The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 148 Butterfly Wings
In April of the 25th year of Jiajing, the counties along the border were ordered to select militiamen, 500 in large counties, 300 in middle counties, and 200 in small counties, to protect the city.

In the 23rd year of Wanli, Geng Suilong, a minister of science, asked to restore the old system of Minzhuang. There were 150 people in Dazhou County, 100 people for the second, and [-] people for the younger ones.

Now, with the turmoil in various places, the size of the militia is constantly expanding.

Today, there are more militias in the turbulent areas of the interior than the border militias during the Jiajing period. In some turbulent places, there are even 800 militias in large counties, 500 in middle counties, and 300 in small counties.

These militiamen farm in their spare time, fight in wartime, and have daily training. They are actually very similar to the guards.

But unlike the guards, they are all civilian households, and most of them are children of good families.

Under the idea of ​​protecting their homeland and protecting their families, their fighting will is much stronger than that of the guards.

"The power to mobilize the militia and mobilize the strong men belongs to the chief officials of the state and county."

Zhou Yumao resisted the urge to ask questions and suppressed the doubts in his heart.

Now Chen Wang is a general in Hanzhong, he is directly under the superior, and he will serve under Chen Wang for a long time in the future.

Zhou Yumao knew very well that he shouldn't ask more about things that Shangguan didn't explain.

"The population of the two cities is about [-] people, and the number of young and strong people is not small. If the people are recruited to help defend the city, it should not be a problem to temporarily recruit tens of thousands of people."

Although Zhou Yumao didn't know the specific population of the two cities, he had been a guerrilla in Hanzhong for nearly two years, so he knew a little about Xing'an and Xunyang.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, culture was more important than military, and as a battalion general, under normal circumstances, he only had the right to command troops, not the right to deploy troops.

The reason why Zhou Yumao was able to mobilize the guards and militia in Hanzhong as a guerrilla in Hanzhong was because he had the power delegated by Hong Chengchou.

But the power is limited to the deployment of troops, and the actual management power of the guards and militia does not belong to Zhou Yumao.

Chen Wang raised his eyebrows slightly, he really forgot about it.

"In the first month, the thieves broke through Kaifeng Fumi County, Henan Province Dengzhou, and went south to Ruzhou. Luyang was breached last month, and most of the rogues have already crossed the border and invaded Nanyang Prefecture."

"The news from the east is that Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong have met in Nanyang Mansion."

Chen Wang continued without moving his eyes from Zhou Yumao.

"10 rogue tribes joined forces in Nanyang. They returned after scouting horses. The flags of rogue bandits filled the fields. It is hard to see the end of the camp for hundreds of miles. It is innumerable."

Zhou Yumao's expression was solemn, his figure swayed slightly, and a trace of fear flashed in his eyes.

The south of Nanyang Mansion is Xiangyang Mansion, and once entering Xiangyang Mansion, there are only two ways to go.

One goes south, one goes west, and the east road is blocked.

Xiangyang Prefecture is bordered by Xunyang Prefecture to the west and De'an Prefecture to the east, but it is blocked by steep mountains in the middle. It is undoubtedly a dream for the army to march there.

And if you go south, you must capture Xiangyang City.

But is Xiangyang City so easy to fall?

When the Mongols invaded south in the past, they besieged Xiangyang with heavy troops, but it was difficult to advance an inch.

It was not until five years later that Xiangyang suffered from no reinforcements and no food and grass, and the guards finally chose to leave the city and surrender, and Xiangyang City finally fell.

It is impossible to go east, and the road to the south is also cut off, and it is even more impossible to go north.

The north is the direction the rogues came from, and there must be a large number of pursuers behind them.

Then there is actually only one route left for the rogues to march—to the west.

From Nanyang Mansion, Xiangyang Mansion to Xunyang Mansion, and then continue westward, their destination is Hanzhong Mansion, and they want to return to Shaanxi again!
Zhou Yumao's expression changed, and he was extremely ugly. When he sat down again, he almost fell to the ground because he didn't sit firmly.

All the generals and schools sitting in the hall were President Qian, and everyone saw Zhou Yumao's embarrassment, but no one laughed at Zhou Yumao, because this incident was like a mountain weighing on everyone's hearts.

"Zhou Guerrilla guarding Hanzhong is familiar with Hanzhong. You will approach Xunyang and Xing'an to recruit people to defend the city."

After thinking about it, Chen Wangwei decided to hand over this matter to Zhou Yumao.

Zhou Yumao had been in Hanzhong Mansion for a long time as a Hanzhong guerrilla, and had been in the east for more than half a year. He was already acquainted with the chief officials of Xing'an and other counties.

Since the original relationship is still harmonious, there is no need to make too many changes.

After conveying the military order, Chen Wang briefly assigned the issue of defense and dissolved the meeting.

Zhou Yumao and the chief officials of Xing'an and Xunyang contacted the Minzhuang militia, and at the same time led the troops to move the camp to temporarily guard Xunyang.

For the time being, Chen Wang doesn't really want to have too many and too close interactions with the chief officials of these places.

If the relationship is good, those local officials will not bring him much benefit, but may arouse bad suspicion.

If the relationship is not good and the chief officials of those places are offended, the impeachment memorial will be submitted at that time. Although it will not cause any real impact, it will inevitably be punished for it.

Now Chen Wang just wanted to avoid attracting Hong Chengchou's attention as much as possible, and let Hong Chengchou's eyes turn elsewhere temporarily.

When I was under Cao Wenzhao's command, the army was short of food and asked the surrounding counties for supplies. The local chief not only refused to provide supplies, but ordered the artillery to attack, otherwise Cao Wenzhao would lead the army close.

And he was unwilling to grovel and do those thankless things.

Along the way, all the prefectures and counties that Chen Wang led his troops passed through were uniformly closed doors and refused to enter.

Even to spend money to buy some vegetable food, such a reasonable request was rejected several times.

Although Chen Wang knows that these things cannot all be blamed on the civil officials in these places, after all, the military discipline of many local armies after the end of Ming Dynasty has been corrupted.

There are rumors in many places: Thieves pass like a comb, soldiers pass like a grate.

The so-called comb is a comb, and the tooth spacing of the comb is slightly wider to comb and organize the hair.

The grate (bi) is a combing tool specially used to remove lice in the hair, with dense teeth.

Thieves pass like a comb, and soldiers pass like a grate, which means that bandits and plundering people are like combing with a comb, and there are survivors and remnants afterward.

Officers and soldiers plundered the people as if they were using a bamboo grate, and then they robbed them all.

but……

Can all these officers and soldiers be blamed?

In the seventh year of Chongzhen, the host and guest officers and soldiers in Yunzhen were all free to eat.

The garrison in Anqing suffered from cutting down the officials, and they were all eccentric. In the eighth year of Chongzhen, the bandits came and broke up before fighting the bandits.

If the imperial court did not default on the payment of the military, if the generals did not deduct and exploit, if they were not oppressed, how could they become evil spirits step by step,

Most of the ordinary soldiers, they are poorly clothed, hungry, and poor.

They are not domineering, they are not cruel, and they are not devoid of humanity. They are also human beings who struggle desperately on the poverty line like others and desperately want to survive.

Domineering are those servants with high salaries, those cruel generals who are determined to climb up, and those moths who are corrupt and pervert the law in those courts that devoid of humanity!
Chen Wang looked down. The biggest reason for the collapse of the Ming Dynasty was its huge financial problems.

The army has no combat effectiveness, and there is no way to completely wipe out the rebellion because of financial problems.

Although later generations called the rogue bandits in the late Ming Dynasty the Peasant Army, in fact most of their main backbones were the rebellious Ming army.

Today is already the ninth day of February in the ninth year of Chongzhen, which is just one day later on February [-] this year.

Ningxia officers and soldiers mutinied due to long-term lack of pay, and hungry soldiers besieged the government office.

The governor of Ningxia, Youqian Capital Yushi Wang Ji, was killed because he could not pay and the hungry soldiers had nothing to ask for.

The mutiny was not put down until Ding Qirui, the deputy envoy of military equipment, led the army to suppress it, captured the seven leaders and executed them immediately.

Hong Chengchou felt that a senior official had been killed and the situation was serious, so he rushed to Guyuan, Ningxia to deal with it in person.

Li Zicheng and other ministries regained momentum and took the opportunity to attack the Yulin and Suide areas in northern Shaanxi.

The first half of the ninth year of Chongzhen was a rather low-key year for the Ming army. Although several large-scale battles were won, they failed to weaken the military strength of the rogue bandits.

Chen Wang has complicated eyes, and history has changed under his influence.

Cao Wenzhao, who should have died in the battle, did not die, but he should have been unknown, but he was just a thousand generals, but he led more than [-] fine cavalry troops to become the battalion officer of Hong Chengchou's standard army.

Gao Jie's original loss in the battle of Sanyuan was also supplemented later, and because of this, some things that shouldn't have happened happened.

After Li Zicheng ascended his troops and moved the camp, Hong Chengchou gathered [-] officers and troops to pursue them desperately.

Li Zicheng and Hun Tianxing traveled from Chengcheng to Hancheng, Heyang, Yichuan and Luochuan.

Pass through Fuzhou and Yan'an, pass through the territory of Yansui Town, pass through Huanxian County of Qingyang Prefecture, and then pass through Qingyangfu City, and enter Guyuan territory of Pingliang Prefecture westward.

The Guotianxing and Mantianxing tribes enter the Gaoling and Sanyuan areas of Shaanxi from Zhenning and Heshui eastward.

Hong Chengchou was worried that Xi'an, the provincial capital, would be lost, so he was forced to divide his troops to pursue it.

Hong Chengchou personally led the army to pursue the three parts of Tianxing, Mantianxing and Huntianxing.

At the same time, Cao Wenzhao and He Renlong were ordered to lead the troops of the headquarters to continue to pursue Li Zicheng.

From here on, confusion has begun to appear. Chen Wang remembers very clearly that in the original time and space, Hun Tianxing acted with Li Zicheng, while Guo Tianxing Hui Dengxiang only acted with Man Tianxing.

The two films of Guo Tianxing Hui Dengxiang and Li Zicheng should be relatively close, but I don't know why they are very divided now.

Chen Wang suddenly felt a bright light flashing through his mind. He recalled one thing. Not long after the Battle of Qiutou Town, Prime Minister Hui Deng and Li Zicheng acted separately. At that time, the historical line had already changed.

I'm afraid there was some dispute between Prime Minister Hui Deng and Li Zicheng, and there was a gap.

After more than half a year of tempering, Chen Wang is no longer the student who has a vague perception of the situation in the war. He has begun to gradually adapt to his identity.

Hong Chengchou led the pursuit all the way, and overtook Tianxing Huidengxiang, Mantianxing and Huntianxing in Zhongbu County.

Hui Dengxiang had fought Hong Chengchou three times in a row before, and lost three times and three times. He didn't dare to turn around and fight back. He directly chose to cut off his tail to survive, and led the elite cavalry army to flee.

Prime Minister Huideng headed west all the way, this time he tried to find Li Zicheng to join him.

However, Hong Chengchou predicted in advance that Zuo Guangxian and Liu Shaozong, the general soldier of Gansu, would join forces to attack Huidengxiang at Qianyanchi.

Zuo Guangxian and Liu Shaozong, the commander-in-chief of Gansu Province, were ordered by Hong Chengchou to block the way with triple encirclement.

Hong Chengchou personally led the Piaobing Battalion as the follower, with Gao Jie as the forerunner.

Bigger changes come from this.

Prime Minister Huideng led the army into a tight siege, and the army was flustered and difficult to restrain.

Gao Jie saw the chaos in Hui Deng's army from a distance, and ordered his troops to take advantage of the situation to cover up and kill them, and then seized the opportunity to personally lead the armored cavalry into the chaotic army formation, cutting down the stars.

Hun Tianxing wanted to maintain the army formation, but was scattered by the rout instead, and his life and death are unknown.

Seeing the situation, Hong Chengchou ordered to beat the drums to march, and Liu Shaozong and Zuo Guangxian led the troops to attack together.

Embarrassed on all sides, with no way to go to heaven and no way to go to earth, Xiang Huideng was terrified, got off his horse and knelt down, bowed his head and held a knife in his hand to beg for surrender.

In the original time and space, after being surrounded, Hui Dengxiang and Man Tianxing accepted the persuasion.

Then Gan Xuekuo, governor of Shaanxi in the Ming Dynasty, placed tens of thousands of his troops in Yan'an, and then the Ningxia Mutiny broke out, and Prime Minister Hui Deng and Man Tian Xing surrendered and rebelled.

But now Huntianxing and Mantianxing, who shouldn't have died, died in the dry salt pond.

However, the soldiers and horses under Prime Minister Hui Deng's command suffered heavy casualties, and it seemed that there were only a few thousand people left. Chen Wang did not know where they were placed.

The outbreak of the mutiny in Ningxia is inevitable, and tomorrow is the day when Ningxia Governor Wang Ji will die.

At that time, Hong Chengchou will probably go to Ningxia Town to appease the local soldiers.

However, it is still unknown whether Prime Minister Whedon will surrender and rebel again as in history.

Now Prime Minister Huideng has suffered heavy losses in his troops, Man Tianxing and Guo Tianxing are both dead...

The situation in Shaanxi has gradually deviated from the original historical line.

Chen Wang stood up slowly, the main hall of Xing'an City Guard Office was empty at this time.

After the meeting was dissolved, everyone had already gone to handle their duties.

The door of the hall was closed tightly, and all the guards were guarding outside the hall, leaving only Chen Wang in the hall.

Chen Wang looked around the empty surroundings, and raised his eyes to the map on the desktop.

In March, Gao Yingxiang will lead Dajun and Zhang Xianzhong into Hanzhong Mansion and return to Shaanxi.

The records in the book do not clearly state whether Gao Yingxiang captured Xing'an and Xunyang.

It's just that after Gao Yingxiang brought Chuangtatian, Xiezikuai and other ministries and Zhang Xianzhong together in March, he went to Xing'an via Xiangyang Mansion and Xunyang Mansion, and divided Shiquan and Hanyin.

If 10 people swarmed the city and forcibly attacked the city, besieging the city day and night, if the defenders were not strong enough, Xing'an and Xunyang would be difficult to defend.

Although Zhang Xianzhong did not follow Gao Yingxiang, when Gao Yingxiang defeated Heishuiyu, Chuangtatian and Xiezikuai were not there. They were still active in Xunyang Mansion and Xiangyang Mansion at that time.

Now a difficult problem was facing Chen Wang, and it was the military order issued by Hong Chengchou a few days ago that caused this difficult problem.

The rogues gathered a crowd, and the two battalions of soldiers alone were hard to resist. Hong Chengchou didn't ask him to stick to the road and keep Gao Yingxiang out of the Hanzhong mansion.

The military order issued by Hong Chengchou was concise and to the point, with only one very simple requirement - the defense of Hanzhong, the safety of King Rui should be the first priority.

(End of this chapter)