Liu Zongmin and Li Zicheng obviously did not think of the strategy of using gunpowder to blast the city wall, but adopted the strategy of sneak attack through tunnels.

At the moment when the tunnel was dug through, before the peasant army behind the miners stepped forward, the Xuzhou defenders injected water columns into the tunnel through the water dragon.

The sky of Layue was extremely cold, although it was not a drop of water that froze, but the intruding soldiers who were shot by the water column all had frozen lips purple, and their whole bodies trembled terribly.

The officers and soldiers who had been in ambush at the entrance of the tunnel for a long time jumped into the tunnel one by one with knives and danced, and killed the peasant troops who were frozen and couldn't even hold their weapons.

The result was obvious, Wang Qiaonian's troops, who had been prepared for a long time, effortlessly slashed and killed all the peasant troops who were preparing to use the tunnels to sneak attack.

The sneak attack plan went bankrupt, and the carefully selected 500 elites were all folded in the tunnel, and Li Zicheng, who was extremely angry, had to relaunch the offensive against Xiangcheng, and the tragic offensive and defensive battle was relaunched under the city of Xuzhou.

The peasants and soldiers were numerous, and the officers and soldiers used the city wall to fight to the death, and the rolling wood and stones were all gone, and the officers and soldiers trapped in the city demolished the houses, and carried the demolished bricks and stones and wooden squares on the city wall as a tool to defend the city, and for a time the two sides actually fought a stalemate, but Li Zicheng had many generals, and the officers and troops were unstable after He Renlong and Gao Jie and others escaped, and it was only a matter of time before Xuzhou fell.

After Li Zicheng annexed Luo Rucai and the peasant army of the 5th Battalion of Gezuo, Wang Zhong, the governor of Henan, moved his troops from Luoyang to Zhuxian Town, a military stronghold connecting Jinghu and Kaifeng.

Since the terrain of Zhuxian Town was relatively flat and there was no town wall to use as a barrier, Wang Zhong and Liu Guoneng of Xin'er Town built a defense line with deep ditches and high bases in the Qinglongbei area northwest of Zhuxian Town.

Qinglongbei is a narrow shaped earthen hill, in fact, it is a gentle slope, more than 20 miles long from east to west, more than two zhang high, connecting the Yellow River and the Jialu River, although the terrain is not dangerous, but it can be regarded as easy to defend and difficult to attack.

After Wang Zhong set up a large camp here, he dug a trench about three zhang wide and two zhang deep under the gentle slope in the south of the back of Qinglong, and led the water of the Jialu River in the Kaifeng section of the Grand Canal to inject, and inserted sharp piles and thistles on the narrow ramp on the back of Qinglong, for the purpose of consolidating the defense line.

"Wang Du, Kaifeng and Luoyang are among the few fortified cities in the world, why should we abandon the fortified city and go to Zhuxian Town to build a defense line? Although the terrain on the back of this green dragon is still dangerous, Li Zicheng's department claims to have millions of people, and we only have 8,000 soldiers, so I am afraid that we will not be able to hold this 20-mile-long defense line! ”

Qinglong carried the big battalion, and Liu Guineng, the general of Xin'er Town, looked at the defense line under him with a worried face, he really couldn't figure out how to face Li Zicheng's army with this three-zhang long trench and a gentle slope that was no more than two zhang high.

"We are not only these 8,000 soldiers, according to the news from Xuzhou, He Renlong, Zheng Jiadong, Li Guoqi led the army back to the west, Gao Jie, Bai Guangen and Zhang Renxue are leading the troops to Kaifeng, I want to be able to arrive in Zhuxian Town in a few days, the three of them have nearly 20,000 people, we have the advantage of the canal, it is not too late to retreat to Luoyang and Kaifeng, the commander is worried, only the small Yuan camp in Puyang, we only left more than 1,000 soldiers and horses and thousands of newly recruited young men in Luoyang and Kaifeng, if Yuan Shizhong takes refuge in Li Zicheng, the flank of our army is unstable, In this way, Zhu Xianzhen will not be protected, Brother Liu, didn't you send someone to contact Yuan Shizhong? What did he say? ”

In the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, Henan and Hebei were drought, and the people had no harvest, Chongzhen in order to raise money and grain to support the Jinzhou front, and followed the advice of Chen Xinjia, the secretary of the Ministry of War, and levied Chongzhen's money and grain for 16 years. Xiao Yuan's battalion has snowballed to nearly 50,000 people, becoming a rebel army second only to Li Zicheng in the Central Plains.

However, after Yuan Shizhong gathered the crowd to get up, he was not like other rebels, burning, killing, looting, and doing all kinds of evil, but formulated strict military discipline.

According to the record of "Yu Change Chronicle", "Yuan Shizhong, a thief in Kaizhou, crossed Henan from Kaocheng, traveled back and forth between Liang and Song, did not kill people, did not plunder women, and was also one of the strangers in the group of thieves." ”

The book also records that Xiao Yuanying "in the name of Zhao'an, does not kill people, but plunders wealth and gathers people". It can be called a disciplined and benevolent division that has not committed any crimes.

The people in the Central Plains of the Ming Dynasty even called the righteous army of Yuan Shizhong "Buddhist soldiers", which shows that Yuan Shizhong's team won the hearts of the people.

Not only that, Yuan Shizhong treated the people well, and there was no ambiguity in the war, according to historical records, Chongzhen 14 years, the East captured into the Central Plains, known as the brave and invincible Eight Banners Iron Cavalry, all let Yuan Shizhong lose his armor and abandon his armor, and when he saw the men and horses of the "Little Yuan Battalion" turn around and run, and later the Qing army withdrew from the Central Plains, those soldiers and horses after the break, in order to get rid of the pursuit of the small Yuan camp, even secretly sent people to send the robbed Dingkou and property to the small Yuan camp.

In order to incorporate this army and horses, after Li Xingzhi entered Beijing, he sent a letter to Wang Zhong, asking him to contact Yuan Shizhong, Liu Yuqi and others, and as for the conditions for appeasement, Wang Zhong decided on it.

"Wang Du, the last general for this, but personally went to Puyang, this Yuan Shizhong originally wanted to take refuge in Xinyang's Li Zicheng, but after Li Zicheng merged with Luo Rucai and He Yilong, he wavered, but he did not respond to the last general, according to the last general's estimate, this person may be watching the situation, if our army is defeated, then defective, if our army wins, then the matter of appeasement is a matter of course."

Liu Guoneng spread his hands, Yuan Shizhong's uprising was only half a year, and the army was full of peasants who were really unable to survive because of the oppression of the imperial court, so that they could defect to the new dynasty.

Wang Zhong pondered for a long time, and said: "Then we can't help but guard against it, but our army is insufficient, the Xuzhou army is scattered, and Wang Qiaonian's defeat is also a matter of time, once Xuzhou falls, then Zhuxian Town is the front line, in order to prevent Yuan Shizhong from changing, you can only ask for troops in the new five towns of Shandong, in this way, this Shuai Feishu sent a letter to Zhang Wu, and led his troops to Chenliu, asking him to maintain pressure on Yuan Shizhong. ”

"Well, this has not been ordered by the prime minister, rashly ask General Zhang to send troops, will the prime minister blame, Shandong is the place where the prime minister started, and the new five towns will move to camp, will there be any chaos?"

Liu Guoneng asked repeatedly, he originally thought that Wang Zhong was preparing to go to Beijing and ask for reinforcements, but who knew that he was actually thinking of asking the Shandong garrison to help.

"The prime minister has just collected the Guanning army, and two new towns have been formed, that is, there are military horses to help, I'm afraid it will have to wait until the spring of next year, and the daylilies will be cold by then, damn it, since Zhang Wu has been invited, then simply don't do it, don't stop, Ben Shuai wrote a letter to Yang Biao again, let him go to the Huai River, straight into Lushan, as long as Lushan and Zhuxian Town are guarded, Li Zicheng's road to the south and north will be cut off by us, then he can only follow He Renlong to Shaanxi."

Wang Zhong pointed to the huge map of Henan in the military tent, and said through gritted teeth, since the Jingbei Army established a base in Laiden, although he and Yang Biao have been continuously improving their official positions, their military merits are really not comparable to Zhang Wu and others who joined the army later, and now Li Zicheng's million-strong army is under his nose, and he doesn't believe that Yang Biao is not tempted by this dog's day.

"This, Governor Yang is the governor of Huaiyang, and the military order given to him by the prime minister is to go down to the south of the Yangtze River, if he rotates to Henan, this is disobedience!"

Liu Guoneng was completely stunned, this is not a fucking joke, Zhang Wu is stationed and Chen Liu, in the end it is not far from Shandong, if there is a problem, he can still return to the division in time, and transfer troops from Huaiyang to attack Xinyang Lushan, this is a real big detour across several provinces, you and Yang Shuai are the prime minister's brothers, but this is really arrogant, if the prime minister is angry, how can this be good?

Wang Zhong said categorically: "The general is outside, the king's order is not affected, the fighter plane is fleeting, if you ask the prime minister to transfer troops, come and go, how much time will be wasted, you can rest assured, this governor will explain to the prime minister." ”