A fire in Lushan burned eighty percent of the White Lotus Sect elites in Jiangxi, and the White Lotus Sect in the entire Jiangxi Province was almost wiped out, and its vitality was greatly damaged.

However, in the burned ruins of Donglin Temple, because the faces of the White Lotus disciples who were burned to death were already miserable, the government could not find out who were burned to death, and no one knew whether the main altar master of the White Lotus Sect and the altar masters of each branch altar were buried in the sea of fire.

However, Liu Chengzhi felt that under such a fire, it was impossible for anyone to leave Donglin Temple alive.

On the night of the third day after the burning of Donglin Temple, under the burned Buddha statue of Lushan Donglin Temple, the base of the Buddha statue slowly moved, revealing a large hole two feet wide.

After a while, a bald head poked out of the hole, and he looked around for a while, and when he saw the temple burned to ruins, the man couldn't help but gasp.

"Dog officer, destroy our temple!"

......

Mo Qian received an urgent report from Liu Chengzhi in Nanjing, and was happy to learn that the White Lotus disciples of Donglin Temple had been wiped out.

He said to Li Banghua: "Li Gong, this Liu Guangru, what do you think?" ”

Li Banghua thought for a while and replied: "This person is the former chief official of the Sixth Department of Nanjing, and he has a lot of political experience, whether it is in the people's livelihood or in the military, he can be regarded as a talent.

And he is close friends with Huang Duanbo in Hangzhou, Huang Duanbo once said that Liu Guangru is worried about the country and the people, but he is suffering from no acquaintance.

The king, looking at Liu Chengzhi's work in Nanchang, it can be seen that this person is not a mediocre talent, now the position of the prefect of Yingtian is vacant, Liu Chengzhi has been an official in Nanjing for a long time, it is better to appoint him as the prefect of Yingtian, govern Gyeonggi, and presumably will not disappoint the king! ”

Mo Qian thought about it and felt that this proposal was good.

He smiled and said: "Okay, according to what Li Gong said, remove Liu Chengzhi from the post of special envoy, promote him to the prefect of Yingtian, and order him to return to Beijing to take up his post on the same day!" ”

"Yes!"

Liu Chengzhi, who was far away in Nanchang, received a reply from Nanjing on the fifth day, and the messenger came from the eunuch in the palace.

Seeing the eunuch, Liu Chengzhi's heart couldn't help but be full of surprise, it seems that his trip to Jiangxi was not in vain, and King Han should be planning to reuse himself.

Sure enough, the eunuch read out the will and promoted Liu Chengzhi to the prefect of Yingtian, and the surrounding Nanchang officials heard it and rushed over to congratulate him.

Even Guo Yunchang, the prefect of Nanchang, came up, grabbed Liu Chengzhi's hand and said: "Brother Guangru, congratulations on Gao Sheng, congratulations on Gao Sheng, Gyeonggi Prefect, the king values you very much!" ”

Liu Chengzhi was already happy in his heart, and he also had a smile on his face, but he didn't dare to laugh uncontrollably, he only dared to hold back the happiness in his heart, and thanked everyone: "Thank you, thank you, Lord Guo, this time you can exterminate the White Lotus Cult, and Lord Guo's contribution is not small, presumably King Han will definitely reward you." ”

Guo Yunchang waved his hand and said: "I don't have any credit, King Han doesn't blame me, it's already very good, I don't dare to expect credit, hahaha!" ”

"Lord Guo is humble, if it weren't for Lord Guo discovering the traces of the White Lotus Sect in Nanchang, I wouldn't have been able to come to Nanchang and capture the thief with Lord Guo, now that the White Lotus Sect has been destroyed, I am about to return to Yingtian, Lord Guo, it must not take much time for us to meet in Yingtian."

Liu Chengzhi's words became a prophecy, and half a month after he was promoted to the prefect of Yingtian, Guo Yunchang also received a decree from Nanjing, and Mo Qian promoted him to vice president of the State Court.

With the collapse of the White Lotus Sect in Jiangxi, the activities of the White Lotus Sect in Huguang and Zhejiang disappeared all of a sudden, perhaps because of the news that the White Lotus Altar in Jiangxi was burned, other general altars in various provinces began to shrink.

The White Lotus Sect, which used to dare to preach the White Lotus teachings everywhere in the countryside, suddenly disappeared, and some religious activities were secretly carried out at night.

However, with the issuance of the official document of the Nanjing State Court, the yamen in various places began to frantically search the White Lotus cultists, and anyone who dared to worship Maitreya Buddha and other things related to the White Lotus Sect in the family would be questioned by the yamen later.

All of a sudden, the folk Maitreya Buddha suddenly became a taboo, and the people changed their colors when they heard it, and they changed to worship the Taoist Sanqing Patriarch, the Jade Emperor.

Mo Qian is also very dissatisfied with this kind of folk customs and superstitious activities, he saw a group of white lotus believers in the next village when he was a child, and at night, a group of believers ran to the river to hold an uncovered meeting, which was known to everyone at that time, and it was full of ugliness.

Mo Qian will never be soft on this kind of cult, and this kind of superstitious cult that harms people must be completely eradicated, otherwise the harm will be enormous.

The main elements of the White Lotus Sect in several southern provinces saw that they could no longer stay in Huguang, Jiangxi, so they packed up their things and ran away.

What they didn't expect was that Henan was now much poorer than the south, and it was suffering from drought and military disasters, Zuo Zhongke thought that he could take the remaining group of disciples to Henan to continue preaching, but what they didn't expect was that as soon as they arrived in Nanyang, Henan, they were blocked by the army of King Chuang.

The dozens of people who survived the fire became a member of King Chuang's army in such a daze.

In Nanyang Mansion, Li Zicheng has just led his troops to fight here, and this is his fourth attack on Nanyang.

In the first three times, every time Li Zicheng came to Nanyang, the local people fortified the walls and cleared the wilderness, and they hid in the city one after another to fight against his rebels.

But this time, Li Zicheng held high the banner of his own king, and then shouted the slogan that the king was coming and did not pay for food, and rampaged in the Nanyang area, beating the Ming army in Nanyang.

When the people found out that the intrusive army really didn't steal grain and didn't kill people, not only did they not kill people, but they even gave them the grain they had stolen from the landlord's house.

As soon as the people got the grain, they immediately expressed their gratitude to Li Zicheng, and Li Zicheng took advantage of the situation to hang up the recruitment flag, recruiting 30,000 hardcover troops in one day, and the number of troops was further expanded, and the total number of troops has exceeded 150,000.

Li Zicheng led an army of 150,000 to attack Nanyang, and Nanyang City was broken in just one day.

After the city was broken, the army entered the city and went straight to the rich households and government offices in the city, robbed the official warehouses and rich households, opened the granary, and distributed food to the people.

In the yamen of the Nanyang prefect's mansion, Li Zicheng and Li Yan sat looking at each other, and Li Zicheng said to Li Yan with a smile: "Young Master Li Yan, since I used your strategy, I have never lost a war."

Now the people of the whole Henan are saying good things about me, and everyone is praising me Li Zicheng is a good person, a military advisor, in this regard, you are indispensable! ”

Li Yan smiled slightly and said: "King Chuang, now below Nanyang, most of Henan is in our hands, and now in Henan, only the three cities of Runing and Kaifeng Luoyang are still in the hands of the Ming army, we have to hurry up and capture these three cities as soon as possible." ”

"The military advisor is right, but the military advisor, which of these three cities do you think we should fight first?"

Li Yan said without hesitation: "Luoyang! ”

"Why?"

"King Chuang, there are three reasons to attack Luoyang.

First, first of all, we have now occupied Nanyang Mansion, and General Liu Zongmin has also captured the area of Luoning in Yiyang, and King Chuang can order General Liu to hold the second city, block the eastward advance of the official army in Tongguan, and rush to Luoyang, and secondly, send another 20,000 troops to garrison Nanyang to prevent the officers and soldiers of Sichuan from going north.

Second, most of the officers and troops west of Henan were guarding Tongguan, and the rest basically entered Sichuan with Zhang Xianzhong, and are now hiding from Zhang Xianzhong in Sichuan.

King Chuang, now this is the best opportunity given by God to King Chuang to seize Luoyang, miss this time, next time when the official army returns to Henan, I want to have such a good opportunity, but there is no more.

Now Mo Wen in the south of the Yangtze River is consolidating the line of the Yangtze River, they seem to be preparing troops and horses, preparing to attack the Huai River area in the north, just unable to go north, let's take advantage of the time of Mo Wen's development in the south of the Yangtze River to quickly capture Luoyang, so that the Central Plains can be stable.

At that time, we will take Henan as the foundation, to the east can enter the southeast of Shandong, to the west can attack Tongguan into Shaanxi, to the south can go down to Huguang, and fight with Mo Wen, to the north, we can directly wave troops to the north to attack the Beijing Division.

And the most important point, that is, the Fu King of Luoyang, is the youngest son of Emperor Wanli, Emperor Wanli wanted to make him the crown prince before his death, but the officials objected, for this reason, out of love and guilt, Wanli treated his son very favorably.

The current King Fu can be said to be the richest vassal king in the world, if we can defeat Luoyang this time, our strength will definitely be greatly enhanced, at least the military salary and military rations can be captured a lot, enough for the army to use for a period of time. ”

After listening to Li Yan's words, Li Zicheng's eyes suddenly lit up.

He praised: "It is worthy of my Li Zicheng's military advisor, and he really has insight, okay, according to the advice of the military advisor, I immediately sent troops to the north and prepared to besiege Luoyang."

Li Zicheng acted quickly and completed the strategic plan to encircle Luoyang on the first day of August.

Luoyang, in the world, is an important town in Henan.

Since ancient times, Luoyang has been an extremely important place in the Central Plains, and the heritage of the ancient capital of the Six Dynasties is still there.

When the general soldier Wang Shaoyu learned that Li Zicheng was besieging Luoyang, he urgently ordered all the Ming troops around Luoyang to enter the city, and closed all the gates of Luoyang, and organized the people to start strengthening the city defense.

Wang Jiazhen, the governor of Henan, was also frightened when he learned that Li Zicheng was attacking Luoyang.

When Li Zicheng's troops surrounded Kaifeng in front, Wang Jiazhen knew this Li Zicheng's cunning.

Now that Luoyang is in danger again, as the governor of Henan, Wang Jiazhen has no reason not to save him.

Moreover, there is still His Majesty's imperial uncle in Luoyang City, if King Fu has an accident, I am afraid that he will not know how to explain to Emperor Chongzhen at that time.

Wang Jiazhen immediately ordered 30,000 soldiers and horses out of the city in Kaifeng, ready to gallop to Luoyang City.

Unexpectedly, Li Zicheng arrived one step ahead of him, and Li Zicheng set up an ambush in the Tiger Prison Pass on the only way from Kaifeng to Luoyang.

Li Zicheng personally led his troops to kill all the officers and soldiers guarding the Tiger Pass, and then changed into the clothes of the Ming army and pretended to be Ming soldiers in the Tiger Pass.

This trick really didn't let Wang Jiazhen find the clue, Wang Jiazhen thought that the Tiger Prison Pass at this time was still in the hands of the Ming officials.

He led his troops to knock on the gate overnight, and in the name of the governor of Henan, he ordered the soldiers guarding the gate to open the gate and let them pass.

Li Zicheng was overjoyed to see Wang Jiazhen throw himself into the net.

He ordered the soldiers to open the gate and let the officers and soldiers in.

The 30,000 Ming army entered the Tiger Prison Pass so stupidly, and when the army was halfway through, the peasant army in ambush suddenly came out and caught the officers and soldiers off guard.

Wang Jiazhen, who was walking in the middle of the line, happened to be blocked at the gate.

Wang Jiazhen heard the screams from the front and hurriedly asked his subordinates: "What happened ahead?" ”

"Back to Lord Futai, we were fooled, the Tiger Prison Pass is full of thieves, and we are ambushed!"

When Wang Jiazhen heard this, his face suddenly changed drastically.

"What? If there is an ambush, withdraw immediately! ”

Wang Jiazhen is not a fool, the army was ambushed, with the combat effectiveness of the Ming army, tonight will definitely be a fiasco.

But at the moment, what he can do as a governor is to try not to lose so badly, these 30,000 people are the new force he brought out from Kaifeng, if these 30,000 people are lost here, then Kaifeng's city defense will be affected.

Wang Jiazhen frantically commanded the soldiers to retreat, but tens of thousands of troops, crowded at this small gate, where could they withdraw when they said they would.

Li Zicheng, a veteran of the battlefield, would not give him this opportunity, Li Zicheng personally raised his waist knife, stood under the banner of King Chuang and shouted: "Brothers, kill me!" ”

The real white-knuckle battle has just begun.

It is difficult for the army to conquer the east and west, and it is almost impossible to win more and lose less when fighting with the official army.

Today's Chuang army is very complex, with the Ming army surrendering, bandits and robbers joining the peasant army, and some from the common people.

These people are mixed, and there are all kinds of people.

Li Zicheng's core combat effectiveness came from bandits and surrendered officers and soldiers.

The weapons held by these officers and soldiers are all the standard weapons of the Ming Dynasty, and they are also wearing the armor of the Ming Dynasty, and when they meet on the battlefield at first glance, the Ming army can't even tell who is the official army and who is the thief.

Only the inside of the army knows that the brother of the army has a strap tied to his arm, and as long as there is a war, everyone can look at the strap on the arm.

Those who have belts are their own people, and those who do not have belts are all officers and soldiers.

On this night, the sound of fighting in the ancient pass of Tiger Prison Pass has not stopped, and the ambush battle has become a white-knuckle battle.

Wang Jiazhen knew that if he wanted to live, he could only lead the officers and soldiers to fight hard.

The officers and men also knew that Li Zicheng was ruthless and extremely cruel in killing prisoners.

In order to breathe down, both sides used ruthlessness, and the two sides fought on the narrow pass.

On this night, the Tiger Prison Pass was full of blood, more than half of the 30,000 Ming troops were killed and wounded, and Wang Jiazhen fled back to Kaifeng with less than 1,000 people.

Li Zicheng finally annihilated Wang Jiazhen's 30,000 officers and soldiers at the cost of 10,000 killed.

Early the next morning, the invading army began to count the battlefield, and in addition to those who had fled, the remaining 26,000 people, except for those who had surrendered, were all killed.

The Chuang army captured 3,000 prisoners, and some generals asked Li Zicheng what to do.

Li Zicheng waved his hand and said, "Kill all these people!" ”

When Li Yan on the side heard this, he hurriedly persuaded: "Break the king and be slow, these people can't kill at will!" ”

As soon as Li Zicheng heard this, his eyes suddenly shot out two murderous aura.

"Why?"

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