Among the generals who came with Sun Chuanting, there was another one who aroused great interest in Zhang Cheng.
He is Cao Bianjiao, the commander-in-chief of Lintao who serves as the governor of Qianshi. He looks quite young, less than forty years old.
Cao Bianjiao was the nephew of the famous Ming Dynasty general Cao Wenzhao. When he was young, he served in the military camp with Cao Wenzhao and made many military exploits. When he was only 22 years old, he was recommended by the patrol censor Wu Shengsheng because of his participation in countering rebellions. Next, he was promoted to general.
After Cao Wenzhao died for the country, Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides, accepted Cao Bianjiao as a general. He commanded the troops well and dared to fight. He accumulated merit and served as a staff general, deputy commander-in-chief, governor-general Qianshi, and governor-general Zuo, until he was promoted to general-general. Military officer.
At that time, Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao were called generals Cao and Cao of the Ming Dynasty, and they were both famous generals in the world.
During the Songjin War in the 15th year of Chongzhen, most of the Ming army collapsed and all armies fled. Only Cao Bianjiao dared to lead his men to rush into the Jin army's formation and reach Huang Taiji's central army. The enemy chief made the Chinese army retreat for a few miles.
At this time, the Qing army reacted to the chaos, occupied a high place and fired arrows to block it, and gathered from all directions towards the imperial camp. Cao Bianjiao, who was almost fainting due to excessive blood loss, broke into the inner camp. There was no hope of killing Huang Taiji, so he had to lead his army. Return to Matsuyama.
On February 18, the 15th year of Chongzhen, Songshan City fell. Governor Qiu Minyang of Liaodong, commander-in-chief Wang Tingchen, Cao Bianjiao, and deputy generals Jiang Zhu, Rao Xun, Zhu Wende and other brave and unyielding officers were all massacred.
Later Cao Bianjiao's wife asked for a posthumous gift and the title of Yin. The court posthumously granted him the title of Ronglu Doctor and Prince Shaobao, and Yin granted him the title of hereditary brocade and commanding officials for future generations.
Throughout Cao Bianjiao's life, he made immortal contributions whether in the battle to suppress the refugees and rebels inside the Pass, or on the battlefield against the Eight Banners cavalry outside the Pass.
Cao Bianjiao, who lived a heroic life, died on the battlefield in the end. Perhaps the horse-leather shroud is the best interpretation of the hero.
Zhang Cheng's respect for Cao Bianjiao comes from the bottom of his heart. It is his admiration for the real heroes of this era, just like his respect for Lu Xiangsheng.
In addition, Zhang Cheng also noticed a person's name: "Shaanxi Guerrilla Gao Jie?"
He looked over and saw a big man standing behind He Renlong and others. Although he forced himself to show a respectful expression on his face, he could not hide the unruly look in his eyes.
It is rumored that he was originally a general of Li Zicheng. Because he had an affair with one of Li Zicheng's wives, he was afraid of being retaliated by Li Zicheng, so he simply abducted the woman and surrendered to the army. He has been serving with He Renlong's army. Only He Renlong's army in the Shaanxi army was missing. Thieves surrender the most generals.
Like Bai Guangen and others, they were all surrendered generals by the refugees and the rebel army. Bai Guangen had a wild and unruly temperament, and Gao Jie was even more violent.
Because Gao Jie was jealous of Li Zicheng, the Ming Dynasty sent Gao Jie to fight many times. In the next few years, he would be promoted from guerrilla to commander-in-chief, and he would be appointed as the prince's young master, and he would serve as the guardian of the imperial family.
In the Southern Ming Dynasty, he was named Xingping Bo, one of the four towns, and a figure similar to Zuo Liangyu.
At this time, the governor of Baoding and other officials in the city also came forward to pay homage to Sun Chuanting, and invited Sun Chuanting and the generals from Shaanxi to the city for a banquet to welcome them.
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On the ninth day of the first lunar month, the armies of Xuanda, Guanning, and Shaanxi that gathered at the foot of Baoding City set up camp one after another. Their troops were divided into groups, stretching for dozens of miles in front and back, and slowly marched towards Dacheng County and Cangzhou.
The cold wind is biting, and groups of knights are galloping back and forth. After many days of training, they have regained their former glory. Their heroic appearance is everywhere on the official road and in the wilderness.
Behind the cavalry was the infantry brigade, all marching along the official road. The carts in the brigade were loaded with grain, beans, military tents, ordnance, and so on.
Zhang Cheng also separated from Chen Dakuan's infantry in Baoding. They will stay in Baoding Fucheng. After Zhang Guangda and Wu Zhizhong's injuries stabilize, they will set off to escort Zhang Yan's coffin back to Xuanfu.
Zhang Cheng knew in his heart that the soldiers who broke out in the Battle of Julu were all veterans of many battles. Those infantry were not good at cavalry and fighting, so it would be useless to stay. He was reluctant to let these brave soldiers die in vain again.
However, the more than 40 knights who stayed in Baoding to recuperate during the Battle of Gaoyang insisted on following Zhang Cheng in the battle, and they were temporarily incorporated into Zhang Cheng's Chinese military outpost.
According to Zhang Cheng's original intention, he originally planned to let Wei Zhice and twenty of his tribesmen return to Xuanfu with the infantry first. However, he never thought that as soon as he arrived in Baoding, Wei Zhice went back on his word and searched for Zhang Cheng day and night.
Yan said that he followed Zhang Cheng this time just to kill the Tatars, and the twenty tribesmen were also carefully selected by him. They could go into battle to kill slaves. If they were timid or violated military laws, they would be willing to do so. be punished.
In the end, Zhang Cheng had no choice but to agree to Wei Zhice staying, and combined the forty wounded soldiers who returned to the camp with his twenty clansmen to form a mobile brigade, with Wei Zhice as the temporary commander.
Two days later, the army arrived at Dacheng County in Bazhou one after another, and temporarily camped here, waiting for Liu Yuliang's troops who came from Tianjin to join forces before marching to Shandong.
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It turned out that when Liu Yuliang led his army through Anping County, he heard that the Qing army was approaching. His face was pale and he hurried to Jinzhou to escape, but he did not want Chen Hongxu, the magistrate of Jinzhou, to close the door.
Liu Yuliang was immediately furious and issued a warning, otherwise he would engage in military law.
Chen Hongxu still ignored him and sent a message to Liu Yuliang: "The governor came to ward off the enemy. Now the enemy is coming, how can we avoid him? If we don't continue to eat grain, we have a responsible person. If we want to enter the city, we don't dare to obey orders."
Liu Yuliang had no choice but to lead his troops to Tianjin while writing a letter of impeachment.
Emperor Chongzhen issued an order to arrest and punish Chen Hongxu, but the people of Jinzhou complained about Chen Hongxu's grievances and were willing to die for thousands of people. Seeing these memorials, Emperor Chongzhen hesitated again.
He threw the memorial on the desk and said bitterly: "Liu Yuliang is of no use. He only disturbs the people. Only Zhou Yanru and Yang Sichang can handle matters in the cabinet."
He also sent another decree to transfer Chen Hongxu, the magistrate of Jinzhou, to the highest rank. He also issued a decree to severely reprimand Liu Yuliang and ordered him to immediately lead the army south to discuss the military rescue of Jinan with Sun Chuanting and Chen Xinjia.
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At this time, Yang Tinglin, Lu Xiangsheng's admirer in the army, had been shouting that Lu Xiangsheng died unjustly since he followed Zhang Cheng to capture the deer. He wrote to the court many times, describing the reasons why the Battle of Julu was defeated and why Lu Xiangsheng died on the battlefield. , all because Gao Qi lurked and backed up his troops to protect himself, and did not save others in the face of death.
Despite Zhang Cheng's repeated persuasion, Yang Tinglin was still unwilling to give up. He separated from Zhang Cheng in Baoding and went straight to Beijing.
After returning to Beijing, he wandered around, saying that Governor Lu died in a bloody battle, and Gao Qiqian fled in fear of crime. Some censors in Beijing had heard about this and were preparing to impeach him.
Yang Sichang, in front of Emperor Chongzhen, accused Yang Tinglin of being untrue. He drafted an edict on behalf of Emperor Chongzhen, accusing Yang Tinglin of deceiving the emperor and making untrue statements. He was demoted to the lowest rank. Jiangxi Province has gone up.
