According to Xu Ping's order, these Ming army officers had meat for dinner, and they could even drink a little wine, anyway, they had captured a lot in this battle, and this little thing was nothing. After these Ming officers had eaten suspiciously, Xu Ping went to their camp again, chatted with those Ming officers, and told them a joke. At first, the captives suspected that Xu Ping had the intention of soliciting, but after careful inspection, they found that Xu Ping had no such intention at all, so they stayed in a daze.

Xu Ping once again summoned his generals and set up a banquet to celebrate this great victory.

"The bombing of the camp by 100,000 troops is really spectacular." At the banquet, Chi Shu sighed with emotion: "How can you see this beautiful scene?" ”

"100,000 troops bombed the camp, a strange story through the ages." Liu sneered: "Even in a thousand years, I'm afraid few people have seen it." ”

"Otherwise, otherwise, the Son of Heaven is reigning today," Xu Ping raised his glass in the direction of Beijing, and said solemnly: "It is not the first time that a hundred thousand troops have bombed the camp in our dynasty. ”

In the tent, Liu, Chi Shude and other generals of the Chuang army knew that Xu Ping was well-informed, and after hearing that he was selling Guanzi again, everyone laughed together: "General, say it quickly." ”

"A few years ago, in the Battle of Ningjin, Hong Chengchou led an army of 130,000 to fight with the Northern Captives in Songshan. There was a shortage of food in the army, so Hong Chengchou summoned the generals to discuss returning to Ningyuan to eat. Before the meeting ended, Wang Pu, the former chief soldier of the Jin army, and Wu Sangui, the chief soldier of the Guanning army, slipped back to their own army first, and fled south with their relatives without saying a word. Xu Ping paused and sighed: "The six towns collapsed together, and the 130,000 army was wiped out overnight, and Wu Sangui, who took the lead in escaping, was promoted to admiral. ”

Liu asked in surprise, "Why is that?" ”

Without waiting for Xu Ping to speak, Chi Shude snorted: "What is the idea of the faint king, where can we ordinary people understand?" ”

"During the Apocalypse period of the first emperor, for example, the defeat of Ning Yuan, although the general soldiers of Shanhaiguan and others had soldiers in hand, they could not be exempted from the criticism of the imperial court, so although the officers and soldiers were greedy for life and afraid of death, they did not dare to have no scruples, but the saint of heaven was rewarded and punished that day, it only depends on whether you still have soldiers in your hands." Xu Ping shook his head and said: "Wang Pu, who took the lead in escaping with Wu Sangui, because he was not from Liaoxi and was unfamiliar with the terrain, got lost on the road and lost all his family, so he was beheaded by the faint king for the crime of escaping; The generals who fled later suffered far heavier losses than Wu Sangui, and their forces became much smaller than Wu Sangui's. And Wu Sangui is familiar with the terrain and brought all his family members back to Ningyuan, of course Dujun wants to promote him to the rank of admiral. ”

Everyone was impressed by the reward and punishment standards of the Son of Heaven, and Chi Shude asked again: "Today, the general let go of Wang Wei's house, and treated those generals well, I don't know what the general's intentions are?" ”

"Don't hide it from your brothers, in my opinion, our army will have to fight many battles with the Zhili Ming army in the future. Although our army can win, if they resist desperately, our army will also suffer losses, and it will not be as smooth as this time. "This time, the army crossed the Yellow River to attack the Zhili army, and after two days of fighting, only sixty-eight people were lost. Xu Ping said eloquently: "Therefore, I want to follow the ancients' strategy of buying bones with thousands of dollars and entertain these captured Ming army generals." In the future, when the various units of the Ming army of Zhili fight our army again, they will not contribute to the death. ”

"What the general said is very true. But why let Wang Wei go? Chi Shu has to be angry with Wang Wei.

"It won't do him any good to let him go." Xu Ping smiled when he heard this, and explained to these henchmen and officers in the tent: "The Ming court has always been very contemptuous of the officers who were released, Wang Wei threw the family cleanly, and it will be difficult to escape punishment after a person goes back. With such a big defeat of the official army of Zhili, it is necessary to find a scapegoat, otherwise how can they face the criticism of the government and the opposition? As for the soft bones that remain, I will not let them go, I will only wait for them to escape. The generals who fled back by themselves, the Ming Court will definitely take a look at them and use them. ”

After the news of the defeat of the Zhili army was transmitted back to the Beijing Division, the Emperor Chongzhen was furious. This is the first time that the Chuang army has invaded the territory of Zhili, and after the great earthquake in Beijing, the Son of Heaven and the cabinet severely reprimanded Yang Wenyue and asked him to expel the Chuang army from Zhili at all costs. Yang Wenyue himself was removed from his rank and retained his status as an official to atone for his crimes. As for Wang Wei, who abandoned the army and absconded, not only failed to fulfill his duties, but also begged the thieves for life and feared death, and immediately ordered the Jinyi guard lock to be taken into Beijing and sent an edict to prison to punish his crimes.

"In his self-defense, Yang Wenyue repeatedly mentioned our flintlock muskets. He said that although we had an army of 300,000 men, his camp would never have been conquered in one fell swoop had it not been for the heavy fire of muskets. The staff officers took the imperial court's official newspaper and reported the latest news to Xu Ping: "Yang Wenyue also said that the next day he gathered 30,000 soldiers and horses with the intention of fighting again, but we used more flintlock muskets to shoot for two hours, and 70% of the 30,000 officers and soldiers were killed in battle, and we were defeated." When he was really unable to fight again, he himself was held hostage by the soldiers of the standard battalion and retreated. ”

"Well, does the emperor believe it?"

"It looks like I believe it. Yang Wenyue touted Xiahou Kuanfu in the chapter, and Chongzhen had already ordered him to be given gold coins and brocade robes. ”

"Oh?" Xu Ping knew the name Xiahou Kuanfu. This man besieged Dongming County overnight without success, and fled north with the rout army after dawn, and the intruding army had neither troops nor bothered to pursue them. Xiahou Kuanfu was the first to abandon the army and abscond, and he also abandoned his official uniform and made up as a small soldier, how else could such an officer be touted, Xu Ping felt very strange: "What did Yang Wenyue say about Xiahou Kuanfu?" ”

"Yang Wenyue said that after all the generals were defeated and could not form an army, only the general army of Xiahou still remembered to collect the defeated army, brave and strategic, commanded thousands of Ming troops to fight bloodily, and fought a way out of the enemy army dozens of times larger, and broke out of the encirclement."

"What a good general." Xu Ping sighed with emotion, this is probably the only bright spot of the Ming army's battle, no wonder Yang Wenyue will desperately advocate to alleviate the anger of the Son of Heaven: "What about Qi Tu? What happened to him? ”

The staff officer smiled: "Very good, General Qi's family has almost no losses." If Xiahou Kuanfu is not counted, General Qi's strength is the strongest among all the departments of the Zhili Army, and Yang Wenyue relies on him very much. Are you interested in listening to Yang Wenyue's report on General Qi's escape experience? ”

"No need, it's too long, you can just pick and say a few words."

"Yes, my lord." According to Yang Wenyue's description, Qi Tu first resisted the onslaught of 300,000 troops for a day, and then was captured with all his strength. It is said that losing the camp is ultimately a failure of the imperial court, but there are too many enemies, and Yang Wenyue's 100,000 army is lonely in front of the breaking army, and it is not easy for the thousands of people under Qi Tu to resist for so long. What's more, Qi Tu is different from Wang Wei, who is greedy for life and afraid of death, after being captured, Qi Tu did not surrender to the camp, but smacked him in person, this kind of courage even Xu Ping, the big leader of the army, couldn't help but admire, so he didn't kill him, but locked him up and tried to persuade him to surrender. But how could a loyal person like Zitu be a disloyal and unfilial person? In the end, General Qi took advantage of the unpreparedness of the guards, bit the rope tied to his body with his teeth, escaped from the camp single-handedly, and gathered the old troops to move closer to Yang Wenyue.

"It's really commendable." Xu Ping sighed: "Doesn't the emperor reward him? ”

Chongzhen Yubi Zhu criticized, saying that Qi Tu lost the army and lost the camp, and should be demoted by one level; Resist strong thieves, when you upgrade to one level; Righteousness does not disgrace oneself, and it should be promoted to one level. In this way, one was lowered and two were promoted, and Qi Tudang was promoted to chief officer.

"After all, it was defeated and captured, or it was not as good as Xiahou Kuanfu, it seems that the emperor has also thought a lot about how to deal with Qi Tu." Xu Ping said with a smile.

……

Jingshi, Wolf's Lair,

"Yang Wenyue was defeated, and it is said that the materials seized by the thieves from his camp could not be transported, and a large number of materials were transported across the Yellow River every day, and they have not yet been transported." After hearing that the Chuang army invaded Zhili, the imperial court was shocked, and asked the new army to assist the Zhili army to act together, and it was necessary to drive the Chuang army out of Zhili as soon as possible, and not let them threaten the Beijing Division.

"Where can Xu Ping have hundreds of thousands of troops, he has always believed that soldiers are not expensive, just like us." Jin Qiude felt that he was about to have a nervous breakdown: "The imperial court still has to transfer Brother He's soldiers back from Shandong, it's really anxious." ”

"Of course he can't have hundreds of thousands of troops, if Xu Ping's men really had 50,000 soldiers, he would have called the Beijing division a long time ago......" Yang Zhiyuan was halfway through speaking, and suddenly covered his abdomen with his hands, his face full of pain.

"Brother Yang, your illness?"

"Out of the way." Yang Zhiyuan's face was sallow, beads of sweat flowed down his forehead, and he said with difficulty: "Brother He must not come back, otherwise Shandong will be wasted, Xu Ping has been using the strategy of encircling Wei to save Zhao, we can't let him get his wish." Yang Zhiyuan took a deep breath: "Let the direct guards dispatch, Hou Ye also means this, Brother He can't come back, I will lead the troops to fight." ”

Seeing that Jin Qiude didn't speak, Yang Zhiyuan said in an aggravated tone: "My illness is not in the way, so that the Xuanfeng battalion must not fight with Xu Ping, Hou Ye is sure that he will take the initiative to return to Henan." ”

……

Break into the army camp outside Dongming City.

"Yang Wenyue gathered a new army, and he suggested in the Tang newspaper to the imperial court that the wall should be cleared first, and the surrounding army should create a no-man's land, so as to prevent hundreds of thousands of troops from invading the army—that is, we will coerce the people to attack the Beijing division. Then he himself was in the center, dividing his troops into two ways and plundering our two wings in order to force us to withdraw from Zhili. ”

"Oh, who led these two armies?"

Yang Wenyue's strategy of mobilizing the people to build the fortress and gradually advancing did not cause Xu Ping to be surprised in the slightest, and ensuring the safety of the territory of Zhili was the psychological bottom line of the Ming court, and this task was of overriding importance. Jizhen's troops were also recruited by the imperial court to go south, preparing to defend the Beijing Division.

"On the left is the general Xiahou Kuanfu, and on the right is the brave general Qitu."

"It turned out to be these two famous generals." Xu Ping nodded, he saw that the imperial court newspaper was reassuring people, saying that the Xuanfeng battalion had been dispatched to the battlefield, and the day before yesterday he did receive information that the Xuanfeng battalion appeared behind Yang Wenyue, and Xu Ping had been very concerned about this unit: "Is there any movement in the new army?" ”

"Not yet." The appearance of the Xuanfeng battalion made the battalion not dare to mobilize all its forces to carry supplies, but left the main force of the armored battalion in their hands to prepare for battle, but this battalion did not lean towards Dongming, and at present, Xu Ping's staff officers could not estimate how many new army troops there were.

"Hmm." Xu Ping didn't ask any more questions, and the staff officer bowed and retreated.

So far, Dongming County has not fallen, and the county order documents for help have been sent to Yang Wenyue's camp in an endless stream. In the distress letter, the county order said that there were only a few thousand thieves near Dongming, and they were busy transporting a large number of baggage back to Henan all day long, and they did not even have the strength to surround Dongming.

Yang Wenyue scoffed at the contents of these letters, believing that the thieves created a false impression as a sign of weakness. Xiahou Kuanfu and Qi Tu, who were deeply relied on by him, both agreed with Yang Wenyue's opinion very much, and they further pointed out that if Xu Ping did not have the intention of sending reinforcements, how could he not take this Dongming? He will not let Dongming's messengers come and go under the noses of hundreds of thousands of thieves.

……

The news of Yang Wenyue's defeat had reached Kaifeng, and the entire city was overwhelmed by the heavy atmosphere of terror. At Liu Gang's house, there was not a trace of blood on the faces of the members sitting in a circle. Liu Gang himself knelt in front of his father's knees, not daring to look up at the tears in his mother's eyes, but just kowtowed vigorously and said, "The child is not filial, the child is not filial." ”

The palace of the king of Zhou and the yamen of the governor of Henan have already notified the whole city, saying that the hundred officials of Kaifeng are determined to live and die with the city, and call on the people in the city to unite and fight to the end against the thieves outside the city. Since it is impossible to open up the grain route in the short term, the yamen of the governor of Henan needs to collect more grain from the people. The levy will begin on the 16th of this month, and those who cannot hand over a stone of grain to the government will have to hand over one person from their family to the government to take away. Any family that refuses to hand over their relatives to the government because of family affection will be regarded as unfilial to the monarch and disloyal to the Ming Dynasty, and the family will also be executed by the whole family for the loyal and brave soldiers of His Majesty Emperor Chongzhen.

There were still a few days left before the 16th, and the government asked the families to quickly consider which one of the families they were willing to hand over. The governor of Henan also magnanimously stated that the government has no strict requirements for the candidates handed over by each family, and does not care about their age and weight, and that all the families who cooperate with the government to hand over their relatives will still regard them as the loyal subjects of His Majesty Emperor Chongzhen, and will continue to protect them.

The Liu family had exhausted all their grain reserves in previous solicitations, and even if they were willing to cut off their grain for the second half of the month, it would be impossible to scrape together another stone of grain. The Liu family had already only drunk gruel, and Liu Gang's grandmother suddenly refused to drink gruel anymore a few days ago. Liu Gang's parents, pregnant wife, and younger siblings knelt in front of the old man for a long time before they could barely convince the old man to drink a spoonful of soup.

Since yesterday's order from the governor of Henan, the cries of neighbors could be heard all night long, and the people of Liu Gang's family could not close their eyes all night. This morning, Liu Gang's grandmother refused to eat again, and this time no matter how much the family tried to persuade her, the old man resolutely refused to eat unless they agreed to let her be handed over as a vegetable man. Liu Gang's father really had no choice, so he asked someone to call the eldest son who was guarding the city home, he still had a trace of luck in his psychology, hoping that his son who served in the army could have something to do. But before the words began, Liu Gang knelt on the ground, just kowtowing to his parents: "Children are not filial, children are not filial." ”

"What's the use of saying this?" After the last hope was cut off, the mother cried bitterly, she pointed to her son's nose and scolded: "Then who do you say you want to hand over, your daughter-in-law, or your brother and sister?" ”

Liu Gang just kowtowed to the ground and repeated monotonously: "Children are not filial, children are not filial." ”

"Send me there." The mother cried and cried, "I can't send the children out. ”

Liu Gang didn't have any words of dissuasion, and his head knocked out patches of blood on the ground: "Children are not filial, children are not filial......"

……

Gu Maitreya received a secret order from the General Staff of the New Army for the third time, telling him not to fight, in fact, since Yang Wenyue did not dare to attack, the Xuanfeng battalion did not dare to fight with Xu Ping on its own, at present there are only more than 2,000 people in the whole battalion, and they estimate that Xu Ping's side is estimated to be more than 5,000, if necessary, the Xuanfeng battalion estimates that Xu Ping can also urgently transfer troops from Henan to reinforce.

He could only watch the enemies of the Xuanfeng battalion show off their might in front of him, which made Zhang Biao very painful, especially since he was the chief of staff of the battalion, and he had to make suggestions to the commander to stabilize the defense, which made him feel even more unbearable.

"My lord, how many elites are there in the Funing Army?" Zhang Biao felt that the training speed of the teaching team could not keep up with the consumption, and the training team could provide three months of rapid soldiers to the front line, which was more than enough to deal with the Shandong rebels, but it would be very dangerous to encounter an army trained under the same system. Most of the veterans of the new army near Jingshi were defeated and captured by Xu Ping, and their morale was very worrying. Xu Ping's leniency policy, which was seen as an insult by the middle and senior officers of the New Army, stimulated their desire for revenge, but for the soldiers of the New Army, it made them even less willing to fight to the death, especially the thousands of soldiers who had lived through the winter war in Henan. These soldiers generally lack fighting spirit, they don't understand why they are fighting, in the past, due to communication problems, the imperial court's propaganda of breaking into the army as doing all kinds of evil was quite deeply rooted in the hearts of the people of Zhili, but now these soldiers no longer believe it, and the aura of invincibility of the new army no longer exists for these people.

"Funing has no more troops to use." Gu Maitreya sighed to Zhang Biao.

"How is that possible?" The Funing Army, as the descendant of the Marquis of Zhendong many years ago, was the last hope of many middle and senior officers in the new army, and they generally complained about why they no longer drew elites from Funing Town to fight against Xu Ping, but used the recruits of the teaching team.

"When Master Hou formed the new army, many old people had already followed." Subsequently, because of the battle losses in Henan, the staff of the new army recruited troops from Funing several times, and this time more than 1,000 people who went north with Gu Maitreya were already the last batch of troops with combat experience.

"Where's General He's eldest son?" Zhang Biao asked, "Isn't he still serving in the Funing Army?" ”

[Remember the URL . 三五Chinese网]