In early August, Emperor Chongzhen, in order to urge Sun Chuanting to leave the customs as soon as possible to fight against the bandit army, appointed Sun Chuanting as Minister of War (a false position), commanding the military affairs of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, and Sichuan, and ordered him to "leave the customs as soon as possible."
Before leaving the customs, Sun Chuanting sent a fast horse to send an order to Sichuan for 800 miles. He ordered Qin Liangyu to lead his troops from Jiujiang to Runing to attack the bandit army; he ordered Qin Yiming, the commander-in-chief of Sichuan, to lead troops to Shang and Luo to provide support.
With the cooperation of these two troops, Sun Chuanting was confident that he could mobilize a lot of Li Zicheng's troops, so that the officers and soldiers would have a greater chance of winning.
Then on the eighth day of August, Sun Chuanting ordered all the troops to leave Tongguan, leaving only a thousand defenders stationed in Tongguan. The soldiers and horses of Dubiao Camp, Dongxie Town, and most of the defenders of Tongguan were all pulled out, totaling four soldiers and horses. Fifteen thousand.
Sun Chuanting took the Dubiao Camp as the central army, and the Tongguan soldiers and horses as the rear army. He ordered Cao Bianjiao to lead the elite of Dongxie Town as the forward force. The 45,000-strong army left Tongguan eastward and headed towards Luoyang, preparing to attack all the way and then attack Runing.
As long as Runing can be captured, Sun Chuanting can join forces with Qin Liangyu and Qin Yiming to annihilate the main force of the bandit army.
"Supervisor, the vanguard Ye Bushou set out two hours ago and has just sent the first return."
A staff general of the Supervisory Biao Battalion said: "The bandits from the Zhongying camp led by Li Zicheng and Liu Zongmin have retreated!"
Sun Chuanting rode his horse to follow the group, his face a little ugly. As expected, Li Zicheng retreated, but instead of retreating, he lured his troops into the encirclement!
"Hmph! The intruder is treacherous. I order all the troops to maintain speed and not to advance rashly. The whole army is heading towards Luoyang."
"yes!"
At the same time
At this time, Li Zicheng, Liu Zongmin's middle camp, and Li Dingguo's firearms camp slowly retreated, keeping a distance of about fifty miles from the imperial army's forward Cao Bianjiao's troops. They also continued to send heroic cavalry to harass and counterattack, making the imperial army think that they were afraid of retreating.
At the same time, Li Zicheng sent out fast horses and ordered Li Guo to lead the rear camp, Li Laiheng to lead the front camp, and Liu Fangliang to lead the left camp to quickly assemble and rush to the Jiaxian area to ambush.
In addition, Li Zicheng also sent tens of thousands of miscellaneous troops to garrison in Neixiang County to prevent Qin Liangyu and others' Sichuan troops from going north.
This time, Li Zicheng gathered hundreds of thousands of main forces from various bandit tribes to surround and annihilate Sun Chuanting's tribe, which shows his great determination.
A few days later, Sun Chuanting successfully occupied Luoyang, and then "pursued" Li Zicheng's troops and continued to advance.
In mid-August, Sun Chuanting encountered more than 40,000 rogue soldiers and horses in the east of Luoyang City. The flags were that of some soldiers and horses of the rogue bandits' middle camp and left camp. The two sides immediately started a fierce battle. Cao Bianjiao led his troops forward in formation and defeated the bandit army in just one round. Then Sun Chuanting led his troops to cover up the killing and beheaded more than 8,000 people.
The bandits broke up, fought and retreated. They first went to Shaanzhou and Mianchi, and then withdrew to Jiaxian. Sun Chuanting led his troops to pursue them all the way, but found no trace of the rest of the bandits. Based on previous intelligence, Li Zicheng changed his strategy and began to divide his troops to station in various places instead of wandering around.
So Sun Chuanting and Cao Bianjiao discussed and concluded that Li Zicheng must have divided his millions of troops in Henan, Shanxi, and Shaanxi, and was unable to regroup for a while, so he led the relatively strong middle camp to besiege Tongguan.
When the officers and soldiers left the border to seek a decisive battle, Li Zicheng knew that the soldiers and horses in the camp of the bandits could not withstand tens of thousands of officers and soldiers.
The elite attack of the army had to retreat all the way in order to buy time to assemble the main army!
"Master Governor, everything makes sense now, but I still can't figure it out. Li Zicheng besieged Tongguan for a long time. Everyone in the world thought he had assembled hundreds of thousands of troops, but why did he only have one central camp? For such a long time , why doesn’t Li Zicheng gather his troops?”
Sun Chuanting thought over and over again and said: "The origins of the leaders of the bandit tribes are complicated. Many of them are bandit leaders from various places. Li Zi divided his troops to station in various places. Maybe the bandit leaders were unwilling to give up their bases and turned a deaf ear to Li Zicheng's orders."
"It's best this way. This time our army can concentrate on dealing with Li Zicheng's middle camp troops!"
Sun Chuanting then advanced all the way and led his troops to Ruzhou.
The bandit general stationed in Ruzhou was Li Yangchun, the captain of the Four Heavenly Kings. At this time, Li Yangchun did not know Li Zicheng's plan. He thought that the army was chasing him all the way and the bandit army was gone, so he opened the city gate of Ruzhou and surrendered to Sun Chuanting. .
Later, in order to perform meritorious service, Li Yangchun provided the main force of the bandit army and the location of their rear garrison.
Sun Chuanting and Cao Bianjiao were overjoyed, and immediately concentrated all their efforts to attack Baofeng. Baofeng was a place for bandits to gather grain, and there were many family members of bandits and generals in the city. If Baofeng was captured, half of Li Zicheng's life would be taken away!
However, the city of Baofeng was strong, and there were more than 20,000 soldiers and horses in the city, all of whom were from the rear camp led by Li Guo. There were thousands of armored soldiers in them, and they were quite powerful.
The officers and soldiers failed to attack fiercely for several days. Sun Chuanting was afraid of missing the opportunity, so he personally supervised the troops to break the city. Cao Bianjiao even climbed the rock with his guards and climbed the city. He took the lead in seizing the city gate. Then the officers and soldiers rushed into Baofeng and killed him.
The army of rogue thieves, including Chen Kexin, the state pastor, and more than a dozen thieves officers.
Subsequently, Sun Chuanting's troops reported frequent successes, and they attacked Tang County and massacred all the bandits and their families.
At this point, Sun Chuanting and Cao Bianjiao thought that Li Zicheng's defeat was decided. After Baofeng took a short rest, they led their troops to attack Jiaxian County.
But on the way from Baofeng to Jiaxian, things began to become unusual.
The number of rogue cavalry and scouts around the official army began to increase. There were rogue cavalry on both sides, ranging from hundreds to a dozen. These rogue cavalry monitored the movements of the official army during the day and rushed up to harass them from time to time. At night, small-scale raids will be carried out, causing all the officers and soldiers to suffer miserably.
Even though Sun Chuanting strictly ordered all the troops not to be gathered at night and the cavalry to drive them away with all their strength, all the officers and soldiers were exhausted along the way. At this time, they were helpless in the face of the increasing number of bandit soldiers and horses.
What's even more terrible is that Sun Chuanting received an urgent report from Ye Bushou. A cavalry team of rogue thieves detoured directly to the rear of the army and attacked Baisha in the northwest of Ruzhou. It cut off the army's food route, and the army only had enough food in stock. More than 40,000 soldiers could eat it for a few days.
In response, Sun Chuanting and Cao Bianjiao suddenly woke up. They realized that the so-called results along the way were just bait thrown by Li Zicheng!
"Master Governor, the army can't leave anymore, we must consider withdrawing!"
In the Chinese army's tent, Sun Chuanting looked at the map and said: "We can't withdraw! If we withdraw now, the army of thieves hidden around us will swarm up, and our army will not be able to withdraw. The top priority now is to continue to advance and capture Jiaxian. Then rely on the Jiaxian city defense and the food and grass in the city to wait for help!"
Even so, both Sun Chuanting and Cao Bianjiao knew clearly in their hearts
Chu, even if Jiaxian is captured, there will probably be no reinforcements. The soldiers will just change places and wait to die.
Six days later, Sun Chuanting and Cao Bianjiao led the soldiers of the Ming army to capture Jia County, and obtained more than 300 mules and sheep, and 1,800 shi of grain. The soldiers who had been without food for two days were scrambling to share the food and grass. On the second day Then they ate up all the grain, mules and sheep in the city.
Then, it rained heavily for seven consecutive days in Jiaxian County. The inside and outside of the city were muddy. The soldiers of various ministries were unable to repair the dilapidated city defenses in the pouring rain. Moreover, the various ministries of the Ming army have been out of food in the past few days, and can only rely on leaves, bark, rats, and even dead livestock in the city to satisfy their hunger.
On August 25, due to lack of food, the officers and soldiers of the Ming army were shaken and almost mutinied. Although Sun Chuanting and Cao Bianjiao tried their best to suppress them, they were unable to do anything. After discussion, they decided to withdraw from Jiaxian County and move to surrounding cities in the hope of obtaining food supplies.
On the second day after the Ming army withdrew from Jiaxian County, Li Zicheng commanded a total of 600,000 troops from the middle camp, left camp, rear camp, front camp, and firearms camp, and came from all directions to fight in the muddy wilderness. , surrounded by more than 40,000 officers and soldiers.
Sun Chuanting and Cao Bianjiao immediately ordered all their ministries to form defensive formations and start a bloody battle with the bandit army.
Li Zicheng stationed the Chinese army on a hill two miles north of the Ming army's formation, and then ordered each battalion, except the firearms battalion, to select heroic cavalry to prepare for the charge. Launched an attack on the Ming army.
On this day, Sun Chuanting fought fiercely with Cao Bianjiao's military governor, and the soldiers of various ministries were rushing like a tide.
The cavalry charge resulted in heavy casualties. The Tongguan garrison was the first to collapse. Thousands of defeated soldiers broke away from the battle formation in fear and fled to the east. They were then overwhelmed by the overwhelming army of rogue knights.
Then in the evening, Li Zicheng ordered all the cavalry to retreat, and then mobilized 200,000 infantry and dead soldiers to attack from all sides, without giving the officers and soldiers a chance to breathe.
Subsequently, Sun Chuanting's Dubiao camp was defeated. Upon seeing this, Cao Bianjiao hurriedly led his troops to rescue. Dongxie Town soldiers escorted Cao Bianjiao and Sun Chuanting to break through, and the entire army retreated towards Nanyang.
When the two men led their troops to withdraw from the battlefield, only more than 23,000 of the 45,000 soldiers were left. The morale of the army was low, and it looked like a defeated army.
The next day, Li Zicheng personally led the main force to pursue and kill the bandits. The army of bandits pursued them to Nanyang. Sun Chuanting, together with Cao Bianjiao, led their troops back to attack. The two sides started a fierce battle again, but at this time, the morale of the bandit battalions was strong, and a steady stream of troops came like a tide. The Ming army, which had been without food for a long time and had lost its morale, could not resist it at all, and began to retreat as soon as the battle began.
Taking advantage of the victory, the cavalry of the bandit army pursued them fiercely and chased them for more than 400 miles to Mengjin. Almost all 45,000 elite Ming troops were wiped out.
Sun Chuanting and all the generals in Dubiao's camp died in the battle at the foot of Nanyang City. Cao Bianjiao led the remaining troops to retreat all the way to Mengjin. However, before they could cross the river, they were overtaken by a large group of rogue knights, and the two sides started a fierce battle again.
At this time, there were only more than 800 remaining troops around Cao Bianjiao. Their armor and weapons were incomplete, and the soldiers had hardly entered the water or rice for three or four days. Facing the rogue knights who were not as powerful as the Qing army's cavalry, this battle was destined to be a battle. A one-sided massacre.
In less than half an hour, Cao Bianjiao and more than 800 people
The soldiers of Dongxie Town spilled blood on Meng Jin, and everyone's heads were chopped off by the rogue knights. They were all hung on the saddles, and then they laughed and shouted all the way, venting the joy in their hearts.
On August 30, Li Zicheng led his troops to re-siege Tongguan. At this time, the thousand officers and soldiers left in the city were unable to resist. When the battle flag of the bandit army appeared outside the city, the thousand defenders opened the gate directly. , surrendered to Li Zicheng.
In early September, Li Zicheng summoned the generals of each battalion in Kaifeng City, as well as Li Yan, Gu Junen, Niu Jinxing, and Song Xiance.
At the military meeting, everyone was smiling. In this battle, two famous generals and a governor of the Ming army were killed one after another, and 70,000 to 80,000 elite soldiers were annihilated. Such a huge victory was enough to spread the name of the rebel army throughout the world. The world.
"Haha! Gentlemen, what is the next step for our rebel army? What do you think?"
When it comes to big strategic issues, Li Zicheng still prefers to ask Li Yan, Gu Junen, Niu Jinxing, and Song Xiance. After all, the other battalion generals are all brave in combat and good at planning. They truly have an overall view and can guide Li Zicheng in the right direction. , that is, the four of them.
Song Xiance and Niu Jinxing spoke one after another. Their meaning was very clear. Now that the rebel army has occupied a large territory, Li Zicheng should become the king of the establishment. The heroes of the world should submit to him!
Gu Junen believes that it is too early to become king, and the top priority now should be to stabilize various places and truly digest the territory they occupy.
Finally, Li Zicheng looked at Li Yan and asked, "Sir, what are your suggestions?"
Li Yan said: "The students agree with Mr. Gu's opinion. At the same time, our rebel army should continue to attack and wipe out Shanxi Town to the north."
, Datong Town, taking the entire Shanxi into his pocket, and attacking all parts of Northern Zhili at the same time. To the south, we must divide our troops to attack various parts of Hubei and capture the land of money and food in the south. In this way, we can achieve the king's hegemony! "
After listening to the four people's opinions, Li Zicheng pondered for a long time. To be honest, the temptation to become king was huge, but Li Zicheng was still sober at this time. The Ming court still had Liu Yan's new army. The rebels must stabilize the place and develop their strength as soon as possible. , otherwise once the message is sent and the troops come to kill, everything at the moment will be unsafe.
So Li Zicheng said: "In this case, we will follow what Mr. Li and Mr. Gu said!"
