In addition, the Ming army did not continue to pursue the battle to expand the results.

Liu Fangliang judged that the Ming army did not know that Li Zicheng was dead. He wrapped Li Zicheng's body in cloth and secretly took it back to Hankou.

After returning, Liu Fangliang did not send a secret message, and only told a few generals of the rebel army. After everyone discussed, they recommended Liu Fangliang to temporarily lead the entire army.

Liu Fangliang announced to the public that the war in Nanyang was urgent, and the King of Chuang had returned to Jingzhou first to stabilize the morale of the army. At the same time, he ordered Zhang Nai to lead the cavalry back to Wuchang and attack the surrounding prefectures and counties to deter the Ming army.

On the other hand, he secretly loaded all the food and supplies in Hankou.

A few days later, Liu Fangliang suddenly led all his troops to evacuate Hankou.

When Du Yinxi found something wrong and sent troops out of the city to chase him, Liu Fangliang had already retreated back to Yueyang safely.

A few days later, Li Guo rushed from Changsha to Yueyang to attend the funeral, and the rebel army announced the news of Li Zicheng's death.

For a moment, the world shook, and the morale of the rebel army was greatly affected.

Liu Zongmin wanted to lead his troops to retreat to Xiangyang, but Oboi seized the opportunity and took advantage of the situation to attack fiercely. In Fancheng, the rebel army was defeated, and tens of thousands of troops fled and fled. Countless rebel soldiers surrounded the floating bridge connecting Fancheng and Xiangyang.

The Qing army stepped up its attack, and most of the soldiers of the rebel army fell into the water and were drowned directly. Less than 20% of them fled back to Xiangyang. The bodies were filled with Han River, and the river water did not flow.

Liu Zongmin himself was also captured by the Qing army due to serious injuries. He was tied to the city of Xiangyang and hanged directly with a bowstring. There were dozens of generals of the rebel army.

The morale of the army in Xiangyang City collapsed, and countless fugitives were fleeing.

Then, Oboi launched a fierce attack on Xiangyang City.

In less than a day, Xiangyang City was broken, and Liu Tichun led less than 10,000 people to flee south to Jingzhou.

Fortunately, Oboi's troops also suffered great losses due to the previous consecutive battles, so they suspended their pursuit of the rebel army.

Li Zicheng died, and it was said that his adopted son Li Shuangxi inherited his position as Emperor Dashun. However, Li Shuangxi was unwilling. He turned to elect Li Guo, who was more prestigious on the grounds that he was young and could not control the situation.

Liu Fangliang, Hao Yaoqi, Ta Tianbao, Li Laiheng, Wu Ruyi and other major generals of the rebel army also supported Li Guo.

Amid their support, Li Guo took over the banner of the tide of the trespasser army. But he said that this matter needs to be reported to Mrs. Gao, and he is only temporarily lord and general's power.

In Yueyang, Li Guo led the entire army to send a funeral to Li Zicheng.

To the surprise of all the rebels, Du Yinxi sent an envoy to Yueyang at this time to meet Li Guo on the grounds of worshiping Li Zicheng.

The envoy suggested to Li Guo that as long as they were willing to surrender to the Ming Dynasty, Du Yinxi would write to the court to ask for all their previous crimes to be spared, and asked the Emperor of Ming Dynasty to grant him the title of the emperor to be appointed as a general.

Li Guo did not completely refuse, but he also refused to inherit Emperor Dashun because he suddenly found that as long as he did not proclaim himself emperor, he would have room for revolt with the Ming Dynasty.

However, after Du Yinxi submitted this proposal to the court, it caused an uproar in the court. Li Jiantai was ordered to go west to Wuchang and forced Du Yinxi to take advantage of Li Zicheng's death to completely destroy the Huguang rebel army.

Du Yinxi refused to execute and was directly taken over by Li Jiantai. That month, Li Jiantai ordered Jin Shenghuan, who had made great contributions, to lead his troops to attack Yueyang.

Jin Shenghuan made great contributions before and was named General of Punishment. This time he showed great efforts. However, other Left Army generals were not willing to do their best, and even pulled him back because they did not want to see Jin Shenghuan's dude.

At the city of Yueyang, a bloody battle, Jin Shenghuan's troops suffered nearly 10,000 troops. The support was not supported, so they could only suspend the attack.

Liu Fangliang took advantage of the exhaustion and carelessness of the Ming soldiers and led the cavalry out of the city to attack.

The Ming army was unaware of the situation and would lead the escape. The soldiers then eventually caused a complete collapse. More than 10,000 people were captured and nearly 20,000 were killed, many of which were trampled to death by their own people in chaos.

At this time, the Ming Dynasty court realized that although Li Zicheng died, the strength of the rebel army was still there. Although the army's strength was large, the people's hearts were not in line.

If the battle continues, it will be difficult for the self-defense army to get a bargain.

With the support of Shi Kefa, Du Yinxi was activated again, mainly responsible for discussing the surrender with Li Guo.

At this time, Wu Sangui's general Wang Pingfan suddenly broke into Huguang from Sichuan, occupied Bazhou, and threatened Zigui. Oboi, who occupied Xiangyang, was also very active and actively recruited troops to prepare for war.

Compared with the east, it seems that the threat faced by the rebel army in the west is more significant.

Li Guo ordered Liu Xiyao to give up Hengyang, concentrate the southern troops in Changsha, and shrink the line of troops. He entrusted Yueyang to Liu Fangliang and led his army back to Jiangling to support Liu Tichun.

As for the negotiations with Nanming, Li Guo did not make a clear statement.

But in order to express his sincerity, Du Yinxi suspended his siege of Yueyang. Only one team was stationed in Honghu, and the rest were all withdrawn to Wuchang.

But in the south, after occupying Hengyang, Gao Jie ignored the orders and continued to march northward, occupying Xiangtan and Liling one after another. He occupied Hengyang, Yongzhou and Baoqing, appointed officials, recruited soldiers, and collected taxes. He regarded these three prefectures as his territory and did not obey the orders of the Southern Ming court and King Zhu Youlang of Gui.

Just as a tiger left, another wolf came.

Nan Ming had no time to take care of Gao Jie for the time being, and he needed to restrain the Changsha crusade army, so he could only acquiesce to what he did. Not only that, he had to send an envoy to reward Gao Jie to reward him for his achievements in regaining Hengyang.

After the death of Li Zicheng, the king of rebellion, the world ushered in a new round of major changes.

On the occasion of the day when Emperor Hongwu Zhu Yuanzhang was worshiping, Emperor Longwu Zhu Youjian sent his younger brother Zhu Youyou to Nanjing in the name of worshiping ancestors to attend the ancestor worship ceremony of the old Zhu family.

During this period, Zhu Cilang privately summoned Zhu Yuyou and proposed to be a member of the Ming Dynasty. As long as Zhu Youjian took the imperial title, everything else could be discussed.

When Zhu Yuyou left, Zuo Maodi went to Hefei with him.

There, Zuo Maodi went to see Zhu Youjian and promised that after he went to the imperial title, he could succeed the title of King Tang and command all the troops north of the Yangtze River.

When the world is pacified in the future, the Ming Dynasty will be revived and the return to Nanyang.

Zuo Maodi went to see Sun Kewang, Liu Wenxiu, Ai Nengqi and other Longwu generals again, and promised that Zhu Youjian would still recognize their titles.

But Liu Liangzuo, Fang Guoan and Zuo Maodi deliberately turned a blind eye to the two surrendered generals of the Ming Dynasty.

Liu Liangzuo and Fang Guoan were extremely frightened, fearing that Emperor Longwu would give them away to win the title of Emperor Ming after he went to visit Zhu Youjian, who just comforted them a little, and could not deny the matter of going to the title of Emperor.

This is Zhu Youjian’s true thought, and he is also evaluating the situation.

The military power of the Longwu Army was never completely in his hands.
Chapter completed!