Chapter 39 The crime will move Zuo Liangyu to the town
"What? The Luoyang defenders rebelled to welcome the thieves? Both King Fu and Luoyang's political leader Yinchang have been killed?"
The news of King Fu's death spread back south to Huguang, obviously a day or two faster than when it spread north to the capital.
In Xiangyang City, Yang Sichang, whose health was deteriorating and had gray hair, heard the bad news. He was so shocked that he almost fell off the bed and coughed and wheezed violently.
Wan Yuanji, a doctor from the Nanjing Ministry of War who brought him the bad news, could only hand over the decoction with his own hands, pat Yang Sichang on the back, and try his best to comfort him:
"Take care, Mr. Ge! Victory or defeat is a normal matter for a military man. The defenders should serve as thieves. This is not your fault for not dispatching reinforcements in time. It can only be blamed on the fact that there are too few loyal ministers and righteous men who understand the general principles and righteousness.
Alas, to be treasonous, according to the information sent back from Luoyang, His Royal Highness Prince Fu is not only responsible for his own fault, but at least he is ignorant of the general situation.
The local people were deeply resentful of King Fu's wealth. He had a fortune of nearly ten million taels, but before the city was destroyed, they were only willing to give out one thousand taels to reward the soldiers who defended the city. This gave the intruders an opportunity to incite the army and the people.
I, Lu Shangshu of the Ministry of War in Nanjing, was temporarily ordered by His Majesty to live in leisure because of my resistance to war. At that time, I also returned to my hometown and lived in Luoyang. I heard that before the city was destroyed, Lu Shangshu also bitterly remonstrated with King Fu to squander wealth and pay soldiers, but King Fu insisted on being stingy and refused to comply.
Lü Shangshu himself dissipated all his wealth, but unfortunately it was only tens of thousands taels, which could not feed the soldiers and people who defended the city. After the city was defeated, Lü Shangshu's entire family was also killed."
After hearing what Wan Yuan Jifen said, Yang Sichang's regret was gradually transferred to "being angry for not fighting".
If you were in front of others, you would not dare to talk about such treasonous remarks. Who would dare to accuse the feudal king of being greedy and unwilling to spread his wealth.
But in private, he only had confidants, and Yang Sichang couldn't care less, and he spat bitterly.
"Zhu Changxun! He is so protective of wealth. Fortunately, the loyal and upright people in the Manchu Dynasty worked hard to fight for the foundation of the country, so Shenzong was not allowed to cause a big disaster. He took this person as his heir! But this time, he killed me and deceived the world.
What a thief!"
Wan Yuanji was shocked when he heard this. Although there was no one around him, Mr. Yang Ge actually dared to insult the feudal king. Based on his understanding of Mr. Ge, he had a vague premonition: Could it be that Mr. Yang was afraid of sin?
Are you so bold because of your desire to survive?
He hurriedly tried to persuade him for a long time, fearing that Yang Sichang would commit suicide.
Yang Sichang also calmed down a little and asked: "Where are all the reinforcements in Henan?"
Wan Yuanji, as the supervisor of the entire army, was very clear about this information and responded immediately: "Zuo Liangyu has just passed through Xinye. He came upstream from the Han River the day before yesterday and slowly arrived at Fancheng and crossed into the Baihe River.
On the other hand, Liu Guoneng, a man from Shen Shu, had previously been unable to open the Runan-Huaibei grain route because Kaifeng Prefecture could not supply military supplies. Therefore, he had to lead his army back and go north through Nanyang and Luyang, trying to break through the Funiu Mountain Pass from Luyang and help Luoyang from the north.
It was also delayed because of the detour. However, Chen Shuren and Liu Guoneng fought bravely and loyally. When the city of Luoyang was broken, they were still fighting fiercely in Luyang with Ma Shouying's troops who were blocking it. After hearing that the city was broken, they seemed to have given up on going north and were preparing to turn back.
Already."
"Returned? If Luoyang is broken, they won't attack Li Zicheng?" Yang Sichang seemed a little confused and was a little disappointed when he heard this.
Seeing Wan Yuanji's confused expression, he realized that he had too high expectations for Shen Shuren - he was just a soldier in Hubei Province, and had just been promoted to a soldier in Hubei Province a few days ago.
Even if he added the Censor of Qiandu, the scope of his inspection by the Censor of Qiandu would not include Luoyang or Kaifeng Prefecture, but would only be in Runing Prefecture in Henan at most.
The previous rescue of Luoyang and the rescue of King Fu was the decree of the imperial court. It was necessary to respond to urgent matters. Now that King Fu is dead, all the wealth in Luoyang has been robbed, and the thieves are so powerful, how can they just hit him head-on?
It's really time to retreat and make amends. Shen Shuren and Liu Guoneng did the right thing.
Yang Sichang thought for a long time, sighed and ordered: "Well, the war situation is like this, I can only bear the responsibility of this crime myself. Shen Shuren and Liu Guoneng are right, they have tried their best. Let Shen Shuren return to the teacher and follow him, Huang.
Liu Guoneng's original strongholds in Yexian and Yancheng areas were of no value to be defended. For such a loyal man, he was left alone in a dangerous place surrounded on three sides, which inevitably chilled people's hearts. He was asked to retreat to Runing Mansion, and from then on he Take Xinyang as your foundation and raise troops to guard the Huaihe River.
Now let's think about how to explain to His Majesty the responsibility for the defeat of Luoyang. A great defeat has revealed the desolation of the world. How many days I can still have power depends on whether Your Majesty is eager to ask the blame. For the sake of the world, in the last few days, I must go to such lengths to make those domineering generals pay the price! Praise the loyal and belittle the evil!
Also, Yuanji, I am going to let my personal army pack up and leave, and I will go north to Nanyang in person. In the last few days, I must act like I am taking the lead, and it will not disgrace my mission."
Yang Sichang was already prepared to die soon, and he did not want to be humiliated before his death. However, he also felt a sense of responsibility in his heart, and he wanted to take a bite out of those rebellious ministers, thieves, warlords, etc. in his last days!
In order for the emperor to slow down the progress of punishing him as much as possible, it was also important to maintain a positive posture in the last few days. That's why he decided to change from sitting in Xiangyang, the center, to personally leading troops north to supervise the battle——
As an aside, in history, before Yang Sichang died, the reason why Zhang Xianzhong temporarily stole Xiangyang and killed the king of Xiangyang was also related to the fact that Li Zicheng killed King Fu in the north more than a month before Zhang Xianzhong stole Xiangyang.
Before Li Zicheng killed King Fu, Yang Sichang's plan still focused on Zhang Xianzhong as the more important enemy and the core of the main deal. But Li Zicheng's move to kill King Fu suddenly made Li Zicheng's head more valuable.
Therefore, in order to express his determination to the emperor, Yang Sichang had to go north in person, assuming that destroying Li Zi became a higher priority, which led to the temporary emptiness of Xiangyang.
In this life, the only difference is that Yang Sichang was able to bring back the butterfly effect of Shen Shuren that did not exist before, and bring back the defense area that Shen Shuren should guard.
At the same time, Yang Sichang also intensified the impeachment of Zuo Liangyu, which was more serious than at the same time in history, and immediately wrote a memorial to the emperor on the causes and consequences of a series of defeats.
After all, under Shen Shuren's control, Zuo Liangyu's crimes in this life have also increased compared to the same period in history.
…
Yang Sichang led his direct guard troops from Xiangyang to Nanyang. Chen Shuren and Liu Guoneng's troops each returned from Luyang to Xinyang and Suizhou, which naturally required some time to march.
According to the arrangement of the army, the land route can only travel sixty or seventy miles a day, but the water route can travel more than a hundred miles with the current.
The straight-line distance from Xiangyang to Nanyang is 240 miles. When passing through Xinye and Dengzhou, you have to make a slight detour to avoid dangerous points. It is normal for the army to take five days to arrive. In addition, Yang Sichang needs to prepare for his emergency departure. In fact, We will arrive in Nanyang in seven days.
Liu Guoneng had to go back to Xinyang via Luyang, which was more than 400 miles away. Moreover, he had to separate from the Chenshu people and go back to Xinyang via the Ru River into the Huaihe River in Henan.
Chen Shuren returned to Xiangyang first, and then went down the Han River from Xiangyang back to Suizhou. The distance was the longest, but fortunately the entire waterway was downriver.
Therefore, based on this itinerary, it is estimated that in four days, Shen Shuren and Yang Sichang will meet on the road in Dengzhou, north of Xiangyang, and then pass by each other. Yang Sichang will continue to go north to Nanyang, and Shen Shuren will continue to go south back to his defense area.
Four days is not a long time, nor is it a short time. Because the urgent military situation in the Luoyang war zone, as well as the identification of causes and consequences, are all urgent information of six hundred miles. Therefore, these four days are enough for Yang Sichang's fast horse messenger to The memorial of apology was sent to Chongzhen in the capital.
This means that Shen Shuren never had the opportunity to say anything about how Yang Ge Lao apportioned the blame for the murder of the vassal king.
This can't be said to be a good thing, nor a bad thing. Shen Shuren can't bring in private goods, and he avoids the suspicion of sowing discord, but with a public heart, the court will decide on his own.
…
Four days later, Yang Sichang's apology memorial arrived in the capital as scheduled.
It was already the seventh day since King Fu's death.
Chongzhen also gradually recovered from the initial sadness. He had completed his three-day absence from court, and the regular court meetings had returned to normal for four days.
Faced with Yang Sichang's plea, Chongzhen would certainly not forgive easily, but the reasons still had to be carefully examined.
After all, even if you want to ask for guilt, who should be asked and how much responsibility should be assigned, you still have to defend yourself based on Yang Sichang's analysis.
Chongzhen read it with a livid face. Although he was disappointed, he still found two or three points of relief.
After all, there were loyal people in the Ming Dynasty - Liu Guoneng, Shen Shuren and capable people worked harder. During this period, they were exhausted. They had just killed He Jin and He Yilong, and then traveled hundreds of miles to rescue Luoyang and King Fu.
Although they were not rescued in the end, they were able to recover several counties in Runing Prefecture along the way and clear out the remnants of He Yilong's troops who were clinging to various places after his death. This was considered a hard work.
As for the fact that they did not leave the boundaries of Fengfu and rescue Luoyang from east to west, it was only because Kaifengfu could not supply the army with food, so they had to take a slight detour and rely on the Nanyang area that was still under Yang Sichang's control. Maintaining the grain road, in the end there was a fight with Ma Shou who was blocking the road in Luyang.
Yang Sichang wrote in great detail, and also attached a summary of the food request and return documents between Shen Shuren and the prefect of Kaifeng.
Finally, Yang Sichang sincerely pointed out that the main culprit for Liu Guoneng's transfer from Henan was Zuo Liangyu. When the Battle of Suizhou broke out two months ago, had Zuo Liangyu not been in Wuchang, which is across the river from Suizhou, Hanyang , but refused to save him, why did he need to transfer Liu Guoneng from Henan to copy He Yilong's retreat and besiege Wei to save Zhao?
Moreover, not only did Zuo Liangyu not save Suizhou two months ago, but this time after hearing that Li Zicheng had entered the Luoyang Basin, his move northward was still very slow.
Liu Guoneng, a native of Chenshu, had already fought with Ma Shouying in Luyang, but Zuo Liangyu still hadn't arrived! He also said along the way that he had a large number of people and it was difficult to raise food and grass!
Chongzhen was really angry this time. Chongzhen must punish Zuo Liangyu severely this time for betraying his teammates and conserving his strength to become a warlord.
Unfortunately, he also knew that Zuo Liangyu's tail was too big to fall off, so he couldn't directly ask him to kill him - Zuo Liangyu had already gathered a hundred thousand people, and many of them were not within the imperial establishment, and they all relied on Zuo Liangyu to cause harm to the local area. Food and salary. Therefore, those off-staff troops were only loyal to Zuo Liangyu and were not loyal to the imperial court at all.
Even if Zuo Liangyu himself can be designed to be booby-trapped and killed, there is a high possibility that his non-staff troops will directly turn into a new rebel force, and then the entire Huguang will be completely corrupted.
Even if Chongzhen didn't fully understand this point, Yang Sichang also deliberately reminded him in his secret notes.
In addition to grief and anger, Chongzhen could only choose to take two steps and figure it out slowly.
"Wang Cheng'en summoned Hanlin to draft an imperial edict! He stripped Zuo Liangyuping of the rank of thief general! He was deprived of his authority to continue to recruit troops to fight against thieves! He was ordered to leave Wuchang Prefecture, go north to Hanyang Prefecture, and stationed in Nanyang Prefecture. From then on, he was responsible for stopping Li Zicheng from going south!
Give Yang Sichang another secret edict. If Zuo Liangyu refuses to accept even the title of general and the right to recruit new troops, then it can be deemed that he has acted counter-intuitively! Let Yang Sichang deal with it by any means!"
What Chongzhen thought of was to gradually weaken part of Zuo Liangyu's power by taking advantage of the fact that the court still had authority.
Zuo Liangyu's troops include the private armed forces that were expanded recklessly after he was appointed Pingthief General, as well as the regular imperial guard troops that he controlled when he was in Wuchang Prefecture and Hanyang Prefecture.
Zuo Liangyu's private armed forces were not so easy to change their tune, but at least they allowed Zuo Liangyu to move places and bring the Wuchang Prefecture and Hanyang Prefecture's imperial guards under the control of Ming Dynasty loyal ministers.
In addition, ordering Zuo Liangyu to move north to Nanyang will definitely transfer the old imperial army in Nanyang first, preventing Zuo Liangyu from having the opportunity to control the new imperial army.
In this way, Zuo Liangyu's foundation can be weakened first, reducing the number of 20,000 to 30,000 troops, and then forcing him to be at the forefront of dealing with Li Zicheng. Even if Zuo Liangyu cannot be forced to fight for the time being, it is at least possible to wait until Li Zicheng takes the initiative to fight south.
Zuo Liangyu.
In today's Chongzhen's view, if Zuo Liangyu and Li Zicheng can both lose, then he will have to burn incense.