After Li Zicheng took Shenqiu County, he immediately waved his army to the north and joined the main force of the Fourth Battalion in Chenzhou.

Soon, Li Xin was arraigned, and the entire Xuzhou was also taken.

Li Zicheng once again realized that "looking at the wind and descending", the reputation established by the Heavenly Mandate Army among the people of Henan began to ferment at this time, most of the prefectures and counties, after no battle at all, even if the civil and military officials wanted to defend the city, if they lacked the support of the lower-class people and soldiers, it was impossible to hold on in front of thousands of soldiers of the Heavenly Mandate Army.

In order to concentrate the main force in one place, according to the practice of Luoyang Mansion and Nanyang Mansion, only one or two hundred households of city defense troops were stationed in various places, and loose management was implemented.

Chenzhou was in the southeast of Kaifeng Prefecture, close to the border of Guide Province, and Li Zicheng gathered the fourth battalion in Chenzhou, which had long been aimed at Guide.

Henan Chengxuan political envoy south of the Yellow River, a total of five prefectures and one state, the Mandate of Heaven army has controlled Nanyang, Luoyang, Runing three prefectures, as well as Ruzhou, the imperial court only Kaifeng, Guide two prefectures.

But the Mandate of Heaven army has occupied the nine counties of Chenzhou, Xuzhou, and Yuzhou in the south of Kaifeng, which is basically half of Kaifeng Mansion.

The autumn harvest has just passed, and the people have a certain amount of grain in their hands, which is the best time to seize the state and county and resettle the people!

Li Zicheng led his troops to garrison Chenzhou, and ordered the fourth battalion of Li Ji's department to divide troops to attack Guidefu, first pass through Zhecheng, and take Guidefu City directly, and then divide troops to occupy various prefectures and counties.

Take the Guide Mansion, the next target should be Kaifeng.

Li Zicheng doesn't know if he can take Kaifeng this time, but the Mandate of Heaven Army has basically established a foothold in Henan, at least let the imperial court know its existence, and if we want to fight, we will fight in Henan!

Since you want to open the seal, you have to concentrate your efforts.

Li Zicheng immediately mobilized the main forces of the Henan Heavenly Mandate Army.

In addition to Li Ji's fourth battalion and Li Xin's independent battalion, two regiments of the seventh battalion of the Song Ministry of Culture and Culture and two regiments of the Chengtian battalion of the Gao Ligong Department will also participate in the siege, and the main attacking force will exceed 60,000 people.

Nanyang Mansion has the seventh battalion and the third regiment of the horse club, Runing Mansion has the seventh battalion and the fourth regiment of Yang Chenhu, Luoyang is the temporary capital of the Mandate of Heaven Army, and it is also an important grain storage place, and there are three regiments of the reserve battalion Wang Shaoyu in the city.

These five regiments mainly guarded the city and were also the reserve force of the Mandate of Heaven.

Li Zicheng always felt that the mobility of the army was not enough, and it would be good if there was one cavalry, and there were mainly four cavalry of the Mandate of Heaven Army.

The tiger cavalry and wolf cavalry have always operated outside the pass, mainly dealing with nomadic cavalry, they have always liked to kill, and Li Zicheng did not intend to let them fight in Han land.

The cavalry of the first battalion of Liu Yunshui is stationed in Guguan, and the second battalion of Li Guobu is stationed from Hanzhong to Shangzhou.

Li Zicheng thought left and right, and decided to transfer the first battalion Liu Yunshui to Henan.

The second battalion had to defend the first line of Hanzhong, and if it was withdrawn, the area around Shangzhou and Hanzhong would be a military blank, and the western part of Luoyang Mansion would also be under the threat of the Ming army.

In addition to the cavalry of the first battalion, there are also infantry of the sixth battalion of horses and water, and the cavalry of Liu Yunshui's department is missing, and Guguan lacks the ability to assault, but there is no substantive problem in the defense of Guguan.

Add two regiments to the 6th Battalion, all armed with rifles and mountain artillery!

Li Zicheng also thought of the sailors who were far away in the Yangtze River, and Zhou Kun's troops had been training on the Yangtze River for a long time, so they should increase their establishment and temporarily expand the number to four regiments with a scale of 20,000 people.

After going through all the questions in his mind, Li Zicheng immediately sent orders to various places.

In December of the 14th year of Chongzhen of the Ming Dynasty (1641 AD), Li Zicheng led 60,000 main forces to besiege Kaifeng for the second time.

Everyone knows that "Biancheng does not defend Henan, Henan does not protect the Central Plains, and if the Central Plains is not protected, Hebei's throat will be broken, and the general trend of the world is very worrying."

However, the main force of the Ming army was fighting fiercely with the Tartars in Jinzhou, the cabinet and the military department discussed together, and urgently transferred the Liangyu Department of Huguang Zuo to the north, and Yang Wenyue, the governor of Baoding, was entrusted with the important task again, and led the troops to Kaifeng to reinforce Kaifeng, and at the same time urged Wang Qiaonian, the governor of the three sides of Shaanxi, to quickly go out of Tongguan to reinforce Kaifeng.

The soldiers and horses in Huguang, Baoding, and Shaanxi are already the strongest local soldiers in the imperial court, but Zhu Youzhen is still not at ease, and prays silently in his heart: Buddha bless, Kaifeng is the core of the Central Plains, and there must be no mistakes!

On December 20, the news of the Mandate of Heaven's attack had reached Kaifeng, and the atmosphere in the city became tense again.

Gao Mingheng, the governor of Henan, asked for help from the governor Ding Qirui on the one hand, and strengthened the city defense on the other. At this time, the president of the head office of Caomen Zuo had been recuperating at home, so Xiangfu County Commander appointed Xiucai Li Guangli as the president overnight.

Under the coordination of Gao Mingheng, the main officials in the city also made a division of labor.

Liang Bing, the political envoy of Zuobu, was responsible for guarding the east gate, and Tan Guozhen, the capital secretary, assisted in guarding;

Ren Jun, the governor of Kaifeng Prefecture, was responsible for guarding Cao Gate, and Wu Shijiao, the prefect of Kaifeng Prefecture, and Huang Shu, the official of Kaifeng Prefecture, assisted in guarding;

Wang Xie, the magistrate of Xiangfu County, was responsible for guarding the north gate, and Guan He was co-guarded with Cao Kun, the official of the Zhou Palace, and Zhang Wenguang, the squire;

Shoudao Su Zhuang is responsible for guarding the west gate;

Governor Gao Mingheng and Chief Military Officer Chen Yongfu were responsible for guarding the South Gate, and they were also responsible for reinforcing the East Gate and Cao Gate at any time.

Zhu Gongfang, the king of Zhou, also had a positive attitude towards defending the city, not only donating a thousand stones of grain, but also sending the official Cao Kun with the last 800 soldiers to help defend the north city gate.

On the evening of the 23rd, the Mandate of Heaven army rushed to Kaifeng City.

Li Zicheng, Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, and Li Jibu's fourth battalion tunbing Tucheng outside the city of Yingcheng County Wang Garden, close to the Yellow River embankment in the north, about ten miles from Kaifeng City; Luo Rucai returned to Chengtian Camp and led his troops to be stationed in Fanta Temple in the south of the city; two regiments of the Song Ministry of Culture were stationed in Jinmingchi in the west; Li Xin's independent battalion was stationed in the east of the city, about ten miles away from Kaifeng City.

The Mandate of Heaven army rested for most of the night, and on the 24th, the siege battle officially began.

The Chengtian Battalion in the south of the city and the seventh battalion in the west of the city both have only two regiments, the smallest number of troops, and the two regiments of the seventh battalion are all elite armed with rifles, and they do not easily participate in the war of attrition.

The main direction of attack is naturally the North Gate and the East Gate, especially the junction of the North Gate and the East Gate, the offensive of the Mandate of Heaven Army is the most ferocious, this time, the Mandate of Heaven Army is well prepared, siege vehicles, ladders are everything, as well as a large number of gunpowder bags and flowering shells.

After all, he had just arrived in Kaifeng, Li Zicheng did not attack with all his strength, the north gate and the east of Caomen, about a regiment participated in the attack, and the west gate and the south gate, the soldiers besieging the city were only one hundred households, mainly to contain the defenders on the head of the city.

Outside the north city gate, twenty artillery pieces took the lead in sounding the horn of the attack and defense of Kaifeng City, and the flowering bullets flew to the city head with a roar, creating a ball of fire at the city head.

Knowing that the range of the Tiger Squat Cannon was not enough, the defenders still opened their guns to strengthen their courage, but for the Earth and Heaven Mandate Army, the solid bullets of the Ming army were just toys and did not cause actual casualties to the soldiers.

After the sound of cannons, Li Zicheng began to test the combat effectiveness of the defenders in the city.

The infantry began to attack the city, the second regiment Liu Zongmin sent a thousand soldiers to stand a hundred paces away, the gunners took advantage of the range advantage to suppress the defenders behind the daughter wall, and the third regiment Niu Kejing approached the city wall before the casualties were very limited.

The last time they besieged Kaifeng, the defenders had suffered from rifles, and they may remember it vividly, but this time the defenders learned to be obedient, they hid behind the daughter wall, and kept throwing rolling wood and stones and burning torches to the city, but they did not dare to probe.

Unless the Manifest Destiny soldiers climbed up to the top of the city, they would poke their heads out from behind the parapet and become entangled with the Celestial Mandate, and the gunners would find it difficult to shoot with their rifles for fear of injuring their own people.

Li Zicheng frowned lightly, the Ming army defended the city like this, wouldn't it give up the advantage of the terrain, what is the difference between it and self-destructing the city wall?

Could it be that there are a large number of defenders in the city who can fight a war of attrition against the Mandate of Heaven?

Although the gunners could not fire a salvo, they could still shoot when they saw the opportunity, and after half a day, they still suffered the heaviest losses on the head of Beicheng.

But the guard at the head of the northern city, Wang Xie, the magistrate of Xiangfu County, was by no means an idle person, under his organization, the defenders smashed and killed many of the Mandate of Heaven army with rolling wood and stones, and even a ladder was destroyed by fire, and the Mandate of Heaven army that died at the battlement of the city wall was almost equal to the number of the Ming army.

After a fierce battle for half a day, there was not much danger in the northern city, and some soldiers of the Mandate of Heaven army had climbed to the top of the city, but then they were all killed by the defenders or driven down the city.

At lunchtime, the supervisor Ding Qirui personally led the only 3,000 soldiers to the north city gate, and camped with his back to the ditch and moat under the city.

When Li Zicheng got the information, he was overjoyed, Ding Qirui didn't come early or late, but he rushed outside the city when the Heavenly Mandate Army was attacking the city, didn't he send him to death or do something?

If you can annihilate Ding Qirui's department, it can just boost morale!

Li Zicheng asked the second and third regiments to withdraw and rest at lunch, and urgently transferred Zhao Lie's first regiment to Beicheng.

Ding Qirui was not willing to set up camp outside the city, his subordinates only had 3,000 soldiers, and fighting with the Heavenly Mandate Army in the field was not enough for the Heavenly Mandate Army!

He didn't even want to come to Kaifeng.

He has been moving around the territory of the Mandate of Heaven, hiding in Tibet like a rabbit, and it is very difficult to replenish, the original 10,000 elites, now only 3,000 hungry and skinny soldiers remain.

Ding Qirui wanted to enter the city to garrison, but Zhu Gongfang, the king of Zhou, asked him to fight the Liukou outside the city and assist Wang Xie in defending the city, citing the fact that the north gate was the most fiercely attacked.

In Kaifeng City, Zhu Gongyu's order was undoubtedly a holy decree, Ding Qirui did not dare to disobey the order, so he had to camp close to the city wall, and at the same time asked the city to be attacked by the superior forces of the Heavenly Mandate Army, and the city head must be reinforced with artillery!