In May of the 14th year of Chongzhen, the land of Henan was still in depression. Continuous droughts and locust plagues made it impossible to hope for a good summer grain harvest. Due to the increasing strength of the rebel army in recent days, Emperor Chongzhen had to mobilize more troops to join the Henan Hui Campaign.
, in addition to Yang Wenyue, Hu Dawei's Baoding soldiers, and He Renlong's Qin soldiers, the Ming army's general soldiers who were originally chasing Zhang Xianzhong in the Huguang area also marched north to Henan.
The foreign troops from all directions gathered in Zhongzhou. At that time, Li Xianfeng, the governor of Henan, stationed in Luoyang, the governor of Henan Province, Gaomingheng, stationed in Kaifeng, the governor of Baoding, Yang Wenyue, stationed in Yuzhou, Zuo Liangyu's troops and Mengruhu's troops stationed in Nanyang, and there were also Herenlong activities there.
Western Henan area.
The huge military strength of the army further dragged down the social production in Henan. The distribution of grain and welfare was as urgent as a spark, and the people could not bear the suffering, so they had no choice but to sell their houses and land and hide in the mountains.
However, as the main force of the Breaking Army, nearly 10,000 soldiers and tens of thousands of new recruits, retreated into the mountainous areas of southwestern Henan, the population carrying capacity of the Xiong'er Mountain and Funiu Mountain mountainous areas has also reached its limit, and they can no longer attract hungry people as they did in the past.
I went into the mountains to farm.
In March, Li Zicheng, who retreated from Kaifeng City, first met up with Li Jiyu, the leader of Yuzhai Village, in Dengfeng, and joined forces with him to defeat Songxian County. Then he looked for an opportunity to go south, and fought with Tian Jianxiu in Ruzhou.
After Li Laiheng's two armies joined forces, they went south from Jiaxian, Baofeng, and Lushan, and returned to Nanzhao County, Nanyang Prefecture.
The Ming army commander Meng Ruhu, who was stationed in Nanyang Prefecture, took the initiative to attack, hoping to annihilate the main force of the southward marching army. However, Zuozhen soldiers and horses stationed in Nanyang together with Meng Ruhu received instructions from Zuo Liangyu and stood still, watching the fierce battle.
Like a tiger's success or failure.
Zuo Liangyu and Meng Ruhu had an old grudge. In the past, when Yang Sichang was in charge of the division, Yang Wenruo had thought of replacing Zuo Liangyu with He Renlong, but because the time was not ripe, he had to give up.
Later, Wan Yuanji, Yang Sichang's supervisor, came up with a new plan to replace Zuo Liangyu's seal of thief general with one as fierce as a tiger. Unfortunately, this time it also ended without a cure due to Yang Sichang's violent death.
Although Fierce as a Tiger failed to get the seal of the general who defeated thieves and obtained the power of the president to aid and suppress towns, he was still deeply hated by Zuo Liangyu and regarded as a thorn in Zuo Zhen's side.
When Meng Ruhu came north from Nanyang to challenge the Chuang army, Zuo Liangyu did not give him any obstacles, but just ordered Liu Guoneng, Li Wanqing, Ma Jinzhong and other subordinates to stand still. Commander Zuo felt that this was already a very disciplined move.
He is as fierce as a tiger, dares to fight and charge, and is decisive and brave, but as Yang Sichang commented, "you cannot use the masses." He is dedicated to showing off his personal bravery. When he stood still in Zuozhen, he regarded the intruders as the same as ordinary thieves and thieves in the past.
He thought that even if he could not defeat the invading army under his leadership, he would not cause any major mistakes or losses.
Li Zicheng used Song Xiance's plan to make Tian Jianxiu and Yuan Zongdi fake a defeat at the southern foot of Funiu Mountain, and lured fierce tigers into the mountain. Li Guo, Liu Fangliang, and Li Laiheng had already set up ambush in Funiu Mountain according to the terrain in advance, and fiercely attacked.
As soon as Zhen entered the mountain, he was intercepted and suffered heavy losses.
When Li Zicheng felt that the time was right, he led Li Shuangxi, Dang Shousu and other close troops to attack from behind. The force was as fierce as a tiger and killed as many as three to four thousand soldiers and horses in the town. Most of them were defeated, thus completely losing their combat effectiveness.
"In the battle of Nanzhao, the marshal used his troops very cleverly. He ambushed in front and came out behind, intercepting left and right. It can be regarded as the first time that our army directly defeated an entire town of officers and soldiers from the imperial court in a frontal manner, right?"
Although nearly two months have passed since the Battle of Nanzhao, Li Laiheng still deeply admired Li Zicheng's use of troops in this battle. Li Zicheng's use of ambush, mastery of reserve forces, and mastery of the timing of deploying mobile troops were indeed outstanding.
Far above himself, he is indeed one of the most outstanding tacticians among all the rebels over the years.
"There are 7,000 elite soldiers summoned from the north and south, scattered auxiliary troops and militiamen from Nanyang Prefecture, and more than 3,000 guardsmen. If we add the troops deployed on the periphery of the battlefield, we will prepare to block Zuozhen's reinforcements.
With the troops and horses, a total of almost 12,000 troops were used. The result was only to defeat the fierce tigers, but not to annihilate the town, which is still far from it!"
The person who answered Li Laiheng's question was Liu Fangliang.
Since the great victory in the Battle of Nanzhao, Li Xianfeng (and his subordinates Chen Yongfu and Gao Qian) who stayed in Luoyang, Gao Mingheng and his newly recruited troops who stayed in Kaifeng, and Yang Wenyue and his subordinate Hu Dawei who stationed troops in Yuzhou have even persisted
All the workers from Zuozhen gathered in Nanyang Mansion.
Li Zicheng took advantage of the opportunity when the army gathered in Nanyang for the fourth time, leaving Liu Fangliang's troops on the left and Li Laiheng's troops on the front to operate at the southern foot of Funiu Mountain. He led the main force of the invasion army in a large circle from southwest Henan, sleeping day and night.
It suddenly left Xiong'er Mountain in the north and rushed to Lingbao County, west of Luoyang and close to Tongguan, shocking Henan and Shaanxi provinces.
Fu Zonglong, who had just left the imperial edict and took over as the governor of the three sides, was startled by Li Zicheng before he took office. He hurriedly moved to Henan and asked the towns to suppress Lingbao. As a result, the government and military departments that had just gathered in Henan had not yet
After resting, they hurriedly left the Nanyang Basin and pursued Li Zicheng's main force northward.
Left at the southern foot of Funiu Mountain (mainly in Nanzhao County where Li Laiheng's old base of Xiaohu Village is located), there are two front troops, each with about 2,000 to 3,000 troops. It's just that Liu Fangliang's left camp has more experience.
In addition to the veteran cavalrymen who broke into the camp, Li Laiheng's front line had more than 2,000 soldiers, and there was also a huge potential force in the Funiu Mountains that could be mobilized.
Liu Fangliang was Li Laiheng's spearman and equestrian master. The two had always had a good relationship. During this time, they shared joys and sorrows in Nanzhao County, which deepened their relationship and established a deep comradeship between Zuo Biao and Qian Biao.
friendship.
Liu Fangliang also mentioned the past of Li Laiheng breaking into the camp before he "joined the gang" and said with a smile: "In fact, as early as in Shaanxi, we defeated Yansui Commander-in-Chief Yu Chongxiao head-on and annihilated his three thousand cavalry. But this was Chongzhen
It's been nine years, Laiheng, maybe you still don't know."
Li Laiheng rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. He thought that in the ninth year of Chongzhen's reign, he seemed to be still a half-grown child. He was encouraging Zong Lao to train the militia to assist the government and army in "suppressing thieves". Maybe he even fought against Chuangying?
Fortunately, Gao Yigong came to Li Laiheng's rescue. This young man with a gentle temperament but a hatred of evil had been promoted to the deputy sentry of the camp front standard (Little Tigers) after the Battle of Nanzhao.
He followed Li Laiheng. He was originally talking to Liu Fangliang's deputy sentry Ma Shiyao. At this moment, he took two steps forward and mentioned another topic, saying: "The master's use of troops is surprising. This time, he is going to defeat the enemy.
By constantly trekking back and forth between Xiong'er Mountain and Funiu Mountain, the officers and soldiers were exhausted and defeated, and then they were annihilated."
Liu Fangliang praised: "That's it. Thanks to Laiheng, the two of you and Bai Wang managed Xiaohu Village, Desheng Village and other cottages, so that the two cottage owners were all convinced of Chuangying. The leader led the army to march in the mountains.
Only then can we travel unimpeded and get sufficient supplies along the way, so that we can defeat the enemy and wear down the officers and soldiers."
Li Laiheng was slightly complacent. He knew that in later history, Li Zicheng suffered a setback at the hands of Yang Wenyue and Hu Dawei near Yichuan, and had to return to "Shangluoism" for a period of time, and his development was greatly affected.
Now the invading army is not only not afraid of the mighty elite soldiers, but is also using clever maneuvers to seize opportunities during the movement and form an organized system to annihilate the official army.
This was largely due to Li Laiheng's success in controlling the village owners of Xiong'er Mountain and Funiu Mountain.
After feeling complacent for a while, he smiled bitterly and said: "But we have suffered too much. In the half month when the leader just led his troops to lurk northward, we almost broke into two camps with less than 5,000 troops.
We are really suffering from the tens of thousands of officers and soldiers from Li Xianfeng, Gao Mingheng, and Yang Wenyue's ministries!"
After Liu Fangliang chuckled twice, he comforted Li Laiheng and said: "Fortunately, we have Xiaoyuan Camp to help. They are active in Linying, Shangshui and other places south of Kaifeng Prefecture, and they have also restrained many officers and soldiers. Until now, most of them have been supported
All the officers and soldiers were eating the dust of the master's horseshoes and rushing to the northwest of Henan for reinforcements. On the contrary, Nanyang was empty and unprepared, allowing us to gallop freely."
The Xiaoyuan Camp was a refugee army gathered by Yuan Shizhong in northern Henan. Yuan Shizhong was different from the three major Henan bandits Yu Dazhong, Li Jiyu, and Shen Wandeng who were stationed in the mountain stronghold. Their tactics were closer to those of the Qin bandits such as Chuang, Cao, and Xian.
He was also accustomed to using mobile warfare tactics to defeat the enemy. Xiao Yuan's camp was originally active in Kaizhou (i.e. Puyang) on the north bank of the Yellow River. However, it soon crossed the Yellow River south and moved to develop between the Liang and Song Dynasties.
Active in the southeastern Henan region south of Kaifeng Prefecture and Guide Prefecture.
Li Laiheng and Liu Fangliang stayed in Nanzhao County, and their troops were tight. Even if they retreated to the mountainous area at the southern foot of Funiu Mountain, it would be difficult to contain the officers and soldiers who were several times their size. It was also thanks to Yuan Shizhong's active activities in Linying and other places that the officers and soldiers could not let go.
Use your hands and feet to attack the Funiu Mountains.
The Xiaoyuan Camp had much better records than the three major Japanese invaders in Henan. Li Laiheng had sent Fang Yiren and Liu Jingting to the Xiaoyuan Camp many times to contact Yuan Shizhong, which established a tacit alliance between the two parties.
"Master is right, it was Xiao Yuanying who helped us contain our flanks, which allowed us to move freely throughout Nanyang Mansion."
Li Laiheng pointed his riding crop in the direction of Kaifeng and Guide Prefecture in the east and smiled. The sun was shining high in the east, and the bright sunshine in May was spraying on the grass.
There were a few horses galloping over in the distance. Li Laiheng stared at the sun, squinted his eyes, and recognized that the leader was Zhu You, a subordinate recruited by Li Hao, the leader of Lijiazhai, in Pingfengzhai.
"Zhu You? Is there any news about the war situation in Yuzhou?"
After the main force of the government and army left Nanyang Prefecture, Li Laiheng and Liu Fangliang deployed a new strategy to proactively attack the prefectures and counties of Nanyang Prefecture. Because Li Hao was from Yuzhou and was a very prestigious hero in his hometown of Yuzhou, Li Laiheng took the initiative to attack the prefectures and counties in Nanyang Prefecture.
The first target of the counterattack was Yuzhou.
In addition to Li Hao, Li Laiheng also sent Guo Junzhen, his strongest independent combatant, to attack Yuzhou. In addition, Liu Fangliang also sent his other deputy sentry, the "Soap Eagle" Liu Rukui who had fought alongside Li Laiheng.
Assisted in the war in Yuzhou.
Zhu You stopped his horse, clasped his fists and replied: "Deputy Liu repulsed Li Wanqing's troops at the junction of Yuzhou and Wuyang counties, while leader Li and Guan Guan's team successfully captured Yuzhou!"
Li Laiheng and Liu Fangliang looked at each other and smiled after hearing the news. Liu Fangliang laughed even more and said: "She Taotian, the traitor who betrayed his brothers, finally has his day!"
Li Wanqing, nicknamed "Shoot Taotian", was originally a veteran commander in the rebel army. However, he and "Crossing Taotian" Liu Guoneng were lured by Xiong Wencan to surrender.
Li Wanqing not only killed other rebel commanders when he surrendered and took their heads as a gift of surrender. After the surrender, he and Liu Guoneng worked together to fight for Zuo Liangyu and defeated Zhang Xianzhong in Agate Mountain.
"One Hundred Thousand" Ma Jinzhong and other traitors together became one of the pillars of Zuozhen.