Chapter 214: War of Words
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In the spring of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, the situation north of the Yellow River was turbulent, since the beginning of the first month, Li Zicheng sent forward troops to cross the river to capture Pingyang, Shanxi, Hejin, Jishan, Xinghe and other prefectures and counties also fell one after another, and wherever the Dashun army went, the defenders of various prefectures and counties mostly fell in despair.
When the strategy was formulated, Gu Junen asked Li Zicheng to occupy Shaanxi, run Guanzhong, and then use Guanzhong as the foundation to sweep the three sides to increase troops. One of the most important points is "operating Guanzhong".
But after hearing that the forward was like a bamboo, and the Ming army in Shanxi was vulnerable, Li Zicheng decided to omit the words "operating Guanzhong".
He ordered the general Tian Jianxiu, his wife Gao Guiying, and most of the top officials in the six governments to stay in Chang'an. He led an army of 300,000 on the eighth day of the first month and began his journey to the east.
He was accompanied by not only the main generals of the Dashun Army, but also the servants of various departments of the Dashun New Dynasty, such as Prime Minister Niu Jinxing, military advisers Song Xiance and Gu Junen, Yu Dayou, Song Qijiao, Gong Yan, Zhang Lanran, Li Zhensheng, Yang Yulin and other six government officials.
The intention of bringing these civil officials out on the expedition is obvious, that is, to take over the governance of any place that is conquered, and even to accept the governance rights of all the Ming Dynasty.
General Liu Fangliang led the partial division to the east along the north bank of the Yellow River, first occupying the three northern provinces of Henan, and then advancing from the south to the north to march to Baoding.
Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin were the main force all the way, and hundreds of thousands of troops were known as millions of heroes. Hequ, Jingle and other cities came down one after another.
Li Zicheng not only personally boosted morale and called on the officers and men of the Dashun Army to carry forward the style of continuous combat, but also vigorously carried out the work of recruiting and surrendering. Before the army arrived, they first preached a message to persuade them to surrender, declaring that wherever the benevolent master went, he would not commit adultery with women, kill innocents, or plunder wealth. Autumn did not commit any crimes. But when the soldiers are in the city, they are not allowed to resist, the first gun wants the seal official to go out, the second gun wants the squire to submit, and the third gun wants the people to kneel to receive it, such as closing the city gate, going to the city to refuse to defend, and on the day of breaking the city, they will slaughter and poke all the grass, and not an inch of grass will be left.
It works very well. The states and counties along the way did not dare to resist, opened the city gates, and the people also prepared incense cases at the door of their homes, knelt down to welcome Li Zicheng, and at the same time every family had to paste the word "Shunmin" on the gate;
If you don't "Shun", I will give you three knives first, and take apart the word "Shun" to see, on the right is a "page", and the words from "page" are related to the head. Original meaning: human head.
There are three knives on the head, which is "shun". Probably Li Zicheng understands the word "shun" in this way.
After taking the Fenzhou area, Li Zicheng immediately went north to Jinzhong, approaching Taiyuan City in mid-February, and Li Guo, who had been sweeping the remnants of the Ming army in northern Shaanxi, also transferred troops according to Li Zicheng's deployment at this time. Crossing the river from Jiazhou, defeating the Ming officers and soldiers defending the Yellow River, with the help of Taiyuan.
Mrs. controls the well in the east and Qinshui in the south. It borders Pingyang and Yansui in the northwest, and is the capital of Shanxi Province. It is also a strategic town garrisoned by heavy troops in the Ming Dynasty.
But at this moment, there are not many defenders in Taiyuan City, and the army's morale is weak, Governor Cai Maode and Fu Shan in order to calm the army's heart, concocted a post, hyped the Dashun army's rape and plunder, and fabricated "Horses are difficult to walk in the door, and this year is Bi Ma Wen" rumors to appease the army and the people.
This famous word is very mysterious, and the horse is "Chuang" in the door, which means that there is no way out of Li Chuang. And this year happens to be the Year of the Monkey again, and Bi Ma Wen will finally be crushed under Wuzhi Mountain.
Not to mention, Fu Shan's trick also works, and the people still believe in this, so they called out, and the Taiyuan military and civilians under the leadership of Governor Cai Maode and Fu Shan fought to the death with Li Zicheng.
Fu Shan is a native of Yangqu near Taiyuan, he is a world-renowned scholar, philosophy, medicine, Confucianism, Buddhism, poetry, calligraphy, painting, gold and stone, martial arts, research and so on. Extremely revered.
Fu Shan knew that he could not drown the Dashun army just by spitting a little saliva, so in order to protect his hometown from being occupied by the Dashun army, he rushed 500 miles day and night to ask for help from Li Jiantai, who was personally recruited by the emperor in Bao.
But what kind of goods is Li Jiantai, if he had the courage, he would not hesitate in Baoding, before Fu Shan came, he had already declared to Chongzhen: The thief is powerful and invincible. I wish to serve the crown prince and go south.
Such words have been said, Li Jiantai still has the courage to lead the army to reinforce Taiyuan?
Fu Shan pleaded again and again, Li Jiantai just ignored it, Fu Shan was so angry that he cried bitterly and left angrily, and what was even more strange was that Chongzhen didn't know who he believed at this time, so he ordered to dismiss Cai Maode, who was sticking to Taiyuan, as governor and let Guo Jingchang take over.
The new governor Guo Jingchang came to Guguan, and when he heard that the Dashun army was invincible, he was so frightened that he stopped at Guguan and did not dare to go further.
Although Cai Maode in Taiyuan City was dismissed, he still continued to actively plan with Zhao Jianji and others to defend the city.
Li Zicheng learned that the envoy was beheaded, furious, personally commanded the army to attack the city, although the Taiyuan defenders were few, but under the inspiration of Cai Maode, the soldiers used their lives, desperate resistance, this battle was very tragic, Xiao general Zhu Sunxun, Niu Yong and so on repelled the attack of the Dashun army again and again.
After Niu Yong was killed by artillery bombardment, morale was frustrated, at this juncture of life and death, Cai Maode asked Zhu Qiugui, the king of Jin, to take out food and salary to boost morale, but Zhu Qiugui, the son of a bitch, only took out 3,000 taels of silver, which made the officers and soldiers defending the city indignant.
It happened that the wind was strong on this day, uprooting trees and uncovering tiles, and after nightfall, the wind became stronger and stronger, and the howling did not stop, Li Zicheng took advantage of the situation to launch a fierce attack and seize Nanguan in one fell swoop.
The Great South Gate guard Zhang Xiong abandoned the defense and surrendered, and set fire to the city tower, there are dozens of gunpowder cages stored in the building in the south city, the gunpowder is detonated, such as the sky collapses and the earth cracks, the sound shocks the whole city, Chen Jiaqi and his brother Chen Jiagui of the Taiyuan Wei Qianhu who are guarding the head of the city are all killed.
The defenders of the four cities saw the fire in the south gate tower and knew that the city had been lost, so they scattered in a hurry.
At dawn, the Dashun army entered Taiyuan City from the south gate, and the deputy general of the Chinese army should be held with a spear and the Dashun army to start a street battle, covering Cai Maode's breakthrough attempt, the two retreated to the Sanli Temple, Cai Maode was captured and hanged to death, and Ying Shisheng was also hanged to death.
Zhu Qiugui, the king of Jin, escaped from the city, and after being recovered, he surrendered to Li Zicheng.
The old Zhu family has another descendant who has become a glorious general of the Dashun Army.
When Li Zicheng attacked Shanxi on a large scale, Emperor Chongzhen issued the sixth edict after his accession to the throne: I am the heir to guard Hongxu, seven out of ten years, deeply thinking of the power of God's surrender, the weight entrusted by the ancestors, and dare to slack off. It is the frequent disasters, the atmosphere of the flow of the day, the forgetting of the world's nourishment, and the cruelty of the country for twenty years. Forgiveness is arrogant, soothing and rebellious, and even those who are bewitched by it and forget the enemy
Chongzhen's edict is very long (the author will not quote it in full), and it is also very sincere, mainly to explain to the officials and people of the world that he has had to increase his hardships over the years, and ask the people to understand him;
At the same time, he expressed serious concern about the rebellious behavior of Li Zicheng and others. and lodge solemn representations. promised to only punish Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, the two first evils, and called on the rebel soldiers to abandon the darkness and surrender to the light, and those who could capture Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were still rewarded by the marquis.
In response, Li Zicheng also issued the "Edict of the First Year of Yongchang" in Taiyuan: God contempts, and only seeks suffering. When the people returned, they only cut the red su. Life is not the same, especially the situation is visible, and the past generations of Cantonese are in the past. Know the reasons for gain and loss; Learn from the past and know the present, and every time you know the reason for the suddenness. Zier Ming Dynasty, Jiu Xi Taining, immersed in the Gang Ji. You are not very dark. Isolated and eternal; Ministers do their best to do their own thing, and they are less loyal to the party than the party
Li Zicheng's edict was also quite long, and it was in direct opposition to Chongzhen's guilty edict, and issued an ultimatum to the Ming court. Its content mainly refers to the dark decay of the Ming court. Affirm the justice and rationality of the Great Shun Dynasty replacing the Ming Dynasty. At the same time, he called on all the friends of the world to obey the orders of the new dynasty and overthrow the dark Ming Dynasty together.
It is worth mentioning. Li Zicheng mentioned in this edict that "the monarch is not very secret, and the ministers do their best". It means that Chongzhen, the emperor, is not very mediocre, and puts the blame on the entire bureaucracy of the Ming Dynasty.
Compared with Chongzhen's harsh reprimand, Li Zicheng's edict seemed more earnest and more infectious.
In addition to accusing Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong of being white-eyed wolves, Chongzhen focused on explaining his hardships, but at this time he refused to announce the cancellation of various apportionments.
Such a sin has been decreed only to talk about his own sin, but there is no substantive action, so that the people can see his sincerity. How can we win the trust and sympathy of the people?
However, Li Zicheng did not accuse Chongzhen, but said that "Jun Fei is very dark", and instead pointed the finger at the entire decadent bureaucracy, this trick is very clever, and it is obvious that Li Zicheng proposed that "Jun is not very dark" Li Zicheng was carefully considered.
Because since Chongzhen ascended the throne, he has indeed been conscientious and thrifty. Directly accusing Chongzhen will make the world feel that his words have no basis.
And this also indirectly shows his own grievances, the emperor is still good, I don't want to be against Ming with such an emperor, but the officials all over the world are very bad, the officials force the people to rebel, and the people have to rebel.
Moreover, there is another layer of advantage to pointing the finger at the bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty, the idea of the small people in the world is often very simple and direct, whoever levies them and raises taxes on them, they think who is the bad guy.
Of course, it will not be the emperor who will directly collect taxes from the people, but the officials in various places, Li Zicheng will point the finger at these people, which will make the people in the world feel that Li Zicheng's classmate is very real, and when it comes to the point, this will of course win the trust of the people.
Chongzhen not only failed militarily, but even this war of words can be said to be completely defeated.
This war of words caused the people of the world to be more centripetal to Dashun, and more people thought that he was an emperor like Li Shimin, and then fell to the Dashun Dynasty one after another.
The effect was so good, Li Zicheng went north non-stop, and even broke Xinzhou and Daizhou, but Zhou Yuji, the general soldier of Ningwu, resisted and died.
At the same time, Li Zicheng first sent guerrillas into the old pass to capture the daimyo and the north of Zhending.
He personally led the army to attack east along the border line, captured Datong, and the governor Wei Jingyu and the general soldier Zhu Sanle died. The Acting King and his clan are almost dead.
Dashun invaded Xuanfu with an army victory, the general soldier Jiang Hao surrendered, and the governor Zhu Zhifeng died. The thieves then committed Yanghe and approached Juyong Pass from Liugou.
Juyong Pass is the western gateway of the Beijing Division, once this pass is lost, the capital will be exposed to Li Zicheng's troops
And Qin Mu of Huguang was concerned about the situation in Beijing on the one hand, and on the other hand, he was also worried about the sudden plague.
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PS: Ask for a monthly pass again, ask for support.
(To be continued......)