Emperor Ming Fengyunlu

Volume 9 The Great Tribulation

Chapter 1 The Difficulties and Disasters of the State Arise

Section 2: Bandits in Northwest China (1)

Since the first year of Chongzhen, there has been a once-in-a-century drought in the north of the Ming Dynasty, and Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and other northwest provinces have also broken out a very serious locust plague, and a rare famine broke out in the northwest for a while, hundreds of thousands of people were forced to leave their hometowns with disasters, and became a mighty tide of displaced people.

In the face of years of disasters and the weak relief of various state capitals, millions of victims in the northwestern provinces finally broke out into riots, and the angry victims shouted angrily: "Instead of sitting and starving to death, why not steal and die!" ”

Yang He, who was the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi at the time, once said in his letter to Emperor Chongzhen: "Since the Wanli and Tianqi years, most of Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan have been plagued by natural disasters. Subsequently, when the Liao army returned to the place, due to the lack of food and salary, there were many people who fled to the thieves, so the bandits in the northwest became more and more difficult to control! ”

It didn't take long for the end of June of the second year of Chongzhen (the first year of Tiancong of the Manchu Qing Dynasty) to consciously gather mobs from all over the country, and finally formed a great rebellion that swept through Shaanxi, Shanxi, and Henan provinces. At the same time, Gao Yingxiang, the head of the horse seller in Yanqing Mansion, saw the opportunity and thought that this was a great opportunity to become a hero, so he gathered his troops and raised a counter-flag in Ansai. After that, Gao Yingxiang led his subordinates to fight several bloody battles with the Zuo Jinguan army, and each time Gao Yingxiang was killed in a white robe and white scarf, and soon became famous.

It didn't take long for Gao Yingxiang to lead his troops to join the bandit leaders Wang Jiayin and Wang Ziyong, and the three of them led the army into Shanxi together. But it didn't take long for everyone to be defeated by Cao Wenzhao, the commander of Nanshan, and Wang Jiayin, the leader of the thieves, was beheaded by Cao Wenzhao.

In the face of the strong counterattack of the imperial army, the thieves from all walks of life formed a 36 battalion under Gao Yingxiang's proposal, and everyone elected Gao Yingxiang as the leader of the thief army, called: "King Chuang".

It was at this time that Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, who had witnessed the majestic appearance of the Hanwei Army, rushed to hear the news and led the thieves and horses they pulled up to take refuge in Gao Yingxiang.

Li Zicheng, who had no food and clothing due to the abolition of the post station by the imperial court, brought thousands of people such as his nephew Li Guo and other children of the clan and deserters from the post station to take refuge. Li Zicheng divided his soldiers and horses into eight teams, "strict with the public and one order", and he must take the lead in every battle, which gradually attracted the attention of Gao Yingxiang and was named a general.

In the process of fighting against the official army, Gao Yingxiang first rectified the army of thieves from all walks of life, and obtained a total of 200,000 elite troops, with strong soldiers and high morale. After that, Gao Yingxiang divided his troops into four ways to start attacking the city and conquering the prefecture and county, and successively conquered Ningxiang, Shilou, Jishan, Wenxi, and Hejian counties.

Seeing that the resistance of the officials and troops in various places was weak and the combat effectiveness was low, Gao Yingxiang was even more overjoyed, and immediately commanded the bandit leaders Ma Guangyu, Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng and others to attack Puzhou, Daning, and Yangcheng. By the time of October, the army of thieves had conquered Daning, Xizhou, Zezhou, Shouyang and other cities, seeing that the army of thieves was like a bamboo, it was the time when the whole Jin was shaken, and the urgent twists and turns flew to the capital like snowflakes.

Emperor Chongzhen saw that the thieves in the northwest were so arrogant and had the potential to burn the plains, and he couldn't help but be furious, and immediately dismissed the governor Song Tongyin, and stationed 8,000 troops with Xu Dingchen's governor He Renlong and Zuo Liangyu's army in Pingyang, and the governor of Xuanda, Zhang Zongheng, the governor of Xuanda, Zhang Yingchang, Po Ximu, and Ai Wannian's 7,000 soldiers blocked Fenzhou, and Yang He, the governor of Shaanxi on the three sides, took charge of the overall situation and prepared to exterminate the army of thieves in one fell swoop.

At this time, Liu Yunwei, the governor of Jiliao, deeply felt that the situation in the northwest was becoming more and more serious, and if it was not exterminated in time, it was very likely to become a major problem for the dynasty like the Manchu Qing entrenched in Liaodong. As a result, Liu Yunwei wrote to Emperor Chongzhen several times to ask for war, and wanted to lead the soldiers of the Hanwei army to the northwest to participate in the war, but Emperor Chongzhen refused on the grounds that "the imperial court is not good at food and salary", "the Manchu Qing Dynasty is the great enemy of the country, and the superintendent should strictly guard the four towns", but ordered Liu Yunwei to lead the army to guard the four towns of Jiliao to prevent the Manchu Qing and Mongolia from taking the opportunity to go south.

In the face of Emperor Chongzhen's response, Liu Yunwei was very anxious, but he had no choice but to pay close attention to the development of the situation in the northwest while secretly raising some money and grain in case of emergency.

At the same time, Gao Yingxiang had already learned of the general military deployment of the imperial court. In the face of the menacing two-way attack of the imperial court's officials and troops, Gao Yingxiang knew that although his army was large in number and superior in strength, it still could not be compared with the real elite of the imperial court in terms of combat power. Therefore, Gao Yingxiang decided to avoid its edge for the time being, and first went to various places to drag the imperial army tired, so he led the army of thieves to take the initiative to retreat into Mopan Mountain, and divided his troops into three ways to resist the attack of the official army.

After January, the two armies of the imperial court were assembled, and then the offensive began. Xu Dingchen led the 8,000 troops of He Renlong and Zuo Liangyu to follow Gao Yingxiang's troops all the way to attack, and Zhang Zongheng, the governor of Xuanda, led Zhang Yingchang, Po Ximu, and Ai Wannian's 7,000 troops to raid from the flank, and successively broke the defenses laid by the thief army. Seeing that the elite of the two official armies were about to join forces and successfully join forces, Gao Yingxiang couldn't help but feel anxious.

Within a few days, Gao Yingxiang learned the news of the successful rendezvous of the imperial army, and he couldn't help but be horrified, and had no choice but to continue to use the trick of mobile warfare, first taking the initiative to give up Zezhou and Shouyang, leading his troops south to Taihang Mountain, and then turning to attack Jiyuan, Qinghua, Xiuwu, and besiege Huaiqing; When the imperial army followed, Gao Yingxiang suddenly led the army to sneak into the West Mountain, and smashed Shunde and Zhending from the lofty mountains and mountains, and the army of more than 100,000 thieves was about to enter Gyeonggi in a blink of an eye, leaving more than 10,000 elite officers and soldiers far behind.

After this news was transmitted back to the capital, it immediately caused an uproar in the capital, and the whole dynasty was shocked, and Emperor Chongzhen was even more furious, scolding Yang He, Xu Dingchen, and Zhang Zongheng for being incompetent, and more than 10,000 elite troops could not exterminate a group of thieves, but were constantly attacked by the army of thieves, and even the soldiers pointed directly at Gyeonggi! In the face of the increasingly severe situation, Emperor Chongzhen vented all the anger in his heart on the heads of the cabinet ministers, replaced the first assistant of the cabinet Ye Xianggao with the crime of unfavorable governance, and replaced it with Han Yuan, a member of the Donglin Party, as the first assistant of the cabinet, and Liang Tingdong as the secretary of the military department, and promoted Wen Tiren, who was also a member of the Donglin Party, to serve as the secretary of the Ministry of Rites, and Zhou Yanru was also transferred to the cabinet.

After adjusting the personnel structure of the DPRK and China, the newly appointed cabinet chief assistant Han Kuang recommended Lu Xiangsheng, who was a right-hand politician, to fight the army of thieves, so Emperor Chongzhen urgently transferred Lu Xiangsheng to lead the army to resist the army of thieves who were roaring and killing. Lu Xiangsheng, who was born in Wenchen, is a rare talent with both civil and military skills in the Ming court, and this time he really lived up to expectations, and soon led the army of his troops to successfully repel the army of thieves who came from afar, and won a lot of people. Seeing this, Gao Yingxiang knew that his strength was not enough to defeat the imperial army, so he had to lead the army to retreat, and led the army to retreat directly into the area of Taihang Mountain to defend himself and continue to accumulate strength.

Seeing that the bandits in the northwest were temporarily contained, Emperor Chongzhen breathed a sigh of relief, and then convened Han Yuan, the first assistant of the cabinet, to discuss how to completely quell the bandits in the northwest.

Facing Emperor Chongzhen's inquiry, Han Yuan got up and said: "Your Majesty, the number of thieves in the northwest is large and powerful, it is nothing more than because of the continuous natural disasters in the northwest provinces, and the people everywhere have no food and clothing, so they were coerced into the gang by the head of the thieves, so that the thieves are getting bigger and bigger, and they will eventually become today's disaster." The minister thought that in order to quell the bandits in the northwest, we could not rely only on the army to expropriate and suppress them, but to suppress and appease them at the same time, and constantly appease and provide relief to the displaced people in various places, so that the thieves would have nowhere to coerce the people to follow the thieves. ”

Emperor Chongzhen couldn't help but nod when he heard this, and said secretly: "Han Ge Lao's remarks can be said to be the key. ”

So, Emperor Chongzhen asked: "If the imperial court wants to suppress and use it, where should the soldiers and horses be recruited?" Where should we mobilize money and food to help the displaced people? ”

Han Yuan was stunned when he heard this, stood aside for a long time, and said: "Your Majesty, due to the decrease in the income of the imperial court, the military department and the household department have no money and food, and I also ask Your Majesty to support some from the internal treasury." As for the counterinsurgency soldiers and horses, the minister thought that he could recruit a part of the Hanwei army to fight, so that the army of thieves could be wiped out in one battle! ”

Hearing that the imperial court had no money, Emperor Chongzhen's face suddenly turned cold, and he said coldly: "After I exterminated the eunuch party, didn't the imperial court confiscate a huge amount of money from Wei Zhongxian and his henchmen? It's only been a long time, how can the imperial court have no money! Also, when Wei Zhongxian troubled the imperial court, the taxes collected by the imperial court were still sufficient, why is it that now that the Zhongzheng Ying Dynasty is in power, the imperial court can't take out money and grain? How do you make sense! ”

Seeing that Emperor Chongzhen was angry, Han Yuan repeatedly confessed, and hurriedly explained: "Your Majesty, now the imperial court wants to supply 300,000 Han Wei army with food and salary, and to rebuild Liaodong Town and rebuild the city, this requires a lot of money and grain!" The money and food that were confiscated from the eunuchs were not enough at all! ”

Obviously, Emperor Chongzhen was not very satisfied with Han Yuan's explanation, but he couldn't think of any reason for a while, so he didn't continue to dwell too much on this issue.

"Now the elder of the pavilion will tell me that in order to completely quell the bandits in the northwest, how much grain does the imperial court need to raise, and how many soldiers and horses does it need to mobilize?"

Han Yuan thought for a while and said, "Your Majesty, the minister has already discussed this matter with the military department secretary and the household department secretary before. The ministers unanimously agreed that in order to completely quell the bandits in the northwest, it was necessary to requisition and transfer an elite army of 3 to 50,000 yuan, raise 2 million taels of military salaries and 800,000 stone of military rations; In addition, the imperial court also had to prepare money and grain for the relief of the displaced people and the reconstruction of the place, at least two million taels of silver and more than one million stone of grain! ”