Nanming Engineer

Chapter 240 Battle in Hanzhong ([-])

At the end of May and the beginning of June, the Hanzhong Plain changed from the peaceful and stable rural landscape in the past. There were wars everywhere, with Hanzhong City as the center, and Nanzheng, Yangzhou and other counties were everywhere. The army, the bandit suppression army of Meng Qiaofang, the governor of Shaanxi Province of the Qing court, and the Southern Expedition Army of Tan Bai and Malaxi came and went, galloping and fighting with each other. Often a town had the banner of He Zhen one day, and the next day. It was replaced by the flag of the Qing army. The battle was fierce and corpses were everywhere.

The scuffle became like this, because after He Zhen surrendered to the Qing court, Dorgon, who was far away in Beijing, weighed the pros and cons, and after listening to the suggestions of He Luohui and Meng Qiaofang, besides appointing He Zhen as the general soldier of Hanzhong, other One of the soldiers under his command was not laid off, and he also provided a large sum of money as military pay to reassure him. Of course, the purpose was to win the heart of He Zhen, the tyrant of Hanzhong, so that he could serve the Qing court with all his heart and serve the Qing court. Conquer plans to act as pawns.

As a result, He Zhen's strength increased instead of diminished. When the hair-cutting order caused the Qing court to completely turn against him, almost the entire Hanzhong Plain was his army. At this moment, He Luohui had been transferred, and Hauge was in Sichuan. , Meng Qiaofang guarded Xi'an alone, and all of the vast western part of Shaanxi fell into He Zhen's hands. Shaanxi was Li Zicheng's old nest, and there were many people who supported the Dashun Army either openly or secretly. Even around the great city of Xi'an and near the governor's office of Shaanxi Province, slogans saying "General Fengtian Advocates Righteousness" appeared.

Fortunately, Tanbai and Maraxi returned in time, and stormed the surrounding counties of Hanzhong like a thunderbolt, beheaded some of He Zhen's generals who stayed in the west, defeated his soldiers, and put He Zhen's main force in Yangzhou to attack Xi'an. Pulled back.He Zhen was afraid of the strength of the Qing army, so after a few small encounters with less than a thousand soldiers, he fled without a fight and retreated to Ankang, where he joined the army of Liu Tiren, the remaining part of the former Dashun Army who was guerrilla here. Standing on the back of the mountain, they confronted Tan Bai, Malaxi and Meng Qiaofang who were chasing them.

After more than half a month of war, the vicinity of Hanzhong City finally stabilized. Although the city was in ruins, He Zhen burned down all the houses in the city when he retreated, leaving almost a white field and a city wall like broken bricks for the Qing army. But this strategically important place has at least returned to the hands of the Qing army.

As the war has moved south, Hanzhong, which was the center of the vortex of war, has gradually subsided. Except for some stragglers who are still wandering around, there are no major rebel activities. Tan Bai and Malaxi are eager to concentrate their forces to defeat He Zhen. The dilapidated city of Hanzhong also lost the need for key protection, so only Jialazhang Jingtuge was left guarding the city, and the two of them hurried south with a large army to the Ankang area to suppress He Zhen.

Tuge Zhenghuang Banner, nearly sixty years old, was originally a very tough general. He once defeated the Ming army with forty cavalry and hundreds of cavalry outside the city of Dalinghe in Liaodong. He beheaded more than fifty people and was awarded a strong horse. Countless people were promoted to Jiala Zhangjing due to their military exploits.

However, time is not forgiving. Although this man is still good at fighting, his body is not as good as before. In addition, he has many battle wounds and is no longer as brave as in previous years. Tan Bai left him to defend the city and took care of him.

Tuge is very depressed. As a child of the Eight Banners, he naturally cannot obey the old age. From the beginning of the Nurhachi era, the Jurchen established the country with force and ranked among the ranks with military achievements. Cowardly and cowardly fighters will not win the respect of others, nor can they win for their own families. Acquiring more wealth and slaves, my credit is far from enough, now staying in this dilapidated city, losing the opportunity to kill the enemy and make meritorious service, how can I not be depressed?

Tuge has a Jia La warrior under his command, a total of 200 troops, including 300 elite white Baya La warriors and 500 red Baya La warriors. The rest are ordinary vests and infantry, and some are soldiers. He and Nikan had thousands of people, totaling more than [-] people, which was large enough to cope with the stopped banditry war near Hanzhong City.

However, suppressing bandits everywhere and killing some stragglers like stragglers will not have much effect on his military exploits. Tuge is disheartened, and he handed over these broken things to his two deputy commanders, and he guarded them all day long. In the tent, eat meat and drink wine.

If the master is like this, the people below will naturally not have much enthusiasm. They will wander around outside on horseback every day, find a few villages and towns, loot and loot, chop off some heads and return to work, happy to be free.

Ten or so days passed like this, and on the morning of the tenth day of June, Tuge, who woke up, sent a few teams out for patrol as usual, while he walked squarely to the city wall to see the progress of the repairs. .

The city wall of Hanzhong was originally extremely tall and heavy, but after a series of battles, many places collapsed, and the wall was also full of potholes, which had to be repaired. Qian's labourer, urged day after day, repaired the damaged place as soon as possible, and went to see it every now and then, as a pastime.

When he arrived at the construction site, he inspected several places, found some excuses, and whipped a few Han people to vent his anger. Hearing the screams and the bodies rolling all over the ground, Tu Ge finally felt relieved. This is his The way to vent, as long as you are depressed, you can go to the construction site and beat the Han people, and the grievances in your heart can be expressed.

"See, it's not good to be soft-hearted towards these Nanmans. They will obey us only if they are treated so harshly." Tuge wiped the few beads of sweat from his head, and threw the long whip to a worker on the construction site. The supervisor smiled and said: "Don't be afraid of beating people to death. It doesn't matter if you kill a few Nanmans. There are many in the pass. If you die, you can catch ten more."

The supervisors were all in Jurchen step armor and waistcoat. Hearing the words and laughing, they all agreed loudly. Someone imitated the whip in his hand and whipped the Han people who were working around him, causing them to cry and cry, and everyone laughed even more happily. up.

Tuge breathed a sigh of relief, grinned contentedly, and felt that it was almost done. Looking at the sky, it was almost noon, and it was time for lunch.

He got down from the city wall and led his guards towards the horses. Just as he was about to jump on the horses, he heard the sound of horseshoes in the distance, and the smoke and dust flew up. A cavalryman ran in from the city gate like a whirlwind. Looking at the clothes, It is a vest soldier in the battalion.

"Report~~!" The elongated voice of the vest soldier echoed in the air, and accompanied by his hoofbeats from far to near, he came to Tuge and shouted in panic: "Report to Mr. Zhang Jing, our army is on the way!" While searching for the rebels outside the city, a brigade of Nanban Ming troops suddenly appeared and surrounded our centurion, the leader of the team, Lord Bashiku, led people to fight the Ming army, and ordered the younger ones to come back and report!"

"Ming Army?" Everyone present was stunned. Tuge couldn't believe his ears, and asked inexplicably, "Did you see clearly? It's really Ming Army?"

The vest's face was covered with sweat, and he paused and said: "Young man can see clearly that the banner of the Ming Army that that group of people raised is absolutely true and absolutely correct."

Tuge's eyes widened and he was speechless in disbelief. How could the Ming army appear outside Hanzhong City? Where did they come from?
After a brief surprise, Tuge recovered. He frowned and asked sharply, "How many people are there in the Ming army? Where are they now?"

The vest said: "It's densely packed, I don't know how many there are, at least there are thousands of them, just [-] miles outside the city. Fangjiaji, we are going to search for the rebels. As soon as we entered the town, the Ming army appeared inside and surrounded us." Get up, the little horse is fast, Lord Bashiku tried his best to block the Ming army, and he was able to run out."

Beads of sweat dripped from his face on the ground, and he shouted eagerly: "My lord, please send troops to support as soon as possible. There are many soldiers in Ming Dynasty, so if it is too late, it will be too late!"

Thousands of Ming troops?Tuge's eyes lit up. The heads of the Ming army are different from those of the rebels. They have a high gold content. When Emperor Taizong was in power, he established a rule that beheading a thousand-level general can reward his future. The regent Dorgon paid more attention to it, five hundred level can be promoted.After suffering so long here, I finally got the chance to make meritorious service.

No matter where these Ming soldiers came from, they are all thanks to Tuge from the heavens. Killing them is definitely better than chasing the rebels into the ravine.

"Okay, here's the order for the entire army to assemble and follow my general to kill the Ming Dog!" Tuge flew onto his horse, sat vigorously on the saddle, and shouted loudly.

(End of this chapter)