Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 757 Rising Winds and Clouds ([-])

Niu Chenghu sat restlessly in the study, surrounded by several confidantes, one of whom just came from the front line of Qingzhou Mansion just late at night.A few days ago, this gentleman brought eight battalions (more than 4000 people) to Yidu County to take orders from Tong Yangliang's tent. Later, he suffered heavy losses in the battle to stop the bandits in yellow. He only brought three battalions and fled back, and lost Most of the weapons can be described as extremely embarrassing.

These three battalions were all old battalions brought by Niu Chenghu and others from Shaanxi, and the fifth battalion that was lost in Yidu, except for a few newly recruited in Henan, most of them were strong men who were forced to pull in Shandong. Yes, no regrets.It's just that the news they brought back made the people stationed in Zhangqiu County uneasy: the combat power of the bandit in yellow is indeed too tyrannical!

That Tong Yangliang is an old man from Liaodong, and his ability to govern the army is not bad.Although new recruits accounted for nearly half of the [-] troops who intercepted the yellow-clothed thieves in Qingzhou this time, there was no shortage of equipment, food and salaries, and the city was desperately reinforced for several months.But it only blocked the yellow-clothed thief for eleven days, which made the generals of the green battalion who were in a hurry to adjust their deployment to resist the yellow-clothed thief suddenly a little scared.

Erlang Zhenjun has been transferred to Shanxi, and now these shrimp soldiers and crab generals are staying in Shandong, how will they resist the grandson who has become a master?

"Commander, after the last general broke through, he found many bandit troops scattered in the wild, scattered all over the place, handing out cards, recruiting and accepting rebels, it was very rampant. Here, this is a passing card that the last general uncovered." After Mingpi finished speaking, he handed over a blank paper full of words in his hand.

Niu Chenghu was born in northern Shaanxi. He was in the peasant army in his early years, and he also became the leader of the army. He was nicknamed "One Scale of Gold".Therefore, he and many of his confidantes were born with mud legs and could not read a single word. After the general handed over the pass card, he handed it to the master behind him to recite it in public.

The master cleared his throat, picked up the passing card and swept it briefly, and his face immediately changed: "...a teacher of benevolence and righteousness, a teacher of might, a teacher of victory, don't rape women, don't kill innocent people, don't plunder property, what you have done Autumn did not commit any crimes. However, when the soldiers approached the city, they were not allowed to disobey. The first blunderbuss required the officials to go out to meet them, the second blunderbuss required the gentry to surrender, and the third blunderbuss required the entire army to disarm. If the whole city refuses to defend, it will be slaughtered as much as possible on the day the city is destroyed, and not a single blade of grass will be left. You must know when the card arrives!"

Such a murderous pass made the generals in the room sweat coldly.Back then in Shanxi and Henan, as members of the Shun Army, they did not rarely issue pass cards with similar tone, but when this kind of spy was dealt to themselves, it always felt so frustrating.

"Let's discuss it all. What kind of regulations should be in the current situation." Niu Chenghu patted the table and said to everyone.

"I can't surrender. This yellow-clothed army is like a bandit. It's not appropriate for me to surrender without a name or a point." Someone shouted immediately, "Besides, our army has tens of thousands of troops stationed in Zhangqiu. We are working on the outskirts of Jinan. Now food and salaries are all supplied by Zhang Futai in Jinan, if you join the bandits in yellow clothes, it will be very inconvenient when you are in a hurry, I hope the commander-in-chief thinks twice."

"The bandits in yellow have sharp guns and cannons. They are known as elites. Now they have tens of thousands of people coming to the west. They are as powerful as Mount Tai. In Zhangqiu County, our army has no more than [-] soldiers. To stop them is tantamount to killing themselves. This How do you do business at a loss?" Immediately, someone expressed objection.Indeed, everyone has fought and fought for so many years, is it easy to save some capital, if it all falls on Zhangqiu at once, even if he has to save his life, he will have no soldiers and no power in the future, I am afraid that life will be difficult.

"It's impossible to surrender, and it's impossible not to surrender. It's better to wait and see for the time being, and then make a fuss when the yellow-clothed thieves come west." Some people stood up to make peace. In fact, this is the safest way.Wait for a while, take a look, what if the thieves in yellow don't go west?

Niu Chenghu heard his subordinates chattering in his ears, and he was still stroking a letter with his right hand tucked into his sleeve.This is a persuading letter written by Chen Zhilong, who is currently working for the Yellow Clothes Thief, to himself. He originally planned to burn it and ignore it, but at that time, he somehow kept this letter.Listening to his generals discussing the situation at this moment, he suddenly found that these people were not very enthusiastic about resisting the bandits in yellow, which made him feel a little shaken in his heart.

He was originally a bandit, and later surrendered to the Ming Dynasty to serve as the general soldier of Lintao. In 1644, after Li Zicheng entered Beijing, Niu Chenghu, who was born in Shaanxi, was named General of the General Power and stationed in Ningxia Prefecture.After the Battle of Piece of Stone, Dong Xueli, the former Ningxia Huamachi deputy general Yu Huaiqing surrendered to the Qing army, secretly sent a letter to Dashun Ningxia Jiedu envoy Chen Zhilong, asking him to send troops to the Qing Dynasty.As a result, the letter was intercepted by Niu Chenghu, who ordered the execution of Dong Xueli's only son and his younger brother.

In 1645, Niu Chenghu was still loyal to Dashun.When Azige led his army into Shaanxi and sent Kang Yuanxun, a surrendered general of the Shun Army, to recruit him, Niu Chenghu even killed him.Unexpectedly, the situation changed rapidly. When Li Zicheng led his troops to retreat to Henan and Hubei, Chen Zhilong recruited a considerable part of the Shunjun army and threatened Niu Chenghu with firearms to surrender together. Niu Chenghu reluctantly surrendered to the Qing Dynasty at the end of the month.

In other words, he himself has grievances with Chen Zhilong and Dong Xueli!Now these two people are getting along well with the thief in yellow, how dare Niu Chenghu surrender!How can drop!

And when Niu Chenghu and his generals were so entangled in what to do next, on March 1649, 3, Mao Desheng rode a pure-blooded Turkmen horse and set foot on the westward road.Along with him, there was also the army from the east bank who had just won the fierce battle in Qingzhou City.Except for Ding Mingwu's troops who suffered heavy casualties (most of the casualties in this battle came from this department, and there are currently less than 12 troops), who stayed in Qingzhou City to rest and transfer supplies, almost all the rest of the main force were dispatched along the border between Jinan and Qingzhou. The official path advances at an unhurried pace.

The messengers set out first with the main force, and they took a large number of transcribed pass cards and distributed them to Xiazhou and counties under the Qing government along the way.After Tong Yangliang's defeat in Qingzhou, more than ten counties including Linzi, Le'an, Boxing, Gaoyuan, Xincheng, Changshan, Zouping, and Zichuan in the west immediately fell into panic.Especially those gentry families fled westward one after another with gold and silver, so as not to stay in the county and be poisoned by yellow-clothed thieves.

And those with some strengths simply asked the county magistrate for a name, and together they paid for a group training to protect themselves.This is not the first time that the bandits in yellow have marched into the prefectures of Qingzhou and Jinan on a large scale. The last time they came was a soldier led by a bandit leader surnamed Mo (according to the imperial palace newspaper, this person had been shot dead by Mei Lezhang Jinglai in the Yanzhou Mansion), at that time, the gentry in these prefectures were hit hard. Not only were they sent food and donations, but even a few gentry who had a little connection with the Qing court were killed by the bandit in yellow. Difficult to become a master.Isn't it true, but whoever has the ambition to fight for the world, who would dare to treat the gentry harshly?A bandit is a bandit, and he will never be able to get on the stage. We will follow the Qing court closely and deal with the bandit in yellow to the end.

Therefore, when the troops on the east coast marched westward, there were still a large number of fortresses defended by gentry regiments in the countryside along the way to openly resist.These daring regimental armed forces even beheaded all the envoys sent by the East Bank to urge food, and at the same time slandered Marshal Mo for being crushed by the soldiers of "My Great Qing".This is really unreasonable!

So, after three shots were fired at the forts and they still refused to surrender, the East Bank Army finally began to use force to force them to surrender.The course of the battle was naturally lackluster, because how could the hastily drawn regiments be compared with the battle-hardened soldiers, so these fortresses were conquered one after another in a short while.What followed was cruel revenge. The disobedient gentry men were beheaded and killed, and the women's family members were either distributed as meritorious soldiers or included in the women's volunteer team, and all their property was confiscated.However, some fortresses that resisted were all slaughtered by Mao Desheng's order to help the defenders in the city, and the rest were demoted to slaves and sent to the Sakhalin Island State Farm as slaves.

After resorting to such a thunderous method, the army on the east coast immediately surrendered wherever they passed.Counties such as Linzi, Gaoyuan, Xincheng, and Changshan even surrendered as soon as they arrived. Even if the local magistrate did not want to surrender, the soldiers in the city would force him to surrender, otherwise everyone would be dead.Anyway, it is not very likely that the bandits in yellow will send troops to garrison. The so-called surrender is just a formality. Isn't the city still in charge?What's more, some quick-witted green-skinned hooligans used the name of surrendering to the yellow-clothed army to blackmail and amass money wantonly in the city, so they were very happy.

In this way, the ruling order that the Qing court had just restored in Qingzhou Prefecture and Jinan Prefecture for less than half a year once again collapsed.A large number of spontaneously formed rebels began to appear in various places, inspired by the army on the east bank, which further weakened the strength of the Qing court and shook the confidence of Qing court officials.

On March 3, after Lianke Qingzhou Prefecture and Jinan Prefecture seven or eight counties (basically all fell without a fight), the army from the east bank approached Zhangqiu County, Jinan Prefecture, and put their sharp knives directly on the Qing court's soft belly.Zhang Ruxiu, the governor of Shandong Province in the Qing Dynasty, rushed to Beijing for emergency, and Le Ke Dehun, who was in charge of Shandong's military affairs, also dispatched troops again and again, preparing to wait for work near Jinan, and fight a big battle with the bandits in yellow to determine the ownership of Shandong—he is really helpless. Way back!

In order to prepare for this war, Luck Dehun had completely given up the idea of ​​​​suppressing the bandits of the Yuyuan Army in Dongchang Mansion and Yanzhou Mansion, but began to gather troops to prepare for the war.Kong Xigui, Li Sutai, Tong Yangliang, and Niu Chenghu all gathered in Jinan, ready to fight to the death with the bandits in yellow.As for the more than 7 soldiers from Tong Yangliang (the remnant) of the Dengzhou General Soldier and Yi Yonggui, the Linqing General Soldier, they have already followed Tan Taibei to Shanxi to quell the chaos. With [-] to [-] people, relying on these crooked melons and jujubes who have lost their courage to fight against the yellow-clothed thieves whose morale is high, the battle situation may not be optimistic.What's more, the bandits in yellow can still contact the Yuyuan Army who just escaped from birth to act together, so my chances of winning the Qing Dynasty will be even smaller.

On March 3, the army on the east bank continued to advance westward after a short rest. The striker Du Chong's department had a small-scale confrontation with Niu Chenghu's department of Qingyi Prefecture General Soldier in the east of Zhangqiu County.

(End of this chapter)