stubborn thief

Chapter 429

On November [-]th of the sixth year of Chongzhen, at the eastern foot of Taihang Mountain, Wu'an County, Zhangde Prefecture, Henan Province.

It is cold and freezing, and the banners of various colors in the mountains are covered with dew and frozen into ice edges. The Shanshan Peasant Army set up the 57th Battalion in Taihang Mountain, and the horses galloped back and forth between the criss-crossing mountain roads. out far.

Li Zicheng hugged his fur robe by the lakeside, and the cold wind blew up the hem of his arrow jacket, exposing his high cotton boots. He drove his mount with his hand holding a felt hat, and drove the horse towards the frozen lake.

The felt hat in his hand is not Fan Yangli, but a military hat that was popular in ancient times. Because the lace is not afraid of bumps, it is convenient to use on horseback. However, it was replaced by the Confucian crown belt during the Wanli period and has disappeared from the people.

It was not until the reign of Tianqi and Chongzhen that this kind of hat became popular again in Xuanfu. It was made of various materials such as soap gauze and lacquered gauze, and it was also decorated with gold leaf or hanging ponytail and egret feathers.

It is the military cap worn by Xuanfu military officers, captives, and guards of honor when they meet the chief. It means to get fame immediately, so it is called Xuan cap.

As the peasant army fought in Shanxi, Henan, and North Zhili for a year, the most disciplined battalion in the 57th Battalion fought against various officers and troops without a fight, killing generals and breaking the army one after another, and established unparalleled prestige.

This hat is Li Zicheng's spoils of war, and it is also a symbol of military officers big and small who broke into the camp to show off their might.

Li Zicheng watched the horses walking on the ice, turned around and looked to the south, and slowly spit out a white mist. The winter this year was colder earlier than in previous years, and it was also colder. Jingniang Lake was frozen solid, and the Yellow River was not far away. up.

They want to break through.

Back at the camp of Changuo Temple in Dingjinyan, Li Zicheng led his horse and walked on the mountain road between the stone statues, when he heard a report from a soldier behind him: "General, King Hengtian has persuaded Zhang Miaoshou, Ma Huihui and others to join forces with the Wu'an faction. People pretended to surrender."

Li Zicheng froze for a moment, nodded heavily and said, "Okay!"

On the five-hundred-mile-long battlefield within the Taihang Mountains, the imperial court conscripted talented and fierce generals from all walks of life who were accustomed to fighting to form an elite group, forming a huge encirclement circle for the rebels.

General Liang Fu was stationed in Baoding, Lu Xiangsheng led the Tianxiong Army of Daming, Guangping, and Shunde, and Zuo Liangyu led the Changping Army to station in Henan. The soldiers served on the battlefield, and Qin Liangyu's son Shizhu chieftain Ma Xianglin, and daughter-in-law Zhang Fengyi led the Shizhu army, all of whom are elite soldiers and strong generals.

But as time went by, the advantage of the rebel army became bigger and bigger.

For both the official army and the rebel army in this year's war, the officers and generals were intimate and exhausted their courage and strength.

The [-] Maobing soldiers in Fuyuan, Henan Province were repeatedly defeated in repeated battles, and they were beaten to surrender. Zuo Liangyu led the army to help, and moved to Henan with a lone army. Then Ma Xianglin led the Shizhu Army to Henan to help in the battle, and his wife Zhang Fengyi stayed in Zhangde Mansion counterinsurgency.

Then Zhang Fengyi was killed by the rebel army at Linming Pass in Yongnian, and most of the Shizhu army under his command was wiped out.

The rebels besieged Tangyin, and Sichuan general Deng Qi was heavily besieged by the rebels at a place called Tuqiaowo on the outskirts. .

But after that, the situation took a sharp turn for the government and the army.

First, Ma Xianglin, who had lost his wife, blamed his wife for being besieged by a lone army. Sun Hongmo, Yang Fang and other generals of the Baoding Fuyuan Central Army led the army close at hand but did not rescue her.

Then Deng Qi’s Sichuan army had been out of Sichuan for four years. Deng Qi’s promise to return home after the battle failed to be fulfilled.

Liang Fu, Zuo Liangyu, and Tang Jiuzhou fought quite well, but seeing that the encirclement had succeeded, the imperial court sent Ni Chong, Wang Pu, eunuchs Yang Jinchao, Lu Jiude and others from the Beijing camp to collect their contributions.

Forget it, the Beijing army actually caused them a lot of trouble.

Liang Fu, the general of Baoding, moved his camp to Shunde Mansion to assist in the suppression of bandits in Handan, Yongnian, and Linmingguan.

The governor of Zhenbao, Ding Kuichu, who followed the Baoding army, wanted to commend his bravery, but found that the thieves that the people of Handan wanted to kill were not Li Zicheng's generation, but the Jingying army.

Because there is a small battalion in the Beijing Army, which is the Liao soldiers under Wang Pu's father Wang Wei. There are more than 800 people. It is said that these veterans should receive good care and treatment, but Wang Wei squeezed them so much that this small When the battalion was transferred to the area of ​​Zhangde Mansion, they mutinied on the spot and all became thieves.

The general tried his best to appease them, but in the end only 190 people were called back, and the rest were fine if they didn’t come back. They were abused and mean by the chief for several years. Once they robbed the people’s property, their fighting power doubled and increased. Soldiers, these 600 people can't be wiped out.

As for Zuo Liangyu, the brave and helpful Zuo Liangyu didn't complain about anything, but the battle at Tuqiao's nest outside Tangyin City was the last time in his life that he risked his life to help his allies.

All the generals outside the Beijing camp, no, all the armies including the Beijing camp, no longer led troops to search the mountains after autumn.

Not only the official army was exhausted, but the rebel army paid a price several times higher than the official army. Dozens of leaders died in battle, and they were trapped in the Taihang Mountains without food and grass, living only on bark, grass and root porridge.

In the coming year, there is no need for the court to launch a general offensive, and their hearts will collapse.

Therefore, it is imperative for Li Zicheng to cross the river.

Moreover, crossing the Yellow River has three benefits. First, the floods, droughts, and locust plagues in Henan occurred concurrently, making the people miserable. They can make up for the human losses caused by the war by entering Henan.

The second is to cross the Yellow River, and the situation of siege will be lifted naturally.

As for the third, the conflict between the 57th Battalion of the rebel army has been unprecedentedly sharp, and if they get together again, sooner or later they will kill each other.

During this period of the rebellion, it became more and more complicated. Their origins were different, including people from northern Shaanxi, Guanzhong, Hexi, Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, Liaodong, and Mongols.

There are frontier soldiers, scholars, guards, peasants, landlords, hooligans, bandits, robbers, scholars, merchants, grooms, etc., all kinds of life.

Some people raised their troops to do great things, some people rose up out of no choice but out of anger, some people were full of anger and eager for revenge, some people killed innocent people indiscriminately, some people tried to uphold justice, some people wanted to recruit another official position, and some people wanted to Kill everyone and replace them.

For these 57 chiefs alone, they have almost nothing in common except that they will be hunted down by the government and army as traitors of the court.

Li Zicheng led his headquarters into the camp and fought many difficult battles with Wang Jiayin, the king of Hengtian. People learned warfare in the war and suffered a lot of confrontation with the officers and soldiers.

Relying on many times to help the friendly army and defeating the official army in many ambushes, he has great prestige among many leaders.

But Wang Jiayin was unable to suppress those leaders who disliked each other. At the same time, Li Zicheng could not restrain his dislike for many leaders.

Only separation is the only way to temporarily avoid conflicts.

Soon, the leaders of the 57 families connected in series wrote a joint letter in the Taihang Mountains, and Zhang Miaoshou personally sent it to the Beijing Camp in Wu'an, where the troops were stationed, and presented it in front of Ni Chong and Wang Pu.

At the same time, more than [-] rebels who hid in the mountains were using the Taihang Mountains to hide their troops and intensify their migration southward.

They went south from Shexian County to Zezhou via the mountain road, and entered Wangwu Mountain in large numbers for repairs.

People rushed to the board, especially Li Zicheng's camp, and set up a furnace, melting the twelve lion cannons on his hands into copper ingots and distributing them to his subordinates.

These cannons were exchanged for money and food from Gao Yingxiang in Shizigou earlier. They were all good copper cannons of two hundred catties. I can only reluctantly melt it away, and recast it when I have a chance in the future.

However, Li Zicheng doesn't know whether there is any chance of recasting.

On November 24, at the Guandi Temple in the valley of Wangwu Mountain, the generals and officers who broke into the camp gathered together. Everyone wore Xuan hats and fancy clothes.

In fact, Li Zicheng had very high requirements for military discipline. Many of his old brothers were from the frontier army. After the uprising gradually became famous, they followed Wang Jiayin, who was almost a regular army. He also got advice from Gao Yingxiang through the trade with Shizigou.

For Wang Jiayin and Gao Yingxiang, who have been here, their advice to Li Zicheng can be described as a cliché: discipline.

Wang Jiayin is the leader of the Shanxi rebel army in Shaanxi, while Gao Yingxiang is more like the patron saint of a large temple in northern Shaanxi—his artillery and uniforms will protect every child who leaves northern Shaanxi to go out and wander.

Today, Li Zicheng's closest leaders are Huntian Wang Zhang Yingjin, Sweeping King Zhang Yichuan, Troubled Times Wang Guo Yingpin, Xie Zikuai Tuo Yangkun, known as the Fifth Battalion of Chuangjun, and they all use Gao Yingxiang's early Lion Battalion.

This group of people formed the most effective part under Wang Jiayin's command. Each of them had a battalion of 500 to 800 people. In addition, there was a small battalion with female relatives, all of which were [-] people.

Because they put their families in Shizigou.

This is a very useful establishment that Liu Chengzong summed up during his mobile operations, which greatly improved the efficiency and survivability of the leaders in looting and hunting food.

In fact, Li Zicheng didn't have high requirements for the leaders who cooperated with him. It didn't matter whether the combat power was strong or weak. He only wanted to be obedient.

At this point in the war, other requirements are simple, only women, only these few people can meet.

They also have uniform requirements for officers and soldiers to wear, but unfortunately it is winter now.

Besieged in the Taihang Mountains for nearly half a year, the campers couldn't get enough winter clothes. In order to keep out the cold, people wrapped almost all the things they could find around their bodies.

The half-burned candles in Guandi Temple were flickering, and Li Zicheng said to the crowd: "The guard of Mianchi is called Yuan Daquan, and we will cross the river from there. After crossing the Yellow River, we will not be with them, only our five battalions."

Both Zhang Yingjin and Zhang Yichuan are old figures in the rebel army, especially Zhang Yingjin, the king of gangsters, is very old in terms of qualifications. He had joined forces with Liu Chengzong Gao Yingxiang in his early years.

Zhang Yichuan is a little bit worse, he has never met Liu Chengzong, this is Gao Yingxiang's little brother, but after Wang Zuojia was recruited, Zhang Yichuan led his troops to follow Wang Zuojia's buttocks, many of Zuo Guangzi's men were unwilling to recruit All the seasoned and fierce soldiers voted for Zhang Yichuan.

Zhang Yingjin didn't speak, just nodded; Zhang Yichuan spat and said, "I can't get used to them for a long time. When this Yuan Daquan is destroyed, where are we going? Henan's drought is over, floods are over, locusts are over, we can't stay, are we?" Enter Huguang, or go to King Chuang?"

Li Zicheng asked, "Go back to northern Shaanxi?"

Zhang Yichuan shook his head, and said mysteriously: "No, I heard that King Chuang came out of Shizigou, had an infighting with the officers and soldiers in Yan'an, pulled more than 100 cannons and headed south, maybe going to attack Xi'an City."

Infighting?

This is a rather special word, Li Zicheng blinked but didn't understand it.

Zhang Yichuan smiled and said, "Hey, King Chuang has come out anyway, and he was not allowed to say it before, but it should be fine now. In fact, the soldiers and thieves in Yan'an are all from the same family, and their surname is Liu."

Li Zicheng asked suspiciously: "The surname Liu is the common surname of Yan'an Mansion. Many people in Yan'an Guard and Yan'an Camp have the surname Liu. I know this, but there aren't many people with the surname Liu on Chuangwang's side?"

He started the incident later than others, and he was still in Mizhi, and he hadn't stayed in his hometown for long. Basically, he had been swimming and fighting in Shanxi. When he returned to northern Shaanxi, he only went to Shizigou to find Gao Yingxiang.

Because except for Shizigou, the banks of the Yanhe River are absolutely chaotic places. The villages there are extremely organized, and the villagers are poor and fierce.

The people who stayed there couldn’t be distinguished simply by soldiers and thieves, because they would fight against everyone... Normally, regardless of the soldiers and thieves, a small group of troops would become missing persons if they went in, and the common people would pull the blunderbuss and artillery teams to plant minefields. Give them praise.

As for the powerful rebel army, it was useless. No food could be collected on both sides of the Yanhe River, and no one could stay there permanently.

Don't know!
Zhang Yichuan shook his head quite complacently, raised his hand and said, "Those are all Liu of the Northwest King."

He said in his heart that this Yan'an fierce general developed precious information in the early stage, but if I don't say it, can you juniors know it?
Zhang Yingjin was much calmer than him. He never talked about this with others, but now he said: "It's useless for any Liu. They are all princes so far away. Now they are all fighting, so don't say anything later. ,where are we going?"

Li Zicheng was dumbfounded. From Zhang Yichuan's words, he felt that Yang Yanchang, the Yan'an general, was also Liu Chengzong's man?

Then he regained his expression, shook his head and said, "I originally wanted to go to Huguang, but if it's like what you said, I don't think it might be a real fight."

"It should be true. I heard that Ren Quan'er, the commander of the Yan'an Guard, handed over the heads of Zhongdou Xing, and they were also beaten and suffered heavy losses."

As soon as Zhang Yichuan finished speaking, he was interrupted by Li Zicheng: "No, no one in the imperial court has seen Zhong Dou Xing."

"But see some bastards recruiting security..." Zhang Yichuan said halfway through, thinking about the flavor: "General Yang Shen has Du Wu by his side, and he will disguise the corpse."

"That's right. When King Gao Chuang came out of the mountain, there was not enough food. We were surrounded. This year, no one transported food to Shizigou. He wanted to find food. To find food, he had to go to Guanzhong. When he entered Guanzhong, the imperial court would definitely dispatch the Yan'an army to go south to flatten the mountain. Rebel."

Li Zicheng analyzed: "Only if they have fought a battle first, the Yan'an army will be unable to go south to suppress the rebellion, and Tongguan will not be able to pass... Nanyang, let's go to Nanyang, then march to Hanzhong, and inquire about King Chuang on the way."

At this moment, a scouting horse rushed to the Guandi Temple and reported: "General Chuang, the King of Heaven has sent an order, and the Yellow River is sealed off!"

"Sealed?"

Li Zicheng got up and patted the dirt on his body, took a deep breath, and said to everyone: "Let the brothers take the door panels, and we will cross the river. From now on, the sky will let the birds fly!"

　good evening!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)