H2> July 20, Fu Zonglong and Sun Chuanting commanded the three sides of the army and horses to relieve the siege of Feng. Fu Zonglong's experience during the Chongzhen period can really be called twists and turns, ups and downs.

In the eleventh year of Chongzhen, Fu Zonglong pacified the Miao Rebellion in Guizhou, and returned to Beijing under the recommendation of Yang Sichang to take over the post of secretary of the military department. However, after Fu Zonglong performed his duties, he did not save the slightest face for Yang Sichang, and criticized Yang Sichang for the "salary" and "salary" that Yang Sichang single-handedly handled, believing that these things were not only a burden on the people's families, but also harmful and useless in the suppression of thieves. Because of this, he was impeached by Yang Sichang and Gao Qiqian, and then he was dismissed.

However, with the growing strength of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, after the fall of Xiangyang, Yang Sichang died of illness, and Zhou Yanru recommended Fu Zonglong to Chongzhen again, and then took over the post of governor of the three sides, responsible for the suppression of thieves in Shanxi and Henan. But what Fu Zonglong inherited was an indescribable mess, which can be summed up in only four words -- "no soldiers and no food." In the end, it was Wang Qiaonian who assigned Shaanxi He Renlong and Li Guoqi to Fu Zonglong, and Fu Zonglong had some capital. After that, Sun Chuanting led the regiment to train people and horses to come to the division, only to piece together 20,000 horses, and under the repeated urging of the imperial court, they went out of Tongguan to relieve the siege of Kaifeng.

Fu Zonglong went out of Tongguan and went to the southeast to join Sun Chuanting and Yang Wenyue, the military governor of Hebei. The army built a pontoon bridge over the Ru River, intending to cross Runing eastward, go to Xiangcheng, and then go straight to Kaifeng. However, due to the lack of coordination between the three armies, it was not possible to build a pontoon bridge, and at this time, the army of Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai had already heard the news and approached the Ru River, and began to build a bridge to cross the river first.

Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai's army is known as 500,000, of which there are no less than 150,000 soldiers who can fight, this time when Fu Zonglong learned that Fu Zonglong led troops to relieve the siege of Kaifeng, Li Zicheng ordered his generals Li Guo and Tian Jianxiu to continue to besiege Kaifeng, and he personally commanded the army to come to fight with Luo Rucai.

At this time, it was already dusk, but the Ming army camp on the opposite side was quiet, and there was no smoke rising at all, but it was the side of the army, people shouted and neighed very noisy, the troops were still crossing the river, and the soldiers who stayed behind had begun to bury the pot to make rice, kill pigs and sheep, and boil the sky.

Li Zicheng led his men and women to walk up the high slope, and carefully explored Fu Zonglong's camp in the distance by taking advantage of the setting sun.

A slender young general observed for a moment, and walked to Li Zicheng's side, compared to Li Zicheng's burly figure, this young general looked a little polite, and his fair face with thin eyebrows and long eyes was a little out of place with a group of rough generals.

"King Qi, it seems that the rumors of the lack of food in the official army are indeed true, and for a whole day, there was not a trace of cooking smoke coming out of the camp opposite......!"

Li Zicheng smiled and nodded, the short whiskers under his jaw were raised like steel needles, and the nail leaves on his body also made a slight friction sound. What Lin Quan said is extremely true, the elite of the official army has gone out of the customs, and now the customs are in decline. It is rare for Fu Zonglong to summon these tens of thousands of stragglers to come bravely, and when all the departments gather, they will definitely be able to go down in one go. ”

A burly man next to him smiled coldly, as if he inadvertently agreed with the young general's words. "Big brother, the current combat power of the official army is not as good as a dial, the fierce general who was originally called either died outside the pass or was taken by us to take the head, Fu Zonglong on the opposite side is only tens of thousands of soldiers and horses, no matter whether he has food or no food, can he still resist a fierce attack by the sons?"

Although Li Zicheng was not angry at the burly general's words, he was worried that his words would make the young general unhappy, so he scolded with a stiff face: "Liu Zongmin, the general Li Yan is familiar with military books, and he is even more famous, now he is in front of the two armies, there can be no sloppiness and relaxation, the lack of food in the officers and troops is beneficial to me, as long as we plan properly, maybe we can win without a fight!" ”

Although Liu Zongmin didn't dare to refute Li Zicheng, he glared at Li Yan fiercely, muttered a few words in his mouth, and simply stepped aside and didn't speak.

Li Yan didn't care, but excused Liu Zongmin twice, and said: "Although we have the advantage now, we can't be careless, Fu Zonglong is a civil and military all-rounder, and when he pacified the Miao Rebellion in Guizhou in one fell swoop, it can be seen that his strategy is extraordinary." The last general was just worried that the official and military camp in front of him was just a disguise, and it was inevitably a little strange that he hadn't seen the smoke for a day. Once Fu Zonglong surprises our army behind or on the flank, causing chaos, and then attacking with the troops in front of him, the outcome of the battle is still between the two! ”

Li Yan's words gave Li Zicheng a wake-up call. The ups and downs of these years, and the many times between life and death, have made Li Zicheng no longer the rogue leader who only knew how to slash and loot.

After Li Yan was rescued in the battle of Qi County, his father Li Jingbai was the governor of Shandong during the Apocalypse, and was later dismissed and returned to his hometown for offending the eunuch party. Li Yanqi was full of poetry and books, and he was proficient in martial arts, and he repeatedly fought for the villagers, but offended the powerful and was framed and imprisoned. was rescued by Li Zicheng later, and the two hit it off at first sight, so they threw themselves into the camp of the army. It was precisely because of Li Yan's dedication that the army completely changed the previous style of robbing homes and houses and raising wars by war, and put forward the slogan of "Juntian is exempt from taxation", which attracted a large number of displaced people and ordinary people to join, and gradually grew stronger on this basis. Therefore, Li Zicheng has a lot of trust in Li Yan and his person.

But because of Li Yan's identity, he is a little incompatible with the generals who were born from exile bandits under Li Zicheng.

Li Zicheng hadn't answered Li Yan's words yet, but a thin middle-aged man in his forties next to him suddenly opened his mouth. "It seems that the general's concerns are a bit unfounded, even if the officers and troops divide their troops to raid our flank or rear battalion, after all, the number of people is limited, and the scale of the attack is expected to be difficult to achieve. Our army now has 100,000 armor on the front line alone, and the soldiers are full of food, even if there is a surprise attack by the official army, it is a mantis arm as a car, and it will destroy itself! ”

Liu Zongmin, who was not far away, laughed, "What Niu Jinxing said is very true! The land of Henan is now my army in the world, Fu Zonglong's old dog is still breathing, how can he block my thunderous blow! ”

Li Yan smiled slightly, took two steps back and stopped speaking.

At this time, a soldier with a red flag on his back galloped over, "Tell King Chuang, Yang Chengzu, the general under Cao Shuai, come to visit!" ”

The soldier's words interrupted Li Zicheng's train of thought, and even his brows furrowed, "Why didn't Luo Rucai come?" Instead, he sent a subordinate to perfunctory. In Huguang, Zhang Xianzhong almost killed him, and his men, if it wasn't for Lao Tzu to take him in, how would he be alive today? ”

Zhang Xianzhong attacked Xiangyang by surprise, killed Zhu Yiming, the king of Xiang, and Zhu Changfa, the king of Guiyang, and the military rations, equipment, and silver accumulated by Yang Sichang in Xiangyang, including the gold, silver and jewelry accumulated by the king of Xiangyang for a hundred years, were cheaper than Zhang Xianzhong's army. Within a few months, Zhang Xianzhong's subordinates expanded to more than 200,000 people.

After that, Ding Qirui succeeded Yang Sichang as the governor of the thief, but there was a shortage of soldiers and horses, and the imperial court had no choice but to assign the Zuo Liangyu Department who went to Henan to Ding Qirui's command, and mobilized more than 20,000 people from Zhu Dadian in Nanjing to rush to Huguang to support, Ding Qirui finally stabilized his position and began to attack Zhang Xianzhong.

Zhang Xianzhong was extremely arrogant, but he was even defeated, and in the battle of Agate Mountain, he was almost captured alive by Zuo Liangyusheng, and most of the soldiers and horses were lost, so he fell in love with the remaining 30,000 elite soldiers in Luo Rucai's hands. Under Pan Duao's Jianyi, he set up a Hongmen banquet and invited Luo Rucai and Lao Hui Ma Shouying to come to the banquet, intending to kill the two during the banquet and annex their men and horses.

But did not expect Luo Rucai and Ma Shouying to be on guard, the banquet just began, the two fled one after another, due to Zhang Xianzhong's pursuit, Luo Rucai had to lead the remnants of the people to Henan to join Li Zicheng, and Ma Shouying panicked, retreated to Yinghuo Mountain, and Ge Li Yan He Yilong, Zuo Jin Wang He Jin, Wang Liu Xiyao, and Wang Lin of the Chaos formed a joint venture of five families, known as the "five battalions of the left of the revolution".

Li Zicheng took in Luo Rucai and stormed Kaifeng with his troops, but Luo Rucai was like a frightened bird, sent a lot of gold, silver and jewelry, and wrote more than ten flattering letters, but he just didn't want to meet Li Zicheng in the army. He also knew that he had raised his army earlier than Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, and after Gao Yingxiang's death, he was the oldest qualified in the righteous army, so he couldn't see Rong and Li and Zhang, not to mention that he still had some elite soldiers in his hands, which made Li and Zhang salivate.

Therefore, Li Zicheng ordered him to lead his troops to attack Fu Zonglong, but he only sent Yang Chengzu to deliver the news and wait for Li Zicheng's order.

Li Zicheng looked at Yang Chengzu who was panting coldly, and his tone suddenly became cold and solemn. "Cao Shuai has such a big shelf, this king personally went to the letter to invite him, but he refused to show up, why is this?"

Yang Chengzu replied tremblingly: "King Chuang is angry, Cao Shuai is infected with wind and cold, and now he has gone to Queshan with illness, and the special general will come to meet and wait for King Chuang's order!" ”

Yang Chengzu peeked at Li Zicheng's face, and hurriedly lowered his head, "Chuang Wang Mingjian, Cao Shuai just got the news that Wang Qiaonian has led his troops out of Tongguan and went all the way to the east, he should be planning to turn back to the south and attack our righteous army." Cao Shuai, please pay more attention to King Chuang! ”

Li Zicheng snorted coldly, "Wang Qiaonian is a civil official, and there are only 10,000 old and weak soldiers under his command, and guarding Tongguan is in danger, what kind of guard does this king have!" ”

Yang Chengzu hurriedly said: "Cao Shuai once mentioned that Wang Qiaonian led the troops to dispatch, but now Tongguan is empty. ”

"Oh?" Li Zicheng exclaimed. He hadn't thought of that. Tongguan guards the gateway of Shanxi, has always been a place where soldiers must fight, if once Tongguan is taken, Shanxi can come and go freely, the land in the pass is at your fingertips, in this way, you can achieve the trend of sweeping the world.

Suddenly, Li Zicheng's heart trembled inexplicably.

"Don't break into the king!" Li Yan, Niu Jinxing, and strategist Song Xiance shouted at the same time.

As soon as Li Yan spoke, he noticed that something was wrong, and immediately relieved himself, and Niu Jinxing took the opportunity to rush forward, "King Chuang, this matter must not be allowed!" Tongguan is an important place for officials and soldiers, and Wang Qiaonian was ordered by the emperor to guard Tongguan, so there is no reason to go out lightly. Wang Qiaonian's move seems to be intentional, in order to attract our army to attack westward, in order to relieve Fu Zonglong and the siege of Kaifeng! ”

Li Zicheng turned his head to look at Li Yan and Song Xiance, and the two also nodded in agreement.

Song Xiance and Li Yan quickly exchanged glances, took a step forward, and said in a low voice: "King Chuang, for today's plan, we need to go all out to take down the Fu Zonglong army in front of us, and it is too risky to raid Tongguan." Now that the advantage is on my side, it is really not advisable to take risks lightly! ”

"But it's a rare opportunity!" Li Zicheng said softly.

Song Xiance smiled and glanced at Yang Chengzu not far away, "Since Luo Rucai has troops in the mountains, it is better to order him to lead the army to raid Tongguan." In one fell swoop, it is naturally beneficial to my army, I can't take it, and it also loses its troops, and then I can find a way to find him, this is a plan to kill two birds with one stone, I don't know what the king wants? ”R1152