Because Xiangcheng had Yang Wenyue, the governor of Baoding, and Liu Guozhu, the commander-in-chief, Li Zicheng gave up attacking Xiangcheng at the suggestion of Niu Jinxing.

Instead, he attacked the surrounding areas of Xiangcheng, and successively conquered Shangshui, Fugou, Weichuan, Xuzhou, Changge and other areas.

He also killed Li Wanqing in Beiwudu, and Liu Guoneng, who broke through the sky, in Yexian.

Yexian is located in the northeast of Nanyang and is the gateway to the Nanyang Basin.

During the Tang Anshi Rebellion, the famous Tang Army general Lu Jiong was defending Ye County.

With the loss of Ye County, Nanyang is in front of you.

If it weren't for the Tang Army's good fighting, which had killed and injured a large number of elites of the Yan Army, and organized rescues from Chang'an and Xiangyang successively, Nanyang would not have been able to survive.

But now the Ming Empire has no strength to support Nanyang.

The peasant army surrounded Nanyang and prepared to organize a siege of the city.

Li Zicheng took his personal guards and rode horses with the generals to inspect the outside of the city to find a breakthrough.

He raised his hand to shield himself from the strong sunlight and looked at Nanyang City: "I heard that Liu Guangzuo, the defender of Nanyang, is a fierce general with great achievements, is it possible to persuade him to surrender?"

"I'm afraid I can't. Liu Guangzuo is a native of Yulin, and he has been a general for generations."

Niu Jinxing replied: "Don't look at You Shilu, who often disobeys orders, but he, like Liu Guangzuo, doesn't dare to rebel against the Ming Court."

"Then you can only attack!" Li Zicheng sighed.

"Don't worry." Li Guo said, "You forgot, we have cannons, and we can use cannons to bombard the city gates of Nanyang."

Li Zicheng laughed happily and said, "Good boy, you wake me up all of a sudden. Go and invite Luo Tai, let's bombard Nanyang Gate."

Luo Tai and Liu Youyi surrendered to the army, bringing a batch of inferior artillery, as well as good goods.

Among them, there are five Hongyi cannons purchased from Portugal.

After carefully observing Nanyang City, Luo Tai chose the north gate as the breakthrough.

Li Zicheng organized manpower to dig three trenches. Then push the Hongyi cannon to the position, facing the north gate of Nanyang City.

Then, take a hexagram, and three days later it will be the auspicious day of the zodiac, and the cannon will be fired.

After waiting for three days, the peasant army opened the north gate of Nanyang with artillery.

The peasant army rushed into the city of Nanyang.

Liu Guangzuo was forced to retreat, but he did not dare to flee because there was a Tang king in the city.

He could only take his family to fight with the peasant army in the streets, preparing to escape with the Tang King.

As a result, the crowd was outnumbered, and although Liu Guangzuo successfully broke through to the outside of the walls of Tang Wangfu, he no longer had the strength to escape.

He knelt facing the north and kowtowed: "The ministers have received the grace of the country, but now they are unable to fight again, and they deserve death for failing the grace of the court."

Just kneeling like this, he was hacked to death by the peasant army who chased him.

Li Guo led the peasant army to take the opportunity to break into the Tang Palace, and arrested Zhu Yujian, the Tang king.

Because he did not bring troops to aid the Beijing Division, Zhu Yujian did not have the opportunity to stay in Fengyang Prison, but was arrested in Nanyang.

After Li Zicheng left Rucheng at the north gate, he first went to Nanyang Mansion, sent troops to occupy the ordnance warehouse on the left side of the mansion, and then rode his horse to Tang Wangfu.

When he arrived at the gate of the Tang Palace, he met his nephew Li Guo coming out of the palace, and the brothers pushed a young man.

Li Zicheng glanced at the young man's face in the shade of the tree, and asked Li Guo:

"This is King Tang?"

Li Guo replied, "Exactly. The palace has been guarded by troops, and no idle people are allowed to enter or leave."

"Good! Pull him out and behead him in front of everyone."

Li Zicheng was relieved to see that King Tang was arrested, he didn't have time to go into the palace to see, and he went to Nanyang Mansion.

His soldiers were already guarding the gates of the palace, and two dead bodies lay under the wall on the left.

It was Senator Ai Yuchu and Nanyang Governor Yao Yunxi who didn't have time to escape.

Li Zicheng got off his horse, walked inside with his own soldiers, and saw the strategist Niu Jinxing welcoming him in the second gate.

He asked, "Has Old Cao Cao arrived?"

"Back to King Chuang, Luo Shuai has been waiting in the lobby for a long time

You can see he's happy."

There is something in the words of Niu Venus.

Li Zicheng only smiled, strode into the lobby, and met Luo Rucai.

Luo Rucai smiled and said, "King Chuang, we finally took a big city. This Nanyang Prefecture has eleven counties under its jurisdiction, bordering the Central Plains in the north and Xiangyang in the south. And most importantly...... Hey...... There are no more Imperial Eagle Dogs nearby that can be our enemy."

"That's exactly what it is." Li Zicheng said, "We finally have our own stable base, train people, and watch the Central Plains."

"As the saying goes, 'If the name is not right, the word is not good, we can't always act on the same name as before, right?'"

Luo Rucai has something to say.

Li Zicheng heard it, but he didn't respond immediately in his heart.

Niu Jinxing spoke: "Luo Shuai, since ancient times, the seats have been in order, and there are also seats in the Water Margin. King Chuang used to be the head of the Shaanxi Righteous Army, if he was on an equal footing with Luo Shuai, would this be inappropriate?"

"Things are always changing, now that we Luo Shuai and King Li Chuang are equal, how can we still be the same as before, the rules should be changed." Gillo argued.

The generals in the hall immediately divided into factions and looked down on each other.

Li Zicheng said: "Before the big thing is decided, start beating your own people, it's not appropriate! I look at it this way, the drama has the words of the generalissimo and the general, and Brother Luo and I are both called 'Marshal, what do Brother Luo think?'

When he said the last sentence, Li Zicheng looked at Luo Rucai.

Luo Rucai is also smart, he responded with a smile: "Since there is a generalissimo and a general in the play, we can't be higher than King Li Chuang, so let's be a general."

"This is too wronged Luo Shuai." Lee became a self-enlightened man.

"No, no, no, it's actually that we climbed King Li Chuang, so let's do what we just said." Luo Rucai insisted.

Li Zicheng didn't say anything.

So, on July 11, the tenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai ascended the altar to worship the heavens and established a preliminary regime in Nanyang.

Li Zicheng proclaimed himself the "Generalissimo of Fengtian Changyi and Civil and Military Affairs", and Luo Rucai proclaimed himself the "General of Dewei on behalf of the heavens", and began to conquer the city and establish a stable territory.

Unlike the last time he captured Luoyang, Li Zicheng had a large number of Qin soldiers in his hands this time, all of whom were elites from the border army.

As long as they are fed, coupled with the relationship between the township party, the combat effectiveness soars.

In August, the peasant army successively conquered a large number of prefectures and counties, including Dengzhou, Xiangcheng, Zhenping, Xinye, Tangxian, and Miyang.

Subsequently, Li Zicheng began to prepare for the second attack on Kaifeng.

At the same time, on the second day of the first month of August, Yang Chengying held the first all-army review in Shenyang after the change of new military uniforms.

And at the subsequent reward meeting, medals and knighthoods were awarded, which boosted the morale of the whole army.

The news of the Central Plains spread to the customs one after another.

Yang Cheng*** gathered Fan Wencheng, Ning Wan and others to the study to discuss the next step:

"The situation in the Central Plains has deteriorated far faster than I imagined, and now there are two paths in front of us. The first is to lead the army into the customs and assist the imperial court in dealing with the peasant army. The second is to lead the army into the customs and overthrow the imperial court."