Chapter 94, The Death Knell of the Ming Empire September 25, the fifth year of Chongzhen, Beizhili, Shuntianfu, Jizhou In the mottled and barren wilderness, swirling sandstorms filled the sky and earth, covering up the coolness of autumn. yznnBoth the sky and the earth are a blur of gray-yellow.
Dry thatch and dead trees with their bark peeled off were inserted crookedly among the ruins.
All kinds of scenery were distorted into broken and swaying shadows like mirages, floating feebly.
The north wind blew away the dust, vaguely revealing corpses and withered bones.
"Dong dong dong" "Woo" The passionate drums and the desolate horns played together, and two armies with similar uniforms were fighting each other risking their lives in the heart of the capital of the Ming Empire.
The sergeants on both sides wore the same style of red war jackets, used basically the same flags and drums, held almost the same weapons, and shouted kill calls with almost the same accent.
Just over a month ago, they were all members of the imperial court of the Ming Empire.
The official army, and is the most famous elite soldier among the official army.
But by this moment, the team in the east had shaved off its hair and defected to Liaodong Jiannu.
On this windy and sandy autumn afternoon, the 20,000 Tianxiong troops of King Qin from the north and the 12,000 Guan Ning troops who defected to Tartars were beaten into a pot of porridge on the outskirts of Gyeonggi, which had long been ravaged by war.
The dull sound of artillery fire made the ground rumble and tremble, and the screaming shells plowed bloody ditches in the phalanx; the flying arrows penetrated the sky and splashed bright blood among the crowd.
Huahe let out a shrill scream; the sound of gunfire, the sound of metal and body collisions, and the hysterical shouting and cursing intertwined together to perform a messy song of death.
As time went by, although the Tianxiong Army had an advantage in strength, it gradually began to collapse under the repeated attacks of Guan Ning's army.
After all, the so-called "Tianxiong Army" that came to Beijing this time to King Qin was just Lu Xiangsheng with a great name, The wealth of the three prefectures of Guangping and Shunde has been recruited in the past two or three years.
The miscellaneous local army that came here; but the Guan Ning Army that turned against them and rebelled.
Starting from the Tianqi Year, the Ming Dynasty spent all its financial resources and spent four to five million taels of silver every year to build luxurious direct line elite troops, regardless of the quality of the soldiers, ordnance and equipment, or combat Experience, both are not on the same level.
Therefore, after the infantry of both sides fought hand-to-hand for about a stick of incense, the Tianxiong Army began to slowly retreat, while the Guan Ning Army pressed forward step by step.
In the end, the Tianxiong Army could no longer maintain its array, and it evolved from a retreat to a The army was defeated and finally rushed towards the rear camp out of control.
"Hold on and serve the imperial court to kill the traitors."
On a chariot in the main formation of the Tianxiong Army, Lu Xiangsheng, the right political advisor of the Ming Dynasty with a white scarf on his head and a tired look on his face, forcibly raised his spirits and shouted slogans hoarsely.
In the blink of an eye, he shot down several soldiers of the Guan Ning Army who were rushing at the front.
"Bang bang bang" Several rows of three-eyed muskets sprayed out waves of smoke and fire, and the bloody corpses of Guan Ning Army soldiers twisted and rolled in the rain of bullets.
For a moment, there were cries and blood mist, making the wind and sand even more filthy.
The menacing wave of attacks suddenly stopped.
After the firearms fire, several deep war drums sounded in the Tianxiong army formation.
Lu Xiangsheng personally pulled out his long sword, jumped out of the chariot, and took the lead to pounce on the enemy and fight to the death with his sword.
Hundreds of horsemen from the Tianxiong Army's Military Standard Battalion also came out with swords and guns.
They galloped past the firearms soldiers guarding the formation and rushed towards the scattered Guan Ning Army on the opposite side.
In an instant, they killed those Guan Ning soldiers who had started to turn around and flee.
The Ning army infantry rushed to pieces.
But only ten minutes later, the sound of rolling horse hooves sounded again on the other side of the battlefield.
In terms of the number and combat effectiveness of the cavalry, the Tianxiong Army was definitely no match for Guan Ning's cavalry.
After the mutual testing outpost battle ended, Guan Ning's army finally unleashed their trump card: after retreating for a while and successfully widening the distance, nearly a thousand Guan Ning's cavalry were assembled to attack the already scattered Tianxiong army's formation.
A powerful attack was launched.
Along with the dust thrown up by thousands of horse hooves, the cavalry of the Guan Ning Army, which could not be seen beyond the horizon, made a circuitous circle on the battlefield, easily tearing apart the side of the Tianxiong Army's formation like a mauling force.
The collision and collision of the horses The trampling caused the Tianxiong Army, which had just stabilized its decline, to die again.
Facing the approaching Guan Ning's cavalry, Tianxiong's army fired a volley of crossbows and all the artillery roared.
Sharp crossbow arrows and deadly projectiles buzzed past the ears of the cavalry.
Some people kept screaming and falling off their horses, or they were trampled to pieces by the robes because their horses were injured and fell to the ground.
However, cannonballs and arrows could not stop all the cavalry, and the Tianxiong Army did not have heavy infantry with large shields that could confront the cavalry head-on.
As a result, like a sharp knife cutting through butter, the already shaky Tianxiong army formation was finally torn apart by Guan Ning's cavalry from the left wing, and the entire army collapsed in an instant.
The Tianxiong Army cavalry that launched a countercharge before was instantly overwhelmed by enemy cavalry that was several times their own size.
Next, Guan Ning's cavalry rushed directly into the empty Tianxiong military camp, setting fire and killing indiscriminately.
"Kill, kill, kill, our army will be victorious" "Hold on and don't retreat.
Anyone who retreats will be killed without mercy."
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"How can I still withstand it?
I'm defeated.
I'm defeated.
Run away."
The Tianxiong Army did not expect that the enemy would break into the camp so quickly.
The soldiers who had retreated had not had time to rest and recuperate.
The combat soldiers and auxiliary soldiers were mixed together, and there was no army structure at all.
Facing the sudden attack of Guan Ning's army, the Tianxiong army, which was tired from long battles and had low morale, fell into chaos in an instant.
A few brave soldiers were busy piercing armor and getting guns, while more people shouted and fled back.
When Guan Ning's army set fire to the baggage, Tianxiong's army fell into complete chaos.
Some officers wanted to counterattack, some wanted to form defensive formations, and some wanted to retreat and reorganize.
In this chaos, the entire army was completely disintegrated from top to bottom.
If the soldiers could not find the generals, they would not be able to find the soldiers.
Eventually it fell apart.
The crowds of people swarming and fleeing also overwhelmed the personal servants brought by coach Lu Xiangsheng to try to reinforce them.
"Your Excellency, the front army and the left army have been scattered, the cavalry has been defeated, the camp and the baggage are all gone, and we can hardly support it anymore."
An officer with disheveled hair and blood on his face ran out from the chaos.
He almost rolled off his horse and knelt down in front of Lu Xiangsheng.
He buried his head deeply on the ground and shouted desperately, "It's better to withdraw or not." , the way back to the capital will be cut off."
"We can't retreat.
We can't retreat.
If we retreat now, the whole army will be destroyed.
How can I face the Holy Lord?"
Faced with an irreversible defeat and the Tianxiong army that was being defeated and fled, a turbid tear quietly shed from the corner of Lu Xiangsheng's eyes, but the sword in his hand still pointed stubbornly at the battlefield ahead.
In the late Ming Dynasty, Lu Xiangsheng was known for his good governance.
The Tianxiong Army he trained was famous for its military, but the Tianxiong Army he trained still couldn't change the bad habit of bullying the weak and fearing the strong, and it would collapse at every turn.
Moreover, logistical support and food supply have always been very difficult.
Faced with such difficulties, Lu Xiangsheng could only infect his subordinates with his charisma.
He took the lead time and time again, shared the joys and sorrows with his subordinates, and always inspired loyalty.
In general, although Lu Xiangsheng is a scholar, he is a berserker like Xiang Yu, the overlord of Western Chu, on the battlefield.
Every time he goes into battle, he personally attacks with a knife and fights in bloody battles.
With his amazing courage and superb martial arts, he wins the world.
The support and appreciation of military soldiers are the motivating effect of this kind of "leadership and taking the lead".
After all, there is a limit.
Now, after suffering repeated setbacks, the morale of the Tianxiong Army has almost dropped.
In addition to attacking hungry people and bandits, the Tianxiong Army has not experienced several battles.
After all, it is difficult to defeat the Tianxiong Army.
The Guan Ning Cavalry was trained on the Liaodong battlefield.
Then, the last straw that broke the camel's back was finally thrown.
"Oh no, Lord Participant, the rebel reinforcements have arrived."
In the wilderness not far from the battlefield, a long silver dragon suddenly appeared.
It was a torrent of iron armor that could be called super luxurious in this era.
Thousands of soldiers from the Guan Ning Army, possibly mixed with a small number of Hou Jin's white armored soldiers, were wearing dazzling armor and were slowly pressing towards the Tianxiong Army who were still resisting.
Under the sunlight, the rebel battle formation opposite was filled with cold light, like a silver snake twisting its body.
Seeing such a scene, Lu Xiangsheng finally had to admit that his defeat was decided this time, "Let's retreat to Tongzhou."
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"I have to order you to take the master away quickly."
The general who came to report the news gritted his teeth, turned around and jumped on his horse, waved fiercely at the officers and soldiers of the Supervisory Biao Camp, and then led his own servants to the battlefield to the east. rushed in the direction.
At the same time, the official banner of the army began to slowly move towards the capital in the west.
After the Guan Ning Army defected and Liaodong Jiannu invaded Shanhaiguan, Lu Xiangsheng's Tianxiong Army was the first to respond to the edict of King Qin of the World.
At that time, he had just wiped out the rogue bandits in the capital and was leading troops to reinforce the Shandong battlefield.
As a result, he had to reach Cangzhou.
Knowing this shocking change, he had no choice but to turn around and head north again.
At this time, Guan Ning's army had captured the entire Yongping Mansion, but the canal was still open for the time being, so Tianxiong's army quickly returned to the capital by water.
Unexpectedly, after arriving in the capital, the imperial court neither provided food nor paid military salaries, but only urged Lu Xiangsheng to go out to defeat the enemy as soon as possible.
At the same time, the eunuch Gao Qiqian was sent to serve as the supervisor of the army, and Lu Xiangsheng's 10,000 troops were separated, saying that he was going to defend the capital and resist the remaining Shaanxi bandits stranded in Jifu.
Lu Xiangsheng knew that with the remaining 20,000 troops on hand, he was no match for the Jin Army and Guan Ning Army, which were more than 100,000 later.
He originally wanted to set up camp outside the city and compete with the capital's defenders, relying on the strong city and the Build a stronghold to defend against enemy troops.
Helpless, a group of armchair scholars in the Ministry of War pressed hard and mobilized the imperial censors to stir up a wave of public opinion, criticizing Lu Xiangsheng for being afraid of the enemy.
In desperation, Lu Xiangsheng had no choice but to bite the bullet and march eastward, hoping to defeat the rebels or slave-building forces.
We should serve as a vanguard, make an explanation internally and externally, and then return to the capital.
As a result, as soon as his Tianxiong army set off, Zu Dashou had already led a Guan Ning army into Shuntian Mansion.
The two armies met in Jizhou, about 100 kilometers away from Beijing, and a battle broke out immediately.
On the Jizhou battlefield, the Tianxiong Army, which had only fought a few grass bandits since its formation and lacked experience in hard battles, was obviously no match for Guan Ning's cavalry.
Soon the entire line collapsed, and even the old camp was taken away.
In the end, there were only less than three soldiers.
Thousands of people followed Lu Xiangsheng and fled to Tongzhou.
All artillery and baggage were lost.
At the same time, Wu Xiang led another Guan Ning army to attack Tianjin Wei and cut off the canal leading to Beijing.
Eastern suburbs of the capital, outside Tongzhou City After running wildly for three days and nights, the exhausted Lu Xiangsheng finally got rid of the pursuit of Guan Ning's cavalry and led the remaining Tianxiong army to the foot of Tongzhou City.
Then I learned another piece of bad news: the 10,000-strong Tianxiong Army that had previously been stationed in the capital was unfortunately ambushed by the Shaanxi Peasant Army under the indiscriminate tossing of Gao Qiqian, the Supervising Ambassador, and was defeated in Xishan.
Gao Qiqian rode alone.
After escaping back to the capital, the army immediately collapsed.
They either surrendered to the enemy or fell into bandits.
Only a few thousand people fled to Lugouqiao Lizhai, and now they broke camp and came to join the coach Lu Xiangsheng.
But in this way, even if the troops who escaped from the Jizhou battlefield were reunited, the entire Tianxiong army only had 5,000 people left.
The even more terrifying news is not the morale of the military that has been weakened by successive defeats.
Instead, the terrifying plague came quietly.
When Tianxiong's army was fighting a bloody battle in Jizhou, people in the suburbs of Beijing generally suffered from symptoms such as coughing up blood, vomiting, diarrhea, and high fever, and died in large numbers.
Officers and soldiers from all walks of life were also littered with corpses in the plague.
When Lu Xiangsheng arrived at Tongzhou, the water transport terminal, the officials and people in the city actually closed the city gates tightly and refused to let Tianxiong's army enter the city.
Fortunately, when the enemy was approaching the city, the corrupt officials in the court finally remembered that they had to feed the Tianxiong army before they could fight, so they reluctantly squeezed out some old grain from the Tongzhou official warehouse to let the fugitives The Tianxiong army who left the battlefield was able to feed themselves.
At night in the Tianxiong Army camp, the rice and wheat they had just received were thrown into large pots, and then they were surrounded by hungry Ming army officers and soldiers, eagerly waiting for the rice to be cooked.
Although the food allocated by the court was still After a lot of deductions, what was actually obtained was very limited, but there were not many Tianxiong officers and soldiers left, so if we spent frugally, we could still feed these surviving soldiers for seven or eight days. .
In the simple tents, those lightly wounded people who had managed to escape were sighing.
What was even more frightening was that from time to time, people would be found showing symptoms of the plague, which caused waves of panic and panic, making the whole building panic.
The military camps were shrouded in a gloomy atmosphere of despair.
In the main tent of the Chinese army, a lamp looks like a bean.
Although the "Guangdeng" kerosene lamp sold from the south has become widely popular among the wealthy households in Beijing in recent years because it is cleaner and brighter.
But Lu Xiangsheng, who had always lived a simple life, still only used a dim and old-fashioned oil lamp.
Under the oil lamp, Lu Xiangsheng, who was hit by an arrow in the forehead during the Battle of Jizhou and had to be wrapped in white cloth, was lying on the couch sickly.
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He looked at the map of Gyeonggi and the latest military report.
He couldn't help but sigh and raised his head.
He stood up and looked at the roof of the tent with empty eyes, his face looking sad and helpless.
The look on his face: "Alas, tens of thousands of people from southern Hebei Province lost their troops and generals in Jizhou and retreated in a great defeat.
They have failed the Holy Grace.
Now the Shaanxi bandits are occupying Shijing Mountain in the West Mountain, peeking at Shenjing; the Guanning rebels have captured Jizhou and Sanhe, and the soldiers and horses The sentry post is only more than thirty miles away from the capital.
This is not a good thing."
As Guan Ning's army defected and the Jiannu invaded, the situation in Beizhili collapsed instantly.
The Shaanxi bandits who had been driven into the Taihang Mountains took the opportunity to once again rush into Jifu in large numbers, roving and looting everywhere.
They even reached the foot of the city of Beijing.
According to the description in the Ministry of War newspaper, "the number of Jifu bandits numbered in the tens of thousands.
The Xishan area was covered with valleys, and Liangxiang, Changping, and Zhuozhou were also burned by them from time to time."
Faced with the east-west attack by rogue bandits and slave-builders, the Beijing court was stretched thin for a while.
The chief minister of the cabinet, Wen Tiren, who presided over the government, had to mobilize troops and generals to meet the invading enemies, while also dealing with the "non-violent non-violence and non-violence" of the Lin party members in North Korea.
"Cooperation" really made me miserable, but at the end of the day The Jiannu forces from the east were advancing steadily, and no matter how many officers and soldiers were mobilized, they would be defeated in every battle, like moths flying into a flame; the rogue bandits in the west were slippery, and the officers and soldiers could not move at all for a while.
They couldn't catch up or wipe them out cleanly, and they were often ambushed and suffered a few losses.
By this time in late September, as the cities of Shuntian Prefecture fell one after another, the encirclement of Beijing City was further compressed under the pressing pressure of enemies from all walks of life.
Especially after the collapse of the Tianxiong Army, the imperial court had completely lost The ability to meet the enemy in the field can only be trapped in an isolated city.
At this time, we could collect about 40,000 officers and soldiers from every nook and cranny inside and outside the capital.
It seemed like a lot, but if it were used to defend Beijing, a city with a million people, it would only be enough to cover the city walls.
That’s all.
As for combat effectiveness, it can only be described as rubbish.
For this reason, Wen Tiren, the chief minister of the cabinet, ordered the ministers to guard the capital separately.
At the same time, he issued official documents to urge Zhu Dadian, who was going to suppress the Wenxiang Rebellion in Shandong and Xuzhou, and Zhu Dadian, who was leading 50,000 Qin troops from Shandong on his way back to the capital.
Hong Chengchou and the border troops from Xuanfu and Datong towns in the northwest came to help.
Seeing that the situation in the capital was so critical, Zhu Dadian could only give up the Wenxiang Sect rebels, quickly mobilized 30,000 officers and soldiers, known as one hundred thousand, and rushed to the capital along the canal at starry night.
But even so, on the Gyeonggi battlefield, the total strength of the Ming army was still at a disadvantage, and its combat effectiveness was far from comparable to the elite troops of the Eight Banners.
The most terrible thing is that the military command capabilities of the civilian officials in the Ming Dynasty were not even worthy of carrying their shoes in front of Huang Taiji and the Eight Banners chiefs.
In addition, the plague now spreading in Gyeonggi has further weakened the combat effectiveness of the Ming Dynasty's official army.
Lu Xiangsheng was naturally unwilling to face such a passive battle situation, but after much deliberation, he could not come up with any clever tricks to break the situation.
He had never had a decent contest with the Jurchens before, but had only defeated the bandits repeatedly, so he thought he was pulling the strings.
The Tianxiong army that came out was pretty good.
Unexpectedly, in the battle with Guan Ning's army, they found that Tianxiong's army was as powerless in front of Guan Ning's army as a young child fighting against a strong man.
And it is such a force that the imperial court spent all its treasury to build.
It can be called the brave and powerful Guan Ning Army.
In recent years, it has been beaten to pieces by the Jurchen Eight Banners.
It was in great disarray.
At first, it was just that it did not dare to fight in the field in the face of Jiannu.
In the Battle of Linghe, Guan Ning's army could not even defend the city.
In view of the above-mentioned poor performance, many military generals in the mainland are quite disdainful of Guan Ningjun, feeling that this group of people is just a show-off.
But I didn't expect that at this moment, when Guan Ningjun turned around and attacked the court, he would be so fierce and sharp.
The 30,000 Tianxiong Army that he personally organized and trained is already considered one of the most capable troops among the current Beizhili army.
However, on the Jizhou battlefield, they were defeated by the Guan Ning Army, a slave-building force.
In front of him, he was still helpless.
And now he not only has to fight Guan Ning's army under the walls of Beijing again, but there are also at least 40,000 to 50,000 elite Eight Banners soldiers behind him who need to deal with them.
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Such a desperate situation can no longer be described by the words "a mantis trying to beat a chariot".
No matter how talented Lu Xiangsheng is, there is no way he can make a comeback.
"Zhu Dadian is still in Jinan.
For a while, it is difficult to save the fire from afar.
The capital camp has been abandoned for a long time and is completely vulnerable.
I heard that the two towns of Xuanda and Da are also being attacked by rogue bandits recently.
I am afraid that I am unable to enter the capital and King Qin is now in danger.
It seems that we can only count on the Qin army of Hong Heng and Jiu Hong Chengchou."
Lu Xiangsheng frowned and said thoughtfully, "If this happens, Shandong will be depleted of troops.
Not only will the Wenxiang Sect probably resurrect, but Chen Xin, the bandit in Dengzhou, may also be ready to make a move.
Whatever, the safety of the capital comes first in everything." , I can’t care about anything else.”
Similar to Lu Xiangsheng who was in Tongzhou, all the civil and military officials in Beijing now regarded Hong Chengchou's Qin army as the last straw.
However, after waiting unbearably for several days, Lu Xiangsheng and the Manchu civil and military officials in Beijing received such devastating news: "Tianjin mutiny, Hong Chengchou's 50,000 Qin army mutinied and rebelled on the way north to King Qin" oshow7: