The seventeenth year of Chongzhen was destined to be a turbulent year, Beijing changed hands twice, Li Zicheng retreated to Guanzhong, the Southern Ming court retreated to the south of the Yangtze River, and the eastern captives entered the customs violently, beginning unprecedented expansion.

The warlords and powerful people in various places also took advantage of the turmoil in the world and the inability of the central government to interfere in the local areas, and their power expanded rapidly.

Liu Zeqing, Gao Jie and others accepted hundreds of thousands of refugees from Shandong, each of whom had more than 100,000 people.

Zuo Liangyu is an expert in this area, and he pulled out five or six hundred thousand people to entrench in Wuchang, forcing He Tengjiao to dare to stay in Changsha.

In addition to these generals of the Ming Dynasty, the heroes of Henan also took advantage of the situation.

Han Jiadi is based on Xuzhou, Li Jiyu is based on Dengfeng, Li Hao is based on Yuzhou, and Liu Xuan is based on Xiangcheng, "with hundreds of miles under its jurisdiction, and more than 100,000 people each." ”

Among them, Yuzhou was in Nanyang, which was controlled by Gao Yihuan, and Li Hao's rebellion was decisively suppressed by Gao Zurong and Zhao Zhuzi as soon as it began.

Although the old man was a scholar, this time he killed and captured nearly 1,000 people, and with bloody means, he deterred the rebellion in Nanyang, and took the opportunity to sweep away several powerful people, announcing that the whole territory of Nanyang would divide the land and reduce the taxes to the people according to the example of Runing, so as to win over the people and stabilize people's hearts.

Han Jiadi, Li Jiyu, and Liu Xuan were active in Henan, Ruzhou, Kaifeng, and the border area of the three provinces, with a total of 230,000 people.

Like all thieves, the trio faced the problem of a lack of food due to the rapid expansion of their men.

In addition, the place where the three rebelled was in the middle of Henan, with enemies on all sides, and it was easy to be strangled by the Shun army.

For the sake of food and in order to be able to contact the Ming Dynasty, the three of them decided to go south to attack Yuncheng, and then enter Runing to grab grain, and open up the connection with the Southern Ming court, and obtain the reward of the Southern Ming court.

The reputation of the second brother of Henan Gao is very loud, and none of them dare to provoke Gao Yihuan alone, so the three of them joined forces together, supported 200,000 people, and the soldiers pointed to Yuncheng.

Yuncheng is an important town in Henan, Yue Fei defeated the Jin army here during the Southern Song Dynasty, and Gao Yihuan also ambushed Zuo Liangyu here.

It choked the main road to the north of Runing, and Gao Yihuan coveted it for a long time, but Yuncheng was in the hands of the generals under Bai Wang's command and was not under his jurisdiction.

At present, there are 3,000 garrisons in Yuncheng, commanded by Zhao Mingchong, the commander of the city, and with the defense of the city and the moat, it has not been captured by the thief army.

This time, there were rebellions in Xuzhou, Xiangcheng, Dengfeng and other places, and Zhao Mingchong realized that the rebels would inevitably go south to attack Yuncheng and open up a channel to contact the Ming Dynasty.

He reported to Luoyang very early and asked Bai Wang to send reinforcements over, but Bai Wang wanted to resist the Qing army crossing the river, where were the soldiers and horses for him, so he just let him defend the city and did not send soldiers and horses over.

In desperation, Zhao Mingchong had to prepare as many rolling wood and stones as possible, and arranged for the soldiers to stick to the city and wait for the battle.

On this day, the sky was covered with dark clouds, covering the stars and moons, and the dark night shrouded the city.

Such a sky made Zhao Mingchong vigilant, and personally arranged for soldiers to patrol back and forth at the head of the city, vigilantly watching the movements under the city.

Suddenly, the soldiers of the city heard a noise, and the sound of earth and stones falling into the water.

The patrol soldier immediately reported to Zhao Mingchong, "Captain, there is a situation by the moat!" ”

Zhao Ming rushed to the city wall, although the night did not allow him to see too far, but the sound from time to time exposed the actions of the rebels.

"Quick, release the rocket!"

A few rockets streaked across the night sky like meteors, and on the other side of the moat, a black figure was filling in the river.

When the rebels saw that they were discovered, they simply lit the torch and poured earth into the river in full swing.

Zhao Mingchong was taken aback, and hurriedly shouted: "Pass my military order, and quickly transfer five hundred archers to the city!" ”

A brigade commander next to him reminded in a low voice: "Captain, there are not many arrows in the city, if the rebels fill the moat, it will be difficult for us to hold Yuncheng, we must ask for reinforcements!" ”

Zhao Mingchong was extremely annoyed, "If Bai Dashuai doesn't send reinforcements, what can I do?" ”

"Yuncheng is close to Runing, and it is said that the Jiedu envoy has already sent General Gao north, why don't we ask him for help?" The Palm Brigade wondered.

Zhao Mingchong is Bai Wang's person, although Bai Wang did not clash with Gao Yihuan on the surface, but Gao Yihuan rose again, which is Bai Wang's position, and the two sides are actually secretly competing, so Zhao Mingchong did not ask Gao Yihuan for help.

He didn't speak for a while, and sighed half-loudly, "You send someone to Runing and ask General Gao to come over." ”

······

In June, the weather was hot, and more than 15,000 soldiers and soldiers were stationed in the wilderness on the banks of the Joux River.

The people who were recruited from the counties of Runing, as well as the mule carts, entered the camp one after another, which was very spectacular.

The army has been preparing for many days, and it only needs to wait for Gao Yihuan to give an order, and it will be able to go north, but Gao Yihuan still has a few things to explain.

On this expedition, he recruited five battalions of Jin Shenghuan, Wang Deren, Bai Wenxuan, Xu Heihu, and Wang Guangtai, leaving Zhao Daxian, Zhao Zhuzi, Wu Shizhao, Jin Xiangang, and Huang Bingzhong to guard their homes, and he must have an explanation.

In addition, the current situation is turbulent, and he must say something to calm the hearts of his subordinates.

On June 20, Gao Yihuan's henchmen arrived in Runing one after another, and Gao Yihuan summoned them together to the big tent to discuss matters.

Gao Yihuan was nominally a Shun army, so Li Zicheng's defeat still dealt a serious blow to the arrogance of Gao Jun.

At this time, the generals gathered in the big tent, talking in twos and threes, Gao Yihuan and Gao Zurong father and son, walked out from behind, and many generals and henchmen saluted Gao Yihuan together, "See the big handsome!" ”

In the army, generally only Li Zicheng's five battalion commanders, or the townsmen who control the soldiers and horses of a province, can be called marshal, Gao Yihuan is just a Guoyi general, but he doesn't care, he began to call himself a marshal after returning from Xi'an.

Gao Yihuan has 30,000 troops, not to mention combat strength, in terms of numbers, he is only 20,000 less than Wu Sangui. The Manchu Qing Dynasty gave Wu Sangui a one-word king, and he didn't even get an earl, Li Zicheng was really stingy.

Originally, the people's hearts were in turmoil at the moment, and Gao Yihuan wanted to call himself Duke Song or Duke Wei to stabilize people's hearts, but he was in the land of four wars, and he was too high-profile and easy to be beaten, so he just called himself a handsome.

Gao Yihuan walked to the handsome seat and sat down, then raised his hand to order everyone not to be polite, took seats on both sides, and then said: "Li Zicheng's return to Guanzhong has brought us a lot of trouble, but it has also brought us a lot of opportunities. Now that the rule of the Great Shun Dynasty is shaken in Henan, it is a good time for us to clean up the hearts of the people and let the people of Zhongzhou know who is the pillar of Henan! ”

Gao Yihuan glanced at everyone and continued: "Ben Shuai knows that you are very worried about the current situation and are afraid of being attacked from both sides. Ben Shuai told you that Ben Shuai had entrusted Wang Yan to contact Nanjing, surrender to the Ming court, and express his willingness to be a minister. However, we can't pin our hopes on others not beating us, the big husband survives in troubled times, and has something to do, the key is to have our own strength, so that others dare not provoke us! To do this, we must be united, and we need an effective system that will bind us together. For this reason, the commander decided to set up six Caos within us to manage the military, government and civilian, and set up five lords to reward soldiers~"

(Thank you ACE for the 1000 tip, thank you for your support, ask for a monthly pass, subscribe, and recommend.) ）