The first month of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen.

After last year's fierce battle, the army has been mixed in Henan like a fish in water, after the new year, the good news of the front line is constantly coming to Yongning, Li Zicheng's army in Henan can be said to be invincible.

Li Zicheng gave the Ming court a blow at the beginning of the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, Yanshi, Lingbao, and Xin'an fell one after another, and almost all the thieves below the magistrate and subordinate officials died, and a large number of people began to join the army, and even the Ming army with many grievances began to merge with the army.

Lu Weiqi, who was in Luoyang, wrote to the emperor without worry, saying: "The thief Kou Yu does not kill a people, only kills the officials, and breaks a county to release its grain to confuse the people. ”

It's a pity that what is in front of Chongzhen is not his Lu Weiqi's book, but Li Xianfeng's book in northern Henan.

First of all, Li Xianfeng pointed out that the thieves in northern Henan had almost overturned, the thieves were captured and killed fourteen, and the surrenderers were twenty, and then attached a long list of those who needed to be commended and promoted.

In the face of the two letters with completely different views, Chongzhen naturally tended to take advantage of the advantages and avoided the disadvantages, thinking that what Li Xianfeng said was reasonable, after all, Chongzhen's suppression of bandits at the beginning of the fourteenth year was still worth mentioning.

Since last year, Zhang Xianzhong and others have rebelled, thanks to Yang Sichang's ten-sided net, Zhang Xianzhong seems to have become a climate, the battle of Agate Mountain, almost the elite of the thief department was wiped out, although now Xiancao confluence, but I think it is also a grasshopper after the autumn.

As for Li Zicheng, Chongzhen still didn't pay attention to him, if there were really any advantages and disadvantages, it was more of a lot of places that Li Xianfeng opened that needed silver, which was what made Chongzhen the most numb.

However, is this really the case? On the eighth day of the first lunar month, Zhang Xianzhong broke Yang Sichang's fierce tiger officers and soldiers in Huangling City, Kaixian County, killed thousands of people, and officially announced that he had broken Yang Sichang's encirclement network, and Zhang Xianzhong's cunning was no less than Li Zicheng.

In the first month, Zhang Xianzhong's troops secretly crossed the blockade of the Ming army and went straight to Xiangyang City, and at this time Yang Sichang still insisted that Xiangyang was absolutely safe, and he categorically did not need to be heavily guarded, but he did not know that it was this decision that killed him.

If there is anyone who is annoyed by getting rid of Chongzhen, it is Li Yan who is stationed in Yongning.

Li Zicheng's good news on the front line is frequent, but Li Yan is in turmoil, the reason is very simple, according to the detailed return he placed in the front camp, the successive victories on the front line are almost all from Niu Jinxing's handwriting, and the most fatal thing is that in Yanshi, Niu Jinxing introduced the leader of the Henan White Lotus Sect to Li Zicheng, Song Xiance.

Song Xiance and Li Zicheng talked very happily, Li Zicheng insisted on Song Xiance with a heavy courtesy, in order to envelop the White Lotus Sect in Henan, and Song Xiance reciprocated Li with a peach and presented Li Zicheng with the proverb of "Eighteen Sons Master Artifact", which made Li Zicheng very happy.

The addition of Song Xiance undoubtedly strengthened Niu Jinxing's momentum in breaking into the camp, and an even worse gossip also circulated, that is, Niu Jinxing privately said to Li Zicheng: "Eighteen sons are the main artifact, and Li Yan is also eighteen sons!" ”

Although I heard that Li Zicheng did not make a statement when he heard about this matter, but not expressing his position is a huge problem in itself, you must know that Li Yan's status in the camp is not low now, slandering the general, no matter how he speaks, he will be punished, and Li Zicheng just told Niu Jinxing: "Yan has no different ambitions, don't speculate!" ”

When the news reached the reserve army, Li Yan was simply scared into a cold sweat, good guy, Niu Jinxing is really vicious, this knife is already on his neck!

Li Yan also knows that Li Zicheng will not do anything to him now, but if he continues like this, he will definitely be marginalized, and if the villain slanders him in the future, he will be finished, and for this reason, Li Yan will never be so passive anymore.

In order to solve the current situation, Li Yan decided to overturn his previous strategic plan, take a risk, and make a great contribution first, so as to defend his position in the camp, and at the same time, he could also use the power of victory to confront Niu Jinxing.

And this great credit is none other than Luoyang!

Fighting Luoyang is actually very backward in Li Yan's strategic planning, after all, Luoyang is a strong city, and its status in Henan is only Kaifeng, if he rushes to fight, he is afraid that it will cause a chain reaction, so he will advise Li Zicheng to clear the periphery of Luoyang first, and then fight Luoyang.

The high ground of Luoyang City is dangerous, and it is impossible to defeat tens of thousands of troops, not to mention that the army now lacks the weapons to attack the city, once it cannot be attacked for a long time, Li Xianfeng will inevitably go south to attack, and the situation will be troublesome at that time.

However, Li Yan knew that Luoyang in history was a paper tiger, because there was a living treasure squatting in Luoyang, that is, King Fu.

After years of intensive cultivation in Luoyang, the Luoyang treasury has long been clean, not to mention Luoyang, almost half of the wealth of the entire Henan has been moved back home by the Fu King, although the King of Zhou in Kaifeng is also moisturized, but it can not be compared with the Fu King of the near branch.

In this case, Luoyang has a big problem, that is, once the external contact is cut off, then Luoyang will fall directly into a state of famine, although King Fu is in Luoyang, the family is piled up with grain and grass, but the problem is that, according to the conclusion of history, this strange to Luoyang City resolutely refused to take out food to help defend the city.

In the end, the direct consequence was that Li Zicheng did not even fight Luoyang, and the defenders of Luoyang mutinied themselves, and in the entire Henan war, Luoyang was the city where Li Zicheng got the least price.

You must know that the seal was opened later, three times before and after, not to mention that the army paid a huge price for casualties, Li Zicheng himself was blinded in one eye, Luoyang was on par with Kaifeng, and as a result, the army captured the entire Luoyang without an arrow.

The fall of Luoyang directly led to the robbery of the vast wealth and grain and grass of the Fu Domain, and the surrender of the Luoyang officials and soldiers because of their resentment of King Fu, which made Li Zicheng's strength in Henan instantly soar, laying the foundation for facing the Ming army's five major encirclements and suppressions in the future.

And after being familiar with this history, in the current situation, Li Yan decided to take a gamble, yes, he wants to fight Luoyang, and rush to fight Luoyang before Li Zicheng, if he can conquer Luoyang, then with this credit, don't say that it is a bull Venus, that is, Li Zicheng can't move him if he wants to.

However, this is obviously a gamble, and the reserve army is now a thousand, even if it is a large number of conscripts in Yongning and coercion can reach three thousand, and there are no firearms, no cavalry, and no siege weapons, if you really want to fight, it is a bet that the Ming army itself will have civil strife, which is not easy to say, after all, this is already changing history.

If one of the links goes wrong, Li Yan will be defeated and killed, so it takes great courage to make this decision, but Li Yan has no choice, and now the situation is very clear, Niu Jinxing is deeply valued by Li Zicheng, and if he can't play him in the power struggle, he will only be gradually excluded from the central decision-making.

As for Gu Junen, he wanted to play a balance between Niu Jinxing and himself, and did not give himself any help, so if he continued to join with Song Xiance, he was afraid that he would be struggling in the future, and he might be Han Xin that day.

So Li Yan has no choice, he has lost the lead in the power struggle, if he wants to regain the initiative, he must fight Luoyang, he must stud this one!

But stud is not so easy, you must know that the chief officer of the reserve army is Gao Yigong, not him Li Yan, Gao Yigong's brain is broken, otherwise it is impossible to take the initiative to fight Luoyang, he thinks that stud may not have the capital, and secondly, there is no cavalry, plus the disadvantage in numbers, the defenders of Luoyang will not sit and wait for death, and they are not Li Zicheng's tens of thousands of troops pressed over.

There are more than 10,000 people on the books of the Luoyang garrison, even if they get rid of the empty salary, how can they still have six or seven thousand, twice the number of troops, and fight siege battles, if there is no blessing of prediction ability, Li Yan would not have planned it like this anyway.

If you want to rely on the reserve army to fight Luoyang, then you must first defeat the Ming army in the field, otherwise, it is impossible for you to besiege Luoyang with weak forces, and if you want to defeat the Ming army in the field, it is impossible to do without the blessing of cavalry!

In this context, Li Yan quickly made two arrangements, first, to conceal the plan to attack Luoyang from the reserve army, in fact, even Gao Yigong Li Yan did not discuss this plan with him, while concealing it, Li Yan sent a messenger to Li Zicheng, affirming that the Hongnong Ming army had a change, worried that it would surrender Yongning, and hoped that Li Zicheng could send some cavalry to assist in order to prevent the Ming army from moving south.

This requirement is not excessive, Li Zicheng has no shortage of cavalry now, more than half of the 3,000 soldiers are cavalry, after all, the army is playing a mobile battle, and Li Yan doesn't want much, just want 200 cavalry.

Second, he secretly summoned Gu Fuguang and revealed his plan to attack Luoyang, Gu Fuguang was shocked on the spot and was speechless, a thousand people, fight Luoyang? Is this a loss of heart and madness? But Li Yan did not hide his analysis of the situation at all.

Although there is still no bottom in his heart, Gu Fuguang is Li Yan's person, and he must do what his boss says, so after a little hesitation, Gu Fuguang arched his hand and said bluntly: "Watching the army but having an order, it is not impossible to obey." ”

Li Yan bluntly told Gu Fuguang that this time he attacked Luo, his squad direct guard was the decisive role, and he was not at ease when others went to this matter, so Gu Fuguang had to lead the team in person.

Gu Fuguang was solemn when he heard this, and immediately surrendered his hand......

In this way, the prelude to the Battle of Luoyang began......