Above the Jiashan Mountain, there is a blanket of white snow. Below the Jiashan Mountain, on a gently undulating slope, there are already many soldiers from the New Dashun Army who are about to accompany Li Zicheng, Emperor Yongchang of Dashun, to start his final battle in life.
There are 12,000 warriors, including old men with white hair and young boys with immature faces. Most of them are loyal orphans of the Dashun Dynasty who came from Kuidong.
They are now organized into five battalions: front, rear, left, right and center. Each battalion has 2,400 soldiers, and is divided into two brigades on the left and right, as well as artillery team, cavalry team, janitor team, and baggage team.
Among them, the flags of the front camp are black, the rear camp is yellow, the left camp is white, the right camp is red, and the middle camp is cyan.
All warriors are uniformly dressed in green robes, white felt hats on their heads, and standing with weapons in their curled armor. Each battalion formed two brigade phalanxes and a small battalion and division phalanx. The five battalions and fifteen formations were spread all over the mountains and plains. It looked amazing!
In the original history, most of them had followed Liu Yihu, and when the San Francisco Rebellion broke out, they once again took up the banner of Chuangwang and carried out the final struggle. It's a pity that he met Chen Shikai and Chen Tietou, a fierce general. Although this landlubber was defeated by the old pirate Zhu Tiangui on the Lingding Ocean, in the Kuidong Mountains, he had been dealing with the heroes who had made a name for themselves for half a lifetime. Chen Tietou is not that easy to deal with.
In the historical battle of Wushan, Chen Shikai's Green Camp troops defeated Liu Yihu's remnants of the camp who had just gathered and had not yet truly recovered from years of farming and production to become warriors again. His own crown was dyed red with the blood of the remaining party members who broke into the camp.
However, in this round of the "San Francisco Uprising", Wu Sangui's main marching direction was from Sichuan to Shaanxi and Gansu, and for a time he used Chongqing as his temporary base camp. He also sent his eldest son Wu Yingxiong to Kuizhou Prefecture, and the anti-Qing momentum in Kuidong area increased!
Chen Shikai and the backbone of his subordinates were taken to Guangdong by their old boss's son Li Lan. As a result, Liu Yihu led the remaining troops of the camp to seize Wushan and won without any doubt.
This battle, which had no suspense and did not attract much attention even in this era, allowed Li Zicheng to obtain the "second pot of gold" for his revival.
Having experienced successes and failures, and having come into contact with the "True Scriptures" of rebellion such as "The World is Public" and "The Tianchao Land System", it can be said that Li Zicheng has understood the way of rebellion. As long as he has the first pot of gold for rebellion, he will Of course you can start working again!
But this time, he is not in a hurry to get started. He has been waiting for more than 20 years. Is there still a few months to a year left?
And he's not in a hurry to be the emperor. It's not like he's never been one before, so that's it.
Instead of rushing to raise a banner that cannot be carried at all, it is better to spend more time and slowly polish your rebel team.
After falling from "supporting millions of people" to chanting sutras in small temples, Li Zicheng has understood the principle of "employing elites, not large numbers". Claiming millions is useless. Once the elites suffer heavy losses, millions of people will soon be defeated. Scattered.
Therefore, he is going to have a great success this time, and he will be invincible!
After more than half a year of training, his "old camp elite" was finally pulled together again.
For these 12,000 elites, Li Zicheng and his remnants of the camp really spent a lot of money - not their own money. After more than 20 years of hard work, this group of people no longer had much capital. Fortunately, they took advantage of Wu Sangui's sudden rise and the Qing army's defeat and chaos to seize this large plain between the Yuanjiang River, the Yangtze River, Dongting Lake and the Kuidong Mountains. Although this place is not as good as the four counties and one area controlled by Wang Zhongxiao. The town is so prosperous, but there are also endless paddy fields, and the population is not small.
If there are a lot of paddy fields and a large population, there will not be too few gentry landlords. If the fields are equalized and the houses are raided, won't the money come out?
And this capital has now become the cloth-covered iron armor draped on the soldiers of the old camp, the shotguns on their shoulders, the waist knives and bows and arrows on their waists, the long spears in their hands, and the five-point weapons placed on the front, back, left, and right. The small bronze cannon in front of the battalion array!
It is now the first month of the twelfth year of Emperor Kangxi's reign in the Qing Dynasty. It is also the first month of the twenty-eighth year of Dashun Yongchang in the minds of Li Zicheng and all the Dashun old battalion soldiers who have never forgotten to restore Dashun.
After living in seclusion in Jiashan and the Qingdeng Ancient Buddha for many years, Li Zicheng, who was originally as calm as water, now has a sullen face, but everyone can feel that he can't hide the surging heart at this moment.
This is his army, his hard work, and the backbone of the military force that will rebuild the world of Dashun in the future! He worked hard and endured for many years on the mountain, summing up his lessons, accumulating strength, and waiting for the opportunity. Finally, he "succeeded in enlightenment" and also allowed him to wait for the opportunity to rise again. God has been too kind to him, Li Zicheng. He, Li Zicheng, must not let down this providence!
It seems that the person chosen by God is Li Zicheng.
Li Zicheng suddenly raised his voice: "Submit the troops to fight against Hu's army. Now we have more than 12,000 invincible elite soldiers! If we have more than 10,000 elite soldiers, we will be invincible. If we follow the elite troops of our camp, we will be invincible even if we have 10,000 elite soldiers." The elites! Among the gentlemen, many of them once followed me, Li Fengtian, in my expeditions to the east and west, and they also made great achievements. It’s a pity that in the end, their achievements fell short because of the Tatars’ invasion of China.
Dashun Dynasty! The empire built with the blood and sweat of countless people fell apart in less than a year! Over the past twenty years, E Li Fengtian has been thinking hard day and night, asking himself why is this? Why can't we defeat the Tatars and defend our country? Why?
After thinking about it for twenty years, I finally figured it out. We are developing so fast that we started to get up all at once. No, I don’t know how to manage a piece of territory well, and I don’t know how to really hold the people in my hands. Only when we have territory and people can we stand firmly and for a long time, can we withstand the test of ups and downs, and can we develop truly invincible elites!
And God has really favored us, and now he has given us a second chance, allowing us to have another good piece of land in the great world between Jinghu Lake. Let us recharge our energy here and train thousands of elite soldiers to defeat the enemy!
This is God’s will and God will never stop me, my dashing heroic man.”
Li Zicheng raised his head and looked at a flag hanging above his head. All the officers and soldiers of the old battalion also looked at the flag. For a moment, I could only hear the sound of flags fluttering. There are two powerful characters tattooed on the flag - Fengtian!
Fengtian was the Dharma title used by Li Zicheng when he became a monk in Jiashan, and it was also the new military title of this reborn Dashun Army.
Although everyone knows that Li Zicheng has been "resurrected", some superficial work still needs to be done. If Li Zicheng plays the banner of Dashun, he may not be able to maintain his cooperation with Wu Sangui and Wu Yingxiong.
So after careful consideration, Li Zicheng's army sounded the bugle call of "Fengtian Camp", so that everyone who understands understands, and those who are willing to pretend to be confused can continue to pretend.
"This is our new military flag and new bugle!" Li Zicheng raised his finger and pointed at the big flag, "From now on, we are serving the heavenly army. Following the destiny of heaven, we will defeat the barbarians and restore the achievements of the Chinese kings. go down in history!"
Twelve thousand Dashun soldiers suddenly burst into cheers and shouted together: "Fengtian! Fengtian! Fengtian."
Li Zicheng waved his arm, pointed to the southeast, and shouted: "Send troops to attack Hu Changde's city!"
"Send troops to fight against the barbarians!"
On the hillside, the cheers thundered again!
Although Li Zicheng claimed to be Li Fengtian and put up the brand name of Wu Sangui's regime, the commotion he caused in Lizhou, Changde, Jingzhou and other places was really too big!
Not to mention Lu Zhen, the governor of Hunan in the Qing Dynasty (his official name was Governor Pianyuan at this time), Zhao Lai, the admiral of Hunan, and Shi Huashan, the president and minister of Changsha Daying. Even the old Shunzhi monk in Mount Wutai already knew about it. My old rival is back again.
Of course, Kangxi already knew this. Therefore, before they arrived in Xi'an, they gave orders to Cai Yurong, the governor of Huguang, Eza, the president of Jingzhou Daying, Shi Huashan, the president of Changsha Daying, Lu Zhen, the governor of Hunan, Zhang Chaozhen, the governor of Hubei, and Babur, the commander of the eight banners stationed in Jingzhou, asking them to Li Zicheng must be eliminated as soon as possible.
But the question is what quick way to do it?
The Qing Dynasty's troops in Huguang were limited. If we don't count the small green battalion soldiers who were scattered in various places for flood defense and could not move at all, the troops that could really be gathered to fight the battle were the two battalions of the new army. The Eight Banners were stationed in Jingzhou, and There are the Governor of Huguang, the Governor of Hubei, the Governor of Hunan, the Admiral of Hubei, the Admiral of Hunan, and several pacesetters of the general army. The total number is only 40,000 to 50,000. The number of people seems to be quite large, but they are very scattered. There are as many as eight governor-level ministers in charge of these 40,000 to 50,000 soldiers!
Although Kangxi had already asked the president and minister of the Jingzhou camp to trust Eza, the king of the county, to president the army, and also gave the seal of General Fuyuan to Eza.
But it is still difficult for President Eza to control a bunch of governors, governors, and admirals in Huguang. The pacesetters are the governor's personal troops directly under the jurisdiction! It is to escort the governors and maintain the scene.
In addition, the governors and governors of the Qing Dynasty did not have assistants. The dignified governor's yamen and governor's yamen looked very impressive, but apart from the pacesetters, the only one who was "staffed" was the governor himself.
If Eza pulls away all their role models, then the dignified governor will become a real bare guard. In this chaotic situation, which governor is willing to be a bare guard? If you encounter an uprising or something and don't have any pacesetters, wouldn't you just have to wait to die?
Therefore, the only troops that Ezha can actually use are the new troops under the two presidential camps, part of the Eight Banners Defense Army, and part of the Green Camp soldiers under the supervision of the admiral and general soldier, which is only more than 20,000 people.
And more than 20,000 people were divided into two sides, looking at Jiangbei and Jiangnan respectively.
In order to facilitate the dispatch of the Qing troops in the north and south of the Yangtze River, Ezha set up a camp in Yuezhou. He himself led two thousand and eight new banners troops to station there. When he encountered those he could handle, he gave orders to his generals or governors. If something cannot be dealt with, a meeting must be held to discuss it.
And when the news that Li Zicheng, regardless of the freezing weather, sent troops to attack Changde City, which had been semi-surrounded by local soldiers from the "Fengtian Camp" for several months, reached Yuezhou, Eza was in Yuezhou with Cai Yurong, Lu Zhen, Zhang Chaozhen, Babur, Shi Huashan and others are having a conference together!
The content discussed at the conference was not to encircle and suppress Li Zicheng, but how to resist the armies of Wu Guogui and Zu Zeqing!
Wu Guogui and Zu Zeqing met in Baoqing Prefecture two months ago. At that time, Wu Guogui had already gathered some surrendered Hunan green battalions and local powerful men, and the total military strength had increased from 30,000 at the beginning to 40,000. With Zu Zeqing, The Qing's five thousand people brought the total strength to forty-five thousand!
After the two joined forces, they quickly split up. Zu Zeqing went north to attack Chenzhou, while Wu Guogui continued to besiege Baoqing.
The Chenzhou garrison in the Qing Dynasty was named Lin Xingzhu. He was originally a subordinate of Zheng Chenggong. He later defected to the Qing Dynasty and became an officer and deputy general, but his duties were those of a general. He has hundreds of Fujian Tengpai soldiers under his command, who are said to be able to restrain muskets and are very brave in melee combat!
It's a pity that Zu Zeqing has hundreds of Guan Ning's "second generation cavalry" under his command - how can the rattan soldiers be the opponents of the cavalry? When Lin Xingzhu saw that he couldn't beat him, he simply surrendered!
Without the elite Green Camp led by him, Chenzhou Prefecture would naturally be doomed very quickly. Before they could survive the Spring Festival, they were all controlled by Zu Zeqing.
And Wu Guogui was even more fierce. His 40,000-strong army was like an uninhabited territory in Baoqing Prefecture. Before the New Year, he captured the entire Baoqing Prefecture. After the New Year, he began to advance into Changsha Prefecture. Now he has captured it. Xiangxiang and Xiangtan were cut off, and the waterway of the Xiangjiang River was cut off. If the situation continues like this, Ezha no longer has to wait for Wang Fuchen to bring the eight vassal coalition forces to rescue him, and Wang Fuchen's route to the north will be cut off.
The situation in Hunan was so critical that Ezha had to convene everyone in Yuezhou to discuss countermeasures. However, before the countermeasures to resist the Wu Jiajun were discussed, a bigger "thunder" exploded again.
The nail that the Qing army hit Li Zicheng - Changde Fucheng was being surrounded by 20,000 elite soldiers and was about to fall!
"Twenty thousand! Why another twenty thousand?"
After hearing the report of the people below, Eza, who had been holding back his anger, exploded on the spot.
"Wu Guogui had 50,000, Zu Zeqing also said 10,000, and now Li Zicheng's 20,000 are here. How many people are there? 80,000! A total of 80,000! Isn't Wu Sangui's main attack Guanlong? Guanlong To win the world. Why did he send so many troops to Huguang?
Also, aren’t Wu Sangui and Li Zicheng enemies? Li Zicheng killed Wu Sangui's Ama and more than 30 members of his family. Wu Sangui ruined Li Zicheng's fortune. Why are they coming to beat me now? They can definitely fight a dozen of them themselves! "
Hearing what Ezha said, Lu Zhen, the governor of Hunan who was sitting in the lobby, immediately began to ask for reinforcements, "Your Majesty, it can't be done. If Hubei's army doesn't come, Hunan will be lost! And the emperor has already issued a decree, let us Destroy Li Zicheng as soon as possible! Not only has Li Zicheng not been destroyed now, but he is also getting stronger and stronger. How can we continue like this?"
The relationship between Lu Zhen and Ezha is very "close". His wife is Fan Wencheng's daughter, and his mother-in-law served Ezha's grandfather. What is this relationship? They are relatives anyway!
Therefore, Ezha could not just watch Lu Zhen lose his territory and die for his country. Looking at him like this, it seems that he could not repay the king with death. If he could not control himself and surrendered to Wu Sangui or even Li Zicheng, then Ezha would have to Followed by scolding and criticism.
Maybe even the prince will be troubled!
And it is true that Li Zicheng cannot be allowed to continue to grow. If he continues to grow bigger, Li Zicheng may become the emperor again. The current Emperor of the Qing Dynasty seems to have taken advantage of Emperor Chongzhen!
Li Zicheng must be killed quickly, otherwise he will end up in Meishan!
Thinking of this, Ezha turned his head and looked at Babur, the capital of Jingzhou, and Cai Yurong, the governor of Huguang. As a prince, Ezha had little ability, and he basically obeyed the arrangements of these two in terms of military affairs.
Babur was a Mongolian, short and stocky, and looked very fierce. He immediately said: "Your Majesty, all Li Zicheng's elite soldiers have gone south to Changde. His old camp must be empty. Why not lead a powerful force of 10,000 and 8 banners to sneak across the Yangtze River and launch a surprise attack?" Shimen!”
Cai Yurong looked smarter, with a smart face. At this time, he was twirling his beard and thinking hard. When he heard Babur put forward the suggestion of a surprise attack on Shimen, he just sighed: "That's the only way. Give it a try, if it can succeed , the situation in Huguang is still manageable, otherwise we will have to retreat to Jingzhou and Wuchang and block the Yangtze River for the emperor."
Eza also nodded, "Okay, I'll listen to you. Give it a try. If you win, you'll make a complete comeback. If you lose, you'll have to apologize to the emperor! But if you have to give it a try, isn't it too little to send out only 18,000 bannermen?"
"Master? Your Majesty, what do you mean?"
Eza smiled and said: "You are experts in fighting, and I am an expert in gambling! Now if we want to try to make a comeback, we have to place a heavy bet. If you dare to place a bet, you must not hesitate to place half of the bet. If you place half of the bet, If you lose, can you keep the remaining half? If you can’t keep it, you’ll lose everything sooner or later, why not play a big game, put your whole damn bet on it, and decide the country with one hand!”
(End of chapter)
