Chapter 7 7. False appearances confuse the enemy, and the Li and Luo alliance breaks the Ming army

When Li Zicheng led his men to attack Luoyang, Li Xianfeng, the governor of Henan in the Ming Dynasty, was leading the army of the guerrilla general Gao Qian to suppress the local peasant uprising in the Huaiqing area north of the Yellow River.Chen Yongfu, the deputy general of Kaifeng City Guard, learned that Luoyang was in danger, and hurriedly led his troops to Luoyang for support.Kaifeng's defense force is therefore very weak.Li Zicheng got this information and decided to surprise Kaifeng.However, Li Zicheng's surprise attack failed because Zhou Wang Zhu Gongyan in Kaifeng took out his own money and called out desperadoes to resist desperately.At this time, Chen Yongfu, who was going to Luoyang to help, heard that the rebel army took advantage of the false attack to attack Kaifeng, and hurriedly led the army back for two days and nights to participate in the defense.Li Zicheng was shot in the eye while observing the enemy's situation, and got the news that Zuo Liangyu's army and Baoding governor Yang Wenyue's army were marching towards Kaifeng, so he could only retreat temporarily to avoid the enemy's front.

In July of the 14th year of Chongzhen, Luo Rucai led his troops to Xichuan, Henan Province, to fight jointly with Li Zicheng's rebel army.After Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai joined forces, they entered the Zaoyang and Suizhou areas of Huguang from the west of Henan via Tang County, preparing to capture Chengtian.Fearing that Chengtian's ancestral mausoleum might be lost, Fu Zonglong, governor of the three sides of Shaanxi, led the troops of He Renlong, the commander in chief, and Li Guoqi, the deputy commander in chief, to Chengtian in early August.Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai found out that Chengtian's defenses were very tight, and the Shaanxi government army was about to arrive again, so they decided to change their plan and return to Henan via Yingshan.When Fu Zonglong saw the rebels leaving without a fight, he mistook it as a sign of cowardice, so he led the army in pursuit.At the beginning of September, 20,000 troops under the command of Fu Zonglong and He Renlong and Li Guoqi arrived in Xincai, Henan Province, joined forces with Hu Dawei's troops led by Yang Wenyue, governor of Baoding, and marched towards Xiangcheng, intending to encircle and wipe out the coalition forces of Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai.

After Li Zicheng got the news, he immediately deployed a combat plan.At this time, the momentum of the officers and soldiers is strong, and if there is a direct confrontation, there will inevitably be a bloody battle.Even if they can repel the official army, the rebel army will have to pay a heavy price.After some planning, Li Zicheng decided to ambush the elite troops by the Ying River, and sent another team westward to cross the Ying River, creating the illusion of moving to Runing to confuse the enemy.The official army chasing all the way knew that if the rebels had crossed the Ying River, they would definitely relax their vigilance. When the time comes, the elite rebels ambushing nearby will take advantage of the situation to launch a surprise attack, and they will surely win a complete victory.

However, how can the large number of elites left behind not be discovered by the officers and soldiers?Standing by the Ying River, Li Zicheng thought hard. If the intention of the rebel army were discovered by the enemy, it would undoubtedly be a catastrophe for them. Instead, it would be better to concentrate all their strength and fight to the death.A breeze blew by, and suddenly there was a vague sound not far away. The sound was a bit like the sound of water, but it was definitely not the sound of river water.He was on the edge of the Ying River, and he could hear the sound of the river water clearly, but the sound was very weak, intermittently changing with the wind.With years of experience in the wild, Li Zicheng quickly judged that it should be the sound of the wind blowing through the woods.forest?Li Zicheng's eyes lit up, and he immediately sent someone to look around.

"Report, there is a pine forest stretching for several miles to the southeast from here." In less than an hour, the spies sent out returned with news. "Ten miles to the southeast?" Before Li Zicheng could speak, Luo Rucai couldn't help but grab the conversation.When Luo Ru turned around, Li Zicheng had already galloped towards the southeast. After Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai saw it, they ambushed all the elite of the rebel army in the pine forest.This pine forest stretching for several miles has become an excellent barrier for the rebels. Not only are the dense pine branches covering up a large number of rebels, even if the troops accidentally make any noise, they will be drowned in the bursts of pine waves. .

Luo Rucai couldn't help sighing: "It's really a natural ambush ground, our army's victory is in sight." Li Zicheng got off his horse and checked the terrain carefully. The roads in the forest were already narrow. If the enemy troops passed through, the team would definitely be very long, and the enemy's combat defense capabilities would be reduced as a result. "There is no doubt that we will win this battle with the enemy!" Li Zicheng already had the certainty of victory in his heart. Everything was ready, and the officers and soldiers who had been chasing after him arrived at the edge of the Ying River.However, they only saw the pontoon bridge dismantled in the river after the rebels crossed the river and their backs as they went away.

"The gang of rogues are well-behaved, they escaped so quickly." Fu Zonglong looked at the group of shadows in messy clothes that disappeared at the end of the world, his tone was full of disdain. "Fortunately, they ran fast. Otherwise, with the strength of you and me, we will definitely wipe them out." Yang Wenyue, governor of Baoding, not to be outdone, pointed at the rebels who were so far away that they couldn't even see their shadows. "Should we continue to chase them?" He Renlong Le immediately asked for orders. "Forget it, these gangsters have already run into a rout, and they won't be able to achieve anything. It will be a matter of time before they are wiped out. The soldiers have been chasing them non-stop these days, and it's time to take a break. By the way, I will also go nearby to replenish food and grass." While talking, Yang Wenyue looked around to see if there were any villages nearby.

When the officers and soldiers heard this, they didn't care about rest, and immediately urged their horses to march towards the nearby villages to "replenish food and grass".Only Fu Zonglong and Yang Wenyue were left to take a rest in Mengjiazhuang with their directly subordinate standard battalion. Officers, soldiers and soldiers scattered into the villages to search for the food and fodder of the people, one by one scrambling to be the first, the formation was scattered, and they did not take any precautions at all.Just when the officers and soldiers were concentrating on searching for the common people, the scouts of the rebel army had already reported the situation to Li Zicheng who was ambushing in the pine forest.

"Tell King Luo, let him lead people back to surround the enemy immediately when the shout of killing starts here." Li Zicheng watched Tanma go away, and immediately rushed towards Mengjiazhuang with the rebels in the pine forest.When Fu Zonglong and Yang Wenyue, who were resting in the camp, heard the shouts of killing, they were tightly surrounded by the rebel army led by Li Zicheng.It was already impossible to break out of the encirclement. Fortunately, there was still a direct subordinate battalion struggling to support him, so he would not become a prisoner of the rebel army immediately.

The rest of the scattered officers and generals heard the cries of the rebels, and hurriedly tried to regroup the troops, but the morale of the troops was lost in the haste.The soldiers threw away what they had snatched and ran for their lives. Yang Wenyue wanted to straighten out the scattered troops, but at this moment the soldiers still didn't listen to him. Seeing this situation, He Renlong and Hu Dawei, who had taken the initiative to ask for orders just now, had no choice but to pull up a team and flee towards Shen Qiu.Seeing that the situation was not good, Li Guoqi also ran away, completely ignoring the two governors who were surrounded by rebels.The poor Fu Zonglong and Yang Wenyue who were surrounded in the middle could only resist desperately until the night slowly fell.

Later, under the cover of night, Yang Wenyue escaped from the siege and fled to Xiangcheng and Chenzhou under the protection of deputy general Zhang Qi.When Fu Zonglong heard that Yang Wenyue had escaped, he became even more terrified.Bumping around with the officers and soldiers under him, he also wanted to open a hole and escape like Yang Wenyue.But he was far less lucky than Yang Wenyue, because at this time all the rebels who had crossed the river had returned under the leadership of Luo Rucai.Added another layer outside the original encirclement.In the middle of the night, the exhausted Fu Zonglong gave up this aimless ramming.On the one hand, he ordered the soldiers of the standard battalion directly under him to dig trenches, in an attempt to stand firm and wait for help; at the same time, he sent someone with a personal letter to urge He Renlong and Li Guoqi to lead troops to rescue. He Renlong and Li Guoqi were feeling lucky for having recovered a life, so how could they go down the road by themselves.But seeing Fu Zonglong's handwritten letter, he was afraid that if he broke out, he would not be able to bear the crime if he didn't save him.After thinking about it again and again, he finally brought the messenger who came to ask for help and said: "The thieves are under heavy siege. Mr. Fu has a direct subordinate battalion and can't break through. How can you escape alone? It is clearly a spy sent by the thieves. It may not be so easy to lure us into your trap. " They used this as an excuse to beat up the envoy and refused to return to the army for rescue.Fu Zonglong's troops were helpless in the encirclement of the rebel army, and they could not wait for reinforcements.After persisting for a few days, all the food, mules and horses were eaten up.There was really no way, so they organized people to drag the corpses from the battlefield to satisfy their hunger.In the end, the arrows and projectiles were all used up.Fu Zonglong led 6,000 remnant soldiers to break through for the last time one night, and when he rushed out, there were not many 6,000 people left around him.Fu Zonglong and Yang Wenyue gathered tens of thousands of government troops to carry out the encirclement and suppression campaign, which ended in disastrous defeat.The coalition forces of Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai seized a large amount of armor and equipment, and surrendered a group of Shaanxi soldiers from Fu Zonglong's tribe, and their momentum became more and more powerful. The way of the military strategist, the real is the empty, and the empty is the real.At the beginning, the tens of thousands of officers and troops led by Fu Zonglong and Yang Wenyue were powerful and had an absolute advantage.The rebel army retreated again and again, and the official army kept chasing after them.If the rebel army retreats blindly, it will inevitably affect morale in the end, and it may be difficult to win when facing the official army.But it is not easy to defeat the dominant enemy in a direct confrontation between the government and the army.At this time, the best way is to create false appearances to confuse the enemy and let the enemy relax their vigilance.Then take it by surprise and catch it off guard.Facing an unsuspecting enemy with a well-prepared elite, victory is within our grasp.