national surname chiming

Chapter 231 When you were not around, the Central Plains was already in chaos

Ordinarily, Fang Yizhi just saw his father who was convicted and detained today, so he should spend more time doing filial piety and asking about his health.

Fortunately, there are mothers and sisters to help take care of the messy things at home, and women generally pay more attention to family affection, so it is enough to have them accompany Fang Kongxuan.

Shen Shuren would not meet with them either, Fang Yizhi knew that national affairs were the most important thing, so he went back to the Governor's Yamen at night to report the recent northern military situation.

If he wanted to come to Wuchang City, no one would find fault with him and call him "unfilial".

After a while, everyone rode their horses back to the yamen, Shen Shuren ordered someone to prepare a midnight snack and send it to the study room, no alcohol, just some refreshing drinks, so that they can stay up late and talk about business.

These days, the boats and vehicles are exhausting, and the army is on the way. Every day, I eat the same rations as the soldiers. I finally returned to Wuchang, and finally I can have a good rest.

Fang Yizhi was not hungry, and as soon as he entered the study, he sat across from him with a cup of tea, drinking a few sips to refresh himself, and making a statement.

Shen Shuren listened as if no one else was there, while eating and drinking on the desk.

Fang Yizhi: "The war in Henan is ironic to say the least, but until July, the two armies were in a stalemate without any problems.

Li Zicheng was in a hurry to attack Kaifeng in May and June, and he mobilized all the Flang machines and Hongyi cannons in his army. At that time, Mr. Yang Ge was worried. Is there any suspicion of bragging.

However, it later proved that Chen Yongfu, the general soldier of Kaifeng, was indeed guarding properly. He counterattacked with the Hongyi artillery in the city.

Although it was not possible to directly destroy all the cannons of the Chuangjun, due to the small number of elite and experienced gunners in the Chuangjun, after being massacred by Chen Zongbing, their cannons lost their aim, and the ammunition was not enough. By July, they could not continue to bombard Siege.

Throughout July, the Chuang army repeatedly attacked the city with ladder ants, causing many casualties, and they were all from the old troops of Luo Rucai and Ma Shouying.Li Zicheng also tried to dig tunnels under the city wall and plant gunpowder to blow up the city.

However, because the city wall of Kaifeng is extremely thick, more than [-] catties of gunpowder were buried at one time at most, and the city wall could not be completely blown apart, but the outer layer of the city wall collapsed, making the thickness of the wall thinner by about half.

Under the command of Chen Zongbing, the official army still defended the remaining thinned city walls and slowly filled them up.The Chuang army tried to take the opportunity to rush up the gap, but was shot by the officers and soldiers from left and right, killing and injuring many, but failed to succeed.

It is said that thousands of people were killed in battle just to rush through this gap, and the wounded were irrelevant. In the end, it was almost a siege of corpses, and the pile of corpses was even with the height of the gap in the city wall. "

When Shen Shuren heard this, he felt optimistic for a while, and almost forgot that Fang Yizhi came to report the bad news to him.

He took a sip of the coffee that Zheng's family bought from an Indian to refresh himself, and then he realized that there must be a turning point in the matter, and he hurriedly asked: "From this point of view, I expected nothing wrong. Then why did the situation change again?"

Fang Yizhi couldn't help but sighed, and it could be seen that he was also very regretful:
"Indeed, until the beginning of July, the situation was actually very good for the officers and soldiers. But later, because of the southern Hunan battlefield, the news that Zhang Xianzhong had succeeded many times reached the capital at the end of June.

His Majesty was furious when he heard that so many cities fell and feudal lords were killed, and he put pressure on Elder Yang again, ordering Elder Yang to defeat the trespassers Zhang Ni one by one as soon as possible, and stop blindly taking a defensive stance.

Moreover, His Majesty reiterated again that the tragedy of several kings in a row in southern Hunan must not be repeated on the battlefield in Henan. Too many vassal kings were killed, which would be a great blow to the majesty of Ming Dynasty and the dignity of the court. "

Shen Shuren's heart skipped a beat, and he interrupted: "Mr. Yang Ge agrees now?"

Fang Yizhi curled his lips: "Of course it's not that simple! Elder Yang Ge has been in the army for many years, and he still knows the priorities, not to mention that he has already put life and death aside, even if disobedience will lead to his being executed by His Majesty, as long as disobedience is right, it will benefit the world Regardless of the battle situation, Elder Yang Ge will also disobey orders.

Besides, even if Old Yang Ge dared to attack directly on the spur of the moment, with Zuo Liangyu's wisdom to protect himself, if he felt that there was absolutely no chance of winning, how could he send troops indiscriminately? "

Shen Shuren was right when he thought about it. This is not to say that Yang Sichang is self-sacrificing, but that his lifespan and health have reached this point. How can a person who is already desperate to die have any fear of the emperor's random life?

As for Zuo Liangyu, if Chongzhen dared to send Zuo Liangyu to die directly, then Zuo Liangyu would definitely disobey his orders.

Therefore, if Yang Sichang and Zuo Liangyu finally obeyed their orders, there must be other incentives that made them feel that they could indeed fight.

Thinking of this, Shen Shuren didn't wait for Fang Yizhi to speak slowly, but took the initiative to draw inferences: "So, there must be some reason why they have to go to war, and they feel that they really don't need to wait for me to reunite, they can have a battle force?"

Fang Yizhi's heart shuddered, and he also cast an admiring look at Shen Shuren. Brother Shen Nian's IQ and foresight are really obvious.

Fang Yizhi said convincingly: "Who says it's not? His Majesty gave Elder Yang Ge the first order, and Elder Yang Ge didn't hold back. He just wanted to urge Brother Shen to get rid of Zhang Xianzhong in southern Hunan as soon as possible, and then send troops to go north. Wait for the imperial forces to gather, and then fight Li Zicheng in a decisive battle.

However, because the imperial court did not pay attention to keeping secrets about His Majesty's will in late June, in just over ten days, by the beginning of July, there was already such a commotion that even the intruders knew about it.

Li Zicheng heard that 'If he falls into the feudal lord again, he will severely punish Mr. Yang Ge', and he heard that Zhang Xianzhong succeeded in killing several kings in a row in southern Hunan. These two news prompted Jiudun, who lost his prestige under the strong city. Li Zicheng decided to change his strategy and find some other small targets to boost morale and prestige first.

Therefore, on the eighth day of the seventh lunar month, Li Zicheng, who had been in the city of Kaifeng for three months, separated tens of thousands of old lineages, with Liu Zongmin and Li Guo as generals. Hui Mansion, Hebei Daming Mansion.

Li Zicheng's goal is to follow Zhang Xianzhong's example, kill a few more heavyweight vassal kings, and speed up the death of Yang Ge.And Weihui Mansion is where His Majesty's cousin Lu Wang was located. In today's world, after King Fu and King Gui were murdered, apart from King Rui of Chongqing, he is the closest blood relative to His Majesty.

What's more, attacking Weihui's mansion has another advantage, that is, when Li Zicheng killed King Fu last year, everyone in King Fu's mansion actually broke through and left Luoyang in advance, but King Fu himself was fat and heavy, too conspicuous, even if he changed his clothes, he would be seen by the people. Recognized and captured,
But at that time, Zhu Yousong, the eldest son of King Fu, managed to escape because of his poor appearance. He crossed the Yellow River and went to Luwang Mansion in Weihui Mansion to join his uncle.His Majesty later made a decree for his cousin to inherit the title of King Fu.

So if Li Zicheng breaks through the Weihui mansion this time and the siege goes well, he can kill King Lu and King Xinfu together!This is tantamount to killing one of His Majesty's cousins ​​and uncles, which is a great blow to the court's dignity, far from being comparable to killing other feudal princes. "

Hearing this, Shen Shuren could basically guess why Yang Sichang had to fight later, and he quickly confirmed with a little nervousness:

"So... In the end, Elder Yang Ge was forced to fight, or was it because of the need to divide his troops to rescue the vassal king? Can't Li Zicheng be allowed to pick the weak persimmons, and trap Weihui and other places? Is the Fu Wang Lu dead?"

Shen Shuren had never cared much about the life and death of the vassal kings, but he still had to pay attention to people like King Xiaofu and King Lu, at least an order of magnitude higher than other vassal kings, because after all, it would involve the future of the central government. Changes in history --

Historically, after Chongzhen hanged himself, the Nanjing court supported his cousin Xiaofu Wang Zhu Yousong as the successor, Emperor Hongguang.Before Fu Wang was established, because of the deep hatred between the Donglin Party and the Fu Wang family, many people in Nanjing even had the idea of ​​"supporting Lu".

In the end, it was Shi Kefa, the number one figure in Donglin, who still had a bit of blood kinship and integrity. Knowing the blood relationship between King Lu and Chongzhen, after all, he was a generation farther than King Fu. It was really unreasonable to surpass King Fu and King Li Lu, so he came up with a compromise plan." "Li Gui", I want to go to Guangdong and Guangxi to welcome back the little Gui Wang Zhu Youlang.

Because King Gui and King Fu are both Chongzhen's cousins, and King Lu is Chongzhen's uncle after all, the blood relationship between Gui Wang and Fu Wang is exactly the same as that of Chongzhen, so choosing Gui Wang to stand will not lead to a crisis of orthodoxy.

It’s just that Shi Kefa’s operation will not quench his thirst in the long run, and the country cannot live without a king. At such a critical moment, he still wants to wait a few months and transport people from Guangdong, Guangxi, and thousands of miles to Nanjing. Of course, it is not as good as Ma Shiying and Ruan Dacheng. The four towns in Jiangbei came to support with force soon.

Although these are things to say later, as long as any vassal kings such as King Lu and King Xiaofu die early due to the butterfly effect of history, then Shen Shuren's follow-up layout will also have to be changed accordingly. This is a major national issue, so we must be seriously concerned.

Of course, Fang Yizhi didn't understand the real reason why brother Shen Nian was so nervous all of a sudden, he just heard him still sighing in such an unhurried tone:

"Even if you miss, it's not far away. King Lu and King Xiaofu didn't die. It's not that Weihui's mansion is well-defended and can stop Liu Zongmin and Li Guo's army from attacking. It's that Liu Zongmin and others tried to outflank the attack all the way. , but after all, it is not secretive.

On the way to attack Weihui Mansion, they had to pass through Huaiqing Mansion first. As a result, they burned, killed and looted Huaiqing Mansion, killing all the wealthy households, gentry, and officials, and even killed Zheng Wang Zhu Yiduo's family who was in Huaiqing.

At the same time, in order to prevent King Lu and King Fu from fleeing north to the capital, they outflanked Weihui Mansion on the north side to Zhangde Mansion in Hebei in advance, and killed the official Jufu and Zhao Wang Zhuchang in Zhangde Mansion.

As a result, during the period of breaking Huaiqing and Zhangde and killing Zheng Wang and Zhao Wang, they gave Lu Wang and Fu Wang time to react. They learned that the road north to Zhangde Mansion, Daming Mansion and Beijing had been blocked by thieves and cavalry. So before the bandits arrived, they abandoned the city and fled, leaving only the defenders to defend the city.

Lu Wang and Fu Wang's uncle and nephew traveled by land from Weihui County to Yanjin County, entered the Yellow River from Yanjin, fled by boat by water, entered Guide Mansion from the east of Kaifeng, and tried to continue to flee south.

After the vassal king fled, Weihui's mansion had no defensive capabilities, and it was easily defeated under the onslaught of Liu Zongmin's heavy troops regardless of the cost.After the city was broken, Liu Zongmin learned that King Lu and Fu had abandoned the city and fled ahead of time. He heard that he was so angry that he slaughtered the whole city of Wei Hui. "

When Shen Shuren heard this, he sorted out the cause and effect in his mind for a while.

From this point of view, the escape of King Fu and King Lu is not considered cheating, because in the original history, these two cowards also fled ahead of time before the bandit army entered the boundary of Weihui Mansion.The vassal king of Ming Dynasty, as long as he is willing to give up his wealth and manor, and is willing to run away with his treasures, he can actually run away.

For example, King Zheng and King Zhao mentioned by Fang Yizhi just now, in fact, King Zheng, who was the first to bear the brunt, was caught off guard and killed his whole family.However, the king of Zhao who was killed on the detour, but his son escaped, theoretically could inherit the title of King Zhao in the future.

Unless it was surrounded in advance and surrounded several surrounding mansions, it was a deliberate attempt to destroy the door, or a surprise attack.Otherwise, as long as you are not a top miser, you can still escape your life.

However, thinking that King Fu and King Lu had escaped like in history, Shen Shuren was even more puzzled: "Since King Fu and King Lu have escaped, why did Mr. Yang Ge and Zuo Liangyu have to find Li Zicheng for a decisive battle?" ?”

(End of this chapter)