The end of the Ming Dynasty swept the world

Chapter 769
Wuchang Mansion.

In December last year, Zhang Xianzhong led an army of 20 to leave Wuchang, and set off for Hunan by two routes, flood and drought. In August, he conquered Yuezhou (now Yueyang) and opened the door to the south.

In December, Zhang Xianzhong ambushed troops along the river in Jiayu (in present-day Hubei), and defeated Zuo Liangyu's elite troops.Zhang Xianzhong took down the officers and troops along the way and organized them into a new attached battalion, with a more prosperous military capacity than before.At this time, Zhang Xianzhong controlled all of Hunan, southern Hubei, and vast areas of northern Guangdong and Guangxi.For future development, Zhang Xianzhong decided to enter Sichuan.

In the first month of this year, Zhang Xianzhong led hundreds of thousands of troops, it is said that there are 60, marching towards Sichuan,

After Zhang Xianzhong left, Zuo Liangyu immediately led troops to recover Wuchang.

After recapturing Wuchang, Zuo Liangyu stood still and often organized troops to conduct drills on various hills in Wuchang.

In March of this year, the imperial court Cui Ta marched into Hunan to pursue Zhang Xianzhong. For this reason, Chongzhen also specially issued Zuo Liangyu as Ning Nanbo, gave his son Zuo Menggeng the seal of General Ping, and promised to let him go Their father and son have guarded Wuchang for generations.

The imperial court also ordered Zuo Maodi to urge him to send troops to fight when he passed by. Zuo Liangyu then drew up a plan to send troops according to the year and month and handed it over.

However, he heard that Beijing had been captured by Li Zicheng before he received a reply from the imperial court.

After receiving the news of Chongzhen's suicide, Zuo Liangyu stayed up all night, thinking about his own way out. At that time, he thought that Daming was going to die.

His subordinates were also frightened, not knowing what to do.

Some people in the army wanted to go to Nanjing to support the new king, some people wanted to go to the capital, and there were all kinds of arguments.

But within a few days, there was another news that Ding Yi, King of Zhenbei, was in charge of the country and ordered soldiers from all over the country to enter Beijing.

Ding Yi's name is very famous in the north, and he has won hundreds of battles with Jiannu and has never been defeated. But Zuo Liangyu has been fighting a lot in the south, and has never met Ding Yi. He only heard about it, so of course he doesn't believe it.

Lao Tzu is in the south of the Yangtze River, and he still has millions of soldiers.

At this time, Zuo Liangyu claimed to have an army of 80, and he was called a million to the outside world.

In fact, he only had tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in the first five battalions capable of fighting, and the last five battalions were all miscellaneous cards that depended on and surrendered, and there were even more families and people, the old and the weak, women and children.

Zuo Liangyu didn't want to go to Beijing, let alone bring this 80 troops into Beijing. When will this go?
But some subordinates heard the news and asked to go to Beijing one after another.

Because the imperial court sent the general soldiers to Beijing, and Zuo Liangyu's subordinates, there will be 36 battalions, and there are 23 called general soldiers.

If the general soldiers want to go to Beijing, they probably want to get a lot of rewards, and there will not be many who are really willing to contribute to the court.

Ma Shixiu, the lieutenant general, said: "Whoever doesn't obey Zuo Gong's order and wants to go north, I will kill him!" He set up cannons on the big ship to cut off the Yangtze River route, and the generals calmed down.

Zuo Liangyu didn't want to go to Beijing, but wanted to wait and see what happened.

Sure enough, within a few days he got another message.

When Wu Sangui Gaodi entered Beijing, he was deprived of military power, and his soldiers and horses were dismembered.

Huang Degong took his soldiers and horses to Sichuan to fight against Zhang Xianzhong. Liu Zeqing and others were deprived of their soldiers and horses and became polished commanders.

Zuo Liangyu quickly summoned the generals: "Have you seen Ding Yi's despicable behavior? The generals of the generals entered the capital, but they were all deprived of their military power and trapped in the capital."

The generals were noncommittal.

General Jin Shengheng asked: "What if the imperial court comes to order again?"

"How? The late emperor summoned Zu Dashou several times. Did Zu Dashou ever go to Beijing?" Ma Shixiu asked.

Then everyone was silent.

So Zuo Liangyu decided to stay in Wuchang instead of going there, to see what Ding Yi and the court could do with him.

Not a few days after he thought this way, the imperial court sent an edict to Wuchang again for the second time.

This time the tone was very harsh.

Ding Yidao said that Pan Yongchang had been appointed as the commander-in-chief of Wuchang, and Zuo Liangyu was ordered to go to Beijing every day. Otherwise, he would be considered a felony for resisting the decree.

Zuo Liangyu was furious at that time, so he drew his sword and chopped off the eunuch who delivered the decree with one blow.

All the generals around were in an uproar and were all shocked.

After Zuo Liangyu stabbed the eunuch to death, she actually panicked in her heart.

But when he didn't do this just now, he felt that he had no face, and Ding Yi dared to scold him in public.

Everyone is the chief soldier, you are the prince, and I am the earl.

You have an army of 20, and I have an army of one million, whoever is afraid of whom.

Zuo Liangyu did it out of face and didn't want to lose face in front of his subordinates.

But after killing the eunuch, he panicked again.

This time he has a good relationship with He Tengjiao and Yuan Jixian.

He Tengjiao is the governor of Huguang, and Yuan Jixian is the right servant of the Ministry of War and the censor of Youqin Capital. He is stationed in Jiujiang, and the governor of Jiangxi, Huguang, Anqing, Yingtian (Nanjing) and other military affairs.

After Zhang Xianzhong left, it was Yuan Jixian who went to Wuhu and personally persuaded Zuo Liangyu to recover Wuchang.

On May [-], Zuo Liangyu invited He Tengjiao and Yuan Jixian, governors of Huguang, to Wuchang to discuss matters at the same time. They knew about Zuo Liangyu's murder of the eunuch, but they all came.

"Mr. Zuo." He Tengjiao and Yuan Jixian respected him very much. They had just met each other, and each of them said Mr. Zuo very kindly.

There is no way, now in Huguang, only Zuo Liangyu has an army, and the rest of the Ming army are all attached to Zuo.

Zuo Liangyu's face was flustered, and he put on airs and said: "The big thing is not good, two adults save me."

Yuan Jixian and He Tengjiao looked at him strangely.

Zuo Liangyu beat his chest and stamped his feet, and said: "The father-in-law came to Wuchang with an edict from the capital that day, and his tone may have been bad. Lord, you thought I was resisting the decree."

He Tengjiao immediately said: "Then why didn't Mr. Zuo go to the capital and explain to the prince?"

"..." Zuo Liangyu was speechless for a moment.

Yuan Jixian is an honest and kind person. He was tricked by Zuo Liangyu in history, and he was captured and sent to the Qing Dynasty.

He immediately said: "I know what Mr. Zuo is worried about."

"There are rumors in the capital that the lord and the ministers have made a plan to make peace with the outsiders first."

"First, go all out to wipe out the bandit army, and then deal with Jiannu."

"The soldiers and horses of all the commanders of the Ming Dynasty will be rectified and retrained. Zuo Gong has made great contributions to the country, and the prince will definitely look at it."

"Didn't Huang Degong lead troops to Sichuan, and didn't deprive them of soldiers and horses?"

Zuo Liangyu remained calm and thought, I have so many soldiers, Ding Yi will let me go?

He thought for a while, and then burst into tears: "The old man is old and sick, why don't the old man resign from the imperial court and don't have to go to the capital?"

He is only in his 40s now, not even 50 years old. He calls himself an old man, with the intention of relying on the old to sell the old.

Because all his subordinates call him Zuo Gong, after a long time, maybe he really thinks he is a veteran.

He Tengjiao saw that he just didn't want to go to the capital, so he could only kindly persuade him: "Mr. Zuo think twice, the King of Zhenbei is famous in Liaodong, and the color of the city of Jiannu has changed. Think twice."

He Tengjiao reminded Zuo Liangyu that Ding Yi was very good at beating in the north, and even Jiannu was beaten to death by him.

Of course Zuo Liangyu didn't believe it, a person like him wouldn't cry when he saw the coffin.

"What should I do?" Zuo Liangyu said desolately, never mentioning the matter of going to Beijing.

He wanted the two ministers to help him request and explain to the court.

Yuan Jixian is an honest person. Last time he came to persuade Zuo to take back Wuchang, Zuo also gave him face, so he felt that he had to pay back the favor.

"What's the problem with Mr. Zuo, why don't you tell us, we can help you go to court?"

Zuo Liangyu was overjoyed and was about to speak.

"Report." Suddenly someone shouted outside.

Zuo Liangyu was stunned for a moment, feeling that this was an important matter, and immediately sent an order to come in.

General Lu Guangzu rushed in with two messengers almost at the same time.

"Zuo Gong, Ding Yi's [-] troops besieged and killed Li Zicheng in Xi'an, and Li Zicheng was wiped out."

Lu Guangzu called Ding Yi by his first name, and found that He Tengjiao and Yuan Jixian were there after he finished speaking, and he couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed.

"What?" Zuo Liangyu cried out in shock.

He and Yuan looked at each other and smiled.

Zuo Liangyu fought Li Zicheng many times. It can be said that he fought Li Zicheng for half his life. Unexpectedly, Li Zicheng was defeated by Ding Yi first, and then he was besieged and killed by Ding Yi in Xi'an.

Li Zicheng is finished, and now there is only one Zhang Xianzhong among the thieves in the next day?
Zuo Liangyu's mind quickly circled.

Now except for the west of Da Ming, there are no peasant armies in the north and south, and the chaos in Da Ming seems to be slowly being put down.

Of course, the recovery of vitality is not a matter of a day or two, but if this continues, maybe Ding Yi can really calm down the world.

Where should I go?

Zuo Liangyu originally wanted to find an opportunity to procrastinate for a while, and didn't want to go to the capital, but after hearing that Ding Yi's [-] troops surrounded and wiped out Li Zicheng, Zuo Liangyu was finally a little scared.

After all, at this time, he didn't want to rebel against Daming.

He struggled for a while, and then wrote, Wuchang has too many soldiers and horses, there are nearly one million, I am afraid that they cannot go to the capital together, and request to take 1 people to the capital.

He Tengjiao and Yuan Jixian combined, yes, you can take [-] soldiers to Beijing immediately, and we will help you write a letter together.

The two were also afraid that there would be too many soldiers and horses to control, so they wrote to the court at the same time, asking Zuo Liangyu to lead [-] troops to Beijing.

So Zuo Liangyu took five hundred family members and ten thousand miscellaneous troops, set off from Wuchang, and first took a boat to Nanjing.

Between Wuchang and Nanjing, there is an official station channel of the Ming Dynasty, which can be reached directly by boat.

When Zuo Liangyu arrived in Nanjing, it was already late May.

He suddenly found that there were a large number of warships gathered on the Nanjing River, and the ships from both sides almost blocked the Yichuan waterway.

Zuo Liangyu sent someone to inquire, and only then did he know that the opposite side was the army of Huang Fei, the commander-in-chief of the Northeast Navy and the commander-in-chief of the navy in Guanliao Tongjin Huaihaijiang Town.

Of course Zuo Liangyu didn't know that Ding Yi sent Huang Fei to beat the disobedient Zuo Liangyu.

The boats of both sides will be blocked in the waterway, and they will send people to make way for the other side.

Zuo Liangyu's personal soldier Ding went and ran back after a while.

The soldiers said that Huang Zongbing's soldiers wanted to go to Wuchang from the waterway, and then from Wuchang to Yuezhou in Hunan, to fight Zhang Xianzhong.

Zuo Liangyu walked along this road and didn't feel any problem.

The soldiers went on to say, the other party asked our ship to give way first, and let them go aside. In addition, the admiral Liu Zhaoji, the prime minister of the Nanjing University Teaching Field in Nanjing City, invited the uncle to dinner.

The large and small teaching grounds in Nanjing are all places for military training in Nanjing. At this time, Liu Zhaoji was serving as the prime minister and admiral of Nanjing University teaching ground.

This is a second-rank general, at the same level as the general, but certainly not as powerful as the general.

(End of this chapter)