Ten days later, Li Zicheng finally gathered 400,000 horses, including 120,000 soldiers, and the others were strong men selected from the homeless people. The task of these strong men is to transport heavy supplies in peacetime, and they are used as shields in wartime.

Now Li Zicheng can be regarded as having a territory, so he doesn't have to take the old camp with him everywhere he went like before. This time, their families were all in Runing, and they were guarded by elite soldiers. Although there are basically no other officers and soldiers in Henan, it is still necessary to properly protect the family members.

And Yuan Shizhong in Hebei still did not respond, mainly to avoid the territory controlled by Li Yan and go farther. So he didn't wait for Yuan Shizhong's news, and set off to Yanling with his troops.

At the same time, Luo Rucai also marched to Zhengzhou with He Yilong. In the fifth battalion of the left revolution, only He Yilong followed Luo Rucai to fight Zhengzhou, He Jin, Lin Yangcheng and Liu Xiyao went to attack Kaifeng with Li Zicheng, and Lao Huihui stayed in Xuchang to protect their old camp.

It is said that Liu Xiyao has seen the strength of Li Yan's troops, and he should be reluctant to fight against Li Yan again. But when they went back to discuss, they found that He Jin and Lin Chengcheng were willing to cooperate with Li Zicheng, while Lao Huihui did not rely on both ends. Liu Xiyao thought about it for a long time, but decided that it would be better to join forces with his brothers, so He Yilong and the battalion were left to follow Luo Ru.

Li Zicheng's army gathered, and Li Yan naturally knew about it quickly. But Li Zicheng didn't come to attack, and he didn't want to provoke Li Zicheng, so the two sides were at peace. So when Li Zicheng and his troops suddenly attacked Yanling, Yanling's defenders only had time to send a pigeon letter to Kaifeng, and they were surrounded.

As the forefront, Yanling naturally did not build a fortress, only 1,000 soldiers were stationed in the county seat, and there were more than 200 households in the county, including more than 700 old and weak. Fortunately, there were plenty of food, arrows, and ammunition, and the soldiers knew that they could not retreat, otherwise their fields would be recovered, so they all had the determination to fight to the death.

It was Zhou He who defended the city, and Li Yan was the first to recruit a group of recruits, and now he is the president of Qian. After Li Zicheng arrived in Xuchang, he began to prepare defensive measures. Before the county town was besieged, the only drawbridge over the moat had been torn down, and a circle of sandbags had been built on the inside of the moat. He was ready to use the moat as the first line of defense, the city wall as the second line of defense, and finally it was a desperate street fight.

Li Zicheng came to the outskirts of Yanling and watched the defensive measures of Li Yan's troops. Although he had heard the report a long time ago, he was still a little surprised when he saw it with his own eyes. Especially when he saw the nearly three-zhang high brick-clad city wall, he was even more surprised.

"Didn't you dismantle it when you retreated before?" Li Zicheng asked dissatisfiedly.

Li Guo replied: "It's all demolished, this is a new one built by Li Yan." Not only here, but other counties that were taken over by Li Yan have also built city walls. He caught a lot of our people, so he was able to build it in a short time. ”

Li Zicheng gritted his teeth and ordered: "In one day, can you fight down?" ”

"Well, I think it will work." Li Guo had little confidence. After all, Li Yan's troops are ready, it's really hard to say.

Li Zicheng ignored Li Guo's uncertainty, but said to He Jin: "Brother He Jin, you will take the troops to the west tomorrow, first take Fugou County and Taikang County, and then go north and take Qi County directly." ”

He Jin hugged his fists and said, "Okay." However, can General Li give us more people? Twenty thousand is too little. ”

Li Zicheng knew that this was He Jin's timidity when he saw Yanling's city defense. In order to strengthen their confidence, they immediately agreed: "No problem." not only gave you another 20,000 people, but also asked Zhang Nai to bring 10,000 elite soldiers to help you fight. ”

He Jin was stunned for a moment, knowing that this Zhang Nai was here to spy on them, but he still thanked: "Then thank General Li." With the help of General Zhang Xiao, it must be easy to capture Qixian. ”

When He Jin and the others went down to prepare, Li Zicheng whispered to Zhang Nai: "Just watch them, don't be too persecutive, lest they follow Cao Cao again." ”

"Got it." Zhang Nai nodded in agreement.

Early the next morning, the attack officially began.

Li Zicheng was outnumbered, and at the same time attacked from all sides. The first thing to do is to fill in the passage and cross the moat. In view of the strong artillery of Li Yan's troops, it was easy to be killed by artillery fire if only a few passages were filled, so Li Zicheng simply decided to fill in the entire moat. The moat of Yanling is more than two zhang deep and three zhang wide, and the amount of work to be filled is not ordinarily large. But if there are many others, you don't have to care.

With the beating of war drums, tens of thousands of people rushed forward with a shout and a shout. And Zhou He, who was defending the city, was a little helpless, they only had a thousand people, and it was impossible to guard against the entire moat. And he knew that these people who came to fill the trenches were just ordinary people, and thieves for the sake of their family's food were just consumables. So he watched the thieves keep approaching, but he didn't give the order to open fire.

Mr. Bai next to him reminded: "Mr. Qian, if you can consume some, they can't catch many people on this way north." When they arrived at Kaifeng City, they could only use elite soldiers to do this work. Moreover, if the city is broken, aren't our supplies cheap for thieves? ”

These hundred are always Li Yan's personal soldiers, and they were just released to lead the troops when they expanded the army last time. There are a lot of such captains and Bai Zong, so now the whole army knows that people who have been marshals and soldiers can make a great achievement.

After hearing this, Zhou He felt that it made sense, and they also had a lot of ammunition reserves, so it should be no problem to insist on high consumption for five or six days. Now the key is whether they can hold out for five or six days under the siege of so many rogues. So he immediately ordered: "Tiger squat cannon, fire." Crossbow arrows, put! ”

got Zhou He's order, and the tiger squat cannon next to him took the lead in firing. The sound of the cannon is an order, and the tiger squat cannons in the distance have also begun to fire one after another. The gunners tried to control the timing and direction of the firing so that the shells could explode in places where there were many thieves.

"Boom", "boom", shells exploded among the displaced people who filled the trenches. Whether they come in or go back, they are likely to be hit by explosions. And the crossbow arrows also flew over with a whizz, shooting the homeless people to the ground one by one.

Li Zicheng watched from a distance and found that the explosions were not dense, and the crossbow arrows were also very sparse. smiled and said: "Well, it's good, there are not many people, and there are not a few cannons, so it's easy to do." ”

Li Guo and Yuan Zongdi, who were in front, were finally relieved. The two of their troops were responsible for the siege of the city, and they were afraid of Li Yan's cannons. Judging from the current situation, it seems that there are no cannons, only less than ten Tiger Squat Cannons. So their confidence soared, and they kept urging the displaced people to come and go, so that the moat could be filled in as soon as possible.

"Quick! As long as you can throw the dirt bag in the moat, you can rest in the back. The person in charge of the displaced people loudly encouraged: "Those who can go up three times will be able to wear armor and officially serve under King Chuang." There is wine to drink, meat to eat, and the family eats white flour rice. ”

Unconsciously, under the blows of shells and crossbow arrows, and in the shouts of the homeless, the corpses and wounded lying on the ground have been densely covered. However, the displaced people continued to fearlessly rush up to fill the trenches, some for their families to survive in the troubled times, and some for the sake of future glory and wealth.

...

...