Begging in late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 500 Marching Thousand Miles
The kings of Fan at the end of the Ming Dynasty can be divided into two categories, one is King Fu, King Chu, and King Qin, who sacrificed their lives but did not give up money. King Qin does not know if the second son who opposed Song Qingshu came to the throne at the beginning. After Governor Sun Chuanting was imprisoned by Chongzhen, almost all the farmland he managed to reclaim was occupied by Qin Fan. In the end, Sun Chuanting's Qin army had no military pay, and was defeated by Li Zicheng in Tongguan, and Ming Dynasty perished.

The King of Chu was even more penniless. Zhang Xianzhong had all come to Wuhan, and the officials of Chu gathered at the Palace of the King of Chu to ask for payment, but the old King of Chu pointed to the golden chair bestowed by Ming Taizu and clamored: "This is for the army, there is nothing else. !” As a result, Zhang Xianzhong broke through Wuchang, and all the gold and silver of the Chu Palace belonged to Zhang Xianzhong. All the Chu clan was driven to the Yangtze River and almost drowned.

The other category is those like the King of Zhou, who are usually not too disturbing to the people, and are willing to spend money at critical moments. In the late Ming Dynasty, Li Zicheng’s three attacks on Kaifeng City were considered decisive battles. Gold, silver and food were used to finance the defense of the city. One person who killed a thief was rewarded with 30 taels, and one who rewarded a thief was rewarded with ten taels. Relying on Chen Yongfu, the general soldier of Henan Province, with [-] Yu soldiers, Kaifeng blocked Li Zicheng's million-dollar army twice, and the third time he fought At the last moment, I don't know whether Li Zicheng or the army pushed up the mouth of the Yellow River and completely destroyed the city of Kaifeng. Only then did the war come to an end and the Zhou royal family was able to escape.

However, in this time and space, with Song Qingshu as a variable, Fu Wang, who was originally stingy and penniless, was taken out to receive "re-education from poor and lower-middle peasants", but he has a tendency to develop into King Zhou. Wangtian is all over the Fuwang Mansion in Huguang, Henan Province, which supports a lot of food. Fuwang still has a huge amount of silver taels in the ticket office to support the commercial development of Jiaduobao. Far away, Fuwang subsidizes the court’s military salary every year. There are 50 taels, Luoyang Almost all the nearby Ming army took advantage of King Fu.

Compared with Luoyang in history, today's Luoyang can be regarded as a united front. Moreover, Luoyang was the ancient capital of the thirteen dynasties, with high walls and many cannons. There is at least enough food for Luoyang's soldiers and civilians in the warehouse of King Fu for at least one year. As long as the guards will Be strong, stick to the time can never be shorter than

Because of this, Song Qingshu was also relieved to let Scarface lead the three divisions of the Daixian branch to defend Luoyang, and led his troops to the north, but he never expected that when the teacher he was satisfied with came back, Luoyang and Eleven Days The front was breached, and the father-in-law, King Fu, was killed!

Before leaving, thinking about his vow to Xiaojiali, Song Qingshu felt his face was hot, as if an invisible slap had been slapped on his face, and Sun Chuanting beside him was also dumbfounded.

There was a complete silence for a few seconds, his face was gloomy as if dripping water, Song Qingshu's voice was terribly dull, and he nodded to Sun Chuanting with slightly trembling hands.

"Mr. Boya, order the army to cancel all vacations."

"Humble job, let's do it!"

It's been a long time since I saw Song Qingshu so furious, and he didn't dare to delay for a moment. Clenching his fists, Sun Chuanting immediately turned around and went back.

The big bell hanging at the port rang tinkling, and the soldiers who were eating, shopping, and shopping in Dengzhou City almost immediately dropped everything at hand and ran back with all their strength. This is the beggar army. When you are relaxed, you can be as lazy as a big cat, but once your nerves are tense, smelling the smell of gunpowder, you will turn into a lion in an instant!

…………

The 14th year of Chongzhen was a catastrophe for the Ming court. In the beginning of spring, more than half of the Guan Ningjin line of defense was lost. Ningyuan was still in a hurry. When the Emperor Chongzhen was still annoyed by Song Qingshu's disobedience, Xiangyang, Bad news from Luoyang came one after another.

You must know that before this, although the rebel army captured many cities, there was no precedent for capturing such an important city again. When Song Qingshu captured King Fu, he did not attack Luoyang. Luoyang was still in the hands of the court, but this time, Luoyang and Xiangyang have fallen successively, which indicates that the power balance between officials and thieves has reached a new critical point.

At the beginning of the peasant uprising, the power of one province was enough to deal with it. Soon after, it was no longer possible for a single province to support it. The peasant army began to flee to several provinces and spread across the country. However, at any time and any place, the imperial court still has an advantage over the strength of the peasant army.

But now, this advantage has disappeared, and the officers and soldiers are no longer enough to deploy troops to deal with the entire battlefield. In some places, there have been vacancies in strength, allowing the peasant army to gain local advantages. It's not safe either.

And Yang Sichang, no matter whether his policies are flawed or not, whether he is ambitious or talented, he is the most trusted cabinet minister of the emperor, and he can get the emperor's spare no effort to support him. No one can gain such trust, and the Ming army's encirclement and suppression will never be under unified command again.

When Xiangyang fell, Zuo Liangyu's tribe simply left Yang Sichang and went north to Shaanxi, but Luoyang was besieged, and he didn't make any progress, and retreated to the area of ​​Anxian County, Shaanxi. He Renlong, Hu Dawei and other tribes were also in Huguang and Sichuan. At the junction of Yang Sichang's death, he immediately stopped chasing and killing Zhang Xianzhong, and the whole battle situation was in chaos.

When the news reached the capital, Emperor Chongzhen once again "fainted" and cried while covering his face, and then stopped for three days. Agreed, and even this time, the imperial court really gave the beggar army unimaginable preferential treatment since it was recruited. All the soldiers and horses were under his command. For the first time, the imperial court granted such great power to the peasant army to recruit generals.

But Song Qingshu couldn't see this benefit anymore, and he had already led the troops to set off before the imperial decree arrived.

The water transport has a large load, but it will take at least two months to return to Nanjing by sea, and then go upstream from the Yangtze River to reach Henan. The [-] war horses were transported back to Shandong from Jinzhou and Lushunkou area after rest these days. The first division of Qi, the first division of Gezuo, and the first division of Fengyang can be regarded as the main divisions of the Qihuo army. The horses abandoned most of the luggage, and everyone carried a few big steamed buns from Shandong. Song Qingshu immediately went overland, riding a horse from the Shandong Peninsula to Fengyang Mansion that day.

In this era, the daily marching limit of the cavalry was 24 kilometers, and it was about [-] kilometers from Dengzhou to Fengyang. Relying on the limit of forced marching, in nine days, three divisions ran back from Shandong to Lianghuai. Shu, the prefect of Anqing who got the news five days in advance, Song Qingshu's chief of staff, Fu Shan, also sent a large amount of luggage, supplies, and Ge Zuo's third, fourth, and fifth divisions to Fengyang in advance, and rested here for about a day , The Qihuo army hurried through the Dabie Mountains along the straight road built by Fengyang to Anqing. Put it to the forefront, Ruzhou.

At this time, Ruzhou City was almost in chaos. It was only more than 80 kilometers away from Luoyang, and the army was three or four days away. The news that Luoyang was captured made it almost like the end of the world. Fleeing from the south, the whole city is as depressed as Shenyang, where later generations go home for the New Year. Almost every family is closed, and everyone is in danger.

The defending officers and soldiers on the city wall also became frightened birds. The begging army approached the city, and the gates of the city were immediately closed. The muffled firecrackers were probing downward in a ghostly manner.

I don’t know how many times this kind of situation has happened to the beggar army. In fact, they are not the only ones. Almost any army in the Ming Dynasty has to be shut down when they go to the city. There is no way. The military discipline of the Ming Dynasty has been corrupted to the extreme. Looters are more vicious than thieves. We are all foreigners, and there is no mercy in harming the locals. Therefore, it takes seven points of strength to defend against thieves, and ten percent of effort to defend against soldiers.It has become a proverb everywhere.

He didn't bother to argue with them, and he didn't get any definite news from Luoyang until now. Song Qingshu was very anxious, and he didn't care about trampling on the farmland at this time, anyway, it was already deserted. Song Qingshu directly ordered a big camp to be set up in the open space in the east of the city.

All kinds of rumors spread all over the sky. Some said that Li Zicheng had 100 million horses, some said that he had reached 500 million horses, and some said that Li Zicheng led heavenly soldiers and generals. As for how to capture Luoyang City, there are different opinions. Some people even said that King Chuang would use thunder in his palm to blast open the city gate of Luoyang. Song Qingshu still doesn't know what the situation is at the front line, and it is a taboo for military strategists to rashly go deep alone.

This Song Qingshu was anxiously ordering all the ministries to come out together, so as to get a general idea of ​​the situation, but on the other end, another eunuch came out of the city unsteadily, and arrived at Song Qingshu's Chinese army tent in a strange manner, with his whisk on his shoulders As soon as he hit it, he raised his voice in an extremely arrogant voice.

"Where is General Pingliao? His Royal Highness Chong Wang ordered General Pingliao to enter the palace to have an audience!"

Sometimes I really suspect that these kings were not from the Ming Dynasty, but instead helped the peasant army and Jiannu. For example, King Xiang, who killed Yang Sichang, and King Qin, who were tight in the front and tight in the back. , the peasant uprising started in the first place, and was forced to rent by Qin Wangfu a while ago, and forced to set up several counties in Shaanxi. This Song Qingshu's busy head is a bit bigger, how can he care about him, eyes Staring at the map without even raising his head, he waved his hands like chasing flies away.

"No time!"

"Okay, okay! Good General Ping Liao, let's say goodbye!"

The eunuch was almost out of breath. In the feudal system, except for the emperor, the first rank of the king is the highest. For example, the king of Qin in Xi'an, regardless of his lack of military power and political power, can make Song Qingshu unable to live with a single sentence. The governor also had to make a confession, but he never thought that General Ping Liao would be so domineering, he sneered several times, and carrying the whisk, the eunuch turned his head and went out.

However, within an hour, the tent of the Chinese army was lifted again, and immediately a pitiful voice came in from the door.

"Officer!!!"

Lifting his head in disbelief, Song Qingshu's face trembled as he watched the little pepper with red eyes staggering away from the tent accompanied by the helpless eunuch...

(End of this chapter)