The emperor rode into Luoyang City through Yingen Gate.
This ancient capital of thirteen dynasties has produced 104 emperors according to statistics.
In the Ming Dynasty, this was the seat of Henan Prefecture and Luoyang County. It was also the fiefdom of King Fu and King Yin. During the Hongwu period, Luoyang City was built on the old site of the Yuan Dynasty and was surrounded by eight miles. The city was four feet high and the moat was five feet deep.
During the Chongzhen period, a wall was built outside the city, one foot three feet high and thirty-three miles in circumference.
In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, this ancient capital of the Central Plains was conquered by Chuang King Li Zicheng, and the old King Fu was lit up with sky lanterns. Li Zicheng sent troops to Shangluo and used the advice of Niu Jinxing in Shaanzhou, Henan Prefecture, to win people's hearts through benevolence and righteousness, and conquer the world according to Heluo.
Li Zicheng led the Chuang army to break through the surrounding cities and fight to the gates of Luoyang City. King Chuang came and refused to pay for food. The hungry people came to surrender. A large pot was set up under the city to stew pork vermicelli and steamed large white buns. The hungry people of the Chuang army besieged the city like locusts.
attack.
But Prince Fu in the city only asked for the officers and soldiers and the people to defend the city, and was reluctant to even use the money as a reward.
The invading army concentrated artillery to attack the city, and recruited surrender to incite rebellion. Finally, the defenders in the city opened the north gate of the city and led the invading army into the city. Luoyang was defeated, and King Fu was lit up with sky lanterns.
At this time, it was actually only seven years since the war.
Zhu Yihai rode a tall horse into the city from the east gate, and countless people knelt down to greet him on the roadside.
After Li Zicheng entered the city that year, the intruders looted everywhere in the city and liquidated the officials and gentry. All the captured officials in the city, including Lu Weiqi, the former Minister of War, the magistrate of Henan, and the political counselor of Henan, were all killed.
King Fu and more than 400 large landowners and gentry in Henan Prefecture were executed.
A river of blood flowed outside the Zhougong Temple, and the corpses filled up the large pit in front of the Zhougong Temple.
After this battle, Chongzhen ordered the execution of Wang Shaoyu, the commander-in-chief of Henan, and arrested the governor of Henan, Li Fengxian. Yang Sichang, the Minister of War who was responsible for chasing Li Zicheng, also committed suicide in fear of the crime.
Li Zicheng, under the banner of the rebel army, captured Luoyang City. More than 10,000 soldiers and civilians in the city were killed and injured, all lives were devastated, and the city was half burned.
Although Li Zicheng used the banner of freeing food and reassuring the people, in fact the rebel army relied entirely on the support of large households. After Li Zicheng conquered Luoyang, he recruited troops and horses aggressively. In order to supply military supplies, he also tortured large households everywhere.
After that, Azig led the Qing army, and then went to Xu Dingguo, Li Jiyu and others.
The Central Plains, the ancient capital of the Thirteen Dynasties, has been almost destroyed in the flames of war.
Governor Chen Qianfu knew that the emperor was coming and started cleaning up Luoyang City in advance, but now it is still in dilapidated condition.
Previously, Li Ji met Xu Dingguo, Zhu Zhongyi and other coalition forces to attack the Qing army in Luoyang. They besieged the city for a long time and finally broke the city. These rebels from all walks of life also took advantage of the situation and looted the city after it was broken.
At the end of Chongzhen's reign, the Central Plains suffered from severe droughts for many years, earthquakes, and locust plagues. Luoyang had 5,000 buckets of rice. Famine and death were everywhere, and people were eating each other.
It also provided an opportunity for Li Zicheng to make a comeback.
But in recent years, the lives of the people in Luoyang have not been easy, but have become worse and worse, and their lives are almost deserted.
Li Jiyu was originally just a farmer. In the 11th year of Chongzhen's reign, the Dengfeng County government officials came to his village to force him to get food. His attitude was brutal. Li Jiyu was so indignant that he beat the government officials and led a crowd into the city to ask for a grain tax exemption. However, he was arrested by the county magistrate.
Get up, put on the yoke and show it to everyone.
At night, the villagers rescued him, fled home, took off his red scarf and quilt, ran up the mountain, set up an uprising flag, and recruited troops to rebel. Within a day, hundreds of people came, and soon tens of thousands of people gathered.
In the fifteenth year of the imperial court, Dengfeng City had been captured. In the sixteenth year, he was recruited by the imperial court and appointed as the commander-in-chief of Henan Province to guard Luoyang.
In the 17th year, he accepted the surrender of the Qing army. He claimed that he occupied one prefecture, two states and twelve counties, more than a thousand large and small villages, and 270,000 troops to surrender.
Li Jiyu had already raised his troops to rebel before Li Zicheng swept Henan. Later, when Li Zicheng swept Henan, he briefly attached to Li Zicheng. However, after Li Zicheng's army moved north, he, Liu Hongqi and others still fought in Henan and separated themselves.
One side.
After Li Zicheng defeated Shanhaiguan, he surrendered to the Qing court. However, the Qing court did not reuse this bandit and even planned to summon him to Beijing to control
Li Jiyu kept procrastinating, and later he, Xu Dingguo and others rebelled against the Qing Dynasty and defected to the Ming Dynasty.
Zhu Yihai also appointed him as the commander-in-chief of regiment training to temporarily appease him.
But now just looking at the situation in Luoyang, we know that Li Jiyu still has the habit of banditry. He controls the western Henan area in a separatist regime, but he does not have any governance to calm the people. He is just a local emperor.
When Zhu Yihai pacified Shandong and began to take control of Henan, Li Jiyu led his troops to Hebei. He said it was the Northern Expedition, but in fact he did not want to be reorganized and dismissed by the court, but he could not fight in Henan, so he ran away with his troops.
.
Before running away, they also sent troops to search and loot Western Henan.
After entering the city of Luoyang, the governor Chen Qianfu came to pay homage to him, together with the inspectors, the governor, the inspectors, the governor, and others.
I heard them give a brief report. The situation in western Henan is very bad now. Nanyang has not been recovered yet, and the three sides are still Tatar-controlled areas. Qing troops and bandits often come to plunder.
Previously, as the commander-in-chief, Li Jiyu only occupied a few big cities such as Luoyang and Shaanzhou, and did not take care of other places. Apart from collecting grain and tax and sending troops there, he rarely went to counties.
Therefore, in western Henan, there are still many native villages, and there are also many wandering old men, swordsmen, and horse thieves.
The population here has suffered a massive loss, the fields are still generally deserted, and the prices of food and salt are still extremely high. It is a completely chaotic scene.
Li Jiyu also cleverly created a name to collect taxes privately, and even monopolized the sale of salt and grain. He also minted coins secretly, all of which were bad coins. He even sold the silver rewarded by the court, the salaries given by the court, and the silver coins and copper coins in circulation.
, and then reduce the quality and casting circulation.
Li Jiyu has no ability to govern the local area at all. He only controls some big cities and is the leader of the army in western Henan. He also has many powerful and independent fortresses under him, and even the Tuzhai Alliance, as well as
Some rogue thieves and bandits are causing chaos.
Although Li Jiyu took the initiative to return to the Ming Dynasty, in fact, the imperial court could not reach here before. Zhu Yihai's Northern Expedition was so powerful that chaos broke out in Henan and Shandong. After he was surrendered by the Tatars, he felt cheated, so he borrowed the opportunity.
He rebelled and regained power. But he did not want to be truly controlled by the court.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content below! He always followed the imperial court's decrees and orders, and did not take them seriously at all. When the imperial court came for real, he ran away immediately.
The land can be given away, but the soldiers and horses cannot be handed over. With the money, food and treasures, they arrived in Hebei, occupied a piece of land and continued to be the emperor of the country.
He is not alone.
The same is true for Xu Dingguo of Kaifeng, Li Huajing of Caozhou, Zheng Longfang of the former Jining area, Ding Qiguang of Wei Hui, etc.
Normally, they would say they were nice and loyal to the Ming Dynasty, but when the imperial court really wanted to reorganize their troops, they immediately stopped working.
It doesn't matter to them whether they are called provincial camp, outer town, or regiment training, but their territory of men and horses will never be handed over easily.
If you can't bear it, run away.
This is the bottom line for warlords.
Territory and soldiers and horses, and among these two, soldiers and horses are the final bottom line.
Henan and Shandong, where Li Ji met Xu Dingguo and others, fled, leaving behind an increasingly dilapidated Central Plains.
In other words, the situation in the Guixu area controlled by Xu Zhongyi, Zhao Hongsheng and others is slightly better.
"Run away. Since they are willing to go to the Northern Expedition, let them fulfill their loyalty and bravery, draw up a decree, and reorganize them into the Northern Expedition regiment to practice six towns, Xu Dingguo, Li Jiyu, Li Huajing, Ding Qiguang, Ding Weiyue, Liang Min
Each commanded a town, divided into left and right wings, and were under the command of Tu Guobao, the governor of Zhili, and Ma Guozhu, the governor of Shanxi. The ministries originally commanded by Ma and Tu were reorganized into Shanxi provincial towns and Zhili provincial towns."
Organizing those disorganized rebels into eight towns was nominally to reorganize the Northern Expedition, but in fact it was to take this opportunity to officially kick them out of Shandong and Henan.
Hebei and Shanxi are still enemy-occupied areas. Let them be the vanguard for now and let them confront the Tatars.
Zhu Yihai took care of the rear first.
Chen Qianfu was Zhu Yihai's confidant and brother-in-law. When he saw the emperor's expression a few years ago, he knew that the emperor was dissatisfied with those military leaders, but also disdainful of those people.
"Your Majesty, after the great victory in Yingzhou, the aftermath is still being dealt with over there. Now the imperial camp soldiers and horses are heading to Nanyang. We are also busy coordinating food, grass, equipment, etc. and providing logistical assistance."
"We cannot be negligent in supporting the army and must ensure supply. But now that Henan is being rebuilt, we cannot be lax and delay it."
As the inspector-general, Old Master Zhu Hongsheng did not have a high official position, but he was an official in the imperial camp who stayed in Henan during the first Northern Expedition. His rank was low at first, but now he is a provincial official.
He had previously served as a sub-inspector in Guide Chen Xudao, and his performance was quite good.
Zhu Yihai asked him about his response strategy, and the answer he gave was quite satisfactory, which was to clean up the fields first, and at the same time recruit the hungry people to provide work relief and resume production.
At the same time, it was necessary to improve Baojia, establish regiment training and rural camps under the command of local officials, suppress bandits and capture thieves, restore order, provide disaster relief and resume farming, etc.
"We also need the court to dispatch more officials, and we also need the court to transport grain from Shandong and Jiangbei to provide relief support. Even now, there is a flood of private money and coins in the market. We also hope that the Bank of Accounts can help here as soon as possible.
Branches and sub-branches were established on the side to provide high-quality and sophisticated copper coins, copper coins, and silver coins."
Chen Qianfu added that he hoped that the emperor would dispatch factory guards to specifically crack down on various problems of private minting and private sales of coins.
"I understand, you want people, food, money, everything from me." Zhu Yihai smiled, "I can understand, there is nothing left to be done.
But now the imperial camps are coming one by one. Luoyang, Kaifeng, Nanyang, Yingzhou, Zhumadian, and Shaanzhou all have their own elite officers stationed in the imperial camps, and then there will also be tax police groups, post soldiers, and villages stationed in towns.
, of course, money, food, salt, etc. will be shipped continuously.
Although the Central Plains is a big hole now, the imperial court will do its best to fill it."
Zhu Yihai was very calm. He mobilized the elites of several towns and imperial camps to enter the Central Plains. With this trump card in hand, everything was no problem. Just like when Xu Dingguo, Li Ji, and other Central Plains warlords all fled to Hebei, they all knew themselves.
With all the army leaders gone, can the remaining earthen fortresses and bandits still be used as chariots?
As soon as the sun shines, the snow on the ground will melt.
All it takes is some time.
The towns of the imperial camp came and visited villages and villages. Zhu Yihai would not be polite to anyone who dared to be dishonest.
"My team has brought a lot of food. I will be able to take out some for porridge in a while, and some can also be put on the market for sale. I will supply it in a limited quantity at first, and the price will be one silver dollar per stone of rice and wheat to stabilize the market price of food.
We are not short of food now, we just need time to transport it. As long as the food starts to be sold at a fair price, the people will feel at ease.
