Li Zicheng, who was in the capital, was overjoyed when he saw the envoy return.

"How is it, did Zhang Xianzhong agree to send troops?"

"Great King, the Daxi Imperial Court only sent Li Dingguo to lead 30,000 troops, stationed in Hanzhong, and there was no sign of mobilization of other soldiers and horses, and there was not even a reply, and the subordinates waited there for seven or eight days, and they were sent back."

"How can this be reasonable, how dare Zhang Huanghu bully me like this, come to someone, I don't want Chang'an, order Li Yan to immediately raise Chang'an's troops, attack Sichuan, and capture this bastard alive." Lee Zicheng unveiled the bottom of the paper.

Seeing that he was angry, his subordinates did not know what to do, and looked at each other.

Oxford Star persuaded: "The king is angry, don't start a war with the Great Western Dynasty at this time, now we are facing three enemies, as long as they don't stab them in the back, now judging from the fact that he only sent Li Dingguo to lead a few men and horses to defend Hanzhong, Zhang Xianzhong should not have such a plan, and it is not too late to wait for us to free up our hands and then deal with him." ”

"Okay, just listen to the military advisor, how is our defense in the capital now?"

"After these days of rectification, it can be said that it is solid, I have transferred the elite of Shanhaiguan back to the capital, and Shanhaiguan let Liu Zongmin go, I think it should be foolproof."

"That's fine."

When Li Zicheng was still angry that Zhang Xianzhong was not rescued from death, Gao Jie and Zhang Zhenyuan's 150,000 troops had already surrounded Chang'an.

In the big tent of the Ming army, Gao Jie, Zhang Zhenyuan, Zhang Huangyan and other cadres gathered together to discuss matters.

Gao Jie said: "We have been besieging Chang'an for several days now, although the number of thieves is more than us, but in the past few days, there have been a lot of surrenders, and the East Gate guard sent someone to contact me, ready to open the door to the city, I don't know what everyone thinks to deal with." In addition, the puppet court of Onishi also sent men and horses to be stationed in Hanzhong, although there was no sign of sending troops to Chang'an, but it was also necessary to guard against it. ”

Zhang Zhenyuan said: "Zhang Xianzhong's 30,000 horses are also defending the gate of Hanzhong, but once we can't fight in Chang'an for a long time, we don't guarantee that Zhang Xianzhong will not lead the army north, so we must fight quickly in Chang'an and not give the thief army too much time to react." Judging from the situation of the siege of the city a few days ago, the thief leader Li Yan is very determined to defend the city, in the south of the city, the west of the city, and the north of the city, we have encountered stubborn resistance, if we can earn a door, attack the city, the enemy army can be flattened in a battle, but Chang'an is a big city since ancient times, the population of the city is not less than one million, most of them still support the thieves, how to deal with it is a difficult problem. ”

"Zhang Huangyan, you can also talk about it." Gao Jie asked Zhang Huangyan, who had been bowing his head and contemplating, to give his opinion.

"Marshal, my subordinates think that the people in the city are not to worry, as long as we firmly implement His Majesty's will to soothe the people, we are not afraid that they will not follow, but the thieves in the city are soldiers and people, this subordinate admires this thief, and actually formed a soldier to defend the city from the people of Chang'an, it is really clever, they have more feelings for Chang'an City, and they work harder to defend it, what should these people do after taking Chang'an?"

Gao Jie asked Zhang Zhenyuan again: "What does Zhang Shuai think?" ”

"Huang Yan is right, I think the defenders of Chang'an did not loot the people in the city like the thieves in other places, and it can be implemented according to your previous three-kill policy, but before that, in order to prevent the people in the city from making up their minds to defend the city, we need to do more work before the war and tell them the policy of the imperial court."

"That's easy!" Gao Jie waved his hand and said: "Huang Yan, you go to the secretary of the army who came to the army, ask them to write the emperor's forgiveness of their sins and the policy of appeasing the people on the cloth, and order the bow and horse battalion to shoot the written cloth into the city, and encourage the people in the city to be alone or go out of the city to offer the door, no matter what, do not add the crime, and the person who opens the door to offer the city will be rewarded!" For this reason we stopped the siege for one day, and at dawn the day after tomorrow, we attacked the city from the east gate. ”

The strategy has been decided, and everyone will go and prepare.

Li Dingguo, who has led the soldiers and horses to Hanzhong, has not been idle, and the scouts have been sent to the vicinity of Chang'an, so he knows the situation in Chang'an well, he estimates that if there are no reinforcements, the Ming army will be able to conquer Chang'an in a few days, and then the Ganliang area can be determined, at that time, the Ming army He Tengjiao, Zuo Liangyu, and Gao Jie's department will enter Sichuan from three sides, and then Sichuan will be dangerous, so Chang'an can not be lost.

Li Dingguo once again suggested to Zhang Xianzhong, carefully explained the stakes to him, and implored him to send troops to help Li Yan in Chang'an.

Zhang Xianzhong received Li Dingguo's letter and convened the ministers again to discuss.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Li Dingguo, who is in Hanzhong, has sent a letter again to request troops to support Chang'an, I don't know what you think, whether you are doing this business or not, you can say something."

In fact, Zhang Xianzhong's so-called convening of ministers to discuss, that is, to discuss with Sun Kewang, Liu Wenxiu, and Ai Nengqi, the others were temporarily pulled up by him to make soy sauce, and it was difficult to come up with any ideas in a hundred years.

Sun Kewang said: "Your Majesty, the child still thinks it's better not to go, even if the Ming Dynasty captures Chang'an, and the rumor is sweet and cool, it may not necessarily wave the army south to find us unlucky, I think they will be more entangled in Li Zicheng, Dingguo This is unfounded, and I am in Sichuan, and the four sides are blocked by high mountains, and the Ming army can still fly over, we occupy the geographical advantage, and the Ming army dares to attack, and he must have no return."

Liu Wenxiu and Sun Kewang have a good relationship, and also said: "Erchen agrees with the eldest brother's opinion, Shu is known as the country of abundance, and Liu Bei occupied Shuzhong and divided the world into three parts during the Three Kingdoms, we should take advantage of the opportunity of the Ming Dynasty and Li Zicheng to recuperate and reserve a large amount of grain, once the world changes, we can go out of Sichuan to fight for the world."

Seeing that they both said so, Ai Nengqi didn't want to be discouraged, so he echoed it.

After the three of them said, Zhang Xianzhong wavered and could only suppress Li Dingguo's request to send troops.

At dawn on the third day of the siege of Chang'an, Gao Jie immediately commanded a large army to attack the city, and because the defenders of the east gate of the city surrendered without a fight, the Ming army entered the city very smoothly.

As soon as the east gate was broken, the peasant army in the city was in chaos, and there were extremely vicious people who took advantage of the chaos to set fire to the city, preparing to burn Chang'an City and the Ming army together, the Ming army had to fight with Li Yan on the one hand, and at the same time also assisted the people in the city to put out the fire, and the offensive momentum was delayed.

The battle was fought from morning to night, and the fighting gradually subsided until late at night, the general of the peasant army, Li Yan, was killed, the Ming army also lost more than 10,000 soldiers, and the captured peasant army was more than 100,000.

"Does it matter if you hurt?" Gao Jie, who was standing at the head of the city, asked Zhang Huangyan, who had a bandage around his neck, that he had a stray arrow in his left hand in the fight.

"Don't worry, it's okay, I didn't expect this thief army in Chang'an to be so strong in combat, if it weren't for our well-armed weapons, I'm afraid the loss would be even greater."

Gao Jie nodded: "Did I let the casualties out?"

"There are 9,613 people killed in the battle, and there are more wounded, and they are still being counted."

"How many captives are there?"

"There are more than 135,000 people, and many of them are people in the city, and when they see that the war is not good, they throw away their weapons and turn back to the people, do you want to arrest them?"

"No, it's all my Ming people, I can't stand the persecution of corrupt officials and corrupt officials to join the thief army, according to what the emperor said, as long as you don't continue to rebel in the future, you won't blame the past, as for the surrender of prisoners, take care of it, see how many are willing to join the army, and those who are unwilling will be disbanded on the spot, and in addition, conscription will begin in Chang'an tomorrow, alas! Now that the whole country is at war, there is a shortage of men and horses everywhere, and there are many strong men in the mountains, so I can add a little bit and write this to the war report to the imperial court. ”

Zhang Huangyan was ordered to handle it.

Zhang Zhenyuan came over at this time, and he had been in the city to pacify the people.

"How's the situation in the city?" Gao Jie asked.

"Don't worry, you've been pacified, what's your next step?"

"Now that Chang'an has been decided, the next step is to wait for the will of the imperial court, I think Zhang Shuai will return soon, and General Huang Degong will send troops to the north, I will either march to Ganliang or Sichuan, and peace in the world is just around the corner."

Zhang Zhenyuan nodded, looked at the ancient city of Chang'an, which was gradually lit up, and sighed with emotion, the vigorous thief army was like a flash in the pan, almost destroying the Ming Dynasty, and the world was like a world away.