Chapter 4 Northern Expedition

At the same time, in Xi'an Prefecture, the capital of Shaanxi Province, because of mistakes, Li Zicheng hurriedly ascended the throne here and established the State of Dashun. Even the ruins left after the war in Xi'an Prefecture City were not cleaned up, so he took Xi'an Chief Secretary Yamen as his palace and became the "Emperor" in Xi'an Prefecture. In Xi'an City, there is no atmosphere of the emperor ascending the throne at all. There is still a smell of corpses everywhere in the city, and even some places there are corpses that have not been cleaned out of the city.

Originally, in history, Li Zicheng set the capital of Xi'an Prefecture and renamed Xi'an Prefecture as Daxing City, but at this time, he renamed it Zhongjing of Dashun, and there was no atmosphere of emperor ascending to the throne.

Although Li Zicheng has occupied the area of Hanzhong for two years, and his strength has also developed rapidly in the past two years, it is ultimately because of the limitations of his thinking that many foundations have not been firmly established. Whether it is the territory or the financial situation, it is impossible to compare with Xing Tianjun at all, and in order to expand his territory as soon as possible, he has to Even the expansion of the army has brought most of the available young and strong into the army, which makes the recovery of local agriculture very slow. He can only rely on some old and weak women and children to farm in the fields. He himself is unable to provide any support to these people, so that now he is very unable to support so many soldiers and horses.

Although he took Xi'an Mansion, everyone knows the situation in Shaanxi. After more than ten years of war, people's livelihood has withered and the population has been sharply reduced. Li Zicheng is destined to become a grass king, and there is no chance to develop into an opponent comparable to the Xing Tian Army.

Li Zicheng hurriedly claimed the throne in Xi'an Mansion. On the surface, it was the persuasion of his men. In fact, it was because he was gambling with Xiao Tianjian in his heart. Eight years ago, when Xiao Tianjian rose up in Fengxiang Mansion, Li Zicheng was already a famous eight-team general under Gao Yingxiang's command, and it can even be said that he had become independent. The leader of the righteous army who led one side is counted among all kinds of Rebels. At that time, when he met Xiao Tianjian, Xiao Tianjian was just a small leader with thousands of people, but now Xiao Tianjian has developed into a huge thing, but he can only toss back and forth in the remote area of Shaanxi. He was always pressed by Xiao Tianjian and lived on Xiao Tianjian's nose.

Li Zicheng's ambition is very big, but now he thinks that his luck is not good. When he heard that Xiao Tianjian was going to ascend to the throne in Nanjing City and establish a large and middle dynasty, he was extremely angry. In order to fight for a breath, he pretended to be under the so-called persuasion of some people with ulterior motives. After Xi'an Mansion, there was also a shabby farce of ascending to the throne.

However, although he ascended the throne in Xi'an, he himself knows very well that his so-called Emperor Dashun has a lot of water. In terms of strength, he is not Xiao Tianjian's opponent at all, and at present, there is almost no room for him to expand in China except in Shaanxi.

So after he ascended the throne, he discussed with his generals and decided to continue to develop his power to the west, at least to control most of Shaanxi. In the future, once he turns against Xiao Tianjian, he will run to the west, occupy a place in the northwest, and continue to be his grass king.

But what made him very unhappy was that soon after he ascended the throne, he got the news that Xiao Tianjian, who was temporarily set to be the capital of Nanjing, told the world that he would not recognize him as the Emperor of Dashun, and ordered him to stop all military operations and wait to be integrated by the army of the Dazhong Dynasty.

Xiao Tianjian's edict is really angry with Li Zicheng. For this edict, in fact, it can be regarded as a declaration of war between Xiao Tianjian and his purpose. In Li Zicheng's view, the name of Emperor Dashun is not right, and his identity as the emperor of Xiao Tianjian is also not right. Why can he tell the world not to recognize his identity as the emperor of Dashun? Why don't you say that you want him to accept the reorganization?

So after Li Zicheng learned the news, he was immediately furious and got up. He pointed to the direction of Oriental Nanjing and scolded Xiao Tianjian for not a thing. He forgot that in the early years, when Xiao Tianjian listened to his dispatch under Li Zicheng, now that he sat up and began to give orders to him. This Li Zicheng couldn't swallow it anyway.

So Li Zicheng gave a tooth for a tooth, and also issued a serious edict, saying that Xiao Tianjian was the pseudo-emperor, and Li Zicheng was the real real dragon emperor. The evidence was the stone tablet with the "Eighteen Master Artifact" he dug out in Hanzhong, and Xiao Tianjian was bullshit. He would never obey Xiao Tianjian's orders, and announced In the future, China will be his enemy of Dashun, and he will definitely be at peace with Xiao Tianjian.

Then Li Zicheng immediately issued a decree declaring that he would fight against Xiao Tianjian's great China, and ordered his generals Liu Zongmin and Li Shuangxi to lead 20,000 Dashun troops in the direction of Tongguan, making a posture to fight to the death of Tongguan and Xiao Tianjian.

In this regard, Liu Bao, the commander-in-chief of the Second Town of Greater China in northern Shaanxi, even mobilized three infantry battalions, a artillery battalion and three reserve battalions in northwest Henan, gathered in Shaanxi Prefecture, and immediately sent troops to Tongguan. In March of the first year of the Great China, the Dashun soldiers and horses of Li Zicheng captured the Shaanxi River in one fell swoop. The important pass in the south.

It is said to capture Tongguan, but in fact it is just a defense. In recent years, the strength of the Ming officers and soldiers stationed at Tongguan are gradually declining. Although the Shaanxi guards have always been prepared for the Xingtian army to break through Tongguan and enter Shaanxi, in the past year, because of Li Zicheng's recovery in Hanzhong, Wang Qiaonian has had to mobilize Shaanxi again and again. The officers and soldiers went to deal with Li Zicheng. Although Tongguan was important, when Li Zicheng attacked Xi'an Mansion, he had also lost its proper position. The garrison was transferred from Tongguan in large numbers. When Liu Bao sent troops to attack Tongguan, there were only less than 2,000 old and weak soldiers left in Tongguan, and the general was just an unknown one. Li Mingfeng, a general of Shaanxi.

This general, Li Mingfeng, is very clear about what kind of situation he is facing Tongguan. Wang Qiaonian, the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi, died. To the east is the Xing Tianjun who frightened the officers and the army. Behind him is Li Zicheng, a thief who is rampant in Shaanxi. At present, the court has also lost control over Shaanxi, and they Some old, weak and disabled soldiers want food, no food, no salary. No matter who they fight against, there is only one way to die, so he can only choose to surrender to Li Zicheng or Xiao Tianjian. This problem is an arithmetic problem. After compared the strength of both of them, it is easy to make the right choice, so Li Mingfeng learned that Li Zicheng sent troops to Chaotong. When the customs were moving forward, he immediately sent someone to contact the general of Dazhong Shaanxi Prefecture to express his willingness to lead the army to surrender to Dazhong North Korea.

So these large and medium-sized soldiers and horses, which can be said to have taken over the gate of Tongguan, the Middle East without any effort, and under the command of General Fan Sheng under Liu Bao, began to quickly defend.

Xiao Tianjian is not interested in asking too much about this kind of thing. He just needs to know the situation. The local war zones have been divided, and each town has its own command system to mobilize. Tongguan belongs to Liu Bao, the second town. What should Liu Bao will deal with it? Although at present, his main focus is on the Northern Expedition. In terms of love, he does not want to break up with Li Zicheng at this time and be restrained by Li Zicheng, but Li Zicheng must show his attitude. Since Li Zicheng does not want to listen to him and wants to fight with him, he will not be afraid of him, and in his opinion, he does not need to spend too much energy to deal with Li Zicheng. The soldiers of each town are enough to control Li Zicheng's soldiers.

Therefore, Xiao Tianjian did not pay much attention to this matter, but basically focused his energy on the Northern Expedition. After the large-scale Northern Expedition was settled, there was a fierce debate in the court about whether Xiao Tianjian should personally attack.

Most people think that Xiao Tianjian is now the master of the dynasty, and his identity is different from usual. It is no longer easy for him to lead the troops to the north in person. It is better to choose a general as the commander to lead the army in the Northern Expedition. This view is deeply popular. When Xiao Tianjian mentioned that he wanted to drive his relatives, civil and military officials came one after another. Just advise Xiao Tianjian to stay in Nanjing.

But such persuasion did not work for Xiao Tianjian. In Xiao Tianjian's view, what he has been waiting for for so many years is the arrival of this moment. Now the army is about to go north, but it is absolutely unacceptable for him to stay in the rear of Nanjing City. Therefore, even if he rejects the suggestions of the ministers, he will immediately issued an edict to make clear that he must You have to go north in person, and no one can raise any objections on this matter.

In fact, the ministers of Dazhong Middle School have long been used to Xiao Tianjian's strong style. Seeing that persuasion was ineffective, they had to calm down and began to focus on the Northern Expedition.

This Northern Expedition will be a battle to determine the fate of the Great China and North Korea, so all of China attaches great importance to this battle, and the main enemy they have to deal with in this battle is no longer the Ming officials and soldiers. At this time, under the guidance of Xiao Tianjian, everyone can be said to have a unified understanding, that is, the master of their Northern Expedition. If you want the enemy, it will be the army of Jiannu who knocks south from the north.

Therefore, both the intelligence departments, the finance and logistics departments, and even the military systems have begun to make preparations for the Northern Expedition.

Everyone knows that this Northern Expedition will be a super-large-scale battle. The military strength is not a big problem. The biggest problem is the logistics supply. After the establishment of the country, although the strength is already very strong, the operation time in many places is still short, and the foundation of finance and materials is still the same. For the relatively weak, the materials needed for such a war are an astronomical figure, and it is impossible to invest millions of taels of silver into it. What's more, it also involves the production capacity of the industrial system of China and North Korea, and the time to prepare them is also very hasty. If they want to complete such a large-scale transfer of materials and troop mobilization, it is It's a very difficult thing.

All departments have devoted themselves to the continuous work. Many things have been temporarily shelved, and almost all their energy has been spent on the preparation of the pre-war period.

Fortunately, not long after the founding of Dazhong New China, the ministries have not yet formed a bureaucratic style, and the phenomenon of shirking the shirking of each other is not obvious. Moreover, everyone knows how enthusiastic Xiao Tianjian is in this matter. No one wants to anger Xiao Tianjian because of the quarrel at this time, so the ministries can only work together to make Dazhonggang The newly established administrative machine is full of horsepower.

As a result, the materials from Huguang, Nanzhili, Henan and Shanxi began to be deployed by the General Logistics Department, and a large number of people were mobilized to send a large number of these materials to the northern front line through land and water. A large number of grain, ammunition, armor, guns were loaded or loaded one after another. Where they are needed.

The boat boats on the Yangtze River and the canal and various cargo ships also became busy again. With the canal as the main transportation channel, they drove into the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal in large numbers and slowly headed north.

A large number of Chinese soldiers and horses were also transferred from all over the country and gathered at the position designated by the Ministry of War. This time, Xiao Tianjian ordered that except for Li Shuanzhu's third town army, all other town troops should be transferred to participate in this Northern Expedition, which involved soldiers from many places. The transfer.

Under the dispatch of the Ministry of War, Yan Chongxi's first town was ordered to transfer 20,000 horsemen and gather towards the Yanmen Pass. As the left army, they undertook the attack on the northwest of the Daming Beijing Division and the resistance to the right people of the Jiannu army. Yan Chongxi personally took the command, assisted by Wang Chengping and Li Lingfeng, and Lu Xiangsheng accompanied them as the supervisor. To form a combat group.

The second town of Liu Bao gathered 15,000-step cavalry and horses and gathered in Shunde Prefecture to take charge of Diao Zheng. Liu Bao stayed in Henan and formed a middle army to attack in the direction of the capital. Their main enemies were Fu Zonglong's Ming army group, which is now in the area of Guangping Prefecture, and the remaining officers and soldiers in Jingfu.

As for Xiao Tianjian himself, as the emperor of the Great China Dynasty, he personally commanded part of Shi Ran's fourth town and most of the guard army of Luo Li and Liu Yaoben, as well as a limited number of Yulinwei, composed a total of 40,000 soldiers and horses. He gathered in Huai'an Prefecture and went north along the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal all the way to the north. Attack in the direction of Shandong.

The real main force of this three-way army is actually the right army led by Xiao Tianjian, while the left and middle armies are auxiliary forces. The time of the northern expedition of the army is set on the morning of March 17 in the first year of Tianyuan.

And Xiao Tianjian himself left Nanjing City on the morning of March 10. Under the protection of Yulin on Tietou, he took a boat to the Yangtze River first, and then turned to Yangzhou Prefecture into the canal and drove in the direction of Huai'an Prefecture.