Li Zicheng's progress was rapid, and on September 10 he pursued the defeated army outside the city of Xi'an, and the next day, Wang Genzi, the defender of Xi'an, opened the east gate and surrendered. Xi'an was occupied, and the king of Qin and the governor were naturally captured, some were killed and some surrendered.

After that, Li Zicheng quickly stabilized the situation and ordered the soldiers to abide by military discipline and not kill a single person. After Xi'an settled down, he immediately divided his troops to conquer other prefectures and counties in Shaanxi, especially the trilateral areas where border troops were stationed.

Li Zicheng personally took Li Guo and Liu Fangliang to the north to pursue the fleeing Gao Jie and capture northern Shaanxi. Liu Zongmin took He Jin and Yuan Zongdi to the west to pursue Bai Guangen and capture Ningxia, Gansu, Xining and other places at the same time. The rest of Shaanxi was commanded by Tian Jianxiu, who rushed from behind.

When Li Yan received the news, he could only shake his head and sigh. Li Zicheng occupied Xi'an with great ease, and his plan to weaken Li Zicheng was completely ruined. However, fortunately, the area under the administration of Shaanxi is large enough, and Li Zicheng wants to divide his troops to occupy the place, and there is not much threat to him for the time being. Therefore, he has to take advantage of this opportunity to expand some territory, otherwise in the future, his troops will be consumed on guarding against Li Zicheng.

However, before Li Yan could act, he received a holy decree from the imperial court. Because he sat back and watched Sun Chuanting's division collapse, he took back Li Yan's thief general seal. and asked Li Yan to lead troops into Shaanxi to help prevent thieves from attacking. The local security of Henan was jointly responsible for the assistance of Bu Congshan, the chief soldier stationed in Hebei, and Chen Yongfu.

Li Yan didn't bother to accept the holy decree, and directly asked his subordinates to take the holy decree. Because he just got the news, Qiu Niang was happy.

In the past few days, Qiu Niang has been retching and has a bad appetite. Although she was robbed by the bandits to be the lady of the village, after all, she was never pregnant with a child, and she didn't understand these things, and she didn't care. After Li Yan found out, he asked Dr. He to come over for diagnosis, only to find out that he was happy.

Qiu Niang was surprised, but also very happy. And Li Yan also breathed a sigh of relief. At least it would reassure his subordinates and let them know that he could have children without worrying about it.

Wu Niang was very surprised by Li Yan, she was also very happy after knowing the news, and she did not show frustration or loss.

After Qiu Niang rested, Li Yan and Wu Niang said, "You don't have to think about it, we have time." ”

Wu Niang said indifferently: "I didn't think much about it." I have seen a lot of jealous things, and it is not interesting. Now that Qiu Niang has a child, you are also more relaxed. It's just that no matter how many children you have in the future, you have to treat them well, but you can't be like the palace, divided into three, six, nine, etc., the world is far away. ”

Li Yan said with a smile: "It's all up to you, so I don't have to worry about it." ”

Wu Niang just smiled, and didn't take it seriously.

Even if Qiu Niang was happy, Li Yan couldn't stay in the back house for too long. He immediately sent someone to call Chen Yongfu and Chen De from Xinyang to Kaifeng, he wanted to see the reaction of the father and son.

Originally, he planned to take down Xuzhou first, and there were several bandits where they were rampant, and they happened to pass in the name of suppressing bandits. However, since the imperial court wants to use Hebei's Bu Congshan to contain him, then he should take Hebei down first.

And at this time, Zuo Liangyu took advantage of Zhang Xianzhong's opportunity to attack Changsha and sent troops to recover Huangzhou, Wuchang and other places, which happened to contain the weak Gao Yigong. Gao Yigong had to transfer a part of his troops from here on the Henan border to Hanyang, Xiaogan, Hanchuan and other places to guard against further attacks by Zuo Liangyu.

Taking advantage of the fact that Chen Yongfu and his son had not yet arrived, he began to mobilize troops, prepare ferries, and build a pontoon bridge while the Yellow River had not yet frozen. It was really inconvenient to cross the river by ferry, and his troops had a great demand for baggage, and the ferries could not meet the requirements of the troops' operations at all.

Forty thousand recruits have now been trained and expanded into the ranks, and more than 30,000 are being trained. He mobilized 20,000 troops to cross the river to the north, which was more than enough to deal with Bu Congshan, who had less than 10,000 people. Although Hebei is also plagued by famines, it has not been captured by Li Zicheng, at least the population is not small. Moving some to the hinterland of Henan can not only make effective use of the land, but also increase the number of soldiers.

There is another consideration, that is, after Shaanxi is controlled by Li Zicheng, it is impossible for him to get war horses from Niu Chenghu, Zuo Xun and others. Although he now has more than 5,000 cavalry, he still feels that it is not enough, so he must try his best to maintain this line in Shanxi and get more war horses.

At the same time, some officials, soldiers and officials from Shaanxi also ran over from Tongguan, but after all, only a small number came, and most of them surrendered to Li Zicheng. Li Zicheng also did not have a strict rectification, most of them were appointed by former officials, so those who surrendered, especially the soldiers, accounted for the vast majority.

When Chen Yongfu and his son came to Kaifeng, the holy decree of the imperial court came down again, urging him to march into Shaanxi immediately. and changed his last will, and asked him to command Bu Congshan and Chen Yongfu to rescue Shaanxi together. It is estimated that he had just received the news of the fall of Xi'an, and he became so anxious.

When Chen Yongfu came to Kaifeng, Li Yan took out the holy decree and showed it to them. Ask, "What do you guys think?"

After Chen Yongfu read the holy decree, he felt that something was wrong, and he knew that this was to ask them to officially choose a side.

"The last general will listen to the big handsome, the big handsome points to the east, and we will never dare to go west." Chen Yongfu said with his fists clenched.

They already knew that Li Zicheng had conquered Xi'an and was dividing his troops to capture all parts of Shaanxi. And Zhang Xianzhong also captured Changsha, and is still going south. In addition, Li Yan controlled Henan, and the granary of the imperial court and the important land of the northwest frontier were lost, and the situation was really dangerous. Although Chen De has some opinions on Li Yan, but now that the situation is stronger than others, he can only agree with his father's opinion.

What's more, their soldiers also wanted to serve under Li Yan. After all, the attraction of land is infinite for every soldier from the bottom. If they didn't stand by Li Yan's side at this time, then they would also be abandoned by their soldiers.

Li Yan nodded with satisfaction and ordered, "Very good." You go back and transfer troops over, and you, as the vanguard, go and take down Hebei. At this time, your troops have already completed the roster, and there is no need to worry about the land or anything, and each family will not lose ten acres at all. If you want to go to that prefecture, you can also choose by yourself. ”

Li Yan paused, as if he had just remembered, and added, "By the way, I just received the news. General Zhang in the team, as well as Wang Guerrilla, wanted to instigate a mutiny, but they had already been corrected on the spot. ”

Chen Yongfu was glad that he had made the right choice at this time, and if he had chosen the wrong one, it was estimated that their father and son would also be corrected on the spot.

"If you have a bad intention, you should be killed" Chen Yongfu wiped his cold sweat and said approvingly.

Li Yan reminded: "We must fight hard, and we must reorganize the troops after the war." What position your father and son can have depends on their performance this time. ”

"Don't worry, Dashuai, we will fight bravely to recover Hebei." Chen Yongfu and Chen De clasped their fists and expressed their determination.

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