On the mountain path, six fast horses wearing cages and leather hooves ran wildly. About three miles away from the top of the mountain, the horse running in front suddenly lost its front hoof. The horseman seemed to have been prepared for it, and a kite turned over.
He rolled out and stood firmly two feet away, drawing the knife in his hand, his eyes full of vigilance.
The five horses behind them had no time to rein in, and they both stumbled, and the knight on the horse was thrown so hard that his mouth was filled with mud and stars. At the same time, a dozen men came out of the forest, half of them tied up the five fallen horses and laid them on the ground.
Half of the people on the ground surrounded the standing knight, "Throw the knife away!"
The knight was tall, holding a knife in his hand, and looked fearful. Seeing that the people surrounding him were all dressed in black, he asked: "Are you robbers, or are you brothers who cross the sky?"
Hearing him say the number of the big boss, a man asked curiously: "Who are you and how do you know the big boss of my family?"
The knight nodded. Knowing that these people were Guo Tianxing's subordinates, he relaxed his vigilance and said while sheathing his sword: "Take me to see Prime Minister Huiden."[
Seeing that this man could actually name the big boss, the men knew that this man and the big boss must be old acquaintances, so they also put away their swords. The leading man clasped his fists and said, "I'm sorry, I'll take you there right now."
See the big boss, but ask some of them to cover their eyes."
The knight and his men did not resist. They let them be blindfolded and helped them onto their horses. They did not take off the blindfold until they entered the tent on the top of the mountain. There were many camps on this mountain, all built on the mountain, and the terrain was very dangerous.
It is easy to defend but difficult to attack, but it was led by the rebels Guo Tianxing who had just transferred from Wu'an a few days ago.
The leader of the rebel army, Guo Tianxing, whose real name is Hui Dengxiang, is from Yulin, Shaanxi. He started an uprising in the northwest in the second year of Chongzhen. In the fourth year of Chongzhen, he and the eight kings Zhang Xianzhong and other troops were active in Shanxi. His unit was one of the 83rd battalion of the Shanxi-Henan Rebel Army and one of the 32nd battalion of Henan.
First, there were more than 10,000 men under his command. At the beginning of the year, he followed the eight kings and others to fight in Wu'an and other places. Because the government troops were attacking from all sides, he had no choice but to lead his men back to Gaoze Mountain to prepare for action.
The tall knight's name was Li Zicheng. He was originally a postman in Yinchuan. After the imperial court abolished the post station, he lost his job and returned home. He also owed debts. Because he could not pay the debts owed by Ai Zhao, Ai Ju people sued him to Mizhi County Yamen County.
He ordered Yan Zibin to parade him through the streets with big shackles and almost died. After being rescued by relatives and friends, he killed his creditor Ai Zhao in a rage. He also killed his wife Han Jin'er because of adultery with a villager named Gai Hu.
In this way, Li Zicheng had two lives at stake, the government had to ask questions, and he had to die if he was sued, so he simply went to Ganzhou, Gansu Province with his nephew Li Guo to join the army.
The man who served as the Commander-in-Chief of Ganzhou at that time was posthumously awarded the posthumous title of Taifu Taishi by the imperial court, with the posthumous title of "Wu Xiang" - Yang Zhaoji, the father of Yang Yufan, the Commander-in-Chief of Tongzhou who now led the troops stationed in Laizhou. Li Zicheng was tall and had some abilities under his command, and soon
He was promoted to the commander-in-chief of the army, but later in Yuzhong he killed the general and the local magistrate due to lack of pay, and launched a mutiny.
After the mutiny broke out, Li Zicheng moved to Hanzhong and joined Wang Zuogai's rebel army. After Wang Zuogai was surrendered by Yang He, the governor of the three sides in the third year of Chongzhen, he turned to Zhang Cunmeng, nicknamed "Unsticky", and became a squad leader under Zhang.
Later, Zhang Cunmeng was surrendered to the Ming Dynasty by Chen Qiyu, the governor of Yansui. Li Zicheng also surrendered to the Ming Dynasty after he turned his back. However, he still harbored rebellion and waited for the opportunity to rebel again.
After Hong Chengchou took over as the governor of the three sides in the fourth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng rebelled again and led dozens of his troops to cross the Yellow River eastward. In Shanxi, he defected to his uncle "Chuang King" Gao Yingxiang and was called "Chuang General". Last year, the imperial court appointed Chen Qiyu as the fifth general.
The governor of the province unified the command of the troops of the five provinces to suppress the bandits. Cao Wenzhao, the commander-in-chief of Shanxi, also led his troops to defeat the peasant army in Shanxi one after another, allowing the peasant army to gain a foothold in Shanxi. In desperation, Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and others fled to Henan and Huguang.
Li Zicheng also followed his uncle all the time.
Guo Tianxing and Li Zicheng were old acquaintances. They had been drinking in Gao Yingxiang's tent. Suddenly he saw Li Zicheng arriving. Guo Tianxing was startled and jumped up and shouted: "Brother Li, you are so bold. You are so brave all the way."
Aren't you afraid of running into officers and soldiers?"
Li Zicheng didn't care to speak and sat down, "Water!" (First post:)
"Water, water!"
Guo Tianxing hurriedly called out, and several soldiers brought in several big bowls and handed them to the six people. Li Zicheng took them and drank them all in one go. He drank them all in the blink of an eye, then wiped his mouth and said urgently:
"The situation is urgent. To make a long story short, Zijin Liang and Xing Honglang are surrounded!"
"Ah? Are you surrounded? Where are you surrounded?"
Guo Tianxing was startled again. Zijin Liang and Xing Honglang were the former leader of the alliance, Wang Ziyong, who had the most troops under his command at the time. They also had many men who could fight. How could they be surrounded when they were surrounded?
"Being chased by Zhang Zongheng and You Shilu from Yangcheng to Zezhou, and then by Gao Ping, the eldest son, Tunliu, they were chased all the way. Unable to gain a foothold, they fled into the mountains. You Shilu had already surrounded the mountains. Zijin Liang could not escape.
, I’ve lost my way.” After saying that, Li Zicheng gritted his teeth and punched his thigh. (Author’s note: Zhang Zongheng, Commander of Daning Capital Division; You Shilu, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Ningxia, and his younger brother You Shiwei, Commander-in-Chief of Changbing)
Guo Tianxing also slapped the table repeatedly and sighed: "What a shame, what a shame, what a shame!"
Seeing that he was "pityful and hateful" for a long time without any expression, Li Zicheng couldn't help but ask: "Why, you just sit back and do nothing?"
Hearing this, Guo Tianxing's eyes widened and he asked Li Zicheng: "Control? How?"
Li Zicheng stared at Tianxing for a long time, shook his head, and said sincerely: "Brother, we can't live without Zijin Liang. If he is finished, our rebel army will disperse!"
Guo Tianxing was unmoved. He waved his hand and said: "I'm not saying I won't save you, but brother, do you know how many troops Zhang Zongheng has? Our cavalry army only has a few thousand people, but the officers and soldiers are much more than us.
Moreover, we are still fighting for our lives, so aren’t we going to die? Besides, there is more than a hundred miles away from the camp, and we have to wait until the infantry arrives. The Zijin Liang has already been finished, and You Shilu is waiting for work, aren’t we just setting ourselves up for a tiger’s mouth?
"[
Li Zicheng shook his head and said, "There is no need to run more than a hundred miles."
"Then how to save?" Zijinliang and the others were surrounded in Tunliu, which was more than a hundred miles away, but Li Zicheng said that he could save people without running more than a hundred miles, which confused Guo Tianxing.
Li Zicheng glanced at Tianxing and tapped the middle finger of his right hand on the table, "Beat Liaozhou City!"
"...?!"
Guo Tianxing became more and more confused and looked at Li Zicheng in confusion.
Li Zicheng explained to him: "I don't know how many troops You Shilu has, but I know that there are only four thousand defenders in Liaozhou City and they have food! If we attack Liaozhou, Zhang Zongheng will come back to save it!"
"But it is a city after all, and it is a big city! With only two battalions of us, can we take it?" Guo Tianxing hesitated, the deal seemed a bit hot.
"It's precisely because it's a big city that four thousand people can't defend it, so it's easy to fight! I've contacted Ba Jingang, and he said he will do it as long as you do it. We have 20,000 people and we can't take down 4,000 people?" In order to cross the sky.
Being able to send troops, Li Zicheng tried his best to cheer him up and believed that his plan to encircle Wei and save Zhao would be successful.
"Eight King Kongs?" Guo Tianxing's eyes lit up. Eight King Kongs had more soldiers than him. If he was willing to do it, he would be much more sure of it.
Li Zicheng nodded without hesitation: "Yes!"
Guo Tianxing didn't hesitate, and immediately agreed, "Okay, mother, if you do it with the Eight King Kongs, I will do it too!"
…………
Li Zicheng, Guo Tianxing, and the Eight King Kongs sneaked into Liaozhou City at night and succeeded in one fell swoop. Zhang Zongheng also abandoned Zijin Liang to save Liaozhou City. Zhang Zongheng fought hard to attack the city. Li Zicheng and others persisted for two days and two nights. You Shilu finally came from the west After successfully ascending the city with a ladder, Li Zicheng had already emptied the granaries, so he set fire to the city, opened the east city gate and evacuated. Zhang Zongheng was exhausted and tried to catch up. At this point in Zijin Liang, the peasant army led by Xing Honglang escaped from the encirclement and headed towards Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and other troops moved closer, hoping that the battalions would unite to regain their momentum, but little did they know that a larger encirclement had already surrounded them.
………
After the young emperor ascended the throne, in order to achieve reform, he once issued an edict that whenever there was an emergency military situation or disaster, the cabinet must report it immediately and wake him up even in the middle of the night. Because of this edict, the vassal guards After Hui's King Lu hurriedly reported to the cabinet, Xu Guangqi, the bachelor on duty, did not dare to delay for a moment and sent someone to call the first assistant, Wen Tiren, and the second assistant, He Ruchong and others, to kowtow to the Qing palace when they were ugly.
He drove up late at night, something big must have happened. Chongzhen, who stayed at Tian Fei's house that night, did not dare to neglect, and immediately put on his clothes and came out. After greeting the Holy Ann, Wen Tiren handed over the memorial. There was a red circle in the upper right corner of the memorial, with one in the middle. The word "urgent".
"I just received an urgent report from King Lu. The bandits have arrived in Xishan, Shunde, Zhending, and are close to Jifu!" After Wen Tiren finished his report, he did not dare to speak and stood there cautiously waiting for the emperor to speak.
Chongzhen was also surprised. He took the urgent report and read it. He was speechless for a long time, and then he said after a while: "Shaanxi, Gansu, and Jin are all defeated, but the thieves are about to enter the capital. Zhang Zongheng suppressed the thieves and wiped me down to my heels." Here you go! After driving away the outside thieves, are you going to let the inside thieves surround you again? Do you want me to have another capital defense battle?"
Before Wen Tiren could think of how to answer, He Ruchong spoke first: "Your Majesty, don't worry, this is just a stray thief coming from the mountains and Shaanxi rats. Shaanxi, Gansu, and Jin can be quickly pacified, and Henan and Hebei will also be pacified quickly, and there will be no problem." Let the thieves come to the feet of the emperor."
"Rogue bandits? The prefectures and counties of Huaiqing, Zhangde, and Weihui have been burned and plundered! Are these bandits?" Chongzhen sneered again and again. In the past few months, Henan reported that the situation was stable, and the bandits were no longer as powerful as last year. He didn't want to In just a few months, more than a dozen counties in three prefectures have been completely robbed by bandits. How could he not be angry? You must know that when he first heard about Henan's sweep, he said that so many bandit leaders had been beheaded and how many prefectures and counties had been recovered. At that time, he, the emperor, was so happy that he could hardly sleep. Now the situation has suddenly changed. The bandits who were reported to have been wiped out by the army in the local newspaper have reappeared. Not to mention this young emperor, even an ordinary person would be so angry that he would vomit blood. .
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