Helan Mountain surrounds the northwest, and the Yellow River surrounds the southeast. The land is dangerous and solid, shielding Guanzhong and the throat of the river.
Although its land is small, with a distance of less than a hundred miles from north to south and two hundred miles from east to west, it is called Xiongbian because of its advantageous location.
This place was once known as the Fortress of Jiangnan. It was not only a major military town, but also an important area for the development of farmland agriculture. It has the fertile soil of Xitao of the Yellow River and the two canals of the Han and Tang Dynasties with a wide irrigation area, allowing this place to have tens of thousands of hectares of irrigated farmland.
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The soldiers and civilians of Ningxia Town are glorious and brave heroes.
In the third year of Hongwu in the early Ming Dynasty, a government was established here, but it only lasted for two years. Due to the overwhelming power of the Tatars, Emperor Taizu issued an edict to abandon the land and move the people to Shaanxi, making Ningxia a desolate place full of empty cities.
It was not until the ninth year of Hongwu six years later that the imperial court made preparations and once again immigrated to Ningxia to set up guards and sent the king to establish a vassal state.
The immigrants include people from Qi, Chu, Wu, Yue, Qin, and Jin, as well as people from Da, Zang, and Hui.
During the two hundred years since the Ming Dynasty, 50,000 to 60,000 troops were stationed here to defend the Helan Mountains, which have numerous mountain passes. Although the troops were divided into many places and it was difficult to support them, they were still able to maintain the strength of the inner defenses with excellent defenses and sufficient military supplies.
Stable and long-term resistance to invasion from Mongolia.
However, today is different from the past. Ningxia Town is undergoing earth-shaking changes with the move of Hong Chengchou.
Since the fall of Gansu, Hong Chengchou was in a hurry in Ningxia. He dealt with Cao Yao's harassment during the day and was frightened at night because of the punishment that the imperial court did not come.
As for the entire Ningxia army, serious panic arose as the Jinglu and Guyuan guards in Gansu and the hinterland to the south fell one after another, and the counter-rebellion armies were defeated one after another.
So the military households fled and the people migrated.
Faced with this situation, Hong Chengchou's response was very poor.
They were beaten by Cao Yao in the west, robbed by Zhou Qing in the east, and fought a battle with the Three Khans of Mobei, but there was no big gain.
It's not because he has no ability or talent, but because his focus has long been no longer on countering the rebellion.
In fact, like Yang Sichang, he was threatened by foreign enemies and decided to pacify the country first before fighting against the outside world.
It's just that Yang Sichang's proposal to Chongzhen was from the perspective of the entire Ming Dynasty.
However, Hong Chengchou's policy of fighting against foreigners must first settle the domestic affairs, which was based on the Ningxia Town.
Although he was the trilateral governor who held the most power in the world, Hong Chengchou knew very well that without the economic support of Shaanxi, there would be no trilateral governor.
If he continues to regard Ningxia and Yansui as the arms of the imperial court, he may only be defeated.
Others can go to Shanxi. As the governor responsible for the fall of three sides, the best outcome for him if he goes to Shanxi is to be imprisoned, and he may even die.
Hong Chengchou couldn't say that he was afraid of death, but he was a little unwilling to do so.
He reviewed the situation again and again in Ningxia and did not think there was any problem with his deployment. He always felt that Liu Chengzong was almost killed in Gansu.
The marshal's army was obviously going to run out of food. That day, Shanwala traveled thousands of miles to transport sheep for him to eat. Who the hell would have thought of this!
As for the five battalions of Cao Wenzhao, Bai Guangen, Bu Yingdi, Tu Shixian, and Shen Guangxian who were defeated last year, he was much more understanding.
After all, for several months, he was busy writing memorials to the imperial court, but all of them fell into the sea. I don't know whether it was because they could not be sent to Shanxi at all, or because he asked for money and food, and the imperial court did not reply.
But it doesn't matter now.
Hong Chengchou has realized that he cannot place his hopes on others, not Chen Qiyu, nor the Ming Dynasty court.
People still have to rely on themselves.
After he was convinced that it would not end well, he had a complete plan to separate the country.
He wanted to manage Ningxia in order to resist Liu Chengzong's attack and wait for things to turn around in the future.
Because Yansui Town is located in the transitional zone between the Mu Us Sea and the Loess Plateau, and is both agricultural and animal husbandry, it has neither high-yielding fields nor high-quality aquatic plants, but it can make do.
In terms of military terrain, the main strategy of Yansui Town is to defend and counterattack, with a side wall as the defense line, three separate defenses for local defense, and Yulin Town as the general commander of the defense.
When the enemy broke through a border wall, the Ming army deployed its troops in valleys and river mouths that were easily breached, intercepted them with numerous forts, used the mountains between the two border walls to delay them, and finally outflanked and killed them.
But if the enemy comes from behind, it will be different. There is no danger around Yulin Town, and it is easy to be surrounded by the army.
Hong Chengchou did not want to be beaten by Liu Chengzong in the city.
So Ningxia is his only choice.
However, Hong Chengchou did nothing about this plan until last autumn, when Cao Wenzhao and other defeated generals fled back.
The reason is very simple. Firstly, Mobei Mongolia and Cao Yao came to cause trouble, and secondly, there were not many available people around him.
The so-called "in order to fight against external forces, we must first stabilize the internal situation" means that if we want to resist Liu Chengzong, we must first ensure that Ningxia has sufficient money and food, and that its troops can be used.
And if we want to have enough money and food, we must clean up the military villages in Ningxia.
However, the military fields in Ningxia are the most difficult places to clean up in the world.
Among the nine fields of the Ming Dynasty, the northwest was the largest, and among the northwest, Ningxia was the highest.
In the early Ming Dynasty, more than 800,000 acres of military land were cultivated here. Later, it climbed all the way, reaching as high as 2 million acres during the Jiajing period.
However, the initially reclaimed military fields were of high quality and were high-quality farmland irrigated by the Han and Tang Dynasties near Yinchuan. However, the newly reclaimed military fields after Zhengde were all arid and semi-arid wasteland on the edge of the Ningxia Plain, and the quality was far inferior to the earlier ones.
But more is more, and one more acre is also more.
It's just that Ningxia not only has many farms, but also more civilian fields. In the early years, the civilian fields here had another name, called Shangtun.
That is to say, under the policy of opening up salt in China, merchants cultivated nearby fields and cultivated the fields for grain exchange.
During the Hongzhi period, Ye Qi, the Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs, carried out the reform and allowed merchants from Huaihe and Huaihe Rivers to use silver instead of millet, which increased the salt tax to one million.
Forty-one years later, the nine-border soldiers' pay increased from 400,000 taels to 2.2 million taels.
The merchant villages on the frontier were destroyed, and the fields were sold at low prices and turned into civilian fields.
Due to arrears of pay, flight, and population loss, military settlements were abandoned and civilian fields increased. A large amount of military settlement land became civilian farmland, and the boundaries between the two became blurred.
So when Chongzhen ascended the throne and wanted to clean up the military settlements in Ningxia, Bi Ziyan, the Minister of Household Affairs, verified it, but he had no choice but to report: It has been in use for a long time and it is difficult to verify. Please treat it as civil land regardless of military or civilian status.
This means that the Ningxia military garrison is completely gone.
There's nothing wrong with the original intention. The military settlements can't take in much anyway, so for the sake of fairness, we might as well treat it as civilian land.
Because the background at that time was that Bi Ziyan was in charge of the court's revenue and expenditure, and when Chongzhen ascended the throne, the Ming Dynasty's finances were extremely bad, and the most important military expenditure issue was Ji Liao.
Even if Ningxia is all civilian land, the army can be taken care of by expropriation. In a year, Zhejiang Salt brings in 80,000 yuan, while the money from Beijing Transport is only 20,000 yuan.
Jizhen alone owed 530,000 taels that year, and the annual transportation to Beijing cost 420,000 taels.
In comparison, this point in Ningxia is purely trivial.
Who cares?
But now, these military fields have become Hong Chengchou's heartache.
If he wants to survive, he must turn all these fields into military fields, but if he wants to use Ningxia's military fields, he must have guest troops in his hands.
Because there are so many civilian fields in Ningxia, and a lot of them fall into the hands of military families, those people will not be willing to let him turn the fields into military fields, and even many banner troops will not support it.
Therefore, Hong Chengchou reorganized his Biao camp last year, with only some carefully selected poor soldiers from Ningxia, and the rest selected capable people from the Gansu people who migrated to Ningxia, with Ding Zizhen from Liangzhou temporarily acting as the general.
However, this standard camp alone is not enough.
It was not until Zuo Liangyu, Cao Wenzhao, Zhang Yingchang, Bai Guangen and Cao Bianjiao led tens of thousands of defeated troops back to Ningxia that Hong Chengchou finally gained confidence.
He treated these defeated generals very kindly. When they met, he first threatened and threatened them, and then expressed his heartache that he would plead with the court officials on their behalf to absolve them of their crimes and allow them to continue to contribute.
Although Hong Chengchou knew very well that this letter would never reach the court.
Even if they were not intercepted by the peasant armies, Tatar cavalry and Yan'an soldiers who were flowing back and forth between Ningxia and Yansui towns, they could only reach the Yellow River. There was a plague over there in Shanxi, and the letter could not be delivered at all.
But he still wrote it, just like making a wish.
Please ask the court not to dismiss them from their posts.
The implication is to remind the court not to forget these losers who were defeated in the war, and to deal with them quickly and remove them from their posts.
Dismissal is important.
Because they were in Ningxia, Hong Chengchou had to pay them salaries.
But this is easier said than done. Zuo Liangyu, Cao Wenzhao, and Zhang Yingchang are all commanders-in-chief of the Fifth Army Governor's Mansion, and they are in the second rank.
Hong Chengchou's Minister of War was only of the third rank.
However, they will be used to do important things for a while. It would be best if the court receives the letter and they are dismissed. It doesn't matter if they are not dismissed.
After appeasing many defeated generals, Hong Chengchou relied on them as his confidants, and immediately made drastic changes in Ningxia to clean up military camps and transform Ningxia's fortress defense facilities.
Because Ningxia is geographically defensive on three sides: east, west, and north, and the defenses on these three sides can be said to have been well-armed. They are blocked by the Helan Mountains and the Yellow River, making them impregnable.
However, Liu Chengzong would attack from the south.
He must strengthen the defenses in southern Ningxia.
For this reason, Hong Chengchou simply moved the Ningxia defender to Lingzhou.
However, not long after his fortress was repaired, he received a huge new blow.
Shaanxi, it actually snowed.
It's certainly a good thing that it snows in Shaanxi, but it doesn't snow in Ningxia.
This winter, there is not a single snowflake in Ningxia, and it is terribly dry.
This news made Hong Chengchou nervous for no reason. He estimated that the snow in Shaanxi this year would undoubtedly be regarded as auspicious by the Marshal's Office and greatly boost the morale of the rebels.
I'm afraid Liu Chengzong won't wait until he builds the fortress before attacking him.
However, Hong Chengchou also prayed in his heart, hoping that the snow this year would paralyze Liu Chengzong, who had just entered Xi'an Prefecture and was proud of himself, so that he would not have to fight if he had enough food.
Give him a year and he can build a city wall in the south of Ningxia!
While Hong Chengchou was having such a sweet dream, he listened to reports that Yu Chongxiao, the chief military officer of Yansui Town, came to Ningxia.
This news made Hong Chengchou extremely surprised. When he saw Yu Chongxiao, he quickly said: "At this time of year, although Yu Shuai has unparalleled military power, as a town minister, he must take safety into consideration."
"I am clearly aware of the military situation, but I am not willing to take risks despite my humble position. However, the Tatars came to visit me and wanted to deliver a message to the military community."
As Yu Chongxiao said, an attendant presented a letter to Hong Chengchou.
When Hong Chengchou heard this, he frowned and said, "What does Yu Shuai mean by this?"
Yu Chongxiao shook his head. He hadn't opened Hong Chengchou's letter, so naturally he didn't know the content: "The person who interrogated the letter was a traitor from Ningyuan, but he was very stubborn and didn't tell the content of the letter - should the military sect hide from his post?"
Hong Chengchou looked at him reproachfully, and while opening the letter, he said, "There is nothing to avoid. You have fought against the Donglu before, and you are my adviser."
After opening the letter and reading only a few sentences, Hong Chengchou had a look of shit on his face and said with disgust to Yu Chongxiao: "Donglu is so whimsical that he calls himself Emperor Chongde and is just having fun in Shenyang. He actually plans to
You and I, together with the 100,000 troops from Yansui Town in Ningxia, have persuaded us to surrender."
"ha!"
Yu Chongxiao was also happy. He felt that Huang Taiji was out of his mind, so he blurted out: "He has a defeated general, and he still wants to persuade me to surrender?"
As for Hong Chengchou, he turned over the letter in his hand, looked at it, and showed it to Yu Chongxiao, saying, um... it's a piece of used Liaodong official document paper.
He said expressionlessly: "He said that if you and I come as gifts, we will reward you with a million taels of silver."
Yu Chongxiao's smile suddenly froze. His officers in Yansui Town were going crazy when they asked him for military pay.
The two looked at each other and smiled tacitly.
How about cheating and spending some money?
Immediately afterwards, they rejected the idea silently.
Seeing the unwillingness on Yu Chongxiao's face, Hong Chengchou took the letter and smiled and said: "Yu Shuai's expression, you see, they don't even have paper, they actually used the official waste paper to write the letter. The so-called million silver is just a lie."
Unexpectedly, Yu Chongxiao restrained his contempt, shook his head seriously and said: "The army doesn't know something. The Donglu invaded repeatedly and robbed my children of the Ming Dynasty. Jianzhou has money and nowhere to spend it. One stone and eight taels of silver."
, a piece of cloth cost nine taels of silver, and I was so poor that all I had left was money."
"It's a shame that we don't have the money."
In fact, what Yu Chongxiao was thinking was that if Liu Chengzong had such ambition and could throw millions of taels of official silver to Yansuihao in Ningxia, then Yansui Town might really be surrendered.
Hong Chengchou couldn't help but nod. If he had millions of silver, Ningxia would have no other problems except time.
This emotion comes and goes quickly.
Hong Chengchou believed that he had the ability to run Ningxia well. After all the military fields were cleared, Ningxia would be able to have enough warehouses in at least one year.
Thinking of this, he felt much more relaxed, and gloated to Yu Chongxiao: "But I read this letter. It seems that Donglu hates Liu Chengzong for calling him Khan. What is that called? Daiqing Khitan Khan said that he will definitely conquer him. Yang Qi said that this year
I’m afraid it won’t be easy.”
At this time, the street outside the governor's office became noisy. Before the two of them had time to ask questions, and were about to call people out to take a look, they saw Ding Zizhen, the supervisor and general, running quickly.
He rushed to Hong Chengchou's side and whispered urgently: "The military affairs are bad. The Ning soldiers in Zhencheng have mutinied and have surrounded the governor's office. There are still people coming towards the governor's office. Deputy envoy Ding has gone to mobilize troops."
"We also ask the military gate to temporarily stay at Biao Camp and return to the mansion after the situation calms down."