"What exactly is going on over there in Huguang? Tell me slowly and in detail."
Zhu Yihai, who had just arrived in Chongming, heard that Huguang was defeated, but he was not too panicked. In other words, he did not have high hopes for Huguang in the first place, he just hoped to contain some Qing troops.
The previous capture of Xiangyang and the march to Jingzhou was considered a surprise.
Because the situation was too smooth, some hopes that were not there began to arise slowly.
Now that he suddenly heard that Hu Guangda was collapsing, he immediately woke up again.
When Kongjue was first released and he collected 300,000 troops in one day, the entire Can Ming Dynasty was inspired, and the Zhongzhen camp was surrendered. Then Zhongwu was surrendered, and Zhongkai was again recruited, and then Zhongyi was made up again. Four loyalties appeared in the Huguang area, and then Zhang Kuang
He requested that the original Thirteenth Battalion set up by He Tengjiao be given the prefix Zhong, and Zhu Yihai also issued an edict to confer Zhongyong Town.
For a time, Huguang had the loyalty and righteousness of the reorganized remnants of the original Shun Army, the loyalty of the original Yunyang Ming Army, the loyalty of the original Zuo Liangyu Department, and the loyalty and bravery of the original Huguang Ming Army. Five loyalties gathered together, known as the Fifty
Ten thousand troops.
Zhongzhen originally had thirteen towns, but after the division of Zhongyi, each town was expanded to nine towns.
Zhongkai originally had six battalions, but now they have been expanded to thirteen towns.
Zhongwu and Zhongyong each recruited troops and horses, and they were all known as the Eighteen Towns.
Anyway, for a time, there was Zhu Dadian, the governor of the seven provinces, and Zhang Kuang, the governor of the seven provinces, Du Yinxi, the governor of Huguang, Fu Shangrui, the governor of Pianyuan, Xu Qiyuan, the governor of Yunyang, and Zhang Jinyan, the former minister of the Ministry of War in Dabie Mountain.
, each of the five loyalties has an admiral and chief military officer.
There are forty-seven general soldiers in the town, plus the general soldiers and deputy generals such as Ge Biao, Fu Biao, Tibiao, etc., in Huguang, there are more than 60 general soldiers and more than 100 deputy generals, and the participating generals are guerrillas everywhere.
For example, in Qihuang and Yinghuo Mountains, on both sides of the Dabie Mountains, there are forty-eight large villages and hundreds of small villages. Many village owners hold the rank of general, guerrilla, and even general rank.
Anyway, the number of soldiers and horses reported was quite scary.
It's not much worse than when Zuo Liangyu claimed an army of 800,000.
But Zhu Yihai also knew some details. For example, He Tengjiao's Thirteen Battalions turned out to be really only thirteen battalions. The stronger ones, such as Huang Chaoxuan, Zhang Xianbi, and Liu Chengyin, each had 3,000 men, and the rest only had 1,000 or 8,000 men.
Hundreds of people, but now it is reported that there are eighteen towns total soldiers, at least three to five thousand, and dare to say one hundred thousand soldiers and horses in total.
Yunyang Town originally had less than 4,000 remaining soldiers from the Sixth Battalion. Now it is known as the Thirteenth Town and has more than 40,000 troops.
As for Li Chixin Gao Bizheng and others in the Zhongzhen camp, they were originally called 200,000 people. Now they are divided into two families, Zhongzhen and Zhongyi, each called Shiba Town. They are said to have more than 100,000 people, but their number includes the family members, craftsmen and civilians who accompanied the army.
Even counting the newly acquired population, but including the young and strong men who can actually fight, there are only 40,000 to 50,000 people.
There are fewer armored soldiers.
But they dared to call more than 100,000 people each.
Even the Forty-eight Villages had Zhang Jinyan, the former Minister of War, as the leader of the alliance, and they were said to have more than 100,000 troops.
This terrifyingly large force makes it easy for people to mistakenly think that Huguang has strong soldiers and horses, and can even directly attack Luoyang, Henan.
But in fact, urgent reports are now coming from the upper reaches, and the lake is in a state of collapse.
"Isn't Luck Dehun still waiting for food and grass supplies in Anqing? Why did Huguang collapse? Did Hong Chengchou conjure food, or could Luck Dehun be able to fly?"
In Huguang, Zhu Dadian was the governor, and Du Yinxi, Xu Qiyuan, Gao Doushu, Wen Anzhi, Zhang Kuang and others were all considered talented and capable officials for a while, so why did they collapse?
"It's really hard to say it." Chen Qianfu sighed repeatedly.
The original Huguang strategy was formulated by Zhu Yihai. It was to recruit the remaining Shun army, integrate the original Ming army in Huguang, and take advantage of the emptiness of Huguang to launch a comprehensive counterattack. The purpose was not to occupy Huguang for a long time, but to seize money, food and population, and control the area north of Jingjiang River.
Go to this vast area of the Han River and bulldoze it into a strategic buffer zone to protect the Hunan area and Jiangnan.
There is nothing wrong with this strategy, and Zhu Dadian, Du Yinxi and others implemented it well.
Even Li Chixin, Gao Bizheng, Hao Yaoqi, Yuan Zong, Xu Qiyuan, Wang Guangen and others performed beyond expectations. They captured Xiangfan and marched to Jingzhou, quickly bulldozing the weakly defended Chengtian, Anlu and other prefectures and counties, and achieved good results.
Taking advantage of the victory, the armies gathered in the three towns of Wuchang and surrounded Wuchang, Hankou, Hanyang, Xiawuchang, Huangzhou and Qizhou with water.
Zhu Dadian submitted a report and said that the 20,000 main force of the Jingzhou Zhongzhen Battalion would go south for reinforcements, and the troops surrounding Wuchang would be even more powerful. In the next stage, he planned to exterminate several cities upstream and downstream of Wuchang's periphery, and then finally capture Wuchang.
He said that although the Qing army in Huguang is now retreating to several cities in Wuchang and resisting stubbornly, the Ming army is advancing in an orderly manner, constantly uprooting peripheral strongholds, and is fully confident that it can capture Wuchang before Qing reinforcements arrive.
There is even a plan to capture Wuchang and then go down the river to capture Jiujiang and Nanchang.
The plan is very good.
However, the numbers of the various Ming armies were frightening, and each of them tried their best to recruit troops. However, a large number of new soldiers, some of whom were just recruited from near Wuchang, did not even have the most basic weapons, let alone armor, and the logistics supplies of food and grass were collected on the spot.
Many of these soldiers and horses were originally from the Dashun Army, and the Dashun Army was originally from the Chuang Army. It was formed by the integration of Luo Rucai and other peasant armies. Their military discipline was good before the collapse, but since Li Zicheng's death, it has deteriorated.
It has the same style as before.
Most of the camps established by Huang Chaoxuan and other former He Tengjiao were guest troops originally from the Chongzhen Dynasty, including those from Yunnan, Guizhou, Henan and other Guangdong and Guangxi, but very few from Huguang.
These generals are said to be regular soldiers of the imperial court, but they are similar to Zuo Liangyu. They are the kind of army that is inseparable from bandits.
People from all walks of life gathered together. Anyway, they regarded the surrounding areas of Wuchang as enemy territory and the people as enemies. If money and food could not be supplied, they would rob them. Even those who were not short of money and food still had to rob.
When facing fortified cities such as Hankou in Wuchang, the generals had different opinions on attacking the city and were procrastinating. After all, Zhu Dadian was also an airborne commander, and Du Yinxi was able to reluctantly gather these troops around Wuchang and make them obey orders.
It has been very difficult.
According to the plan, the Xuan tribes of the Huang Dynasty who originally attacked Qizhou should have captured Qizhou long ago, and then went to Huangzhou and Wuchang, and then took a few cities' money and food and returned to Wuchang City.
Huang Chaoxuan, the third general, is the strongest among the eighteen generals of Zhongyong Town. Each has three thousand veteran soldiers, plus there are forty-eight village warriors. It should not be difficult to defeat the Qing army of Qizhou, which only has a few thousand people.
Zhu Dadian also specially sent Zhang Kuang, the governor of the capital, to supervise the army. He was familiar with General Huang Chaoxuan.
But who could have expected that General Xuan of the Huang Dynasty had been busy looting the surrounding areas of Qizhou in the early stage. When the siege was about to begin, they drove away the Forty-eight Villages in order to monopolize the victory over the city. However, the Qing troops in Qizhou City desperately came out of the city to attack the camp.
He immediately ran away.
20,000 people were chased by 6,000 people all night, and they could not turn back. They even defeated the 48 strongholds 20 miles away.
Not to mention this, he was driven to the foot of Huangzhou City and broke through the Ming army besieging Huangzhou City.
Xu Yong, Zu Kefa and others relieved the siege of the two cities of Qi and Huang, gathered more than 10,000 soldiers and horses, and rushed all the way to Wuchang like chasing rabbits.
Then Huang Chaoxuan fled all the way to the gate of Wuchang City, saying that reinforcements from the Eight Banners of the Qing Army had arrived, and it was overwhelming.
Zhu Dadian didn't believe it.
During the day, an emergency military meeting was held to discuss re-deployment and preparation for battle.
As a result, Ma Jinzhong, Wang Yuncai, Lu Ding, Wang Jincai, etc. from Zhongwu Town ran away without hesitation in the middle of the night. During the military meeting during the day, they told Zhu Dadian that they, the elite of Zhongwu Camp, would never fight if they dared to fight.
If you retreat, the Tatars will be defeated.
Then they ran away in the middle of the night.
Zhongwu Town is said to have eighteen town generals, commanding more than 100,000 soldiers and horses. They were originally generals who followed the army, but later surrendered to Zuo Liangyu, and then followed Zuo Menggeng to surrender to the Qing Dynasty. However, after surrendering to the Qing Dynasty, they were unwilling to give up their troops and horses.
After entering Beijing, he looked for an opportunity and rebelled. Instead, he accepted the Ming Dynasty's recruitment and was reorganized into Zhongwu.
These people were originally only a handful of people, but they swelled tenfold in just a few months.
Ma Jinzhong was called the admiral, and the rest were all commanders-in-chief. They usually asked for pay today, officials and titles the next, and divided defense zones the day after tomorrow. From time to time, there would be incidents of robbing the people and forcing merchants to donate money. The ability to recruit young men was the first.
In the Yuezhou area, public dissatisfaction boiled over.
Zhu Dadian hammered and hammered, but still tried hard to maintain it. He originally thought that after the battle in Wuchang, he would conduct a comprehensive rectification, but who could have imagined that these people were still useless in the end.
Ma Jinzhong and others in Zhongwuzhen did not even see the shadow of the Qing army. When Huang Chaoxuan heard that countless Qing troops were coming, they immediately ran away and ran from Wuchang back to their hometown in Yuezhou before stopping.
After stopping for a while in Yuezhou, Ma Jinzhong and others were still not at ease, so they simply looted the city of Yuezhou, and then continued to rush south to Changsha. The soldiers who were left behind in Changsha refused to let them in, so they attacked the city directly. Relying on the overwhelming number of troops, they broke into
In the city, the whole city was looted again.
After plundering for three days, they abandoned the city and continued southward.
This time, he went directly to Hengzhou. After occupying Hengzhou, the towns divided their forces to plunder the counties and villages.
At the foot of Wuchang City, because Ma Jinzhong fled, other camps collapsed or fled. Even Li Zicheng's brother Li Zijing and General Tian Jianxiu in Zhongyi Town saw that the Ming army was so incompetent. After thinking about it, they didn't want to run away.
, simply drop it and settle it.
So when Zhongwu, Ma Jinzhong and other eighteen towns, together with Zhongyong Huang Chaoxuanzhen, fled to Yuezhou and Changsha, Zhongyi Li Zijing, Tian Jianxiu, Zhang Nai, Li You, Wu Ruyi, etc. led the deputy generals to join the guerrillas and so on.
Thirty-nine people, more than 5,000 horse and infantry soldiers, and more than 30,000 new soldiers and minzhuang surrendered to Tong Yanghe, the governor of Wuchang City.
Tong Yanghe had originally recruited Tian Jianxiu, Li Zijing and others, and the talks were good. Everything was settled, including official positions and titles. However, the matter of shaving the hair was not settled later, and then Li Guogao Yigong and others arrived.
, fell out with Tong Yanghe, and finally decided to surrender.
Tian Jianxiu and the others were actually more inclined to surrender to the Qing Dynasty at first, but Li Guo, Yuan Zongdi and others firmly opposed it, which prevented them from doing so. Now that they saw the Ming army defeated in this way, they really thought that reinforcements from the Eight Banners of the Qing army had arrived, so they simply
I would like to ask Tong Yanghe to surrender again. Instead of running around like a bereaved dog again, it would be better to surrender directly.