Chapter 66 Eight, Dingding Qinchuan

After Sun Chuanting was defeated in the "Battle of Persimmon Garden" and returned to Guanzhong, he actively mobilized the army and prepared for war. However, Shaanxi has long been exhausted and cannot afford the huge military expenditure. The common people couldn't afford money and food, so Sun Chuanting had no choice but to use military law to blackmail the local officials to force him. Even so, he still couldn't squeeze out much food.As a last resort, let's find a big family to donate. These people all have backgrounds in the court, so Sun Chuanting's reputation in the capital is very bad, and he is called "Qin Du playing bandits".

In June of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, Sun Chuanting, who was driven mad by the impatient emperor, paused and sighed: "What can I do? I know that there will be no return. But how can a man treat the jailer again!" I also Knowing that the preparations for the battle are not sufficient, the attack will be more dangerous than good.But how can a real man go to court with the jailer over and over again! "Confucius said to achieve benevolence, and Mencius said to achieve righteousness, the matter has come to an end, although there are thousands of people, I will go!" On August 1, he swore to be a teacher at the Guandi Temple in Xi'an; on the tenth, he led a "big army" of 100,000 people Out of Tongguan.Before leaving, he bid farewell to his wife, and Mrs. Sun resolutely said: "My husband serves the country, don't worry about me!"

Although Sun Chuanting was determined to die, he still had the fantasy of doing his best and obeying the destiny.In addition to Niu Chenghu, Gao Jie, Lu Guangzu and others under him, he also recruited Bai Guangen to come to the meeting from Xin'an, and ordered Qin Yiming from Sichuan to go to Shang and Luo, Chen Yongfu from Henan to go to Luoyang, and Zuo Liangyu's troops to attack Li Zicheng in the west.In addition, he also has a good card, that is, Qiu Zhitao, the servant of Li Zicheng's military government, secretly communicated with the army.In addition, the Ming army was also equipped with 30,000 "trains" and a large number of advanced firearms, which can be regarded as one of the favorable conditions.

In mid-August, Sun Jun regained Luoyang, which was not defended by many troops. Some people suggested to repair the city wall of Luoyang and build it into a strong stronghold.Sun Chuanting said: "We are safe if we leave the customs. Now that we have left the customs, there is no such thing as perfect!"On September 8th, when Sun Jun arrived in Ruzhou, Li Zicheng's general, Li Yangchun, nicknamed the Four Heavenly Kings, surrendered and brought important information: the old camp of the thieves was in Tang County, the puppet generals were stationed in Baofeng, and Zicheng's elite gathered in Xiangcheng.

According to the information, Sun Chuanting quickly supervised the army to conquer Baofeng and captured and killed Chen Kexin, the state shepherd appointed by Li Zicheng.Then they attacked and occupied Tang County and killed all the family members of the captured Li Zicheng army. After Li Zicheng's army got the news, the whole army cried bitterly and their fighting spirit was high.After that, it rained continuously for days, and the food and grass of the officers and soldiers were not available. However, under the leadership of Sun Chuanting, they still broke through Jiaxian County and won the battle with more than ten thousand elite Li Jun who came to help. , Li retreated to Xiangcheng.At this stage, the government and army achieved some victories, but the disadvantages of poor supplies and weak troops remained unchanged.In mid-to-late September, his insider Qiu Zhitao Shixie was killed, and even the information was disconnected.

On September 17, the troops of the Ming army who stayed in Ruzhou mutinied due to the lack of food and pay. Sun Chuanting was forced to return to the army to pay for food and put down the rebellion.Li Jun took advantage of the momentum to pursue, and the main forces of the two sides fought near Nanyang.Li Zicheng's army was arrayed in five layers, the outermost layer was the newly surrendered hungry people, the second was the infantry, the third was the cavalry, the third was the elite cavalry, and the innermost layer was the old battalion and their families.The Ming army fought hard, broke through the three-layer front of Li Jun, and fought desperately with Li Jun's elite cavalry, and the two sides were stalemate.

The hungry Ming army could not last long, and the formation began to disturb.The officers and soldiers of Bai Guangen's firearms battalion yelled, "The division has been defeated!" they pushed down the firearms vehicles, rode on the horses that drew them, and fled.The overturned vehicle blocked the way for other troops to retreat. Li Jun charged and trampled with iron cavalry, while the infantry used white galleon (a kind of thick wooden stick, which is easy for novices to master. It does not require much skill, as long as you have brute strength). With a fierce attack, many officers and soldiers were smashed by the helmets.Li Zicheng's cavalry pursued him relentlessly, and chased him for four hundred miles in one day, until they reached Mengjin.More than 40,000 people died in the Ming army, and hundreds of thousands of dead weapons and supplies.Sun Chuanting's supervisor sitting on the banner also threw it to Li Guo's chasing horse while fleeing.

The last main force of the Ming Dynasty collapsed.Those who win the hearts of the people win the world, what do you think the hearts of people are?People's hearts are food, intelligence, and an endless supply of reserve soldiers. Li Zicheng can afford to lose ten times and eight times, but Sun Chuanting can't afford to lose even one time. On October 7th, Li Zicheng's army attacked Tongguan in a large scale, detoured from the middle road to the back of the pass (probably the "forbidden pit" where Huang Chao walked back then), and flanked the Ming army.Li Guo used the captured Sun Chuanting to trick him into opening the gate of Tongguan, and the army swarmed in.

In this way, this grand pass was breached again. Sun Chuanting packed up his fleeing subordinates and retreated to Weinan. He was chased by Li Jun on the road.This year, Sun Chuanting was fifty-one years old.But Chongzhen thought that he probably feigned death and absconded, and did not give him shade.Gift means to confer an honorary official position on a dead meritorious official; Yin means that the imperial court confers a certain official position or other favorable treatment in order to take care of the descendants of a meritorious official. "History of the Ming Dynasty: Biography of Sun Chuanting" commented: "The death of Chuanting means the death of the Ming Dynasty." What makes people sad is that it was his opponent Qing Dynasty who officially admitted that Sun Chuanting played an important role in the chaos of the Ming Dynasty.

Li Zicheng then broke through Xi'an in October.Mrs. Sun, Mrs. Zhang, was afraid of humiliation, and led the second daughter and three concubines of the Sun family to commit suicide. Sun Chuanting's eight-year-old son, Sun Shining, was adopted by an old man.After hearing about the accident, Shirui, the grandson's eldest son, secretly ran to Xi'an, buried his wife, and retrieved his little brother.The two brothers helped each other back, along the way, whether they knew each other or not, everyone who saw them couldn't help crying. Xi'an was the fiefdom of the lineage of Zhu Yuanzhang's second son, King Qin. After the city of Xi'an was broken, King Zhu Cunshu of Qin surrendered, but Li Zicheng didn't make things difficult for him, and politely named him General Quan.Li Zicheng had just entered Xi'an, and he sent troops to plunder for three days. After Niu Jinxing persuaded him, he ordered that no one should be killed indiscriminately.At the same time, he was actively training troops and building the city. Li Zicheng himself went to the school field to shoot every three days.

In terms of economy, Li Zicheng began to feel some difficulties. Although Qin Wangfu had a lot of silver and food, he was sitting on the mountain after all. "No conquest for three years" could win the hearts of the people, but at the same time cut off the military's source of income. Hundreds of thousands of troops want to eat! In order to solve the economic difficulties, Li Zicheng's army adopted the old line of thugs, which is known in history as "pursuing stolen goods and subsidizing wages".Li Jun convened a meeting of officials, big and small, and rich families, and called on them to donate money for military use. According to the differences in official titles and family backgrounds, different prices were listed.Those who could not pay the full amount were arrested and severely tortured. Many people were tortured to death and buried in a big pit. The family members could not even find their bodies. At the same time, Li Zicheng divided his troops and went out to pursue and suppress the remnants of the Ming army.Ming generals Bai Guangen, Zuo Guangxian, Chen Yongfu, Ma Ke, Niu Chenghu and others all surrendered one after another seeing that the situation was over.Because Chen Yongfu had shot Li Zicheng blind in one eye, he didn't dare to surrender. Li Zicheng broke his arrow to show his faith, saying that he would ignore the previous suspicions, and named him Wenshui Bo.In addition to encountering strong resistance under Yulin City, Li Zicheng's army quickly occupied Shaanxi, Gansu, Ningxia and other places.At this time, almost all the northwest corner of China was under his control. On New Year's Day in the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, it was snowing heavily in Xi'an, and the sun and the moon were dark; in Beijing, there was a sandstorm, and there were no people in sight. Li Ziben planned to ascend the throne and proclaim himself emperor on this day, but the bad weather spoiled his interest. Fortunately, someone presented a couplet in time, which was called: "The wind and the cloud will help the Lord, and the sun and the moon will destroy the Ming Dynasty." field.But on this day, Li Zicheng just walked through the scene casually, and the founding name was "Dashun" and the reign name was "Yongchang".He himself did not officially call himself emperor, but was still called "Shun Wang".Take Li Jiqian, the ancestor of the Western Xia Dynasty, as the ancestor, and respect the ancestors below the great ancestor. Chongzhen in Beijing was also unhappy.On this day, the civil and military officials who came to the court to celebrate the New Year were late collectively, and they stood in disorder in the court shift—civilian officials stood in the ranks of military officers, and military officers rushed into the ranks of civil servants.It is said that on this day, an earthquake occurred in the distant Fengyang.This is not an auspicious omen, it seems to be predicting a bloody disaster this year. This year was 1644 in the Western calendar, the year of Jiashen in the lunar calendar, so the earth-shaking events of this year were called "Jiashen Change" in history.