The Ming Dynasty: Starting with the border troops, it was overthrown and the Qing Dynasty was destro

Chapter 185 War is rising everywhere
Li Zicheng solemnly accepted the task of dividing his forces to wage guerrilla warfare.

Jiang Han not only allocated him two hundred elite soldiers as the backbone, but also gave him some small cannons that were easy to transport in the mountains, specifically for attacking the landlords' earthen fortifications.

Having acquired troops and artillery, Li Zicheng and Jiang Han divided their forces, with Li Zicheng himself leading his fellow villager Tian Jianxiu, his nephew Li Guo, and others towards the Pucheng and Baishui areas.

Baishui is an old revolutionary base area. It was Wang Er of Baishui who fired the first shot of the uprising at the end of the Ming Dynasty. There are many starving people here who dare to resist.

Li Zicheng's first target was the home of Zheng, a wealthy man, in Hanjing Village, Baishui County.

Master Zheng was a local tyrant. He owned thousands of acres of land, but during years of famine, he hoarded and speculated on the land, raising rents and driving countless tenants near Hanjing to ruin.

His manor had high and thick walls, and he had hundreds of guards, so ordinary people couldn't do anything to him.

When Li Zicheng led his army to the city gates, this man surnamed Zheng was still laughing loudly on the wall, pointing at the ragged, starving people below and cursing them as a bunch of overconfident peasants.

Li Zicheng was too lazy to waste words with him, and simply directed his troops to skillfully aim several tiger-squatting cannons and gushing-bead cannons at Zhengjiazhuang.

Upon seeing the dark muzzle of the cannon, the man surnamed Zheng panicked, his fat face trembling uncontrollably. He immediately sent his guards out with gold and silver, intending to bribe Li Zicheng.

But Li Zicheng ignored him completely, simply waving his hand coldly.

"fire!"

With Li Zicheng's command, a deafening roar resounded across the plains!
The solid iron bullet, with a dull whistling sound, slammed heavily into the seemingly sturdy wall.

After just three rounds of shelling, the rammed earth wall was easily breached, opening a passage into the interior of the manor.

Zheng's guards tried to step forward to block the breach, but Li Zicheng didn't give them the chance.

"kill!"

Li Zicheng took the lead, holding a rattan shield in one hand and a sword in the other, and charged in with his elite troops.

Seeing this, the thousands of starving people who had gathered behind him to watch the play followed closely behind, shouting wildly, and surged into the village like a tide.

After a battle with no suspense, Master Zheng's head was hung high on the flagpole.

The Zheng family's granary was opened, and golden millet and wheat were piled up like small mountains in front of everyone.

Li Zicheng immediately announced the opening of the granaries and the distribution of grain, and that anyone who had joined the army could come and get a meal.

The news spread like wildfire throughout the surrounding prefectures and counties.

Soon, many people responded.

Countless people who could no longer survive came to seek refuge with their families.

Upon hearing this, many starving people even traveled long distances to spread the news, crying and pleading that Li Zicheng could lead his troops to the prefecture or county where they were located to uphold justice for them.

Li Zicheng led his troops to grow wildly and rampantly across the Guanzhong Plain.

He raised the banner of "killing corrupt officials and helping the poor," conquering cities and strongholds along the way, opening the granaries of landlords and gentry, and distributing the grain to the people who were starving to death.

This simplest, most direct, and most effective method allowed him to quickly win the support of the common people.

In this way, Li Zicheng quickly amassed a huge army, which, like a snowball rolling downhill, rapidly swept through most of the area outside Xi'an.

This wildfire spread to most of Xi'an Prefecture, unsurprisingly alarming the imperial officials in the prefecture.

Upon seeing this, Shi Anan, the Provincial Judicial Commissioner of Xi'an Prefecture, immediately mobilized more than 3,000 guards from the Xi'an Garrison to suppress the bandits.

The two armies met outside Yaozhou City.

This was Li Zicheng's new army, facing the government forces independently for the first time.

The harsh reality instantly brought them back to reality.

Although these starving people outnumbered and outgunned, the vegetables they ate were truly subpar.

Many of them were honest and hardworking farmers with no military skills whatsoever. Even when faced with the weak and ineffective Wei army, many of them felt their legs go weak on the spot, and even the spears in their hands began to tremble slightly.

With just one charge by the government troops, the starving civilians in the front ranks collapsed instantly. However, before Shi Anan could even rejoice, the earth began to rumble.

Two cavalry units suddenly attacked from the left and right flanks of the government troops, catching him completely off guard.

Jiang Han, who had been lying in ambush, arrived with his troops and easily defeated the guards led by Shi Anan.

Jiang Han's main force had not gone far at all. He quietly hid near Malanshan, waiting for the guards to come and suppress the bandits.

Li Zicheng's army was newly formed, and Jiang Han certainly wouldn't allow the government troops to easily wipe it out, so he secretly protected and supported it.

Thus, with the support of Jiang Han's main force, Li Zicheng led his troops from Xi'an Prefecture all the way to Fengxiang Prefecture, almost breaking through the entire Guanzhong Plain.

Along the way, Li Zicheng opened granaries to distribute grain and weapons, arming the starving people in various prefectures and counties.

After the group arrived at Baoji County in Fengxiang Prefecture, Jiang Han prepared to separate from Li Zicheng.

He was going north from here, leaving Guanzhong, to recruit soldiers and horses at the military towns near the border wall.

Next, it was up to Li Zicheng himself to resist the government troops' encirclement and suppression.

Li Zicheng was well aware that his mission was not only to disrupt the entire Guanzhong region and draw away the main force of the government troops for Jiang Han;
More importantly, he wanted to build a truly capable fighting force here.

It's easy to create chaos in Guanzhong, but turning these starving people into soldiers is a different story.

But Li Zicheng was quite confident about this.

The people of Shaanxi were actually a good source of soldiers. It is a well-known fact that "the people of Qin were brave and warlike, and the soldiers of Qin were hardworking and resilient in battle".

The reason for this is that the living environment in Shaanxi is too harsh, especially in northern Shaanxi, which is a region where various ethnic groups live together. For a little bit of resources, the people of northern Shaanxi are quick to draw their knives and fight each other, showing a strong sense of martial spirit.

However, being brave and fierce does not necessarily mean one can become a valiant soldier on the battlefield; there is a considerable gap between the two.

Li Zicheng didn't have time to train them step by step. The scouts left in Xi'an reported that the imperial army's pursuers had arrived.

Cao Wenzhao, Zuo Guangxian, and others, carrying large banners, have already led their troops to Xi'an Wei. It won't be long before they launch a campaign to suppress the rebellious people.

This is the real test; these starving people have just left the beginner village and encountered a top-tier villain.

Li Zicheng's training strategy had only one principle: use actual combat to train and select these starving people. Only those who survived to the end could stand out and become qualified soldiers.

Li Zicheng followed the old rules he had when he was a bandit, dividing his forces into the Old Camp, the Former Camp, and the New Camp.

The core of the veteran soldiers were the two hundred elite troops that Jiang Han had assigned to him. They were all armored archers and swordsmen, the elite of the elite.

The other two battalions were used to screen and select the starving people who would surrender.

Those young men who were slightly more robust or had some martial arts skills were assigned to the old camp and were given two meals a day.

The worst off were the newest camp, which had the largest number of inhabitants, and they only had one and a half meals of thin porridge a day to keep them alive.

This is a last resort.

There were simply too many starving people; along the way, he had already gathered seven or eight thousand men under his command.

Driven by the lure of food, starving people flocked to Li Zicheng, eager to join his rebellion.

But Li Zicheng knew very well that although they seemed to have a large number of people now, they would be no different from paper when it came to fighting, all show and no substance.

It is estimated that only a little over a thousand people will be able to hold on until the end.

Those with weak wills might be recruited by the government; those with poor health might die in the mountains; and those with bad luck might perish under the swords and spears of the government troops…

Li Zicheng, on the other hand, was used to this.

Starving people are destined to die anyway.

The commander-in-chief was benevolent and unwilling to let these people die in vain, but Li Zicheng did not have so many psychological burdens.

(End of this chapter)