national surname chiming

Chapter 74 A blockbuster, another blockbuster

Liu Xiyao awarded the head, after the recovery of Huanggang County.

Shen Shuren spent another half a month, stop and go, besieged and attacked, and slowly recovered the remaining three counties in the northwest of Huangzhou, Huangpi, Huang'an, and Macheng.

The rogue defenders in these three counties range from over a thousand to hundreds of people, and most of them are also newly recruited from Huangzhou. There are very few die-hard Shaanxi old thieves who have been around for many years, so the will to resist is not very firm. .

Hearing that the king was dead, these places resisted for two or three days at most before surrendering.During the first half month, more than half of it was spent on marching, and there were only a few days of real fighting.

The terrain of Huangzhou is rugged, and all counties are in the Dabie Mountains, along several river valleys.If it is a land march, it will not be recovered in a month.

In this process, thanks to the Shen family's fleet dispatching ability, which can transport troops back and forth between the Yangtze River and various tributaries, it went so smoothly.

In the mountainous and remote villages far away from the river, there will definitely be some scattered thieves left, and the total number is estimated to be more than [-].We have to slowly persuade the encirclement and suppression. This is the task of Zhang Huangyan, Zhao Yunfan and other county magistrates.

The fighting in Huangzhou continued until the end of October.

In the end, Shen Shuren even crossed the border, chasing Liu Xiyao's remnants until they reached the territory of Suizhou Prefecture next door.In early November, Xiaogan County, which borders Suizhou Prefecture and Huangzhou Prefecture, was recovered——

It's really not that Shen Shuren wants to be troublesome, but that the thieves don't divide the territory strictly according to your Ming's administrative divisions at all.

Theoretically, the sphere of influence of the bandit kings of the Five Battalions of Gezuo was roughly distributed as Zuojin King He Jin occupied Suizhou Mansion, Fighting King Liu Xiyao occupied Huangzhou Mansion, and Troubled Times King Lin Chengcheng occupied the western mountainous part of Anqing Mansion and Luzhou Mansion. .

But in fact, the territories among the kings are intertwined.He Jin's main force was deployed in Suizhou, Anlu and other counties along the river, but he was too lazy to garrison Xiaogan County next door along the river, so he handed over this county to Liu Xiyao for management.

The prefectures and counties in the Dabie Mountains have extremely inconvenient transportation. The counties along the banks of two seemingly parallel rivers have to go downstream to enter the Yangtze River, and then enter another river and then go upstream to communicate with each other.Compared with Liu Xiyao, He Jin still lacks naval forces and ships, and is too lazy to want that kind of lonely enclave.

When Shen Shuren crossed the border, none of his confidantes thought there was a problem.But Zhao Yunfan and Zuo Zixiong still reminded him in good faith and tactfully, persuading him to pay attention to the court's laws and avoid being impeached for killing thieves across the border.

Shen Shuren still has the attitude of taking care of everything, saying that he will bear all the consequences, and he only needs to rescue the people as soon as possible to prevent problems before they happen.

……

The words are divided into two parts.

October 25, the sixth day after the liberation of Huanggang County and the day after the liberation of Macheng County.Shen Shuren's victory letter was finally sent to Xiangyang.

Early this morning, in the official residence of the governor of the six provinces in Xiangyang City, the 53-year-old elder Yang Sichang, dragging his tired and sick body, began to deal with military and government affairs as usual from [-]:[-] pm.

Yang Sichang's health has deteriorated a lot since he was ordered in a critical situation more than a year ago, his insomnia has become more and more serious, and diet and recuperation have no effect.

Whenever I see a little light every day, I will wake up with a start, and it is impossible to fall asleep after sunrise.

He could get up early, but it was impossible for other civil and military officials in Xiangyang City to follow suit.In the silence of the early morning, Yang Sichang had no choice but to look through the military documents of the previous days, and pondered the layout with the map alone.

"It seems that this autumn has passed. As long as the thieves don't expand their victories and rob them of food during the autumn harvest, then this year's victories against thieves will be consolidated. I hope God bless Daming..."

Looking at the battle reports from all parties, Yang Sichang was generally satisfied with the situation so far—at least he only looked at the battle situation in the three provinces of Hubei, Henan and Anhui, not the entire Ming Dynasty. The situation is indeed improving.

In the Huguang war zone, there are now five factions in total, and under his control, each of them advances and compresses the territory of the thieves.

On the southwestern side of Jingzhou Prefecture, the governor of Huguang, Fang Kongzhang, was stationed in Yiling. Relying on the main roads into Sichuan, it prevented thieves from spreading and fleeing into Sichuan.

At the same time, Zhang Xianzhong's main force was also forced to retreat to the north of Jingmen and Dangyang, that is, to the Jingshan mountainous area.

This area is roughly equivalent to the vast mountainous area between Jingmen and Shiyan in later generations, including the eastern part of Shennongjia.

Zuo Liangyu, who is stationed in Wuchang in the south, has worked hard for more than half a year, relying on the natural dangers of the Yangtze River and the Han River, it is impossible to let the thieves go south into the Dongting Lake Plain.But Zuo Liangyu is also preserving his strength. His old boss, former household minister Hou Xun is out of prison, so he is too lazy to really work for the emperor.

The Dabie Mountains in the southeast is the least important direction of Yang Sichang's encirclement network. There is only one idle chess waiting to be tested, Shen Shuren, the Tongzhi of Huangzhou.

Originally, Yang Sichang didn't expect Shen Shuren to make meritorious deeds soon, he just thought that this junior was a bit talented, but he needed hard work, experience and polishing, so he left it there to observe for a while.

Shen Shuren lacks troops and resources, so it would be good if he can keep his current territory.As for Liu Xiyao and Lin Chengcheng, even if Shen Shuren did not attack, Yang Sichang could still count on Anlu Governor Shi Kefa to suppress the Fifth Gezuo Battalion in the Dabie Mountains and prevent them from entering the plains to plunder.

The difference here lies only in who owns the remote villages in the Dabie Mountains, and it is impossible for thieves to get out of the mountains.

After the encirclement network in the southern half circle has been counted, the rest is in the north.In Xiangyang in the middle of the north, Yang Sichang personally sits in town, so there is nothing to say.

In the northwest, there are Huguang Bing Beiqian Yuan Jixian who suppressed Luo Rucai in Yunyang, and two small thieves in the Fourth Battalion of Junzhou attached to Luo Rucai.

Luo Rucai was basically compressed and retreated to Danjiangkou and Wudang Mountains in Shiyan in later generations, and he was also unable to gain a firm foothold in the plains.

As for the Hubei-Henan border in the northeast, Liu Guoneng, a general led by the bandits, is stationed on the Henan side.

Liu Guoneng's defense area blocked the Fangcheng Pass between Tongbai Mountain and Funiu Mountain, and at the same time blocked the Xinyang Road from Suizhou Mansion through Tongbai Mountain, so they respectively prevented Ma Shouying and He Jin from the Fifth Gezuo Battalion from entering Henan. possibility.

From this point of view, after Yang Sichang's one-year layout, the presence of thieves in the affluent plains has been greatly reduced.

Zhang Xianzhong hid in Shennongjia;

Luo Rucai hid in Wudang Mountain;

Ma Shouying hid in Funiu Mountain;

Ge Liyan and He Jin hid in Tongbai Mountain;

Liu Xiyao and Lin Chengcheng hid in Yinghuo Mountain;
(Note: Tongbai Mountain, Yingshan Mountain, and Huoshan Mountain together form Dabie Mountain. Dabie Mountain is bifurcated in a "Y" shape, and the three sides constitute the junction of the three provinces of Hubei, Henan and Anhui. These three sides are taken out separately, and they were called Tongbai Mountain and Huo Mountain in ancient times. , Yingshan)
As for Li Zicheng, he is still fooling around in the Shangluo Mountains in the far northwest, between the Nanyang Basin and the Guanzhong Basin.

If you don't consider off-market factors, it still looks very promising for the thieves to be extinguished.

It's a pity that Yang Sichang has lived for too long. Over the years, he has seen countless "outside factors" always come to disrupt the situation just right.

So this time he also had a bad premonition, and he didn't dare to expect "accidents don't happen".

This external factor is precisely the Qing army that Yang Sichang has been worried about—the last time the official army forced all kinds of rogues to a dead end and forced them to land, the Qing army appeared and wiped out Lu Xiangsheng's troops, causing the official army to concede the strength of the rogues. The advantage disappeared in an instant, which is why these thieves retaliated.

This time before he went south, he persuaded the emperor to endure the humiliation first, negotiate a peace with the Qing army, and hold Huang Taiji back with false accusations.

It's a pity that the peace negotiation was blocked by Qing rumor official Huang Daozhou. Huang Daozhou put down a lot of moral hats that "peace cannot be negotiated before regaining the lost land in Liaodong", which made Chongzhen dare not negotiate a peace.

Yang Sichang vaguely felt that although Huang Taiji did not attack Daming with all his strength at that time, it was difficult to say whether Huang Taiji would save these teammates who echoed each other when the thief was beaten to death.

I hope not.

"Hey, if Huang Taiji really comes, I don't know how much I will lose this time. Last time I lost Lu Xiangsheng, will I lose Hong Chengchou this time? That's all, we can't decide.

Let's think of a way, how to speed up the elimination of the enemies in front of us.One day faster on my side, the risk of being forced to fight on two fronts by Huang Taiji in the future will be less. "

Yang Sichang drove those lingering thoughts out of his mind, and then picked up his pen, preparing to write some year-end evaluations for the five besieging generals under his command, and review their merits and demerits.

It's almost the end of the year, and even though the war has not yet come to a final conclusion, it is better to report everyone's military exploits to the emperor.

With a swipe of his pen, Yang Sichang first ranked Yuan Jixian and Fang Kongxuan at the front, then Liu Guoneng and Shen Shuren in the middle, and finally Zuo Liangyu at the bottom.

In addition, I did not forget to mention Shi Kefa, the governor of Anlu, saying that Shi Kefa provided Shen Shuren and Liu Guoneng with rear support and formed a second line of defense.Without the backing of Shi Kefa, once Shen Shuren or Liu Guoneng collapsed, the bandits might threaten Nanzhili to the east.

Just after writing this, a trusted master suddenly came in at the door to report: "Old Ge, Huangzhou urgent report! It is the military information sent by Huangzhou Tongzhi Shen Shuren! He also sent a head along with the letter, saying it was a "struggle!" World King 'Liu Xiyao'!"

"What? Seriously? How could Shen Shuren have enough troops to destroy Liu Xiyao? What's more, these thieves are so cunning, if it is not convenient for them to escape to the mountains, how can they kill the leader of the thieves?"

Yang Sichang was so shocked that his ink-stained brush fell on the draft of the memorial, polluting a large area of ​​the draft.

But in the next second, the master waved his hand excitedly, and several soldiers came in carrying a wooden box containing a human head.Yang Sichang opened the wooden box with slight trembling and took a look, his hands stopped shaking immediately.

He casually crumpled up the contaminated draft and threw it into the trash.

What did I write just now!Of course, Shen Shuren should be brought up to the premise!

"He's really talented. When I put him in Huangzhou, I expected him to keep his place and not make any mistakes. This regiment training can kill Liu Xiyao! Help me draft a memorial, Just to discuss merit, I suggest His Majesty make Shen Shuren the prefect of Huangzhou!"

(End of this chapter)