, the generals and colleges in each province actually had only 42,000 troops.
The Ming army that followed Hong Chengchou to attack Shaanxi only had 16,000 people.
By early October of the eighth year of Chongzhen, the situation in the four parties was deteriorating rapidly.
The number of rogue bandits entrenched in Shangluo, Pingli, and Hanzhong has exceeded 200,000.
Among them, there are about 120,000 people in Shangluo and Pingli, and 80,000 people in Hanzhong Prefecture.
There are only one battalion of more than 2,000 soldiers in Hanzhong Mansion, and they can only guard the main roads and block them from the left and right.
The total number of rogue bandits from all directions in Xi'an Prefecture exceeded 330,000. When Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong besieged Jingyang and Sanyuan, many of the rogue bandits who had originally plundered the south of Xi'an Prefecture moved north to join them, so that their strength expanded again.
In the Yan'an Prefecture, the commander-in-chief of Yansui Town, Yu Chongxiao, died in battle, and the Yansui Town troops withdrew to protect the town.
Most of the soldiers in Yan'an Prefecture suffered casualties and were unable to fight anymore, so they could only retreat to various cities. The situation in Yan'an Prefecture completely collapsed.
Guo Tianxing, Man's Gypsophila, and Hun Tianxing plundered the northern part of Yan'an Prefecture, with an army of 70,000.
Li Zicheng and Xie Zikuan plundered the southern part of Yan'an. Many fleeing Yansui soldiers joined Li Zicheng and Xie Zikuan's army and became the backbone of their army.
However, Li Zicheng's elite troops were not lost. Although all the cavalry troops were lost in Chunhua, they also lost a lot of elite cavalry.
But most of the elite cavalry left behind were composed of newly promoted cavalry, and those elite cavalry from the frontier army were basically taken by his side.
Yan'an Prefecture had no troops to defend, so Li Zicheng and Xie Zikuai became more unscrupulous, and their military strength once again expanded to 30,000 people, regaining their momentum.
In Fengxiang Mansion, there are about 20,000 rogue bandits remaining.
In Gongchang Prefecture, Yihu Li crossed Jizhong Mountain and joined the Four Heavenly Kings Li Yangchun. The two troops joined forces and camped in the north of Jizhong Mountain and south of Mapao Spring.
The King of Climbing Heaven also gathered troops from the south of the mountain to the north of the mountain. The total number of troops from the three tribes exceeded 30,000.
In other words, the number of rogue bandits in the entire Shaanxi Province has swelled to 600,000.
At this time, the Ming army in Shaanxi could not muster 30,000 soldiers even including the auxiliary troops in each army. There was a huge disparity in military strength between the two sides.
In addition to Shaanxi, there are still many rogue bandits raging in Huguang, Henan and other places. This group of rogue bandits developed rapidly again because Hong Chengchou led troops into Shaanxi to suppress them.
There are dozens of rogue shares reported from each province, and each share varies in size, ranging from tens of thousands to thousands.
The impact of the civil unrest may have caused millions of people to become thieves.
In September, Lu Xiangsheng was appointed Prime Minister in charge of military affairs in Jiangbei, Henan, Shandong, Sichuan, and Huguang, and also served as governor of Huguang.
Hong Chengchou was the governor of Guanzhong, and Lu Xiangsheng was the governor of Guanwai, each specializing in one area.
At this time, the officers and soldiers in Huguang, Henan and other provinces were responsible for defending key areas, and their strength was stretched thin.
However, Zu Kuan and Zu Dale led Guan Ning's army to arrive in Henan in October.
Lu Xiangsheng gathered the generals in Henan to recruit troops and prepare for defense.
According to the order, the general, deputy, staff and tour battalions of the Liaodong, Changping and northern military towns were all led by Lu Xiangsheng to counter the rebellion in the five provinces.
Zuo Liangyu was therefore placed under Lu Xiangsheng's command.
Chen Wang was not placed under Lu Xiangsheng's command as he had expected.
Although he led the Liao Town cavalry, he accepted Zhang Waijia's old troops.
However, when he was promoted to guerrilla, he was assigned to Datong Town, subordinate to Cao Wenzhao, and controlled by Cao Wenzhao.
Chen Wang was relieved that he was not placed under Lu Xiangsheng's command.
To be honest, Chen Wang understands history, and he naturally admires Lu Xiangsheng very much.
But if he was really under Lu Xiangsheng's command, I'm afraid he would be exhausted every day in the future, attacking everywhere, and would not be able to develop at all.
In the end, most of them could only die in Jiazhuang in Julu with Lu Xiangsheng, which would not change the overall situation much at all.
Lu Xiangsheng's defeat was not due to the inability of his troops to fight, but because he was fighting with a small number and was isolated and helpless in the heart of the country.
But just fifty miles away, Gao Qiqian was holding a heavy army in Jize, motionless as a mountain. Lu Xiangsheng sent people to ask for help, but Gao Qiqian ignored him, and the army was ultimately defeated.
Ironically, when Lu Xiangsheng died in battle at Julu, news of his death did not reach the capital in time.
Chongzhen was still reprimanding Lu Xiangsheng, saying that his detective work was unclear and his deployment was incompetent. He sat back and watched the cities fall without any relief. His talk of daring to fight against the sun was obviously just using his name to deceive the public.
Little did he know that apart from the other armies, only Lu Xiangsheng was fighting alone, while the other armies were the culprits who sat back and watched the cities fall.
Looking at the military order in his hand, Hong Chengchou had already set a time limit for him. Li Guo and other troops must be wiped out within ten months.
Hong Chengchou's souvenir is full of knocking ideas, but the wording is still restrained.
Along with the military order came Cao Wenzhao's letter. Cao Wenzhao's tone in the letter was much better than Hong Chengchou's.
Let him fight steadily, don't be too impatient, and be fully prepared before using troops to advance.
He also talked to him about how the new army can quickly adapt to the battle formation when it is fighting. What he wrote was all based on experience.
Finally, he gave a vague reminder not to lose too many troops.
Chen Wang saw Cao Wenzhao's last sentence in the letter, which also gave him another understanding of Cao Wenzhao.
Cao Wenzhao also realized this.
Whether it was Hong Chengchou, the other governors, or the imperial court.
Those generals who suffered defeats and suffered heavy losses were punished directly without hesitation.
As for those generals who were defeated but whose strength remained intact, they were only given a few harsh words of mild punishment and salary, and at most they were demoted.
Moreover, even if he was demoted, he would still continue to command the troops of his camp, and his actual authority would not be lost.
It's not that Chen Wang doesn't have the righteousness of his family and country in his heart, but the prerequisite for all this is to save his life first.
The late Ming Dynasty did not mean that there were no good generals, nor did it mean that there were no loyal ministers, nor did it mean that there was no strong army.
Doing something rashly will only put yourself in danger.
He is not a guard, he does not have a stable environment to develop, and he is not qualified to recruit craftsmen to make ordnance on his own.
He knew all the ways to make money by making local saltpeter, but there was no place where he could do these things.
Now if he wants to obtain gold and silver, he can only rely on the force in his hands to snatch it from the hands of bandits, or snatch it from other places...
Chen Wang put down the letter in his hand and raised his head.
Inside the tent, Chen Gong, Hu Zhili, Tang Shiping, and Zhao Huailiang were sitting on the seats on both sides, holding their breath and waiting for his military order.
There was silence outside the tent, but in this camp, there were more than 4,500 soldiers gathered.
More than 4,500 people seemed to be silent. The mules and horses were silent, and Zhang Wai didn't even hear the wind.
In Shaanxi in October, autumn has gradually entered, and the weather is gradually becoming cooler, without the boredom of summer.
Chen Wang's eyes slowly swept over the four people, and then he slowly stood up from the seat with his body supported.
In fact, there was no shortage of food and grass in the army. After entering Qinzhou, he had already sent people to various places in Gongchang Mansion to purchase a large amount of military food.
It was the autumn harvest season at this time, and taxes were about to be collected. Grain merchants tried their best to keep the price of grain purchased at a low price.
Chen Wang directly sent people to the villages and towns, and bought a large amount of cheap grain with silver at a price slightly higher than the price paid by grain merchants.
As for transportation, it was even simpler. For a small fee, the villagers either carried or pushed the food to the military camp one by one.
Such behavior naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of the grain merchants of Gongchang Prefecture.
But Chen Wang had naturally taken their dissatisfaction into consideration, and he submitted multiple reports one after another about Gongchang Mansion's refusal to provide food.
Hong Chengchou would naturally help him suppress these trivial matters. As long as the political influence was minimized, other influences would not matter.
No matter how arrogant those grain merchants were, would they dare to send people to intercept and kill his army midway?
Now the sharpest knife in Gongchang's house is not in the hands of the grain merchant, but in his hands.
The problem of military rations has been solved.
The next problem that needs to be solved is Hong Chengchou's order.
Now is far from the time to fall out, and the most important thing is, it is exactly what Hong Chengchou said.
An army that has not experienced battle formations is ultimately just a weak brigade.
Among the three tribes of Li Guo, Li Yangchun and Climbing Heavenly King, only the tribes under Li Yangchun were slightly more elite.
Although there are 30,000 people, the threat is actually not great, and it is just used to test the combat effectiveness of his army.
(End of chapter)
