Chapter 896 The tenth year of Chongzhen has arrived, and it is another new year

(0896)

【Today's third update is delivered!】

In the winter of the ninth year of Chongzhen, Zhang Zhun stayed in Luoyang all the time.

People's predictions in summer were quickly confirmed. The winter of the ninth year of Chongzhen was really cold. From the end of October, heavy snow began to fall in Luoyang. At the beginning, people thought that the weather would clear after the heavy snow passed.

However, in fact, after the heavy snow fell, it seemed that it did not stop, and it snowed almost every day. Not to mention that the weather cleared up, I didn’t even see the shadow of the sun. The sky was always gray, giving people a very depressing feeling.

When I went out in the morning, it was snowing heavily. When I went out in the afternoon, it was still snowing heavily. When I went out in the evening, it was still snowing heavily. Although people cleaned up the snow every day on the road in front of the Fu Palace, if I was not careful, there would be half a foot deep snow, let alone other places. Zhang Zhun came back from outside every day and could take pictures of the snow on the ground on his coat.

Because there was too much snow in the city and there was no time to melt. As a result, the cleared snow was piled up everywhere. As long as there were empty spaces, high snow was built up. At the beginning, everyone thought it was quite fun. However, when the snow in front, back, left and right of the house was filled with snow, everyone began to feel that it was not fun. Because if these high snow collapsed, they would be buried alive.

There was no choice but to organize a large amount of manpower to transport all the excess snow outside the city. As a result, the most lively thing in Luoyang City every day was large and small cars, transporting snow outside the city. Soon, the open space outside the Luoyang City was also filled with high snow. Some large snow piles even had high city walls.

Just when everyone couldn't stand it, one day, the heavy snow suddenly stopped. People who had been troubled by the heavy snow all shouted happily, thanking God for finally letting them go. But soon, they couldn't cheer. Because they found that although the heavy snow did not continue to fall, the climate was getting colder and colder.

The Luo River has frozen, the canal has frozen, and the Yellow River has frozen, and all the places with water have frozen. At the beginning, children can only walk on the ice, but later, even adults can leave, and finally, even cavalry can leave. What’s even exaggerated is that even the transport trucks carrying heavy grain can walk around the Luo River safely.

The Huben Army cavalry wrapped in thick linen on horse hooves and could gallop back and forth on the ice of Luoshui, canals, and Yellow River. The wide river surface almost became a training ground for cavalry. Every time the Huben Army cavalry trained on the ice, it attracted a large number of children to watch. The Huben Army cavalry was training, and they were skating.

Someone carried an iron pickaxe and found a place on the ice surface and dug a hole hard. As a result, the ice hole had just been chiseled out, and the fish under the ice surface could not wait to poke their heads and gasp desperately. At this time, just some very simple tools could pick up the fish from the ice hole. As long as you have enough patience, a large fish of dozens of kilograms of fish are caught every day, there is no problem.

So, in this winter, the cheapest meat food in Luoyang City is fish. There are fish in the Luoshui, fish in the canal, fish in the Yellow River, ice surfaces everywhere, and fish everywhere. Those who don’t have money can dig ice holes and catch them by themselves. Those who have money can buy them from others. There are too many fish caught, and the price is very cheap. Large fish weighing pounds costs only twenty or thirty cents. In the past, it was simply impossible to imagine.

Because of this, in this winter, the food in the Fu Palace is mainly based on fish. There is no way, Wanshou Lake has frozen, and the fish under the ice are jumping up desperately. As long as you dig a hole and don’t need any tools, the fish will jump up by themselves. Such cheap ingredients can naturally not be wasted.

The chefs of Fuwang Mansion have brought their cooking skills to the extreme. They have produced dozens of ways to eat a simple fish without repeating each meal. Their outstanding performance can be regarded as adding a little warmth to Fuwang Mansion in this cold winter.

After December, the climate became colder and colder, so even Hasqiqige, who came from the Hulunbuir grassland, felt a little unbearable. She was originally lively and active, but now she is wearing a thick fur coat every day and stays in the Fu Palace to burn the fire.

Fortunately, the people in Luoyang have already received enough food and prepared enough firewood to prevent the large-scale starvation or freezing of people. However, the occasional freezing of people cannot be avoided. The report that Zhang Zhun received was that every morning, the bodies were carried out of the city.

Because the climate suddenly became colder, all military activities around Luoyang seemed to have slowed down. After December, they stopped completely. The world was like a huge ice cellar, and everyone was frozen inside. It seemed very difficult to move.

Before the cold winter came, many people were speculating about what actions the Hu Ben Army would do. In particular, Hong Chengchou, Yang Sichang, Sun Chuanting and others were speculating on the next actions of the Hu Ben Army. They had imagined many possibilities and made certain arrangements based on these possibilities. However, the Hu Ben Army's actions were greatly beyond their expectations.

Since October, the four cavalry battalions of the Huben Army cavalry have been frequently active in the surrounding areas of Luoyang. Their swaggering actions were vast and unconcealed, which made the surrounding officials and soldiers very nervous, fearing that they would be attacked by the Huben Army cavalry.

Especially the Huguang Army, which had suffered a blow, was even more timid. For this reason, they gave up Ruzhou and retreated to the Nanyang area. Later, Yang Sichang felt that Nanyang was not safe, so he simply continued to retreat and retreated to Xiangyang, and then he felt a little relieved.

After a flick of the shot, the Huben Army cavalry advanced along the north bank of the Yellow River to Huaiqing Prefecture, Weihui Prefecture, Zhangde Prefecture, Daming Prefecture and other places, and swept away the official troops along the way. In the above areas, there were basically no main force of the official army stationed, and only some sporadic local regiments were trained. Facing the four battalions of the Huben Army, the only thing they could do was to be invincible and flee quickly. If they ran a little slower, they would be dealt with by the Huben Army.

As a result, in just one month, by November, the Hu Ben Army completely included all the several prefectures on the north bank of the Yellow River into its own control. In this way, the Hu Ben Army further increased the control area on the north bank of the Yellow River, increased the room for maneuver, the strategic depth was also available, and the resource integration was more convenient.

Afterwards, the Huben cavalry returned to Luoyang and continued to attack and advance towards the surrounding areas of Luoyang. They quickly cleared the remaining official troops in the surrounding areas of Luoyang with the autumn wind swept away the fallen leaves. By the end of the year, the radius of three hundred miles around Luoyang was 300 miles away, and there were no other official troops except Tongguan. The official troops of Yanshi, Gongxian, Xingyang, and Zhengzhou all retreated to Kaifeng City. The official troops in other places retreated to Tongguan or Nanyang.

At this point, basically, in the northern part of Henan Province, near the Yellow River line, except Kaifeng, other regions have been included in the control of the Hu Ben Army. The Hu Ben Army has formed city defense forces in these areas and appointed local officials, marking that these areas have been officially incorporated into the territory of the Hu Ben Army. The Yellow River has become the "inland river" of the Hu Ben Army.

The situation around Luoyang is encouraging. Relatively speaking, the atmosphere in Kaifeng City is about to die. Li Yan successfully surrounded Kaifeng in just two months. By the end of the year, the number of troops in Li Yan's army was as large as 50,000, which was basically the same as the number of defenders in Kaifeng.

The title of the Hu Ben Army was indeed unstoppable. After Li Yan took the banner of the Hu Ben Army, a large number of people came to surrender. By November, the strength of Li Yan's army had exceeded 30,000. Among them, the elite troops who were more capable of fighting were no less than 3,000.

In the heavy snow, Li Yan's army was not afraid of the cold and took the initiative to attack, capturing nearby Kaocheng, Yifeng, Chenliu, Tongxu, Weishi, Lanyang, Zhongmu and other places, and dispersing all the surrounding officials. Then, he led his army northward and completely surrounded Kaifeng City.

In the snow and ice of the day, facing the siege of Li Yan's army in the Hu Ben Army, the scene in Kaifeng City was indeed terrible. A large number of refugees were frozen to death. Because there were too many people who were frozen to death, no one was buried, but they were abandoned in place. In this way, Kaifeng City was filled with people who were frozen to death.

King Zhu Gongye of Zhou and governor Yu Yinggui of Henan, faced with such a scene, he could only do nothing. Yu Yinggui regretted it even more. If he had known this, he would have fought to the death to break through to Jiangnan. Now, there was a icy and snowy place outside, and even if they wanted to run away, they could no longer run. If they ran out like this, they would definitely be frozen to death.

In this cold winter, if the bones in the Central Plains are hard enough to be afraid of the cold, they can barely launch military operations, but in Liaodong, all military operations have stopped. Here, the cold has dominated everything, and no matter how hard the bones are, they are useless. No matter how hard the bones are, they may be frozen and cracked here.

Heavy snow fell, covering the entire Liaodong completely. The shallowest snow was five feet deep, and the deepest snow was even more than ten feet. In this case, it was impossible to start a war, and it would be good if people could survive. In fact, the primary task of all people in Liaodong, whether Han, Tartar, or Korean, was to safely survive this cold winter.

In the direction of North Korea, the Sino-Korean coalition forces led by Lu Xiangsheng and Li Jue had successfully conquered the Dingliao Right Guard (Phoenix City) before winter came and forced the Tartars to retreat further. However, the actions of the Sino-Korean coalition forces ended here only. Because when heavy snow came, the road was blocked and they could not be walked. Patrol soldiers were accidentally lost and were eaten by heavy wind and snow because they were accidentally lost.

The remaining Tartars all retreated to the ridge of Changbai Mountain and tried to resist stubbornly. But soon, they retreated all the way to Liaoyang. Because this winter was indeed too cold, if they were stationed in Changbai Mountain, they would be frozen to death. Although their ability to withstand coldness was indeed good and was much better than the Han people, they still retreated in the face of the cold winter of the ninth year of Chongzhen.

In the south of Liao, Yuetuo withdrew from Deliying City and moved to the position of Gaizhou Guard. In this way, the Hu Ben Army occupied Deliying City without bloodshed, and then recovered all the jurisdictions of Fuzhou Guards. The jurisdictions of Fuzhou Guards and Dingliao Right Guards were connected into one. After the Hu Ben Army recovered these two guards, the land in southern Liao was completely connected together.

By the end of the year, the Hu Ben Army had already controlled all the lands of the Jinzhou Guard, Fuzhou Guard and Dingliao Youwei in southern Liaoning, and had firmly established a foothold in southern Liaoning. The Hu Ben Army's military strength in southern Liaoning was also gradually increasing. It was no longer possible for the Tatars to counterattack this area. Yang Tinglin, the prefect of Liaoyang, could also take office.

However, due to the influence of the severe cold weather, all the operations of the Hu Ben Army in these areas have stopped. Whether it is military or other operations, they have temporarily stopped. If there is no need, everyone will stay in the house and wait for this cold winter before talking about it.

The weather is indeed too cold. The entire Bohai Bay is filled with floating ice. The small ones are only the size of a palm, but the large ones are as big as a table, and some even look like a hill. These floating ice pose a great threat to the passing ships. They are blown by the north wind and are constantly floating back and forth on the sea, and they hit whatever they hit.

Therefore, the Hu Ben Army had to reduce the frequency of ships' activities in the Bohai Bay. Even if they were to dispatch ships, they tried to use large ships, at least large ships above No. 3 Fu Ship. The large ship's collision resistance is OK, but the small boats are not good. It seems that a small boat like Cangshan Ship hits the floes and ice head, which will definitely be the result of rupture and sinking.

In western Liaoning, after occupying the Yizhou Guard, the Hu Ben Army had fought in a field with the Tartar cavalry for a period of time, and the battle was once very fierce. However, with the arrival of severe winter, both sides had to temporarily stop their military operations. As a result, the originally lively Liaoning area, whether it was Jinzhou City or Guangning City, became completely quiet.

The situation in Northern Zhili was also quiet. Both the official army and the Hu Ben army were preparing for the winter. Basically, several prefectures in Northern Zhili were infiltrated by the Hu Ben army. Hejian Prefecture was completely under the control of the Hu Ben army, and Baoding Prefecture and Zhending Prefecture all had people belonging to the Hu Ben army. In Zhuozhou, Hao Linyong was forming the *** army and preparing to attack the capital.

In the south, Zheng Chenggong's fleet did not go north. Maybe it felt that winter was too cold, or their troops could not be freed for the time being. When the north was cold, the climate in the South Ocean was very pleasant. There is news that the Dutch and the Spanish had recently clashed again, and the detailed situation was unknown.

On ***, the first batch of gold and silver excavated by Sado Island has been sent back. Although the quantity is not large, it is a stable income. In the future, as the excavation technology and excavation efforts continue to strengthen, the amount of gold and silver excavation will definitely increase continuously.

The Marine Corps is working hard to establish a logistics base, hoard materials, and prepare for a comprehensive strategy on Sado Island. Dorgon has arrived in the country of Exhausa and is contacting the local royalist forces. In a broader direction, the situation of *** is relatively smooth. Of course, it will take time to really cause great storms in ***.

For the Hu Ben Army, there is another good news in December, that is, the first batch, a total of six Dragon God Ships, were launched. These large guys with displacements of up to 600 tons and equipped with red cannons were completed and launched, which marked the further strengthening of the Hu Ben Army's navy. However, to wait until the official service, it will have to wait until the first month of next year. By then, Zhang Zhun will definitely preside over the service ceremony in person.

In the court, the government troops gathered near Tongguan did not make any major moves. Some information showed that there were different opinions within the government troops. Some advocated continuing to wipe out the Shaanxi bandits, getting rid of their worries, and then turning back to deal with Zhang Zhun. Some advocated negotiating with the Shaanxi bandits, discussing peace, and then concentrating the main force to deal with Zhang Zhun. Some even were naive and hoped to join forces with the Shaanxi bandits to deal with Zhang Zhun.

Emperor Chongzhen may also be very confused and didn't know what to do. King Fu was missing for a long time. The report from the front line has not been found, but no body was found. Many discerning people know what happened, but no one has broken the window paper. Because breaking the window paper requires a price. The court can no longer afford this price.

In fact, Emperor Chongzhen really wanted to do it very much, and immediately dispatched his army to besiege Luoyang and taught Zhang Zhun a lesson. However, he also knew that at this time, it was absolutely impossible to capture Zhang Zhun alive or kill Zhang Zhun. Since he could not kill Zhang Zhun and could not catch him, it seemed that the official army besieged Luoyang.

Luoyang is a strong city, and the Tiger Ben Army is easy to attack, but it will be difficult for the official army to recover. If not, the only remaining 300,000 troops in the court will be destroyed. The situation has reached such a severe point, Emperor Chongzhen had to begin to carefully consider whether he should send the prince to Nanjing to supervise the country.

In addition, there are unconfirmed news that many of the horses, cattle and sheep of the Korqin tribe, as well as some remote herders, were frozen to death. The Tumote tribe and the Halashen tribe secretly bribed the people of the Korqin tribe and seized their herders and horses, cattle and sheep. After Zai Sanbuhe found out, he was furious but helpless.

Of course, Zhang Zhun was willing to hear such news. The heavier the opponent's losses, the more beneficial the Hu Ben Army will be. I believe that after this winter, the Korqin tribe will basically be removed from the grassland.

In the heavy snow, the tenth year of Chongzhen has arrived.

It's a new year again.
Chapter completed!