In June of the sixth year of Chongzhen (that is, in 1633), more than 100,000 rebels from all over Shanxi and Shaanxi gathered in northern Henan, with great momentum.
The Ming government resolutely mobilized Cao Wenzhao, the commander-in-chief of the Shanxi army, Wang Pu, the chief soldier of the Jingying camp, and Tang Jiuzhou, the chief soldier, to help, and the various armies arrived in Wu'an, Henan Province, day and night, and successfully surrounded the rebel army with the local guards.
That's not it, I'm afraid that the general of the rebel army who broke through the Beijing Division had never imagined it. The reason for the collective "relocation" is because it is really impossible to stay in Shanxi and Shaanxi, because there is a fierce man in Shanxi, this person is named Cao Wenzhao, who has followed Sun Chengzong and Yuan Chonghuan successively, and it can be said that he basically participated in all the fierce battles outside the Guanwai in the early years of Chongzhen.
His fierceness came not only from his contempt for these rogues, but also from his confidence in his own strength. When he came to Shaanxi from Liaodong, he also brought 1,000 Guanning iron horses, and with these 1,000 heavy cavalry, he dared to attack the rebel army's 30,000-strong army and destroyed it.
Faced with 30 times his own strength, he was not afraid at all, and this was not the end of it, and for the next six months he was the nightmare of the rebel army. The first reaction of the rebel army in Shaanxi when they saw Cao Wenzhao's troops was to run, even if he only brought a few hundred cavalry, but some people did not believe in evil.
At that time, there was a rebel general named Li Dusi who believed that the best way to overcome fear was to face it head-on, and he wanted to ambush Cao Wenzhao. Not only ambushes, but also psychological warfare, causing his subordinates to shout, "Cao Wenzhao is dead!" This method did play a role, at that time the Ming army had been dispersed, Cao Wenzhao such a fierce man could not sit in the Middle Army, he must have been on the front line, and for a time the officers and men of the Ming Army were shaken.
So how did Cao Wenzhao respond? The history books record this:
"Spears protrude from side to side, horses haunt the multitude, and the armies see it."
Armed with a spear, he charged his horse in the army formation. When encountering such generals, psychological warfare was useless, and in the end, the rebel army was defeated, and the remnants scattered and fled, but Cao Wenzhao did not let them go. Even though Li Dusi had been killed, he was still chasing until he reached the Ningxia region of Gansu province and completely eliminated the northwest rebel army before giving up.
The Northwest Ming Army fought too hard, and the remnants of the rebel army had to flee in the direction of Shanxi, counting the local rebel army in Shanxi, with a total of 36 battalions and more than 200,000 people. Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and others who turned the Ming Dynasty upside down in the future were inside, but quantity does not represent quality, in the end they are still peasants, compared with the regular army, especially the border army, the gap is too large.
In 1633, the Chongzhen Emperor decreed that Cao Wenzhao be made the commander-in-chief of Shanxi, responsible for suppressing the rebel army in Shanxi. Although there was a name of a general soldier, Cao Wenzhao only had 3,000 soldiers in his hands, and the enemy in front of him was 200,000 huge.
In February, Cao Wenzhao launched an attack, and you read that right, he led 3,000 soldiers on the attack. Next, "Wutai, Luxian, Dingxiang, Shouyang thieves are all flat", Cao Wenzhao fought dozens of battles, and defeated more than a dozen rebel armies in succession, the so-called "soldiers are not in the vast, but in the fine", perhaps this is the truth.
Shaanxi can't stay, and now Shanxi can't stay. The leaders of the rebel army met to discuss countermeasures, and finally decided to retreat to the Huaiqing area in northern Henan, which was close to Wutai Mountain, which could be attacked, but could also hide in the mountains.
Under the overall arrangement of the Chongzhen Emperor, the Jingying garrison and Cao Wenzhao's troops rushed to the aid of the Henan region and cooperated with the local troops, which had the opening scene.
The encirclement of the Ming army can be described as three layers inside and three layers outside, which is quite strong. Since the siege at the end of September, the rebel army has been organizing a breakout, and two months have passed without progress. The time is about to arrive in December, the weather in the north is exceptionally cold, hundreds of thousands of people are besieged in northern Henan, lack of clothing and food, like fish on the board, ready to be slaughtered by the Ming army.
It seems that this peasant uprising movement, which has lasted for more than 6 years since 1627, is coming to an end, and Li Zicheng and others will never have another future, but history often has a turn at this time.
Man for the knife trick, I for the fish meat, direct surrender is unrealistic. The leader of the rebel army found a breakthrough, that is, Wang Pu, the commander-in-chief of the Beijing camp, compared with Cao Wenzhao and other generals who had been fighting outside for a long time, Wang Pu from the capital had seen fewer scenes, relatively simple, and was not familiar with the rebel army.
They sent Wang Pu a large amount of money, hoping that he would accept the request to surrender. Fortunately, although Wang Pu was greedy for money, he was not stupid, and he did not order the troops to withdraw from the siege, but ordered the rebel army to hand over their weapons as soon as possible and complete the surrender within 10 days. 10 days is too much for the rebel army, and after finding Wang Pu's breakthrough, the rebel army can temporarily breathe a sigh of relief.
Four days later, on November 24, 1633, more than 100,000 rebels after the repair launched an attack on Wang Pubu, and soon broke through the defensive line, and since then the Ming army's attempt to encircle and completely annihilate the rebel army has been completely destroyed.
More than 100,000 people from the Ming army's encirclement and suppression units and the local garrison in Henan gathered in northern Henan, and there were basically no large corps in other parts of Henan. The rebel army was like a no-man's land, blossoming everywhere, plundering and supplying military supplies.
The Chongzhen Emperor was furious and had been on the throne for six years, but the peasant revolt had not been quelled, and it was hard to have the opportunity to annihilate it, and the fish in his hand ran away.
There was another person who was more feared than the general soldier Wang Pu, that is, Zuo Liangyu, who was later degraded and praised, according to the division of labor, Henan was his defense zone. After learning that the rebel army broke through, he led his troops to chase after him without stopping for a moment, fighting more than ten battles in a row, and used 20 days to eliminate all the rebel troops in Henan.
However, these were small fish, and the main force of the real rebel army was not there, and turned to northern Chu in western Henan, with Xunyang as the center, scattered and interspersed between the surrounding provinces to carry out guerrilla warfare. The Ming army, which had already divided its troops and encircled and suppressed them, lacked contact with them, and was tired of running for its life, and achieved few results in battle.
In the course of the war between the rebel army and the Ming army, it was also growing continuously, and gradually developed into an army that could compete with the Ming army head-on, or even not inferior at all, which undoubtedly increased the difficulty of encirclement and suppression. Looking at Chongzhen's 17 years on the throne, he had many opportunities to surround and annihilate the main force of the rebel army, but he missed them.
This article was originally written by Herodotus Plus, who has signed a contract with a knight of rights and refuses to carry or copy.