Regarding the specific affairs arranged for Xu Hongzu, Emperor Chongzhen did not have time to make specific inquiries at all. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The day after Emperor Chongzhen led several important ministers of the cabinet and the military aircraft department to the Wuying Hall to see the terrain sand table, and took this opportunity to meet Xu Hongzu, he received from the military aircraft department Li Banghua, who had entered the Jin Governor Division as the minister of military aircraft, to urgently submit the report to the Beijing division for 600 miles.

Li Banghua said on the recital that the thieves in northern Shaanxi who crossed the Yellow River east into the Jin Dynasty in the first month have now found out their whereabouts.

At present, these thieves are divided into two branches, one of which is dominated by Gao Yingxiang, Lao Huihui and other thieves, and enters the Luya Mountains to the north, and the other is led by Wang Jiayin, the largest thief in northern Shaanxi, and enters the Liangshan Mountains.

The so-called Liangshan Mountains here are, of course, not the Liangshan Mountains of Shandong, but the Luliang Mountains of the western part of Shanxi in later generations.

Of course, if it is more serious, the Luya Mountains are also part of the northern section of the so-called Luliang Mountains in later generations.

The topography of Shanxi is relatively unique, except for the westernmost part of Shaanxi with the Yellow River running north-south as the boundary, the rest can basically be summarized by two mountains and one river.

The two mountains are two mountains that run in a north-south direction, the Luliang Mountains are not far from the Yellow River in the west, and the famous Taihang Mountains are in the east.

As for the middle river, it is the Fen River that runs through almost the entire inland of Shanxi from north to south.

Although there are many small mountain ranges in the middle of these two major mountain ranges in Shanxi, there is nothing comparable to the huge mountain systems such as Luliang Mountain and Taihang Mountain, which run north-south.

Of course, the Hengshan Mountain Range, which connects with the town of Datong in the north, and the Zhongtiao Mountains, which connect Henan across the Yellow River in the south, are also endless.

Therefore, on the whole, the terrain of Shanxi is very unique, and it can also be said to be very closed, if it can block the Taihang Eight Mountains, then before the arrival of winter and the freezing of the Yellow River, it is not impossible to exterminate these two bandits in Shanxi.

Let's say that on the Chinese New Year's Eve night of the first month of the second year of Chongzhen, Wang Ziyong, Gao Yingxiang, Ma Shouying and others took advantage of the opportunity of the Yellow River to freeze in the east of Suidezhou, and led many people and horses to coerce the people of Jiaxian and other places, crossed the Yellow River to the east, and captured the three county towns of Wubao, Yonghe, and Jizhou in Shanxi in one fell swoop.

The performance of the guards along the Yellow Line in Shanxi made Zhang Xiao, the governor of Shanxi, and Wang Guoliang, the chief military officer of Shanxi, angry, and at the same time, it also made the leaders of the thieves who led the thieves into Shanxi rejoice.

In the eyes of these thieves, the territory of Shanxi, which is across the river, is really a blessed land for their rebels, because they finally found the feeling of invincibility at the beginning of the uprising.

Wang Jiayin and Ma Shouying, these thieves, were all from the border army, and they knew everything about the disappointment of the Daming local guard.

In the face of the border army of Yansui Town under Sun Chuanting, they may not be able to defeat it, but in the face of the guards in Shanxi, they have a strong sense of superiority, and they don't take these guards in their eyes at all.

It is true that these thieves led the thieves who were chased by the official army in Shaanxi and had nowhere to hide, and since they entered Shanxi, it was as if they had entered a no-man's land.

Before the first month, the west of Luliang Mountain was turned upside down, not only took the three county towns of Wubao, Yonghe, and Jizhou along the Yellow Line, but also captured the city of Lishi in Yongning Prefecture.

Lishi is also called Yongning Prefecture in this historical time and space, and the state is located in Lishi County.

The same is this Lishi, which was renamed Lu Liang in later generations.

The reason why it was later renamed Lvliang is because it is located in the center of Lvliang Mountain, which is the most representative place of Lvliang Mountains.

Today's Lishi, surrounded by mountains, ravines and ravines, the northern section of Luliang Mountain to the north is called Luya Mountain Range again, and the northern section of Luliang Mountain to the south is called Liangshan Mountain Range.

After Wang Jiayin joined the two thief armies, he successfully captured Yongning Prefecture, and at this time, the time had already passed the first month.

Officials from top to bottom in Shanxi hurriedly reported the thieves, and at the same time hurriedly mobilized troops and horses to defend Taiyuan.

Shanxi Town in the Ming Dynasty was one of the Nine Sides, which meant that the General Military Mansion of Shanxi Town and the Yamen of Shanxi Governor were not in the same place.

The Yamen of the Shanxi Governor was in Taiyuan, and the General Military Office of Shanxi Town was located in Daizhou, 300 miles north of Taiyuan.

The border army to which Shanxi Town belongs is mainly responsible, and it is also the pass of the first line of the Inner Great Wall, from west to east, Ningwu Pass, Yanmen Pass, Pingxing Pass and Baoma Pass.

Therefore, the heavy troops in Shanxi Town, that is, the battalions recruited according to the standard of the border army, were mainly deployed on the front line of these passes.

Although Emperor Chongzhen had repeatedly ordered Zhang Xiao, the governor of Shanxi, and Wang Guoliang, the chief military officer, to build additional fortresses along the Yellow River to prevent the thieves from Shaanxi from entering Shanxi, the Shanxi army, from the chief military officer Wang Guoliang to the ordinary soldiers, did not take the thief and peasant army in Shaanxi seriously.

Although Zhang Xiao, the governor of Shanxi, also invested a lot of money and grain along the Yellow Line to raise displaced people to build fortresses, Shanxi suffered a major drought and natural disaster that had not been encountered in decades last year, and there was really not much spare energy to vigorously build forts along the Yellow Line.

In this way, a year has passed, and the Yellow Defense Line along Shanxi, which Emperor Chongzhen envisioned, is not only progressing slowly, but also full of loopholes.

But Emperor Chongzhen couldn't depose Zhang Xiao and Wang Guoliang because of this.

First, since ordering the construction of defensive lines facing Shaanxi in Shanxi and Henan, Zhang Xiao, the governor of Shanxi, and Wang Guoliang, the general soldier, have done their best, and the plans reported have also been approved by Emperor Chongzhen.

The two of them deployed nearly 10,000 guards along the Yellow Defense Line in Shanxi, from the northernmost pass to the southernmost Puzhou, the repaired city was repaired, and the rectified guard post was also enriched and rectified.

So, it's not like nothing has been done.

Second, Shanxi, like Shaanxi, has been a year-round drought since the seventh year of the Apocalypse, and after the first year of Chongzhen, the drought has not only not eased, but has also intensified, and not a drop of rain has fallen throughout the year.

In the face of such a situation, there was no large-scale civil unrest in Shanxi like in northern Shaanxi, because the governor Zhang Xiao and the general soldier Wang Guoliang and others took the money and grain to build the defense line to help the famine people.

This can be regarded as a credit in any way.

Historically, Emperor Chongzhen easily dismissed Zhang Xiao as governor, and then changed several governors of Shanxi one after another, but none of the successors could maintain the stability of Shanxi.

What does this mean?

This shows that the situation at that time was probably not something that anyone could turn the tide by his own ability alone. It can also be said that the general trend is like this, and it is beyond human resistance.

A big mistake made by Emperor Chongzhen in history was to frequently replace his ministers and feudal officials, which was of course to promote and reuse a large number of good ministers and generals, but it was also true that he killed many useful and usable people by mistake.

After deposing Zhang Xiao, he used Geng Ruqi, but killed Geng Ruqi a year later.

The reason is that Geng Ruqi could not effectively restrain the Shanxi soldiers, but if it was Zhang Xiao, who had been in Shanxi for many years, who led the troops at that time, I am afraid that such a tragedy would not have occurred.

And Wang Guoliang finally died on the battlefield of suppressing thieves, even if such a person has average ability, but compared to those general soldiers who escaped from the battle or surrendered to the enemy before the battle, they can be regarded as having a conscience.

Therefore, after receiving the report of the thief in Shanxi, as well as the plea of guilt from Zhang Xiao and others, Emperor Chongzhen listened to the advice of the cabinet ministers and the minister of military aircraft, and only issued an order to reprimand Zhang Xiao, Wang Guoliang and Wang Jiazheng, the imperial history of the Shanxi town supervisor, and allowed them to make meritorious contributions without further punishment.

After all, it is better to make a mistake than to make a mistake, rather than replacing it with a few newcomers who don't understand the situation, it is better to let these people who have no major faults in themselves redeem their merits and redeem their faults with merit.

Therefore, after Emperor Chongzhen issued an order to dismiss Luo Shijin, the governor of Shanxi, and Pei Junxi, a political officer in Shanxi, he did not investigate the responsibilities of Zhang Xiao, the governor of Shanxi, and Wang Guoliang, the general soldier.

Instead, let them hurry up the whole army and the army, reserve grain and grass, and prepare to wait for the Minister of Military Aircraft Li Banghua to supervise the division into Jin to suppress thieves.

After receiving the will of the imperial court, Zhang Xiao, the governor of Shanxi, and Wang Guoliang, the chief military officer, were also ashamed and brave, while letting Wang Jiazheng, the imperial historian of the Shanxi town supervisor, lead the army to sit in Ningwu Pass, to prevent the thieves from crossing the Yunzhong Mountains and breaking into the relatively stable and prosperous plains on both sides of the Fen River in Shanxi.

When Li Banghua, under the escort of the mine camp that he had single-handedly trained, rushed to Lu'an Mansion in Shanxi with a batch of grain and salary from Beijing, this was the situation in Shanxi.