Yunmeng, Xiaogan, and Yingcheng counties were all lost within one day, and the news quickly reached Zhang Xianzhong.
After Zhang Xianzhong learned that the three counties had been lost, he couldn't help but be secretly surprised. Although he didn't care about the location of these three counties, the capture of these three counties by the Ming army meant that he had shifted the focus of the attack from Li Zicheng.
Own.
It would be a lie to say that Zhang Xianzhong is not afraid. Although Zhang Xianzhong seems to have made a lot of noise now that he is proclaimed king and appoints officials, he is not as powerful as Li Zicheng after all, and Li Zicheng and Sun Chuanting of the Ming Army, left
Liangyu and other main forces had fought several battles with real swords and guns, and they were confident and tough-minded, and they dared not to take the Ming army seriously. However, Zhang Xianzhong basically still had a bandit mentality, picking on soft persimmons and winning.
Fight if you pass, run if you can't beat, and never dare to fight against the powerful Ming army.
In fact, at the end of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen (1642), Zhang Xianzhong was far less popular than Li Zicheng. He was only active in the Qianshan area of Anhui and was defeated by Liu Liangzuo and Huang Degong for a time. His form was very passive.
Zhang Xianzhong was able to capture Wuchang Prefecture this time. In fact, there were many factors of luck. The main reason was that Li Zicheng fought Zuo Liangyu in Xiangyang, which completely attracted the attention of the Ming army. At the same time, it was also due to the poor military discipline of the Zuo army that the entire Hubei Province was disturbed.
There were widespread grievances in the region, and the reputation of the Chuang Army provoked civil uprisings in many places. Zhang Xianzhong then marched from Anhui to Hubei, taking Huangmei, Guangji, Linzhou, Macheng and other places, and massacred the gentry, Guangzhou and other places.
Recruiting men and horses, 50,000 to 60,000 people defected to Zhang Xianzhong in Macheng alone, which greatly increased his strength.
Then Zhang Xianzhong took advantage of the opportunity when Zuo Liangyu went east and Li Zicheng was busy establishing a political power in Xiangyang, captured Wuchang, killed the King of Zhou, and obtained all the accumulated wealth of the Zhou Palace, and forcefully took this from Li Zicheng.
A piece of fat was snatched away.
However, although Zhang Xianzhong captured Wuchang, he also knew that his strength could not compare with Li Zicheng. In terms of military strength, although Zhang Xianzhong now claimed to have an army of 300,000, he actually only had 130,000 or 40,000, and most of them were parting troops.
The real elite of the old battalion is less than 20,000 people who have been put together. Moreover, Li Zicheng's men can now be regarded as well-equipped in both civil and military affairs, and are full of talents. However, Zhang Xianzhong's side is mainly supported by his four adopted sons, Sun Kewang, Liu Wenxiu, Ai Nengqi, and Li Dingguo.
However, both in terms of quantity and quality, they are far behind Li Zicheng.
Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong has always been a little worried. After learning that Li Zicheng killed Luo Rucai and annexed the Zuo and dismissed the fifth battalion, he was afraid that Li Zicheng would come to fight with him. After Zhang Xianzhong had just captured Wuchang, Li Zicheng had sent people
When he came to Wuchang, he was called to congratulate him, but in reality he was coercing Zhang Xianzhong to surrender. Zhang Xianzhong could only greet him with a smile, and at the same time presented Li Zicheng with a large amount of gold and silver treasures. Although Li Zicheng accepted the gift, he did not write a reply, which also made things difficult.
Zhang Xianzhong was on tenterhooks all day long and could not calm down.
Zhang Xianzhong originally wanted to leave Wuchang and find another place to settle down, but at this moment, Supervisor Wu Gang went south and led his army to start a fierce battle with Li Zicheng. Zhang Xianzhong breathed a sigh of relief and decided to take a look at the situation.
After learning that Li Zicheng was defeated by the Ming army and was about to abandon Huguang and go north, Zhang Xianzhong felt very happy: Li Zicheng, do you also have this day? But he never expected that the Ming army did not pursue Li Zicheng and went north, but turned around.
The target of the attack was pointed at himself. Zhang Xianzhong was also very angry: He stayed in Wuchang and didn't provoke anyone. Why did he always have trouble with himself? Can't he let himself live a peaceful life for two days?
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But complaining is complaining. The Ming army came over, and they had to find a way to deal with it. Therefore, Zhang Xianzhong immediately summoned his four adopted sons: Sun Kewang, Liu Wenxiu, Ai Nengqi, and Li Dingguo to discuss whether to fight the Ming army or give up Wuchang.
Mansion, then run away. If you want to fight, the Ming army seems to be fierce again. Even Li Zicheng is no match. Can you beat the Shu army? If you want to escape, where can you escape? You must know that you are still squatting in Jiujiang
With Zuo Liangyu, Li Zicheng could ignore Zuo Liangyu, but Zhang Xianzhong did not dare to despise him.
After the four people gathered together, Zhang Xianzhong immediately stated his thoughts.
Sun Kewang first said: "Don't worry, Your Majesty, I have sent people to find out clearly. It turns out that the three troops of the Ming army, Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo, and Zuo Liangyu, are currently standing still, and the Ming army that captured the three counties was led by a new man.
This man's name is Shang Yi, his official position is deputy general, he is very young, less than thirty years old, but he only has more than 10,000 troops under his command."
Zhang Xianzhong couldn't help but feel relieved after hearing Sun Kewang's words.
At this time, Li Dingguo said: "But even so, we must not underestimate the enemy. I heard that Shang Yi is very powerful. His unit is called the Shang Army. He is still modeled after Qi Jiguang. He not only defeated the Qing army before, but also this
The Ming army was able to defeat Li Zicheng mostly because of his efforts, so although he has a small number of troops, we cannot underestimate him."
Liu Wenxiu said: "So what if this Shang Yi can fight again? We have hundreds of thousands of troops, are we still afraid of him? What if he is Qi Jiguang resurrected? Fourth child, if you are timid, then don't
Go, please give me a general, your Majesty, so that I can immediately lead the troops to attack, recapture the three counties, and beat him to pieces."
Li Dingguo was also a little displeased and said: "Second brother, what are you talking about? I fell behind you in that battle. I just said that we should not underestimate the enemy. As the saying goes, 'a proud soldier will be defeated'. And Shang Yi's troops
Although there are few, we still have Zuo Liangyu in Jiujiang, and Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo in Huangzhou. The three armies join forces so that they are not inferior to us. Although they are standing still now, if we mobilize with all our troops to fight against Shang Yi, and they take advantage of the opportunity
What should we do if we take Wuchang? Therefore, I think we might as well hold on to Wuchang Mansion and wait for Shang Yi to lead his army to attack. The Ming army will definitely cross the river, attack halfway across the river, or fight from behind the city, and they will definitely win.
And you don’t have to be far away from Wuchang Mansion, you can advance and attack, retreat and defend, and you can advance and retreat freely."
Liu Wenxiu said: "It's easy for you to say, but will the Ming army do what you think? If by then Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo, and Zuo Liangyu all lead their troops to capture Wuchang Mansion and join forces to besiege the city, then wouldn't we have to
Are you going to sit in a lonely city and wait for death?"
Li Dingguo retorted: "If Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo, Zuo Liangyu and others wanted to send troops, they would have arrived long ago and there is no need to wait until now. They are all people who are greedy for small profits. They will never do it before our army leaves Wuchang Prefecture.
He led his army to attack."
The two of them were talking to each other more and more fiercely. Sun Kewang said hurriedly: "Okay, okay, second child, fourth child, you all should say less. Whether it is fighting or defending, everything is subject to the king's arrangement."
.”
He moved Zhang Xianzhong out. Of course Liu Wenxiu and Li Dingguo did not dare to argue anymore, so they both looked at Zhang Xianzhong and listened to his decision.
Although Zhang Xianzhong knew that Li Zicheng was defeated by the Ming army, he did not have professional spies under him, and he did not care much about the course of the war. The group did not know how Li Zicheng was defeated, so they could only take it for granted.
The Ming army must have gathered more troops. But now there are only more than 10,000 troops coming to attack them, so they don't take it to heart at all. It would be too cowardly to be scared away by the Ming army.
And to be honest, Zhang Xianzhong is reluctant to leave Wuchang Mansion now, because although Zhang Xianzhong turned the Ming Dynasty upside down, for more than ten months, he has been living a life of running around, almost precarious. Now Zhang Xianzhong
After finally occupying a foothold, he could still be called a loner and had a hard time. His Western Palace was actually rebuilt from the former Chu Palace, but the palace was magnificent, extravagant and had eunuchs.
Gong'e waited on him and saw how comfortable it was to live there. Zhang Xianzhong was a little happy to miss Shu. But once he left, he might not be able to live such a comfortable life again, so Zhang Xianzhong decided that no matter what,
We have to fight this Ming army again.
So Zhang Xianzhong said: "We must fight this battle, but Dingguo's words are also true. We must not underestimate the enemy. However, Huang Degong, Liu Liangzuo, and Zuo Liangyu all ignore rabbits and will not let go of hawks easily.
Come and attack us. But if we just sit and defend Wuchang Prefecture, we would be too passive. After Shang Yi captured the three counties, the next step must be to attack Hanyang Prefecture, so I think we might as well fight in Hanyang Prefecture.
Shang Yi's men and horses are only separated by a river from Hanyang to Wuchang. If Wuchang is lost, we will be able to return our troops as soon as possible. What do you think?"
The four people listened and had no objections. In fact, Li Dingguo did not disagree with the war with Shang Yi, but advocated not staying far away from Wuchang. Zhang Xianzhong's method was also a compromise. Fighting the Ming army in Hanyang Mansion could also be
Using the tactic of half-crossing and attacking, Li Dingguobian felt that there should not be much problem in doing so.
Seeing that the four of them agreed with his proposal, Zhang Xianzhong was very satisfied and said: "Okay, then it has been decided. Hopefully, the country will be settled. The two of you will take 30,000 troops first and set out to station in Hanyang Mansion today.
When the anti-Ming army comes to capture Hanyang Mansion, I will lead a large group of troops and arrive later to join forces to fight against the Ming army."
The four people hurriedly said in unison: "I will wait for your order."
It turned out that although Hanyang Prefecture and Wuchang Prefecture were only separated by a river, Zhang Xianzhong also did not have many troops to garrison. Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo led the troops to set out overnight, crossed the Yangtze River, and came to Hanyang Prefecture to garrison. On the next day,
A spy came to report that they were the vanguard of the Merchant Army and had crossed the Han River near the town of Caidian in the upper reaches of the Han River.
After hearing this, the two of them couldn't help but secretly said that they were lucky. Fortunately, they were one step ahead. Otherwise, Hanyang Mansion would have been attacked by the Merchant Army. But now the vanguard of the Merchant Army began to cross the river, and the two of them discussed it.
, decided to go out to fight immediately, because the army will not be able to cross over in a short time. It is still too late to come out now and see how powerful the merchant army is.