In just four or five days, Sun Chuanting had experienced black eyes twice.
He sent Bai Guangen to lead a town of troops and horses to feint to Ruzhou, and after transferring Li Zicheng's main force, he launched a large-scale attack on Luoyang. Although everything went smoothly during the attack, the generals reported the results of the siege and casualties one by one in public.
At that time, Sun Chuanting understood as soon as he heard that he had not injured the backbone of the "thief army".
So since Li Zicheng didn't lose any backbone, why did he retreat again and again in Luoyang? Is it because all his old troops were transferred to Ruzhou? Where are they going to retreat to? What do they want to do?
In view of the lesson learned from the Qin army's reckless advance in the last Battle of Shiyuan, Sun Chuanting paid great attention to the safety of the grain road when he left Tongguan this time. Whether from Lingbao to Luoyang or from Luoyang to Ruzhou, he paid close attention to the movements of the invading army.
, especially when it comes to the intruding troops from the direction of Ruzhou, we must be extremely careful to prevent them from getting behind the officers and soldiers while running.
On the way from Lingbao to Xin'an, he did not forget to tell his subordinates to pay attention to what was going on around them. However, Li Guo disguised himself as the Qin army and burned down the grain ships, and Li Shuangxi and Dang Shou Sudu led their Qingqi to forcibly penetrate the Qin army's rear.
Both things were beyond Sun Chuanting's expectation, and he couldn't help but feel his eyes darken.
With many years of war experience, he was keenly aware at the first moment that he might have fallen into the trap of the "thief army". Obviously Li Zicheng was not mobilized by the unexpected troops in Yunyang and Ruzhou. He still maintained a strong position in Luoyang
The heavy-armed group only deliberately showed Sun Chuanting's weak side and lured him into advancing into Heluo.
Now that the "thief army" suddenly cut off the Qin soldiers' food routes from both land and water, such a large-scale counterattack and encirclement and annihilation operations would definitely come immediately.
Sun Chuanting was deeply surprised by the clandestineness and speed of the bandits' actions. However, the generals were talking a lot, arguing over who would lead the troops back to Guanzhong first, blaming each other, and none of them knew that the disaster was coming.
Zheng Jiadong even asked Sun Chuanting: "Sir, should our army return to Mianchidu to rest first, and then send a team of troops to exterminate the thieves who robbed the grain?"
He had no idea how bad the situation had deteriorated!
Sun Chuanting has experienced hundreds of battles on the battlefield and is not afraid of death. What's more, his old superior Hong Chengchou surrendered to the Qing army after the Battle of Songjin, which insulted the national character and gave Sun Chuanting a strong sense of mission:
He knew that this departure was not only related to his own immortality, but also related to the survival of the Ming Dynasty.
It was also driven by this sense of mission that Sun Chuanting carried out the atrocities of searching and killing in Xin'an City and joining the city to purge. In order to save a dynasty that was about to be destroyed, Sun Chuanting was step by step on the path that Zeng Guofan later became.
The kind of path traveled.
But when the Qin army was in deep crisis of destruction, Sun Chuanting couldn't help but have thoughts of regret. He thought of the memorial document he submitted to Chongzhen when he was in Lingbao, thought of his shameless words in the memorial, and thought of Emperor Chongzhen
After reading the memorial, I felt extremely embarrassed and regretful, thinking about the high hopes that the government and the public had placed on him. Unknowingly, cold sweat broke out on my face.
Sweat flowed down his face and into his neck, and some of it dripped to the ground. But Sun Chuanting didn't notice it at all. His mind was completely focused on the battlefield, thinking hard about the Liu thief's next move.
But Sun Chuanting thought about it again and again, but before he could think of a way to break the situation, Li Zicheng's big counterattack arrived. All he could do was to arrange a formation and try his best to resist, but the official and civilian troops collapsed first, and then Wang Ding and others also followed suit.
He was killed by the bandits. If Gao Jie had not protected Sun Chuanting and rushed towards the Yellow River, the Qin army would have been annihilated in Xin'an.
The ending of the Battle of Xin'an was a nightmare for Sun Chuanting, Gao Jie, and all the generals of the Qin Army, a nightmare from which they could not wake up.
During the two days and one night when he was chased by Li Zicheng, Sun Chuanting was completely in a trance. His beautiful five-tufted beard, which originally had only a small amount of white hair mixed in, was now completely gray. There was no smile on his face again. In Su Chang
Melancholy and sadness were added to the severe look.
He woke up from his dream on the Yellow River ferry, wiped the cold sweat on his forehead with his sleeve, and then started to tell Gao Jie about a strange dream he had.
In the dream, Sun Chuanting felt as if he was floating in the air. Below was a dimly lit room. There was a round sand table on the table in the middle of the room, and several scholar-looking people were holding squirrels there.
But I saw one person using a ruler to smooth the sand first, and the other two gently held up the ji pen from both ends. Then another person bowed in the air and said: "So-and-so respectfully asks the immortal to give you a poem."
Sun Chuanting suddenly realized that he was the jixian invited by such a scholar today, so he recited silently in the air. The ji pen quickly wrote words on the sand slowly and quickly.
What he composed was a song with seven rhymes:
A generation of heroes passed away, holding the Luyang Ge in their arms. There are strategies in the temples and military books are urgent, and the world is merciless and there are many bones in the war. Therefore, the spring brings new vegetation, and the wandering soul sees the old mountains and rivers at night. The son of a good family in the ten counties of Chen Tao, Du Lao is sour.
What does it mean?
Every time the random brush drew a word on the sand, someone immediately copied it on the paper with a brush. After copying, the person who bowed to the sky bowed to the sky again and said, "May I ask the name of the Great Immortal?"
So Sun Chuanting said four more words in his dream, which were immediately displayed on the sand table: "Pu Gu Huai En". At this time, the people below were heard talking about it.
"Oh, Pugu is so grateful. Didn't Sun Gong Baigu come down to the altar?"
"What a strange thing, what a strange thing. This poem is based on Fang's defeat of Chen Taoxie in the battle of Zibi Xin'an. We are obviously looking for Baigu Sun Gong to surrender to the altar. How come Pugu Huaien is here?"
"Yes, the son of a good family in the ten counties of Chen Tao, what does Du Lao mean when he chants it sourly? The word "the son of a good family in the ten counties of Chen Tao" in this poem is replaced by Lao Du's "Meng Meng"
The son of a good family in Dongshi County, his blood was transformed into Chen Tao Ze's water. This matter has nothing to do with Pugu Huai'en."
Sun Chuanting recounted the scenes he saw in his dream to Gao Jie one by one. Gao Jie was also puzzled. After they crossed the river and arrived at Huaiqing Mansion, Sun Chuanting managed to collect more than 30,000 pieces. Soon he heard about Bai Guang
En and others withdrew more than 10,000 remnants of the Qin army from the western route to Guanzhong, only to feel that the situation was not completely hopeless.
But at this time, Sun Chuanting did not wait for him to calm down, reorganize his troops and horses, and the Huaiqing Mansion issued an alarm. The Donglu who were originally raging in the Zhilu area were divided into two groups after the Battle of Dangshan. One of them was led by Governor Turge.
For some reason, the army and horses did not immediately follow Abatena all the way to the north of the Qing army, but stayed near the Yellow River, threatening Huaiqing and making the governor of the Ming Dynasty nervous.
Therefore, although Emperor Chongzhen knew the news of Sun Chuanting's defeat, it was not convenient to immediately arrest him and bring him back to the capital. Instead, he needed Governor Sun Chuanting to lead an army of more than 30,000 people to stabilize the Eastern captives first to prevent Zhili from being completely corrupted.
.
Gao Jie had never fought against the Qing army, so he couldn't help but ask: "I always hear adults say that Luqi is powerful, what is the most powerful method?"
Sun Chuanting had recovered from the shock of the strange dream. He looked at Gao Jie and said in a self-deprecating tone:
"Let me tell you a story. In the spring of the twelfth year, our army and the captives met by a river. When the soldiers saw that there was a river across the river, they became bold and pointed at the captives and cursed them, telling them what to do with their wives and daughters.
Unexpectedly, the captives laughed when they heard this, and brought out a large group of women from the rear army. They were all captured in Jifu, Shandong, and said, "Your wives and daughters are all here, and you still want to deal with other people's wives."
female?'"
Gao Jie couldn't help but cursed: "Damn it! These Tatars are really damned!"
"What you can't even imagine is that as they were talking, hundreds of people came to the water on horseback and wielded swords. The thousands of soldiers on our side didn't even shoot arrows, but turned around and ran away, trampling on each other. I couldn't stop them no matter what.
I couldn't help it. Three thousand soldiers and horses were actually scared back by 700 captive cavalry. This was really a shame and humiliation. It makes me feel ashamed when I think about it now. And this also shows that the morale of our army at that time had been completely overwhelmed by the momentum of the captive cavalry.
Where can a thief with this kind of momentum come from?"
"The bandits mainly rely on large numbers of people, many of whom are hungry people who are forced to make a living and become thieves without training. In terms of fighting, they are incomparable to the Donglu. Although Li Zicheng is more powerful than ordinary bandits, he can
If the imperial court gives me time and allows me to train 20,000 elite soldiers, I can easily eliminate Li Chuang."
Sun Chuanting's words were categorical, but Gao Jie had a lot of objections. He was once a general of Li Zicheng, and he knew that Li Zicheng's subordinates in the early years were indeed like Sun Chuanting said. The troops were mixed, and their combat effectiveness was very problematic.
However, since Li Zicheng returned to Shangluo, the style of the Chuang army has completely changed. Especially this time in the Battle of Xin'an, the Chuang army was still ahead of the Qin army in terms of marching speed and stealth. Sun Chuanting personally experienced the Chuang army.
After being so powerful, you still hold this old view that has been outdated for many years. How can you remain undefeated?
In fact, Sun Chuanting himself didn't know that the Chuang Army was no longer the same old army seven or eight years ago?
He had an ambivalent attitude towards the military "suppression of thieves".
On the one hand, the disastrous defeat of the Battle of Xin'an still lingered in Sun Chuanting's mind, especially the pursuit of the invading army during the defeat, and the three walls of cavalry chasing the mountains and plains along the Yellow River. This scene always lingered in front of Sun Chuanting's eyes, and it also led to
He had many nightmares.
But on the other hand, due to his impressive record of defeating the Chuang Army in the past, Sun Chuanting was still full of contempt for Li Zicheng. After his defeat in the Battle of Xin'an, in order to maintain his confidence, he could only defeat the Chuang Army and the Qing Army.
The practice of comparison increases contempt for the former.
This is probably because Sun Chuanting still didn't know that Li Laiheng defeated the Eight Banners Army in the Battle of Dangshan.
Thinking of the Qing army, Sun Chuanting's gray eyes did not add to his despair, but unexpectedly flashed with light. He suddenly stood up excitedly, his movements were too fast, and he even knocked over a small table.
Gao Jie couldn't help but be surprised: "Sir! What happened?"
Sun Chuanting held Gao Jie's hand and suddenly said: "If we want to revive the Ming Dynasty, we need Guo Fenyang and Pugu Huaien!"