Please ask me to be the emperor

After Zhang Shun agreed to Lu Xiangsheng's establishment of the "Qi Army", Lu Xiangsheng received the money and grain and Zhang Shun's warrant, and took Yang Lukai, Gu Xian and Fu Yuren, three staff officers sent by Zhang Shun to assist him, to Song County and Lu's Let’s not mention it for the time being as we are recruiting troops elsewhere.

Zhang Shun temporarily stabilized the situation in Heluo, and then headed to Tongguan with Bai Guangen, He Renlong and the two thousand cavalry who had just finished resting.

At this time, Cao Wenzhao was stationed in Langxiang, Wang Shaoyu was stationed in Jindou Pass, and the two battalions of Chen Changzhen and Li Mou were stationed in Tongguan, confronting Zuo Guangxian who was stationed in Huayin and Huazhou.

The rebel army originally had four battalions with 12,000 men, but the officer and soldier Zuo Guangxian gathered more than 10,000 elite troops.

At first, Tongguan was too narrow to be deployed. Although the two sides fought fiercely for a long time, the casualties were not very large.

Therefore, after the fall of Tongguan, Zuo Guang first regained control of Huayin and Huazhou, guarded the front and rear, and established two ladder-like defenses.

Although the rebels had an advantage in numbers, the commander-in-chief, Wang Shaoyu, was no more capable than the average, and his men were half native soldiers and surrendered soldiers. They were newly built and could not endure hard fighting.

Apart from the fact that the rebels took advantage of the 10,000-jin Hongyi cannon and Li Mou's surprise attack to seize the Tongguan natural barrier, the two sides were actually still equally powerful and neither could do anything to the other.

After Zhang Shun arrived at Tongguan, the first thing he did was to adjust the deployment of the rebel army.

First, Cao Wenzhao was transferred to garrison Tongguan, Wang Shaoyu was transferred to garrison Nuxiang, and Cao Wenzhao was appointed to serve as garrison at Tongguan. Beware of Wu Gang, the governor of Shanxi who was north of the Yellow River, sneaking across the natural dangers of the Yellow River and sneaking into Tongguan City from Fenglingdu.

Secondly, they summoned Chen Changzhen, Li Mou, He Renlong, Bai Guangen and Hong Chengchou, a newly surrendered rebel, to discuss the matter of entering Qin at Tongguan.

It turned out that Hong Chengchou had served as governor of five provinces and was well versed in military affairs. He had caused great damage to the rebels and Zhang Shun was almost killed by his hands.

Although this person has surrendered to the rebel army, his reputation and talent are beyond everyone else, so Zhang Shun can't let him use him.

So, he simply created a new position called "chief of staff" and appointed Hong Chengchou to take charge of it.

In ancient times, the general staff, secretaries, etc. in the shogunate were called staff. Zhang Shun's so-called "chief of staff" is actually the chief of staff, who is mainly responsible for assisting the commander-in-chief in handling military affairs, organizing and planning military construction, military operations, etc.

This position is almost equivalent to Zhang Shun's deputy in the rebel army, but he does not have any decision-making power. In addition to having the power of suggestion and planning, he can only act in accordance with Zhang Shun's orders.

This not only limited Hong Chengchou's power, but also maximized his planning and commanding talents.

In fact, in the original history, although Hong Chengchou was an excellent commanding coach, once the situation was not good, he had a weak will and was not decisive enough.

The most typical example is that under his command, three generals, Cao Wenzhao, Ai Wannian, and Liu Guozhen, were accidentally killed in battle, and the officers and soldiers were immediately placed in an extremely passive situation.

If Lu Xiangsheng, who was the Prime Minister of the five provinces at the time, had not shown great power and defeated the "Chuang King" Gao Yingjiang, "Chuang General" Li Zicheng and others, the situation in the entire northern part of the Ming Dynasty would have been out of control.

Later, after Lu Xiangsheng died in battle, Hong Chengchou served as the governor of Jiliao and led eight Ming soldiers and 130,000 elite troops to rescue Jinzhou.

As the commander-in-chief of the three armies, he could not withstand the pressure from the court to send troops, nor could he repel Dorgon before the main force led by Huang Taiji arrived, nor could he realize that things could not be done after Huang Taiji arrived and that he should continue to stop.

All these revealed that as the coach of the three armed forces, he was not responsible enough and decisive enough when he encountered opponents of the same level.

The combination of these advantages and disadvantages makes him particularly suitable for the position of chief of staff.

Sure enough, as soon as the military meeting began, Chief of Staff Hong Chengchou took the lead in presenting a map, saying: "Anyone who uses military methods without knowing the geographical advantages is no different from a blind man trying to grasp an elephant. I have a map that depicts the geography of the three sides and four towns of Shaanxi and the dangerous and strategic points. , please ask King Shun to watch it!"

Zhang Shun ordered Gao Guiying to take it and spread it on the table. He couldn't help but touch his nose.

It turns out that although Hong Chengchou's drawings are relatively detailed, their style is very abstract. The general content is to draw a box and write place names such as "Xi'an", and then connect them with dotted lines and write how many miles to that place.

Other mountains and rivers are simply drawn with a few lines. Without sufficient imagination, it is difficult to call this thing a "map".

Fortunately, Zhang Shun was already accustomed to the ancient style of cutting out the complex and simplifying it. After a brief look at it for a while, he finally understood.

The so-called "Three Borders and Four Towns in Shaanxi", of which Gansu Town is roughly the scope of later Gansu Province; Ningxia Town is roughly the scope of later Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region; and Yansui Town, also known as Yulin Town, is roughly the scope of later Yan'an and the Shaanxi region to the north. .

Zhang Shun can clearly see the importance of these three places by looking at their locations.

It's just that Guyuan Town is the only place where Zhang Shun is a little confused. This place didn't match his previous life memory at all, and he didn't know what was dangerous or key about this place.

He couldn't help but laugh and said: "Everyone thinks that Shaanxi has 'three sides and four towns'. I know the three towns of Gansu, Yansui and Ningxia. But what is going on with Guyuan Town? Can anyone help me?"

How could Hong Chengchou not know that Zhang Shun was questioning him?

He couldn't help but laugh and said: "I know something about this. This so-called Guyuan Town is the town of Shaanxi in the old days."

"Shaanxi is adjacent to the border areas and is plagued by the 'three major bandits'. To the north are the Tao bandits, to the south are the Hai bandits, and to the west are the Song bandits. These three bandits come and go, and they have been a trouble for Shaanxi for a long time."

"Once there is a police presence, bandits will often enter from Songshan, cross through Zhuanglangwei and other places, and go to Qinghai and other places. The same is true for pirates who are in trouble. Gansu and other towns have no power to cut off the intrusion of the three bandits!"

Zhang Shun listened for a while and then realized that the Tao bandits were the tribes occupying the Hetao area, mainly the Mongolian Tumote tribe. The so-called "sea bandits" were not the "Japanese bandits" that Zhang Shun thought, but the tribes occupying Qinghai. Mongolian tribes along the lake.

These two places are rich in water and grass, which is conducive to nomadic herding, so it makes sense that nomadic tribes would occupy them.

But who are the so-called "Song bandits" who "occupy Songshan and other places"?

"If we talk about this matter, we should start with Dayan Khan, the leader of the Mongolian resurgence. This man was a generational hero who devoted his life to bringing peace to the chiefs with different surnames."

"At that time, there were people with different surnames, Yi Bu La and Bu Er Hai, who traveled far away to Qinghai to avoid his sharp influence. From then on, the bandits in the West Sea began."

"After the death of Dayan Khan, his son Anda Khan was even more powerful. He had 40,000 elite cavalry and 20,000 armored cavalry under his command. They all wore iron pagodas, horse armor, long swords and big arrowheads. They looked like ice and snow."

"It was during the Jiajing period, and the imperial court was unable to control it. Anda Khan marched westward to Qinghai, and successively destroyed the Yibula and Bu'erhai tribes. He ordered his nephew Bintu to occupy Songshan, and his son Bingtu to occupy Qinghai. Xining was also attacked by them. "

"This so-called Songshan is located to the north of Lanzhou, west of Ningxia, and east of the Tao bandits and Zhuang Langwei, the large and small Songshan Mountains. Up to this point, the Song bandits and the sea bandits took turns to attack each other, echoing each other from afar, and the soldiers of Shaanxi were tired of running for their lives."

Upon hearing this, Zhang Shun followed Hong Chengchou's instructions and could roughly tell that this place was located between Gansu and Ningxia, like a wedge pushing into the two towns. Only then can we understand why "pine bandits" can be ranked alongside "tao bandits" and "sea bandits".

If the nomadic tribes are really allowed to occupy this place, the three will respond to each other and come and leave whenever they want, and the border troubles in Shaanxi will become more serious.

"In the Wanli period, after the 'Three Victories in Huangzhong', the troubles of the pirates were completely eliminated. The imperial court sent troops to the land of the Songshan Mountains to wipe out the pirates in one fell swoop, and the border troubles were eliminated." Hong Chengchou continued.

"But when the 'Song Bandits' were here, the three bandits echoed each other from afar, and the three towns of Gansu, Ningxia, and Yansui were not under each other, so it was really difficult to coordinate."

"At that time, the guards and governors of Shaanxi were high up in the provincial capital of Xi'an, and they were out of control. If the soldiers were captured, they would be caught off guard if they took advantage of them."

"Therefore, the governor and general soldiers of Shaanxi were ordered to station in Guyuan to seize its key points and mobilize troops from three sides and four towns to defend against the enemy. Over time, Shaanxi Town was transformed into Guyuan Town."

After Zhang Shun heard this, he suddenly realized that the Guyuan area had convenient terrain, which was conducive to the unified coordination of the three towns of Gansu, Ningxia and Yansui to defend against the enemy. Therefore, the military center of gravity gradually moved from Xi'an, Shaanxi to Guyuan.

Zhang Shun carefully searched Guyuan Town for a long time and found that it was indeed located to the west. On the one hand, it blocked the main route of the "Song Bandits entrenched between the Big and Small Song Mountains" from entering the interior. At the same time, it could connect the three towns of Gansu, Ningxia and Yansui. Duan is a first-class important place.

It's just that this military defense system with Guyuan as the core and the three towns of Gansu, Ningxia and Yansui as its wings was specially designed to deal with border troubles.

When it faces the threat of enemies from the east, how should the officers and soldiers respond?