Zhou Yanru's death was just an insignificant episode in the Ming Dynasty's alliance with the bandits to suppress the bandits.
In addition to Zhou Yanru, there were many courtiers who were dissatisfied with the policy of uniting the captives. But after Zhou Yanru was "committed" to commit suicide, everyone understood that this time was no better than before, and the emperor was determined. What's more, even if Emperor Chongzhen could
Fool, is Chen Xinjia, who holds power by relying on the alliance, a figure that can be fooled by the court officials?
There was silence in the capital city.
The citizens living in the suburbs of Beijing all closed their doors tightly. The imperial army would pass through this area. Everyone was afraid that the arrogant soldiers of Guan Ning's army would rebel illegally and plunder their property.
However, there were a few people who were very curious and still ran to the roadside to watch the formation of the Ming army marching south.
"That's... Luqi!?"
People were not surprised by the Mongolian soldiers mixed in the ranks of the Ming Dynasty official army. The border army generals originally liked to raise Mongolian Yiding cavalry. But now there are not only a small number of Mongolian soldiers mixed in, but another group with Qing troops.
The army of captive cavalrymen with military flags was marching side by side with the Ming army!
The helmets of the Ming army and the pointed cloth armors of the Manchus were mixed together. The flags of the Ming Dynasty and the flags of the slaves were flying in the same color. The hairnets representing civilization and the braids symbolizing barbarism complement each other.
What a ridiculous scene is this?
Wherever the coalition troops passed, many people thought that the Qing army was coming to rob Jifu again. Because they knew that there were officers and soldiers in the Ming army like Kong Youde who surrendered to the Donglu, so they saw a large group of Ming troops marching with the Luqi.
At that time, they mistakenly thought it was the traitor army of King Sanshun.
Wherever the coalition forces went, there was a lot of chaos, and there were even a few upright officials and gentry who organized local people to harass the coalition forces, causing a misunderstanding that floods destroyed the Dragon King Temple.
Chen Xinjia, who was in charge of the coalition affairs, had no choice but to ask the Qing army to change the flag of the Ming army and try to reduce marching and external activities during the day. All payment matters were handed over to Ming officials to avoid surprising the soldiers and the people.
The commander-in-chief of the Qing army near Gyeonggi Province is still Duoluo Yubeile Abatai. He is not a politically sensitive person. However, Fan Wencheng and Hong Chengchou, who have been sent to other armies by Huang Taiji, are very concerned about the mental state of Ming Dynasty officials.
Have a very deep grasp.
Although Abatai had deep hostility towards Hong Chengchou because of the Battle of Dangshan. However, now that the Ming and Qing coalition forces, Hong Chengchou, as the figure who best understood the Ming Dynasty in the Qing army, was once again put in high regard by the Great Khan. Abatai
There is nothing that can be done about Hong Chengchou for the time being.
At Hong Chengchou's suggestion, the Qing army took the initiative to make substantial compromises during the coalition negotiations, and agreed to Chen Xinjia's various requests for the Qing army to restrain military discipline, change the flag of the Ming army, and not to collect food on their own.
The high degree of goodwill proactively expressed by the Qing army made Chongzhen and Chen Xinjia overjoyed.
Chen Xinjia finally felt relieved and said calmly to Chen Yan, who succeeded Zhou Yanru as the chief assistant: "Rongdi and Rongdi are all people with no other intentions. As long as we provide good military supplies, the Qing soldiers will naturally wipe out the rebels for me."
Chen Yan knew that although he was the chief minister, the real power of the court was now completely in the hands of Chen Xinjia, who was presiding over the coalition peace talks, so he immediately complimented:
"The strategy of borrowing troops to assist in the suppression has been around since ancient times. However, Guo Fenyang borrowed the Uighur soldiers, which inevitably led to the devastation of Chang'an and Luoyang. Da Sima borrowed the troops to assist in the suppression, paid the soldiers, and recruited his troops to suppress the intruders, such as
The use of arms and fingers is beyond the reach of Guo Fenyang."
Guang Shiheng also patted the horse and said:
"The people of the Tang Dynasty made an agreement with the Uighurs. On the day they captured the city, the land, the common people and the common people returned to the Tang Dynasty, the gold and silk, and the children all returned to the Uighurs. And my Great Sima, who controlled the Qing troops, was able to change the banner of the Ming Dynasty and regulate the military discipline, all at the cost of military pay. In fact,
It is only in the name of borrowing the teacher's help in the suppression, but there is no actual borrowing from the teacher. Looking at the inner meaning, it is no different from the old system of Taizu and Chengzu Duoyan's three guards. The Qing soldiers not only eat my pay, but also use my banner, and they are at my command and dispatch.
What’s the difference between the imperial court’s military and military disciplines?”
Chen Xinjia stroked his beard and smiled and said: "The captives are strong in nature and lack their intestines. The Tang people used deceit to drive the Uighurs. After all, they did not have the majesty of the Celestial Empire. If during the Qianfu period, the Tang people befriended Li Keyong with loyalty and showed sincerity, but Keyong actually became
The Tang Dynasty revived. The Qing soldiers were not the Uighurs who suppressed the dynasty. They only need our kindness and friendship. If Hong Taihan is born, he will naturally be regarded as Li Keyong in this world."
Both Chen Yan and Guang Shiheng expressed their admiration for Chen Xinjia's strategy of befriending Qing soldiers with kindness. But Guang Shiheng himself murmured in his heart that the Shatuo Li family finally became emperor.
What's more, at the end of the Tang Dynasty, Zhu Wen destroyed Li Tang, and then the Zhu family of Liang was destroyed by Li Cunxu of the later Tang Dynasty... Will this prophecy of Zhu Li be fulfilled again today?
Guang Shiheng shook his head, not daring to think further.
Chen Xinjia handed the war documents sent from the front to Guang Shiheng and asked him to take them to the Ministry of War for discussion and prepare to raise another batch of pay to send to the front.
When Guang Shiheng saw the content of the salary request document, he secretly complained in his heart. The first batch of Dongshi's salary delivered to Abatai was already as high as one hundred thousand taels.
The people of the Qing Dynasty clearly agreed that from now on they would be paid on a monthly basis. Now that a battle has not been fought and it has not been completed for a month, why do they have to ask for pay again?
However, Guang Shiheng mistakenly blamed the Qing army. In fact, although Abatai was suggested by Fan Wencheng and Hong Chengchou to ask for more pay from the Ming Dynasty, he felt that now that he had not fought a single battle, he might ask for pay from the Ming Dynasty.
Destroying the relationship between the two parties will affect the overall situation of Huang Taiji.
The people who really demanded payment in the name of Dongshi were actually not Abatai, but Wu Sangui, Gao Di, and Li Fuming.
Due to the cutoff in water transportation, the pay and rations of Guan Ning's soldiers were reduced by more than half compared to before. Moreover, since Sun Chuanting led the Qin soldiers to withdraw near the capital, the imperial government's pay was given priority to the Qin soldiers, and the pay of the Liao soldiers was even less.
Later, Liu Zeqing, the commander-in-chief of Shandong Province, fled from Dongchang Prefecture in Shandong Province to Jifu and also took part of his salary.
Wu Sangui is the commander-in-chief of Ningyuan, Gao Di is the commander-in-chief of Shanhaiguan, and Li Fuming is also the commander-in-chief of Qiantun under the Guanning Army establishment. The three of them are representatives of the Liao army, so they naturally have to find a way out for the Liao army group.
Through the relationship between Zu Dashou, who had surrendered to the Qing army, Wu Sangui gradually became aware of the Qing army's true intentions. He knew that even if the Ming Dynasty court survived the invasion of the army, its future would be very slim, so he rose up now.
The idea of raising the bandits' self-respect and preserving their strength.
Not only did Wu Sangui go to Beijing to collect pay in the name of the Qing army, but after Ma Shiyao led the elite cavalry of the invading army to retreat to the south of Baigou River, he also delayed launching an attack. Instead, he waited for the armies to gather before slowly moving south.
His intention is naturally that he does not want to fight as a vanguard, consume too much capital, and undermine his future status.
It was not until Shanhaiguan Commander-in-Chief Gao Di, Qiantun Commander-in-Chief Li Fuming, Shandong Commander-in-Chief Liu Zeqing, and more than 10,000 Qing troops who were regarded as the absolute main force to turn things around by the Ming army arrived near the Baigou River that Wu Sangui finally had
planned to launch an attack.
However, Wu Sangui's procrastination gave Li Laiheng and Liu Fangliang sufficient free time to act. The Huguang invasion army had sophisticated equipment and strict discipline. It had already passed the proof of the Battle of Dangshan, and there is no need to elaborate further.
Although Liu Fangliang's Zuoying troops were not as powerful as the Zhongying troops personally commanded by Li Zicheng, they were the battle regiment with the largest number of war horses among the five battalions of the Breaking Army.
As early as the Shangluoshan period, Liu Fangliang was in charge of the only elite cavalry team in the Chuang camp. He was a famous general in the Chuang army who was best at commanding cavalry. As soon as he received Ma Shiyao's military information, he arranged it in an orderly manner.
After completing the defense of Baoding City, they rushed to Gucheng Town at lightning speed and stabilized the defense line of the invading army on the south bank of Baigou River.
When the Ming Army's Ningyuan Commander-in-Chief Wu Sangui, Qiantun Commander-in-Chief Li Fuming, and Shandong Commander-in-Chief Liu Zeqing gathered a total of about 30,000 elite troops, the Chuang Army had fully deployed its troops on the south bank of the Baigou River, forming a powerful defensive posture.
And when Wu Sangui's Abatai Army, a mixed force of about 15,000 Mongolian and Chinese troops, arrived together with Shanhaiguan Commander-in-Chief Gao Di, as a result of a severe drought, Li Laiheng also gathered all the troops except Shang in Boye County.
Except for the laggards Gu Junen and Li Shiwei, most of the Huguang troops were brought to the front line of the Baigouhe battlefield.
The Huguang Army under Li Laiheng included Hao Yaoqi, Zhang Pili, Ma Bao, Chen Yongfu and other elite soldiers, plus Liu Rukui, Zhang Hong, and Guo Sheng each with a force of about 30,000.
.
The Zuoying Breaking Army under Liu Fangliang was a force of 20,000 including a considerable number of cavalry.
On the north and south banks of the Baigou River, large armies gathered. The Ming and Qing Allied Forces and the Chuang Army each had about 50,000 troops, and a total of 100,000 troops were gathered on the battlefield.
And unlike most wars in the late Ming Dynasty, the total of 100,000 troops on both sides were all elite soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, the Chuang Army, and the Qing Army, and there was no trace of civilian auxiliary soldiers.
The former enemy general headquarters of the Chuang Army was located in Gucheng Town, and the most important garrison point of the army on the south bank of the Baigou River was Heyang Town on the river bank.
Li Laiheng arrived at the base camp of Gucheng Town a little later than Liu Fangliang. He saw that this small town was already covered with sentries from all directions. He saw the guards holding swords, guns, spears and halberds standing as if they were made of pig iron.
A strict and cold atmosphere formed on both sides of the military camp, and I admired Liu Fangliang's military management in my heart.
The impression Liu Fangliang has always left on Li Laiheng is that he is handsome, light and sharp. Although he is a high-ranking general, he gives people the impression of a lively young man. However, in the tense moment of an unprecedented battle, Liu Fangliang seemed unusually calm:
He has gone through hundreds of battles and suffered many blade wounds, gunshot wounds, arrow wounds, sprains, and falls. None of these wounds could damage the sharp vitality in Liu Fangliang's body. Instead, they made him appear stronger and stronger, which made Liu Fangliang even more...
At this time, he showed a calm demeanor in the face of danger.