Hong Chengchou, the prince and Taibao of Tongguan who holds the title of Shangshu of the Ministry of War and the title of Yushi of the Right Capital. He is the governor of Shaanxi and the three provinces and also takes charge of the military affairs of Henan and other five provinces. He came to Tongguan before dusk today. When he came, he did not use ceremonial deacons or gongs and drums to clear the way.
Instead of riding in a large sedan chair, he arrived suddenly in civilian clothes, riding a horse, among a large group of mounted staff, and surrounded by hundreds of trusted generals and guards.
Hong Chengchou was a Jinshi during the Wanli period. In the forty-third year of Wanli (1615), the 23-year-old Hong Chengchou went to the province to take part in the provincial examination and was the 19th candidate for the Chinese examination in Yimao. The following year, he went to Beijing to take the examination and won the title of Lianjie.
Passed the imperial examination, ranked 14th among the top two in the Bingchen imperial examination, and was awarded Jinshi status.
As a young man, he rose to great heights, and his official career was smooth sailing. A few years ago, he became the governor of Shaanxi Province, the governor of the Three Borders, and the title of Minister of the Ministry of War. In fact, he was only in his early fifties. His many years of military life made him plump and sexy.
His face was stained with the color of dust. But Hong Chengchou had one very extraordinary thing, that is, he was able to lead the army to suppress the peasant uprising and kill good people while taking credit for their success, while at the same time maintaining the clothes he had cultivated during his career as a high-ranking civil servant.
Neat and disguised elegant demeanor. The more sophisticated he is, the more he sharpens his edges and hides the viciousness and treachery in his heart. He is able to deal with things without arrogance or impetuosity and is far-sighted. Precisely because he has these strengths, his subordinates
All the generals were willing to serve him, Yang Sichang, who was very jealous, was not jealous of him at all, and Chongzhen, who was jealous and suspicious, relied heavily on him.
Before that, he had received two imperial edicts and three messages from the Ministry of War, asking him to lead the governor Sun Chuanting and the generals in Shaanxi to quickly annihilate Li Zicheng. Then King Xing Yeqin. Although in the memorial to the emperor, he
He always exaggerates the number of Li Zicheng, complaining about the lack of food, wages and horses for the officers and soldiers, as if he is not sure of victory, but in fact he understands that Li Zicheng does not have many men and horses left. And he has been exhausted and isolated for a long time. On the contrary, the officers and soldiers
He had the advantage everywhere, and his memorial was just to leave room for himself. He fully hoped that this time he would succeed in the battle at Tongguan, which would relieve the imperial court of its worries about the west and realize his unfinished ambition for several years. On the eve of leaving Xi'an
, he had divination lessons with several close aides and Fu Luan, and they all satisfied him. Now he not only hopes to win a big victory, but also hopes to capture Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin and Gao Guiying in front of the battle and offer them to the prison.
.Let the emperor be greatly happy.
Now that his wish is about to come true, Hong Chengchou's excitement is indescribable.
Arriving at the gate of Daotai Yamen, Shanxi Governor Sun Chuanting had already led his generals to wait in front of the mansion. Hong Chengchou had a teacher-student relationship with Sun Chuanting, and he also admired Sun Chuanting's talents. Therefore, he could tolerate some of Sun Chuanting's minor problems.
The cooperation between the two was quite pleasant.
Seeing that Sun Chuanting had already led the generals to greet him at the door, Hong Chengchou went up to him with a smile, "I'm sorry to receive you, my lord, the governor. Hong is so ashamed!"
Sun Chuanting said respectfully: "The Governor is here in Tongguan, how dare I not come? Your Majesty, the Governor has been working hard all the way, so please go inside and rest first."
The two joined hands and sat down in the custody room. After a while, a guard came forward to serve tea. Hong Chengchou picked up the silver-white tea cup and took a sip. He closed his eyes as if to savor the mellow aroma in his mouth. After a long time, he sighed: "
I didn’t expect that my mentor would actually have a fine Dahongpao, so my trip to tea is worthwhile.”
The two had a good personal relationship, and together with the friendship between teacher and student, and the fact that there were no outsiders at this time, Sun Chuanting regarded him as his mentor.
Sun Chuanting smiled: "Although the student got this big red robe with great difficulty, as long as the teacher likes it, it will be considered worthy of the student's hard work."
"Hahaha..." Hong Chengchou laughed loudly and said to Sun Chuanting: "Bo Ya, Boya, you are still as wild and unruly as before. It's really worrying. I still remember what I did to you in the past.
Did you say that? If you could change your temper, I'm afraid this position would have been yours long ago."
Sun Chuanting smiled bitterly and said: "If a student changes all these, is he still a student?"
Hong Chengchou shook his head and said nothing. Although Sun Chuanting was very sharp and would argue with him from time to time, Hong Chengchou could always look at the big picture and laugh away some unpleasant things. He twisted his beard and said with a smile: "Bo Ya, why?
The master is here this time to join forces with you to annihilate the intruders, and the hard work of several years will be over today."
"Yes, it's time to end!" Sun Chuanting nodded: "A group of bandits came outside Tongguan at the end of last month. They were supposed to help the intruders leave Henan. Because they arrived too early, they were defeated by the students and fled to
Huguang asked for help. The intruders didn't know about this, so they dared to run straight to Tongguan regardless of everything. The students had sent people to pretend to be rogue spies and brought secret books to see the intruders. They were waiting for the intruders' personal army to arrive in Lingguan.
To the west of Baobao, we are scheduled to attack Tongguan tomorrow, and we will wait for the intruders to quickly take the opportunity to rush to Henan from Tongguan Nanyuan. As students think about it, the intruders will be overjoyed when they see this secret book, and we will be able to catch them all by then!"
Seeing Sun Chuanting's confident look, Hong Chengchou always felt that the matter was not that simple, and sighed: "This is indeed feasible, but I am always a little uneasy today. You must have received news from the court these days, right? Lu Xiangsheng
He died in battle, which is the worst news."
Sun Chuanting snorted coldly, "Gao Qi was hiding in the country and deserved to be killed. That Pang Gang killed well! If he hadn't allocated food and grass and sent troops to support, how could Lu Xiangsheng have killed Julu in the battle? I think Pang Gang was very good.
How dare you lead people all the way to the capital to kill Gao Qiqian and his party."
Seeing that Sun Chuanting was still so unscrupulous in his remarks, Hong Chengchou had no choice but to become selectively deaf, lower his head and drink tea by himself.
At this time, a report came from outside the door, and then a handsome young general wearing a deputy general's uniform opened the curtain and came to Sun Chuanting and said respectfully: "Your Excellency, this is just from the Ministry of War.
The eight hundred miles is expedited.”
After speaking, the young general handed an official letter to Sun Chuanting. Sun Chuanting opened the letter and said to Hong Chengchou with a smile: "It seems that this is another letter from the emperor urging us to attack quickly."
Sun Chuanting took out the letter with a smile and looked at it. Unexpectedly, his smile suddenly stiffened, his lips trembled slightly, and he murmured: "This... this is impossible.
, How could the emperor send us back at this time? This is absolutely impossible!"
Seeing the sudden change in Sun Chuanting's face, Hong Chengchou quickly took the letter from Sun Chuanting's hand, took a closer look, and couldn't help but twitching the corner of his mouth, and said in a voiceless voice: "What, is Mr. Yang Ge crazy? How could he do such a ridiculous thing?"
The order requires us to abandon the bandits in the encirclement and defend the capital?"
Even though the two of them had experienced great storms, they couldn't help but be surprised by this ridiculous order at this moment. On this official letter sent in the name of the Ministry of War, they couldn't help but signed the name of Yang Sichang, the Minister of the Ministry of War, and the company's chief assistant Wen Tiren.
His name was also on it, and more importantly, it had Chongzhen's seal on it, and the wording was stern, ordering them to leave within two days from the moment they received the official letter, otherwise they would be guilty of collaborating with the enemy.
Such harsh words are very rare, which also means that the two have no room for bargaining and must implement it immediately.
Looking at this official letter, Hong Chengchou stared blankly ahead and was speechless for a while, but Sun Chuanting was so angry that he shouted: "Yang Sichang has harmed the country, and Wen Tiren is incompetent. Don't they know that if we withdraw our troops immediately now, what will happen in the past few years?"
It cost countless people, and the tens of thousands of soldiers who died were wasted!"
Hong Chengchou took a deep breath, slowly stood up and said sadly: "Bo Ya, the emperor and Mr. Yang Ge cannot be blamed for this matter. If Lu Xiangsheng hadn't died in the battle, how could the emperor transfer us to the capital? And you
Look, the emperor only gave us twenty-five days, so time is running out and they have no choice!"
"You can't help it. The imperial court spends a lot of money every year to support the hundreds of thousands of rubbish in the capital camp. What's the use of it? It's just not enough to fight in the field. Can't you even defend the important areas of the capital?"
At this moment, Hong Chengchou had calmed down. Seeing that Sun Chuanting was very agitated, he solemnly said: "Boya, calm down. I believe that if the situation in the capital was not critical, the emperor would not let us abandon everything and rush to the capital at this time.
Besides, the military order is like a mountain, and you and I have to obey it!"
"Hey!" Sun Chuanting felt that there was no way to vent the anger in his heart. His chest felt as if it was about to burst. He stood up and strode out.
Seeing Sun Chuanting leaving with hatred, Hong Chengchou just smiled helplessly. He really felt helpless towards this violent student and subordinate.
Just when Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting received an official letter from the Ministry of War to urgently mobilize 50,000 soldiers and horses to go to the capital, in eastern Shaanxi, in the desolate mountains north of Luonan County, there was a bare mountain with only one tall pine tree.
Standing on the top of a mountain among several large rocks, at the fork of the trail, stood silently a group of cavalrymen in disheveled uniforms, about one or two hundred people. A tall man with thick eyebrows and big eyes, with sideburns.
The bearded cavalryman is like the statue of the King of Heaven or the statue of a strong man in the ancient stone carving art of Longmen. He is solemn and majestic, riding motionless on his horse, holding the reins with one hand and holding tightly on a red flag with the other.
This large flag has a tassel made of snow-white horsehair and a silver spear tip that shines white. In the center of the flag is a large Chinese character "Chuang" embroidered with black satin.
Under this flag, a tall man in his thirties was standing under the flag, looking intently into the distance...
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