The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 741 Never Listen to Court Orders
Zhen Beibo has many soldiers and horses, and he has heard about it, but at least the generals of Zhen Beibo have been promoted to the general army, and the court still expects them to be suspicious of each other. , Shandong General Soldier, Denglai General Soldier and other local general soldiers are still Ding Yi's people.

But this is still a trivial matter. If Ding Yi wants to join the Wei capital, he is now called the commander of Qisi Town, and he can definitely fight Li Zicheng.

But what Ding Yi meant was that he was not in a hurry to fight Li Zicheng.

Xie Zhiliang bowed his head and fell into deep thought.

In history, he first went to the capital, then the capital fell, then went to the south of the Yangtze River, and then to Fujian, helping the Ming everywhere. Xie Zhiliang was definitely a loyal minister of the Ming Dynasty.

He hesitated for a while, and finally raised his head and asked, "Why don't you call the generals from all walks of life now, and rush to Beijing to guard?"

"In terms of war, Bo Zhenbei has never lost." Xu Bicheng said slowly: "You are a general in command of the army, I think you can talk to Bo Jingyue."

"Now 50 rebels are in Shanxi, and they are about to enter Beizhili from Shanxi. If the imperial court requires that the troops of Zhenbeibo's troops rush into the capital from all directions, there will be more defeats than victories."

"Wars are not a child's play. The civil officials in the temple know nothing and command randomly. How many battles were defeated before the Ming Dynasty?"

"Zhen Beibo has never lost a battle, because he never listened to the imperial court's orders."

"What's more, the so-called three armies have not moved, and the food and grass go first. Now all the ministries are raising food and grass. If they want to fight with 50 bandit soldiers and defeat them in one blow, they must choose the place for the decisive battle and prepare the soldiers and horses to ambush. Be careful not to make mistakes."

What Xu Bicheng said to Cai Maode may not have much effect, he must have asked Ding Yi to gather all the soldiers and horses to fight the bandits.

But it might be useful to talk to General Xie Zhiliang.

Xie Zhiliang also made sense after thinking about it. The emperor and cabinet ministers of the Ming Dynasty liked to command indiscriminately, especially in the Liaodong War.

Only Ding Yi never listened to the orders of the imperial court, but he won many battles.

When fighting, you have to follow Ding Yi's order.

It is indeed not an easy task to defeat 50 bandit soldiers in one battle.

Therefore, Xie Zhiliang, the general soldier of Taiyuan, was successfully fooled by Xu Bicheng.

Governor Cai Maode still refused to leave and wanted to stay and guard Taiyuan.

Xu Bicheng didn't compare with him too much, went up and slapped him unconscious, and asked someone to carry him away.

Then Xie Zhiliang first sent someone to escort the governor Cai Maode and the civil officials to Datong, and then according to what Xu Bicheng said, he took away all the grain and grass in Taiyuan. When he finally left, there were [-] soldiers, [-] strong farmers, and nearly [-] people. All the way fled to Datong .

Xu Bicheng succeeded in fooling two important figures in Taiyuan, but failed in fooling him when he arrived in Daizhou.

At this time, Shanxi still had a general soldier, Zhou Yuji, the general soldier of Shanxi Province.

At this time he was stationed in Daizhou.

Zhou Yuji was born in the Jing army, and he was also one of the few good generals in the late Ming Dynasty.

Of course, at the end of the Ming Dynasty at this time, anyone who dared to fight with bandits and slaves could be called a good general, not to mention that Zhou Yuji once defeated the Qing soldiers by fighting more with less.

In the winter of the 15th year of Chongzhen (1642), Zhou Yuji took over as the commander-in-chief of Shanxi. After taking office, he eliminated the old and weak soldiers, repaired weapons, strengthened military training, and prepared for battle.

Since then, the Ming army has repeatedly suffered disastrous defeats in several key battles with the peasant army, losing its main force and losing the initiative to fight against the peasant army.

Last winter, Li Zicheng captured Shaanxi and planned to attack Beijing via Shanxi. Zhou Yuji and Shanxi Governor Cai Maode respectively deployed river defenses and asked the capital for help. , After Zhou Yuji left Xiong Tong to defend the Yellow River, he rushed to Daizhou to establish a blocking line of defense for Beijing.

In the first month of the 17th year of Chongzhen (1644), Chen Shangzhi, the general of Pingyang, surrendered to Li Zicheng, persuaded Xiong Tong to surrender, and asked him to lobby Zhou Yuji to surrender.

When Zhou Yuji saw Xiong Tong, he scolded him angrily: "I have received great favor from the country, how could I follow you to rebel?! You command two thousand troops, instead of killing thieves, why do you want to be a lobbyist instead?!" Zhou Yuji angrily beheaded Xiong Tong. , Send the head to Beijing to show his determination to be loyal to the Ming Dynasty.

Ding Yi knew that he was a rare general in the late Ming Dynasty and wanted to save his life.

After Xu Bicheng fooled the people from Taiyuan to Datong, he rushed to find Zhou Yuji with Ding Yi's personal letter.

Of course he still used the same routine, persuading Zhou Yuji to give up Daizhou and retreat to Datong.

Zhou Yuji was furious: "If you don't defend Daizhou, the rebels will drive straight into the capital; if you defend Daizhou, the rebels will not dare to enter the capital. If Zhenbei Bo really wants to serve the court, he should send troops to guard with me. "

Zhou Yuji is not Cai Maode, so he can be fooled so easily.

Li Zicheng wanted to take down Taiyuan. If he wanted to go to the capital, he must also take down Daizhou. Otherwise, the Ming army in Daizhou could come and cut off their supply lines and retreat at any time.

Cai Maode, a civil official, doesn't understand military affairs, and Zhou Yuji certainly does.

Xu Bicheng took a look and said, come on, this is the loyal minister of Ming Dynasty in Ding Da's population.

Lord Ding has a very classic saying, at the end of Ming Dynasty, it was difficult for loyal ministers to be used by me, but people like Gao Qiqian and Luo Yangxing must be well protected and used by me.

Of course he respected such a loyal minister of Ming Dynasty in his heart, but the two sides had different positions, so there was nothing to talk about.

Xu Bicheng kindly persuaded him a few more words, but Zhou Yuji persuaded him to let Ding Yi send troops to Daizhou to retake Taiyuan, and keeping Taiyuan is a great achievement.

The two finally broke up unhappy, but one day later, Xie Zhiliang's soldiers sent dozens of artillery unloaded from Taiyuan to Ningwu Pass.

Zhou Yuji was overjoyed, but Xie Zhiliang was sent to Ningwuguan instead of Daizhou, which made him feel a little strange.

On the fifth day of February, Li Zicheng's soldiers and horses arrived at the city of Taiyuan. Taiyuan had no defenders, and he went down without a fight. Li Zicheng was very happy.

The King of Jin in the city begged to surrender, and this guy was the same as in the original history, not daring to leave.

Because the Ming Dynasty stipulated that the clan could not leave the residence.

You can see that King Qing can run very well, running in Yulin and Ningxia.

Li Zicheng stole King Jin's house, and sure enough, as Zhou Yuji said, he did not send troops to drive northward to Zhili. Daizhou is on the edge of Taiyuan, so it must be pulled out like a nail.

On February [-]th, Li Zicheng's soldiers and horses arrived at the city of Daizhou, first persuaded him to surrender, but failed, and then began to attack the city.

Probably it was a little bit of fun in Pingshanxi and Shaanxi, and Taiyuan also lost without a fight, so Li Zicheng was a little bit drifting.

As a result, when I fought, I found that this place was a hard bone.

The two sides fought for more than ten days, with tens of thousands of bandits killed and injured, and Daizhou City was still not captured.

This battle made Li Zicheng break out in a cold sweat, because he had even flattened Shaanxi and Shanxi for more than ten days before, and his journey was extremely smooth, but he was blocked for more than ten days in Daizhou.

This requires the Ming army to guard every city like this. When will he be able to hit the capital.

Fortunately, Zhou Yuji couldn't stand it at this time, because there were few soldiers and food, so he could only retreat to Ningwu Pass.

As soon as Zhou Yuji left, Daizhou officials surrendered immediately.

Li Zicheng marched towards Ningwuguan with his troops and horses, and gave Zhou Yuji an ultimatum not to surrender within five days, and after breaking through, the city would be massacred.

Ningwuguan is located in the central part of Shanxi. It is said that it was transformed by a phoenix, so it is called "Phoenix City".Ningwu is the traffic artery from Taiyuan to Datong in the north. During the Jingtai period of the Ming Dynasty, Guancheng was built. Together with Pianguan and Yanmenguan, it became one of the three Shanxi passes for defending Tatar cavalry. Its strategic position is extremely important.

But no matter how Zhou Yuji prepared for the battle, the Shanxi lone brigade could not compete with Li Zicheng's hundreds of thousands of troops. The terrain of Ningwuguan was dangerous, and the peasant army was determined to win. This battle was quite tragic.

In the original history, Zhou Yuji first bombarded with artillery until the gunpowder was exhausted. The peasant army suffered tens of thousands of casualties with artillery alone.

This time Ding Yi deliberately asked Xie Zhiliang to give him dozens of cannons and a large amount of gunpowder.

Zhou Yuji's artillery was even fiercer, and Li Zicheng fought for more than ten days, and he still hadn't taken down until March. Twenty to thirty thousand of his subordinates were killed and injured, and the loss was heavy.

Li Zicheng was demoralized as in history, he didn't want to fight anymore, and planned to bypass it.

Therefore, people like Li Zicheng can't achieve great things, and they want to back down when encountering setbacks.

His subordinates persuaded him one after another, especially Wang Weiguo who strongly demanded to fight again. Wang Weiguo said: "The Ming army's artillery will always explode, and when the gunpowder is exhausted, our 50 troops will not be able to defeat the small Ningwu Pass. Let the other Ming troops see that they will follow suit and defend every city, when will we be able to reach the capital?"

"When the Ningwu Pass is breached, all of them will be slaughtered."

All the generals shouted to kill him.

Li Zicheng thought about it too, gritted his teeth, and decided to attack again.

The two sides fought again, and Zhou Yuji was also very skillful in using troops, exhausting all the tricks in history.

The artillery and gunpowder were quickly exhausted, and he led his troops to fight hand-to-hand. He led thousands of soldiers and horses to rush out of the city suddenly, and the peasant army was defeated again.

In the evening, Zhou Yuji selected another 200 warriors, went down from the city wall, and attacked the peasant army at night. The peasant army camp was in chaos and lost again.

Li Zicheng was so badly beaten by Zhou Yuji that he withdrew his troops for [-] miles and surrounded Ningwu Pass from a distance.

Come on, if you have the ability, come to attack the camp again. Li Zicheng withdrew his troops for [-] miles, preparing to besiege Ningwu Pass for a long time.

It was already March.

Yan Xiong, who was far away in Yulin, had defeated Yuan Zongdi at this time, the news had not yet come, and after the news came, Li Zicheng had no time to talk about things so far away.

Zhou Yuji stayed at Ningwuguan for nearly 20 days, but he still didn't get reinforcements.

Of course, at this time, all the Ming troops in Shanxi and Beizhili belonged to Ding Yi, so naturally no one came to rescue them.

Zhou Yuji had no choice but to run out of food, so he prepared to feign surrender just like in history.

Li Zicheng believed in this guy again, and sent more than 1 people to pick up the surrender.

As a result, they were blocked as soon as they entered the city. Zhou Yuji put down the door box and killed the more than 1 peasant army who entered the city.

This made Li Zicheng angry, and he also lost his temper. Even if I don't go to the capital, I will destroy Ningwu Pass.

Li Zicheng also concentrated the cannons he had just snatched from Daizhou and bombarded them violently, finally smashing down the east wall of Ningwuguan, and the whole army rushed in.

(End of this chapter)