However, most of the industries in Luoyang City are under the name of King Fu, and they can't move or collect taxes. This situation is worse than Sichuan, even if you want to collect taxes, there is no place to speak.

There is no way, only to ask the rich king of the world to leak his fingers, no matter how stingy he is, he has to spend money to keep his palace safe! So the officials in the city approached the Fuwang Mansion.

But King Fu was unwilling to spend a penny of silver to pay the soldiers who defended the city. King Fu's reason is also very sufficient: it is a matter of the imperial court, and it is not a matter of a lonely family, so why should he use the lonely silver to support the army of the imperial court?

This reason is indeed very sufficient, King Fu is really a model of "clear distinction between public and private"!

It wasn't until Li Zicheng's army besieged the city and there were several dangers that Zhu Changxun, the king of Fu, reluctantly took out tens of thousands of taels of silver to pay his salary. But the funny thing is still behind, the silver was taken out, the steward and eunuch of the palace deducted one according to the usual practice, the prefect of Luoyang and others deducted one according to the usual practice, and the chief soldier Wang Shaoyu deducted one according to the usual practice, and there was not much left in the hands of the soldiers. It's really self-inflicted!

If you don't treat the soldiers as human beings, will the soldiers guarding Luoyang City make King Fu and the officials in the city be human again?

On the evening of the 20th, the peasant army besieging the city shouted loudly in the northwest corner of Luoyang City, and the officers and soldiers guarding the city wall killed the officers and civil servants who were supervising the battle at the head of the city under the noise of the peasant army below.

The chief soldier Wang Shaoyu was very clever, and the small universe erupted to comprehend the light skills and jumped the city wall to escape, and those officers and soldiers opened the west gate of Luoyang City, and the peasant army swarmed in. There is nowhere to go, and the only way to Zuihou is to go to the Ying'en Temple adjacent to the Fuwang Mansion to take refuge, and Zhu Changxun, the Fuwang of Fu, was searched out by the intruding army that day. And the prince Zhu Yousong looked for an opportunity to escape.

The next scene is familiar. Although King Fu repeatedly kowtowed and begged for mercy, how could Li Zicheng let him go? Li Zicheng said to King Fu, "As a prince, you are rich in the world, and you are so famine, but you refuse to distribute a penny of property to help the people, you are a slave." ”

Then Li Zicheng ordered to hit the forty boards of King Fu first, and then show the public. He also cut off the fat meat on the fat king and boiled it in a cauldron with venison, and drank it together. Known as "Fulu Wine", he was tortured and killed. And Lu Weiqi, the former secretary of the Nanjing Military Department, was also killed after the fall of the city.

After Li Zicheng conquered Luoyang and occupied the Fu Palace, he distributed a large amount of grain, materials and silver money from the palace to the hungry people in the vicinity for disaster relief. People from all over the country rushed to Luoyang when they heard the news. The official road is like flowing water, day and night. And ten days later. Li Zicheng's peasant army also swelled to more than 700,000 at once.

Yes. That's right! From December of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, when Li Zicheng entered Henan, more than 1,000 people swelled to more than 700,000 just two months later.

On the second day of the second month of February, Li Zicheng decided to take advantage of the fact that the governor Li Xianfeng and the general Chen Yongfu led the army to rescue Luoyang City, and Kaifeng City was empty of air defense. Led the troops to rush forward, preparing to take advantage of this opportunity to take Kaifeng City.

On the sixth day of the second month, 5,000 cavalry and 60,000 soldiers arrived at the city of Kaifeng and began to besiege. Compared with the erosion of Luoyang city defense, Kaifeng City is the capital of a province after all, and Kaifeng City is a large city in the world, and the prevention is quite effective. In addition, the king of Zhou in the city rewarded lavishly, so under the leadership of the governor and the prefect, the strong men of the whole city were mobilized and stubbornly held on the city wall until the ninth day of the second month, and the Kaifeng city was not captured.

By this time, Governor Li Xianfeng and Henan General Chen Yongfu had already led their troops back, although this Ming army was only more than 9,000, but Chen Yongfu fought with the peasant army all the year round, and the supply of food and salary for the troops was guaranteed, so this army can be said to be the strongest officer army in Henan (not to mention Wu Shigong's Runing Army). Therefore, in the face of the elite army brought by Li Zicheng, they were not afraid at all.

Although the commander-in-chief Chen Yongfu would never dare to lead the army to fight in the field, they entered the city at the west pass of Kaifeng City and re-armed, and they had completely stabilized the defense of Kaifeng City. The camp dug trenches outside Kaifeng City, built fortifications, and prepared for a long-term siege of Kaifeng City, the aftermath of the death of King Fu of Luoyang did not dissipate, and the news of the siege of Kaifeng by the Chuang army shocked the world again.

And at this time, the king of Zhou and the officials in Kaifeng City could not ignore the Runing army. They sent three groups of messengers in succession to cry out for help from the Runing army. When he arrived in Zuihou, he promised that as long as the Runing army sent troops, he would give 20,000 taels of opening fees first, and if the siege of Kaifeng City was lifted, he would give another 100,000 taels. And these silvers were basically taken out by the Zhou Palace. King Fu's torture and killing really frightened King Zhou.

After discussion, officials such as Deng Qifan and Xue Yongli, who stayed in Runing, also felt that Li Zicheng's threat should be eliminated. After all, Li Zicheng's camp is too close to Runing and Guide, so if you want to keep Kaifeng City, you must not let Li Zicheng's camp expand further.

So Xue Yongli gradually concentrated the main force of the Runing army of 34,000 people and moved them towards the north of Runing. But before the troops could be dispatched, another news that shocked the world came again.

After Zhang Xianzhong led his troops into Huguang, he first captured Xingshan County in the first month, and when he heard that Xiangyang City was air-defense, he led the light cavalry to gallop 300 miles to the vicinity of Xiangyang. After that, Zhang Xianzhong first sent people to pretend to be officers and soldiers to infiltrate the city first, and on the night of the fourth day of February, he raised a fire as a trumpet, and took advantage of the chaos of the defenders of Xiangyang, and the raid was successful, occupying the base camp of the encirclement and suppression of the peasant army.

And in Xiangyang City, there is also a prince of the clan - Zhu Yiming, the king of Xiang, who is the ancestor of Emperor Chongzhen according to his generation, and was also captured alive by the peasant army.

Zhang Xianzhong's treatment of this prince is slightly different from Li Zicheng's treatment of King Fu. He took King Xiang to the palace of King Xiang, poured him a glass of wine, and said to him: "I want to behead Yang Sichang, but Yang Sichang is far away in Sichuan, and today I have to borrow the prince's head to let Yang Sichang be punished for the crime of losing the feudal domain." The prince still drank the wine with great effort. Of course, King Xiang's fate was beheaded, and Zhu Changfa, the king of Guiyang in the Xiang Clan, was also killed.

Then, Zhang Xianzhong also opened a warehouse in Xiangyang to release grain to help the hungry, and distributed 500,000 taels of disaster relief silver, which far exceeded any large-scale disaster relief activity in the Chongzhen Dynasty. Zhang Xianzhong's move also won the sincere support of the people of Huguang, and his troops swelled to more than 500,000 at once.

Because the main force of the Ming army in Huguang either followed Yang Sichang into Sichuan to suppress bandits, or followed Zuo Liangyu to hide and hide in Shaanxi and avoid Yang Sichang's command, Huguang's defense was empty.

Therefore, the government of Wuchang and its nearby areas was greatly shocked. They came to Runing non-stop to cry blood and plead, that is, the Runing army sent troops to solve their crisis. To this end, the gentry in Wuchang and other places promised to contribute 80,000 taels.

The emergence of these two major peasant army groups, one in the south and one in the north, made the Runing Army a little at a loss, and they had to weigh which direction of the peasant army should be dealt with first.

But at this moment, inspired by the brilliant achievements of the two peasant armies of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, the Fifth Battalion of the Revolutionary Left Battalion, which was hiding in Dabie Mountain, also immediately made a big fanfare. They began to move eastward, and refugees affected by the severe drought in Nanzhili and other places also came to vote, and soon swelled to more than 300,000.

Although this peasant army was the smallest in number, it could threaten Fengyang and Nanjing, and they were followed and supported by Zhang Xianzhong, so it immediately caused panic in Nanjing City.

So Lu Jiude, the eunuch guarding Nanjing Town, led the army again and led two armies of Huang Degong and Liu Liangzuo, totaling more than 40,000 people, to intercept the eastern prisoners of the 5th Battalion of Gezuo. But he was afraid that there would be insufficient troops and it would be impossible to mobilize the heavy troops stationed in Fengyang, so he also set his sights on the Runing army.

In order to mobilize the Runing army to encircle the 5th Battalion of the Left Camp and cut off the connection between the 5th Battalion of the Left Battalion and Zhang Xianzhong's department, they also sent messengers to gallop to Runing, promising to pay 150,000 taels of remuneration as long as the Runing Army sent troops.

In a moment or three, the Runing Army suddenly became the fragrant bun in the surrounding area, and the local officials rushed to ask the Runing Army to be the savior.

But Deng Qifan and Xue Yongli were also confused by the sudden situation. Just half a year ago, the famous Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai in the peasant army were still in Sichuan, when Zhang Xianzhong was only a few thousand people, and Luo Rucai was worth more than 10,000; The five battalions of Gezuo hid in Dabie Mountain, and the total number of men and horses in the five battalions was less than 10,000; Li Zicheng even thought he was hanging.

But in a blink of an eye, Li Zicheng had more than 700,000, and it was in Kaifeng City, north of Runing; Zhang Xianzhong has more than 500,000, and it is in Xiangyang City, southwest of Runing; The 5th Battalion of Gezuo had more than 300,000, just southeast of Runing, and with Luo Rucai, his strength also swelled to more than 40,000. Luo Rucai had a feud with Zhang Xianzhong again this time, he broke up with Zhang Xianzhong again, and was on the way to join Li Zicheng.

You must know that Luo Rucai's strength has always been between 10,000 and 40,000 or 50,000, and he has always won by quality, so his real strength is no worse than that of the other three-way peasant army.

How so? Although the Runing Army formulated a policy of raising Kou and self-respect, he didn't want to raise this Kou into a giant Kou at all? And now these giants are all surrounding Runing and Guide, giving the Runing army a huge threat.

And at this time, the Runing Army must make a choice. It is impossible for them to divide their forces into three ways and fight on three sides, so they must decide on a target to attack first.

But before Deng Qifan and Xue Yongli could discuss it, another news that shocked the world reached Runing, and this news completely paralyzed the command system of the Ming army that surrounded and suppressed the peasant army in the five provinces. And the news is that Prime Minister Yang Sichang committed suicide. (To be continued......)