Four governors led the way, and hundreds of civil and military officials bowed down.
"The ministers, without courtesy, went into the city with me."
At this time, three people came out from behind, "General Huben and Li Chixin, the commander-in-chief of the Loyalty Battalion, pay their respects to the supervisor!"
"Hao Yongzhong, the chief soldier of Chenzhongzhen Battalion, pays homage to His Royal Highness Jianguo!"
"Yuan Zongdi, the commander-in-chief of the Zhongzhen Battalion, pays homage to His Royal Highness Jian Guo!"
The three people suddenly walked out and greeted each other loudly. As soon as the name came out, everyone was shocked.
"Camp Loyalty?"
"Who is Li Chixin?"
"This man is the nephew of the intruder, nicknamed Yihu, and his original name is Li Jin."
"Then why is it called Li Chixin again? What's going on in the Loyalty Camp?"
"You don't know this? Your Highness previously appointed the Governor of Huguang, He Tengjiao, as the Superintendent, and made him the governor of the military affairs of the five provinces. He also ordered him to appease the remaining bandits, and also gave the wife of the bandit Li Zicheng the title of Lady of Loyalty.
The three groups of men and horses are combined into the loyalty camp, and each is awarded the title of commander-in-chief, and is also given titles and names."
Others were talking about it. Zhu Yihai had previously issued an order to appease the remaining troops of the Chuang Army in the east of Huguang and Sichuan, and he didn't know much about it. Now he suddenly saw three generals of the Chuang Army appearing, and they were all very surprised.
Zhu Yihai already knew from Du Yinxi's report that he had brought three people to visit him, so he was already prepared.
Now that they suddenly came out to pay homage in public, it was a bit surprising, but Zhu Yihai was actually quite happy. After he had previously decided on the strategy of uniting thieves to fight against the captives, many ministers actually disagreed, thinking that Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were national traitors, especially Li Zicheng who killed
Entered Beijing and forced the late emperor Chongzhen to death.
So it can never be forgiven.
But Zhu Yihai still persuaded everyone, saying that the Qing captives were the primary enemy. Although Li Zicheng was defeated and retreated to Huguang, he also wanted to attack Jiangxi and even attack Nanjing. However, no matter what, Li Zicheng was dead, and his Dashun country was also dead.
It completely collapsed and perished, and now only the remnants of the Shun Army are left.
These people were far less of a threat to the Ming Dynasty than the Qing army.
Moreover, these people may not want to continue fighting with the imperial court now. As long as the imperial court sincerely surrenders and provides a way out, these people are willing, and history has long proved that this road can be retreated.
At the beginning, the Hongguang Dynasty refused to recruit Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others. Firstly, these two people were still there, and they would not surrender. Secondly, it was due to sectarian opinions. But today is different from the past. We will not talk about Zhang Xianzhong who proclaimed himself emperor in Sichuan, but only about the Shun Army.
The remaining troops are now leaderless and scattered in the Jingxiang area in the east of Hanzhong Sichuan. They now have to face the pursuing Qing army, Zhang Xianzhong who wants to annex them, and they have to beware of the Ming army. Life is very difficult, and they can survive in the cracks.
Zhu Yihai knew the historical trend and the real situation of these people. After offering to appease earlier than ever before in history, Li Jin and others were also willing to negotiate. The conditions offered by Zhu Yihai were very generous. They were at the end of their rope at this time, even if they had some doubts.
, still accepted it first.
This time Li Jin and others came with everyone's expectations and to show their sincerity.
"You are General Li Chixin, who is known as a tiger? As expected, you are as tough as a tiger. I have given you General Hu Ben, and you are worthy of your name."
With that said, Zhu Yihai helped Li Jin up. This Li Jin was Li Zicheng's nephew. He followed his uprising since he was a child and fought in the north and south. He was a general of the Chuang Army. The Dashun State was established, and he was granted the title of feudal general and the title of Hao County Marquis. Li Zicheng left Beijing from Beijing.
When he retreated, he led 30,000 people to stay in northern Shaanxi and fought for three months with the Qing army of Azige, the commander-in-chief of the Qing army's Western Expedition.
After Zhu Yihai asked He Tengjiao to block Yinxi and recruit Shunying, Li Jin was more supportive of accepting the recruitment. Before being recruited, he led his troops to Yuezhou, Hunan, but Yuezhou was not a place to stay for a long time.
"How can a defeated general be called brave? His Highness praises him falsely."
"Hou Xingguo must not underestimate yourself. Just because you led 30,000 people in northern Shaanxi to hold back Commander Azig's main force for three months, you can be called a famous general in the world."
He helped Hao Yaoqi up again. Waoqi was actually his nickname. After he joined Li Zicheng, he was the flag bearer in the army at first, and later he was nicknamed Waiqi. As he was older in the peasant army in the late Ming Dynasty, he also advocated accepting
The general of the Shun army who recruited peace.
Zhu Yihaite named him Yongzhong, granted him the title of Marquis of Nan'an, worshiped him as chief military officer, and commanded his headquarters.
"The Marquis of Jingxi, please get up quickly." Zhu Yihai went to help Yuan Zongdi again.
This Yuan Zongdi was the tallest among the three people in the Shun army. He was the general of the right camp and was granted the title of Mianhou. When Li Zicheng led his troops north to invade Beijing, he stayed behind to quell the chaos in Huguang and Henan, and participated in Li Zicheng's defeated retreat.
The subsequent Battle of Tongguan.
But now he has lost control of the other armies in the right camp and only leads a small number of troops. However, this man has led an army by himself for a long time and is the commander of the army. He is second only to Liu Zongmin and Tian Jianxiu in the Shun army.
's general.
In history, this man is worthy of being called a famous general. Before Li Dingguo defeated the famous king, the only victory in the Southern Ming Dynasty that was called a great victory was the Battle of Huaiqing commanded by Yuan Zongdi.
Li Chixin, Hao Yongzhong, and Yuan Zong, in Zhu Yihai's view, are all generals who have experienced hundreds of battles. In terms of combat command ability alone, they are even far superior to Wang Zhiren and Zhang Mingzhen, and they will shine in the future.
Zhu Chenggong, whose surname is Guo, was just a young man with a short beard at this time.
Compared with Fang Guoan, a general who was defeated in battles and was the best at robbery, these people who came from the peasant army actually had stronger fighting skills, which were gained from countless actual battles.
In front of everyone.
Zhu Yihai directly announced a decision.
"The Loyalty Camp was promoted to one of the imperial troops and was organized into the Imperial Camp Front Army. Li Chixin, the Marquis of Xingguo, was appointed as the Minister of War, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Left was appointed as the Left Commander-in-Chief of the Imperial Army. Gao Bizheng, the Marquis of Anguo, was appointed as the Minister of War and the Right Governor was the Imperial Guard.
The right commander of the army in front of the camp was in charge of the left and right divisions.
"Yuan Zongdi, Marquis of Jingxi, was appointed Minister of the Ministry of War, Zuo Qiandu Censor, Zuo Dudu, the Chief Military Officer guarding Hubei Military Affairs, and Hao Yongzhong was appointed Minister of War Ministry, Chief Military Officer guarding Hunan Military Affairs."
"Du Yinxi was the right minister of the Ministry of War and the censor of Qiandu. He was the admiral of Huguang Military Affairs and was also responsible for food and wages and patrolled Hunan. He had overall control over all the ministries of the Zhongzhen Camp in the front of the imperial camp and supervised the military."
At this time, according to the reports of He Tengjiao and Du Yinxi, as well as the claims of Gao Yigong, Li Chixin and others, there are still more than 300,000 Shun troops who have retreated to Hunan.
In addition, there are many troops in Hanzhong, Hubei and other places, as well as He Zhen and other tribes.
Although Zhu Yihai believed that the so-called more than 300,000 troops were very watery, just like Zuo Liangyu's so-called 800,000-strong army.
Zuo Liangyu claimed that 800,000 troops were sent down the river, and fought several battles with Huang Degong, Huang Fei and others. When they finally surrendered to the Qing army, they counted only 120,000 troops, which was an exaggeration of seven times.
Zhu Yihai speculated that the actual number of soldiers and horses in the thirteen battalions that have now joined may be more than 100,000, but most of them are estimated to be family members, women and children. The real number of soldiers and horses may only be between 20,000 and 30,000, and it is unlikely to exceed 50,000 at most.
Of course, he would not underestimate the remnants of these loyal troops. After all, they were a group of soldiers and horses that once invaded Beijing and swept the world. The skinny camels were bigger than the horses. These soldiers were relatively capable of fighting. It was not Chongzhen earlier.
The peasant army has not yet become a phenomenon and is roaming everywhere.
Now the biggest problem for the Shunying tribes is that they have suffered a series of defeats. Especially after the deaths of Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin and others, their morale has dropped to the extreme. The various tribes can no longer even be integrated. They are caught between Zhang Xianzhong, the Ming army and the Qing army.
It is difficult for them to stabilize in Hunan during this period.
They are very confused now, they don't know who they are fighting for, they are already stunned.
These disbanded tribesmen have different ideas. Some want to surrender, some want to be independent, some want to surrender, and some even want to go home and farm.
For example, in He Zhen in Hanzhong, after Li Zicheng's defeat, he and his generals surrendered directly to the Qing army before he died, and were granted the title of Commander-in-Chief of Hanzhong.
Then when Gao Yigong and other troops from the northern Shaanxi palace moved south through Hanzhong, He Zhen led the attack without mercy. Not long ago, Zhang Xianzhong, who proclaimed himself emperor in Sichuan, wanted to take the opportunity to annex Hanzhong. He thought that since the capital was in Shuzhong, it would be inevitable
Hanzhong must be controlled, otherwise Shuzhong will be uneasy.
However, Zhang Xianzhong sent tens of thousands of troops to attack Hanzhong and wanted to surrender to He Zhen, but He Zhen killed almost all his troops.
He Zhen was able to defeat Zhang Xianzhong with a high degree of success because she was determined to be independent in Hanzhong and she also had a strong army and tens of thousands of soldiers.
The Shun troops who stayed in Hanzhong, Hubei, either surrendered to the Qing Dynasty or became independent, while the battalions that went south to Hunan basically reached an agreement and accepted the Ming Dynasty's recruitment.
This time Li Jin and others came to finally confirm the court's sincerity.
Now Zhu Yihai has organized the Zhongzhen Camp as the front part of the imperial camp, and has given all the leaders of the thirteen divisions the title of marquis. Even Hao Yaoqi and Yuan Zongdi have been given the title of chief military officer of Hubei and Hunan. This sincerity is already quite sufficient.
Even if they still have doubts, their purpose when they came has been achieved.
The three men also immediately expressed their willingness to lead 300,000 men down the river to the south of the Yangtze River to challenge King Qin.
Zhu Yihai said nothing in public, but after bringing everyone into the city, an important meeting was immediately held.
The meeting was attended by two accompanying bachelors and the Zhejiang Admiral Zhang Mingzhen and other civil and military officials, as well as the newly arrived Fourth Governor, King Deng and the three generals of the Zhongzhen Battalion.
"The Marquis of Xingguo, the Marquis of Nan'an, the Marquis of Jingxi, and the Governor of Du, how many troops can you muster if you join forces now?"
"Is there any way to capture Jingzhou?"
Zhu Yihai asked directly.
Du Yinxi asked, "Your Highness wants to capture Jingzhou?"
"Well, Jingzhou is in the upper reaches. If we can capture Jingzhou, we can reject Zhang Xianzhong in Shu in the west, and go down the river east to capture the two important towns of Wuchang and Nanchang, posing a threat to the Tatars in the south of the Yangtze River."
Li Chixin said honestly, "I am willing to recruit ships and mobilize the elites of the Zhongzhen Battalion, and go down the river to King Qin of the south of the Yangtze River, and come here to accept the command of His Highness."
Zhu Yihai shook his head.
"No, from Huguang to Wusong, it is more than a thousand miles away. The important towns along the way, such as Wuchang, Jiujiang, Nanchang, Anqing, Chizhou, Wuhu, Nanjing, Yangzhou, Zhenjiang, etc., are all in the hands of the Tatars. It would be very difficult and unrealistic to think about going east. If you can unite,
Launch an attack on the important town of Jingzhou nearby. If we can capture it, it will also play a great role in containing and supporting the Jiangnan battlefield."
"If we can capture Jingzhou, we can take advantage of the situation to restore Hubei and capture Wuchang."
What Zhu Yihai said was not nonsense, but the Qing army was indeed weak and empty in the Huguang area at this time. After the various units of the Zhongzhen Battalion moved south to Hunan, most of them were scattered between Jingzhou and Gong'an.
The commander-in-chief of the Qing Dynasty, Azige, has moved his troops back to the court, taking away the elite Eight Banners. Now Tong Yanghe is appointed governor of Huguang and governor of Hubei, He Mingluan is appointed governor of Hunan, and Song Yizhen is the patrol commander. However, they do not have many soldiers and horses in their hands, and they did not have them before.
He has been thinking of ways to recruit the remaining troops of the Shun Army.
Yuan Zongdi said, "This is a very good idea to supervise the country. Now Huguang is really empty. If it is the right time to besiege Jingzhou at this time, I have suggested that we divide the troops into two groups. Let the various units of the Zhongzhen Battalion jointly besiege Jingzhou, and who will supervise the division?"
Leading his troops to pretend to attack Wuchang can further disperse the Tatar forces in Huguang."
"Jingzhou and Wuchang, we can even decide which side has more chances depending on the situation, then focus on which side and capture a city first."
Zhu Yihai was very satisfied after hearing this. The historical battle of Jingzhou will not start until next year, and it will be defeated. The main reason is that the commander is incompetent and the three armies are exhausted. He Tengjiao is a very selfish official, and many of his Ming army generals are
Those old and incompetent cowardly generals of the Ming Dynasty were procrastinating at first, but later when the Qing army mobilized reinforcements from the south of the Yangtze River, they turned around and ran away in fear, only to deceive their teammates.
The Zhongzhen Battalion besieged Jingzhou for a long time, but He Tengjiao and the others failed to attack Wuchang as planned. Even the Qing army rushed thousands of miles to attack Jingzhou, but they could not even send a message. The Zhongzhen Battalion was unable to capture Jingzhou for a long time, and was suddenly attacked from behind. In the end, the massacre
defeat.
This defeat also caused the Ming army's situation in Huguang to take a turn for the worse.
As for the Ming troops in Changsha and Yuezhou who cheated their teammates, He Tengjiao also had selfish intentions and wanted to use the hands of the Qing troops to consume the Zhongzhen camp.
However, there is nothing wrong with attacking Jingzhou.
The biggest problem in the Jingzhou Battle was He Tengjiao. Zhu Yihai began to think about how to replace He Tengjiao. However, he had appointed He Tengjiao as the supervisor before, but it was actually due to the situation. After all, the Huguang area was now maintained by He Tengjiao and other local officials.
They were together, and very exclusive, forming a small group.
Zhu Yihai, the supervising state, also needs the support of Huguang. Otherwise, if they directly support a supervising state, an emperor or something, they will make him very passive.
Now that the Zhongzhen camp has come over, and with the clear support of Du Yinxi, the governor of Hunan, Zhu Yihai has the capital to move He Tengjiao, but he must be cautious. If he doesn't do it well, there may be trouble in Huguang.
"Supervisor He has made great contributions to stabilizing Huguang, and he has made new contributions by recruiting the Zhongzhen Camp. Gu is missing such a pillar of the country, Mr. Xu Ge, Mr. Shen, Gu wants to worship Supervisor He as a scholar of Dongge University and Minister of the Ministry of War, and to serve as an assistant in the cabinet.
, do you think it’s feasible to come to Gu Gu to assist with military affairs?”
Xu Shiqi and Shen Chenquan were both thinking about the deeper meaning of Jianguo's words. Under normal circumstances, local ministers like He Tengjiao, especially under the current situation, should not be easily replaced. Jianguo is preparing to fight the Jingzhou Campaign, so it would be even more serious to change generals on the spot.
avoid.
But Jianguo still said it. It was definitely not unexpected, but had a deeper meaning.
"Huguang needs an important minister and capable official to guard the governor. Who do you plan to use to oversee the country?" Xu Shiqi asked directly.
Zhu Yihai looked at Du Yinxi. He is capable and loyal, but his qualifications are a little lacking. "I plan to appoint Du Qing as the governor of Huguang and still the governor of Hunan, and then appoint Zhu Dadian, a cabinet scholar, as the governor."
The military of the seven provinces of Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Chu, Henan and Jiangxi."
Under the Governor of Huguang, another governor of seven provinces was set up, and the powerful cabinet scholar Zhu Dadian was dispatched. As soon as Zhu Yihai's arrangement came out, Du Yinxi agreed and even suggested that he should remain the governor of Hunan.
There is no need to add the title of Governor of Huguang.
