Chapter Ninety-Four: A Good Opportunity

After capturing Zhongwei County, Li Zicheng's next target was Qingyang Mansion, as long as he could capture Qingyang, he would be able to enter the territory of Shaanxi and then gallop to the Central Plains.

It's just that Qingyang Mansion is a big city, no smaller than Zhongwei County, and it is not so easy to capture it. In the face of such a situation, Li Zicheng naturally had to use the old method to send people to infiltrate and attack inside and outside.

In Li Zicheng's heart, if the Ming army can concentrate so many soldiers and horses into Gansu to encircle and suppress them, Shaanxi must be empty, and here in Qingyang, there will not be many men and horses, and there will be only three or four thousand people to die. He has nearly 10,000 men under his command, and as long as he can rush into the city, he will win. For the sake of safety, Li Zicheng ordered Gao Yigong to bring people into Qingyang City again, this time not only two hundred, but more, at least five hundred.

His plan is like this, people sneak into the city first, don't need to hurry to do it, wait until he leads the soldiers and horses to arrive, make two circles outside the city, coerce some people, make the momentum bigger, and then separate to surround Qingyang City. The people in the city, they must have scored troops to defend it, they mean it, feint for a day, stay until the evening, Gao Yigong set fire to the city, and assault from the south gate, grab the city gate, and lead the main force from the south gate to rush in, the inside should be combined with the outside, and Qingyang will be taken.

A person who has not learned the art of war for a day, only through the accumulation of little by little, can come up with such a siege method, Li Zicheng can be regarded as a talent.

Gao Yigong took the order, took the backbone of the rogues, took a step forward, and rushed to Qingyang. There were few of them, and they were all elites, and they naturally walked fast, and after three days, they entered Qingyang City in batches on the morning of the fourth day.

After entering the city, they separately found a place to settle down, only waiting for Li Zicheng's army to arrive and act according to the original plan.

Li Zicheng's troops arrived at noon the next day, ten miles away from the city, and were discovered by the defenders in the city. The prefect of Qingyang and the general of the sub-guard hurriedly made defensive preparations, and there were tens of thousands of horses in Qingyang City, thinking that if they wanted to eliminate the Liukou, they might not be able to, but there was no problem in defending the city.

This is also Qingyang's sub-guard general really does not have much ability, and he does not dare to fight the Liukou head-on, otherwise, if he leads the main force out of the city now, it will be enough for Li Zicheng to drink a pot.

Li Zicheng did not attack the city immediately, and according to the original opportunity, he directly tossed around the surrounding towns. Qingyang is also regarded as the junction of Shaanxi and Gansu, which is an important town, and there have always been a lot of soldiers, and the rogues rarely dare to make trouble in the surrounding area, so it is relatively stable here. However, the drought in Shaanxi Province and Qingyang were not spared, the price of rice rose sharply, and the number of people who could not eat gradually increased. Of course, Hong Chengchou doesn't have Yue Su's ability, he can get so much food and solve the local suffering, that is, he can make do with it, and maintain it if he can.

Now that Li Zicheng is here, he fanned the flames and told the poor people that they would have food to eat with Lao Tzu, and immediately received a response from many people. To tell the truth, when the people here heard that they came, except for the rich, they didn't run much, after all, there was nothing rich at home, and they were not afraid of robbing, and they didn't eat accurately, so what else did they run.

The people picked up burning sticks, flat poles, and kitchen knives to join Li Zicheng's troops, and there were really a lot of people around Fucheng, and the old, weak, women and children got together, and soon Li Zicheng's troops reached more than 60,000 people.

Then, Li Zicheng ordered to surround Qingyang City, Ding Zhuang was in front, women and children were behind, regardless of whether he could fight or not, he would overwhelm the other party in momentum first.

Surrounded by four gates, there are only about 15,000 people at each gate, and there are actually only three or four thousand people who can really fight. At this time, if the defenders in the city came out, no matter which gate they came out from, Li Zicheng would be powerless to return to the sky. Because Li Zicheng only led 5,000 main forces, as well as tens of thousands of people at the south gate, the rest of the people were assigned to him in the other three gates. The most important thing is that except for the South Gate, not many people from the other three gates are Li Zicheng's earliest elite.

Such a good opportunity, the defenders in the city did not grasp it, whether it was the main general or the prefect, seeing that the four gates were densely packed with people, they were startled, and only divided their troops to defend them, waiting for reinforcements.

Qingyang is one hundred and fifty miles away from Pingliang, and when he found Liukou, the Qingyang staff had already sent people to Pingliang to ask for help, and at the same time sent people to Gansu to report to Yang Yishan, and to Chang'an to report to the governor Sun Juxiang. In his heart, as long as the reinforcements arrive, and the internal and external attacks are flanked, he can make dumplings for the rogues outside the city. And there are tens of thousands of soldiers and horses in his city, as long as he holds on to it, he will have absolutely no problem for ten days and half a month.

Li Zicheng didn't know how many defenders there were in the city, but seeing that the city was densely packed with officers and soldiers, and got the news from the other three gates, there were also a large number of defenders in the city, so he panicked a little.

There are only so many soldiers under your command, and there are more soldiers in your city than I do, so how can I attack the city, I can't let those old and weak women and children go up to die. The most terrible thing is that Gao Yigong is still in the city, and now the city gate is closed, and there is no communication between the inside and outside, according to the established policy, tonight, Gao Yigong can set fire to the city and seize the south gate.

There are so many defenders on the south gate, looking at the posture of no less than two or three thousand, five hundred people to take it, can they take it? I don't have any siege equipment, so I rush up on the ladder at night, which is not death.

Li Zicheng is not good in his heart, but there is no way, now he wants to retreat, unless he takes his thousands of main forces with him, otherwise if he all evacuates, the defenders in the city will take the opportunity to cover up and kill, and they will have to ask for their own lives. He escaped from Ascension by luck, and Gao Yingxiang was unlucky.

After weighing it again and again, for the sake of the overall situation, for the sake of Gao Yigong's small life, Li Zicheng finally decided, let's fight first, success or failure is tonight, if you can't capture Qingyang, it's not too late to run again. Horizontal and vertical can be regarded as doing their best.

Gao Yigong now lives in a compound not far from the south gate, this courtyard was originally owned by the Zhao family, a wealthy family in the city, and they suddenly infiltrated and killed the people inside. Because when the city heard that the rogues were coming, the people were terrified, and no one noticed.

Liukou entered the Zhao Mansion one after another and began to study the battle plan. How many soldiers and horses are in the city, after they entered the city, they saw the deployment in the city, and there were already a number, not to mention three or four thousand, it seems that there are tens of thousands of people.

Each city gate was guarded by nearly 3,000 people, and he suddenly attacked from the inside, if he couldn't take the city gate, Li Zicheng's soldiers and horses would not be able to enter, and his hundreds of people would have to be thrown inside. But he and Li Zicheng made an agreement, and it was hard to imagine what would happen when he thought something had happened outside the city.

Gao Yigong is also a tough person, and he is also loyal to Li Zicheng, although he thought of danger, but in the end he decided to fight hard.

The location of the fire has long been found, and the drum tower in the city is the most suitable. But in order to cooperate with the arson and seize the city gate, Gao Yigong thought of another way, that is, to set fire to the prefect's yamen and the garrison yamen.

At first, Gao Yigong planned to set fire to the General's Mansion, but after inquiry, he learned that the general's home was not here, but in Chang'an. There is no choice but to guard the yamen.

In the near second watch, ten people from the first year of high school went to the drum tower to set fire with the things that caused the fire. He also sent a hundred men to the prefect's yamen and to the garrison yamen. He himself took 300 men, and waited in the courtyard, and when he saw the fire, he stormed the south gate. The remaining 90 people were shouting and building momentum in the city.

It was very easy to set fire to the drum tower, and ten boys, taking advantage of the night, climbed up the drum tower with the things that ignited the fire, lit the fire, and after climbing down, they scattered their actions and shouted, "The rebels have entered the city!" "The rebels have stormed the city!" ……

The 90 people who Gao Yigong specially arranged to build momentum also took action and shouted everywhere.

When the people heard this, some were shocked, some were overjoyed, but they had one thing in common, that is, they all hid at home, and no one dared to go out. If the rogues really came in, wouldn't they be looking for death when they ran into the streets?

However, there was also panic, and the fire was together, and the defenders in the city were a little chaotic, and I don't know which city gate was broken down, allowing the rogues to run in. The officials in the city were also a little nervous, and hurriedly sent people out to inquire, relying on the cowardice of the people, they did not dare to go out late at night, and those who went out to inquire could only vaguely hear someone shouting, but did not see the rogue.

The prefect, as the head of the civil officials in the city, was shocked when he heard that the city was on fire. I was about to send someone out to inquire, but I heard the sound of shouting and killing in the courtyard. Fortunately, the prefect left all the servants in the mansion tonight because of the call from the rogue, and did not let him go home, and strengthened the guard in the yamen. The rogues turned in, unlucky, and happened to be discovered by the patrol officers, and they started to move twice. The officers shouted loudly and beckoned everyone to them.

The servants were weak at first, but then gradually realized that there were not many rogues who came in, only a few dozen, and the three shifts were fast, plus the horses were fast, and there were more than 200 numbers, so there was nothing terrible about fighting more and less. Moreover, there is a prison next to the government office, and there are jailers in the prison, and when they find that there are police, they all rush to reinforce them.

Compared with the prefect's yamen, the garrison yamen did not have such good luck, and after the rogues turned in, they were not discovered, so they found the firewood room and lit a fire. As soon as the fire broke out, the soldiers guarding the yamen immediately found out and rushed to put out the fire, but when they ran into the rogues, they didn't know how many people there were, so they turned around and ran away.

The reason why the garrison yamen will allow the rogues to enter easily is because there are not many people guarding here, and the garrison lord is not in the yamen, but is responsible for guarding the north gate. The yamen is empty, and there are hundreds of people. These people didn't rush over together, the dozens of people who had rushed to the firewood house before, as soon as they saw someone, and they were no less than their own people, how could they dare to fight.

Before, when the drum tower caught fire, I thought it was a rogue, but now the garrison yamen is on fire again, and the officers and soldiers guarding the city are a little panicked.

And this kung fu, Gao Yigong led his three hundred men out of the house and rushed towards the south gate.

"Rush!" "Kill!" ……

Anyway, the city is on fire, and it has already alarmed the officers and soldiers in the city, and if they want to sneak over, it is impossible, so they simply be above board and overwhelm the opponent with momentum.

……