In the second year of Emperor Chongzhen's accession to the throne, there was a great famine in Shaanxi in 1628. However, some local officials are still demanding rents and taxes, which is unbearable for the people. Peasant uprisings broke out all over Shaanxi.
This winter, the Ming Dynasty transferred an army from Gansu to Beijing. When this army arrived in Jinxian (now Yulin, Shaanxi), the soldiers did not get paid and went to the county government. When the generals with troops came out, a young soldier came out angrily and led the soldiers to kill the generals and county officials. This soldier is Li Zicheng.
The Li Zicheng family has been responsible for collecting taxes on behalf of the government. Farmers fail to harvest rice and fertilizer every year and can't get rent. There was a local landlord named Ai who took the opportunity to lend usury and wanted to exploit farmers. Seeing that no one could afford to pay the rent tax, Li Zicheng borrowed money to pay the tax himself. After a while, the landlord named Ai forced Li Zicheng to pay his debts, but Li Zicheng couldn't afford it. The landlord named Ai instigated the government to arrest him and beat him half to death. He also chained him and put him in the sun to prevent him from eating. The people and the postman begged the magistrate to put Li Zicheng in the shade and let him eat something, but the magistrate refused. This angered the masses, who rushed to break the shackles of Li Zicheng, escaped from Mizhi with Li Zicheng and became a soldier in Gansu.
This time, Li Zicheng killed the general officer in Jinxian County, took dozens of soldiers to join the peasant army led by Wang Zuo Gua and became the leader.
Yang He, the governor sent by the Ming Dynasty, was very scared when he saw more and more insurgents. While sending troops to suppress it, he subdued the generals of the peasant army with high officials and generous salaries. Wang Zuo melon could not resist the temptation and wavered and surrendered. Li Zicheng had to find another team. Later, he found that Gao Yingxiang led an uprising team, calling himself "the king", and he was determined to go to Gao Yingxiang.
Gao Yingxiang was very happy to hear that Li Zicheng was going to defect. He immediately called him a team of generals, and everyone called him a bluff.
Gao Yingxiang joined forces with other insurgents and moved to five provinces, such as Shanxi, Hebei, Shandong and Henan, with increasing momentum. Loyalists besieged everywhere and failed. Finally, Emperor Chongzhen became angry from embarrassment, mobilized loyal ministers from all provinces, and wanted to surround all the insurgents and catch them all.
In order to deal with the loyalist encirclement and suppression, Gao Yingxiang held a meeting with the leader of the 13th Route Rebel in Xingyang to discuss countermeasures.
At the Xingyang meeting, everyone talked about it. Some people think that the enemy's strength is too strong, so it is better to go back to Shaanxi's hometown to avoid it. Some people disagree, but they can't think of a better idea. At this time, Li Zicheng stood up and said: "A soldier is willing to fight and can fight; We have 100,000 troops. What can the enemy do with us? "
Gao Yingxiang said approvingly, "What do you mean?"
Li Zicheng put forward his own ideas. He believes that the rebels should divide their troops into several ways, attack separately and break the enemy's encirclement and suppression. After hearing this, everyone thought that Li Zicheng was right. After some discussion, thirteen insurgents were divided into six routes. Some block the enemy, others fight on the move. , Li Zicheng and Zhang, and other insurgents through eastward, straight for jianghuai Fengyang.
Fengyang is the hometown of Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty. After Ming Taizu's death, it became the capital of the Ming Dynasty. The peasant army attacked Fengyang and hit the arrogance of the Ming Dynasty.
The insurgents led by Zhang and Zhang marched all the way, and laid Fengyang in less than ten days, setting fire to the ancestral grave of Ming Chengzu and the temple where Zhu Yuanzhang became a monk. This move really shocked the Ming court. When Emperor Chongzhen heard the news, he was anxious and angry, and ordered Governor Fengyang to be executed.
Gao Yingxiang and Li Zicheng led the troops back to Shaanxi and attacked loyalists back and forth, which made the Ming officials in a hurry. Emperor Chongzhen and local ministers regarded Gao Yingxiang's team as a thorn in their side and tried every means to destroy them. On one occasion, Gao Yingxiang led the troops against Xi 'an. Shaanxi Governor Sun Chuanting laid an ambush in Niangu (now Zhouzhi, Shaanxi). Gao Yingxiang was unprepared. After a fierce battle, he was arrested and sacrificed.
Li Zicheng led the rest of the team to kill them. The soldiers lost their coach and their hearts were very sad. Everyone thinks that Li Zicheng is the most trusted general in Gao Yingxiang. With his strong martial arts and brave fighting spirit, he is known as the champion who succeeded Gao Yingxiang. Since then, Li Chuangwang's reputation has been well known.
The greater Li Chuangwang's fame, the more he aroused the fear and hatred of the Ming Dynasty. Emperor Chongzhen ordered Governor Hong Chengchou and Governor Sun Chuanting to encircle Li Zicheng. Li Zicheng's situation is getting more and more difficult. However, due to the heroic fighting of the soldiers of the Rebel Army and Li Zicheng's resourcefulness, he broke through the encirclement of loyalists many times and actively attacked loyalists in Sichuan, Gansu and Shaanxi.
At this difficult time, the other two rebel leaders, Zhang and Luo Rucai, accepted the surrender of the Ming Dynasty, and some of Li Zicheng's generals also defected. This makes Li Zicheng's situation even more difficult.
1638, Li Zicheng moved from Gansu to Shaanxi to prepare for Tongguan. Hong Chengchou and Sun Chuanting inquired about the movements of the insurgents in advance, set three ambush lines in the mountains near Tongguan, deliberately gave way to Tongguan, and lured Li Zicheng into their encirclement.
Li Zicheng was cheated by the enemy. When he led the rebels to the valley near Tongguan, a large number of Ming troops were killed on two high mountains. Relying on its huge population and favorable terrain, they launched attacks on the rebels again and again. After several days and nights of fighting, tens of thousands of soldiers died in the battlefield and the team scattered.
Li Zicheng department with Liu Zongmin 17 people beat off a large number of enemies, just rushed out of the encirclement. They climbed mountains and mountains, overcame many difficulties, and went to Shangluo mountain area in southeastern Shaanxi to hide.
The Ming army occupied Tongguan, sent a large number of scouts to search for Li Zicheng, and searched for months without any news. Later, I heard a legend that Li Zicheng was seriously injured and died in the battle, and the Ming army relaxed its search.