Chapter 19 Difficult Choices

But in any case, when this method of reorganizing and protecting the army along the canal is adopted, at least this method is still effective. Once these surrenders are reorganized, with new officers to control them, they will soon shine far more than their previous combat effectiveness, which is a very strange Strange phenomenon, if you have to explain this phenomenon, it can only be said that these soldiers served as soldiers for the court just to eat, but after surrendering the Dazhong Dynasty, they agreed with Dazhong's rule and were willing to serve Xiao Tianjian. In addition, the officers assigned to them to rule them are also Xiao. In Tianjian's old department, these officers are familiar with the way of commanding the army, and they are also good at promoting Xiao Tianjian's concept. Once the soldiers agree with their goals, they will radiate a strong combat effectiveness.

The reuse of these surrendered soldiers soon curbed the momentum of water thieves on the canal and the bandits on both sides, forcing some bandits and water thieves to give up plundering along the canal, either far away from home, or surrendered to the Dazhong army, so that when Xiao Tianjian attacked Linqing, the situation of water thieves on the canal became a danger. It has been basically contained, which has greatly improved the safety factor of the transport fleet when sailing on the canal.

After Linqing took it, Xiao Tianjian immediately forced his troops to the next target, that is, Dezhou, an important town in the north of the northeast.

Dezhou is also an important military town and a gateway to the north of Shandong. It has always been a must-have place for soldiers. It is reasonable that the Ming court should also attach great importance to it. Naturally, the Shandong Political Envoy will not despise the defense here, but at this time, the Shandong Political Envoy has lost their management ability. The Ming court is now too busy to take care of the capital. Dezhou, a military town, has become a place that no one cares.

In fact, there are still some defenders in Texas at this time, but these people have now become unmanded officers and soldiers. The generals and their families fled first when they heard the sound. Naturally, no one wants to fight with the Dazhong army in Texas, so Xiao Tianjian originally planned to let go in Texas, but he hadn't When he arrived in Texas, a general in Texas first took the soldiers and horses out of Texas, met Xiao Tianjian, and rushed to Xiao Tianjian.

As a result, Xiao Tianjian took the city of Texas lightly. He didn't even enter the city of Texas, so he left dozens of officers to be responsible for the consolidation of the Dezhou surrender. He led the army around the city and rushed along the Grand Canal to Cangzhou in Hejian Prefecture.

Just when Xiao Tianjian led the troops to gradually open the Grand Canal, the war in the Guanning area had reached the point of erosion. The Jiannu army besieged Ningyuan City for about a month, and finally broke through this desperate city and almost slaughtered all the soldiers and civilians in the city. Nearly 50,000 soldiers and civilians in Ningyuan City, regardless of the old and young, After the slave army broke through the city, almost all of them were slaughtered.

Originally, although Ningyuan City ran out of food, under the insistence of Hong Chengchou and others, even by eating dead human flesh, he could still persist for some time, but Xia Chengde, the deputy general of Songshan, who guarded the south gate of Ningyuan, could not hold on. Seeing that the food and fodder were cut off, the reinforcements were also defeated by the construction slave army, and there was no hope. At that time, Xia Chengde did not want to die for the Ming Dynasty again. On April 15, Xia Chengde sent his cronies out of the city at night and contacted Jiannu, saying that he was willing to surrender and could act as an insider for Jiannu.

So after learning the news, the slave chief Taiji immediately waved his troops to attack the city. Xia Chengde really gave up resistance at the south gate of the city and opened the gate and put in the Jiannu army. In this way, Ningyuan City was broken, and the soldiers and civilians in the city were almost slaughtered by the construction slaves.

This is a desperate struggle. Hong Chengchou and his generals made the final struggle for Daming in Ningyuan City and changed the course of history. Hong Chengchou disappeared after the war and failed to be captured by Jiannu. Naturally, he could not be a traitor. Almost all the Guanning generals in the city died in the battle, only Xia Chengde and Shao He was saved from death because his cronies defected to build slaves and made contributions to the door. The slave chieftain continued to be awarded the second-class Jiala Zhangjing post and stayed under the command of the stone Tingzhu, the red flag of the Eight Banners of the Han Dynasty.

In this battle of Ningyuan, although Jiannu's ability to attack has been improved a lot, under the tenacious resistance of the Ming army and civilians in the city, although their artillery almost destroyed the city wall of Ningyuan City, they still failed to successfully attack Ningyuan City. In the end, they took it under the door of Xia Chengde, a traitor. Ningyuan City illustrates a problem. As long as the Ming soldiers are determined to die, even if the cannon fire of Jiannu is sharp, they can't destroy their will. Ning Yuan's defenders are quite sad.

However, in the battle of Jiannu, they also showed strong flexibility. They surrounded Ningyuan and defeated Yang Guozhu, the commander-in-chief of Zhang Ruolin, and the reinforcements of Tang Tong. In addition to annihilating the 20,000 to 30,000 Ming troops guarding Ning Yuan, they also annihilated more than 30,000 reinforcements under the command of Yang Guozhu and Tang Tong. All the strength of Guanning Army was consumed outside Shanhaiguan.

After taking down the slave army after the slaughter of Ningyuan City, he went south under the leadership of Huang Taiji, and the soldiers reached the Shanhaiguan. At this time, the Ming general sitting in Shanhaiguan was Wu Sangui's father Wu Xiang, and his command were basically the soldiers he pulled up in those years, but compared with his heyday. At this time, the generals were much inferior. Wu Sangui led his troops into the customs last year and took away a large number of their old troops of the Wu family. As a result, in the First World War of Yanggu County, the whole army was in the hands of Xiao Tianjian. Together with Wu Sangui himself, they were also bombarded on the Yanggu battlefield and became the victims of the Ming Dynasty.

Now Wu Xiang can be said to be chubby on all sides. He can't count on the reinforcements of the Beijing Division. He knows the situation of the Beijing Division better than anyone else. There are only less than 30,000 soldiers and horses left in the Beijing Normal University. These soldiers and horses guarding the capital are already seriously insufficient. There is no support for him at all, and he heard the news that Ningyuan was broken. Later, the Guanning soldiers under his command were also panicked and morale was deteriorating. Although he also collected a group of defeated soldiers from Yang Guozhu and Tang Tong after rushing to Shanhaiguan to sit in the town, and slightly strengthened some of his strength, most of these soldiers and generals were already frightened birds and could not compete with the Jiannu army at all.

Shortly after the defeat of Yang Guozhu and Tang Tong, Wu Xiang got another news that shocked him. Xing Tianjun's left army was let go of Juyong Pass by Zhou Yuji, the general of the Beijing camp. ** bypassed the capital and entered the territory of Jizhou Town behind him. Although it did not attack Jizhou City, it was equivalent to a knife. On his waist, he is now under the enemy, and he doesn't know what to do for a while.

At this time, Wu Xiang walked into a strange circle that his son only faced in history. Outside the customs was a turbulent army of Jiannu who wanted to break through the customs and enter. Behind him was Daming's s sworn enemy Xing Tianjun, who was also eyeing at Shanhaiguan.

After the destruction of Ningyuan City, Jiannu Chief Taiji made Dorgon the vanguard. The governor of nearly 80,000 Jiannu troops arrived outside Shanhaiguan and sent a messenger to enter the customs. He handed it to Wu Xiang with a personal letter from Huang Taiji, persuaded Wu Xiang to switch and surrender and submit to their Qing Dynasty. Huang Taiji even did not hesitate to make Wu Xiang king, trying to He moved Wu Xiang and made Wu Xiang surrender to him.

On the other hand, Wu Xiang also received a handwritten letter from Lu Xiangsheng in advance. In his heart, Lu Xiangsheng earnestly advised Wu Xiang to guard the Shanhaiguan, and in the letter, he emphasized the importance of Chenshan Customs to the Han people. He advised Wu Xiang to put the overall situation first, put down his old grievances with China, and it was better to lead the army to surrender to the Dazhong army and join the Dazhong army. The soldiers built slaves outside the customs and saved the Han nation from danger. This letter is written with sincere words. Lu Xiangsheng can be said that he wrote all the words in the letter, and even used his head to ensure that as long as Wu Xiang surrenders, the safety of Wu Xiang's family and family can be ensured after entering the capital in the future. Ensure that Wu Xiang will be rich in the future. As long as he surrenders to the Dazhong army or leads troops to guard the mountain customs at this time, then he will be the national hero of the Han nation!

Wu Xiang took these two letters of persuasion. It was really uncomfortable to die. On the one hand, he controlled the whole Liaodong army and had more than 200,000 soldiers. The soldiers pointed straight to the Shanhaiguan where he was in charge. On the other hand, he had already controlled most of China's Dazhong Dynasty. Now the Ming Dynasty is not the question of his loyalty. That's the question. He can only choose between the two forces.

This is a very difficult thing to decide. Compared with the strength of the two sides, the strength of Jiannu and Xiao Tianjian seems to be comparable. Compared with people, Jiannu and Xiao Tianjian seem to have similar strength. Of course, it is obvious that Jiannu's strength is stronger at this time, and the threat to him is greater, but it is hidden. In terms of strength, the human and material resources controlled by Xiao Tianjian and even the total force are stronger than Jiannu.

In terms of combat effectiveness, both sides are people he can't afford to provoke. After Jiannu's uprising, from the wild boar skin generation to the current Huang Taiji generation, the two generations have been across the gate for decades. During these decades, their two generations of Jiannu led their subordinates and the Daming officers and soldiers repeatedly fought repeatedly. The Ming officials and soldiers can be said to be in their hands. After repeated defeats and defeats, they were gradually squeezed out of Liaodong by them. Over the years, Jiannu has constantly sent troops to break through the customs and plunder the customs. However, Daming has always had nothing to do with them. The governor has changed one batch after another and killed one after another, but the situation in Liaodong has become increasingly rotten, and until today, the whole customs is all outside the customs. The department was seized by Jiannu, so Jiannu was undoubtedly a terrible existence in the eyes of Daming and other Guanning generals. Psychologically, Wu Xiang was very afraid of Jiannu outside Guan.

As for Xiao Tianjian, although Wu Xiang has not directly fought with him, he also understands the history of Xiao Tianjian's development. Xiao Tianjian first led a rebellion in Fengxiang Prefecture, Shaanxi Province in the seven years of Chongzhen. Later, he entered Shanxi and gradually grew up on the basis of Yangcheng County. Over the years, he has gradually developed from a small civilian army to the current control. It controlled the whole hinterland of the Central Plains of the Ming Dynasty, occupied Shanxi, Henan, Huguang, Jiangxi, Nanzhili, Zhejiang and other provinces, and controlled tens of millions of subjects and huge territory of Daming. Then it began to attack Beizhi and Shandong. At present, there is basically only one coastal and other places in Shandong that have not been occupied by him. Along the canal, it is basically He was almost attacked by him to Tongzhou.

And the Xing Tianjun created by his command should now be called the Dazhong Army. For the Ming officers and soldiers, it is undoubtedly a nightmare after another. Countless Ming famous generals have broken their wings in front of his soldiers and horses under his command. Over the years, it has been countless. How many Ming officers and soldiers were annihilated by him, and how many generals died in the hands of his Xing Tianjun. Even his beloved son Wu Sangui, who was ordered to enter the customs last year to suppress him, also died in the hands of his Xing Tianjun.

If Jiannu is the cause of the decline of the Ming Dynasty, then Xiao Tianjian is the one who buried Daming himself. Wu Xiang can't afford to provoke either side. Wu Xiang can't decide who to choose for a while.