When Shen Zhuang's army first launched its army, relying on the extensive connections of the gentry's disciples in the counties of Huangzhou Prefecture, it was almost invincible and invincible. Within ten days, it swept through the four counties of Huang'an, Macheng, Luotian, and Huangpi, and laid siege to Huangpi. In the capital city of the prefecture, there were tens of thousands of soldiers, including 5,000 spears, 3,000 bows, 2,000 blunderbuss, large and small general cannons, and hundreds of prisoner-killing cannons. The strength of the army shocked the whole Chu.
In addition to the children of the Mei family, there were also gentry leaders such as Luotian Juren Wang Ding, Huanggang Zhusheng Yi Daoxian and other gentry leaders who participated in the raising of troops. Seventy-eight out of ten children of Huangma Qingjin participated in this matter. The families and in-law relationships behind them are complicated. Even Song Yihe did not dare to rush in and kill them all.
However, Shenzhuang's army was not composed of landless peasants, and there was no fundamental contradiction that could not be resolved between its core leaders and the imperial court and the government.
Just as the rebels were fiercely besieging Huanggang City, Song Yihe took note of this and sent Cao Yinchang, a famous Macheng scholar who had an old friendship with Mei Zhihuan, to persuade Shenzhuang's army to retreat.
Cao Yinchang once ranked first in Macheng's rural examination and had a high reputation in the local area. He was a man of poetry, wine and style, and he regarded himself as a chic and famous scholar. A superior officer once inspected his talent and asked about his criminal name, Qian Gu, etc. It was a simple question, but Cao Yinchang unexpectedly answered directly: "I am quite good at writing a few sentences, but writing books is not my specialty."
Such a literati, who did not even know how to calculate money and grain, became a famous gentry leader in the eastern Han Dynasty and gained great fame because of his poetry, wine, romantic style, and unrestrained celebrity style.
Yangming School originally advocated the "unity of knowledge and action" and broke away the superstition of Confucian classics. However, in the late Ming Dynasty, it became an excuse for some scholars to indulge in debauchery, abandon reality and focus on emptiness.
Cao Yinchang, who is ignorant of Qiangu, is such a representative figure.
He went to Shenzhuang's army in an attempt to persuade the insurgents to retreat by relying on his old friendship with Mei Zhihuan and other Macheng gentry leaders. However, the people in charge of military affairs at this time were ordinary young men headed by Mei Zhihuan's nephew Mei Zengzhi. He did not take Cao Yinchang, a famous person, into consideration, but wanted to kill him to sacrifice the flag.
But what's even more funny is that the hasty behavior of the young men of the Mei family actually aroused conflicts and divisions within the Shenzhuang army. Many jute gentry who were old acquaintances with Cao Yinchang did not intend to do things like this. Jue, although they raised troops together with the Mei family, their purpose was only to "drive out the bird officials" and to drive away Song Yihe. They had no confidence in confronting the imperial court.
These people all believed that if Cao Yinchang was executed, the raising of troops would really become an act of rebellion, and there would be no possibility of turning things around, so they led their troops to rescue Cao Yinchang.
After that, some of them surrendered directly to the army near Huanggang and accepted Song Yihe's recruitment; some of them withdrew without authorization and fled all the way back to Huangma; and some simply suddenly attacked their friendly forces near Tuanfeng Town to assist the army. Lift the siege of Huanggang.
This allowed Song Yihe to show his prowess in the Battle of Tuanfeng Town, commanding thousands of soldiers to defeat Shenzhuang's army, which included tens of thousands of followers.
After that, the governor of the Song Dynasty was busy writing Feijie Lubu in Huanggang, and did not immediately pursue the defeated remnants of Shenzhuang Army. However, under the pressure of the government and army, many gentry leaders still offered their cities to surrender one after another, including Huangpi and Luotian. In this way, the two counties were returned to the hands of the army.
Cao Yinchang, a famous man from Macheng who luckily escaped with his life, temporarily took refuge in Song Yihe's military camp. He hated Mei Zengzhi's attempt to kill him.
After the Battle of Tuanfeng Town proved the effectiveness of the recruitment policy, Song Yihe originally had no intention of consuming his precious Fubiao troops and continued to fight hard with Shen Zhuang's army in the Juma area where the Mei family's influence was deeply entangled.
However, Cao Yinchang urged him to say that the Mei clan had many followers and rich family assets. If they could not be eradicated in one fell swoop, then the soldiers in Fubiao would not be able to receive adequate rewards, and there would be resentment towards Futai, and the remaining members of the Mei clan would also hold grudges. .
If this continues, it won’t be surprising if something goes wrong!
After Cao Yinchang's repeated admonitions, Song Yihe relaxed his attitude. Master Futai first sent Cao Yinchang to write a letter of appeasement, saying: "Your sins are no longer physical. Now you can only restrain yourself to show your integrity to Song Gong. Fortunately, he will not be executed. He should lead his disciples to move to the north of Han Dynasty and suppress the bandits to redeem themselves. However, if we must do it today, it will be useless to delay."
The conditions of this letter of recruitment seemed very generous on the surface. The Shenzhuang Army who had retreated to Huang'an and Macheng was naturally very interested in it. Mei Zengzhi, who was temporarily the leader of the Shenzhuang Army at this time, wrote back to Song Yihe, saying: "Gou In the Ming Dynasty, Shen Zhuang's army provoked rebellion and could be used for the country, so he had no regrets even if he died."
It seemed that Shen Zhuang's army was willing to accept Song Yihe's terms of recruitment, and would then perform meritorious service and help him suppress the bandits and redeem himself. However, Song Yihe immediately ordered Cao Yinchang to send a new recruitment letter, claiming: "If the result is a sincere payment, the camp will be destroyed." , gathered weapons and weapons, dispersed all the disciples, and brought two hundred men to surrender, hoping they would not die."
This approach is tantamount to asking Shen Zhuang's army to cut off its arms, disperse its troops, and finally be reduced to a situation where Song Yihe can slaughter him at will.
Therefore, Mei Zengzhi and others refused to accept the terms of recruitment, but then Song Yihe sent someone to send more than 3,000 death-free jute cards, and hinted that Mei Zengzhi allowed him to retain 3,000 elite soldiers to protect himself.
At this time, even though Mei Zengzhi himself was deeply suspicious of Song Yihe's intentions, other gentry leaders in Shenzhuang's army who had not yet surrendered felt that such conditions were already extremely lenient.
Especially considering that the Shenzhuang Army is currently internally unstable, with different opinions from all sides, and the morale of the army is in chaos, there is little hope of continuing to fight against the government and the army. It is really better to simply accept Song Yihe's terms of recruitment!
Mei Zengzhi felt helpless and had to agree to the request of other gentry to disband his followers. Within a few days, he dismissed nearly 20,000 followers. However, Mei Zengzhi was a bit cautious. He was worried that Song Yihe would take advantage of the situation. When Zhuang Jun himself demobilized his troops, he launched a surprise attack and gave priority to demobilizing the villagers with weak combat effectiveness, while retaining the veterans who had been trained and fought in battle formations.
Sure enough, when Cao Yinchang brought the news to Huanggang that Shen Zhuang's army had demobilized 20,000 troops, Song Yihe, who was greatly confident, immediately gave up his plan to recruit.
After all, if all these gentry were really recruited, it would be inconvenient for the officers and soldiers to carry out large-scale looting, and it would be difficult for Song Yihe himself to seize the remaining property of the Mei family.
If we could identify them as the rebels who are stubbornly resisting and cause chaos, wipe them all out, and wipe out their entire family, things would be much easier to handle!
Song Yihe did not wait for Mei Zengzhi to further demobilize his troops, and immediately ordered the troops in Fubiao, led by the surrendered gentry, to rush towards Juma at full speed, setting fire to people's houses along the way, killing people for dozens of miles, and also destroying the famous industrial and commercial town of Juma. Tan Town and Elong Town were both razed to the ground.
When the army attacked Huang'an City, Mei Zengzhi and others suddenly realized that they fully understood Song Yihe's sinister intentions. Those jute gentry who wanted to accept the court's favor also felt that they had been deceived and cursed Song Yihe. He was a "bird-hearted official with a wolf's heart and a dog's lungs", and a "corrupt official who pretended to surrender and cheated and killed". He had to completely give up the plan of making peace with the government and the army, and could only fully support Mei Zengzhi in using troops to fight the enemy.
But at this time, the two county towns of Huang'an and Macheng were surrounded. In addition to the 3,000 elite Fubiao soldiers led by Song Yihe, the official army also transferred five separate garrison troops from Xiangyang, Yunyang, Hanyang, Jingzhou and other state capitals. More than a thousand people.
Song Yihe still felt that this was not enough, so he seconded two thousand powerful chieftain soldiers from Shizhou Guard.
In addition to these regular soldiers of the official army, there are more than 4,000 regiments who originally belonged to Shenzhuang's army but were recruited by Song Yihe and Cao Yinchang.
Calculated in this way, Song Yihe mobilized 15,000 men to besiege the two county towns of Huang'an and Macheng.
On the Shenzhuang Army's side, after the failure in the attack on Huanggang, the morale of the army collapsed and morale was low. After returning to Huangma, they were deceived by Song Yihe's "caress, deception, and killing" strategy, and he dismissed nearly 20,000 villagers who had been held hostage.
In Huang'an County, Shenzhuang's army only has 1,500 troops. Macheng is the hometown of the Mei family, so the situation is slightly better, but there are only more than 4,000 people left.
Mei Zengzhi, who had a burnt head and forehead, lived and ate on the wall of Macheng day and night. He was under thirty years old and had many achievements in his life. Even when he was busy with military affairs, he wore a brocade-patterned square scarf on his head and was dressed in luxurious clothes. silk robe.
If Song Yihe hadn't pushed too hard, a disciple of a famous family like Mei Zengzhi would have become the local pillar of the imperial court. How could he have expected the current situation?