On the afternoon of June 10, the fourth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, when Emperor Amadorgun of the Qing Dynasty sent his army to pursue Jiang Yu, and was about to win a complete victory and severely damage Jiang Yu's troops, Zhao Tingchen, a good slave of the Han army with a yellow flag, Fan Chengmo, the son of Fan Wencheng, was standing on the north gate tower of Jiezhou City, looking at the scene in front of him with a dry throat.
To the north of Jiezhou City, where the Jiechi Salt Fields are located, people shouting and horses neighed, and the atmosphere was boiling. The official road was crowded with people, and spears were like a forest. The densely packed Ming army officers and soldiers were advancing rapidly along the official road, as if they were rolling in from the Luliang Mountains. The coming flash flood is unstoppable. The forward of this army, about 2,000 cavalry, arrived in Changle Town yesterday. There was an internal response from the Ming army in Changle Town. They took advantage of the chaos and opened the city gate, allowing the Ming army to swarm in. After occupying Changle Town, the connection between Jiezhou City and Siyancheng, which was responsible for salt field affairs, was in jeopardy - Changle Town was located between the two castles.
Therefore, Shanxi Salt Patrol Censor Fan Chengmo, who was stationed in Siyancheng, immediately withdrew to Xiezhou with Yanding and a battalion (Niulu) of Zhenglu Banner soldiers, and joined Zhao Tingchen, the magistrate of Xiezhou.
Zhao Tingchen was born in the Xianghuang Banner Han Army - he was a "second generation traitor", so he was elected to the Imperial Academy for gilding, and he was recently appointed as the magistrate of Jiezhou.
By the way, there is no imperial examination for ordinary Han scholars in the Qing Dynasty now! If Han people want to enter the officialdom, they must first surrender the flag.
You don’t have to vote for the old eight flags. You also need to vote for the green flags. When Dorgon established the Zhenglu Banner, he incorporated all the Han officials who were neither in the banner nor in the West (under the sect of King Pingxi) after joining the Qing Dynasty into the Zhenglu Banner.
So there are no officials in the Qing Dynasty who are not in the banner!
To be an official, you must first join the banner. Only after joining the banner can you be qualified to serve as a soldier and perform meritorious service, can you be admitted to the imperial examination, and can you work as a clerk in various ministries and yamen... If you join the banner, you can even become a slave to the old eight banners ( There are no coated slaves in Zhenglu Banner, and those who enter the flag are Zhengding), and it is getting more and more difficult now. Because after surrendering the flag and becoming a slave, he would no longer contribute to the imperial court and work as an errand, so the imperial court certainly did not want ordinary Han people to surrender the flag.
If all the Han people surrendered the flag, the Qing Dynasty would fall apart - if all the population and land were divided among the ten flags, wouldn't the country be divided into ten?
The symbol of being in the flag and not being in the flag is the money rat braid. This braid is not something that can be grown casually!
Of course, there is no law against growing one's hair, but there is a crime of "privately shaving one's hair." Shaving one's head and leaving a braid that looks like a money rat tail is a sign of the Nine Flags master. How can ordinary people do this? Shave your hair and braid it? Are you going to pretend to be a subordinate and go to a smuggling pit to defraud you?
Therefore, "privately shaving your hair" in today's Qing Dynasty means having your head chopped off!
Those who are not qualified to shave their hair and braid their hair, no matter they were originally scholar-bureaucrats or poor lower-middle peasants, are now all assigned to farm land, and they farm the land honestly, pay taxes, and perform corvee service... No exceptions!
And in Jiezhou City on the afternoon of June 10, the fourth year of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, there were only a few men who were qualified to hang a money rat tail on the back of their heads... Fan Chengmo and Zhao Tingchen could rely on, that is, That's a lot of people.
Although the Qing Dynasty also implemented a plan to grant farmland in Jiezhou, the people in Jiezhou only had to pay grain and go to Jiechi salt fields to perform corvee service. They did not need to bear military service, and there were no landlords armed.
Relying on the garrison of Yanchi and Xiezhou City (a total of 1,000) and some unshaved government agents, the bandits in Jiezhou did not dare to cause trouble, but now it is the third prince of Luliang Mountain who has arrived. Soldiers, and there are so many of them!
Throughout the afternoon of June 10, troops arrived one after another, numbering no less than 30,000!
They are not ordinary mobs, but elite soldiers who have received formal training, are well-equipped, and have quite good qualities. Who are the people who go to Luliang Mountain? They are all landlords, rich farmers, and profiteers in Shanxi, and their children have become the main source of officers and soldiers for the Luliang Mountain Ming Army (also known as the Three Princes Army) - they now have no place to take the imperial examination, so what else can they do if they are not soldiers?
Therefore, the literacy rate of the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty in Luliang Mountain is absolutely number one in the world today!
Watching the neatly organized groups of Ming troops unfold in an orderly manner under the command of officers, they set up camp beside the female salt pond outside Jiezhou City.
Zhao Tingchen, who was standing next to Fan Chengmo, was breathing rapidly: "Brother Jin Gong, why are these Ming troops so organized? Did they really come down from Luliang Mountain?"
"probably?"
Fan Chengmo swallowed. Although he was a former imperial guard, he had never led an army or fought against the Ming army. He only heard from Fan Wencheng and other fathers about how miserable the Ming army was. But today I saw the Ming army coming down from Luliang Mountain... They were not very good enemies! Is this pulp?
Isn’t this what the Eight Banners might be like?
"Then...what should we do? We can't hold on!"
"Brother neighbor, don't panic. I will break out of the city after dark and go to Tongguan Guard to ask for help from Dorobelenikan." Fan Chengmo said sternly, "You are the defender and you have the responsibility to defend the territory, so you should defend Jiezhou!"
"What?" Zhao Tingchen almost jumped up, "I only have 1,000 people, how can I defend it?"
"Why 1,000 people?" Fan Chengmo was a little surprised, "There is only one battalion of green flag soldiers stationed in Jiezhou, only 500 people!"
Yes, there are 500 people brought by Fan Chengmo from Siyancheng - their responsibility is to protect the salt inspector and crack down on illegal salt.
The third prince of Luliang Mountain is not a private salt seller, so he is not included in the attack...
Just as Fan Chengmo and Zhao Tingchen were discussing how to defend the city and how to call for help, a group of cavalry had already surrounded Zhu Cijiong, the "Loan King" of the Ming Dynasty, to a high slope on the east bank of the female salt pond less than three miles away from Jiezhou City.
Zhu Cijiong was accompanied by the palace guard general Luo Xiushen. He originally did not know how to fight, but in the past three years or so, he had followed Wang Yongji, Gao Di and others to fight in various places. He also broke through many fortresses and gained experience. Now he is just From a distance, you can tell that Jiezhou City is not difficult to defeat.
"Your Majesty, Jiezhou is empty. The army needs to rest for one night and build equipment tomorrow morning. In the afternoon, they can defeat the city with one blow."
Zhu Cijiong nodded, "A hundred miles away is Fengling Pass, where the Tatars have stationed their troops? If they attack in large numbers, can we handle it?"
Luo Xiushen said: "There are four to five thousand Qing soldiers stationed at Fengling Pass and Tongguan on the other side of the Yellow River, led by the Tatar general Nikan, to block Zhang Xianzhong. If the whole group comes, Tongguan will be empty. If only one of us comes, our troops and horses will be ten times that of theirs, and victory will not be difficult."
"Okay!" Although Zhu Cijiong is young, he has been in the army for three or four years. He has heard and seen everything about military affairs. He is no longer an amateur when marching and fighting. He made a decision immediately, "Then let's meet at Jiezhou. Nikan! If he dares to come with his whole gang, that evil thief Zhang Xianzhong will definitely take the opportunity to march eastward to Luoyang, and the world will be in chaos. By then, we in Luliang Mountain will be able to breathe a sigh of relief.
If he doesn't come, then I can plunder and leave... We can always plunder millions of goods this time, which is enough to last a year. "
It turns out that Zhu Cijiong went south to Jiezhou not only to learn about the wealth of the state's salt pond, but also to seduce Zhang Xianzhong for the Eastern Campaign!
Zhang Xianzhong arrived in Guanzhong last year, but the two main roads leading from Guanzhong, Tongguan Road and Shangluo Road, were blocked by Qing and Ming troops.
The one who blocked Tongguan Road was a force of four to five thousand Nine Flags commanded by Nikan. Although the number was small, they repelled several attacks by Zhang Xianzhong's troops.
At the same time, Nanming also deployed an entire division of heavy troops in Xiqikou and Neixiang County of Nanyang Prefecture to also block Zhang Xianzhong tightly.
Therefore, although Zhang Xianzhong was so enthusiastic about Guanzhong, which was the most popular in the world, he still couldn't move, and he didn't dare to fall out with Li Zicheng, who was pretending to be lively. He could only call himself the King of Dashun Xi Wang honestly, not to mention how aggrieved he was.
If the main force of Nikan really left Tongguan and went north to Jiezhou, Zhang Xianzhong would not miss this opportunity to move eastward no matter what.
Once Zhang Xianzhong, the scourge, marches eastward to Luoyang, the situation in the Central Plains will inevitably be in chaos. The Qing Emperor Amador Gun will not have the energy to deal with the third prince on Luliang Mountain for the time being.
