The delivery of Chongzhen's imperial edict to Hefei had to be delayed until the third day of July.
Then it’s not until the middle of July when we send it to Chongqing - regardless of the straight-line distance between Chongqing and Beijing, it is only twice as far as Hefei is from Beijing. However, it is very slow to stretch fibers upstream of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River. Moreover, the road to Sichuan is winding.
Circling can never be estimated based on straight-line distance.
However, even if the eunuch Wang Eunuch who announced the decree rushed to Chongqing on July 15th, he still could not deliver the decree to Zhu Shuren - because Wang Eunuch sadly heard that Governor Zhu was not in Chongqing.
, but temporarily went north to Hanzhong!
What a cheat! The prince has been working hard for most of the month, and he thought he could finally take a break, but he did this!
Didn't we agree that the reason why we stayed in Sichuan was to hunt down Zhang Xianzhong's remaining party Sun Kewang? Didn't we agree that Sun Kewang would escape to the Daliang Mountains in southwest Sichuan! Why did he go to Hanzhong again!
Of course, he raised this angry question without reservation and questioned Zhang Huangyan, the Sichuan Army Preparatory Officer who stayed in Chongqing and handled the suppression of bandits in southwestern Sichuan on behalf of Zhu Shuren.
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Zhang Huangyan entertained the other party with delicious food and drinks to relieve his fatigue, and explained with a smile:
"My father-in-law, you have misunderstood. The pursuit of Sun Kewang in southwestern Sichuan is indeed very important. Before the governor left, he also took care of the subordinate officer Haosheng to supervise the matter. Everything is going smoothly now. The Ministry of War requires that Sun Kewang be solved within three months, so it should not be a big problem.
As for why the Governor went to Hanzhong, the truth is this: More than half a month ago, the Governor learned from the former Taiyuan Commander-in-Chief, Cao Bianjiao Cao, the Commander-in-Chief of Hanzhong, who had recently arrived in Hanzhong, that there was a change in Guanzhong.
The intruders fought their way back to Guanzhong, defeated Governor Sun of Chuanting on the three sides of Shaanxi and Gansu, and occupied Xi'an. There were also rumors that Governor Sun might have died for his country. Because our army was in Xichuan, there was no news, so it was difficult to verify it for a while.
Governor Zhu was afraid that the intruders would really get big, and would even take advantage of the situation to invade Baoji, Dashanguan and other places in Fengxiang Prefecture. In this way, there would be no peace in Sichuan in the future, and Hanzhong would always be under the threat of intruders.
He had no choice but to go north to inspect the defense and meet Cao Junmen to check for any leaks. In addition, Governor Zhu also considered that although he had not yet received an order from His Majesty, he would immediately turn around and deal with Chuang after he had completely dealt with Sun Kewang.
thief.
But for the sake of the country, he figured that this matter must be very important, so some measures must be arranged in advance to prevent the northern route from being corrupted. As you know, when Zhuge Wuhou made the northern expedition from Sichuan to Guanzhong, it was because the food road was unsustainable.
The Chencang crossing was occupied by the Wei people again, so they suffered repeated setbacks.
If the intruders now really occupy Guanzhong and occupy Dasan Pass and Baoji, they will lose all the bridgeheads in Guanzhong and the grain garrison north of the Qinling Mountains in the future northern expedition from Sichuan.
But if the imperial court can occupy Dashan Pass and Baoji, then Governor Zhu will be able to defeat the invaders in the Guanzhong and Heluo areas in the future, and he will be able to match Zhuge Wuhou Longzhong. He can use the soldiers of Bashu to go straight to Qinchuan, and the soldiers of Jingchu to attack
Wan and Luo prevent the intruders from looking at each other——
Governor Zhu was fearless about this matter. His only concern was that the military situation was raging. Before he could ask for an order, he made his own arrangements to prepare for the crusade against the intruders. This is also the ancient meaning of military warfare and the need to obey authority in emergencies. Please also ask.
When my father-in-law comes back to Beijing in the future, he will speak truthfully and kindly to clarify Governor Zhu's difficulties."
Zhang Huangyan usually doesn't like to have long talks with people, but after all, he is here to announce the decree on behalf of the emperor, and a round trip from Beijing to Sichuan may take two or three months.
The information gap between the two parties is so serious that it is almost like being disconnected. The amount of data that needs to be synchronized every time it is reconnected is relatively large.
The prince listened patiently and was stunned for a long time. It took him a long time to realize that Governor Zhu was indeed not to blame for this matter, and that he was simply a model of diligence in the king's affairs.
Before Chongzhen issued the decree, Governor Zhu was already wary of Li Zicheng and was preparing to maintain the Northern Expedition route.
If we don't make preparations for this, given Sichuan's geographical isolation, if all the northern side of the Qinling Mountains falls into the hands of Li Zicheng, without even a bridgehead, it will be like Zhuge Liang's Northern Expedition, where no food can be transported.
It is well known to all the world how poor Shaanxi has been in recent years. The cultivated land has been destroyed by a vicious cycle to the point where it can no longer be cultivated. The bare land is thousands of miles away. The Sichuan officers and soldiers want to make the Northern Expedition and must provide military supplies themselves.
The prince had no choice but to accept the hard work and said that he would rest for a few days before heading north to Hanzhong to deliver the message.
It is helpless to say that the theoretical distance between Hanzhong and Beijing is of course much closer than that of Chongqing. A visit to Chongqing is actually a mistake.
But even if Chongzhen already knew that Zhu Shuren had gone north to Hanzhong before he sent an envoy to convey the order, it would be impossible to go straight to Hanzhong to convey the order.
Who let Li Zicheng occupy Guanzhong in the middle? There are only three roads to Hanzhong. Either go south from Guanzhong through the deep valleys crossing the Qinling Mountains, or go north from Bashu by taking the Jinniu Road and other Sichuan Mountain Road.
The last one is from Xiangyang via Yunyang and goes up the Han River, shuttling between the northern and southern branches of the Qinling Mountains. During the Three Kingdoms period, after Zhuge Liang died, Jiang Wan, who took over from Ji Han, considered going from Hanzhong along the Han River.
He went down the river and captured Shangyong and other three eastern counties, threatening Xiangyang. The Shangyong area during the Three Kingdoms period at the end of the Han Dynasty was the Yunyang Prefecture at the end of the Ming Dynasty.
Theoretically, after the Guanzhong Road was completed, it would be the most time-saving for the imperial envoys to go to Xiangyang first, and then take Yunyang to Hanzhong. However, this road is still not completely cleared.
Yunyang can also be regarded as a place where bandits have been wreaking havoc for many years. Luo Rucai's power had been entrenched there for many years. After Luo Rucai was killed by Li Zicheng, the main force he brought to Henan was annexed, but some scattered thieves who stayed in Yunyang were
It's like a group of dragons without a leader, each occupying the mountain and becoming the king.
Fortunately, these bandits did not use banners to rebel against the Ming Dynasty. There were so many more difficult bandits in the Ming Dynasty that they could not eliminate, so they turned a blind eye and let these guys go as ordinary bandits.
This move harmed Chongzhen and cut off another channel of communication between him and Zhu Shuren, so that in the end he had to go around in a big circle to get in touch.
There was really an emergency, and I really couldn't find anyone for two or three months.
And Zhu Shuren obviously has no intention of penetrating through Guanzhong recently for some unspeakable reasons, allowing Hanzhong to regain direct contact with the capital through Guanzhong. He also has no intention of completely clearing out the remaining bandits in Yunyang. He feels that this
Things are not a high priority.
If the imperial envoy dares to take the risk of taking the Yunyang Road to deliver the message, there is a high probability that he will be intercepted and killed by bandits.
…
The imperial envoys continued to delay for more than half a month, and it was not until early August that Zhu Shuren was found.
Before they found Zhu Shuren, Zhu Shuren was not idle from May to August.
Before June, Zhu Shuren would go around Changde, then return to Chongqing, and then try to think of ways to deploy the containment of Sun Kewang.
His approach is also quite clever, it belongs to the style of "not blocking the head, not cutting the waist, only chasing the tail". At most, he can occasionally "block" the waist to induce Sun Kewang to turn in the opposite direction.
He didn't want to be accused of collaborating with thieves, so it was impossible to directly communicate with Sun Kewang through letters and tell him the truth. At most, he could only publicize Li Dingguo on a large scale. Liu Wenxiu is still in prison and being rehabilitated, and has not suffered.
In addition, during the process of Sun Kewang's migration and maneuvering, targeted strikes should be made.
For example, during May and June, when Sun Kewang passed through the Daliang Mountains in western Sichuan, if he attacked those familiar chieftains who had long been loyal to the imperial court and were more inclined to accept imperial tasks, then Qin Liangyu's troops would pursue them more closely.
Once they caught up with Sun Kewang's lagging rear army, they immediately pounced on them to annihilate them, and also captured a batch of filthy items that Sun Kewang had just robbed but had not yet had time to digest.
After suffering losses once or twice, Sun Kewang didn't dare to stay anymore and traveled through almost the entire Daliang Mountains. At the end of May, when he arrived near Huichuanwei, he found that there was a real shortage of supplies and he couldn't cross the Jinsha River without grabbing a few more.
,
So Sun Kewang tentatively slaughtered and plundered a barbarian tribe that was originally quite ferocious and never obeyed the imperial court. It is said that they had followed Yang Yinglong in the Bozhou Rebellion and later participated in the Guizhou, Guizhou and Miao Rebellion during the Tianqi Period.
This time, the reaction of the officers and soldiers was suddenly much slower. Of course, Zhu Shuren also knew that the old general Qin Liangyu was very ruthless. He did not want to tell Qin Liangyu his true thoughts. After all, he was a die-hard Ming Zhongliang and was loyal to justice.
If you are together for the rest of your life, why bother to make trouble and ruin other people's evenings?
Therefore, when encountering this kind of pursuit phase that requires relatively little effort, Zhu Shuren would use the excuse "Old General Qin has been chasing for a month, he is already too tired, and it is time for the troops to change defenses," and then ask his cousin Zhang Huangyan to lead
He led some of the foreign troops brought by Huguang to pursue them.
We also tried our best to select soldiers from Hengzhou, Changsha and other places and even the military origins of western Hunan, because these soldiers are more adapted to the subtropical climate in the south. They originally lived in the Five Ridges in the south, so they are relatively adapted to the summer environment on the Sichuan-Guizhou border.
This is the hottest time of the fifth and sixth months of the lunar calendar. Zhuge Liang's seven expeditions to the south to capture Meng Huo were all "crossing Lu in the fifth month and going deep into the barren area." When they reach the Yunnan-Guizhou border, the resistance to military operations will naturally become greater and greater.
After chasing several times, Zhu Shuren realized that the losses in summer operations were too great, so he slowed down the pursuit just in time, just to have an excuse to delay the hottest period.
As for Sun Kewang, after summarizing the rules, they all knew that in the future they could no longer attack those tribes who supported the reform of the land and returned to the locals. They could only pick out the tribes who resisted the reform and return to the locals to kill and rob them, so as not to be retaliated by the Zhushu people.
.
After two months of friction, the two sides have no direct communication, but have established a tacit understanding through practical experience, leaving no loopholes or loopholes.
In addition, although Sun Kewang could keep killing and robbing the assassins, his life was really difficult. As time went by, there were fewer and fewer assassins in his army who hated the Ming Dynasty.
The reason is also very simple: quite a few of the Huguang troops sent by Zhu Shuren are not adapted to the hot summer climate on the Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan border, and may even develop tropical diseases. Among the troops brought by Sun Kewang, there are still many backbones from northern Shaanxi soldiers, those
Shaanxi people are naturally not used to the hot summer rainforest.
Without the help of the officers and soldiers, Sun Kewang's troops were being replaced at a rate of about 10% per month in midsummer. Old Shaanxi thieves in the north died of illness in batches, and strong men from Yunnan and Guizhou were forcibly recruited to replenish the army. After the summer
, the death rate of Shaanxi people may drop a bit, but by then the composition of the bandits’ force by origin will have changed by less than half.
As the remnants of Sun Kewang's hatred for the imperial court became less and less firm, and there were fewer and fewer die-hards, it was an inevitable trend that they would eventually have to surrender. The only difference was sooner or later.
If Zhu Shuren does nothing, I believe that Sun Kewang will definitely surrender when next summer comes. It can be guaranteed that in this difficult environment, when the hottest summer comes next year, it is estimated that not many Shaanxi people will be able to survive in the Yunnan-Guizhou tropics.
If the Shaanxi people are almost dead if they can survive in the rainforest, they will naturally give up.
And if Zhu Shuren does something, everyone can speed up the process, so we don't have to wait for another scorching heat.
…
In May and June, Zhu Shuren personally deployed in Chongqing to restore post-war order and production in Sichuan, and Sun Kewang pursued him. By mid-June, he had actually gone north to Hanzhong,
Because he had already received the bad news of "Sun Chuanting's defeat and the fall of Xi'an" around the tenth day of June. At that time, there was no official news, and it was not confirmed whether Sun Chuanting himself was dead or not.
After knowing this, Zhu Shuren certainly had to make some arrangements to ensure Sichuan's northern gateway and secure a bridgehead that could be used for the northern expedition to Guanzhong at any time in the future.
So there are some things that Zhang Huangyan later relayed to Wang Gonggong.
After receiving the news on the tenth day of the sixth lunar month, he went without stopping and took only a few thousand troops to Hanzhong to find Cao Bianjiao.
Because we are patrolling within our own stable defense zone, we don't need too many troops. A few thousand are definitely enough.
Speaking of which, Cao Bianjiao only managed to save his life from Xingshan a year and a half ago with the help of the Liaodong Army's grain tanker fleet arranged by Zhu Shuren, otherwise he would have been given away by Hong Chengchou in history.
Cao Bianjiao also knew this situation in his heart and kept thinking about Zhu Shuren's kindness.
However, compared to Li Fuming, Cao Bianjiao was not so deeply favored - after Li Fuming was rescued for the first time, he was still placed near Shanhaiguan and stationed at Funing Guard in Yongping Prefecture. This year he fought with the Tatars again and was seriously injured.
He was picked up again by Zhang Mingzhen's fleet from outside the customs.
Cao Bianjiao was only rescued once, and then returned to Shanxi, and was later transferred to Hanzhong. However, after hearing that Sun Chuanting was defeated and killed, Cao Bianjiao was a little scared, and even more regretful.
What he was afraid of was that if Zhu Shuren did not ask the emperor to transfer him to Hanzhong, then if he stayed near Linfen, sooner or later he would be recruited by Sun Chuanting to participate in the decisive battle against the intruders.
In that case, if Sun Chuanting is still defeated, he may not be able to escape with his life. Cao Bianjiao and his uncle Cao Wenzhao have been fighting with two generations of thieves for more than ten years, and their hatred is very deep.
What he felt regretful was that if he could have fought side by side with Sun Chuanting, Sun Chuanting might not have been defeated. But with the intruder's tenacity and good at escaping, even if he defeated Li Zicheng, he would temporarily retreat and then try to make a comeback.
, it is almost impossible to expect that one battle will determine the outcome and kill Li Zicheng.
In this complicated mood, Cao Bianjiao learned that his former savior behind the scenes, Governor Zhu, was coming to Hanzhong for inspection, so he took it very seriously and organized the defense under his rule very tightly.
This was the first time he saw Zhu Shuren in person, and he had only been known for a long time before.