According to the information from the Han Qing Bureau, Ding Qirui, the commander of the Ping Thief, took Zuo Liangyu, Fang Guoan, and Yang Dezheng from Huguang to the north, and Yang Wenyue, the governor of Baoding, crossed the Yellow River east with the general soldier Hu Dawei. Fastest updates

The two superintendent-level characters and the four general soldiers are particularly scary to say, but in fact, only the Huguang soldiers and the Baoding soldiers are all old acquaintances of the Heavenly Mandate Army, and Li Zicheng is not too worried.

The only thing he couldn't figure out was the two reinforcements, who would arrive in Kaifeng first.

If you calculate the marching speed of the two people correctly, you can beat the time difference and break the two divisions.

Li Zicheng asked the Han Qing Bureau to continue to keep an eye on Ding Qirui and Yang Wenyue, and on the other hand, he sent rangers to investigate the details of these two reinforcements.

On 13 May, the wheat harvest outside Kaifeng City was basically completed, and Li Zicheng transferred 30,000 young men to the west of the city, escorted by the cavalry of the first battalion of Liu Yunshui's department, and continued to harvest the part of wheat far away from the city wall.

Five thousand cavalry wandered outside the western city, and the Ming army and people in the city did not dare to go out of the city again, so they could only watch the young and strong men of the Heavenly Mandate Army harvest wheat in the city.

At this time, Ding Qirui's Huguang soldiers arrived in Weishi County, while Yang Wenyue's Baoding soldiers had already crossed Qi County.

Li Zicheng opened the marching map, and the Huguang soldiers went north along the official road and rushed to Kaifeng, which seemed to be no problem, and the Baoding soldiers did not insert themselves along the official road to the west of Kaifeng City, but continued to the west, what is the purpose?

Don't you dare to face the Mandate of Heaven?

Where is Yang Wenyue going to march his troops? Li Zicheng drew a straight line along the direction of Yang Wenyue's march and was taken aback.

Walking along this approximate straight line, Yang Wenyue's Baoding soldiers will meet Ding Qirui's Huguang soldiers on the official road south of Kaifeng, and the place of this convergence is Zhuxian Town.

Yang Wenyue is going to join Ding Qirui?

Yes, it must be!

Li Zicheng finally found Yang Wenyue's marching target, and the next step was to come up with countermeasures.

Huguang soldiers are the main force in this rescue of Kaifeng, with a total strength of 150,000, of which Zuo Liangyu is the main force in the main force, reaching 130,000, although Fang Guoan and Yang Dezheng are both general soldiers, but the two departments have a total of only 20,000 soldiers, however, although Ding Qirui commands Huguang soldiers in the name of "Ping Thief Supervisor", Zuo Liangyu has always been unrestrained.

Compared with the Huguang soldiers, the Baoding soldiers were much weaker, the governor Yang Wenyue and the general soldier Hu Dawei each had 10,000 soldiers, but the Baoding soldiers had more firearms, in addition to various firearms, there were also a lot of artillery, so the marching speed was slow.

That night, Li Zicheng held a military meeting, and in addition to Niu Jinxing, only the commanders of each battalion participated.

Hearing that the Ming army is likely to assemble in Zhuxian Town, the main generals are very excited: they finally have a chance to fight a decisive battle with the Ming army!

The last time he fought Zuo Liangyu in Yuncheng, there were only 70,000 or 80,000 soldiers on both sides, but this time it exceeded 200,000, and there were 170,000 in the two Ming armies alone.

The main generals have asked for battle, but Li Zicheng did not dare to be careless, even if the Mandate of Heaven Army is fully assembled, the number is only thirty percent of the Ming Army, Henan's Mandate of Heaven Army, there are not many real elites, most of them are recruited after coming to Henan, and they are not equipped with rifles and flowering bullets, in front of the absolute number of Ming troops, the outcome is really unpredictable, or rather, the Mandate of Heaven Army is still in a disadvantaged position.

It's a good thing for the main generals to ask for battle, but most of them are enthusiastic, as for what strategy to use, how to defeat the Ming army, they basically don't think, all along, they have been carrying out military orders.

Niu Jinxing has been silent, and at this time he stroked his long beard and said: "Governor, everyone, there are also 10,000 or 20,000 soldiers in Kaifeng City, in case our army goes to Zhuxian Town, the Ming army in the city may attack from behind, although the number is not large, it will also cause chaos in our army." ”

The Ming army in the city, Li Zicheng had already calculated, so he said with a smile: "The main force of our army attacked, the big tent did not move for the time being, and temporarily armed the harvested wheat Qingzhuang," paused, and said: "Once the Ming army attacked, it will go out of the west gate, in a vain attempt to meet with the Ming army in Zhuxian Town, and leave a regiment of troops, ambush outside the west city, if the Ming army goes out of the city to pursue, encounters an ambush, and meets the head attack, he will return to the city." ”

It turns out that the Metropolitan Governor has already calculated! Li Xin has joined the Mandate of Heaven Army for many days, and he has been very respectful of Li Zicheng's military strategy, and he has long been surprised, "Governor Dadu, his subordinates have a plan, which can be disguised as Zuo Liangyu's documents, just say that the Mandate of Heaven Army has been defeated, and the rout will soon come to the city, so that the city will hold on, and not be taken lightly!" ”

Li Zichengqi said: "Since you want to forge documents, why not forge Ding Qirui's documents?" ”

Li Xin laughed, "Don't hide it from the Metropolitan Governor, my subordinates have only seen Zuo Liangyu's seal, but they have not seen Ding Qirui's seal," and looked at Niu Jinxing and said: "I am afraid that Mr. Niu will have to help with the production of seals!" ”

"It's incumbent!" Niu Venus returned the salute.

Li Zicheng laughed, "With this document, it seems that the ambush of a regiment in the west of the city is not needed, and when necessary, it can be used as a reserve for the main force." ”

Tonight's military meeting was held very late, and it was not adjourned until the third watch, and the operational strategy had already been decided, but it was still necessary to concretize the operational strategy, down to one soldier and one soldier, and three meals a day.

On May 14, the young Zhuang outside the west city stopped harvesting sporadic wheat, most of them returned to the camp to rest, only a small number of young people threshed outside the city, and the Heavenly Mandate Army outside the city of Kaifeng even went out of the camp one after another, showing off their might under the nose of the Ming army, and the soldiers outside the south city gate and Cao Gate had already begun a small-scale siege operation.

Now that Zuo Liangyu has gone north, the Xinyang Prefecture garrison has lost its significance, and Li Zicheng transferred Yang Chenhu's division of the 7th Battalion and the 4th Regiment stationed in Xinyang Prefecture to go north to Runing to protect Runing's mansion.

On the surface, a big war could break out at any moment.

That night, Li Zicheng left the third and fourth Luo Tai divisions of the fourth battalion to set up an ambush twenty miles west of the city, and the rest of the battalions rushed to Zhuxian Town overnight to occupy the slope of Zhuxian Town.

Zhuxian Town belongs to Xiangfu County, Kaifeng Prefecture, only dozens of miles away from Kaifeng, is a half-slope type terrain, high in the northwest and low in the southeast.

The Mandate of Heaven army occupied the favorable terrain of Zhuxian Town, leaving the valley of the lower reaches of the Shahe River to the Ming army.

On the night of 16 May, the vanguard of the Ming army crossed the Shahe River and began to camp at Shuipo, nearly 20 miles from Zhuxian Town.

In less than half a day, Zuo Liangyu crossed the Shahe River, in the east of Shuipoji, backed by Shahe and camped, in the evening, Yang Wenyue's department rushed to Shuipoji, Yang Wenyue and Ding Qirui joined forces, stationed in the west of Shuipoji, and Hu Dawei was stationed in the east, adjacent to Zuo Liangyu.

The 170,000 Ming army, known as 400,000 to the outside world, formed a battalion of more than 40 miles.

Li Zicheng already knew the reality of the Ming army, although it was 400,000, including miscellaneous soldiers, grooms, transport soldiers, etc., the real soldiers were only 170,000, of which Zuo Liangyu's department accounted for 130,000, and the rest of the departments were basically fighting and fighting.

The last time Zuo Liangyu was in Linying Slaughter City, the Mandate of Heaven Army vowed to punish him, but there was an incident with Wang Qiaonian, and in the end Zuo Liangyu escaped, but Wang Qiaonian became a substitute ghost in Xiangcheng.

This time, Zuo Liangyu came to Henan again, and he must be allowed to return the crimes of the last time, at least let him taste the determination and combat effectiveness of the Heavenly Mandate Army.

However, the number of the Ming army is three times that of the Mandate of Heaven, to defeat the Ming army in a short period of time, it is too difficult, under the city of Kaifeng, there are only 30,000 young and strong people who have not been trained to set up camps, and after a long time, the Ming army in the city will find out the clues......

The recruits recruited by the Mandate of Heaven Army in Henan, in addition to being slightly stronger than the Ming army in terms of will to fight, have no obvious advantages, the equipment is captured, and it is even inferior to the Ming army, let them meet the same number of Ming troops, maybe there is still some certainty, if it is against the Ming army three times their own, there is really not much chance of winning, and the gap in numbers is difficult to make up for a while!

However, the Mandate of Heaven Army also has an advantage, whether it is the Huguang soldiers or the Baoding soldiers, they were all defeated generals of the Mandate of Heaven Army, and the soldiers should occupy a psychological advantage.

Li Zicheng is not worried about the overconfidence of the generals, and when the number is at a serious disadvantage, the general who is not afraid of war is an excellent general.

The key is to fight the first battle, curb the momentum of the Ming army, and then enter the stage of stalemate, waiting for changes.

The Mandate of Heaven army is conducive to a quick battle, and the Ming army has always been short of food, and if it drags on for a long time, they will not be able to afford it...... Li Zicheng remembered the battle of Guandu, Yuan Shao's army was ten times that of Cao Cao, and if they held on, it was a big defeat......

Li Zicheng originally wanted to drag the main force of the Ming army in Henan, if a year ago, in the face of the superior Ming army, the Mandate of Heaven Army would definitely be like Zhang Xianzhong, but after staying in Henan for so long, he knew that the main force of the so-called Ming Army was nothing more than that, at least when the number was about the same, the combat effectiveness would definitely not be as good as the Mandate of Heaven Army.

After fighting with the Ming army in Henan for a long time, not only Li Zicheng, who was the chief general of each battalion and regiment, also had a contempt for the Ming army.

On the 18th, the Ming army came overwhelmingly and lined up in the southeast of Zhuxian Town, with at least 100,000 people according to the estimates of the rangers.

Li Zicheng set up a watchtower on the edge of the camp, and scanned it with a telescope, the Ming army was densely packed, and he couldn't help but be worried.

After waiting for half an hour, the soldiers of the Ming army could not bear it anymore, Li Zicheng transferred troops out of the camp, the first regiment of Li Ji's department, Zhao Lie's department, the third regiment of Niu Kejing's department, and the two regiments of the Song Wen department, a total of more than 20,000 gunners in four regiments as the Chinese army, Niu Kejing's department was not equipped with rifles for a long time, and it could reduce the negative impact of unskilled rifles in the crowd, and Liu Zongmin's department was the rear of the palace, once the front formation was broken, Liu Zongmin's department must press up to cover the retreat of the main force.

On the left flank was the cavalry of the first battalion of Liu Yunshui's department, and on the right flank was Li Xin's independent battalion, leaving only the Chengtian battalion of Gao Ligong to guard the battalion.

Compared with the 100,000 Ming army, the Mandate of Heaven army dispatched ten battalions of more than 50,000 people, the number of which was only the average of the Ming army, but the soldiers were full of confidence and were not inferior to the Ming army in terms of momentum.

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