I want to be emperor

Chapter 217 Tang Hui, Governor of the Five Provinces
While Luo Zhixue was sitting in Zhongxiang to deal with various affairs, the various units of the rural protection army on the front line were also attacking the city.

The fastest-moving Xuhe Dongjin detachment with the Second Infantry Brigade as the core at that time, this detachment set off from Zhongxiang and went straight to Jingshan.

After approaching Jingshan, the county magistrate of Jingshan County ran away with oil on his feet.

This is not going to work.

There are not many officers and soldiers stationed in Jingshan City, only a mere two or three hundred guards, even if it is a temporary recruitment of civilian husbands to guard the city, only a thousand people are recruited.

Such a small amount of miscellaneous fish wants to stop the attack of the security guards, and I don't believe it myself...

And the magistrate of Jingshan County was unwilling to commit suicide, let alone turn himself into a thief, so he had no choice but to run away.

Although the court will pursue responsibility after running away, it is better than death.

As soon as the county magistrate ran away, no one was in charge of the city's affairs. The two or three hundred guards in the city saw that they hadn't run away, and more than half of them dispersed on the spot. Go, it's better to vote for a thief.

Ever since, when Xu He led his army to Jingshan, the more than a hundred soldiers of the guards in the city carried hundreds of civilian husbands who had not escaped, and Huitong, a few low-level officials who stayed behind in the city, came to offer the city.

Needless to say about the next thing, Xu He's troops took down Jingshan without a single soldier, and then continued heading southeast to Yingcheng.

The Ming army in Yingcheng was relatively tough. Under the leadership of the county magistrate, more than 400 local guards and more than a thousand civilians fought stubbornly.

It's just that this stubbornness doesn't make any sense.

The Xuhe detachment didn't even need to put on a stance, they just used artillery to bombard the enemy army in the city and collapsed, and the subsequent siege didn't even meet any resistance.

After the city was broken, many recalcitrant officials in the city were killed and injured, and the rest surrendered or absconded.

After winning these two places in a row, Xuhe's detachment continued to march into the Yunmeng and Xiaogan areas.

On the way, we divided our troops to Anlu, the prefectural city of De'an, to have a look. However, Anlu City had a large number of troops, at least seven or eight thousand troops were stationed there, so the battalion that Xu He's detachment sent out did not dare to attack immediately, but went outside garrison.

This reassured a group of civil and military officials of the Ming army in Anlu City, and felt that it was the right thing to accept the deserters from Yicheng.

The reason why there are so many defenders in Anlu City is that apart from their own troops and reinforcements from the Runing Mansion, the remaining half are actually Ming troops who escaped from Yicheng.

After the confluence of these Ming armies, the city's military strength reached more than 7000 people.

Due to the relatively large number of troops in the city, and at the same time Xu He also wanted to avoid directly attacking Anlu City, he might run straight to Yiyang Sanguan on the opposite side.

The group of defenders in the city escaped from Yicheng all the way, so there is no guarantee that they will not escape again.

But once they were frightened, so that they would give up Anlu and retreat to the three passes of Yiyang, then it would be more troublesome.

After all, the difficulty of attacking the three passes of Yiyang is much more difficult than attacking Anlu City.

Therefore, Xu He was very cautious. When he saw that there were many enemies in Anlu, he didn't bother. Instead, he continued to attack Xiaogan in the south, so as to cooperate with other troops of the First Division to take Hanyang.

As for Anlu's side, you can wait for a while, wait for the first division to free up, and wait for some troops on the third division's side to form initial combat effectiveness, and then wipe them out in one fell swoop. They retreated to the three passes of Yiyang.

Under such circumstances, the main force of the Dongjin detachment went to Xiaogan.

On the other side, the main forces such as the First Infantry Brigade of the First Division also took down the Qianjiang River and other areas along the Han River along the way, and finally went all the way to Hanyang City.

When the main forces of the two divisions of the first division converge, then the fall of Hanyang City can be declared.

After all, there are not many troops in Hanyang City, not only Hanyang City, most of the Ming troops in other places have been transferred, and they have been ruined in the two battles of Yicheng and Zhongxiang.

The total number of Ming troops who escaped was only 5000, of which more than 3000 fled to Anlu City, and more than 1000 fled back to Wuchang with Tang Hui.

After the two battles of Yicheng and Zhongxiang, most of the Ming army’s strength in northern Chu and even parts of southern Chu had been lost. Tang Hui, who had fled back to Wuchang, began to focus on gathering troops from southern Chu and other places to deploy Wuchang as the core. The defense line of the Yangtze River, there is still the mind to take care of the life and death of Hanyang City across the river.

Anyway, it's impossible to hold on, so it's better to just give up.

The Ming army didn't even have the heart to fight stubbornly, so the first division's attack on Hanyang City naturally went smoothly, facing the Hanyang City defenders who were abandoned in the city and didn't even have many soldiers.

The First Division took Hanyang City in just one day.

There are more than 3000 people in Hanyang City in name, but in fact most of them are civilians, and the rest of the officers and soldiers are ordinary guards, young and old, weak and weak. They didn't resist at all, and they were defeated and surrendered.

When Hanyang City fell, on the south bank of the Yangtze River, Tang Hui on the head of Wuchang City stood on the high gate tower, looking at Hanyang on the north bank of the river.

At this time, the bandit army had conquered Hanyang, but there seemed to be a fire somewhere in the city, so thick smoke billowed up.

Indistinctly, one can still see the Baozi flag of the bandit army fluttering on the Hanyang City Head and the wharf.

Chu Bei was completely finished.

Tang Hui knew very well that with the fall of Hanyang, it meant that the entire northern Chu area would fall into the hands of the bandits, but Tang Hui was powerless about all of this.

Now there are not even 2000 troops under his command, and most of them are guard soldiers who cannot fight. There are only about 200 soldiers who can fight to death, and there are only [-] elite soldiers such as guards.

Moreover, there is a serious lack of ordnance, especially artillery. When Tang Hui commanded the army to fight in Chubei, the army under his command could still have hundreds of artillery of all kinds, even if most of them were attacking troops of several kilograms. Cannons, tiger squatting cannons and the like, but there are anyway.

But now, he doesn't have [-] or [-] cannons in his hands, and these cannons are basically old-style cannons deployed on Wuchang City, some of which are older than his grandfather...

Under such circumstances, let alone counterattack Hanyang, he counterattacked Chubei. Now he doesn't even have much confidence in defending Wuchang.

"The world is difficult!" After watching for a long time, Tang Hui left such a sigh and went down the city gate.

He still has to figure out where to deploy his troops and recruit civilians. At the same time, he also needs to find a way to gather military supplies such as military equipment and food.

In addition, there is a more important thing to find a way to minimize the impact of the defeat of Yicheng and Zhongxiang in the two battles.

Although he has extensively contacted a group of teachers and friends to reduce the responsibility for the crime, the responsibility for the loss of Chubei and the loss of tens of thousands of troops cannot be escaped.

Now Tang Hui has no ambitions, and he doesn't even expect to keep his official title, even if he is demoted to Guangxi like before!
He just wants to spend this period of transition well, and then go home to retire...

However, even this is difficult, because the negative impact of losing Chu Bei is too great, and he, the governor of Huguang, can't even please him.

If it doesn't work well, it will be the end of being imprisoned for questioning or even exiled.

In recent years, the governors of the surrounding provinces have suffered badly, and Tang Hui is also very afraid.

In the past few years, Lu Xiangsheng's former governor of Yunyang was exiled... Henan governor Xuanmo was dismissed first, but before the dismissal was completed, the security forces had already taken Nanyang Mansion, and the court was furious.

Xuan Mo, who could have retired with dignity, was arrested and sent back to the capital. He was expected to be imprisoned, but it is not known whether he would be exiled later.

There are also Governors of Fengyang, Governors of Shaanxi, Governors of Shanxi and so on.

Anyway, in the past few years, the governors of the provinces who have caused thieves have had a hard time, and basically have no good end.

Not to mention these governors, even Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces, has had a hard time in the past two or three months. The thieves died, and the effect was great.

But, the Zuo Liangyu and He Renlong coalition forces he sent to Nanyang to encircle and suppress the rural protection army were defeated!
After Zuo Liangyu suffered a big defeat, he only got back a few thousand people, and He Renlong even led his troops to join the bandits...

In the end, the Township Protection Army took control of the Nanyang Basin, endangering the entire northern Chu.

This was in June and July, before the Township Protection Army attacked Zhongxiang City.

However, because of this, Hong Chengchou was reprimanded by the court and asked him to quickly end the war in Shaanxi, and hurriedly led his troops to Chubei.

And after the imperial court knows that the rural protection army has occupied the entire north of Chu, it is estimated that more people will be unlucky.

Tang Hui's only hope now is that he can protect himself, save his life and go home to take care of him. As for the other things, he simply doesn't dare to expect extravagantly.

It's just that Tang Hui waited month after month, starting from April and May, and he still couldn't wait for his successor until now in August.

He didn't know at this time that he himself was promoted again...

The most direct wish was that Lu Xiangsheng died in battle.

Originally, the imperial court arranged well, so that Tang Hui, who was demoted due to Chen Qiyu's involvement, went to Guangxi to take up a post.

Lu Xiangsheng, who was deeply trusted by the imperial court and highly expected by His Majesty, took over as the governor of Huguang. After a few months of buffering, Lu Xiangsheng was appointed prime minister for military affairs in Huguang, Henan, Sichuan, Shandong, Jiangbei and other places.

However, Hong Chengchou, who was originally the governor of many provinces and lacked skills, concentrated on the military affairs of the prime minister in Shaanxi and other places.

In this way, inside and outside, the two teamed up to strangle the thieves from all over the place.

But what the court princes didn't expect was that a township protection army suddenly appeared in April and May.

The Township Protection Army took down Nanyang and Xiangyang prefectures with lightning speed, and also directly defeated Lu Xiangsheng's troops in the battle of Sanyuanzhuang.

The death of Lu Xiangsheng not only caused the Nanyang Basin to fall, but also directly disrupted the high-level personnel arrangements of the Ming Dynasty in Huguang and other places.

Since the news of Lu Xiangsheng's death in battle reached the capital at the end of May, the bigwigs in the capital have been arguing over who should succeed Lu Xiangsheng as the governor of Huguang and the prime minister of the military affairs of the provinces.

The choice of this candidate is not easy to decide, the cabinet leaders have their own opinions, and Chongzhen himself has his own careful thinking, and then the opinions of the existing governors, general soldiers, Hong Chengchou and others in various parts of the Central Plains have to be considered.

After more than two months of discussion, there is no conclusion until now in August.

And at the end of July, the princes of the court felt that since the prime minister's supervisor of military affairs outside the customs could not be determined for a while, there must be someone to stand up temporarily.

After all, whether it is a thief or a thief, it is necessary to fight.

And considering that Tang Hui is still acting as the governor of Huguang, so he doesn't want to bother the two masters. He simply let Tang Hui take charge of the military affairs of Huguang, Sichuan, Henan and other places, and come to act as the military affairs of the five provinces.

After they have elected the real prime ministers of the five regions, they will be sent to take over the military affairs of the five regions.

The imperial envoy with the imperial decree set off from the end of July, hurried all the way, and finally arrived in Wuchang in mid-August.

Then Tang Hui, who should have left a few months ago, even fought a huge defeat not long ago, lost the former governor of Huguang in northern Chu, not only continued to act as governor of Huguang, but also got a promotion.

Become the agent of military affairs in the five provinces of Huguang, Henan, Sichuan, Shandong, and Jiangbei.

Tang Hui was dumbfounded after receiving the imperial edict...

(End of this chapter)