Chapter 61 3. From "Chuangjiang" to "Chuangwang"

Wang Zuogua was a well-known leader of the Peasant Army at that time, known as the "King of Hengtian".However, this person has little ambition and average ability. Li Zicheng took refuge in him for about a month, and he lost the battle and surrendered.Li Zicheng had no choice but to switch to Zhang Cunmeng, nicknamed "Not Sticking Mud".This dude is not a decent character either, he has both ends of the head, he can't tolerate others, and he betrays his friends.Li Zicheng only stayed with him for two or three months.It wasn't until April and May of this year that Li Zicheng and Gao Yingxiang came together that he began to leave his name in history.

Unlike most peasant uprising leaders in history, Li Zicheng was rarely condemned by his enemies in terms of personal morality: he was not very lecherous, nor did he pay much attention to enjoyment and ostentation; "Even some of the officers and soldiers are good, they are brave and quite strategic... so his team has developed very quickly. At that time, the opinions of the imperial court were also vacillating.Generally speaking, civil servants advocated "comforting", military commanders advocated "suppressing", and everyone also undermined each other, so that the uprising peasant army could neither suppress nor comfort.

In the next two or three years, Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng and other ministries, known as the "Thirty-six Battalion", mainly operated in Qin and Shanxi provinces.Gao Yingxiang is known as the "Chuang Wang", and Li Zicheng is known as the "Chuang General".Li Zicheng gradually emerged in the battle from the Qin Dynasty to the Jin Dynasty, and became a pivotal figure in the peasant army. In the official report in the autumn of the fifth year of Chongzhen, he seemed to be as famous as Zijin Liang Wang Ziyong, the leader of the "Thirty-six Battalion". But at this time the strength of the Ming Dynasty's official army was still quite strong, and the combat effectiveness of Cao Wenzhao and Zuo Liangyu were quite strong—especially Cao Wenzhao, many leaders of the peasant army were terrified of him.At the end of the sixth year of Chongzhen, more than a dozen battalions of peasant troops including Li Zicheng were oppressed by the Ming army to Shexian County and Wu'an on the north bank of the Yellow River. The situation was quite critical.

Li Zicheng sent twelve people including Zhang Miaoshou and He Shuangquan to Zhangde to feign surrender to Wang Pu, the commander-in-chief of the Beijing camp, Yang Jinchao, and Lu Jiude, the eunuchs in charge of the encirclement and suppression. Sheng Cai embarked on the road of rebellion.Wang Pu and others were very happy to see that they could eliminate hundreds of thousands of peasant troops without bloodshed. They immediately reported to the court and stopped the campaign.The various ministries of the Peasant Army took the opportunity to quietly gather on the north bank of the Yellow River.At the end of November in the lunar calendar this year, a thick layer of ice formed on the surface of the wild boar nose in Mianchijing of the Yellow River.On the 24th, hundreds of thousands of peasant troops crossed the natural danger of the Yellow River on ice, killed the Ming army guarding Yuan Daquan, and entered Henan.This event was known as "Mianchi Ferry" in history.From then on, the peasant uprising originated in northern Shaanxi began to have a nationwide impact.

In the Ming Dynasty, Chen Qiyu, the governor of Yansui, was the right servant of the Ministry of War, and the governor of the five provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Huguang, and Sichuan was responsible for encircling and suppressing the peasant army.The units of the peasant army that crossed the Yellow River did not develop smoothly in Henan.The governor of Henan, Xuanmo, was a capable official who knew the soldiers well, and the main force of the army north of the river also followed the peasant army southward, exerting strong pressure on the peasant army. However, after Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng's team crossed the Yellow River, they first captured Lushi County, and then attacked Neixiang.However, when these two fellow villagers met, they were not tearful, but extremely jealous.As we said before, Li Zicheng and the Ai family had a grudge - the money borrowed from the Ai family was not repaid, he was put on a big shackle and stood in the hot sun, and he killed the foolish official Ai Tongzhi because of the lawsuit... The current insider Aizhi County, the township, Ai Wannian, the later famous "thief suppression" general, is a member of Mizhi Ai's family.Fei Mi's "Book of Desolation" also records that when Li Zicheng was young, he took a nap at noon in front of Ai's house with his breasts exposed.Li Zicheng was so angry that he ran to the door of Ai's house to urinate the next day, but Zhuang Ding caught him in the courtyard and beat him severely. After the beating, he was tied to a stake for most of the day.The youngest son of the Ai family came out to watch the fun while eating pies. Li pitifully begged for pies from the child, but the child scolded him, "I'd rather give it to the dog than you..." From the official to the deputy general Ai Wannian also admitted that he and Li Zicheng did have a "feud".

Therefore, when Li Zicheng attacked Neixiang, he seemed to be looking for trouble.Aizhi County also knew that the visitors were not good, and defended desperately with the local gentry. Gao and Li continued to attack for ten days, and buried the cannon "Rolling Dragon" outside the city. go.This was an extremely unsuccessful blasting siege operation. Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong and other ministries had been active in Henan for more than two months, and then returned to Shaanxi via Huguang and Sichuan.In the early summer of the seventh year of Chongzhen, tens of thousands of people from Gao, Li, Zhang and others strayed into the carriage gorge in Xing'an (now Ankang, Shaanxi) because they were not familiar with the terrain, and were blocked in the gorge by the Ming army chasing after them.Chariot Gap: "The gorge is surrounded by four mountains, forty miles in the middle, easy to get in and hard to get out." Chen Qiyu commanded the Ming army and besieged the peasant army for more than 70 days. Lack of food, many starved to death.

When he was desperate, Gu Junen, Li Zicheng's adviser, proposed to surrender to the officers and soldiers.The peasant army collected jewels, gold and silver, sent them to the official army camp, bribed Chen Qiyu's cronies, and asked these people to surrender on their behalf.Chen Qiyu believed that the peasant army had nowhere to go and must have sincerely surrendered, so he rashly accepted the begging.He made a list of 36,000 people to be surrendered to the imperial court, and prepared to execute the chief leader of the peasant army, and send the rest to the peasants.He ordered the peasant army to go out of the gorge to surrender according to the designated time and route. Every 100 people would be escorted back to their hometown in northern Shaanxi by an appointed "Ding Fuguan", and they would arrange food and dry food along the roads and counties.The plan was very careful, but Chen Qiyu underestimated Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong, the two heroes of troubled times.

Sure enough, as soon as the peasant army came out of the gorge, they stopped obeying the restraint of the officers and soldiers, and killed the "Dingfu officials", cut off their ears, or beat them with sticks... The most humane way is to tie them up and throw them on the road. side. Chen Qiyu saw that the consolation failed, but caused a catastrophe, so he shifted the responsibility to others, saying that Li Jiayan, the magistrate of Fengxiang County, killed and subdued the upheaval.What's going on here?It turned out that after the peasant army escaped from Chexiang Gorge, they conquered Fengxian County, broke through seven towns all the way, and arrived at Fengxiang City. They falsely claimed that the governor had placed them in the city and asked to enter the city.Li Jiayan knew there was a scam, so he also lied to them, saying that the county welcomes brothers into the city, but we are ordered by our superiors not to open the door. If we want to enter the city, we may have to use a rope to go up. Everyone will not be afraid, right?So thirty-six idiots were fooled, and they were arrested and slaughtered by Li Jiayan as soon as they climbed to the top of the wall...

Emperor Chongzhen couldn't figure out what was going on, because he had signed the surrender, so he was emotionally partial to Chen Qiyu, so he arrested Li Jiayan and Shaanxi governor Lian Guoshi.Shaanxi officials felt aggrieved and went to Shushu to impeach Chen Qiyu.A few days later, when the emperor finally figured it out, he removed Chen Qiyu and replaced him with Hong Chengchou as governor.Hong Chengchou was a rare talent in the late Ming Dynasty, and he was skilled in politics and military affairs.After he presided over the "suppression of thieves", he quickly drove Li Zicheng and other troops to Henan.

Emperor Chongzhen strictly ordered Hong Chengchou to go out of the customs and enter Henan, and supervised the army from all walks of life to suppress them. He also mobilized more than 70,000 frontier soldiers and paid more than 900,000 taels of silver—in addition, the emperor himself took out 100,000 taels from a small treasury— - Wipe out all peasant armies within half a year. In the first month of the eighth year of Chongzhen, the various units of the Peasant Army who were driven to Henan by Hong Chengchou, a total of 13 families and 72 battalions, gathered in Xingyang to discuss major plans, known as the "Xingyang Conference" in history.The thirteen families recorded in history are: King Chuang, Laohuihui, Ge Liyan, King Zuojin, Cao Cao, King Changshi, Shetatian, Eight Great Kings, King Hengtian, Hunshiwan, Guotianxing, Nine Dragons, and King Shuntian.Li Zicheng was not counted as a family, but belonged to the first battalion under Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang.At the meeting, Ma Shouying, an old Hui Hui, believed that the official army in Shanxi was weak and suggested to develop in Shanxi.Zhang Xianzhong, the eighth king, thought that Laohui was timid, and he sneered at him, and the two almost got into a fight.Li Zicheng came out to persuade the two to leave, and said impassionedly: "Every man is still struggling, but there are hundreds of thousands of people!" He pointed out: Now our strength is ten times that of the officers and soldiers, even if Guan and Ning cavalry come, they will not be able to take us away. How about it.Since everyone cannot unify their thinking at present, then we should divide our forces.

The deployment of the division is said to be decided by the leaders drawing lots.details as follows: Ge Liyan and King Zuojin went south to block the army from Huguang; Wang Shiwan and King Huntian went west to meet the army from Shaanxi; Cao Cao and Guotianxing moved between Xing and Si to contain the army from the Central Plains; Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng , Zhang Xianzhong attacked eastward. Because Hong Chengchou, the official army of Shaanxi, was too strong, he used Shotatian and Changed King to strengthen the West Road. Laohuihui and Jiutiaolong are the general reserve team, supporting everywhere. After the Xingyang General Assembly, Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng, and Zhang Xianzhong joined forces and marched eastward, breaking through Mi County and Shangcai, and arriving in Runing.Under the city of Runing, the troops were divided into two groups. Gao Yingxiang marched into Fengyang from Xincai and Shouzhou along the way; Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng took Yingzhou all the way to Shouyang and joined Gao Yingxiang. On the Lantern Festival in the eighth year of Chongzhen, the peasant army rushed to Fengyang suddenly, and the city guard army collapsed without much resistance.Li Zicheng set fire to the Longxing Temple where Zhu Yuanzhang became a monk (that is, Huangjue Temple, which was relocated and renamed Longxing Temple in the 16th year of Hongwu), and destroyed the "Fengyang High Wall" where the clan prisoners were imprisoned, while Zhang Xianzhong burned it down. The Xiangdian of the Ming Emperor's Mausoleum was excavated and destroyed.Emperor Chongzhen was shocked by this. He cried and sacrificed to the Taimiao, and executed Yang Yipeng, the governor of Fengyang. Zhang Fengyi, the minister of the Ministry of War, was also punished. Although Hong Chengchou did not take responsibility, he also took the initiative to write a letter requesting punishment. Chongzhen knew that he knew how to fight well, so he did not punish him.Hong Chengchou was quite moved by this, and said that he would fight to the death with the peasant army.As various Ming troops rushed to Fengyang, three days later, the peasant army withdrew from Fengyang and returned to Shaanxi via Henan. Hong Chengchou followed closely and also returned to Guanzhong. During the summer and autumn of the eighth year of Chongzhen, the peasant army achieved a series of brilliant victories in Shaanxi. In mid-June, Li Zicheng's old enemy, Ai Wannian, the deputy commander of Gushan, was ordered to command 3,000 soldiers and horses to attack the peasant army from Pingliang.Li Zicheng mobilized troops to meet Ai Wannian. On the 14th, the two sides met in Ningzhou (now Ningxian County, Gansu).The Ming army fought hard and killed hundreds of peasant soldiers. Li Zicheng pretended to be defeated and retreated. Ai Wannian pursued him and died in ambush. Two days later, Cao Wenzhao, a famous general of the Ming army who came to avenge himself, encountered Li Zicheng in Qiutou Town, Zhenning, and was killed in an ambush.Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao were both well-known brave generals at that time, and they were known as "generals Cao and Cao", and the leaders of the peasant army were most afraid of them.In this battle, Li Zicheng didn't know that he had caught such a big fish, and was identified because a soldier of the Ming army shouted to him, "General, save me".Under heavy siege, Cao Wenzhao jumped left and right, killed dozens of people with his hands, and fought for several miles. Finally, seeing that he could not escape, the old general did not want to be a prisoner, so he killed himself.General Xiao Cao's remnant troops fought desperately to break through the siege. Although they suffered heavy losses, their troops were still the main force in the army.In the fourteenth year of Chongzhen, the decisive battle between the Ming and Qing Dynasties was held in Songshan. Cao Bianjiao participated in this historic battle with Hong Chengchou.When all the ministries broke through and collapsed, the brave Cao Bianjiao gave up breaking through and led the bid camp to attack Huang Taiji's imperial camp at night. Huang Taiji almost went into battle with a knife himself, but it was a pity that General Cao was severely injured and retreated exhausted. Fall short. The next year, Songshan was exhausted and the city was destroyed, and Cao Bianjiao died for his country.Of course, this is something. Generals Ai and Cao were both highly accomplished generals in the army that suppressed the peasants. Their death in battle was a heavy blow to the Ming Dynasty. Emperor Chongzhen used Hong Chengchou to be responsible for chasing and suppressing the peasant army in Shaanxi, while Lu Xiangsheng also supervised the military affairs of Shaanxi and Shanxi, and gave Shang Fang a sword, allowing him to act cheaply.These two men are both wise and brave, and they have been on the battlefield for a long time. They will join forces to suppress the peasant army, which is a great threat to the peasant army.In the second half of the year, Li Zicheng continued to stay in Shaanxi to deal with Hong Chengchou.Gao Yingxiang, Zhang Xianzhong and other ministries re-entered Henan, and were at a disadvantage in the number of battles with Lu Xiangsheng. At the end of the spring of the ninth year of Chongzhen, they returned to Shaanxi.In July, Gao Yingxiang fought a battle with Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting, the governor of Shaanxi, in Heishuiyu, about 20 miles south of Shanxi Province.It rained continuously for days, and Gao Yingxiang himself suffered from illness. When he got off his horse to shoot arrows, his mount was stolen by his own people. He had to escape to hide in a cave. Li Zicheng inherited Gao Yingxiang's title of "Chuang Wang"—from then on, we will call him "Chuang Wang" Li Zicheng.