Huachanggou was the area under the jurisdiction of Liu Tichun, the Duke of Anhui Province in the Ming Dynasty.
Because there is a river passing through this place and the surrounding terrain is relatively flat compared to other areas, it became one of the few farming areas of Liu Tichun's tribe. At one time, there were as many as tens of thousands of soldiers and civilians operating here.
It was only in the past two years that the situation took a turn for the worse. In order to cope with the Qing army's encirclement and suppression, Liu Tichun had to recruit a large number of men from various strongholds, causing most of the men in Huachanggou to be taken away. The Ming army, their families and nearby people living here now There are only more than 3,000 people.
Unfortunately, four days ago, Huachanggou, which had been owned by the Ming army for more than ten years, changed its flag and returned to the Qing Dynasty.
The reason is that Han Dewang, the Ming army garrison stationed here, is a subordinate of Tian Heng, the commander-in-chief of the seal.
And Tian Heng was one of the initiators of the Lao Mukong chaos.
The other is the general soldier Wanhe with the seal.
After Tian Heng launched a rebellion with Wanhe, he immediately ordered someone to notify Han Dewang of Huachanggou.
Han Dewang, who was also desperate about the situation, responded to Tian Heng without thinking, killing several officers who were unwilling to betray Liu Tichun, and then immediately sent people to attack the Qing army closest to his defense area - Hebei Town under the command of Shaanxi Admiral Wang Yizheng The commander-in-chief, Bao Zhao, asked to surrender.
Although Wang Yizheng and Bao Zhao were both generals of the Green Camp, they, like Dong Xueli, the Admiral of Huguang, were from Han banners, but they were not Han people.
But what is different from Dong Xueli is that both Wang and Bao are from Liaodong!
At present, about half of the officials with real power such as admiral, commander-in-chief, and deputy general in Green Camp are from Liaodong.
The reason is that within a few years after the Qing army entered the customs, the Ming Dynasty's surrendered generals started revolting against the Qing Dynasty in various places. At one time, the north and south of the country were full of banners calling for the rejuvenation of the Ming Dynasty, and the Qing government almost collapsed.
Among them, the representative figures are Li Chengdong, Jin Shengheng, Jiang Yu, etc.
Due to the impact of this incident, the Qing court became wary of the Han generals in the Green Camp, and later Han banner generals were often used as the powerful admirals and commander-in-chief of various regions.
Among them, people from Liao are mostly used.
It was for this reason that Wang Yizheng and Bao Zhao were able to take up important positions in the Green Camp.
One was promoted from lieutenant general to admiral, and the other was promoted to commander-in-chief by the captain.
As early as a few days ago, Bao Zhao had actually received a notice from Wang Yizheng, the admiral of Shaanxi Province, saying that Liu Tichun's subordinates intended to capture Liu Tichun and surrender him to the Qing Dynasty.
Therefore, after receiving the letter of surrender from Han Dewang, the Ming Army garrison in Huachanggou, Bao Zhao immediately sent Qianzong Li Juqing to lead 500 battalions to receive it.
In this way, together with the more than 900 soldiers under Han Dewang who had their heads shaved and surrendered to the Qing Dynasty, the total number of Qing troops in Huachanggou was about 1,500.
Li Juqing's task was either to reinforce Lao Mukong and cooperate with Tian Heng, Wan He and the others to eliminate Liu Tichun, or to defend Huachanggou and divide the Ming army under Liu Tichun into two, so that they could not respond to each other from east to west.
Due to his new surrender, Han Dewang did not dare to be the master of Huachanggou anymore. Li Juqing was in charge of defense.
As a result, the day after the Green Camp arrived, Li Juqing asked Han Dewang's people to leave the Huachanggou headquarters and set up defenses at peripheral strongholds.
Apparently he was afraid that Han Dewang would surrender and rebel again, so he stabbed him.
In this regard, although Han Dewang was full of opinions, considering whether he could gain a foothold in the Qing army in the future would all depend on today's performance, so he could only take his people to leave the headquarters and garrison outside.
It set up its command post in Ma Shi Bay, more than ten miles away from the headquarters, and set up branch offices in Shitou Bay, Houjiawan, Shuishuizi and other places around Ma Shi Bay.
The number of defenders varied from dozens to hundreds.
The person guarding Houjiawan was a commander also named Hou, whose name was Sanjiang.
Hou Sanjiang's mission these days, in addition to guarding Houjiawan, is to lead his men to collect food for the green battalion of his headquarters.
A sudden heavy snowfall blocked the food route for the Qing army advancing into Wushan, making it impossible to deliver supplies, food and other supplies.
Apart from raising food on the spot, the Qing army had no other option.
As a result, it was not only the Ming army that surrendered to the Qing that suffered, but also the people in the Huachanggou area.
You must know that Houjiawan is a small village, with a total of only two to three hundred people. The food rations they eat are not enough on weekdays, and there is no excess food to supply the Qing army.
Stealing was the only thing Hou Sanjiang could do.
The Ming army, which used to get along well with the people and even had great support from the people, suddenly became a wolf-like Qing army, which really dumbfounded the people and scared them out of their souls.
The soldiers must have been mentally burdened when they first started robbing them. Many of them were reluctant to do so, but they couldn't bear it and the general whipped them painfully. They had no choice but to grit their teeth and do the evil deeds that they were ashamed of.
In the afternoon that day, Hou Sanjiang took people out to "find food" as usual.
The place where we go to find food is a bit far away from the stronghold, about seven or eight miles of mountain road, and it takes half a day to go back and forth.
There is no way, who can stop the people near the village from searching for oil and water!
A few days ago, a Qing army passed near Houjiawan. In order to avoid misunderstanding, Hou Sanjiang took the initiative to send people to contact this Qing army. He found out that they were Qing troops from Yuan'an City in the southeast, and they seemed to be led by a deputy general.
The rank of deputy general was several levels higher than that of Mr. Li Qian, who was as inferior to his boss Han Dewang as his grandson. He was certainly not someone like Hou Sanjiang who could see or even talk to him.
Fortunately, Lieutenant Niu did not go to Huachanggou, but took people to Dachang in the west, which made Hou Sanjiang heave a sigh of relief.
To be honest, given the current situation where the weather is freezing and the mountains are blocked by heavy snow, if another Qing army of thousands of people is stationed at Gouzi, they are afraid that they, the surrendered troops, will not even be able to eat.
While we were walking hard on the icy road, by chance, a team came towards us at the bend in front.
This made Hou Sanjiang and his soldiers nervous for a while, but they felt relieved after seeing the green flag on the other side.
Originally, he planned to stay where he was and wait, but he soon discovered that there were a large number of Green Camp soldiers coming from the opposite side, at least three to four hundred people. From this, he concluded that the leader must be a general with a rank of Qian or above.
Although he is the commander-in-chief, his status is that of a newcomer, so he has to do everything with his tail between his legs!
Thinking of this, Hou Sanjiang quickly led several of his officers and rushed forward.
While running, they asked people to wave the green flag just given to them by the Qing army in the air.
Don't get me wrong, what I mean.
The green camp soldiers who came in front also discovered the presence of Hou Sanjiang and the others, but they did not stop there, but continued to move forward.
He was arrogant and looked very arrogant.
After the two groups of people came together, before Hou Sanjiang came forward to announce his identity, he noticed at a glance that the general on the opposite side was riding what seemed to be the deputy general Niu who had just passed by his defense area not long ago.
He knows this horse well.
At that time, he still dreamed that one day he would be able to ride such a tall and powerful war horse and gallop across the sky and the earth.
That's why the man on the horse doesn't look like the oxen lieutenant?
Just when he was wondering, he saw the general who looked like a general pointing at him with a riding crop: "Which department are you in?"
