On the day that Shen Shuren went north to Ruyang and Shangcai, it was already September 18, and then they tried each other for a while, and Li Zicheng attacked Shangcai City twice with all his might, which occurred at the end of September and the beginning of October.

Therefore, later, the two sides adjusted their tactics, mobilized their own troops, provided food for food, prepared for war, and waited for Huang Degong to obey orders and prepare for an attack, and the time had come to mid-October.

Henan in the Xiaoice period, early winter is already a little cold, time will naturally be more and more unfavorable for the attacking side, until next spring will not improve.

In the original normal year, the Yellow River can only be frozen in the wax moon, and the weather in the fifteenth year of Chongzhen may be able to form a thin layer of drift ice in the middle of November of the lunar calendar, and it can be frozen at the end of November.

Of course, the freezing of the Yellow River is also limited to the main stream in the north. With the transfer to Bianshui, Shahe, and Yingchuan, it gradually converges to the south to seize the Huai River into the sea, and this section of the Huai River water system will definitely not freeze. But even so, this bad impact is bad enough for the troops who want to rescue Kaifeng, which means that the waterway may not be able to reach Kaifeng directly.

If the people of Shenshu want to transport grain for Kaifeng City to continue to insist, they must complete all this by the end of mid-November.

Shen Shuren Huang Degong knew this very well in his heart, and Li Zicheng on the other side actually knew it too. Otherwise, even if Li Zicheng besieges and does not attack, Kaifeng City will already be starving in the spring of next year.

Unfortunately, knowing in my heart does not mean that I will always be on guard.

There are only a thousand days to be a thief in the world, and there is no one who is a thief for a thousand days.

Li Zicheng has been playing the role of the attacker for a long time recently, and he has been pressing Shen Shuren to dare not fight, he is equivalent to being a thief for a long time, and the mentality of preventing thieves will naturally be relaxed, and he feels that there are no thieves in the world.

……

The more Li Zicheng is lax, of course, the more it is a good time for Shen Shuren to make a move.

On 11 October, he took two waves of troops totaling more than 40,000 people secretly assembled with Huang Degong, as well as more than 10,000 sailors and sailors secretly transferred from Nanzhili, with a total strength of 50,000 or 60,000, and finally turned to a formal attack.

Of course, if these troops were to be all assembled in one place and reorganized and instructed, it might take two or three days. The build-up of large forces is not so fast, after all, the sortie base is not in one place either.

Huang Degong originally thought that Shen Shuren would wait for all three parties to meet completely, but Shen Shuren's decision was once again beyond his expectations, and he decided to make a time difference and let the 20,000 people on the side of Shangcai County immediately march to attack Chen County-

It's not that Shen Shuren's decision was so clever that Huang Degong couldn't think of it. In fact, it is not a big deal to surprise attack Chen County, if Huang Degong leads the troops himself, with his recklessness, he will definitely dare to make this kind of decision.

The key is that Shen Shuren has always given people the impression that he is very cowardly, and he is stable, which is even more exaggerated than "Zhuge is only cautious in his life", so this temporary decision really shook Huang Degong and made him cry out in surprise:

"My lord, wait two more days, can't you join forces with the Ruyang soldiers and attack again? I've been waiting. ”

Shen Shuren said with wisdom in his hand: "What I want is this kind of effect that is about to be reached." If we didn't inform the Ruyang soldiers to go north at all, we would have fought alone for a long time when we arrived in Chen County.

If we wait for the Ruyang soldiers and even the Yingchuan Waterway Army to be completely in place, then we will definitely not be able to hide the eyes of the scouts on the opposite side, and Li Zicheng will definitely be more vigilant when he sees that we are gathering heavy troops.

Now, on the eve of the increase in the vigilance of the soldiers, the probability of success will be greatly increased. And once it succeeds, our army does not need to hold on alone for a long time, and soon all friendly troops will be able to arrive, and it is not beautiful not to give the intruding army a time difference to break through. ”

Huang Degong listened to it and felt that it was really reasonable, although the risk must exist, but the adults have made a decision, so take a gamble to see the effect.

"That being the case, it's better for the adults to stay in Shangcai, and the last general will take the vanguard to attack Chen County first!" Huang Degong said compromisedly.

"What do you think, are you still worried about missing the sneak attack? I don't do things that I'm not sure about, and the sentry has already figured it out these days. ”

Shen Shuren was about to take advantage of this to establish his authority and trust, how could he give up personally commanding the whole army.

……

Twenty thousand men and horses immediately set out of the city, and in the evening they went out of the city, and by night they went northeast. Two days before the attack, the troops were in Shangcai City, and they had already adjusted their biological clocks, and they slept during the day and did things at night for two consecutive days, so they were very full of energy at the moment.

Chen County is the Zhoukou of Henan Province in later generations, while Ruyang is Zhumadian, Shangcai is Shangcai, and the name of the Ming Dynasty and later generations has not changed.

From Shangcai to Chen County, it is just over a hundred miles away in a straight line, and it is a plain terrain. If the troops do not carry baggage and recharge their energy and march forcibly for a short time, they can indeed run to it in one day, and even have the physical strength to beat a cane after arriving.

The 20,000 men of the Shen family army walked for about half the night, rested a little in the middle, and walked more than sixty miles in three hours, and there were still fifty miles from the destination.

Huang Degong was also a little nervous, confirmed the situation with Shen Shuren, and the cavalry scouts who were scattered also reported, saying that there were no troop scouts found nearby, and a small number of those who were found were also chased and killed by the Shen family cavalry, leaving no room to live.

The cavalry scout combat power of the Shen Family Army is definitely an explosive existence in this world today. After all, there are two kinds of equipment, the revolver and the rear-loading double-barreled spray, which are simply artifacts for cavalry pursuit and killing.

Ordinary soldiers ride on bumpy horses, shoot arrows in front of them in a split mane style, and the hit rate is very low, unless it is a strong martial arts general to ensure that most of the hits are made, but there is really such a skilled martial arts of bow and horse, and it is unlikely that he is still a grassroots officer or even just a scout soldier.

And with the short tube spray of the runner, the ordinary cavalry of the Shen family army can exchange the number for hits, as long as they chase the enemy within thirty paces, they will basically pronounce the death sentence of the escapee.

So there was this classic scene, the Shen family army marched more than sixty miles in a hurry, and not a single scout of the army was let go.

Shen Shuren originally planned to urgently attack the city when they got there, at most temporarily build some flying ladders to hit the wood, and then sneak attack, the city of Chen County is not much thicker than Shangcai, the city wall below two zhang, if the enemy is not strict in defense, it is too late to mobilize reserves on the wall, it is possible to be attacked by a sneak attack.

It's just to pay more casualties and fill in the lives as quickly as possible.

Since ancient times, there have only been two main ways of fighting siege warfare: either a good time, a large amount of heavy equipment, and a slow attack, or the first wave of surprise attacks, lightly armed. Neither way can be done, only a protracted siege and starvation.

The most undesirable thing is the mediocre play that is neither fast nor slow, which not only loses the suddenness of the sneak attack, but also loses the heavy firepower and solid equipment bonus of steady and steady fighting, and in the end the advantages of both ends are not enjoyed.

However, finding that his secrecy was better than expected, Shen Shuren had a bolder idea, and just after the moment of talent, Shen Shuren called Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen to talk to them alone.

"The secrecy of our army is better than expected, maybe we can be a little bolder, I will take Jin Shenghuan and them, take 10,000 infantry to march normally, and it is estimated that we will arrive at the city of Chenxian in time.

The two of you lead 10,000 cavalry first, you can not go straight to Chen County, but take advantage of the speed of the cavalry, slightly bypass the city for about 20 miles, find a place to wade through the Yingchuan River first, and then go north from the east bank of the Yingchuan River, to the northeast of the city and then turn back, almost before dawn.

When the time comes, you will try to disguise yourself as the troops who have gone to Guide Mansion to return to the army to return to the army, and send military rations to the defenders of Chen County. The army has been with us for a long time, and it is bound to be hungry. If the troops sent out to loot food are neglected, they may be given priority elsewhere.

Let's try to use this psychology to see if you can open the city gate by fraud, or simply wait until dawn to open the door, and the time should be about the same. If you can't succeed, you won't lose anything, and you can still attract the attention of the defenders to the northeast, and then the main infantry force will almost be under the city, and you can launch a strong attack. ”

Huang Degong had long been depressed by this sneaky state, and when he heard that he could take risks, he immediately took orders, and Zhu Wenzhen naturally did not contain the lake, so the two of them each led their own cavalry.

Previously, when Shen Shuren and Zhang Xianzhong fought fiercely, Zhu Wenzhen's cavalry troops reached 6,000 people, and after the annihilation of Zhang Xianzhong's main force, coupled with the new integration of officers and troops from all over Huguang, the cavalry was further expanded. However, in this operation, he directly brought about 5,000 people, not the whole army here.

On Huang Degong's side, there have always been 5,000 cavalry, and the combined force has reached 10,000 people, which is already a very terrifying force.

Over the years, thieves have done a lot of things to defraud the city, but the officials and soldiers rarely steal chickens and dogs, and it would be a pity not to take advantage of this paralyzing mentality.

……

Two hours later, when the sky was about to brighten, Chen County was in the county.

A mustachioed thief general, who was still sleeping in the inner courtyard, was suddenly shouted by his subordinates.

This person's name is Li Jiyu, a native of Dengfeng, Henan, who has been farming since childhood, because there are many monks in Dengfeng who practice martial arts, and he also practiced a few wild tricks in his spare time when he was a child.

Li Jiyu was originally a responsible person, but in the eleventh year of Chongzhen, the people in the township were forced to pay taxes by Yan Tingzhi, the magistrate of Dengfeng County, and felt that he was strong in martial arts, so he was recommended to go to the county government to complain.

As a result, he was severely beaten by Yan Ting, and he was also tied to the leg of the stone lion at the entrance of the county government with an iron chain to show the public. Fortunately, Li Jiyu had great strength, and in the middle of the night he broke the leg of the stone lion with an iron chain tied to his body, and was able to escape, and took a group of tax-resistant villagers to Songshan to be a bandit for two years.

More than two years later, catching up with Li Zicheng to break through Luoyang, the peasant army incorporated the bandits around Luoyang, and Li Jiyu took the opportunity to surrender, but at that time the most active in the vicinity of Songshan and Funiu Mountain was Luo Rucai and Ma Shouying, and Li Jiyu voted first Luo Rucai, and Luo Rucai was killed more than a year later before returning to Li Zicheng.

As a result, he was not only a new attached army that had "only participated in the rebellion for two years", but also became a domestic slave with many surnames, and he was even more unpopular than the troops who directly surrendered to Li Zicheng. Of course, his men and horses are not taken seriously, and when Mengcheng attacked Kaifeng City this summer, Li Zicheng took Li Jiyu, Yu Dazhong, Shen Jingbang, Zhou Ruli and other local thieves in Henan as cannon fodder, and they were consumed very badly.

Later, the food under Kaifeng City was not continued, and food was needed everywhere, and the people of Shenshu went north, and the surrounding counties needed to be guarded, so Li Zicheng kicked Li Jiyu to this broken place to temporarily garrison. The forces under his command are basically mainly those who were born as bandits in Dengfeng County.

Of course, Li Jiyu was very angry about being woken up by his subordinates while sleeping, and he was almost about to pull out a knife, but fortunately, his subordinates reacted quickly, and kowtowed again and again to admit his mistake:

"General, don't be angry! It was outside the city that the cavalry sent by General Yuan Zongdi Yuan to get food came back, wanted to enter the city to rest, and said that he would distribute military rations to us. Ji Zhanglu, who was guarding the door, felt that the sky was not yet bright, and wanted them to wait to open the door again.

But General Yuan's people were angry and said that they were the old battalions in Shaanxi to give us...... Henan bandits are very face-saving when they send military rations, in short, it is difficult to speak, and they say that if they don't want it, let us rob it ourselves. Ji Zhanglu was afraid of offending people, so he asked the little one to come over and ask for instructions. ”

Li Jiyu listened, woke up slightly, relieved his unstable blood pressure when he got up, and understood that he had met Yuan Zongdi's soldiers and horses, so he didn't dare to slack off.

"Hang up to the city at once, and I'll see it for myself! Those Shaanxi cubs don't have a good temper. That's it, don't put on a horse and prepare it directly! ”

Li Jiyu can't help it, his troops actually ran out of food a while ago, and they have been raising their own grain and grass for the past ten days.

Although it was not enough to eat nothing, what the soldiers ate in their stomachs was not grain, but all kinds of miscellaneous things from wild vegetables and grass roots, at most occasionally mixed with bran.

You can't offend the troops sent by the king to Guide to loot grain.

In less than two teas, Li Jiyu didn't wash his face or change his clothes, so he rode directly to the east gate of Chen County, he just took a few hasty glances, and found that the soldiers and horses who came were indeed invading the army, and there were many cavalry, so there was no suspicion.

As far as he knew, Shen Gou Guan's troops were the Huguang Army, mainly southerners, with very few cavalry, and if they wanted to attack the city, how could they use cavalry?

And along the way, he also figured out that to the east of Chen County, there is Zhecheng County in Guide Prefecture, and further north is Shangqiu County in Guide Prefecture. This cavalry came from the northeast, didn't they come back from Guide to raise food?

Out of the last caution, Li Jiyu still shouted on the city tower and asked: "I don't know what this general is called, which part of General Yuan's command?" These thousands of cavalry, I'm afraid it wasn't General Yuan who came in person, right? Where is the belt of grain and grass that you have intercepted? ”

"What (ne) nonsense! Lao Tzu General Yuan's command, 'Tower Heavenly King' Wang Guangxing is also! Of course, the grain and grass were brought with the army, and there was so much for you, whether you want love or not, there is no more! If General Yuan hadn't said that you were dying of starvation, and he was worried that the Shen Dog Officer would come to Guide, Lao Tzu would have bothered to take care of it! ”

The accent of the people who came to speak was the Shaanxi accent with the back of the tongue, and they were not angry, and while saying that some cavalrymen untied a few ration bags from their horses,

It seems that these thousands of cavalrymen carried a sack of grain with them, and it is estimated that the total will not exceed two thousand stones. These people should have passed by here, and there was not much food to distribute to the defenders of Chen County.

But the mosquito is also meat, the more arrogant the other party is, the more Li Jiyu believes that the other party is the old camp of Shaanxi, especially the kind of style that has already voted for the king and has to put up a shelf to show the bandit number when he meets the new annexed army of Henan in private, and mention the name of "so-and-so king" back then, which is definitely the style of the Shaanxi People's Army.

In a hurry, Li Jiyu couldn't distinguish any more, so he ordered the door to be opened.

There is no urn city in the small town of Chen County, and you can go straight to the county government when you enter the door, and it will be a smooth road from then on. The person who came rode directly into the city, and Li Jiyu went down to the city to greet him, and was about to further confirm his identity.

Who knew that a platoon of cavalry in front of the opponent took out a short-pipe artifact that he had never seen before, and then he didn't need to ignite it, he directly pulled the trigger, and the flintlock hammer that had been pulled in advance struck down, and more than a dozen sets of shotguns shot out.

Li Jiyu didn't understand anything, and was instantly beaten into a hornet's nest.

"One hundred thousand heavenly soldiers of the imperial court have arrived! Those who descend will not be killed! Zhu Wenzhen succeeded in the sneak attack and immediately shouted.

Subsequently, Huang Degong was also like a mad tiger, cherishing the short tube spray of the runner that Shen Shuren had just issued to him, holding the steel lance in the other hand, and sprinting on the prancing horse, for a while the blood stained the long street, killing Li Jiyu's subordinates on their backs.

——

Note: In the seventeenth year of Chongzhen's history, the Qing army had just arrived in Henan Mansion, and had not yet entered Dengfeng County.

So this kind of traitor will be killed if he kills, don't feel sorry for dying in one chapter. Just to clarify, lest someone spray me and kill the Peasant Army NPC again. My principle is to give priority to killing the peasant army generals who are traitors in history if they don't fire a shot, and those who have participated in the anti-Qing resistance can be killed less and cautiously as appropriate.

I don't have a collector's habit, and when I write about the Three Kingdoms, I'm not afraid of offending the fans of certain characters, I will kill when I should kill, and it's very real to write about war. What's more, it's just the end of the Ming Dynasty, and I won't do it for the so-called "It's not easy to create a villain supporting role, and it takes a little more to shape it, use it for a long time, deepen the reader's impression, and merge the villains with similar items".

Especially the results of this book are not good, and I don't attract any camp character fans to pay, whether to kill or not to kill everything is based on truth as the core consideration, and no longer sacrifice historical authenticity for the rhythm of the plot. I'd rather be less good-looking, but also real (in the future, if other books get good grades, I will compromise on the trade-off between authenticity and commerciality as appropriate, and you don't have to worry, I have that strength.) It's just that I don't bother to compromise for the difference of up to a few hundred dollars per month).