Hong Chengchou did move, but he was not trying to avoid Liu Chengzong.
Speaking of Mr. Hong’s injustice, he always felt that if he didn’t transfer, the people of Liangzhou would kill him.
Although the attack on the south route was frustrated, Yang Jiamo on the north route was defeated and killed, the strategy of attacking from the south and defending in the north was completely broken, and the situation in Gansu was unprecedentedly deteriorated, but Hong Chengchou still believed that he could turn the tide.
The key to turning the tide lies not in Shandan, Yongchang, and Zhenfan, but in Liangzhou.
Because the three guards couldn't hold on any longer.
It is impossible to hold it. These three guards do have soldiers. Although they are not full guard posts, including the fortress defenders, there are still more than 10,000 banner troops inside and outside. This is because the fields are vast and eastern Gansu
The guards paid great attention to hooking up troops. If they didn't hook enough flag troops, they wouldn't be able to plow the fields.
But the battle to counter the rebellion in Shaanxi has been going on for five years. The generals and elite soldiers of each guard have been transferred to Shaanxi long ago. Even after hundreds of battles, they have been incorporated into other armies. Now the flag troops remaining in the guard have gone through several rounds of selection.
, the old, weak, sick and disabled who were still not selected.
What's more, countless castles have been infiltrated by the White Lotus Cult like sieves. For Hong Chengchou, expecting Liu Chengzong to defend these places is better than kowtow and let God rain down thunder and kill Liu Shizi.
Yang Jiamo has proved to Hong Chengchou that it is difficult to deal with Liu Chengzong head-on using military means on the battlefield.
Liu Chengzong has too many positive gains.
Even though Hong Chengchou was a court official, whether in official documents or in private, he kept talking about the leaders who raised armies in Shaanxi as thieves. However, after serving in Shaanxi for so long, he actually knew better than those leaders who raised armies why they were thieves.
Precisely because Hong Chengchou knew this clearly, he understood even more how terrifying an alien like Liu Chengzong was.
What do the officers and soldiers rely on to suppress thieves? Great justice.
What is great righteousness? Great righteousness means thieves looting places.
Should the thieves rob the place, kill the parents, and rob the daughter? Rob, kill, rob!
That's enough. Don't worry about where the thieves came from. Robbery, killing, and seizing are just not enough. That's why the officers and soldiers can defeat the thieves without any disadvantage.
The officers and soldiers are also ordinary people's dolls, and their hearts are all made of flesh. The general gives an order and tells the soldiers to charge and charge regardless of who is on the opposite side. When it is time to fire cannons and cannons, this is the restraint of the generals.
Moderate and shrewd, he is not a wolf-hearted soldier who only cares about getting promoted and getting rich.
But what kind of weird thing is Liu Chengzong?
Did he rob places? No; did he kill parents? No; did he rob women? No.
Even when dealing with wealthy families, he upheld a compassionate heart that was unlike those born in troubled times. He confiscated their land and property, and except for a few who committed evil crimes, he released everything else that could be released, so as not to bring harm to his family. p>
Even if the soldiers who faced him were fighting to the death on the battlefield, after the battle, he would give them to those who were willing to surrender, and give gifts to those who were unwilling to surrender. He would even give them traveling expenses as long as they had money with them.
Just one city that Liu Chengzong passed through was not in ruins.
He even entered Qinghai and turned himself into a hero. Hami, who had been abandoned for a hundred years, asked him to recover it. The Great Khan of Beilu died on his territory, and the pirates were driven into Uzang by him.
When fighting with him, those who can fight to the death with guest troops like Yang Jiamo can count as having the hatred of the Ganzhou soldiers, which is very rare; if a normal army can fight against him, it will not be bad, even if it is defeated, like Li Hongsi
Running back with his tail between his legs, in Hong Chengchou's opinion - a good general!
….
Liu Chengzong was the Ming Dynasty leader who emerged from the severe drought in Shaanxi Province when his army and hungry people kept calling for him. Even if he was a loyal minister and general without any flaws, standing opposite him would be like a clown in the play.
How can the officers and soldiers suppress this? How can the officers and soldiers fight?
Under such circumstances, Hong Chengchou had already predicted that Gansu would not be able to defend it as early as when Liu Chengzong ordered troops to confront Yang Jiamo at the gate of Gaotai City.
But the worse situation is that Gansu can lose, but Gansu and Hehuang cannot be connected together. If they are connected together, it is not only Gansu that will be lost.
It wouldn’t be scary if the one who invaded Gansu was really a pro-Khan. He was just blocking the Yellow River to find an opportunity to recapture it. But the one who invaded Gansu was Liu Chengzong. This guy was considered to have left his hometown in the west and cost ten dollars
He can only spend half of his time. Once he returns to Shaanxi, Longshan will not be able to lock him in.
By then I'm afraid the border will be the bank of the Yellow River in Shanxi.
Hong Chengchou had no hope of beating Liu Chengzong back, so he wrote a letter to the emperor.
The letter did not shy away from the possible defeat of Gansu, but truthfully explained the current situation and his plans in this situation.
His intention is to try his best to keep Liu Chengzong in Hexi this year and to secure Liangzhou, the last city in Gansu for the Ming Dynasty.
At the same time, I hope that Chen Qiyu, the governor of the five provinces, will take this opportunity to wipe out all the 100,000 rebels attracted by the Marshal's Office to the western section of the Qinling Mountains. It is expected that 40,000 border troops will be mobilized from Ningxia and Yulin to try to fight again in Gansu next spring. The winning rate will be very high
.
Emperor Chongzhen's reply to him contained no criticism, but only encouragement.
The reason is very simple. Chongzhen strongly agrees with Hong Chengchou's view that Liu Shizi cannot be allowed to return to Shaanxi... This year is a good year, and it is definitely a good year for Emperor Chongzhen.
After the New Year and into spring, all parts of Shaanxi reported to the court that it was raining here or there; by the middle of the year, it was raining everywhere in Shaanxi.
These places are still in drought, but the drought situation has been significantly alleviated this year.
There are only four places where severe droughts are really fatal.
The first is the Hehuang, Qinghai, Gansu and Lanzhou areas that Liu Chengzong occupied and is attacking; the second is Tianjinwei, where there is no rain this year and the harvest is completely ruined; the third is southern Shanxi, where the drought is worse than last year
;The fourth is Yunnan.
There are three other places suffering from severe flooding.
The first is the Hanzhong area where hundreds of thousands of peasant troops gathered; the second is Yanzhou, Shandong; the third...the third has nothing to do with Emperor Chongzhen, Shenyang.
This year's disaster situation put Chongzhen in a very good mood. He saw the dawn of hope to survive the famine. Of course, it is foreseeable that the military pressure will be greater this year. Huang Taiji, Liu Chengzong and all the anti-kings will go crazy.
.
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Chongzhen was able to distinguish priorities. Hong Chengchou's letters made him realize that Liu Chengzong, who was popular in the northwest, was the most serious problem. In comparison, Huang Taiji outside the Guan Dynasty had to wait a little.
[In view of the general environment,
Liu Chengzong is the only mad dog in the world who dares to run three thousand miles into the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty and confront the Ming army's heavy army, and Huang Taiji cannot do this.
These two guys are completely different. If Huang Taiji destroys the border wall and invades, the Manchu soldiers will naturally become more brave in the battle. If he loses, he will die if he returns to his hometown in Daluo. If he stays in the Ming Dynasty with a bald head on his shoulders, he will die. If he can't stay, he will die.
Live.
….
Even if a city is captured, the people in the city will be killed with blunderbuss. Even if there is no blunderbuss, they can still find ways to poison the wells, poisoning everyone and making a profit.
Liu Chengzong was different. He entered the hinterland of the Ming Dynasty and returned rich to his hometown. After winning the battle, he could directly recruit the defeated soldiers. This was called doing a great cause outside the customs and recruiting the hometown party to come and benefit from it.
When the Ming army fought with him, more people fled than died in battle, and more surrendered than escaped. The people in the city who were recruited just thought that this old Shaanxi wanted to go home, and they just had to live a good life and not mess with him. p>
Even if we lose the battle, we can just set up a flag and there will be thousands of peasant troops.
If you let this thing go back to Shaanxi, something big will happen.
This is the innermost worry.
Therefore, Chongzhen fully accepted Hong Chengchou's suggestion and let it go. As long as Liu Chengzong was not allowed to take over the whole of Gansu and the north and south were not allowed to join together, starving him all winter, the next year would be good, and there would be no place for Liu Chengzong in the world.
The whole army cultivated martial arts and destroyed him.
As long as Shaanxi's agriculture recovers slightly and the civil strife subsides, Gansu can fight against a country with only one corner. This can be destroyed in a matter of seconds?
Hong Chengchou received the emperor's encouragement and heard the news that Yang Jiamo raised a fire bomb on the high platform, so he immediately made serious preparations for the defense of Liangzhou.
The key to the outcome of this battle is Liangzhou. To be precise, it is not the city of Liangzhou, but the farmland outside the city.
The reason why Hong Chengchou dared to make such a judgment was because he was a grain supervisor and counselor in Shaanxi Province and was very familiar with military grain transportation.
Although Liu Chengzong was unstoppable along the way, in Hong Chengchou's eyes, every time Liu Shizi took a step eastward, he was one step closer to defeat.
He calculated Liu Chengzong's military strength and baggage, recruited surrender troops, occupied land, managed the population and fields to produce food. In the final analysis, people are still stomachs.
Even if Liu Chengzong wins ten thousand times on the battlefield, even if the war launched by Liu Chengzong during the farming season has no impact on the agriculture of the two oases of Jiuquan and Zhangye, even if he has no road consumption in transporting grain within Gansu.
As long as he cannot get Liangzhou's autumn grain this year, his military rations will not be enough. No matter how he calculates it, it will not be enough.
Is there any way Hong Chengchou can prevent Liu Chengzong from getting Liangzhou’s autumn grain? There is no way.
Therefore, he did not build a second line of defense in Shandan and Yongchang to stop Liu Chengzong. Instead, he directly ordered the people in Wuwei Oasis to harvest wheat more than ten days in advance.
Dan, the old, weak, sick and disabled from Yongchang Guards and surrounding fortresses were given to Liu Chengzong.
In Liangzhou, the main crop is this crop of wheat. As the saying goes, the barley turns yellow in the Slight Heat and grows in the Great Heat. In other places in the north, the wheat harvest is basically finished during the Slight Heat, but the harvest time in Liangzhou is around June.
Harvest ten days ahead of schedule, resulting in much less production than normal.
Hong Chengchou was very anxious to clear the country with strong walls, because he had no confidence in Shandan and Yongchang's second guard. He only considered an acropolis, delaying Liu Chengzong for two days; more than 40 fortresses along the way, delaying four days; and finally marched for five days before arriving.
Under Liangzhou City.
He took advantage of this time to strengthen the walls and clear the country, relocate the people, and arrange the defense of the city, making Liangzhou City impregnable.
Hong Chengchou's plan to defend the city was absolutely foolproof.
….
He first ordered every household in the Wuwei Oasis to make a family sign. On it was written a certain surname of the family, how old they were, their complexion was red and yellow, black and white, with incomplete scars, how many men, women and grandchildren were in the family.
The cavalrymen of the Liangzhou Guards rushed to various places, checked that everything was correct, collected the family cards and gave official tickets, and agreed to enter the city through the four gates when the matter was close.
If you live outside Dongguan, you can only enter through the east gate; if you live outside Xiguan, you can only enter through the west gate. At the same time, your home must be demolished, and what can be used for making fire must be brought into the city. What cannot be used for making fire must be demolished on the spot, and the food must be
, firewood, livestock, household fires, boxes, and stones were all moved into the city.
In addition, in addition to the family members and servants who lived in the city, the gangsters, servants, and the old and young who wanted to be taken care of in the past three years have all been expelled from the city. Those who are willing to leave can go together, and those who have no winter food outside the city
The people migrated together to Songshan, Zhongwei and other places in Ningxia.
Moreover, rules have been set for the food in the official warehouses in the city. If the warehouse is not opened, it will save people from death but not hunger. If someone from a wealthy family needs to borrow food, all excess food must be borrowed except for their own consumption. For poor people, the government guarantees that they will borrow it.
grain, but it must be paid back next autumn. If you borrow 10%, you will pay back 13%. If you don't pay back, the government will demand double the amount.
The defensive equipment in the city and the defenders are also well-prepared. Each battlement has a name written on the inside, and there is one soldier and two minzhuang for defense. Among them, the minzhuang elects two patrolmen for every fifty people to monitor the guards.
Those who violate city discipline.
The food below the city is also prepared. The defenders must be fed and warm. As long as the women are young enough to survive, they will be divided into twenty people per stove. They will eat pasta in the morning, dry rice in the afternoon, and pasta at midnight.
As for the remaining chores, Hong Chengchou also made preparations and compiled them into a book to distribute to the defenders. Everything was detailed, and the only thing he wanted was that Liangzhou City could not be captured.
At that time, there will be no food in a hundred miles around. There will be desert in the north and barren mountains in the south that are short of water and drought. We will either have to transport food, grass and siege equipment from hundreds of miles away, or we will have to return to Ganzhou. We cannot conquer the city with a sudden attack.
Spend the winter?
It is impossible to go south. The Gulang Gorge is a narrow place, and when Liu Chengzong was driven away, Hong Chengchou dared to cut off his back road and cut off his food route. The same reason goes for going east after passing Liangzhou.
Coupled with the more than 10,000 mouths of Shandan and Yongchang, Hong Chengchou was particularly looking forward to Liu Chengzong's expression when he saw the white land in Liangzhou.
Don’t you always boast that you love soldiers as much as you care about the people, and make us, the orthodox officials of the court, look like clowns?
Okay, there is no food, let me see what you do this winter.
Whether it is caring about the soldiers but not the people, or caring about the people but not the soldiers.
Or they can't care about both. In any case, the cornerstone of Liu Chengzong's victorious people will be destroyed. Next spring, he will be hungry and emaciated. Ningxia, which has a little harvest this year, and the Yulin border troops will be transferred here. Liu Chengzong will either die in Gansu.
Either go out and become a king.
Hong Chengchou calculated everything in detail and was very subtle. He never expected... When Liu Chengzong's morale was high, he forced the army to squat in Ganzhou for fifteen days.
Mr. Hong thought to himself: How dare he do that?
He calculated the food and grass carefully. Liu Chengzong didn't have enough food this winter, and He Huang was throwing it there. Did he really not panic at all? He should have led his army to attack Liangzhou in a hurry.
….
Hong Chengchou calculated everything clearly, except that he missed the fact that Liu Chengzong would not march.
These fifteen days were originally the time he calculated for Liu Chengzong's army to arrive at Liangzhou Guard.
Fortunately now, fifteen days have come and Liu Chengzong is still squatting in Ganzhou laying eggs. He just sent a car to recruit Shandan Guards.
The people outside the city have harvested their fields in advance, dug up their houses and yards, transported food and livestock into the city, and burned the straw. Everyone is just waiting to defend the city - you won't come.
If you don’t come, how the hell am I going to explain to the people?
Hong Chengchou is not afraid of Liu Chengzong. Really, he is not afraid of this brave and skilled military leader who travels across the northwest. Others are afraid of him, because even if he loses and is captured, what will Liu Chengzong do to him?
We don’t even need to nod and surrender, he has to be courteous to Corporal Xian and find someone to persuade us, right?
Enjoy good food and drink. I, Hong Hengjiu, have never done any bad things. I am a great talent and the governor of the three sides. All bad things are caused by Bai Guangen and Cao Wenzhao.
Then Cao Wenzhao killed him, he was like that in Shanxi, and he was not working under me at that time; let alone Bai Guangen, he was led astray by Cao Wenzhao, not to mention that it was your flow... There are internal conflicts in your rebel army
, has nothing to do with me.
After all, Liu Chengzong had never beaten him face to face, and Hong Chengchou also concluded that Liu Chengzong would not beat him... He knew Liu Chengzong very well. He was a Confucian general, benevolent and righteous, and never killed innocent people indiscriminately.
So what’s there to be afraid of? No.
But he was afraid of the angry people, because the angry people of Yan'an Prefecture really beat him up. When he heard that taxes were going to be levied, the cannons were set up outside the yamen, and Yang Yanchang couldn't stop him.
All the official hats were slapped away, and the gentleness swept the floor!
Now the farmers in Liangzhou City who have suffered losses due to harvesting wheat ten days early are annoyed and angry when they see Liu Chengzong not coming when it is time to harvest wheat. The familiar atmosphere in Yan'an City many years ago has returned.
In fact, compared with Yan'an Prefecture, which has simple folk customs, Liangzhou does not have the warm and hospitable atmosphere of every household with local guns and cannons, but Governor Hong can't take care of so much. What did the ancestors say? A gentleman will not stand behind a dangerous wall.
It’s okay to have your official hat on the ground.
But the official hat must not be slapped away by the mud-legged man again, the farmers are too strong!