Chapter 15 Chapter Fifteen An Elegant Man

In order to ensure that Comrade Chongzhen can give an explanation, in June of the eighth year of Chongzhen, Cao Wenzhao was ordered to set off to pursue the militia. The target of Cao Wenzhao's attack was more than a hundred thousand civilian troops, but his subordinates were only 3,000 people. Since the beginning of the war, Cao Wenzhao has always fought more with less, and it is commonplace for thousands of people to chase tens of thousands. But if you go up the mountain more times, you will eventually meet a tiger. Cao Wenzhao led the cavalry and chased for hundreds of miles in one breath, beating the civilian army to pieces and beheading thousands of people.

But since ancient times, it is not unreasonable for more people to beat others. After running for hundreds of miles, they finally woke up. There were only 3,000 people running so fast and so far, so what? So in total, more than 30,000 elite troops were assembled, and they turned around to prepare for a decisive battle with Cao Wenzhao. Since the four years of Chongzhen, Cao Wenzhao has fought countless battles with the civilian army, and has never lost. Once in, never come out again. The civilian army has nowhere to go, this time they have no plan to escape, but to fight to the death. However, because Cao Wenzhao was too excited, he only brought more than a thousand pioneers and ran over.

With 30,000 desperate people and 1,000 excited people, with the current establishment, it is basically equivalent to one person playing a platoon. It is estimated that only Rambo can complete this task. Cao Wenzhao was not Rambo, but he was also very fierce. He led the cavalry to charge more than a dozen times. Wherever he went, there were casualties everywhere. He fought from morning to afternoon, beheading thousands of enemy troops. Seeing that it was almost night and the killing was almost over, Cao Wenzhao was about to leave. This is not a joke, Cao Zongbing came on horseback, even if he couldn't win, he could win by running.

In the chaotic encirclement, he assembled his forces, launched an assault, and quickly highlighted the gap, ready to go home to take a shower and sleep. The scene was quite chaotic at that time, and no one recognized anyone. From the perspective of the militia, it didn't matter if they ran a few times, so not many people cared about this gap. But at a critical moment, something went wrong. When Cao Wenzhao rode past a large number of militiamen, a small soldier happened to be captured, and happened to see Cao Wenzhao, so he shouted: "General, save me!" The environment at that time should be very noisy. It is hard to say how many people heard it, but unfortunately, one person who should not have heard it heard it.

This man is a leader of the civilian army, and not long ago, he had worked in Cao Wenzhao's army. As a dedicated person, he immediately shouted to others: "This is General Cao!" Since it is Cao Zongbing, don't even think about running away. The civilian army gathered thousands of people and surrounded Cao Wenzhao. Cao Wenzhao is in trouble. At this time, his subordinates have been dispersed, and there are only a few followers who follow him. There is no doubt that he must die. Cao Wenzhao, who was bound to die, interpreted the meaning of bravery at the last moment of his life.

Facing the siege of thousands of people, he single-handedly rushed from left to right, beheading dozens of people with his own hands, rushing back and forth, unstoppable. No one stepped forward to challenge, all the people just surrounded him, retreated one level, and came back another level. Cao Wenzhao is a fierce man, and a fierce man is also a human being. More and more people surrounded him, and his injuries became more and more serious. So, when he was about to exhaust himself, he drew his knife. With everyone watching, he raised his knife and killed himself. Cao Wenzhao died like this, and until the last moment of his life, he was still very brave.

In any case, a brave person is worthy of admiration. Chongzhen was extremely sad, and immediately ordered Cao Wenzhao to be ratified as the crown prince and Taibao, held a memorial service, distributed pensions, and took care of the funeral and so on. From a certain point of view, Cao Wenzhao was relieved, and Chongzhen had to continue to suffer. After all, those hundreds of thousands of people were still making trouble, and this mess must be cleaned up. Therefore, shortly after Cao Wenzhao's death, Chongzhen sent another person. The situation at that time could not be worse. Fengyang was burned, Cao Wenzhao was killed, and the emperor also made a review. The militia who were chased and ran around finally reached the apex of glory.

According to historical records, the generals at that time, including Zuo Liangyu and Hong Chengchou, were timid and timid. When they met people, they would fight if they could not fight them. Go, don't wander around in your defense zone, everything will be fine. The leaders probably understand this, and they often lead a large group of people around. Once, Gao Yingxiang brought hundreds of thousands of people into Henan, Zuo Liangyu got the news, took people to see it, and said nothing just came back. If things go on like this, even if Gao Yingxiang enters the capital, everyone can only see it.

However, everything has changed since the arrival of that person. For this person, Chongzhen gave full trust and gave him an unprecedented but not unprecedented position-the governor of the five provinces. Only Chen Qiyu and Hong Chengchou had held this position before, but this person did not succeed him. In fact, he started a new job. His jurisdiction included Jiangbei, Henan, Huguang, Sichuan, and Shandong. At that time, there were only thirteen provinces in the whole country, and Hong Chengchou was in charge of five, and he was in charge of five. In the words of Chongzhen: Hong Chengchou supervises the northwest, and you go to the southeast, and the world will be flat!

This person is the fourth fierce person mentioned before, and his name is Lu Xiangsheng. For most people, Lu Xiangsheng is a very unfamiliar name, but at that time, it was a very well-known name, and in the mouths of Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng, this person had a special title: Lu Yanwang. As far as appearance is concerned, this metaphor is inappropriate, because everyone who has met Lu Xiangsheng has basically the same first impression: he is a scholar. Lu Xiangsheng, courtesy name Jiandou, was born in Yixing, Jiangsu.Jiangsu in the Ming Dynasty was considered a treasure land of geomantic omen. By the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Northwest was in a miasma, and the country was about to perish. The life here was still quite moist, and the hired workers and the theater went to the theater.

In view of the superior living conditions, there are many scholars, literati, and poets, among whom Qian Qianyi is an excellent representative. But besides this, there is also a strong man here - Lu Xiangsheng. The so-called fierce man is inappropriate. In fact, he is the fiercest of fierce men. But more than ten years ago, he couldn't compete with this title. At that time, his title was Mr. Lu. In the second year of Tianqi (1622), Lu Xiangsheng, a Juren in Yixing, Jiangsu Province, passed the Jinshi examination. At that time, the leaders of the official department selected him and asked him to be the head of the household department. According to historical data, Mr. Lu was very fair-looking and very friendly, so he was very popular. Within two years, he was promoted to Yuanwailang, and only three years later, he was promoted to the magistrate. In the second year of Chongzhen, Lu Xiangsheng was already a cadre at the level of the fifth-rank official department. In terms of promotion speed, he was equivalent to a helicopter. Moreover, the prefect Lu's character was indeed very good, he had never received black money, and the masses responded very well. In short, the future of Prefect Lu is very bright, life is very peaceful and comfortable, until the second year of Chongzhen. This year was quite tumultuous, mostly major events, such as the invasion of Huang Taiji, such as the killing of Yuan Chonghuan, of course, there were also minor events, such as Lu Xiangsheng took more than 10,000 people to the city of Beijing. At that time, there were a lot of reinforcements under the city of Beijing, and there were more than a dozen routes. Lu Xiangsheng's route was not very eye-catching, but it was the most interesting route, because no one asked him to come. Lu Xiangsheng is a civil servant and usually has no soldiers, but when he heard that the capital was in danger, he recruited more than 10,000 people himself and ran over in a hurry. Officials at the end of the Ming Dynasty had their own characteristics. The biggest characteristic was to shirk their responsibilities. Lu Xiangsheng is responsible, at least he knows that he should do things after receiving his salary. But unfortunately (or fortunately), Comrade Lu Xiangsheng failed to fight. He stayed in the city for more than a month, and then the Jin army left. Of course, this may not be a bad thing, because with his strength at the time, if he really met someone, nine out of ten he would die. But this month of doing nothing changed Lu Xiangsheng's fate forever, because during this period of time, he witnessed with his own eyes how a commander named Yuan Chonghuan became a prisoner overnight. This matter ultimately affected his life and made him make that crucial decision nine years later. The characteristic of the imperial court has always been to use it as hard as it can be used. Since Zhifu Lu is so active, he simply asked him to change his career. In the third year of Chongzhen, Lu Xiangsheng was promoted to participate in politics and was responsible for military training. At that time, the most capable and ruthless soldiers were those in the Northwest, except Liaodong. The people in these two places were quite sturdy, with strong combat effectiveness, and dared to risk their lives. Even if they hit the last person, they would not surrender. They were the main source of soldiers in the Ming Dynasty. origin. The place where Lu Xiangsheng trained his troops was Beizhili, and in terms of individual combat capabilities, he was considered second-rate. However, it turns out that there are only second-rate leaders and no second-rate soldiers. Most of the elite troops of the Ming Dynasty had their own names.For example, Yuan Chonghuan's soldiers are called Guanning Iron Cavalry, Hong Chengchou's soldiers are called Hong Bing, and Lu Xiangsheng's soldiers are called Tianxiong Army. In terms of combat effectiveness, among the armies at the end of Ming Dynasty, the strongest was the Guanning Iron Cavalry. The combat effectiveness of the Tianxiong Army was roughly ranked third (the second one has not yet appeared), stronger than Hong Bing. According to Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng, the Ming army they fear most is the Tianxiong army. For example, the Guanning iron cavalry, although they are powerful in combat, are all cavalry, rushing back and forth, life and death are all at once, but the Tianxiong army is different. When you get on it, hit it to the end, and you can't run without peeling off your skin. Most of the soldiers of the Tianxiong Army came from daimyo and Guangping. More than two hundred years later, a person used his tricks to form an extremely powerful army. This person's name was Zeng Guofan. That's right, the name of this trick is called relationship. Like Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army, Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong Army is mostly related, fellow villagers, classmates, brothers, father and son, anyway, we are all acquaintances, and killing a random person can anger a bunch of people, which is very effective in fighting. But there is another problem with this kind of relationship team, that is, when charging, if one person rushes, many people will follow, but when fleeing, if one person runs, everyone will run together. For example, Comrade Zeng Guofan once encountered such a thing when a war started. He stood behind to supervise the battle, and even drew a line, saying that he would cut across this line. As a result, not long after the battle started, some people ran away, and ran all the way around the line. He ran and chased without catching up, so he threw himself into the river in anger. Lu Xiangsheng did not have this confusion, because every time a battle started, he stood at the forefront. In fact, Mr. Lu is called King Lu Yan not because he is good at training soldiers, but because he is good at killing—killing people with his own hands. I said before that Lu Xiangsheng is very white, but I forgot to say that his hands are very black. Lu Xiangsheng is a very talented person.According to historical records, he was born with supernatural power and had a very high level of archery. Although he looks civilized, his movements are very rough. Every time he fights, he chases at the front with a big knife, driving the opponent to the ground. His earliest up-and-comers were a fierce battle. In the sixth year of Chongzhen, Shanxi rogues entered the defense area. Lu Xiangsheng was ordered to attack. Lu Xiangsheng only had 2,000 people, and he plunged into the enemy camp before the people around him could react when the battle started. This move of his made the other party puzzled. After he hacked several people to death, he suddenly woke up and began to besiege him. Lu Xiangsheng's broadsword skills are estimated to be quite good, the enemy can only surround him, unable to get close to him, so he has no choice but to play tricks and cut his saddle (blade and saddle). The saddle was killed, and Lu Xiangsheng fell off the horse. Then, he stood up, took up the big knife, and continued to fight (foot combat). What happened next was even more appalling. Lu Xiangsheng just wielded a big sword and led his men to drive the other party to the edge of the cliff. There is no other way but to shoot cold arrows. The enemy's arrow skills were quite powerful. One arrow hit Lu Xiangsheng's forehead, and another arrow killed Lu Xiangsheng's entourage. The meaning of these two arrows is roughly, don't bully others too much, you will kill me if you are in a hurry. The result of these two arrows was roughly that Lu Xiangsheng started to risk his life.And his level of life-saving is obviously higher. Holding a big knife, he cut more and more vigorously, almost crazy (Zhan Yiji).Now the other party was completely stupefied, feeling that he couldn't beat him even if he tried his life, so he had to retreat obediently, and never dared to make trouble in his territory again. Although Lu Xiangsheng's level is very high, at that time, he was not very famous and had no chance to make his mark. However, someone who helped him improve appeared, and his name was Gao Yingxiang. In the seventh year of Chongzhen, Gao Yingxiang and others ran out of the encirclement and entered Yunyang. Yunyang was tortured enough, and the governor also dismissed class. This has been said. But this matter is of decisive significance to Lu Xiangsheng, because he is the one who will succeed the governor of Yunyang. If Gao Yingxiang knew the consequences of this incident, he probably wouldn't have beaten Yunyang to death. Lu Xiangsheng is a smart man. He is smart because he understands that with the current strength of the army, it is absolutely impossible to completely eliminate the militia. As the governor of the five provinces (later became the seven provinces), he had only 50,000 elite soldiers capable of fighting, but the leaders who wandered around the boundaries of these provinces, if you pull out one randomly, there are several Thousands of people, hundreds of thousands in total, are wandering around the world, with nowhere to find them. But he understands better that it is absolutely possible to completely solve the leader of the militia. Although the civilian army has a large number of people, most of them are illiterate, and they all rely on the leaders of the leaders. As long as the leaders are killed, they will immediately become good people. Among all the leaders, the most charismatic and able to lead the team is King Chuang. Emphasize that the current Chuang Wang is Gao Yingxiang, not Li Zicheng. Among all the leaders, Gao Yingxiang is a peculiar person. His peculiarity is that he is not peculiar at all. The leaders of the gang in the late Ming Dynasty were quite special. In today's terms, they had a lot of personality. In ancient times, there were basically two types of people who worked in this line of work, those who couldn't afford to eat, and those who couldn't get along.Cultural accomplishment is mostly out of the question, so they generally don’t follow the rules when they do things, and they can do whatever they want, and the army is the same. Today is this group of people, and maybe they will be replaced tomorrow. It is hopeless to expect them to strictly observe discipline and perform exercises on time. But Gao Yingxiang is a special case. He has no personality. Many leaders are fighting wars. They don't care about how they will go tomorrow, and they don't bother to care about it. Gao Yingxiang's marching routes were carefully designed, and road signs were indicated to guide the troops. What's even more frightening is that Gao Yingxiang's troops have a uniform - armor. Generally speaking, armor is only used by the official army (the cost is relatively high, and the civilian army cannot afford it), and most of it is leather armor, while the armor of Gao Yingxiang's troops is iron armor. The so-called heavy cavalry means just that. What's even more frightening is that each of his cavalry has two or three horses. Just such a person, even Hong Chengchou, a character who kills without batting an eye, would be terrified when he saw him.After playing several times, it turned out to be a tie. Therefore, Gao Yingxiang has always been listed as the number one enemy by the court. Lu Xiangsheng is ready to deal with this person. Of course, he knew very well that it would be difficult to do it with his Tianxiong army alone, so he wrote to the emperor, and after many twists and turns, he wanted a special person to come. This person's name is Zu Kuan. Zu Kuan is not a relative of Zu Dashou, to be more specific, he is Zu Dashou's servant. But Comrade Zu Dashou is so powerful that a servant has been with him for a few years, and he also got out, and became a general of Ningyuan. In fact, Lu Xiangsheng didn't know Zu Kuan well. What he knew best was the 3,000 troops under Zu Kuan—Guan Ning Iron Cavalry. As Zu Dashou's confidant, Zu Kuan was in charge of the 3,000 Guanning Army. Lu Xiangsheng understood that in order to defeat Gao Yingxiang, he had to be pulled over, and he had to borrow this power. Now, he has finally succeeded, and he believes that Gao Yingxiang's death is not far away. At this time, Gao Yingxiang was preparing to attack Runing, and Zu Kuan came before he was done. After all, Gao Yingxiang was a little level. He had never met Zu Kuan, but judging from his posture, he seemed to be difficult to deal with, so he decided to run away. But the reason why he ran was not to escape, but to attack. Gao Yingxiang's strategic thinking is very clear, if the enemy is weak, he will fight; A year ago, Cao Wenzhao was reimbursed by this tactic. This time, his destination is Shanzhou, where there are two people waiting for him - Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong. That's all for the most luxurious lineup of the civilian army. Gao Yingxiang gathered his troops and waited for Zu Kuan's arrival. With the current force, King Gao Chuang firmly believed that if Zu Kuan came, he would not be able to return. Sure enough, Zu Kuan came, but he didn't go back, because Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong ran away again. Gao Yingxiang's choice this time was extremely wise, because when Zu Kuan came over, there was an extra person in the team - Zuo Liangyu. Gao Yingxiang's strategy might be somewhat useful against idiots like Wang Pu, but for veterans like Zu Kuan, it's useless. Go to Gao Yingxiang to settle the score. Next is Mr. Zhang Xianzhong's crucifixion time. In fact, this matter has nothing to do with Zhang Xianzhong, but Gao Yingxiang asked him to come over to help and earn some extra money along the way. Unfortunately, he ran into hard currency. When running, according to the usual practice, in order to ensure that everyone can escape, they ran separately. Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng were in one group, and Zhang Xianzhong was in another group. Therefore, the pursuit route of the officers and soldiers is also two waves, Zuo Liangyu one wave, Zu Kuan one wave. Unfortunately, Zu Kuan was assigned to Zhang Xianzhong. As I said, Zu Kuan's subordinates were Guan Ning cavalry, they ran very fast, so it only took him one night to catch up with Zhang Xianzhong and smash him. Zhang Xianzhong fled. He led the troops and marched all night. One day and one night, they ran to Jiugao Mountain. Safe, safe at last. Then, he saw Zu Kuan. It was estimated that they had waited for a long time. Guan Ning's army was very energetic. The whole army charged and killed thousands of people. After running wildly all the way for hundreds of miles, Zhang Xianzhong believed that no matter what, at least he was safe for the time being. Then, Zu Kuan appeared again. As I said, he's fast. The result after that was very spectacular. In the words of the history books, the dead body was buried for more than 20 miles. Zhang Xianzhong was outraged, but this time, he made a decision that was unconventional, and he turned around to fight Zu Kuan. Yes, the above sentence is unreliable. Mr. Zhang Xianzhong will never violate the rules. The reason why he turned back to fight Zu Kuan was because on the way to escape, he met two people - Li Zicheng and Gao Yingxiang. The more people there are, the more courageous Zhang Xianzhong assembled an army of tens of thousands and set up an ambush at Longmen, waiting for Zu Kuan's arrival. Zhang Xianzhong's ambush was very difficult, because Zu Kuan was too fierce, and his men were all Guanning cavalry. Hold on, it will only take a few minutes to rush out. Facing the predicament, Comrade Zhang Xianzhong showed his level. He decided to attack the middle. Using a surprise attack to split the enemy army into two and break them down is the only way. In terms of quality alone, his subordinates are really average, but as a famous person said, where there is quantity, there is quality. He assembled ten times the strength of Zu Kuan and began to wait. As expected, Zu Kuan appeared, and as expected, he led all the troops into the ambush circle without the slightest precaution. As expected, Zhang Xianzhong launched an attack, tens of thousands of troops launched a surprise attack, and as expected, Guan Ning's army was rushed into two pieces. Then, something unexpected happened. He was surprised to find that although he had an absolute advantage in numbers and appeared quite suddenly, he could not see any panic from the faces of these surrounded enemies. In fact, Mr. Zhang's trick is very effective when used on most officers and soldiers, but it is ineffective against Guan Ning's army.The main and only job of this group of people in Liaodong is to fight, and they are used to seeing big scenes. The so-called ambush is nothing more than the place where they come out, the timing is sudden, and the team is divided into two parts. Especially Zu Kuan, after the ambush appeared, instead of running forward, he personally cut off the rear and organized a counterattack on the spot, and the Guan Ning army under him seemed to have no intention of running away, rushing from left to right, slashing and killing , The battle started in the morning and continued until night. The ambush turned into a defeated soldier, and the offense turned into a defense. If the fight continued, they would stop and run away. In the three battles before and after, Zhang Xianzhong suffered extremely heavy losses, countless casualties, and was beaten out of order. It is said that he trembled when he heard the names of Lu Xiangsheng and Zu Kuan. Henan couldn't stay anymore, he led the army and moved to Anhui. In comparison, the experiences of Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng can be described in eight words—only worse, not worst. The first time Gao Yingxiang met Lu Xiangsheng was outside Ruyang City. According to historical records, there were nearly 200,000 men under him at that time, and the tents alone stretched hundreds of miles (a company of hundreds of miles). They were mighty and mighty, preparing to attack the city. And his opponent, Lu Xiangsheng who came to the rescue, only had more than 10,000 people. In fact, the official army has always been able to defeat the civilian army because the official army rode horses, while the civilian army could only run away. But Gao Yingxiang is an exception. As I said, his army is heavy armored cavalry, and each has two horses. They are extremely mobile, and Lu Xiangsheng's men can fight him twice. two thousand people. What's more troublesome is that when Lu Xiangsheng arrived in Ruyang, the quartermaster told him that there was no food. No food means that there is no food to eat, and no food means that there is no way to fight. Generally speaking, if the army is out of food for one day, the army will lose half of its combat effectiveness, and if it is out of food for more than two days, the whole army will definitely collapse. Lu Xiangsheng's army had no food for three days, and there was not a single deserter. This seemingly impossible miracle became possible only because of one action of Lu Xiangsheng - he also ran out of food. Not only did he not eat, he didn't even drink water (he didn't drink the water slurry), which is the so-called leading by example. So the result is also obvious-to win the hearts of the soldiers and share the same hatred. In fact, in many cases, the masses are easy to talk about, because what they need is not food, but fairness. Fair Lu Xiangsheng is a very smart person. After a few days of observation, he keenly discovered that although Gao Yingxiang's army is strong, it is relatively loose. If you choose a suitable breakthrough point, you can still fight a dozen. The breakthrough point that Lu Xiangsheng chose was the west of the city. Since he had too many infantry and too few cavalry, rushing there would be courting death. He thought of a way. More than a thousand years ago, Comrade Zhuge Liang thought of the same method in view of the fact that he could not do well with the cavalry of Wei State (Shu State mainly had infantry). That's right, the cheapest way to deal with cavalry, suitable for all ages, is bows and arrows, to be precise, crossbows. The one used by Zhuge Liang is called the Liannu, and the one used by Lu Xiangsheng is said to be a strong crossbow according to historical data. The specific craft structure is not clear, but it is indeed relatively strong, because history tells us that Gao Yingxiang’s heavy armored cavalry only a few hours after the start of the war. Here, the following result was obtained-more than a thousand thieves were killed with a strong crossbow. In fact, the army in the west of the city was defeated and more than a thousand people died. To Gao Yingxiang, it was not a big deal. After all, his total strength was hundreds of thousands, but there was a fatal weakness in his army formation. It led to the failure of the Battle of Ruyang. The weakness is that there are too many people. According to Lu Xiangsheng's report to the emperor, the main force of Gao Yingxiang's cavalry is 50,000 to 60,000, and the rest are mostly infantry and family members of the army. The infantry is okay, but the family members are in trouble. This group of people has no combat capability, and most of them are troublesome. .And the final result is really finished. After the Battle of Ruyang ended, Gao Yingxiang's hundreds of thousands of troops collapsed and fled in all directions. However, Gao Yingxiang had some military skills, so he deployed guards in time to stop Lu Xiangsheng's pursuit. In fact, Lu Xiangsheng didn't intend to chase after him. If ten thousand people chased two hundred thousand people, he was out of his mind. But not chasing today does not mean not chasing tomorrow. Lu Xiangsheng saw the opportunity, followed and chased, and defeated Gao Yingxiang again in Queshan, killing thousands of enemy troops. Lu Xiangsheng's appearance ended here. From May to November of the eighth year of Chongzhen, he led an absolutely inferior force and fought more than ten battles. He won every battle and killed a total of more than 30,000 enemy troops, completely reversing the strategic situation. Of course, Gao Yingxiang didn't think so. He still believed that the failure was just a coincidence. All his troops were dozens of times that of Lu Xiangsheng. The strategic initiative was still in his hands. If you can't kill you this year, then next year. This idea made him only live until next year. November passed, and the next month was very peaceful. Lu Xiangsheng did not move, and neither did Gao Yingxiang. The reason was very simple - Chinese New Year. Regardless of whether it is rebellion or suppression, it is work, and work is work. When it comes to statutory holidays, you should rest or have to rest. Rest for a month, the first month of the ninth year of Chongzhen, and then come.