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Li Zicheng followed his plan, and after opening the granary to release grain, he really won the support of the people.He no longer killed civilians indiscriminately, not even small landlords, but only big landlords, big merchants and officials.

After the public trial, Li Zicheng began to recruit soldiers.

This time, we did not wantonly expand our troops, but only selected [-] young men, and after more than a month of training, we will attack Luoyang in the north.

Niu Jinxing said: "If your majesty breaks through Luoyang this time, you should recruit refugees to settle the land. It will only take a year or two before you will have enough food and no need to plunder in the future. Take Luoyang as the foundation and seek the whole of Henan, and then take down Shanxi. , then you can attack Beizhili from both sides, and seize Beijing and watch the world."

Li Zicheng said worriedly: "It will take one or two years for reclamation. What if there is another catastrophe? Wouldn't it be a waste of time? The gentry in various places are powerful and have a lot of food in their families. It is more cost-effective to rob them."

Niu Jinxing said: "Your Majesty, you have never heard of bandits who conquered the world. If you want to conquer the world, you must have a foundation. Henan is the land of Longxing."

Li Zicheng thought seriously.

Niu Jinxing took out the "Datong Collection" and said: "Jiangxi Zhao Tianwang, sitting on two and a half provinces, has a tendency to flourish. This book is the essence of his political strategy. The strategy is very good.”

Li Zicheng felt that it made sense: "When Luoyang is taken, if the officers and soldiers don't come to beat me again, then try to farm the fields. It is possible to release the slaves, but there is no need to divide the land. Let the refugees and tenants come to farm and farm for me."

The two were chatting, and the soldiers came to report.

"Your Majesty, another rebel army has come to vote, and the leader is still a warlock."

"Bring him in."

Song Xiance was brought in, declared his name, and bowed to Li Zicheng.

Li Zicheng asked, "What skills do you have?"

Song Xiance replied: "Qimen dunjia, art of war and strategy, map prophecy and secret art, everything is perfect."

Niu Jinxing frowned. As a former Juren, he hated this kind of magic stick very much.

Song Xiance also said: "There are many white lotus followers in Henan, and there is a prophecy in the White Lotus Sect that says: 'Eighteen sons, the main artifact.' I watch the sky at night and burn incense to divination. The prophecy means that Li Chuang will win the world."

"That must be the meaning!" Li Zicheng was overjoyed.

It's not that Li Zicheng really believed in a magic stick.

It was this prophecy that was spread in the White Lotus Sect.As long as he has something to do with the prophecy, Li Zicheng can gain the support of the White Lotus Sect, or at least cooperate with the White Lotus Sect.

Moreover, the White Lotus Sect has a great influence in Henan, and even ordinary people are often bewitched.Once the "eighteen sons, the main artifact" is confirmed, the people of Henan will be sure that Li Zicheng is the true son of heaven.

When Fengyang was conquered back then, Zhang Xianzhong was eager to proclaim himself emperor, also in order to subdue the White Lotus Sect, because that emperor title was also passed down by the White Lotus Sect.

Song Xiance smiled and said: "I also made up two nursery rhymes: 'Open the gate to welcome the King Chuang, and when the King Chuang comes, he will not pay the food. When the city is built, there must be people who welcome the people who break into the city."

"That's a good idea, sir is really capable!" Li Zicheng became more and more happy.

But Niu Jinxing secretly screamed that it was too bad, this magic stick will do bad things.

Confucian scholars hate magic sticks!

……

It is dozens of miles northwest of Ruzhou.

The sun is shining.

Zuo Liangyu stood still and sent a large number of cavalry to find out information.

"kill!"

Meng Ruhu sits in the command of the Chinese army, his son Meng Xianjie, guerrilla Guo Kai and Li Shizhong are fighting hard.

Yilong, Zhang Panzi, Song Jiang, and Yuan Laoshan, the four leaders commanded more than 5 troops.They planned to attack Luoyang together with Li Zicheng, but they never expected that the officers and soldiers who suppressed the thieves in Kaifeng Mansion and Runing Mansion would have already quietly killed them.

Just when the formation of the Peasant Army was unstable, General Liu Shijie led two hundred Ding cavalry, and suddenly went around to attack the flanks.

Two hundred Ding cavalry rushed into the formation of thousands of rebels, penetrating like a knife cutting tofu.

The thief's first judge didn't even react, Liu Shijie had already killed him on horseback, and chopped him down here with a single knife.

The thieves are in chaos.

The sentinel rushed back: "General, the bandits will be defeated!"

Zuo Liangyu got on his horse, raised his arms and shouted: "Boys, follow me to kill thieves!"

Zuo Liangyu led his troops to kill, and the thieves were defeated.This guy not only robs people's heads, but also robs property, and divides his troops to plunder the bandits' luggage.

Furious as a tiger, he stopped chasing and killing the rebels, and led his troops to stop Zuo Liangyu: "I will fight hard, and you wait and see from a distance. When the bandits are defeated, you come here to claim credit. Believe it or not, I will fight you today!" !"

Zuo Liangyu knew he was wrong, and smiled apologetically, "Brother, don't worry, all the soldiers under his command don't have eyes, so I will restrain them myself immediately."

The two discussed how to distribute the spoils, and immediately led their troops to hunt them down.

General Liu Shijie pursued him the deepest, and when he reached the vicinity of Niangniang Mountain, a large number of rebels suddenly appeared in ambush.

However, Luoyang was difficult to conquer. Li Zicheng first took the surrounding counties, and heard from the people who fled from the south that many officers and soldiers were found in the direction of Ruzhou.

Li Zicheng immediately led the main force to ambush at Niangniang Mountain first.

At this moment, Li Zicheng's cavalry rushed towards Liu Shijie who had been chasing him for a long time.

Liu Shijie turned pale with fright, but instead of turning around and running away, he charged towards an enemy several times larger than himself.He knew there was no way to escape, so he could only fight hard at this moment, because the horse under his crotch was already tired, and he couldn't outrun Li Zicheng who had been waiting for a long time.

A fierce cavalry confrontation appeared.

Liu Shijie drew his bow and fired two arrows in a row, without checking whether he hit the enemy, he hung up the bow and arrow and raised his gun and moved forward.

It is not a dense cavalry formation, and there is a wide distance between the horses.Liu Shijie stabbed the enemy in front of him with one shot, raised his hand and smashed another enemy, and rode his horse straight to the direction of Li Zicheng's commander-in-chief.

Li Zicheng was equally brave, and rushed towards Liu Shijie with his knife in hand.

When the two fought, Liu Shijie was already injured, and his movements became much slower.Just as he raised his spear and stabbed out, Li Zicheng swung his knife and slashed at him, and he was immediately chopped off by the horse.

"Kill it back!"

Li Zicheng's cavalry was not many, and he was defeated in the first two years, leaving only a thousand cavalry, and he expanded to two thousand cavalry.

With two thousand cavalry, he followed the direction in which the rebels were fleeing, and after a while, he saw the pursuit of the officers and soldiers.

During the pursuit of the officers and soldiers, the formation has been chaotic, or completely out of formation.

When Li Zicheng's two thousand cavalry came, the officers and soldiers suddenly collapsed, and the general was completely unable to stop.

"withdraw!"

Zuo Liangyu ran away with the elite directly, he didn't want thousands of miscellaneous soldiers, they could be recruited anytime anyway.

As fierce as a tiger but very upright, he ordered his sons and generals to lead their families to fight.

Song Jiang, the leader of the thieves, was not dead. Seeing Li Zicheng's rescue, he beat gongs and drums and began to gather troops. Soon hundreds of people gathered and returned.Many rebels who fled subconsciously turned around and ran, and more than 6000 people quickly gathered around Song Jiang.

Meng Xianjie died in battle.

Guo Kai was killed.

The officers and soldiers collapsed across the board, and only the servants were left to persevere.

When Meng Ruhu saw his son collapsed, his heart was bleeding.But this battle has been lost, so he can only escape with the rest of the troops. He really wants to go back and chop Zuo Liangyu who ran away!

If Zuo Liangyu joins forces to attack, there is still room for this battle, maybe Li Zicheng can be defeated.

Outside Luoyang City, the officers and soldiers won a big victory.

Li Zicheng's camp stretched for more than ten li, and it frightened Yang Sichang at first.Knowing that the county town next door had been captured, Yang Sichang immediately dispatched troops to attack the camp outside Luoyang City, beheading hundreds of bandit soldiers, taking more than [-] prisoners, and more than [-] fleeing.

Both Li Zicheng and Yang Sichang won the battle, but the number of bandits was more and more, and the officers and soldiers were fighting less and less.

The situation in Henan has deteriorated, not to mention that there is Zhang Xianzhong who is doing big in Hubei.

Chapter 312 [Huguang Water Battle]

The governor of Yunyang was changed again, and his name was Wang Aoyong.

This guy was a second minister in history. He was first arrested by Li Zicheng to torture his salary, and then he fled to Dorgon, and directly became the servant of the household department and the minister of the Ministry of industry-he was killed by Li Zicheng's generals.

The previous two governors of Yunyang were both very good at fighting.

But they had conflicts with Yang Sichang, so Chongzhen thought they would not fight.Now that Wang Aoyong has been exchanged for the front line, the situation in Hubei has taken a turn for the worse!

Wang Aoyong was played around by Zhang Xianzhong. He was exhausted and suffered several defeats in succession.

In the end, not daring to move, Wang Aoyong shrank in Yunyang, and the rest of the generals shrank in Xiangyang.

Zhang Xianzhong took the initiative to lure him, but the officers and soldiers couldn't hold out.

"Eight Great Kings, the spies report back, Jingmen is empty, and Lu'an is also empty!"

Zhang Xianzhong occupied De'an Fucheng at the moment, and sent spies to inquire everywhere, but as a result, his troops on both sides were empty.

Where should we fight?

The former governor of Anlu was Shi Kefa, who had jurisdiction over Anqing, Luzhou, Taiping, Chizhou and other places.

Shi Kefa was lucky, only two months after Ding You returned home, Fei Ruhe went to fight in Taiping.

Zheng Eryang, the new governor of Anlu, transferred all the elite troops from Jiangbei to Taiping Mansion and Wuhu to defend the city in order to resist Fei Ruhe.

This is also the reason why Fei Ruhe was unable to defeat the Taiping Mansion after a long delay.

What Fei Ruhe was facing in the Taiping Mansion was the Jiangbei new army trained by Shi Kefa, and there were also capable governors and prefects defending the city.

At the same time, the governor of Huguang also changed, and the new governor was named Xu Renlong.

Fang Kongzhang, the former governor, trained sailors in Dongting Lake, and was dismissed and sent to prison just after he finished his training.

When Xu Renlong heard that the Jiangxi thieves were attacking the various prefectures in Dongting Lake, he immediately transferred the troops along the river from Hubei and led the navy to fight a decisive battle around Dongting Lake.

So Zhang Xianzhong was at a loss. The officers and soldiers of Xunyang were beaten by him so that they dared not come out, and the soldiers from Hubei and Jiangbei all went south to beat Zhao Han.The rest of the officers and soldiers all went to Henan to beat Li Zicheng, and for a while no one cared about him.

Happiness came so suddenly, which made Zhang Xianzhong, who had been chased and blocked for a long time, feel a little out of place.

According to the administrative division of later generations, Zhang Xianzhong can fight wherever he wants in the entire central and northern parts of Anhui, as well as the central and southern parts of Hubei!

"Your Majesty, if you don't take what God has given, you will be blamed instead," Liao Zhifang said, cupping his hands. "In the current situation, Li Zicheng is in Henan, and Zhao Han is in the south of the Yangtze River. Jiangbei cannot fight, otherwise the future is likely to be attacked by the imperial court and Zhao Han from north to south. Take Jingmen first, use Jingmen as the foundation of your life, and fight south to the Yangtze River."

Zhang Xianzhong nodded and asked, "And then?"

Due to the great changes in the world line, Zhang Xianzhong's military adviser has changed, and Liao Zhifang, a juren, appeared out of nowhere.

Liao Zhifang pointed to the map and said: "After occupying Jingmen and Jingzhou, send a partial division all the way to the east to Huangmei County, and draw the river with Zhao Han to rule. Then go north and take De'an Mansion, and then only Yunyang and Xiangyang will be left. The Second Mansion. No matter what method you use, if you get rid of the officers and soldiers in these two places, you can enter Sichuan without any worries."

"The other side of the river is called Hunan by the thief Zhao, so our side is called Hubei. Your Majesty takes Hubei as his foundation, and then takes over the land of abundance in Sichuan. In this way, you can reject Zhao Han in the south, go to Shanshan in the north, and go to Jiangbei in the east. While training troops , While governing the people, recharge your batteries and watch the changes in the world.”

"Good idea!" Zhang Xianzhong clapped his hands, "Mr. is really my Zhuge Liang."

Liao Zhifang said: "It is advisable to send troops quickly, and the opportunity must not be missed. Your Majesty, those who plot the world must not kill innocent people indiscriminately, and must clean up military discipline."

Zhang Xianzhong nodded and said, "I know, I won't kill indiscriminately in the future."

Xu Renlong, governor of Huguang, ordered the governor of Yunyang to contain Zhang Xianzhong before dispatching troops to the south.

Unexpectedly, Governor Xunyang shrank directly.

Zhang Xianzhong divided his troops into two groups, as if entering a land without people.

All the way to attack Hanyang by surprise, first send the internal response into the city, and then the internal response and the external cooperation, easily take down Hanyang.

Zhang Xianzhong's main force succeeded in a surprise attack on Yingcheng, and then on Jingshan and Chengtianfu.

The officers and soldiers in the south of the Yangtze River are rotten, how much better can the north be?

As long as the imperial army is not there, those cities will be nothing but paper.Historically, even the important town of Xiangyang, Zhang Xianzhong took it by surprise attack, and the city was full of supplies mobilized by Yang Sichang.

While capturing the city, Zhang Xianzhong expanded his troops, and his strength exceeded 15 in a blink of an eye.

As for the combat effectiveness of those recruits, it is hard to say.

Zhang Xianzhong's four godsons all became powerful and handsome, each commanding [-] troops, and began to attack from all directions.

Seeing that the bandits are getting bigger and bigger, the officers and soldiers of Yunyang and Xiangyang are even more afraid to move.They were stalling for time, waiting for Yang Sichang to get rid of Li Zicheng, and then officers and soldiers from all walks of life came together to encircle and suppress Zhang Xianzhong.

Taking Jingzhou Fucheng, Zhang Xianzhong watched a water battle.

The Jiangxi Navy and the Dongting Lake Navy fought on the waters of the Yangtze River.

Zhang Xianzhong didn't have a telescope, so he could only stand on the top of the city and watch the battle with his naked eyes.

"It's really spectacular." Zhang Xianzhong said dumbfounded.

The surface of the river is densely packed, full of warships and sails, and there are three or four hundred ships in total.

The officers, soldiers and sailors are all converted merchant ships. Although there are more in number, there are relatively few large ships.occupy an upstream position.

The Jiangxi Navy has more large ships and fewer overall.Take the upper hand.