Li Zicheng's teeth itched from a distance, and Li Yan also looked solemn, but he didn't expect that only a few thousand Ming troops in the Tiger Prison Pass would be so difficult.

Just when the various units of the peasant army were terrified and didn't know what to do, there was no movement on the city wall, as if the Ming army defending the city had disappeared all at once.

Liu Zongmin stared at the city wall suspiciously, not knowing what tricks the Ming army played, so he didn't dare to attack rashly, Li Zicheng was also a little puzzled, and asked Li Yandao: "What's going on, could it be that the Ming army has no killer features?" ”

"The subordinates don't quite understand either... Ah, it's not good, the Ming army is going to run! Li Yan suddenly screamed.

"What's going on?" Li Zicheng hurriedly said.

"King Chuang, at the beginning of the fight, this Ming army didn't want to fight with us, but tried to delay time with the help of danger, because the artillery of the Ming army still hasn't come forward, according to the subordinates, I'm afraid they have an ulterior plan in secret!" Li Yan said with a solemn face.

"What Li Gongzi said is quite reasonable, but how can you guarantee that the Ming army is not a trick to lure the enemy into taking the bait?" Niu Jinxing said coldly.

"This is simple, as long as our cannons are pulled out and bombarded for a while, as long as the Ming army does not return fire, it is certain that they will abandon the pass and flee!" Li Yan said lightly.

"Well, well, the herald battalion continues to fire at the city, and the firearms battalion will also give me a hard beating! Look at what tricks these Ming troops are playing. Li Zicheng ordered.

Soon the remaining dozen or so cannons of the peasant army were pushed out, and the gunners trembled and moved the cannons into range and lit the fuse.

More than a dozen iron bullets flew towards the wall of the Tiger Prison Pass with a huge roar, and three of them hit the city gatehouse, and with a hula, the entire gatehouse could not withstand the huge impact and collapsed.

The birds also began to chirp happily, and countless lead bullets hit the city wall, making a crackling sound that engulfed the entire battlefield, and there was still no reaction from the Ming army.

"The Ming army has withdrawn, and the brothers will charge me!" Liu Zongmin also saw the clues, his confidence increased greatly, and he encouraged his subordinates to start the final charge.

When the peasant army jumped on the city wall one after another, they looked at the empty city head and looked at each other, not only were there no living people, but there were not even corpses left, what about the Ming army?

Li Zicheng led a group of his subordinates with a blushing face to watch the peasant soldiers clean up the battlefield and bury the corpses, of course, these corpses were their own people. Many old brothers who were born and died with them were also buried in this tiger prison. According to later statistics, the casualties of the rebels reached 8,000 in one day, a figure that was too much to bear. Since the incident, there have been victories and defeats, but he has never been so cowardly, and he can't help but not be crazy.

At this time, the general of a unit sent to pursue the new army also returned with the remnants of the defeated general, saying that he had chased to the bank of the Bishui River, and saw that the new army was about to cross the river, but just about to pursue it, he was bombarded by mines planted in advance by the river, killing and wounding hundreds of people, and the rest did not dare to pursue it anymore, so they withdrew in a hurry.

"Damn the Ming army, damn the new army, I, Li Zicheng, will definitely let you pay for your blood debts!" Li Zicheng roared angrily.

"King Chuang is angry, this new army is too strong in combat, I think it's better to think about how to go next." Li Yan saw that he was about to lose his mind and persuaded.

"What to consider! This king will lead a large army to attack Kaifeng and avenge the sacrifice of his brother! Li Zicheng roared.

"Don't be reckless! Now we don't know the details of the new army, who knows if there is a brigade of new army near Kaifeng? What other conspiracies do they have, these are all things to consider! ”

"Li Gongzi is too cautious, our army did have some losses in the battle of Tiger Prison Pass, but didn't it still take it? What's so terrible about the new army, there are so many people in the Communist Party, this is the information that my subordinates have just transmitted," Liu Zongmin shook a letter in his hand, "I heard that the new army in Xuzhou has a total of 20,000 people, and more than 10,000 people went to this expedition, including thousands of cavalry who went to Huguang to deal with Zhang Xianzhong, and the most people left on the front line of Kaifeng are only seven or eight thousand, although they have cannons and firearms, but after all, there are few people, and heroes can't stand up to many people, as long as we take Kaifeng in one go and gain a firm foothold, we don't have to be afraid of him." ”

It seems that Zhu Hao's suspicious tactics have worked, the peasant army did not pay due attention to the small force of several thousand people, and as for the cavalry brigade on the southern front, they also thought that they were going to deal with Zhang Xianzhong.

"King Chuang, if General Liu's information is true, his subordinates have a plan to solve the situation." Li Yan said suddenly.

"King Chuang, I also have an idea to withdraw from the new army." Niu Jinxing also rushed to say.

"Oh, sir, please." Li Zicheng said without thinking, this is due to human inertia, not that Li Zicheng is clearly biased in favor of Niu Venus, and Li Yan doesn't care.

Niu Jinxing looked at Li Yan proudly and said: "As General Liu's intelligence said, then the new army will only have a maximum of 5,000 people left in Xuzhou, so it is better to send a surprise army to raid Xuzhou, even if it can't be defeated, it will also lead the new army in Kaifeng to come back to help, and we will be able to take the opportunity to go down in one fell swoop." ”

"Yes, sir, good scheming! By the way, what does Li Gongzi have to say? Li Zicheng praised with great joy, and suddenly remembered Li Yan again, and asked by the way.

"My subordinates' suggestion coincides with Mr. Niu, and I also advocate sending troops to raid Xuzhou. Now the new army in the entire Central Plains is the most difficult bone to gnaw, as long as they are driven away, the other Ming armies will not be a problem. Li Yan smiled.

"As the so-called heroes see the same, the two are really the king's right-hand men!" Li Zicheng smiled as if he had won a battle.

"As for when to send troops, we need to pick the right time. The Ming army must have a large number of spies in the Central Plains, we rashly sent troops to raid, we must not be able to hide their ears and eyes, and the effect of mobilizing the new army is not great, in my opinion, the righteous army needs to put pressure on Kaifeng to disrupt the new army's position, in order to receive miraculous results! Li Yan added.

"Li Gongzi is right, this commander of the new army is too cunning, he will definitely not be easily fooled, we need to hurt him and shock him well." Li Zicheng nodded.

"In this way, the plan will remain unchanged for the time being, and the army will rest for a day and continue to march towards Kaifeng."

On the second day, the peasant army marched out, crossed the river and Suoshui, and went all the way down to Xingyang and Zhengzhou, and then developed to 60,000 horses. The two cities were resisted by the Ming army in the Tiger Prison Pass, but the generals of this army were too cunning, and they took advantage of it and ran, and a few mines were buried on the road every other section, so that the peasant army did not dare to chase after them, and more than 10,000 people who had just been recruited were also killed by thousands, and most of the survivors were scared away.

Li Zicheng and the others are already about to become numb, this new army is too difficult and too terrifying, if it weren't for the revision of the battle plan, I really want to return to Luoyang.

If Zhu Hao knew Li Zicheng's mentality at this time, he would definitely be shocked.

After walking cautiously and fearfully for ten days along the way, the peasant army arrived at Zhongmu. At this time, the Fourth Division, the main force of the New Army, had abandoned Zhongmu and returned to the three strongholds of Xuanwuwei, Xincheng and Taojiadian on the periphery of Kaifeng.

Li Ziyuan came to set up a position to attack Zhongmou, and later heard the spies report that it was the new army that was guarding Zhongmu again, so he couldn't help but have a headache, and discussed with Li Yan and others, and decided to leave Bai Wang to lead 10,000 people to besiege Zhongmu, and the rest of the horses bypassed and directly attacked Kaifeng.

Garrisoned by Xuanwuwei were the 1st and 2nd regiments of the 4th Division of the New Army, commanded by Li Dingguo as a staff officer, Taojiadian in the north was the 3rd regiment, which was personally commanded by division commander Zhao Yuansheng, and Xincheng in the south was the 4th regiment.

Taojiadian is located on the bank of the Yellow River, which is an important place in the north of Kaifeng that leads directly to the Yellow River, and Zhu Hao's intention to arrange a regiment here is also to prevent accidents from the fleet coming down from the Yellow River.

Li Zicheng did not dare to be careless when he heard about the deployment of the new army, so he sent a large number of spies to monitor the two strongholds of the new army in the north and south, and concentrated his forces on storming Xuanwuwei.

Li Dingguo stood on the command tower of the New Army battalion and carefully observed the situation of the peasant army with a telescope, and from time to time showed a disdainful sneer: These people are quite inferior to the previous time when they were in charge of the army, how can they be able to defeat the new army with extremely strong combat effectiveness? Don't say 50,000 people, even 100,000 people can't move Kaifeng. If it weren't for the commander's strict order, he couldn't fight too hard, and he really wanted to go out and compete with Li Zicheng.

"Staff Officer Li, Li Zicheng has already started to line up, what should we do?" The head of the first regiment, Wei Quai, asked.

"It's very simple, before there is no latest instruction from the marshal, it is just eight words, the soldiers will block, and the water will cover the earth." Li Dingguo said with a smile.

"Don't hide it from you, brother, this battle is boring, according to me, you should fight with these people in the field and kill him in the dark." Wei Quzhi didn't understand Zhu Hao's intentions.

"Commander Wei, don't be anxious, there will be a fight, but not now, we can't ruin the plan of the marshal, let's still act according to the order, look, Li Zicheng is starting to attack." Li Ding National Road.

"Brothers, cheer me up, be careful not to scare Li Zicheng away!" Wei Qu sick shouted.