On the twenty-fourth day of the first month of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, Mao.

Before the day was fully dawn, the fierce battle began.

The two warring sides did not attack tentatively, did not be polite, and came up to fight to the death.

The cavalry charged back and forth, interspersed with the crowd, the foot soldiers raised the weapons in their hands, desperately slashing the opponent, the two sides were like red-eyed gamblers, fighting together for their lives.

The blood spilled onto the ground, quickly coagulated, and was constantly covered with steaming blood, and countless people fell in pain.

The climate became colder and colder, to the point that it was spitting into ice, and the blood on the bodies of many of the soldiers who were fighting also coagulated and turned into dark black ice.

When Yang Sichang and Li Zicheng faced all this, their faces were calm.

Before the start of the war, they were all well prepared.

Li Zicheng took out the policy of rewarding money and wealth, killing an officer and soldier, rewarding five taels of silver, killing an officer, rewarding fifty taels of silver, if someone can kill Yang Sichang, rewarding five thousand taels of silver, it is this kind of reward policy that makes the soldiers of the righteous army fight desperately, everyone thinks that they can get more rewards, as for dying on the battlefield, then they can only blame their own bad luck, and they may lose their lives at any time in the battlefield battle.

Yang Sichang had no silver reward, and as he had done for several months, he told the officers around him that if he failed in this battle, everyone should not think about survival, and his family would have completely lost their support.

This is a contest and a fight between money and will.

It is said that the will is better than the money, but sometimes it is not necessarily, the demagogy on the battlefield can arouse the great fighting spirit of the sergeant in a short period of time, but it is difficult to maintain it for a long time, and it is even more fatal. This is just Yang Sichang's verbal demagogy, and the emperor and the court are not powerful.

Such encouragement cannot be sustained for a long time.

An hour passed, and the tide of battle finally changed subtly.

The momentum of the rebel army began to increase, and with the absolute superiority in numbers, the rebel army began to press forward on a large scale. The cavalry was no longer the absolute main force at this time, and the battle between the infantry and pawns determined the final direction of the battle.

Li Zicheng keenly captured the changes in the battle situation, and he personally participated in the charge and fight.

Yang Sichang also found that the situation was not right, the ability of the army under his command to resist slowly weakened, and some sergeants had begun to retreat to the rear.

Enduring the pain all over his body, Yang Sichang also participated in the fight.

It's a pity that Yang Sichang's efforts didn't have much effect.

As Li Zicheng participated in the fight, the bright red handsome flag made the momentum of the righteous army surge, and a surging momentum rushed to the face.

The army of the imperial court, which resisted desperately, held out for about a quarter of an hour. The cavalry and foot soldiers fighting in front of them all began to compress and retreat, and they could no longer withstand the onslaught of their opponents.

The change in the battle situation is always instantaneous.

At two o'clock, a scene that Yang Sichang didn't want to see appeared.

The formation of the army was broken up by the rogues, and the fighting rogues infiltrated into the formation of the army from all directions, and many of the sergeants turned their heads and withdrew to the rear, and the sergeants who insisted on fighting were soon surrounded by more rogues.

The overall formation of the imperial army began to shrink backwards, and this contraction lasted for a short time, followed by a retreat towards the rear. It was supposed to be the team that was fleeing towards the rear.

The officers commanding the battle shouted desperately, and even raised their spears and knives in their hands. Kill the retreating sergeants, but this practice has no effect, there are too many sergeants who have escaped, and even some officers who supervise the battle are squeezed aside by the fleeing sergeants. Before he could understand it, he was surrounded by rogues.

Yang Sichang collapsed, and he knew that defeat was decided.

Yang Sichang, who was blank in his mind, was surrounded by the soldiers around him and evacuated, and they quickly evacuated in the direction of Gaoyang County. At this time, only the city of Gaoyang County could temporarily resist the attack of the Liukou.

Yang Sichang, who was in a daze, woke up suddenly after rushing far away, he couldn't escape, he had to command the army to fight, he woke up, looked at the soldiers around him, looked at the sergeants who were evacuating towards the rear one after another, turned his horse's head and prepared to rush in the direction of Liukou.

Yang Sichang's movements were stopped by the soldiers around him.

These pro-soldiers followed Yang Sichang for a long time or a short time, they admired Yang Sichang from the bottom of their hearts, so they would not watch Yang Sichang go to death, rushing back at this time was no different from suicide.

Many pro-soldiers wrapped Yang Sichang and continued to evacuate in the direction of Gaoyang County, no matter how Yang Sichang roared.

A one-sided escape and a one-sided chase begins.

Li Zicheng's face was red with excitement, and he charged in front of the team with a spear in his hand, and began to chase and kill the fleeing officers and soldiers, there are no desperate resistance officers and soldiers on the battlefield, and running away is contagious, once someone escapes, the rest of the people are difficult to persevere, not to mention that many officers have joined the ranks of fleeing, not to mention ordinary sergeants.

The speed of the cavalry's withdrawal was naturally much faster, but the foot soldiers were not good, and their legs could not outrun the war horses.

Some sergeants who didn't want to die chose to surrender on their knees, but they were not killed, so more foot soldiers knelt on the ground and surrendered.

Of course, Li Zicheng would not kill these surrendered sergeants, he knew very well that the combat effectiveness of the officers and soldiers was stronger than that of the rebels, and the inclusion of these surrendered sergeants in the ranks of the rebels could greatly enhance the combat effectiveness of the rebels.

Gu Junen quickly commanded part of the rebel army, gathered these surrendered officers and soldiers, and concentrated them in one place, so that Li Zicheng could lead the army to chase and kill more officers and soldiers with peace of mind.

At that moment, the battlefield gradually quieted down, and there was hardly any fighting around.

Li Zicheng stopped the pursuit and rode on horseback to watch everything on the battlefield.

A large number of surrendered officers and soldiers were gathered together, and some of the rebel sergeants had already begun to clean up the battlefield under Gu Junen's arrangement, and there were countless dark black blood stains solidified on the ground, and corpses were being cleaned up everywhere.

The sergeants of the Righteous Army who were chasing and killing in front also returned one after another, and they reported to Li Zicheng that a small number of officers and soldiers who had fled had already gone to the direction of Gaoyang County, and it was estimated that they had entered the county seat.

Li Zicheng didn't speak for the time being, his face was stretched.

He didn't expect the battle to end so quickly, he thought it would be another whole day of tragic fighting, who knew that before noon, the battle would basically be over, as for the officers and soldiers who fled to Gaoyang County, it was no longer worth mentioning.

Entering Gaoyang County, Yang Sichang's face was pale, and he didn't speak for a long time.

The magistrate of Gao County and many officials stood in front of Yang Sichang, not knowing what to do, they were all terrified, once the army of rogues pounced, they would not be able to fight.

Yang Sichang didn't speak, and waved his hand to signal everyone to leave the house, he needed to be alone.

This is a complete fiasco, what does this fiasco mean, Yang Sichang knows very well, not to mention the capital, at least Baoding Mansion City can not be preserved, and Baoding Mansion City was nearly 80,000 soldiers, and also fell into a desperate situation.

Why, all this is why, Yang Sichang doesn't understand, and he doesn't want to think about these things anymore.

He Yang Sichang failed, completely failed, this defeat gave him no chance to turn the tables, at this time he can quickly return to the capital, but what is the point of going back, how to face the emperor, how to face the imperial court, Zhending, Hejian, Baoding, Daimyo and other places of the 150,000 army, a few months ago was still high-spirited, now it will disappear, once the 150,000 army is completely defeated, what else do the emperor and the court rely on, is it difficult to transfer the army from Shanhaiguan and other places, That would mean that the long drive of the post-golden tartar would go straight in.

At this moment, Yang Sichang was extremely sober, he thought a lot, thought of his father's competition with the Liukou when he was the governor of the three sides, and thought of his own ups and downs over the years.

Gaoyang County is a relatively special place, there is an adult here who is well-known in the imperial court, that is, the former prince and prince, the second assistant of the cabinet Sun Chengzong, but unfortunately at this time, Sun Chengzong can not bless him Yang Sichang.

It's gone, it's all gone.

When Yang Sichang pulled out his sword, his expression was extremely grim.

"Zheng Xunrui, I won't be attached to you, but I hope you can put the common people in the world first......"

Yang Sichang's suicide caused complete chaos in Gaoyang County.

At the time of Shen, the army led by Li Zicheng arrived in Gaoyang County and found that the city gate was wide open, and some officials knelt at the city gate.

In front of the city gate was a corpse.

Yang Sichang committed suicide and was loyal to the emperor and the court in this way.

Li Zicheng and Gu Junen's expressions were very solemn, although they had rebelled for many years, they still had great respect for officials like Yang Sichang, and the two immediately arranged for Yang Sichang to be buried thickly.

Both Li Zicheng and Gu Junen knew that Gaoyang County was the hometown of Sun Chengzong, the minister of the imperial court.

When entering the county seat, Gu Junen strictly ordered all the soldiers not to burn, kill and loot, otherwise there would be no forgiveness for killing.

The rebels who entered the county town were well disciplined, and the sergeants in the county town had long been standing by the city wall and waiting, and the commander had committed suicide, and they had no need to resist.

After only a day's rest in Gaoyang County, Li Zicheng led the army to leave and went to Baoding City, where there was still a battle waiting, at this time, Li Zicheng was already full of confidence, he knew that the time for Baoding City to be breached was just around the corner, and the righteous army would achieve an unexpected victory in this crucial battle.

The pinnacle that he had never imagined when he rebelled had already appeared in front of Li Zicheng's eyes.

In this battle, the righteous army lost more than 10,000 people, but the total number of officers and soldiers who surrendered to the righteous army reached more than 30,000 people, which made the strength of the righteous army grow, and the next battle in Baoding Fucheng, the righteous army will continue to grow its own team, maybe after the battle of Beizhili, the scale of the righteous army can really reach a million people, really with that scale, will you still be afraid of the Zheng family's army. (To be continued.) )