Dengzhou fell, and the world was shocked.
The flaming military information was quickly passed around, and anyone who took it felt hot to the touch.
The first person to be burned was Yu Dacheng, the governor of Shandong.
Bear the brunt of it.
"Everyone, Ruzhi Naihe...Ruzhi Naihe?"
Yu Dacheng panicked, his forehead was covered with white hair and sweat, and he vaguely felt that a large guillotine was hanging on his neck, and it would fall at any time.
Looking at other civil and military officials in Shandong, we can see that the eyes are looking at the nose, and the nose is looking at the heart.
Looking back and forth, I realized that it had nothing to do with me.
I am the chief envoy, and I only deal with civil affairs. Military...please ask someone to be wise.
Don't look at me. I am a counselor, but I will not interfere.
In the end, only Shandong Governor Wang Daochun responded positively.
"At this point, Laizhou must not make any mistakes. I also ask Master Zhongcheng to move quickly to appease the people and ask for help from the imperial court."
"ah……"
Yu Dacheng shivered on the spot and was about to urinate.
At this time, asking him to go to Laizhou and face the rebels directly is not asking him to die.
But looking at the eager eyes of his colleagues, it was obvious that if he planned not to go, the impeachment memorial would probably drown him out.
Yu Dacheng wanted to cry but had no tears. He had no choice but to set off.
At the same time, urgent documents to the court were also placed on Chongzhen's desk.
Chongzhen pinched his forehead, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop the blood from rushing to his head.
"Sun Yuanhua committed a heinous crime, Mr. Xu Ge..."
Thinking that Sun Yuanhua was Xu Guangqi's student, Chongzhen wanted to criticize him twice. I was halfway through speaking before I remembered that Xu Guangqi had retired from office.
Chongzhen changed the subject and approached Zhou Yanru.
"Look at the people you recommended. They are hurting the country and the people, losing cities and territories..."
What can Zhou Yanru do?
Sun Yuanhua was recommended by him, and he had guaranteed it at the beginning.
In this situation, the only option is to crawl in front of Chongzhen and divert the firepower.
"Weak ministers are dim-sighted and unkind in their recommendations. They have betrayed the emperor's favor and wish to die to apologize. However, there is no room for failure in the important town of Denglai. I also ask your majesty to send troops quickly to secure the reinforcements in Liaodong and calm the hearts of the people in the world."
Speaking of the importance of Denglai, Chongzhen really didn't care about causing trouble for him, Mr. Zhou Ge, and quickly asked Liang Tingdong: "Liang Qing, do you have any countermeasures?"
After receiving the military information about the fall of Dengzhou, Liang Tingdong knew that he must send more troops no matter what.
"Your Majesty, in view of the fact that the Eastern captives in Liaodong have retreated, I suggest that the troops currently in Tianjin, Baoding, and Tongzhou can be quickly transferred to Shandong, which can intimidate Xiaoxiao."
He did not dare to say that after these three groups of troops passed, they would definitely be able to put down the rebellion. But I think these three groups are all veteran generals, so they should be able to curb the momentum of the rebels and provide a buffer for the court's mobilization.
Chongzhen had no other choice but to follow it.
"Instructions are sent to Liu Guozhu, the commander-in-chief of Baoding, Wang Hong, the commander-in-chief of Tianjin, and Yang Yufan, the deputy general of Tongzhou, to rush to Laizhou with great speed to kill the enemy and put down the rebellion without delay."
He thought for a moment and said one more thing.
"Tell Yu Dacheng that the rebellion must be resolved within a month. Otherwise, I will never let him go lightly."
Baoding, Tianjin, and Tongzhou were within easy reach. After receiving the order, the three groups of troops set off at night and arrived in Laizhou soon.
Although Dengzhou was closer to Laizhou, the rebels did not attack Laizhou immediately.
why?
First, Zhu Wannian, the prefect of Laizhou, was a talented person.
When the rebels returned to Denglai, Sun Yuanhua was still dreaming of appeasement, but Zhu Wannian knew that the rebels were ambitious and could not be trusted.
Zhu Wannian strengthened the defenses of Laizhou City and moved artillery onto the city wall, making Laizhou City impregnable and the rebels had no confidence in capturing it.
The second reason is that Li Jiucheng, Kong Youde and others feel that their strength is not strong enough.
Therefore, after capturing Dengzhou City, he immediately took out food, grass, gold and silver and sent people to the islands on the sea to recruit the old Dongjiang troops.
The various ministries in Dongjiang Town, which had been in poverty for a long time, took action upon hearing the news and began to gather towards Dengzhou one after another. Among them, Mao Chenglu and Chen sometimes brought seven to eight thousand people.
Although most of them were old, weak, sick and disabled, the rebels' strength reached more than 10,000.
The strength increased greatly, making the rebels full of confidence.
Subsequently, the rebels began to reorganize. Li Jiucheng and Kong Youde were elected marshals of the capital, and Geng Zhongming was elected governor.
At the same time, the rebels also received news that the imperial court was sending troops.
In order to break the deadlock, the rebels decided to take the initiative and occupy a favorable situation.
Kong Youde went to see the captured Sun Yuanhua.
"Lord Zhongcheng, the matter has reached this point and cannot be undone. Even if the imperial court recruits people, the brothers are worried and dare not accept it."
Kong Youde continued to act, emphasizing the difficulties of an armistice.
The naive Sun Yuanhua was indeed fooled again and said eagerly: "Ritu, do you really want to make an irreparable mistake? Stop it quickly, don't make a mistake."
Kong Youde squeezed out a few tears from his eyes and knelt down in front of Sun Yuanhua.
"Sir, if Ruitu is alone, he will have no regrets even if he is cut into pieces by the imperial court. But where the tens of thousands of my brothers in Dongjiang are worth, we must not ignore it."
Sun Yuanhua cried and sighed, feeling weak all over.
"How are you doing?"
Kong Youde hurriedly cheered up and was careful not to be deceived.
"Sir, our brothers did not sincerely betray the imperial court, but the traitors in the imperial court are rampant and plotting. For the present plan, our brothers have thought of a way. Please write a letter and report it to the Ming court. My brother and others just ask There is only one way to survive, and there is no second intention. From now on, I will only stick to Dengzhou. If the court agrees, my brother will swear never to invade other places in Shandong, and will pay tribute every year. No one dares to disobey when called by the court. "
The meaning is obvious. The rebels intend to separate themselves from Dengzhou and form their own country. As long as the court agrees, the rebels will stop their attacks and still recognize that they are part of the Ming Dynasty.
This was obviously wishful thinking. Who knows what Sun Yuanhua was thinking, but he actually wrote a letter to Yu Dacheng.
Is Sun Yuanhua stupid?
There are even more absurd things.
When the letter reached Yu Dacheng's hands, he actually seriously considered it...
"How foolish you are, sir. This is just a delaying tactic by the rebels. The Ming Dynasty is bringing the world to its center, how can we tolerate a country within a country? For this plan, we and the rebels will fight to the death."
Wang Daochun had accurate intelligence in his hands and knew that the rebels were now in a desperate situation and needed to fight more fiercely to meet his plan. How could he sit back and watch the court make peace with the rebels?
Seeing that his thoughts were rejected, Yu Dacheng became even more clueless.
"Hey, I'm at my wits' end. I'll leave all the matters to you."
After that, he turned back to the backyard and really gave up.
After a while, the faint sound of wooden fish tapping was heard in the backyard.
[Acquiring the great power, this is the King of Majestic Sound Buddha, whose life span is forty thousand billion nayuta sand kalpas of the Ganges River, and whose true Dharma remains in this world for as many kalpas as a speck of dust in Jambudvipa...]
Zhu Wannian stamped his feet and became furious.
"This White Lotus Palace..."
Wang Daochun was secretly happy inside but sad on the outside.
"Now that the matter has come to this, the safety of Laizhou depends entirely on Magistrate Zhu's strategizing."
Zhu Wannian didn't know his sinister thoughts, so he said firmly: "Please rest assured, sir, with me here, nothing will happen to Laizhou."
Laizhou was fine, but Huang County, the gateway between Laizhou and Dengzhou, fell into the hands of the rebels the night before Sun Yuanhua wrote to Yu Dacheng.
At this time, the guard general of Huang County was Laizhou General Zhang Qigong. He was in his seventies and should have left his post to become an official. After hearing about the rebellion in Dongjiang Town, Zhang Qigong volunteered to guard Huang County.
But the dim and incompetent Yu Dacheng only gave Zhang Qigong three hundred old and weak soldiers.
Zhang Qigong had no choice but to recruit people to defend the city.
After the rebels attacked the city, Zhang Qigong tried his best to support it, and the small Huang County actually blocked the rebels' violent attack for two days.
But on January 13, Huang County could no longer hold on.
Knowing that the situation was over, Zhang Qigong still chose to fight hard, charging into the enemy formation with a knife, and after killing more than a dozen rebels, he finally exhausted himself and died for his country.
The cruel rebels hated him so much that they dismembered his body.
The Ming Dynasty did not have loyal ministers and good generals, but it could only write tragic songs with its own loyalty and blood.
Huangxian was lost, the gates of Laizhou were wide open, and the rebel troops advanced directly to the city.
Only then did the imperial court finally understand that one general was incompetent and the three armies were exhausted.
Chongzhen quickly issued an order to remove Yu Dacheng from office and send him to prison for questioning. At the same time, Xu Congzhi was appointed governor of Shandong and Xie Lian was appointed governor of Denglai.
The appointment of these two people means that the war faction in the court has completely overwhelmed the peace faction.
After Xu Congzhi and Xie Lian received their appointments, they took office on the front line and immediately urged three reinforcements to rush to Laizhou.
On January 28, the reinforcements arrived at a new town eighty miles away from Zhiye County, Laizhou Prefecture, and collided head-on with the rebels.
At this time, the rebels had 5,000 cavalry, more than 10,000 infantry, more than 30 red cannons, and more than 300 Western artillery pieces.
On the other hand, the Ming army, although it was said that there were three general officers in the Eastern Expedition, the total strength was only a little over 5,000.
Seeing the overwhelming pressure of the rebels, Yang Yufan and others felt numb.
However, the two governors personally suppressed the battle. They couldn't retreat even if they wanted to, and they had to fight if they didn't.
Finally, after deliberation, Yang Yufan and Wang Hong formed separate formations.
The Tianjin soldiers led by Wang Hong were stationed on the mountains near the new city, condescending, and guarded by Yang Yufan's troops.
The war is about to break out!
