After relying on Tongguan to block Wu Sangui, Li Zicheng started to reorganize the army and prepare for war again. However, the situation reported in various places made Li Zicheng feel like he was in the forefront. Shaanxi was his foundation, but Guanzhong was more ruined than ever. In the 17th year of Chongzhen, Shaanxi was still drought. Due to the large number of young and strong men who were transferred to the army by Li Zicheng, the rural labor was scarce, and most of the crops died. Jiangnan rice only costs one tael of silver and one stone, while Shaanxi rice prices have risen to 2 taels and six cents per dou, and wheat is 2 taels and four cents per dou, which is twenty times the price of Jiangnan rice.

If it were in the past, Li Zicheng could have killed the rich and helped the poor, but the wealthy families in Shaanxi had already been killed. Even if they wanted to rob, they had no place to rob them. They had the money, but after they withdrew from Beijing, they still brought a lot of money, but these money could not be eaten or worn, and they had no place to buy them.

Without food, the army will be hungry. In such a situation of low morale, the escape of the sergeant is only a trivial matter, and if it is not good, it will be noisy.

In desperation, Li Zicheng accepted the suggestion of Niu Jinxing and Song Xiance, and strived to reconcile with Nanming and fight against the Qing army together. The most important thing is to see if he could buy the food he needed most from Nanming, even if it was five times or ten times the price of rice in Jiangnan. He sent Gu Junen as his representative, brought a lot of gifts, and prepared to go to Huguang to contact Zuo Liangyu in advance.

Due to poor information transmission, Li Zicheng did not know that Zuo Liangyu had already raised an army to Qing dynasty. It was not the first time that Dashun Army had dealt with Zuo Liangyu. Before the battle in Zhuxian Town, Dashun Army had many contacts with Zuo Liangyu. Sometimes both sides had tacit understanding and avoided each other. Zuo Liangyu and Zhang Xianzhong had more contact. After receiving Zhang Xianzhong several times, he directly let Zhang Xianzhong go in the encirclement, resulting in Yang Sichang being forced to commit suicide. Niu Jinxing and others believed that Zuo Liangyu was not loyal to the Ming Dynasty at all. As long as he had enough money, it was not impossible to obtain food from Zuo Liangyu.

At Jiujiang City, another day of war ended. Although Zuo Liangyu knew that there was an internal response at night, he was not stingy in the slightest military strength during the day. The city was shaking several times and almost lost. After the desperate counterattack of the officers and soldiers guarding the city, they drove the rebels back down from the city. Yuan Jixian and Huang Binqing were busy putting out fires everywhere, and they did not notice that someone in the city was quietly connecting to surrender.

That night, when Yuan Jixian was sleeping soundly, he suddenly woke up from his dream. Then he heard the sound of yelling in the city. Yuan Jixian was shocked and jumped out of the bed, not caring about wearing shoes, so he ran out of the house barefoot. Fortunately, he had been lying in his clothes and was not naked. As soon as Yuan Jixian left the room, he saw the fire in the north soaring into the sky, mixed with shouts: "The rebels have entered the city, run away."

Yuan Jixian's face suddenly turned pale, and his personal soldiers rushed out of the room, staring blankly at the fire in the direction of the north gate.

"Who defends the North Gate?"

"Sir Hui is Deputy General Zhang Shixun."

"Okay, good Zhang Shixun." Yuan Jixian understood that Zhang Shixun was a little wrong during the day. He always sluggishly when he asked him to send troops to reinforce the city. Unexpectedly, he had this idea. It was a pity that he had no eyes and did not see that there was an unfaithful and unrighteous person around him.

A sound of horse hooves came, and a fire dragon quickly approached the Governor's Office in the dark. Yuan Jixian's personal soldiers were shocked: "No, the rebels are here."

The personal soldiers were about to help Yuan Jixian leave, someone in the fire dragon shouted: "Is the Governor in front of me? The last general Huang Binqing."

When he heard that it was Huang Binqing, Yuan Jixian's personal soldiers finally felt relieved. When the Fire Dragon came to his side, it was Huang Binqing who brought people there. At this time, Huang Binqing was wearing armor and holding a big knife. He looked majestic under the fire light, but the words he spoke were not very majestic: "Governor General, the left thief has entered the city, and Jiujiang can no longer hold on. It's better to follow the last general to fight. This is not a crime of war, and I think the emperor will not blame him."

"Kill out of the city?" Yuan Jixian shook his head: "As the governor of Jiujiang, I have the responsibility to defend the territory, so how can I abandon the city and flee? General Huang, you are a guest army. Thank you for helping me defend the city these days, otherwise Jiujiang has been destroyed by the thieves. You can escape first, and I am determined to die in harmony with the city."

Huang Binqing wanted to persuade him again, and the shouts of killing in front became louder and louder, less than half a mile away from the Governor's Mansion, he had to stomp hard on the ground with the hilt of the knife and sighed: "Let's go."

After Huang Binqing left, dozens of personal soldiers around Yuan Jixian opened their eyes wide open, their faces full of horror. Several people took advantage of the night to quietly hide from the darkness. Yuan Jixian ignored it and said, "Let's go, accompany me to the top of the city."

A group of people were wearing torches and walked towards the city heading. When they reached the city heading, there were only five soldiers who were accompanying Yuan Jixian from dozens of people left. There was no one on the city heading. Seeing the chaos in the city, the soldiers guarding the city had already retreated. At this time, the fire from the north of the city had already extended to the city and were still rapidly extending in all directions. Various screams were heard. The rebels had already released their beastly nature in the city for many days.

Yuan Jixian bowed three times to the direction of Nanjing, looking at the five personal soldiers who were still by his side, his face was filled with climax: "I am betrayed the emperor's trust and cannot protect the people. I have no face to live in the world. After this official dies, you should do it yourself." After that, he jumped off the city wall and fell into the moat. After a huge sound of water, the river returned to peace.

"Sir." The five personal soldiers watched Yuan Jixian disappear from the city and burst into tears.

After crying for a while, one of them said, "We are deeply grateful to you, so we cannot let you leave too lonely." After that, he jumped down. Under the infection of this person, two more jumped down.

At this time, the entire Jiujiang City had become a hell. The rebels unscrupulously killed the unarmed people and raped the women on the spot. Zuo Liangyu turned a blind eye to the scene along the way and walked into the Governor's Office with pride. He had promised his subordinates to search for a day in Jiujiang. As for what Jiujiang would become in the future, he didn't care.

But when he heard that Yuan Jixian jumped into the moat and died, Zuo Liangyu's face darkened and he was quite angry. This Yuan Daizi would rather die than throw himself into the city.

When Jiujiang City was in full swing, Li Chengdong's men were only dozens of miles away from Jiujiang and were camping in a wilderness. With the supervision of military judges, Li Chengdong's military discipline was indeed not violated by the people this time. Seeing the fire in Jiujiang, Li Chengdong and the generals were shocked, but it was inconvenient to check at night, so everyone had to go to bed again with suspicion.

The next day, Li Chengdong was about to set up camp, but Huang Binqing, who escaped from Jiujiang City, had already arrived. He got news of the fall of Jiujiang from Huang Binqing, and Li Chengdong was in a dilemma.

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Chapter completed!