Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 233 The Rebel Jurchens Are Completely Lost (Part 2)

While Sun Chuanting was besieging Liaoyang City in Liaodong, Pan Yunteng was also launching attacks on all sides of the Central Plains.

This guy is really like he's gone mad.

He was still not satisfied after taking over all the cities and territories of Nanyang Prefecture.

Immediately afterwards, he launched a two-pronged attack, capturing Ruzhou and Xinyangzhou separately, but he still seemed unsatisfied.

Next, the two groups of troops from Ruzhou and Xinyang Prefecture split up and launched attacks, forming six routes that respectively attacked Songxian, Lushi, and Lingbao in the south of Henan Prefecture, and Luoshan, Guangshan, and Shangcheng in the south of Runing Prefecture.

In these places, whether it was the forces of Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong, or the forces of other rebel kings, he disregarded them all, fighting anyone who dared to disobey or surrender!

His men were indeed much stronger than the rebels. The rebels in those six counties were defeated by them and fled in panic, completely unable to resist or fight back.

Songxian, Lushi, Lingbao, Luoshan, Guangshan, and Shangcheng were quickly taken over by him, but even that seemed to be not enough for him!
His troops were divided into six groups, which attacked Yongning, Shanzhou, and Mianchi in central Henan Prefecture, and Xincai, Zhenyang, and Gushi in central Runing Prefecture.

Gao Yingxiang was so frightened by him that he led his men to transport all the gold and silver treasures looted from Luoyang to the south bank of the Yellow River. Then, he hastily built a pontoon bridge to cross the river and fled, abandoning all the grain and cloth in Luoyang!
This guy probably wants to preserve his strength and hold onto his territory north of the Yellow River.

As for Zhang Yuan, the King of Hanzhong, let Zhang Xianzhong worry about him. As long as the Yellow River doesn't freeze over, it's an insurmountable barrier. As long as he leads his main force to guard the north bank of the Yellow River, Zhang Yuan's troops will never be able to cross the river.

This completely baffled Zhang Xianzhong, who was now utterly bewildered by Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong.

He wanted to defend Runing Prefecture, but unfortunately, he had lost more than half of his main forces.

Even when his main force was all there, they couldn't defeat Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong. Now that he's leading his troops to guard Runing Prefecture, isn't that just sending them to Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong?
He had no choice but to follow Gao Yingxiang's example and order his men to quickly transport all the gold and silver treasures looted from Ruyang City to Xiangfu City in Kaifeng Prefecture, abandoning all grain and cloth.

However, he did not sit idly by in Kaifeng and wait for his death.

He also came up with another idea: to send people to contact other rebel kings in the Central Plains and persuade them to bring their troops to his command.

Now he has money and food, and everyone who follows him can eat and drink well.

Of course, this is conditional. The condition is that they must send troops to help him withstand the fierce attack of Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong.

The various rebel kings naturally knew that Zhang Xianzhong was trying to drag them into being cannon fodder.

The problem is, even if they don't serve as cannon fodder for Zhang Xianzhong, they still can't defeat Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong.

Moreover, the cannon fodder were only the young and strong refugees under their command; they could have easily hidden in Xiangfu City and lived a life of luxury with Zhang Xianzhong.

Zhang Xianzhong's efforts to make contacts actually attracted many rebel kings, and not only were his lost troops replenished, but the number even exceeded 500,000.

Upon hearing of Zhang Xianzhong's actions, Gao Yingxiang immediately sent people to contact various rebel kings in the Central Plains.

He had money and supplies at the moment, and he had a huge advantage over Zhang Xianzhong: the Yellow River. As long as they had enough troops to guard the north bank of the Yellow River, Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong, would not be able to cross it.

Upon hearing the news, some of the rebel kings chose to cross the river and join Gao Yingxiang, and Gao Yingxiang's forces quickly exceeded 500,000.

Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong, didn't care whether you had 500,000 or 1 million; if you weren't satisfied, he would fight you, and he would keep fighting.

Not content with Yongning, Shanzhou, Mianchi, Xincai, Zhenyang, and Gushi, this guy kept sending troops to advance, heading straight for Xin'an, Luoyang, and Mengjin in the east of Henan Prefecture, and Queshan, Ruyang, and Suiping in the north of Runing Prefecture.

Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong were both frightened away, and the other rebel kings naturally fled at the mere sight of them.

Soon, he also captured Xin'an, Luoyang, Mengjin, Queshan, Ruyang, and Suiping.

Immediately afterwards, he took over the remaining cities of Yanshi, Gongxian, and Dengfeng in Henan Prefecture, and the remaining cities of Shangcai and Xiping in Runing Prefecture.

By this time, he had taken control of Nanyang Prefecture, Runing Prefecture, Ruzhou, and Henan Prefecture, thus controlling half of the western and southern parts of the Central Plains.

Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong both thought that this guy should be satisfied now. Who would have thought that he would only rest briefly, and then launch a six-pronged attack, heading straight for Xiangcheng, Shenqiu, and Shangshui south of Kaifeng Prefecture, and Sishui, Rongyang, and Mixian west of Kaifeng Prefecture.

Zhang Xianzhong was terrified and hurriedly sent out cannon fodder from various rebel kings to defend the southwest front, while at the same time sending people across the river to ask Gao Yingxiang for help.

Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong, is clearly aiming to take them down and dominate the Central Plains. If Gao Yingxiang doesn't help, Kaifeng Prefecture will be lost.

If Kaifeng Prefecture is lost, then this guy will take over eight or nine tenths of the territory in the Central Plains.

This territory, which is eighty or ninety percent of the land, is eighty or ninety million acres of farmland. The amount of grain produced each year is staggering. Even without the grain seized from the Tang, Fu, and Chong vassal states, this guy could still feed millions of people with the grain produced from these fields.

It's unimaginable how powerful this guy will become.

Even if Gao Yingxiang hides on the north bank of the Yellow River, he can only hold out until it freezes over. Once the Yellow River freezes over, he will definitely lead his army northward.

Even if this guy doesn't mobilize any troops, can Gao Yingxiang stop these 600,000 to 700,000 men from charging over?
He believed that Gao Yingxiang should understand the principle of "if the lips are gone, the teeth will be cold".

Unexpectedly, Gao Yingxiang replied directly that if he couldn't hold out, he should quickly retreat to the north bank of the Yellow River. If the two of them joined forces, they would definitely be able to defend the north bank of the Yellow River.

This seems to make sense. Even if the river is frozen, the riverbank is still high, so guarding the riverbank is not much different from guarding the city wall.

The reason why Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong, was invincible was because their troops were fewer than the enemy's.

If they join forces, their combined strength will surpass this guy's. Add to that the river embankment that's like a city wall, how could they not hold it?

Zhang Xianzhong naturally knew that this was advantageous to the overall situation. His only option was to retreat to the north bank of the Yellow River and join forces with Gao Yingxiang to withstand the fierce attack of Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong.

The problem is, if he just runs away like that, he can only take the gold and silver treasures he robbed with him, but he can't take any of the grain that Zhou Fan robbed.

In other words, even after fleeing to the north bank of the Yellow River, he could only rely on Gao Yingxiang for food and supplies; otherwise, his hundreds of thousands of troops would have gone hungry.

These days, disaster victims rebel just to get enough to eat; who would want to starve with them?

He went to live under Gao Yingxiang's roof, so he had to listen to that guy!
How can anyone accept this?

It took him a lot of effort to establish his own power base and become the king himself.

This feels so amazing!

Who would want to be someone's subordinate?

Moreover, even if they combined their forces, they would only have a little over a million men, and their numerical advantage would only be temporary.

If Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong, disregards everything and frantically recruits troops, his forces will surpass theirs in just a few months.

Will they be able to hold on then?

He hesitated and did not immediately lead his troops across the river.

Without the slightest hesitation, after capturing Xiangcheng, Shenqiu, Shangshui, Sishui, Rongyang, and Mixian, Zhang Yun, the King of Hanzhong, divided his forces into six routes and frantically advanced towards Heyin, Rongze, Zhengzhou, Chenzhou, Yancheng, Xihua, and other places.

Zhang Xianzhong was so terrified by the defeat that he only wanted to flee north.

The problem was that he was unwilling to abandon the food he had worked so hard to seize and go live under someone else's roof.

This is really confusing.

(End of this chapter)