Great time travel

Chapter 81, Shandong Disruption
Shandong Peninsula, Dengzhou Prefecture

The streets and alleys that were once bustling with bustling shops and shops are now billowing black smoke everywhere. The spacious streets are full of messy corpses, broken swords, firecrackers and spears, and burnt to ashes. banner.

Chen Xin, the general soldier of Dengzhou, was wearing heavy armor, and surrounded by his confidant guards, he walked through the dilapidated streets with a gloomy face. The Denglai governor's office in front of him had been reduced to rubble after a fierce battle. , but in his front, back, left and right, intermittent shouts of killing, gunshots, groans and various other noises were still floating on this chaotic battlefield.

And Liu Minyou, Chen Xin's staunch old partner of the time traveler, who was in charge of civil affairs, was still wrapped in a bandage and lying unconscious on the hospital bed.

In short, from now on, Chen Xin's Dengzhou Town is no longer an official army of the imperial court, but a rebel!What a fleeting time!
Speaking of which, how did things turn out like this?
Rubbing his temples with throbbing veins, Chen Xin couldn't help heaving a long sigh, and began to recall the scenes and experiences of the previous few months.

Generally speaking, since entering Chongzhen five years ago, the fortune of Dengzhou Town has not been very smooth.

——The Dengzhou Rebellion caused by the mutiny of the Liao soldiers was disturbed by the traversers of the Far East Company in Vladivostok. It did not break out as scheduled in history. Chen Xin and Liu Minyou, the two traversers, had all plans for this matter. It was in vain (some of the Liao soldiers were kidnapped by the landing ship of the Vladivostok Traverser Group to serve as laborers when they went out to sea by boat, and the rest of the Liao soldiers encountered Jurchen soldiers on the way to the front line. Zhou Liao soldiers directly voted for the Tartars and went to plunder the prefectures and counties of Beizhili, and did not return to Dengzhou).Facing the dispatch order of the imperial military department and the urging of Sun Yuanhua, governor of Denglai, Chen Xin had no choice but to mobilize 2000 troops and march to Beijing, preparing to go to the Dalinghe battlefield for reinforcements.The original culprit of the Dengzhou Rebellion in history, Li Jiucheng led the Governor's Zhongjun Standard Battalion with more than [-] Liao soldiers, who set off half a month earlier than Chen Xin, and marched northward to Zhili against the wind and snow.

After leaving Dengzhou, Chen Xin's King Qin army didn't get any good treatment along the way. The prefectures and counties along the way didn't say that they provided food and salaries. , It can be said that people hate dogs, although marching in the Ming Dynasty, it is no different from going abroad-but the prefectures and counties in Shandong are also helpless. The discipline of the imperial court has always been corrupt. ", is not an exaggeration.Famines have continued these years, and life in various places is sad. People in Shandong Province starve to death.Hungry bandits are haunting the mountains and plains, and the counties and prefectures have little food left. If they are ransacked several times by soldiers and horses crossing the border, even the landlords and small rich families will not be able to survive.

Fortunately, Chen Xin has his own Four Seas Trading Company to purchase food and fodder on his behalf, and the military pay they bring is quite sufficient, so they can barely survive.And Li Jiucheng's Liao soldiers who walked in front of Chen Xin were already hungry and full, and they complained all the way. As for the journey of thousands of miles behind, they were even more daunting-they were in Dengzhou before. The army not only did not have the kind of generous treatment of 500 million taels of silver allocated by the Guan Ning Army every year, but also had to endure the common problem of the late Ming government despising warriors and withholding military pay, and also had to bear the hostility of Shandong natives to immigrants from other places. Being bullied by civil officials and gentry in Shandong was extremely uncomfortable.Now that they are about to go to war, the treatment is actually more miserable than when they were in Dengzhou, and they may even starve to death on the way, which naturally makes the anger in their chests more intense, and they are almost reaching the critical point of endurance.

In short, both soldiers and horses hoped that Zu Dashou in Dalinghe City would die soon, so that they would be spared this drudgery.Regrettably, even though the reinforcements from the two routes all moved forward at the slowest pace by coincidence, they still did not wait for the news that Zu Dashou had died. The cities that passed behind were still wary of them as always.

Next, Chen Xin finally walked to Dezhou with a stomach full of suffocation, but received an edict ordering the world's official troops to enter Jingqin King. After the other Ming armies from all walks of life fought fiercely, they sent Aba Taibeile to lead a partial division to detour through Jizhen, break through the side wall and enter the northern Zhili, so as to contain the reinforcements of the Ming Dynasty.On the other hand, when they learned that the Tartars had once again broken through and went south, the city of Beijing was suddenly panicked. The disorganized imperial court closed the city and deployed troops to reinforce the capital.

At the same time, Li Jiuzheng, who was walking in the front, had already led more than 2000 Liao soldiers to mutiny and defected, and voted for the Jurchen soldiers of the Abatai Division who broke through the Great Wall and went south to sweep the counties in Gyeonggi.On the other hand, after hearing the news that Abatai had invaded Beizhili and Li Jiuzheng had rebelled and turned to Tartars, Master Chen Xin was not angry but happy when he heard the news—now he finally had a good story, and there was no need to fill in the form. Linghe is dead!
——It’s not that the Jurchens are really that difficult to fight, but the cheating boss above and the pig teammates around are really desperate.

Therefore, Chen Xin immediately ordered the whole army to prepare for war, marched into the North Zhili war zone, and fought several times with the small group of Tartars who "triggered the grass valley" and the Tutar Ming army who were working for the tiger, and made some small gains.But the food and fodder in the army was also consumed badly, but all the counties and towns in various places refused to provide supplies, as if they were not in the same system as the army.At the same time, after all, there is a huge disparity in the strength of the two sides. With just this little force in Chen Xin's hands, it is really powerless to fight Abate.So he turned to Tianjin, planning to prepare supplies through the local port, and at the same time, while reporting meritorious service to the imperial court, he was preparing to continue to Beijing.

Unexpectedly, before the preparations for food and fodder were complete, the text of the Ministry of War came: they were actually ordered not to come to King Qin!Leave Gyeonggi and go back to Dengzhou!

It turned out that since King Qin issued the edict, various soldiers and horses have marched towards the capital one after another, but the imperial court seems to have never thought of providing logistical support for these troops.First, there was a road from Shanxi King Qin's army that arrived at the capital, and the clinker court was busy with party disputes - state affairs were chaotic, and the elders were impeached. This is the tradition of the Ming Dynasty. The chief assistant Zhou Yanru was impeached by the officials because of the defeat in Liaodong, just to keep his power. And fighting fiercely with Wen Tiren, the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty divided into camps to bite each other, and they didn't care about government affairs at all... As a result, the Ministry of War ignored the reinforcements from the provinces and ordered them to sleep outside the Andingmen.The angry general Qin Wangjun went to question the Ministry of Households. The Ministry of Households, which was still under the control of the Donglin Party at that time, actually replied: "The residences are available for lodging"; For food, the Ministry of Households even issued an official document and replied: "There is food among the people, why should they all rely on the Ministry of Households?"

These reinforcements from other provinces prepared their own supplies and rushed to King Qin of the capital. They felt that they were already utterly loyal to the Zhu Ming Dynasty. Unexpectedly, the imperial court was so indifferent to the army of King Qin, which made them more and more angry and disappointed: since this stingy court doesn’t care about food or food. Lodging, food and clothing are all problems, and military discipline is naturally impossible to maintain—since the imperial household department has already said that we are required to rob houses to live in and food to eat, why should we be safe?
As a result, officers and soldiers from all walks of life ran rampant in the suburbs of Beijing, seizing houses from the people to serve as barracks, robbing people of food to fill their stomachs, the timid ones stealing chickens and dogs, and the courageous ones murdering and stealing goods. At first they only dared to rob the small people, and then gradually began to rob the big gentry. In the end, even the farm villas of the emperor's relatives and relatives were robbed. When those noble servants came to stop them, the generals stared at them: "...This is an imperial edict! Teach us to rob you of your works." Reward!"

Knowing that the imperial court acted so absurdly-encourage King Qin's soldiers to loot the people at will!The residents of the capital were filled with grief and indignation, cursing that officers and soldiers were more harmful than bandits and prisoners. In recent years, the outskirts of the capital have suffered repeated military disasters, and most of the residents have fled. , each other is full of anger.Because of the uneven distribution of spoils, conflicts broke out between officers and soldiers from all walks of life. Before the arrival of the Tartars in Liaodong, Beijing had become a battlefield. The land of all virtues turned into a fiery hell for a while, the gates of the city were tightly closed during the day, and wealthy officials and gentry fled to Tianjin overnight, trying to take a boat to the south by sea to "escape the hustle and bustle".

It was not until the whole situation was almost out of control that the Emperor Chongzhen in the deep palace finally learned of the matter, and suddenly became furious, scolding the generals of the Qin King Army in other provinces, "the army is ineffective, and it disturbs the people. Moken What's the use of setting up officials in peacetime?" and ordered the Ministry of War to strictly rectify all armies.It's a pity that at this moment, even the emperor's order is useless. After the court drove the generals into a hurry, they encouraged the soldiers to block the gates of the city and made a noise to threaten the court, shouting: "We will die in the Enemy, but not enough to eat, how can An Neng refuse the white sword with his life?"

——When Chen Xin sent a letter from Tianjin to report his meritorious service, the troubles caused by Qin Wangjun from all walks of life in Beijing had not yet been resolved. If you want to come, the first reaction is "to add chaos again"!Then look at Abatai's Hou Jin army, which has already turned around and returned north, and is expected to leave Daming territory soon, so they simply sent Chen Xin back, so that everyone can be quieter.

So, Chen Xin took his Dengzhou Army back to the Weihaiwei garrison by boat in despair, thinking that at least he had escaped a catastrophe.

Unexpectedly, if you can escape on the first day of the new year, you will not be able to escape on the fifteenth day. Not long after, Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, sent someone to inform him that he wanted to commend Chen Xin for his military exploits when he entered the King of Jingqin last time, and at the same time discuss where Li Jiucheng's Liao army left after the rebellion. And the takeover problem of the defense zone...

Chen Xin and Liu Minyou didn't feel that there was anything wrong at first, so they went to Dengzhou Fucheng just like that... Who would have thought that this would be a grand banquet!

It turned out that Chen Xin needed to acquire a large area of ​​arable land in order to establish military settlements, resettle military families, and create a reliable base area. Therefore, he had constant conflicts with the landlords and gentry in Dengzhou. There are a lot of grudges.

Not long ago, according to the guidance of Chen Xin, a traveler, his confidant subordinates explored the Zhaoyuan gold mine according to the map, and planned to develop it as a new source of income for raising soldiers.However, in the process of recruiting miners and making preparations, the relevant responsible personnel did not do a good job of keeping secrets, allowing outsiders to find out the details, which attracted the jealousy of many forces for a while-although the local officials and gentry in Dengzhou, They were all terrified by Chen Xin, but the temptation of gold was astonishing.After heavyweight local tyrants such as Prince Lu's Mansion in Ziyang and Duke Yansheng's Mansion in Qufu also joined in and seized Chen Xin's property, driven by hatred and lured by gold mines, an opposition soon appeared. The powerful alliance between Chen Xinzong Bing and Dengzhou Town.

Just at this time, the Donglin Party was being criticized in the imperial court, and the situation was critical, and it was urgent to come up with a major event to shift the focus... So, under the joint pressure of various forces from the imperial center to the Shandong area, seeing his own official position The endangered Donglin party member Sun Yuanhua finally made up his mind and conspired with many forces to set up a murderous situation against Chen Xin, preparing to "capture his soldiers, wipe out his people, punish his party members, and return Dengzhou to a bright future"...

Although the idea seems to be very good, but Sun Yuanhua, a weak scholar, is really not very good at dark things such as political murder, so he almost followed the "throwing a cup for a sign, five hundred knives and an axe" in the commentary of the Romance. The routine of gushing out" is being arranged.In addition, this loose conspiracy group also did not do a good job of keeping secrets. As a result, before Chen Xin and Liu Minyou arrived in the capital of Dengzhou, rumors were already flying in the market.

And Chen Xin had arranged a lot of spies in Dengzhou city to work in advance, and found out the movement in advance.So before the ambush was launched, some people risked their lives and rushed out of the city to inform Chen Xin and Liu Min that they were so frightened that they reined in their horses at the gate of the city and retreated hastily... But even so, they were on their way back to Weihaiwei Among them, Chen Xin and Liu Minyou were hunted down and blocked by unknown forces.Marshal Chen Xin, who had experienced many battles, was fine, but Liu Minyou, a civil servant, was hit by two arrows first, then fell off his horse, and was finally carried back covered in blood.

At this point, both sides have already torn their faces, and there is no room for relaxation.The furious Marshal Chen Xin knew the essence of the blitzkrieg, and immediately mobilized the most reliable direct line unit, the Wendeng Camp, to launch a surprise attack on the capital city of Dengzhou.However, the people in Dengzhou Prefecture were still complaining and cursing each other, shirking responsibility for the failure of the ambush. They never expected that Chen Xin's counterattack would be so quick, and they were caught off guard for a while.

Almost instantly, the Wendeng Battalion, determined to take revenge, broke through the Dengzhou city defenses, and in just over an hour, defeated the defenders' dying counterattack in street fighting.Now, the attacking troops are already launching assaults on key points such as various treasuries and yamen in the city, and there are frequent reports of success everywhere.

Although it seems that victory is in sight, Chen Xin knows that all this is just the beginning.

Next, he will face the crazy counterattack of the entire Ming Empire, and it is not known how long the continuous brutal battle will last.

However, now that he has been forced to take this step, there is no other choice.

Just as he was standing outside the burnt rubble of the governor's office in Denglai, looking thoughtfully at the lingering smoke, a blood-stained soldier rushed over and reported to him, "...the commander-in-chief Denglai Water City has been breached, but our navy came late from Weihai and failed to block the port! Governor Sun and other officials, as well as the people from Prince Lu’s Mansion and Yansheng Gong’s Mansion, all took the first step and took the water The battalion ships have escaped!"

"... escaped? How long did their ship escape?" Chen Xin asked with a frown.

"...I didn't escape very far, and I could still vaguely see the sails from the Shuying Wharf!"

"...Then why don't the sailors chase after you!" Chen Xin slammed his horsewhip to the ground angrily, and scolded angrily, "...you made me a rebel, and you made Lao Liu After being injured like this, but now I want to leave, how can there be such a cheap thing in the world!"

However, the navy sent by Chen Xin to pursue them failed to catch up with Sun Yuanhua and others' fleeing fleet after all, but lost them halfway.Therefore, the Navy's upper and lower officers and officials combined together and diverted their sails to Dagukou, Tianjin. First, they withdrew the personnel of their own Four Seas Trading Company stationed in Tianjin. ...

But despite this, the local officials and gentry were already frightened. Many wealthy businessmen and gentry who had just escaped from the capital to Tianjin not long ago fled to further places in a panic, and emergency documents even flew into the court like snowflakes. The Ministry of War caused a huge earthquake.

At the same time, in the south of Shandong, another even more massive chaos has spread like a prairie fire.