At the end of the Ming Dynasty, the people were in poverty, the army and the people left Germany, droughts and locusts raged, and the officialdom of the imperial court was seriously corrupt, which means natural disasters and man-made disasters. The external Ming dynasty had to invade with the support of the late Jin dynasty (that is, the late Qing dynasty), and the internal one had to suppress the disobedient rebels. This is internal trouble and foreign invasion.

In this context, Li Zicheng also became a member of the rebel army from herding sheep, and eventually became the leader of the rebel army. Because he is a Mizhi, Mizhi is in Shaanxi Province, so he first moved in Shaanxi, Sichuan and other places, which became his home. In the 12th year of Chongzhen, Zhang rebelled against the Ming court again in Gucheng, and Li Zicheng led thousands of troops to fight from Shangluo Mountain.

In the 13th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng pursued Zhang Zhiji in Sichuan by the main force of Ming army, entered Henan, took in the hungry people, and opened a warehouse for relief.

Hungry people from far and near go with hoes, and those who answer them are like running water, screaming for millions day and night, unstoppable? .

Since then, Li Zicheng's army has grown to tens of thousands. Tian Jun is tax-free? Slogan, that is, folk songs? Meet the king, don't accept food? . After gaining a foothold in Sichuan, Shaanxi Province, on the 20th day of the first month of the 14th year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng conquered Luoyang, killed Zhu, the son of Emperor Wanli, got some deer from the backyard, cooked them with meat and named them? Fulu banquet? , and men * * *.

Since then, Li Zicheng has been on a roll. After winning Luoyang, it took a fancy to the geographical location and strategic significance of Kaifeng and decided to go to Kaifeng.

Kaifeng, an important town in the Central Plains, will be able to control the Central Plains smoothly if Kaifeng is won. For the imperial court, if Kaifeng is lost, half of the country will be lost.

So while Li Zicheng was attacking Kaifeng, the imperial court also tried its best to defend the city, and it also took out the black technology of guarding the city of the imperial court? An enemy of ten thousand people was a very powerful cannon at that time and a first-class weapon of destruction in the world at that time. You know, at that time, Britain was in the period of industrial revolution, and the Netherlands, with the strongest military strength, could not beat the Ming Dynasty, which was plagued by internal troubles and foreign invasion.