In July and August of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, whether it was the Ming Dynasty in the wind and rain, or the Qing soldiers who were rising like the sun; Whether it is Zhu Pingjin, the son of Shu who has different aspirations, or Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, who are still wandering around, it is a month of crisis and hope alternately.

Since the first month of the month, the thieves broke through Henan Mansion (Luoyang) and stewed the blessed king Zhu Changxun and the deer in a pot, and all the bad news received from the imperial court was:

In February, the thieves trapped Xiangyang and killed King Xiang. Subsequently, the superintendent Yang Sichang committed suicide. In order to save face, the court only said that he died of illness. Subsequently, the thieves began to besiege Kaifeng, and the thieves captured Gwangju (now Huangchuan County, Henan).

When the imperial court was at a loss, perhaps God decided to make a joke on the Ming Dynasty, and immediately a good news came to the Beijing Division, saying that the Kaifeng defenders not only repelled the thieves, but also shot the thieves in the left eye!

SINCE ANCIENT TIMES, HOW CAN A BLIND PERSON BE ABLE TO ATTAIN THE DESTINY OF HEAVEN? The proverb (CEN) of "Eighteen Sons Master Artifact" suddenly became a joke in the Jingshi. This happiness and ease quickly spread throughout the north and south of the river, and spread to Sichuan, a land on the southwestern border.

But happy times are always short-lived. The thieves had just retreated, and something happened in Liaodong again.

In March and April, the Qing troops sent troops from Yizhou (now Yixian), Shenyang, Liaoyang and other places to attack Jinzhou, and the defender Zu Dashou refused to defend, and the Qing soldiers could not attack in a hurry, so they built a long siege and trapped Jinzhou.

Jinzhou is the first important town outside the Guan, and it is the ancestor of the Guanning Iron Cavalry who is trapped by it, so Jinzhou is the place where the imperial court cannot be saved. If you decide to rescue, it must be a heavy army, so this rescue is likely to evolve into a main decisive battle between the Ming and the Tartars.

The imperial court is not without understanding, and the emperor is not so easy to fool. Under the personal care of Emperor Chongzhen, Hong Chengchou, the governor of Ji (JI), who had beaten Li Zicheng to only 18 horsemen in the Battle of Tongguan Nanyuan, personally led a total of 130,000 elite soldiers from Xuanda, Shanxi and Guanning out of the pass to relieve the siege of Jinzhou.

Just looking at the number of this army, we can find that from Shanhaiguan on the seaside, through Miyun and Xuanfu north of Jingshi, and all the way to Datong in Shanxi, it almost includes more than half of the border guards in northern China. In fact, even the Qin army in Shaanxi, the westernmost part of China, entered the war. Because Hong Chengchou was transferred from the post of governor of the three sides of Shaanxi to Jiliao, his supervisors were almost all elite of the Qin army. In the battalion led by Cao Bianjiao, the chief soldier of Yutian (now Yutian County, Tangshan, Hebei), there were also many soldiers of the Qin army.

Hong Chengchou learned the painful lesson that Yang Hao could not attack together, but was broken by the enemy individually. He resolutely did not divide his troops, and 130,000 hedgehogs gathered in one place, like a heavy road roller, firmly, slowly, with a loud rumbling sound, rolling from inside the pass to outside the pass. Behind the rollers, there are hundreds of thousands of people and hundreds of grain ships.

He climbed all the way, built the fortress all the way. After nearly four months of turtle climbing, in July, Hong Chengchou finally entered Songshan Fort outside Jinzhou City under the urging of the emperor and the military department.

Songshan Fort has been besieged for many months, the grain and grass have run out, and Jinzhou, which has begun to eat war horses, is only separated by a few miles of deep hills and a small Ling River that is not deep or wide. Standing at the head of Jinzhou City and Songshan Fort, you can see the Tartar banner on the long fence surrounding Jinzhou City.

Another big victory of the Ming Dynasty seems to be within reach. It's just a pity that Huang Taiji sits at one end of the seesaw, and Chuang Xian sits at the other end. This game of ups and downs is not over yet.

Li Zicheng's first attack on Kaifeng was unfavorable, and he naturally retreated to Yuxi, which he was familiar with, to lick his wounds.

After Zhang Xianzhong conquered Guangzhou, he entered Henan under the pressure of Zuo Liangyu's heavy troops in Yunyang and Xing'an in the west. DURING THIS PERIOD, HE BRIEFLY RETURNED TO HUBEI, CONQUERED SUIZHOU, KILLED THE WHOLE FAMILY OF XU SHICHUN IN ZHIZHOU, AND THEN CARRIED OUT A ROUTINE MASSACRE, "THE PEOPLE SLAUGHTERED (KILLED) WITHOUT LEAVING BEHIND, AND THE BLOOD FLOWED INTO A DITCH (KUAI, HUI)". Soon he went north to Henan and besieged Nanyang. Zuo Liangyu chased to Henan, and Zhang Xianzhong cleverly came to a "enemy enters and I advance", returned to fight Zuo Liangyu's lair, took Yunxi County, and captured many Zuo Ying's family members. Luo Rucai rumored that he had turned his face with Zhang Xianzhong, and did not return to Hubei with Zhang Xianzhong, but in July of the 14th year of Chongzhen, he led his troops to Xichuan (XI) in Henan Province to prepare for a joint venture with Li Zicheng.

At this time, an important stage of the peasant war in the late Ming Dynasty began, that is, the period of Li and Luo's joint venture. History books once commented on the complementarity of Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai's combat characteristics, that is, "Li is good at attacking, Luo is strong at fighting (defending), and the two must (need) each other like left and right hands." ”

No one could have expected that an unexpected victory for the Henan official army would produce a more formidable opponent. As soon as Li and Luo joined forces, they immediately decided to do the big thing. They went down from southwest Henan to Zaoyang and Suizhou in Hubei, preparing to capture Chengtianfu (now Zhongxiang, Hubei, the land of Emperor Jiajing's Longxing). Fu Zonglong, the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi, fearing that the ancestral tomb of Chengtian would be lost, led the Qin army's commander-in-chief He Renlong and the deputy general Li Guoqi to rush to Chengtianfu in early August, and another major war in the Central Plains was about to start.

In the Central Plains of Henan and Hubei, there are six key strategic cities from west to east and from north to south: Luoyang, Nanyang, Xiangyang, Kaifeng, Guide (Shangqiu) and Xuzhou. The so-called competition for the Central Plains is nothing more than circling around these strategic big cities.

Now that Luoyang and Xiangyang have been lost, or the city walls have been demolished, or the materials have been looted, or the population has been dispersed, the importance of strategic support points has declined sharply; Nanyang is sandwiched between breaking and dedicating, and the danger index is close to 99%; Kaifeng was taken aback, and it is estimated that sooner or later he will have to come again or even a few times more thrilling. The only thing that feels a little safe is Guide. If Guide is lost, then the Grand Canal, the north-south movement vein not far to the east, will be in danger. However, the imperial court has exhausted its skills for the Central Plains war situation. All the hopes of the imperial court were pinned on several armies such as Fu Zonglong and Zuo Liangyu.

……

The strategy of "first the south and then the north, and the south occupying and fighting the north" for Shu is perfect, but this requires a large number of well-trained troops and cadres with strong military and political skills. Zhu Pingjin personally presided over the completion of the adjustment of the unit's establishment and the initial upgrade of its equipment, and sent his wife away, so he threw himself into the training and improvement of the unit without distraction.

During the day, he was at the training ground, exploring training and tactics with officers and soldiers. In the evening, he was in class and talked to the cadres about the contradictions in all aspects of society and the coping strategies of the Shu Palace. In the first ten days, he did it, but soon, some information from the Chengdu Mansion caught his attention.

This information not only terminated Zhu Pingjin's military life ahead of schedule and pulled him back to Chengdu, but also formed an overwhelming tsunami together with several subsequent incidents, which almost destroyed Zhu Pingjin's political life.

In the camp of the Shizixing of the Songlin Mountain base, Zhu Pingjin held a regular meeting of the chief and deputy officials of the two departments. The secretary Cheng Xiangfeng participated as usual, but the new logistics staff officer Wu Tai was named by Zhu Pingjin to participate.

"Mr. He, have you seen the urgent mail from the Intelligence Bureau in the past few days?" Zhu Pingjin asked He Youyi.

"Of course I've seen it." He Youyi nodded and said, "Chengdu Mansion has not found any new plague patients. Miss Luo's soap worked wonders and stopped the spread of the plague. Liao Daheng suddenly repented and detained the 5,000 catties of gunpowder we had purchased at the Gunpowder Bureau, saying that it would be distributed to the officers and soldiers who went north to suppress the bandits first. ”

The gunpowder bureau of the government is located in the city of Chengdu, which is theoretically under the jurisdiction of the Sichuan Metropolitan Division, but in practice, all material allocation is decided by the governor's yamen and Bingbeidao. Rations and military funds were an important means for the civilian to control the army.

"There are two more pieces of information that I have just received here. Chongqing Prefecture Guanzhuang Chen Wenquan and Xinjin County Zhuangzhuang Team Fan Changgeng reported urgently. He Youyi pulled out his sleeves as he spoke, took out two letters and handed them to Zhu Pingjin, "They said in the letter that Qiongzhou guarded thousands of households and arrested people everywhere near Qiongzhou. The homeless people and Hanako all ran to Chongqing Prefecture and Xinjin County. Hearing that the governor Yamen wanted the Qiongzhou Institute to send troops to Baoning Mansion to suppress the bandits, the officers did not want to lose their tenants, so they had to go to the streets to arrest people. ”

"It seems that it is true that Liao Tycoon sent troops to Baoning Mansion this time." Zhu Pingjin muttered to himself. He opened the folder on the table and picked up a piece of paper: "Tan Sigui of the Fourth Battalion also sent a report. It's interesting, you see. ”

Tan Sigui's report was passed on to everyone.

The report said that they had replenished their troops in Jiading Prefecture, assembled their formations, and then sailed to Luzhou. Passing through Nanxi County, Xufu, they went into the city to buy vegetables and vegetables, just like the last time the Tusi soldiers went to Jiading Prefecture, they were desperately retained by the local magistrate.

At the beginning of December last year, the thieves broke Luzhou, and a few days later, they broke Nanxi. The name of that magistrate is Zhu Youyuan, and he is the same as the current emperor. Maybe because his name is good, so his life is big. When Nanxi City was broken, he changed into civilian clothes and jumped into the city to escape, but broke his leg. He got up and ran, and was hit by another arrow in the shoulder. He hid in the pile of dead men for two whole days. Mengzhen chased after him, and the thief didn't dare to stay for too long, so he escaped by luck.

That Zhu Zhi County was too badly injured, and it fell into the root of the disease. After the battle of Jiangkou, a large number of corpses floated down the river to Nanxi, and he heard the report of a mad attack on the spot, and ran to the south gate tower with bare feet and cried and laughed.

Tan Sigui and the others got off the boat, and they were just running into a soldier from a hundred households of Xunanwei going out of the city and getting on the boat, ready to sail to Baoning Mansion. When Zhu Zhixian saw that the officers and soldiers were gone, he was frightened again, and led the entire city and city gentry to kneel on the dock and stay. People in their fifties, with a lot of white beard, crying a handful of snot and tears, which makes people feel sad to see. People were crying lively, and Tan Sigui threw himself into the net.

After asking Tan Sigui about their identities, Zhu Zhixian immediately changed to kneel to Tan Sigui. Na Zhu Zhixian begged that as long as Tan Sigui left his soldiers in Nanxi County, he and the gentry in the city were willing to pay for all the food and clothing of the whole company according to the salary standard of the caravan, and there would be a reward at the end of the year. Tan Sigui's meaning in the report was to leave a platoon to be expanded into the Nanxi County City Guard, which was established at the company level. The remaining troops continued to Luzhou.

After reading Tan Sigui's report, the atmosphere in the camp lobby suddenly became lively.

Everyone pouted Zhu Pingjin and immediately approved Tan Sigui's report. Zhu Pingjin smiled and said: "The gentry are willing to contribute food and money to help us support people, of course it's good." Lao Tan's method has opened up a new way to build up the armed forces, which is worth studying and promoting. The caravan guard, the village guard, and now another city guard. It doesn't matter what team he is, he's a soldier of this world anyway! However, the expansion of the army is not so simple. Officers at the company level are appointed by the Cadre Bureau of the Military Department. Zhu Pingjin turned his head to look at Shu Guoping, "Mr. Shu, this son wants two company-level officers, do you have a suitable candidate now?" ”

"Everything that can be used now is used, and there is no superfluous candidate!" Shu Guoping shook his head and was very embarrassed, "There are four battalions and thirteen companies of the caravan; There are thirteen teams in Chengdu, four in Qiongmei, and eleven in Yajia, a total of twenty-eight brigades, how many cadres do you need? The priority is to ensure the protection of the caravan, which makes the protection of the village team suffer. Nowadays, many of the basic officers of the village protection team are not fully equipped. As for Lao Tan, their Luzhou Huzhuang Corps has four brigades, and now Lao Tan has a light pole, and he can't pull out a single cadre.

Officers cannot be planted in the field. There must always be a criterion for selecting officers, such as loyalty and reliability; Able to fight, not afraid of death; has qualifications, can convince the public, and finally has to recognize a few words. If you can't read big words, you can't even write a report, so how can we command? Only when this batch of cadet companies has passed the training can we breathe a sigh of relief. ”

It is more important to open source to reduce expenditure, and it is more necessary to cultivate selection. On the headache-inducing issue of cadres, Zhu Pingjin finally made up his mind.

"The current shortage of cadres cannot be sustained! Not only Nanxi County, but also Rong County, Jingyan, Mianzhou and other places that have been plagued by thieves, all urgently need us to protect the country and the people! In the past, when we were in Bifeng Gorge, we had documents at the company level. In the past six months, there has been a shortage of people everywhere, and the position of clerk has always been vacant. Mr. Shu and Mr. He set a good example for scholars, that is, to abandon the pen and follow the army, and the literati to join the army! We want to encourage Sichuan scholars to come to this class Dingyuan (class super)! Wang Sanniu acted as the captain of the Nanxi City Guard. He can't read, but he can fight! This Shizi will rush back to Chengdu Mansion tomorrow, Mr. Shu, Mr. Sun and others will go back with Ben Shizi, and the rest will stay to continue training. Mr. Cheng, quickly inform Miss Luo that I will not be waiting for her in Songlin Mountain, and let her go back to Chengdu directly. Mr. Wu, inform the kitchen to add meat and wine. Tonight, the son of this world eats with the soldiers, and also practices in advance for the third battalion! ”

Zhu Pingjin picked up a quill pen, approved a few words on Tan Sigui's report, and then handed it to Cheng Xiangfeng, Cheng Xiangfeng read it, made a record, and handed it to He Youyi and Shu Guoping.

I saw that Zhu Pingjin's instructions were: use talents without sticking to one pattern!

Everyone listened to each other and praised it. Zhu Pingjin smiled and used gestures to calm everyone down.

"I invite you to come today, and the guest is Mr. Wu. This prince would like to invite Mr. Wu to give you a lecture on the tax expenditure of the imperial court, the grain storehouse, and the relationship between the imperial court's money and grain reserves and the recent wars outside the Guan. Everybody sit down and listen. ”