In February of the seventh year of Chongzhen, Liu Chengzong personally led five battalions of troops to set off from Xining.
Compared with the offensive route at the southern foot of the Qilian Mountains, the advance route of his main Chinese army is further away. They must first go south from Xining to the Heka Grassland, then pass through the Chaka Salt Pond, westward from the Wulan Mountains to Delingha, and then turn around.
Head north to Guazhou, a total length of 2,200 miles.
This road was chosen by Liu Shizi. It was nearly 800 miles farther than the road that marched along the southern foot of the Qilian Mountains through Hala Lake to Yumen, and there were fewer water sources along the way.
But the advantage of this route is its strong population carrying capacity. Heka, Ulan, Dulan, Delingha, Golmud, and Huidan are all the marshal's military camps and chieftain stations. Although there are fewer water sources,
Everything is under his control.
Although due to the extreme terrain and environmental conditions, the march time needs to be calculated in fifty days, there is a stronger guarantee.
At first, Liu Chengzong's advance was slow because the imperial court's counterattack from Lanzhou in the east was slow, which made him uneasy. But after a letter from Ren Quan'er arrived, he felt relieved.
In his heart, Liu Chengzong never regarded the leaders and fellow clan members who stayed in Yan'an Mansion as his subordinates.
They were once friends fighting against the wind and waves in difficult times. Sometimes people are close, and sometimes people are far away. As close as monkeys in the sky, they share the same interests and we work together; as far away as Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang, he can be tolerated but he doesn't want to.
If you live under others, then join forces.
Anyway, at that time, no matter whether it was General Liu or King Gao Chuang, no one had any hope of overthrowing the Ming Dynasty. Everyone was very tolerant.
But there are some special times when people have different ambitions.
Even if they are all surnamed Liu, not everyone is willing to rebel even after having a full meal. Even because they are from the same clan, this is an uncle, and that is a brother, they are not willing to rebel in the first place, which makes it more difficult to manage.
It's all your fault to say something rude and insist on breaking up my family and property. You shouldn't support me now that you're the leader?
In order to avoid the escalation of conflicts, many people were named Yan'an Guard.
Yan'an Guard was essentially a reservoir for Liu Chengzong to get rid of his conflicts. In his early years, his father Liu Xiangyu's Yuziying also had this role.
There are three types of people originally. Liu Chengzong's Lion Battalion is his subordinates and can command as they wish; Yu Ziying is a person who has no problem with his mind but it is more difficult to command; and Yan'an Guard is a person whose command may not be difficult, but it is difficult to command.
Rebellion is a group of people forced by circumstances.
The only person in his hometown who could be called a subordinate was Ren Quan'er, but Liu Chengzong also did not dare to regard him as a subordinate in his heart. After all, times had changed and the poor boy at the time had become a commander with real power in the court and could still be obeyed.
His order?
It doesn't matter whether he is a subordinate or not. Ren Quan'er treats him as a superior, and that counts.
Ren Quan'er's letter has three pages. The first page tells him that the imperial court will dispatch at least three battalions to attack Lanzhou in the direction of Lintao, and also clearly explains the situation of the generals of the three battalions.
This made Liu Chengzong very confused, because the Marshal's Mansion's garrison force on both sides of the Yellow River in Lanzhou was very sufficient, and because the call to surrender the old Ming army was so huge that the court should know how many troops they had.
Lanzhou is guarded by a battalion led by General Wang Wenxiu, and there are three nearly full battalions of Luo Rucai, Li Wanqing, and Yang Chengzu. This is the direct army of the commander's mansion with more than 10,000 yuan.
In several counties around Lintao Prefecture, there are also Lintao Brigade composed of the old Ming army under the command of three generals Shi Xiang, Li Zude and Zhang Yunqi. Liu Chengzong awarded them deputy generals and made it clear when they were appointed generals, asking for their surrender.
Title.
Therefore, when the three of them recruited and surrendered the camp and flag army, they fought fiercely against several surrounding counties. Moreover, it was the responsibility of the three of them to surrender Kaicheng, and the troops they led were also paid by the Marshal's Office, so they had a certain degree of loyalty.
Facing this army, the governors of the five provinces of the imperial court sent out three battalions with more than 10,000 troops. It seemed too shabby. They wanted to fight one against two in the siege. They are all heavenly soldiers and heavenly generals?
However, on the second page, Ren Quan'er explained in detail the melee in the Central Plains, Huguang, and Sichuan, the court's dragnet, the official army's consecutive battles and victories, and the peasant army's march in, and everything made sense.
Liu Chengzong believed in the imperial court's battle reports because he had experience in joint operations and also knew how difficult it was to command coordinated operations on a battlefield that spanned hundreds of miles.
This situation appears in the Ming army's battle report, not because the Ming army generals lied about their military exploits, but because hundreds of thousands of peasant troops were breaking through.
Among the hundreds of thousands of peasant soldiers, some of the leaders' direct descendants of the old battalions have the ability to fight head-on with the official army, but they are still not regular troops, and the leaders of the powerful old battalions are often relatively independent leaders.
After four years of war, Liu Chengzong established the Marshal's Mansion and had his own political structure. Although the peasant army who stayed in the Central Plains did not have this set of things, they also lost their innocence and learned cruelty in the war.
They are breaking out, and no one will hold a strong army to support others, leaving their direct lineage to be surrounded by the official army.
Ren Quan'er summed up this situation sharply in his letter: The strong will run rampant, and the weak will fill the gaps.
Those who were able to march quickly were able to kill the generals in front, destroy the city, and seize the territory. The old and weak who were not capable were intercepted and chased by the army on the road, leaving headless corpses on the ground, which became the military exploits of the army.
Liu Chengzong was a little disappointed.
He originally thought that the Marshal's capture of Lanzhou would make him the number one enemy of Shaanxi and reduce the threat of the peasant army. However, he did not expect that in Chen Qiyu's eyes, he would become a secondary target of the imperial court.
As for the third page of Ren Quan'er's letter, it was his plan for defecting on the Yan'an camp battlefield. Liu Chengzong didn't worry about these matters. He had someone send it to Wang Wenxiu. Matters on the frontline battlefield still had to be decided by the frontline generals.
Liu Chengzong just informed the whole army about the situation of the peasant army in the Central Plains and told the soldiers to hurry up. Only by winning Gansu quickly and decisively can the peasant army die less.
The five battalions of soldiers he commanded turned into nine battalions when they reached Delingha.
However, the four extra battalions were just traveling with him. One battalion was composed of nobles and guards from the Oirat tribes. Batur Hutaiji and other Mongolian nobles left happily, but many tribesmen cried when they left Xining.
.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!
Their mighty army left the Tianshan Mountains, and only more than 3,000 people were left when they came back, along with two fierce-looking Han military camps. Not to mention how uncomfortable they felt.
Batur Hutaiji and others were happy, firstly, to be able to go home, and secondly, Liu Chengzong gave them many gifts, and also agreed on a comprehensive trade agreement on furs, arms, daily necessities, etc.
Although many people were lost in the war, the nobles became richer, and in the foreseeable future, they will become richer along the trade routes.
Batur Hutaiji was the most serious person during the march, not only because Oirat was responsible for leading the army of the Marshal's Mansion, but also because he was learning marching from the Marshal's Mansion, mainly towing heavy artillery in the sand and marching in the Gobi.<
/p>
Since he was defeated and surrendered, he was thrown into the school of the Marshal's Mansion to learn Han Chinese language. In a militaristic place like the Marshal's Mansion, even if he studied Chinese, he would accidentally pick up some military knowledge. He really learned a lot.
Stuff.
At this moment, more than 30,000 people dragged out the winding snake array in three parallel ways along the Gobi Desert at the foot of the snow-capped mountains. Batur Hutaiji followed Tang Qi, who was sentrying in the highlands, on the top of the hill holding notes and recording.
The size of the army's camp.
During the more than half a year in the Marshal's Mansion, Batur Hutaiji's gain was not only that he became familiar with various firearms in the Marshal's Mansion, but more importantly, he learned a lot of history and armed his mind.
His teacher is an old scholar who worships the past. He always talks about Confucius and even the Five Emperors. He also teaches about the Spring and Autumn Period. These histories have no practical significance for guiding the students of the Marshal's Mansion, so they are not welcome in Xincheng Academy.
Then he was sent to another courtyard to teach a group of Mongolian nobles how to speak.
But these things are different for Batur Hutaiji. In his view, the Central Plains, a fertile land in the world, became the Central Plains of the Han people, and it was based on that period.
People built strong cities, enfeoffed princes in various places, connected vast areas with roads, divided countries by blood, formulated rituals to respect kings and repel barbarians, and waged endless wars against the barbarians, making the Central Plains an impregnable country for generations.
.
This has a strong guiding significance for the tribal form of Junggar, which fully illustrates the significance of development. Three thousand years ago, a seed was planted in Haojing, and the Han people carefully watered the branches and scattered the leaves, creating the Ming Dynasty today.
He returned to the Tianshan Mountains today to build a city, enfeoffed nobles in key areas, built official roads based on rivers and mountains, locked all the barbarians he saw inside, and sent elite horse teams to plunder. In three thousand years, a Mongol power will appear in the vast Siberia.
, when the time comes, Genghis Khan will become a figure like the Yellow Emperor, and he will be called Zhou Wen... no, Mongolian King Wen.
He is ready to return to the Tianshan Mountains for a big fight. There are two standing Mongolian battalions. He only needs to transport furs and down this year and buy weapons and equipment for the two battalions.
Next year, we will bring 33 light and heavy artillery pieces to talk to the Rakshasa people about free trade in Siberia.
In fact, the normal march of more than 30,000 people was nothing special for Batur Hutaiji except that he needed to learn how to transport heavy artillery. Until Liu Chengzong sent an order to the entire army to speed up, all the Oirat nobles were frightened.<
/p>
It's not like they have never seen emergency marches before. The Mongolian cavalry itself is an expert in emergency marches. However, the soldiers marched towards Jiayuguan Pass where "the barbarians dismounted here", a pass that has never been breached. However, the soldiers were extremely happy... no one had seen it.
.
The nearly 20,000 troops of the five direct battalions of the Marshal's Mansion enjoyed good food and drink on this road. As we walked down the march, we saw that the livestock in the several herding camps along the way, except for those who were still giving birth, were almost all dead.
They ate them all up, and if it weren’t for the melting snow in the mountains, even the water in the river would have been drank up by them.
Batur Hutaiji didn't understand why these troops wanted to go to Jiayuguan to die in such a hurry despite having such a good life. If the troops of the Marshal's Mansion had such a high fighting enthusiasm, why did they come to Qinghai?
?
In fact, not only Batur Hutaiji didn't understand, but even Liu Chengzong didn't quite understand. He ordered the rapid advance in order not to waste time. Zhuang Langhe was facing a confrontation, and the battle in Lintao Mansion was about to begin. The sooner he arrived at Jiayuguan, the better.
The sooner Zhang Tianlin's troops can take action, distracting the enemy's attention on the two battlefields.
The troops in the Marshal's Mansion do not always have such high fighting enthusiasm.
Just as the army was setting off from Xining and Xincheng, Liu Chengzong specially summoned the military commanders to ask them to pay attention to the mentality of the soldiers and tell them the justice of their trip.
When they started walking slowly, the morale of the army was neither low nor high. However, when the order was given to rush the march, the people cheered up.
Liu Chengzong only found out what happened after summoning his subordinates to inquire. In fact, the reason is quite funny, because the soldiers finally left Hehuang.
Not to fight back home, but as they left Hehuang, their sense of superiority as soldiers of the Marshal's Mansion returned.
Hehuang was doing well, but in the months after the harvest in the fields in Hehuang, all the soldiers in the Marshal's Mansion, except the locals in Hehuang, lived a miserable life.
Before the equalization of land, the people of Hehuang suffered from both scarcity and inequality. Although the soldiers in the Marshal's Mansion did not have much military pay, each of them had enough food to survive for several families. Even if there was no war, they could feed their whole family with food rations.
You can also help others.
The soldiers in the Generalissimo's Mansion are the most proud soldiers in the world. Even if they are surrendering, they will hold their chests and heads high while walking on the road.
But after the equalization of the fields brought a good harvest, the psychological gap came. Everyone was living a better life, and every household had almost endless amounts of grain. They sold the surplus grain to the Marshal's Mansion and had endless money to spend. The soldiers at the Marshal's Mansion suddenly discovered that they didn't seem to have that much food on hand, and even less money. It was better to plant a few acres of land at home than to shed blood.
People vaguely felt that something was wrong, but they couldn't tell what was wrong. They rebelled because they couldn't survive. Now that they saw the people living happily under the marshal's rule, they were also happy from the bottom of their hearts, but they just felt like they were at a loss. They don't blame the commander-in-chief, who has never treated them badly, and the soldiers' wages have never been cut off at any time, but it is true that many people have the idea of returning to their fields.
Fortunately, the time did not last long enough for them to make up their mind to disband and return to the fields. After all, these foreign warriors are really not very good at farming.
This gap finally disappeared until we entered the Tuen Muying and Tusi territories. Although the people here lived a good life, animal husbandry was the main industry, and food was still a scarce hard currency here. Their fixed worth doubled again. Only then did people suddenly realize that not everything in the world was like Hehuang under the general's rule. They were going to Gansu. There was no equalization of land in Gansu yet, and the people there were still living a miserable life under the rule of unruly people. They wanted to go to Gansu.
Will once again change everything through ups and downs and enjoy people's love.
After breaking through Jiayuguan, they are still respected and proud warriors.
With such belief and careful thoughts, the sergeants of the fifth battalion of the Marshal's Mansion heading to Jiayuguan were extremely excited, and they were full of energy during the march in the smoke-filled Gobi.
When people arrived in Subei, Liu Chengzong finally issued an order, and thousands of Tangqi shuttled alternately through the Gobi valley.
The simple command followed the yellow command flag and red cotton armor of the Tangqi galloping on horseback. They carried the dust from the Gobi sand dunes, echoed in the melting snow mountain canyons, passed through the endless salt lakes and the rushing rivers of melted snow, and finally passed clearly into the
In Zhang Tianlin’s ears.
The password only has four words: "March to Gansu!"
