Chapter 292 The dog jumps over the wall in a hurry
Huguang, Qizhou.
He Mingluan, the governor of Qinghuguang, and Song Yizhen, the governor of Qingzhou, have been trapped in Qizhou for nearly a month. Also trapped in the city are Huguang Commander-in-Chief Zu Kefa, Huangzhou Commander-in-Chief Xu Yong, etc.
They had previously entered the Qihuang Mountains to suppress the Forty-Eight Villages under the orders of Governor Tong Yanghe. Then the Ming army suddenly besieged Jingzhou and Wuchang. They retreated in a hurry, but were eventually trapped in the Qihuang area.
Outside Qizhou City, people from the Forty-eight Villages gathered around.
The owners of each village were powerful and well-known people from the local gentry. Even Zhu Changyan, the king of Fanshan from the Ming Dynasty, also joined the village, as well as Zhang Jinyan, the former Minister of the Ministry of War, the governor of Shanxi, Hebei and Henan provinces, Shao Qiwei and other officials.
In the twelfth year of Chongzhen's reign, Yao Minggong of Qizhou, who became the prime minister of Qizhou and was appointed as the Grand Scholar of Wenyuan Pavilion and Prince Shaobao as well as the Minister of Hubu, built Yao Gongzhai.
Although the former governor of Southern Jiangxi and the governor of Gansu Macheng Mei Zhihuan had died of illness, they had previously used their wealth and reputation to purchase ordnance, recruit local warriors, and organize regiment training, and they all became the main force in Qihuang's resistance to the Qing Dynasty at this time.
Before Mei Zhihuan died of illness, he even had a cavalry of hundreds of people and an artillery team with several red cannons, which was very amazing.
At this time, the Forty-eight Villages came out of the mountains and surrounded Qizhou and Huanggang. The seven-provincial supervising army was led by General Zhang Kuang, as well as the generals Wang Xian, Zhang Xianbi and Liu Chengyin. In addition, Zhang Jinyan, the leader of the Qihuang Alliance,
At the time, the momentum was astonishing.
Each village had two to three thousand soldiers, one to two thousand, and one to two hundred soldiers. Although the weapons were mixed and the flags were inconsistent, the momentum alone was very astonishing.
Anyway, these governors, patrolmen, and general soldiers in Qizhou City had 7,000 green battalions, but they did not dare to go out of the city to fight. They were chased out of the mountains and lost thousands of people along the way. At this time, there were still
Seven thousand, but they were frightened and did not dare to fight at all.
"These bandits dig tunnels and trenches every day, build siege equipment, and gather ants every now and then to attack the city. If this continues, we will not be able to defend it."
Commander-in-Chief Zu Kefa arrived.
He was the adopted son of Zu Dashou. He served as a general of the Guan Ning Army. After surrendering to the Qing Dynasty, he became the deputy commander of the Han Army Banner Zhenghuang Banner. He followed Dorgon into the Pass, and then followed Ajige to conquer Li Zicheng. He was first appointed as the commander-in-chief of Henan and then the commander-in-chief of Huguang.
Military officer.
He has five hundred elite Guanning cavalrymen.
But at this time, facing the overwhelming Ming army outside, they did not dare to leave the city. When they evacuated from the mountainous area before, Zuko's Dharma Division was the most elite, but he ran the fastest, even running away one night earlier than the agreed retreat time.
As a result, the people behind them had no choice but to retreat early, and then retreat in the middle of the night, causing the armies to flee and scramble to get ahead, trampling many people to death in vain. The road in the mountain was dangerous, and many people couldn't see the road and fell off the cliff in the middle of the night.
However, after retreating to Qizhou City, neither the governor nor the inspector dared to punish Zukefa.
The losses suffered by various groups during the retreat were not small. Only his three thousand troops were basically withdrawn, accounting for nearly half of the seven thousand people who entered the city. What's more, Zukefa was the deputy commander of the Zhenghuang Banner of the Han army and had a very high status.
The title is there. Not to mention, the Zu family is also a famous and powerful family among the Han officials in the Qing Dynasty today.
The governor and others did not dare to offend this guy easily.
Zukfa started coughing as he was talking, and even coughed up blood. He didn't know whether it was an old injury, or a new one from the attack in the mountainous area. He then ran away and stayed overnight and was frightened.
Or something? After this guy came back, he couldn't afford to fall ill. He managed to cheer up these days, but he coughed every time, and he would see blood when he coughed.
This inevitably made Governor He and others worried. Now the defense of Qizhou could only be relied on Zukefa, but not Xu Yong.
Xu Yong is also a strong general, which they also admit, but Xu Yong was originally a demoted general of the Ming army, and unlike other generals who were demoted, this guy was highly valued in the Ming court before.
Speaking of which, Xu Yong's surname was Gao. He lost his father when he was young. He was adopted as an adopted son by Xu, the commander-in-chief of Ningwu. He was regarded as a child. Because Xu Xu's voice was close, he was passed down as Xu Yong. When Xu Yong was a teenager, his adoptive father
Xu Zongbing unexpectedly had a son in old age, and gave birth to a biological son. Naturally, he was not so close to his adopted son.
Later, after Xu Zongbing passed away, he also had bad relations with his uncles and brothers from the Xu family. He was not tolerated as a person with a foreign surname, so he had to travel far away from home and travel around Guandong with his sword.
At the end of Wanli, he joined the army in Liaodong. At the age of twenty, he was promoted to centurion by beheading. By the time he arrived at Chongzhen, he had been promoted to guerrilla due to his excellent skills. Later, he was under Zuo Liangyu's command and moved to the Central Plains to suppress bandits. He was promoted again based on his merits.
Later, when Yuan Jixian was the governor of Yunyang, he appreciated his talents very much, relied on Zhong as his confidant, and kept him in Xunyang as the deputy general of Fubiao.
When Xu Yong was in Yunyang, he fought many fierce battles with He Yilong, Zhang Xianzhong, Hui Deng and other peasant armies, and he was responsible for repelling them many times.
Later, Xiangyang fell and King Xiang was killed. The court was furious and Yuan Jixian was found guilty and dismissed from his post. The new governor Wang Yongzuo moved to Xiangyang and Zuo Liangyu was stationed in Fancheng. Soon after, Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai attacked Xiangyang with their armies. Zuo Liangyu took the lead in abandoning the city and escaping with heavy troops.
, and then Wang Yongzuo also protected King Fuqing and fled Xiangyang.
The guerrillas in Yunyangfang County fled after hearing the news. Xu Yong also sent troops to intercept and capture them. However, later seeing that the Ming army was weak, Xu Yong, who eventually ran out of food, abandoned the land and fled to Xing'an. Later, on the order of Sun Chuanting, he fought with Gao Dou Shu
Waiting to attack Gucheng and Xiangyang.
After Sun Chuanting died in battle, Xu Yong abandoned Yunyang and defected to Zuo Liangyu, and was eventually coerced into surrendering to the Qing Dynasty.
Although the Qing government awarded him the title of Commander-in-Chief of the Huangzhou Army, he had always been very wary of this extremely brave guy. Azig once asked Xu Yong, "You guarded Yunyang for six or seven years, and fought dozens of battles, large and small, without any defeat."
, why did you surrender to the Qing Dynasty now?
Xu Yong's reply was that it was a great duty to eliminate the bandits and to avenge the emperor's father was a great kindness. Now that the Qing army was entering the Pass to avenge Chongzhen and pursue the thieves, he should go with them.
What he said was the same as that of Wu Sangui, and he was obviously making excuses for his own surrender.
But it also shows that Xu Yong, like Wu Sangui, actually still had some intentions in the secret room, or that he did not completely and sincerely join the Qing Dynasty.
Azige first appointed Xu Yong as the Jiujiang General Soldier, and asked him to lead the troops to pacify Huangguaizi, Li Juma and other troops in Jiujiang. He was immediately moved to Huangzhou General Soldier.
In the battle to suppress the Qihuang Zhuzhai, Xu Yong performed much better than Zukefa, always taking the lead in every battle. Even when Zukefa escaped first in the end, it was Xu Yong who cut off the rear alone, preventing them from suffering greater losses.
.
Xu Yong's generals, Xu Qiren and Li Rulong, were also among the three most powerful generals. Among the 7,000 soldiers who fled back to Qizhou, Xu Yong's troops also had 3,000.
In addition, he has two thousand soldiers in Huangzhou.
"The Ming army dug tunnels and ditches under the city. Now they are digging deep into the ground of the city. The city wall may be dug down at any time. I suggest leaving the city for a night attack."
Zukfa's proposal made the governor very suspicious. This guy has elite soldiers, but he never contributes much. Every time there is a battle, he is the last to charge and the quickest to escape. Why is he now proposing to go out of the city for a night attack?
"Is Qizhou City really going to be undefendable?"
"With this momentum, Qizhou will be defeated in less than three days. Either the Ming army will dig tunnels into the city, or they will directly build ladders and ants to enter the city. It is not possible for us to defend like this. These days, we have already suffered thousands of casualties.
There are also many casualties among the people. Although there is still food and grass available, once the city is broken, it will never be possible to defend it."
He Mingluan and the inspector looked at each other, both suspecting that Zuk Kefa wanted to take the opportunity to run away again. This guy must be holding back his bad intentions again. Just like when he was suppressing bandits in the mountains, he was the first to propose retreating and rest for the night.
In the early morning of the next day, various troops retreated alternately, but in fact at midnight, he quietly led his troops to escape first.
If this guy comes to Kaicheng and escapes in the middle of the night again, Qizhou will be completely doomed.
If you really run, no one can outrun Guan Ningjun.
"Luck Dehunbeile will be here soon!" Governor He could only say this. "If we continue to defend and they dig tunnels, then we should also tighten the wall around the city and dig a trench in the city, so that we can block them.
Digging a tunnel into the city."
Zu Kefa coughed several times and coughed up a lot of blood.
"The method mentioned by Fuyuan can only deal with ordinary tunnels to sneak into the city. But now the Ming army digs tunnels not only to sneak into the city, they also dig under the city wall and use gunpowder blasting to directly collapse the city wall.
Then he rushed in through the gap."
"I buried the vat and listened. When I heard the location, I dug through it in the opposite direction, and then flooded it with fire, so they couldn't put in the explosives."
"Fuyuan, there are too many thieves. Now they are not just digging three or five tunnels at the same time, but I don't know how many tunnels are being dug at the same time. We can't beat them. I now suspect that they have dug several tunnels, and they are just temporarily digging them."
It’s useless, I guess I plan to dig a few more places and then blast them all together. Then there will be several gaps that can’t be blocked.”
"The only way is to fight against the odds and see if we can attack the defeated Ming army outside the city at night."
The governor and governor didn't believe this guy at all.
"Go and ask General Xu to come and discuss it."
Zu Kefa coughed, his face turned red, and finally reminded them, "Xu Yong had already received the jade belt of the Ming Dynasty's python robe before, and I heard that Xu Yong's old boss Wang Yongzuo was now the new governor of Southern Jiangxi in the Ming Dynasty, and the high-ranking minister Xu Guangqi had also succeeded, so along with
Wang Guangen, who guards Yunyang, has now been granted the title of earl and admiral."
"There are rumors that the Ming Dynasty contacted Xu Yong secretly and wanted to make him the governor of Zhenwu Bojia Huguang. Please be more careful. If this person betrays the enemy, the consequences will be immeasurable. I suggest that he be put under house arrest first and his military power removed.
,in case."
The patrol officer immediately objected, "How can we arrest someone without any evidence? Is General Zu trying to force General Xu to mutiny?"
"We are facing a formidable enemy. If we don't think about retreating from the enemy, why are we still doing this?"
Zu Kefa coughed, "I am leading troops to fight, so I only think about fighting. Although there is no evidence for Xu Yong's collusion with the enemy, there are rumors. Don't be afraid of ten thousand, just be afraid of what happens if it really happens.
But I regret it too much. You know Xu Yong’s ability as well as I do. If he really wants to rebel, but he is still in this city, then Qizhou will have no hope at all."
After saying this, the two of them looked uncertain.
