After Li Zicheng occupied Xiangyang, he continued to move south along the Han River, and successively captured Nanzhang, Yicheng, Zhongxiang and other places, due to Li Zicheng's rapid march, and some ignorant local officials did not cooperate with General Zuo Liangyu's work of clearing the fortified walls, resulting in the Ming army in these places not being able to fully complete the task of material and population migration, and what is even more hateful is that some traitors and careerists who mixed into the Ming army not only did not seriously implement the resolution to burn the treasury, but also sabotaged the action of clearing the wilderness. Vainly trying to exchange the materials in the treasury for the "reward" of the Liukou group headed by Li Zicheng is really a loss of conscience and disdain for mankind. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Because of the betrayal of these people, although the army gained nothing in Xiangyang, but in Nanzhang, Yicheng, Zhongxiang obtained a lot of materials, especially in Zhongxiang, the vanguard of the army disguised as Confucianism, mixed into the city, suddenly attacked, the inside and outside should capture the city gate, the defenders because of the small number of people, plus attacked, fell into chaos, resulting in Zhong Xiang's treasury (there are not only Zhong Xiang's things, but also along the Han River, from Xiangyang and several other cities transferred some materials. As well as some of the masses who followed the army of Zuo Liangyu to Wuchang (ready to be sold to the Zheng family), they also fell into the hands of the thieves.

Of course, this is not the fault of the generals of the Zuojia Army who led the troops, after all, it is always very difficult to flee with a large number of civilians under the enemy's troops. Even Uncle Liu Huang, who had experienced a hundred battles, fled with the people in Xinye, but was chased by Cao Cao and exploded the chrysanthemum. Not to mention ordinary generals? It can be seen how correct the ancients were when they said that "mercy does not lead the army".

After Li Zicheng took control of these materials, he left some of them for military use, and once again played the so-called trick of "opening a warehouse and releasing grain" to buy people's hearts. Of course, a person who is truly honest and self-respecting will not accept such a gift by starvation, let alone be deceived by such a false means of thieves. However, in any era, there are always very few such people, and at this time, there are naturally even fewer such people, because such people have long become "An An starving". So...... Sadly, those civilians in Xiangyang and other places who were escorted here by the benevolent Zuo family army all the way went to drink these "stolen spring water" and eat these "snorting food". Many of them even shamelessly expressed their willingness to join Li Chuang's gang, which is really ......

Facts have proved that such a rude, righteous and shameless guy is not even a bandit like Li Zicheng. This shameless bandit openly declared that he did not come to Huguang to coerce a large group of displaced people to harm other places, but to stabilize the world and to "suppress officials and pacify the people." Therefore, he hopes that he is also willing to help those ordinary people return to their homes to live and work in peace and contentment. And his henchmen even created a shameless ballad for propaganda, which either declared: "Eat his mother, wear his mother, open the door to meet the king, and the king will not pay for food when he comes!" What can such ridiculous propaganda do? You know, there really is ...... Anyway, everything that really has is starved to death, so this kind of propaganda is still really useful.

As for saying that Li Zicheng did not integrate all those who expressed their willingness to follow him into the army this time, it is not without reason. The most important reason is that Li Zicheng had the idea of occupying Xiangyang as a base.

Xiangyang, and even the cities occupied by Li Zicheng this time, have a characteristic, that is, the proximity to the Han River. As long as the Han River is not interrupted, the valleys in these areas can still be used for agricultural production even in dry years. In the eyes of Li Zicheng and some people around him, including Niu Jinxing, including Li Yan and others, in this era, stable agricultural production is the foundation of the emperor's industry.

However, in order for these areas to be able to produce effectively, it is necessary to ensure the security of the area. In order to ensure the security of this area, the main members of Li Zicheng's group still came to the conclusion that they should find an opportunity to engage in a strategic decisive battle with the Ming Dynasty army and defeat the main force of the Ming army at one time.

……

When he learned the news that the Hanshui Valley was attacked by Li Zicheng, Emperor Chongzhen was very unhappy as usual, but he was not too worried, because it was not once or twice that a city like Xiangyang was conquered by Liukou. At the beginning, whenever the official army suffered a defeat and lost the city, Chongzhen was extremely disappointed and angry, however, the reality did not change because of his disappointment or anger, on the contrary, he was always disappointed and angry, and he slowly got used to it. So that now, although Emperor Chongzhen is still disappointed and angry, Wang Chengen can also see that in the anger of the Son of Heaven, there is more exhaustion.

"Since I ascended the throne, I have been dreaming of sleeping at night, and I want to prosper. I am not greedy for money, not lustful, and not fornicatory...... How did the world become like this? I think about the kings of the country who died in ancient times, there are those who died with wine, there are those who died with sex, there are those who died with luxury, there are those who died with reckless force, and there are those who died with tyranny and unkindness...... Am I so virtuous? You say, will I become the king of a dead country? Disappointment, Emperor Chongzhen suddenly pointed at Wang Chengen and asked.

Wang Chengen immediately knelt down and kowtowed: "Long live, why do you say this!" For example, although there are some things going wrong today, but long live and don't take yourself lightly! The slave and maid heard that when Yao Shun was in time, there was also a disaster. As long as Banzai is not discouraged, there will always be a turning point. ”

Chongzhen sighed, sat down on the throne and sighed: "Huguang's grain is the foundation of the world, and now that the Liukou have entered Huguang, if they seize Huguang, they think it is basic...... How can I not be worried! ”

"Long live, the rogues are all robbers, and if they grab a handful, they will run away, and they will never stay in Huguang for a long time. And the hearts of the people in the world are still on the side of the imperial court, and the rogue is just wandering around, so it is difficult to exterminate, if they want to become a sitting coward, it is convenient for the court to exterminate it. Wang Chengen said.

"Hey, a few days ago, Li Zicheng besieged Kaifeng for several months, and the imperial court failed to find the army that could be rescued. Where is the army now to be gathered to destroy them? I only hope that it can really be like what you said, these rogues will not stay in Huguang for long. Chongzhen sighed.

……

However, things did not go as Chongzhen hoped, Li Zicheng did not leave Huguang, but stayed in the Xiangyang area, as if he was going to live here permanently. This was obviously intolerable to the Ming court, so Chongzhen had to find a way to organize an army to expel Li Zicheng.

To use the army, you first have to spend money. And one of my biggest problems is that I don't have money. Fortunately, Emperor Chongzhen has been preparing money for Kaifeng to relieve the siege, and after a few months of hard work, he finally got some money out of the east wall and the west wall, and now it has been several months, and in these months, Chongzhen has finally got a little more money through unremitting efforts. So relying on these money, Chongzhen finally regained the fighting spirit of the official army, and used the means of demolishing the east wall to make up the west wall, he mobilized the remnants of the Guanning army, and mobilized some other troops, preparing to drive Li Zicheng away from the Xiangyang area.

……

"Brothers, this kid Chongzhen has come to find trouble for Lao Tzu again, it is said that he has made hundreds of thousands of people, ready to come and fight with us." In the original yamen of Xiangyang City, Li Zicheng was informing his generals of the enemy situation.

"Who are the centaurs?" Liu Zongmin asked.

"Well, the leaders are Ding Qirui and Yang Wenyue, and there are Zuo Liangyu under them, Hu Dawei, Yang Dezheng and Fang Guoan, a total of four general soldiers, claiming to have an army of 400,000." Li Zicheng replied. I have done a very poor job of secrecy in military operations, and many times, as long as I am willing to spend money, I can easily get some news about my military operations.

"There are still a lot of people? Where are they now? Liu Zongmin asked.

Li Zicheng looked at Song Xiance, and Song Xiance hurriedly explained the various information he got one by one.

"The Ming army is still here!" Li Zicheng said, "Brothers, whether we eat meat or soil in the future depends on this battle." Let's talk about how we fought this battle! ”

"King Chuang, I don't think we can force ...... with the Ming army"