Chapter 184 Ding Dushi's Counterattack

Just when Xiao Tianjian secretly mobilized troops and horses to dig pits for Sun Chuanting and Wu Sangui and prepared to clean up Sun Chuanting and Wu Sangui, Yan Chongxi in Shanxi was not idle. After the whole Jinnan was controlled by Xing Tianjun, Yan Chongxi's strategy focused on Taiyuan Mansion.

Yan Chongxi knew that Taiyuan Mansion, as an important town of the imperial court, was strong and there were some defenders stationed. If it attacked rashly, it might be a great loss. Therefore, after the Spring Festival, he first started from the periphery of Taiyuan Prefecture and used the old method of Xing Tianjun to eliminate the government forces around Taiyuan Prefecture and pull it out. It took several months for the states and counties around Taiyuan Prefecture to finally isolate Taiyuan Prefecture.

At this time, it was Fan Zhiwan, the new governor of Shanxi, who was in Taiyuan. Fan Zhiwan collected nearly 10,000 soldiers in Taiyuan to guard Taiyuan, together with the generals Niu Yong, Wang Yongkui, Zhang Xiong and others to defend Taiyuan. At the same time, Zhu Qiugui, the king of Jin in the city, also took out 100,000 taels of silver to help and defend Taiyuan City.

Yan Chongxi gathered troops, surrounded Taiyuan Mansion in March, and began to set up cannons to attack Taiyuan Mansion. He failed to conquer Taiyuan Mansion in several battles, but it still dealt a serious blow to the morale of the defenders in Taiyuan Mansion. At the same time, Taiyuan Mansion City ran out of food, and the officers and soldiers were not allowed to eat, and their combat effectiveness was greatly weakened.

After April, fugitive soldiers began to appear in the city of Taiyuan Mansion. Almost every day, people fled to the camp of the Xingtian Army. Moreover, Yan Chongxi ordered to recruit the defenders in the city outside the city to stop making unnecessary resistance. By this time, Taiyuan Mansion had little will to resist.

On the sixth day of April, Yan Chongxi gathered 20,000 soldiers and horses outside Taiyuan City and began to attack the city for the last time. The governor Fan Zhiwan personally took his family to defend the city to fight to the death with Xing Tianjun.

However, as Shanxi, which started as the Xing Tianjun, naturally has a lot of detailed works in the city of Taiyuan. The fine works in the city are not idle these days. Finally, they lodged Zhang Xiong, the general of Taiyuan in early April. Just as Yan Chongxi led his troops to attack Taiyuan, Zhang Xiong suddenly announced his surrender to Xing Tianjun, and And he took his subordinates to open the east gate of Taiyuan in the evening and put Xing Tianjun into the city.

After a night of fierce battle, Taiyuan Mansion was finally defeated by Yan Chongxi. The governor Fan Zhiwan died in the chaos. In addition, the general Niu Yong and others were also killed in the battle. The remaining thousands of defenders defected and surrendered to the Xingtian army. So far, the whole Shanxi, only the area of Xinzhou is still under the control of the government, basically Shanxi It was controlled by Xing Tianjun.

As for the siege of Taiyuan, Yang Guozhu, who is sitting in Xuanda, can only sit still. On the one hand, he does not want to be the enemy of Xing Tianjun. On the other hand, he also knows that even if he leads his troops to fight, he may not be able to fight Taiyuan to save Taiyuan. After all, Wang Chengping and Li Lingfeng, two generals of Xingtian Army, are still facing the whole Xuanda in the area of Shuozhou. He stared at it. With them, he would never sit back and let him lead his troops to help Taiyuan Mansion. Wang Pu was an example, so Yang Guozhu could only station troops in the same area to prevent Xing Tianjun from taking the opportunity to capture Datong, and watched Taiyuan Mansion being taken away by Xing Tianjun.

And the imperial court did not want to save Taiyuan. After Chongzhen arrested Chen Xinjia and transferred Fu Zonglong to Beijing to succeed him, the appeasement in Shaanxi was handed over to the new Shaanxi governor Wang Qiaonian, so Chongzhen repeatedly wanted to transfer Shaanxi soldiers to Shanxi to rescue Taiyuan Prefecture, but This idea can't be realized.

Since Chongzhen transferred Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting to the guard last year, Hong Chengchou took nearly 100,000 Qin soldiers and many generals from Shaanxi. The number of Qin soldiers left is not much. Xing Tianjun did not take this opportunity to attack Shaanxi, but he did not expect that he had been beaten into a water dog by Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting. However, after Hong Chengchou led his troops to leave Shaanxi, he recovered, attacked all the way to the Hanzhong area, held nearly ten counties in Hanzhong, imitated the example of the Xingtian Army, and kept plundering Shaanxi and Sichuan, forcing Fu Zonglong to find a way to make a deal with Li Zi in the past year.

And Shaanxi heavy general He Renlong was annihilated by the Xingtian Army in the Xiangyang Mansion last year and surrendered to the Xingtian Army, leaving only two generals, Li Guoqi and Zuo Guangxian, left in Shaanxi. With Li Zicheng stationing troops in Hanzhong, it was enough for them to work. Therefore, although Chongzhen thought about mobilizing Qin soldiers into Jin to rescue Taiyuan Prefecture, even if it was It was also possible to enter Jin to contain the Xing Tianjun, but in the end, because of the lack of troops in Shaanxi, they could not make it. They watched Taiyuan Prefecture be taken down by Xing Tianjun.

Taiyuan Mansion was lost, which was a greater threat to the capital. Chongzhen quickly recruited Fu Zonglong for discussion. Fu Zonglong could only propose to strengthen the defense of Xuanda. After reorganizing the new army, he would seek to retake Shanxi and drive Xing Tianjun out of Shanxi. But this kind of words, that is to say, it's just right. At this time, everyone actually knows that after the new army of the imperial court is trained, Xing Tianjun will never be idle. If it is lost in Shanxi, I'm afraid there will be no chance to get it back.

When the time entered the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, the whole situation of the Ming Dynasty had completely turned into a strong Xingtian army, and the weak situation of the court. Under the same time, the officers and soldiers fought less and less, but the Xing Tianjun fought more and stronger. Although the court transferred tens of thousands of people from outside the customs to the customs through peace with Jiannu after the New Year. "Exquisite soldiers" were defeated at the end of March in an instant, so that the court had almost no soldiers and horses to call except for Nanzhili and Sichuan.

Just as Sun Chuanting led his troops south to suppress the Xing Tianjun, Ding Qirui was not idle. Ding Qirui knew that this was his last chance. At present, the Xing Tian thief had to transfer the main force to Henan because the court and Jiannu negotiated peace with Jiannu and transferred troops into the customs. The crisis of Nanzhili was temporarily It's relieved.

So if he wants to make a difference at this time, he can only take the opportunity of the main force of the thief army to go north to go up against the current and recover Huguang again. In this way, he can also save Daming from danger. Once the officers and soldiers in the north win, he can attack the thieves from the south with the officers in the north. In the land of Henan, the criminal thief was finally killed in Henan.

So at the beginning of March, Ding Qirui mobilized nearly 100,000 officers and soldiers in the area of Nanzhili. The soldiers began to march on Huguang in three routes. One route was Huang's power leader and directly attacked Macheng, and the other way went out of Nanchang Prefecture to attack Ningzhou. He personally led the army from Nanjing against the river and directly attacked Wuchang Prefecture, hoping to advance in three ways. Enter Huguang and take Huguang back.

And Xiao Tianjian's general Luo Rucai stayed in Huguang, which was to prevent Ding Qirui's move. After Ding Qirui sent troops in March, Luo Ru, who was in Wuchang Prefecture, immediately learned the news, so Luo Ru immediately mobilized his troops to deal with it. Compared with Xiao Tianjian's side, Luo The situation here is far from far away. This time, in order to fundamentally disintegrate the imperial court's combat strength against the Xingtian Army, when he returned to Henan, he transferred a large number of elite old elite troops to Henan in case of the enemy going south, so he stayed in Huguang was mostly new battalions with weak combat effectiveness. These soldiers and horses were battalions of Type B and C. There are many camps, but there are very few real A-type camps. Therefore, at this time, Luo Ru on the side of Xiahuguang has no strength to launch any offensive at all. Even it is very difficult to defend so many places.

Therefore, under the suggestion of Pan Duao, a counselor, Luo Ru could only temporarily shrink the main force as much as possible, gave up the defense of some eastern counties, concentrated the main force in Huangzhou, Ezhou and Wuchangfu, and at the same time ordered the sailors to enter the Ezhou area, ready for defense. In addition, He also urgently ordered Zhao Weihua (Zhao Erlu), who was sitting in Xiangyang at that time, to mobilized part of his troops from the Guangxi Department of Lake and immediately reinforced Wuchang Mansion to strengthen the defense of Wuchang Mansion.

It was also because Luo Ru took the initiative to show weakness and gave up the defense of part of the boundary, so as not to cause the troops to be too scattered. When the army attacked, they wanted to defend anywhere, but they could not defend anywhere. Therefore, after Ding Qirui rose up in Nanzhili, the progress was quite smooth at the beginning. The three armies advanced side by side. The right-wing army first captured Macheng, and then went straight to Wuchangfu. The left-wing army also conquered Ningzhou, and the front of the army pointed straight to Daye.

Where these three officers and soldiers passed, the people can be said to be a loss of life. The generals plundered the troops they passed by, burning and killing along the way. It was even more normal to kill good people and risk their achievements, so that the people along the way who had just lived a stable life for a few days immediately fell into disaster.

But in this way, it also aroused the anger of the people in the area controlled by Xing Tianjun. The people did not blame Xing Tianjun for abandoning them. After all, when Xing Tianjun withdrew, he made it clear that they had no choice but to let the people retreat with them, but many people were greedy for those planted in the land. The rice is reluctant to abandon his family and escape, so when he is harmed by the officers and soldiers, he can't complain about Xing Tianjun.

After a large number of people were harmed by the officers and soldiers, the news quickly spread, and in a short time it spread all over Huguang. When the people everywhere knew that the officers and soldiers were coming back, they immediately made their own choices. A large number of people ran to find the people of the Xingtian Army to help fight, and began to mobilize the Xing Tianjun. Digging trenches around the castle and arranging armor.

In this way, it became more and more difficult for the officers and soldiers to walk. When Huang De's power department captured Macheng, he knew that it was difficult to defeat Wuchangfu alone with his strength, so he turned to attack Huangzhou, trying to take Huangzhou first, covering Ding Qirui's main force against the river, and opened the defense line of the Xingtian army on the Yangtze River for Ding Qirui.

As for the left-wing army of the officers and soldiers, they first conquered Ningzhou, and then began to advance in the direction of Daye County, trying to take Daye, open up the passage to Wuchang Prefecture, and respond to the attack of the Middle Route Army led by Ding Qirui to Wuchang Prefecture.