I

Chongzhen twelve years, October.

Zhao Han ordered his troops to divide into two groups, one to receive Fuzhou by boat, and the other to go south to receive Tingzhou. Those who resisted in the corner were all wiped out, and the number of officials who surrendered or fled was almost evenly divided.

Over the past few years, more than a dozen uprisings broke out in Fujian, and droughts occurred many times. Both the gentry, the officials and the people did not want to fight.

Four words: people's mind is fixed.

The autumn grain just harvested in Jiangxi was transported to Fujian for disaster relief. A large amount of grain from Hunan was transported to Jiangsu and Zhejiang for sale. The territories in several provinces under Zhao Han's rule were finally able to recuperate this time.

The north is more chaotic.

The officers and soldiers in Yunyang and Xiangyang have been without pay for half a year, and they usually rely on looting the people for food and drink.

Governor Wang Aoyong asked for the payment of military salaries, which totaled more than 100,000 taels of silver. If the imperial court has no money, ask for the distribution of salt quotations, and attract merchants to sell salt quotations to offset military funds.

Chongzhen agreed.

The rest of the officers and soldiers from all walks of life also used salt to deduct the deduction, and let them figure out a way to cash it out.

For a time, the price of salt was excessive and depreciated rapidly.

Huizhou merchants, Qin merchants and Shanxi merchants suffered heavy losses. In order to calm the resentment of merchants, the Lianghuai patrol salt censor strengthened the management of saltworks.

This way, the businessman is happy, but Yanxiao and Zaohu are forced to rebel.

Especially the salt-burning kitchen households, if they do not rebel, they will only have a dead end, because they rely on selling illegal salt to survive.

The salt lord Zheng Guofeng gathered a crowd to raise troops, and the two Huaizao households echoed each other, killing the supervisors of each saltworks. In ten months, he had more than 30,000 troops and occupied four counties of Rugao, Haimen, Taixing, and Tongzhou (Nantong).

The salt merchants exploded.

Huizhou salt merchants and Shanshan salt merchants used to play tricks on each other, but this time they joined forces to recruit soldiers and assist local officials to suppress the salt owl uprising.

Huizhou merchants kept writing letters, asking Zhao Tianwang to send troops to take the Lianghuai area as soon as possible.

Zhao Han turned a deaf ear to it and kept his troops on hold until next summer's harvest.

The battle between Huaihe River and Huaihe River was lively, and Hubei was occupied by Zhang Xianzhong.

"Cao Cao" Luo Rucai was originally a gangster with Zhang Xianzhong, but they had a falling out some time ago. The reason was that Zhang Xianzhong gave the land to his godsons and generals for selfishness, and Luo Rucai was busy for a long time with only two counties.

Luo Rucai led his army east to the Dabie Mountains and captured Shangcheng, Gushi, Guangzhou, Guangshan, Xixian, Luoshan and other counties.

This action frightened the Henan officers and soldiers. They were besieging and suppressing Li Zicheng, and Luo Rucai suddenly developed wildly behind his back.

...

Xinzheng.

"Cough cough cough!"

Yang Sichang coughed repeatedly, until he couldn't straighten his back, as if he wanted to cough up his lungs.

The most powerful civil servant in Ming Dynasty, his beard and hair are all white at this moment. Compared to last year's full of energy, she seemed to be twenty years older, and her face was covered with wrinkles at some point.

Luoyang City was high and deep, and Li Zicheng couldn't fight it down. As Xuan Da's frontier army went south, King Chuang was driven away again.

What kind of farming, what kind of institutional system, these policies can't be implemented, he can only continue to be a rogue.

Li Zicheng was in a difficult situation, and Yang Sichang was also in a difficult situation. The armies from all walks of life were fighting for pay.

"Report!"

"Tiger Dawei, Ferocious Tiger, Zuo Liangyu, join forces to attack and smash the bandit camp, behead more than 5,000 enemies, and flee to Yanling!"

Yang Sichang stood up excitedly, with a sickly flushed face, and said repeatedly: "Okay, okay, well fought, let the generals from all walks of life report their merits."

"Cough cough cough cough!"

Yang Sichang coughed again and coughed up a hand full of blood. He secretly wiped off the blood, not daring to let anyone see it.

The next day, all parties reported their military exploits, and Yang Sichang drafted a victory report document, and immediately sent someone to Beijing.

The imperial court had no money to reward meritorious service, so Yang Sichang had no choice but to ask for the title of earl, asking that Hu Dawei, Meng Ruhu, and Zuo Liangyu all be made earls, and the rest of the generals should also be made wives and sons.

If he didn't do this, he wouldn't be able to command the army, and the imperial court owed too much money.

"Supervisor, a eunuch is here!"

As soon as the letter of victory was sent out, a eunuch suddenly came to Xinzheng to announce the decree.

This edict was not official, so the eunuch stepped back and said to Yang Sichang: "Mr. Yang Ge, Your Majesty asks you, when will the intruders be wiped out?"

"I just won a big game a few days ago." Yang Sichang replied.

The eunuch sighed and said, "Your Majesty ordered you to quickly suppress the bandits and dispatch elites to rescue Jinzhou! If...the bandits cannot be suppressed within half a year, Your Majesty will have to replace the master with someone else."

Yang Sichang didn't even bother to argue, and said weakly: "I will definitely do my best."

There was not much wealth in the army, so Yang Sichang took five hundred taels and gave it to the eunuchs as filial silver, and repeatedly explained that he had no money.

With the spring breeze blowing on his face, the eunuch sneered when he left the barracks: "This old man Yang Ge is so stingy, how about sending a beggar for five hundred taels?"

Yang Sichang was exhausted physically and mentally. Due to the emperor's order, he could only let the ministries speed up to surround Li Zicheng.

Li Zicheng continued to move south, intending to join forces with Luo Rucai.

By November, Li and Luohe's soldiers had left the county, with a crowd of nearly 200,000 people.

The two sides confronted each other in a small town called Tongzhongdian, conducting small-scale testing of each other, and no one dared to attack without authorization.

After confronting each other for half a month, Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai suddenly left their camp at night.

Yang Guozhu, Wang Pu, and Zuo Liangyu thought it was a tactic to lure the enemy, and ordered not to pursue them. As fierce as a tiger, Hu Dawei led his troops to chase after him, thinking that this was a good opportunity to defeat the enemy.

Yang Sichang was sitting in command, and it was difficult to stop the pursuit of the enemy. He was afraid that the two tiger generals would be in an ambush, so he asked Yang Guozhu, Wang Pu, and Zuo Liangyu to chase the enemy together, so that they could take care of each other.

The three of them did not dare to disobey the order, but they did not want to chase into the mountains, so they stopped after a few miles and sent out sentries to inquire about the situation.

As fierce as a tiger, Hu Dawei has already killed madly. He chased into the mountainous area, and more than 100,000 bandits fled in all directions, and collapsed all over the mountains and plains.

Zuo Liangyu got the victory news in the middle of the night, how could he be willing to take this opportunity? Immediately lead troops to chase after him, intending to take the opportunity to make some military exploits.

"Kill the left thief!"

When Zuo Liangyu entered the mountain, it was already light, and suddenly a group of cavalry came out from behind.

But it was Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai who were cruel and ruthless. They used more than 100,000 infantrymen of their own as bait, and let the officers and soldiers chase and drive them away.

More than 4,000 cavalrymen from the old battalion of rogue bandits rushed out in the morning light, and charged towards Zuo Liangyu who had been marching for half the night.

"Quick retreat!"

Zuo Liangyu was inexplicably terrified, thinking that the tiger who entered the mountain was as fierce as a tiger, and the tiger was so powerful that he had already lost the battle.

In this surprise attack, all the infantry under Zuo Liangyu's command were lost.

Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai chased and killed them for a while, and soon went into the mountain to continue fighting.

More than 100,000 bandits fled in all directions, as fierce as a tiger, and the tiger is so powerful that they have already chased them madly. After chasing them, they couldn't hold back at all. The soldiers under his command killed thieves and robbed property everywhere, and only the servants and cavalry were still around the two of them.

After Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai entered the mountain, they led more than 4,000 old battalion cavalry, and rushed to kill the scattered government troops when they saw them.

Killed all the way, followed the fleeing officers and soldiers, and soon found Hu Dawei's family guards.

It was another cavalry duel, with more than four thousand fighting against more than one thousand, and the former still broke out suddenly.

Where does Tiger Dawei dare to fight? Immediately choose to escape.

After chasing until noon, both sides were exhausted. Hu Dawei's horse stumbled, fell to the ground suddenly, and was hacked to death by Luo Rucai.

As for the tiger-like army, it was transporting goods in the mountains and escorting more than a thousand captives.

"Tiger Dawei is dead!"

Luo Rucai held up the head of Hu Dawei with a spear, Li Zicheng asked people to hold up the banner of Hu Dawei, and ordered the cavalry to shout together.

As fierce as a tiger looked back, he couldn't see his head clearly, but the flag was exactly the flag of Tiger Dawei.

"withdraw!"

As fierce as a tiger, he dared not love to fight, so he dropped his infantry and ran away with his servants and cavalry.

In this battle, about 60,000 to 70,000 infantrymen of Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai ran away, and thousands of them were beheaded by officers and soldiers.

But on the officers and soldiers' side, Zuo Liangyu and the tiger-like infantry were all lost, and Tiger Dawei was directly annihilated.

In terms of the number of troops lost, Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai must have lost, but they actually won a big victory.

Although there are more than 100,000 rogues, most of the pawns are consumables. The two men's elite troops add up to more than 4,000 cavalry, and thousands of old battalion infantry are defending Xixian County with their families.

Handsome account.

Yang Sichang, who received the military report, sat down slumped, staring ahead blankly.

Just looking at the combat effectiveness of both sides, it is impossible for officers and soldiers to lose.

"How could you lose?" Yang Sichang couldn't figure it out.

Several Tang newspapers were sent in a row, and the generals from all walks of life accused each other, which was nothing more than rhetoric such as underestimating the enemy and rushing forward, fearing the enemy and not moving forward.

The troops of Yang Guozhu and Wang Pu hadn't fought a battle until now. They guessed that there was a problem, so they chose to stand still.

Hu Dawei and fierce as a tiger chased the enemy first, until they completely lost their organizational system.

Zuo Liangyu didn't dare to chase at first, but when he heard about the great victory, he went after him again, and was caught off guard.

The several groups of officers and soldiers were completely fighting on their own, and they were not twisted together at all.

"puff!"

Yang Sichang spat out a mouthful of old blood and passed out in the barracks on the spot.

...

Beijing.

If Chongzhen was struck by lightning, he couldn't believe it: "Did Yang Ge die of illness?"

"Your Majesty, this is the legacy of Elder Yang Ge."

With trembling hands, Chongzhen read the suicide note carefully.

Yang Sichang first blamed himself, saying that he had owed the emperor's kindness. It also explained that the reason for the defeat in this battle was all due to the generals' disobedience to military orders. If they pursued together or did not pursue them, such a big defeat would not have occurred.

Finally, Yang Sichang recommended Chen Xinjia to be Minister of War.

Chongzhen put down Yang Sichang's suicide note and tried not to cry, he knew that Daming was hopelessly hopeless.

Zhao Han's occupation of Jiangnan was a fatal blow, and the imperial court only had the salt tax of Huaihe and Huaihe Rivers left.

Now, the uprising of Yan Xiao and Zaohu has caused the imperial court to fail to collect salt tax, and Yan Yin has become a piece of waste paper.

The imperial court ran out of money, and the capital was experiencing a rice shortage, and the price of rice had risen to five liang of silver a stone.

Even in the city of Beijing, people began to starve to death due to lack of food!

The Tartars are besieging Jinzhou, Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai are raging in Henan, and Zhang Xianzhong is expanding wildly in Hubei. As soon as the Shandong Cao Army Uprising was suppressed, the Lianghuai salt lord stove households rebelled again.

By the way, there are also rebels in Sichuan, and more than a dozen groups have emerged. Qin Liangyu is running to suppress the rebellion in Sichuan.

Due to the severe famine, the people of Beizhili revolted, and the officers and soldiers of Jizhen suppressed it.

Chongzhen was in a desperate situation, and there was no way to rescue Liaodong, and he couldn't even make up the expenses for the army's departure.

Zu Dashou's Liaodong generals could only slowly defend the city by themselves, and they would definitely surrender when the food ran out. Reinforcements can't be waited for, at most let Hong Chengchou bring Jizhen soldiers to rescue, and the Beizhili uprising army must be pacified first.

Chongzhen called all his sons and daughters here, and it was rare for him to have a good meal.

He couldn't bear to look at these children, and suddenly remembered Wang Tiaoding's message.

Send your children to the South?

Chongzhen sent several groups of Jinyiwei to the south, knowing that Zhao Han had the reputation of "benevolence and kindness". Whether it is true benevolence or false benevolence, reputation must be taken into account after all, and perhaps it will not kill the royal family.

After figuring things out, Chongzhen hesitated again. If the children were sent to the south, what would the Ming royal family's face be?

(Sorry, I missed a leader, thanks to the leader of Readerk for the reward.)

(Take it easy, there are only two updates today.)