Chapter 376 Emperor Shaotian is beyond the reach of his whip
late at night.
The tremendous pressure made it difficult for Zhu Yihai to sleep.
In the dim room, Zhu Yihai sat alone in front of the case, still looking through the memorial reports and taking notes from time to time.
The situation is just right.
But Zhu Yihai is even more anxious. He knows very well that now at the critical moment, every step is like walking on thin ice, and any wrong step may lead to total loss.
Under his leadership, Ming Dynasty now barely has half of the country in the south, but what seems to be a good situation is actually a fragmented mess. Even the imperial camp that he relies on the most is actually empty now, and it is really capable of fighting.
There are not many soldiers to fight.
From a corner of eastern Zhejiang to now planning for the world, there are too many uncertainties and too many uncontrollables.
He took the map again and set his sights on Guanzhong.
Xi'an City.
This thousand-year-old capital was once the center of the Han Dynasty. However, after the Sui and Tang Dynasties, the center of gravity of the world moved eastward and Chang'an became Xi'an. Guanzhong could not support too many people, let alone become the center of the world. But even at this time, Xi'an was still the center of the world.
An important town occupying a central position in the northwest.
After gaining Long, look towards Shu.
Zhu Yihai was currently occupying Bashu, so he turned to look at Longyou Guanzhong.
He once had the slightest hope that Gao Doushu, the Yunyang God of War, and He Zhen, the fierce general, would really bring him unexpected joy, take advantage of the emptiness in Guanzhong to capture Xi'an, and then reject Tongguan to completely conquer Shaanxi and Gansu.
But this hope that shouldn't be had only flashed by, and then Zhu Yihai decided that this idea was too underestimated at this time.
In fact, it is almost the same.
He Zhen sent 20,000 troops out of Lianyunzhan and entered Fengxiang in Guanzhong. Sun Shufa and Wu Dading in Guanzhong raised troops to respond. Wang Guangtai from Zhongkai Town in Yunyang and Liu Tichun from Zhongyi Town also led their troops out of the pass.
In Guanzhong Plain, many generals of Dashun Army, and even many Ming generals and gentry rebelled. Liu Wenbing, Guo Junzhen, Huang Huangyu, Jiao Rong, Qiu Huang, Li Yao and others responded.
At one time, they even took Zhouzhi, Huxian, Meixian, Jingyang, Sanyuan, Lintong, Chengcheng, Pucheng, Baishui, Chaoyi, Qianxian, Wugong, etc.
Wu Dading, Sun Shoufa and others raised troops to consolidate the territory, occupied Longzhou, and even captured and beheaded the chief soldier He Shiyuan.
He Hongqi and Li Mingyi raised troops at Lingtai, Jiang Denglai occupied Jiezhou, Wang Yuan and Ma De killed Jiao Anmin, the governor of Ningxia in the Qing Dynasty, and occupied Gongchang Mansion.
At the end of December last year, 100,000 volunteer divisions from Guanlong, Hanzhong and Yunyang besieged Xi'an and reached Xianyang.
In Xi'an City, Cao Junsan, Wang Ying, Shi Kezong and others all conspired to respond internally and sent people to contact the rebels.
He County Juren Yao Xiao, Qian Zong Wei Tianming, Chaoyi scholar Wang Zhili, Li Shiren and others also responded by killing Qing officials.
Even Huang Changyin, the newly appointed governor of Shaanxi, actually took the initiative to send people to the rebels to plead for change.
It is precisely for this reason that although Zhu Yihai issued orders again and again, emphasizing that it was not yet time to attack Guanzhong, let alone attack Xi'an, he hoped that after the anti-Qing war broke out in Shaanxi and Gansu, the generals would take advantage of the opportunity to wipe out the Qing army's Green Camp.
After the wave was launched and some local officials of the Qing army were eliminated, the troops retreated in time and were taken to mountainous areas and other dangerous places to reorganize.
However, He Zhen believed that the situation was excellent and could not miss the opportunity at this time, insisting on taking Xi'an in one fell swoop.
Although Gao Doushu was the governor sent by Zhu Yihai, after all, the people from all walks of life in Guanzhong were complex. Although they all respected Zhu Yihai now, they were all military leaders with soldiers and horses. Governor Gao's words had no effect.
In the end, I had no choice but to take one step at a time and even entertain the idea that I might be able to capture Xi'an.
But they are similar to those of Zhu Dadian and Huguang Wuzhong. The rebel army is too mixed and chaotic. You call it three thousand and I call it five thousand in various places. They are called rebels, but in fact many of them are ordinary people.
Gathering towards Xi'an, there were many people and strength for a while, but then came the problem of food and grass supply for so many people, and even the problem of unified command and dispatch.
Due to lack of food and pay, many of the rebels were originally compliant soldiers or even some grass bandits. They robbed food when they had no food, which temporarily caused chaos in Guanzhong. Originally, the people were looking forward to these rebels and warmly welcomed them, but who knew
In the end, everyone complained and even avoided it.
Not only that, the governor Gao Doushu was still unable to effectively command these troops, the same was true for the admiral He Zhen, and the same was true for the governor Sun Shoufa.
Originally, Gao Doushu proposed that the 100,000 rebels should be divided into combat auxiliaries, and the combat soldiers should also be reorganized into battalions. It was planned to have a small battalion of 500 people, a large battalion of 3,000 people, and an army of 12,000 people. The total number of combat soldiers was
It is divided into five armies: front, center, left and right, with 60,000 combat troops and more than 40,000 auxiliary troops.
But when it came to reorganization, the leaders of the various rebel armies began to have more opinions. They competed for official positions, titles, and even food and pay.
There was endless debate and no progress.
Although the chaotic troops and horses were large in number, they were not organized or under unified command. Although they were drawn near Xi'an, facing the empty Xi'an city, it was still a waste of time.
Meng Qiaofang, the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi Province in Xi'an City, is an old traitor.
Originally from Zhili, his ancestral home was Xuzhou. He served as deputy commander-in-chief in the Ming Dynasty and later resigned and returned to his hometown. Sixteen years ago, the Qing army captured his hometown of Yongping. Meng Qiaofang and the county magistrate Zhang Yangchu prepared the army with Bai Yangcui and deputy general Yang Wenkui.
, guerrilla Yang Shengyuan and fifteen others surrendered.
Still serving as deputy general, he later returned to Liaodong with the Qing army, worked hard, joined the Han army and set up a red flag, and was awarded the title of Meile Zhangjing of the Han army for his merits. After entering the customs, he was promoted to the left minister of the Ministry of punishment.
After Azig returned to the court, he served as the governor of the three sides and guarded Shaanxi.
Originally, Meng Qiaofang was a polished commander with few soldiers under his command. Generals such as He Zhen, Bai Guangen, and Ma Ke were all surrendered generals. There were bright generals and obedient generals, and they were all unruly military leaders.
Therefore, when Meng Qiaofang took office, he kept reporting to the Qing court, saying that people like He Zhen could never be trusted, especially the important area of Hanzhong, which could not be handed over to He Zhen. He proposed to transfer He Zhen and others to other places to suppress thieves, and in this name they were transferred.
, and then the Qing court sent troops to take over the important towns of Hanzhong.
He even came up with some tricks to sow discord to cause He Zhen and others to fight among themselves.
It's a pity that Zhu Yihai came out. He had Qian Qianyi, Yan Wogong and many other senior insiders in the court. Meng Qiaofang's plan was known to Zhu Yihai, and then he copied a copy and showed it to He Zhen and others. After some persuasion,
Next, I persuaded He Zhen to surrender in advance.
He Zhen, Sun Fashou, Wu Dading, etc. Meng Qiaofang was caught off guard anyway. Even the other three generals of Hanzhong, Luo Dai, Dang Meng'an, and Guo Dengxian, whom he had almost succeeded in winning over, also followed suit.
He Zhen and other companies attacked Xi'an with 100,000 troops, which was so huge that many Tatar officials in Xi'an were very frightened. Many people advised Meng Qiaofang to evacuate Xi'an to temporarily avoid the front line.
However, although Meng Qiaofang only had a thousand men, he still insisted on defending the city. He sent deputy general Chen De of Biaoying to guard the west gate and Ren Zhen to guard the north gate. He even placed a coffin at his governor's office, declaring that he would live and die with the city.
He also sent people to search carefully and kill the gentry who tried to respond internally. However, Xi'an was stabilized for a while, and he spread the news everywhere that Wu Sangui, the king of Pingxi, and Li Guohan, the real person of Gushan'er, had led an army nearby.
He also used money to recruit people and rewarded them with strong rewards to defend the city.
Through various means, chaos did not break out in Xi'an.
However, He Zhen and the others were still wasting time outside the city, arguing endlessly about the joint reorganization, and even fighting over things such as grabbing food and grass.
Wait until they arrive in Xianyang, noisy all the way.
Seeing that Wu Sangui hadn't arrived yet, Meng Qiaofang immediately used another trick and sent a servant to Xianyang with ten thousand taels of silver, claiming that he planned to surrender anyway.
Then he said that the two generals Chen Derenzhen in Xi'an are loyal to the Tatars, so they hope that the rebels will give him some time to get rid of the two generals first, and then they can directly open the city and surrender without spending a single soldier.
He even said he could raise food and fodder for the rebels.
He Zhen actually believed it.
Agree to postpone the attack.
This is the biggest mistake they make.
He Zhen felt that Meng Qiaofang was afraid of the might of the Ming army, so she really wanted to surrender like the governor Huang Changyin. After all, Huang Changyin was very sincere and sent his son as a pledge, wrote many letters of loyalty, and even revealed the truth about the Qing army in Shaanxi
Sweet and so on.
He didn't expect that Meng Qiaofang was a real traitor.
What he did was just a delaying tactic to buy Wu Sangui time.
Zhu Yihai dropped the map with a long sigh.
After delaying this, he could basically conclude that He Zhen and the others would repeat history and be defeated by Xi'an City again.
This made him very painful. He clearly knew the future and the direction, but he also repeatedly conveyed orders to Gao Dou Shu He Zhen and others, giving thirty-six gold medals in a row, urging them to retreat.
But they just didn't respect the imperial edict and ordered them to retreat.
Fighting and not fighting, retreating and not retreating, just wasting time in Guanzhong. Today, various rebel armies go to the countryside to collect food, and that other goes to the countryside to recruit young men. The day after tomorrow, the two groups may encounter each other, and there will be a fight.
Meng Qiaofang also sent a batch of food and grass today, a sum of money tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow sent some beauties to He Zhen and others. Anyway, it was all about delaying time.
Although Zhu Yihai also knew very well that it was not uncommon for a battle to last for a year and a half or even several years, but the current situation was that He Zhen and the others did not have the strength.
He could only watch helplessly as they were heading towards the abyss of defeat and repeating the mistakes of the Huguang Five Faithfuls, but there was nothing he could do. This feeling of powerlessness was too painful.
This made him more and more determined that in the crisis situation at the end of the Ming Dynasty, he could not count on these local military leaders.
He Zhenke was a Ming general. Now when Fan Yiheng, the newly appointed governor of Yunnan, was serving as a border road to Shaanxi, He Zhen was his general. Until Fan Yiheng lost his post as governor of Ningxia and returned to his hometown of Sichuan in the twelfth year of Chongzhen's reign, He Zhen was
Zhendu even saw him off in person and was still his general.
He Zhen was Li Zicheng who did not surrender until the 14th year of Chongzhen. He would not have been so short-sighted and would not have been easily fooled by the Qing army.
But the result is still the same.
Like most military generals of this era, He Zhen was a weakling who relied on his own troops. He was originally a general of the Ming Dynasty. Later, his army was greatly defeated by Li Zicheng. Li Zicheng was defeated and quickly surrendered to the Qing Dynasty. Seeing that the Qing government did not treat him as one of its own.
He was recruited and surrendered by Zhu Yihai. Now he is under Xi'an City, but he does not obey the imperial edict.
Zhu Yihai could almost guess He Zhen's mentality. He didn't pay much attention to Zhu Yihai at all. All he saw was the 100,000 people gathered near Xi'an. What he was thinking about was how to control this army and turn it into a
His He family army used this as capital to make further progress in these troubled times.
That's why He Zhen was unwilling to withdraw her troops and insisted on attacking Xi'an.
Everyone is in different positions and has different interests. Zhu Yihai wants to restore the world, but He Zhen wants to take advantage of the chaos to gain control of his troops and strengthen his own strength.
Zhu Yihai was beyond reach and had no choice but to do anything.
He was so angry that he hammered the table with his fist, and finally couldn't help but take out his notebook and added 'hezhen' on it.
He Zhen, who harbors evil intentions, has no hope. Now she can only count on Wen Anzhi, Qin Liangyu's Shaanxi-Gansu camp, Qin Yiming's Zhongyong Town, Yunyang's Zhongkai Town, and Badong's Zhongzhen Town. I hope these people can...
Arriving at Hanzhong in time.
Even if we can't save the Ming army in Guanzhong, we must at least keep Hanzhong intact.