Chapter 117 Zhang Xianzhong: I will do the despicable things that Shen Shuren is inconvenient to do
As a person born in the 1980s, Shen Shuren still remembers that when he was studying in his previous life, the junior high school geography textbook still wrote "Dongting Lake is the largest Danshui Lake in my country."
However, twenty years later, when his nephew asked him for help with geography homework, he discovered that the standard answer had actually become "Poyang Lake is the largest Danshui Lake in my country."
It can be seen how drastic the shrinkage of Dongting Lake was in later generations, especially after the founding of the People's Republic of China (Poyang Lake may also abdicate in the future and become grassland).
However, it is still the late Ming Dynasty, and Dongting Lake is still a serious "spanning seven to eight hundred miles".
Of course, modern people may not be used to this "horizontal" algorithm. This is walking from the northeast corner to the southwest corner of the lake. Calculating the distance to the farthest lake shore, it is roughly equivalent to walking from Yueyang to Changde in later generations. The half-circumference is 800 miles.
.
As for the straight-line distance, the distance from Yueyang to Changde is only more than 300 miles, and the distance from Yueyang to Xiangyin County at the mouth of the Xiangjiang River in the south is only more than 200 miles. Going upstream from Xiangyin along the Xiangjiang River only takes 70 to 80 miles.
, which is Changsha.
Such a huge lake is destined to leave plenty of room for the navy with superior warships - the only condition is that you can find the enemy.
Shen Lian and Li Yu led 6,000 men and broke through the mouth of Dongting Lake overnight. They spared no effort and used both sails and oars to row southward day and night. All the soldiers took turns to rest, and those who were awake helped with the rowing.
The rations and supplies carried on the ship were also very sufficient, including precious dried meat and condensed milk, so that the soldiers could recover their strength as soon as possible and to boost morale before the war.
In normal days of marching, training, and guarding, there is no such good food to eat, and only the seriously wounded can touch it.
Navigating Dongting Lake from north to south in June is not very strenuous. Because the Yangtze River has a large amount of water coming from the upper reaches during the summer flood season, the Chenglingji Lake mouth pours water from the Yangtze River into Dongting Lake. This situation always requires
At the end of the flood season, water will be stored in Dongting Lake and returned to the Yangtze River.
Therefore, the water in the northern lake will naturally flow slowly southward until it is close to the south bank, so that the water from the Xiangjiang River can completely offset the inflow of the Yangtze River.
In just one day, the waterway of more than two hundred miles was completed, and halfway through, Shen Lian and Li Yu actually discovered some targets.
…
The story is divided into two parts. Li Dingguo resisted Chen Shuren and Zuo Zixiong in Chenglingji and Baling. At the same time, Zhang Xianzhong's main force in the south made really exaggerated progress.
In fact, even as early as the day before Li Dingguo besieged Baling, when Li Dingguo had just found enough ships in Yuezhou Prefecture to cross the mouth of Dongting Lake, Zhang Xianzhong had already captured Wuling County, which was governed by Changde Prefecture.
However, it took time for the message to be transmitted. Later, Li Dingguo crossed eastward to Hukou, and the transfer of military information was delayed due to the alternation of water and land, so he could not immediately know the progress of his adoptive father.
Therefore, the entire territory of Changde had actually fallen four days before the Chen Shuren arrived. The entire siege only lasted a day and a half.
The conditions Zhang Xianzhong offered at that time were "to surrender directly, only the vassal king and officials will be killed, not the people. If you resist for one day, 30% of the city will be massacred. If you resist for two days, 60% of the city will be massacred. If you resist for three days, the entire city will be massacred."
This condition is very harsh, even more urgent than what Li Dingguo issued in Baling. Historically, they would only do this after the 16th year of Chongzhen. Now it is obviously to grab time, so they have made a heavy move——
Zhang Xianzhong knew very well that all his methods must be centered around the goal of capturing Changsha as soon as possible. Anything that is conducive to capturing Changsha as soon as possible must be used, no matter how vicious it is.
Under the urging of local officials and local vassal kings, the defenders of Changde Prefecture also resisted symbolically for a day at first.
But seeing the ferocity of the enemy's offensive, all of them were attacking like crazy and threatening their lives. After nightfall, some soldiers' morale was shaken when they thought of the terrible fate that the harder they resisted, the worse the revenge would be in the future.
However, Zhang Xianzhong did not completely surround the city, but only attacked the west gate of Wuling County, leaving the other three sides completely open for people to escape. So that night, a large number of defenders opened the doors and fled out of the city after confirming that no one was outside the city.
Zhang Xianzhong did not pursue the deserters or fleeing people, but went into the city and killed the whole family of the local vassal king and Rong Wang Zhu Youzhen who was stationed in Changde, including Zhu Youzhen himself and his son, the eldest son Zhu Cizhao.
Zhu Youyi was hacked to death with knives, his body was dismembered and sunk into the river, thrown into the Yuanshui River and rushed directly into the Dongting Lake. Zhu Cizhao was luckier, as he was only stabbed on the neck with a knife and was not deliberately dismembered, so his body was left intact.
Correct
This Zhu Youzhen was the fifth generation of King Rong. His ancestor was the younger brother of Emperor Hongzhi Zhu Youtang. He became a vassal in the Zhengde period and lived in Changde for more than 130 years before the country was eliminated.
Of course, all the property in Prince Rong's palace was robbed, and the proceeds were worth more than one million taels of silver. Most of them were used to recruit poor people to expand the army, and all the swords, guns, weapons, scraps of copper and iron left in the palace by the Ming army were also collected.
I have to lament that the Ming vassal king once again became the captain of the transportation team for the bandits.
Wuling County was the first prefectural-level city that Zhang Xianzhong captured after his comeback. Although he was not very rich, killing all the feudal lords and wealthy landlords still made him gain weight in an instant.
As for the threat of "slaughter 30% of the city", Zhang Xianzhong did not strictly implement it because he did not have time, so he just hastily killed all the people who had houses in the city. The total number of dead was about 30,000 to 40,000 people. Those who had no houses and fled to the countryside were ignored.
.
In the end, he left Liu Wenxiu to continue searching for ships, and recruited the poorest men who came with ten thousand to twenty thousand dollars. After announcing the tax exemption for three years, he continued to march to Changsha.
Two days later, that is, two days before Shen Shuren sent Shen Lian and Li Yu went south to intercept.
Zhang Xianzhong's leading troops successfully landed in Linxiang County, Changsha Prefecture, controlling the key point at the mouth of the Xiang River where it flows into Dongting Lake, and also cut off the waterway traffic from the Xiang River to Yuezhou.
Of course, the small county of Linxiang had no resistance. With the threat of Wuling County being massacred before, and the news that Changsha Prefecture was blocked, they did not know that Shen Shuren's reinforcements would come soon. Linxiang County Magistrate pretended to abandon his official position in advance.
After running away, the defenders collapsed at the first touch.
However, by doing this, Zhang Xianzhong did not go on a killing spree in Linxiang, but only killed all the big landlords and wealthy people, and the poor were too lazy to kill. In this way, he had a better mass base after entering the city.
The money that has not yet been spent has attracted a large amount of cannon fodder——
Zhang Xianzhong also had to pull more cannon fodder locally, because he needed manpower to storm Changsha, and he needed cannon fodder to bear the firepower of the defenders and fill holes and rivers to destroy peripheral fortifications.
The previous combat methods and marching trajectories of crossing mountains and ridges into Changde also brought certain sequelae to him - Zhang Xianzhong's army had very few ships, except for rafts and small boats, which were all captured along the way in Changde.
Before crossing Dongting Lake, the problem caused by the small number of boats was not big, and the rafts could also be used to follow the march, saving energy.
However, the raft could not enter Dongting Lake and could easily capsize. The lake water also lacked flow speed compared to the river water, and the raft had insufficient power. Therefore, from the moment it entered Dongting Lake, Zhang Xianzhong's troops had actually been divided into several groups.
Only the former army had enough boats to cross the lake and reach Linxiang, and then the fleet had to return to Changde to pick up the second batch of troops.
It is estimated that it will take three or four round trips to pick up all Zhang Xianzhong's 50,000 troops and Xinla's strong men.
This resulted in Zhang Xianzhong only relying on the first 20,000 vanguard troops. It was very difficult to break through Changsha, at least it could not scare the Changsha defenders.
By mobilizing cannon fodder after landing in Linxiang, the restriction on the number of ferries can be bypassed. After arriving at the southeastern shore of Dongting Lake, the troops can reproduce and divide on the spot like a virus, and use local materials to attack Changsha.
The subsequent transportation of people and horses will be slower and it will take a few more days to assemble, so the problem will not be big.
Zhang Xianzhong's bluff worked after all. The day after Linxiang County surrendered, Zhang Xianzhong moved his troops to Changsha, surrounded only the north of the city, prepared an attack, and promised the terms of surrender. This time he gave the officers and soldiers one day to consider, and within five days
The entire city will be completely massacred if the conditions are not lower, just like the conditions Li Dingguo set in Baling.
Zhang Xianzhong dared to make this decision because of the vastness of Changsha's city and its strong defensive potential. He was afraid that if he pushed too hard, he would jump over the wall.
The prefect of Changsha had already abandoned his official position and fled the city. Among the civil officials, only Cai Daoxian, the leading official, insisted on holding on.
However, after only one day of fierce fighting, General Yin Xianmin, the commander-in-chief of the defending army, decided to lead his troops to surrender, tied up Cai Daoxian, and handed him over to Zhang Xianzhong——
This is by no means a joke to Zhang Xianzhong, but historically the guards in the southern Huguang area were really rotten. They had not experienced battles for a long time, everyone was cowardly, and the generals were useless.
The relatively elite officers and soldiers in the Huguang area have been transferred to the northern region one after another during previous conflicts, to Nanyang, Xiangyang, Yiling, Wuchang and other places. Those who can stay in places such as Changsha in the south are the most corrupt in the first place.
Empty rate guardhouse.
Even if the original historical trajectory was followed, one year later, Yin Xianmin and several other Hunan generals would be defeated at the first sign of attack and surrender. Now it is just Zhang Xianzhong's offensive route that has changed the sequence, causing Yin Xianmin to surrender a year in advance.
Zhang Xianzhong himself was shocked by the corruption of the army. He was overjoyed and immediately led his troops into the city to take over. Seeing that Cai Daoxian still had some backbone, he personally persuaded Cai Daoxian to surrender, but Cai Daoxian cursed him endlessly.
Zhang Xianzhong was furious, and he personally struck several blows with his sword, then ordered his subordinates to make up for the remaining number of blows, and executed Cai Daoxian late at the age of twenty-eight.
Later, Zhang Xianzhong killed the vassal king Ji Wang Zhu Youdong's family in Changsha, including the crown prince Zhu Cixuan, and robbed the wealth of Prince Ji's house. Because Changsha was too wealthy and Changde was too rich, and Prince Ji had been a vassal for two generations longer than Prince Rong (the first generation).
King Ji is the younger brother of Chenghua Emperor Zhu Jianshen)
The savings of Prince Ji's Mansion were naturally much higher than those of Prince Rong, with all his belongings actually amounting to more than three million taels. Adding in the proceeds from the confiscation of all the officials and wealthy gentry in Changsha who had been slaughtered, the total amount reached more than eight million taels.
However, it was also the time when Zhang Xianzhong was feeling extremely proud and extremely arrogant on the frontal battlefield on the southern front.
Near Linxiang County in the north, his supply line across Dongting Lake, the lifeline used to transport the follow-up troops stranded in Changde, suddenly encountered the Chenshu people who were rushing across the entire Dongting Lake.