Under the city of Chuzhou, 100,000 righteous troops are preparing to conquer the city of Chuzhou in one fell swoop.

Today is the 13th day of their attack on Chuzhou, and the casualties of the rebels from all walks of life are nearly 40,000, which is the largest casualties in the history of the rebels.

Although the official army led by Hong Chengchou has now conquered Fengyang and is close to Chuzhou, Gao Yingxiang, the king of Chuang, is now like a gambler who is in a hurry to lose, and he will definitely not give up if he does not take Chuzhou.

Anyway, according to their original plan, they were also going to fight a decisive battle with the official army in Chuzhou.

However, in order to prevent the "Hong Maniac" from sneaking attack, he still sent heavy troops to hold the dangerous place in the northwest of Chuzhou.

Zhang Xianzhong's old battalion was responsible for holding the Qingliu Pass in the west of Chuzhou, while the general Li Zicheng personally defended Tongshigu Mountain in Lai'an County, north of Chuzhou, to prevent the main force of the Ming army from moving south.

However, fortunately, the main force of the Ming army has not moved south, and only a small number of Ming troops have been found around Chuzhou.

Time is still in your hands.

Gao Yingxiang pulled out his sword and shouted: "Brothers, the artillery of Chuzhou City is no longer out of shells, and the city is broken today." Whoever was the first to board Chuzhou City was rewarded with 1,000 taels of gold and was named a general; After breaking Chuzhou, the knife will not be sealed for three days, and the brothers will be allowed to play to their heart's content! ”

Sure enough, as soon as they heard that they could be taken captive freely, these rebels erupted in loud cheers!

With the sound of cannons, countless rebels rushed to Chuzhou City.

Ascend first, trap the battle, behead the general, capture the flag. Among these four major military feats, Xiandeng is the most rewarding.

At the same time, an ordinary soldier can do it with only personal bravery.

Fan Xu in the Han Dynasty, Yu Ban and Lejin in the Three Kingdoms period, and Xu Da and Chang Yuchun in the early Ming Dynasty were all the first to become strong.

He is also a shortcut for an ordinary soldier to change his destiny.

The first to ascend only requires the first to reach the top of the city, which is relatively the easiest to do.

In addition to the first board, the second and third boards also have rewards, of course, compared to the first board.

So despite the danger of the siege, many people still flock to it!

At this time, there were only more than 3,000 officers and soldiers left in Chuzhou City, and almost everyone was injured!

The more than 5,000 young men recruited by Liu Taigong, the governor of Chuzhou, had also been exhausted, and he knew that Chuzhou City could not hold tomorrow.

However, at this time, Liu Taigong still had a trace of illusion!

He looked anxiously into the distance, but the roads around him were densely packed with thieves, and there were no reinforcements at all!

Soon the thieves killed the head of Chuzhou City, although the officials and soldiers in the city fought hard, but there were more and more thieves in the city.

As soon as the officers and soldiers slashed and killed a thief, the thieves behind immediately made up for it, and soon killed the officers and soldiers in front.

At this time, the general He Jie said: "Liu Zhizhou, Chuzhou can no longer be defended, hurry up and burn the granary in the city, you can't leave the grain to the thieves!" ”

Liu Taigong understands that it has reached the last moment, and according to the temperament of the rogue, after breaking the city, I am afraid that there will be no way to live.

Soon he rushed to the granary and ordered all the remaining more than 20,000 stone of grain to be burned.

He kowtowed three times in the direction of the capital to the north, and said: "The minister Liu Taigong has lost the emperor's grace, so he can only apologize with death!" ”

Then he drew his sword and killed himself in the state office, and at this time his wife and children had already committed suicide by hanging themselves from the beam before him!

Then the old servant of the Liu Mansion rushed directly into the fire after igniting the Zhizhou Yamen.

The gentry and wealthy families in the city had also sent their families to recruit young men to help in the battle, and they knew the temperament of the rogue, so they chose to commit suicide by hanging the beam.

When the rebels invaded the city of Chuzhou, the trunks of the trees in the city were covered with the corpses of the people.

Many of the city's houses were set on fire.

These rebels had long since turned into man-eating beasts, and after they entered the city, they killed people when they saw them, young and old.

Unable to find anyone alive, they began to slaughter corpses!

Those who are still alive began to regret why they had no integrity before, greedy for life and afraid of death.

Didn't the righteous army say that "regardless of the high and the low, the land is free of grain", how did it become "no distinction between the high and the low, send you on the road"?

But now it was only the butcher's knives of these thieves who responded to them.

And the billowing smoke of Chuzhou City can be seen clearly more than ten miles away!

Soon, a fast horse drove into Hong Chengchou's camp, and the sentry said: "Governor Hong, the smoke and flames in Chuzhou City should have been broken by thieves!" ”

Hong Chengchou has been waiting for this moment for a long time, he said: "The thieves have been fighting hard under the city of Chuzhou for more than ten days, and they are already exhausted, at this moment, they have finally captured Chuzhou, and they will definitely relax their vigilance, it is a golden opportunity for us to annihilate them!" ”

"General He, Deputy General Chen, you will lead the army to Chuzhou City, you must completely annihilate this gang of thieves!"

At this moment, the official and military spies around Chuzhou had already spread the news to the battalions, and soon the officers and troops from all directions were killing Chuzhou City.

Soon after, Canggen Mountain in the west of Chuzhou, Quanjiao County in the south, and Lai'an County in the northeast were lost.

Li Zicheng wanted to go south but was entangled by Liu Zhaoji, the general soldier of Shandong, and couldn't get out, so he had to lead his troops to retreat into Shigu Mountain.

In addition to the strong Qingliu Pass on the periphery of Chuzhou, which has not yet been broken by the Ming army, all other strongholds have been lost!

The cavalry of the Yulin battalion led by He Renlong was even more unstoppable, and after defeating the cavalry camp of the rebels, they brandished their sabers and continued to kill the rebels.

Soon the 50,000 rebels placed by Gao Yingxiang in the east were crushed.

The rebels were defeated!

Although the rebels suffered heavy casualties, there were still more than 100,000 rebels around Chuzhou.

Gao Yingxiang, the king of Chuang, decided to follow the original plan and defend Chuzhou to the death, and fight to the death with the official army here.

He wanted to find the "Eight Kings" Zhang Xianzhong to discuss countermeasures, but he never found Zhang Xianzhong's person.

In the end, it was found that Zhang Xianzhong had secretly led his old battalion to retreat to Qingliu Pass.

After Lai'an County was occupied by the official army, his contact with Li Zicheng had been cut off, and now Zhang Xianzhong had also run away, and Gao Yingxiang had to accept the reality of fighting alone.

Originally, there were 300,000 rebels around Chuzhou, excluding the 30,000 led by Li Zicheng and the 50,000 horses of Zhang Xianzhong's headquarters, there were originally 220,000.

However, 40,000 people were lost in the attack on Chuzhou City, and nearly 80,000 people were killed by the official army on the outskirts of Chuzhou.

Today, there are only 100,000 rebels left in Chuzhou City.

This hateful Liu Taigong actually burned the grain storage in Chuzhou, if it weren't for the corpses in the yamen that had been burned to black charcoal, it would be impossible to identify which one was Liu Taigong, Gao Yingxiang really wanted to crush him to ashes.

Although the rebels carried more than 100,000 stone of grain and scavenged some food in the city, they now only have 180,000 stone of grain.

Not enough for 100,000 horses to eat for two months.

At this time, nearly 100,000 officers and troops have surrounded Chuzhou City!

The breakthrough is definitely not going to break out.

For the time being, Gao Yingxiang can only rely on the fortified city of Chuzhou to hold on, and see if Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong can open up the situation for themselves!

At this time, He Renlong and other generals were extremely excited, they had already defeated more than 100,000 rogues in one fell swoop, and now they had surrounded the biggest leader of the rogues, King Gao Yingxiang, and 100,000 thieves in Chuzhou.

After this battle, the court is afraid that a reward is indispensable, and it is not impossible to be knighted.

Even Lu Weiqi, the secretary of the Nanjing Military Department, who had always complained about Hong Chengchou, had to admit that although Hong Chengchou sacrificed the 20,000 Ming troops in Chuzhou, he succeeded.

Now that more than half of the thieves have been killed or wounded, the remaining main forces are also surrounded in Chuzhou City, and the threat is no longer great.

He Renlong said: "Now the thieves are sleepy and demoralized, and our army's morale is high, so we are just going to capture Chuzhou in one go and solve this gang of thieves as soon as possible." ”

Even Chen Yongfu and others have asked for battle!

Hong Chengchou waved his hand and said: "There were more than 300,000 thieves before, and the food consumption was huge. Now that spring has not yet begun, the people do not have much surplus food, and they cannot grab much food at all; The Governor believed that the grain and grass in Chuzhou City had been burned, and that they must not have much food in stock at the moment. ”

"If we forcibly attack the city, although we can take Chuzhou, there are many backbones of thieves among them, and they will definitely fight the trapped beasts, and we are afraid that we will also have to pay a lot of casualties."

"And if Chuzhou is taken by us, Zhang Xianzhong, who is still near Chuzhou, and Li Zicheng's troops will definitely flee, and we still haven't done our best this time!"

Good guy, it turns out that Governor Hong is still a rogue and refuses to let go, he wants to do it once and for all!

He Renlong said: "According to the battle report, Li Zicheng's troops had tried to break through our army's defense line and go south to support Gao Yingxiang many times, but they had been repelled under the joint attack of General Liu's army and Governor Yang's army, and his troops temporarily retreated into Shigu Mountain. ”

"Zhang Xianzhong, this thief is very cunning, he actually ran out of Chuzhou City under our noses, and his troops are now defending with the Qingliu Pass, and the general soldiers of the Luzhou direction are holding it near the Qingliu Pass!"

After listening to He Renlong's words, Hong Chengchou thought for a moment, and then said: "Zhang Xianzhong, a thief, is extremely guilty of burning the imperial tomb, and he must not be allowed to run away like this." This thief is very cunning, General Soldier He, you personally led the Yulin Battalion under your command to exterminate him, and you must not let this thief escape. ”

"This governor and Lu Shangshu will lead the remaining army to continue to besiege Chuzhou City!"

He Renlong clenched his fists and said loudly: "The last general orders!" ”

Soon he led the main force of the 15,000 Yulin battalion to the back of Qingliu Pass.

At this time, the main force of the Liukou on the pass was fighting the Ming army in the direction of Luzhou.

There were not many troops left behind after the pass, and the Yulin guards under He Renlong were sharp.

The all-Western style firing pistol, with an effective armor-piercing range of 90 steps, although slightly inferior to the Lumi gun in range, but the continuity of shooting is good.

The Yulin Battalion also gave up Lu Mi Gong after doing many comparative experiments.

After all, the Lu Mi Gong in their hands is still the original version on Zhao Shizhen's "Artifact Spectrum", and it is not at all the same grade as the improved Sui Fa Lu Mi Gong used by the Liaodong Army.

"Bang, bang, bang"

As a puff of white smoke rose, the rogue who closed the gate kept being knocked down by the fire of the Feather Forest Battalion.

Soon the infantry of the Yulin battalion began to attack the storm under the cover of the musketeers.

The part of the Yulin battalion that besieged the city was all dressed in iron armor and was a hoplite.

I have to say that with the support of the emperors of Tianqi and Chongzhen, the equipment of the Yulin Battalion has surpassed that of ordinary border troops, and it is comparable to the elite family in the hands of the border army generals.

Moreover, these Yu Lin Wei have gone through dozens of battles between "exterminating the White Lotus Sect" and "chasing the Liukou", and they can be regarded as an elite division!

In the end, they still attacked Qingliu Pass.

The Ming army in front of the gate saw that the backyard of the thieves was on fire, and they also hurriedly began to enter the city.

However, after all, some of the rogues in Qingliu Pass were Zhang Xianzhong's old camp, and although these people were facing the unfavorable situation of being attacked from both sides, they still used Guancheng to continue to resist stubbornly.

Hand-to-hand combat in the city has also entered the white heat.

Those old men were clever and skillful, and their shots were quite tricky, and they were all killed with one hit.

The Ming army, which had the advantage of troops, would not be able to eat them for a while and a half.

In the end, He Renlong personally went into battle with a big knife in his hand, and only then did he open up the situation.

"He Madman" is not in vain, I saw that he kept waving the long knife in his hand, and those thieves were killed and dispersed by him in an instant.

After a while, more than a dozen thieves were killed by him, and under the leadership of He Renlong, the Yulin Battalion became more and more courageous, and finally won the Qingliu Pass!

However, He Renlong soon felt that something was wrong, there were only 10,000 rogues inside and outside Qingliu Pass, and Zhang Xianzhong himself was nowhere to be found.

A few hours before the final confession of Liukou, Zhang Xianzhong led more than 10,000 people to the direction of Huangfu Mountain when he received the Ming army from the direction of Chuzhou to march towards Qingliu Pass, where there was a small road to bypass Qingliu Pass.

At this time, Zhang Xianzhong had already crossed the mountains and mountains of Chuzhou, and went west along the junction of Fengyang Mansion and Luzhou Mansion.

He originally had 50,000 horses in his hands, but he killed 3,000 when he attacked Qingliuguan, and more than 6,000 when he attacked Chuzhou. When retreating from Chuzhou to Qingliu Pass, another 20,000 horses were scattered by the official army.

In the end, there were only 20,000 people left when he ran to Qingliu Pass, and he ruthlessly left more than 10,000 people to defend Qingliu Pass, and now there are only seven or eight thousand people left, and he also lost the main force of more than 1,000 old battalions in Qingliu Pass.

For Zhang Xianzhong, he will not be too distressed if the other people lose 100,000 or 80,000, as long as the core of the old camp is still there, he can pull up a team of tens of thousands of people in a county town casually!

However, in order for himself to escape and ascend to heaven, in the end, he was only a strong man who broke his arm and gave up part of the old camp.

His target was Dabie Mountain to the west of Lu'an, and as long as he entered there, he could get rid of the pursuit of the official army.

Zhang Xianzhong glanced at the direction of Qingliuguan, and said secretly in his heart: Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng ask for more blessings, we are destined to see you again!

He Renlong couldn't find a path for a while in the face of the vast mountains and mountains, and finally withdrew to Chuzhou after several attempts.

Although Zhang Xianzhong ran away, this time he recovered Qingliu Pass and eliminated more than 10,000 thieves.

After Hong Chengchou learned that Zhang Xianzhong led nearly 10,000 Liukou to escape from Chuzhou, he also had to sigh at the cunning of this guy.

While he sent He Renlong to attack Zhang Xianzhong, he also ordered Yang Wenyue and Liu Zhaoji to encircle and suppress Li Zicheng's troops near Shigu Mountain.

Who would have thought that Li Zicheng, a thief, would be equipped with advanced firearms, and Yang and Liu's two units lost more than 2,000 people under the joint attack of the thief's fire gun and the tiger squat artillery, and finally had to reluctantly retreat.

At this time, less than 50,000 of Hong Chengchou's 60,000 troops went south, and Nanzhili's men and horses also suffered a lot of losses, leaving only more than 35,000 people.

Hong Chengchou did not dare to divide his troops to encircle and suppress Li Zicheng, and now he has a total of 85,000 people on hand, of which 10,000 people will be stationed in Lai'an to prevent Li Zicheng's troops from going south to join Gao Yingxiang.

These troops are already stretched, if Gao Yingxiang is desperate to get out of the city at this time, then he will give up all his efforts.

At this time, Gao Yingxiang in Chuzhou City was also sitting on pins and needles.

It's not that he doesn't know the consequences of being trapped in Chuzhou.

Although there were 100,000 rebels in the city, most of them were rabble.

The main force of his cavalry battalion was crippled by He Renlong's cavalry outside the city, and there are only a few thousand infantry left in the old battalion.

It is simply impossible to break through with this little force.

He believed that as long as he left the city with his front foot, his back foot would be crushed by the cavalry of the official army.

Staying in the city is at least safe for the time being, and he also hopes that Li Zicheng can come back to save himself.

After many years of communication, he knew that it was impossible for Zhang Xianzhong to come back to save him, and at this moment, I am afraid that he would have long been away from this place of right and wrong.

But Li Zicheng is his own nephew, so he can't die without help, right?

And the current situation of Li Zicheng is not good, originally he went north with 30,000 people, but after repeated fierce battles, there were only 8,000 people left around him.

But fortunately, the thousands of old teams who followed him all the way from Shanxi are basically still there.

At this time, Li Zicheng was preparing to gather men and horses to kill Chuzhou south again, and Chongguang Dao hurriedly stepped forward to stop him.

He said: "Don't be reckless, the Ming army has deployed tens of thousands of horses in Lai'an, and we can't rush through." ”

Li Zicheng said anxiously: "At this time, King Gao Yingxiang and more than 100,000 brothers of the righteous army were besieged in Chuzhou by the 'Hong madman', if we don't open the gap, the righteous army will be finished!" ”

Li Zicheng's nephew, Li Guo, nicknamed "A Tiger", also said: "Fuck it, it's a big deal, we can't leave King Chuang and his brothers alone!" ”

Chongguang Dao shook his head and said, "Even if we all die in battle, how can we break through and break through for King Chuang?" ”

"In fact, if you want to relieve the siege of Chuzhou, you don't have to break through from the front, we can also surround Wei to save Zhao."

Hearing what Chong Guangdao said, Li Zicheng was quite excited.

He said: "But where do we have to fight to force the 'Hong Maniac' to return to the teacher? ”

Chongguangdao understood what Li Zicheng meant, they only have 8,000 people now, and they can't even fight a small county like Lai'an, and it is even more impossible to fight a big city.

He smiled, and then said the word "Fengyang"!

Li Zicheng slapped his thigh with his hand and said, "Seconds! ”

"In order to encircle and suppress us, Maniac Hong must have let all the main forces go south, and at this time, we will definitely be caught off guard when we return to Fengyang."

"The crime of losing Zhongdu Fengyang again is not small, and 'Hong Maniac' will definitely return to his teacher."

At this time, the Ming army had surrounded Chuzhou for seven days, and just when Hong Chengchou was still thinking about whether to attack the city, there was news that the thieves had conquered Dingyuan and attacked Fengyang.

Lu Weiqi was shocked and said: "Now that Fengyang's troops are empty, we have to send troops to rescue it quickly, it is a big crime to lose it again, and you and I can't afford to bear it!" ”

Hong Chengchou pondered for a long time, and finally said lightly: "If you don't save it, this governor can't fall into the trick of the thief Kou Wei to save Zhao!" ”

Lu Weiqi yelled: "The thief said that you are a 'Hong madman', it seems that you are really not wrong!" You even dare not save Fengyang, how many bags did you grow? ”

Hong Chengchou thought to himself: The Fengyang Emperor's Mausoleum has already been dug up by thieves, and even the big trees planted on the side have been burned. Even if the thieves occupy Fengyang again, what can they do?

Of course, he didn't dare to say this directly, otherwise he would be punished.

He said: "Li Zicheng is just a group of rogues, there are not many troops, and he does not dare to really occupy Fengyang for a long time. If Lu Benbing is not at ease, it is enough to lead 10,000 soldiers to rescue, and the governor guarantees that the Liukou will not dare to defend Fengyang! ”

In the end, Lu Weiqi still failed to convince Hong Chengchou, so he had to lead 10,000 troops to rescue Fengyang in person.

Hong Chengchou is Wang Ba eating scales this time - iron-hearted!

We must annihilate Gao Yingxiang's 100,000 righteous army.

At this time, Chongzhen, thousands of miles away, was also worried, originally Hong Chengchou recovered the central capital Fengyang in one fell swoop, and besieged all 300,000 thieves in Chuzhou, Chongzhen was still full of hope.

It seems that Feng Quan's strategy of "four positives, six corners and ten nets" has worked, and he actually caught so many thieves at once.

But the next reports were all about impeaching Hong Chengchou, and the hats were bigger than the other.

He first received the impeachment of Lu Weiqi, the secretary of the Nanjing Military Department, saying that Hong Chengchou, in order to talk about the annihilation of the rogue in one fell swoop, actually did not save him when he saw death, and used Chuzhou as a bait to attract the bandits.

As a result, Liu Taigong of Zhizhou and the 20,000 Ming troops in Chuzhou City were all killed, and Chongzhen was so angry that he wanted to withdraw Hong Chengchou's governor of the five provinces on the spot.

But fortunately, Wang Chenen persuaded Chongzhen in time, and then it was reported that the Ming army broke 100,000 rogues outside Chuzhou City, and surrounded the thief Gao Yingxiang and 100,000 thieves in Chuzhou City.

However, at this time, there was news that Li Zicheng had captured Fengyang again, and Hong Chengchou did not move.

This made Chongzhen furious, and he was about to order Hong Chengchou to escort him back to Beijing on the spot.

Fortunately, with Wang Chengen and others persuading him, Chongzhen reluctantly agreed to give Hong Chengchou another month.

However, I didn't expect that only half a month later, Feng Quan, the secretary of the Ministry of War, and Zhou Yanru, the first assistant of the cabinet, took Hong Chengchou's battle report and ran all the way and shouted: "Chuzhou is a great victory, Hong Chengchou, the governor of the five provinces, led his troops to annihilate the main force of thieves in Chuzhou, and captured the thief Gao Yingxiang alive!" ”

Chongzhen couldn't believe his ears!

He said excitedly, "Is this true? ”

Feng Quan said: "It is true, on March 27 of the third year of Chongzhen, the thief Gao Yingxiang failed to break through the siege and was severely damaged by the He Renlong Department, and then our army took advantage of the situation to conquer Chuzhou City. ”

The battle lasted for more than a month, our army killed more than 50,000 people, a total of more than 280,000 thieves were annihilated, only Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng led thousands of remnants of bandits to escape! ”

Chongzhen, who wanted to punish Hong Chengchou before, suddenly cried with joy!

shouted: "With the blessing of the ancestors of the Ming Dynasty, the Liukou has finally been exterminated!" ”

He excitedly took Feng Quan and Zhou Yanru's hands and said: "Feng Qing has made meritorious contributions to suppress bandits, and Zhou Qing's recommendation of Feng Qing is also meritorious, and I want to reward you heavily!" ”

"By the way, Hong Chengchou, he is the first hero to exterminate the bandits this time!"

Feng Quan said: "Hong Chengchou rushed to Fengyang non-stop, to annihilate Li Zicheng in one fell swoop, in order to redeem the previous loss of Fengyang!" ”

Chongzhen also sighed when he heard this: "Loyal minister, Hong Chengchou is really a loyal and righteous person!" ”

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(End of chapter)