Chapter 72 Great changes in eastern Zhejiang 1

Author: Scholar Wu

Chapter 72 Great changes in eastern Zhejiang 1

Last year, after experiencing a series of failures, Zhang Huangyan fled back to Zhoushan. He was quite disappointed with Huang Binqing and found that staying in Zhoushan didn't make much sense.

So, taking advantage of the intense war in Fujian, the Qing army dispatched troops from eastern Zhejiang to Fujian, and took the opportunity to establish a base in the Pinggang area of ​​Siming Mountain.

Pinggang is located in Pingshan Village in present-day Lingnan Township. It is located at the foothills of Yingyingjian Mountain, and the terrain is undulating. Villagers generally live on flatter slopes, hence the name "Pinggang". There is Yingyingshanjian to the east of the village, and Bandit Hill to the west of the village.

, about 40 miles away from Shangyu County.

This place has high mountains and narrow roads, and the situation is dangerous. It is a strategic location that is easy to defend but difficult to attack. Zhang Huangyan took advantage of the advantageous terrain here to store food, prepare weapons, recruit volunteers, contact all parties, and prepare for an attack.

Although Zhang Huangyan was a scholar, he had practiced martial arts when he was young and was good at riding and shooting. Later, due to the needs of national affairs, he also read military books, so he was well versed in military affairs. He believed that in order to consolidate the base areas behind enemy lines, he must first rely on the masses.

However, the land here is sparse and the people are large, and after being trampled and destroyed by the iron hoof of the Qing army, food supplies have become a problem. So he fully mobilized the masses and actively restored and developed agricultural production. He personally went to the countryside to investigate and visit, persuaded people to work hard, and the army and the people jointly built villages.

Soon a happy scene appeared.

At that time, three rebel armies formed a stronghold to defend the Siming Mountain area bordering Shangyu Nan Township and Yuyao.

They are Wang Yi's Dalan Village, Li Changxiang's Dongshan Village and Zhang Huangyan's Pinggang Village.

Long before Zhang Huangyan established his camp in Pinggang, Wang Yi had been opening up base areas behind enemy lines in eastern Zhejiang for many years, with remarkable results, which frightened the Qing army.

Wang Yi was born in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province. His courtesy name was Wanxun. He was born as a scholar. He liked the art of war and was good at swordsmanship. Later, he followed Xiong Rulin to raise an army in Ningbo. King Lu granted him the official positions of chief of the military department and minister.

He ran the army strictly and divided the army into five battalions and five internal divisions. He was in charge of military affairs and commanded the troops of the five battalions; Wang Jiang was in charge of internal affairs, collecting and supplying food and supplies.

He divided all the residents in the base area into three classes: rich families, single families and low-income families. According to their property and acres of land, taxes were fairly and reasonably distributed, so the people were satisfied and willing to bear the burden.

After Zhang Huang concluded the camp in Pinggang, Wang Yi visited Pinggang in person. The two young men met so late that they talked freely about state affairs, ideals, and strategies for fighting behind enemy lines. They were passionate and generous, and their words were very congenial.

Zhang Huangyan felt that Wang Yi's courage and wisdom were rare in this world, which left a deep impression on him. Zhang Huangyan warmly entertained Wang Yi that day, and they became close friends. They also agreed that the two villages would fight side by side and support each other in the future.

It can be said that Siming Mountain at this time has initially possessed the advanced concepts of "base areas behind enemy lines" and "guerrilla warfare" in later generations.

The "Tianmu Mountain Base" that Qian Mo wanted to develop before was actually based on the historical prototype of Zhang Huangyan's Siming Mountain Base.

However, Qian Mo, who has successfully occupied Huzhou and secretly controlled Jiaxing, has only built a few villages and some mining workshops in Mogan Mountain and Tianmu Mountain, and has not really transformed them into a "base area".

On March 5, the second year of Yongli (1648), when the news came that Xiao Qiyuan, the governor of Zhejiang, urgently mobilized troops from Ningbo and Taizhou and Qian Mo occupied Huzhou.

More than 2,000 people from Zhang Huangyan and Wang Yi allied forces stormed Shangyu County. After breaking the city, they beheaded the county magistrate Liu Fangzhi and wiped out all the treasuries.

After the victory in the first battle, the Zhang-Wang coalition made a new strategic plan: in addition to leaving enough troops to defend the base areas in Dalan and Pinggang villages, the main force went from Shangyu to Dingzhai and Zhangzhen, and attacked Shengxian and Xinchang.

Soon, the city of Xinchang was broken, frightening the Qing army in Ningbo and immediately dispatching reinforcements to Shaoxing and Taizhou. For a time, the entire eastern Zhejiang region was under martial law and the city gates were closed day and night.

However, in order to preserve the vitality of the rebel army, the coalition forces did not hesitate to fight and defend the city. After severely punishing a group of traitors and recruiting some anti-Qing people, Wang Yi led part of the Ming army to retreat to the mountain stronghold to hold on to the fruits of victory.

Zhang Huangyan led a thousand Ming troops to march eastward toward Ninghai County, claiming to capture Xiangshan County.

At this time, Ningbo Prefecture had already waited for 1,000 reinforcements from Taizhou Prefecture.

Zhang Jiezheng, the commander-in-chief of Ningbo Dingguan, led 2,500 Qing troops to pursue Zhang Huangyan's troops all the way to Taizhou Prefecture.

In fact, Zhang Jie was very worried that Zhang Huangyan's team would move to Tiantai Mountain in the west. If they entered the mountainous area, his work would be in vain again.

However, at this time, soldiers came to report that Zhang Huangyan's team was approaching Ninghai County and was likely to attack the city.

Hearing that Zhang Huangyan did not get into Tiantai Mountain, Zhang Jie quickly ordered the team to go to Ninghai County to prevent Zhang Huangyan from escaping.

After chasing Zhang Huangyan for a long time, the Qing army was already quite exhausted. However, the commander-in-chief had orders and everyone did not dare to slack off. They hurriedly and slowly arrived at Ninghai County.

But they found that Zhang Huangyan did not attack the city, but bypassed Ninghai and went straight to Xiangshan.

Zhang Jie was eager to achieve success and immediately urged the soldiers to chase him.

However, the Qing army, which had been on the road for a whole day, gave up. The soldiers shouted: "I have been chasing for a whole day, and every time I say that I am right in front. Now I haven't even eaten, how can I still have the energy to chase?"

"Why don't we rest here in Ninghai County for one night and pursue the pursuit tomorrow? Anyway, if we go further, we will reach the sea after passing Xiangshan Mountain. Where else can the thieves go?"

Xiangshan is actually a peninsula. At this time, as long as we pursue another ten miles to the east and defend Qipan Mountain, we will indeed block the throat of Xiangshan Peninsula, and we are not afraid of Zhang Huangyan running away again.

So Zhang Jie shouted: "Everyone, please persist and eat two mouthfuls of dry food first. When we reach Qipan Mountain, Zhang Huangyan will be unable to fly even with his wings."

Seeing that Qiu Ba could not be called out, Zhang Jie said loudly: "The magistrate said that whoever captures Zhang Huangyan will be rewarded with a thousand taels of silver and will be promoted to three levels in a row!"

"Those who behead the rebel thieves will also be rewarded with silver!"

Sure enough, money can make a fool of himself. The soldiers who were slumped on the ground just now, complaining, quickly ran towards Qipan Mountain again.

The foot of Qipan Mountain is actually a stretch of hills and valleys. Because there is a huge boulder on the top of the main peak, which looks like a chessboard, it is named Qipan Mountain.

At this time, the sky was already dark, and before he knew it, Zhang Jie had led his troops into a valley, and in front of them was the big river Yuanxi.

The more Zhang Jie thought about it, the more something seemed wrong. This place was too suitable for an ambush, so he stopped and ordered the soldiers to investigate ahead.

After all, Zhang Huangyan's troops only have a thousand people, so there is no need to panic even if there is an ambush. Zhang Jie is still quite confident at this time.

Zhang Mingzhen's troops set out from Chongming all the way to Nantian Island and met up with the 2,000 troops staying here.

Then they captured Changguowei in the south of Xiangshan County without any bloodshed, and laid an ambush in the Qipan Valley early.

Zhang Jie never dreamed that the Ming army he faced at this time consisted of 12,000 elite troops under Zhang Mingzhen, plus more than 1,000 troops from Zhang Huangyan's army.

"Bang, bang, bang"

Suddenly a burst of cannon fire was heard, and then people fell down one after another.

Then Yang Wenqi led his army to fight out from behind the valley. Ming troops were everywhere in the mountains and fields, and the sound of killing was loud.

At this time, Zhang Jie's troops were already depleted of men and horses. How could they still have the courage to resist?

Seeing Ming troops everywhere, they immediately became chaotic.

Zhang Jie shouted: "There is an ambush, don't panic, follow me and fight out."

Zhang Jie bravely led his troops to attack the valley entrance twice, but the Ming army's firepower was fierce. The Qing army rushing at the front was hit by firecrackers and bows and fell to the ground one after another. The offensive was quickly disintegrated, and even he himself was killed by the Ming army.

hit by a firecracker.

Fortunately, he was wearing heavy armor and was far away, so he was not injured and retreated under the cover of several soldiers.

Zhang Jie understood that his team was on the verge of collapse.

At this time, Zhang Mingzhen shouted: "I am Zhang Mingzhen, Marquis of Dingxi in the Ming Dynasty. Now that you are surrounded by tens of thousands of my troops, do you still want to break through?"

Zhang Mingzhen was well known in eastern Zhejiang. Hearing Zhang Mingzhen's name, the last psychological defense line of the Qing army collapsed. Before Zhang Jie could give the order, a large number of Qing troops dropped their weapons and knelt down to surrender!

Seeing that the situation was over, Zhang Jie could only accept the Ming army's adaptation.

Zhang Jie understood that Ningbo and Taizhou actually did not have many troops anymore. Counting more than 2,000 troops of his own who had joined the Ming army, the Qing government's eastern Zhejiang province was really unsafe.

Years ago, Tu Guobao and Yang Wenqi, the Ming army captured Chongming; then Jiangxi Jinshenghuan Nanchang, almost all of Jiangxi Province fell, and I heard that the soldiers had already gone straight to Nanjing. At the beginning of this month, Qian Mo suddenly appeared and occupied

Huzhou.

Nowadays, the land in eastern Zhejiang is probably difficult to preserve. Now is the opportunity for me to make a contribution.

So he offered a plan and said: "At this time, there are only more than 200 soldiers and horses in Xiangshan County. We can directly lead the troops to attack."

"Although there are still 500 troops stationed in Ninghai County, I can seize it by directly leading people to falsely open the city gate. At this time, there are not many troops in Linhai City, the Taizhou government seat. Our army goes straight to Linhai, and seizing Taizhou is like searching for something."

Late at night, Xiao Guozhu, the magistrate of Xiangshan County, had already fallen asleep.

At this time, he was suddenly awakened by the faint shouts of killing outside the city.

A government official stumbled in and said: "The county magistrate is in trouble. A large number of Ming troops are attacking the city from all sides. Now they have occupied the west gate, opened the city gate, and are heading towards the county government."

Zhang Huangyan asked for orders to lead his troops to attack the city overnight and captured Xiangshan County in one fell swoop.

At the foot of Ninghai City, the guard saw Zhang Jie leaving and returning, and did not raise any suspicion. He just assumed that Zhang Jie had not caught up with the rebels and wanted to spend the night in Ninghai County.

Unexpectedly, after Zhang Jie led his troops into the city, he suddenly launched an attack and captured the Ninghai city gate in one fell swoop.

After that, tens of thousands of Ming troops poured into Ninghai County. Where had the Ninghai County magistrate seen this battle?

He decisively cut off his braids and declared that he would return to the Ming Dynasty anyway. In this way, Ninghai County also planted the flag of the Ming Dynasty.

After capturing Ninghai, the Ming army rested for the night.

The next day, Zhang Mingzhen led tens of thousands of Ming troops and directly surrounded Linhai City, the seat of Taizhou.

At this time, the news that Zhang Mingzhen, the Marquis of Dingxi, had sent 100,000 troops to capture eastern Zhejiang quickly spread to all directions, and the entire Qing army in eastern Zhejiang fell into panic.

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