On November 21, Zhang Cheng led his army through Fengqiu County and camped in Chenqiao Town on the north bank of the Yellow River. This was already within the territory of Kaifeng Prefecture, and not far across the Yellow River was the city of Kaifeng Prefecture.
Suddenly seeing the majestic water of the Yellow River, Zhang Cheng couldn't help but stay on the spot. He had never seen the Yellow River in later generations, and this was the first time he saw it in this life.
People say that the Yellow River is the mother river of the Chinese people, and there is a widespread saying that the Yellow River is not a hero.
The golden river water is surging, and it seems to have flowed on the land of China unchanged for thousands of years. It is like a weather-beaten old man, walking forward calmly with his solid steps, walking,
Until forever, until eternity.
Not only Zhang Cheng, but also the generals around him and even the nearly 10,000 sergeants were frightened by the mighty river that could not be seen to the side.
They had never seen such a broad, mighty, and turbulent river on the North Road, in Xuanfu, or in Gyeonggi before?
Thousands of horses and troops were frightened by the power of nature. They stared blankly at the majestic river in front of them and were speechless.
The turbid waves rolled and the raging raging river seemed to hang over everyone's heads. Under the high river embankments, there was an endless vast plain, with cities and towns in the distance dotted like stars.
"The water of the Yellow River comes from the sky!"
Zhang Cheng stood on the embankment of the Yellow River and muttered: "The ancients have not deceived me. This river is really spectacular. It is really like 'The Yellow River has raging waves coming from the sky, and the sound is like thunder'!"
The water of the Yellow River in front of us hangs so high above the heads of millions of living creatures along the coast, making people worry whether this huge turbid wave will break through the embankment at some time and destroy all living creatures around it.
Fortunately, all this has not happened yet. Zhang Cheng only knows that Li Zicheng besieged Kaifeng three times in his memory, but he does not know the specific details. The only thing he remembers is that during the third siege of Kaifeng, the Yellow River in the north of Kaifeng
The embankments were dug and floods flooded the city, killing millions of people.
…………
That day, at dusk, all the generals gathered in Zhang Cheng's Chinese army tent at the army camp in Chenqiao Town on the north bank of the Yellow River.
"Since the intruder Li Zicheng broke into Henan, he has absorbed a dozen of grains, earthen jars and other thieves' soldiers and horses from Sichuan and Shaanxi. He claims to the outside world that he has hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses. However, the intelligence agency estimates that his actual soldiers and horses are about 10,000 to 20,000, and the rest are all
There are only a few tens of thousands of refugees and hungry people being held hostage.
Now, the intruders have successively attacked Lushan, Jiaxian, Yiyang, Yiyang, Yanshi, Lingbao and other counties in western Henan. The local officers and soldiers in Henan have suffered successive defeats. A few days ago, they even attacked Yongning City and Wanan.
The king and all the noble gentry in the city were killed."
Wang Yuanjing, who was praised by the army, was sitting in the first position on his right hand, holding a stack of newspaper in his hand and talking. In front of his seat was a table with cups, dishes and plates. Inside were bacon stewed soup, pickles, and new vegetables.
Steamed buns and rice wine.
At this time, Liu Jinhai continued: "Now there are rumors among the people that the intruders have the intention of besieging Luoyang."
When Li Zicheng broke through Zuo Liangyu's defense and broke into Henan from Yunyang, Yang Sichang, the governor of the cabinet, and Chen Xinjia, the minister of war, were worried about this.
Therefore, Zhang Cheng was urgently dispatched to lead his army into Henan to help suppress the intruders. However, he never expected that Li Zicheng entered Henan with only 500 horses, and within a few months, the army would grow to tens of thousands.
"Commander, yesterday there was an official document from the Ministry of War, asking our army to quickly move to Luoyang to protect the safety of the provincial capital and protect the important areas of the feudal vassal." Wang Yuanjing reminded softly.
Now, Zhang Cheng's layout in Henan only reaches Zhangde, Weihui, and Kaifeng. This intelligence and logistics network not only consumes money, but also requires a lot of energy to operate.
If you can establish it, especially outside your own sphere of influence, you must be careful, otherwise it will be suspected of being evil.
However, Ye Bushou, a member of the lower cavalry department under Chen Zhong, has penetrated deep into the borders of Henan Prefecture in western Henan. In recent days, news has been coming back one after another. I heard him say:
"According to the report from the detective horse, at the beginning of this month, Li Ji, the leader of the Dengfeng thieves, gathered a crowd to riot due to the hunger of the year. In ten days, tens of thousands of people gathered. They even broke into Dengfeng County and led the crowd to defect to the intruder Li Zicheng."
He paused and then continued: "Nowadays, in various places in western Henan, there are many thieves taking advantage of the chaos to kidnap the hungry people and start revolts. I heard that there are many children in various places singing some folk songs."
Zhang Cheng was sitting behind the last major case and was calmly listening to everyone's reports. But when he heard Chen Zhong's words, he was surprised and asked eagerly: "Tell me, what kind of ballad is it?"
Chen Zhong, however, didn't take it seriously and said calmly: "Oh, there are many, such as 'Don't kill the common people, only kill the officials' and so on, but the most widely sung one is 'Eat his mother, wear his mother, open his eyes'
Open the gate to welcome King Chuang, but when King Chuang comes, he will not accept food.' and 'In the morning, you seek promotion, and in the evening, you seek marriage. It is difficult for poor people to find a living these days. Open the door early to greet King Chuang, and all the disciplines will be happy.' These two sentences."
Zhang Cheng was secretly surprised and whispered to himself: "Could it be that Li Yan has surrendered to Li Zicheng?"
No wonder Zhang Cheng was frightened. It was precisely because of these two sung folk songs that Li Zicheng's name as "Chuang King" spread throughout the land of Henan. As a result, hungry people everywhere regarded him as a living Bodhisattva and started to worship him.
I pray that this "King Li Chuang" will come to rescue them as soon as possible.
Regarding the bandit situation in northwest Henan, the local government in Kaifeng tried their best to conceal the news, just because they were afraid that the local people would panic and further inflame the public resentment caused by the disaster.
However, there were still many rumors about the banditry in the city, and the King of Zhou and the governor Li Xianfeng of Kaifeng, as well as the chief envoy Liang Bing, were worried about this.
King Zhou was worried about his own safety, and wondered whether the traitor Li Chuang would come to Kaifeng Mansion.
The governor Li Xianfeng and the chief envoy Liang Bing were even more worried about whether Li Chuang's rebels would besiege Luoyang. If this was the case, what should be done?
Li Zicheng has risen again this time, and his momentum is even greater. It is rumored that he now has hundreds of thousands of troops, while Kaifeng Mansion only has less than 10,000 troops. Even if he wants to rescue Luoyang, he is afraid that he will be powerless.
Now everyone is hoping that Luoyang will rely on the deep city and hold on to consume the strength of Li Chuang's rebels. If the rebels attack by force, if it lasts for ten days or even several months, the rebels will be cut off from food and grass, and they will have to move their troops to other places.
Eat somewhere.
But everything must be prepared for eventuality. After all, Yongning City was attacked by bandits and King Wan'an died. Luoyang was even more serious. It was the seat of the vassal king, and King Fu was the uncle of the current emperor!
In the tent, the generals were eating steamed buns, drinking broth, and sipping rice wine, while talking about the banditry in Henan, while Zhang Cheng listened quietly to their discussions.
Zhang Cheng knew that it was impossible for everyone to say that Li Zicheng now had hundreds of thousands of people. When Li Zicheng first entered Henan, his backbone and trusted followers were less than a thousand.
Even if the bandits under Yi Dou Gu, Cun Guan, Li Jiyu and others were integrated, plus the hungry people who were trapped by them, the number would be around 100,000 at most.
The rumor of hundreds of thousands is just a rumor from passers-by!
But it is possible that intruders besieged Luoyang. Historically, Li Zicheng easily defeated Luoyang City. In fact, it was not a breakthrough, but the defending officers and soldiers opened the door to welcome the intruders into the city.
The strength of the city of Luoyang is not weaker than that of Kaifeng, and it also includes the general soldiers of Henan. If the defenders were a little more reliable, just like Kaifeng, Li Zicheng could only stare at Luoyang.
Even looking at Luoyang and sighing!
As for the fall of Luoyang City, I am afraid it was the instigation of those two ballads. Political offensives are sometimes more terrifying than military offensives.