An army of 50,000 led by Chen Qiyu surrounded Xiangyang in mid-March, but the city was far stronger than he imagined.

In terms of the overall environment, Xiangyang is located in the south of the Han River, surrounded by mountains and rivers, and is extremely dangerous.

The two sides of Xiangyang City in the northeast are the Han River, and the Wanshan Mountain in the west of the city and the Baizhang Mountain in the south of the city are also dangerous places.

The army under Chen Qiyu fought hard for three days, and after paying the price of nearly 3,000 killed, finally occupied Wanshan Fort and other strongholds on the outskirts of Xiangyang.

At this time, Zhang Xianzhong had already led the main force south, and there were not many old battalions in Xiangyang City, although there were many soldiers, but the combat power was not strong, and Zhang Wenxiu and Zhang Dingguo had to retreat to Xiangyang City.

5,000 men and horses were lost in the battle outside the city, and there are still 55,000 men in the second city of Xiangfan.

The reason why Xiangyang City is difficult to attack is that in addition to the danger of Xiangyang City itself, there is also Fancheng in Jiangbei and it forms the Xiangfan City Defense System.

The two fortresses face the Han River and are connected by a pontoon bridge in between.

In history, Guan Yu captured Xiangyang, but did not conquer Fancheng, resulting in the final failure!

In the end, Zhang Nengqi led 10,000 people to defend Fancheng in Jiangbei, while Zhang Wenxiu and Zhang Dingguo led 45,000 main forces to defend Xiangyang.

The circumference of the Xiangyang city wall is 15 miles, the lowest point is 7 meters, the highest point is 11 meters, and the width is about 10 meters.

It has 6 gates and 9 towers.

Each gate had a gate, a tower, an urn, and a sub-city on a moat island.

It is precisely because it is surrounded by water on three sides and backed by Da Hyeon Mountain, which makes Xiangyang City easy to defend and difficult to attack, and it is as solid as gold, and it has been called "Xiangyang of Iron Fighting" since ancient times.

The moat of Yangyang is nearly 200 meters wide at its widest point, and only the small island in the moat is connected by a narrow road.

Coupled with the artillery in the city, it was almost impossible to storm Xiangyang.

Chen Qiyu's elite border army attacked for more than ten days, but they only lost their troops, and it was difficult to attack the city wall of Xiangyang, let alone break the city!

After joining forces with Cao Wenzhao, although the troops were large enough, and the firearms of the Yulin battalion also suppressed the bows and arrows in the city considerably.

But the road in the moat was narrow, and the officers and troops couldn't use it at all, although the killing and wounding of the defenders in the city increased, they were still unable to break through Xiangyang City!

So they turned to attack Fancheng in Jiangbei, Fancheng is also quite strong, although Cao Bianjiao once led people to attack the head of Fancheng, but Zhang Dingguo led the army from Xiangyang to Fancheng in time to help, and killed the official army.

In addition, the people in Xiangyang City, in order to protect the land they have acquired, spontaneously went to the city to help the war and cooperate with the defenders, so that they returned in vain after all.

Chen Qiyu and Cao Wenzhao also had to sigh at the solidity of Xiangyang's city defense.

This kind of fortified city was easily occupied by thieves, but now it is like ascending to the sky to regain it.

In order to break Xiangyang, there must first be a powerful sailor to cut off the connection between Xiangfan, and then a large number of Hongyi cannons are needed.

No wonder the Mongols fought for six years!

For now, they can only besiege Xiangyang and transfer 18-pound Hongyi cannons from Shandong.

Wait for the cannon to arrive in Wuchang, and then cooperate with Wuchang's sailors to go north and attack Xiangyang together!

But soon Chen Qiyu received two pieces of bad news.

First, tens of thousands of remnants of Daxi took advantage of the siege of Xiangyang by the official army to break through Zigui and Badong all the way, and now they have broken through Kuizhou and took the opportunity to enter Sichuan.

Second, His Majesty ordered Qiao Yingjia, the governor of Shaanxi, to go out of Tongguan to reinforce Luoyang.

Governor Qiao's army of 30,000 was ambushed by thieves at Lingbao east of Tongguan, and the whole army was annihilated; Now that the thieves have broken through Tongguan and occupied Xi'an, Zhu Cunshu, the king of Qin, was killed by Li Zicheng, and the land in the middle of the pass is in the hands of thieves!

Chen Qiyu and Cao Wenzhao were shocked when they heard the news!

Cao Wenzhao said: "When the western thief enters Sichuan, Qin Liangyu and the white pole soldiers of the old general Qin can go to intercept it, and I am afraid that Luoyang will not be able to save it if it is lost in this pass!" ”

Chen Qiyu also understands the seriousness of the situation, if he loses Xi'an and Luoyang, and then loses the king of Qin Fu and the two feudal domains, I am afraid that even if he defeats Xiangyang, he will not be able to redeem his merits!

What's more, he won't be able to take Xiangyang City at all in a short period of time.

For the sake of today's plan, he can only prevent the situation from deteriorating further by leading Li Zicheng, the former general of the Western Route Army to the north, out of Guanzhong.

So Chen Qiyu left Xiangyang City to Cao Wenzhao, and he took the Western Route Army to the north.

There are only two ways to go back to Shaanxi from Huguang, one is to go upriver along the Han River and go to Xing'an and Hanzhong.

The advantage of this way is that Li Zicheng has not yet captured Hanzhong, and if Chen Qiyu can arrive in Hanzhong in advance, he can prevent the thieves from going further south into Sichuan.

However, it was too far to recover Guanzhong from Hanzhong, and the road was difficult to travel (see Shu Han Northern Expedition).

Therefore, he chose to enter Shaanxi from Yunyang Mansion, and then broke Shangzhou and Lantian to approach Xi'an, the nearest road, and he wanted to take advantage of Li Zicheng's unstable foothold and drive him out of Guanzhong.

There are also two ways to break Shangzhou, one is to break the Wuguan in the south of Shangzhou, and the other is to break the bamboo forest pass in Luoshang Mountain.

As one of the "four stops in Guanzhong", Wuguan has always been the gateway to the southwest of Guanzhong.

The sentinel cavalry reconnaissance and the closure of many thieves, so Chen Qiyu chose the Bamboo Forest Pass.

Zhulin Pass was called Longguan in ancient times, and it was close to the Danjiang River, and it was the key pass of water and land transportation since ancient times.

In the thirteenth year of Ming Xianzong Zhu Jianshen Chenghua (1447), the inspection department was set up here.

However, at this time, Liu Zongmin's army of 50,000 had already arrived here.

He placed 20,000 people on the front line of Wuguan, and he personally led 30,000 horses to sit in Zhulin Pass.

Chen Qiyu's men and horses are claimed to be 50,000, and this time they also lost more than 10,000 soldiers and horses (mainly to Xiangyang City), and there were only 40,000 people at this time, and there was not much advantage in terms of troops.

If the two armies were to go head-to-head, Liu Zongmin's army would naturally not be the opponent of the official army.

However, at this time, they relied on the Guancheng of Zhulin Pass, as well as the barrier of Danshui, plus Liu Zongmin brought the most elite firearms battalion of the Chuang Army.

With the blessing of the range advantage of Lu Mi Gong, the Chuang army fought on a par with the official army.

The two sides fought for several days, and the casualties were not small, with thousands of dead and wounded each.

However, as time went by, it became more and more unfavorable to Chen Qiyu.

A few days later, he received the news that the thief Gao Jie led 50,000 troops to conquer Hanzhong.

At this time, Li Zicheng, the king of Chuang, personally led an army of 150,000 to the vicinity of Zhulin Pass.

Chen Qiyu was directing the army to attack the key points as usual, but unexpectedly, a large number of intruders suddenly appeared on his flanks.

At this time, Liu Zongmin also led his troops to take advantage of the situation to kill.

In the face of thieves all over the mountains, the officers and soldiers were in disarray.

The 178,000 Chuang army and the 35,000 Ming army fought a fierce battle under the Zhulin Pass.

Many of the troops in the army were Ming officials, and at this time they received the land and silver of Li Zi's composition, and their morale was high.

In addition, the Ming army was raided by the invading army and was not able to line up in time.

In this way, the advantages of the officers and troops have been weakened a lot!

Thousands of vanguard troops attacking Zhulin Pass have been surrounded, and the follow-up troops are also retreating under the multi-faceted attack of the intruding army.

At this time, the general soldier was as fierce as a tiger and said: "The thieves are powerful, Hu Dawei, you hurry up and take Premier Chen back to Yunyang!" ”

After saying that, he was as fierce as a tiger, and he lifted his big axe and rushed into the thief army.

With the flying of the tomahawk in his hand, the surrounding troops were constantly killed, and the morale of the officers and soldiers was also boosted!

Soon he was besieged by the invading army, and finally the total army was as fierce as a tiger with dozens of arrows in his body, and died of exhaustion.

However, it was his hard work that made Hu Dawei take the opportunity to kill a bloody road.

In the end, Chen Qiyu fled back to Yunyang Mansion with more than 15,000 Ming troops.

However, Li Zicheng did not order Liu Zongmin to take advantage of the victory to pursue, seize Yunyang and relieve the siege of Xiangyang.

At the moment he had more important things to do.

On May 16 of the fourth year of Chongzhen, King Li Zicheng ascended the throne in Xi'an and proclaimed himself emperor.

The country name is Dashun, and the yuan is changed to Yongchang.

Canonized the light path and Li Yan as the prime minister.

Feng general Liu Zongmin is the Marquis of Ru, and the emperor's nephew Li Guo is the Marquis of Bo.

Other generals also had their own rewards.

And the three million acres of fertile land in the hands of the former King of Qin and King Fu were given to the meritorious soldiers and the people of Luoyang Guanzhong, and the people of Shaanxi and Henan were exempted from paying taxes in the original year of Yongchang!

Then the three prefectures of Yan'an, Fengxiang and Qingyang around Xi'an Mansion all took the initiative to surrender to Dashun.

Li Zicheng lavishly rewarded the surrendered officials.

Now only Yulin is left in northern Shaanxi, and Ningxia and other important towns on the nine sides are still in the hands of the Ming Dynasty.

However, these places were previously transferred by Chen Qiyu with a large number of troops, and now they can only barely protect themselves, and they are simply unable to attack Dashun in the south.

And with the loss of Shaanxi, Gansu and Ningxia in the northwest of the Ming Dynasty have actually lost supplies, and they are also worried about their future at the moment!

According to Li Yan's strategy, Li Zicheng sent people to negotiate with these border troops on favorable terms, if they could surrender Dashun, then he really had the strength to compete for the world.

And after Xiong Tingbi saw Zhu Yousong and the others, he hurriedly sent them to Kaiyuan with a fast horse.

After seeing Li Xianzhong, Zhu Yousong could be described as crying bitterly.

Zhu Yousong said: "My father died tragically, and I hope that the Duke of Liao will avenge his father!" ”

Zhu Yousong confused Li Xianzhong, he said: "I'm afraid that the little prince is looking for the wrong person, you should go to Your Majesty for revenge, and my father can't transfer troops into the customs without authorization!" ”

Unexpectedly, Zhu Yousong snorted, and then said: "Chongzhen didn't save him when he saw death, so he deliberately used his father to attract thieves and kill my father, and asked the Duke of Liao to seek justice for his father!" ”

Zhu Yousong's words, Li Xianzhong is becoming more and more incomprehensible, could it be that this little prince has been stimulated too much and has begun to talk nonsense?

Chang Yun on the side opened his mouth and said: "I haven't seen you for many years, is the Duke of Liao still okay?" ”

At this time, Li Xianzhong found out that the person standing next to Zhu Yousong was actually Chang Yun, the confidant eunuch beside Wanli back then, and he was still alive?

So Chang Yun told the original arrangement of Wanli 1510.

This time it was Li Xianzhong's turn to be taken aback, there was really a "cloth edict".

So Li Xianzhong hurriedly asked people to go to the mansion to get the longevity lock given by His Majesty back then.

I saw that Chang Yun would stack the two longevity locks together, and the pattern on Li Xianzhong's longevity lock was naturally embedded in the other longevity lock.

Then he turned hard, and a yellow silk silk silk popped out of the other longevity lock.

It reads: Ning Yuanbo Li Xianzhong is personally enlightened, the rebel son Zhu Changluo is not filial, coerced Yu me, and the prince is not my original intention. If Zhu Changluo and his descendants dare to harm the Fu King Zhu Changxun after they ascend the throne, Qing can use this edict to send troops to fight for him and support the Fu King to ascend the throne!

The first day of April in the forty-eighth year of Wanli!

This is really sleepy to send a pillow, it seems that Emperor Wanli really loves King Fu, he is afraid that after a hundred years, the prince Zhu Changluo and his descendants will do something to King Fu, so he left such a life-saving decree for King Fu!

Originally, he planned to let Li Zicheng and others break through Beijing and destroy the Ming Dynasty, and then he would take action to recover the Ming Dynasty.

At that time, the gentry in the world will be almost killed by Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, even if they implement the policies of "spreading the land into the mu" and "the gentry pay for food in one", I believe there will be no resistance!

I didn't expect that it would be easy to save trouble now, and it would be good to support King Fu directly!

Although the statement that Chongzhen killed Zhu Changxun is a bit far-fetched, now there is a little prince Zhu Yousong who personally accuses Chongzhen, and Chang Yun, the personal eunuch of Emperor Wanli back then, confirms the authenticity of this edict.

It's enough to block the mouths of people all over the world!

Lord Wanli, after all, you still love your loyalty the most!

You can rest assured that you will do your best to carry out your will!

Although he was very excited in his heart, Li Xianzhong said embarrassedly at this time: "Little prince, it's not that Xianzhong is unwilling to obey His Majesty's last order and seek justice for King Fu!" ”

"It happened really suddenly, Liaodong is short of food and materials under the blockade of the imperial court, and if you want to use a corner of land to fight against the entire imperial court, I'm afraid the chances of winning are not great!"

"Little prince, you have to think about it, once we take this step, there is no possibility of turning back, it is likely that there will be no return!"

Zhu Yousong wiped his tears and said righteously: "My father has endured humiliation and burdens all his life, and he still hasn't escaped Chongzhen's calculations, and this king is unwilling to live like this anymore." ”

"Please also ask the Duke of Liao to help this king ascend the throne, and this king is scheduled to share this country with you!"

"As for the military salary, the Liao State doesn't have to worry, the father has already left a sum of silver for the king, which is enough for the Liao State to raise troops!"

At this time, Li Xianzhong knelt on the ground and said: "My Li family is favored by the emperor, how dare I covet the Ming Dynasty?" ”

"When the time comes, Your Majesty will give me the town of Li Jiashi in Liaodong, and the minister will be satisfied!"

"Lord Wanli has the grace of knowing the minister, and it is difficult for the minister to repay His Majesty even if he dies. The little prince can rest assured, with the elite of the Liaodong Army, and His Majesty's salary, the minister will definitely help the little prince to ascend to the Ninth Five-Year Plan! ”

It seems that Chongzhen's four years are destined to be an extraordinary year.

In January, Zhang Xianzhong was proclaimed emperor, and in May, Li Zicheng was proclaimed emperor, and now it seems that Zhu Yousong is also going to be called emperor.

In fact, Liaodong has long been ready to be called emperor, even if Zhu Yousong is called emperor today, there is no problem.

However, in order to show that he has never had the ambition to be emperor, he still has to pretend to prepare for a month.

After all, although Zhu Yousong is not as fat as his father, his figure is still fatter than himself, and the dragon robe still needs to be changed.

However, the most important thing at the moment is not to ascend the throne, but to defend the Great Wall in the four towns of Yulin, Ningxia, Guyuan, and Gansu.

Although there are not many soldiers and horses in these four towns, there are still 62,000 men.

Li Xianzhong has already calculated that this year's military salary is 1.5 million taels.

Li Xianzhong offered them a salary of 2 taels of silver per month, and Liaodong provided military salaries, grain and grass.

However, these four towns are still hesitating, after all, surrendering Li Zicheng and joining Li Xianzhong is a rebellious act. Now that they have the title of Zhu Yousong in their hands, they won't twist and pinch anymore!

After these years of development, Liaodong's treasury silver has 15 million taels, and there are still 20 million taels of silver in Liaodong Bank that can be borrowed at any time.

It may seem like a lot of money, but it's not enough to spend.

Li Zicheng should now have no less than 6 million taels of silver in his hands, and it is too far to transport food from Liaodong.

Li Zicheng now has an army of 600,000 under his command, and there should be a shortage of equipment, so he just sold arms and war horses to him at a high price.

The usual good war horse is 30 taels, but now it has risen to 100 taels, and I have invested a lot in Monan over the years, and it is time to return to the basics.

The cost of Lu Mi Gong is less than 3 taels, and he sells him for 50 taels.

Anyway, Li Zicheng himself can't produce granulated black powder and Lu Mi gun's special guns, and when he turns his face in the future, he only needs to jam his ammunition.

Now Liaodong has all been replaced with 18-pound Hongyi cannons, and the 24-pound ones have also been successfully developed.

The 12-pound Hongyi cannon just needed to be cleaned up, and the 2,000 two doors were all thrown to Li Zicheng.

But you can't sell the flowering bomb, this thing is too lethal.

Last year, Liaodong also had a backlog of 1 million stone sweet potatoes that had not been disposed of, and at present, Li Zicheng's food was very tight, and these were also dealt with by him.

In this way, Li Xianzhong earned 4 million taels from Li Zicheng in one go through Fan Yongdou, these Jin merchants.

The little prince Zhu Yousong also contributed 4 million taels of silver.

With these 8 million taels, Liaodong's treasury silver has now increased to 23 million taels, which should be able to support it for a year or two.

After this transaction is completed, Zhu Yousong's enthronement work is almost ready.

On June 30 of the fourth year of Chongzhen, Zhu Yousong, the king of fortune, was outside the city of Kaiyuan to officially pay tribute to the late old king Zhu Changxun.

Zhu Yousong denounced Emperor Chongzhen's seven major crimes!

First, the right position is not right.

At the beginning, Emperor Taichang coerced Emperor Wanli and put him in charge of the country.

It is the great rebellion of the minister and the son against the father, and Chongzhen's succession to the throne is naturally problematic.

Second, disrespect for ancestors.

Chongzhen despised his ancestors, and even the central capital Fengyang fell, and the tomb of the Ming Emperor was destroyed.

Although he has issued an edict of sin, he cannot be forgiven.

Third, the cruelty of the clan.

Chongzhen was very strict with the clan, imprisoned the Tang King, did not allow the King of Heng to escape from Qingzhou for refuge, and did not save the Fu King when he saw death.

Since Chongzhen ascended the throne, there have been five vassal kings, including King Xiang, King Tang, King Chong, King Qin, and King Fu, who have died tragically, and Chongzhen has never worked hard to rescue him.

Fourth, the expropriation is tyrannical, so that thieves are everywhere in the world!

Since Chongzhen succeeded to the throne, he has continuously levied "Liao salary" and "training salary", which has overwhelmed the people of the world, so that they have rebelled.

Now Huguang has Zhang Xianzhong's big west; Henan, Shaanxi

Fifth, the Son of Heaven lost his morality.

Since Chongzhen succeeded to the throne, natural disasters have continued in various places, which is God's punishment for his immorality!

Sixth, reckless use of force.

In the past dynasties, the chaos was usually suppressed and appeased, and it was often "supplemented by suppression, and mainly appeased"!

Chongzhen was almost always killed.

As a result, there were repeated defeats in Denglai, and in addition to Shandong, most of Henan and Shaanxi were lost.

As well as important towns like Xiangyang, Luoyang, and Xi'an!

Seventh, changing the ancestral system without authorization

Chongzhen was stubborn and self-serving, and abolished the "red" right of the celebrant for many years in the Ming Dynasty, so that there was an imbalance between inside and outside.

And seriously weakened the supervision responsibility of Jinyiwei Tongdong Factory.

So much so that corruption among officials has become commonplace, and a large number of border troops have not been paid!

After that, Chang Yun, the personal eunuch beside Wanli, read out the edict of Emperor Wanli to everyone!

On the first day of the seventh month, Zhu Yousong was proclaimed emperor in Kaiyuan, and the year name was Hongguang.

Change the fourth year of Chongzhen to the first year of Hongguang!

And named Li Xianzhong, the Duke of Liao, as the "King of Liaodong County", and the governor of the world rebelled!

Under the propaganda of the Intelligence Department, Zhu Yousong denounced Chongzhen's "Seven Crimes" and the content of Emperor Wanli's edict, which soon spread throughout the two capitals and thirteen provinces of the Ming Dynasty!

All of a sudden, the whole country was in an uproar!

Soon the soldiers of the four towns of Yulin, Guyuan, Ningxia and Gansu defected and announced their support for Emperor Hongguang!

The Horqin Department of Mongolia, as well as the Eight Divisions of Chahar, the Ordos Division, and the Yehe Department of the Jurchen Three Guards, were the same as the Jianzhou Division, and the Nurgan Dusi declared Chongzhen as a puppet emperor, and they swore allegiance to Emperor Hongguang!

The vassal state of the Ming Dynasty, Korea and the Ryukyus, even sent envoys to deliver credentials, they did not recognize the Chongzhen puppet emperor, and would be loyal to the Hongguang Emperor.

Li Xianzhong even divided his Liaoguo Mansion into two, and most of it became Zhu Yousong's palace.

When these Mongol, Jurchen, Korean, and Ryukyu envoys came to Kaiyuan to express their allegiance to Emperor Hongguang, he was even more excited.

Suddenly there is a feeling that the king is in the world and all the countries are coming!

If Li Xianzhong hadn't greeted him in advance, he really wanted to reward these people.

And soon Hongguang Daming opened up its territory, Sun Chuanting played, and the whole island of Taiwan was attached to Daming!

Emperor Hongguang canonized Sun Chuanting as the governor of Taiwan, and set up Taipei, Taichung, and Tainan in Taiwan, officially incorporating Taiwan into the Ming Dynasty!

Soon after, the king of the Ryukyus also sent an envoy to express that the Ryukyus had been the king for a long time and was willing to join the Ming Dynasty.

Emperor Hongguang allowed the performance, and established the Ryukyu Metropolitan Protectorate, and appointed Geng Zhongming as the governor of the Ryukyus.

Ryukyu King Shangning was the Ryukyu Bo of the Ming Dynasty.

Then the Mongolian Chahar Eight Divisions, Ordos and other departments requested to be attached to the Ming Dynasty.

So Emperor Hongguang set up the Protectorate of Mo Nan and appointed Xiong Tingbi as the governor of Mo Nan!

The Jurchen Sanwei was originally a Ming courtier, so naturally they didn't need to be attached, but Emperor Hongguang still gave them the title again.

They gave Buyangu, Jintaiji, and Azig three people, Zhongyongbo, Zhongyibo, and Zhongshunbo.

Although the king of Joseon, Jin Zidian, did not mean to belong to the Ming Dynasty, he still sacrificed the Hwanghae Road actually occupied by the Ming army!

Emperor Hongguang still played accurately, and made Kong Youde the governor of Joseon, and actually managed Hwanghae-do.

Zhu Yousong is proud of the spring breeze here.

Chongzhen is miserable here, and now there are five towns in the nine-sided town of Daming that directly belong to Zhu Yousong.

Even Korea and the Ryukyus submitted their credentials to sever diplomatic relations with him, and said to his face that he was a puppet emperor.

However, Zhu Yousong here opened up a large territory for the Ming Dynasty in one go, such as Ryukyu, Taiwan, Monan, and North Korea's Huanghae Province.

Since Emperor Taizu and Emperor Chengzu, there has never been a monarch who has been able to expand his territory like this.

Although these are Li Xianzhong's means.

But the people of the world don't know?

Now he, the real emperor, has been made a puppet emperor, and Zhu Yousong has become a promising monarch who opened up territory for the Ming Dynasty.

There are also Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, who are also emperors!

This year, there were actually 3 emperors, and now there are three dynasties and four emperors in this Chinese land.

This year is the fourth year of Daming Chongzhen, the first year of Daming Hongguang, the first year of Daxi Dashun, and the first year of Dashun Yongchang!

Thank you for your monthly passes, recommended tickets, and follow-up support!

Thanks to the book friend "Chukotka" for the monthly ticket support.

(End of chapter)