Li Zicheng is once again faced with a difficult choice, the officers and soldiers have come to encircle and suppress again, to flee or not to escape?

This question really made him quite uncomfortable, once he thought that he could be the king according to Guanzhong, once he thought that he no longer had to be afraid of the officers and soldiers, but he didn't expect that as soon as the officers and soldiers came, he still faced the same choice as before.

To run or not to run!

During this time, the men and horses under him swelled rapidly, almost all the state capitals and counties in Guanzhong were occupied by him, and the more than 200,000 troops led by Yang Sichang were also blocked by him from entering Tongguan, all of which gave him an illusion that he thought that he could already compete with the officers and soldiers, and the imperial court had no way to deal with him.

Unexpectedly, the 100,000 horses under his command were still scumbags when they encountered the officers and soldiers, and they collapsed at the first touch, and the whole army was wiped out in a blink of an eye!

He really didn't want to escape, he gave up such a good situation like this, he was really unwilling, but he didn't have any confidence in the face of this imperial army, what should he do?

He couldn't figure it out, so he could only gather all his generals and advisers to discuss the question of whether to flee or not.

More than ten miles north of Xi'an, Li Zicheng peasant army camp, originally here is the camp tents all over the place, stretching for dozens of miles, but now it is half empty, because the 100,000 army led by Tian Jianxiu is gone, the whole army is annihilated, and a few generals and management teams come back, and the whole camp is like being cut off in half by life, empty, and it looks so desolate.

Li Zicheng sat in the tent with a gloomy face, looking at his "Wenchen Generals" for a long time without saying a word, he really didn't know what to say, after thinking about it for a long time, he finally slowly spoke: "Everyone, I think everyone has heard that the imperial army came out of Kugu Road and occupied Lantian in one fell swoop, and the 100,000 reinforcements I sent were also defeated by it. ”

This is asked, but everyone has not heard Tian Jianxiu's detailed report, and everyone is not clear about the specific situation.

The military advisor Niu Jinxing couldn't help but arch his hand and said: "King, how many troops have come to the imperial court, and how did our reinforcements be defeated?" ”

Li Zicheng said embarrassedly: "This, according to Zhang Shijie's report, there are about more than 100,000 officers and soldiers, as for how the reinforcements were defeated, General Tian, you can talk about it." ”

When Tian Jianxiu heard this, he said ashamedly: "This morning, I received an urgent report from Zhang Shijie, the officers and soldiers were pulling up from the Kugu Road crossing and were rushing to Lantian County, so I led the army to Lantian in a hurry, but after only running for an hour or so, the scouts in front lost contact with a group, and I knew that the officers and soldiers must have rushed over." However, since none of the scouts sent to spy had returned, I did not know what the specific situation of the officers and soldiers was, so I could only choose a relatively spacious place to form a formation and prepare to defend against the officers and soldiers. As a result, as soon as the officers and soldiers rushed over, they first pushed out thousands of chariots, blocking my view, and then suddenly there was a burst of artillery bombardment, and my men and horses were suddenly in chaos, and everyone was only concerned about fleeing for their lives, and they couldn't control it. “

"Sss , the officers and soldiers actually had artillery, and everyone gasped when they heard this.

Tian Jianxiu is not a wine bag and rice bag, among the generals under King Chuang, when it comes to wisdom, he and Li Yan of the Henan camp are the most outstanding, and Tian Jianxiu is quite calm, and he generally does not make any low-level mistakes, which everyone knows very well.

Niu Jinxing is a little strange, how could such a calm general lead an army of 100,000 to support Lantian and be defeated so quickly, you know, it has been less than a day since the officers and soldiers appeared at the Kugu crossing!

Now, he finally understood that the officers and soldiers had artillery, and he hurriedly asked: "What kind of artillery are the officers and soldiers, and how many are there?" ”

Tian Jianxiu recalled: "I haven't seen what kind of artillery it is, but judging from the thickness of the shells, it should be a tiger squat cannon, and in terms of quantity, I don't know how many of the dense shells are, in short, it will not be less than five hundred, it is likely to be about a thousand." ”

"Sss , There was a gasp sound in the tent again, a thousand tiger squatting cannons, this guy is simply terrible.

Although the power of the tiger squat cannon is not very great, it can't stand this large number, and thousands of people will be gone after a round of shells, who can carry it!

Niu Jinxing thought about it for a while, and said with luck: "General Tian, if you lead the army to rush forward at the beginning, what will be the result, after all, artillery can only attack from afar, and if you rush to them, the artillery will be useless." ”

Tian Jianxiu shook his head and sighed: "If you can't rush through, they have chariots to block it, and they still have muskets, so they can't rush through at all." ”

And the musket, it will be more difficult to do, Niu Jinxing frowned and fell into deep thought, no longer speaking.

Song Xiance next to him then asked: "General Tian, do you see clearly whether the chariots of the officers and soldiers are wooden or with iron shells?" ”

This Tian Jianxiu saw it clearly, and he said affirmatively: "It is made of wood, and there is no iron shell." ”

Hearing this, Song Xiance nodded, and discussed with Niu Jinxing for a while, and then he arched his hand and said, "King, for today's plan, we have to retreat first." “

To retreat is to retreat, that is, to escape, Li Zicheng has long been mentally prepared for this, but he is just a little unwilling.

He didn't want to retreat, but the facts were in front of him, so he had to retreat, because he couldn't do this group of officers and soldiers at all, and the remaining 100,000 troops in his hands couldn't do it at the moment, even if he recruited all the 100,000 troops from Jingyang and Gaoling, he couldn't do it, if there was no clever plan, he could only choose to go as the best plan.

However, what does it mean to retreat first, there is a first, there is a last, can there be a turnaround after escaping?

Li Zicheng couldn't help but be curious: "What does this first retreat mean?" ”

Song Xiance said confidently: "This group of officers and soldiers seems terrible, in fact, it is not impossible to deal with it, they have muskets and artillery, but muskets and artillery also need ammunition, a shell is less than four or five catties, how much can they bring from Kugu Road?" With such a rugged mountain road, it is good to be able to bring enough grain and grass. Therefore, their ammunition must be limited, and there is no place to make ammunition in Guanzhong, as long as we can find a way to consume their ammunition, their muskets and artillery will be dumbfired. As for the chariots, the wooden chariots could not withstand the fire attack, so we found a way to set their chariots on fire with rockets. ”

It makes sense, it's so reasonable, Li Zicheng couldn't help but ask: "Then how can we retreat?" ”

Song Xiance explained unhurriedly: "We retreated to Lintong first, left 50,000 foot soldiers in Lintong to defend the city, and 50,000 cavalry waited on the side, and at the same time transferred the 100,000 horses of Jingyang and Gaoling to Weinan and Huayin, and each city also left 50,000 horses to garrison, so that the officers and soldiers must fight all the way over, and the soldiers defending the city can use the city wall to consume their ammunition, and burn their chariots with rockets, when the officers and soldiers run out of ammunition, the chariots are almost burned, that is, when we counterattack, of course, It may also be that the 150,000 people in the three cities will not be able to consume all their ammunition, if that is the case, we can still retreat to Tongguan, and there is Xiongguan to rely on, and there are more than 100,000 troops, what about 100,000 officers and soldiers, what if they have muskets and artillery, we are still helpless. “

He didn't know that Xiangyang, a number of Xiongcheng cities in the world, had been taken by Zhang Bin, so he wouldn't say so if he knew it.

Now the front line of Yunyang in Hanzhong is completely blocked by Zhang Bin, and Li Zicheng does not know the news of the loss of Wuchang and Xiangyang, and after listening to Song Xiance's explanation, he can't help but nod again and again: "Okay, just do it, I want to see how much ammunition the officers and soldiers bring." ”

So, how much ammunition did Zhang Bin bring?

He really didn't bring much ammunition, the grain and grass of the 100,000 army was not a little bit, although he had a chariot to load, but Kugu Road was not a Yangguan Avenue, many places had to go over the mountains and mountains, if he brought too much ammunition, then when going uphill, even if people pushed horses, he couldn't go up, so he didn't bring much ammunition, he only brought 500,000 rounds of bullets, and he only brought 10,000 rounds of shells, and this ammunition was gone after two battles.

However, at this time, he didn't have time to think about the ammunition, because the scout came to report that the thieves outside Xi'an City had already escaped, and he had to hurry up to see how the situation in Xi'an City was.

The situation in Xi'an was quite normal, because he came in time, Li Zicheng organized several tentative attacks, and before he began to attack the city on a large scale, the defenders in the city did not suffer much loss.

However, there is a problem that is quite serious, that is, the 40,000-strong army basically has no food, because Li Zicheng cut off the Tongguan passage and occupied most of Yulin Town, the imperial court has no way to transfer grain and grass here, and Xi'an is already in short supply of grain and grass because of the drought, and they can't raise grain and grass on the spot, and their grain is almost exhausted in these two months.

Zheng Chongjian and He Renlong were originally desperate, not that they didn't have the confidence to hold Xi'an City, with this Xiongcheng in hand, even if there were two or three hundred thousand thieves besieging them, they still had the certainty of holding on for a few months, the problem was that they had no food, what did the 40,000 army eat, how to fight when they were hungry!

To their surprise, the thieves suddenly retreated, and then Zhang Bin led tens of thousands of troops to appear outside the city!

This really made them excited, after welcoming Zhang Bin into the city, the first thing they did was to ask Zhang Bin for food, no way, they themselves drank porridge for nearly half a month like their soldiers, and their stomachs were hungry, if Zhang Bin didn't come, in another ten days, they wouldn't even have to drink porridge.

This problem is nothing, although Zhang Bin does not bring a lot of food, give them a uniform even, more than 100,000 troops will not be a problem to eat for half a month, and there is still more than a million stone of grain in Xiangyang, as long as people transfer it.

Zhang Bin immediately ordered Yu Chenglong to use wheels to transfer part of the grain and grass to Yunyang, and ordered Luo Rucai to lead his 50,000 men and horses to Yunyang by boat, take the Kugu Road, and transfer the grain and grass to Xi'an.

Kugu Road is more than 600 miles long, plus take Lantian to Xi'an, a total of less than 800 miles, just to transport grain and grass, ten days should be enough, a month back and forth is more than enough, anyway, Luo Rucai has nothing to do, so let him take people to transport grain and grass.

In addition, I didn't have much ammunition with me, so I just let them transfer some of them together.

Li Zicheng must know that this matter must be so angry that he will spurt blood, Luo Ru has to send it like this, Zhang Bin's ammunition will not be exhausted at all!