Chapter 38: The decision is yours

Chapter Thirty-Eight: It's Yours to Decide

Chen Cheng appointed Liu Xingzuo as the governor of Liaodong, led troops to monitor Liaoxi, and let Lin Mengchu sit in Shenyang, and he himself took 20,000 soldiers and horses to chase Hongtai to the Mongolian steppe. The Mongols of Horqin feared the prestige of the Jianzhou Jurchens, and pulled out more than 30,000 men to engage the invading enemy.

But what kind of fighting power did those Mongols have? With just one shell, tens of thousands of Mongol troops collapsed. They have already heard the prestige of the Han army, and they also understand the simplest truth. The Mongols couldn't defeat the Jianzhou Jurchens, and the Jianzhou Jurchens were driven to the grassland by the Han army, and it was clear at a glance which of the combat effectiveness was higher and which was lower.

Therefore, the Mongols did not have the intention of fighting at all, made a show, went through the motions, and then fled. Hong Tai still had four or five thousand men in his hands, and half of them were lost after the first battle. By the time he had fled further north in the footsteps of the Mongols, everything around him was different.

The Mongols, who were originally as obedient as Mianyang, showed their sharp teeth to them at this time. Anyway, the Mongols are wolves, and when they see the strong, they wag their tails and beg for mercy, and when they see the weak, they pounce on them and bite them. Hong Tai is such a water dog, how can he not go up and beat him?

Besides, Han Guo said that those who take the head of Hongtai will be rewarded!

Although the Jianzhou Jurchens are brave and good at fighting, they have been fighting for so long, and a large number of war horses have been killed, and the remaining horses have long been weak, how can they fight again? Therefore, he was attacked by the Mongols, the army was scattered, and Hongtai also died in the chaos.

After Chen Cheng took Hong Tai's head, he collected his troops and returned to Liaodong, taking with him 2,000 Mongolian followers by the way.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty had learned of the great changes in Liaodong. Hearing that the Jurchens were kneeling, the court was overjoyed and ordered the soldiers and horses of Liaozhen to go to recover the lost territory. Zu Dashou and Wu Xiang were afraid of Jiannu to death, but for Liu Xingzuo, Kong Youde and others looked down on him, and rushed to Liaodong with more than 30,000 soldiers and horses.

Liaoxi is known as an army of 100,000, but in fact it can only fight 40,000. As soon as the army crossed the Sancha River, it was attacked by Liu Xingzuo's army. Although Liu Xingzuo only had more than 10,000 people in his hands, many of them were two white flags under the command of Dolgon and Duoduo. A thousand cavalrymen didn't even change their costumes, and suddenly appeared in front of the Liaoxi army.

Zu Dashou and Wu Xiang and the others were stunned, didn't they say that Jiannu had already knelt? Why are so many Tartars popping up again? The soldiers below were in an uproar, and before they could fight, they had already lost their formation. All the people spread their feet and ran back, and no one wanted to engage the enemy.

Liu Xingzuo took advantage of the situation to cover up and kill, killing and capturing nearly 10,000 people. However, because the Liaoxi Army ran too fast, it failed to further expand the results. When Chen Cheng returned from Mongolia, it was already May, and he repaired for another month, replenished the soldiers, horses, grain and grass, and brought the number of troops to 60,000.

Among these 60,000 troops, there are Han Chinese, Koreans and Japanese, and even Mongols and Jurchens, which is simply a hodgepodge group. But it's such a hodgepodge, and the morale is surprisingly strong. Chen Cheng appointed Liu Xingzuo as deputy marshal with 30,000 commanders, and he himself took another 30,000 with him.

The 60,000-strong army marched along the coastline towards Shanhaiguan, and the cities and fortresses along the way were reduced to ruins in front of the cannons. The cities and fortified fortresses built in western Liaoning did not play a role at all. Zu Dashou, Wu Xiang and others were also simple, and when they saw that they couldn't fight, they immediately surrendered.

Chen Cheng surrendered and rebelled, and the soldiers and horses under his command swelled to 80,000. Then the army arrived under the Shanhai Pass, and as usual, the artillery opened the way first. Under the bombardment of 280mm caliber artillery, the defenders on the Shanhai Pass suffered heavy casualties and dispersed in a hurry. Zu Dashou led the soldiers and horses to seize the city and seized the first credit.

At this time, Lin Mengchu had already led people to accept the fields and people of Liaoxi, and the generals of Liaoxi had lost their foothold, and there was no other way than to fight to the death. Jiannu can kill, and the Han army can also kill. However, the Han army did things fairly and fairly, and those who had merit would be rewarded, and those who had done so would be punished, and as a result, the combat effectiveness of these surrendered Ming troops actually increased a lot out of thin air.

They claimed that the number of people did not count, and that the Han army would send someone to check it, and if it was too far away, the lord would be beheaded, and the army would be handed over to the deputy general. After cutting off the heads of more than a dozen generals one after another, the Ming army in Liaoxi was very honest.

Originally, I heard that Jiannu knelt, and Emperor Chongzhen was still very happy, but just like the previous few times, good news will inevitably be followed by bad news. The Han army, which destroyed Jiannu, did not stop, but directly penetrated the fortress group in western Liaoxi and killed it directly in Beijing.

Shocked, Emperor Chongzhen sent an army of 100,000 troops from the Beijing camp to meet the battle. However, the Beijing camp was more powerful than the Liaoxi Army, which had 100,000 people on its books, but actually 40,000 people. Jingying has 120,000 on the books, but in fact there are not even 10,000. Every time I reviewed it, I spent money in Beijing to hire people to make up the numbers.

This time out of the city, the hired people had not traveled thirty miles, and they had already quit. One hundred and fifty dollars a day is not enough to work hard. As soon as these hired people ran away, there were only a few people left in the 100,000-strong army, and the rest of the people also ran back to Beijing.

The 100,000 army was scattered before the thieves, and this magical operation almost made Emperor Chongzhen angry. But after a few days of anger, he began to worry again. Those Han troops were really brave, and after breaking through the Shanhai Pass, they had already killed Beijing City, what should they do?

Some of the ministers proposed to move south, and some proposed to reconvene the king of the world's soldiers and horses. Emperor Chongzhen himself wanted to run away, but he couldn't open this mouth, but hinted that the people below would come forward and carry the black cauldron. But it's been three years since Chongzhen, and everyone can see Zhu Youzhen's nature clearly, so they all became quails, and no one wanted to stand up for the king.

While the emperor and his ministers were fighting each other, the Han army had already slaughtered the city of Beijing. This is the second time, last year, Jiannu came to burn and kill once, and this time the Han army killed again. The soldiers of King Qin just went back last time, and some of them haven't returned to their hometowns yet.

Moreover, many of the troops who came to King Qin last year became bandits because they had no food to eat, and some even joined the rebel army. Li Zicheng of Shaanxi, Li Guo's uncle and nephew changed from officers and soldiers to peasant troops, and joined the team of Gao Yingxiang, the king of Chuang.

This time, there are not many soldiers and horses who can come to King Qin. Even if you can come, it won't be of much use.

Beijing's walls are very strong, after all, it was the capital of the empire for hundreds of years, but the defenders are terrible. The Beijing battalion, which claims to be an army of 120,000, has collapsed on its own before seeing the enemy, and this kind of funny thing really makes people unconfident.

When the city gate was blasted open, Emperor Chongzhen had the bell ringed and called on the ministers to come and escort him. There were a lot of people who came, but they were all middle- and low-level officials, and those powerful figures and bigwigs in the court hid at home one by one and pretended to be dead. In fact, this matter is not unique to the Ming Dynasty, and it is similar in all dynasties.

The people in the first three rows are all sanctimonious, full of benevolence and morality, but they are actually some male thieves and prostitutes. Occasionally, one or two of these people can be quite capable, but it is not a pity that most of them are killed. There were many problems at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the first one was that there were too many people surnamed Zhu, and the vassal kings in various places occupied a large number of fields, and they had to take a lot of money every year, lying on the body of the country to suck blood, but they did not make any contributions.

The lower limit of the bureaucrats is getting lower and lower, drifting has changed from an unspoken rule to an explicit rule, and things cannot be done without money. The annual military salary of 6 million taels in western Liaoning was divided among officials at all levels, and it is not known whether there were 2 million taels in the hands of the western Liaoning army.

But the main thing is that the current emperor does not know how to govern the country at all. He did not understand politics, military affairs, or economics, and as soon as he came to power, he kicked several times in a dilapidated house. Originally, there was a door panel in this broken house in Daming that could block the wind and rain, and after Zhu Youzhen ascended the throne, not only did he tear down the gate, but even the roof was broken, so he could support it for so long, thanks to Yang Sichang, Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting, and Lu Xiangsheng.

After these people were either killed in battle or surrendered to the enemy, the dilapidated house of the Ming Dynasty collapsed.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty had not yet reached the embarrassing situation more than ten years later, but Emperor Chongzhen had no way out. After waiting in the hall for a long time, there was no minister to come to the rescue, Zhu Youzhen in despair still wanted some face, he did not learn to surrender like some dead kings, but took a eunuch up the coal mountain, found a crooked neck tree and hanged himself.

After taking Beijing, the world was shaken. The emperor died without even an heir, and the vassal kings of the south called themselves the Son of Heaven or the prison state, and began all kinds of magical performances. But these have little to do with Chen Cheng and Lin Mengchu. Lin Da's squad leader didn't want to stay in this messy world for a long time, but Chen Cheng was indispensable.

After defeating several Ming troops who came to the rescue, Chen Cheng gradually handed over military power and government affairs to Liu Xingzuo. The latter was very uneasy about this, and the number of soldiers and horses in his hands was too large, which was not a normal thing to look at.

"Is our existence normal?" Chen Cheng said to Liu Xingzuo: "We will stay for half a year at most and leave, and the future will depend on you." ”

"Where is the king going?"

"Go home, where else can you go?"

"But ......."

"It's nothing, we have already discussed, and it has been decided that it is you, you are the emperor of the Han Dynasty, and it just so happens that your surname is Liu. Although you are actually terrible, you are still better than Jiannu and Emperor Chongzhen. Of course, if you can't do it and are overturned by someone else's car, that's fine. ”

"Huh?"

Half a year later, the situation in the north gradually stabilized, confiscating the property of so many officials in the capital and confiscating so much land, so that the Han State was able to buy off most of the lower classes. Although there was still some turmoil during the period, under the attack of Chen Cheng personally led the troops, some turmoil was quickly suppressed.

Read the URL: