The wind rises at the end of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 37 is approaching
Xi'an Prefecture, Chunhua County, Ming Army Guanzhong Camp.

With his hands behind his back, Hong Chengchou stared at the huge situation map hanging in front of him with a gloomy expression.

He has already received news from Zhang Jiachuan. According to the news from Zhang Quanchang and He Renlong, the enemy is the main force of the rogue bandits, not the partial division that he learned from the information at the beginning.

No spying reports are received at night, and there are roughly 14 bandits who are moving eastward from Gongchang Mansion to Fengxiang Mansion.

The thieves are centered on the old and the weak, and the troops are outside, with fine cavalry as the vanguard and guarding the left and right wings.

The marching troops lined up for several miles, and there was an endless stream of hundreds of miles. The sky was full of dust, and the sun was covered by smoke and dust.

The flags of Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang, Eight Great Kings Zhang Xianzhong, Laohui Hui Ma Shouying and other leaders are all in it.

Years of natural disasters have left Shaanxi in a state of depression and dilapidation.

The year was good, and some places were able to make ends meet after the harvest.

But the reason why Gao Yingxiang and others ran around was that apart from avoiding officers and soldiers, the most important thing was to look for work and food.

After they crossed the border, they took away almost all the food, and at the same time, various ministries and battalions continued to coerce the people to help them, and those hungry people who could not survive, and some people who had long been dissatisfied with the injustice also came one after another when they arrived. join in.

Now the entire central part of Shaanxi has become a complete mess.

The bandits in the direction of Qingyang Mansion in the north were also eager to go south. After they plundered several counties and towns, they regrouped a large number of soldiers, and their number swelled to more than [-].

"Where the land is wide, it will be difficult to move around, and if there are few soldiers, it will be difficult to defeat the enemy. If you do your best, you will die and die. The number of victories and defeats is unknown."

Hong Chengchou sighed inwardly.

The edict to suppress the thieves was issued in June, and the deadline was getting closer and closer.

But the current situation has not improved by a single bit, on the contrary, it has deteriorated even more. The rogues have won several battles, and they have seen through his bluff, and now their intention to advance eastward is clearly revealed.

Hong Chengchou was looking at the situation map in front of him and thinking about how to deal with it next, when he suddenly heard a commotion from outside the tent.

"Who is making noise outside the tent?!"

Hong Chengchou's eyes were cold, he turned his head to look outside the tent, and shouted in a cold voice.

All the generals in the tent were shocked, and they all turned their heads to look outside the tent.

The two personal guards guarding the tent door were about to go out, but they saw that the tent curtain was opened first.

A soldier covered in dust, wearing a dark red arrow jacket, and carrying a command flag has already rushed into the tent.

"Bingzhou urgent report!"

The soldier knelt down on one knee, raised a document with both hands, and said loudly.

"The thief chieftain Gao Yingen, Yiziwang, and Zhuangtianwang led 14 bandits out of Pingliang."

"The three towns of Yilu, Randian and Tingkou have all fallen, and the enemy has reached twenty li to the west of Binzhou City."

"Spy reports are not received at night, the enemy's cavalry is about 3, the army is 6, and the central government is 5 old and weak."

Hong Chengchou's pupils shrank slightly, his heart sank suddenly, and he said in a deep voice.

"Bring it up."

The personal guards in the tent didn't dare to be negligent and hurried forward, took the document from the messenger soldier and passed it to Hong Chengchou.

When Hong Chengchou opened the letter, his heart sank even further. He saw the seals of Cao Wenzhao and Zuo Liangyu, which also confirmed the authenticity of the news.

Hong Chengchou didn't speak, but immediately turned around and looked at the situation map behind him.

When Yebushou inspected such a large number of people, although the error was very large, it would definitely not exceed 4 to [-] people.

Even if he thinks the number of people is much higher, there are as many as 10 bandits in the direction of Pingliang Mansion.

As for the bandits, there are more than 14 people in Gongchang Mansion alone, and more than [-] people in Qingyang Mansion. Now Cao Wenzhao's letter says that there are [-] people.

Now the combined size of these three gangs has almost exceeded 40 people.

In addition to these three large-scale bandits, there is also a band of about [-] to [-] bandits in Shangzhou and other places in the southeast of Xi'an, which are also constantly harassing places.

"40 million..."

Hong Chengchou's expression became more and more gloomy, and his mind was in chaos. Now he can mobilize very few field troops.

Apart from He Renlong and Zhang Quanchang's two battalions of soldiers, there were only the trilogy of Cao Wenzhao, Zuo Liangyu, and Zhang Waijia.

The rest of the generals and schools were sent out to garrison other places. The bandits in Huguang and Henan became more and more rampant, and it was difficult to stop them. He had to send another two thousand troops to Henan.

Cao Wenzhao has 800 people under his command, and Zuo Liangyu has 700 people under his command. They are now stationed in Binzhou, guarding against Gao Yingen, Yiziwang, and Chongtianwang in the northwest direction of Pingliang.

Zhang Waijia's 300 men are now stationed in Sanshui, guarding against Li Zicheng, Hui Dengxiang, Tuo Yangkun and other ministries in the direction of Qingyang Mansion in the north.

Except for the three battalions of Cao Wenzhao, Zuo Liangyu, and Zhang Waijia, now he can only command more than 600 soldiers of the standard battalion directly under him.

There are only [-] people left in Zhang Quanchang and He Renlong, and they are now retreating in the direction of Fengxiang.

What Hong Chengchou can control now is only the pacesetter battalion directly under him, plus the soldiers of the third battalion including Cao Wenzhao, the soldiers under He Renlong and Zhang Quanchang, and there are only 200 people under his command.

Hong Chengchou only felt that there was a huge burden on his shoulders, which made him almost out of breath.

40 to 6000 two hundred people, a 25-fold difference in strength.

This time, the difference in strength in the Sanyuan campaign in May of the seventh year of He Chongzhen was almost the same.

He only has more than 10 people under his command, but he has to face more than [-] enemies.

But now and then, even though only a year has passed, the current strength of the bandits has doubled.

Among the captured enemies, Hong Chengchou learned of a military order among the bandits.

"If one escapes, kill the team in charge, retreat for a while, and kill the entire formation!"

The rogues have begun to restrain the team with strict laws and regulations, and every time they meet the rogues, they will try their best to fight to the death.

Hong Chengchou sat on the chair of the grand master again. Since Chongzhen served as the governor of the three sides for four years, he has been in charge of suppressing bandits.

In four years, these rogues wiped out one after another, tens of thousands of them.

But the result is that the suppression is getting worse and worse, and the situation is getting worse.

He has always advocated all-out suppression, to suppress the strong, first to suppress and then to suppress.

When Yang He was still the governor of the three sides, Hong Chengchou witnessed those thieves surrendered and rebelled many times.

In August of the seventh year of Chongzhen, those rogue bandits who escaped the encirclement and suppression all the way were driven to Hanzhong, and they could have been wiped out.

But when Chen Qiyu could wipe them all out, he chose to appease them, released all the thieves, and even got supplementary weapons.

There were many loopholes in the arrangement of Lian's recruiting affairs. In the end, those thieves surrendered again and rebelled again. Many cities fell, and the flames of war were revived. The situation was out of control.

Hong Chengchou remained silent, no one in the military tent dared to speak of the silence.

During the Han and Tang Dynasties, there were often military meetings, and at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, marching and combat meetings were held.

However, in the late Ming Dynasty, civil officials were used to control military affairs, and the power of civil officials was extremely heavy, while the status of military officials was humble, and they basically had no say in military discussions.

The governor has always been arbitrary, and most of them ask his staff for advice. Hong Chengchou has a lot of prestige, and this situation is even more serious.

There was a long silence, and a needle could almost be heard in the military tent.

Hong Chengchou finally raised his head.

"Decree Cao Wenzhao and Zuo Liangyu that Binzhou must not be lost before September."

"Order Zhang Quanchang and He Renlong to lead the troops to withdraw from Fengxiang Mansion and move to Xingping."

In the military tent, all the generals looked at Hong Chengchou with concentrated expressions.

Hong Chengchou's move undoubtedly gave up the entire Fengxiang Mansion...

(End of this chapter)