The three armies were surrounded, the enemy was outnumbered and we were hungry and exhausted. The enemy set up a large pot in front of the battle line to kill sheep and pigs and stew the meat, loudly calling on them to surrender.
But those who were surrounded in the middle of the river valley at this time were the best warriors that the Ming Empire could produce. Even though they were at a disadvantage, they still refused to lay down their weapons and surrender. They ordered one after another to form formations and attack twice.
The first time they attacked westward for the emperor, they were driven back by Wang Wenxiu, who was recuperating and recuperating, using heavy guns and rifles.
The second time they attacked eastward in order to return home, but were forced to retreat by a semi-surrounded attack by Yang Yao's cavalry battalion who was pressing the bridle.
When the army is extremely exhausted, the hunting camp's call to God and the fishing camp's overtone shouts resound throughout the valley. The soldiers in front of the battle loudly convey the ultimatum of Generalissimo Liu Chengzong to the position. The general attack is about to begin. Don't blame the swords when the time comes.
Eyeless.
The armies of the two towns, with no reinforcements outside and no food and grass inside, finally loosened their grip. When all the psychological defense lines were broken through, no one knew who was the one who started it, and cries broke out everywhere.
Layers upon layers of sergeants knelt and kowtowed devoutly toward the east, climbed out of the trench and took off their armor, and passed through the fighting area in front of the two armies. After a brief exchange, they launched another charge.
But this time, for the sake of my own belly, I pounced on the meal prepared after the battle.
The general soldiers of the two formations were deeply popular among the people. In the middle of the empty position surrounded by trenches, there were still six to seven hundred soldiers who were determined to live and die and formed a square formation. Liu Chengzong looked at this square formation that was stubbornly resisting and ignored them for the time being.
He saw that these people were only superficially willing to die. When the Mongolian horse soldiers wandered into the shooting range, they neither fired cannons nor arrows. They were very contradictory. They couldn't beat them, but they were unwilling to surrender, so he held on to his backbone.
.
Pull the cannon over and fire two rounds of volleys, and they will be gone; if you don't fire the cannon, you may not be able to hold on for a while and there may be a suicide charge.
However, Liu Chengzong finally felt compassion. He called two surrendering soldiers and said: "Go tell He Huchen and Yang Qi to fight the Donglu to save their lives. There is no shame in surrendering during the civil war. Let them come to see me." The surrendered soldiers walked towards the enemy line tremblingly. Liu Chengzong sent several stewards to take charge of the surrendered soldiers. The food was not ready yet, so they were not allowed to eat for the time being and asked them to dig graves for the soldiers who died in the battle.
Having just experienced two assault operations, the sleepy and hungry surrendered soldiers were at their weakest. Taking pickaxes and pickaxes to work at this time allowed the soldiers in charge of the surrendered troops to make them feel at home.
Too many troops surrendered. Seven to eight thousand people were disarmed on the main battlefield. Yang Yao also brought more than two thousand wounded soldiers from the east to surrender. It is very troublesome for these people to cause chaos. If you want to prevent people from having second thoughts, you need to choose the best management.
Very important.
The several officers are Dai Daozi in charge of the Ningxia soldiers, Hu Sanhuai in charge of the Guyuan soldiers, Zhong Bao in charge of the Yansui soldiers, Yang Chengzu in charge of the rebels, Wei Qian'er in charge of the flag army, and Li Tianyu in charge of the native soldiers.
The surrendered soldiers were clearly arranged according to their origins.
Yang Qi found that He Huchen was a little too calm. In his eyes, after two failed breakouts, the Guyuan Army disappeared almost without warning.
In the ten years since he joined the army, Yang Qi has seen collapses and routs, but he has never experienced anything like this, where a huge military formation suddenly collapsed.
To say they didn't collapse, it's true that the entire army was out of control; to say they collapsed, but the surrender was pretty organized.
It was like an army fighting and fighting, but suddenly reached the critical point of collapse and turned against each other en masse.
Yang Qi was panicked. The more a person relies on experience, the more he will pretend to be calm when encountering a situation he has never experienced before, so he did not run away.
But people who pretend to be calm will always see who is truly calm and learn from them.
Compared with Yang Qi, He Huchen, who stood in the formation with a declining expression, was very calm.
It seems so similar.
Everything seems to have returned to the ninth day of June in the third year of Chongzhen. The air in Huanglong Mountain was fresh after the rain, and the wounded soldiers left him with a cane.
Mr. He is a veteran, it’s a small scene.
Yang Qi said anxiously: "Let's break out eastward and run to Lanzhou."
He Huchen smiled miserably: "So what if I run to Lanzhou?"
When the army was defeated last time, he immediately thought that he had dishonored the divine grace and wanted to kill himself, but this time he had no such idea... because he was the only one who led the army last time.
As a general, if you have never beaten your opponent head-on, everyone will be ashamed.
But this time it was different. The Fifth Route Army had never fought, which meant that the problem did not lie with He Huchen.
But he really didn't know what to do now. The same thing happened to him twice. The Ningxia army was gone and he couldn't go back.
At this moment, a servant reported: "Commander, some troops have returned to send a message to the enemy!"
Before He Huchen and Yang Qi could speak, the servants had already lined up a passage and called for the surrender troops to come over.
He Huchen closed his eyes in pain. He knew this would happen. Although these soldiers were still on the battlefield, they were only loyal and not out of touch with their lives.
If there was a chance to survive, or to survive without violating the general's wishes, the servants would be happy to live... so they let the surrendered troops in without the general speaking.
On the contrary, he surrendered his troops and returned to the formation. He felt guilty in his heart and was too timid to step forward. It took him a long time to pass through the formation of hundreds of people and arrived in front of Yang Qi and He Huchen. He bowed his head and said: "Commander...
…”
Yang Qiting was angry that his subordinates dispersed without saying hello and ignored the surrender. But He Huchen, after all, was not defeated by Liu Chengzong for the first time. He was an old man and said: "Get up, General Liu, what do you want to say?"
Upon hearing the surrender, Marshal He's title was quite gentle, and he felt a little more courageous: "General Liu said that if you save your life and fight to the death with the Donglu, there is no shame in surrendering during the civil war. Let you and Marshal Yang go over and talk."
There is no shame in surrendering in a civil war.
Yang Qi looked at He Huchen: "Are you going?"
He Huchen said to himself that Liu Chengzong would really find a way out for others, and Yang Qi next to him was really not a thing.
It is up to oneself to decide whether to save You Shilu or not; to decide whether to meet Liu Chengzong or not, this guy does not want to bear the responsibility of any psychological guilt.
But now that the matter has come to an end, He Huchen doesn't bother to care about anything. They are all old monsters. Who can use his ability to shirk responsibility? He said on the spot: "What else can we do if we don't see you? Do you want hundreds of brothers around us to die here?"
”
After saying that, He Huchen asked the surrendered soldiers to lead the way, and each of them followed with two personal followers. They walked dejectedly through the ditch and walked to the opposite side.
The servants and soldiers who remained in the formation looked at the two men leaving, feeling worried and happy at the same time. Of course, they were worried about the personal safety of the two generals, but they were happy because they had some hope of escaping. p>
Approaching Liu Chengzong's military formation, Xie Erhu and Guitutai Jida's horse generals stopped the two men and their personal followers. Xie Erhu said in stiff words: "The two generals have put down their weapons, and the personal soldiers will follow here." p>
Immediately afterwards, Guitu Taiji jumped out from behind Xie Erhu, pointed at He Huchen and muttered, regardless of whether He Huchen could understand his Mongolian language.
What he was talking about was He Laohu, when you, you piece of shit, beat me up in Ningxia, did you ever think that you would be here today too!
Before He Huchen sent his troops south, he beat up Hu Duntu who was crazily hitting the side wall.
Unexpectedly, Yang Qi frowned directly at Xie Erhu and said: "We can understand the Chinese language, so there is no need for this Tatar to be an interpreter... Is General Liu still afraid of us assassinating him?"
Guitu Taiji was so angry that he beat his horse and circled all over the floor, leaving nowhere to vent his anger.
Xie Erhu only had fun secretly. Anyway, it was none of his business to get beaten by the Han tribe. After laughing enough, he said seriously: "If you lose, don't be arrogant. Do you want to be tied up to see the commander without weapons?" Yang Qi was so angry that his teeth itched. He felt that Liu Chengzong had deliberately used the two Northern Tatar soldiers to disgust him.
But He Huchen could understand Mongolian, and looked at Qututaiji in confusion, thinking that I have beaten so many Mongolians, who is your translator?
However, He Huchen was obedient and the battle was lost. He climbed down the steps even if there were no steps. He no longer asked for anything. He took off the sword from his waist and handed it to He Zan, asking him to wait here.
But he didn't expect that He Zan changed hands and took off the war sword together with his own saber, handed it to Yang Qi's servant, and said: "Father, I will go with you."
He Huchen was stunned at that time. I used to discuss the surrender. You bastard has been in a daze since you were captured in the Battle of Huanglong Mountain. You feel that there is something wrong with the Ming Dynasty all day long. Why are you going to see Liu Chengzong? Do you want to study?
"You can't..." Halfway through the words, He Huchen realized that he might not be able to go back, so he sighed and shook his head and said, "Forget it, this is the moment."
When Yang Qi saw that the father and son had untied the sword, he also angrily untied the sword.
In fact, he has no psychological burden. In his heart, he lost this battle entirely because of others' incompetence. His Guyuan Army didn't have anything he wanted. He didn't help with the formulation of tactics. He fought as others planned. Anyway, he was fighting.
During the process, he tried his best.
He lost this battle because others overestimated the capabilities of each town. He did not overestimate the combat effectiveness of the Guyuan Army. He did not even dare to talk about tactical planning and put himself on the toes.
The biggest flaw was that the commander-in-chief of the towns did not expect that they would not even be able to hold the battle line until Liu Chengzong's army was infected by smallpox.
Of course, they had no idea that even if time were delayed, Liu Chengzong's army would not be infected with smallpox at all.
But being at peace with the defeat does not mean accepting it. He was very unhappy when the two Mongolian soldiers asked him to untie the sword.
He said in his heart that he was a general military officer after all, and even though he was here, Liu Chengzong didn't show the slightest courtesy to a virtuous corporal. He actually sent the Northern Tatars to disgust the two of them. It was so rude.
In fact, Liu Chengzong did not send Xie Erhu here.
It's just that Erhu felt that the commander-in-chief had always been too kind to surrendering soldiers and generals, and actually let them stand. He just wanted to find an excuse to tie the two of them.
But because He Huchen was too obedient, Xie Erhu, who was bent on causing trouble, returned in anger.
Entering the military formation, He Huchen still remembered the last time he met Liu Chengzong, the leader of the rebel army; he also remembered the ridicule in his heart when he heard that Liu Chengzong was about to enter Qinghai.
But I didn’t expect that just a few years later, Liu Chengzong really came out of Qinghai.
From a distance, He Huchen saw the tent of the Marshal's Mansion on Tushan Mountain. The tent looked very familiar, but it was a little older and the color was worn off in many places.
There is a handsome case outside the tent. Liu Chengzong, who is wearing a helmet and whipping armor, is sitting behind the handsome case. In front of the case, there are more than ten generals standing on the left and right, surrounded by two rows of guards. Farther away, there are Tang soldiers and golden drums and horns holding flags. He Huchen kept a good attitude all the way, but just looking at Tushan from a distance, his head started buzzing and he almost suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.
The commander's tent is his commander's tent; the commander's case is his commander's case; the golden drums and horns are his camp drum music; even the Tang soldiers waiting for orders outside the tent are all Tang soldiers from Ningxia Town in the past. p>
Except for the change of the flag, Liu Shizi did not waste any of these things, and retained all the rituals of the former Ningxia Town Chief Military Officer.
On top of the mountain, Liu Chengzong, Yang Yao, and Wang Wenxiu were summarizing the spoils of the two victorious battles on the table, harvesting prisoners, and gaining a lot of weapons and equipment. The cannons weighing more than 500 kilograms alone included the Fran machine gun II.
Ten cannons, six Tianzi general cannons firing eight-pound bullets, and two useless cannons, with plenty of gunpowder and shells.
On the other hand, the harvest of military rations was pitifully small. Wang Chengen, He Huchen, Yang Qi, and You Shilu together only had more than 2,700 dan of military rations.
Even before the Hehuang chieftain's family had a lot of grain reserves, the Ye chieftain who rebelled earlier confiscated more than 3,000 stones of grain and more than a thousand livestock.
When all the granaries seized by local officials from various chieftain families who participated in the rebellion were counted, Liu Chengzong estimated that he would be able to obtain more than 30,000 shi of grain and tens of thousands of livestock.
But correspondingly, this war gave him more than 15,000 mouths. An increase in population is a good thing, but what makes Liu Shishi painful and happy is that these people are all good soldiers.
He calculated in his mind that in Xining Prefecture, not counting the miscellaneous soldiers recruited temporarily and the native soldiers from various places in Hehuang, the number of professional soldiers under his command has reached more than 35,000.
This number means that the entire Hehuang has been militarized to an extreme level. There is one professional soldier among the nineteen people.
Among these nineteen people, there are old people, children, women, disabled people, and fools. Among the adults who are suitable to be soldiers, it is equivalent to one out of six.
The more than one million acres of farmland in the Hehuang Valley must be taxed at a rate of three out of ten to support these retired soldiers after the autumn harvest.
If the army is further recruited and surrendered, this ratio will further increase to one out of every four soldiers, and it will take 10% tax or even 10% tax 7% to support the army... This is simply unrealistic.
Liu Chengzong sighed. He knew this would be the result before the war started.
An army of 50,000 is close to the total strength of a town in Jiubian; but anywhere in Jiubian, an army of 60,000 to 70,000 including the garrison guards is included. Even so, no border town can support itself without relying on local support.
myself.
The fertile land he owns is only in Hehuang, and the number of fields is far less than that of any border town.
Therefore, whether you are marching to Gansu, Lintao, Guyuan, or Lanzhou anywhere, it is like driving a carriage towards hell. If you lose, you will lose your life, and if you win, you will lose your food.
However, he was asked to vomit all these people back... but he didn't want to.
This is not a problem that can be solved by war. Although we won the battle, the situation is more serious than before the war.
Liu Chengzong said: "The native troops in Lintao Prefecture, Lanzhou and Hezhou are all empty, and the guards have all been lost. The remaining troops are less than 10,000. We must digest these surrendered troops as soon as possible. The flag troops and native soldiers inside are familiar with the terrain. We must
We sent troops to besiege Lanzhou City."
Yang Yao and Wang Wenxiu looked relaxed. They always believed that Liu Chengzong would have a solution regarding the overall strategic direction. Not only were they not worried at the moment, they were also very surprised by the news. Yang Yao said: "Commander, are we going to attack Lanzhou?"
Liu Chengzong shook his head: "Lanzhou and Hehuang can only defend one. We have no time to fight with them. We have to cross the Yellow River and seize the granaries of all the wealthy families in this land. 20% will be distributed to the local poor people, and the rest will be moved."
Come back and lay a solid foundation for popular support for marching eastward within two years."
In the next two years, the chain reaction caused by this war will ferment in the northwest. Liu Chengzong doesn't know what it will eventually become. He only knows that there is not much time left for him.
Once he is about to run out of food, he can only advance his troops eastward, and if he doesn't advance, he must be prepared to penetrate all the way into Guanzhong.
At this moment, Xie Erhu ran up Tushan and said, "Commander, the two generals are here."
Liu Chengzong ordered them to come over, and He Huchen and Yang Qi climbed up Tushan Mountain.
He was just thinking about how to surrender to Liu Chengzong. As soon as he reached a position two feet away from the person who was familiar with Shuai's case, suddenly the figure in his peripheral vision dwarfed and Yang Qi disappeared.
Before he could lower his head, a voice came from his side: "The defeated general Yang Qi, the commander-in-chief of Guyuan, came to see the Qinghai Marshal. Yang Qi is willing to surrender. He also asked the Marshal to send troops to Lanzhou and bring his family members to Hehuang!" p>
He Huchen opened his mouth and looked at Liu Chengzong, who was temporarily absent-minded after Shuai's case. Then he lowered his head and looked at Yang Qi. He was dumbfounded... Is it so neat?