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The willows in the street looked as if they were sick, their leaves hanging with ash and curling listlessly on their branches, and the ground smelled of a strange smell, like the stench of rotting corpses.

The strong sunlight shone on the pale faces, as if the whole street was shaking and dizzying. The people on the street looked at this group of "protégés of the Son of Heaven" who returned from watching the list with speculative eyes.

There is a rotten alley in the city of Beijing, in which there are several provincial townspeople's associations. People from other provinces who live in Beijing always come here to seek the care of their fellow villagers and find a way to settle down and make a living when they encounter difficulties. Therefore, despite the low houses and uneven roads, it is crowded with people of all colors with mixed accents, rich and poor, etc. every day.

And those selling flavor snacks, auctioning and estimating old goods, running the rivers and lakes to fight boxing and performing arts, watching palmistry and dividing words and divination, all kinds of stalls also came into being, bustling in this alley, there is a teahouse at the corner of the street, although it is also a straw shed and tile house, but in the messy stalls, it can be regarded as a big shop that stands out from the crowd.

"Look at that person, he must be a man who has fallen off the list, and he is depressed. It's like a dead mother. A middle-aged man in the teahouse put down the tea bowl, stretched out his hand, and sneered.

"The guy who is confused by fame, don't care about him." The Taoist next to him snorted coldly, paused for a long time, and said in a low voice, "Someone from the south is coming soon." Our arrangement is not yet perfect, so don't miss the big things of Your Highness. ”

"If it is not perfect, it is just that Wu Yingxiong has no one around him to answer, from Beijing to Tianjin, but it is almost arranged along the way." The middle-aged man pondered for a moment and said, "Isn't it true that the people from the south this time can just make up for this gap, something big can happen!" ”

"Don't be careless." The Taoist stroked his long beard under his chin, thought about it and said, "The rumor of the conscription of the banner slave family has come out, indicating that the south is tight. The Tartars lacked major generals and could not support it. Well, if Wu Sangui returns anyway, the south of the river can be recovered. The stakes are so great, don't make any mistakes. ”

"My subordinates know what is important." The middle-aged man's expression was stern, he thought about it, and said, "There are arrangements for water and land, and you can choose the safest route at the right time." The checkpoints along the way are also well placed. Waterways should be more convenient. ”

"If you get some more uniforms for officers and soldiers, you will have to forge all the clothes for customs defense." The Taoist narrowed his eyes. He said in a deep voice: "Everyone chooses those who are powerful, and once things don't go well, they must also be prepared to fight." ”

The middle-aged man nodded, stretched out his finger and pointed outside, "How does the Dao Chief look at the father and daughter?" ”

Outside the teahouse, there was a man and a woman in the branch. The man was twenty-five or sixteen years old. hit shirtless, cut a circle of people, pulled the braid to the top of the head, picked up two half-cut bricks on the spot, and pinched it with five fingers. With a "bang", the bricks in both hands immediately shattered, attracting the loud shouts of "Okay!" from the onlookers. ”

"In the first place of your life, life is sparse, all thanks to all the old and young to take care of, although there are a few hands and three-legged cat kung fu, and do not dare to boast in front of the real person, there is a front and a back, but also look at Guan Haihan!" The young man pointed to the girl standing on the side and said, "This is the little sister, the nickname Yunniang, who is sixteen years old this year, and has also practiced some flower boxing and embroidery feet, dare to ask you to see the official ......."

The Taoist priest tilted his face slightly, and asked undoubtedly: "Shandong people? Jianghu handle, is it used at the top? I haven't had any fish on my hands, so don't soften my legs then? ”

The middle-aged man was stunned for a moment, shook his head with a wry smile, paused and said tentatively: "Why don't you let them practice their hands?" ”

The Taoist priest looked outside and didn't say anything, the male and female brothers and sisters had already begun to perform martial arts, the man played with a set of sticks, and the woman practiced a flower gun, but it was also very good-looking.

"There was a one-eyed sign on Nanheng Street, and they removed it." The Taoist priest suddenly said in a low voice: "The hands and feet should be neat, and the head and tail should be clean." If it's a mess—"

"My subordinates understand." The middle-aged man bowed in his chair in understanding.

The one-eyed mark is nothing but a ruffian, and no one will pursue him if he dies. Of course, a clean head and tail means that there is no one and no corpse, and all of them are evaporated in the world, which is the most rigorous.

The Taoist priest nodded, got up and floated away. The middle-aged man drank the residual tea, walked unhurriedly to the back of the counter, and acted as the shopkeeper again with a smile on his face.

If it is said to be a secret war, Zhu Yongxing has never eaten pork, but he has seen pigs run. The first is to attach importance to willing investment, and the second is to have relatively advanced ways and means. In addition, the violent rule of the early Qing Dynasty and the anti-Qing sentiment of the people were also contained in it, and the achievements of the infiltration and expansion of the intelligence department were very prominent.

Not only the poor people, but also scribes and merchants, and a small number of lower-level officials of the Qing court, the network woven by the intelligence department became wider and wider, and with the victory of the Ming army, the rebellion was gradually expanded, and its power and role were increasingly revealed.

……………

On August 26 of the sixteenth year of Yongli (the first year of Kangxi), the Shuo army adapted from the thirteen families of Kuidong set out from Fang County and pointed to Yunyang (now Shiyan area).

Why did the Shuo army only train and rectify for more than 20 days, and why did it change the battle plan to go down the Yangtze River and seize Yiling? Among them, there was the problem of food and grass, and more importantly, the news from the intelligence department caused the army to change its battle plan.

When it comes to grain and grass, it is naturally because the Kuidong region is relatively poor, and it is difficult to support the concentration of the army in one place; As for intelligence, it was the breakthrough in the rebellion work in Yunyang and Xiangyang, which created a favorable opportunity for the offensive. Moreover, attacking Yunyang can recruit a large number of displaced people for the purpose of expanding eastern Sichuan.

Yunyang Mansion was opened in the 12th year of Chenghua in the Ming Dynasty, and before the establishment of the mansion, in China's thousand-year-long feudal society, there has never been a relatively complete and unified county government in the territory, and the territory under its jurisdiction is scattered and subordinate to the surrounding county governments. Why was a Yunyang Mansion set up in the middle of the Ming Dynasty? Nature has a reason.

After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, the government was corrupt. The emperor was mediocre, the eunuchs were autocratic, the officials were corrupt, the land annexation was violent, and there were disasters from time to time: floods, droughts, locust plagues and other disasters occurred frequently. All kinds of harsh social living conditions caused a large number of peasants to lose their land and lose their jobs after the middle of the Ming Dynasty, and a large number of peasants left their hometowns and fled in all directions. The displacement spread throughout the country and became a strict social problem after the middle of the Ming Dynasty.

Jingxiang area is the largest gathering area of displaced people at that time, bankrupt farmers poured in from all directions like a tide, Yunyang is located in the northwest of Jingxiang area, the Yuan Dynasty to the Zheng period of this area has been displaced people gathered here, when the government will use this area as a closed forbidden area, the people are not allowed to move in, but until the fall of the Yuan Dynasty can not be controlled. At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang continued the Yuan system. The Jingxiang area is still subject to a ban policy, "empty land, forbidden people are not allowed to enter", and the largest forbidden mountainous area is the Jingxiang area with Yunyang as the center.

A large number of displaced people chose the Jingxiang area because it was sparsely populated and easy to obtain land reclamation. At the same time, the climate here is between the north and the south, relatively mild, with moderate rainfall, and can be used for paddy fields. It is also possible to grow dryland. Jingzhou, Xiangyang, and Nanyang have both the advantages of waterways, and "the southerners are conducive to hydroponia." The northerners are more interested in the land, and the southerners live here more than in other counties."

The Ming court "feared that the homeless people would gather to make trouble", which ruined the ruling order. The imperial court adopted a policy of forcibly expelling and forcibly dismissing the displaced people to return to their hometowns, which led to an unprecedented intensification of the contradiction between the closure of the mountain by the imperial court and the opposition of the displaced people, and finally led to the famous second Jingxiang Rebellion of the displaced people in history.

After the two massive and thrilling uprisings were brutally suppressed by the imperial court, the problem of the Jingxiang displaced people was not fundamentally resolved. The twelfth year of Chenghua (1476). Henan has a poor harvest, and the hungry people are pouring into the Jingxiang area like a tide, "eating in the mountains is unstoppable, and the displaced people are reunited as before." Adopt strong blocking policies and measures. Fearing that it would provoke a strong revolt, the Ming court was forced to seek strategies and measures other than force to deal with the problem of the displaced people.

Therefore, the Ming court decided to divide Yunxian County from the capital state of Xiangyang Prefecture, promoted it to a prefecture, and named it "Yunyang". The establishment of Yunyang Mansion can be said to be specially for the resettlement of Jingxiang displaced people, and it can also be said to be the result of the long-term life-and-death struggle of Jingxiang displaced people for their right to live.

Yunyang, Gucheng and Xiangyang all belong to the Hanshui Basin, Gucheng is located in the upper reaches of Xiangyang, and Yunyang is the upstream of Gucheng. Whether the Shuo army will reach Xiangyang City this time depends on the specific situation after the troops, if the grain and grass harvest is enough to support, it can go straight to Xiangyang City. If it is very limited, then Yunyang and Gucheng are roughly the main targets of the Ming army.

Raising the war by war, and recruiting displaced people to expand production while fighting is a somewhat helpless development path for the Shuo army, which is based in the barren Kuidong area.

Hao Shaoqi's subordinates, stationed in the Zhushan and Fangxian areas, had harassed Yunyang and Gucheng many times, but they were poorly equipped and did not aim to conquer the city, but mainly collected some supplies and manpower in and around Fucheng. Although the walls of Yunyang Mansion are not very tall and strong, they are not something that these Ming troops, who lack heavy artillery and siege weapons, can shake lightly.

However, the Shuo army's dispatch this time was ambitious, one directly approaching Yunyang, and the other entering Gucheng, which was difficult for many generals in the army to understand. Although entering the city of the valley has the effect of containment, and the division of troops can collect as much food and grass as possible, but the division of troops is weak, and the certainty of conquering the city is greatly reduced?

However, facts have proved that the instructors and professional troops brought by the Yangtze River Naval Division, as well as the intelligence organs of the Nanming government, are extremely crucial and important assistance, and the smooth progress of the campaign is completely beyond everyone's expectations.

On August 30 of the sixteenth year of Yongli (the first year of Kangxi), more than 15,000 people of the first division of the Shuo army arrived at the city of Yunyang. However, the civilian officials and military generals in Yunyang still adopted the previous coping strategy, and did not intend to fight the Ming army in the field at all, but ordered to abandon all peripheral strongholds, beacon towers, and post stations, and move the materials and personnel therein, as well as the residents in the suburbs and the grain and grass in the residents' homes, into the city.

According to past experience, after clearing the wilderness in this way, the Ming army's gains will be relatively limited. The more limited the gains of the Ming army, the shorter the time they could stay under Yunyang City, and the smaller the search range.

After receiving the news that the Ming army was approaching, the Yunyang guard sent an urgent letter to Gucheng and Xiangyang Mansion upstream. Not long after they sent the letter, Yunyang also received an urgent report from Gucheng, saying that tens of thousands of Ming troops were approaching the city and asked Yunyang to send some troops to reinforce it.

"The scale of the thieves this time is really not small." After seeing Gu Cheng's urgent report, Admiral Tong Guoyao quickly guessed the situation by eight or nine. "It is estimated that the two bandits went all the way to Valley City, and they came to us all the way, so we couldn't support each other."

"There are more people, and there is more food." Guerrilla Du Ying was quite calm, and even a little ridiculed, "These locusts. Seeing that our army is heavily guarded, we will not dare to attack the city, and we will retreat in a few days, but we will leave some and sycophants, yellow and white things. ”

"Huh." Tong Guoyao laughed and said, "The thief is the same, but I don't know that we have made adjustments. When they disperse and plunder, they will know how powerful we are. ”

In order to collect more supplies, the Ming army will definitely divide its troops, and a Qing army hidden outside the city can wait for an opportunity to attack those lone Ming army squads. This diversionary action would have forced the Ming army to act more cautiously. The harvest will also be smaller, and the time spent under Yunyang City will be shorter.

Tong Guoyao's clever plan seemed more and more likely to succeed, and his sneer became even stronger as he looked at the enemies encamped outside the city.

"At three o'clock, Simon raised fire." In the camp tent of Hao Shaoqi, the deputy commander of the Shuo Army, the intelligence officers of the Jingxiang Intelligence Department presented the information taken out from the secret office outside the city to Hao Shaoqi.

As a high-ranking general, Hao Shaoqi naturally knew the key to conquering Yunyang in advance. That's right, there is an internal response. And this should not be just Yunyang.

Yang Laijia, the chief military officer of Xiangyang, was originally a subordinate of Zheng Chenggong, and the official was the governor. After the surrender of the Qing Dynasty, he was awarded the chief military officer of Huguang Xiangyang (Xiangfan City, Hubei). And Yunyang's deputy general Hong Fu is his old subordinate. The source of this intelligence line is far away in Xiangyang, but it can directly lead to the light capture of Yunyang.

Fighting for peace and rebellion is also to be carried out by selecting people, and the generals of the Zheng family who surrendered to the Qing Dynasty are naturally ideal candidates. Being transferred from his hometown by the Qing court and resettled in the interior seemed to be safe, but it made these generals dissatisfied. As long as the external environment changes, it is inevitable that there will be changes.

"Good work." Hao Shaoqi was very polite, but he was secretly in his heart, intelligence work had been able to be carried out in the hinterland of the Qing court, and such achievements had been achieved. How frightening. Although these people's official positions are small, they can go to the court and directly obey His Royal Highness Min, and they can't help but be polite on the surface.

"Guogong, the last general is willing to serve as the main attack." The general soldier Ma Jinyu took a step forward and took the initiative to ask for help.

"The last general is also wishing." Luo Maotong, the chief soldier of the hanging seal, also stepped forward.

The city gate should be opened, and it is easy to conquer Yunyang, as the first battle of the Shuo army, the credit is not too great, but the impact is not small. The battle report is presented to the imperial court, and even if it is not rewarded, the name will be known. In the future, there will be more battles, and I am afraid it will not be as eye-catching as this time.

Hao Shaoqi knew the thoughts of the generals, and hurriedly stretched out his hand to stop the eagerness of others, and said with a smile: "Your own family doesn't have to compete, there are more opportunities to make contributions in the future, are you still afraid that His Royal Highness Min will reward and punish unfairly?" ”

As soon as he said this, everyone shouted "don't dare" in unison, and although they retreated, their eyes were eager and undiminished.

"Well, the main attack will be handed over to Ma Jinyu and Suo Yanlong, and the other generals will also have arrangements, the first battle will be won, you should fight together, fight bravely, and play the majesty of my Shuo army." Hao Shaoqi thought about it and decided to take a balance and give the first credit to Ma Jinyu, the chief soldier of his old department, and Liu Tichun's subordinate Suo Yanlong.

In fact, although the Shuo army is a nominal imperial army, it is composed of generals drawn from various families after all, and it is inevitable that there will be factions. It is not possible to completely disperse the generals overnight.

……………

Almost at the same time, a division led by Liu Tichun, the commander-in-chief of the Shuo army, also arrived in Gucheng. The goal is to capture the city, but the method is changed. It should be gone, but it has not affected its confidence in attacking the city.

"Is this a cave attack?" Liu Tichun looked at the new branch of the Shuo Army, the sappers, piling up the mound and starting to dig the tunnel quickly, and couldn't help but ask suspiciously.

"Similar to the cave attack, its name is pit blasting, and it is for His Highness." Tian Shouyi, the leader of the engineering team, explained with a thick southern accent.

Liu Tichun was in awe, turned around and ordered: "Transfer another army to prevent the enemy from going out of the city to attack here." In case they sneak attack, the sons below will be buried alive. ”

"Thank you for your care. Well, his subordinates will take turns to work overnight, and the city will be broken at noon tomorrow. Tian Shouyi arched his hand gratefully, jumped off the mound, and continued to direct the sappers' excavation.

There were no shortage of miners and carpenters in the thirteen families, and the formation of the engineering corps was dominated by these soldiers. As long as the excavation technology is slightly improved, its work efficiency is not much different from that of the veteran engineers of the Southwest Ming Army.

"Tomorrow at noon?" Liu Tichun was a little suspicious that he hadn't heard clearly, and looked at the general beside him inquiringly.

"That's right, he's talking about tomorrow afternoon." The chief soldier Wang Jiayu was also surprised, but still answered truthfully.

"There may be a miracle that we don't know." Liu Tichun thought for a while and said: "This is the method of His Royal Highness Min to create a zào, conquer the famous city, and break the strong enemy, which must be extraordinary." ”

The Ming army dug tunnels, and the Qing troops in the city also noticed it. But their judgment was wrong, thinking that the Ming army was going to carry out the technique of acupuncture. If the normal progress is followed, digging under the city and hollowing out the foundation of the wall, the Qing army guards think that it will take at least several days. In the face of the numerically superior Ming army, the Qing defenders did not send troops out of the city to counterattack the mound, but chose the counterstrategy of digging a ditch behind the city wall.

"This is a bluff to lure our army out of the city to fight." It is not the first time that the Qing army guards have faced such harassment, so they are quite confident that they will resist the Ming army, "with the enemy's grain and grass materials, they will support for five days at most, and retreat in two or three days at least." How can the technique of acupuncture attack have time to work? ”

"What your lord said is very true." The subordinates next to him smiled and complimented: "Digging a ditch is the perfect strategy, if the enemy really wants to attack the cave, then flood it, so that the soldiers hidden in the cave can become floating corpses." ”

"It can't float, it can only stink in the cave." The Qing army guard laughed heartily, but shook his head with regret, "How to cut this head is difficult, so I have no choice but to give up this work!" ”

………… (To be continued......)