Gao Yingxiang felt a little regretful at this time, because a series of victories had made him lose his mind and he actually followed Li Zicheng's suggestion to divide the troops into three groups. However, his officers and soldiers abandoned the other two armies and concentrated their superior forces to encircle and suppress his team.
It cannot be said that Gao Yingxiang did not know how to fight. In the few years after the rebellion, he had fought hundreds of battles, big and small. Even a person who knew nothing about military affairs would understand a little bit about the tactics of war after fighting so many battles. Gao Yingxiang knew very well in his heart that the officers and soldiers wanted to defeat him one by one. As the leader of the rebels, most of the most elite soldiers in his team were under his command, so he naturally became the target of the officers and soldiers' main attack.
Although the Ming Dynasty's officers and soldiers were no match for the Jiannu, they were much stronger when fighting these incompletely equipped rebels. In history, Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong were almost completely wiped out by the officers and soldiers several times. If it weren't for those officers and soldiers who wanted to keep the rebels for their own protection and eventually became a threat to them, Li Zicheng might not have been able to overthrow the regime of Emperor Chongzhen.
The rebel army had a strength of nearly 100,000, and Gao Yingxiang led more than 50,000 of them. But this time, the officers and soldiers were ruthless and concentrated 200,000 troops and combined them with local militias. Like a pack of wolves driving a tiger, they drove Gao Yingxiang into the trap step by step.
Speaking of which, ever since Gao Yingxiang followed Li Zicheng's advice and began to divide his troops to plunder the land, he made a series of strategic and tactical mistakes. One of them was that Gao Yingxiang claimed to have an army of hundreds of thousands, which seemed powerful, but in fact, the majority of the troops were the elderly, the weak, women and children. Gao Yingxiang was dazzled by the apparent strength and a series of victories, and he didn't know that the court officials and soldiers seemed incompetent, but once the real battle came, the court with an army of nearly three million could actually easily gather an army of hundreds of thousands. In history, in the wars with the Jiannu, in several major battles, the Ming Dynasty was destroyed by hundreds of thousands of troops, but despite the death of so many soldiers, the Ming Dynasty still had a steady stream of troops.
The court soldiers were not as strong as the Jiannu, but they were much stronger than Gao Yingxiang and his men. When they were concentrated together, they far surpassed Gao Yingxiang and his men in manpower, so it was no problem for them to defeat Gao Yingxiang and his men. However, Gao Yingxiang did not adjust his mentality in time, but fought a hard battle with the Guanning Iron Cavalry of Hong Chengchou's army. Hong Chengchou was a military master of his generation. In history, he had no way to deal with the Jiannu, but it was no problem for him to deal with Gao Yingxiang and his men.
After Gao Yingxiang suffered a minor defeat in a head-on battle with Hong Chengchou, he felt that the officers and soldiers might encircle him. In this situation, he was a little afraid of the enemy and led his men to break out of the encirclement. Finally, when he was on the way to the enemy army, in order to drive away the harassment from the local militia, he mistakenly dispatched his cavalry little by little.
If Gao Yingxiang had sent out cavalry to attack all the way regardless of the cost instead of just avoiding them, even if he could not win, the strategic intention of the officers and soldiers would have been broken and they would not have fallen into their trap.
In front of Yangjialing, Gao Yingxiang hesitated for a moment and was about to order the troops to enter. At this moment, one of his subordinates could not help but run up to Gao Yingxiang and said, "King Chuang, be careful, there is an ambush here."
This little leader is an undercover sent by Tang Tong. Now in Gao Yingxiang's team, there are as many as a thousand undercover agents. These people not only have good military training, but also have a lot of
Having systematically studied military knowledge, most of them are aware of the places like Yangjialing that are suitable for ambush. This small leader is one of the leaders among these undercover agents. When encountering such a situation, he certainly does not want to follow Gao Yingxiang to die. At the same time, he has to be responsible for the lives of his men.
A cold light flashed in Gao Yingxiang's eyes, and he ignored the man. He knew in his heart that this place was a suitable place for an ambush. The officers and soldiers had surrounded them, and this was the only way out. The cavalry he sent out to drive away the local militia had not returned. Gao Yingxiang had realized his mistake. The strongest fighting force under his command had been lured away. Now there were more than 100,000 officers and soldiers behind him, including 20,000 Guanning Iron Cavalry, and 20,000 to 30,000 local militia cavalry. He no longer had the strength to fight. Yangjialing in front of him was his only way out.
Gao Yingxiang finally ordered the troops to be divided into five parts, with a certain distance between each part. That way, even if they were ambushed, only part of them would be affected. When one part was about to pass through Yangjialing, Sun Chuanting's men could not help but remind Sun Kewang: "Sir, the front of the rebels is about to leave Yangjialing. Will you..."
Sun Chuanting held up the monocular in his hand and watched for a moment. Upon hearing this, he snorted and said, "Let them go. The rebel leader Gao Yingxiang is our priority."
When one part began to walk out of Yangjialing, the second part followed and entered Yangjialing. When the second part was about to walk out of Yangjialing, Gao Yingxiang breathed a sigh of relief. Judging from this situation, there should be no ambush.
Gao Yingxiang was a little cunning and did not pass through with the third team. Instead, he followed the fourth team into Yangjialing. Gao Yingxiang didn't know at all that Sun Chuanting was staring at the general's flag beside him, and he, the rebel leader under the general's flag, was also in Sun Chuanting's telescope. When he saw that Gao Yingxiang was finally ambushed, Sun Chuanting showed a smile at the corner of his mouth.
With the sound of a cannon, the battle finally began. Zhou Linfeng, who had been observing from a distance, finally put down his telescope and said to his men with a smile, "As I expected, that Lord Sun who had been missing for a while is really lying in ambush here. Men, let's go! It's time to build our career."
Hearing the sound of the cannon, Gao Yingxiang's heart instantly sank into an icy valley, his face turned miserable. He had finally fallen into the calculations of the officers and soldiers. If he didn't get defeated miserably this time, he was afraid that he would not be able to escape from the afterlife.
A small part of Sun Chuanting's team was composed of muskets, most of them were arrows, and some used rolling logs and stones. After the sound of cannons, these things poured towards Gao Yingxiang's team. There were still a small number of muskets in Gao Yingxiang's team. Most of the muskets that Tang Tong sold to him at a low price were sold to Huang Taiji by Gao Yingxiang.
The small amount of musket fire was completely ineffective. Gao Yingxiang commanded his men to rush out of Yangjialing, but at this time a large number of rocks rolled down from above and blocked the exit of Yangjialing. The team that had already left Yangjialing wanted to turn back to rescue Gao Yingxiang, but the intersection was blocked and they could not enter for a while.
If Gao Yingxiang's troops were equipped with a large number of muskets at this time, Sun Chuanting's ambush might not be able to withstand the counterattack of tens of thousands of muskets. However, in order to form a cavalry, Gao Yingxiang traded a large number of muskets with Huang Taiji for horses. Later, Tang Tong cut off his supply of muskets because he sold them to Huang Taiji. Now Gao Yingxiang's musket battalion has fewer people than Li Yan's. It can be said that he brought this upon himself.
The battle was over very quickly. Some people surrendered to the officers and soldiers, some were killed by the officers and soldiers' guns, arrows and rocks before they knew what was going on, and some people tried to resist, but it was of no avail. Together with the fifth part of the team that was left behind, they were like sand before a flood and disappeared without a trace in an instant under the impact of the surging officers and soldiers and the local militia. The undercover agents of Tang Tongpai in Gao Yingxiang's team had received strict military training, so they found shelter when the battle broke out and surrendered very simply after the officers and soldiers arrived. The casualties among them were not heavy.
The reason why these people surrendered so readily was because Tang Tong had told them that once they were in trouble, they should surrender their officers and soldiers to preserve their strength. After all, it was not easy to train a qualified soldier. Tang Tong was willing to pay a sum of money to redeem them.
Tang Tong did not agree with surrender, but he was unwilling to let his men really work for Gao Yingxiang and others. After these people surrendered, the person in charge gave a secret signal for everyone to gather in the group of prisoners. Then the person in charge began to negotiate with the officers and soldiers, saying that he and others were spies sent by the Wangjia Township Group in Shanxi to the rebels.
The Wangjiatuan was actually a peripheral organization controlled by the Tangjia caravan. On the one hand, it was to plant spies in Shanxi, and on the other hand, it was to contact the undercover agents in the rebel army. Naturally, the officer and general did not dare to make a decision on his own on such matters, so he had to report to Sun Chuanting.
Sun Chuanting was filled with joy at this time. This ambush was successful and Gao Yingxiang and several generals under Gao Yingxiang were captured. It was a great achievement. How could Sun Chuanting not be happy? However, what made Sun Chuanting a little regretful was that most of the more than 20,000 rebels who had crossed Yangjialing did not care about Gao Yingxiang's life or death and quickly left Yangjialing. After Sun Chuanting captured Gao Yingxiang, it was too late to pursue them.
Of course, Sun Chuanting didn't know that there were many undercover agents sent by Tang Tong among Gao Yingxiang's rebels, and many of them became small leaders in the rebels. When they found that something was wrong, these people immediately made a decisive decision, played the role of small leaders, and quickly left with their subordinates. This led to the phenomenon that most of the more than 20,000 rebels who left Yangjialing left quickly.
After Sun Chengting captured Gao Yingxiang, he did not torture him. Instead, he sent people to escort Gao Yingxiang and several other important figures in the rebel army to the capital. A month later, according to the words in history textbooks, Gao Yingxiang was heroically executed in the capital.
The rebellions of Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng completely shook the foundation of the Ming Empire. Their rebellion and the looting of the Jiannu people were like two millstones, slowly crushing the huge Ming Empire into pieces and bringing a catastrophe to the Chinese Ming Dynasty. This catastrophe not only brought devastation to the people at the end of the Ming Dynasty, but also buried the century of decline of the Chinese land three hundred years later.
Therefore, Gao Yingxiang died, and he truly did not deserve the words "heroic death". ()
999WX.COM,sj.999wx.com,. 999wx.com
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
