The Xixia army had never encountered decent resistance since they invaded Shaanxi, so they were hesitant to determine what was going on. When the Han war flag appeared on the horizon, they hurriedly woke up and mounted their horses to prepare for battle.
However, the war horses were already loaded with gold, silver, treasures, silks and satins. It took a lot of effort and determination to untie these. These new vassal troops escorting the Han prisoners were not elite cowardly Xue troops. They were all counting on these.
The spoils of war are taken back to support the family. It would be a pity if they were thrown on the ground casually and picked up by others. People are afraid of selfishness, especially in the army. Everyone thinks how can they win the war with small money, so they come to kill them as pursuers?
By that time, the Xixia Army was already destined to fail.
The convoy was too huge and stretched for nearly a hundred miles, so the escorting soldiers were like sheep dung beans scattered on the road. They were so sparse that it was difficult to assemble into a decent battle formation. Seeing that the pursuers were strong, Xixia at the end of the team
After a brief consideration, the soldiers quickly made the decision to retreat. However, the people who had been bullied by them suddenly changed from sheep to tigers, and pounced on them one by one. The Xixia soldiers were beaten one by one and were thrown off their horses.
Come on, beat them to death, but the common people are common people. How can they hold down the strong nomadic men? Instead, they took the opportunity to draw out their scimitars and cut several of them. The Xixia soldiers were also panicked and did not dare to continue to kill the common people.
, dragging the knife and running away in a hurry, who knows that the pursuers have already arrived at this time, a red shirt cavalry stepped on the stirrups, stood up high, waved the long knife, twisted around, and cut down condescendingly with the strength of his waist, and cut down.
The Xixia soldier was cut from the shoulder and blood spurted out, but he did not die immediately.
The cavalry charge must be fierce. After one blow, they will no longer hit the target and continue to charge forward. Those Xixia soldiers who were kicked over by horses' hooves and slashed by swords have become dishes on the people's plates. The Xixia soldiers who were showing off their power just now have become superior.
At this time, they were holding their wounds and wailing for mercy. The angry people didn't care, and punched these unlucky people to death.
The Xixia people never expected that the Ming army would arrive so quickly, and they were caught off guard and beaten. The established Xixia army saw that the Ming army was powerful and did not dare to resist. They left the group with the looted property and hurried westward.
, the Red Shirt Army won a great victory. At this time, the horse power had reached its end. Many horses fell to the ground from exhaustion and foamed at the mouth. The pursuit had to be temporarily stopped.
It took three days to bring the abducted people back to Chang'an. During this period, the Xixia Army was unwilling to fail and launched several counterattacks, but they were all repelled by the red shirt cavalry. In the end, they had to watch the carts full of goods slowly disappear.
He walked away, sighed, turned back on his horse and ran towards the west. If he didn't leave, he might have to stay here for his life.
The people returned to the city one after another, and when they saw the banner with clear characters, they all burst into tears. They asked the guard sergeant whose army this was, and the sergeant proudly told them that it was the general who conquered the west, and the army that suppressed Marquis Wu at that time.
When it arrived, the people immediately rushed to tell each other excitedly, saying that this time they were finally saved.
The recovery of Chang'an was considered a great achievement. Liu Ziguang waited for the situation in the city to calm down and sent a telegram to the capital, saying that the Western Expeditionary Army had recovered Chang'an and killed 20,000 enemies. The captured armor, horses, equipment and enemy heads would be
Along with the detailed battle report, it was sent to the capital. When the telegraph officer asked him what to sign with, Liu Ziguang thought for a while and said: "Liu, the general who conquered the west, will be fine."
At the same time, the Western Army, which carefully drove out of Tongguan, finally arrived at Weinan City. Looking at the empty city, Yuan Chonghuan breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that the Xixia Army had really retreated. He called the Chinese Army and dictated the recovery of the Western Army.
Weinan's telegram asked him to quickly send out a request for credit. When the Chinese army asked whose name was the signature, Yuan Chonghuan said without thinking: "Yuan Chonghuan, Governor of Shaanxi Trilateral Military Affairs."
Zhu Youxiao, who was far away in Nanjing, received two telegrams from the front line of the Western Army at the same time, but the contents were quite different. One was from Liu Ziguang, saying that 20,000 enemies had been annihilated and Chang'an had been recovered. The enemy troops had fled and the imperial army was marching westward.
Jiayuguan is just around the corner. The other one is from Yuan Chonghuan, saying that the Western Army soldiers worked together as one, and after a hard battle finally annihilated 50,000 enemies and regained Weinan. Now there are still 100,000 remnants of the enemy entrenched in Chang'an City. The Western Army soldiers will definitely not be afraid of hardships and kill them.
Serve the country with the enemy and regain Chang'an as soon as possible.
This is strange. It's just two telegrams sent by the Western Army, but there is such a big difference. Who is in the hands of Chang'an City, and which telegram is true? This involves the crime of deceiving the emperor.
, Zhu Youxiao immediately sent an order to the Western Army to quickly explain the situation.
After receiving the call back, Yuan Chonghuan was shocked and ordered the entire army to advance quickly and stationed in Chang'an. He knew that Liu Ziguang must be playing the trick of the surprise attack on Jinan again, but he didn't know how he carried him across the natural barrier of Tongguan. Is it possible?
Relying on the balloon thing again? No matter what, this time he had all the limelight.
When the Western Army arrived at Chang'an City, the city gates were closed, and Marshal Yuan's chariot had not yet arrived. Pioneer officer Liu Zongmin shouted to the top of the city: "The people on the city have heard, the grandfathers of the Western Army have arrived, hurry up and open the city gates."
, prepare foot-washing water and mutton soaked buns, let the men have a good rest."
Liu Zongmin was also filled with anger. The Red Shirts were so ungrateful. They took advantage of the Western Xia people's withdrawal and quickly occupied the vacuum area, taking away all the credit that should have been given to the Western Army! This tone is really hard to swallow.
I went down, so my tone became a little louder.
These guys at the top of the city are not vegetarians. They went crazy when they heard this. They all said that you guys are just hiding behind and won't come forward. I won the city of Chang'an after two battles and hundreds of brothers were killed. Why did you win the city?
When I opened the door for you and prepared some water for washing your feet, someone scolded me: "Whose team are you from? Why are you so unruly? There are no mutton soaking buns, and there are enough water pipes for washing your feet!" After that, there was a big bucket of swill.
It fell down, and no one was splashed across the far moat, but it annoyed the soldiers of the Western Army, and the two sides began to scold and fight.
The guarding officer sent someone to report to Liu Ziguang. Liu Ziguang asked if Governor Yuan had arrived, and he replied no. Liu Ziguang said: "Then just leave them outside and wait for Governor Yuan to arrive."
Report."
Liu Zongmin cursed for half an hour, and his mouth was dry. When he saw that the other party had no intention of opening the door, he had to dismount his horse and rest outside the city gate. His riding camp was moving fast, and he did not bring a tent or other things, and he did not even have enough dry food and water.
It was hard to suffer under the poisonous sun. The soldiers kept cursing their red shirt colleagues in the city, and the conflict between the two armies further deepened.
Three hours later, Governor Yuan's cavalry arrived. Seeing the governor's three-sided military affairs report, the sergeant hurriedly reported to Liu Ziguang. Liu Ziguang changed his clothes and went out of the city to greet him. When they met, they first exchanged polite compliments.
Then Yuan Chonghuan said: "I don't know if the Marquis has left the governor's Yamen to help the governor. The last time the governor came to Chang'an, he used this place as his headquarters." That means that I still have to go to the governor's Yamen to work.
Liu Ziguang said: "Master Governor, you don't know. Ten of the buildings in the city have been burned to the ground. The governor's office has been reduced to nothing. Our soldiers all live in tents. If the Governor doesn't mind, come and talk to me."
Hou lives together."
Yuan Chonghuan said: "The Xixia people are indeed cruel. They actually set fire to Chang'an. I will go to the city to inspect the people's situation. As for the tents, I have brought some tents so that they will not occupy the Marquis' place."
As he said this, he was about to lead his troops into the city, but was stopped by Liu Ziguang: "Supervisor, the people in the city are not fully clothed, and their hearts are in panic. It would be wrong for your army of horse thieves to enter the city at this time. How about this?
The Commander-in-Chief’s model battalion can enter the city, but General Liu’s troops are better off camping outside the city, otherwise it will be difficult for you and me to explain to the elders of Chang’an if we cause trouble that disturbs the people.”
Yuan Chonghuan had no choice but to reply to the emperor's message and still needed Liu Ziguang's help to smooth things over, so he had no choice but to agree and lead the pacesetter battalion into the city, while Liu Zongmin's troops could only stare outside the city.
After the Red Shirt Army occupied Chang'an, there was no reason to give it away. Although Chang'an had become a big pile of rubble at this time, as long as the people were still there, there was hope of restoring its past glory. The common people collected the remaining bricks under the organization of the Red Shirt Army.
They broke tiles to build houses, went out of the city to cut down several trees, dug earth and burned bricks to build new streets and houses. Fortunately, the Xixia people did not have time to snatch up all the food, so hundreds of thousands of Chang'an people will not be short of food for the time being.
.
Liu Ziguang didn't want to completely fall out with Yuan Chonghuan. Everyone tacitly stopped mentioning the Jin Shengheng incident. They also agreed on the same tone in their replies to the emperor. They only said that the two armies would fight separately. Liu's army would attack Chang'an and Yuan's army would attack Weinan.
It's just that we didn't coordinate the steps well. In war, this situation is excusable.
The telegram was sent back to Nanjing, and Zhu Youxiao didn't bother to pursue it. As long as Shaanxi came back, it didn't matter who captured it. The emperor sometimes needs to be confused, and now is the time when Zhu Youxiao is rarely confused, so
A commendation telegram was quickly sent back, praising the entire Western Army and encouraging them to make persistent efforts and regain all the lost ground in one fell swoop.
Chang'an was the capital of China during the Han and Tang Dynasties, and now it has become the western border of the Ming Dynasty. This kind of drastic shrinkage of territory is unacceptable to any Han people. The current civil strife in Xixia is a good opportunity to expand territory. Liu Ziguang and
Yuan Chonghuan sent his cavalry to advance westward quickly, occupying as much territory as they could. In the face of the common enemy, the two armies reached an unofficial tacit understanding. As long as one side occupied a city, the other side would not get involved.
In the end, Yuan Chonghuan's men and horses took advantage because they were familiar with the terrain and there were many people. Anyway, the Xixia army was far away, so they just rushed forward. The red shirt army was obviously at a disadvantage, with only less than 10,000 soldiers.
The cavalry could not occupy more than a few counties, so Liu Ziguang's order to them was not to care about gains and losses in Shaanxi and just go westward!
The food and salary from the imperial court arrived quickly. Although according to the agreement reached by the cabinet, Liu Ziguang and Yuan Chonghuan split the money, food, cloth, ordnance into three-quarters, but in practice it was not the same. Liu Ziguang's three-quarter share was delayed.
Those who arrived were all those seven points from the Western Army.
Even though he knew there was something fishy in this, Liu Ziguang didn't argue with the reason. He just ordered people to record everything and settle the accounts later. As for the supply issue of the Red Shirt Army, he had his own logistics system, and a large number of
Grain was purchased from Huguang at a low price in the name of the general who conquered the west, and was sent to Chang'an via land via Tongguan. A large amount of ordnance and ammunition came off the production line of the Liguo Iron Works and was directly loaded onto the carriage heading west. At the same time, a road passed through Henan and went directly to Guanzhong.
The railway is also under intense construction.
The most exciting news was the recovery of Shanxi. Zhao Zhangcheng led the three battalions of troops and horses all the way to Taiyuan Prefecture. The Qing troops were defeated along the way. Not even a decent battle took place. Only when they arrived at Taiyuan Prefecture did they hear that
Kangxi's small court had already gone north to the desert. Zhao Zhangcheng sent a cavalry battalion to chase them all the way to Datong before withdrawing the troops. After returning, he reported the good news to Liu Ziguang, saying that the people of Shanxi had long been looking forward to the imperial army coming to liberate them. Before the Red Shirt Army came, they
, mutinies in the Green Camp and civil uprisings have occurred one after another. For Kangxi, Shanxi has become a hot pot that cannot be sat still.
Shanxi is a prosperous place, with developed commerce and finance, and rich coal resources. Having Shanxi is equivalent to gaining a treasure house, so Liu Ziguang doesn't care so much about the court's military spending. He looked at the area he controlled on the map.
, Liu Ziguang was very proud. Hebei, Shandong, Shanxi, plus one part of Shaanxi, one part of Mongolia, and one part of Korea. The mineral, fishery, and human resources in these lands cannot be underestimated. The constraints of the imperial court and Yuan Chonghuan's petty mind have not been ignored.
In Liu Ziguang's mind, what he needs to consider is how to integrate the resources at hand to defeat Xixia, the biggest potential enemy.
Through several battles, Liu Ziguang has discovered that the Xixia people's war potential is very huge. This huge empire is like the Manchu Qing Dynasty enlarged. It is more barbaric and powerful than the Manchu Qing Dynasty. From the Caspian Sea to the Tianshan Mountains, it is his territory.
, Turks, Uighurs, Mongols, Tubos, and Han people are all his subjects. The huge strategic depth and endless human resources support this country's long-term confrontation with the Ming Dynasty. If the overall situation of the western region is handed over to Yuan Chonghuan,
If we fight well, we can maintain peace for more than ten years. If we fight poorly, we may fall again next year.
But this would not be the case if the war was left to Liu Ziguang. He knew deeply that in the face of the enemy's powerful war resources, the advantage of the red shirt cavalry equipped with light artillery and muskets was not very great, and
As the war continues, this advantage will become smaller and smaller, because the enemy will capture and imitate their advanced weapons, which will reverse the situation of the war. Therefore, if you want to quickly eliminate this enemy, you can only use the most advanced weapons.
, use powerful land and air forces, use tanks and cannons, use airships and powered parafoils, use the power of technology to completely defeat them, break all the fangs and sharp teeth of these nomads, and then set a foot on them,
Only in this way can the peace of the Han world be guaranteed.