Chapter 260 Eighteen Sons, the Main Artifact

The power of the mortar was greatly waved in the siege of Yuanzhou, and countless soldiers of the New Liao Army rushed in from the blasted south gate, and the rebels who were already bombarded by the fierce artillery fire of the New Liao Army dared to resist, and they knelt on the ground and begged for mercy. [ Eight (a Chinese < ?).

Bai Zhicheng, Ba Laodao, Cheng Qingzhu, Xiao Yang and other generals led their subordinates to rush into Yuanzhou City, quickly controlled the city gate and various key points, and searched for Liu Wenxiu throughout the city.

Liu Wenxiu disguised himself as a common man and wanted to escape in the crowd, but was later boldly exposed by the people in the city under the encouragement of the new Liao army, and was captured.

This time, because the artillery fire of the new Liao army was too fierce, the rebels did not expect that the new Liao army would mobilize so much artillery to attack the city, so they were not ready to escape, except for a very small number of people who escaped by taking advantage of the chaos, most of them were either killed or surrendered to the new Liao army.

According to post-war statistics, more than 11,000 rebels were eliminated, more than 23,000 were captured, and a large amount of grain and grass were seized.

The casualties of the new Liao army itself were less than 2,000 people, more than 800 were killed, and the rest were wounded.

Mo Li stood in the hall of the Yuanzhou Mansion, listened to the inventory of the results reported by his subordinates, nodded slightly, turned to Li Xin and said, "This is the power of science and technology!" As long as our weapons are advanced and powerful enough, we will have a better chance of winning against the Houjin Tartars in the future, and we can also reduce many unnecessary casualties! Li Xin, did Mr. Song Yingxing and Mr. Song hear back last time? ”

When the army set out for Jiangxi, all the staff members of the General Staff Department naturally followed Mo Li to go on the expedition, on the one hand, to make suggestions, and on the other hand, it could also allow them to gain some actual combat experience, which would also be helpful for future decision-making and discussion.

Li Xin shook his head and said, "There hasn't been a response yet, it may be that there is a shortage of soldiers, and the news is not available." ”

Mo Li nodded, now in these years, the world is difficult, the rebels are raging, and no one can say what will happen in the next second.

Mo Li suddenly said: "By the way, last time you said that Song Yingxing was a newcomer, right?" ”

"Yes, he was still at home when I last visited him, Mr. Song is a filial son, and his old mother is old, so he stayed at home to serve his old mother and never traveled far."

Mo Li took the map, looked at it and said: "Fengxin is not far from Yuanzhou, but now it is entrenched by rebels, I don't know what happened to Mr. Song now......

Mo Li groaned, paced back and forth, and said, "Sima, call Meng Ke." ”

Meng Ke soon came to the door, and after the report, Mo Li motioned for him to come over and said: "Meng Ke, you want to find a way to send a few capable subordinates to Fengxin, there is only one task, find Mr. Song, and send him and his family to Yuanzhou safely, the official has something important to ask Mr. Song for help, without further ado, go quickly, bring Li Xin's handwriting." ”

Meng Ke gave a military salute, took Li Xin's handwriting, and then walked out and acted immediately.

When Moli dispatched special forces to look for Song Yingxing in Yuanzhou, in a mountain range in Yuci County, Taiyuan Prefecture, more than 2,000 miles north of Yuanzhou, Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin and others gathered in front of the bed of King Gao Yingxiang, and they were full of grief.

It turned out that during the day, in the battle with the officers and troops commanded by Lu Xiangsheng, the peasant army fell into the encirclement of the officers and troops, Gao Yingxiang was accidentally shot in the chest by a stray arrow, and almost fell off his horse at that time, and then escaped under the escort of Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin and others, leaving only more than 1,000 people and horses, and fled to the dense forest of this mountain range to rest temporarily.

However, Gao Yingxiang was shot in the vital point and finally died. Before he died, he instructed Li Zicheng to lead all his subordinates and continue to fight with the officers and soldiers. and also left a will, so that Luo Rucai and others also acted in accordance with Li Zicheng's orders.

Li Zicheng has served in Gao Yingxiang's army for several years, and he is also tall and burly, and he is brave in battle, and has some strategies, and has gradually accumulated a certain prestige and strength in Gao Yingxiang's army, although he is now chased by Lu Xiangsheng and is embarrassed, and there are only about a thousand people left, but Li Zicheng still decided to continue to fight with the official army and never give up.

Now that King Chuang is dead, the team has been dispersed, and only these thousand people are naturally unable to fight hard with the officials and soldiers, so they have to find a way to regain their strength.

Liu Zongmin said with red eyes: "Big brother, now that the official army is pressing step by step, King Chuang has unfortunately died, and the brothers have also suffered heavy casualties, I think this Shanxi can't stay any longer, we might as well retreat to Guanzhong, accumulate strength and fight with the official army again, and we must avenge King Chuang in the future!" ”

Li Zicheng choked back tears, nodded, and said: "I also have this intention, Guanzhong has produced heroes since ancient times, and it is also the place where we and King Chuang raised troops, and the old folks are also familiar with each other, and it is easy to grow stronger, good!" Let's go back to Guanzhong! ”

Liu Fangliang on the side also said: "Brother Li, let's say hello to Cao Cao, let him follow us back to Guanzhong, with his 20,000 horses, we can still give it a go when we meet the official army." ”

Liu Zongmin said angrily: "What's wrong with Cao Cao?" King Chuang left a message for him to listen to his eldest brother, forgive him and dare not listen! ”

"Zong Min, you can't say that." Li Zicheng glared at him and said, "Cao Cao started his army earlier than us, and he is our senior, so we must not lose our courtesy." Tomorrow I will go to Qingyuan and tell him to act with us. ”

The next day, Li Zicheng successfully said that Luo Rucai led his troops back to Guanzhong with him, and more than 20,000 men and horses began to avoid Lu Xiangsheng's heavy encirclement and suppression, and rushed towards Guanzhong. Along the way, thousands of victims were taken in to join the team.

Li Zicheng, Luo Rucai, and others led the peasant army to cross the Yellow River and kill them in Yan'an, Qingyang, and other places, avoiding the big cities heavily defended by officers and soldiers all the way, and specially expanding toward the countryside and small towns, taking the line of encircling the cities from the countryside.

Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides, was very annoyed, this Lu Xiangsheng drove the Liukou back to Shaanxi again, and it became more and more intense, didn't this make him uncomfortable. But annoyance is annoyance, since the rogues are here, they will be suppressed, but Li Zicheng and his ilk are too cunning, as soon as the officers and soldiers come, they will go to the deep mountains and forests to drill, as soon as the officers and soldiers leave, he will run out to harass the rich households in the towns and villages, and loot the rich and big families everywhere, causing a lot of complaints.

Besides, Lu Xiangsheng, he finally crippled Gao Yingxiang's main force, but he didn't expect to escape from his subordinate Li Zicheng, and he merged with Luo Rucai, and he was also very annoyed in his heart, and he wanted to lead his troops to continue to pursue Li Zicheng, and work with Hong Chengchou to exterminate this remnant of the gangsters, but at this time, the Jingshi came to the holy decree.

The holy decree said that the Houjin Tartar Emperor Taiji swept away the Mongolian Lin Dan Khan a few days ago, and after subduing the Mongolian forces, the military was mighty, and nearly 200,000 Mongolian cavalry were subdued under his command, and Lin Dan Khan fled to Qinghai.

After the general army of Datong got the news, he hurriedly reported it to the imperial court. Because the rebellion of Kong Youde Denglai some time ago consumed a lot of soldiers and horses and money and food in the imperial court, there were no soldiers to send for a while, so he had to mobilize the nearest Lu Xiangsheng army of 20,000 people to go north to support Datong.

It turned out that after the beginning of spring, Huang Taiji immediately ordered 50,000 elite horses of the Eight Banners, leaving his eldest son Haoge to lead 5,000 banner soldiers to guard Shenyang, and ordered the Mongolian troops of Houjin to come to the meeting to conquer Lin Dan Khan for the second time.

The ministers of Korqin, Bahrain, Naiman, Ao Han, Karaqin, Tumut, Alukorqin, Weng Niute, and Asute met on the banks of the Xilamulun River, with a total strength of about 120,000, crossed the Xing'an Mountains, and swept away thousands of troops to kill Lin Dan Khan's troops.

Although Lin Dan Khan has the ambition of the bird, but unfortunately he is a talented and sparse person, and he neglected to take precautions against the Houjin Eight Banners, and in less than two months, he was defeated by Huang Taiji and fled, and finally could only lead his eldest son Ezhe and thousands of cronies to flee to Qinghai in a hurry.

After Lin Dan Khan fled to Qinghai, Qinghai was a place with high and rugged mountains and a cold climate, which was not conducive to large-scale attacks. In addition, Lin Dan Khan's more than 100,000 troops only had four or five thousand men left at this time, and they were located in a corner of Qinghai, which posed a threat to Houjin, so Huang Taiji decided to withdraw his troops.

But thinking about the heavy blow suffered in Liaodong last year, Huang Taiji was full of anger, the army has now opened to the Hetao, it is better to simply wave the army to break through the Ming Kingdom's Datong, Xuanfu, and go straight to the Beijing Division, I can't say that this time without Yuan Chonghuan, I can break through the Ming Jingshi in one fell swoop, take away his Daming country, and the shame of last year's defeat in blood.

Datong Li Jingshi is very close, the defense force is insufficient, and the Tartars are the mortal enemies of the Ming Dynasty, if the Tartars break through the pass and approach the Beijing Division like three years ago, the consequences will be unimaginable.

For this reason, Lu Xiangsheng did not dare to delay a little, and immediately pulled out the camp and went north to help Datong.

As for Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai, then hand it over to Hong Chengchou to have a headache.

As soon as Lu Xiangsheng left, the strength of the officers and soldiers in Taiyuan, Pingyang and even Henan was quite weak, Li Zicheng and others had no worries, and they made a comeback, attacking the city one after another.

Li Zicheng grew rapidly, not only entrenched in most of the towns and villages of Yan'an and Qingyang Mansions, but also once again spread his influence all over Henan, Shanxi and other places, and his momentum became even greater.

During this period, Li Zicheng recruited several generals one after another, including Yuan Zongdi, Liu Tichun, Hao Shaoqi and so on. After these people joined Li Zicheng's peasant army, they fought quite bravely and made many meritorious achievements, which were highly valued by Li Zicheng.

Moreover, Song Xiance and Gu Junen also joined Li Zicheng's team successively, and the arrival of these two think-tank strategists made Li Zicheng and other rogues get rid of the dilemma of lack of plotting, and changed the bandit behavior of only knowing how to loot and kill in the past, and began to put forward strategies on how to buy people's hearts and seek great causes, and gradually became an important strategist that Li Zicheng relied on.

Song Xiance is good at Qimen Dunjia and diagrams, and Li Zicheng believes in gods.

Song Xiance also pointed out that "the national fortune will end" according to the politics of the Ming Dynasty. In order to establish the peasant political power more quickly and establish Li Zicheng's prestige, he put forward the slogan of "Eighteen children should be the main artifact".

Song Xiance believed that the proposition and propaganda of this slogan could play a great role in mobilizing and winning over the masses, boosting the morale of the peasant army, and isolating the rulers of the Ming Dynasty.

So, after discussing with Li Zicheng, Song Xiance compiled it into a nursery rhyme, first taught children to sing, and slowly expanded his influence.

Soon after, the folk in Henan, Shanxi, Shaanxi and other places spread one after another: "Eighteen sons, the main artifact ......"