Baodezhou in Shanxi is located by the Yellow River 30 miles south of Hequ City and in the northwest corner of Taiyuan Prefecture.
Across the river is Gufu County in Shaanxi Province, which is not only the gateway to the south of Hequ City, but also an important ferry on the Yellow River.
Once this place is captured, more than 50,000 rebels will be completely locked in the Hequ area.
To the northeast of Hequ City is the Great Wall, facing Datong Town, one of the nine sides of the Ming Dynasty. To the east is the indestructible Ningwuguan, and to the west is the natural barrier of the Yellow River.
For the rebels, the south is the only way out, and it is difficult to develop from the other three directions.
Therefore, as long as the Ming army defends the Zhenxi Guards south of Baoding, they can prevent the rebels from moving further south.
After Wang Jiayin and others entered Shanxi, they also organized troops to attack the Zhenxi Guards many times in an attempt to open a passage south.
But the officers and soldiers were not stupid. They deployed eight thousand elite troops in the Zhenxi Guard, coupled with a large number of cannons and artillery.
As a result, the rebels were defeated many times.
Logically speaking, it would be difficult for the rebel army to maintain a strength of 50,000 people in this environment.
After all, the land around the meander is limited and cannot support so many troops.
Moreover, it is surrounded by various passes, making it easy for them to block the supply lines of the rebels.
However, Xiong Tingbi, who was based in Monan, discovered that the seemingly indestructible Nine-sided Great Wall of the Ming Dynasty had a fatal weakness.
That is the Yellow River.
The Yellow River runs north-south here, directly becoming the dividing line between Shaanxi and Shanxi.
Of course, this was not originally a weakness. After all, the Mongolian tribes in the Hetao area owned several ferry boats, and it was simply impossible to transport troops through the Yellow River and directly cross the nine-border towns of the Ming Dynasty.
But now it is the Liaodong Army that occupies the Monan Hetao.
Because they needed to transport supplies to support the rebels in northern Shaanxi, they discovered that the Yellow River was actually a convenient passage.
However, the Yellow River has serious sediment accumulation, shallow water depth, and many shoals. Therefore, ferries are rarely used in the upper reaches, and sheepskin rafts are generally used to cross the river.
Fortunately, northern Shaanxi is already in the middle reaches, and the water is barely deep enough to use a ferry.
But generally it is just a crossing, used to cross the Yellow River.
Almost no one uses the Yellow River to transport supplies back and forth on a large scale, because it is barely possible to go downstream, but it is too difficult to go upstream.
After repeated experiments, the craftsmen learned from the "ship" and created a small vessel that can use the wheel to bring power to achieve reverse flow.
Xiong Tingbi recruited shipbuilding craftsmen from Liaodong and built a small shipyard directly in Jiuyuan City to build inland river ships suitable for Yellow River transportation.
This allowed the Liaodong Army to easily control the Yellow River waterway in northern Shaanxi, and it was through the lifeline of the Yellow River that the rebels received a steady stream of supplies.
At this moment, five thousand rebels under Li Zicheng had gathered outside the city.
To be honest, although these rebels have good combat power, their morale is not high.
Li Zicheng said: "I know many of you lament the unfair fate. We are also rebels. Others are preparing to go south to plunder and enjoy the popular food, but you unfortunately won the "die lottery" and stayed here to serve as an army. After the break."
"But I will tell you that if you think this way, you are totally wrong!"
Then he casually picked up a Rumi gun and aimed it at the jar in the distance.
Everyone only saw the jar shattered with the sound!
This jar is 150 steps away from Li Zicheng.
You must know that the official's gunfire only has an effective range of about fifty steps when facing the armor-piercing rebels. Even if it does not penetrate armor, it can only reach seventy or eighty steps at most.
This fire gun can shoot a full 150 steps, which is a bit too exaggerated!
Li Zicheng said: "This kind of Rumi gun is very powerful and can break armor in 120 steps. We now have a full 500 guns. Do you still think that staying here is sending death?"
He then ordered people to ignite the fuses of several "Thunder Thunders" and throw them into a nearby open space.
Then there were explosions one after another, which shocked many rebels.
Although the Rumi Gun just now was exaggerated, it was still within their scope of cognition after all.
But this "thunder" was beyond their imagination. Many people even think that this is a magical skill, and Li Zicheng is simply the god of thunder descending to earth.
Even many rebels were so frightened that they knelt on the ground.
Then Li Zicheng kicked over the silver box again and shouted: "There are 50,000 taels of silver here, which was given to everyone by King Hengtian Yizi."
Li Zicheng's confidants took the opportunity to shout: "With such a magical weapon to help, why can't we defeat the army?"
"We are willing to follow General Chuang and kill the enemy!"
Soon the morale of thousands of people was shaken!
This time the imperial court mobilized a large number of border troops from northern Shaanxi and Shanxi, and Li Xianzhong had to spend a lot of money.
The Liaodong Army rarely uses Hongtianlei, and a batch of them were sent to Wang Xifan of Yanzhou before, so that he could use them at the most critical moment.
One day later, the Ming army marching west from Ningwu Pass met up with the Ming army marching north from Zhenxiwei on the outskirts of Baodezhou!
After the two armies joined forces, they quickly surrounded Baoding.
However, they were not in a hurry to attack the city. They just camped outside the city and sent out a large number of sentries from time to time to scout the direction of the meander to prevent the main force of the rebels from going south for support!
Li Zicheng said: "The official army has 15,000 people. With such a superior force, they are not attacking the city. Could it be that they want to attract the main force of our rebel army to go south so that they can encircle the city and recruit reinforcements?"
Zhong Guangdao pointed to the other side and said: "The officers and soldiers on the other side of Fugu are probably about to cross the river. The reason why the officers and soldiers are surrounding but not attacking is because they are afraid that we will go out of the city to prevent He Renlong from landing."
Sure enough, not long after, many ships appeared on the other side of the Yellow River.
Although the number here is slightly more abundant than in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, there is only one channel suitable for crossing the river.
At this time, less than 1 mile upstream from the official ferry, the personnel of the Intelligence Department had received the signal.
They placed mines one after another into the Yellow River.
The "underwater mine" manufactured by the Ming Dynasty in the 28th year of Jiajing (1549) can be called the world's first underwater mine.
This mine uses a wooden box as the mine shell, with putty glued on the seams. The rope below is connected to the anchor to control the depth and is manually controlled to fire. It is more than 200 years earlier than the West made and used mines.
During the Wanli period of the War to Resist Japan and Aid Korea, the Ming Dynasty Navy used "underwater mines" to sink a large Japanese warship in one fell swoop. This was the first time in human history that mines were used to achieve actual results.
Mines appeared early in the Ming Dynasty and were successfully used in actual combat.
In the 18th year of Wanli, the Ming Dynasty invented the earliest floating mine, the "Underwater Dragon King Cannon" that used burning incense as a time fuse.
The floating mine used by the Intelligence Department was modified based on the "Underwater Dragon King Cannon", except that the original ignited fuse was changed to a trigger type.
Due to the rapid current of the Yellow River, large ships cannot move. At this time, this dense group of small boats has obviously become the target of these floating mines.
Of course, since these floating mines flowed down the river, two of them deviated from the center of the river and hit the shore early and exploded.
It was these explosions that attracted the boatman's attention.
By the time they discovered the floating objects, they were already close at hand.
With a loud "boom", a ferry was blown to pieces, causing huge waves on the Yellow River.
Before the Ming army could react, there were big explosions one after another.
Because these ferries were too small, each boat could carry twenty or thirty people, and even some boats that were not hit by mines were capsized by the huge waves on the river.
He Renlong, who had just landed, was also stunned by this scene.
Originally, his 10,000 men were planning to cross the river in multiple batches, but now only more than 500 people have landed, and almost all the remaining 40 ferries were bombed and sunk.
Although the personnel losses were not too serious, about 700 soldiers were killed and drowned, it had a great impact on morale.
He Renlong knew that the bandits must have used firearms to blow up and sink their ferry.
But the soldiers didn't think so. Some said it was the Dragon King who was angry, and some said it was the God of Thunder who came down to earth. In short, they had offended the gods.
The few remaining ferries that had not capsized did not dare to cross the river again.
The rebels under Li Zicheng also believed that the officers and soldiers were punished by gods.
This further proves that "General Li Zicheng" was a god descended to earth and received the blessing of God. The morale of the rebels defending the city was immediately over the top.
In order to prevent rumors from spreading among the army and affecting the morale of the Ming army in Shanxi, Wang Guoliang, the commander-in-chief of Shanxi, decided to immediately launch an attack on Baodou.
After a round of artillery fire, thousands of Ming troops held their shields high and charged towards Baodou.
Although the official army carried a few light French artillery guns, these basically did not cause much damage to the city wall. Coupled with the poor hit rate, just listening to the sound could be regarded as cheering for the army!
But what was unexpected was that before they could reach the moat, bursts of fire and gunshots rang out from the city.
"Bang, bang, bang"
As a burst of white smoke rose from the city, many Ming soldiers fell to the ground.
They never expected that the thieves would break through the shields in their hands a hundred steps away.
Although only dozens of people fell to the ground, the psychological impact on the officers and soldiers was not small.
Many of his vanguard troops are wearing armor. Can they break through armor from a hundred steps away?
The firearms of these bandits are actually so sharp.
Although due to their unskilled operation, the rogues took a very long time to reload and were unable to produce sustained firepower output, it still had a great impact on the Ming army filling the trenches.
After each round of shooting, hundreds of people fell.
Moreover, the army's muskets and bows and arrows could not reach this far, and they were completely passive in being beaten.
In the end, Wang Guoliang had no choice but to withdraw his troops.
He Renlong and Wang Guoliang were also depressed for a while. The equipment of these bandits was too outrageous. It was better than the equipment of the border troops. How could they fight?
He Renlong said: "Fortunately, the bandits in Baodou don't have cannons. No matter how sharp the guns are, they can't withstand the attack of a large number of artillery."
Wang Guoliang thought so, so he ordered Hongyi cannons to be dispatched from Zhenxi Guards to attack the city.
Although Zhenxiwei is not far from here, it will take several days to transport the heavy Hongyi cannon.
So they decided to use these few days to fill in the moats outside Baodezhou.
Since the thieves' guns were sharp during the day, they simply filled the trenches at night.
Soon the officers and soldiers quietly reached the edge of the moat outside the city, but such a big movement of filling the moat could not help alerting the bandits in the city.
Although the Intelligence Department used the Yellow River to send a lot of arms, the quantity was limited after all.
Li Zicheng's rebel army is not the wealthy Liaodong Army. They can blindly shoot at the city without hesitation and ammunition, and use the enemy's screams to judge the location and density of the enemy troops.
However, the rebels also have their own advantages, that is, they are all desperadoes, and everyone is not afraid of death!
Soon Li Zicheng opened the city gate and personally led his troops out of the city to engage in hand-to-hand combat with the officers and soldiers filling the trenches.
To be honest, this kind of night battle involves very little fighting on both sides and is purely a melee.
However, in the end, Li Zicheng, who was fighting at home, was better. The army retreated hastily after six to seven hundred people were killed.
Three days have passed, and the superior army has nothing to do against Baoding?
Wang Guoliang felt that something was wrong. Even if the Hongyi cannon was unlucky, this time should have arrived.
At this time, the defeated troops who had fled back from the Zhenxi Guards came to the camp.
It turned out that the team transporting the artillery encountered bandits heading south halfway, and all the Hongyi cannons were captured by the bandits.
The bandits used these cannons to blast open the city wall and occupied Zhenxiwei a day ago.
Wang Guoliang was stunned on the spot. The main force of the bandits went south to attack Zhenxi Wei. How could this be possible?
Could it be that they don’t even want their hometown, Hequ City? Unfortunately, Wang Guoliang was right. After Wang Jiayin and others captured Zhenxiwei, they went south and captured Lan County, with a strong tendency to attack Taiyuan.
Wang Guoliang had no choice but to return his troops to pursue him, and handed over the task of besieging Baodou to He Renlong.
In the past few days, some more troops have crossed the Yellow River. At this time, He Renlong had nearly 3,000 men in his hands. Although he could not attack the city, it was always not a problem to keep an eye on Li Zicheng.
When he learned that Hequ, the home of the bandits, was already an empty city, the greedy He Renlong actually divided his troops to raid Hequ City.
Li Zicheng saw the opportunity and led his army out of the city, repelled He Renlong's troops and successfully captured the ferry.
Then he took the opportunity to go south to join the main force of the rebel army.
At this time, He Renlong's main force had not yet crossed the Yellow River, and all the ferries were gone.
Moreover, he didn't have a horse at this time, so he couldn't catch up with Li Zicheng.
He had no choice but to use his 3,000 troops to defend Tonghequ City in Baodian Province, and sent Hong Chengchou the successful news of capturing Hequ, the bandit's lair, and fully regaining northwest Shanxi.
Shanxi Commander-in-Chief Wang Guoliang was worried that Taiyuan would be lost, so he first led 3,000 cavalry south to relieve the siege of Taiyuan.
Finally, they were surrounded by rebels at Shapo Ridge in the north of Taiyuan.
Although most of Wang Guoliang's men were elites from Datong Town, they were helplessly limited by the terrain.
Now they are besieged in the valley and can only be beaten passively.
In the end, Wang Guoliang was unfortunately killed by a huge rock rolling down the mountain. Most of the remaining Ming troops died in the battle after resisting for nearly a day. In the end, more than 800 people surrendered to the rebels.
Gao Yingxiang said to Zhang Xianzhong: "'Huang Hu', you are good at ambushing. Wang Guoliang, a reckless man, saw that Taiyuan was besieged, and he plunged into our ambush."
Zhang Xianzhong said: "This is all thanks to the cooperation of the idiot governor Song Tongyin. If he hadn't sent messenger Cui eight times a day to urge Wang Guoliang to return to Taiyuan quickly, Wang Guoliang would not have been fooled."
"I just don't know what happened to Li Zicheng and the Five Thousand Brothers?"
Gao Yingxiang said: "According to the brothers who came over, Li Zicheng and his men fought consecutively in Baodezhou, and the army lost two to three thousand people, but they were unable to touch the wall of Baodezhou. Many of Wang Guoliang's close servants were fighting in Baodezhou. He’s dead, otherwise it would be really hard for us to eat him.”
"And because the ferry was destroyed, He Renlong's main force did not cross the Yellow River at all. The situation is very favorable to us!"
Just when the situation of the rebel army was looking good, news came that the two leaders Wang Jiayin, the "Hengtian Yizi King" and Wang Ziyong, the "Zijinliang", had died unfortunately.
Wang Jiayin's confidant Wang Guozhong was instigated by the "trilateral governor" Hong Chengchou and wanted to surrender to the imperial court.
Hong Chengchou's reputation among the rebels was very poor, and Wang Guozhong was worried that he would not keep his word.
So Hong Chengchou's envoy said: "If you can offer the head of the leader of the thieves, Jiayin, are you still worried that the court will not give you high-ranking officials a generous salary?"
Wang Guozhong thought about it. He had betrayed the rebels anyway, so he might as well make a big deal.
Soon he found Zhang Li, the young leader who was dissatisfied with Wang Jiayin. Together, the two of them could do this.
Although it was a good opportunity for the rebels to move south this time, Wang Jiayin's old camp had a lot of troops and they could never find a chance to take action.
This time, Zhang Xianzhong and Gao Yingxiang designed an ambush on the official army, which happened to take away most of the main force of the rebel army. They sneaked into the tent and killed Wang Jiayin while he was sleeping.
Wang Ziyong, on the other hand, was completely unlucky. At this time, he happened to come to Wang Jiayin, so the two of them just stopped fighting and even killed Wang Ziyong.
Afterwards, the two of them took their heads to the court overnight.
After Wang Guozhong and Zhang Li presented their petitions, they were named deputy generals of Puzhou Association and Zuowei Association respectively by Chongzhen.
After the two leaders were killed, the two most powerful and famous among the rebels were the "Chuang King" Gao Yingxiang and the "Eight Great Kings" Zhang Xianzhong.
Everyone elected them as leaders and continued to lead the rebel army.
Although the two hope to become the only leader, they also know that this is not the time to fight for this leader.
Soon the rebels gave up Taiyuan, although taking the big city could replenish a large amount of supplies. However, Taiyuan City is too strong and will not be defeated for a while, and it may also attract a large number of officers and soldiers.
So the rebels decided to disperse and attack.
Moved to the more affluent Shannan region.
Fan Yongdou and other Shanxi merchants once aided the rebels, but in the end the rebels did not attack places such as Jiexiu and Qixian where Shanxi merchants were concentrated.
Of course, Shanxi merchants also took the initiative to fund the rebels with a lot of money and food.
After having money and food, the rebel army has developed greatly.
Entering the prefectures and counties of Ningxiang, Shilou, Jishan, Wenxi, and Hejian, they conquered one after another, and the momentum was huge for a while.
At this time, the rebel army also began to gradually divide into two camps. Some leaders, led by "Cao Cao" Luo Rucai, supported the "Eight Great Kings" Zhang Xianzhong; the "Fifth Battalion of Zuoge" headed by "Lao Huihui" Ma Shouying supported "King Chuang" Gao Yingxiang.
Relatively speaking, more people support Gao Yingxiang.
However, Zhang Xianzhong did not want to give up his position as leader.
Just when the two were at a stalemate, Li Zicheng led more than 4,000 people to catch up with the main force of the rebel army.
Initially, everyone thought that Li Zicheng would definitely die, but they did not expect that not only did he kill him, but his men and horses did not suffer too many losses.
Although his four thousand men at this time were not the largest, they were quite elite and a decisive force.
Moreover, Zhong Guangdao, a sergeant of the original rebel army, is now serving under Li Zicheng.
Now the situation has become more complicated. Originally it was just a "battle between two heroes" between Gao Yingxiang and Zhang Xianzhong, but now it seems that there is a trend of "Three Kingdoms".
Li Zicheng was originally Gao Yingxiang's subordinate, and Gao Yingxiang was his uncle. Gao Yingxiang felt that Li Zicheng must be on his side.
But Zhang Xianzhong didn't see it that way. He felt that Li Zicheng had been bullied under Gao Yingxiang. If he supported Gao Yingxiang as the boss, wouldn't it be the same as before?
On the contrary, he can be truly independent by supporting himself as the boss.
Both of them began to win over Li Zicheng.
But at this time, Li Zicheng felt that his strength was not weak. The two of them were competing with each other, and he happened to be the one who benefited.
Zhong Guangdao saw that Li Zicheng was also an ambitious person, which was why he chose to assist Li Zicheng.
However, he said: "I know that General Chuang feels that he also has a chance to become the leader at this moment, but you have to understand that this leader is only a nominal co-leader. If you are not strong enough, even if you become the leader, other leaders will not obey you. "
"Judging from the current situation, only Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang has this strength. As long as Chuang General supports him, Zhang Xianzhong will not dare to object. And your nephew and uncle can also use this to repair their previous relationship!"
In the end, Li Zicheng was persuaded by Zhong Guangdao and actively supported his uncle Gao Yingxiang, and Gao Yingxiang was relieved of Li Zicheng's independence!
In September of the second year of Chongzhen, Gao Yingxiang, the "King of Chuang", widely posted hero posts in Wenxi County, Shanxi Province, calling on the rebels from Shanxi and Shaanxi to surrender.
In the end, there were 36 battalions of rebels and more than 200,000 horses came to surrender.
"Chuang King" Gao Yingxiang was also promoted as the general leader of the 36th Battalion of Rebels, calling on the rebels all over the world to rise up against the Ming Dynasty!
After hearing the news, Li Xianzhong also sighed. In the original historical trajectory, Wang Ziyong of "Purple Golden Liang" was elected as the general leader of the 36th Route Rebel Army.
But by some mistake, Wang Ziyong was killed by a traitor in advance, and Li Zicheng separated from Gao Yingxiang early to form his own group. Now the rebel army is still the 36th group.
However, due to his own appearance, today's Ming Army is no longer the original Ming Army.
He believed that as long as Zuo Liangyu and Cao Wenzhao led the Yulin camp southward, the rebel army would not be a match for the official army at all.
He knew it was time for him to take action.
Chongzhen finally couldn't sit still when he heard that Gao Yingxiang, the "King of Chuang", was promoted as the leader of the 36th Battalion of Rebels and called on the rebels from all over the world to overthrow him.
The furious Emperor Chongzhen dismissed Song Tongyin, the governor of Shanxi, and asked He Renlong to lead 8,000 troops to Pingyang; Xuanda Governor Zhang Zongheng supervised Zhang Yingchang, Po Ximu, Ai Wannian and other generals to lead 7,000 troops to block Fenzhou.
Then Zuo Liangyu and Cao Wenzhao were ordered to lead 30,000 elite Yulin battalions southward, preparing to wipe out the rebel army in one fell swoop.
Just when the two were complacent and ready to annihilate the rebels again to take advantage, Sun Yuanhua, the governor of Denglai, reported urgently: The great pirate Zheng Zhilong raided Dengzhou in the name of the "Eastern Ryukyu Company". The opponent's warships were sharp and the entire Dengzhou navy was Overturned. Now the opponent is storming Dengzhou City, and the situation is extremely critical. If the court does not send reinforcements quickly, the entire territory of Denglai and even Shandong will soon fall! "
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