After the Dashun Emperor Li Zicheng became emperor, he has been busy stabilizing Shaanxi.

Shaanxi in the Ming Dynasty was very large, including present-day Shaanxi, Ningxia, and part of Gansu!

Especially after the four towns of Yulin, Guyuan, Ningxia and Gansu took refuge in Li Xianzhong, Li Zicheng lost control of the Great Wall!

Makes him very insecure!

However, fortunately, the Ming army along the Great Wall has no intention of going south to grab territory for the time being.

Zuo Cheng said in a light way: "Your Majesty, although the Ming army on the nine sides has taken refuge in the Hongguang Imperial Court, it will take four or five thousand miles for them to transport grain from Liaodong to Ningxia, Gansu and other places, and the grain consumed along the way is several times or even ten times that of the grain delivered. Food limited the size of their garrison and the size of their troops, so for the time being they could not afford to send troops south! ”

"We should take the opportunity to seize Gongchang, Lintao, Luozhou, Taozhou and other places west of Fengxiang."

The suggestion of Chongguang Dao was quickly approved by the Dashun Emperor Li Zicheng.

Although Li Zicheng temporarily obtained a lot of money and food by killing King Qin and King Fu.

However, he Li Chuang did not pay food, so after Li Zicheng ascended the throne, he was exempted from taxes in Shaanxi and Henan this year.

Now he has an army of 600,000 in his hands, and the monthly food consumption of these people alone is 700,000 stones.

If you don't have money, you can hold on, and if you don't have food, you really can't hold on.

His Dashun regime is basically only destroying, not producing!

In order to raise food for the winter, Li Zicheng had to keep grabbing it.

There are still many vassal kings in Shaanxi, except for the richest King of Qin.

There are also King Rui of Hanzhong Mansion, King Han of Pingliang Mansion, King Qing of Yinchuan Mansion, and King Su of Lanzhou Mansion.

Yinchuan is located in Ningxia Town, and Li Zicheng is temporarily out of reach; When Gao Jie captured Hanzhong, Zhu Changhao, the king of Rui, had also been killed; Therefore, King Han and King Su became his target.

After killing Zhu Zhihong, the king of Su, and Zhu Kangji, the king of Han, Li Zicheng temporarily topped the list with the results of killing 7 vassal kings.

plus the King of Xiang killed by Zhang Xianzhong and the King of Heng killed by the White Lotus Sect King Xifan.

At present, a total of 9 vassal kings in the Ming Dynasty have been beheaded and raided.

However, after the Dashun army conquered Lanzhou, the Ming army in the two towns of Gansu and Ningxia began to attack Lanzhou on the east and west fronts.

Lanzhou severed the connection between the two towns, and eventually the Dashun army was forced to abandon Lanzhou, but they succeeded in transferring the property of the Suwang Mansion.

In July, Zhu Yousong was proclaimed emperor in Kaiyuan, and Chongzhen officially broke with the Liaodong Army.

The monarchs and ministers who made Dashun excited.

Now that his old Zhu family is infighting, this is really a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity!

Liu Zongmin and others played one after another, asking Li Zicheng to send troops to attack eastern Henan and Shanxi.

However, Li Yan thought that at this time, Li Xianzhong and Chongzhen had just torn apart, and if Dashun sent troops too early, it was likely to be counterattacked by the Ming army, but Li Xianzhong was cheapened.

So they kept watching.

Unexpectedly, the battle situation was completely one-sided, Li Xianzhong fought to Tongzhou in only five days, and then a large number of officers and troops began to surrender to the Liaodong Army.

Although the news of the loss of the Jingshi did not come at this time, Li Yan keenly predicted that the Jingshi would soon fall.

In the event that Chongzhen was captured or killed, the Ming Dynasty would complete the transfer of imperial power in a short period of time.

Then they won't be able to catch anything.

Not only can you not get it, but you also have to face the powerful Liaodong Iron Cavalry.

So Li Zicheng hurriedly sent troops.

Now Li Zicheng also has a lot of experience in looting, that is, three words "kill the vassal king".

For more than 200 years since the founding of the Ming Dynasty, these vassal kings of all sizes have spread all over the country, and they are all fat and oily!

As long as Li Zicheng kills the big and small vassal kings across the country, then the world will be almost defeated!

This time, the targets of his attack were mainly the King of Zhou in Kaifeng, the King of Jin in Taiyuan, the King of Dai in Datong, the King of Zhao in Zhangde, the King of Lu in Weihui and the King of Shen in Luzhou.

If Emperor Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang learned that the vassal kings he had carefully arranged to defend the Ming Dynasty had actually become the "money and grain package" for the thieves to rebel, the coffin board would almost be unable to suppress it!

In fact, the culprit of this phenomenon is Chongzhen, who first cut the Tang King who recruited troops to defend Nanyang, and then rejected King Heng's request for refuge.

Good guy, if you don't let the vassal king recruit troops to defend the fiefdom, and don't let the vassal king escape, then the vassal king can only wait for death?

No wonder Zhu Yousong wants to create his Chongzhen's rebellion!

Originally, Li Zicheng attacked Kaifeng first, after all, Kaifeng is a big city, and King Zhou is also an old vassal king, with a lot of oil and water.

But not all vassal kings are dead-headed!

King Zhou saw that Li Zicheng led hundreds of thousands of troops to surround Kaifeng, and knew that there was only one way to die after the city was broken.

Not only did he send his own family members to help in the battle, but he also went to the city to boost morale!

It even made people carry the silver box to the city, behead the thief and behead a thief, and reward 20 taels of silver on the spot.

Originally, Kaifeng was garrisoned by 15,000 Ming troops led by Gao Mingheng, the governor of Henan, and Chen Yongfu, the governor of Kaifeng.

After King Zhou offered a high reward, tens of thousands of young people took the initiative to go to the city to help in the battle!

The Dashun army attacked for several days and was repulsed by the official army.

Even Liu Zongmin personally led people to attack the city and was repelled by the Ming army, and the Dashun army suffered nearly 10,000 casualties!

Obviously, Kaifeng is a hard stubble.

In fact, siege cities, especially fortified cities heavily defended by the enemy, are usually taken smoothly in a few months, and it is normal to besiege them for a year or two.

But now time waits for no one, the Liaodong Army is attacking the city and plundering the land all the way, if Li Zicheng is delayed under Kaifeng City for a few months, then basically nothing will be caught!

Soon, at Li Yan's suggestion, they began to divide their troops to cross the Yellow River in Beishan and attack Shanxi and northern Henan.

Before the Beijing division was in an emergency, many of the soldiers and horses north of the Yellow River were transferred to the Beijing division or the Shandong front line by Chongzhen.

In addition, Chen Qiyu went to Xiangyang before that, and also transferred the garrison of Shanxi.

Nowadays, these places can be described as empty of troops, as the saying goes, "the tree dies, and the man lives".

After the Dashun army crossed the Yellow River, it suddenly became extremely brave.

On July 19, the Dashun army conquered Weihui Mansion, and Zhu Changshu, the king of Lu, had already escaped from Weihui Mansion, but when he fled to Huaxian County, the people reported it and was arrested by Li Zicheng.

King Lu owns 40,000 hectares (4 million acres) of granges, even more than King Fu, which can be described as boiling public resentment.

Li Zicheng directly beheaded him!

The 800,000 stone of grain captured from King Lu greatly alleviated the problem of food shortage in the Dashun army.

Two days later, "a tiger" Li Guo captured Zhangde Mansion north of Weihui and killed Zhu Changyu, the king of Zhao.

At the same time, good news also came from Shanxi, Li Yan led the army to conquer Pingyang Fucheng, and Linfen, an important town in southern Jinnan.

Then Li Zicheng personally led the army north to Shanxi, Liankezezhou and Gaoping.

On July 24, the people of Luzhou took advantage of the chaos to open the city gate and welcomed Li Zicheng into the Luzhou Mansion.

Li Zicheng killed Zhu Xiaoyong, the king of Shen, in Luzhou.

Within a few days, the Dashun army broke through the five mansions in a row, killing three vassal kings and a large number of gentry, which directly shocked the entire Shanxi.

Li Zicheng played the slogan of dividing the fields, so that the people of Shanxi all supported it, except for a few gentry in the southern Jinnan area who were willing to sacrifice their family property to serve Dashun, the others were almost killed by the Dashun army!

To the south of Taiyuan, the officials and gentry of Qinzhou, Liaozhou, Fenzhou and other places that had not yet been occupied by Li Zicheng retreated into Taiyuan City under the slogan of protecting Zhu Qiugui, the king of Jin!

So when Chongzhen and the others entered Taiyuan Mansion, the city was full of gentry officials from other provinces and around Taiyuan who came to take refuge.

And Taiyuan's grain has also begun to rise wildly.

Rice, which originally cost 6 yuan a stone, rose to 1 or 2 yuan in an instant.

And the inn in Taiyuan is also full.

Fortunately, Zhu Qiugui, the king of Jin, knew each other very well and gave his Jin palace to Chongzhen as a temporary palace, and their group of people had a place to stay.

Chongzhen said: "Yang Qing, the thief Li Zicheng led an army of 600,000 to the north, and killed three vassal kings in ten days, and his troops pointed directly at Taiyuan, what should we do?" ”

At this time, Yang Sichang was also extremely depressed, he could get rid of Li Xianzhong when he went to Shanxi, but he didn't expect Li Zicheng to block a positive!

However, from his point of view, he would rather touch Li Zicheng's 600,000 army than face 30,000 Liaodong cavalry.

Yang Sichang said: "Your Majesty doesn't have to worry too much, Taiyuan is one of the important towns on the nine sides, and the city wall is tall. Now we have the Xuanda cavalry under the command of Governor Liang, as well as the elite cavalry of my Yulin battalion. Coupled with the original 20,000 border troops in Taiyuan City, it can be described as a strong army! ”

"The thieves are just a rabble, and although they are numerous, they are by no means the opponents of my elite cavalry!"

At this time, Chongzhen's gaze turned to Liang Tingdong, the governor of Xuanda, and he asked, "Liang Qing, do you have the confidence to defeat these thieves and open the passage to the south for me?" ”

At this time, Liang Tingdong was squinting at Yang Sichang from the corner of his eye, and scolded in his heart: Yang Sichang, I grass your grandmother, at this time, you actually asked me to meet Li Zicheng's 600,000 army?

It seems that this "loyal and brave uncle" is not easy to seal, at this time he regretted a little that he agreed to escort Chongzhen south!

But now that the arrow is on Hyun, it has to be sent, and there is only one way to go to the dark at this time.

Liang Tingdong said: "Your Majesty, rest assured, Li Zicheng's subordinates are just a group of people who sell their heads, and the ministers will definitely beat the thieves under the city of Taiyuan!" ”

As the governor of Xuanda, it is naturally impossible for him to personally lead the army into battle to charge, and as for charging into battle, it is naturally a matter for military generals.

This time, Liang Tingdong took Yang Guozhu, the chief soldier of Xuanfu, and Wang Pu, the chief soldier of Datong, to the south together.

Now only the two of them have led the army to meet the enemy!

Seeing that Liang Tingdong was full of confidence, Chongzhen was extremely happy!

Encouraged: "If Qing can help me get out of danger this time, it will be a great contribution to saving the Ming Dynasty, and I will naturally not be stingy with my title!" ”

"Painting cakes" has always been the only way for superiors to motivate subordinates, and it has been the case since ancient times!

Soon Liang Tingdong led 25,000 cavalry south to meet the enemy.

In fact, they hadn't dealt with the Liukou for several years, and they had the impression that the Liukou were still a group of peasant soldiers armed with broadswords and spears and dressed in tattered clothes.

Even if there were cavalry, it was only a small number of light cavalry.

It is simply impossible to be an opponent of these elite border troops.

With 25,000 cavalry, it is a cavalry force that cannot be underestimated everywhere.

Therefore, Liang Tingdong believed that except for Li Xianzhong's "Liaodong Iron Cavalry", there was no strength to compete with them at all.

This is also the reason why he dared to enter the army in the face of the main force of the thieves.

Soon they had their first victory.

Li Zicheng's general Liu Fangliang led more than 10,000 Dashun troops to march along Yuci to Taiyuan.

The Dashun army is not all rough men like Liu Zongmin, Liu Fangliang is very handsome, known as "Little Ma Chao", and is Li Zicheng's favorite general.

However, when the two sides met in the wilderness northwest of Yuci, Liu Fangliang knew that something bad was wrong.

His vanguard was only 500 cavalry, and the rest were infantry, and he never expected that there would be the main cavalry corps of the Ming army in the direction of Taiyuan.

The violent vibrations caused by the galloping of tens of thousands of war horses, as well as the dust they raised, made almost every soldier of the Great Shun Army feel fear in their hearts.

Liu Fangliang ordered his soldiers to quickly flee into the nearby woods, while leading his 500 cavalry to meet the enemy to buy time for the infantry to escape.

Wang Pu, the chief soldier of Datong, found that there were only more than 10,000 people in the Dashun army in front, and most of them were infantry, and hurriedly led his 10,000 horsemen to rush towards Liu Fangliang and others.

How could he let go of this kind of cheapness? However, Liu Fangliang was not optimistic here, and his men and horses were killed more than 300 people after only a face-to-face with Wang Pu's Datong cavalry.

The adjutant general shouted directly: "General Liu go quickly, and the last general will stay behind." After speaking, he slapped the back of his knife heavily on Liu Fangliang's war horse! ”

Liu Fangliang understood that even if his spear killed a few more Ming soldiers, it would be useless, and his vanguard battalion would definitely be finished!

It is better to hurry up and report this important situation to Li Zicheng.

Li Zicheng and Li Yan were also shocked when they learned of this situation.

The cavalry of the tens of thousands of border troops in Datong had already moved south from Taiyuan.

In fact, at this time, there were also a lot of cavalry in the Dashun army, and Li Zicheng currently controlled parts of northern Shaanxi and Gansu, and accepted a large number of surrendered troops from the Ming Dynasty.

600,000 people is claimed, and all the men and horses he went north this time are 320,000, including 30,000 cavalry.

However, his soldiers did not intend to use their precious cavalry to fight head-on with the elite cavalry of the Ming army.

They soon sent several groups of about 1,000 people to lure the officers and soldiers.

Wang Pu had defeated Liu Fangliang's vanguard camp before, and his morale was high at the moment, and he was overjoyed when he found that the Dashun army was moving north in waves.

He will not let go of this kind of opportunity to earn people's heads.

He ordered his troops to continue south to attack the bandits, and was eventually lured by the Dashun army into the vicinity of Mengshan on the west side of the Fen River.

At this moment, he was facing more than 100,000 Dashun troops, not only a large number of cavalry, but also a lot of firecrackers.

In fact, if you fight hard head-on, although Wang Pu's Datong army has few soldiers, it may not have the strength to fight with the good equipment of the border army.

But he chose to run away.

Due to the narrowness of the road, his ranks soon panicked.

When he retreated to the Fen River, he found that the only bridge had been destroyed by the Dashun army.

Although the follow-up men and horses of Yang Guozhu, the chief soldier of Xuanfu, were already on the other side of the Fen River at this time, because they could not cross the river, they could only watch Wang Pu's men and horses being surrounded and annihilated by the uncle's army.

In the end, Wang Pu only took 3,000 people to fight out of the encirclement, but he didn't dare to go back to recover his life in this defeat, so he simply took his heart and ran back to Datong directly with the 3,000 remnants!

When Li Zicheng and Li Yan saw that there were still a large number of Ming cavalry on the other side of the Fen River, they were also apprehensive!

Fortunately, the Ming army was blocked by the Fen River and had no way to cross the river.

If they were asked to join forces with more than 20,000 cavalry, they would not be able to push back their hundreds of thousands of people by the Ming army.

However, after this battle, Li Zicheng did not dare to march in the plains on the east bank of the Fen River.

Instead, he went to the mountainous area on the west bank of the Fen River and dealt with Liang Tingdong and Yang Guozhu!

Yang Guozhu soon felt that something was wrong, he said: "There are many thieves and soldiers, and we have few soldiers, if they divide their troops to raid Taiyuan, we will be passive." ”

Liang Guodong disagreed, he said: "Taiyuan City is on the east side of the Fen River, and now we have defended a few ferries, and they can't cross the Fen River at all!" ”

"If they send troops to attack Taiyuan from farther upstream and downstream, we are not afraid, we are all cavalry, and we can rush back to Taiyuan in less than half a day!"

Yang Guozhu thought about it, Taiyuan itself is one of the important towns on the nine sides, and the combat power of the defenders is also very strong.

What's more, the city of Taiyuan is tall, and even if the army is divided, it is impossible to break through Taiyuan in a short time.

Their siege troops near Taiyuan were instead vulnerable to surprise attacks by their own cavalry.

Just when the Dashun army looked at Fenshui and sighed, they were at a loss.

Li Yan's friend Song Xiance suddenly visited.

Song Xiance naturally came with a mission, and the level of the light path was limited, although he was the left prime minister of Dashun. However, Li Zicheng more often left him in Guanzhong to guard the rear, and he trusted Li Yan more.

As a result, it was difficult for the Intelligence Department to grasp the movements of the Dashun Army in a timely manner.

So he sent advice to Li Zicheng's side again.

Fortunately, he and Li Yan are old acquaintances, otherwise it is estimated that it will be difficult for Li Zicheng to be treated by Li Zicheng with his appearance.

Song Xiance said: "When Song Taizu attacked Taiyuan, he built an embankment to flood Taiyuan, why didn't Your Majesty follow suit? ”

Li Yan said: "This method does not work, not to mention that today's Taiyuan Mansion is not the same place as Taiyuan City back then. ”

"With the current volume of the Fen River, even if we can build a dam, I'm afraid it will take a few months, and Li Xianzhong's Liaodong Army may have already taken Taiyuan!"

Song Xiance said with a smile: "If you want to flood Taiyuan City, it is naturally a big project, but what if Song just wants to flood the Ming cavalry on the other side, let them fall into the quagmire, and affect their mobility?" ”

Li Yan was also stunned at this time, and said, "Brother Song, this is really a stroke of genius!" ”

So they had a dam built in the upper and lower reaches of the Fen River.

Although some soldiers reported that the water level of the Fen River had suddenly dropped in the past two days, Liang Tingdong did not care.

If you want to flood Taiyuan, you can't do it in a few months, and since these thieves are willing to waste their strength, he doesn't bother to care about them.

But he never thought that Li Zicheng was going to flood Taiyuan City at all, and it was not even his military camp.

After the turbulent Fen River was blocked by the embankment downstream, it directly broke through the river channel on their side, and the river surged towards them.

Although their camp was too high to be swallowed up by the river, it was all around it.

Even if they ride their horses into the water, they will be stuck in an endless quagmire!

And Li Zicheng's army took advantage of the fact that they were trapped and swaggered across the Fen River from other ferries and went straight to Taiyuan!

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