Dashun Yongchang

Just when Dorgon arranged for Azig's failure, Liu Zhong finally saw the city wall of Zhengzhou. Liu Zhong, who was riding on a horse, looked at the Shunjun flag hanging on the city gate, and began to worry about gains and losses again. up.Zuo Guangxian, who escorted him, urged his mounts to come to Liu Zhong, and urged him in a distant but polite tone: "Uncle, let's go to the city as soon as possible, maybe we can meet you before lunch." Where is Your Majesty?"

Liu Zhong replied insincerely: "That's right, it's better to see His Majesty sooner."

Watching Liu Zhong urge his mount towards the city gate, the officer also heaved a sigh of relief. Escorting this Uncle Ping Nan is not a good task, because no one knows whether this Uncle Ping Nan will be able to serve His Majesty in front of His Majesty. It would be bad if someone sued him for being too attentive on the road, but if he was too indifferent, and this Ping Nanbo succeeded in cleansing himself, he would offend Ping Nanbo again.Now that he has finally sent him to Zhengzhou, he naturally hopes to go to the city quickly and hand over his task, so thank God.

When he heard the news of Liu Zhong's entry into the city, Li Zicheng had only entered Zhengzhou for less than half a day, and was talking with Liu Zongmin, Li Guo, and Chen Yongfu in the Zhizhou Yamen about how to rebuild the Yellow River defense line.Hearing the news from Li Laiheng, Li Zicheng was stunned for a moment, and then he said to the people in the room: "Ping Nanbo didn't come too late. If you count the schedule, did he leave after seeing Zuo Guangxian's troops? ?”

Liu Zongmin already had opinions on these Ming generals who surrendered, and this time when the Qing army went south, many former Ming army generals turned their backs one after another, so his impression of Liu Zhong was even worse. Said: "Liu Zhong came just in time. Last time he lost Lu'an, and this time he gave up on Luokou. What face does he have to come to see us? Your Majesty, don't see him anymore. Both crimes will be punished, even if he is not sentenced to death. It's time to take off his clothes."

Although Chen Yongfu was very dissatisfied with Liu Zhong, he was almost cheated to death by this guy, but he couldn't accept Liu Zongmin's rude behavior, not because he felt sympathy for Liu Zhong, but because he was worried that Liu Zongmin would leave Liu Zhong alone It is obviously not a good sign that the problem extends to all the former Ming army generals.But he didn't dare to intercede for Liu Zhong, because he didn't want Li Zicheng to feel that these former Ming generals formed a small group that advances and retreats together.

However, Li Guo, who had already talked with Li Zicheng before, knew that Li Zicheng did not want to deal with Liu Zhong in this way, so he interceded for Liu Zhong and said: "Since Pingnan Boken came to Zhengzhou to see His Majesty, I think I must give him an excuse. Opportunity. Besides, we should know about the situation in the west. After the post road was cut off by the Qing army, we have not received news from Shaanxi and Shanxi for a long time. Maybe Ping Nanbo will know something."

Liu Zongmin, who was still angry at first, calmed down now. He also wanted to know what was going on in Shaanxi and Shanxi. In fact, Shaanxi is the foundation of Dashun. Even if they can defeat the Azig army, if they can't defend Shanxi, it will still be a heavy blow to the soldiers of the Shun army from Shaanxi.

Seeing Liu Zongmin shut up, Li Zicheng gestured to Li Laiheng, and Li Laiheng quickly went down and brought Ping Nanbo in.After entering the door, Liu Zhong threw himself to the ground immediately, threw himself on the ground towards Li Zicheng, and shouted loudly: "I am guilty, I really have no face to see Your Majesty, I came to see Your Majesty for one thing only, to apologize to Your Majesty. "

Seeing Liu Zhong so disregarding his face, even Liu Zongmin, who was full of anger, couldn't get angry for a while, but Li Zicheng frowned and reprimanded Liu Zhong: "Ping Nanbo, save some face for my Dashun meritorious service. My Earl of Dashun is not so cheap. Get up, sit aside and talk. What crime do you have? You should go to the court for the crime. Why did you come to see me? What I am summoning now is Dashun and Ping Nanbo, not in the courtroom. case."

Liu Zhong felt cold, he didn't think that Li Zicheng was thinking highly of him, but he felt that he had really annoyed the other party this time, otherwise why would Li Zicheng have prejudiced against the way he pleaded guilty.He didn't think that this way of apologizing was a humiliation to himself. In the Ming Dynasty, when the chief soldier went to the Ministry of War to report his duties, he would call the civil servants whose rank was lower than his own to attend the ceremony. That was the real humiliation. That general dared to protest.

Although he now holds the title of Uncle Ping Nan, he is still a courtier in front of Emperor Dashun, so he naturally followed his past habits and made the most humble gesture to Li Zicheng to show him how much he had sinned. deep.In other words, when he lost Lu An before, he apologized to Li Zicheng so much, and the other party didn't think it was bad.

No matter how much he worries about gains and losses, since Li Zicheng has already spoken, Liu Zhong naturally dare not disobey, but when he got up and sat aside, facing the gazes of Liu Zongmin and others, Liu Zhong suddenly felt that he might as well just lie on the ground Well, at least he didn't have to face these contemptuous gazes when lying on the ground.

When Liu Zhongru was sitting on pins and needles, Li Zicheng asked: "Since Uncle Ping Nan came to see me, then tell me why you came."

Liu Zhong subconsciously repeated: "The minister is here to plead guilty to His Majesty..."

Thinking of what Li Zicheng said just now, Liu Zhong stopped talking again, he was a little confused, did Li Zicheng want to hear his confession, or did he not want to hear his confession?Just when he was at a loss, Li Guo coughed and said from the side: "Ping Nanbo can tell the story, and His Majesty will judge whether he is guilty or not. There is no need to repeatedly plead guilty. The war is not over yet, and spring plowing is just around the corner. Your Majesty has no time to waste."

Only then did Liu Zhong come to his senses. After he was silent for a while, he started talking about the confrontation between the Qing army and the Luokou defenders on the north bank of the Yellow River, and then continued to talk about it.

Li Jiyu sent him the news that the Azig army was retreating, and then under Li Jiyu and others, he led his men to attack Liu Fangming's troops, and met Zuo Guangxian's forward in Gongyi, and then came to Zhengzhou. go through.

Liu Zhong explained everything to Li Zizheng, and did not follow what Li Jiyu said, portraying himself as a loyal minister who sticks to the lonely city. He just concealed what Zuo Guang said about himself first, and finally he Ashamed, he said to Li Zicheng: "Your Majesty treats me with all my heart, but I failed to fight for Your Majesty in Lu'an and Luokou. I am guilty."

At this moment, someone understood why Li Zicheng let Liu Zhong go last time, because this person was really honest in front of Li Zicheng, and it was really hard to make up his mind to punish him when he saw his subordinates who sincerely admitted their mistakes.If Liu Zhong had been secretive to himself, defending himself that he gave up the Yellow River defense line and retreated to Luoyang due to the situation, and he had never flirted with the Qing army during this period, then it would only incur someone's resentment, even if he is not held accountable this time, I will keep it in mind next time.

But now that Liu Zhong has told Hong Chengchou's letter, Liu Fangming's persuasion, and his own wavering, what else can he say?Compared with other generals in this era, Liu Zhong, who can honestly explain his problems, is already considered a loyal person.

Li Zicheng thought for a while, and then asked Liu Zhong a question, "If the Azig army has not failed, are you really planning to surrender to the Qing army?"

Liu Zhong swallowed his saliva, and under the gaze of Liu Zongmin, he still said with difficulty: "When I retreated from Luokou, my heart was already shaken. If Your Majesty hadn't defeated Azig, I would have surrendered."

Liu Zongmin got up abruptly, with the intention of stepping forward to do something, Li Zicheng gave him a sideways look, and Liu Zongmin then sat back slowly.Only then did Li Zicheng continue to ask Liu Zhong: "If you were to face the Qing army next time, and the enemy was strong and we were weak, what would you do?"

After Liu Zhong was silent for a long time, he replied to Li Zicheng: "If there is one, there is two, and there cannot be three. Although I can't convince His Majesty, I can assure His Majesty that I am the only one to die."

Liu Zongmin finally couldn't help but said, "Who will believe what you said?"

Li Zicheng once again stopped Liu Zongmin and said: "I would like to trust you, but you have to win the trust of your fellow soldiers first. I think you should come to work with me for the time being. As for Luoyang's defense and other issues, you and Li Guo will hand over Come on, is there any problem?"

Liu Zongmin glanced at Li Zicheng in astonishment, he felt that this treatment was too lenient.Liu Zhong was taken aback for a moment, then got up and saluted Li Zicheng to thank him.

Li Zicheng then said: "In the past two or three months, I have not received any information from Shaanxi and Shanxi. Since you are in Luoyang, do you have any news?"

Liu Zongmin originally wanted to say something, but his concern for his hometown finally overwhelmed his dissatisfaction with Liu Zhong, so he kept his mouth shut.Here, Liu Zhong was also relieved after handing over his military power. He knew that he had finally passed the test temporarily, so he put his mind on the memory of the information sent by Shaanxi.

Chapter 429 News from Xi'an Part One

Although Liu Zhong gave up Luokou and retreated to Luoyang, Xi'an didn't know that Liu Zhong had other thoughts at first, and just regarded him as a retreat. Therefore, in addition to ordering him to defend Luoyang, he was also asked to launch a counterattack against the Qing army. , It wasn't until Liu Zhong remained silent in Luoyang that Xi'an cut off contact with Luoyang and became wary of Liu Zhong.

Before severing contact with Luoyang, a lot of documents came from Xi'an, originally to let Liu Zhong find an opportunity to send them to Xuzhou, so that the Marshal's Mansion could learn about what happened on the West Road battlefield.As Uncle Ping Nan, Liu Zhong naturally has the right to read these documents. In his opinion, there are only two things that are most important.

The first thing is the change of the battlefield in Shanxi. Following the rebellion of Jiang Yang, the former general of Datong, almost a full-scale rebellion broke out in Datong Town. After dying in battle, Ke Tianxiang fled Datong with a small number of soldiers and horses.

The Qing army then entered Datong City without bloodshed. Immediately afterwards, Liu Tongchun, who was stationed on the Xinzhou-Dingxiang line, was afraid of the Qing army's strength and was persuaded by the Qing army. Liu Tongchun, Chen Jie, Zhu Youde and other 27 generals led 3000 horse infantry. Surrendered to the Qing army, and then the Sanguan garrison in Shanxi surrendered to the Qing army one after another seeing that the general situation was over, and the situation in Shanxi became precarious.

Although Liu Zhong didn't say it, Li Zicheng could also feel that it was after hearing the news of Jiang Rang's rebellion that Uncle Ping Nan really felt that Dashun was going to die and made up his mind to surrender.

On the other hand, facing Jiang Yang's rebellion in Datong Town and Shanxi's crisis situation in Xi'an, Liu Zhong felt that it was a crazy move to give up resistance, which made him even more pessimistic about Dashun's future.Faced with the approach of foreign enemies, Xi'an not only failed to appease the Shanxi gentry, but instead mobilized the army to clean up the so-called half-hearted gentry and landlords.

Therefore, before the Qing army really went deep into the hinterland of Shanxi, a large-scale gentry rebellion first broke out in Shanxi. Although these gentry rebellions were suppressed by the Shun army, the troops mobilized by the Shun army were all former Ming Dynasty soldiers who had seen the flames of war. The frontier army is obviously not at the same level as the gentry and servants who can only bully the common people and bandits. What's more, the Shun army is conducting organized operations, and the most resistance of the Shanxi gentry is to contact the neighbors in the left and near.

Just like when the Qing army cleaned up the rebellious peasants around Gyeonggi, it only needed to block the main traffic routes and then carry out the cleanup area by area, forming a local advantage.There is no essential difference between the vision of these gentry and peasant rebels. They only want to protect their own family, and have no idea of ​​taking charcoal from the fire for others. Therefore, as long as the army does not come to attack their own family, it is difficult for them to give up the protection of their own family and go to fight for others. Others beat them to death.

To put it simply, these gentry were still at the stage of suppressing the peasants' resistance and resisting the attacks of the local thieves, and did not realize that they were fighting against the same regime.As long as the regime does not fall, one or two failures will not prevent the regime from continuing to mobilize troops to attack.Gentlemen who ignore this point will naturally only fail.

However, for former Ming generals like Liu Zhong, Shunjun’s persecution of the gentry was psychologically unacceptable, because the generals were actually of the same class as the gentry, and they could empathize with them; second, from the perspective of the imperial court system, How can the court manage the people without gentry?It is impossible for the court to manage the people directly, because the burden is too heavy.

Therefore, in Liu Zhong's view, this is going against the grain. A Dashun without the support of the gentry cannot survive.But to the few people listening, both Liu Zongmin and Li Guo thought it was no big deal. Since the gentry were going to betray Dashun, it was perfectly normal to clear up these unstable factors before the Qing army entered Shanxi. Datong Town was not cleaned up, and as a result, these people all fell to the Qing army. Since they want the peasant army to die, there is nothing wrong with letting the gentry die first.

Li Zicheng felt that there was too little information to judge whether Shanxi's action to clean up the gentry was appropriate, so he did not make a gesture of criticism or approval, but continued to listen.Seeing that Li Zicheng remained silent, the others naturally did not dare to express any opinions.

However, the Qing army did not continue to attack Shaanxi or Shanxi after occupying the three passes, which also made the Shun army's action to clean up the gentry in Shanxi go smoothly.Although it is not clear why the Qing army stopped when the situation was good, this action of the Qing army was not a heavy blow to those Shanxi gentry who were eagerly waiting for the Qing army to rescue them.

When the Shun Army mobilized the army to clean up those gentry who refused to cooperate with them, it was not smooth sailing at the beginning, because those former Ming army generals felt that Da Shun would not grow, so there was no need to offend these gentry for the sake of Da Shun, so for the offensive The orders of the gentry were relatively passive, and some gentry in Shanxi felt that the Qing army might soon go south and enter Shanxi after facing the Qing army's rapid capture of Datong Town. It's better to turn the other way first and make a vote on the Qing army's side.

But these overly eager gentry did not wait for the Qing army to go south, but instead attracted the main force of the Shun army. Those former Ming military officers might still want to sell the gentry some face, but waited until the soldiers below opened up one or two gentry manors. And after the rewards were successfully allocated, the binding force of these officers on the soldiers below became invalid.

The frontier army of the Ming Dynasty has always been in arrears of salary, especially in the Chongzhen Dynasty, and there were not a few officers who paid empty salaries and loan sharks to the soldiers. After all, the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty were hereditary, so whether you are an officer or a soldier is a matter of choice. The problem of reincarnation is not a problem of ability, nor does it mean that there are no soldiers who have made their way out of small soldiers, but this is almost a special case, which can be ignored compared to the entire military system of Ming Dynasty.

Shanxi's army is better than Shaanxi's, because Shanxi still has a smuggling trade leading to the grassland, so the army still has some extra income, but the extent of this goodness means that it owes a few months of military pay, not that Shanxi The army will not owe military pay.What's more, the bulk of the smuggling trade was divided up by the gentry and the generals, and the soldiers would not benefit from it.

So when the Shun Army commanded these former Ming Dynasty frontier soldiers to open up the manors of the rebel gentry, and kept the promise to put the rewards in the hands of the soldiers instead of handing over to those officers, the frontier soldiers who got the benefits began to prefer the Shun Army instead of the old men. The boss is here.

To put it bluntly, these ordinary soldiers have basically no intersection with the gentry. Even if these gentry are protected, they are grateful to the officers, not themselves.The reverse is also the same, offending these gentry, it is the leading officer who is hated, not these little soldiers.That being the case, why not obey Shunjun to break these manors and get a reward?

When the soldiers reached a consensus, the officers who originally wanted to delay the order had to obey the wishes of these soldiers who were eager to reward. The gratitude of the gentry was just a return with an uncertain future, but now they lost their soldiers If they don't obey, they won't even be able to save their own lives.

So in the past two months, the Qing army stayed in Datong Town with nothing to do, watching the Shun army in chaos in Shanxi. In fact, it can't be called chaos. Although the Shun army ordered an attack on the gentry's manor , but the soldiers were not allowed to carry out private looting and killing, and a few officers and soldiers who did not obey the military orders were disposed of, thus establishing a basic army discipline for the former Daming frontier army who had little control.

The strange behavior of the Qing army in Datong not only frustrated the Shanxi gentry, but some gentry chose to obey the orders issued by Xi'an, moved their families to Xi'an, and handed over the local land to the Shun army, so that Dashun's Power has truly penetrated to the grassroots in the rural areas of Shanxi.

It also confused the Shun army in Shanxi. At the beginning, Liu Fangliang put his main force on guarding against the Qing army's attack on Shanxi, and only used a small part of the army to suppress the chaos.But seeing that the Qing army had no intention of going south, Liu Fangliang immediately stepped up efforts to clean up the local area, thereby speeding up the stabilization of the local situation.

Faced with the strange behavior of the Qing army in Datong, Liu Zongmin, Li Guo, and Chen Yongfu guessed that there might be some conflict between the Qing army and Jiang Yu, so they gave up such a good opportunity to go south. Chen Yongfu thought that they could send someone to Datong Town to inquire. Maybe Jiang Guan can be persuaded to come back again.

Liu Zongmin and Li Guo objected. They both felt that Jiang Yu was capricious. Even if he persuaded the other party for a while, he didn’t know when he would betray him again. Those Dashun soldiers who were killed by Jiang Guan?If everyone learns from Jiang Tuan, who will fight to the death for Dashun in the future?

However, after thinking for a while, Li Zicheng said to several people: "The focus is not on Jiang Yu, but on the more than [-] officers and soldiers of Datong Town and the millions of people in Datong Town. We cannot turn away these millions of soldiers and civilians." Outside the door, we must always give them a way out. If we refuse to talk to Jiang Guan, then what channels will we use to contact those soldiers and civilians? Are we going to turn them all into our enemies?

Besides, our main enemy is still the Manchus, and the secondary enemies are those surrendered generals and gentry who are attached to the Manchus. They can divide the relationship between the two and destroy the mutual trust between them.

Of course, I am not saying that the Qing army in Datong refused to go south. It is because of the conflict between Jiang Yu and the Qing army. Without further information, it is difficult for us to make a correct judgment.It is also possible that the struggle among the Manchus caused the Qing army in Datong to lose their will to go south, because the coach of the Qing army in Datong was Hauge, and it is obviously not conducive to the Dorgon brothers to let him gain too much military merit.

Therefore, we should send people to Xi'an as soon as possible, get in touch with Tian Jianxiu and the others, and let them investigate what happened in Datong Town as soon as possible. We can't just sit by and celebrate that the Qing army didn't go south, only to miss the opportunity. . "

Li Zicheng's proposition was supported by Chen Yongfu and Li Guo. Liu Zongmin could only keep silent. He was not willing to do lenient punishment for those who killed the old brothers of the rebel army, but it was not a formal discussion now, so he was not willing either. For this reason, he sang against Li Zicheng.

In fact, the speculations of both parties are actually on the sidelines. The Qing army was indeed dissatisfied with Jiang Yu, because the other party welcomed the Zaoqiang King Zhu Dingshan with the Datong gentry without authorization. In Dorgon's view, this meant that he wanted to fight against Beijing. up.The Manchus entered the customs under the banner of helping the Ming Dynasty to suppress thieves, but they were most worried that the Ming clan would really set up the orthodox banner, which would make the Manchus lose the righteousness of ruling China.

Therefore, after the Qing army entered Datong, they immediately took Zhu Dingshan to Beijing to take care of them, and had doubts about the Jiang Guan brothers.It's just that the Qing army's strength in Datong was too weak, so Dorgon had to take appeasement measures against the Jiang Tiao brothers.But he was also unwilling to allow Jiang Tiao to expand his power and attack Yulin and Taiyuan. Without the main force of the Qing army to watch, these captured places would only fall into the hands of the Jiang Tiao brothers, and eventually form another military group of Han people. Confront the Manchurians.What's more, all the military achievements that have been fought now will be counted on Hauge, which is what Dorgon doesn't like to see.

Chapter 430 News from Xi'an II

Because Liu Zhong is still there, Li Zicheng commented on the Shanxi issue but did not go into depth.The next thing Liu Zhong talked about was what he thought Li Zicheng should be concerned about, which was the news that Zhang Xianzhong invaded Hanzhong and was defeated by He Zhen.

Just when Li Zicheng sent troops from Xi'an to conquer Shanxi in the early years, Zhang Xianzhong also led the Daxi Army into Sichuan from western Hunan.When Li Zicheng went south from Beijing to break through the four towns in Jiangbei, the Daxi Army just happened to break through the city of Chengdu.

At this time, Li Zicheng's adjustments to Sichuan's strategy also followed He Zhen into Hanzhong, and spread to the Ma Yu Office stationed in Hanzhong.Previously, Li Zicheng had adopted the policy of attacking from all sides. Not only did he personally lead troops to the east, but he also ordered He Jin to lead troops to the west to Gansu and Qinghai, and Ma Yan to attack Sichuan from Hanzhong.

This strategy of attacking from all directions is the judgment of the Dashun Army based on the collapse of the Ming Dynasty. If big forces occupy these places, then these places will become Dashun's territory.

It should be said that this judgment is basically correct. Ningxia, Lanzhou, Datong, and Xuanda soon surrendered to the Dashun army. As for the resistance He Jin encountered in Xining was not from the official government but from the local chieftain, these The local local emperors did not go to war with Dashun out of allegiance to Ming Dynasty, but chose to resist in order to maintain their dominance in the local area.

In fact, even if it was not the Shun army but the Ming army that came, they would still be resisted by these chieftains. This can be seen from the resistance of the Sichuan, Guizhou, and Yunnan chieftains to Daming.After all, there is still a difference between the power of chieftains and the power of normal Ming officials. Their power comes first from the support of the local people, and secondly from the approval of the central government. However, Ming officials are different. Without the authority endowed by the central government, they cannot The command moves the local people, which can be seen from the tyrants in Henan.

However, when the Shun army made this judgment, they didn't take the Manchus outside the pass into consideration. They simply considered that they could deal with the demoralized Ming army.Therefore, when the Manchus suddenly entered the customs, the Dashun Army, which had dispersed its forces, was a little dumbfounded.

In fact, if Li Zicheng was able to gather all the Dashun army together, even the Manchus and Wu Sangui might not be able to win, but at Shanhaiguan, Li Zicheng only brought an army mainly composed of the Chinese army, and the rest of the Shun army was distributed among In Gansu, Shaanxi, Xi'an, Xiangyang, Hanzhong and other vast areas, compared with the main force of the Manchus who had mobilized all their forces, the strength of the Shanhaiguan Xiashun Army was not enough.

Therefore, after a certain person withdrew from Shanhaiguan, he revised the previous Shun army strategy of attacking from all sides, and began to shrink his forces in an effort to keep the Guanzhong and Shanxi regions, first to stabilize the fundamentals of Dashun.Under such considerations, the original Shunjun strategy of expanding from Hanzhong to Sichuan was somewhat inappropriate. Li Zicheng sent someone to send a letter to He Zhen, asking him to keep Hanzhong instead of intervening in Sichuan affairs. At the same time, he also wrote a letter to Zhang Xianzhong. Letter, hope that the two rebels can live in peace.

However, Zhang Xianzhong's entry into the Hunan area was not voluntary. Originally, he planned to establish a country in Wuchang after he conquered Wuchang, but Li Zicheng wrote to him and told him that if he did not surrender himself, then don't blame yourself for being rude.After annexing the [-]th Battalion of Gezuo, Li Zicheng was far stronger than Zhang Xianzhong, so Zhang Xianzhong could only destroy Wuchang City and go south. After Li Zicheng returned to his hometown in Shaanxi, he made up his mind to enter Sichuan.

In Zhang Xianzhong's view, the Ming Dynasty is over, except for the death of Emperor Chongzhen, and the crown prince and prince fell into the hands of Li Zicheng. Daming no longer has an appealing orthodox heir, so next Li Zicheng will definitely focus on himself On the body, after all, there is only the rebel army left, and the Daxi army has not been annexed by Li Zicheng.

If Li Zicheng hadn't lost Beijing due to the entry of the Manchus, Zhang Xianzhong would have felt desperate.Because Li Zicheng, who broke the city of Beijing, already has the strength and name to unify the world. Under such circumstances, the Daxi Army, which came from the same source as the Shun Army, may not follow him and continue to fight against Li Zicheng. Back then, the Rebel Army united with the court. In confrontation, there are actually many connections between the two sides.

The only ones who really couldn't surrender Li Zicheng were Zhang Xianzhong and his confidantes. For ordinary soldiers of the Daxi Army, they would not encounter many obstacles in surrendering to Dashun. At least it was easier than those of the Ming army who surrendered. In the past, it was not a hostile relationship, but a comrade-in-arms who fought against the government and the army together.

In Zhang Xianzhong's view, the entry of the Manchus was the last chance God gave him, and he had to seize it.Therefore, he was not at all interested in the letter sent by Li Zicheng, because he felt that Li Zicheng's peace with him now was to delay his unification of Sichuan and prevent him from establishing a stable foundation in Sichuan.

Therefore, not only did he ignore Li Zicheng's overtures, but he accelerated his pace of attacking Sichuan. In October, Li Dingguo captured Baoning Mansion, which was on the verge of Hanzhong. This was originally a buffer zone that Li Zicheng proposed to him. In order to prevent conflicts between the two sides, Li Zicheng ordered the Hanzhong Shun army not to enter Baoning, and also asked Zhang Xianzhong not to send troops into the area.

But Zhang Xianzhong, who wanted to gain a piece of foundation as soon as possible, was willing to tie his hands and feet. In his opinion, if he wanted to keep Sichuan from being invaded by the Shun army, or if he wanted to go out of Sichuan and invade his hometown in Shaanxi in the future, he had to win Hanzhong.What's more, Li Zicheng tied the hands and feet of the Hanzhong Shun army and did not let them enter Baoning. This is also the best time for the Daxi army to enter Baoning, so Zhang Xianzhong still ignored Li Zicheng's request.

After Zhang Dingguo took Baoning, Zhang Xianzhong felt at ease, so he blocked the passage of the Shun army to enter Sichuan. Then Zhang Kewang took Long'an, conquered Maozhou, Zhang Nengqi conquered Yazhou, and most of Sichuan was captured. The Great Western Army was occupied.

So on November [-], in order to gain the identity to fight against Li Zicheng as soon as possible, Zhang Xianzhong proclaimed himself emperor in Chengdu.

But this is not the end. After he ascended the throne, Zhang Xianzhong decided to take advantage of the continuous victories of the Daxi Army to launch an attack on the Shun Army in Hanzhong and completely expel the Shun Army from Sichuan.So he sent Zhang Wenxiu and Zhang Dingguo to send troops to Hanzhong, and Zhang Kewang to send troops to southern Sichuan to attack the Ming army Zeng Ying, who was entrenched in Chongqing. Like the previous Shun army, Zhang Xianzhong also tried to pacify Sichuan as soon as possible, so he adopted a strategy of attacking from all sides.

However, Zhang Xianzhong was an outsider in Sichuan after all, and the Daxi Army could not get the support of the Sichuan people, because after the Ming Dynasty quelled the She'an Rebellion, Sichuan entered a stable economic recovery period, and the lives of Sichuan people were relatively stable during the Chongzhen period. Therefore, the arrival of the Daxi Army was not regarded as a liberator by the Sichuan people, but instead became a destructive force that disrupted their stable life. Moreover, the military discipline of the Daxi Army was much worse than that of the Shun Army, because Zhang Xianzhong only cared about his own people and did not care about outsiders. There is no such thing as fair treatment.

From a certain point of view, Zhang Xianzhong is actually quite similar to Liu Zongmin in character, but he is a little more cunning than Liu Zongmin.They value their own people, blood and local connections, but they don't have much sympathy for irrelevant outsiders, or between their own people and outsiders, they prefer to help relatives rather than help.

This kind of character can certainly allow them to gather a group of people around them to do things, but once the spread is spread out, the interpersonal relationship that relies on blood and the township party will not be so strong under the impact of interests.When Zhang Xianzhong personally led the army, the generals below could still do their best, because they were only responsible to Zhang Xianzhong.

But once these generals with comparable status were released, there was no cooperation between them.Zhang Xianzhong sent Zhang Wenxiu and Zhang Dingguo together to Hanzhong because he wanted to attach importance to the attack on Hanzhong. However, he promoted Zhang Wenxiu, who was younger, as the chief general and made Zhang Dingguo his deputy, which aroused Zhang Dingguo's dissatisfaction.

So the two armies that were supposed to join together and attack together, Zhang Dingguo led the team and set off first, and the Daxi Army's plundering of the local gentry after they captured Baoning also made the local gentry turn to the Shun Army in Hanzhong, so the Daxi Army Information was blocked in the local area, but information about Daxi Army's movements continued to reach the Shun Army.

The Shun Army in Hanzhong was actually the Ming Frontier Army who surrendered to Dashun, so it was easy to communicate with these gentry.In addition, under the order of Li Zicheng, the Shun army retreated from Baoning to Hanzhong, which also prevented the people of Baoning from being harassed by these Shun troops. Compared with the performance of the Daxi army after entering Baoning, the people of Baoning immediately turned against Shunjun's side.

The last point is that Zhang Xianzhong always thought that the general of the Shun army stationed in the Han army was Ma Yuan. He said to the generals: "Ma Yuan is a mediocre person. It is not God that Li Zicheng entrusted such an important place in Hanzhong to such a mediocre person." Do you want to hand over Hanzhong to Daxi? If you don’t take Hanzhong at this time, what are you waiting for?”

However, when Zhang Xianzhong said this, He Zhen had already rushed to Hanzhong to replace Ma Yuan.Facing the attack of the Great Western Army, relying on all kinds of information sent by the people of Sichuan to Hanzhong, He Zhen had a relatively complete judgment on the situation of the Great Western Army. Fighting, there is almost no chance to recuperate, and the soldiers at the bottom are extremely exhausted, and they have already shown signs of war weariness.

As for the generals of the Great Western Army, after Zhang Xianzhong founded the country, they were all considering whether their official positions and merits matched, and they didn't devote their minds to fighting at all.

There are problems between brothers who are closely related like Zhang Dingguo and Zhang Wenxiu, and the relationship between other generals can be imagined.

On the other hand, our army has been stationed in Hanzhong for nearly a year. The officers and soldiers have not only become familiar with the local geography and climate, but also recovered their physical strength.Therefore, as long as we defeat each other in this battle, we will be able to defeat the Great Western Army attacking us..."

He Zhen's judgment was not wrong. The Shun Army allowed the Daxi Army to go deep into Hanzhong, then ambushed Zhang Dingguo who was running in the front, and then used Zhang Dingguo's defeated army to crush Zhang Wenxiu's army behind him. The Daxi Army was completely defeated by more than 3000 Shun Army. Zhang Dingguo and Zhang Wenxiu fled back to Guangyuan City with only their guards, and the others surrendered to the Shun Army.

This battle took place in the middle and late December of last year. This was also the last document passed from Xi'an to Luoyang. After that, the Tongguan defenders also realized that something was wrong with Luoyang and cut off the communication with Luoyang.

After hearing the news, Liu Zongmin immediately laughed and said: "Huang Hu still wants to be the emperor, but in the end he can't even defeat one of our partial teachers. What is the difference between him as an emperor and those who sing on stage?"

Chapter 431 News from Xi'an Part Three

Both Li Guo and Chen Yongfu felt that this was good news. As He Zhen repelled Zhang Xianzhong's attack, it not only curbed Zhang Xianzhong's momentum to unify the whole of Sichuan, but also ensured that Zhang Xianzhong would not be able to stab Dashun in the back. Qing, then the crisis that Dashun faced after the Manchus entered the customs could be alleviated.

However, after hearing the news, Li Zicheng did not show any joy, but fell into silence.After Li Guo noticed Li Zicheng's expression, he couldn't help asking: "Your Majesty thinks that Huang Hu won't give up just yet?"

Li Zicheng shook his head after looking at a few people, and then asked them a question: "Do you think Dashun is a local power, or a central dynasty that will rule China?"

Li Zicheng's words made several people confused, but they quickly realized that they all responded to Li Zicheng, thinking that Dashun was naturally the central dynasty that would rule China.Liu Zongmin said disdainfully: "Da Ming no longer exists, and King Xiao Fu, who was supported by the south, was forced to abdicate, and the crown prince is in our hands again. It is impossible for the south to elect another emperor to fight against His Majesty.

After the failure of the Qing army's southern expedition, it is impossible to organize a second such large-scale southern expedition. The confrontation between us and the Manchus has been formed, but the crimes committed by the Manchus in the pass in the past, they are It is impossible to win the support of the people in the pass, so if the Manchus want to occupy Hebei, they must fight against us and the resistance of the Han people under their rule.The minister believed that the only way out for the Manchus was to retreat outside the pass, otherwise the whole family would perish in the pass sooner or later.

As for Huang Hu in Sichuan, he is not Han Gaozu, nor does he have such advisers as Zhang Liang, Xiao He, and Han Xin in his hands, so why should he follow the path of Han Gaozu to fight for the world?This time he couldn't even win Hanzhong, which shows the weakness of the Great Western Army.

Looking around, there are only a few forces that can compete with us in the world. Except for the Manchus who are still a little dangerous, why should others compete with me, Dashun?Therefore, the only one who can unify the world is Your Majesty, and I have never doubted this. "

The content of other people's statements is not much different from that of Liu Zongmin. They all think that although the current Dashun has not yet unified the world, the future court must be Dashun.This is not just to please Li Zicheng, they really think so in their hearts. After defeating Azig and regaining the Yellow River defense line, no one will think that Dashun will not be able to stop the Qing army from going south. It is nothing more than how much they have paid price only.

Li Zicheng did not start a discussion with them on who can unify China, but continued to ask them: "Since everyone thinks that we will be able to unify the world in the future and become a new imperial court. Then I would like to ask you From the standpoint of the imperial court, what do you think of He Zhen's defeat of the Great Western Army?"

Liu Zongmin and Li Guo were a little stunned, but it was Chen Yongfu and Liu Zhong who came to their senses. Liu Zhong looked at the others and said boldly: "If you stand on the standpoint of the imperial court, repelling Zhang Xianzhong is certainly worthy of congratulations. But if our army can't go deep into Sichuan to pursue Zhang Xianzhong, then we have to worry about whether Zhang Xianzhong's troops will plunder the people after their failure.

Judging from Zhang Xianzhong's past deeds, if he cannot guarantee his own safety, he will destroy the place and will not let the court take back a complete Sichuan.First, it can prevent the officers and soldiers from getting support from the local area; second, it can force the court to provide relief to these people, thereby consuming the supplies of the court and preventing the officers and soldiers from receiving sufficient supplies..."

In this respect, even Chen Yongfu can't compare with Liu Zhong, because the former was promoted from a low-level military officer by relying on military merits, while Liu Zhong is a general who has received a systematic education, so Liu Zhong knows better than anyone else, what It is to look at the problem from the perspective of the court.

Although Liu Zongmin and Li Guo sounded a little uncomfortable, after all, they used to always look at the problem from the perspective of the rebel army. This kind of perspective of the court was actually the court's accusation against them.

For example, in Liu Zhong's view, no, it should be in the view of the court that after the defeat of the Daxi Army, it robbed the people in order to protect itself, which was an act of harming the people.But in the eyes of Liu Zongmin and Li Guo, this is a last resort. Although Li Zicheng has been restraining the army from harassing the people, but before Li Zicheng unified the rebels, the other rebels had no military discipline. Otherwise, Luo Rucai, the leaders of the rebels How did the beauties around me come from?

But this time, from the standpoint of Dashun, they had to admit that they could no longer take the Daxi army's violation of the people for granted, because this person was already a citizen of Dashun.If they just watched the Daxi army do nothing to kill their own people, how could the people recognize Dashun as the new court?

Chen Yongfu saw that the atmosphere suddenly became a little subtle, so he said aloud: "We are still unable to go to Sichuan to pursue Zhang Xianzhong at this time, but Zhang Xianzhong established the foundation and established the country in Chengdu, so whether it is for me Dashun or for those remaining ministers of the Ming Dynasty, it is the same. You are a real traitor. I think that His Majesty, in the name of the Marshal's Mansion, can call on the soldiers and civilians in Sichuan who are loyal to Ming Dynasty to join me in dealing with Zhang Xianzhong."