Chapter 3 Chapter Three Xia Guangning

The new year has arrived. In the first month, not only the atmosphere of welcoming the spring is strong, but also the celebration activities are lively. Even the heavy snow seems to add to the fun. It falls very beautifully, turning the world into glass, crystal clear and intoxicating. However, all of this did not last until three days after the Lantern Festival. The horses responsible for delivering the "Eight Hundred Li Express Pass" and the horsemen on the horses rushed day and night, the horseshoes broke through the beautiful snow, and snow mixed The mud of the slurry—the glass was shattered and replaced by dirty mud...

The horses rushed to the capital, and both the people and the horses were drenched in sweat from running around in the heavy snow, and when they arrived, they were so tired that they collapsed and passed out. Zhang Heming, Minister of the Ministry of War, saw the content of this "Eight Hundred Miles Quick Biography" a moment later: Both Xiping and Guangning have fallen! He was so surprised that he almost fainted, but he had to brace himself up, contacted the cabinet ministers, and together they went to report the bad news to Emperor Tianqi.Emperor Apocalypse no longer had the heart to meet his foreign ministers. In fact, it was Wei Zhongxian, the eunuch who was favored and powerful, who appeared to listen to the report. As a carpenter, the sound of nails and hammers has long covered Liaodong's gold and iron horses in his heart.

Wei Zhongxian is similarly ignorant of "Liao affairs", but, being very interested in politics, he sincerely wants to know more about Liaodong's issues - he is an extremely smart person, and he knows that a person who is "in charge of his own affairs" must be aware of all the issues that have occurred. Therefore, he listened patiently to the ministers' complaints. On the 18th day of the first lunar month, Nurhachi ordered brothers Duobi, Beiheqi, and his son-in-law Shajin and Subahai to lead some of the troops. He personally led the ministers of Baylor and led the Eight Banners to march towards the west of Liaoning in a mighty way; After passing through Anshan, Niuzhuang and other places, they crossed the Liaohe River on the 20th and approached Xiping Fort.

Upon receiving the report, Wang Huazhen panicked immediately, deploying troops hastily, and begging for help everywhere; but, just like Xiong Tingbi's warning in advance, what he had hoped for about Li Yongfang was a phantom anyway, and the people he had contacted None of the 400,000 reinforcements promised by Mongolian Chaohua and Lin Dan Khan of the Chahar Department arrived, and he was so anxious that he almost tied his stomach. He has a total of 130,000 horses under his command, but he knows in his heart that less than half of them can really go to the battlefield and are willing to fight for the country and the enemy. Compared with Hou Jin's Eight Banners, their strength is too weak.

Reluctantly deploy a defensive strategy: send the general soldier Liu Qu to lead 20,000 troops to guard Zhenwu, and Qi Bingzhong to lead 10,000 troops to guard Luyang, and divide the north and south into two routes to form horns with Guangning; Thousands of people guarded Xiping Fort and stationed troops in Zhenning; he himself led a large number of troops to station in Guangning. The key point of this strategy is to use the four forts of Zhenwu, Luyang, Xiping, and Zhenning to block Guangning and block the army of the Houjin. However, Nurhaci still adopted the strategy of "concentrating troops and breaking through each"; after crossing the Liaohe River, he surrounded Xiping on the 20th.

Xiong Tingbi, who received the battle report, immediately made a judgment and cursed: "Wang Huazhen is so stupid that he divided 130,000 troops into five divisions; have you forgotten the lesson of the Battle of Sarhu? Nurhachi's best skill is 'defeat each 'what!" But, after all, the situation has reached the point of urgency, and it cannot be improved by cursing - of course he knows it, so he issued a document while cursing, asking Wang Huazhen to go out to supervise the battle, and call on 30,000 other troops to support Xiping.There are two generals guarding Xiping Fort, one is the deputy general Luo Yiguan, and the other is the general Hei Yunhe.

Nurhachi was the first to win the first battle - the army besieged the city, Luo always stood firm in the city, and Hei Yunhe led the team to fight; when the two armies met, due to the disparity in strength, the war ended after an hour, and Hei Yunhe died in battle. Huang Taiji ordered people to take the head of Heiyunhe to report the victory to Nurhachi who was sitting in the big tent; at this moment, the detectives also came to report the news, and the Ming Dynasty sent troops to assist Xiping. To siege the city with all our strength, the offensive strategy must be changed—Nurhachi instructed: "Divide half of the troops to meet the Ming reinforcements, and the other half stay and continue to attack the city!"

The situation on the battlefield has changed a little, because the besieged Xiping Fort was able to breathe a little bit due to the lack of half of the troops attacking; Time to come to the surface. At night, both sides withdraw their troops; the sergeants have rested, but Nurhachi's big tent is still brightly lit; a team of five people is entering the tent under strict surveillance to meet him and report the matter to him. The known secret agreed to leave. The next day, Hou Jin's right-wing Four Banners Army, led by Amin and Mang Gurtai, met Ming's reinforcements at Pingyang Bridge.

The reinforcements came from three parties, namely Liu Qu who guarded Zhenwu, Qi Bingzhong who guarded Luyang, and the Guangning soldiers led by Wang Huazhen's confidant general Sun Degong-there were more than 30,000 troops in total. Sun Degong divided his troops into left and right armies, and at the same time said very politely to Liu Qu and Qi Bingzhong: "The two commanders have always won every battle, please make the first contribution; the last will be the two Luezhen, After the two flags are victorious, Mo will follow and charge!" Therefore, Liu Qu and Qi Bingzhong led the troops to fight first; unexpectedly, as soon as the confrontation happened, Sun Degong's men deliberately rushed forward, chaotic the front line and then fled immediately - the victory of this battle is of course decisive. Liu Qu and Qi Bingzhong, whose camp was disrupted by their own people, both died in battle when the general situation was over.

And Amin and Mang Gurtai immediately returned with the whole army and joined the ranks of besieging Xiping Fort again. In fact, the great achievement was almost accomplished—the siege troops led by Huang Taiji had gained the upper hand, and Luo Yitong, who was still fighting a trapped beast, had no strength left; It has been used up, and there are only a few soldiers left. Luo Yiguan's eyes were injured by Liu Ya, and he can no longer fight; his soldiers wanted to run away with him, but he refused. commit suicide. The four forts surrounding Guangning all fell into Houjin's territory, and Guangning became a dangerous city.

Since Liaoyang changed flags, Guangning became the residence of the governor of Liaodong in the Ming Dynasty. In addition, many people secretly contacted Houjin in order to survive; although the total number of troops stationed in the city was as high as tens of thousands, no one would listen to orders, let alone face the war. As soon as Wang Huazhen received the news of the fall of Xiping, he immediately supervised the army to defend the city, but no one paid any attention to him; but when he was so anxious and overwhelmed, his own soldiers came to report and Sun Degong came back. When he heard it suddenly, he was pleasantly surprised and thought that the savior had arrived... Sun Degong knelt down in front of him: "The last general will die—the last general was ordered by the lord to help Xiping, but he didn't want to be defeated; he tried his best to escape and lead the death to the lord!" Of course, he quickly helped Sun Degong up with his own hands: "There is no need to discuss the defeat - as long as you defend Guangning, there will be another big reward!" On the one hand, he urged him: "The enemy army is approaching, you go and defend the city!" Sun Degong replied loudly: "The last general obeys orders!" With that said, he turned around and strode out. "Finally there is still one available—" Seeing Sun Degong's leaving back, he breathed a sigh of relief as if he had entrusted him with a heavy responsibility, and walked into the inner room to read the military newspaper on his own. Unexpectedly, after a while, the sound of chaotic footsteps reached his ears, and before he raised his head, General Jiang Chaodong had rushed in quickly, panting. He subconsciously scolded angrily: "How rude?" However, Jiang Chaodong didn't care about anything, rushed forward, grabbed his arm, and shouted anxiously: "My lord, go fast—go fast—you'll be too late if you take one step slower!" Then, while talking, he took him by the arm and ran quickly to the stables, explaining: "Guangning is over—Sun Degong has already served as Houjin's internal response; as soon as he came out of the government office, he immediately fired cannons and blocked the city. The door was closed, the soldiers and civilians were not allowed to enter and exit, and the silver vault and gunpowder vault were also sealed—” Upon hearing this, Wang Huazhen almost fainted, and said to Jiang Chaodong with a choked up voice, "It's lucky to have you!" As he spoke, he also gritted his teeth to brace himself; unexpectedly, when he walked to the stable, he found that the horse had been taken away, leaving only two camels; So, the two of them managed to escape with only one life after going through dangers... The situation couldn't be worse—after hearing the statement, even Wei Zhongxian was speechless for a long while, let alone come up with a decision to deal with the aftermath. And Nurhachi entered Guangning City on the 24th of the first lunar month. It was very different from the situation when he encountered the desperate resistance of the Ming army when he besieged Xiping Fort a few days ago, so he had to step forward on the corpse when the city was broken; this time, the war did not happen at all, and the way he entered was not to attack, but to Receive a fallen city empty-handed. Sun Degong, who had already been bought by him, did his best to handle all matters related to the collective surrender of Guangning City——After Wang Huazhen escaped, Sun Degong sent a large number of people to tell the soldiers and civilians everywhere, asking everyone to calm down and wait for the whole city to change flags in their own houses. , He promised that the post-Jin army general Qiu who came to take over Guangning City would do nothing wrong. After the hearts of the people settled down, he summoned the officials, generals, and students in the city to form the representatives of Xiancheng. Sedan, playing drums, blowing trumpets, playing suona, three miles out of the city, kneeling along the road... The scene was grand and honorable, and it could be seen that Sun Degong had done his best, of course he was satisfied; after entering the city, he sat on the high seat in the governor's yamen, and after receiving the cheers from the soldiers and civilians in the city, he immediately rewarded Sun Degong; He also asked: "Where is Wang Huazhen? Is he dead? Or has he escaped?" Sun Degong didn't dare to hide it, and said with a blushing face, "He took the road out of the city and headed towards the Daling River; the last general didn't dare to stop him, and he didn't send anyone to chase him!" Nurhachi didn't blame him at all, and even said to him very considerately: "You are inconvenient! It doesn't matter!" Then he ordered: "Let Li Yongfang lead people to chase after him!" The order was issued, and in an instant, a team of two thousand horses galloped away against the wind and snow... Wang Huazhen was so embarrassed that he hurried forward on foot, with nothing on him, and Jiang Chaodong was the only one who took care of him all the way. When he reached the Daling River, his feet were swollen and skinned, making it difficult to move. As soon as the speed slowed down, he was so sad that his eyes were red, and he said to Jiang Chaodong sincerely: "It's really hard for you! Your kindness, I will remember it forever-but, I am afraid that if the pursuers come, there will be no place to die ;Why don't you just leave me alone and run for your own life! At least you can save your life!" Jiang Chaodong didn't want to do what he said, but he couldn't think of anything to comfort him, so he simply kept silent and used all his strength to carry him on the walk; after walking for a while, he saw someone approaching in the distance; he stopped immediately He stepped down and watched carefully; after a while, the people and horses got closer, and he could tell that the word "bear" was embroidered on the banner in front of the team, and he cheered uncontrollably: "Ah! It's Mr. Xiong who led the troops. My lord! We are saved!" Unexpectedly, Wang Huazhen's face turned ashes immediately, and her whole body trembled; after a while, she suddenly uttered a scream that was as sharp as tearing cloth: "You kill me—I—I— -I-I'm ashamed to see him!" He lost control of his whole body, he broke free from Jiang Chaodong's back and fell to the ground, rolling all over the ground, and screaming and howling. Jiang Chaodong couldn't prevent him from becoming like this, so he said repeatedly in a daze: "My lord—my lord—don't be like this—don't be like this—" The voice was not loud, and it couldn't play any role, and it seemed to be speaking to myself—but the wind and snow became louder, and the world became more at a loss. Fortunately, before Xiong Tingbi arrived, Wang Huazhen passed out due to physical exhaustion; and the pursuers led by Li Yongfang arrived at Daling River a day late. Li Yongfang had to go back to Guangning and report to Nurhachi: "Xiong Tingbi rescued Wang Huazhen regardless of previous suspicions, and divided his troops and horses with Wang Huazhen to lead them, but the two did not guard Ningyuan and Qiantun, but did their best to protect the rout. The people entered the pass; our army pursued them all the way, but Xiong Tingbi used "strengthening the walls and clearing the fields" to burn down the people's homes and accumulated food and grass all the way, which made our army starved of food and had to return!" After hearing this, Nurhachi first let out a sigh of admiration: "This Xiong Tingbi is indeed a remarkable person!" Then he laughed again: "He lost Guangning this time, and his emperor won't let him go—from now on, he will never be my enemy again!" But without an opponent, his heart seemed to be empty, and he said to himself: "Alas! If he was born in Houjin and used by me, he must be one of my great heroes for the founding of the country!" But, thinking about it again, it's useless to think about this kind of thing, so he simply put it in his mind - he knows how to deal with it. So, he immediately summoned Baylor of the Eight Banners to discuss the matter together; he ordered: "There are more than forty castles in the west of Liaoning, headed by Guangning, and there are more than 40 large and small castles around. Allocate people to transport the money, food, weapons, gunpowder, horses and cattle, cloth, and property from Guangning back to Liaoyang; the people in the west of Liaoning are ordered to move to the east of the river—” He also decided to return to Liaoyang as soon as possible after completing these things—he had already begun to think in his heart: "This time, I will gain a lot from using troops. Carefully—"