As the saying goes, disaster is not a single line, this idiom is very reasonable, and the current situation in the Ming Dynasty is not the worst, only worse, just when Xiao Tianjian led the troops to capture Kaifeng, there was news in Shaanxi and Huguang that shocked the government and the opposition.

Let's talk about Shaanxi first, Li Zicheng was defeated in the hands of Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting last year, and was driven into Shangluo Mountain, where he could not advance or retreat, if it wasn't for Xiao Tianjian finally reaching out to help, through the trail of Lushi County, and transporting him batch after batch of supplies, Li Zicheng might really be starved to death in Shangluo Mountain.

However, Xiao Tianjian's supplies to Li Zicheng are also limited, which can only ensure that Li Zicheng and his more than 1,000 people will not starve to death, and there are weapons to fight guerrillas in the Shangluo area, but they are unable to grow too much.

But as soon as Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting led the army to leave Shaanxi, Li Zicheng saw the opportunity, and rushed out of Shangluo Mountain, first captured Shanyin County, and gathered a group of men and horses in Shanyin County, and then went straight to the Hanyin area, wanting to recapture Hanzhong, in early April, he killed Shiquan, through the people along the way, as well as the remnants of the earlier rout scattered everywhere, the strength of the army recovered to more than 20,000 people again, there are signs of revival, the new Shaanxi trilateral governor Ding Qirui was greatly frightened, On the one hand, he also had to arrange men and horses in the Tongguan area to guard against the Xingtian army to attack Shaanxi westward, and on the other hand, he also had to mobilize men and horses to block Li Zicheng, and the available troops in the entire Shaanxi area were basically not much left after Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting entered the guard, and he could not immediately extinguish Li Zicheng's gang of thieves.

At the same time, there was also a major news in Huguang, that is, Zhang Xianzhong, who had previously submitted to the imperial court, in mid-March, suddenly re-sacrificed the banner of rebellion, through this nearly a year of recuperation, Zhang Xianzhong raised nearly 20,000 soldiers in the Gucheng area, and they were all strong, and the combat effectiveness recovered quite strong, after he raised the army, in less than a month, he successively took Fangxian, Baokang, Xingshan area, and the strength of the army quickly recovered to more than 40,000 people, and there was a direct attack on Yichang, Attacking the posture of Wuchang and Hankou.

In addition to the news of Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng's revival, there was also news from Shanxi that Pingyang Mansion was attacked by the soldiers and horses entrenched in Jinnan by the Xingtian Army.

Pingyang Mansion is extremely important for Shanxi, it connects the north and west of Shanxi, Pingyang Mansion is lost, Jinnan is completely divided by the Xingtian Army, Jiangzhou, Jiezhou and more than 10 prefectures and counties in Jinnan, the situation is precarious.

Originally, Wu Fu also wanted Hu Dawei, who had just returned to Shanxi, to lead his troops to save Pingyang Mansion, but after Hu Dawei returned to Shanxi, he heard that the Xingtian Army was attacking Pingyang Mansion, so he couldn't get sick and refused Wu Fu's request for him to fight.

After all, Hu Dawei has been scared by the Xingtian Army, almost he has not been courted by the Xingtian Army in every battle, and he was almost killed by the Xingtian Army, this time he was promoted to the guard with Lu Xiang, in the battle of the giant deer, if it wasn't for the Xingtian Army brazenly killing into the battlefield to rescue them, he estimated that he and Yang Guozhu would have died in the giant deer, and it was precisely because the Xingtian Army contained the Tartar forces that they led their subordinates to break out of the siege and escape to ascend to heaven, and now he has to go to fight with the Xingtian Army, so he won't do it!

So Wu Fu used the chief military officer Xu Dingguo to rescue Pingyang Mansion from Taiyuan to the south, but Xu Dingguo was also an old defeated general under the Xingtian Army, and he walked slowly along the way, and before he arrived at Pingyang Mansion, Pingyang Mansion had been lost.

In this battle, Yan Chongxi personally led 10,000 elite Xingtian troops, plus 30,000 reserve battalions and people to help the war, and on March 23, he began to raise troops from Fushan County and Yicheng County, first sending troops to attack Fencheng and Xiangling counties, and then before the end of March, he first swept away the county towns around Pingyang Mansion, cleared out the officials and troops on the periphery of Pingyang Mansion, and officially surrounded Pingyang Mansion on March 30.

Compared with the many Xingtian troops directly led by Xiao Tianjian in Henan, although the strength of Jinnan is insufficient, but because they have the best foundation, plus Yangcheng produces iron, the main weapons of the Xingtian Army are also in the area of Yangcheng and Lu'anfu, so the soldiers under Yan Chongxi's command are the most elite, and the proportion of equipment of various bird guns and self-generated firearms is much higher than that of his colleagues in Henan, and even the proportion of firecrackers in Jinnan's reserve camp has reached about thirty percent, and the combat power is very strong.

Not to mention that there is Gao Su, a cannon casting division in Yangcheng, now the cannon casting workshop has developed very large, basically can do two or three kinds of artillery per day, and has more than 300 skilled craftsmen, so the Jinnan Xingtian Army is the first to get the moon near the water, and the artillery equipment is also a lot, just Yan Chongxi's subordinates, there are as many as three artillery battalions, and the artillery battalions are equipped with six-pound and eight-pound guns. This time, it was also led by Gao Su and transported to the city of Pingyang Mansion.

The official army of Pingyang Prefecture only has more than 3,000 troops, plus the people and heroes inside and outside the city who have been temporarily captured to help them fight, there are only less than 10,000 people, and there is no possibility of defeating the Xingtian army that is armed to the teeth.

Yan Chongxi didn't play any fancy this time, with his strong troops and absolute advantage of firearms, he came to Pingyang Mansion with one force and launched a strong attack.

Gao Su hasn't had a war addiction for a long time, and this guy was originally a mercenary, relying on fighting and eating, this time he took the opportunity to transport the newly cast twelve-pound Hongyi cannon to Yan Chongxi, and also came to the battlefield of Pingyang Mansion.

Yan Chongxi agreed to Gao Su's request for battle, handed over the heavy artillery of the artillery battalion to Gao Su's command, and ordered him to bombard the south gate of Pingyang Mansion, and after Gao Su agreed, he mobilized more than 40 eight-pound and twelve-pound heavy artillery pieces to set up an artillery array outside the south gate of Pingyang Mansion, and bombarded the south gate of Pingyang Mansion day and night.

And the gunners of the Xingtian Army also respect this red-haired devil very much, after all, their main force has been personally trained by Gao Su, and Gao Su is the main instructor of the Wutang Artillery Department in Yangcheng at present, so he is very comfortable with the command of the artillerymen of the Xingtian Army.

Under the command of Gao Su, the heavy artillery team bombarded for two days and two nights, and finally the south gate urn city of Pingyang Province was blown down by them, exposing the south city gate, on the morning of the fifth day of the fourth month, Gao Su commanded the heavy artillery team to set artillery bombardment, the city tower above the south gate of the city collapsed, and the city gate was blown into pieces.

Yan Chongxi gave an order, and his generals flocked into Pingyang Mansion, and Wang Zhong, the Pingyang guard, saw that the city gate was broken, and when he announced the surrender of the Xingtian Army, he led his troops to stop resisting and handed over Pingyang Mansion to Yan Chongxi.

And the clerks of Pingyang Mansion, some people chose to die to be killed and martyred, and more people simply chose to defect to Cheng and surrender to the Xingtian Army, with Fu Deming here, once Yan Chongxi broke through Pingyang Mansion, Fu Deming took over the civil affairs of Pingyang Mansion, between Xiao Tianjian's principle of requiring caution to surrender officials, Fu Deming learned about the style of most of the officials in Pingyang Mansion in Pingyang Mansion, and showed a few of them to the public on the spot, for most of the low-level officials, They were exempted from their culpability, and several of them were directly reused, and the order of Pingyang Mansion was quickly restored.

And the Pingyang guard general Wang Zhong, Yan Chongxi did not treat him badly, kept his family property, did not confiscate it, protected his family from infringement, and ordered him to report to Xiao Tianjian in Henan, Xiao Tianjian had his own arrangements for him, after all, for the appointment of military generals, although Yan Chongxi was the head of a town, he did not have this right.

The loss of Pingyang Mansion, for the imperial court, is another heavy blow to them by the Xingtian Army in just a few days, anyone can see it, as long as the territory of the Ming Dynasty is lost, it is basically impossible to regain it from the hands of the Xingtian Army, and Pingyang Mansion is so large as Jinnan, the location is too important, as long as the Xingtian Army takes Pingyang Mansion, it will never be easily returned to the imperial court, and will definitely leave heavy troops to guard, with the current strength of Shanxi, even if it is plus the Xuanda army under Chen Xinjia, It is estimated that it will be difficult to get it back.

What's more, when Yan Chongxi attacked Pingyang Mansion, Wang Chengping and Li Lingfeng in northern Jin also officially played the banner of the Xingtian Army, and in just one month, nearly 10,000 people and horses were gathered in Shuozhou, northern Shanxi, of which the cavalry composed of fierce horse thieves alone exceeded 3,000 people, and they also set up three war battalions, which completely began to be reorganized in accordance with the regular establishment of the Xingtian Army, and a large-scale Xingtian Army Corps was also formed in northern Jin. Moreover, when Yan Chongxi began to use troops against Pingyang Mansion, they also started an offensive operation in the Shuozhou area.

Moreover, under the instruction of Xiao Tianjian, as soon as Yan Chongxi returned to Jinnan, he transferred nearly 1,500 bird guns and self-generated fire guns from the warehouse, as well as hundreds of short self-generated fire guns, through the business group of Fan Yaoshan's family, placed in the mezzanine at the bottom of the cart, transferred to the northern Jin area, and handed over to Yan Chongxi and Li Lingfeng.

Although Yan Chongxi and Li Lingfeng's corps belongs to the newly formed corps, Xiao Tianjian has not sent them less personnel from Jinnan over the years to build the backbone of their corps, which are basically the old subordinates of the Xingtian Army, and in terms of training, the methods they use are also the standard military regulations of the Xingtian Army, although there are many new recruits, but the combat effectiveness is not very weak, at least to deal with the officers and soldiers who are also short of training, they are only strong but not weak, plus they have a cavalry formed by old horse thieves, The combat effectiveness of the cavalry is even more ferocious, so in just one month, they reorganized and fought in motion, and quickly captured Ningwu, Shenchi, Shanyin, Daixian and other counties within the Great Wall, although their ability to attack fortified positions was limited, and they did not defeat Dai County and Shanyin County, but they swept away the territory outside these counties, basically cut off the connection between Xuanda and Taiyuan, and also greatly restrained the energy of the Shanxi government, so that it could not pay all attention to the war in Pingyang Mansion.

(Today, chapter 6 is here, dare to ask which brother still has flowers in his hand?) Stay! ）