Before leaving for Henan, Li Zicheng summoned all the sergeants to give a lecture, in addition to learning military rules and military laws, he also particularly emphasized: Wherever the Mandate of Heaven army goes, the enemy is only the army of the imperial court, and it has nothing to do with the people.

Although Henan is not the territory of the Mandate of Heaven, but in the hearts of the sergeants, since the Mandate of Heaven Army is coming, Henan will sooner or later become the territory of the Mandate of Heaven, and the people of Henan will come together with the Mandate of Heaven Army sooner or later.

More than 10,000 soldiers, along the official road, entered the border of Henan, here is Dengzhou, the terrain is relatively flat, there are very few mountains, mostly plains, there are also some ridges, very suitable for the passage of the army.

Li Zicheng was accustomed to seeing the mountainous areas of Qinghai and Gansu, but he had only seen the larger-scale plains in Chengdu, and this time he was happy to see the flat land in Dengzhou, and he unconsciously regarded Dengzhou as the territory of the Heavenly Mandate Army.

Dengzhou is a scattered state, subordinate to Nanyang Prefecture, but it itself has three counties: Xinye, Neixiang, Xichuan, belongs to the first-level institutions between the prefecture and the county, one level lower than the prefecture, one level higher than the county, is the important town of Nanyang Prefecture in the southwest direction.

The Mandate of Heaven army along the official road, crossed the Diao River, and came to the west of Dengzhou, the defenders in the city had already discovered the Mandate of Heaven army, more than 1,000 cavalry, plus more than 10,000 infantry, a large area of black pressure, had already been frightened, hurriedly closed the city gate, and notified the Zhizhou and the garrison in the city.

Li Zicheng came to the city of Dengzhou, looked at the towering city wall, and thought in his heart, although Dengzhou is not a strong city, but it is not easy to break the city in a hurry, and it is very likely that there will be casualties.

He has no intention of attacking the city, just consuming ammunition in vain, Dengzhou is not bordering the territory of the Heavenly Mandate Army, even if the city is captured, it will not be able to connect with the territory of the Heavenly Mandate Army, if the soldiers are left to defend the city, it is also a lonely city, it is difficult to last long, and the soldiers left behind will also be very dangerous.

Although he didn't plan to attack the city, he still had to do it, Li Zicheng sent soldiers to pretend to be homeless people and went to Nanyang Mansion City to inquire about information, and on the other hand, he divided his troops and surrounded Dengzhou City to deter the defenders in the city.

Liu Zongmin was excited when he saw the suspicious defenders at the head of the city, and he took his own soldiers and ran to Li Zicheng's camp tent, "Governor, look at the situation at the head of the city, there should not be many defenders in the city, and you can take Dengzhou City in one go." ”

"Take Dengzhou, who is stationed here?" Li Zicheng said with a smile: "Jie Xuan has forgotten that we are not coming to Henan this time for the land. ”

"My subordinates understand," Liu Zongmin smiled and said, "However, there are many rivers in Dengzhou, and there is no serious disaster nearby, so there must be a lot of food in the city that can provide us with supplies." ”

Although he knew the goal of the Heavenly Mandate Army, but the meat was in his mouth, so he let it go in vain, he was really a little unwilling, besides, although he was the commander of the second regiment of the fourth battalion, he was only the title of a thousand household officials, which belonged to the use of promotion, and only by making military merits could he be promoted to a guerrilla general.

"I'm afraid most of the grain in the city has been transferred," Li Zicheng looked at the slightly thin defenders at the head of the city, and said lightly: "Henan is connected with drought, and it is similar to Shaanxi back then, hungry people are everywhere, and the government has to complete the taxes sent by the imperial court. ”

"Metropolitan Governor, do you want to let Deng Zhou go like this?" Liu Zongmin stared at the head of the city, with a hint of greed in his eyes, "Although our grain and grass are sufficient, after going deep into Henan, we will consume it for a long time......"

The Mandate of Heaven Army is alone in Henan, for a long time, even if it can exist in a mobile way, but the grain and grass will definitely be unsustainable, Henan is in a major drought, and the local people have no food to eat, so how can the Mandate of Heaven Army replenish food? Liu Zongmin's words may be right, but Li Zicheng disagrees.

He squinted his eyes and kept staring at the head of the city, there were not many defenders on the head of the city, but there were only a hundred people at a glance, "Jiexuan, if you need food in the city, you don't necessarily have to attack the city," he pointed his finger at the door of his head, "The people of Henan are already so poor that only their pants are left, and the life of the government will not be easy, we don't need to break the city, at least let the officials keep their official hats!" ”

Liu Zongmin's heart moved, he thought for a moment, and said: "The governor of the capital said that the officials in the city, in order to keep their official hats, will send us food......

"I'll leave this matter to you, isn't Jiexuan going to make meritorious contributions? If you do this, you will be considered a great achievement," Li Zicheng said: "A thousand stones is the bottom line, the upper limit is two thousand stones, and it doesn't take too much, you have to leave a way for the people and officials in the city to live." ”

A thousand stone of grain, for more than 10,000 Heavenly Mandate Army, can last for ten days at most, but Li Zicheng is not short of grain now, and when he set off from Xing'an, he had already brought enough grain and grass, which could last for at least three months.

"Yes, Metropolitan Governor, my subordinates will do it!" Liu Zongmin was overjoyed, as long as the Metropolitan Governor gave him a chance, he believed that he would definitely be able to make meritorious contributions and be promoted to the rank of general as soon as possible, lest others say that he, the regiment commander, was stained with the light of the Metropolitan Governor's fellow villagers.

Liu Zongmin returned to the south city gate, and immediately set up all the mountain cannons outside the city, making it look like he was going to attack the city, and in order to make it more realistic, he also asked the artillery to fire two cannons at the head of the city.

After the flowering bomb fell on the head of the city, the huge explosion, together with the firelight, had scared the defenders at the head of the city enough, and before the smoke dissipated, there were already soldiers crying wolf, and the terrible screams made the defenders frightened, and when the smoke completely dissipated, they found that in the cannon fire just now, there were already three soldiers who had closed their eyes forever.

The dead will not call, the screams on the head of the city are made by several wounded soldiers, and what is even more alarming is the tragic situation of the casualties, the right leg of a soldier, broken at the knee, was washed down from the city by the air wave just now, this will just wake up, almost forget what happened around him.

When people are afraid, they want to be favored by their own kind, and the wounded soldier, seeing that he is alone under the city, crawls towards the city with both hands, and cries as he crawls, dragging a heavy trail of blood on the muddy ground behind him......

If the blood is allowed to flow, he will pass out in a quarter of an hour at most, and he may never wake up!

The companions hurriedly tore off their clothes and bandaged the wounded soldier's leg, but everyone was panicked, the rogues outside the city, prepared a large number of artillery, just started, if all the artillery had to fire, according to the power of the flowering shells, maybe the city wall could not be saved.

Liu Zongmin took advantage of this opportunity to shoot an arrow book at the head of the city, the content is very clear: if you can't send 3,000 stone fine food outside the city, the Mandate of Heaven army will immediately attack the city, once the city is inside, all the officials will raid the family and exterminate the clan!

When Li Zicheng heard the sound of cannons, he was taken aback: Is this Liu Zongmin going to attack the city? Why waste precious flowering bombs? He asked He Xiaomi to take two soldiers to see what the hell Liu Zongmin was doing.

He thought about it, but decided not to attack the city!

Last time I went south from Lanzhou to Sichuan, I brought two battalions of soldiers, and basically took the whole of Sichuan, this time I came to Henan, Li Ji's fourth battalion has been expanded, and the number of people can almost reach the strength of the previous two battalions, but Henan is different from Sichuan.

Sichuan is a relatively closed terrain, as long as a few major intersections are blocked, the outside army can not enter at all, and the personnel inside can not get out, and Henan is an open terrain, since ancient times, the Central Plains is the place of four wars, there are countless paths in all directions, if the preparation is not sufficient, even if the city can be laid, it cannot be occupied for a long time, and the army of the imperial court may fight at any time.

Engaged in a tug-of-war and a war of attrition with the imperial court, the Mandate of Heaven Governor's Mansion could not afford it at all.

Another point is that Henan has been in a drought for two days in a row, but in order to levy and suppress the Liukou, the imperial court not only did not reduce or reduce the taxes in the disaster area, but also intensified its efforts to levy salaries in Henan.

Li Zicheng was reluctant to enter Shaanxi for this reason, if there was not enough food, there would be no way to appease the local displaced people, let alone resume production.

In addition to the rich merchants, officials and gentry who have stored enough grain, the whole of Henan is probably full of hungry people.

The Mandate of Heaven Army came to Henan, not to occupy Henan, but to stir up trouble for the imperial court, attract the attention of the imperial court to Henan, and contain the main force of the imperial court in Henan with a battalion of troops, so as to win the opportunity for Qinghai, Gansu, and Sichuan to recuperate.

As long as the attention of the imperial court is in Henan, where the Mandate of Heaven Army and the imperial court are handed over, there will be no heavy troops.

Li Zicheng was still pondering, He Xiaomi had already returned, "Metropolitan Governor, Commander Liu has no intention of attacking the city, he just used flowering bombs to scare the defenders in the city. ”

"Oh?" Li Zicheng turned around and said, "Is it effective?" What about the defenders in the city? ”

"Commander Liu has given an ultimatum to the city, and is now waiting for a reply from the city!"

"Wait and see!" Li Zicheng didn't know if the defenders in the city would give in, it was best to be bluffed by Liu Zongmin, and when they left in the future, they would definitely not dare to follow, "Tell Jiexuan, take out a few things, and you must bluff the Ming army." ”

"Yes, Grand Duke!"

That night, Li Zicheng had already gone to bed, but Liu Zongmin ran over, and shouted from afar: "Governor Dadu, the defenders have succumbed!" ”

"Yielded?" Li Zicheng was a little surprised, he didn't expect Liu Zongmin to reach an agreement with the Ming army so quickly, "Can you be sure?" The Ming army won't play any tricks, right? ”

"Probably not," Liu Zongmin sat down on the pony in front of the bed, and couldn't hide his joy on his face, "Governor Dadu, the Ming army has decided, after the dead of night, we will deliver food to the city, and we can go to the city to retrieve it ourselves!" ”

"In the dead of night?" Li Zicheng understood that the Ming army wanted to minimize the impact, except for a few core personnel and soldiers responsible for transporting grain, others would definitely not know, and they would not be held accountable by the imperial court in the future, "Jiexuan, pay attention to vigilance, don't be deceived by the Ming army." ”

"Don't worry, the subordinates will let the brothers be on guard on the periphery," Liu Zongmin's eyes suddenly showed a fierce light, "If the Ming army dares to play with his subordinates, his subordinates must break Dengzhou City!" ”