Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 182

In May of the Yiyou year, after Li Zicheng, the emperor of Dashun, died at the hands of the gentry group Lian in Tongshan County, Hubei, the Dashun Dynasty basically collapsed completely.

The Dashun Dynasty, which once ruled the entire Yellow River Basin and parts of the Jianghuai area, returned to the situation of the 14th year of Chongzhen under the pursuit of the Qing soldiers and the rebellion of local officials and gentry. , has no place to stand.

After Li Zicheng's death, his wife, Empress Gao of the Dashun Dynasty, was still in the Dashun Army on the East Road, but Gao's nature was weak, and she was not a person who could inherit Li Zicheng's behest and restore the mess at a critical moment.

The Dashun Dynasty failed one after another, and the situation in the Dashun Army on the East Road also changed.

In the Xi'an period, Zehou Tian Jianxiu, whose status was comparable to Liu Zongmin, had only [-] infantry left at that time, and became an ordinary general with almost no prestige. Three thousand soldiers died, while his old subordinate Liu Tichun had [-] soldiers, and his younger brother Liu Titong also had [-] troops.

Liu Fangliang, the Zuoying general who once stood alone in the Dashun Dynasty, had only 1 troops left at this time, while the original general Hao Yaoqi had 6000 troops, and Wang Jincai had [-] troops.

Under such circumstances, the command system of the East Army will inevitably be destroyed, and it will be impossible to form a unified command. Naturally, it will be impossible to elect a leader and continue to fight against the Ming and Qing.

No one in the Shun army could inherit Li Zicheng's will, and they couldn't fight on both sides, so they had to make a choice between the Ming and Qing Dynasties.

In June and July of the Yiyou year, the loose East Road Dashun Army took advantage of Azig's marching eastward to attack Nanming, crossed Jiugong Mountain, entered Hunan, and finally assembled in Pingjiang and Liuyang. There are 21 troops.

At this time, He Tengjiao, Governor of Huguang in the Ming Dynasty, escaped from the rebels on the left, took Ningzhou and Pingjiang, and arrived in Changsha less than a month ago. The whole territory.

He Tengjiao didn't know at this time that the rest of the Dashun Army had already arrived in Liuyang, and that the East Road Dashun Army had already intentionally joined forces with He Tengjiao after the emperor's new funeral and the loss of territory. The Shun army in the east are just some unprofessional local bandits.

In July, the Dong Lu Shun Army approached Changsha, intending to contact He Tengjiao, but He Tengjiao made a wrong judgment and ordered Changsha County Magistrate Tuesday South and Deputy Commander Huang Chaoxuan to lead [-] troops to raid.

The Dashun army intended to reconcile, and Sui voluntarily backed down to show their sincerity, but on Tuesday Nan mistakenly thought that the local bandits were vulnerable, and led his troops to chase after them. As a result, the Shun army couldn't bear it anymore and swung a spear in Liuyang. On Tuesday Nan was killed on the spot. The soldiers and horses under his command were also killed or injured.

The defeated army fled back to Changsha, only then did He Tengjiao know that the original opponent was the Dashun Army, and when Zuo Liangyu heard that the Dashun Army had entered Chu, he fled at the wind, He Tengjiao suddenly panicked.

At that time, He Tengjiao had only Zhang Xianbi and Huang Chaoxuan as his subordinates, who were unable to meet the enemy at all. Fortunately, Donglu Shunjun only wanted to communicate with Daming through He Tengjiao to jointly fight against the Qing Dynasty, and had no intention of defeating He Tengjiao.

At the end of August, according to Wang Yan's intention, Emperor Longwu wanted to recruit the rest of the Dashun army and the enthronement edict, and spread them to Hunan at the same time.

It's just that He Tengjiao, who was born as an orthodox literati, didn't trust the Dashun army who was born as a bandit. He and Fu Shangrui, the partial governor, saw that after the joint venture, the number of soldiers and horses increased by hundreds of thousands, while the number of officers and troops was only ten thousand. The army is full of suspicion.

At this time, He Tengjiao should have followed the strategy stated in the Longwu Edict, using the entire territory of Hunan in his hands to replenish the Dashun Army with supplies to help them recover their combat power, and then recover Huguang when the main force of the Qing army was not in Hubei, but However, He Tengjiao adopted a strategy of crowding out and suppressing the Dashun Army.

Hao Yaoqi and Wang Jincai had the largest number of troops in the Donglu Shun Army, but their original status was relatively low. Taking advantage of the defeat and chaos of the Dashun Army, they each commanded a large number of Shun Army, and it was inevitable that they would compete with the Dashun Army. There was a estrangement between the veteran general Feng Houbo.

He Tengjiao made a fuss about the food and garrison, and then took advantage of the internal contradictions in the Shun army to accept Hao Yaoqi and Wang Jincai as cronies, appointed Hao Yaoqi as the deputy commander-in-chief of the supervising standard, and was soon promoted to the commander-in-chief. soldier.

As for Tian Jianxiu, Yuan Zongdi, Liu Tichun and other Hou Bos conferred by the Dashun Dynasty, they were discriminated against. They were neither resettled nor provided with food and salaries, which made it impossible for them to gain a foothold in Hunan, so they had to lead their troops to leave Hunan. Enter Hubei and join forces with the Xilu Shun Army who are besieging Jingzhou.

The West Road Shun Army was composed of Li Guo, Gao Yigong and other troops. They did not go south with Li Zicheng, but went south from northern Shaanxi via Hanzhong. Go east and occupy Jingmen Prefecture and Dangyang City.

At the end of July, Li Guo, Gao Yigong and other nine battalions would attack Jingzhou, but Zheng Siwei, the deputy general of Jingzhou of the Qing court, resisted stubbornly and failed to break through the city after half a month of siege.

At the end of August, the Eastern and Western Routes of Shunjun joined forces in Jingzhou, and Li Guo, Gao Yigong and others knew the news of Li Zicheng's death.

At this time, Tong Yanghe, the governor of Huguang in the Qing court, began to frequently send envoys to appease the two Dashun armies, and the Dashun army had nowhere to go.

The Qing court appointed them with the land of Huguang, and promised high-ranking officials and nobles, so that the Dashun army would return to the Qing court and send troops south to take Hunan directly. However, because Li Guo, Gao Yigong and others refused to shave their heads, they never A surrender agreement was reached.

At this time, Du Yinxi, governor of Hunan, learned that after He Tengjiao joined forces, he was expelled from Hunan. After joining the East Road Dashun Army and the West Road Dashun Army, he stationed in Jingzhou and Lizhou, so he went to Jingzhou to discuss with Li Guo. The matter of the alliance.

Du Yinxi and He Tengjiao have completely different attitudes towards the Dashun Army. He Tengjiao tried every means to exclude the Dashun Army, but Du Yinxi agreed with Wang Yan's point of view. key.

At that time, the imperial court had already lost almost all of its elite field soldiers, while the Qing soldiers had millions of soldiers. The ground will be beaten to pieces immediately.

Seeing the importance of the Shun army, Du Yinxi led dozens of cavalry into Li Guo's camp. people.

Between the Ming Dynasty and the Qing court, the Ming Dynasty with the same language and the same race was naturally easier for the Shun army to accept than the Manchu who shaved the money rat tail. After the army received Du Yinxi's guarantee, Li Guo, Gao Yigong, Generals of the Dashun Army, including Yuan Zongdi, Liu Fangliang, Wu Ruyi, Tian Jianxiu, and Liu Tichun, bowed their heads and obeyed orders and surrendered to Ming Dynasty.

(The information in this chapter comes from Mr. Gu Cheng's History of the Southern Ming Dynasty)
(End of this chapter)