Emperor Chongzhen had no choice but to take into account Yang Sichang's feelings, so he had to issue a holy decree and pardon Sun Chuanting and Fang Kongzhi, but he did not restore the two of them to their official positions, but only ordered the two to listen to Song Youliang's account, which can be regarded as giving Yang Sichang enough face

On February 20, at the same time as Chongzhen dispatched troops, Li Zicheng was not idle, Luoyang was lost, and Chen Yongfu, the deputy general of the Kaifeng garrison, rushed to help, and the garrison of Kaifeng City was naturally empty. Li Zicheng got the information and came back with a horse gun: a surprise attack on Kaifeng.

At noon on February 21, the 14th year of Chongzhen, the villagers outside Xiguan fought for the road to enter the city, and the vehicles blocked the road. The Hundred Cavalry Peasant Army disguised itself as an official army and could not drive for a long time, so the murderous "Righteous Army" wantonly slashed and killed the refugees who stood in front of the horses, and forced a bloody way to the West Gate. The defender saw it clearly, hurriedly closed the city gate, and the flint cannon on the city was fired, and Li Zicheng's surprise attack could not be successful, so he could only retreat.

That night, Li Zicheng had 3,000 cavalry, and 30,000 "recruits" who had just joined the peasant army arrived at Xiguan in Kaifeng. The peasant army attacked the city in a big way, and it was called the first siege at the time. Henan Patrol Gao Mingheng, Kaifeng Prefecture Governor Huang Shu, Shebing (Local Armed Forces) Headquarters Li Guangli and others refused to accept it by virtue of the tall city wall of Kaifeng.

On 23 February, the peasant army attacked Xicheng, and the officers and soldiers first used the table top and door panel of the Eight Immortals Table to cover the artillery arrows at the battlements, but the table top and door panel were too thin to seem to be able to resist the bombardment of artillery arrows. Zhang Jian, a member of the student, was in a hurry and made a raft tied with logs, which could span three to five stacks in width, and four or five feet outside the stack, with a capacity of 10 people, which made the officers and men free of their hands and feet. Huang Shu, the official of the pusher, ordered the fast hand Zhu Guangzu to supervise the construction of the "hanging tower", which became 50 overnight and placed in the city.

On the 24th, the clumsy "hanging building" played a role in actual combat. The besieging peasant army seemed to have suffered many casualties, provoking "the thieves to be so angry that they shot all day long, and their arrows pierced the walls of the city like hedgehogs." On the 15th, the peasant army attacked the city with a group of 48 people carrying cloud ladders, and a soldier named Zhu Zhicang defended the city, and the thief in the city was given a head and a reward of 50 taels of silver.

Henan is the place where the Zhu Ming Dynasty was established, there are a total of seven kings here, and the wealth of the clan is concentrated, which can be described as rich in the world. Fu King Zhu Changxun was in Luoyang, and Zhou King Zhu Gongxun lived in Kaifeng, and the two acted very differently in wartime, although they could not influence the situation of the war, but to a certain extent, they determined their own fate.

Zhu Gongfang, the king of Zhou, is much more rational than Zhu Changxun, the king of Fu. On the day when the soldiers came to the city, he spared no expense of his family property, "ordering the people to reward those who can go out of the city to kill thieves of the first class with 50 taels of silver, those who can shoot and kill a thief with 30 taels, and those who shoot and wound a thief or brick and stone with 10 taels." This move really worked, and the people who came to the city with crossbows and swords were enthusiastic for a while, and 800 members of the Zhou family also went to the west city to defend the palace. However, King Fu of Luoyang did not accept the opinions of the government, "he didn't paint anything, he didn't give up a penny", and he was full of "iron roosters". The soldiers in the city were poorly paid, hungry, and resentful, which was also one of the reasons for the rebellion of the defenders of Luoyang. After the fall of the city, King Fu's furniture was not only lost, but even his life was lost. The peasant army searched for him in Ying'en Temple and escorted him to "court" on the way to King Chuang, and happened to meet Lu Weiqi, the secretary of the Ming Nanjing Military Department, who had been tied up by five flowers, and who had donated to him, and King Fu actually shouted "Mr. Lu save me". After the Fu King, who was "terrible and begging for his life" was ridiculed by Li Zicheng, he hit forty boards and showed his head to the public. He also mixed his meat with venison and gave it to the soldiers to eat, which was called "eating Fulu meat."

There are many reasons for winning or losing a war, and the situation is complicated. The loss of Luoyang is not that there are no soldiers and no people to fear; Kaifeng is stubbornly defending, not because there are many soldiers and the people are brave, but because in extraordinary times, the officials plan and deploy in place, and the people have their own bravery. There must be brave men under the so-called heavy reward

On February 26, Chen Yongfu, who went to Luoyang to help, heard that Kaifeng had been attacked, and rushed back after two days and nights. After the inspector ordered Chen Yongfu's son Chen De to see it really at the head of the city, he opened the water gate and put it in. It was the night when Chen Yongfu and an official army fell in love with the battle, and he was so angry that he forgot to return to the city for a while, and was surrounded by the peasant army who had come to his senses, and until the next morning, he was still fighting in Xiaoxiguan, with many casualties. An officer and soldier climbed to the roof and killed seven people in a row, but the peasant army did not dare to come closer, so they had to shoot him with arrows.

On February 27, Zicheng was patrolling outside the West Gate, and Chen Yongfu's son Chen De shot Li Zicheng in the left eye with an arrow. There is no historical evidence as to whether that arrow contributed to the peasant army's self-liberation, but at dawn the next day, the peasant army's advance withdrew westward, and all fled in the evening. When Chen De shot Zicheng, he saw "hugging his head and rushing away, he knew that he was a thief".

Since the peasant army lifted the siege to the west, the Kaifeng government supervised the people to repair the city wall the next day, and worked day and night, and the project was completed in ten days.

On February 28, Li Xianfeng, the governor of Henan, and Gao Qian, a guerrilla, led an army to Kaifeng

On the same day, Song Youliang, the general soldier of Dengzhou, led 30,000 Shandong soldiers to Lanyang (now Lankao, Henan), where Song Youliang waited for Sun Chuanting and Fang Kongzhi, who had just been released from prison and escorted by Jinyiwei.

Song Youliang lined up in the camp to welcome the two, and the red carpet went all the way from Yuanmen to the Chinese army's tent. Sun Chuanting and Fang Kongzhi, who were dressed in civilian cloth clothes and looked a little haggard, were a little surprised, but the next scene made the two even more at a loss.

Song Youliang stepped forward quickly, knelt down in front of the two of them with an ordinary sound, hugged Sun Chuanting's left foot with his left hand, hugged Fang Kongzhi's right foot with his right hand, and cried loudly: "The two teachers atone for their sins, the students are not filial, and let the teachers suffer!" ”

Fang Kongzhi was startled, and hurriedly went to help Song Youliang, but he couldn't help him after helping him twice, so he said helplessly: "I don't have a teacher and a student with the military gate, why do I have to be commensurate with my teacher, and I still give this big gift?" Hurry up and get up. ”

Sun Chuanting on the side was deaf, so his reaction was relatively slow, his servant Sun Fu spoke in his ear with his mouth, and his other servant Sun Gui wrote down Song Youliang's words on paper, and Sun Chuanting also hurried to help Song Youliang, "Song Junmen, I can't help it, you and I are not suitable for teachers and students, how can the old man receive this great gift?" ”

Song Youliang ignored it, and continued to hug the thighs of the two and cry: "Since the students came to Henan by the holy order, they have been thinking day and night, and it is difficult to sleep and eat. The students are shallow in their studies, their qualifications are insufficient, and they are not as good as Fang Gong in governing the local area and pacifying the people, and the criminal and prison proceedings are not as good as Fang Gong; Marching and fighting, the art of war, and seeking thieves for the country are not as good as Sun Gong. As the saying goes, a general is incompetent and exhausts the three armies, and there are no less than 30,000 Shandong children who follow me into Yuzhou. If you give up your life in vain because of my Song Youliang's momentary stupidity, how can you be embarrassed? Who doesn't have parents, wives and children? Every time I think of this, I am terrified, so I ask Your Majesty to invite two teachers to come to the army. All dispatching and commanding are all under the orders of the two teachers. ”

Although Song Youliang thinks that his performance is sincere, Sun and Fang are both people who have been in officialdom for a long time, so how can they be deceived so easily. It's just that after thinking about it, both of them decided to accept Song Youliang as their protégé. There are three reasons: first of all, the two of them have more or less heard of some of Song Youliang's deeds, such as resettlement, land reclamation and grain donation, extermination of bandits and thieves, and education in Haiyang Weida, etc., and they have some good feelings towards Song Youliang in their hearts; Secondly, the two of them knew that in the Ming Dynasty, where civil officials are in charge today, what great things a martial artist wants to accomplish and what merits he establishes, it is not possible for a civil official with sufficient weight to speak for him in the court. Song Youliang insisted on getting involved in the teacher-student relationship with himself, I am afraid that he took a fancy to the prestige of the two in Shilin and wanted to use himself. However, now that Yang Sichang has a heavy army to suppress bandits in the southwest, and has won the trust of the emperor, it is when the power is in full swing, and no one in the court dares to speak for himself. Song Youliang spoke for himself at this time, the light one will affect the future, and the heavy one will cause trouble. This son is so righteous, even if he wants to speak for him in the future, it is reasonable. How did they know that Song Youliang knew in advance that Yang Sichang was not far from his death, and deliberately made a favor at this moment

So Sun Chuanting and Fang Kongzhi didn't go to help Song Youliang, but said with a smile: "You get up." ”

"If the two teachers don't recognize me as an unscrupulous, the students won't get up!" Song Youliang continued to play tricks

"Hehe~ Since you claim to be an old man's disciple, don't you know that the master's order cannot be violated?" Sun Chuanting said with a smile

When Song Youliang heard this, he was overjoyed, and quickly jumped up, "The student must obey the teacher's orders~ Come on, prepare wine and food, and wash the dust for the two teachers of this official!" ”

Fang Kongzhi waved his hand and said: "Along the way, I heard that the thieves broke Luoyang and are besieging Kaifeng, and the military situation is urgent, so there is no need for a banquet!" Fang Kongzhi said with a smile: "It's just that I have been guarding Shaoxing for a while, and I don't know the taste of meat all day long." ”

After listening to the servant's relay, Sun Chuanting also laughed and said: "Brother Qianfu (Fang Kongzhi table), you and I have sympathy for the same disease." Good apprentice, prepare a large piece of meat for your two masters! ”