Li Laiheng has been urging Huguang for several days. He has written several times to Bai Wang, the military envoy of De'an, Gao Yigong, the military envoy of Wuyue, Chen Xing, the military envoy of Jingxiang, and several people from Guo Junzhen who are in charge of the overall military situation of Huguang.
, asking them to send additional reinforcements north as soon as possible.
While in Taiyuan, letters from Bai Wang and Guo Junzhen arrived at Li Laiheng's mansion.
He had been away from Suizhou for some time. Although he was quite confident about the scale of the system and preventive arrangements before leaving Huguang, it was only after reading the letters from the two of them that he felt completely relieved and felt more stable about the situation in Huguang.
, his confidence in the decisive battle between Chuang Jun and Huang Taiji also suddenly increased by a few points.
Guo Junzhen's letter mainly detailed the overall military situation in Huguang after Li Laiheng left Suizhou:
First of all, in Yunyang, after Miao Lichen led an army of miners to capture Yunyang Mansion, he spent a lot of energy to wipe out local copycats. Because of the complicated terrain in the mountainous area of Yunxi, local unjust judges and gentry colluded with local tyrants.
, roaring in the mountains and forests, posing a threat.
Miao Lichen personally led the miner army, walked through the mountains and forests, climbed countless lofty mountains and dense jungles that could not be passed by birds, overcame all obstacles and was not afraid of hardships, and finally finally pacified the most stubborn Yunyang Prefecture in northern Huguang——
Behind Miao Lichen's pacification of Yunyang Prefecture, there was also the full support and transshipment of grain and fodder from the three towns of Jingxiang, De'an, and Wuyue.
When Li Laiheng read this, he thought of Miao Lichen's sincerity and down-to-earthness, and felt even more strong affection and admiration for this veteran who served under him during the Henan period.
"Miao Lichen overcame all obstacles and pacified Yunyang Prefecture... Leshan, you also know how complex the terrain of Shangyun Mountain is. Behind the few hasty sentences in Xiongli's letter, I don't know how much painstaking efforts of the soldiers are hidden."
Fang Yiren replied: "The three towns in Hubei are under great control and have abundant material resources. This can support General Miao to completely pacify the Yunyang Mountain area. Now that the villages are in submission, Zhang Xianzhong has disrupted Sichuan again, and the west of the three towns in Hubei is basically safe.
I think General Guo has already mobilized troops to attack Yuezhou and Jiujiang, right?"
"Yigong captured Yuezhou Prefecture very early, which was the place Zhang Xianzhong captured. Generally speaking, Xiying was still unwilling to conflict with them. Lao Bai also mentioned that before Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan, Ma Shouying died of illness on the way. Congratulations
Although Yilong still has troops, he can't fight alone and can only succumb to Zhang Xianzhong. The Western Camp has turned Hunan and Sichuan into chaos, and it is also the vanguard for our invading army."
Li Laiheng then showed Bai Wang's letter to Fang Yiren and said:
"You see, only Jiujiang Prefecture took some trouble... After Zuo Liangyu died, Emperor Chongzhen had already allowed Jiangxi Governor Yuan Jixian to hold a large-scale regiment training in Jiangyou. At that time, Zhang Xianzhong led his troops into Jiangxi, and the massacre was heavy, causing panic among the officials and gentry.
Therefore, the local gentry in Jiangxi were quite supportive of Yuan Jixian's handling of Gan Yong's affairs.
Yuan Jixian himself is quite talented, even Zhang Xianzhong fell into ashes under him!"
Fang Yiren said with a smile: "The reason why the Eight Great Kings left Hunan and Jiangxi and went to Sichuan was because they did not open up the situation quickly in Jiangxi."
"There are many shanty dwellers in Jiangxi. Some of these shanty dwellers were recruited as Gan Yong by Jiangxi Governor Yuan Jixian, and some, like Qiu Yanghuan, Lu Nanyang and others like the shanty dweller leaders in Wanzai County, took the initiative to join Xiying. The shanty dwellers who joined Xiying
At one time, they also captured Yichun, the capital city of Yuanzhou Prefecture, but Lao Zhang's attention was on Hunan after all, and he was counterattacked by Yuan Jixian's gang of Gan Yong, but he lost a lot of troops.
Most of these Gan Yongs were natives of Jiangxi, but their military discipline was not much better. After they recaptured Yuanzhou Prefecture, they raped, looted, and massacred indiscriminately. Later, they did the same thing when they fought against Chu Chuang in the Jiujiang area."
Li Laiheng was satisfied with the talent of Yuan Jixian, the governor of Jiangxi who was stationed in Jiujiang, but he could not restrain Gan Yong's military discipline and caused military disasters again and again in Jiangxi, so there was nothing to talk about.
On the other hand, Tuan Yong was precisely because Li Laiheng completely annihilated Zuo Liangyu, the only field regiment of the Ming army in the south, which caused great shock in the south of the Yangtze River. Chongzhen finally made up his mind to decentralize power to the gentry, and ordered the rural officials and gentry in various places to
Conduct team training.
Gan Yong is one of the results of this policy. In addition to Gan Yong, new brave men have also been trained in South Zhili, Zhejiang and other places.
It's just that the various problems in the Ming Dynasty's government were inherently harmful. Once any policy was introduced, new problems would inevitably evolve. For example, Xu Du was originally a scholar in charge of Zhejiang Yong, but because of internal conflicts in the government, he was forced to reconcile with Fang Yi.
Zhi and Chen Zilong ran away to join the army together.
These Gan Yongs led by Yuan Jixian had poor military discipline, but they were entrenched in the important land of Jiujiang and still caused a lot of trouble to Chu Chuang.
Although Gan Yong was unable to attack several bases of the Chu Army in northern Huguang, they looted and looted rampantly in Jiujiang, seriously damaging the trade in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Originally, Kende Ji was centered in Wuchang, and through the business stores in Jiujiang and Anqing,
It is easy to sell grain and various handmade products from northern Huguang to the Jiangnan region in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and then purchase various in-demand materials that Chuchuang urgently needs from Jiangnan.
Now Gan Yong is entrenched in Jiujiang and has turned Jiujiang into a smog. The trade of Kendeji has been greatly restricted. Because winter was approaching at that time, the main force of the Chu army fighting in North China urgently needed to replenish a large amount of cotton cloth to make winter military uniforms.
Kendeji's task of purchasing Songjiang cotton became even more important.
Under such circumstances, Guo Junzhen discussed with the three military envoys Gao Yigong, Bai Wang, and Chen Xin, and decided to suspend the expedition against Shizhouwei in western Huguang and mobilize the main force eastward to attack Jiujiang.
Shizhouwei is adjacent to Yuezhou Prefecture, and is responsible for the local military and civilians. It has many chieftains under its jurisdiction. The chieftains in the local mountainous areas are quite powerful. Their descendants who have multiplied in western Hubei for three hundred years have formed many prominent mountainous families. This group of vested interests have also
The privileged people are very attached to and miss the Ming Dynasty that blessed them.
Therefore, after both northern Huguang and Yuezhou in the south of Huguang were controlled by the Chuang army, the chieftains and hereditary guards of Shizhouwei still insisted on fighting against the Chuang army. They relied on the complex mountainous terrain of southwest Hubei and relied on the chieftains' accumulated savings over the years.
The strength that had come down, coupled with the special environment of the local Han and Miao communities, made Guo Junzhen feel troubled for a while.
In order to bring peace to the Shizhou Guards, Guo Junzhen transferred Miao Lichen's troops who had already pacified Yunyang to the Shizhou Guards, sent troops into the mountains to search for Miao, and launched a long-term pursuit and suppression operation.
He discussed with Chen Xin and adopted a combination of kindness and power to carry out a thorough attack on the stubborn chieftains, relocate their tribes, and then send a large number of permanent immigrants from Jingzhou, Huangzhou and other densely populated areas into the mountains to implement reforms.
The policy of native return to flow.
For other chieftains who were in a wait-and-see state, and some who were even inclined to break into the army and provide intelligence and material support to the conquering army, they recognized their various hereditary privileges, acquiesced to the fait accompli, and later sought peace.
In the process of resisting the chieftains, these rebel chieftains were promised certain benefits and benefits.
"Although Xiongli used a large force to conquer Shizhou Guards, it was said to protect Suizhou's flanks, but the force was too strong, too many troops were sent, and so much manpower and material resources were consumed. In fact, there were some superfluous problems.
Jiujiang is located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Its location is critical and it is the most important town between Wu and Chu. The three towns did not take Jiujiang first to open up the Yangtze River waterway, but instead worked too hard in western Hubei, which wasted a lot of time and troops."
Fang Yiren said: "General Guo withdrew his troops from Shizhou and attacked Jiujiang Prefecture. Now he has already captured the key to the Yangtze River between Wu and Chu. The Ming army retreated to Anqing and can no longer do anything."