kvmb Chapter 174 The End of the Later Jin
Chapter 174 The End of the Later Jin
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During the entire fifth year of the Tianqi reign, no major wars occurred in Liaodong. Perhaps because the Later Jin had consumed too many supplies last winter, it began to plunder cattle, sheep, and horses on the grassland after the spring, and its relations with various tribes on the grassland became increasingly worse.
At this point, Huang Taiji was no longer thinking about how to expand his territory and unify the world. The most important thing was to preserve Jianzhou first.
In the winter of the fifth year of Tianqi, Lu Cheng led a team of special forces and rushed to the south day and night. He personally inspected the progress of the expeditionary forces in various parts of the south, and participated in some battles with the special forces, further expanding the expeditionary force's sphere of influence in Southeast Asia and eliminating many Western colonists.
After staying in the south for more than a month, Lu Cheng returned to Liaodong to take charge again.
After peacefully passing the fifth year of the Tianqi period, Liaodong's industrialization process also made great progress. Improved steam locomotives were used in ships and factories, and the production efficiency of new machine tools was greatly improved. The arsenal that originally could only produce a few hundred rifles per month directly reached a monthly output of 1,500 rifles, and the output of bullets was also greatly increased.
During the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, there were 12,000 new rifles added to the Liaodong arsenal, and the stock of bullets reached more than 1.5 million.
At the beginning of the sixth year of the Apocalypse, the arsenal produced the first hand-cranked Gatling gun, which required two people to operate at the same time and could fire 200 rounds per minute.
At the same time, the first bolt-action rifle that could hold five rounds of bullets was officially launched and put into production.
At the same time, the expedition team sent to America also brought back rubber tree seeds from America and planted them in Southeast Asia.
In May of the sixth year of the Tianqi reign, a violent explosion occurred in the Wanggongchang area of Yanjing. The blast wave caused a strong wind, making the entire Yanjing city dark. Countless houses were destroyed and corpses were flying everywhere. The Emperor Tianqi, who was already bedridden due to falling into the water, was even more frightened and almost died on the spot.
Afterwards, Emperor Tianqi issued an edict of repentance and granted amnesty to the entire nation.
But not long after, the capital was hit by a major flood. Droughts and locust plagues occurred in succession in Jiangbei, Shandong, and the Central Plains. The people were living in misery, and the people in the court were in panic.
It was at this time that the people fleeing from Shanxi Province, under the organization and guidance of some people with ulterior motives, once again rose up in rebellion.
Soon after, uprisings broke out in Central Plains, Shandong and other places. The rebel forces in various places developed rapidly. After quickly gathering manpower, they immediately captured county towns, opened warehouses to release grain, seized weapons and expanded their teams.
Moreover, the rebel forces in various places echoed each other, gathered together, and fought together. When facing the government troops, they also used various flexible and changeable tactics and sent assassins to assassinate the leaders of the government troops.
In just one month, the rebel forces in various places grew rapidly and shouted the slogan of "equal distribution of land and free grain".
Not only that, these rebels did not harm ordinary people and only robbed wealthy businessmen.
Wherever the rebels arrived, they would take out a portion of the looted money and food and distribute it to the local poor people, so that they would join them.
At first, the imperial court thought that this uprising could be quickly suppressed like a few years ago, but it soon discovered that this uprising developed too rapidly. In just two or three months, no less than 10,000 rebels appeared in Shandong, Central Plains, Shanxi, northern Shaanxi and other provinces.
Soon after, rebel armies emerged all over the country like mushrooms after rain. There were uprisings and wars everywhere.
However, the later the rebel forces emerged, the more chaotic and disorganized they seemed.
The uprising forces that appeared at the beginning were basically organized, disciplined and goal-oriented. They were never besieged in one place by the government troops. They roamed around, continued to grow, absorbed refugees, trained soldiers, forged weapons, consumed the government troops, and so on.
Later, many government troops directly joined the rebel army, which made the rebel army's momentum increasingly stronger.
As some government troops were defeated by the rebels, it greatly boosted the development of the rebels.
In fact, the Ming soldiers in many local garrisons were also living in dire straits. The imperial court took out money and food to pay them military salaries, and some places had been owed salaries for two or three years. Soldiers not only had to worry about their own livelihoods, but also had to do hard labor for officers at all levels.
The soldiers who came from military households could no longer tolerate this.
In the autumn of the sixth year of the Tianqi reign, the rebel forces in Shaanxi, Gansu, Shanxi and other places gathered together, formed an alliance to fight against the government, attacked the imperial guards, occupied county towns, and plundered wealthy households.
For a time, the entire Ming Dynasty was in danger.
At court, the already ill Emperor Tianqi was unable to handle these affairs and left everything to Wei Zhongxian.
Wei Zhongxian did not care too much about the life and death of the Ming Dynasty. Perhaps he did not think that the rebels could cause any waves. He just ordered the governors and prefects in various places to fight against the rebellion on their own.
In the autumn of the sixth year of the Tianqi reign, Ding Xiu led 3,000 cavalrymen, plus 2,000 cavalrymen from the Khalkha tribe, through the Tumed tribe and arrived in Jin Province.
Afterwards, Ding Xiu and his cavalry disguised themselves as Mongolian cavalry and, according to a list, purged the Eight Great Shanxi Merchants and many merchants who provided various supplies to the Later Jin.
At the same time, a group of tens of thousands of insurgents also arrived in Jin Province, but did not have any conflict with Ding Xiu's cavalry. Instead, they cooperated well and began to rob the wealthy businessmen.
Soon after, the rebels received a large amount of food supplies and weapons, while the cavalry led by Ding Xiu returned to Liaodong with a large amount of property.
At this point, all the wealthy merchants in Jin Province who had dealings with the Later Jin were liquidated, without any escape.
This also means that the entire Later Jin Dynasty was completely cut off from external supplies.
In October of the sixth year of the Tianqi reign, when the Ming Dynasty was in turmoil, Lu Cheng asked Sun Chengzong for permission to lead his troops to wipe out the Later Jin.
Sun Chengzong was dumbfounded when he heard this. He didn't expect Lu Cheng to be so bold as to attack directly to the Later Jin's lair.
"General Lu, are you confident in this battle?"
"Master Sun, please rest assured. I will capture Hetuala City in one fell swoop and cut off Huang Taiji's head."
In fact, Lu Cheng's development in the past two years was too rapid. Sun Chengzong also noticed something wrong and knew that Lu Cheng would never be willing to be a general.
But Sun Chengzong was already old and unable to think too much. As long as Lu Cheng was still the general of the Ming Dynasty, he was too lazy to care too much.
"That's all. Just be careful."
Afterwards, Lu Cheng led 30,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry, and took with him three generals, He Shixian, You Shigong, and Tong Zhongkui, to attack Hetuala City.
In fact, the troops led by He Shixian and other three generals were not many, and they were all cavalry.
Lu Cheng specially called them along this time. His main purpose was not to let them fight together, but to let them see his own military strength so that they could make a choice.
As soon as Lu Cheng's army of more than 30,000 entered the Later Jin Dynasty, they immediately attracted the attention of the Later Jin Dynasty.
The Later Jin had already been forced into a desperate situation at this time. Seeing Lu Cheng leading a large army coming, Huang Taiji directly summoned all the troops of the Later Jin, preparing to fight a decisive battle with Lu Cheng's army in the wilderness. This battle would determine the fate of the Later Jin.
To this end, Huang Taiji ordered all the tribes south of Hetuala City to retreat northward, and summoned all the troops of the Later Jin Dynasty, totaling 120,000, to march towards Lu Cheng's army of more than 30,000, determined to win the battle in one go.
When the two sides met on the grassland, Huang Taiji reorganized his troops and directly ordered the entire army to attack and crush Lu Cheng's army.
Tens of thousands of Later Jin cavalrymen formed a group, and with endless smoke and dust, they swept towards Lu Cheng's army like a huge wave.
However, with the order from the messenger, rows of metal pipes were set up on the ground, and thousands of soldiers took their positions, raised their rifles and aimed forward.
Two rows of mortar soldiers also set up rows of mortars and aimed them at the enemy's formation.
The most advanced weapons and equipment under Lu Cheng's command were displayed in front of everyone for the first time.
As the distance between the two sides got closer and closer, Lu Cheng, who was sitting on the warhorse, raised the embroidered spring sword in his hand, swung it downward, and uttered a word: "Fight!"
In an instant, all the mortars fired at the same time, all the hand-cranked Gatling guns started to move together, and all the infantrymen pulled the trigger...