Sun Chuanting then made a big announcement to the officials, soldiers and the people in the city, and ordered a counterattack. At the same time, he submitted a memorial to Chongzhen, requesting the dispatch of troops from Henan, Huguang, Sichuan and other places to take the opportunity to encircle and suppress the rebel army.

A few days later, Chongzhen issued an order to take Sun Chuanting as the Minister of War, and the Governor was changed to the commander of the army, and the military affairs of Henan, Huguang, Sichuan, Shanxi, Guizhou and Jiangnan provinces were supervised.

After receiving the imperial edict, Sun Chuanting was confused by himself. He really did not expect that Chongzhen would be so generous, because it meant that Chongzhen handed over almost all the troops in the country to him. The reason why it was "almost" was mainly because the Guanning Iron Cavalry, who was guarding against the Qing people, was not under his control.

So now Chongzhen has given all the last Ming Dynasty family to Sun Chuanting. Once Sun Chuanting is defeated, the Ming Dynasty will have no chance to turn around.

Sun Chuanting knew deeply how determined Chongzhen had made this time. He made up his mind that he would completely kill the thieves' army this time.

So Sun Chuanting immediately ordered the four generals of Shaanxi, Zuo Yi, Zheng Jiadong, Niu Chenghu and Gao Jie to gather in Xi'an immediately. At the same time, he also emphasized that if there is any delay, he will definitely be killed. I, Sun Chuanting, will recognize you, and the Shangfang sword given by the emperor, will not recognize you.

At the same time, Sun Chuanting also issued an edict to the governor of Baoding and seven other towns, Hou Xun, immediately commanded Yang Wenyue, Zuo Liangyu and others to gather in Xi'an.

It turned out that when appointing Sun Chuanting as the commander, considering that the powerful general Zuo Liangyu defended the uncontrollable order, he specially pardoned Zuo Liangyu's teacher Hou Xun, appointed him as the commander of Baoding and other seven towns, and added the title of Minister of War, and ordered him to cooperate with Sun Chuanting to seize the thief.

In addition to Hou Xun, Sun Chuanting also ordered the new Sichuan Governor Chen Shiqi to lead 20,000 people to fight in Sichuan, and Shanxi Governor Cai Maode led 20,000 people to gather in Xi'an, and ordered Henan Governor Ma Luan to lead 20,000 troops out of Kaifeng to attack Tongguan in order to restrain the rebel army from the back.

Ma Mingfeng looked very calm after receiving the news. He knew that although this was an opportunity for the Ming Dynasty to defeat the rebel army, the Ming Dynasty really lacked loyal ministers and generals. Is it so easy to defeat Li Zicheng?

Ma Mingfeng's so-called loyal ministers and good generals certainly did not refer to civil officials like Sun Chuanting. In fact, except for Hong Chengchou, the governors of the Ming Dynasty, who were greedy for life and fearlessness and shameless surrender, Yang Sichang was a little narrow-minded and stubborn, all of them were loyal ministers. However, those generals did not think that way.

Because in the Ming Dynasty, the highest positions achieved by military generals were generally generals, except for a few people, the governor, strategy, and supervisor level were almost all civil officials. In addition, Chongzhen is now expecting military generals to serve him on the battlefield, and he rarely punished defeated military generals, except for generals who were too excessive like He Renlong.

This has led to the fact that most of these generals are arrogant and domineering, uncontrolled, or avoiding war and protecting themselves, preserving their strength. Although there are no generals who fight desperately on the battlefield, they are rare.

In this case, it is unlikely to defeat the trespasser army.

But Ma Mingfeng had to obey orders. He ordered Yue Qijie to assist Henan Deputy General Chen Yongfu to lead his army to stay in Kaifeng, and he brought Zhang Shenghe, Yu Zhenlong, Liu Zhaolin, Hao Yaoqi, Hu Dawei and other generals to a total of more than 20,000 people out of Kaifeng to attack Tongguan in order to restrain Li Zicheng's army.

Although Li Zicheng's army is still besieging Xi'an, and although there has been a plague in Li Zicheng's army, Ma Mingfeng's marching is still relatively careful. After all, even if there is an epidemic, there are only a few people. People with combat effectiveness still account for the majority. If the other party sets an ambush in front, wouldn't it be a big problem for us?

Ma Mingfeng and his group walked carefully, but surprisingly, they never encountered ambush when they waited to the city of Tongguanguan.

Even when Ma Mingfeng and others threatened to attack the city, there were only a few people above the city.

Just when Ma Mingfeng was surprised, he saw the city gate being opened. A group of soldiers walked out, held the white flag and surrendered directly.

"This..." Ma Mingfeng felt even more strange when he saw this scene. Although Li Zicheng's main force was attacking Xi'an, he might even give up the attack because of the severe epidemic, he would have to leave people in Tongguan to defend, right? With the danger of Tongguan, as long as he left a few thousand people, he had no choice but to have no choice. But now that his army has just arrived, the other party surrendered directly. This is really strange, right?

"Is there any conspiracy here?"

Ma Mingfeng stopped outside the suspension bridge and shouted to the surrendered enemy soldiers through the moat: "You have always been fierce, why did you surrender directly without any resistance today? Is it a scam that is so abnormal?"

But the general holding the white flag sighed and said, "The King of Chuang took away all the elites in Tongguan. Now there are only hundreds of old, weak, sick and disabled people left here. With our strength, how can we be the opponent of the official army? Of course, we can only surrender."

"I'm afraid that's not the case, right?" Ma Mingfeng looked at the general and sneered: "Tongguan is so important, why did Li Chuang do this? This is simply like giving up. Is he stupid? Or am I stupid, will you believe what you said? Humph, tell the truth quickly, otherwise don't blame me for being ruthless, you will only have a way out!"

The general turned pale and finally sighed and said, "This master is so wise that he can't hide it from you. This is the thing. The King of Chuang had already arrived in Tongguan yesterday, but he left this morning. He kept us when he left, but because all of us were infected with the plague and there was not much time. The King of Chuang asked us to surrender to the official army, mainly to make you suffer from the plague, so that he could kill you all without a single soldier."

After hearing this, all the soldiers behind Ma Mingfeng's faces changed drastically. I have to say that this was indeed a vicious plan, because they all knew that the plague would be contagious. As long as the official army entered Tongguan and contacted these plague patients, they would definitely be infected with the plague. I believe that in no time, tens of thousands of people in this army would be killed.

So all the generals scolded Li Zicheng for being insidious, and at the same time they secretly thanked that Ma Mingfeng had asked this question. If they followed their ideas, they would have entered the city long ago. At that time, it would be too late to regret it.

"Since that's the case, let's retreat first. When all these people die, all the soldiers will disappear before returning." The soldiers behind Ma Mingfeng persuaded them one after another.
Chapter completed!