Taking into account the allegiance relationship in the traditional feudal dynasty and promoting the concept of loyalty, and at the same time because the senior officials of the Chu Empire did not have a good impression of the high-ranking civil servants of the Ming court, and thirdly, after considering that there were too many Ming court dignitaries in Youzhou City, It is expected that the income from confiscation will not be small. If too many surrenders are accepted, the subsequent confiscation income will definitely be greatly reduced.
Chen Xingkai from the Taxation Department also strongly suggested that this time when we attack Youzhou City, we should charge less for demotion or not charge so much. After all, once we accept the surrender of the other party, he will turn around and become an official of Dachu, and the Taxation Department will not What a fair and open house raid.
The loss will be huge!
Based on these conditions, before Li Chengtong led his army to the Northern Expedition, after discussion with the senior leaders of the Chu court, Li Chengtong, who was leading the expedition, gave Li Chengtong a task that was not a formal task. After conquering Youzhou City, he would send the Ming court ministers and Chongzhen together. When you go to see the Lord of Hell, don't come back with a bunch of high-ranking officials from the Ming Dynasty. It will make you feel sick just looking at it...
What we pay attention to is "when the country dies, the king will die and his ministers will follow him", so that the kings and ministers of the Ming Dynasty will go to hell together, and no one can be missing.
As a result, the Chu army that entered the city basically refused to accept the surrender of the Ming court dignitaries. They carried out purge operations and ransacked their homes.
The amount of money and grain that was not confiscated from Youzhou City was the largest ever that the Chu army had ever raided a city. Just from the home of Zhou Kui, the father-in-law of Chongzhen, more than 500,000 taels of cash were confiscated!
And in the capital, there were many more wealthy dignitaries than Zhou Kui!
In the final summary, the huge amount amazed General Li Chengtong, who had witnessed the storm: the gold, silver, copper, cash and various jewelry they confiscated totaled more than 30 million taels!
This is only talking about cash and cash-like things, but does not include various fixed assets, bulk materials, antiques and treasures.
If all are counted, the value of the many things confiscated in Youzhou City is inestimable!
Because there was so much confiscated gold and silver, General Li Chengtong had to send troops to escort him. Otherwise, with the thousands of armed tax policemen from the tax department, he was afraid of being robbed on the way...
The Taxation Department wants to transport a large amount of gold and silver and a large number of treasures confiscated from Youzhou City all the way back to Jinling City. This is a huge amount of money worth tens of millions. Everyone will be jealous of it. There is no guarantee that no one will do anything bad. I wanted to attack the escorting armed tax police directly...
Especially when the Chu army went all the way north, although they could not fight many battles, the early battles were mainly conducted by Ming court officers and soldiers, and they did not have time to attack many local landlords, bandits and thieves with great force.
From Youzhou City all the way to Huai'an, there are actually a lot of illegal armed forces remaining in such a large area, including many super landowners who can bring in thousands of people.
Although the possibility of a large amount of funds being robbed is extremely small, no matter how small the possibility is, you must be on guard against it.
Furthermore, directly dispatching the army to cooperate with the armed tax police to escort them is also to supervise each other and prevent anyone from the armed tax police from having evil thoughts.
When Li Chengtong personally took command of Youzhou City and presided over the plan to loot the city, the huge Chu army did not stop. Except for the 20th Division who stayed behind to guard Youzhou City, the couple's armed tax police continued to conduct house raids and wiped out many remaining stubborn resistance in the city. Outside the enemy.
The rest of the Chu army has already taken actions.
The troops attacking Youzhou City this time mainly include the 10th Division of the Third Army, the 8th Division, the 20th Division of the Second Army, and the 3rd Cavalry Brigade.
The Battle of Youzhou cannot actually be called a battle, because it was not fought at all. The Ming troops stationed in the city gradually surrendered. Along the way, the Ming troops took the initiative to open the city gates and welcome the Chu troops into the city. , even arriving in the Forbidden City is no exception.
Because there were no combat losses, Li Chengtong ordered the division of troops the next day after his troops captured Youzhou City.
The 20th Division of the Second Army was stationed in Youzhou City and cooperated with the armed tax police in clearing operations. The Fourth Division divided its troops and went to the Xuanfu line in the north to recruit surrender and take over various parts of Xuanfu. It also took over the checkpoints of the Great Wall along this line. In the city, if there are those who are unwilling to surrender, they are also responsible for attacking them.
The 10th Division and the 1st Cavalry Brigade went to Miyun and Jizhou Town in the northeast. They also recruited surrender and took over the defense of local cities. If they refused to surrender, they would be killed.
As for the direction of Shanhaiguan, the Chu army had already sent troops in this direction.
Lieutenant General Zhu Xingfa, deputy commander of the Third Army, had already led thousands of cavalry to pursue the fleeing cavalry of the Ming Army before the Battle of Tianjin was over. Finally, two days later, he forced more than 3,000 cavalry of the Ming Army to surrender.
At that time, the physical fitness of the more than 3,000 Ming army's fleeing cavalry had already reached its limit, and at least two to three hundred horses had been exhausted.
The leading cavalry generals discussed it and found that if they continued to escape like this, they would starve to death sooner or later... and all their horses would also die.
In addition, Zhu Xingfa made a promise to them after he caught up with them. The leading generals gave them various military ranks, and promised to organize their troops into three cavalry brigades and let them continue to lead them.
As a result, these cavalry generals gritted their teeth and surrendered, and they took more than 3,000 cavalry under their command and transformed into the 4th, 5th and 6th Cavalry Brigade under the Chu Army.
After recruiting more than 3,000 cavalry, Army Lieutenant General Zhu Xingfa continued to lead the two cavalry brigades of his headquarters and the three newly recruited cavalry brigades, plus the reinforcements of the 1st Division, 11th Division and several independent units. A total of Forty thousand people continued to march westward, aiming directly at Shanhaiguan.
Their mission is to rush to Shanhaiguan as soon as possible. If they can seize Shanhaiguan, it is best. If they are too late to seize Shanhaiguan, then they will block Shanhaiguan directly to prevent the Liaodong armies and even the Eastern Capture forces from fighting out of Shanhaiguan.
This idea is the same as the 16th Division's blockade of Tongguan. Even if Tongguan cannot be captured, Tongguan must be blocked directly to prevent Sun Chuanting's new Qin army from getting out and to avoid disturbing the Chu army in the Central Plains and North China. military operations.
At this time, the eastward marching troops led by Army Lieutenant General Zhu Xingfa had successfully captured Kaiping Zhongtun Acropolis, Luanzhou, Yongping Fucheng Lulong and Qian'an on the side.
He is currently heading towards Funing City, and behind Funing City is Shanhaiguan.
When the Chu army was heading towards Shanhaiguan, Zu Dashou, who had just escaped back to Shanhaiguan with four thousand cavalry, found that the Chu thieves were about to kill him before he could take a breath.
Immediately, they quickly mobilized their troops and generals to try to keep the Chu thieves out of Shanhaiguan.
This time, he could not continue to escape, because the Liaoxi area behind Shanhaiguan was the home base of Zu Dashou and other generals from the Liaodong faction. If he retreated, even the home base would have to be taken away by the Chu thieves.
However, within two days, Zu Dashou, who was in Shanhaiguan, received another surrender letter from the Chu thieves on the opposite side. The other contents of this surrender letter were nothing but the same old tune, asking him to lead his troops to surrender to Chu Yunyun.
The point is, the Chu thieves said in this surrender letter that Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty was dead and the Ming Kingdom was completely finished...
This news made Zu Dashou unexpected and even a little confused!
Although Zu Dashou had little respect for the big guys in the Ming court, or even Chongzhen, no matter what, his Zu Dashou was still an official in the Ming court.
But now... Ming Ting is finished, and what should I do?
What else can I do? Just hold on!
His ancestor Dashou fought against the Chu thieves not for the sake of the Ming court, but for his own territory in western Liaoning.
He is fighting for himself, not for the Ming Dynasty!
This is actually no different from his fight against the Eastern Capture. Zu Dashou fought very hard against the Eastern Capture in Liaodong. Although he failed to defeat the Eastern Capture in the middle, he was surrendered to the Qing Dynasty for a while, but it didn't take long before he ran away and continued to lead his army to fight against the Eastern Capture.
It's okay to surrender if you can't fight, normal people can understand.
Why did they rebel after surrendering?
Because Dongli wants to seize Jinzhou and other large areas in western Liaoning, which are all the territory of his ancestor Dashou... If you want to seize the territory of his ancestor Dashou, his ancestor Dashou will definitely not do it.
Not to mention Zu Dashou, the other generals in western Liaoning didn't do it either!
Zu Dashou was not fighting alone in western Liaoning, but he was fighting with his entire family and even married relatives like Wu Xiang and his son. The cities in western Liaoning were their foundation.
Of course it's not okay for you to seize their territory.
It's the same now when it comes to the Chu army!
Faced with the Chu army's persuasion to lead his troops to surrender, Zu Dashou refused without even thinking about it!
A mere so-called army major general and a Liaoxi uncle wanted to capture his ancestor Dashou Lian and tens of thousands of Liaodong troops, and also wanted to wipe out the foundation that their Liaoxi generals had cultivated for hundreds of years in western Liaoning.
How can there be such a good thing in the world!
It is not impossible to gain my foundation in western Liaoning. Send a large army to kill me, and kill me with blood. If you defeat me and capture Shanhaiguan, Jinzhou and other places, this western Liaoning will belong to you.
Otherwise, there is no door!
It's all about appeasement. If you look at Dong Nao, his first move is a king's title, and his backhand is a real title.
Yesterday, envoys from the Dongdao tribe arrived at Shanhaiguan to persuade Zu Dashou to surrender to the Dongdao tribe, and promised to make him the King of Liao. If he enters the customs in the future, he can also choose several provinces in the south as the land of permanent enfeoffment, the kind of real enfeoffment. !
You, the Chu thief, want to get rid of me with such a huge amount of money as an army major general?
No sincerity at all!
In fact, Zu Dashou wrongly blamed the emperor and ministers of the Chu Empire.
The monarchs and ministers of the Chu Empire, considering the importance of Liaoxi and the elite cavalry under Zu Dashou's command, have already shown a lot of sincerity.
For example, Zu Dashou and his main generals were allowed to retain part of their private property except for large tracts of land, and Zu Dashou was given the title of major general in the army and the earldom of Western Liaoning.
The rest of the generals will also be awarded military titles ranging from colonel to lieutenant, as well as viscount or baron according to their positions and the strength of their troops...
Unfortunately, such conditions are still too low in the eyes of the generals in western Liaoning!
