In October of the first winter, the north wind lingers.》.

The charcoal furnace was already burning in the hall of the Prime Minister's Office, and the high-quality silver charcoal was burning, smokeless and smellless. The hall was full of warm atmosphere, but the atmosphere in the hall was very tense, which was suffocating.

The emperor was wearing a fur robe and sat on the top to rule the government. Liu Jun and the other three ministers of the regent were sitting on both sides. Dozens of important officials gathered together, each of them browsing anxiously, and the hall was very quiet.

"Didn't the thief die long ago?" Zhu Cilang frowned and looked at Liu Jun and said.

"Your Majesty, the old thief Gao Yingxiang who was captured and escorted to the capital and executed by Lingchi. Later, his nephew Li Zicheng continued to lead his troops to flee. In the 11th year of Chongzhen, he was defeated by Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting in Tongguan, and hid in Shangluo Mountains. After the Sichuan, Shaanxi and Hubei Army entered Liao last year, he took advantage of the situation to go out of the mountain. A few months ago, the general of Huguang led his troops to defeat the invading thief in Yunyang, killed more than 3,000 of his tribes, and retreated into Henan."

When Li Zicheng defeated Yunyang and retreated to Henan, there were more than 30,000 people, but he was already seriously injured. Although there were not many people and horses under Yunyang City, they were all war soldiers.

"Why didn't Zhang Shan take advantage of the situation to eliminate the treacherous thieves?" Zhu Cixuan asked again.

"When you go back to your Majesty, Zhang Shan was just a training group of two lakes, and was a training group of local village corps. Moreover, Henan General Zuo Liangyu refused Zhang Shan to lead his troops into Henan to pursue the trestors."

Zuo Liangyu refused Zhang Shan to lead the Chu army into the country, but he was not able to eliminate Li Zicheng. After Li Zicheng entered Henan, he started a mobile battle with Zuo Liangyu. After half a year, Li Zicheng joined forces with many former military officers and households in Henan. Taking advantage of the favorable situation of the famine in Henan, he quickly rolled up snowballs.

By August, more than 50,000 people had gathered. In September, they defeated the three counties of Lu, Yongning and Songxian, and conquered Yiyang a few days ago.

At this time, Li Zicheng was different from Li Zicheng in his early years. He no longer robbed everywhere, robbed everywhere, and even joined forces with many former military officers in Henan. He even posed a banner that he would not kill civilians but only corrupt officials.

In October, Li Zicheng took advantage of the victory to attack Yongning, west of Luoyang, and used a coffin to pack gunpowder to dig holes at the foot of the city to explode the city walls and break through the city.

After the city was broken, Li Zicheng took over the arrested King Wan'an and the more than 100 officials and landlords in the city to the county government for court. After Li Zicheng's personal trial, he was publicly executed. Then he seized all the money and food from the families of King Wan'an and the officials and gentry in the city.

Li Zicheng also took all the food and a lot of unstoppable wealth to distribute it to all the people of Yongning County, winning praise from many people.

"The rebels conquered Yanshi, Lingbao, Xin'an, Baofeng City several days ago, and were preparing to march into Luoyang!"

Before Li Zicheng attacked Yunyang, he was no different from the past. But when he was defeated in Yunyang and entered Henan, he quickly changed his appearance. In the past, the rebel army was a bandit, but now he is under the banner of a rebel army.

They no longer robbed randomly, but only robbed the gentry of the government. Even whenever they broke a city and robbed the gentry, they would take out some food, money and the land deeds that they could not take away, and then share them with the local people. In order to win people's hearts.

It is this change that has made the power of the tide expand extremely quickly.

This change in the rebel army came from two aspects. One was that it was obtained by many scholars and was guided and suggested by them. According to the information obtained by Liu Jun through the Jinyiwei, there are now three famous literati in Li Zicheng's army, one was Niu Jinxing, one was Song Xiance and the other was Li Yan.

It was these three scholars who joined the gang that brought this change to the crusade army.

Niu Jinxing, a native of Baofeng County, Henan Province, passed the seventh year of Tianqi, was generous and unruly. He was dismissed from fame and fortune for his affairs and sent to serve as a military force. He was not the first of the three to join the rebel army. Li Yan first joined. After Li Yan joined the gang, he recommended him to Li Zicheng. After Niu Jinxing joined the gang, he made a suggestion to Li Zicheng.

"Self-killing less, helping the hungry people and winning people's hearts!"

Then he recommended Song Xiance to Li Zicheng.

Song Xiance was also from Henan. He studied books in his early years and later became a diviner. He was a magician who traveled around the world and made fortunes and fortunes.

After Song Xiance joined the army, he used his own expertise to compile a prophecy: "The Eighteen Sons' Main Artifact"

Both of them became Li Zicheng's military counselors and advised him.

However, Li Yan was the first to join Li Zicheng.

Li Yan's real name is Li Xin. He is from Qi County, Kaifeng, Henan Province. He is also a juren in the Tianqi year. Moreover, he was from an official family. His father Li Jingbai was once the governor of Shandong. In the early years of Chongzhen, he was sentenced to "get close servants, and second-rate, and be submissive for three years, and lose redemption for the people."

However, the Li family is one of the best families in their hometown.

Li Yan was a juren at a young age, and he was both civil and military. He was generous and generous by nature, often helped the poor and loved to fight against the poor. He was known as Mr. Li.

Li Yan was famous for his kindness and kindness in Henan in the past years. His joining the trespass was completely forced. In the 13th year of Chongzhen, Henan was severely drought, and then there was no harvest of particles, followed by famine. Li Xin took out his family's grain to help his fellow villagers, but the local government still had to force taxes.

The court even had waived three wages, but the servants in Qi County dared to openly collect three wages from the people, which was even far more than the court's original levy, and added all the taxes that the rich households should pay on the people. Seeing this, Li Xin went to see the county magistrate, hoping to stop the collection, and hoped that the government would open warehouses and release grain to seek relief for hungry people.

As a result, the county magistrate refused and instead borrowed grain from Li Xin.

Li Xin went home and donated more than 200 stones of grain, but this amount of grain was just a drop in the bucket. The hungry people got the Li family's grain, and after eating, they borrowed grain from other rich families. The rich families were not as kind as Li Xin and refused to release grain. As a result, the hungry people coaxed each other and rushed into the home of a rich family, robbing his family's grain.

The other rich households panicked and asked the county magistrate to stop it. But when the hungry people started to make trouble, even the king and law could not control it. In the end, Li Yan came forward to mediate and persuaded the county magistrate to borrow grain from Dafu to help the hungry people. The hungry people were calmed down. However, when the hungry people dispersed, the county magistrate and the rich households repent. The county magistrate turned around and wrote a report to his superiors, saying that Li Yan had bribed the people's hearts and incited chaos, asking to send troops to quell the rebellion and capture Li Yan.

The official who was sent by the county magistrate to deliver the letter happened to be caught by a nearby bandit. The team also gathered a group of hungry people, but the leader was a young woman. She was originally a man who was a man who was a man who was a man who was a man who was a man of martial arts and was known as Hong Niangzi. Hong Niangzi had also heard of Li Yan's name of benevolence and righteousness, and heard that the government wanted to take Li Yan.

He then kidnapped Li Yan with his men.

The Hongniang kidnapped Li Yan and wanted him to stay and join the team to lead the team. However, Li Yan was a juren and his family was a famous local family, so he was not willing to be a bandit leader. He found an opportunity. Li Yan secretly escaped home.

As a result, as soon as he returned, the officer arrested him in the county jail.

Not long after, the Hongniang came and led the team to attack the county town and opened the prison to rescue Li Yan.

The hungry people in Qi County also asked Li Yan to lead everyone to rebel and survive. At this point, Li Yan had no way to retreat. He had to go back. After rebelling, Li Yan did not think about establishing his own banner. He took his people to vote for Li Zicheng, who had just entered Henan at that time.

After all, Li Zicheng has a better reputation, higher qualifications, and more soldiers.

Li Yan and Hong Niangzi joined Li Zicheng with their men. This was the first juren to take the initiative to join Li Zicheng. The family background is so good, and the children of the officials and the clan made Li Zicheng very excited. He kept calling for meeting too late.

Li Yan immediately recommended to Li Zicheng the Henan Juren Niu Jinxing, a scholar who was exiled to commit crimes. They robbed Niu Jinxing and used him as a military advisor. Then Niu Jinxing recommended Song Xiance again.

After Li Yan joined Li Zicheng's team, he not only recommended talents, but also knew about soldiers. After he joined the gang, he advised Li Zicheng to rectify the troops and strictly enforce discipline. In Li Yan's words, the Chu army was famous in the world in a short period of time. It was invincible to attack, but also their iron discipline.

Li Yan also proposed to publicly put forward the slogan of equalizing the fields and exempting the tuition to win the hearts of the people. He specially selected many soldiers who broke into the shape of merchants and common people, mixed into prefectures and cities in various parts of Henan, and promoted the soldiers who broke into discipline when they met with everyone, and did not kill or rob anything.

Li Yan even specially compiled a song that made people sing everywhere.

"Eat and wear damn. I opened the door to welcome the King of Chuang. The King of Chuang did not pay food when he came. I sought promotion in the morning and asked for marriage in the evening. Recently, it is difficult for poor men to live. I opened the door early to worship the King of Chuang, and everyone was happy to discipline me."

Li Yan also made an important suggestion to Li Zicheng, which was to take advantage of the Ming Dynasty's abolishing the garrison and take advantage of the corps fraud in the process of abolishing the garrison and rectifying the military farming, which led to many of the original garrison military officers and officers who could not even rent the land, so they went to lobby these garrison military officers and households to join the rebellion army and rebel together.

Li Yan even went to lobby in person.

The result was successful. Many military officers and military households of Henan garrison who had serious interests in the cleanup of the military farm in this garrison rose up to rebel and joined the rebel army.

Although many garrisons in the Ming Dynasty were abolished, many of those garrisons had studied the martial arts of the garrisons since childhood and received family-born military skills and martial arts training. Many of them had a team of servants of different sizes.

As soon as these military officers who have certain military qualities and know how to set up troops, the combat effectiveness of the riot army was immediately increased exponentially. Especially these people were all local snakes from Henan. With them as guides, the riot army from Henan immediately knew clearly.

The joining of literati, military officers and servants of the garrison changed drastically.

Henan General Zuo Liangyu is also a veteran of bandit suppression, but in just a few months, he was defeated in a row when facing this brand new rebel army.

A few of the soldiers under Zuo Liangyu were the original border troops, most of them were the original local guards, and most of them were later recruited by the bandits of the past.

Their understanding of the trench army is still in the past, and they still use the same old tactics.

Zuo Liangyu still believes that the trespassers rely on traversing combat, avoiding the real and making the false. Frontal combat is no match for the official army at all. As a result, the military discipline of the trespassers has improved and morale has increased, especially after professional military officers and elite servants joined, their combat effectiveness has also increased exponentially.

Especially now, Li Zicheng has learned the tactic of using coffins to fill gunpowder and then digging holes under the city walls. The small county towns in Henan cannot stop this tactic.

A gap was opened in the city wall, and the rebels rushed in. At the beginning of the fierce close melee, the government army and the militia collapsed almost immediately. In just a few months, Li Zicheng broke more than a dozen cities of all sizes in Henan.

More than a dozen cities were lost and a royal prince was killed. Zuo Liangyu repeatedly concealed the news. But now, the rebel army is ready to besiege Luoyang, and Zuo Liangyu can no longer hide it. The officials in Luoyang City directly reported to the capital and requested reinforcements.

The ancient capital Luoyang was an important town in Henan and also the place where King Fu of Ming Dynasty established a vassal.

King Fu Zhu Changxun was born to Concubine Zheng, the favorite concubine of Emperor Shenzong of Ming Dynasty. His son was noble of his mother and was extremely favored by Emperor Shenzong. Wanli once intended to make him the crown prince. Regarding this matter, the court broke out in fierce struggles that year. In the end, Wanli could not withstand the big trolls in Donglin and finally agreed to make the eldest son of the emperor Zhu Changluo the crown prince.

But Wanli really liked this son very much and failed to make him the crown prince. In the end, he conferred him to Luoyang and gave Chang Xun economic benefits. Not only did he give a large amount of money accumulated in the palace, but he also "repaid the court and pay the court and taxes that King Fu asked for.

Zhu Changxun was in the vassal of Luoyang. Although the time was much shorter than the kings who had been enfeoffed since the early Ming Dynasty, his possessions were "richest in the world".

The extravagant life that King Fu lived in Luoyang was in sharp contrast with the disasters suffered by the people of Henan.

A palace wall of Fu Mansion separates two worlds.

Inside the wall is full of luxury and filth, and there is endless luxury and filth; outside the wall is desolate and sad, which is tantamount to the Hell of Fengdu.

The rebel army won victories in Henan, conquering Yiyang, Yongning, Lu family, Yanshi, Lingbao, Xin'an, Baofeng, Yiyang and other counties one after another, clearing the periphery of Luoyang.

At the same time, through these battles, a large number of newly recruited soldiers were trained in practice. In this process, a large amount of money and food were snatched from the landlords and gentry in various places, and many other supplies such as swords, gunpowder and gunpowder.

Tens of thousands of soldiers and horses under the command of Henan General Zuo Liangyu were defeated one after another during this period, and were abandoned.

Faced with the obvious intention, the next step was to besiege Luoyang. The officials in Luoyang City were frightened and hurriedly asked Zuo Liangyu to attack the bandits.

Unfortunately, Zuo Liangyu suffered consecutive defeats under the rebel army and had already become suspicious of life.

Zuo Liangyu used the excuse of owing wages in the army for several months, lacking food and pay, and lacking equipment and armor. The army had no morale and no intention of fighting. He asked the Henan Governor to solve the food and pay of the Henan army first.

In the face of Zuo Liangyu's request, Henan Governor Lu Weiqi had no money to take out, so he had to borrow money from the world-rich King Fu. Unfortunately, the King of Fu Zhu Changxun loved money as his life, and it was time for this time, and he would not lose a penny.

But Zuo Liangyu couldn't get the money and food, so he didn't send troops at all, but retreated to Kaifeng.

In desperation, Lu Weiqi had no choice but to ask the court for reinforcements.

"There is nothing to rely on in the city, and there is danger of being exposed to the morning dew. Please send troops to rescue as soon as possible!" (To be continued.)
Chapter completed!