Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 311 The Only Chance

Yang Chao was just surprised by Xu Du's rebellion, but looking at Xu Du's repeated failures in the imperial examinations, he can probably guess the reason for his rebellion.

This made Yang Chao think of a historical figure, Huang Chao from the Tang Dynasty.

The Huang Chao family has been a salt merchant for generations, and they are wealthy.

Going to Chang'an to take part in the imperial examination did not go well. After failing, I wrote a poem "When the next September [-]th, I will kill a hundred flowers after they bloom. A few years later, they actually entered Chang'an City together.

Xu Du, like Huang Chao, is also a wealthy family, sitting on tens of thousands of acres for two days, after many failures in the imperial examination, donating money to make friends with people in the world, and finally rebelled.

No matter how you look at it, this is a hero who wants to take advantage of the chaos in the world and make a career out of it.

The difference between Xu Du and Huang Chao is actually just a domineering poem.

The fuse of the rebellion was the oppression of the local government, who often blackmailed Xu’s family. On the day Xu Du gave his mother’s funeral, tens of thousands of people sent the funeral and wore white cloth on their heads. However, the local officials falsely accused Xu Du of rebellion and extorted 1 taels As a result, Xu Du really rebelled.

Of course, such a character, even if the government doesn't bully him, will probably rebel sooner or later.

After Yang Chao read the Tang newspaper, he didn't pay much attention to it. He thought that such a mob was nothing more than that. It would be a hell of a trick if a few heroes of the rivers and lakes could rebel successfully.

Last year, Yang Chao didn't celebrate the New Year at home because he went north to King Qin, so the Yang family was extremely lively this year.

On New Year's Eve, it cost a hundred taels of silver just to set off firecrackers, which almost made the family servants set them off all night.

It's a pity that the Yang family is not very prosperous, and the family can't eat much when they set up a banquet, but the servants and women in the family have a good life, not to mention delicious food and drink, and each of them got a big red envelope.

After New Year's Eve and the first lunar month, relatives and friends began to move around, and people came to pay New Year's greetings every day.

Yang Chao didn't escape like before this time, but stayed at home honestly with his parents to entertain guests.

The mother wore the official uniform of the second rank, the phoenix crown and the xiapei, and accepted the visits of relatives, friends and wives one by one, and then raised her hands and said "flat body" with majesty. For such a ceremony, the mother enjoyed it very much .

Although Yang Chao didn't hide, but the relatives and friends who came this year are much more polite, including his uncle, they are not complaining like before. It's not that he is satisfied with his son's treatment, but he still wants to complain to his sister in private. The topic of the nephew's elbow turning outward, after all, Zhao Kang's official position is still lower than that of Wang Pu and others.

But at least no one said in front of Yang Chao that Yang Chao's current status is not what it used to be, especially that Haizhou became famous in the first battle. Everyone can see that his prosperity is just around the corner, so he doesn't want to annoy Yang Chao.

Communication in the officialdom is also indispensable. The question of going to the banquet can be pushed as long as it can be pushed, that is, Shi Kefa, such a high-ranking official, can't be pushed away. A powerful figure like Jin Yiwei Zhen Fushi, it is also necessary to give face, and there is a close relationship Yang Wencong also had to communicate in person.

As for the others, the superiors will give gifts, and the subordinates will accept them. Yang Chao no longer needs to show up.

Before the fifteenth day, Yang Chao returned to the barracks, because the holidays were here, and the military regulations formulated by Yang Chao had always been voluntarily followed.

Everything in the barracks was normal, officers and soldiers took turns to take vacations, and the army’s complete combat effectiveness was maintained. Liu Kongzhao did not take the opportunity to make trouble. Without such a strong soldier, the key is not to have such courage.

The military system has been operating in an orderly manner, and there are not many problems that Yang Chao needs to solve. This has formed a machine, as long as sufficient resources are provided, it will continue to operate by itself.

The wharf siege continued to work, and only stopped for three days during the Chinese New Year, because for these refugees, the Chinese New Year is not very interesting. If they do not start work, they will not get money, and they may go hungry, so they hope to start work as soon as possible.

And because Bai Jiangtou received a monthly boat rent of 10 taels, he wished he could not pass the New Year, so all started working on the fourth day of the Lunar New Year, and the project continued to work overtime.

Now the dredging and foundation work of the entire dock area has been basically completed. Originally, Yang Chao's plan was to hire one or two thousand people all the year round and gradually complete the construction in five to ten years. However, he did not expect that these refugees would make Yang Chao We got nearly 10 laborers. Although not all of them are young and strong, the construction is still shortened greatly. Although the labor force has increased by nearly [-] times, the construction period has not been shortened by [-] times, but it is still greatly shortened. The project that was originally completed in five years at most , It can be completed in February this year, and most of the chartered ships can be returned by the end of this month, saving nearly [-] taels of rental costs.

The construction of the polder embankment along the Yangtze River has also been going on. There are a few apprentices of the white craftsman watching, and the progress of the project is not too slow. The progress has also been greatly accelerated. Now a dike that is six or seven miles long, starting from the Xinjiangkou and ending at the Lion Mountain, has been windingly formed, but minor repairs are still being carried out. It will be completed this month without waiting for the spring flood. .

The grass seeds sprinkled by the emperor last year made the wasteland green this year. Although the growth of pasture grass is not as good as that of the grassland with abundant water and grass, as a wasteland, he doesn't care how much it can produce. Anyway, it is definitely enough for Yang Chao to raise horses.

The construction of the barracks was completed last year, and facilities such as bathhouses, toilets, and canteens were also added to the new barracks and the Qianzong camp, which were of the same standard as the Zuosi camp.

After staying in the barracks for a few days, just after the fifteenth day of the first lunar month, the fleet with large masts finally returned.

After inquiring about the situation, I found out that their journey went smoothly, although there were a few water camps along the river that were not very friendly, and there was even an incident of forcibly taking away their warships at Langshan. At this time, according to Yang Chao's request, the soldiers on board He fired without hesitation. At that time, he just fired the cannon into the sky, but it still deterred these disobedient soldiers from the water battalion and forced their way through.

The return journey was much smoother, and no one dared to think about such a large fleet. You must know that most of Yang Chao's cannons were installed on these eight large ships.

After the first month, all the soldiers and officers who built the building returned to the army, and the barracks were completely restored.

But at this time, some bad news came. Zhang Xianzhong entered Sichuan, and Li Zicheng proclaimed himself emperor in Xi'an.

Yang Chao focused on Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng.

According to Tang Bao, since last year, the situation of the peasant army has undergone some changes. Instead of following the previous mobile combat method, it is trying to establish a stable base.

First, Li Zicheng Li Zicheng proclaimed himself king in Xiangyang, Hubei early last year. He called himself "Xin Shun King".

Then Zhang Xianzhong established "Daxi" in May, established Wuchang as his capital, and appointed management to govern the place.

The leaders of the two major rebel armies did not intend to establish their own regimes, but after so many years of development, the hearts of the people in the world began to change. Many scholars who had no hope of imperial examinations took refuge in the leaders of the rebel army. Obviously these people have already felt that When the Ming Dynasty was about to end, they were eager to seek refuge with the new lord, trying to reap the great merits of a founding hero in the future.

It is precisely because of the help of these scholars that it is possible for them to establish political power, select officials, and move from a mobile to a fixed stage of development.

It's a pity that if Li Zicheng wants to fight against the outside world, he must first settle down. First, he will attack those rebel leaders who are not very obedient, and annex their tribes.

So Li Zicheng put pressure on Zhang Xianzhong to surrender him. Zhang Xianzhong couldn't bear Li Zicheng's oppression, so he had to give up his base near Wuchang and went south to Hunan. Neither Yuezhou nor Changsha could stop Zhang Xianzhong's 20 army , The whole of Hunan has also fallen into a situation where the peasant army is raging.

Even before the peasant army arrived in Guangdong, all the officers and soldiers in Shaoguan, the gate of Guangdong, fled.

However, Zhang Xianzhong never went south to Guangdong. Instead, he searched and plundered in Hunan. The places he passed were like locusts crossing the border, and then he went to Sichuan again.

As for Li Zicheng, he marched northward, passed through southern Henan, and then attacked Tongguan westward. He wiped out Sun Chuanting, the last military leader of the Ming Dynasty in Tongguan, and then invaded Shaanxi, unified the entire territory of Shaanxi, and proclaimed himself emperor in Xi'an a year later. , the name of the country is Dashun.

Seeing the news that Li Zicheng proclaimed himself emperor, Yang Chao knew that history had not changed at all. Then Li Zicheng would probably go eastward, and then accept the surrender of the Ming army step by step, until he finally entered Beijing, and encountered almost no strong resistance.

Yang Chao was a little confused about this, did he just watch the Ming Dynasty perish, or did he raise his troops north to Qin Wang?

It's just that Yang Chao knew very well that even if he went north now, he might not only not get the support of civil and military officials from the Ming Dynasty, but would stop him immediately, because most of them didn't believe that Li Zicheng would leave Shaanxi soon, and then he would go all the way. When they hit the city of Beijing, even if Yang Chao told them, they thought Yang Chao was crazy. After all, they believed in Li Zicheng, that is, those literati who couldn't be officials. Those who really became officials believed in the Ming court.

And even if he arrived in Beijing before Li Zicheng, Yang Chao didn't believe that his 5000 troops could fight against Li Zicheng's million-strong army, unless the emperor would let Yang Chao enter the city to defend the city and mobilize manpower and material resources in Beijing like that, just like Yang Chao Only by doing in Haizhou can we hope to stop Li Zicheng.

But would the emperor let Yang Chao into the city? He didn't let Yuan Chonghuan into the city back then, so would he definitely let Yang Chao into the city now?

Soldiers from other places can only be stationed outside the city. This is the ancestral system. It was like this when Yu Qian faced the Oirat army. You must know that the Oirat army captured the Emperor Ming at that time. In that case, Beijing did not open the door to foreign troops, let alone Li Zicheng's siege.

Of course, Yang Chao also thought about other methods, such as persuading Chongzhen to move the capital. As long as Chongzhen arrived in Jiangnan, he would temporarily give up the north that had been destroyed by the war to Li Zicheng. With Jiangnan's financial and material resources, he could still hold half of the country. It is not hopeless to wipe out Li Zicheng and the Manchus in one fell swoop; or if Yang Chao enters Beijing in advance, and when the emperor is unwilling to move the capital, he picks up the crown prince and takes the prince to sit in the south of the Yangtze River and proclaim himself emperor. The Ming Dynasty can also retain most of the south of the Yangtze River. The third is that, just like in history, the emperor refused to move the capital and the prince to go to Nanjing. In the end, the whole family died holding Beijing together.

Yang Chao thought about it, it seemed that he had only one chance, and the Ming Dynasty had only one chance, that is, when Emperor Chongzhen issued the order of King Qin, Yang Chao immediately went north and entered Beijing before Li Zicheng besieged the city. The crown prince came out, or gathered the strength of Beijing, the largest city, to defend. This was the only chance to change the fate of the Ming Dynasty.

But Yang Chao felt that the power in his hands was still a bit weak, and five thousand soldiers and horses could not decide the general situation no matter how they looked at it.

We have to find an opportunity to expand the army again!
(End of this chapter)