Chapter 81: Cataclysmic Change in Shandong Shandong Peninsula, Dengzhou Fucheng The streets and alleys that were once bustling with shops were now filled with billowing black smoke.
The spacious streets were littered with corpses, broken swords, muskets and spears, as well as those burned to ashes. flag.
Chen Xin, the commander-in-chief of Dengzhou, was wearing heavy armor.
Surrounded by his close guards, he walked gloomily through the dilapidated streets with lingering smoke.
The Denglai Governor's Office in front of him had been reduced to rubble after a fierce battle. , but around him, intermittent shouts of death, gunshots, groans and various other noises were still floating in this chaotic battlefield.
Liu Minyou, who was in charge of civil affairs and was an old time traveler with Chen Xin, was still wrapped in bandages and lying unconscious on the hospital bed.
In short, from now on, Chen Xin's Dengzhou Town is no longer an official and an army of the imperial court, but a rebel.
It's really a bad time.
Speaking of which, how did things end up like this?
Rubbing his temples with throbbing veins, Chen Xin couldn't help but let out a long sigh and began to recall the scenes of his experiences in the past few months.
Generally speaking, the fortunes of Dengzhou Town have not been very smooth since entering Chongzhen five years ago.
The Dengzhou Rebellion caused by the mutiny of the Liao soldiers was disrupted by the travelers from the Far East Company in Vladivostok.
It did not break out as expected in history.
The plans of the two travelers, Chen Xin and Liu Minyou, all came to nothing.
It seems that some Liao soldiers are going to sea by boat At that time, they were kidnapped by the landing ship of the Vladivostok Traverser Group and used as laborers.
On the way to the front line, the remaining Liao soldiers encountered Jurchen soldiers entering the customs and looting, so the mutinous Dengzhou Liao soldiers directly surrendered to the Tatars and went to loot.
He was in the prefecture of Northern Zhili and did not return to Dengzhou.
Faced with the transfer order from the Imperial Ministry of War and the urging of Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, Chen Xin had no choice but to mobilize 2,500 troops and march to Beijing to prepare for reinforcements on the Daling River battlefield.
The original culprit of the Dengzhou Rebellion in history, the more than 2,000 Liao soldiers from the Governor's Biao Battalion led by Li Jiucheng, set out more than half a month earlier than Chen Xin, marching north to Zhili in the wind and snow.
After leaving Dengzhou, Chen Xin's King Qin army did not receive good treatment along the way.
The prefectures and counties along the way not to mention providing food and wages.
When the soldiers and horses passed through, the cities and even city gates were closed, and they were not allowed to enter the city to purchase. , can be called a human being Although marching within the territory of the Ming Dynasty, it was no different from marching abroad.
However, the prefectures and counties in Shandong were helpless.
The discipline of the imperial officers and soldiers had always been corrupted.
The saying "thieves come like combs, and officials come like grizzards" is not an exaggeration. statement.
These days there are constant famines, and life is miserable everywhere.
People are starving to death everywhere in Shandong Province.
Hungry people and bandits are all over the mountains and plains, and there is little surplus food in every county and government.
If they are looted several times by soldiers and horses passing through the border, even a wealthy landlord's family will not be able to survive.
Fortunately, Chen Xinyou's own Sihai Trading Co. purchased grain and fodder on his behalf, and the military pay they brought was quite sufficient, so they could barely survive.
The Liao soldiers led by Li Jiucheng who were walking in front of Chen Xin were already hungry and full, complaining all the way.
As for the thousands of miles of journey ahead, they were even more daunted.
Previously in Dengzhou, these troops who had withdrawn from Liaodong, Not only is there no such thing as Guan Ningjun, With the generous treatment of four to five million taels of silver each year, one had to endure the common problem in the late Ming Dynasty that the government despised warriors and withheld military pay.
They also had to endure the hostility of Shandong locals towards immigrants from other places.
They were always inferior to others and were bullied by Shandong's civil servants and gentry.
Extremely uncomfortable.
Now that they were about to go into battle, the treatment was even worse than when they were in Dengzhou, and they might even starve to death on the way.
Naturally, the anger in their chests became even hotter, and they were about to reach the critical point of endurance.
In short, both soldiers and horses are hoping that Zu Dashou in Dalinghe City will die soon so that they can avoid this drudgery.
Regrettably, although both reinforcements moved forward at the slowest pace, they still did not wait for the news of Zu Dashou's death.
Instead, Dengzhou and the imperial military department urged them to speed up one after another.
The cities they passed behind were still wary of them as always.
Next, Chen Xin finally walked to Dezhou with a lot of suffocation, but received an edict ordering the army from all over the world to march to Beijing.
It turned out that Huang Taiji was besieging Dalinghe City, and he was with the Guanning Army of Western Liaoning and other forces.
After a series of fierce battles, the Lu Ming Army sent Abataibele to lead a partial division to bypass Ji Town, break through the border wall and enter North Zhili, in order to contain the Ming Dynasty reinforcements.
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On the other side, when it was learned that the Tartars had once again broken through the border and marched south, the city of Beijing suddenly became panic-stricken.
The confused imperial court sealed the city under martial law while deploying troops to reinforce the capital.
As for the war at Daling River, it could no longer take care of it.
At the same time, Li Jiucheng, who was walking in the front, had already mutinied with more than 2,000 Liao soldiers and surrendered to the Jurchen soldiers under Abatai who broke through the Great Wall and went south to sweep various counties in the capital.
On the other side, after learning about Abatai's entry into the Koubei Zhili and Li Jiucheng's rebellion and surrender to the Tartars, Commander-in-Chief Chen Xin was not angry but happy after hearing the news.
Now he finally had a clear path and no longer had to fill up the Daling River.
That one is dead It's not that the Jurchen Tartars are really that difficult to fight, but the cheating boss above them and the pig teammates around them are really disappointing.
Therefore, Chen Xin immediately ordered the entire army to prepare for war, and advanced into the North Zhili Theater.
He fought several times with the small group of Tatars in the "Grass Valley" and the Ming Army who surrendered to the Tatars as collaborators, and achieved small gains.
However, the food and fodder in the army were also greatly depleted, but all the counties and cities in various places refused to provide supplies, as if they were not in the same system as the official army.
At the same time, after all, there is a huge disparity in the strength of the two sides.
With just the few troops in Chen Xin's hands, it is really impossible to fight Abatai in a decisive battle.
So he turned to Tianjin, planning to collect supplies through the local port.
At the same time, he reported his merits to the court and prepared to continue to Beijing.
Unexpectedly, before the food and fodder were fully prepared, a text from the Ministry of War came: It actually ordered them to stop coming to Qinwang and quickly leave Gyeonggi and return to Dengzhou.
It turned out that since King Qin's edict was issued, soldiers and horses from all walks of life have set off towards the capital, but the court seemed not to have thought of providing logistical support for these troops.
First, an army of King Qin from Shanxi arrived in the capital.
The imperial court was busy with party disputes and state affairs.
This was the tradition of the Ming Dynasty.
Wen Tiren fought fiercely, and the civil and military forces of the Manchu Dynasty divided into camps and fought against each other.
They had no interest in government affairs.
As a result, the Ministry of War actually ignored the reinforcements from other provinces and ordered them to sleep outside Andingmen.
The angry general of King Qin's army went to question the Ministry of Household Affairs.
The Ministry of Household Affairs, which was still controlled by the Donglin Party at that time, actually replied: "People's residences can be accommodated."
Regarding food, the Ministry of Household Affairs even issued an official document saying: "If the people have food, why should they rely entirely on the Ministry of Household Affairs?"
These reinforcements from other provinces prepared their own provisions and rushed all the way to the capital, King Qin.
They felt that they were completely loyal to the Zhu Ming Dynasty.
Unexpectedly, the imperial court treated King Qin's army so coldly.
The more they thought about it, the more angry and disappointed they became: since this stingy court does not care about food or food.
Accommodation, food and clothing are all problems, and military discipline cannot be maintained.
Since the Ministry of Household Affairs of the imperial court has said that we have to grab a house to live in and food to eat, why should we be content?
As a result, officers and soldiers from all walks of life ran rampant in the suburbs of Beijing, seizing people's houses to serve as military camps, and robbing people's food to satisfy their hunger.
The timid ones stole chickens and dogs, and the bold ones killed people and stole goods.
At first, they only dared to rob ordinary people, but later they gradually started to loot.
In the end, the rich gentry even robbed the farms and villas of the emperor's relatives.
When the wealthy servants and servants came to stop them, the generals glared: "This is what the imperial court ordered us to do to rob you and other works." reward” When he learned that the imperial court had acted so absurdly and encouraged King Qin's soldiers and horses to plunder the civilians at will, the residents of the capital were filled with grief and anger.
They cursed the officers and soldiers for doing more harm than the thieves and soldiers building captives.
In recent years, the suburbs of the capital had been repeatedly hit by military disasters.
Most of the residents had fled and the prosperity of the past was long gone.
The situation was so bad that even though King Qin's army was looting everywhere, they could not raise enough food and wages, and both of them were filled with anger.
Because of the uneven distribution of spoils, conflicts gradually broke out between officers and soldiers from all walks of life.
Before the Liaodong Tartars arrived, Beijing had become a battlefield.
Outside the capital, there were slaves burning, killing and looting.
Outside the capital, officers and soldiers were fighting with weapons and causing trouble.
The ground turned into a fiery hell for a while, and the city gates were tightly closed during the day.
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The wealthy officials and gentry fled to Tianjin overnight, trying to take a sea route and take a boat to the south to "escape the hustle and bustle".
It was not until the whole situation was almost out of control that Emperor Chongzhen, who was deep in the palace, finally learned of the incident.
He suddenly became furious and scolded the generals of Qin Wang's army from other provinces for "ignoring the troops and disturbing the people."
If you have orders, what is the use of having officials in peacetime?"
and ordered the Ministry of War to strictly organize all armies.
Unfortunately, at this time, even the emperor's order had no effect.
After the imperial court forced the generals to panic, they encouraged the soldiers to set up a stronghold to block the city gates, made noise and threatened the imperial court, and kept shouting: "We will die.
The enemy is not full, but he is not full.
An Neng can resist the sword with a small life."
When Chen Xin sent a letter from Tianjin to report his merits, the chaos caused by the various Qin Wang troops in Beijing had not yet been resolved.
The Ministry of War and the Ministry of Household Affairs were both involved in lawsuits.
I heard that new Qin Wang troops were coming. , the first reaction was "here comes another chaos."
Then he saw that the Jin army after Abatai had turned around and returned north, and was expected to leave the Ming Dynasty soon, so he simply sent Chen Xin back.
Everyone is fine.
Be quieter.
So, Chen Xin took his Dengzhou Army and returned to the Weihaiwei garrison by boat in despair, thinking that he had finally escaped.
Unexpectedly, he could escape on the first day of the lunar month but not on the 15th day.
Not long after, Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, sent someone to inform him that he wanted to commend Chen Xin for his military exploits during his previous visit to Beijing and to discuss the remaining garrison of Li Jiucheng's Liao army after the rebellion. and defense zone takeover issues Chen Xin and Liu Minyou didn't think anything was wrong at first, so they went to Dengzhou Fucheng.
Who would have expected that it would be a Hongmen Banquet?
It turned out that in order to establish a military camp, settle military dependents, and create a reliable base, Chen Xin needed to obtain a large area of cultivated land.
Therefore, he had constant conflicts with the landlords and gentry in Dengzhou.
He used ruthless tactics to kill some guys who were ignorant of current affairs.
In the local area, There are many grudges.
Not long ago, his close subordinates followed the instructions of Chen Xin, a time traveler, and explored the Zhaoyuan gold mine according to the map, preparing to develop it as a new source of revenue for raising soldiers.
However, during the process of recruiting miners and making preparations, the relevant personnel failed to keep confidentiality, allowing outsiders to find out the details.
For a time, it attracted the jealousy of many forces.
Although the local officials and gentry in Dengzhou had already I was scared to death by Chen Xin, but the temptation of gold was really amazing.
After heavyweight local tyrants such as Prince Lu's Mansion in Ziyang and Duke Yansheng's Mansion in Qufu joined in and tried to seize Chen Xin's property, an opposition soon emerged, driven by hatred and lured by gold mines.
The powerful alliance between General Chen Xin and Dengzhou Town.
At this time, the Donglin Party was under heavy criticism in the court and was in a critical situation.
It urgently needed to instigate a major event to shift the focus.
Therefore, under the joint pressure of many forces from the court center to Shandong Province, they saw their own party...
Sun Yuanhua, a member of the Donglin Party whose official position was in jeopardy, finally made up his mind and conspired with various forces to set up a killing plan against Chen Xin, preparing to "seize his soldiers, annihilate his people, kill his party members, and restore a peaceful world to Dengzhou."
Although the idea seems to be very good, but Sun Yuanhua, a weak scholar, is really not very good at engaging in dark things such as political murder, so he almost follows the example of "breaking a cup as a sign, a man with five hundred swords and an axe" as described in the novels and commentaries.
The routine of "gushing out" is being laid out.
In addition, this loose conspiracy group also did not do a good job in keeping secrets.
As a result, even before Chen Xin and Liu Min arrived in the capital city of Dengzhou, rumors were already flying in the market.
And Chen Xin arranged a lot of spies in Dengzhou City in advance to detect the movement in advance.
So before the ambush was launched, someone rushed out of the city risking his life and tipped off Chen Xin and Liu Min.
They were so frightened that they quickly reined in their horses and turned around at the gate of the city, retreating hastily.
However, even so, they fled back to Weihaiwei. , Chen Xin and Liu Minyou were still pursued and blocked by unknown forces.
Marshal Chen Xin, who had experienced many battles, was fine, but Liu Minyou, a civil servant, was hit by two arrows first, fell off his horse, and was finally carried back covered in blood.
At this point, both sides have been torn apart, and there is no room for relaxation.
The furious Marshal Chen Xin knew the essence of blitzkrieg, and immediately mobilized the Wendeng Battalion, the most reliable direct force, to launch a surprise attack on Dengzhou Fucheng.
But everyone in Dengzhou City was still complaining and cursing each other, shirking responsibility for the failure of the ambush.
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They never expected that Chen Xin's counterattack would be so fast, and they were caught off guard.
Almost instantly, the Wendeng Battalion, determined to take revenge, broke through the Dengzhou city defenses, and in just over an hour, it defeated the defenders' desperate counterattack in street fighting.
Now, the attacking troops are already launching assaults on key points such as the treasury offices and government offices in the city, and good news is being reported everywhere.
Although victory seems to be in sight, Chen Xin knows that all this is just the beginning.
Next, he will face the crazy counterattack of the entire Ming Empire.
It is not known how long the continuous brutal battle will last.
However, now that he has been forced to take this step, there is no other choice.
Just as he was standing outside the Denglai Governor's Office that was burned to rubble, looking thoughtfully at the lingering smoke, a soldier covered in blood suddenly rushed over and reported to him, "Commander Denglai.
Shuicheng has been breached, but our navy arrived too late from Weihai and failed to block the port.
Governor Sun and other officials, as well as people from Prince Lu's Mansion and Duke Yansheng's Mansion, all took the lead and escaped on Shuiying ships. " "How long did it take to escape their ship?"
Chen Xin asked with a frown.
"We haven't escaped very far.
We can still vaguely see the sails from Suying Pier."
"Then why don't you let the navy chase after you?"
Chen Xin angrily slammed his riding crop to the ground and yelled angrily, "I was tricked into becoming a rebel, and I was injured like this. , but now I want to leave, how can there be such a cheap thing in the world?"
However, the navy sent by Chen Xin to pursue them failed to catch up with the fleeing fleet of Sun Yuanhua and others, and lost them halfway.
Therefore, the navy officers and subordinates combined their efforts and changed the route and sailed to Dagukou, Tianjin.
They first withdrew their Sihai Trading Company personnel stationed in Tianjin, then fired a few random shots on the shore to demonstrate, then raised anchor and sail, and returned home.
But despite this, the local officials and gentry were frightened.
Many wealthy merchants and gentry who had just escaped from the capital and took refuge in Tianjin were once again fleeing further afield, and urgent documents flew into the court like snowflakes.
The Ministry of War triggered a violent earthquake.
At the same time, in the south of Shandong, another more massive chaos spread rapidly like a prairie fire. oshow7: