On April 7, the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, at dawn, after many days of escape, Li Zicheng finally escaped from the pursuit of the Ming army, in fact, it is not surprising that the main force of the Ming army is going to Shanxi, especially Datong, Taiyuan and other important towns.

At this time, Li Zicheng had already arrived in Zezhou, and the champion Hou Wangdou had just received news from Li Zicheng, gave up the route of continuing to attack westward, and ordered Zhang Shize, the British duke in Taiyuan, to prepare all kinds of troops and horses, and first came to Zezhou.

Zezhou, because of its dangerous geographical location, has been highly valued militarily for a long time, and is located in the Central Plains bordering the key point, for the southward Central Plains gateway is located, therefore, has maintained a local political, economic and cultural activities center, from the Spring and Autumn Period to the Ming and Qing dynasties, the war is repeated, the smoke of gunpowder does not disperse, for the soldiers must fight for the place. During the Warring States Period, the military strategist Wu Qi called Zezhou "the country of the Xia King, the danger of the left Tianmen, the sun of the right Tianxi, Lu Ze in the north, and Yiluo in the south, there is this risk".

This city is very important, after Li Yanhong Lady withdrew the army, she took the lead in retreating here, and also intercepted the messenger of the Ming army and some temptations of the Ming army, and cleaned up the city, prepared the city defense, but defended the city for Li Zicheng.

Although he is backed by a strong city, Li Zicheng has no confidence at all, although the city behind him seems to be strong, it is far worse than the Ming Jingshi, whether it is material reserves or people's hearts.

At this time, the safety of Dashun is actually placed on Li Zicheng alone, without Li Zicheng, Li Laiheng is a child, and now it is absolutely impossible to do anything, I am afraid that even the treatment of Shu Han Anle Gong back then will not be able to enjoy.

The cannon body has a number of reinforcing hoops, divided into large, medium and small three kinds, respectively fire 7 catties, 3 catties and 1 catty of lead bullets, carried by a car, the wheels are high in front and low in the rear, can be fired directly on the car, has great power, is made from October of the ninth year of Jiajing.

This cannon is easy to maneuver in the mountains, forests, and water network areas, controllable and dangerous passes, and can shoot hundreds of small projectiles or 50 larger projectiles at a time, and has a large dispersion area, and can effectively kill and injure the enemy attacking in a dense formation than the Ukrainian iron, and has played an important role in the anti-Japanese operation.

According to the record of "Ascending the Altar", after the general cannon is launched, there is a thunderous momentum, and if a thousand are placed on the battlefield, everyone can put it, and it can be invincible.

The vehicle-mounted gun has many advantages, first of all, it is convenient for maneuvering, the gunner can not only push and pull the gun cart, but also fire at the enemy, second, it improves the speed of the artillery's participation in the battle, and wins the fighter, and the third is that it can be used to block the enemy and hit the enemy.

Zezhou is an official place, and it is also the reason why Li Zicheng did not flee again, although the current cannons here are basically defective products, because the excellent products have been transported away early, and even the craftsmen have been moved to the capital, and the Ming Dynasty still has people who do things, and they also know what is the important weapon of the country.

Of course, the artillery here in Zezhou is not a large and medium-sized artillery that fires seven or three catties of shells, but a small cannon that fires a pound of shells, the body of the cannon is cast iron, reinforced with multiple iron hoops, not counting the gun carriage, the weight of the artillery is only three or four hundred catties, and most of the people supervised by the Ministry of Industry in various places are like this, and it is enough to see Li Zicheng, who has never seen the world.

Nowadays, with such a design, this large general cannon is not only inconvenient to use in city defense warfare, but also very inconvenient to use in field battles, and it is difficult to transfer positions in time.

This is also thanks to Li Yanhong and his wife, most of the cavalry gathered, so they can reach Zezhou one step ahead of Li Zicheng, and most of the cities in the south still belong to Li Zicheng, and now Zezhou has gathered more than 5,000 cavalry.

At least until April 7 of the 17th year of Chongzhen, lethality and initiative, the two favorable factors that can determine the outcome of the battle, are in the hands of Li Zicheng!

In addition, the reinforcements of the Ming army are coming, especially the champion Hou Wang Dou, Li Zicheng knows very well that as soon as Wang Dou comes, then the current situation will be reversed immediately.

Fortunately, the number of Wang Dou's troops is limited, according to the information provided secretly, Wang Dou's department has a total of about 20,000, 5,000 cavalry, 10,000 infantry troops, and 5,000 artillery troops.

If there are only 10,000, Li Zicheng has the chance to win, he is so bold, he is naturally confident, Li Yan and the red lady have been sent by him to the cities in the south, now regardless of Zuo Liangyu in the south, Xiangyang is gone, all the soldiers and horses are gathered to Zezhou, and Wang Dou is killed, and then he will fight the Ming Jingshi!

Of course, now he is hiding his strength, so he is very cowardly, and the army is not set up to fight in the field, as long as the Ming army attacks, he retreats, step by step, and the commander of the Ming army, Zhang Shize, did not step up the onslaught because of this, or build strong fortifications before marching.

Although the terrain of Zezhou is dangerous, there are no big rivers for natural risks, so it can only rely on the mountains for risks.

First of all, the contest between the scout cavalry of the two sides, after the Dashun army won with cavalry, but Zhang Shize, the Ming army, ordered the firearms battalion to stick to the fortifications, and now the fight is still comparable.

When will Wang Dou arrive? Or it has arrived, in the two immortal views, Li Zicheng is not sure now, there are a lot of soldiers and horses hoarded in the city, and the defeated soldiers gathered and Li Yan gathered up to the north Now Li Zicheng has more than 50,000 men and horses.

Hao Shaoqi next to him also said at this time: "This time we have a lot of cannons, and we bombarded ** with cannons!" ”

Li Zicheng hesitated at this time, and said to Gu Junen: "Then let the brothers on the mountain withdraw, no, give the order to go down, and tell the brothers to beat him for two hours first."

Wang Dou had actually arrived, and at this time he was accompanying Zhu Chunchen, who was pale, and Zhang Shize, a British publicist, who had climbed a nearby mountain and was watching the enemy formation from afar.

Li Zicheng's army discharged about 20,000 people and was fighting on the battlefield.

This time, most of the small cannons brought by the Ming army were small cannons, that is, one-pound cannons, and the power was not great, but the thousands of Li Chuang's infantry placed on the top of Lao Zhu Mountain still suffered.

These miscellaneous anti-horse or infantry things can't defend against artillery at all, and even after being hit by a pound of shells, they will fly around, and whoever is bumped by these fragments will inevitably have their heads broken and bleeding, broken bones and tendons!

But this is not bad, there is already a bit of the momentum of the rifle array in the firearms era, and it was Li Zicheng's department that was beaten, in fact, it was a rabble, and it was made up by the local Yong, who had not been in the army for a long time, and the training level was poor, and he had not fought any hard battles with Li Zicheng.