Chongzhen 9th year, March 7.

Hanzhong Mansion, Xing'an City.

As the largest city in the eastern part of Hanzhong Province, Hung Yen City has been bustling for many years.

But this is not the same as in the past, and now there are no shops in the streets and alleys of Hung Yen City.

The atmosphere in Hung Yen City is depressing, there are few pedestrians, cars and horses are scattered, and even the pedestrians occasionally seen in the neighborhood are mostly women.

The reason for all this is that the vanguard of the army is now outside the city.

All the young and strong men in the city were recruited and went to the four walls to help defend the city and enrich the city defense.

Only a handful of officials remained in the city, and they led a small militia to maintain order in the city.

The vanguard of the army outside the city rode on foot, and there were 10,000 people.

The brigade of soldiers and horses dressed in gray armor swept from the fields outside Xing'an City, and a rampant laughter was heard from afar.

There are 10,000 people, boundless; There are 100,000 people, and the earth is full of heaven.

Looking up, I only felt that the mountains were full of enemy troops, and there were countless cavalry rushing in the black.

The intruding army infantry team was scattered, dragging the dust of the branch field behind it, making it look like a suspicious soldier, so that people could not see the situation behind it clearly.

On the city wall, Chen Wang stood at the battlement, his eyebrows furrowed, and he stared coldly at the intruding army outside the city.

Rao has experienced countless battles, and even led troops into battle many times.

But Chen Wang still couldn't help but beat faster when he saw the big banner embroidered with the word "Chuang".

Among the peasant armies in the late Ming Dynasty, the people who were well known to most people in later generations were Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong.

But in fact, the person who should really be remembered should be Gao Yingxiang.

Among the rogues in the late Ming Dynasty, there were only two people who could be called leaders and heroes.

One is Wang Jiayin.

After Wang Jiayin's uprising, the responders flocked to him, and then he was defeated in a row to encircle and suppress the officers and soldiers.

At that time, the entire Shaanxi rebel army followed Wang Jiayin's call to act together.

Under the leadership of Wang Jiayin, the beacon fire burned throughout Shaanxi and spread to the three provinces of Shanxi, Ningbo and Gansu.

The other person is Gao Yingxiang.

After Gao Yingxiang's death, the peasant army, which was already about to be formed into a single force, fell apart soon after.

Gao Yingxiang's prestige among the peasant army was extremely high at that time.

After his death, many people were in despair, and the leaders of the seventy-two battalions begged for the surrenderers.

Although Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong have left a much longer space in the history books than Gao Yingxiang.

But the two of them are far inferior to Gao Yingxiang.

After the death of Wang Jiayin and Wang Ziyong, it was Gao Yingxiang who stood up and stabilized the 36th Battalion, which was about to fall apart.

It is also under the leadership of Gao Yingxiang that the ranks of the people's rebellion can develop more and more.

But when Gao Yingxiang died, neither Zhang Xianzhong, nor Ma Shouying, nor Li Zicheng were able to provoke the girder of the 72nd Battalion.

Since then, the peasant military rebellion at the end of the Ming Dynasty has been in a state of division, disagreeing with each other, although most of the time they are still united, but they are all inseparable.

Li Zicheng is not the master, in the face of people who are unwilling to surrender to him, what he thinks about is not how to make them submit, but chooses to deal with it in the simplest way - kill!

In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, Zhang Xianzhong was defeated in Xinyang and defected to Li Zicheng.

Li Zicheng wanted Zhang Xianzhong to become his own subordinate from now on, but Zhang Xianzhong did not comply, so Li Zicheng was ready to kill him directly.

However, under Luo Rucai's persuasion, there was hesitation, and when it was broken, it continued.

In the end, Zhang Xianzhong escaped at night, and a grudge arose.

In the sixteenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zi became the unified leader, and directly killed Luo Rucai and He Yilong, and annexed his subordinates.

It is precisely because of such a simple and rough way of dealing with it that it also laid the bane for Li Zicheng's subsequent defeat.

Chen Wang's face was solemn, although there were more than 6,000 soldiers under his command in the city, this did not bring him much sense of security.

Smoke and dust billowed from the army outside the city, and the sound of trumpets and drums did not stop for almost a moment.

All the soldiers and civilians on the city wall were frightened and panicked, and some of the timid even had their legs shaking like chaff.

The scout cavalry roared across the city walls, and they relied on their horses to gallop quickly, constantly wandering outside the city of Xing'an.

From time to time, he suddenly dashed forward, and then fired an arrow at the top of the wall.

Although the missed arrow did not cause any damage at all, it still caused the people who were defending the city on the city wall to panic.

The cavalry roared away, but they did not attack the city.

With great momentum, they set up camp on a high ground thirteen miles east of the city.

Two days passed, and it was noon on March 10.

Gao Yingxiang's main army appeared outside the city of Xing'an.

The queue on the official road is meandering, and the military horses are dense and endless.

If you look down from the sky, the official roads outside Hung Yen City are full of soldiers wrapped in gray turbans.

Unlike the ordinary chaotic rogues, these soldiers were surprisingly silent as they marched.

A group of soldiers marched in formation, spears on their shoulders.

Countless spears converge like a forest made of steel, and the tips of the spears are pointed obliquely, shining a little cold in the sun, which is breathtaking.

The army was mighty, like the water of the Yellow River, fierce and violent.

The infantry team with spears on their shoulders rolled forward, and soon converged into an endless forest of guns and halberds on the fields outside the city of Xing'an.

The infantry of the intruder in the front had covered the entire front, and the intruding brigade in the rear seemed to be endless, constantly surging from the distant horizon.

Even if it was three miles away, the aura of slaughter emanating from the ranks of the intruding army was still rushing to the face.

Feeling the pressure on their faces, all the militiamen above Dongguan were pale and trembling.

Chen looked left and right, and the soldiers under his command on the city wall had different expressions.

Although the veterans who followed him all the way to battle were a little frightened, their eyes did not waver much.

And most of the new recruits looked embarrassed and could not hide their fear.

There are those who tremble, there are those who bow their heads, and there are those who are short of breath.

But it also stopped there, they still stood on their posts, and no one dared to move.

But the militia on the city wall were terrified, all of them were pale, and some couldn't help but retreat in small steps.

This is true of the militia who have been on the battlefield, not to mention those who have been recruited.

Chen Wang did not issue any military orders to deal with it, and the battlefield was the best training ground.

The defense of the city is no better than the field battle, and no matter how strong the army is, there is no way for them to fly over the city wall and enter the city directly.

The army came from afar, and there were not many siege equipment at all, and even the most rudimentary ladders had to be made for a long time.

In the early days of the uprising at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the methods used by the peasant army to attack the city were the stupidest and simplest.

One is the ladder, the other is the tunnel, they don't even have siege vehicles.

This is not the kind of large siege ladder that can carry a large number of soldiers, and even the ladder body has a barb, but the simplest long wooden ladder, bamboo ladder.

At the end of the Ming Dynasty, it was recorded that Liukou attacked the city, and many times there were "cloud ladders and caves and hundreds of ways going hand in hand".

It sounds very powerful, but in fact, it is an ant attacking the city, taking human lives to pile up, and taking human lives to fill it.

In troubled times, the most worthless thing is human life.

The dense army swept like a swarm of locusts, covering the entire front first.

But when it was spread all over the front, the tide did not stop flowing,

The waves continued to surge and spread to the south and north of the city, enclosing the entire Hung Yen Castle like a pocket.

Chen Wang glanced at the large number of troops that were slowly unfolding outside the city, and after a brief period of distraction, he had already returned to his usual state of mind.

Among the rogues of the army, the officers are called the team and the leader, although the names are different, but in fact they are not much different from the military system of the Ming army.

Either according to the battalion sentry system, or according to the flag bureau system, the so-called management team, commander and other titles also have their corresponding positions in the Ming army.

In the early stage, the good and bad of the rogues in various places were uneven, and the establishment was chaotic.

But with the addition of a large number of survivable Ming troops to rebel, they gradually began to have order, set up an organization, and their combat power began to become stronger.

The army is the elite of them, and the military system adopted by Gao Yingxiang is the military system of the soldiers in Yansui Town.

The lowest unit is the team, each team is full of 12 people, with one captain, two deputy teams, and a team flag.

In the army formation outside the city, there are dense flags, and it is difficult to count them at all.

According to rough estimates, the number of flags on the front alone has exceeded 4,000, that is, 40,000 or 50,000 people, and there are not a few soldiers who have swept the front to the north and south.

This is not counting the number of follow-ups, the number of people stranded in Xunyang has already reached more than 100,000.

I am afraid that the number of people who followed Gao Yingxiang into Hanzhong Mansion would exceed 200,000.

"The four cities have all been properly resettled, with 3,000 people in each battalion, divided into 10 battalions, and the cycle assists in defense."

Just after Chen Wang's death while observing the enemy's situation, a military general wearing an iron-tipped helmet and armor walked over and lowered his head and whispered a report.

The armor leaves are exposed, and it clangs whenever you walk, and you wear iron arm armor on both arms, and a waist knife hangs from the belt.

That military general is none other than Du Wugang, a thousand households in Xing'an, who is almost in his thirties, with a slightly yellow face and eagle eyes.

Du Wugang's thousand households are not hereditary, the former thousand households of the Xing'an Thousand Households died in the hands of Wang Cheng, and Du Wugang was originally the deputy thousand households of the Xing'an Thousand Households.

With the head of fifty-six rogues, he compared to another thousand households, and won the official position of Zheng Qianhu by virtue of his military exploits.

Du Wugang was followed by more than 20 family members, all of whom were wearing cardigan armor, wearing high-topped helmets, with knives and bows, and their momentum was extraordinary.

There are more than 800 guards under Du Wugang's command, which is already a lot.

is also a thousand households, and Guan Qilin does not have so many guards, nor does he have so many families.

Chen Wang inspected the guards under Du Wugang, and compared to the beggars under Guan Qilin, the guards under Du Wugang were slightly better.

At least half of them are still wearing red hats, and they can also wear a coat over their green skirts, although the armor is quite tattered, but at least there are still them.

"The people, livestock, grain and grass in the suburbs have all been moved into the city, and they are now being counted, and it is expected that the inventory will be completed in the evening."

"The wells outside the city have also been filled with soil, but the intruders came too quickly, and only half of the surrounding trees were cut down."

Filling in wells and cutting down trees are all trivial matters, and these are all orders issued by Chen Wang, in order to clear the wilderness, make trouble as much as possible, and delay the siege of the invading army.

Chen Wang turned his head to look at Du Wugang and frowned.

"The people who came into the city were placed in the center of the city."

"Neither the inhabitants of the city nor the inhabitants outside the city are allowed to approach the walls of the four directions, and those who dare to approach the gates of the city walls will be treated as collaborators."

Most of the cities that were breached by the rogue were basically because of internal response.

Zhang Waijia died at the hands of Li Zicheng in this way, and there are many lessons in history, Chen Wang is naturally more cautious.

Now there are 6,300 soldiers directly under his command, of which more than 2,000 are new recruits, and during this period of time, they have only undergone simple queue training and military formation training.

There were more than 1,000 militiamen, originally about 2,000, but 1,000 of them were transferred to Xunyang by Chen Wang.

There were more than 30,000 people recruited to assist in the defense, but these more than 30,000 people had never been on the battlefield before, and many of them didn't even have weapons.

During this period of time, these militiamen and Minzhuang were all transferred by Chen Wang to train with the recruits under his command.

Because of the time, they didn't train for long, but it was better than no training, at least they stood in a good posture, and they also understood what was called a queue and what a military formation was.

But that's all, let him really take his weapon and go to the field battle with the rogue, the battlefield is definitely a one-sided situation, and there is absolutely only the part of being slaughtered.

However, there are walls to shelter and protect, and as long as they are properly commanded, they can also play a huge role.

As a state city, the city walls of Xing'an Fortress are taller than those of ordinary county seats.

The walls were two feet and five feet high, and the bricks and stones were added inside and out.

There are urn cities and city towers in the four city gates, because the river water often rises, so there is a city emperor water around the city.

Not only there is a moat outside, but also around the city to dig a moat, in order to prepare for the next war, Chen Wang also ordered people to continue to deepen and widen, now the moat around the city is two zhang wide, seven feet deep.

If you want to fill the trenches, it takes a lot of effort.

When they filled in the moats and attacked, they had to find a way to cross the moat.

There are urn cities and city towers in the four city gates, because the river water often rises, so there is a city emperor water around the city.

In order to prepare for the next battle, Chen Wang also ordered people to continue to deepen and widen, and the current moat around the city is two zhang wide and seven feet deep.

……

The military department often said to the matter:

"There are hundreds of thousands of rogues, and the strongest is no more than the king. He has many times and has fallen to Ding, and he has a strong iron horse. ”

"There are ninety thieves in the canal, and the king is the strongest, and there are many subordinates under him, and the armor is fine, and the infantry is not chaotic, and it is not compared to other rats."

"It is appropriate to match the power of the world, and the suspense must be the first. The first one was broken, and the remaining thieves were not enough. ”

Lu Xiangsheng said:

"King Chuang is the first to be strong, who can be the one? Yu Chu will be boiling. ”