I

  Chapter 549 546【Dashun civil servants】

  The Governor of Xi’an’s name is Hong Daoyuan. Although he doesn’t like those arrogant soldiers, he still came down from the tower to welcome him.

  But the generals who led the troops ignored him at all and rushed towards the city.

   Of course, hundreds of cavalry were also sent out to quickly occupy the gate of Xi'an and drive away the guards of the Dashun Army.

  The gatekeepers did not resist at all, and even smiled while walking, exchanging views with each other:

   "It's strange that cavalry don't wear armor."

   "Everyone has a gun in hand."

   "The firecracker has no match, and I don't know how to light it."

   "What kind of clothes are they made of? They're all buttoned up, they look energetic."

   "I'm afraid it's not the team of the prince (Li Guo), the prince passed by our Xi'an a few months ago."

   "..."

  The guards of the city stood far away, pointing at the Datong Dragoons.

  Hong Daoyuan ran over quickly, and said with a smile on his face, "Which general is it?"

  The officer in charge of capturing the city gate was Wang Enmin, who turned around and asked, "Which one are you?"

  Hong Daoyuan was pleasantly surprised: "Judging from the general's accent, he is actually from Huguang? My ancestral home is Xiangyang, where is the general's native place?"

  Wang Enmin said angrily: "What kind of official are you?"

  Hong Daoyuan replied: "I am Xia Hong Daoyuan, and I am the Governor of Xi'an."

   "The magistrate of Xi'an is the magistrate of Xi'an, what kind of magistrate, do you think this is Jinling?" Wang Enmin scolded, "This is a hypocritical official, arrest him quickly!"

  Hong Daoyuan's mind was a little confused, why did he do it while talking?

  Pseudo-sequence?

  The civil servant's mind is spinning fast, those guards are still watching the fun, Hong Daoyuan has already understood. When he was held down by the dragoons, he even knelt down: "Sinner Hong Daoyuan, welcome the Heavenly Soldiers of Datong, long live His Majesty the Emperor of Datong!"

  Wang Enmin couldn't laugh or cry: "Why don't you give your allegiance to the Pseudo-Shun Emperor?"

Hong Daoyuan replied: "What is the pseudo-Shun Emperor? That is trespassing! The junior ministers are born and have fame, but they are called around by the Pseudo-Shun thieves. A good magistrate, you can't control this, and you can't control that. Martial arts masters have the final say on everything. Although my ancestral home is in Xiangyang, I have moved to Chang'an County for four generations, and my ancestors worked hard to create some foundations, buying thousands of acres of land in Chang'an County..."

   "Has the land been divided?" Wang Enmin asked.

"It's not that the land has been divided, but there are hundreds of acres of good land that were forcibly occupied by the soldiers," Hong Daoyuan said with a mournful face. , some were called to farm for generals. The rest of the tenants all went to plant unowned fields. The government said that after three years of land reclamation, only half of the grain and tax would be paid, wouldn’t all the tenants run away?”

  Wang Enmin laughed loudly: "It deserves it!"

Hong Daoyuan didn't seem to hear the ridicule, and said: "The tenant ran away and paid it back. The rent and money owed were also wiped out by the hypocrite court. The tenant didn't pay back the money and grain owed, and he didn't give the landlord to cultivate the land. But how do we live? If the soldiers come to Xi’an today, and they finally defend it until the clouds open and the moon shines, then the damned intruders will definitely be defeated!”

  Wang Enmin became more outrageous the more he heard, and asked: "Don't you know that our Datong court will also erase the money and grain owed by the tenants? Moreover, it will also divide the land of the landlords?"

   "Those are all rumors," Hong Daoyuan thought he was testing himself, and said with a smile, "The Datong court is orthodox in the world, how could it act like bandits?"

  Wang Enmin was speechless for a moment. This civil servant who is hypocritical to the imperial court, the news is too closed, isn't he?

   But one thing is for sure, none of the civil servants like Li Zicheng, they are suppressed by military generals and cannot stand out. Therefore, Cao Bianjiao and Chen Tangong took the cavalry and surrendered wherever they went, and the civil officials led the city guards to kneel down to meet the heavenly soldiers.

   Not only the military generals oppressed, but Li Zicheng himself was very harsh on civilian officials.

  He demanded that civil servants must be diligent, and that corruption would be severely investigated and dealt with. At the same time, the salary was low, far inferior to that of the Datong court. If only wages were used to support the family, they would barely be able to eat enough.

  …

   Zhou Mu Yamen.

   "General, the whole city has been controlled, and all officials and soldiers of the puppet dynasty have been captured!"

"Maintain law and order, and don't let chaos in the city. Let Liu Yao and the others go back and report that Xi'an has been conquered. Also, recruit troops on the spot, and only recruit good people with family members in the city. Beware of enemy generals leading a large army to attack Xi'an... "

   After arranging things, Cao Bianjiao looked at Wang Zeyao and said with a smile: "Master Zhou Mu, in the whole of Shaanxi, where are the troops?"

  Wang Zeyao shook his head: "I don't know."

   "It seems that Master Zhou Mu is going to die for Li Zicheng's loyalty?" Cao Bianjiao threatened.

  Wang Zeyao said anxiously: "I really don't know. Although I am the governor of the state, civilian officials are not allowed to intervene in military affairs. Not only can't control, but they can't even ask, otherwise they will be inquiring about military affairs without authorization."

  Cao Bianjiao asked again: "How many soldiers are there in Xi'an Mansion?"

Wang Zeyao replied: "There should be no soldiers. They are all city guards and yamen servants. The city guards in various states and counties range from dozens to hundreds, and it is absolutely impossible to thousands. And they are all weak soldiers, who have not fought much. After the war, those who were able to fight were taken away."

  Cao Bianjiao was puzzled and said: "It's normal to have no soldiers elsewhere. This Xi'an is the capital of Shaanxi. How can there be four or five hundred weak soldiers guarding the city?"

Wang Zeyao sighed: "This is the land of Guanzhong. What is Guanzhong? There are majestic passes on all sides. Even if there are soldiers, they will go to guard the majestic pass. Where will they guard Xi'an?" Wang Zeyao was very curious, "Where did the general come from in Xi'an?" ?”

Cao Bianjiao smiled and reported the cities along the way: "Puzhou, Linjin, Ronghe, Hejin, Hancheng, Heyang, Chengcheng, Baishui, Pucheng, Fuping, Sanyuan, Jingyang, Xianyang. Along the way, plus Xi'an, Lianke fourteen cities. On the way, there was only one Chaoyi county, and puppet officials led troops to resist."

  Wang Zeyao muttered: "There is a garrison in Weinan, which is the gateway to Xi'an, and you bypassed it."

   "What? Why didn't you say it earlier!" Cao Bianjiao was furious.

  Wang Zeyao said: "There are only 3,000 troops stationed there, so there is really no need for the general to panic."

  Cao Bianjiao asked, "Where are the soldiers?"

Wang Zeyao didn't bother to hide it: "Two of the soldiers in Shaanxi were in Yulin and Ningxia to guard against the Mongols. One was in Gansu, guarding Jiayuguan. One was in Hanzhong, guarding against the Datong army in Sichuan. One was in Tongguan, guarding against the Datong army in Henan." Army. The 3,000 defenders in Weinan were used to guard grain and grass. The grain from Guanzhong was first transported to Weinan, and then transported from Weinan to Tongguan.”

  Cao Bianjiao grasped the overall situation in an instant. After all, he was born as a frontier general and knew the geography of Shaanxi very well.

  There are too many places for Li Zicheng to defend. There are Mongols in the north and west.

  The Ordos Department in the Hetao area originally belonged to the Chahar Department, and fell to the Qing Dynasty together with the Chahar Department.

   But the Chahar Department wanted to rebel, and the Ordos Department, which was farther away, had long refused to listen to Manqing's orders. Up to now, the Manchu and Qing Dynasties have not set up a flag in Ordos, that is to say, the rule of Jiji is not counted.

  They didn't care whether Li Zicheng joined forces with the Manchus or not, they would go south to grab food when they found an opportunity.

  A few years ago, Li Zicheng recuperated and only kept 100,000 troops, and the rest of the troops went to farms. These garrison troops are either surrendered soldiers or refugees, and they have no combat effectiveness at all, and they don't practice after being ordered to garrison the fields.

  So, Li Zicheng is actually very short of troops. In addition to the 100,000 standing army, tens of thousands have been temporarily trained this year. Most of the troops stationed in Tongguan belong to the new army.

  Due to the major earthquake in Guanzhong during the Jiajing period, the Yellow River was diverted, and Daqing Pass lost its role of guarding the throat. Tongguan can only block the way for the Datong army to advance westward. As long as the Datong army crosses the river smoothly, they can quickly go north and sweep the land of Xihe.

   Now, for the Dashun court, the war situation in Shaanxi has been completely rotten.

  The main reason is not only the lack of soldiers, but also the surrender of civil servants everywhere. These civil servants have no sense of belonging to the Dashun court, and have long been prepared to surrender at any time. As long as they pretend to defend the city, it is impossible for Cao Bianjiao to conquer fourteen cities in a row, and the speed of attacking the city is faster than the speed of news transmission.

  Cao Bianjiao asked again: "Who is guarding the rations in Weinan?"

   "Liu Sanhu." Wang Zeyao said.

   "Liu Sanhu?" Cao Bianjiao had never heard of this name.

  Wang Zeyao explained: "It is Liu Tichun's third brother. Liu Tichun is Liu Erhu, his elder brother Liu Hong is the big tiger, and there are three tigers, four tigers and even seven tigers. Now the Liu family is dead and only three tigers are left."

   Most of the generals under Li Zicheng came from bitter backgrounds.

   It is said that the Liu family's seven tigers were simply forced to rebel. The rent owed by the family to the landlord was 1 stone and 5 dong, and the usury owed 20 taels of silver. Dahu and Erhu were **** and beaten, and the landlord forced them to pay rent. Sanhu and Wuhu were angry and beat the landlord's two house slaves to death.

  The landlord reported to the officials, and the Liu family's seven tigers revolted, killing the landlord and opening the warehouse to release grain.

  When the Liu family's seven tigers defected to Li Zicheng, their rebel army had grown to tens of thousands. It can also be regarded as a shareholder who brings capital into the group, not an ordinary thief, and Li Zicheng thinks highly of him.

  He Zhen, Dang Mengan and others turned against each other, and unexpectedly met Liu Erhu (Liu Tichun).

   This tiger was also very reckless. When the army was broken, instead of fighting with the Datong army, it chased into the Yellow River desperately, beheading the traitor He Zhen before running for its life.

   "Can you persuade Liu Sanhu to surrender?" Cao Bianjiao asked.

  Wang Zeyao shook his head: "Impossible."

  Historically, Li Zicheng's favorite adopted son Zhang Nai was surrendered, but Liu Erhu chose to hang himself with his whole family.

  Cao Bianjiao still wanted to try. After consolidating the city defense, he sent people to Weinan to persuade him to surrender.

  Liu Sanhu's reply was: "I'll give it to you in Xi'an first, and I'll get it back later!"

  Tian Jianxiu, Liu Erhu, Liu Sanhu and others are frantically expanding the army, distributing weapons and equipment to the civilians, and expanding the army to 50,000 in a blink of an eye, training soldiers in Tongguan, Chaoyi, and Weinan respectively.

  When Li Guo returns from Hanzhong with his troops, Cao Bianjiao's lone army will inevitably be surrounded.

  Unless, Cao Bianjiao led the cavalry, jumped out ahead of time, and continued to attack various places in Guanzhong.

  The next battle will most likely be near Tongguan. If Tongguan is not pulled out, it will be difficult for the Datong Army to truly occupy Guanzhong. The Datong Army in Hexi is very likely to be dumped, because the Shanxi Dashun Army is also rushing over.

  (end of this chapter)