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Page 442

Pseudo-shun?

The civil servant's mind was spinning so fast, those guards were still watching the fun, Hong Daoyuan already understood.When he was held down by the dragoons, he even knelt down: "Sinner Hong Daoyuan, welcome the Heavenly Soldiers of Datong, long live His Majesty the Emperor of Datong!"

Wang Enmin didn't know whether to laugh or cry: "Why don't you give your allegiance to the Puppet Shun Emperor?"

Hong Daoyuan replied: "What is the pseudo-shun emperor? That is trespassing! The little ministers are born and have fame, but they are called around by the pseudo-shun thieves. A good magistrate, you can't control this, and you can't control that. Martial arts masters have the final say on everything. Although my ancestral home is in Xiangyang, I have moved to Chang'an County for four generations. The ancestors worked hard to create some foundations, and bought thousands of acres of land in Chang'an County..."

"Has the land been divided?" Wang Enmin asked.

"It's not that the land has been divided, but there are hundreds of acres of good land that were forcibly occupied by the soldiers," Hong Daoyuan said with a sad face. , Some were called to farm for generals. The rest of the tenants went to plant unowned fields. The government said that after three years of land reclamation, only half of the grain and tax would be paid, so wouldn’t all the tenants run away?”

Wang Enmin laughed loudly: "It deserves it!"

Hong Daoyuan didn't seem to hear the ridicule, and said: "The tenant ran away and paid it back. The rent and silver owed were also wiped out by the hypocrite court. The tenant didn't pay back the money and grain owed, and he didn't give the landlord to cultivate the land. The landlord's life But how can we live? If the soldiers come to Xi’an today, and they finally defend it until the clouds open and the moon shines, then the damned intruders will definitely be defeated!”

The more Wang Enmin heard the more outrageous, he asked: "Don't you know that our Datong court will also erase the money and grain owed by the tenants? Moreover, it will also divide the land of the landlords?"

"Those are all rumors," Hong Daoyuan thought he was testing himself, and said with a smile, "The Datong court is orthodox in the world, how could it act like bandits?"

Wang Enmin was speechless for a moment. This civil servant who is hypocritical to the imperial court, the news is too closed, right?

But one thing is certain, none of the civil officials like Li Zicheng, they are suppressed by the military generals and cannot stand out.Therefore, Cao Bianjiao and Chen Tangong led the cavalry and surrendered wherever they went, and the civil officials led the city guards to kneel down to meet the heavenly soldiers.

Not only the military generals oppressed, but Li Zicheng himself treated civil officials very harshly.

He demanded that civil servants must be diligent, and that corruption would be severely investigated and dealt with.At the same time, the salary was low, far inferior to that of the Datong court. If only wages were used to support the family, they would barely be able to eat enough.

……

State pastoral yamen.

"General, the whole city has been controlled, and all officials and soldiers of the puppet dynasty have been captured!"

"Maintain law and order, and don't let chaos in the city. Let Liu Yao and the others go back and report that Xi'an has been conquered. Also, recruit troops on the spot, and only recruit good people with family members in the city. Beware of enemy generals leading a large army to attack Xi'an... ..."

After arranging the matter, Cao Bianjiao looked at Wang Zeyao and said with a smile, "Master Zhou Mu, in Shaanxi, where are the troops?"

Wang Zeyao shook his head: "I don't know."

"It seems that Master Zhou Mu is going to die for Li Zicheng's loyalty?" Cao Bianjiao threatened.

Wang Zeyao said anxiously: "I really don't know. Although I am the governor of the state, civilian officials are not allowed to intervene in military affairs. Not only can't control, but they can't even ask, otherwise they will be inquiring about military affairs without authorization."

Cao Bianjiao asked again: "How many soldiers are there in Xi'an Mansion?"

Wang Zeyao replied: "There should be no soldiers. They are all city guards and yamen servants. The city guards in various states and counties range from dozens to hundreds, and it is absolutely impossible to thousands. And they are all weak soldiers, who have not fought much. After the war, all those who could fight were taken away.”

Cao Bianjiao was puzzled and said, "It's normal to have no soldiers elsewhere. This Xi'an is the capital of Shaanxi. How can there be four or five hundred weak soldiers guarding the city?"

Wang Zeyao sighed: "This is the land of Guanzhong. What is Guanzhong? There are majestic passes on all sides. Even if there are soldiers, they will go to guard the majestic pass. Where will they guard Xi'an?" Wang Zeyao was very curious, "Where did the general come from in Xi'an?" ?”

Cao Bianjiao smiled and reported the cities along the way: "Puzhou, Linjin, Ronghe, Hejin, Hancheng, Heyang, Chengcheng, Baishui, Pucheng, Fuping, Sanyuan, Jingyang, Xianyang. Along the way, plus Xi'an, Lianke fourteen cities. On the way, there was only one Chaoyi county, and puppet officials led troops to resist."

Wang Zeyao muttered: "There is a garrison in Weinan, which is the gateway to Xi'an, and you bypassed it."

"What? Why didn't you say it earlier!" Cao Bianjiao was furious.

Wang Zeyao said: "There are only [-] troops stationed there, so there is really no need for the general to panic."

Cao Bianjiao asked, "Which places have soldiers?"

Wang Zeyao didn't bother to hide it: "Two of the soldiers in Shaanxi were in Yulin and Ningxia to guard against the Mongols. One was in Gansu, guarding Jiayuguan. One was in Hanzhong, guarding against the Datong army in Sichuan. One was in Tongguan, guarding against the Datong army in Henan." Army. The [-] defenders in Weinan were used to guard grain and grass. The grain from Guanzhong was first transported to Weinan, and then transported from Weinan to Tongguan.”

Cao Bianjiao grasped the overall situation in an instant. After all, he was born as a frontier general and knew the geography of Shaanxi very well.

Li Zicheng had too many places to defend, and there were Mongols in the north and west. If he did not leave enough defenders, he would be plundered by the Mongol tribes.

The Ordos Department in the Hetao area originally belonged to the Chahar Department, and followed the Chahar Department to the Qing Dynasty.

But the Chahar Department wanted to rebel, and the Ordos Department, which was farther away, had long refused to listen to Manqing's orders.Up to now, the Manchu and Qing Dynasties have not set up a flag in Ordos, that is to say, the rule of Jiji is not counted.

They didn't care whether Li Zicheng joined hands with the Manchus or not, they would go south to grab food when they found an opportunity.

A few years ago, Li Zicheng recuperated and only kept [-] troops, and the rest of the troops went to farms.These garrison troops are either surrendered soldiers or refugees, and they have no combat effectiveness at all, and they don't practice after being ordered to garrison the fields.

Therefore, Li Zicheng is actually very short of troops. In addition to the [-] standing army, tens of thousands have been temporarily trained this year. Most of the troops stationed in Tongguan belong to the new army.

Due to the great earthquake in Guanzhong during the Jiajing period, the Yellow River was diverted, and Daqingguan lost its role of guarding the throat.Tongguan can only block the way for the Datong army to advance westward. As long as the Datong army crosses the river smoothly, they can quickly go north and sweep the land of Xihe.

Now, for the Dashun court, the war situation in Shaanxi has completely rotted.

The main reason is not only the lack of soldiers, but also the surrender of civil servants everywhere.These civil servants have no sense of belonging to the Dashun court, and have long been prepared to surrender at any time.As long as they pretend to defend the city, it is impossible for Cao Bianjiao to conquer fourteen cities in a row, and the speed of attacking the city is faster than the speed of news transmission.

Cao Bianjiao asked again: "Who is guarding the rations in Weinan?"

"Liu Sanhu." Wang Zeyao said.

"Liu Sanhu?" Cao Bianjiao had never heard of this name.

Wang Zeyao explained: "It is Liu Tichun's third brother. Liu Tichun is Liu Erhu, his elder brother Liu Hong is the big tiger, and there are three tigers, four tigers and even seven tigers. Now the Liu family is dead and only three tigers are left."

Most of the generals under Li Zicheng's command came from bitter backgrounds.

Let's just say that the Liu family's seven tigers were simply forced to rebel.The rent owed by the family to the landlord was 1 stone and 5 dong, and the usury owed 20 taels of silver.Dahu and Erhu were tied up and beaten, and the landlord forced them to pay rent. Sanhu and Wuhu were angry and beat the landlord's two house slaves to death.

The landlord reported to the officials, and the Liu family's seven tigers gathered to revolt and killed the landlord to open a warehouse to release grain.

When the Liu family's seven tigers defected to Li Zicheng, their rebel army had grown to tens of thousands.It can also be regarded as a shareholder who brings capital into the group, not an ordinary thief, and Li Zicheng thinks highly of him.

He Zhen, Dang Mengan and others turned against each other, and unexpectedly met Liu Erhu (played by Liu Tichun).

This tiger was also very reckless. When the army was broken, instead of fighting with the Datong army, it chased into the Yellow River desperately, beheaded the traitor He Zhen before running for its life.

"Can you persuade Liu Sanhu to surrender?" Cao Bianjiao asked.

Wang Zeyao shook his head: "Impossible."

Historically, Li Zicheng's favorite adopted son, Zhang Nai, was cast down, but Liu Erhu chose to hang himself with his whole family.

Cao Bianjiao still wanted to try. After consolidating the city defense, he sent people to Weinan to persuade him to surrender.

Liu Sanhu's reply was: "I'll give it to you in Xi'an first, and I'll get it back later!"

Tian Jianxiu, Liu Erhu, Liu Sanhu and others are expanding their army frantically, distributing weapons and equipment to civilians, and expanding their troops to 5 in a blink of an eye, and they are training soldiers in Tongguan, Chaoyi, and Weinan.

When Li Guo returned from Hanzhong with his troops, Cao Bianjiao's lone army would be surrounded.

Unless, Cao Bianjiao took the cavalry, jumped out ahead of time, and continued to attack all over Guanzhong.

The next battle will most likely be around Tongguan.If Tongguan is not pulled out, it will be difficult for the Datong Army to truly occupy Guanzhong. The Datong Army in Hexi is very likely to be dumped, because the Shanxi Dashun Army is also rushing over.

Chapter 547 [Difference Plan]

Zhu Shunshui soon came and took charge of the civil affairs in the Xihe area.

If the Datong Army can take Shaanxi, Zhu Shunshui will be the Zuo Buzheng of Shaanxi.He is an old friend of Zhao Han, who defected to him when he marched into the south of the Yangtze River, and climbed up step by step from the county magistrate.

On the other side of Henan, Hu Mengtai is also waiting, and when the Datong army takes Shanxi, he will immediately become the chief envoy of Shanxi.This is Fei Yinghuan's cousin-in-law, who is also an old acquaintance with Zhao Han, and came to join him after the recovery of Guangdong.

"The farmers in Xihe are not very motivated, and the gentry and landlords are also resistant." Ding Ruzhen, a mission officer, said.

Zhu Shunshui said with emotion: "It seems that Li Zicheng has managed Shaanxi well..." (The Xihe area is actually under the jurisdiction of Shanxi, but it was temporarily placed under the jurisdiction of Shaanxi during the war.)

The so-called good is compared with Daming.

Shaanxi suffered from military disasters and droughts for more than ten years, and the common people suffered a lot.Li Zicheng asked them to cultivate unclaimed land, and the tax was not very heavy, so the farmers naturally supported him.

And the Datong Army came, allocating land to farmers and cutting taxes for farmers, all of which Li Zicheng did.

The Datong army wanted to divide the landlord's fields again, and the landlord was also unhappy.But that was all, and there was no fierce resistance.It is true that the population of Shanshan and Shaanxi has dropped sharply. No matter how much land the landlord has, without the help of tenants to cultivate it, he can only choose to abandon it.

The policy of dividing land, which has always been useful, is difficult to achieve results in the Northwest.

This is different from Henan and Shandong. Although they have been war-torn, the population has dropped sharply, and there have been droughts for many years, the Datong Army ended the troubled times in Shandong and Henan provinces. All levels of society are grateful for this.In the two provinces of Shanxi and Shaanxi, it was Li Zicheng who ended the troubled times, and the Datong Army was the invader who started the war.

Zhu Shunshui came to Xihe to make books and divide the land, but he could not get the support of the people at all, and he could not gain the foundation of the masses here!

Even grassroots peasant associations are not easy to establish, and farmers are not motivated to join peasant associations.

"What can we bring to local farmers?" Zhu Shunshui asked.

Ding Ruzhen replied: "We brought war, and nothing else."

Zhu Shunshui was speechless.

Ding Ruzhen also said: "Actually, the civil officials and military generals exploited the common people very heavily under the hypocrisy of the imperial court. Li Zicheng said that the grain tax would be halved in three years, but the civil officials and military generals would collect a lot of miscellaneous taxes and conscript the common people to serve in corvee." When we came here, we said that there is no miscellaneous tax and no corvee, but the people don’t believe it at all.”

Zhu Shunshui nodded and said: "I understand. Farmers in the south believe that they are exempted from corvee and miscellaneous taxes because they have been given real land. Land distribution is the biggest benefit. With this benefit, other benefits are trustworthy. And here For farmers, the division of land is not a real benefit to them, so they don’t believe in other benefits.”

"That's the reason." Ding Ruzhen said.

Zhu Shunshui said: "We have to establish trust and let the people trust the imperial court. There is still more than a month to harvest wheat, and tell all the farmers in Xihe that as long as the Datong Army is still there, they will not pay grain, miscellaneous taxes, and corvees this year. Wait for their When the wheat goes into the warehouse, if we really don’t go to collect grain, the peasants will naturally believe it.”

"That's the only way." Ding Ruzhen sighed.

The Xihe area is now under the occupation of the Datong army, the officials are not fully in place, and the common people do not obey the Datong court.

It is impossible to mobilize the masses. The Datong Army can only gain a firm foothold on its own and defeat the encircling enemy army by itself.

Puzhou.

Liu Zhu was analyzing the situation. He pointed to the map and said, "Cao Bianjiao ran so fast that he even attacked Xi'an and was defeated. But it's useless. He went deep alone and was of no help to the Tongguan battlefield."

Lin Ruzhao said: "It's also useful. After all, Xi'an is the provincial capital. If this city is captured by our army, the people of Shaanxi's puppet court must be in panic. Moreover, most of the grain in Shaanxi has to pass through Xi'an if it wants to be transported to Tongguan for supplies. It will work. When Cao Bianjiao takes Xi’an, the enemy’s food supply at Tongguan will not be replenished too much. It is a nail that will surely make the enemy’s throat stick.”

"In another month at most, Cao Bianjiao will be surrounded and trapped in Xi'an, unable to advance or retreat," Liu Zhu said, "Should we let him stick to Xi'an, or abandon Xi'an and go elsewhere?"

"It's better to stick to it," Lin Ruzhao said. "One month later, our follow-up troops will arrive near Tongguan. At that time, there will be another big battle, and the enemy will not have too many troops to attack Xi'an."

In the three southern Xings of the Eight Xings of Taihang, the Datong Army is trying to advance.Including the two divisions attacking Tongguan, no one knows where the breakthrough will be.

Now that Tongguan has made a breakthrough, the Datong Army in Henan will continue to follow.

Li Zicheng's Shanxi garrison and Hanzhong garrison will also be mobilized accordingly.At that time, the two sides will have more and more troops in Tongguan, and eventually a decisive battle will be brewed.

Even the Dashun Army in Yulin and Ningxia are rushing to Tongguan, and they have ignored the Mongolian part of Ordos.

Anyway, the Ordos Ministry is not strong. At most, they will pass through the gap in the Great Wall, come to loot and then go back.

……

Qinshui County.

Brothers Ren Jirong and Ren Guangrong are heading to the Xihe area with their troops.Their mission is to take back Yicheng from the Datong Army and station it there.

After a day's march in Luliang Mountains, when camping in the evening, Ren Jirong whispered to his elder brother, "Brother, do you want to take troops to Xihe to join the Datong Army?"

"Who do you listen to nonsense?" Ren Guangrong asked angrily.

Ren Jirong said: "The news has spread in the army. Just now, a soldier of mine came to ask if he could return to his hometown in Henan if he voted for the Datong Army."

"Fart," Ren Guangrong said angrily, "There must be spies in our army! Go and find out, which bastard is the rumor coming from!"

Flies only stare at eggs with seams, and Xu Ying's secret agent, although not a fly, understands this truth.

Brothers Ren Guangrong and Ren Jirong were originally low-level military officers in Henan.

The troops they belonged to have not been paid for a long time, and they even ran out of rations.A group of soldiers were starving and forced to defend the city, so they turned their backs and took refuge in Li Zicheng.

The two brothers fought with Li Zicheng for several years, and they have always been loyal, without any sign of betrayal.

But most of the soldiers under their command are from Henan, which has the basis for rumors.

Even the soldiers believed it, thinking that the Lord General really wanted to take them back to their hometown.

The next day.

Ren Guangrong did not continue to march, but traced the source of the rumors on the spot.

As a result, nothing was found.

In desperation, had to continue marching.

In the middle of the afternoon, a messenger suddenly caught up: "The two generals stay! Cihou (Liu Fangliang) has an order to cancel the previous military order. Please take the troops back to Qinshui immediately, and go to Xihe after joining forces in Qinshui."

Ren Guangrong was dubious: "Is it really the order of Cihou?"

The courier handed over the document: "Please take a look at the general."

The Ren brothers got together and read Liu Fangliang's military order, and couldn't help but look at each other.

In desperation, the two led their troops back.

at night.

Ren Jirong said: "Brother, it seems that rumors have spread widely, and Cihou has already suspected us."