Win the Ding 1617

In November, Yang Sichang led his army into Chongqing.Supervising Army Wanji was promoted to be the President, and Zhang Yingyuan was the Deputy. He led the army to Mianzhou and assigned generals to guard the key points.The rebel army was stationed in the Anyue area, and when the officers and soldiers arrived, they retreated to Neijiang and chased them like tigers. Yuanji and Yingyuan guarded under the city of Anyue.

In the same month, Chuang Wang Li Zicheng led a local Henan peasant army called Yidougu and Waguanzi, known as the local bandits, with hundreds of thousands of troops, and broke through Lushan, Jiaxian, Yiyang, Yiyang, and Yan in the west of Henan. The officers and soldiers of the division, Lingbao, and counties suffered successive defeats.He even broke Yongning City and executed King Wan'an and many officials and gentry in the city.

Years of natural disasters have already forced them into desperation, coupled with the eight princes of Henan, many big officials and gentry families, and powerful landlords, the hungry people have long been everywhere in Henan.Now that people are attacking cities and breaking down villages everywhere, those high-ranking lords in the past have turned into ghosts under swords in an instant, why don't they go there with joyful lotus flags, and there are so many followers?

For a while, "eat his mother, wear his mother, open the door to welcome the king of Chuang, and when the king of Chuang comes, he does not pay the food.", "The court seeks promotion, and the evening seeks harmony. Recently, it is difficult for the poor to survive. Open the door early to greet the king of Chuang, Disciplinary people are happy." The song was sung from the Funiu Mountains in western Henan, and quickly spread to central and eastern Henan.

So far, apart from Luoyang City, the entire Henan Prefecture, and more than a dozen prefectures and counties, have all been owned by Chuangying.The momentum of entering the camp has reached the highest peak since breaking Fengyang!The military progress was so smooth, coupled with the surrender of Henan literati such as Li Yan brothers, Niu Jinxing, Song Xiance, and Song Xiance even presented the prophecy "Eighteen sons, the master artifact", which made Li Zicheng's thinking begin to change. With the help of heroes, this Henan can also become the foundation of the camp, and it can also be used to conquer the country and the world.His old Zhu's family was just a wild monk who didn't have a degree, and I was also a postman after all.How could he be much stronger than him? !

So he changed from the past to attack cities and villages only for money, food and property, and began to strictly enforce military discipline: "Killing someone is like killing my father, and whoever rapes someone is like cheating my mother."

Li Yan also compiled ballads for him, such as "Welcome the king, but don't pay the grain".He also put forward slogans such as "equalizing the land and exempting grain", so that his army developed rapidly.Every time he goes to a city, there are always hungry people willing to respond, so that his attack on the city can be described as effortless.

However, for the large amount of money, food, property, and even some population obtained in these cities, the generals who broke into the camp had to urge the soldiers not to destroy or deface them.Carefully packed, bundled and wrapped tightly.Hand it over to those who are loyal to the camp, transport it to Luoyang, Kaifeng, etc. by camel caravan, hand it over to the Nanzhong businessman who opened a shop here, and then exchange it for the urgently needed weapons, gunpowder, cloth, salt, medicine, pig iron, etc.

However, batch after batch of mules carried away a large amount of property.In exchange for the same huge amount of armor, knives, guns, gunpowder, cloth, salt, medicine and firearms, the old camp where Li Zicheng broke into the camp was quickly equipped more and more neatly.The Jiaolong leather armor became the standard equipment for the soldiers of the old battalion, while the cotton armor and hood armor were largely eliminated to the horse army and Xiao cavalry troops.The officers and generals of the old battalion all changed into iron armor, and the leaders of the boy soldiers like Li Shuangxi, Zhang Nai, Wang Si, Luo Hu, etc., all put on the steel armor that can be seen by others.

As for the peripheral troops such as infantry and horse troops, the equipment has also been improved, half of which comes from the captured armaments in various city treasuries.The other half benefited from the prevailing trade activities in Chuangying Tonglong.With the expansion of the old camp and Xiaoqi, a large number of weapons were continuously eliminated to the periphery such as infantry and horse troops.

And Chuangying also learned from Zhang Xianzhong, and began to set up separate firearms units in the old battalion, six-pound guns, three-pound guns, big Francophones, and firecrackers.There are also all kinds of artillery collected from various cities, and they are grouped into the firearms battalion.Like Li Shuangxi, Zhang Nai, who was the adopted son of Li Zicheng, became the commander of the firearms battalion.

These firearms, especially the six-pound gun and the three-pound gun, played a huge role in the battle against the Tuweizi built by various county towns and gentry in the Funiu Mountains.

"Usually break a fence and open a county town. No matter what, we have to throw hundreds of people into the camp and dozens of old brothers. Now that we have these artillery, at most we can lose a few hungry people and pour them into the city!"

The three-pound guns showed their prowess in the military operations against those gentry.

Today's Henan gentry all understand the principle of "living in small cities and living in disorderly villages", and they have chosen dangerous terrain in Funiu Mountain to build fences. A large number of gold, silver, soft food and other valuables are stored in the villages.What is even more fearful of death is to build houses in caves to live in, cut off roads in dangerous places, and use suspension bridges to enter and exit.

These methods can certainly guarantee safety when not all the cold weapons against the local bandits and poles can be equipped, but in the face of three-pound guns and firecrackers, these geographical advantages pale in power.

A few rounds of three-pound guns were fired to knock down the defensive bunkers at the entrance of the fortress or cave, and then the musketeers stepped forward to suppress them. After breaking through, a large amount of money and food went to the camp.

All these seizures, in addition to being used to raise soldiers and relieve victims, are also used for arms trade, with a view to entering a new round of virtuous circle.For a time, in Henan, where famines and hungry people were everywhere, the momentum of entering the camp was unprecedented.

"Angkor, how much can I exchange for this trip to Kaifeng Mansion?"

On the road from Ruzhou to Kaifeng, hundreds of war horses kicked up dust on the potholed post road, guarding hundreds of large and small vehicles loaded with boxes and cages.Walking on the endless flat and dry yellow land.After the cavalry passed, more infantry guarded the vehicle's wings, raising dust all over the sky.

It's the end of the year, and when you look up, you can see wild hazelnuts and desolate fields. On the road leading to Kaifeng, the provincial capital, from Henan Prefecture, which has suffered years of drought, there are dry cracks everywhere, withered and yellowed vegetation, and scorched vegetation everywhere. The trees in the mountains I saw were all white, the grass was eaten up, the bark was eaten up, and even the grass roots were dug up.

In the fields and by the roadside, there are hungry people lying on the ground everywhere, and there are groups of refugees fleeing from famine, wearing tattered cotton, with straw ropes around their waists, carrying their own black and torn quilts, with skinny and shivering quilts on them. Children at home.

Because of the severe drought.Several rivers with a lot of water and a very wide surface are left with shoals everywhere, and even some river sections are cracked and waist-deep with withered yellow thatch.Undulating along the terrain.

This scene shocked Zhang Nai who escorted the seized property to Kaifeng with Wu Ruyi.Over the years, he followed Chuang Wang in the north and south, and survived in the sea of ​​swords and blood. These early child soldiers have long cultivated a heart of indifference to life and death, but that was on the battlefield. People can't help being moved when they hopelessly wait for the extremely cruel and painful process of death.

It's true that human life is like a mustard.

"Angkor, if you and I hadn't followed King Chuang in the uprising, I'm afraid we would have died of starvation in our hometown in Shaanxi!" Zhang Nai ordered his soldiers to dig pits and bury the corpses lying on the road. Those who felt touched talked with Wu Ruyi, the chief of the Chinese army.

While talking in his mouth, he smelled more and more disgusting corpse odor in his nostrils.Through the thatch, some mounds, both of them saw, in the haystack in front, beside the river.And the river water was full of rotting corpses, men, women and children, exuding a strong, disgusting rotten smell.

These corpses may have been dead for a long time.Although the weather is still cold, they are still rotting corpses, all of them are covered with dark brown strips of clothes, and their hair is dirty and clumped together.It looks solid.

Fat maggots came out of them from time to time, and some wild dogs were gnawing on them, dragging some internal organs all over the ground.Without exception.The eyes of these wild dogs are full of faint green light.

A corpse, it seems to be a woman, on her corpse, sits a baby wrapped in a small quilt, in his mouth, babbling and muttering, from time to time happily grabbing, the baby that emerges from the mother's body The fat maggots, and then his little hands held the wriggling maggots and sent them into his little mouth. The white maggots struggled hard in his little mouth, and some sticky liquid flowed down from time to time.

Seeing this scene, Zhang Nai and the others felt nauseated.

"kill!"

With swords and spears unleashed, the two led their soldiers to kill the group of wild dogs, and dug pits to bury the hundreds of corpses in front of them one by one.

"Little Master Zhang, there is a group of refugees in the woods on the other side of the river, there are about thousands of people!" A Bian Mashi chief in charge of patrol reported this new situation to Zhang Nai.

"Get their leader!"

Zhang Nai could see clearly that most of the refugees were skinny and ragged, especially many women and children whose clothes were torn like sacks, revealing their dark skin.As the cold wind blew, pieces of rags kept flying, revealing the skin that could not be covered, making these people curl up and look even more shrinking.The word shame can no longer be seen on them, and there is only numbness or an expression of extreme hunger in their eyes.

Many of the refugees were dying of hunger, look at their appearance.Zhang Nai felt even more sour.

Once upon a time, I was the same as them, a refugee, I don't know what will happen tomorrow, maybe one day I will become an insignificant corpse on the side of the road, starve to death, throw the corpse in a foreign land, and become a lonely ghost who can't go home after death.If he had any hope of surviving, he would not have joined the ranks of rebellion with his father and brother.

"People say we are thieves, but they don't know that we are also good people. If there is a mouthful of porridge to drink, we will not harden our hearts and rob our houses!"

Wu Ruyi's words resonated with Zhang Nai: "Angkor, the officials say we are thieves who kill people without batting an eyelid. I want to prove it to these people today. Who is the thief who should be killed!"

With an order, Zhang Nai left behind fifty cavalry and two hundred infantry, as well as a dozen shi of grain.

"Cook porridge, everyone save a little, and you can go to Funiu Mountain. When you arrive at Funiu Mountain and meet my father, Commander Li Chuangwang, you will have a way to survive!"

While greeting these thousands of hungry people to drink porridge, Zhang Nai arranged for the thousands of refugees to be organized into teams according to the current customary practice of entering the camp.He appointed Wuchang, Shichang, and Zongzhang, and arranged him and Wu Ruyi's personal soldiers into officers such as the head of the department, the commander of the banner, and the captain, and ordered them to send these thousands of people back to Mount Funiu.

"Little Naizi, famine is everywhere in Henan, and there are countless victims, hungry people, and displaced persons. Your relief is really a drop in the bucket." Seeing Zhang Nai finish these things and start again on the way to Kaifeng, Wu Ruyi couldn't help but let out a cry After sighing, he expressed his feelings to Zhang Nai.

"The immediate plan, judging from the current situation, is that we rush to Kaifeng as soon as possible, and deliver these goods to the shopkeeper Chen Da in Nanzhong, and exchange them for swords, guns, armor and other things. In this way, those horse thieves who belong to us. , Swordsman, the pole will quickly become our Xiaoqi and Laoying Jingqi, only if the strength of King Chuang becomes stronger. Occupying this Henan Mansion and Henan Eight Mansions, these disaster victims can have a good life!"

In the final analysis, it is still the first to expand the strength as soon as possible.

Among Li Zicheng's camps, the most powerful ones are the more than 3000 old camps that followed him from Xunyang and Shangluo.These old battalion soldiers who followed Li Zicheng to various places, not only did not want to disperse, did not cross the flag, but also followed the banner of Chuangzi, but also had very rich battlefield experience, and knew what they should do according to the battlefield situation without the commander's order.

Apart from these old battalions, there are elite cavalry newly recruited from the local bandits in western Henan and small groups of poles in the past few months. These people can ride horses and know how to fight on horseback.Then came the man with the horse.They are all called horsemen, and the rest are infantry or hungry people who are called hostage by Henan officials.

In fact, there is no coercion at all. For those hungry people who survive on grass roots and bark, the temptation of a pot of rice and a bowl of hot porridge is much greater than the horror of death.They vote with their feet along with the food.There are too many people.The number of bases that can be selected is much larger.With enough soldiers, coupled with a steady stream of weapons replenishment, the strength and combat effectiveness of the camp have rapidly increased.For Henan officers and soldiers, the troops who broke into the camp are much stronger than any rogue bandits. The old battalion can easily defeat the servants of the various battalions in Henan. , even slightly stronger.

The purpose of the two trips.It is to break through Ruzhou and pull out the last nail on the periphery of Henan Mansion!In order to conquer Ruzhou and attack Luoyang in the future, gunpowder accounted for the bulk of Zhang Nai and Wu Ruyi's purchase list.

Within a few days, the two saw the symbol of Kaifeng Mansion from a distance - the iron tower.

The Ming people’s notes commented on Kaifeng as follows: “South of the capital. In Henan, Kaifeng is the city. Go north to Weizhang and reach Jingqi; go east to Biansi and turn to Jianghan. In all directions, merchants gather happily." In addition to the Yellow River water transport, Kaifeng's land transportation is also very developed. At that time, Caomen, Songmen, Ximen, Beimen, and Nanmen were connected to Shandong, Jiangnan, Shaanxi, Huguang and other places.Therefore, Kaifeng was known as "five gates and six roads, the thoroughfare of eight provinces".

Kaifeng is the capital of Henan Province. There are Henan Chief Secretary, Kaifeng Fuzhi and government offices at all levels. A large number of officials and their families are in the city. There are also a large number of retired officials and gentry residences.With Xiangfu County as the attached country, the provincial, prefectural, and county government offices are gathered in one place, and all the government offices are located in the southwest of Zhou Wangfu.With the Bell Tower as the center, the Chief Secretary's Office is located on Bell Tower West Street, and the Command and Envoy Office is located on Bell Tower East Street.

In addition to these, there is also a special product in Kaifeng City, the Fanwang Mansion. "Zhongzhou Zazu" said: "In the Ming Dynasty, the feudal vassals in Henan were the most violent. There were 72 princes in Bianliang (Kaifeng), and all the children born in the fields went into the official office."

Among the feudal vassals, King Zhou is the most prolific, and his fiefdom is Kaifeng Mansion. Up to now, there are more than 5000 descendants of King Zhou's clan, and 48 of them have been named county kings. There are many palaces in the city. In addition to the palace, there are Qujing Palace, Huating Palace, Yuanwu Palace, Ruijin Palace and so on.

Every prince and county king has special civil and military officials and soldiers.The entire Kaifeng mansion can be said to be centered on the Zhou palace. The officials and soldiers serving them, large and small, and the common people and businessmen who revolve around them constitute various groups of Kaifeng population.

The well-developed transportation, coupled with the consumption of a large number of urban population, especially the consumption of a large number of nobles with the royal family as the core, has driven the development of commerce and trade.There are three streets and six markets, with shops and businesses running continuously along the street, and the prosperity is almost as prosperous as that of the Northern Song Dynasty. "From Guandi Temple Street, to the south is Xinglong Bridge, where there is the Fang Family Painting Gallery, and to the Xiting Mansion Archway, there are shops such as belts, handkerchiefs, shoes and hats, pine strings, hairpin sticks, and department stores." "Fold to In the north of the East Road, there are colorful headlines, teeth, sweat towels, copper hairpin buckles, hotels, coppersmiths, and pipa strings." "Tea Alley, crossing the entrance to the east, there are shops for ready-made clothes, shochu, skin gold, groceries, southern wine, medicinal materials, fungus shops, and taverns." "Dashan goods store street, there are grocery stores, pawn shops, Cambodian post shops, and gold shops."In Qiaosanfu Hutong, "there are shops selling Huangdan, Dumping, Dajin and Zhengsheng".Heimo Hutong "has biscuits, cold wine, groceries".To the west of Dadian Street, "there are miscellaneous vegetables and miscellaneous goods such as pine shops in the south of the road.... Dazushi Temple, Dawang Temple Neijing, Hangzhou, Qing, Yang, etc. brought thick and thin fans, monk hats, head grates, kudzu Towels, white wax, etc." "At the entrance of Xiaoshan Huodian, cross the entrance to the west, there are grocery stores, and pass the inn."To the west of the north entrance of Caosan Pavilion, "there are shops such as Yangpijin, Dafeijin, Pijin, Toutiao, Yazi, and Tongxi Hairpin Buttons. Go west to the main street." "To the south of the main street there are restaurants, writing and engraving garments, making jade albums, and publishing Zhuban."To the west of the Drum Tower, there are "merchants from all over the world, piling up groceries and other things, and the congestion is constant every day. The taverns on all streets are full of guests, singing a cappella for fun, and they leave at the second watch." "From the east to the south of the bell tower, there are money tables, cold pickets, roasted meat, etc., wine, rouge powder, silver shops, and pork soup, garlic noodles, and pork noodles in Daguan. All kinds of food are delicious, and the county is famous."

Rice of various colors from Zhengzhou, Huixian, Guangzhou, Gushi, Guangdong, Guangxi, Fujian, etc., charcoal from Shanzhou, handkerchiefs from Linqing, boxwood from Sichuan, lychees and Songyin from Fujian, summer cloth from Jiyang, and new printing from Songjiang Cotton cloth, as well as "xirong" and "mink fur" from distant places, are as famous as Kaifeng's locally produced handicraft products in the Kaifeng market, such as Ma Dao Street. Hairpin boxes, seven-inch pillow boxes, and other goods are all made of heavy copper ornaments. Tooth brushes, tongues, eyebrows, and fragrances are poured out, and they are all listed in one place.Merchants from all over Beijing, Linqing, Nanjing, Tai'an, Jining, and Yanzhou came to sell them continuously.

Wu Ruyi led Zhang Nai around the embankment and dismounted in front of a shop with five bays, and ordered more than 20 accompanying soldiers dressed as servants to tie up the horses.There were already store deacons waiting in front of the door, leading the soldiers to the second entrance courtyard to arrange food and feed the horses.

"Treasurer Chen, the goods from our camp have arrived. When will the 20 barrels of gunpowder and [-] bolts of cotton cloth you promised me be delivered to Kaifeng?"

Wu Ruyi got straight to the point, he and Chen Guoxi are also old acquaintances, so naturally they don't need that kind of fake intimacy.

"Goods? We've already arrived in Bianliang. Naturally, things like gunpowder can't be kept in the city. I put them in the Fanta Temple outside the city!"

What?You actually put something like gunpowder in the temple?This approach really made Wu Ruyi and Zhang Nai feel unbelievable.

"What's so strange about this. Those bald donkeys who are full of Namo Amitabha Buddha are actually chanting the mantra of the cross. Monks don't love money, and the more the better. Thousands of good women, they will not ask! No way, the abbot will pick a few of them to talk about joy Zen!"

Chen Guoxi rolled his eyelids, expressing his contempt for those bald donkeys who were full of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, but such rebellious words aroused Zhang Nai's sympathy.

"The big shopkeeper said it well! When I came from Dengfeng, some of my brothers who worked as tenants and long-term workers in the local big temple once told me a local folk song in Dengfeng, 'Monks don't bite dogs when they enter the house!' Said It's these bald donkeys who come to the tenants' homes to press for rent and bills, drink and eat meat to make women! Damn! If you say that I am a thief, then what are these bald donkeys who have strict rules and regulations? They only saved money to marry My daughter-in-law, the monk in charge of Zhuangzi must go to bed first!"

"Master Zhang." Chen Guoxi flapped his big nostrils, and smiled so much that he showed his big teeth, "But it's also good for these bald donkeys to be greedy for money. This Fanta Temple is the lower court of the temple in Dengfeng. The presiding monk and the other side The abbot, Monk Yongxin, is a brother of the same school. I have written to him that our future armor and weapons can be stored in their temple. Just give them some incense money!"

After saying this, Wu Ruyi almost jumped up in shock.

"Do they know that this is for us to break into the camp?"

"Mr. Wu, these bald donkeys are not fools. We easily have tens of thousands of weapons and thousands of sets of armor. In Henan today, besides Chuang Wang, who else has such a powerful faction? It's too late, how dare you have any other ideas?!"