"Congratulations, Commander-in-Chief! Do you remember what Commander-in-Chief Cao has learned from his past mistakes? Never underestimate the enemy and rush forward, and don't get too far away from our army." Sun Chuanting frowned and told He Renlong.
Unexpectedly, He Renlong waved his hand indifferently and said: "Don't worry, Governor, I, Lao He, don't worry. The soldiers you brought out that haven't shed their hair are of no use, let's watch me, Lao He, make achievements in the front!"
He Renlong's words were very casual, with a hint of contempt for Sun Chuanting. He Renlong has seen too many incompetent civil servants in recent years, and he has long lost his respect for civil servants. Therefore, he has no respect for Sun Chuanting, the newly appointed official.
The governor of Shaanxi, He Renlong, was quite disapproving.
Sun Chuanting raised his eyebrows, but after a while he suppressed the anger in his heart and said in a deep voice: "Then Mr. He must have worked so hard."
In fact, He Renlong was not as reckless as he appeared on the outside. He was also observing Sun Chuanting's expression. However, after hearing Sun Chuanting's words, He Renlong couldn't help but say "Humph!" in contempt, and then he raised his hands and said:
"Then I'll go down and get ready."
Seeing He Renlong leaving arrogantly, one of Sun Chuanting's staff couldn't bear it anymore. He said to Sun Chuanting: "Then He Renlong has no respect for his superiors. Why don't you deal with it severely?"
Sun Chuanting tapped his index finger on the big case a few times and replied: "The days are long!"
After the peasant army entered Henan this time, they suffered successive setbacks under the siege of various Ming armies. Therefore, in the long-term battle, each battalion of the peasant army lost more than half. In order to preserve their own strength, in addition to Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and other battalions remained
In addition to the fight between Yunyang and Lu Xiangsheng and other Ming troops, other battalions of peasant armies returned to Shaanxi.
First of all, in the first month of the ninth year, the generals Li Zicheng and Man Tianxing, with six teams, four branches and thirteen battalions in total, with a total of tens of thousands of elite cavalry, went from the Xi'an area to Hancheng via Tongguan, Yijun, and Yichuan.
It is planned to transfer to Shanxi after the Yellow River freezes.
Due to the high temperature in winter this year, the river was not frozen; Shanxi Governor Wu Di strengthened the river defense force. Therefore, the peasant army's plan to enter Shanxi could not be realized. After that, the peasant army set up camp and headed to Heyang and Chengcheng.
In February, Hong Chengchou gathered 20,000 officers and soldiers to pursue them desperately. Li Zicheng and Hun Tianxing marched from Chengcheng through Hancheng, Heyang, Yichuan, Luochuan, Yanzhou (now Fu County), Yan'an, Huanxian, Qingyang, and Guyuan.
Walking past Tianxing and Mantianxing, it starts from Zhenning and Heshui to the east and enters the Gaoling and Sanyuan areas of Shaanxi Province.
Hong Chengchou was worried about the loss of the provincial capital Xi'an, so he was forced to divide his troops to pursue and suppress them. He led an army back to Shaanxi to suppress the Tianxing and Mantianxing troops, and asked his generals to continue to pursue Li Zicheng and Hun Tianxing westward.
The officers and soldiers led by Hong Chengchou overtook Tianxing and Gypsophila in the central county (today's Huangling, Shaanxi Province). Due to the strength of the officers and soldiers, the two Manchu troops avoided fighting and headed west to join Li Zicheng and Hun Tianxing. They planned to meet up with Li Zicheng and Hun Tianxing.
Attack Lanzhou, Gansu.
Hong Chengchou ordered Zuo Guangxian and Gansu general Liu Shaozong to attack the rebel army in Qianyanchi (now part of Haiyuan County, Ningxia). The peasant army was defeated, and Guo Tianxing (namely Zhang Tianlin) asked for surrender. Gan Xuekuo, the governor of Shaanxi in the Ming Dynasty, deployed tens of thousands of his troops there
Yan'an soon rebelled. However, this also led to Gan Xuakuo's dismissal and Sun Chuanting taking over as governor of Shaanxi.
But while the two sides were in a stalemate, on February 10th, Ningxia officers and soldiers mutinied due to long-term lack of pay, and the governor Wang Ji was killed. Hong Chengchou felt that a provincial governor had been killed and the situation was serious, so he rushed to Guyuan, Ningxia to deal with it.
Li Zicheng, Mantianxing and other forces recovered and took the opportunity to attack Yulin and Suide areas in northern Shaanxi.
In May, Li Zicheng, Zhang Tianlin and other troops fought with the official army in Anding. The official army was defeated, and the commander-in-chief Yu Chongxiao was captured and executed alive. The deputy commander-in-chief Li Cheng was also killed, and 3,000 soldiers were annihilated.
However, when the peasant army took advantage of the victory to attack Mizhi, they were accidentally ambushed by the commander-in-chief He Renlong and suffered heavy losses. There was also heavy rain and the Wuding River overflowed. Many peasant soldiers were drowned by the flood. Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin
, Zhang Neng and others were left with only a few hundred riders to escape from the danger.
At this time, Li Zicheng's general Gao Yigong led more than 10,000 people from Guyuan. After joining forces, Li Zicheng regained momentum. Li Zicheng then united with other peasant armies in northern Shaanxi to conquer Yanchuan, Suide, and Mizhi.
.Because Mizhi is Li Zicheng's hometown, this return was a powerful call to the local people. Li Zicheng's relatives and friends came to join him one after another, which made his strength quickly recover.
Therefore, it can be said that the peasant army that returned to Shaanxi early was at a disadvantage in combat.
In May of the ninth year of Chongzhen, seeing the intensifying peasant army rebellion, the court's policy also changed a little. First, Emperor Chongzhen issued an edict "Amnesty to the bandits from Shanxi and Shaanxi". He also sent out soldiers who were ordered to appease the edict.
Bao Fengqi, a member of the staff department of the Ministry of War.
It should be said that this edict also played a certain role later on, especially when the peasant army was attacked one after another.
Also in May, it was difficult for Gao Yingxiang's troops to gain a foothold in Huguang. He joined forces with the Taotians, and the Scorpions' troops moved into the Xing'an and Hanzhong areas of Shaanxi Province. Now only Zhang Xianzhong's battalion of peasant soldiers is active in Huguang.
Because Gao Yingxiang had an outstanding reputation among the peasant army and his troops had the strongest combat effectiveness, a military operation was launched with the main goal of encircling and annihilating Gao Yingxiang's troops.
The Ming army in Henan, led by Governor Li Xianfeng, blocked the way for the peasant army to return from Shaanxi to the Central Plains, while the officers and soldiers of Shaanxi Governor Sun Chuanting and Trilateral Governor Hong Chengchou acted as the main force to encircle and suppress Gao Yingxiang's tribe.
At this time, after Gao Yingxiang's troops retreated into the mountains of southern Shaanxi, they had nowhere to find food in the barren mountains and ridges. They were hungry and lacked horses. In order to get out of the predicament, he decided to take a small road to attack Xi'an and make a surprise attack on the army.
But the path Gao Yingxiang chose is the famous Ziwu Valley.
During the Three Kingdoms period, when Zhuge Liang came out of Qishan, Wei Yan proposed the Ziwu Valley plan to attack Chang'an by surprise. Zhuge Liang rejected the plan because it was too risky. Of course, in the end, Zhuge Liang was killed because Ma Di lost the street pavilion.
They also failed as soon as they left Qishan, and then the conflict between Zhuge Liang and Wei Yan was buried, and so on and so on.
In later generations, many Zhuge Liang said after the fact that if Zhuge Liang had used the Ziwu Valley Strategy, he might have unified the Three Kingdoms when he came out of Qishan. However, judging from Gao Yingxiang's ending, it shows that Zhuge Liang's decision is still correct. There is no way
,Zhuge is only cautious in his life!
Sun Chuanting had already expected this, so he led He Renlong and other 14,000 troops to set up an ambush at the Heishui Valley in Zhouzhi County, which was the only way for Chuangwang Gao Yingxiang to pass, and prepared to attack Lao Lao.
However, He Renlong was simply arrogant and did not pay any attention to the Shaanxi New Army organized by Sun Chuanting after he took office, which led to a sharp deterioration in his relationship with Sun Chuanting. Just because Sun Chuanting needed He Renlong as the main force in this battle.
, so Sun Chuanting temporarily held back his tone.
On July 15th, Gao Yingxiang led his troops to the Heishui Valley in Zhouzhi County. The officers and soldiers of Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou also followed and arrived in Zhouzhi on the 16th and 17th respectively. The two sides immediately started a fierce battle. .
The peasant army, which was in desperate situation, struggled to the death and burst out with amazing fighting power. They won the first battle with the official army and defeated the official army of General Li Yuchun.
But the situation of Gao Yingxiang's troops became more and more critical. They had no food and grass, and were in a desperate situation. The morale of the entire army became extremely low.
At this time, Hong Chengchou resorted to recruiting surrender and divided the peasant army. However, unstable elements in the peasant army such as Gan Gongji Zhang Er and Yi Dou Huanglong secretly approached the commander-in-chief He Renlong to surrender.
During the battle in Ma Zhaoyuan on the second day, they took advantage of the heavy fog after the rain and Gao Yingxiang's opportunity to dismount his horse and draw his bow to shoot at the enemy, and secretly pulled Gao Yingxiang's mount and troops southward. By the time Gao Yingxiang discovered this conspiracy, it was already too late. He had no choice but to take off his armor and hide in the grass. Unfortunately, he was captured by the army.
The Ming court was greatly excited by the news of Gao Yingxiang's capture. Emperor Chongzhen was so proud that he ordered Gao Yingxiang to be escorted to Beijing as a prisoner and asked the Shaanxi authorities to deploy troops to guard against danger along the way. Later, the leader of the peasant army was captured in Beijing. Lingchi was executed.
Gao Yingxiang's men, led by his younger brother Gao Yingdeng, continued to fight. However, due to the heavy loss of military strength, especially the loss of a prestigious leader like Gao Yingxiang, morale was greatly reduced. Later, Li Zicheng was supported by his subordinates and succeeded him. King Chuang finally became the nominal leader of the peasant armies in the world.
With the capture and killing of Gao Yingxiang, it was a major blow to the peasant army fighting in Shaanxi at that time. First of all, there was a wave of surrender. Of course, some were real surrenders and some were fake surrenders.
In early September, two famous leaders of the peasant army, Zhang Miaoshou (namely Zhang Wenyao) and Xiezi Kuai (namely Tuo Yangkun), came to Fengxiang from Huizhou and Qinzhou (today's Huixian and Tianshui City, Gansu Province) to beg for recruitment from the Shaanxi authorities of the Ming Dynasty. Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi, personally recruited Zhang Miaoshou and his troops to surrender on the spot. Xie Zikuai also came to Huicheng in March of the following year to beg for surrender.
Zhang Xianzhong also took the opportunity to flee to the west of Xiangyang and rested on the spot. He erected a five-foot-high wooden pole at the Xiangyang River Temple, tied a ruler with large characters on it, and wrote on the flag: "I want to see the military gate." Just talk." and sent a letter.
Miao Xutu, the newly appointed governor of Huguang, was extremely surprised when he received a letter from Zhang Xianzhong, saying that he wanted to see the governor. He immediately sent two generals to greet him. After talking, they agreed to formally surrender in August. Governor Miao believed it without any doubt, and then Zhu Xifan and three other people were sent to conduct detailed consultations on relevant matters. The peasant army proposed to build a pontoon bridge on the river to facilitate mutual exchanges. Miao agreed to do so, and ordered the city guards to open the city gate and allow the peasant army to enter the city to do business.
So the peasant army pretended to be doing business and entered the city in large numbers. The officers and soldiers guarding the city were naturally allowed to pass them one by one without interrogation. To show his sincerity, Miao ordered the officers and soldiers in the city to withdraw all their bows, knives and artillery, collect them and store them in the treasury, and said not to make others suspicious!
But Zhang Xianzhong must be pretending to surrender!
But why did the Huguang Governor's Council change from Lu Xiangsheng to Miao Fentu? Where did Lu Xiangsheng go again? This is because the strategic focus of the Ming Dynasty court has shifted again! (To be continued.)