The words are divided into two ends, while Gao Yigong was deceived and weakened by Liu Guoneng in Yuncheng and Shangcai, Li Zicheng finally rushed to Chen County after two days of preparation, marching, and reconnaissance.

On this day, it is already the fifteenth day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar.

And Shen Shuren, who is on the other side, has always been concerned about Li Zicheng's movements, and has made adjustments on the spot.

To tell the truth, Li Zicheng was much slower than Shen Shuren imagined, and the number of troops who came was smaller than he imagined.

Shen Shuren originally did a good job of relying only on his own lineage guard battalion and the part of the soldiers led by Jin Shenghuan to withstand a wave of counterattacks by the intruding army.

As a result, this preparation was useless at all. Before the counterattack of the Chuang army appeared, the part of the Shen family army brought by Zuo Zixiong from Ruyang had already rushed to Chen County and was put into the city by Shen Shuren.

But it's nothing, don't you expect the enemy to be lenient. It's better to be prepared than to be in a hurry.

And Zuo Zixiong also brought news, saying that the navy from Shou County would arrive in a day or two at most, and he had already met Shen Lian's sentinel boat as a pioneer of the waterway on the way here.

And the main force of Zhang Mingzhen, the chief soldier of coastal defense, was behind in a big boat, but the big ship sailed slowly, and there was a disconnect. There were about 10,000 of them.

Zhang Mingzhen was originally a descendant of Shen Shuren, and was enveloped by Shen Shuren as early as the end of the thirteenth year of Chongzhen, and it has been almost two years since the calculation of time.

And in history, Zhang Mingzhen and Zhang Huangyan are more compatible, and during the Southern Ming Dynasty, he was also received by Shen Tingyang as a general of the naval army, until Shen Tingyang was besieged and killed by the Qing army in Luyuan Port (Zhangjiagang), Zhang Mingzhen also followed Zhang Huangyan to break out and lead the remnants to continue to fight.

Although history has long changed, people's endowment and temperament are difficult to change, and this kind of general who is very compatible with the Shen family's "nature" must of course be cultivated and reused.

At the beginning of the year, after Xingshan Tashan took over the battle, Zhang Mingzhen seemed to have returned to Ningshao, but in fact he was still doing things for the Shen family, mainly to help Shen Tingyang, the secretary of the Nanjing household department, escort the sea road. Now that winter is approaching, the northwest wind is gradually rising, and the shipping from Jiangnan to Beijing has also entered the off-season, and it will not be busy again until the beginning of spring next year.

Zhang Mingzhen has fewer escort tasks, so he can be on call, and the additional rewards and military salaries for this kind of task are paid by the Shen family out of their own pockets, so no one in the court can notice, let alone attack.

The official army was so well prepared that when Li Zicheng arrived, there were already more than 30,000 elites in the city, waiting for work there.

There were still 10,000 sailors on the Yingchuan River outside the city that could quickly respond, but Li Zicheng's army lacked large warships and could not isolate and isolate the officers and sailors.

Shen Shuren didn't have to worry about how much wind and waves the 100,000 intrusive army could stir up. He was even able to send messengers to contact Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen before Chen County was besieged, so that they could improvise and respond outside, and there was no need to rush back to Chen County, Chen County was absolutely worry-free.

"Shen Gouguan is so willing to spend his blood? How dare he invest tens of thousands of people in the lonely city of Chen County? Isn't he afraid that he will be defeated by this king if he has a stable foothold? There are still so many fleeing Li Jiyu defeated troops in Chen County, so he is not afraid that these people in our army should take advantage of the chaos to cause trouble? Quickly order Liu Fangliang and Tian Jianxiu to attack the city for me! ”

Li Zicheng didn't know about the existence of Zhang Mingzhen and other sailors for the time being, so he didn't understand Shen Shuren's lone army, and he felt that Shen Shuren had not completely dealt with the interior of Chen County, and the defensive deployment was definitely not tight, so he ordered to immediately attack the city and counterattack.

Song Xiance pleaded hard, but was rarely treated coldly by Li Zicheng: "You are embarrassed to give advice!" It was you who said that Shen Shuren did not dare to go deep alone, let us beware of Yuncheng! You shouldn't have been asked about war! ”

Song Xiance was speechless for a while, and he couldn't stop it.

Li Zicheng soon organized a tentative attack on Chen County, because he was in a hurry and did not have heavy siege weapons, he relied on flying ladders and trenches to hit the bridge to solve the problem.

What he gambled on was that Shen Shuren came on a light and rapid march, and lacked heavy firearms to defend the city, so the defense of Chen County must be much weaker than that of Shangcai, which has been operating for a long time.

After all, this city was still the territory of the invading army a few days ago, and the invading army was fighting on the go, and never spent manpower and financial resources to repair the city wall, and even demolished the weakened city wall and used building materials to do other things

It's a pity that Li Zicheng is destined to be a little disappointed again, Shen Shuren just left the Hongyi cannon to Liu Guoneng in Xinyang, and those three or four hundred pounds of light Franc machines he took with the army.

Shen Shuren even set aside a part of the horses to pull the cart and transport the cannons, just like Frederick the Great of Prussia a hundred years later.

So when the Chuang army rushed to the city wall of Chen County with a flying ladder and began to carry out an indiscriminate onslaught on all the wall sections, it was not surprising that they encountered the same situation as Shang Cai again-

The Ming army deployed all the Franc machines on the sides of the horse face and the corner tower, and at first they held back their fire, and only used birds, firearms, bows, and crossbows to strafe and counterattack indiscriminately.

After the invading army was killed by the birds' bows and crossbows, the flying ladders were erected, and even the first batch of soldiers who had climbed to half the height of the city wall, the officers defending the city followed the orders given by Shen Shuren in advance, and they lit the Franc machine one after another and shot grapeshotpie bullets with brackets.

The invading army wailed again, suffering heavy casualties, and hundreds of people were killed on the entire battlefield almost instantly, which really shocked the momentum of the thieves.

And this time, the officers and soldiers did not need a fierce general like Huang Degong to personally lead the team in hand-to-hand combat, and the intruding army, which had already suffered too much, did not hold on to the opportunity to rush to the city and gain a firm foothold. After accumulating more than 1,000 casualties and several times the wounded, they retreated again.

Breaking through the army, so far everyone has talked about Shen Gouguan's cross-fire artillery bombardment, which has developed to the extent that as long as this tactic is encountered again, no matter how the king orders the siege of the city to death, the soldiers can only dare to turn around and flee directly.

The morale of fighting a tough battle has been worn to this point, and Li Zicheng obviously has no chance of forcibly attacking the city. The upper and lower levels of the army temporarily suffered from "siege phobia".

Seeing this, Li Zicheng could only lament and regret, collect his troops and return to the camp, and chose to continue the siege. But he was very confused in his heart: he suffered two more sins, and as a result, he went to Chen County or continued to besiege the city, so what's the difference?

It's just that Shangcaiwei failed, so many people were killed and injured, and then another place continued to be killed and injured?

Why should it be Shen Shuren who was anxious to rescue Kaifeng and those vassal kings in Henan, it should be that Shen Shuren was forced to play the besieging party, but when it came to actual combat, he was always attacking Shen Shuren's city?

There must be something very wrong here, but it's a pity that Li Zicheng can't figure it out for the time being.

……

Li Zicheng moved from a fortified city to another fortified city, doubting his life at the same time.

Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen, who were sent out by Shen Shuren to expand the results of the battle in the east and continue to steal and cheat, also gained a lot in the past two days.

Their original plan was to expand the results of the battle to the east for only one day, and after that point, they should return to Chen County anyway and join the main army.

At the end of the first day of expanding the results to the east, Huang Degong and his team did achieve some small results:

When they attacked from Chen County to the northeast, they secretly attacked a partial division of Yuan Zongdi's army in Zhecheng County, Guide Prefecture, defeated thousands of people, and recaptured this small county town that was not valued by Yuan Zongdi.

That night, they originally planned to have a good night's rest in Zhecheng County, after all, the troops had not slept for a day and a night, and they were fighting in a row, and after resting enough, they should return to Chen County early the next morning.

But Shen Shuren's side, after realizing that Li Zicheng was late, successfully sent a second wave of messengers before Chen County was besieged.

The next morning, Huang Degong's troops were fully rested and full of energy, and when they were about to return to the division, the messenger sent by Shen Shuren got in touch with them and synchronized the battlefield news, which made them rest assured that they did not need to rush back.

It can only be said that the plan cannot catch up with the change, although this change is a good thing and not a bad thing.

A cavalry force of about 10,000 people has the advantage of mobility, and can support the main battlefield at any time, without worrying about being surrounded and broken by each other, and staying on the periphery is indeed more useful.

After getting the latest report from Lord Futai, Zhu Wenzhen originally wanted to go back, after all, Shen Shuren had a life-saving grace for him, these Liaodong soldiers were still in Tashan after the Battle of Xingshan, and were wiped out by Huang Taiji in Liaodong, and they could live one more day, all of which were rescued by Shen Futai.

Compared with Zhu Wenzhen, Huang Degong is more calm on the issue of "protecting the master", after all, he is only happy and sincere to Shen Shuren now, but he can't talk about recognizing Shen Shuren as the master.

Everyone is working for the Ming court, and it can only be said that Shen Shuren is the most temperamental and the most willing to entrust Huang Degong to the friendship of so many civil officials and bosses that Huang Degong has ever seen.

In addition, perhaps it is also because Huang Degong is more adventurous in military affairs and wants to make more meritorious contributions, so after the two of them summed up, Zhu Wenzhen was still persuaded by Huang Degong and was willing to contribute more to the peripheral battlefield.

What Huang Degong said roughly meant this: "Since we have found Yuan Zongdi's army in Guide Mansion, if we return to the battlefield of Chen County, Yuan Zongdi will definitely get Li Zicheng's order to return to help."

At that time, Yuan Zong's first department had tens of thousands of people, but our army only had 10,000 people. Although our army is cavalry, it is the side defending the city, and the cavalry cannot play a greater role in the defense of the city, and can only be used as infantry.

And our army patrolling and fighting on the periphery can drag Yuan Zong's first department, even if it can't wait for the opportunity to hit hard, at least it will force tens of thousands of troops to rush back to the main battlefield.

If Yuan Zongdi's men and horses who were in charge of grain grabbed the surplus grain and asked for it to be given to Li Zicheng, we could still give full play to the advantages of the cavalry and wait for the opportunity to intercept it, wouldn't it play a greater role than returning to Chen County to defend behind closed doors? Previously, Shen Futai asked us to go back, just because we were worried that Li Zicheng would march quickly to attack Chen County, but now that the enemy is delaying, we have no need for this. ”

After Zhu Wenzhen calmed down, he had to admit that this truth was very correct.

The current situation is like before the decisive battle of Waterloo in the future, when the emperor heard that the Prussian commander Blucher was about to join the British commander Duke Wellington, so he sent Emmanuel. Field Marshal Grouchy alone pinned down Blucher's Prussian army,

It is hoped that "when the decisive battle comes, Grouchy can rush back to the main battlefield, and Blucher can't, so that our army can concentrate superior forces to break through each one, and destroy Britain first and then Prussia."

Of course, in history, the emperor was self-defeating in the end, and during the decisive battle of Waterloo, Blucher's Prussian army arrived, but the more than 30,000 French troops who went to contain Blucher's Grouchy did not rush back, and it became that the emperor himself was defeated by the enemy.

However, it is impossible for Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen to know the deeds of people 170 years later, and the artistic essence of military command is the same.

As long as Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen's actions are faster than Yuan Zongdi's and their containment is efficient, they can be Blücher himself and Yuan Zongdi be Grouchy.

……

After adjusting their thinking, Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen quickly began to discuss how to deploy it in order to better contain Yuan Zongdi.

After a full night's rest last night, the soldiers have also recovered their spirits, their fighting spirit is high, and the horsepower of the horses has also been restored, and it is a good time to show their strength.

According to the latest information when the city was broken yesterday, Huang Degong analyzed: "I heard from the prisoners captured after yesterday's defeat that Yuan Zongdi's headquarters is near Shangqiu County, which is governed by Guide Prefecture, and Shangqiu City seems to be still under the insistence of the official army.

Why don't we go to Shangqiu at once and see if we can relieve the defenders there. If Yuan Zongdi dares to pursue us with his own troops, we will run directly with the speed advantage of the cavalry, and if Yuan Zongdi's soldiers and horses are disjointed, we will turn back to fight and break each one - what does General Zhu think? ”

Zhu Wenzhen thought about it, especially compared it with his recent resume, and found that Huang Degong's thinking was really good.

So he added in the same way: "Mr. Huang's plan is very serious, and the general has no objections. And since Li Zicheng has gone to Chen County in person, he will definitely send someone to contact Yuan Zongdi, so that Yuan Zongdi will stop caring about a small and shabby place like Shangqiu, and go to Chen County for a decisive battle first.

Therefore, as long as we appear outside Shangqiu City and let the defenders in the city know that the imperial reinforcements have arrived, the morale of the defenders will naturally be greatly boosted, and even if we don't make a move, the defenders can continue to hold out for a while. But Yuan Zongdi couldn't bear it, and he definitely had to withdraw from the siege. When he returned to Chen County from Shangqiu, there was an opportunity to expose flaws for us to start-

To tell you the truth, Mr. Huang, what you just planned is really the same as what Shen Futai saw. The last general was under the command of Shen Futai, and he had participated in the rescue battle of Baling a few months ago, and he was facing Li Dingguo under Zhang Xianzhong.

The order that Shen Futai gave me was also to send cavalry to assault, at least under Baling City, to boost the morale of the defenders in Baling City and prevent them from surrendering without a fight because they were intimidated by the thieves' intimidation of 'if they break the city and slaughter the city after resistance'.

Mr. Huang, Mr. Huang, your worries about the defenders of Shangqiu today are exactly the same as Shen Futai's worries about the defenders of Baling a few months ago. ”

When Huang Degong heard that he was an uneducated person, his sense of smell on the battlefield was slightly the same as that of Shen Futai, who talked about the art of war, and he was also overjoyed, and he felt more and more close, and introduced the other party as a confidant, including Zhu Wenzhen as a confidant.

The two of them had decided on a total of points, so they started from Zhecheng and continued to advance to the northeast, heading towards Shangqiu. Along the way, there were many scattered Yuan Zong's first troops who robbed grain and rebelled, and they were all defeated by the official army.

A day later, Huang Degong and the others had already approached Shangqiu, but they felt that Yuan Zongdi's actions were a little abnormal, so they had been surrounding Shangqiu City without any other movements, and they did not meet or withdraw their troops.

Huang Degong did not lose his heart, so he asked the troops to camp on the spot, and sent scouts to expand the search and confirm the situation.

And on this night, two more chain changes occurred, because of the rapid advance victory of Huang Degong and Zhu Wenzhen.

First of all, it was Huang Degong's scouts who caught a few couriers sent by Song Xiance, a subordinate of Li Zicheng, to contact Yuan Zongdi.

Secondly, it is in the southeast direction of Zhecheng and Shangqiu, a county town called Luyi, which was originally occupied by the Chuang army. But seeing that Huang Degong broke through Chen County and Zhecheng in succession, and came to Shangqiu, the generals of the army in Luyi actually took the initiative to find Huang Degong and surrendered, and Huang Degong didn't even bother to find the other party.

The general is named Yuan Shizhong, and his coming and surrender is not considered to be open to Shen Shuren, but it is like this in history - this Yuan Shizhong is also the leader of the local thieves in Henan, and Li Zicheng followed Luo Rucai and others after breaking Luoyang.

In the history of Yuan Shizhong, during the period of Li Zicheng's Sanwei Kaifeng, he was deployed between Bozhou in Guide and Fengyang Mansion, and was responsible for guarding against the reinforcements of the official army in the direction of Nanzhili. But he was a little wavering, and finally Li Zicheng was suspicious, so his nephew Li Taichongzhen booby-trapped Yuan Shizhong in April of the sixteenth year.

Of course, none of this has happened yet, and now it should be five months before Yuan Shizhong is killed by Li Zicheng. It's just that this kind of Luo Rucai's old department was worried about Li Zicheng's suspicion, and he didn't want to be cannon fodder, Huang Degong's sudden strong invasion made him shake in advance, and it was not surprising to vote.

It's just that Huang Degong won't know all this, and he doesn't dare to fully trust Yuan Shizhong for the time being, and his use of it will definitely need to be tested.

But in any case, Yuan Zongdi surrounded Shangqiu to raise food, and at this juncture, some friendly troops surrendered directly because of fear, which must have been a huge blow to Yuan Zongdi.

Huang Degong was even more confident that he would relieve the siege of Shangqiu, and even severely damage Yuan Zongdi, so that he could not return to the battlefield of Chen County.

If Huang Degong defeated Yuan Zongdi, but he himself could return to Chen County with the cavalry of the Shen family's army, it would mean that he was Blucher and the other party was Grouchy.