More than 100,000 people surrounded Qizhou, and the surrounding area was choked with water.
Seeing that the city was about to be destroyed, the three generals Huang Chaoxuan, Zhang Xianbi, and Liu Chengyin, the commander-in-chief of the army, held a secret meeting and reported the victory to the commander Zhu Dadian first, claiming that Qizhou had been conquered and taking all the credit on the three of them.
In order to seize the credit for breaking the city, they sent troops to forcibly drive away all the other rebels under Qizhou City, especially the soldiers of the Forty-Eight Village, and ordered them to retreat twenty miles to camp.
The Forty-Eight Village refused, so Liu Chengyin directly beat people with iron rods, injuring several village owners, and sent troops to drive them away. Even Zhang Kuang, the supervisor of the seven provinces, was unable to restrain them.
There are several reasons why these three people dare to be so domineering. They are all one of the thirteen battalions established by He Tengjiao and Duyin Xibaohu Guangtou Zuo Liangyu.
Liu Chengyin was a drunkard, but he had great physical strength and was good at using iron bars, so he was called Liu Iron Bar. He was recruited as a soldier and conquered wild beasts. After his achievements, he became the deputy commander-in-chief. He Tengjiao became his confidant and even married his children.
Zhang Xianbi is from Yunnan. He followed the governor Yunlong to encircle and suppress the peasant army, and gained meritorious service as a general. He then followed Song Yihe, the governor of Huguang, to guard Chengtian Xianling Mausoleum, and was awarded the title of deputy general soldier. When Chengtian fell, he went to Wuchang. After Wuchang fell, he went to Yuezhou, and the three of his troops
Thousands of Yunnan soldiers, named Yunnan Qiying, were tough and brave enough to fight. He Tengjiao regarded them as a powerful force and represented them as the commander-in-chief.
Huang Chaoxuan was also from Yunnan, and his father was the son-in-law of the Duke of Guizhou who was guarding Yunnan. Therefore, Huang Chaoxuan grew up in the Mu Mansion of the Duke of Guizhou. Under the influence of his uncles, he practiced combat skills and military tactics since he was a child, and he was very brave. Later Mu Mansion
He was recommended to lead the Yunnan troops into the DPRK to aid in the suppression campaign, and he was promoted to deputy general under Yuan Jixian. He Tengjiao recommended him as the commander-in-chief and one of the Thirteen Towns.
In order to be able to defend Huguang and attack Zuo Liangyu, He Tengjiao recruited all the arrogant and powerful generals as well as the generals in charge of the army. In order to defend Huguang and attack Zuo Liangyu, He Tengjiao recruited 13 generals, and the total number of troops was known as the Thirteen Towns.
It's just that Liu Tiegang and others are just domineering warriors in troubled times. After they were promoted to the headquarters, they recruited troops, divided the land and paid, and even openly robbed the people. He Tengjiao himself couldn't suppress these people.
They can only rely on means such as marrying their children and in-laws to show favor and win them over.
Another example is that he originally sold salt from Hengzhou to Changsha and could earn tens of thousands of taels of silver every month. He Tengjiao took the initiative to share the money with the Thirteen Towns. They took the silver together and shared the benefits. With this benefit, the Thirteen Towns
The military leaders also supported He Tengjiao very much.
After He Tengjiao was transferred away, they had a quarrel for a while, but they finally managed to subdue them after Du Yinxi led the Zhongzhen camp to balance them.
This time around Wuchang towns, the Thirteen Towns also divided their troops to attack, but these people performed worse than the rebels in Qihuang Forty-Eight Villages. Although they were called regular soldiers, they looted along the way.
Huang Chaoxuan also used the excuse of lack of food and grass several times to delay the dispatch of troops. Zhang Xianbi even looted the county town on the march, not to mention Liu Chengyin. The three of them each had 3,000 elite soldiers, and there were thousands more soldiers and horses from Xiezhen. They started playing tricks at the foot of Qizhou City.
When scoundrels come, Forty-Eight Village and other rebel armies can only retreat in resentment.
Although Zhang Kuang, the commander-in-chief of the seven provinces, also had a battalion of pacesetters, he was obviously not the top opponent of these three armies, so he could only persuade him with earnest words.
"Captain, please rest assured. Our three towns are all equipped with elite troops. We have 20,000 warriors, which is more than enough to capture the city of Qizhou. Those copycat gangs are fishing in troubled waters. Having too many people will easily lead to chaos. If the Tatars in the city are let go at that time,
, wouldn’t it be a failure?”
Liu Tiegang smelled of alcohol and had no respect for Zhang Kuang.
"That is, when we take the city, we will not miss the Governor's share of the spoils. The success report will also include the Governor's share."
Zhang Kuang was originally He Tengjiao's old partner. He was a Jinshi in Songjiang and was famous all over the world for his poetry. He also had a brother, Zhang Jian, who had followed Shen Youlong and others in his hometown of Songjiang for righteousness. Now he was on patrol in Chongzhen. At the end, he was the magistrate of Mianyang, Hubei Province, leading troops to fight against Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng and others. He was later promoted to Jiangbei Military Prefecture and twice to governor of Huguang.
Before the fall of Beijing, He Tengjiao was impeached and removed from office by the imperial censor. He Tengjiao petitioned to stay in office and made meritorious service. After the Hongguang Dynasty was established and Zuo Liangyu rebelled, He Tengjiao established his own Thirteenth Battalion and appointed Zhang Kuang as the supervisor.
Although Zhang Kuang was courageous and talented, he was still a civil servant. Even if he tried hard to maintain the situation, he was sometimes powerless in front of these domineering generals.
"Don't forget that the leader of the country now is King Lu. King Lu doesn't like arrogant and powerful generals. I summoned you all at the beginning and recommended them to He Gong as the commander-in-chief of the army. Even the salt from Hengshan was transported to Changsha. I obtained tens of thousands taels of silver, and I made this happen with all my efforts, and suggested that Mr. He use the salt and silver to pay thirteen soldiers."
"Here comes Governor Zhu. I have been saying good things to you, asking you for quotas, and asking for salary and food for you. You are all in the main town now, but don't forget that you are still soldiers of the imperial court."
"Although I, Zhang Kuang, am only a civil servant, I am still the supervisor of the seven provinces. If you do not care about the overall situation, then I will not miss the old friendship. I have the king's command flag given by the supervisor, and I also have the sword of Shang Fang."
Liu Tiegang said with some disdain, "Why would Mr. Zhang say such foreign things? We are all civil servants and military generals in Hubei. Compared with outsiders such as Zhu Dadian and Yuan Zongdi, we are closer to each other."
"We are the Huguang economic system town camp. What is the forty-eight villages? Does the Ministry of War have an establishment number? We ask them to retreat, just to take care of them. If there is a real fight, if these rabble blows up the camp, Zhang Dujian will be afraid I can’t bear this responsibility either.”
Huang Chao Can’t compare to those villagers in the village?”
After saying that, the three of them ignored Zhang Kuang.
Angry, Zhang Kuang rushed directly to the gates of Wuchang City and went to the governor Zhu Dadian and the governor Du Yinxi to ask for troops and horses to deal with these three domineering generals.
Before dark, the forty-eight village camp was suppressed by 20,000 men under the command of three people. The troops and horses rushed to station twenty miles away from the city. Some of the villagers were so angry that they took their people home directly.
midnight.
Xu Yong and Zu Yonglie each led three thousand troops. When they came out of the east gate and the west gate, they had horses wrapped in hooves.
After leaving the city, go straight to the three-town barracks outside the city.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! The rockets pierced the dark night sky and illuminated the Ming army camps in the three towns of the besieged city.
Xu Yong led his troops straight towards the Ming camp, and actually approached very smoothly without much obstruction.
Because the Forty-eight Village and other small hundred thousand troops suddenly evacuated, there were obviously many gaps in the siege outside the city. In these days, the siege had been suppressing the city, so Huang Chaoxuan and the other three underestimated the enemy and did not deploy too many defenses in the military camp.
A simple camp fence, not even bothering to dig trenches, and not many horses casually turned away.
"Jiangning reinforcements are here, kill the Ming thieves!" Xu Yong shouted.
His subordinates followed suit and called themselves Jiangning reinforcements.
On the other hand, Zu Yonglie led his troops to attack Liu Chengyin's camp, but General Liu was very drunk. Zu Yonglie shouted in proficient Manchu, speaking Manchu for a while and then to himself again.
Translated into Chinese, he claimed to be General Luck Dehunbeile of Pingnan, aiding the Eight Banners of Huguang.
Qing troops were charging everywhere. Countless rockets pierced the night sky and fell into the Ming army's tents. The military camp was filled with the shouts of Qing troops.
Jiangning reinforcements.
Hong Chengchou, the manager of the six provinces, has arrived.
General Pingnan and Prince of Shuncheng County, Luck Dehunbeile, are here in person!
·····
Huang Chaoxuan did not hesitate at all, and directly jumped on his horse under the protection of his own soldiers, and then rushed into the dark night. His standard battalion of 3,000 Yunnan soldiers also followed suit.
Zhang Xianbi's reaction was the same. When he found out that the Qing troops were attacking the camp, he didn't even check where the Qing troops came from. Instead, he immediately led his troops to abandon the camp and flee.
Because Liu Chengyin was drunk, his servants carried him on horseback and ran away.
The three general towns, with a total of 9,000 towns, were known as elites. During the day, they had just driven away the Forty-Eight Village and other besieging soldiers. However, when the Qing army attacked at night, they ran away without any resistance.
The more than 10,000 soldiers and horses from several auxiliary towns affiliated to them also immediately followed suit.
The three generals fled in a hurry, and the 20,000 officers and soldiers followed them at all costs. In less than an hour, the outside of Qizhou City was deserted.
Soon, the fire spread far away, and the fleeing Ming army even broke through the new Ming army camp at Forty-eight Village, which had just retreated twenty miles away.
The soldiers from each village who were sleeping were awakened, and many people ran after him.
Finally, there was the bombing of the entire camp of 100,000 people that stretched for dozens of miles. Everyone shouted in horror that the Eight Banners were coming, and then rushed to escape.
They trampled on each other and even jumped into the river. In the dark night, it was impossible to tell the difference between south, east, north and west, or whether it was the Green Camp or the Eight Banners. However, panic spread in the night wind, and eventually swept over every Ming army outside Qizhou City. They desperately
escape.
No one is thinking about where the Qing army came from or how many there were.
They only know that others are running, so I have to run too. Others are running away very fast, so I have to run faster than them. No one is thinking, why not resist, why should I run?
Dawn.
Governor He Mingluan, who stood excitedly on the city wall all night, finally waited until Xu Yong returned victorious.
"Thanks to Mr. Hong Fu of Fuyuan, I was lucky enough to live up to my command last night. I attacked the Ming thieves at night. Horses trampled the camp. I defeated 120,000 Ming thieves with six thousand tigers and horses. I chased them for more than thirty miles all night and beheaded countless people.
Corpses filled the fields and ditches, and there were countless prisoners.”
"Great victory!"
He Mingluan pulled Xu Yong, who was covered in blood, and said it was hard work. Now he has no doubt that Xu Yong is secretly collaborating with the enemy. With such great achievements and such performance, how could it be possible to secretly liaise with the Ming army.
Zukfa coughed violently and interrupted the two of them.
"These Ming thieves are really a mob."
Xu Yong took his hand out of He Mingluan's hand and said, "The Ming thieves are already discouraged. I think we should seize the opportunity to pursue the victory, so we will use the banner of Hong Jinglue and Luck Dehun Beile, and kill directly to the gates of Huangzhou City. Let's chase those
The defeated troops are the vanguard. When the time comes, we will use these frightened defeated troops to disperse the Ming thieves under Huangzhou City and regain Huangzhou in one fell swoop!"
He Mingluan agreed.
So that day, Xu Yong and Zu Yonglie continued to lead the thousands of troops who had defeated the Ming army last night, and rushed north to Huangzhou. Along the way, they overtook many defeated Ming troops and drove them all the way to the gate of Huangzhou City.
Just as Xu Yong expected, the Ming armies besieging Huangzhou City were defeated. They really thought that the Eight Banners elite reinforcements coming from behind were Qin Yuchun, Man Dazhuang, and Wu Shenghe who were besieging Huangzhou City.
, Crown Prince, Yang Peidong, five generals, each claiming to command five thousand troops, and there were also brave militia groups from Huangzhou and other surrounding villages, totaling tens of thousands of people, surrounding Huangzhou.
But none of them are elite.
As soon as the defeated troops came out, the whole camp was routed.
Xu Yong then relieved the siege of Huangzhou, and the blockade on the east and lower reaches of Wuchang was broken.
