national surname chiming

Chapter 212

Shen Shuren handled the post-war rewards and punishments of the Baling Rescue War strictly with self-discipline and lenient treatment.

These rewards were originally not necessary to be given so quickly and in such a high amount, and they were not included in the usual post-war reward system.

It is true that there is still room for Shen Shuren to use them. It is necessary for these soldiers to make persistent efforts and forcefully march south to Changsha. This is why they have given so much—

As mentioned earlier, until the decisive battle between Shen Shuren and Li Dingguo, he still didn't know that Changsha had fallen.

The straight-line distance between the two places is only [-] miles. If you take a detour and march along the banks of Dongting Lake and the Xiangjiang River Valley, the actual distance can be close to [-] miles.The asynchrony of battlefield information is very serious.

Zuo Zixiong and Zhu Wenzhen could only endure the fatigue, let the troops rest for a while, and set off again in the afternoon of the same day, especially let the troops with better physical strength be responsible for rowing.

Fortunately, the Shen family army controlled the control of Dongting Lake, and the number of large ships was sufficient. The main force could take the whole army by boat, and the physical exhaustion of the march was acceptable.

The troops walked south for about two hours, until the evening, after walking out for dozens of miles.

After two accidents happened one after another, the rhythm of the troops' march was interrupted, and Shen Shuren allowed the soldiers to go ashore to rest instead.

The first incident was that the thief captain Pan Shirong, who was seriously injured and captured by the army during the decisive battle to attack the camp in the early morning of this morning, unexpectedly woke up from a coma after simple treatment by the army doctor.

For a thief like Pan Shirong who is not well-known in the history books, Shen Shuren certainly did not intend to take the trouble to surrender.Moreover, this guy's injuries were indeed quite serious, and the military doctor felt that it was difficult to survive after an assessment.

So to treat him and stay in the army is nothing more than a dead horse as a living horse doctor, hoping to see if he can produce some valuable information.This awakening is probably also a flashback.

For such a dying and seriously injured person, the threat of torture is useless, and they may be killed directly.So Shen Shuren chose to ask a few words in a pleasant manner, not to involve the other party's core secrets, and just treat it as if he had a date or not.

Maybe it's because the man's words are good when he's about to die, maybe it's because he saw the officers and soldiers treating his wounds, or it's more likely that he was disheartened because he was treated as an abandoned son by Li Dingguo. Pan Shirong finally confided something that he thought was not important anymore. The army of bandits.

And Shen Shuren also learned from this conversation that not only Changsha City had been breached by Zhang Xianzhong, but even the vassal kings, officials, gentry and rich men in the city had been slaughtered.

It was also at this moment that Shen Shu finally proved that he had tricked himself into being a black man under the lights last night—the "messenger from Zhang Xianzhong who sent a letter to Li Dingguo" captured by Zhu Wenzhen was indeed a fake!Because those forged letters did not mention that "Changsha has been captured by Zhang Xianzhong".

But Pan Shirong was able to learn the news from Li Dingguo and the truth about this morale booster. It can be seen that Zhang Xianzhong's real order had been sent in ahead of time, and behind it was a fake made by Li Dingguo.

(Note: A careful reader privately wrote that in the previous chapter, "Shen Shuren should have known that Changsha had fallen", the reason is that during the attack on the camp the previous afternoon, some soldiers from the bandit side shouted in front of the army that Zhang Xianzhong had captured Changsha , Immediately lead the main force to join forces and return to rescue Baling.

But after a little analysis, it is not difficult to see that the frontline generals of the Shen family army are unlikely to believe this. After reporting it to Shen Shuren, Shen Shuren generally tends not to believe it based on the IQ of a normal person. cow.After all, the context of this statement is that when the two sides are fighting with all their strength, they must use all means to give their own confidence.

The interpretation of psychological warfare cannot be viewed from the perspective of the omniscient and omnipotent God of the reader, and the information gap of each party must be substituted.If you still can't understand this logic... I can only write less morale-boosting and morale-damaging psychological warfare in the future.Otherwise, if one party says it and the other party believes it or not, it will take a long time to explain. )
After getting this important information from the dying Pan Shirong, Shen Shuren no longer needed to take the risk of "a man who travels hundreds of miles a day to seek profit, but can become a general".

Of course, considering that Pan Shirong might lie, he only asked the troops to rest in the middle of the night. If new incidents were discovered later, they could get up early and continue marching at any time.

However, at Haishi that night, the cavalry scouts under Zhu Wenzhen's command finally reported back. From the battlefield south of Linxiang County, and from the people's mouths, it was confirmed that Changsha City had really fallen.

Some wealthy people who escaped from Changsha scattered and fled all the way. Some went northward incognito, and immediately came to join the officers and soldiers when they encountered officers and soldiers.These fleeing civilians and soldiers also brought more useful information, saying that Zhang Xianzhong's department seems to be still fighting south in the past two days, and I don't know if they plan to escape from the official army.

Shen Shuren asked and confirmed one by one carefully, and then let the troops sleep well until dawn, without tossing everyone.

……

Soldiers can sleep, but generals have to get up early, after all, the situation ahead is very critical.

At the first moment of dawn in summer, the soldiers should get up and the troops should set off.

However, Shen Shuren got up early at Yinshizheng, half an hour earlier than ordinary soldiers. Under the low blood pressure and depression of getting up early, he discussed the latest plan with the generals.

After all, he needs to make a decision on where to go next and what the strategic direction is.

The generals below can only decide how to fight the battle at most.But who to hit, who to hit first, and which to hit later, are still determined by the governor-level civil servants, and Shen Shuren's pressure is not ordinary.

After arriving at the camp of the Chinese army, he drank a pot of strong tea before Shen Shu said, "The enemy's situation is still not very clear at the moment. We only know that Changsha has fallen. Li Dinghui fled to Linxiang County, and it is possible to retreat further south. Meet at Changsha.

Liu Wenxiu hasn't heard anything new so far. According to Shen Lian and Li Yu's return, he should continue to maintain vigilance in Changde, neither daring to abandon his adoptive father and retreat early, nor daring to take the initiative to come back to rescue - otherwise, he can give me The army is waiting for the opportunity to work.

I thought about it in my sleep last night, and now our army has two options:
One is to turn around and attack Liu Wenxiu fiercely. This way is not afraid of slowness. I believe that as long as our army is willing to go, we will definitely be able to find battles.Because Liu Wenxiu absolutely did not dare to abandon her adoptive father and retreat alone without a fight.

Moreover, with Liu Wenxiu's strength, our army has the power to defeat Li Dingguo's main force. As long as there is a fight, our army will definitely win, and we can defeat part of the enemy army one by one. It is also easy to regain Changde Mansion.

However, considering that Liu Wenxiu has a safe future, as long as he retreats along the Yuan and Li river valleys to the mountainous area of ​​western Hunan, it will be very difficult for us to wipe him out completely.

Therefore, this option can be regarded as a risk-free and stable profit. The price paid is extremely small, but the profit is not too great.Just defeating part of the enemy army and recovering another mansion, there is no way to wipe out all of them.

The second way, in comparison, is "seeking wealth in danger", we can ignore Liu Wenxiu, go directly south, and chase Zhang Xianzhong to fight.

But this option is also risky. For one thing, Zhang Xianzhong does not have scruples like Liu Wenxiu in escaping. If he is unwilling to fight with us, he can run away immediately before contacting the enemy. We may not be able to catch up. Around Dongting Lake, our army has the advantage of light and strong warships, and the march is faster than Zhang Xianzhong, so that we can easily pursue the enemy.

And once Zhang Xianzhong fled south, the Xiangjiang River near Changsha could still support the deployment of a large-scale navy fleet. Once it went a little further south, to Xiangtan County in Changsha Prefecture, near the mountainous area, the Xiangjiang River would narrow sharply and the water flow would also change. Get turbulent.

At that time, our army's advantage in water transportation will completely disappear. Everyone will march on two legs. We must maintain the military discipline of the officers and soldiers, and we must not casually kill the people to grab food. .

At worst, Zhang Xianzhong could do the same as Li Dingguo, leaving tens of thousands of newly captured troops to hold us back, and he took all the old battalions in Shaanxi and Henan to flee first.It will be even more troublesome if you enter Nanling all the way and even want to escape to Guangdong and Guangxi.

We are subject to the court's laws, and it is impossible to keep chasing after them.The governors of Guangdong and Guangxi are far less talkative than the governors of Huguangfang. At that time, some procedures must be completed first, and His Majesty may suspect that I am a thieves to expand the territory. "

When Shen Shuren said this in one breath, his thoughts were a little confused, so he had to take a sip of tea to rest.

Zuo Zixiong, Zhu Wenzhen and Jin Shenghuan looked at the map and repeated what Lord Futai said just now. They also deeply agreed with these risks.

Liu Wenxiu had to get in touch with the officers and soldiers and confirm that the officers and soldiers were in dire straits before deciding to run away. This was because he could not abandon his adoptive father.If the officer ran away without seeing his face, then he would not be a fool in Zhang Xianzhong's army in the future. The notoriety of a traitor would definitely not escape.

But Zhang Xianzhong himself doesn't have anything worth worrying about, or psychological burden.

In Zhang Xianzhong's eyes, nothing in the world is worth as much as his own life, so he can run away whenever he wants.

This difference destined Zhang Xianzhong to be more naughty.

After all, he was a professional householder who fled to the world in the second year of Chongzhen and fled for 14 years. How many times he was willing to abandon everything except his most confidant Laoying brothers.

How could this kind of old fritters be so easily defeated by Shen Shuren in a single battle?It's too slippery.

Therefore, chasing Zhang Xianzhong, although the benefits of catching him are great, but the probability of not being able to catch him is also high.

Everyone pondered for a while, expressing that the matter is too serious, and they should ask Master Futai to make a decision directly, they really dare not take responsibility for this decision.As long as Master Futai speaks, no matter which option it is, they will resolutely implement it.

Seeing this, Shen Shuren opened his mouth to make a decision:
"Since everyone trusts me so much, I will take responsibility for once. No matter what the outcome is in the future, I will bear the merits and demerits of the decision-making.

I think that we have one more step to wait and see before the final arrow is on the string.In the end, whether to pursue Zhang Xianzhong directly or destroy Liu Wenxiu first depends on the enemy's corresponding reaction after our step.

The first priority of our army in the past two days is to go south to Linxiang County to recover it.In the small county of Linxiang, winning the city is not the main purpose.The main purpose is to block the Xiangjiang estuary.

In this way, no matter whether Zhang Xianzhong intends to retreat later, at least it is impossible for him to take the route of going back along the Xiangjiang River.Whether returning to Changde, Shizhouwei, or going south to Guangdong and Guangxi, he had to go by land.

But by land, you can't carry too much property, food, grass and luggage, and you must travel lightly.In this way, even if we cannot wipe out Zhang Xianzhong in our follow-up pursuit, at least we can capture a large number of them.

After taking Linxiang, we don't have to rush to attack Changsha immediately. Changsha has already fallen anyway, and it doesn't matter if it's occupied for ten days or a month. The officials and wealthy households that Zhang Xianzhong wanted to kill in the city have already been killed. Give him a few more In ten days, he may not kill more.

At that time, we can try to make a detour, see how Zhang Xianzhong reacted to the cut off of the waterway, and then make a targeted drive - what do you think? "

"Master Futai's opinion, be prudent and prudent, and the last general will implement it immediately!" Zuo Zixiong, Zhu Wenzhen, and Jin Shenghuan agreed in unison.

Shen Shuren: "Then it's settled, all ministries will march in a hurry today!"

After the whole army has put together a strategy, the follow-up implementation is of course a matter of course.

After another day and a half of marching and half a day of rest, the troops finally arrived in Linxiang County on June [-].

Moreover, Shen Lian and Li Yu, who had been patrolling the surface of Dongting Lake to intercept and kill the rogue ships for the past few days, also arrived in time to meet up with the main force.

The Shen family army assembled a total of 3 troops, and broke through Linxiang County in just three days. During this process, I have to say that Zhang Xianzhong's troops still have the backbone of a bit of a desperado.
Obviously knowing that Linxiang County is short of troops and it is absolutely impossible to hold it, but the abandoned troops are still willing to fight because they have a city.As a result, it took Shen Jiajun some time to destroy the city wall and prepare the siege equipment before taking it.

Unlike the local guards of the Ming army before, knowing that the thieves came to attack the city, these small counties couldn't even last a day or two——

Of course, this is also related to the fact that Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong can threaten to massacre the city.After all, Shen Shuren is an officer, he still has face, he can't say "If you dare to resist for one day, you will kill [-]% of the people in the city after the city is broken, resist for two days and kill [-]%, resist for three days and slaughter the whole city".

After taking Linxiang County, the morale of the Shen family's army further increased and they made some adjustments, preparing to deal a decisive blow to Zhang Xianzhong.

……

The story is divided into two parts, and the timeline goes back to a few days ago, when the Shen family army had just defeated Li Dingguo's rear army and was still on the way south.

This time, Li Dingguo sold his teammates very thoroughly and decisively. At least 2000 people from the rear army and the new affiliated army were sold by Li Dingguo just like that.

The Laoying brothers who were successfully rescued from the siege were only 7000 in number, much less than those who were sold.If the number of heads is counted, it must be a huge loss.

However, these old battalion brothers deserved to have followed Zhang Xianzhong's army for many years.Among them, the oldest one has been following him for 13 years, and the one with less seniority, at least started following Chongzhen nine years later, and has been running for five or six years.

Therefore, they were very proficient in the skills of forced marching and fleeing. They threw away the heavy armor and the worthless spears and guns, and they were able to travel two hundred miles a day with only short weapons and firearms and no food and grass.

So that night when the officers and soldiers were still camping and resting halfway, Li Dingguo had already rushed to Linxiang County to report to the generals Zhang Xianzhong stayed here.

But Zhang Xianzhong obviously didn't intend to stick to Linxiang for a long time at all, and all he left behind were fish belly. As soon as Li Dingguo arrived, he was told to take the withdrawn troops to Changsha immediately.

Li Dingguo's troops had already traveled two hundred miles and were too tired. They could only sleep in Linxiang County for the night, then continued on their way after getting up, and arrived in Changsha in a daytime. It was about evening when they entered the city.

Li Dingguo thought that when he came back, he would definitely be appeased by his father, but the situation was different from what he imagined.

After entering the city, they were ordered to rest for a while, but during the rest, they separated him from the other generals.

Then, Bai Wenxuan was summoned by Zhang Xianzhong alone to question him, mainly to understand the situation of the withdrawn troops.

Bai Wenxuan was quite benevolent, and he didn't immediately speak ill of Li Dingguo at this moment, but he would not deceive Zhang Xianzhong, so he truthfully confessed the actual situation of the army.

Knowing that only the [-] brothers from the old battalion had fled back, and that all the new affiliated troops accumulated in the past two years were lost, Zhang Xianzhong also felt a burst of regret—not regretting his life, but regretting that his combat power was damaged.

These new affiliated troops were not all young men who had been captured recently, but also included soldiers recruited locally in Huguang during the three years after Zhang Xianzhong surrendered and rebelled 12 years after Chongzhen.So quite a few of them have two or three years of combat experience, and it would be a pity to lose them.

If it was normal, this little loss would not make Zhang Xianzhong harsh on his adopted son.But this time Li Dingguo has committed a lot of things, and made Zhang Xianzhong unhappy three times, so when they are added together, the reaction is completely different.

"Bai Wenxuan, the troops brought back by the second child will be temporarily handed over to you for the next few months, until we retreat successfully and join forces with Wang'er and the third child, and then assign them separately!" Zhang Xianzhong was furious, and issued such a command A personnel appointment.

Bai Wenxuan was shocked, but at the same time, he was also a little happy inside, unable to believe it.He also persuasively said:
"Your Majesty... in the situation at that time, if someone else had changed, they might not have been able to fight better than the Second General. The officers and soldiers were really numerous, well-equipped, morale high, and the vehicles and boats were more convenient than ours. Compared with the combat power, Compared to the number of people, compared to the speed of marching, our army can't match it!"

Zhang Xianzhong's decree pattern twitched slightly, and he raised his hand unquestionably: "It's not for this alone! If you are told to go, go!"

"The last general obeys orders!" Bai Wenxuan didn't really want to give up the military power he got, and he had said everything he needed to say, so he was happy to pick up an army.

……

Until now, Li Dingguo, who was still stationed in the post in Changsha, felt something was wrong when Zhang Xianzhong's personal guard brought him dinner.

He grabbed the person who delivered the food, and asked presumptuously, "Why didn't the father summon me? I'm not hungry, so I can eat after the military situation is over! Please pass it on, brother."

The food delivery person has no authority at all, he just evaded helplessly: "Second General, don't embarrass the villain, the villain is just a food delivery person, and doesn't know anything else."

Li Dingguo had no choice but to eat these bowls of meat dishes made from animals raised in Prince Ji's mansion nervously.It was not until the first moment of Xushi that Zhang Xianzhong's summoning order was received.

Zhang Xianzhong was looking for him and several other generals to discuss the next direction of escape, whether to fight or defend.

After Li Dingguo learned about it, he finally breathed a sigh of relief: His father still needs his military advice. It seems that there is nothing wrong with it. Maybe his father is sympathetic to his hard work, so he let him have a meal first, and then summoned him.

(End of this chapter)