Chapter Forty-Seven: The New Year of Yaogang Chuang Wang Crusade

Since the kiln head office pays wages on time until the end of the year, many people have been rewarded by the company. The enthusiasm of the kiln people for the New Year is particularly high, and the shopping ability is also particularly strong. Therefore, Li Zicheng's attack hardly affected the enthusiasm of Yaogang for the New Year. This also reflects the self-confidence of the kiln people.

What I didn't expect was that it was the self-confidence of the people of Yaogang that made many big families in Shanxi come to Yaogang to rent a house in advance. If you can't rent a house, you can book a room in the inn room in advance. The inn rooms were full. However, Yang Jing's passenger transport company wants to ensure the accommodation of the passengers, and the rooms are full, and the guests cannot be rushed out. I had no choice but to use the undivided residence as a guest room. Also constantly apologize to the guests. However, the guests also know that this is an extraordinary time, so they don't care too much.

Many large households also continued to transport silver and gold directly to the kiln and deposit it in the kiln gang.

Although, the people of Yaogang celebrate the New Year as usual, but the leaders of Yaogang are not so relaxed. They arranged the evacuation of the branches that should be evacuated in advance. Tell the local customers that they can go to the kiln to do the ticket business. Although the local customers are not satisfied, everyone knows that the situation is different and can be understood.

Before those ticket numbers were to be evacuated, notices were issued in advance. Give time to those who need to exchange silver and kiln coins. But the exchange thing is a little strange. Some people are afraid that the kiln gang coin will be worthless, so they will exchange the kiln gang coin for silver; Some felt that it was not safe to keep the silver in their own hands, so they exchanged the silver for kiln coins. Even more enlightened, the silver was exchanged for kiln coins in the morning and back in the afternoon. In short, Shanxi is panicked.

Chen Yufeng also informed Lishan and Taiyue Mountain in advance to be prepared, and at the same time, they were also sent out mortars, and a large number of muskets, ammunition, and hands. Grain, cattle and sheep and other supplies were also sent to them.

A few years ago, according to the agreement, the old owner Qiu of Yuncheng sent a team of carriages to quietly send his own gold and silver and that of several large households to Yaogang. Along with their families, they also came quietly. Because Yuncheng is already very nervous. The ticket number and business of the Yaogang branch have been withdrawn to Lishan, leaving only the transportation company's site still insisting.

Most of the family members of the Salt Gang came to Yaogang for the first time. What they didn't expect was that the kiln was built so differently from them, and there were high-rise buildings everywhere. What they didn't expect was that the people here didn't seem to know that Li Zicheng was coming, and the streets were full of people coming and going, and the big and small businesses were very prosperous. There was laughter everywhere. In particular, tickets for each night have to be bought a day in advance. Those Shanxi people who have always been thrifty have also begun to spend a lot of money when they arrive at Yaogang. And in this place of Yaogang, it seems that there is not enough silver to spend, there are too many good things, and everything feels cheap. Everyone here is smiling and well-dressed. Those newcomers, every time before going out, they have to dress well before they dare to go out, for fear of being laughed at by the people here.

The year of the kiln gang people has been the same, but the military training does not dare to be ambiguous at all. The more than 10,000 infantry and more than 10,000 cavalry, as well as reserve soldiers, rotated every day for live-fire training. The middle and lower-level officers who came from Tongguan, Ouyang He personally gave them a few lessons, and Liu Yun sent people to conduct military training for them, because many of them had never used muskets and hands, and they had to be allowed to make up for these courses before they could serve as officers of reserve soldiers. Fortunately, these people have been in the barracks all year round, and their military quality is very good, and their learning ability is also very strong. Later, one of them said to Ouyang He, who gave them a lesson: "If there were so many muskets in Tongguan at the beginning, Li Zicheng's army would not have been able to enter Tongguan at all." Now that we can even have a musket in each reserve soldier, how many people from Li Zicheng have been sent to death. ”

In fact, they didn't know that the kiln gang people still had rifles, but for the sake of secrecy, rifle training was carried out in secret.

There are a total of three shooting ranges in Yaogang, one is on the side of Xishan Baozi, which is mainly used for training reserve soldiers, one is a col to the east of the cave barracks, and the other is a shooting range for Li Yunhe's test gun. But now it's all at full capacity.

According to Zhang Zhimu's request, the skilled workers of the kiln gang formed a reserve force to be used as a second-line unit, and it was not a very urgent situation, so they did not need to go to the front line. Because it is not easy to train a skilled worker.

Zhang Zhimu knew that if history followed the original trajectory, Li Zicheng should be proclaimed emperor on the first day of the new year, and he would swear to set off to attack Shanxi on the eighth day of the new year.

However, after the first day of the new year, Xi'an, the source of information from Yaogang was cut off. This made Zhang Zhimu feel very uneasy, he was really afraid that something would happen. Such an intelligence source is really too rare.

In fact, just as Zhang Zhimu expected, history has returned to the original track in accordance with its original trend.

Li Zicheng and his generals chased Sun Chuanting's rout until the city of Xi'an, without giving Sun Chuanting a chance to breathe, and soon surrounded Xi'an.

Sun Chuanting's tens of thousands of troops were supported to return to Xi'an because of the food and salary supported by the Yaogang people. Sun Chuanting originally thought that if he could take a breath and regroup when he returned to Shaanxi, he might be able to create a miracle again and have a chance to turn the tables again.

But Li Zicheng and his generals quickly saw his thoughts clearly and did not give him any more chances. In Xi'an, Sun Chuanting's army had no food and grass inside, and there were no rescuers outside, knowing that Xi'an could not hold it for too long, he scattered his people and broke through.

Li Zicheng and their seizure of Xi'an, to establish a country here and become the emperor was something that had been planned for a long time. As soon as Sun Chuanting withdrew from Xi'an, Li Zicheng led a team into Xi'an, captured Zhu Cunshu, the king of Qin, and began to pacify the people and relieve the victims. It quickly stabilized the hearts of the people of Xi'an. Li Zicheng renamed Xi'an Chang'an and restored the name it had during the Tang Dynasty. At the same time, Li Zicheng's generals swept through the entire territory of Shaanxi, and then occupied Ningxia, Gansu and part of Sichuan.

However, it is said that Li Zicheng's generals swept through Shaanxi, but in fact the process was not smooth sailing. There was even a lot of tragic fighting.

For example, in the battle of Yulin, the attack and defense lasted thirteen days and nights, and the arrows and stones and artillery fire never stopped for a moment, the attackers were brave and the defenders were tenacious. In the end, Li Zicheng's army bombed the city with **, and the southeast city wall collapsed dozens of zhang, and the city caught fire, and Li Zicheng's army swarmed in. The street fighting lasted from noon to evening, with each side breaking their swords, corpses piling up in the streets, and blood spilling all over the thoroughfare. The generals who died in Yulin included You Shiwei, Hou Shilu, Hou Gongji, Wang Xueshu, Wang Shiqin, Wang Shiguo, Wang Shichen, and Li Changling, and the generals and deputy generals were You Zhaiwen, Chang Huaide, Li Denglong, Zhang Fa, Yang Ming, guerrilla Sun Gui, and Long Yangkun. There were also ten guards, including guerrilla Fu De. The women and children in the city fought to the end with Li Zicheng's army, which had come to liberate them, and none of them surrendered.

Li Zicheng's army also had a bad time capturing Qingyang. Liu Zongmin led an army of 50,000 horses and besieged the city for several circles. Duan Fuxing, the deputy envoy of the city's military garrison, was also very bloody, he relied on the strong city walls to lead his troops to defend the city, and mobilized the women in the city to participate in the defense of the city. The battle was fierce. Nong Liu Zongmin led the army to attack Xicheng first, fought for three days, changed to attack Nancheng, fought for two more days and did not conquer, and finally moved from Xicheng to Beicheng, and finally moved to Dongcheng. Liu Zongmin has already suffered 30,000 casualties, and his corpses have almost filled the moat. When Liu Zongmin knew that it was the women in the city who were guarding here, and their strength was weak, he took this as a breakthrough and organized the army to dig dozens of roads through the city wall and break into the city. Duan Fuxing, the deputy envoy of the military garrison, Dong Wan, the prefect, and Ma Xi, the squire Shaoqing of Taichang Temple, were killed on the same day. The king of Han, Zhu Yanyan, was captured in this way.

When Li Zicheng's army surrounded Ningxia, the chief military officer Fu Min led the soldiers and civilians in the town to resist. The Dashun army organized three attacks, all of which were unsuccessful, and the soldiers suffered thousands of casualties. Later, after Li Zicheng solved Yulin, when he led a large army to come, the governor Li Yukui and the king of Qing, Zhu Zhuoji, were helpless when there were no rescuers outside and no food inside. They consulted at the Qingwang Mansion and finally decided to surrender to the peasant army. Guan Fumin saw the Dashun army brigade coming, and also surrendered.

In his previous life, Zhang Zhimu, when he read the records of this history several times, he was very emotional in his heart, and felt that the Han people were also bloody. If all Han people have such blood, can they still be enslaved by foreigners again and again? At the beginning, there were 300,000 people in Nanjing.....

Since Li Zicheng and many of his generals were from Shaanxi, and their hometown concept was extremely important, Li Zicheng was very satisfied with Chang'an as the capital and became emperor. Before becoming emperor, Li Zicheng returned to his hometown once. This was in November of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen.

At this time, Li Zicheng had gradually revealed his imperial appearance, or he was already a little carried away by victory. He had forgotten that he still had a nemesis in Shanxi.

Li Zicheng took 10,000 cavalry and returned to Mizhi's hometown with him. According to the previous history, Li Guo should have stood for him. But now Li Guoguan is in the kiln. If there is no Li Guo, of course there will be other people who will go.

Li Zicheng, who is now going home, is not an ordinary trivial matter, he took the cavalry to build bridges and roads along the way, and outside the north gate of Mizhi County, he converted a very good temple into a palace. In Mizhi County, Li Zicheng feasted for three days, inviting the elders of Mizhi's hometown. He also built his ancestral tomb and sent 500 men to guard it. At the same time, he announced to his relatives, neighbors, and clans in the township that those who are willing to follow me as an official will go to Chang'an with me, and if they are unwilling to go, I will reward you with money and food. In this way, Li Zicheng brought a group of hometown people and followed him back to Chang'an to be an official.

Because of the experience of being the king in Xiangyang, when he was proclaimed emperor in Xi'an this time, it was much simpler to have a team of officials. However, in Xiangyang, he was called the king, and now he is the emperor.

Niu Jinxing and others calculated and finally determined that the first day of the Lunar New Year in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen was a good day. Therefore, Li Zicheng's claim to be the emperor and the day of the establishment of the capital are set on this day of universal celebration.

The country name established by Li Zicheng is called "Dashun", the year name is "Yongchang", Li Zicheng became the emperor of Dashun State, and the capital is Chang'an, Xijing. Feng Niu Jinxing is the prime minister, and Song Xiance is the military advisor. But Li Zicheng knew that he was the emperor in Xi'an, and he still called himself, and if he wanted the world to recognize it, he had to go to Beijing to be crowned. As soon as he was proclaimed emperor, Li Zicheng swore an oath on the eighth day of the first month, and the general Tian Jianxiu, his wife Gao, and the number one of the six governments, Shangshuguan, stayed in Xi'an, and personally led 200,000 horses to the east. This march to Beijing is to put the established strategic decisions into practice and put them into action. This is due to the fact that Li Zicheng and his brothers have long been negotiated, and there are also the 20,000 pioneers sent out by themselves, and the march has been smooth all the way, and it has been proved that the officers and soldiers in Shanxi can be regarded as nothing. Judging from the weather, it is best to cross the Yellow River as soon as possible, taking advantage of the fact that the Yellow River is not civilized.

At this time, the balance of forces between the Ming Dynasty and Dashun has undergone fundamental changes. The Dashun army had already surpassed the Ming army in numbers, and its morale was strong, and it was strategically in the initiative. To meet the needs of attacking Beijing, Li Zicheng and his generals decided to concentrate superior forces, divide into joint attacks, and seize Beijing. The so-called concentration of superior forces means to gather the main forces of the Dashun Army, dispatch the main generals, and Li Zicheng personally led the division to advance, and the conscription included Liu Zongmin, the head of the military attache of the Dashun Army, as well as Li You and other major generals, and the important members of the Dashun central government also followed. He was accompanied not only by the main senior generals in the army, but also by important officials such as the squires of the central government of the Dashun New Dynasty, such as Prime Minister Niu Jinxing, military advisor Song Xiance, and six government officials, including Gu Junen, Yu Dayou, Song Qijiao, Gong Yan, Zhang Lanran, Li Zhensheng, and Yang Yulin. There are also Zhu Cunshu, the king of Qin, Zhu Kangyan, the king of Han, and Zhu Zhuo, the king of Qing, who also accompanied him.

This time, Li Zicheng made full preparations for his expedition to the east, both militarily and politically.

At this time, the section of the Yellow River between Shanxi and Shaanxi was still under the control of the Ming Dynasty, and the defense of the Yan River was always the key area of the Ming Dynasty's fortification. Li Zicheng's advance team of Dashun Army crossed the river and marched eastward, which aroused the vigilance of the Ming Dynasty, and Emperor Chongzhen ordered the generals guarding the river to be loyal to their duties and take strict precautions. In order to ensure that the 200,000-strong army with complete equipment crossed the river, Li Zicheng made careful arrangements and mobilized all the officers and men of the army to make full preparations. It is necessary not only to have enough troops, but also to overwhelm the Ming army with heavy artillery fire, defeat the Ming Dynasty's river defense troops, and ensure the safety of the army's crossing of the river, and also seize the most favorable opportunity to enable the Eastern Expeditionary Army to cross the river safely. The so-called best time was naturally to cross the Yellow River on solid ice during the ice period, and the peasant army had already achieved successful experience in this regard. If the frozen layer of the Yellow River is thin and cannot bear the load, then it is necessary to use a boat to ferry, and the problem of the boat must be solved first. Li Zicheng built 3,000 ships in Shawokou and collected more than 10,000 civilian ships. It can be seen that the preparations have been done quite well.

Li Zicheng chose the location of crossing the Yellow River in Yumen. Yumen is located in the Fen River into the Yellow River of Hejin north of the thirty miles, here is the Yellow River out of the canyon, rushing south, here is also called Longmen, it is said that Yu was chiseled when the water was controlled, so in commemoration of Yu called this place Yumen.

Under Li Zicheng's careful deployment, the 200,000 army, taking advantage of the opportunity of the Yellow River to freeze, crossed the Yellow River smoothly and orderly in Yumen, was invincible, and almost encountered little resistance, and occupied Puzhou, Yishi, Wenxi, and Jiangzhou (now Xinjiang, Shanxi).

After Emperor Chongzhen got the report, he was naturally furious, in view of the fact that the officials and people in various places advocated to flee, on the twentieth day of the first month, Emperor Chongzhen issued two edicts in a row. One is to stop the advocacy of desertion. It is said that in the troubled places, the people's hearts are not solid, they evade the police, and the law and discipline are ruined. Those who advocate desertion, regardless of clan or gentry, will be questioned immediately. The other is to commend the act of advocating justice. It is said that the Jinan Zhenlin, Zima, Longgu and other passes, it is extremely appropriate to strengthen the garrison, and it is necessary to take the credit of not entering a thief, advocate righteousness and urgency, and make a record. At the same time, Guo Jingchang was appointed as the governor of Shanxi, succeeded Cai Maode as the governor of Shanxi, and appointed the imperial history Jin Yutong to supervise Shanxi.

What puzzled Emperor Chongzhen was that the news from Shanxi said that the people of Yaogang were celebrating the New Year happily, without any nervousness. This made Emperor Chongzhen nervous, in such a situation, the people of Yaogang did not go all out to prepare for war, that is, there was a meaning of surrendering Li Zicheng. If this is the case, it will be a big deal, he knows that the officials he sent are two pounds, and it is impossible to stop Li Zicheng's million-strong army by relying on them. Chongzhen has always been very careful about Zhang Zhimu's promise in Yaogang, because Zhang Zhimu promised to block Li Zicheng's army in Shanxi and prevent Li Zicheng from attacking Beijing. But Chongzhen is also worried that there are not many people in Yaogang, even if they have the advantage of firearms, but Li Zicheng is a million army, even if he lets them kill, he can't kill them. Could it be that they knew they were invincible and wanted to surrender?

Chongzhen called over to the prince, "Find out immediately, the people of Yaogang are still not ready for war, what are they going to do?" ”

=======================

Paragliding, rubber model airplanes, piano making, and building an air force. --Progress of "Memories of the Southern Song Dynasty".