The general strategy of the rebel army's operation has been decided, and the next question is who will carry it out. The last thing the rebels are willing to take www.biquge.info is to attack Fengyang.

Although Fengyang is Zhu Yuanzhang's hometown, it has always been a poor place, most of the land is barren, and it is also classified as inferior in the surrounding prefectures and counties.

At this time, Zhang Xianzhong showed his superiority, and took the initiative to ask to undertake the task of going to Fengyang to burn the imperial tomb, he had his little abacus in his heart, although this Fengyang is poor, it must be the hometown of the emperor of the Zhu family, and the government there must not be poor there, there is still Zhu Yuanzhang's father, Zhu Yuanzhang will definitely not treat his father badly, and there will be no less good things buried in the ancestral tomb of the Zhu family. If you want to destroy the ancestral tomb of the Zhu family this time, you must dig up the contents of it, and if you dig up the treasure, you can buy more weapons and armor from Zhang Chu, the money fan, and it is not difficult to build a strong army to sweep the world. And if the emperor's ancestral grave is dug up, this matter will definitely shake the world, and Zhang Xianzhong's name will spread, and it will be much easier to recruit troops in the future.

"But that Fengyang is known as the central capital, it is the emperor's ancestral mausoleum, it must be high and deep, easy to defend and difficult to attack, can we take it down with our strength?" Zhang Xianzhong's subordinates reminded. When Zhang Xianzhong heard this, he also regretted that he had taken over this job.

However, Li Zicheng's words made Zhang Xianzhong happy again, Li Zicheng said: "When I made this plan, I sent someone to understand the situation in Fengyang, Fengyang is the location of the ancestral tomb of the Zhu family, yes, Fengyang's defense has not been strengthened because of this, but has weakened a lot. When the mausoleum was built, Mr. Feng Shui said that the wind must come from all directions in order to make the country forever, so Fengyang did not build an outer city, and the defenders were about 6,000 people. We suddenly rushed over and dug up the emperor's ancestral grave and ran, they didn't have time to react at all. ”

"Okay, I've done this deal." Zhang Xianzhong listened to Li Zicheng's words and felt more down-to-earth.

"I will lead the troops and offer loyalty all the way, from the side to assist, we must capture Fengyang, so that the official army can take care of themselves, the ancestral tomb is destroyed, the emperor will definitely mess up, send the whole country's soldiers to Fengyang to pursue us, then the siege of Henan will be lifted." Gao Yingxiang proceeded from the overall situation and decided to strengthen Zhang Xianzhong's strength and strive to hit with one blow.

Without further ado, Zhang Xianzhong and Gao Yingxiang respectively led tens of thousands of righteous troops from Henan to the east to Fengyang.

Gao Yingxiang first sent 300 dead soldiers to enter Fengyang in disguise, and then led the troops to attack all the way, capturing more than ten prefectures and counties in more than ten days, arriving in Fengyang and infiltrating the city, the dead soldiers should join forces to enter the city, and all the officers and soldiers in the city were annihilated.

Zhang Xianzhong burned down the buildings of the imperial mausoleum, picked up the emperor's ancestral tomb, looted all the property, and even the trees in the cemetery were burned clean by him.

Zhang Xianzhong and Gao Yingxiang knew that if they picked up the emperor's ancestral tomb, they would definitely stab the hornet's nest, and the surrounding officials and soldiers would desperately come to the rescue, this was not a place to stay for a long time, so they immediately led their troops to withdraw by separate routes.

No one dared to hide such a big thing as the destruction of the imperial tomb, and when the news reached Jingshi, Emperor Chongzhen once again felt the misery of his fate, he immediately put on mourning clothes, ran to the Taimiao, and knelt under the ancestral tablet and cried loudly.

After crying, Emperor Chongzhen felt that it was not enough for him to be sad about this matter, and it was all caused by the ministers' unfavorable affairs. So he ordered the court officials to work in vegetarian clothes, and then it was a regular routine, from top to bottom, there were officials who were dismissed and killed by the heads. The officials of the court lamented the bad luck of the Fengyang officials, and they couldn't help but feel some sadness about the death of the rabbit and the fox.

At this time, the most sad person was Hong Chengchou, who lost his capable cadre Cao Wenzhao. Cao Wenzhao was transferred from outside the border to Hong Chengchou's subordinates to suppress thieves, and his performance was very good, not only loyal to Hong Chengchou's dispatch, but also brave and good at fighting, and Hong Chengchou's most powerful arm. Unexpectedly, he died in battle at this time of employing people.

When Hong Chengchou heard the news of the destruction of the imperial tomb, he knew that the disaster was near, and he had to react, so he sent Cao Wenzhao to take 3,000 men and horses to Fengyang to rescue. Cao Wenzhao encountered Li Zicheng's team on the road. Cao Wenzhao's nephew Cao Bianjiao, as the vanguard of the official army, rushed all the way and beat hard, killing Li Zicheng's men and horses, Cao Wenzhao then waved his army straight forward, and chased Li Zicheng for more than 30 miles, killing hundreds of people, and stopped when he saw that the sky was getting dark.

Cao Wenzhao was not afraid of the righteous army surrounded on all sides, and led the team to kill left and right, and the righteous army that was killed was defeated and retreated, at this time Li Zicheng also found that Cao Wenzhao and his personal soldiers were particularly brave on the battlefield, and knew that there must be officers of the official army in the team. Li Zicheng ordered his musket team to lie in ambush on both sides of the road, waiting for Cao Wenzhao to arrive and suddenly open fire.

Although Li Zicheng's musket team used old-fashioned arquebuses bought from Zhang Chu, the security forces now disdain to use them, but they were very effective against the heavily armored cavalry.

The momentum of Cao Wenzhao and his personal soldiers charging was stopped at once. Many people were killed and injured by lead bullets, and even Cao Wenzhao was seriously injured. Seeing that the officials who surrounded the official army, the righteous army rushed forward regardless of life or death, preparing to capture Cao Wenzhao alive. Cao Wenzhao saw that the general trend was gone, and he was unwilling to be captured and humiliated, so he pulled out his saber and killed himself.

As soon as the main general died, the officers and troops were in chaos, and Li Zicheng led his troops to pursue the victory. It wasn't until Hong Chengchou received the news that he brought a large group of officers and soldiers to help, and Li Zicheng led people to retreat.

Since then, Li Zicheng's prestige in the rebel army has been higher, while Hong Chengchou has lost a capable general. After this battle, Li Zicheng became more aware of the role of muskets in dealing with well-equipped officers and soldiers, who had previously relied on archers who had defected from the ranks of the rebels. But such veterans must be in the minority.

It takes a long time to train an archer, and the rebels are fighting on the move every day, and there is simply no time to train archers, and it is much easier to use muskets. As long as the musketeers are strictly supervised to not shoot indiscriminately and do not flee during the battle, they can inflict casualties on the enemy, and no matter how brave the general is, he will not be able to block the blow of the musket.

Although Zhang Chu kept a hand and did not sell it to Li Zicheng, the flintlock pistol that did not need to be ignited, even the use of arquebuses could increase the strength of the rebels a lot. Li Zicheng strengthened his determination to use firearms, and sent Li Guo to Zhongyang with the money to buy a large number of muskets and artillery eliminated by the security army. As a result, Li Zicheng's team greatly increased its ability to attack fortifications, captured several cities guarded by officials and soldiers one after another, seized a lot of grain, and the size of the team expanded rapidly, and even Hong Chengchou felt the strong pressure from Li Zicheng's team.

The big movement made by the rebels greatly reduced Zhang Chu's pressure, but within a few days of the easy days, new troubles found Zhang Chu. (To be continued.) )