Ming Dynasty: I, Emperor Chongzhen, swear not to go to Meishan

Although the trajectory of history had some changes due to the unexpected appearance of Zhu Youjian, the fateful battle between Sun Chuanting and Li Zicheng was still unavoidable, and the two sides launched a final decisive battle in Zhuxian Town.

When Li Zicheng first besieged Kaifeng City, he defeated Sun Chuanting in Zhuxian Town. This time he was even more confident. Sun Chuanting wanted to avenge his shame and was also gearing up and ready for a big war.

Since Li Zicheng killed his most capable general and military advisor Li Yan, forced the Red Lady to rebel, forced military advisor Song Xiance to pretend to be dead and run away, and finally served Emperor Chongzhen, his character has undergone some changes and he has become a bit indecisive.

He did not ignore the determination and courage of Sun Chuanting's more than 300,000 elite troops to concentrate their forces to storm the fortified city of Kaifeng. After procrastinating for a while, the cold winter was approaching, forcing him to make a final decision.

The current rebel army not only outnumbers the official army, but also has increasingly sophisticated weapons and equipment. It can be said that the army is strong and has the power to sweep across the entire territory of the Ming Dynasty.

Therefore, the most powerful enemy of the rebel army is not Sun Chuanting's more than 300,000 elite troops, but the coming cold winter.

Li Zicheng's military strength was as high as 500,000, but the food he consumed every day was staggering. Even if he attacked the city and plundered the pond and grabbed a lot of food, he could not sustain this huge consumption.

Therefore, forced by the severe situation, he had to take the initiative to seek a decisive battle with Sun Chuanting. He must defeat Sun Chuanting before he could attack and capture Kaifeng, a strong city that blinded him in one eye, with peace of mind, and then he could spend the winter with peace of mind.

In order to force Sun Chuanting to fight a decisive battle, Li Zicheng divided his troops into three groups, forming an outflanking trend. Faced with Li Zicheng's aggressiveness, Sun Chuanting chose to retreat to Zhuxian Town.

Li Zicheng moved his army to advance. Sun Chuanting knew that once he retreated from Zhuxian Town, Li Zicheng would lead his army to pursue him. He had no chance to defend, so he could only retreat to the other side of the Yellow River to defend. When the army was retreating, Li Zicheng used his army to cover up the attack. The retreat might turn into After being defeated, even if the emperor did not chop off his head, he would not have the shame to go back to see the emperor and could only apologize with death.

Furthermore, he had already lost to Li Zicheng once in Zhuxian Town, and he did not want to lose a second time. He wanted to avenge his previous humiliation. In other words, he had no retreat but to fight to the death with Li Zicheng.

He and Li Zicheng had been dawdling for such a long time, and everything that should be prepared was ready. There were enough soldiers, weapons and equipment, and food and grass. The most uncertain internal factor, He Renlong, had been killed by him, and he had been replaced by someone loyal to the emperor and completely obedient to his orders. Gao Jie is in charge of the Shaanxi army. The morale of the army is stable and the soldiers are dedicated to their lives. It is time to show off with Li Zicheng.

He originally wanted to build fortifications in Zhuxian Town to lure Li Zicheng to attack and consume part of the rebel forces first. However, Li Zicheng was chasing closely. He did not have time to build fortifications, so he had to lead his troops out of the town and fight one by one on the plains. Expand.

Outside Zhuxian Town, nearly a million troops from both sides were in formation. The densely packed soldiers could not be seen to the end, only war flags fluttering like the sea and spears like a forest.

In terms of military appearance, the officers and soldiers who have received certain military training are more orderly than the rebels. Under the command of Sun Chuanting, the officers and soldiers set up dense defensive formations, with shield soldiers in front, archers and musketeers behind them, and further back. It's a spearman.

Sun Chuanting, who was in command of the Chinese Army, held a monocular to observe the movements of the rebel formations, his face looking solemn.

Even though the rebels on the opposite side were standing casually and without any formation, he knew in his heart that most of them were elite veterans who had followed Li Zicheng through various battles. They had well-equipped weapons and equipment and strong personal combat capabilities.

Sun Chuanting did not dare to be careless at all, so he placed Zuo Liangyu's Huguang Army on the left wing, Hu Dawei's Baoding Army on the right wing, the most powerful Shaanxi Army as the main force in the center, and Xu Yu's Royal First Regiment guarding him. In front of you.

Xu Yu was ordered to reinforce Sun Chuanting and train troops in actual combat. Before the war, he repeatedly begged to go to war, but Sun Chuanting refused for various reasons and insisted on keeping the First Royal Regiment with him to act as a guard.

Sun Chuanting had his own ideas. He just wanted to defeat Li Zicheng with the force he had and avenge his shame. Xu Yu's Royal First Regiment was the emperor's treasure. If the losses were serious, he could not afford it.

Therefore, he would rather resist the decree than let Xu Yu go into battle. As long as he defeated Li Zicheng, he would order Xu Yu to lead his army to attack. In this way, there would be no question of resisting the decree.

After the two sides set up their formations, earth-shattering war drums rumbled, marking the official start of the decisive battle.