Chapter 74 3. The years of wandering in Huguang and Sichuan

After learning of Zhang Xianzhong's rebellion, Luo Rucai, Li Zicheng and other parties came back out of the rivers and lakes one after another, and there was a sudden panic in Huguang area. They defeated the Ming army at Luohou Mountain and Xiangyouping and achieved great victories.But then he was defeated by Zuo Liangyu, who had regained his breath, and Li Zicheng moved to Henan, where he opened up a new world; while Luo Rucai and Zhang Xianzhong briefly joined forces to fight guerrillas in the Huguang area. , while Zhang Xianzhong continued to stay in place. Seeing that the situation had deteriorated, Yang Sichang felt that he had a heavy responsibility, so he invited the supervisor out of Beijing to "suppress the thieves".He appointed Zuo Liangyu as "General Ping Zei" with full authority to command the front-line Ming army.

Yang Sichang's visit to the first-line supervisors also achieved some results.In early February of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, Zuo Liangyu and Zhang Xianzhong launched a large-scale battle at Manao Mountain near Wanyuan, Sichuan today. Zhang Xianzhong was defeated, and even his wife and concubines were lost to Zuo Liangyu. captive. Master Yang imprisoned these senior prisoners in Xiangyang City. But Zuo Liangyu lost his temper at this time.Originally, Yang Sichang thought that Zuo Liangyu didn't obey orders very much, and wanted to use He Renlong to replace him as the "general of suppressing thieves". Great victory - this put Yang Sichang in a difficult position.

So the promise to He Renlong was postponed, and the time was to be determined.He Renlong was nicknamed "Crazy He", so he acted a little extreme, so he ran to tell Zuo Liangyu about it. Zuo Liangyu was sulking, when Zhang Xianzhong's lobbyist came: "With me, Zhang Xianzhong, the court will value you, General Zuo. If you destroy me today, you will be in trouble tomorrow."Zuo Liangyu was right when he thought about it, "If your heart is moved, let it go".From then on, Yang Sichang couldn't greet Zuo Liangyu even more. Zhang Xianzhong and others became more and more rampant, and dared to write crooked poems to satirize Yang Ge's department: "In the past, there was Governor Shao, who often came to dance with the troupe; later, Liao joined the army and followed me without fighting; what a Yang Ge department, three days away from me."

It is more interesting to say in "Shu Bi", "Sichang was in Chongqing, and he ordered you to be pardoned for your talent crimes. Those who surrendered were awarded officials. Those who captured and beheaded were rewarded with ten thousand gold. 'Those who cut the head of the pavilion will be rewarded with three silver coins'." This is probably the cheapest offer for a head in history—even the heads of Japanese pirates are worth thirty taels of silver! Yang Gebu was very angry about this. Let's go back and talk about the group of senior prisoners of the Battle of Agate Mountain.

Wang Chengzeng, the magistrate of Xiangyang, was in the prime of life and had a strong sense of responsibility for his work, but the young man was too inattentive to the influence, so he went to the prison every night to talk to Zhang Xianzhong's wife, Aoshi, and his concubine, Gaoshi, to interrogate "the situation among the thieves"— — These two women obviously know many secrets about Zhang Xianzhong that are not known to ordinary people.Is there any doubt about this? Through direct exploration of first-hand information, Wang Zhifu has mastered a lot of "thiefs in the situation".

But Guada Li Xia, it is inevitable to be suspicious. "History of Ming Dynasty" records that he "laughed with Xianzhong's second wife"-I don't think this means to say that the magistrate is approachable, amiable, and has affinity with prisoners.So "Northern Strategy of Ming Season" simply said that he was "fishy". Mr. Gao Can and Pan Duao, who was also a prisoner, gave full play to his communication skills.As a felon of treason, he can actually walk around without shackles in prison, hold banquets with a group of captives, eat and drink, and communicate with outsiders casually.It is said to just ask a friend to send some silver to do it-it doesn't seem to be illegal.

Even Yang Sichang, who was thousands of miles away, couldn't get used to it. He sent an official document to remind Wang Chengzeng to strengthen his guard, but Master Wang laughed it off: Could he, Zhang Xianzhong, fly over? On the night of February 4th in the 14th year of Chongzhen, 28 cavalrymen claimed to be officials sent by Yang Sichang, and the military talismans they held in their hands matched well, so the officers and soldiers guarding the city let them enter the city.After these twenty-eight people entered the city, they moved around. In the middle of the night, all of a sudden, fires broke out in various places in the city, and there were shouts of killing everywhere.

Pan Duao, who lived in the prison, and hundreds of prisoners also rushed to the street with their weapons, attacking vital departments.The magistrate Wang Chengzeng, who liked to interrogate female criminals at night, was young and agile. He led the crowd to escape. It is said that he fled back to his hometown in Xiayi, Henan. Afterwards, the imperial court ordered him to be arrested, but the world was in chaos, and this person could not be found again.He stabbed the hornet's nest, but he was able to escape unscathed, which is a very rare skill in such troubled times. At dawn, Zhang Xianzhong led his army to Xiangyang City, successfully captured the city, and captured Xiangwang Zhu Yiming.Sitting in King Xiang's palace, Zhang Xianzhong also invited King Xiang to drink, and politely said a toast: "I want to cut off Sichang's head, and Sichang is far away. Now I borrow the king's head to benefit Sichang and obey the law. Wang tried his best to drink this wine." I wanted Yang Sichang's head, but he was far away and it was hard to get it.I had no choice but to borrow your head and let Chongzhen kill him on the charge of "trapping the feudal clan".

Whether you work hard or not, King Xiang can't drink any wine at this time - and is there someone to borrow his head?He was killed immediately and his body was burned in the fire. Xiangyang is Yang Sichang's logistics supply base, and Zuo Liangyu's army's luggage—to be precise, the property seized from Zhang Xianzhong over the years—is also stored in Xiangyang City, and this time Zhang Xianzhong took it back with interest. . At this time, it was less than half a month before Li Zicheng conquered Luoyang and killed King Fu.Yang Sichang was already sick from overwork, but after hearing the news, he felt even worse and committed suicide in Shashi in early March.

Zuo Liangyu, who was also responsible, was only punished symbolically because of the large number of troops and the fear of sudden changes. Since then, it has become a common practice for General Fang Zhen to support his troops. Although Zhang Xianzhong captured Xiangyang, his strength was still weak due to the defeat at Manao Mountain. In mid-August, he was defeated by the Ming army in Xinyang. He was forced to flee with dozens of cavalry to attach himself to Li Zicheng. According to historical records, they got into an awkward situation at this gathering, and Li Zicheng even wanted to kill Zhang Xianzhong.Fortunately, Luo Rucai, who has always used the mantra of "thieves don't kill thieves", dissuaded them, and the two sides resolved the conflict.

Li Zicheng subsidized Zhang Xianzhong with 500 cavalry, and asked him to return to Huguang to contain the Ming army.Afterwards, Li Zicheng attacked Kaifeng twice, and the Ming Dynasty tried its best to undo the siege. The pressure on Zhang Xianzhong dropped sharply, and he actively gathered the old troops that had been scattered, and developed rapidly again. In the spring of the 16th year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong easily captured Hanyang and Wuchang. Zhu Huakui, king of Chu, was captured. Zhang Xianzhong looked at the mountain of money in the palace of Chu, with more than one million taels of silver accumulated, and he couldn't help sighing: "If you have money like this and don't keep guards, Zhu Huzi is really mediocre!" Put him in a cage , sinking into the Yangtze River. According to historical records, at the beginning of Xianjun, they falsely claimed that the clan would not be killed, so the clans of the Chu Mansion surrendered themselves with their identity certificates. He recorded fifteen to twenty men in Wuchang City as soldiers, and planned to massacre all the others.But Wuchang is a metropolis with a large population, and it is really too much to kill. Some soldiers were so tired that they even dislocated their wrists.As a last resort, Zhang Xianzhong then ordered the Hanyang Gate to be opened, drove all the rest of the citizens out of the city gate, and drove them into the river with iron cavalry. This is a tragedy in the world: the spring is full of flowers, and on the vast river, from Yingwuzhou to Taoist, there are rotting human flesh floating everywhere. For a long time people dared not hunt fish and turtles.There are only hundreds of people left in Wuchang City, some with broken hands and feet, or missing eyes and noses, and none of them are fully formed. And this is just the beginning. At this time, Zuo Liangyu of Jiujiang heard that Zhang Xianzhong was in Wuchang-he was afraid of Li Zicheng, but not Zhang Xianzhong, so he was ordered to march westward to find his decisive battle.Zhang Xianzhong avoided the war and went south, trapped in Yuezhou, Changsha, and Hengzhou.When crossing Dongting Lake, he was furious when encountering strong winds. He ordered thousands of huge boats to be loaded with women and burned them. The fires shone like day and night. King Ji, King Hui, and King Gui of the Ming Dynasty who were enfeoffed in Hunan fled to Guangxi—because they fled too hastily, and even Zhu You, the second son of King Gui Zhu Changying, was captured by Zhang Xianzhong's troops. Thanks to Zhang Xianzhong's experience in Yongzhou Wu Jisi, who used to be an official in the Ming Dynasty, had a deep affection for the old master and tried his best to protect him, so he escaped death and returned to his father after four months. His Royal Highness King Yongming, after his father and brother died one after another, inherited the title of King Gui, and was supported by the survivors in the future, and established the last regime in Nanming, with the year name "Yongli" - he was the last emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Yongli Emperor, and Zhang Xianzhong. The rest of the team still has a lot of life and death to fight. At present, Li Dingguo and others can't foresee that they will stand under the banner of this prince for the rest of their lives and fight for the survival of a nation. Zhang Xianzhong also breached Yang Sichang's hometown of Changde, excavated the Yang family's ancestral grave, and cut up the corpse to see the blood - digging people's ancestral graves seemed to have become a fashion at that time.All in all, this fashion was pioneered by Zhang Xianzhong. In the eighth year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong excavated the Fengyang Imperial Mausoleum of the Ming Dynasty; In the 15th year of Chongzhen, Bian Dashou, magistrate of Mizhi County in Ming Dynasty, excavated Li Zicheng's ancestral tomb; In the 16th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng excavated Ming Chengtian's ancestral mausoleum; In the same year, Zhang Xianzhong dug Yang Sichang's ancestral grave... At this time, Li Zicheng, who is dominant in Xiangyang, is discussing with his advisers what to do next, and Zhang Xianzhong in Hunan is also thinking about this.Someone suggested that Wu and Yue could be conquered from the east. Zhang Xianzhong shook his head quickly when he thought of fighting his opponent Zuo Liangyu to the death. In the end, Zhang Xianzhong decided to go west and seize Sichuan as a base.