Zhang Tianlin is a second-class military minister of Dashun, one of the eighteen horsemen who followed Li Zicheng when he hid in the mountains, when Dashun was established in Xi'an, Niu Jinxing was ready to give him the title of general, and later changed his name to General Zuo. When Li Zicheng went north to capture Beijing, he appointed him as the guard of Shanxi, and appointed Zhang Tianlin as the envoy of Shanxi Jiedu after the prison of the country.

After learning that the city was broken, Zhang Tianlin led his guards to fight to the death in the streets, and when he fought and retreated to Taiyuan Yamen, there were only more than 100 people left around him.

Seeing that the Mongolian army was strong, Zhang Tianlin waved the sword in his hand: "Go to the south gate." ”

The south gate tower was still in the hands of the Shun army at this time, Zhang Tianlin took his personal guards to the city tower to continue to command the resistance, and the whole city of Taiyuan fell before night. The triumphant Jiang Hao rode on a tall horse, came to the place where the last small group of Shun troops was still resisting, and sent someone to shout to the city tower:

"King Khan knows that General Zhang is a good man, why don't you come down early?"

Looking at the fireworks all over the city, as well as the subordinates around him who were injured, Zhang Tianlin sighed and said to the left and right: "You dedicate my head to the Tartars, you should be able to keep safe." ”

"My lord, we will not surrender!" Hearing this, the left and right shouted loudly.

"If you can save your lives, but you seek an opportunity to escape, tell the Lord what is going on today." Zhang Tianlin saw that the Mongolian army in the same place had already pushed the artillery over, and knew that he would not be able to support it until dark no matter what: "It is useless to die in vain." ”

"My lord, we will not surrender!"

The Shun army on the left and right still answered exactly the same.

"Ugh." Looking at the vague figure of Jiang Hao under the city, Zhang Tianlin remembered a conversation when the Jin army surrendered, King Shun felt that Jiang Hao had been a general for generations, and the emperor of the Ming Dynasty Chongzhen treated him very favorably, but he surrendered without a fight, and he had the intention to kill his people and seize his army, but Zhang Tianlin desperately said good things for Jiang Huang, and felt that the killing and surrender was not only ominous but also unjust, and finally Li Zicheng did not touch Jiang Huang in the face of this old brother. From being appointed as a guard in Shanxi to serving as the envoy of Shanxi Jiedu, Zhang Tianlin has always put his heart into these generals, and has never deprived the former Ming generals of their military power.

As a result, Jiang Hao booby-trapped Zhang Tianlin's friend Ke Tianxiang in Datong and led the Mongolian soldiers into the customs, these generals defected one after another because they were dissatisfied with the treatment, and Zhang Tianlin turned into no soldiers because he had not deprived others of their military rights: "I let go of this thief at the beginning, it is really a woman's kindness, I hurt King Shun, and also harmed the people of Shanxi Province, and also harmed my friends and many good subordinates." ”

"The Lord, the Grand Master, and the Great General will avenge us." Zhang Tianlin bowed his hand to the subordinates around him who never gave up, and personally poked his head out and shouted loudly to the city: "Zhang has died without surrendering!" ”

The city of Taiyuan fell, and the Dashun Shanxi Festival made Zhang Tianlin martyred.

……

In the Ming Dynasty, Jiang Liang was a general, and his brother Jiang Rang was the general soldier of Yulin in the Ming Dynasty, and now he is the envoy of the Dashun Shaanxi Festival, and he raised troops in Yulin when he heard the change, and rebelled against Xi'an to besiege Xi'an - Xijing of Dashun under the banner of revenge for Chongzhen. Jiang Xuan and his brother Jiang Xuan, the former Daming Xiyang and the general army, cooperated with the fire battalion and Lin Dan Khan's main force to sweep the entire Shanxi, the former Ming army turned against each other, and the Shun army's descendants were quickly wiped out by the Mongolian army.

When Gao Yigong went to Xi'an at night with the intention of relieving the siege of the Shun army defending the city, Ji Xinghui, who went to the flank together, defected, claiming that it was expedient to surrender to the Shun army. Lin Dan Khan worshiped Jiang Rang as the king of Sichuan, and asked him to rush to the south to chase Gao Yigong, and Bai Ji Xinghui was the king of Qin, and asked him to come to Shanxi to join the army to attack Beijing together.

……

"My lord, the 19th Infantry Wing can't stand it anymore."

The first reinforcements to arrive in Shanxi were the sniper battalion led by Shen Yuncong, which had just been formed for a few months, and only a small part of the battalion were veterans who followed Xu Ping to fight in all directions, and weapons were even more lacking. After Shun Ting began the southern expedition, the main forces were used to supply Xu Ping's troops, and the training plan of the sniper battalion was seriously lagging behind, originally Shen Yun never thought that this battalion under his command would go to the battlefield so early, whether it was King Shun or Taishi Niu Jinxing, it was estimated that Xu Ping would return to the north, and this battalion would come in handy when the Shun army began to operate outside the Guan, so that Shun Ting would have enough time and material supplies to improve the sniper battalion.

"Got it." Less than a quarter of Shen Yuncong's subordinates have firearms, and the rest are cold weapons such as spears, not to mention the fire battalion, even the main force of Lin Dan Khan is very difficult, he looked at the dangerous battlefield in front of him, and replied coldly.

"My lord, Zhou Xu's ancestral army appeared on our side." Another staff officer hurriedly came to report.

"Will it help me or help me?" Shen Yuncong immediately asked, but as soon as the words came out, he laughed self-deprecatingly, because the staff officer named Zhou Xuzu by name was enough to explain everything.

"Zhou thief!" The staff officer reported angrily: "The red flag was also raised, and the soldiers under him also carried the filial piety of the faint king." ”

"I don't know what Khan Xu gave him, is it King Yu?"

Shen Yuncong saw that the Mongolian cavalry behind the fire battalion was charging, cutting down the soldiers of the 19th Infantry Wing of the defeated Shun Army to the ground in pieces, but at this time, Shen Yun could not even send a single soldier at hand, and the 20th Infantry Wing was struggling to resist the two-sided attacks of Zhou and Wang, and defeat seemed to be only a matter of time.

"At the beginning, Brother Yu said that he would slaughter Wang Qinian, a thief, and the fire battalion would be pitted, if this is the case, where is there today's trouble, that is, the soldiers will be recruited, and the sniper battalion will not be without weapons, but the adults just don't agree." Shen Yun watched powerlessly as his army went from decline to defeat, and then the entire line collapsed. The officers of each team of the sniper battalion were all pulled up by Shen Yun from one hand, and almost all of them had the experience of serving in the guard battalion or the armored battalion, just like the battle of Xixian was the first comprehensive defeat of the new army, and this was also the first time that his subordinates were devastated since Xu Pingcheng became an army, and the officers of the sniper battalion were also the same as the officers of the new army in Xixian County, and they died on the front line of the battlefield: "My lord is really a woman's kindness!" ”

"My lord," the left and right saw that the Mongolian army had outflanked Shen Yuncong's general banner from both sides, the morale of the Shun army had collapsed, and the soldiers abandoned their weapons and fled all over the mountains after the death of the military ******, leaving only a little force to make the final resistance in front of the battalion owner's banner, and Shen Yuncong still looked calm and relaxed, and anxiously urged: "Hurry up!" Come on! ”

"Nonsense! With so many of my friends, subordinates, and good officers all killed in battle, how could I live alone! Shen Yuncong untied the saber and handed it to the staff officer, asked them to retreat with their swords and camp flags, and handed them to Xu Ping, while already holding the handcuff tightly in his hand: "Ben will never be a prisoner alive, tell your lord, if he can't use the heart and liver of the king thief and the Zhou thief to sacrifice his brothers, I will not die." ”

……

The urgent report from the north was sent to Zhejiang like snowflakes, and Xu Ping asked the whole army to go on the defensive, and he immediately returned to Nanjing.

"Datong was lost, and the right general Ke Tianxiang was martyred."

"Taiyuan was lost, and General Zuo Zhang Tianlin was martyred."

"*** Shanxi is unfavorable, and the partial general Shen Yun committed suicide from defeat."

"The ...... of the Lost Siege of Xijing"

"The whole territory of Shaanxi fell ......"

"The ...... of the fall of Shanxi"

"Bauhinia Pass and Juyong Pass are under martial law."

"Shanhaiguan is under martial law."

"Martial law in Beijing."

Bad news came from the north one after another, and now the hearts of the people in the army are fluctuating, especially the officers and men whose families are in Henan or Beijing, and they are even more impetuous.

"What does the Lord command?" Xu Ping asked the envoy from Beijing.

"Your Majesty and the Grand Master want to know if the general's troops are rich, if the general can send a strong force back to the north, the sooner the better." A few days ago, the envoy also brought the words of King Shun and Niu Jinxing to Xu Ping, so that the Southern Expeditionary Army did not need to panic, Shun Ting had already assembled troops to prepare for Shanxi, and Xu Ping's task was still to accumulate troops, grain and grass, and prepare to attack Fujian.

As early as Li Chengdong and Wu Sangui's several attempts to attack the unfavorable, Xu Ping found that Fujian still had considerable spare strength, and ordered all armies to stop making rash advances and start reconnaissance. In recent months, Xu Ping has expanded many large warehouses on the front line to store military assets, cleared the rear areas of eastern Zhejiang, confiscated the family property of gentry and businessmen who fled to Fujian, and at the same time held many poetry meetings to solicit donations and salaries, and continuously transported the collected materials and resources to the front line.

Although Xu Ping said that he would not attack until the summer and autumn of next year, he was always looking for the best opportunity to attack, and this date he estimated might come earlier when the election was held in Fujian Province. After supervising the battle on the front line, Xu Ping was personally responsible for intelligence collection, carefully investigating the specific deployment of the Ming army near Xianxia Pass, and in the past few months, the core fortresses in the Ming army's defense system, the height and width of their walls, as well as the perimeter and depth of the trenches, have been accurate to inches, and even the distance between these fortress gates and the Ming army headquarters in the fortress is well understood. At present, the two battalions of guards and armored are fully manned, and Xu Ping secretly established a defensive line in the rear that is exactly the same as the Ming army's position at Xianxia Pass, and all the fortresses, trenches, and communication trenches are copied in strict accordance with the intelligence, and these two battalions are training in this secret defensive line. The three battalions of the avant-garde, rearguard, and sharpshooter will continue to replenish their personnel, and in Xu Ping's plan, they will collect enough information about the second-line defense system of the Ming army in Longyan and Fuzhou in northern Fujian this month, and then establish another secret defense line for the three battalions to be put into training.

Fujian has a large number of militia organizations, and there is also a large Funing army. Although the opponent's combat experience is far from being comparable to the elite of the Shun army, the opponent has both mountainous terrain and the number of firearms greatly beyond Xu Ping's imagination, Zhou Dongtian estimates that the opponent's militia alone has more muskets than the entire Shun army. Therefore, Xu Ping believed that the first blow to Fujian must achieve a devastating effect, and strive to completely crush the fighting spirit of the opposing militia by relying on a thunderous blow, so as to avoid falling into a stalemate and a headache of guerrilla warfare in the rear.

With Xu Ping's careful preparation now, he does not dare to say that he has the absolute certainty of breaking through the defense line of the Funing Army and seizing the important land in northern Fujian, and whether he can defeat the fighting spirit of the opponent's armed militia is even more unknown. By studying the lessons of the previous setbacks of the invading army in Jiangxi, Xu Ping believed that in order to deal with such an unprecedented large number of militias armed with muskets, it was necessary to ensure that there were heavy field troops stationed on the rear communication lanes, so that the other side would pay a heavy price for every guerrilla attack in order to destroy the morale of the militia. All in all, Xu Ping's troops at hand were not rich, and even the Jiangbei Army and the Guanning Army had to be used to ensure the success of the attack.

"How much does the Lord say about the strong team?" At this time, it may not be enough to send one or two battalions of field troops back to the north, and it will also lead to the lack of troops in Xu Ping's general attack: "If Juyong Pass is alive and Bauhinia Pass is lost, what is the Lord's plan?" Will it stick to Beijing? ”

The envoy replied: "General Liu has rushed to the Bauhinia Pass to hold on, and before he left, he and Taishi had already proposed that Beijing was empty, and Juyong Pass and Shanhaiguan were both guarded by the former Ming generals, and their loyalty was concerning, so if General Liu was unfavorable in the battle, the lord might retreat to Shandong." ”

Shaanxi was lost, and the Mongolian army in Shanxi had no worries, and could cut off the connection between Beijing and Shandong along the Yellow River at any time, and encircle the Shun army in the area of Beijing, and the empty Beijing seemed to have little spare power to prevent such actions of the Mongolian army, and the envoy's answer was not very unexpected by Xu Ping, but he still shook his head for a while: "In this way, the north of the Yellow River is not owned by the state." ”

Knowing that the envoy had nothing else to say, Xu Ping asked him to step back and continue to look at the map, if Li Zicheng retreated to Shandong, the entire territory of Dashun would be compressed into a slender area, and the Yangtze River would become the main line of communication, so that the threat of the Funing army's sailors would also be greatly increased.

"Don't send things to the front line, we have to speed up the construction of forts along the river, if the worst happens, we have to prevent the Funing Navy Division from entering the Yangtze River."

After explaining some important military affairs, Xu Ping asked Zhou Dongtian to temporarily act as his own position: "I will immediately return to Beijing with light clothes and meet Your Majesty." ”

"Are you going to retire? What about Fujian? "The main force of the Funing army is currently gathering at Xianxia Pass, and the Shun army is facing off at close range, Zhou Dongtian is worried that once the troops retreat, they will be beaten by the other party to chase after the victory.

"You rush to the front line to stabilize the defense, the three battalions of the avant-garde, rearguard, and sharpshooter should not be withdrawn for training, I am afraid that we will not attack Fujian for a while and a half, arrange for the two battalions of guards and armor to return to Nanjing as soon as possible, I will use them soon." Xu Ping thought for a while, and then explained: "If the Fujian army is strong, you might as well fight and retreat to northern Zhejiang and Nanjing, don't fight with them, I think there will be no reinforcements to Jiangnan for a long time." ”

"If these three battalions don't retreat, how to deal with the Jiangbei Army and the Guanning Army?" When the momentum of the Shun army was like a rainbow, these troops were helping, but now it has become a hidden worry, Zhou Dongtian asked: "If the three battalions do not retreat, and the adults take away the guards and armor, what should they do if they make trouble in the rear?" The last general felt that it was inappropriate for the adults to withdraw from the army, if they felt that the limelight had changed and surrendered back to the Duke of Qi, wouldn't our three battalions be made dumplings? ”

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