Chapter 8 8. Surrounding the point to fight for aid, the rebel army attacked Kaifeng City three times

After Li Zicheng's troops conquered Luoyang, they decided to march into Kaifeng.The first surprise attack on Kaifeng ended in failure; the second time he planned to blow up the city wall with gunpowder, but the city wall was too hard to be blown up.After this method failed, the rebels had to retreat again. In mid-February of the 15th year of Chongzhen, Wang Qiaonian led the generals He Renlong, Zheng Jiadong, Niu Chenghu, Zhang Guoqin, Zhang Yinggui and other 30,000 troops out of Tongguan and marched into Xiangcheng.After Li Zicheng learned that Wang Qiaonian's army had arrived in Xiangcheng, he immediately took measures to confront the official army.After more than ten days of fighting, the official army was defeated, and the rebel army captured Xiangcheng, and at the same time cleared the periphery of Kaifeng, creating conditions for attacking the city.

On the second day of May, Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai jointly launched their third attack on Kaifeng.The two armies camped temporarily in Yanlizhai and Hengdipu respectively.Because of a series of defeats by the officers and soldiers, the imperial court hastily ordered the governor Ding Qirui, the governor of Baoding Yang Wenyue, and the commander-in-chief Zuo Liangyu, Hu Dawei, Yang Dezheng, and Fang Guoan to lead a large number of troops to support Kaifeng, with a strength of 180,000. The official army sent a group of vanguard troops to garrison Zhuxian Town, ready to meet the rebels waiting on the outskirts of Kaifeng at any time.After Li Zicheng heard the news, he quickly led the rebels to leave Kaifeng, and concentrated their forces to attack the reinforcements who came to support them.

At this time, the rebels faced a more serious problem. When Li Zicheng was about to withdraw his troops to attack the reinforcements, Luo Ru sent someone to deliver a letter to Li Zicheng. The letter wrote: "The reinforcements to support Kaifeng have arrived, which is extremely disadvantageous to us. Once we withdraw from Kaifeng and fight with the reinforcements, the officials and troops in Kaifeng City will definitely chase out of the city to pursue our army, which will put our army at a disadvantage. The situation. Please think carefully again and come up with a way to deal with it..."

"In this way, Kaifeng can't be fought, and neither can the reinforcements. Could it be that the rebels are allowed to withdraw from Henan?" Li Zicheng felt a little angry, but he couldn't think of a better way. "The officers and soldiers guarding Kaifeng are not without opportunity. I have a way to trick them into defending the city and not fighting." General Li Guo said. Li Zicheng hurriedly asked: "If you have any plans, please tell me quickly." Li Guo said with a smile: "Actually, it's not really a trick, it's just a trick. To deal with these city guards, this trick will definitely work. Your Majesty sent someone to negotiate with the city guards with the fake Zuo Liangyu Commanding Arrow In other words, the rebel army is about to be wiped out by our army, but we must guard the city and not let the enemy take advantage of it. There are not many soldiers in the city, so they should be guarded closely and cannot lead troops out of the city. In this way, the city guard The army will definitely be fooled. At that time, we will lead the army to attack the official reinforcements who came to support, and we will not be afraid that the guards will come out of the city and attack our army's back."

Li Zicheng nodded in agreement, and then sent an eloquent man, dressed in official military uniform, with a false token to negotiate with the Kaifeng city guards. When they arrived at the city of Kaifeng, someone came to the city with a token and shouted: "Zuo Liangyu has an order, and ordered me to come and inform you of something." "What's the matter?" The city guards asked without any doubt when they saw Zuo Liangyu's token in their hands. "The commander-in-chief and the reinforcements from all walks of life have gathered not far from Kaifeng. The whole army may be launched at any time to wipe out all the main forces of the rebels. The commander-in-chief is worried that you will rush out of the city to meet the enemy, leaving the rebels with a chance to invade Kaifeng. Let us Remind you not to open the city gate no matter what happens, and send troops easily!" The visitor shouted.

"Understood, please go back and tell the commander-in-chief, just say, we will stick to Kaifeng and not let the rebels break through the city gate even if we fight to the last!" The city guard shouted back. This time the rebel army had no worries, Li Zicheng quickly withdrew from Kaifeng, and led the rebel army to attack Zuo Liangyu and other reinforcements.At this time, due to Ding Qirui's incompetence in command and the contradictions among the generals within the army, Zuo Liangyu led most of the generals and fled without a fight; Ding Qirui fled to Guangzhou via Xuzhou on the pretext of recovering Zuo Liangyu , Gushi; Yang Wenyue rushed to Guide in a hurry.The rebel army won a complete victory, captured and killed Jiang Mingwu, the general soldier of the Ming Dynasty, and received tens of thousands of soldiers and 7,000 mules and horses.On May 25, the rebels began to besiege Kaifeng.

The civil and military officials of the Ming Dynasty in Kaifeng City saw that the rescuers were scattered and the guards were too weak to compete with the insurgents, so they mobilized the landlords and gentry with common class interests and organized reactionary armed forces to resist.Huang Peng, the governor of Kaifeng Prefecture in the Ming Dynasty, was afraid that the rebels would break into Kaifeng, so he had a plan. He erected a big white flag at the gate of the city, and wrote on it: "Bianliang heroes, if anyone wants to follow me, stand under the flag." The upper-class people were in a state of helplessness and panic. The county kings, country gentry, scholars, and merchants saw Huang Peng setting up a flag to take the lead, and they all came to join.

Huang Peng said: "Everyone's approach is very wise. Only by uniting can we be sure of victory. Now the rebels may conquer Kaifeng at any time. At that time, we will definitely be killed by the rebels. Knowing the worst result, We have to find a way to avoid that from happening.” "My lord, let's talk about what we should do now to keep Kaifeng from being captured by the rebels." A fat squire asked. "Soldiers, we are short of soldiers to defend the city, so everyone must find a way to recruit more soldiers." Huang Peng replied. In order to keep their wealth and status, these local snakes really did what Huang Peng said.They forced the people under their control to join the landlord's armed forces, and assembled a team of tens of thousands in a short period of time.

The assigned leaders are all Ming clan, country gentry, and wealthy merchants.To a certain extent, this strengthened the defensive power in Kaifeng City.Most of the common people who were forced to join in hoped that the rebel army would break through Kaifeng as soon as possible.Due to the strict control, these people can only feel unwilling and have to continue to help them protect Kaifeng in action. The leaders of the rebel army summed up the lessons of the two failed attacks on Kaifeng, and felt that it would be difficult to break through Kaifeng in a short time.So he decided to think of another way and gave up the strategy of frontal siege.

Li Zicheng invited Luo Rucai to discuss and solve the current problems faced by the rebel army. Luo Rucai said: "It's normal that we can't break through Kaifeng. Those landlords in the city are indeed very armed. If we fight hard, we won't get the slightest advantage." Li Zicheng nodded and said, "You're right, that's why I invited you over to discuss what to do next. If we don't fight anymore, should we withdraw our troops?" Luo Rucai shook his head and said: "Why do we have to withdraw? We finally wiped out the reinforcements on the outskirts of Kaifeng. The current situation is very favorable to our army. Think about it, Kaifeng has become an isolated city without foreign aid. Even if they No matter how strong the troops are, they cannot withstand such consumption for a long time. I can guarantee that within a month or so, they will not be able to hold on."

Li Zicheng asked: "Do you mean to besiege Kaifeng City?" Luo Rucai smiled and said, "That's right, with this, we can also shoot bows and arrows into the city to frustrate their spirit." Therefore, in addition to using the main force to encircle Kaifeng, the rebel army also allocated some troops to conquer more than 30 nearby prefectures and counties within two months, turning Kaifeng, which was guarded by the officials and troops, into an isolated island in the vast ocean. At this time, the rebels wrote many proclamations in the name of Li Zicheng and shot arrows into Kaifeng City.The notice mainly reads: "The external reinforcements have been completely defeated by our rebels, and they are scattered. The reinforcements from the north of the Yellow River are gone. Now you are like a fish in a urn. Can you live long? If you want to Understand, it is better to surrender as soon as possible, I guarantee that all the crimes you have committed will be forgiven. If you still refuse to listen to dissuasion and insist on going your own way, you will be wiped out by then, and it will be too late to regret..." The proclamation issued by Li Zicheng pointed out the way out for the Ming Dynasty bureaucrats in Kaifeng.However, the class nature of these guys has not changed, and they still pin their hopes on the Ming court to mobilize troops to rescue them from the siege.They ignored the proclamation of the rebel army and still resisted tenaciously. At this time, there was not much food in Kaifeng City, and a large number of ordinary people starved to death, but the bureaucrats took the opportunity to search and collect.Later, the food market was completely out of the market, and even those who had money could not buy food.After the food in the city ran out, the people ate cowhide, leather jackets, medicinal materials, aquatic plants, etc. in order to survive, and finally a tragic situation of cannibalism appeared. In September of the 15th year of Chongzhen, the bureaucrats of the Ming Dynasty saw that there were no reinforcements outside, no food and grass inside, and the fall of Kaifeng was imminent.In order to escape the crime of losing the city and trapping the vassals, they frantically decided to break the Yellow River embankment, and only a small number of reactionary bureaucrats escaped by boat.After the flood, the rebels finally occupied Kaifeng.