In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, November 14th.

The history of future generations will remember this day, because this is the day when the Shen family army who was besieged in Chen County will take the initiative to fight against the invading army.

Early in the morning, as soon as it dawned, the soldiers got up, had their morning meal, and then gathered in the school grounds to wait for Master Futai's instructions.

What the soldiers ate were pancakes made with a mixture of corn flour and white flour. Of course, the corn flour was grown by the local people after corn became popular in the Huguang area in recent years.

In addition to the filling of noodles, each person also has some hard-boiled eggs or salted fish, which is considered a meaty meal.

In addition, each one can be given one or two pickled chickens, ducks or pork legs, and a large pot of soup can be cooked for the one or two hundred soldiers under his command to share the food. The meat cannot be divided into several pieces, and it may contain oil.

The broth is very good to drink. Drinking two bowls of it in the hot winter is very morale-boosting.

In order to keep busy with all this, Shen Futai's internal affairs staff and military supplies officials began to organize the civilian workers in the middle of the night to prepare. Anyway, the civilian workers did not have to go out of the city to fight, and it was almost okay to stay up late to regain their physical strength.

The soldiers should sleep well, get up at three o'clock at three o'clock, wash up, eat and drink, be awake, listen to a speech and eat well, and then they can leave the city.

All this strict arrangement was in sharp contrast to the army on the opposite side who had no meal every day and ate whatever they could get. They also lacked city houses to keep out the cold in the winter and could only pile straw in their tents to keep warm.

After tens of thousands of people finished eating, they came to the school grounds in a dark crowd, but not much conversation could be heard, only the sound of footsteps and the collision and friction of armored weapons could be heard.

After all the soldiers stood still, the sounds of footsteps and friction disappeared. The loudest sound in the field was the hunting sound of hundreds of flags being swept by the winter wind.

There was a frightening silence between the movement and the silence. It was obvious that everyone knew what they were going to do today.

However, the next thing Shen Futai did was beyond everyone's expectations.

I saw Chen Shuren asking people to carry several things similar to tablets, which should be used for commemoration, and then burning incense and praying in public. The people below were a little confused at first, but they soon realized that Shen Futai was

They must be paying homage to something, most likely the warriors who died in the previous battle.

This kind of behavior of paying homage to the fallen soldiers was also done by ancient generals, but there were relatively few temporary sacrifices before the war, unless it was to exaggerate the deep hatred with the enemy.

If it were another time-traveler, I am afraid that even the "Martyrs Shrine" would have been established long ago. Shen Shuren still has a low status. He is not an emperor, so it is not easy to overstep and create such things, so in this regard it is not

Relatively convergent.

But today he held a memorial ceremony with great fanfare. It was obvious that he had a reason for the incident and had calculated it carefully.

After pretending to be silent and attracting everyone's attention, Shen Shucai began to speak at the top of his lungs with a large wooden speaker.

This approach is similar to the way the head of state uses a period of frightening silence to capture all attention before giving a speech.

"Soldiers! Today we are about to go on an expedition. Although I, Shen, have passed the imperial examination, I don't like to talk to you cheerful people, so I will be more direct.

You must be curious about the origins of the hundreds of martyred soldiers I just paid homage to. Yes, they are the navy who were responsible for breaking through the blockade of Yingchuan by the Chu army and transporting food for us when our army was huddled in Chen County.

brothers!

Everyone knows that for more than half a month, the intruders have been unable to do anything against us! The siege failed several times, and Li Zicheng gave up! He did not dare to take any more lives! Because he knew that as long as he came to attack the city, he would attack me.

If Chen Shuren arranges and defends the city, he will definitely lose!

Therefore, for more than half a month, he has specifically targeted our grain fleet, trying to pick on the weaklings. But our navy is also brave and fearless, fighting fiercely and never retreating. Every time, he can repel the intruders and defeat them.

It caused at least several times more damage! At most, it was burned down and some grain ships were sunk!

Now, I would like to introduce the guard next to me - his name is Li Yue, and he comes from Korea, a vassal state of the Ming Dynasty. Those of you who are veterans who were rescued by our army from Liaodong should all know this.

It was during the Battle of Beacon Mountain that they were forced by Kong Youde to fight with the Ming Dynasty Navy. In the end, they were defeated and turned against the enemy.

This Li Shoubei brought a 1,500-man North Korean cannon battalion and served our army for more than half a year. He was very heroic. The previous time when escorting food supplies, a small boat was needed to detect the channel, so Li Shoubei brought his

The battalion explored the route, exchanged fire with the intercepting intruders, and suffered heavy losses. When it finally escorted the grain fleet into the city, the entire battalion suffered more than 200 casualties.

In addition, during the previous fight with Zhang Xianzhong, he had been fighting for several months without retreating. The entire battalion has lost a total of 400 people, which is close to 30% of the total number of soldiers in the battalion.

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Yesterday, everyone also saw that on the Yingchuan River in the south of the city, flames shot into the sky. Several large ships of our army were sunk and burned. Many naval officers were killed and injured, and it was impossible to transport food in again.

I have always been considerate of the soldiers and would never let my brothers fight in vain if we could finish the battle with less loss of lives. But now that the food road has been cut off, we have no choice! In order to protect our fellow villagers and our hometown once and for all, we must

Beat the intruder thoroughly! Let him never dare to look south again!

I know that many of you may think that fighting against intruders is fighting for the court and the emperor, but I want to tell you today that you are fighting for yourself!

The intruder is from Shaanxi and Yan'an Prefecture, but since he left Yan'an Prefecture, has he massacred and robbed the fellow villagers in Shaanxi? Yes! After he arrived in Henan, has he massacred and robbed? Yes! And it has intensified!

I believe some of you know better than me what Chen County, Guide, and Yancheng are like! Especially the troops under General Liu of Xinyang Prefecture, or those who have recently abandoned the secrets and turned to the bright side. You should have seen with your own eyes what the Chuang Army did!

Therefore, there is no such thing as robbing the rich to give to the poor. It is nothing more than massacring one city after another, killing the whole city that resisted, and using the proceeds from the robbery to persuade the soldiers and civilians of those cities that surrendered without a fight! Otherwise, just rely on those few in Henan.

Will killing all the wealthy families be enough to support the army?

When he killed and plundered the Xi'an Prefecture, the people of Henan didn't react, because the Henan people thought it was none of their business! This was just a coincidence! Later, when he invaded Luoyang and plundered the Prefecture of Kaifeng, we Xinyang people and even Huguang people were even more

I don’t think it’s a big deal because we are not from Henan!

But if the courage of the intruder grows more and more, the next time he wants to massacre the people of Huguang, no one will stand up and fight with us! Bribery Qin with land, bribe thieves with money and food, and there will be no end to the salary.

, Fire is immortal! Only by starting now, we can cut off the clutches of the intruder and strangle his greedy ambitions! Only then can we create ten years of peace with one battle!

Therefore, I took everyone to open up food channels when it was clear that Chen County still had two months of food reserves. I didn’t want to wait until the day when everyone was really hungry before making decisions. I will also personally supervise the battle today.

Kaicheng! Let’s go!”

"I swear to kill the intruder! I swear to kill the intruder!"

"The Ming Dynasty will win! Shen Futai will win!"

"Whoever backs off is not a man! Even if we kill him together, we will look down on him!"

Tens of thousands of soldiers were finally completely mobilized by Shen Shuren's down-to-earth words. They had only heard civil servants talk about some great principles in a formal way. This was the first time they saw a second-ranked Jinshi, who had reached the governor level through civil service, actually speaking directly.

Strategic analysis of speaking out.

There is no such thing as loyalty to the emperor and patriotism. It is just telling everyone: if a robber robs once and is not punished, then he will have the courage to rob a second time and a third time. The fire will not be extinguished until the salary is exhausted.

This is the simplest truth. The meaning of sanctions is not punishment, but deterrence, so that people will not dare to commit crimes again, that's all.

Of course, Shen Shuren's words also concealed some insignificant details, but these don't matter.

For example, he referred to Li Yu as Li Yue, and said that the other party was defeated by the Ming army after a fierce battle, so he abandoned the dark side and defected to the Ming Dynasty. This was also to protect the other party, lest the news leaked and spread to the ears of the Tatars a year and a half later.

, then his father, Li Shibai, who stayed in Korea, would be finished.

In addition, Shen Shuren specially singled out the North Korean Gungun Battalion as a typical example (of course, he also paid tribute to other navy soldiers who died in the battle a while ago, but just used this as a typical example), which was obviously carefully designed.

Chen Shuren knew that ordinary Ming soldiers could still have some sense of justice when fighting against the Tatars. However, when fighting against the bandits, especially in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, many troops had no fighting spirit. This was because

I feel that this is just a fight for the people with the surname Zhu. We are all Han people. It is a civil war and it is not worth sacrificing our lives.

There have been many dynasties and generations since ancient times, so why should we be cannon fodder?

Therefore, Shen Shuren must point out clearly: Li Zicheng often massacred cities, looted the whole city, and came to support other cities. It was just that the earlier they joined him, the more they could rely on as a source of troops, and the more wealthy areas he conquered.

, the more ruthless the killing and looting. This is the same as regional discrimination and local protection.

Therefore, Chen Shuren must make the people of Huguang feel that today's battle is to defend their hometown, not for the emperor named Zhu. To break the hatred between regions, find some people from the vassal country to do it.

Examples are obviously the most convincing——

As a Huguang person, if you leave the border of Huguang a little bit and come to Xinyang Prefecture or Kaifeng Prefecture to fight, don't you feel that you are defending the interests of your hometown? If you are a Korean who traveled thousands of miles to Kaifeng to fight, you still feel that you are defending your own.

Where is their hometown? Because they know that if the Ming Dynasty is destroyed by bandits, they will be robbed sooner or later!

Although these subtle psychological hints will not be mentioned on the table, their effects are solid, and in an invisible way, the morale and cohesion of the entire army are raised higher and higher.

Even if they are fighting against the enemy, they are not afraid at all.

Fight for Jiangdong's elders, fight for Shen Futai's love and kindness, and by the way, fight for the Ming Emperor!

…

Chen Shuren concentrated almost all his efforts and mobilized a total of 50,000 troops from Chen County to fight.

Only a few thousand sick and wounded were left, as well as more young and strong civilians to temporarily defend the city.

At the same time, on the periphery, there are 10,000 Zhang Mingzhen's navy, which will go upstream along the Yingchuan River to join forces with Chen Shuren. Huang Degong, Zhu Wenzhen, and Yuan Shizhong's 12,000 cavalry will also join forces.

I will work with Zhang Mingzhen to advance both by land and water.

At that time, Shen's army will go from Chen County to Yingchuan, and go down the river from northwest to southeast. Zhang Mingzhen and Huang Degong will go upstream from southeast to northwest, and rush to the barrage position of the army thirty miles southeast of Chen County. At that time,

The combined strength of the North and South armies can reach more than 70,000 people.

It can also be seen from this point that Shen Shuren's words in the morning obviously deceived the soldiers to a certain extent - he did not mean that "because the food road was temporarily cut off, even though he loved the soldiers as his own son and did not want everyone to take risks, he was forced to

I had to take up arms and go out of the city to fight decisively."

Before the grain road was cut off, he had already predicted that the grain road would be cut off that day. Even if Li Zicheng didn't come to cut it off, he would burn the boat and pretend that it was cut off. Because he had asked Shen Lian, Li Yu, and Zhang Mingzhen to make an appointment in advance.

It's a good day.

The Ming army's departure from the city was really beyond the expectations of the Chuang army. Li Zicheng was in the siege camp in the south of the city. He was not prepared early in the morning and was rushed close by the Ming army. He hurriedly tried to organize a defense. The result was of course

It was directly overwhelmed and occupied the camp.

Fortunately for Li Zicheng, there were usually not many people in that camp. The siege troops of the invading army were scattered in all directions outside the city, and a considerable number of them were gathered to camp on both sides of Yingchuan River in the south, which was a few meters away from the Chen County city.

The purpose is to better cut off the water transportation of Yingchuan River.

Therefore, Chen Shuren broke through a battalion first, but actually did not kill many people. The total number of casualties and escaped prisoners was less than three or four thousand. The biggest gain was the victory in the first battle, which increased the morale of the Ming army.
To be continued...