In fact, Li Zicheng had entered Fengxiang Mansion a few days ago and had plans to continue his march.
However, his idea at the time was to enter Hanzhong, supply supplies through Prince Rui's Mansion, and then occupy eastern Sichuan. Sichuan was so big that it should be able to accommodate his and Gao Yingxiang's two groups.
Marching together with Liu Chengzong's Marshal's Mansion, the leaders of the fourth battalion of the Chu Army felt that they would not be able to fight.
It's not that they were willing to fight positional warfare with the Ming army, but that they were working with Liu Chengzong, which placed too many restrictions on them.
Liu Chengzong had too many mules and horses, and there were only a few roads from Longxi to the east. When the army of the Marshal's Mansion passed by, there was no grass growing on the roadside, and there were no birds or animals left.
Li Zicheng didn't want to engage in positional warfare with Zuo Liangyu and his gang in Longxi. The problem was, if he didn't engage in positional warfare, where would he go?
Liu Chengzong broke through the city so quickly. When his troops passed by, the counties in Fengxiang Prefecture watched the wind and fell. The peasant army followed him into Fengxiang. They couldn't even keep up with the heat.
The peasant army originally followed the looting. If there were cities and people, they would have food.
But after entering Fengxiang, the countryside is full of large households that have been raided by the marshal's army. Only an empty big house is left. The tiles on the roof and the water tanks in the yard have been removed, and there are only a few left in the rice tank.
Got poor rations.
When the wealthy families who had dispersed their servants saw the peasant army coming from afar, they were not surprised but overjoyed. They gathered around and asked whether General Li Chuang was in charge of the food.
Everyone patted their chests and said that they knew both the people and the land in Fengxiang Mansion, and they wanted to lead the way to attack the Fengxiang counties under the Marshal's Mansion.
The little leaders of the peasant army below had never seen this battle before, and they all became excited and reported to their bosses that people's hearts could be used.
The little bosses also have their own opinions, but there are not many of them. People think that with this group of gentry who are willing to serve, there is no need to kidnap scholars, capture a few cities, and take the money and food to go elsewhere.
This is not just a matter of ignorance. The peasant army is already in danger, and now it cannot survive without food.
But in the current situation, with Fengxiang Mansion restored to order, there is no room for them to survive.
The organizational form of the peasant army was originally based on survival and survival. Each one followed the leader, which was a no-brainer under the general trend of natural and man-made disasters.
But now this 'method' doesn't work, and the situation has changed.
It’s not just general trends that bring about change.
In Longxi, nine battalions of their peasant army fought side by side and faced off with the Ming army along the upper reaches of the Wei River. Each battalion suffered casualties.
The Fourth Battalion of the Chuang Army and Zhang Yichuan had been operating together in the past, and they were extremely familiar with each other.
The leaders of the four battalions all felt that Li Zicheng was the leader of the fifth battalion, and the remaining four battalions were equally tall.
Now Zhang Yichuan has taken charge of the Henan headquarters of the Marshal's Mansion, but the leader of the Fourth Battalion of the Breaking Army cannot change his old habits for a while, not to mention that he broke out with swords and swords. Who is willing to lower his head just because of an official position?
Therefore, Zhang Yichuan's five generals, Ke Tianhu, Chong Tianzhu, and Song Jiang, could not talk to the Fourth Battalion of the Chuang Army on an equal footing. They were just little brothers.
It is impossible for Zhang Yichuan to break up with his old brothers who worked together before and use the chicken feathers from the Marshal's Mansion as arrows to make them correct their attitude and call himself Marshal Zhang.
So it was very embarrassing to work together, and Zhang Yichuan's five generals couldn't do anything about it.
But after entering Fengxiang Mansion, the situation was different.
Zhang Yichuan had an organization. Before the Henan Fifth Battalion entered Fengxiang Mansion, Yang Chengzu, who was guarding Miyang, had already prepared a camp site for the Fifth Battalion and asked the local women to set up pots and cook meals.
When Wuying arrived in Mianyang, all they had to eat was hot meals with vegetables and meat.
The fourth battalion of the Chuang Army entered Qianyang without any preparations. Yang Chengzu didn't know what to do. He took out the three-day rations for the soldiers in his battalion, prepared dry food for them for one day, and then went to Fengxiang Prefecture to rule the city.
On the first day they entered Fengxiang alone, there were more than a dozen robberies and injuries. The management team led troops to rob a grain transport team from Baoji that was going to Fengxiang to govern the city, and then deserted the team and ran away to the Qinling Mountains;
One hundred leaders led a team to change jobs on the spot and wanted to go to Henan No. 5 Battalion to serve as soldiers.
The chaos lasted for two full days. Wang Wenxiu, the Fengxiang guard of the Marshal's Mansion, responded quickly and established contact with the fourth battalion of the Breaking Army in time. He planned the area for them, stationed them in separate camps, assigned grain transport teams, and supplied grain and grass.
But there are many things that cannot be said.
The wild wolf turned into a domestic dog and could only go to Wang Wenxiu to beg for food. The key was the fear of comparison.
It doesn't matter if everyone gnaws tree bark and drinks river water; it doesn't matter if the marshal's army is well fed and well housed.
Everyone in the peasant army knew that Liu Chengzong's family had a great cause. Not only were their soldiers well-fed and well-housed, but they were also well-equipped and they were also capable in fighting.
But Wang Wenxiu also treated the fifth battalion of Henan equally, but the fourth battalion of the Chuang Army couldn't stand it.
Resentment comes in a strange way.
Wang Wenxiu felt that in the past when you were plundering the city, the gold and silver treasures would rather be chased by the army and thrown to the ground than sent to Xining; now that we have captured the city and can provide the friendly forces with two meals a day, it is the utmost benevolence.
Most of the generals who broke into the fourth camp of the army felt that there was nothing wrong with the matter itself. It was much better to have someone supply the troops with food and a safe place to stay than sleeping in the open air.
But the feeling of living under someone else’s roof is not pleasant.
Who can remain calm?
Li Zicheng couldn't stay in Fengxiang Mansion for a whole day.
It happened that Liu Chengzong's letter arrived at this time, describing a broader strategic prospect. For Li Zicheng, this prospect was exactly what he needed.
Of course, he felt that this route of march was not as good as Sichuan, and it had its own advantages and disadvantages.
Whether it's Henan or Huguang, they all have to go to the front line and fight for their lives.
Moreover, if Liu Chengzong loses the battle in Shaanxi and leaps into Henan, the Huguang army will become a lone army, and it will be difficult to jump to a stable place to rest.
But correspondingly, once the Marshal's Mansion establishes a foothold in Shaanxi, it can provide them with support through Tongguan and Xi'an Mansion.
Risks and opportunities coexist.
Sichuan, which is geographically closed, is more secure in the external environment. Even if Liu Chengzong was defeated in Shaanxi and returned to Lanzhou or even Xining, it would be difficult for the Ming army to invade Sichuan and eliminate him.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Correspondingly, it is difficult for the outside world to provide support to him. Even if he enters Sichuan himself, it will be difficult to withdraw.
Before Li Zicheng saw this letter, he had already thought about finding a way out.
Now that I see this letter, I can only say that it has strengthened my determination and has not affected my decision-making.
Therefore, he received the letter on the ninth day of May and ordered the fourth battalion to set off on the tenth day of May, but he did something else before setting off.
He approached Zhang Yichuan and asked Zhang Yichuan to take the letter from Liu Chengzong and go to Wang Wenxiu to ask for a batch of military rations.
What is needed is not unprocessed raw food, nor processed food, but the marching rations prepared by the marshal's army.
Including fried noodles with sugar, salt, oil, locust powder, a small amount of dried salted fish, dried meat, dried carrots, and bean cakes, a by-product of oil extraction as supplementary feed for military horses.
To be honest, Wang Wenxiu was particularly reluctant to provide Zhang Yichuan's Henan Fifth Battalion with such standard rations.
Fengxiang Mansion is now the grain storage camp of the Marshal's Mansion's Eastern Expedition. It has collected all the Changping warehouses in the mansion and collected grain harvests from various places. There is indeed no shortage of food.
But no matter how rich the food and grass were, Wang Wenxiu would not be willing to provide military rations like this.
If Zhang Yichuan hadn't been very knowledgeable and specified that he wanted these things, Wang Wenxiu would have allocated two thousand shi of white flour to him no matter what, and ignored the food allocation and let him steam the steamed buns by himself. He could eat six of them a day without starving to death.
But after all, Zhang Yichuan is also the chief military officer of the Marshal's Mansion. Now they have to be transferred to the east to attack Tongguan. Finally, they need a month's rations, and they also specified that they need the standard marching rations of the Marshal's Mansion.
Wang Wenxiu pinched her nose and plucked it for him.
He said to himself: This group of losers, with a total combat power of four or five, has to feed 9,000 fucking people, so hurry up and get out of here.
Just after Zhang Yichuan was served, Li Zicheng asked Tian Jianxiu to come and ask for food with Liu Chengzong's letter.
This time Wang Wenxiu was not used to it. He directly allocated 500 shi of white noodles and 3,000 shi of millet noodles according to the strength of the fourth battalion of the Chuang Army and sent Tian Jianxiu away.
He also enthusiastically told Tian Jianxiu that they were all friendly troops, so no need to be polite. If there were any armor in the army that needed repair, they could pack it up at Fengxiang Mansion before leaving.
Tian Jian Xiuxin said that he still needed to repair the armor, but with this little food, he would eat it all after the armor was repaired.
Wang Wenxiu knew very well that since Zhang Yichuan was one of his own and had no fighting ability, he definitely had no human rights. A soldier was half a man.
The fourth battalion of the Chuang Army is an outsider. Whether the outsiders have fighting ability or not, they are all outsiders.
However, he never expected that the mighty 20,000 peasant army came out of Fengxiang Mansion and drove away the Mongolian cavalry who were grazing on the graves on the plateau. While feeding the horses and cutting grass, the two ninth battalions exchanged marches
rations.
Zhang Yichuan used most of the standard line grains in exchange for most of Li Zicheng's millet noodles.
The reason is very simple. Li Zicheng told him that I don't plan to enter Henan, so I have to take Shangluo Road and fight Wuguan to enter Huguang. You have to come to Tongguan by yourself - it will be difficult for you to defeat it.
So why not march together, give me good supplies, and I will fight the difficult battles on the road until you enter Henan.
Li Zicheng weighed the situation in Henan and Huguang, coupled with the strategy described by Liu Chengzong in his letter, and judged that Huguang was a better place to recuperate.
First, he didn't know the situation in Huguang, but he knew about Henan. Henan had suffered a severe drought in the past two years. It was easy to recruit troops, but not easy to find food.
Secondly, he also broke through Shanxi and rushed into Hebei in his early years. He knew that Emperor Chongzhen had a strong sense of distance and the entire Ming court was very sensitive to Henan and Hebei.
If you invade Henan, you will inevitably have to withstand the counterattack of the imperial officers and soldiers from Shanxi, Northern Zhili and even Shandong.
Comparatively speaking, Huguang is in a better location, and it feels like there is no shortage of water, so it should be a better site.
Therefore, he planned to lead troops to break through Wuguan, pass through Nanyang Prefecture and recruit troops all the way to the city, until he entered Huguang, and occupied a territory like Liu Chengzong did in Qinghai.
When the time comes, they will naturally be able to withstand the counterattack of the imperial army, but Li Zicheng believes that the counterattack of the imperial army in the direction of Huguang will be easier to bear.
After all, in a strategic position, Zhang Yichuan was in the north of Huguang to share the pressure, and Shaanxi and Gao Yingxiang, who had Liu Chengzong's back, invaded and caused trouble in Sichuan.
Apart from the local troops in Huguang, the only ones we need to worry about are the garrison in Southern Zhili.
At least in Li Zicheng's subconscious mind, the southern Zhili garrison had been in peace for a long time. Even if the army invaded Huguang, he would probably be able to resist it for a while.
The most important thing is that he really has no idea of competing for supremacy.
If Li Zicheng cannot stand with Zhang Yichuan, he will not be convinced.
But to be together with Liu Chengzong...Li Zicheng felt that they should not be together, there was too much difference.
The surging border soldiers in Shaanxi and the bankrupt peasants' rebellion are the general trend caused by natural and man-made disasters. They are all driven by the general trend.
However, Liu Chengzong's marshal's office went dormant in Qinghai and then entered Shaanxi like a tiger descending from the mountain.
The soldiers are equipped with fine cavalry, cannons, chariots, grain, grass and baggage, and all kinds of experience are also extremely perfect. There are military doctors on the battlefield, and occupying a prefecture can quickly process the grain into lighter standard military rations.
Compared with the more than a dozen regular soldiers of the Shuai Mansion who were well-organized and well-armed, the peasant armies of kings and kings everywhere were nothing more than a small force.
From the moment Liu Chengzong launched the Eastern Campaign, any rebel leader in the northwest had no choice but to be caught in the torrent, and no one could compete with the general trend.
They are the trend itself.
But Zhang Yichuan didn't think so much. He originally wanted to fight Fengyang, but now that he has a chance to enter Henan, it will be easier to recruit troops to fight.
It's a good deal to exchange good military rations for Li Zicheng to fight for him.
Although the standard military rations of the Marshal's Mansion have a great impact on the combat effectiveness of soldiers. They need oil and water, a full stomach, and are delicious and satisfying. However, if his army eats this kind of military rations for a month, the combat effectiveness will not be improved.
There is too much growth.
When it comes time to fight, it will be whatever it is, no matter whether we go through Tongguan or Wuguan, in the end we still have to trade the lives of soldiers for a way into Henan.
On the contrary, Li Zicheng's army has stronger combat effectiveness, and better supplies of military rations can enable them to better maintain their combat effectiveness.
For the Fourth Battalion of the Chuang Army, having a better combat status means having soldiers, money, and food.
Not to mention, Zhang Yichuan actually values and cherishes veterans and soldiers more than people like Liu Chengzong, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong.
Because he only had a few veterans and soldiers at his disposal, entering Henan was one hurdle, and entering Fengyang Prefecture from Henan was another hurdle.
He was counting on these veterans to help him build an army in Henan that could invade Fengyang Prefecture.
In the eyes of others, these veterans may be just veterans, but in his eyes, each of them is the future President-General, Chief-General, Chief-Thousand and even General.
That was really one person missing, and he knew who was missing.
Li Zicheng was different. After leaving Fengxiang Mansion with Zhang Yichuan, he heard the roar of cannons in Qianzhou City in the distance, so he called for the Mongolian cavalry and asked him to take him to find a city that had not been captured by the Marshal's Mansion.
The Mongolian cavalry naturally led him to the south bank of the Wei River. Twenty thousand peasant troops followed a few Mongolian cavalry, crossed the Wei River in a mighty manner, and marched into Yusi County.
They did not attack the city, but plundered the large households outside the city that had not been raided by the marshal's army, and then continued to march eastward. Zu Dale was so frightened that day that he ran away to Hanzhong and rushed all the way to Shangluo Road.
During this process, a small thing happened.
It took Li Zicheng three days to realize that he was missing 500 veterans.
Gao Jie, Li Chengdong, and...his wife is gone again! If you like Naughty Thief, please bookmark it: (www.sodu777.net) Naughty Thief Search and Reading Novel Network has the fastest update speed on the entire Internet.