Zhang Xianzhong, Luo Rucai's actions in Nanyang and other places almost all ended in victory, all the way unimpeded, conquering the city, taking advantage of the heavy rain for days to please pour and capture Xinyang, followed by a few days, and the news of the fall of Nanyang Mansion City.

In fact, speaking of which, the attack on Nanyang Mansion by Zhang and Luo's combined army was completely copied from the method of taking Xiangyang City, they actually just gave it a try, they didn't expect this official army to be so brainless, Xiangyang fell, and King Xiang was killed by himself, and he didn't even have a defense.

To say that the most powerful in the world now, in addition to the 300,000 Chuang army of Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, who is known as 300,000 in Henan, is the Zhang and Luo coalition army in Nanyang, which has a total of more than 100,000 people, and is also known as 200,000.

Li Zicheng has the largest number of people, but he is mixed with horses and steps, and he has been defeated by the Shandong army several times, and the old battalion and horse team have suffered great losses, and now the proportion of the real elite does not account for much in the army, to put it bluntly, he still relies on those hungry people to support the scene.

In contrast, although the number of Zhang and Luo's combined army is much smaller, it seems to be elite, Zhang Xianzhong is famous for his horse team, and the composition of the soldiers and horses under his command is actually the ratio of eight steps and two horses.

This kind of establishment allows Zhang Xianzhong to come and go like the wind, so he can escape again and again under the noses of Yang Sichang's officials and soldiers of the five provinces, and the officials and soldiers have always been unable to catch up, and even if they catch up, most of them will be ambushed and dispersed.

However, there is also a drawback, that is, Zhang Bu's ability to attack the city and pull out the village has always been inferior to the army, and this situation has been improved after Luo Rucai's army, and the situation has gradually opened up here.

Luo Rucai, alias Cao Cao, although his subordinates are small, but his people are scheming, even Li Zicheng is quite jealous, strictly speaking, he is older than Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong's qualifications.

Having said that, at this time, it is not so easy to fight, and there are already most officers and soldiers stationed there.

In front of Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai's coalition army is Zuo Liangyu's left army, although the other party is often defeated, but the left army has not suffered much damage, and the ability to gather defeated soldiers is very strong, and it is said that there are more than 100,000 people.

At present, the left army is stationed in Yexian, Wuyang, and Baoding, and it is only a few days away from the soldiers and horses of Yang Wenyue, the governor of Baoding.

Although the official army thinks so, Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai's thoughts are different, one doesn't want to go, the other wants to go, Li Zicheng has the ambition to swallow the world, but Zhang Xianzhong's ambition is not small, and he is the eight kings.

If you join forces with a large number of troops, it is not to be subservient to others, this is not what Zhang Xianzhong wants, so due to the differences between Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai, the coalition army did not go north to join forces with the Chuang department, but turned around and returned to Xinyang to continue to grow.

It is also interesting to say, although Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, made a big wave in Henan, and his subordinates claimed to be 300,000 people, and they won successive battles, but when they attacked Dengzhou, they actually ate a closed door.

Yang Wenyue, the governor of Baoding, led Wu Weizhong, the deputy general of Yangwu, to count 10,000 officers and troops stationed in Dengzhou City.

The method of breaking into the army pile did not work, and the momentum of the attack was still not seen after a day and a night, and later Gao Yigong was injured by Wu Weizhong with an arrow, and Li Zicheng ordered to turn.

Although there was a small victory in the city, Yang Wenyue still did not dare to go out of the city, and still cowered in the city to defend it strictly.

Having said that, after the Shandong army left, Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, had no restraint in Henan, although there were some small defeats, but it had no impact on the overall situation, and it was still more and more powerful overall.

Zuo Liangyu, He Renlong, Yang Wenyue, the governor of Baoding, Li Xianfeng, and even Liu Guoneng, the foreign general of the Shandong Army, none of these governors dared to go out of the city to face the battle.

Like the generals in other places, they just blindly held on to the city, and even more, the intrusive army was besieging a town several miles away, and after hearing it, they neither rescued nor reported, but fled and dispersed directly, which shows the general trend of the Central Plains.

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In June of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, Shandong was in an emergency.

This emergency was not called by thieves or Tartars, but the disasters that had already existed at the beginning of the year became more uncontrollable, and the Shandong army is now in the stage of losing money every day, and the silver taels and grain used in disaster relief are transported out of Licheng in more than a dozen batches every day.

Due to the shortage of food, the Shandong army even reduced the original supply of three meals a day to two meals in the middle and evening, and in order to save the physical fitness of the soldiers, the training methods and time were re-stipulated.

Wang Zheng didn't expect that the disaster at this time could be so serious, the flying locusts that covered the sky and the sun, the green crops turned yellow in an instant, and the people knelt on the ground and hugged each other and cried, which was simply shocking!

The drought that was originally south of Licheng has now swept the entire Jinan Prefecture, and even the nearby Dongchang Mansion, Wengzhou Mansion and Qingzhou Mansion have become the hardest hit areas.

In order to reduce losses, the Marshal's Mansion and the General Administration of the Military Council Department in Licheng have been rotating for several days and nights, and everyone is exhausted.

It is said that the locusts everywhere seem to be boundless, as soon as they fly up, they cover the sky and the sun, like a large dark cloud, from the south to the north, the cultivation farms have become their best sweeping targets, and the places they pass through, there is no grass, and the hungry people are everywhere.

In fact, it is not only Shandong that has been affected by the disaster, but also Henan, Huguang, Zhejiang, and even Nanzhili.

Shandong is relatively stable, since the disaster, the Shandong army has been constantly providing disaster relief and rescuing the people, and now almost every city has set up porridge shacks and temporary relief points.

In addition to disaster relief, decrees to stabilize order are also being implemented immediately.

Some of the regular soldiers in rotation have already gone out to patrol the streets, and the Yanding and village guards of the Security Department have gone out with all their might, but anyone who finds anyone who is demagogic or takes advantage of the fire to rob people will be directly imprisoned, and some even have blood spattered on the spot.

The Shandong Army has expressed a message from the very beginning, that is, there will never be the slightest mercy in dealing with any attempt to cause trouble to the locality.

The six prefectures in Shandong are relatively lucky, only Jinan Prefecture is the most serious, and the other three prefectures are one-sided disasters, coupled with Wang Zheng's ruthless and decisive way of dealing with them, although the local disaster victims are several times more than that, but it is nothing more than the consumption of some money and food, and it is still relatively stable.

However, it can be expected that the locust plague that swept the Central Plains this time is equivalent to adding bricks and tiles to the raging peasant army uprising, and more victims will rise up, and the situation will be even more irrepressible.

There were also many upright literati in the imperial court who noticed this situation, and Shandong gave Zuo Mao and others to supervise the relief of Caoyun, and Chi Shu said:

"When the ministers arrived in Linqing from the Jinghai, they saw the flying locusts covering the sky and the sun, and the hungry people were crying all over the field."

Just as the imperial court was preparing to organize a disaster relief, it suddenly heard the bad news, and the fisherman Li Qingshan led the people to gather in Shouchun County, Shandong Province to rebel, and the momentum was very large.

This peasant army besieged Shouchun County, and was defeated by the garrison of Shandong Zhengbing Commander and led his troops, so he retreated to block the Cao Yun, intercept the silver grain merchant brigade, the Ming court was shocked, and the Shandong General Army was urgently ordered to exterminate the thieves and restore the Cao Yun.