I

The governor of Xi'an was called Hong Daoyuan. Although he didn't like those arrogant and powerful generals, he still came down from the tower to greet them.

But the general who led the troops ignored him and kept speeding towards the city.

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

The gatekeepers showed no resistance at all, and even smiled apologetically as they walked, exchanging opinions with each other:

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

"Everyone has a blunderbuss."

"The firegun doesn't have a match rope, and I don't know how to light it."

"What material are the clothes made of? They are all buttoned up. They look very energetic."

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

"..."

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

Hong Daoyuan ran over quickly and said with a smile: "May I ask which general is in front of you?"

The officer responsible for seizing the city gate was named Wang Enmin. He turned around and asked, "Who are you?"

Hong Daoyuan said in surprise: "From the general's accent, he is actually from Huguang? My ancestral home is Xiangyang. I wonder where the general is from?"

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

Hong Daoyuan replied: "I am Hong Daoyuan, I am the governor of Xi'an."

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

Hong Daoyuan was a little confused. Why did he take action just as he said it?

Hypocrite?

The civil servants' minds were spinning very fast. The servants were still watching the excitement, but Hong Daoyuan had already understood. When he was held down by the dragoons, he actually knelt down and said, "The guilty minister Hong Daoyuan greets the Heavenly Soldiers of Datong. Long live His Majesty the Emperor of Datong!"

Wang Enmin couldn't laugh or cry: "Why don't you be loyal to the hypocritical emperor?"

Hong Daoyuan replied: "What kind of hypocritical emperor? That's a trespasser! I am a junior minister with a good background, but I am ordered around by the hypocritical thief. A good prefect cannot control this or that. The martial artist has the final say in everything. Although my ancestral home is Xiangyang, I have moved to Chang'an County for four generations. My ancestors worked hard to create some foundations and purchased thousands of acres of land in Chang'an County..."

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

"The land was not divided, but there were hundreds of acres of good land that were forcibly occupied by soldiers," Hong Daoyuan said with a sad face. "Let's not talk about the occupation of the upper fields. When a scholar encounters soldiers, he can't explain why. But our tenants , some were called to farm land for the military generals. The remaining tenants all went to farm unowned land. The government said that after three years of clearing land, only half of the grain and tax were paid, so didn’t all the tenants run away? "

Wang Enmin laughed loudly: "You deserve it!"

Hong Daoyuan seemed not to have heard the ridicule, and said: "The tenants ran away to pay, and the rent and money they owed were wiped out by the hypocritical court. The tenants did not pay back the money and grain they owed, and they did not give the landlord land to cultivate. The landlord's life But how are we going to survive? Now that the soldiers have arrived in Xi'an, and we can finally defend it until the clouds clear and the moon shines, the damn intruders will definitely be defeated!"

The more Wang Enmin listened, the more outrageous he became, and asked: "Don't you know that our Datong court will also wipe out 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 imperial court is the orthodoxy in the world, how can it act like a bandit?"

Wang Enmin was speechless. This hypocritical civil servant of the imperial court had too little information, right?

But one thing is certain, the civil servants did not like Li Zicheng, and they were suppressed by the military commanders and could not get ahead. Therefore, Cao Bianjiao and Chen Tangong led their cavalry to watch the wind descend wherever they went, while civil servants led the city defenders to kneel down to meet the heavenly soldiers.

Not only did the generals bully Li Zicheng, but he also treated civilian officials very harshly.

He demanded that civil servants must be diligent in their duties, and those found guilty of corruption would be severely punished. At the same time, the salary was low, far inferior to that of the Datong court. If you only used salary to support your family, you could barely have enough to eat.

…

Zhou Mu Yamen.

"General, we have taken control of the entire city, and all the officials and soldiers of the puppet court have been captured!"

"Maintain law and order and don't let chaos break out in the city. Let Liu Yao and the others go back and report that Xi'an has been captured. Also, recruit troops on the spot. Only good people with families in the city will be recruited. 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, where in the whole of Shaanxi are there large armies?"

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

"It seems that Mr. Zhou Mu is willing to die to be loyal to Li Zicheng?" Cao Bianjiao threatened.

Wang Zayao said anxiously: "I really don't know. Although I am a state pastor, civil servants are not allowed to interfere with military affairs. Not only can they not interfere, but they cannot even ask, otherwise they will be inquiring into military affairs without authorization."

Cao Bianjiao asked again: "How many soldiers do Xi'an have?"

Wang Zayao replied: "There shouldn't be many soldiers, they are all city guards and government officials. The number of city guards in various states and counties ranges from dozens to hundreds, definitely not thousands. Moreover, they are all weak soldiers and did not fight much. After the war, those who could fight were taken away.”

Cao Bianjiao asked in confusion: "It's normal if there are no soldiers elsewhere. Xi'an is the capital of Shaanxi. How come there are only four to five hundred weak soldiers defending the city?"

Wang Zayao sighed: "This is the land of Guanzhong. What is Guanzhong? There are male passes on all sides. Even if there are soldiers, they will guard the male passes. Where will they defend Xi'an?" As he said, Wang Zayao was very curious, "Where did the general come from Xi'an? ?”

Cao Bianjiao smiled and reported the cities he passed along the way: "Puzhou, Linjin, Ronghe, Hejin, Hancheng, Heyang, Chengcheng, Baishui, Pucheng, Fuping, Sanyuan, Jingyang, Xianyang. Along the way, plus Xi'an, conquered fourteen cities in a row. On the way, there was only one Chaoyi County, where a puppet official led troops to resist."

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

"What? Why didn't you tell me earlier!" Cao Bianjiao was furious.

Wang Zayao said: "There are only three thousand troops stationed there, so there is no need to panic, general."

Cao Bianjiao asked: "Where are the soldiers?"

Wang Zayao was too lazy to hide it: "Two of Shaanxi's troops are in Yulin and Ningxia to guard against the Mongols. One is in Gansu, stationed at Jiayuguan. One is in Hanzhong, guarding against the Datong Army in Sichuan. The other is in Tongguan, guarding against Datong in Henan. Army. The three thousand garrison troops in Weinan are used to guard grain and grass. The grain from Guanzhong is transported to Weinan first, and then from Weinan to Tongguan."

Cao Bianjiao grasped the overall situation instantly. After all, he was a border general and knew the geography of Shaanxi very well.

Li Zicheng had too many places to defend, and there were Mongols to the north and west. If he did not leave enough defenders, he would be plundered by the Mongolian tribes.

The Ordos tribe in the Hetao area was originally subordinate to the Chahar tribe and followed the Chahar tribe to surrender to the Qing Dynasty.

But the Chahar tribe wanted to rebel, and the Ordos tribe further away had long refused to listen to the Manchu orders. Until now, the Manchu Qing Dynasty has not set up a flag in Ordos, that is, it does not even count as the Jisu rule.

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

In the past few years, Li Zicheng was recuperating and only retained 100,000 troops, while the remaining troops were all sent to farmland. These troops stationed in the fields were either surrendered soldiers or refugees. They had no combat effectiveness at all, and they did not practice any training after being ordered to farm.

Therefore, Li Zicheng was actually very short of troops. In addition to the 100,000 standing army, tens of thousands were temporarily trained this year. Most of the troops stationed in Tongguan belonged to the new army.

Due to the Guanzhong earthquake during the Jiajing period, the Yellow River changed its course and Daqing Pass lost its role in guarding the throat. Tongguan can only block the westward advance of the Datong Army. As long as the Datong Army successfully crosses the river, it can quickly move northward and sweep across the Xihe area.

Now, for the Dashun court, the situation in Shaanxi was completely ruined.

The main reason was not only the lack of soldiers, but also the fact that civilian officials surrendered too quickly. These civil servants had no sense of belonging to the Dashun court and had long been prepared to surrender at any time. As long as they pretend to defend the city, Cao Bianjiao will not be able to conquer the fourteenth city, and the speed of attacking the city is faster than the speed of news spreading.

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

"Liu Sanhu." Wang Zayao said.

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

Wang Zayao explained: "He is the third brother of Liu Tichun. Liu Tichun is Liu Erhu, his brother Liu Hong is the big tiger, and there are three tigers, four tigers and even seven tigers. Now the Liu family has died and only three tigers are left."

Most of Li Zicheng's generals came from miserable backgrounds.

Let’s just say that the Liu Family’s Seven Tigers were purely forced to rebel. The family owed 1 stone and 5 buckets of rent to the landlord, and 20 taels of silver to the loan shark with compound interest. Dahu and Erhu were tied up and beaten, and the landlord forced them to pay rent. Sanhu and Wuhu were angry and beat two of the landlord's slaves to death.

The landlord reported to the official, and the Liu family's seven tigers gathered in an uprising and killed the landlord to open a warehouse to release grain.

When the Liu family's Seven Tigers defected to Li Zicheng, their rebel army had grown to tens of thousands. The shareholders who brought capital into the group were not ordinary thieves, and Li Zicheng thought highly of them.

He Zhen, Dang Meng'an and others defected and unexpectedly met Liu Erhu (Liu Tichun).

This tiger was also very reckless. When the army collapsed, he did not fight with the Datong army. Instead, he risked his life and chased into the Yellow River, where he just beheaded the traitor He Zhen before escaping for his life.

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

Wang Zayao shook his head: "Impossible."

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

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

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

Tian Jianxiu, Liu Erhu, Liu Sanhu and others were frantically expanding their army, issuing weapons and equipment to civilians. In a blink of an eye, the number of troops increased to 50,000, and they were training soldiers in Tongguan, Chaoyi, and Weinan.

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

Unless Cao Bianjiao and his cavalry jumped out in advance and continued to attack various places in Guanzhong.

The next battle will most likely be near Tongguan. Without pulling out Tongguan, it will be difficult for the Datong Army to truly occupy Guanzhong. The Datong Army in Hexi is very likely to be made dumplings, because the Shanxi Dashun Army is also coming.