The Manchurian Soldiers Expo held every five days in Jinan City was an eye-opener for the local tycoons and local village leaders who came to Jinan from the Jiaodong Peninsula to accept official posts in the army.
It turns out that the Manchu soldiers in the legend "people are like tigers, horses are like dragons, they can climb mountains like apes, descend like rivers, they are as powerful as Mount Tai, and China is like a tired egg". The so-called legend that "there are less than ten thousand Jurchens, they are invincible" is just false.
In the propaganda of the Chuang Army, the Manchurian soldiers were not particularly difficult enemies for the Chuang Army. Of course, Li Laiheng would not tell the Shandong rich people about the dangers and difficulties of the Battle of Dangshan.
During the "Exposition of Manchurian Soldiers", it was quietly hinted that the strength of the Chuang army was far superior to that of the Qing army, which had a subtle influence on the military, civilians, officials and gentry of Shandong.
Because Denglai was still in the hands of the Ming army, there were still many officials and gentry in the Jiaodong Peninsula who organized groups to defend themselves against the intruders. Li Laiheng considered that he was also responsible for heading north to Hejian Prefecture and Baoding Prefecture to join Li Zicheng's middle army.
There was no time or troops to stay in Jiaodong to carry out thorough mopping up and pacification work.
Therefore, we adopted the method of appointing official officials and letting heroes return to their hometowns to stabilize Jiaodong.
In addition to some elite soldiers of the Jiaodong Rebel Army who directly joined the Northern Expedition of the Chuang Army, there were also many local village leaders such as Ma Yingzhi. Their soldiers and horses were replaced with weapons and armor stocked by the Ming Army in Jinan, and were later
Li Laiheng inserted some senior officers of the army into the army, and after conducting certain tactical training, they were released to the Jiaodong Peninsula.
Their task was to return to the countryside, contact the local villages, and recruit volunteers. On the one hand, they would attack the armed gentry who tended to the imperial court, and on the other hand, they would strive to control other prefectures, counties and villages except for the two larger cities of Dengzhou and Laizhou.
To this end, Li Laiheng adopted the method he had used when he first arrived in Suizhou, and widely distributed the titles of You Yi Envoy and Recruitment Envoy.
It's just that the current Youyi envoy is not like the one in Suizhou. You only need to bring three or two people to vote, and at least you need to have more than a hundred people. The requirements for recruiting an envoy are higher, and you need to lead the army.
Only when more than a thousand people come to join the Chuang army can they obtain it.
Under such a policy, the Jiaodong Peninsula was turbulent for a while, and the Denglai defense was unable to suppress it. It could only protect itself in the four cities of Dengzhou, Laizhou, Ninghai Prefecture, and Wendeng County. Outside the four cities, most areas were supported by the invaders.
The military occupied the place with armed force.
These local armed forces are familiar with the local conditions, and most of them are deep-rooted local snakes. In Li Laiheng's arrangement, returning heroes who supported the rebel army to their hometowns to organize and lead local anti-riot rebels was also a way to deal with the Qing army's southward march in the future.
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Of course... the best situation is to defend the enemy at Shanhaiguan, defend the enemy at Juyongguan, or at least defend the enemy at Datong, Taiyuan, and Baoding.
He believed that as long as the Qing army could withstand the first wave of offensive, the offensive and defensive situation between the enemy and ourselves would slowly reverse. Due to the nature and national characteristics of the Qing army as a minority bandit group, the Qing army would definitely be better than the rest in terms of restoring strength and growing strength.
Not as good as Chuang Jun who is slowly maturing.
Time is on our side.
On the New Year's Eve of the 16th year of Chongzhen, Li Laiheng spent it in the Xie Mansion in Dezhou. Xie Sheng, the outgoing bachelor, seemed to have fully accepted the rule of the Chuang Army in Shandong. He expressed his "wiseness" to his nephew Xie Zheng's early joining of the Chuang Army.
He praised him greatly. Xie Sheng's younger brother Xie Bi was also temporarily appointed as the prefect of Linqing Prefecture by Li Laiheng because of his action in seizing and presenting the city gate in Jinan City.
Li Laiheng was full of confidence. Next, the Chuang Army would spend a period of time marching westward to help Luo Rucai pacify Guanzhong. After that, Li Zicheng would most likely have to return to his hometown in Yan'an to worship his ancestors and repair tombs. These things would take a lot of time. During this period,
Here, the Chuang Army's rule over the two solid base areas of Henan and Huguang will be further deepened.
As for Shanxi and Shandong, Li Laiheng estimates that the depth of rule and the stability of the rule of the Chuang Army in these places will be much better than in history. The time for the Chuang Army to control Shaanxi may be slightly delayed, but Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia are both in a great state.
In the rear, as long as Guanhe is consolidated and the danger of mountains and rivers is ensured, it will be difficult for the Qing army to penetrate deep into the northwest.
No Qing army invaded Guanzhong. Judging from the historical situation, most of the Chu army and Yuan Cong were from Shaanxi. The officials, gentry, soldiers and people of Shaanxi were more accepting of them, and the rebellion was much less than that of Jin, Yan and other places. Even
Even those generals of the Qin army who always stayed on the fence were much more loyal to the invading army than the generals of the border army who were ignorant and mediocre.
The situation is not a little good, but a great one.
But the news coming from Taiyuan at this time surprised Li Laiheng.
Song Xiance and Liu Rukui actually wanted to visit Li Laiheng in Dezhou in person!
Needless to say, Song Xiance was also an old acquaintance of Li Laiheng. Liu Rukui was Liu Fangliang's deputy, nicknamed "Soap Eagle". He was a brave and black-faced general who had fought alongside Li Laiheng before.
At this critical moment when the storm was raging north of the Yellow River, Li Zicheng suddenly sent one of the most important military advisors of the Chuang Army and Liu Fangliang, an important general of the army, to Dezhou. It could be said that he did not ignore Li Laiheng's status.
Moreover, Song Xiance and Liu Rukui did not come here alone, but led thousands of elite soldiers from the Breakthrough Army, as well as thousands of newly recruited officers and soldiers to surrender.
At present, the Ming and Qing armies still have 30,000 to 40,000 elite troops gathered in the Gyeonggi area, and the military situation in the Xuanfu and Baoding areas is still very tense. How could Li Zicheng divide Liu Fangliang's left camp troops into one at such a critical juncture?
To Texas?
Li Laiheng's march in Shandong went very smoothly, and he always reported to Li Zicheng's camp like this!
Li Laiheng felt uneasy. Is this Niu Jinxing's arrangement? No, at such a critical moment, such an unexpected move must have been fully affirmed and approved by Li Zicheng before it could be implemented.
What did the Generalissimo do?
This time Li Laiheng was not as hesitant as he was when he met Li Guo in Suizhou last time. Shandong was not Huguang, so he had no other options to consider. After a brief discussion with Fang Yiren and Gu Junen, Li Laiheng decided to leave the city for twenty miles and take the initiative.
Welcome the arrival of the central envoy.
Gu Junen was half-convinced and said: "The envoy's achievements in pacifying Shandong in ten months are unparalleled. Compared with Luo Rucai who was unable to defeat Guanzhong in two months, isn't it a hundred times better? The generalissimo will not be disadvantageous to the envoy at this time.
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Fang Yiren was more confident: "Judging from what the Palace Master saw in Kaifeng, the party of Niu Jinxing, Tian Jianxiu, and Li Shuangxi has become a dominant force. The Niu Party already has a central leader.
, there are also generals in the Chinese army, as well as local princes. How does this kind of power compare to Suizhou?"
Li Laiheng was silent, but Gu Junen replied: "The scale of Suizhou's system is huge. It can gather 70,000 or 80,000 troops in a short time. If necessary, it is not difficult to form an army of 100,000 immediately as long as the people's strength is not cared for. The Niu Party can't compare with these few people.
, how to compare with Suizhou?"
"Yes, you are right. But neither the general marshal nor Qi Weng really understands and understands the grand scale of the Suizhou system. In their view, after the division of the three towns, the status of the palace lord is at most the same as
Liu Fangliang, Yuan Zongdi and other barbarians are not as good as supplementary commanders, how can they go to Bitian to show off?"
"you mean?"
"Song's military advisor and General Li came here, and what they did may have something to do with the Niu Party."
Fang Yiren's inference gave Li Laiheng a lot of confidence. Song Xiance and Liu Rukui led the Zuoying Xiaoqi of the invading army and nearly 10,000 newly surrendered Ming troops to the vicinity of Dezhou. Li Laiheng only led a thousand cavalry out of the city to meet them twenty miles away.
If Song Xiance's arrival is really related to the great power of the Niu Party, then it seems that Song Xiance is a figure that Li Laiheng can win over.
The outcome of the matter was half within Fang Yiren's prediction and half beyond everyone's expectations. But at least, the seizure of power by military symbols that Li Laiheng had to worry about every time he communicated with the center of the Chu army did not happen.
The news brought by Song Xiance was that Generalissimo Yu proclaimed himself king in Taiyuan on the first day of the first month of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen.
"From now on, everyone will call the generalissimo His Highness the King of Tang. In addition to proclaiming himself king, the King of Tang also announced that from this year onwards we will no longer use the Chongzhen reign title, but will use the Tang Yuan year title instead."
Song Xiance still had a dark face, with slanted eyes and a crooked nose. But what surprised Li Laiheng was the news that Li Zicheng had proclaimed himself king in Taiyuan. Did the generalissimo actually use the title of King of Tang?
There is nothing strange about abandoning the Chongzhen reign title. Historically, Zhu Yuanzhang also called himself King of Wu before proclaiming himself emperor. He abandoned the Zhizheng reign title of the Yuan Dynasty and briefly used the Wu Yuannian title for a year before officially proclaiming himself emperor.
There is a saying in history that before Li Zicheng invaded Xi'an, he first called himself "King Xinshun" in Xiangyang. Some people used this strange king's title to ridicule the invading army for being uneducated and not understanding the general rules of calling kings and kings.
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Not to mention whether there is such an unspoken rule that the leader of an army should be the king instead of the emperor, there is also the special meaning of the title "Shun" in the late Ming Dynasty due to the legend that Liu Bowen once said a prophecy that "when encountering smoothness, stop"
(Li Zicheng's country name was Dashun, the Qing court's reign was Shunzhi, and Zhang Xianzhong's reign was Dashun, all of which come from Liu Bowen's prophecy legend of "stop when things go well").
The term "Xinshun King" itself is wrong and does not exist.
There are many reliable records that show that Li Zicheng invaded Xi'an under the title of "Generalissimo Fengtian Advocating Civil and Military Affairs", and he directly proclaimed himself emperor in Xi'an. There was no one who first changed his title from Generalissimo to King Xinshun, and then to King Xinshun.
The process of the emperor. The so-called "New Shun King" is just a misinformation that goes against the basic historical facts.
Historically, Li Zicheng did not go through a process of proclaiming himself king. Instead, he was directly proclaimed emperor in Xi'an by the generalissimo. When he led his troops to the city of Beijing, he was already the emperor of Dashun Yongchang, and he would never be able to do anything with Chongzhen again.
The so-called kingship and separatist deal in the northwest.
As for why such anecdotes were spread later, in fact, just like the so-called last words of Zhang Xianzhong, "You are eager to return to the Ming Dynasty, do not do any injustice." This is probably the result of the intruders such as the Zhongzhen Camp-Kuidong Thirteenth Family who later formed an alliance with Nanming.
Political rumors created by Yu Bu.
Its purpose is undoubtedly to reduce the historical issues between the Chuang Army and Nanming. Since Li Zicheng conquered Beijing because Chongzhen was unwilling to accept the Chuang Army's initiative to seek peace, then Nanming should learn a lesson and accept the cooperation and alliance of the Loyalty Battalion.