I really don't want to be emperor at the end of Ming Dynasty

Chapter 369 Chongzhen also made Cheng Shijie king

Chapter 369

Huang Taiji also fantasized about becoming the founding emperor of the Qing Dynasty and replacing the Ming Dynasty to establish an unprecedentedly powerful empire. As long as Lu Xiangsheng dies, Cheng Shijie can win over him. Go, who else can stop my Qing Dynasty's rolling iron cavalry!

What surprised Huang Taiji was that although the battlefield was in chaos and people were panicked, the Ming army did not retreat like before. On the contrary, they desperately organized resistance amidst the roars of their respective generals. Guan Ning's army was Under the leadership of Zu Dabi, they fought against the troops of Zu Dashou and Wu Xiang of the Guan Ning Army. Although they only accounted for one-third of the strength of the Guan Ning Army, they killed Wu Sangui, Wu Xiang, Zu Dashou, and Zu Dacheng. Others are helpless.

Even the Beijing camp, which usually serves as the mascot of the Ming Dynasty, actually glowed with rare fighting power at this time. The Sichuan Army, the Trilateral Army, the Tianxiong Army, and even the Ban Army from Shandong and Henan were all fighting to the death. One of them, with its flesh and blood, withstood the impact of the Manchu Iron Banner, killing so many corpses that the fields were filled with corpses!
However, this is also reasonable. Since the Battle of the Breach in the second year of Chongzhen, the Ming Empire has been working hard and investing huge resources in training new troops. At the same time, it also selected elites from several relatively capable troops in Beizhili. Learning the new army's model for training has yielded results in a few years. Now in front of him are more than half of the entire Ming Dynasty who can fight. It would be abnormal if he could easily eat them.

Huang Taiji was also a little depressed. He originally wanted to defeat the Ming army in one breath, but he didn't expect the Ming army to be so tenacious and hold on. It seems impossible to eat these hundreds of thousands of troops in a short time. .He sighed and said: "Stop the attack and let the blizzard and hunger destroy the Ming army for us!"

Up to now, the Qing army is actually a little unable to fight anymore, because the casualties of Jiannu in the Battle of Baliwan, the Battle of Haizhou, and the Battle of Liaoyang were too frightening. As a result, although the additional troops filled up the Eight Banners' establishment, and More than ever before.Nowadays, the Manchu Eight Banners rely most on the Two Yellow Banners. Among them, the Zhenghuang Banner has a total of [-] Niulu, each of which is divided into twelve Jiala. The Zhenghuang Banner alone is four times more than the Zhenglan Banner, which had the smallest number of people at that time.

The Xianghuang Banner also has 58 Niulu, even though the Zhenglan Banner has the smallest number of people now, there are five Jiala, a total of 28 Niulu, while the two Red Flag Niulu have as many as 98 Zhulu, and the two Blue Banners also have 63 Niulu. The two white flags have as many as 93 oxen records, for a total of 370 two oxen records plus 22 half-point oxen records.

In addition, there are 220 and 170 Niu Lu from Mongolia, plus 307 and 117 Niu Lu from Han Banners. In fact, Huang Taiji now has more people than in history. In history, before the establishment of the slaves, there were only 5 Niu Lu plus Eighteen and a half Niu Lu, the Eight Banners of Mongolia are 157 Niu Lu and 5 and a half Niu Lu, and the Eight Banners of the Han Army are [-] Niu Lu and [-] and a half Niu Lu.

The increase in military strength means the reduction of elite soldiers, especially veterans of hundreds of battles who have fought for many years. To be fair, with the same number, the combat effectiveness of the Eight Banners of Jiannu is indeed not as good as that of Chongzhen four years ago. After all, Cheng Shijie has done a lot in recent years. Bleed Jiannu.

The Jiannu cavalry and Mongolian cavalry, especially the Han flags, are like amnesty. After all, the Jiannu cavalry always likes to use these Mongolian or Han flag cannon fodder in wars. Until now, they have suffered nearly [-] casualties, almost more than [-]%. It was the Mongolian and Han military flags that shouldered the responsibility, and they simply couldn't hold on.

The troop retreat signal was quickly sounded, and the Qing army retreated like an ebbing tide.

The Ming army stared at a pair of blood-red eyes and stood among the piles of corpses, panting violently. It took a long time to realize that the Qing army had retreated, and burst into cheers!They blocked the first wave of attacks that were like earth-shattering!
They cheered a little earlier, and more terrible disasters are yet to come.

When Lu Xiangsheng led the intercepted troops, he quickly reorganized them and fought all the way north. Along the way, Lu Xiangsheng killed hundreds of people by himself, including 32 generals, six deputy generals, and forty guerrilla soldiers. There is also a group of low-level officials.

Lu Xiangsheng discovered that the officers of the Northern Expeditionary Army of the Ming Dynasty, the older they were, the more afraid of death they were. On the contrary, when the Qian Commanders and General Commanders below the guerrilla generals heard that Lu Xiangsheng wanted to take them back and kill them, they said nothing.

In a hurry, Lu Xiangsheng had no choice but to reorganize these defeated troops into the Tianxiong Army, and temporarily put them under the management of the Tianxiong Army, adopting the Tianxiong Army's organization.The establishment of the Tianxiong Army was the only one in the Ming Dynasty. Even Cheng Shijie did not want the phenomenon of clan forces clumping together in the army.

However, the Tianxiong Army is just the opposite. Its troop organization is similar to that of Ning Haijun's local army, with four levels of small flags, general flags, hundred generals, and thousand generals as the basic organization. Each small group has 12 people. , one headquarters has four to eight small flags.A hundred generals have jurisdiction over several or a dozen general banners, and a thousand generals have jurisdiction over all hundred generals in each county.Since then, the Tianxiong Army has not actually had a fixed organization.Some generals have 4000 or [-] people under their jurisdiction, and the most have more than [-] people.

Some Presidents Qian have hundreds of people under their jurisdiction, and some Presidents Bai have more people than President Qian.Those with more than a thousand generals are called battalions, but they are regarded as a mansion. All the soldiers in a mansion belong to one battalion.

The Tianxiong Army originally had only three battalions, but now through this temporary organization, it has increased to eleven battalions, with a total strength of nearly [-].

The further north you go, the more chaotic it becomes. It's complete chaos. The fire at the material transfer point set on fire by the Qing army has not yet been extinguished. Countless precious materials turned into black smoke pillars and stood like giant towers on the grassland, which was spectacular.Terrifying roars of explosions were heard from time to time in the center of these black smoke pillars. The smoke pillars lit up, and then returned to darkness.

Some Ming soldiers and civilians were rushing into the sea of ​​​​fire at the risk of being killed by explosives and artillery shells, snatching out materials that had not been burned, even a bunch of fodder or a piece of clothing.

And more Ming soldiers looked dull, holding their weapons and shivering in the cold wind. If their eyes hadn't turned around, they would have shown a hint of fear when they saw the corpses on the ground. It would be easy to mistake them for dead people. .

Some officers were shouting fiercely, telling the Ming soldiers who were in a state of sleepwalking to take action. The cold on the grassland could drive people crazy. They hurriedly dug burrows in the ground before night came. However, few people obeyed their orders. People with a discerning eye. It can be seen that they have fallen into the trap carefully prepared for them by the Qing army. Tens of thousands of Qing soldiers are watching eagerly, and the Guan Ning army has rebelled. Even if they grow wings, they will not be able to escape back, let alone fly back over Wancongguan Mountain. What's the use of digging a nest in the pass inside the pass? It's just a matter of survival!

Seeing Lu Xiangsheng leading a group of elite infantry and cavalry troops galloping towards them, a bright light flashed in the eyes of the panicked Ming army soldiers, and they gathered around and started shouting.

"Master Hou, you are here!"

"Master Hou, it would be great if you came!"

"Master Hou, what's going on next?"

"Master Hou, what should we do now?"

The arrival of Lu Xiangsheng gave hope to the soldiers of the Ming army, and the originally lifeless Ming Dynasty gained some life.

Lu Jiaosheng looked at the Ming army officers and civilians and said, "I have seen it all, you are all good."

After being praised by Lu Xiangsheng, these Ming soldiers who were originally in low spirits couldn't help but straighten their chests.A general who was hit by an arrow in the shoulder grinned: "Master Hou, I, Chen Yongfu, are not bragging. If it weren't for the bastard Guan Ning's army, Jiannu would not have been able to do anything to us! The bastard Guan Ning's army, A bunch of wolf-hearted things, as long as one of us can return to the pass alive, we will never let them go!",

Lu Xiangsheng patted Chen Yongfu on the shoulder and said, "Okay, don't say anything unnecessary. Reorganize your troops, treat the wounded, collect food and fodder, and prepare for a breakout. I will take you home."

When the Ming soldiers at the scene heard the word "go home", their eyes lit up again and they asked cautiously: "Can we... still go back?"

Lu Xiangsheng said: "It must be possible. Cheer up! Especially you officers and generals, how do you lead troops? Fortunately you are not my subordinates, otherwise the boss's military stick would have beaten them one by one! Beat them all! Cheer up and be prepared, if anyone delays when receiving an order, don't blame Lu for not recognizing anyone with his sword!"

"Where is your commander-in-chief?"

"do not know!"

Chen Yongfu sighed helplessly and said: "I haven't seen him since the fight started, and even his three hundred soldiers have disappeared!" "Your name is Chen Yongfu!"

"Yes, General Chen Yongfu is from Luoyang, Henan!"

"Okay, I will be promoted to the commander-in-chief of your army. I will be responsible for reorganizing the Ming army and civilians here. I will give you a designation in Luoyang, Luoyang Camp. I will give you two hours to complete the task!"

"Guaranteed to complete the mission!"

Even Chen Yongfu didn't know, because in history, he was promoted to deputy general in the 14th year of Chongzhen. Later, because Li Zicheng attacked Kaifeng, Chen Yongfu led his troops to rescue Luoyang. In this time and space, he became the general general five years in advance.

After receiving Lu Xiangsheng's promise, the soldiers burst into laughter. The officers threw away their whips and sticks, picked up shovels and dug hard on the ground to help the wounded soldiers dig nests. The dim eyes of the listless soldiers also lit up. With the light of hope, those who had lost their weapons were looking for their own weapons everywhere. Those who had not lost their weapons either dug a nest in the ground, or rushed into the sea of ​​​​fire to rescue supplies, whatever they could grab.

Come back home!

Break out of the siege, escape this icy purgatory and go home!
There is no rhetoric, no feelings for family and country, the greatest wish of the soldiers of the Ming army is as simple as that, they just want to go home!

There are two ways to go home, one is to fight your way out of the siege, step on the enemy's bones and sing in triumph, and the other is to surrender the enemy like Guan Ning's army did, and then lead the Qing army into the pass as a foreign eagle dog, and they also Get a small official and return home in fine clothes.

The latter has obviously smaller risks and greater benefits, but no one will choose it. In the hearts of these ordinary Ming army soldiers, there are two things more important than life.

Chinese people are only afraid of two things: doing things to disgrace their ancestors, and doing things to make their ancestors happy.This is something that is imprinted in the bones and becomes the backbone.

What are ancestors?It is a model for future generations of the family.Since ancient times, in the minds of the Chinese people, what kind of ancestors should have what kind of descendants. Descendants can only do better than their ancestors, not worse than their ancestors. Even if they cannot do better than their ancestors, they cannot give The ancestors' faces must be stained, otherwise they will not be able to enter their graves even if they die.

Future generations will be even more embarrassed to have such an ancestor. Didn't they see that hundreds of thousands of Zhao troops were killed in the Changping War, and Zhao Kuo's entire family was ashamed of the surname Zhao and changed their surname to Ma one after another?

What is backbone?A beggar refuses to accept the food that the rich throw on the ground like a dog and then starves to death. This is his integrity!During the famine, someone stole a load of grain from a neighboring village. After the incident, the clan elders beat him to death in public, and then compensated the neighboring village ten times for the loss. In the end, almost all the two to three hundred members of the clan starved to death. This is backbone!

The price of backbone is very high. The price for people to praise "backbone" is often their own life, or even the life of the entire family. However, if a person, a country, or even a family does not have backbone, is it okay?

The officers and soldiers of the Ming army did not understand any big principles. They only knew that the court had treated them well over the years, allowing them to eat well, wear warm clothes, and exempt their families from a lot of taxes. They should repay the favor with death.

Of course, they didn't actually know that the food he ate, the clothes he wore, and the military pay he received were all given by Cheng Shijie to Emperor Chongzhen.Emperor Chongzhen did not spend the money on himself or reward the nobles around him, but distributed it to the army.

On the contrary, it made the Ming army more focused, surrendered to the aliens, and used the emperor and the lives of hundreds of thousands of Paoze compatriots in exchange for glory and wealth. That is called shameless, that is called spineless. Even if he really became a high official, he would not have the shame to go home, and even more Too shameless to enter the ancestral grave!
At the foot of Sanshen Mountain, the Ming army’s Northern Expedition camp was located.

As time goes by, God bless the Ming Dynasty. This rare snowstorm has stopped, and the temperature has begun to rise. Although it is still very cold, it is no longer freezing to death. The biggest problem facing the Northern Expedition camp is, They were short of food. Although Jiannu and Guan Ning's army had left behind thousands of war horses, the problem was that these were hundreds of thousands of troops and tens of thousands of civilians, a small number of 20.

Thousands of war horses are not enough to fill the gap between teeth.At this time, Emperor Chongzhen was also frightened. He had nightmares every day, dreaming that Jiannu rushed into the camp and cut his flesh with a knife.

At this time, Emperor Chongzhen had put aside his so-called face and decided to bow to Cheng Shijie. He said to the eunuch Wang Chengen beside him: "Wang Banban, you go to Liaodong and ask Cheng Shijie to rescue you!"

"This place is no less than three thousand miles away from Liaodong..."

Emperor Chongzhen said: "Gao Banban once said that the Ning Navy is an invincible flying army. Other armies can travel fifty miles a day. The Ning Navy can travel a hundred miles a day, and their cavalry can travel more than 300 miles a day. It only takes ten days!”

Wang Chengen also knew that what Emperor Chongzhen said made sense. Now they were surrounded by tens of thousands of Jiannu troops. They had to wait for Cheng Shijie to lead his troops to rescue them, or they all died here. There was no third way to choose!
"But in case..."

Wang Chengen did not say anything, Emperor Chongzhen, you think of Cheng Shijie now, where are you doing?Putting Ning Haijun aside, now we know to use Ning Haijun, but the question is, does Hai Guogong have no face?How could they be recruited with just an edict?Besides, doesn’t Cheng Shijie have any grudges in his heart?
Emperor Chongzhen looked at Wang Chengen and slowly came to his senses: "Wang Banban, tell Cheng Shijie that as long as he is willing to help the king, I..."

As soon as the words came to his lips, Emperor Chongzhen realized that he had nothing left to reward Cheng Shijie, an official position?Cheng Shijie is now the governor of Liaodong, the prince's Taibao, a first-rank official, and has reached the pinnacle of human affairs.

This was also the real reason why Emperor Chongzhen wanted to deal with Cheng Shijie. A meritorious official who had made great contributions to the country but received no reward could only be killed.

This is the emperor's mind.

Throughout the ages, ministers who were able to escape unscathed, such as Li Jing, Li Ji, Guo Ziyi, Zhang Liang, and Xiao He of the Tang Dynasty, all have one characteristic, that is, they know their own interests.

Now Emperor Chongzhen figured out that Cheng Shijie was actually a knowledgeable person who knew how to advance and retreat. He had just pacified Mobei Mongolia and stabilized the Nine Borders, so he submitted a memorial to resign.

As the saying goes, a friend in need is a friend indeed, and a country in times of crisis misses a good general. Now Emperor Chongzhen thought of Cheng Shijie.

Emperor Chongzhen muttered: "Come here and draw up the decree!"

Emperor Chongzhen decided to give Cheng Shijie to King Guangping, the imperial pillar, and the third division of Yitong to open the mansion.

Why was Cheng Shijie granted the title of King of Guangping? This was because the surname Cheng had a fiefdom, and Cheng Guobo, who held Pu Bi, had a fiefdom of three hundred miles.That is 150 square kilometers in modern times, which is half of the jurisdiction of Jize County.

(End of this chapter)