Chapter 9 Strategic Mistake

At the same time, there was also a fierce battle in the area of Tongguan, Shaanxi Province in March. This battle was a big battle between the Second Town Army of Dazhong and Li Zicheng's Dashun Army. "Dashun Emperor" Li Zicheng was angry that Xiao Tianjian did not recognize his identity and status. In anger, he brazenly sent more than 20,000 troops to Dashun General Liu. Under the leadership of Zong Min and Li Shuangxi, they tried to seize Tongguan and then open the way. From Tongguan, they sent troops to Henan. While Xiao Tianjian's large and medium-sized army was gathering troops for the northern expedition, they carried out a so-called expedition against Xiao Tianjian's great China. In fact, to put it bluntly, it was Li Zicheng who wanted to take this opportunity to win, from Xiao Tianjian. He robbed Henan's territory and expanded his strength.

However, their action was a little slower. Some soldiers and horses in the second town left in Henan took over Tongguan one step in advance and were ready in Tongguan. After Liu Zongmin and Li Shuangxi arrived at Tongguan, they were immediately hit by them. Although Liu Zongmin and Li Shuangxi had a military advantage, In terms of combat effectiveness, it is not comparable to the regular Dazhong army at all.

Fan Sheng, the general under Liu Bao, led his troops out of Tongguan to face the Dashun army head-on. The two armies fought fiercely in the Tongguan area for a few days. Liu Zongmin and Li Shuangxi lost their soldiers and fled. Under the front of thousands of Chinese army, more than 1,000 people were killed and injured, and thousands of people were captured. The Dashun army under the command of Liu Zongmin and Li Shuangxi The whole collapsed, and they ran away from each other, and fled back to Xi'an.

There is also Gao Jie, the general of Shaanxi in the Ming Dynasty, who fled north to Pozhou (now Fu County) after the Xi'an Mansion was broken through and out. At this time, Gao Jie's remaining officers and soldiers under his command were less than 2,000, and the poor jingle in Pozhou had neither food nor salary, and his military heart was scattered. It can be said that he was at the end of the road. At present, the Ming Dynasty official in Shaanxi The place controlled by Fangke is only the Gansu area in the west, but the population there is extremely withered, and it is impossible for Gao Jie to gain a foothold at all. In addition, the south is the Dashun Army-controlled area of Li Zicheng, and the east and north are already the Dazhong army-controlled areas. Gao Jie has no way to escape to other provinces. He is trapped in Pozhou all day long. Not all day long.

Gao Jie's identity is well known to the world. He was originally a subordinate of Li Zicheng, but this guy was greedy and actually hooked up with Li Zicheng's concubine Xing. Later, after the incident, he simply abducted Xing and betrayed Li Zicheng, surrendered to the officers and soldiers. He was classified by the general, He Renlong.

After Gao Jie surrendered to the court, he recruited a lot of generals under Li Zicheng, and then led the troops to fight against Li Zicheng everywhere. Li Zicheng, who fought several times, fled and was almost caught and killed by Gao Jie. Gao Jie was gradually promoted by the court because of his merit. Especially when He Renlong led his troops into Huguang, Gao Jie failed to fight. He Renlong went with him. As a result, He Renlong was defeated and captured. He surrendered to the Xing Tianjun. Gao Jie was immediately promoted to general officer and continued to besiege and suppress Li Zicheng's troops with Fu Zonglong and Wang Qiaonian in Shaanxi.

It can be said that Gao Jie has been becoming an enemy of Li Zi for so many years. In addition, the fact that he cuckolded Li Zicheng makes Li Zicheng hate him to the bone. He can't wait to eat his meat and drink his blood to repay the deep hatred between Gao Jie and him.

Now Li Zicheng is rejuvenated, and Gao Jie is defeated and fled to Pozhou. It can be said that he has fallen into the end of the road. At this time, Gao Jie came to the barracks in Pozhou and asked to see Gao Jie. Gao Jie immediately cried and laughed at a glance. It turned out that the person who came to him was his old friend, who was He Renlong's nephew. He Fang.

He Fang was not polite to Gao Jie. He directly analyzed his current situation to Gao Jie and told him that he had gone to a dead end, and his uncle He Renlong Nian, who had served under Gao Jie for many years under his command, did not want to see Gao Jie die in the end. At the end of his place, he sent him to see Gao Jie and said that he could give him a way to live.

Gao Jie doesn't need to think about it and know that He Fang came to persuade him to surrender for the Dazhong army. So after thinking about it, he thought that the world is so big now that there is no other place to live. If he wants to live, he will definitely surrender to Li Zicheng and continue to resist stubbornly. Whether it is Li Zicheng or Dazhong Army, there is a truth. Li ate him in one bite, so he had no choice but to turn to the Dazhong Army now, so the two of them didn't have much nonsense. Gao Jie agreed to He Fang and surrender to Dazhong Chao, and from now on, he will work for Xiao Tianjian.

There is no concern about Gao Jie surrendering to Xiao Tianjian. He knows very well that there can't be any room for maneuver between Xiao Tianjian and Li Zicheng. One day, Xiao Tianjian and Li Zicheng will definitely have a life and death, and Xiao Tianjian's strength in the Greater China and the Dynasty is far more than that of Li Zicheng, and he and Like Xiao Tianjian, they are all enemies of Li Zicheng, but Xiao Tianjian came together and continued to rebel, and he defected from Li Zicheng and joined the Ming court. There was no old grudge between the two. He, Gao Jie, has never been a head-on enemy of Xing Tianjun for so many years, so he doesn't have to worry about surrender at all. Xiao Tianjian will come to a tragic end, and Xiao Tianjian will not kill him. At worst, he will no longer be a general in the future. He will buy a piece of land to be his rich man.

So Gao Jie threw himself into the arms of the Dazhong Dynasty in March. His headquarters was reorganized in Gaozhou and abolished the soldiers, soldiers, ruffians and old and weak men in the army. Gao Jie was awarded the position of general of Dazhong National Defense Battalion, while He Fang stayed in Gao Jie's army and served as a deputy battalion general. In short, Xiao Tian Jian made it clear that he wanted to become the enemy of Li Zi to the end. He accepted Gao Jie and reused Gao Jie, which was all for Li Zicheng and deliberately made Li Zicheng angry. Although it was a little awkward to do so, there is nothing despicable or despicable in competing for the world. As long as he can hit the enemy, he can use everything.

After that, after Li Zicheng learned that Gao Jie had turned to Xiao Tianjian and was valued by Xiao Tianjian, he was really angry. He claimed that he wanted to send troops to Gaozhou. Once again, he was divided with Xing Tianjun. It can almost be said that he was in a semi-crazy state. Although Li Zicheng lost his blood was a little. They are rational, but their men still maintain a certain degree of clarity. They have just been newly defeated in Tongguan, and their morale is low at present. If they fight with Xing Tianjun again, they may have another big defeat.

Moreover, Liu Zongmin, Li Shuangxi and other soldiers who were defeated back to Xi'an Prefecture were a little shudder when they mentioned Xing Tianjun one by one. In the past two years, they thought that their Dashun Army was already very powerful, and they were also equipped with a lot of firearms. They thought they could now fight head-on with Xing Tianjun, but let Liu Zongmin and Li Shuang What I didn't expect was that they really looked too highly of the strength of their Dashun army.

In the battle of Tongguan, the two armies had just lined up. Before they could launch an attack, they were beaten by all kinds of cannons by the Dazhong Army, and immediately made their formation chaotic. They didn't have cannons, but the cannons they brought wanted to It's too light and too small to hit the other party at all, or it's too heavy and stupid to operate. Moreover, they didn't have the idea of concentrating on the use of artillery, and the cannon didn't have time to launch a counterattack, so they were shot by Xing Tianjun's cannons, and the formation began to be chaotic.

And the generals of the Xingtian Army took the opportunity to start chaos of the Dashun Army and pushed them flat like a wall, and then put them down dozens of steps away and began to fire at the Dashun Army in rows. Liu Zongmin and Li Shuangxi were powerless to fight at all, and the Dashun Army began to collapse in an instant. Although Li Shuangxi led the cavalry to make a counterattack, he still failed to break through the defense line of the large and medium army, and a large number of cavalry were killed and injured in front of the Xingtian Army array.

Seeing the slaughter of the Dashun army like being killed by chickens and sheep, many soldiers of the Dashun army could not stand it and began to collapse. Liu Zongmin finally collected the troops and horses, but the Dazhong army killed them again. After a few days, the Dashun army can be said to have been defeated repeatedly, and their firearms could not be used at all. The result of the confrontation and shooting of the Chinese army was that their firearms were shot by the firearms of the Dazhong army at a very fast speed, so that in the end, the whole Dashun army under the command of Liu Zongmin and Li Shuangxi completely lost their fighting spirit. The Dazhong army led by Fan Sheng was killed and fled back to Xi'an.

Therefore, these Dashun soldiers who fled back to Xi'an Prefecture said that the power of the Dazhong Army was amazing. When they mentioned the battle with the Dazhong army one by one, they were a little scared. This fear quickly spread everywhere in the Dashun army, so that the whole generals under Li Zicheng's command were afraid and unwilling I want to fight with the Dazhong army again.

When he heard that Li Zicheng was going to send troops to fight against Pangzhou, these civil servants and generals immediately persuaded them one after another, saying that now their foothold is not stable, and there is a shortage of grain, and it is really not easy to fight with the Dazhong army now.

Song Xiance even put forward a proposal. At present, the Dazhong army is leading Xiao Tianjian to march on the capital of the Ming Dynasty. At this time, they can sit on the mountain and watch the tiger fights. While stepping up the northwest of Shaanxi, on the one hand, they will watch the situation of the Dazhong army's Northern Expedition. Because this Dazhong Army's Northern Expedition, the Ming Dynasty is no longer It is their main goal, and their main goal is to have a big battle with the Jiannu army in the area of Beijing.

Once the Dazhong army is defeated in this decisive battle, their Dashun army will take advantage of the expansion of this period and take advantage of the weakness of the Dazhong Dynasty to seize the territory under their control. At present, their strength is still insufficient, and it is better not to fight with the Dazhong army on a large scale!

After Li Zicheng was furious, he calmed down and considered it. It was also the same reason. He still underestimated the strength of Xiao Tianjian's generals. Originally, he thought that he sent two generals, Liu Zongmin and Li Shuangxi, to lead more than 20,000 Dashun elite soldiers. Taking this opportunity, he could completely attack Tongguan and take the opportunity to attack Henan and grab He occupied part of Xiao Tianjian's territory and enriched his strength, but he didn't expect that Xiao Tianjian's men were just an unknown general Fan Sheng. He only led a small number of large and medium-sized troops of less than 4,000, which lost Liu Zongmin and Li Shuangxi's big defeat, lost nearly half of the soldiers and horses, and fled back to Xi'an. It can be seen that the Dazhong army Although he gathered troops to the north, he still left enough strength to defend their territory. With his current strength, it was a little unrealistic to take out meat from Xiao Tianjian's mouth.

In this way, he can no longer look down on the soldiers and horses under Xiao Tianjian's command. Now that he has just captured Xi'an, his foundation is still unstable, and the local forces are repeatedly fighting back. The landlords and gentry in many places have not been subdued by him, and they defend themselves. His Dashun Kingdom resisted, and he was unable to launch a large-scale war against Xiao Tianjian's territory. Now it is better to listen to Song Xian's suggestion first, occupy most of Shaanxi's territory as soon as possible, stabilize his position, and then wait and see the results of Xiao Tianjian's Northern Expedition.

Song Xianze is right. If Xiao Tianjian's Northern Expedition, once he loses the decisive battle with the Jiannu army, it will undoubtedly be a very serious blow to Xiao Tianjian. At that time, he will also take advantage of Xiao Tianjian's weakest time to seize Xiao Tianjian's territory again. When he is sick, he will kill him. You can be the emperor in name!

So Li Zicheng finally temporarily suppressed this breath. He did not send troops to Pozhou, but began to mobilize troops and horses. He began to attack the areas of Longzhou, Qingyang and Pingliang, and mobilized troops to launch a clean-up of the Zhuangbao of the landlords and gentry around Xi'an and Fengxiang to obtain part of the grain.

In fact, before Xiao Tianjian's Northern Expedition, he issued an edict to anger Li Zicheng, which was not a strategically wise move, because his main soldiers and horses under his command were about to invest in the battlefield in the north. The number of soldiers and horses left behind in various places will be relatively limited, and the convenience of Greater China will be relatively empty, and his When choosing to issue an edict to anger Li Zicheng, it will definitely anger Li Zicheng and make Li Zicheng send troops against him.

In this way, they, the Great China and the Dynasties have to use troops in several directions at the same time. In addition to the Northern Expedition army he mobilized, he has to fight with Li Zicheng in the west, and Li Shuanzhu and Luo Rucai are still attacking Sichuan at this time. Not long after the new establishment of Greater China, all kinds of foundations are not very stable, and they can deal with so many directions at the same time. The war is obviously overstretched on their supply and finances.

Therefore, when he gave an edict in Nanjing not to recognize Li Zicheng's Dashun regime, many literary ministers in the court put forward objections and suggested that Xiao Tianjian should not provoke Li Zicheng for the time being.

However, Xiao Tianjian's self-esteem was also a little seriously inflated during this period of time, and he became a little stubborn, so that he gave up his early strategy of concealing his glory and bide his time, and still brazenly issued an order not to recognize Li Zicheng's Dashun regime, which led to Li Zicheng's great anger and tried to send troops to attack Tongguan and send troops. The land of Henan.

At this point, Xiao Tianjian can be said to have made a big strategic mistake, but his mistake did not lead to a big disaster in the end. The reason is also very simple, that is, he has a large number of brave soldiers and good at fighting under his command. In addition, his fame is at this time when the sun is in full swing, and Tongguan Shou is very clever. He cooperated with the Great China and North Korea and surrendered to him, which made Fan Sheng easily take the strategic key point of Tongguan.

And Fan Sheng hit more with less. He defeated the Dashun army sent by Li Zicheng in Tongguan and won a key victory. Li Zicheng and his soldiers were afraid and did not dare to continue to gather troops and launch an attack on the territory controlled by Greater China.

If that's not the case, once Liu Zongmin and Li Shuangxi lead the army to control Tongguan before Fan Sheng, it will be very difficult for Fan Sheng to achieve such a big victory in Tongguan.

At that time, if Li Zicheng's Dashun army went out of Tongguan to attack Henan, his Greater China would be attacked by the enemy, and in the end it may even affect his plan of the Northern Expedition. If he is not careful, it may lead to a huge strategic defeat, which is not impossible for him to lose all.

And Xiao Tianjian's mistake this time can be said to be very lucky that it did not cause great disaster. However, in later generations, many military scholars and historians, when studying this history, found Xiao Tianjian's mistake in this decision. For this reason, many people wrote articles specifically to discuss this matter, which also caused After a big academic discussion, it was impossible to make trouble.

But mistakes are mistakes. History is history. Although Xiao Tianjian made a big mistake, no one can deny that Xiao Tianjian's elite soldiers and horses in his hand at this time are undoubtedly his greatest capital. The elite soldiers and strong generals under his command finally made up for his strategic mistake this time. This can It is a solid performance of strength, and no one can fail to admit this.

After that, when even Xiao Tianjian carefully recalled the series of edicts issued in Nanjing, he was shocked and broke out in a cold sweat. In the memoirs he wrote in his later years, he also divided the chapters to review this decision.

(Today is Monday, I will present a big chapter first. Today, I would like to thank a drunken friend for his reward!)