stubborn thief

Hong Chengchou commanded the Ningxia army to fight for territory southward and was very successful in tactics.

In just seven days, the wolf-like Ningxia border army, led by good generals Cao Wenzhao, Bai Guangen, Shen Guangxian, Bu Yingdi, and Tu Shixian, recaptured 32 guards, cities, posts, and forts from the Marshal's Mansion. , advancing the front all the way to Jingning Prefecture.

All the land lost after the locust plague last year has been recovered.

But Hong Chengchou couldn't feel the slightest joy about this great achievement. On the contrary, he was very anxious.

Because the Ningxia army was constrained by Yang Qi in the east and did not dare to mobilize thousands of miles away, it was still unable to capture the main force of the Marshal's Army in the Gansu Governor's Mansion. The battles on the battlefield were all about chasing Tangma and attacking the camp and breaking the fort. It is difficult to fight a war of annihilation.

It's not that there was no chance. General Bu Yingdi mobilized a battalion a few days ago and annihilated more than [-] people under the Marshal's command near half of the city near the second border wall. However, the Ming army, including Hong Chengchou, Inside, no one can laugh.

Because those more than 200 people were still part of the Ming army's Ningxia border army's guerrilla camp three hours before the war started.

Hong Chengchou even wanted to cry when he saw the battle report, so he made an exception and agreed to Bu Yingdi's request to clean up the battlefield without taking heads, and to stop ear-cutting to record merit.

At first, no one realized the losses that the battle had caused him. But Bu Yingdi, who was stationed in Weizhou, received an alert and found out that Gansu Governor Cao Yaobiao's battalion of troops broke through the Red Castle in the border wall and crossed the second border. Wall, captured half of the city and then set up camp.

The Ming army realized that they were planning to launch an attack in Weizhou. After all, Weizhou was the summer palace of King Qing and the old tomb of the Qing fan. There were many Wangzhuang vassal lands outside the city. Bu Yingdi did not dare to allow the marshal's army to attack. When they arrived at the outskirts, they decided to lead their troops to take the initiative.

The fighting between the two sides lasted only a short time. It was already dark when Bu Yingdi arrived nearby, so he set up camp more than ten miles away. He planned to fight Cao Yaobiao's generals again the next morning, but he did not expect that the Marshal's army had no intention of fighting him. .

That night, the marshal's army launched a feint attack on Bu Yingdi's camp, and then broke out of the camp while Bu Yingdi was concentrating on defense, abandoning half of the city and returning to the Red Castle in the south through the second border wall.

There were no losses on either side. The Ming army was ahead of the enemy in their intentions and protected Weizhou from the rebels. It can be considered a victory.

But no one expected that at the same time that Bu Yingdi was confronting the Marshal's Army, a mutiny broke out in the Ningxia guerrilla camp stationed at Xining Fort near Weizhou. More than a thousand border soldiers took off their turbans and rebelled against the excuse of asking for pay, and hijacked the guerrilla general Zhao Guangyuan. After setting fire to the camp, they fled.

After receiving the news, Bu Yingdi led his army to intercept it in a hurry, and then caught up with its rear half of the city. Since the beginning of the war in Chongzhen in the eighth year, the Ningxia frontier army had killed more than [-] people in a single battle against the Marshal's Mansion.

After interrogating the prisoners, Bu Yingdi finally learned that on the Ming army's side, two battles took place in two days, and in the eyes of the Marshal's Army, half of the Chen army attacked in one battle in two days. Weizhou's posture was just a feint attack by their generals to incite the guerrilla camp to mutiny and kidnap the guerrilla general Zhao Guangyuan.

Because the general who led Cao Yao's troops was named Zhao Guangrui, who was the former commander of the Jinglu Guards in the Ming Dynasty and the nephew of the Ming Dynasty's crown prince and grand master Zhao Lejiao who died in Zunhua.

The kidnapped guerrilla general Zhao Guangyuan was Zhao Lijiao's biological son.

Until the end of the battle, in fact, Hong Chengchou would not have known that the Jinglu Guards had been instigated by Cao Yao to rebel if the prisoners hadn't spilled the beans.

Jinglu Guard is the hometown of Zhao Lijiao. The soldiers in that guard post are quite capable of fighting, and the commander Zhao Guangrui has also been determined to make progress. As early as last year when the locust plague occurred, he wrote a letter to the Ministry of War to warn against the rebels. During the eastward invasion, he also delivered documents to the commander of the Shaanxi capital, repaired the castle and sorted out ordnance in the Jinglu Acropolis.

After all, after Zhongliang, he made some achievements and went up to fight two battles with the Marshal's Mansion. The staff general and deputy commander-in-chief were just around the corner. The future was bright. No one could have imagined that Zhao Guangrui would surrender without a fight.

And after surrendering, he directly led troops to the Marshal's Mansion as a vanguard general.

But as the prisoners were interrogated and surrendered after the war, the full story gradually unfolded in front of Hong Chengchou. The governor of three, no, two sides of the Ming court not only wanted to cry, but even vomited.

It's a physical nausea.

If this Cao Yao had strong soldiers and horses, and used his troops like a god, it would be fine if he defeated the Jinglu guards. In fact, it was completely the opposite.

Under the command of the so-called Governor of Gansu, even if all the horse bandits outside Jiayuguan and the Fanzi in the pass are counted as regular troops, the number of troops is only a little over [-], and under his command is a familiar general named Liu Thief, who has no close associates. The brightest general is called Hei Chengyin.

In the past, it was Qianhu of Suzhou Wei.

It was a ragtag group of unknown generals. The intelligence made Hong Chengchou and others look like one head and two heads. They spent the entire night trying to figure out why Zhao Guangrui, who had repaired the city fortress half a year in advance and had strong soldiers in the city, surrendered to these guys. Son?
It wasn't until Tu Shixian searched the ruins of the burned camp and found secret messages between Zhao Guangrui and the generals of the camp that the truth came to light.

Cao Yao did not use heavy artillery to break through the city. He just threw [-] lambs at the Jinglu guards. The flag army broke through the defense directly, tied up Zhao Guangrui who was inspecting the soldiers and horses in the camp, and turned him to Cao Yao's face.

Shaanxi has been having a hard time in the past few years. There was a locust plague last year, which made it even more difficult at the end of the year. Now it is a lean period again. The Banner Army's family has used loans to grow grain. What kind of lethality is a dozen kilograms of mutton?
The most important thing is that as long as grandpa votes for the generalissimo and kills the creditor, he won't have to pay back the money and food he owes, and the daughter and aunt he sold will be able to take it back in an open and honest manner!
Regarding this matter, no matter how much our flag army respects Grand Master Zhao and no matter how close we are to Mr. Zhao, we still can’t kiss our aunt-in-law: Then we’ll tie her up to General Zhao.

In order not to humiliate his ancestors, Zhao Guangrui originally wanted to die. When he saw Cao Yao opening his mouth, he would scold him, and he would scold whatever he said that was unpleasant.

If this was Liu Chengzong, he might have shot him to death: it was an insult to politeness.

However, the old thief Cao Yao is a fool who has been crawling around in the mud all his life. He showed a shameless attitude and even said sarcastically: "General Zhao, you don't understand Cao. Shut up and I'll do it!"

Then he analyzed himself generously, starting from the disloyalty of being a deserter in Salhu, the unfilial piety of not being able to serve his parents after being away from home for 20 years, the unkindness of not saving people when they were hungry and cold, and the deception of others when they were in danger 11 I scolded myself for the injustice of a [-]-year-old girl marrying me.

Zhao Guangrui was dumbfounded.

The most outrageous thing is that Cao Yao then released Zhao Guangrui and told him clearly that the secret letter reporting him as a traitor would be sent to Hong Chengchou three days later, giving him two options.

The Jinglu Guards can no longer be saved, and the Banner Army will rebel. He can either go to Hong Chengchou and wait for him to be transferred from the Jinglu Guards, but if he can leave, the whole Zhao family cannot leave. Cao Yao will take good care of all his people, so that He stopped here in his early thirties and was not reused by the court.

Or, within three days, lead troops to attack the Red Castle, and after defeating it, you will have the official position of a marshal's office, the establishment of the Jinglu camp, and the pay of the soldiers.

Cao Yao said to let Zhao Guangrui think about it himself, but in fact he made two preparations. He transferred Wang Xingshan, the deputy commander-in-chief of Gansu Province, who was captured alive by Hu Zhishen during the Battle of Gansu from Lanzhou. This man's hometown was also from the Jinglu Guards, so he could replace him. Zhao Guangrui's role in the military.He was not afraid of Wang Xingshan being naughty, because Wang Xingshan's only son Wang Yongji would be serving as Yulin Lang next to Liu Chengzong.

On the other hand, there are also a group of young officers in the Jinglu Guards who have defected to the Marshal's Mansion, such as Hua Shoudeng, Li Shoukui, Bai Yingju, etc., who have all been promised the positions of Chief Qian, Chief General, etc., plus the banner army officers Already defeated by Little Lamb - Cao Yao is bound to win against the Jinglu Guards.

No matter what Zhao Guangrui chooses, it will not affect the overall situation.

In fact, when Cao Yao received the news that Zhao Guangrui had returned to the Jinglu Guard, he knew that the vanguard of this guard had been captured.

But he didn't expect that Zhao Guangrui was much more ruthless than he thought. It only took him one day to make a choice, slightly reorganize the Weixia Banner Army, immediately mobilize the troops to capture the Red Castle that day, and make the plan to attack Weizhou. In order to lure the reinforcement camp to leave the city, they also sent people to incite the rebel camp to mutiny.

The banner army kidnapped him, and he in turn asked the camp soldiers to kidnap his younger brother Zhao Guangyuan to avoid fratricide in the future.

The mental state of the Ningxia camp soldiers is not as good as that of the Weisuo Banner Army. After all, they are all recruited from the Banner Army.

Originally there was a military field at home, but after I became a camp soldier, the military field disappeared. Forget about the pay arrears. The key is that as a member of the circle trade, I still have to transport silk to the Tatars outside my country all day long.

After transporting the silk, the Tatars didn't thank us, and even got mad and beat us. The north had to prevent the Tatars from getting mad again, the east had to prepare Yang Qi to jump off the beam and commit a crime, the west had to chase Cao Yao and couldn't catch up, and the south had Liu Chengzong's flag flying everywhere, wasn't it? This general made a noise in the camp, and that general was beheaded by the city wall.

Day by day, the evil fire in my heart had no place to vent, and I mutinied at the slightest incitement.

In the end, Hong Chengchou calculated that the battle fought by Bu Yingdi was a total loss. A guerrilla battalion died in the mutiny, half of its officers were lost, and the remaining 800 men lost their combat effectiveness; the reinforcement battalion won the battle, and in the end The few corpses were all his own, and when it was over, more than [-] soldiers surrendered to the enemy.

We might say we earned a castle, but this castle was originally ours. When it was lost and recovered, we lost one wall and lost all the soldiers inside.

Now Bu Yingdi's reinforcement battalion is eagerly waiting for him to report his merits to them, but the memorial of such merits is simply too shameless to write.

Governor Hong was very sad.

What's even more sad is that Chen Qiyu from Xi'an Mansion gave him a difficult problem.

In the current situation, for Hong Chengchou, the best strategy is to take advantage of Liu Chengzong's large-scale eastward expedition, use the power of the Ningxia border army to regain Gansu, cut off Lanzhou's connection with the main army, let the governors of both sides turn into governors of the three sides, and remove them by the way. The headquarters of the Marshal's Mansion.

Not to mention anything else, the grain storage, war horses, and ordnance of the Marshal's Mansion alone can give the three northwest sides a new look and become the most powerful force on the nine sides of the Ming Dynasty. If he can do this, he only needs to give him two years. Hong Chengchou felt that if he led the northwest frontier army out of the customs, he would most likely be able to wipe out the Eastern captives in one wave.

There were no landlords and gentry under Liu Chengzong's rule. The negative assets in Gansu, Xining, Lanzhou, and Longxi were washed away in Liu Shishi's hands. The Ming Dynasty recovered all the positive assets, enough to support a plowing and sweeping of holes—— Even if we lose, it will still be a Sal Hu without damaging our roots.

But this guy Chen Qiyu... Hong Chengchou thought it was really useless.

The governor of five provinces was so big that he had [-] officers and soldiers. He didn't even have the confidence to hold Liu's [-] rebels within the four passes. He actually shamelessly sent him a message to Ningxia to let the Ningxia border troops Advance southward to Longzhou and Qinzhou lines, and cooperate with the inland troops to block the second pass.

Hong Chengchou thought, you have transferred all the good generals in Yansui Town. If I, a town in Ningxia, had the ability to punch Cao Yao of Gansu, kick Yang Yao of Lanzhou, and stop Generalissimo Liu Chengzong with a split, Then why does the imperial court need you as the governor of the five provinces?
Complaints are complaints, things have to be done, because Chen Qiyu's plan is really good.

In view of the current situation, Chen Qiyu's current plan is to use Qinchuan within the four passes to build a cage, and take advantage of the situation to introduce Liu Chengzong, the hungry tiger, into the cage. Xi'an Mansion is the most attractive and delicious piece of meat in the cage .

He is already asking people to transport grain, grass and goods to Tongguan.

In fact, Hong Chengchou knew very well that the battles for the cities on the second border wall in southern Ningxia were all a fool's errand. The marshal's army got the benefits of population and wealth and withdrew safely, leaving the Ningxia border troops who went south to recover the lost territory and make contributions here. It belongs to everyone. They all treated the imperial court like a monkey.

But the general environment is like this. Hong Chengchou needs to lead the border troops to regain the three sides. He also needs Xining, the core area of ​​the Marshal's Mansion, to stock up on grain and silver. Coupled with the unclaimed land, the huge wealth is enough to make the weak northwest three sides Regroup.

After all, this is the situation in the northwest.

The imperial court felt that Shaanxi was a ghost place where less than half of the taxes were collected and people were so poor that they were as poor as their pants. However, in Liu Chengzong's eyes, it was a piece of Tang monk meat that could restore full health with one bite.

Liu Chengzong felt that his territory was extremely poor, and he had to fight eastward to seize the population territory in order to extend the life of the Marshal's Mansion. However, in the eyes of the court, it was a geomantic treasure land that could revive Shaanxi.

The generals in the northwest are indeed good generals, but they are tired of being tortured by bandits and are generally unwilling to fight Liu Chengzong. Now half of the people who are willing to fight with the marshal's army are from Changping.

Therefore, Chen Qiyu made a suggestion to the emperor: send a group of northwest troops to Guanning and Jizhen; send a group of troops from Guanning and Jizhen to the northwest.

In fact, the imperial court was already doing this, but Chen Qiyu felt that the scale was still a bit small. The most important thing was to let the old man from the northwest also taste the military rations on the Guanning defense line. After two years of tossing with Liu Chengzong, the generals and soldiers would be exhausted. Wasted.

They have to go to Liaodong to gain weight and then come back to beat Liu Chengzong.

Because of this, the officials of the Ming Dynasty in the northwest knew very well that using Xi'an Mansion as a bait to lock Liu Chengzong, the hungry tiger, within the four gates, and beat the dog behind closed doors was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

Even if Hong Chengchou was unwilling to take the risk of dividing his troops, he could only send people south.

Following his order, Ningxia's border troops spread out like a large net, dividing into two groups.

They marched straight to Lanzhou along the Great Wall under the leadership of General Tu Shixian, while they spread from north to south under the leadership of Cao Wenzhao, Liu Chengzong's old enemy, and flew towards Longxi County in Gongchang Prefecture.

It is bound to cut off the connection between Liu Chengzong's main force and the rear camp. (End of chapter)