July 9, 9th year of Chongzhen, Shaanxi.

"Mr. He! Cao Zongbing's lessons from the past, do you remember? Don't take the enemy lightly, and don't go too far from the Benfu army. Sun Chuanting frowned and told He Renlong.

Unexpectedly, He Renlong waved his hand indifferently and said, "Don't worry, Lord Governor, I'll save it." The soldiers you brought out who didn't shed their hair are useless, so let's see my Lao He making contributions in the front! ”

He Renlong's words were very casual, faintly with contempt for Sun Chuanting. Over the years, He Renlong has seen too many incompetent civil officials, and he has long lost his awe of civil officials. Therefore, for Sun Chuanting, the newly appointed governor of Shaanxi, He Renlong was quite disapproving.

Sun Chuanting's eyebrows raised, but after holding back for a while, he still suppressed the anger in his heart, and he said in a deep voice: "Then General He has worked so hard. ”

In fact, He Renlong was not as reckless as he appeared on the outside, and he was also observing Sun Chuanting's expression. However, after hearing Sun Chuanting's words, He Renlong couldn't help but contemptuously "Hmph!" Then he arched his hand and said, "Then the general will go down and prepare." ”

Seeing He Renlong leave arrogantly, one of Sun Chuanting's staff members couldn't hold back any longer, and he said to Sun Chuanting: "Then He is a madman who has no respect for his superiors, why don't you deal with it strictly?" ”

Sun Chuanting's index finger tapped lightly on the big case a few times, and replied, "The coming day is long!" ”

After the peasant army entered Henan, it suffered setbacks again and again under the siege of the Ming army from all walks of life, so in the long-term battle, the peasant army of each battalion lost more than half. In order to preserve their own strength, except for Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and other battalions who remained in Yunyang to fight with Lu Xiangsheng and other Ming troops, the other battalions of peasant armies returned to Shaanxi one after another.

First of all, in the first month of the ninth year, Li Zicheng and Mantianxing, six teams, and four teams of Zhenggong Wang, a total of 13 battalions, totaled tens of thousands of elite cavalry, from the Xi'an area through Tongguan, Yijun, and Yichuan. Go around to Hancheng, and plan to wait for the Yellow River to freeze and turn into Shanxi.

Due to the high temperature in winter this year, the river water did not freeze; Wu Fu, the governor of Shanxi, strengthened the anti-river forces, so the entry of the peasant army into Jin Jihua could not be realized. After that, the peasant army set up camp and went to Haoyang and Chengcheng.

In February, Hong Chengchou gathered 20,000 officers and troops to pursue desperately, and Li Zicheng and Chaotianxing walked from Chengcheng through Hancheng, Heyang, Yichuan, Luochuan, Yanzhou (now Fu County), Yan'an, Huanxian, Qingyang, and Guyuan. The stars and stars of the sky are from Zhenning and Heshui to the east of Gaoling and Sanyuan in Shaanxi.

Hong Chengchou was worried about the loss of the provincial capital Xi'an, and was forced to divide his troops to pursue him. He returned to Shaanxi with his own army to suppress the second division of Tianxing and Mantianxing, and asked his subordinate generals to continue to chase Li Zicheng and Chaotianxing in the west.

The army led by Hong Chengchou caught up with the stars and the stars in the central county (now Huangling, Shaanxi). Due to the large strength of the officers and troops, the two divisions of Guo and Manchu avoided fighting and drove westward to join Li Zicheng and Chaotianxing. It was intended to attack Lanzhou, Gansu.

Hong Chengchou transferred Zuo Guangxian and Liu Shaozong, the general soldier of Gansu, to attack the rebel army in Ganyanchi (now Haiyuan County, Ningxia). The peasant army was defeated, and Guo Tianxing (i.e., Zhang Tianlin) asked for surrender. Gan Xuekuo, the governor of Shaanxi in the Ming Dynasty, installed tens of thousands of his troops in Yan'an, and soon rebelled. However, this also led to Gan Xuekuo's dismissal and Sun Chuanting taking over as governor of Shaanxi.

But just when the two sides were holding each other, it was the tenth day of February. Due to a long-term lack of salary, Ningxia officers and non-commissioned officers mutinied. The governor Wang Ji was killed. Hong Chengchou felt that a provincial governor had been killed. The situation was serious, and he personally rushed to Guyuan, Ningxia to deal with it. Li Zicheng, Mantianxing and other departments revived, and took the opportunity to attack the areas of Yulin and Suide in northern Shaanxi.

In May, Li Zicheng, Zhang Tianlin and other troops fought against the official army in Anding. The officers and troops were defeated, the chief soldier Yu Chongxiao was captured alive and executed, and the deputy chief soldier Li Cheng was also killed. Three thousand soldiers were annihilated.

However, when the peasant army took advantage of the victory to attack Mizhi, it accidentally fell into the ambush of the general soldier He Renlong, and suffered great losses. It also encountered heavy rain, and the Wuding River flooded. Many peasant soldiers were drowned in the flood, and only a few hundred horsemen such as Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin, and Zhang Neng escaped from danger.

At this time, Li Zicheng's subordinate general Gao Yigong brought more than 10,000 people from Guyuan, and after the meeting, the momentum was restored. Li Zicheng then united with other peasant armies in northern Shaanxi to conquer Yanchuan, Suide, and Mizhi in succession. Because Mizhi is Li Zicheng's hometown, this return to Li is a powerful call to the local people, and Li Zicheng's relatives and friends have come to vote, so that his strength has quickly recovered.

Therefore, it can be said that the peasant army, which returned to Shaanxi in the early stage, was also at a disadvantage.

In May of the ninth year of Chongzhen, seeing the increasingly fierce peasant army rebellion, the policy of the imperial court also changed a little. First of all, Emperor Chongzhen issued an edict of "Amnesty Mountain Shaanxi Slave Bandits", and sent Bao Fengqi, a member of the Ministry of War, who was ordered to go to Zhaofu.

It should be said that this edict also played a certain role later, especially when the peasant army was hit one after another.

And also in May, Gao Yingxiang's department was also difficult to gain a foothold in Huguang, and he joined the collapse of the sky and the scorpion block to transfer to Xing'an and Hanzhong in Shaanxi. And now only Zhang Xianzhong's battalion of peasant troops is active in Huguang.

Due to Gao Yingxiang's outstanding reputation among the peasant army and the strongest combat effectiveness of his troops, a military operation with the main goal of encircling and annihilating Gao Yingxiang's troops began.

The Henan Ming army, under the leadership of the governor Li Xianfeng, blocked the way for the peasant army to turn back from Shaanxi to the Central Plains, while the Shaanxi governor Sun Chuanting and the trilateral governor Hong Chengchou's officers and troops acted as the main force to encircle and suppress Gao Yingxiang's troops.

At this time, after Gao Yingxiang's troops retreated into the mountainous areas of southern Shaanxi, there was nowhere to forage in the barren mountains and mountains, and people were hungry and lacking. In order to get out of the predicament, he decided to take a small road to attack Xi'an and give the official army a surprise attack.

But the path Gao Yingxiang chose is the famous Meridian Valley.

During the Three Kingdoms, when Zhuge Liang came out of Qishan, Wei Yan once proposed a Meridian Valley plot, that is, to attack Chang'an through the Meridian Valley. And Zhuge Liang vetoed this plot because it was too risky. Of course, Zuihou also failed because of Ma Tan's loss of the street pavilion, and Zhuge Liang's exit from Qishan also failed, and then the contradiction between Zhuge Liang and Wei Yan was buried, and the story happened.

In later generations, many hindsight Zhuge Liang said that if Zhuge Liang himself used the Meridian Valley Scheme, he might be able to unify the Three Kingdoms when he came out of the Prayer Mountain. However, judging from Gao Yingxiang's ending, it shows that Zhuge Liang's decision is still very correct. There's no way, Zhuge is only cautious in his life!

And Sun Chuanting had expected this, so he led 14,000 people from He Renlong and other troops to set up an ambush in Heishuiyu, Zhouzhi County, the only way to Yingxiang, to prepare to attack with ease.

However, He Renlong was simply arrogant and did not take the Shaanxi New Army organized by Sun Chuanting after taking office, which led to a sharp deterioration in his relationship with Sun Chuanting. It was only because Sun Chuanting needed He Renlong as the main force in this operation that Sun Chuanting temporarily held back this breath.

On July 15, Gao Yingxiang led the troops to Heishuiyu in Zhouzhi County. The officers and troops of Sun Chuanting and Hong Chengchou also followed, and arrived in Zhouzhi on the 16th and 17th respectively, and the two sides immediately began a fierce battle.

The desperate peasant army was dying and struggling, and burst out with amazing combat effectiveness, so it won the first battle with the official army and defeated the official army of the staff general Li Yuchun.

But the situation of Gao Yingxiang's department is becoming more and more critical. They had no food and grass, and they were in a desperate situation, and the morale of the entire army became extremely low.

At this time, Hong Chengchou made a hand to surrender and divided the peasant army. However, the unstable elements in the peasant army, such as Qian Gongji Zhang Er, Yidougu Huanglong, and others, privately approached the commander-in-chief He Renlong to surrender.

In the battle of Ma Zhaoyuan the next day, they took advantage of the heavy fog after the rain, Gao Yingxiang dismounted and opened his bow to shoot the enemy, and secretly pulled Gao Yingxiang's mount and subordinates to the south. By the time Gao Yingxiang discovered this conspiracy, it was too late, so he had to take off his armor and hide in the grass, and was unfortunately captured by the officers and soldiers.

The news of Gao Yingxiang's capture greatly excited the Ming court, and Emperor Chongzhen was so proud that he ordered Gao Yingxiang to be escorted to Beijing to offer prisoners, and asked the Shaanxi authorities to allocate troops along the way to strictly guard against it. Later, the leader of the peasant army was executed in the city of Beijing.

And Gao Yingxiang's subordinates were led by his younger brother Gao Yingdeng and continued to fight. However, due to the great loss of military strength, especially the loss of a prestigious leader like Gao Yingxiang, morale was greatly reduced. Later, Li Zicheng was supported by the generals to inherit King Chuang, and finally became the nominal leader of the peasant army in the world.

With the capture and killing of Gao Yingxiang, it was a major blow to the peasant army fighting in Shaanxi at that time. The first is to set off a wave of surrender. Of course, some are real and some are fraudulent.

In early September, two prominent leaders of the peasant army, Zhang Miaoshou (i.e., Zhang Wenyao) and Scorpion Block (i.e., Tuoyangkun), traveled from Huizhou and Qinzhou (present-day Huixian and Tianshui cities in Gansu Province) to Fengxiang and begged the authorities in Shaanxi Province for peace in the Ming Dynasty. Shaanxi Governor Sun Chuanting personally appeased, Zhang Miaoshou led his troops to surrender on the spot, and the scorpion block also surrendered to Huicheng in March of the following year.

And Zhang Xianzhong also took the opportunity to wander to the west of Xiangyang and rested on the spot. He erected a five-zhang high wooden pole in the Xiangyang River Temple, tied a ruler with large characters on it, and wrote on the flag: "I want to see the army at the gate to talk about things." And sent a letter.

The newly appointed governor of Huguang, Miao Yuntu, received a letter from Zhang Xianzhong, saying that he wanted to see the governor, and he was very surprised. Two generals were immediately sent to meet them, and after talking, they agreed to officially surrender in August. Governor Miao did not doubt the letter, and sent Zhu Xifan and three others to conduct specific consultations on relevant matters. The peasant army proposed to add pontoon bridges over the river to facilitate mutual exchange. Miao agreed to do so, and ordered the officers and soldiers defending the city to open the gates and allow the peasant army to enter the city to trade.

Therefore, the peasant army pretended to be a business and entered the city in large numbers, and the officers and soldiers defending the city naturally did not carry out the investigation and let them go one by one. Miao Wei expressed his sincerity, and ordered the officials and soldiers in the city to withdraw all their bows, knives and arrows, collect them and put them into the warehouse, and said not to let people suspect them!

But Zhang Xianzhong must be a fraud like this!

But what about the Weishenme Huguang Governor will change from Lu Xiangsheng to Miao Tu? Where did Lu Xiangsheng go again? This is because the strategic focus of the Ming Dynasty court has shifted again! (To be continued......)