After controlling the southeastern provinces, Yu Xiaotian also grasped the lifeblood of the Ming economy, and then the Central Plains provinces were next.

The civil strife in the Ming Dynasty started in Shaanxi, and affected Henan, Shanxi, Huguang, Nanzhili and southern Shandong.

Therefore, Yu Xiaotian subdued Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting, and made them walk in the foreground, first squeezing the living space of the exile army from all walks of life militarily, and initially achieved results.

At the end of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, a large number of famous and surnamed leaders of the exile army headed by Zhang Xianzhong and Luo Rucai were forced to surrender or were killed, so that the situation in the Huguang area of Henan gradually stabilized, and only a group of exile troops such as Lao Hui Hui Ma Shouying, Ge Li Yanhe Yilong, etc., were still active in the Yinghuo Mountain area at the junction of Nanzhili and Henan and Huguang.

In Shaanxi, only a few exiled troops such as Li Zicheng remained, and they were driven to Pingliang, Qingyang, Yan'an and other places, and were squeezed into some remote areas to operate or survive.

In particular, after the killing of Zhang Xianzhong, the morale of the entire exile army was greatly frustrated, and some small groups of exile army saw that they had no future because they saw that they would continue to make trouble, and some leaders either surrendered to the government, disbanded their exile army, and were sent back to their hometowns for resettlement.

However, Li Zicheng was obviously tough, but he always refused to bow his head and surrender, and continued to wander around Pingliang Mansion and Qingyang Mansion with the rest of his troops.

After Hong Chengchou solved Zhang Xianzhong, he began to collect his troops in accordance with Yu Xiaotian's instructions, and transferred the main force of the Shaanxi army to the west.

Li Zicheng to Chongzhen thirteenth year of June, is already struggling, he under the military pressure of Hong Chengchou, led the troops to flee to Ningxia, but after arriving there, found that there was nowhere to raise food, so he had to lead the troops to flee to the area of Lintao Mansion, but was intercepted by the newly appointed Lintao prefect Lu Fangtian.

By this time, Li Zicheng had basically reached the point of running out of ammunition and food, and the number of exile troops under his command had fallen to less than 20,000 people, and the core of the army was only about 2,000 people.

Lintao prefect Lu Fangtian gathered the local defenders of Lintao, blocked it in the east of Lintao Mansion in the area of Longmen Town, the two sides had a fierce battle, Lu Fangtian was insufficient, but he did not retreat, and finally the Lintao official army was defeated, Lu Fangtian died in the chaos of the army, and it was also the first senior official to die at the hands of the exile army after Xiaotian took power.

But although Li Zicheng won the battle, but also suffered a lot of losses, after breaking through the blockade of the official army, but did not get much spoils, Lintao in the Ming Dynasty itself is a border town, is considered a poor country, Li Zicheng led the troops to break into the Lintao Mansion, but did not get much benefit, still can not raise enough food for them to cope with a period of time.

In desperation, in September, Li Zicheng led his troops to abandon Lintao Mansion and return east with his troops, trying to return to his hometown of Yan'an Prefecture, but this time he had no chance to return to his hometown of Mizhi County.

Hong Chengchou took advantage of Li Zicheng's first escape to Ningxia, and then ran to Lintao Mansion to complete the final arrangement of Li Zicheng's attack.

Hong Chengchou gathered a total of nearly 25,000 Shaanxi troops and fortified them along the areas of Qingyang Mansion and Pingliang Mansion, blocking Li Zicheng's way back to the east.

Li Zicheng led his troops all the way to fight with the officers and troops, although there were many small victories, breaking through several interceptions of the officers and troops, but the losses were getting bigger and bigger, when he led his troops to Zhenyuan County, he had only less than 5,000 soldiers left under his command, and almost completely ran out of food.

Li Zicheng knew that if he couldn't get some food, he was afraid that his soldiers and horses would soon be scattered, so he decided to take a risk, attack Zhenyuan County, try to break through the city and grab some food, let him replenish it, and break through the blockade of the official army in one go and escape to Yan'an Mansion.

As long as he returns to Yan'an Prefecture, he thinks that he is a local person in Yan'an Prefecture, and he is familiar with the local terrain and culture, and he is also familiar with people, so he can have a chance to breathe.

But what he didn't expect was that when he was advancing all the way to Yan'an Mansion, Hong Chengchou had already roughly guessed the route he was going to take, and sent the Yu family army, which was probably less than two integrated battalions, to the area of Zhenyuan County in advance.

The main general who led the team made people feel a little impermanent, it was actually Kong Youde, who was captured alive by Yu Xiaotiansheng, but now he has changed his name to Kong Duzhong, and no one knows that he is Kong Youde, the rebel general who created the Denglai Rebellion.

After Kong Youde was captured by Yu Xiaotian, he was brought back to the south, and Yu Xiaotian thought that this guy had been fighting with Jiannu outside the gate for many years, and he left his life for the sake of knowing the situation outside the gate very well, and threw him into the army academy of the Yu family army, and came to further study.

Kong Youde was very uncomfortable with the strict control of the Yu family army at first, and he was cleaned up by the instructor for repeated violations, but then he also figured it out, Yu Xiaotian could spare his life, which was already considered an extrajudicial grace, and later after he arrived in Tamsui, he unexpectedly saw Sun Yuanhua, who stayed in Tamsui and is now wholeheartedly doing learning, and the two were full of emotion after seeing each other, and Sun Yuanhua taught Kong Youde a lesson again.

Sun Yuanhua enlightened Kong Youde, let Kong Youde follow Yu Xiaotian to work hard in the future, Yu Xiaotian is a person who can achieve great things, and now follow Yu Xiaotian, it is regarded as early as possible from the dragon, and he can whitewash his background in the future and achieve a career, and Yu Xiaotian knows people and makes good use of them, which is quite good for his subordinates, as long as Kong Youde works hard in the future, he will always not be treated badly.

So after Kong Youde was taught, he was relieved, stayed in the army academy for two years, changed his name, was awarded the rank of second lieutenant, became a trainee deputy company commander, and then was sent to Hong Kong Island to garrison for a period of time, and later went south with the army and went to the Hou Li Dynasty to fight a few battles with the Vietnamese, and then was promoted to deputy battalion commander.

When he went north this time, he served under the banner of the Ninth Brigade, fought quite bravely, and made a lot of achievements, and was promoted to be the battalion commander, when Hong Chengchou returned to Shaanxi, Yu Xiaotian asked Kong Youde to follow Hong Chengchou back to Shaanxi, as a person who monitored Hong Chengchou, and listened to orders under Hong Chengchou's account.

Kong Youde followed Hong Chengchou in Shaanxi during this time, and when he attacked Luo Rucai and Zhang Xianzhong, he made military achievements, and now the military rank has been promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel, but for the time being, he still leads a battalion as the battalion commander, and then if there is a need, he can lead a brigade at any time and become a senior general of the Yujia Army.

This time, Hong Chengchou wanted to exterminate Li Zicheng, and saw that Li Zicheng might have to go to the area of Zhenyuan County, so he took a battalion led by Kong Youde and brought some new recruits who were newly trained in Shaanxi, and went to Zhenyuan County to take charge of intercepting Li Zicheng.

As a result, there was a somewhat ridiculous situation, Kong Youde vs. Li Zicheng, and later when Yu Xiaotian learned about it, he squirted a sip of tea with a smile on the spot, where is this! It's just Guan Gong fighting Qin Qiong! But because Yu Xiaotian unexpectedly appeared in this time and space, it led to the occurrence of such a ridiculous thing.

Li Zicheng didn't know that at this time in Zhenyuan County, he would hide such a male army that wanted his life, thinking that in a small county like Zhenyuan County, at best, there could be hundreds of officers or townsmen who were good, even if their siege ability was not strong, as long as they fought hard, they could still take this county, so he took his soldiers and horses and surrounded Zhenyuan County.

Kong Youde had already learned the news that Li Zicheng led his troops to attack Zhenyuan County from the scouts, and after thinking about it for a while, he played a trick and decided to show his nose in front of everyone this time and play a trick to keep Li Zicheng here.

So he ordered Zhenyuan County to close the city gate early, blocked the news that he led the troops to be stationed here, and left three companies of his 2,000 subordinates to stay in the county seat, while he himself led the cavalry company and the remaining elite, out of the city and did not know where to go.

After Li Zicheng led the army to Zhenyuan County, he surrounded the county town with three layers inside and three layers outside, and then threatened the defenders of Zhenyuan County to open the city and surrender immediately, otherwise he would attack the city and kill a chicken and dog in the county.

This kind of thing, Li Zicheng is by no means the first time, since he raised troops to follow Gao Yingxiang to rebel, like the slaughter of the city, has been done not once or twice, often as long as they attack the city, encountered strong resistance from the defenders of the city, in order to intimidate other defenders of the city in the future, after these exile troops captured the city, they often adopted extremely bloody means to massacre in the city.

But this time his threat obviously had no effect, and there was no reaction from the walls of Zhenyuan County, but instead shelled and killed several of his men who had been sent to persuade him to surrender.

Li Zicheng was furious and immediately ordered to start attacking the city, and thousands of rogue troops began to swarm up under the drive of Li Zicheng's core generals, erecting cloud ladders and ants to climb the city, and launched a fierce attack on the county seat of Zhenyuan.

But what surprised Li Zicheng was that the defenders of Zhenyuan County seemed to be more than he thought, and the resistance was relatively tenacious, and what surprised him even more was that there were some muskets among the defenders who could shoot far away, although the number was not much, but it was very powerful, and killed some of his generals one after another, so that several of his attacks were repeatedly frustrated.

(It's really impressive!) I really deserve to be rewarded by the brothers for such a speed of renewal! Today, I would like to thank my old friend Eagle Zhiwu brothers, and there is also a reward from Pangzi Liu Chao's friend! This book was probably finished during the Spring Festival, and now I am starting to think about the new book! ）