Now that Gao Yingxiang has escaped, the other bandits in Huguang can be wiped out by the local defenders of Huguang, so it is meaningless for Hong Chengchou to stay in Huguang. Therefore, at the end of May of the 8th year of Chongzhen, after resting for a few days in Jingzhou, Hong Chengchou set foot on the road again.

Heading north to Henan.

As the army marched to Nanyang, disturbing news came. On May 15, when Hong Chengchou was encircling Gaoyingxiang in Huguang, Li Zicheng, who was roaming in Shaanxi, suddenly came south from the north and captured Fengxiang.

After Hong Chengchou learned the news, he remained silent for a long time. It was not until the generals around him asked him that he ordered the army to speed up and move northward.

When we arrived in Ye County, it was already June 15th. More news came. After Li Zicheng conquered Shaanxi, he did not waste time. Instead, he continued eastward and successively conquered Wugong, Fufeng, Wugong, Meixian, Xianyang and other places.

Bingfeng points to Xi'an again.

Not only that, the flag of the beaten bandit Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang was found in Lantian 1 area. At the same time, in May, Cao Cao Luo Rucai, the 8th king Zhang Xianzhong, Chuang Tatian Liu Guoneng and other bandits gathered in Guide Mansion.

They jointly attacked Guide Prefecture and governed Shangqiu.

Fortunately, before the rogues conquered Shangqiu, Shandong Governor Zhu Dadian and his troops arrived in time, frightened away the thieves, and led his troops to pursue the rogues. They successively defeated the rogue coalition forces in Ningling, Tuocheng, Taikang, Fugou and other places, and captured the thieves.

There were more than 30,000 soldiers, and 10,000 people were killed. The thieves' power was greatly reduced.

At this time, Chongzhen, who was in the capital, finally realized that it was difficult to succeed in a comprehensive encirclement and suppression under the mobile operations of the rebel army, so he switched to the policy of zoning responsibility and focusing the attack, and ordered Hong Chengchou to resume his role as the governor of the three sides, responsible for annihilating the Shaanxi thieves.

Public.

Lu Xiangsheng succeeded Tang Hui as governor of Huguang and was stationed in Xiangyang for his success in encircling and suppressing Gao Yingxiang. He also ordered Zhu Dadian, governor of Shandong, to station in Fengyang and be responsible for exterminating rogue bandits in Henan, Jiangbei, Shandong and other places.

After receiving the order, Zhu Dadian complained endlessly. His family knew his own affairs. He could defeat the bandits only by luck. He had no ability to strategize. How could he command the three armies? So he asked the court three times to resign from the three provinces.

However, Chongzhen 1 was not allowed to hold the post of governor, so Zhu Dadian had no choice but to bite the bullet and take office.

In early June, Zhang Xianzhong, together with Luo Rucai, Liu Guoneng and others, wanted to imitate the surprise attack on Fengyang, so they wanted to send troops to attack Xianling, which is the tomb of Emperor Jiajing's father Gong Ruixian Emperor Zhu Youqi (the emperor's name was posthumous).

Lead the troops to Mount Que.

When Zhu Dadian heard this, he did not dare to neglect, and quickly led his troops out of Fengyang, via Runing Mansion, and wanted to enter Huguang. When they arrived at the Zhongshanpu area of ​​​​Xinyang, four ambushes broke out in four weeks. Zhu Dadian was in chaos and could not do anything. The officers and soldiers were captured

Zhang Xianzhong was defeated and fled in a panic. Zhang Xianzhong and others chased him and caught up with Zhu Dadian in the Longkou area of ​​Xincai.

At this time, Zhu Dadian shouted that the sky should not respond, and the earth and the earth were not working. In the chaos of the army, he drew his sword and committed suicide. After this battle, Zhang Xianzhong and others' power jumped to 100,000. The troops were divided into three groups, panned Nanyang, and returned.

Germany, Fengyang 1 area, Jiangbei.

On June 23rd of the 8th year of Chongzhen, Luo Rucai led an army of 30,000 people, crossed Nanyang, plundered Tang County and Biyang area, and finally led his troops to Xinye. Lu Xiangsheng, the governor of Huguang, crossed the border, left Xiangyang, and faced Luo Rucai in Xinye.

During this battle, the sky was dark and the wind was strong. Luo Rucai's flag was blown over by the strong wind, and the morale of the army was unstable. Lu Xiangsheng seized this opportunity and led his army to attack Luo Rucai's central army. Luo Rucai was defeated and fled in defeat, and the army collapsed.

Lu Xiangsheng led his men in a wild pursuit for 50 miles, beating Luo Rucai until Luo Rucai was frightened, and all the trees and grass were at war. In the end, he only managed to escape from Lu Xiangsheng's grasp with only 36 cavalry.

When the news reached the capital, Chongzhen, who was already distressed, immediately brightened up and ordered the establishment of the "Premier of the Five Provinces", with Lu Xiangsheng as the concurrent post, overseeing the military affairs of the five provinces of Nanzhili, Henan, Shandong, Sichuan, and Huguang.

After receiving the appointment, Lu Xiangsheng presented to the court the "Ten Important Points to Defeat the Bandits", namely: 1. Paying; 2. Raising troops; 3. Employing people; 4. Appointing generals; 5. Setting up dangers; 6. Confirming merits and crimes; 7. Clear divisions and combinations; 8. Special responsibility;

9. Use the people to attack the thieves; 10. use the thieves to attack the thieves. He also plays the "three major strategies", namely: suppressing the overall situation, fully raising the soldiers' pay, and dedicating the supervisory power. Chongzhen held his nose and accepted them all.

Therefore, Lu Xiangsheng quickly rushed to southern Zhili with his army, and on July 22, the 8th year of Chongzhen, he defeated Zhang Xianzhong's troops who were about to invade Luzhou in Luzhou Prefecture. Zhang Xianzhong immediately returned his troops, intending to return to the north.

Attack Fengyang.

Lu Xiangsheng followed him all the way, and successively defeated Zhang Xianzhong and Liu Guoneng's coalition forces in Fuyang, Kaifeng and other places. Zhang Xianzhong was defeated and went south to enter Shaanxi via Shangluo Road.

At the same time, Hong Chengchou, the governor of the three sides, had also arrived at Tongguan. However, at this time, Hong Chengchou, who had always been unfavorable in the past, did not enter Shaanxi directly. Instead, he stationed himself in Tongguan. On the other hand, after Li Zicheng captured Xianyang,

They gathered their troops and did not launch an attack on Xi'an for a long time.

At this time, the two of them were like swordsmen about to fight, posing with each other, just waiting for the other side to make a move.

Perhaps there is another reason. Since Hong Chengchou lost his title as governor of 7 provinces, the number of troops in his hands has been greatly reduced. Among them, the Hong soldiers who directly belong to Hong Chengchou are the elites who pacified the four parties in Hong Chengchou's hands. There are only 10,000 people left.

Up and down. Even if Cao Wenzhao, Ai Wannian, Liu Guozhen and others are included, the total does not exceed 30,000.

However, how many people can there be in the rebel army on the opposite side? There are 7 and 12 battalions of rebels in total, totaling 230,000 people. Although these soldiers may not all obey Li Zicheng's orders, but facing so many people, it is difficult for an individual to do so.

There is a mountain of pressure. Not only that, the drought in Shaanxi continues, and government corruption is rampant, resulting in hungry people everywhere and hordes of tigers and wolves.

These hungry people will become a supplement to the rebel army at any time after the rebel army is attacked. It can be said that if one person of the rebel army is killed, two can be replenished instantly, but if one person of Hong Chengchou is killed in battle, the army will only have one less person, and there is no way to replenish it.

This is one of the reasons why Hong Chengchou is so afraid.

On July 20, the 8th year of Chongzhen, after Gao Yingxiang stayed in Lantian for a month, he sent people to Fengxiang to borrow troops from Li Zicheng. Li Zicheng immediately ordered his general Liu Minzong to lead 10,000 elite troops to Lantian and return to Gao Yingxiang for deployment.

Gao Yingxiang was very moved when he learned about it and vowed never to forget the kindness of borrowing troops today. When Liu Minzong led his people to Hu County, Gao Yingxiang also rushed to Hu County from Lantian. Then the two armies joined forces to attack Hu County together.

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The magistrate of Huxian County was so frightened that he sent 13 letters for help in one day to the governor of Shaanxi Province in Xi'an City. He did not dare to be careless in state affairs, so he immediately sent people to Tongguan and reported the news to Hong Chengchou in Tongguan.

Unexpectedly, Hong Chengchou stroked his beard and laughed: "The thief has revealed his flaws." So he sent his deputy generals Ai Wannian and Liu Guozhen to lead 6,000 troops to rescue Hu County.

Ai Wannian, Liu Guozhen did not dare to neglect. After receiving the order, they set out at starry night, rushed to Hu County before the city of Hu County was broken, and fought with Gao Yingxiang and Liu Minzong.

Of course, what Gao Yingxiang brought with him on this trip were their last trump cards, and the troops led by Liu Minzong were also elites from the old battalion that Li Zicheng had accumulated over the years and had gone through numerous battles, large and small. In addition, they could be defeated so easily.

?The two sides fought from noon to midnight. Ai Wannian and Liu Guozhen were defeated and retreated to Hu County. Gao and Liu immediately surrounded Hu County and asked Li Zicheng of Fengxiang for help.

When Li Zicheng learned that he had defeated Hong Chengchou's generals, he immediately realized that this was an opportunity. It would be better to cut off one of his fingers than to injure ten of his fingers. If he could kill Ai Wannian and Liu Guozhen in Hu County, it would

It can make Hong Chengchou break his muscles and bones.

So, after making some arrangements, he led the army to march eastward, hoping to devour Ai Wannian, and Liu Guo suppressed this army.

Unexpectedly, Hong Chengchou was waiting for this moment, and immediately ordered Cao Wenzhao to lead 8,000 elite troops to surprise Fengxiang. After Cao Wenzhao received the order, he marched day and night, marching at a speed of 200 miles a day, and it took three days to complete the victory.

Arriving from Tongguan to Fengxiang.

At this time, Fengxiang was completely unprepared, and was captured by Cao Wenzhao with only one charge. After Cao Wenzhao captured Fengxiang, Hong Chengchou personally led the army and came to Xi'an.
Chapter completed!