Chapter 4 4. Bribing the official army, the rebel army broke through Hanzhong

In the spring of the seventh year of Chongzhen, Chen Qiyu, as the military governor of the five provinces, mobilized all the officers and troops to gather in Shanzhou, Henan (now Shanxian County), and then moved south to suppress the rebels in Junxian and Zhushan, Hubei.Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and other ministries were oppressed by the official army and entered Shaanxi westward. Because Chen Qiyu had won several victories in Henan and Huguang areas, and saw the rebels moving to Shaanxi and Sichuan one after another, he became arrogant, thinking that the rebels were not his opponents.When he got the news that Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and other ministries had moved to Shaanxi, he followed him and planned to wipe out this group of peasants in one fell swoop.

When the rebel army reached the Hanzhong Plank Road area, they strayed into a dangerous place.There are high mountains and steep roads, few residents, and the exit is strictly guarded by the Ming army. It rained for more than 70 days in a row. The bows, arrows, knives and guns were corroded by the rain, the armor on the body was completely soaked, and even the horseshoes were soaked by the rain. It's so bad that people can't even eat a meal for several days.Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and other tens of thousands of people are almost desperate. Chen Qiyu led the army to completely block all exits in the Hanzhong plank road area. Because he was not familiar with the local terrain, he did not shrink the encirclement and wanted to further attack the rebel army.Chen Qiyu felt that the continuous rain was at the right time. It started raining as soon as the rebel army entered Hanzhong, and it has continued until now without any intention of stopping.The rebel army may have already run out of people and horses, don't worry, wait another month, if you don't have to lead troops to attack, the rebel army will collapse by itself.

Li Zicheng had guessed what Chen Qiyu was thinking, but Li Zicheng had no choice.Zhang Xianzhong sent people to various border guard posts, and when they came back, they concluded that the exits were completely blocked, so Zhang Xianzhong gave up the idea of ​​concentrating his forces to break through the weak side of the defense. Li Zicheng decided to use the surreptitious surrender strategy in Wu'an last time, but Zhang Xianzhong strongly opposed it.He believes that the officers and soldiers will not be fooled again. They are bitten by snakes for one year and afraid of well ropes for ten years.Besides, it was not a small deception. The rebel army broke through the Yellow River without any warning.

Comparing the two armies, it was extremely unfavorable to the rebels in terms of terrain, military strength, food and grass. Li Zicheng did not give up the trick of false surrender.Zhang Xianzhong was puzzled, but Li Zicheng explained that Chen Qiyu was cowardly and rich, so why he didn't take advantage of the situation to catch us all was because he didn't dare to attack rashly.We can first send people to secretly sneak into the army camp, bribe their officials with money, and then send an envoy to negotiate with Chen Qiyu based on Chen Qiyu's weakness for money.If it is feasible, the gold and silver property seized by the army can be collected and sent to him, which should solve the emergency of the siege.

The next day, Li Zicheng sent a group of people to secretly sneak into the army camps of the officers and soldiers, and bribed many officers and soldiers with money. The officers and soldiers who received the bribes promised to help the rebels. After Li Zicheng got the news, he immediately sent another eloquent envoy to negotiate with Chen Qiyu. At this moment, Chen Qiyu was drinking in the tent, when a soldier came to report suddenly, "Report to Your Excellency, the Rebel Army sent envoys to ask to see Your Excellency." Chen Qiyu put down the wine glass in his hand and thought to himself: "What is the purpose of the envoy sent by the rebel army?" Thinking of this, he ordered the soldiers: "Bring him in."

The soldier took the order, turned and exited the tent.Chen Qiyu paced back and forth a few steps, thinking about the purpose of the envoy's visit. After a while, the soldiers brought the envoys in, and Chen Qiyu waved his hand to signal the soldiers to go out. "Did your leader send you here? What is the purpose of coming?" Chen Qiyu first threw out the question in his heart. The messenger bowed and said, "The purpose of the villain's visit today is to surrender to you on behalf of the rebel army." "Surrender?" Chen Qiyu laughed loudly and said, "Don't lie to me, there are lessons learned from the past, and you should save yourself the old routine of false surrender."

"My lord, listen to me first, and it's not too late to draw conclusions. The rebel army is now completely surrounded by your lord's army, and they can't hold on any longer. Under such circumstances, the leader sent me to discuss with you about surrender. First, to show our sincerity, we will dedicate all the gold, silver and property in the army to the adults. Second, if we accept our surrender, we must take over our board and lodging, as well as the issue of deportation. Third, if the adults do not accept our surrender, We have no choice but to fight to the death. Do you think it is better to win without fighting, or to have a big battle where you don't know if you will die or not?"

After hearing the envoy's words, Chen Qiyu weighed them in his heart for a moment, and felt that his words were not unreasonable, so he said, "Of course it's best not to fight. If you pretend to surrender again, wouldn't I be looking for boredom?" The messenger said: "My lord, you can rest assured. Since we have given you all the property to buy food and grass, isn't your heart at ease?" "Okay then, let me think it over and make a decision." Chen Qiyu didn't dare to make a premature decision, so he said perfunctorily. Chen Qiyu was really confused, but what the messenger said was reasonable, no matter from which angle he thought about it, it was beneficial to him.He summoned all the generals around him and wanted to hear their opinions.

"I convened you today to discuss something with you. A rebel army sent an envoy just now, saying that they want to surrender to me. I can't make up my mind at the moment. I don't know what you think?" "I think it is possible to appease the rebel army. Judging from the situation, the rebel army is already in extreme difficulty. The request for surrender is reasonable from any point of view. But if you give up the idea of ​​appease the rebel army, the rebel army will definitely fight our army to the death. Power should not be underestimated. It is really not worth it to hurt both sides." A tall soldier said.

"That's right, the rebels are determined to surrender this time, so there shouldn't be any fuss about it." Another soldier said. Both of them had benefited from the rebel army, so they strongly advocated not fighting and accepting the surrender of the rebel army. This group of soldiers began to talk in a hurry, and they all felt that it was a good thing for the officers and soldiers to appease the rebels. They would win without fighting, without hurting any soldiers, and the officers and soldiers would not even suffer any losses. Chen Qiyu was a little unsure just now, but when he heard that the soldiers agreed to appease him, he immediately made up his mind to accept the surrender of the rebel army.

The envoy came back and told Li Zicheng what had happened, and Li Zicheng asked the envoy to continue with the next step. On the second day, the angel took a group of people and escorted more than a dozen carts full of belongings to the official army camp. Chen Qiyu had already been waiting in the tent, when he heard the news that the envoy was asking to see him, he hurriedly called the soldiers to bring the envoy in. "The property has been brought, a total of thirteen vehicles, all belongings of the rebel army." The messenger said. Chen Qiyu's eyes flickered, and he said: "Last night, I thought about it carefully, and the matter of surrender should be no problem. When I play the role of Ming Sheng, I will take a formality, and the matter of appeasement will be considered." The envoy said: "In this case, I will go back and report to the leader." The envoy went back and told Li Zicheng what had happened. Li Zicheng smiled and said, "In this way, our plan is half successful." After Chen Qiyu reported to the court, he received the support of Zhang Fengyi, Minister of the Ministry of War.With the personal approval of Emperor Chongzhen, in June of this year, Chen Qiyu reached an agreement with the rebel army on behalf of the government: Chen Qiyu would send a pacifier for every 100 soldiers in the rebel army according to the number of rebel soldiers, and be responsible for repatriation and resettlement; The local government supplies food and grass; at the same time, the army is prohibited from entering to avoid conflicts. The rebel army led by Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong came out of Hanzhong in mighty force, there were as many as 40,000 people, and Chen Qiyu went out of the city to meet the rebel army in person. At this time, the rebel army and the official army seemed to be one. They ate and lived together, and rode together with horses. When drinking, the rebel army and the official army were also mixed together.Some rebels had no clothes to wear, and the official army gave them clothes.The problem of food for the rebels has been fully resolved. During this time, through the relief of the official army, the rebel army has fully recovered. The soldiers of the rebel army had fully mastered the so-called "surrender" strategy, and they used this method to tide over the difficulties skillfully. One night, the rebels suddenly acted secretly.They arrested the pacifiers, killed some, cut off their ears, rode them, tied them up and threw them on the road.After solving the pacification officer, the rebels gathered together, led by Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, broke through Baoji, Linyou and other places in one fell swoop, and completely escaped the control of the official army. At this time, Chen Qiyu just woke up like a dream, regretting to the extreme, knowing that he had caused a catastrophe.He added the crime to Li Jiayan, the magistrate of Baoji County, saying that he had obstructed the recruitment and killed many rebels who surrendered, so that the rebels suddenly changed.Later, the responsibility was shifted to Shaanxi governor Lian Guoshi.Zhu Youjian didn't understand the actual situation, and because he had approved the recruitment, out of the psychology of protecting his shortcomings, he ordered the arrest of Li Jiayan, Lian Guoshi and others, and ordered Li Qiao to take over as governor of Shaanxi.But soon after the incident, due to the incident, Gu Guobao and Fu Yongchun, the inspector of Shaanxi Province, and others filed a memorial to Zhu Youjian to accuse Chen Qiyu of accepting bribes, which delayed the major event.Zhu Youjian decided to dismiss Chen Qiyu for questioning. The same group of people, the same method, can be tried repeatedly.The officers and soldiers who had been fooled for the first time were no better than the first time. They still obediently accepted the opponent's conditions and obediently rescued the opponent from the desperate situation.This time, food and drink were brought to the rebel army, and equipment was replenished. The root cause was the word "greedy".In the face of extremely greedy property, as long as some benefits are obtained, the existence of danger will be forgotten.From the perspective of Li Zicheng, who used strategies, his understanding of his opponents or the weaknesses of human nature is really outstanding.