The "four ancient towns of China" generally refer to the "Foshan Town" in Guangdong, the "Jingdezhen" in Jiangxi, the "Hankou Town" in Hubei, and the "Zhuxian Town" in Henan. Among them, the most famous is Jingdezhen, mainly where ceramics are abundant. Except for Jingdezhen, it is probably "Zhuxian Town"! Contemporary writer Xiao Ding has a novel called "Xue Xian" and has been made into an online game, but many people probably do not know the real existence of "Zhu Xian Town", rather than the Xue Xian in the novel. Of course, it is not the "Zhu Xian Array" in the "List of Fengshen Gods", but the Zhuxian Town in Kaifeng, Henan.
Recently, I was watching the "History of Human War", and I happened to see Zhuxian Town among the four ancient towns in China! In the early southern Song Dynasty, there was a great victory in Zhuxian Town led by Yue Fei, and at the end of the Ming Dynasty, there was also the "Battle of Zhuxian Town" in Zhuxian Town, and the two sides of the war were the peasant army and the Daming army at the end of the Ming Dynasty. On April 23, 1642, Li Zicheng commanded the Million Heroes Division to attack Kaifeng three times. When the Chongzhen Emperor heard that Kaifeng was surrounded by Li Zicheng, he issued orders one after another to dispatch troops to rescue Kaifeng.
Among them, there was Zuo Liangyu, a famous general of the Ming Dynasty, who gathered 200,000 troops and 10,000 artillery vehicles to rescue Kaifeng at that time. In late June, Zuo Liangyu arrived in Zhuxian Town. At that time, Zhuxian Town was only forty or fifty miles away from Fengfeng, located in a water and land transportation fortress, which was an important gateway to Kaifeng. When Li Zicheng learned that the Ming army was assembling at Zhuxian Town, he immediately made military arrangements. He left only a small number of soldiers and horses, and continued to besiege Kaifeng, holding the defenders of the city and preventing them from meeting with reinforcements. Li Zicheng personally led the main force and quickly occupied the southern Gaofu of Zhuxian Town, and built a fort southwest of Zhuxian Town, and deployed elite troops.
At the beginning of the great war, Yang Wenyue, the governor of Baoding, relied on the excellent preparations of 10,000 artillery vehicles and firearms to launch a fierce attack. Because it was an undulating day and the weather was hot, the rebel army quickly blocked the water source of the upper reaches of the Jialu River, thus cutting off the Ming army's grain route. After two days of fighting, the Ming army ran out of water and food, and the supply of gunpowder for firearms was insufficient. They hoped that Kaifeng would go out of the city to cooperate, but as a result, the Defenders of Kaifeng were besieged and could not take care of each other. Since Yang Wenyue did not have kaifeng's assistance, morale was low. At that time, Zuo Liangyu fought with the rebel army for five days and nights in the southeast of Zhuxian Town, and felt that he could not support it, so he ordered the retreat.
At that time, Zuo Liangyu's army was the main force encircling and suppressing the rebel army, and it was even defeated and retreated. Li Zicheng knew that if Zuo Liangyu's army was defeated, the other units of the Ming army would not be able to attack themselves. Therefore, Li Zicheng mainly attacked Zuo Liangyu's army. When Zuo Liangyu was retreating, Li Zicheng first asked the army not to pursue first, so that it would create an illusion, and then attack from behind when accelerating the retreat. Therefore, after Zuo Liangyu's main force retreated, Li Zicheng unexpectedly launched an attack from behind the Ming army.
Zuo Liangyu fought and retreated, when Li Zicheng sent an elite force to detour the front of his retreat to block. In the end, Zuo Liangyu suffered heavy losses and countless casualties. Zuo Liangyu finally led the remnants of the army to defeat and withdrew to Xiangyang. Other armies also fled, and Li Zicheng eventually won the Battle of Zhuxian Town, at which point the peasant army began to break through, and two years later the peasant army invaded Beijing and the Ming Dynasty fell.
Therefore, Zhuxian Town is a very important position in history, if Zuo Liangyu defeats Li Zicheng in Zhuxian Town, maybe the Ming Dynasty will not perish. Speaking of Zhuxian Town, it comes to the Battle of Zhuxian Town, of course, this is what I know. The "Four Ancient Towns of China" I am most familiar with are Jingdezhen and Zhuxian Town, these two towns. The other two, I've heard of them before, but don't know about them. Tell a historical story, let everyone know about history, I am a counselor, if you also like history, please pay attention to me!