The Ming army issued a conquest document, which mentioned that 570,000 soldiers had left Kuidong, a figure proposed by Yuan Zongdi and unanimously approved by Liu Tichun and Hao Shaoqi.

"Could it be too much?" When he left Xiangyang and went south, Deng Ming was a little uneasy, he felt that it was almost too much to exaggerate the number of troops by two times, and four times was too much, but Yuan Zong's first mouth was fifteen or twenty times longer, which was really a bit of a bean into a soldier.

"Not much, not much at all, just right." Hao Shaoqi replied.

As a few days ago, Yuan Zongdi stayed in the rear team to take charge of the aftermath, Liu Tichun convened the blasting team to hold a discussion meeting, and He Zhen counted his gains from this expedition for the hundredth time, only Hao Shaoqi and Deng Ming, who liked to chat, were idle.

"Generally speaking, most of them are two or three times the actual strength, right?" Deng Ming asked. In his impression, it may be normal for the army of this era to have 100,000 people claiming to be 200,000, 200,000 claiming to be 500,000, and more than 400,000 claiming to be million.

"So we're going to say a little bit more." Obviously, Hao Shaoqi thought that this was just a little more. He has a successful example, and he said it casually, which is the story of Li Zicheng's Eastern Expedition in the first year of Yongchang: "General Liu led a front army of 15,000 people, and claimed to be the commander of the vanguard of 500,000; King Chuang personally received a million, but in fact, King Chuang only had more than 40,000 people in his hands at that time. ”

"Fifteen thousand plus more than forty thousand, it's good to count sixty thousand, known as one and a half million, twenty-five times! Well. Deng Ming nodded, no wonder Yuan Zongdi would propose such a large multiple, and he was able to get the approval of Liu Tichun and Hao Shaoqi, it turned out that they had successful experience: "As a result, what do the Shanxi defenders along the way think, do they all think that there are at least 700,000 or 800,000 people in King Chuang?" ”

"Along the way of the Eastern Expedition, hundreds of thousands of defenders in Shanxi and Zhili provinces surrendered when they heard the news."

"O human heart." Deng Ming sighed.

Although Li Zicheng was bluffing at that time, in the final analysis, the army and the people at that time had completely lost confidence in the Ming Dynasty, and if it were not for the Manchu Qing Dynasty, I am afraid that no one would still fight under the banner of the Ming Dynasty until now. Now Deng Ming's situation is that the gentry in Huguang are not as willing to obey the rule of the Manchus as the northern scholars, and the green camp in Huguang is far from being as willing to fight to the end for the Manchus and the Ming army as the northern green battalion.

Deng Ming also had a concern, although this article was mainly written for the gentry, it would definitely fall into the hands of Qing court officials. In addition to having a psychological advantage over the green battalions in the Huguang area, Deng Ming and others dared to go south along the Han River, and also judged that Hu Quancai, the governor of Huguang, would not risk the collapse of the entire Jiangfang defense and send a large number of troops from the Kuidong front to block their roads, at least not in the first place. In this way, the Ming army will have a period of time to sweep away the empty central Hubei, recruit rebels, expand their strength, and even consider showing off their might in front of Wuchang City.

However, if the governor of Huguang, Yamen, thought that the strength of the Ming army was strong and was the main force of the Ming army in Kuidong, he might quickly concentrate his forces to resist, and he might even take time to garrison in various places and pour out his nest to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army. If Hu Quancai believed that there were more than 200,000 troops in Kuidongming, then he would definitely think that this was because the Kuizhou army and military families were all out and were going to leave Kuizhou to fight in other countries, would he transfer all the soldiers and horses from Yiling, Jiangling and other places back?

Wouldn't it be dangerous if that were to happen? Although the Ming army of Kui Dong could take advantage of this opportunity to develop eastward, the shape of Deng Ming's road would become severe.

"Sir, I'm too worried, this document will only make the puppet officials in various states and counties restless, but it will definitely not scare Hu Quancai's thief." Hao Shaoqi didn't take Deng Ming's worries to heart at all: "Hu Quancai can even guess how many wooden rafts and bamboo rafts the last general built, he won't know how many people can come out of Yunyang, and he won't transfer Jiangfang out of the cage for the sake of just 20,000 or 30,000 Ming troops, giving Kui Dongjun a chance to get out of the cage." ”

Although Hu Quancai was a civilian official, he had been serving Hong Chengchou since the Qing army entered the customs, and was appointed as the governor of Yunyang two years ago, and had been in charge of 20,000 troops alone, and was definitely not a scholar who knew nothing about military affairs. The most important thing is that Hu Quancai is very familiar with the geography of Zhushan and Fangxian generations.

……

Wuchang, Huguang Governor Yamen.

The two provinces of Hubei and Hunan were also called Huguang, and the position of governor of Huguang was set up by the Qing court specifically to suppress the anti-Qing forces in Hubei and Hunan. Hu Quancai, the first governor of Huguang, was a jinshi in the second year of Chongzhen, a native of Shanxi.

After Li Zicheng was defeated, he urgently ordered Yuan Zongdi of Xiangyang to lead his headquarters Jīng Rui to the north to prepare to defend Shanxi. But at this time, the former Ming officials in Shanxi had already seen Li Zicheng's strength clearly, and knew that he actually did not have a million troops, and the remaining troops were only 30,000 after the defeat of a stone, and the troops of Yuan Zongdi, who came to the aid urgently, were only in their early 10,000s. On the other hand, Li Zicheng's opponent Dolgon had more than 100,000 troops, and Wu Sangui defected to the Qing army, and the strength of the Qing army was four or five times stronger than that of the Shun army.

Shanxi's former Ming and Jin armies surrendered to the Shun army when Li Zicheng was strong, and at this time they followed Wu Sangui's example and surrendered to the Manchu Qing in a swarm, with a total of more than 50,000 Jin troops turning from the Shun army to the Qing army - later, when the Qing army attacked Shaanxi, there were almost a number of former Ming and Qin troops from the Shun army to the Shaanxi Green Battalion.

When the Jin army surrendered to Dolgon, Hu Quancai also organized his father and elders to welcome the "Wang Shi" in his hometown, and actively advised the Qing court to help suppress the anti-Qing movement in Shanxi, regardless of whether the resisters were under the banner of "Ming" or "Shun".

Later, the former Datong general Jiang Pai announced the uprising again, which was his third change of banner after surrendering Li Zicheng from the Ming army to the Shun army, surrendering Dolgon from the Shun army to the Qing army, and Jiang Pai with tens of thousands of sons and daughters from the Qing army to the Ming army. Originally, Jiang Zhi was the Dinghai Shenzhu of the Qing court to suppress the resistance forces in Shanxi, and his change of banner naturally led to a great change in the situation in Shanxi overnight; Moreover, Jiang Zhuang's success rate is very high, the first time he changed his banner to guide the general collapse of the northwest defense line of Chongzhen, and the second time he lost the battle of defending Shanxi, Tong Guò These two successful changes of banner, Jiang Banner has not only mastered the main army of Shanxi, but also accumulated great prestige. For a while, the whole province responded, and they all thought that Jiang Dashuai would not make a move, and he would definitely succeed if he made a move.

However, Hu Quancai unswervingly stood on the side of the Qing court, and wholeheartedly waged an arduous struggle against various anti-Qing forces, and finally managed to defend the clouds. A year after Hong Chengchou established the shogunate in Changsha, he believed that Hu Quancai's talent was not limited to picking up vacancies around the commander, so he promoted him to the Qing court as the governor of Yunyang, and handed over the 20,000-strong army and the heavy responsibility of defending the upper reaches of the Han River to him.

In the past two years, Hu Quancai proved his ability to Hong Chengchou, especially in the battle of Hao Shaoqi's sneak attack on Xiangyang, the governor of Yunyang did not rush to send troops to recapture Xiangyang, and did not give the Ming army a chance to break through the cage in a panic, but while stabilizing the defense area, Chen Bing threatened the Ming army's grain route and retreat, forcing Hao Shaoqi to abandon Xiangyang and return to Kuidong. When Hong Chengchou left Changsha to conquer Yungui, Hu Quancai was appointed by the Qing court as the governor of Huguang, responsible for closely monitoring the Ming army in the Kuidong area.

When he just received reports from Yunyang, Gucheng and other places, Hu Quancai didn't pay much attention to it. According to his experience, the ability of the Ming army along the Yunyang road is to dispatch 10,000 or 20,000 people, as long as Hong Chengchou strictly abides by the rules and regulations formulated in the past, and relocates the surrounding people to the city, the boats on the Han River are collected and protected, so that the Ming army can not find materials in the field, and cannot find boats and boats on the river, and it will take less than two months to retreat the same way.

Now the strategic focus of the imperial court is not in Huguang, Hu Quancai only needs to defend. Even if it is Huguang, the strategic center of gravity is not in Yunyang, but in Yiling, so Hu Quancai casually looked at Yunyang's report and threw it aside, with no intention of sending reinforcements at all. Probably Yunyang also knew this, and did not make such a request.

A few days later, Yunyang sent another report, scribbled and urgent, claiming that the Ming army had dug down several city walls by attacking holes, and the city was in danger.

There are many places in the city wall of Yunyang that Hu Quancai supervised and repaired, and he was very clear about the fortification of the city defense. Although he had never encountered a cave attack, he also knew that this way of digging tunnels would take a long time to work, and the Ming army would need an extremely considerable number of troops to dig several places in one go...... But if the Ming army really has such troops, can Yunyang still have a chance to send the letter? The inability to completely cut off communications inside and outside the city clearly shows that the enemy's strength is weak.

Hu Quancai did not wait for Yunyang to send more news, and then sent an urgent report to Gu Cheng, claiming that a large number of Ming troops were coming in river boats. The guards were worried that the Ming army would be too strong and would cut off communication inside and outside Gucheng, so they sent this messenger to send a letter to Xiangyang in advance. The letter claimed that until now, the Ming army's siege operations had been quite weak, and the defenders were confident that they would hold the city for more than three months, and that there would be no problems with the city's food stockpile.

Seeing the two place names of Yunyang and Gucheng again, they are on the emergency chapter of Xiangyang, almost immediately following the military information of Gucheng transmitted by Xiangyang, and Xiangyang sent an urgent report, saying that there are guards in Yunyang and Gucheng who have fled back, and both cities have been lost. In the letter, the prefect of Xiangyang claimed that he had no soldiers or food in his hands, only a rope, and hoped that the governor of Huguang would convey his determination to die for the country to the imperial court.

"It's ridiculous!" When he saw the suicide note of the Xiangyang prefect, Hu Quancai couldn't help but scold.

The defense of Yunyang's front line has long been established, as long as it is done in a proper manner, there will definitely not be much danger; Although the troops around Yunyang were not as strong as when Hu Quancai was governor, the three cities combined also had more than 10,000 Qing troops, of which about 3,000 were soldiers. Even if the other side really has an army of 100,000, as long as they honestly defend the city, it is impossible to lose the forward position in a blink of an eye.

"It must have been the thief's trick." Hu Quancai pondered in the governor's palace and finally determined that there was only one situation that could explain the current crisis: that is, the Ming army sent a small force as bait to lure the Qing army in the city to attack. And the defender was indeed as greedy as the Ming army hoped, and did not hesitate to leave the city empty to attack the Ming army's decoy troops, and was finally killed by the Ming army's ambush, and the city was immediately declared lost.

The more Hu Quancai thought about it, the more he felt that his analysis was reasonable, the last letter sent by Yunyang was obviously a shirk of responsibility, in the case of the city being guaranteed to be unsafe, the prefect in order to avoid the court from pursuing his responsibility for greed, so the fall of the city was said to be an attack by the Ming army - how could the Ming army dig up several city walls in a few days? Does the prefect of Yunyang think that the dignified Governor of Huguang is a fool, and doesn't know that Governor Hu has stayed in Yunyang?

Although Hu Quancai didn't know what kind of bait the Ming army came up with, he believed that it must be very attractive, and the defenders of Gucheng took the initiative to go out of the city to meet the battle when they saw the enemy's strength, which is enough to show the attraction of the Ming army's bait; Moreover, Hu Quancai also judged that when the defenders of Gucheng attacked, they must have come out of the empty city like Yunyang, and there were almost no defensive forces left, so they would be taken by the Ming army so quickly.

The situation of the broken city wall of Xiangyang is clear to Hu Quancai, and it is not surprising that it was obtained by the Ming army, and when he saw the suicide note of the prefect of Xiangyang, Hu Quancai already regarded him as a dead man.

Hu Quancai felt that Yunyang could not support the Ming army in Kuidong all the way, and he was convinced that the number of Ming troops was at most 30,000 - unknowingly, Governor Hu had raised the upper limit of the Ming army's dispatch by 10,000.

As for Deng Ming's letter, it was not valid for Hu Quancai at all: "Five hundred and seventy thousand, hum!" Did you come out of the mountains all the way out of the mountains? ”

For Deng Ming, Hu Quancai has also heard of it. The Battle of Kunming caused a sensation in half of the world, and Hu Quan knew that there were some rumors that Deng Ming was an incognito clan, but Hu Quancai, like the imperial court, scoffed at this rumor - if it was really a clan, wouldn't it hurry up and raise a banner?

Hearing that one of the birthplaces of this rumor turned out to be the Yamen of the Governor of Sichuan and Shaanxi, Hu Quancai let out a sneer after seeing Deng Ming's inscription, and laughed at Li Guoying, who had become the laughing stock of officialdom: "Governor Li, your clan has come to my Hunan." ”

Smile and laugh, although Hu Quancai does not believe that Deng Ming is a clan, it does not mean that he will underestimate this person, the person who can hide Wu Sangui and Zhao Liangdong in Kunming and burn Hong Chengchou to death is certainly worthy of attention.

"Send an envoy to Yicheng immediately!" Although Hu Quancai felt that such a small number of Ming troops did not have the ability to continue to attack the city and plunder the land, in line with the principle of leniency for the enemy, Governor Hu ordered an envoy to rush to Yicheng and send his warrant to the defenders.

Governor Hu ordered the defenders of Yicheng not to fight under any circumstances, otherwise they would be guilty of victory. After thinking twice, Hu Quancai thought that since the Ming army could rely on the strategy of luring the enemy to connect the two cities, then they might go to Yicheng to deceive again, which was also the only means for them to capture Yicheng. In the warrant, Hu Quancai clearly told the defenders of Yicheng that Yunyang and Gucheng fell quickly because they fell into a trick to lure the enemy, and he repeatedly stressed that if anyone dared to go out of the city to meet the enemy, then they would definitely be court-martialed.

The envoy arrived in Yicheng before the arrival of the Ming army, and quickly returned to Wuchang, bringing Hu Quancai a reply from the defender of Yicheng. In the reply letter, the guard general assured Governor Hu Quancai that nothing in this world could deceive him out of the city, whether it was a mountain of gold, a mountain of silver, or a beautiful woman of the country, it was useless, just because he knew that Governor Hu's general order was like a mountain, and the guard general told Hu Quancai that he had ordered the four gates of Yicheng to be blocked with big stones, ensuring that not even a single mosquito could fly out.

The messenger also proved the words of the defender of Yicheng, and when he left Yicheng, he was hung from the basket of the city.

"Deng Ming is a good deceitful and deceitful, as long as his heart is upright and not confused by his tricks, then he can't do anything." After hearing the envoy's report, Hu Quancai felt slightly relieved. Although Yicheng is not big, there are not many garrisons, and the guards are not as experienced as the guards in Yunyang and Gucheng, but they also have the advantage of being less qualified.

Hu Quancai looked at the map again and decided that this time it was better not to be at a loss, just block the way of the Ming army in Yicheng, and wait for the Ming army to retreat to Kuizhou. If the Ming army refused to go back honestly, Hu Quancai would send a small number of troops to threaten their retreat, and if necessary, he could also ask the Henan Green Camp to go south and enter Hubei to suppress this Ming army.

Two days later, an urgent letter from Anlu Mansion flew into Wuchang, bringing Governor Hu the news that Yicheng, which had blocked the four gates, was said to have been breached by the Ming army.

"It's only two days!" Hu Quancai was furious when he saw the report. According to the time calculation, it was probably as soon as his envoy left, the Ming army arrived at the city, and captured Yicheng the next day, and it did not drag on the third day at the latest: "What kind of fools are my subordinates?" Explain that they are not allowed to go out of the city, they just want to go out of the city! Two days! It's just to let a pig guard the town, as long as the pig doesn't arch the city gate by itself, at least it can guard it for ten or eight days, right? ”

The shape became more and more urgent, Anlu Mansion was much emptier than Xiangyang Mansion, not to mention the lack of soldiers and generals with combat experience, even the army without combat experience was not much. Hu Quan knew that he had to immediately send troops to Zhongxiang, the capital of Anlu Mansion, and if the Ming army invaded Anlu Mansion, it would shake the whole of Hubei, and the court might also blame him.

Hu Quancai ordered the troops and horses of Huangzhou and De'an to immediately concentrate on Wuchang, and at the same time overstepped the command and ordered the garrisons in Anlu Prefecture to no longer stay in the original defense area, and all of them should rush to the capital city as quickly as possible to converge. Although Anlu Mansion is empty, there are at least one or two hundred soldiers with combat effectiveness in each county, and they don't need auxiliary support to march in the mansion, they can rush to Zhongxiang at full speed. These combat soldiers generally have armor and weapons, and few soldiers should not lose their equipment in such a short distance, so even if Zhong Xiang does not have many weapons in stock, there will be no pressure.

After concentrating the soldiers from various counties, towns, and even post stations in Fucheng, Hu Quancai estimated that he could also gather two or three thousand equipped soldiers, and at the same time ordered Fucheng to mobilize an emergency mobilization, prepare a large amount of wood, stones, and fire oil, and levy the people to assist in the defense.

As soon as the messenger who delivered the letter left, Hu Quancai gave another additional order, asking each county to send troops at the same time, and sending people to escort the silver and silver in stock to Fucheng.

This has two purposes: first, anyway, the counties have lost their defensive capabilities, and the Ming army can take it by sending a small group of soldiers at will, and these things might as well be transported to the capital city safely; Second, there must be brave men under the heavy reward, Hu Quancai ordered An Lufu, don't be stingy, and immediately post a notice to set the reward: If the Ming army really comes to attack the big city, the people in the city Ding Zhuang, as long as they diligently carry soil and stone to the city, they will be rewarded with one or two taels of silver every day, if the defenders dare to lean out and invest wood and stone in the Ming army besieging the city, each time the reward is two taels of silver, and if a Ming soldier who climbs the city is killed, he will be rewarded with ten taels of silver immediately.

"Bring some silver to the city, and if someone does a meritorious service, he will be rewarded immediately." In his heart, Hu Quancai tirelessly taught the prefect of Anlu Mansion how to defend the city, and the officials in Zhongxiang and other places, who had been in the rear, had little experience in war, which really made Hu Quancai feel at ease. It is said that such a preparation is that there are 100,000 Ming troops to attack, and it will not be able to take it for a moment and a half, which is enough to win time and wait for Wuchang to send reinforcements. However, after learning Yicheng's lesson, Hu Quancai also had some doubts about his judgment.

"That's it, that's it." Hu Quancai felt that in order to be just in case, he still did not wait for the troops from all over the country to concentrate in Wuchang before setting off together, but sent a part of the green battalion guarding Hanyang and Wuchang to rush to Anlu Fufu to assist in the defense.

When the Hanyang General Soldiers rushed to the Wuchang Huguang Governor's Mansion when they heard the order, they were also recruited by a young man named Zhou Peigong.

Treating Huguangshi people well was a strategy set by Hong Chengchou back then. Hong Chengchou pretended not to see the behavior of the Huguang gentry in privately colluding with the Ming army, and he also held a large number of poetry meetings in Changsha and other places, and the magistrates also actively participated, striving to make the gentry in Huguang form a feeling, as if the Ming army was all grass and poor mud legs, and no matter whether the name of the běijīng court was "Ming" or "Qing", the officials of the court were the same kind of gentry, they were scholars and scholars.

As Hong Chengchou's subordinate, Hu Quancai saw with his own eyes how these measures won the loyalty of the Huguang gentry to the Qing court bit by bit. The younger generation of scholars gradually began to participate in the imperial examinations of the Qing court, while the older generation of gentry, although they had a clear mind, they all closed their doors, instead of contributing money and efforts to organize the rebel army as before, and even personally participated in fundraising and food and sent it to the Ming army.

This Zhou Peigong was a scholar who participated in the imperial examination of the Qing court, and he served as a guest in the Huguang Governor's Mansion at a young age. Both of his parents died, and he did not have to worry about the attitude of his elders towards the Qing court.

For these young scholars, Hong Chengchou's policy is to count merit with leniency. If a young scholar watched a battle, the merit book for the court must have written his praise. Although this credit can be denied, if there is any opportunity next time, the Jingluo Mansion will come again, again and again. Hong Chengchou believed that such preferential treatment could allow the scholars to gradually stand on the side of the Qing army in the war. And most of the young people like to brag, Hong Chengchou is very willing to give them some credit that can be used to brag about themselves, so that when they talk and talk, they will see the Ming army as a thief.

Although Hong Chengchou is gone, his policies are still carried forward by his old subordinates.

Zhou Peigong was the benchmark among the young scholars of Huguang, and belonged to one of the Huguang scholars who were most actively close to the Manchu court. Hu Quancai intended to cultivate him, so that everyone could see the benefits of cooperating with the Qing court, and this time he let him go to Anlu Mansion with the Hanyang General Army.

"The Governor has been in Yunyang for many years, and he knows everything there. Since the thieves are coming from there, then their strength ......" Hu Quancai thought for a while, stretched out four fingers, and shook them in front of Zhou Peigong: "It is impossible to exceed 40,000, and more than 30,000 of them are auxiliaries who carry grain and grass, otherwise the thieves will not be able to walk so far on the mountain road." ”

After the Ming army sent troops, the number of people along the way would increase, but Hu Quancai still believed that the Ming army was limited in strength and would never reach one-tenth of the inscription. As long as the Hanyang General Army arrives in time with reinforcements, it should not be a problem for Anlu Mansion to hold out for a month or two. The Ming army of Kui Dong advanced so quickly that Hu Quancai thought that it was impossible for them to carry heavy siege equipment such as cannons and towers with the army.

"The last letter sent by Yunyang Mansion said that the thieves attacked everywhere and had dug down the city wall in several places." After learning that Yicheng was lost, Hu Quancai turned over the battle report that he had thrown aside before and read it again. In addition to Yunyang's letter, there are also several letters that also mention some remarks about the defeated soldiers who escaped, including the Ming army's use of cave attacks.

"How is that possible?" The general soldier of Hanyang was ordered to lead three thousand jīng soldiers to rush to reinforce An Lu Mansion in the starry night, and he smiled disapprerovingly: "How can you do it so quickly? ”

"Of course not. But it occurred to the Governor that this might well be the trick of the thieves to lure the enemy. They dug everywhere to create panic among the defenders, but the defenders did not notice, so they hurried out of the city to attack their mounds, and instead fell into the thieves' scheme. Hu Quancai had never figured out why he and the Yicheng defenders said so clearly, and the other party would still go out of the city to fight; Later, it suddenly dawned on him that the Ming army must not be using inducements, but creating a tense atmosphere, making the defenders think that going out of the city to counterattack was a necessary measure.

Hu Quancai advised: "This time I went to Anlu, no matter what tricks the thieves had, even if it was close to the wall, even if it was against the wall, even if it was a city without a shed, even if it was Deng Ming lying shirtless on the edge of the suspension bridge, you would never be allowed to go out of the city." As soon as the soldiers and horses from Huangzhou Mansion and other places arrive, the governor will personally rush to Anlu to join you. ”——

The monthly click is still the first in the history category, but the clicks of Zhou and rì are a bit of a downward trend, and most of you readers speak and discuss in the book review area, and this rì publishes 7,000 words of thanks in advance.