weaving

Nanyang is an important military town in the southwest of Henan. Its walls are particularly tall and thick. Not far from the south is the Baihe River, forming a natural barrier. There are moats on all sides of Nanyang City, which are filled with water all year round. water.

In addition, besides the Simenguan city in Nanyang City, there are many continuous earth cities, which were originally gathering places for merchants from far and near, but now they are full of people who fled from the surrounding states and counties.

Now Nanyang City is surrounded by an atmosphere of war, and the gates of all the cities are still closed even in the daytime. Only the west gate insists on opening a few hours a day, and only half of the gate is open, so that people who go out to chop firewood able to return to the city.

There is a group of soldiers guarding the urn city at the west gate. They can put away the suspension bridge outside the urn city at any time, then close the urn city gate, and then quickly close the west city gate.

And piles of sandbags were piled in the gate of the urn. Once there were police outside the city, after the gate was closed inside, they would not only have to bar their waists, but also completely block the gate with sandbags.

In this way, don't say that you can't use human power to break open the gate of the urn, even if you use siege equipment such as battering rams and crash cars, it is difficult to break through the gate.

What's more, the main city gate behind the Wengcheng Gate is even stronger, and it is also blocked with sandbags inside. Even if the bandits break through the Wengcheng Gate, it will be in vain. Waiting to defend things, naturally they will desperately greet them.

Whether it is day or night, there are infantry standing guard at all corners of the street, and teams of cavalry are constantly patrolling on horseback.

Every evening, in addition to a team of officers and soldiers going to the city to change defenses, every household also has a strong man going to the city to assist in the defense, and the sound of clappers kept knocking on the city all night long.

On the streets, at crossroads, on the screen walls of various government offices, in front of temples, and in restaurants and restaurants, notices of martial law by the general guarding Nanyang as fierce as a tiger are posted everywhere.

As fierce as a tiger, he was originally a Mongolian from outside the Great Wall. In the early years of Chongzhen, he and Hu Dawei came from outside the Great Wall to join the Ming Dynasty.

In the third year of Chongzhen, Mengruhu made great contributions in the Zunyong Great Victory and was promoted to garrison. After that, he was promoted to guerrilla, deputy commander, and commander in chief because of his meritorious service in conquering bandits.

Until the 13th year of Chongzhen, Meng Ruhu was deprived of his official position due to incidents, and was sent to the border to make meritorious service and atone for his crimes.

But it happened that Yang Sichang went to Xiangyang to supervise the army to suppress the bandits. He felt deeply that there were no generals available in the army, so he applied to the imperial court to transfer Meng Ruhu to serve in his own army, and promoted Meng Ruhu to be the president and Zhang Yingyuan to be the vice president, leading the army together Went to Mianzhou to suppress the bandits.

He was grateful to Yang Sichang for his kindness and vowed to repay it with his death. On the [-]th day of the first lunar month of this year, when he led a small number of troops to intercept the combined forces of Zhang and Luo in Huangling City, Kai County, Sichuan, his son Meng Xianjie and his general Liu Shijie, Guo Kai and others were all killed in battle, and the entire army was almost wiped out. He himself was rescued by his own generals with all their might.

Later, after Yang Sichang took poison and committed suicide in Xiangyang City, Mengruhu led his team to station in De'an and Huangzhou. When he was stationed in Nanyang, he caught up with Chuang Cao's coalition forces to attack.

In the past few days, dozens of spies have been detected in the city, and they all beheaded in front of the public, and the heads are now hanging on the upper floor of the government office.

According to the previous rules, the heads of these thieves should be hung on the city gate tower, but now the four gates are closed and the people can't leave the city, and they can't enter the city, so the heads are hung on the government office gate tower. Go up, and show it to the people in the city.

This is used to warn the people in the city, so that every household in the city dare not harbor bad people anymore. Although the official position of Nanyang magistrate is vacant at this time, the front of the government office is still one of the more prosperous and lively centers in the city.

But at this moment, the situation around Nanyang became more and more urgent, and the army of thieves continued to gather around Nanyang for several days.

In the east, from Bowang to Xinshanpu, and then to the east bank of the Baihe River, there are camps set up by rogues all over the place, and in the north, all the way to the foot of Dushan, there are looming rogues camped here and there.

Their rangers often appear only four or five miles away from Nanyang City, and sometimes they even rush to two or three miles away from the city for close reconnaissance.

The roads from Nanyang to Dengzhou, Zhenping, Xinye, and Tang County are now also cut off by the wandering cavalry of the thieves. Fortunately, the fierce tiger reacted quickly enough to escape more than ten cavalry at the beginning and distribute them to various places. Call for reinforcements.

However, the messenger begging for help here managed to break out from the thieves' siege, but it was unpredictable whether he could ask for help. Even Liu Guangzuo, the chief soldier who was as fierce as a tiger, had no confidence in his heart.

Shortly after noon yesterday, it was suddenly rumored that Zuo Liangyu had a team that had arrived near Xinye, and the supervisor Ding Qirui also led an army to Dengzhou yesterday.

Now these two officers and soldiers are preparing to come to Nanyang, where they want to fight a big battle with Chuang and Cao's bandits, hoping to defeat the main force of the bandits in one fell swoop, so that they can no longer wreak havoc on the land of Zhongzhou.

However, although this rumor is quite popular among the common people, the officials and gentry in the city are dubious about it, especially Meng Ruhu and Liu Guangzuo can't believe it.

But now the soldiers and civilians in the city are besieged by thieves, and they are panic-stricken. They desperately hope that an army will come to rescue them. Therefore, even if the news may not be true, it can give people unexpected comfort and increase their confidence in sticking to it. .

The guards were as fierce as a tiger and kept sending out elite sentry cavalry out of the city to investigate. It was reported that from Wollongong in the southwest of the city to the bank of the Liao River [-] miles away from the city, there was no trace of the bandit.

Although the local people are rumored that the officers and soldiers have indeed arrived in the Dengzhou and Xinye areas to rescue Nanyang, it is precisely because there are so many officers and troops that King Li Chuang's troops will all retreat to the east of the Baihe River, even ten miles away from the city. The Dushan area in Bali has also become an empty camp.

However, Meng Ruhu and Liu Guangzuo increased their doubts and fears in their hearts. They are veterans who have been fighting against thieves for many years, so they naturally know that rebellion is not comparable to ordinary thieves.

Not only is he strong-willed, he is also cunning and cunning. He is indeed the most difficult gangster to deal with, especially after he broke Luoyang in a counterattack. .

Moreover, the previous military newspapers showed that the supervisor Ding Qirui and the general soldier Zuo Liangyu had been fighting against the bandits in the Guangshan and Huoshan areas. Why did they suddenly come to Dengzhou and Xinye?
What's more, now that the two thieves Chuang Cao are in a joint camp, with hundreds of thousands of soldiers and horses, even if Ding Qirui and Zuo Liangyu really lead tens of thousands of officers and soldiers to help, they may not be able to scare them away.

"If something goes wrong, there must be a demon!" This sentence is what Meng Ruhu said to his lieutenant Liu Guangzuo.

And Liu Guangzuo also directly asserted: "There must be fraud in this move!"

But no matter how Meng Ruhu and Liu Guangzuo guessed, there are indeed no bandits in the southwest area of ​​Nanyang City, so during the daytime, the west gate is opened for a limited time so that people can go out of the city to collect firewood, and the vegetables and grains outside the city can also be increased. Bring some into town.

It is precisely because the Nanyang West Gate can still be opened for a limited time every day that the morale of the soldiers and civilians in the city is no longer so low. They almost all think that Ding Dushi and Zuozhen's army have indeed arrived near Dengzhou and Xinye.

But the garrison in the city is still very vigilant, they continue to search Dingkou from house to house, patrol the streets constantly, continue to arrest thieves, and strictly prohibit rumors, they go to the city day and night to garrison unremittingly.

From Meng Ruhu and Liu Guangzuo's point of view, although there were no intruders in the west and south of the city, Cao's army continued to increase on the east bank of the Baihe River, and the siege of Nanyang City was destined to be inevitable.

What's more, the Chuang Cao Er rebels are also rushing here from Ye County. Maybe the rebel army is waiting for them to come to command before they start attacking Nanyang in all directions.

…………

Three days after Ye County surrendered to the bandit army, Chuang Wang Li Zicheng and Luo Rucai also came outside Nanyang City. As soon as he arrived at the barracks, he wrote a letter to Meng Ruhu, persuading him to give up resistance and offer the city to surrender.

But the man who is as fierce as a tiger is not a person who is greedy for life and afraid of death. Even "History of the Ming Dynasty" commented on him as "brave and good at fighting like a tiger, as famous as a tiger". How could he surrender to the bandits?

Li Zicheng also wanted to strengthen the defense of Nanyang city, and he didn't want to hurt the soldiers under his command too much. Although he knew that he was as fierce as a tiger and would not surrender, he still adopted the method of courtesy first and soldiers, and shot letters to the city to persuade him to surrender.

Therefore, he commanded the thieves to besiege Nanyang City, and did not begin to attack the city until three days later.

And just the night before the siege, Liu Tichun and Song Xiance, who were in charge of entering Ye County to accept the surrender, also came outside Nanyang City. Li Zicheng summoned them immediately after hearing about it.

"Generalissimo, only eleven well-known wealthy households in Ye County were selected, and together with Zhang Woyi, the county magistrate, beheaded the public on the spot in front of the county government office. The teacher is really strict in military discipline, and Qiu has committed no crimes."

Liu Tichun still couldn't hide the excitement on his face, and he went on to say: "Although only these eleven wealthy households were confiscated, adding the wealth of Zhang Woyi, the magistrate of the county, and the money and food in the county treasury, it is not a small sum. The income is recorded in detail by the military division.”

Chuang Wang Li Zicheng didn't seem to be very interested in these things, so he asked straight to the point: "Have you ever found Liu Guoneng's eldest son?"

Liu Tichun's complexion changed, he saw that King Chuang's tone seemed to be unfriendly, he quickly knelt down on the ground, kowtowed and said: "Back to Generalissimo, the final general's ineffectiveness made Liu Guoneng's family escape from Ye County in the chaos.

Please Grand Marshal punish? "

"Escape?"

Chuang Wang Li Zicheng's face changed when he heard the words, but soon he recovered, and said gently: "I promised Junchen to take care of his sister-in-law and son, and send their mother and son back to their hometown in Yan'an. It's not because I broke my promise, but because I have to."

He then asked again: "Their mother and child are helpless, how did they escape?"

Liu Tichun didn't know why, since Li Zicheng captured Luoyang, especially since he called himself "Fengtian Advocating Civil and Military Marshal", he became more and more elusive, not as amiable as before, and always gave people an irresistible sense of depression.

At this time, he saw that King Chuang's question had a little suspicion and suspicion, and he felt panic, and hurriedly kowtowed and replied: "Back to Generalissimo, after the last general enters the city, the first thing to do is to find Liu Guoneng's family members." , but there are many officers and soldiers along the road to block them.

Finally came to Liu Guoneng's deputy town government office, but there was no one there anymore, and he was about to search Liu Guoneng's old department for inquiries, but no one knew where he was going.

At this moment, someone came to report that hundreds of riders broke through the north gate and fled out of the city. Because of the sudden incident, the soldiers who entered the city could not stop them, so they could only let them go.

Thinking about it afterwards, I am afraid that Liu Guoneng's personal soldiers and generals were protecting his family members and ran away from the door, but they were too late to catch up. "

Li Zicheng was originally because Liu Guoneng and his youngest son died in his own army, and he was afraid that if his eldest son was left outside, he might become his mortal enemy in the future, so Liu Tichun wanted Liu Tichun to also arrest his eldest son, so as to never future trouble.

However, perhaps it was God's will that they made their mother and son escape from Ye County by accident. Although King Chuang wanted to get rid of this trouble, since he had already escaped, it would be useless to punish Liu Tichun at this moment.

At that moment, he said softly to him again: "His mother and son don't want me to send someone to escort them, or they misunderstood me, and they can only hope that he can turn the danger into a blessing, there is no other way.

This is their own choice, what has it to do with you, and why should they punish you? "

He then smiled and said: "Dejie, get up quickly. Tell me, how are Junchen's old subordinates arranged?"

Until this time, Liu Tichun felt a sense of relief. In fact, from the beginning to the end, King Chuang never said that he must capture Liu Guoneng's family.

But for some reason, it sounded to Liu Tichun that he wanted him to catch him, and it was even better to "click" their mother and son directly through his hands.

Thinking of this feeling now, I feel chills and trembling. After Liu Tichun got up, he reported how to arrange Liu Tichun's thousand old troops to King Chuang.

Liu Guoneng originally had more than 300 troops, of which there were less than [-] personal soldiers, led by his personal general Liu Sandao.

It was this relative, Liu Sandao, who, under the persuasion of Liu Jinhai and Tielin, together with them protected Liu Guoneng's wife and eldest son Liu Shiwen and escaped from Ye County.

The rest of Liu Guoneng's men were more than a thousand, most of them were infantry, they never escaped, except for less than a hundred people who took An Jiayin and left, almost all of the rest joined the Chuang army, which undoubtedly strengthened the Chuang army. strength.

Among them, more than [-] members of Liu Guoneng's tribe were recruited by Tong Shoushan, the whistle head of the "Shanziying". As for whether there is anything tricky here, it is unknown!
In the end, King Chuang comforted Liu Tichun again, and immediately ordered him to go back to rest first, because he was tired from running slowly.

After Liu Tichun left, Li Zicheng turned around to look at military adviser Song Xiance, and questioned, "Did he really escape?"

"King Chuang, General Erhu has been following him for many years, and he has always been loyal. Since the eighteen cavalry were trapped in Shangluo Mountain, they have never left. Do you still doubt that General Erhu will fail?" Song Xiance replied.

"Oh. It's not that I suspect him, but how could it be such a coincidence that I escaped?"