Skirmishes between Hong Chengchou's troops and the Qing army occurred frequently, and both sides were tentative attacks, weighing each other's catties and pounds.

After a few months, the Ming army did not suffer a big loss and had a small gain, the victory was sent to the Beijing Division, Chongzhen was overjoyed and issued a decree to praise Hong Chengchou and the general officers of all walks of life, and many civil and military officers were honored.

Hong Chengchou was complacent, believing that as long as he was patient enough and did not make the mistake of underestimating the enemy, the next days of the Qing army should be difficult.

Alas! What a pity! Hong Chengchou's comfortable days are only more than a year.

The Qing army found that Jinzhou was not only difficult to attack, but the besieging troops were constantly subjected to the counterattacks of He Kegang's troops, and there were casualties every day.

Hong Chengchou, who came to the rescue, was in camp step by step, his defense line was not leaky, and there was no chance to take advantage of it, and it seemed that it was difficult to ride a tiger when Jiannu came to Jinzhou City to fight.

On the surface, the red gang is still calm and does not care about temporary gains and losses, and he always can't sleep at night, the corners of his mouth are cracked, and he is obviously in a hurry.

At this critical juncture related to the overall situation, there was a fire in the backyard of Daming.

That's because last year, that is, in the spring of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, the king of wedding clothes, Li Duyan, made a comeback, and he led thousands of men and horses from Shangluo Mountain.

It is also because Sun Chuanting worked in the "Nanming" that he has now been promoted to a battalion of guerrilla generals, and at this time he is leading his command to clear the guerrillas in the mountainous areas of the Indochina Peninsula.

Although Li Zicheng lacks Zhang Xianzhong's help and the advantages of echoing between the two places, Sun Chuanting, without his natural enemy, is also no less prosperous than going out of the mountains again in history, and the number of people has grown to tens of thousands in one or two years.

In the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, Li Duyan, who had been taught a lesson, made a comeback, not focusing on killing, but began to invite people to buy people's hearts.

Soon, a group of down-and-out literati from the Ming Dynasty came to his side, such as Song Xiance, Niu Jinxing, Li Yan, etc., and with the advice of the scholars, the recklessness gradually changed, and the rogues who did not think about tomorrow actually knew how to propagate political ideas.

So: "Seeking ascension in the morning, seeking harmony in the evening, it is difficult for the poor to survive recently." Open the door early to worship the king, and the discipline is happy for everyone big and small. Slaughtered cattle and sheep, prepared wine syrup, opened the gate of the city to meet the king, and the king came and did not pay for the grain. Eat his mother, her mother, and eat not enough to break the king. If you don't pay for it, you don't pay for food, and everyone has a happy life. ”

Such a nursery rhyme that deceived thousands of ordinary people appeared, they did not pay for food, and they did not farm and produce grain, of course, they all relied on robbery to maintain their living needs, and it was a naked expression of the extreme ferocity of the rogue.

However, it was difficult for the common people to distinguish the truth from the false, and the class contradictions in the Chongzhen period were white-hot, and soon Li Duyan's army had seventy or eighty thousand, and the number of ordinary people attached to it was as high as one million.

In the same year, Li's one-eyed army entered Henan, which was repeatedly poisoned by bandits and bandits for many years, and the people who were unwilling to leave their hometowns had just resumed production and had a harvest.

The main commander of the Ming army who competed with the Liukou was Zheng Chongjian, the governor of the right squire of the military department and the trilateral military affairs of Shaanxi, and the generals who were able to fight under his command were He Renlong, the chief military officer nicknamed "He Maniac", and the Mongolian chief military officer was as fierce as a tiger.

It's a pity that Li Zicheng, who made a comeback with eighteen horsemen, is not the same, he inherited Gao Yingxiang's "King Chuang" banner, and he is no longer an insignificant "general".

The scattered Gao Yingxiang's old troops soon gathered under the command of the new "Chuang Wang", and many of them were Gao Yingxiang's cavalry defeated by Black Tiger and Lu Chengzu.

Li "Chuang Wang" inherited the legacy of Gao's "Chuang Wang", and his strength increased dramatically, and those old bandits who had a blood feud with the Ming army found an organization again, and their combat effectiveness was amazing.

Where are the Ming armies of the mixed court willing to fight hard, of course, they have been defeated repeatedly, and it is inevitable that the thieves who often win battles and get a large number of captured thieves will become stronger and stronger.

In August, Yang Sichang, who was seriously ill, gave Shang Fang the sword as a "superintendent and auxiliary minister" and went to Shanxi, Shaanxi and Henan to personally arrange the suppression of Kou.

Without Sun Chuanting and replacing Yang Sichang, Li Zicheng's sharp offensive was finally contained.

With the cohesion of the rogues with ideological understanding, the cohesion of the rogues has been greatly enhanced, and too many of them are not at all unable to survive and rebel, but careerists who are ready to sacrifice themselves to pull the emperor off the horse.

The Liukou had a political program, the overall appearance has been improved, at least they did not set fire to their houses, they refused to trample on the wheat fields, more and more ordinary people were deceived by illusions, and a large number of good citizens and intellectuals who took the initiative to become thieves began to appear, and the number of Ming troops attached to them gradually increased.

With too many soldiers and down-and-out literati joining the ranks, the Liukou component is no longer completely a mob, not only has the number swelled, but the combat effectiveness has also been greatly improved, and the Ming army is obviously at a disadvantage.

The Central Plains is eroded for thousands of miles, even if Yang Sichang is talented, it will not help if he has no soldiers, horses, money and food under his command.

Too many hungry Ming troops began to plunder the common people, and they were forced to warn by the "King of the South", of course, they only robbed things and did not dare to kill people for no reason.

The two warring sides are not only fighting on the battlefield, but also trying to take the lead in robbing the people's food, and the innocent people are dead words before and after, and too many people who cannot flee to the river and the sea to join the "Nanming" have become rogues and thieves.

Chongzhen did not solve all kinds of local contradictions at all, nor did he increase investment in reconstruction, and many Henan people who were disappointed in the Ming Dynasty joined the rebel army one after another in desperation, and Li Zicheng's development momentum was booming.

Liukou seems to have a tacit understanding with the Qing army, and when the Ming army was in full swing to resist foreign invasion in Liaodong, the interior was full of flames.

In the autumn of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, Henan was in chaos, and many people did not get the harvest and knew that it would be difficult to survive the next year, so they could only choose to rebel, and the situation in the Central Plains deteriorated.

The army of thieves attacked the city like a devastating place, and the mountains and rivers in the same room changed color, and all the blood and ...... of the descendants of Yan and Huang were shed.

The six hundred miles of urgency, asking for help, and reporting the loss of the city were rushed to the Beijing division without interruption, and Chongzhen, who was still very calm, could no longer deal with it calmly.

He was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, and he had no choice, and only by settling the Battle of Jinzhou as soon as possible could the imperial court be able to free his hand.

The edict of demolishing the east wall again to make up for the west wall and rushing to the hospital was sent to the Ningyuan Liaodong Economic Strategy Office.

Hong Chengchou, who had been working step by step for a whole year, was shocked when he received the edict, and the strategic deployment of exchanging time for space was disrupted.

The salary and food of the hundreds of thousands of troops under his command were already embarrassed by the imperial court, and the imperial court was still looking forward to these strong troops entering the Central Plains to suppress the Kou, and the edict was urging him to fight a decisive battle as soon as possible to repel the Qing army under the city of Jinzhou.

Hong Chengchou is not reckless, he does not regard the imperial power as great, he is ready to risk the disapproval of the world to shelve the emperor's edict, and still retire the Qing army according to the plan.

However, the next 600 miles of urgency issued from the Jingshi were one after another, and the words of the imperial court urging Hong Chengchou to fight a decisive battle became more and more severe each time.