After the expansion of Kaifeng City since the Later Zhou Dynasty, there are three city walls: Luo City, Inner City, and Palace City, and each city wall is surrounded by a moat. Luocheng is also known as the new city, mainly for defensive purposes, with a circumference of thirty-eight miles. There are five gates in the south, four in the east and four in the north, and five gates in the west, all including the Water Gate.

The city gate of Kaifeng City, regardless of inside and outside, is equipped with urn city, and the city tower and the enemy tower are built on it. Later Yuan will Tai Buhua and so on to Bianliang four sides of the city gate, stop five, to lead to come, the remaining eight doors are plugged. Eight of the original thirteen city gates were blocked, leaving only Lijing Gate, Renhe Gate, Nanxun Gate, Daliang Gate, and Anyuan Gate, that is, the Song Gate, Cao Gate, Da Nan Gate, West Gate, and North Gate of later generations.

At this time, Li Zicheng led the army to line up outside the Daliang Gate, that is, the west gate of Kaifeng City, and 600,000 or 700,000 horses spread to the sky, extending from the west of Kaifeng City to the north and south, so that Liu Yan had to order the defenders of the north and south cities to also strengthen their defenses, and the same was true in the east.

Outside the city, the flags of countless thieves are fluttering in the wind, cyan, white, black, yellow, and red, and the flags of each battalion are distinct, Li Zicheng takes the soldiers and horses of the firearms battalion as the forward middle army, the left battalion led by Liu Fangliang is on the left wing of the firearms battalion, the rear battalion led by Li Guo is on the right wing of the firearms battalion, and the soldiers and horses of the front battalion led by Li Laiheng are located in the rear of the firearms battalion.

In the rear of these battalions of soldiers and horses, Li Zicheng personally led the elite army of the middle battalion as the middle army, and more than 200,000 elite troops of the middle battalion were mighty, and the momentum was really extraordinary.

At this time, the battalions of the thieves were tightly formed in several, but a dozen small phalanxes, and between each phalanx, there were many horsemen and scouts who were constantly galloping on horseback, sending all kinds of news to all parts of the army.

Liu Yan looked at it for a while, and said to Zhang Yi and Chen Yongfu beside him: "Li Zicheng has become a wing, today's battle, should hit the army of thieves hard, and weaken the enemy's arrogance!" ”

Chen Yongfu looked at the middle battalion, artillery battalion, cavalry battalion, and personal guard battalion of the new army that had been lined up outside the west gate, the artillery battalion had already deployed the artillery array in front of the army, and behind the artillery battalion, more than 12,000 soldiers of the middle battalion had completed the formation, and then there was the personal guard battalion, relying on the city wall to line up.

The officers and men of the cavalry battalion were also divided into two parts, protecting the two wings of the army, and nearly 40,000 soldiers of the whole army were waiting for them, although the enemy troops facing them were hundreds of thousands, but the officers and men of the battalions of the new army were like rainbows, as if the enemy troops on the opposite side were just chickens and dogs, without the slightest timidity.

At the same time, Chen Yongfu also ordered that most of the artillery on the city wall of Kaifeng City be concentrated on the west city wall. In this regard, Liu Yan did not stop it, after all, more firepower is also a big help.

Kaifeng City is the capital of Henan, and more than 200 artillery pieces of various types are deployed on the head of the city, most of which are large and small Franc machine guns, which have a certain lethality for the army of thieves lined up two miles away.

Liu Yan values more than a dozen Hongyi cannons on the city, all of which are heavy cannons of more than 5,000 catties, which can fire about ten catties of cannons, with a range of three miles away, and can effectively bombard the army of thieves.

As the so-called veterans are afraid of guns, recruits are afraid of artillery, although the strength of the thief army has increased by leaps and bounds, but after all, there are a large number of dead soldiers, and there are still a few elite soldiers who really fight the old war, so a large number of artillery will definitely be able to effectively hit the morale of the thief army.

"Your Excellency,"

Chen Yongfu saw that the battalions of the new army had been lined up, but the strength was a little thin, so he said: "It's better for the last general to lead his troops out of the city to meet the battle, how to fight with the thieves today, our army's strength is a little thin." ”

Liu Yan looked at Chen Yongfu with a smile, now Chen Yongfu can gather more than 4,000 people, but the combat strength of these people is uneven, and the role of defending the city is greater.

"There is no need for this battle, but Vice General Chen also has a task, and he also asks Vice General Chen to sit at the head of the city, listen to the orders of the Chinese army in the town, and bombard the army of slaves and thieves with artillery at any time. In addition, the officers and men of Vice General Chen's department will take over the defense of the south of the city as soon as possible, so that the officers and men of the left battalion of our new army can gather on the side of the west city wall to stand by, how about it? ”

Chen Yongfu clenched his fists and said: "The last general obeys the order!" ”

After the deployment, Liu Yan said to Zhang Yi: "If the war is not going well, you will take the soldiers of the left battalion out of the city to respond, and listen to my orders." ”

"Yes!"

Liu Yan rode out of the city, and when Liu Yan's Daxu appeared in the array, nearly 40,000 soldiers from the battalions of the new army outside the city cheered, and the roar of "Wansheng" rushed into the sky.

In the distance, Li Zicheng rode his horse to watch the formation, and beside him, Liu Zongmin, the general of the middle battalion, Tian Jianxiu, the general of the system, He Jin, the general of the left battalion, Liu Fangliang, the deputy general, Liu Xiyao, etc., the former battalion general Li Laiheng, the general of Zuo Guoyi, Gu Kecheng and others, the general of the rear battalion Li Guo, the general of Zuo Guoyi, Zhang Neng and others.

As well as the firearms battalion general Li Dingguo, the left Guoyi general Sun Kewang, and the right Guoyi general Ai Nengqi, all gathered around Li Zicheng, and everyone also observed the military appearance and deployment of Liu Yan's new army.

In addition, Li Yan, Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, and Gu Junen were standing beside Li Zicheng, exchanging opinions in a whisper, and it could be seen that the military appearance of Liu Yan's department had already made these four people anxious.

"Liu Yan's department is worthy of its name!"

After watching it for a while, Li Zicheng sighed and said: "King Benchuang has been rampant in the world for many years, and he has seen many elite imperial court soldiers and horses, Lu Xiangsheng, Cao Bianjiao, Cao Wenzhao, Yang Sichang, Fu Zonglong, etc., are all rare strong troops, but these soldiers and horses are too poor compared with Liu Yan's department!" ”

"Liu Yan is worthy of being a fierce general who has hit the Qing army several times, and his troops are so strong that they are rare in the world!"

Li Zicheng praised Liu Yan fiercely here, and although Li Guo, Li Laiheng, Liu Zongmin and others around him felt uncomfortable when they listened, no one refuted it, because Liu Yan's strong army was opposite, and everyone looked at it.

Before Li Zicheng gathered the army to come, Li Dingguo, Ai Nengqi, and Sun Kewang knew the news that Liu Yan led his troops to arrive, and they were all shocked, and the bloody battle in Agate Mountain, the three of them still remember vividly, not only Liu Wenxiu and Zhang Xianzhong were killed by Liu Yan, the Great Western Army was almost wiped out, and Li Dingguo and the three were also forced to flee, and then defected to Li Zicheng.

It can be said that the shock brought by Liu Yan's new army to the three of them has not diminished at all, which is why Li Dingguo strongly advocated Li Zicheng to build a firearms battalion.

The reason why Li Zicheng gathered a large army in the west today was the result of Li Dingguo, Sun Kewang, and Ai Nengqi's best persuasion, and the three of them believed that although Liu Yan's troops were small, their combat strength was not as strong as they could be, and the righteous army could only defeat it by virtue of its strength advantage if it shrank its forces in one place.

Although Li Zicheng was wary of Li Dingguo and the others, he had also heard about Liu Yan's various realities, coupled with the fact that he had formed a keen intuition after many years of rampant in the world, so he adopted the suggestions of the three of them, and then gathered troops and horses to gather here.

At this time, Li Zicheng looked at Li Dingguo and the others, and said secretly in his heart: "The firearms battalion has been practicing for a long time, and I don't know how much difference it is from Liu Yan's new army!" ”

"Whew!"

Suddenly, a horn sounded in the large array of the new army in Qinglai Town in front, and then Li Zicheng and others saw a red big silk coming out of the west gate of Kaifeng City, and under the escort of a team of ironclad knights, it entered the new army's military formation.

Immediately afterwards, tens of thousands of officers and men of the new army shouted a tsunami, the sound of "ten thousand victories" resounded in the sky, the morale of the army was already very high, and the officers and men of each battalion continued to hit the ground with the weapons in their hands, making one loud noise after another, and hundreds of thousands of rogue soldiers and horses looked at the faces of the soldiers, and many dead soldiers and infantry in each battalion retreated in fear.

At this time, Li Zicheng and others were also shocked, and the strong military posture of Liu Yan's department made Li Zicheng and other rogue leaders also shocked, it seems that this battle is difficult to fight!

"King Chuang, is our army continuing to besiege Kaifeng City for the time being? The students expected that the stock of grain and grass in Kaifeng City would not be too much, and now that there are tens of thousands of horses in Liu Yan's department, the food consumption will definitely be faster, as long as our army continues to besiege, there will be changes in Kaifeng City! ”

On the side, Song Xiance shook his head and said, obviously not optimistic about the start of the battle at this time, and hoped that Li Zicheng would withdraw the army for the time being.

Niu Jinxing and Gu Junen also nodded in agreement, obviously Liu Yanbu's toughness had made the two of them retreat.

Gu Junen said more directly: "After the rectification of King Chuang, our army has the momentum it has now, it is not easy to come by, and it cannot be easily fought with Liu Yan's department, even if Liu Yan's department is defeated with superior forces, the battalions of our righteous army will definitely suffer heavy casualties, and when the time comes, it will affect the process of King Chuang's domination of the world, and the gains outweigh the losses!" ”

Li Zicheng was noncommittal, looked at Li Yan, and asked, "What does Mr. Li mean?" ”

Li Yan thought for a while and said, "The student is thinking, there may not be much grain in the treasury of the city treasury, but there are many palaces in Kaifeng City, and each one is a huge granary. Maybe Henan Governor Gao Mingheng and Deputy General Chen Yongfu didn't dare to do anything, but Liu Yan, the students have heard of it, he is a ruthless character who dares to think and dare to do, it is impossible to put a lot of money and food from the palace, he dares to rob it! ”

"Liu Yan has all those money and food, the strong city defense of Kaifeng City, and tens of thousands of elite troops stationed there, how long can he hold it? A month or a year, or a few years? Counting the women and children accompanying the army in the old battalion, our righteous army has a strength of millions of people, and the daily consumption of money and food is also astronomical. Siege without fighting, in fact, what can't be consumed is our righteous army! ”

Everyone had different expressions when they heard this, and Song Xiance and Niu Jinxing showed jealousy and dissatisfaction, but they each covered up the past.

Li Zicheng nodded after hearing this, and said: "When Liu Yan's department arrives in Henan, our army will have to fight against it sooner or later, otherwise with such a strong army on the side, our righteous army will not want to do anything, so today's bloody battle is inevitable!" ”

With Li Zicheng setting the tone, the generals of each battalion obeyed the orders one after another.

"In this battle, the firearms battalion took the lead, and the left battalion and the rear battalion waited for the firearms battalion to make progress, and entangled Liu Yan's cavalry at any cost, as long as Liu Yan's cavalry was entangled, and his artillery was suppressed by the firearms battalion, the front battalion began to attack Liu Yan's military formation!"

Li Zicheng looked around at everyone and said coldly: "In this battle, you must hit Liu Yanbu hard, without the order of King Ben Chuang, no one is allowed to retreat, and those who violate the order will be killed!" ”

"Whew!"

Then the horn sounded in the formation of the thief army, starting from the middle camp where Li Zicheng was, the banners of each battalion spread outward like water waves, and they shook violently, the cavalry of the brigade began to assemble, the scouts of each battalion began to gallop wildly, and the soldiers and horses of the brigade also began to cheer, and the battle was about to break out.

Liu Yan held the clairvoyant mirror and looked ahead, only to see a red flag advancing forward, it was the firearms battalion of the thief army, and there were three big flags next to it, namely Li, Ai, and Sun, Liu Yan couldn't help but sigh: "Li Dingguo, the famous king of the two Turks, I hope you don't die here in this battle, otherwise I will be sad!" ”

Some people died, but not completely......