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

Chapter 708 Ziwu Valley

After great efforts, Gao Yingxiang's army finally reached Hanzhong, where they joined forces with Zhang Xianzhong's troops.

In the past few years, Gao Yingxiang led his troops to fight in almost half of the Ming Dynasty, starting from the uprising in Shaanxi, to Shanxi, back to Shaanxi, then to Henan, Zhili, Shandong, South Zhili, into Huguang and then Sichuan, and finally to Hanzhong.

When Gao Yingxiang was marching from Henan to Zhili in the north, he was full of vigor and even had the intention of taking over the capital and completely overthrowing the Ming Dynasty. However, he was unexpectedly hit head-on by Lu Xiangsheng and returned in defeat.

After being defeated by Lu Xiangsheng, Gao Yingxiang turned eastward and attempted to enter Shandong, but was blocked by Xu Xiancheng. He had no choice but to go south to Nanzhili and prepare to cross the river to attack Nanjing.

Before crossing the Yangtze River, Gao Yingxiang was jointly attacked by Lu Xiangsheng and Xu Xiancheng south of Yangzhou. He suffered another crushing defeat and fled westward in a panic. After entering Huguang, he was surrounded and intercepted by various Ming troops. At this time, Gao Yingxiang was in danger. There were less than 20,000 troops left out of his 100,000 troops. His strength was greatly damaged and he was on the verge of defeat.

Gao Yingxiang did not expect that something suddenly happened in the capital at this time. A member of the Ming royal family named Zhu Shenzui suddenly raised an army in Shanxi, raising the banner of clearing the court and pacifying the national crisis. In a short period of time, he directly fought from Shanxi to the outskirts of the capital, and even captured the capital in a few days.

Such news instantly shocked the entire Ming Dynasty. No one expected that the core of the Ming Dynasty, the capital, could be captured so easily by Zhu Shenzhui. All civil and military officials in the court, including the emperor, became Zhu Shenzhui's prisoners.

After the news came, not only the Ming Dynasty was shocked, but even Gao Yingxiang was stunned. He couldn't understand why it was so difficult for him to attack the capital. The army didn't even touch the edge of the capital before it was beaten black and blue by Lu Xiangsheng.

But Zhu Shenzui, a member of the royal family who was not well-known and had never been heard of, easily captured the capital and even captured all the civil and military officials in the court, including the emperor. It was really unimaginable.

For a time, Gao Yingxiang, who had always been conceited, began to doubt his ability, but this incident was not a bad thing for him. With the "fall" of the capital, including Emperor Chongzhen and all the civil and military officials fell into the hands of Zhu Shenzhu, the situation of the Ming Dynasty changed instantly. For Gao Yingxiang, who was being chased by various officers and soldiers like a dog, it might not be an opportunity.

This was indeed the case. After learning that Zhu Shenzhui had taken over the capital, the various government troops that were besieging Gao Yingxiang panicked and didn't know what to do next. Not to mention the soldiers, even the generals and the governor were at a loss.

Fighting on the front line, they suddenly found that their home base was gone and the emperor was captured. How could they continue the war? Should they keep their troops in place? Or should they turn around and return to the capital to rescue Emperor Chongzhen? Or should they continue to encircle and suppress Gao Yingxiang? No one knew what to do.

This situation gave Gao Yingxiang a rare opportunity to catch his breath. Taking advantage of the chaos in the Ming army, Gao Yingxiang's troops seized the opportunity to jump out of the encirclement and headed straight into Sichuan, heading northwest.

While marching, Gao Yingxiang won several battles and captured several counties of the Ming Dynasty. He not only replenished the urgently needed food and other supplies, but also took with him a large number of civilians, and selected young and strong people from them to incorporate into the rebel army.

In just over two months, Gao Yingxiang, who was originally in a state of disarray, developed like a balloon. Although his army had not recovered to its strongest point, it had nearly 90,000 troops.

Gao Yingxiang personally commanded 60,000 elite troops, and his nephew Li Zicheng commanded the remaining 30,000 troops. At this time, Li Zicheng had become Gao Yingxiang's most important general and had considerable strength in this rebel army.

After Zhu Shenzhui captured the capital, he quickly issued an edict to all directions, especially to appease the local forces that were suppressing the rebels. After receiving the news that Zhu Shenzhui had been appointed as the Prince of Jiaocheng and was ordered to supervise the country, not only did the local areas gradually stabilize, but even the forces that were suppressing the rebels gradually returned to normal. For the commanders and generals of the various forces, at least they could accept this result. The Ming Dynasty was still there, the Ming Dynasty was still the original Ming Dynasty, and even Emperor Chongzhen was still the emperor, but the person in charge of the central government had changed.

Anyway, it is the Zhu family's own business, and the ministers can't interfere so much. No matter whether it is the emperor or the current regent, as long as the Ming Dynasty is there, the court is there, and their official positions and powers are there, then nothing will change.

After a brief period of chaos, all departments gradually returned to normal. In addition, Zhu Shenzui's orders to each department were to continue to encircle and suppress these bandits. The Ming Dynasty's war machine continued to start after a period of stagnation, and the encirclement and suppression of Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and others began again.

Zhu Shenzhui was not Emperor Chongzhen, and he was not like Emperor Chongzhen who wanted the horse to run fast without eating grass. He attached great importance to the strategic goal of encircling and suppressing bandits. While responding to the outbreak of war from the north, Zhu Shenzhui mobilized a lot of resources to support the northwest battlefield.

With Zhu Shenzhui's actions, the various troops that were encircling and suppressing the bandits no longer had any worries. The armies cooperated with each other and soon fought several battles with Gao Yingxiang. In these battles, Gao Yingxiang, who had just taken a breath, was beaten black and blue again. He had no choice but to continue fleeing, and finally ran all the way to Guanzhong, where he joined Zhang Xianzhong's troops, who were also being chased by the government troops and were like dogs that had lost their homes, and the two armies "joined forces in victory."

When they met, only 60,000 of Gao Yingxiang's 90,000 troops were left, and Zhang Xianzhong was not much better off, with only a little over 30,000 troops.

The two armies together have nearly 100,000 troops, which seems to be a lot in terms of numbers, but in fact the combat effectiveness of these troops is not strong. Except for their old camp, most of them are civilians who were brought here. When these people go to the battlefield, apart from fighting a few favorable battles, they can only act as cannon fodder. They have no ability to fight against the Ming army that is armed to the teeth.

Li Zicheng, a tall man with a weather-beaten face, is currently the strongest leader in Gao Yingxiang's rebel army and has long been known as the "Chuangjiang". In the past two years, he has followed the rebel army in battles, especially after joining Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng's military ability has gradually emerged, and his prestige in the army has continued to rise. Although he has not been in the rebel army for a long time, much shorter than the other old leaders, and he joined halfway, but relying on his ability and relationship with Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng quickly stood out in the rebel army.

"General!" Seeing Li Zicheng coming in exhausted, several soldiers from the old camp who were guarding outside hurried forward to greet him.

"Is King Chuang here?"

"The King of Chuang is here. Does the General want to see him?"

"Please, brother, tell them that Li Zicheng wants to see you." Li Zicheng said politely, without any airs of a leader. As a close guard of Gao Yingxiang, the other party naturally knew the relationship between Li Zicheng and Gao Yingxiang. He immediately asked Li Zicheng to wait a moment and turned around to go in and report.

After a while, someone came back to tell Li Zicheng that Gao Yingxiang let him in. Li Zicheng thanked him politely and then walked in.

"I am Li Zicheng, the humble general, and I am here to meet the King of Rebellion!" When he got inside, he saw Gao Yingxiang standing with his hands behind his back. There was a map hanging on the wall in front of him. Li Zicheng took a step forward, knelt on one knee, clasped his fists, and spoke loudly.

Hearing the voice, Gao Yingxiang turned around, glanced at Li Zicheng, raised his hand and said, "Get up."

"Thank you, King Chuang!"

"How is your troops prepared?" Gao Yingxiang waved at Li Zicheng, motioning him to come closer to talk, and picked up the teapot on the table and poured a glass of water for Li Zicheng.

"Reporting to King Chuang, my troops are ready and can set off at any time." Li Zicheng replied with his hands down.

He nodded slightly, stretched out his hand to touch the poured water, and motioned Li Zicheng to drink it himself. Gao Yingxiang thought for a moment and said, "In that case, you should lead the troops to set out the day after tomorrow. If time passes, there may be changes. It is safer to leave early."

"I understand..." Li Zicheng replied, with a slight hesitation in his expression. He stepped forward and whispered to Gao Yingxiang: "Uncle, would you like to reconsider this matter?"

"What's wrong?" Gao Yingxiang glanced at him.

Li Zicheng said with concern: "It is too risky to divide the troops this time, and the road chosen by uncle is even more unpredictable. In my opinion, it is better to continue to gather the troops in one place, choose another road, march eastward, and then enter Henan or Huguang to plan a big event?"

"You are too young, and you are taking things for granted." Gao Yingxiang shook his head and sighed, saying, "You are worried that the road I have chosen will be difficult to follow. You are right to think so. If you think so, then the Ming army must think so too."

"Although the Ziwu Valley is dangerous, you can reach Xi'an directly after exiting the valley from the south to the north. Xi'an is the capital of Shaanxi Province and a major city in the northwest. If we can capture Xi'an, the entire battle situation will be revived. We can attack or defend. There will be no problem whether we advance eastward or use this as a base to establish a business."

"Right now, the government troops are surrounding us everywhere. Although Hanzhong is a good place, it is not a place to stay for long. Moreover, our army plus Zhang Xianzhong's troops total more than 100,000 people, and the daily expenditure is not small. If we continue to stay here, when Chen Qiyu and Qin Liangyu's troops come to chase us, this will be a dead end."

"Why stay here when you know it's a dead end? It's best to split up before the soldiers react. This time I let you and Zhang Xianzhong's troops go east. I also intend to let you attract the government troops and make them think that I, Gao Yingxiang, am going east. This trip is quite risky, but I have carefully considered it. As long as you march fast enough and escape before the government troops surround you, nothing should happen."

"After you leave, I will personally lead the main force into Ziwu Valley and head directly north. As long as my troops can get out of the valley safely, we can reach Xi'an in one day. By then, my troops will be in the north and you will be in the east. When I take Xi'an in one fell swoop, the advantage in the battle of Shaanxi will be in my hands. The government troops will be unable to reach us, so they can only let us gallop!"

When Gao Yingxiang said this, his eyes sparkled, and his expression was full of heroism and confidence. Seeing Gao Yingxiang like this, Li Zicheng could no longer persuade him. He knew his uncle too well. Gao Yingxiang was usually taciturn, but the decisions he made were rarely changed, especially this plan. Gao Yingxiang had considered it for a long time and had made all the arrangements.

(End of this chapter)