The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 692

The Ming court wanted to make a quick decision, but the domestic peasant army was also in a state of outbreak at that time, and Chongzhen had no extra food and pay to support the war everywhere.

In the 14th year of Chongzhen (1641), Li Zicheng and Wang Guozhong entered Henan when the main force of the Ming army was chasing Zhang Xianzhong in Sichuan, took in the hungry people, and opened official warehouses to release grain.

It is said in history that "starved people from far and near hoeed their loads, and those who responded were like flowing water, day and night, calling millions of people, and the momentum could not be rushed."

In the first month, when Li Zicheng's troops arrived at the city of Luoyang, Fu Wang Zhu Changxun panicked. He sent the Luoyang garrison general Wang Yinchang to guard the city, and urgently recruited the nearby Ming army to come to the rescue.

Zhu Changxun, who was extremely stingy, hosted a banquet for the reinforcements for the first time, hoping that they would defend Luoyang.

But if you just hold a banquet and refuse to pay, who will work hard.

A few days later, the peasant army began to attack the city. Zhu Changxun panicked, and finally reluctantly took out a thousand gold to recruit death squads.

Even if the thousand gold here is a thousand taels of gold, it is only 1 taels of silver.

Compared with Fu Wang's huge fortune of 200 million taels, it's really nothing.

Sure enough, not long after, Luoyang was attacked.

It turned out that Liu Jianyi, an official soldier, was captured outside the city and surrendered. After Liu Jianyi surrendered, he went to the gate of the city to shout on the 28th.

There are hundreds of soldiers of Luoyang guard general Wang Shaoyu here. They were all Liu Jianyi's subordinates. After listening to Liu Jianyi's yelling, he thought that Wang Zongbing usually didn't care about his subordinates. He only knows how to recruit death squads and not give money to the city guards, so why should he work for him?
When the officers and soldiers summed up, they directly reversed.

They first went to the north city to kill the guards, bound Yinchang, the king who participated in politics, and then opened the north gate. The peasant army rushed in and the city of Luoyang was destroyed.

After breaking through Luoyang, Li Zicheng obtained wealth worth 200 million silver and a large amount of grain from King Fu. He directly used the grain to relieve the hungry people and gathered a large number of soldiers and horses.

On the one hand, he asked his subordinates to rectify and train the recruits, and on the other hand, he personally led [-] soldiers and horses to attack Kaifeng.

The city of Kaifeng is five feet thick.The peasant army used cave carts to cover the soldiers digging holes, fired artillery into the city continuously, and patrolled Gaoming Hengyi City to hold on.Zhou Wang Gongyun was more generous, directly taking out millions of taels of treasury gold, recruiting strong men to kill the enemy, and cooking rice to pay the army.

Chen Yongfu, the deputy general of Kaifeng, fought against the city, and the guerrilla Gao Qian, the governor of Li Xianfeng, rushed to the rescue. He won all three battles, and Li Zicheng's army retreated to Mi County.Kaifeng was lifted.

On the other hand, on the 14th day of the first lunar month in the 1641th year of Chongzhen ([-]), the army pursued Zhang Xianzhong to Kaixian County.Yang Sichang led his own army to Yunyang, and the rest of the generals went to Huangling City in Kaixian County.The general army is as fierce as a tiger, and the participating general Liu Shijie faces the battle.Liu Shijie led his army deep into the battle, invincible.Zhang Xianzhong ascended the heights and saw that there were no banners of the Qin people, and Zuo Liangyu's army had no fighting spirit.It is to choose a strong man to sneak in the valley and ride down on a tall horse.Zuo Liangyu's troops collapsed first, Shijie, guerrilla Guo Kai, and Ruhuzi Xianjie all died in battle, breaking out like a tiger.

After breaking this Ming army, in February, Zhang Xianzhong attacked Xiangyang by surprise and killed Zhu Yiming, the king of Xiangyang.

On February 28, when Yang Sichang marched to Yiling (now Yichang, Hubei) in pursuit of Zhang Xianzhong who left Sichuan, when he learned that Luoyang and Xiangyang had fallen one after another and the two kings had been killed, he felt ashamed to face the emperor and completely collapsed.From then on, Yang Sichang refused to eat and was bedridden when he arrived at Xujiayuan, Shashi City, Jingzhou. All affairs were handled by the supervising army Wanji, and his family members were notified to come to Jingzhou to see him for the last time.On the first day of March, Yang Sichang died in Shashi.Regarding the cause of his death, there are records that he hanged himself or died by taking poison, but these are all rumors. In fact, it was because the fall of Luoyang and Xiangyang became the last straw that overwhelmed the camel's camel, causing Yang Sichang, who was already seriously ill, to die of shock and worry.

After entering Chongzhen for 14 years, the Ming Empire was in dire straits and was in dire straits. The Manchus outside were besieging Jinzhou, and the Peasant Army was rushing around inside.

The world is in such chaos, and with such a good opportunity, Master Ding will certainly reap the benefits.

After entering Chongzhen for 14 years, the Ming Dynasty was in chaos, while Dongjiang Town, Denglai District, and even Qingzhou and Jinan prefectures were very peaceful, which made many local officials of the Ming Dynasty feel a little unbelievable.

Judging from the news from the imperial court, at present, Daming has internal and external troubles, and wars are everywhere, but in Shandong, the people live in peace, the grain harvest is abundant, and it is a prosperous scene.

Some officials woke up, drank sweet potato porridge, and even wondered if they were still in a dream.

But they have to admit that since last year, Governor Liu Yuan of Shandong ordered the construction of water canals, deep wells, and organization of raising chickens and ducks, which made a very good start for this year.

In the 14th year of Chongzhen, the drought has begun to spread. There have been a few reports in Liangji, Shandong, Henan, Zhejiang, and Huguang, but the imperial court still did not pay attention to it.

At this time, the focus of the court, all Daming's eyes, were fixed on the Songjin battlefield and the two princes who had just been killed.

Compared with these things, the civil drought is an insignificant matter in their eyes.

In the past six months, a large number of refugees have poured into the east of Shandong, all of them heading for Dengzhou.

Fortunately, Ding Yi prepared in advance and set up porridge fields and ports in Laizhou and Qingdao to continuously send refugees to Jeju and Dayuan.

So here in Denglai, everything is stable, almost like a paradise.

However, in the two prefectures and counties, every day, people posted news from the imperial court and Ming Dynasty everywhere to inform the people.

With this kind of publicity, everyone knows that Daming is very chaotic outside, while we in Denglai are peaceful.

Even the gentry and scholars who were extremely disgusted with tax collection in the past suddenly discovered that under the rule of Liu Yuan and Ding Yi, it seemed to be good.

In March of the 14th year of Chongzhen (1641), Ding Yi estimated that the Songjin War was about to start, and a dozen would last for more than a year. He immediately ordered to prepare troops and horses, claiming the power to gain some benefits, and at the same time poke Manqing's ass drum .

This time Ding Yi wants to take this opportunity to play a big game and teach Huang Taiji a good lesson.

Since winning the Battle of Beigou that year, the fronts of both sides have remained at Beigou City in the west, on the line with Yongning.

And Huang Taiji's troops are guarding Gaizhou in the west, and there are a small number of defenders in Ximucheng, Qingtaiyu, Lianshanguan and other forts, and the main force is on the front line of Liaoyang and Haizhou.

Judging from the map, the Manchu Qing Dynasty focused on Gaizhou, Haizhou, and Liaoyang for front-line defense, and left a small number of garrisons in the former Ming army's forts.

Five or six years have passed since the Battle of Beigou, Ding Yi has not moved Huang Taiji except for fighting Yizhou.

This made the entire Liaodong a buffer zone for both sides, and there has never been a battle.

Ding Yi plans to mobilize tens of thousands of soldiers and horses this time, and attack from several directions together to take down Gaizhou, Ximucheng, Qingtaiyu, Lianshanguan and other Liaodong military forts. If there is a chance, he will also attack Yaozhou, Haizhou, Break into Hetuala and occupy all of Liaodong.

Because he knew that after the Battle of Songjin, Daming would die in places other than Shanhaiguan except Ningyuan, and Huang Taiji occupied a large area, so he naturally wanted to occupy a large area of ​​Huang Taiji and continue to put pressure on Huang Taiji , forcing him to fight Daming again.

On March [-], Ding Yi convened a meeting of the generals and decided on the direction and strategy of sending troops.

The West Route Army was commanded by Ding Yi himself. He led Zhang Jing's cavalry battalion with 1 battalions, Ma Yue's infantry battalion with 1 battalions, Xu Bicheng's infantry battalion with 3 battalions, the 12th Battalion of Xianghuailai with 3000 soldiers, and [-] auxiliary soldiers for a total of [-]. [-] people, from Beigou City to the north, go straight to Gaizhou.

The South Route Army was commanded by Shang Kexi, leading Yuan Youcai's 2nd Cavalry Battalion with 3000 troops, Shang Kexi's headquarters with 3000 troops, Yan Xiong's 1000 troops from Dengzhou, and another [-] auxiliary soldiers, a total of [-] troops. Sweep all the forts in eastern Liaodong all the way, and finally reach Haizhou. After Haizhou is captured, let's see who is progressing faster. Ding Yi will come over and gather with him soon.

The East Army was commanded by Xiao Yongqiu, leading the 7th Battalion Xiao Yongqiu 3000 people, the 8th Battalion Maoxin 3000 people, Chen Shishi 21 Battalion 3000 people, Chen Yang cavalry 3000 people, auxiliary soldiers 2000 people, the whole army 4000 people, starting from Tieshan , First attack Zhenjiang, then go up along Zhenjiang, clear all the pier fortresses of Qing soldiers, and set off directly for Hetuala.

There are 4000 people here, everyone has horses, all cavalry, and even auxiliary soldiers are equipped with horses.

The task Ding Yi gave him was to return to Haizhou after defeating Hetuala.

In this way, Gaizhou, Yaozhou, and Haizhou, which are connected together, will be defeated by the Ming army.

At that time, a general suggested why not fight Liaoyang.

Ding Yi said to keep it first, and not to push Huang Taiji too hastily.

Pushing Huang Taiji into a hurry, this guy can make peace with Daming and beat him back.

The generals feel reasonable.

At this time, nearly 3 troops and more than [-] horses were mobilized, which was the most in Ding Yi's history. The soldiers of the East Route were equipped with horses, and half of the soldiers of the other two routes had horses.

The entire Lushun and Hebei were in rapid operation, preparing food and grass, preparing gunpowder, and mobilizing a small number of craftsmen and doctors to accompany them.

Has been busy until June, finally ready to go.

But at this moment, a peasant uprising suddenly broke out in Shandong.

It turned out that in April, there was another natural disaster in the Ming Dynasty.

In April, in the area of ​​Wujiang, the land of fish and rice, although there was a severe drought and no rain, migrating locusts covered the sky, and officials ordered them to be caught more and more.The price of rice is four taels of silver per stone, and the beggars are full of roads, and many people die on their pillows.Folks use bad grains and rotten residue as a delicacy, or eat tree scraps and elm bark.There were tens of millions of people eating porridge every day. This situation did not improve until August, but there was no autumn harvest that year, and countless people died of starvation.

Then in June, Liangji, Shandong, Henan, Zhejiang, and Huguang were drought-stricken, and locusts broke out.
Shandong and other provinces reported disasters year after year, and Zuo Mao and others supervised and urged water transportation in the matter. The Taoist said: "I arrived in Dongchang from Jinghai, and saw that three people died of starvation, three died of epidemics, and four were robbers."

Due to the lack of harvest in the farmland, the plague prevailed.In addition, the government extorted and extorted money, and the peasants were starved. They died of hunger and corpses filled the fields, which aroused the peasants in the Central Plains to flock to it.

Because Li Qingshan helped the hungry people buy grain, he clashed with profiteers who were not selling grain, and accidentally beat his accountant to death. Due to the social situation at that time, Li Qingshan gathered thousands of people to revolt in Shouzhang, calling himself "Qukui".After the uprising, he continued to improve the military system. He named Wang Linchen, a talented Dongping scholar, as a military adviser, and Ai Shuangshuang, a craftsman, as the head marshal.

(End of this chapter)