The process of Zhang Mingwei's march westward was actually a propaganda process.
As the troops marched, they made no mistake about the local autumn. Hundreds of thousands of people sang in unison, which was even more topical and spread far and wide.
In Fengyang Mansion, both Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo received news one after another that Duke Xingguo was leading troops.
First, he stationed troops in Yangzhou and raided the home of a big salt merchant. He also reformed the salt policy and promoted the salt drying method, making a lot of money from those salt merchants.
This lets them know that the imperial court is rich again!
Recently, there are rumors that there is something called potatoes, which is not only very delicious, but also has a high yield. This means that the Ming Dynasty's food problem will soon be solved.
In short, as Duke Xingguo moved westward, all kinds of favorable news began to spread.
Fortunately for Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo was a little frightened and did not dare to have any small thoughts. He immediately strictly restrained his troops and reported the official list early.
At the same time, the police were dispatched throughout the night and began to intensify their surveillance of the rogue thieves in Luzhou Prefecture.
When Duke Xingguo led his army into Chuzhou Prefecture, they were not far from Luzhou Prefecture occupied by bandits. Zhang Mingwei then sent them a military order, stating that the army's outstanding pay and military pay would be paid after the army met. But before that, Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo were asked to guard the north of Luzhou Prefecture and not allow bandits to escape north.
At the same time, the main army, which had been marching slowly, suddenly sped up and invaded Luzhou Mansion with a sprint of thousands of miles.
On the Luzhou Prefecture side, the slogan of attacking Nanjing was shouted loudly, and the attitude was that as soon as the naval training was completed, they would immediately attack south along the river.
However, when Zhang Mingwei's troops launched an attack, Zhang Xianzhong and Gezuo's Fifth Battalion turned out to be rabbits. It could be said that they fled upon hearing the news and did not fight with Zhang Mingwei's troops at all. They also jumped at an extremely fast speed. Entered Huguang.
Even the spies who had been sent to the bandit army did not know about this in advance. Therefore, the cunning Zhang Xianzhong did not disclose it to anyone at the beginning.
The coalition forces led by Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai, known as a million-strong army, failed to win even the Xingguo Gongsuo troops, which were still weak at the beginning. No matter what the reason was for not winning, in Zhang Xianzhong's view, it also showed that Xingguo Gongsuo's troops were difficult to deal with.
Since it is a hard bone, why should he come to chew it?
In addition, Li Zicheng's slogans were loud and loud, and they agreed to send Liu Zongmin to attack Yingtian Mansion together. However, the result was that they never came to Luzhou to join forces. Even though the reasons fabricated there sounded reasonable and explained the reason for the slowness, Zhang Xianzhong was not so easily deceived, and he immediately understood Li Zicheng's intention.
Whether it is Fengyang, the central capital, or Nanjing, the companion capital, since it is the most important place for the imperial court, it means that the imperial court will definitely be heavily guarded. Who would be so stupid as to attack directly!
Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong had no intention of attacking these two places from the beginning. His goal has been set from the beginning, and that is Huguang.
Huguang, also known as Hubei, has always been the granary of the Ming Dynasty. There is a saying that "when Huguang is cooked, the world is sufficient".
Zhang Xianzhong has long wanted to attack here. As long as he has enough money and food, he can recruit more troops. In the future, not only will he fight against the imperial court, but also against Li Zicheng sooner or later, he will have more capital.
Therefore, his bluff and claim to attack Nanjing were actually done to show the imperial officials in Huguang.
As soon as Zhang Xianzhong heard that Duke Xingguo had led his troops to march westward, he quietly revealed this purpose to the leader of the fifth battalion of Gezuo. At that time, they secretly made preparations for the army.
Of course, externally, it is natural to attack Nanjing. As a result, suddenly, the bandit army abandoned Luzhou Prefecture, quickly marched westward, and jumped into Huguang.
Zhang Xianzhong did the same thing in history. He first trained his sailors in Chaohu, Luzhou Prefecture, saying he was going to attack Yingtian Prefecture, but instead turned around and raided Huguang.
This time, because of Li Zicheng's participation in forming an alliance and shouting slogans, the deception was even stronger, so much so that the imperial officers and soldiers in Huguang actually thought that these bandits were going to attack Yingtian Mansion, and they all watched the excitement.
As a result, once the bandits invaded Huguang, their power was overwhelming. Danzhou was captured in a night attack, and then Danshui, Huangzhou and Macheng were attacked. Grain and supplies were snatched along the way, and the population was coerced. The military was booming, and the sun was at its peak.
Immediately afterwards, Zhang Xianzhong did not stop at all, took Hanyang from the west, crossed the Yangtze River from Yadanzhou, and directed his troops towards Wuchang.
Here in Wuchang, there is a vassal king who is entrusted here, that is, the King of Chu. The contemporary King of Chu is called Zhu Huakui. He is the kind of person who is ruthless but very stingy.
At that time, he ordered his men to beat Zhao Kehuai, the governor of Huguang, who had a grudge against him, to death. This kind of thing cannot be seen elsewhere.
Zhu Huakui reigned for sixty-three years. His strength and the wealth of Wuchang allowed him to accumulate mountains of money.
But even so, when Zhang Xianzhong attacked Wuchang, local officials in Huguang gathered at the Prince of Chu's Mansion and begged Zhu Huakui to donate money. They even took out the imperial newspaper and used the deeds of King Zhou to persuade Zhu Huakui to use money to resist. An army of rogue thieves.
However, Zhu Huakui had people move out of the gold-covered throne given by the Hongwu Dynasty, and said to local officials: "This can help the army, but he has none!"
Who dares to touch something given by Taizu?
And Zhu Huakui was very powerful, and he was able to kill the governor of Huguang back then. Although these local officials had the will of the imperial court, none of them had the responsibility to really break up with Zhu Huakui.
As a result, he could not get a penny of food from the Chu Palace.
Therefore, the other wealthy squires in Wuchang Mansion naturally followed his example. They felt that even the King of Chu did not give out the money, so they obviously had something to rely on. They felt that nothing would happen to Wuchang Mansion, so why should they take the money.
Just like this, when the Wuchang Mansion was still worried about money and food, Zhang Xianzhong rushed to Wuchang Mansion and even sent people to sneak into Wuchang Mansion in advance. Just like that, with one attack, Wuchang Mansion fell.
Zhang Xianzhong entered the city and looked at the carts of gold and silver treasures that were brought out from the Chu Palace. He laughed happily and said, "It's so mediocre to have such a wealth without putting up a guard!"
It is said that even hundreds of cars were used to pull it from the Prince of Chu's Mansion. Subsequently, Zhang Xianzhong immediately issued more than six million taels of silver and summoned refugees from various places to expand his strength.
At the same time, Zhang Xianzhong also ordered Zhu Huakui to be thrown into the Yangtze River and drowned, and drove all the Zhu clan members in Wuchang City to the riverside and ordered him to drown. Suddenly, cries were heard on the banks of the Yangtze River, and corpses floated down the river.
If the original history were changed and the vassal king was killed by bandits again, Emperor Chongzhen would naturally be furious again and would severely punish a group of officials. However, since Zhang Mingwei traveled through time, the situation has been different.
First of all, Zhang Mingwei made it clear to him that the disaster of Ming Dynasty's death would have the consequences of the clan. In two more years, Ming Dynasty will perish. It is self-evident that the clan and the ancestral community are more important than the other.
In addition, none of the clan's performance after 1644 was decent, which made Emperor Chongzhen realize the fact that these clans were all like pigs.
For this reason, Emperor Chongzhen listened to Zhang Mingwei's suggestion. Not only did he issue an order requiring the vassal princes to take the lead in providing money and food to defend the city when thieves attacked the city, he also changed the national policy to enfeoff all the vassal princes overseas and established a He took the King of Zhou as an example.
But even so, the King of Chu did not listen, so the result this time was different. After Zhang Mingwei reported this matter, Emperor Chongzhen issued a decree to the world and sternly required the vassal kings and clans in various places to follow the example of King Zhou and the king of Chu as a warning.
Look, Kaifeng was defended, but Wuchang fell. This is the result of different reactions of different lords!
As for punishing the relevant people, there is no such thing this time!
After Zhang Xianzhong captured Wuchang Mansion, he actively prepared for war and prepared to face the pursuing Xingguo Gongsu troops.
Because he knew that always running away was not an option. Now that his strength has been greatly expanded, he is confident that he can compete with Xingguo Gongsuo.
Anyway, if you can't win, just run away!
As for the imperial officers and soldiers, the results of the killing of King Chu in Wuchang made both the local government and the imperial officers and soldiers heave a sigh of relief. At the same time, morale suddenly rose.
After Zhang Mingwei learned that Zhang Xianzhong's troops and Ge Zuo's Fifth Battalion were not leaving Huguang and were preparing to fight him, he was not in a hurry and no longer allowed the army to advance. Instead, he began to wait for the follow-up supply camp, that is, the fleet and vehicles going up the river. Battalion follows.
At the same time, Zhang Mingwei also sent orders to deploy officers and soldiers from various places to strictly guard the northern transportation arteries.
Not only did Liu Liangzuo and Huang Degong's troops assist in the defense on the northern front, he also mobilized three generals, Tang Tong, Li Fuming, and Ma Ke, to block the northern part of Huguang and slowly shrink the encirclement, at least not allowing the bandits to escape north. .
With such a division of troops, his own troops were only a little over 50,000.
All the generals were worried at first, fearing that Duke Xingguo would be in danger. But this time, Zhang Mingwei insisted on his opinion and went ahead with this arrangement.
He knew that if his side had strong troops and gave no hope to the Liu bandits, the Liu bandits would not come to fight him.
It is equivalent to saying that Zhang Mingwei used himself as bait to lure the bandits and prevent them from engaging in the most troublesome thing like guerrilla warfare with him.
He stayed in Luzhou Prefecture for half a month, with the army stationed there, and after order was restored to the local area, he led the army into Huguang.
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On Zhang Xianzhong's side, he initially killed all the vassal kings and clans. It was not that he hated him very much, but that he knew that doing so was tantamount to killing someone with a borrowed knife, and he could ruthlessly kill a group of feudal lords of the imperial court. Officials, generals, etc. have experienced this in the past.
It would be the best if we could kill Duke Xingguo.
As a result, the result he waited for was completely different from before, which surprised him.
It was only then that he truly realized how difficult this Duke Xingguo was to deal with, which also made him pay great attention to the upcoming war.
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