Although Hong Chengchou was only thirty-six years old at this time, he had been a junior sergeant for 14 years. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

In other words, he has been struggling for 14 years in the intrigue and treacherous officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, and he can be regarded as a person who has been in the sea for a long time.

Such a person's insight into the human heart is not comparable to ordinary people.

Wang Chengen, the new Shaanxi commander-in-chief who has been following Hong Chengchou for more than a year, has long been accustomed to the unfathomable approach of his own governor.

Whether it is dealing with Shaanxi's military and civil affairs, or taking the army of Shaanxi Fubiao to exterminate the bandits and bandits, Hong Chengchou has always planned and then acted, and rarely discussed this and that with the generals under his command, except for his own brother and personal staff Hong Qiyin, he rarely asked for the opinions of others, or listened to the opinions of others.

Therefore, Wang Chengen, who was ordered to lead Shaanxi Fubiao at the beginning, quickly recognized the character of this governor, and served more cautiously, as long as Hong Chengchou was in the army, no matter what happened, he would ask for instructions in advance and report afterwards, and never easily make his own opinions.

Therefore, Hong Chengchou, the thirty-six-year-old governor of Shaanxi, has always been very fond of Wang Chengen, a general of the Shaanxi army who is more than ten years older than him, and this is also the reason why Wang Chengen was able to take over as the general army of Shaanxi when Zhang Guoxing's life and death were unknown.

It is difficult to say whether Hong Chengchou's domineering personality is good or bad, whether the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, or the disadvantages outweigh the advantages.

Originally, in history, the Battle of Songshan in the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, a few months before the battle, almost all the general soldiers under Hong Chengchou opposed the decisive battle with the main force, and all advocated sticking to the Ningyuan Jiancheng that the Ming army had operated for a long time.

However, after Hong Chengchou made up his mind, no one could shake it, and led the total soldiers of all walks of life to accumulate hundreds of thousands of troops to the north of Songshan, to rescue Jinzhou, but not long after arriving in Songshan, the Manchu army did not fight with it at all, but sent a partial division to quickly go south, captured Tashan, Xingshan, and copied the back road of the Ming official army.

At this time, all the general soldiers under the command of Hong Chengchou once again jointly requested to return to Ningyuan on the grounds that the grain route was cut off, because the main force of the Manchu Qing Dynasty was still under siege of Jinzhou, and in the face of the Manchu division behind him, the Ming official army still had an absolute advantage, but Hong Chengchou's stubborn character played a role again, and he still adhered to the established strategy.

When Huang Taiji led the main force of the Manchu Qing Dynasty to abandon Jinzhou and attack Songshan City in the north and south, everyone under the command of Hong Chengchou was frightened, and they no longer gave advice to Hong Chengchou, who could not listen to his opinions, but directly led the army to retreat, resulting in chaos in the Ming army.

A month later, the last elite main force of the Ming Dynasty army led by Hong Chengchou was wiped out near Songshan, and then, Zu Dashou led the Jinzhou defenders to surrender, and Wu Sangui retreated to Shanhaiguan, since then Liaodong Town is finished, and the Ningjin defense line has completely collapsed.

Among them, of course, there are the factors of Emperor Chongzhen and the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty constantly urging Hong Chengchou to march into the army, but when Tashan was lost, and the land where Tashan Bijia Post stored grain had been burned, it was actually impossible to relieve the siege of Jinzhou, Hong Chengchou should follow the advice of the general soldiers under his command and quickly withdraw the army back to the division, but he did not.

This cannot but be said that there is a factor of his personality that plays a role in it.

Now Hong Chengchou is already in a high position at a young age, and he is deeply trusted by the current emperor, and the domineering arbitrariness that existed in his personality has been strengthened.

Of course, this question is a matter of opinion between the benevolent and the wise.

Because the civilian officials at the end of the Ming Dynasty were generally full of distrust of the generals, on the eve of the Battle of Songshan, Hong Chengchou was even more distrustful of the generals gathered in Liaodong, and regarded the worries of these generals about the decisive battle of the army as cowardice, and their repeated suggestions to themselves as a challenge and disobedience to their authority, which resulted in the final catastrophe.

However, Hong Chengchou's character also has benefits, and the key depends on where it is used.

In the far northwest of the mountain high emperor, when fighting against the thieves, because the fighter plane is fleeting, there are many situations where it is necessary to make a decision on the spot, and there are many fierce generals under his command, if a commander does not have his own backbone, it is very dangerous.

Before Hong Chengchou was transferred to Liaodong in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, the reason why he was able to be invincible and outstanding on the battlefield of exterminating the thieves in the northwest was due to his domineering character.

To put it mildly, it is called arrogant and domineering.

To put it nicely, it is called decisiveness and resoluteness.

This time, he originally promised to accept the surrender of Wang Zuohang and others, but after Wang Zuohang and others surrendered, Hong Chengchou didn't even see his face, and was directly tied up and detained separately, and his life was almost certainly not saved.

Speaking of which, it is the embodiment of this character.

However, for this point, Wang Chengen, the new Shaanxi commander-in-chief, has long been surprised, and his own governor was originally in this way, so he can only blame Wang Zuojiao and others for being unlucky.

That night, Hong Chengchou did not enter the city, nor did he immediately behead Wang Zuojiao and others.

He didn't enter the city because there were too many prisoners outside the city, and he had to sit in the army himself.

And he didn't immediately behead Wang Zuojiao and the others, not because he didn't want to do this, but because he had other considerations.

Now that Shennanyu has been taken by Lu Xiangsheng's army, big thieves like Wang Jiayin and Wang Er are dead, and the 20,000 horses of the "King of Daliang" in Ningxiang can surrender, so can the thief army of the "Zijin Liang" of Guangwuzhuang, who is also facing the front and rear attacks, surrender?

On the night of the same day, after thinking about it, Hong Chengchou quickly sent his own soldiers to lead dozens of elites of the Chinese army, Zhang Heng, with the news that the Ningxiang thief army had all surrendered, and hurried back to Shilou, and reported to Zhang Zongheng, the envoy of Shanxi, and told him to be cautious, not to move lightly, and wait for him to lead the army back to the division.

In the early morning of the second day, Hong Chengchou, who had not closed his eyes almost all night, accompanied by Zhong Dewu, the general of the Fubiao Chinese Army, took Wang Zuohang and others who were tied up with five flowers and entered Ningxiang County, and changed the Ningxiang County Ya, where Wang Zuohang and others were entrenched before, back to the appearance of the Ming Dynasty official mansion as his temporary station.

Wang Zuojiao and the others were not only tied up and unable to move, but also gagged and covered their heads.

Hong Chengchou not only didn't even look at them, but also didn't give them a chance to speak, even if he wanted to question them or even incite the prisoners, it was impossible.

I was afraid and remorseful all night, and I didn't eat a grain of rice or drink a drop of water, and at this time, I just had no strength to struggle and resist, so I could only be at the mercy of Zhong Dewu and his men.

That's really, who can blame the deceitful and who should be reasonable?

Hong Chengchou entered the city and saw piles of corpses piled up and down the city, and soon ordered Li Wenyun to lead the musket team of the Fubiao Chinese Army to select the young and strong among the hundreds of captives and clean up the corpses inside and outside the county town of Ningxiang.

According to Hong Chengchou's order, Wang Chengen, the commander-in-chief of Shaanxi, also selected only 1,000 young men from the captives who were registered as Shanxi, and asked them to dig a huge pit in the open area by the river outside the north gate of Ningxiang County.

The young men who were singled out, because they were asked to contribute, so everyone was given boiled potatoes or sweet potatoes for food, so that they could eat and work, and this scene made the thieves and prisoners in the prisoner camp who had been hungry for a day and a night blush.

These captives came to the designated place of the soldiers and horses under the command of Wang Chengen, the general soldier of Shaanxi, and started construction on a rectangular area with a length of more than 300 steps and a width of 200 steps, which was equivalent to the size of three standard football fields in later generations.

These people looked at the mountains of corpses that were cleaned up one after another outside the north gate in the distance, and took it for granted that this was to let them dig a pit to bury these corpses, so they didn't need to be whipped and supervised by the officers and soldiers, and they all tried their best, after all, these people were all "comrades" before, and it was also the right thing to do to let them go into the ground.

In addition, the soil layer near the river can be splashed with water, which is relatively soft, so with the best efforts of everyone, the "business" of digging pits is progressing rapidly.

At noon that day, Hong Chengchou, who was stationed in Ningxiang County, saw the outpost men and horses from the direction of Shennanyu, and at about noon in the afternoon, Li Pei led a large group of men and horses of the mine camp musket team to Ningxiang County.

The two groups of officials and soldiers have achieved a meeting in Ningxiang County, of course, everyone is happy, and Hong Chengchou's heart that has been hanging since he surrendered the Ningxiang thief army has really let go at this time, and he has 3,000 people to guard the prisoners of the 20,000 thief army, so he can't be cautious and walk on thin ice.

At this time, with a large number of people from Li Bei's musket team, Hong Chengchou suddenly felt like a tiger with wings.

Of course, at this time, Hong Chengchou and Li Bei did not know the will of Emperor Chongzhen from Jingshi.

Therefore, after asking Li Bei's opinion, Hong Chengchou sent a messenger in the afternoon of the same day, carrying a letter he wrote to Li Banghua, to the direction of Shennanyu, requesting that Li Bei's musket team be temporarily transferred to the command of the Western Front.

Of course, Li Bei also agreed to follow Hong Chengchou to fight in Guangwuzhuang in the south, after all, no one would dislike the merits!

And the arrival of Li Bei's subordinates also brought another news to Hong Chengchou that made him happy, that is, the large amount of grain and grass discarded by the thief "Heavenly Dragon" Bai Wenbo in the river valley area can now be regarded as falling into the hands of the self-army.