Chapter 251 Not following the routine

The governor-general of the Ming Dynasty was very different from the governor-general of the Qing Dynasty, or they were almost completely different concepts.

The governor-general of the Qing Dynasty often held a permanent position and was also a local feudal official. He had great powers and was indeed like a local emperor in movies and TV shows. He was in charge of everything including military affairs, administration, food and salary, rivers and governor affairs.

But not in the Ming Dynasty.

The governor-generals of the Ming Dynasty were basically appointed based on events. They were sent by the central government to the local area to take temporary charge of certain things in the name of the central government. They usually had no local administrative rights except for the specific matters they were responsible for (usually military).

Since they were meant to represent the central government and basically supervise military affairs, the governor-general of the Ming Dynasty had to be a central official, and usually, at worst, he had to have the title of Minister of War.

This is why Yuan Jixian was urgently appointed as the right minister of the Ministry of War and the censor of the right capital before he came to supervise military affairs.

The purpose of adding the censor of Qiandu was to enable the governors to have the power to supervise and impeach local officials, and to strengthen their ability to actually supervise military affairs. Otherwise, no one would listen to just a bluff.

But still no executive power.

Therefore, Yuan Jixian could only stay with Zhang Kuang or send him to cooperate and temporarily take charge of Mianyang's military affairs with Li Ping's permission. It was impossible to give him actual administrative power.

It is this kind of power structure of the governor that makes Yuan Jixian's sudden replacement seem not normal, but also normal.

Moreover, Yuan Jixian, the original military governor, was created by the Ming Dynasty after emergency deliberation in response to the corrupt war situation in Huguang before the Qing troops had withdrawn from the pass.

In other words, this is a new position, and there is no time to go through the normal official selection and appointment procedures.

At that time, Yuan Jixian, who had just recovered from Guizhou where he was exiled and was working as Prime Minister in Hebei Province, took advantage only because he was close to Beijing and because the experienced officials nearby were dealing with the Qing troops entering the customs, his qualifications were indeed relatively shallow.

Some.

Moreover, it was made clear at the time that Yuan Jixian's appointment was for temporary responsibility and was not officially appointed.

After the Qing troops withdrew from the Pass, and when the Ming court finally had the energy and time to take care of the south, they found that the post of governor of Jiangxi, Huguang and Yingtian military affairs was still necessary, and it was even more important than before.

Of course, the long-established bureaucratic government also believes that it is also necessary to have someone who meets the personnel requirements for this position in all aspects and has a strong resume to preside over it.

As a result, the new and official governor was born after a series of inspections, proposals and balancing.

This person is Lu Daqi.

Although Lu Daqi was awarded Jinshi three years later than Yuan Jixian, he was several years older than Yuan Jixian, and he became famous in the official circles earlier. He even received a reward from Chongzhen for his military merits in the tenth year of Chongzhen (1637). Later, he also became famous earlier.

He was promoted to the position of censor of Youqiandu to patrol Gansu. During his tenure, he presided over the suppression of the rebellion in the western border areas, so as to inform the army and the world.

Since March last year, the highly praised Lu Daqi has been the governor-general of the military affairs of Baoding, Hebei and Shandong. The troops under his direct jurisdiction were the only ones that did not suffer any losses during the Northern invasion.

Although this performance cannot be said to be good, in the face of the general incompetence and heavy losses of other officials, it still feels like standing out from the crowd, at least Chongzhen recognized it.

However, the Ming government and Yuan Jixian himself felt that it was normal for Lu Daqi to officially serve as governor, which did not mean that Li Ping thought so too.

A sudden change of generals, especially when Yuan Jixian is still doing a good job, is definitely a very unwise thing.

Li Ping returned to Hanyang to learn about Zhang Xianzhong's situation, but Yang Ming, who was sent to Wuchang, sent him such a message first. Li Ping was confused at the time.

However, what made him even more confused was that the notice to change the governor came to Wuchang together with a personal order from Emperor Chongzhen asking Zuo Liangyu to capture and kill his general Wang Yuncheng.

To put it bluntly, someone has to be responsible for the massive plunder along the river and the intimidation of Nanjing. The court needs to preserve its dignity and cannot pretend that nothing happened.

And of course it cannot be Zuo Liangyu who should bear the responsibility.

The Ming government was not completely stupid.

Then, Wang Yun, who caused the most ferocity and broke into his own city, looted and almost marched to the gates of Nanjing, had to take down all the shit basins and become a scapegoat, killing chickens to scare the monkeys.

Although Wang Yuncheng was indeed too outrageous at the beginning and could die a hundred thousand times without injustice, Li Ping still felt that this method of handling was questionable.

And it's not over yet.

Although the official governor Lu Daqiren had just arrived in Jiujiang, he also caused chaos.

This guy actually passed Zuo Liangyu and issued an order to Zuo Liangyu's generals scattered outside Wuchang to launch a resolute counterattack against Zhang Xianzhong.

Although Lu Daqi also informed Zuo Liangyu of his order at the same time, this still caused Zuo Liangyu to be furious.

Zuo Liangyu directly believed that Lu Daqi was here to seize his military power.

It is even said that Zuo Liangyu believed that the murder of his general Wang Yuncheng was caused by Lu Daqi, because Lu Daqi wanted to supervise the execution of Wang Yuncheng.

This is troublesome!

After simply explaining the news, Zhou Wen was indeed confused. He, who was more familiar with officialdom than Li Ping, looked at a loss.

"Then what is Minister Yuan's new job?" Zhou Wen asked casually with some sadness and anger.

Although Yuan Jixian had not been in contact with them for a long time, he gained Zhou Wen's sincere admiration. Zhou Wen never concealed his admiration for Yuan Jixian.

"He continues to stay in Huguang." Li Ping said softly.

"Continue to stay in Huguang?" Zhou Wen's eyes brightened instantly, and then he looked at Li Ping eagerly and said: "General Soldier, General Ping Thief respects Yuan Shilang very much. He is not the governor..."

"Shilang Yuan will stay in Huguang and be in charge of farming and farming, and will not handle military affairs." Li Ping interrupted Zhou Wen rudely.

"What! This..." Zhou Wen lost his temper for a moment, and then stood there stupidly, unable to say anything else.

Li Ping felt that it was necessary to change the topic quickly at this time, so he sighed: "Isn't this Chapter Supervisor Discipline interesting enough?"

After getting the news, he didn't cover it up for a while, but immediately reported it to them, especially since he didn't shy away from talking about the source of the news. As a civil servant with a different civil and military background, Zhang Kuang was able to do this, which was indeed not easy and very rare.

As for the fact that some former Ming government officials who served the peasant army continued to maintain contact with the government and pass on news, Li Ping was not surprised.

It is unrealistic for everyone to be a hero when facing life and death. Choosing to live and obey does not mean that you really agree. This is human nature.

In fact, some of the literati and officials in the areas captured by the peasant army took the initiative to join the thieves, but most of them were forced to join the thieves. Strong Confucian ideological education is not a joke.

Some of these unwilling people will choose to work as internal agents for the government or pass on information.

Historically, there were such people in the peasant military regimes of Chengtian Prefecture and Xiangyang Prefecture, and they were not isolated cases. Many of them were recorded in history books, and the most famous one was of course Qiu Zhitao.

Li Zicheng obviously knew about this situation, so his troops were extremely strict in checking the movement of people in the control area, discovered many situations, and killed many people.

Li Zicheng's general distrust of officials in the original Ming government may even have something to do with this.

"That's right! After Zhang Jianji got the news, he notified us and sent people to inform Yuan Shilang who returned to Wuchang. He really didn't treat us as outsiders." Duan Qiang was also quite touched.

"Is that all the news? Is there any more detailed information?" Li Ping asked looking at Zhou Wen who was still standing.

"Yes, I can be more detailed, but I have to speak slowly." Zhou Wen finally reacted.

"Then sit down and talk." Li Ping glanced at the empty seat beside him.

So soon, as the stammering Duan Qiang and the decadent-looking Zhou Wen complemented each other, Li Ping gradually understood the great changes that had occurred in the north, and his brows became increasingly furrowed.

The great change was not unexpected, but the process was beyond his expectation. The complexity and changeability of war were vividly reflected in this war.

Although Sun Chuanting had only 100,000 troops leaving the border, Li Zicheng had 400,000 troops heading north to attack him, and Qiu Zhitao knew Sun Chuanting's general marching route. However, Li Zicheng did not go well in the early stage, and was even severely beaten at one point.

On August 10th, Sun Chuanting set out from Tongguan. On the 11th, he garrisoned in Lingbaoque Township. On the 21st, he stationed in Shaanzhou and Henan. All armies crossed the river and marched southward to jointly attack. In early September, the entire army marched to Yique-Longmen in Luoyang.

.

In order to avoid his attack, Li Zicheng abandoned some of the cities he had already occupied, reduced his troops, and withdrew his main troops to Baofeng (more than 200 kilometers north of Nanyang) in an attempt to lure Sun Chuanting to a decisive battle in central Henan.

But on September 8, as soon as Sun Chuanting's army arrived at Changfudian west of Jiacheng, Li Zicheng's captain Li Yangchun actually ran to surrender, and then clearly explained Li Zicheng's formation and the strength of his troops.

So Sun Chuanting first defeated Baofeng and killed Chen Kexin, the puppet governor, and others.

Then, under the guidance of the rebel generals of the peasant army, they conquered Tang County (today's Tanghe County, located southeast of Nanyang, about 100 kilometers northeast of Xiangyang), and then, to Li Ping's extreme incomprehension, he secretly placed Li Zicheng's army in the old camp (family members of officers and soldiers) here.

Kill them all.

Then, Sun Chuanting quickly returned to Jiaxian County to capture General Guoyi Xie Junyou. He even rushed into Li Zicheng's Chinese army camp to cut off the military flags, and chased Li Zicheng for dozens of miles, almost capturing Li Zicheng.

This series of operations made Li Zicheng dizzy.

Although the furious Li Zicheng knew that Li Yangchun had rebelled, he killed Qiu Zhitao, who had been kidnapped to Jiaxian County, in public to frighten the troops. He then ordered that fellow Li Zhensheng, who had fooled him by pretending to surrender when he attacked Chengtianfu, was killed.

(Chengtian Prefecture Inspector) ordered his beheading in Yuzhou, Nanyang (now Fangcheng County, Nanyang City).

Li Zhensheng was from Mizhi County, Shaanxi Province. Not only was he from the same hometown as Li Zicheng, he also had the same surname, and his official reputation was very good. After Li Zicheng captured Li Zhensheng, he kept him in the camp and tried his best to persuade him to surrender, and he called him "big brother" in a rare and affectionate way.

Even when he knew that Li Zhensheng had been trying to contact Sun Chuanting, Li Zicheng was not embarrassed.

Killing Li Zhensheng showed that Li Zicheng was really anxious.

Since Li Zicheng had already learned that Sun Chuanting was short of food and grass, while stabilizing the internal situation, he secretly sent General Liu Zongmin with 10,000 elite cavalry to cut off the army's food routes.

At this time, there was a sudden heavy rain in Henan for seven consecutive days. As a result, the officers and soldiers were not only short of food but also unable to advance, and their morale plummeted.

Sun Chuanting had to order the troops heading south to temporarily retreat to Nanyang.

However, because his family members were killed, Li Zicheng's troops were all filled with the desire to fight, and they wanted revenge.

Therefore, Li Ziggong, who seized the opportunity, decisively fought a decisive battle with Sun Chuanting in Nanyang and won the victory. He killed tens of thousands of officers and soldiers (40,000), and then took advantage of the victory to pursue them all the way north.

Sun Chuanting's army retreated for more than 400 miles, and even the commander-in-chief Chen Yongfu, who was famous for his defense of Kaifeng, surrendered.

Since Nanyang, where the decisive battle broke out, was not far from Xiangyang, Li Zicheng's main force pursued all the way north. In order to stabilize the rear, Li Zicheng conveyed the news to Xiangyang in time.

At the same time, the large number of people who were organized to transport supplies, the wounded soldiers who were left to recuperate, and the captured officers and soldiers also allowed the pseudo-officials in Xiangyang and Chengtian to learn the previous information in time.

Although all of this seemed bizarre and tortuous, it had been predicted for a long time. Li Ping didn't have many thoughts other than sighing, and he was unwilling to spend more time thinking deeply.

He's in bigger trouble now!
Chapter completed!