In the middle of December of the fourth year of Xuande, dark clouds were covered over the city of Yi'an, the weather was gloomy and terrible, and according to the experience of the old people, a heavy rain was coming.

In the bleak cold wind, the streets of the south and north gates of Yi'an City were full of residents with their children and daughters, and the rebels guarding the city blocked them from leaving the city at the gate.

At the beginning of this month, the food in the city had been exhausted, and now not only the residents of the city, but also the rebel soldiers have tightened their belts, and they can only eat seventy percent a day.

In order to fight against the Ming army, Li Li brought in a lot of strong men from Yanzhou Prefecture, Tan Binh Province, Hue Province and Shenghua Province, plus the people who fled to Nghe An Province with the rebels, the number of rebels in Nghe An Province increased by 300,000 or 400,000 out of thin air, and the number of rebels in Yen City alone reached more than 100,000, which undoubtedly increased the consumption of grain in Yen An Province.

According to Li Yuntian's deployment, the Ming army was in strict positions in Thanh Hoa Province and Yanzhou Mansion to prevent the rebels in Yi'an Province from breaking through, and the Nanzhang Kingdom in the west of Yi'an Province also deployed 50,000 troops on the border at Li Yuntian's request to prevent the rebels from entering the Nanzhang territory.

As a result, the northern, western, and southern escape routes of the rebels in Nghe An Province have been blocked, leaving only the eastern coastal areas to escape.

However, not to mention whether the rebels could find enough troop transports, it was not easy for them to go to sea, because a naval division of more than a dozen ships of the Ming Dynasty was based in Thanh Hoa Harbor, cruising the waters east of Nghe An Province, and if they found ships on the coastline, they would attack and sink them.

As a result, the rebels were also blocked from escaping by sea, and the only way to do so was to smuggle out by small boat in the darkness of the night, which apparently could not transport large groups of rebels.

Li Li had already seen the purpose of the Ming army wanting to trap the rebels in Yi'an Province, so he wanted to break the trapped army and lead the army to break through into the Nanzhang Kingdom in the west of Yi'an Province, but was attacked by the Nanzhang army in the border area and was beaten back.

This is not because the combat effectiveness of the Nanzhang army is so strong, but after a series of defeats in Jiaozhi, the morale of the rebels has been deeply damaged, and the main force has suffered heavy casualties in the battles between Jiaozhou and Zhancheng, and now there are only about 30,000 people left.

Therefore, the current rebel army is not what it used to be, except for the 30,000 main forces that can still fight to the death, the rest of the people are simply unable to fight hard battles and vicious battles, coupled with low morale, they naturally cannot break through the defense line of the Nanzhang army.

At the same time, the king of Nanzhang knew very well that once the rebels entered the territory of the Nanzhang Kingdom, the Nanzhang Kingdom would be in great trouble, so he ordered a strict defense to firmly block the pace of the Jiaozhi rebels fleeing westward.

In the past half a year, the Jiaozhi rebels have attacked the border of the Nanzhang Kingdom twice, and both times they have returned.

Today, with the successive increase of troops on the border by the King of Nanzhang, the number of troops on the border has reached 80,000, which has brought huge trouble to the Jiaozhi rebels.

Originally, according to Ruan Yan's Jianyì, the rebels should abandon the city of Yi'an after the summer when the miasma in the mountains subsides in the autumn and winter, and the whole army broke through to the Nanzhang Kingdom, as long as they could escape into the deep mountains of the Nanzhang Kingdom, then the Ming army and the army of Zhancheng would have no choice, and only need to deal with the army of the Nanzhang State, and the combat effectiveness of the Nanzhang State army was much weaker than the Ming army, and it was easier to deal with.

Since Ruan Yan's Tiyì was a battle, Li Li had some concerns in his heart, once the rebels attacked the Nanzhang Kingdom in a big way, then the Ming army and the Champa army in Thanh Hoa Province and Yanzhou Mansion would definitely take the opportunity to enter Yi'an Mansion and seize the city of Yi'an.

In case the rebels could not break through the defense line of the Nanzhang army at the first time, they would face the situation of being attacked by the enemy on their backs, so Le Li did not adopt Nguyen Yan's suggestion, and sent troops to attack the Nanzhang army twice, but the result was in vain.

Due to the two attacks of the rebels, the king of Nanzhang was alerted and moved troops to the border in a big way, which made the defense line of the Nanzhang army more stable, and the rebels were in a worse situation because they had delayed the excellent attack time in vain.

In the face of this iron bucket formation created by Li Yuntian, not to mention Li Li, even Ruan Yan, who has always been resourceful, has no good way, after all, the Ming army now not only occupies the advantage on the battlefield, but also is on the defensive, which makes it difficult for the rebels to have any good opportunities.

Le Ly and Nguyen Yan knew very well that the rebels would have to evacuate Nghe An this winter, otherwise the rebels would collapse, not because of the Ming attack but because of the lack of food, and even the brave and skilled soldiers would not be able to fight if they starved.

It is especially important that if the rebels are unable to provide even half-full food every day, riots will inevitably break out among the rebels, with unimaginable consequences.

In order to ensure the military rations of the rebels, Li Li had long been prepared, and the current military rations were enough to keep the rebels seventy percent full for three months, but the residents of the city and the people in the towns and villages had no time to take care of them, so they could only fend for themselves.

Since there is no food to be found in the city, the residents have to leave to find food in order to survive, but the rebels obviously do not want those residents to go, which is not only a blow to the morale of the rebels, but also will leak the situation of the rebels to the Ming army, and can also be brought in to assist in defending the city at a critical moment.

Therefore, those who wanted to flee were stopped by the rebels at the city gate and told them to go home, but the residents were already hungry and would not have to wait for death to go back, so they gathered at the city gate and begged the rebels to let them go out of the city to find food to eat.

Of course, the rebels guarding the gate did not dare to let go, and now the food in Yi'an Mansion has been exhausted, and these residents can only find food in the areas controlled by the Ming army if they want to survive if they want to go north to Qinghua Mansion or south to Yanzhou Prefecture, and they can only find food in the areas controlled by the Ming army.

"The king of Pingding privately negotiated peace with the Ming army in order to be the Tusi of Jiaozhi, and gave up the good situation in vain, but he was deceived by the Ming army, and now he wants to drag everyone to die with him, and he doesn't care about everyone's life or death, everyone is fighting with them now, as long as they can get out of the city, there is a way to live, otherwise they can only wait here for death in vain."

Just as the residents at the gate of the northern city begged the rebel soldiers to let them out of the city, a loud roar suddenly erupted from the ranks behind them, and because the residents at the scene were densely gathered, they did not know who was speaking.

"Yes, fight with them!"

"Only by going out can you live!"

"The king of Pingding is selfish, he wants to benefit himself, he doesn't have us in his heart at all, there is no need for us to stay here and die!"

……

With this roar, the long-suppressed feelings in the hearts of the residents at the scene were immediately detonated, and they shouted in the crowd.

Immediately, the people poured towards the city gate, and in an instant they scattered the rebel soldiers who stood in front of them, and rushed to the city gate.

"Quick, close the gates!" The guards on the upper floor of the Nancheng City Gate never expected that the shape of the scene would get out of control, so he was taken aback and hurriedly gave an order in a loud voice.

Unfortunately, the guard's order was a step too late, and before the rebels in the city gate closed the city gate, the people had already rushed over, pushed open the city gate that was about to be closed, and fled in a swarm, running south without a life.

In the face of the people who poured out of the city gate in a frenzy, the rebels at the city gate had no good way, due to the large number of people on the scene, they could only stop a small number of people, and most of the people successfully escaped from the city.

After learning the news that the south gate could leave, the people of Yi'an City suddenly boiled and flocked to the south gate, no one wanted to stay in the city and starve to death.

It's a pity that these people are unlucky, Li Li knew that the gate of the southern city was rushed open by the people, and immediately mobilized troops to reinforce it, and after a conflict broke out with the people at the scene, he recaptured the city gate and drove back the people who were about to escape from the city.

In the aftermath of the clashes, the streets at the southern gates were strewn with blood, littered not only with cold corpses and bloodied wounded, but also littered with luggage parcels that had been dropped by residents as they fled in panic.

Some family members gathered around the corpses and the wounded and wept bitterly, painful moans and bitter cries echoing through the air, sounding horrible and miserable.

"Lord, you can't leave those people in the city anymore, there is no food or drink in the city now, the people can't survive, and they are bound to clash with our righteous army again."

After the conflict at the city gate of the southern city subsided, Ruan Yan hurried to find Le Li, and said to Li Li worriedly that he wanted Li Li to let the people out of the city.

In the long run, the foundation of the rebels is the hearts of the people in Jiaozhi, and once the people's hearts are dispersed, the rebels will have no future, so Ruan Yan does not want to see the relationship between the rebels and the people of Jiaozhi too stiff.

"Mr. Ruan, this king doesn't want to let those people escape from the city, but if the people in the city leave, then Yi'an City will become an empty city, and the Ming army will definitely come to besiege it after learning about it, and our righteous army will be trapped and die in Yi'an City at that time."

Li Li glanced at Ruan Yan, sighed helplessly, and then said in a deep voice, "For the sake of the livelihood of the residents in the city, this king has decided to use a part of the military rations to solve their rations and tide over the difficulties together. ”

"Lord Wang, I can't stay in Yi'an City any longer, the Ming army just wants my righteous army to be trapped in this lonely city, consume our army's military food, and hit the morale of our army."

Ruan Yan couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief when he heard this, and said to Li Li in a deep voice, "According to the lower officials, our army can break through in the direction of Yanzhou Mansion, the strength of Yanzhou Mansion is mainly occupied by soldiers, and the combat ability is the weakest one, the Ming army would never have thought that our army would break through from Yanzhou Mansion, and if we were unprepared, we would be able to fight a bloody way." ”

"That's exactly what this king meant." Li Li nodded and asked seemingly casually, "Mr. Ruan, who do you think will be the vanguard of this breakthrough and open the way for our army?" ”

"Lord Wang, according to the lower officials, General Chen is brave and good at fighting, calm in handling things, and is the best candidate for the vanguard." Ruan Yan did not hesitate at all, and immediately thought of a candidate, it is undeniable that Chen Yuan is the number one general in the rebel army, otherwise Li Li would not have sent Chen Yuan to capture Qingyun City last year to cut off the retreat of the king of Zhancheng.

"That's very good." Li Li frowned inadvertently when he heard this, and then asked, "Mr. Ruan, how many men do you think General Chen should bring with him?" ”

"Lord Wang, this time our army is a surprise attack, the soldiers are expensive but not too expensive, according to the opinion of the subordinates, General Chen can lead the main force of our righteous army and capture the camp of the soldiers who occupy the city in Yanzhou Mansion in one fell swoop!"

Ruan Yan pondered for a moment and replied in a deep voice, "As long as the Cham soldiers are defeated, then our righteous army will be able to pass through the blockade formed by the Cham soldiers before the Ming army arrives for reinforcements." ”

"Well, that's what Mr. Nguyen said." Hearing that Ruan Yan had Chen Yuan in charge of the main force of the rebels, Li Li's eyes suddenly flashed a trace of imperceptible coldness, and then nodded quietly, affirming Ruan Yan's suggestion.

"Go, call General Cai and the two General Li." Ruan Yan didn't notice Li Li's strange appearance, and after chatting with Li Li about some rebel military affairs, he got up to say goodbye, and after he left, Li Li's face immediately became very ugly, and he shouted at the soldiers outside the door.