After hearing Tian Jianxiu's request to mobilize Liu Fangliang's baggage troops to join the war, Li Zicheng showed his impatience: "Tongguan is easy to defend but difficult to attack. We don't need so many troops."
"But Your Majesty..."
"No buts!" Li Zicheng was very determined.
There are two reasons why Liu Fangliang was not allowed to participate in the war.
First, he had lost trust in Liu Fangliang.
Liu Fangliang had been a prisoner, and no one could guarantee whether his loyalty was questionable.
Dashun has no shortage of good generals.
When it comes to Liu Fangliang, Li Zicheng's principle is to not use him if possible.
Secondly, the quality of the soldiers is more important than the quantity.
What Dashun lacked was elite soldiers, not baggage soldiers.
Whether Liu Fangliang's baggage troops participated in the battle or not, it had little impact on the battle situation.
Tian Jianxiu was speechless and could only stay where he was, gasping for breath.
"Lü Daqi is attacking Wuguan. What I mean is that we should transfer Liu Fangliang to Wuguan to resist the enemy." Liu Zongmin began to smooth things over.
"Let him transport the grain!" Li Zicheng was unmoved.
Just as everyone was discussing how to resist the Ming army, a messenger walked in from outside the door.
He took a quick look around, came to Li Zicheng, whispered a few words, then turned and left.
In the eyes of everyone, Li Zicheng first frowned, then showed an expression of disbelief, and finally anger mixed with suspicion.
"What's wrong, Your Majesty?" Song Xiance asked immediately.
Li Zicheng gritted his teeth and said, "News just came from Xi'an: Yulin is in turmoil!"
"Civil... uprising?" Niu Jinxing stood up suddenly, staring with his triangular eyes, thinking he had heard it wrong, "Your Majesty, you just said a civil uprising?"
"Yes, a civil uprising! The people of Yulin are going to rebel!" Li Zicheng said gritting his teeth.
Niu Jinxing stood there blankly, unable to calm his turbulent heart for a long time.
They originally rebelled in the name of standing up for the people, but they didn't expect that today the people would actually rebel against them.
The performance of other people present was not much better than Niu Jinxing. They either stared with their eyes wide open or opened their mouths. Some even stood there motionless.
After an unknown amount of time, Song Xiance asked in confusion, "Isn't that right, Your Majesty?"
"What's wrong?" Li Zicheng put away his angry expression and looked at Song Xiance.
Song Xiance lowered his head and said, "In the 16th year of Chongzhen, our army took Xi'an and then sent troops to attack various places in Guanzhong. All places in Guanzhong surrendered, except Yulin, which refused to surrender and put up a stubborn resistance."
"After attacking for more than ten days, Yulin City was captured and our army massacred the entire city."
"Logically speaking... there are no civilians in Yulin City anymore, so how can there be talk of a civil uprising?"
In November of the 16th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng sent Liu Fangliang to attack Yulin.
Yulin is an acropolis, belonging to Yansui Town, one of the nine important border towns of the Ming Dynasty.
According to the "History of Ming Dynasty", Yulinwei was a powerful town in the world, with the best soldiers and the most talented generals, but its land was the most barren and its supplies were the scarcest.
As the saying goes...poor mountains and bad waters produce unruly people.
In addition, the Mongols were nearby, so the local people were very tough and did not make a living by farming, but mainly fought. When a war broke out, no matter men, women, old or young, they all took up weapons and went to fight the enemy.
Most of Sun Chuanting's elite Qin troops were from Yulin.
Before the attack on Yulin, Yulin General Wang Ding heard the news and fled with his men.
The highest-ranking officials among the remaining officials were Yulin Bingbei Dao Du Ren and the Ministry of Revenue’s Assistant Minister Wang Jialu.
The highest-ranking generals among them were Deputy General Hui Xian and Lieutenant General Liu Yanjie.
There were also some military generals who were dismissed from office.
They are the former Shanhaiguan general You Shiwei, general Wang Shiqin, deputy general Yang Ming, the former Xuanfu general Hou Shilu, deputy general Zhang Fa, and deputy general Wang Yongzuo.
These people were abandoned by the court for various reasons, and had no choice but to return to Yulin to spend the rest of their lives there.
However, the wheel of history did not intend to let them die quietly, but gave them a heroic ending.
When the Shun army was approaching the city, these people did not choose to surrender, but instead organized thousands of soldiers and civilians in the city to defend the city to the death.
Under the siege of 70,000 people, thousands of soldiers and civilians held out for more than ten days.
After the city was broken, Yulin Bingbei Dao Du Ren, General Wang Shiqin, his brother Wang Shiguo, You Shiwei and others were captured and refused to surrender, and were eventually executed by the Shun army.
Wang Jialu committed suicide.
Hou Shilu and his son Hou Gongji died in the battle.
All the military officers were killed in this battle, and all the civil officials in the city, both in office and unemployed, committed suicide, including but not limited to Zhang Yunhe, the head of the Ministry of Revenue, Peng Qing, the prefect, Liu Fang and others.
Li Zicheng certainly knew the situation in Yulin.
He glared at Song Xiance fiercely, thinking to himself, let's see what you are capable of. Wouldn't it be better to say it is a civil uprising? If we say it is a military mutiny, it will cause internal unrest.
Looking at the generals who had the same doubts, Li Zicheng knew that he could no longer hide it.
He sighed and said, "There are indeed not many civilians in Yulin City, but in order to prevent the Mongols from invading the border, I moved many civilians from nearby areas into the city. At the same time, I transferred Zhang Tianlin and Ke Tianxiang from Datong to Yulin. Also going to Yulin was Jiang Xiang, the former general of the Ming army in Datong."
"This time it's Jiang Rang's mutiny."
"He first led more than ten personal soldiers to rush into the Marshal's Mansion in the name of discussing matters, and killed Zhang Tianlin and Ke Tianxiang when they were not paying attention. Then he led the surrendered soldiers of the Ming court to rebel together!"
The generals were silent.
In fact, they had long expected that the Ming court surrendered soldiers would betray them, but they did not expect the betrayal to come so suddenly.
"Your Majesty, I think we should send troops to encircle and suppress them immediately!" Niu Jinxing immediately proposed.
Tian Jianxiu, Liu Zongmin and other generals present all showed contemptuous expressions.
This sentence sounds like fart.
Liu Zongmin couldn't help it. He took a deep breath and asked, "What Niu Zuofu said is the same as if he didn't say anything. If he doesn't send troops to encircle and suppress them, will he send people to deliver steamed buns to them?"
After hearing this, the generals couldn't help but burst into laughter.
"Hahaha...General Zongmin's words are shocking!" Tian Jianxiu publicly expressed his support for Liu Zongmin.
"You are worthy of being the Marquis of Dashun, a man of both civil and military talents." Hao Yaoqi followed suit.
"General Zongmin said it well!"
Other generals expressed their dissatisfaction with Niu Jinxing in this way.
Defeated in Beijing, defeated in Fengyang, defeated in Chengtian Prefecture!
The only battle that could barely be considered a draw was the Battle of Damingfu, in which the Shun army also suffered heavy losses.
Now they no longer trust Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance.
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