On August 12, the second year of Chengshun in the Chu Empire, the Chu army captured Jiujiang City. Shi Kefa led his army to break through, but was intercepted by the Chu army. Only less than 3,000 people fled to Hukou. Jiujiang City had more than 35,000 defenders. People, there is no one out of ten.
On August 14, the Ming army in Xingzi City, Nankang Prefecture, took the initiative to retreat. The next day, the 7th Division of the Chu Army arrived at Xingzi City. Hundreds of officials, gentry and remaining soldiers in the city opened their doors to offer sacrifices to the city.
On August 16, the First Cavalry Brigade of the Chu Army intercepted more than 5,000 deserters from the original Xingzi City about ten miles northwest of De'an City. On the 17th, the 7th Division of the Chu Army arrived, and the two units cooperated to attack the Ming army. The Ming army surrendered after suffering hundreds of casualties.
On August 18, the Chu army crossed the river and reached De'an City. About 5,000 defenders in the city were defeated and fled. The Chu army's cavalry pursued them and killed many prisoners, leaving only more than 2,000 who fled to Nanchang.
By here, the Chu army had basically conquered most of the Jiujiang defense line built by Shi Kefa of the Ming Dynasty, leaving only the Hukou on the east bank of Poyang Lake as independent support.
At the same time, people in Jiangxi Province were panicking about Nanchang, because the defenders of Nanchang were not even as good as De'an, which was captured by the Chu army before.
Because in order to block the Chu army on the Jiujiang front line, the Ming army not only mobilized troops under Shi Kefa, the governor of Anlu, but also the governor of Jiangxi, the governor of Nangan and even the governor of Yingtian.
In this way, the Ming army of 50,000 to 60,000 people could be gathered on the front line of Jiujiang.
However, after the three battles of Jiujiang, Xingzicheng, and De'an, the Ming army had been annihilated with more than 40,000 people, and the remaining main force was also in Hukou.
As for Nanchang, it is more than 100 kilometers away from the front line. A few days ago, it was a rear city and there were not many troops stationed at all.
So much so that after the Ming army suffered a disastrous defeat on the front line, Nanchang City was reduced to a piece of fish on a sticky board.
In response to this, the civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty and even the gentry in Nanchang were panicked. After the news that Jiujiang had been captured and Dehua had also fallen reached Nanchang, a large number of powerful gentry in the city began to flee in panic.
It's just that only a few people can escape. On the one hand, many people don't know where they can escape even if they escape. On the other hand, the Chu army comes too fast.
De'an is only seventy or eighty kilometers away from Nanchang. This distance is only about three days at the normal marching speed of the Chu army.
Not to mention that during the previous attack on Xingzi City, a large number of officials and gentry fled with money and food, and fled directly by boat. The Chu army was unable to pursue them, which resulted in the loss of a large amount of gold and silver materials.
This time the Chu army was smarter. In order to prevent the officials and gentry in Nanchang City from fleeing with a large amount of money, the Chu Empire gained less in the end. Therefore, after discussing with Huang Xiangbin, Wang Xiazi and Huang Xiangbin decided to let the First Cavalry Brigade take the lead in going south. , arrived in Nanchang first.
The Seventh Division even lent some mules and horses to the First Cavalry Brigade to speed up their move south.
It was not to attack Nanchang, but simply to kill Nanchang first and then block the road, so that the officials and gentry could escape with their money.
The money and food in Nanchang City, especially the money and food of the officials and dignitaries, have long been regarded by the Chu army as their own spoils of war, regardless of whether they ransacked the homes of the recalcitrants, levied taxes on the gentry, or even assessed and levied food. The methods are different, but in the end the money and food will always fall into the hands of the Chu army.
Under such circumstances, the Chu Empire naturally would not allow them to run away with their money and food.
If they all fled with them, the officials and gentry in other cities would also follow the same example. Before the Chu army arrived, they would all carry money, food and artillery. Who would the Chu army ask for money and food?
Is it possible that we still need to ask for money and food from those ordinary people who are suffering?
Those Kuhaha people don't have many copper coins. The tax department of the Dachu Empire doesn't even bother to deal with them, because after working for a long time, the tax collected in the end is not even enough for the salary of their tax officials... It is purely a loss-making business. .
As an organization that makes money for the empire, the Taxation Department has never done business at a loss.
If the person who collects money still loses money, then it's okay. What will the roaring army of hundreds of thousands eat and drink?
Therefore, the Chu army did not allow these officials and gentry to run away with their money!
It's okay to run away, and the Chu army doesn't bother to care about you, but it's not okay if you want to run away with money and food.
Under such circumstances, the 1st Cavalry Brigade led the way, traveling day and night, giving full play to the mobility advantage of one cavalry and two horses, and reached Nancheng in only two days.
Then, amid panic in the city, Nanchang City was directly blocked.
In order to prevent people from escaping through the waterway, that is, the Ganjiang River, Wang Xiazi pulled his cavalry artillery to the riverside and temporarily used it as a river defense fort. Whenever he found a ship trying to leave the dock of Nanchang City, he would open fire directly.
After the 1st Cavalry Brigade went south to blockade Nanchang City, the 7th Division behind them slowly came over and prepared to attack the city.
——
Just when the Chu army was conquering cities and territories in northern Jiangxi, Hong Chengchou finally met Dongji in Beizhili.
Hong Chengchou led his army to rush all the way, and finally arrived in the Baoding area of North Zhili in mid-August. At this time, Hong Chengchou actually brought only part of the troops.
Hong Chengchou led his army northward, and nominally commanded more than 40,000 troops.
But many troops are still behind.
Especially Wu Sangui's troops, who walked slowly along the way, are still in Damingfu area at the southernmost tip of Beizhili. According to Wu Sangui's behavior along the way, it is estimated that they can't expect to see him before the Eastern Capture retreats. The real troops arrived in Baoding and Shuntian areas.
On the other hand, the thousands of people sent by Zuo Liangyu were more conscientious. Although they didn't listen to Hong Chengchou very much, they followed him anyway.
In addition, there are several other Ming armies led by the generals and deputy generals. Due to the distance of their stations, the speed of message transmission, the speed of march and many other problems, they are still behind for the time being. Hong Chengchou just asked them to lead the troops quickly. Meet me in Baoding.
As for the specific time, it is unknown. Even if many reinforcements go smoothly, it is estimated that they will not arrive until September.
At present, the only people who have actually followed Hong Chengchou to Baoding are the 10,000 pacesetters directly under him and the more than 5,000 people under Zuo Liangyu's command. The total number is estimated to be more than 15,000 people.
However, even the arrival of the Ming army with only 15,000 men gave the Ming court great confidence. At least Chongzhen and a group of cabinet bosses finally no longer had to worry about it every day.
You must know that in the past month or two, banditry after entering the customs has been very rampant!
In July, under the leadership of Azige, the Dongqi army first conquered Changping, and then successively conquered Dingxing, Ansu, Baodi, Dong'an, Xiongxian, Shunyi, Rongcheng, and Wen'an counties, almost conquering the surrounding areas of the capital. All the cities were beaten...
Wherever Dongji passed, the Ming troops stationed there either fled or resisted and were killed, leaving them almost powerless to fight back!
Even the commander-in-chief Cao Pichang was taken prisoner.
More than 100,000 people and livestock were plundered from the East!
Such rampant kidnappings naturally frightened the Ming court officials so much that in the past month or two, the Ming court and the capital did not even care about the war to encircle and suppress Liu bandits and Chu bandits in the south, and directly sent Hong Chengchou and other ministries to the Central Plains Ming Dynasty. The army was mobilized to go north.
In fact, not only Hong Chengchou received the imperial decree to mobilize troops and reinforcements, but also Wang Jiazhen received the imperial decree to mobilize troops to the north, but the distance was too far, and the Chu army had already advanced eastward by that time, and Wang Jiazhen could no longer mobilize reinforcements. We are just going north, so we can only send troops to the nearest directions of Henan and Fengyang for reinforcements.
After being frightened for more than a month under the iron heel of the Dongluo, Chongzhen saw that Hong Chengchou finally led his troops to Baoding. In just three days, he issued twelve imperial edicts urging Hong Chengchou to send troops to fight against the Dongluo.
On the most common day, Chongzhen issued eight imperial edicts to him in one breath... Because the imperial edicts were issued so densely that the imperial envoys who came to deliver the edicts came with several edicts to read out together!
After reading an imperial edict, before Hong Chengchou and others could take a breath, the imperial envoy took out another imperial edict and read it out...
Under such heavy pressure, Hong Chengchou's troops, who had traveled all the way, took a brief rest for two days and set out again on the third day after arriving in Baoding to expel the Eastern captives.
Hong Chengchou led an army of more than 10,000 people and continued to march north. The looting Dongniu also quickly reacted!
Azig saw that he had gained a lot from entering the customs this time, and with the reinforcements of the southern Ming army led by Hong Chengchou, and the Ming army on the front line of Shanhaiguan also sending troops one after another, if he continued to stay in Beizhili, he might encounter something unexpected.
In particular, they looted a lot after entering the border, and it was not easy to transport these people, livestock, and large amounts of money, food and materials out of the border.
Immediately decided to gather all the troops and prepare to leave the border!
Azig planned to leave, which also relieved many Ming army generals who came for reinforcements one after another!
Although they had to come with reinforcements because of Chongzhen's order, they really didn't have the guts to fight Dongduo. It would be good if they could hold on to a few fortresses. If they went out to play field battles with Dongduo, they would not die quickly enough. .
Even Hong Chengchou didn't think about rushing up to fight Dongduo.
Since Dongluo took the initiative to retreat, he was happy and relaxed. It would be good to follow Dongluo to regain the lost ground.
There is no need to fight hard, and the achievements are rewarded.
However, Hong Chengchou and other Ming court generals did not want to fight. They only wanted to send the Eastern captive gifts out of the country. They even wanted to help the Eastern captives transport the captured people, livestock, and numerous money, grain and materials.
However, Azige, the captive general, had some ideas.
This battle along the way into the pass did not pose any challenge to the Dongli army led by Azig. It seemed that they won one battle after another, but in fact they failed to kill many Ming troops in the end.
Because the Ming army basically ran away before Dongduo arrived... and didn't give Dongduo a chance at all.
Now, he was about to lead his army to withdraw from the border, so Azig thought of simply setting up an ambush, killing the enemy, and engaging in a wave of Ming troops to add another huge sum to his credit book.
Azig looked at the surrounding Ming troops one by one, and finally turned his attention to Hong Chengchou's troops.
This Hong Chengchou was led by the Ming army in the Central Plains, and the Ming army in the Central Plains area was stretched across the border. They all knew that it would be much easier and less risky to defeat Hong Chengchou than to defeat the Guan Ning army coming from Shanhaiguan.
Azig's idea is very simple: catch a weak Ming army and kill them, get a lot of credit and get out of seclusion.
So, on a sunny and windy day, Azig had arranged for other troops of the Eastern captives and asked them to continue escorting the loot to the Great Wall, while he quietly led tens of thousands of Eastern captives to suddenly kill a man. He turned back his carbine and went directly to the front of Hong Chengchou's formation.
This frightened Hong Chengchou half to death, and he almost couldn't help but start riding alone...
After a long time, I remembered that my army still carried more than twenty field artillery pieces, and then I felt a little calmer.
Then……
Azig saw Hong Chengchou's troops pulling out more than twenty field artillery pieces and starting to bombard his army!
Seeing this scene, Azig couldn't help but utter a curse word. However, the Dongluo language is ugly and ugly, and it is difficult to describe or translate it directly. However, he can barely describe it by transliterating it into Spanish: Madfak!
"These southern barbarians actually brought out Hongyi cannons, and there are so many of them!"
