stubborn thief

Chapter 362
The three armies were encircled, the enemy was outnumbered, hungry and exhausted, the enemy still set up a cauldron in front of the formation, slaughtered sheep, slaughtered pigs and stewed meat, calling them to surrender.

But at this time, those surrounded in the middle of the river valley were all the best fighters that the Ming Empire could produce. Even though they were at a disadvantage, they still refused to put down their weapons and surrender.

The first time they charged westward for the sake of the emperor, they were repulsed by Wang Wenxiu, who was recharging his strength, with heavy guns and guns.

The second time they rushed eastward in order to go home, and were half surrounded and forced to retreat by Yang Yao's horse battalion who was marching in bridles.

When the army is extremely exhausted, the hunting battalion's practice of praying for gods and the fishing battalion's overtone shouts resound through the valley, and the soldiers in front of the battle loudly convey the ultimatum of Generalissimo Liu Chengzong to the position. The general offensive is about to begin, and then don't blame the sword no eyes.

The two towns with no reinforcements outside and no food and grass inside were finally loosened. When all the psychological defenses were completely penetrated, it was unknown who started it first, and there were cries everywhere.

Layer upon layer of sergeants kowtowed devoutly to the east, climbed out of the trench and undressed their armor, and passed through the battle zone in front of the two armies. After a brief exchange, they charged again.

It's just that this time, it's for my own stomach, and I rushed to the meal prepared behind the battle.

The generals of the two formations were very popular. In the middle of the empty positions surrounded by trenches, there were still six or seven hundred sergeants forming a square formation. Liu Chengzong looked at this stubborn formation and ignored them for the time being.

He saw that these people were only superficially motivated to die. When the Mongolian horse soldiers wandered into the range, they neither fired cannons nor arrows. They were very contradictory. They were unable to fight, and they were unwilling to surrender. .

Pull the cannon over and fire two salvos, and they will be gone; if you don't fire the cannon, if you can't hold it after a while, there may be a suicide charge.

However, Liu Chengzong felt compassion in the end, he called two surrendered soldiers, and said, "Go and tell He Huchen and Yang Qi to save their lives and fight the Eastern Captives to the end. It is not shameful to surrender in a civil war. Let them come and see me."

The surrendered soldiers tremblingly walked towards the enemy line. Liu Chengzong dispatched several stewards in charge of the surrendered soldiers. The food was not ready yet, so the surrendered soldiers were not allowed to eat for the time being, and asked them to dig graves for the soldiers who died in battle.

The sleepy and hungry surrendered soldiers who had just gone through two shock operations were the weakest. At this time, they were working with shovels and picks, just in time for the soldiers in charge of the surrendered troops to cultivate them to feel at home.

There are too many soldiers surrendered, 8000 people were disarmed on the main battlefield, and Yang Yao also brought more than 2000 wounded soldiers from the east to surrender. It is very troublesome for these people to make a mess. If you want to prevent people from being distracted, the management personnel are very important .

The stewards were Dai Daozi who faced the Ningxia soldiers, Hu Sanhuai who was in charge of the Guyuan soldiers, Zhong Bao who was in charge of the Yansui soldiers, Yang Chengzu who was in charge of the rebels, Wei Qian'er who was in charge of the Banner Army, and Li Tianyu who was in charge of the native soldiers.

The surrendered soldiers were clearly arranged according to their backgrounds.

Yang Qi found that He Huchen was a little too calm. In his eyes, after two failed breakouts, the Guyuan Army almost disappeared without warning.

After joining the army for more than ten years, Yang Qi has seen collapse and flight, but he has never experienced such a situation. The huge army formation collapsed suddenly.

Say they didn't collapse, it's true that the whole army is out of control; say they collapsed, but the surrender was pretty fucking organized.

It's as if an army fought against each other, suddenly reached the critical point of collapse, and collectively defected.

Yang Qi panicked, the more people rely on experience, the more they will pretend to be calm when encountering situations they have never experienced before, so he didn't run away.

But people who pretend to be calm will always see who is really calm and learn from it.

Compared with Yang Qi, He Huchen, who stood in the formation with a weakened expression, was very calm.

Seems like deja vu.

Everything seems to have returned to the ninth day of June in the third year of Chongzhen. The air in Huanglong Mountain was fresh after the rain, and the wounded soldiers abandoned him on crutches.

He Zongbing is someone who has been here, a small scene.

Yang Qi said anxiously: "Let's break through to the east and run to Lanzhou."

He Huchen smiled miserably: "So what if you run to Lanzhou?"

The last time he was defeated, he thought of being ashamed of the Holy Grace at the first moment and wanted to kill himself, but this time he didn't have this idea... because last time he was the only one who led the army.

As a general, he has never fought head-to-head with his opponent, and everyone will be ashamed.

But this time it was different, the Fifth Army had never fought, which meant that the problem did not lie with him, He Huchen.

But he really didn't know what he was supposed to do now, the same thing happened to him twice, the Ningxia masters were gone, and he couldn't go back.

Just at this time, a family member reported: "Commander, some soldiers have come back and sent a message for the enemy!"

Before He Huchen and Yang Qi could open their mouths, the servants had already lined up a path and called the descendants to come over.

He Huchen closed his eyes in pain, and he knew this would happen. Even though these soldiers were still on the ground, they were just loyal, not tired.

If there is a chance to survive, or to live without violating the will of the general, the servants are also happy to live...so they let the surrendered soldiers in without the general asking.

On the contrary, he surrendered his troops and returned to the formation, secretly feeling ashamed in his heart, timid and afraid to go forward, it took a long time to pass through the formation of hundreds of soldiers, and arrived in front of Yang Qi and He Huchen, bowed his head and said: "Marshal... ..."

Yang Qi was quite annoyed that his subordinates dispersed without saying hello, ignoring the surrender; but He Huchen was not defeated by Liu Chengzong for the first time, he was old, and said: "Get up, General Liu, what do you want to say?"

Hearing the surrender, Marshal He's name was quite gentle, and he became a little more courageous: "General Liu said, save your life and fight Donglu to the death. It is not shameful to surrender in a civil war. Let you and Marshal Yang go over and talk."

There is no shame in surrendering in civil war.

Yang Qi looked at He Huchen: "Will you go?"

He Huchen said in his heart that Liu Chengzong would really find others to step down, and Yang Qi beside him was really nothing.

Let yourself decide whether to save You Shilu or not; let yourself decide whether to see Liu Chengzong or not, this guy doesn't want to bear the responsibility of psychological guilt at all.

But the matter has come to this point, He Huchen doesn't bother to care about anything, they are all old monsters, who is useless to shirk responsibility?He said on the spot: "What can we do if we don't see each other? Could it be that hundreds of brothers around us are allowed to die here?"

After finishing speaking, He Huchen asked the descendants to lead the way, and the two of them each followed with two entourages, and walked dejectedly through the trench to the opposite side.

The servants and soldiers who stayed in the formation looked at the backs of the two leaving, both worried and happy. Naturally, the worry was about the personal safety of the two general soldiers, and the joy was because there was a little hope of escape in their hearts.

Approaching Liu Chengzong's army formation, Xie Erhu and Ji Tutaiji beat horse generals and their relatives to stop them. Xie Erhu said in a stiff voice: "The two commanders have put down their weapons, and the personal soldiers will follow here."

Immediately afterwards, Ji Tutaiji flashed out behind Xie Erhu, pointed at He Huchen and murmured, regardless of whether He Huchen could understand his own Mongolian language.

What he was talking about was He Huhu, when you bastard beat me up in Ningxia, did you ever think that you would have today!

Before He Huchen sent his troops south, he beat Huduntu who was madly hitting the side wall.

Unexpectedly, Yang Qi frowned directly at Xie Erhu and said, "We can understand Han Chinese, so we don't need this tartar as an interpreter... Is General Liu still afraid of us assassinating him?"

Ji Tutaiji was so angry that he beat his horse all over the ground and had nowhere to vent his anger.

Xie Erhu only cared about having fun, anyway, it's nothing to do with him being a pirate, he smiled enough and said seriously: "You lost, don't put on airs, don't you want to see the commander tied up if you don't want to lower your weapon?"

Yang Qi was so angry that his teeth were itchy, he felt that Liu Chengzong did it on purpose, and used two northern captive Tartar soldiers to disgust him here.

But He Huchen could understand Mongolian, and he looked at Ji Tutaiji wonderingly, wondering who is your interpreter because I have beaten so many Mongolians?

But He Huchen was obedient, he lost the battle, and he was let down by the steps if he had no steps. He no longer wanted anything extravagantly, so he untied the sword from his waist and handed it to He Zan, asking him to wait here.

But he didn't expect He Zan to untie the sword and his own saber, hand it over to Yang Qi's servant, and said, "Father, I'll go too."

He Huchen was blowing his nose and staring at that time. I used to discuss the matter of surrender. You bastard has been dazed and staring since you were captured in the Battle of Huanglong Mountain. You think there is something wrong with Daming all day long. Why did you go to see Liu Chengzong for further study?
"You can't..." In the middle of the sentence, He Huchen realized that he might not be able to go back, so he sighed and shook his head, "Forget it, this moment and that moment."

Seeing that the father and son had untied their swords, Yang Qi angrily undid them too.

In fact, he has no psychological burden. In his heart, the loss of this battle is entirely due to other people's incompetence. His Guyuan Army has nothing to do. He doesn't get involved in the formulation of tactics. He can fight whatever others plan. Anyway, he is fighting. In the process, he tried his best.

This battle was lost because others overestimated the capabilities of the towns, but he did not overestimate the combat effectiveness of the Guyuan Army. He didn't even dare to talk about tactical planning, and put himself on the toes.

The biggest mistake was that the commanders of the towns never expected that they would not even have the ability to hold the battle line until Liu Chengzong's army was infected by smallpox.

Of course they didn't know that even if it was delayed, Liu Chengzong's army would not be infected with smallpox at all.

But being at ease with the defeat of the soldiers does not mean accepting it. He was very unhappy that the two Mongolian soldiers asked him to untie the sword.

He said in his heart that he was a commander-in-chief after all, and Liu Chengzong didn't have the slightest attitude of being a virtuous and corporal, and even sent the northern captives here to disgust them, it's too shameless.

In fact, Liu Chengzong didn't send Xie Erhu here.

It's just that Erhu felt that the commander-in-chief had always been too kind to the surrendered soldiers, and even let them stand. He just wanted to find an excuse to tie the two of them with a rope.

But because He Huchen was too obedient, Xie Erhu, who was bent on causing trouble, returned angrily.

After entering the army formation, He Huchen still remembered the scene of meeting Liu Chengzong, the leader of the rebel army last time; he also remembered how he ridiculed Liu Chengzong for being overconfident when he heard that he was going to enter Qinghai.

Unexpectedly, in just a few years, Liu Chengzong really came out of Qinghai.

From a distance, He Huchen saw the tent of the marshal's mansion on the earth mountain. The tent was very familiar, but it was a bit old, and the color was worn away in many places.

Outside the tent is a handsome case, and Liu Chengzong, who is wearing a helmet and wearing armor, sits behind the handsome case. In front of the case, there are more than ten generals standing on the left and right, and there are two rows of guards around.

He Huchen put his mind in a good mood all the way, but just took a look at Tushan from a distance, his brain was buzzing, and he almost had a cerebral hemorrhage.

The handsome account is his handsome tent; the handsome case is his handsome case; the golden drum and horn is his camp drum music; even the Tang soldiers waiting for orders outside the tent are former Tang soldiers from Ningxia Town.

Except for the change of the flag, Liu Shizi didn't waste any of these things, and kept all the rituals of the former chief military officer of Ningxia Town.

On the dirt hill, Liu Chengzong, Yang Yao, and Wang Wenxiu were summarizing the two victorious battles, the harvest of prisoners, and the harvest of soldiers and equipment. For artillery weighing more than [-] jin, there were two Franc cannons. There are ten, six general Tianzi cannons with eight-jin bullets, and two scrap cannons, with sufficient gunpowder and shells.

However, the harvest of military rations was pitifully small. Wang Chengen, He Huchen, Yang Qi, and You Shilu together only had more than [-] stones of military rations.

Even the rebellious Hehuang Tusi's family had less food in stock than the previous one. Ye Tusi, who rebelled, confiscated more than [-] shi of grain and more than a thousand heads of livestock.

When all the granaries seized by the local officials of the branches of the chieftains involved in the rebellion are counted, Liu Chengzong estimates that he can get more than [-] shi of grain and tens of thousands of livestock.

But correspondingly, this war brought him more than 5000 mouths. The increase in population is a good thing, but what makes Liu Shizi painful and happy is that these people are good fighters.

He calculated the accounts in his mind, the current Xining Mansion, not counting the temporary conscripts and local soldiers from Hehuang, has more than [-] professional soldiers under his command.

This number means that the whole of Hehuang has become militaristic to the extreme, and there is one professional soldier in nineteen people.

Among these nineteen people, there are old people, children, women, disabled people, and idiots. Among those who are suitable for serving as soldiers, it is equivalent to one out of six people.

The more than one million mu of land in the Hehuang Valley has to be taxed at a ratio of ten to three in order to support these off-duty soldiers after the autumn harvest.

If the surrendered army is further recruited, this ratio will be further increased to one out of four, and it will take six out of ten taxes or even seven out of ten taxes to feed the army... This is simply unrealistic.

Liu Chengzong sighed, he knew this would be the result before the war started.

[-] troops, close to the total strength of a town on the Nine Sides; but anywhere on the Nine Sides, [-] to [-] troops, including the field guards, even so, no border town can support itself without relying on local support. Own.

The fertile land he owns is only in Hehuang, and the number of fields is far less than that of any border town.

Therefore, no matter marching to any place in Gansu, Lintao, Guyuan, or Lanzhou, it is like driving a carriage to hell. If you lose, you will die, and if you win, you will have no food.

However, let him spit all these people back... He was unwilling.

This is not a problem that war can solve. Although the war is won, the situation is more severe than before the war.

Liu Chengzong said: "In Lintao Mansion, Lanzhou, and Hezhou, the native soldiers are empty and the guards are all lost. The remaining troops are less than [-]. We should digest this batch of surrendered troops as soon as possible. The banner troops and native soldiers inside are familiar with the local conditions. We must Send troops to besiege Lanzhou City."

Yang Yao and Wang Wenxiu looked relaxed. They always believed that Liu Chengzong would have a solution for the big strategic direction. Not only were they not worried at the moment, they were also very pleasantly surprised by the news. Yang Yao said: "Commander, are we going to enter Lanzhou?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head: "Lanzhou and Hehuang can only guard one, we don't have time to fight with them, cross the Yellow River, confiscate all the granaries of rich and powerful families in this land, distribute [-]% to the local poor people, and move the rest Come back and lay a good foundation for the people to march eastward within two years."

In the next two years, the chain reaction triggered by this war will be fermented in the northwest. Liu Chengzong doesn't know what will happen in the end. He only knows that there is not much time left for him.

Once he is about to run out of food, he can only march eastward, and if he doesn't advance, he must be prepared to stab all the way into the pass.

At this moment, Xie Erhu ran up the mound and said, "Commander, those two chief soldiers are here."

Liu Chengzong ordered them to come over, and He Huchen and Yang Qi climbed up the dirt mountain together.

He was thinking about how to surrender to Liu Chengzong, when he was about two feet away from the picture of the familiar handsome man, suddenly the shadow disappeared from the corner of his eye, and Yang Qi was gone.

Before he could lower his head, a voice came from his side: "Yang Qi, the general of the defeated army in Guyuan, kowtowed to the Generalissimo of Qinghai, and Yang Qi is willing to surrender. Please also send troops to Lanzhou, and bring his family members to Hehuang!"

He Huchen opened his mouth to look at Shuai's case, then lost his mind for a moment, Liu Chengzong, then looked down at Yang Qi, he was so stupid... so neat?
　Good morning!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)