The three armies are fighting for their lives to get there first.
A million-strong army fights Tumen.
The sound of war drums is unbearable.
Another city.
The rain hits the banana trees and makes people sad.
This song "Remembering the Kings and Suns Tumen" was written by Zhu Hengjia, Prince Jing of the Ming Dynasty, to satirize Dorgon, the regent of the Qing Dynasty.
It describes the Ming Dynasty's Western Expedition, which captured Tumen Town, the eastern gateway of Yuezhou, in one day, and also speculates on Dorgon's sadness and anxiety after hearing about the crisis in Yuezhou.
Zhu Hengjia actually didn't know whether Dorgon was hurt or anxious. But he himself was quite happy. The battle of Tumen Town went very smoothly, and the city was captured in one day.
Shang Kexi assembled 17,000 troops including You Yunlong, Xu Degong, Lian Decheng, Zheng Yuanxun and others to defend Tumen Town.
You Yunlong was a general who was good at conquering and fighting, but his army was unpopular. His army had no more than 4,000 troops, but Xu Degong and Liancheng each had 5,000 troops, and Zheng Yuanxun had 3,000 troops.
Yunlong summoned the generals to discuss: "Tumen is the ear of a small city. It can only accommodate a few thousand troops at most. General Zheng and I led 7,000 troops to defend the city. General Xu and General Lian led 10,000 troops to camp outside the city. They guarded each other. Horns. How about?"
All generals are praised as good.
Xu Degong and Lian Decheng camped on the slope next to Tumen Town.
These two men were former generals of Huaishun King Geng Zhongming. They were very dissatisfied with the Qing government for not allowing Geng Zhongming's son Geng Jimao to inherit the king's title and command Geng Zhongming's old army.
After setting up camp, Lian Decheng went to Xu Degong to discuss.
"Brother Xu, we are all the old prince's old men. Shang Kexi has asked us to guard Tumen, but An An has no good intentions. He wants our Geng and Ming armies to consume each other so that he can preserve his strength. You, I will not regret dying, but if After all the brothers have finished fighting, who will the future prince rely on?"
Xu Degong sighed: "Yes! Our prince has been fighting for the Manchu Qing Dynasty for so many years. He doesn't want to lose his life for a few escaped slaves. The regent is too careless about the old relationship and actually doesn't let the prince inherit the throne. He also blames us. It’s nice to have the military under control, but it’s too much!”
"Brother Xu, we have to save the flesh and blood of the Geng army for the sake of the prince. When the Ming army attacks, we will fight for a while and then retreat to Yuezhou."
"This is a very good plan, so let's do it!"
In the early morning of December 18, the 22nd year of Chongzhen in the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Hengjia’s Western Expedition army arrived at Tumen Town.
He observed it with a telescope.
Tumen, the ear of the small city, is less than two feet high and is very easy to pull out. However, the Qing army general was a general, and he set up camp on the slope beside the city. They were like horns to each other, so it was not easy to fight.
If you want to pull out the Tumen, you must first conquer the enemy camp outside the city.
"General Bai, General Feng, General Gao, and you three will lead your troops to attack the slope outside the city!"
"Yes!"
"General Zhao, you will lead the artillery battalion to set up a fort in the east of Tumen City and bombard Tumen!"
"Yes!"
"The rest of the generals followed Gu and surrounded Tucheng!"
"Yes!"
Three generals, Bai Wenxuan, Feng Shuangli and Gao Minggui, led their 20,000 troops and attacked the slope outside the city.
An incredible thing happened. Before the Ming army could reach the slope, Xu Degong, who was on the slope, got two generals in a row and ran away.
He ran so fast that even the Ming army behind him couldn't catch him.
Bai Wenxuan attacked the slope, cut down the "Qing" flag, and replaced it with a "Ming" flag.
The morale of the Ming army besieging the city was greatly boosted. On the Tumen city wall, Yunlong and Zheng Yuanxun had earth-colored faces.
"Wonderful victory!"
"Wonderful victory!"
"Wonderful victory!"
The shouts of the Ming army made the Tumen city wall tremble.
Zhu Hengjia smiled slightly: "A man who surrenders without fighting is a good person. Come and persuade us to surrender!"
A group of noisy soldiers from the Ming Dynasty rushed to the city and shouted: "People on the city, listen, I will obey the order of King Jing, and those who surrender will avoid death!"
Yu Yunlong was furious, took out his horn bow and shot an arrow.
I don’t know why, but my skill that used to be perfect in the past actually failed today.
The arrows flew past the Ming army's helmet, and he was so frightened that he turned his horse and ran away.
Zhu Hengjia smiled coldly: "The mantis is blocking the car with his arms, and he is overestimating his own capabilities. Tell the artillery battalion to bombard you hard!"
A group of eighty Hongyi cannons and one hundred and twenty thousand-jin Fran machine guns opened fire.
Tumen is just a small earthen city. The city foundation is not deep and the adobe is not thick. With a loud "bang" that shook the earth, only two hours later, the east city wall collapsed.
"Quick, push the knife cart to block the gap!"
Yun Longzheng commanded the resistance, and a cannonball was fired, causing his body to fly into the sky.
"Kill!"
Generals Li Dingguo, Qin Yuchun, Yao Youxing, Du Yonghe, and Hao Shangjiu entered the city from the collapsed city wall.
Seeing that the situation was not good, Zheng Yuanxun led his soldiers to escape desperately.
??
When the Yuezhou Prefecture took control of Baling City, King Pingnan was so happy that he summoned Xu Degong angrily, and even Degong became two people.
"You two, tell me how Tumen Town was lost?"
"Your Majesty, the Ming army has many generals and many generals. The last generals cannot resist it and fight their way out of the siege."
"Fighting your way out of the siege? Why do some people say that when you saw the Ming army, you didn't shoot a single arrow and just ran away with your head in your arms?"
"What an injustice! Your Majesty!"
"Unjust? You still have the nerve to say that you are wronged. My lord, you have to make the decision for General You who died in Tumen Town." Zheng Yuanxun rushed out, crying bitterly.
When Xu and Lian saw Zheng Yuanxun, their voices couldn't help but froze.
Shang Ke said with joy and anger: "Do you know your sin?"
"The general is finally aware of his crime. Please allow us to make meritorious service for our crime."
"Are you guilty of meritorious deeds? Let you two sell your own Yuezhou City again?"
Shang Kexi said coldly: "Drag him out and kill him!"
"Old thief Shang, you will not die easily!"
"It's so gratifying. If you want to annex our Geng army, the prince will never agree!"
The two cursed endlessly and were dragged out by the guards and beheaded in a moment.
Shang Ke happily ordered Xu Erxian and Ban Zhifu to divide the 10,000 troops and horses under the two men into various battalions of Shang's army.
There was a commotion among Geng's army, and Xu Erxian chopped off 300 heads at once before suppressing them.
Geng Zhongming's crown prince, Geng Jimao, was horrified when he heard that Shang Kexi had annexed the 10,000 most elite troops left by his father, and hurriedly came to find Shang Kexi.
"Uncle Shi, Xu Degong and Lian Degong are all my father's old generals. I don't know what mistake they made, but they actually killed two people and killed their troops?"
Shang Kexi pretended to be an elder and said kindly: "My nephew, I didn't want to kill these two people. But they fled without fighting, which led to the loss of my general. If we don't kill, we can't shake the morale of the army. Yuezhou is in danger!" "Uncle Shi, even if the two of them killed each other by mistake, why did they annex his army?"
Shang Ke's face darkened with joy, his eyes showing a cold light.
"I have been ordered by the regent to command the armies of the two vassals. It is an ordinary matter to dispatch troops and generals. How can I talk about annexation? Why, could it be that the virtuous officer disobeys the regent's order?"
Seeing that Shang Kexi had brought out the great god Dorgon, Geng Jimao did not dare to argue anymore and had to retreat angrily.
If you don’t do one, you won’t stop.
Shang Kexi simply dispersed all the remaining Geng troops and reorganized them into Shang Jun.
Seeing that all the old troops left behind by his father had been annexed by Shang Kexi, Geng Jimao became angry and became ill, so he had no choice but to recuperate in his mansion.
??
After annexing Geng's army, Shang Kexi asked Kong Youde for help while dispatching troops and generals to deploy city defenses.
He ordered Xu Yong, the commander-in-chief of Chenchang, to withdraw troops from Sangzhi, Mingxi, and Yongding Guards, shrink his troops, and defend Cili, Shimen, Lizhou and other counties to stop Yan Zungao's 80,000-strong army. He also sent Zheng Yuanxun to reinforce Xu Yong;
General Xu Erxian and deputy general He Jiucheng guarded Linxiang County and Daorenji, Chenglingji, Yalanji and other fortresses along the Yangtze River; they led Ban Zhifu, Ma Jiaolin and other generals to guard Baling County in Yuezhou Prefecture.
Just in case, the cunning Shang Kexi ordered Yuezhou's 10,000 navy troops to station themselves in the Junshan area of Dongting Lake with a large number of collected civilian ships. He was prepared to flee from Dongting Lake to the Yangtze River if he could not be defeated. The idea of dying in Yuezhou and martyrdom for the Qing Dynasty has never occurred to traitor Shang.
