national surname chiming

Chapter 131 Captive Ainengqi sent to Beijing to discuss crimes
July 7th, night, at the end of You hour ([-]:[-] pm).

The north gate of Xiangyang City.

When Shen Shuren appeared in Xiangyang City with a direct army of about 1 people, what he saw from a distance was that several places in the city were on fire and shouts of killing were chaotic.

On the autumn night in the seventh month of the lunar calendar, at the end of You time, it is about a quarter of an hour after the sky is completely dark, and the fire is very bright in the night.

Zuo Zixiong, Zhang Mingzhen, Yang Jinjue and other three generals also withdrew back with Shen Shuren this time.

They also participated in the battle of "going steadily northward to rescue Luoyang" before. They fought against Ma Shouying's troops near Luyang Pass in Funiu Mountain. Their knowledge, vision, and courage have improved slightly compared to before.

But when they saw the flames in Xiangyang City, the three generals were still a little flustered, and they seemed to think that Zhang Xianzhong must have succeeded in the sneak attack——

Li Zicheng, Luo Rucai, and Ma Shouying all assembled to the northern line, and Yang Sichang also went north in person. There could be no other enemies on the south side.

Although Zhang Xianzhong is far away in theory, after excluding all other options, the last option, no matter how unreasonable it seems, can only be the only answer.

Among the crowd, only Shen Shuren was not panicked at all, and even felt a solid sense of a stone falling to the ground in his heart.

It is not easy to guard against thieves for a thousand days. You have to be careful every day and keep on guard, there is no end.

Based on his understanding of history, he always felt that although the butterfly effect caused by himself was already very deep.However, there is a high probability that Zhang Xianzhong will not give up the operation of "sneak attacking Xiangyang and framing Yang Sichang" in history.

After waiting for so long, it's finally here.If he can take the opportunity to beat Zhang Xianzhong thoroughly, the key is to make him realize that it is useless to frame one of the border officials in this way, and the gain will outweigh the gain. Only then can the problem of sneak attack be solved once and for all.

While his subordinates were still slightly flustered, Shen Shuren was the first to issue the deployment calmly:
"Don't panic! Even if there is a fire in the city, there must still be many places fighting after hearing the shouts of killing! It is impossible for Zhang Ni to control the whole city! Everyone calm down!

Think about it a little bit, Zhang Ni was in the west of Jingmen, between the peaks of Jingshan, after leaving the mountain, the shortest road to Xiangyang had to go around Longzhong.

Mr. Yang went north for only four days, and Zhang Ni came so quickly, obviously there is an internal response by Mr. Yang's side!At least there are eyeliners in Xiangyang City!And to achieve this level of sneak attack, the only way is to ride lightly on a fast horse and run around day and night, and the number of people will not be too many!

Elder Yang Ge left two guards in Xiangyang City, with at least three to four thousand people, and the fighting has not stopped until now. It must be that Zhang Ni is not enough manpower to control the whole city, so he can only focus on destruction.

Zhang Mingzhen, you immediately bring 2000 people, assemble the cavalry of the whole army, take my seal and the appointment letter from Mr. Yang Ge, and go to the farthest south gate to intercept. The fire started from the north gate. Zhang Ni must be Someone cheated the north gate to enter the city, and the south gate might still be in the hands of the officers and soldiers!If the officers and soldiers believe you, you will go to the city to reinforce, if you don't believe you, you will block the city gate.

Yang Jinjue, take [-] infantry and defend outside the east gate.Zuo Zixiong, take the main force and block me outside the north gate, enter the city one by one, and take back the Wengcheng first.Divide another Qian Zong to go to the west gate—there is Tanxi River outside the west gate of Xiangyang, the water surface is wide, and it is not easy for cavalry to escape on foot. We can't tell so many people in a hurry, so we have to prioritize. "

The generals heard that what he said made sense, and the coach's tone was so calm, they finally regained their confidence.

It must not be Zhang Xianzhong's main force!It's just a small army of sneak attack and sabotage!Therefore, the most urgent task is not to swarm up immediately, but to surround the gates of Xiangyang first, to confirm the situation and to understand which gates are still in the hands of the officials and soldiers.

The generals immediately followed Shen Shuren's order strictly, instead of attacking immediately, they waited for the various ministries to return to their positions.

During the period of waiting to be in place, it would be better for the flames in the city to burn more violently, and the shouts of killing to be more intense and miserable, but Shen Jiajun just carried out the orders step by step.

It can be seen that this army fought a bloody battle with Ma Shouying after annihilating the third of Ge Zuo's fifth battalion. In terms of discipline, it has completely prohibited Shen Shuren's words without any doubt.

……

The key to this battle is precisely to surround them quietly, surround them on all sides, and not panic.

The success of Zhang Xianzhong's sneak attacks has always been mainly due to the fact that the officers and soldiers "don't know how many thieves are coming, and the enemy's situation is unknown", so they panicked and let down their morale.

Once the officers and soldiers are calm, the outcome of this battle will be obvious.

Shen Shuren sharpened his knife and did not miss the woodcutter, and delayed for more than a quarter of an hour to get all the ministries in place before launching a counterattack.

In fact, there were only some vanguard Qingqi under Zhang Xianzhong's command in the city. Relying on the fear of the [-] officers and soldiers before, they only dared to defend the barracks and the towers, so Zhang Xianzhong's army flaunted their might and set fire everywhere.

The number of these pioneer Qingqi is about 2000——

To be exact, an hour ago, Zhang Xianzhong's army had forty or fifty elites pretending to be refugees driven out by thieves, first sneaked into the Wengcheng, and then suddenly struck to control the vital points.Taking advantage of the unresponsiveness of the officers and soldiers, they held on for a few minutes, and then let in the one or two thousand cavalry who were ambushing ten miles away.Relying on these two thousand cavalry, they formally withstood the counterattack of the officers and soldiers in the city, rushing back and forth along the streets.

Now Shen Shuren directly has more than 1 people divided into various sects to encircle and send messages to the various sects and battalions of the officers and soldiers in the city to stabilize people's hearts and surround them layer by layer. Of course, there is no suspense in the battle.

The part of fighting with one knife and one gun is not the key to the winner tonight at all.Surrounded and crushed with a total force seven or eight times that of the enemy, Shen Shuren had never fought such a rich battle in his life.

So, half an hour later, the cavalry of Zhang Xianzhong's troops were surrounded and annihilated by Shen Shuren after killing two vassal kings and a large number of rich and wealthy families in Xiangyang City.

Street fighting in the city is not suitable for cavalry. Shen's army formed a spear formation and a bayonet formation along the long street. They used firecrackers to stack and squeeze each other to block the way. They could quickly kill the rogues who had lost their mobility and splattered the long street with blood.

Only a very few brave men, who seemed to be disguised as ordinary people, overcame the wall, attacked some officers and soldiers from the west of the city, snatched horses and jumped over the Tanxi River.

But no matter what, Shen Shuren managed to capture at least a group of cavalry officers under Zhang Xianzhong's command.

These officers were quite skilled in martial arts, and the generals were afraid that they would violently injure others, so Zuo Zixiong, who was the most skilled in martial arts, personally escorted the bandit officers who were tied up and sent them to Shen Shuren for interrogation.

Shen Shuren met the captives in the bloody Xiangyang Xingyuan Yamen.This Xingyuan was Yang Sichang's office when he was the supervisor in Xiangyang. After Yang Sichang left, some civilian staff stayed here.

Zhang Xianzhong obviously hated Yang Sichang to death, so after his soldiers entered the city for a surprise attack, in addition to killing the vassal king, the second most important thing was to kill Yang Sichang's staff and assistants.

There were nearly a thousand people inside and outside the gate of this line of yamen, except for those who fled in disguise, none of them survived.

"Say, what is the purpose of Zhang Xianzhong sending you here? Why did you use this force to attack Xiangyang? Don't you think that this will be able to capture Xiangyang for a long time?"

Shen Shuren didn't want to get too close to the captives, so he covered his mouth and nose to pretend he was intolerant of the smell of blood.

The leader captive didn't answer, and wanted to spit on Shen Shuren with blood, of course Shen Shuren would not give him a chance.

"It's fine if you don't answer, ask his subordinates, there will always be people who can't bear the torture to confess, maybe this guy's status is quite valuable, and sending him to the capital can help Mr. Yang Ge atone for some crimes." Shen Shuren drove it away. Smell the smell, directly command Zuo Zixiong.

Unexpectedly, when the prisoner heard him say, "Sending himself to the capital can atone for Yang Sichang's crimes", his facial expression changed immediately, and his occlusal muscles twitched.

Fortunately, Zuo Zixiong next to him was also skilled in martial arts, with good ears and eyesight, and he immediately judged that this was a power-storing movement before biting his tongue to commit suicide, and immediately slashed across with his palm, dislocating the opponent's mandible.

"My lord! This guy wants to commit suicide! It seems that Zhang Ni really hates Elder Yang, and everything is to better frame Elder Yang."

"Then there's nothing to say, hurry up and torture the others first, and find out his identity!"

Shen Shuren was also worried that this person was Li Dingguo, so he had the idea of ​​wooing and fighting for each other. For the time being, he didn't want to make the other party too crippled, the kind of crippled that cannot be restored.

Fortunately, Zuo Zixiong was also very efficient. He went around the isolated interrogation room next to him, killed a few prisoners, and asked the result.

"My lord, all his subordinates said that this fellow is Zhang Ni's fourth adopted son, Ai Nengqi. May I ask how to deal with it? Also, according to the results of the torture just now, Zhang Xianzhong sent two adopted sons who are famous for their martial arts to frame Yang. Court old.

There is also a man named Li Dingguo, who brought the dozens of dead men who pretended to be fleeing civilians to swindle the gate of the city. Because they did not wear military uniforms, they are now missing.

This Ai Nengqi was in charge of leading the [-] cavalry of the rear army. At the beginning, they lay in ambush outside the sight of the defenders at the top of the city. After Li Dingguo succeeded in cheating, they charged and rushed in. "

Shen Shuren heaved a sigh of relief, since the person in front of him was Ainengqi, it would be easy.In history, Zhang Xianzhong's four adopted sons, Sun Kewang and Liu Wenxiu were not known for their personal martial arts, but Ai Nengqi was highly skilled in martial arts.

Moreover, this Ai Nengqi did not follow Nanming to fight against the Qing Dynasty in history, and his main murder credits come from his experience of being a thief with Zhang Xianzhong.

During the period after Zhang Xianzhong's death in history, Ai Nengqi's military exploits were still mainly in fighting against the troops of the Southern Ming Dynasty, killing Nanming's Southern Sichuan General Zeng Ying and other generals.

So of course Shen Shuren would not have the slightest sympathy for this kind of thieves who can only fight civil wars.

He immediately ordered indifferently: "In that case, pull out all his teeth, so as not to catch the chance of committing suicide in the future, and remove the six fingers from his thumb to the middle finger, so as to prevent lax custody from giving him a chance to escape with weapons Or commit suicide.

The other captives who were willing to confess his identity and the purpose of Zhang Xianzhong's arrangements this time were well guarded, and promised that they would be pardoned for their previous crimes when they arrived in the capital and confessed well, and they would be rewarded and officials. "

Shen Shuren pays attention to propriety, he can't talk about enmity with the other party, all measures are limited to prevent suicide.A person's ring finger and little finger are very weak, and it is impossible to hold things at all, so let him leave two fingers on each of his left and right hands for fingerprinting.

Ainengqi refused to say, and Shen Shuren was too lazy to waste his energy on him, anyway, it was the same to ask other prisoners of war for their confessions.

After some severe torture, Shen Shuren really picked out smart people who cooperated enough, and got the answer: "The reason why Zhang Xianzhong insisted on sending a small army to serve as dead soldiers this time when he couldn't capture the city was to kill the vassal king." Framed Ge Lao" confession.

Historically, Yang Sichang's biggest problem in the battle of Zhang Xianzhong's theft of Xiangyang was to let the thieves retreat completely. He didn't capture any leading generals and prisoners, and he couldn't even prove the opponent's motive for committing the crime.

Now, Shen Shuren has avenged King Xiang and others, killed the murderer's army, and asked the motive. Chongzhen should think carefully, so as not to do something like "relatives hurt enemies and enemies are happy".

To be on the safe side, Shen Shuren thought hard and wrote another secret note, trying to tactfully help the emperor analyze the logic of the matter:

The reason why Zhang Xianzhong dared to spend so much money on such a crime that he could not occupy the city for a long time, but insisted on assassinating the vassal king, was that the original criminal law of Ming Dynasty was too strict and rigid.The law of the Ming Dynasty has a heavy responsibility for "lost land". Once the land is lost and the vassal king is trapped, the governor will be killed and questioned.

This led to Zhang Xianzhong's "special operations" motivated by framing the governor. To put it bluntly, this attack on Xiangyang was not a "siege" but an "assassination".

If the vassal king was assassinated, it should not be the governor's fault, at most it would be the fault of the palace guards.Because Zhang Xianzhong's troops did not attack the city with a clear banner from the beginning, they were just a small group of assassins disguised as ordinary people to infiltrate and assassinate.

Therefore, in order to prevent thieves from deliberately using the Ming law, it is recommended that the court clearly explain the law. "Losing land and trapping feudal vassals" must be the kind of city that has been officially breached and has not been recovered by the government for half a month.

If it is only temporarily controlled by thieves for a day or two or three days, it can be treated as an infiltration assassination, and it is not really a long-term loss of the city.

Shen Shuren also tactfully remonstrated in the secret melody: clarifying the court laws in this way is not a revision of the laws, but a pure explanation, which is not shameful.

Moreover, only in this way can the vassal kings be better protected. Only by letting the thieves know that if they cannot capture the city for a long time, they only send dead men to play this kind of assassination of the vassal kings without return, so that the local governor cannot be framed. Rogues have no motive to kill more feudal lords——

The cost of assassinating King Xianggui this time was also very high. Zhang Xianzhong paid two thousand soldiers and one adopted son.There were over a hundred vassal kings in the Ming Dynasty, could Zhang Xianzhong have a hundred adopted sons with high martial arts skills to exchange one for two?
After finishing all this, Shen Shuren asked Zuo Zixiong to personally lead an elite army to escort the captives to the capital, along with his memorial documents.

In the end, Shen Shuren also played a trick against him.

He asked people to let the wind out secretly, saying that the reason why Ai Nengqi was captured this time and Li Dingguo could run away was because Li Dingguo had a private deal with the government and the army. Foundation competitors.

Regardless of whether this kind of rhetoric can alienate the thieves, at least it is logical: whoever is the son of the eunuch party does not want to inherit the career of the godfather?

Even being a godson to Zhang Xianzhong, the probability of succession is higher than being a godson to Wei Zhongxian - Wei Zhongxian entered the palace from the palace after he married a wife and had children in his thirties.

Those who acted as godsons to Wei Zhongxian knew that Wei Zhongxian had daughters, grandsons, and nephews who could inherit the family property, and no eunuch official expected to inherit Wei Zhongxian's inheritance.

Zhang Xianzhong's degree of cutting off children and grandchildren is more thorough than that of Wei Zhongxian, so the inheritance income for him as a godson is naturally much higher.

No matter how alienated he is, Shen Shuren doesn't need to pay a price for such a free game, it's a pure business without capital.

(End of this chapter)