Eight hundred and ninetieth chapters World War (1)
After returning to the palace, Wu Shigong threw himself into a busy banquet. There was one party for Yan Shenggong, Yan Jizu and Liu Zeqing to cleanse their dust; one party for Guide and the Runing Squire Group led by Zhao Ming; one party for Henan led by Guan Kesong
The official delegation of Huguang officials is one; the religious delegation composed of Longhushan Zhang Tianshi, Father Carrera, and major well-known temples and Muslim religious leaders is one.
There were even one Yangzhou business group and one Jiangnan business group under the control of Nan Ming. Although Wu Shigong only tasted the banquet at each banquet, such continuous rotation also made him dizzy.
These guests were all here to attend the founding ceremony of the Daping Dynasty, and it was not enough for Wu Shigong not to entertain them attentively. Anyway, after returning to the palace in the evening, Wu Shigong felt exhausted and could not catch his breath for a long time. It seemed that the emperor was really
It's not made by humans!
Ye Zhong, who was waiting on the side, immediately directed the young eunuch to give Wu Shigong sobering soup and hot towels. After calming down for a while, Wu Shigong picked up a small box full of memorials and started annotating them all night long.
Wu Shigong's current concern was of course the military situation. So Ye Zhong, who knew Wu Shigong's habits well, first selected the memorials about the military situation.
Wu Shigong first began to annotate the northwest direction, the memorials of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong.
Let’s talk about Li Zicheng’s Dashun Army first.
On August 12, after the Dashun Army withdrew from Beijing, they were able to maintain strict discipline at first and treat the people along the way fairly. However, in order to block the pursuers, they entangled Ouchi Jinqi as the rear troops.
Hang it on a tree, cast it into gold and throw it on the right side of the road, hoping to cause the pursuers to grab it and slow down the enemy's pursuit.
However, when the news came that the Dashun Army in Nanlutian Jianxiu was completely annihilated, the Dashun Army that fled west suddenly collapsed, and military discipline was completely lost. The large group of troops also collapsed like an avalanche.
After learning that the Qing army in the capital had taken the initiative to retreat, the Jiaojizhen army led by Xue Yong and the remaining Heiyun army who stayed in Shimen also began a rapid march to pursue Li Zicheng's troops who fled westward. Later, in Qingdu (
Wangdu County (now Wangdu County, Hebei Province) overtook the Dashun army. Qihou Gu Ying fought back with his troops, and the two sides fought in the east of the city. The Dashun army was hungry, exhausted, and had low morale, and was defeated by the Runing army. Gu Ying was killed in the rebellion.
.
The Dashun Army continued to retreat south, and fought with the Runing Army at Zhending, but was defeated again. Then it retreated into Shanxi via Jingxing, leaving elite troops to defend the pass. The Runing Army also temporarily stopped its pursuit because of lack of food and grass supplies.
The confrontation between Guguan and Dashun's rear troops began.
At the same time, the Runing Army, which had occupied Beijing, began a series of actions to win over people's hearts. In addition to burying Emperor Chongzhen and his wife in a grand ceremony, the prince Zhu Cixiang and several princes were also made princes.
Moreover, the Runing Army also announced to the world that as long as the former Ming officials were willing to submit to the Runing Army, they would be reinstated and even promoted. At the same time, it was clearly announced that all the land that had been taken away by the peasants, soldiers and civilians would be returned to their owners. And these protections
As soon as the official and gentry landowners' decree was announced, those Ming Dynasty official, gentry and landowners who had been devastated by the peasant army all celebrated with joy, just like the timely rain after a severe drought.
Starting from the 14th and 5th year of Chongzhen, many knowledgeable people among the officials and gentry of the Ming Dynasty have actually seen that the Ming Dynasty is about to die. And because most of these officials and gentry were a group of educated people at that time.
As the leader of the local clan, he controls the public sentiment of the local society in terms of influence and voice.
When wars and natural disasters continued for years, many official and gentry landowners, especially those in the northwest provinces, lost their families and families, so they couldn't wait to find a new protector.
So when Li Zicheng's Dashun army swept through the northwestern provinces and was as invincible as a raging cloud, these officials, gentry and landowners immediately placed their hopes on the new Dashun Dynasty. Is this why? Less than half a year after Li Zicheng broke into Tongguan,
One of the important reasons why time took over thousands of miles of the entire Yellow River Basin almost without a fight.
However, those official gentry and landlords soon became disappointed. Although Li Zicheng and the main leaders of the Dashun Army began to gradually transform into the landlord class due to their rise in status and the influence of feudal literati, this transformation has not yet
Reach the level of qualitative change.
In terms of basic policies, Li Zicheng and other leaders of the Dashun regime still insisted on safeguarding the interests of the peasant class. At that time, the Dashun Army had about one million soldiers and had established political power in a large area. How to raise this huge amount of money?
What about military pay and administrative expenses?
One method is to implement "light corvee and small taxes" on the premise of recognizing and protecting the land ownership of the landlord class, which is the traditional method of many new dynasties in history; the other is to implement the peasant revolutionary policy of expropriating the exploiters.
In the 14th and 15th years of Chongzhen's reign, Li Zicheng put forward the slogan "If you don't do the job, you won't pay the grain" in Henan, and later it was embodied in the policy of "three years of tax exemption". Will he keep these promises? Or will he renege on his promises?
What about self-fatness?
Obviously, the "revolutionary stance" of people like Li Zicheng is quite firm, and they decided to continue to implement the policy of exempting farmers from taxes. In this way, on the one hand, they must solve the huge military pay and increasing government expenditures; on the other hand, they must abide by the
With the promises made, the financial resources of the Dashun regime can only rely on confiscating the property of the Ming clan, taking over the meager inventory of the government in the towns and cities it conquered, and recovering the spoils of the Ming Dynasty officials and gentry. Among these three, the last one is
Main.
Therefore, in the areas controlled by the Dashun Army, they were vigorously and resolutely carrying out the recovery of stolen goods and providing subsidies, which made bureaucrats and landlords everywhere miserable. Moreover, the Dashun Army also added torture and torture during the process of recovering stolen goods, and the dignity of the Jin gentry was completely wiped out. In this way,
As a class with intertwined potential power in various places, the political attitude of the gentry and landlords gradually changed fundamentally.
These officials, gentry and landlords originally hoped to take refuge in the protection of the Dashun regime, but now they find that the blade of this regime is aimed at them. Therefore, the harsh facts put them in a state of sworn hostility with the Dashun regime. When Dashun
When the army was advancing with unstoppable military power, the officials, gentry and landlords in various places were frightened by the military power. On the surface, they were submissive and patient, but secretly they were gritting their teeth and waiting for revenge. Some were even absorbed by the Dashun regime and joined the Dashun regime.
The officials, gentry and landowners could not help but feel sad about the death of rabbits and foxes, and they expressed doubts about the future of the Dashun regime that implemented this policy.
In fact, it is a sentence - productivity must be determined by production relations. In a feudal society like the late Ming Dynasty, if you want to conquer the local tyrants to divide the land, it is cool to do so, but it will never succeed. Especially for illiterate bandits like Li Zicheng
.
After the disastrous defeat in the Battle of Yutian, the lurking officials, gentry and landowners in various places thought that the time had come, so they launched rebellions one after another, killing or arresting local officials of the Dashun regime, and attacking and killing the local Dashun army garrison.
Once the rebellion succeeded, the original Ming Dynasty bureaucrats immediately took control of local political power, thus achieving a comprehensive restoration of the official, gentry and landlord class.
On September 13, when the reinforcements of the Runing Army arrived at Guguan escorting food and wages, Xue Yong was appointed by Wu Shigong as the General of the Expedition to the West. He led 80,000 soldiers and horses, including Jiaochen Town, Heiyun Army and reinforcements, and began to
In order to sweep several northwest provinces, the remaining troops of Dashun Army and Zhang Xianzhong's Daxi Army launched a comprehensive military operation.
After Xue Yong sent out troops, the Dashun regime in various places rebelled one after another and surrendered to the Runing Army. This caused Xue Yong's Western Expedition Army to start a wild ride.
For example: Li Zicheng left tens of thousands of troops in Datong, an important town in northern Shanxi, and Zhang Tianlin was responsible for guarding it. Because he did not relieve the Ming Dynasty's surrender general Jiang Quan and others from their military power, and due to lax precautions, Jiang Quan's rebellion became successful, and Zhang Tianlin
When the general of the Dashun Army was assassinated, the garrison army also collapsed. This made Li Zicheng's plan to stick to Shanxi after abandoning Beijing come to nothing in an instant.
When Li Zicheng and other leaders of the Dashun Army returned to Xi'an via Taiyuan and Pingyang (now Linfen) in Shanxi Province, they were unable to take care of the Jifu area due to insufficient troops, so they focused their defense on the Shanxi and Henan lines.
In mid-September, Li Zicheng made specific defense arrangements for the Shanxi area: the Datong area in northern Shanxi was guarded by Zhang Tianlin, a general, and more than 10,000 soldiers; the Taiyuan area in central Shanxi was guarded by Li Yong, Wenshuibo, who led 10,000 soldiers; and the southeastern Shanxi area was guarded by Wenshui Bo Li Yong.
The Changzhi area was guarded by 8,000 soldiers and horses led by Pingnan Bo Liu Zhong.
When Li Zicheng left Taiyuan, he personally summoned Li Yong and taught him the strategy of strengthening the wall and clearing the country. In order to strengthen Shanxi's defense, he also left General Youying behind, and Mianhou Yuan Zongdi stationed tens of thousands of troops in Linfen.
In order to consolidate its control over Shanxi, Henan and other places, the Dashun regime also took measures to combat and prevent rebellions by bureaucrats and gentry in various places. This measure temporarily curbed the spread of rebellion and allowed Shanxi to be temporarily stabilized.
For the same purpose, the Dashun regime also took an important preventive measure. They ordered the former Ming Dynasty officials and gentry in Shanxi and other places to be forcibly relocated to various places in Shaanxi for resettlement. The purpose of this large-scale migration of former Ming Dynasty officials and gentry was,
The purpose is to make these local snakes leave their hometowns so that they can no longer exert their energy.
But no matter what, these mere troops could not withstand Xue Yong's 80,000-strong Western Expeditionary Army. After entering Shanxi, the Western Expeditionary Army did not encounter any decent battles at all. Instead, the Dashun Army and the local rebel troops fought one after another.
The surrender and submission allowed the Western Expeditionary Army to completely occupy the entire Shanxi Province within a month. The number of troops also jumped to more than 170,000.
During the withdrawal to the west, Li Zicheng did not leave as many main troops in Shanxi as possible, nor did he appoint a senior general to coordinate Shanxi's defense. After returning to Xi'an, he failed to mobilize troops from Shaanxi in time to strengthen Shanxi's garrison.
This was definitely a serious strategic mistake. It can be seen that the Yutian defeat seemed to have wiped out Li Zicheng's military talents.
Now that Li Zicheng has returned to Xijing (Xi'an), how did he arrange Shaanxi's defense? What kind of counterattack preparations did he make? (To be continued...)