Liu Chengzong's original idea was to put Yang Qi back and keep He Huchen.
He let He Huchen off once, and he could let Yang Qi off once. After all, He Huchen had already lost twice, and he might not be able to continue to be the commander-in-chief if he went back, but Yang Qi didn't have a big problem.
The most ideal situation is that after a year and a half, Yang Qi can recruit and train a new Guyuan Army. When the official army comes to encircle and suppress the army again, this new army will be handed over to him.
But Liu Chengzong never expected that Yang Qi was actually from Lanzhou.
Speaking of which, even if the army is defeated, there are ways to surrender. Sometimes surrender can be used by the opponent; sometimes surrender is just about not being an enemy of the opponent.
On the way from the military formation to Tushan, Yang Qi saw Liu Chengzong's army, Mongolian horse soldiers in small and small groups, Western soldiers who were rigidly lined up with very different temperaments, and the arrogant Han army's infantry, horse and artillery.
When he climbed up Tushan and saw Yang Yao and Wang Wenxiu beside Liu Chengzong, Yang Qi immediately decided to surrender.
How far a person can go in this world depends on opportunities, but more importantly, the ability to seize them.
In the Ming Dynasty, if you want to get an official position, you can let me work hard. No matter whether it is literary or military, I can earn an official position for my baby. Generally, it is a first-grade second grade to a sixth-grade.
But it is easy to get an official position, but difficult to get promoted, especially military positions. Very few people can be promoted without relying on military merit.
Yang Qi is an exception.
He is a member of the Lanzhou Guards. He is not a general. He was born today with one sword and one shot. However, in his long career in the army, being promoted to the first level depends on luck, and it is the most difficult threshold for military attaches to pass.
To the deputy general.
It was 20 years ago that Yang Qi, a young and promising man from a thousand households in Lanzhou, was selected to join the Biaoying camp of Shaanxi Governor Li Qiyuan as the general manager of the camp.
Li Qiyuan was a Jinshi in Nanhe County, Shunde Prefecture. He was the head of the Ministry of Household Affairs. He served as deputy envoy to Guannan and chief envoy in Shaanxi. He attached great importance to young officers like Yang Qi. Through his achievements in autumn defense, he was promoted to the rank of Biaoying Zhongjun.
Zhongjun is the name of the chief officer of Biaoying, and his duty is to be the captain of the guard. The Zhongjun who is the governor of Biaoying has the rank of general, and the Zhongjun who is the governor of Biaoying has the rank of deputy general.
He had just served as governor of Biaoying's Central Army. Emperor Wanli passed away, and Emperor Taichang became governor of Shaanxi Province Li Qiyuan as governor of the three sides.
In the second year of Tianqi's reign, Governor Li Qiyuan wrote a letter for him to request the title of Deputy Chief Military Officer, and it was a matter of course.
Unfortunately, Mr. Li went to Nanjing to be the Minister of Household Affairs in the second year, and in the third year to be the Minister of Household Affairs in Beijing. The Minister did not have a standard camp, so he became the general military officer of Yansui.
Yang Qi asked himself that there had never been any mistakes in the army, but he always had to bear strange responsibilities whenever big things happened.
He went to Shanhaiguan to serve as the commander-in-chief. Gao Jinglue usually looked down on him. But during the Ningyuan War, Jinglue ordered all the troops in the town to be withdrawn and locked up. The front line was unfavorable. Gao Jinglue accused him of being cowardly and threw him out of the customs.
.
Yang Qi did nothing. After finishing the battle on the front line, he took the blame and returned to Guyuan as a general soldier.
When Emperor Chongzhen came to aid the Liao Dynasty, Yang Qi still had not done much. He was worried that the reinforcements would lack pay. Mr. Liang Tingdong from the Ministry of War said: The people have their own food, so why should they rely entirely on the Ministry of Household Affairs?
Then just follow what Mr. Liang said, and the border soldiers will live in people's homes and cause trouble in Andingmen.
Yang Qi took the blame again and returned to Guyuan.
It has become Yang Qi's instinct to avoid being blamed.
This time four of the five teams were defeated, and the remaining one who was not defeated was Wang Xingshan, the sick man. People can throw the blame on the smallpox. Yang Qixun thought that this was the second time He Huchen had lost, and he would definitely not go back.
If he goes back, on the left is Wang Xingshan, the deputy commander of Gansu Province who brought a bunch of sick men, and on the right is the deputy commander of Yansui You Shilu, who has inflamed balls. In the middle stands a commander with sound limbs and a healthy mind and body. Isn’t it obvious who will be blamed for the defeat?
Based on this analysis, Yang Qi felt that it would not end well if he went back. Lanzhou was just around the corner and he would definitely have to play a second game.
You can't win the field battle, let alone the city defense. Even if Lanzhou City is defended later, when Liu Chengzong retreats, a bigger blame will fall on his head... The Lanzhou elders will remember the losses in the countryside.
On the head?
It's better to just surrender and forget about those bullshit things.
It's just that this stopped He Huchen, who was unprepared. It's normal to kowtow after defeat. After all, he didn't intend to die rather than surrender, but this Yang Qi didn't say hello to anyone first. Now you kowtow,
Doesn’t it make it look like I’m still standing?
He Huchen looked at Yang Qi, then at the two giants of the Marshal's Mansion who were standing on the left and right in front of the Marshal's case. Finally, he looked at Liu Chengzong behind the Marshal's case and bowed down: "He Huchen, the defeated general, kowtows to the Marshal." Liu Chengzong clearly saw that the two of them were going one after the other. He stood up and went to help me, saying: "Since the two old generals are willing to surrender to me, let's forget about each other in the past and wait for them to be appointed after the war. Please help me."
Do your best."
He is not afraid of the two of them trying to assassinate him. To be honest, let alone the two of them empty-handed, even if they hold weapons, given the age gap, they may not be his opponent.
At the moment, he was discussing further plans with Yang Yao and Wang Wenxiu, and he didn't care about the two of them. He just asked the guards to take them down. The remaining hundreds of defeated soldiers were also disarmed and disarmed, and returned to camp according to the way they came.
If these two people are willing to lead troops, he has already prepared official positions for them in his heart, deputy general.
The deputy general in the imperial court refers to the deputy commander-in-chief, but in Liu Chengzong's case, the deputy general refers to the deputy to the battalion commander.
The deputy general of the battalion was not a high ranking officer. After all, they surrendered after being defeated. In Liu Chengzong's understanding, the imperial court was using the general soldiers as generals, each leading three to five thousand men and horses to guerrilla. What he was doing was not the general soldier at all.
Official matters.
On the other hand, after the war ended, Liu Chengzong's direct troops had many people who needed to be promoted. The army must form at least seven battalions. A united front with the enemy is one thing, but it is more important to figure out who is your base. p>
It was impossible for him to appoint Huang Shengxiao as a battalion general and let him serve as a general under the subordinate general He Huchen.
It's not too low to let the defeated commander-in-chief serve as the deputy general of the battalion.
I saw two generals who surrendered. After dinner in the camp, the surrender officers commandeered the landlord's compound on the Beishan platform and buried the bodies of the fallen soldiers on both sides. The entire valley fell into silence during the day.
They were all people who hadn’t slept all night, and they were all exhausted.
Only a few officers were still excited about the victory. Liu Chengzong was not entirely excited. He first sent the news of the victory to his brother who was still chewing the mountain fort on the north road. He also wrote a letter to Wang Xingshan by the way, hoping that
Can persuade the Gansu army to surrender.
Even if you can't persuade them to surrender, you can still persuade them to retreat.
His army cannot move today and can only wait until tomorrow to send reinforcements north to outflank him.
In addition, the biggest motivation that drives him not to sleep is the loss... Nowadays, the surrender troops in Hehuang and Dongxi have to eat tens of thousands of kilograms of his military rations every day. This is all processed military rations. When converted into raw food, at least
More than two hundred stones a day.
With such a huge cost, he must make these things move, work for him, and contribute to him.
The less things a person has, the more stingy he is.
At the beginning of this battle, Liu Chengzong was actually not rational. He just had no other choice but realized that this was a good opportunity to intervene in Hehuang. From then on, all he could think about was how to win.
But it was not until this morning that he realized that he had won the battle, and all the sanity in his mind returned.
I started to calculate costs and surplus food, and naturally I became very stingy.
Not only did Liu Chengzong think that the daily cost of raising surrendered soldiers was extremely high, but also the 32,000 people in Nanshan who were organized into more than 60 hundred household divisions by Zhong Bao made Liu Chengzong feel that he was at a huge loss.
The quietness of the Hehuang Valley made Liu Shizi's mind clearer.
He was also asked to consider the gains and losses of this battle while making the next deployment plan.
Liu Chengzong wrote down his impressions of the officers and soldiers on the desk in the commander's tent. The six characteristics are: the general's lack of determination, the officers' lack of authority, the soldiers' weak will, the shortage of supplies and food, the poor equipment level, and the lack of war preparations.
When the battle ended, Liu Chengzong gradually reviewed the course of the battle through prisoners like Bee Tail Needle, and it became clearer to the reasons why the five-town coalition forces were in disarray.
The so-called five town generals, let alone coordinated operations in the battle, the three generals in the middle alone cannot even lead and coordinate. At best, they are three generals marching at the same time in the Hehuang Valley.
At the level of frontline generals, several generals have done a good job, but they are far from being called commanders.
After a tactic is formulated, some people want to do it, some don't want to do it, and some want to do it but dare not do it. When completing the mission, they look forward and backward. Going westward cannot strengthen the determination to advance westward, and retreating eastward does not have the decisiveness to retreat eastward.
There is no preparation, no intelligence, only bravery. Just like dealing with ordinary thieves, you just ask where the enemy is, or even how many there are, and pounce on them. Then after a slight setback, you lose your mind and lose your position.
.
If such a general wants to succeed, he needs huge national power to support his operations.
The real irony is that Liu Chengzong is also on this level. Only in the territory of Kansai, Liu Chengzong's Marshal's Mansion is stronger than the Ming Dynasty.
In terms of war preparations, the Marshal's Mansion, which has a small land and poor population, has been preparing for the next war since it entered Xining.
In terms of money, food and equipment, everything the Marshal's Mansion has can be used for war.
In military training, Liu Chengzong's soldiers never went hungry for a day.
Liu Chengzong even had his own guess as to how the generals of the five towns fought the battle. The answer lies in the official positions of Wang Chengen, He Huchen and others.
Just above their official positions of Left Governor, Right Governor, and Governor Tongzhi.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Fifth Army is not only the five theaters, but also the management and command organization for the local armies. In the past, people like Wang Chengen and He Huchen worked in the Commander-in-Chief. They managed the local armies in peacetime and were selected by the court as chief military officers in times of war.
Only then can you have the right to lead troops and lead them into battle.
Their focus is on improving military affairs and managing the guards. When the war comes, they will mobilize troops from the entire governor's mansion and be able to fight when they come.
Now that the Governor's Office is gone, these people do not serve in the Ministry of War. They all rely on a governor or governor. To take charge of a place by oneself requires the approval of the Ministry of War. However, if the matter of war is not mixed, it is just a personal seal. If it is mixed, it may not understand military affairs. The commander-in-chief of each branch is a commander-in-chief who relies on the troops he leads to be able to fight. They no longer need to consider the capabilities of the entire governor's guard force like the former governor-general. They only need to lead a very capable battalion. All the generals in the army are very good at fighting. When we come together, no one obeys or listens to anyone. What’s the use of you being the Commander-in-Chief of the Left? If I fight another battle, I will also be the Commander-in-Chief of the Left.
What order do I have?
The Yansui Town Army was broken through, and the Guyuan Army and Ningxia Army did not return reinforcements. After all, You Shilu was not the governor. If the governor was about to be killed behind, they would have led their troops back to complete the counter-siege no matter what.
The complete military system of command, training, selection, fielding, and campaigning has turned into today's chaotic battles between generals. It is important who is the best general, but the commander's ability to command large armies is not important anymore. p>
Today's general military officers are all specialized talents trained in this model. The ideal state is not Guan Yu Yue Fei, but Cao Wenzhao.
The reason why Liu Chengzong wanted to analyze was not to flog the Ming army after the battle, but because the Marshal's Mansion, which was born out of the Ming army system, also had this problem, and he reached this point - the highest official position in the Marshal's Mansion is currently deputy
General Soldier.
There is no problem for him to go out in person in the short term, but in the long run, this framework is not stable.
Apart from anything else, if he did not go out and just let Wang Wenxiu and Yang Yao send troops, they would be invincible unless they encountered setbacks. Once they encountered setbacks, their performance would be the same as that of the general soldiers of the three towns.
However, his current opponent is the Ming Dynasty. This problem cannot be solved by hastily patting the head. On the contrary, it is more important to clean up Wang Xingshan's army, capture the chieftains of Yongdeng Liancheng, and march towards Lanzhou.
He did not intend to capture Lanzhou City. Capturing Lanzhou City would further intensify the conflict. The imperial court frantically mobilized troops to launch a second siege. To be honest... Liu Chengzong measured the limit of the war that both sides could bear. He was very afraid of another such battle in a short time.
.
If there is another battle like this, the Marshal's Mansion will be dead.
If you lose, you will die, if you win, you will collapse... If you surrender your troops but do not accept them, the court can continue to organize the third battle. The Ming Dynasty may not have food, but it has a strong ability to manufacture soldiers and armor, and the towns in the northwest also have sufficient reserve soldiers, which consumes
By the time the spring plowing time passes, he will be finished.
The surrender is also unbearable. Unless we march to Guanzhong, but if we rush into Guanzhong, it will be impossible to loot it. If we seize the grain, we will not be able to transport it back. The front is too long and he cannot eat such a large land. He, Huang, and Lanzhou will have to be lost. That's it.
The result was civil unrest.
Therefore, the purpose of marching eastward is to loot the money, grain and livestock of all wealthy households in Lanzhou, Hezhou, Lintao and other places, but there is no need to rob the population.
He is not Hou Jin, and Hehuang is not in the Northeast. There is no great plain for him to farm. At present, Hehuang's 600,000 to 700,000 people are enough to farm. Further plundering the population will inevitably lead to famine in Hehuang.
To complete this step, he first needs to transfer the transportation company. The cowhide and sheepskin rafts they rushed to make in Kangning Prefecture can come in handy. Together with the rafts captured by the army, it will be enough for a large force to quickly cross the Yellow River.
At the same time, the carrier can also transport the retrieved grain, grass and money at the rear.
The second step is to formulate a complete and accurate looting plan, rely on troops to be assigned to local divisions, draw up lists of wealthy gentry, and assign tactical tasks to the team.
With the main force to besiege Lanzhou, the looting team quickly explored the land spanning 200 miles, rushed forward quickly, and retreated quickly, using the shortest time, fastest speed, and most precise intention to evacuate all the wealth.