Chapter 5 5. To lure the enemy deep, Li Zicheng killed Cao Wenzhao

On the fifteenth day of the first lunar month in the eighth year of Chongzhen, King Sweeping Di and King Taiping led their troops to conquer Fengyang.It is of great political significance for the rebel army to conquer Fengyang.For the Zhu Ming Dynasty, the fall of Fengyang and the digging of the ancestral graves were a great spiritual blow.When Zhu Youjian learned that Fengyang had fallen, he became distraught and ordered that he be held accountable.As a result, Yang Yipeng, the governor of Fengyang, was executed, Wu Zhenying, the governor of Fengyang, was dispatched to the border, and Yang Ze, the eunuch guarding the mausoleum, committed suicide in fear of crime.Zhu Youjian stepped up his suppression of the uprising peasant army with a hundredfold madness.While emphasizing the cleansing of the national humiliation, he transferred the Shaanxi soldiers under Hong Chengchou's command to leave the customs and encircled and suppressed them with the officials and troops of the provinces in the Central Plains.After a tense deployment of troops, the Ming government finally assembled more than 70,000 officers and soldiers.More than one million taels of capital and provincial funds were distributed as military pay, and a time limit was set, stipulating that all peasant uprisings should be wiped out within six months.

In April, as soon as the officers and troops led by Hong Chengchou arrived in Ruzhou, Henan, they got the news that the rebel army had entered Qin in a large scale.He had no choice but to pull He Renlong and Liu Chenggong back to Shaanxi with his troops. At the same time, he mobilized Cao Wenzhao, the commander-in-chief, to move from Huguang to Shangluo and Xing'an in Shaanxi, guarding the passages for the rebels to enter and exit Henan and Huguang. In June, Li Zicheng's troops besieged Ningzhou (now Ningxian County), Gansu Province. The deputy generals of the Ming Dynasty, Ai Wannian, Liu Chenggong, and Liu Guozhen, and the guerrilla Wang Xi were ordered to lead 3,000 troops to help. The two sides fought in Xiangle Town, Ningzhou.The official army was defeated, and Ai Wannian and Liu Guozhen were killed by the rebel army.Ai Wannian and Liu Guozhen are the generals of Cao Wenzhao's subordinates. They can be called Cao Wenzhao's right and left hands in combat. win.Therefore, the death of Ai and Liu was a great loss to Cao Wenzhao.Cao Wenzhao's temper was very violent, and the city was not deep, so he relied entirely on his vigor to fight.When Cao Wenzhao heard the news that Ai and Liu Zhan had died in Bajiazhai, he was so angry that he drew his waist knife and slashed at the ground.

He asked Hong Chengchou to let him go out and fight the rebels to the death. Hong Chengchou said with great joy: "This battle can only be won by the generals. It's just that my troops have been scattered and I can't support General Cao. The general can go first, and I Lead the army from Jingyang to Chunhua, and serve as the general's backup." After Li Zicheng received Cao Wenzhao's preparation to lead his troops to attack Fengyang, he immediately took corresponding measures.He believes that Cao Wenzhao's repeated victories are due to luck and bravery.This man is cruel by nature, underestimating the enemy and seldom plotting, as long as he adopts the tactics of luring the enemy deep, laying down a pocket formation, and when Cao Wenzhao gets in, he will block the gap, and send out strong troops to encircle and consume Cao Jun in the "pocket".

Li Zicheng summoned several generals in the tent and said: "I called you here today because I have an important matter to discuss with you." Normally, Li Zicheng seldom recruited everyone in such a mobilizing manner. Some people thought that he must have encountered a very difficult matter. "Since the Ming army lost Fengyang, Hong Chengchou has been very unwilling. He dared not send troops rashly. At this time, Cao Wenzhao received a military order from him, saying that he would personally lead the army to attack Fengyang." Li Zicheng said. A general said: "This is also reasonable. In the battle of Fengyang, Ai Wannian and Liu Guozhen's troops were all killed. These two men were originally Cao Wenzhao's right-hand men. With Cao Wenzhao's character, he took over It is reasonable to come down with this military order."

"That's not what I'm worried about. No matter who leads troops to attack Fengyang, we have to find a way to make military deployments in advance. Of course, if we want to use the deployment to the point, we must first understand the enemy. Cao Wenzhao is in the The Ming army is well-known, and has defeated our rebel army many times. But he has a weakness, he underestimates the enemy and lacks resourcefulness, and he completely relies on momentum to fight." He said, pointing to the battle that had been planned. Deployment said: "So, based on his weakness, I formulated a strategy to lure the enemy deep and encircle Cao's army."

"How did you arrange the deployment?" the general asked. Li Zicheng said: "Our army can be divided into three forces. I will lead one force to face Cao Jun, and the other two forces will be led by two of you, and lie in ambush on the left and right sides of the road that Fengyang must pass. Take bows and arrows, hang around with Cao Jun for a while, pretend to be invincible and withdraw your troops, Cao Jun will definitely chase after you. At that time, I will light the trumpet as a signal to remind you to prepare for battle." Cao Wenzhao was angry, but he didn't show it in front of Hong Chengchou, for fear that Hong Chengchou would change his decision again.Back in the camp, Cao Wenzhao first drank a large jar of wine to mourn the two dead lieutenants, and then gave the order to march.

Some generals in the army advised Cao Wenzhao not to send troops hastily, because the enemy is outnumbered, and sending troops rashly will definitely fall into the enemy's siege plan.Cao Wenzhao didn't listen, and said: "Back then, Zhao Zilong single-handedly broke through the siege of Cao Jun's layers of siege, relying on his high martial arts and courage. Now our army has three thousand soldiers, which of them has not been honed from the battlefield after hundreds of battles. It's not a problem to top ten. But there are always some people like you who want to make a total calculation before encountering problems.

The general wanted to persuade Cao Wenzhao again, but Cao Wenzhao waved his hand and said, "You don't need to say more, I have already made up my mind, even if the king of heaven comes to persuade me, it won't work. If you talk to me like this, what is the truth? Immediately touch your head to see if it is still there!" When the general heard the words, he swallowed them hard. Cao Wenzhao let all the soldiers drink a lot before sending out troops, and said: "Our Cao army is invincible and invincible. It depends on courage. Now Fengyang is occupied by the enemy, and they have killed many of our troops. Few people, do you think the debt owed to us by the bandits is worth it?"

All the soldiers shouted: "Go straight to Fengyang, wipe out the bandits, and avenge the dead brothers!" The voice was so loud that it could be heard five miles away. The next day, Cao Wenzhao led three thousand Cao troops to march towards Fengyang in a mighty manner.Li Zicheng led a group of troops to intercept Cao Jun. "General Cao is so overestimated, can you take Fengyang with just 3,000 troops? What a joke." Li Zicheng deliberately used words to provoke Cao Wenzhao. Cao Wenzhao said angrily: "The little traitor is really rude, if you are sensible, surrender quickly, maybe this general can leave your whole body in a moment of soft-heartedness!"

"Then we have to see who left the whole body for whom." Li Zicheng said. Cao Wenzhao was taken aback for a moment, and immediately cursed: "It really is a bandit soldier, uttering wild words. Let me do it!" The two armies met face to face, Li Zicheng pretended to be invincible, and led the remaining rebels to retreat.Cao Wenzhao didn't know what it was, so he followed closely and chased after him. Everything went smoothly according to the original plan. Li Zicheng immediately ignited the trumpet cannon as soon as he passed the ambush point. Seeing the signal, the ambushed rebels immediately greeted the enemy, and the soldiers drew their bows and arrows one after another.

Seeing that the distance between the two armies was getting farther and farther, Li Zicheng's troops stopped at this moment.Cao Wenzhao suddenly felt a little suspicious, but seeing the arrogance of the rebels, the fire in his heart was released again. "Kill!" he yelled. Li Zicheng led the troops to stop retreating, and began to turn around to meet Cao Jun, blocking the relatively weak southern part of the siege. "Fire the arrows!" The soldiers in ambush gave an order, and all the arrows rained towards Cao Jun.Cao's army suddenly fell into chaos, and Cao Wenzhao knew that he had hit the mark, so he led the remaining soldiers to launch an offensive to break out of the encirclement.Reluctantly, there were a large number of rebels, and there were no less than 20,000 people surrounded on the inner and outer floors. It was impossible to break out of the encirclement, and the surrounding area was completely blocked by the rebels. Cao Wenzhao gave up breaking through and decided to fight the rebels to the end.After all, Cao Jun has been on the battlefield for a long time. When encountering this situation, he did not panic.Turned into hand-to-hand combat, the bow and arrow lost their effect.For a while, Cao Jun was evenly matched with the rebel army. Cao Wenzhao is best at charging and attacking. Now that he is surrounded by heavy siege, his fighting nature has been aroused.He opened his eyes angrily, swung the big knife in his hand, and in a short while, more than a dozen rebel soldiers were killed. The rebel army hated it so much that their teeth itch, but they didn't dare to get close to Cao Wenzhao.Cao Wenzhao's whole body was soaked in the blood of the rebels, and he accidentally splashed a few drops of blood into his eyes when he swung the knife, and he cried out inwardly.A few rebels saw the right moment and cut off the horse's leg with a knife, and Cao Wenzhao rolled off the horse's back. He struggled on the ground, touched the big knife, and confronted the surrounding rebels. Li Zicheng pushed aside the crowd and said to Cao Wenzhao: "Your three thousand troops have been wiped out. Who do you think will win this battle?" Cao Wenzhao waved his knife and laughed loudly: "I lost to you in a miscalculation today, but it doesn't mean that you can do anything to me. My life and death are still in my own control." After Hong Chengchou got the report, he looked up to the sky and cried bitterly, regretting endlessly.Among the officers and soldiers in the late Ming Dynasty, Cao Wenzhao has always been famous for his "dare to fight", and he is an executioner who kills without blinking an eye.If he had been relieved to allocate more troops at that time, the situation might not have been so bad.Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youjian was also very sad and ordered to build a temple for sacrifice.After Cao Wenzhao's death, the rebels congratulated each other. The rebel army led by Li Zicheng successively won major victories in Shaanxi, which dealt a heavy blow to the army of Ming Governor Hong Chengchou.However, due to natural and man-made disasters at that time, Shaanxi was in a state of depression everywhere.The number of rebels has increased significantly, and it is naturally not easy to find rations.Therefore, starting from the autumn of this year, except for the few rebels from Li Zicheng and other ministries who remained in Shaanxi, hundreds of thousands of people from Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang, Ma Shouying, Eight Great Kings Zhang Xianzhong, Yizi Wang, and Zhuo Tianwang, etc. It leaves Tongguan in the east and enters Henan.