After Shangqiu City was breached, the officials of Guide Mansion fled south and were detained by Ma Shiying. They also attracted Xiaofu Wang Zhu Yousong to mediate the guarantor. These operations had nothing to do with Liu Fangliang's shun army, and they did not notice it at all. The existence of details.
The hundreds of thousands of troops in the Henan battlefield only took a short rest for about ten days after taking Shangqiu, and then completely massacred Shangqiu and robbed them of all the food, and then turned north to cross the Yellow River and advance towards Shandong.
As a side note, Li Zicheng's Northern Expedition against Chongzhen was launched about three months earlier than the same period in history. The timing was actually quite unfavorable, because he was forced to use troops in winter, and the soldiers were marching and besieging the city in the cold weather. They suffered a lot of frostbite and death from frostbite.
Historically, Li Zicheng waited until the twelfth lunar month of the 17th year of Chongzhen's reign before launching an all-out attack.
But everything has advantages and disadvantages. Although sending troops in September will soon face severe cold, it is much easier to raise food. When Li Zicheng sent troops, most of the autumn grains in various places had already begun to be harvested. When Li Zicheng attacked Shanxi and Henan provinces, , grain from Hebei and Shandong has completed "winter storage" and has been put into storage.
Therefore, as long as we capture a city that refuses to surrender and massacre the population, we can rob the local people of all their winter rations.
It's like the people have worked hard to grow food for a year. After the harvest, they were supposed to eat it until the spring famine. However, Li Zicheng slaughtered them all within a month of the harvest, so there was no need to "waste" two or three more dead people. Monthly rations.
After all, if according to the original development of history, if Li Zicheng came three months later, these people would also die, but they had three more months of food before death. Then wouldn't Li Zicheng suffer a loss? He would have to die, why? Are you still wasting three more months of King Chuang's rations? Can't you die immediately after harvesting?
Of course, although these words may sound cruel, in fact, Li Zicheng's troops killed many fewer people and fewer cities -
The reason is also very simple. Originally, when troops were sent out in the first month, killing a common person could only steal the rations that the common people needed to live for three months to be used as military rations. But now, killing a common person can grab the rations that the common people need to live for six months. rations.
The absolute amount of food saved by killing each person doubled, and the number of people killed to meet the army's food requirements was naturally reduced by half.
This is mathematics at the second grade level of primary school, and it requires a certain understanding of the law of conservation of energy. It is definitely not wrong. Li Zicheng is not Hong Xiuquan, and he cannot change energy into food by manna from the sky.
He wanted to mobilize so many troops and he had no food. It was clear how many people he needed to kill.
Historically, it was assumed that he killed three civilians to secure one soldier, but now it is assumed that he only needs to kill five civilians to feed one soldier. (If cannibalism is allowed, then the number of massacres can be significantly reduced, but I won’t make baseless deductions. The algorithm here does not count corpses.)
Zhu Shuren's macro-control and Li Zicheng's early action also allowed Li Zicheng's 400,000-strong army to massacre 600,000 fewer people, which was considered a meritorious deed.
…
Liu Fangliang's army captured Kaifeng in September and Shangqiu in early October. They moved north again in mid-October and soon arrived in Shandong.
Liu Fangliang did not go to Jining, an important town in southwest Shandong, because although Jining was rich, if he continued to go north from there, he would pass through a section of the Taishan Mountains. For the convenience of marching, Liu Fangliang of course chose to go straight north on the plains of western Shandong.
As for not going to Jining, it would shorten the mileage of the troops marching along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal and require them to take more land routes. Liu Fangliang didn't care.
Anyway, the logistical baggage he needs to carry is not much, so he can eat wherever he goes. The food obtained from the previous massacre in Shangqiu allows everyone to carry a month's rations, and the remaining bit is loaded into trucks and transported away, which is solved.
And precisely because Shangqiu had been robbed so much, when they first entered Shandong territory, the Shun army temporarily became innocent - because of the inconvenience of transportation at the moment, they could no longer rob it. It was better to wait until the march reached Linqing and approached the Grand Canal.
Then start killing and looting.
Killing and looting before reaching the canal bank is a pure waste of resources.
Cao County, Yuncheng, Juancheng, Fan County, and Yanggu in Yanzhou Prefecture in Shandong Province all escaped disaster. The people of Shandong Province did not know the details of the Shun Army.
What is given to the people will become more thieves at one time.
Liu Fangliang easily penetrated Yanzhou Prefecture without bloodshed, then penetrated Dongchang Prefecture, captured Liaocheng, and finally cut off the Grand Canal at Linqing.
While fighting in the three prefectures at the junction of Shandong and Beizhili, Liu Fangliang also discovered some phenomena, that is, the plague in Hebei this year was extremely serious, and Shandong was also affected. There was no need to follow the army to fight, and naturally a large number of people died.
Despite the victory, the Ming Dynasty's official army also suffered a serious reduction in combat effectiveness under the attack of the plague.
Given Liu Fangliang's cultural level, of course he would not know that this plague was actually the plague.
The plague in the late Ming Dynasty actually appeared in some areas as early as the 14th year of Chongzhen——
As mentioned before, the only intermittent period between disasters in the late Ming Dynasty was the 13th year of Chongzhen. That year was also when Zhu Shuren first came to Huangzhou, Suizhou, Wuchang and other places to serve as an official. He had to lament that Zhu Shuren had chosen a good year.
Jing laid the foundation at the beginning of his official career when he was most vulnerable and unsteady.
Beginning in the 14th year of Chongzhen, the world actually entered a terrifying state of four years of intensive plagues and five consecutive years of drought, which can be regarded as pushing the intensity of natural disasters in the late Ming Dynasty to the ultimate peak.
If not for history, Chongzhen would not have been completely unable to withstand this wave and collapsed.
There is nothing to say about the drought. Five consecutive years of drought will definitely devastate the northern provinces. The south has more water resources. Artificial irrigation has more water conservancy and can survive it, but it also severely reduces production.
In this world, the drought-resistant crops such as corn brought by Zhu Shuren will further reduce the disaster, because the amount of irrigation water required for corn to produce a unit weight of grain is only 40% of that of wheat. Therefore, when droughts occur in consecutive years, corn famine relief is particularly effective.
, with the same amount of irrigation water, the grain output is 2.5 times, which can save more people.
In fact, even in Henan and Shandong, two provinces that Zhu Shu people have never ruled, because corn cultivation in Huguang and Hanzhong in the south has been successful and the profits are huge, some enlightened squires and knowledgeable farmers in Henan and Shandong are also thinking of ways
Plant corn spontaneously.
It's just that this kind of innovation made by the people themselves is definitely different from the force pushed by the government. Moreover, the enlightened squires of Henan and Shandong knew the news about the effectiveness of corn cultivation in the vast area of Hunan, at least fifteen years after Chongzhen, so even if the people of Henan want to
Imitation, this is also the first year that I started to imitate,
When Li Zicheng called, the first corn harvest had just been harvested, so the country's power and people's power could not be changed much.
What is more terrifying than the drought in the past two years is the plague. This great plague, which lasted for four years in history, first appeared in Shanxi in the 14th year of Chongzhen.
Because of the inconvenient transportation in ancient times and the geographical isolation of Shanxi, there was no business travel demand for large-scale trade with the mainland. Therefore, throughout the 14th year of Chongzhen, the plague only spread in Shanxi, and the population of Shanxi was also reduced.
A lot of damage was done in one year.
At that time, the only people who had frequent trade with Shanxi were the Tatar tribe in the Horqin Grassland. With the support of Huang Taiji, they traded with the eight major locust merchants of Shanxi merchants, helping to smuggle and sell Shanxi's ironware, salt, and other traitor materials belonging to the enemy.
To the Tatars.
But unfortunately, the spread of plague is said to be more controlled by horses. It is said that plague rats and plague fleas will resist being near places with strong horse odors such as horse urine and manure, and horse lice will crowd out the ecological niche of plague fleas. Therefore,
There is no way for the plague to spread to the nomads on a large scale, and it is difficult for all cavalry units to quickly lose their combat effectiveness.
Fifteen years after Chongzhen, the plague in Shanxi was finally brought to Henan and Shaanxi with the invasion of the army. In Henan, especially after Kaifeng was flooded, plague broke out on a large scale.
The two provinces of North Zhili and Shandong, because they are further away, did not break out until this year, the 16th year of Chongzhen. Historically, the plague finally spread to Beijing in the second half of the 16th year of Chongzhen.
.
This year, Shanxi people had already carried the plague for the third year. Those with weak resistance died, and those who survived had more or less immunity.
Therefore, the troops coming out of Shan and Shaanxi will not be as vulnerable as the soldiers and civilians of Shandong and Hebei where the plague has just spread over a large area.
Liu Fangliang didn't know the reason. He just felt that the more he fought, the easier it became. At the beginning, there was some resistance in Henan, but when he reached the border of Shandong and Hebei, he felt like he was in no one's land.
When passing through the Shandong area, he would have originally passed through the defense areas of two Ming armies, namely Shandong General Liu Zeqing and Fengyang General Liu Liangzuo (Liu Fangliang passed through the Bozhou section when setting off from Shangqiu, so in theory Liu Liangzuo
defense zone, but quickly left)
As a result, Liu Zeqing, of course, hunkered down in Jining and other places, using the pretext of ensuring key points to allow Liu Fangliang to cross the border. Liu Fangliang attacked Linqing to cut off the Grand Canal. Liu Zeqing still did not send troops. He only said that the plague was prevalent in the army and most of the soldiers had lost their combat effectiveness. In fact,
Can't attack.
Even a general like Liu Zeqing, whose two prefectures were invaded by bandits, could still refuse to fight. A coward like Liu Liangzuo, whose only a few counties were affected, would of course be even less willing to work hard.
Even when the Shun army passed through Bozhou, it was Huang Degong who led the troops north from Hefei to help Liu Liangzuo repel Liu Liangzuo, who was near Fengyang. In addition, Liu Liangzuo was also stationed in Fengyang, and he interacted with Governor Ma Shiying every day. Later, in
When Ma Shiying hooked up with King Fu Zhu Yousong, Liu Liangzuo was the first to be dragged into the trap. Following Ma Shiying, Zhu Yousong became close friends.
As for whether Liu Liangzuo had ever thought in his mind, "If something unexpected happens to His Majesty in the future, can we be the first general to rise from the dragon?", outsiders don't know.
The military towns in Shandong and Huaibei used the plague as an excuse to hide from the Dashun Army's invasion. Liu Fangliang's troops successfully penetrated Shandong in October. In early November, they successfully crossed the Yellow River and entered the Hebei Plain, officially entering the Hebei Plain.
Within the territory of Beizhili.
Moreover, considering that the territories of Northern Zhili and Shandong are intertwined. For example, Daming Prefecture in Northern Zhili is actually the same latitude as Yanzhou Prefecture and Dongchang Prefecture in Shandong.
So when Liu Fangliang passed through Dongchang Prefecture, he had actually bypassed the southernmost daimyo, Handan and other places in Beizhili at the same time, and directly arrived near Zhending Prefecture.
Even people who don't know much about the place name Zhending Mansion must know that Zhao Yun is a "Zhending native of Changshan", and later he was nicknamed "Zhao Zilong of Shijiazhuang", which shows that it is very close to Beijing.
After capturing Zhending Prefecture and then Baoding Prefecture to the north, ahead is Shuntian Prefecture where Beijing is located. Liu Fangliang is only the last three prefectures away from the capital.
…
The story is divided into two parts, and the timeline goes back to Beijing two months ago.
On the Shaanxi side, the great victory at Sanguan Pass was achieved at the end of early August. The princes and princes who delivered the decree were on August 12th, when a small naval force sent by the Zhushu people took the Han River down the Han River and left.
He arrived in Xiangyang via Yunyang on August 16th from Hanzhong, and then headed north to return to Beijing to resume his duties.
The prince could not withstand the rapid journey of 600 miles, so he only traveled more than 200 miles a day, so he did not return to the capital until the end of August.
At this time, Li Zicheng had not yet invaded Taiyuan on the northern front, and the eastern front had not yet been opened. Therefore, when Chongzhen received Zhu Shuren's good news and request for instructions, the atmosphere in Beijing was still very calm.
Although the plague that was introduced to Hebei after transiting from Shanxi through Henan arrived in Beijing at about the same time, the number of people infected and killed at first was not high, and it would take another month or two to slowly spread.
Therefore, Chongzhen, who was deep in the palace, was not aware of the plague in the capital, and those high-ranking officials and nobles had not seen anyone around them die of the plague. At the end of August and even the first half of September, the plague patients in Beijing were still alive.
Concentrated among the poor who live in the dirtiest and messiest conditions.
The news of the great victory at Dashan Pass was quickly delivered to Zhang Guowei, the Minister of the Ministry of War, and Zhou Yanru, the Chief Assistant of the Cabinet, according to normal procedures. The two of them had a rare victory after several months, and of course they were sent to Chongzhen immediately.
"Cao Bianjiao was at Dashan Pass. Tens of thousands of intruders Yuan Zongdi were killed in Baoji County, and more than ten thousand of them were beheaded. God bless our Ming Dynasty. It seems that the intruders will not get any benefits under Zhu Aiqing's hands!
At first, I only regretted that Zhu Aiqing had no skills and could not deal with the intruder Zhang Ni at the same time! It seems that the most difficult years for the country will be over soon!"
After Chongzhen finished lamenting, Zhang Guowei asked for instructions in a routine manner: "Your Majesty, if Cao Bianjiao has such military achievements this time, should he be rewarded as usual? Before the audience, I checked the old rules and found that Cao Bianjiao has accumulated many merits and has many honors. It seems that he should be rewarded.
Select one of the five military commanders to be given a title. In addition, there are other personnel who have made meritorious services related to this battle..."
Chongzhen thought for a while, then looked at Zhou Yanru who didn't dare to express his opinion, and then he took the initiative to make a decision: "Cao Bianjiao will be rewarded as he should be rewarded, and the Ministry of War will just follow the rules.
Zhu Shuren, after all, Cao Bianjiao just went to Hanzhong. He was just helping to raise food and transport ordnance. The battle was not fought by his soldiers and horses, so let’s just skip it this time. The envoy who came back this time was originally sent more than three months ago.
He went out and made him Marquis of Krupp, but when he returned, he brought good news again.
If Zhu Shuren is given a reward every time there is a good report, the imperial court will not have so many official titles to give. Besides, it is just a defeat of Yuan Zongdi once. One day, when he captures Sun Kewang, or defeats Li Zichen himself, he can be promoted again!"
Zhang Guowei and Zhou Yanru did not question it and just followed the instructions. Later, when the story spread, many officials in the capital shook their heads and sighed, feeling that the emperor was really stingy about rewards and unkind.
Although Chongzhen really had no choice, Zhu Shuren was promoted too quickly because he was too young.
In the next month and twenty days, everything went as usual. After all, Taiyuan had not been lost at that time. Although Kaifeng had just been lost, the local government had already collapsed, and it was difficult for real and conclusive news to be spread immediately. Basically, it would not be possible until Shangqiu.
When it is breached, an urgent report will alert Beijing.
In the past twenty days, the only change was that the plague spread further, finally spreading from the dirtiest slums to the wealthy urban and commercial districts. Shuntian Prefecture also began to receive emergency reports one after another, and began to put Yousi in charge of handling it.
On September 26, on the eve of the destruction of Shangqiu and Taiyuan, Chongzhen in the capital received another local report. This time it was not brought back by an angel sent by the imperial court to Sichuan, but by Zhu Shuren who took the initiative to send someone to report it.
Zhu Shuren mentioned something in his memorial, saying that there were signs of plague among the soldiers and civilians in the Hanzhong area.
It is suspected that the plague was brought by the Cao Bianjiao tribe who came to Hanzhong from Shanxi. The local people in northern Sichuan lacked resistance to the plague, so that starting in August, symptoms began to appear among the local civilians who provided logistical services to the Shanxi guest army.
Zhu Shuren said that he was interrupted by this unexpected situation and had to temporarily postpone the military action against Sun Kewang and Li Zicheng, and deal with internal affairs first to prevent a large number of soldiers and civilians from getting sick and losing their combat effectiveness and ability to work.
Zhu Shuren also briefly mentioned a few of his management measures in Hanzhong, mainly the old methods of paying attention to hygiene. In addition to thoroughly boiling food and water, he also tried to find ways to exterminate Shu and produce more anthelmintics for external application.
As for the ointment oil, I don't care whether it can prevent mice.
Finally, Zhu Shuren also mentioned something that he felt was very important. He urgently followed the authority and announced in Hanzhong and other prefectures in northern Sichuan that soldiers and civilians who died due to sudden illness or accidents must be completely burned and cremated, and cannot be directly buried.
This practice would of course cause serious backlash in the feudal superstitious era. Zhu Shuren's actions even triggered civil uprisings in some counties in Hanzhong. Fortunately, he had absolute military power and finally used force to suppress those superstitious people who resisted cremation and disinfection.
After going on, he also hurriedly killed a group of extremely superstitious die-hards.
However, this approach also clearly violated the laws of the Ming Dynasty and the laws of the ancestors. Zhu Shuren could only submit a petition for instructions, hoping that the emperor would also issue an authorization to formally stipulate that the government could forcibly burn and disinfect those who died of plague and those whose causes of death were unknown.
This memorial really delayed Zhu Shuren enough time. His troops were all infected with the plague from Shanxi people. How could they fight in a short period of time?
In the past few days, Chongzhen had just noticed the spate of deaths due to the unknown plague that had begun to appear in Beijing. After reading the report, of course he immediately summoned officials from the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of Industry and other relevant departments, including Zhou Yanru, the chief minister.
, and asked sternly about the relevant situation.
"Zhu Aiqing said that all his troops in Hanzhong were infected with the plague brought by the Shanxi army. So, is the unknown plague in Shuntian Prefecture and other prefectures in Zhili now the Shanxi plague? Has the Ministry of Revenue seen it? Burning corpses to eliminate insects
Are rats useful?”
How could the officials of the Ministry of Household Affairs understand these scientific principles? Of course they had no idea. Of course, those well-educated scholars also attacked Zhu Shuren's unequivocal request for the imperial court to formally implement cremation and burning.
"Your Majesty, you can't do that! As the saying goes, the dead are the most important. I have never heard that the plague can be spread through the dead. It goes against filial piety to humiliate the dead casually! I, the Ming Dynasty, rule the world with filial piety..."