Liu Xiyao was granted the title of head, after the recovery of Huanggang County.
Chen Shuren spent more than half a month, wandering around, besieging and attacking, and slowly recovered all the remaining three counties in the northwest of Huangzhou, Huangpi, Huang'an, and Macheng.
The rogue garrison defenders in these three counties range from more than a thousand to hundreds of people. Most of them are local Xinla men in Huangzhou. There are few die-hard Shaanxi old thieves who have been wandering around for many years, so their will to resist is not very firm. .
When I heard that the king was dead, these places only resisted for two or three days at most before surrendering. More than half of this half month was spent on marching, and there were only a few days of actual fighting.
The terrain of Huangzhou is rugged, and all counties are located in the Dabie Mountains and distributed along several river valleys. If we march by land, we will not be able to recover it in a month.
This process went so smoothly thanks to the Shen family's fleet dispatching capabilities, which allowed them to transport troops back and forth between the Yangtze River and its tributaries.
In the remote villages in the mountains far away from the river, there will definitely be some scattered bandits left, who will turn into bandits directly. The total number is estimated to be more than 2,000. They must be slowly encircled and suppressed. This is the task of the county magistrates such as Zhang Huangyan and Zhao Yunfan.
The fighting in Huangzhou continued until the end of October.
Chen Shuren actually managed to cross the border in the end and pursued Liu Xiyao's remnants all the way to Suizhou Prefecture next door. In early November, Xiaogan County, which borders Suizhou Prefecture and Huangzhou Prefecture, was recovered——
This is not really because the Chenshu people are meddlesome, but because the bandits do not divide their territory strictly according to the administrative divisions of the Ming Dynasty.
Theoretically, the previous distribution of the spheres of influence of the five rebel kings of the Gezuo camp was roughly as follows: He Jin, the King of Zuo Jin, occupied Suizhou Prefecture, Liu Xiyao, the Contestant King, occupied Huangzhou Prefecture, and Lin Chengcheng, the King of Troubled Times, occupied the western mountainous part of Anqing Prefecture and Luzhou Prefecture. .
But in fact, the territories between the kings were intertwined. He Jin's main forces were deployed in Suizhou, Anlu and other counties along the Jishui River, but Xiaogan County next door along the Jishui River was too lazy to garrison troops, so he handed over this county. It was given to Liu Xiyao to manage.
Transportation in prefectures and counties in the Dabie Mountains is extremely inconvenient. To travel between counties along two seemingly parallel and similar rivers, one must first enter the Yangtze River downstream, then enter another river and then go upstream. He Jin is better than Liu Xiyao We still lack navy troops and ships, and we are too lazy to have such a lonely enclave.
When Chen Shuren crossed the border, his close relatives and close friends didn't think there was any problem. However, Zhao Yunfan and Zuo Zixiong still kindly reminded him and advised him to pay attention to the court's laws to avoid being impeached for killing thieves across the border.
Chen Shuren still had the same all-encompassing attitude, saying that he would bear all the consequences and that he only needed to rescue the people as soon as possible to prevent trouble before it happened.
…
The words are divided into two parts.
On October 25th, which was the sixth day after the liberation of Huanggang County and the second day after the liberation of Macheng County, Chen Shuren's victory document was finally delivered to Xiangyang.
Early that morning, in the official residence of the Governor of the Six Provinces in Xiangyang City, the fifty-three-year-old Pavilion Elder Yang Sichang, dragging his tired and sick body, began to deal with military and government affairs as usual from 3:30 a.m.
Since his death more than a year ago, Yang Sichang's health has deteriorated a lot, and his insomnia has become more and more serious. Diet and recuperation have not worked.
Every day when I see a little light, I wake up, and it is impossible to fall asleep after sunrise.
He could get up early, but other civil and military officials in Xiangyang City could not get up that early. In the stillness of the early morning, Yang Sichang had no choice but to look through the military information documents from the previous days and ponder the layout alone on the map.
"It seems that this autumn has passed. As long as the bandits from all walks of life do not expand the results and steal the food during the autumn harvest, the results of this year's bandit suppression can be consolidated. I hope God bless the Ming Dynasty..."
Yang Sichang looked at the battle reports from all parties and was generally satisfied with the situation so far - at least only looking at the battle situation in the three provinces of Hubei, Henan and Anhui, not the entire Ming Dynasty, the situation was indeed improving.
In the Huguang War Zone, there are now five forces, and under his control, they are advancing and compressing the territory of the bandits.
In Jingzhou Prefecture on the southwest side, Fang Kongzhen, governor of Huguang, was stationed in Yiling, relying on the main road into Sichuan to prevent bandits from spreading into Sichuan.
At the same time, Zhang Xianzhong's main force was forced back to Jingmen, north of the Dangyang line, that is, to the Jingshan mountainous area.
This area is roughly equivalent to the vast mountainous area between Jingmen and Shiyan in later generations, including the eastern part of Shennongjia.
Zuo Liangyu, who is stationed in Wuchang in the south, has been unable to work for more than half a year. Due to the natural dangers of the Yangtze River and Han River, it is impossible for the bandits to go south into the Dongting Lake Plain. But Zuo Liangyu is also conserving his strength. His old man
Unless his boss, the former Minister of Revenue, Hou Xun, is released from prison, he will be too lazy to truly serve the emperor.
The Dabie Mountains in the southeast was the direction that Yang Sichang's encirclement network paid the least attention to. There was only one idle chess piece waiting to be tested, Huangzhou Tongzhi Shen Shuren.
Yang Sichang originally did not expect Shen Shuren to make great achievements soon. At first, he just thought that this junior had some talent, but it needed hard work, experience and polishing, so he left him there for observation for a while.
The Chenshu people are short of troops and resources, so it would be good if they can maintain their current territory. As for Liu Xiyao and Lin Chengcheng, even if there is no attack by the Chenshu people, Yang Sichang can still count on Anlu Governor Shi Kefa to suppress the Gezuo Fifth Battalion in the Dabie Mountains.
Let them enter the plain areas to roam and plunder.
The only difference here lies in who owns those remote areas in the Dabie Mountains. It is impossible for bandits to escape.
After taking inventory of the southern half of the encirclement network, the rest is the northern one. In Xiangyang, in the middle of the north, Yang Sichang is in charge personally, so there is nothing to say.
To the northwest, Yuan Jixian, the commander of the Huguang Military Preparation Committee, was suppressing Luo Rucai in Yunyang, and two of the Junzhou Fourth Battalion were small thieves who were attached to Luo Rucai.
Luo Rucai was basically compressed and retreated to the Danjiangkou and Wudang Mountains in Shiyan in later generations. He was also unable to gain a foothold in the plain areas.
As for the Hubei-Henan border in the northeast, the Henan side was stationed by Liu Guoneng, a rogue general.
Liu Guoneng's defense area blocked the Fangcheng Pass between Tongbai Mountain and Funiu Mountain, and also blocked the Xinyang Road from Suizhou Prefecture through Tongbai Mountain, thus preventing Ma Shouying and He Jin from the Gezuo Fifth Battalion from entering Henan respectively.
possibility.
From this point of view, after one year of Yang Sichang's layout, the presence of bandits in the wealthy areas of the plains has been greatly reduced.
Zhang Xianzhong hid in Shennongjia;
Luo Rucai hid in Wudang Mountain;
Ma Shou should hide in Funiu Mountain;
With sharp eyes, He Jin hid in Tongbai Mountain;
Liu Xiyao and Lin Chengcheng hid in Yinghuo Mountain;
(Note: Tongbai Mountain, Yingshan Mountain and Huoshan Mountain together form the Dabie Mountains. The Dabie Mountains are bifurcated in a "Y" shape, and the three sides constitute the junction of the three provinces of Hubei, Henan and Anhui. These three sides were taken separately and were called Tongbai Mountain and Huoshan Mountain respectively in ancient times.
, Yingshan)
As for Li Zicheng, he is still fooling around in the Shangluo Mountains between the Nanyang Basin and the Guanzhong Basin further northwest.
If we don't take into account off-board factors, it still looks very promising for the bandits to be extinguished.
Unfortunately, Yang Sichang has lived too long. Over the years, he has witnessed countless "off-market factors" that always disrupt the situation at just the right time.
So this time he also had a bit of a bad premonition and didn't dare to hope that "accidents wouldn't happen".
This off-board factor is the Qing army that Yang Sichang has been worried about - the last time the official army forced the bandits to a dead end and forced them to land, the Qing army appeared and destroyed Lu Xiangsheng's troops, causing the official army to compete with the bandits' strength.
The advantage was instantly wiped out, and only then did these thieves rebel.
This time before he went south, he earnestly urged the emperor to endure the humiliation and negotiate peace with the Qing army. He pretended to be a coward to hold off Huang Taiji, and concentrated on freeing up his hands to completely deal with the bandits, and then consider the Qing army.
Unfortunately, the peace negotiation was blocked by Huang Daozhou, the Qing gossip official. Huang Daozhou suppressed it with a lot of moral labels saying "peace cannot be negotiated until the lost land in Liaodong is recovered", so that Chongzhen did not dare to negotiate peace.
Yang Sichang vaguely felt that although Huang Taiji did not immediately attack Ming Dynasty with all his strength, it was hard to say whether Huang Taiji would save these teammates who were responding to each other when the bandit was beaten to death.
I hope not.
"Well, if Huang Taiji really comes, I don't know how much we will lose this time. We defeated Lu Xiangsheng last time, are we going to defeat Hong Chengchou this time? Well, those are not things we can decide.
Let's think of a way to speed up the elimination of the enemies in front of us. The sooner I start here, the less risk I will have of being forced to fight on two fronts by Huang Taiji in the future."
Yang Sichang drove out those lingering thoughts from his mind, and then picked up his pen, preparing to write some year-end evaluations for the five besieging generals under his command, and review the merits and demerits of each.
It's almost the end of the year, and although the war has not yet reached its final outcome, it is still good to report everyone's military exploits to the emperor.
With a stroke of his pen, Yang Sichang first ranked Yuan Jixian and Fang Kongzheng at the front, then Liu Guoneng and Shen Shuren in the middle, and finally Zuo Liangyu at the end.
In addition, I did not forget to mention Shi Kefa, the governor of Anlu, who said that Shi Kefa provided rear support for Shen Shuren and Liu Guoneng, forming a second line of defense. Without Shi Kefa's backing, once Shen Shuren or Liu Guoneng collapsed, the thieves might go to
The east threatens south Zhili.
Just after writing this, a close confidant suddenly came in at the door and reported: "Mr. Ge, urgent report from Huangzhou! It's the military information sent by Chen Shuren, a colleague of Huangzhou! He also sent a head with the letter, saying it was for the war.
The King of the World, Liu Xiyao!"
"What? Are you serious? How can Chen Shuren have enough troops to eliminate Liu Xiyao? What's more, these thieves are so slippery and will flee to the mountains if things go wrong. How can they possibly kill the leader of the thieves?"
Yang Sichang was so shocked that he dropped his ink-stained brush on the draft of the memorial, staining a large area of the draft.
But the next second, the master waved back excitedly, and several soldiers came in carrying a wooden box containing a human head. Yang Sichang opened the wooden box with a slight trembling and took a look, and his hands immediately stopped shaking.
He casually crumpled the contaminated draft into a ball and threw it into the trash.
What did I write just now! Of course I have to mention Chen Shuren in advance!
"He is really a talented person. I put him in Huangzhou, and I originally expected him to stick to his place and not make any mistakes. This little regiment training organization can actually destroy Liu Xiyao! You can help me draft a memorial.
Just to discuss merit, I suggest that Your Majesty make Shen Shuren the magistrate of Huangzhou!"
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