Chapter 692: Chaos in the Central Plains

Style: Historical Author: Crane City FengyueWords: 2287Update Time: 24/01/18 19:02:32
The way to escape to heaven was right in front of him, but Li Zicheng showed qualities far beyond ordinary people.

"Quickly go and inform the leaders of all walks of life to come here to cross the river. You all will be stationed in various places. You can't let the officers and soldiers attack you under any circumstances."

Everyone was shocked when they heard this.

"General Chuang, I'm afraid that if the delay continues, we will be trapped again."

Liang Yue was different. He pointed to a short mountain to the east and said, "General Chuang, my troops are going to guard this mountain. Unless they all die in battle, we will not let a single officer come over."

Li Zicheng glanced at him steadily, feeling extremely sad in his heart.

Among all the generals under his command, only Liang Yue dared to fight.

"Good brother, I will wait for you to cross the river."

With Li Zicheng's persistence, all the northwest rebels trapped on the north bank of the Yellow River were rescued.

In the next three days, various rebel armies followed Li Zicheng's method and crossed the Yellow River one after another and entered the hinterland of Henan.

For such a long time, there was no response from the officers and soldiers.

This time they were in trouble, so all the rebels were frightened, and they did not dare to stay after jumping out of the siege.

They marched quickly and reached Mianchi in only one day and one night.

When Yuan Daquan, an officer in Fanghezhong, received the military information, it was already too late.

He only had more than 300 people at hand. He ran into tens of thousands of rebels and was swallowed up in the blink of an eye.

Urgent military information was sent to all parts of the Ming Dynasty, and all officials were dumbfounded.

"Two angels, the matter has come to this, what should we do?"

Wang Pu knew that the matter was serious, and quickly went to Yang Jinchao and Lu Jiude to discuss a solution.

They are the main culprits who let the rebels escape. Once the court finds out, they will definitely die without a burial place.

At the critical moment, the eunuch from the palace was more determined.

"Humph, Wang Zongrong, why are you panicking? Isn't it the reason why the current situation is caused by the censor who insists on his own way? Our brothers have tried to persuade him, but he has been fooled by lard, and now he is out of control If there is anything wrong, you should naturally ask him to explain it to you."

Wang Pu was stunned when he heard this. He didn't expect that these two eunuchs were so cruel and ruthless that they would put all the blame on Liu Lingyu.

However, Wang Pu didn't care about Liu Lingyu's life or death because his dead Taoist friend was not a poor Taoist and could get away with it.

"The final general is stupid, and it all depends on the two father-in-laws."

After thinking about it, in order to ensure safety, Wang Pu took out half of the treasure he received and donated it to Yang Jinchao and Lu Jiude.

Seeing that he was so knowledgeable, Yang Jinchao and Lu Jiude decided to protect him.

The two evil-minded eunuchs wrote an urgent memorial that day and sent it all the way to the capital to report the black case against Liu Lingyu.

When Liu Lingyu heard that the rebels had broken through the Yellow River and ravaged the Central Plains, he was completely stunned.

What about the great achievement of recruiting traitors and surrendering?

What about the promised promotion to a higher position?

He was panicked and hurriedly went to Yang Jinchao and Lu Youde to discuss countermeasures.

But by this time, he had become an abandoned son, and Yang Jinchao and Lu Jiude did not see him at all.

Liu Lingyu was completely desperate and knew that he was dead.

He staggered back to his residence, wanting to find Xu Yaqing to explain the funeral arrangements.

Although the ending is tragic, having a peerless beauty by your side in the last moments of your life is not a waste of time.

When I got home, I saw that the place was in a mess, as if it had been looted by bandits.

All the visible and hidden property was missing.

The peerless beauty who was charming, gentle and considerate towards him was even more elusive.

"Haha...hahahaha..."

Liu Lingyu stood alone in the empty courtyard, letting out a sad and lonely laugh.

What a glorious career.

What beauty wants.

Once the end of the road is reached, everything turns out to be in vain.

Liu Lingyu tremblingly took off his belt and tied it on the door beam, ending his absurd life.

He didn't know until his death why he had fallen to this point.

And because of what he did, the Northwest Rebel Army expanded greatly and finally entered the core hinterland of the Ming Dynasty.

The current situation in Henan is already very bad.

Starting from the third year of Chongzhen, there has been a severe drought for four consecutive years.

【There is no harvest in autumn, and it is difficult to grow wheat. There is no green grass in the fields, and nine out of ten rooms are empty. So there are people who have a bushel of rice worth five cents, people who can’t get enough rice for a day’s work, people who gather roots and leaves to satisfy their hunger, husbands who abandon their wives and mothers who abandon their wives, people who sell their children for less than a few meals, people who hang themselves in the forest. There are those who fill ditches, those who starve to death on the side of the road, those who beg for food and clothing, those who fight with sticks and die, those who run away with mud doors and carrying scorpions, and those who cannibalize flesh and blood...]

This description all comes from the "Lingshu of the Central Plains" written by Lu Weiqi, then Minister of War in Nanjing.

It is not difficult to see from this that the disaster in Henan is no worse than that in Shaanxi and Shanxi.

Because of this terrible situation, Henan has long been at war, but there have not yet been powerful rebel forces like Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Lao Huihui, Zhang Xianzhong, etc.

However, with the arrival of the Northwest Rebel Army, the people of Henan, who were already furious, immediately became angry.

What was even worse for the Ming Dynasty was that the local officials and soldiers in Henan basically had little combat experience, and their defenses were extremely empty.

When the Northwest Rebel Army came here, it was like a fish entering the water. They only felt that the sea and sky were vast and unimpeded.

In order to escape the pursuit of the government troops, the Northwest Rebel Army was galloping in western Henan at extremely high speeds.

Wherever he went, he tried his best to attract people to join him.

The number of troops lost due to successive battles with the official army soon swelled to a terrifying figure.

With a wider world, the rebels have also become smarter.

They began to divide their troops and attack in all directions, straining the energy of the officers and soldiers.

Hengxinglang, Yidougu, Mantianxing, Sweeping King and others led an army of more than 100,000 to Wuguan, approaching Xi'an, and had great momentum to return to Shaanxi.

Hong Chengchou's scalp was numb and he could only mobilize nearby officers and soldiers to pursue and intercept him.

This group of rebels did not fight to the death with the official army. They immediately turned around and headed south, conquering Xunyang, Pingli and other places along the way.

When Hong Chengchou led his army to catch up, they had already entered Sichuan.

Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, Lao Huihui and others on the other side were the main force of the rebel army.

They continued south and came to Lushi Mountain.

The terrain here is difficult and remote.

There was a group of local people who had lost their land and were making a living by mining in the mountains. The government slandered them as mining pirates.

With the arrival of the Northwest Rebel Army, these people joined one after another.

With these local eyes and ears, the rebels are more at home.

They went straight to Neixiang from the country road, then passed through Dengzhou and Xishui, and suddenly appeared in the Yunyang and Xiangyang areas.

As the rebels moved thousands of miles to fight, Henan, Sichuan, and Huguang were all shaken and encountered military fronts.

These areas with weak military strength are also the places where disasters are most severe.

The rebel army attracted a large number of people in these places, and its strength expanded rapidly.

The entire peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty entered a new stage.

The rope that hanged the Ming Dynasty was getting tighter and tighter.

Emperor Chongzhen, who was in Beijing, began to feel fear.