Lu Xiang was promoted to a natural fierce general, while Sun Chuanting had the potential to be a head coach. So, was Yang Sichang, who was also highly expected by Chongzhen, just a second-generation official who was fighting for his father?

Of course not!

The strategy of "four straights, six corners, ten sides" to Chongzhen in the "Four Directions, Six Corners, Ten Sides" to suppress bandits on April 16, the tenth year of Chongzhen was enough to make him among the strategists.

The so-called "four straights, six corners and ten sides" means that Shaanxi, Henan, Huguang and Fengyang, where the peasant army is focused on active peasant army, are the "four straights". The governors in these four places focus on suppression and prevention as supplementary.

Yansui, Shanxi, Shandong, Yingtian, Jiangxi and Sichuan around the "Four Directions" were used as the "six corners". The governors of these six places focused on prevention and suppression as supplements for the peasant army.

The "four fronts and six corners" are combined into the "ten-sided network". If the peasant army is in Shaanxi, then the governors of Shaanxi, Sichuan, Huguang, Henan, Yansui and Shanxi will be surrounded by six sides.

By analogy, if the peasant army appears in any area of ​​the "Four Officials", six governors Zhang Net will be besieged, while the governors of the five provinces and the prime ministers of the five provinces are responsible for the suppression. This is Yang Sichang's careful design of the encirclement strategy of grasping the characteristics of the peasant army's mobile combat.

The effect of this strategy was very obvious. Zhang Xianzhong was desperate and could only be forced to accept revenge. Li Zicheng was chased and suppressed to only eighteen cavalry, and other peasant armies also surrendered one after another. The stormy Ming Dynasty once showed signs of a return.

However, because the Qing Dynasty went south when Yang Sichang's strategy was about to achieve great success, the panicked Chongzhen hurriedly transferred Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting back to Beijing to serve the king, which led to Yang Sichang's failure.

Now in the first year of Chongzhen, Yang Sichang naturally would not come up with the grand strategy of "four straights, six corners and ten sides". Moreover, the peasant uprising army at this time was far from the level of the war everywhere in Chongzhen's ten years.

However, as Wang Er took the lead in raising the anti-flagration, the refugee chaos gradually became a prairie fire. Wang Jiayin, a farmer in Fugu, northern Shaanxi, gathered a group of hungry people to rebel. Wang Er led his team north to join him, and the refugee army expanded to nearly 10,000 people.

Soon Wang Er and Wang Jiayin led their troops southward and stationed troops in Huanglong County. Wherever the refugees passed, they slaughtered officials and swept the people, and became popular in Weibei.

At the same time, Gao Yingxiang from northern Shaanxi is in Ansai, Wang Zuohang, Feishan Tiger, Big Red Wolf in Yichuan, Wang Hu, Black Evil God in Luochuan, Wang Monk in Yanchuan, Wang Daliang in southern Hanzhong, and Zhou Dawang in Wudu also planted flags and rebelled one after another.

In response to the increasingly fierce rebellion of refugees, Yang Sichang proposed his "cage strategy" based on Chongzhen's recommendation and proposed to the three-sided governor Yang He and the Yansui Governor Hong Chengchou that the government troops in various places should focus on defense and assist the Tianxiong Army, Tianba Army and Tianwu Army in pursuing and suppressing refugees.

Yang He and Hong Chengchou praised Yang Sichang's strategy and adopted it. The refugee army suffered a lot under Yang Sichang's strategy, and their sphere of influence was gradually compressed from the entire Shaanxi to the Weibei region.

However, because the government army was too oppressed, the once dispersed migrant army began to merge under the encirclement of the government army.

Wang Er, Gao Yingxiang, Wang Jiayin, Wang Zuogao, Feishanhu, Wang Monk, Wang Hu, and the Great Red Wolf, eight leaders of the refugee army took blood to form an alliance, known as the Eight Kings, and led more than 40,000 refugee troops to advance to Tongchuan, where the Tianwu Army was stationed, with the intention of capturing Tongchuan and opening the passage of Guanzhong and southern Shaanxi for the refugee army.

Tongchuan is located in the center of Shaanxi, on the southern edge of the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi, bordering Baishui County, Pucheng County and Fuping County in the Weinan region in the east and southeast, Xunyi County, Chunhua County, Sanyuan County in the west and south, and Luochuan County in the Yan'an region in the north and northwest, and Huangling County in the Yan'an region in the north and northwest.

As long as Tongchuan is captured, the refugee army can travel east to Weinan, and to the south to attack Xi'an, southern Shaanxi and other important places, which is equivalent to breaking out of the encirclement of the official army, advancing, attacking, retreating, and defending, and the room for strategic maneuver is much greater.

...

At noon on March 6, 40,000 troops led by Wang Er and Gao Yingxiang came to the city and surrounded the entire Tongchuan City.

Staring at the tall Tongchuan city wall ahead, Wang Er held a horse whip in his hand, pointed to Tongchuan from afar, and said to Gao Yingxiang: "Sun Tzu's Art of War says: surround him with ten, attack him with five, and divide him with multiples. Now we have 40,000 troops in our hands, and the official army is only 4,000, which just fits the statement that Sun Tzu's Art of War "surround him with ten". Brother Gao might as well guess. How many days will it take for our army to take down Tongchuan?"

Gao Yingxiang came from the army around him and was quite good at fighting. He thought it was not realistic to quickly take down Tongchuan. He thought for a while and said, "King, look at the formation of the Ming army, I am afraid that they will defend the city to the death and wait for Xi'an to come to help.

Tongchuan is an important center of Shaanxi, connecting southern Shaanxi, northern Shaanxi, and northern Weinan. The city walls are built high and thick. According to some speculation, it will take at least three days for our army to capture Tongchuan."

Wang Er nodded. Obviously, he also agreed with Gao Yingxiang's view. At the beginning of the uprising, the Ming Dynasty's official troops were all vulnerable paper tigers and were about to collapse at one touch.

However, since Hong Chengchou took office as the governor of Yansui last year, he has valued the use of three generals, Sun Chuanting, Lu Xiangsheng and Yang Sichang, and the new army formed by the three branches has suffered a lot.

Therefore, even if the number of refugee soldiers was ten times that of the 4,000 Tianwu Army in Tongchuan, Wang Er did not underestimate the enemy's carelessness and believed that he could easily take over the important land of Tongchuan.

Wang Er calmed down and said, "Why send someone to call for surrender. I heard that your subordinates have gathered some scholars who are capable of speaking and wise, and see if they can surrender to the official army."

Gao Yingxiang shook his head and said, "This is a matter of course. But the king should not have too much hope. The general stationed in Tongchuan, Nagou, sent by Emperor Nagou, is a capable general sent by Emperor Taigou. This person has always been loyal to the Ming Dynasty, so it is hard to say that he surrendered to him.

Moreover, since Emperor Dog sent Hong Chengchou to deal with our rebel army, we have been at a disadvantage. The official army was at its highest level, so where would it surrender to our army?"

Wang Er smiled and said, "Of course I know this. Even now, if the official army issued the conditions to pardon all the soldiers of our army, I am afraid that most of the people in the army would not want to continue fighting, but just want to get rid of their troops and return to their fields to live a stable life.

But you and I know that the Ming government is the only one, from top to bottom, revealing the word "eating people". Even if we are willing to live a peaceful life, we are afraid that we will immediately become meat on the chopping board and let the government slaughter us.

Chen Sheng and Wu Guang are right, are there any kings, princes, generals and ministers? More than two hundred years ago, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, was just a beggar. He was able to establish a country, become a ancestor, and establish a dynasty. Why can't we?

Now the Ming Dynasty is in turmoil and natural disasters are happening all over the country. This is a great opportunity for us to make achievements. If we can say that we can surrender to Sun Chuanting, it will be like adding wings to us. We must try it anyway."
Chapter completed!