Through a series of operations, He Sanjiang and the others were not suspicious to transport the grain stored in the secret granary of Hongmen here in Shaanxi to their own team station.

However, He Sanjiang and they missed something, forgetting that they recruited soldiers on a large scale, and in the end they would inevitably need a large amount of money and food to support them, and it was not difficult for Li Zicheng to suspect that He Sanjiang had other actions behind them.

Fortunately, Li Zicheng is also a little skeptical about this, if you want to be strong and strong, you will inevitably need huge supplies of materials, as the most powerful existence in the peasant army, Li Zicheng's pressure is not small, so calling He Sanjiang over to beat one or two is also the meaning of the question.

"You are also ready to prepare, we will continue to advance eastward, and continue to retreat in Longxian County here can no longer meet the consumption of the brothers!"

Li Zicheng was very satisfied with He Sanjiang's attitude, and then after casually mentioning a few words, he sent He Sanjiang away.

He Sanjiang walked out of the gate of the Longxian County and looked at the bleak county street, only then could he be regarded as relieved, at least Li Zicheng was only suspicious of his expansion of troops and horses, and there was no other action.

After returning home, He Sanjiang and the others continued to recruit soldiers and horses, but on the other hand, they paid more attention to secrecy, were more cautious about the details of all parties, and at the same time began to prepare for the mobilization of troops and horses at night.

On August 17 of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, after a stable Mid-Autumn Festival in Longxian, Li Zicheng's army continued to move eastward, heading towards the hinterland of Shaanxi and Shandong further east.

May was another day of natural disasters, with frequent floods in the south of the Yangtze River, serious disasters in Zhejiang, Jiangsu, and other places, and serious droughts in Henan, Shandong, and other places in the north.

In the local area, Xiong Wencan and others also actively operated, strictly preventing the greater spread of the peasant army, and deployed heavy troops in Chang'an and other important places to encircle, pursue and intercept Li Zicheng.

He Sanjiang and their team, following Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, wandered around in Shaanxi and other places, and the scale became more and more huge, but in October, the peasant army more than doubled, and faintly began to have a great advantage over the Ming Dynasty army.

When the size of the team expanded to an order of magnitude, Li Zicheng was no longer satisfied with a small fight and launched an offensive against the remote counties around Shaanxi, but was ready to make a big move, aiming at Chang'an City, the ancient capital of thousands of years.

At this time, the governor Xiong Wencan, who was stationed in Chang'an City from the north and south early, was responsible for the military affairs of Henan and Shaanxi provinces, but Xiong Wencan could not sit back and watch Shaanxi being troubled by thieves.

The thieves suffered heavy losses in Henan before, so that Xiong Wencan was finally able to explain to the imperial court, and Yang Sichang himself was attacked at this time, Xiong Wencan's current status is more solid.

However, this night is only relative, now the Ming Dynasty Emperor Chongzhen is unkind, eager for quick success, the reason why Xiong Wencan continues to sit in the position of governor is to see that he has some merits, and there are some means to deal with the peasant army night.

At this time, Xiong Wencan regretted it a little, if he didn't give advice to the imperial court and let Li Tianyang, the commander of the Fujian Navy Division, send troops north, with such a fierce general with both wisdom and bravery, he Xiong Wencan would not be like now, full of awe and hesitation for the mighty peasant army.

He wanted Deng Xi and other general soldiers to lead the army, and while Li Zicheng's army was still growing, he wanted to strengthen the offensive, but he was worried that the strength of Deng Xi's army was not as good as that of the thief Li Zicheng's army, and there would be another defeat.

In these days, the battle between Deng Xi and other general soldiers and Li Zicheng has not stopped, and the two sides have won and lost each other, and on the whole, the Ming officers and soldiers still have some advantages.

However, the speed of replenishment of the peasant army was incomparable to that of the officers and soldiers of the Ming Dynasty, even if their losses were higher than those of the Ming army, as long as Li Zicheng ascended to the heights, a steady stream of fathers and villagers came to join his ranks.

Under the advantages of the other, the local garrison of the Ming Dynasty was gradually weakened, and on the other hand, Li Zicheng's peasant rebel army not only did not consume much, but even larger than the previous team, and the number grew rapidly.

In addition to the military suppression of the peasant army, in politics and people's livelihood, Xiong Wencan also took various measures to settle the affected people and hold the displaced people hostage in the local area, but the Ming Dynasty has been in financial difficulties for a long time, even if Xiong Wencan is the governor of several provinces, but there are many situations where he is unable to encircle and support, and the effect is not great for the overall situation.

After several months of coordination, Xiong Wencan finally put together a Ming army with a scale of 60,000, led by Deng Xi and other general soldiers, and launched an offensive against the thief Li Zicheng.

The advantage of the peasant army is that the team is huge and numerous, but the real combat effectiveness is vulnerable, unless Li Zicheng is willing to dispatch the main army led by his henchmen and guards, otherwise basically in the face of tens of thousands of troops pressed into the Ming army, Li Zicheng can only use a large number of cannon fodder troops to hinder the main force of the Ming army, and find the flaws of the other side to attack.

He Sanjiang and the others were naturally happy to follow Li Zicheng around, although they sent their soldiers to fight with the Ming army several times, but each time they were beaten by the Ming army, and they were embarrassed.

It just so happened that He Sanjiang and they didn't have the time and energy to train the army, and they used actual combat to eliminate the weak and retain the strong, although it seemed a little cruel, but it also reduced a lot of trouble for He Sanjiang and them, so that they could quickly increase the strength of their subordinates.

It wasn't until near Minzhou Wei that the army of the thief Li Zicheng finally gathered the main army, first using 20,000 old and weak soldiers as bait to lure the 10,000 Ming soldiers stationed in Minzhou Wei to attack.

Then when the Ming army easily defeated the remnants of the 20,000 peasant army, and wanted to annihilate it in one go, ignoring the fact that most of Li Zicheng was in the intelligence at that time, but did not want to pursue it halfway, 30,000 elite soldiers of the peasant army, under the leadership of Liu Zongmin, Tian Jianxiu and other Li thief henchmen, came out of the high ridge and caught the Ming army off guard.

In the end, 10,000 Minzhou Wei Ming Dynasty soldiers were finally able to break out of the encirclement, but only more than 1,000 people, and the peasant army followed after the defeat of this Ming army, knocked on the strong fortress of Minzhou Wei, and only spent thousands of soldiers to occupy the important town of Minzhou Wei.

(End of chapter)