Gou was a member of the imperial family in the late Ming Dynasty

Chapter 609 Counterinsurgency
The consequences of what happened in the Forbidden City were far-reaching, and at the local level, rebellions continued throughout the Ming Dynasty.

Soon after Gao Yingxiang captured Yangzhou, he reached Jiangdu, intending to cross the Yangtze River through Jiujiangkou and take Zhenjiang directly.

Gao Yingxiang's purpose was very clear, to attack Zhenjiang in order to take Nanjing, Zhenjiang has always been an important town in the south of the Yangtze River, and is also the gateway to Nanjing. If Gao Yingxiang attacks Nanjing directly from the north to the south, he will not be sure of success due to the lack of warships, but if he takes Zhenjiang and then attacks Nanjing, he will have a much better chance.

Just as Gao Yingxiang sent his men to collect boats and prepare to cross the river to fight, Xu Xiancheng's troops arrived overnight before Gao Yingxiang could react, defeated Gao Yingxiang's troops at Jiujiangkou, and set fire to all his boats.

Gao Yingxiang was shocked upon hearing the news. He did not expect Xu Xiancheng to arrive so quickly, and he did not expect that the boats he had just collected with great effort would be burned by the fire. Without boats, it was impossible to cross the Yangtze River. Moreover, not only Xu Xiancheng had arrived, but even Lu Xiangsheng had arrived, and his vanguard had already reached Gaoyou, directly cutting off Gao Yingxiang's retreat to the north.

Seeing that the situation was not right, Gao Yingxiang immediately changed his strategy. He knew that it was impossible to continue crossing the river to fight. If Xu Xiancheng and Lu Xiangsheng's troops were all in place now, they would form an outflanking situation for him in Jiangdu. Although he had more people on his side, in terms of combat effectiveness, he was no match for the two Ming armies. If Gao Yingxiang didn't leave now, he might not be able to leave.

Gao Yingxiang was a very decisive person, otherwise he would not have escaped from the hands of the government troops many times. Gao Yingxiang immediately made adjustments, no longer attacking Zhenjiang, let alone crossing the river, and decisively broke out to the west while Xu Xiancheng and Lu Xiangsheng's troops had not had time to encircle them.

Gao Yingxiang first sent part of his troops to attack Jiujiangkou, pretending to take back Jiujiangkou. At the same time, he sent part of his troops north to Gaoyou to intercept Lu Xiangsheng. However, his main force did not hesitate to break out to Shangguanqiao. After paying a certain price, Gao Yingxiang continued to flee to Tianchang, then went south to Liuhe, and then west to Lai'an, pretending to intend to take Zhongdu, but his actual target was Henan.

Although Xu Xiancheng and Lu Xiangsheng were good at fighting and had determined Gao Yingxiang's real target, they were short of troops after all, and it was a little inconvenient for the enemy troops to command the battle. In addition, Gao Yingxiang had spent a lot of money to escape, and decisively abandoned tens of thousands of bandits in the Jiangdu area to cover his actions. By the time these bandits were defeated and troops were dispatched to chase him, Gao Yingxiang had already run a hundred miles away. The two troops continued to chase him from the south and the north, but they were never able to catch up.

Gao Yingxiang caused great chaos in Southern Zhili, and as his troops approached Zhongdu, the garrison in Zhongdu was greatly frightened. Regardless of the overall situation, they hastily mobilized surrounding troops to guard Zhongdu to prevent Gao Yingxiang's troops from reaching Zhongdu.

It was precisely because of this action that the strength of the Ming army around Zhongdu was weakened, causing Gao Yingxiang to travel westward without any scruples, which made Xu Xiancheng so angry that he cursed. Even though he repeatedly ordered officers and soldiers from all over the country not to leave the defense line without permission and to do their utmost to intercept Gao Yingxiang, the local officers and soldiers including the garrisons did not listen to his command at all. Even though Xu Xiancheng had the imperial edict of Emperor Chongzhen and served as the governor-general of Jiangbei, for them this governor-general was only a temporary position. Zhongdu was the most important. Once Zhongdu lost the imperial mausoleum and something went wrong, even if Gao Yingxiang was caught afterwards, it would be a capital crime. How could they possibly follow Xu Xiancheng's command?
Helplessly, Xu Xiancheng and Lu Xiangsheng could only continue to chase Gao Yingxiang, chasing him all the way from Nanzhili to Henan.

Because Xu Xiancheng was temporarily the governor-general of Shandong, Zhili and Jiangbei, and Lu Xiangsheng was the governor of Huguang, the two of them were not allowed to enter Henan to fight without an imperial order. Henan was currently under the jurisdiction of Chen Qiuyu, the governor-general of five provinces. At this time, Chen Qiuyu was busy encircling and suppressing Zhang Xianzhong's troops and was far away. How could he react so quickly?
Xu Xiancheng and Lu Xiangsheng were powerless to stop Gao Yingxiang as they watched him flee into Henan. They could only send an express message over 800 miles to inform the court and Chen Qiuyu to continue the encirclement and suppression of Gao Yingxiang's troops in Henan. The two of them could only temporarily garrison at the junction of Henan and Nanzhili to prevent the possibility that Gao Yingxiang would make a comeback and return to Nanzhili.

Although Xu Xiancheng and Lu Xiangsheng had good military performance and achieved the goal of Emperor Chongzhen to preserve Southern Zhili, especially Nanjing, the problem was that although they killed many enemies and caused great losses to Gao Yingxiang, they actually failed to keep Gao Yingxiang in Southern Zhili.

Such a result cannot be said to be regrettable, but Xu Xiancheng had no choice. He was restricted in fighting this battle. Although Gao Yingxiang's troops were not strong in combat, they had a large number of troops. Facing hundreds of thousands of bandits, it was not easy for Xu Xiancheng to achieve such a victory with only a few thousand troops. Especially since local officials and soldiers and garrisons did not listen to his command at all, driving Gao Yingxiang all the way from Nanzhili to Henan was the best result.

Not long after, the imperial edict came down.

Emperor Chongzhen commended Xu Xiancheng and Lu Xiangsheng for their military achievements in Southern Zhili, but had no intention of allowing them to continue pursuing the enemy in Henan.

The imperial edict only asked Xu Xiancheng and Lu Xiangsheng to be prepared in Nanzhili in case Gao Yingxiang turned around and marched east again. In addition, troops from Nanzhili were sent to take over their current defense zone. After the change of defense, Xu Xiancheng's post as temporary governor would be revoked, and Xu Xiancheng could lead his troops back to Shandong. The same would be done with Lu Xiangsheng, who would go directly to Huguang to garrison and come under the command of Chen Qiyu's troops.

Facing this order, Xu Xiancheng and Lu Xiangsheng looked at each other in bewilderment. It was really unthinkable that they were asked to leave Nanzhili at this time and not go to Henan to suppress the bandits. But the imperial edict was hard to disobey, so Xu Xiancheng and Lu Xiangsheng had to obey it. Not long after, as the Nanzhili troops took over the defense zone, Xu Xiancheng and Lu Xiangsheng said goodbye and left.

Compared with Xu Xiancheng and Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Chuanting's situation in Shaanxi was much smoother.

Sun Chuanting took Gao Jie's troops to Shaanxi to take up the post of governor, and Gao Jie helped him a lot. Gao Jie was originally from Shaanxi, and he was also a bandit, so he knew the situation in Shaanxi very well. Along the way, he not only explained the terrain, customs and people of Shaanxi to Sun Chuanting, but also focused on introducing the situation of the various bandit tribes in Shaanxi.

By the time he arrived in Shaanxi, Sun Chuanting had already had a good understanding of Shaanxi, including not only the situation in Shaanxi, but also information about the various bandit groups in Shaanxi.

After arriving at the governor's office and officially taking office, Sun Chuanting began to form a new Shaanxi army with Gao Jie's troops and the several hundred elite soldiers given to him by Wang Rong as the core.

The most powerful armies of the Ming Dynasty were all border troops, among which the Guanning Army and the Shaanxi Army were the best. Of course, the Zhejiang Army and the Baigan Army were not included. After all, these two armies were different from other Ming armies. They were recruited soldiers, and the Zhejiang Army had disappeared after the Battle of Hunhe. The Baigan Army was also rebuilt by Qin Liangyu. Although it obeyed the court's dispatch, it was Qin Liangyu's private army.

The combat effectiveness of the Shaanxi Army was not weak to begin with, and the Three Qins have always been a place where elite soldiers are produced. This is also the reason why most of the uprisings of bandits occurred in Shaanxi and could not be completely suppressed.

Although Sun Chuanting was born into a scholar family, he was extremely talented in military affairs and was also a natural commander. Especially before he took office, he had the help of people like Gao Jie, and he had an army that completely obeyed his command, so the formation of the Shaanxi Army was very smooth.

In just less than two months, Sun Chuanting's army was basically formed. The entire army had more than 5,000 people, the core of which was Gao Jie's troops, plus his personal guards, and the rest were Shaanxi troops recruited or reorganized locally.

After forming the army, Sun Chuanting took the time to train it and promoted several generals he thought were useful. Among them were Bai Guangen, who, like Gao Jie, had surrendered to the imperial court from a bandit group, as well as Zuo Liangyu's younger brother Zuo Guangxian and others.

Because of the rampant bandits in Shaanxi, Hong Chengchou repeatedly asked Sun Chuanting for help and asked him to cooperate in the joint encirclement and suppression of the bandits. Sun Chuanting did not have much time, so he could only start his bandit suppression plan after a little training of the team.

Sun Chuanting used fighting as training, and began to clear out the bandits gradually from Xi'an, where the governor's office was located, to the surrounding areas. After several battles, Sun Chuanting's command was proper, and although his troops were small in number, their combat effectiveness was very strong. In addition, they had the advantage of firearms, and they made several groups of bandits unable to resist and could only flee in panic.

Sun Chuanting took advantage of the victory and joined forces with Hong Chengchou to wipe out the Scorpion Block, Zhang Miaoshou, Hun Tianxing, Guo Tianxing, Da Tianwang and other bandits in one fell swoop, killing tens of thousands of enemies, which greatly improved the extremely serious bandit situation in Shaanxi. At the same time, Sun Chuanting did not forget to appease the local authorities during the period of sweeping the bandits. In the name of the governor, he ordered the local authorities to resettle the refugees as soon as possible, resume production, and reduce local conflicts. With this series of operations, the situation in Shaanxi returned to order at a speed visible to the naked eye.

When the news of Sun Chuanting's achievements in clearing out bandits in Shaanxi reached the capital, Emperor Chongzhen was very pleased and specially conferred the title of Minister of War on Sun Chuanting, ordering him to continue his efforts and completely wipe out Shaanxi.

Sun Chuanting was not too excited after receiving the imperial edict, because at that time, to outsiders, Sun Chuanting seemed very glorious, with brilliant achievements in battle, and the situation in Shaanxi had greatly improved. But as the governor of Shaanxi, Sun Chuanting understood that this was just an appearance. Clearing away the bandits was important, but stabilizing the place was more important. If the latter could not be done, no matter how well the former was done, it would be of no avail.

This is just like treating an illness. You can’t just treat the symptoms without addressing the cause. You have to find the root cause of the illness and prescribe the right medicine. Only by completely eradicating the disease can you restore health.

But now, the whole Shaanxi is facing many problems. The reason why bandits are everywhere is that natural disasters and man-made disasters are serious. In addition, the taxes from the imperial court have made the people breathless. The people really can't survive, so they started a rebellion.

If this problem is not solved, no matter how many bandits Sun Chuanting kills in Shaanxi, it will not change the fundamental situation. This makes Sun Chuanting very worried.

(End of this chapter)