Emperor Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty

Chapter 501 The Third Guards Army Bombards Weihui Mansion (Chapter 20)
The Third Guard Army, like the Second Guard Army and the First Guard Army, was one of the three direct-line armies originally established by Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youjian.

However, the current Third Army of the Guards undertook the main task of annihilating the Manchus during the second Southern Expedition of the Qing Dynasty, and suffered relatively large losses. Veterans and grassroots officers who are away from promotion are the most.

As a result, many soldiers of the Third Guards Army are recruits, and the combat power of the Third Guards Army has not yet reached its peak state.

Despite this, the Third Army of the Guards still showed extraordinary combat power when crossing the Yellow River north.

The two main corps of the Third Army of the Guards quickly marched towards Yuanwu and Yangwu as soon as they crossed the Yellow River. Among them, the Second Corps occupied Yuanwu County within three days, and the First Corps quickly occupied Yangwu County within two days. .

Then, the Third Army of the Guards was divided into two groups, and the First Corps marched from Yangwu to Fengqiu and Yanjin, preparing to enter Weihui Mansion and take charge of recovering Weihui Mansion;
The Second Corps attacked Wuzhi County from Yuanwu and was responsible for recovering Huaiqing Mansion.

Once Weihui Mansion and Huaiqing Mansion are recovered, it means that only Zhangde Mansion is still in Manqing's hands in the whole of Henan.

Although Chongzhen’s 20-year-old Manchu war against the Ming Dynasty was over, the three prefectures of Huaiqing, Weihui, and Zhangde in Henan, which were ruled by the Manchu Qing, had not fully recovered.

First of all, wars and natural disasters caused a large number of population loss, so now the Third Army of the Guards has entered several wealthy counties and counties in the north of Henan, and there are almost no people. Grass, or wild dogs or wolves poking out half their heads from the ruins from time to time.

Compared with Kaifeng Mansion and Guide Mansion, which are only separated by a river, because under the rule of Ming Dynasty and after a series of water conservancy projects and measures to encourage the resumption of production by allocating land for refugees, the fields and ridges in this area have already seen endless greenery. Wheat seedlings.

Secondly, the Manchu Qing has become a frightened bird, and has no power to govern these places. Even the local government of the Manchu Qing no longer has the confidence to do things that benefit the country and the people, so they should hurry up to collect money or spend a day in the desolate city is a day.

When the First Corps of the Third Army of the Guards captured the two counties of Yangwu and Fengqiu, the magistrates of these two counties surrendered without a fight, and even opened the city gates on their own initiative.

Naturally, the guards did not spare these people who had sacrificed their lives for the Qing Dynasty. Although they chose to surrender now, it was not considered a defection.

But because of this, the Qing army did not dare to surrender easily in the following battles. Many states and counties began to choose to resist, but they often could not gather many people to defend the city.

In the end, the Third Army of the Guards did not encounter decent resistance at all after crossing the Yellow River north, and the Third Army of the Guards could only transfer some civilians from Kaifeng Mansion for its own logistics transportation, because the people who could not be hired locally , can only bear the cost of the long-distance travel of the civilian husband.

Of course, it doesn't mean that there are no people in these places, because they have been exploited and squeezed by the Qing government for a long time and have taken a state of distrust of the officers and soldiers, even if the Guards emphasize that they are discipline-abiding officers and soldiers.

What really challenged the Third Army of the Guards were these armed landlords who were self-protecting.

Because we live in troubled times, it is understandable and necessary for the people of a village to form a village under the leadership of the patriarch or squire to protect themselves. However, these armed landlords are real power forces not controlled by the government, and they have great influence on the rule of the central dynasty. Great challenge.

Even these armed landlords were good citizens in their own villages but turned into bandits in other villages. Naturally, their purpose was to compete for land, but it was these armed landlords that caused the chaos in the entire northern part of Henan.

Therefore, the Third Army of the Guards had to send officers and soldiers to eradicate these landlords.

Just like what the First Army of the Guards did in Beizhili, most of the gentry were eliminated in the name of punishing the Han thieves, and for the common people, the benefits plundered from the gentry were distributed to these common people to win over the common people to support the entire guard The army left most of the landlords and gentry in the north isolated and helpless, and were successfully eradicated one by one by the guards.

But because of this, these gentry and the Manchu government were more united, and some landlord armed forces began to actively join the Qing army to resist the Northern Expedition of the Ming Guards.

This is the case in Weihui's mansion at this time.

Xiang Degong, the magistrate of Weihui Mansion, had no intention of defending when he learned that the guards crossed the Yellow River, and was about to abandon his official position and flee back to Shanxi, but at this time, the Manchu Juren Gong Zhaolu of Huaiqing Mansion and a group of gentry stopped him In order to ask Xiang Degong, he asked Xiang Degong to guard the Hui Mansion to be loyal to the Qing Dynasty, and not to abandon the people in the city.

Even Gong Zhaolu led a group of squires and gathered 2 people to gather in Fucheng to resist the attack of the First Corps of the Third Army of the Guards.

Xiang Degong, the magistrate of Weihui Mansion, had no choice but to issue a notice to guard Weihui Mansion to be loyal to the Qing Dynasty, and began to open the treasury to recruit soldiers.

Even Xiang Degong, the magistrate of Weihui Mansion, had to write a memorial to the Manchu Qing court, requesting the Manchu Qing court to grant the official post of Gong Zhaolu.

However, Xiang Degong had no enthusiasm for guarding the Hui Mansion, and simply handed everything over to Juren Gong Zhaolu.

Gong Zhaolu is very active. He will go to the city to check the situation every day. He also wrote a blood letter stating that he will fight to the death for the Qing Dynasty, and preaches that the Imperial Guards of the Ming Dynasty are the most brutal army. In the Hui Mansion, those who spread the word of the guards allocating land to the common people in the city were immediately executed if they were caught, and they were even hung on the city tower to frighten the people in the city.

The people in the city didn't know the reality of the Third Guards Army, and they didn't have a good impression of the officers and soldiers, so most of the people in the palace believed that if the Guards occupied Weihui Mansion, it might be a disaster.

"The palace of Weihui Mansion didn't open its doors to welcome the surrender, but was closed so tightly that it seemed that they were going to stick to it to the end. Who gave them the courage!"

Liu Fangliang, the commander-in-chief of the Third Army of the Guards, looked at the tower of Weihui Mansion City for a while, then took off the binoculars, and retreated to his command tent: "Notice, the two artillery battalions of the First Corps are here for the commander-in-chief. Bomb him a few times, the cavalry battalion is ready, since the magistrate of Weihui Mansion wants to fight, we will accompany him to the end!"

At this time, the First Corps of the Third Army of the Guards had gathered [-] infantry field artillery, heavy artillery and light artillery, including thirty rifled infantry light artillery and ten heavy infantry field artillery. All the cannons were aimed at Weihui Mansion City.

"Battle No. [-] is ready!"

"The second artillery position is ready!"

"The No. [-] artillery position is ready!"

……

A series of shouts were shouted in the barren field, and the cannons began to spray flames, and solid iron bullets and explosive bullets roared all over Weihui's mansion.

(End of this chapter)