Chapter 65 Seven, the decisive battle in the Central Plains

During the fierce battle in Kaifeng, Chongzhen appointed Sun Chuanting, who was imprisoned, as the minister of the Ministry of War and the governor of the three sides, and went to Shaanxi to organize troops to aid Kaifeng.After Sun Chuanting took office, he killed He Renlong, the commander-in-chief who supported himself in the battle of Majiazhuang and fled before the battle, and replaced him with his general Gao Jie, and actively organized the army. At this time, the armies in Shaanxi had just suffered two heavy blows from Majiazhuang and Xiangcheng. Most of the soldiers were newly recruited and their combat effectiveness was limited.Regardless of Sun Chuanting's specific difficulties, Chongzhen repeatedly urged him to go out to help Bian. Sun asked for a reprieve because "new recruits were unusable", but Chongzhen refused.Sun Chuanting had no choice but to grit his teeth and lead a group of recruits out of Tongguan in September of the 15th year of Chongzhen, and marched towards Henan.As soon as he entered Henan, he received news that Kaifeng had been flooded by the Yellow River, and Zhou Wang and others had fled. It was no longer necessary to aid Bian, so Sun Chuanting led his troops to Nanyang to rest in October.

After Li Zicheng withdrew his troops in Kaifeng, he learned that Sun Chuanting was going east, so he led his army westward to find Sun Chuanting for a decisive battle.Sun Jun fought back, and the two armies encountered near Jiaxian County.Niu Chenghu, the commander-in-chief of the Sun Army, pretended to be defeated. Li Zicheng, relying on his large number of soldiers, did not expect him, so he chased him all the way, and was lured into Sun Chuanting's triple ambush. Niu Chenghu turned back and fought back. , or divided and charged, the peasant army was defeated.Li Zicheng broke the commander's flag and walked eastward, fell off his horse once on the way, and was almost captured by the Ming army.The Ming army pursued and killed them for more than 30 li, and beheaded more than a thousand at the tomb head in the east of Jia County.

But Li Zicheng is also a veteran on the battlefield. He suffered such a defeat once or twice in his early years-the so-called good loser does not lose a big defeat-he immediately ordered his subordinates to abandon military supplies, jewelry, silver, clothes, etc., and even some weak horses and troops. women.Most of the Ming army were recruits, lacking battlefield experience, picking up property everywhere and disrupting the battle formation.On the other hand, Li Jun's strength was restored due to the timely arrival of Luo Rucai's troops.Luo Rucai led his troops to go around behind the official army and surrounded the Ming army instead. Li Zicheng took advantage of the chaos of the official army to rectify the remnants and rejoin the battle.The situation on the battlefield changed immediately.Zuo Yi and Xiao Shending couldn't bear the pressure and fled first, and the other ministries were also unable to support them, so they all retreated one after another.Sun Chuanting couldn't stop shouting, so he had to break out and return to Shaanxi under the protection of the guards.

In this battle, the Ming army lost seventy-eight generals under Lieutenant Sun Zhixiu and Hei Shangren, and thousands of soldiers.Xiao Shending was beheaded for public display because he ran away from battle, and Zuo Lan was only fined 2,000 horses because he was the son of the famous general Zuo Guangxian.The Peasant Army suffered a lot in the procedural battle, so it failed to expand the results and wiped out Sun Chuanting.Li Zicheng lost more than 8,000 elite troops in this battle. Since entering Henan, he has never suffered such a big loss. During the battle, due to the heavy rain, the food could not be replenished in time, and the officers and soldiers mostly picked green persimmons for food, so this battle was called the "Battle of Persimmon Garden" by historians.In this battle, it was a pity that Sun Chuanting lost, and most people in the world lamented it.Until the Qing Dynasty, Ji Xiaolan, a university scholar, was still arguing for him: "The battle of Persimmon Garden was defeated by Zhongzhi's promotion of the war, and the crime is not public." He also recorded a poem in the tone of Sun Chuanting in the form of ghosts and gods: " A generation of heroes pays for the passing waves, with strong arms holding Luyang Ge. The temple has a strategy and the army is in a hurry, and the world is ruthless. There are many bones. The old fortress springs up with new vegetation, and the wandering soul sees the old mountains and rivers at night. What do you think?" The signature is "Defeated General of Persimmon Garden".

Sun Chuanting is a tragic hero in the overall situation in the late Ming Dynasty.The Battle of Persimmon Garden is far from the end of his historical tragedy. After Li Zicheng defeated Sun Chuanting, he immediately returned to the army to sweep Yang Wenyue, governor of Baoding who was stationed in Runing, in order to completely wipe out the Ming army in Henan.In mid-November, Li Zicheng led Luo Rucai and Gezuo Fifth Battalion to encircle Runing. Yang Wenyue was disadvantaged in the field battle outside the city, so he retreated into the city to hold on, and then the city fell and was captured.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, these governors had their own strengths and weaknesses in ability, but in terms of integrity, they were all able to be loyal to what they did, and would rather die than submit, which is still very commendable.Yang Wenyue is no exception.He refused Li Zicheng's persuasion to surrender, and yelled at him. Li Jun tied him to Sanlipu in the south of the city, bombarded him with cannons, and died with his chest pierced. After the Ming army in Henan was completely wiped out, Li Zicheng went south to find Zuo Liangyu in Xiangyang for a decisive battle. Zuo Liangyu avoided the decisive battle and fled eastward.

Li Zicheng did not catch up with Zuo Liangyu, so he easily conquered Chengtian Mansion (now Zhongxiang, Hubei), the land of Longxing of Emperor Jiajing.Emperor Jiajing was originally a vassal king. Because his cousin Emperor Wuzong Zhengde had no sons after his death, he became a vassal king and succeeded him as a vassal king. Therefore, the tomb of Jiajing's father is in Chengtianfu, not under Tianshou Mountain in Changping.The emperors of the Ming Dynasty until Chongzhen all came from the Jiajing branch, so Chengtian's obvious mausoleum is actually the ancestral mausoleum of Chongzhen.In the early 15th year of Chongzhen, when Wang Qiaonian was the governor of the three sides, he ordered Bian Dashou, the magistrate of Mizhi County, to destroy the tomb of Li Zicheng's father and grandfather.

Since Henan was in a state of desolation, Li Zicheng intended to operate Jingxiang as a base, and then attacked Yunyang in March of the 16th year of Chongzhen.According to the inspector Gao Doushu and the former peasant army's surrendered general "Little Qin King" Wang Guangen and others, Li Zicheng won consecutive battles, but he couldn't attack Yunyang twice.At the end of May, under the urging of Chongzhen, Sun Chuanting went out and entered Henan again. Fearing that he would be attacked by the enemy, Li Zicheng gave up his plan to attack Yunyang for the third time, and led his main force northward to meet Sun Chuanting.

During the period after the capture of Xiangyang, Li Zicheng did several major things. First, in March of the 16th year of Chongzhen, he cut off Luo Rucai, He Yilong and others. Luo Rucai was a character who could stand side by side with Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong in the peasant army in the late Ming Dynasty. He was resourceful and fickle, so the people in the world gave him the nickname "Cao Cao".As early as the eighth year of Chongzhen, when the Xingyang Conference of the Seventy-two Battalions of Thirteen Families, Luo Rucai was already unique, while Li Zicheng was only the first battalion under Gao Yingxiang's command.

When Yang Sichang spread his net on all sides, Luo Rucai also accepted the recruitment in Huguang, but he used the excuse that he didn't want to be an official and just wanted to lead the old department to live an honest life, hiding in the mountains around Fangxian and refusing to come out.Xiong Wencan was busy dealing with Zhang Xianzhong, so he didn't have much time to study him at that time.In the next year, Zhang Xianzhong rebelled in Gucheng, and Luo Rucai also rebelled.First, he partnered with Zhang Xianzhong, and then the two parted ways due to differences of opinion. Luo Bei went to Henan to partner with Li Zicheng, and they cooperated quite tacitly. In the "Battle of Persimmon Garden", it was because of his timely appearance that Li Zicheng was able to turn defeat into victory.

Although Luo Rucai was older than Li Zicheng, he did not regard himself as the big brother. He gave way to Li Zicheng in terms of military decision-making and personal status. ". But their hobbies are completely different. Luo Rucai is fond of wine and sex, has hundreds of beauties in the back room, and eats mountains and mountains. It seems that the rebellion is just for eating, drinking and having fun, and he does not lose his true colors as a mountain king.Li Zicheng, on the other hand, lived a simple life and had far-reaching plans. In private, he somewhat looked down on Luo Rucai, calling Luo a "drunk and lustful man." Once the two of them had a drink, Li Zicheng said to Luo while he was drunk: "We got up in the grass, but we never thought that we could get to where we are today! From now on, we can take down our hometown Guanzhong, and we can separate ourselves and become the king!" Luo Rucai drank too much. Dazed, he didn't understand the deep meaning of Li Zicheng's words, and replied: "I am so happy to run rampant in the world, why do you want to find a place to separate yourself?" I didn't understand that Li Zicheng's words were to test whether he supported himself as king. In fact, if Li Zicheng wanted to become king, Luo Rucai had only three choices: Either kill Li Zicheng and replace him, or stay and become a minister, or lead his troops to leave.Luo Rucai is a man of loyalty, and his mantra is "thieves don't kill thieves." It seems okay, but Li Zicheng is not happy - how can he leave himself a potential opponent to fight for the world? History books say that Mr. "Cao Cao" is: "You can't be superior to others, and you can't be inferior to others. It's an absolute thing. Is it safe to go instead of a dangerous place?" He can neither adapt to the situation nor change his mentality. Everywhere is prone to danger. Song Taizu said it well, how can you allow others to sleep soundly beside the couch?Li Zicheng was able to become the most famous hero in the late Ming Dynasty, this truth cannot be understood.So on the sixth day of March in the 16th year of Chongzhen, that is, more than ten days before the second attack on Yunyang, Li Zicheng invited Luo Rucai and Ge Liyan He Yilong, who was close to him, to drink in his camp. Before Luo Cheng's illness arrived, He Yilong happily went there and got very drunk.That night, Li Zicheng ordered someone to kill the intoxicated He Yilong. At dawn, Li Zicheng rushed into Luo Rucai's tent with 20 riders, saying that he had something to discuss with him. die.Although Luo Rucai's subordinates were angry, they had no choice but to face Li Jun who was waiting in full force.Some of Luo's cronies fled to Yunyang City, which was still in the hands of the Ming army, and stated what happened. Therefore, this incident was recorded by a third party and left a detailed record in history. The other peasant armies following Li Zicheng's activities at that time were mainly Luo Rucai's troops and the so-called "Gezuo Fifth Battalion".After Luo was killed, most of his followers belonged to Li Zicheng. The "Five Battalions of Ge Zuo" were also divided and disintegrated: Ge Liyan He Yilong was killed and Zuojin King He Jin was killed successively, and the tribes were incorporated. The ruling king Liu Xiyao and the fighting king Lin Chengcheng became Li Zicheng's troops.Lao Huihui also belonged to the "Gezuo Fifth Battalion", but he remained independent and declined Li Zicheng's offer to surrender.He subsequently died of illness in Yiling, and his troops were merged by Zhang Xianzhong. In May of this year, Li Zicheng wiped out Yuan Shizhong, the Henan peasant army who had rebelled against him from time to time.At this point, except for Zhang Xianzhong, who was still difficult to solve for a while, the other ministries of the Peasant Army who had been active on the stage in the late Ming Dynasty had all withdrawn, and it seemed that only Li Zicheng and the Ming Dynasty were left on the stage in North China to compete in the Central Plains—if you don’t count the covetous enemy outside the pass. The words of the emerging dynasty.Facts have proved that the heroes of the late Ming Dynasty underestimated its ambition and strength. After cutting off the heroes, Li Zicheng immediately called himself "Xin Shun Wang". In addition to unifying the military and political power, Li Zicheng also established a complete set of political and military systems in Xiangyang, which marked that the peasant army, which had always been called "rogue bandits", began to operate a rudimentary regime. In terms of the military system, under Li Zicheng's "Fengtian Advocacy Generalissimo", the military ranks are General Quan, General Zhi, General Guoyi, General Mighty, Captain, Commander, Chief of Department, Chief of Post, etc.Gao Yigong is in charge of the pro-army, Tian Jianxiu is the general of Quan, and Liu Zongmin is also the general of Quan, but his status is second.Now it is divided into five battalions, the front, the rear, the left, the right, and the middle. When marching, the generals of the Li army were not allowed to hide gold and silver privately; they were not allowed to stay in the homes of ordinary people when they passed through cities; In combat, the cavalry is the main force, and tens of thousands of cavalry are divided into three rows, known as the "three walls". If the front row retreats, the rear row is responsible for enforcing battlefield discipline.However, in a stalemate situation where the battle lasted for a long time, the cavalry could pretend to be defeated to lure the enemy. After the infantry with spears came into contact with the enemy, the cavalry turned back and fought again. During the siege, if the defenders surrender without fighting, no one will be killed; if they defend for one day, three tenths will be killed; for two days, seven tenths will be killed; for more than three days, the whole city will be slaughtered.Surrounded by infantry and patrolled by cavalry, it is usually extremely difficult for defenders to escape. In terms of trophies, practicality is the most important thing, and mules and horses are the most important, followed by weapons, then gold, silver, cloth and silk, and finally pearls and jade. In the bureaucratic system, Zuo Fu and You Bi are the most respected, equivalent to the prime minister and deputy prime minister, with Niu Jinxing as Zuo Fu and Lai Yi as You Bi.Here are the "six governments" of officials, households, rites, soldiers, workers, and criminals, whose functions are equivalent to the six ministries of the Ming Dynasty. Li Zicheng changed his habit of mobile warfare for a long time, and began to set up "guards" at some key points, dispatched generals to lead troops to garrison, and also dispatched hundreds of local officials to establish local regimes-but judging from the later effects, these generals and officials sent abroad They have not been able to establish a decent base. Li Zicheng also opened a course in Xiangyang to recruit scholars. The topic was "There are two in three parts of the world". More than 90 people participated, and seven of them were admitted. The champion was rewarded with 300 taels of silver. Each student also has twelve taels. The Xiangyang regime also put forward the slogan of "no levy for three years", and asked its local officials to provide cattle and seeds to the people to actively support agricultural production. The direct result of this series of measures is that "all the people are attached to the thieves and not to the soldiers." Li Zicheng became queen and held a strategic meeting to decide the direction of future development.The surrendered Dr. Yang Yongyu of the Ming Qin Tianjian proposed to take Nanjing, according to the wealth in the south of the Yangtze River, and cut off the grain transportation of the capital; Gu Junen believed that the attack on Nanjing still needs to fight with Zuo Liangyu and other troops. The Ming Dynasty cannot be put to death immediately.It's better to go straight to Guanzhong, skip the three sides, first get the frontier soldiers to enrich the army, and then attack Beijing through Shanxi, which is absolutely safe. Li Zicheng and his generals are mostly from Shaanxi, so they naturally tend to Gu Junen's plan.But Gu Junen's plan, especially the second half, was quite wrong.Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, Shaanxi has gradually become barren, and has suffered frequent military turmoil for more than ten years. It is no longer the so-called "Land of Abundance" and "Land of Hundred and Two" in history books.Although the danger of the Guanhe River has not changed, its economic foundation is on the verge of collapse, and it is not enough to support an army of hundreds of thousands of people. Entering the Jin Dynasty from Shaanxi, and then going north to attack the capital, the plan itself is understandable.However, Gu Junen overemphasized the significance of seizing imperial power from the Ming Dynasty, while ignoring the objective fact that it was the existence of the Ming Dynasty that hindered the Qing army from going south.There was a similar history, which can be cited: Tang Gaozu Li Yuan entered the Guanzhong, and instead of taking Li Mi who was close to the Guandong first, he joined forces with humble words, and actually used Li Mi's soldiers to resist the Sui army and other princes in the Guandong.Li Yuan and his son concentrated their efforts to wipe out Xue Ju in the west, and only after they had no worries about the future did they move eastward.Li Mi, Wang Shichong, Dou Jiande and others successively conferred heads, and the Great Tang Dynasty was established. Therefore, Gu Junen's so-called "advancing in battle and retreating to defend without any loss" is quite a subjective judgment. He put Li Zicheng in the unfavorable situation of two-front combat, such as the Manchus in the north who were eyeing the tiger, and the Nanming in the south who was determined to avenge his father. Next—he also forgot that in the battle against foreign races, the Ming Dynasty of the same race should have become allies. The more than ten years of the battle between the brothers and the wall made the two sides, who were red-eyed, forget that there is a more terrifying enemy who is spying on the Central Plains.It was this decision that pushed forward the "Jiashen Change", which will trigger a storm in the sky of our history that will last for three hundred years. Listen, listen, there is still the sound of the pattering rain outside the window...