Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 223 Rebels' Melee for Control of the Central Plains (Part 1)

Hong Chengchou's entire family was executed!
Zhang Liwei's entire family was executed!
The Ming Dynasty court was in an uproar.

Hong Chengchou and Zhang Liwei both seem to be members of the Donglin Party, so how could the cabinet and the Ministry of Justice have executed them all so swiftly?

Most officials in the imperial court were unaware of what had happened before Hong Chengchou and Zhang Liwei were beheaded.

When the news reached the Central Plains, it seemed that even the rebels couldn't sit still.

It wasn't Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong who couldn't sit still, but Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong.

For some unknown reason, Zhang Yun suddenly led an army of 500,000 men from Xichuan straight to Neixiang.

Neixiang is just a small county with a total population of only a little over 100,000. The county seat of Neixiang has only three or four thousand households, a little over 10,000 people, and less than 20,000 people.

This guy, if 500,000 rebels swarm over the mountains and plains, who can stop them?

The magistrate of Neixiang was so frightened that he fled immediately, and the county seat of Neixiang was captured by the rebels in an instant.

When Zhang Xianzhong received the news, he was quite startled.

What's wrong with Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong? Why has he suddenly led a large army to Neixiang?

Zhang Xianzhong was startled because he never expected that Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong, would lead all his troops to Neixiang.

He wasn't an emperor, where every piece of news was reported to him by express messengers from 800 li away.

The information that the three powerful clans and eight imperial merchants of Puzhou could provide him was limited.

He also knew that Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong, had apparently sent 100,000 troops to occupy Dengzhou and Xinye.

That's a small matter. He has occupied the entire Runing Prefecture, as well as the area between Kaifeng Prefecture and Nanyang Prefecture. So what if others only occupy Dengzhou and Xinye?
At this time, the dozens of rebel kings had not yet started a war of annexation. On the surface, they were still allies. He had already taken three big pieces of fat meat, so how could he not allow Zhang Yun to have a little soup?

He didn't even know that Zhang Yun had already taken over Xichuan.

This was all because Xichuan was located deep in the Funiu Mountains, a branch of the Qinling Mountains. That place was a remote and impoverished area, and it was more than 300 li away from Nanyang Prefecture. He had not sent any scouts to investigate it.

He originally thought that Zhang Yun was just taking advantage of the fact that he and Gao Yingxiang had launched a large-scale attack on the vassal state to come and gain some benefits.

Most of the other rebel kings did the same thing. On his way from Runing Prefecture, he didn't actually occupy many cities. He only occupied a few of the dozens of cities in Kaifeng and Nanyang Prefectures. The other cities were almost all occupied by various rebel kings.

Those guys all took the opportunity to make a profit. Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong, had an army of 500,000, so it didn't seem like a big deal for him to come and take advantage of the situation.

However, something was amiss when this guy led a large army to attack Neixiang.

Neixiang is less than 150 li away from Nanyang Prefecture. What does this guy mean?
Pan Yunteng naturally wouldn't explain to Zhang Xianzhong what he meant.

After capturing Neixiang, he immediately led an army of 500,000 men straight to Nanyang Prefecture!

Nanyang Prefecture was actually not very big; in terms of population, it had only about 10,000 households and 50,000 to 60,000 people.

Therefore, of the more than 300,000 troops brought by Zhang Xianzhong, only a small portion was stationed inside Nanyang Prefecture City, while the majority were stationed outside Nanyang Prefecture City.

At this moment, a total of seven or eight hundred thousand troops gathered in the fields southwest of Nanyang Prefecture. The camps on both sides were vast, spanning dozens of miles in circumference, like an ocean of tents, with no end in sight.

Zhang Xianzhong even sent an envoy to ask the King of Hanzhong what he wanted to do, but the envoy was blocked outside the camp gate and not allowed to enter at all.

Pan Yunteng was too lazy to argue with Zhang Xianzhong. In short, it was all about one thing: action. Why bother with unnecessary words?
He ordered his army to rest for one night, and the next morning around dawn, he ordered his army to begin assembling and deploying.

Upon receiving the news, Zhang Xianzhong immediately got up and ran to the east gate tower.

He dared not go to the front lines, because the enemy had a force of 500,000 men, while his forces outside the city numbered less than 300,000. If they swarmed him, he would have no chance of escape.

Now he understood: they were just jealous of how many princes and royal family members he had seized, and they had come to double-cross him!

He's one of the three major rebel kings of the time; how could he let others rob him of his money and grain?

Of course not.

Therefore, this battle is inevitable. He had already issued orders last night, instructing the troops outside the city to be on high alert and to engage in battle if the enemy adopts a posture of war.

Both sides had hundreds of thousands of troops, and it would take more than an hour to arrange their formations.

It was past Chen Shi (7-9 AM), and the sun was high in the sky. Both sides finally got into position.

When Zhang Xianzhong saw the enemy's formation, he couldn't help but secretly gasp.

This is because, from the city gate tower, the square formations on the opposite side looked like neat blocks of tofu, perfectly orderly and without any disorder.

Their formation, however, was twisted and contorted like a pretzel.

At this moment, Pan Yunteng was also in the middle of the formation, scanning the enemy's formation with a telescope.

When he saw that the other side's line was not even in order, a hint of disdain crept onto his lips.

Is this all there is to Zhang Xianzhong, the Eighth King?

However, he was not careless or underestimating his enemy. He carefully surveyed the situation for a while before loudly issuing the order: "Order Wu Kui to be in front, forming a shield wall, followed by archers in a long, single-file line, with long-spearmen in the middle in a square formation, and swordsmen at the rear to hold the line."

This is the charging formation. They have practiced it countless times. With a wave of the command flag, hundreds of thousands of infantrymen immediately carry their giant shields and rush to the front, quickly piecing the shields together to form a shield wall.

Wu Kui was a giant shield, half a zhang high and half a chi thick, which arrows could not penetrate.

Next came the archers, who marched forward like long dragons, quickly forming rows of long, serpentine formations.

Immediately following them was the spear formation, which began to advance, closely following the archers.

The square formation of swordsmen remained scattered within a radius of more than ten miles, motionless.

Seeing that the formation was almost complete, Pan Yunteng immediately shouted, "Beat the drums, advance, and proceed with the reconnaissance!"

"Boom boom boom boom boom," a series of neat drumbeats sounded, and the shield wall and the archers and spearmen behind it immediately stepped forward in unison, keeping time with the drumbeats.

Zhang Xianzhong was dumbfounded when he saw this.

What can you do if they just push a wall over your head?
That's when the difference becomes apparent.

If Pan Yunteng saw the enemy's formation like this, he would definitely not hesitate to order the archers to go forward, prepare fire arrows, and be ready to launch them.

Unfortunately, Zhang Xianzhong was only a half-baked commander. He didn't have many archers under his command, and he had even fewer rockets, which were all stationed on the city walls!
He thought that rockets were only useful when other armies were using siege engines to attack a city, and what use were rockets when large armies were fighting on the plains?

Soon, the well-organized shield formation had advanced to within about fifty paces of the enemy vanguard.

Zhang Xianzhong could see the enemy's shield formation clearly. It was perfectly aligned, without a single gap. How could he break through it?
This distance is good enough to shoot arrows, but the problem is that their shield formation is like a wall, impossible to shoot through. Who would shoot arrows at a wall?

Upon seeing this, Pan Yunteng immediately raised his hand and loudly ordered, "Stop the drumbeats! Pass on the order: archers, fire three rounds of projectiles!"

The deep drumbeats stopped abruptly, and the advancing army also halted instantly. Then, the sky suddenly darkened, and hundreds of thousands of arrows rained down like a dark cloud.

When Zhang Xianzhong saw this, his eyes almost popped out of their sockets.

He had never seen so many arrows before. He had never seen them when the border troops fought against the northern barbarians, nor had he ever seen a volley of arrows.

How many arrows are there?

Zhang Xianzhong had never seen it, so the young and strong disaster victims he hastily gathered under his command certainly had never seen it either.

It could be said that they were still a bunch of rookies who had never been on the battlefield before, and had never seen such a terrifying scene.

The army outside the city gasped in alarm and instantly fell into chaos.

How can we defend against so many arrows?
Those with shields could at least raise them above their heads, but those without shields were filled with terror and despair.

"Pfft pfft pfft pfft pfft," the arrows fell, and a series of screams rang out. Countless people were shot into pincushions.

Then another round, and then another round!
After three waves of projectiles, the ground was covered with hedgehogs, and Zhang Xianzhong's more than 200,000 troops were as if half of them had been bitten off, lying on the ground in front of them.

Upon seeing this, Pan Yunteng immediately ordered, "Archers, retreat to the rear ranks; spearmen, advance and stand close to the shield formation."

With a wave of command flags, the archers instantly transformed into a long dragon, rapidly retreating through the gaps in the formation of over 100,000 long-spearmen. The over 100,000 long-spearmen also quickly transformed into a long dragon, marching forward and pressing against the shield formation, while the archers quickly formed a square formation behind the long-spearmen.

Seeing this, Pan Yunteng loudly ordered, "Beat the drums, advance, and proceed by reconnaissance."

"Boom boom boom boom boom," a series of rhythmic drumbeats sounded, and the shield wall began to advance as a whole.

Why are the troops under the King of Hanzhong just like government soldiers?
Five hundred thousand officers and soldiers!
how to spell?
Upon seeing this, Zhang Xianzhong on the city wall couldn't help but show a hint of fear.

After thinking for a moment, he suddenly shouted, "Quickly, issue the order to have all the remaining troops withdraw to the north of the city."

The remaining 100,000-plus troops had long wanted to flee. At his command, all those who could still run outside the city took off and ran wildly towards the north of the city.

Pan Yunteng was taken aback when he saw this.

This guy is quite pragmatic; he knows he can't win in a direct confrontation in the wild, so he's planning to use the city walls to defend himself.

To besiege a city, you need siege equipment; you can't just use a bunch of people.

He thought for a moment, then loudly ordered, "Send word that Wu Kui will cover the rear, withdraw the troops back to camp, and work on building siege equipment."

As Zhang Xianzhong watched the neat shield wall slowly retreat, a hint of struggle involuntarily appeared on his face.

However, he quickly made a decision.

That afternoon, he ordered his men to load all the stolen gold, silver, and valuables onto carts, preparing to flee.

The next morning, around dawn, just as the Hanzhong army was getting up to cook, a scout came galloping in from the north.

Zhang Xianzhong actually led the remaining troops and hundreds of carriages and fled from the north!

This guy really knows how to adapt to the times.

(End of this chapter)